•••

The crowd hooted and screamed in delight when the leather clad superhero jumped amidst them. He smartly handled his baton and winked at the crowd before taking his place next to the Mayor.

The cameramen and reporters were going crazy when Chat arrived and frantically clicked away the buttons of their cameras.

The Mayor greeted him and Chloé came in, standing next to him, hoping to get some media attention.

"Aah, good day, Chat Noir. Thank you for coming!"

"The pleasure's all mine, Mr Mayor."

"Chat Noir." Chloé begin. "When will Ladybug be arriving?"

Chat himself wondered the same thing. He was already late and Ladybug was still not here. She couldn't have had forgotten, could she?

"I'm sure she'll be here soon enough."

'She is usually late to such events.', he thought. It must be one of those times.

While the wait for Ladybug continued, Chat was bombarded with questions by the reporters. Being the known face that he was as his civilian self, he expertly handled the situation, until....

"Chat Noir!" A familiar voice called out.

Alya was huffing and puffing as she frantically fought for her place amongst the swarming reporters.

"Hey Alya!"

"Could you answer my questions?"

Not even waiting for a reply, she unleashed her full reporter side, shooting questions after questions.

"Are you guys any closer to finding Hawkmoth?"

"How many more miraculous holders are there amongst us?"

"How do you guys get your special powers?"

"Are you and Ladybug finally canon?"

"Do you know each other's identities?"

Chat tried answering as many questions as he could though the last two did catch him off guard.

'Why does it always come back to our relationship?'

Meanwhile, Alya was unfortunately pushed back by the crowd and she walked away sulkily.

"Hey cheer up dudette! He answered most of your questions!"

"Yeah but he didn't get to the juicy parts. About his relationship which would've been a major scoop. I need to know that my ship is canon!"

"You'll get to know someday. Anyway have you seen Marinette? She had been gone for a long time."

"You're right. It's been a while. Hold up, let me try and call her!"

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Another 15 minutes or so passed in a frenzy. Chat attempted to call his lady numerous times but it went straight to voicemail, signalling that she isn't transformed.

'Where are you Ladybug?'

It was getting late now so the Mayor was left with no other alternative but to commence the ceremony without the spotted superheroine. There were initially many sour faces but after a while everything was back to normal.

"Perhaps she is busy. After all being a superhero isn't easy, is it now?", the Mayor tried to reason.

Chat nodded but he was worried sick. Ladybug couldn't have been occupied. Nor could she have forgotten. He clearly remembered how excited she had been. She was practically jumping up and down last night when they both were talking about it.

'Where are you M'lady?'

————————

Chat Noir, now Adrien, walked around the carnival, trying to find his friends. His superhero self had taken the leave soon after the ceremony. He concluded that he would most probably find them at the Dupain-Cheng stall.

He walked towards his destination, thinking of Marinette's parent's smiling and kind faces, convincing him to have another one of their delicious croissants. But alas, what he actually came across was totally unexpected.

Sabine was sitting down on a chair, face down while an immensely worried Tom tried to comfort her. In a distance, he could see Alya repeatedly tap on her phone with a worried and somewhat frustrated expression while Nino was rubbing his temples.

"Guys?"

Alya and Nino spotted and ran towards him, each exhaling a sigh of relief.

"Finally!" Alya sighed. "You're here. Now, where's Marinette?"

"H-How would I know Alya?" Adrien stuttered, taken aback by her question.

"What do you mean by that dude? Wasn't she with you?"

"No."

"And all this time.." Alya muttered, dejected, "we thought you guys were together."

Adrien couldn't help but blush at their presumptions.

"Where is she anyway?", he inquired, partly as a means of distracting himself from his racing thoughts.

"We have no idea.", Sabine finally spoke up.

"Alya and Nino said that she took off moments before the ceremony began, saying that we called for her. But we never did. And now, she is nowhere to be found and her phone is unreachable. And I can't help but...."

She stopped, shaking.

"...but worry about her."

It was evident what type of worry she was talking of.

"Don't worry, Mrs Dupain-Cheng. I'm sure that we'll find her soon. And when we do, she is going to get an earful. For all we know, she might be out there, helping someone out and her phone's battery dead." Alya laughed lightly, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Yeah, maybe." Sabine repeated, her head still down.

"Let's go then!"

Tom nodded and the trio made their way to the grounds.

"Where should we start?"

"Maybe we should split up?"

"I vote for sticking together!"Alya's voice interrupted. Nino and Adrien gave her looks of disbelief. After all, no one would expect someone as brave and fearless as Alya to oppose to an idea of splitting up, that too in a place that's swarming with people.

She noticed their expressions before blushing and laughing out a short, embarrassed laugh.

"I'm sorry. It's just...", she paused, hesitant to continue.

"...It's just, that Ladybug didn't show up too and now this. I can't help but feel a bit uneasy and insecure. So, I would rather search the grounds in a group."

The boys smiled sightly and nodded, beginning the search.

Hey, everyone had their own moments, right?

They asked around, but their efforts went in vain. Finally the only place that remained was near the Carousel, which was less crowded and engulfed with the shadows of numerous trees surrounding it.

"This is one creepy looking place at this hour. I wonder if we'll find her here."Alya voiced out loud.

"Yeah, but if we do, I wonder what she'll be doing here in the first place." Adrien mumbled.

They looked around, behind trees and in the shadows. It was darker out here, owing to the lack of park lights. Only some of the trees were covered with fairy lights, which provided the faint, colourful glow.

Suddenly, Adrien stepped in something, soft and puffy, like foam.

He looked down to see a pink purse with a printed pattern that was all too familiar. His eyes followed the ground a little while ahead of it and he stood, frozen in shock.

"Alya! Nino!"

Moments later the duo arrived besides him, panting.

"What is it?" Nino asked, looking up to him. Following the dumbfound Adrien's fixated gaze, he turned to face in that direction too.

"Oh my god!"

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Q. What do you think happened?

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Belle💕