Managing to get this one out on time. Life is very chaotic. Can't leave the house, but it's hard to focus on writing right now.

I hope y'all are staying safe. Please enjoy!

Chapter Six

"It felt like he was…" Gabriel had struggled to describe it to his audience, a room of three anxiety-ridden humans and three arguably just-as-anxious kwamis lingering over their shoulders. He claimed he didn't have the tightest grasp on all his senses when it began. Before he continued, he'd glanced fearfully at his wife, Nathalie, who had a stone like grip on his upper arm. "It felt like he was trying to break the miraculous."

"Break it?" Marinette asked. She pulled out her phone when Gabriel nodded at her. "Describe what that was like."

She took notes as he went on. Quick. Hot. A stab in the chest, right where the brooch was pinned that flared through his entire body. He blacked out - briefly, so briefly that when he came to, he was still upright on his knees. Marinette tried to maintain her sense of calm as she listened, as were the others in the room. Adrien, at her side, pressed his lips together in a thin line and stared blankly into the space between himself and his father. Nathalie's expression was severe. She watched her husband nearly without blinking. Marinette wondered what it must have been like to watch the fight from such a distance, knowing exactly who was behind the mask, knowing exactly what was at stake, and being utterly helpless. Nathalie had made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with her former miraculous, but Marinette could not imagine that she would prefer to stand by idly, especially under these circumstances.

"Whoa," said Plagg, which, according to Adrien a moment later, was one of the first things he had ever said in direct response to Gabriel. "That kind of sounds like a cataclysm."

Marinette stiffened. A cataclysm. She looked over her notes again. Black liquid potion. Bubbling. Pain. A whispered spell, perhaps. She blinked at the screen. That did sound like a cataclysm. But, how?

She didn't have much time to think about it in the moment, because then, the news reports started flooding in, and central to all of them was the puzzling reappearance of Hawkmoth. Chat Noir had managed to prove that the one standing at Volpina's side on the Arc de Triomphe was an illusion, and there was much more being said about the real one. The media found his actions baffling, but the vast majority of sources, including the Ladyblog, did not trust him minutely.

"Hawkmoth is the only person with the power to akumatize Lila Rossi," said Alya in her video, and she jerked her hands towards the camera to emphasize the obviousness of the statement. "Volpina couldn't even exist without him, first of all. Secondly, Hawkmoth, if he was truly innocent, would not have needed to show himself at all. Remaining unseen is the only way to protect his identity completely. If you ask me, Ladybloggers, he showed up to pull that stunt fight with Conspiracy in order to confuse our heroes. Well, Hawkmoth, they're much smarter than that, and so is the rest of Paris."

"We have to vouch for you," said Adrien, looking urgently between his father and Marinette. "We have to tell everyone you did it for the right reasons. It didn't go to plan, but we can fix it."

Marinette hesitated. She stared at her boyfriend wordlessly for several moments, every once in a while, flicking her gaze at Gabriel, who sat in anticipation of her response. Her mind raced, trying to think up some kind of faultless plan, some clear and easy answer, but her thoughts came up blank. "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"It's complicated," she replied, wringing her hands. "Why should you and I, Chat Noir, through the eyes of the rest of Paris, trust Hawkmoth any more than they do? They're going to ask that question."

Adrien looked incredulous. "Well, I'm not sure, because we actually decided to talk to him? Because we took a chance and heard him out?"

"Listen, I do think we should vouch for him, I just think it's too early. This is a delicate situation after all, and Hawkmoth has a lot to make up for." She glanced at her feet. "No offense."

"Believe me, I understand," Gabriel replied. He brought his fingers up to the miraculous still pinned to his shirt. "Does that mean I get to keep this?"

"For the time being."

Nathalie, who had listened to the exchange in silence, chewed on the inside of her cheek and looked away. Her fingernails bit into the sleeve of her husband's jacket. Marinette watched as he took her hand and squeezed it tightly. His grip loosened a moment later when her rigidity failed to ease up.

Hawkmoth's role in all of this was only part of their problems. When Marinette went home that night, she had to factor a third enemy into her thoughts. Going over her notes and her translated grimoire (which she was grateful had not been stolen along with the box, but had been left in her bottom desk drawer), she spent hours trying to formulate a plan that came out vague and unfinished, but the closest thing to a complete idea she could manage under the circumstances.

The next day, she was back at the Agreste house, standing in front of all three of them as they sat on the sofa in the atelier. Adrien held the baby, waving his index finger in front of her face while Marinette flipped the grimoire open to the page she had dog-eared the night before.

"That person you met," she said to Gabriel, "was a sorcerer."

By the look on his face, he didn't seem to know what to make of that information. Neither did anybody else in the room.

"Sorcery is mentioned in here," she began to explain, running her hand down the yellowed page, "But it doesn't go into that much depth. It explains the magic necessary to complete kwami power-ups and to fix damage done to miraculous, but there's little more than a brief overview of what else one can do with miraculous-related magic. I'm sure that stuff has to have its own rulebook."

"It's miraculous-related?" asked Adrien. "I mean, I know we said it seemed like a cataclysm, but that person clearly wasn't transformed." Ladybug and Chat Noir had seen the cloaked figure only briefly. While they were entangled in battle with Volpina, they ran out from an alleyway to the building Hawkmoth and Conspiracy had crashed through. Just by the way they were moving, it was evident that they didn't have a miraculous, at least not one that was activated. They were quick, but not unnaturally so. Not like Volpina, whose blows were lightning-fast and challenging to keep up with.

Marinette shook her head. "I have no idea how they accomplished it, but somehow they had found a way to almost replicate the black cat's power, or so we are assuming, considering whatever they had been trying to do had failed."

"So, there's a way for them to do that without a miraculous?" said Adrien. He turned his head to the side, eyes landing on Plagg. The cat kwami hung in the air beside Tikki, his narrow eyes focused on the floor. "Do you know anything about that?"

"We've seen sorcery," answered Tikki. "But we know very little about it. Less than you. The guardians have always tried to keep us from information that could possibly fall into the wrong hands."

"Nooroo," Gabriel said, and the butterfly kwami blinked in surprise at being addressed among so many other listening ears, "what about you? You were able to tell me what the combined power of the ladybug and the black cat could achieve. That's sensitive information, something you shouldn't have known."

"I couldn't help knowing that, Master," he murmured in reply. He had been looming quite a distance away from the other two kwamis, and now drifted just slightly closer. "We've seen what that power has done in the past. It's best that we are able to warn our holders against pursuing something as dangerous as that."

Gabriel's eyes darkened, and he looked away.

Marinette sighed, closing the book and clutching it to her chest. "It's a lot to juggle," she admitted aloud. "Here's what I'm thinking. We need to find a way to get ahead of, or at least on par with, whatever those villains are capable of. Volpina is no problem. We understand her illusions quite well. She has a few tricks up her sleeve, but they're nothing we can't handle. It's her lies we need to stay sharp about. As for Conspiracy, he's trickier. Chat Noir and I were never able to land a blow on him, ourselves, but you managed to get ahold of him," she said, gesturing to Gabriel.

He nodded. "He disappeared, but it slowed the fight at least."

"So when it comes to the sorcerer," Marinette continued. "We'll have to try and figure out some sorcery. If we can't do it ourselves, we can at least try to understand how they do it. And that's where you come in."

Nathalie blinked at her. The dark-haired woman, true to form, sat with her arms crossed against her chest, utterly silent throughout the length of the discussion despite the unease evident in her visage. Her blue gaze hardened as Marinette nudged the grimoire in her direction. "Me?" She reluctantly unfolded her arms and accepted the book, running her hand down the front cover.

Marinette nodded. "Yes, you. Mrs. Agreste, I know you aren't interested in wiedling the peacock miraculous ever again." Nathalie's brows pinched together at this. "But luckily, with Hawkmoth in the position to help out Chat Noir and myself for a little longer, we'll be able to utilize akumas for their correct purpose, to create allies." She lowered her voice sympathetically. "That means we don't need Mayura. But we still need you." Gabriel glowered at her. She added, "For real."

Nathalie was gazing past the grimoire and onto the floor. Gabriel put a hand on her shoulder and watched the flight of thought across her face. Marinette couldn't read it, but he seemed to be able. His eyes sharpened and flicked up.

Finally, Nathalie said, "If you really need me, then who am I to refuse?"

"Are you sure?" Gabriel murmured.

Something was shared between them. A stillness settled over the atelier, broken by the baby's tiny cooes at Adrien. Then, Nathalie replied, "No. I am not sure about any of this. But as much as I would prefer normalcy, that's not in the cards for us. Besides," she set the book on her lap and adjusted Gabriel's lapel, "I have never been one to stand to the side for very long. If you're in this, so am I."

Nathalie invited Marinette upstairs to her office, where they sat in a pair of vintage blue armchairs flanking the room's tall window. Marinette complimented them, to which Nathalie replied that they came from her old apartment, a couple of the only things she kept from before she had married Gabriel. She opened the grimoire back to the dog-eared page and looked at Marinette for guidance, appearing reluctant, but not unwilling.

At first, when Marinette opened her mouth, she failed to speak. The words lurched at the tip of her tongue, and all that escaped was an empty breath. She was still very unused to being alone with Nathalie, and she couldn't help but be reminded of the last time something of importance had been discussed between them.

"Marinette?" Nathalie prompted softly.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I just - Before we start, I wanted to apologize for the whole ordeal with, you know, offering you the peacock miraculous. It was thoughtless of me."

Nathalie was taken aback. She turned her head away. "Oh."

"And I appreciate you agreeing to help me now. I know you're not doing this for the hell of it. I hope I didn't back you against a corner."

"No, you didn't. It's fine, Marinette. Don't worry about it." She seemed to know that the smile she plastered on wasn't very convincing, because she added, "None of this is your fault. It's where we're at. And who knows, maybe it was fate that you decided to offer us the miraculous, considering what came next."

Marinette didn't have the heart to explain that it wasn't fate at all, but senseless mistrust. Mistrust she was forced to set aside anyway. She said, attempting to move on from the subject, "I'm asking you to do this, because you've at least been exposed to sorcery in the past," Marinette said. She removed her phone from her pocket and sent Nathalie the translated version of the grimoire that had been given to her by Master Fu before he named her the new guardian and left Paris. "It was only one potion, but that's essentially what you'll be learning to do if we are to keep up with the sorcerer Hawkmoth met. If there's even one thing we can gather from what little we have that can help us out, it will serve us well."

On the marked page, there was a pattern of different blots of color, an indication of the shades of potions when they had been correctly concocted. Her eyes flicked across her phone screen. "There was a mention on this page that most magic is either interacting with, or deriving its power from the miraculous, and it's the best clue I have as to how to find out what's going on here. Kwami power-ups, healing potions, and spells intended to fix a damaged miraculous would all fall into the former category. But to derive magic, from the miraculous - well, I'd assume that refers to transformations, but that seems so obvious. Too obvious." She blinked, frowning at the vague language. "There must be more to this, considering what that sorcerer was able to do."

Nathalie blew a quick breath at the short strands of hair that had come loose from her bun. "Maybe we should start simple, right? The recipe you gave me was a healing potion, specifically tailored to fix physical damage transferred from the miraculous to the body wearing it. Maybe I should start with other healing potions, assuming they're all concocted similarly. A potion to heal a cataclysm, maybe? An antidote that reverses the paralyzing effect of the bee?"

"I like the way you think. That's a good place to start."

Nathalie brought a hand thoughtfully to her chin, "But that is different from the healing potion you gave me, isn't it? My medicine doesn't - didn't - it didn't require any sort of power taken from the miraculous itself. Something that could heal a cataclysm would have to come at least partially from the ladybug's power, right?"

"Oh, I suppose that's right." Marinette scanned the translations on her phone. "I suppose I never considered you could create a potion meant to fix one specific type of damage caused by the black cat miraculous. When I dispel my lucky charms, they repair everything that had been under threat." As Marinette scrolled through the information, she remembered Gabriel's recollection of the Sorcerer's actions. "So, you're thinking that deriving power from the miraculous itself could allow one to perform its abilities."

"In a limited way, yes."

Marinette frowned. For that to be true, for the sorcerer to have been replicating the power of a cataclysm, they would have needed to have access to the black cat miraculous. That was impossible. And not to mention, their spell didn't seem to work anyway. So who knew if such a thing was even achievable? Marinette sighed and ran her fingers through her bangs.

"Marinette, you seem unconvinced."

"No, no, I'm only...confused. We have so little to work with."

"You've sent me the translations. I know you already have a lot to think about when it comes to this entire situation. I hope you won't be keeping yourself up at night worrying about this as well. I'll take care of it. I'll do the best I can."

Surprised by how hopeful she seemed to be, Marinette gave her a grateful smile. Adrien had always said of Nathalie that she tried to be supportive and reassuring in times of need. Until this moment, Marinette had never witnessed it herself. She used to know Nathalie as the cold, austere assistant of Gabriel Agreste, existing on the periphery of Adrien's life. Then everything changed, hard and fast; her health declined, she nearly lost her life, and Marinette became more familiar with the image of someone just as distant and five times as sullen. Despite her appreciation for Nathalie's encouragement now, she couldn't help but be a little skeptical. There were more cracks in the veneer than there used to be, but that didn't mean there wouldn't be times when Nathalie would try to make it seem unblemished. Adrien had said, "She's still learning that it's okay for her to not be okay all the time. She was our strength for so long." Marinette could admire the determination exhibited in the moment, but she was beginning to understand that in a time of need, Nathalie might only be choosing to hide behind the hopeful facade of the person she believed everyone needed to see.

Keeping this in mind, Marinette was hesitant to leave their conversation there, but she got to her feet and slung her purse over her shoulder. "Please," she insisted, "don't hesitate to let me know if you need any help. I know it's a while since you've had to make that potion."

Nathalie glanced down. "Right."

"Hm. I guess by the time I gave you the instructions, you probably didn't need it for much longer," said Marinette. "If you want, before I go, I can show you how to make it just to get you comfortable with the process again." She held out her hands, expecting Nathalie to hand over the grimoire.

But the older woman didn't budge. "No, it's fine. I remember how to make it."

"Are you sure? It was a pretty complicated recipe. We can just go over it once to refresh your -"

"Believe me, I definitely remember." There was something heavy in her voice, and the bright glint in her eye had dimmed. Marinette felt the hairs on her arms stand on end. It didn't take very long at all to thwart Nathalie's calm, and she hadn't been trying to. Somehow they'd breached a sensitive topic. Marinette would have felt strange to simply walk out of the room now, but she felt even stranger to be holding Nathalie's forlorn gaze. She looked at the wall, and the few framed photographs of the Agreste family hanging there.

"Oh, well that's good." It was all she could think to say. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes, Marinette."

"Do you still...need the potion?"

Nathalie scraped her fingernails down the front cover on the grimoire. She stood from her seat and walked past Marinette, shutting the office door. Turning around, she said, "Please, don't mention it to Adrien, alright? He doesn't need to worry about me right now. Frankly, neither do you."

Marinette was alarmed. "Wait, are you still sick?"

"No. No, I'm not sick anymore. I haven't been sick since -" Dismay flashed across her face. "I haven't been sick from the peacock miraculous since last year. That's my point. It's nothing to be concerned about."

"Then why do you…?"

Nathalie gave her a pained look.

Marinette opened the translations on her phone once again and scrolled to the page that explained the potion. She almost felt too uncomfortable to speak, but something was wrong. Something Nathalie wasn't admitting. "When I first found it, I was in such a rush to find a solution. Maybe I should have read more closely."

"What do you mean?"

She squinted at her screen. There didn't seem to be any fine print she missed. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Agreste. I know you'd prefer if I didn't know, but as the guardian, I should be aware of anything unusual having to do with magic, and make note of it." She raised her eyes. "Is there a particular reason that you feel the need to use the potion despite being fully recovered? Does it have an addictive quality, or another purpose beyond healing magically-induced illness?"

Nathalie grimaced. "What? No. It - it doesn't do anything, not anymore. I don't feel a difference."

"You don't? Nothing at all?"

She didn't answer.

"Then," Marinette said again, firmer this time, "why do you keep taking it?"

"Because I…"

"Because you…?"

Nathalie folded her arms across her chest and stared at her feet. "It has nothing to do with the magic. At least, I don't believe it does. If there was something you needed to know, I would have told you."

"Did you take it while pregnant?"

This startled her. Her eyes flared, like the bright reflection of light over water. "I…" Face flushing, she admitted, "Yes, I did. Sometimes." She dared to meet Marinette's and clearly didn't like what she saw. Her countenance settled into a dark scowl. "The baby's fine, Marinette. I'm fine."

"I feel like I should still be worried, Mrs. Agreste, if over nothing else but your reaction."

Nathalie scoffed, her knuckles whitening. "So thoughtful…" she muttered bitterly.

But Marinette wasn't asked to leave like she expected. Nathalie still stood before the door until she finally continued, eyes never once landing on Marinette across from her. "It's just - I don't know what else to do. It calms me down, at least I tell myself it does. If that's a lie, it's a convincing one. I'm not sick anymore. There's nothing to cure. But life falls apart in other ways. We're in this mess, and now I actually have everything to lose, you know." Her tone was grave, and she screwed her eyes shut. "A long time ago, that magic did make everything better, and even though it's useless now - I know it is - I still need...I need something to convince myself that it's not all going to fall apart again."

"Is it like a compulsion?"

"Who cares what it's like?" snapped Nathalie. "I've told you more than you need to know. Leave it be. You wanted my help, and you can be confident that I'll know what I'm doing."

Marinette flushed guiltily, resisting the urge to bury her face in her hands. Whatever curse of poor luck with Nathalie had been set upon her, she wished it would be eliminated. She just couldn't shake the unease sinking through her body as she nervously dropped her phone into her purse and snapped it closed.

"Please, tell you you can understand where I'm coming from," Nathalie murmured, stepping forward a few paces. "Have you not ever done something irrational and pointless just as a way to know everything is fine, because nothing else can convince you?"

Yes. I did it to you.

Tikki's voice echoed in her mind. "I think you're paranoid, Marinette."

And Adrien's, "Don't you trust them?"

Marinette took a steady breath. "I understand, Mrs. Agreste. I'm sorry. I'll go now."

Nathalie opened the door for her, and she parted with the grimoire. Before descending the staircase to collect Tikki from the atelier and return home, she looked over her shoulder, back at the office. She watched Nathalie sit back down in one of the two blue chairs with her head tilted back, and her hands dragging down the sides of her face.

Everyone at school wouldn't leave Lila alone. She was flanked by at least three or four classmates at all times, who were endlessly fascinated by the phenomenon of someone being akumatized twice in a row. Marinette was nothing less than disgusted. She certainly couldn't understand why everyone seemed to be behaving like akuma attacks were uncharted territory. They didn't even know how puzzling this situation truly was, not while they believed so firmly that Hawkmoth was the one behind it, that Lila was no one to be suspicious of.

Adrien gave her hand a squeeze every time her gaze drifted towards the crowd. Marinette justified herself by explaining they needed to keep track of the kinds of lies Lila was telling, a point Adrien couldn't really argue with. That was, until the late morning, when Lila started to repeat herself, and loaded up on the pathos to make up for the details she wasn't supposed to know. A lot of people asked about Conspiracy, who she claimed not to remember. By then, Adrien was consistently urging Marinette to quit paying attention, but she noticed the furious green flames blazing in his eyes as he fixed them ahead, grasping all too tightly on some sight in front of him to avoid turning his head to the liar in question.

School was going to be torture if this went on for much longer. Summer break was approaching, but not fast enough. Marinette could only be grateful for the fact that no one seemed to have noticed the sorcerer.

"It's scary," Lila was explaining to the other students several minutes before the start of class. "I don't remember anything while it's happening. But when I watch the news later, and I see myself fighting Ladybug and Chat Noir, oh, it's just awful. You've all been akumatized. I'm sure you can relate. It's terrible to watch yourself turn into a monster, it's terrible to have no control."

Alya was typing on her phone. "Lila, I hope you don't mind me taking notes for the Ladyblog."

"Not at all."

"You've been akumatized twice in a span of four days. Do you think Hawkmoth is specifically targeting you? If so, why?"

She tossed her hair over her shoulder. "I - I don't know. Maybe just because he's cruel. Everyone knows I'm really great friends with Ladybug after all. Chat Noir too. I wonder if he thinks it would be harder to fight somebody they're so close to." Lila dropped her face into her hands. "Oh, I'm so stupid. I never should have been so open about our friendship."

"Have you been talking with the heroes about this a lot?" asked Sabrina.

"A little, but unfortunately, I can't be much help to them when there's so little I remember. I feel so bad. I wish I was more useful."

"Don't feel bad, Lila."

"Yeah, there's not much you can do."

Marinette rose from her desk, and when Adrien grabbed her wrist, she shook him off, flashing him a defiant glare. "Yeah. Hawkmoth is cruel," she said aloud, and all eyes including Lila's, landed on her. "But it just doesn't make sense. Why would Hawkmoth akumatize you twice in a row? Why would he akumatize you at all? At least as Volpina. Everyone knows about Volpiana."

Lila shrugged. She put on a distressed expression. "I swear, I have no idea. Maybe it has something to do with the emotions that I'm feeling. The first time I became Volpina, it was because I was new to Paris, and trying to make friends, but I was ostracized and alone."

Marinette was prepared to give a retort, but she wasn't quick enough. "Have you been feeling that way lately, Lila?" asked Rose, leaning in and taking the auburn-haired girl by the upper arm. "Is that why you've been akumatized twice in the last week?"

Lila tilted her head. "Maybe…maybe a little."

Marinette fumed at the way her classmates flocked to offer their support. They were all too entranced by her pitiful front to notice, but Adrien got to his feet and nudged her. "Marinette, try to lay low. I know this sucks, but -"

"I'm not gonna let her get away with lying," she interrupted. "I need to make sure of something. Give me a minute."

After exhaling deeply, Marinette took a few slow and quiet steps towards Lila's desk. The girl's bookbag sat on the floor between Rose and Juleka. She tried to ignore the burn of Adrien's eyes on her back as she cautiously pulled the bag towards her and flipped it open. Her fingers quivered as she reached inside.

"What are you…?"

He didn't stop her. Marinette gave herself five seconds, holding her breath as she fished through the bag without looking. Folder. Pen. Pen. Eraser. Tablet. Chapstick, perhaps. And then, at last, her fingers became tangled in a metal chain sitting at the bottom of the bag. She pulled out the exact item she was looking for, an orange pendant shaped like a curled fox tail. Her heart skipped a beat as she laid her eyes on it. The prayer weighed heavy in her chest, that this was the real thing. Please, please.

She slipped the bag back into place, hiding the necklace in the pocket of her jeans. Juleka glanced down as she set it back. And Marinette winced.

"Sorry," she murmured. "Just saw the bag had some dirt on it." It was a weak excuse, but she wiped it with her palm for good measure.

Juleka narrowed her eyes, but said nothing. She turned back to Lila.

Marinette returned to Adrien. "I'm going to the bathroom."

"Bugaboo," he whispered gently, "that might not even be it."

"I have to make sure. I didn't feel any other pieces of jewelry in that bag, so she must not have brought any of the others with her. If someone asks where I've gone, you know what to say."

He kissed her cheek. "Go on."

Marinette walked speedily to the bathroom. She closed herself in a stall and waited for the student standing at the mirror to leave before she took the pendant out of her pocket. Tikki flew into view.

"This is risky, Marinette."

"Yes, but I have to know."

"Well, hurry. You wouldn't want Lila to notice it's missing."

Unclasping the chain, Marinette brought both ends of the necklace behind her head. Her heart was pounding. Her fingers trembled despite her commands that they become steady.

Please, come on.

She fastened the chain and dropped the fox tail against her chest. Marinette's pulse lurched, sending a pinch through her chest in the half-second that followed. She waited, for just that much time, to catch the bright gold-orange glow of magic reflected weakly in the shiny silver surface of the stall door, but it didn't come. The pendant was just that - a pendant. Not a miraculous.

Her heart broke.

"Trixx," she heard herself croak, as if speaking the kwami's name would make it manifest where it simply wasn't to be found. "No…"

Tikki watched Marinette sadly. "Oh. I'm sorry, Marinette."

She leaned against the wall, running her fingers down the lifeless piece of plastic. "I don't understand. If this isn't it - where can it be? Why wouldn't she have it with her? Why would she bother to bring -" Marinette cut herself off, knowing that if she spoke any further, the tears that had gathered along her bottom lashes would break free. She took in a heavy inhale and swallowed roughly.

"Class starts in a couple minutes, Marinette," whispered Tikki. "We should head back."

She nodded solemnly, and as she swallowed the sob rising in her throat, a numb feeling replaced the pain.

When she returned to the classroom, Adrien read the look on her face right away, his own shifting to mirror it. Marinette crouched behind Lila's desk once again and dropped the pendant into the bag carelessly. She was noticed this time, and when Lila met her eyes with a sharp warning, Marinette said, "Sorry. I borrowed a pen. Hope you don't mind."

She didn't wait for a response. She rose to her feet and went to sit at her own desk. The conversation died as the class began, only to resume again when it was over. Marinette didn't listen. Adrien didn't either. He put his arm around her shoulder, and they walked to the car in silence.

She was beginning to feel the impact of hitting all these walls.