Author's Note:

I do not own any of these characters.

"Alright class. Settle down." Ms. Bustier smirked a little as she picked up a sheet of paper from her desk. "We're going to have an assignment where most of you will be working in pairs. And, since we have an odd number of students, one of you will get to participate with some special caveats." The class looked around at each other with confused expressions on their faces, trying to figure out who was going to have to work alone. "I've already decided the pairs and there will be no switching."

Everyone shuffled a little bit more, hoping they'd get paired with the best person for the project... whatever the project was going to be. "As I call your names, come up and get your assignment sheets. Don't look at them until everyone has gotten one as I want to go over them with you." Everyone nodded... hesitantly. "Adrien and Marinette." Adrien and Marinette grabbed their sheets as Chloe glared at Marinette and scowled. "Ivan and Mylene." They approached, received their assignment sheets, and sat back down. This was repeated as Ms. Bustier called out the remaining pairs. "Kim and Alix. Max and Sabrina. Nathaniel and Chloe. Nino and Alya. Rose and Juleka."

At that point, it was obvious that Lila was the odd student out. Everyone watched as she walked up to the teacher and received her assignment sheet alone. "Remember, Lila, some of what I'm going to say to the class will not apply to you. It will be clearly marked on your assignment sheet and we can discuss the differences later if you have any questions."

"Thank you, Ms. Bustier," Lila replied as she took her seat.

"Okay everyone, you can look at your assignment sheets." The sound of papers flipping over could be heard, followed by a brief period of silence, then some snickering, and one rather loud thud of Marinette passing out.

"Sorry, Ms. Bustier," Alya offered as she revived her friend.

"It's okay Alya... I half expected that reaction." She smiled as Marinette shot up, wide alert and looked around the room. She looked at Alya, Ms. Bustier, Chloe... who was still grimacing at her, and then Adrien. At which point, she fainted again. "Well, it appears Marinette is very aware of the assignment, so I'll just begin and Adrien... you can fill in any details for her later if she has questions."

Adrien nodded. "Yes ma'am." He turned over his shoulder and winced a little at the sight of Alya trying once again to revive Marinette. This is going to be a long project, he thought to himself. Especially if I have to keep waking her up.

"As you can see from the top of the assignment sheet, you have been broken up into married couples with an infant... except for you Lila, who will be our single mother for this exercise. Each assignment sheet has several options on it. For example, there are multiple jobs with different pay rates, but also come with different expenses. There's the option of not working for either parent... except for Lila, as each pair must have at least one income if not two."

Some murmuring was heard and Ms. Bustier cleared her throat to get the classes attention. "No two pairs have identical options, but each pair have the same assignment sheets so they can look over the options before discussing them. You also have no additional source of funds. For example, Chloe can't say she gets any additional funds from her relatives. You must pick one option and use only the funds provided in that option along with the expenses for that option."

Ms. Bustier smirked even wider as she walked over to the door. Marinette was finally starting to come back to her senses when Ms. Bustier opened the door and let the nurse in. She was carrying a large box, which was promptly sat on the floor. Ms. Bustier open the top of the box and pulled out one of the items. She held it up to the dismay of the class and then turned it on. It immediately began crying. "Each pair will get one robo-baby to take care of also."

Ms. Bustier started passing out the mechanical babies, turning them on as she handed them to a member of each pair and giving Marinette an apologetic look as she walked past her nearly lifeless body laying once again face-down on the desk. Ms. Bustier nearly had to yell over the chorus of crying babies. "These will record how well you treat your robo-baby. You will need to feed it, bathe it, change its diapers, and spend quality play time with it. I know that most of you can't just go live with your partner for a week, so I recommend trading out each day."

Most of the pairs had figured out that they could rock the baby to get it to stop crying, so the noise level had reduced greatly by the time Ms. Bustier announced the last piece of pertinent information. "You will have these robo-babies for one week. At which time, you will turn in the robo-baby along with your completed budget and an individual paper recapping your experience over this next week."

The bell rang and the students got up to leave. "Have a great weekend everyone... and don't forget your babies! We'll know if your baby has been left unattended and how long it was with each of you."

Marinette was having a wonderful dream that she was married to Adrien and they already had one child. She was watching him carry the baby around and coo at it. She could've sworn she really could hear the baby giggling and Adrien cooing at it. She was pulled out of her dream as the drool puddle on her desk had reached her nostril and made her noise itch. She shot up... realizing she was still at school and... she exhaled as she looked around to see that the classroom was empty.

She was alone, except for some cooing and giggling coming from somewhere in the back. She got up slowly, somehow remembering to put her assignment sheet into her backpack and headed towards the sound. She rounded the corner, to find Adrien siting on the floor, baby in arm, and cooing at it while it giggled happily. He looked up at her and said, "I'm sorry if we woke you. I was trying to stay quiet."

"Y-You didn't." Marinette sat down on the seat across from them and grimaced. "I-I must've looked like an i-idiot in class today, huh?"

"Nah. I just don't think you were expecting this assignment... or to be paired with me."

Marinette watched as Adrien played with the robo-baby and imagined he was playing with their child. "You're so good with it."

"Her."

"Her?"

"Yeah. She's already eaten... and pooped."

"She can do that?"

"Boy can she!"

Marinette smiled. "Thank you for taking care of her while I was out of it. By the way... how... how long was I out of it?"

Adrien checked the time on his phone and announced, "about an hour this last time." Marinette face-palmed herself. "It's okay. We decided after the third time... when Ms. Bustier was handing out the robo-babies... that we'd just let you sleep it off. Alya was going to stay, but I told her I would. It's my job after all... seeing as I'm your husband now." Adrien winked and Marinette slid out the chair and onto the floor.

Adrien's eyes widened and he began laughing heartily. This caused Marinette to giggle. The baby giggled in response. Marinette shuffled over and sat next to Adrien. "So... have you named her?"

"Not officially... but I was hoping you'd say yes to Emilie."

"That was your mother's name, right?"

"Yes. I thought it'd be nice."

"It would be perfect. Emilie it is."

Adrien smiled brightly at Marinette. "Thank you." He turned to robo-Emilie and said, "Hello Emilie. I'm your father." He grimaced a little.

"What's wrong?"

"That just didn't feel right... it felt... backwards."

"Well, how about we name her Emilie, but call her Emma?"

Adrien looked at the baby and tried again. "Hello Emma. I'm your father." He grinned widely and shook his head. "Much better. I like that."

Marinette smiled at Adrien again, loving how much he was getting into the role. "We should head home and get some supper. Can you join us? If so, we can start on the budget tonight."

After a quick phone call to Nathalie, Adrien nodded and the pair left the school to head to the bakery... with Emma.

After a very uncomfortable dinner filled with innuendos and smirks from her parents, Marinette and Adrien were finally upstairs in her room... safe, for the moment, from her overzealous parents. As she closed the trap door, she turned around to see Adrien "flying" Emma around the room like she was an airplane. Marinette blushed at the sight, until Emma's realistic nature surfaced again and she puked.

"I'm so sorry!" Adrien said for the thirteenth time as he was cleaning up after Emma's first bought of air sickness.

"It's fine... it's what babies do. We just have to keep in mind that Emma is a bit more realistic than the babies our parents had to bring home from school."

"I guess we should read the assignment sheet, huh?"

Marinette pulled out her copy from her backpack and began reading it out loud while Adrien kept Emma calm. "Adrien and Marinette. Congratulations on your expanding family. Things are definitely going to change for you. There are lots of decisions to make now that you have a new child. But first, here's your current situation. Adrien has estranged himself from his father and is currently working as an assistant manager at a local coffee shop. He currently makes a few euros an hour above the baristas, hoping to get promoted to manager so he can be salaried. He works about 45 hours a week on average. He also models occasionally, but not very often as he cannot model for the Gabriel brand. So, any modeling money he gets is going into a savings account to go towards retirement, since it's not income that can be counted on for budgeting. He can choose to continue hoping for a promotion or go out and find a better paying job from the ones listed below. Marinette's parents have sold the bakery and retired to Lyon. Close enough to visit, but not close enough to watch the baby on a regular basis. Marinette is designing clothes, but her career is still in its infancy and doesn't bring in much money. You can choose to stay home and take care of the baby full time... taking time away from designing clothes for five years until the baby enters the school system. You could choose to continue designing clothes from home and take care of the baby, but only continue to make about the same amount of income. Lastly, you could decide to continue growing your brand and eventually start making more money. If you decide on the third option, then Adrien has the option to become a stay-at-home father, or keep working and the two of you will either need to work opposing hours... so that one of you is always with the baby, but the two of you won't see much of each other... or pay for child care while you are both away from home. See below for income and expenses based on each option. As you'll notice, as your income goes up, your monthly expenses, such as rent and utilities, tend to go up also. This is because lifestyle generally improves as income increases."

Adrien's eyes popped out of his head as he looked over the income figures and expenses. "These can't be correct!"

Marinette looked over them and sighed, "Unfortunately, they're actually pretty close to real life."

Adrien's face paled and he was only pulled out of it as Emma let out a cry. "Shhh... Shhh... It's okay. Daddy's going to take care of you."

Marinette giggled a little. "You're going to make a great father."

"Thanks. I've have a great role model." Marinette looked at Adrien with confusion dripping from every pore. Adrien noticed and corrected his statement. "A great role model at what not to do."

"Oh..." Marinette sighed and then frowned. "That's so sad."

"It's not your fault. It's just what life has given me to work with."

"That's a positive way to look at it."

"Thanks. I try. It's hard sometimes. But, being able to come to school and be with my friends has helped a lot."

"I'm glad we could be there for you." Marinette smiled warmly at Adrien and then...

BOOM!

Adrien and Marinette looked out the window and saw the hotel in flames. "I sure hope Ladybug gets there soon," Adrien said.

"Cat Noir should be there shortly. He's almost always on the scene right after the akuma."

"I-I'm sorry. But... my father... he prefers if I'm home during an akuma attack." Adrien was rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh great!" Marinette pointed out the window. "There goes Alya, trying to get footage for the Ladyblog." Nino was running behind her, with their baby in tow. "Why didn't Nino leave the baby at home?"

"Ms. Bustier said she'd know I the baby was left unattended."

Marinette's eyes widened. "Do... do you think you could take Emma home with you. I mean... your home is safer than mine during an akuma attack, right? It'd only be appropriate to try to keep her safe, right?"

Adrien was about to argue as they saw flames shoot up the Eiffel Tower. It acted as some type of flamethrower and fired descended on the school. Fire shot over to the Louvre, setting all the art on fire. "I'm afraid we don't have time to discuss this, Marinette."

Marinette was about to agree and forcibly hand Emma over to Adrien when he called on his transformation and leapt up through the balcony door. He got there just in time to block a stream of fire headed towards the bakery by twirling his staff and making it into a shield.

Marinette rushed down and grabbed one of the masks from when they had try-outs with Nightingale for the music video. She tied it around Emma's head, covering her eyes as if she was a mini-Ladybug. "Tikki. Spots On!"

Ladybug leapt out of her room and onto the balcony. Cat Noir was still defending the bakery as it had become the sole object of the akuma's attention. There seemed to be about 15 seconds between each blast that lasted about 5 seconds. Ladybug waited for the next gap and then announced her presence with "Sorry, Chaton. But our daughter insisted she help us."

Cat Noir turned around in surprise and saw Ladybug smirking while holding a masked Emma. Cat Noir grinned from ear to ear looking between Ladybug and Emma-bug. He turned to block the next salvo of flames, and puffed out his chest. "Anything for our daughter, My Lady!"

"Good. I'm going to leave her here with you as you seem to already have the akuma's attention. I'm going see about saving the victim." Ladybug sat Emma on her lounge chair and leapt away.

Ladybug approached the Eiffel Tower and could see the akuma victim standing on the ground, with one hand on the Eiffel Tower. The bakery was in clear view from where the akuma was standing, and it was obviously unhappy that the bakery was not burning. She looked down and saw Nino and Alya huddled in a corner out of sight, and arguing. Ladybug decided a little extra help wouldn't hurt since Cat Noir was already busy. She swung away to Master Fu's and collected the Turtle Miraculous.

After returning to Nino and Alya, she could see why they were arguing. Their robo-baby was burnt to a crisp. "Less than 24 hours, and you've already killed your baby?" Labybug asked with a smirk to get their attention.

"It's all his fault! He was supposed to stay with the baby while I was getting footage."

"But this akuma is too dangerous. This was almost you!" Nino yelled at Alya while holding up the now blackened baby with smoke slowly escaping out of it.

"I agree with Nino. That's why I need him. Alya, please stay here." Ladybug pulled Nino aside and gave him the miraculous. After he transformed, he looked back at Alya. "Don't worry, I'll protect you."

Alya smiled at her boyfriend and nodded. "I know you will. But, Ladybug needs your protection right now more than me."

"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug flung her yoyo high and a red with black spots spray bottle fell into Ladybug's hands. She squirted a little onto her hand and sniffed it before tasting it. "Just water."

Ladybug looked over at the akuma victim, who was still focused on trying to burn down the bakery. The victim was completely engulfed in flames, but Ladybug could see a bracelet on one wrist. "What's the plan?" Carapace asked.

"We're going to rush the victim. You protect us with your shield and get us close enough so I can douse the bracelet and get it off of the victim's wrist."

"Stay close!" Carapace started running towards the victim, with Ladybug immediately behind him. The victim saw them and redirected its attention to the hastily approaching heroes. Carapace pulled his shield as flames flew toward them. He raised his shield over their heads as the victim returned to the Eiffel Tower and shot flames down on them from above. Carapace continued adjusting his shield to protect from in front or from above as they got closer.

Carapace ran into the victim shield-first, knocking them with such force that its arm appeared to fly forward because its body was flying backwards so fast. Ladybug sprayed the bracelet, driving away the flames so she was able to slip it off of the victim's wrist.

Cat Noir showed up, Super-Emma-Bug in tow using his belt to secure her, Ladybug looked back at him and tossed the bracelet to him as the victim cried out and unleashed a firestorm at Carapace and Ladybug. Carapace yelled, "Shelter!" just in time to protect himself and Ladybug.

Cat Noir caught the bracelet and yelled, "Cataclysm!" The bracelet turned to dust as a black butterfly fly away. Ladybug captured it as soon as the Shelter dome dropped.

"No more evil-doing for you." She caught it and then released the white butterfly. "Bye. Bye. Little Butterfly." She hoisted the spray bottle high into the air calling out, "Miraculous Ladybug!"

As swarms of ladybugs fixed everything... including Nino and Alya's robo-baby... a black cloud took over the akuma victim and revealed... Nathaniel and Chloe. Ladybug and Carapace went to check on them as Cat Noir headed back to the bakery with Super-Emma.

"Are you okay?" Ladybug smiled at them.

"Yeah... I think so?" Nathaniel offered.

"Was I akumatized again?" Chloe barked. "Great... just great. You ruined our project and got me akumatized. Good work!"

"Actually," Carapace interjected, "You were both akumatized together... like Oblivio."

"Oh..." Chloe said and looked over to see Nathaniel glaring at her. She tried to smile innocently.

"I ruined the project?" Nathaniel huffed. "As I recall, you were the one who pawned off our baby on your butler and it stopped working after you left the room."

Ladybug placed her hand on Nathaniel's shoulder. "Perhaps you can explain it to your teacher and she can reset it for you."

"Maybe..." Nathaniel looked down and hid behind his banes. "But... I'll never get the image of the baby's brightly lit red eyes. It was like something out of The Exorcist."

After hearing her earrings beep, indicating two more minutes, Ladybug excused herself and Carapace. She got the miraculous from Nino, who was pleased to see that his and Alya's baby was returned to normal.

Ladybug landed on her balcony after returning the Turtle Miraculous to Master Fu and was greeted by Adrien and Emma, no longer wearing her mask. Her transformation dropped, as did Adrien's jaw. Marinette looked anywhere but at Adrien. He stood up, Emma in his arms, and walked over to Marinette. He pulled her face over towards his and tilted it up until Marinette looked him in the eyes. Then he whispered, "How could I ever be so lucky to have the perfect family right here with me... right now, even if it's just for a week until things go back to normal."

Marinette blushed deeply. "So... you're not disappointed?"

"I could never be disappointed... In fact... I'm actually very relieved." Marinette gave him a confused look. "Now I don't have to fight my feelings for you. I get to love you as Ladybug, my partner and the hottest girl I know... and I get to love you as Marinette, one of my best friends. There's no way I ever thought I'd be this lucky. That is... provided you can learn to love me back."

"Learn?"

"Yeah... whatever it takes... I swear I'm going to win over your heart from Luka over this next week."

"Luka?"

"Yeah... I know you like him and that he likes you. Once you revealed your identity, I figured that's who you've been rejecting me for..."

Marinette placed a finger over his lips. "Shh... Not another word." Adrien frowned a little at that, but relished at her touch none the less. "I wasn't rejecting Cat Noir for Luka."

Adrien's face twisted in confusion. "If not Luka? Then Who?"

"The boy who was kind enough to lend me his umbrella after I had been nothing but dismissive to him."

Adrien's eyes widened. "How many umbrellas do you get from boys?"

Marinette giggled. "Just one."

"But..." Adrien's eyes widened. "You don't mean... I can't have been that blind... Could I have?"

"Yes Kitty. You and I both. I just couldn't see the Adrien in Cat Noir or the Cat Noir in Adrien." Adrien almost kissed her right there, but his face fell. "What's wrong?"

"I blew your #1 rule completely out of the water. I revealed my identity."

"It's okay... You had to... If you hadn't, we would've been set on fire. It's not like you just came up to me for no reason and said Hey Princess. I'm Cat Noir!"

Adrien smiled weakly at her. "I still feel guilty about it."

Marinette smiled and stretched up to give Adrien a kiss. Adrien was in shock at first, but soon melted into the kiss. They would've kissed longer, but Emma cried. They smiled as they rested their foreheads together. "I think this is going to be a long week."

Indeed, it was a long week. Monday at school, most of the students could barely stay awake for classes as they didn't get any good sleep at all over the weekend. Well, that is except for Chloe and Nathaniel, whose baby had brightly lit red eyes... scaring most of the other classmates, including Lila.

On Tuesday, Alya and Nino arrived with a crispy, blackened baby. "I just wanted popcorn!" Alya cried, recalling how she had accidentally microwaved the robo-baby instead of the popcorn. She swore it was due to the lack of sleep.

On Wednesday, Chloe and Nathaniel were back to arguing about the project. Chloe called the income options, "Ridiculous! Utterly Ridiculous!" while Nathaniel was just trying to get her to pick one so they'd have something to turn in. Adrien whispered to Marinette, "For once, I agree with Chloe." He earned a shake of Marinette's head and kiss on the cheek... which riled up Chloe even more.

On Thursday, Kim and Alix's baby arrived to class with no arms. Upon being pestered sufficiently, Alix finally recounted how she and Kim had argued about whose turn it was to keep the baby and ended up with them sitting on the floor, each holding an arm and the robo-baby screaming bloody murder on the floor between them.

On Friday, the class of zombie-like students would've celebrated the end of the project, but really... they just wanted to sleep for three weeks. Upon retrieving what was left of the robo-babies, the budget, and both experience papers... well the one from Lila and one from Rose and Juleka who didn't realize individual meant one paper each instead of as a team, Ms. Bustier dismissed the class early and smirked as each student drug themselves out of the class with as much energy as their excitement could muster given how sleepy they all were.

Adrien had went home with Marinette and told Nathalie he was going to be out late on a date with his girlfriend. Their date consisted of them snuggling together on Marinette's bed... snoring loudly enough to impress even Plagg. Unfortunately, their date was cut short by an unexpected visitor. Sabine announced that Ms. Bustier was there and needed to talk to them.

Marinette yawned loudly and stated, "Sure Mama. Send her up."

She and Adrien had relocated to her chaise, but were still barely awake, leaning against each other. Marinette's head on Adrien's shoulder and Adrien's head on top of Marinette's head.

Ms. Bustier entered the room apologetically, and carrying Emma. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I thought this was important enough to come over immediately."

"How can we help you, Ms. Bustier?" Marinette yawned out.

"May I borrow your computer? Everything will become clear."

"Sure." Marinette looked over to Adrien with concern. This certainly didn't seem normal.

After hooking up a USB cable between Emma and Marinette's computer, Ms. Bustier explained further. "The robo-babies record everything... that's how we know how much time was spent with each parent."

Adrien and Marinette were now wide awake and looking at each other. As they feared, Ms. Bustier replayed the scene from the previous Friday... clearly showing Adrien transforming into Cat Noir, followed a few minutes later by Marinette transforming into Ladybug.

Marinette and Adrien gulped loudly as Ms. Bustier turned back towards them. "This is the only recording, and it can't be removed from the robo-baby. It can be cleared... which we do each year for the next set of students... but the original videos can still be recovered." Ms. Bustier paused for a few seconds. "I'm the only person to have watched this video. I'd like for you to keep the robo-baby to keep your identities safe."

"Th-Thank you." Adrien and Marinette said at the same time.

Ms. Bustier was about to excuse herself, but turned to the teens and smiled before leaving the room. "I'm certainly not going to hold any absences against the two of you going forward." With that, Ms. Bustier was gone... leaving Emma tethered to Marinette's computer.

As Marinette was unhooking Emma, she noticed the power switch was in the off position. She turned Emma on and handed her to Adrien, who started cooing at her and Emma giggled loudly. Marinette hugged Adrien's arm tightly and looked at the two of them. "I'm never going to get tired of watching the two of you."