To Lyger 0: Nothing wrong with having a favorite coffeeshop. Although in this case it may have cost him…

To Geft: I do plan to explore more of what happens to the arrested villains as we move forward…


Rose let out a relieved breath as the Liberty floated past the Louvre and drifted below the Pont du Carrousel. As the shadow moved over her, she stretched her back, pushing herself up into a sitting position, and glanced back down at Juleka, asleep on her back next to her. Smiling, Rose ran her fingers through Juleka's hair and looked across the river at the pedestrians walking alongside the river. Juleka let out a hum and squirmed, opening her eyes and yawning. "Sorry," Rose apologized. "I didn't mean to wake you."

Juleka shrugged. "There are worse things," she replied.

"You mean like having to record 'The Ladybug and the Sea' for a sixty-fourth time because someone kept missing his cue?" Rose asked, glancing in Adrien's direction and arching her eyebrows as she said it. "Unfortunately, the composer was too busy daydreaming about his 'muse' to actually play his solo!" Adrien continued staring out at the water, turning in the direction of the distant Eiffel Tower, seeming not to have heard her. Closer to the bow, the Gorilla stood with his hands clasped behind his back, watching the vehicle traffic on the Pont de la Concorde a half-kilometer ahead of them, though he turned in Rose's direction with the ghost of a smile on his lips. Rose stifled a giggle and refocused her attention on Juleka.

Juleka groaned, lolling her neck back. "I'm just glad we finished that song," she grumbled.

"Not just that song…" Rose grinned eagerly. "You realize what this means, right?" Juleka furrowed her brows. "We've actually finished all the recording!"

Juleka's eyes widened in surprise. "No… we still have 'The Storm Also Rises', don't we?" She cocked her head. "Wait…"

"We did that one on day three," Rose reminded her.

Juleka groaned, rubbing her forehead. "Son of a bitch, you're right! I can't believe I forgot that!"

Rose placed her hand over Juleka's and squeezed, giving her a sympathetic smile. "No worries; it's been a long week."

"That's an understatement," muttered Juleka under her breath.

On the far side of the boat, Adrien's phone rang and he almost immediately answered it. "Well, hello, Milady," he purred. "We're just getting back in now, so I'll be by to see you in–" He froze, his shoulders going tense. Rose cocked her head, watching him in surprise. Adrien turned in either direction, looking around the boat with wide eyes. "Are you okay? Is she still there?"

"I wonder what's going on." Rose raised an eyebrow at Juleka, frowning. "It's got to be something serious."

"I – Marinette!" Adrien squeezed his phone tightly and pulled it away from his face. Holding it down lower he glared at it and let out a groan.

"Whatever it is, it can't be good…" Juleka furrowed her brows in thought, watching Adrien carefully.

As Rose nodded back to her, her phone vibrated in her pocket. She cocked her head in surprise on reading the name on the Caller ID. "Marinette?" On the other side of the boat, Adrien's ears perked up and he turned in their direction. "What's going on?" asked Rose. "Adrien looks really worried."

Marinette let out a heavy sigh. "Everything is fine here," she answered quickly. "But I think I might have freaked Adrien out a little bit."

"I'll say," Adrien interjected, suddenly standing in front of Rose with his arms folded.

"Since when is your hearing that good?" Rose demanded, frowning, before switching the phone to speaker and holding it out where all three of them could hear. Juleka leaned in, listening intently with her brows furrowed.

"Adrien is there?" asked Marinette, surprise in her voice. "Tell him that everything is okay and we aren't in any sort of danger, so he doesn't need to rush over and rescue me."

"What's wrong with protecting my wife?" Adrien retorted.

"First, it's not necessary at the moment," Marinette answered curtly. "And second, I thought you had an investor meeting this afternoon after your recording."

"That's not nearly as important as you are!" he protested.

Marinette sighed affectionately. "And that's what I love about you, Kitty. But I'm telling you, I have it under control."

"What's going on, Marinette?" asked Juleka, her hands steepled in front of her.

"A woman just came to the bakery asking about Aurore."

"Wait, seriously?" Rose cocked her head to one side. "Why?"

"Yes, my love," Adrien called drily. "Why is this so concerning?"

Marinette groaned. "We don't know any more than that," she retorted.

"We don't?" Rose hummed. "Then why are you both acting so weird?"

Adrien's mouth set in a thin line. "It's the suspicions that concern me."

"Yes, but that's all they are – at least right now."

"You have an idea who it was, don't you?" Juleka mused as the boat bumped into the seawall right by their normal dock. Quickly, Luka and Ivan started tying up. Juleka furrowed her brows. "Who is it?"

Marinette paused for a moment. "I didn't recognize her," she began. "She said that she was Aurore's cousin, visiting from out of town. A year or two older than us, I think. Blonde hair, blue eyes… I don't know, maybe she could have been Aurore's cousin. Looking at her face, I couldn't see more than a passing resemblance, but what do I know?"

"But…" Adrien prompted, raising an eyebrow.

"Considering everything else that's been going on… Killer Bee knowing who she is, Aurore's disappearance… it's just got to be a trick. And she was wearing a torc."

Rose cocked her head. "A what?"

"A type of necklace," Juleka told her, as Marinette started to speak on the phone. "Solid and rigid, but not fully connected so you can get it around your neck. We used one in a photo shoot last year."

"I don't believe you actually remember that," Adrien responded, blinking. "But yes, I think I might remember that shoot…"

"Yeah. That." Marinette let out a breath. "Anyway, that's what the Reindeer Miraculous is: a torc."

Rose started. Adrien raised an eyebrow meaningfully. Rose swallowed, her eyes drifting up to take in the bystanders on the street level, walking by the boat with hardly a glance down at them. What if one of them… "So you think she was…?"

"Right hair color, right jewelry, asking around for the Lancer by name when we know that the bad guys know who she is?" Marinette asked rhetorically. "Yeah, I think it's a pretty good bet that it was her."

"Do you think she knows who you are?" gasped Rose. Juleka's eyes bulged out, and she turned to scan the riverfront opposite them.

"I don't think so…" Marinette began slowly. "I played dumb and just told her the truth – or most of it. As far as she should be concerned, I just knew Aurore in school but we weren't close."

"Still, you'd better be careful," Rose fretted.

"I really don't want you taking unnecessary risks, Milady," Adrien told her, worry etched into his face.

"I'm not trying to," Marinette answered, a slight bite in her voice. "But when a Lynchpin-ion walks into the bakery, there isn't much I can do other than be 'helpful'." She let out a breath. "But I promise, we're all fine here. If anything happens, Papa's been keeping his bread paddle close since this whole thing started!"

"Okay…" Adrien frowned, staring at the phone nervously. "I just… I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Now you know the feeling," Marinette grumbled, a hint of humor in her tone.

Adrien sighed. "Do you want me to send Gorilla over there, just to be safe?"

"No." Marinette's tone turned hard. "You need someone with you right now, just as much as I do. Because if anything is wrong, they could come after you at the same time."

He scoffed. "Let them try…"

"Just don't do something reckless," Marinette warned him.

He groaned. "Fine."

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

Rose sighed affectionately.

Juleka turned to Rose with a smirk. "And I love you so much!"

Adrien flushed. "Um… sorry."

Rose giggled. "Okay, so what is our plan now?"

Marinette let out a breath. "I told Cerna – assuming that's who she was – that I thought Aurore might go to the Trocadéro," she explained. "She only left about five minutes ago, so she probably hasn't arrived yet. Someone needs to go to the Trocadéro and look for her. Ideally we would follow her back to wherever she's staying, and maybe that would help us figure out where the Lynchpin's base is. Or they just overpower her and take her miraculous away. That would work, too."

"I can do it," Adrien answered immediately, his mouth set in a thin line. "I'd love a change to go a couple rounds with Cerna…"

"Don't you have…" Marinette reminded him.

Adrien groaned. "Damnit… I could skip that."

"No, we can do it," Rose offered, beaming brightly and glancing at Juleka. "We were thinking about going out to look for Aurore again this afternoon anyways; we can handle this."

"Absolutely," Juleka agreed, nodding firmly. "We're not too far from there anyways."

"Thanks." Marinette sighed. "You have no idea how much of a relief this is."

"We'll do our best!" Rose assured her. She frowned. "Aurore won't be there, will she?"

Marinette snorted. "I have absolutely no idea! But I really hope she isn't…"

"Just make sure you stay safe, Princess," Adrien told Marinette, his jaw clenched.

"You, too, my Prince."

Rose shared a look with Juleka and grinned.

"You know, you do have your own cellphones…" Juleka began, raising an eyebrow at Adrien.


Thirty minutes later, Rose rolled her shoulders, stretching her neck in either direction as she and Juleka walked up and down the main walkways around the Trocadéro, studying the faces around them. Pausing next to one of the fountain jets, Rose squeezed Juleka's hand and pulled her into a hug, letting her eyes roam. A family with two small children, the mother showing signs of a third on the way, sat on a bench in the shade, snacking on crepes from the crêperie just across the street from the park. A small group of girls who looked to be a few years younger than them sat in the grass, leaning back on their hands and sunbathing. Rose allowed herself a small smile. Any other day, maybe she and Juleka would be doing that, too. Or perhaps they would be back on the Liberty, sunbathing on the deck while talking about the future – after university, when they would be famous musicians, touring the world and playing concerts in all the biggest cities. But instead, they were here on a mission.

"Your left," Juleka muttered. "On the path just coming out from below the trees."

Scanning the area with her peripheral vision, Rose found the woman just as she was crossing the street, moving roughly in their direction. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a little taller than Rose… She frowned. "Maybe…" she allowed, furrowing her brows in thought. The woman's face lit up, and she ran across the grass, throwing her arms around a man's neck and kissing him deeply. Rose sighed. "So cute. But I don't think that was her." Her eyes drifted away from them, through the fountains, and settled on a group of three blonde women who had stopped to smell a newly-planted rose bush alongside the pool. Making a note of them, Rose continued scanning. After a long moment, she groaned in frustration. "Did you have any idea before today just how many blondes there are in Paris?" she grumbled, pulling away from Juleka and raising an eyebrow at her.

"Um…" Juleka looked away, color rising in her cheeks. "I mean, there had to be a lot…"

"And here we are, trying to pick out two specific blonde women in a city of millions!" Rose shook her head with a huff. "It's hopeless!"

Juleka grabbed her hands. "Hey. It's not hopeless," she insisted. "It's not going to be easy, but we can do it. These are our friends we're trying to help. And they're counting on us."

Rose swallowed, blinking, and squeezed Juleka's hands in response. She sighed heavily and shook her head. "I know. And I don't want to give up, not when this might be our best – our only – lead on one of the Lynchpin-ions." She frowned, glancing down at the picture Marinette had sent them from the drone outside the bakery. "But I'm not sure how the two of us are going to cover the entire Trocadéro – even assuming that she came here in the first place." She shrugged. "I don't know, maybe we need to split up? Cover more ground that way?"

"Not a chance." Juleka shook her head adamantly. "I don't like the idea of not being able to see each other while searching for a supervillain!"

"True…" Rose winced, shifting her eight from one foot to the other.

Juleka hummed, examining her carefully. "Do we need to take a break?"

Rose let out a heavy sigh. "I think so. My feet are killing me, after four hours of recording just today, plus all the walking we've been doing lately."

"What do you think?" Juleka mused, raising an eyebrow and nodding toward a young couple just leaving the crêperie across the street. "Up for crepes?"

Rose shrugged. "Why not? I don't think I've ever actually had their crepes before."

"Didn't we get the chocolate hazelnut one to split that time we came here with Luka and Kagami?" asked Juleka, cocking her head to one side.

Rose furrowed her brows. "Did we?"

Juleka nodded slowly. "I'm sure we did…"

Rose shrugged. "That was back in the fall, though, wasn't it?" Juleka nodded. "A lot has happened since then."

"True…"

As they rounded the outside of the Trocadéro, Rose glanced up and down the street, pausing for a moment as a large group of tourists walked down the steps from the Marine Museum. "Maybe after this we should try the museums," she suggested.

Juleka nodded. "It's too bad the park is just so big. It's–" She froze her eyes going wide. Rose started, cocking her head to one side and listening intently. Had it just been her imagination? She was just starting to relax once more when the shriek repeated, louder this time: an ear-piercing scream that echoed off of the stone buildings of the museums and startled a flock of pigeons away from the esplanade. Juleka's mouth came open in a small O.

Rose's eyes narrowed, and she gritted her teeth, grabbing Juleka's hand tightly, tugging her in the direction of the steps, racing up the stairs, through the esplanade, and out into the plaza beyond, listening intently for the next shriek. A sound of grinding metal reverberated down the street to the north. Rose shared a look with Juleka, her mouth set in a thin line. "Come on!"