In the midst of all the panic surrounding the love square--or whatever you would call it, now that Kagami and Luca are in the mix--a single ray of hope emerges, riding upon a big ol' rat and shouting curse words directly into the heavens.

That ray of hope is me. I'm the ray of hope.

(Come on. Let me have this.)

Marinette had to admit, as Ladybug, she generally did feel a lot more confident.

It didn't start that way, of course. But when you're endowed with superpowers and frequently praised by an entire city--well, it does wonders for the self-esteem.

But lately, donning the mask was giving her some major anxiety--at least, that's what she thought at first.

Then she realized that it wasn't her; it was him. That dummy of a cat was throwing her off her groove, with all his joking, and flirting, and...well, everything. She couldn't not think of him as the same boy who kissed her in the rain, who held her so close and saved her life countless times.

Chat, meanwhile, had noticed his Lady's slight change in demeanor, and taken note of her grumpy-and-occasionally-pouty faces in response to every dumb joke he made, as opposed to her usual playful scolding. He very quickly became worried that he'd done something wrong and, having a guilty conscience over the time he'd been spending with Marinette, tried to keep the jokes to a minimal (which seemed only to agitate her further, he later realized).

In any case, they seemed more out-of-sync than ever before, and everyone was taking notice--including, of course, Alya.

"What do you think is going on between them?" she asked, stirring her coffee absentmindedly. "Do you think they're in a fight?"

"No!" Marinette and Adrien said at the same time.

"I'm sure it's your imagination," Adrien continued--just as Marinette was saying, "They'll get through it."

Then they looked at each other and both blushed.

"They're right," Nino said. "You worry about them too much, Alya. They're superheroes! They can get through anything."

Yeah! Marinette thought, smiling. No matter what happens, Chat and I will get through it together.

Meanwhile, Adrien was thinking, If only I knew what the problem was.

"Hey, Adrien, dude, don't you have piano lessons soon?" Nino asked, sending a jolt up Adrien's spine.

"Crap, you're right!" He shoved his books into his bag, calling over his shoulder, "Someone finish my coffee for me! See you tomorrow!"

The remaining three watched as he bolted out the cafe's door, clutching his bag like his life depended on it.

Alya shook her head, giggling. "I don't know what's going on with him, but I'm starting to like the new Adrien. It's like having two Marinettes!"

"Ha-ha, very funny," Marinette said, but she couldn't help the smile tugging at her lips. "He seems to be more awake today, at least."

"Hey, isn't the festival next Saturday?" Nino asked, sipping from Adrien's cup--and immediately recoiling from the taste. "Ah! Too sweet."

"Yup!" Alya grinned, squealing a bit. "I'm so excited! I have the perfect dress picked out--speaking of which, Nino, you need to match your tie to my dress."

He blinked. "Tie?"

"You know you're gonna have to wear a suit, right?"

"Uh...I do now. What color is the dress, anyway?"

"Orange, duh!"

He shifted in his seat sheepishly. "O-oh, really? 'Cause I was thinking...maybe...green?"

Alya glared at him. "We'll come back to that later." She turned to Marinette. "Do you have a dress picked out yet, Marinette?"

The girl in question shrunk into her seat. "Er...no. Um, I was kinda...thinking...maybe I...wouldn't go?"

Alya slammed her hands on the table, standing up so quickly, her chair tipped backwards. "WHAT?"

Marinette glanced around nervously. "Uh, people are looking..."

"What do you mean, you're not going?! You have to go! Who knows when we'll get this chance again?"

"The chance to do what, exactly?" Marinette asked hesitantly. "We see Ladybug and Chat Noir all the time, Alya."

"You don't! You always end up missing Ladybug whenever she's around. I know that if you got the chance to really talk to her, you'd love her as much as I do!"

Marinette sighed. So much for opting out of the festival. "Okay. I'll go, but only for an hour or two, okay?"

"I'll take it!" Alya proclaimed, pumping her fist. "You'd better start looking for a dress, then."

"Oh, no, no, no," Marinette said, making an "X" with her arms. "I'll go to the festival, but I'm not doing the ball. You know I have two left feet."

"Girl! Do I have to fight both of you on this?"

"Don't get me wrong, dude, I love a good dance," Nino said, "but I'm not really into, like, ballroom dancing."

"Sorry, Alya," Marinette said. "But Adrien will definitely dress up with you! This is totally his kind of thing!"

"If he even comes," Alya lamented into her coffee cup.

"He will!" Marinette grabbed Alya's hand, smiling encouragingly. "I know it."

"Were you planning on attending the festival?" Nathalie asked in a monotone voice, standing in Adrien's doorway.

Adrien looked up from the piano keys, blinking thoughtfully. "Ah. No, not really. Isn't that the kind of thing Father would usually forbid me from attending?"

"Your father is actually in support of you attending this time. He said he would go himself, but he was work."

Adrien raised an eyebrow. "He wants me to go? But why?"

"Your father is planning on launching a Ladybug and Chat Noir-inspired clothing line. He would like you to attend in one of the signature pieces he made for the line."

"Of course he would only want me to go to advertise his work," Adrien sighed. "Next he'll have me wearing a sandwich board."

"All you have to do is smile for the cameras, Adrien. Other than that, you are free to participate in the festivities."

He sighed again. "Fine. Tell him I'll go. Do you happen to know who the piece is inspired by? Ladybug, or Chat Noir?"

"Chat Noir, I believe."

Huh. "Is, uh, is there a mask?"

She tapped her nails on her tablet, thinking. "Come to think of it, there might be."

"Ah." He swallowed. "Cool, cool."

"I'll let him know you've decided to go."

Only after she'd closed the door behind her did Adrien mutter, "As if I had a choice."

Plagg appeared at Adrien's side, landing on his shoulder. "How're you gonna get outta that one?"

"I wish I knew. Chat Noir has to be there in a suit, but Adrien has to be there in a Chat Noir-inspired suit. I don't even know how I'd get a suit for Chat. Would I have to put it on over my super suit, or would I have to go untransformed?"

"Ugh. We should just skip it."

"Or we could ask Ladybug what she's planning on doing," Adrien suggested.

"Like, right now?"

"Plagg, claws out!"

"She's not answering..." Chat said to himself. He left her a message; she'd get back to him the next time she transformed. "What now?"

Perched on the roof of what he was pretty sure was, like, a gallery or something, Chat gazed out over the city. The sun was just setting, turning the sky a glorious shade of pink. Wow, Chat thought to himself. Marinette would love that.

Wait... Marinette! He grinned and stood up. She's a designer! She'll know what to do! Without hesitation, Chat whipped out his staff and flung himself toward the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

After a few jumps, he landed almost noiselessly on Marinette's balcony and went to knock on her little window-door-thingy. He heard some alarming thuds, and after a minute, he knocked again.

"J-just a second!" he heard Marinette say.

He waited patiently until she appeared below him, and he grinned. She opened the trapdoor, her face tinged red, and made way for him to come down.

"Hey, Princess." He hopped down, landing silently on her bed. "What was all that crashing?"

"Uh, I mean--I just, ah, I--"

Chat slinked down the steps without waiting for her to finish her sentence, knowing it might take her a while to form a coherent response. Her room looked, for the most part, like it usually did, but her computer chair was knocked over, and so was a dress form. That explains all the thumping, he thought.

"What are you--uh, what are you doing here?" Marinette forced out.

"Oh, right." He turned toward her, smiling. "Actually, there's something I could use some help with. In particular, the help of an extremely-talented fashion designer." He leaned toward her, his smile growing. "What do you say?"

She blinked. "Oh, uh, sure. What do you need help with?"

"Well, as I'm sure you've heard, there's a festival coming up."

"Right. It's Ladybug and Chat Noir themed, isn't it?"

"And she's smart, too." He winked. "But I already knew that."

She giggled, resisting the urge to bat at his bell. "Flattery doesn't work on me, kitty."

"So here's the problem," he began, righting the chair and sitting in it backwards, with his elbows resting on the back. "As dashing as this suit is, I'm afraid it wouldn't be appropriate for a certain ballroom dance with my lady."

"You need help making a suit to wear over your...other suit," she guessed, gesturing at him.

He blinked, surprised but pleased. "You read my mind, Purr-incess."

In truth, she had been running into a similar problem, herself; when Chat knocked on the balcony door, she'd had to shove everything she'd been working on under the chaise.

"Well, let's see what we can do," she said, hunting down her sketchbook and a pencil. She sat on the chaise, and to her alarm, he came to sit beside her. "Um, so, with as, er, tight as your suit is, it shouldn't be too difficult to wear another on top of it. Your biggest obstacles would be the belt, the bell, and of course, with all those layers, you would probably get pretty hot--er, warm. I would suggest going as a civilian and just wearing a mask, but if an akuma attacks, you'll be completely vulnerable."

"Wow. You've really thought this through," Chat said, scratching his chin absently. "So, what should I do?"

She tapped her pencil against her lips. "Well, the easiest solution would just be to go as yourself--Chat Noir, that is--sans suit."

"I'm not going to this thing naked, if that's what you're suggesting."

She blushed. "Er--no, not at all! What I meant was--ugh, look. Ladybug is probably having just as much trouble with this situation as you are, so maybe you should just, you know, opt out."

"I'm lost."

"You know--skip the festival altogether."

Chat stared at her for a moment. He hadn't been expecting that. "But thousands of people are looking forward to seeing us there. We're the thing they're celebrating."

"But that's not what being a superhero is about. Chat, we've been through this already." She cut herself off before she could finish that train of thought. "All I'm saying is, I'm pretty sure Ladybug would be fine with not going. You guys are a team, after all. She'll support you, no matter what you decide."

Chat sighed, hugging his knees to his chest. "You're probably right, but... How could we let all those people down like that?"

"It's not ou--your job to entertain them, Chat."

He grunted. "You sound just like Ladybug."

Marinette made a sound that was probably supposed to be a laugh, shutting her sketchbook with a note of finality. "O-okay, well, it's getting late, don't you think?"

Chat took a moment before standing to contemplate his predicament. Ladybug would probably agree with Marinette, but he couldn't help thinking about how disappointed Alya would be if they didn't show. Ladybug was her idol; she'd be crushed.

Rising to his feet, he said, "You know, Marinette, you're a lot like her."

Marinette shrunk away. "Er--who?"

"Ladybug." He scratched his head thoughtfully. "I used to think you were nothing alike, but..." He squinted at her. "You would tell me if you were Ladybug, right?"

She froze. No freaking way, she wanted to say, but... "Of course," she lied. "If I were Ladybug, there isn't a thing I wouldn't tell you."

Chat nodded slowly. "Right. Right!" He chuckled. "I dunno what I was thinking."

She forced a laugh. "Can you imagine? Me, a superhero? Paris would be doomed."

Chat frowned. "Are you kidding? You'd make an amazing superhero!" He waved his hands in front of him dramatically. "Marinette, to the rescue! Drop-kicking bad guys and saving damsels with the help of her feline sidekick!"

She smirked. "I dunno--I think I'd prefer a feline partner."

He grinned. "That can be arranged."

She giggled. "Go home, Chaton."

"As you wish, Princess." He stooped down, planting a kiss on her cheek.

She smiled at him cheekily. "What, no lips this time?"

"If you insist, milady."

He cupped her chin and kissed her softly on the lips. He pulled back before he could get carried away--again--and stepped back, grinning like a fool. "Until next time, Purr-incess."

"Bye-bye, kitty."

Marinette waited until she was sure Chat was gone to pull the skirt she'd been working on out from underneath the chaise. Tikki phased through the tulle, eyes wide. "Are you really not going to go, Marinette?"

"You know better than anyone that Ladybug isn't a celebrity, Tikki."

"Maybe not, but she is a symbol of hope, Marinette. I think it would be good for you to at least show your face--metaphorically, that is. The people of Paris need you! You make them feel safe."

"But..."

"Plus, you've worked so hard on this skirt, Marinette. It would be such a shame for it to go to waste."

Marinette sighed, glancing down at the black tulle longingly. "That's true. I suppose we could...at least make an appearance."

Tikki flitted about happily. "That's the spirit!"

"You seem awfully excited," Marinette noted. "Any particular reason why?"

"You deserve to have fun, Marinette. Besides, I always loved the Ladybug festivals!"

"Oh, is this something that happens with a lot of Ladybugs?"

"Almost all of them."

"Hm." Marinette yawned into her hand. "We should some sleep, huh, Tikki?"

Marinette retired to her bed with Tikki curled up beside her and fell quickly asleep, her dreams full of dresses and cats.

Couple things before I finish this:

First, I have realized that Marinette's bed is directly under the door to the balcony, but I'm too lazy to go back and fix that in earlier chapters, so you're all just going to have to deal with it.

Second, I'd like to think I've grown as a writer since I started this story, but at the very least it's safe to say that I have become better at writing Chat Noir. Looking back on all of the earlier chapters is cringey as hell. I really did him dirty. He's supposed to be sass, not ass. Anyway, I hope you all agree that he's more like himself in this chapter, and if you don't, feel free to leave an angry review. I do not experience pain. You cannot hope to hurt me with words alone.

Thank you all for reading!