The New Guardian

Chapter 18: Home

One Week Later:

"Are you two finally leaving?" Min Jee groaned, rubbing her eyes. She stood in front of the temple doors, dressed fully in pajamas with her hair loose and messy. "It's eleven in the morning and I am not scheduled to leave for my next mission until tomorrow, yet here you two are, disrupting my well deserved sleep."

"I promise we're leaving." Marinette smiled. "It's about time that we get back to Paris anyway." She looked up at Adrien.

"You'll be missed." Min Jee yawned. "You've only avoided this day for like a week so that you and your boyfriend can linger a little longer, but when your friends here have to get back to their lives, so do you. You two are just lucky that I'm strong enough to transport you without fully transforming. If I had to transform this early on my day off, I might actually kill someone."

"Don't pretend our friendship wasn't worth it." Marinette laughed, placing her hand on Min Jee's shoulder.

"Don't act like I won't force you two to walk back to France." She turned to Marinette. "The joy of watching you two suffer might be enough for me to forgive you for waking me up this early."

"Please." Marinette requested. "April set the temple up so everything can go back to normal-normalish and I'll be out of your hair for a bit. I promise."

She sighed. "Fine, I'll teleport you." Min Jee held out her hand. "But "a bit" better be longer than a week. I'm not a taxi." Marinette's smile returned.

"Hey, Marinette . . . " Adrien pulled her back a step by her sleeve. "I've gotten on a lot of your friends' bad sides here, so maybe we should speed this up a little bit." He picked up her suitcases off the ground.

"Okay." Marinette grabbed his free hand and reached for Min's. "Let's go." She looked up at the tall building with a smile and sighed. "Goodbye temple."

Min Jee closed her eyes and squeezed Marinette's hand, her turquoise ring glowing. The temple faded in front of them before turned to a dark room. The ground beneath Marinette and Adrien's feet began to disappear and they fell, hitting the hard floor with a bang. Every bag and suitcase that Adrien carried flung across the room.

"Sorry, I'm tired." Min said, moving around the room.

"It's dark. I can't see anything." Adrien said, picking himself off the floor.

"Oh, what a pity." Min Jee retorted. "Here you go, Marinette. We're back at your dark and dreary apartment." She threw open the curtains, shining some light in. "You both can return to your dull lives now."

"Thanks." Marinette said, brushing herself off. "Would you like something . . . to drink . . . " She looked up, but Min Jee was gone. "Well that's one way to say goodbye." Marinette moved across the room and turned on the lights. "But it's good to be back." She sighed.

"Where exactly is your apartment?" Adrien looked out the window. "How far would my father's mansion be?"

"Less than an hour. We're still in France, but I needed to keep my distance from the bakery." Marinette dragged her suitcase to the bed and unzipped it. "I live on the outskirts of Paris, but I can still see the tip of the Eiffel Tower."

"Why would you want to stay away from home?" Adrien asked, scrunching his eyebrows.

"I'm the guardian, so it's my responsibility to keep the miraculous and the kwamis safe." She pulled out the Miracle Box. "All of my life, my space was shared with everyone else. My friends could visit or ask for favors at any time and I never minded, but I can't have that anymore. I have to stay away to keep this power hidden from people."