'Don't look like a lovestruck kitten', Marinette had said. 'You were doing work, not having the time of your life', she had pointed out. 'Don't be late for the rendezvous tonight', the love of his life had reminded him.

Oh, but Adrien was so completely lovestruck, he had just arrived back home from what was only the most wonderful experience in his lifetime, and he wanted nothing more than to spend hours upon hours laying in his bed and reliving all those amazing memories.

"Hey, you're back!" Nino's head popped up from his computer when his roommate walked into their shared apartment. "How was your thing?"

His thing was incredible and it had been thoroughly taken care of- 'Adrien!'

Adrien's dreamy smile contorted into a disgusted grimace in less than a second. "Horrible. No fun at all. Couldn't wait to get back," he shook his head rapidly and shivered for emphasis. "I fought with my… colleague…'s pet cat the entire time," he added, remembering that he never got into any fights with people he was forced to work with and wanting to slap himself.

He was much better than Marinette at lying spontaneously, but his ability to concentrate despite the presence of distractions had always been inferior to hers.

Nino pouted. "Aw, so your little get away was a complete bust?" the DJ asked, his eyes following Adrien as the latter hurried to arrange his belongings – he would never live it down if his lady ever found out that he had literally spent fifteen minutes staring at empty space after he had escorted her to her home, too smitten to turn around and complete the simple action of opening one's door.

"Ah, not really, I saw Jeanne d'Arc's statue winking at me, I guess," Adrien replied absentmindedly, fumbling with a bag of dirty clothes and trying to decide what to change into at the same time.

"Huh, cool," said Nino. "Dude, you need some help? We gotta head out like, now, and we said we'd hang out with the girls after."

Adrien's first instinct was to say no, but his jeans refused to come up (he hoped he wouldn't have to see his dietician for the next, say, month), and the blonde groaned. "Can you check my email and see if I have anything scheduled for tomorrow?"

"Roger," Nino mimicked Chat Noir's two-finger salute and made use of his computer, while Chat Noir himself came to the conclusion that trying to squeeze into a pair of jeans would be pointless, and grabbed some sweatpants instead. He sighed in bliss – that was the amount of room his inner storage of snacks (of which he regretted none) required at the moment.

"You have a meeting with your dietician scheduled after uni, but the rest of it is clear."

…Maybe he regretted a little bit.

"Alright, bro, thanks."

"Uhh…"

Adrien gave his roommate a confused glance, and was petrified to find Nino staring at the screen with a very pensive expression. "Sorry, I didn't mean to see it, but you have an email from the hotel you stayed at."

He was absolutely petrified.

"It says you left a… polka dotted sports bra?"

Adrien choked, coughed into his fist to hide it and then stood straight as a pole, as if to bravely face his own demise. 'You have to give your very best to get out of this one, Agreste.'

"Y-Yes, it was mine."

He could think in rhymes but couldn't save his own life. That was going to be written on his mortuary, Adrien decided.

Nino rightfully cocked his head at him as if he had grown a second head. "Oh. 'Cause I kinda thought… that you hooked up with some girl and she left it there."

The model swallowed. "Yes… That would have made more sense."

The DJ kicked his chair back and jumped to his feet to give Adrien a deep, utterly penetrating stare. "Dude… I trust you, so I'm only gonna ask this once. But you're my best friend, and I want an honest answer."

This was it, Adrien realized. He couldn't hide his relationship or Ladybug's secret identity anymore – though Alya was notoriously the more perceptive of the two, Nino was not stupid in any way, shape or form, and Adrien had frankly stepped into it himself. He truly hoped Marinette would forgive him, but he was going to come clean.

"Do you… you know… want to be Chattonne Noire?" Nino whispered, his big brown eyes shining innocently.

What he asked and what Adrien had expected to be asked were two extremely, monumentally different things, so, in hindsight, the blonde's reaction might have been a little less than appropriate. His jaw dropped to the floor and a very disturbing noise, between a hiss and a choke, came out of his mouth.

"Dude! I mean dude-ette- or like- I don't even know man, I just asked 'cause you've been kinda off for a while and I don't want you to feel like you can't talk about it and I support you one hundred percent-"

Adrien stared.

There was a special place in Heaven for Nino and everyone like him.

"Stop," he croaked. "I-I appreciate it, a lot. But um, Chat Noir is here to stay. It's nothing like that."

"Oh," Nino tilted his head. "Okay. So I can still call you dude?"

"…Knock yourself out."

"Okay, dude! Let's show your dad his new home, then!"

So they transformed and leapt out of their respective windows, but not before Adrien had to flick Plagg's ear when the kwami found his owner's predicament a little bit too hilarious.

What was not hilarious was karma hitting him back in the face, quite literally, when Ladybug answered his characteristically flamboyant greeting by pinching his nose. "I told you not to be late, kitty!" she whispered with a halfhearted glare, but Chat Noir's ego healed when, behind that red and black mask, Ladybug looked at him like he was her sun and stars. His arm encircled her shoulder in a natural and familiar gesture. "Oh, m'lady, but how could one be punctual when they have your beauty and grace to contemplate?"

She swallowed back her giggle and flicked his zipper bell. "I don't know, by leaving on time?"

"You make me sick, but at least you guys finally decided to show up," Queen Bee commented dryly, elegantly landing on the rooftop where they all were supposed to meet. She had spared only one look at her teammates, two of whom were already engaged in a sickening display of affection, and the other two were sickeningly oblivious to their mutual attraction, and Chloe already had a headache. It was the usual.

"She's sweet as honey as always, but Bee here does have a point," Rena Rouge ended her liplock with Carapace to saunter over, a knowing smile gracing her features. "Did our favorite superheroes have fun ditching their duties?"

The glare Ladybug sent her way was suggestive to say the least. "You know that's not what it was. Civilian life gets in the way sometimes."

"You're both here now, so it doesn't matter," Queen Bee brushed the conversation off. "We have a stray butterfly to take care of."

As they leapt towards what was their own residential area, at least to four of them, Chat Noir somersaulted next to Queen Bee using his baton, and gave her a wink. Her pun had been awful, but he could appreciate the attempt. "Your puns are the cat's meow, busy bee. Do you have plans for this evening?"

Queen Bee raised her eyebrow at him. "Weren't you trying to get in her suit?" she tilted her head backwards, to motion towards Ladybug, who was swinging a few meters behind them. Chat Noir laughed.

Trying? No. Succeeding and enjoying every second of it? Definitely.

"True, my heart is taken. As much as I love honey, I'm not asking you out."

"Then why do you care what I'm doing this evening?"

He grinned. "I just remembered you have some friends who live nearby, thought you would go hang out with them. I sometimes drop my transformation under one of their balconies when I'm around, so I wanted to ask you not to peek," Chat Noir said, then winked. "Unless, you know, you want to make the discovery of the century."

Queen Bee breathed out a laugh. "I doubt you could surprise me," she sassed, then turned her head away from him, seemingly deep in thought. After swinging her spinning top a few more times, the blonde woman gave him a rare, genuine smile. "I'll make sure not to look though, Chat Noir."

He returned the smile warmly, a very pleasant feeling bubbling in his chest at what he had done. He slowed down his hopping and caught an inquisitive glance from Ladybug, to which he responded by blowing her a kiss. "I almost ended up with eight lives tonight," Chat Noir did confess after shifting closer to his lady, where he was certain none of their teammates would hear.

"Am I going to have to kill you?"

"No, did it myself, actually," the young man winced, gesturing towards Nino, who was busy showing off his impromptu breakdancing skills on a nearby roof.

All color drained from Ladybug's face. "Does he know?" she mouthed frantically.

"No! No, no, he doesn't, but listen Mari, you can't-"

"Oh, thank God," Ladybug moaned, holding a hand to her chest and wordlessly flying off ahead without allowing him to finish. His words remained stuck in his throat and he groaned out loud. That woman could be unbelievable!

Chat Noir didn't get another chance to catch her alone, for they soon landed on the ground and he was faced with a much greater task. Two heavily armed officers were poised at the entrance to the building and they both gave them a nod to signify that Gabriel had been successfully brought inside with no incidents, and they could proceed.

Adrien's heart was beating erratically – he knew his father was ready, but this was such a big step. One that he thought he wouldn't get to see, though he had been waiting for it all this time. His dad was being given a chance, and he was taking it.

As the elevator took them to the third floor, Carapace inconspicuously rested his hand on his shoulder in what appeared to be a casual, even bored gesture, and Ladybug softly squeezed his gloved fist. He immediately relaxed, releasing a breath he didn't know he had been holding, relaxing his jaw and unclenching his fists. Their support was silent due to their circumstances, but it was all he needed.

"Hey, Gabriel!" Rena Rouge called cheerfully once she opened the door and found Gabriel inspecting the tiles on the hallway floor. "I know you're a picky one but my boy Chat Noir bought and decorated this one for you, so I damn hope you like it!"

They had all dropped any formalities a while ago. The superheroes had begun addressing – and, to Adrien's initial shock – even bantering with his dad like he was an old friend, and Gabriel did not seem to mind at all. That fact was proven again when the man's gaze rose and he welcomed them with a smile. "I love it, actually. If I didn't know any better, I would say my own son designed it."

Chat Noir couldn't say if the sudden, piercing emotion in his heart was good or bad.

"He helped," Ladybug smiled. "He told us he wanted to help you feel at home here. Chat Noir took care of the rest."

He noticed the raw emotion in his father's eyes when Ladybug revealed that his son had, in fact, been involved, but Gabriel was quick to compose himself. Instead of suppressing it, however, the redeemed villain redirected it towards the leather-clad superhero.

"Thank you, Chat Noir. And please tell Adrien to come by soon, so I can thank him too."

Chat Noir was afraid he might choke on his words if he replied.

"That's the best part, dude!" Carapace grinned. "See that building, second floor? His friends from high school, Alya and Marinette, live in the apartment with the mannequins on the balcony, and Adrien lives right in front of them! You can go thank him yourself right now, if you want!"

Adrien's blood went cold, for two reasons. One was that his father could not, in fact, go visit him right then, because he was there, in Chat Noir's suit, and Nino knew that very well, but had spoken too much in his excitement. The second reason was that he was suddenly receiving a very, very negative energy from his father.

Gabriel's features were frozen. "I… was not aware of that."

Ladybug tried to smile. "I-Is there a problem? We thought you'd be happy to-"

"I'd like to go back."

That phrase crushed all of their hearts.

"Wait, what? Why?" Queen Bee demanded to know. "I've known you all my life and you've never been better than now. You can't possibly think you'd be hurting Adrien if you lived near him, can you?"

But that was exactly what Gabriel was thinking, judging from the way his breathing quickened, his knees wobbled and his hands shook. He almost collapsed.

Without thinking, Adrien urged his father to sit and kneeled next to him, grabbing a hold of his hands. Much like he used to do with akuma victims, Chat Noir guided the man's breathing and spoke reassurances until the feeling went away, and Gabriel was left staring into the superhero's green eyes with an emotion akin to gratitude and profound regret. "We're not forcing you to stay here. We're showing you that it is an option, and if you choose to take it, then we trust you. If you want to go back, we'll tell the police to take you back. Okay?"

Gabriel slowly nodded. "Okay."

"Do you want to talk to Adrien about this?" he asked gently.

"…I just want to process it before making my decision. It took me by surprise."

"We're so sorry we didn't tell you," Ladybug finally spoke again, her gaze shifting between father and son with unconcealed worry. "We thought it would be the good kind of surprise."

Gabriel looked up at her and 'surprised' even himself by chuckling. "No surprise is better."

Ladybug grinned. "I'll remember that."

They accompanied him back to the police and instructed them to take him back to his previous, secured residence; Gabriel had hinted that his decision to go back there was temporary, as he needed to think things through before moving, but they all knew better than to prod. Gabriel would take the necessary steps in his own time, not theirs, and that was perfectly okay.

"Well, wasn't that something," Rena Rouge sighed, leaning against a lamppost. "I just wish we knew."

"You can't know everything, babe," Carapace replied, his hand reaching out to pinch her cheek. "Though I know it would be your dream come true."

To stay in character, Chat Noir stretched, a loud meow posing for a yawn. "He'll come around, don't worry," he said, actually meaning those words. He had learned enough about his father to say that with confidence. "Is anyone else really tired? I'd kill for a cat nap."

"Sign me up," said Ladybug, following her partner's cue – she also wanted to go back to her civilian life and watch a movie or something with her lover and friends; anything but the chilly November weather was good.

"Me too," Rena Rouge chimed in.

"I'm beat," followed Carapace.

Queen Bee rolled her eyes and huffed. "Them I can understand," she pointed at the very innocent looking Rena Rouge and Carapace, "But how can you two be tired after a whole vacation?"

"It was two days that we couldn't patrol. Not a vacation," Ladybug grumbled.

"So you want to tell me that not once did you do anything remotely fun while I had to free up my schedule to cover for you?"

A smirk snaked its way on Ladybug's face. "Actually, I did get to see Jeanne d'Arc's statue winking at me," she chirped, and threw her yoyo. "Bug out!"

Carapace tripped.

Chat Noir, not for the first time that day or in the history of ever, thought he was a dead cat. When the turtle superhero threw a wide eyed stare at him, he must have looked like a deer in headlights, but to his utter shock, Nino's eyes soon fell back into their sockets, he seemed to mutter something to himself, nodded, then shrugged whatever thoughts he had in his head off and jazzed away.

If he managed to survive that night, then cats really did have nine lives, Adrien thought to himself.


"Heyyo!" Nino cheered as he opened the door to Alya and Marinette's apartment, clad in his usual hoodie and jeans. Right behind him was Adrien, wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt and sporting a bloat that thankfully went away once the magical suit was on, otherwise his teammates would have never let him live it down.

The girls seemed they had actually outdone them and donned their pyjamas. Adrien recognized the Chat Noir-themed onesie Marinette was currently wearing from London, and it prompted a warm smile to reach his face.

"Games or movies?" Alya called out, not removing her face from the microwave, where popcorn was doing what it did best. She was apparently a bit anal about it, and declared that she could smell the right time to take it out of the oven without burning it or ending up with underdone popcorn. No one argued.

Especially not Marinette, who had pulled her onesie's hood on her head to reveal the cutest, softest cat ears. She was doing something on her phone, and Adrien had to force himself to just sit next to her on the couch and not kiss her right then and there, in front of their friends.

"I see what you're wearing, princess," he whispered instead.

"I'm too fat for anything else," Marinette whined, causing his hands to fly to his mouth in an attempt to cover what would have otherwise been full blown laughter. Adrien gestured to his sweatpants and mouthed 'Same'.

"I'm feeling games tonight," Nino responded to Alya's question excitedly, joining her in the kitchen and hugging her from behind under the pretense that the popcorn smelled delicious.

Taking advantage of their roommates' adorable infatuation for each other, Marinette offered Adrien a concerned look. "Are you okay?" she muttered. Sneaking a quick glance at Nino and Alya just to make sure they were thoroughly occupied, the blonde leaned in to kiss his girlfriend's forehead. "I'll be just fine, m'lady."

"What about you guys? Games are good?"

"Perfect!" they called out at the same time, instinctively putting distance between themselves. Just as the fox and turtle team walked into the living room with a bowl of popcorn in each hand, there was a knock at the door.

Alya lifted an eyebrow. "Come in?"

In other circumstances, certain precautions would have been taken, such as locking one's door or at least checking to see who was knocking. However, when all inhabitants of an apartment were superheroes, sometimes these precautions, though still important, were discarded.

Inside stepped Chloe, who wore an unusually timid expression. "…Hi."

She visibly didn't know what to say, now that she had no official reason to be there other than simply wanting to. They were all so used to her presence, however, that nothing even seemed off to them in the slightest. "Hey, Chlo!" Nino grinned. "You up for game night?"

Her blue eyes widened slightly. From Adrien to Alya and even Marinette, they were all smiling at her invitingly. Gaining some much needed confidence, she took off her coat and shoes, and padded over to their couch, where Adrien and Marinette made room for her to sit between them. "Sure. What are we playing?"


After a few good hours of lighthearted banter, laughter and various games, something had to go wrong.

Nothing seemed like it would, really. They had put the games away and huddled up together to talk about miscellaneous things going on with their lives. Everyone was now listening to Chloe babbling about her fitness routine and how she found that waking up early in the morning to go for a run somehow always managed to clear her head.

"Huh," Adrien, the only other person in the room who regularly exercised outside of his superhero duties, intervened. "That's funny. I always feel better working out in the evenings rather than early in the day. Just the thought of waking up at that hour makes me cranky."

"Oh, it sucked at first," Chloe admitted. "But I couldn't sleep most nights anyways, so getting up to run was a good alternative. And it makes me tired enough that I can fall asleep at night without problems now."

Marinette hummed loudly. "All this talk about running and exercising makes me want to stop being a couch potato," she sighed, even as she shoved a fistful of popcorn in her mouth.

"You can come running with me if you want," Chloe blurted her words out without thinking, and her eyes widened upon realizing the offer she had made. She didn't take it back though, and met Marinette's different shade of blue eyes without flinching. "Really?" the brunette lit up with joy – not really for the opportunity to wake up at an ungodly hour to do exhausting things, but because it was Chloe who had given her that opportunity.

The blonde shrugged. "Sure."

"When can we do that?" Marinette chirped.

"Saturday?"

"Saturday! Perfect! I'll get that cute pink thermos that my mom gave me, and I can wear those yoga pants I finished two months ago and- oh," she ceased her own tirade, smacking her forehead with the back of her palm. "Alya, can I borrow one of your sports bras? I think I lost mine."

"Sure, girl," Alya said, leaning her head towards her fiancé to steal a kiss.

Her face, however, collided with his pointer finger, which had violently flown up to point at Adrien's suddenly very pale face. Nino's eyes were nearly flying out of his skull and his mouth had fallen open. "OH! OHHH!" he shouted incoherently at Adrien.

His other hand pointed towards Marinette. He yelled at her too for a second, yelled at Adrien again, and then turned back towards her with a gasp and a downrightly accusatory expression. "OOHH!"

"Nino, can I talk to you for a second?" Adrien wheezed, grabbing his best friend by the shoulders and forcibly dragging him towards Marinette's bedroom, the girl scrambling to get on her feet to follow suit. As she reappeared in Nino's line of vision, he once again began to scream and point at her frantically. "OHH! OHHH! OHHH!"

Completely ignoring Chloe and Alya's justifiably confused voices reaching out from the other side, Marinette locked her door and Adrien tackled Nino to the bed, his hand covering the DJ's screaming mouth. Eventually, Nino stopped yelling, and Adrien cautiously retreated his hand. "Yes," he quietly said in response to his friend's ballistic inquiry. "Yes."

Nino scurried up into a seated position, his features contorting into the most expressive display of shock either of them had ever seen. "You?!" he exclaimed, pointing at Adrien. "And- and you?"

"Yes," Marinette said gently.

"And you're Ladybug?!"

"Yes, Nino, but you can't tell anyone, okay? No one knows about this!"

Nino's hands tangled in his hair. His eyes darted between Marinette and Adrien so quickly that he was getting dizzy. "How? When?"

"It happened in London," Adrien whispered, gesturing for him to keep his voice down.

"IN LONDON?!"

Both of them leapt from their spots and freaked out in response to Nino's yelling, and Adrien was ready to jump on his best friend and immobilize him again. His roommate got the hint and clammed up.

"This is exactly the reason why we haven't told anybody," Adrien resumed his explanation. "We didn't want you guys making a big deal out of it."

Nino almost whined. "But this is a big deal, even for me, dude!" He got back up to his feet and darted towards the door. "I have to tell at least Alya!"

"NO!" Marinette and Adrien yelled in unison, using all of their combined strength to shove Nino back into a seated position on Marinette's bed. "Please, Nino, we just don't want to deal with having to tell everyone, okay? Just promise you won't tell?" the brunette implored, gazing at Nino with doe-like blue eyes.

He tried to look away from those, and ended up trapped in Adrien's equally pleading stare.

"You guys! The hell are you doing in there?"

Holding his face with his palms and groaning for a moment, Nino released a long sigh. "Alright."

His friends instantly relaxed, appearing as though they had just won one of the most difficult battles of their lives, and each of them gave him a grateful hug.

"Heeey!"

"Just a minute!" Marinette yelled in reply to the incessant knocking on the door.

"Man, this is unbelievable!" Nino exclaimed, still not completely recovered from his shock, though sworn to secrecy. "I mean, it's great – that you're Ladybug and you guys are… – it's really, really great, dudes," he said, nodding his head, dazed.

Adrien smirked. "I know it's great," he purred, pulling Marinette into his chest and giving her a sweet, slow kiss.

"Doesn't mean I want to see that."

"I know," he chuckled. "It just felt weirdly liberating."