Natalie leads us all out of the mansion and back to the limo. Marinette gets in first, not seeming to realise yet that Tikki's missing. I'm about to step forward to get in beside her, but Alya suddenly pushes between us and gets in. Nino shrugs and follows her. Shoot, getting Tikki back while right next to Marinette would've been a challenge enough, but this'll be impossible.

"Thank you, but I think I'll just walk home," I smile to Natalie, a backup plan quickly forming in my head. She nods and gets in the car. "Bye, guys," I smile to the others. Nino waves obliviously, Alya looks concerned and Marinette looks guilty.

The door shut and the limo pulled off. Tikki pokes her head out of my bag. "Esme, I need to get back!" "I know, but there's no way you could've got back to Marinette without someone seeing you," I reason. "We'll just walk to her place, it's on my way home anyway."

"Why didn't you take the limo ride, then?" She asked me curiously. "Because getting out at Marinette's place would've seemed weird and Alya's clearly already suspicious," I explain. "She'd know something's up and something tells me she doesn't know Ladybug's identity."

"I-Uh... Marinette... she's not my chosen, she's... she just wanted to take me back to Ladybug, like you are right now!"

I chuckle. "Relax, Tikki, I've known for a while now," I assure her. "The secret's safe with me. It has been for a while now. I wasn't kidding when I said I knew a lot of the heroes' identities."

"Really? You've known all this time?"

"It's not that hard to work out, Tikki," I chuckle. "Pass me my phone, I'll show you."

She takes my phone out of my bag and I turn it on, then flick through some photos. "Here! See? This one's Marinette... and this one's Ladybug! Tell me they don't look exactly the same except for different clothes!"

Tikki cocks her head. "Huh... I guess it is kinda like they're twins... how have people not noticed before?"

"My theory's that that time when Alix got akumatised there was a Ladybug and a Marinette in the same place at the same time," I explain. "Since then people have ruled it out. What happened there, by the way?"

"Oh, it was time travel!" Tikki answers. "Huh, cool," I smile, then we stop outside the Dupain-Cheng's bakery. "I'll place an order to keep her parents distracted while you sneak up to Marinette. If you get caught, pretend to be a doll or something and I'll say I have babysitting later, okay?"

"Got it!" Tikki smiles. "But... please don't be mad at Marinette, Esme. She wasn't trying to take your stuff, I promise. I think she wants to keep it a surprise, so I can't tell you, but I promise it's nothing bad. She's not going to take anything."

"Sorry, Tikki, but I don't think I can believe that right now," I sigh, shaking my head. "Come on, let's get you back to Marinette before she realises you're missing and freaks out."

I walk into the bakery, smiling when I see Marinette's parents. Her parents are so sweet and funny, they don't even judge when I buy loads of food from them every week to restock for the heroes. As far as they're concerned, I donate it all to 'worthy causes'. This counts as a worthy cause, right?

"Oh, there's our best customer!" Mrs Dupain-Cheng chirps when she sees me. "What can we do for you today, Esme?"

"Just the usual please, Mrs Dupain-Cheng," I grin. "Your hair looks nice today, by the way." "Oh, thank you! You're such a sweet girl!" Mrs Dupain-Cheng smiles, quickly getting my order ready. It's quite a large one compared to others, so Mr Dupain helps out, effectively distracting them both. "Now!" I whisper to Tikki, who nods and flies upstairs to find Marinette.

"Did you say something, dear?" Mrs Dupain-Cheng asks me. "Sorry, just thinking out loud," I chuckle sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck. "We've got a big project to do in school. I'm actually in Marinette's group."

"Oh, isn't that lovely?" Mrs Dupain-Cheng grins from ear to ear. "Do you and Marinette get on well in school? I hear she's at your house a lot to get homework done with you!"

"Yeah, she's a big help!" I smile, not technically lying. She did help out the other night. "I never would've gotten the homework the other day without her."

"That's our Marinette, alright!" Mr Dupain chuckles with more than a hint of pride about his daughter. It's so sweet how they care so much about Marinette.

They both bag up my order for me and hand it over. "Here you go, Esme. Have a nice day!" "Thank you!" I smile, handing over the money. They wave me out, completely oblivious that I snuck Tikki in with startling ease.

I notice a flash of pink from the balcony, then Ladybug swings off with her yo-yo. I sigh in relief that everything went well and start walking home.

After arriving, I head to my room, freezing when I catch all the heroes rushing away. "She's gonna love this!" I hear them whispering. "It's perfect, Ladybug!" "Let's go before she catches us!"

I see even Queen Bee tagging along, trying to bring my homework with her. I clear my throat as I catch her arm, all of them staring at me as they've been caught.

"What's going on?" I ask, snatching my homework back from Queen Bee. "Are you seriously stealing my stuff?!"

"Chloé!" Chat Noir gasps. Clearly none of them knew she'd taken anything, because they all had the same kind of reaction. "Whatever! She's such a brat to me anyway!" Chloé huffs. "Says the one stealing my stuff!" I snap, pushing her away. "You can get the hell out of my house! I've had it with you, Chloé!"

"It's Queen Bee to you!" Chloé hisses. "And gladly! I wouldn't wanna stay a minute more in a dump like this!" She deliberately pushes a vase over on her way out, but Viperion catches it and safely sets it back down.

"Look, while you're all here, I just wanna let you know that I'm doing a group project about superheroes," I say. "A few people from my class are gonna come over, I'll let them in one or two at a time so it's not absolutely crazy."

And so I can get all the heroes in our presentation.

"I'll put a warning on the balcony when they're here, but is there any chance of getting a quick interview or something with you guys for our presentation? There won't be personal questions, I'll make sure they don't ask anything like that."

To my surprise and relief, everyone agrees to stop by at some point. I smile slightly, glad I got their help. "Thank you. Right, I'm gonna set my stuff down and finish my part of the script. See you guys in a bit."

They all head back upstairs while I go in my room, setting all my bags down.

I then notice a black, hexagonal box on my desk.