So this is the chapter where I really wished that I had planned better and either combined the outtakes and this into one story or divided the chapter differently, because the office raid is in the middle of the chapter (and Plagg doesn't know what is going on until afterwards, so there's an outtake chapter for that). I marked where the raid starts (when Adrien transforms) for those of you who want to go read the outtake then and then come back for Plagg's POV.

Enjoy! :)

The next time Adrien and Plagg walked into Fu's office, they came face-to-face with not one or two but three other kwamis.

And none of them were Ladybug's.

"We figured out the spell to get unpaired kwamis out properly," Wayzz announced rather unnecessarily with a wide grin. "Adrien, this is Trixx, and this is Pollen."

"It's nice to meet you," Adrien said politely. Then he frowned and pointed at Trixx. "Hey, I thought the Fox already had a holder. We met her a few weeks back."

Trixx pouted. "That was just temporary, apparently," he whined. "Which is no fun at all. And now I'm back here."

Adrien smacked himself in the forehead. "Oh, right. I think I knew that. So you'll be helping us, then?"

"Oh yes! And Master Fu and Wayzz have already caught us up to speed," Pollen assured them. "So we're going to be learning how to hack a computer and alter security camera footage? Why not just bring this boy with us on the raid instead?"

"We gotta be able to make a fast exit if Nathalie comes back earlier than expected," Adrien told them as he headed for his seat on the far side of the screens that Fu already had set up. "...and we aren't actually telling Max who Hawkmoth is. We don't want anyone knowing outside of this circle until after he's been defeated. The chance of someone saying something because they want to 'help' is too high."

"We might end up telling Ladybug's parents right before the final attack," Fu corrected, appearing from around the corner. Plagg perked up when he saw the baked Brie on the plate Fu held. "After all, you'll need somewhere to stay as things are getting figured out afterwards. I get the feeling that they would be happy to help."

Plagg tore his attention off of the mouth-watering cheese for long enough to snigger at the starry-eyed expression Adrien had for several seconds before he shook himself out of it. "But- are you sure that Ladybug would be okay with that? I mean, she doesn't know that I'm me-"

"I'm sure that Ladybug will be fine with it once she knows who you are," Fu told him. "She has already expressed concern about where Adrien will go after Hawkmoth is defeated."

Plagg didn't even need to look to know that Adrien had magically perked up at the information. He would probably hear no end to the gushing about how "my lady is concerned about me!" once they got back home, and it would be exhausting.

Plagg needed extra cheese just thinking about it. He dove onto the plate and scooped up a pawful of the oozing goodness.

"I suppose it would be wise to not tell many others," Trixx acknowledged. He draped himself over the screen and watched as Adrien settled down and picked up the black mask next to the cushion he sat on. "So we'll be learning? I suppose it's a good idea to learn the new technology, at any rate. Master Fu has been telling us a little about the new things that have popped up since our last holders, but I suspect that we've barely skimmed the surface."

"Yes, quite a lot has happened in the last couple decades," Fu said with a laugh, setting the cheese down on the low table. Plagg had already made a hole in the crust and was sitting surrounded by melted cheese. "It was quite an adventure trying to keep up with all of it! I know some people have a hard time adapting to change, but I suspected that it would be quite hard to catch back up again if I didn't at least try to make an effort to learn."

There was a light knock on the door, and the two new kwamis went zipping over to investigate. Moments later, Tikki's squeal cut through the air as she pounced on her siblings. Ladybug's laugh followed, before she was shushed by Wayzz.

"Chat Noir has arrived already," Wayzz told her. "Master Fu wants to talk with you two briefly before we go."

There was a shuffle as Ladybug closed the door, crossed the room, and settled on the floor, pulling on her voice-changing helmet as she did. She pushed a bag of treated towards Master Fu, who accepted it graciously. Plagg perked up for a moment- was there anything in there for him?- before slumping back to the table again. She hadn't brought cheese bread.

"Max said that the virus should be nearly ready to go," Ladybug reported. "He told us yesterday after the fight was over."

"Fabulous!" Fu exclaimed. "So we shouldn't all have to meet up again after you're done there. I have the scrolls complete- though Plagg, I will require your assistance for the final touches- and the book is done and in my hands. We can do the office raid soon, unless there are any objections."

His eyes slid towards Adrien. Adrien bit his lip and glanced down towards his lap.

"Would this weekend work best?" Ladybug asked. Plagg cringed- no matter how many of these meetings they had, he would never get used to the sound of those helmets- and tried to bury himself in what remained of the cheese plate. "Instead of a weekday, I mean. Saturday is only two days from now, so we would be more likely to remember whatever Max tells us."

"Yeah," Adrien agreed. "But do you think it would be hard to find someone that could get Mr. Agreste out at the end, then? Like, would he be stuck for the entire day?"

"I'm guessing whoever comes out wouldn't fix the elevator, just get it out enough for him to become unstuck," Fu told Adrien. "They do have on-call people for emergencies on weekends. And that could work in our favor, actually- you wouldn't have to deal with an akuma attack until sometime on Monday if you break the elevator Saturday and he can't get someone in to fix it right away."

Plagg gave a small sigh of bliss as he imagined all of the extra cheese-eating time he could have if Adrien didn't need to spend hours transformed for an Akuma attack. He could properly savor that lovely Brie that he had seen Adrien stick in his hidden mini-fridge instead of inhaling it down like he normally had to do when Adrien needed to transform.

"If there's absolutely no one available, I can slip in and fix it," Tikki piped up from next to him. "I would just undo the rusting that Plagg did. We would probably have to do an akuma fight right afterwards if I do that, but we wouldn't leave anyone trapped for more than a couple hours, even Hawkmoth."

"Couldn't you try to snatch the Miraculous from him while he's stuck in the tunnel?" Pollen wanted to know. "Then we wouldn't have to worry about all of this sneaking around. An ambush attack has worked for us before."

Plagg made a face. That tunnel wasn't anywhere near big enough to do any fighting in. It was barely even big enough for an adult-sized human to turn around in.

"The tunnel is too small, and Hawkmoth would probably just transform if he thought someone was coming after him," Tikki told Pollen. "It's too dangerous. And being stealthy now gives us an advantage for when we attack. We'll be operating entirely on our terms, not being forced into a final fight when we're not ready."

"This is so exciting," Trixx piped up, wriggling on the table eagerly. "It's not often that the kwami play an active role in taking down a supervillain! We've done some spy work, of course, and some busting open locks, but never this level of involvement!"

Plagg wondered if Trixx would feel the same if he were the one always spending her nights roaming around the Agreste mansion trying to see if Mr. Agreste had any other magical artifacts in a place other than the safe or reading through the cramped handwriting in the Agrestes' journals. This whole thing had gotten very old very fast, and he hadn't found anything that important in either the rest of the house or in the journals. Mr. Agreste kept everything in the heavily-guarded study, and he and his wife had focused recording more on the lore about the Miraculous and any possible leads they had rather than on why they wanted the Miraculous, at least in the first journal.

It was boring wading through all of the pages, and it meant that Plagg was missing out on trying to bug Adrien into getting a second bedtime cheese snack, since his chosen was long since fallen asleep by the time Plagg got back to Adrien's room. He couldn't even explain what he was doing and why he deserved extra cheese, which meant that Plagg went woefully uncompensated.

"Yes, it is quite unprecedented," Fu acknowledged. "Most of the time, our opponents are best faced in the battlefield. This time, we have an opponent that is a planner, and we need to change our strategy accordingly."

Plagg yawned loudly as Fu started talking about what he had in mind for the raid on Mr. Agreste's office. He didn't need to listen; after all, his role in that would just to break the elevator, and then to listen for when Mr. Agreste got stuck and let Adrien know. Easy-peasy. Adrien would let him know later when exactly they wanted to start.

Curling up on the empty plate, Plagg snoozed lightly as the other kwamis chattered. He had a full belly, the room was nice and warm, and the scent of cheese surrounded him. He could sleep like this all day and be perfectly content.

So naturally, it couldn't last long. Plagg woke up with Tikki jostling him.

"C'mon, lazybones, it's time to get up. They need to transform."

Plagg groaned and cracked open one eye. Drat, right when he was getting properly comfortable. "Right now? In here?"

"Yes! We're going to sneak out the back door afterwards. That way Ladybug and Chat Noir don't have to try to each find their own place to transform before meeting back up again. Now come on!"

Plagg groaned and floated up into the air towards his Chosen. Apparently he couldn't ever catch a break.

For Plagg, the day of the raid dawned bright and early- or, rather, at seven thirty in the morning.

He didn't particularly like being up at such a time. Normally he only got up when Adrien did so Adrien would remember to feed him, and then he went and curled up in Adrien's bag for a nap. For him to get up and stay up at that time was unheard of. But Fu had insisted on getting an early start so that they wouldn't be delayed by an akuma attack, and that meant that Plagg had to stay awake, even after his morning cheese was polished off.

That meant that at eight thirty-seven on the dot, Plagg phased through several walls and rusted out some of the gears in the elevator in a way that was guaranteed to bring the whole thing to a halt and keep it stuck there until a repairman could arrive. Pleased with his work, he phased back out and was rewarded with a large chunk of warmed, gooey Brie.

"Now we just have to wait for Father to try to use it," Adrien said, tucking Plagg into his jacket and heading back towards his room. "He has a meeting right now, but it doesn't end until ten."

"Maybe he won't even try to use it today," Plagg suggested. He licked off the cheese that had gotten smeared around his mouth. "I can't fix the thing if he decides to take the day off, just so you know. Tikki could, though."

"He almost never takes the day off," Adrien grumbled. "I'm looking forward to having nice uninterrupted weeks of school after this is over. I'm missing way too much class right now, and it's all his fault. And speaking of school, I have homework to get done. Come on, Plagg."

Plagg spluttered as he followed Adrien back to his room. "Really? You're gonna do schoolwork right now? How are you even going to focus when the raid could be today? C'mon, let's just watch TV or something."

"Not happening. I'm behind right now in Literature because of that last akuma fight on Friday, and I have to catch up before Miss Bustier throws another pop quiz at us."

As soon as the clock hit ten o'clock, Plagg started lurking behind the painting in the atrium, listening for the sound of Mr. Agreste's secret elevator. Much to his disappointment, Mr. Agreste seemed too deeply interested in whatever he was doing on his computer to try going down into his lair.

"Most of the attacks seem to be in the afternoon, anyway," Adrien commented when he fetched Plagg as he headed down for lunch. "And hey, look! Macaroni and cheese, your favorite!"

Plagg perked up.

As usual, Mr. Agreste didn't join them- well, didn't join Adrien- for lunch, instead having it brought to his office so he could continue working. That meant that Plagg couldn't relax entirely with his delicious bowl (well, technically Adrien's delicious bowl, but he was sharing) of cheesy macaroni goodness. He had to keep listening for the faint sound of Mr. Agreste's nearly-silent elevator whirring to life.

"Master Fu said that everything is ready as soon as my father gets stuck and Nathalie leaves," Adrien whispered. He was clearly starting to get anxious with the wait. "Ladybug isn't transformed, but she is close by."

"Yes, yes, hanging out in the park nearby like you all planned," Plagg finished with a yawn. He really should have taken a nap earlier when he had the chance because now he couldn't sleep until after the raid, but there was no way to go back and fix that now. He had to listen for the elevator. "I know."

Once lunch was finished, Adrien headed slowly back up to his room, dragging his feet the entire way. Right before he opened his bedroom door, Plagg perked up.

"Hold on a second," he hissed. "Listen!"

Adrien froze. "I don't hear anythi-"

"Of course you don't! Shush for a moment!" Plagg turned his head, flicking his ears so he caught the quiet wrrrrr of the elevator as it sprung into motion. "He's going to the lair!" Then he paused and sniggered. "Well, he's trying to, at least. Wait for it...wait for it..."

Plagg listened with great satisfaction as the elevator stuttered several times, then ground to a halt. His sensitive ears could pick up the sound of hearty cursing coming from below, so faint and muffled by the walls that Adrien, who was standing next to him, didn't react at all.

"He's stuck," Plagg reported with a hiss, and Adrien startled.

"Really?"

"Really. He should be caught right where the elevator starts heading upwards towards the lair. He'll have to stand on that little circle of floor until someone gets him out." Plagg was rather proud of that placement, actually. It ensured that Mr. Agreste wouldn't simply get off of his little elevator thing and try to fix it himself, or get off and walk back to the office entrance and have Nathalie open the hole for him. It also meant that he would be so stuck that it was possible that Nathalie would have to step out of the office again after coming back from fetching a mechanic to go get lunch or use the bathroom.

So if they didn't get absolutely everything on the first try, they could very well be time to go back for another shot.

Right on schedule, Nathalie's phone rang. She answered and Plagg listened in to their conversation as Adrien texted Fu, who was with Ladybug. They would be moving into position now.

"Sir, the man who built that- he lives an hour outside of Paris!" Nathalie said, alarmed. "It would be faster to find someone in the city-"

Plagg snickered as Mr. Agreste cut her off. Apparently any old repairman in the city simply would not do. He required the man who lived a ways out, probably because he would be less likely to put the pieces together and realize (or care) that Mr. Agreste was Hawkmoth.

"I- I will call him then, sir," Nathalie said, sounding suitably cowed. "And then I'll let you know how soon we can expect him."

There was the sound of the phone being dialed, and then Nathalie spoke again. "Hello? Mr. Angelo? Yes, this is Nathalie Sancoeur, Mr. Agreste's assistant. The floor elevator that you built for him has broken down, and he's trapped- yes, and in the worst spot too, he's in that tube that heads upwards, so he really can't move at all." A pause. "You're nearby? Really? Perfect! Half an hour out- actually, we can come and get you, so that your crew can keep working on the project and keep the van with them. I understand if fixing the elevator properly has to wait for another day, we just need to get Mr. Agreste out."

Plagg suddenly realized that the we Nathalie spoke of might actually just mean the Gorilla. There was a possibility- a large possibility- that she might just stay at her desk and coordinate things from there.

...bugger. Maybe he should have coordinated some sort of electrical failure to try to force her out of the office.

"No, she's coming out," Adrien whispered. Apparently Plagg had been muttering his thoughts out loud. "She loves getting out of the house. She can keep working on the road from her tablet."

Sure enough, Nathalie was grabbing a light jacket from behind the desk and dialing the Gorilla. She shut off the lights in the office and closed the door, pressing some buttons on her tablet to engage the security system.

Plagg smirked. He was sure that everything looked perfectly normal on her system feed, but in reality nothing had engaged. Over the past couple days, he had made sure that every one of the motion detectors was broken just so, so that nothing would register as being wrong. There would still be the camera to deal with, but Trixx was meant to be in charge of that.

"Adrien?" Nathalie called. She turned away from the door and started towards the stairs. "Adrien?"

Adrien gulped and pressed back against his door. He opened it and then closed it so she wouldn't realize that he hadn't been in his room before stepping out into view in the hallway. "Yes, Nathalie?"

"Your driver and I have to go and fetch someone to repair something of your father's," Nathalie told him. "We'll be gone probably an hour. Is there anything you'll need while we're gone?"

Adrien made a show of thinking about it. "I don't think so? I'm just working on some of my reading for class, and then I might work on my Chinese or piano or something."

"Okay. Just stay out of trouble," Nathalie told him, and Plagg muffled a snigger. Adrien was going to be stealing from his father, messing with the security system, and introducing a virus to his father's computer. That was hardly staying out of trouble. Still, Adrien wouldn't be running off at all, which was probably what Nathalie was concerned about.

Well. Chat Noir would be leaving the house to go have a short meeting with Ladybug and Master Fu about how the raid had gone afterwards, but that wasn't running off, not really. After all, he would be coming right back.

"Of course," Adrien promised, and then Nathalie was off. Adrien watched the car leave, and then headed back into his room. After all, he could hardly transform in the atrium, since there was a security camera there. As soon as his door closed behind him, Trixx zipped past them, headed for the office.

"You realize that if Nathalie reviews the security stuff, she's gonna be listening for your piano, right?" Plagg demanded as they waited for the signal that Trixx had been successful in looping the video. "And I don't know how we would work that into the camera loop without it sounding weird."

"That's why I said I might work on my Chinese, too," Adrien pointed out. "After we're done with everything, I can go back to my room and put on a tape or something and actually work on my homework. I just wanted to include enough activities that she wouldn't try to call me partway through to make sure I was staying out of trouble. She's assigned stuff for me to do before and then check on it later to make sure I was actually doing that and not off somewhere else. If I say I'm busy already, she won't do that."

Plagg decided to be impressed that Adrien had gotten so good at evading his secretary's tricks, and all on his own, too! Plagg hadn't even needed to encourage him. There were times when his Chosen was so goody two-shoes that Plagg almost despaired, but clearly Adrien wasn't quite as straight-laced as he would lead people to believe.

Adrien's phone beeped, and he whipped it up to read the message. "Trixx gave Fu the signal! It's time to go in! Plagg, transform me!"

Later that day, once they had gotten to Fu's place, Plagg heard about how the raid had gone. With all of the cameras they had to pass on loop and the security in the office disabled, it was easy enough for the superheroes to go in. Pollen popped the safe open, and Ladybug switched out the scrolls and book out for fakes and snagged the peacock pin. Meanwhile, Chat Noir went straight for his father's computer. Mr. Agreste had actually left it logged in to the superhero research user, and he had several tabs open for research as well.

"It was perfect," Trixx sighed happily as he remembered it. "One of those sites looked a little suspect, so it's not that much of a stretch to think that he might have gotten a virus from that. It took a while to transfer all of the files onto our flash drive, but then no time at all to get the virus going afterwards. Then once Ladybug left, I took the security feeds off of loop. It really wasn't hard at all! I don't know why humans think that it is."

Plagg was of the opinion that Mr. Agreste's security perhaps wasn't quite as top-tier as he believed. Besides, knowing the passwords to get into the security system probably helped make the whole thing easier.

"It is very fortunate that everything worked out so perfectly," Fu commented from his spot at the front of the room. "I worried that Mr. Agreste's assistant might decide not to leave, or- what?" Trixx and Pollen (along with both Adrien and Ladybug) had made a funny little noise.

"Nathalie did come back in while we were there," Ladybug said, and Plagg choked on his cheese. What?

"She was a bit surprised to find us there," Adrien chimed in, and even with the distortion from the mask, Plagg could hear the amusement lacing through his Chosen's voice, and a bit of happiness, too. "But even though she knew about Mr. Agreste being Hawkmoth, she wasn't on his side at all. She's being blackmailed or threatened or something- or at least she worries about it, and I don't blame her- into keeping quiet, but she wants him taken down. She was the one who told us about the backup flash drive for the Miraculous files, and one of the scrolls that had been stored in his desk."

"And she made certain that we took the pin," Ladybug added. "And then she asked if she could help with the security footage, but we told her it was under control."

Plagg's eyes bulged as he listened. He knew that he was picking up some weird signals from Nathalie when he hung around the office, but he hadn't expected her to not be working with Mr. Agreste. He definitely hadn't expected that she would actively work against her employer.

...granted, he had definitely heard her lie once or twice about knowing where Adrien was during an akuma attack. He had always assumed that she hadn't wanted to get in trouble for losing Adrien. That was still pretty likely, but maybe she had suspected who Adrien was and had wanted to protect him from his father.

"She was telling them the truth," Pollen confirmed. "I was keeping my feelers out the entire time she was there. She was relieved that they had figured things out."

Fu's eyes were wide as well. "Well! She could be an interesting one to talk to once Hawkmoth is defeated. I'd be interested in learning what she knows about all of the research that Mr. Agreste and his wife did about the Miraculous and why they were looking for the missing Miraculous in the first place."

"She might only know the bare minimum," Wayzz pointed out. "From what I've heard, Hawkmoth is the kind to keep his cards close to his chest. I wouldn't be surprised if she only knew that he's Hawkmoth and he wants to change the moment his wife was lost."

Fu shrugged. "Perhaps. It's worth asking, at least. But for now, we have to turn our attention to defeating Hawkmoth and getting Nooroo back," Fu continued. "I would like to avoid a full-out public battle, if possible, so surprise is key. If we can corner him somewhere public enough that he cannot simply transform and escape, that would be best."

"You want to try for the least amount of media attention," Ladybug guessed. "Will that even work, though, considering how big of a name Mr. Agreste is?"

Fu chuckled. "Not everyone is interested in fashion, Ladybug," he reminded her. "Yes, he is famous in the fashion world, and yes, he is rich, but there are a lot of rich, famous people in Paris. To most people, he will likely not be hugely familiar."

Plagg made a face. He wasn't so sure of that. Mr. Agreste was a big name. He wasn't just a local designer, he was head of a multi-country fashion empire. Maybe not everyone cared a whole lot about fashion, but the name would be recognizable to pretty much everyone in Paris. Maybe the old man wasn't terribly familiar with Mr. Agreste, but somehow Plagg doubted that Fu paid any attention to any celebrities at all.

"Does he ever take the Miraculous off?" Ladybug asked. "If we could just sneak in and take it- or, actually, could the kwamis-?"

Fu shook his head. "The kwamis can't pick up or move the Miraculous most of the time, not even their own. The only exception would be if their Chosen died and the kwami had to keep the Miraculous from being buried with them or otherwise lost forever."

"So one of us would have to sneak in," Ladybug said, automatically glancing towards Adrien and instead looking straight at the screen instead. "If he ever takes the Miraculous off, that is."

"He doesn't," Plagg said immediately. He had spent forever watching Mr. Agreste to try to figure that out. It had been boring, and he hadn't even brought any cheese with him to snack on while he watched. "He keeps it on him at all times if he can. During the day, of course, and then at night he pins it to his sleep shirt. The only time it's not on his person is when he's taking a shower, and unless one of you wants to try slipping in to take it-"

"No!" both Adrien and Ladybug practically shouted in unison. "Ugh, no," Adrien added, shuddering. "I'd rather not be scarred for life, thanks."

Ladybug nodded frantically in agreement.

Fu was clearly trying not to laugh at their reactions. "So we stick with retrieving the Miraculous from him during the day while trying to attract as little attention as possible. Ideas?"

"We could contact the police first, so that they're sitting nearby and can cart him off before any disturbance catches people's attention," Ladybug suggested. "And if we caught him at his house, by the front door, then we could just walk him to the gate and have the police take him without a whole lot of people seeing."

"But is that public enough to keep him from transforming?" Adrien immediately asked. "If he already has one staff member who knows, then maybe he doesn't care about if the others know, because he can just threaten them into silence."

"One person is easier to control than three or five," Ladybug countered. "And the mansion is right next to a park area. If we can somehow get him outside first, then maybe he would feel too exposed. We would just have to station someone inside to keep him from coming back out." She dropped her head into her hands and groaned. "This would work better if there were more of us, but it wouldn't make sense to bring new holders in now. I still think they would get too excited and mess things up."

Fu smiled at that. "Perhaps, yes. But you forget that, even with as old as I am, I am still a Miraculous holder, and I can still transform."

"Master-" Wayzz started to object.

"But perhaps I need to tone down my transformation sequence," Fu added. Wayzz sighed and looked rather resigned. Plagg tried not to laugh. The old man was so tiny now that it would be a miracle if Mr. Agreste even noticed him.

"I still don't understand how that would work," Adrien said. Even with his face hidden, Plagg could tell that he was frowning. "Unless it's Master Fu inside attacking from behind, Fa- er, Mr. Agreste is going to suspect something. And how are we going to get him to come out? Ask him? He never goes outside on his own."

There was a pause.

"Actually, I like that," Fu said slowly. "If we go up and confront him like 'you have something you aren't supposed to have, hand it over', then maybe he'll realize that he's been found out and be intimidated into giving us Nooroo."

The waves of incredulity coming off of Adrien grew. Clearly he couldn't picture his father simply being intimidated into doing anything. Plagg had to agree.

Gabriel Agreste would not be intimidated into anything when the people doing the intimidating were two teens and a tiny little man dressed as s turtle. However, if there was an actually intimidating Turtle...

"Uh, no," Plagg said before anyone else could chime in, because he had just had a fabulous idea and he wanted to get the credit for it. "You're about as intimidating as a kitten now, old man. Lend someone the Miraculous for the day. I recommend Ladybug's dad, he's big enough to intimidate anyone that doesn't know him."

Adrien spun around immediately to stare at Plagg. Or at least Plagg was assuming his Chosen was staring. He couldn't tell for sure, because Adrien was still wearing that ridiculous helmet. "You know who her dad is?!"

"Kid, I learned who Ladybug is during the Dark Owl attack, remember?" Plagg reminded him. How had Adrien forgotten? Plagg had had to put up with Adrien sighing over how Ladybug's untransformed hand had brushed his own for an entire week after that particular akuma attack. "Did you hit your head or something?"

"I know that!" Adrien protested, his voice starting to go a bit high-pitched and squeaky. "But knowing who Ladybug is and knowing who her dad is are two different things!"

On the far side of the screen, Ladybug was giggling.

"Plagg has a point," Fu said. The expression on his face suggested that he hadn't ever expected to say that. Plagg resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at him. "I am...perhaps less intimidating than I used to be. Ladybug, do you think that you dad would be willing...?"

"I think Papa would help," Ladybug said immediately. "Even if he doesn't know that I'm Ladybug. He might be a little hesitant at first since he doesn't like fighting, but he always talks about how Hawkmoth is a bully and how he wishes he could do something for- well, for us."

Fu looked pleased. "Fabulous. We'll approach him once we have more of our attack planned out. Plagg, do you have any other ideas? Any suggestions for a temporary Fox or Bee, maybe, or should we simply stick with three?"

Plagg blinked up at Fu slowly as he yawned widely. All of this planning stuff was making him tired. And hungry, of course. "No. I don't do work. I don't do thinking. The Turtle thing was just obvious."

"Do we have to have to have more Miraculous holders on top of that?" Adrien asked. He didn't sound even remotely convinced. "I mean, if we have to train in a whole slew of people, even if they're just temporary, that could be a lot of work."

"The Turtle honestly takes very little explanation," Fu said. His lips twitched up in a small smile. "It is meant to be a protector and a tank. There are some specific attacks and special defenses it has, but they take a fair amount of training to master and really, the basics are all we should need."

"And if we had a temporary Fox, they wouldn't even have to fight," Trixx added eagerly. "They could use Mirage to make illusions of Ladybug and Chat Noir to stand with Ladybug's father, so you two could be hiding in the house and Mr. Agreste won't even think to expect an attack from behind. And I could have my temporary Fox back for real this time. Please? Please? Can I?"

Tikki made a face at that. "I think the previous temporary Fox might be a little too excitable for this. I know she did a great job before," she added before Trixx could argue. "And if we need a permanent Fox for whatever reason afterwards, then I think we should definitely go with her. But I think she might be really likely to want to charge in and be part of the proper fight herself here, or want to help with akuma attacks between getting the Miraculous and the final attack, and if she met Master Fu then she might get distracted with asking questions. We need someone who is a little less headstrong and risk-taking, I think. She's a little too used to the idea that superheroes can't get hurt, when they could be here."

"I agree with that," Ladybug said. "As great as it was to fight alongside her last time, she did take some time to focus after she transformed. And she already takes so many risks during normal akuma attacks..."

"Wait, who was the temporary holder last time?" Adrien asked. He glanced at Fu. "Am I even allowed to know?"

Fu thought about it. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt. After all, she doesn't have the Miraculous now, and if she receives it afterwards, the need for secrecy won't be so great. Ladybug?"

"Rena was the Ladyblogger," Ladybug said. "Alya Cesare."

"Really? Oh, no wonder she was so excited about it!" Adrien paused. "...but yeah, you're right. Doesn't she, uh, know Mr. Agreste's son? That might make her more likely to want to jump in to the fight."

Fu nodded. "Then we will have to pick another. Perhaps we should ask your mother, Ladybug. I'm sure she would be around when we ask your father to be a temporary holder and so she would find out about you and about me anyway. That way, we can limit the spread of knowledge for now."

Trixx pouted.

"Why are we only considering people from my family?" Ladybug wanted to know. "I mean, I'm sure Mama and Papa would be willing, and that makes sense about not letting a lot of people know about us, but what about Chat Noir's family? Surely there has to be someone who- why are you laughing?"

Plagg was absolutely howling with laughter. Wayzz was snickering. Tikki, Pollen and Trixx had all started to giggle. Even Adrien had cracked a small smile.

"I'm sure it will become obvious to you eventually," Fu assured her, though there was a hint of laughter in his voice as well. "But for now, we'll plan to stick with your family."

Even though he was still doubled over snickering, Plagg couldn't miss the confusion coming from Ladybug. It turned into something closer to worry as she turned to look in her partner's direction, and she scooted closer to the screen separating her from Adrien. A hand snuck around the edge.

Adrien's smile was visible even under the helmet as he reached forward to twine his fingers with hers.

A/N: Oh, Ladybug. No, Chat Noir's family would not be a good choice for temporary holders. Not even close.

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