I managed to sneak back into the locker room at school unseen and transformed back to Completely Ordinary Adrien, still fuming. Plagg seemed to sense my change in mood and flew directly to my satchel; I heard the telltale sounds of foil being ripped and knew he'd begun engorging himself on his supply of cheese. That quirked out a slight smile, and the disappointment I had over Ladybug again keeping something from me faded slightly.

I leaned my head against the closed locker door in mute agony, hair falling forward as I did so. I really did think we'd gotten beyond this point. But what bothered me more was her seeming unconcern that I had been worried, very worried, about her disappearance. I viewed my primary role as her protector while I was by her side as Chat Noir; now that I thought about it, that protective tendency had started to spill over into our civilian lives, too.

Something had happened to her, and I'd not been there to help. It was natural that I wanted to make sure it didn't happen again.

Maybe I'm not being entirely fair, I started to think. Whatever it had been, she had ultimately arrived. I might be able to get her to talk about it tonight.

Thinking about dinner did make me smile, and I made for the library knowing that I needed to at least put in an appearance to support my contention that I'd been doing schoolwork in lieu of going to fencing practice.

The space was deserted save for the librarian, and the resultant remainder of the afternoon dripped by slowly. I fiddled with my tablet but in truth I was already ahead on most of my assignments and had very little real work to do. It was my attempt to make sure my night job as Chat Noir didn't interfere with my education, especially since I never really knew when I was going to have to go save Paris.

My phone buzzed and it was the Gorilla texting me he was waiting out front. That was annoying, since I'd told Nathalie I'd text them but also recognized it as test the test it was, fishing to see if I'd been truthful about my plans for the afternoon. After having snuck away from the mansion on more than one occasion, Father had redoubled his efforts to control my existence. I replied to the text and packed up my stuff, making for the main entrance.

The sedan was parked out front per usual, and I climbed into the rear seat without comment. Conversation with my bodyguard was never easy under the best of circumstances, and this afternoon was not counting anywhere close to that. I watched the streets of Paris roll by without really seeing them, only vaguely aware that we were going in the right direction.

What was wrong with Ladybug?

I was certain now that something had happened after I'd left her sketching; I was less certain if I had been the cause. That could've been why she'd been so terse with me.

Was it something I'd said? I thought to myself, fiddling with my phone and noting for the upteenth time the lack of messages from Marinette.

Should I have waited for her to transform before tackling Confiseur? She'd never behaved like that before, and I was suddenly wracked with self-doubt. Maybe we were not as solid as I thought.

Gahg! I screamed silently, banging my head slowly on the window.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that Gorilla had to clear his throat to announce our arrival at the mansion. I looked up. "Thanks," I said, and exited the limo.

Nathalie met me at the doorway. "Your father won't—"

"I know the drill, Nathalie," I said curtly, having expected it. "I'll be down for dinner shortly." I started up the grand staircase and suddenly had a thought. "Actually, I'm not all that hungry tonight. I'm going to finish my homework and hit the sack early."

She nodded. "But not before you practice your piano," she reminded me, then turned slightly away to suppress a cough.

I shrugged an assent and continued up the grand staircase to my room, carefully shutting the door behind me. Plagg popped his head out of my satchel. "What do you mean you're not hungry?" he asked, eyes wide. He poked at my (admittedly ripped) stomach. "This thing's been growling for hours."

I opened the flap further so he could fly out. "I may not be hungry, but Chat Noir is famished," I answered, smiling slightly.

Plagg looked relieved. "So, what will it be then tonight? I highly recommend Camembert sliders."

My stomach roiled at the thought. "Never again, Plagg."

I thumbed open my phone and starting going through online menus of some of my favorite eateries in the city, narrowed down to the few that Ladybug had also specified a preference for, found a likely candidate, and placed a to-go order for two. Fortunately, Chat Noir had talked me into opening one of those anonymous online payment systems, allowing me to pay for such niceties; Chat would then appear to pick up the pre-paid grub, no questions asked.

I smiled. Even now, it was still hard not to sometimes think of my alter-ego as another person entirely.

The last rays of sunshine were slanting across my tall bedroom windows; it was still early but I had no desire to stay cooped up any longer. My phone went into the dock, and after some reflection, I punched up Rhapsody in Blue – one of the pieces I'd been working on over the last month. This version has some flubs in it (amazing what you can find on the internet), a precaution after having had my Father find an empty room last Christmas.

Plagg was chowing down the last of a complete wheel of cheese when I turned to him; he'd left the canister torn apart on the coffee table, the aluminum foil crumpled into three or four piles. "What a mess! I hope you've actually satisfied that bottomless stomach of yours?" I asked.

He nodded, mouth full.

"Where do you put it, anyway?" I teased.

In response, Plagg unwrapped the final slice from the wheel and downed it in one gulp.

Feeling a little of my good humor from earlier in the day returning, I laughed as I held out my ring. "Plagg - claws out!"

The Miraculous transformation enveloped me in its green flash; I closed my eyes for once and felt how the magic washed itself over me in a slightly electric tingle, from head to toe. I could feel my costume as it replaced my street clothes, which I'd never realized before; then the ears, then the mask, and finally the snap! sensation when my tail appeared. I waited an extra beat after the final sensation had faded away before opening my masked eyes and found myself switching mentally to Chat Noir for the second time that day.

After doublechecking the audio on the phone was still playing, I leapt out the bedroom window into a somersault bounce off the fence, and the up and into the Paris evening, helicoptering my way toward the first rooftop, where I gently dropped to the tile. I had plenty of time, so I stashed the baton at the small of my back and started jogging at a gentle pace across the skyline of the city, pausing only when I needed to leap across the odd alleyway in order to continue my way to the first destination of the evening.

For some reason, Italian had appealed to me tonight, possibly in an effort to reload the carbs I'd lost fighting Confiseur. In truth, my metabolism had shifted into overdrive since becoming the Miraculous Cat holder: like any teenager, I was hungry all the time, but it had become a thousand percent worse with my night life as Chat Noir. On the plus side, the better-defined physique that came with the gig appeared to stay put when I was not Chat Noir, which had the potential to be handy for my modelling career. I'd lately been trying to explain it away with my after-school athletics, though anyone who knew anything about fencing was likely to get a bit suspicious.

I came to the end of the roof I was running along and paused at the edge briefly before swinging around to a downspout on the corner of the building, which I caught with one hand. It redirected me ninety degrees and I landed in a cat crouch along a ledge directly over Philippe's Italian Bistro. The wondrous smells drifting through the main entrance were divine under normal circumstances; with my enhanced feline senses, I could easily tell that Philippe himself was in the kitchen owing to the liberal addition of garlic in everything. A smile grew beneath my mask; as Adrien, I had often ordered home delivery directly from the bistro on nights when Father had been travelling and I'd given our chef the night off.

As Chat Noir, I had dropped in multiple times to grab some of the glorious wares after a long night of fighting back Paris's villains. I'd even grabbed a full three-course meal on the several occasions I'd invited Ladybug to dinner on my favorite rooftop, only to pick at it halfheartedly after being stood up.

But that was before, during what I now jokingly called our dark ages.

These days, we tended to reserve one night a week for "date night" and I'd used Philippe's a few times since when it was my turn to pick up dinner. Of course, that presumed that Hawkmoth didn't decide to throw the city into chaos just as we settled down to munch. Tonight happened to be our rotating night, and I was really hoping a slice of Philippe's lasagna would tempt Ladybug to tell me what happened to her out there on the plaza.

I crept along the ledge, careful to keep out of the sightline of the patrons eating in the open-air café portion of the restaurant. At the edge of the ledge, I executed a double flip off the end and landed outside the kitchen door, upon which I rapped with one knuckle.

The door flew open exuberantly, and Philippe himself was at the door. He was extremely skinny, which I felt was odd for a chef, but full of a wiry energy that I always found infectious. His pencil-thin moustache quirked when he saw me. "Chat Noir!" he cried as he rushed through the door and embraced me with gusto. "What brings you to my door this evening?!"

"I'm picking up an order for two," I said as I tried to disentangle myself from his embrace. We'd saved his daughter during the nightmare that Hawkmoth had unleashed on Paris during Hero's Day. "Number 7-4-8-1-2 I think?"

"Ahhh," he said knowingly, clapping his hands together. "My lovebird speciale!" He winked. "Or should I say lovebug special!"

"Hah hah hah," I laughed. Kind of. He used the same joke each time I appeared.

Every. Single. Time.

"Now you wait right there while I get it boxed up, capito?" He paused, then thoughtfully added: "You want something while you wait? Italian soda? Warm milk?"

Eeew. Who drinks that? Not this cat! "No, Philippe," I said, "but thanks, though."

I watched from the doorway, flicking my tail, as he bustled through his kitchen, weaving around his staff who apparently saw a full-grown black cat in their kitchen every night and thought nothing of it. I smiled. I guess Chat Noir was no longer a man of mystery in Paris. From what I could tell, it was a fairly busy Thursday evening. Orders were lined up as far as I could see on the board, and multiple steaming dishes awaited their waitstaff. I could feel my stomach rumble.

At length, Philippe reappeared with a massive paper bag brimming with my order. I glanced in and noted a small box of cannoli had been perched atop the salad. I cocked a masked eyebrow. "I'm pretty certain I didn't order those," I said.

"On the house," he smiled. "Besides, what lady can resist dessert dolce?"

Definitely not Ladybug, I thought. "Thanks, Philippe."

"Come back soon, Chat Noir! Now, don't keep your lady waiting," he chided as he pushed me back out into the night.

I laughed again, this time with feeling, and waved with my free hand as I sprung up to the ledge, and leapt again to the roof. This was always the tricky part: getting the food back to our rendezvous without spilling so much as a noodle. I had a close call crossing one particular alleyway, but managed to get to my overlook across from Notre Dame with dinner intact and twenty minutes to spare.

Setting the bag down, I crossed over to where the roof of this building met the higher wall of the next, snuck out a loose granite tile, and retrieved my cache of romantic accoutrement. I was well practiced by now, and in just a few minutes had laid out and lit all of my candles along the edge of the wrought iron railing, trailed rose petals along the roof tiles, and set out two place settings atop a white tablecloth I'd borrowed from the mansion.

I was getting ready to put out the food when my feline ears caught the approach of Ladybug. I stood up and turned toward the direction of her approach, tensed, and with an audible "Meow!" leapt into midair to tackle her before she landed. We tumbled together to the tile, my arms carefully but snugly wrapped around her.

Her yo-yo fell from the sky, bouncing across the tile behind us.

"Hey!" she said, not unkindly, after I'd moved in for a quick kiss. "I wasn't in need of rescuing just then."

"Says you," I replied, as I rolled off her and into my patented patient cat stance. "My feline senses are picking up a definite negative aura that only Philippe's five-star lasagna can dissipate."

"Oh my God, Chat," she said. "That is exactly what I need." Her blue eyes turned to me, expectantly. "You didn't happen to get—"

"Cannoli? No," I said. "But Philippe seemed to be on your wavelength so…" I reached into the bag and pulled out the small box.

Ladybug leapt over me and grabbed the box. "These are mine!" she declared.

"Careful, LB," I chided, waggling a claw at her. "Emotions like that are likely to garner you an akuma."

"It would be worth it," she cried, tearing at the box and demolishing three quarters of a pastry in one bite.

I felt my eyes widen in alarm. "Milady?" I said. "Uh, those were for dessert…"

She turned back toward me, dusting crumbs from her face. "I'm sorry, Chat. It's just been that kind of week, from your Father's stupidity to…" she paused, her face turning red. "Well. To that fiasco in the plaza." Ladybug popped the last of the cannoli into her mouth and settled in at her traditional spot to my left at the tablecloth.

I started to pull the dishes out of the hotpack Phillipe had provided, then placed the Caesar salad between us, with the small bag of freshly baked rolls to the side. "It will help to talk about it," I said, as I tried unsuccessfully to grab a roll without snaring a claw. "I'm not afraid to admit your absence had me sick with worry." I narrowed my eyes. "This wasn't some sort of sidekick test, was it? I thought we'd already settled that."

Ladybug demurely nibbled at a piece of romaine. "Nothing quite like that," she sighed, looking at me with clear worry in her eyes. "I don't want you to be upset," she started.

"That's not a great way to start," I chuckled, trying to make light for her sake as I peeled open the takeaway container of lasagna. My claws made short work of the tape that had sealed it, and I carefully repeated my efforts on Ladybug's container before handing it to her.

She sighed again, and I caught her hand. "You know me. I can't be mad at you."

That succeeding in making her laugh. "Liar."

I had the good sense to accept the criticism. "Well, all right, maybe I can but it never lasts."

"Once you see reason," she prompted.

"Once I see reason," I agreed, smiling. I spied the open box of cannoli and with lighting fast feline reflexes snapped it away from her and leapt to the railing. "Spill it or these hit the street," I threatened, dangling the box dangerously over the edge.

To my surprise, she started laughing so hard she nearly fell over. "Chat!" she guffawed. "You'd make a terrible villain..."

"What...?" I said, confused, my feline ears flattening at the comment. Then it hit me – the box was lighter than it should have been. I upended it and watched a stray flake of pastry gently waft out and toward the street below.

My eyes went wide. "You ate all of them?"

She laughed harder. "No, silly cat, I plated them for later," she said, tears rolling down her face as she pointed to the stack of cannoli just to the side of the bread. I'd been so focused on her I'd missed the effort.

Still, it had broken the mood and she looked more relaxed than when she'd first arrived. I feigned annoyance at being outplayed when in reality I was just happy to see her smiling again.

Rejoining her at the tablecloth, I let a comfortable silence develop as we dug into the fabulous meal. As I'd expected, the multi-layer pasta was a little too garlicky for my own tastes, but that was a very minor complaint. The noodles were perfectly cooked, the meat sauce had just the right tanginess, and the cheese was extraordinarily rich. I had nearly polished off my slice and was eyeing what was left of Ladybug's plate when she finally started to speak.

"You know Michael?" she asked without looking up from her plate.

"The quiet guy in the back?" I responded. "Short, tousled brown hair? Favors hoodies and skinny jeans? Nope."

This was my first relationship, so I will freely admit that I was still insecure enough to think Ladybug/Marinette might get away from me despite my best efforts. I'd therefore made it my business to keep track of anyone who might vaguely have been on Marinette's radar, and this guy had been hounding her for weeks about going to the Sweethearts Ball. She'd been gently rebuffing him.

"Well, when you did your usual stunt and took off at the plaza-"

"Now wait just a minute-!"

"-I'd grabbed my stuff and was booking it for a quiet corner so I could transform and join you. Unfortunately, the first turn I made, I ran right into Michael. As it turns out, you're not the only one stalking me. He'd been watching us."

Something cold jumped down my spine. Possibly jealousy, but more likely my natural protective streak when it came to My Lady. I tamped down a response by snagging another roll and munching.

"I tried to get around him, but he insisted on asking one more time if I would go to the dance with him." I could hear some frustration in her voice, so I continued to munch, making the assumption that it would be best for me not to say anything unless asked.

"Admittedly, I was in a hurry to get out to the action; I tried to move it along, but he actually went down on a knee and had a rose and everything."

My eyes widened. "He stole my move!" I couldn't help but exclaim.

Ladybug glared at me and I stifled more commentary. "It was very sweet, of course, but I had to firmly tell him I had other plans." She frowned. "It didn't go well, but not for the reason you might think."

I raised a masked eyebrow.

She sighed again. "He's not blind to the Adrien-Marinette progress we've been making; when I said 'no' again today, he grew pretty angry and let slip that he thought Adrien was being pretty insensitive by backing out at the last minute – something he made a point of saying he would never have done." She paused. "But the final straw, apparently, was seeing Chat Noir flirting with me today."

"Flirting? Me?" I said innocently as the other eyebrow went up. "I guess it didn't help that I showed up at the plaza, did it?"

"Nope," she concurred. "In fact, your antics cemented in his mind that Chat had been angling for my affections, and to his eye, it looked like I was being receptive to Chat's advances while seeming to spurn his – especially since he had photos, not just at the plaza. Apparently Chat Noir has been hitting on me for some time now."

I smacked my paw to my forehead; in a way, his observation happened to be the truth, just not in the way he assumed he'd seen it. "This complicates matters. I've been so careful to prevent people from making the connection between Adrien and Chat Noir, I've not considered how people would interpret all the time Chat Noir has spent with Marinette." I paused. "Oh my God, what do your parents think? I'm there all the time."

Ladybug smiled. "My parents are a little more open minded, but yes, Chat Noir has made quite the impression on them. Fortunately, the increased amount of time you've been spending there as Adrien has made it a moot discussion." She smiled slightly. "Actually, they think I am playing one against the other." She winked.

"Good to know," I said.

"Anyway, I could hear you were having trouble in the plaza -"

"Hey! I had it under control!"

"- so I wound up getting a little firmer than usual and told him on no uncertain terms that I wouldn't be going at all. With anyone." Ladybug looked awful. "I know it hurt him, badly, but I didn't wait to see his reaction and wound up running three blocks away to finally find a quiet place to transform."

I moved over to her side and wrapped my arm around her to pull her close. "You couldn't hurt anyone intentionally, bugaboo. I'm sure it will be painful for a bit, but he'll get over it."

Like it was for me, for a while, I thought to myself. There had been a time when my world had been crushed out of existence by a chance comment from Ladybug; I knew she hadn't intentionally planned on hurting me, but like Michael, she'd been trying to tell me for months that there had been someone else.

Fortunately for me, my alter ego happened to be the "someone else." No such luck for Michael.

"On the plus side, he hasn't appeared as an akumatized villain yet," I said helpfully. "That has to be good, right?"

She sighed, not convinced. "You know the rest from there. He delayed me so long that I arrived after you'd released the akuma spell; I actually don't know how long you'd been balancing on that bowl."

"Longer than I wanted to," I said. "But I knew you'd arrive, sooner or later." I decided not to share with her how I had really felt at that moment, sitting on an active akuma.

I hugged her again. "How about this," I suggested. "Maybe Adrien can talk to him tomorrow at school, and point him toward another opportunity. I happen to know that Olivia is still waiting to be asked."

Ladybug looked surprised. "Really? I thought Paul was taking her."

"He's off for a soccer tournament in Barcelona of all places."

She looked thoughtful. "They would make a cute couple," she concluded. She leaned up and kissed me on the cheek. "Brilliant, Chat. That might just work."

"Not just another purrfect face," I said, burying my chin in her hair affectionately.

I had my doubts, but it was worth a shot.

AN: As you may have noticed, these sections are longer than what I've posted in the past. Unfortunately, that means it's taking me a tad longer to edit each section, so it looks like it will be one to two days between chapters. Thanks in advance for being patient!