"Faceless Future" Book 2 of "Secrets Unraveled" Trilogy |COMPLETED|

Chpt 19: Tom and Sabine Unfairly Intervene.

Adrien, Marinette, and her family had finished and cleaned up dinner and Adrien and Marinette went to sit down to watch something in the living room.  Marinette turned on the TV and sat down next to Adrien on the couch.

"Anyone have any idea what's on tonight?" she asked, flipping through the channels.

"Is 'The Challenge' on?  I like that show," said Tom, walking over from the kitchen and squeezing to sit in between the two. Adrien scooted over to give Tom some room.  Marinette, used to her dad's continuing interference to keep her and Adrien from sitting too close, just shrugged, but turned to the correct channel. 

"Yes, it looks like it should be on soon," said Marinette, noticing that it was up next on the schedule.  "Remember when Nino was on it and won his challenge with the mayor just because the mayor bobbed his head to the beat?" she asked, letting out a little giggle.  Tom laughed, remembering how outraged the mayor was that head bobbing could be considered dancing.

"I remember that mostly because the next contestant got akumatized and then went after my father," said Adrien quietly.

"Oh.  Right.  Sorry, Adrien!" Marinette blushed slightly.  She hadn't meant to bring up any bad memories.

"It's okay, I . . ."  Adrien never finished what he was saying as suddenly the TV screen went black and then flashed a message "You didn't think I was done with Paris, did you?  If Ladybug and Cat Noir think they can stop me, I will be waiting where they defeated Mr. Pigeon."

Sabine rushed over to join them, standing behind the couch to watch the tv.  Everyone's phones showed the message seconds after the one on the TV appeared.  Marinette tried changing the channel but the message was on every one of the them.  Adrien tried to get the message off of his phone screen, but nothing he did made any difference.  They shared a look.

Adrien stood up first.  "I'm going to head over to Max's to see if he can figure out a way to get this off our screen!" he said, holding up his phone screen.  Tom and Sabine exchanged a look and a nod- maybe Adrien needed to be Cat Noir?  Marinette noticed it, wondering what it meant.

"That sounds like a good idea, Adrien," said Sabine encouragingly.  "But, be careful out there!"

"Thanks, I will!" Adrien said as he headed toward the door, not looking forward to the allergic sneezing fit he was likely to be having soon around the birds.

Marinette then stood up and said "I'm going to go with him," and started to follow Adrien when her dad grabbed her hand.

"Sweetie, Adrien can do some things on his own, you know.  It's okay," said her dad kindly.

Marinette turned pink at the slight scolding from her dad.  She looked desperately over at Adrien, who had stopped and turned around.  They shared a confused look.  Adrien wasn't sure what to do.

"Go ahead, Adrien.  Marinette will be fine," said Sabine gently.

Adrien looked at Marinette and she gave a slight nod.  She figured he should at least get to the Grand Palais, where they had defeated Mr. Pigeon, as fast as he could, though he wasn't at his best around birds!  She would join him as soon as she could.

"Um, okay.  I'll see you later then, Marinette?" said Adrien, unhappy to be leaving her to deal with whatever this thing with her parents was, but knew at least one of them should get to the villain as soon as possible.  He opened the door, glanced once more at Marinette's distressed face, and then closed the door behind him.

"Marinette, please sit down," said her mother, coming around to sit next to her on the couch.  Marinette sat back down, but didn't relax into the couch or look at her parents.  She couldn't believe that they had kept her from going with Adrien!

"Your dad and I have talked about it and we believe it would be in Adrien's best interest if the two of you did some things independently."  Marinette snorted slightly at this additional version of the smushed name idea that seemed to be everywhere these days.  And why was she the only one that people were talking to about this- no one had seemed to say anything to Adrien!  Marinette was getting herself more worked up over how unfair this all was!

Sabine continued her lecture, unaware that Marinette was becoming more and more upset.  "Adrien needs to start to build his confidence in himself and that will only happen if he does some things on his own."

Her parents waited for Marinette to say something.  When she didn't, they exchanged a look, wondering what to do.

"Marinette, do you understand what we are saying?" asked her mom.

Marinette clenched her fists and through gritted teeth said "Yes, I understand what you are saying.  But, I think it's really unfair!  Everyone has been giving me a bad time about Adrien and me spending so much time together, but no one ever says anything to Adrien about it!  Why is it such a bad thing to be spending time together?!  It's not like we don't have other friends that we see on our own and talk to at school.  And to show you just how upset I am about this double standard I will quote Chloe of all people. 'It's ridiculous!  Utterly ridiculous!'  So, if you're done lecturing me I will go spend time with my friend, Alya." She paused before adding "Is that okay?"but she was unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

Marinette stood up, walked a few steps, and turned back toward her parents, finally looking them in the eyes.  She noticed their surprise at her outburst, but she didn't care.  It was extremely unfair that she was getting lectured!  Especially when she was supposed to be out fighting a supervillain right now instead!

"Alright," said her dad quietly.  "You can go.  And," he paused before continuing, "your mom and I will think about what you said.  I do think some of what you said is valid.  We're sorry if we were seeming to be unfair, we were just trying to think of how best to help Adrien."

Marinette nodded, not trusting herself to say anything more about that in case she started to cry.  She stood up and said quietly "I'll head to Alya's and be back before my curfew."

Marinette grabbed her purse and headed out the door, wiping away a tear that had escaped.  After the door closed behind Marinette, Tikki flew out of the purse and sat on Marinette's shoulder, snuggling into her neck to comfort her.

"Need to talk?" Tikki asked softly.

Marinette snuffled a bit at that, trying not to cry, but grateful that Tikki cared so much for her.  "Thanks, Tikki, but no.  I appreciate it, but I don't want to talk about all of that now.  I should probably try to refocus my thoughts on this villain.  I assume he will be taking the form of Mr. Pigeon, since that is who he mentioned, and we defeated him at the Grand Palais. I wish I had gotten a chance to talk to Alya to remind me about the different villains we've fought and how we won."

Tikki was always impressed with how Marinette was able to do what needed to be done, even when she was upset about other things.  And now Tikki needed to do her part.  "I think that you'll remember what happened, more or less, and the easy thing about it is that you just need to do something different than before," Tikki reminded her.

"At least Adrien got to talk to Max, though I never learned whether he got any insight into how the villain might be able to do all he's doing."  Marinette pushed open the door and headed down the street until she came to a quiet alley.

"Tikki, SPOTS ON!"

Ladybug threw her yoyo towards the nearest roof and took off through the city, hoping that Cat Noir was doing okay without her.