A Recorded Life - Miraculous Ladybug

28 - Heart To Heart(s)

Words: 1163
Chapter Summary: Nathalie and Adrien make a trip to the bakery. Nathalie has some important questions for Tom and Sabine, and Adrien has to tell Marinette something important.
Author's Note: I love this chapter. It's simpler, but it's a lot for the future of this story :)))

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Adrien: Mari are you awake??

Adrien: Please wake up.

Adrien: I'm in the bakery with Nathalie and I don't want to be alone

Adrien: Oh your mom is here

Adrien: But seriously please wake up

Adrien: MARINETTTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEE

Marinette finally shook herself awake, hearing the non-stop buzzes come from her phone.

Mari: Wait really?

Mari: be down in five

Marinette rushed to put on some clothes that weren't her pajamas, maybe taking longer than five minutes.

In the bakery, Adrien was eating a small muffin. Bread wasn't something he got often, so he savored every bite. Nathalie was talking to Tom and Sabine, and though they thought Adrien couldn't hear, he could.

"How are you two dealing with this?" Nathalie asked. "Gabriel and I feel Adrien is putting himself in too much danger, and we're worried."

Sabine shrugged. "It's like a new hobby. Marinette is stubborn; she's not going to give up until it's all taken care of."

"You saw the Akuma attack yesterday. Marinette almost gave her Miraculous to Hawkmoth, and all the Akuma-minions could have hurt Adrien. Gabriel wants to pull Adrien out of school," Nathalie explained.

Tom looked confused. "Pull Adrien out of school? That doesn't make any sense. The boy needs friends more than ever right now. Besides, we can't break up Marinette and Adrien; they're partners. The only reason they won yesterday was that they worked together," Tom defended.

"I suppose. But Gabriel thinks it's unsafe. Besides, he's missing classes when he has to go fight Akumas," Nathalie added.

"All the students miss classes when there's an Akuma. It's not just Ladybug and Chat Noir, Nathalie," Sabine said. "They have all the kids take cover because you never know what an Akuma is going to do. Also, Adrien and Marinette have been doing this for years now. They know how to handle it."

Before Adrien could hear any more of the conversation, Marinette ran into the bakery. "Good morning mama, papa. Hello Nathalie," Marinette stopped in her tracks. Once they all said hello, she took off toward Adrien again. "Hey, Adrien. Why such urgent texts?"

Adrien looked worried. Like he didn't want someone to see or hear him. "Can we go somewhere else?" He whispered.

"Sure," Marinette nodded and started walking towards the back of the bakery again. "We're going upstairs to play some video games," Marinette announced. "Can he stay, Nathalie?"

Nathalie nodded slowly. "For now. He has some work to do later, though."

The two rushed upstairs, and into Marinette's bedroom, just in case her parents came up. Adrien was worried about something; she wanted him to have his privacy. "What's wrong?"

"Okay, so, last night, I woke up to Nathalie grabbing my hand as lightly as she could. I'm a really light sleeper, so I woke up and opened my eyes a little. She was staring at my ring and almost touched it," Adrien said. "I don't think she knows I know she was in there. I turned in my bed, and my ring was under my pillow. She left after that," He continued. "And I wouldn't really think much of this, but the night my father got home, he was standing over my bed, staring at my ring, too. It's all weird when I piece it together."

"You think they want to take your ring? Why?" Marinette asked.

"I'm not completely sure. They're worried about how dangerous things are, so maybe it's because of that? Or maybe they want the power? I don't know. I wish I knew," Adrien sighed. "But I do know we need to figure out why, and get a way to stop people from taking our Miraculous while we sleep."

Marinette nodded. "I agree..."

Tikki popped up from Marinette's purse. "Anything else you want to tell him?"

Adrien was confused, and Marinette yawned as she thought about telling Adrien. "Uh," Marinette was silent for a moment. "I...haven't really been sleeping. Maybe two or three hours a night?" She confessed.

"That's why you've been so tired. You're worried about Hawkmoth or Akumas coming after you," Adrien put together.

"Of course I am," Marinette sighed, "Ever since we lost the secret part of our identities, I've been worried out of my mind."

Adrien knew Marinette was tired. He never said anything because he didn't want to make it worse, and knew if it were necessary, she would tell him when she was ready. "We should really meet with Fu. Maybe he has an idea of how to protect us."

"I'm just afraid that his solution is going to be to take our Miraculous," Marinette said quietly. She was exhausted, and her emotions these past few days were getting to her. Thinking about losing Ladybug, losing Tikki, was getting to her, and she had to hold back from crying.

Adrien instinctively wrapped his arms around Marinette to hug her. "At this point, I don't think Fu would do that," He comforted. "We'll figure it out."

They pulled apart, and Marinette wiped her eyes. "Thanks, Adrien. What were Nathalie and my parents talking about?"

"Oh, gosh, I barely even know. I was scared to even be near her," Adrien chuckled and started re-enacting the conversation.

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"I don't know, we just don't think it's safe," Nathalie told the Dupain-Chengs.

Sabine shrugged. "Well, we can't stop them. If I take away what Marinette loves doing, she might never forgive me. Sure, it's difficult and stressful, but she won't quit until she succeeds. Besides, I know if she stops before she does succeed, she would beat herself up over it," Sabine explained. "The kids are young adults now; they make decisions for themselves."

"And at least they're using it for good instead of for Hawkmoth," Tom added. "We should just let them do their work and trust them."

Nathalie nodded. "You guys are really okay with Marinette staying in school?"

"Well, of course!" Sabine said. "As Tom said, we can't take them away from each other or their other friends."

"You guys should think about Adrien's feelings about school. What happened when you told him about the decision to home school him again?" Tom asked.

Nathalie thought for a moment. "Well, he ran out of the house, and I assume he came here."

"Then there's your answer," Tom smiled. "Adrien was clearly upset by it, and came to see his friend. Being a superhero is a stressful job, I'm sure, let him have a break at school."

"I'll talk to Mr. Agreste about it. Thank you both," Nathalie said and grabbed her to-go bag with a croissant, and smiled. "Have a nice day."

Nathalie would talk to him about it. Now that she knew Marinette's parents were determined to keep her in school, it gave them more information. Her parents didn't seem to care that she was running around and fighting Hawkmoth; they let her do whatever she wanted. At least they wouldn't have to worry about Tom and Sabine. It would have been a true shame.