Ladybug yanked her hood up around her head as she glanced around the fences of the junkyard. She was to go first and make sure the coast was clear. Rena slipped out of the junkyard after her, her tail swishing like the scarf it really was as she rounded the corner.

"Where are they going?" Chat asked curiously.

"To find the tree," Bee said, yawning as she headed back to the sofa.

"The tree?" Chat repeated.

"Maybe they're getting ropes though," Carapace shrugged.

"Ropes? What's going on?" Chat asked.

"Well to be one of us…" carapace glanced back at Bee.

Carapace was expecting Bee to join in and joke to Chat with him so they could have some fun together for a change, but she was exhausted. He couldn't be mad though. She'd led the police on a wild bee chase yesterday just so Carapace could get back to the safety of the junkyard with his new limp. Chat nudged him gently, his stomach dropping as he touched Carapace.

"Yes?" he urged.

"There are some things to know..." Carapace said, pulling his gaze away from bee.

"What's that?" Chat asked.

"We like to dream all day. Talk about plans and how life will be after Hawkmoth is gone, and get things done that need to be done in the real world. And then at night... well at night-" carapace chuckled.

Queen Bee beat him to the punch with a delicious smirk. "we /play."

Bee and Carapace grinned knowingly, but that made Adrien's stomach twist. He wasn't entirely certain what he was getting himself into now, but this test was either going to be the making of him or his doom. Ten minutes later or so, Ladybug appeared again, followed by Rena, who was bundled full of rope. Rena didn't even pause to greet him before hurrying over to the fence at the back of the junkyard and lobbing half the rope over to get to the tree on the other side.

"Climbing is important in this game. Escape is easier when no one can follow you and no one gets in your way. Plus you'll never be seen. No one ever thinks to look up," Ladybug smirked.

"Is it like jumping across the rooftops like we did on the way here?" Chat asked Carapace.

"Swing on limbs of trees for practice. If you can climb a tree you can climb most things," Ladybug said.

"is that true?" Rena asked Carapace curiously.

"I don't know man, but I've seen this guy scale a wall already, he can handle a tree," Carapace shrugged.

"Scrap the tree test then. up the rope," Ladybug declared.

One by one, Rena first because she was closest, they scaled the fence, using the rope to cling to as they walked up it as quickly as possible. All but Bee ended up standing on the top of the thick fence. They had space the length of a brick to stand on, and yet all of them crammed up on top like they were standing on the flat ground. Ladybug's hood flapped in the new breeze and Chat's tail now seemed dangerously long. They looked down on the junkyard, including Queen Bee still resting on the sofa. Ladybug unwound the rope from Rena and wrapped it around Chat Noir.

"Without waking up the bee, get over there," she declared, pointing to the other side of the junkyard.

Chat's mouth fell open. He wasn't sure how easy it would be to wake up Queen Bee, but he assumed it'd be harder than he expected otherwise they wouldn't make him do it.

"Using the rope?" He asked, uncertainly.

"If you need it," ladybug shrugged.

Chat looked to Carapace and Rena, hoping for more information, but it didn't come. That deeply frustrated him.

"What'd you expect me to do? swing from rope to rope? Fashion a catapult to throw me over there?! I don't get it!" Chat complained.

"Just get from here. To there. Without waking up bee. That's it. How you do it doesnt matter as long as it gets done!" Ladybug huffed.

Chat frowned as he tried hard to figure out what was expected of him. Ladybug's eye was beginning to drift towards the horizon. She could see the Agreste mansion from up here. She didn't know much about Gabriel, but she desperately wanted to meet him some day. He was her favourite designer. Then she spotted the familiar rooftop of her father's bakery and she felt a stab of guilt. How could she leave her father alone like this every day? How could she give up the bakery, even for her fashion dreams? It wasn't right. Her father needed her.

Rena knew ladybug wasn't listening from one glance. She cleared her throat quietly to get chat's attention.

"Listen, don't worry about waking bee-"

Carapace's eyes widened, and he hissed urgently, "Rena you're cheating!"

Rena ignored him. "Bee's gonna be waiting for you, she's not even asleep-"

Well if she wasn't going to stop he was going to remind her to at least try not to get caught, "Keep your voice down, she'll hear you!"

"You've gotta be prepared to roll in dirt when you can't change your shirt, pretty boy," she warned, lowering her voice for Carapace's peace of mind.

"Dirt?" Chat repeated, baffled.

"You get pretty dirty when you're marching around, kicking up a noise to distract the akumas while the others break people free. Don't be afraid to get dirty now, to prove you're willing to," she advised.

"Just high tail it to the other side and don't like Bee catch you," Carapace shrugged like it was simple, "Remember bull dog in infant's school? This is that. Really intense bull dog."

Chat Noir nodded as if he had a single clue what the hell she was talking about. He'd been home schooled. There were no bulldogs when you were home schooled. But he didn't want to seem clueless, so he went along with it. All he had to do was get to the other side without getting caught. That was it. Simple, right?

Chat tied the rope into a lasso and swung it as far as he could to let it latch onto something tall and far away. It did. A pole sticking out of the ground. On the sixth go mind.

Carapace elbowed him in the ribs, looking pleased. "Now you're cooking with fire!"

Adrien's stomach knotted as he tugged the rope. It was loose enough to let him swing to the ground, but he was certain he wouldn't get much further than that.

"Ready?" Rena asked, cautiously.

Chat's heart beat fast and his hair on the back of his neck curled upwards. "No... here I go!"

Ladybug snapped back into the situation as Chat Noir went swooping down the fence, clinging desperately to the rope, and pointing his toes to go faster as he flew towards Queen Bee. He swung through the air like Tarzan, biting his tongue to keep from screaming.

It made no different.

In the blink of an eye Bee had leapt onto the back of the sofa, balanced for a moment, before throwing herself up at the boy as he swung into reach. He yelped as her nails dug into his waist and both of them went plummeting into the ground.

"ooh!" Ladybug and Carapace winced.

"that's gonna show in the morning," Rena chuckled.

Chat Noir had milliseconds to recover before Bee and figure out how to get away. He realised what Rena had meant now, and spun across the dirt, onto his stomach, before pushing himself up like a launch pad, and leaping to his feet. Bee wasn't far behind him. Bee, instead of chasing him, launched herself back onto the rope, swung around the pole, and leapt forward to land on the ground in front of Chat. he skidded back, shocked at how he'd have to rethink. She smirked. he recognised that smirk, but he couldn't think from where for the life of him!

"GET HIM BEE!"

Down here Ladybug's voice was little more than a faint cry, but it was enough for Chat to lose that little bit of confidence. Bee's heart went out to him. she remembered Ladybug being anti her once, and how that shook her confidence. Maybe it was because he reminded her of herself, but for some reason she really didn't want to get into, she decided to go easy on him.

"Hey, dingus, if you really wanna show Ladybug what you can do, you gotta block my path!" she told him, as she lunged for him.

He leapt out of her path and glanced around for things he could block her out of the way with. Bee picked up a rock and tossed it at his feet.

"Dare you to throw that rock," she said.

For a moment he thought she was lying – why would she help him? – but he decided to believe her. he picked it up, and tossed it in his hand carefully, ready to try and skid it at her feet. After all, he didn't want to hurt her. He got a triple skip. Bee smirked.

"Better than nothing, but you've got a lot to learn," she said.

Bee dragged a plank of wood out of the piles of junk and lifted it high. He gasped as she twirled it. her thick gloves protected her from splinters. Chat wouldn't have that defence. Rena gulped. Her hand reached for Carapace instinctively. Carapace froze up as her fingers curled around his sleeve, and his cheeks turned fuchsia.
Chat glanced around manically, searching for something that he could use to defend himself. that went he saw that. a pivotal piece of junk. An abandoned bathtub. He smirked.

His green gaze focused on Bee as he leapt over the wood she swung at his feet. "Feeling scared yet?"

"Scared?!" Bee laughed, half amused, and half scoffing, "Never. I've got my friends to protect me."

She nodded her head towards the three kids on the fence. Maybe she did think of Rena as a friend then, even after everything they seemed to have between them.

"Even Rena?"

In the moment of distraction that her face flickered, he lunged forward, grabbing the wood, and plunged her arm upwards. The smack of the wood into the junk made the whole pile groan as the small pieces tumbled away.

"heads up," Chat warned, before dropping the wood and dashing to safety.

Bee frowned. She looked up to see the bathtub leaning dangerously close to falling. She gasped, and raced in the other direction, towards her own safety, without giving Chat Noir a second thought. Ladybug's gasp rivalled Bee's. she hit the floor seconds after leaping from the wall. Rena bit her lip.

"this isn't looking good," she said.

Carapace was dying. The parts of him that weren't burning red, were sickly greyish. He wasn't breathing, because he couldn't function, and the only thing he could think of despite his eyes being focus so vacantly on the scene below, was HANDHANDHANDHAND. Then Rena's hand fell from his, and she swung herself down into the junkyard again. Carapace finally gulped in the air like a fish, desperately trying to make his mind work after prolonged lack of oxygen.
Rena really would be the death of him one day.

"You ok bee?!" Ladybug called.

"This lunatic tried to drop a bath tub on me!" Bee cried, urgently.

"I saw, but are you ok?!" Ladybug insisted, her arm on Bee's trying to help her up.

Bee yanked open the wardrobe to their left, and Adrien smirked at the collection of their jackets inside. They had doubles. It made sense, of course, they didn't want to get their clothes dirty or torn or whatever, but they had doubles hidden away in a wardrobe to protect their clothes that they kept in a junkyard! It was a little odd, even to him. Bee, however, wasn't looking at the clothes, but rather the large cracked mirror in the back of the door. She yanked down her hood and cried out like she'd been shot. Adrien's heart leapt from his chest in surprise. He'd never heard a person make a noise like that before.

"NO! LOOK AT MY HAIR! HE'S RUINED MY HAIR!"

Rena laid her elbow on Ladybug's shoulder and smirked, "She's fine."

Bee scowled at her in the mirror but ignored her, so she could reach into her pocket and yank out a hair brush. Adrien gulped when he saw it. you wouldn't expect he'd remember a little brush like that given that it was pocket sized and shiny gold and otherwise incredibly common, but he remembered that.
when she came over to his house as a child, she liked to let the make up women do her hair, because they made her look pretty. One of them had this brush, and she adored it. she liked using the shiny back to reflect light across the room. when his father banned Chloe from the house, Adrien thought that she'd left because she was mad at him. he stole the brush (and left almost twenty euros, which is probably why the brush was never mentioned again) and sent to it to her house with the postman. When she still didn't return he thought she'd never received it. he didn't try again. now here it was. which meant either Bee had stolen it from the post man, or this was…

"Hey, Noir! Get over here!" Ladybug yelled.

Bee scowled as he approached. Oh yeah. He knew that scowl. But they weren't allowed to mention real names here. she wouldn't be pleased if he brought it up now. plus, Ladybug was looking at him instead of glaring at him, and that in its self was enough to make him want to stay shut up so he didn't ruin it.

Ladybug stepped forwards, out of Rena's grip. Rena pretended to stumble so Carapace leapt to catch her. Adrien didn't hear when she said when she giggled and poked his nose, but Carapace turned pink again, and snatched his hands back, and this time, Rena hit the ground. Carapace yanked his hood low over his face, mortified. Ladybug cleared her throat. Adrien focused on her. all of his attention laid on her bluebell eyes. she was so much shorter than him, and yet she had so much more confidence than him that she could have been a foot taller.

"Alright Noir, listen up because you've got a lot to learn, and if you don't learn, you don't eat! You gotta be tough and always use your head to feel at home on the street like us," She warned.

Chat's eyes widened, and his mouth gaped. He was in? was that what she was trying to say? Had she just moved on now, to let him know that there was no space for wasting time anymore? He'd have to just go with the flow. Adrien straightened up, pulling his shoulders back, and stayed upright like he was standing in front of his father. the funny thing was though, that it didn't feel so unnatural here.

Rena was back on her feet and grinning at Adrien now, "Don't worry, you've got talent and if you watch us, we'll show you how to make sure everything is free."

"yeah?" Adrien couldn't stop himself grinning.

"Watch how we do things and I guarantee you're gonna see how the best survive!" Ladybug promised.

"We make an art out of staying alive," Bee said, firmly.

She still wasn't pleased with how her hair looked, and she'd yanked it out of it's pony tail so now the yellow fell around her shoulders like a shawl, glinting in the sun. she really did put a lot of care into her hair.

"you think I can be like that too?" Adrien asked, hopefully.

"For now just try to do just as you're told," Ladybug warned. "If you can do that, you can help us. We're gonna take the town!"

"And take it with style," the smirk escaped Bee's stubborn frown, and made it into her voice.

"You think you're up to it?" Rena teased.

A smile grew on Adrien's face, and then he pictured his father's scowl at how much time he'd been missing today, and how furious he'd be if he kept sneaking out. he didn't dare imagine how mad he'd be if he even asked to go out again…
Ladybug understood the slow way that his smile faded away. He wanted to stay, he wanted this. he probably had an important reason to want this. she'd find out over time. but right here, right now, he was thinking about his other life. away from here he had family. Responsibilities. People he was worried about. She understood that. she had her father to worry about. But this was important.

"if you wanna back out-" her voice was the softest it had been all morning, and Adrien scarcely heard it.

"No. I wanna be here. but… I don't know if I can," His firm tone faded just like his smile.

Ladybug shrugged and flashed him a smile that made his chest twitch. "Don't show it. play it brave and bold and eventually you will be."

"Isn't it hard? Dangerous?" he asked, nervously.

"To live from week to week without an akuma taking you, you need technique so perfect you gotta practice it every day. we've got two rules. What are they?" Ladybug called to the others.

"Thou shall leave no one behind!" Rena yelled before anyone else could speak.

"and?" Ladybug pressed.

"Thou shalt not get caught, even for the sake of someone else," Bee said, finally tugging her hood back up over her head.

Rena silently mocked her speaking, so Bee shot a dirty look her way, and Rena blew a raspberry. Bee leapt to her feet, ready to fight, and Carapace darted over to calm her down. Meanwhile Rena giggled. Ignoring them, Ladybug focused on Chat Noir.

"Get what you can and then get away. Remember all the places you can hide. And, most importantly, remember we are always on your side. If you need us, you yell, and we come running. We need you, you come running. But if you can't save us without getting caught yourself, you leave us," She explained, calmly but seriously.

He looked confused. "but that goes against rule one."

"Yes, it does. But we need numbers. So don't get caught in the first place!" ladybug warned.

"that sounds complicated," Chat said.

"There is nothing complicated about the way we live. We are here for each other and proud of it," Carapace beamed.

"besides, we've got everything we need. Stars, moon, sun, plenty for everyone," Rena said, pointedly.

Ladybug rolled her eyes at them, but the soft smile that accompanied it was too affectionate to think she didn't care about every single one of them.

"All we have we share because we care about each other. We're a family," Carapace explained.

Adrien's heart hit his shoes. The word was so alien to him it felt like a ghost of something he used to know. "family?"

"well, there a kinda bond between us nobody can explain, and it feels like a celebration of life!" Rena beamed.

"you're exaggerating!" Bee snapped. Before Rena could start arguing, Bee turned to face Chat, and he suddenly saw the powerful blue in her eyes, lined by the smudged eyeliner. There was no mistaking it. this was his one and only friend. it took him so long to get past that thought that he missed the start of what she was saying. "Look kid, when we see our friends again we know one thing. I'll be there for you, you'll be there for me. Yeah, it's a weird kind of family, and we spend most of our time trying to break people out of jail because we've lost too many to the akumas."

"We remember we love once we're parted, because it means we've always got someone near to our heart to help find love, or plan a future, tell stories to – y'know just love!" Rena argued.

"Precious moments you'll never forget too," Carapace promised.

"Yeah. That sounds like us!" Ladybug smirked. she turned to Chat, finally giving him a smile, he deserved, and said, "So welcome to our family time. We're here to share it all!"

Adrien's face was frozen somewhere between fear and unabashed delight. That was an expression he wore all the way home. He'd been so wrapped up in the training games they wee playing that he almost missed the time that he had to leave, and he ended up running most of the way home. Carapace walked him most of the way, because they were worried about him getting lost.

Carapace tugged at his hoodie. "I need this."

"what, why?" Chat frowned.

"Ladybug'll fix it up and make you look like a proper cat. Plus, y'know, walking into your house with a tail and everything'll look a bit suspect," carapace smirked.

"right…" Adrien pulled the hoodie off, and felt exposed. "when can I get it back?"

"when she'd done. don't worry, she'd brilliant at this. she made by backpack, Rena's hoodie, and Bee's trousers," Carapace smiled.

Adrien frowned, "her trousers?"

"Well Bee likes carrying stuff, like a pocket brush and a mirror and make up, which she's proved time and time again are actually useful sometimes, and she wouldn't wear a back pack, but her sash kept getting caught on stuff, so Bug put pockets all the way down her trousers. They're all back to blend with the fabric but have yellow flaps to go with the theme. Didn't you see them?"

"I wasn't looking."

Carapace folded the hoodie up and tucked it into his back pack, along with the belt. "Bug makes most of our clothes and makes most of them better. Chat wanted to hide his face, yeah, but his neckerchief kept choking him, so Bug stitched in a pocket inside the collar, and the neckerchief inside that with Velcro edges, so the Velcro could make the neckerchief into a mask without even touching his neck or face!"

"that's genius! Blanc had this?"

"makes you wonder what she'll make for yours, huh?"

Adrien tried to remember seeing it on the google search, but he could place it. He wasn't fully listening when he agreed. "yeah, totally does."

Carapace yanked his backpack into place, and said, "keep practicing and come back tomorrow if you can. We're gonna have some fun."

Carapace winked before leaving. Adrien watched him go, using the walls like gravity didn't affect him. Adrien smiled. he tried to imagine doing that himself, but it seemed a little too farfetched. Maybe he'd make up his own actions.
In his own hoodie.
that Bug had made for him.
Adrien beamed at the idea. He wasn't entirely sure why, but being in procession of Ladybug's nickname (nicknames nickname he supposed) made him feel a little giddy. Actually, just thinking about ladybug made him feel a little giddy. He had no idea why, but he put it towards that face that she was the reason he was allowed to stay. She was why he had friends.

Oh he finally had FRIENDS!

Adrien was on cloud nine as he shut the bedroom door behind him. instantly Plagg shot to his wide meowing angrily, because he was hungry and lonely and confused as to where he'd been. Plagg was furious with him, but Adrien was too happy to even pretend he regretted going outside. He was already rambling before the door even shut. He was lucky Natalie hadn't been passing. Not that lucky though. she wasn't due for another ten minutes, and she never bothered with him if she could avoid it. no one did.

"I thought I lost you. don't do that again!" Plagg hissed.

"I'm going back tomorrow!" Adrien beamed.

"YOU'RE WHAT?!" Plagg snarled.

"this has to be the most beautiful place I've ever been to Plagg! It's nothing like I've never seen before! When I think how far we went - I can't believe it! We're happy! Ready to give and to take, and – friends! FRIENDS PLAGG! I made it! I made it… There is nothing they – nothing we won't do… a family… I have a family Plagg…"

Adrien was so in awed by this new realisation that he fell into his seat. Plagg couldn't be mad at him anymore, even though he really wanted to be. Plagg sat on Adrien's knees and purred softly. Adrien's hand immediately began stroking him, but his mind was still swinging across that junkyard.