The immediate aftermath of victory had been hugs, laughter and celebration.

The not-so-immediate aftermath had been panic. As often happens when a haphazard team of teenagers saves the world, realization came knocking, along with its best pal 'real life'.

"Oh no nononono I have to call my parents!" Marinette had shrieked when Adrien had raced to his home to join his dad.

That high-pitched exclamation had been followed by a gasp from Alya, who had started drumming on her phone's screen. Nino, being a little less dramatic, had just mumbled a 'oh, right' and patted his pockets. In the end, he just muttered something about finding a phone at Adrien's. Alix had just rolled in a circle around them, shrugging.

"I'll see if I can find them. They're either in that parking lot or at the Louvre, won't tell me long," she had announced before dashing away.

Aurore had stretched.

"Well, I suppose I'll just walk home," she had said, with no mention of her parents or their state of worry.

As for Theo, he had mumbled something about calling his mom, sounding a lot more panicked than even Marinette.

Marinette had not paid that much attention to them, because she was going to die.

"Where did Ladybug go?" Makko asked as Tikki joined her and Plagg in the kitchen of the Agreste's home.

Plagg had wanted cheese and raided the fridge as soon as Adrien had vanished with his father. Apparently, Makko had joined him at some point, and was nibbling at sugar cubes. She looked dejected, which was only natural, and did not quite meet her sister's eyes.

Tikki landed between the two of them and snatched a sugar cube.

"Alya managed to get her parents on the phone by calling the Louvre's… webmaster, I think? He gave her the number of the gallery director, aaaand… well. It took a while, but 'Mister Kubdel' had indeed brought everyone's parents to the vaults. Copycat is driving the children to the museum."

Makko nodded.

For a moment, all they heard was the faint crunching noises of Tikki's quietly chewing her sugar cube and the disgusting gulps and burps of Plagg's cheese-inhaling technique. Then the pink kwami turned to her siblings.

"I'm sorry," she told them. "For everything that happened. I'm sorry."

Plagg yawned.

"Meh. No sappiness. Possession victims get a pass," he reminded them before burying his nose in a piece of Roquefort.

" Plagg! " both of his sisters exclaimed.

"Whaaat? It's true, isn't it?"

Tikki acquiesced.

"Yes. It is. But what I don't understand is how Hawk Moth could prey on you, Makko. He should not have been able to. We are not human. We are bound. What happened? "

Makko's wing fluttered and folded. She curled up.

"Half of my magic was a country away with Argus," she murmured. "It made me weaker to begin with. That much power away from my Miraculous was a great risk. And then Aricia's armor was so badly damaged and… and I remember being so exhausted, and arguing with Clover and Chat Noir, and then…"

Plagg burped.

"Tears in the armor, cracks in the Miraculous," he commented, in a rare display of sagaciousness. "Has to be how he got in."

Tikki winced.

"It never happened before," she pointed out.

"Hawk Moth had never tried before either," Plagg retorted. "It only takes the once."

The red Kwami frowned.

"We'll have to warn the others," she said. "Not that I know where they are, but they need to know."

"There's no hurry," the black cat mumbled, licking his piece of cheese. "It will be a while before Hawk Moth comes back."

Tikki took a deep breath to calm herself. She was pretty hard to annoy, but Plagg had his ways.

"Can't you be serious every now and then?" she grumbled.

The only answer she got was a suction noise and some gargling. She grimaced and turned to Makko.

"What do you plan to do now?"

Her sister tilted her head to the side, looking at the wall.

"I'm going to stay here for a little while. With Gabriel. It was… He will need time to get over this."

Plagg made a faint noise that earned him a glare from the otherwise sweet-tempered butterfly. He didn't like Gabriel. He had never liked Gabriel, not even a decade before, when Argus and the previous Chat Noir had worked as a team with Clover. There had be tension back then and it it had not disappeared. It would never disappear.

Tikki tried to defuse the situation.

"What about the children?" she asked. "They did a marvellous job together."

"They did!" Makko exclaimed, flying up and twirling in the air. "They were sooooo good at this. I will have to tell them that."

She had slipped away so quick after getting her Miraculous back that no one had found a second to talk to her. Then again, it was not out of character from her: she had fluttered from one people to another for thousands of years, giving out sparks of magic but not necessarily showing herself. Her true chosen, like Gabriel and Alice Agreste, were few and far between. It was the norm for her to vanish.

Still, she was always proud of her heroes.

"They did so much better than I expected!" the pink Kwami continued, glowing with pride. "The laundry pods! And the Seine, of course. That was a stroke of genius. I thought Nino would have to go through the entire Akuma cloud with bubbles."

"That was Chat Noir's idea," Plagg chimed in, never missing an opportunity to brag.

Makko twirled in the air, ecstatic.

"Adrien is such a good Chat Noir," she said, landing next to Plagg and nuzzling against him. "You will be staying with him, right?"

"Of course I will be staying with him," the cat mumbled. "I don't want to have to train another human so soon."

"We all know you did not give the boy a single fighting tip, Plagg," Tikki commented.

"Who said anything about fighting tips? I was talking about his education on the finest varieties of cheese."

His sister groaned.

He snorted.

"And I would be careful about throwing stones if I were you, miss Glass House. How are things going with the cookie girl?"

"Marinette's parents owning a bakery has nothing to do with the reasons why she became Ladybug," Tikki assured him. "Now, it's not like I am complaining about the pastries, but she is a skilled girl with a sharp mind and a will of steel."

"And cookies," Plagg finished.

Makko giggled.

Tikki huffed.

###

"It is unacceptable, Marinette!" Tom exclaimed as his teenage daughter cringed and curled up on their living room sofa. "You lied to us for months . Anything could have happened to you, and we would never have known! It is absolutely unacceptable!"

"But, dad, the city needed-"

"Don't interrupt, Marinette!" Sabine cut in. "Your father is right. This can't go on."

"But…"

Tom crossed his arms and raised his chin.

"You listen to me, young miss. This cannot go on. If you have to go out and save the world, you have to tell us where you are going, what you are facing, and who is going with you, do you hear me? There will be no lying and sneaking around! Do I make myself clear?"

###

Some parents react to learning their child is a superhero by establishing new sets of rules.

Others lock themselves in their office and won't open the door.

###

The not-immediate-anymore aftermath of victory - the next day, that is - went well. Unless you happened to be around Alya Césaire. If you were, like Nino, you found yourself wishing for some of those free earplugs from the Grand Paris.

He was skipping school. Well. He wasn't altogether sure he was skipping school. He had not checked if school was on, though it was apparently a school day. Alya's parents had decided they wanted to keep their daughter where they could see her for at least a few days. She had sent a text to Nino to tell him exactly that so, instead of dragging himself to a potential chemistry lesson, the boy had gone straight to his friend's place. Ladybug's magic had fixed the place up nicely. You couldn't tell it had been attacked by Plot Hole and Hawk Moth. Then again, the apartment was occupied by an undisclosed number of 'little sisters' and looked like a war zone at all times.

The two teenagers had spent the best part of the morning in Alya's bedroom, working on the blog and browsing news sites. Alya was not satisfied by their results.

"It's not fair !" she exclaimed, again. "The Ladyblog never had so much traffic and I have nothing to post. No videos, no pictures, nothing. I was so busy with the heroics that I didn't get to film a single thing!"

"You wrote five separate articles, Alya," Nino pointed out.

"But that's not footage ."

The door, that had been left ajar by the constant flux of sisters, opened.

"What is that about footage?" Adrien said as he peeked in, eyebrows raised.

"Hey! Come in," Nino greeted him, not so surprised by his best friend's arrival. He knew Alya had texted everyone. "Alya wanted videos to upload on the blog but she doesn't have any, and the news site are stealing her visitors."

"But we do have videos," the blond announced, throwing a flash drive at Alya.

She caught it, eyes wide and all of her attention focused on Adrien.

"What's that?"

"Security footage from my home and from the Grand Paris," he replied. "I asked Chloé."

The blogger blinked.

"And she just gave it to you?"

"It helped that I gave her a new Eephone to replace the one I cursed. And a full set of phone accessories to go with it. And I promised to show her my father's winter collection before it is released."

Alya had stopped listening midway through his explanations. She had plugged the flash drive to her computer and browsed through the directories it contained.

Adrien chuckled.

"Just make sure to edit them so we aren't shown untransformed, alright?"

"Of course, of course," their friend muttered, watching the first video.

It showed Picture Perfect fighting Hawk Moth. She gaped and played the sequence over and over again.

Nino turned to Adrien.

"Your dad let you take that?"

"He… yes. He kind of… anyway we're going to have to explain the world that Hawk Moth is a dark spirit using people as puppets. Not that the world doesn't know that."

"Exclusive interview for the Ladyblog," Alya announced without even turning.

"Of course ," Adrien said. "But, about that… We'll 'fail to mention' who Hawk Moth possessed. No mentions of my father, anywhere . Please."

Plagg popped out of Adrien's messenger bag.

"Akuma victims get a pass, yadda yadda. Oooh, cheetos!" he exclaimed, flying up to Nino and landing next to the snacks mrs Césaire had brought them earlier.

His chosen looked at the ceiling, sighing the long suffering sigh of someone entirely too the antics of the cheese-obsessed Kwami.

"Are the others coming too?" he asked, before his friends could react to his comment.

"Alix said she'd drop by, 'as soon as she gets Jalil off her back'," Nino replied, raising his voice to cover the sound of crumpled plastic and munching noises coming from Plagg.

Alya turned her chair towards them.

"Aurore forbid me to call her before at least three in the afternoon so she can 'sleep', but then she is coming here for her exclusive interview."

"She has an exclusive interview too ?" Nino blurted out, before the stupidity of the question hit him.

They wouldn't escape the exclusive interviews. You didn't ask Lois Lane not to cover Superman related stories.

He winced. Even Adrien, with all of that model training, didn't manage to keep his grimace in. The blond recovered quickly, though. He smiled and shook his head, seemingly amused, before joining Nino on the bed.

"I'm alright with the interview thing, but we'll have to discuss it first," he said. Then he shot a worried look at Alya and swallowed. "I mean, it's not like I want to hide the truth, but we can't tell it all . It would endanger everyone, there could be backlash, some-"

Alya gave him a pointed look. He slammed his mouth shut.

"Way ahead of you," the blogger told him, pointing at her screen. "I have two pieces waiting to be published. The first is a timeline of the events from your akumatization to Hawk Moth's defeat, with no real names . A lot of people saw me transform back and forth, so my own secret identity is toast. Aurore doesn't even want one. Theo and your dad should be in the clear, though. If the press had something on them, it would be out by now. Lady Wifi and Stormy Weather footage is all over the news. Some old videos of the Bubbler, too, but the Bubbler didn't broadcast himself on gigantic screens all over Paris. Anyway I tried to make it clear that the magic is gone. From everyone. Including Hawk Moth."

Adrien cleared his throat.

"Actually, we have Chloé to thank for that," he revealed. "She didn't just give me the videos. She has full access to the hotel's security system. The whole time we were fighting, or when the adults were mind-controlled… Chloé was in her room watching it all, copying the footage to her tablet… and deleting it from the main server."

"She did that?" Nino and Alya exclaimed in one voice.

"Iiiiiiii'm pretty certain she'll attempt to blackmail my father into designing a dress for her and I'll probably have to save her life if she does, but… yes, she did that. She is Ladybug's 'number one fan'. She covered for us all."

"How is 'Marinette being Ladybug' going over?" Alya asked, with a wolfish grin.

The heroine had gone in and out of her transformation several times in the hotel, Nino remembered. There was no way she had escaped the security cameras. Not in the main hall.

"Uh, ah, hum," Adrien replied. "It could be worse? I mean… I know you have valid reasons not to like Chloé, but the people she cares about - like Sabrina or her dad or Ladybug - she really cares about, in her own way. Not that she knows how to treat them right. But when I went to see her this morning, she was waiting for me with her tablet and a flash drive. Said our secrets were safe with her."

"That's… good?" Nino replied, wondering what the conditions were and when the extortion would start. "So she asked you to come just for that?"

"She didn't ask me to come," his best friend corrected. "I went. First thing in the morning. A lot happened this week and there were news I wanted to tell her myself."

"You just said she was waiting for you," the DJ pointed out.

"Yes." - He made a point of turning to Alya before changing topics. - "So what's the second article?"

"An analysis of the nature of Akuma and Hawk Moth. Won't be posted for a while, though. I wanted to have Tikki proof-read it, but she is grounded."

Plagg flew out of the cheetos bag.

"Grounded?"

"Grounded," the blogger repeated. "Marinette and Tikki. Marinette's mom has them both doing chores and won't let them out of her sight for the day."

The two boys and the Kwami gaped, then Plagg started howling in laughter.

Alya grabbed her mouse and turned to her screen, navigating from screen to screen to locate a text document. She gestured at Adrien, who joined her and leaned closer to get a better look.

"I thought you could give it a look," she told him. "Spellcheck it. Factcheck it."

"Mostly spellcheck it," Nino piped.

The blogger threw an unopened bag of marshmallows at his face.

"Go get my dad's laptop," she told him. "I'm going to need help to edit all of that footage."

"Can I eat the marshmallows first?"

"You can eat the marshmallows while ."

"Can I eat some marshmallows first, then?"

Plagg was still laughing, mumbling the occasional 'a millennia old deity, grounded!' and 'I like that cookie mom'. His chosen dragged a chair to Alya's desk then sat down to read. Nino joined him, peeking at the first paragraph.

'It ended quietly enough,' Alya had written, 'with droplets of black magic trickling down from a young girl's balled fist and into the river below. With the rain drumming against the Seine's turbulent waters, those droplets could have gone unnoticed. They made no ripple. They made no sound. As they hit the water, however, they turned to smoke. The smoke spiraled up in twirling tendrils that faded into translucent fog that faded into nothing. And then, just like that, Hawk Moth was gone.

But before that, there was a storm.'

###

Chat Noir had spell-checked all thirteen pages of Alya's article (which she would both make shorter, to publish on her blog, and longer, because she would be turning it into a book). He had helped Nino with the video editing and the marshmallows.

Later in the day, he had endured Alix and Jalil's constant bickering. His classmate had not been allowed to leave home without supervision, so her brother had followed her to Alya's, where he had managed to offendeveryone in some way. Mostly, he had argued with his sister. Alix had blamed him for not telling her their dad had once been a superhero. Jalil had taken that accusation (and the information that his father had once been a superhero) with vexed stupefaction. It had led to a long-winded discussion on what he had known or not.

"You knew what to tell him to bring his memories back," Alix had insisted.

To which Jalil had replied "I didn't know what it would do! But when I saw that black 'cat'" - He had pointed at Plagg. - "I had flashbacks of a green creature just like it, telling me to touch dad's wrist and say those words if we were ever in danger. That's it. I had dreams about that 'Kwami' since I was a child. I always thought they were some kind of remnant of that Ninja Turtles show you forced me to watch."

Adrien had wanted to ask them about their father and his being Clover, but their argument had quickly moved to the Pharaoh incident, and how Jalil couldn't fathom why people mocked his interest in magic when superpowered beings roamed the city three days a week. Alix had retorted that his interest in magic had nearly released whatever it was that he would have released if Alya had been sacrificed. She was willing to bet it would not have been an Egyptian princess.

Plagg had been unable to provide them with a definite answer.

After that, Aurore Borell had showed up, and their group had been so busy editing videos, checking the news and coming up with synonyms that the day had passed in a blink. Mrs Césaire had insisted they could stay for dinner, so they had, and Adrien was still reeling. He was not used to crowded family meals and had been more than a little overwhelmed.

He had asked Alya how many sisters she had.

Her answer had been 'forty-two'.

It was well past nine when he had left his friend's home, walking with Nino for two streets before they had parted ways. Then Adrien had transformed and made his way to the Dupain-Cheng's bakery.

He landed on Marinette's balcony, knocking a flower pot down in the process. He caught the flower pot. He fought with it for five solid minutes, trying to put it back where it belonged and failing. Eventually, he gave up, put the thing down and went to knock on the trapdoor that led to Marinette's room.

The trapdoor opened on Sabine Dupain-Cheng.

"Chat Noir," she greeted him with a polite smile. "How nice of you to drop by."

Adrien choked on his own saliva, spluttered and coughed out a 'g-goough eneving'.

Sabine's serene smile did not falter.

"I'm sure my daughter would tremendously appreciate your visit. Unfortunately, she is grounded."

"I. Ah. S-see," Chat Noir replied. "I c-can come back another day, if you don't object, that is. I wouldn't want to-"

"However," Marinette's mother continued, " if you were to ring the doorbell and go through the traditional trial of meeting your girlfriend's father, you might be allowed to join us and Tikki for a game of Trivial Pursuit."

###

"FIFTY-SEVEN THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SIX UNIQUE VISITORS!" Alya yelled at twenty past two in the morning, on the second day after Hawk Moth's defeat.

###

At twenty past two on the second day after Hawk Moth's defeat, Adrien was staring at the ceiling of his bedroom.

After untransforming and ringing the Dupain-Cheng's doorbell as requested, he had played Trivial Pursuit with Marinette and her parents and Tikki (but not Plagg, Plagg had slept through it) for the best part of an hour. After that, as it was getting late, Tom had walked him home. The baker had asked him if everything was fine with his father, to which Adrien had answered "yes, don't worry!".

Then the boy had walked into the empty mansion and listened to the crushing silence.

No one had been waiting for him to come home. There had been some light in his father's office - he had seen it from outside - but Adrien had not dared to go knock on that door. He had tried for hours the previous night, and in the morning too. Gabriel had never even replied. Makko had phased through the door to let Adrien know she was handling things. "Give him time," the pink Kwami had said.

Time.

Nathalie was gone and the Gorilla was not back yet.

The house sounded so still that Adrien felt like he couldn't breathe.

At least Plagg was there. The Kwami had curled in a ball on top of his chosen's chest, and made little wheezing sounds in his sleep. That helped.

###

Marinette was late for school.

It was not out of the ordinary. Granted, in most cases, she ended up late because someone needed rescuing (or because he had overslept). It was somehow uncommon for her to arrive early then to spend thirty minutes freaking out at the corner of the street.

She was not altogether certain of who knew she was Ladybug and who did not. Those thirty minutes had been spent coming up with a perfect cover story that involved a twice-removed cousin from China who looked a lot like her, a helicopter trip, a bad case of the flu and several trained pet monkeys.

"Marinette, just go in ," Tikki sighed.

The teenager took a deep breath and did as commanded.

As she discovered ten seconds later, her being late was not much of a problem, because all of her classmates were still in the schoolyard, with no teachers in sight.

Alya was the center of attention, standing in a corner with Nino by her side. She was being questioned by an enthusiastic Rose and a quieter but just as fascinated Nathanaël, while Juleka, Ivan, Mylène and Max listened to her every word.

Adrien was leaning against a wall two steps away. At first, Marinette did not spot him, as Ivan was standing between them, but it only took a few steps for her partner to get in her line of sight. She saw him perk up when he noticed her. His soft smile turned into a grin. He all but leaped away from the wall, trotting to her.

"Princess!" he greeted her, bowing low with a flourish and taking her hand to kiss it.

She squeaked.

He chuckled.

She squeaked again.

He laughed , delighted, and kissed her hand again. At that point, she recovered and booped him on the nose, before poking his chin to force him to stand up.

They had forgotten the rest of the world. The rest of the world reminded them of its existence.

"You really are Chat Noir!" Rose exclaimed.

The blonde had magically appeared right next to them, along with the rest of the class. Well, most of the class. Chloé was standing at the other end of the schoolyard with Sabrina, sulking. But most of the class had followed Adrien when he had made his way to Marinette.

He turned to Rose and gave her a sweet smile.

"Come on, we went over this, everyone. I was Picture Perfect, and then I was just me. I showed you to footage of me standing right next to both Chat Noir and Copycat."

"There is still a distinct possibility that the footage is fake," Max commented. "Not to mention magic was involved. There is a fifty-five percent chance that there is some kind of illusion at work."

Adrien sighed, not in annoyance but amusement.

"If you want to talk to a Chat Noir, you should just ask Alix. She had the ring for a while. Didn't you, Alix?"

Their pink-haired friend barely bothered looking their way.

"Yep."

" Really? " Nathanaël blurted out, before realizing how loud he had been. He lowered his voice. "I mean, really?"

"Yeah, yeah," Alix replied, staring at her phone. "For, like, twenty minutes? Then I gave the ring back."

" Really? " Rose gasped.

"Yep," the skater said. "I don't need superpowers to kick ass. Just ask Kim."

Everyone turned to Kim, who raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, right, no you don't. Kick ass, I mean."

"Oh yeah ?" Alix replied with a smirk. "Wanna put it to the test, Titmouse?"

"What did you just call me?"

"Looks like we're putting it to the test," the pink-haired girl commented, grinning.

The rest of the class watched her bolt. Kim chased after her, following her through the main doors and into the street.

Marinette cleared her throat.

"Don't we have class?" she asked.

"Nope!" Alya announced. "Miss Bustier drove herself and her family to Nice after Schedule Conflict's mind-control was lifted. She won't be coming back until next Monday."

"That… makes a lot of sense," the young designer replied.

She was unused to seeing the citizens of Paris take drastic measures to get themselves out of danger, but she entirely approved of Miss Bustier's methods. On a normal day, she would have commented that going as far as Nice was overdoing it, but it had been a rough week.

Adrien wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"We'll have chemistry this afternoon." - Someone mumbled 'you have chemistry, period.' - "But in the meantime, we're supposed to be waiting for a substitute. We're also supposed to wait for them inside the classroom, but Alix was having none of that."

Marinette relaxed against him.

Max stared at them, squinting. He looked at Adrien's arm. He looked at Marinette. He looked at Adrien himself.

"I still think there is a trick," he announced.

Marinette frowned. Then, realizing she was not hearing quite as much 'so you are Ladybug?' variations as she had expected, she frowned some more. She had lost track of how many times she had transformed in front of witnesses over the last few days. Had the news of her identity not travelled?

She knew footage existed, but that it was in Adrien's possession.

Maybe she was just lucky .

Adrien grinned at Max.

"I am not Chat Noir," he swore. "I can even prove it."

His classmate narrowed his eyes.

"If you have tangible, verifiable proof…"

The model pointed up.

Chat Noir - or at least someone who looked exactly like Chat Noir, with the same costume, the same looks and the same cheeky grin - waved at them from the railing of the first floor's stairs landing.

Marinette's train of thought started doing cartwheels.

Theo? THEO? THEO. Theo. Theo! IS THAT THEO?

They still had their powers?

"I can guarantee mister Agreste is not me," Copycat announced. "I know I'm supposed to have nine lives, but not at the same time, you know?"

Most of their group gaped.

Alya grinned.

"Hey, Chat! D'you have fifteen minutes to spare for an exclusive interview for the Ladyblog?" she asked.

Copycat laughed.

"I'm on patrol, unfortunately. Later today?" he offered, bowing.

"I'll be waiting!" the blogger replied, waving at him.

Marinette watched Theo grin, wave back and climb back to the roof.

They still have their powers?

###

It took lunch break and Adrien kissing Marinette for Alya to find an opportunity to escape her inquisitive classmates. She scampered, dragging Nino to the roof.

The first words out of her mouth were "Copycat still has his powers".

The next were " do you? ".

In all honesty, there were millions of things Nino wanted from life, but the Bubbler's powers were far down the list. Saving the world was cool and all, and flying was better than taking the bus, he supposed, but he had to work on his first album and the video clips for it. Anyway, with Hawk Moth gone, what was the point of being a superhero? Adrien and Marinette were good enough of a team to protect the city from falling planes and muggers.

Did he want superpowers? Well, yeah, why not? But the idea didn't elicit more than his lukewarm interest.

"I… haven't checked?" he replied, patting his pockets.

He couldn't find his bubble wand. As far as he remembered, he had last seen it next to the kitchen sink at home.

Alya groaned, got her phone out and tried to pause him.

It didn't work.

"Well, that's disappointing," she said before looking down at her phone with a preoccupied expression and shrieking. "NOT AGAIN!"

She got her tablet out of her bag and sat cross-legged on the floor, cursing under her breath. Nino crouched and peeked at her screen.

"What's going on?"

"Server's down," she mumbled. "It's getting thousands of requests a minute, the database keeps crashing. And earlier the access logs grew so large they filled the hard drive, so I had to turn them off. And did I mention the load is through the roof? I should have moved it to a better dedicated server but my parents said the one I had in mind was too expensive."

The DJ stared at her, understanding about none of that. He knew the Ladyblog had trouble staying online - he had heard the same rant the previous day while editing the footage Adrien had brought them - but his technical knowledge was limited. He didn't manage both their school's website and a popular blog.

"How am I supposed to SSH into the thing with a tablet?" his friend ranted. "I should have taken Dad's laptop."

"Uh," Nino replied, because some kind of verbal input was needed at that point.

Alya sighed.

"That's it, as soon as I get home, I'm moving the website."

The boy nodded and prayed for a diversion. It came in the form of a beep from his classmate's phone. She checked it, murmuring something about an email from Aurore, then spent two minutes reading. Her eyebrows traveled up and down and up again.

"She says lawyers showed up at her place and threatened the press with legal action."

"Lawyers?" Nino repeated. "Press?"

"Apparently, there was a crowd in front of her home, news vans and such. And the lawyers arrived out of nowhere, went straight for the journalists, and got them to leave. Obviously, Aurore is not happy about that. She wanted to be on the news."

"She'll find a way to be on the news, lawyers or not. Who sent them, though?"

Alya wrinkled her nose and looked at the sky, thinking hard about that question.

"You know, that explains things," she mused. "I had been wondering why the press wasn't harassing us. I mean, I expected Nadja Chamack to pay me a visit or something. We should have seen a swarm of journalists waiting at our doors. But… nothing."

"Maybe Adrien's old man threw money at the problem?"

"No," a tiny voice chimed in. "It's not Gabriel."

The two teenagers jumped and looked up to find Makko hovering above them. The Kwami landed on the edge of Alya's tablet.

She gave them a warm smile.

"Hello!"

"H-hello?" Nino replied, blinking.

His friend's reaction was a bit less reserved.

"IhavesomanyquestionsohwowI'msogladyou'reherehowcomeCopycatcanstill…" - She gasped. - "TransformandifitsnotmisterAgrestethenwhosentthelawyers?"

The pink butterfly blinked. It took her a moment to translate that outburst into separate words.

"I don't know who sent the lawyers," she said, "but Copycat still has his powers because he asked for them."

"He did ?" the two teenagers exclaimed.

Makko nodded.

"I went…" - She braced herself. - "I went to see him. I wanted to visit all of you. First to tell you what an amazing job you did over the last few days, but also to apologize for possessing you in the first place. All of what happened is my fault, and I wanted you to know how sorry I am."

"Heh, don't sweat it," Nino commented. "A) It's all Hawk Moth's fault, not yours. B) We kind of know what happens to the thinking process of an Evilized person. We know you were totally hijacked."

Alya turned to him, eyebrows raised, and studied his face. A few seconds later, she nodded, looking at Makko.

"What he said," the blogger told the Kwami.

The sprite giggled, flying up to Alya and twirling around her head. She ended her fight next to the girl's cheek, against which she nuzzled for an instant. Then, she moved away and hovered above Alya's tablet.

"As for the powers," she said, "Theo pointed out that Adrien needed to rest - which is definitely true - and that showing up as Chat Noir would allay the suspicions about his secret identity."

Nino had to admit it was a sound plan.

"Just in case… He doesn't happen to be able to turn into Ladybug, does he? Cause that would come in handy. Marinette is going to need an alibi too."

Makko grinned.

###

"No, but who is that ?" Marinette whispered when Ladybug landed on the roof of the school, getting every student and teacher to look up in awe.

Alya, next to her, raised her phone and started filming the superhero. Adrien just gaped. Above them, 'Ladybug' leaped out of sight.

"No," Marinette repeated, idly petting her ears to check if her earrings were still present, "but seriously , who is that?"

###

Adrien dropped the 'bug' puns. He had to. He didn't want to lose his best friend. Nino was done with the puns. Still, right before Nino ran off to catch his bus after school, Adrien was sorely tempted to drop a last 'as long as it did not bug you'.

Plagg and Makko, hidden under his shirt, were giggling.

Nino's mood was more on the sulky side. His classmate did not see why: he had made a very convincing Ladybug.

"Come on," the model told the DJ. "No one will ever know."

"Alix has not stopped laughing in the last three hours," Nino retorted. "Fairly sure she told Aurore already, too."

" But Marinette is still trying to figure it out!" Adrien announced to console him.

His best friend chuckled.

"Dude, seriously?"

"Seriously. Alya won't tell her and I pretended not to know. Marinette is going crazy."

"Pretty sure Tikki could tell her."

"But where would be the fun in that?" Plagg piped, slipping his head out from under his chosen's shirt.

Nino laughed then waved, pointing at his bus stop.

"Need to run," he told Adrien. "Hey, your chauffeur isn't here to pick you up?"

"He texted me," Adrien lied. "He's stuck in traffic, he'll be here soon."

In truth, he had a growing suspicion that the Gorilla had been fired for not noticing his secret identity, like Nathalie. The man had not showed up since Adrien had sent him away with Hawk Moth's cane. He had called after the battle to inform Adrien that the weapon had vanished, so the boy knew the bodyguard was fine. But that was it.

"Well then see you tomorrow, dude," Nino exclaimed, racing to his stop to catch the bus that had just parked there.

Adrien waited and watched the bus drive away with Nino in it, waving at his friend through the window. He counted to twenty then started walking home. Plagg and Makko bickered the entire way.

The two Kwami went silent when Adrien walked into the mansion.

The boy's footsteps echoed in the hallway. The noise the door made when he closed them behind him was deafening.

Makko darted out of under his shirt.

"I'll go check on Gabriel," she announced.

Adrien nodded, dragging himself up the stairs to his bedroom. All of the fun and happiness he had felt that day was fading away.

He walked into his room and found a pastry box on his desk, along with a note in his father's handwriting.

'Mrs Dupain-Cheng dropped by and did not come empty handed,' it said. 'Make sure to give her a call to thank her.'

The boy sighed. He was used to being avoided but it didn't stop him from feeling awful.

He stared at the box. His appetite had deserved him, but he still opened the box. Plagg dove and sniffed the macarons, scoffed and flew away. Adrien forced himself to eat a handful of them.

Then he ate the rest, because they were amazing.

###

Adrien woke at seven with a stomach ache and a newfound sense of determination.

He called Marinette's mother to thank her for the macaron and, more importantly, to thank her for dropping by to check on his father. Sabine had come during school hours, so the intent behind her visit was clear.

After that call, he showered, dressed himself, gathered his courage and walked out of his room with a single goal: drag his father out of his office.

Maybe Adrien would have to Cataclysm the door off. He would, if things came to that.

He made it to the hallway, where he found Nathalie waiting by the dining room door with a tablet.

"Nathalie?" the boy gasped, happily surprised. He smiled. "Father rehired you?"

The woman looked up, lips pursed in mild annoyance.

"Hello, Adrien. No, he did not, but there is such a thing as a one month notice and I felt like he would need an assistant. How are you?"

"I'm fine," he replied, just a little hesitant. He didn't dare mention the situation with his father. "Things have been hectic but… quieter, and nice, and…" - He looked at his feet. - "Nathalie, I'm sorry I got you fired."

" You didn't get me fired," she mumbled. " So . I assume your father has spent the last few days working?"

"I, he, ah…"

"He did ," Nathalie exclaimed, wincing.

Adrien scratched the back of his neck, uneasy. Well, at least, he didn't have to explain matters. His father's assistant sighed. The teenager tried to explain the problem away.

"It's not an easy situation for him," he said. "Makko - his Kwami - has been keeping him company."

Nathalie sucked her lips in, leaving a lipstick stain on her front teeth.

"I knew I should have come back earlier," she said. "I know your father is prone to shutting everyone out when overwhelmed, this was bound to happen." - She shook her head. - "I needed to handle the journalists, however. I was busy."

The boy blinked.

"Journalists? Wait! You are the one who sent the lawyers?" - That question got him a nod. - "Alya has been going crazy trying to figure it out."

Nathalie clicked her tongue.

"Someone had to do something, and handling journalists is part of my usual duties, so I was best qualified to intervene. If I can keep the press away from a teenage supermodel, I can keep it away from teenage superheroes."

He chuckled.

"Just so you know, Aurore Borell wants the press to harass her. She's sulking about not being allowed her moment of fame."

Nathalie gave him a pointed glance.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. She'd rather be a superstar than a superhero. I can't say I understand her, but…"

"I will call the lawyers off, then," the assistant replied.

Adrien shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"So… What now?"

"Now," Nathalie said, "I will drive you to your piano lesson - since there is no one else to do it - and then I will talk to your father."

###

By 'talking to', Nathalie had meant 'shouting at', as Adrien discovered three hours later, when he slipped into the mansion as Chat Noir, having made his own way home after waiting half an hour out of the Conservatory for someone to come pick him up.

###

A few days went by.

In a perfect world, with Hawk Moth gone, there would have been no need for heroes. Unfortunately, there was no shortage of petty criminals, sinking barges, crashing helicopters, house fires and climbing-challenged cats. Ladybug and Chat Noir patrolled every night.

They were not that busy saving the world, because a picture of them kissing made it to the front page of Paris Match .

Marinette dutifully texted her parents to tell them when she had to skip school to rescue the citizen of Paris. Adrien texted Theo, because Nathalie was not quite as lenient on his activities as Tom and Sabine.

When Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn't make it, a new heroine - going by the name 'Signal Boost' - handled things. Her pinkish violet costume, with a glowing white wifi symbol on the chest, was strangely reminiscent of Lady Wifi's. When people questioned her about the resemblance, Alya's answer was always 'Nah. Totally different person!'. If people asked Nino, he would tell them he didn't see the resemblance at all.

Not that Nino had a lot of time to discuss the topic. He was too busy working on the Ladyblog. The website had moved to a better server (paid for by the advertising bought by Gabriel Agreste's company, after Alya had made it clear to Nathalie Sancoeur that she would not forgot mister Agreste's business offer). The blog now stayed online whether it got thirty thousand visitors a day or not, which meant there was an insane amount of comments to moderate and answer to. Nino did the answering. Alya was too busy writing.

The book ('Hawk Moth's fall', but that was a working title since everyone who had heard it thought it sucked) was coming along nicely. Alya had twelve chapters, all of them filled with words, action and exclamation marks. Conversations were held on the topic. Concerned friends questioned the sanity of writing forty-five thousand words in the span of a week. Moderately concerned bystanders (namely a squishy destruction god named Plagg) questioned the quality of the writing. The concerned bystander was described as an 'obnoxious flying rat' in chapter four, but that part had to be removed at Tikki's request. She admitted the description was strikingly accurate, but the Kwami could not be mentioned in a published book.

Alix did kick Kim's ass.

Aurore, who was even more ridiculously photogenic than Adrien Agreste, got offered the part of a teenage caped crusader in an upcoming TV show. That was just the right amount of superstar and superhero for her. She gave up on journalism. Alya thanked the gods. Plagg replied with a 'don't mention it, I did nothing'.

###

Eight days after Hawk Moth's defeat, Adrien came home from school and opened the doors to find his father standing at the top of the stairs, with his back turned to the entrance.

It was the first time Gabriel emerged from his office in a week, so his son frozen in surprise. The boy relaxed as relief and wonder washed over him.

Gabriel was looking up at the framed picture on the landing, except the picture was no longer the dark family portrait that had been hanging there just that morning, but a bright painting of a much younger Adrien and his mother. It was a reproduction of the photograph of them the boy liked best, and seeing it displayed there warmed his heart.

Hesitantly, he climbed the stairs, joining his father on the landing. Gabriel had clasped his hands behind his back but Adrien could read the minute signs of nervousness in him: he was tapping his wrist with a finger, his shoulders shifted and, from up close, you could hear his breath catch.

"Father?" the teenager called after stopping just at arm's length.

Gabriel stared at the portrait for a second more then smiled and turned to him.

"I felt like some change was long overdue," he said. "What do you think?"

"I… I think you were right," Adrien replied, looking up at his mother's portrait.

He felt a grin crawl up his face.

His father let out a contented sigh. A moment later, he put his hand on Adrien's shoulder, pulling him close.

"I'm sorry for the way I acted this week. I… needed… I needed to sort through my thoughts, things were…"

"It's alright," Adrien murmured, leaning closer.

"It's not."

"It is. Makko was keeping me updated. Sort of. And anyway, Nathalie already gave you a 'stern talking-to'."

"That she did," his father replied, his voice soft.

"Are you feeling better?" the teenager asked, even if the answer was obvious.

Gabriel squeezed his shoulder and nodded. Then he pulled away and fished a little envelope out of his jacket's pocket. He gave it to his son, who opened it to find his mother's necklace. He lifted it up, letting the flower pendant swing back and forth.

Alice was wearing that pendant on the painting.

"You should have this," his father told him. "God knows there is very little left to remember your mother by, but that necklace meant a lot to her. She would have wanted you to have it."

Adrien cupped the golden flower in the palm of his hand, studying the delicate petal outlines drawn around the pearl center.

"It was a gift from you, wasn't it?" he asked. He immediately amended his question. "You made it for her."

The only reaction he got was an amused snort. Then again, it had been a silly question. Of course, his father had designed it for her.

Gabriel dropped the topic entirely, turning to him and clasping his hands behind his back.

"Makko tells me Copycat has been saving Paris and your school grades all at once," he announced, with the faintest teasing smirk.

Adrien's eyes went wide. He swallowed and cleared his throat.

"Kind of. Yes. He's doing a great job, too!" he replied, looking from left to right and up and down and, more generally, at everything but his father.

He could feel Gabriel's eyes on him.

" However ," the man drawled, "I am going to assume that Copycat is not the young hero who made it to the front page of Paris Match with a certain spotted young lady."

Adrien blushed so hard he felt like he matched Ladybug's suit.

"I-I-I-I ah."

His father raised an eyebrow.

The teenager took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I know you don't want me to be Chat Noir, I just…"

Gabriel put a hand on his shoulder

"It's fine," he murmured.

Those words had obviously cost him. He closed his eyes and breathed in, then made them turn to the family portrait.

"You have to understand… No matter how great a hero you are, and you are a great hero... No matter how skilled… It's scary from where I stand. It's terrifying. When I was partnering with Aricia, I would get worried, I would get afraid… I do believe you know exactly what I mean by that, what with miss Dupain-Cheng being such a daring young girl."

Adrien nodded, his breath catching in his throat. Oh yes, he understood.

His father went on.

"Well, when it is your child running into danger, it multiplies tenfold. It is overwhelming."

The boy put his hand on the one Gabriel had put on his shoulder. His dad's second hand joined it.

"That being said," the stylist continued, "you are good at this. You have more than proven yourself. So I will try not to interfere too much."

Adrien gaped, staring at him with wide eyes.

Gabriel smiled to him.

"Also, thank you for saving me."

###

"It's no good!" Alya exclaimed, throwing her hands up and rolling away from her desk.

She made her chair spin, staring at the ceiling.

Her friends had definitely heard that before. Adrien and Marinette exchanged a cautious look. Nino sighed. The sisters, who were peeking into Alya's bedroom through a crack in the door, whispered a few words to each other.

The DJ was the first to dare breaking the silence.

"It's fine , Alya. We've read and reread and rerererererereread that chapter, and every chapter, and everything is as good as it can get."

"You wouldn't know! You are not writers. There is something missing ."

A few things were missing from the book, namely the existence of Kwami, the real names of the heroes and Plot Hole's horrendous prose, which Alya had 'improved' for the sake of readability. In other words, the novel wasn't missing anything crucial.

"Nothing is missing," Nino snapped, because he had tried to convince her of that for days now, and he was fed up. "And I'll let you know I write too. Some."

"IT IS ALL WRONG!" Alya yelled, rolling back to her desk and glowering at her screen. "And I have to fix it! The gofundme campaign for the print version blew up, Nathanaël finished his illustrations ages ago, the editor is waiting for the text, I need to finish it and send it in."

The DJ sighed. So did Adrien and Marinette. So did Tikki, who was usually the most patient of them all. Plagg wasn't listening. Plagg was being fed cheetos by the youngest Little Sister.

Nino joined Alya, commandeering her chair and sitting in front of her computer. A text editor was open on the first page of the Novel-With-A-Sucky-Working-Title. The boy read the first page all over again .

"There is nothing wrong," he said. "Well, there is an extra period on the first line of the third paragraph, but that's about it."

Alya smashed the keyboard to fix that mistake then moved back and took a deep, aggravated breath.

"You don't get it. The opening lines of a novel have to be gripping. They have to keep the reader reading , and that won't do the job."

They all knew the first lines. Alya had used them on her short article on Hawk Moth's defeat, on the blog, and they all thought they were very nice lines. Very visual. Perfectly fine.

Marinette groaned.

"I think you've read them over so often you don't feel the impact anymore, Alya."

The writer raised her hands.

"No, no, no, that's not that. I need a better incipit. Some kind of preface. Something short, that catches the eye."

"Just have Nathanaël draw another picture?" Nino mumbled.

Alya shot daggers at him.

Adrien, always helpful, tried to defuse the situation.

"Maybe a quote?" he suggested. "We could help you look for one."

The aspiring author froze and stared at him. After a minute, Nino poked her to check if she had not magically paralyzed herself or something like that.

"I'VE GOT IT!" she shrieked, grinning.

She shoved Nino off her chair and sat down, grabbing the keyboard and starting to type furiously. She stopped not ten seconds later.

"Here!" she announced with a victorious smile, leaning back and pointing at the screen.

They all got closer to read the new opening lines.

'Hope is not in the heroes, but in normal people realizing they can accomplish the extraordinary.'

- Aricia

###