mind over mask

twenty five

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Marinette's POV

I was daydreaming about what had practically been a date with Damian.

It started off strong, but ended almost bittersweet. He saw the darkness that Paris truly held in the hearts of its people.

It was nice just being around Damian, it seemed as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and when he was around me, it was a burden lifted.

I liked walking around with him, and I even convinced him to try ice cream.

He was cold hearted, there was no doubt about that, but he wasn't that way around me. Damian was polite and OH MY GOSH WE HELD HANDS.

I'm so glad that I didn't turn into the stammering idiot as I had been with Adrien.

But instead, I became the idiot named Adrien.

I CALLED DAMIAN JUST A FRIEND.

I felt horrible, and I just wanted to bang my head repeatedly against the table. I had already started to do so, but Tikki promptly stopped me, saying Ladybug can't have brain damage.

Especially at a time like this.

We were so close to taking down Hawkmoth, we hadn't been this way in years.

Chloe, Adrien, and I were at our hideout of sorts. Our base of operations.

Chloe suggested that we should have one last year, and I agreed. We needed somewhere to meet that wasn't out in the open, or at one of homes, in case someone was watching. There was someone always watching.

So we decided on an abandoned building that Mayor Bourgeois had bought to expand his hotel empire. Instead, Chloe had convinced him to give to her, under that impression that it was a private spa for her to unwind at.

And Mayor Bourgeois knew one thing about Chloe's previous alone time: do not disturb, under no circumstance.

It was an expensive space, all in Chloe's taste. It was a large white room, with a computer and a large monitor hung on the wall. There were multiple whiteboards or cork boards to track Hawkmoth's movements or analyze our last battles.

But it was mostly our space to chill, as there were multiple couches and fridges filled with snacks, mainly ones Adrien wasn't allowed to have, according to Nathalie.

Tikki, Plagg, and Pollen sat on one of the counters, eating away to their hearts content.

I sat in front of a map of Paris that hung on the wall. On it, was every akuma attack that had happened in the past three years and counting.

I mapped out the akumas sightings, as I've done a million times. There had to be a clue of some sort, something that we had been overseeing.

Think, Marinette, think.

The akumas made a perimeter, not a perfect circle, but it gave us a confined space to work with.

There was nothing in the space, just tourist attractions, which no villain would use as a base, it would be too obvious. And some one would catch on if an akuma came from the Louvre ever time there was an attack.

Maybe... maybe Hawkmoth didn't live inside the circle.

"Guys! I figured something out!" I yelled in excitement.

Adrien, eating chips, gets off of the couch, "What did you figure out, Bugaboo?"

"Come here," I wave them over to the map I've been charting out.

Adrien walks over, and looks behind my shoulder, while Chloe scoots along in her spinning chair away from the computer. The three kwamis fly into the air, hovering behind the thre of is.

"If you track all of the akumas we've had, and where they first appeared, they form a pattern." I start slowly.

"A perimeter." Tikki agrees with my calculations.

Chloe groans, "But we already know this. How does this sudden epiphany help?"

"What if we're thinking about it the wrong way. What if Hawkmoth is an equal distance away from every akuma attack?" I continue, trying to explain my theory.

"So whoever is Hawkmoth, has to live inside that circle." Adrien concludes slowly.

"Wrong." I correct him.

Plagg hits him in the back of the head, muttering something about him being as dense as a log.

Chloe stammers out, "Wait, what? I'm confused Marinette."

I sigh, "That's what Hawkmoth would want us to think. He thinks we're dumb teenagers, remember? We have to look at it from a different angle."

"His base is outside it." Chloe breaths out, finally understanding me.

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner." I celebrated into my imaginary microphone.

"We just need to find which locations in Paris are all about the same distance away from every akuma attack." Tikki adds on to our conversation.

"And maybe we can track reaction time based on the Ladyblog, that might help us to have more accurate locations," Adrien adds.

"That's perfect," I said. It was all coming together.

"Do we let Nightwing and Robin know?" Chloe questions, saying the second name with a sneer. She still hadn't forgiven him for his cruel words.

"Not until we have hard evidence," I state. "Or at least some correlation."

"You know, they're going to have to come here for us to prove it," Adrien says, grabbing another handful of chips and shoving them in his mouth.

Chloe groans, "He's right."

I think out loud, "They'll search up the building and know that it's in the Mayor's name. But they'll just assume it's a thank you for protecting Paris from Hawkmoth, not that any of us are related to him."

"I hope you're right, M'Lady," Adrien says, looking Chloe who's deep in thought.

I start, "We don't have to bring them here—"

"After patrol on Friday, we'll bring them here," Chloe says adamantly.

"Are you sure?" Adrien questions her again.

Chloe's blue eyes harden when she looks at the two of us. "We're so close. And if my identity gets revealed again, and I have to stop being Princess Honey—" she stops, trying not to cry. "I'll do it to take down Hawkmoth."

Pollen starts, "Chloe—"

"You would do it too Mari and Adrikins. In a heart beat," Chloe says, wiping away tears.

We're both silent, because Chloe's right.

"Okay, Friday." I finalize, looking up at her in gratitude.

Silent tears are still streaming down her face, so I give her a hug. Adrien joins us, his long arms able to fit around the both of us. The kwamis join us, nuzzling into our shoulders.

"I'm so lucky to have a selfless and amazing and beautiful user like you Chloe," Pollen brags.

"I know," Chloe jokingly says, still sniffling.

A part of me wishes Hawkmoth had already been defeated, but I knew if he was, we wouldn't be a team. Or a family.

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