Lovebug

Part 11

Ladybug and Cat Noir are seated on the floor across from Master Fu. They arrived at his home a few minutes before and without a word he let them in, his face stained with anger. Cat Noir just sits, staring at the wall, saying nothing.

"Alright," Ladybug says, "Let me explain why I did what I did..." 

"How could you Ladybug?!" Fu yells "The two of you should never have given that TV Interview, let alone exposed this!"

"I said I was sorry..." 

"You know, I thought I could trust you" Fu interrupts, "I...I have the right mind to take away both of your Miraculous!"

"Master Fu, please!" Ladybug shouts. This silences the enraged guardian. "Don't punish Cat Noir for something I did. If you would let me explain my plan, you will see why I did that."

"Alright Ladybug... explain your plan." Fu says coldly

"The thing Hawkmoth said about people's negative emotions in regards to our relationship really stuck with me. Then it hit me... once the interview is over, people will go back to their regular lives, there is no longer the uncertain excitement that is holding the negative emotions back. I... I couldn't think of what else to do, I had to say something drastic to hold the attention of the public and keep their emotions occupied." Ladybug says and Fu's face softens a little. He realises he has overreacted and that Marinette is a very capable Ladybug.

Ladybug continues, "The engagement announcement will keep people excited long enough for us to merge Miraculous privately. Once our powers are strengthened, we set about planning a fake but very public wedding. The people are excited and therefore Hawkmoth has no one to akumatise."

"But how to you plan to defeat Hawkmoth?" Cat Noir asks

"I'm just getting to that." Ladybug says, "If we get hold of the tapes from the interview today, we can trace the IP address of where the video came from and therefore find Hawkmoth. It's then a simple case of setting up a fake Ladybug and Cat Noir getting married in front of the public while we ambush Hawkmoth as he prepares in his lair to akumatise someone."

Master Fu and Cat Noir each respectively pause for a minute, thinking over this plan that Ladybug has placed in front of them. It then dawns on the pair that this plan seems airtight and should work.

"That... that's genius Ladybug!" Cat Noir exclaims, "What do you think Master Fu?"

Fu is quiet for a few moments. "You appear to have thought this through very carefully Ladybug... and It sounds like this plan has a very high chance of success. And I apologise for what I said before, I had forgotten how capable the pair of you are, I should have known you would never expose something this important without good cause."

"Thank you, Master Fu," Ladybug says with a slight bow of her head. 

"So where do we go from here?" Master Fu asks. "You came up with the plan Ladybug, Cat Noir and I are at your command to make this work."

"Firstly, how far along are you at deciphering what we must do for the Miraculous merging ceremony?" Ladybug asks

"I believe I may have cracked the code," Fu says. "I may need a few days to be certain but under what I know so far, the ceremony must be performed under the first rising of a New Moon. The next New Moon is two Saturday's from now, On July 10th. That shall be our projected date."

Ladybug pauses after hearing this date. She graduates from school on July 6th and her 18th Birthday, coincidentally, is July 9th. "That... that sounds good, thank you."

"I have a few potential people in my head to portray the fake Ladybug and Cat Noir, but we don't need to deal with that right now. The only other thing we need to do is to get hold of the taping of our interview today... and I'm still working out how we are going to do that."

"We can figure it out at a later date, there's still time" Cat Noir reassures her. "We should probably head out now, thank you so much, Master Fu..."

"Before you go..." Master Fu interrupts. "I should probably tell you a little bit about what I've discovered about the Miraculous merge ceremony." The pair look at him confused.

"Now, obviously I have always told you to keep your identities secret from everyone, even each other. But in my research and deciphering, I have discovered that there is a final ritual to the ceremony called "Unmasking". It involves... sharing your identities with each other."

"What?!" both hero's appear to exclaim at the same time.

"You see, in an ordinary wedding, both partners are expected to consummate the marriage. But in this instance, your kwami's will perform their own consummation ritual of sorts. In order for them to do that, you both must de-transform."

Internally, Cat Noir is so excited. He has been waiting almost four years to know the true identity of the woman he loves, yet at the same time, there are doubts. What if this ruins their relationship, what if they know each other, not as hero's, and dislike each other's true identities.

This same fear strikes Ladybug. Sure, she and Cat Noir would be married on paper, but nothing else about it would be serious. This is a secret that not one single other person knows about her, and now she has to share it!?

"Are you sure there isn't any other way we could do it?" Ladybug asks, "what... what if we hid in separate rooms?"

"I am sorry, but those are the rules" Fu replies.

Soon after the pair leave Fu's house and swing off their separate ways, their minds weighed down from all the new information they have just learned. Neither prepared for the coming weeks which would test every iota of strength in their bodies and minds.