AN: This story takes place closer to the present, after "Tit for Tat." If you haven't read everything up to this point in the "Mind Games"-verse, I would encourage you to read my other MLB stories first.

For those who need it, here's the quick synopsis of the "Mind Games"-verse to this point, at least as much as you need for this story: Hawk Moth was defeated, Adrien and Marinette are together, and the heroes mostly know each other's identities.

"I'm telling you, Alya, it's like this stupid manager is trying to send me into a nervous breakdown!"

Alya patted Marinette's shoulder reassuringly as she took a sip of her tea. She would have felt worse for her friend's struggles at the fashion house if this hadn't become their regular weeknight routine: after she finished at her Agreste internship, Marinette would stop at Alya's apartment on her way home to have a cup of tea and complain about this M. Janet who seemed to have made it his mission in life to run her ragged.

"What did he do this time, girl?" Alya asked sympathetically, leaning back and helping herself to a scone, slipping a piece of it into her pocket for Trixx.

Marinette put her teacup down and grabbed her pigtails. "What didn't he do?" she retorted. "First he asked why I was arriving at 3:30, even though he knows I have to race just to get there that early! I swear, he thinks I should be able to work 40 hours for Agreste on top of school! Then he demanded to know where my design for the summer jacket is and wouldn't accept that I hadn't been assigned that project. He wanted to completely change the 'Flowers of Summer' theme that we decided on two months ago – even though that's not his call to make. And as if that's not enough, he screamed at an intern for spilling coffee on the floor – and the only reason she did it was because he was leering at her!"

"Why did Adrien hire this guy?" Alya wondered, shaking her head.

"He was the only one who would take the job," Marinette replied, grimacing. "Up until New Year's, remember, Agreste's reputation wasn't exactly the best. It's not like he had office manager candidates lining up around the block to try and help him resurrect the former Hawk Moth's dying company. Every other candidate the recruiting company found walked out of the interview the moment Adrien introduced himself."

"So you're stuck with him?"

"Not by choice!" Marinette retorted. "None of the interns feel comfortable being in the same room with him, even if he hasn't said or done anything overt. A couple of the full-time designers even quit rather than continue working in the same building as him. The only reason the design department is even holding together at the moment is because of our lead designer, Mme Legrand!"

"At least Adrien backs you up in all of this, right?" Alya consoled her, giving her a sympathetic look. "I mean, he'd be crazy not to listen to you! After all, he looks at you like you're the only girl on the planet and his face lights up like the sun every time he's in the same room with you."

"I know." Marinette pulled her knees up to her chest on the couch. "Every time I say something about Janet, Adrien reminds me that I'm the future of the fashion house in his eyes, and Janet is only a temporary fix."

"Well," Alya began, smirking, "look at it this way girl. Adrien holds all the cards at Agreste right?" Marinette nodded, wide-eyed. "But who holds all the 'cards' with Adrien? So all you have to do is tell him you'll never kiss him again, or take away his pastries, or…" Alya quirked her eyebrows suggestively.

"Alya!" Marinette squealed, turning bright red.

Alya burst out laughing. "So maybe you wouldn't do that last one," she joked.

"I wouldn't do any of that to him!" Marinette retorted, burying her face in her hands. "And what are you implying?"

Alya put an arm around her friend's shoulders. "You're one of the strongest people I know." Marinette gave her a look at that. "Considering that you got Chloe on your side and you can keep Lila in her place, and all without the mask at that, some stuffed suit in the office shouldn't be any problem for you, girl."

"I suppose you're right," Marinette agreed, sighing, "as usual."

Alya was about to respond when the apartment door swung open and her father walked in. "Hi, kids! I'm home!" he called, shutting the door behind himself with his foot. He kicked off his muddy boots by the front door before walking into the living room where Alya and Marinette were sitting. "Alya! Just the one I was looking for! I need some help with something on the computer, and you're better on those things than I am!"

"Of course, Daddy," Alya replied, getting up from the couch. "What can I do?"

"I found this necklace at the zoo today," he explained, pulling something out of his pocket. The necklace pendant looked to be made of solid silver, cast in the shape of a paw print. The pendant hung from a worn brown leather strap.

"Pretty," Alya observed, fingering it. The silver felt ice-cold against her fingers. "What do you need me to do with it?"

"We just started a lost-and-found page on the zoo website," he answered. "I need to get a picture of the necklace uploaded on the page so the owner knows it was found and can retrieve it, but I've never had to do this before. Can you help me out?"

"Not a problem," Alya assured him, pulling out her phone and snapping a picture. She quickly used her computer to upload the picture to the zoo website alongside a brief description. "Where was it?" she asked while she typed.

"It was lying on the ground next to the gorilla cage," her father answered. "It looks like it might be valuable. Hopefully the owner notices and claims it. It was strange: the whole time I was holding the necklace, all the animals in the zoo were behaving unusually."

Alya fought back a blush at the mention of the gorilla habitat. Although her father knew that she and Nino had begun dating after he was Akumatized into Animan, he still didn't know that it had happened while they were locked into the gorilla cage! Or that the person who had locked them in there together was currently sitting on the couch nursing a cup of tea! She and Nino still couldn't walk past that particular cage without giggling.

"Thanks, honey," her father said when she was finished, kissing her forehead. "I understand the animals, but I definitely do not understand all this new technology."

Alya glanced over at Marinette and grinned. "Are you and Mommy still planning to go out for dinner tonight?"

"Of course! We need to celebrate the hotel receiving such a high Michelin rating this year!" Her father's grin suddenly turned serious. "We're trusting you to look after the twins tonight, okay?"

"Absolutely," Alya agreed, nodding. "They won't be any trouble… especially now that Hawk Moth is gone!" she added for Marinette, who giggled.

"Excellent! We're counting on you."

"Can I ask a friend to come over and watch them with me?" Alya asked.

"Certainly," her father replied. "Who did you have in mind?"

"Marinette?" Alya turned to her best friend, who shook her head apologetically.

"Not tonight, sorry." Marinette quickly added, "I would, but my parents are expecting me for dinner soon, and Kagami got permission to come over for dinner, and I have a lot of homework to catch up on tonight along with a commission to start for Kagami. I actually need to be leaving in a couple minutes."

Alya sighed. "That's okay. I'll call Nino."

A few hours later, Alya and Nino were curled up on the couch together watching a movie. Alya rested her head on Nino's shoulder, with his arm around her waist. They had just put the twins to bed, and Alya was just allowing her eyes to close when she heard quiet giggling.

"Are there a couple of naughty little monsters hiding behind the couch?" she called without opening her eyes.

"No!" The giggling intensified.

"That's good, because I'm a world-renowned monster hunter!" Alya shouted, springing up and popping her head over the back of the couch, just in time to watch Ella and Etta crawl underneath it. "I eat naughty monsters for breakfast!"

Alya climbed over the back of the couch and dropped to the floor, motioning for Nino to do the same in front of the couch. Alya poked her head underneath the couch at the same time Nino did, and they both shouted, "Boo!"

The twins giggled, rolling over on their backs and laughing. Alya and Nino each grabbed one of the twins, pulled them out from under the couch, and started tickling their stomachs. Alya picked up Ella and walked back around the couch to sit next to Nino, who held Etta.

"Alright, girls," she told them. "You can sit with us for 15 more minutes, but then it's off to bed with you!"

The twins giggled and curled up between Alya and Nino, who let out a silent chuckle. Alya smiled over at Nino affectionately and put her hand on top of his on the couch back. She turned back to watch the television and gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

Alya was just about to hit play to resume the movie when there was a tremendous banging on their front door. "Hang on, hang on," she called, pushing herself up from the couch and moving to the door. She looked through the peephole to see a scruffy man in a ratty old coat with wild, windswept hair. "What do you want?"

"Please… I'm sorry… I just… I need some help."

Alya felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "Have you tried the police station? Maybe they can help you out."

"No – I – I need some money," he said, looking directly at the peephole.

"I'm sorry, but we can't help you," Alya told him firmly. She jiggled the handle to make sure the door was locked securely and backed away, pulling her cell phone from her pocket as she did so.

"You don't understand," the man shouted. "I need it!"

Suddenly something slammed into the door. Alya stumbled backwards as it struck the door again and again. Her hands trembled as she tried to get to the emergency call screen and call the police. Before she could make the call, the door splintered and the man barged inside.

Alya backed up as fast as she could to where Nino and the twins were still sitting, frozen on the couch. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. Her mouth fell open and her eyes went wide. She could barely process what was happening.

The man stormed into the apartment, his eyes roaming around the room, taking everything in. He grabbed Alya's purse off a hook by the door, fumbled around inside it, and brought out her wallet. He found a pair of earrings her mother had left on a shelf the previous week, and stuffed those into his pockets. His eyes landed on the necklace her father had left on the counter, and he picked it up.

"What – what do you want from us?" Alya demanded. She clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles turned white, trying to keep her hands from shaking.

The man gave her a look of surprise. "No-no-no," he moaned. He smacked himself in the forehead. "No one was supposed to be here. Stupid! Stupid! I-I-I need–"

"You need what?" Alya retorted. She felt a low rumble emanating from where Trixx was curled up in her pocket, which helped ground her, and forced herself to take a calming breath. You're a superhero; you can handle this. She felt Nino grab one of her hands, and relaxed it slightly, opening her fist and waving him back. "Money? Food? Jewelry? Just take whatever you need and leave us be!"

The man crossed to stand in front of the television. Alya turned to keep him in view. In her peripheral vision she could see Nino was now standing with the coffee table between himself and the man, holding the twins, one on either side of himself, hugging them tight to his sides. His mouth was twisted up in fear, which didn't quite reach his eyes. Alya caught him looking at her and quirked an eyebrow. He gave her the subtlest of nods back.

"Look, whatever you want, just take it and go!" Alya told him. She stepped back as he drew a butcher's knife from an inside coat pocket.

"You don't understand," he finally said. "I can't just go! 'No witnesses.'"

Alya's blood ran cold at the tone of his voice. There was no other way out of this. Marinette's going to kill me.

Three things happened simultaneously. Nino spun around in a blur, kicked a foot up and knocked the coffee table up onto its side, and pulled the twins down behind the coffee table, crouching over them and putting himself and the table between them and the man.

Alya dropped back a step and shouted, "Trixx–"

The glass patio door shattered.