The Tracking Device

Written by: JuliaFC

Beta-read by: Agrestebug, Speckleflower, Amberlambda, Mini Noire, genxha and missnoodles

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc; TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

oOo

Chapter 1 - Suspicions

Adrien tried to hide a small smirk as he kept glancing behind his back. The last thing he wanted was to be caught, but he was dying to see the reaction on her face.

He watched as Marinette sat at her desk and absent-mindedly took her tablet out of her bag. He saw her surprise when she noticed the sticky note. And he couldn't help but snigger a little bit when he saw the blood draining completely from her face as she read it. He quickly turned his head when he saw her frowning and starting to look around, having no doubts that her gaze would be darting across the classroom in a climax of panic.

After all, the note didn't leave much room for interpretation.

"Hey, Bugaboo," the note said. "Tonight, 8 pm, Montparnasse Tower. Bring croissants. I'll bring drinks. Your alley cat."

"Are you okay, girl?" he heard Alya say. He heard no answer, but he supposed that Marinette must have nodded, because Alya continued, "You're as pale as a ghost. What are you hiding? What's the sticky note about?"

He gave another quick glance, just in time to see Marinette putting the sticky note in her jeans' pocket. He couldn't help smirking again. His plan was working beautifully. "Nothing, I'm okay. Really," she muttered unconvincingly.

Alya gave her a sly look, her eyes small slits on her face. "Yeah, right. Sure." He could tell from her tone that she wasn't going to let the subject go so easily, but as Miss Bustier cleared her throat, they had no choice but to pay attention to the lesson.

oOo

It had all started on an otherwise ordinary May evening. Adrien had back to back photoshoots all day, and was so bored to the point of incessant fidgeting by the time evening came. As soon as he finished dinner, he eagerly marched to his room after a hasty goodnight to Natalie and Gorilla. At Nathalie's somewhat questioning look, he explained that he was tired, and asked not to be disturbed. Since tomorrow was Sunday, and he happened to have another day of back to back photoshoots, he was sure that Nathalie would leave him alone.

Yet, he still waited for a while, took a long shower, put his pyjamas on and laid on his bed for a long time. When the nighttime silence of the mansion finally fell, he smiled to himself, knowing it was safe to call his transformation. Plagg hadn't been happy… but for once, Adrien didn't care. Plagg wasn't the one bored to tears smiling to a stupid camera all day. He had been happily nibbling on his camembert while dozing in Adrien's bag, without a care in the world. So… it was only fair that now Adrien got the chance to stretch his legs a little bit.

Chat Noir jumped out of Adrien's room into the darkness. He ran and jumped quickly across a few rooftops, pretending to keep an eye on the roads, simply enjoying the wildness of his run and the feeling of freedom that it entailed. He landed on the Tour Eiffel, on the spot where he usually met Ladybug, but his lady wasn't there today. Yes, he knew that. It wasn't a patrol night and she had told him that she would be busy all day with her parents. However, that didn't stop him from opening his communicator and checking if, by any chance, she was around. He rang her number, but it went straight to voicemail, which meant that she wasn't transformed. He sighed and decided to have a look at the tracking device, just in case she decided to transform in the next few minutes and he could spot her spots as soon as they went on.

That's when he noticed something quite curious. There was a little red dot flashing near an icon labelled as 'last known location' on the tracking device. Was it something new? He had never seen it before. He tapped the little icon, finding out something very interesting. Apparently, the last location Ladybug had been seen at was the Dupain-Cheng's bakery. Chat Noir raised an eyebrow at the discovery, but didn't think much of it, until he found out another very interesting little feature of his communicator, which again he had never noticed before. Apparently, the device held a history of the last seen locations.

He supposed that the feature would be helpful in case one of them was in trouble, or had been forced to drop their transformation and held hostage. Curious, he had a look at it, making a mental note to himself to show the feature to Ladybug the following day on patrol.

But when he clicked on the history and had a look at the locations Ladybug had been last seen at during the last couple of months, his eyebrows furrowed into a frown. The Dupain-Cheng bakery seemed to be one of Ladybug's favourite places to drop her transformation. Either straight on the top of it, or very much around it. Another place she seemed to like dropping her transformation was Collège François Dupont.

He frowned again and his hand moved to his chin as he stared attentively at the screen. Could his Lady be a student at his same school? He remembered the day Ms Mendeliev had been akumatised into Kwamibuster, Plagg and Tikki had been caught by his teacher because they were together… yes, together… in his school. At the time, he had believed Ladybug's words when she had said that Tikki was there only to stop Plagg from getting into trouble. After all, Plagg loved to put himself into trouble, and the whole incident had been entirely his fault. But as he mulled over the events of that day again, he started to find it quite suspicious.

And what was this thing about the bakery? He knew what he should have done. At least, what Ladybug would have expected him to do. She would have expected him to drop the 'investigation' there, because his Lady was adamant about keeping her identity a secret. He knew that very well. He also knew his curiosity could backfire on him. If his Lady decided to pay him back and check his own last seen history, there would be way too many entries at the Agreste mansion… and way too many at the same Collège. Maybe it was better NOT to show Ladybug this feature, just in case. And it would definitely have been better to close down the device right there, right now… and forget about it.

Yet... he couldn't seem to tear his eyes from the last seen history. The more he thought about it, the more the detail sounded suspicious. Yes… the place he dropped his transformation most of the time was indeed the Agreste mansion, or around there. And the reason for it was because he lived there. So what were the odds that… Ladybug actually lived near the bakery?

Or in it?

Chat Noir's heart skipped a beat as his eyes became as big as saucers. His head filled with images of Marinette, and he couldn't help it as he started to compare his best friend with his Lady. And for the first time, the images just clicked together.

No. No no no no no no no. It couldn't be. It surely wasn't possible that his Lady had been right next to him - or rather right behind him - all along and he hadn't noticed. No. Marinette couldn't possibly be her. She was too shy, and clumsy…

"Oh God I'm so clumsy…" he suddenly remembered the day he met Ladybug, when they had faced Stoneheart. The way she had spoken to him, the way she had doubted herself, the way she had acted… so clumsy, so un-hero like… so Marinette-ish.

No… no no no no no no no. It couldn't be. It was impossible.

Or was it possible? Maybe it was perfectly possible…

No, it couldn't be.

He had always chosen to not intrude on Ladybug's privacy, respecting her wish to keep her identity a secret. However… when the croissant is put in front of your nose, you can't resist the temptation to at least sniff it, right? Or better… eat it. Now that his curiosity had been teased, he had to find out for sure!

So off he went, jumping and sprinting across the rooftops of Paris, and approached the Dupain-Cheng's bakery, trying to make as little noise as possible. He surely didn't want Marinette to hear him and come out to ask what he was doing there. No. He was on a secret mission.

He landed on the chimney of the neighbouring house and quietly jumped on the railings of Marinette's balcony, and then down onto the balcony itself. He was quite positive that he hadn't made any sound, but he waited for a while, his heart pounding in his chest in anticipation, to ensure that he hadn't been caught. When five minutes passed and Marinette still hadn't popped her head out of the skylight window, Chat allowed himself to breathe again. No, she hadn't heard him.

He tiptoed his way to the side of the skylight window and carefully peeked inside, feeling extremely guilty and uncomfortable. He already knew that Plagg wouldn't approve. He was sure that his cat friend was probably scowling at him right now, from wherever he was when the transformation was active, disapproving his actions. God he disapproved of his own actions… but he couldn't stop himself from eavesdropping. His heart was still pounding madly in its newfound place inside his throat.

Marinette's light was on, he noted, and she was in her room. She seemed to be talking quite animatedly, so Chat Noir perked his cat ears and tried to listen to the conversation. He told himself that he would back out and stop listening if he realised that it was a private conversation completely unrelated to his suspicions.

He pouted in sheer disappointment. No, the sound was too muffled with the skylight door closed and he couldn't hear anything more than a quiet murmur even by listening with his cat ears.

He sighed and kept peeking inside, in case any detail would give away important hints. Marinette was in her pyjamas and was talking on the phone. Based on her exasperated expression, maybe she was talking to Alya. He found himself looking at her inquisitively and spying her expression, the fire in her bluebell eyes, the way she moved, the stern look she was giving to the air in front of her face. She looked so confident now and not at all as shy as she looked when his civilian self was around. But although he felt that he could notice some similarity with his Lady, he suspected it could have been just because his attention had been raised to it and now his mind was actively looking for details that would prove his point. Maybe anyone would have looked like Ladybug in his frame of mind. It didn't mean anything. Or maybe it did? Would he be happy if it turned out that it was her? His hand raised to his chin as he considered the thought for a second. Of course he would be. She was his everyday Ladybug. It would be amazing if it turned out that she was his Ladybug, full stop.

But he was getting tired now, and couldn't think clearly. So he decided to leave his investigation for today and return home for a well deserved and much too delayed rendez-vous with his pillow. He could continue his investigation over the next few days. He would also try to question Plagg, although he knew that the wee god had rules that he had to follow, so he wouldn't be able to spill the beans directly. Maybe he could lure him into slipping and dropping some hints? With the right amount of cheese that is? He didn't know, but he would certainly try!

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Author's Note:

Here I am back. I wrote this story for a contest, and again… it was supposed to be a one-shot but… it grew legs. So you get it cut in chapters. Hope you like the concept and the idea. I will update soon with chapter 2. It will be a total of 5 chapters!

Please if you read, drop me a note. I love hearing your feedback, every time I receive an email notification from this website my heart melts in anticipation. I love reading what you think of the story and I usually reply as soon as I read the message.

Once again, this story is fully written, I'm just posting it in chapters because it makes it easier for you to read it.

Thank you again to my wonderful betas, to my friend genxha and to the wonderful people who helped me edit the story on time to get it posted for the contest. I posted it with 2 minutes to spare. Talk about being a last minute gal! ^^;