Alright, let's get on with it!

This chapter is... possibly a bit confusing, because it does a couple of time skips. It starts off at lunchtime in Paris, then goes to the evening in Monaco, and back to just after lunch in Paris.

That aside, recap!

- Plagg got stuck in a box (and Tikki joined him)

- Plagg knows about the crushes situation and thinks it's hilarious

- The kwamis are now in Monaco

What next? Who knows? I do, and you will in a few minutes!

Chapter 3 - Freak Out

Marinette eventually did find that her purse was in fact completely empty, but immediately thought that Tikki had decided to stay home for the morning, which she had done a couple of times in the past, and promised herself to check on her when she went back for lunch. So when she went up to her room, she was surprised to not receive a greeting of some form as soon as she climbed through the trapdoor. "Tikki?" Marinette called out, completely oblivious to where the kwami actually was. "Where are you?"

Marinette spent the next five minutes looking around her room for Tikki, the search slowly getting more thorough as time went by. But after checking on her balcony and having no luck, she started to panic. "Oh no, oh no…" she squeaked, lying back on her bed and staring up at the balcony hatch. "What- what if there's an akuma attack today? How do I tell Cat Noir… or do I tell him? And…" Marinette looked to the wall, yelping as she remembered something else, "and there's the short film competition, and what if Adrien's in my group? I'd need Alya's help!" she cried. "Ugh, what if I'm in a group with Chloe?" She pulled a face at the thought, then groaning and rolling over.

"Marinette, lunch!" her mother called from downstairs.

Looking to the open trapdoor, Marinette sighed and sat up, slowly edging herself towards the foot of her bed. "Tikki might have… gone out for some fresh air…" she muttered, looking back to the hatch in thought.

"Plagg!" Adrien yelled from the second storey of his bedroom, where he could see every inch of the room. "Come on, really no time for sleeping!"

Earlier that morning, Adrien had tried to look for Plagg at Nino's house, but it was hard with Nino and his brothers constantly going to and from their bedrooms and downstairs. So at that point, he'd only presumed that Plagg had gone back home, possibly being closer to it once the snowstorm hit, and went to school as per usual. Arriving home just ten minutes ago, Adrien had spent the entire time looking all through his bedroom, with it so far being totally fruitless.

After checking the bathroom twice over, Adrien sighed as he stared helplessly out the window, trying to think of all other places where Plagg could possibly be. "Maybe he… found cheese somewhere else… and fell asleep wherever that is…" he said slowly, trying to think of more positive things. "Hey, the short film competition starts this afternoon," he remarked, looking over his shoulder for what seemed to him was no reason at all. "Uh… maybe Plagg will be back tonight."

But of course, both Tikki and Plagg were very far away from Paris.

"…huge crash has occurred just short of the Rue Grimaldi and Rue Suffren Reymond intersection…"

Plagg groaned quietly as he heard those words on the radio, then phasing back into the box. "Okay, soooo there was a car crash," he explained to Tikki, who nodded.

"So that's why the van's… not moving," she said, popping out of the box herself to listen in on the radio, but the traffic announcement had just finished, and an ad was playing. "Never mind…" she muttered as she phased back inside. "Well we… can't exactly just stay here the whole time."

"No duh," Plagg scoffed in reply, leaning back. "And it's mostly dark, so no problem in getting out." And without warning, he immediately phased out of the box and out of the van, zooming over to the nearest building.

"But why now?" Tikki asked, waiting for a few seconds before realizing that Plagg had gone. "Plagg!" she called, phasing out into the open. "Where did he go?" She flew down the street, stopping outside what appeared to be a cheese shop and peering inside through the window. "No…" she muttered, sighing as she zoomed across the street, stopping briefly to listen to the Christmas music blaring out of the small gift shop there. "Oh, my favourite thing about Christmas…" she said, giggling as she twirled to the beat. "I've got no time to listen, I need to find Plagg." Tikki quickly had a look inside the shop before flying up above the buildings to get a better view.

Meanwhile, Plagg had strayed further away, and was heading towards a building with lots of bright lights and interesting sounds coming from inside. As he entered, he flew up high to look around, spotting slot machines situated all around the room. "Oh boy, a casino," he remarked quietly, looking towards the doorway to the next room. "Do they have cheese in this place?" he wondered, flying back down and through the doorway.

After zipping in and out of room after room, and almost getting spotted by several people, Plagg eventually found a restaurant, and slipped along the side to the kitchen, where he almost immediately caught a whiff of sweet, sweet camembert. "That's more like it…" he mumbled with a dreamy sigh as he floated in, yet having to quickly duck under a bench as a kitchen hand entered, coming back out a few seconds later. "Now where is it?" Plagg zoomed out and phased into an empty pot, poking his head out and looking around for where the cheese could be. "Too many people in here," he grumbled as he phased back out, hiding behind and phasing into several pots, pans and containers, until he got to what appeared to be a rubbish bin. And lo and behold, there was a perfectly good round of camembert sitting on the top. "Oh, yes," he declared, flying over and grabbing the cheese, taking a bite out of it and sitting on the edge of the bin.

"Mouse! In the back bin!" someone shouted, prompting Plagg to look up in disgust.

"I am not a mouse," he muttered under his breath, zooming up to the roof and flying along the edge of it.

"Where'd it go?" another person shrieked.

Briefly looking down, Plagg shrugged as he went back through to the main dining room, taking to the walls as he ducked through all the rooms and exited the casino. "Phew…" he breathed, looking back. "Hey, where'd TIkki go?"

"There you are!"

"Huh?" Plagg looked up to see Tikki sitting on a ledge, two cookies sitting next to her. "Oh, yeah, I'm here," he said with a chuckle. "Got cheese though, thank goodness." He flew up to sit on the ledge, on the other side of TIkki's cookies. "I see you got food too."

"Well, there was an unmanned bakery, and these had been left at a table by someone," Tikki said, gesturing to the cookies. "And I just… couldn't resist!" She giggled, then grabbing a cookie and taking a bite of it. "I wonder how Marinette's doing.

"And… done!" Marinette declared as she pinned up the last of eight Christmas garlands across the front of Chloe and Sabrina's desk, then stepping back to look at the desks, each of them with a garland across the front and a mini Christmas tree standing in the middle, and one for Mrs Bustier's desk as well. "That looks so cool!" she exclaimed, squealing. "I'm so glad Mr Damocles let us do this!"

"I know, nice one!" Alya said from next to her as the girls high-fived each other. "Oh, just in time, everyone else is back."

Marinette bolted back to her seat, just as the door opened and the rest of her classmates started filing in, some aweing at the new decorations.

Though lunch was more than stressful, Marinette had momentarily forgotten about Tikki going AWOL, and went back to school ten minutes early to set up the decorations with Alya. But since the rest of the class got back, it was time to announce groups for the short film competition.

Miss Bustier dug her hand into the small jar of names, pulling out two at once, then grabbing a third and putting the three slips of paper on the table. "Our first group is Nino, Rose and Sabrina!" she announced, then writing the names on the board.

"Ugh, come on," Marinette could hear Chloe mutter, and giggled slightly.

"And our second group…" Miss Bustier began, pulling another three names out, but dropping two of them on the floor, "whoops… uh, Marinette," she continued, then bending down to pick up the the other two. "Adrien…"

Marinette clapped her hands over her mouth and squealed quietly. She was in Adrien's group. Adrien's group! She felt as if she was on cloud nine… until Miss Bustier got back up.

"And Chloe!"

Oh.

Oh boy, here we go. Things are gonna happen... heh.

Thanks for reading, and until next time!