🎃 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! 🎃

Long time, no see!! But, I am finally back with a chapter!! Sorry it took so long but WOW!! OVER 300 VIEWS?!?? That's crazy!!! Y'all that is amazing!! I'm sad to say that I am unable to post faster but I really hope this book turns out good!! You all deserve it for how awesome you all are!!

Enjoy!!

{+}{+}{+}

Adrien's P.O.V

"Okay, Adrien. Play it cool. No pulling any Chat Noir shenanigans while you are Adrien Agreste. You got this," I said, trying to motivate myself.

"I'm afraid to ask this," Plagg began, regrettably asking, "but why are you talking to yourself in the bathroom mirror?" I looked over at my Kwami, feeling a little embarrassed by my display of motivation.

"I can't let my Chat Noir persona slip out, especially when I'm around Marinette. She'll figure me out in an instant if Adrien Agreste suddenly starts flirting with cat puns," I responded to my kwami, looking back into the mirror, "Even though I really want her to know who I am, she's still not mentally ready."

"If you ask me, it all sounds like a big pile of Lila," Plagg stated.

"Lila?" I questioned in confusion, "What does she have anything to do with this conversation?"

"She has nothing to do with it. I just couldn't think of anything worse to say," Plagg said, thinking it over, "Actually, I don't think there is anything worse."

I continued to stare at Plagg still not understanding what he was trying to say. The magical cat sighed before saying, "What I am trying to get through that thick skull of yours is that she's probably making up excuses."

I scoffed, crossing my arms, "Why would she do that?"

"How would I know? Women are a giant truckload of confusing creatures," Plagg answered. I rolled my eyes and opened up my jacket, gesturing for my small friend to enter. Without a word (and the enticing smell of cheese), Plagg hid in my inner jacket's pocket.

Just as I walked out of the bathroom, a knock came from the door.

"Adrien, are you ready for school?" Nathalie muffled voice asked from the other side. I grabbed my bag and headed over to the door before sliding it open. Nathalie stood there with her usual tablet in hand.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I said, getting a curt nod before the two of us made our way to the limo.

"I hope things go smoothly today," I thought, clutching onto my bag's strap.

{+}{+}{+}

Marinette's P.O.V

"Isn't your birthday coming up soon, Marinette?" Tikki asked, whispering from my bag. I began to recall today's date while crossing the road, heading to school. Snatching my phone from my pocket, I checked the date. My eyes widened and almost paused in the middle of the road.

"Yeah...in about a week," I answered, putting my phone away and sheepishly added, "I must have been a little bit distracted with everything that happened."

Tikki gave me a small reassuring smile, saying, "I wouldn't blame you for almost forgetting."

I nodded in agreement before climbing the steps of the school.

It had been hard after my mother passed away and Lila fooling almost everyone to turn against me with her lies. Yet, those wounds were slowly healing and every day seemed to be better than the next. There will always be a hole in my heart that only my mother can fill. I miss her all the time but that's not going to stop me from living my life. She would want me to continued and cherish the small things we shared.

I will do just that.

"There's my favorite person on all of Earth!"

I squealed in surprise when a weight collided into me, trapping me and nearly falling to the floor. I blinked, processing who this person was before concluding it was my best friend.

"I thought I was your favorite person on all of Earth?" Nino pouted, standing off to the side. Alya let me go and responded, "You are the best boyfriend on all of Earth but Mari is my favorite person."

"It's not nice to choose favorites," Nino said, crossing his arms.

"Well, luckily you aren't my child so it doesn't count," Alya replied, earning a scoff from the DJ. I giggled at the couple's bantering when Nino's mood suddenly changes and waves someone over.

"Adrien," Nino calls, walking over to the blonde and wrapping an arm over his shoulders, asking, "Am I your favorite person on all of Earth?"

Adrien rose an eyebrow in confusion before looking over at Alya and me. I shrugged my shoulders, unknowingly while Alya just snickered. Adrien turned his attention back to Nino, unsure, "Uh...yeah."

Nino smiled, triumphantly boasting, "Guys before gales!"

Then, Nino dragged Adrien off to the locker room. Alya crossed her arms, saying, "Blondie might have stolen my man but I've got my girlfriend."

She slung an arm around me, adding, "Let Nino have his gay time and live his bromance. We will be better off without them...until we meet up with them later at the library that is."

I just raised an eyebrow and shook my head at my best friend's nonsense.

"You're such a weirdo," I say, resting my head on her shoulder. Alya smiled and bantered back with the most cliché response that only Chat Noir would use, "But, I'm your weirdo."

We both laughed and made our way to the locker room to prepare for our morning classes. Everything seemed to return back to the way they were but with a few major changes. Sure, it wasn't completely the same as things used to be but not a day goes by that I'm not grateful for what I have.

I still have my friends, my faithful partner, fashion, the bakery and much more.

"What more could a girl ask for?" I thought before a voice in the back of my head began to talk, "Even if the said girl was a secret superhero, who has a temporarily "out of order" sign stuck on her back and her powers were given to another in the meantime along with Tikki because she wasn't strong enough?"

I suddenly felt a little overwhelmed and my smile being forced, pushing back the voice back into the depths of my mind.

"Marinette, are you alright?" Alya asked, worried, "You look a little pale."

"Or, how about Alya? Your supposed "best friend" that betrayed you for that lying scumbag," the voice snuck back into her head, clawing its words into her brain. I shook it away again and reassuringly nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine."

{+}{+}{+}

"How is your project going, dude and dudettes?" Nino asked, looking up from a book he brought from home. We met up in the library during lunch as planned, eating while researching our family history. Everyone seemed to be having it easy while I was struggling quite a bit with my mother's side.

"I'm doing great!" Alya exclaimed, happily, "I've got about three pages of notes on my family tree and there's still a lot more. Miss Bustier's mind is going to be blown away!"

"I'm doing pretty good too," Adrien answered, a little calmer than Alya. Finally, all eyes were on me. I let out a sigh before saying, "I'm struggling a lot, especially with my mom's side of the family. I know most of them live in China but, decides my great uncle, I don't know anyone else."

"Have you tried asking your old man for some info?" Nino asked.

"He's been really busy lately with the bakery. I don't want to burden him with my homework," I said, standing up and grabbing some supplies, "I'll have to go use a computer since there's no physical not much physical information. I'll be back in a bit."

"Here, Mari. I used this website to help me find most of my information. This might help you in your search," Alya said, ripping off some paper with writing on it and handed me the slip. I took the paper and scanned the website's name.

"Find a grave," I mumbled to myself before giving my friend a grateful smile, "Thanks."

Then, I made my over to the computers. I wasn't expecting to see Sabrina sitting at one of the computers while Chloe was at a nearby table on her phone and chewing gum. I made my way over to a computer next to Sabrina's and placed my couple of supplies down.

My spirits were lifted, hoping to be able to talk with Tikki for a little while. I missed her company back at home and just having someone there to talk with. My house and purse felt slightly emptier without the presence of the kind kwami.

Sabrina stopped browsing the webpage for a moment and looked over at me.

"Oh," she perked up before asking, "Hi, Marinette. Have you come to research your family history too?"

"Yeah, it's honestly quite hard" I answered, sitting in the chair. I leaned closer to Sabrina before questionably whispering, "How is Tikki?"

Sabrina gave me a warm smile, ducking down towards her book bag and lifting it onto her lap. She opened up the flap to reveal the kwami fast asleep, holding a partly eaten cookie.

"She's doing well but she really misses you," Sabrina responded. I could feel the sides of my lips move up into a fond smile and carefully slid my hand into the bag to gently pet Tikki's head.

"I miss you too, Tikki," I quietly spoke, wanting to place a kiss on her small forehead but held back the urge. Retreating my hand out of the bag, Sabrina closed it and placed it back on the floor. My heart twisted a bit and force myself to face the computer screen.

I noticed Sabrina frown at my actions but didn't say anything and went back to studying. I moved the mouse to wake up the computer and prepared my things to write. My eyes were drawn to the paper with the website Alya recommended that I use.

Without a second thought, I opened up a browser and typed in the website. There were many boxes on the home page used to, what I assume, filter and help find the right people. I filled in some of my mother's information into some of the necessary boxes before hitting enter.

Once the page loaded, my mother's information popped up. I was truly astonished to see all this information. Her birthday and death dates, burial site, a picture of her, an obituary—

"Wait a minute," I thought, eyes widening, "An obituary!"

This grabbed my full attention, gazing upon the summed up, an article-like section of my mother's life.

Sabine Dupain-Cheng, 43, of Paris, France died on Thursday, August 8th, 2017 at the Hôpital Saint-Louis AP-HP. Sabine was born on June 14th, 1974 in China to Bo and Mei (Wang) Cheng. Sabine was a co-worker of Tom & Sabine's Boulangerie Patisserie, Paris for 18 years, alongside her husband.

"Bo and Mei...are they my other grandparents? They must be," I thought, writing down the names in my on the lined paper. My mom never even told me their names...not that I asked since it seemed like a touchy subject. Wanting to know more, I scanned the obituary down the length until arriving at a spot I was most interested in.

She is survived by her husband, Tom Dupain; daughter, Marinette Dupain-Cheng...

It continued to talk about some other family members in China that I assumed were cousins. I felt a swell of anger boiling within me and a scowl set on my face. I was slightly mad that none of them came to mom's funeral but wasn't going to let Hawkmoth victimize me again.

Keeping a cool head, I once again began to read and realized I was almost at the end. I didn't have much information on my mom's side but it was more than what I had before. Maybe, I could try to get some information from my dad later when he's not too busy. Letting out a long breath, I was about to the funeral arrangements paragraph when the last sentence caught my attention.

It caught me off-guard that I had to reread it a few times to make sure it was really there. Furrowing my eyebrows in confusion, I cocked my head to the side in confusion.

"Is there something wrong Marinette?" Sabrina asked me, worriedly. I turned to face the redhead with a forced reassuring smile and nodded her way before looking back at the one sentence that I couldn't get out of my head.

She was also preceded in death by a daughter, Mallorie Dupain-Cheng.

{+}{+}{+}