Marinette felt guilty that she'd had to say no to Mrs. Chamack when she'd been asked to watch Manon on Halloween because the newscaster was doing a segment on the holiday. A massive paper was due soon and Marinette needed to use every spare minute to work on it. Thankfully, her guilt was lessened when she'd mentioned this to Alya who volunteered to watch the little rascal.
Phone buzzing next to her computer, Marinette finished typing out her thought and picked it up. The message contained three pictures from Alya. One of her sisters in their Ladybug and Chat Noir costumes; which Marinette couldn't tell were picked out by the girls themselves or their big sister. The next photo was one of Manon striking a pose in a pink tutu with a fake sword strapped to her back. The last photo was a selfie of all three kids and Alya. Marinette laughed when she noticed the makeshift unicorn horn perched on her best friend's head, remembering the time Alya had told Manon she was a real unicorn.
At the end of the string of photos was a message, "wish you could come with." Marinette sighed and slumped down in her seat. She could allow herself a few minutes to wallow over missing all the fun tonight in favor of writing this stupid paper. Tikki flew over to sit on the desk in front of Marinette. "You know you probably still have time to go with them, or catch up at least. I know Alya can handle them but I'm sure she'd appreciate the help." Marinette sighed again.
"I can't Tikki. I have to get this paper down now. There's no way to know that I'll have time to finish it before the due date because of the increase in akumas. I can't put it off. I'd rather miss out on tonight and have a good paper to turn in, than throw something together last minute when I'm drained and sleep deprived." Marinette slumped farther in her chair. "I don't have to be happy about it though."
Tikki giggled. "That is very responsible of you Marinette and you're right we have no idea when the next akuma will…" Before Tikki could finish her sentence, there was a crash and screaming coming from outside. Marinette groaned before getting up from her chair. "Sorry Marinette, I think I jinxed it."
"Don't' worry about it, I'm sure it was just my rotten luck." Marinette had never sounded so morose while calling upon her transformation, heaving another deep sigh once fully suited up. She climbed out onto her balcony and swung off towards the park, where the commotion seemed to be coming from.
Arriving in the park, Ladybug scanned the scene before her. A brunette woman was yelling up at a giant stack of swaying Jack o' Lanterns in English. Thanks to her enhanced reflexes with transformed, Ladybug realized what was going to happen and swooped in, getting the woman out of the way just in time for the pumpkin stack to slam itself faces first into the ground where she'd been standing. It began to slowly restack itself, arching as it slowly straitened. The motion almost looked like a wilting flower righting itself after finally getting water.
Ladybug was glad her English was at least passable because it seemed as though the woman wasn't about to start speaking French anytime soon. "My son, help him please! He didn't realize that we weren't going to be celebrating Halloween on this vacation and then all of a sudden he turned into that pumpkin thing!"
"Okay, okay, calm down. Your son will be okay." Ladybug heard the telltale sounds of Chat Noir's baton hitting the ground as he drew near. "My partner and I will get your son back to normal. Before he turned, did anything of his turn a black color?" The woman nodded and pointed to the top of the Jack o' Lantern stack where a pail in the shape of a Jack o' Lantern sat. Great. As least the akuma design made a little bit of sense.
Chat Noir landed next to Ladybug and she quickly explained the situation. "Damn, Hawkmoth really has no boundaries. A foreign child on vacation? That's more messed up than usual." Chat Noir shook his head in disgust.
"I completely agree Chaton. Let's help this kid quickly so him and his mom can get back to their trip. I have a plan." A brief explanation of Ladybug's plan later, and the two heroes were launching themselves into battle. Chat landed a bit too close to the akuma. Ladybug raced forward and pulled him back, just avoiding being crushed.
Ladybug's plan didn't even need to be put into action, the akumatized object was right there in front of them. They landed so closed to where the stack of pumpkins' head was that Chat was simply able to reach forward and grab the Jack o' Lantern bucket. He stood up and crushed the plastic beneath his boot, releasing the akuma that Ladybug then purified. She didn't even need to call on lucky charm to fix any damage. The little boy ran back to his mother, who thanked them profusely.
"Well, this was the quickest akuma we've ever faced. I wonder if anybody that wasn't here even knows about it yet?" Chat Noir scanned the area for any sign of press. His eyes widened and Ladybug looked to see what had caught his attention. Alya was walking down one of the park's paths, three little girls marching in front of her. "Hey Alya!" Chat waved as four heads turned to look at them, two of them being mini doppelgangers of the heroes.
The kids sprinted for the heroes, Alya jogging behind them. As they approached, Alya opened her mouth to say something but, Manon beat her to it. "Marinette? I thought you couldn't watch me because you had homework?" The three teenagers' mouths dropped.
"What!?" Ladybug's voice came out as a high pitched screech. Manon's attention turned to Chat Noir as he echoed Ladybug in shock.
"Marinette, you didn't tell me you were dating that model boy! If you wanted to go on a date with your boyfriend for Halloween you could have just told Maman that." Manon crossed her arms as she glared at Ladybug.
"WHAT!?" Ladybug's voice came out even shriller than before, practically breaking the sound barrier as she spun around to look at Chat. The two heroes gaped at each other. Ladybug's outburst was sudden, loud, and made everyone jump about ten feet in the air. "NO WAY AM I THIS LUCKY!"
Thanks to Ladybug's loud outburst, everyone was slightly prepared for Chat Noir's equally as loud words. "NO, MY LADY IS MY PRINCESS! I THINK I'M THE LUCKY ONE!"
"WHY ARE WE SCREAMING?" The heroes' heads swiveled to look at Manon. They looked back at each other then back to Manon. How were they going to play this off?
A throat cleared behind the little girl. "Alright Manon, girls, let's get going."
The three girls whined. "But Alyaaaaa."
"Nope, we're leaving. Come on, start walking." Alya's sisters had to drag Manon after them when they began to walk back over to the path. Alya turned back to the heroes when the girls were out of ear shot. If looks could kill, they'd both have been goners.
"All three of us are going to have a nice long chat about this later AND there is going to be an exclusive Ladynoir interview on the Ladyblog within the next few days. Got it?" Ladybug and Chat Noir nodded sheepishly before Alya turned on her heel, following after the girls.
When the troop of girls arrived back on the path Manon called out one last time. "BYE MARINETTE. BYE ADRIEN." Both heroes were too stunned to do anything but loosely wave goodbye.
When the group of girls had disappeared down the path, Ladybug and Chat Noir turned to each other. Neither of them knew who screamed louder.