Tom and Sabine were no fools, and Ladybug could tell that her parents knew exactly who she had carried up the stairs. At least they didn't know his civilian identity. Ladybug would much rather have them telling people that Chat Noir had been carried into their apartment by her than have them saying that Adrien Agreste was Chat Noir. Despite their obvious suspicions, they still treated her with kindness and respect, and when Ladybug asked them not to talk about her 'friend', they nodded and agreed. The heroine knew they were being honest. Her parents were not liars.

As much as Ladybug would have loved to slip upstairs and fall into bed, her duty as a hero forced her to stay and help her parents restore order. She answered questions, moved tables and chairs back into place, and made a call to the mayor of Paris, Andre Bourgeois, requesting permission to hold a press conference early the next morning. He agreed somewhat sleepily, and the superheroine made a mental note to tell Chat Noir about it. Thanking the mayor, who she had clearly woken up, Ladybug returned to assisting her parents. As she talked to a distraught citizen, Ladybug made the mistake of yawning loudly, which her mother immediately picked up.

"Ladybug, I know you're a superhero," said Sabine gently, after the customer had left. "But you're quite plainly exhausted. And underneath that mask, I'm sure you're human as well. Which means you need rest. Tom and I can take care of all of this. I assume you're going to address the city about this soon?"

Ladybug nodded wearily. "Tomorrow morning," she said.

"Well, you want to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the reporters. Really, Ladybug, it's fine." Sabine smiled warmly at the red-suited girl. "Except…"

"Except what?"

Sabine sighed. "Our daughter, Marinette. She was at her school dance, and we don't know where she is. She isn't picking up her phone."

"Don't worry, Ms. Cheng," answered Ladybug. "All the students are safe. Would you like me to bring Marinette home?"

"That would be wonderful." The petite woman hugged Ladybug tightly. "Thank you very much."

"It's no trouble." Ladybug pulled out her yo-yo and began to walk towards the door. "I'll see you soon."

Once she was a fair distance from the bakery, Ladybug ducked into a tiny space between two buildings. "Tikki, spots off."

Her red and black suit melted away and with a pop, Tikki fell into her chosen's cupped hands, so exhausted she could barely open her eyes.

"Good job, Marinette," croaked the kwami. Marinette smiled.

"You too, Tikki. I promise we'll be home soon." She stepped out onto the path, and immediately remembered that she had heels and was wearing a ball gown. Ugh. Even her costume, which wasn't the most modest of outfits, was better than this. Sighing, Marinette dragged herself down the street towards the brightly lit bakery and pushed open the door.

"Hi, Mama. Hi, P-"

"Marinette!" A small, dark-haired blur rushed at her, wrapping her arms tightly around the girl's middle. "Oh, I'm so glad you're safe! Tom! Tom! Marinette's here!"

Marinette father lumbered out from behind the counter. "Marinette!" He crushed his wife and daughter in a massive hug. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Papa," laughed Marinette. "It's good to see you too."

Sabine let go of her daughter and surveyed her, looking worried. "Oh, Marinette!" she cried. "Your beautiful dress!"

The raven-haired girl glanced down. Her skirt was torn and muddy, which made sense, considering the number of times she had fallen or had run in the dress. It would be a pain to fix, and probably a pain to clean, but it wasn't impossible. With some hard work and a bit of luck, the gown would look as good as new.

"Don't worry, Mama," smiled Marinette. "It's an easy fix. No worries."

Sabine raised her thin eyebrows. "You seem very positive, dear."

Marinette shrugged. "I'm just glad the attack is over," she said truthfully. After a moment, she added, "But I am pretty tired. Mind if I head up to bed? You and Papa seem to have the bakery under control."

"Of course, sweetheart. Go right up." Sabine hugged her daughter. "Sleep tight."

Marinette said goodnight to her father, then slowly climbed the stairs into the house. She pushed open the trapdoor and climbed through to her dark bedroom. Yawning, she switched on the lights and began to wriggle out of the glittering ball gown. It was going to be a very early start tomorrow, and she was kind of regretting the whole four o'clock thing. It should have been five, or even six, but too late to change that now. She would just have to grin and bear it, or in this case, yawn and bear it. Marinette quickly swirled a toothbrush around her mouth, shook her hair out of its fancy style, and climbed the ladder to bed. Just as she was about to reach the top, she remembered.

"Tikki!" The girl jumped off the ladder and ran to her dress, fumbling for the little kwami. After a moment of frantic searching, Marinette managed to extract her little friend from the dress.

"Oh, Tikki, I'm so sorry." She opened the trapdoor and climbed down to the living room, cupping Tikki in her warm hands. Carefully poking her head through the kitchen door, she determined that it was empty, and crept in. Marinette rummaged in the cookie jar before snatching up a handful and scurrying back to her room, where she climbed the ladder again and jumped into bed, still cradling Tikki. Biting her lip with worry, the girl handed her kwami a small piece of one of the cookies, hoping she would eat it.

To Marinette's delight, Tikki sat up and accepted the cookie, nibbling on it gently. She still hadn't spoken, but that was okay. There was a lot to say, and Tikki seemed too tired to speak. In the morning, they would have a proper conversation, but for now, the little kwami needed sleep.

Marinette tucked the kwami into her nest, with a stack of cookies close by. She smiled at Tikki. "Sweet dreams," whispered the girl. "See you in the morning."

MLBMLBMLB

Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep.

"Ughh," groaned Marinette, rolling over. "Too early."

The early start didn't seem to be affecting Tikki, who was up like a shot, zipping around her chosen's head. "Come on, Marinette!" she squeaked excitedly. "It's a beautiful day, and we've got work to do!"

"Do we have to?" mumbled Marinette, propping herself up on her elbows and blinking sleepily. "Can't it wait another hour?"

Tikki put her tiny hands on her tiny hips and gave Marinette a stern look. "Unless you want to be giving a press conference during school hours," she replied. "You know you can't just get up there without preparing beforehand. It makes you look unprofessional and uncommitted. The media would have a field day with that.

"Stuff the media," muttered Marinette. Her kwami ignored her.

"Let's go, lazybones! You said four o'clock to Chat Noir, and you don't want to keep him waiting."

Marinette heaved a loud sigh, accepting that she was going to have to get up. The girl slowly made her way down the ladder, until she was standing in her room, bare feet pressing against the cool floorboards. Tikki hovered around her head, coughing impatiently. Marinette yawned. "Ugh," she said. "Tikki, spots on!"

The little kwami gave a squeal of delight as she was sucked into Marinette's earrings, which began to glow with Miraculous power. Marinette quickly completed her transformation, the moves now coming naturally. A fully transformed Ladybug stood in the center of Marinette's room and was quite content to stay there, until Tikki began squeaking at her.

Come on, let's go! Chop chop! Do you want to look unprofessional?

The superhero threw up her hands. "Okay, okay!" she muttered. "I'm going." She climbed up to the balcony, shuddering at the crisp morning air. Ladybug stepped up on top of the railing, her mind as foggy as the city. When you were a superhero, you had to be sharp and alert all the time. You couldn't protect Paris if you felt out of it. That was putting innocents at risk. And since it would cause quite a lot of fuss if Paris' guardian strolled into a coffee shop, Ladybug had developed her own way of waking herself up. Besides, it was four am, and no coffee shop would be open at this time, except for those horrible twenty-four-hour fast food chain restaurants. She didn't have time to go hunting for caffeine, either, not when she had places to go and people to see.

Ladybug carefully drew out her yo-yo, gripping it tightly. If she dropped it, this fun little activity would very quickly become deadly. She prepared to throw her weapon, aiming as well as she could. Then she slowly began to lean back, holding her yo-yo until she fell.

It was maybe two seconds of free fall before a quick tug of her wrist had her flying back up again, pulled by her yo-yo, which was wrapped around a flagpole on top of a nearby building. The girl landed lightly on the rooftop, unwound her yo-yo, and began to make her way towards the Eiffel Tower. The sudden rush of adrenaline from the fall had jerked her awake, and she felt alert and ready to move if something went wrong. Really, who needed coffee?

MLBMLBMLB

Chat Noir needed coffee. Desperately, in fact. He was still cursing Ladybug for making it four o'clock. That was far too early. They didn't really need that long, did they? He was far too tired and not nearly awake enough. His brain felt like mush, and there was only one cure- caffeine, and lots of it. Unfortunately, it was four o'clock in the morning, and all the good places were shut, except that fast-food place on the other street, the one that his father called an 'unsightly and pathetic excuse for a restaurant'. Chat agreed with him, but he was going to have to make an exception. The superhero launched himself over a wall of buildings before landing directly in front of the brightly lit 'restaurant'. He walked inside and was greeted by a bleary-eyed attendant with a robotic smile.

"Hello, how can I help you?" asked the young man.

Chat Noir placed his order and waited, glad that the man didn't seem to care that Chat Noir was right in front of him. Normally Chat would be hurt, but today he didn't care. He just wanted to wrap up this meeting with Ladybug quickly, so he could hopefully squeeze in a few more hours of shut-eye.

He should have been used to irregular hours by now, but he never seemed to be able to adjust to being called in for a photo shoot at three am, just because 'the lighting was good'. Seriously, it was 2018. Technology was so advanced that Chat Noir was sure they could replicate any lighting they wanted to. He supposed they preferred the natural look, and to be perfectly honest so did he, but it was all Photoshopped anyway, so what was the point?

"Coffee's up," mumbled the man, sliding it over the counter. Chat took it and thanked him. The man simply nodded and went back to staring at a wall. Poor guy, it couldn't have been an easy job. Judging by his age, Chat was prepared to bet that he was a uni student trying to pay off his tuition. He didn't have cash on him at the moment, having just blown it all on a coffee, but he made a mental note to come back tomorrow and slid him a couple of notes, just to help out. Even if he wasn't a struggling student, who wouldn't like a few extra dollars?

Chat strolled out the door, sipping his coffee and not caring that it was hot. He would rather burn his tongue on the surprisingly decent coffee than fall to his death off some building because he wasn't awake.

Hi again. Just to clarify, yes, that was a Percy Jackson cameo in chapter one. Thanks for reading, guys!