AN: If any classmate names are unfamiliar, you should be able to look them up on the wordgirl wikia site.

A week passed with silence from superheroes and supervillains alike, then a second. Becky continued her regular patrols - with Bob, of course - but each outing was accompanied with a new feeling of apprehension that left her reluctant to begin patrols, yet also to end them.

As the days wore on she began to worry that something had gone wrong. Tikki assured her multiple times that the ring hadn't been lost and the new hero was just waiting for the right time to begin using their miraculous, but Becky couldn't understand why the kwami was so confident in a person she hadn't seen since she'd given them the ring. Even more puzzling to her was when Bob began to take Tikki's side, trying to take Becky's mind off it as much as possible after backing up the kwami.

One particular night found Becky staring morosely at a textbook spread out before her, eyes tracing and re-tracing individual letters on the page. Tikki munched on a cookie in her usual spot by the desk organizer, watching the girl's frown grow deeper as her eyes moved back to the beginning of the page once again.

"Something wrong?" the kwami finally asked.

"Two weeks."

Bob looked up at Becky from his novel and let out a questioning chirp.

She slammed her textbook shut and continued ranting, almost to herself. "I tried on my miraculous right away! I was out learning how to fight crime like, three days later!" She glanced down at the kwami settled in her customary spot by the desk organizer. "And whoever you chose still hasn't shown their face, and it's been two whole weeks."

Tikki smiled at her calmly. "Trust me, Becky, you'll meet them soon enough."

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered. "You keep saying that, but until that happens I won't be able to get it off my mind."

"What if you skipped patrol tonight?" Bob replied.

Becky stared at him. "What? I can't just skip -"

Tikki zoomed up to her eye level. "No, that's a good idea!" she said brightly. "You need to catch up on homework, correct?"

"... Yeah…"

"Take tonight off. Bob and I can watch the Ladyblog for akuma news."

Becky looked at the monkey, then back to Tikki, face betraying how much she liked the proposal as she considered her options. "But what if Cat shows up?" she said finally.

"You'll meet Cat Noir sooner or later," Bob said, waving a hand. "Doesn't really make a difference whether it's now or later, right?"

"I… I guess not. Here," she said, taking her phone and holding it up to Tikki.

The kwami lifted it and flew over to Bob, settling down on a bookshelf next to him. "We'll let you know if anything important happens," she promised.

"Thanks," Becky said, shooting them a grateful smile before reaching down to pull more books out of her bag.

•••

"Uh oh," Becky murmured. "Hey, Tikki?"

"Yeah?" the kwami said, idly pressing the refresh button for the millionth time.

"I need my phone back."

"... Why?"

"I'm missing notes from the bio lab."

Tikki let out a noise of acknowledgement as she carried it back over to her outstretched hand. Becky navigated to a contact labeled simply with a robot emoji and pressed call, letting out an impatient sigh as she began to count the rings.

Several seconds later she rolled her eyes and ended it. "I'll just ask him for the notes tomorrow," she said, flipping her lab notebook shut and sliding it to the side. "Moving on to history…."

•••

Becky yawned and fiddled with the combination at her locker, unaware of the boy approaching her through the crowd of students like an akuma pursuing its next victim. She swung the door open and dropped her backpack by her feet, then jumped when she heard a familiar voice right beside her.

"Becky!" Scoops rested a shoulder on the lockers next to her, false cheerful smile dropping as he leaned forward and folded his arms. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She shot him a confused glance before bending down to switch out books in her bag. "Tell you what?"

"About the new Cat Noir?"

"What?!" She straightened up quickly, nearly dropping her books as she impulsively reached out to grab his shoulders. She settled for only using one hand, shaking him slightly as if that would get him to spill information. "When - where -"

"Last night!"

"Figures," she muttered, releasing his shoulder from her grip.

"You didn't know about this?"

"No, I did… sort of."

"Well, who are they?" he pressed. "Or at least, what are they like?"

Becky shrugged and placed the books in their usual locations. "Dunno, I haven't met them yet. I skipped last night to finish up the English project."

He frowned, obviously annoyed at the lack of information. "You don't know anything about them? At all?"

"I know they're not evil… I think," she amended. "That's it, sorry."

"All right," he grumbled. "Promise me an exclusive story as soon as you two start fighting together?"

Becky rolled her eyes but smiled. "Of course."

A higher, gentle voice from behind Scoops made him whirl around. "Hey, guys," Violet said cheerfully. "What are you talking about?"

"Violet! Hey!" Becky shot her a nervous grin around Scoops. "Just… stuff."

"The appearance of Cat Noir last night," Scoops said without a hint of hesitation. Becky glanced at him nervously, but he didn't catch the expression as he shifted towards Violet. "I was wondering if Becky saw anything."

"I didn't," she added.

"Ah," Violet nodded. "Oh, that reminds me. After you called, Scoops, my mom got home. She said she saw them on the way back from the art center last night."

"What did they look like?" Scoops said eagerly, automatically reaching for the pencil behind his ear.

Violet tapped a finger on her chin thoughtfully. "Well, she thought they were blonde."

"That's…" Scoops sighed and dropped his hand back to his side. "All I've already got."

Violet smiled at him. "Don't worry about this, Scoops. Maybe you don't have many details yet, but I'm sure you'll get an exclusive interview before anyone else." Scoops let out a laugh of appreciation and scratched the back of his neck, and for not the first time Becky suddenly felt as if she was intruding in… something.

But there were more important things right now than her friends having a moment. Becky slammed her locker door closed with more force than necessary and shot the two of them an innocent smile when they jumped and looked at her.

She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "We're gonna be late for homeroom, guys. Let's go."

"I actually need to drop this off at the art room," Violet said, and Becky suddenly noticed the large, dark case hanging at her side. "Supplies," she said by way of explanation as she held the case up. "See you!" And then she disappeared into the stream of students.

Becky whirled on Scoops. "Why'd you tell her?" she hissed. "You promised you'd keep this stuff secret from everyone! And what call?"

Scoops refused to look at her as they started moving towards their first class. "I… may have called Violet last night after I saw Cat Noir."

"And not me?"

"You're usually on patrol at night. You said no calls unless -"

She groaned. "Akuma, right. Fair point. I just… feel like the last person to find out, and I thought I'd be first."

"Don't worry," Scoops said. "It was late, and dark, and I haven't even updated the Ladyblog yet. I'm sure you're not the last person to find out about them."

•••

Everyone else in the school, it seemed, already knew about them.

The precious ten minutes of leisure time after their homeroom teacher rattled off announcements and took care of any issues that particular week were usually quiet, as students either opted to get some studying in or chat with friends in small clusters. Normally Becky chose to spend the time reading, as she had plenty of other opportunities to talk to Violet and Scoops during the day, and they were seated on the opposite side of the room from her.

The teacher had barely finished up when Rose leaned over her desk and tapped Scoops on the shoulder with a pen. "What've you heard about Cat Noir?" she asked, notebook already open to a fresh page before her.

Becky's hand hovered over the half-finished novel she'd set out, then dropped to her desk as curiosity won her over. As she began awkwardly angling herself sideways so she could look back at the journalists, she noticed students around her begin to do the same, watching them silently.

Scoops scooted his chair back to face her better and leaned an elbow over the back of his chair, apparently unaffected by the expectant stares aimed at him. "I was hoping to ask you the same thing."

"I saw him!" Katy said eagerly from across the room, and the class exploded.

"He's back?"

"The old Cat, or a new one?"

"Where?"

"When?!"

"They're a him?" Scoops asked loudly, directing his question towards Katy.

She caught his eye and shrugged. "I think so."

"I didn't see him, but my parents did," Violet repeated. "They were downtown."

Jeremy groaned. "Aww, not fair. I was downtown yesterday too, and I didn't see him at all."

Rose let out a noise of contemplation as she jotted something down. "Where was Ladybug?"

"Dunno," Scoops said as he made brief eye contact with Becky around their classmates' heads. "Usually she's patrolling at that time, but I never saw her."

"Well, I don't believe it," Tommy declared. "How do we know it wasn't some fan taking things too far?"

"Way to be cynical," Becky rolled her eyes, then let out a nervous laugh as she noticed the odd looks from her classmates.

"Cynical means distrustful of human sincerity or integrity, and I - I mean," she continued awkwardly, "Would someone really risk breaking their neck to spread a rumor that Cat Noir's back? Not that I'd know for sure, obviously, but it seems doubtful -"

"No, he's definitely the real deal," Victoria said, thankfully drawing everyone's attention to her. "Look, I'm the best at figuring out stuff like this, and I say it isn't a hoax."

Tommy crossed his arms and leaned back. "Then why hasn't he shown his face, huh? Seems pretty sketchy, if he's supposed to be a good guy."

"Maybe he didn't want everyone to know about him yet," Tobey said suddenly. "Maybe that was a… test run, or something."

A beat of silence passed as everyone stared at him; Tobey never had been a willing participant in classroom discussions.

"That… would actually make sense," someone commented, and a few classmates nodded thoughtfully.

Becky shrugged. "Guess we'll know once somebody gets akumatized," she said flatly.

"Hey, Tobey, you can choose to be akumatized whenever, right?"

Tobey shot Tommy a cold glare and turned away from the conversation. Another awkward moment passed before Rose cleared her throat and clicked her pen a couple of times.

"Anyone actually get a good look at him? Katy?"

"Yeah."

"Was he cute?" Eugene's dark-haired friend - Lucy - burst out.

"I dunno, I wasn't that close…."

Becky tuned out of the conversation as it took a turn towards a topic less important to her. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Tobey reach one hand down towards his messenger bag, seem to think better of it, and instead place an elbow on his desk so he could prop his head up. His glasses went slightly askew and his face automatically tilted slightly towards her as he leaned into his hand.

She twisted around the other way to face him better. He looked even worse when she did: drooping eyelids framed by dark circles, hair uncharacteristically messy, and a frown which he hadn't been wearing earlier (him smiling in general was odd, but the reason she remembered this one in particular was that her entering the room hadn't made it disappear).

"Tired?" Becky remarked, unable to hide an amused smirk. He'd bragged about working late nights on projects before (always robots, of course), but they'd never left him looking like this - not just sleep-deprived, but exhausted.

"Like you wouldn't believe," he grumbled, staring into space.

"Robot stuff again?"

"Hm? Uh, yeah," he said distantly. "Robut stuff. All night."

"Huh. That reminds me," she said suddenly, "Why didn't you answer my call?"

"What call?" His eyes darted to to her face, suddenly alert.

"About the next lab report?"

His arm dropped to his desk as he shifted backwards to sit up straight. "What about it? It's still due Friday, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," she said, waving a hand. "It's just that I misplaced some of the data and need to copy yours down."

"Oh, uh, of course," he said quickly, and bent down to rummage through his bag.

Curiosity won over as she watched him search. "So… where were you, then?"

He paused. "Hardware store."

"Of course you were," she muttered. "Hey, that's downtown, right? Did you see -"

"No," he said sharply, yanking a folder out of his bag. "What is this, an interrogation?"

Becky rolled her eyes. "Just a friendly inquiry."

"Ah, yes, friendly," he repeated sarcastically. "Because vapid superhero gossip is my favorite conversation opener."

"What's with you today?"

"As you so keenly observed earlier, I'm tired."

She huffed. "Whatever. Do you have them or not?"

"Right here," he replied, shoving a sheet of paper at her. She took it and began copying numbers down wordlessly, handing it back with a quick thank-you as the bell began to ring.