Caged

Damage Control

A bright light shone over Marinette's bed, but that wasn't what woke her up. Even though the girl turned off her alarm and decided to ignore it, her phone kept making incessant noises. Marinette pulled her sheets over her head, trying to drown it out.

It didn't work.

With a loud groan, the girl threw the sheet to the side, grabbing the cursed brick.

"What's making so much...noise..." she trailed off, jaw hanging. A hundred and thirty-seven messages! From who?!

She immediately pressed the texting application, and saw tons of messages from unsaved phone numbers. Strangers. She scrolled down, looking at the previews of them.

Hey, I dont care wut ppl r saying...

You don't deserve wat's happeni...

Could you tell Chat Noir to visit...

You two are together, aren't you?

I ain't believing ur stupid attenti...

Hey, if anyone's sending you ba...

"Maman!" Marinette ran down to the kitchen, where Sabine had just placed a plate of croissants on the counter.

"What is it, dear?" she asked, startled. Marinette shoved the phone to her face.

"I don't know any of these people!" she practically yelled in her panic, quickly biting into her lip apologetically. After a quick scolding look at her daughter, Sabine took the phone in her hands to look it over. Marinette started fiddling with her fingers.

"Have you given your number to anyone recently?" Sabine asked, to which Marinette shook her head. The woman sighed before handing the phone back. "We'll get you a new one when you get off class today."

"Why is this happening?" Marinette pleaded miserably.

"We'll figure it out, sweetie, I promise." Sabine stroke her daughter's bangs and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead. "For now, get ready for school. Okay?"

"Okay..." Although there was a slight sense of panic still lingering, her mother's warmth helped her regain enough composure to think clearly. Calmer now, she climbed back up to her room, where Tikki was waiting on the desk, munching on a chocolate cookie.

"Wha' 'appen'?" she asked with a mouthful of the sweet snack. Marinette went ahead to tell her, giving the phone to her little friend.

"Now my parents are gonna have to change my number. This is ridiculous! How did this even happen?" The designer was pacing around the room at this point, flailing her arms.

"Any idea who it could have been?" Tikki questioned, looking through the different numbers that contacted her charge, her cookie left forgotten to the side.

"It could have been anyone! A friend, a classmate, a client, someone who I don't know who happened to have stumbled on my number, somewhere." Marinette let out a loud breath. "This just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?"

"Mmm," Tikki hummed. Marinette's brows furrowed when she realized the kwami was distracted, her blue eyes squinting at the phone screen. Before she asked, though, Tikki spoke. "There's a number that sent several messages. And they're pretty positive, too."

The girl snatched her phone to read the supposed positive messages. They started at six forty-five. And they were... nice.

Hey. Nice to meet you. Sort of. I just wanted to say you're pretty brave and cool.