Amira looked at her map, placing two sticky notes on it. One over where Dupont was located and another over the Louvre. Amira took a step back, looking at what she had so far.

"What are you up to Marinette?" Tikki asked, sitting on her chosen's shoulder, munching on a cookie. They had just come back from defeating yet another Victim, this time thanks to Chloe.

Marinette's classmate, Rose, was the Victim this time around. Turning into Princess Fragrance, Rose was able to make anyone she encountered her slave with the spritz of her perfume inspired gun.

"Just jotting down some information, that's all." Marinette provided, pulling her blanket over herself. Ever since she's become the wielder of the Ladybug miraculous, Amira has been experiencing some odd things.

For starters, she started to become more cold upon November creeping up on her, a hassle for her when it came to her sparring lessons with Chat during the chilly evenings.

Lately, the two have agreed to meet at Montparnasse Tower for training, Ladybird not telling Chat about how she had bought the place especially for them to train.

LB made it clear that they won't be using their miraculous at all during training, something that bothered Chat. But she made it clear to him that in the instance that perhaps they lose temporary holds on their miraculous, they still had to be prepared for whatever is thrown at them.

For that very reason, LB also also started making Chat get used to wearing a mask before transforming. In the case that they needed to recharge, their identities would still remain a secret.

Over the course of the month, Chat had been getting better at hand to hand combat, although his focus and tactics could use some more work. Out of ten matches, Chat had been able to claim three wins. An improvement from zero.

Although, maybe it was due to LB being affected by the cold, giving Chat an advantage. But Amira chose to get rid of that thought.

Chat was improving and that's what she needed. For him to get better so that when they had to defeat Hawkmoth, he was ready.

"Are these all the akuma attacks so far?" Tikki asked, counting twelve dots. While the dots were scattered, a few were starting to center at a particular location. "They don't look like much help."

"I wouldn't say as much." Marinette pointed at the two farthest locations: Trocadero and Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes. "These are the farthest akuma attacks, but look at this." She then dragged her finger over to the Louvre. "There have been at least two attacks here while Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes only has one. Makes me think that the zoo was either a sloppy job done to throw us off or to show us the extent of his powers."

"So, in other words?" Tikki asked, watching as Marinette picked up a string and pencil, measuring the distance between the location where most akuma attacks happened and where Trocadero and the Louvre were located. The distances were almost the same.

"We may have a lead and as much as it pains me to say this, we just have to wait for more akuma attacks to know for sure." Marinette looked at the possible epic center: her neighborhood.

-----

Marinette walked into the classroom, noticing various adults in the room.

"What is going on?" Marinette muttered, taking her seat and pulling her sweater closer to her body. Even with a turtleneck and a wooly sweater, Marinette could still feel the chilly breezes of that morning.

"Girl, did you forget? It's career day! Where we have to bring our parents in to talk about their jobs?" Marinette froze. That was today?

The event completely slipped her mind as she spent the week fighting akumas and talking to Dick about possibly staying with him for the holidays.

She couldn't just tell Tom and Sabine about the event now! Sabine has taken Bridgette to the doctor while Tom has gone off to drop off some cakes.

There was no time for them to make it to-

Why was she worried? Why now out of all times? This had happened before...many times before.

During these types of events, Tom was never able to make it since he used to run the bakery by himself while Amira attended Gotham Academy.

And Bruce...Bruce was never in the loop about these events...not like he was able to attend them...

So why was she so worried about not having someone come in? Why did it bother her so much now that she was older?

"Hey Mari- Marinette, is everything alright?" Adrien asked her, snapping out of her thoughts.

"Alright class, settle down!"

"Neither of my parents could make it to the event." Marinette found herself saying, surprising herself. Despite only talking to Adrien during labs or during fencing, Marinette felt as if she'd talked to him plenty of times before.

"You too? My father said he wasn't going to waste his time coming here." Adrien sheepishly said, pulling Marinette to his seat. "Want to tell Mlle Bustier about it?" Marinette found herself nodding, following Adrien to tell Ms.Bustier their dilemma.

Ms.Bustier took the news calmly, telling the two that it was alright and understood that their parents couldn't come. "Sometimes things just don't work out and that's alright. There's always a next time." She instructed the two to sit together, letting Nino know about the temporary change in seats.

Sitting next to Adrien, Marinette didn't know what to do. While she felt comfortable sitting next to him, something inside of her warned her that something was off.

Marinette let the idea slip as she took out her notebook, in case she needed to jot something down or doodle if she got bored during the presentations.

-----

"My bracelet! It's gone!" Chloe screeched, causing Marinette to jump a bit. She had gotten some inspiration for a new design when she saw Chloe show off a bracelet her father gave her during her turn. "You! You probably took it!" Chloe screamed, pointing at Marinette.

Oh how badly she wanted to roll her eyes. Of course Chloe would want to blame her, as if she didn't feel her eyes burning the back of her head.

Yes, she knew about the jealousy Chloe felt the moment she saw her sitting next to Adrien, Chloe's best friend.

"Now why would I want to steal a bracelet that I could easily-"

"So you did take it!" Chloe cut off, jumping to conclusions. "You! You're a cop! Arrest her!" Chloe demanded Sabrina's dad to do it.

"But I can't do that!" M.Raincomprix argued. "Without proper evidence, I can't-"

"Daddy! Do something!" Chloe whined, causing Marinette to laugh. "What's so funny Dupain-Cheng?"

"Are you seriously going to keep doing this every time something doesn't go your way Chloe? Isn't there a single thing you can do without having to ask someone else to do it for you? Then again, I get it. You're an ungrateful spoiled brat."

"Excuse me?" Chloé huffed, turning to her father, glaring at him. Mayor Bourgeois began to panic, quickly turning back to M.Raincomprix.

"As Mayor and therefore your superior, I demand you arrest this young lady at once!"

"Now Mr.Bourgeois, now be sensible. What exactly will you gain from this?" Marinatte asked, watching as the Mayor looked between his daughter and loyal law enforcer, panicking on what he deemed right.

"Arrest her now!" Chloé screamed, causing the Mayor to squirm.

"I won't without-"

"Then consider yourself fired!" The mayor yelled, causing a wave of gasps to erupt.

He just couldn't bear to see his little girl upset.

"Mr.Bourgeois, are you seriously going to fire your most loyal policemen in all of France over a bracelet?" Marinette questioned, walking up to the mayor. "M.Bourgeois, are you aware of the rumors about you?"

"Rumors?"

"Rumors surrounding how easily you crack under pressure, especially if it's from Chloe dearest?" When Marinette saw Chloe puff out her chest a bit, she rolled her eyes. Did she really not realize that she was insulting her? "What you did just now just goes to prove what everyone was speculating...what would happen if word got out?" Marinette looked at him, a sly smirk escaping her.

"Are you threatening me, young lady?"

"Mayor, why are you so defensive?" An exaggerated gasp escaped Marinette. "Don't tell me the rumors are actually true and all this time you've simply been covering it up! Are you actually worried about a potential scandal?"

"Young lady!"

"Mayor Bourgeois," Marinette easily threw back. "If you don't want people to speculate things about you, then stop proving them right and grow a spine. Don't you realize the amount of damage Chloe's tantrums have done to your political career, your political image?" Grabbing her things, Marinette looked at the mayor one last time before she decided to leave. "So if you want your people to be proud of you, start acting like an actual mayor for once and unwrap yourself from Chloe's pinky."

As Marinette left the classroom, the mayor was left behind with a crowd of eyes staring at him, watching his every move.

A mayor worth being proud of...

"Roger. I apologize for my outburst...and for using my authority to fire you on the spot. You can have your post back. I shouldn't have-"

"But Daddy! My bracelet!" Chloe whined, the mayor shooting her a look.

"Chloe, honey bee. We'll find the bracelet. After all the presentations are done, okay?"

Chloe huffed, slumping into her seat.

Damn that stupid baker's daughter.

It's all Maribrat's fault.

-----

One day. That's all she's asking.

One day where an akuma doesn't show up when Amira needs to focus on analyzing her data.

As soon as Amira knew classes were over, an akuma appeared, destroying her roof to look for her. Thankfully, Ladybird didn't have to do much, destroying the akumatized bracelet on Chloe's wrist and purifying the akuma.

Ladybird watched as the butterfly flew off, LB noticing it quickly vanished within a couple of minutes. She then took Chloe home, now looking at her as she sat on the floor.

"Chloe Bourgeois. Why am I not surprised? Actually, I kind of am. Usually, you're the one causing the akumas. Never expected you to ever be one." Ladybird said, leaning against the railing of Chloe's balcony.

"I don't cause akumas!" Chloe yelled.

"Really? So Lady Wifi, Princess Fragrance, Horrificator, Evill-"

"Don't you think you're being harsh on-" Chat interrupted, earning a glare from LB.

"Shouldn't you be heading home? You're about to detransform any second now." Chat opened and shut his mouth before sighing. She was right.

"Fine. But you're going to tell me all the details later tonight during patrol."

"Deal." Ladybird confirmed, watching Chat vault away, leaving the two girls alone. "So, what caused you to become a Victim?"

Ladybird watched as Chloe squirmed under her gaze, causing LB to sigh. Hearing a beep, Chloe watched as Ladybird transformed before her eyes, taken aback to see her wearing casual attire, her hoodie having a blue bird-like logo across the chest. Her domino mask hid her eyes, Chloe wondering what color they were. "Well?"

"There's this horrible girl in my class and she hates me! All Marinette Dupain-Cheng does to me is yell at me and hate the things I have and she doesn't! She caused me to get akumatized!" Chloe said, huffing in annoyance.

"A girl in your class caused you to get akumatized." Ladybird repeated.

"Well, she indirectly akumatized me."

"What do you mean about that?" Ladybird asked, deciding to go to Chloe, sitting down in front of her.

"Dupain-Cheng told my father to become someone the people would be proud to call their mayor. Ever since then...daddy stopped coming at my beck and call. He's starting to ignore me."

"So you're not getting the attention you used to get from him." Ladybird concludes, but decided to scratch that idea when Chloe let out a warbling sigh.

Ladybird rubbed the back of her head, wondering what Dick would do during these types of situations. "Chloe, look at me." She didn't look up. "I won't force you to tell me what's going through your head. I just want you to know-"

"You're Ladybird, my idol and I trust you." Chloe looked up, unshed tears brimming her eyes. "It's just...it's hard to deal with this, you know?" She sniffled. "I don't really care about Dupain-Cheng. It's my father that has me concerned. He's the only one who has been there for me. I have no friends, everyone hates me and whenever I try to act better, everyone thinks I'm acting differently because of an ulterior motive when truly, I just want to change!" Chloe admitted, wiping away so tears. "The only reason I even act like this is because of my mother."

"Your...mother?" Ladybird asked.

"My mother...is a fashion designer. Her name's Audrey. Audrey Bourgeois. Please tell me you've heard of her?" Ladybird nodded, remembering seeing the name when she was compiling Chloe's file. "Because of her profession, she's always traveling, only stopping by Paris to drop some souvenirs and then continuing her trips around the world." Chloe began to tear up, furiously wiping away the ones that streamed down her face. "She never speaks to me, never calls me, nothing! So I thought, why not do something huge to make her stay here? So that I can see her again. But no matter what I do, she never stays. It's like...it's like if she's forgotten me."

With those insecurities out of her, Chloe began to cry, throwing herself at Ladybird.

Awkwardly wondering what to do, Amira hugged Chloe, causing her to tighten her hug.

To think this is why Chloe was the way she is. All because her mother wasn't in her life...just like her.

"Can I tell you something?" Chloe found Ladybird saying. Chloe pried herself from her, nodding to tell her to go on. "At least you can see your mother and try to talk to her. You can make the effort to reconnect with her." Chloe watched as Ladybird pulled down her hood- she had short hair? Her real self had short hair? Did becoming Ladybird make her have long hair? Magic can do that? "I...I never met my mother...never go to know her either."

"Wai-Wait...you..." Chloe stammered, pointing at Ladybird. "You're like me?"

"In a way, yes." Ladybird got up, pulling Chloe up as well. "So I kind of know what you're going through. But let me tell you this Chloe. Keep pushing through. It'll get better. Maybe not now or tomorrow, but definitely in the future.

You just have to keep moving forward, even if you have to leave some people behind."

-----

"When were you going to tell me this?" Tikki asked with a frown, watching as Marinette packed some of her things in a suitcase, stuffing some folders as well.

After making sure Chloe was well enough to be let alone and catching Chat up on the details, she told Chat of her upcoming schedule. She was leaving Paris tonight.

"I wasn't going to." Marinette confessed, picking up another set of clothing and placing it inside the suitcase.

"You weren't going to tell me?! Marinette, you're Ladybug! Paris needs you!" Tikki yelled, attempting to empty out the suitcase but to no avail. "You can't just-"

"I haven't been at home in a long while. Or rather, I haven't seen my brother in a while and we've been planning on spending the holidays together." Marinette bluntly stated, confusing Tikki.

"Marinette, what are you talking about? I know you've talked about having siblings abroad, but you belong here! This is your home! Paris! It's also the city that needs-"

"I'm not Parisian." Marinette corrected, closing her suitcase. "I'm actually from Gotham, where I will be spending the weekend at. My brother invited me over for a Halloween party and I decided to go."

"Marinette! Keeping Paris should be your top priority!"

"I know! I already have everything ready in case there is an akuma-"

"But wouldn't it be better if you just stay-"

"I haven't seen my brother in almost half a year and I haven't been to my other brother's grave at all! Hell, I wasn't even allow to go to his funeral because my stupid father didn't allow me! This may be the only time I can ever see both of them before the end of the year and I'm not going to throw this shot away simply because you want me to stay here and fight a fight I didn't fully sign up for!" Marinette screamed.

She felt how her body shook, how her breaths were shuddering as she let them out.

"Marinette...I didn't-"

"Amira."

"What?"

"My actual name is Amira. Amira Wayne. It was never Marinette Dupain-Cheng."