From Ashes to a New Beginning: A Miraculous Fanfiction

Chapter 17: Family

Marinette held her breath and fought the urge to open her eyes. A bright light flashed and she felt a rush of air by her ears as if Adrien drew his arms back from the wall. She kept them closed but felt herself getting picked up. She felt the same familiar leather against her skin as she wrapped her arms around his neck for stability.

Chat noir looked around, seeing the building around him crumble and the floor underneath him starting to crumble as well. He needed to act fast. He had cat-like reflexes but he didn't want Marinette to get hurt. He looked down at her, she was holding him around the neck tightly. She still had her eyes closed yet he knew... she knew who he was. This was the worst thing that could have happened. If Marinette turned out not to be Ladybug... oh no.. Ladybug was going to kill him.

Wait... it's alright. Marinette can keep a secret right? If she is Ladybug he has nothing to worry about. If she wasn't... he could trust her. Right now was not the time to be thinking about this though.

He desperately looked around and saw an opening in the floor and rushed over to it as quickly and cautiously as he could. The hole in the floor dropped right down to the first floor. For any civilian this would have caused broken bones and injuries, but for Chat noir? This was like dropping down from a little jump.

He gripped her closer to him and dropped down the hole, making sure she wouldn't hit her head on anything as he did, and ran out of the school as fast as he could. He found an alley not too far away and stopped, looking down at her. Her hands were clenched as if she were scared, her arms still wrapped tightly around his neck. Maybe she wasn't ladybug?

After a few seconds, he let her down to her feet.

Marinette's mind was going wild, he said "Claws out"... or maybe the real Cat noir was nearby and Adrien knew so he told her to close her eyes? Ugh... she didn't see anyone around so that pushed that option off of the table. She clenched her fists, trying to push the thoughts out of her mind, and squeezed her eyes tighter, but loosened them once she felt them stop moving. The anticipation of not knowing where they were was driving her crazy.

"You can open your eyes now." He said, finally letting her catch her breath and calm her nerves, knowing they were safe from the school.

Marinette took a deep breath and slowly opened her eyes and saw Chat noir nervously looking down at her with a worried flustered expression.

"You're..." She began, almost as if she couldn't believe her eyes, still processing what had happened.

She felt the leather and heard the words... though now her eyes had seen who had saved her. How the irony. If he would have waited another three seconds, it could have easily been the other way around, though he took action first. Though she was more cautious of revealing herself and knew Chat noir was more... rash in those types of decisions but didn't think he would reveal himself to Marinette for real. Yeah he teased about it, but she made it perfectly clear before she didn't want to know... what can you do under the circumstances though when Ladybug didn't show up because she is standing in front of you not able to transform?

The only thing she could do now... was to either make sure he didn't find out her identity... or come clean about it. She was the guardian after all... She was still living with him. She could make the rules from now on... though she still needed to keep in mind all of the great lessons Master Fu had given her and the warnings. Though being able to know each other's identities... could be useful. Instead of wasting time today running and getting her to safety... they both could have gone after the Akuma that caused all of it. If anything were to be said... she would keep it hidden for now... she needed to confide in Tikki when she gets the chance... maybe Plagg too now... since... Adrien... is Chat noir.