By 'painting our faces' he meant by putting on ridiculous costumes and caking on makeup until it felt like my face was going to fall off.

"There, no one will even recognise us now!" he chirped happily in his mouse onesie and mask. "See, I'm a mouse- completely opposite of the majestic black cat. Chat Noir? Don't know him- call me le Petite Souris [AN: it's french for 'Little Mouse']... Cute, and harmless." I shook my head at his antics as I stood in my own outfit (which was ironically a black cat. When I asked him about it he had responded with, "Well, Ladybugs are known to be good luck, and black cats aren't, so you're a cat." When I had tried to respond that according to his logic, he'd be a ladybug, he had shushed me and pushed me into the bathroom stall with the outfit.)

"Okay, Petite Souris, how are we even going to get through the wall? Huh, genius?"

He gives me a Cheshire grin, worthy of his usual title of 'cat', and rummages around in his pockets before pulling up a charm identical to the one Chloe had around her neck. "This cat seems to have sticky paws... I may or may not have snatched some shiny jewels from one of our classmates..."

Beaming at him, I took it from him and held it in my hands, it was so small and fragile- but if our theory was correct then it would hold the key to this mission, it would hold the key to defeating Hawkmoth and going back home to HQ.

My mind faltered as I thought about returning back to HQ, there would be no more goofing around with Chat Noir, no more school, no more casual friends like Alya or Nino. It would just be work and work and work.

Unconsciously my hand clenched around the charm and I had to stop myself from stomping on it and breaking it right then and there, I really did not want to go back to the stoic work that used to plague my days.

"Hey, Chat?" I whispered at him as he hid his blond hair under a hood. He turned to look at me, his eyes shone in the light to show off their brilliant emerald hue. "Are you going to miss all of this... once we go back to work?"

His face darkens and he walks towards me, "I will miss every minute of this, of being your friend, of hearing your voice, even getting to hold you in my arms." He looks away for a second before looking back at me, straight into my blue eyes, "Marinette, to be honest- I really don't want this to end, but you know how it is," he gives me a pained grimace, "you know how it is. We have to follow Protocol: WAIT."

"No patience in war, so we're WAIT, Worldly protection, Anonymous association, Information gathering, Threat eliminator. 'There's no ME in WAIT.'" I said back to him, remembering the motto we had drilled into our heads since we first had begun training as children. Miraculous Inc was just one branch in WAIT's widespread reach, I'm not sure about any of the other branches, we had anonymous in there for a reason, all I knew was that Miraculous took care of some of the worst physical threats out there such as corrupt politicians, or in Hawkmoth's case, runaway agents. I didn't know too much about WAIT, but I happen to overhear (more like eavesdrop) that there was also a branch that handled technological events such as hackers, and a science branch that deals with bioengineered illnesses.

I'm pretty sure Miraculous was the coolest branch though.

Although, right now I wasn't feeling too lucky.

I put on my animal mask and gave him a smile that I had perfected over the years. "I know, as much as they value our happiness, it is never worth compromising identities or putting lives in danger by disrupting work."

His hand smudged against my cheekbone in such a way that it was making my chest scream out in loneliness when his hand moved away. "That's right, Princess, happiness is never attainable when work needs to be done. And right now, we've got to work harder than ever before.

"It's time we go into the beast's lair and be the knights in shining armour we've been raised to be," his eyes burned into mine, "and slay the dragon."

-=-

Aye finally some plot!!

How did you ladies/gents enjoy it?

See you next week!

-SecretsInMyHead