A/N: Hey all, I'm back with more Miraculous because I'm horrible like that. Anyway, this is a sort-of sequel to my story Be not afraid of greatness. Honestly though, all you need to know is Ms. Bustier knows about her students' secret jobs. My last story for this was funny, but this one is absolute angst. So sorry about that. Please read and review!

000

WHERE IS LADYBUG? The headlines scream Sunday morning, and Caline Bustier feels her stomach just drop.

The 24 hour news cycle is every station in Paris replaying Alya's footage from the akuma attack late last night, an angry university track athlete aptly named Javelot. The irate twenty year old had missed out on the French Olympic team by one place, and he used his newly found powers to take out his displeasure on the whole of Paris.

Cars were turned into hurdles, enlarged shot-puts decimated whole streets, and the Trocadero was turned into a track, where brainwashed citizens were dumped to run in everlasting circles.

So really, a standard akuma attack.

And Ladybug and Chat Noir had been doing fine, according to the footage. Chat honestly looked like he'd been enjoying himself using his pole to vault over the bars popping up at random between buildings. It had been good. They had been winning.

Then Ladybug had been gutted by Javelot's javelin.

Marinette had been gutted by Javelot's javelin.

That was the part the news kept repeating, after warning that viewer discretion was advised. The oversized man with bulging muscles absolutely impaling the red-clad superhero with his wicked javelin throw.

Ladybug's shocked gasp.

Chat Noir's enraged roar.

Chat Noir ripping the javelin from Ladybug's gut, in order to swing her away and save them both from another attack.

Ladybug's horrible, gurgling scream.

Chat Noir had shown up again five minutes later, wearing the iconic spots and looking like an avenging angel in red. He'd defeated Javelot in short order, demolishing the man and splitting the offending javelin over his knee in absolute disgust before cleansing the akuma and calling out "Miraculous Ladybug!" as the wave of red righted the rest of the destruction.

After that, Chat Noir as Ladybug had quickly vanished, swinging away like his life depended on it.

And nobody knew if the original Ladybug was even alive.

The first thing Caline does is check her phone, then her email. She figures if one of her students is horribly injured in the hospital (or dead) there's a pretty good chance she'd hear about it the next day, even if it is the weekend.

A text from her fiancé, an email about an upcoming seminar she's meant to attend. Another email about elevator alarm testing in her building.

Absolutely nothing about Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

The only other thing on the news, besides speculation on the fate of Ladybug, is Parisian's reactions to the situation. Shot after shot of children walking around Paris dressed as both Ladybug and Chat Noir; tearful previous akuma victims being interviewed about how grateful they are to the duo; a young mother, crying as she holds her no more than three-year-old son, explaining that Ladybug had been hurt saving her little Louis, and she was so sorry, and so very thankful. A vigil, with hundreds of people, had already begun at the Heroes statue. Prayer services for Ladybug were being held at Notre Dame.

Alya Cesaire had become an overnight sensation, appearing on talk show after talk show as an expert on the subject, sharing her footage of the already infamous Javelot fight. This actually gives Caline a bit of relief; if Alya is on TV sharing footage and being interviewed, her best friend in the world is probably fine.

Unless Alya simply doesn't know yet.

Caline runs to her desk, flipping through drawers and folders until she finds the parent contact sheet for her class this year. She gets halfway through dialing Sabine Cheng's cell phone number before she stops herself.

This is a horrible and terrible situation, but if Marinette is fine, and Caline goes off, calling her mother to make sure her daughter is okay after that akuma attack, when for all Sabine knew, Marinette was at a friend's house, or possibly even just asleep in bed, this would out Marinette.

And that is not Caline's decision to make, no matter how young Marinette and Adrien may be.

Because Caline knows those two wonderful, idiotic children have not told their parents about this particular extra-curricular activity; they hadn't even meant for each other to know, until that slip-up last Christmas put that to the wayside.

For Caline, it hadn't been one great revelation, but many tiny coincidences that accumulated into a picture with really only one solution; Paris's great superheroes were sitting right in front of her for homeroom. The children who saved all their lives on a daily basis had to ask her for a pass to use the restroom.

Caline had gotten very drunk the night she came to that particular conclusion.

Instead, Caline quickly gets dressed and rushes out the door, walking briskly to Tom and Sabine's boulangerie. It takes her about twenty minutes, and there are plenty of other bakeries closer to her apartment, but today is not about breakfast.

It's about Marinette.

She walks into the half-filled shop, a little bell tinkling as she opens the door.

"Oh, hello Ms. Bustier!" Sabine Cheng calls to her, smiling brightly. Tom Dupain pops his head in from the back at hearing the familiar name.

"Ms. Bustier! Wonderful to see you!" And Caline breathes for the first time that morning.

"Hello!" Caline tries to say brightly; she thinks she halfway succeeds. "I was just in the neighborhood and figured I'd stop by for a croissant." The Dupain-Chengs jump at the request, pulling out a still-warm croissant for her, refusing to let her pay.

"Oh, no, you're Marinette's favorite teacher. You don't pay here." And Caline wants to cry.

"Where is Marinette this morning?" Caline asks, trying and probably failing to sound nonchalant.

Sabine grins. "Oh, that lazy girl is back in bed, can you believe it! Came down for breakfast and went right back up to sleep." She says fondly, and all of the tension in Caline's body just vanishes. Marinette is alive. Marinette is at home in bed. Her parents have seen her, she's fine, she's okay, shesaliveshesaliveshesalive.

"Maybe she's hit a growth-spurt, Cherie," the hulking Tom Dupain says, peeking his head out from the back.

Petite Sabine snorts, "In your dreams, love."

Oh, God, Caline just wants to cry again. Here these wonderful people are, playfully teasing about their lazy teenage daughter and her growth spurts, and she almost died last night and they don't know. They don't know but Caline knows, and she should tell them, they should know, they should know what they came so close to losing and….

"Here, take this, too. Fresh out of the oven," Tom says, walking over, sounding, for the first time today, somber. Caline accepts the gift, wrapped lightly in wax paper still, and looks down to find a sugar cookie.

In the shape of, and iced to be, a ladybug.

"Everybody gets one of those today," Sabine says quietly. "I just hope she's alright. She just, she and Chat Noir both, they do so much. I hope they know how much we appreciate and love them."

"I'm sure they do," Caline gasps out, then practically runs from the bakery. Because now she just can't keep the tears from falling.

000

Monday morning finds Caline in a classroom from what seems to be an alternate universe. The chatty classroom itself in unnaturally somber, Nino isn't wearing his hat, Adrien is running late, Chloe and Sabrina are wearing black, and Chloe is leaned over Alya's desk, animatedly, yet respectfully, discussing the chances of Ladybug's survival.

"But with the Lucky Charm, it fixes everything else-,"

"Can it really bring someone back to life, though?"

The only normal thing about her classroom is the tardiness of Marinette.

The one thing she wishes wasn't true today.

Just as she thinks it Marinette walks in, Adrien on her heels. Caline has to sit down, she's so happy. So relieved. Because it's one thing to hear it from Marinette's parents, but it's entirely another to see the girl walk into her classroom, after repeatedly watching a video of her being impaled and bleeding out all weekend long.

Adrien and Marinette both look pale and exhausted. Haunted. But they are here, and they are alive, and that is all that matters.

"All right, class," Caline says, standing up again and clearing her throat, "Now that we're all here, please take your seats and-,"

"Ms. Bustier! How on earth are we supposed to be expected to learn, today of all days!"

"Chloe-,"

"It should be a national holiday! A day of mourning! A week of mourning! Daddy's already got people planning Ladybug's funeral, and we're supposed to-,"

"Chloe." Caline says sharply, and the girl for once listens. "Go take your seat. Now."

Because Marinette looks so pale and near tears, and Adrien's fists are clenched so tight that Caline can see the whiteness of his knuckles from here.

"What happened this weekend was horrible," Caline says slowly, knowing she has the attention of everyone in her class now. Every single one. "It was horrible, but I'm not going to mourn while there is still hope. Ladybug and Chat Noir risk their lives every day so that we can continue to live ours. It seems like pretty poor repayment to me if we simply let the world stop now.

"We can pray for them, if that is something that speaks to you. We can wish them well, send them good thoughts, we can thank them-," Caline pauses, struck by sudden inspiration. "In fact, that's the assignment today. Everyone pull out a free sheet of paper. We're writing thank you notes to Ladybug and Chat Noir."

Caline pointedly avoids looking at Adrien and Marinette.

"Let them know how much they mean to you, thank them for what they've done both personally and for Paris as a whole. You have the whole period."

And for an hour, her class sits there, quietly, writing page after page of gratitude to Paris's superheroes. There are sniffles from time to time, and Caline is positive there will be some ink runs and teardrops on many of the pages.

Even Marinette and Adrien write, glancing up and back from time to time and giving each other small, tired smiles.

And suddenly, Caline knows exactly what she must do.

After the bell rings, students begin stapling their letters together and piling them on Caline's desk before shuffling out the door.

"Adrien, Marinette, could you please stay after class?" She asks quietly, and they stay behind, waiting for a sniffling Rose to be led out the door by Juleka before it finally shuts and the classroom is empty.

"Sorry we were late Ms. Bustier," Adrien says quietly, and Jesus, they think they're in trouble for being tardy.

"It was my fault, Adrien was waiting for me, don't give him a tardy slip, too." How is it that nobody else has figured out who these children are? These beautiful, wonderful, self-sacrificing teenagers? Because she sees if every single day, with and without those masks.

Caline shakes her head, then stands up and pulls Marinette into a crushing hug, the tears she'd held back finally falling down her cheeks. Marinette hesitates for a moment before returning the hug tightly.

"Ms. Bustier?" Adrien asks quietly, head titled, and Caline pulls him into the hug as well. She knows they're confused, but they don't question it either, and God, these kids, they just deserve all the hugs, all the love and support in the world.

When they finally begin to pull back, Caline lets go, because there's no way in hell she was going to end that hug first. She sniffs, then wipes her eyes, and Marinette and Adrien look so confused, but they don't say anything yet.

Caline turns to her desk and picks up the stack of thick, tear-stained thank you notes, and holds them out to Marinette and Adrien.

"These are for you."

The reaction would have been comical, if the situation wasn't so sad. Their jaws drop, eyes bulging, and Marinette reaches automatically for Adrien's hand, gripping it tightly.

"What-,"

"How-,"

"Why-,"

"I'm not going to tell anyone, and I'm not going to stop you. I've known for a while now, but after that episode at Christmas I didn't want to freak either of you out."

Marinette lets out a choking noise.

"You've been chosen to do something bigger than all of us, and that can be both a blessing and a burden, especially for two fifteen year olds. I know Ladybug and Chat Noir get thanked, but I don't think Marinette and Adrien get enough of it.

Adrien is crying. Marinette has a hand over her mouth, eyes still wide.

"I just, I saw the news on Sunday and I thought you were dead, Marinette, and-," Caline can't hold in the sob. "I couldn't keep this to myself anymore. This is my phone number, and my address," Caline says, handing each of them a slip of paper. "If you ever need anything, I mean anything, you call me, okay? Any time of the day. A place to transform, somebody on the ground to help with an akuma, help with an injury. Even just a person to talk to.

"You're both so brave, and so strong, and I'm so very, very proud of you. But you don't always have to have it together, okay?"

Marinette is crying now, too, then they're all hugging again, and the second bell has already rung, but Caline has a free period now and God these kids just need a break.

"Thank you." They whisper into her shoulders. And all Caline can do is hold them and hope that everything will be okay in the end.

000

A/N: Ms. Bustier as Alfred/Aunt May ftw. Title comes from that song in Annie because it fit. I'm a big fan of Ms. Bustier after Zombizou, in case you hadn't noticed, and I feel like this is pretty in character. Hope you liked it!