The New Guardian

Chapter 16: Three Days

April stared at Marinette's body through the steam that her cup emitted, leaned against her own bed. Marinette's health improved drastically this morning, so there shouldn't be much time left. April sipped her tea and looked to her clock. In fact, based on Marinette's accelerated heart rate and appearance, she'd say there was only a few minutes left for her. April wasn't positive, especially since this is experimental, but she was confident.

Although . . . there was always the possibility that she'd never wake up, stay in an eternal slumber or even die. Anything could happen, but April only wanted positivity, the exact opposite of her normal personality.

April focused on her friend. The color began to return to her body, her lips pinkening. After Chat Noir brought Marinette to their room, April fixed her up. That was of course after her own two days asleep under the spell. Marinette laid in her bed under the sheets with her clothes and hair neatly adjusted. With all the fighting, her clothes were slightly ripped and her hair was a mess, so cleaning her appearance before she woke up was a must. Marinette wore a nice white dress and kept her signature pigtails. April wore a crop top with leggings.

April sipped her tea, hardly blinking. Marinette said one time that her favorite color was pink, so when April got bored, she painted her nails pink. It's not like she had important classes to go to anyway with the entire academy being on a tiny vacation at the moment.

Marinette took a long deep breath. April set her cup down and walked over. She placed the back of her hand against Marinette's forehead as the girl's eyes shot open. Those bluebells rapidly searched the blurred area before stopping at a familiar face.

"April . . . " Marinette took another breath, eyes half lidded. "What's going on?" She adjusted to the lighting.

"You're awake." April smiled, the happiest Marinette's ever seen her look. Marinette tiredly blinked at her. April turned around and grabbed another tea cup and poured some from her teapot. She sighed with joy. "Well a lot is going on right now." She said, setting the pot down. Marinette scooted up, sitting straight. April handed her the cup. "But you need to recover first."

"I need a nap." Marinette rubbed her eyes, taking the cup.

"You just slept for three days." April chuckled.

"Three days?" Marinette choked on hot tea. "What has . . . " She stared off in space for a moment. April looked at her weird. "Nevermind. I . . . remember." She took another sip.

"It's a lot to take in."

"I tried to kill you." Marinette said.

"It happens." April poured more tea.

"But I could've." Marinette shrugged. "I could've been worse than Hawkmoth and murdered people." She looked down, glooming at her reflection in the tea.

"You spend too much time down in the dumps." April rolled her eyes before turning to her bed and hopping up. "I understand you've dealt with a lot but come on . . . there's some good. A cute guy and not just any guy, the one you love, traveled all the way from Paris to Tibet to check up on you. Then he proceeded to plan a way to rescue you from your impending execution, which succeeded. Not the execution, but the plan." April pointed out. "You aren't gonna find that just anywhere. You need to hop on that before you regret it."

"I don't know." Marinette sighed. "It's so much. Who knows what he's feeling let alone what I am?"

"Oh please!" April scoffed. "You two are madly in love and just need to shut up already. So far, talking hasn't been either of your strong suits and it's really getting in the way!"

"So about the temple . . . " Marinette awkwardly sipped some tea, looking away. "What did you do after I blacked out?"

April glared at her clear avoidance. "Well . . . right before Chat Noir and I fixed your miraculous, I was working to erase the entire council's memory."