Partners by Chance

Chapter 1 - The Aftermath

Marinette

Gone.

Marinette could only say one thing in that afternoon after taking Master Fu to the train station. All the knowledge, all the hope... gone, forever...

Tikki, Marinette's kwami, was flying around our beloved heroine that was one step from giving up the fight against Hawk Moth. Fu's tablet containing the deciphered version of the Spellbook was gone as well, probably in possession of Hawk Moth by now. He would be able to repair the Peacock Miraculous and him and Maurya would be more powerful than ever.

"Marinette, it's not the end of the world!" said Tikki, trying to help her owner feel better. To what Marinette answered:

"That's the point, Tikki... it is..."

Marinette looked at Master Fu's farewell letter once again. No matter how many time she read it, the events of the day wouldn't change.

"Marinette, dinner is ready!" yelled Sabine, Marinette's mom.

"Coming!" yelled Marinette back.

Marinette stood up and opened the trapdoor to get from her bedroom to the living room. The dinner was already on the table and both Marinette's parents were already beginning the meal. She walked tiredly to her seat where she let herself drop out of exhaustion.

Her parents noticed that and felt that it was their duty to ensure their daughter was feeling alright. They imagined several reasons for such behaviour, yet not even their wildest conjecture was barely close to reality.

"So, how was your day Marinette?" asked her father, Tom.

"Oh, it was fine..." said her.

But the lie wasn't good enough to convince her parents. Marinette, that was usually energetic and positive, was now reduced to a bad copy of herself, chewing the meat in her fork and playing with the peas in the plate.

In a despair to cheer Marinette up, or at least get a reaction other than disinterest, Sabine made the ultimate attempt to change the course of the conversation to anything but sadness and tiredness.

"We haven't heard of Adrien for a while now. How is he? What's going on between you two?"

Marinette was not seeing that coming. She was prepared to answer basically anything her parents could ask or say to get her out of her melancholy, except Adrien. Everything but Adrien.

"Well, I me-mean, he's awesome - I MEAN - he's ok, not that he's not awesome, NO, what I'm trying to say is..."

Her parents were laughing quietly. At least she wasn't sad anymore. Or so they thought.

"...the point is: he's fine, we are fine. Why do you ask?" finished Marinette, trying to not look too embarrassed or uncomfortable with the question.

"For nothing, sweety." replied her father.

After dinner, Marinette pretended to yawn, said good night to her parents, and returned to her room.

Tikki was waiting her, eating happy a macaron while reading a history book. The subject she was reading was ancient Egypt and hieroglyphs, and, in the hieroglyph the kwami was looking at, there was a drawing of an ancient Ladybug and herself.

Marinette laied down on her bed and looked at Tikki. Without thinking, she asked:

"Do you miss any of your former Ladybugs?"

Tikki looked at her. She had many different Ladybugs since her Miraculous was firstly made and she materialized for the first time, but none was truly her friend. None until Marinette.