"You can't do this to me! Daddy! Da- DADDY!" Chloe yelled as she was dragged out of the courthouse, cameras flashing. Her father was nowhere in sight. "I'll get you for this, Marinette Dupain-Cheng! I swear I'll get you!"

"Ya-huh," Marinette hummed, not really listening, picking the dirt out from under her fingernails. "Hey, Adrien, should I make chocolate-chip cookies or pistachio cookies for the party later?"

"Would both be okay?" the blond asked.

"Yeah," Marinette said.

The whole class was sitting on the steps, listening as Chloe's screeching reached their ears from down the street.

"Aren't you worried about that?" Max asked. "Chloe just said she'd get you."

"No, not even a little bit," Marinette said. She pulled a pretzel out of her purse, the one lying next to her briefcase with all the papers. "So, ya know, I wasn't really paying attention. What happened in the trial? What's the verdict?"

"Guilty on all charges," Ivan answered. "Her lawyer argued for leniency because of her age, so she's not being sent to prison exactly, but she'll be in juvie for a long time, and then in prison for about thirty-two years afterwards. Though, she'll be eligible for parole in about ten."

Marinette's eyes widened, and she choked on her pretzel. "She'd being kept in custody for forty years?"

"That's after her sentence being cut in half for her being a minor," Alix said. "Which I think was enough leniency. But what should have happened was her being sent to the loony bin."

"Oh, come now, that's not fair to the people in the loony bins," Juleka mumbled. "They're actually in need of psychiatric care. Chloe's just an entitled bitch who needs to get off her high horse for once in a lifetime."

"I dunno," Adrien said, scratching the back of his neck. "She has a lot of issues to work through. Her parents neglected her, repeatedly disrespected her, gaslit her..."

"Then she should have gotten therapy, not worked with a magical terrorist and emotionally abused everyone in her life," Nino said. "There's a limit to how far empathy extends when they've done some truly horrible things."

Adrien shrugged. "No, I know. And you're right. I just hope she gets a bit better during her time in incarceration."

They sat in silence until Ivan's mom, Margo, came up. "Hey, sweeties."

"Hey, Mrs Bruel," Mylene greeted.

"Ivan, would you like to leave?" Margo offered.

"Not yet," Ivan said, looking back at Mylene, who was nearly asleep. "I think we all just need some time to relax. We've been spending a lot of time preparing for this case, and... It's not really settled in that it's over yet."

Margo nodded and pat his shoulder. "I have to go home and get some files. Will you still be here when I get back?"

"Probably not," Juleka said. "We're all going to my houseboat for a nice rendezvous. Luka promised to play a nice, calming soundtrack."

Margo's eyes rose and she nodded. "Right. Well, have fun, and be safe. Wear a condom, and if you want to sleep at home, tell me when you're done."

Ivan squeaked and Mylene jolted away from her boyfriend in shock, now fully awake again. "MOM!"

"IVAN," Margo mocked.

Mother and son stared each other down a minute before Ivan started uncontrollably laughing. Stress of the day, and the trial, and the maths test in a few days, and the weight of Chloe's bullying and Hawkmoth's akumas finally off his shoulders was positively euphoric.

"No, for real, be safe. I don't need a heart attack. Or grandbabies just yet."

"MOM!"

~?~

The party wasn't half-bad, either.

Luka's guitar played gentle music, Marinette's parents and Roger Raincomprix provided the pastries and vegetables. Even though there were enough lounge chairs, instruments, and loudspeakers for them to lay down on comfortably, most of the pairings huddled together on the same chair. Ivan and Mylene were even asleep on top of the grand piano they kept in storage - fully clothed, Ivan's mom.

Luka seemed to be the only one to notice Marinette's half-absence. She'd come on the boat and hadn't unboarded yet, but instead of staying on the deck with the rest, or inside with the food tables, the half-Chinese lass was laying on the roof, absently munching on a plate of cookies.

But that was okay. She struck him as the type of person to recuse herself from a party because there was too much going on for her to keep track of.

He kept strumming a few chords and humming as Adrien tapped the foot hanging off the side. He was a fantastic musician, but a terrible lyricist. That was Rose's thing, and she was busy playing poker with Juleka, but with candies instead of money.

"Ya havin' a good time, A? I heard this was one of your first parties."

Adrien looked up sharply from where he was stuffing cheese cubes into his jacket pocket. "Oh, yeah! Nathalie, my dad's assistant, she's been a bit scatterbrained lately. I think she forgot to plan something for this time-slot."

"And if she did, you're ignoring it," Luka smirked, the music sounding smug. "I like it."

"So, I kinda missed a bit of the planning stage for the trial," damned photoshoots. "What's gonna happen to Chloe's dad?"

Luka hit an iffy chord, but slowly smoothed out the melody. "That's a can of worms I left to Marinette, Alya, Sabrina, Sabrina's dad, Ivan, and Ivan's mom. They're the planning, evidence collection, and legal experts. You'd have to ask them."

Adrien looked around. Neither of the above-mentioned adults were present, a baggy-eyed Ivan was asleep curled up next to Mylene, Marinette was nowhere to be found, and Sabrina was joining the game of poker and being beaten by Rose. He shrugged. He could always ask them tomorrow.