Masked Permanently

Message Delivered

After school, Adrien figured he'd stop by the Dupain-Cheng bakery to check on Marinette's family and order a croissant. After all, he was hungry.

"Hello Mrs. Cheng," he greeted Marinette's mother politely once he entered the bakery. She was the only one working in the bakery that afternoon.

"Adrien, what a surprise to see you! How is school going?" She asked him, pleasantly surprised by his arrival. Sabine knew how much Adrien meant to Marinette. After all, it wasn't hard to guess who her daughter had affection for when her walls were covered with pictures of his face.

"School is alright. We have a new student named Bridgette!" He told her, watching as she smiled when he genuinely told her something that occurred rather than just answering with the simple 'good' reply that most teenagers give adults.

"That's nice, dear. Is there anything you'd like us to get you?" Sabine asked with a warm smile, gesturing toward the pastries she'd just baked.

"May I order one croissant please?" Adrien asked politely as he pulled out his wallet.

"Of course you may! Also no charge to Marinette's friends! Consider it on the house," Sabine told him, causing him to light up with a smile. Her kindness reminded him of Marinette's, and he knew where she'd inherited it from.

He could still see the sadness and anxiety within Sabine, even though she was doing her best to remain calm and think positive for Marinette.

"Thank you so much!" He smiled widely, hoping to distract her from her missing child. She smiled a simple, Marinette-like smile in return.

The brunette girl with green eyes from Adrien's class showed up, nervously clutching onto her bag. When Adrien saw her, he heard her squeak out of fear.

"H-Hi? Miss Cheng- I um- Adrien hi- like stuff... ph-phone and bathroom please?!" Bridgette whimpered, her face completely red.

"Sure sweetie. It's right up this way. I'll be back in a moment, Adrien," Sabine promised before guiding the girl to her bathroom upstairs. She noticed the girl kept her face down, almost as if she were really shy about her appearance.

"It's at the end of the hall to the left," she told Bridgette.

"Thank you," she replied in a voice pitch and tone that sounded more like Rose's to avoid her mother's suspicion. She rushed off to the bathroom before she could see her face.

Ladybug laid out her plan. Obviously, not wanting everyone in the world to know about her crush on Adrien, she edited cropped the video into two different videos. She would send the one video to all her contacts, send her embarrassing confession video to just Adrien, then leave her cell phone in her room.

After making sure her mother had left, she set a timer for the messages to send to the people she intended to send the messages to.

It would be a short twenty-four hours before the videos were sent off, before she made it official she couldn't return home, and most importantly, official that Adrien knew that she loved him.

She started the timer and tossed her cell phone back into her room, grabbed some of her allowance and went back down the bakery.

* * *
24 hours
* * *

"Everything okay, Bridgette?" Adrien asked.

"Never better," she smiled weakly, pulling her thumbs up. Ladybug couldn't find the strength to look him in the eye, knowing he'd know about her crush on him soon.