Parenting Assignment (Miraculous Ladybug)

Chapter 9

With one final shiver, he managed to get the rest of the camembert down his throat, letting out a shuddered sigh of relief before running back into the store to buy a bottle of water and down the entire thing in one sitting.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Marinette asked again once he was finished. Adrien only nodded in reply, not wanting to torture Marinette with his horrible camembert breath.

He stuffed the remainder of the roll of camembert in his pocket. "I'll save the rest for later," he muttered.

"Well, now that we're both full we should probably get back to searching for Emma." Marinette said.

Her comment jolted Adrien back to reality, forgetting his upset stomach and nodding. 

"We haven't had much luck looking for her, maybe we should split up."

Marinette laughed. "It's like you just read my mind. I'll, uh, go this way." She pointed to her left.

"Right, then I'll go in the opposite direction." Adrien said.

The two headed off in their respective directions saying they would call one another if they found her, and each of them turned off onto either side of the store.

Marinette opened her purse. "Ok Tikki, it's time to transform and finally give Chat his Emma back."

"Wait, but Mari-" The little kwami didn't have the chance to finish her sentence before Marinette transformed.

Ladybug took out her yo-yo and dialed Chat who answered after the first ring.

"I was just about to call you, My Lady, I assume this is about Emma."

"Right, you need to take her off my hands quickly, she's been nothing but a pain." As she spoke, Ladybug leapt onto the balcony of the store and then onto the roof. "I'm at-"

She paused when Chat jumped onto the roof just moments after her, his face looking as surprised as she was. His shock, however, quickly turned into a grin.

"This must be fate, us both happening to be at the same place at the same time."

Ladybug ignored his comment and continued. "I'm busy at the moment, so take Emma quickly."

There was silence for a couple of seconds as Chat looked around. 

"So, where is she?"

"What do you mean whe-" Ladybug stopped mid sentence and smacked her face, suddenly realizing what Tikki had been trying to tell her before transforming. She forgot Emma with Adrien!

"Sorry Chat, I forgot her with somebody else."

Chat jumped back, fear on his face. "You left her with a stranger, what if they try to steal her, or harm her, or-"

"Calm down," Ladybug cut him off with a roll of her eyes, "that person won't do anything to hurt your doll."

A little giggle sounded from behind her partner and Ladybug moved a little to the side to peer behind him. She hadn't noticed before but he was wearing a baby carrier with a doll inside.

She pointed to the doll, saying nothing but with confusion written all over her face.

Chat looked behind him where Louis was attached to his back. The baby had been fairly quiet recently so he hadn't noticed that he was still carrying her when he split up from Marinette.

"I'm just taking care of my friend's baby for a bit," then he added with a smirk, "I hope you're not jealous."

"I just thought that it was weird that you're taking care of someone else's baby when you can't even seem to take care of your own."

Chat clutched his heart with mock hurt. "Your words are like knives, My Lady, but apparently you can't seem to take care of my baby either."

She sighed. "Whatever, I'm going to call the person with your Emma and tell her to wait in front of the store."

"Right, then I'll have my partner for the project pick her up."

Normally the two would be more careful with their identities, but they had both had long days and knew using the excuse of having other people pick up and drop off the doll would ensure that their identities weren't discovered by one another.

The two jumped back down to their sides of the store and de-transformed. Marinette turned around the corner to wait but stopped as soon as she saw the person who walked out from around the other side of the store.

"Adrien?"

He looked up after hearing his name, green eyes filled with confusion.

"Marinette? What are you still doing here?" 

"I found Louis' owner, we planned to meet here."

"What a coincidence!" Adrien exclaimed, "I found the person who has Emma and we're also meeting here."

Marinette laughed. "Wow, that really is a coincidence. Do you...do you want to wait together?"

She looked up at him with a slight blush.

"Sure," Adrien nodded.

The two sat down on a bench in front of the store together to wait.

~.~.~.~.~

The sun was starting to set as the two teenagers continued to sit on the bench, talking about random topics as they waited.

"This isn't even funny anymore, it's just plain aggravating now!" Plagg hissed from around the corner of the store. "I've never seen any human so oblivious before in all my life, which is quite a long one may I add."

"Really?" Tikki piqued in from beside him. "I think it's kind of cute."

Plagg grumbled as he watched Marinette check her phone for about the millionth time and comment on how late the owner of Louis was.

"Watching them suffer used to be hilarious, but they ruined it for me, ruined it!" He glared at them for a couple more seconds and smirked. "I'm gonna tell them."

"Don't you dare!" Tikki had to grab onto his tail as he started to make his way towards the two idiots. "You have to let them figure it out on their own."

Plagg grumbled at her statement. "And how long will that take? Months? Years? Decades? At this point I'm willing to give up camembert just to finally have them figure it out!" He paused to reconsider his statement. "Ok, so maybe not camembert, but I would willingly give up cheddar!"

Tikki smiled. "They'll take however long they need."

~.~.~.~.~

I apologize profusely for such a long waiting time for this chapter to come out. School and work and life just got in the way, but exam period has started now so I have around a month of no school until the next term starts up again, giving me plenty of time to write!

On another note, who else here is super pumped for the Christmas special of Miraculous Ladybug! I already know I'm gonna spend the entire day of the 11th sitting at my computer refreshing the page until the subbed episode is released.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!