My Imaginary Friend \|/ Adrienette/Marichat AU

Chapter Twelve

Marinette was about ready to rip each hair off of Hawkmoths' head. Handful by handful. Extreme, she knew. But he deserved it for turning Adrien into a beast. But since the vile man wasn't in front of her, Mari had to settle for clenching her fists so tightly that she was sure her nails were piercing her skin.

By now she was pretty sure both Nathaniel and Nino were worried for their own wellbeing. They had retreated to the opposite side of the living room and had proceeded to 'chat' while glancing at her out of the corners of their eyes. This only annoyed Mari even more. Finally, she broke the silence that hovered on her side of the room.

"Guys!"

The fake conversation shattered when Marinette's voice entered the scene. She stomped towards the boys, who both glanced at each other fearfully.

"We need to actually do something instead of just sitting here and pretending that Nino isn't injured and that Adrien—," she choked up at his name and the boys' fearful glances turned to ones full of pity.

The tension in the room slowly unraveled as Mari revealed how much emotional pain she was in. Nathan hovered awkwardly around her, trying to make her feel better without saying a word.

Nino sighed. "I understand that you want to do something, I do too. But we don't know where Hawkmoth's hideout is, or what he has up his sleeve. It's too dangerous, dude."

Nathaniel nodded in agreement, though he looked quite torn up about it. Ever since his Civilian Counterpart had been taken away from him, he seemed wilted and crumpled in on himself, like a spoiled tomato.

"Then we need to find out!" Mari countered, making herself not give up, "There's gotta be some way we can find out where Hawkmoth is hiding Adrien's little butt."

Nino tried to hide his smile at the last sentence before falling back into the solemn mood that seemed to hover over the trios heads ever since the Jagged Stone Disaster, as Nathan had dubbed it. Mari sighed, her confidence draining away. She rubbed her face with her hands, trying to get rid of the frown that had taken hold there ever since she had been forced to abandon Adrien.

"I just..," she mumbled into her hands, "I just feel like we could save him if we really tried. We were unprepared last time, but if we head into the next phase of the plan carefully we can do it! And we might even be able to stop Hawkmoth in the first place."

Nathan grimaced. "What next phase? Mari, we can't do this. Trust me, I want to just as much as you do! But..." He trailed off, his hands clenched into fists.

Awkward silence reigned as Marinette tried to think of a plan. Her heart raced and she felt for sure that her hair was plastered onto her scalp. She hadn't done anything with it since yesterday when it had fallen out of its normal hairstyle, pigtails. Now it just lay forgotten, the tangles rivaling the size of the elephant in room.

"Wait," Mari paused, her newfound hope seemingly fragile, "You said a long time ago that you had a friend that was really good with tracking, right Nino?"

"Um," Nino said, blush creeping onto his cheeks, "Yeah. She's a blogger and reporter so she knows how to follow the people that she wants a scoop on. But I dunno if it's a good idea to get her involved, she might get hurt."

"We all might get hurt Nino," Nathan said, his anxiety causing him to pace, "If we have one more person that's more chances for us to succeed!"

Both Mari and Nathan bored their hopeful stares into Nino until he complied. He grumbled under his breath about safety for a bit before whipping out his phone and dialing a number.

"Hey, ba— dude," he stammered, "We need your help. Can you come over, asap?"

A pause.

"We? Oh, uh, two friends of mine came over and they need help saving their C.C.s."

A slightly longer pause.

"Um, yeah, I'm not going crazy bab— dude. You remember me talking about this before? Yeah. Okay. See you then."

Nino turned back to his friends with an adorably flustered expression. Nathan was grinning suddenly, a wicked expression on his face, while Mari just stared off into space thoughtfully.

"Wh— What, dude?" Nino asked as Nathan started laughing.

"Oh, nothing," the tomato replied, "It's just funny seeing you try to hide the fact that this girl you're bringing over is your girlfriend."

Mari blanched. "What? How did I not notice that?"

"Artists' keen eyes?" Nathan shrugged, though the motion was so small it looked like he had tried to shift his weight.

Meanwhile Nino was turning beet red, his smile wavering as he listened to his friends talk about his love life. He finally sat down and accepted defeat, tuning out the noise until he heard Mari ask him a question.

"Why were you trying to hide it anyway?"

Nino frowned darkly. "If either of you become akumas I don't want her to be a target."

"Wow," Mari scoffed, "You sure do have faith in us."

"Hey," Nathan asked, completely out of the blue, "Can we order some pizza or something?"

Nino and Marinette both stared at him blankly. "Whaaaat? I'm just a bit hungry. It's not like we're leaving the house anyway."

After telling him there was plenty food in the fridge, Nino resumed the conversation. "I'm just trying to prepare for worst case scenario, dude. And you should be too."

Marinette sighed before retreating back into her own thoughts. She couldn't wait to save Adrien, but she hadn't even stopped to consider what would happen if they did fail. They would either become akumas or die, and both of those options sounded like the end of a life.

"Is there any way to turn an akuma back into their original form?"

Nino shrugged. "Probably. But I don't know how, even if it is possible. We'd have to find someone who does, and I don't think that's likely."

Mari filed the information away for later. First she needed to save Chloe and Adrien, then she would get around to turning them back.

A knock on the door caused Nino to spring from his spot on the couch and to tidy up as much as possible on the way to the door. Honestly, why hadn't he cleaned while he had the chance?

The door opened, and someone stepped inside, though Nino's fidgeting form blocked Mari from seeing clearly.

"Okay babe," a voice said, "I'm here to help with whatever crazy thing you got yourself tangled in this time."

Hullo, dear readers! Sorry about how anticlimactic this chapter was, I'm not feeling very inspired right now. I'm going to write Ninos' backstory soon, and it'll answer quite a few questions.

All I'm gunna say is the next chapter will be way better (and from Chats timeline).

Have a Miraculous day and stay tuned! ❤️