Marinette cracked open the door and ushered Alya in quickly.

"Woah, Mari what's the rush? Your panties alight?"

Marinette rolled her eyes, pushing Alya up the stairs to her room. "Just move! I'll explain once you're up there!"

"Jeez, alright, alright." Alya said with a knowing laugh. Marinette and drama, they always came as a pair.

Marinette shut the hatch behind them very slowly, so as not to make any incriminating noises, giving Alya more than enough time to set out all her things and get comfortable on the chaise, where she sat smirking, kicking her shoes at Marinette, "So, spit balling off that display, what's today's crisis, and how can I help?"

"It's the same crisis I was in before, only somehow I made it worse." Marinette whined, sitting and leaning against the chaise, looking up at Alya with pleading eyes. "I know my mum's just worried about me, but I'm not going to get anywhere if I'm not allowed to even do anything by myself. I need your help."

Alya patted her on the head, humming sympathetically, "My dear, sweet Marinette, how in hell did you make it worse? We haven't had another Akuma for you to throw yourself at since PC, so it's got to be some other stupid thing. You didn't tell her that her cooking sucks right? Then she'd really think you had a death wish."

Marinette blushed, "I was… well, it's hard to explain."

"Oh?" Alya's eyes went wide, "Colour me intrigued."

Marinette gave her a sheepish look, "I might've been outside helping Chat Noir… at three in the morning… without telling anyone?"

"Excuse me, you wHAT?" Alya screeched, shaking Mari's shoulders, "Why didn't you say that before? I could've been digesting that the whole way over here, Marinette, oh my god!"

"Well!" Mari said indignantly, firmly pushing Alya's hands off her, "I thought you would tell Nora or Nino and I don't want it spreading! I need you to keep this a secret, Alya! Emphasis on secret."

Alya made a face like she'd eaten something sour she'd expected to be sweet, "You cannot be serious. This is huge! How do you know Chat Noir? Why'd he come to you for help? Are you close? How close?" She wiggled her eyebrows, and Mari smacked her arm, her face having gone beet-red.

"Stop, it wasn't like that! He fell off my roof."

Alya grinned wider, "And why was he on your roof?"

Marinette threw up her hands, standing up and pacing around the room. "I don't know! He just landed on me, which hurt, a lot, by the way, and then he said he was looking for a missing person and I offered to help, because it was the right thing to do and I know my way around Paris, y'know? Not that he doesn't, probably, but I know all the important hotspots and, plus, he's really nice and I wanted to help him, okay, sue me, but I got carried away and forgot that my Mum has been super over protective since I got injured, and well, she came up to the deck to check on me. Her excuse was that she was bringing me 'another hot chocolate', but let's face it, it was a gateway beverage to another talk about my recklessness and I wouldn't have entertained it even if I'd been up there, and you can quote me on that."

She stopped and took a big, gasping breath, "Anyway, she goes up on the roof, sees I'm not there and starts freaking out, thinks I've fallen or something, so when Chat and I come back she gets really mad at me and I get really mad at her and, if possible, she is now even more protective than she was before! I mean, yeah, I probably shouldn't have yelled like I did, and I said some hurtful things that I definitely regret, but c'mon! I'm grounded right now, Alya! Grounded. She did it this morning. When have I ever been gr-oun-ded?" She sounded out the last word like it had personally offended her, dragging out each syllable. She sunk to the floor with her head in her hands and muffled a scream into her palms.

"Woah. Okay." Alya said, dumbfounded, "That was a lot of words at once."

Marinette groaned, falling down to the floor, her head landing against the carpet with a soft 'thunk' sound.

"Hey, c'mon, girl, it's not all bad!" Alya tried, tapping Mari with a foot so she'd look up. "I'm here now, and we are going to waste the day away! How about a video game face-off? We can play Ultimate Mecha Strike?" She said enticingly, shaking her fists like a happy toddler. "And I can maybe eat some of your Dad's famously delicious quiche because I forgot to eat breakfast and I'm mad hungry, hmm?"

"Fine. But I get to be Player 1, and I'm picking the quiche flavour. You only ever get spinach and ham, and you need to diversify your palate." Mari went to get up, but stopped, pouting with suspicion. "Wait, didn't you text me saying you had news? Wasn't that the whole reason you came over?"

"Oh right, completely forgot about that once you'd shoved me up here like you'd kidnapped me, sorry." Alya clapped her hands, "It doesn't matter now! You're grounded!"

Marinette scowled, crossing her arms. "Alya."

"…You can't go anyway."

"Alya."

"Ugh, fine, you wore me down." She sighed dramatically, laying out along the chaise with a hand to her forehead, "Alas, bullied into submission by my darling Marinette. True, I was forewarned, but, naïve as I was, I believed her to be a pure and just eligible young maiden—"

"Stop it, you weirdo, tell me the news!" Marinette said past a laugh. "C'mon, I want to know. You've coloured me intrigued now."

Alya grinned, "Okay, okay. So, Mylene messaged me, apparently she heard from Ivan, who heard from Max, who heard from Kim—"

"This is already too hard to follow."

"—shush you, you asked for this. Who heard from Nino, that Adrien, your beloved prince of the tower, has been allowed out to help with the reconstruction of the boutique just over the road. You know the cute little purple-y one that just opened, and then got utterly smooshed in the attack? The one down the road opposite the school, you can probably see it from the window. Your soulmate's going to be in that rubble, refitting the wallpaper like the regular, common folk boys do."

Marinette blushed again. "Really? I thought his schedule was packed?"

"His shoot was cancelled, apparently someone mixed up the timetables and the photographer got double booked. Adrien's free for a whole afternoon, and thanks to Nino, we snapped up that space before he could get roped into anything else!" She poked Mari's cheeks with her sock, "Isn't this great? Plastering is probably a good first date activity, right?"

"Yeah, it's amazing! The fact he can leave, not the plastering date, that's ridiculous. Did you see his latest ad campaign, for his Dad's summer collection? He looked so good, there's not a single piece of clothing that doesn't suit him, but he must be so tired. He probably really needs a break, he's been working non-stop." Mari said, with a lovesick sigh. "But, I can't go. My mum would never let me."

Alya swang her legs back and forth, thinking outloud, "Hmm, what if I talked to her? Sabine loves me."

"And yet you still can't call her Sabine to her face." Marinette said dryly.

"I have to earn that, Mari, how many times?" Alya said as she waggled a finger. "She's Mrs Dupain-Cheng until the day that she is the one to tell me, herself, that I may call her Sabine. I must have her blessing."

"Well, Mrs Dupain-Cheng also doesn't know you're here. Grounded means I can't have friends over either." Mari said with a guilty shrug. "You'd get confiscated."

"Well, okay, that does explain the sneaking. Right, then instead I sneak back out, go in again, this time through the front, and I talk to Sabine like this conversation never happened!" Alya held out her hands, smirking. "That way, she'll never know you broke the rules and I can, with my patented Cesaire charm and charisma, convince her within the hour to let you near the semi-dangerous building debris! I can be very persuasive when I want to be."

Marinette still looked unconvinced, but shrugged nonetheless, "You can try, but I don't think it'll work. She's pretty dead set on Rapunzel-ing me."

Alya tapped her fingers together mischievously, like a little racoon. "Oh, but see, now it's a challenge. This isn't my first rodeo: I've convinced the twins into giving me not only their TV time, but their after dinner snacks and favourite pillows before." Alya said with a overly confident smile. "This is a piece of cake in comparison."

"It is not, they are easily tricked small children who believe your every word." Marinette noted.

"Oh yeah, it is harder, they're like wayward pixies, and technically, they're tweens who believe my every word."

"They're not tweens, they haven't reached double digits yet."

"What-ever."

"Alya, I love you, but you're an idiot."

Alya made finger guns. "Prob-ably."

—

"Hi, Mrs Dupain-Cheng, Mr Dupain-Cheng, how are you today?" Alya said, grinning as she walked into the bakery, not the least bit suspiciously.

Sabine looked up from the counter with a weak smile, closing the till with one hand. "Hello, Alya. I'm fine, thank you, how are you?"

Alya grinned. Boom, great start, conversation already rolling. Marinette was going to have to eat her words and then some after this. "I'm doing pretty good thank you, however, I do need to enlist Marinette's help, if that's okay? Can I go up and get her?"

Tom walked up behind Sabine, wiping the flour off his hands with a tea towel. "I'm not sure, Marinette's grounded at the moment Alya, and well…"

"Typically we don't let her have friends around when she's grounded." Sabine continued, her tone a little harsher, "It's a punishment, I'm sorry."

Alya bit her lip. "Oh, okay, just we need her help. Specifically. We're helping to rebuild the boutique across the street, you know the—"

Sabine lifted a hand to her face. "Oh, yes, the little purple—"

"Yeah! Yeah, that one, the little purple one, and since Mari knows all about designing and fashion, the builders thought it would be good to have her onsite, to help organise the shop effectively." Alya said, consciously keeping her tone light and her smile casual. "They're struggling to uhh, keep it chic."

Sabine looked confused. "Wouldn't the builders or the shop owner be deciding the shop floor's design? Why would they ask Marinette to do a job like that?"

Tom nudged his wife, smiling wide. "Why wouldn't they? Our Marinette is a talented girl, remember how she was commissioned to make those glasses for Jagged Stone, Sabine? Jagged Stone loves our girl's designs!"

"I remember." Sabine said. She tapped her fingers against the counter-top in a repetitive pattern, "An album cover too if I remember correctly…"

"Exactly!" Alya said, bouncing on her toes. "Marinette has a good eye for composition, and if fashion falls through, which it totally won't cos she's so great at it, she'd make the best interior designer. They asked if I'd bring her after we mentioned how good at design she is, Nino showed them some of her previous stuff too, and the owner said she'd be 'much more comfortable having a designer helping out', so can we please, please, please borrow her? It'll just be for a little while, and we're just down the road, it's not too far."

"I'm not sure if Marinette needs that much responsibility on her plate right now." Sabine murmured, twisting her hands into her apron uncomfortably. "And she is grounded…"

Tom landed a hand on Sabine's shoulder, showering her with the left-over flour on his sleeve. "I think we can spare her for an hour or two, Sabine. It'll be good for her to get out and spend time with her friends, and there'll be plenty of adults around to supervise her. Alya's right, she won't be far, and if they think they need her help, well, we can't be the ones to hold her back!"

Sabine still didn't look convinced. "I just don't think more pressure like that will help her."

"But stepping out of her comfort zone might also be good for her." Tom said, "We shouldn't make her decisions for her."

Sabine sucked on her bottom lip, clearly unhappy with how the conversation had meandered. She folded her hands in her lap and sighed. "Fine, an hour or two, but then she comes right back, and she's not leaving without medical supplies. I don't want her getting hurt on a building site, that'll be the final nail in my coffin." She turned away, busying herself with cleaning the workspace and avoiding looking at either Tom or Alya.

Alya beamed. Oh yes, that Cesaire charm, that Cesaire charisma, it never failed her. "Thank you Mrs Dupain-Cheng, Mr Dupain-Cheng! I promise I'll keep an eye on her!"

Tom smiled. "We know you will. She's just up in her bedroom, you just go up and get her, okay?"

Alya nodded, bounding past them like a deer in spring. Victory, ah, it tasted so validating and so deliciously sweet. She should've made Marinette bet on it.

'Next time.' She thought smugly. 'Next time, Marinette owes me a month's supply of quiche and one of Andre's infamous ice creams, at the very least.'

As it turned out, Alya didn't have to go all the way up to the bedroom, as Mari was sat on the steps waiting. She rolled her eyes as Alya's cocky saunter, shaking her head in exasperation. Alya went to open her mouth, not to gloat of course, just to state the obvious truth that she was every parent's favourite child and therefore Marinette would need to immediately resign herself from the position of prima Dupain-Cheng daughter, but Mari gestured to Alya from where she sat on the stairs, indicating she should be quiet. Alya gave her a confused look, but still settled silently next to her. Marinette pointed to the door, and then to her ear.

"Sabine…" They heard Tom murmur from the bakery. "I don't understand why you're being so hard on Marinette. She's—"

There was a sound like a tea towel had been thrown against a counter. "Tom, please, I'm not trying to be hard on her, I'm just trying to teach her to be responsible for her actions. She needs to learn she can't just go running off into nowhere and that what she does has consequences. She can be so rash in her choices, and that doesn't make for a well-rounded adult, Tom."

"She's still young!" He replied airily, "She's going to make mistakes, and she'll learn from them, we just need to guide her right, that's all. She's our daughter, you know she's got a good head on her shoulders, and trapping her inside the house isn't the way to teach her anything, Sabine. She's growing up, whether we like it or not, and that means we have to let her outside."

Sabine made a frustrated noise. "Oh, Tom, please I don't want to trap her, I just don't want her getting hurt again, you understand that. It was late at night, and anything could've happened to her out there! She didn't even take a coat!"

There was a rustling sound, like Tom had leant against something, or had wiped his hands on his apron. "I do, I do, but I also know our Marinette is a smart, capable girl. She knows her rights from her wrongs and she's struggling a little right now, yes, but she also knows well that we're here to support and listen to her if she needs and asks for it. Restraining her is only going to make her distrustful and neither of us want that. You have to let go a little Sabine, loosen the reins."

Marinette and Alya leaned in as Sabine made no audible reply. There was a sniffle, and the girls looked at each other sharply, neither having expected to hear Sabine crying.

"Shh, shh." They heard Tom whisper soothingly, and more rustling as he presumably pulled her in for a hug. "I'm sorry I upset you. I shouldn't have said it so harshly."

"No, no, it's not you Tom." She hiccuped in reply, "I know she's growing up and you're right, she can take care of herself, just… sometimes I want her to let me help her. I'm her mother, and she'll always be our baby, and hurts when she pushes me away. Sometimes I look at her and I just can't help but see that tiny little toddler that she was and I just want to gather her up and never her let go, and I… yes, okay, I might have gone too far trying to protect her this time but she's so precious. I know she's growing up and things are going to change but… I don't want her ever, ever thinking that we can afford to lose her."

Alya chanced a glance at Marinette then; she was keeping her expression carefully stone-faced, staring unfocused at the door frame. Alya had studied Marinette's blank faces well-enough by now to tell that she was clearly upset, that much was obvious, but there was likely more than one reason creasing that brow. Alya didn't want to push or press her, and fighting the instinct to pry was harder than she'd admit out loud, but she nudged Mari with her shoulder anyway. She could still be a good friend without being journalist levels of interested.

'You okay?' She mouthed.

'Yeah, I'm okay.' Marinette mouthed back. 'We should probably go upstairs now. I don't want to listen anymore.'

Alya nodded. She didn't really want to either. It felt too personal. Together, they creeped up the stairs as quietly as possible, freezing at every creaky floorboard, and rushed back into Marinette's living room. Alya let out a long breath she didn't know she'd been holding and laughed despite herself, flopping onto the sofa.

"Well, that was a lot!" She joked, punching the air. "Wanna get your stuff together now, before your mum comes up, so you're ready to go?"

Marinette hummed something that sounded like a yes, and Alya leant her head backward off the armrest to catch Mari sway aimlessly in the kitchen. She was biting the nail on her thumb, still pensive and making no move towards the bedroom to pack a bag, so Alya groaned, jumped off the couch and pulled her up the stairs.

"C'mon, 'Nette." She sighed. "Let's find you some boots."

—

After a while of frantic bag packing, as Marinette had quickly discovered she owned nothing but flats, not a boot in sight, and the two of them had spent most of their time desperately searching for her wellies, Tom called up to them from the bottom of the stairs, asking when they planned to leave.

"In just a minute!" Marinette called back, as she tried to stuff her keys, coin purse and emergency sewing kit into her little purse at the same time. "Be right down! Alya, can you grab my phone from the desk?"

Together, they ran down the stairs three at a time, and if Alya nearly slipped on the way down, neither of them mentioned it. It wouldn't do them any good to look unsafe just before going to a construction site.

"I made you girls up a little lunchbox to share!" Tom said once they reached the foyer, grinning like a mama bear, "I put Alya's favourite quiche in there, and some freshly baked macarons for you Marinette."

"Oh, hell yeah." Alya cheered, eagerly taking the lunchbox and smiling at the little cartoon ladybug on the top. "Thanks, Mr Dupain-Cheng!"

Tom laughed. "It's quite alright, and Alya, feel free to call me Tom. I think we're good enough friends now wouldn't you say?"

"Okay, cool!" Alya said. She nudged Mari with an elbow and whispered, "One down, one to go."

Mari snorted, shrugging off Alya's elbow. She looked around the foyer and frowned. "Where's Mama?"

"Oh, she's just—"

"I'm behind you, Tom." Sabine said, stepping out from the bakery. "Just step left and they'll see me." She didn't look happy.

Marinette flicked her eyes from one parent to the other. "We're gunna go now, is that okay?"

Tom nodded, "Of course, sweetheart! Your mum just has something to give you, to see you off."

"Here." Sabine said curtly, passing a backpack to Marinette. Alya got the impression she was trying to seem authoritative, but was struggling to keep her face stern. She wasn't sure what expression was underneath, but it was definitely tense. "I packed a bag for you, it has everything you might need, and some more snacks for you and Alya to share with your class. Let me know when you get there and when you're on your way home, okay?" She patted Mari's shoulders, smoothing out the creases in her jacket. "You stay safe, alright? Don't touch any power tools, and remember to wear the goggles they give you."

Marinette pulled her mouth taut in something like a smile. "I'll try my best."

Sabine looked like she wanted to say more, but didn't. She stepped back, glanced at Tom, and cleared her throat. "Well, you better be off then. You don't want to be late."

Tom grinned, holding out a double thumbs up. "Have fun, girls! We'll be here all day if you need us, and Alya you're welcome to stay for dinner if you'd like to."

"Thank you, Mr Dupain— Wait, no, thank you, Tom!" Alya replied, nudging Mari again, to which she got slapped away again. "I'll take you up on that offer."

They watched Sabine and Tom walk up the stairs, hand in hand. Alya waved as they turned the corner up to the apartment, not missing how Sabine kept her lips tightly pressed together. She clearly didn't like this arrangement, and while Alya couldn't really blame her, she also felt for Tom. Sabine hadn't even seen the accident, and she was still this fragile. Alya could only guess at how difficult it must be for a parent to know their child had been in so much danger, and to have not been in a position to prevent it.

While Alya had been caught up in her thoughts, Marinette dropped the backpack on the ground like a rock, looking at it with distaste.

"I'm not taking that." Marinette said bluntly. "That's ridiculous. I don't think I can carry further than the door, and I've been hefting bags of flour since I was eight."

Alya gave her a look. "Your mum packed it special, Mari."

Marinette gave her a matching look. She crouched to unzip the bag, hoping to find something she could take out. "Alya, there's so much medical stuff, I'm not going to need even half of the things she's put in here. Even you have to admit a splint is overkill. Alya, oh my god, there are forceps in here."

"Okay, but you can't just leave it here." Alya tried. "It's the only reason she's even letting you go. Aside from my amazing pitch, obviously."

"Yes I can. Watch." Marinette stepped backwards until she reached the door, pushing it open with her foot. She mock-gasped, holding a hand to her mouth, sarcasm dripping like syrup. "Oh my! Would you look at that! I've left it so well that I'm already out the door! Isn't that just amazing?"

"Oh, c'mon, Marinette, you know that's not what I meant, and she's only looking out for you, and hey! You're going to get me in trouble too, and I've been doing so well! I've not done anything impulsive in six days." She raised an eyebrow and pointed a finger. "I don't think I have to tell you that's a record."

"I'm already gone!" Marinette called through the door, letting it slam shut. "Byeeee!" She waved through the glass, bouncing out of eyeshot.

As Alya watched her go, she sucked on her bottom lip, breathing nervously through her teeth. She didn't have time to plan out the best, most considerate course of action, which she would very much have liked to have had the time to do, so she tried lifting the backpack herself, thinking that if it was at least at the site, Sabine couldn't be angry. She even zipped it back up for good measure, even as the zipper fought back.

Unfortunately, Marinette had been right, the backpack was insanely heavy, and Alya wheezed at the weight of it, dropping it back to the floor involuntarily. She fidgeted in place, unsure of what to do. There was no way in hell that she could carry it two inches, let alone all the way to the boutique, and dragging it all that way would be too hard.

She was going to have to leave it. Not even Ivan could lift that thing.

"Oh, god damn it." Alya groaned irritably as she followed after Marinette, the med kit left abandoned against the staircase.

She had a really bad feeling about this.

—

Thanks to Perfect Candidate, most of the streets outside the Boulangerie-Patisserie had been closed off by the council, mainly for public safety reasons. The debris around the school alone had been a massive cause for concern in terms of health and safety, broken pieces of pipe and glass had been spread from the site to the neighbouring shops like rain, having bounced off the Akuma's balloon body like insults to a comedian. While dedicated pedestrians could still reach the bakery and nearby stores on foot if they so wished, most of the shops were too far into disarray for people to actually want to put so much effort in to traverse down. They weren't missing more than battered storefronts and torn up tarmac, so only the most loyal customers tended to pass through.

The boutique itself had suffered immensely in the last attack. The front of the store, though structurally sound thanks to scaffolding and sturdy foundations, had windows shattered, a missing door and the sign, once beautiful wood-carved calligraphy, was missing several letters, so now instead of 'VIOLET PETAL BOUTIQUE', it read 'I PET BOUTI'. Inside, several parts of the ceiling had fallen, coating the floors and walls with plaster and chipped paint, and most of the interior furniture could only be repurposed as driftwood. Most of the electrical wiring had been pulled out of the walls, and the pipes had burst somewhere behind the right-side wall, drenching the wall paper in damp. It looked, to the unknowing eye, like a bomb had gone off inside, and that then the store had simply been left to decay.

By the time Marinette and Alya arrived, the rest of their class were already started on the repairs. The construction team had handed out a list of assignments they needed help with and, par Adrien, who was yet to arrive, Kim, who had been banned once he'd tried to climb into the ceiling, and Max, who had dared Kim to climb into the ceiling, the students were working through them with ease.

Alix, having snatched the sheets at the first opportunity, was supervising from a very tall chair she'd had scavenged from the wreckage, making her look like an impishly sassy tiny lifeguard. Ivan was helping the builders move debris to and fro, taking from the piles Nino was carefully stacking, while Mylene and Sabrina ferried around refreshments they'd prepared together, including homemade lemonade and sun-shaped sugar cookies. Rose and Juleka were sat outside the shop building the new decor, armed only with IKEA catalogues, optimistic determination and the natural carpentering prowess of the everyday lesbian, while Nathaniel sat beside them, re-painting what they'd already built in different complimentary shades of lilac. Chloe, the only person not visible on walking into the shop, was hiding in the bathroom, where she was pretending to be checking the pipework.

"Hey! You made it!" Alix called from her chair, hopping down to the floor and sending dust flying everywhere. "Honestly didn't have high hopes for you. Straight up thought you'd get lost."

Marinette smirked. "My house in eyeshot, Alix. I'd have to have been an idiot to get lost from there."

Alix shrugged, digging her hands into her pockets. "Hey, I've seen Kim get lost on a one-way street, and as I consider him the benchmark of human intelligence, I can only assume the worst of you and everyone else. How are ya, Mari? Ready to get your hands full of splinters and your hair full of asbestos?"

Marinette clapped her hands and rubbed them together, somehow sending more dust particles into the air. "Oh, you have no idea how ready. Hand me a screwdriver, a saw, anything, I am ready to be helpful! I also wanted to ask—"

"Yeah, so ready that she left her compulsory med-kit buddy at home." Alya interrupted from her behind her, twisting her body awkwardly so Rose, who refused to stand up, could tie her hair into a plait. "If she gets so much as a paper cut on her stick-twig little body, I may never be allowed to eat croissants at the Dupain-Cheng bakery again, and those stakes are far too high for me to be entirely comfortable with. Please give her a stupidly safe job or Alix? I swear on my blog that I'll hack off your other pigtail."

"Yuh-huh." Alix said, entirely unthreatened. "Tell me that once you learn to do a Dutch braid by yourself, hmm?" She turned back to Marinette. "You'll be fine, we've got a kit here, and we know for a fact it works because we've already had to get it out once. Apparently someone over there can't tie his own shoelaces."

"I can hear you Alix!" Nino shouted from deeper into the boutique, "My busted knee is not for your gossip, madam, and it doesn't even hurt anymore, so suck on that!"

Alix snorted. "Whatever dumbass, get some Velcro, save us all some time. Anyways, Marinette—"

"Hey, um, when's Adrien getting here?" Marinette said just a touch too quickly, nonchalantly twisting her hands into knots. "It's not that I care or anything, it's not massively important, just, just I know he hasn't been about a lot lately, well, no, I mean he's been about, you've seen the adverts, we've all seen the adverts, just he's not been about about, y'know, just in the, um, the ads— sorry, getting off track. No, so, what I mean is, he's not been at like, um, uhh, friend-y things? Yes, okay, technically, before you say, I know, neither have I, but that's not uhh, that's not relevant, though it is! It is and it isn't, uhh, um. Really I just want to know when he's going to be here. So I can say hi. Um. I would like to say hi to him… please."

She heard Alya audibly slap herself in the face from somewhere to her left.

Alix, as ever, was not fooled at all, however she was bored, so she said, laying the sarcasm on thick, "Mhmm. Really? I haven't heard anything about Adrien being here, how sure are you that he's coming? He could've been rebooked for all I know."

Alya gave her a look. "Alix c'mon. Don't jinx it."

Alix smirked, eyes creasing like a happy cat. "Just stirring the pot a little, y'know, spinning the tombola." She scrunched up her nose cheekily. "Hoping to win a prize."

"He is very late." Nino murmured as he walked past, carrying several planks of broken wood. "He really should be here by now."

"Nino, you're not helping!" Alya said, spinning and hissing in place as Rose tied off the second braid. "Mari, he'll be here, don't panic, just get started on something and don't think about it! Your knight will come, oh princess-a. No need for stress, you've got me! Your uhh, hmm. Your squire?"

"Wow." Alix said with thinly-veiled disgust, picking up her clipboard and clambering back into her chair-top perch. "No longer interested. Alya ruined it by being weird and creepy."

"You're just mad because Kim's not here to keep you entertained." Alya shouted back in reply.

"I won't deny that." Alix said, half-shrugging and crossing her arms, "Nino, is there any news from the golden boy?"

"Yeah, he texted, he'll says be here soon. He's taking the scenic route to avoid the paparazzi." Nino called, pointing at Alix and waggling his finger. "You're welcome, Mari, Alix. Now, no more making fun of the injured. We are a humourless, sour people."

Alix rolled her eyes. "Your jokes are terrible. Anyway job assignments, what we're all really here for. Alya, can you get started on making the furniture for the changing rooms, Juleka's got the instructions so you'll need to get them off her, and Marinette, if you could cut some of those wood panels over there? They're for the floor boards. They all need to be the same size, the guide is on the work bench already, as is the saw. Do not, and I repeat, do not use the saw without the gloves and cheap plastic goggles." She flipped her clipboard back to the front page. "I already had to pick sawdust out of Ivan's eyes today and I'm not doing it again, not for anyone. Do you think you can handle it?"

"Sure!" Mari said, cheerily. "This should be fun. I've never tried woodworking before."

"Well, hey, maybe you'll get a new hobby out of this!" Alya said, elbowing Mari. "And a hubby too if Adrien— ow! Ow, okay, okay, joke in poor taste, I get it, yikes, ow, no need to pinch so hard."

Marinette, after pointedly sticking her tongue out at Alya, settled into her work space with a contented sigh. Finally, some productive time where she could feel useful, spend time with her friends and possibly, maybe even catch a glimpse of Adrien. It was weird, she almost hadn't thought of him in ages. With all that had happened, schoolgirl crushes seemed a bit trivial when compared to a near-death experience, but that wasn't to say she wasn't excited. She didn't want to go as far as saying she was hoping for a relaxing afternoon, perhaps with Adrien working beside her, but now she'd thought that thought, and the hope was slowing building.

Maybe, she could take a nice, easy breather for once. She deserved a break, right? She definitely deserved a break, just a little one.

She picked up the saw.

This was going to be fun.

—

It wasn't fun.

Alix had had the right idea grabbing the supervising position, as the actual work itself was gruelling and thankless. Unlike Nathaniel, Marinette didn't get to play with paints, or keep her mind from drifting like Ivan and Nino, she was doing the same, monotonous thing over and over again, and it was making her feel a little loopy. She'd resorted to dragging the workbench out into the street, seeing as it was shut off from traffic anyway, to enjoy the midday sun. All this had done was make her sweaty.

Even with the gloves, Marinette couldn't count how many splinters she'd already pulled out of her fingers, not to mention the one's still embedded in her thumb, and she was beginning to convince herself that the wooden boards she'd been given were deliberately thicker than everyone else's. The weather, as the sky became increasingly cloudless, was boiling too, pulsing down on the students like it's only mission was to make them quit, and for some it was working; Chloe and Sabrina had given up a long while ago, and had resorted to raiding the refreshments cooler for lemonade.

On top of that, an hour had passed with no sign of Adrien. Though Nino kept the hope alive with regular texts from the sunshine boy, it seemed as if Adrien had either gotten himself terribly, terribly lost, or was taking a route so scenic he'd soon be diverting around Germany.

Alya squatted was next to her, having finished her share of the furniture building. Technically, she was supposed to be helping Nathaniel paint, but apparently when she'd tried he'd told her not to 'interfere with his process', so she'd decided Marinette needed her instead, and that the best way to do that was by turning her completed pile of cut planks into a Jenga tower. "Mari, Mari, Marinette. I'm so tired. I'm so bored."

Marinette blew a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. "You're not helping. In any sense of the word. Putting the cut planks in a stack isn't a job that needs a whole person, and you're doing it wrong anyway."

"Ah. There is no right way to do anything. Every way, every right way, is of our own invention." Alya murmured whimsically, waving her hands like she was pretentiously petting a cat. "An old man told me that. Believe in the way of the plank-stackers, Mari. We find deep pleasure in uhh… wood."

Neither of them missed Alix's snort.

Marinette rolled her eyes and placed the saw on the bench. She stood with her hands clasped and arched above her head, cracked her back, and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand with a huff. "Go get a drink then, or eat something out of the lunchbox. I'm going to finish this last one before I take a break, and hey, hey. Don't touch my macarons." She wiggled the ache out of her joints and picked the saw back up, positioning it just above the groove already impressed in the wood. "They are my favourite and I'm too grumpy to share."

Alya groaned, kicking her legs up in the air so she could rock herself forward. "Fine, but I want you to know that Mylene's delicious homemade lemonade will not make my day better. Not even if she puts sprinkles in it. I'm that tired."

Marinette grimaced. "Well, at least it can't get worse than this."

Alya hissed through her teeth. "Ooh, those are famous last—"

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you are in so much trouble young lady!" Sabine roared, appearing like an storm, and slapping her hand down hard on Mari's shoulder, startling her.

Before Mari could really register who was speaking to her, she jerked involuntarily, throwing the handsaw up as she jolted. Almost in slow-motion, she watched in horror as it fell, smoothly slicing down her arm from elbow to wrist in one clean stroke. The red against her skin was like a punch to the face.

"Fuck!" She shouted, pressing her hand to the wound and hissing through her teeth. "Oh god, ow, ow, ow…"

Sabine blanched, her anger slipping into panic. "Marinette! Oh, oh dear, oh—"

"Mama? Why did you do that? Why are you here? I was holding a saw! You don't startle someone holding a saw!" Mari said, staring at her arm, already swaying slightly from blood loss. The red had coated her fingers, started to stain under her fingernails.

"You left your—" Sabine straightened awkwardly, "You left your first aid kit at home, which clearly you needed."

Both Alya and Mari looked at her like she'd thrown a knife at a baby. Marinette was the first to find her voice. "You want to argue about safety now? I'm bleeding! Right now, I am bleeding! Do you not see this?" She glanced at her forearm. "Oh god, there's so much blood, I shouldn't have looked."

Sabine shushed her, ignoring how people were gathering to see what had happened. "Yes, Marinette, I can see that, and let it be a lesson to you." She started unpacking the med kit, even as her hands were shaking, either from anger or fear or guilt. "You are never too grown up for safety."

"It's not about safety, Mama, it's about you not trusting me to make my own decisions. You have to know that med-kit is overkill. There's no way I was going to need a neck brace today." Marinette said, trying not to bite her own tongue off. Clenching her jaw shut was all that was keeping her from screaming in agony. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her classmates staring at the wound in open horror, and she felt her face flush in embarrassment. Maybe it was a good thing Adrien never showed.

"Give me your arm." Sabine growled, holding out her hand, an unwrapped bandage clenched tightly in the other. "Now. Give me your arm."

"I can't move it."

Sabine tutted, clicking her fingers impatiently, "Yes you can, don't be a baby, give it here."

Alya tapped Marinette on the shoulder. "Hey, uh, Mari? We have a problem."

"I can't. Move it." Marinette said, slowly, angrily, ignoring Alya in favour of trying not to think about the pain. She was rocking on her heels.

"Marinette, I'm serious, we have a problem, a big one." Alya said, tapping harder, her voice turning whiny with panic. "Mari, I'm really not joking."

Sabine snapped, her teeth clacking. "Marinette! Stop being difficult! I have to clean it with anti-septic wipes, who knows what was on that saw—"

"We wouldn't have to know if you would just butt out!" Mari screamed back. "I'm not a child, I can—"

"Marinette!"

"What!?" Mari shouted at Alya. "What is it that you want? I'm a little preoccupied with something right now!"

Alya pointed past Sabine's head. "Look!"

Mari turned. Suddenly, the cut on her arm didn't seem so important.

A purple butterfly fluttered over the broken street tiles and landed, ever so softly, on the bandage that had been torn from the med-kit, still grasped tightly in a very angry, very upset Sabine's hand.

"…Medicina. My name is Hawk Moth."