Parenting Assignment (Miraculous Ladybug)

Chapter 6

Marinette was having a panic attack inside the stall of the girl's washroom. Hands gripping her already messy hair, she stood there with trembling knees until she finally collapsed onto the toilet, unable to hold herself up anymore.

Tikki was attempting to comfort her, but Marinette's mind was elsewhere.

She had Chat's Emma!

Her partner would eventually realize that his daughter was missing and go back looking for her. There was no way she could let him see her, Marinette, with his baby. Chat was oblivious to a lot of things, but he couldn't possibly be so blind as to not put the obvious pieces together and realize that she was Ladybug.

"Calm down Marinette," Tikki attempted to reassure the trembling teen, "everything will be okay. Just take deep breaths until you can finally think straight."

"R-right," Marinette replied, "deep breaths."

She proceeded to inhale a large gulp of air, then exhale a long and shaky breath. In, out, in, out. She repeated the breathing until her heart slowed its pace and she could no longer feel it hammering against her chest. With each breath her mind slowly cleared, just as Tikki had said, allowing her to think logically.

"That's right!" Marinette suddenly jumped up, startling her kwami. She knocked on her own head a couple of times in a silly gesture. "How could I be so stupid, obviously I can just turn back into Ladybug and return Emma to Chat like that."

She held up her purse and proceeded to stick her hand inside of it. "Typical Marinette," she mumbled to herself with a smile as she did so, "always being so forgetful."

"Umm, actually, Marinette..." Tikki trailed off, there wasn't any need to continue as the look on the girl's face showed that she already discovered what her kwami was about to mention.

Marinette's eyes went wide again as she rummaged her hand around her little purse frantically, as though there was some sort of secret compartment that she didn't know about. When that produced no results she held the purse upside down in front of her, shaking it violently, but nothing came out.

Tikki flew to her side and put a consoling hand on her shoulder. "We were both so tired this morning that neither of us remembered to pack any cookies." Realizing that her statement didn't do anything for helping Marinette feel any better she added, "oh, but don't worry, it's not the end of the world. You're Ladybug, you can figure out something!"

"What if..." Marinette started talking to herself, "what if I just leave Emma on a bench near the building we fought Dreamtime. That way when Chat goes back to look for her, she'll be right there."

"Marinette!" Tikki scolded. "You can't do that!"

Marinette groaned in reply. "What's wrong with my idea?"

"You can't just leave someone else's baby on a bench!"

"It's just a doll," Marinette reminded the kwami.

"Yes," Tikki said, "but what if she wasn't a doll? What if she was a real baby, would you still just leave her on a bench for her parents to find her?"

Marinette gave a long and annoyed sigh. "Noooooo..."

Tikki nodded approvingly. "You should go and try to return Emma to Chat properly. You can always tell him that you found her. Just make something up."

Marinette groaned and peeked her head out from the bathroom, but the gesture was unneeded as the hallways were already empty. School had been cancelled due to the akuma attack so everybody had already gone home.