~3 Weeks Later~

Marinette shoved her books into her pink book bag as the school bell rang. She groaned and wiped the sweat off of her forehead. "This broken air conditioning is killing me!" she announced. Alya smiled as she slid her phone into her pocket.

"Relax Marinette. We only have one more week of school! Then summer, sun, vacation…"

"Yeah Marinette. You need to chill!" Adrien chided, swiveling backwards to face her and winking. Marinette groaned.

"Your puns are awful."

"Ouch, Princess. That's cold." Nino laughed as Marinette slapped her hand against her forehead. Chloe came over from the other side of the table. Sabrina following her.

Although Sabrina still followed the girl, she wasn't her slave anymore. And ever since she became the new Peacock, she started standing up for herself a lot more. She filled the final hole of the Miraculous Team, and the others were glad to have her. Sabrina really was an awesome friend once you got to know her.

"Pizza party at my place! Just the seven of us!" Chloe announced. Marinette lit up a bit.

"Pizza?" she asked hopefully. "I'll be there."

Chloe smiled and waved at Nathan, who blushed, before ducking out of the classroom. Alya watched her go. "I still can't believe how much progress that girl has made," she whispered to Marinette. Marinette smiled.

Nowadays, Chloe wore more middle-market clothes. They weren't very fancy, but they weren't cheap either. Today she was wearing a pair of faded jeans and a cute yellow blouse. And her hair was down. Down! Not to mention she got rid of about 75% of her makeup and she gave up on keeping her nails perfect while fighting. And she was a lot nicer to everyone. She really had come a long way.

"Well, I need to go. Adrien and I promised to handle the afternoon shift. Come on Adrien!" Adrien slung his bag over his shoulder and, flashing his girlfriend a grin, followed her out the door. Nino and Alya were planning on heading out on a date later that day. Nathan looked at the happy couple wistfully. Becoming Volpino made him more confident, but he still didn't have the confidence to ask Chloe out. What if she turned him down because he wasn't good enough?

Finally, all of the students evacuated the school and went on with their lives, leaving the teachers to sort through stacks of homework. Adrien and Marinette found themselves in the kitchen, having promised to bake no less than 100 cupcakes before they could leave.

Adrien groaned. "Where do we even start?" He had gotten much better at baking from the three weeks of living with the Dupain-Chengs, but he was still an amateur. Marinette pulled on her apron and tied her hair back in a short ponytail, a determined look flashing in her eyes. She tossed Adrien his own apron (a green one decorated with baking puns, no less, all thanks to Tom).

"You pre-heat the oven and pull out the bowls and equipment stuff. I'll get the ingredients. Then we go from there."

"Deal!" Adrien took off, skidding to a halt in front of the oven and twisting the knobs around. Marinette made her way to the bakery's refrigerator and started pulling out stuff. They were going to get this done if it killed them.

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Two hours later, they had 100 beautifully decorated cupcakes all specially arranged on trays to show Tom and Sabine. They themselves, however, looked like a pastry train wreck. Marinette laughed as Adrien swiped some frosting off of her chick and licked it. "Delicious!" he announced happily.

Marinette surveyed the mess the kitchen was in. "We really ought to learn how to bake together without making such a mess."

"You started it! You can't sneak up behind me and squirt icing down my shirt without some sort of retaliation!"

"Did the retaliation have to be accidently knocking an entire bowl of batter over?" Marinette asked, raising one eyebrow skeptically. Adrien raised his hands in mock surrender.

"You surprised me!"

"I thought you have cat-like reflexes! And you should have seen me coming!"

"Well now I'm coming!" Adrien said, leaping towards her. Shocked, Marinette skidded backwards, knocking a few spatulas off of the counter. Adrien chased her around the kitchen, both of them skidding on icing. Finally, he caught her and pinned her down, planting a quick kiss on her lips. She laughed.

"Okay. Down kitty, down!" she shoved him off, still laughing as her phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket.

Chloe: Pizza's here and ready whenever you come.

Sabrina: We got everyone's favs!

Nino: on r way

Marinette: Kitty and I will be there soon, we have a slight situation here.

To prove it, she and Adrien took a selfie.

Marinette: *frosting covered selfie*

Alya: You both look great!

Nino: dude that's gonna take you forevs to clean… more pizza for us

"Too bad you can't use your cleansing powers…" Adrien said regretfully, looking around the kitchen.

"Too bad," Marinette agreed, wincing.

In the end, it only took them a half an hour. They were incredibly fast and their excellent teamwork skills helped them to maneuver around the kitchen and take care of the mess in half the time it seemed it would take. After they changed into clean clothes (and retrieved Tikki and Plagg from Marinette's room) they headed to Le Grand Paris Hotel.

The doorman let them in without a word, and they headed up to Chloe's room. They could hear loud laughing before they even reached the door. Walking through, Adrien and Marinette found all of their friends sitting around in a circle, munching on pizza. Nino was telling a story, waving his hands in the air dramatically.

"So then Adrien came up with the best idea! We got some of those ear walkie talkie things and I went to the zoo, with Adrien talking to me through that! I was so nervous I could barely breathe, so all I could do was try and follow what he said."

Alya burst out laughing. "MARINETTE AND I DID THAT! She thought she was going on a date with Adrien, so I was coaching her through an earpiece! She was SO confused when you came alone!"

They all started laughing as Adrien turned to Marinette and raised one eyebrow. She blushed. "And then!" Alya continued, "And then LADYBUG locks us in a cage together, and… Wait a second that was Marinette!"

"Guilty," Marinette said loudly, alerting them all of her presence. Alya whipped around.

"I told you under no circumstances was I going on a date with Nino! And then you do THAT!"

"Well it wasn't technically a date," Nino said, shrugging. Alya shook her head, chuckling.

"Man, how blind were we?"

"Pretty blind," Nino agreed.

"I think the real question is, how stealthy are we?" Adrien asked, grinning. "It's not exactly easy to lead a double life, especially when one of your close friends is Alya, Ladybug chaser extraordinaire."

"How did I not see it?" Alya groaned.

The rest of the day was just as fun. After they devoured the pizza (Plagg ate about 5 pieces of cheese pizza) the kwami hung around on Chloe's bed, swapping stories about their Chosen and their past chosen. The teens, however, decided to play the world's most complicated game of Hide and Seek (or as we sophisticated teenagers call it, Man Hunt). When it got to be late and the sun was going down, they took the game to the rooftops.

Jade and Chat were on a team together, just because Adrien had not recovered from his injuries yet (and probably wouldn't for some time going forward). For the rest of the team, it was every man for himself. Laughter filled the air as they chased each other around Paris.

Finally, Chat slipped away from Jade and headed towards the rooftop that he and Ladybug met every single day for patrol before… before everything. Ladybug was already there, sitting with her back against the rooftop and her knees pulled up to her chest. Chat clumsily made his way over and tapped her shoulder.

"Found you," he said softly. She looked up at him and smiled a bit, before looking down again. Chat sat down beside her. The two of them sat in silence for what felt like hours, just looking at the stars and listening to each other breathe. Finally, Ladybug broke the silence.

"Are you going to miss this?"

"Miss what?"

"Everything. This. There are new miraculous users. It isn't just Ladybug and Chat Noir anymore. Now it's the whole miraculous team. And we're in charge of them. Now we have to watch their backs in every fight. Now we have to train them until they know as much as we do. They'll take some of our patrols. They'll be hanging out at the top of the Eiffel Tower too. And as much as I love my friends, I can't help but miss this. Us."

Chat stared morosely at the stars for a bit, thinking it over. He took in a deep breath. "I think that it will be a little strange at first. Places that only we could get to and things that only we could do aren't just ours anymore. But I think some of it will be for the better. How many nights did you miss doing homework and wake up exhausted because of akuma attacks and patrols?"

"Too many," Ladybug mumbled. Chat slung his arm around her shoulder.

"Exactly. Of course, we don't have akuma attacks anymore. But trust me, something will come up. Now we can spend more time helping people and enjoying being Ladybug and Chat Noir, and less time suffering the consequences in our civilian lives."

"I guess you're right," Ladybug admitted softly. Chat pulled her into a hug.

"Besides," he whispered in her ear. "This is our city. We found it first. We know every single nook and cranny. Who says we have to show them everything?"

Ladybug looked up, and suddenly he was leaning in and she was letting him and it was the best kiss she had ever had. They stayed together, kissing until they couldn't breathe, for the next several minutes.

"Somehow, I think everything will work out just fine," Chat whispered, gazing lovingly into her blue eyes.

"Somehow," Ladybug smiled, "I think you're right."