"I've got a crazy idea," Alya started as Marinette banged her head on her desk.
She looked up at her best friend confused, "Yes?"
"What if we just used somebody as like... bait? We have them get upset and akumatized so that way we can talk to Ladybug."
"I mean, it's not a bad idea... but we'd be enabling Hawkmoth, doesn't that make us villains or something?" Marinette asked, not sure what the criteria was.
"I'm sure if we just happened to show up at the scene of an attack than it'd be fine."
"So you want an akuma to strike?" the bluenette asked, genuinely concerned about her best friend's morals.
"I want Chat Noir and Ladybug to defeat said akuma... but I see your point."
"Maybe you're right, maybe we can just go running towards the battle scene... that way we don't cause it, but we can talk to the heros after."
"Sounds like a plan."
"Alright well I'm going to head back and spend some time with my parents, if there's an akuma attack I'll text you and update you."
"Sounds good, I'll tell Nino that you said hi and don't you dare run away to another country again!" she threatened.
"I promise!" she walked out the front door and stopped when Alya called out an afterthought.
"Promise me something?" she asked, her voice raised as her head poked out of the doorway.
"Huh?" she replied, her train of thought vanishing as Alya called her back to reality.
"Call Luka."
Marinette nodded and headed back to her house.
------------
"You've reached Luka's voicemail, for music related inquiries please contact my agent, for anything else you know what to do BEEP," the voicemail told her, for the 3rd time. However, she hadn't heard it all of the way through yet until then.
"Uh- hi Luka... it's Marinette. I tried to call you- three times to be exact- but you already know that, you can see your missed calls aha... " she sighed and regained her train of thought. "I just got back from China. I'm sorry that I just vanished... that wasn't fair to you and I should of handled things-"
"Voicemail full."
She hung up the phone and texted him "Hey, I'd really like to talk to you... If you have a chance to call, I'd really appreciate that." but as she pressed send, she heard a car honk and could see headlights approaching in her peripheral vision.
In a flash she was standing on her feet on the other side of the road, a cat themed superhero standing beside her. "Chat Noir you-" but it wasn't the Chat Noir she had remembered seeing the last ten years.
"Glad I could help, be more observant of your surroundings, goodbye-"
"WAIT!" she screamed, trying to reach to grab him as he was already trying to fly away.
He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to her. "Yes?"
"I really need to find Ladybug I was wondering if you could-"
"Marinette?" he asked, cutting her off.
"Yes my name is Marinette," she responded, not knowing how he knew that.
"Follow me." He walked into an alley and went to the far end, wedging himself between a dumpster and a wall. "No, not here, he said you wouldn't look and reveal my identity."
"Who said-" she moved so the boy was out of sight but was still confused.
"Claws in," he called out, green lights coming from near him.
"Marinette!" a voice rang out. It was extremely familiar, but she didn't know where from. She saw a strange creature flying near her and she panicked.
"Bug! Cat bug! What is that!?!"
"Wow that forgetting thing really did a number on you... I'm Plagg, I'm a kwami, you used to know all this."
"Plagg? That sounds familiar but I-"
"Listen," he whispered so that way Chat Noir couldn't hear. "We both know that you used to be Ladybug."
"How did you-"
"Kwamis transform you into Ladybug, stupid."
"Oh. I guess that makes sense."
"Anyways. I've been trying to get ahold of you because the old Chat Noir made a huge mistake."
"What do you-"
"Listen, he's still in love with you."
"He's in love with me? Definitely not, I would never end up with him-" she paused for a second and her eyes widened. "He was pining after me for years, oh my gosh I remember our friendship!"
"Marinette," he pleaded, putting his paw? on his face. "Tikki said we could never tell you his identity because you'd both have to give up your miraculous, right? Well, you don't have that problem now, congratulations. All these years you were turning down the man you had a major crush on."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Adrien is the old Chat Noir."
