XI. Not everything is lost.

After Marinette locked herself up, her parents and Adrien followed her and tried to talk to her. First they tried to open the door; when they realized they couldn't open it without breaking it.

"I'm sorry, Tikki." Said the girl to herself as she cried. "I failed you. I knew I wasn't cut to be Ladybug. It's all my fault. If I hadn't rushed my attacks on Goliath, we would be together now impressing Mr. Agreste… I'm so sorry!"

She did nothing else than cry over losing her miraculous. Her parents tried to talk to her from the floor beneath.

"Marinette," said her father, "please, open up. I can't imagine what you are feeling now, but it's no solution to lock yourself inside your room. I want to talk."

"Sweetheart," continued her mom, "I know you're scared, I know you want to get your earrings back, I know more than you think. Could we talk, please?"

They waited a few minutes to no answer.

"You know," said Plagg, "I could open the door if you let me!"

"Not now, Plagg!" said Adrien, "if that door is going to be opened, she must do it."

"Excuse me," said Sabine, "could you tell me what are you, little creature?" intrigued she asked about Plagg.

"Me?! I'm a kwami. A magical creature that gives Adrien the powers of Cat Noir!" he said proud of himself. Adrien continued with information that helped Marinette's parents understand better.

"There are more kwamis like him. If he enters my ring I transform into Cat Noir. Your daughter had one too that inhabited her earrings, those are called miraculous; however, since Hawk Moth took them, hers went into sleep back inside. And, like you, I didn't know she was Ladybug either until today. We thought it was best not to know each other's identity"

"How can we help?" asked Tom.

"For now, I need to talk to her before I know." He approached the door and started to talk.

"Bug-a-boo. We need to talk!"

"Go away!" she said. It was the first time she spoke to someone after entering her room.

"Ladybug, please! Do you think we'll get your miraculous and your kwami if you stay in there? I'm the only one who fully understands you, but you need to do talk to me. I want to see you. I know you don't like me doing the cat puns or flirting, but I need Ladybug; you're the one who comes up with the better ideas, I need to talk, Marinette! Just please! We need to get your miraculous back!"

"You said you wanted to talk to Ladybug, without my miraculous she isn't here!"

"Her powers may not be here, but the brains behind her are here! You are Ladybug with or without your kwami and miraculous; that's because, now that I think about it, it's always been Marinette! Ladybug was just the name!"

"Are you sure?! It was my ideas that made me lose my miraculous! It was my ideas that almost costed your miraculous too! How could you be so secure?!"

"Because…"

"I knew I was a mess! You can figure out without me!"

"I know it was Marinette because of the dress! All your designs are amazing and you made them all from scratch! Even my father recognizes that, you know how hard that is?! Do you know why I fell in love with Ladybug? I think she is the most intelligent person alive, even behind the mask! If I did not realize it was you, it's because you, for some reason, can't talk to me! If had known you better, I would have guessed you were Ladybug after knowing your real intelligence!"

He had no answer and headed back downstairs with the bakers. However, upon hearing why he loved Ladybug, all those words started to resonate on her head. She came to the realization that the mask of Ladybug gave her only confidence; the confidence needed to come up with all of those ideas. The only reason her latest plan didn't work is because she rushed her decision.

Tom and Sabine were sitting at the couch and could hear everything. They knew Adrien was coming back empty handed, so they restrained from asking. He sadly sat down in front of Marinette's parents in silence. The silence was abruptly broken when Plagg complained.

"Adrien, it's been a while since you transformed back and I'm starving! Where…"

Plagg couldn't finish his request. Marinette had unlocked the door and was coming down.

"Marinette!" Adrien was the first one to exclaim. "What…?"

"I thought on what you said before and you're right. We need to recuperate my miraculous!"

"Oh, so you are Ladybug!" said Plagg when she finished talking. "I'm Plagg, the cat kwami! I finally meet you!"

"It's not time for that, Plagg!" Adrien reprimanded him.

"It's ok," intervened Marinette, "you are adorable, Plagg…! Ok, when I thought this through I figured it really isn't the time. We need to think what to do!"

"Now that's my girl," said Tom, "What do we do?"

"You used your cataclysm and I don't recall your kwami eating, so that's first!"

"The girl knows it!" said Plagg, "is there some cheese, Adrien?"

"No, Plagg. I couldn't grab some before leaving, sorry!"

"Cheese?" asked Sabine, to which Adrien responded.

"Yes, each kwami likes a specific kind of food more than anything else. That's why I took so many cookies!" responded Marinette

"In Plagg's case, he only eats stinky camembert!"

"He only eats camembert?!" exclaimed Marinette, "That explains your smell! I thought you liked that cheese!"

"No, it was Plagg all along who liked that awful cheese."

"Awful! If it weren't for that cheese…"

"Then," intervened Sabine before they could argue, "we made these for him!"

Adrien and Plagg didn't know what she was talking about. She walked towards the ovens and grabbed a tray full of pastries. That did not answer any question, in fact, they could only watch the tray intrigued.

"Well, I thought you would like these camembert pastries since you at times smelled like it. I guessed it was because you liked that and invented it for you! Or your kwami…"

"Is this really camembert? It doesn't look like it or smell like it"

"Try it!" said Tom, "It was made with the intention to impress Adrien…"

"Dad!" quickly interrupted Marinette, she thought it was unnecessary and embarrassing. Her father only smiled like always he always did.

After sniffing on the pastry, he finally bit it. A few seconds, later he gulped down the rest of the piece he had already bitten.

"It's so delicious! I could eat the whole tray now!"

And he did try to devour the tray complete. In the last second, Adrien grabbed the tray and put it away from Plagg. When he bit on air, Plagg turned around and looked at Adrien with a disapproval face.

"You've eaten now, and we better save the rest for later! We are not sure what may come next!"

"Ok, he ate. Now what?" asked Tom.

"We need to find help, but where?" said Adrien.

"To the only one who can help us!" said Marinette decided.