This chapter is short this time, but I figure it's okay since I'm uploading two chapters at once this time. The hunt for the ring continues!

Adrien knew Ladybug only had maybe two minutes left before she transformed back, so he was surprised when she suddenly appeared next to him and began searching as well. "Can you really stay?" he asked her.

"Not really, but I owe it to Chat Noir. I'd hate for him to lose his Miraculous on my watch. And I owe you, too, for saving me. I don't really want to make you search for it on your own. You didn't ask for this."

He had actually, when he'd given the ring away, and now he was paying the price. At least he still had Plagg with him. That meant no one had put the ring on yet. He and Plagg had already searched all the obvious areas and found nothing, so he was beginning to suspect the magic Ladybugs had taken it out with everybody else.

A loud chirping sound broke him out of his thoughts. "You're about to transform back!" he reminded her.

"Just one more minute!" she said, her teeth gritted. She lifted up a stack of boxes and looked behind it.

Adrien had never seen this side of Ladybug. He'd seen her worried, panicked, and having self-doubts, but not desperate like this. She was making a huge mess of the room while searching for the ring, tossing boxes behind her almost absentmindedly.

That was when Plagg flew up to her and said, "Hey, you need to get going. I'll help him find it. If you transform back in front of him, that's one secret you can't take back."

He half-wished she would stay, but she apparently trusted Plagg enough to listen. "Fine, but I'm going to get someone to help you find it, all right?"

"Okay," he told her. She smiled at him, then turned around and raced out of the room.

With everyone gone, he rounded on Plagg. "I told you to give it to Marinette! How did Lila get it?"

"I was in the back looking at the audience when she and Chloe came in and tripped over me. They knocked the ring away from me and grabbed it before I could get it back. Then Chloe told her how to transform. They must have seen Copycat transform in the hallway, so they came in to tell you."

That made sense, but he still didn't like it. Something bad always happened whenever he and Plagg were apart. It was the main reason he'd wanted Plagg to go to Marinette. At least he knew he could trust her.

The door suddenly creaked open and Plagg hid himself in Adrien's clothes. He could hear him munching on his spare cheese he'd brought.

Of all people, it was Marinette who poked her head in. "Hi, I ran into Ladybug upstairs and she asked me to help you with something?" she said nervously.

"Oh, it's nothing, really," he said. "I just dropped something important and she was worried I might not find it."

"Do you need an extra hair of pands?" Marinette said. "I mean 'pair of hands?

Adrien thought it over, then said, "Sure, that'll be fine. It's a black ring with a green paw print on it."

They searched for another twenty minutes, but both came up empty-handed. With no luck in the basement, they headed outside to look for it. Strangely, the upper door to the basement was locked up tight, which made him wonder just how Marinette had gotten down there.

After jimmying the lock, they went to the area behind the auditorium. A fire truck was just leaving, and the crowd was beginning to disperse.

Chloe immediately spotted them and made her way over, giving Marinette the stink eye before embracing Adrien. "Oh, I was so worried when you weren't brought up here with us! You were like Chat Noir, which says a lot since the real one didn't show up!"

Adrien was too used to Chloe's antics to really get annoyed by her behavior. "I'm sure he would've come if he could have. I only did what he would have done."

"Yes, I know! I got the whole thing on your phone you left up here!" Still with one arm around Adrien, she used her other hand to operate the phone and open the video. It started with Adrien descending a rope he'd found in the garbage, but since Chloe was outside it was hard to see what was going on.

Chloe seemed to realize this, too, because her mood turned sour. "Ugh, now I have to pay somebody to fix the video and make it watchable. Send it to me when I get a new phone, won't you? How lame!"

"My dude!" Nino said suddenly, appearing from nowhere and clapping Adrien on the shoulder. "Alya told me what you did when you saved Ladybug! Good one, man!"

"I was just doing the right thing, was all," he replied modestly. "Besides, after all she's done to help us, it wouldn't be fair to not do the same for her. To do otherwise would make me seem ungrateful. I wouldn't want anyone, let alone her, to look at me that way."

"Oh, how sweet!" Alya said loudly, cutting into their conversation. "Sounds like Ladybug has a new fan! Can you say that again while I'm recording?"

Marinette jumped. For some reason her cheeks were red. "Alya! You're embarrassing him!"

Alya looked between her and Adrien, then said, "Yeah, you're right. No hard feelings?"

The two fist-bumped, then the girls went away.

The ring still hasn't been found! Whatever happened to it? Next chapter will be a longer one, and will feature a certain character coming out in public who normally doesn't! (Guess who that is haha.)