Updating today because I'll be computer-less until Monday.

Chapter 11: Perfection

Lacy was barely in through the door when her dad pulled her into a hug.

"That was scary," he muttered.

"I think that was the point," Lacy replied.

It was easy to guess what her father's worst fear must have been.

Lacy let herself melt into the hug .There was no one who made herself feel as loved as her dad did.

Eventually, Elisabeth broke up the hug, saying that Lacy probably needed a nap.

"Can't," Lacy replied. "Don't want to miss school today after missing yesterday morning."

"But you-"

Whatever Elisabeth was going to say was cut off when Sadie walked down the stairs.

Right. Lacy hadn't forgotten she'd stashed bird-Sadie in her room for safety.

Her dad and Elisabeth watched as Sadie came down the stairs and into their kitchen, and grabbed an ice cream from the freezer.

She pointed the ice cream at Lacy. "We are never talking about this again."

"You can't have that for breakfast," Lacy's dad said. "You need something-"

Sadie ignored him completely, leaving without saying another word.

Elisabeth blinked. "Okay. Anyways, don't push yourself, dove." She put her hand on top of Lacy's head.

Lacy nodded. "I'll be fine. Promise."

Elisabeth smiled and shook Lacy's hair. "Alright. Go get ready for school if that's what you're going to do."

Lacy nodded again, before giving her dad another hug and running up to her room.

Halfway up the stairs, her phone beeped with an akuma alert.

Of the team, Lacy was likely the most awake. That meant she needed to help with the akuma, which meant missing school.

Oh well. She'd probably had ended up falling asleep in class anyways.

The energy from her recharged miraculous was enough to keep Kota moving.

The akuma was at an apartment building not very far away, and Kota was the first at the scene. She perched on a rooftop across the street, keeping her eye out for the akuma.

It was clearly water based, whoever the akuma was. The entire building looked like it was crying, and the civilians had all been flushed from the building. But Kota could not spot the actual akuma.

"That's Kim's building."

Kota startled, not having heard Ladybug land behind her.

"All the civilians have evacuated," Kota said. "If he was here when it happened, he's fine."

"Where's the akuma?" Ladybug asked.

Kota shrugged. "Whoever it is hasn't appeared."

"We do have water power ups, right?" Stampede's voice cut through the comm system a second before she and Ryuko landed on the rooftop.

"I don't think we need those yet," Ladybug said. She tapped at her yo-yo, releasing Tikki the Second. "My drone should be water-proof. We'll find this akuma in no time."

"I know who it is." Roi Singe landed beside Ladybug. "It's my mom."

"Oh."

"Are you okay?" Kota asked, knowing the answer. The way his shoulders slump, the slight frown, the way his tail hung - he was not fine.

But that's not what he said.

"I'm fine. We just had a little argument, nothing we can't smooth over later."

That was a lie, and even Ryuko seemed to realize it.

She frowned. "Are you sure you want to fight her?"

"No," Roí Singe said. "But I will. She's got the thing, with the thing-"

"Perfect aim?" Ladybug guessed.

"Yeah, that. You'll need me."

"Okay," Ladybug agreed. "I'll still send my drone, see if we need to power up or - Chat. Noir."

Everyone's attention turned to the hero, who had just landed. Chat Noir chuckled awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.

"Um, sorry?"

"Sorry?" Ladybug repeated.

"Look, I can explain," Chat Noir said, holding his hands up. "You know what my worst fear is, right? When I'm untransformed?"

"Claustrophobia," Ladybug said.

"You mean claw-strophobia." Chat Noir finger gunned at her.

"Chat."

"Right, not the time. Anyways, when it first happened, I just cataclysmed it, right? But then I thought, well, we have more teammates now, I don't need to rush. So I detransformed to recharge, but then - then the bars reappeared."

"That sounds annoying," Stampede said.

"As annoying as being stuck as a bird?" Kota asked.

Stampede scowled at her. "I told you not to mention that!"

"But Chat, you could have just texted us," Ladybug said.

"Phone wasn't working," Chat Noir replied. "Part of the claustrophobia, probably."

"Don't you mean, claw-strophobia?" Roi Singe asked.

"Roi," Ladybug scolded.

"It's a good pun," Roi Singe replied.

"You know what? Nevermind. Let's focus on this Akuma."

"Sounds like a plan," Chat Noir agreed.

"Anyways, as I was saying," Ladybug continued. "I'm sending my drone in to scout the apartment building. From there, we can tell if we want to power up or not. Sound good?"

The heroes all nodded, and Tikki the Second took off.

And the roof of the apartment building exploded.

The akuma shot up, propelled by a spiral of water.

"You are taking forever!" She shouted. "Well, time is up! I'm taking this fight to you!"

The akuma herself was bright gold. She wore a Greek-style dress the fell passed her feet, and her hair up in a loose bun. Golden laurels circled her head like a crown.

"Okay then," Ladybug muttered. "Any idea where the akuma is?"

"Her necklace," Roi Singe said. "I saw it fly in."

Kota squinted at the akuma, but couldn't make out a necklace.

She did see her raise her hand, so Kota had plenty of time to jump out of the way of the water current. But the water curved to follow her, blasting her and knocking her off the roof.

Kota smacked into the ground, wincing at the pain. Her miraculous kept her from being injured, but it still hurt.

Stampede and Ryuko had landed next to her, both stumbling to their feet quickly. Stampede held out a hand to help Kota up.

"Thanks."

"Roi!" Ladybug called over the comms. "We need to mess up her aim!"

A second jet of water shot over the rooftop, knocking Kota into the air and across the street. She hit a building with a thunk.

"I would if I could stay on my feet for more than two se- aagh!"

"We need to trap her somehow," Stampede said. "Is she creating the water herself or just manipulating-"

Stampede was cut off by another blast of water, and slammed into the wall next to Kota.

"Creating it herself," Roi Singe answered.

"That's annoying," Stampede muttered.

"I can't avoid her even when using my powers," Ryuko said. "This will be troublesome."

"We can't get close to her if she keeps knocking us with - ugh!"

"What about Lis?" Stampede asked.

"Kota, can you-?"

"I'll find her."

"Good. The rest of us will distract the akuma. Go!"

Lacy detransformed about a block from the Liberty. Her clothes were now dry, but her hair was still soaked.

"That was fun!" Orikko said. "What a challenge!"

Lacy yawned. "I just wish the challenges weren't back to back."

Anarcha was the only one on the Liberty's deck, and she waved at Lacy when she approached.\

"I was hoping to talk to Juleka about school stuff?" Lacy said.

"She's in her room, just head on down," Anarcha replied. "But try to be quiet, she has a headache."

Lacy nodded. "Thanks."

She headed down to the bedroom below deck, lightly knocking on the door.

"It's me," Lacy said.

Sass phased through the door, looking at her with sleepy eyes.

"They're tired," they said.

"Ladybug needs Lis," Lacy said.

"Another akuma attack?" Sass questioned.

Lacy nodded. "We're all tiring out."

Sass floated quietly for a moment. "Are you sure you need Lis?"

Lacy shrugged. "I don't make the plans."

"We're all tired," Orikko complained. "Even I'm tired. But there's an Akuma out there, and Ladybug said she needed Lis."

Sass nodded. "Okay, but be quiet."

He floated back through the door. Lacy slowly opened it, willing it not to creak. It creaked anyways.

Luka and Juleka had fallen asleep sitting next to each other, Juleka's head on Luka's shoulder. Lacy hesitated - she didn't want to wake them.

Orikko had no such hesitations.

"Wakey wakey!"

"Quietly," Sass hissed.

"That was quietly!" Orikko replied, still talking very loudly.

Luka woke first, which jolted Juleka awake.

"Sorry," Lacy whispered. "But we need you."

Ladybug winced when she saw how tired Lis Tigre was.

"Sorry," she said. "I wouldn't have waken you if I had a choice, but Rena can't make it and we need a distraction."

"It's fine," Lis Tigre muttered.

"So here's the plan," Ladybug said. "The Akuma has perfect aim, but if you turn-" Ladybug cut herself off with a yawn. "If you turn invisible-"

"Got it," Lis Tigre said.

"Roi will sneak up on her while you've got her distracted," Ladybug finished. "Be careful, those jets of water are strong."

Lis Tigre nodded. "Stripes on!"

Thankfully, the plan worked.

The akuma couldn't aim at what she couldn't see, but Lis Tigre made just enough noise to keep her trying. When the akuma turned her back, Roi Singe used his powers and completely messed up her aim. From there, it was easy for Chat Noir to sneak up on her and snag the necklace.

After that, they fist bumped, and they were good to go home.

"Skip school," Ladybug decided. "It's not worth it. Go and get some rest."

"That sounds like a great idea," Chat Noir agreed. "I think we could all use a cat nap."

"We'll need to have a team meeting to go over something, but not today," Ladybug continued, ignoring Chat Noir. "Bug out!"

And with that, she yo-yoed off.

Chat Noir volunteered to see the akuma victim, the other heroes all muttered something about needing a nap, and soon Ryuko and Roi Singe were the only ones left.

Roi Singe raised an eyebrow. "Don't you need to sleep too?"

"I will," Ryuko said. "But I wanted to make sure you were okay first."

"I'm fine," Roi Singe said. "Like I said, nothing that we won't smooth over later."

"You missed swim practice this morning, correct? That's what the argument was about? Missing one practice?"

Roi Singe sighed. "Yeah. I guess I should've known you could figure it out."

"I know how stressful living with someone like that is."

"It's not that," Roi Singe said. "I mean, not as bad. You see, my mom was a competitive swimmer, and had dreams of going to olympics and everything."

"But something happened?" Ryuko guessed.

Roi Singe nodded. "She got injured, helping someone. She says she doesn't regret it - after all, that's how she met my dad - but when I started showing interest in competitive swimming, she became..."

"Intense?"

"That's one word for it." Roi Singe sighed. "And it's gotten worse these last couple years."

"And you don't want to let her down," Ryuko said. "Because she's your mother, and you love her."

"Yeah, but at the same time - I don't know if I want to compete, at least professionally. I enjoy it now, especially since I get to do it with Ondine, but - I don't know."

"It's tough," Ryuko said. "If you ever want to talk about it-"

"Thanks. You're a good friend, you know?"

"I - uh, thanks."

Ryuko looked down, surprised to feel her cheeks heating up.

"Anyways, enough serious talk," Roi Singe. "Want to race?"

"Your timer is about to run out," Ryuko answered. "Besides, Ladybug said to rest."

"Racing is how I rest," Roi Singe replied. "Oh, but I should feed Xuppu. See you later!"

"Later."

Bustier opened the door to her classroom, ready for another exciting day teaching her class.

Only to find two students in the room.

Bustier faltered. "Where is everyone?"

"Akuma last night kept them up," Mylene said.

"Yeah, that one was rough," Ivan agreed.

"Okay." Bustier took a second to collect herself as she pretended to sort through the books on her desk. "Well then, no point in doing a full lesson. Anything you two would like more help with?"

"I did have questions about last night's reading," Ivan chimed.

"Well, let's go over that, instead."

As Bustier settled into the rhythm of the class, she couldn't help but envy the day akumas were no longer a problem.

I saw an idea somewhere to give rest breaks for those reading this as a completed work, so here it is. Mandatory rest break! Get up, walk around, go to bed, whatever you need to do.