Chapter Text
Mouth wide open in stupor, Adrien stared at Marinette without believing his eyes.
Convinced that his classmate had gone home for lunch, he had wanted to take advantage of these moments of freedom to come and investigate the neighbourhood.
Just to see if he couldn't have discovered any evidence that Ladybug might have missed. Just to do something other than watch his classmate or rehash his argument endlessly with his Lady.
But never, never would he have expected to meet his main suspect at the bend of an alley.
Seeing her like that only reinforced his doubts a little more.
What could Marinette do here, so far from home and so close to Master Fu's?
Standing in front of him, his classmate stared at him a piercing look. A look so sharp, so calculating, so little Marinette that Adrien felt an unpleasant chill cross his spine. In addition to those eyes that seemed to want to read to the depths of his soul, the teenager also saw a myriad of expressions crossing his classmate's face.
Surprise. Pain. Consternation. Anger. Doubt.
Then, finally, an implacable resolution, which hardened the features of the girl and made her eyes sparkle.
Marinette took a deep breath, as if to literally take the plunge. Then, clenching her fists and raising her chin, she approached Adrien with a determined step.
"It seems an old man has disappeared in the neighbourhood, does that ring a bell?” She said suddenly, without any other form of preamble.
Adrien immediately felt his blood run cold with horror.
This confirmed to him that Marinette was indeed linked to the mysterious absence of the Great Guardian.
And even worse.
This apparently innocent sentence suddenly seemed fraught with threats, giving Adrien the certainty that his discreet observations had unfortunately not been that discreet. His classmate had obviously spotted him.
But she didn't know who she was dealing with.
Adrien was a hero, and no matter what intimidation attempts he might endure, he wouldn't back down.
"Yes, I heard of it," he replied in as casual a tone as possible. "On the other hand, I'm surprised you know about it," he continued, staring at Marinette, scrutinizing her every reaction. “As far as I know, even the police don't know anything. "
Marinette felt her heart break into a thousand pieces upon hearing Adrien's response.
He was aware of Master Fu's disappearance.
It was the ultimate proof she needed.
But too bad for all the love she still felt for him despite herself. She had to be strong. Confident. Heroic, with or without the mask. She would show no sign of weakness.
She would have plenty of time to collapse later.
"He's my great-uncle," she retorted with a poise worthy of Ladybug's greatest days. “Of course I know about it! What about you?” She concludes accusingly.
"He's an old friend of my mother's," replied Adrien. "I come to him often, and he never told me he had a great-niece. "
"It's interesting, he never told me either that he regularly had a visit from the son of one of his friends," Marinette bluffed in response.
Adrien was lying. She was sure of it. She knew it.
But alas, judging by the suspicious look he gave her, he knew she was lying too.
The afternoon which followed this meeting definitely entered the list of the most painful afternoons that Marinette has ever experienced.
Now convinced that Adrien had played a decisive role in the disappearance of the Great Guardian, the girl alternated between sadness and fury. She was angry with Adrien for betraying what she was fighting for, for having deceived everyone around him by hiding under a mask of false kindness and for being at the origin of her argument with Chat Noir.
And worst of all, she blamed herself for not being able to completely hate him. To always love her at least a little, despite common sense.
It would take time for Marinette to completely detach herself from the feelings for Adrien, she was aware of it. This boy had slipped way too deep into his heart to be able to be removed so easily.
Even despite the betrayal, even despite the grief.
Her pulse continued to quicken when she saw him, the skin on her cheeks continued to warm gently as he turned toward her.
But that did not prevent this love from cohabiting now with a legitimate anger. The resentment Marinette felt was commensurate with the disappointment that Adrien's actions inspired in her.
Overwhelmed by yet another wave of fury, she glared at her classmate. And, seeing her gesture, the boy gladly gave her this hostile glance back.
Not failing to notice this unusual exchange, Alya leaned towards her friend.
"Did you have a fight with Adrien?" She whispered in a worried voice.
"No," Marinette replied in an icy tone. " Absolutely not. "
Alya raised a sceptical eyebrow but didn't insist, clearly discouraged by her best friend's irritated expression.
"Ok, if you say so..." she whispered, clearly unconvinced.
In response, Marinette nodded firmly and gave Adrien another wrathful look.
She was angry. Disappointed. Pained.
But at least she could now see that there was one - one and only - positive point to this disastrous situation: now, it was impossible for Chat Noir not to believe her.
Chat Noir didn't believe her.
Ladybug was still having trouble admitting it.
When both had met at the end of the day to review their respective investigations, she had told him everything she had learned about Adrien.
She had told him about the young model’s increasingly obvious change in behaviour. While carefully avoiding the details, she had even told him that she had caught a conversation between Marinette and Adrien, where Adrien clearly admitted to being aware of the disappearance of the Great Guardian.
And yet, Chat Noir. Still. Didn’t. Believe. Her.
Even worse. He was sticking to his position, asserting confidently that he was convinced Marinette was the ideal suspect.
He kept telling her that Marinette had definitely had a strange attitude during the moments he had watched her. That Marinette had been seen lurking near Master Fu's house again. That Marinette definitely made a much more obvious culprit than Adrien.
Each of these statements only irritated Ladybug a little more.
Chat Noir was seriously mistaken. And because of his stupid stubbornness, he was wasting precious time investigating for nothing.
"It's impossible," she exclaimed, stamping her foot furiously on the ground. “Marinette has nothing to do with it! I don't understand why you’re obsessed with her! "
" What about you?” Chat Noir retorted in annoyance. "Adrien here, Adrien there ... You only have his name in your mouth, while Marinette is clearly the one we're looking for. I don't understand why you are so convinced of his innocence!” He concludes, dramatically rolling his eyes.
It was too much for Ladybug.
Red with anger as much as with frustration, she abandoned her last reserves of patience to finally give in to the most primary of impulses.
“Because I AM Marinette!” She yelled angrily.
This violent outburst froze them both.
For a few long, painful seconds they stood still, Ladybug's last words echoing over and over in their ears. Clearly in shock, Chat Noir was now pale under his mask. Ladybug, on the other hand, refused for the moment to think about all the consequences that her sudden revelation would entail.
To think that she had always so fiercely protected her secret ...
Trying to push back the wave of panic that was starting to swell inside her, she forced herself to focus on the present moment. Later, she would certainly regret having been so impulsive - she already regretted it, by the way. Later, she would certainly be lectured by Tikki for revealing her identity.
But like a valve, this confession had finally allowed her to evacuate the storm that was bubbling in her and which threatened to explode at any moment.
Now oddly calm, as if detached from her own feelings, she would now be able to concentrate on finding Master Fu.
And, alas, on Adrien.
"I'm Marinette," she repeated calmly, as Chat Noir gave her a confused look. "That's why I know she had nothing to do with it. That I had nothing to do with it,” she insisted, placing a hand on her own chest. "Every time you saw Marinette near the Great Guardian's, it was me. I just wasn't transformed. And so,” she concluded, shaking her head with infinite sadness, “you have to listen to me when I tell you that Marinette is a wrong track and Adrien is our only suspect. We have to be wary of him. "
"This... This is not possible...", croaked Chat Noir.
Forcing herself to put a sympathetic smile on her face, Ladybug put a comforting hand on her partner's arm.
She understood his dismay way too well. She too had been more than disturbed to discover this dark side of the famous Adrien Agreste.
"I didn't want to believe it either," she agreed painfully, her throat tight with emotion. "I know that you are convinced of Adrien's innocence and I too would like that ..."
She paused for a moment, fiercely closing her eyelids to try to contain the tears that came to her eyes.
"I… I truly believed he could never be involved in such a thing," she continued in a trembling voice, looking back at her teammate again. "Adrien is the nicest person in the world. The most compassionate, the most adorable... It's hard not to love him," she admitted with a small apologetic smile. "If I hadn't seen him with my own eyes... I guess I didn't know him as well as I thought," she concluded with a sob-like laugh.
Still stunned, Chat Noir mechanically shook his head.
"No, I... I..." he stammered, struggling to find his words. “Marinette. It's not possible that I... That I never noticed anything. For you. That I never realized YOU were Ladybug. I... We see each other almost every day and I never realized that you were one and the same! "
Ladybug immediately had the sensation that the ground was opening under her feet.
"We... do we see each other almost every day ?" She repeated in a shrill voice.
Something was wrong.
She clearly did not see Chat Noir "almost every day". Once or twice a week, at most.
So...
So Chat Noir must have been talking about the boy behind the mask.
Which meant without a doubt that she also knew her teammate by his other identity. That she knew him and that she was close to him.
As in a delusional dream of which she would only be a spectator, Ladybug saw Chat Noir gently nod his head in approval. She felt oddly dissociated from her body, driven from her own thoughts by the shock of her partner's announcement.
But the most absurd was yet to come.
"I... I'm Adrien," confessed Chat Noir in a breath. “Adrien Agreste. This... That's why I knew it couldn't be the culprit. "
Ladybug wouldn't have been more shocked if she had been struck by lightning.
"A-Adrien?” She stammered, unable to articulate anything else.
"The one and only," he confirmed with a shy smile.
In Ladybug's brain, it was the apocalypse. Blasts, big bangs, explosions of thoughts and emotions, each more intense than each other. The teenage girl couldn't think anymore. Couldn't analyze the situation anymore.
Adrien. Chat Noir. Their misunderstandings. Their argument. All those negative feelings that had tortured her over the past few days.
It was too much. Much, much too much for her broken mind.
And, in the midst of this brain rampage, a single emotion suddenly emerges. All the frustration the girl had felt was piling up layer by layer, crushing every other form of feeling until it left only one thing.
Pure, incandescent anger that eclipsed even the surprise she felt at the idea that Adrien was Chat Noir.
Ladybug was bubbling like a pressure cooker and this time, all the valves in the world would not be enough to defuse the coming explosion.
"I’ve had enough!” She exclaimed, on edge. "Come! "
Walking the talk, she twirled her yo-yo in a furious hiss.
It didn't matter if she shied away from the reality of their identity, it didn't matter if she let her exasperation guide her actions. She could always worry about it later.
For now, she saw only one way to preserve the little mental health she had left: to find out what was going on.
And to find out now.
"Where are we going?” Chat Noir asked, stunned by the turn of events.
"At Master Fu," retorted her teammate sharply. “Our kwamis may not be able to get through the walls of his apartment, but you can destroy his door with your Cataclysm. "
"Do you... do you want to destroy his door?" The boy stammered incredulously.
"I want to enter his home, no matter how," Ladybug agreed, her eyes sparkling with fierce determination. "We're going to search his house for clues and find out what happened to him! I have been patient enough so far! "
Barely five minutes later, the two heroes landed on top of the building where the Great Guardian lived. Chat Noir had observed a cautious silence throughout the entire ride, while Ladybug's angry gaze seemed to defy anyone to interrupt her on her mission.
Nothing could stop the girl until she knew what had happened to Master Fu.
The teens jumped smoothly at the foot of the building, and to their amazement, immediately noticed that the light was on in the old man’s apartment.
Chat Noir and Ladybug immediately exchanged a suspicious look, while instinctively laying their hands on their weapons. It was quite possible that the Great Guardian's captor had managed to enter his home and was now rummaging through the place for the miraculous.
With a thousand precautions, the heroes approached the entrance to the apartment.
Ladybug put her hand on the doorknob and gave Chat Noir one last glance. With a brief nod of his head, the young man confirmed to him that he was ready to act.
Then, with the same gesture, the two heroes entered the apartment…
... and found themselves facing Master Fu.
The old man was in the middle of the room, standing in front of an open suitcase. A toiletry bag in one hand and a pair of slippers in the other, he was obviously unpacking his belongings when the two heroes interrupted him.
"Chat Noir! Ladybug!” He exclaimed happily. "What gives me the pleasure of your visit?" "
Stunned with surprise, the teenagers stared at him with as much disbelief and dismay as if they had just seen a ghost appear.
A ghost dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and armed with a pair of slippers.
"But... I... How... But you were missing!" Ladybug exclaimed, mechanically pointing a finger towards him.
It was impossible.
His eyes were certainly playing tricks on her.
After so many emotions, so many days spent looking for Master Fu, so many hours torturing herself about Adrien, her tired mind surely made her see hallucinations. Speaking, full of truth, with an obvious taste for flowered clothes hallucinations.
But hallucinations anyway, she was sure.
It couldn't be otherwise.
"Me? Missing? But not at all!” Replied the Great Guardian, putting his things back in his suitcase. “I was just gone for a few days. One of my contacts managed to track down two miraculouses in Peru,” he continued happily. “It was imperative that I go and check it out! "
Now Ladybug was staring at the old man with as much astonishment as if he had suddenly transformed into a giant penguin.
She couldn't believe her ears.
"In... Peru?" She repeated incredulously.
"A beautiful country," approved Master Fu, oblivious to the distress of his visitors. “And the people I met were very charming. Besides," he continued, rummaging in his suitcase and pulling out two colourful clothes," I also brought you some ponchos as a souvenir. "
Beside Ladybug, Chat Noir laughed nervously.
It was too much for him.
After so much tension, so much distress and helpless rage, his nerves were failing him. He felt an irrepressible laughter running along his skin, slipping between his ribs, shaking his body with uncontrollable jolts.
"P-ponchos," he gasped, struggling to catch his breath.
On the other hand, Ladybug refused to lose her train of thought.
She had to understand how she could have been so wrong.
"What about your client?” She said accusingly. “The other day, I ran into one of your clients waiting outside your house. You had an appointment and you never cancelled! "
Master Fu stared at her for a moment, surprised, before slapping his forehead with the flat of his hand.
“Ah, I knew I forgot something!” He blurted out with an apologetic grimace. "I must admit that I left a bit hastily. But do you realize?” He resumed enthusiastically. “I was able to find two miraculouses! Two! It's extraordinary! "
For Ladybug, this was too much. She felt that she was the victim of a terrible farce, of which she could only be the helpless spectator. To this feeling of witnessing a real disaster was added that of deep humiliation.
All this worry, all this anger, all this mess, for nothing.
All because she had followed a ridiculous intuition headlong.
Oh sure, she had been right when she guessed that the Great Guardian had vanished overnight. But that was little consolation compared to the cascade of cataclysmic events that had ensued.
Because of her stupid stubbornness, she had spent days worrying for Master Fu. She had strayed onto false tracks that nearly broke her heart and considered going so far as to vandalize the Great Guardian's apartment to find answers to her questions.
And worst of all, she stubbornly refused to believe in Chat Noir.
In her determination to defend her theory, she had blamed her precious partner for the same faults that had blinded her. She hadn't wanted to listen to him, she had stupidly fought with him and, to top it off, she had even revealed her own identity in anger.
What a lousy heroine she was doing there.
Ladybug had never felt so helpless, nor so ridiculous.
Cheeks stinging with shame, the girl clenched her fists angrily. How could she look Chat Noir - no, Adrien (Adrien!) - in the eye again without being consumed with humiliation?
Impossible.
She had to get out of here. She had to run, fast, far, long.
She had to do something constructive to release the feeling of mortification that threatened to devour her alive.
Like burying her head in a pillow and screaming in it with all her might, for example.
Then, without saying a word, Ladybug turned on her heels and walked away towards the exit with a stiff step. The last thing she heard before rushing up to the rooftops was the astonished voice of the Great Guardian.
“Wait! What about your ponchos? "
Once back home, Marinette found herself victim of the most masterful nervous breakdown of her life.
Even Tikki couldn't help her calm down.
Words of comfort, affectionate slaps on the shoulder, wise advice worthy of the ancient entity that was the tiny kwami, nothing helped. The girl's dismay did not ease, and Marinette continued to lament the recent events with as much distress as if she had been told the end of the world was imminent.
A little later, she was joined by a Chat Noir just as mortified as herself, holding a pair of ponchos in his arms. And when it turned out that her teammate was only asking for a pillow to scream in it too, Marinette couldn't help but feel some relief at last.
Adrien or Chat Noir, Marinette or Ladybug, it doesn't matter.
At least now they were on the same page again.
And given the terrible fiasco their investigation had been, that was all that mattered.
*** THE END ***