The day started with a frantic Kwami shaking her awake. She was going to be late for school if she didn't get moving, but she was still so exhausted from the past night. She figured she could just tell people that, after the events from the news, she was too upset to sleep, so she stayed awake all night. Maybe her teachers would show her mercy if she happened to fall asleep in class.

Marinette rushed down the stairs, as soon as she was dressed, to grab breakfast. It was only then that she remembered Adrien was asleep in the guest room.

Adrien was asleep.

In the guest room.

In her home.

She could have died from excitement.

She wondered how she should handle this. Was he awake? Was he still asleep? Should she go check? Should she get her parents to? What if he was already awake and had already left for school? Had she missed seeing him?

"Oh, wow, I'm glad I'm not the only one running late this morning?" Adrien said, interrupting her inner monologue.

Marinette spun around to face him, the croissant she had been eating still hanging from her mouth. She quickly snatched up another and offered it to him.

He gladly accepted, yawning before he could take the first bite.

"How'd you sleep?" Marinette asked. He looked exhausted. Had the mattress been too firm? Too soft? Was he uncomfortable last night?

"Great," he answered with a smile. "I mean, it was kind of hard to fall asleep after… you know… but once I did…"

Marinette thought that if his smile got any bigger his head would rip.

"Can I have another one of these?"

She picked up the plate of fresh breads and held it out to him. "Take as many as you like."

And there was the smile aaaaaaand… his face didn't rip.

"Thanks! What about you? How'd you sleep?" Adrien moved to her side, leaning against the counter as she did.

Marinette's smile faltered. "Same, I guess," she answered quietly.

He nudged her side with his elbow. "Things will get better, Mari. You'll see."

Marinette caught his eyes. They looked at each other for a few seconds.

Then they remembered they had both overslept and were going to be late for school if they didn't get moving.

Taking a few more croissants off the plate, the teenagers headed downstairs and out the door.

"So, uh, did you have extra clothes with you or…"

Adrien laughed shyly. "Yeah, it's just a model thing, I guess. I always have extra clothes with me. Photo shoots and stuff."

They crossed the street in silence, though it wasn't actually that awkward. They were just happy to be out doing normal, mundane things after all they had been through.

"So, I really did have fun with your family," Adrien said as they entered the school yard.

"Yeah?" Marinette willed herself to calm down. The longer she spent talking to Adrien, the easier it got to control her blabbering. "I really had fun too. I mean, we all did. We like you and you should come over more often. If you want to, I mean."

"I definitely wouldn't be opposed to it. I might even beat you at video games one day, if I played against you enough."

Marinette laughed. "Suuuuure, Adrien. Whatever you say."

"Oh, come on," he said, elbowing her again. "You're a total Jedi with video games, and-"

"You could be my Padawan?" she finished.

Adrien laughed. "Thank you, Marinette, for being a dork."

She smiled.

They continued to talk and joke about anything that came to mind until they reached their class.

It seemed that everyone, including the teachers, were a little late this morning. They found their friends already seated and took their places in the class.

Alya watched Marinette with a grin. She leaned over and quietly demanded an explanation. "Girl, you were talking to Adrien like a normal person just now. What's going on?"

Marinette started to answer, but thought better of it. If she told Alya that Adrien had stayed the night at her house and someone overheard her, it could easily be blown out of proportion and start a thousand unwanted rumors. "I'll tell you later. Promise."

When she turned back to face the front of the class, she noticed Adrien looking at her. His eyes darted to something by her feet before returning to meet her gaze. She looked down and saw a note by her foot.

Hang out later? You, me, Nino, and Alya?

Marinette motioned for her friend to look down at the note. They smiled, nodding to the boys in front of them.

At that moment, Chloe burst through the door, feigning distress, and threw herself at Adrien and Nino's desk. "Oh, Adrikins!" she cried. "I was so worried about you all last night! When I found out what had happened, I had daddy call your father and when I heard you weren't even home," she cried dramatically, laying the back of her hand against her head. "How horrible it must have been for you to have to spend the whole night with that dreadful Marinette!"

Every person in the room locked their eyes on the two of them. Alya's mouth dropped. Marinette's face drained of color. Adrien blushed. Everyone else immediately started whispering and giggling.

Chloe saw the look of horror on Marinette's face and smirked. She sauntered over. "And you! Kidnapping Adrien and dragging him to your house in the middle of the night? You should be ashamed of yourself."

Marinette tried to speak, but couldn't find her voice.

"That's not what happened, Chloe. Leave her alone," Adrien said, frustration evident in his voice.

The class oohed and snickered. Some demanded an explanation. Others blurted out their guesses, causing more laughter and blushing.

Alya stood and yelled for everyone to back off. She gave them the option of shutting up or being shut up by her.

The students quieted down.

The teacher finally came in and, after everyone was seated, began her lesson.

Chloe looked more than pleased with herself as Marinette practically melted into her seat, horror filled and willing herself to disappear.

After everything that had happened, did she really have to deal with this too?

The day passed too slowly. Sneers and smirks and whispers and giggles accompanied Marinette and Adrien wherever they went. It was horrible. And when they tried to explain, it only made matters worse.

When school finally let out, Adrien was shocked to receive a message from his father, directing him to return to the home he had stayed in the night before until his bodyguard was sent for him.

Adrien looked around the schoolyard for Marinette. He saw her talking to Alya—she looked exhausted from all the questions the blogger must be asking—and started to walk to them.

He stopped suddenly. Maybe asking if he could stay at her house again wouldn't be a wise thing to do where anyone and everyone could see. Instead, he crossed the street, walked a few block, and crossed again to get to the bakery.

The bakery.

Hadn't Taipan said something about a bakery? Hmm.

He opened the door and walked up to the counter.

"Oh, Adrien," Sabine greeted. "I'm sorry my husband and I didn't get to talk to you this morning. We were surprisingly busy."

"It's okay," Adrien said. "Thank you for leaving the croissants out. They were delicious."

Sabine smiled. "Would you like something to eat? Go ahead and pick anything. Marinette should be home soon. Would you like to go upstairs and wait for her? You can watch TV or play some games."

Tom walked in from the kitchen. "Sabine, don't pester the boy." He laughed and looked at Adrien. "I'm sorry, son. We don't mean to hold you up if you need to get going, but you are certainly welcome to stick around if you want."

He scratched the back of his head. "Actually, I got a message from my father and, well, could I hang out here for a little longer?" He smiled sheepishly.

Sabine and Tom lit up. "Well, of course," they chorused. "Stay as long as you need to."

He stayed in the bakery for a while, eating his hachis parmentier with great pleasure until he saw Marinette walking up to the door.

She bounded into the bakery apologizing for taking so long to get home. Her mother only laughed at her and pointed to the small table where her crush was sitting. Sabine quickly explained that he was staying with them until his chauffer came to pick him up and shooed the two back upstairs.

It was a little awkward at first. Marinette took a few minutes to make her sentences coherent. But once they were settled, they were able to act as though the tormenting from their classmates earlier had never happened.

They played video games for a few hours. Marinette let Adrien win a few for the sake of watching his face light up at his victory. They talked, and joked, and laughed, and, finally, Tom and Sabine came upstairs to get dinner going.

Adrien checked his phone periodically, but found no news from his father or Nathalie. A part of him was concerned, but more than anything, he was happy to be spending more time with his chosen family.

And then it was dark.

Adrien twirled the coin Taipan had given him between his fingers under the table. Everyone was still talking happily, but the mood had clearly changed as the memory of Huntsman's twenty-four hour challenge came back to mind. It wouldn't be long until that time was up and if Chat Noir and Ladybug didn't show up with his snake—they had decided the night before that he must have been referring to Taipan—more people would be killed.

A spree had been promised and they could only wait for it to happen if Adrien couldn't find a reason to leave and transform. Maybe he could say guerrilla was waiting outside for him. But then, where would he go if he couldn't go home and he couldn't go back to the Dupain-Cheng's?

He turned the coin over in his hand again. Would Taipan even show up to help them?

They could trust Taipan, couldn't they? Benjamin said they could, but he wasn't sure he trusted Benjamin. Something about that guys was… off.

Adrien considered Taipan to be a friend. He didn't know much about him, but the vigilante had treated him like a real person, not a super hero, not a stupid kid, and not a famous model. He had made Adrien feel totally normal for at least a few minutes.

But what if Ladybug was right and Taipan and Huntsman were working together? What if he was being manipulated?

What if he really was neither good nor bad, but fighting his own, personal battle, and didn't care about what might happen if he didn't show up to meet Huntsman when the time came.

Adrien checked his phone. Still nothing from home. What was going on?

Hawk Moth readied himself. It would take a tremendous amount of power and concentration to do what he had to. His window opened fully and he counted the seconds. It wouldn't be long now.

A single Akuma flew through the opening and soared through Paris' night sky. It searched and searched, but could not find its target. Finally, after nearly an hour, it returned to the tower.

Hawk Moth seethed. How had he lost the Huntsman? How had that nitwit slipped through his fingers so easily? And how could he possibly be expected to follow through on his part of the plan if he couldn't trust Huntsman to keep up his end?

He sent out another Akuma. And then another. And then another.

He had to find Huntsman. This was about more than just getting his Miraculouses.

In a small coffee shop near Notre Dam, a gentleman sipped at his latte with a smile on his lips as he watched the butterflies dance through the air. His white hair was slicked back, his face clean and smooth, his yellow eyes broke away from the window and danced around the room, observing the few brave enough to be out at this hour.

A girl with turquois hair walked in the door and looked around. Her eyes fell on him and she smile.

The man straightened his tie and adjusted the collar of his white, button down shirt. He motioned for the girl to join him and, without hesitation, she did.

"Hey!" The girl greeted. "You must be Dr. Lucas Moreau. I'm Eryn," she extended her hand. "Nice to meet you."

Moreau stood. He took her hand and raised it to his lips. "The pleasure is mine, miss." He pulled out the seat across from him for her to sit in. Once seated, he handed her a flash drive. "Miss Eryn, I'm glad you met me. I've heard of your computer skills and I could certainly use your help with these files. Money is no object here, my dear. Take a look and name your price."

The hacker beamed and plucked the flash drive from his hand.

Moreau watched as she pulled a laptop from the bag hanging from her shoulder and slipped the drive in. Her fingers went to work decoding the files and he couldn't hide his grin.

"You and that Agreste business rivals or something, Dr. Moreau?"

"Something like that," the man answered with a wink.

He loved it when pieces fell into place.

Marinette and Adrien had excused themselves their respective rooms to 'do their homework.' Neither offered to work together and neither seemed to have a problem with it.

Marinette had waited about five minutes before transforming and Adrien gave a good fifteen minutes before he chose to leave.

They met up not far from where the challenge had been issued the night before.

There was no sign of the Huntsman, Benjamin, or Taipan.

They waited in silence. Painful silence. And then it happened. Slowly, the stars began to disappear from the sky. It didn't take long to figure out what was going on.

Ladybug and Chat Noir felt their hearts drop as the watched the massive swarm of thousands upon thousands of Akumas fall from the sky and consume the hearts of the people of Paris.

"Tic toc." THUNK!

The heroes spun around to see a white haired aristocrat with a bloodstained shirt standing under a streetlight. In front of him was the mangled corpse of what had once been a girl with brightly colored hair.

"You didn't bring my snake, kids. Now Paris is gonna pay."