THE MASKED HEROES! 'Mode Mania' Edition #25, 913

Paris was shaken to the core yesterday afternoon when nothing more than a 'monster' attacked the 'Gabriel' headquarters in central Paris.

It is yet to be stated who or what this monster was but one thing we do know is that Paris now has its very own saviours.

Though yet to be named; Paris heroes were none other than two (what we think) young adults; one dressed as a ladybug and the other a black cat.

These nameless heroes managed to take down the villain, restoring the building and all occupants back to normal in a swirl of red vibrant storm of Ladybugs.

More information will follow as it is received.

••••

"Did you see it? Oh my gosh, Marinette, I cannot believe you were in the same building as superheroes!"

Alya had been rambling on since she'd returned from Nino's the morning after the first akuma. The superhero obsessed reporter just couldn't get enough, wanting to know anything and everything there was about these new heroes.

"I didn't see them unfortunately. The ceiling had collapsed and I was stuck in an office." Marinette lied, she supposed she'd better get used to this.

To say Tikki was not impressed when they'd finally arrived home would be an understatement. The little red kwami was a ticking time bomb with anger the power of a supernova.

Apparently , Marinette and Adrien were not meant to know each other's identities. That a rule banning a reveal was for their own safety. She was still yet to see how that worked.

"I don't care about your past holders. Throwing me into a situation where I'm lying to the guy I'm falling in love with and believing this other guy is my soulmate when it's the same guy is stupid! If anything, having all these lies and trust issues would only lead to miscommunication and unneeded pain. I don't care what your master thinks, this is what's going to work for us! Knowing will give us an edge. Allow us to properly connect as a team."

"Marinette, you're not seeing the whole picture. What if one of you got akumatized?" Tikki was trying to reason with her, but she wasn't having it. Everything Tikki was telling her was just unnecessary complications.

"Then we'd work it out together . Seriously, Tikki, there would be more chance of being akumatized if there were secrets there. You can't base relationships on lies."

"Fine," the little dot finally said, "but just let me ask you one thing before I close the subject."

"Go for it," Marinette responded.

"Is Adrien's mother dead?"

Marinette burst out laughing. "No! Why would you think that? Who did you think Adrien was calling Mother?"

The kwami visibly relaxed. "Maybe you're right. Maybe there's nothing to worry about. But nobody else is to know."

"Deal!"

The subject closed, it was time to move on to something else ... to try and placate Alya.

"Well you're no fun!" The red head said, folding her arms and walking over to the wardrobe removing her clothes.

"What are you doing?" Marinette questioned, watching as Alya threw outfit after outfit onto the bed.

"I'm moving out! Nino's found us a place. Slightly on the edgier side of the city but it's decent enough." She walked over to Marinette and squeezed her tightly into a hug. "Thank you so much for everything, Marinette."

"Sure thing." The raven haired hero giggled. "But how are you going to afford it? You haven't got a job."

"Well, you see, after the heroes appeared yesterday I managed to compile some footage." She pulled one of her phones from her pocket and tapped a few times on the screen. "Ta-dar! Welcome to the 'Ladyblog' home of all things ladybug and black cat."

Marinette laughed, "Chat Noir."

Alya's eyebrows screwed up. "Excuse me?"

"His name. The cat. It's Chat Noir."

"And you know this ... how?" Marinette froze, her eyes growing wide.

"Oh - um - they were shouting commands to each other as they battled. Her name was Ladybug and he was Chat Noir."

"So, they're male and female? Oh my God, what if they're a couple ? Ship name LadyNoir. Oh this is too good." She looked up at Marinette beaming, "nobody knows their names yet! This is so exclusive it's incredible. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Her lips pursed as she looked at Tikki, the small kwami shrugging before hiding away again. "Don't mention it, but maybe it might be worth verifying?"

"You were there, I think that's enough verification!"

"Yeah, totally."

Marinette continued helping Alya gather her things together, listening to the reporter ramble on about the new heroes. Oh, the irony!

"What are you up to today?" Alya asked, placing her coat on and heading towards the door. Nino was downstairs waiting for them.

"I'm going to grab some macarons from the bakery and then I'm going to watch Adrien fencing. Apparently he trains at Collège François DuPont."

"Our old school? No way! How have we never seen him?"

Marinette shrugged, grabbing one of the suitcases and rolling it out of the apartment. She quickly instructed Tikki to get in her bag before locking the door after Alya and heading to the elevator.

"He must be a master of disguise."

Marinette laughed, "yeah something like that."

Saying their goodbyes, Marinette turned in the opposite direction and towards her parents. She now had a free apartment and a sort of boyfriend.

Life was about to get sweet.

•••••

"'En-garde, pret, allez."

Adrien lunged forward in attack. His sabre met its target without any counterattack, scoring him the winning point.

"Winner, Adrien."

Taking off his fencing mask, he removed a glove and pushed his hand through his sweat coated hair. A smile of success on his face.

"You are a formidable opponent today, Adrien. I don't seem to be able to get a touch."

He laughed, watching as the girl opposite removed her own red mask.

"I'm just in a good mood, a very good mood."

He held out his hand to shake hers only to be greeted by her placing her mask back over her face.

"Sudden death," she stated, "next touch wins."

"Whatever you say," Adrien bowed down dramatically before catching a glimpse of pink in his peripheral vision. Marinette was here, he couldn't lose now. His honour was at stake.

Pulling his own mask down, he prepared to fight and hopefully, for his Lady, win.

"'En-garde, pret, allez."

Both fencers were light on their feet as they lunged and blocked, riposted and deflected their opponents movements.

A final touch came from Adrien, scoring him the winning point once more. A cheer echoed through the courtyard from the other side and Adrien beamed. He'd done it!

Taking off his fencing mask once again, he wiped over the sweat with a towel nearby and dropped his gloves.

"Great work today, Kagami. It just seems Lady Luck was on my side."

"If you believe in such nonsense. My mind was not where it needed to be. I apologise for not being at my best."

The sound of laughter pulled their attention over to where Marinette was talking to their fencing instructor, Armand D'Argencourt. It seemed as though the two knew each other and if Adrien wasn't mistaken he was Marinette's old physical education instructor.

Marinette waved. A bright beaming smile found home on her face and Adrien could only admit to himself that he was falling hard and fast.

"Looks like you have a fangirl present. Do you want me to get rid of her for you?"

Adrien laughed. "No, not this one. She can stay."

Turning back to Kagami he was about to ask if they could have an additional training session ready for the upcoming tournament when the girl in red placed a hand on his arm.

"I've been thinking, recently, about us ." She began, Adrien's eyes widening . Oh no ! She wouldn't be trying to start things up again, would she? "And we're getting older Adrien, I know the chemistry between us has been building up again, it's not impossible to feel -"

"Hey," the cheerful voice of Marinette joined the conversation but all he could do was look at Kagami. "Am I interrupting something?"

Two voices rang out at the same time, one 'yes' the other 'no'.

"Oh - um - I'll just ..." Marinette pointed towards the exit. "I'll later speak to you - I mean - speak to you later, Adrien." Reaching up on her tiptoes, Marinette placed a delicate kiss on his cheek and he physically had to stop himself from swooning.

Adrien watched Marinette leave, catching her eyes and pink hued cheeks as she turned to look back at him before walking away. 

The sound of Kagami's snort, pulled Adrien's attention back to their conversation. "Since when do you let fangirls kiss your cheek? I'm quite sure your father wouldn't appreciate that."

"She's - um -" he stretched up and rubbed the back of his neck, an overpowering feeling of sorrow encompassing his heart as he told Kagami the truth. "We're kind of dating. I'm - um - I'm falling in love with her."

The dropped look on Kagami's face split his heart in two. He didn't know she still liked him that way, and to be honest even if he had known it wouldn't change the way he felt for his Lady. His life was going through some big changes and unfortunately that meant letting go of some of his past.

"I see." Was all Kagami could reply, turning and leaving but not without him catching a glimpse of her tear filled eyes.