Mine, His

"You know dude, I sincerely doubt that this is safe. Pastel pink hair or not, if someone sees you... Maybe if I add a bit more foundation." Nino said wearily as he eyed Adrien.

Adrien fought the increasingly intense urge to roll his eyes, and instead opted to clench his jaw and respond through fiercely gritted teeth.

"I'm in a female trench coat and some deliriously high boots, I'm wearing a pink wig with sunglasses that look like the eyes of that of a Drosophila Melanogaster lacking the genes for the wild-type phenotype, my lips look as red as Marinette's menstrual fluids, and these false lashes have got me this close from cataclysm-ing every one of the beauty stores in Paris, I'm certain I will not be recognised, and you have certainly done enough, so don't mess with me." Adrien said, sounding more haughty than menacing than he would have liked.

Never in his wildest imagination had he ever thought that a day such as this would arrive, a day that he was caked in foundation eight shades lighter than his skin tone actually was to cover up his tan, wearing ungodly amounts of perfume and not smelling like his favorite body wash. He felt disgusted at the unfamiliar change.

"Look, all I'm saying is we have to be stealthy. If we're going to be walking there, chances are that many people are going to see you."

Adrien pursed his already plump but overlined lips. They had decided that it would be best not to go in Nino's car as people may become weary of a car outside the house of their neighbor Fu who had not made the slightest inkling of a sound all week. Earlier, Nino had done what he insisted was a 'drive by', and he had noted with peaked interest that everyone living on that street seemed to not have a car. Whether it was out of fear of having it stolen in the current version of Paris or out of reverence for the environment, Nino was unsure. What he did know, however, was that if he happened to chance taking his car there, and parking it on that street, people were bound to wonder what was going on. It seemed to be a very quiet, reserved street that hardly got any visitors, but the last thing that they needed was to be caught in headlights, literally. That left them squandering around, trying to come up with a disguise for the blonde who insisted on going due to his claim of Nino not being 100% thorough when it came to his scheming and stealth. Everyone with eyes would be able to tell Adrien was a model from his height and build. At first they played with the idea of disguising him as a severely obese man or something a bit heftier than his current lean physique, but Adrien was pathetic at not walking gracefully, it was ingrained in his persona and try as he could, walking with a waddle or straight-forwardly just looked as if a long stick had been shoved uncomfortably far along up his backside. They tried covering him up with make-up and slapping on glasses, a wig and a beard, still, his walk was a dead giveaway, he was one of two people who had that particular walk, one of which was just the flipside to the original. Eventually, after several failed attempts of disguising him, Plagg suggested that if Adrien looked like a woman, nobody would question the walk or the face. Hesitatingly, begrudgingly, Adrien relented. To the everyone's utmost surprise(And Plagg and Nino's amus.e.m.e.nt), he was a master at walking in heels, owing to Anton Ravensburg and his incessant need to put him in anything that involved people ogling him and everything that he considered wacky enough to be on the Runway.

Plagg regarded Adrien from his perch, which was currently the tip of Nino's cap.

"If Marinette could see you now." He murmured.

Adrien looked at him with irritated eyes and a downright exasperated expression. "I'm doing this for her. And no, she is not going to see me like this… And neither of you are going to tell her about this, got it?" Adrien said, staring Plagg and Nino down.

Both his companions just rolled their eyes. Honestly, they were never going to tell her in the first place, Adrien needed to have more faith in them.

"Relax, you look gorgeous, maybe your lipstick is a tad too dark but it's not unpleasant looking so stop being so particular, now can we go?" Plagg w.h.i.n.ed. Adrien gave himself a once over in the mirror. It was kind of worrying to him how feminine he looked, and he was certain that if anyone looked at him in a remotely promiscuous way, he was going to snap, and their guts would go flying, maybe an eyeball or two, and some of their most probably grossly under-endowed parts… perverts .

He took a deep breath. No. He needed to endure this. For him. For Marinette. For their future. If he couldn't help her wherever she was, then he'd be damned if he didn't help her where he could. To hell with dignity.

"Let's go." Adrien said with resolve radiating off his caked skin, fl.i.c.k.i.n.g his hair. "Where's your handbag?" Nino asked, looking around. They had decided to get an enormous one to stow inventory in if they needed to.

"There." Plagg pointed to the laundry basket.

"Right."Adrien said, moving his coat so that Plagg could slip into the inner pocket.

Nino offered him his arm.

"Milady." Nino bowed and snickered.

"Just shut up." Adrien hissed lowly.

"Careful Princess , your Chat Noir is showing." Plagg taunted. "Yeah, no need to get frisky." Nino said. Plagg and Nino began to laugh. Adrien was thankful that the make-up was what Nino called 'full-coverage', because he knew his face was probably red with frustration.

" Imbeciles. I'm surrounded by damn imbeciles." Adrien said lowly as they walked to the front door and left Nino's place discreetly.

The pair walked in a calm manner in the direction of Fu's home.

As they crossed a road, some teenagers cat-called.

"Resist. Resist. Resist." Plagg and Nino practically hissed.

Adrien flared his nostrils indignantly. 'I'll hang them off the Eifel tower with their vile tongues, disgraceful excuses of men. The city is on a communication lockdown, they could at least pretend to give a damn.'

" Shitheads." Adrien snarled, but he more than anyone knew that he couldn't blow their cover, they'd worked hard on this disguise with Nino running back and forth, buying the clothes and shoes, and for someone who kept up a fake persona for years, he knew exactly the implications of acting out.

He wouldn't risk it.

Plagg and Nino breathed a sigh of relief once they were out of range of the boys.

'Shitheads.' That was a new one coming from Adrien.

It was hard not to miss the frightening murderous look in Adrien's eyes but they said nothing.

"We should be there in a few minutes." Nino said.

Adrien nodded. After nine more minutes, they were finally on Fu's street.

"What's the name of this street?" Adrien asked. "Aurora Avenue," Plagg answered, not skipping a beat.

"Ah." Adrien said in acknowledgment. The trio looked around cautiously.

"Seems clear." Plagg said. "Right, let's go," Adrien said. Briskly, they all walked to Fu's front door and after Plagg zapped through the door to unlock it from the inside (Since he and Nino had locked it the last time they'd come to see Fu only to find him missing), the boys quickly walked into the home.

All three breathed a sigh of relief.

"The road seems really dead, we really should have just driven here, I wouldn't have had to have worn this uncomfortable disguise," Adrien remarked.

"Better safe than sorry, bro." Nino said. Adrien sighed, pulling off the pink wig.

"What exactly are we looking for?" He asked, looking up at Plagg who flew up to perch on his blonde locks.

"Well, uhhh, there's a little something that I mayyyy have left out… We have to find the contraption that opens up the entrance slash opening of where the container is placed… And uhhh, you see…Well…Uhhh… I have never actually seen what the contraption is… Actually I know what it is, sort of, along the lines, it's just I'm not a hundred percent suuuure…"Plagg started, rubbing his cheek. Adrien and Nino's eyes widened.

"WHAT?" They both chorused.

"See, I know it's a clock, well I think… and I know we have to enter some sort of activation code thingy-majiggy which we would possibly just need to turn the clock needles in a right sequence if it IS a clock, I just don't know which one it is in this house… But I know it ticks really loud once you activate it! And I know it's IN this house." Plagg answered quickly.

"… You know how to activate it right?" Adrien asked slowly.

"… I'm working on it." Plagg laughed nervously.

"You're working on it." Adrien deadpanned.

"Uh, yeah." Plagg laughed nervously.

"Wait, you mean to tell me, I spent hours doing that-"Nino started as he gestured indignantly towards Adrien's feminized and clearly displeased and exasperated form, "-in order to get here, and you have no idea how to activate the contraption that you think is a clock but aren't 100% sure about?"

"Well, at least we know the container is in this house. I'll figure it out." Plagg waved a flipper.

Adrien's left eye twitched and he grabbed the mischievous kwami in his fist, bringing him close to his face, narrowing his eyes in agitation.

"Uh huh, and how's that going?" Adrien asked with a frightening smile.

"Uhhhh…I'm working on it…"Plagg said.

Adrien exhaled. "Could you not have said something before we got here?"

"It wouldn't have made a difference, I mean we'd have to search for it either way." Plagg rolled his eyes.

Adrien pinched the bridge of his nose and released the kwami.

"A warning would be nice in future, even if you feel it irrelevant, Plagg." The blonde sighed, kicking off the heeled boots.

"This apartment is quite decently sized, where do you suppose we should look first?" Adrien glanced at his companions.

"I'll look at the walls, maybe it's hanging somewhere." Nino mused.

"If all he knows about the contraption is that it may be a clock because it ticks really loud once it's activated then we can't scratch out pocket-watches or wristwatches,"Adrien said, bringing his elegant hand up to tap his chin.

"There's also the possibility that Fu would have it on him." Nino said.

"I doubt it." Plagg said.

"Why is that?" Adrien asked, training his eyes on the floating creature.

"Because Fu isn't stupid enough to keep anything of value with him knowing that there's the possibility of being robbed or pickpocketed, he doesn't even keep a wallet, and just by having the Turtle miraculous on his wrist, he feels his pushing it. Wayzz told us as much when he used to visit the miraculous world." Plagg said.

Adrien nodded to himself.

"It could even be an alarm clock…Alright, we should split up and see if we can find anything." Adrien said, offhandedly fanning himself.

Nino nodded and Plagg stayed exactly where he was, floating in the same spot thoughtfully.

He was going out on a whim saying it was a clock, but the times that he'd heard the ticking noise, he'd been in the Miraculous box, and it really sounded like the ticking of a clock to him, but there was a huge possibility that he was colossally off the mark, and the next issue lay in the absence of knowledge pertaining to how to actually activate it.

He had not the slightest inkling of an idea, but he couldn't say that, really, he couldn't. The boys left the room, fanning out to find whatever ticking device that they could. Adrien walked through the rooms briskly, and carefully scanned the walls before moving to the closets and drawers.

It felt quite weird to be snooping around Fu's belongs the way that he was, and at the back of his mind he admittedly felt a little guilty as he went through the old Guardian's drawers.

That thought alone froze him, and he straightened up with a frown.

Guilt… Involving someone other than Marinette…

That was new, or rather, it was something he hadn't felt in a long time, and he wasn't particularly sure how to react.

Nino peaked into the room carrying a cardboard box. "Any luck, dude?" He asked. Adrien blinked and shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"Not as yet, there's still quite a few rooms that we have to get through." Adrien replied. Nino nodded absently. " Well, if you do find anything, just drop it into this box, I'm leaving it in the kitchen near Plagg, hopefully he'll tinker around or something and figure this crap out." Nino said, turning to walk out of the room.

"Noted." Adrien said.

Nino paused mid-step and slowly craned his neck to regard his companion with slightly furrowed brows. The blonde's default poker face was on, perfectly set. Nino pursed his lips for a moment, he felt that he could see right through it.

"You know, Adrien... I don't know if you know this,and I know you're tired of hearing me, but you're one of the best guys I know." He said suddenly. Adrien stopped staring at the contents of Fu's drawer in favor of staring at the man he had recently labeled as a friend.

"Pardon?" Adrien replied silkily, not quite understanding.

"You heard me. You really think you're the worst, but you're far from it." Nino remarked.

Adrien slowly tilted his head in a manner that reminded Nino a lot of Chat Noir when he was about to scratch someone's throat out in a cynical way.

"I can see it, you know when you space out and trail off. You don't understand what's happening to you anymore." Nino said,and Adrien straightened up to look at him, a measure of panic flashing behind his eyes at Nino's insightfulness.

"I have some degree of understanding." Adrien replied.

"You do, but not a very deep degree, is it? A lot of the time, you look like you want to be angry but can't, and many times you look like you're angry but don't want to be. All the time, you worry about Marinette, and the whole time, you forget about taking care of you. Several times, you double take on any action you decide to make and a shitload of the time, you find yourself trying to understand why you want to hurt people when you actually want to save everyone, simultaneously." Nino said.

Adrien's nose twitched. "You're mistaken. Everything you just said is a completely misguided opinion." Adrien said. Nino smiled a little.

"They're going to love you, the real you, I promise, and by then, this will all make sense. Plagg, Marinette and I already do, and it wasn't even a challenge, as you assumed it would be." Nino said softly, leaving the blonde to his own thoughts.

Adrien blinked before scoffing.

"Whatever." He said under his breath as he opened another drawer. It really irked him how well Nino had come to understand him and his unorthodox behavior. Frankly, he didn't know whether to feel happy or uncomfortable.

Mayhap a bit of both. He closed the drawer and let out a deep breath, leaning against the drawers.

It was fine, because Nino didn't see everything.

He was fine. Plagg was… something along the lines of fine.

Marinette was hopefully fine… Possibly….Maybe…

Adrien ran a hand through his hair, completely frustrated. He'd been trying very hard to hide it from Nino and Plagg but it was becoming too much for him to handle.

Some odd feeling was swirling in his c.h.e.s.t and clawing at both sides of his diaphragm it seemed, and while he was not a stranger to this painful, anxious type of ebb, he couldn't understand why he was feeling it so strongly.

A whole lot had happened in the last few days, and though a bit of it was resolved, something in his gut told him that he was in for something much worse than he could ever imagine.

The feeling gnawed at him, as if it was some flesh-eating bacteria traveling greedily along his insides, and for the life of him, he could not make sense of the feeling.

And that scared him.

It scared him because he already knew the things that made him hurt.

It scared him because he knew the things that made him anxious, but the anxiousness of not even knowing why you were anxious?

That was the feeling that he hated most of all.

Adrien supposed that he should be thankful that as perceptive as Nino was, he was not able to see as deep as he thought he could. He took another breath and made yet another attempt to clear his thoughts, then, he left the room.

Plagg's green eyes followed his form silently as he entered the next room.

Plagg g.r.o.a.n.e.d, he had been thinking of what the possible activation code could be, but he kept coming up short

The kwami g.r.o.a.n.e.d in irritation before letting out a loud sigh.

*****************************

Marinette g.r.o.a.n.e.d and twitched, her eyes scrunching.

"Is she waking up?" A feminine voice asked.

"No idea, humans always look weird so that expression could very well just be her face." Another voice replied gruffly. A few hums of agreement became audible.

"I think she should wake up soon." A squeaky voice said.

"She should have woken up a while ago, I'm concerned." Someone said.

"We should stay calm. She'll definitely be alright." Another voice replied quietly.

Everyone remained silent and stared at the young woman.

Slowly, Marinette opened her eyes. The room was dimly lit, nearly to the point of darkness, thankfully, but the eyes of the other inhabitants shone brightly in contrast. Blinking the exhaustion out of her own eyes, she took a breath before really taking a look around.

"Marinette! Oh I was so worried!" Someone said, and not more than a second later, Marinette's disconcerted line of vision became filled with a small pink kwami.

"Tikki? Where am I? Did we escape?" Marinette asked, her eyes beginning to widen as the memories flooded into her mind.

"We're in the Miraculous world, and yup! We're all here." Tikki answered.

"Yes…We're all here." Someone drawled, glowing orange irises fl.i.c.k.i.n.g from Marinette to Fu with a pointed look. Fu looked down.

"Honestly Siberius, there was nothing else that he could have done." A calm voice responded. Marinette's eyes flitted through the dark room towards the cerulean eyes glowing softly.

"Am I missing something?" Marinette asked, nervously.

Someone scoffed, pink eyes seeming quite irked. "You're not missing anything my dear, but the human world sure is." Marinette frowned in confusion, looking towards Tikki.

Tikki frowned at the owner of the voice before looking back at Marinette.

"It's going to be okay Marinette. We'll get you back soon anyway! Don't even worry about it."

"You'll be back to your own plane in no time at all." The young-looking man with cerulean eyes stated soothingly.

"How long is no time at all?" Marinette wondered out aloud.

"Approximately two days. If a human from the human world enters the Miraculous world, the Miraculous world spits them out after a maximum of three days. You've been here for almost a day so you'll be sent out soon." Someone said, and the statement was soon followed by the sound of a crisp slap.

"Oww!"

"Don't tell her that! What if she pulls an 'Elijah' on us?!"Someone hissed.

"She's a Miraculous wielder! She wouldn't do anything stupid!"

"URM, HELLO?CHAT NOIR? CRAZY BRAT WITH A MIRACULOUS? DOES THAT RING A BELL?" Someone else said.

Marinette gasped.

Elijah.

Chat Noir.

Adrien Agreste.

"Elijah!" Marinette suddenly gasped. She looked at the glowing eyes surrounding her. "He's-"she started only to be interrupted by someone with purple irises.

"Evil? Conniving? A disgrace to this world? An abomination to human society?"

Marinette blinked.

"Uhhh, not what I was going for mam…I was going to say that he's trying to get into this world…"She said nervously.

"Yes, yes, we're aware, child."

Marinette sighed in relief.

"Truthfully there isn't much we can do without causing a stir in the Human realm, but we do need you to get to your own realm because by you being here, we're susceptible to infiltration." Someone with green eyes spoke, glancing around.

"Until then, what do we do?" Marinette asked in worry.

"Miss Marinette, please relax, we'll take care of it. As we speak, possible solutions are being brainstormed in a room down the hall. For now, just rest, it will all be okay. Elijah will be caught and balance will be restored." The person with cerulean eyes spoke calmly, eyes twinkling all the while, seemingly almost amused.

Marinette bit her inner cheek. If Elijah was still out there, Chat could still be attacked by him.

*****************************************

Plagg g.r.o.a.n.e.d as he rubbed at his ears. All he could hear was the ticking of all the clocks in the box he was rummaging in. He'd been thinking for quite a while now, but he'd still come up short on what Fu might have had in mind for the activation of the contraption. Aside from that, Nino and Adrien were still searching for the said contraption.

Nino sighed for the umpteenth time, running a hand over his face.

"Not to be a bummer or anything, but this sucks." He commented.

"Did you expect searching an old man's house for a ticking object to be fun?" Adrien asked dryly. A loud growl interrupted them.

"I'M HUNGRY." Nino said, clutching his abdomen.

"Me too!" Plagg gasped, popping out of the box of ticking items.

"Quiet you! Get back in there!" Adrien all but snarled.

Plagg wailed. "I'm staaaaarviiiingggg. Feeeeed meeee."

"I'm sure the old man won't worry too much if we make a sandwich." Nino said walking into the kitchen.

Adrien's eyes widened. "You can't just go into someone's home and use their food." He said, going into the kitchen to stop Nino who was already rummaging in the freezer.

"Relaaaaax, I doubt he's going to walk in on us." Nino rolled his eyes, taking out some chicken nuggets.

"What if he's saving those chicken nuggets?" Adrien asked, crossing his arms.

"Not everyone is possessive about their stuff, Bro." Nino snickered.

Adrien pinched his brows.

"That's not the point." He replied.

"Let's see, how does this thing work…" Nino trailed off, having already put the nuggets on a plate. He was staring at the microwave oven sort of contraption with six small stove plates atop it. In truth, it looked worse for the wear.

"Oh, that doesn't work, at least I think it doesn't because I haven't seen it in action, I think Fu keeps it because he likes these ugly looking things."Plagg replied, floating into the kitchen too.

"It looks ancient."Nino's nose scrunched

"I know, doesn't really match the interior, does it?"Plagg replied rhetorically in distaste.

He gasped.

"Heyyyy! While Fu is gone I can finally get rid of it! It's such an eyesore." Plagg shivered in disgust.

Adrien's nose twitched. " Don't gasp like that! I thought you found something." He sighed.

Plagg shrugged and flew over to the fridge. "Help me toss that out later, kay?"

Nino shrugged, attempting to pull the oven door open, but it didn't budge.

"What the hell man, the door doesn't even work. It's a piece of junk." He said in aggravation, smacking the side of the oven.

Meanwhile, Adrien continued to stare around the kitchen. Everything was so neat, clean, and modern.

"I really can't think of anything else, and we haven't found anything else… What if he hid it in the floor or something?" Adrien suppressed a groan as he spoke. He was starting to feel helpless again.

"This thing is so weird. Thank God for the modern age." Nino said with a huff, giving the oven a look of intense loathing.

Adrien pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, quite deep in thought. His eyes wandered over to Nino who left the strange oven and walked over to the stove. For a moment, Adrien's eyes remained transfixed on the oven.

Something clicked in his mind and he let out a small, barely audible gasp, briskly walking over to it with widened eyes.

Plagg watched him. "What?" He asked but Adrien just bent down to inspect the old contraption.

His green eyes flitted across the different knobs, there were six, each with identical number sets that seemed to be painted on: the numbers 0 to 9.

The knobs were in pairs, two in each row and three rows with two columns.

Then there were two knobs, a bit further down. One seemed to control the temperature of the oven in degrees Celsius while the other one was looked like a timer that went up to 60 minutes.

"This! This could be it!" Adrien suddenly said, spinning around to face his companions.

Plagg raised a brow.

"How could that be it?" He asked. Nino frowned.

"There's six knobs, look, supposedly each one controls one of the stove plates, but they're positioned in pairs, sets of two. Like a date, a month, and a year. The levels go up to nine. And it's got a timer too. For some reason, the timer is set to ten minutes." Adrien said.

Plagg's eyes widened.

"It can't be." He replied, gobsmacked.

Nino blinked. "He's right, I've never known of a stove level going up to 9, this oven must have been specifically made for this purpose."

Plagg paused.

"Come to think of it, he's always had this thing." He mused out loud.

He flew towards the oven.

"Why would it have a temperature knob though? It doesn't fit." Plagg asked, glancing at Adrien.

Nino was the one who responded.

"…Maybe it's not a knob."He walked forward and bent down to get a better look at the knobs.

"Maybe it's like a safe. A modern safe… After you enter the code, you have to press the button."He spoke thoughtfully, reaching out and pressing the knob.

It moved inward as if it were a button, but the moment it did, a loud beep sounded, startling both Plagg and himself. Adrien on the other hand looked elated. Plagg held his ears. "Temperature knobs shouldn't do that." He said.

"Nino! You figured it out!" Adrien said, turning to Nino.

"No, dude, this was all you, I was gonna help Plagg throw this thing out later!"

Plagg thought for a moment. Well, at least he knew not that the code was a date… But what was the timer knob for? What time did they have to input? Or was the timer knob significant of another factor.

"So the code is a date." Adrien turned to Plagg, speaking a matter-of-factly.

"Any significant dates in Fu's life?" Nino asked.

Plagg pondered for a moment.

"Not many that I know of… There's the day he got accepted to be a Guardian… The day he left the Miraculous world to come back here… The day Elijah escaped the Miraculous world…That's about it."

Adrien blinked. "Do you remember those dates?"

"I do." Plagg replied.

"What about the timer knob?" Nino asked.

Adrien frowned and looked back at the timer knob.

"… Is it fixed at ten minutes? Can the knob move?" He asked, eyes narrowing.

"Haven't tried to move it."Nino shrugged.

Adrien reached forward in an attempt to turn the knob back to zero, but to no avail.

The knob wouldn't budge, not even in the slightest.

"It's fixed… Just like a knob on a safe… When you enter the right code, you press enter, and when you turn the knob, the safe opens…" Adrien said, a look of realisation dawning on his face.

"Ohhhhhh."Nino said in awe.

"So we just need to put in those dates."Adrien said."Go ahead Guardian boy, you can tell him the dates Plagg…"He said to Nino and moved aside.

"Okay…"Plagg said, albeit unsurely. Fu was never a self-centred person, of all three dates, the only one that didn't have to entirely do with him was the day Elijah escaped the Miraculous world.

He sighed and flew forward. The only possible way to know was to make an attempt.

Nino cracked his knuckles. "Let's do this." He said enthusiastically.

Plagg nodded. "He got accepted to be a guardian on the 02/10/65."

Nino nodded and turned each knob to the respective number before pressing the temperature knob. It made a loud beep noise, just like before, but similarly, when he tried to turn the timer knob, it didn't move.

Plagg frowned.

"He left the miraculous world on the 21/06/70."

Nino nodded, quietly repeating the numbers as he turned the knobs.

Again, it didn't work.

Plagg exhaled with a frown.

"Elijah escaped on the 12/12/10."

Nino blinked. "Twenty ten?"

Plagg nodded.

"Okay…"Nino put the numbers in.

All three males held their breaths…

An exercise in futility, because that date didn't work either.

They all let out the breath they held collectively and dejectedly.

"How are we supposed to know a date that's important to him?" Adrien said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Nino sighed. "Maybe he keeps a journal or something?"

Plagg stayed silent for a moment.

"There is another date… But I'm not sure of it since I wasn't actually there to witness anything…"He said slowly. Brown and Green orbs flicked towards him.

"The day your mother and Duusuu disappeared and Elijah's wife and kid died." He replied.

Adrien paled.

Nino looked at Adrien.

"…Do you remember the date?"He asked tentatively.

Adrien blinked.

"I remember the year… But not the date, Father hid my mother's disappearance from me for quite a while before he actually said something. My apologies." He replied.

Plagg sighed.

"Would your father know it?" Nino asked.

Adrien's brows furrowed.

"He doesn't really keep track of dates very well, I mean he's always unintentionally forgotten mum's birthday, and their anniversary on a few occasions…"

"Yeah, but this was a very sorrowful day for him, he must remember it, bro." Nino argued.

Adrien thought for a moment.

"He has a locket with a picture of her in it… Maybe it has the date she went missing too under the picture or something?" Adrien mused.

Plagg tapped his chin.

"Can't we just ask him? He did agree to corporate, right?" He asked.

"What would I even say to him?" Adrien asked.

"Well, if we're emailing him, we can just be blunt as hell, like 'Yo man, when did your wife go missing?' and hopefully, he responds quickly." Nino replied.

"Oooooo! Not a bad idea." Plagg said.

"Are we going to do this now? Do you have enough energy?" Adrien asked Plagg.

"Yup, I'm good." Plagg said, closing one eye and sticking his tongue out. Adrien didn't look convinced, and made a mental note to detransform as quick as he could.

"Alright, Plagg, transform me."

Nino watched the transformation in his usual awe.

"I never, ever get bored of seeing that." Nino said happily.

"I don't know whether to be flattered or concerned seeing as I transform into a cat-man wearing a suit that leaves next to nothing to the imagination." Chat replied, eyeing Nino wearily.

Nino wagged his brows.

Chat made a face and took out his baton.

"Alright…Email…"He said to himself as he opened up his email.

"I think it's best to be blunt, curt, straight out, you know? That way he won't ask questions."

"Should I just write, 'What was the date of your wife's disappearance?' or is that too blunt?" Adrien asked. Nino shook his head. "That's absolutely perfect. Blunt is what we're going for."

Adrien nodded and began to type the message. He was a bit nervous but he kept his face as stoic as possible, biting down the instinct to panic.

He hit send and let out a breath.

"And now we wait." Nino said.

They wouldn't have to wait long at all it seemed, because the baton made a noise, indicating a new message.

"It's from him." Adrien said.

"What does it say?" Nino asked, face filled with eager anticipation.

"Just the date, 14/06/12." Chat replied. "Plagg, detransform me."

Plagg zapped out of the ring and took a deep breath.

"Right!Let's do this!"he said as soon as he did.

"Think it'll work?" Adrien asked.

"Just trust me, if this doesn't work kid, then nothing else will." Plagg said in certain voice. He looked over at Nino.

Nino rolled his shoulders.

"Right, let's get it." He said before jumping twice, a new habit that Adrien responded to with a sigh.

Nino began to enter the code, turning each knob carefully. He then eyed the Temperature button.

"This is nerve-wracking." He spoke.

Adrien who had been biting his thumb pad growled in exasperation.

"It would be less nerve-wrecking if you just pressed the damned thing quickly." He snapped.

Nino blinked hard and pushed the temperature knob inwards.

This time however, it made an entirely different noise from the previous attempts, it was almost like the sound of a c major-chord on the piano.

Everyone held their breaths as Nino reached for the timer knob. Shutting a single eye, he attempted to turn the knob, and sure enough, it turned all the way to zero.

Not even a second after it was turned, the oven began to let out an impossibly loud ticking noise.

"Urgh!"Plagg exclaimed, covering his ears. "That's the ticking noise I was talking about. Open the door." Plagg said over the sound.

Nino quickly swung the door open with ease and the incessant ticking ceased.

"WHOA!" He gasped.

"What?" Adrien asked, curiously.

"Check it out! It's huge in here!" Nino exclaimed, moving aside.

Adrien frowned and peaked into the oven. He blinked rapidly.

"I was not expecting that." He admitted.

Plagg flew towards the entrance of the oven.

"What are you guys talking about?" He asked, confused. It was only when he swerved past Adrien to look through the oven opening that he saw what they were talking about.

It seemed that the 'oven' was no ordinary oven at all. Inside the oven was what seemed to be a room, quite a large one at that, filled with multiple sacks of various glowing stones, rows upon rows of oddly colored concoctions, several huge containers housing what looked like various harmless foods. Those were just a few of the items that the room held.

"I recognise that! Marinette had to eat those biscuits when she was sick!" Adrien said, pointing at one of the huge containers filled with pink biscuits.

"Maybe the witch in Hansel and Gretel wasn't really trying to cook them when she tried to stick them in the oven, you think she had one of these fancy room ovens that she wanted Hansel to play in?" Nino asked, looking over at Adrien who looked stunned.

"I'm sorry, I'm just in awe that the Undetectable Extension charm exists in real life." Adrien replied, shaking his head.

Plagg raised his brows.

"Well, that's a lot of stuff down there that we have to take…"He said, and turned to look at Adrien who was still mostly dressed as a female.

"I think we need to buy you a bigger handbag." He said, with a straight face.