September passed relatively quickly and before Marinette knew it, she could flip over another page of her calendar. October was the time of blooming chrysanthemum and golden leaves, of thicker jackets and of walks in the parks whenever it wasn't raining.

It was also the time in which Adrien seemed to become more scatterbrained. He trailed off in the middle of sentences, forgetting the point he was trying to make and stopped quite often to shake his head, as if to rid himself of a very intrusive thought.

Whenever she asked him about it, he said that it was nothing and that she shouldn't worry. But when sluggishness could be added to the list of changes, she couldn't help it anymore.

"I'm officially worried," she said one afternoon when they were walking around the city, shielded from the rain by an umbrella Marinette was carrying. Adrien had just run into the third person already even though people automatically left room around them to not be hit by the umbrella.

"There really is no need to worry, Princess," he said with a tired smile. "I'm just a little distracted lately, that's all."

"Distracted by what?" She prodded.

He shrugged. "This and that. It's October, you know, so…well, I'm worried."

Marinette was about to ask what he was worried about but then paused. Right, she had almost forgotten. Last October Adrien and Félix had been weird too and the October before that as well. That time Félix had even disappeared after something that had happened on Halloween. Something that had left him traumatized. Neither of them had ever confirmed that, but it was her conclusion and she would stick to it until proven otherwise.

"It's about Halloween, isn't it?" She asked and felt Adrien tense beside her. Their weird behaviour around certain times was something she usually never pointed out to them directly. But to heck with that! Her boyfriend was worrying so much that he didn't even seem to get enough sleep. The least she should do was to ask if she could help him!

"How do you…nevermind."

Marinette sighed. "Okay, I get it," she said and didn't fully manage to get the irritation out of her voice. She hated being left out of the loop and yet everyone seemed to be adamant to keep things from her lately. There were Chat Noir and Tikki with their stupid Court, there was Alya who had made some sort of shocking discovery she had only told Nino of and there was Nino who didn't want to tell her about Alya's discovery either. Well, and now there were Adrien and Félix with their usual replies of 'I can't tell you about this'. From all of those, the latter offended her the least as it had always been like this with the two of them. But now that she and Adrien were dating, she felt like she deserved to know at least a little bit?

"It's not like I don't want to tell you, it's just…not my secret to tell," Adrien said with a wince.

Marinette nodded, assuming that this was a reference to whatever traumatic event had taken place two years prior. They had arrived at her home, so she unlocked the backdoor while Adrien held the umbrella over her.

"Well, what do you plan to do about it?" She asked once they were inside with the door falling shut behind them.

"What do you mean?"

"How do you usually spend Halloween and where?"

Adrien stared at her for a second as if he wasn't sure if he could tell her, but then he shook his head.

"Usually locked at home," he said.

"Locked?!" Marinette exclaimed.

"Oh gods, that sounded wrong. Let me rephrase it: we lock ourselves in our room and usually binge-watch a TV show or some movies."

"Is that really it? You were at Chloé's last year."

For a second, Adrien looked like he had seen a ghost.

"How do you know about that?"

"I listen," Marinette said with a shrug. "And you happened to talk about it with Chloé the other day in the hallway. Everyone could have heard that."

He paled and opened his mouth several times only to close it again and bite his lip.

"Is that the face of shame?" She asked half-jokingly to ease the tension a little. After all, she had no problem with him spending Halloween at Chloé's place if he wanted to.

"There really is nothing for you to be jealous about!" Adrien suddenly blurted out and Marinette raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"I'm not jealous," she stated matter-of-factly, "I'm just worried because when you talked to her it sounded like the apocalypse was approaching."

"Something like that," Adrien muttered and then shook his head again. "What else did you hear? I just don't want there to be any misunderstandings."

Well, there were bound to be some, since Marinette couldn't make sense of half the things she had overheard.

On the last day of school before Toussaint, Marinette was glad to be done with class tests and the like. Two full weeks she could dedicate to her designs and her boyfriend now lay ahead of her and she planned to enjoy them as much as she possibly could. Well, the unavoidable occasional Akuma would spoil the fun a little, but it was nothing she couldn't handle.

She stuffed the English book and tablet into her school bag and left the classroom to go on a search for Adrien. While she had English, he had Physics, so she was on her way to the other side of the building where the science wing was.

Her venture was disrupted by someone who pulled her behind a pillar and slapped a hand over her mouth. She tore her attacker's hand away and was about to twist their arm on their back in a move that had become instinctual to her as Ladybug, but then she realised that it was only Alya. A now thoroughly startled Alya.

Her friend quickly collected herself again and then insistently pointed around the pillar towards the entrance of a hallway. There stood Adrien, talking to Chloé. Even though the two of them weren't getting along as well as they seemingly once did anymore, it was still not odd to see them having a conversation.

Marinette raised an eyebrow at Alya as if to silently ask her what was going on, but she only motioned her to keep quiet and watch. And that's what she did.

"Are you serious?" She heard Adrien ask in disbelief. He stood with his back to them so she couldn't see his face, but even without it she could perfectly tell that he was distressed about something.

"No, I'm joking," Chloé said sarcastically. "I got the invitation at the beginning of the month. No idea what they want. Judging by your reaction you didn't get one."

An invitation? To what?

"Oh, trust me, you'd know if we'd have been invited," Adrien said, a visible shudder going through him. "After what happened to Fé two years ago we'd rather risk being impolite by not showing up than going there again."

Two years ago? That's when Félix had disappeared for a month. Was this the traumatic event they were talking about?

Chloé rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I just came to tell you that I consider your debt for our bargain paid. You showed up last year and that should be good enough."

"Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Please, you have a brain. Use it for a change. With only you as the chipper one there, it would be absolutely unbearable. Besides, as I already said, I'm invited."

Adrien sighed. "Be careful, okay? You know how much it messed up Fé when he went."

"I've been to one when I was six. I know what to expect. The question rather is if you will be careful. Maybe try to celebrate for once and cause some disasters like you're supposed to."

"I'm not celebrating Halloween, I'm enduring it."

"Shame. Not everyone has the stomach for it I suppose," Chloé said with a shrug and then sauntered away.

It had been a truly strange conversation and when she had talked to Tikki about it later on, her kwami had advised her to just not think too much about it. It probably was some high society family quarrel or something of the like. While that seemed like the logical conclusion, it still didn't explain everything.

"Well, I heard that Chloé has been invited to something and you weren't. And something about not celebrating Halloween."

Adrien bit his lip. "Okay, so the thing Chloé got invited to is an event her family takes part in every year and mum got invited to it too when she was still around. It's not exactly a nice…uh…festivity. Anyway, Félix and I usually don't get invited to those. We did two years ago because Chloé's mother wanted to talk to us about mum's disappearance. Only Félix went while I stayed here. Actually, we're too young to get invited, so Chloé must have been invited because someone has business with her and that's not really a good thing. I can't really say more about it."

Well, that at least explained it a little. Tikki had been right after all: it was a family thing.

"And what was that about not celebrating Halloween?"

"Oh, uh, I just don't like it very much, that's all. I mean, thank god it's not celebrated here like it is in America."

There was more to it. Usually Marinette wouldn't have prodded more, but, like established earlier, she was worried. And maybe Alya's mannerisms had rubbed off on her a little too much.

"That's not all there is to it though, right?"

Her question was met with silence. A silence in which Adrien's face went through a myriad of expressions. Shock, panic, betrayal and at last, anger.

"Why do you need to know!?"

She jumped at the intensity of his voice. Gone was all the sweetness she loved so much, leaving only something foreign and strange in its place. It wasn't the first time he was angry at her, though it was usually short-lived. Whenever it happened though, there was a strange feeling in her gut that told her something was wrong. Not the regular kind of wrong that was obviously a circumstance too since usually Adrien wasn't yelling at people. No, it was the kind she sometimes felt as Ladybug when Chat Noir was a bit too ferocious, a bit too…too everything. The word she had found fit it best was desultory. Like a lack of order. For her partner that made sense, since they were supposed to be polar opposites. Where she was organised, he was chaotic.

For Adrien, though, she had no such explanation. All she knew was that those bursts of emotions could come out of nowhere and at any time. As someone who liked predictability, it could scare her quite a bit. As it also did at that moment.

Marinette knew it was her own fault. She had crossed an invisible line and broken an unspoken rule.

"Because I'm worried about you and want to help," she heard herself say without really thinking the words over. All she wanted was to explain herself. To make him understand. To calm him down. "And I can't help when I don't know what's going on."

"Oh, so you can have secrets all you want but when I have them it's suddenly unacceptable!?" His voice was poisonous with how angry he was. "Or do you want to tell me where you suddenly ran off to last week? Don't you think I'm worried when you just disappear like that?!"

Marinette flinched like she had been slapped in the face. She was such a hypocrite! Of course, being Ladybug was a very important secret, but that didn't make other secrets less important. Without really noticing, she had started to subconsciously see it this way, as if other secrets wouldn't be as valuable or as dangerous. She thought back to Chat Noir and Tikki and this big secret they both kept from her. Dangerous, is what they called it.

Suddenly, Adrien's anger dissipated as quickly as it had arisen and he looked at the ground guiltily.

"I'm sorry," he said. "It's just…"

"You don't have to explain yourself," Marinette hastened to say. "It's my fault for asking when I know I shouldn't."

And that was the real bummer, wasn't it? She couldn't tell him her biggest secret and he couldn't tell her whatever he kept secret from her. The way to live with it was to ignore the issue and when Marinette hated one thing, then it was to ignore a problem. But she also knew when to not prod further and give things time.

She sighed and finally took the umbrella from his hands to put it into the stand next to the door. Taking his hand, she silently led him upstairs.

"You don't have to tell me what's wrong," she said, her eyes locked on the stairs ahead. "But if there's something I can do to help you, then all you have to do is say so."

The silence that followed lasted until they arrived in the living room that was filled with the smell of pumpkin soup—probably today's late lunch.

"There is one thing you could do," he said and when she turned around, there was a shy smile on his face. "It's something like a favour though."

Marinette grinned, glad to have him back to normal. "It's not one when I'm offering."

"You can stay up as late as you want as long as you keep it down. Félix, you're in charge."

"Yes, sir," Félix said at the same time as Marinette let out an appalled noise and groaned "Papa!"

With a grin and a playful "Happy Halloween!" he disappeared down the steps and closed the hatch behind him. What he left behind was a cake that looked like a pumpkin that they were supposed to share. Marinette didn't know what flavour it was, but she had no doubt it would be delicious.

What Adrien had called a favour the other day was the simple question if Félix and he could spend Halloween at her place and have a sleepover. She had not hesitated to agree, but what she hadn't known back then was exactly what that all entailed.

Adrien had brought flowers, which had been very sweet of him until the point where she realised that rather than giving her a bouquet, he had planned to make flower crowns out of them. It was St. John's wort, as far as she could tell, which was a little odd. They were more herbs than they were flowers and she had no idea where to even get some at this time of year.

So, instead of wearing something Halloween-themed, all three of them now wore yellow flower crowns on their heads. It was certainly not what Marinette had expected.

"Okay, so, before we cut the cake and start watching whatever you guys picked, will you finally explain the flower crowns to me?" Marinette asked.

"It's a superstition," Félix said. "They keep evil at bay or something. Our mother used to make us wear them on Halloween every year and it therefore became a tradition."

Seeing how both of them had been clearly distressed about this day, she could see why they'd want to keep evil at bay.

"Does that mean we can eat the cake now?" Adrien begged while looking back between her and the cake with pleading eyes.

"Sure," she said with a grin.

They ended up watching 'Over the Garden Wall' with Adrien cuddled up to her. She had to admit that the show was intriguing, especially on an artistic level, but it was also a little unsettling. Adrien and Félix seemed to thoroughly enjoy it though. The episodes were short—only eleven minutes each—so that they completely went through it in just two hours.

At that point, they had all eaten their fair share of cake and Marinette left them alone for a few minutes to bring the rest of it downstairs and put it in the fridge. When she came back up, she was tackled to the ground by a shivering Adrien.

"What—?" She started to ask and sat up, but was almost immediately also hugged from the other side. A short silence passed that she perceived as awkward but wasn't sure if Adrien and Félix perceived it at all.

"Guys, I was gone for like one minute. Two minutes at most," she eventually said, just to say anything.

"Missed you," Adrien mumbled into her hoodie. Félix gave no reply. At a loss of what to do, she started petting Adrien's hair, knowing it usually calmed him down, and did the same with Félix's upper back.

Her boyfriend gave off a low rumble that sounded similar to the purr she sometimes managed to draw out of Chat Noir when the two of them were taking a break from patrol or sparring. It cut off as fast as it had begun, so she wrote it off as just a general noise of contentment.

"So, what do you say? Do you wanna watch another movie or already go to bed?"

It was Félix who answered this time and to her relief he also stopped hugging her—not that she disliked his hugs, but it had become thoroughly awkward.

"If it would be alright with you, then I'd rather go to bed than watch another movie."

Marinette nodded and looked down at Adrien who was still wrapped around her middle. He looked tired. Exhausted, even.

"Yeah, that seems like a good idea," she said and tried her best to drag Adrien up to his feet.

To her relief, he started to snap out of his tired spell or trance or just general silliness—she wasn't sure which of those it had been—and walked up the stairs to Marinette's bed.

Earlier, he had shyly asked, while blushing fire-red, if he was allowed to sleep in her bed with her. She had blushed in a similar intensity at the suggestion, but had agreed. Sure, it would be something new, but she wasn't opposed to it. Of course, her parents had then spoken up and made it awkward by insisting that Félix would stay in the room with them.

Adrien and she had both talked over each other in their hasty assurances that they didn't mean it like that and that yes, Félix would of course stay in the room with them. They weren't quite that far in their relationship yet and the sheer thought of it had made them avoid eye contact for about an hour afterwards.

As the conversation from earlier now came back to her, she felt herself blush a little again. And seeing how her disappearance for one minute had sent both of them into distress…somehow, she decided to forego proper pyjamas and just sleep in hoodie and sweatpants instead.

Félix's bed for the night was the mattress on the floor they had lounged on for the entire evening. With a quick goodnight, she vacated it and climbed up to her own bed.

There, she found that Adrien had already curled up in the extra blanket they had thrown up there earlier, and was lying as close to the wall as possible. She couldn't help but smile a little when she saw him like that. It was adorable. He had also hung the flower crown on a spare nail on the pinboard by her bed and she hurried to do the same with hers—she had totally forgotten that she was wearing one too.

When she settled into bed, the first thing she did was to drag Adrien closer to her. While she had to admit that she tended to take up lots of space in bed, it didn't mean that she wanted to push her boyfriend into the corner. Cuddling him for the entire night seemed much more appealing. He seemed to think so too as he let out a content sigh, not opening his eyes and wrapped his arms around her.

She giggled and gave him a kiss on the nose.

"Good night, Kitkat," she said.

"Good night, Princess," he murmured back with a smile and then buried his head in the crook of her neck.

The hatch to her room burst open and Marinette was startled awake by Adrien who immediately sat up in bed and hissed at the intruder. With a groan she started rubbing her eyes and sleepily blinked into the early morning sky that was visible through the skylight.

"Girl, you've got to—" Alya yelled, only to be cut off.

"What the hell, Alya?!" Adrien exclaimed.

"Shush Kitkat, this is important!"

"Important enough to be woken up at seven in the morning?" Félix asked from his own bed.

"Yes, very much!" The Ladyblogger declared and didn't care for any protests. "You know how I was keeping something secret for the last few weeks?"

Marinette groaned and let herself fall back in the bed. "Al, it's too early for conspiracy theories. Try again in five hours."

Alya continued as if she hadn't heard her. "It was a submission I got on the day where Volpina and the Collector attacked. Sorry for bringing that up you two."

"No offense taken, our father is merely a sore loser. Do continue," Félix said and Marinette had no idea how he was able to not only pay attention but to also understand what Alya was saying. Her brain definitely wasn't awake enough for that yet.

"At first I thought it was just a fake. Someone putting on a cosplay and pulling a mean prank," Alya said. "But then Lila disappeared and she hasn't been found yet. I'm sure the one who submitted the video already brought it to the police as evidence, so I won't. Anyway, I posted a question on the Ladyblog yesterday asking for how long people usually saw Ladybug and Chat Noir directly after Akuma attacks and if they had pictures. And someone sent me pictures of Chat Noir near the Jardins du Trocadéro from the day of that Akuma attack."

Marinette, after taking a few moments to process what Alya was talking about, thought back to that day. Both she and Chat Noir had been pretty exhausted after the fight with the Collector since it had been the second one that day already. She had immediately gone home afterwards but her partner had said that he had wanted to go on a quick run before he'd go home. So, all things considered, it was possible that Chat Noir had been at the park near the Eiffel Tower at that time.

"What does that have to do with Lila's disappearance?" Marinette asked, as that was the only thing that was still not adding up in her mind.

At that, Alya just climbed the stairs up to her bed and practically threw her phone at her. Adrien caught it before it could hit her in the face and she could see that there was a paused video on the unlocked screen.

"Al, listen, I don't think this is something you should get involved in. Like you said, it's crime evidence," Adrien said and without noticing pressed play on the video with his thumb.

"I've heard quite enough from you," Chat Noir's voice came out of the phone's speakers and it sent a shiver down Marinette's spine. There, her partner stood, facing the missing liar and wearing the same look he usually saved up for the worst of Akumas.

"Your castle falls when you build it on sand, Lila Rossi." He continued just as the noise of wind distorted the audio a bit. Meanwhile, he grinned a grin that involuntarily made Marinette remember what had happened earlier that year at the Dark Cupid attack. It was unsettling to see it again.

"Your lies are your downfall. Even I can't help you anymore. Too bad no one warned you. Otherwise you might have had a chance."

Then Chat Noir vaulted away, the one filming the video followed him as he rose above the treetops. Then the camera turned back to where Lila Rossi had stood just a moment before. Now she was gone.

Beside her, Adrien made a whimpering noise akin to that of a kitten that just had its tail stepped on.