Chapter Text
Alya and Nino were walking along the pier over the river, having just collected some of Andre’s ice cream.
“So, what was up with Marinette today? Dudette was acting even more spacey than usual,” Nino asked.
“Girl’s just going through some things. I think it started around the same time as the Miracle Queen akuma.”
The two walk in silence for a moment, worried about their friend, until they both looked up and gasped at the same time. To their bewilderment, they watched as Marinette laid flat on her back with her arms and legs spread out as over a dozen kwamis lifted her through the air, ascending to the heavens.
“What the heck is in this ice cream?” Alya exclaimed.
“You make my heart flutter faster than a hummingbird’s wings. I always feel like I’m swimming in clouds whenever I just think about you. And being in your presence? I don’t know how a black cat could possibly be thought of as unlucky,” Chat Noir said, making Ladybug smile.
“I will never understand how you can so easily say stuff like that.”
“I’m speaking from my personal truth! And my truth is telling me again and again that the person in front of me is the most amazing, brave, beautiful, and charismatic person I’ve ever met.”
Ladybug couldn’t hold it in any longer, and she burst out laughing, falling to the ground and clutching her sides. Chat Noir turned away from admiring his reflection in the window to look at his partner roll around the street while cackling.
“What can I say, m’lady? Even I can tell that I’m the cat’s meow,” Chat says, trying to sound defensive but failing when he starts laughing, too.
Kagami felt someone poke her face, but she kept her eyes shut, wanting to chase after the sleep she had just been pulled from. However, when her cheek is poked again, she sighs in resignation. Reaching for her phone on the floor next to her, she turns in her sleeping bag and points the phone’s flashlight up. Looming over her were Adrien and Marinette under white bed sheets.
“Wooooooooo!” Adrien wailed, sounding like a cartoonish ghost.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re ghooooooosts!” Marinette answered, waving her arms from under the sheet.
“Oh, yeah? What’d you two die of?”
“We lost our miiiiiiiiinds!” they said at the same time, making Kagami smile.
“Interesting. I’m sure this pillow will go right through you, then.”
“Wait, wha-“
Adrien doesn’t get the chance to finish his sentence, as Kagami nails him square in the face with a pillow, knocking him completely over. Marinette turns to look at her fallen comrade even though she can’t actually see through the cloth. Realizing she’s next, she quickly darts away, narrowly dodging the next pillow.
Juleka always had a tendency to be melodramatic, whether warranted or not. Once, she had calmly laid down on the floor and curled up into a ball in the school courtyard after Rose informed her that they had, in fact, had homework the previous night for Ms. Mendeleiev’s class. Another time, she had simply walked backwards out of a room, out of the building, and down several streets when a stranger had tried to talk to her.
Today was no different, not even when she was with her brother, Luka. The two were getting some orange juice, and they had just left the store. For whatever reason, Juleka lost her grip on her cup, and it fell to the ground, spilling out on the pavement. She gazed down at the cup solemnly before taking a deep, deep sigh.
“This is the worst day of my life.”
“You’ve literally been akumatized multiple times.”
“Alright, class. New school year, so let’s start out with some ice breakers, shall we?” Ms. Bustier announced, clapping her hands together, “How about, for our first game, we go around the room and say what animal we are most like and why. Nino, do you want to start?”
“No, I do not,” the boy replied with the tip of his cap.
“Oh, uh, alright...Adrien? How about you?”
“I don’t really think I’d be an animal, actually. More like a bug.l
“Oh, why’s that?” Ms. Bustier asked.
“Well, I mean, my father’s always told me that I’m a pest to have around.”
The room went silent except for a quiet snort from Marinette.
“We don’t have time to unpack all of that,” Kim said, brightening the mood again.
“Alright, note-to-self: remember to look into whatever that was. Um, Marinette? Do you want to go next?”
“Oh, that’s easy. Marinette’s like a bird!” Alya exclaimed before Marinette could answer.
“What? Why?”
“Because you fall asleep when a cloth is put over you.”
“I do n-“ Marinette started to say defensively, but she is cut off when Alya takes out her jacket and drapes it over the other girl’s head.
Marinette’s head smacks against the desk, out like a light. When a quiet snore could be heard throughout the room, the class erupted in laughter.