Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lila sighed looking at the message that had just pinged on her phone. 

Mamma: [Sorry, tesoro . I got stuck at work because of the snow, don’t know when I’ll get home tonight. If you want, you can order something. Otherwise dried pasta is in the first cupboard at the side of the hob. I’ll make it up to you. Love you!]

Even after all those years, messages like those left a hollow feeling into her heart. Lila had been moving around a lot in the last few years, because of her mother’s job. She hated her mother’s job. Because of it, Lila had had to leave her grandparents and aunt in Sicily and all her childhood friends. Besides, her mother had been completely absent since she started working at the embassy, sometimes not even coming back home before Lila went to bed. Sometimes she wouldn’t see her for days in a row because when she woke up to go to school, mamma was sleeping and when Lila would go to bed, mamma wouldn’t even have started to come home. Mamma tried to make up for it by filling her days off with a lot of activities they could do together, but that wasn’t enough for Lila. She wanted more . She wanted her mother all for herself , like she had been at home, when papà had been there and mamma hadn’t yet obtained her role at the Italian Embassy. 

She had been moved around like a pawn: Vienna for a couple of years, then Berlin, Geneva, Dublin and finally Paris. A lot for a 14 year old girl, having to leave it all behind way too many times. 

When she moved to Vienna, she had been bullied quite badly because of her accent and her difficulty speaking the language. She had been ostracised and had spent the better part of two years fighting against stupid kids that she couldn’t even understand very well. Add to the mix the fact that papà ended up having an affair and mamma decided to divorce and leave him, and Lila’s life became even worse, even lonelier. 

Luckily her mother had been moved to Berlin, but the situation hadn’t improved for her. Vienna or Berlin, the language was still incomprehensible to her and the kids didn’t like her because she was new, uncool, and because her accent sucked. Because her skin was too olive. Because her hair was too brown, or her eyes too green. They used to make fun of her hairstyle, of her clothes, of anything they could put their hands on. Lila started developing a huge amount of rage, frustration and anger. Plus, she missed her papà terribly, and she couldn’t understand in her mind why her mamma had decided to leave him. 

Then she moved to Geneva, and on her first day there she met a girl who ‘acted’ cool. She was a couple of years older than Lila; her name was Charlotte, but she allowed Lila to call her Lottie. She took her under her wing and gave her some very interesting lessons. Lottie was a manipulative wench. She used to be the most popular girl in class because she always knew what to say in order to flatter the interlocutor, twist words around and obtain their favour. Lila was fascinated by her ability and craved to learn how to do the same. She worked for months to copy Lottie’s mannerisms and behaviour.

‘In life, you need to always take the upper hand,’ Lottie told her. ‘Tell people what they want to hear. This will automatically bring them to your side, and when you have them wrapped around your little finger, there’s nothing that they won’t do for you. You just need to keep up the appearances and you’re set for life.

‘Always settle for the best. If you set your eyes on a boy, make sure that he’s the best catch in the whole school. Make sure to understand what he likes and slowly set your trap. Let him fall for you, and you’ll be automatically the most popular gal around.’ Lottie had proved her own advice right easily, and had ended up in a relationship with a pop singer that attended their school. That increased her popularity even more and Lila became much more envious of her. 

‘If someone bothers you, destroy them before they can attack you, or as soon as you can after that,’ was Lottie’s last bit of advice.

Lottie taught Lila to act cool, taught her that image was everything. Soon ,they had become like twin sisters and instead of being the bullied one, for once Lila enjoyed the feeling of being the bully. They were L&L’s, and they were respected . Her heart broke the day her mother told her that they were moving again, but she had no choice. Saying goodbye to Lottie was one of the most difficult things she had to do in her still young life.

‘Stay strong, Lil,’ Lottie had told her. ‘Remember, image is everything. Teach those Dubliners how great you are and you won’t have any trouble. And if you do,’ she added with a wink, ‘send me a message and I’ll hop on the first flight!’ 

That had made her laugh. Lottie acted strong and rich, but Lila knew that in reality she would never have been able to uphold her promise, as she was still too young, and had no money.

Dublin hadn’t been that bad for her. Except the weather. The HORRIBLE Irish weather. She still had nightmares of the torrential rain and the storms. But at least, there was the sea. Lila had missed the sea so much in the last few years. She used to make excuses that she was sick, to skip school, take the DART metropolitan train and get off at Portmarnock, Greystones or Bray (more the first two than the latter, because the sandy beach reminded her more of the shores at home). She would walk on the beach without a care in the world, listening to the sound of the waves crashing on the sand. 

She had followed Lottie’s advice and had acted cool as soon as she started in her new school. She had gotten used to lying when she was in Geneva under Lottie’s wing, and now the lies came out more natural than the truth. She had become immediately popular when she started, managing to get into a relationship with the most exclusive guy in the class (she didn’t like him, as he was a twat, so full of himself that you could hear him boasting from a distance, but she didn’t care. He was popular and that was all that mattered. He would never realise that she was only using him). She learned how to trick everybody, making them think that she knew all sorts of actors and celebrities. It was fantastic, she was loved and popular and her life was amazing. She was so upset when her mother was moved once more.

And that’s how she ended up in Paris — again far from her beloved sea. She hated the city, she hated the noise and the frantic way of life. Despite the horrible weather, she had loved Dublin because it was smaller and reminded her more of the small town she was born in. But Paris was massive, full of people, of noise. She couldn’t stand the noise. And she hated all those lights. Ville lumière my foot.

Immediately as she started in Françoise Dupont, she tried to remake the same setting she had carefully created in her previous location. But she found the big obstacle of Marinette Dupain-Cheng. The most annoying girl Lila had ever dealt with. Except Ladybug, obviously. Such a tiny girl, but such a big problem for her, and for her resolution to follow Lottie’s footsteps. From the very beginning, Marinette had never fallen for her lies. From the very beginning, she had tried to unmask her and show to everyone her true colours. From the very beginning, she had been an absolute and utter pest . 

Lila had fought back. She wouldn’t make it easy for Marinette to win against her; Lila had soon managed to get every student in the class wrapped around her little finger, as Lottie had taught her. She had hoped that soon Marinette wouldn’t be a problem anymore. But unfortunately, she still was. Even more annoyingly, Adrien, whom she was trying to charm in order to again be the most popular girl in school who dated the most handsome and popular guy, seemed to believe Marinette . 

Lila had tried all her tricks. She had tried to bring the whole class to her side, she had tried to even manipulate Adrien’s father and make him think that Marinette was a bad influence on his son. But nothing seemed to have an effect on the blond model, and Lila had gotten desperate. She had finally managed to set up a great trap and had gotten Marinette expelled. However, the joy hadn’t lasted long because Adrien had threatened her and had gotten to the point of making a deal with her so that Marinette would be readmitted to school.  

Lila was seething that day, but she had no choice. Losing Adrien’s friendship would have been even more detrimental to her image. It didn’t matter if it was only a fake friendship; it would add to her image, and image was everything, as Lottie said. 

The more time passed, the more Lila hated Marinette. She had tried everything she could to make her life miserable, but the young designer somehow always managed to resist. Even getting akumatised and trying to use Hawkmoth’s power against Marinette didn’t work, because Ladybug and Chat Noir would get in the way and protect her. They would try to expose Lila’s lies. She had had to make her lies become bigger and bigger and create more and more imaginative excuses in order to keep up with the popularity she craved. And it was never enough, because Marinette always managed to dismiss her claims and most of the time prove her wrong. 

From Lila’s point of view, Marinette was the enemy . She was the sole obstacle left in her path to getting what she wanted, and she would get what she wanted, no matter the cost. In her mind, there was only one path left to take to get rid of her. 

Marinette Dupain-Cheng had to DIE. 

Finally, she had managed to come up with the perfect plan. The perfect opportunity. 

The perfect excuse: a school project. She had cheated the sorting and gotten paired with Alya, and the weather today was giving her even more help. When something is meant to be, it’s meant to be. It had already been a cold winter up to then, but very unusually for Paris, in the last week the temperature had dropped way below zero. In fact, it had dropped so low that it had been declared the coldest winter in history, only topped once in the late 1800’s. 

Lila didn’t like the cold. Her family came from a little village on the sea, where it was always warm even in the bad season. Yes, it had been cold from time to time, but the sea warmed the temperature up and made the chill more bearable. Her beautiful sea, which she missed so much after having gotten a taste of it back in Dublin. But there was no sea in Paris, only that stupid river… and no warm weather in the winter,  especially not this year. 

But that cold weather, for once, wasn’t upsetting her because it was helping her craft her plan; she had faced the freezing temperature that very morning before school, and had set up her trap.  She would use the cold to her advantage.  And this time, she’d have the perfect alibi, and not even Adrien would suspect of her. 

This time Marinette would be gone. Forever.

“Are you all right, Lila?” asked Alya, her face showing genuine concern when Lila dumped her phone on the desk in front of her with a pout. 

“Yes, I’m fine. Just another charity event being cancelled this week because of the snow,” she made up. Alya’s frown disappeared and the girl gave her a look full of admiration.

“I don’t know how you do it, Lila, your commitment to charities and people in need is admirable, really.”

Lila gave Alya her best puppy eyed glance. “This city, and especially Ladybug and Chat Noir, have done so much for me with all the times I have been akumatised. It’s only nice to give something back!”

Alya put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re a truly amazing person, Lila. I have been akumatised four times, and I guess half of Paris has been in a way or another, but nobody does all you do to ‘give it back to the community’.” The girl with glasses looked at her door thoughtfully. “But if you’ll excuse me a moment, I need the restroom.” 

And that’s when the perfect opportunity arose. Alya’s phone was resting on the desk in front of them. Lila gave a cunning side glance to the brunette who had just stood up and was fixing her glasses on her nose and, with a graceful flick of her finger, she pushed Alya’s phone slightly making it fall to the ground, quickly kicking it with her foot underneath the computer desk so that Alya wouldn’t find it.

“Uh… I’m sure my phone was here a moment ago…” muttered Alya looking at the computer desk and scratching her head. She moved her gaze around superficially, but since she couldn’t see the phone anywhere, she sighed. “Well, never mind. I’ll be right back,” she said, looking at Lila before disappearing from view.

“Take your time,” said Lila, her lips curling in a wide smirk as she picked up the phone from the ground. Things seemed to be going her way this time. The phone was unlocked. Lila’s eyes had a triumphant gleam in them as she looked for a conversation with Marinette.

She quickly peeked to ensure that Alya was still in the restroom and opened the chat with Marinette. Then she typed the message she had been planning all day, clicking send immediately after. 

Alya (Lila): [Hey, girl! The girls and I are planning to go to Lac Daumesnil. Fancy doing some ice skating with us?]

She kept eyeing the door of the restroom with concern, but Alya was still there. Soon she saw the three dots of the conversation flashing, meaning that Marinette was answering. 

Marinette: [It’s been some time since I went ice skating. Last time was a disaster. Sounds like a good idea, Alya. I will be there in an hour]

Alya (Lila): [Great. Start skating if you get there before us. We’re on our way!]

Marinette: [OK!]

Lila looked at the messages with a smirk and took care of deleting each of them one by one. Alya wasn’t going to find out. It was after she had just deleted the last message that Alya emerged from the restroom and she put the phone down immediately. 

Alya frowned at her. “Are you okay, Lila?”

“Yes. I found your phone; it was on the floor here.” She pointed at the side of the desk. “I thought I heard it notify you of something, but there’s no notification, nothing at all.”

Alya looked at her phone with interest. “Oh. Maybe an akuma alert?” She started scrolling through her phone, but she didn’t find anything new. “That’s peculiar, there’s no new announcement.”

“Don’t worry, I must have made a mistake,” said Lila, dismissing the conversation with a gesture of her right hand. “So we were saying, about Napoléon?”

This took Alya’s attention away from her phone and brought her back to concentrating on the project they were working on. Lila smirked — her plan was unfolding well. 

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

Marinette shivered. She stood in front of the small frozen lake and looked around, trying to find any warning sign that there could be any danger. The sky was covering the park with its white canopy and the trees all around the lake looked like they came from a polar tundra, so covered in snow that every part of their branches displayed a thick white contour. 

The scenery felt nearly apocalyptic and Marinette looked around reverentially — it was all so beautiful. Not having found any warnings for danger, she sat down on a bench near the lake and started taking her walking boots off, to replace them immediately with her ice skates. She put her walking boots back into the bag she had used to store her skating boots and placed everything back into the small backpack she had brought with her. She gave a couple of shakes to her feet, ensuring that her boots had been put on safely.

“I don’t know, Marinette. This sounds fishy. Why aren’t your friends here yet? It took you much longer than we expected to arrive,” whispered Tikki in her ear.

“Alya and the girls must have had a delay somewhere. She told me to start enjoying myself, and there doesn’t seem to be any danger around. What can go wrong?” mused Marinette. 

Tikki looked at the sky warily. “It feels wrong. The clouds are too dense in the sky, it’s going to start to blizzard soon. I don’t want you caught in it. There must be a reason why nobody’s here at all!”

“Nothing to worry about, Tikki,” said Marinette with a smile. She tapped on the screen of her phone and opened the weather forecast. “There’s no mention of any blizzard starting any time soon.”

Tikki kept staring at her with a worried gleam in her eyes and Marinette sighed and gave her a quick rub on the head. She checked again that her skates were put on properly and then she moved warily on the cold ground to reach the surface of the lake. After a couple of minutes of watching Marinette skate, Tikki started to calm down a little, because Marinette was an excellent skater and there really seemed to be no danger. 

Marinette saw the gaze of her small friend relaxing and smiled softly at her. “See? There’s nothing to worry about. It’s a bit unlike you to be this worried, Tikki. Usually you’re so confident.”

Tikki sighed and moved her gaze from hers. “It’s complicated, Marinette. A long, complicated story.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Tikki. Just enjoy the warmth of the purse, okay? I’m sure Alya will get here soon with the gir—” But Marinette’s reasoning was interrupted by a loud crack. She opened her eyes wide as the ice under her boots started breaking and one of the skates she was wearing got caught in the rupture. She panicked. She tried to pull her foot out. The ice broke even more, a skin curling loud bang resounding all around the silent lake. Marinette felt the ground underneath her feet dissolving, and the freezing temperature of the water hit her senses, like thousands of blades butchering her skin. She gasped for air so desperately that she felt herself hyperventilating. The whole place around her was a thin puzzle of shattered ice pieces. She waved her hands around, trying to find something to hold, but she couldn’t grab anything, the ice had broken too finely to leave her something to grasp. 

She started drowning. 

“MARINETTE!” shouted Tikki zipping out of her purse. “MARINETTE, PLEASE HOLD ON, TRY TO GET YOURSELF OUT! PLEASE, MARINETTE!”

“I can’t feel my legs!” said Marinette, emerging from the water to gasp for air. “I can’t move, Tikki, I think I have cramps! HELP ME!”

The little Goddess of Creation zipped around her chosen in a manic frenzy. She looked around but couldn’t see anybody by the lake that she could catch the attention of. And worse than anything, snow was starting to fall from the sky, making it very hard to distinguish anything. 

Crap. It looked exactly like that time.

No. Tikki couldn’t allow it to happen. Not to her sweet Marinette. 

Suddenly, Marinette managed to grab some larger piece of ice and started coughing loudly. 

“Are you okay, Marinette? Almighty Creator, your lips are blue!”

“I-I’m n-not-t f-eeling v-very g-g-ood. I-I c-can’t m-move…”

Tikki’s eyes widened. “Transform! Please transform Marinette, the suit will help!”

“TIKKI!” called Marinette. “Sp— ” But as she said that, the block of ice she was holding on broke and she fell in the water again. 

Tikki’s heart froze. No, it couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t possibly be happening. Not again. Not all over again. The pain, the heartache… she was a kwami, true, she wasn’t human, but she wouldn't stay there and do nothing while another of her Ladybugs froze to death. Not again. Screw the rule of not interfering with human life. Screw identity concerns! Marinette shouldn’t end her days drowning frozen and lonely, like it happened to Piào Chòng! 

Tikki saw her chosen’s head emerging from the water and shouted, hoping that she would hear her, “I’ll look for help. Hold on, Marinette, please!” The red kwami’s gaze darted around the park, trying to see anything that could give her an indication that people were around. The place looked so empty and sounded so silent that the manic splashes of Marinette’s attempts at getting out of the water seemed to almost echo in the emptiness. 

The snow was also starting to pick up. She knew that the clouds in the sky looked too dense to not cause a blizzard. She knew it, and that bad gut feeling she had had… she should've listened to it! She had again allowed one of her chosens to put her life in danger because of the snow. If Tikki didn’t find someone to help, she would never forgive herself. She looked around trying to find a landmark to remember where she was, and saw the bench where Marinette had sat to put on her skates, just next to a rubbish bin that had taken nearly the shape of a white mouse because of the snow that was covering it. She tried to imprint that picture in her memory. Marinette was struggling always more to keep her head out of the water. She had to be quick. 

Feeling horribly guilty, she zoomed out and went off looking for help. ‘Please, Marinette, don’t give up! Hold on!’

oOoOoOoOoOo

Adrien sighed in the premade mobile cabin that had been set up as a changing room for his photoshoot. It was typical of his father to take advantage of the bad weather and decide to perform the photoshoot for Gabriel ’s newest ski line in Paris, at the park near Lac Daumesnil, rather than having to go to the mountains and waste additional money for accommodation and travelling. 

He had hoped to finish the shoot early, so he could have gone to Nino’s house to complete the shared history project that they had to do for school, but Jean Jacques (a new photographer) was too much of a perfectionist. Adrien understood that the man had only recently started working with the brand and was trying too hard to make an impression, but asking him to retake every picture 4 times using different lighting and then making him do them again once more because ‘the exposure wasn’t perfect’ sounded a bit excessive.

The weather had decided to get worse and he had been stuck inside the cabin, as his bodyguard had gotten stuck in the traffic of the city panicked by the strong new blizzard. Who knew when he would finally arrive! Adrien couldn’t wait to go home. The cabin was cold and one can only hear so many of Plagg’s complaints.

“This horrible weather is freezing my Camembert!” whined Plagg for the millionth time. “Can we go home already?”

Adrien sighed again. “I wish I could, buddy. But it would look strange if I got home without waiting for the Gorilla to pick me up.”

Adrien heard a notification coming from his phone and looked at it. It was breaking news about the weather. He opened up the News app and the concerned face of Nadja Chamack stared back at him. 

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news. Good afternoon, I’m Nadja Chamack, and I’m talking to you from the Town Hall, where Mayor Bourgeois has just announced a Red Alert warning for the bad weather conditions.” 

The screen showed a panorama of Paris wrapped under a thick canopy of snow, more fresh snow coming down from the heavy white sky. “If you’re out, please go home and do it slowly. The hospitals around town have reported a large number of calls and walk-ins due to driving accidents, or trips and falls, due to the bad weather conditions. Some hospitals report queues of over two hours to be registered and even longer to be seen. The code for today is like the one for an akuma alert: if it’s not necessary to go out, don’t. Stay in. Stay safe.”

The TV now showed M. Bourgeois standing in front of the Town Hall, wearing his sash and looking quite serious with his papers in hand. “Thank you, Madame Chamack. The situation is degenerating very quickly. There have been at least ten major accidents reported in the centre of the city alone. I repeat, this is NOT an akuma attack. Ladybug and Chat Noir cannot help the town. This is a real emergency, the coldest winter Paris has had since 1879. That’s why I’m declaring a Code Red alert. All public transport won't run until further notice. Schools will remain closed for the time being. If you’re not an essential worker, or you can work from home, don’t get out of the house to get to work. Stay in. Stay safe.”

Nadja moved the microphone back to her face. “Thank you, Mayor,” she said smiling warmly at M. Bourgeois. “As our Mayor has kindly stated, ladies and gentlemen, this isn’t an akuma attack. The Miraculous Cure won’t fix everything as it usually does. To make sure that this was the case, we went looking for the people who have been akumatised in the past with weather related powers, to check if by any chance it was them.”

The picture in the video changed from the outside of Town Hall to the sitting room of a private home. There stood Aurore Beauréal, the girl who had been akumatised twice into Stormy Weather. “Hi, Nadja,” she said with a smile, her hand playing with a loose lock of blonde hair.

“Hi, Aurore. Nice to see you happy and smiling,” said Nadja’s voice in the background.

“Yes, thank you for checking on me, Nadja. I can assure everyone that it’s definitely not me causing this bad weather.”

Nadja’s face reappeared on the screen. “That’s good news, thank you, Aurore.”

Then, the video moved to the inside of the Ice Rink in town. Philippe Candeloro, the middle aged figure skating trainer who ran the Rink, smiled at the camera and waved. “Good afternoon, Nadja.”

“Monsieur Candeloro, good afternoon. It’s nice to see you smiling and happy,” repeated Nadja, echoing the previous conversation.

“Thank you for caring. It’s definitely not me creating this bad weather.”

Nadja’s face reappeared on the screen. “That’s even more good news. Thank you, Monsieur Candeloro.” Nadja took a big breath. “From the Town Hall, that’s all for now. But keep an eye on your phone or on the TV, because we will keep you informed about any breaking news. As for now, stay in, stay safe.” 

Adrien sighed and turned off the screen of his phone. His battery was starting to run low and he didn’t want to drain his phone completely, in case Gorilla or Nathalie would try to contact him. Code Red meant that everything would have been shut for a few days, which also meant that he was going to be trapped in his golden cage with no possibility to escape. Except through the roofs in black spandex, of course.

“The weather is horrible. It could take your bodyguard HOURS to arrive here. And what are we going to do in the meantime, freeze to death? My poor Gooeyness is all cold and hardened up!” Dramatically, he raised a paw at the height of his forehead and closed his eyes, faking distress. 

“Oh stop it, Plagg, it’s not that bad. And someone may hear you!” shushed Adrien, but Plagg stuck his tongue out at him.

“Who's going to hear me? The photographer and the team have all gone, it’s only me and y—” but as he spoke, he saw a red dot zooming inside the cabin and his complaints came to a sudden halt.

“Oh thank you, Almighty Creator! It’s so good to see you, Adrien!” Both Adrien and Plagg stared in disbelief at a greatly distressed Tikki, taking heavy breaths to cool herself down.

“ Tikki ?” said Adrien, a loud gasp coming out of his throat. At the same time, Plagg shouted, “Sugarcube!” and zoomed towards her to hug her, but she put both paws in front of her tiny body to stop him. 

“There’s no time to explain. A… girl. Skating at the lake. Danger. You need to help!” she said between heavy pants, her voice cracking as a big frown furrowed her eyebrows. “You need to follow me, NOW. It could already be late!”

Adrien blinked. “ A… girl ?” 

His heart started racing in his chest as he stood without even thinking and put his coat on, opening the door of the cabin and looking around warily. Plagg was right, nobody was around, the place was completely deserted. He stepped out of the cabin and started running in the direction he knew the lake was, paying attention to where he was putting his feet to ensure he wouldn’t slip. Tikki and Plagg followed him. 

His mind was filled with different thoughts as he started looking around. “What did this girl think she was doing, skating at the lake? There were loads of panels warning about thin ice yesterday. What was going through her mind?”

Tikki gasped. “Adrien, there were no signs earlier on. Not even one. Nothing that we could see at least.”

We. She’d said we . The thought struck his head and kicked away any other thought or doubt he would have had. “ We ? Where’s Ladybug? Why isn’t she helping? Were you here together?”

The terror in Tikki’s eyes grew so huge that Adrien felt he could actually touch it and taste it. She looked at Plagg, then back at him, then her gaze lowered to the ground. 

“L-Ladyb-bug is unavailable ,” she said. 

Adrien stopped in his tracks, panting heavily, and looked at Tikki through the white shower of snow that was dimming his view. The snow falling from the sky was so thick that he found himself with snowflakes in his mouth. “You would never leave Ladybug’s side, Tikiki, I know you quite well. If you’re here, Ladybug is here too. WHERE THE HELL IS LADYBUG?”

Tikki’s eyes widened even more when he started to shout. The lower lip of the little kwami started quivering and Adrien was certain that the red colour of her little face grew paler.

“S-she w-was... ice skating on the lake and the ice cracked. You must hurry, please Adrien!” The tiny Goddess of Creation zipped to his neck and grabbed his collar with her tiny paws. 

“It’s HER? Ladybug is in danger?” panicked Adrien. The first thing that came to his mind was that if Tikki was there, it meant that Ladybug wasn’t transformed. 

Her identity! 

Screw her identity. She’s in danger.  

Oh God, Ladybug would never forgive him, but he had to protect her, he couldn’t leave her in danger! He’d never seen Tikki that panicky before—that didn’t sound good at all. He resumed his run through the park, trying to reach the shore of the lake as quickly as he could.

Tikki’s eyes filled with tears as she zipped behind him, and started sobbing loudly. “It’s happening all over again. I can’t lose another one. Not my *BURP*” she said, blowing bubbles, as the magic of the Miraculous prevented her from saying her holder’s name. 

“Sugarcube! It won’t happen again, not if we can help it, don’t worry!” said Plagg, trying to rub her back to help her calm down, but Tikki was inconsolable. 

“Why didn’t she transform?” Adrien stopped at a crossroad, not knowing where to go. The snow that was fluttering from the sky was making it very hard to make out the indications on the road. What yesterday and even earlier today would have been a two minute walk had become much longer now, because of the low visibility, and the slippery ground. Or at least it felt, much, much longer. Incredibly longer.

“She tried, but the ice she was holding onto cracked again and she was sucked down into the water. She couldn’t say the words!”

Adrien felt his soul leaving his body as realisation hit. “Is she drowning ?” he asked. His heart was racing at thousands miles an hour. Tikki nodded and his heart stopped. 

With the blizzard and the very low temperature, even if she had been out of the water she would be in danger. In the water, the danger had potentially grown by thousand-fold. She wasn’t just in danger, she could die !

“Plagg, CLAWS OUT!” he shouted and dashed off, not even looking to make sure that nobody was around before transforming. He didn’t care. Screw Hawkmoth. His Lady was dying and nothing else mattered. 

To be Continued...

Chapter Text

“WHERE IS SHE, TIKKI?” cried Chat Noir when they reached the lake. The place was silent and not even the sound of the cars in the distance seemed to come to his ear, probably muffled by the billowing wind and the snow that had already wrapped the whole park in its white canopy. If he hadn’t been this terrified, the view would have been breathtaking. But the adrenaline rush running through his body kept his concentration on the task. His eyes darted around, looking for the signs he had seen the evening before when he had come here after the first half of the photoshoot. But he couldn’t find any, they were all vanished in thin air.

A really bad feeling started growing in his gut. This looked like a set up!

“I don’t know…” admitted the kwami, breaking his thread of thought. “I had gotten a couple of landmarks but the new snow must have covered them.” She zoomed away and started zipping around the whole length of the lake, appearing to be always more reckless and anxious. She zipped at the centre of the lake mostly, then she went on the other side, then back there again. Until she erupted in a scream.

“Here, Chat Noir, here!” She pointed at where she wanted him to be.

He ran as fast as he could, while he picked up the green slice of cheese and put it into his mouth shouting, “POWER UP!” he barely managed to transform into his aqua form before diving into the water. For a second he literally turned into ice. God, it was bloody freezing! The water seemed to be stabbing his skin everywhere even if he was wearing his suit. But he forced himself to get used to the temperature and to the dim light quickly, and his gaze started darting in the water trying to find his Lady.

And that’s when he saw her. His heart stopped.

‘No. It can’t be. It can’t be her. No, no, no, no, no… that’s impossible!’

“MARINETTE!!” he screamed, as he swam towards the motionless form and grabbed her with one hand in a manic frenzy, using his enhanced swimming capabilities to get to the surface quickly. It didn’t seem to work, his limbs were too cold and the water felt almost thick against his arm. Shoot. He looked at Marinette’s face and his heart skipped a beat.

His very good friend Marinette. The one whose smile always lit up his day. His everyday Ladybug. The cute, shy, awesome girl who was also one of the strongest people he knew and had been able to stand up to his dad when they had gone to New York. Creative, sweet, determined Marinette. She was his Lady. How did she manage to trick him that well? He clearly remembered having suspected her, but having changed his mind when Kwamibuster attacked because he saw her next to Ladybug! Did she use the Fox Miraculous? She was too clever for her own good.

‘FOCUS! Don’t think about it. Save her now. Freak out later!’

Suddenly, he thought back to the time they faced Evillustrator, when Marinette had shown him how to use his own baton. His lips curled into a small smile. Of course. He picked up his baton from the small of his back and extended it, while holding it tight. The baton reached the bottom of the lake and then started propelling them up and up, until they were out of the water. He waited until it reached a long enough length to have a panoramic view of the lake, and then used the baton to make himself and his Lady fall to the snow-covered grass on the shore. His eyes were full of tears as he held Marinette bridal style to his chest, his heart pounding inside his throat. Was he too late? She was so pale! And cold!

“S-SHE’S N-NOT B-B-BREAT-T-HING!” he said with his teeth chattering, in utter panic, as his ear pushed on her chest to see if she had a heartbeat. A new layer of snow was starting to dust her figure and her hair was already almost covered.

“She must have started to drown, Chat Noir! You need to help her breathe.”

Chat Noir tried to think, although the shivers running through his body and the chattering of his own teeth were so distracting. “I-I n-need t-to… C-P-R…” he managed to say, but then he hesitated.

“What are you waiting for, Chat Noir? Please help her!” begged Tikki. “I can’t do it.”

Although the cold was still biting at him like a rabid dog and he felt his hands slowly turning into ice, he couldn’t help blushing as he nodded warily at Tikki’s plea. Luckily, his father had demanded that he take a first aid course when he had started modeling, as part of the health and safety regulations of the Gabriel brand, and there he had been explained what to do when performing CPR. He knew he had to do it, or she would die.

But it still felt so much like a kiss.

‘Focus, Adrien. She’s dying!’ he thought and gave himself a firm slap in the face to shake himself up. With a determined frown, he moved her head up by pushing on her chin, to give her more room to breathe. Then he put his hands on her chest as he had been shown in the course and started compressing (why had that been such a long time ago? Shouldn’t he have gotten refreshers from time to time, he wondered), trying to remember what to do and how long to count.

Thirty compressions.

Then he gulped and with a firm movement, he opened her mouth and started blowing air into it.

One. two.

Repeat. Chest.

Thirty compressions.

Repeat. Mouth.

One. two.

Repeat. Chest.

Thirty compressions.

Repeat. Mouth.

One. two.

His heart was racing madly in his chest, hoping that he was doing it correctly, as he remembered from the course that if it was performed the wrong way it could have been even more detrimental.

‘Please, Marinette. Please breathe! Breathe for me!’

Hands on her chest. Thirty compressions.

Air in her mouth. One. T—

Marinette started coughing and a massive sigh of relief filled his lungs. He suddenly remembered something that his instructor had said and refrained from hugging her, paying attention to move her a little on the side so she wouldn’t choke again on the water coming out of her mouth. The sound of her laborious breaths was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard. Now that she had breathed a little, he dared picking her head up and gave her a hug, tears flowing down his eyes on his cheeks, almost getting frozen mid way.

“I need to take her to the hospital,” he announced, picking her up bridal style. She had fallen unconscious again.

“She needs to be warmed up, Chat Noir, and quickly. Do you know where the closest hospital is?” asked Tikki, zipping in front of him and floating on his nose.

He sighed. “No idea. But,” he picked up his baton from the ground, “we can easily check.” He turned on his communicator and saw yet another news alert. He opened it up and saw Nadja Chamack already talking. “—ed. I highlight: Code Red. Stay in. Stay safe. More accidents have been reported on the road. The queue at the local hospitals has increased to three to four hours just to be registered, and even longer to be seen. If you don’t need to go out, sta—” The screen of his baton flickered and turned black. Chat Noir blinked and gave it a shake, trying to get the screen to turn on again.

“What’s going on?” he said to himself, not really expecting an answer.

“Either your phone has died in the cabin or there’s a loss of GPS signal so big that the baton cannot function properly,” said Tikki.

“Shoot!” cursed Chat Noir under his breath. “My phone was nearly dead earlier. What do I do now?”

Tikki sighed. “You heard Madame Chamack. Marinette doesn’t have three to four hours to wait, she needs to be looked after now.”

“Usually, emergencies are dealt with much faster,” argued Chat.

“Can you take that chance?” Tikki looked at him with utter concern in her big blue eyes. Chat Noir lowered his gaze.

“No,” he said in defeat. Then he looked at Tikki again. “I’ll look after her. The cabin should have some blankets, and it’s much warmer than outside.” He saw the wee Goddess of Creation finally curl her lips into a smile and he held Marinette more safely in his arms, bridal style.

“S-so c-cold—” muttered Marinette in his arms, shivering like a leaf. That was the final incentive. Chat Noir grabbed his baton and used it to propel himself forward, trying to reach the cabin as quickly as possible.

oOoOoOoOoOo

“Claws in,” said Adrien as he placed Marinette carefully on the small sofa in the cabin. He made to look for a blanket into the cabinet near the heating system, but as he was walking towards it, Plagg zoomed in front of his face.

“CHEESE!” he demanded.

Adrien raised an eyebrow. “You’ve eaten it all earlier, Plagg. How big is your stomach exactly?”

“You have no idea!” whined the wee black furball, but Adrien didn’t give him any more attention. He opened the press and started rummaging for a blanket, which he found almost immediately. He walked straight back to Marinette and made to wrap her under the blanket.

“That won’t be enough, Adrien,” said Tikki, flying in front of him and stopping him. “You will only make the blanket wet.”

“What do you mean? She’s cold, she needs to be covered up.”

Tikki kept her tiny body between the blanket and Marinette. “You need to take her clothes off. She can’t warm up wearing freezing wet clothes.”

“WHAT?” Adrien's face flushed the color of Ladybug’s suit. “Tikki, I-I c-can’t undress her!”

Tikki gave him a scrutinous look and frowned. “Why? You have two perfectly functional arms and hands. You can certainly take her clothes off.”

“I-I’M A BOY!”

“And she’s a girl who could die of hypothermia!” Plagg appeared munching a crumb of cheese he must have found somewhere in the room, and floated next to Tikki, giving him an amused stare. He folded his tiny paws on his chest and added scornfully, “Who cares if you’re a boy, a girl or even a dog?”

“B-B-B-B-U-T…” Adrien started breathing heavily. “She’s going to kill me!”

“I don’t think so,” said Tikki and Plagg continued, “You need to do it or she will die. I’m sure she will be grateful, gamin.”

“C-cold…” muttered Marinette from the couch. He dashed to her to check if she had woken up — but no, she was still unconscious, probably talking in her sleep. God, she was so pale, she was still shivering badly, her teeth were a constant chattering and her lips were blue. He touched her hands, and they were pieces of ice.

He took a big breath. “O-okay,” he said and started taking her coat off, and then her black blazer, and put everything on the ground next to the small sofa. When she was left in her bra and underwear, he gulped and hesitated.

“Would this be enough?” he asked, looking at his two small companions with a fearful frown. To keep himself occupied he started drying her skin with a dry towel. She was still shivering.

“Would you like to sleep with freezing wet underwear on?” asked Plagg in response.

No, he wouldn’t. But… he couldn’t possibly justify. No, he couldn’t. He ran a hand through his hair and thought carefully of the situation, scratching firmly the nape of his neck. He tried to gain some time by picking a towel and starting to dry her hair. He suddenly realised that she was still having her hair combed into her pigtails, so he put the towel down to take off the elastic bands that held them together.

Shoot. He’d never thought that it would be that hard to detangle elastic bands from wet hair. He felt her wincing as he gave the elastic a firm push and took it off. Quite a few strands of hair came off with it—he felt terrible, but he picked up the towel and carried on drying her hair for a few moments, trying to take away most of the wetness.

He still had the other problem, the wet underwear, which he didn’t want to remove. At least not without her being covered. Wait, that’s it! His face brightened and his lips curled in a triumphant smile, as he’d just had an idea and it could really work. He picked up the blanket and placed it on the now soaking wet leather sofa. Then he quickly dashed to the cabinet and got another blanket, which he wrapped around Marinette’s body. Good, now that she was covered, he breathed easier. He moved her towards him and put his hands inside the blanket, starting to fiddle with the little hooks on her bra. Finally, after some effort he managed to open it up and take it off, with some struggle (he was trying to prevent the blanket from falling off as he did so). Then, he picked up a smaller towel and passed it blindly on her wet skin to dry it, making sure that he wasn’t touching anything inappropriate with his bare hands. But as he proceeded to move to the other piece of lingerie that was left on her, he stared at his hands, literally shaking.

“Told you he was useless, Sugarcube,” muttered Plagg from somewhere behind him, his voice full of mockery and mischief. Adrien turned his head to glare at this little friend.

“I’m not,” he argued.

“You are,” argued back Plagg. “Take that piece of fabric off already. You covered her, right? You won’t see anything.”

Adrien sucked his breath in. His heart was in his throat right now. He moved his hands underneath the blanket and had to run them on her body trying to find the border of her knickers. Oh God, she was so cold! When he found the underwear, he pulled it off, let it fall on the floor on top of the other clothes and gave even that part a blind and very quick drying.

When he let even the towel slip on the floor, he breathed better, his head resting against the blanket that wrapped Marinette. Thank God, that bit was done. He thought he was going to die! He carefully let go of Marinette and placed her on top of the blanket he had wrapped on the sofa.

“Good, about time,” muttered Plagg. Again, the wee black furball zipped in front of his nose and looked at him, a gleam of mockery shining through his electric green eyes. “Now it’s your turn.”

Adrien gave Plagg the most confused look ever. “Huh?”

“Adrien,” said Tikki moving next to Plagg, as her little paw touched Adrien’s cheek. “Marinette needs body heat. You need to undress and get under that blanket with her, and hug her until she warms up.”

His heart stopped. “I NEED TO DO WHAT?” he squealed, his eyes as big as saucers as he looked at Tikki in pure and utter terror. "She's naked, Tikki!"

“Come on, you’ve always wanted to do this. Take your clothes off and cuddle her already!” Plagg snorted.

Tikki blinked and then rolled her eyes. “Stinkysock! You’ve got no tact, at all.”

“It's not a question of tact. I know him, Sugarcube. If we let him take his time, Pigtails is going to freeze to death.” Plagg snorted again. “Gamin, come on. Man up and do your job. You want to protect her, right?”

“Adrien, please. The longer you wait the worse Marinette will get. Do it for me. Or for h—”

“—or for whomever. As long as you do it. Her lips are getting bluer than Duusu.”

Adrien gave them a pleading look. Then he gulped, looked at Marinette’s blue lips, shivering limbs and pale complexion and gave them another pleading look.

“Please, Adrien, we would do it ourselves if we could, but we’re too small!”

Adrien whimpered, but his hands started working their way to his coat. He took his coat off and his skin was greeted with the cold temperature of the cabin. God, it was freezing! Did the heater even work? He hadn’t turned it off before getting out of the cabin, it had been on all day! He proceeded to take off his overshirt, and then his black t-shirt. He shivered.

“Ugh!” he muttered and folded his arms around his chest, trying to warm up. The heater was at full heat, he noted, but the cabin was still freezing.

“Come on!” ordered Plagg. Adrien glared at him, but stood up and took his jeans off. Uh, bloody hell, he had goosebumps!

“What are you waiting for, Christmas?” asked Plagg when Adrien had been left with only his boxers to cover him. Adrien forced himself to get out of his self-induced panic and slipped into the blanket, shaky hands reaching the body of the girl of his dreams and pulling her close.

She. Was. A. Piece. Of. Ice! Oh God!!

He gasped so loudly that Tikki flew near him and looked at him with a frown.

“Are you okay?” she asked worriedly.

“Just being spineless,” spurted Plagg mockingly, gaining another glare from his chosen.

“She’s so cold!” whimpered Adrien, but forced himself to embrace her firmly with his arms and squeezed her against his chest. He wrapped his body around her, trying to keep contact with as much of her skin as possible. His hands started rubbing her back and arms, trying to create heat from friction.

Slowly, very slowly, so slowly that for a while he thought that Tikki and Plagg had been mistaken and he really should have taken her to the hospital, Marinette began warming up. As she warmed up, the rigidity in her limbs faded and without waking up, she started hugging him back.

When he realised that Marinette was finally warm and out of danger of hypothermia, Adrien detangled himself from her hold and let himself fall off the front of the sofa.

“Are you hurt?” asked Plagg, looking at him with no real concern from the cushion he had placed himself.

“No,” answered Adrien, “Marinette isn’t frozen anymore. I want to find some clothes to change her into. You know, to prevent her from killing me when she wakes up.” He shivered as the freezing cold of the cabin hit his bare skin, but he proceeded towards the wardrobe.

Plagg sighed and shook his head. “I told you way too many times that you worry too much, gamin. Sleep and when she wakes up she can dress herself!”

“At least a t-shirt, come on…” muttered Adrien chattering his teeth. He rummaged among the spare photoshoot clothes that were left in the cabin — sometimes a t-shirt or a pair of trousers didn’t fit the ensemble and had to be changed. There was no lingerie (and if there had been, Adrien wouldn’t even have touched it. Ew!), but after a quick scan, he finally emerged from the pile holding an XXL t-shirt that he would easily be able to put on Marinette. It was so oversized that he was sure it would cover enough of her minute figure to make it safe. It wasn’t really nice to look at, but it was something.

He approached Marinette and lifted her head softly to put the neck hole of the t-shirt on. Then he proceeded to put one of her arms in the arm hole, and as he was doing that he noticed that Marinette had opened her eyes. Blood drained from his face.

“Mhhhhh,” she murmured, and drifted off back to sleep instantly. Adrien breathed a sigh of relief. He finished to fit her arm on the t-shirt and then moved her slightly to put on her other arm, making sure that the blanket was covering Marinette’s chest. When the t-shirt was on, he pulled it down and admired his work. Yes, it was reasonably okay, the t-shirt was covering her enough.Of course she was still naked underneath it, but at least it was one layer to separate her from… him. With one firm movement, he buried himself again underneath the blanket, and as if she’d been there waiting for it, Marinette wrapped herself around him again subconsciously.

Soon after that, Adrien’s adrenaline rush dissipated. Marinette was finally warm and soft against his body and the smell of coconut and wildflower coming from her hair hit his nostrils. Her regular breathing was tickling the crook of his neck, and he found himself gently stroking her hair, the only part of her body that was still a bit damp, and cold. Her hug had grown stronger as her temperature raised, and now she was holding him tightly.

It was becoming always more difficult for him to keep his eyes open. He hadn’t thought about it as he panicked trying to rescue her, but the run and the manic CPR session, had really taken a toll on him, even if he’d been transformed. Add to that the long day in school and the even longer afternoon posing for the photoshoot—Adrien was exhausted. He placed a light kiss on her forehead.

“Mhhhhh, me and you against the world, mon Chaton,” she murmured in his ear.

His heart started racing as a smile curled his lips. He grabbed one of her hands, tugged around his waist, and placed a kiss on her knuckles.

“Always, My Lady,” he whispered before drifting off to sleep.

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

Marinette didn’t know what had woken her up. Maybe it was the silence that was wrapping all around her? Or maybe it was how much lighter the room she was sleeping in was compared with her usual bedroom? Maybe was it how warm and comfortable she was feeling, as if… um… wrapped in a tight hug? Or maybe the tickling sensation of… what was that, hair, near her nostrils? There was also that lovely smell of lemon mixed with what (she gave it a good sniff) smelled like… lavender? Maybe even something else? Uh, that’s a really pleasant smell. She was in the middle of giving it another sniff and deciding whether it was a good idea to open her eyes or not when she heard a ‘crash’ sound, as if something had hit the ceiling of the room she was sleeping in.

Her eyes instantly shot open and her gut feeling screamed ‘akuma alert’. She fumbled to her bedside table for her phone to check the news, and that’s when her senses were hit with the realisation that something was wrong. First, she couldn’t find her bedside table. Second, now that she opened her eyes, she didn’t recognise the room. She looked around and it appeared as if she was in a sort of… changing room? That or the person who owned the room had more clothes than Chloé Bourgeois. Nope. That would be impossible.

Where was she? Last thing she remembered was… uh, her head hurt, she couldn’t actually remember what was the last thing she remembered.

What was this place? The more she looked around the less she recognised where she was. But it was only when she focused in front of her nose that she realised that the beautiful smell of lemon and lavender that had hit her nostrils when she woke up was coming from a blond mop of hair positioned just under her nose.

A very… familiar blond mop of hair.

And as she moved her nose just mere centimeters on the right, an even more familiar smell hit her nostrils. The stench of Camembert. Uggghhh… she wrinkled her nose and moved her face to the left, not before giving a good look at the cause of the offending smell.

Plagg. Plagg was sleeping on the top of a very familiar mop of blond hair. Of a boy. A blond boy with Plagg on his head. Sleeping. Wrapped around her.

Wrapped. Around. Her.

With his face buried in her chest.

Chat Noir.

Marinette was sure that her face had become redder than her Ladybug suit. Oh my God, what was the silly cat thinking? Her heart pounded madly in her chest just underneath his ear as she mentally listed all the different ways she could skin the cat alive for using her chest as a pillow. But suddenly, a second, even scarier, realisation hit. She eyed yet again the sleeping Plagg to her right.

A detransformed Chat Noir.

Marinette felt her breath catching. This was a DISASTER!

But she couldn’t think of the consequences and about all the catastrophic scenarios that were coming to her mind. She couldn’t think of a single way to get out of the situation without discovering his identity. She couldn’t even think of why he was sleeping with Plagg on his head so tightly snuggled with her that she hardly had room to breathe. Because, suddenly, an even louder ‘crash’ shook the room like an earthquake, followed by a couple of extremely loud bangs, and the boy’s head shot up. Marinette didn’t manage to close her eyes on time, terrified as she also was of the new abrupt sound. Did the ceiling seem like it had gotten lower, by any chance? She totally forgot to close her eyes.

And, that very moment, her heart stopped. Sitting up in front of her, half naked, hair messed up and all crooked on the side he had been leaning on her, which also displayed a slightly pinker cheek (probably, again, because he had been leaning on her), his eyes still nearly closed... but still lighting up the whole room like a ray of sunshine, was Adrien Agreste.

THAT Adrien Agreste. The love of her life. Was… Chat Noir?

MERDE! Marinette brought both hands to her mouth and let out a little, almost unhearable squeaky sound as she gasped and lost the ability to breathe.

“Wh-what’s going on?” said the boy at the same time, looking around, still rubbing his eyes, half asleep. As he said so, an even louder bang resounded around and the ceiling of the room on top of them lowered considerably and whatever light was lighting up the room suddenly went out, leaving them in a much darker atmosphere. Adrien jerked a little and looked up, his eyes growing wide.

A black furball zipped out of his hair, flew out of the ceiling and then came back in, eventually stopping straight in front of his nose. “Two big trees and a smaller one have fallen on the cabin. They’re covered in snow and very heavy, I suppose. The top of the cabin looks damaged, gamin,” said Plagg.

“Shoot!” he muttered under his breath, his eyes looking pointedly at the ceiling over them. “That’s no good, Plagg. What if the cabin can’t hold the weight? Is it still snowing?”

“Yep,” said Plagg popping the p. “Quite badly, too.” Then his electric green eyes darted towards her and she could clearly see his ears going flat on his head as he added, “Actually, Adrien, I think we have a bit of a more urgent matter at hand.”

“What can be more urgent than the ceiling threatening to fall on our head?” said Adrien, his eyes still glued to the ceiling and completely ignoring Plagg who was smiling nervously at her and trying to get his attention to point down in her direction.

“I really think you should take a loo—” started saying Plagg, but Adrien interrupted him and said, “Maybe I can transform and Cataclysm the cabin?”

At that, Plagg stopped trying to get his attention and frowned, crossing his paws on his little chest. “And tell me, genius, if you do that, what is going to stop the trees from collapsing on you? Remember that your Cataclysm is very limited and can only destroy the first thing it gets in contact with, unlike mine. Besides, that window is too small for you to get out of and... I haven’t eaten enough cheese to transform you again.”

“All right,” Adrien put a hand to his forehead and kept thinking. “Maybe… maybe then you can get out of the cabin and Cataclysm the trees!”

Plagg raised an eyebrow. “Adrien, if I was using my Cataclysm, the whole of Europe would be a distant memory. My Cataclysm made the dinosaurs and the dragons go extinct and submerged the continent of Atlantis.”

“Oh,” said Adrien with a little gasp. “But that time with Gorizilla—” he started, but Plagg interrupted him, “First of all, that time I had to work very hard to contain myself. Second, working through tarmac is very different from working through mere trees. Last thing I want is to kill you and your precious Lady Love with my index finger. Third, I knew that the Miraculous Cure would have fixed any extra damage I could have caused, since it was an akuma attack.”

Adrien lowered his gaze, looking defeated. “I see,” he muttered to himself.

“Besides,” continued Plagg. He gave her a look. A little smirk appeared on his lips and he (on purpose now, she was sure of that) avoided mentioning the fact that she was awake. “Pigtails is sick and half naked,” he seemed to be slurring the last two words a bit more than needed. Marinette’s gaze went instantly to her body. Her eyes widened in shock when she noticed finally that the clothes she was wearing were different than the ones she remembered putting on. She was thinking that she had never seen that t-shirt, when the kwami continued, “There’s a blizzard out there. Her clothes on the floor are still soaking wet, as they were when you took them off earlier…”

Wait—WHAT? Marinette sucked her breath in. She glanced at the floor and felt all blood rushing to her face when she noticed her clothes folded neatly in a little pile next to the couch they were lying on.

Including her bra. And her knickers.

More blood rushed to her face. “WHAT?” she said in a choked whisper. Adrien’s gaze went instantly from Plagg to her, and she covered herself with her arms, although she had seen very clearly that she had a t-shirt on.

“U-uh, Marinette. You’re awake,” he muttered, his face blooming red as his hand went to the back of his neck and his gaze fell. She had never seen such a sheepish, guilty look on either Adrien or Chat Noir.

“Yeeeees,” said Plagg with a little smirk, his paws firmly crossed on his chest. “That’s what I was trying to tell you when you kept worrying about the ceiling.”

“Aaaadrien?” she muttered, still unable to put one coherent thought after the next, as her head felt dizzy and full of cotton. She was starting to have a splitting headache that made it very very hard to concentrate. But she wouldn’t let him get away with it. Nope. No, sir. “Ch-Chat Noir?” she continued to mutter, her voice trembling at every word. When he nodded very slowly, she looked at her clothes on the floor and frowned. “W-what happened?”

There must be a very rational explanation for this. She was sure that there must be. Anything other than thinking of the fact that he was half naked (uh, Marinette, even in her panicked state, couldn’t help giving a quick glance at the abs. Those abs she had been dreaming about for quite a long time. Ok, Marinette, forget the abs. Although they’re gorgeous abs. Forget the abs!) and that her clothes were on the ground and Plagg was saying that… “You’ve taken... my clothes off?”

Adrien’s shade of red deepened. She had never seen his face that colour. This was bad. Very, very bad.

“Marinette!” something red zoomed in front of her face before Adrien could say another word. “You’re okay, I’m so glad you’re okay!” Tikki hugged her cheek and placed a soft kiss on it, breaking her escalation of panic. She patted the head of her little friend absent-mindedly, until she opened again her eyes wide and a further jolt of panic went through her core. Her gaze and whole face snapped towards the red kwami.

“TIKKI! WHAT? Why? A-adrien… oh God, C-chat Noir. You. Plagg. M-my clothes. What’s going oooooon?” Her brain couldn’t process more than one or two-word sentences right now. She moved her fists to her temples and closed her eyes shut, curling up a little into herself and hiding her face behind her clenched fists.

“Marinette, calm down!” said Tikki, but Marinette moved her fists from her face and opened her eyes to give her little friend a pointed look.

“How can I calm down, Tikki? Our identities are... He… NAKED? He’s TAKEN MY CLOTHES OFF? He was SLEEPING ON TOP OF ME? And I should stay calm? Calm you say?” She started breathing very heavily and her voice raised a whole octave as she continued, “I’m very calm. So calm. I’m as calm as I can be. Can’t be calmer than this. Do you see how calm I am right now? Look at me, I’m the IMAGE of calm. I’m smiling. I’m good. So very go—” She stopped uttering that avalanche of words when Plagg zipped to her face and looked at her straight in the eyes, but her breath started catching so much that she began feeling dizzy.

“It’s not his fault!” started Plagg, at the same time as Tikki said, “You were dying!” They kept rambling on and on talking on the top of one another and making it hard for Marinette to understand what they were saying, she could discern something about “lake” and “drowning” and… was that “resuscitated”? Did Tikki say “Hypothermia”? Something about “freezing wet clothes” being dangerous, too.

OK. Maybe the situation wasn’t as bad as she had pictured it to be. Maybe she should give the cat the benefit of the doubt? After all, she trusted Chat Noir with her life every day. And besides, he was Adrien, and Adrien was… She eyed him for a second as her cheeks blushed crimson and noticed that he was looking very uncomfortable and uneasy, too.

“All right, all right,” she said with a loud sigh, closing her eyes and putting her hands up to calm down the two kwamis. She hadn’t been a Guardian for long, but she had already experienced quite a lot of little arguments like these among the kwamis in the Miracle Box. She knew by now that, celestial creatures with immense powers or not, most of the time they behaved like three year olds. “Can you two please stop rambling and someone explain to me what happened a bit more clearly?

“You fell in the lake,” intervened Adrien grabbing her hand. She felt even more blood rushing to her face at the contact and tried to jerk her hand away, but he kept strong hold of it and didn’t allow her. “Tikki arrived asking me for help. I had no choice, I had to save you, M’lady.” His face lit like a lightbulb up to his neck as his hold on her hand grew stronger.

“What exactly did you do, chaton, to get this flustered?” she asked. So he had saved her. A sudden overwhelming feeling of gratitude invaded her soul. She now vaguely remembered skating on the lake, the ice breaking, the waters swallowing her, the freezing cold, trying to transform, Tikki flying away, her getting her head out of the water again and holding onto some ice for as long as she could, until she couldn’t even feel her arms and her legs any more and the world became dark, the feeling of drowning… He looked so embarrassed now. She’d never seen him so red in the face.

“Uh, I had to do, C-CPR,” he muttered so quietly that she had to really concentrate to hear what he said. Her eyes widened.

Oh.

OH.

She knew that he had had to do it, because she was drowning. She knew that she was alive now because he had done it. She also knew that it wasn’t really a kiss. But… but… She couldn’t help her face turning crimson. Her hands ran to her very hot-feeling cheeks as she sucked her breath in and her fingertips involuntarily rubbed her lips.

“Y-you would’ve died if I hadn’t—” he started to say, but he stopped when her gaze met his.

“I know,” she whispered.

He breathed easier. “I-I wanted to take you to the hospital, but Nadja Chamack on the news said that there were up to four hours queue to be registered and I didn’t know how long it would have taken to them to look after you, even as an emergency, and my phone had died and I didn’t know where the closer hospital was and Tikki and Pl—”

She put a finger on his mouth to stop him from carrying on with the very Marinette-ish and so-very-unlike-Adrien word vomit. He looked so much on tenterhooks, and that gave her a warm feeling inside.

“So you brought me here?” she asked. He nodded. “What place is this? I’ve never seen it before.” She looked around once more.

“My father was having a photoshoot for our new ski line here on Lac Daumesnil. This is the cabin arranged as a changing room. I was waiting for the Gorilla to pick me up when Tikki arrived.” He sighed. “I wonder what happened to him. He should definitely be here by now.”

Marinette lifted herself up with her elbows and felt that her legs were stuck. She tried to pull them towards her and saw him shifting. She suddenly realised that his legs had been firmly intertwined with hers. New colour rushed to her cheeks as she finally managed to sit up.

“I see,” she muttered and looked around. It was a little crowded with clothes and now that she was far from his body heat, the cold of the room attacked her like a splash of freezing water on warm skin. And that ceiling looked worryingly damaged. It was actually creaking. And… did she see some pieces of… concrete fall off the side? It didn’t look good at all! “I-it’s c-cold,” she admitted, embracing herself with her arms and starting to shiver. Then she noticed again the oversized t-shirt she was wearing. She had never seen it before and was suddenly extremely aware of her clothes piled up on the floor near the couch where they were now sitting. She lifted the thin fabric with her index and thumb and gave it a pointed look, moving her gaze then to him.

When blue met forest green, he crouched a little over himself, undoubtedly trying to disappear — or at least become smaller — and putting his hands in front of him, in a defensive pose. “I-I had to undress you.” He must have heard the loud gasp she uttered, because his face became even redder and his Marinette-ish word vomit started again: “I-I… your clothes were wet and freezing. Plagg said you had hypothermia and I had to warm you up. I.. didn’t see anything. I wrapped you up with a blanket. I swear! When you warmed up, I looked for something to put on you and found that t-shirt. Sorry if it’s big and ugly, but… it was something I could put on you without, you know, seeing anything.”

This made a warm smile pop back on Marinette’s lips. She raised an eyebrow in pure amusement and crossed her arms on her chest. “So you’re telling me that Chat Noir got his Lady naked and he didn’t… peek at all?” She put a hand on her mouth and giggled a little noticing how much redder he’d become. But her reaction seemed to calm him down a little and after flushing redder than her suit, he dared peek at her. To emphasise the fact that she was joking she eyed him even more cunningly and moved closer to him, invading his personal space and giving him a look full of mockery, her lips now curled up into an amused little smirk. “Mmmmmmmmh?”

That seemed to make the trick, because Adrien relaxed visibly and started playing his part. He pouted (uh, she had never realised how totally adorable Chat Noir was when he pouted… or was it because the mask was missing? Nope. He was adorable even with it, she had secretly thought that many times before, but had always shrugged it off!) and raised a hand to his (naked. And totally gorgeous) chest.

“You wound me, M’lady,” he started. “I’m a gentlecat, I would never take advantage of a Lady in distress.” He leaned towards her, his face mere millimeters from hers, eyes sparkling mischievously as his lips curled in an innocent-looking smile. An expression she had seen so many times in her fun-loving partner that all masks and quantum energy barriers fell in her mind and she finally could see with painful certainty that Chat Noir and Adrien were just one and the same. How on Earth could she have been this blind?

She let muscle memory work for her and instinctively reached for his chin, scratching him affectionately like she did with her partner and nearly missing the presence of a bell to flick. She matched the soft look in his forest green eyes with her own. “Good chaton. I wouldn’t have expected any less from you.” She leaned in closer and placed a quick, feather-light peck on his lips, her heart racing in her chest for her daring move, her face feeling suddenly even warmer than it had ever been.

His eyes shot open and all that came out of his mouth was an incoherent, “Uuh?” Marinette giggled and gave him what she hoped was a flirty look.

“Well, this gentlecat deserved a reward, right?”

To that, his expression changed to the most Chat Noir-esque look she had ever seen on Adrien’s face, his eyebrow raised, his lips curled in a Cheshire grin. “Was that all, then, M’lady, or did you have more in your mind?” He leaned in closer and wrapped both arms around her, his arms resting firmly on the small of her back. Marinette still felt very dizzy, but she wasn’t sure if it was because the love of her life was finally flirting with her or for some other reason. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her forehead on his, unsure of what to do next. But as she did that, she saw Adrien’s face darkening.

“What’s wrong, chaton?” she asked warily.

He pulled back and placed a hand on her forehead, his expression now one of concern. “Wow, Marinette, you’re boiling.” He panicked a little and got up from the couch, starting to look around the room in a manic frenzy.

As soon as he left her side a cold feeling attacked her legs. She picked up the blanket that had been wrapped around them both and snuggled up underneath it, before whispering, “If you keep walking around like that, Adrien, my temperature will rise even more, you know. And not from a fever…”

He stopped, looked at himself and then at her, grinning from ear to ear. “Why, M’lady… I’m not much different than I have always been jumping around town in a skintight cat-suit. Starting to realise a little what you’ve been missing out on?” He winked at her and then seemed to have found what he was looking for as he picked it up triumphantly—the first aid kit. He started rummaging into it.

‘More than a little,’ thought Marinette, fanning her face. Then she noticed the surprise in his eyes. “Uh, did I say that aloud?” she asked. He nodded and it was her turn to crouch over herself trying to disappear. “Oh, God…” she muttered to herself, wishing the ground to open up and swallow her whole.

He walked back to her and sat on the couch next to her, without losing his surprised frown, but then he looked at her and coughed politely. “Okay. I’m dying to ask what you meant, but,” he said, revealing a thermometer in his hand, “I think this is more important now. Be a good bug and put this in your mouth.” He put the small glass stick near her lips. “Paw-lease?” he asked again, grinning. She instantly rolled her eyes, which made him giggle a bit, but opened her mouth enough to allow him to put the thermometer in. He smiled and patted the top of her head with his hand. “Good. Now maybe it’s better if I put some clothes on,” he said to himself. Marinette pouted, flipping the thermometer downwards. The detail must have caught his eye because he looked at her and braced himself. “It’s just so cold here.”

She kept the pout on her face, but she noticed the goosebumps on his arms and legs, so with her heart in her ears and gulping awkwardly she moved a shaky arm to lift the blanket that wrapped her and patted the couch next to her with the other hand. Then, she held her breath looking at him again.

“A-are you sure?” he said, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

She gulped again, but nodded. “Mh-h.”

He still looked quite stunned, but didn’t wait for her to change her mind and joined her under the blanket.

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

“Oh my, M’lady, 39.3!” Adrien looked very carefully at the little mercury column that displayed the temperature through the glass stick. He cupped a hand on her forehead and looked up. “That’s very high, especially considering that you were a block of ice only a little while back.” He eyed her with concern and made to get out of his spot on the couch, but Marinette snuggled up to his chest and firmly resisted his attempt to move.

“I’m so cold,” she whispered, her teeth chattering.

He smiled softly. “Your body’s very warm, Marinette, but probably you’re cold because of the temperature. If you let me, I think I saw some paracetamol tablets in the first aid kit over there.” He pointed at the little box he had taken the thermometer from earlier, but Marinette’s hold on his chest grew stronger.

“Stay,” she whispered, burying her face deep in his chest. His cheeks tinged in pink and his eyes widened, but after a minute, his gaze softened and he rested his chin on the top of her head.

“All right, Buginette. I’m not going anywhere.” He could feel her temperature going up from her forehead resting against his chest and he would have wanted to reach the first aid kit for getting those tablets. But Marinette was holding on to him as if he was her last safety anchor. He couldn’t leave her like that. He really couldn’t. So when he felt her arms wrapping firmly around his back, he sighed in defeat and relaxed into her hold. If this was a dream, please don’t wake him up.

He had just closed his eyes and rested his chin on the top of her head, feeling with worry how warm her forehead was against his throat, when he felt something tapping him near his right hand. His eyes shot open and he looked in the direction of the nudge he had felt; Tikki and Plagg both were floating near his arm. Plagg held in his paws the box of paracetamol Adrien had wanted to get from the first aid kid and Tikki was holding a glass full of water..

“There, gamin,” said Plagg as Tikki continued, “no need to panic.”

He smiled brightly. “Thank you guys! Where did you find the water?”

Tikki giggled and chirped, “A kwami has her ways!”

With a little difficulty, since Marinette was leaning heavily against him, he picked up the paracetamol tablets and the glass and moved slightly Marinette, trying to loosen up her hold enough to make her take the medicine. She just hugged him tighter.

“Come on, Marinette, just two tablets and a drop of water. Do it for me,” he muttered as he tried to push her back a little. She looked really red in the face and her body felt like boiling in his hands. Her breath was also catching quickly and when she opened her eyes briefly to swallow some water to take the tablets, they looked red and puffy. She did smile though when she sipped the fresh water. “Good girl,” he commented and she wrapped her extremely warm arms around his neck and looked at him with glassy eyes. Adrien wasn’t sure whether she was seeing him for real or if she was just being hallucinated by the fever.

“I love you, mon chaton,” she whispered.

Adrien’s heart skipped a beat, his eyes widening in shock. “W-what?” he muttered to himself. She wrapped herself closer to him and rubbed her head against his chest.

“Mhh-hm.” She sighed contently. “For… forever,” she continued, her voice hoarse, her words all slurred.

An adrenaline rush ran through his body as she said so. His heart was pounding in his throat. “But… the o-other boy?” he inquired, his throat instantly drying up.

“Adrien,” she whispered sluggishly.

“Yeah?” he whispered back and his breath caught up because she started drawing small circles on his chest with her index finger and the sole feeling of that was giving him goosebumps.

“‘Twas Adrien,” she repeated again, even more sluggishly.

Him? The boy she loved was really him without the mask? Just his luck! Having spent all that time being in competition with himself. How many people could say that? He opened his mouth to reply, but when he looked at her he noticed that she had fallen asleep. The hand that was tracing his chest was now lying limp on her lap, her head comfortably leaning on his chest, just over his heart, a cute smile curling her lips.

He spent a long time looking at her, at the elegant curve of her jaw blending with the slender length of her neck, at how her mouth was adorably slightly open and her cheek became even pinker where it leaned on him. She was sleeping so peacefully that he didn’t want to move, in fear she would wake up; so he just sat a little better, legs crossed on the bed, wrapped the blanket securely around them and rested his chin on her head, trying to find a comfortable position.

He didn’t know how long he sat there, in a half asleep stupor, but his torpor was suddenly disturbed by a loud beating at the door. Marinette jumped in his arms. He quickly checked her temperature by placing a quick kiss on her forehead and realised that she was much cooler now. She was still asleep, though, even if some more bangs resounded from the same direction.

Very carefully, Adrien detangled from Marinette and laid her down on the couch, covering her with the blanket, and then moved closer to the door, suddenly embracing himself and shivering from the cold.

“Who’s there?” he said when he was behind the door of the cabin. A loud grunt resounded from the other end, making him understand that it must have been the Gorilla. At bloody last! He heard somebody on the other side of the door starting to bang at the door. He saw the door’s handle going up and down, but another loud groan told Adrien that the Gorilla couldn’t get in.

“Hang on, let me help you,” he shouted, and started pulling on his side of the handle, with no success. Shoot. He looked up and it was clear what had happened, now that he thought about it. The ceiling of the cabin had gone so low that the door hinges had collapsed. The metal structure of the door looked bent and not even a man as strong as the Gorilla was able to move it an inch.

“The door is stuck!” he shouted to his bodyguard. He heard some more rummaging on the other side and ran to the window to see if he could see anything. The Gorilla was trying to lift one of the trees that had fallen on top of the cabin. God, they looked so big and heavy! And so covered in snow. As his bodyguard was trying to lift one, Adrien heard a cracking sound inside the cabin and saw some fragments of mortar and debris fall to the ground. The Gorilla pulled a bit harder and a further loud crack resounded eerily in the cabin.

“It’s not working, you’re making it worse!” he said, trying to stop the Gorilla and prevent further damage. He swore that he had seen the ceiling lowering even further. The Gorilla walked to the window and exchanged a worried look with him. Adrien put a hand to his ear, mimicking a phone and then drew a cross with his hand, trying to signal that his mobile phone was dead. The imposing man took his own phone out of his pocket and messed with it, undoubtedly trying to send a text message from the look of it. But after a few seconds of skimming through things aimlessly, he sighed and signalled “no” with his hand.

Shoot! Was there no signal? Had the storm caused damage to the telephone line somewhere? He heard more desperate bangs coming from outside. “Can you hear me? It’s not working!” said Adrien as more debris fell to the ground. His bodyguard returned to the window, giving him a nod full of what looked like sadness and frustration. Good, at least he could hear him, he didn’t need to get creative with signals any longer. “You need to go look for help. I’m not alone here, I had to help a friend who had an accident earlier and she’s stuck in here with me now. She’s very sick and her phone is broken. We have no food that I could find!”

The Gorilla signed something that Adrien knew meant, ‘Are you okay?’

He nodded decisively and leaned closer to the window to say, “Yes, I am, but the cabin is very damaged. I don’t know how long it will resist. The electricity is gone. It’s really cold. Please go find help!” Gorilla shook his head but Adrien clasped his hands in a prayer gesture. “Please! You won’t be able to get us out by yourself!” He scratched his head. “I think I remember seeing some houses not too far from the park. Maybe you can get there and bang at someone’s door and ask for help? There should be some mobile signal there too, so maybe you can call Nathalie.” After a few more head shakes in protest and begging from Adrien on the other side, finally the Gorilla gave in. He closed his eyes, nodded and put a hand in front of himself, as if telling him ‘All right, I'll do it.’

“Thank you!” said Adrien with a sigh. “Would you be able to find any sweets or pieces of Camembert cheese while you’re there?” Adrien clearly saw the man closing his eyes and lowering his head in the closest imitation of a facepalm he had ever seen him making. And was that a sigh? “Wait!” he added stopping the man in his tracks before he could turn around and leave. “We also have a bit of a… situation here.” He brought his hand to his nape. “Don’t ask please, but my friend Marinette needs clothes. Uh… underwear possibly.”

The man’s gaze clearly hardened, he raised an eyebrow and gave a curt, long stare at Adrien, his eyes navigating allegedly on his naked torso. Adrien felt all blood rushing to his face. “Nonononono, you’ve got it all wrong. She fell in the lake. I had to help her or she would die. I’ll tell you later, but now she’s sick and her clothes are all wet.” He gave his bodyguard the most pleading puppy eyed look he could get himself to come up with. “PLEASE!” Again he put his hands in together in prayer, right in front of his face. He saw the man keeping on thinking about it, his hand still firmly on his chin, his eyebrow still raised in scepticism. But eventually, he signalled again and nodded. He made a gesture signifying ‘later’ and walked away. Adrien breathed easier.

oOoOoOoOoOo

“Adrien? Is that you?” came Marinette’s voice from the couch.

“Who else?” he asked walking back there. He kept embracing himself and looked sheepishly at Marinette. “Do you mind if I put some clothes on? I’m freezing.” She chuckled a little and nodded shyly.

“Sorry, minou. Of course you can; I don’t want you to catch a cold.”

He smiled as he hurried to fetch his clothes from his own little pile on the floor. “Don’t think about it, it’s okay. It was warmer earlier, but the heater must have stopped working when the ceiling collapsed. We don’t seem to have any electricity.” When he had finally put some layers on to protect himself from the freezing temperature, he sat down again by the couch. They sat in silence for a while, both looking down with flushed faces.

“Were you talking to your bodyguard?” asked Marinette eventually, breaking the silence.

Adrien nodded. “Yes. He’s gone looking for help. He tried to move the trees fallen on top of the cabin but even he couldn’t move them, not even by an inch.”

“Shoot,” commented Marinette. “And Plagg was right earlier, there’s no point in you transforming and trying to Cataclysm the cabin.”

Adrien nodded again. “Yeah… I hadn’t thought about it carefully enough.”

“You never do,” came Plagg’s voice from his side.

Adrien pouted. “Cheers, Plagg...”

“Sorry, but it’s the truth, gamin. At least when you’re Chat Noir. Too often you act before connecting your brain to your mouth.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say, Plagg!” said Tikki, showing herself up from behind Marinette’s back. She grabbed Plagg and zipped away, leaving them some privacy.

Once again, an awkward silence wrapped around them. Adrien kept looking at Marinette, who was also glancing at him from time to time. His hand ran to the nape of his neck.

“Uh, about earlier,” started Marinette and at the same time, Adrien asked, “Talking about earlier…” They both stopped as they heard the other talking and blushed. “Please carry on,” they both said at the same time. “That is…” They both pouted and sighed.

“Okay,” finally managed to say Adrien, his blush darkening when he realised that she wasn’t going to talk with him. “Uh, what you said earlier, I was wondering if you remembered any of that at all.”

Marinette sucked her breath in and gave him a sheepish look. “W-what did I say earlier?”

His back tensed and he held his breath as he said it, slowly but surely, “That the other boy was… Adrien.” She paled and his eyes widened. “It’s true?”

She hid her face behind her hands and started uttering some undefined noises. However, after an interminable moment of doing that, she lowered her hands and locked her gaze into his, nodding shyly. She sucked her breath in when his eyes became as big as saucers and he lost the ability to breathe.

“Sorry,” she said. Her gaze fell and she pouted uncomfortably. “Sorry to disappoint you,” she added.

His heart skipped a beat. “What? Disappoint me? Oh no! I mean, it’s just—weird, I suppose. Just my luck. I was in… competition… with myself. Haha. Who else on Earth. I mean… yeah, cool. Honestly.” He laughed awkwardly and rubbed his neck, with his eyes closed as he didn’t feel able to look her in the face. Then he crouched over himself and hugged his arms, trying to disappear from the world. “I’m sorry if your image of Adrien is being crushed completely today. I… I’m not perfect. I’m just your partner, the clown.” He blushed and lowered his gaze.

Marinette sucked her breath in again. “You don’t need to be perfect, Adrien.” She smiled warmly when his eyes darted immediately to her face in surprise. “And I love your sense of humour, you know that.” They exchanged a soft look, then she lowered her gaze as she continued, “I suppose I’ve never told you how I fell in love with… the other boy, did I?” She saw him shaking his head, even if she was still looking down. Her lips curled up in a small smile and she hugged herself, her heart racing in her ears as she tried to find the courage to talk. “I-it was your first day at school and you gave me your umbrella.”

Adrien gulped awkwardly. “What? My first day?”

She looked up at him and nodded shyly. “Yeah.”

“I thought you hated me!” he muttered to himself.

She sighed. “I must say that at the beginning I wasn’t really impressed.” He pouted so she continued, “But that was on me, Adrien. I had let myself get carried away by my prejudices. You were a rich boy, model, gorgeous, friend of Chloé… I thought you would have been as much a bully as she is. And when I found you messing with chewing gum on my seat I just got that suspicion confirmed so… I didn’t give you a chance to explain and just judged you on that. It wasn’t nice of me, and I never even really apologised for it, so I’ll do it now. I’m so sorry for misjudging you that day.” She put a hand to her forehead. “I can’t believe I misjudged you twice.”

“Huh?” asked Adrien, giving her a pointed look.

“I misjudged Chat Noir too, you know. I thought for a really long time that you were just a clown, someone to not take seriously, and that you didn’t love me for real, that it was all part of an act.”

He paled. Did she really think that of him? “But—”

“Shhh,” she interrupted him, “I know it’s not the case. When you joined me on my balcony the day that André was akumatised into Glaciator, for the first time I discovered a side of Chat Noir that I had never seen before and I realised that maybe I had misjudged him. And slowly my feelings for my partner have grown so much. I learned to appreciate him and respect him. And to love him,” she added in a whisper.

Adrien gasped. “Say that again?”

“You heard well the first time,” said Marinette with a soft smile on her lips. “I love you, chaton. I was rejecting Chat Noir for Adrien but… slowly Chat Noir also stole a piece of my heart.” She smirked and eyed him in a flirty way as her elbow hit him lightly in the ribs. “You cheeky cat,” she added with a giggle.

He giggled as well. His hands reached her shoulders and his gaze locked instantly into hers. Marinette felt blood rushing to her face for the intensity of that look. “Can I kiss you?” he asked, his gaze trained on her, as if there was nothing else left in the world. His heart threatened to jump out of his ribcage when she nodded and smiled softly. Timidly, she cupped both hands around his cheeks and pulled his face forward until their lips met.

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

“Hello, Alya? Sorry to disturb you, dear. Can I talk to Marinette, please?” Alya’s eyes grew wide when she answered the phone. Lila had just gone to the toilet and this was the first time she could look at her messages or pick up her calls.

“I’m sorry, Madame Cheng, I haven’t seen her at all. I’ve been working on the history project all afternoon with Lila!”

Sabine gasped. “Oh, that’s very weird, dear. Marinette said that she was joining you and the girls at lake Daumesnil, to skate. She left hours ago.”

Alya’s heart started pounding as a knot twisted her insides. “I haven’t spoken to Marinette today.” She put the phone in loudspeaker and went to check her messages. “Last time I spoke to her was last night, to say sorry that I hadn’t been paired with her for the project.”

“This is really weird,” said Sabine. Her voice seemed to crack. “I have been trying to get in touch with Marinette for hours and her phone’s always been off. The storm is getting worse and…” Alya heard Sabine sniffling. “I can’t help being worried.”

The brunette walked to the window and looked outside. The snow had picked up really badly and the view was one of the most spectacularly beautiful she had ever seen. But also spectacularly scary, thinking that her best friend was somewhere out there, with no phone, and had been out for hours. What was going on, Marinette? Where was she?

“Don’t worry Madame Cheng. I will call the girls and see if Marinette is with one of them. Maybe she thought I was going to be there with them. I’ll call you back.”

Sabine sighed, “Thank you, Alya,” she said before hanging up.

Alya was dialling Mylène’s number when Lila came out of the toilet.

“Is everything okay?” inquired the Italian brunette. Alya nodded and signed to be quiet with her free hand.

“Mylène? Hi, it’s Alya. have you by any chance had any news of Marinette?” The second she mentioned Marinette’s name, Alya noticed that Lila’s lips curled into a smirk that didn’t bode any good, but the young reporter chose to park the thought and carry on with her conversation, especially when she heard the answer.

“No. I’ve been working at the history project with Ivan, all afternoon. Is she okay?”

The knot twisting Alya’s inside grew more painful. “Thank you. Don’t worry it’s okay. Maybe she’s at Juleka’s.”

“I don’t think so,” said Mylène, “Jules and Rose were going to work on the project too this afternoon. Alix and Max were also doing the same. And Luka is busy with his dad, so she can’t be with him either.”

“She told her mom that she was going with me and the girls to the lake,” said Alya, her voice now cracking with worry, her hand reaching her nape and starting to scratch it anxiously. “It’s so unusual of her to lie, especially to her mother.”

“Now you’re worrying me,” said Mylène. “I have definitely not heard anything from her all day since we left school.”

Alya sighed. “Okay, don’t worry, leave it to me. I’ll call Nino to see if he knows anything and maybe check on Adrien, although it’s unlikely she would be with him.”

“Nah, that would be a miracle,” said Mylène from the other side of the phone.

“Indeed.” Alya hung up the phone and sighed, closing her eyes and resting her forehead on the wooden frame of her window.

“What’s happening, Alya? Can it not wait? We need to finish the project!” came Lila’s voice from behind her.

Alya didn’t know why, but Lila’s tone of voice as she said that made her insides twist again. “No, it can’t wait, sorry. Maybe it's better if you go home, Lila, I will be busy for a while on the phone.” She was starting to dial Nino’s number when Lila spoke again,

“You can’t do this to me, Alya. Look at the weather outside, I can’t go home right now.” She looked at her worriedly. “I heard you talking about Marinette. What happened?”

Alya spoke to Lila without really looking at her, as she was messing with her phone, trying to call Marinette. Straight to Voicemail. Shoot. “Her mother just called me. She can’t get in touch with Marinette. She went out earlier saying that she would meet me and the girls, but I’ve been stuck here with you, and Mylène just confirmed to me that all the others have been working at their projects too. I just tried to call Marinette’s phone and it went straight to Voicemail.”

“So what?” said Lila dismissively. “Maybe her battery died and she’s stuck in a shop or somewhere because of the snow storm. Nothing to worry about, right? Marinette is resourceful.” She pulled her chair in and seemed to get engrossed again in her history book. “Besides, we really need to finish the project, I don't know when I will be able to come here again with this weather.”

Lila’s words made sense. True, Marinette was a resourceful person, and the chances that something may have happened to her were very slim. But Alya couldn’t avoid getting that gut feeling in the pit of her stomach that something wasn’t right. That Marinette wouldn’t have lied to her mother. No, that wasn’t like Marinette at all.

“You will have to excuse me, Lila. If you want, you can carry on with the project. I won’t feel okay until I haven’t spoken to Marinette.”

Lila shrugged and kept reading her history book. Alya went out of the room and dialled Nino’s number.

“Hi, babe, ‘sup?” came Nino’s voice almost immediately.

“Sorry to bother you, honey, but I’m really worried for Marinette. Have you heard from her at all?” Her voice was cracking and her hands started feeling very cold and sweaty.

“No. I’ve been trying to get in touch with my mec all afternoon. He had a photoshoot at the lake, but it should be finished hours ago and now his phone goes straight to voicemail. We were supposed to work on the history project together after his photoshoot ended.”

Alya’s eyes grew wide. “Did you say he was at the lake?”

“Yes, lake Daumesnil,” said Nino.

“That’s funny,” mumbled Alya, “it’s exactly where Marinette told her mom she was going to go. Do you think…”

“Do you think she went there to see him?” said Nino. At Alya’s ‘gotcha’, though, the young DJ continued, “But his photoshoot should have finished hours ago. And you know how Marinette is, she would never have approached him.”

“Yes, the most she would have done would be to look at him from a distance. If his photoshoot ended and he went home because of the snow—”

“Okay, I’m going to ring Adrien at home. I usually wouldn’t, but I have a reason; we were meant to meet to work at our project. At least I can ask him if he’s seen Marinette.”

“Good idea, Nino. I’ll wait to hear back from you, then.”

Alya hung up the phone and stared for a little time at the picture of her boyfriend on the small screen. It was such a coincidence that Marinette had told her mother she would go to the exact place where Adrien was having his photoshoot. She thought that her friend had gone past that kind of trick a long time ago; her relationship with the blond boy had become much better lately. In all fairness, however, Alya knew perfectly well that if there was one thing that would persuade Marinette to lie to her parents, being able to assist with a photoshoot with one Adrien Agreste was definitely it.

She started feeling a little better about the situation, but the pit in her stomach didn’t want to disappear. She was still worried that something was wrong. Marinette hadn’t even sent her a single text message. And how come the photoshoot had finished and she hadn’t gone home yet? No, it was still very suspicious. Very, very suspicious.

She walked back to her room. “I’m going to make some sandwiches for myself,” she said to Lila. “Fancy some?”

Lila smiled, but her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “That would be very kind of you, thank you.”

“Stay here then, I’ll be back.” That said, she marched to the kitchen and started busying herself making the sandwiches, but half-way through it, Lila’s face popped at the door.

“My mum just rang me and told me she’s waiting downstairs for me. Better if I go,” she said. “Any news of Marinette?” Her tone sounded hopeful, but the look of her eyes seemed that of a sly fox checking on her next prey. Alya felt a shiver run down her spine, but she couldn’t make out why. Lila had always been a nice girl and had always tried to make friends with Marinette. Maybe her gut feeling was wrong; maybe she was really concerned.

“Not yet. Although, Nino told me that Adrien was having a photoshoot at the lake—” Alya couldn’t finish what she was saying, because her phone rang suddenly and it was Nino. “Sorry, I have to take this.”

She didn’t even wait for Lila to nod, she just answered the call.

“Hey Babe,” said Nino. His voice sounded concerned.

“Are you okay, honey? Did you talk to Adrien?” She waved bye to Lila, hoping that the Italian girl would just wave back and go, but Lila instead stood there. Maybe she wanted to know if Marinette was okay, thought Alya, reasoning on how nice that was of Lila, since Marinette had always made it clear that she didn’t like her.

“No Babe. That’s why I’ve called you back straight away. Even Adrien is missing apparently. The secretary actually asked me if I had news of him. Apparently, his bodyguard has been stuck in traffic for a long time and hasn’t reached the location of the photoshoot yet, and Adrien’s phone must have died because they have also tried to contact him with no luck.”

“What? Adrien is missing too?” Alya caught with the corner of her eye the stunned reaction of Lila at the news, and her brain couldn’t avoid starting to wonder why her reaction now appeared so different than the composed and theatrical reaction she had when Alya told her that Marinette was missing. Alya really liked Lila. She really did. But there was something wrong there and she just couldn’t make out exactly what. She eyed Lila with a suspicious frown. “Right,” she continued after Nino finished talking. “I’m getting even more worried now.”

“What are you planning to do?” asked Nino.

Alya left her sandwiches where she had been making them a moment before and gave a quick wash to her hands, wiped them and then marched resolutely to the door, proceeding to put her coat on. “I’ll try to go to the lake. Meet me there?”

“Babe, sorry to break the news, but there’s a huge snowstorm and the mayor has called for a code red. The public transport has stopped to a halt. There’s no way we can get to the lake.”

Alya stopped in her tracks half-way through putting on the second sleeve of her coat. “Shoot.” Then she looked at Lila who was still standing there by the door. “Has your mother got any extra room in her car, Lila?”

oOo

“Who was it, Nathalie?” asked Gabriel when his assistant hung up on the phone.

Nathalie sighed and took a big breath before answering, “It was Adrien’s friend, that DJ boy. He was asking to talk to Adrien. They were meant to work at a history project after his photoshoot. He hasn’t been able to get in touch with him all afternoon, apparently.”

Gabriel’s face twisted into a grimace. “Any news from Gérard?”

“No. Last time he texted me, he was still quite far and had just been told by a gendarme to turn around and go home. Of course, he didn’t, but he was going at a snail’s speed.” She looked at her watch. “That was about three quarters of an hour ago, so I doubt he’s reached the location yet.”

As she said that, she saw a message appearing on her phone. “Oh, I stand corrected. He has reached the location.” She gasped as she carried on reading, which caused Gabriel to raise an eyebrow and pay more attention. “He’s saying that three big trees have collapsed on the cabin.” Gabriel stiffened.

“Has he gotten Adrien out?” he inquired.

“No,” she said. “He couldn’t move the trees and apparently he was making the situation worse. So he went to look for help. Seems that there’s no signal at the location of the cabin, but Adrien told him that his phone is dead anyway..”

“Useless, as always,” muttered Gabriel under his breath.

As he said that, a new ping resounded on Nathalie’s phone and the woman gasped again. “Gérard is also telling us that Adrien isn’t alone in the cabin. Apparently he has helped a friend of his, who was in trouble. That Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She’s sick and,” she gulped, “needs underwear.”

This caused Gabriel to turn his head towards his assistant. “She needs what?” he snapped.

Another ping. Nathalie scanned the message quickly before answering. Gabriel could nearly feel her throat clenching as she read the words. She was silent for quite a while, until Gabriel lost his cool. “What does he say, Nathalie?”

“Uh, sir, you don’t want to read this,” said his assistant. Gabriel stood up and marched towards her, snatching the phone from her hand. He read the message and he blanched.

“He was… naked?” Millions of thoughts ran through Gabriel’s mind. He had always had a feeling that there was more to his son’s relationship with that Marinette Dupain-Cheng that Adrien was allowing to seep through. But never, ever, not even in a million years would Gabriel think his son could be so careless. He was barely the age of consent! What did he have in that head of his? Did he want to destroy his career? Did he want to harm the reputation of his brand? As his mind kept running through always more catastrophic scenarios, a further ping resounded in the silence of the room. Gabriel’s eyes snapped to the words on the screen.

Gérard: [Sorry, I hit the send button by accident. Adrien wasn’t completely naked, he was wearing underwear. Apparently she fell in the lake and he had to save her, and warm her up. That’s why he stripped.]

A big, massive sigh of relief later, Gabriel handed back the phone to Nathalie and returned to his seat. A further ping resounded in the silence.

“Gérard is saying that her clothes were wet. Adrien probably let her change into one of the outfits in the cabin.”

“I see.” Gabriel resumed looking absent-mindedly at his tablet.

“Gérard says that the cabin’s ceiling is collapsing and isn’t stable. He’s not sure how long it will resist before falling on their head. He’s worried.”

Gabriel’s look could have frozen a volcano. “Give me that phone,” he commanded. Nathalie handed it over immediately. Gabriel walked to Emilie’s portrait and beckoned Nathalie to get closer, as both of them took the lift to get into the lair. In the meantime, Gabriel dialled the Gorilla’s number.

The phone picked up and a loud grunt could be heard from the other side of the phone as Gabriel walked on the bridge and passed in front of Emilie’s coffin. He put a hand on the glass of the coffin reassuringly. “Gérard? Is what Nathalie told me right, you left Adrien in a cabin with a damaged roof?” A further grunt came from the other side. “What kind of imbecile are you? You can’t even look after a fifteen year old? What kind of bodyguard leaves his charge in blatant danger? Believe me, if anything happens to my son you will pay for it. You will repent the day you accepted to look after him. Have I made myself clear?”

As Gabriel said that, he had reached the upstairs lair. He hung the phone in the Gorilla’s face and sneered at Nooroo who had just come out of his jacket. Before he could say anything, a message pinged through on Nathalie’s phone, and Gabriel smirked.

Gérard: [Nathalie? Nathalie, what was that all about? I couldn’t lift the trees. I could have endangered Adrien even more if I had tried again. Please tell the boss that I haven’t been careless!]

“Can you feel his strong emotion, Nooroo? Dark wings rise!” As soon as the power of the Butterfly wrapped him, Gabriel called one of his insects and charged it with dark energy. “Go, my little akuma. Evilise this worried bodyguard’s heart!”

“Are you sure it’s the right thing to do, sir? Maybe he has a point. Maybe the cabin could collapse if Gérard puts too much pressure on it,” warned Nathalie, looking at the little purple insect fly out of the window and disappear in the distance.

“I’m sure, Nathalie. The trees could make the ceiling collapse even without our intervention. Anything could happen if we wait too long, and if another tree hits, or the pressure of the ones on the roof becomes too strong, the situation could degenerate very easily.” He exchanged with Nathalie a look of pure concern. Then, the purple mask appeared on his face and his worried expression changed to a new smirk as he felt Gérard's loud grunt resounding in his head. The man seemed to be trying to resist the akuma’s power. Gabriel couldn’t allow that to happen. He closed his eyes for a second and tried to find the best words to put his case forward. He couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity.

“Gorizilla, we meet again. I’m Hawkmoth. Your charge is stuck in a cabin and you’re afraid he could be harmed. I can give you the power to get him out of trouble. In exchange, you will get for me the Miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir. Do we have an agreement?” His smirk widened as he felt the connection being made and the surge of purple energy wrap around the imposing figure of his son’s bodyguard.

Please, Adrien, be safe, he thought when the akuma started moving back towards the lake.