"Jacques! It's been so long!" Marinette's father exclaimed, walking up to an old friend of his in chef's attire.

"It certainly has, Tom. I see you haven't changed a bit!" The very slender, red haired man replied joyfully.

"Well you don't exactly shrink when you're making sure your desserts are worthy of the customers." Tom nudged Jacques with his elbow. The two men looked to be exact opposites but clearly had the same profession. Marinette came downstairs from her room after being called down by her parents to meet an apparent acquaintance of her father's.

"Marinette, I'd like you to meet my former college roommate back in culinary school!" Her dad spoke eagerly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Marinette politely replied, reaching her hand out for him to shake which he took gladly.

"He's in town for the big bake-off! The winning baker is awarded a very high paying job as the Agreste family's personal chef since their last one apparently made some kind of incompetent mistake." Marinette blushed immediately after hearing the name Agreste, Adrien popped into her head.

"Could I enter the competition?" Marinette asked hopefully. Her father chuckled in response.

"Sorry, sweety. It's for adults, you're still in school and if I were you, I wouldn't be so hyper to enter the business world so young." He told her with a pat on the back and Marinette pouted.

"So, are you competing, dad?" She asked with a raised eyebrow of curiosity. Again, a chuckle followed as the beginning of his response.

"No, I've already got THIS place. It's just Jacques here who's playin' the game." Her dad answered turning back to face the tall and lanky man.

"Well, That and I wanted to warm up by having my own little contest with you, Tom. C'mon just like we used to back in the dorm!" Jacques nudged with a look of excitement. There was a pause between the two that bordered on awkward for Marinette before all of a sudden, the OPEN sign for the bakery was being flipped over to CLOSED. Marinette couldn't help but sigh with a smile and giggle a bit at how childish her father and his friend had become as looks of determination were exchanged. She just walked back upstairs to talk with Alya since she had nothing better to do.

Meanwhile…

"Seems a bit odd that father is having a competition for this. Normally he'd just get Nathalie to interview the candidates. What do you think, Plagg?" Adrien asked his little kwami cat friend who was munching on cheese.

"I don't know, how about you just use the free time you have right now to go to the park? You still have a whole two hours to kill before your next photoshoot." Plagg pitched as he tossed another chunk of camembert

"You're right, Plagg! It's nice out and anything's better than wasting away on my bed just waiting for my next appointment! Let's go!" Adrien excitedly told him, Plagg finished eating his last piece of cheese and promptly flew to Adrien's open jacket. Before his hand was able to turn the knob to the front door of the mansion, Nathalie put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Adrien, but your father would prefer you stay until the photoshoot is done." She told him with a saddened expression to go along with his shocked expression.

"But, there's still two whole hours until they arrive!" Adrien protested.

"He said no. I'm just the messenger, you are to stay at home." Instead of getting sad at this news from Nathalie, Adrien simply got mad.

"I'm always a prisoner here! It would just be a little walk in the park!" Nathalie gave him a stern look in response to this as Adrien just pouted, heading back to his room with a grunt.

He slammed the door behind him as Plagg came out just to see Adrien smirking.

"What's with that look?" Plagg questioned.

"Maybe Adrien can't leave the house, but nothing was said of Chat Noir being bound to a bedroom!" He told his kwami with excitement, Plagg just shrugged flashing a mischevious smile right back.

"Well? Are we going or not?" Plagg asked.

"Plagg Transform Me!" Adrien shouted and Plagg was sucked into the white ring, turning it black as he transformed into Chat Noir.

He took out his staff, hopped onto the edge of the open window and jumped out.

~Meanwhile~

Marinette could hear her father and Jacques laughing hardily with each other, trying to ignore the obnoxious laughter, she continued talking to Alya.

"You know, you sound a little exhausted, Marinette. Are your dad and his friend really that aggravating?" Alya questioned. Though she couldn't see her, Marinette waved dismissively and collapsed onto her bed before responding.

"No, no,...it's not that. But I do feel totally wiped. Yesterday was pretty tiring." The last Akuma Ladybug had faced was from the night before, he was able to clone himself so her and Chat Noir were fighting for one whole hour, facing dozens of clones before eventually getting to the roof of the hotel. By the time the akuma was caught, it was nearly 2 AM, with only a few minutes to spare before the duo would de-transform, Ladybug had to get home which was only about a minute or two away by yo-yo travel, but it felt like an eternity before she changed back and her and Tikki both collapsed on the bed and passed out. However, the bakery opens at 7 AM and her parents had given Marinette the responsibility of running the shop for a day so she's been sluggish since Tikki forced her to get up.

"I-I was running a lot of errands for my dad and ended up staying up late listening to music and reading." She lied.

"Yeah, that does sound rather exhausting. Meanwhile I was busy too! Catching the latest footage of Ladybug and Chat Noir's fight last night." Alya told her excitedly, Marinette had to act surprised at this, of course.

"Really? How did it go? It's a shame I missed it..." She told her.

"I was totally on the edge of my seat! It really looked like a close call! It looked like Ladybug was about to lose, of course, I never had any doubt! They always save the day!" Alya proudly stated. Marinette couldn't help but smile at her faith in her...even if it's indirectly.

"Heh. Your hyper-ness might actually be waking me up a little...thanks, Alya." Marinette told her, the two said their goodbyes and hung up. She went to see how Tikki was doing, still just as groggy as her.

"I'll go get you somethin' to eat, Tikki, ok?" Without waiting for a response, Marinette bound down the stairs and was immediately faced with some pumpkin bread from her father.

"How would you like to be the judge, Marinette?" Tom asked with a sweet smile.

"Oh come now, tom! Using your daughter to give yourself the win? Are you really that desparate to beat me?" Jacques smugly stated.

"Well what do you propose?" He wondered while Marinette just tried to snatch a few cookies for her kwami by evading the two mens' feud until her phone began ringing from within her purse. Jacques turned to face Marinette as she tried to silence her phone before answering, just to find it was Alya again.

"Hey, I was just walking through the park and I spotted Chat Noir! I thought you might wanna know, it must mean that a fight is going down, Ladybug should show up soon. I didn't want you to miss out on the fun!" Alya told her as fast as she could, she must've been running while doing this call, immediately Marinette said thanks then hung up, said goodbye to her dad and ran out after stuffing some cookies in her purse for Tikki as she dashed to the park. The second Tikki finished eating, Marinette transformed and began shooting through the air with her yoyo. The minute Chat Noir touched down, he looked up to see Ladybug standing before him. He quickly shot to his feet with an embarrassed look on his face before doing his usual bow.

"Alright, where's the akuma?" Ladybug bluntly asked. Chat Noir just raised a confused eyebrow as a signal for her to elaborate. With a sigh, she did so.

"You're transformed and flying from building to building just to get over here, is there an akuma or what?" Chat struggled to come up with an excuse but was luckily interrupted by Alya who ran over with her phone in hand and panting.

"Chat Noir! Ladybug! Please, tell me, are you fighting anyone right now?" She asked, wiping the sweat from her brow. Ladybug just turned to Chat with an expectant and skeptical look on her face for an explanation. Panicking a bit, Chat Noir finally just wrapped an arm around Ladybug.

"Actually, Ladybug and I are on a date!" Alya's face lit up with excitement as she snapped a photo of the two together, Ladybug's face was just of shock, she pinched Chat Noir's cat ear and started dragging him off. Once they were atop a random building, Ladybug began the interrogation.

"Alright, what was that? Is there an akuma to fight or not?! 'Cause if not, this little 'date' is over." She announced with anger.

"Someone seems a bit cranky. That last fight really must've worn you out." Chat stated as Ladybug yawned.

"How exactly are you so energetic?" She questioned.

"Simple, I'm allowed to sleep in today, which I took full advantage of." He bragged, much to Ladybug's annoyance.

"Say...I've been wondering something lately." Ladybug began, Chat was eager to listen to whatever his sleepy beauty had to say of course.

"You ever think that akumatized people know where Hawkmoth lives? Next time we fight one, I wanna know. I think we should try to capture the next one and go for an interrogation." She proposed.

"And if they do lead us to him...what if it's a trap?" Chat Noir asked, beginning to get serious as he pondered her plan.

"I'll come up with somethin'..." Ladybug started to wobble a little. Chat Noir had to catch her to keep her from tumbling off the roof.

"Are you ok, m'lady? What time did you get up this morning?" Chat asked with worry.

"I have a job that starts kinda early in the morning. I open the shop at 7, so I set my alarm for 5 in order to be showered and dressed by opening time. But the shower should've woken me up and I gave Tikki her cookies and I felt...ok while I was de-transformed, but now I feel as wiped as last night." Ladybug explained.

"You have a job? But, don't you go to school? We look to be about the same age. Now c'mon Lady...I can't have you fallin' asleep now. I can't carry you to your home since I don't know where it is." Chat tried shaking her a bit, all Ladybug did was mumble until both of them heard a scream come from the distance, in the direction of Marinette's bakery. Ladybug forced herself up and staggered a bit before finally making it to her feet.

"Come on, Chat...let's go." Ladybug mumbled as Chat Noir just watched with anxiousness and paranoia for his partner as she began swinging from building to building in the direction of the bakery, Chat Noir followed in close pursuit.

They landed and found a man terrorizing citizens. He had dark skin, bright red cheeks and wore the same chef's uniform as Jacques and wielding a tray that shot out gingerbread men.

"JACQUES?!" Ladybug yelled, much to Chat's confusion.

"You know him?" He asked, but before she could answer, Jacques had already turned to face them and began shooting gingerbread men at them. Then a thought came to Ladybug...

"Chat! I need you to hold them off, I'm gonna go check on my d-...th-the civilians that may be inside, ok?" She told him, Chat Noir nodded and continued crushing each giant gingerbread man that came his way.

~meanwhile~

Ladybug Ran into the bakery and found her father barely conscious on the floor, surrounded by several torn up and squashed baked goods. She ran over to him and lifted his head up gently.

"D- I-I mean, sir, can you tell me what happened?" She asked with worry.

"Ugh...we were having our own little baking contest and since my daughter left and my wife was out shopping, we decided to let each customer who came in try both of our dishes, I won every time and with each customer that came in and told him I was better, he grew more and more frustrated until I went to the bathroom and came back to find this going on." He told her, it seems that he must've been attacked as he fell unconscious. Meanwhile, Chat had decided to go along with Ladybug's plan and simply began trying to knock him out. By the time Ladybug got out, Chat Noir already had him pinned to a wall.

"Ah! Ladybug, I got him." He announced before turning back to face The Gingerbread Man that which he called himself.

"Alright, tell us, where is Hawkmoth?! Where's he hiding?!" Chat demanded.

"Give me the ring and I'll show you..." When Chat simply replied with a glare, Gingerbread Man fired some of his gingerbread soldiers at Ladybug to subdue her. Getting tired again, Ladybug struggled to keep up with their attacks. But then, oddly, the air grew very humid and the two superheroes began to feel drops of water hit their cheeks, when Ladybug paused to yawn, a gingerbread soldier was able to kick her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her, and tossing her to the ground. Chat Noir turned and saw this, he didn't hesitate for a moment to tend to Ladybug. She passed out in his arms as he lifted her bridal style. Little did he know that Alya had followed them and saw this whole fight go down on her phone and was shocked to see how damaged Ladybug got.

"Give me your miraculouses and I'll take you to Hawkmoth." Gingerbread man promised. Soon enough, Chat noticed Ladybug's earrings blink, she was about to de-transform. As much as Chat wanted to know her identity, he decided to simply walk away. Gingerbread man then heard Hawkmoth's voice.

"You can use this opportunity, Gingerbread man. Cut a deal with Chat Noir, bring him to me and inevitably, Ladybug will soon follow." He told him.

"Wait! Stop! I'll take you to see Hawkmoth!" Chat Noir stopped dead in his tracks. Chat Noir nodded then hopped onto the roof of the bakery and placed Ladybug there so she would be safe before hopping down and walking back up to the Gingerbread man.

"Sure! Lead the way, but first, call off your cookie soldiers!" Chat told him with great seriousness. Reluctantly, he snapped his fingers and the cookies all collapsed and crumbled and the two left the scene.