Invisible Man
Chapter One

Adrien wasn't at school on Thursday.

Alya had shown up at Marinette's house Wednesday evening waving a flier for an upcoming film showcase celebrating the career of Luc Besson. Adrien (and let's face it, humanity as a whole) was absolutely the sort of nerd unable to pass up a chance to see The Fifth Element in theatres. Could there be a better way to set him and Marinette up? They could invite a whole group and then arrange things so that Adrien and Marinette were in one show while their friends were in another.

An entire film festival (showcase!) had an awful lot of variables. Marinette was good for conjuring up a Rube Goldberg machine out of her surroundings and a Lucky Charm when Ladybug needed to capture an akuma, but she couldn't drum up much enthusiasm for this plan. Firstly because "plans" to sweep Adrien off his feet had a long and storied history of not working and secondly because he had already confessed to her that he liked someone else.

The confession itself was important. He valued Marinette enough to tell her.

And also important was the part where he, you know, liked someone else. I. e., not Marinette.

(And that—that was fine. It didn't change her feelings about him any. It wasn't a "no." It was a "not right now." Later, after whatever he had with Whoever-She-Is was over, then maybe he would see Marinette in a different light.)

And Marinette told Alya all this.

"Girl!" Alya had cried with the affectionate exasperation Marinette knew so well. "He loves you!"

Nice as it was to know Alya was always the first to think astonishingly well of her, Marinette couldn't agree. "He said 'the girl I'm in love with.' That's not how you say it when the person is right there." She had replayed that conversation in her head a million times. Marinette didn't mean to dwell on it. His words just had this way of sneaking up on her and echoing in her ears.

Alya (and one must remember Alya went from not crushing on Nino to crushing on him to dating him in the span of a single conversation because she was just that good at making things happen) had just raised her eyebrows. "And how many silly things that were not remotely what you meant have you said to him?"

UNFAIR

Because the answer is too many. Infinity silly things. Though still not quite clear on what made a number imaginary, Marinette was sure imaginary numbers were needed to figure out the answer.

"Exactly. He was just tongue-tied." Alya had next assaulted Marinette with her phone. "Take a look at these pics."

Alya's gallery of candid Adrien shots could put Marinette's bedroom walls to shame. She swiped through what felt like endless photos of Adrien, all wearing the same expression—a tiny, lopsided smile and eyes that defied description. "That is how he looks at you. I've been snapping these pics for weeks." (Which explained Alya's sudden mania for texting whenever Marinette and Adrien were together. She was just faking it while she took the picture.) "You walk into the room and he turns to mush. Go to the movies with him. You owe it to yourself to see what will happen."

Probably, Marinette knew, probably nothing would happen. He was not going to suddenly confess his undying love—the other girl forgotten—and run off with her to a beautiful home with three children and a hamster.

But

you know

he might.

She spent the night unable to think about anything else. Adrien would go to the festival and they'd see some movies together and even if it didn't launch the romance of the century, they'd still have fun. It was still a whole day of films by Luc Besson.

But when she arrived at school, ready to wave the flier and invite him to join the group they were putting together, Adrien wasn't there. Marinette may have just missed him in the courtyard, but when students filed into the classroom, the seat beside Nino remained empty no matter how hard she stared at it.

Alya leaned forward. "What's the story with Adrien? Is he sick?"

Nino half-turned, propping on elbow on the back of his bench. "Nah, he's got an audition this morning. He said he'd be here after lunch."

"That's cool." Alya appeared to think she could elbow Marinette into forgetting her disappointment. "Surprised his dad let him go to to an audition on a school day. What's it for?"

"Music video with Isa and Asimov. The single won't be dropped for weeks and he's been taunting me with the knowledge that he's hearing it without me."

"Wow, very indie. I thought our friendly neighborhood It Boy was mainstream."

"His dad's mainstream," Nino corrected. "Adrien usually gets cast in stuff because his dad knows a guy who knows a guy or is the guy. Adrien's going into this one sans connections. He's way nervous about it, too, or else he would have told you girls about it ages ago."

"Dang, and his dad still let him go?"

"Oh, yeah, old man's thrilled. Apparently going out for this video on his own is the first time Adrien has ever 'taken his career seriously.'" Nino's laidback openness did not make for a very good impression of Mr. Agreste. "Plus, any excuse to keep Adrien out of school. He's probably hoping one morning with a tutor will make Adrien long for homeschool."

Alya grinned. "Not gonna happen."

"A man can dream, Alya." Nino laid his hand over his heart, and the girls laughed. "A man can dream."

In every other respect, the morning was utterly mundane. In homeroom, Marinette traded morning compliments with Juleka. And then it was time for physical science, and while calculating why her device worked to specifications was a bit harder than building it, without Adrien to stare at, hers was a disaster-free table. And then came PE, followed by math, and lunch. Marinette rarely stayed at school for lunch break. With her parents' culinary school-level cooking just across the street, the cafeteria held little appeal. But Nino had said Adrien would be coming to school after break, and she didn't want to miss his arrival. She wanted to hear all about the audition, if he'd met Isabelle Ire in person or just a representative of her band, how well he did, when he'd get the callback and if he was free that Saturday and wanted to go to the cinema.

The group they had managed to put together so far included Nino (naturally), and Nathaniel, Max, and Alix, a trio whose ready agreement for the scheme was likely impacted by the fact that of their entire class only they, Alya and Marinette had stayed at school during lunch. (And Markov, but technically, he didn't eat and wasn't enrolled at their school.) Most of the films being featured were too violent for Mylène's tastes, and Kitty Section needed to practice for an upcoming gig, so Rose, Juleka and Ivan didn't have the time. They'd catch Kim when he came back from lunch and make sure he knew to extend his invitation to Ondine. Nath would catch Marc when he could. That left Luka—who wouldn't abandon the rest of Kitty Section so close to a performance but Marinette really felt they should invite anyway lest he feel like he was purposefully left out—and Kagami as the last members of their social circle so far unaccounted for.

"May I invite Ada?" Max asked, interrupting a silent argument between Alya and Marinette.

"She's in Marc's class," Nath added, pre-empting Alya's incoming New Kid 'Who?'

"She has been under significant stress as of late and I believe a day at the cinema shall provide sufficient distraction."

"Absolutely, the more the merrier!" Marinette replied. "What will we be distracting her from?" She turned away from Alya, unwilling to see her friend accuse her of not one, but two counts of self-sabotage. Well. Kagami may be a rival for Adrien's affections and probably the girl he told her about, but she was also Marinette's friend and she didn't like the idea of trying to snipe Adrien out from underneath her. (Anymore.) Plus, if Adrien decided to take the film festival as an opportunity to sneak off with Kagami, it would 1) tell Marinette everything she needed to know about the state of his heart and 2) make him happier than being tricked into a date with her. As for Ada, Marinette didn't really know her, but a friend of a friend in need was a friend indeed. Or close enough.

"She has been working on developing an app to help Parisians track and avoid akumatized persons in real time which ideally should tap into existing security infrastructures."

"Hasn't been going well, huh?"

They heard the screams first.

Max sighed. "Negative."

The students in the cafeteria burst from the room en masse, scrambling down the steps to the courtyard. A metallic, robotic looking girl had blast a hole in the library wall, debris raining down in front of the main exit of the school. Though the supervillain was still in the library, surveying her handiwork from afar, she had effectively blocked the exit.

With more than just debris, too. As they got closer, Marinette and her friends could see a large 0 superimposed on each door.

"Binary," Max explained. "The bit has been turned off."

"Meaning?" Alix prompted.

"Presumably, the doors will not open until the bit has been turned on. In binary, that is expressed with a 1."

"We'll have to go out a window," Marinette interjected. "Ada only just turned and she looks like she's not going anywhere. She can't have 0'd everything."

Students scattered, breaking off into smaller groups to investigate every first floor classroom. Marinette, Alya and Max turned and ran directly for the room beneath the cafeteria. It was the furthest from the library, so it should take the longest for Ada to affect it. Until Marinette could shake her friends long enough to transform, it was their best shot.

Marinette's eyes narrowed as they ran, pushing herself faster. All around her, she heard footsteps thundering and doors being swung open. The chorus of voices was not encouraging. "Locked!" "Locked!" "This one's locked!" "Another 0!"

Escape was not going to be simple. "Max, Markov, go back to one of the rooms we know has been 0'd and see if you can hack it open. You said it's binary, right? So that means it's a computer program."

"Affirmative."

"Good thinking, class rep!"

Max and Markov veered right, ducking into the classroom Nath and Alix had just verified to have been locked down. Marinette only needed to get away from Alya before she could face Ada as Ladybug, but how?

The breath was knocked out of her. The ground fell away beneath her feet. Marinette sucked in air, her first thought being that she'd been hit from behind, but the idea had hardly had a chance to form in her mind before she realized—

"Cat Noir!" Alya recovered first, whipping out her phone to film the school below as Cat Noir carried both girls to the roof in a single bound. One, two, three steps with Alya in one arm and Marinette in the other across the roof and then another jump. Alya whooped as they sailed through the air and landed on the grass outside.

"Alya, make sure everyone who left school during lunch break knows it's not safe to come back."

"On it!"

Cat Noir shot her a thumbs up and then, not letting go of Marinette, sprung to the rooftop across the street. He released her, and pulled open the trap door leading to her own bedroom. "In you go."

Marinette began her descent. "Thanks, Cat Noir." He would assume she was thanking him for the rescue, but honestly, his neglecting to bring Alya with them once he told her to start text blasting and/or Ladyblogging the attack was awfully convenient.

"I'll wait out here."

"Wait—what?"

He waved his hand in a swirling motion. "For you to change."

Okay.

Okay. She had made this mistake before, leapt to the conclusion that he was on the verge of figuring her out and made life about a thousand times worse for herself because he wasn't thinking what she thought he was thinking at all.

"Change what?"

"Into—you know."

There was definitely an alternate explanation here. Sure, it sounded to her like he was talking about transforming into Ladybug, but that was only because she knew she was going to have to transform into Ladybug. He didn't. He was talking about something else. Something she couldn't see because of her own awareness of Ladybug's true identity and paranoia over being discovered.

"I don't know."

From the school came a thundering noise that was more than likely some part of the building collapsing. Cat Noir winced. He knew he should be over there, and instead he was loitering on her roof, making cryptic comments and wasting time.

"You're—" he dropped his voice, "—Ladybug."

He sounded sure.

Marinette felt sick.

"I think."

Maybe not so sure.

"No. You are. I know you are." His voice alternated, calm and sure on some words, coarse and raw for others. "You have to be. I don't—I don't need to see you transform but the what-ifs are driving me crazy so just—just let me be sure."

"Go," she hissed. "Go back to that school and do your job."

He didn't hesitate a moment before using his stick to vault back to the school.

Marinette dropped through the trap door, landing knees first on her mattress. Had he listened to her because Cat Noir always had faith in Ladybug? Or had he listened because her refusal to answer him made him think she wasn't Ladybug and he didn't want to waste anymore time? "This is bad, Tikki. This is really bad."

The little kwami never looked upon disasters with the dread they deserved. "Oh, Marinette, you can handle anything, including Cat Noir."

She'd have to set that aside for later. "Akuma first. Tikki, spots on!"

Ladybug made sure to take a detour before reaching the school, not wanting to give anyone else the chance to realize Ladybug emerged from the place Cat Noir had dropped Marinette off. Honestly! Did that boy actually think about anything?

Ada's robot form (apparently, Hawkmoth had named her Lovelace which didn't make a bit of sense for a robot, but okay) was strong enough to give Cat Noir a good fight in melee combat. He was keeping her focus off the cowering students still trapped in the courtyard, which was good, but looking at her, Ladybug couldn't guess where her akumatized object was. Her body was uniformly covered in metal sheets, all of which were inscribed with glowing green writing that looked like letters and special characters on a normal keyboard but didn't make any sense.

Since no part of her body was different, the akuma had to be in one of the metal sheets, but which one? It was going to take some luck to figure it out.

"Lucky Charm!"

Ladybug's miraculous powers of creation provided her with a ladybug-themed rubber duck. She caught it in one hand and stared at it, dumbfounded. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

Max, sheltering with the students, shouted, "Rubber duck debugging!"

Ladybug dashed over to him. "What?"

"It is common for computer programmers to read a buggy code aloud to a rubber duck. Although a programmer does not see the mistake in the code when they look at it, they will often find the answer when they hear themselves say it."

"So if I read the writing on her body, I should be able to hear where the akuma is hiding. But none of that writing makes sense."

"It will when you say it."

"Keep her distracted, kitty," Ladybug muttered. With the battle between Lovelace and Cat Noir being as fast paced and hard hitting as it was, it was hard to read the panels. Ladybug bounded here and there, trying to catch different angles to see different spots on Lovelace's body and move quickly enough to keep up with them.

But when she heard it, she heard it.

Ladybug used her yoyo string to bind Lovelace's arms flat along her sides. "Cat Noir! Get her left arm, the panel that says 'akumamake hello ada!'"

Cat Noir charged his ring with destructive energy and touched the panel with his pointer finger. It crumbled to dust, and out flew the akuma. The robotic monster receded, leaving Ada slumped and confused. Ladybug wasted no time catching and purifying the akuma. When her Miraculous Ladybugs restored the school, they also restored a silicone bracelet she belatedly remembered Ada always wearing. Taking a closer look at it, Ladybug saw it said 'gnatmake hello adb.'

Learning the significance of the bracelet would have to wait. Reading every panel had taken some time and her earrings beeped to warn her she had only two minutes left.

Ladybug fled, closely followed by Cat Noir.

It looked like he wasn't going to let this go. And if they were going to continue fighting the forces of evil together, she couldn't afford to avoid talking to him forever.

(Were they going to continue? Did her identity being discovered mean one or both of them was about to get fired? She was a full fledged Ladybug! Future Guardian of the Miracle Box! It was too late to fire her for being lax about her identity, wasn't it?)

They ended up on the roof of the apartment next to her own, sheltered behind the chimney she often used when trying to avoid detransforming at her own home.

Cat Noir spoke first. "I didn't do it on purpose."

So he had listened to her orders to go back to school on the assumption she was Ladybug. If she just pretended to not know what he was talking about, would it be enough to protect her?

"Marinette is my friend—I don't know why I'm telling you that, you know that—and I was thinking about her one day—like people think about their friends!—and I just saw it. I couldn't unsee it. Everything made so much sense after that. Why I—Why your professionalism goes out the window whenever Chloe Bourgeois is around. Where Ladybug was when Evillustrator went on a date with Marinette. How you really got on Startrain. Why Ladybug didn't show up to my surprise until I showed it to Marinette. How you saved her when her dad was akumatized."

Oh, crap.

oh crap

The boy could think. There was no way she could explain away all of that! Not well enough to throw him off the trail now, anyway!

"How long have you known?"

"Couple days."

With her back against the chimney, Ladybug sunk down to sit on the roof, her knees bent in front of her. "If you can figure me out, that means Hawk Moth can."

Cat Noir laughed. It sounded forced. "I don't think he'll be able to use my method."

"How did you—nevermind, I don't want to know." There had to be some way to salvage this!

"Claws—"

"Stop! What are you doing!"

Cat Noir frowned. "Transforming back."

"Then I'll know who you are!" She didn't like how shrill she sounded. Ladybug did not panic.

"Yeah," he said slowly. "That's why I was gonna do it."

"I can't know who you are!"

"This is so dumb!"

"There's nothing dumb about it! What would happen if Hawk Moth captured you somehow? He'd take your ring and try to force you to tell him my identity!"

"I wouldn't!"

"You can't know that!"

His eyes blazed. "I do know that! I would never betray you!"

"Says the boy who figured out my identity even though he knew I wanted it to be a secret!"

"I didn't do it on purpose! I know you in biker gear, I know you when you're Lady Noire! Why shouldn't I know you when you're you?"

Because she knew him in a banana costume and she knew Mister Bug, and she didn't have the slightest idea who he really was. She didn't know where to begin to guess.

"We don't know if Hawk Moth can use magic to make us tell. He could have a mind-control akuma or akumatize you if you feel bad about being captured."

"I am a very optimistic person!"

Well. He definitely wasn't wrong about that. The boy practically felt the need to check and see if she'd fallen in love with him yet everyday. Still… "If you get captured, if worse comes to worse, I can use my Miraculous Ladybug to magic you back to where you started. They'll undo the damage without me needing to confront Hawk Moth face-to-face and risk my Miraculous. Even if you give me up, I would still have time to fix things. If he uses magic, maybe that would even mean my ladybugs can make him forget he ever knew."

Ladybug hugged her knees to her chest. "If I got captured, you can't rescue me and get the earrings back at a distance. You'd have to come right to us. The only advantage you have is you can get close as real-you without him knowing Cat Noir is almost there. You need all the time I can give you. I can't know who you really are. I refuse to know. You knowing me can't change that."

Her transformation ran out.

And then she was Marinette, sitting on the rooftop with her back resting against a chimney. She fished a macaron out of her purse for Tikki.

"It's nice to see you, Cat Noir."

"Nice to see you, too, Tikki." He sat down next to Marinette, cross-legged, and beckoned Tikki to him with cupped palms. She settled in his hands to eat.

When did they get so chummy? Ladybug had met Plagg a handful of times, but as far as she knew, Cat Noir and Tikki had only met once. Marinette rested her head on her folded arms. "Traitor," she muttered fondly.

"I think it's very sweet that you know Ladybug well enough to see Marinette," Tikki said. She really wanted to earn that traitor label, didn't she? "I always tell her that she's Ladybug with or without the mask. Maybe now she'll believe me."

"She should. She's always Ladybug."

"Stop talking about me like I'm not here. Anyway, I need to get back to school, and you need to go before you transform back!"

Marinette collected her kwami and climbed back to her side of the rooftop in an uncoordinated and decidedly unLadybuglike fashion. That'll show them.

Adrien was already in class when Marinette arrived. Between Ada and Cat Noir, she'd almost forgotten her desire to be there when he arrived. He didn't look too happy. Was it possible the audition had not gone well? Isa and Asimov was a British indie group with haunting vocals and macabre lyrics. They had their fans, but they were far from a sensation. Adrien appearing in one of their videos would rocket them to popularity among French audiences. They'd be crazy not to pick him. They should be begging him to be in their video.

It looked like Nino and Alya were already mid-grilling him about it when Marinette came in the room. Alya had her phone up, recording the entire thing. "Was Isabelle Ire there?"

"No, just a casting agent. They said she'd be there in person for callbacks."

"When's that?"

"Next week, if I get called."

Marinette slid onto the bench beside Alya. "Of course they loved you, who wouldn't love you—like you. I'd be crazy not pick you, I mean, they would be crazy not to pick you."

He brightened a bit. "Do you really think so, Marinette? I've never auditioned for anything before. It was really nerve wracking to know everyone there was only watching me so that they could judge me."

"Of course! Because you are so cute and talented and sweet, and what else could a music video need?"

"I don't know what the video needs, but I need some luck." He produced the lucky charm she'd given him from his pocket. "I feel like I used it all up today. Could you—I don't know—recharge it?"

"Suuuuuuuuuuuuure." Marinette took the charm. What did Adrien think recharging a lucky charm would look like? She sandwiched it between her palms and threaded her fingers together. At a loss of what else to do, Marinette squeezed her eyes shut and chanted good luck under her breath a few times. "There you go! All charged!"

Adrien took the lucky charm back like it was something precious, something that was going to get him this role he wanted for sure. Her face burned and she couldn't look at him. "Thank you so much, Marinette!"

"If you need something to keep your mind off of it," Alya interjected, "last night I found out the cinema is showing all Luc Besson films this Saturday. Marinette and I are putting a group together for a movie marathon. You in?"

"Absolutely! That sounds awesome!"

After school, Alya showed Marinette the recording of her post-audition interview with Adrien. Only, with her added commentary, it was a lot less about Adrien gushing over the band and their music and his concern he didn't have the look they were after and a lot more about the way his eyes kept drifting to the empty spot on the bench where Marinette was supposed to bet. Or the way he stared at her when she finally came in the classroom. And especially the way he was looking at her while she recharged his lucky charm.

Or, as Alya put it, "The lovesick pile of mush formerly known as Adrien Agreste."