"... and I know because I have the very same one...!"

"... you're that girl who runs that blog about me, right? The... Ladyblog...!"

"... Chat Noir and I are a great team..."

We all keep watching for a while. Nino seems to admittedly be growing quite bored. Marinette seems slightly nervous. Alya seems to be reassessing her info about Ladybug. And Adrien...

Well...

Adrien is watching with shockingly close attention, a dumb grin on his face. He likes Ladybug, I'm convinced of it. He is Chat Noir, after all. No wonder he always flirts like crazy with her when he has the chance.

The next video, a more recent one, starts up. "And Ladybug and Chat Noir have saved Paris from the akuma once again! Ladybug, Ladybug!" Alya calls.

Ladybug notices her and smiles, her and Chat Noir dropping down. "Oh, Bugaboo's friend!" Chat Noir smiles, making me groan. "If I hear Bugaboo one more time I think I'll barf."

Adrien deliberately leans closer to me. "Bugaboo," he whispers in my ear. I make a big show of swelling my cheeks up and rushing to the bathroom, making the others laugh.

I decide to use this as a chance to actually use the bathroom - we've watched, like, 27 videos, okay? - but when I leave again, everyone's staring at me, the videos paused.

"I didn't actually throw up, just had to use the bathroom," I clarify, confused. "That's... not it," Alya shakes her head. "Adrien, play it back for her."

Adrien gets up and replays the video. I sit back down, wondering if they found something.

"Oh, Bugaboo's friend!" Chat Noir says again, making me sigh. "Good to see you, Alya," Ladybug winks to the budding reporter. "Ladybug, can you tell me and my viewers more about the akuma?" Alya asks hopefully.

After a minute of two of Ladybug and Chat Noir explaining a fight with an akuma, Chat's ring and Ladybug's earrings start to beep and flash. "Oh, you're running out of time!" Alya realises.

"Yeah, we should go," Chat nods, frowning as he looks around for where they could go. "Thank you both so much for talking with me!" Alya grins. "No problem, Alya!" Ladybug smiles, then throws her yo-yo. "Bug out!"

Then Chat Noir swings off as well, but you can just about hear him say; "Stop off at Esme's?" before the video comes to a close.

Everyone turns back to me. I don't know whether to be nervous or not. I mean, they've all been there before. I guess they couldn't have brought it up in civilian form so they wanted me to say it myself. But now it's out in the open anyway...

"Okay, you caught me. We can go up there and see if anyone will agree to do an interview or something, but you can't let it get out that that's my house and you can't try to squeal on anyone's identities, got it?"

Everyone immediately agrees, as I knew they would. "Cool, now what can we do here?" I ask. "Might as well not waste our time."

"We can write and record an intro about our project, why we chose it and all that stuff?" Alya suggests. "Sounds good to me!" Nino nods. Marinette then assigns parts of it for each of us to do and we get started on writing it all down. This project will be easier than I thought. And it's admittedly quite fun to hang around the others, even if they're not in their masks and hero attire. I guess I just enjoy having company.

I notice Marinette is slowly starting to inch closer, so I move my bag to my other side so she can't reach it. Again?! Seriously, what's this girl's obsession with my bag?! I check inside to see if there's any reason she'd need to go in there. Phone, keys, lip balm, a little money, compact, headphones, sanitary products... nope, can't see anything out of the ordinary or that would interest Marinette aside from the money. Is she really that desperate for cash?

I sigh and slide it over. "Just take it," I whisper, fed up of her now. "That's all I have, just stop being a creep about it. Jeez." Her eyes widen and she immediately tries to give it back. "No, I'm not trying to take your money! I wouldn't steal!"

"What is it, then? My phone?"

"No!"

"What, then?"

She clearly has no idea what to do anymore. She glanced around at the others nervously. The only one who seems to have heard us is Alya, but she quickly acts oblivious.

I catch a certain red bug-like creature escape Marinette's bag and pick up the money, trying to secretly return it. I quickly pull Adrien's bedsheets down a little until the end touches the floor, then gently hide Tikki under there so she isn't spotted. Marinette doesn't notice what I just did, let alone Alya, so I think I safely kept her hidden. That's good, as much as I dislike Marinette right now I can't just reveal Tikki like that.

"Thanks, Esme!" I hear Tikki whisper. "No problem, just hide!" I whisper back. I feel her hide in my bag. I watch her as she sets the money down and is about to return to Marinette when the door opens and Natalie walks in. "Adrien, your father would like to see you for dinner."

"Okay, Natalie!" Adrien smiles. "Come on, guys!" He gets up and heads to the door, but Natalie stops him. "I'm afraid he asked that your friends leave now. You have piano practice after dinner."

"What? But- Natalie-!"

"I'll drop your friends home if they want, Adrien. But your father is adamant that they must leave."

"Hey, no sweat, dude," Nino assures Adrien. "Just make sure you finish your script!" "Yeah, it's all fine," Alya assures. "Come on, guys. Let's get going."

I glance down at Tikki, who's still in my bag, as I get up. "Don't worry, I'll get you back to Marinette," I assure her quietly. "Just stay hidden for now."