That Night

Chapter 9

Chat Noir was worried about Ladybug. Every time that she landed from swinging her yo-yo she bent over, breathing very deeply and coughing, almost as if she were trying not to throw up. Throughout all of her fighting she continued to pant. Chat used his cataclysm to destroy the akumatized item, but when Ladybug swung over to de-evilize the butterfly she stumbled on her landing. She grunted as she fell and landed on her hands and knees. She heaved a couple times before she got back onto her feet and was able to purify the little butterfly and set it free. Ladybug let out a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay M'Lady?" Chat grabbed her shoulder so that she would look at him.

"I'm fine Chat, I promise. I'm just a little under the weather today, I'll be just fine tomorrow." She swallowed deeply then shook herself out of his grip and lifted her yo-yo so that she could swing to her balcony, where she transforms back to her civilian self.

But Chat was still standing there, at the top of the building gazing at the empty spot next to him. She said that she just wasn't feeling well today, but he had noticed over the past couple months that she always seemed to be tired. Though she fought well, he felt like she always had less energy before and after the fights and during patrol. She just wasn't acting like her usual self. Something was wrong and he was going to figure out what it was.

- - -

Marinette barely made it back to her house before Alya because of her weak physical state. She snuck in, de-transformed, and fell onto the couch with only a couple seconds to breath before Alya rushed into the room to tell her best friend all about the akuma attack she had witnessed.

But as soon as Alya rushed in she saw the state of her friend. "Oh my gosh, girl! You don't look well." Marinette moaned quietly. Alya touched her forehead and her frown deepened. "Ok, I'm gonna let you take a nap, and I'll be back in a couple hours for dinner and the big surprise." Marinette grunted in response.

As soon as she saw Marinette sleeping soundly, Alya quietly opened the door to go downstairs and left her friend to hopefully sleep off her illness.

Hours later Marinette's eyes slowly opened, and she looked around to see that she was laying on the couch in her house and her mother was looking over her. "Are you ok, sweetheart?"

"I'm fine now, I just wasn't feeling well, so I took a nap." Her voice was hoarse from sleep.

"Are you sure you're feeling better? Should we postpone our special dinner?" Sabine's face scrunched in worry.

"No, I'm fine Mama. Just let me wake up, then I'll be ready for dinner." Marinette stretched and yawned. "Alya is going to join us for dinner by the way."

"Of course, we always love to have Alya here." She smiled gently, then headed back to the kitchen to finish preparing dinner and to let her daughter wake up.

Several minutes later, after splashing her face lightly with water, Marinette felt ready to join her parents and best friend for dinner. She walked out of the bathroom just in time to answer the door and let Alya in the house. They all sat down for dinner and dug in to the delicious meal.

After they had finished their meal, they could see Tom eyeing the kitchen, clearly looking to see if there were any pastries in there that he could have for dessert. Sabine looked at Marinette, signaling that now was the time to bring out their surprise.

"Would you like some jelly-filled doughnuts Papa?"

He nodded his head vigorously, "Anything made by my two favorite girls." Marinette smiled and let Alya help her get the tray of doughnuts.

Marinette set the tray in the middle of the table and began speaking, causing her father to jerk back his hand before he grabbed for a pastry. "But Papa, these are more than just simple doughnuts," she announced dramatically. He raised his eyebrows in question. "As you may remember, we went to the doctor today to find out the gender of the baby." Tom's eyes widened in surprise and realization. "So, the filling of these doughnuts will tell us the gender of the baby." She kept eye contact with Tom, "strawberry jelly means it's a girl and blueberry means it's a boy. You ready Daddy?"

Tom nodded his head enthusiastically and they all reached for a doughnut. Alya counted down until they all took a bite, except Marinette who waited so that she could watch her father. He closed his eyes, took a big bite, and then opened them again in pure joy. He looked at the filling to be sure he was right. "A boy?"

Marinette nodded, "it's a boy." Tom jumped up from his seat and hugged his only daughter who was holding his first grandchild. For a while longer they sat around the table and talked. Tom continued to eat more doughnuts and suggest outlandish names for the baby, and the girls just laughed at him. But Tom and Sabine were starting to get tired, so they made their way to bed and the girls headed up to Marinette's room.

Marinette sat on her chaise and Alya rolled over on the desk chair, straddling the back of the chair. She leaned her head on the back of the chair. "You know..." Marinette looked up, worried by the tone in her friend's voice. "Now that you know the gender, you should probably tell Chat." She trailed off and wouldn't look at her friend, knowing that she wouldn't like that suggestion.

Marinette sighed, "I know." Alya jerked her head to look at her friend, surprised by her answer. "I know I need to tell him," she repeated, "I'm just scared. I don't know if I can." She looked down at her lap and began chewing on her lip.

"Don't you trust him?"

"I do, I'd trust him with my life, its just that our relationship isn't at that level..." She was staring off into space, deep in thought.

Alya screwed up her face in confusion. "What do you mean you're not at that level? You had sex with him?"

"Shhh." Marinette was frantic. "Don't just yell things like that."

"Explain to me then how you don't think you're at that level, but you apparently did five months ago. Explain why you trust him, but you don't trust him with this."

Marinette spoke so softly that Alya didn't understand what she said.

"Come again?"

"He doesn't know the real me," she spoke, again softly so that Alya was barely able to make it out.

"So, you're keeping secrets from him?" Marinette shrugged noncommittally. "What haven't you told him?" Alya waited patiently as Marinette hemmed and hawed, hesitating to answer.

"Its something that I've never told anyone," she paused, "not even you." The last part came out only just loud enough to hear.

"What it is it?" Alya was getting worried. "Can you tell me now?"

Marinette nodded. She began speaking quietly, "It's really big, so you have to promise me you won't freak out." She finally looked up into her friend's eyes, to see her promise reflected in them. "The secret is..." She tried to get her words together, "my problem is..." She took a deep breath to steel her nerves. "I am Ladybug and Ladybug had sex with Chat Noir."