Hi everyone!  SylveonKwami here.  

Sorry this update is super late, I got really busy with holiday activities... but it's here now, so yay, I guess???

Anyways, here is chapter 8.  Not a two-parter!!!  Don't forget to vote and comment if you liked it!

Enjoy ^w^

Marinette

Today was so tiring, Marinette thought as she began to make her way out of the school.  When she got back to class after she'd left to take care of Adrien, the entire class had looked at her, but no one questioned her yet because they were in the middle of a lesson; probably, Miss Bustier noticed no one was working, and did something useful instead of sulking.  

BUT as soon as class ended, everyone started following her in the halls, asking what that scream was, and she still remembered how her face heated up as she told them it was nothing.  Alya and Nino shooed them away, but then they started questioning her themselves.  Unable to deal with them at the moment, she had walked briskly away from them, not even caring if they were going to the same class or that she'd rudely left them in the dust.  She hoped they'd forgive her, especially with everything else that was going on.

Marinette quickly walked away from the building towards home; all she wanted was to go home and lay and her bed and do absolutely nothing, and of course, talk to Adrien.  They had so much to talk about now, considering that they knew each other's identities.  

She suddenly started to hear footsteps behind her, and when she turned around, she saw Alya and Nino.  They were looking at her with concerned eyes.

Alya started.  "Girl... I know you must be feeling, you know..."

"Down," Nino put in.  "Wanna hang out?  You were pretty messed up after class, you know, we're always here to talk!"

"Please, Marinette," Alya pleaded with her.

Marinette looked down.  On normal circumstances, she would have taken their offer.  But, she was too tired, too put off by the scene in the classroom that she knew that the right response was to say no.  Today was anything but normal, so maybe they wouldn't mind- but how long could she push for without pushing them away?

"Sorry guys, I'm not up to it today," she said in a flat voice.  "I'm really not feeling well, I'm just gonna head home."  Without another word, she turned and walked away, feeling really, terribly bad for her actions.

"Hope you feel better tomorrow," Alya whispered behind her, then Marinette heard them both walk in the opposite direction.  As fast as she could, Marinette made her way back to the bakery, careful not to make the bag sway too much.  In a couple of minutes, they arrived home, where both her parents were absent.  She saw a note on the counter, which said that they were going to deliver a special cake then were attending a dinner party with one of their old friends.  She wondered briefly why she wasn't going, then remembered that she had talked to her parents about homework and how she couldn't attend.  She mentally face-palmed herself- how bad could her memory get!?

She set her bag on the counter and opened it, allowing everyone to come out.  "We're alone," she explained to Adrien, who instantly relaxed.

"Marinette, are you okay?" Adrien questioned her, and she thought about lying, but she knew that he had heard every bit of her conversation with Alya and Nino.  

"I'm just tired," she stated plainly.  "And I... really don't wanna do my homework right now."

"Have a snack," Adrien suggested.  "After, I'll help you with your homework, so you don't have to do all of it yourself.  Then, you can have a nap, and we'll prepare something for dinner- at least, we'll try."

Marinette was astonished.  "But, Adrien, I'm supposed to be taking care of you!"

Adrien shrugged.  "You went through a lot of trouble today for me, Princess," he stated.  "I should do the same for you, right?"

Marinette picked him up and hugged him.  "Thank you so much, Chaton," she whispered, delighted by how nice he was to her.  After everything, all he could do was be kind to her- his heart was made out of gold!

"You're welcome," he said sweetly, then thank her as she placed him on her shoulder.  "What're you gonna eat?" he asked, then Marinette instantly pointed to a tray of cookies.  

"Those have all our names on it," she said, licking her lips.  Adrien laughed at her gesture.

"I WANT SOME TOO!" Tikki exclaimed, and Marinette giggled.  

"Of course you can have some, Tikki!" she exclaimed.  Turning to Plagg, she added "Do you want some too, Plagg?"

"Meh, sure," he said passively.  "Wait, do you have anything with camembert?"

Marinette smiled as Adrien face-palmed himself.  "Um, I don't think so right now, but we have cheese bread and cheese cake, ooh, and these little pasteries with a four-cheese filling-"

"Four cheeses is better than one," Plagg said, and Marinette giggled and took out a couple from the box where they were kept.  

With the cookies and cheese snacks in hand, Tikki grabbed her purse, and all of them went up to her room together.  She sat down on her chaise and munched on one of the cookies- after she handed one to Adrien, of course.  Although he couldn't really eat an entire one, she still gave him a quarter.  She didn't want him to get sick, after all.  

Tikki had set her purse down on her desk and was now attacking the cookies- at one point, Marinette had to stop her because she was almost at her eighth one.  Plagg however, had ate every single pastery that Marinette had brought upstairs- Adrien had to yell at him  to prevent him from eating all the cookies as well.  Marinette giggled at their kwamis' actions- they both loved to eat, that was for sure!

"What do you have for homework, Mari?" Adrien asked her, and Marinette got up to show him.

"Just some math worksheets and that partner/group project with Alya and Nino," Marinette told him.

Adrien looked at her in mock surprise.  "Really?  From what you told me, you made it sound like you had piles of it to complete."

"I'M TIRED, OKAY!?" Marinette shouted, but with Adrien laughing, she couldn't keep a straight face.

"It's fine," Adrien said, gesturing to the desk.  Marinette understood immediately and put him down there- he gave her a thumbs-up.

"Let's do the math first," he said, and Marinette nodded, agreeing.  She took spread the math sheets on the desk, and wrote down the problems she had to work on- the teacher hadn't assigned all of them, but she had circled the ones she had to do.  They were word problems dealing with quadratics- always fun.

"You remember the three forms of-" Adrien started to ask, but Marinette already knew the answer.

"Standard, Factored, and Vertex form," Marinette said, and Adrien nodded.  When all this is over, Adrien should become a tutor for younger kids.  He'd be really good at that, Marinette thought.

"And you know the Quadratic Formula?  And the Discriminant?" Adrien checked, and Marinette nodded for both.  

"Cool," he said.  "Let's do the first problem.  Farmer Bill wants to build a fence around..." Adrien noticed that his Princess was looking bored.  "Come on, Princess, there's only six problems you have to do, right?"

"Yeah," Marinette said, and sat up properly.  "I'm sorry Adrien.  I'm ready now- I understand it pretty well, but if we work together we can do it faster."

"Great!" Adrien exclaimed, smiling up at her.  "Let's do it then."

So, they began working on the first word problem that was about a farmer who wanted to build a fence for his livestock- though if he already had them, why is he just building a fence now?  He's not really a good farmer.  Anyways, you have 100 meters of fencing to work with, and you have to determine the length, width, and maximum area you can get, because he wants to give his animals support and give them a big pen.  Marinette knew how to solve it- you have to use the Perimeter and Area formulas and manipulate them to change them into a quadratic formula.  This was one of the easier ones, but with Adrien with her, it was much more fun to do.  As quickly as they started, they finished, and were moving on to the next problem.

"I can't believe we never figured it out before," Marinette said absently, trying to start up a conversation.

"What do you mean?" Adrien asked, confused.  He was underlining something important in a question.

"Our identities," Marinette explained.  "I mean, there were many instances where we transformed near each other or detransformed- remember when we fought Frightningale?"

"Oh yeah, when we were auditioning for the roles of Ladybug and Chat Noir," Adrien remembered.  "Wait, that's true- we even transformed in the same room!  And if we put those masks on when we did, gosh, that would have been horrific."

"It would have," Marinette agreed, looking back at her work.  "For this one, did you get that the numbers are 23 and 27?"

"Yeah, good work!" Adrien congratulated her, and she gave him a smile.  

For the next half-hour or so, the two chatted and did math problems, while their kwamis went somewhere else, probably downstairs to find more food, or to start making dinner.  Marinette enjoyed talking with Adrien- and she enjoyed finding out all the ironic moments that should have shown her her partner's identity, but didn't.  Eventually, they finished the math problems, but when it was time to do the project, Marinette could bring herself to even get it out.

"Do you think Alya and Nino will mind if I work on it tomorrow instead?" Marinette wondered, looking at Adrien for advice.

He shrugged.  "I mean, you told them you weren't feeling well, so I guess- it's not due any time soon, right?"

"It's due in about three days, I think," she answered.  "But I guess you're right."

"You should go up and have that nap now," Adrien told her.  "You deserve it."

"I will," Marinette answered, yawning.  She didn't even bother to change in her PJ's, she just wanted to sleep.  Tiredly, she climbed into her bed, hugging her pillow.  "Night, Adrien," she called.

She heard his faint reply of "Night, M'lady!", and then fell asleep a couple minutes later to the sound of a silent, peaceful room.

"Marinette, time to wake up," Adrien's faint voice called, and she promptly opened her eyes to find him sitting on her bed, in front of her.

"H-Hi, Adrien," she greeted, stretching.  Wow, that was a good nap.

"Morning, Princess," he greeted back.  "You ready for dinner?"

Suddenly, she remembered what he and the kwamis were doing as she was sleeping.  "You guys actually made dinner!?"

Adrien suddenly looked a little nervous.  "Well... we tried... and failed.  So we found some yummy pasteries and heated them up... both the kwamis are on the balcony, waiting for us."

"You brought an entire plate of food up in front of my face and I didn't wake up?" Marinette wondered.  "Wow, I must've been tired."

Adrien smiled.  "Yeah, you must've," he agreed.  "Ready?"

"Yeah," Marinette said, holding out a hand for him.  She opened the trap door and climbed out (being careful not to harm her kitten!) and was in awe at the set up they had done.  

"What the heck, guys!" She exclaimed.  "You made it seem like it's a five star restaurant up here."

"Only the best for my Princess," Adrien said smugly, while the kwamis sighed fondly.

"You were very out of it today," Tikki told her.  "We wanted you to be happy again."

"What she said," Plagg said, being lazy as always.

"Well, it looks delicious," Marinette said, sitting down.  There was one big plate of those appetizer quiches and stuff- she took a handful and ate some- sooooooo good.

"Thank you, everyone, you made my day," she said truthfully, and everyone smiled at her.

"Thanks, Chaton," she whispered to Adrien, who sat on her shoulder.  He beamed back at her.

"You're welcome, M'lady."

Someone Else

I was trapped, caught in chains.  The space was empty, not something I'd seen before.  I tried moving, but I couldn't.  I wasn't in control anymore.  And I couldn't be back in control, until that black embodiment of hell got outta me.

I wasn't normal- I understood that.  I made them flee.  No... not me... Him.

He was making the decisions.  He was making the moves- literally.  I was useless, helpless.  

But, I could hear what they talked about.

And it didn't seem good.

I wish I could tell someone.

Maybe this could be avoided.

All of their words confused me, worried me.  But I heard one sentence, and the words ended.

"Follow them."

And suddenly we were moving again.

Hi, everyone!  Wow, this chapter was longer than I expected.  That's your reward for me not updating in a while!  

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and happy (late) new year to everyone!  I wish you the best in 2019 ^u^

Well, that's where we'll end it.  Who do you think "Someone else" is?  Comment below!

Stay tuned ;)