#crypticcravings

Stomping over to them, Marinette yelled as fiercely as she could, “Hey! Leave him alone!” All the heads swiveled in her direction. Two of the boys looked scared that they had been found out, but the third jeered back, “Ya? Make me, jerk!” Marinette had never been called a jerk before, and she didn’t like it one bit. Her pigtails bouncing, she walked right up to the bully. “I will tell your mommy.” She threatened, staring him right in the eyes. His grin dropped.

“Fine. We’ll go.” He said reluctantly, before leading the other two boys away.

Marinette tentatively approached the younger boy. He sat on the woodchips, his head in between his knees, long arms wrapped around himself. He shook as he cried.

Marinette sat down next to him. “It’s okay. I made them go away.” She said, hoping that would make him feel better. He lifted his head and looked at her. Messy, golden hair covered his green eyes, and the front of his striped t-shirt was wet with tears.

“You did?” He said in awe. Marinette held out her hand to him like she had seen her parents do for customers. “Yep! I’m Marinette.”

The boy shook her hand, just as he had seen his parents do. He still shook and his breathing was ragged, but wasn’t crying anymore. “I’m Adrien.”

Marinette gasped suddenly, jumping to her feet. “ I know what will make you happy!” She cried out. “My mommy brought cookies! Come on! Come on!” Not even waiting for Adrien to stand completely, the elated little girl grabbed his arm and dragged him to the bench where her mother was chatting with the woman next to her. “Mommy, this is Adrien. He needs a p-pick him up. Can we have cookies?” The other lady gasped.

“Adrien, sweetheart! What happened?” As Adrien explained how Marinette had heroically saved him, Marinette studied the woman. She was probably Adrien’s mom. She had a slender face, and the same green eyes and golden hair as him. She stroked his hair as he talked.

When Adrien was finished, Marinette’s mom held out a chocolate chip cookie to him. Adrien devoured it in one bite. He looked at Marinette, who was nibbling on her cookie, and said, “Do y-you want to go play?” She nodded enthusiastically, and together they ran to the playground.

The sky was turning pink and orange when Marinette’s mommy came to get her to go home. The two five year olds were having a contest to see who could swing the highest. “Come on honey, I’ve left your papa alone far too long.” She said. Marinette hopped off her swing, and Adrien’s came to a stop.

“Do you have to go?” He asked. Marinette nodded sadly.

Adrien’s mom walked up beside Marinette’s. “Well, that doesn’t mean you can’t play together again. Say goodbye, I’m sure you’ll see each other soon.”

Adrien jumped off the swing and gave Marinette a hug. Arms still wrapped each other, Adrien whispered, “Marinette, I think you’re my best friend.”

“Me too.”

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They day Marinette discovered fashion, she was eleven. She had replaced going to the park with helping her parents bake, but still had regular play dates with Adrien.

“Mom, how do people make their own clothes?” She asked one night. Sabine chuckled.

“Well, they would cut out the right patterns and sew them together. Add some embellishments, maybe.” She checked to make sure Marinette knew what embellishments meant, but her daughter was no longer listening. Marinette’s eyes sparkled.

“That sounds awesome! I could make my clothes anyway I wanted them too! I could have pockets!” Marinette gushed. Sabine put her book down and smiled.

“Not so fast! Sewing takes practice and hard work. You can’t just immediately sew perfectly.” This didn’t phase Marinette. For her next birthday, she got a sewing machine and a pile of scrap material.

The day Marinette's parents sat her down and told her that Adrien’s mom disappeared, she was barely twelve. She knew immediately that she had to do something for Adrien. Marinette ran to her sewing machine and began to sew.

The next day, her project was finished in record time. She nervously walked to Adrien’s house, the gift in a wrapped shoe box. Adrien’s dad answered the door. He was a big, imposing figure. Marinette had never spoken to him until now. “H-hello! I’m h-here to see Adrien?” Wordlessly, Gabriel let her past, but Marinette couldn’t help but notice that his eyes were red, like he had been crying.

Marinette hurried to Adrien’s room. She entered quietly. He was playing an arcade game, but obviously didn’t care about it. “Adrien? Can we talk? I have something for you.” As she got closer, she could see that Adrien’s tears were much fresher than his dad’s.

Marinette put her arms around him, and he didn’t fight, just leaned into the hug. “I’m sorry,” She whispered into his hair, “Don’t worry. They’ll find her.” Adrien looked down, noticing the shoe box.

“What’s that?” He asked, trying to change the subject. People had been saying they were sorry all day. He didn’t want to add his best friend to the list of people who pity him. Marinette handed him the box.

“It’s for you. I know you might miss your mom so I made this. I figured it could help, y’know?” Out of the box, Adrien drew a plushie. It was a replica of his mom. Fresh tears rolled down his cheeks.

“Marinette, it’s beautiful! It looks exactly like her!” He cried.

The arcade game beeped, annoyed at being ignored. “Do you want to hang around, play some video games? I just got Mecha Strike 3.”

“That sounds great! But I call the red controller!”

“What? No! I’ll race you!” They both ran for the remote on the couch. Knocking heads, they fell against the couch, knocking it over. The friends lay on the floor, laughing.

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Marinette’s and Adrien’s life changed forever when they were sixteen. Unbeknownst to the other, they had been superheros for two years now. There was no one Marinette trusted more than Chat Noir, and no one Adrien trusted more than Ladybug.

It had been a rough morning. Two akumas before ten o’clock, the first at two in the morning and the second at eight. Marinette and Adrien had gotten no sleep, and no break.

Ladybug collapsed on the top of the Eiffel tower, Chat Noir not-so-gracefully landing beside her. They leaned against each other and the tower. “I don’t want to go to school.” Ladybug sighed finally. “I have a test in one class. An essay in another, and two hours of sleep.”

Chat Noir groaned, as if he had forgotten that he had to go to school. “Me too, Bugaboo, me too. Although I still wish you would tell me where you go to school. Or how old you are. Or what your birthday is!”

“I told you! We can’t risk it! Anyway, we don’t have to go to school quite yet. Let’s just sit here for a …. minute.”  Chat was asleep as soon as she said school. Ladybug was asleep as soon as she finished talking. They didn’t even hear their miraculouses beep.

               *                                     *                                       *                          “They are dead. She doesn’t come to school, doesn’t respond to my texts, and now I’ve found that they’ve been cuddling on top of the Eiffel Tower this entire time?”

“Alya, babe, cut them a little slack…”

“Slack?! He didn’t text either! They’ve been gone all day! I’ve been worried sick!”

“I’m sure they had a good reason.”

“They’ve better.” Alya growled as she paced in front of the sleeping, untransformed heroes. Nino stood behind her, trying to abate the fury a little. School had gotten over hours ago. The sun was going down, and Marinette and Adrien had slept through it all. Now, Alya’s shouting was waking them up.

Adrien and Marinette slowly opened their eyes. They looked at each other, brains not processing what they saw. Marinette realized what was going on first. She jumped to her feet, jumping back but running into Alya. Whirling around, Marinette came face to face with Alya’s death glare.

Adrien got to his feet, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Sorry to interrupt your staring contest, but what the heck is going on?” He exclaimed, pushing the hair out of his eyes. “I just remember falling asleep this morning, and it wasn’t with Marinette…”

“It wasn’t with Marinette?” Alya shrieked, “Well then who the heck was it with?” Adrien rubbed his feet together.

“C’mon, dude. Just tell us.”

“ Well, it was Ladybug.”

“LADYBUG!?” Alya and Nino cried. Marinette had paled considerably.

“And when I fell asleep I was with Chat Noir…” The realization came to the two heroes at the same time, and Marinette voiced what they both were thinking. “We must have transformed in our sleep, but that means that my best friend is Chat Noir!”

Adrien yawned. “Okay. That sounds legit.”

Marinette thought for a moment before nodding. “Adrien as Chat Noir does sound about right.”

Alya and Nino were lost. “Let me get this straight.” Alya said, “You two are Ladybug and Chat Noir?” Marinette and Adrien nodded.

“Why are you both just okay with this? Why didn’t you tell us?” Nino asked. Marinette frowned.“We couldn’t. Our kwamis told us not to.”

“Speaking of Kwami, where is he?”Adrien wondered out loud. As if on cue, a small snore echoed from the other side of the balcony. The group walked towards the snore, and found Tikki and Plagg curled against each other, fast asleep.

Nino chuckled. “I’m not sure what those are but that. Is. Adorable.”

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Adrien knew that he had a team to back him up, but he could never bring himself to skip a fight. After all, he was seventeen now, and he could fight his own battles. So, sniffling and racked with coughs, Adrien leaped out of his window. Getting to the Eiffel Tower was harder than it needed to be, seeing as he kept sneezing at unconventional times. It was throwing of his balance, and Adrien ended up three miles past the Seine before he realized that the Eiffel Tower was the other way.

Adrien landed on the balcony of the Eiffel tower half an hour late. Ladybug glanced at him before asking Rena Rouge where they should patrol. Alya liked to keep track of the high crime areas, when she wasn’t fighting or blogging. After deciding that they would hang around the bar down the road from the Champ de Mars, they headed over, traveling each in their own way. Alya ran, Marinette swang using her yo-yo, Adrien jumped from building to building, Chloe flew, and Nino ran along with Alya. Sometimes he tried to keep up with Adrien, but after taking a dive off a building and scaring the team half to death, he stayed on the ground.

It was a generally uneventful night until around midnight. They had broken up a few drunken fights, escorted some people home, and now they sat on top of the bar, playing rock-paper-scissors. “Okay, Adrien, you against me. Winner takes on Alya.” Nino said, turning to his friend. Adrien was fast asleep, and even  in his leather outfit he was shivering.

“What’s wrong with him? It’s not that cold.” Chloe asked.

“He seemed sick when he got here, but it didn’t seem that bad.” Alya added.

“Do we wake him up?” Nino asked the others.

Marinette stood up. “I’ll take him home. Do you think you guys will be okay for a bit?” They all assured her that they would be fine, and Marinette nudged Adrien awake. “Come on, Chat, time to go home.” The rest of the team chuckled as Chat Noir woke up, stood and stretched, then promptly fell asleep again on Ladybug’s shoulder. Marinette wrapped her arm around his waist then swung off.

Adrien had left his window open when he left, and Marinette, barely balancing Adrien on her shoulder, jumped in and laid him on his bed. It was only when Plagg de-transformed him that he finally woke up.

“What?” He mumbled, sitting up, “How did I get home?”

“I carried you.” Marinette said, de-transforming and sitting on the bed next to him. Tikki took off to go find Plagg. “You shouldn’t come to patrol when you're sick.”

“I know, but I hate feeling useless…”

“And I get it, but it’s better to miss one patrol then to work yourself so much you have to go to the doctor.” He looked at her, confused, and she added, “Been there. Done that.”

They sat on Adrien’s bed, leaning against each other for a couple minutes of almost silence. Adrien’s sniffling was the only sound. Finally Adrien spoke up. “Marinette, you’ve been my friend for a really long time.” He started quietly. “And - and your cool and nice and an amazing hero. And what I guess I’m trying to say is - Marinette, I love you.”

Marinette was taken aback, but only for a moment. She turned to Adrien, who was staring at his hands, and took his face in her’s. “Silly cat,” she playfully chided, “I’ve loved you since the moment we met.” Taking the fact that he hadn’t moved away as a good sign, she kissed him. It was quick, on the cheek, but they both grinned and blushed. “I bet I could do better than that.” Adrien said, grinning. Marinette laughed.

“No way! You’re sick!” They both fell back on the bed.

“So. My father’s making me go to this gala, and I was thinking, it wouldn’t be torture if you came with.”