The next day, Adrien rushed to class having slept through his alarm. When he opened the door to his homeroom, he found his classmates staring at him.
"What do you know, Marinette actually beat Sunshine to class for once," Alya said, laughing as Marinette's cheeks turned pink.
"Not funny, Alya," Marinette said, punching her best friend in the arm.
"I overslept," Adrien said, taking his rightful seat beside of Nino.
Adrien looked around the classroom, noticing that the stares didn't go away when he sat down.
"Um, why is everyone staring at me," he asked Nino.
"Oh, Adrikins, you never told me you had a sister," Chloe said, leaning over Adrien's desk.
"I don't. What are you talking about," Adrien said, leaning as far away from Chloe as possible.
"Haven't you seen the news," Alya asked, pulling whatever it was up on her phone.
She handed her phone to Adrien, urging him to watch the video.
"Don't be bemused, it's just the news," Nadja Chamack said, "I am here with famed prima ballerina for The Royal Ballet company, Cassandra Taylor. Cassandra, can you tell me what made you decide to leave The Royal Ballet in favor of one of our local ballet companies right here in Paris?"
"Woah, she looks just like you, dude," Nino said, pointing out the blonde hair and softened features that even Adrien had to admit reminded him of his mother. The biggest difference seemed to be Cassandra's steel gray eyes.
Adrien tuned out the young lady's answer on Alya's phone, instead choosing to focus on the panja bracelet adorning her right hand. Little did he know, Marinette thought the same thing. The tiger miraculous.
Later on, after school, Marinette pulled up the grimoire on her laptop, pulling a picture of Cassandra Taylor from one of her performances beside of it. She scrolled through the book until she came across the page about the tiger miraculous. The kwamis surrounded her, equally as curious.
"Look," Marinette said, pointing to Cassandra's hand. The bracelet, a silver chain with what looked like diamond rings circling her pointer and ring fingers, was in every picture Cassandra was in. "She never takes it off. And she looks like the girl Cat described."
"You know that the glamour hides both the miraculous and the user, Marinette. It's impossible to see through it," Tiki reminded her user.
"She's so pretty, though," Daizzy said, turning around in the air.
"She'd make a powerful user," Sass said, gliding away from the screen.
"I know the glamour hides the miraculous, Tikki, but I have a bad feeling about her," Marinette said, scrolling through Cassandra's photos once more.
She really does look like Adrien, Marinette thought to herself, watching the girl get younger and younger but the bracelet remain the same on the young girl's hand.
"It makes sense," Ladybug said on their next patrol. "We wouldn't have noticed a tiger user if the tiger user didn't live in Paris. There's too much of a coincidence here. No way this ballerina shows up in Paris the exact same time as the tiger miraculous wearing the same type of bracelet that is in the book. It all makes sense. Except..."
"Except how did she get the tiger miraculous in the first place," Chat Noir finished for her, sitting down with his arms resting on his knees.
"Why would Shadowmoth have chosen her? How would they even know each other," Ladybug wondered, sitting down beside of her partner.
"We don't actually know that Shadowmoth was ever in possession of the tiger miraculous, Milady. Wouldn't we have seen it in battle at some point if he was?"
"You have a point, Kitty. This whole thing just doesn't add up. Why couldn't something in our lives just be easy for once," Ladybug said, leaning her head on her partner's shoulder much to his delight.
"I don't know; I think my feelings for you are pretty easy. I think our partnership is easy," he replied.
"I'm glad your feelings are so easy," she mumbled but his super-hearing picked up the words.
"What, are yours not," he asked, hoping he wasn't prying too far.
Ladybug sighed. "Does it ever bother you that being a superhero comes before everything? I don't know about you, but I can't even be in a relationship without my identity as Ladybug or the guardian getting in the way. I used to think being Ladybug was the best thing in the world. Now, I don't know. I just wish it was easier," she said, standing up and leaning against the railing, looking over Paris.
"And now," she continued, pushing away from the edge, "We have a new miraculous that's not under our control, and we don't know if she's an enemy or not. We need to find out who she is and where she came from, Cat. Before Shadowmoth finds her and convinces her to join his side. If she isn't part of it already."
"I don't know how to talk to her. She slipped through my fingers like water. It was nothing for her," Cat said, standing up to join her.
"So, you don't think she's a new user then," Ladybug asked, her shoulders tensed, prepared for the answer she knew he would give.
"No. She's had her miraculous for a while," Cat said, looking over Paris instead of at her.
"I have to go, Kitty. Please, don't hesitate to call if you see her again," Ladybug said, swinging her yoyo and disappearing into the night.
Cat Noir stood there for some time, replaying the conversation with Ladybug in his head over and over again. If they were right, if this new ballerina was their mysterious tiger miraculous user, who said he couldn't pay her a visit as Adrien?
