I have no excuse for time-keeping other than that I'm just a very disorganised human being.

Thanks to Hesturoth for betaing this chapter.

13

It was the Monday after Chloe's party and Marinette was just getting herself ready for school. She had her sketchbook open, laid out with a pencil resting across it. She had fallen asleep on her desk last night while trying to think of some new designs. Tikki was asleep by her pencil and she didn't want to wake her up, but she wanted to take the book to school. A thought ran through her head, maybe she could show Adrien? If she gave him the sketch book, then he could pass it along to his Father.

She knew that Gabriel Agreste admired her work since she won the design contest a while ago. If he had another look at them, perhaps he could give her feedback. Her mind was now swelling with ideas and she couldn't wait to see Adrien when she got to school. However, her mind was so full of thoughts that she didn't realize there were some clothes in a pile. She tripped and landed on the floor.

"Ow." She muttered and got up quickly, rubbing her face where the floor had made the most impact.

"Marinette?" The kwami gave a loud yawn and stretched her limbs as she opened her eyes.

"Morning, Tikki. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up like that." Marinette apologized.

She opened her hands up so the kwami could fly into them. "Did you trip over something?" Tikki tilted her head.

Marinette eyes looked back to the pile of clothes. "Yes, although the truth is, I was thinking about Adrien this morning."

"Just normal Marinette then." Tikki said sticking her tongue out.

"Hey!" Marinette said with a chuckle. "I do think of other things besides him."

"But when it comes to Adrien, it's like you can't think of anything else."

"I know. Well, I should start getting ready for school." Marinette said with a wink.

She clambered off the floor and made sure to grab her sketchbook. About five minutes later, she was dressed and headed downstairs. Her parents were in the bakery as normal, cooking a batch of croissants. Marinette made sure she grabbed two before she left. Adrien would want one.

"Marinette, I'm going to need your help in the bakery tonight?" Her mother called after her. Marinette nodded her head as she ran out of the bakery.

Paris was busy as usual with its commuters walking past. Marinette carried on running as she ate her croissant. She was afraid that she was going to be late for school. As she finished the remainder of croissant, she reached the school, where Alya was waiting for her.

"Marinette!" She called. Marinette went over to her and greeted her with a cheek kiss.

"Hi Alya."

"You look like you've just ran a marathon, girl."

"I thought I was going to be late this morning." Marinette said quickly as she tried to catch her breath discreetly.

Ayla looked at her phone. "Well for you, I would say this is just on time. Usually you don't show up until the middle of the day."

To that Marinette had no answer. "I just lose track of time." She managed to mumble out.

Alya shook her head fondly and smiled. She wrapped her arm around her as the two best friends headed up the steps. Other students were filtering in now and of course Marinette kept a look out for Adrien, but she couldn't see head nor tail of the young blonde anywhere. She pushed the worry down as she headed into the classroom.

There were a group of students all gathered around Nino who was reading a text from his phone. There were a lot of gloomed faces, especially from Chloe as Marinette took a quick glance at her.

"What's happened?" Alya asked before Marinette could. Nino frowned and passed his phone to her. Marinette watched as Alya's eyes widened. However, before she could tell Marinette what had actually happened, Chloe decided to butt in.

"What's happened is that Adrien isn't allowed to come to school anymore," She growled looking straight at Marinette.

"Why?" Marinette mumbled out.

"Why? Why Dupain-Cheng?" Chloe jumped down from the desk she was sitting on and walked straight up to the girl. She then proceeded to poke her finger into her chest. "The only thing I can think of is because he came to my party, and then ended up with you. Whatever you did, I'm sure it's your fault. Marinette just stared across at Chloe. There were thousands of remarks that floated across her head. The fact that Chloe was the one that had her party and that she had only been akumatized as well. There were so many things she could have said, but instead she just stayed silent. "Well?" Chloe raised her eyebrow.

"Chloe, leave her alone. It's more your fault." Alya put her hands on her hip and scowled at the blonde girl.

"Ridiculous." Chloe muttered but moved away and went to stand by Sabrina. She began to talk to her and of course Marinette didn't miss the scathing looks that the girls kept sending her. She turned instead to Nino who was frowning at his phone.

"Can I have a look Nino?" She asked.

The boy in question nodded and passed his phone to her.

'I won't be able to come to school anymore.' It was just a one sentence text and for some reason alarm bells rang in Marinette's head.

"Don't you think it's a little strange?" She mumbled. She forgot that Nino was listening and was surprised when he answered back.

"I do, Adrien would never be this blunt. Sure, the dude might sometimes not understand things, but he would always tell me the reason why. It's like he didn't send this text." Nino replied looking straight at her.

Marinette nodded in agreement. "I think his dad sent this text, which means that if you send one back or call him, I don't think Adrien is going to reply."

"It's always his father, isn't it? It's not cool!" Nino shouted in frustration. Everybody in the classroom turned to look at her with confusion on their faces.

"Sorry," He muttered sheepishly.

The cogs in Marinette's head were beginning to turn. She looked up to Gabriel Agreste as a fashion designer, but as a father he had some very questionable methods. To keep Adrien from school, the one thing that she knew he loved? She felt disheartened that he would even do such a thing. She had an idea. Was it a stupid idea? If she told Tikki, the kawmi would think so. But she was going do it. She was going to visit Adrien as Ladybug after school.

"Okay everyone, can we please get into our seats?" Miss Bustier called as she walked into the classroom.

All the students scurried out of the way and into their seats. As the school day began, Marinette tried to focus on her schoolwork but her mind started to think about Adrien sitting at home all alone, probably doing his school work in silence. A deep ache began in her chest, she missed him.

She missed talking to him and he had only been out of school one day. What if this continued, could she last more than one day? Maybe it was naive of her to wish that he was here, but all his friends missed him as well. She would get to the bottom of what happened.

As soon as the school day was over, she got ready to run out of the classroom when her bag straps where pulled back by Alya. She was turned around to by her best friend to look at her. Alya was frowning at her.

"Where on earth are you running off to?" She asked, her tone hinting at something more.

"Nothing!" Marinette squeaked. Inside she let out a groan, whenever she had something to hide her voice would get high and squeaky. So of course, Alya would have noticed that. She needed to be quick and come up with a lie.

"Marinette, tell me the truth."

"My mom wants me to help out in the shop tonight, I was just thinking if I get home early then we can bake some cookies and try to give them to Adrien?" Marinette managed to suggest.

Ayla's eyes widened. "That's a great idea Marinette! Do you know what else we could do?"

"What?" Marinette said eyeing the classroom door. She took a few steps back.

"Everybody could do a gift for Adrien then give it to him. If we show him how much our friendship means to him in front of his father, then I hope that moves even Gabriel Agreste's cold heart." Alya said with a glint in her eye. When the reporter had an idea in her head, it usually ended up being pretty good.

"That's a great idea, Alya. I'll go ahead and run home. Let everybody know!" Marinette called as she ran out of the classroom. She ran out of the school, making sure not to run into Jukela and Rose as the two of them walked past holding hands.

She saw an alleyway and ducked into it. There were two trash cans, one of them on the ground with the bits of trash scattered on the ground. It was here she choose to stand behind and looked up and down to see if anyone was there. "Tiiki," She began.

Tikki flew out of her bag and crossed her arms. "You're not making Adrien cookies. Marinette, what's this really about?"

"Tikki, I need to go and see Adrien but the only way I can do that is as Ladybug." Marinette admitted not looking the Kwami in the eyes.

Tikki shook her head. "Marinette you know your powers aren't meant to be used for personal things! This is a stupid idea."

"No, it's not. I need to find out."

Tikki flew up to her face and put her paw on her cheek. "Marinette, please. This could end in disaster. You should just try as Marinette and if not, then we will have to actually try Alya's idea."

If Marinette wasn't stubborn, maybe she would have really listened to Tikki. But couldn't the Kwami see that this was important! This wasn't a personal matter. This was about Adrien.

"This is about Adrien, Tikki. I can't imagine how he feels right now, I need to see him."

"Marinette, sometimes things are more important than your feelings for him. I'm sure he's fine."

Marinette almost laughed. "You heard everybody talking about the text. That was his father. I want to know how he is. He doesn't have his phone. At least I care enough to check on him."

"Marinette, I just have a bad feeling, please don't do this. If something happens…" Tikki pleaded, her voice sounding like it was on the edge of tears.

"Tikki I have to do this, I'm sorry." She said.

The kwami stayed silent.

"Tikki, spots on!" Marinette cried and then leaped from the alleyway onto the roof above.

She took a deep breath as she stared up at the sky. In the almost year that she had Tikki, she had never really argued with the kwami but sometimes the small disagreements weighed heavily on her shoulders. Part of her was wondering whether Tikki was right and that she was making a mistake. It might be a huge mistake, but she had to see that Adrien was okay.

She knew that he was used to being alone in his room, but being locked up and isolated, it was one of the worst things a human could go through. She would hate to be locked up. Even when she was grounded, she at least felt like she was still welcome in her own home. For Adrien, she wasn't sure.

She clutched her yo-yo and stared down at it. It was now or never. With a leap and jump, Ladybug began to swing her way towards the Agreste Mansion.