Author's note: It actually sounds so heavy every time I write "author", haha, so unreal. Either way, I wanted to say thanks for any new person interested in this and special thanks to Misheru Haruno who actually commented on every chapter. Thanks, it really makes my heart flutter to see the numbers going up and people enjoy it :D

As always, leave reviews and all that and most of all, I hope you all enjoyed the 2 new episodes as much as I did :D For a second there, I really wanted to hug Gabriel.

"Do you think Adrien was acting weird?" Marinette asked Juleka once they left the hotel behind.

"Weird how?"

"He seemed pretty… anxious? Just when we were about to leave," she said thoughtfully.

"Did he? I didn't notice, I'm sorry."

"Oh, no need to apologize! It's probably in my head, either way," she waved her hand and laughed awkwardly.

"But if he were, I suppose he might not have wanted us to leave."

"You think?!" Marinette turned her head towards her while walking.

"Yes," Juleka nodded, "To avoid staying alone with Chloé once again," she concluded.

"Oh… Oh yeah, Chloé. I guess that's maybe it," she conceded with a feeling of disappointment.

Truth be told, he did look tired when they came over to see him – her! (She meant to think her!) But he acted a bit strangely from her point of view, or was it really her strangeness that made him act strange? Or it was truly in her head? The conversation they had outside Chloé's room was definitely strange, but then again, she mostly remembered herself acting uncool and embarrassed just because they were alone. She was even thankful for Luka's message, because after basically running away from him, she avoided even looking at him.

Argh, why am I like this?! I should have talked to him more!

She was wishfully thinking he may not have wanted her to leave, because the conversation she found magical (albeit, completely embarrassing for her), he may have thought magical as well! He called her cute, after all! Or that she had cute points! Though a bit frustrating that her clumsiness was that cute point… Maybe he didn't even mean it as a compliment in the end… And maybe he really just wanted more people to be there so he would take a longer break.

Maybe it was a good idea to leave. I'm starting to imagine things.

"What do you think Kim will ask of you?" Juleka interrupted her fast-approaching-to-depression thought process.

"Hmm?" She turned to her. "I have no idea. I just hope he won't ask to compete on something, because that's a sure humiliation for me," she laughed, clearing her mind from Adrien. Juleka joined too.

"He has done some outrageous things, but I can only see him asking for a personal servant," she moved her hands as if she were massaging someone in front of her. Marinette pictured it mentally and it really fit Kim's vanity. She burst out laughing.

"I can see it all too well! But I don't mind, that would be easy," she said and truly believed it. "Oh Juleka, we should cross the road before the light turns red, c'mon." She motioned towards Juleka and they both ran.

For the rest of the walk to the band's place, they chattered along, talking about nonsensical things, like how Ivan got a nice month anniversary to Mylène, how Alix got new roller-skates or how Alya was trying to experiment with Ladyblog's interface. Without even noticing how much time passed, they reached the place they agreed to and although it was somewhere Marinette didn't really frequent to, Juleka knew the way.

After knocking on the door, Luka ushered them inside and they found a sweet spot to sit throughout the practice, which was Juleka's spot to be precise. Marinette was feeling excited once again, focusing only on what was happening in front of her and was asking Juleka various things from the instruments to songs to techniques.

"You're very interested in this, Marinette," Juleka commented a bit surprised.

"I am! Ever since I became a Jagged Stone fan, I've been fascinated by guitars! And this," she pointed towards all of the band members, "is really fun," she exclaimed with a blush on her cheeks, this time from excitement, not embarrassment.

"How come you had never said so before?"

"Hmm, I think I never realized how fun it was. Fashion excites me more, so I am content listening to others playing," she said thoughtfully. "But there is something magical listening up close live music. Your brother and his friends are really talented!"

"Haha, thank you, Marinette," Juleka smiled. "I'll pass on the compliments."

"What? Oh no no, you don't need to. Please," she asked her with an almost desperate face. It seemed awfully embarrassing to have someone else pass on messages from her like she couldn't say things on her own, especially when the person in question was right there.

"Hmm?" Juleka didn't seem to notice her reaction that much as she was taking a photo of the guys.

"Girls, are you ok there?" Luka's voice reached them. He was still in position and was looking right at them.

"Yes," nodded Juleka. "Marinette was just telling me how good you all sound."

Marinette felt her ears get warm. She knew there was nothing bad about it, but she barely knew him and it seemed like she was trying to keep it a secret by not telling them herself and it somehow felt wrong. She raised her eyes to meet Luka's and he was smiling kindly back at her.

"Y-y-yes," she stuttered and smiled awkwardly. If she couldn't avoid it, she would have to own it. "You were all playing so well."

"Really? Thank you, Marinette!" He seemed to mean it. "Although, we do have some parts we need to straighten out a bit more, but I think it's working out really well," he smiled proudly looking over the instruments. The rest of the band members were also taking a break tuning their instruments or drinking some water and chatting with each other.

"I think you performed the second song better this time," Juleka noted.

"You think? I really felt it went easier this time."

"Yeah, it matched the tempo even better."

They went on about some more details and Marinette could only sit there and stare at them. She didn't know that much about music and couldn't understand the nuances of the details they were talking about, but it was interesting to see how much they were into it and how much Luka appreciated his sister's input.

Her eyes wandered after a while, noticing the other members' actions and how well they treated their instruments. The place was really clean as well, it was basically a garage from what she could tell and she expected things to be more stacked away, but they took good care of not letting things get dirty. Apparently, it belonged to one of Luka's friends and it was soundproof enough for their practice. She was feeling a bit jealous of how they got a band and they were together in it. She would have liked to have a common hobby with her friends and work at it.

Hmm, well, Alya has helped me when she agreed on being a superhero and we fought together, but she didn't know it was me.

"–rinette, did we bore you? I'm sorry," Juleka asked her noticing how she was looking absentmindedly around the room. She snapped back to attention.

"Oh no," she waved her hands and shook her head. "I was distracted, you didn't bore me or anything!"

Luka was looking at her with a half-smile and he had crossed his arms. He didn't look angry, but he looked like he was ready to do something he shouldn't.

"My sister told me you like the guitar very much," he stated.

"She did?" Her eyes darted to Juleka who was smiling kindly as always. "When did she say it?"

"Just now, when we weren't boring you," he answered with a smirk and her face was on fire. She was truly not bored, but as she did not understand much of what they were saying, her mind just chose to focus on other things in the room. She understood though that it probably didn't look like that to them and was embarrassed by the fact that Luka didn't believe her and that any words she might say would sound like cheap excuses. She knew it was a non-issue, but she didn't know him that well and didn't want to offend him by seemingly ignoring them when she was just a guest.

"Erm… errr," she tried saying swallowing hard and eyes blinking fast. Sometimes she really cursed her inability to act like normal under pressure.

Luka, on the other hand, just laughed. He uncrossed his arms and just looked at her with a face full of good humor and then he said, "Don't worry, Marinette, I was joking. I was actually wondering if you'd like to try playing the guitar."

"W-w-what? Me?" Her face sprang forward in surprise and then immediately sat back making an X with her arms. "No, no, no. I'm not good at it," she said fervently.

"It's ok. Sometimes I let Juleka play a bit too, because she likes it and she can be pretty good at it with a little practice," she ruffled Juleka's hair, who wasn't annoyed by the gesture, although she fixed her hair after he was done.

I wish I had a sibling as well, sometimes.

"So what do you say? Want to try?"

"It's fun," Juleka commented. "And who knows, you might find a new hobby for yourself," she smiled encouragingly.

"Well…" she started because she was still not very up for it, especially in front of everyone. And wasn't this their break only?

"Do you still have my pick?" he suddenly asked. Juleka eyed her with curiosity.

"Ah, yes," she answered. "Not with me though, it's in my room."

"Too bad, but we can lend you one," he said and moved towards the instruments.

"He gave me a pick as a present back at the boat," Marinette explained before any questions came. It wasn't a secret and she saw no reason to hide it. It just hadn't come up in a conversation until then. "We are both fans of Jagged Stone and then he gave me the pick as a present." Juleka nodded.

"I see," she nodded again thoughtfully. "You should take care of it then. He really likes his picks."

Marinette had no answer for this, so she laughed awkwardly again before falling into a normal conversation about music for a few minutes. Luka came back with an acoustic guitar in his outstretched hands towards her. She looked at it and then she looked back at him.

"Try it," was all he said.

"I really don't think so," she said a bit more quietly looking at the rest of the room. "Aren't you supposed to be practicing now?"

"Don't worry, someone is running an errand so we will be waiting for a while," he said pointing with his head towards another door. She hadn't seen anyone leave, but she wasn't looking all that carefully either. Counting them did show though that one person was indeed missing.

"Still…" she ventured trying to avoid playing.

"Why not, Marinette?" Juleka asked.

I don't know.

She wasn't sure why not. Maybe because she didn't know how to and there were other people there too and she didn't know to make a worse fool of herself. Unfortunately, when they had come before, she managed to trip over a cord on the floor. Luka had apologized for the supposed untidiness of the place, but she knew better that the fault lied in her and she didn't want to have to go through that again. But looking between the 2 siblings, she found those reasons inconsequential. She was having fun and she was with friends, if she counted Luka as a friend, which she realized, she did.

She felt a moment of confidence and took the guitar in her hands. Luka sat on her other side and both siblings were showing her things, although it was mostly Luka instructing her, since Juleka had only learnt some things from him, as well.

After an hour of her own practice, but mostly the band's practice, she returned home, this time just with Juleka since the rest had things to do first. Luka seemed worried since it was late evening by now, but Juleka had walked these streets a lot and they were both together and he would take some time before he was free, so he let them go without fuss.

She was still excited by the events and even more for actually trying to play the guitar. She was atrocious as she thought she would be, but no one seemed bothered and she even learnt a couple things.

After finally reaching home and went up to her room, she checked her phone which was in her bag the entire time after they went to the practice. She was surprised to see various messages from everyone, since it had only been roughly 3 hours that she had left.

She must have looked puzzled for a second, because Tikki, who was also finally free of her bag, asked her if something was wrong.

"Oh no, my friends sent me some photos. Just surprised," she said and sat down on the bed. Tikki moved next to her head and sat on her shoulder watching the screen, as well.

"Is that Ivan and Kim arm wrestling?"

"Yes, and the caption says that Kim lost on a game and Alix dared to do it." It made sense since Ivan may not be that much into sports, but did have strength. Next picture was of Chloé munching secretly the chocolates they gave her, which made both Marinette and Tikki chuckle and the next of Alix and Rose making a castle of cards. There were a few more pictures of them doing silly things and it was mostly the girls that sent her pictures, which she thought was Alya's idea, and one picture from Kim who had drawn on a piece of paper the word 'loser' and pointed at the camera.

"Kim is so competitive," asserted Tikki.

"He really is," she said with no ill will, "but he makes it hard to get mad at," she laughed. She was wondering what he would make her do, but he didn't think he would be mean about it. He sometimes said things without realizing the consequences, but she truly thought he had improved after Chloé had rejected him and he had to move on.

She was almost lying on her bed now when she reached the last photo which was of Adrien sleeping in a chair hugging a teddy bear. She almost managed to trip herself on the bed and fall off of it, but even she was not that clumsy. She read the message along with it that said "For you" and a thumbs up emoji. Once again, she felt warmth throughout her body and couldn't wipe the smile off her face.

"Alya is always thinking about you, isn't she?" Tikki asked with a mysterious smile.

"Alya is great!" she only said and hugged her phone. She decided right then that she would treasure that photo forever. Truth be told, he had already seen a sleeping Adrien that morning when Sabrina showed her the photo, but this so much better (there was no Chloé in it, for starters), because it was just him with a teddy bear that she was certain someone else put it there. "Thank you," she said to the air.

"Are you going to use this as your wallpaper?"

"What are you saying, Tikki?! As if I could do that! But I will definitely save it in every device I own," she beamed. Sometimes she thought that maybe her collection was kind of creepy, but it was not as if she stalked Adrien and took pictures; he was a model and she collected things that any person could have. And if nothing less, Adrien had (unfortunately) seen her collection on tv, a moment she would and could never forget, and he was flattered.

She sat up and fanned her face with her free hand to cool it down, all the while glancing at the photo on her phone.

"You should really get a move on, Marinette. You still have homework for tomorrow," Tikki reminded her out of the blue.

"Homework?" Marinette seemed confused at first. "Homework!" she exclaimed soon after, jumping from the bed. "I totally forgot, what am I going to do?" It might have been a great day, even with Chloé's behavior, but so much time passed and she forgot she had to finish an assignment for tomorrow.

"It shouldn't take long, since you had finished half of it."

She was doing a short research paper on history and she had found all of the sources she would need, but there was quite some writing still, for which she would have time today, but with the surprise visit to Chloé and her already made plans for the band practice, she lost track of time and then, simply forgot it.

"I should hope so," she sighed. She was planning to eat dinner downstairs, but maybe she would have to bring it here, so she wouldn't lose much time on it. "At least you are here to cheer me on, Tikki," she smiled at her a bit more deflated than usual.

"Aww, don't be like that, Marinette, I'm sure it won't take much time."

"You're right," she said after a few seconds of silence with a sudden burst of energy and put her hands on her waist. "We can do this!"

"That's the spirit!" Tikki raised her arm in the air as a sign of support.

"I'm going to quickly grab the history book from the balcony. Can you turn on my computer for me so we will save time?"

"Sure. And you should really not leave your things on the balcony like that," Tikki chastised her with a smile.

"You're right, but it was such a nice day yesterday that I couldn't resist."

She climbed up and opened the hatch when she saw a shadow passing in front of her. She closed the hatch again just so she had enough space to see and squeezed on the handle.

Who could it be? Should I change into Ladybug?

The shadow appeared again and she focused more to the person that shadow belonged to. They were walking back and forth from what she could tell, but she could only see the feet from the small opening of the hatch.

They do look oddly familiar… Ah!

She opened the hatch and stepped out.

"Chat Noir?"