"Pick up, pick up, pick up-!" Nathalie hissed as the phone rang against her ear, skidding to a halt and flinging herself back into an alley as a thrown car crashed into the spot she would have been standing in approximately two seconds, doing her best to calm her racing heart. Oh please oh please oh please don't let this be the day he forgot-

Click "Hello?"

"Theo! I could really use some help today." Nathalie panted, clutching at her chest and feeling the hard object she had stuffed into her bra dig into her breastbone, only slightly blunted by the cloth it was wrapped in.

"… Is this another of your 'I can't leave you alone for five minutes' things, Nathalie?"

"… I refuse to answer that."

"Okay, seriously, what did you do, and why are you so close to an akuma attack that I can hear the battle?"

"Theo, I stole a Miraculous."

"… What."

Nathalie honestly hadn't begun her day planning to do something that was surely going to get her fired- or worse.

The entire household was walking on eggshells. Gabriel was launching a new line in just a few short days, and with mounting delays in production came a boss who was on his last nerve, and the slightest inconvenience was seen as tap-dancing all over it.

For once, Nathalie wasn't bearing the brunt of Gabriel's wrath. In fact, it was mere chance that things had worked out as they had.

What was it Theo had called it once? 'Once a Ladybug, always a Ladybug'.

Regardless, apparently her Ladybug luck had all been saved up to use at once. It was Nathalie's only explanation later for how tiny little delays had caused her usual report to Gabriel of his appointments to be a few minutes late. And how, as she was hurrying towards his office, the maid that had been vacuuming suddenly turned the machine off so she could empty it, just in time for her to overhear the yelling coming from his office. Nathalie slowed, simultaneously feeling sorry for whoever was on the other end of Gabriel's latest tantrum and glad that it wasn't her.

The clattering of Gabriel slamming his landline phone down (she knew that he felt that pushing a button on a smartphone just didn't have the same impact behind it) brought her to a halt just a meter away from the office door. Nathalie took a deep breath, then flinched as the soft rumble of the door that Gabriel probably thought was secret in his office vibrated through the soles of her shoes, more felt than heard.

Ugh, that meant that there was going to be an akuma sometime in the next ten to fifteen minutes, and she was going to have to reschedule everything.

Muttering to herself about man-babies and their tantrums, she waited for the rumble to come again, and then counted to ten before carefully peeking in to make sure that the 'hidden' door was shut.

Honestly, half of the household staff knew it was there. And hiding it behind a bookshelf was annoyingly cliché.

Finding the office empty, and needing to drop off some files anyway, Nathalie stepped inside, already mentally working out what would need to be rescheduled depending on how long the akuma lasted and what part of the city it ended up in.

'Need to let the Gorilla know that Adrien will probably be late and not to worry – why is that painting resting like that?'

Nathalie frowned, trying to figure out how the large painting of Mrs. Agreste (wherever she was, probably couldn't take any more of Gabriel's dramatics, although she'd like to give her a solid punch as well for leaving Adrien behind) could look like one side was a few centimeters further from the wall than the other.

Okay, probably because it was.

Already certain that she was probably doing something that Theo would claim he couldn't leave her alone for five minutes for, but also far too curious to leave it alone, Nathalie approached the painting and nudged it open a little further with the back of her hand.

… Oh, come on Gabriel, a safe behind a painting? Was he just trying to tick off all of the items on a supervillain checklist at this point?

And it appeared to have not closed all of the way, the edge of the door a half centimeter or so from being flush with the wall. It was probably what had kept the painting from swinging back to its normal position.

… She should leave. She shouldn't touch the safe, or she should close it completely and get out. She could do the filing later.

A rumble, this one deeper than that caused by the secret door, made the entire mansion tremble. A scant heartbeat later, a roar followed it, probably only a few blocks away (and it was sad that she had gotten good at judging that).

Nathalie was tired of what she should do.

Yanking a handkerchief out of the small purse she kept on her (pockets, who did she have to kill to get pockets in fashionable clothes), Nathalie tugged the safe open.

She wasn't sure what she expected… sensitive documents, maybe? Something she could use against him... but the safe itself wasn't incredibly full. A picture of Mrs. Agreste, a booklet about Tibet, a few files, and…

Nathalie could tell immediately what the flared pin was. Once one has felt the warmth and pull of a Miraculous, it was hard to mistake one for a random piece of jewelry. It called to her, tugging at something deep down that wanted to help, to make things better…

She pulled her hand back from where she had been reaching for it. No, as many things as Gabriel was, he wasn't stupid. If this came up missing, and then someone who heavily resembled his assistant showed up as a new peacock-themed hero, she wouldn't even have the time to kiss her own ass goodbye.

But neither could she leave a Miraculous, or the kwami inside, to whatever Gabriel was planning. She highly doubted that he was just trying to collect the Miraculouses to put them on display.

Using the handkerchief, she picked up the peacock-fan shaped pin, feeling the warmth even through the cloth, but not setting it off without it touching her skin. Another rumble vibrated the mansion, and she used the back of her hand to nudge the safe completely shut, then the painting over it. Carefully, she finished wrapping the pin in the handkerchief, and considered placing it in her purse. No, if Gabriel caught her before she could get it to safety, he would want to search it. Someplace he wouldn't…

It took a few seconds to slip it into her bra and adjust the cloth covered lump so that it wouldn't show through her clothes. Gathering up all of the files she had been intending to leave, Nathalie hurried out of the office, trying to calm her racing heart so as to not draw Hawkmoth's attention.

The last thing she needed was to be akumatized while trying to get it to the Guardian. Akuma were appearing more frequently, and for all she knew, Hawkmoth was growing strong enough to send out two at once now.

The very thought chilled her to the bone.

Typing out a quick email to her boss claiming that she had come down with the stomach flu and had no desire to get the rest of the staff; or Adrien and Gabriel himself; sick and would be taking the rest of the day off, Nathalie took a deep breath and hurried out the back.

At least the Akuma battle would keep Gabriel distracted for a little while.

"… Nathalie, I can't leave you alone for five minutes."

"So you've said, now are you going to meet me at the Guardian's home or not?" Nathalie snapped, waiting for the street to clear out and the battle to move down the road before darting across.

"… You know I've always got your back, Bug." Nathalie nearly choked on her own breath. How long had it been since she had heard those words?

Their last battle, before they had given the Miraculouses back to Master Fu.

"… I know you do, Tomcat. It's why I called," She finally breathed out, pausing in the sheltered entryway to a shop as the current pair were flung overhead and quickly out of sight, soon followed by the Akuma of the day (was that a three-meter-tall Minotaur? Seriously?). "I've got to go, I'll see you at Fu's."

"I'll be there." Nathalie didn't wait for Theo to hang up, instead quickly hitting the End Call button with her thumb before shoving her phone back into her purse and racing for the alley across, stumbling partway as the ground shook again, more violently this time.

She was so getting fired for this, but so long as the Miraculous was placed safely with the Guardian (which would coincidentally give Fu another weapon in his arsenal to aim at Gabriel's smug face), somehow Nathalie couldn't bring herself to care.