'You're the key to my victory, Plague, and us, together, we will bring the world to naught… all I need is your continued assistance.'

Plagg woke up with a snort, feeling like he'd been dreaming something important.

Still drowsy from sleep, he rubbed his eyes and yawned wide, stretching out an arm. He tapped Tikki by accident, and went to apologise, at which point he realised Tikki had turned into a sock, or more accurately, she'd turned into a pair of socks, folded into one another neatly.

Plagg blinked. Tikki hadn't been socks when he'd gone to sleep. He was at least 87% sure of that. She'd been Tikki last he'd checked, right?

He blinked again. If Tikki was socks, was he socks too? Plagg didn't want to be socks. He tapped his belly. Nope, still definitely a Plagg. He wasn't socks.

He sniffed, content he was a Plagg, and wiggled back into a more comfy position, ready to go back to sleep.

There was a beat of comfortable silence.

Plagg shot up straight. Why on earth would there be socks where Tikki was supposed to be?

Plagg whipped around and stared at the red ankle socks like they'd drawn a knife. This wasn't right. Yes, he was aware he was sleeping in a sock drawer, yes, he was aware that socks came in different colours and that Adrien had a tendency to impulse buy anything in a particular, familiar shade of red, and yes, he knew all of this information unfortunately, intimately well, all prior to this particular moment.

However, he did not know where his sister was, or why she'd been usurped by footwear in their sleep, and that, naturally, was infuriating. Plagg leaned over and decayed the socks out of spite.

Where would Tikki have gone? Darting around the room, his mind raced. He should've listened to his gut earlier, he'd known something was off with her. Tikki only stuttered when she was upset or over-thinking, and while Plagg was usually pretty good at working out which it was, he didn't need to dwell on it much. He knew her timer was running out.

He wasn't stupid enough to have not noticed how long it had been; Tikki needed to get to her miraculous or soon they'd have no Tikki at all, but surely she wouldn't have gone out there by herself? Last time she'd done that she'd ended up under a dustbin lid in some random alley hiding from strangers. She wasn't exactly a Paris tour guide, her directional skills were a nightmare, and alone? No miraculous to hide in, no charge to protect her? Anything could sneak up on her, which was why they were supposed to be searching together, that way no one could get hurt.

Finding no sign of her in the bookcases or amongst Adrien's illustrious and expensive, unused tat, he zoomed under the bed. Perhaps she was still here, saying goodbye to Duusu— Tikki would never leave her family without some form of farewell. His eyes adjusted to the darkness instantly and he cursed under his breath. She wasn't here. He shot Duusu's shoe box an angry look as a chilling thought struck him.

Tikki wouldn't have gone in there. She'd seen him put the curse on there and Tikki wasn't enough of a ditz to try to get past a unluck curse without breaking it, and the lock was still visibly active, and yet, Plagg hesitated. Tikki was emotional by nature, and she could act as rashly as he could when she was overwhelmed. She could've rushed in there without thinking, it was possible, definitely possible. It was worth checking, just to be sure.

Plagg zoomed through the cardboard, knowing his own magic wouldn't hurt him. He let out a shaky breath— just Duusu, her miraculous and the red book. No Tikki in sight. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or frustrated, but it still cemented one thing, Tikki wasn't in the Agreste Mansion anymore. She wouldn't leave Adrien's bedroom to explore the house, too much risk of being seen, and if she was still here, why bother to set up and leave a decoy?

No, it was just Plagg and Duusu left, sitting in lonely, oppressive silence. Not another Kwami to be seen.

He sighed, averting his gaze. He didn't want to see Duusu like this, she was his little sister. He was supposed to protect her, and yet she'd ended up like this, with no apparent way to fix her. It was awful. Plagg had seen horrors in his time, but Duusu had never been victim. He, as much as his brothers, had made sure of that, and for him, and Tikki, to see her this way felt like a failure. Older brothers were supposed to look after their kid siblings, watch out for them, not let them catch incurable, unknown diseases.

He forced himself to look up, but he quickly found he didn't need to.

Duusu moved so fast he almost couldn't keep her in his sights. Her neck twisted almost unnaturally, she zoomed forward, her face suddenly very close. Plagg swore harshly, flinching, but he forced his body to stay as still as possible. If she was in there somewhere then he couldn't let her know he was afraid. It'd break her heart.

She peered at him with new, horrid eyes, her head twitching like she'd been electrocuted. Her tongue clicked and she choked, trying to speak, shredding her throat with desperate sounds. Her whole body shuddered as she fought to cough out something, but her body wouldn't comply. Already, it was acting against her, mangling her back into her statuesque position. Her expression pleaded with Plagg, begged him for understanding.

He didn't know what to say. What was he supposed to do? What was she doing? This wasn't— he couldn't— why wasn't Tikki here? She'd know how to handle this better. She was calming, softly spoken. Plagg just wanted to grab Duusu and shake her until whatever was doing this to her fell out.

Duusu gasped, jerking her head back with a hiss. She spat, roared, spun like someone possessed. Plagg could only stare, frozen in place as much as she'd been only a minute before, as she struggled against her burdens, not knowing what to do to help. He reached out to touch her and her body reacted on instinct, pushing her backwards so she was as close to the wall of the box as possible without touching the curse. Finally, as Duusu re-assumed her position, she managed a single, whispered word, her eyes blown wide.

"Omen."

Plagg didn't know what to make of that, but it certainly didn't help him feel any better.

He balled his paws into fists, wishing he could hug her like he used to, squeeze her till she ran out of breath and hit him, so he could laugh while she freaked out over bent feathers and ruffled down. "We'll… we'll find a way to help you, Duusu, don't you worry." He floated as close as he could. "I know I don't say it enough but, I love you, birdbrain."

Duusu couldn't respond, but a black tear fell from her eye, and Plagg left before she see him cry, wiping snot on his arm.

Two broken sisters. One tortured brother. Man, Plagg was doing great on the whole protective-brother thing.

Either way, his priority had to be Tikki. Ultimately, he could do nothing without her, they were two halves of a whole, and not only could he not purify anything without her light, but with her missing it put them both at risk. If the enemy found her, the information she alone knew could bring them all down, Wayzz and Fu included. Fu may argue that Kwami shouldn't know all of their own magic, but someone had to tell the humans that information in the first place, and Tikki had always been one to hoard knowledge like a dragon hoarded coin.

He had to find her, and he needed Chat Noir on the case.

"Adrien, wake up!" Plagg said, zipping over and jumping up and down on Adrien's nose. "Tikki's gone missing!"

Adrien groaned and tried to bat Plagg off his face. "What? What time is it?" He moved to rub his eyes, nearly catching himself with the corner of the note. "What's this? What's going on?"

"I don't know, just get up!" He slapped Adrien across the face with his tail. "Emergency, open your eyes already!"

"Okay, okay! I'm up, I'm up!" Adrien sat up, wiping the sleep-sand from his eyes, and carefully unfolding the note in his hand. After he read it, he lifted it to Plagg, who swore violently.

"That little sacrificial— I'm going to smack her so hard when I find her." He hissed, his ears pinning back. "I'm going to permanently glue her to her earrings. I'm going to stuff my mouldiest slice of cheese so far into her face she won't stop barfing for a year."

"Don't do that. Don't do any of that."

"I am going to do all of that, and you can't stop me."

"Yes I can, I'll just grab you."

"Yeah? Well, I'll just phase through your hand." He scowled. "We're getting off topic. Transform."

Adrien blinked, "Now? Will we be able to find her now? She must have left hours ago, she could be anywhere."

"Exactly." Plagg said with a frustrated sigh, "Tikki likes to think she always knows what's best, but she's as scatty as the rest. She's probably gone and got herself into some other ridiculous mess and she'd going to need us to get her out of it, c'mon."

Adrien grunted, throwing back his duvet to stumble upright. "Plagg, Claws Out!"

Chat Noir took a breath, trying not to panic. The night air was refreshing, and he'd woken up pretty quickly after hitting the cold, and with clarity came the cause for concern.

Tikki couldn't have left too long ago, seeing as she'd, very kindly, completed his homework, so she'd could still be somewhere nearby, but then, Chat had no idea where to even start looking for her. They didn't really discuss her favourite places, something about them being too much like clues, so the only place he could think of was the bakery, which was well past closed, no point in looking there. He and Plagg had resorted to jumping across the rooftops, searching for any red flashes. They'd surprised a couple of nighttime drivers, a parent who's child had a red light-up toy and several shop owners with bright neon signs, but found no sign of Tikki. The search was starting to feel like a lost cause.

Chat had gotten to the point that he was thinking of making wanted posters, though it occurred to him he didn't have any pictures of Tikki to put on them, when something caught his eye.

A street or two over, a rooftop was lit alight, brightening the whole area like a beacon, warm and inviting. Sure, the lights weren't red, but they were bright, and maybe Tikki could've been drawn here if she'd gotten lost? It emanated the feeling of safety. Curious, Chat hopped a little closer, landing on the roof and peering over onto the balcony, ignoring a strange feeling of longing

Below, Marinette sat on the edge of her deckchair, leaning her arm against the table in front. In one hand, she held a sketchpad in place, the other drawing agonisingly slow. Behind her, the hatch to her bedroom was shut, a bag of snacks leant on top it. She stopped for a moment to take a sip of her hot chocolate, slurping up a marshmallow, adding a few more from the snack bag to it. Chat couldn't make out what Mari was drawing from where he was perched as her head kept moving into his line of sight, but she seemed pretty focused on whatever she was doing. Occasionally she'd flick her head up, looking at something in the distance.

Ignoring the irony that he'd ended up at the bakery anyway, he watched her for a moment, perhaps against his better judgement. He hadn't seen Marinette since the attack. In fact, he haven't heard from Alya or Marinette in weeks, even Nino's last text was from three days ago. Hell, the only person he'd seen from class lately had been Chloe, and that'd only been because she forced her way inside. Nobody could get between Chloe Bourgeois and what she wanted, but it wasn't like Chloe alone could alleviate his loneliness.

It was nice to step out of the mansion's bubble for a second.

Chat smiled, a little weight coming off his shoulders. Marinette seemed so peaceful, nothing like she had on the attack day; pallid and glacial. He watched as she rearranged the blanket on her lap so that it comfortably covered her shoulders, wiggling away the cold. He'd heard from Nino, who had heard from Alya, that Mari hadn't been doing so well recently. She'd been hurt, inside out and out, and had been finding it hard to get back on her feet. While Alya's ankle had healed up nicely, Mari had taken much longer, still needed more time even. He couldn't help wanting to assure himself she was okay, and well, it was almost hard to imagine, seeing her now. Wrapped up in her own little cozy bubble, it was if nothing bad had ever happened, as if the attack had been nothing more than a bad dream.

Chat Noir leant forward, trying to get a closer look at her drawing. He felt a tile move under his foot. "Crap." He whispered before he slipped off the roof and landed in Marinette's lap.

"Oh my g—" Marinette screeched, banging her head against the back of the deckchair. "Chat? What the f—"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I slipped!"

"Slipped from where— were you on my roof? Why the hell were you on my roof?"

"I was looking— not at you— well I uhh, no, I did look at you but I wasn't spying on you, I promise— I was, I am looking for someone else, she's missing, she's Ladybug's—" Chat slapped a hand over his mouth.

Marinette pushed herself up, leaning off the deckchair. Their noses almost touched. "Ladybug's what, Chat?"

Chat shook his head, refusing to take his hand off his mouth. He added the other one as a precautionary measure.

"Chat." Marinette said with a warning tone. "Ladybug's what?"

Chat averted his gaze, mumbling something under his palms. He flicked his eyes to her a couple of times, apologetically, but didn't look as if he was going to say anything more.

Marinette sighed. "I can't help if you don't tell me, Chat Noir." She gave him a once over. "Uhh, are you going get off me sometime soon or should I be getting comfortable? You're kinda heavy."

Chat looked down. Sure enough, he was still splayed across Marinette, their legs tangled from the fall. Where Marinette had sat up, her legs had slotted in between Chat's a little too closely, and her chest was pressed lightly against his torso. He could feel her breathing on him. Chat felt himself flush, instantly flustered.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I'll just— I'll get off you now, I— wAAH—" Chat shouted, as in his haste to stop leaning over poor, innocent Marinette, he tripped over his other leg and crashed into the table next to the chair, knocking it and everything on it over. Chat pouted, chocolate dripping from his hair. "Ow."

Marinette lifted an eyebrow. "Wow, what a gentleman. You okay?"

"Yeah, I think I'm— oh no! Your drawing, I'm so sorry!"

As Mari's hot chocolate had tipped over, pouring its contents all over Chat, it'd also coated the sketch pad in thick marshmallow-y goop. Marinette sighed, picking it up to shake off the excess. "It's fine, I wasn't drawing anything important, just the skyline."

Chat glanced at her with a guilty expression, "You aren't mad? I just ruined all your hard work."

Marinette snorted, "Mad? No, no, I'm not mad at you. If it had been a design, then maybe, but it's okay, don't worry. I've done the same to my sketchpads more than once." She patted him on the the head reassuringly, avoiding the wet patch, "All is forgiven."

"I still feel like I should make it up to you!" He tapped a claw against his chin, "Hey, I could be your art model, if you want! I'm very good at it, cat's honour. I think I'd make quite the paw-some drawing, Princess, if I do say so meow-self."

Marinette laughed, hitting his arm jovially, "I can't believe you'd invade my balcony and start making puns, the shame, Chat Noir."

Chat grinned. Marinette had a really nice laugh, and for the first time Chat noticed she had dimples. Cute, he thought.

"While I appreciate the offer Chat, I think I'm alright for models. I mostly draw designs, which yeah, technically need people, but I tend to draw them more sketchy than realistic. It works better with the aesthetic and I just kinda like it better that way. Sometimes I'll do a still life, the occasional miscellaneous building or boat, but actual people aren't really my forte." She pulled a face, "I can never get the hands right."

"Oh." He said, deflating a little.

"Tell you what though, I'll teach you a few drawing techniques if you'd like?" She squished her cheek against her shoulder, her blanket sliding off. "I've got another pad in my room, and I'd appreciate the company if you've got the time."

"Really?" Chat asked eagerly, "I've always wanted to learn how to draw, I've only ever doodled."

"Ah, well, doodling is the gate way to artistry, or at least that's what my art teacher says. You'll be a caricaturist in no time." Mari lifted the hatch down to her bedroom with a little effort, passing the snack bag to Chat. "Give me a second, I'll be right back. Help yourself to marshmallows."

When Mari returned, she had a number of things in her hands, and she waved Chat over to help her lift them all through. She passed him the sketch pad first, along with a number of pencils, then carried up a towel, green blanket and roll of kitchen cloth herself.

"Here." She handed him the towel and spare blanket. "It's cold up here, and that suit doesn't seem too warm."

Chat looked at them with surprise. Marinette was always so thoughtful. "Wow, thank you!"

"No problem! So then, first trick." She said as she flicked open the pad, having mopped up the chocolate spillage with the cloth, "Drawing faces. First, you draw a circle, like this."

She sketched a quick example, making sure Chat could see. Then, she draw three connected lines underneath, making a box-ish chin. "After that, you have to separate the face into three— a section for the mouth, section for the nose, and a section for the eyes and eyebrows, following me so far?"

"Sort of. Are the sections supposed to be uneven?"

Marinette snorted again, "This person needs a forehead, Chat."

"Oh, okay, that makes more sense."

"Then, you simply add the eyes here, remember to draw the iris too, not just the pupil, with the brows above, then the nose, mouth, ears, erase the unwanted guidelines and ta da! Done! A basic face!" She spun the pad around so he could see better. "Hair, I'd leave off for now, that's a whole other lesson. Give it a go!"

Chat took the offered pencil and pressed it to the paper hesitantly, scratching out a wobbly circle. He tried adding the chin next, but the pencil slipped on his leather glove, giving his drawing a more Johnny Bravo-esque jawline than he'd first intended. Next, he tried the eyes, nearly forgetting the guide lines. They didn't match, but they were better than the nose, which was just a scrawled half oval, and the mouth. Adding teeth didn't help the mis-matched lips he'd drawn— now his person had ill-fitting dentures and a cleft palate to boot. Lastly, he added the ears, catching his claw on the edge of the pad and making one huge, one small. He frowned, and added a beauty mark, hoping it would really pull the whole thing together.

He looked sheepishly at Mari, who smiled at him reassuringly. His drawing looked more like a blob than a person, with its uneven ears and oddly shaped eyes, but he was weirdly proud of it, even if it did resemble a sentient potato.

"It's good for a first try! It's got character!" Marinette said after a minute. "You did a lot better than I did when I first started."

"…I think the claws are holding me back." He said, shaking his glove. "Cats aren't exactly known for their art prowess."

"Well, hey." Marinette said, sliding the pad over to date the drawing, ripping it out and handing it to Chat. "You gave it a go! You can always try again, practice makes perfect, right?"

"Thanks, Marinette." He sat back down on the floor, slipping the folded paper into his suit pocket. "Do you draw up here often?"

"Hmm?"

"I said, do you draw on your balcony a lot?"

"Oh yeah, I draw up here a lot, more-so lately." Marinette said softly, hugging her knees to her chest. "It helps calm me down, ground me when I get worked up. I've had a… lot of stress lately."

Chat's face fell. "I'm sorry. I should've been there sooner."

"What?" Marinette looked at him with confusion, "Oh! You mean the Akuma— no, I didn't mean— don't worry about that, that wasn't your fault. I was the one who threw myself in the way. It was stupid really, all my fault."

Chat looked at her like she'd just told him to bungee jump without a cord. "What? No! I was supposed to save you! I'm the one who let you get caught in the first place!"

"Let me? You wouldn't have had to save me at all if I hadn't got in the way. I did it deliberately, but it was— I just… wanted to be useful, save my friend, and I didn't really think it all through, so it's my fault." She assured him. "You shouldn't be feeling guilty about it, Chat."

Chat shook his head, flinging tiny droplets of hot chocolate everywhere. "I should've stopped you!"

Mari narrowed her eyes. "I was not about to let anyone else get hurt—"

"Except yourself!"

"—and would've gone even if you tried to stop me! That's my decision!"

"No, it's my responsibility as a hero to protect the citizens, so it falls to me if you don't get saved!"

"Well I wouldn't have even got in the way if Alya hadn't been—" She stopped. "Hmm."

"Alya's fault?"

"Alya's fault."

"Pfft." Chat suppressed a laugh, which only set Mari off, and soon they'd both started giggling. "She always seems to get herself in some kind of trouble."

"Oh my god, you have no idea!" Marinette groaned, rolling her eyes, "Once, she convinced me to teach her to bake bread, so she could surprise her parents for their anniversary, right, because her mum's this amazing chef and doesn't believe Alya can cook— she wanted to prove her wrong. But, Alya, for some reason, didn't believe me when I told her there was already enough yeast in the recipe and she poured four more sachets in when I wasn't looking. Long story short, that bread exploded."

Chat burst out laughing, hugging his stomach, "No way, that's so funny! I can believe it though; one time, after an Akuma— I think it might've been the pigeon guy he's been Akumatised more than once— she tried to get an interview with me for her blog, but I only had a minute or two left before I was going to transform back, so I told her 'maybe next time', and went to leave."

"Bet she didn't like that." Marinette remarked.

"Oh, yeah no, she was not happy. As I went to leap away, she grabbed my foot to demand an exclusive, tipping the baton and sending us both careening into the apartment building next door. A lovely family, unfortunately enough, just happened to have their balcony door open and we landed in their roast dinner. They were very polite about it. I smelt of gravy for a week."

"Oh my god, that's totally something she'd do, I'm so sorry. She's a mess." Marinette said, shaking her head fondly, "Gotta love her though."

"Yeah."

They sat in a comfortable silence after that, Chat towelling the last of the hot chocolate out of his hair, and Mari doodling a tiny Chat in the corner of the sketchpad.

"Hey, Chat? Weren't you looking for someone? Is this not a time sensitive thing?" Marinette asked suddenly, twisting the corner of her jumper between her fingers nonchalantly, "I realise I distracted you with a drawing lesson, but you said something about Ladybug's missing something or other?" She waved her hands placatingly at his defensive expression, "It's okay, I'm not going to share the details with anyone, I promise, and I might be able to help? I want to, if I can."

Chat deliberated a second. Marinette wasn't the type to spill other people's secrets, she was too sweet, and he'd never heard of her spreading harmful gossip, unlike a certain Chloe Bourgeois he knew. She didn't strike him as a Ladybug super-fan like Alya either, who would definitely struggle to keep anything even the tiniest bit related to her heroes to herself. Marinette had only ever seemed to him like a genuinely lovely, if sometimes impulsive, person.

Besides, if he couldn't trust someone like Marinette, then who was he going to turn to? Nino didn't have a balcony.

Sighing, he rubbed a hand across his neck, hoping Tikki would forgive him for saying. "…Yeah, I was, but honestly I don't have many leads. She left of her own volition, but I'm worried she'll get lost and I want to help her." He sighed. "She just won't let me."

Marinette frowned, "Why not? She was with you up until that point, I'm guessing, so why not stay?"

"She knows Ladybug's identity and she's worried I'll find out if she lets me help her, she's very over protective." Chat sighed, fiddling with his tail, "Which, I get, but it makes things difficult now, as I don't know where to start looking. Yeah, I would like to know who Ladybug is, who doesn't? It's just… I know it's private and I'm not going to break either of their trust, not her's or Ladybug's, not for anything. I just want them both safe."

Mari hummed sympathetically. She stood up and walked back to the hatch, dropping down onto her bed. "Hold that thought, I want to show you something." She emerged a second later. "Okay, Chat. I'm going to ask you a question and you have to be honest with me." Mari said as she sat back down, another, smaller sketchpad in her lap.

"I agree to one of those things."

She ignored him, throwing her blanket around her shoulders and plonking herself opposite Chat. "Does the person you're looking for look like this?" Marinette said, holding up a drawing of a little three-tailed red Kwami, covered in black spots.

Chat's mouth fell open. "How did you—"

"I've seen her before." Mari answered quickly, cutting him off. "I want to help you find her."

Chat gaped. Marinette just smiled.

"Where was this? When did you see her?"

Mari's smile turned evasive. "Not sure, can't remember. I sketched from memory."

"Wow, you must have a good memory then, that looks exactly like her!" Chat said, looking closer. "You even got all three tails, wow."

"Thanks." Marinette put the sketchpad on the table. "So, tell me, what happened?"

Chat pressed his lips together. "You promise not to tell anyone?"

"Not a soul. I'm very good at keeping secrets." She tapped the side of her nose slyly. "You have no idea of the kind of things I'm not saying, trust me."

Chat smiled. She wasn't the only one on that front. He doubted she'd believe him if he told her he was infamous model Adrien Agreste by day, or that that little red bug was actually a tiny little fortune god that gave Ladybug her suit and powers. Marinette would think he'd hit his head too hard falling off her roof. "Okay, then. I trust you. Well, she disappeared sometime between midday and now, I was asleep so I don't know exactly when—"

"You were asleep at midday? Chat." Mari said, with a tone of light-hearted disapproval. "Your sleep cycle, Chaton."

"Hey!" He joked, "I have a busy life outside of hero duty. A guy's gotta get rest sometime. Anyway, she was helping me with my homework—"

"Pfft."

"Shh! I'm recounting."

"Yeah, yeah, okay."

"She told me to go to bed, so I did, and when I woke up, she'd disappeared and I found this note in my hand." Chat pulled the note out from his pocket, smoothing it out and passing it to Marinette. "It's pretty vague, probably on purpose, and then I went to go look for her. That catches you up to now."

"And she's been with you since…?"

"Since just before the Perfect Candidate attack, about a day or so before? Either the Saturday or the Sunday… wait no, it was definitely Saturday. The attack was on Sunday. I found her on the Saturday, about midday, and brought her home in my pocket."

Something in Marinette's face twitched, but Chat didn't think to comment on it. She took a shaky breath. "Was she… alright when you found her?"

"Mostly? She was a little stressed, but physically, she was okay if that's what you mean. She was more upset she'd been separated from Ladybug than anything else."

"Oh thank god." Mari sighed, "I can't imagine what I'd— I mean we'd— I mean what you'd do— would have done, if she was hurt. It, um. It would've been awful if you'd found her injured."

Chat nodded, "Yeah, I don't even what to think about that. After all that happened to her in the Akuma attack, I don't— I could've cried."

"What?" Mari's face went white. "What happened to her in the attack? Was she okay?"

Chat hugged the blanket tighter around him. "She came with me to the fight by hiding in my hair, and she purified the butterfly by herself, without Ladybug there and… it wasn't— it had some kind of after effect that really took a lot out of her, and she slept near two days straight. For about a week really she was just… so… drained, so pale she'd gone pink, but, it's okay! It's okay!" He waved his hands at Marinette's agitated expression. "She's been a lot better recently! She's was moving around more and chirpier, but, I won't lie, it did… it did seem rocky for a while." Chat swallowed thickly. "I was scared."

Marinette shuffled over and leant against his shoulder, biting her lip in an attempt to keep the tears in. "I understand. That's awful. That's a lot for one person deal with by them-self, but Chat, you helped her heal. That's good. Imagine how much worse off she would have been without you." Mari lowered her voice, as if she was admitting something she didn't want to say, "Without Ladybug, she was alone. She needed you to keep her all together— knowing you were there, protecting her… it's so much better than being by yourself, unsure and frightened. Just that hope by itself would've helped. I know… how it feels and… it's…"

"Mari?" Chat bumped her when she trailed off. "You alright?"

"I'm fine." She slapped her cheeks. "Little bit tired, that's all. Anyway, any other clues? Anything in particular, anything notable, that I might need to know about her?"

Chat thought for a moment. "Uhh, she likes cookies? Anything sweet really, especially if its baked. Uhh, let me think… oh! Apparently she doesn't have a great sense of direction and she stutters a lot when she's upset. Not sure if that helps though."

Marinette nodded to show she was listening, reading the note as he talked, before calmly refolding and handing it back. "Then we better get looking, we've only got a few more hours before it gets light again."

"We?" Chat asked, watching perplexed as Mari rolled up her blanket and stacked her sketchpads.

"Yeah, I'm coming with you."

"What? Why?"

Marinette tapped her lip, "Um, well, I know Paris like the back of my hand, so I know all the nooks and crannies she could hide in. I may not have any fancy night vision magic, but I do have the advantage of having lived in Paris my whole life. Plus, as a baker's daughter, I have a pretty good idea of where the other bakeries in the city are, so if she likes sweets, it's worth looking there, seeing as she's not at this one, and—" She looked away, her expression unreadable. "—I want to help."

"Thank you." Chat said, a little stunned. He really hadn't thought his night to go like this— all he'd wanted was a nap— and now he and Marinette Dupain-Cheng were going on a midnight manhunt. "I appreciate it, but I thought you were just going to help me plan. You don't have to come, not on my behalf, or Ladybug's."

"Well, I can't let you fight crime by yourself! Chat Noir and Ladybug are a pair, like socks!" She said, packing up the last of her things into a neat pile on the table, and smiling at him a little too wide, "Can't have one without the other!"

"It's Ladybug and Chat Noir. Ladybug comes first, always."

Mari rolled her eyes, not unkindly, "I like mine better." She gave Chat a look when he went to argue. "It's alphabetical! Besides, you do just as much work as she does, sometimes more. You're a hero. You deserve credit too."

He laughed, "Yeah, I guess so."

"I bet she misses you." Marinette said suddenly, pausing as she laid down her last sketchpad. "I bet she's worried about you, hopes you're okay."

Chat's words caught in his throat. "What— Really?"

Mari looked like she wanted to cry, but instead she cleared her throat and pulled him up off the floor with a hand. "It's what I would think in her position. You seemed so upset after the last attack, and when I saw the video, I just wanted to hug you. But, let's not dwell on that, we've got Ti— that little ladybug uhh, um.. the little ladybug creature to find, right?"

Chat nodded, holding out an arm for her. "You sure your parents will be okay with me whisking you away in the dead of night?"

"Um." Marinette chewed her lip. "What they don't know won't kill them?"

"So, that's a no then."

"Doesn't matter, let's go!" She tapped his shoulder twice and pointed off somewhere to the left. "Up, up and away!"

"Pfft, okay, if you insist Princess, but I'm getting you back before the last stroke of the bell tower. Your Dad looks like he could bench-press a bus and I'd rather fight Hawk Moth one-on-one than upset him. One finger-flick from Mr Dupain-Cheng and I'll be as flat as a chat-cake."

Mari snorted, making Chat laugh too. He pressed the paw button on his baton and they shot over to the next set of houses to begin their search.

Chat hadn't expected to spend the night with Marinette, but hey, he wasn't complaining. Running around Paris without anyone but Plagg with him hadn't been fun. Non-stop worrying about Ladybug, protecting the streets of Paris knowing all the time there'd never be back-up coming— yeah, 'wasn't fun' was an understatement.

But hanging out with Marinette? Now that was fun. He hadn't known how funny she was, or how quirky and insightful, at least not as closely as he'd learned today, and she'd not only cheered him up, but helped him calm down, think slower. As Adrien, he hardly got a chance to talk to her— for some reason she seemed really nervous around him— but now, as Chat, he could finally get to know her properly, share interests and stories without that underlying anxiousness, though she had still been acting a little weird. Perhaps that's just how she was. He'd ask Alya about it another time.

Besides, he was glad to have her help. He didn't doubt that Mari was capable, she'd had his vote for Class President, and as ever, he was astounded by her kindness— willing to help immediately, and making solutions the moment she was brought a problem. If he could choose another person to traipse though Paris with, other than his Lady of course, then he'd choose Marinette. Maybe he'd bring it up to Ladybug sometime, see if they could find a way to add her to the team.

With her help, he held out hope they'd find Tikki. Together, he was sure they could do anything.

Or, at the very least, they could do one important thing, really, really well.