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.
"I guess we should head towards where the akuma attack took place then."
~.~.~.~.~
"What do you mean you already ate the camembert!"
Adrien couldn't describe what he was feeling at the moment. Currently he felt a mixture of shame at himself for forgetting Emma, and anger at Plagg for being, well, Plagg. The moment he realized that Emma wasn't with him it was too late as he had already transformed back into Adrien.
He had immediately told Plagg to eat some cheese so they could transform back into Chat and retrieve Emma from a probably not too happy Ladybug, but of course, Plagg being Plagg had already eaten all the cheese he had packed.
The black kwami gave a nonchalant shrug. "I was feeling a little peckish and that camembert was calling my name, you can't blame a guy for having no self-control."
"I can and I will!" Adrien argued. "We were at only school for a couple of minutes before the akuma attack and I packed three rolls of that smelly cheese, yet you ate it at all within that time period!"
Plagg only shrugged again and said, "don't you have more important things to worry about?" He was purposely trying to direct the young teen's attention away from him, and it seemed his plan had worked as Adrien's head shot away from Plagg and stared at the door leading out of the boy's bathroom.
Emma!
How was he supposed to get her back as Adrien?
"I had one job," He groaned, head resting in his hand, "one job. All I had to do was look after a doll, easy right? But what did I do, I went ahead and lost her!"
"Technically you didn't lose her," Plagg commented, "she's with Ladybug."
Adrien shot his kwami a glare, clearly not wanting his input. "I don't know where Ladybug is, hence I don't know where Emma is. If you ask me, this is no different than losing her!" Adrien paused for a moment before his eyes widened with realization. "Oh God, what am I supposed to tell her mother? What will Marinette think of me? My first day with the responsibility of taking care of our daughter and I left her with a stranger!"
Plagg snorted. "Ladybug is hardly a stranger, everybody in Paris knows who she is."
"True," Adrien replied, "but I can't exactly tell Marinette that that her daughter is with Ladybug. Marinette is smart, there's no doubt she would be able to put the pieces together and realize that I'm Chat Noir."
"Well there's no point moping around about it," Plagg stated, "all you can really do now is try to find Ladybug or get me some more camembert."
Adrien sighed in agreeance. "I guess you're right. The best place to look first would be where Ladybug and I battled Dreamtime."
He started to exit the bathroom, but quickly flung himself back inside.
"What's wro-"
"Shhh!" He shushed his kwami before opening the door a crack and peeking out. "What's Marinette doing here?"
Plagg poked his head out from the boy's shirt. Just as Adrien had mentioned, down the hall and facing away from the bathroom was none other than Marinette. She was clearly carrying something, but Adrien couldn't make out what it was. He assumed that she must have forgotten something when evacuating the school during the akuma attack and had probably come back to retrieve it.
Adrien let out a sigh of relief as the dark haired girl made her way down the hallway and eventually turned the corner, leaving him and Plagg alone.
Adrien stepped out from the bathroom. "Marinette is probably heading towards the front doors, so we'll take the back exit.
"That's not very nice," Plagg chided amusingly, "avoiding your fake wife."
Adrien resisted the urge to flick the little pest and began making his way towards the school's back doors, explaining his reasons to the kwami.
"I can't exactly face Marinette at the moment. I'm supposed to be taking care of Emma right now, how am I supposed to explain her absence?"
"I dunno," Plagg shrugged, "tell her you left the doll in the library or something."
"What kind of father leaves his daughter in the library!"
"What kind of father leaves his daughter with another woman?"
Plagg smirked as Adrien let out a sigh.
"I can't argue you on that one."
~.~.~.~.~
"What's Adrien doing here!"
Marinette had been heading towards the school's back exit because it was closer to the spot where her and Chat had battled Dreamtime, but just as she was about to turn around another hallway she caught sight of an all too familiar blonde headed boy.
"I don't understand why we're avoiding him," Tikki commented, poking her head out of Marinette's purse as the girl waited for Adrien to leave the hallway.
"Are you kidding Tikki? How am I supposed to explain this," she waved Chat's Emma in front of the kwami, "to Adrien!"
Marinette went back to the task at hand. She never would have thought that trying to exit her school would be so difficult, it was as though Adrien was around every corner she turned.
"What's up with him!" Marinette finally muttered after hopefully avoiding Adrien's gaze yet again. "It's as though he's everywhere! Why is he even at school right now?"
~.~.~.~.~
"Why is Marinette everywhere!" Adrien silently hissed to himself as he ducked around yet another corner, trying to escape Marinette's view. "Why doesn't she just go home already instead of wandering the halls?"
He turned to take another hallway route which also led to the back doors. He made his way around a couple more corners until the school doors were in sight. Just a little bit further and he would be home free.
This is, until he heard shuffling.
Adrien moved his gaze away from the doors and towards the hallway opposite of him.
For a brief moment wide bluebell eyes locked on with his green ones, each staring back at one another. It was cut short, however, as Adrien flung himself back around the corner he had come from, heart throbbing in his chest. He could have sworn she saw him, but when he dared a peek around the corner Marinette was gone.
Maybe she didn't see him, maybe she was looking at something beside him and missed him altogether. Adrien didn't care, now was his chance. He didn't know if she had left the school or gone down another hallway, but either way he wasn't letting this chance pass him by.
It was now or never.
Gathering all his strength, Adrien pushed himself down the hall in a full out sprint towards the exit. In an instant he was out the doors and racing across the school yard towards the streets where the akuma battle was fought.
Adrien spared a glance behind him to make sure that Marinette wasn't on his tail, but in that brief moment when his attention was behind him, Adrien ended up colliding into something, or rather, someone. Whoever it was he rammed into, they let out a startled squeak
Adrien scratched the back of his head, a light blush of embarrassment tinting his cheeks as he kept his gaze focused on the ground. "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going."
"No, that's ok, neither was I."
Adrien's eyes widened; he recognized that voice. He shot his head up only to find himself staring at the one person he didn't want to see at the moment, her name escaping his lips.
"Marinette!"
His eyes traveled lower to where her arms were.
"...and Emma?"
~.~.~.~.~
Sorry there wasn't a chapter last week, I was a little busy arranging a surprise birthday party for my friend.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this update!