There was a moment the next morning, when Marinette realized that Adrien wasn't there when she woke up, and that she couldn't feel the warmth of his hand, that she almost cried in dejection. She honestly thought she might have dreamed the entire thing, or that she had imagined it. That thought process felt like a knife to the heart for her, and she just laid there, staring at the ceiling, wondering what cruel twist of fate had led her to these musings.

Sitting herself up, to her joy, she found that she had jumped to conclusions.

Adrien was stood up by her desk, obviously putting his weight more onto his left leg than he was his right and had in his hand her sketch book. He had obviously been skimming through it for a while. He knew of Marinette's artistic talents, and when he had seen her sketchbook on her desk, he had been unable to resist looking at some of what she had drawn. As a model, he had an eye for fashion. And Marinette evidently did too.

"Morning." The blond boy said with a huge smirk on his face, looking up with his eyes, his head not changing his heads position, like he was leering over the book. He'd seen the books contents before, but none of her more recent works.

"Morning... What're you doing with my sketchbook?..." Marinette asked, rubbing her left eye. Seeing Adrien this early in a morning, after being awake for literally thirty seconds, felt weird to her. She was happy, but she felt weird. It was one thing to wake up and see his face on a poster... but quite another thing to wake up and see him in the flesh. There wasn't really a better way to start the day though, she quickly decided.

"Marinette, you have got some serious talent here." Adrien told her, slipping through more of the pages, inspecting her various drawings and designs. He knew she had artistic talent, and he was aware her designs were excellent for an amateur, but this, that he was seeing now, was on a whole other level. "They're creative, they're original, your actual drawings are great..."

Blushing was her automatic response. She was still getting used to all of this emotional adjustment. It still was like she had taken an explosive to the brain when she thought about it. Adrien was Chat Noir. She loved Chat Noir. Chat Noir loved her. Adrien loved her. It was still a lot of information she had to process all at once for the blunette's fragile state of mind.

Still, she couldn't be happier.

"Thank you..." She acknowledged the boys compliment, but still... "Next time ask me before you look through that! It's embarrassing!" It did feel embarrassing. She didn't particularly know why. Maybe it was because they felt inadequate compared to the person she loved.

"And wake you up?" Adrien asked, putting her pad down. "You looked so peaceful though..."

A small smile snuck its way onto the young girls face, as well as a very faint blush. Deciding to just let it slide for now, Marinette got out of her bed and stretched. "I had a really good dream." She said. She couldn't quite remember it now. She thought it was a dream that no one knew who Adrien was, and that the fight with Overgrow had never happened. That none of this bad stuff had happened yet. She wasn't sure though. All she knew was that she had enjoyed it. Once she had finished, she went over to Adrien and asked, "How's your leg?"

"I still get a few flares of pain every once in a while, but nothing I can't shake off." He told her with a reassuring smile. With another couple of hours without any serious strain, he'd be able to go leaping around as Chat Noir again. "I'm fine, Mari."

Hearing Adrien call her 'Mari' made the blunette blush. Everything still took some getting used to. Hearing that nickname from Adrien still took some getting used to. However, she still slid her arms underneath his and hugged him. "Good..." She rested her head on his chest, and closed her eyes, relishing in the comfort just a small amount of physical contact with him brought her.

Standing stunned for a few seconds, Adrien didn't waste too much time in returning the warm embrace. Whereas Marinette's hands had located themselves on his back, his hands wrapped themselves around her waist, and pulled her closer towards him. They stood there for at least a moment in a comfortable silence, wrapped up in one another's arms. For both of them, this was like a dream.

Granted, Adrien was aware of the fleeting peace that they were enjoying. There wasn't a lot of time for them to simply enjoy one another's company without the worry that someone was watching them. His identity as Chat Noir, despite being what brought him and Marinette together, was going to be the thing that put a huge level of strain on their lives.

Not to mention, when, and if it was revealed that they were...

"Hey, Marinette?..."

"Yeah?"

"Urm..." Adrien found himself blushing, looking away to the left. He found it suddenly very awkward and embarrassing to ask. Wasn't it a given anyway? They had kissed so many times. Hell, the previous night, they had shared the same bed for the nocturnal hours. Couldn't they just assume that they were... Marinette's head peeked up from his chest, looking up at him. Her cute face didn't help Adrien's current issues with asking her. "Uh... Are we, uh... Are we dating?"

An equal level of embarrassment found its way to the young amateur fashion designer's face. this was a question she had wanted to answer 'Yes' To for over a year, and had always felt her face explode in heat and color whenever she imagined it. Now that it was happening... Part of here wanted to separate from Adrien and huddle into a corner so she didn't have to face the embarrassment "I um... I... Thought so?" She felt her heart beating against her chest, attempting to burst out of her and escape the embarrassing situation.

It was odd how both of them thought that asking such a simple question would cause them both such fluster, they realized. They found it easier to kiss than they did to simply confirm that they were indeed dating. Perhaps, Adrien thought, that that was because it felt like they were fully committing to the other. That it was like saying that they were fully dedicated to making this work. Such pure emotion would cause anyone embarrassment.

Despite that embarrassment, both of them could only smile at one another once it had been said, although both of them were as red as the other was. They both leaned in closer, and shared a brief, yet loving kiss. It was during those brief seconds that Marinette thought that if she could wake up each morning to such a wonderful experience, she would be more than happy to deal with any of the embarrassment that the two awkward teens shared, and the negative occurrences that she would have to face due to being with Adrien.

Today was a Sunday. The one day of the week where the two school-teenagers didn't have to worry about attending meant that they had only a single day to enjoy themselves before total hell broke loose on Monday. And that was assuming Adrien even planned to go back to school. Marinette had a feeling that he would be planning on doing that. He actually enjoyed going. Had fought for it for so long, so it was heavily unlikely that he would use this as an excuse to miss a few days. His dedication to his public school life was admirable, but it worried the young girl too.

Adrien also realized this just as much as Marinette did, and he had no intention of skipping classes the next day. He knew that everything had to be faced sooner or later. He preferred for it to be sooner. But that did nothing to help the crippling nervousness he felt towards doing it. Walking through the streets was going to be... Certainly an experience to say the least. Best case scenario, he thought, was people just staring at him. The worst case was half the city chasing him.

He could only hope that people would just... Get over it quickly.

What can I do?

Having been produced a dumbbell to use for weightlifting purposes, courtesy of Marinette, whom claimed they were her father's, Adrien had to ask himself that same question, over and over again.

What can I do?

How can I help make this work?

How can I be with Marinette, and not make her suffer thanks to the media?

He could already imagine the sheer amount of attention she would receive once the public knew. And it wasn't going to be a private thing for the two of them. It was going to be like a celebrity marriage, where the entire planet watched their every single move. As a model, Adrien had had enough of that. Now a model and a superhero. He could already imagine the headlines.

Grunting as he did another rep, he considered what Nino would think about all of this. He didn't have his phone, but he could already imagine that it was filled with roughly six hundred notifications from the various contacts he had on there. Would Nino feel betrayed? Would he be understanding? He had been such a good, loyal friend to Adrien... He hoped he hadn't betrayed his trust.

There wasn't even any thinking about Alya. She'd want an interview. There wasn't even a shadow of a doubt that that's what she was going to be after. He wasn't honestly too worried about Alya, given her interest in Ladybug and Chat Noir from their debut. If any one person from their school was going to be fine with the revelation that he was Chat Noir, he was beyond confident that it would be her.

Then there was everyone else. Adrien had no doubt Chloe would attempt to instigate a relationship with him the minute she saw him. At least this gave him a good excuse to flat out turn her down, end her irritating displays of affection, that he seriously doubted were genuine anyway. Everyone else though, all bets were off. He had a reasonably good relationship with people like Max, Kim, Rose, Juleka and various others in his class, but he found it unlikely that those relationships would not be placed under some strain. Maybe some of them would be enthusiastic about the fact he was a superhero. He could only hope that they weren't enthusiastic to the point of obsession though.

He sighed, as he did another rep. It was truly a double edged sword.

And then there was Marinette...

She had transformed into Ladybug and ran to his house, to pick up some extra clothes for him. She had been completely insistent on him staying at her house for a few days, at least until the inevitable camp-site of tents and reporters that would be swarming his house left. He had tried to say that he could go home, but she had simply refused to hear any of it. Eventually, he had submitted, but he couldn't help but feel like a hindrance to her.

What can I do?

'Maybe I could just do an interview or two'. That was always an option, he supposed. If he just did them, maybe that would be enough to dissuade other reporters. And it would be an opportunity to let the whole world know about his point of view. How he wanted things to be.

Another rep. "Plagg? What would you think if I just did an interview with a channel or two? You think that would help get them off my back?"

"Well, I'm not exactly a secret now, am I?" The Kwami said, hovering around the bedroom. He came and floated near Adrien, who was sat on Marinette's bed as he did his arm-strengthening exercise to help him be a tougher fighter. "If you're looking for my opinion, I'd say go for it. Just don't let them know about the miraculous too much. All they need to know is that I'm part of what helps you do your job, but unless I will it, nothing will happen."

"That's not technically true though, is it?" Adrien asked, looking at the levitating magical cat-like creature. "I've made you transform plenty of times when you didn't want to. Mostly when you're trying to eat Camembert."

"Do you think Marinette will bring back some?!"

"Maybe. Focus, Plagg."

Sighing, his inhuman partner continued. "Well, it's a rational deception. If people knew they could become Chat Noir just by stealing your miraculous, then you know that would make people come after you, and that puts you and Marinette in danger."

The human felt his heart get stabbed just a little bit when he considered putting Marinette in danger.

"Telling the world that I'm what does it, but that unless I want to make you into Chat Noir, nothing happens... That would make anyone with half a brain realize trying to kidnap me is totally pointless, and that minimizes the risk to you and your girlfriend." Plagg summarized. He put special emphasis on the word 'Girlfriend', just to toy with Adrien.

Impulse yelled at Adrien to deny Mairnette being his girlfriend, but he had to stop himself. She was his girlfriend, right? She was... That information was still going to need some time to process. He nodded at Plagg quickly, before returning to his thought process.

He had never had a girlfriend before. Seeing he was a famous model, and was considered to be very handsome by the general population, that information would probably shock anyone who didn't know what his father was like. He had been very strict about the people he would allow Adrien to interact with. Girlfriends had been totally out of the question. So the honest truth was he had no idea what to do, what to say, around Marinette.

His love for her wasn't in question. Rather, it really was the etiquette he had to think about right now.

She deserved someone who was going to treat her right. Someone who could take her on dates, and act accordingly. He had enough knowledge about attending formal dinner parties that if he wrote it all down, the book would probably be thick enough to beat a goat to death with. Despite all his training in formality and etiquette, he knew nothing about taking the person you loved on a romantic date.

So many things to consider...

He knew being with her wasn't going to be easy. But then again, he thought, what, worth having, was ever easy? He loved her. He truly did love her. He would do everything in his power to make sure she knew that, and to keep her safe from danger. He would do anything to make sure she got to live a comfortable, quiet life. He loved her. So much.

While he thought about this and smiled, it was only then it occurred to him. What would her family...

Vision focusing, and an awareness of his surroundings just only now activating, about thirty seconds late, Adrien looked up at the trap door that acted as the only way in or out of Marinette's room, short of jumping out a window or off the room. The latch was undone.

And there stood Marinette's parents. Both of them. Simply staring at Adrien, their eyes wide in shock and surprise, as well as some disbelief and a hint of fear mixed in there. Adrien returned the same luck, still holding up the dumbbell from his previous rep.

The situation could not have been more awkward. A very large, bulky French male, and a small, petite Chinese woman were both staring at the young model, whose name had been all over the media for the past few days as the secret identity of a superhero, who was looking at them with the same level of total unawareness of what to do or what to say. How long had they even been stood there? What had brought them up?

Then it occurred to Adrien. The noise he made when talking to Plagg. They must have heard that, realized it wasn't their daughter speaking, and ran upstairs, expecting to be dealing with a burglar. Instead they found a teenage boy in the middle of a workout, and a hovering cat like creature next to him.

"Urm..." Adrien said, speaking first. What in the hell was he gonna be able to say that was going to be able to defuse this horrendous situation? He prayed to God that Marinette was on her way back. 'Please, God, let Marinette be on her way back.' He stuttered for a few more seconds, before he raised his other hand and waved lightly. With a soft, quiet voice, he whispered a greeting. "Hello?..."

Totally understandably, they both looked horrified. Adrien's face mirrored theirs. How could they not be freaked out by this? From their perspective, some total lunatic had broken in, done something with their daughter, and was now using weights for a workout session on their daughter's bed. Could there be a more disturbing sight for any parent?

'For the love of God, Marinette, please...'

Like a true angel, in that moment, Marinette came down the ladder leading up to the balcony. The creaks in the floorboards were heard before the young girl was actually seen, and when she did come downstairs, she wasn't holding any of the clothes she had apparently gone to get Adrien, which struck him as odd, but at the same time, if she had had them, it would have made explaining things twice as difficult. Adding breaking and entering to the list of things here would not have helped matters in the slightest. Hearing her voice was like a God-send. "Adrien? I think I got some -"

When she actually saw the situation in front of her, she froze up just as quickly as everyone else had, her eyes widening far more than anyone else's. There really was no way she could pass this off as a friendly visit. There was a literal superhero in her room. Literally the focus of all the media in the country, located in a tiny bakery. Worse, they had seen Plagg. There was not chance to hide anything now.

Both of the young heroes looked at one another, silently exchanging words. Both looked nervous, and were completely terrified right now, but they had little choice. It was Marinette who spoke first, rather quietly, but firmly all the same. "...Maman. Papa. We need to talk."

Tensions between Marinette and her parents had been tense, and that was putting it positively mildly. Since the blunette's outburst at her parents during the initial media craze, they had all gone out of each other's way to give each other some distance. She hadn't even been in trouble for screeching at them the way she had, and while in front of other customers no less.

Marinette's parents weren't exactly strict. They were firm when they had to be, but otherwise, were fairly relaxed about what their daughter did, so long as she knew how to do it properly and safely. They understood her needs to have freedom as a young adult, and respect that, and tried to do well by her. In reality, Marinette knew, especially compared to Adrien's, she couldn't ask for better parents.

To both of their credit, when Marinette and Adrien explained themselves to the married couple, they didn't interrupt. They didn't speak. They didn't pry. They allowed the young couple to explain everything at their pace. It didn't make it less awkward to explain, in detail they would have preferred to not go into, but without the certain context, their relationship would have seemed rushed or half baked. They had to include Marinette's near mugging, how Chat Noir had saved her, the impulsive kiss they had shared, the consecutive visits, and eventually, their full blown relationship. They left out the part about Marinette being Ladybug. This entire mess was already complicated enough as it was, without adding to the fact that their daughter was a superhero who almost got herself killed a few days ago to the list.

Seeing a flying, black, tiny cat like creature also wasn't helping matters. In fact, it made the whole situation seem even more ridiculously absurd. The fact it could also talk made matters ten times worse. Especially since Plagg had a far more laid back attitude about the entire situation, trying to convince everyone to just forget about the entire thing and eat some food instead. He honestly had next to no clue about general human interaction.

Once they had finished, they were met with a good half minute of silence, as Marinette's parents processed everything that they had just been told. Adrien had since learned her parents were called Sabine and Tom, and looking at them right now, the young model honestly had no idea what to expect from them. Tom was sat with his arms folded, staring directly at the two, with a look that combined anger with confusion, and Sabine was shakily tipping a cup of tea she had poured. He didn't like the feeling of being a complete outsider he was getting, but Adrien understood it. They had met before, under far better circumstances. These weren't even close to those conditions.

"...So..." Sabine asked, placing her tea-cup in her saucer, and placing that on the table in front of her. It was her and Tom on one side, Adrien and Marinette on the other. The two teenagers were stood up, which was doing horrors for their knees, both of whom felt like they were about to collapse any second from sheer nervousness. "..The... Mask thing..." Understandably, Sabine had little idea on how to phrase her words. This was a superhero in front of her, after all. "...When did you... Learn it was... Him, Marinette?"

"Only when everyone else did..." Marinette confessed. That wasn't even a lie.

"Well, this at least explains why you were so mad at us." Tom said with a sigh. Marinette wasn't sure of what to make of her father. She got the sickening feeling he disapproved.

"That's... Understandable." Sabine agreed, with a more reluctant sigh of her own.

Another bout of silence descended on the two of them. Out of her parents below, Mairnette grabbed hold of Adrien's hand, and intertwined their fingers, and squeezed tightly. Her boyfriend returned the gesture.

"I, um..." Adrien started, and suddenly, all eyes were on him. This was the first time he had spoken freely. Up until this point, he had been adding on to what Marinette had said, hardly speaking a word. "...I'm... I don't mean... For any harm to... Come to Marinette..." Was all he could say. He couldn't really think of anything else to say to them.

"Her being in danger is the problem." Tom said, leaning back in his seat, his eyes firmly fixed on Adrien.

"O-Of course, sir." Adrien nodded. He knew it wasn't right for him to fight back against this. They were right. He knew it too. Marinette was in danger even being associated with him.

"Wait a second, Papa!" Marinette said, trying to defend Adrien. She was cut off immediately by her father before she got another word in, simply by raising his large hand.

"Marinette, he's a model. That in itself holds risk." Tom said, listing the point on his finger. He was right. Dating a model left you open to all sorts of dangers, be it obsessed lunatics, the media shaming you, or anything in between. Things Adrien was already afraid of. "And secondly... He's Chat Noir! I mean - What if someone tries to get to him by using you?" Another thing Adrien knew was true.

It wasn't a surprise her father disapproved. He could see her mother also reluctantly nodding. Adrien had expected this. In a way, Marinette had also. Dating someone like him was like a game of Russian Roulette - You never knew when everything would be over because of a stupid risk.

"You can't blame him for those!" Fought back Marinette. "He doesn't even like his modelling! And he - He didn't get a choice regarding weather he wanted to be Chat Noir or not!"

"That parts true." Plagg commented, munching on a piece of bread he had stolen, or in his words, sampled, from behind the counter. He spoke with a stuffed mouth, making his words harder to comprehend. "Adrien was chosen. If he didn't accept, there simply wouldn't be a Chat Noir."

"Plagg, stop stealing their food!" Adrien yelled, trying to grab his tiny partner with his free hand, only for it to hover higher in the air.

"What? I thought all stores had a free sample!"

"This isn't the time, Plagg!" Adrien muttered, before he turned his attention back to Marinette's parents. Despite the tension, Sabine was able to smile at least at the situation. Sabine was a blunette, just like her daughter, was of Chinese ethnicity, which explained Marinette's very light traces of Chinese ancestry, and she seemed rather calm in nature, and rather kind. It was clear she wasn't particularly on board with this entire meeting in the first place, seeming reluctant, but technically agreeing with her husband. It was from her Marinette must have gotten her kindness.

While she got her stubbornness from her father, who hadn't changed in expression. Adrien didn't have it in him to hold anything against the large French man. His concerns were perfectly understandable. He obviously loved his daughter very much, more than he loved his own well-being. He was already a far better father than Adrien's was, at least in the blond Parisian's mind.

"And... I don't even know what that thing is." Tom said, covering his face with one of his hands. "And to top it all off, you kept him in the house, uninvited and unannounced, and we had to learn this by hearing him and... That thing, talking? We thought someone had broken in, Marinette! How... Just, how do you expect me to honestly support this, when there's so much danger surrounding it?"

The young girl felt her anger she felt for him a few days ago bubbling up again. She had fought to be with Adrien for over a year, and had fought like hell to be with chat Noir over the recent few weeks, and now, he was acting like he could tell her who she could and couldn't love? "Papa, how could you -"

"Mari." Adrien said firmly, stopping her in her tracks. His eyes were shut, and his teeth gritted.

"Adrien?..."

With a sigh, Adrien looked at her. "Mari... These are some valid points he's making. I said them myself, didn't I? The whole country has gone mad with the knowledge that I am who I am, and being with me before you even knew I was Chat was risky in itself. Nothing Mr. Dupain is saying here is incorrect." With a heavy sigh, Adrien continued. "I completely understand his concerns."

"But it's not fair..." Marinette said with a quiet, sad voice, looking down at their hands, closely and tightly held. He hadn't done anything wrong. He couldn't help who he was. Why did they both had to suffer this because of who they were?

"I know, Mari." Her boyfriend replied, equally sad in measure. "But it's not like he's doing it out of malice... But that doesn't mean, even for a second, I Plan on giving you up. Not after what we both just went through to actually get to this point. I refuse."

That was all that was needed to send Marinette into a flurry of tears, and make her throw her arms around the young blond's neck, and hug him tighter than she had ever hugged anyone in her entire life. He struggled to breathe, only for a second, before he managed to wriggle his way into a breathable position, before he returned the hug. They were in a similar position to how they had been this morning. Only this was out of sadness. Not only out of love.

"It's alright, Marinette." Adrien said, gently trying to reassure her, holding her close. Her crying out of any reason other than sheer joy was far too painful to see. "It's alright..."

"Tom..." Sabine could be very lightly heard above Marinette's crying by Adrien. He was too focused on comforting the crying girl in his arms to focus on her words too much, but he listened where he could. "Just... Look at them... Don't they remind you of anyone?"

"No. Who are you thinking of?" Her husband responded, leaning closer to better hear his wife.

"Us?"

From what Adrien could see, he could have sworn that Marinette's father looked like he had been struck by lightning. He seemed to bolt upright, and look at his wife with wide eyes and narrow pupils.

For Tom, it felt like he had been shown a memory he hadn't seen in several decades. Him, bringing a Chinese girl home for the first time. His parents had done the exact same thing with him and her that day. The only difference today, was that Adrien wasn't Chinese, or English, or Japanese, or from anywhere else. He was a superhero, apparently chosen by forces beyond his power.

Like Sabine was Chinese beyond her power.

What was the difference, despite the specific hand that had been played to them?

While Adrien tried to comfort Marinette more and more, Tom looked set the two young teenagers in front of him. It was clear how much they cared for one another just by watching them now. Merely watching them told that particular story. How long had they said they had officially been together? A week or two? And yet, they were still so close to one another.

Hadn't he and Sabine promised themselves that no matter who Marinette came to love, they would show the support that they lacked from their parents?

What had happened to that?

Part of him wanted to overrule himself and say this was a special exception. His daughter being with someone like this, a superhero, someone who the whole world knew about now, was simply too dangerous. He shouldn't accept it. He couldn't.

But that would make him a massive hypocrite. To himself, and everything that he stood for.

"...Marinette, you truly care about this boy, don't you?" He asked, standing up and making his way over to the two of them.

Forcing herself to stop crying, Marinette answered, her voice shaky, but strong all the same. "Papa... He makes me feel safe... Happy... Loved... And I - I love him!" She shouted at him, before throwing herself into another hug, which made Adrien stumble back a few steps due to the sheer force the girl had thrown herself.

For a second, Adrien came dangerously close to falling down on the floor. He was stopped by Tom, whom grabbed him by the shoulder, helping him keep upright, and stared at the blond Parisian. His stare seemed less 'Stern father' now, and more 'Can I trust this boy?'. "You care about Marinette a great deal too, right?"

Wasn't that already obvious, Adrien thought to himself. Regardless, he answered with the same brutal honesty he answered Marinette with. He held nothing back in those few words. "Marinette's the only person on the planet who made me feel like I mattered more than just as a hero or a pretty face for the entire country. I love her. And I'm more than willing to die to keep her safe."

"You... Understand my concerns?"

Looking forwards, Adrien rested his head on top of Marinette's, and spoke softly. "I do... And they depress me... Mostly because, I know they're all very good reasons... And that they're true."

"Then make sure you protect her."

The young couple looked at the large French man, who was stood there with a smile on his face, for the first time since they had seen him this day. Both of them had to look at the other again, before they looked back at Tom.

"What..." Marinette asked, drying her eyes with her sleeve, "What are you saying?"

"Marinette... A long time ago, your mother and I got ourselves into a similar situation... And here we are. We got to be happy." He smiled at his wife, wondering how he had ever forgotten the struggles they had gone through just to be together. He looked back at his daughter and her boyfriend, Adrien, Chat Noir, whatever he wanted to be called, and said to them, "Maybe I was far too protective of you about this... After all, what kind of a Papa would I be if I got to be happy, but I denied my daughter the chance to be with someone she loved?"

The beautiful tears of joy found their way onto Marinette's face once more, and she tackled her father with a hug so fierce, it nearly threatened to knock him over, despite being over twice her size. "Papa!" Like that, the tension they felt between each other was gone, erased from their memories.

From her seat on the couch, Sabine smiled at the scene, and at Adrien.

His surprise and shock was unmissable. He stood there, tears in his own eyes. Forcing himself to be as polite as he could, he spoke, "Mr. Dupain... Mrs. Cheng..." He bowed, not sure how else to show his pure appreciation. "Thank you, so much..."

"There's really no need to be so formal with us." Sabine told him with a more peppy tone to her voice than before as she spoke to the young superhero. "You can call me by my name. Sabine."

"You can call me Tom." Her father said, still being held tightly by his daughter.

Adrien couldn't help but smile and shed a few tears of happiness. This was a real family. People who cared for one another. Who loved one another. Who learned from one another, who could realize their mistakes, and come out better people for it.

Exactly what Adrien had never had, but always wanted.

A family.

This one took a bit longer to write than usual, because I wanted to get a feel for how something this immensely awkward was going to go.

Given the outbreak of the media explosion surrounding Adrien, I find it unlikely her parents would have been on board with them if something similar hadn't happened to them in their past, which is why I included the part about their difficulties of a relationship due to Sabine's Chinese ethnicity. Absolutely no idea if that's the official lore, but that's what I'm going for.

Its also me taking a stab at French attitudes, because France really has a terrible issue with that. Serious, genuine condolences for the attacks and all, but that doesn't excuse racism and xenophobia, guys '-' Anyway! Enough of me taking shots at the French!

this was one of the main chapters I wrote that focuses on others discovering Adrien after the reveal of his identity. Over the next few chapters, that's going to be quite a large focus, as I explore the various different people who Adrien is forced to confront, and how I image they'd react. There's one or two i'm looking forward to doing immensely, so be excited for that ^_^

As per usual, you can find more on my Wattpad, for slightly earlier updates, and my YouTube, where I talk absolute nonsense for anything between 20 minutes to an hour and mock people without mercy. Links are in my profile description.

And I shall see you, in whatever it is, that I do indeed, decide to write next. See ya!