Chapter Text
It had been a week since the last akuma attack when The Supreme King attacked. Marinette didn't know the civilian personally but they were obsessed with Yu-Gi-Oh cards and forced her to duel them. She had backed out at first, but the akumatized duelist had taken hostages. The duel was a lot more intense then she had expected, lasting for hours and leaving her with only 100 life points left in the end.
As she took the duel disk from the defeated akuma and purified the akuma, she was once again became aware of Chat Noir’s absence. Her partner had made no appearance during the duel, causing her to wonder if he was one of the hostages. Ladybug shook the thought out her head, then headed out. Whatever reason Chat Noir wasn't there, he'll tell her at the next attack or patrol.
Except he wasn't at the next battle. Or the next patrol. Or the battle after that. Marinette hissed in frustration as she collapsed on her couch, exhausted after the most recent fight. Hawkmoth had sent two akumas in the same day and Chat showed up for neither of them. She was forced to temporarily pull Ryuko and Viperion out of retirement to aid her. But Marinette knew she couldn't rely on temporary heroes forever. She needed Chat Noir back.
Her phone buzzed, prompting her to look at it: it was Alya. Marinette swiped the video chat icon. "Hey Alya, whats up?"
"Only the best scoop I received in weeks! Ladybug called on two heroes who had their identities exposed today! I wonder if this means that she'll call on others too!" Marinette winced at the comment, knowing full well that she couldn't call on anymore heroes. Alya kept going, not noticing Marinette's expression falter. "I wonder if she and Chat Noir had a falling out. No one has seen him in nearly two weeks."
"Maybe he's just on vacation?" Marinette suggested.
Alya shrugged, "Who knows? Anyways, I got tickets for all of us to go see a movie. Its starting in half an hour. Adrien and Nino are already here. Though, Adrien is trying to convince Nino to buy camembert as a movie snack," she added with a frown.
The gears in Marinette’s head began to turn at violent speed. But before she could come to plot shattering revelation, a sickly sweet voice came from offscreen on her phone. "Hey Alya! Are you on the phone with Marinette?”
Marinette groaned, loud enough for Alya to hear her. “Seriously girl? You gotta get over this jealousy thing you got going with Lila.” There was something inaudible to Marinette for a moment, then Alya spoke up again. “Lila says she wants to talk to you privately for a moment. Behave.”
Before Marinette could voice her objection, Alya already handed over the phone to Lila and walked away. “Hello, Marinette. It’s too bad that you are too sick to come hang out with us today,” she said in a sickening sweet voice.
Marinette frowned at the liar, “What? I’m not sick.”
“You are now,” Lila told her, a evil smirk going across her face. “Unless you want me to tell Alya all the horrible things you did to me. Adrien is going to be mine and I don’t need you in the way. Bye!” Marinette groaned as she flopped back onto her bed. She turned off her phone, deciding that she didn’t need to deal with anything else. One of these days, she was going to have to figure out how to expose Lila in a way that Adrien would agree with.
Tikki zipped out of her hiding place, munching on a cookie. “You can’t keep letting Lila push you around like that, Marinette!”
Marinette let out another sigh, “I know, Tikki. But right now there is nothing I can say to convince Alya of the truth or show Adrien that we need to expose her.”
Tikki frowned for a moment thinking, then said, “You could tell him about how she has been threatening you and forcing you to go along with her lies.”
“No, that’s my problem, not his. I don’t want him to think I’m some pathetic girl that can’t solve her own problems. I just need to work on some designs for a bit. That will help me focus.” Tikki left her guardian to work in silence.
The rest of the afternoon when by quick, Marinette didn’t even notice the time until after the sun started to set. She made a quick patrol run, hoping to see Chat finally. But he didn’t make an appearance, causing her concern to keep rising. She headed back home, releasing her transformation as she scooped up her phone and turned it back on. There were several missed calls and messages.
Alya: Hope you feel better girl
Adrien: 3 missed calls
Alya: Adrien keeps on asking about you. Lila told him that you her you were sick and then he stormed off
Adrien: 5 missed calls
Alya: Lila says that she thinks you texted Adrien some lie about her. Whats up?
Adrien: 17 missed calls
Adrien: Mari please call me!
Nino: hey dudette, do you know where my bro is? Nathalie called me like 100 times and no one knows where he is.
Adrien: 31 missed calls
Marinette’s eyes widened in shock at the notifications. Adrien was missing? Not only that, but he had been trying to call her up to an hour ago. Marinette was about to swipe the call back option when the front doorbell started ringing. She checked the time: it was quarter to 12. Who would be out this late? The bell rang again, prompting her to go answer it.
The doorbell rang for the fifth time as Marinette entered the bakery, muttering something dark under her breath as she unlocked the door. Marinette opened the door, mouth open to rebuke the person who came in the middle of the night. But no words came out as she stared in shock at a drenched Adrien Agreste. His green eyes bore into her bluebell eyes, fear and exhaustion evident in his expression. His voice broke as he spoke, holding up a small black creature in his hands. "Mari, please help me."