That night was filled with a lack of sleep. Adrien kept tossing and turning. His mind was filled with thoughts on the fight they had just had. He finally gave up on sleep and threw the blankets off. He made his way down the stairs to the grand piano.
He sat at the bench and started playing. Bach's "Marcello" flew out from his fingertips. It was a welcoming distraction to the events from earlier.
Adrien sighed and let his fingers run along the keys, as he played the sweet yet dark melody. He barely heard Marinette walk up behind him. Adrien felt her hands drop to his shoulders.
His fingers left the keys, he turned around, and pulled her into his lap. She straddled his thighs and laid her arounds around his neck. "Couldn't sleep?"
"No, you?" Adrien sighed and kissed her lips gently.
"No and I was headed to get Louis. He woke up." Marinette sighed and untangled herself from him.
"Sorry. I should have gone and got him, but I didn't hear through my piano playing." Adrien felt ashamed for not getting up and going to get their baby. He felt like she was always taking care of him. "You know what? I'll go get him this time. You relax."
"Sounds good." Marinette smiled and sat on the piano bench.
Adrien left up the stairs to Louis's room. Louis was wiggling in his crib and Adrien smiled. He reached in and pulled him out.
"Shh…" Adrien hushed his son and rocked him. "Hungry?"
He changed him and took him downstairs towards the kitchen.
Adrien opened the fridge with his foot and pulled out a bottle that Marinette had put in there for late night feedings. He warmed it before he began feeding Louis. He walked around the kitchen and hummed a melody before making his way back into the family room.
Marinette watched him rock Louis and hum a lullaby and she smiled. It warmed her heart to see him with the kids. He was a great father.
"What's with the smile?" Adrien blushed and laughed quietly.
Marinette shook her head. "Nothing. You just look… perfect." She breathed and held her head in her hands.
Adrien smirked and didn't want to pass up the opportunity. "You mean, Purrrfect, m'Lady."
Marinette rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I take it back."
"Hey! Rude!" Adrien chuckled and kept rocking Louis.
Marinette hushed him. "You're gonna wake all of the kids." She giggled and covered her lips with her hand.
"So, who do you think Peacock could be?" Adrien put Louis over his shoulder to burp him and sat down on the couch next to Marinette.
"I don't know. We don't have much to go on. Other than that she has a feather and that it does nothing." Marinette sighed.
"So, why would someone work for Peacock if she doesn't akumatize her victims?" Adrien looked off at the ceiling in thought.
"I'm not sure…" Marinette's voice trailed off in thought. "Maybe…"
"They work for her because they want to?" Adrien peered over at her from the side. The expression reminded her of when they were playing games in her room as teenagers. A blush formed on her cheeks at the memory. He looked too perfect with his hair slicked back and how his eyes bore into hers in the most magical lucky greens.
"Why would they work for her though?" Marinette came to from her daze.
"Maybe they agree with her ideals?" Adrien shrugged and peered forward. "And maybe the feather is a calling card?"
"But what are her ideals? What does she want? Hawkmoth wanted to wish for your mother back. What does this Peacock want? And without seeing more villains coming from her… we won't know that the feather is a calling card for sure." Marinette closed her eyes in defeat and leaned back into the couch.
"I don't know, Mari. I guess we'll have to wait and see if another villain shows up." Adrien ran a hand through his messy hair.
They really didn't have to wait long for the next villain to show up.
Marinette stood at the counter mixing up the makings for crepes. Adrien stood next to her chopping the tops off of the strawberries. Emma played at the counter with crayons and some paper, while Hugo was finishing up his homework for school. Louis was soundly sleeping in the bassinet.
Adrien sliced the strawberries and went over to grab a sauce pan out from a cupboard. He set it on the burner and put it on low heat. Marinette smiled and her heart filled with happiness at watching him. She had taught him everything he knew about cooking for the most part per his request. He had always wanted to learn, but he had never been allowed. Adrien's father made sure that his personal chef had made everything. When they got married he had made her promise to never have help in their house. He wanted a normal family life.
Marinette watched him put the strawberries into the pan and then watched him fish out white sugar. He poured some sugar on top of the strawberries and took a spatula to stir them around, coating them in the sugar.
She walked over to start making the crepes next to him at the stove. Marinette wrapped an arm around his waist and reached up to kiss him. "You've come a long way."
"All thanks to you, Bugaboo." Adrien smiled and kissed her on the lips.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and tasted strawberries on his tongue. The sound of boiling and the site of steam brought her to her senses.
"You're welcome, Minou. But you're burning them." She giggled and he broke away from her and stirred the strawberries fast.
"I think they're okay still." Adrien tensed up.
Marinette laughed harder, covering her mouth with her hand. "I'm sure they'll still be delicious."
She flipped the crepes and filled them with cream and strawberry sauce.
Right as she set the plates down for them to all eat together a flash emergency news report pinged on Adrien's phone.
"What is it?" Marinette sat down and looked at Adrien.
He fished out his phone and saw an emergency alert.
Le Grand Paris is under attack by a masked man. Around 10 A.M a masked man walked into the grand hotel demanding to speak to the Mayor. Stating that he wanted to negotiate a deal. He has bombs planted throughout the city, ready to detonante if Mr. Bourgeois doesn't meet with him.
Adrien's face grew pale and he passed his phone to Marinette. Her lips parted and she nearly ran to call her parents. Marinette tried to appear to not be as worried as she was, for the kids sake.
"Love, I would watch them if we weren't busy. How about you call Alya. I'm sure she would come help you guys out." Sabine smiled and handed change back to a customer with her phone to her ear.
"But, she doesn't know what we do. She also is still running that Ladyblog on the side…" Marinette groaned.
"I'm sorry, but our hands are tied here." Sabine really did feel bad, but she had few options.
"It's okay. I'll call Alya." Marinette hung up her phone and shrugged at Adrien.
"So… Alya then?" Adrien took a bite of food and closed his eyes in bliss.
"Guess so…" Marinette flipped through her contact list before landing on a photo of her best friend.
Her phone rang and rang until a familiar voice picked up.
"Marinette?" Alya about screamed into the phone with excitement. "It's been a while! Tell me you saw my last post on my blog."
"I did. It was… interesting." Marinette cringed and played it off.
"You hated it, didn't you?" Alya's shoulders sank.
"No, no. It was good!" Marinette smiled.
"So, let me in on all that I've missed. How's Adrien?..." Alya played with a pen and smiled at Nino, who was feeding their six month old son.
"He's good." She looked over at him stuffing his face with strawberries and cream. Marinette stifled a giggle and brought her pointer finger to wipe some stray cream off his cheek and put it in her mouth. "He's just running Gabriel's brand. Modeling. Ya know, same old same old. How about you two?"
Adrien groaned at her comment and she mouthed an apology his way.
"I got this new gig doing entertainment articles for a bigtime online newspaper. And.. Nino is getting pretty famous within the DJ scene. Oh! And we have a six month old boy named, Leo." Alya peered over at Nino.
"Tell my man, I miss him!" Marinette heard Nino yelling toward the phone.
She laughed and peered over at her husband. "Nino says he misses you."
"I miss you too, man!" Adrien called back with as much enthusiasm.
"Those two need a room." Alya laughed. "So… why'd you call?"
"Well, my parents are busy today with the bakery and… I kinda need a babysitter." Marinette tangled her finger in her hair. "Oh, and congratulations on the new baby!"
"Thanks girl! But, no can do. I just got an alert about something crazy happening at Le Grand Paris and I'm sure Ladybug and Chat Noir will be there." Alya laughed with excitement.
"No! I mean-" Marinette nervously laughed. "It would only be for a couple hours. Besides, you have a baby to get home to. Please… I promise we'll get lunch later."
Alya sighed and shrugged. "Alright, I'll do it. What time you need us there?"
Nino perked up and gave her this confused expression.
"Now?" Marinette quietly spoke and rubbed the back of her neck. She felt like she was slowly gaining Adrien's mannerisms. Probably because they were always together.
"Like right now, right now?!" Alya pointed down at the counter near her.
"Yep." Marinette spoke matter of factly."Right now. Hugo will be going off to school for the day and it'll just be Emma and Louis."
"I thought I saw somewhere that you two had another baby. Congratulations! Do you live in the Agreste mansion? Like the old one?" Alya's voice raised up in question. She had been traveling around the last few years and hadn't had a moment to catch up with her best friend.
"Yep. Adrien wanted to keep it. He felt it was only right since it was his childhood home. We did change the paint scheme, remodeled it a bit and moved some things around." Marinette smiled at the memory of them signing the paperwork and watching the progress of his old home morphing from a stark white cold house to a warm and loving home.
"We'll try to get out the door soon." Alya smiled and sat down next to Nino.
She hung up the phone and picked up her fork.
"Are they on their way? Because my phone just got a second alert." Adrien's face filled with worry.
"They should be here, shortly." Marinette smiled and began to eat her food.