Partners by Chance

Chapter 9 - Tikki, spots off

Marinette

That wasn't good. That wasn't good at all.

The Pont des Arts was cracked in the middle and Chat was nowhere to be seen.

"CHAT NOIR!" she screamed, without any answer.

She picked up her yo-yo, opened in it half and waited for a small tube to come out. She put the I've in her mouth and jumped to the river. Once she was under water, she heard two splashes. Rena and Carapace should have followed her.

She swam to the bottom of the river where she saw several rocks and, under one, a black arm could be seen. It was Chat.

The Miraculous should have saved him. Even if he was unconscious, he wouldn't chooke and die, but that didn't mean she could waste her time getting him out of there, also because she didn't want to was time. Soon, Chat would return to normal.

Unfortunately, Riposter and Silencer didn't have the same luck. They weren't traped under stone, and they were swiming back to surface.

Ladybug made a gesture, telling Rena Rouge and Carapace to handle them while Marinette would free Chat.

She used her yo-yo to pull the rock and free Chat, that was completely knocked down.

After pulling him back to surface, Ladybug took cover so she could tend to Chat.

"Chat. Chat! CHAT!" she said.

Chat Noir groaned.

"Hey! How are you?" she said in a soft voice, the same voice she uses to talk when she is not Ladybug.

"Mhm... Ma-Marinette?" he said without opening is eyes.

The will to swear came again... How did he find out?

Then Chat opened his eyes and saw not Marinette, but Ladybug.

"L-Ladybug? I... I could swear I heard Marinette..." he said.

"No time right now, Chat Noir. We have a pair of villains to defeat." she told him.

"Oh, yes." he said "So... Did you get help?

"Yeah." she replied "Rena and Carapace are entertaining our guests while you recover the energy from your Miraculous."

By her face, he had totally forgot the fact he had just a few seconds to hide. He ran to behind a tree, while Marinette moved her head away and watched the battle.

Rena and Carapace were entertaining Riposter and Silencer very well indeed. They even haven't used their powers yet, but they were clearly with the upper hand. They knew each other's moves, they could talk with each other's eyes, read each other's voices... They were the perfect duo.

"Ready." said Chat "Are you coming?"

Marinette didn't know what made her say the next thing, but she did like it.

"Well, if you're going I want to go too." said her as she winked to Chat.

Obviously, she was falling for Chat, and not for Luka. But Chat had this other girl he liked... It was so confusing...

"Before we to, don't you want to try your lucky charm again?" asked Chat.

Marinette threw her yo-yo in the air.

"Lucky Charm!" she screamed.

And a real size mannequin felt in her hands.

"Wow... This one is heavy." struggled Marinette to say.

"Any idea what do make with that?" asked Chat.

She looked around and the pieces started fitting together. If she put the mannequin in the bridge and asked Rena to make it look like herself as Marinette, they would get distracted and stealing the ticket would be easy.