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Nathalie Sancoeur Appreciation Week (Day7: Secrets)

First of all, I want to say that this one-shot (which I hope will be the first of a long collection) is based on two theories:

1st. Nathalie will be Le Paon

2nd.Nathalie was the previous Ladybug, just as Ms Agreste (I haven’t found her a proper name yet) was the previous Chat Noir

And yeah, I know I’m suposed to start from day 1, but I’m still trying to find a way with words and I found that one more fitting to be the starter chapter. Also, I’m not english, so it may have some grammar or concept mistakes.

Enjoy!!!  ^ ^

"Beep beep beep"

"Beep beep beep"

Ladybug and Le Paon both shared an horrorized look as their respective miraculous warned them that their time was over. They turned around and searched for a place to hide, but in the heat of the fight, they hadn't realized that they ended up locked in a store. Cursing, both of them run diferent ways.

Marinette hid herself in a wood closet full of brooms, trying to hold her breath. She reached quickly for the cookies into her purse and gave them to Tikki.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon. Can’t you eat a little faster? Please?” She looked like she was about to faint.

“Don’t worry Marinette, it’s okay”

“But what if Le Paon finds me before I’m Ladybug again? ”

“But if you transform now, you could run out of energy again before getting out of this room”

“Then what do I do? I need to know where she is so I can avoid her and reunite with Chat Noir”

“I could go out and seek for her?”

Nathalie ducked near a small iron cupboard and extended her hands to catch Duusu as she felt helplessly without energy. Then, reality hit her. She was locked in a warehouse, without food for her kwami. With Ladybug. And, to made it even worse, she had an important meeting in 10 minutes. Definetely, her luck wasn’t the best.

She let her kwami rest on her jacket's pocket and crawled to the nearest shelf, looking amoung the food and cursing under her breath at the slightest sound.

"Nat"

She held back a shriek as Duusu's voice caught her off guard.

"Duusu" she snapped, whispering, "please, stay quiet, you almost gave me a heart attack"

"Sorry" she whispered back, sadly. And, as Nathalie went back to her task "you should search over there"

Following her instructions, Nathalie finally found a pair of seeds between some cardboard boxes and tossed them into her pocket. They weren't enough to fill her little peacock completely with energy, but it would be enough to get them out of this trouble.

"Hurry up, Duusu, we need to get out of here as soon as possible"

That being said, she walked back to her first hidding spot and looked for the exit. To her relief, it was only a few shelves from where she was crouched. As soon as she got her fans back, she could break the door and get out of there. If she had the luck to get Ladybug's miraculous in the process, then great. But she wasn't spending more time on that mouse trap.

She was only a corridor away from her goal when a familiar, high pitch voice from behind frozed her for an instant.

"Nat?"

Her surprised gaze met huge dark blue eyes, equally surprised.

"Tsk"   She quickly turned around and sprinted towards the door.

"Nat! Wait! "

It took all Nathalie's willpower to not obey the voice that had helped and accompanied her for years.

"Duusu! We must go! Now! Feathers on!!"

"Tikki!" Marinette only saw a huge, blue ball of lightning before Le Paon reached the door, breaking it with a single and fluent movement without a second thought. "Spots on!!"

And the chase begun.

Darts met the yo-yo several times as they attacked, dodged, tumbled and jumped on Paris' tallest buildings. After a really intense clash, Ladybug felt something was wrong with her opponent. She was just trying to run away. Not laughing. Not mocking at her poor attempts. Just retreating.

" She hadn't recovered all her energy" Ladybug muttered for herself. And smiled. That was their opportunity to win. So she doubled her onfall almost sticking to her foe like a barnacle .

Although Nathalie tried her best to remain calm, she felt she was giving ground. Why this annoying teenager wouldn't just let her get some distance? Had she ever heard about the importance of personal space? Her distress only grew when she heard a beep from her miraculous. Suddenly she changed her tactic. Without previous warning, she clenched her fist and punched Ladybug's stomach as hard as she could, sending her backwards and throwed all her remaining darts at her with a fluid movement. While the young hero was protecting herself, Le Paon jumped to a taller building and disappeared from her view. Ladybug was about to follow her when a cry for help reached her ears.

"MyLady, the akuma!!" she saw a black butterfly flying through the sky a few buildings away. With a last glance towards were Le Paon had run, she headed down where her partner needed her help, while a peacock-themed villaness disappeared in the distance.

Nathalie reached safely the dark alley next to the office where she had the meeting before dropping her transformation again.

"Oh my stars, that was a close one" she sighed, leaning on the wall as Duusu landed softly on the top of her head, grumping tiredly. And she still had a pair of minutes to recover.

"Nat"

"Huh? What's wrong Duusu?"

"Did you... Did you met Tikki before?"

Nathalie felt like she was just hit with a huge freaking thunderbolt. The way her back was suddenly rigid made it obvious to her kwami who shivered, fearing that she just touched a senstitive subject. It didn't matter that Duusu was the scariest kwami when she was angry, not even her could compete with an angry Nathalie. Her holder's hand reached towards her, only to slightly pet her blue head.

"A holder must always keep her secret Duusu, no matter who asks" she answered quietly, while taking her softly and putting her into her pocket.

"C'mon, there's some important issues to attend"

The meeting started as soon as Mr. Agreste arrived, with a rather annoyed expression, althought only his assistant could discern it, 20 minutes later.

"Tikki..." Marinette's sounded hesitant as she tucked herself into her bed that night. "The peacock miraculous' holder... Le Paon. Do you... Do you know her? I mean, her civilian self"

Tikki, who had been unusually quiet and sad all the evening, looked away.

"Kwamis and holders must always keep their secrets Marinette, no matter who asks"

Marinette hugged her tightly, determined not to push her little ladybug any further.

"Don't worry Tikki, next time we are gonna stop them definitely."

"Aye"

They both smiled sweetly before falling asleep.

Anyone can give me some tips about how to write, please? It’s my first mlb fic, as well as my first one in english, and I want to improve.

@beakleyappreciationweek 2021

Day 6: Vulnerable

I don't usually write and this is kinda short so hope you like it!

------------------

It had been a pretty regular mission if someone asked Scrooge. 

Sure, he had somehow gotten captured this time (in hindsight, maybe all the times Bentina had stressed about NOT putting unknown things in his beak had a slight point. Not that he was going to admit it out loud, even less to her face, any time soon though), so most of the work had fallen into 22's shoulders with the extra task of rescuing him. But still, pretty subpar villains compared to the ones they usually dealt with, paired with pretty common goals and a poorly put-together plan made it so the events of the day were unremarkable at best, and he had almost completely forgotten about them by the time he settled reading in the hotel's shared bed, Beakley diligently finishing touching up the main points of her report before joining him with a book of her own.

Eventually he had been so engrossed in his book, detailing the mysteries that surrounded a certain artifact that had recently caught his eye, that he had lost all sense of the time.

Until a soft, steady, rhythmic sound he had never heard before pulled him out of his trance and made him scan his side of the room startled, book gripped hard in his hand in case he needed a weapon, taking for granted his partner would cover the other side. 

But it wasn't until he turned to check with her that he found the source of his alarm and his breath stopped for a moment.

Because Bentina "Agent 22" Beakley looked deceptively defenseless curled under the blankets next to him with her pale hair messily scattered all over the place and shining slightly under the soft combined glow of his night lamp and the crescent moon, long lost to a deep slumber for the first time since they had met all those years ago.

And there he sat, staring at her in bewilderment, trying to remember a single occasion he had seen her like this in their many shared travels.

No matter how tedious the mission had been, how grueling and challenging the fight had gotten nor how many injuries she received from it, Agent 22 had always been awake to see him fall asleep.

Moreover, while Scrooge prided himself on being an early bird, no matter how early he awoke, Bentina was already going about her daily routine, moving silently like a shadow around the room to avoid waking up her partner. He had tried waking up before his regular hour before for a change but somehow she seemed to anticipate when that would be and fix her sleeping schedule accordingly every single time.

Logically he knew she would sleep during the period in-between. After all, common sense was one of her strongest suits, she wasn't reckless enough to enter a battle sleep-deprived, especially not when so much was at stake in every single one of her missions. Plus, she had trusted Scrooge as far as to give him her real name years ago and their bond had only gotten stronger since then.

She simply had never allowed herself to lower her guard to that degree around him during his waking hours.

Of course, he could hardly blame her. After all, old habits die hard, especially if they're the ones keeping you alive. 

Until now.

A small whimper suddenly broke his line of thought, making his attention snap back to the spy next to him, who, in a more awake state, would have never been caught dead making that sound in front of anyone.

Whatever dreams plagued her mind surely weren't pleasant as she whimpered again, her breathing speeding up and her body getting more restless by the moment, until he instinctively put a hand on top of her head, stroking her hair gently with a comforting shush, like he would do ever so often for Hortense or Matilda when they were little kids.

And then he froze.

He expected her sharp senses to snap her awake gasping, her fighting response to kick in and her self-defense instincts to take over in order to subdue the perceived threat, and immediately braced himself for the heavy impact of a bruising hit that never came.

Instead, under his astonished eyes, Bentina sighed and her breathing evened out again, burying her face in the pillow and snuggling closer to his warmth, mumbling something incoherently.

He didn't know if she was fully aware of it yet. But whether on purpose or by chance, Bentina Beakley trusted him enough to allow herself to be vulnerable. 

And if, much to 22's confusion, his smile was a little bit too smug when the morning came and the sun rised, well, could you really blame him?