Off Pointe

It's Not About Saving Myself Anymore

On Point

New Birth and Rebirth

By Rena Rouge

Exciting news has been shared today! We are proud to announce that Tikki Fu (38) has given birth to a darling little girl. Going by the name 'Cheesecake', we are happy to announce that the baby and mother are doing great, and Plagg Fu (38) has already taken to the role of father by stepping down from all his working commitments for the rest of the year.

Plagg wanted us to thank everyone for their support and left us with a comment that there is more to life than just dance, sometimes it takes the reveal of new feelings and new hopes to change your outlook.

We wonder if anyone has passed that message onto Gabriel Agreste?

In other news, we are now only two days away from the Agreste Gala and we are sure things are getting heated down in the studios.

*****

Rehearsals had been strange without Plagg. Marinette hadn't realised how much she depended on him until he wasn't there to flash her a reassuring smile, or give her raised eyebrows questioning what the hell she was doing.

Plagg was now off until the end of the year being the doting husband and father. It seemed Tikki's experience wasn't exactly straight forward, her recovery time being prolonged due to an unplanned operation. But she was doing well, and Leena (not Cheesecake) was tiny but perfect, she couldn't wait to go and see them.

All of this meant they would have to continue without their mentor and pretty much hope for the best during the final rehearsals. Where Marinette didn't worry too much for herself, she knew how much Adrien needed and depended on Plagg being in the studio. The one person who could keep him focused and performing his best.

After ice skating the previous evening, they had gone back to Adrien's home and she just couldn't help but jump onto the sewing machine again. Her mind was filled with weird and wonderful ideas of what she could do with the pink fabric he'd smuggled for her, before opting for the one which would suit their dance the most. She was going to look wonderful and it was all thanks to Adrien.

Never would she have dreamed of dancing such an iconic role in a ballet, and even though technically you couldn't class their duet as a pure ballet performance, she was still dancing as the Sugar Plum Fairy. She couldn't believe how lucky she was.

Today was the last day in the studio before moving to the rehearsals on stage the following day. They were having a full run through and as Plagg had planned it, all cast were allowed to sit in and watch. Marinette couldn't help but be surprised Gabriel had allowed such chaos.

They were being directed today by one of Plagg's friends and from what Adrien had explained, another of Fu's little gang.

Dusuu was originally from England and worked with Adrien's cousin, Félix Fathom. She knew of Félix's name, of course, yet she'd never had the opportunity to meet him. He was as much of a legend as Adrien was, although his personality was meant to be the complete opposite. Where she'd managed to pull the fake levels away from Adrien and arrive at the most caring and genuine part, Félix was meant to have no layers — he was just an asshole.

So far, the show had been running like clockwork; each and every dance had been performed to perfection and from what Marinette could tell it was going to be one hell of a show, and that was without her and Adrien's performance, of which she wasn't sure when they would be performing it.

She knew Lila and Adrien had the one within The Nutcracker set, so, if she had to guess, she'd say herself and Adrien were either performing at the end or just before intermission. Whichever it was, she was growing more and more eager to get up and dance, there was a certain buzz within the studio today, one she hadn't experienced since that first day when they were allowed to dance altogether.