Parenting Assignment (Miraculous Ladybug)

Chapter 8

Adrien didn't know how to respond. He let his mouth hang open as he tried to come up with something to say while staring back into Marinette's shocked bluebell eyes.

Before he knew what he was doing, he nervously let himself give he a slight nod and muttered "o-oh, I see..."

He didn't know why he kept prolonging his lies to Marinette. This was his first time being partnered with his shy classmate and he wanted to use this opportunity to strengthen their friendship, but relationships filled with lies never end well.

He mentally groaned to himself, if only he had told her the truth, or most of the truth, from the start. Why didn't he just tell her that he left Emma with a friend during the akuma attack? But it was too late for that, there's no way he could tell her now.

Marinette on the other hand was in complete shock, but for a much different reason than what Adrien thought. Her first thought which coursed through her brain was 'why would anyone want to steal Emma?' Out of all the dolls they could have chosen to steal, why would they want the demon baby? Her second thought passed by with a brief feeling of excitement at not having to deal with both her Emma and Chat's Emma at the same time, but that feeling quickly faded when she realized that this situation could possibly jeopardize both her and Adrien's grades on this assignment.

"We should look for her" Marinette blurted out "...I guess." She added the last part under her breath.

"R-right." Adrien said and they started to make their way out of the school.

Once they were outside Marinette started to look around, not sure which direction they should go.

"Where do you suppose we should start looking?" Marinette asked, but Adrien could only shrug. What was he supposed to say, 'let's find someone who is akumatized and wait for Ladybug to show up?'

"Well," he started," all we really can do at the moment is walk around and keep our eyes out for anyone who has a blonde haired, blue eyed doll, right?"

Marinette sighed. "I guess you're right, that's really our only option at the moment."

"And while we're at it we can also look for his parents." Adrien held up Chat's Emma.

Marinette nodded and gave him an uneasy smile. She could only hope that Chat retrieved Emma in his civilian form rather than as Chat Noir, she had no clue how she would explain why she had Chat's baby to Adrien, or explain to Chat why she had his Emma instead of Ladybug.

The two began walking through the streets of Paris in silence. Neither of them could deny the awkward tension between them, it was just like when Adrien went to Marinette's house to practice for the video game tournament.

Adrien was the first to speak up, trying to start a conversation. He had decided that it was his job to try and bond more with Marinette.

"So, what should we call him?"

"Hmm?"

"The baby," he said looking down at Chat's Emma, "we should probably call him something while we've got him."

"Oh," Marinette smiled and placed a finger to her lip as she thought of a new name for Emma. "How about...Louis...?"

Adrien laughed and held up Emma. "Louis? Well, he does look exactly like Emma, and Emma's name was originally Louis. Sounds good to me!"

Marinette leaned in towards Emma. Chat's Emma had been almost as big of a pain to her as her Emma has been and as pathetic as it sounded, she wanted to get revenge on at least one of the dolls. With a taunting voice she smirked and said, "how about it, Louis, do you like your new name?"