"Hey. Girl. Do you have any cheese? I'm really famished. I just got switched to a different miraculous. It was quite exhausting," the black kwami flitted back and forth around Marinette's room as she stared unblinkingly back at him. She probably would not have even made it back inside if he had not darted from the roof, causing her to follow. Every once in awhile he would glance back at her and then look away quickly, focusing his attention on some shiny object in the room.

Finally, Marinette found her voice. "What. What happened?"

The cat-like kwami sighed and flitted back in front of her, crossing his tiny arms over his chest. "Get me cheese and I'll tell you what happened. Don't you know that kwamis need to eat after fighting?"

"Uh… yeah, yeah, okay. Tikki doesn't normally ask for cheese," Marinette muttered to herself.

The cat kwami scoffed. "Of course she doesn't. Tikki wouldn't know fine food if it hit her in the face."

Marinette frowned darkly at the kwami. "Are you fine with brie?" she shot at him.

"Do you have any camembert?" he shot back.

"Eww. No. That cheese is so stinky," Marinette remarked as she wrinkled up her nose and headed towards her bedroom door.

The kwami huffed. "Brie is fine."

Marinette shook her head at the small sprite's foul attitude, but she was back in a few moments with a half round of brie, wrapped in plastic and on a plate. "Here you go. Cat's kwami I presume? At least he's not as huffy as you."

"My name's Plagg," the kwami mumbled out as he nearly consumed the whole of the brie in one bite.

"Well, I'm Marinette," she sighed, crossing her arms and lounging on her sofa.

Plagg blinked up at her as he stumbled over his words. "Uh, yeah, I… yeah."

"Well?" Marinette cocked her eyebrow critically towards him. "You were going to explain? I'm assuming Tikki's currently with Cat Noir. But please, inform me of what happened."

Plagg narrowed his eyes at her till they were thin slits. "Fine. Just give me a second to finish this delicious cheese."

Adrien was pacing back and forth through his room. Tikki was hovering nearby, eyes glued on him. But she could not say a word. She knew that.

"So Plagg is with Ladybug," Adrien affirmed.

Tikki nodded softly.

"And you're Ladybug's kwami, Tikki."

"Yes," came the quiet reply.

"And because we were transformed, New Face had switched our two kwamis instead of our own appearances, changing only our costumes and powers. And somehow, the Miraculouses stopped you two from switching back when Ladybug fixed everything; or well, when I fixed everything."

"That is true Adrien," Tikki responded.

He stopped pacing and frowned at her. "How do you know me? Does… does Ladybug know me? In real life?"

Tikki grew flustered but came up with a quick solution. "You're… you're a model. I've seen you. So has Ladybug. But… It's nothing more than that. Nothing more."

Adrien came up close to her. His eyes were frowned together. "Please… Do I… Can you…" he cleared his throat, looked away, and started again, staring deep into her blue eyes. "Who is Ladybug?"

Tikki looked away. "I can't tell you. It's against the rules. And, it's for your own safety. So both of you won't get hurt."

Adrien frowned and looked away, something being contemplated in his mind. Then suddenly, Tikki shuddered and fell to the couch she had luckily been hovering over. Adrien was immediately at her side. "Woah! What's wrong?" he asked, alarmed.

Tikki shuddered again. "Nothing... The switch, it just took more energy out of me than normal. I… I just need to eat something."

Adrien blinked and then smacked himself in the face. "Oh jeez, I'm sorry. Normally Plagg hounds me right away about food, but I just didn't think about it. And here I am…" he paused and looked at her with a friendly smile stretching across his lips. "What would you like to eat?"

Tikki smiled back at him. "Cookies, maybe? If you have any?"

Adrien laughed out and leapt up from beside the couch. "Of course! You know, I like you even more Tikki, knowing you don't eat stinky cheese!" And with that, he had bounded out of the room.

"But we can't find a way to switch you back? Like I'll summon you into my Miraculous and then we go meet up with Cat and switch you guys somehow?" Marinette asked Plagg, though she was staring up at the ceiling of her room, still laying on her chaise lounge.

"No can do. I'm not supposed to be in the Ladybug Miraculous. It would likely harm you, and me if I tried to go back in. I have no idea how it happened in the first place, really," Plagg trailed off.

"So what needs to happen then?" Marinette sighed as she rolled over, onto her side, to better talk to Plagg. He kept looking away from her and rambling to himself, and though Marinette was curious, something told her it was better not to ask.

Plagg flitted closer to her as he better explained the situation. "Everything will be fine, as long as I get back to A- Cat Noir. The only problem is me being in your Miraculous; it doesn't have any negative side effects, or something like that. So, I could just leave now, since you don't want to meet Cat Noir in real life…"

"What? No!" Marinette shot up from her relaxed position. "I mean, I can't just let you roam the city on your own. What if someone sees you? I've lost Tikki before, and it was not good."

"Okay, fine. Then you'll just have to take me to him," Plagg replied.

Marinette gave him a harsh stare. "You know I can't do that either."

Plagg looked at her in a curious sort of manner. "So you're not even curious?"

Marinette sighed, seemingly the hundredth time today, and brought her knees up to her chest. "It's not that. It's just against the rules, and I think there's a good reason for that. It could be dangerous or distracting if we knew who we were in real life. I trust Tikki; I think that there's probably multiple good reasons for us to not find out who our partners are, out of the suit."

"Well, I guess the only option then is to wait."

Marinette looked at him funny. "Are you sure?"

Plagg rolled his eyes. "Yes. You're the one who's insisting we don't do anything. So just go about your daily life, and I'm sure Tikki will find you eventually."

Marinette frowned, but nonetheless dropped the subject and went to get ready for bed.

Tikki was quietly munching on a cookie, looking around Adrien's massive room. It was dark outside already, and she could not help her mind wandering to Marinette, and Plagg. For goodness sake, Plagg, please don't let this be one of the times you chose to break the rules, or forget them. But then again, would it not be easier? Then she would not have to worry about lying to Marinette herself.

Adrien's voice piped up from his desk, and Tikki flew over so they could talk more easily with one another. "And you're sure you can't just fly back to Ladybug?"

Tikki was adamant. "Yes. There's a chance someone could see me. And I don't want to worry about who that would be, or what they would do."

Adrien whirled around on his chair to face Tikki. His face was solemn. "Then why can't we go to her?" He said it more as a statement.

Tikki tilted her head to the side and sighed. "Adrien…"

He cut her off. "This isn't just about me, you know. Yes. I would love to know who Ladybug is under the mask. But this is important to Paris. Akuma strikes happen all the time. What if there's one and Ladybug can't transform? That's not good." Half of Adrien's mind was mocking him. You know that's a lie. You're just a lonely boy who wants to meet his dream girl; the one person who might actually care about him. Did you ever think that she might not care for you at all?

Tikki was still firm. "We'll come to that bridge when we cross it. For now, I think it's best if you just go about your life like normal."

"I want a plan. At least, just in case."

Tikki gave him a look hinted with annoyance, but she relented. "Okay then. Well, what if I have you follow a really complicated route around Paris tomorrow? If we go past some of the places where Ladybug usually is, I can slip out unnoticed if I spot her, and you won't find out her identity."

Adrien stared at her, and then nodded. "Okay. Yeah, okay, that'll work."

For Paris, at least.

"Will you quit it? You need to stay hidden!" Marinette hissed to Plagg. He kept popping out of her purse to look around. She was glad that this early in the morning the streets of Paris were not too full of people.

"I'm just curious, okay? Sheesh. I might see A-Cat Noir, you know," Plagg grumbled, though he did duck back down into the purse.

"Okay, yeah, I guess," Marinette sighed reluctantly. "Once we get to the Trocadéro, you can look around as much as you like for Cat Noir."

After not much longer, they had reached the inspirational setting, where Marinette always went to sketch. Marinette felt slightly guilty about doing nothing in this precarious moment except drawing, but she supposed what Plagg had said last night was true. Tikki always knew what to do, and Marinette guessed she had a great plan of action now as well. Anyways, sketching would take her mind off things. And who knew? Maybe Plagg would see Cat Noir. It was likely enough.

As Marinette sat down, facing towards the Eiffel Tower, like she always did, Plagg asked for her to take her bag off and not look at it, in case he saw his Miraculous holder and needed to scurry off without attracting attention.

It felt like Marinette sat there for an hour, coming up with sketches upon sketches for different clothes. Most of them were dorky, but there was some inspiration drawn from the sunlight reflecting off of both the water and the Eiffel Tower, which made a beautiful idea for a shoe.

Then, as Marinette was halfway through trying to work out a green and fluffy jacket, which looked probably too much like a shrub, a middle-aged man came up to her and tapped her lightly on the shoulder. "Excuse me miss, I don't mean to bother you, but I just wanted you to know that there's another attack going on nearby, so you might want to get to a safer place."

Marinette's mind went realing. "An... an akuma attack? There was just one yesterday!"

The man nodded sympathetically. "Yes, I know. But with Cat Noir and Ladybug on the scene, I'm sure they'll be able to clear it up quickly again, and we'll all be safe."

"Yeah… Yeah, okay, um… I have to go," She started to gather her things and run off. Before she completely sprinted out of view though, she turned back and thanked the man for the warning.

And once she was in a secluded spot, she looked in her purse. "Plagg. We have a really big problem."

"You know, I feel almost like a tourist. You're leading me to all those tourist-kinda places," Adrien muttered.

Tikki sighed as she looked out of Adrien's bag at him. She had asked him to take it along so she could escape more easily, without him noticing, when she spotted Ladybug. "You know, the whole point of this is you're supposed to ignore me, so you don't know when I fly out."

Adrien sighed and looked straight ahead as his mind wandered off into a different universe. Soon, the scent of freshly baked bread wafted to him, among other things. He slowed to a dawdle as he took the scent in.

"Adrien?" Tikki's worried voice echoed out from his bag.

"I know, I know. I have to keep going," then he gave her a look. "You know, if you talk to me, I'm going to pay attention to you…"

He trailed off when he noticed the kwami was not paying attention to him. She was looking down a neighboring street with an anxious expression. And as Adrien followed he gaze, his face turned horrified too. At the end of the street they were walking pendicular to, there was an akumatized villain, throwing random food items at citizens of Paris, and cackling maniacally.

Adrien hurried into a nearby alley, where he and Tikki could talk face to face. "We need to do something. Now. I don't care what it is, but you need to get to Ladybug before this gets out of hand." Adrien spoke in a solemn manner, and Tikki stared at him in return.

"Okay, just… Just one more place. And then, if she isn't in the vicinity, I'll tell you who she is."

Adrien nodded. "Where to?"

Tikki scrunched her face up in concentration, and then dove back into Adrien's bag. "Head towards the Trocadéro. And be careful that the akumatized doesn't spot you."

Adrien smiled. "Of course." And then he set off at a run.

The food-throwing villain was blocking the quickest path to where the Trocadéro was, so Adrien had to weave back the way he came. As he was about to turn onto another street, across the way, he spotted Marinette. She was heading back towards where the akumatized was. And though Adrien had a duty to Ladybug, he could not let anyone he cared about get hurt. So he yelled across to her. "Marinette!" she stopped and turned towards him. "There's an akuma down that way! Don't go there."

Her face grew a blush and she mumbled out some words that were hard to hear across the street, but sounded like a "Thank you" of some sort. When Adrien made sure she had started in the safer direction, he cut back across another street towards his destination.

With his back turned, he did not notice Tikki slip away. He also did not notice Marinette turn back around and head towards the fray.

Plagg had heard Adrien. He knew he could not move though, when the two classmates were staring at each other. But after a few moments, he heard Marinette mutter to herself. "Good, he's gone. Never have I wanted Adrien Agreste so out of my life as now."

But before Plagg could slip away, a red streak dashed into the purse with him. "Tikki!"

The other kwami smiled at him slightly. "Hello Plagg." She looked tired, but relieved. "You didn't tell her."

Plagg gave an indignant sigh. "No, of course not. Now, if you don't mind…"

Before he could fly out of Marinette's purse, Tikki stopped him. She gave him an almost sorrowful look. "You can't tell Adrien."

Plagg crossed his arms and faced Tikki. "I won't."

She smiled softly. "Plagg, even though you act lazy and uncommitted, I know that you care for Adrien as much as I care for Marinette. And Adrien, he cares deeply for Ladybug. I would understand why you would want to tell him. But it's against the rules."

"They'll have to find out someday. We're ruining their lives just as much as we are protecting them," Plagg muttered.

"Yes; someday. But we have to keep them safe for now. They're young. They'll figure it out when the time is right," Tikki replied, though her face was unsure.

Plagg nodded slightly. "Yeah. Yeah, I won't tell him. He'll figure it out himself someday. For goodness sake, she looks exactly like Ladybug!"

The other kwami grinned. "Plagg, you know that's how magic works."

"Yeah, I know. It was nice to see you, Tikki." And with that he flitted out of Marinette's purse.

"Nice to see you too, Plagg."

Marinette noticed immediately when Plagg flitted out of sight. And to her surprise, when she glanced into her purse, there was Tikki. She did not see where Plagg went.

And Adrien, worried at where Tikki had gone, was immediately surprised when he saw Plagg flitting over to him, from the same street he had ran down moments before, to get to the Trocadéro.

"Plagg, claws out!"

"Tikki, spots on!"

And Paris had its superheroes back.

A/N: Ach! Sorry guys, this is out a little later than I intended. As you can probably tell, this is gonna be another short, ambiguous story, so there's only one more chapter left to go. Don't worry though, I will be writing more stories as soon as possible, and my next stories will both be longer and end more solidly (I'll tell you guys a bit more once I finish this one). Also, holy crumbs, thanks so much for all the support. I'm glad people enjoy my idea as much as I do. Oh, and just another little reminder; I haven't seen the new episodes, so this may not line up with new information from the second season.

But, I'll see you guys in a bit with the last of it and some info of what's to come!