Masked Permanently

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Ladybug was getting homesick already. It had only been a couple weeks, but she wanted to be home with her family, hanging out with Alya on the weekends, and chilling on patrols with Chat Noir.

Now patrols were all about finding Marinette. It was all Chat Noir cared about, not that Ladybug was complaining, but she really wanted everything to go back to normal.

He even stopped calling her "my lady" and "bugaboo" for the time being, which was starting to make her feel oddly sad. It had been two weeks since their first search party, and Ladybug still couldn't figure out what to do.

"Chat Noir, we have to talk," Ladybug sat beside the cat boy on the roof who was scanning Paris with his eyes.

"What's going on, Ladybug?" He asked, giving her his attention.

"Look Chat, Marinette... She's probably not coming back," Ladybug told him with a sigh.

"She probably will," Chat replied optimistically.

"No, she probably won't."

"Why are you being so negative?" he asked her.

"Because it's useless! We won't find her because she's gone now! She's gone forever and there's no use in trying to find her! We can't keep looking for a girl who's probably already gone!" Ladybug exploded with frustration, causing Chat to widen his eyes in surprise.

"Ladybug, don't think like that! She's probably fine, but we have to bring her home to her parents! They miss her and her classmates miss her! We can't sit around and do nothing. We have to find her," Chat Noir tried to talk sense into her, only causing her to burst out with a groan.

"It's not going to happen! Just tell everyone the truth already! If she was still here, we would've found her a long time ago! Maybe she doesn't want to be found!" She yelled.

Chat Noir looked at her with a disapproving frown, which was definitely new for her. "We will find her. You can't say that. Look, her family is worried. There's no way she just disappeared. We can find her, and we will. Stay positive."

* * *

Maybe it was time to call off the search for her by leaving an official diary entry. Since Chat Noir wasn't listening to her, she figured he might listen to Marinette herself.

Ladybug grabbed the unreturned Lucky Charm, a notepad with her diary pages, and scribbled down an announcement:

To everyone,
It's been a while. I'm not sure that I could come back, but here's what I have to say:

Ladybug tapped the pen on the paper as she was thinking. Frustrated with her lack of ideas, she ripped the paper out and threw it away.

Hi!
Sorry I can't come back, but know I'm safe. Don't worry anymore. I promise I'm okay.

Ripping it off the pad and throwing it in the trash again, she just found that she had no idea what to write.

There had to be something she could say or do to get everyone to stop worrying about her. She turned around and headed back to Chloe's hotel.

"Hey Chloe," she greeted when she walked in.

"Hi. Did you guys find anything on Mari-trash?" The blonde asked.

Ladybug groaned, realizing even Chloe was thinking about her as well. It really made her hurt as she thought about how everyone missed her or worried for her, even though she had been with them the entire time.