"Just a Friend?" Book 1 of "Secrets Unraveled" Trilogy (MLB FanFic) |COMPLETED|

Chpt 34: Hurry up Ladybug, Adrien is panicking!

Marinette sat at the desk in her room twirling her pencil between her fingers, instead of working on her homework. She decided she should probably contact Alya tonight as Ladybug to talk to her about the white butterflies, though she really didn't know anything more than the last time she made an announcement. But, if she needed to reassure people again, she would. Marinette started to chew on the end of her pencil in thought. "Eww!" she said as she realized what she was doing. She set down her pencil and then started to think about where a good place would be to meet Alya. That quiet place in the park that I met Alya and Nino before would be a good choice. Might as well move things along.

Marinette put her hand behind the Jagged Stone album cover on her desk and gave Tikki a little nudge. She had taken to napping behind there recently.

"What is it, Marinette?" Tikki asked her sleepily as she flew out.

"Sorry to wake you, but I'm going to need to transform so I can contact Alya as Ladybug."

Tikki yawned. "Okay. I think I may need a cookie to energize me a bit first, though."

Marinette got out the tin that she had stashed in her desk drawer and opened the lid. Tikki flew over the tin, weighing her choices. She reached in and chose a green one and started to munch away. "Mmm, pistachio!" she said dreamily. Marinette wiped up the crumbs that fell on her desk and waited for Tikki to finish.

"Ready!" Tikki said to Marinette, sounding much more awake.

"Tikki, SPOTS ON!"

Ladybug got out her yoyo to contact Alya. They agreed to meet later that night for an interview. "I'm not sure I have anything new to add, though," warned Ladybug.

"That's fine- I think people just like to hear from you personally. These masses of butterflies flying around the city seem sort of menacing, even though they haven't done anything at this point. Thanks, Ladybug! See you soon!" said Alya and they hung up.

- - -

Alya was pacing while waiting for Ladybug in the park. She was impatient to get this interview done so she could upload it onto her Ladyblog and maybe find out whether they were going to do more training any time soon. She had just sat down on the bench when Ladybug arrived.

"Hi, Alya," said Ladybug, sitting down next to her on the bench.

"Hi! Any news?"

Ladybug smiled at her and said "Why don't I have you record my message? I don't have anything new to say, but I am happy to say it again." Alya got out her phone and recorded Ladybug's speech. Once Ladybug was done, Alya watched the video and uploaded it right then to her blog.

"Thanks, Ladybug! I think you re-stating your message again will help people feel a little better. So, now that that's done, can I ask you a question?" Ladybug nodded. "Are we going to get together to train again soon? Nino and I have some new ideas we think might be helpful and we would like to share them with you and Cat Noir."

Ladybug thought about her schedule this week. "That sounds like a good idea, but I'll have to talk to Cat Noir and we can contact you with possible times. Is there any time that won't work for you this week?"

Alya went over her schedule in her mind. "No, it's a pretty quiet week at school so most any night should work, I think."

"Ok, I'll talk to Cat Noir and get back to you soon. I've got to go now. Bye!" Ladybug used her yoyo to launch up to the top of the building across from the park and headed home.

"Tikki, SPOTS OFF!" She transformed on the roof of her house and went down into her room. She picked up her phone to check for messages and saw a bunch of calls from Adrien. Her heart started to race, wondering what could be wrong. She quickly called him and he picked up on the first ring.

"Marinette, finally!" he said, relieved to hear her voice.

"What's wrong?" she asked him anxiously.

"My father was unexpectedly sitting in the dining room when I got home late- being late probably didn't help things- and he told me that I will need to travel to Milan the weekend of his big fashion show. I tried to get out of it, but it just made him angry. I am so worried about leaving town with the butterfly stuff going on and the uncertainty about what big thing might happen!" He took a breath and tried to calm down.

"Adrien, it will be okay. We can figure this out. You and I can talk about it and we're all going to get together for more training this week and then we can decide if anything special needs to be done."

Adrien started to feel more calm and also, now, a little silly that he had gotten so worked up about it. "You're right. I guess I overreacted. It's just I couldn't get a hold of you and my mind started racing about all the things that could happen. My thoughts were not pretty!" he said.

"I was just meeting with Alya about the Ladyblog, remember?" she said gently.

Adrien blushed. "Oh, right, you told me you were going to do that but my father apparently made me forget everything."

"So, if your brain is working again, is there a night this week that would be good for training?" Marinette asked him. "I don't think I have anything big the rest of this week, and Rena Rouge didn't think of anything either."

Adrien brought up his schedule on his phone and looked through the week. "I've got that shoot for the second fragrance ad tomorrow, but other than that, nothing big. Did you want to come with me to the shoot? It's at the park right by your house."

"Radiant, carefree, dreamy. Adrien, the fragrance!" said Marinette in a breathless voice like the ad.

"Ha, ha," said Adrien sarcastically. "You know you liked it before!" he said, a little accusingly.

Marinette giggled at that, knowing it was true. "I might have watched the ad. Once or twice. Maybe." She remembered how she had probably watched it hundreds of times and often paused on his face, probably with a dreamy expression on her face! Returning to his question she replied with "That sounds fun! Really!"

"It'll actually probably be pretty boring to watch, but I'd love for you to be there. It would make it more fun for me anyway! It's right after school."

Marinette added the photo shoot to her calendar and looked at the other days. "So, how about Friday night for the training?"

Adrien double-checked his schedule before agreeing. "Should be fine as long as my father goes back to Milan like he's supposed to."

"Okay, we'll go with that unless anything changes. I'll let the other two know," said Marinette making a mental note to remind Alya. "I've got some homework to finish- you do, too- so I'll see you tomorrow! Bye!" she said adding an "Adrien" in her breathless ad voice before giggling and hanging up.

"Bye!" he replied, chuckling a bit at her "ad voice". As soon as he hung up the phone, his thoughts got darker again, though, as he wondered how they could prepare for him being gone, and whether it was possible that they didn't need to prepare, since he might be with Hawk Moth. Adrien tried to put it out of his mind for now and sat down at his desk to do his homework.