The next morning didn't come with any answers, but it did come with pancakes. Kat eagerly shoveled the syrup soaked food into her mouth. They were the most heavenly pancakes she had ever had the pleasure of eating. Cicily watched her from the other side of the counter.

"I don't know how you can do that," she shook her head.

"Do what?" Kat asked, nearly spitting pancake bits everywhere.

"There's more syrup on your plate than pancakes," Cicily answered. "Why don't you just drink the syrup straight out of the bottle?"

"So I like syrup," shrugged Kat. "I can still taste the pancakes. They're really good."

"Oh. Well. Thank you."

After Kat rinsed her plate, the two of them set out to enroll Kat in school. It was a beautiful day, as usual. The weather wouldn't turn unless it was plot relevant. The fact reminded Kat that this was a supposedly fictional world. To her surprise, Kat felt a little sad about it. She had always loved the rain. The two of them walked up the steps to the school. Someone barrelled into Kat's back, causing them both to go sprawling.

"Sorry!" the person said. Kat's heart ached when she realized that it was Adrien.

"It's all right," she said quietly.

"Oh, hey, it's you. How are you doing?"

"Fine."

Kat hurried past before Adrien could say anything else. Cicily caught up with her just outside the principal's office.

"You know," she said breathlessly, "you're going to have to face your friends at some point. You go to the same school, after all."

"Yeah, but it's different this time. I'm going to go into my true grade. I sort of…held myself back the first time around. I wanted to be a part of the Miraculous world. I wanted to be a part of Adrien's and Marinette's worlds. And now…"

"And now you're not so sure about it," Cicily finished for her. The older woman placed a hand on Kat's cheek. "Listen, love. Sometimes it hurts to start something over from the beginning. You look at everything you had, everything you're leaving, and you don't feel like you can do it. But I promise you, you can."

"How would you know?" Kat clenched her teeth while she tried to make the lump in her throat go away. It felt like she had spent more time crying than anything else. If only Cicily wouldn't bring up all those emotions. "Just stop! You have no idea what I'm going through!"

Cicily looked down at the plain, normal hallway, as if debating with herself about something. When she looked up, her eyes glowed gold. The color heaved and flowed, like violently swirling water riding up the side of a glass, only to crash back down to the depths. Kat watched, transfixed. The hand on her cheek was but a distant thought. Golden memories flashed through her head. A smiling man with a laughing child on his shoulders. A young woman proudly holding a baby. A door slammed in a hooded stranger's face. Rain pouring down on a casket. Everything golden, everything bittersweet. When it ended, Kat collapsed against the wall, gasping for breath. Cicily knelt, and with a kind, sad smile, she stroked Kat's hair.

"Everyone you saw," she whispered, "was someone very important to me. I have lived ten thousand lives, and I have never once been able to stop myself from caring. You can't close yourself off. It does no good. Trust me. It hurts to lose, but love heals. You just need to find that love again. And lucky you, you get to build new relationships with your old friends. You haven't truly lost them."

It struck Kat that whoever Cicily truly was, she was not someone to be trifled with. But she did have a point. And besides, Kat was very tired of crying all the time. Just then, the principal's door flew open and Chloe Bourgeois stormed out.

"You'll be hearing from my daddy!"

"Wait, Miss Bourgeois! Oh no…" Principal Damocles shook his head defeatedly. Then he noticed his two visitors. "Oh. Well, come in before I get akumatized. Again."

Kat couldn't help but laugh. She laughed the way you laugh when you've finally wrung out all your sadness and pain, and all that's left is relief. Her laughter turned infectious and soon Cicily and Mr. Damocles were laughing, too.

"I didn't think I was that funny," he chuckled as he ushered everyone into the room. The girls took their places across from the principal. "Now, you must be the one who spoke to me about registering for school."

"Yes, I am," said Cicily. "I'm Cicily Arius. This is my…niece."

"And what's your name?"

"Kat Mirkwood. Er, Katherine, that is. I'm 15." She frowned. "Er, no, I guess I'm 16?"

"You don't know how old you are?"

"I do, I just…had a birthday recently."

"Uh-huh. Why don't I have someone take you to class, and your aunt and I will finish up your paperwork."

"You mean right now?" Kat fought a sudden surge of panic. She knew this had been coming, but she didn't really want to chance running into someone.

"Well, yes."

A knock came from the door, which opened a second after. Someone tall and blue haired came through the door.

"Sorry to bother you, Mr. Damocles, but Mrs. Bustier had something come up on her way here and asked me to deliver these to you."

"Ah, thank you, Mister Couffaine. Now I have something for you to do." Mr. Damocles gestured to Kat. "This young lady will be joining your class. Would you please show her there?"

"Yes sir."

Kat stood.

"I'm Kat."

"I'm Luka. It's very nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too."

With one last look at Cicily, Kat followed Luka out of the room. Luka gave a bit of commentary while they walked.

"We're going to be going to Mr. Monlataing's room. He teaches the art classes here. Do you like art, Kat?"

Kat nodded. "I enjoy art quite a bit."

The small statement sent a twinge of sadness through her chest, but she remembered Cicily's words. It would be all right. Luka smiled.

"You seem like you have something on your mind."

"That I do," Kat sighed.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Don't we have a class to get to?"

Luka stopped walking and faced her.

"You know, your own feelings are just as important as your learning. A lot of people here forget about that. If you want to talk, I'll listen."

"Thanks." Kat found the offer strangely comforting. They resumed walking. "So what about you, Luka? What do you like to do?"

"I like music. It just has a way of conveying things that you could never say out loud."

"Makes sense,'' Kat nodded. "You must have had a pretty good teacher to have learned that."

"Yeah. I had my mom. Where are you from, Kat? Did your parents teach you anything like this?"

"I've got my dad. Or had…I'm not really sure about that yet. But I'm from a long ways away. It…doesn't really matter any more."

"Are you sure about that?" Luka gave her another kind smile. "If you loved that place, then I think it does matter. Even if you can't go back to it."

"You know, it's funny…I had a friend tell me almost the same thing this morning." After a moment of thought, Kat continued, "I'm from the U.S."

"Ah, an American. You speak French very well."

"So I've been told," said Kat wryly. Luka laughed.

"You're pretty fun, Kat."

They arrived at their classroom door just before class started.

Hello my friends! I am so excited that there are still people reading my fic! I hope you all liked this part, and I look forward to writing more. Luka will definitely be making more appearances. I really enjoy his character, so I think it'll be fun. Let me know what you think about everything that's going on, and where you think it's going (even if you're reading this years down the road).