Appreciating Chat Noir

Chapter Two

Ladybug was fighting the latest akumatized villain, ad-istrator; a villain who was forcing ads upon all of the Parisians for all of eternity. She calls for her lucky charm: "A Nord VPN box? What am I supposed to do with this?!" She looks around her for ideas, not knowing what to do. "It's not like the villain is an actual computer!"

Finally thinking of something, she calls out for chat noir, to no avail. "Chat Noir! I have an idea!"

Silence greeted her ears.

"Chat noir!?"

"Haha how are you possibly going to defeat me Ladybug? You are all alone!"

"Wait what?!" Ladybug looks all around her in the night sky, panicking. Chat Noir was indeed no where to be found.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Marinette woke up with a start, heavily panting.

"Marinette, are you okay?" Tikki asked, looking concerned.

"I-It felt so real!"

"What did? What's wrong?!"

"I-Chat Noir was- hold on, what time is it?!" Marinette scrambled around for her phone to look at the time. "9 am?! I'm late!"

"Marinette! Chat Noir was what?!" Tikki asked to no avail.

Marinette quickly scrambled out of bed and hurried through her morning routine, absentmindedly grabbing an orange out of the fruit-bowl before rushing out the door; bag and tablet in hand. She ran as fast as she could to the front door of the school, and all the way up the stairs to the classroom, entering with unintentional dramatic flair by slamming the door open.

"I'm so sorry I'm late!" She cried, panting some more.

"That's okay Marinette, just don't do it again." Miss Bustier told her with a kind smile.

She was aware of every eye in the room with an exception for Miss Bustier on her as she made her way to her seat. It wasn't like she hasn't been late before, but never had she entered in such a dramatic fashion. Her face heated up in embarrassment as she noticed that even Adrien had been looking her way, noticing her tardy behavior. She avoided eye contact with anyone as she sat down in her seat, feeling sheepish.

"Girl, where have you been? You've gotta stop being late like this!" Alya quietly hissed at her.

"I know I know I must've slept passed my alarm..." Marinette whispered back, neglecting to include the horrid nightmare that had tainted her dreams. A world without Chat Noir, she knew, is not a world she would like to live in.

Miss Bustier continued on with the lesson as Marinette found her mind wandering back to the nightmare, unable to concentrate on anything. How on earth was she supposed to concentrate when her mind was plaguing her with terrifying scenario's that she'd rather not think about?! If Chat Noir really did decide to leave Paris after all, how was she supposed to take care of it all on her own? Who would she rely on? Who would be there for her?

The thought was scary enough to encourage an unmotivated, flightless, pig, to sprout wings and fly away from this place. She was too young to be dealing with something like this all on her own. Despite the fact that it had been a few years since they had been given the Miraculous' originally and had had lots of practice using them; all alone she wasn't sure she'd do such a good job. They were a team after all, and relied on her partner to get the job done.

She was only seventeen after all! Her birthday wasn't until June! She couldn't even vote yet!

Marinette began to wonder if Chat Noir was of similar age to her. In fact, he had mentioned that he was graduating. Did he mean le lyceé? Did she even know him in real life??? She gasped. Did they go to the same school?!