Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Second Moonlark (a KOTLC/MLB crossover)

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Marinette

"Keefe said you were flirting as well when you were Ladybug," Dex shrugged.

Marinette bit her lip.

"He doesn't know the half of it," she mumbled, pouring the last bit of the final liquid in.

"Hey, you did it!" Dex applauded.

"I did?" Marinette blinked a couple times to make sure she had heard correctly.

"You did it!" Dex repeated.

"I... I did it," Marinette said, feeling a grin form on her face. "I did it!"

She wasn't completely aware of the ice forming beneath her feet. Not that it was completely noticeable. Rhimshire already looked like an ice palace, which made sense, considering Dex's mom, Juline (who also happened to be Squall in the Black Swan), was a Froster. She had even coordinated with the Council to allow her to help Marinette with her ability, which was supposed to start Friday.

Marinette was freaking out about it nonstop, and Tikki knew. Tikki knew a lot of Marinette's fears, since the Kwami was the girl's main place to go when it came to venting.

She just hoped that things would make more sense as time went on.

That night, Marinette stared at the photos she'd saved on her phone that Alya had sent her throughout the past couple years, when she had been Ladybug.

She smiled to herself a little. Ladybug had been such a sassy, spunky, self-confident persona that Marinette herself could feel her alter-ego rubbing off on her sometimes. She now wasn't afraid of getting back at Chloe, and she had noticed that she had been talking a little more normally around Adrien recently.

But it was like Stina was trying to tear that away.

Marinette stopped short.

Stina didn't know about her masked identity.

Stina didn't know about her other side.

Maybe that could be her secret weapon.

But until then, she let herself try her hardest to sweep away the words Stina had tried to implant inside of her.

"Eesh, someone looks like they didn't sleep much last night," Stina said, looking Marinette up and down.

Marinette did her best to ignore her as she sat down next to Adrien and Dex.

"You changed your hair," Adrien observed.

He wasn't wrong. Marinette had pulled her hair back into a flowing ponytail, feeling the red ribbons twisted in as well. She wanted to feel as much as Ladybug as possible.

Besides, her pigtails had been flying in her face too much lately, and with PE this morning, she had to keep from failing today. She didn't want to give Stina more reasons to make fun of her.

"Yeah, I guess I just wanted to try something different," she replied, tightening her ponytail.

"I think it looks good," Adrien said, and Marinette felt butterflies hatch in her stomach.

"Yeah, I think your face just turned as red as your ribbons," Dex snickered.

"Hush," Marinette playfully elbowed him.

But she couldn't help but catch Keefe staring at her every couple seconds, even if he seemed more interested in talking with Sophie.

Oh no.