-14- Detective Plagg

Adrien drives Marinette home after the fashion show. He walks her to the door. "Goodnight, Marinette." He leans down to kiss her. "I had a great time with you tonight."

"Goodnight, Adrien." She sneaks another kiss before Adrien climbs back in his car. She waves as the car disappears around the corner. As she unlocks the bakery, she spots a letter taped to the front door. "How did this get here?" She pulls if off and opens it. "Oh! A scavenger hunt!" She smiles in excitement at the rules, clues, and mini map.

"Let me guess, from Adrien again?" Tikki asks, flying out of her purse. Marinette nods. "But we didn't see Adrien put it there."

"He must have taped it to the door while we were kissing." Marinette reads through the rules. "He wants me to follow these clues and meet him somewhere for a romantic date!"

"Are you sure, Marinette?"

Marinette looks up at Tikki with a frown. "What do you mean? I shouldn't do it?"

"It doesn't sound like Adrien to write you love letters and sketch drawings of you." Tikki taps the letter. "And now we wants you to run all over Paris to go on a scavenger hunt?"

"But what if Adrien really worked hard on this, Tikki?" She looks down at the paper in her hands. "I don't want to disappoint him."

Clue #1- Got a sweet tooth? Find this cold, sweet treat. Something we shared on that special day together.

"Cold sweet treat? Ice cream! It has to be ice cream. Come on, Tikki." Marinette takes off running, holding up her skirt as she crosses the bridge. She finds Andre waiting for her. "Andre?" She asks with a smile. "Are you a part of this scavenger hunt, too?"

There's something off about Andre. He looks almost terrified. "But of course, Marinette. And your sweetheart has a treat for you." Andre hands her an ice cream cone. Vanilla and mint chip. Marinette smiles at the thought of Adrien. "Don't eat it too fast. You'll get a brain freeze." Don't eat it at all, Marinette. But Andre couldn't say anything.

"Thank you, Andre!" Marinette walks off and sits on a bench, starting to eat her ice cream. Tikki pops her head out and Marinette offers her a bite. At the bottom of the cone, there's a plastic ball with a note inside. "Adrien sure thought everything through, Tikki." She breaks open the plastic ball and reads.

Clue #2- Your face belongs in a frame for everyone to see and admire your beauty.

"Frame? Admire? What do you think that means, Tikki?"

Tikki yawns and blinks her eyes. She tries not to fall asleep. "I think we should go home, Marinette. I don't have a good feeling about this."

"But we're so close, Tikki!" Marinette gasps. "I got it! The art museum! Adrien's talked about taking me there before. Art's framed and its beauty is admired by people!" She stands up, throwing away her trash, and starts running towards the art museum. The front door is unlocked when she gets there. She pushes it open. No one's here. The door creaks as she steps inside.

"Marinette, I'm scared," Tikki whispers, hiding further into the purse.

Marinette wraps a hand around her purse. "It's okay, Tikki. I'm sure Adrien's around here somewhere." They both jump and scream as the door slams shut behind them. "Must be windy outside." She keeps walking in, climbing a flight of stairs to the second floor. She strolls around for a couple minutes, annoyed that she hasn't found Adrien or another clue. "This is harder than I thought." At the end of the hallway, she sees a white letter on a pedestal. Grinning, she runs over and grabs it.

SURPRISE! 

Marinette looks down at it, confused. "I don't get it, Tikki. Where's Adrien?" She turns and spins, looking for him. "Maybe I should call. I'm probably in the wrong spot. Did I miss clue #3?"

Adrien answers on the first ring. He yawns. "Hi, Marinette. What's up?"

"'What's up'?" Marinette repeats, laughing. "I'm here at the art museum waiting for you, Adrien. Where are you?" She goes dizzy for a second and rubs her forehead.

"What?" Adrien sits up in bed. Did they make plans? No, his father would never allow him out for a second time in one day. "Mari, I'm at home in bed."

"But what about the scavenger hunt?"

"What scavenger hunt, Mari?"

Marinette's eyes widen. Her heart pounds in her chest and rings through her ears. "I-I thought... didn't you send me that gift this morning and left that note in my locker? Weren't those from you?"

"I never sent you gifts, Marinette." Adrien stands up and turns on a light.

Plagg wakes up, groaning and mumbling. "You're so inconsiderate of my sleep."

"Who am I waiting for then, Adrien?" Marinette looks around the empty hallway, scared. She holds up her skirt and starts to leave. "Who's been sending me gifts?"

"Marinette? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She takes in a deep breath. "I'm just going to go home."

Adrien's ready to transform into Cat Noir any second. "I'm going to come get you. Okay?"

"It's fine, Adrien. I don't want your father to get mad at you. I'll call my dad. Okay?"

"As long as you're safe," He whispers to himself. "I'll hang up so you can call your dad. Goodnight, Marinette."

"Goodnight, Adrien," She whispers to herself, feeling faint as she stumbles against the railing. "Something's wrong, Tikki. I don't feel good..." Falling, she drops her phone as she falls against the stairs, out like a light. Inside the purse, her kwami sleeps, feeling the same affects as her owner.

Evillustrator walks up to Marinette with a smirk on his face. "That ice cream man was good for something after all. Guess his family's safe tonight." Holding his tablet, he draws some rope and they appear on Marinette's wrists. "We're going to be together forever now, Marinette." He cups her cheek. "Ladybug, Cat Noir, or even Adrien won't be able to find us. I can promise you that."

***

The next morning, Adrien checks his phone, expecting a good morning text from Marinette. There isn't one. "That's weird," The model whispers to himself as he brushes his teeth. He tries calling her, but she doesn't answer. "I wonder why Marinette isn't answering."

"Who wants to answer their phone at seven in the morning?" Plagg asks, eating his morning cheese. "People are sleeping."

"Some of us have school, Plagg," Adrien defends.

Plagg gags.

"Marinette always sends me a good morning text. Do you think she's mad at me?"

"For what?" Plagg asks. "Going to bed early instead of video calling her til one am like you two love birds do every single nigh since you've started dating?"

Adrien frowns. "Could she really me mad at me about that? Or maybe because of the fashion show? What if I accidentally embarrassed her by making her walk the catwalk with me? Ugh! I'm such an idiot, Plagg."

"If you're waiting for me to disagree, it's gonna be another long 5000 years."

Adrien rolls his eyes. "I'll just go over and check on her." Grabbing his bag, he leaves early with his bodyguard and manages to convince him to drop him off outside the bakery. He heads inside to see her parents baking. "Hi, Mr. Dupain. Mrs. Dupain-Cheng. Is Marinette still upstairs?"

"Oh, no. Adrien. In fact, I haven't seen her since she left for the fashion show last night." Sabine glances up the stairs. "She was gone before we even woke up. Must have left early this morning. Why? Is something wrong?"

I don't want her parents to worry. "No. Nothing's wrong," Adrien lies. He holds up his phone. "Oh! Mari just texted me. She's at school. She left early to return a textbook she borrowed from Alya. Well, it was nice seeing you guys. I should probably get going—"

"Wait!" Tom walks over with a tray of fresh croissants. "Here. Have a fresh croissant."

Adrien's reluctant to take one, but he does. Outside, Plagg pops his head out of his jacket. "Ooh! Fresh bread! That will go nicely with my cheese. Can I have a bite, kind sir?"

"You can have it, Plagg." Adrien hands the bread to Plagg, who eats it with a piece of cheese. "I can't eat at a time like this."

"I can." Plagg burps.

"Something's wrong."

"Why don't you see if Marinette's at her locker first before you start assuming the worst?"

Adrien walks in the locker room, looking for Marinette, but she isn't here. He looks around the courtyard. "I don't see her anywhere."

"ADRIKINS!" Chloe comes running up, throwing her arms around his shoulders. "Sabrina's sick and she's not coming to class today. So, you can sit next to me—"

"You know I have a girlfriend, Chloe." Adrien steps back and pushes Chloe's arms back.

Chloe rolls her eyes. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng? Please! You could do so much better. Me, for instance."

"I don't have time for this, Chloe." Adrien walks off and spots Alya and Nino. "Have you guys seen Marinette?"

"Nuh uh," Nino says, shaking his head.

"Not since the fashion show last night. Why?" Alya asks.

"I got a weird phone call from her last night and now she's not answering my calls or text." Adrien pulls out his phone and tries calling her, showing his friends when it goes straight to voicemail. "I stopped by her house and even her parents haven't seen her since last night."

"Well, Marinette's late for everything," Alya jokes, trying to ease the situation. Deep down she was freaking out, too. "Maybe she's having an off day."

"I hope." Adrien's shoulders fall. His eyes widen. Wait! The art museum! That's where Marinette was last. Maybe he could go there and see if there were any clues to find her. "I'm going to go look for Marinette."

"Dude, what about class?"

"Just tell the teacher I'm sick. I have to find her." Adrien runs down the steps and takes off running in the direction of the art museum.

"Where are we going?" Plagg asks.

"Marinette called me from the art museum last night. She sounded off, like something was wrong. If anything happened to her there should be a clue or a sign as to where she went and I can find her. First, we need to go to the scene of the crime."

His kwami smiles. "Detective Plagg on the case!"

Adrien rolls his eyes. He reaches the art museum and heads inside. There's not a lot of people here, but someone could still spot him. If his father finds out he's skipping class again, he'll ground him for sure. He opens a closet and peeks inside, grabbing a black hoodie from the Lost and Found box. He slips it on and pulls up the hood, hiding his face.

Plagg pops his head out as he rests next to Adrien's face in the hoodie. "How are we going to find clues in a big building like this?"

"By thinking like Marinette." Adrien looks around. "She mentioned something about a scavenger hunt. Whoever lured her here must have made her go further in." He eyes the stairs. "I'm betting she went this way." The front of his shoe kicks Marinette's phone and he reaches down to grab it. "Look! Her phone. She was definitely here." Adrien gets angry. "That means someone took her."

"Look. A note!" Plagg flies over and picks up the piece of paper. He hands it to Adrien. "Someone definitely was waiting for Marinette."

"PLAGG!"

"TIKKI!"

The two kwamis hug each other.

Tikki faces him. "Adrien, I know you're Cat Noir. My name is Tikki. I'm Ladybug's kwami. We've met before. My owner is in danger. I'm only telling you this because it's an emergency—"

"Marinette is Ladybug," Adrien cuts in. "Yeah, I know."

"How did you find out?" Tikki turns and glares at the other kwami, sheepishly grinning. "Plagg!"

Plagg raises his arms in defense. "Don't look at me! Romeo here followed Ladybug home! I swear I had nothing to do with it."

"Tikki, do you know where Marinette is?"

She nods. "Yes. Nathaniel has her—"

"Nathaniel?" Adrien asks, eyes wide. "He took Marinette?"

"Yes!" Tikki nods. "But he's not Nathaniel. He's Evillustrator. Hawkmoth akumitized him again!"

"What?!"

"Evillustrator got Andre to drug Marinette's ice cream. She gave me a bite and we passed out. When I woke up, I knew I had to come back in case you showed up." Tikki smiles and hugs Adrien's face. "We can't let anything happen to Marinette."

"You have to show me where Evillustrator is keeping Marinette, Tikki."

Before Adrien can transform, Plagg flies in front of his face. "Wait! How are you going to defeat Evillustrator without Ladybug? Marinette can't transform without revealing her identity. She'll put herself in danger. How will she de-evilize the akuma?"

"I'll think of something, Plagg. Claws out! " Adrien transform into Cat Noir. "Take me to Marinette, Tikki." He follows the red kwami out of the art museum, climbing to the top of the building, leaping off into a sprint. "So someone was sending Marinette gifts?"

"Yesterday morning she got a package in the mail," Tikki starts, leading Cat Noir further away from the city. "A teddy bear, a poem, and a sketch of her. She immediately thought it was from you."

"But everyone knows I can't draw."

Tikki nods in agreement. "That's what I tried telling her, but she was so happy. Then at school she found another poem in her locker."

"How did Marinette end up at the art museum, though?" Cat Noir uses his staff and extends it to reach the roof of a building.

"After you dropped her off last night, Marinette found a letter taped to the front door. She thought it was from you again. It was clues for a scavenger hunt and she followed them. That's how she got the drugged ice cream from Andre."

Cat Noir's eyes widen. "I can't believe Andre was a part of this."

"I don't think it was by choice, Cat Noir," Tikki whispers. "I overheard Evillustrator talking to Hawkmoth. Apparently he threatened to hurt Andre's family if he didn't help. He didn't have a choice." She starts to cry. "Marinette never had a chance."

Cat Noir stops and looks at Tikki. "I'll get her back. I promise."