The Storyteller (Miraculous Ladybug FanFic)

Chapter 2

"Marinette," Marinette's mom called from downstairs. "Adrien is here to see you!"

Marinette jumped out of her chair and panic filled her. "Adrien!? Why is he here? Is my room clean enough? Do I look good? What is he doing here?"

"Relax, Marienett," Tikki said. "I'm sure if you just be yourself, he will tell you why he is here. Maybe he's here to help you with your homework."

There was a knock on the door. "Can I come in?" Adrien asked.

"Uh- Yeah! Come on in," Marinette said anxiously.

The cellar door opened and Adrien stepped up into the room. "Hey Marinette," he greeted. "I came here to see if you needed any help with the extra homework that the teachers gave you."

"Oh! Uh... thanks, Adrien. You're really great."

"What?"

"I mean- thanks for coming! I could really use some help." 

She watched him sit down beside her and noticed the strange expression on his face, almost as if something was bothering him. As time passed by, the look on his face did not fade away, but instead, grew more and more concerned as the work load started to diminish.

"Um... Adrien?" Marinette said.

"Yeah?" Adrien asked as he continued to read the question in the textbook.

"Is something wrong? You've been looking worried this whole time."

Adrien gave her a poor smile. "It's nothing. Let's focus on your work. You still have a lot to-"

Marinette placed her hand on his shoulder and his eyes locked onto hers. "Adrien, its not good to hold back your feelings."

Adrien sighed and set his pencil down. "Someone I know told a secret I have to someone I don't really like. Now that person is threatening to use that secret against me whenever he feels like it."

"That's horrible. But how did someone figure it out?"

He shrugged. "To be honest, I thought I was the only one who knew the secret until today. He placed his hand on his face and sighed. "I don't really know what to do. The guy threatening to use my secret hasn't told me what he wants and he didn't really tell me how he would use the secret against me."

Marinette sat back in her seat. "Adrien, if someone is willing to take a secret and use it against you, then they aren't being fair to you. You need to convince them not to do anything with it before things get bad."

Adrien sighed. "I wish it was that easy, Marinette. Things can get out of hand pretty easily."

"If my father has taught me anything, its that there is always a solution to every problem."

"I hope you're right, Marinette. You always seem to make it through your problems, so I will take your word for it."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"R-rejected?" Tyler asked.

"It's a great concept," Trent said, "but the characters are not likable, the attacking nation's goals are not clear, and the negotiation teams had little to no benefit to the story other than to have some dialogue. I just think you can write something better than this."

Tyler's hands shook as he took the manuscript from Trent. "B-but what about the action? The climax? The ending?"

"Although the action scenes sound amazing on paper, you easily lose track of who is fighting who and how. The climax was a reveal that you could easily see coming and the ending was a typical happily ever after ending that feels like it doesn't belong in a novel like this. If you can keep the concept and change the characters and plot, maybe you can save this idea."