Bonjour, lovely readers, I know you haven't been begging for me back, but you're getting more of me anyways. So, erm, enjoy.

Collège Françoise Dupont:

Alya gapes at Marinette. "Mari! You didn't tell me that your cousin was coming to visit!"

Marinette rubs the back of her neck shyly. "Sorry, Alya….I completely forgot...I've been so caught up with so many things that I didn't even remember until yesterday…"

"Yeah, because she was too busy thinking about a certain model." Terese grins a bit and nudges Marinette, whose cheeks turn bright red.

"Terese! That's not funny!" Marinette pouts and she slumps in her chair, burying her head in her arms as Alya and Terese sit on either side of her, continuing to tease her mercilessly. She attempts to hide her fiery cheeks, only looking up briefly so that she can sneak a glance at Adrien as he walks in with Alex and Nino.

Just as she starts to happily drift off into her fantasies of Adrien, she hears Terese let out an audible gasp from to her right. "Alex?!"

His head whirls in her direction, and he flashes the Agreste smile at her, making many of the female classmates swoon. "Terese! I know you said that you were traveling as well, but I didn't realize that you would also be in Paris as well."

"A-ah…." Terese's cheeks are dusted with pink, and she rubs her arm nervously. "Y-yeah...I guess I forgot to mention that...it's nice to see you again…"

"You too. I really didn't think I'd be seeing anyone from the Academy while I was here. But this is a really nice coincidence, don't you think?" Alex continues to grant her his dazzling smile, the one that never failed to make her heart race.

"Y-y-yeah….really nice…." Terese gazes back at him, dazed, until Madame Bustier walks in, quieting the class down.

Smiling at them all, she walks up to the front of the class, standing in front of her desk. "Alright class, settle down. As you can see, we have two guests today. Adrien, Marinette, could you please introduce us?"

The two of them both begin to speak, but then sheepishly turn to each other and insist that the other speak instead. "No, Marinette, you can go first." "A-Adrien, it's okay, you can speak first, really…" "No, I insist…"

After a few moments, Alex and Terese both sigh and look at each other, standing up, deciding to introduce themselves instead. "Hello, I'm Alex Wuschner, and I'm Adrien's cousin. I'll be staying here in Paris for the next week, and I look forward to getting to know you all."

As Alex finishes, Terese smiles and bows her head at the class. "And I'm Terese Nguyen, Marinette's cousin. I will also be staying here in Paris for a week, and it's wonderful to meet you all."

Adrien and Marinette both look at each other bashfully, realizing that they had argued so long that their cousins had ended up introducing themselves. The two of them sit, Nino and Alya laughing at them in their seats. Madame Bustier gives a good natured smile and continues. "Thank you for introducing yourselves, Alex and Terese. We're truly grateful that you both could visit our class. And now, onto what we were talking about yesterday…"

After class, Alya insists that the three of them go shopping, and Nino manages to convince Adrien that Alex should tell them how his life has been in London, in hopes of getting more inspiration for a new film. So they go their separate ways, though Marinette does not miss the longing gaze her cousin casts in Alex's direction.

"Hehe, I knew you still liked him." Marinette grins and nudges her cousin, who crosses her arms and rolls her eyes.

"You can't say anything, Miss "I love Adrien Agreste so much that he's my desktop wallpaper and I have millions of pictures of him in my desk"," Terese retaliates, grumbling as she lightly shoves Marinette back.

Marinette gasps and her cheeks flare up. "Terese! That's not fair!"

Alya scoffs and laughs a bit. "Fair? Mari, if anyone walked into your room, they'd see exactly what she described, except that the pictures in your desk would be on the walls. You love Adrien." Alya grins and makes a lovestruck gaze, clasping her hands together.

"Hmph! Why can't you stop teasing me and go make out with Nino?" Marinette grins slyly at Alya, who sputters and begins chasing Marinette down the avenue.

"MARI!"

Nino is practically bouncing along as the three of them walk to the Agreste mansion, his eyes full of wonder as he listens to Alex talk about London.

"It really is lovely there. The Academy is a wonderful place to study, the teachers are exceptional, my peers are insightful-"

"Yes, yes, but what about the sights? The adventures? The girls?" Nino grins with a childlike wonder at Alex, who chuckles a bit.

Adrien snickers a bit at Nino, nudging him in the ribs. "Nino, you're asking about the girls? You're dating Alya. I don't think she'd appreciate you asking about other girls from other countries."

Nino blushes and he stares at the ground. "R-right...I hope she never finds out about that...she'd probably break my feet by stomping on them so much…"

"Your secret is safe with me." Adrien grins. "So Alex, you and Terese have a history together? You seem to know each other quite well."

Alex smiles and shakes his head. "Oh, we're just classmates. That's all. Why do you ask?"

Adrien and Nino turn to look at each other. "I dunno…." "It looks awful lot like she likes you…."

"Don't be ridiculous. The two of us are just friends. She doesn't see me that way. You're only imagining things." Alex sighs and shakes his head. Just as he's about to add more to his argument, they hear the shattering of glass, and a cackling teenage boy comes running out, holding smoking bombs.

"The Abombination is here, and I hope you're all having an explosive day!" He throws a bomb right at the three of them, and just as Adrien moves to push them all away, a red yoyo snaps the bomb in the opposite direction.

Ladybug lands in front of them, deflecting the bombs away from them. "I've got you covered! Run to safety!"

Adrien stares at her in a daze for a moment before shoving Alex and Nino along. "You two go on ahead. I'll be right behind you." As soon as they're gone, he slips off. "Plagg, transform me!"

Later on in the night:

Alex stares up at the ceiling, lost in thought. Terese wouldn't have feelings for me, would she? Besides...even if she did, I still love my Chat Noir...wherever she is...I wonder how she's doing. I wonder...does she ever think of me?

Across town:

Terese also stares up at the ceiling, trying to sort out her thoughts. Seeing the new Ladybug and Chat Noir...that really brought back memories. Does Ladybug still think of me? I hope he's found someone else. There's no use for him to be hung up on me. I'm not good enough for him...and I love Alex…

I'm not particularly proud of this chapter, but I tried my best. I know I didn't do the best job with the school scene, but I have ideas for when our Ladybug and Chat Noir talk with their predecessors one on one, so I'll try to get those ideas out soon.

Bonne nuit, fair readers.