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

Chpt 29: Do You Think That They Know That We Know That . . .What?!

Marinette hurried through dinner and her chores so she could see Adrien as soon as she could. There was no way that he was sick- something had to be wrong!

"Good night, Mom. Dad!" said Marinette as she headed towards Adrien's room. She knocked on his door.

"Come in."

She cautiously opened the door, uncertain what to expect. Adrien had tucked himself into bed, looking like he was reading. She walked over, pushed his legs to the side to make some room, and sat cross-legged on the end of the bed facing him.

"So? What happened?" she asked him.

Leave it to Marinette to know when I'm lying, he thought. He set his book aside. He didn't want to worry her, but he knew she would keep poking at him until he told her what was wrong.

"It was something your mom said to me when I was meeting with her as Cat Noir. She said something along the lines of 'we were trying to protect Marinette when we stopped her from going with Adrien the other night- we think he could be doing something that might hurt her if she found out.'"

"What!?" exclaimed Marinette, outraged. "What do they think you are possibly doing that might hurt me?"

He ignored her question for the moment to continue his line of thought.  "And then when your mom looked like she was going to say something about that at dinner, but didn't, I started to wonder whether they had somehow guessed I was Cat Noir! So, maybe, when they wouldn't let you go, they were trying to protect you from finding out I was Cat Noir or otherwise protect you from getting physically hurt if you went with superhero me." He looked over to see what she was thinking.

Adrien saw the puzzlement and then the realization of the possible truth about what he said all cross Marinette's face. "That is strangely . . . intuitive of you," she said slowly.

"Hey!" he said, offended. He could notice things!

Marinette blushed. "Sorry, I didn't mean it the way it sounded! But . . . maybe you're right. It would explain their recent weird behavior all the way back to my dad wondering what I thought about Ladybug's and Cat Noir's relationship. He must have been thinking that if Cat Noir were in a relationship with Ladybug then you shouldn't also be in a relationship with me! So, we both got a bunch of weird questions from him."

"Yes, those ones I got while baking- about not hurting you," Adrien nodded wisely.

Marinette realized something else. "Should I be offended that my parents don't even for one minute think that I could be Ladybug?!" She humphed.

Adrien tried not to laugh at that. She was still occasionally clumsy in her normal life, which kind of crossed her off the list as a potential Ladybug in most people's minds. He scooted over and took her hand. "Well, that's actually a good thing and part of what I was thinking about at dinner when I started to feel so sick. What if Master Fu decides my identity is compromised and he wants me to return the Miraculous? I can't . . ."

"What!?" Plagg interrupted as he zoomed up from where he had been half snoozing, half listening to the previously boring conversation and got in Adrien's face. He waved his arms around. "No! Not Happening! We can't let that happen, right?" said Plagg, alarmed at the thought of potentially losing his most favorite person. He turned and looked at Marinette and at Tikki who had just flown out of the purse to join them.  Adrien's eyes went wide, surprised at Plagg's vehemence.

Marinette gently took Plagg in her hands to calm him and she looked directly in his eyes as she said "No, we definitely won't let that happen, okay?" Plagg returned her look and read the determination in her eyes. He nodded, certain now that she would take care of it. Marinette put him on Adrien's shoulder.