Miraculous Story

Part 8

Marinette transformed into Ladybug and made her way to Adrien's house. She stopped on the rooftop across from his room. He was there, pacing back and forth. His arms were moving around through the air. Squinting, Ladybug could see Plagg flying around Adrien as he paced.

Ladybug picked up a pepple from the roof and hurled it towards the huge windows lining Adrien's room. When it hit, she saw him stop pacing and turn towards the windows. For a second he just stood there, but then he hurried over and pressed himself against the glass, looking at the rooftops around him. Ladybug waved to get his attention. Once seeing her, he quickly waved her over. She swung over to the open window, landing on the ledge.

"Hey," she said once she landed.

"Hey," he replied breathlessly.

A moment of silence passed between them.

"Is now a good time to talk?" she finally asked hesitantly.

"Yes, of course," he said, stepping back so she could enter.

She jumped down to the floor. She looked around the room as she walked further inside. It looked exactly the same as she remembered. She turned back to face him. Plagg was floating above his shoulder. At seeing him, she smiled. "Hey Plagg," she said.

Plagg immediately flew over and hugged her face. "Hey Marinette. I missed you."

"I missed you too." She held out her hand so Plagg could sit in it. "How's Chat Noir been treating you?"

"Very well," he replied. "Having said that, I do have some complaints."

Ladybug chuckled. "Well you can tell me all about them some other time. Right now I need to talk to Adrien." She looked up at him as she said that.

He was looking at her.

"Spots off," she said as she detransformed. Tikki reappeared next to her. "Why don't you two go over there and catch up?" Marinette suggested.

"Sure thing, Marinette," Tikki said. The kwamis flew off, leaving Marinette and Adrien alone. There was another awkward silence between them.

Finally, Marinette spoke again. "Look Adrien, I need to talk to you about someth..." she stopped as Adrien suddenly went up to her and hugged her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, continuing to hold on to her.

"Yeah, I'm okay," she lied.

After a quick minute, they broke apart.

"I really need to talk to you, Adrien," she said.

"Of course, come on over here." He ushered her to the couch where they both sat down.

"Adrien..." she started, looking down.

"Yes, Marinette," he said, moving closer to her.

She looked up at him. "I should have told you this a long time ago. Something happened that day that I gave you the beret. What you remember happening... didn't actually happen. Not the first time at least."

Adrien was confused. "What do you mean?"

"That day, your fifth name's day, I came to your house to drop off the beret. They wouldn't let me in so I transformed into Ladybug and came in through the window. I signed the gift from Marinette, and then I left. But you... you must have seen me leaving because you figured out who I was..."

"What are you talking about?" Adrien asked, shaking his head.

"I know it doesn't make sense right now, but let me keep going. So, that day, you figured out who I was, and then a couple of weeks or months later, you got Akumatized. I mean, Chat Noir got Akumatized."

"What?" Adrien started asking, but Marinette continued.

"Hawkmoth turned you into Chat Blanc, you had the power of unlimited destruction... and... you couldn't control it. Everyone was... gone. Paris was destroyed. You were... all alone." Marinette felt tears welling up again. "Bunnix saw what the future held and came back to get me on your fifth name's day. She brought me into the future, I defeated Chat Blanc and captured the Akuma, and then I came back and erased my name from the gift. That's when you walked in and saw me. I... I changed what happened so that you never figured out that I was Ladybug."

"I... I don't understand," Adrien said.

"You finding out that I was Ladybug was the first thing that happened in a series of events that led to you getting Akumatized. I had to stop it from happening." A tear fell down her face. She quickly wiped it away. "And now it's starting all over again. You know who I am. Something else is going to happen in the next couple of weeks or months. Something so terrible that you get Akumatized."

"What happens?" Adrien asked.

Marinette shook her head. "I don't know, the Marinette that lived through that doesn't exist anymore. I have no idea what it is." When she finished talking she looked down.

Adrien reached over and pulled Marinette to his chest. "I'm so sorry Marinette," he said. "We're not going to let it happen again."

"We can't let it happen again," she said. "That's why... that's why you can't transform anymore."

Adrien leaned back so he could look at Marinette's face. "What are you trying to say? That I can't be Chat Noir anymore?"

"No! That's not what I'm saying. You know that I need you out there with me. I... I can't do this on my own, Ladybug needs you. I just mean that we have to be smart. You can only transform when we know that it's safe. When there's already an Akumatized victim. That's the only time that we can guarantee that you can't get Akumatized too." She looked back down. "That means that you can't come to my house anymore. No more transforming for your personal life. No more patrol. You can only transform when we know it's safe."

Adrien nodded slowly. "Okay."

"I'm sorry," Marinette said as another tear fell. "This is only temporary, just until we figure out what happened. But... we have to work together. There can't be any more secrets between us. If something happens, you have to tell me."

The two stared at each other for a minute.

"Marinette, why didn't you tell me this before?" Adrien asked.

"I... I don't know... I guess that I didn't want to upset you. Plus I figured that I took care of it. I don't know. I'm really sorry, Adrien."

"Don't be sorry," he replied, hugging her again. "I'm sorry you had to go through this all by yourself."

Marinette nodded. Adrien kept holding her until Marinette's cellphone buzzed.

They separated so Marinette could grab the phone from her purse.

"It's nothing," she told Adrien, reading the message on the screen. "Just personal stuff." She got up and walked away, typing into her phone.

"Is that Alya?" Adrien asked her.

"Uh, no. It's Luka," she said as she continued typing.

"Right, Luka. The boy you love." Adrien regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth.

Marinette stopped typing and looked up at him, but Adrien was avoiding eye contact. "It's getting late. I should go," she said quietly. She walked towards the windows, putting her phone back in her purse. "Tikki," she called out, "we have to get going."

The kwami quickly came over, followed by Plagg. Adrien also got up and went over to her.

"It was nice to see you again, Adrien," Tikki said.

"Nice to see you again too," he replied.

"Ready to go?" Marinette asked. Tikki nodded. "Tikki, spots on."

Marinette transformed back into Ladybug and looked over at Adrien.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" Adrien asked.

Ladybug nodded. "Yeah." She was about to take off but Adrien grabbed her arm gently. She turned her head back to look at him.

"I'm really glad it's you," he said.

She gave him a half smile and nodded before turning back and leaving through the window.

Adrien watched her disappear over the rooftops.