"Ack!" She stuck her finger in her mouth as if that would stop the sting of pain. How clumsy of her, to prick her finger like that like she hadn't been sewing near daily for over ten years now.

This dress had been giving her fits. She'd happily taken on Adrien's challenge to reinvent the dress into something she'd actually wear, but it was proving to be a challenge. The seams were done well, the thread was thick, and her seam ripper was dull.

But not dull enough to stab her.

With her finger no longer bleeding, she took a breath and continued on her task of ripping all the fluff from around the neckline. The neckline itself was fine—she quite liked the wide boatneck, actually— but for the love of her, she could not stand the ruffles. Anywhere.

She almost started laughing again at this being a dress that Audrey herself had handpicked to be in style now. That had sure shocked her. The ruffles? And the print?

Actually, the print wasn't too bad. But not what Marinette would think Audrey would call "high fashion".

Tikki whimpered, calling her attention. Marinette took a look at the clock. "Oh, I'm sorry, Tikki!" she said, putting the dress aside. "It's time for a walk."

It certainly wasn't the first time Tikki had come begging to go out since Marinette had gotten her. Marinette was pretty good at remembering her walk times, but Tikki was always there to remind her if Marinette had forgotten.

Marinette slid the harness on Tikki, and then the two were out. This was one of the reasons Marinette had gotten a dog in the first place. Her mother had, at one point, commented on how lost Marinette got in her work. Which was very much true. Marinette loved her job, almost to the point of obsession. There had been many times Marinette's mom had to remind her that breakfast was not only a few hours ago and that dinner was on the table.

When Marinette moved out, her mother had constantly texted her asking if she'd surfaced from her work. It was a fifty-fifty shot she hadn't.

So, when Alya had suggested a dog, Marinette was originally a little hesitant. After all, that meant she would be responsible for something other than just herself. And she was barely getting by. But Alya had insisted it would be a good idea. A dog would make her surface from her work as well as force her out of the house and into the sun on a daily basis. And that's when Alya had dragged Marinette to a pet shelter.

"You are not getting a store dog; either shelter or responsible breeder," Alya had insisted.

Luckily for them, the shelter had no shortage of pups. Supposedly, there was a puppy mill they'd only recently shut down and the shelter was overflowing with little dogs.

Within moments, the girls were cooing over the dogs, and Marinette had wanted to take every last one of them home.

And then they had spotted Tikki.

"I want her," Marinette had cooed, looking at the ruby King Charles Spaniel that was just under a year old.

Next thing Marinette knew, she was at a pet store with Alya, puppy in her cart, as they picked out everything needed to turn her apartment into a puppy home. The last thing they did before leaving the store that day was stand in front of the tag-maker machine, scratching their heads as they bounced names for the puppy back and forth. Marinette had been the one that came up with Tikki, and Alya had had no objections, hence the puppy's new moniker.

Alya had been kind enough to help carry all the dog items up to Marinette's apartment and help set up the place while Tikki explored her surroundings.

"Now," Alya had said, the girls sitting down as Tikki continued scurrying around the place. "Remember, the point of the dog is to get you to be responsible."

"I know," Marinette had told her. "She needs potty breaks and walks and food and all that. I will make sure that all happens."

And that was the day Marinette made use of her alarms.

The first week, Marinette had hated it to the point she almost regretted the decision. Because she had to learn to put down her work in the middle of a roll to take Tikki for a walk. No longer could she stay up late into the night because there was now an alarm to take Tikki out in the morning. Everything had shifted.

But so had Marinette's habits.

When Marinette had told her mom she got a puppy, her mother had been hesitant about Marinette adding something that required a lot of responsibility into her busy life. But now, Sabine loved Tikki.

"She makes sure you have an actual sleep schedule, as well as reminders to eat three meals a day and get out into the sunshine on a daily basis."

"And the rain," Marinette had groaned. "But I know what you're getting at. She forced me to regulate myself and now stands as your replacement of making sure I take care of myself."

"I'm just glad you're doing well."

Marinette had to admit that while it probably wasn't the best way or reason to adopt a dog, the forced regularity made Marinette learn all about the concept of time management.

After an hour-long walk—it was really nice out—Marinette turned her attention back to the dress and did her best not to stab herself with the seam-ripper again.

She failed, but she tried.


Since dating Ladybug, Adrien had grown a bit attached to his phone so he could answer her on a dime. Maybe not the best addiction, but he couldn't care less. He loved this woman more than he ever thought possible.

Nino teased him, saying it was the puppy love phase, but Adrien didn't fully believe that.

However, that addiction to his phone did allow him to answer her on a dime when she had an emergency, such as a text saying "Help me! Do you have any suggestions for getting cloth dye out of grout?"

The following picture was of white tile… and very red grout.

He cringed. "Bleach or re-grout," he texted back, already pulling up google to run a search.

"Help?" She texted back.

He chuckled. "Give me a moment to consult google, then I'll run some errands and pick up anything that might help, okay?"

"Okay."

"What were you doing with dye?"

"Usually, I'm way more careful than this but I don't know what happened and I was dyeing the ugly valentines dress to kill the hearts and I can't believe I spilled and my landlord is going to kill meeee."

"Marinette. Breathe."

"Not possible at the moment."

His smile was tight. He better get over there to help his clumsy bugaboo asap.