Adrien doesn't understand. It's been a week since LadyBug wanted to post Nooroo, the final episode of The Adventures of Tikki and Plagg. He messaged her, to tell her that he won't be going back onto Miraculous. Surely, by now, she would have gone onto Miraculous and realised he, too, is not coming back.

If her school is anything like his, it would be impossible for her not to know that Nooroo hadn't been posted. Alya in particular has been ranting about nothing else since Tracker was uploaded.

He's so consumed by his thoughts that he doesn't hear the bell ringing to signal the end of the day.

"Dude, that's the bell."

"Right," Adrien says. Nino sighs, used to Adrien zoning out this week, and stands up.

"Sorry, dude, I've got to go pick up my brother," Nino says. "See you!"

"See you," Adrien says, but by the time the words are out of his mouth, Nino's already left. He sighs, slings his bag onto his shoulder, and promptly trips on the bottom step.

"You're kidding," he groans in annoyance as his possessions skid across the floor. His books are in a fan around him, and his pencil case is halfway across the room.

"Do you want some help?"

Adrien turns. Marinette is standing behind him, looking at the stuff all over the floor. Adrien sighs.

"Nah, I'm okay, thanks."

Marinette hesitates, as though preparing to help him anyway, but Adrien just waves a hand and begins to collect his books himself. It's his own fault anyway, for not paying attention. He can think about LadyBug when he's at home, instead of zoning out in class.

It takes him several minutes to locate his phone, which has disappeared under the teacher's desk, be finally finds all his stuff, and shrugs the bag back onto his shoulder. The only people left in the room are Juleka and Rose, who are talking about something in the back row. He sighs to himself, and leaves the room.

Adrien is almost scared out of his skin when someone puts a hand on his shoulder. He turns, and sees Luka standing there.

"Curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back."

Adrien frowns.

"What are you...?"

Luka doesn't reply as Juleka exits the room, and the two siblings leave together. Adrien stares after him, confused.

Why is everything so confusing? First LadyBug, who isn't posting the final episode, now Luka...

Hold on. Doesn't Luka know LadyBug?

Adrien races down the corridor, and taking the stairs two at a time. But by the time he gets down, both siblings already leaving the school and he can't talk to Luka.

He wasn't sure what he wanted to ask him anyway.

Gorilla is waiting in the car outside, and Adrien pulls open the door. He throws his bag onto the other seat, and clicks his seatbelt in. He isn't watching their surroundings as he's driven home.

He's just thinking about that incredibly cryptic sentence.

"Curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back."

He doesn't even know where to start. He can't think of a single reason that Luka would wait until he was on his own, and tell him this one sentence.

It's a short trip home, and before Adrien knows it, he's heading back upstairs to his room. He sits on his bed, thinking and frowning.

"Curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back."

He can't think of anything. So he sits down on his laptop, and opens his History essay.

Then he remembers the book he's using is the one he found when Luka found out he was ChatNoir.

He groans, and switches to Maths.

Luka was helping LadyBug with her Maths homework.

Adrien huffs.

"This is psychological harassment!"

It's slightly reassuring that no one replies. He can't help wishing he had Luka's phone number, so he could call him and demand answers.

Or write an overly polite text message.

Who does he know who has Luka's number?

No, he can't ask any of his classmates. There's no plausible explanation he could give anymore for spontaneously wanting Luka Couffaine's phone number without admitting he's ChatNoir.

The only way he could think of to contact Luka is by messaging Viperion on Miraculous, which defeats the purpose. He doesn't want to open Miraculous.

Adrien stands up, and starts to pace. His father used to do it whenever he got frustrated, and so Adrien used to loathe the habit.

Now, he's thinking slightly better of it.

The only option he can think of is reopening Miraculous, which he does not want to do.

"Curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back."

Luka knows he's ChatNoir. This seems like a good place to start, considering that strange sentence is based around a cat.

"Curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back."

Curiosity killed the cat. The only way to contact Luka is via Miraculous. If he's the cat, his curiosity would lead him to Miraculous, thus creating self-sabotage.

Okay, the first part lines up. Luka's referencing how Adrien's refusal to open Miraculous will be sabotaged by his curiosity.

"Curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back."

Satisfaction brought it back.

Does that mean that, if his curiosity does drive him to reopen Miraculous, it will be worth the self-sabotage? That he won't regret it?

His first thought is an obvious no. No, this is too complicated. Why would Luka know that he'd chosen to leave Miraculous for good?

Was this just a ploy to get him to post the final episode?

Adrien may not be Luka's best friend, but he knows him well enough to know that there's no way he'd use this knowledge to play a dirty trick and get the final episode.

Does that mean... could Luka be right? Could something on Miraculous be worth reopening it?

He glances at his phone. He'd uninstalled Miraculous. He doesn't know whether he's got any notifications.

Could he open Miraculous if LadyBug isn't going to be there?

He sighs heavily, opens the web browser, and opens Miraculous.

It takes several seconds to boot up, and makes him log in again.

Username:

Password:

Of course this is the one time it makes him log in, when he's trying to pretend he isn't opening it.

He sighs, types in the information, and it opens to his account. Sure enough, he's got a message from LadyBug.

Adrien didn't think he would be so glad to reopen Miraculous, to listen to Luka. He uploads Nooroo with a beam, rereads LadyBug's message, and closes Miraculous with a smile.

LadyBug: omg chat no, you've got the wrong end of the stick! i never intended to leave miraculous after we finished tp. i wouldn't abandon you like that, you mean so much to me. when you read this message, can you please upload nooroo for me? and then i invite you to meet me at the front left foot of Eiffel Tower at 3:30 pm the day AFTER you upload it. can't wait to meet you, chaton xx

[A/N: I apologise for the month-long delay between ending chapters, but I can't find the last one!! I'm going to go through my files for the 50 millionth time, pls continue being patient 😭😭]