"Just a Friend?" Book 1 of "Secrets Unraveled" Trilogy (MLB FanFic) |COMPLETED|

Chpt 17: Cat Noir notices something about Ladybug.

Alya was working on her homework Saturday when her phone rang. She looked at the screen- it was Ladybug! "Stay cool, stay cool," she said to herself. She took a quick calming breath and then pressed the answer button on her phone. "Hello? Ladybug?" she said, trying her best to sound like she wasn't completely excited to hear from her idol.

"Hi, Alya. I was wondering if you would be available to meet with me this afternoon?"

"Yes, totally, of course!" she said. 

 Ladybug told her when and where to meet. "And bring Nino with you, too. I have something to discuss with you both. Not for the Ladyblog, though. See you then!" 

Alya said goodbye and Ladybug ended the call.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I've got to call Nino!" She dialed his number and he answered on the first ring.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked. She explained and he, of course, agreed to go with her. "See you in a bit!"

Ladybug was waiting for them in a quiet corner of a park. Alya didn't even know this existed back here.

"It's good to see you both! I'll get right to it as I don't want to risk being seen with you. Cat Noir and I came up with this plan, but Cat Noir isn't here since he isn't supposed to know your identities. Basically, we think that Hawk Moth is planning something big and we believe that we should try to prepare as much as we can. One of the ways we came up with was training together with you so we can learn more about each other's fighting styles to be an even stronger team if we need your help with fighting Hawk Moth. Are you up for that?"

"So, like, we would get to train with our superpowers?" Nino asked.

"Yes, exactly," said Ladybug, "It would be inside a building, so you would come in, transform, train, and transform back before leaving again so no one should see your super selves out in the city. We don't want to call attention to our plans."

"Nino and I have already been doing some training together without our powers, so this would be great. We could show you what we've come up with!" said Alya excitedly.

"Great! So no one else can know what we're doing. I'll let you know when we plan to meet. Hopefully, it will work with your schedules. It will probably be at night, so we can hide what we are doing."

Alya and Nino nodded in understanding. 

"I've got to go now but I'll get back to you soon!" said Ladybug as she took off using her yoyo.

Alya and Nino looked at each other and grinned. They were going to get to use their powers again!

Ladybug landed beside Cat Noir on a rooftop a few blocks away. "What did they say?" he asked.

"Just what we expected- an excited 'yes'! So I'm now off to Master Fu's to see if he's arranged the building for us. I'll contact you about when and where the training will take place."

Ladybug started to throw her yoyo, but Cat Noir touched her arm to stop her. A frisson of energy went through her body. Ladybug looked down in surprise at his hand on her arm- she wondered about her reaction to his touch. What was that? She then looked at Cat, a question in her eyes.

She watched him quickly draw back his arm and she wondered if he had felt it, too. What is going on? But, Ladybug didn't have a chance to think any more about it as her thoughts were interrupted by Cat.

"Do you think I'll ever get to come with you to see Master Fu?" he asked quietly, maintaining eye contact with her but dropping his arms to his sides.

Ladybug sighed, wishing he would stop bringing this up.  She couldn't do anything about it.  She was just following the rules that Master Fu and Tikki told her.  "I enter Master Fu's home as myself, not as Ladybug, to protect the location of the Miraculouses from Hawk Moth, so unless we learn each other's identities, I guess this is how it's going to be. At this point it seems I'm the only one of us who is allowed to choose the Miraculouses. Maybe Master Fu would let you go and pick them up for the training, but I don't expect that we will get to go together any time soon. I'm sorry!" she said.  She quickly turned around to avoid seeing the hurt and disappointment she was sure was on his face and headed toward Master Fu's.

Cat Noir watched her go. He wished things were different. He didn't like all of the secrets, but he guessed he had no choice. And now he was keeping a big secret from Marinette, too. And what just happened when I touched Ladybug's arm? She can't finally be feeling something for me now that I'm seeing Marinette, can she? That would just be too cruel! He wished he could talk to someone about all of this, but the only one he could really talk to was Plagg and he knew his kwami would be of no help.  He sighed and headed toward home.