Appreciating Chat Noir

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Marinette woke up the next morning with a mix of nervous anxiety and pure rage circling in her chest. She had known the risks. They all had. They had come up with a plan. A good plan. And then they had gone into the lion's den and not all of them had made it out.

Hawkmoth was going to get what was coming to him one of these days. And if she had her way, she was determined to make sure that happened very soon.

If she thought about it for too long, she would most likely break down in tears and start blaming herself and all that but who has time for that when your partner, your boyfriend, the possible love of your life has gotten kidnapped???

No one, that's who.

Definitely not a super hero girlfriend who had stupidly; admittedly by accident; gotten her boyfriend kidnaped. That's for sure.

She went through the motions of getting ready for the day with a thinly veiled rage distracting her every move. Tikki peeked at her from her purse. "Um, Marinette. Are you sure you're okay to go to school?"

Marinette looked down at the Kwami. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you look pretty upset, and you haven't been able to stop mashing your oatmeal. You haven't even eaten a single bit of it and you've been sitting there for ten minutes already." Tikki pointed out.

Marinette looked down, surprised to find that she was right. "Oh. I guess you're right. I just can't stop thinking about what happened with Chat Noir."

She had filled her in last night after Marinette had gotten home and hadn't been able to stop crying. Tikki had eventually pried it out of her.

"It's not your fault, Marinette. You all knew what the risks would be. Besides it's not too late to get him back out of there!" Tikki encouraged her.

"Yeah, and we better move soon. Before something happens to him that my miraculous can't turn back. I don't want him to end up like his mom." Marinette put down the spoon for a moment. "He deserves to go live his life how he wants, not chasing after some demented psychopath he happens to be unfortunately related to. And now I've made it worse."

"Stop blaming yourself Marinette. That's not going to help." Tikki gently placed a tiny paw-like hand on Marinette's arm.

Marinette sighed. "I know, but I can't help but feel like this is all my fault."

Her mood didn't improve much at school once she saw Adrien's empty desk and was reminded all over again. She nearly burst into tears. The guilt was eating her alive. She sat down reluctantly at her desk and thought about how over the past few years, they had been so close to each other the entire time. And despite that fact, they had never once figured out the others true identity until recently.

There were so many times that she had been so close, the clues literally right in front of her, but she hadn't picked up on them, or even thought about the possibility. And now, she wasn't even sure at all, about anything. Maybe it was too late.

"Marinette?"

Her head whipped up. "Yeah?"

"I was just calling attendance." Her teacher responded with a kind, albeit, slightly concerned, look on her face.

"Oh, here."

Her teacher nodded before re-checking her sheet.

Alya looked down at her. "Are you okay? You look like you've gotten no sleep."

"You know why." Marinette said, still feeling miserable.

"We were all involved. We'll get him back. You know that, right?"