"So, Adrien, what's the dealio?"

Adrien narrowed his eyes at Nino. "What do you mean?"

Nino rolled his eyes. "'What do you mean,' he says. What I mean, dude, is that you're walking to school. Since when is that a thing? When you texted me this morning to meet you I thought something bad had happened! Oh my gosh, is Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes finally defying his father's orders? I'm so proud of you, man! It's time you broke the rules a bit."

Adrien raised his eyebrows at Nino, then let out a small chuckle. "No, Nino, I'm not breaking any rules. My dad knows I'm walking to school."

"Dude," Nino exclaimed as he elbowed Adrien's side, "Are you serious? That's so great! Is what I would say if I wasn't currently thinking about the implications of this. Are you sure that your dad hasn't been replaced with some alternate clone version of himself?"

"Nino, what? No, he hasn't been replaced by an 'alternate clone version' or something like that," Adrien replied.

"Then what gives?"

"Well." Adrien thought to himself for a moment. "We had a little conversation about… trust and stuff."

"And that, class, is why you should never try to tame a baboon. Any questions?" Madame Bustier smiled sweetly as she wondered how and why she was teaching the same class of students for the fourth year in a row. Oh well, at least she didn't have to learn new names every year.

The bell rang, and the day was over. Marinette, Alya, Adrien, and Nino all walked out of the classroom as a group and exited the school. The four chatted along the way to their homes until Nino and Alya split off from the group.

"Bye, you two." Alya waved as Nino took her hand in his.

"Wait, where are you guys going?" Marinette asked, caught off guard.

"Yeah," Adrien added on. "The way to our houses is in the opposite direction."

"Oh, Alya promised me that we'd finally check out the sequel to the Ladybug and Chat Noir movie. It's been out for like a week and a half and avoiding spoilers on Twitter has been so hard."

"Yeah, and we're going to be late if we don't go right now." Alya tapped her foot impatiently.

"Alright, alright, babe, I'm coming," Nino sighed as he put his hands up in mock surrender.

As the pair walked away, Adrien and Marinette's gazes went to each other.

Marinette exhaled. "So… since those two have their own thing to do, do you wanna maybe, perhaps, do something too?"

Adrien furrowed his brow, leaned over so his face was a few centimeters away from Marinette's and said in a horrible impression that sounded vaguely like a crotchety British grandmother with emphysema, "Perhaps."

Marinette stared at Adrien for a few seconds, then burst into laughter.

Seeing her, Adrien couldn't help but chuckle in response, a chuckle which quickly turned into a fit of laughter.

"Adrien, what accent even was that?" Marinette giggled as she wiped a tear from her eye.

"To be quite frank with you, Miss Marinette," he stroked his chin and replied in the same awful impression, "I haven't got the faintest idea."

"Okay, okay, please stop that immediately." She put a finger to his lips to shush him, a move that she immediately regretted. She suddenly became hyper-aware of what she was doing, how soft his lips felt under her finger, the look of twinkling surprise in his mossy green eyes, and the fact that despite the bustling nature of the street corner that they stood on, the world felt immensely quiet. She yanked her hand back from his face and turned her face away from him, her cheeks burning.

"Ah, well," Marinette said in an almost whisper, "If you're still up for it, my parent's bakery is only a few blocks from here, we can go get some food from there? Maman makes the best hot chocolate in Paris."

"That would be amazing, Marinette."

Adrien realized that it was becoming dark outside and realized that he had let himself get carried away in talking to Marinette and took his leave, buying a few cheese danishes "for later" (they were actually for Plagg). He really didn't want to leave, but if he was to get his homework done in time for patrol, he'd have to get home quickly.

When Adrien opened the massive door leading into his home, he was expecting to see the Gorilla roaming the hallways of the Agreste mansion, trying to get his step count in, or Natalie ready with his afternoon agenda. He was definitely not expecting to see his father standing there, and especially not wearing pajamas.

"Now, now, now, Adrien, before you say anything-"

"I have never seen you wear pajamas in my entire life what the-"

"Just let me explain-"

"Wait, is that coffee mug full of wine-"

"Adrien!" Gabriel scratched his head for a moment. "The thing is, being Hawkmoth was actually much more work than you might think. It required a lot of planning, scheming, the execution was only the cherry on top!"

Adrien had an unimpressed look on his face. "Your point being?"

"My point," Gabriel sighed, "Is that I had to pretend like I was working during all the time that I was Hawkmoth. But then, I would get behind on actual work, resorting to me working all the time. And now that a large portion of that 'work' is gone now, I actually have some free time, so, pajamas." Gabriel gestured to himself sheepishly.

"That- you know what? Nevermind. I'm going to go do my homework."

"Adrien, why don't you bring your homework downstairs? We can talk while you do it, maybe I can even help you-"

"I'm good!"

After Adrien finished his homework, he prepared to get ready for patrol. Then, he realized that since Hawkmoth was no longer active, patrol was no longer needed. But, he remembered, Ladybug doesn't know that. She's going to be waiting for him. He quickly suited up, opened his window, and leaped out.

He saw Ladybug leaned up against a wall at their usual meetup spot,

"What took you so long, chaton?"

"Ah, just homework. You know how it is."

"Ugh, do I ever. Between superhero-ing and school and helping out at my family's ba- er, business, I never have time for anything."

"Actually-" Wait. Chat couldn't tell Ladybug that Hawkmoth was gone for good because then she'd ask how he knew and he couldn't just tell her Oh ho ho ho, little did you know Ladybug, Hawkmoth is actually world-renowned fashion designer Gabriel Agreste, and he told me that the only reason that he was doing the whole villain schtick was to bring back my mom who left us, but since I'm Chat Noir he decided to drop the akumatization thing, oh and the only reason I know all this because I'm actually his son, Adrien Agreste- no. That would never work, he'd have to make a plan to-

"You said something, Chat?" Ladybug looked at him, but to Chat it felt like she was looking through him.

"Oh, nothing. I forgot what I was going to say anyway."

"Hm. Okay. By the way, have you seen the sequel to the movie about us?"

Chat smiled a Cheshire grin. "You bet I have. It's so funny!"

"It's incredibly inaccurate to what we actually do." Ladybug laughed as she thought of the movie.

"But that's why it's so funny! It's a part of the charm."

"Whatever you say, chaton…"

Adrien was getting ready for bed when he heard a knock on his door. He opened it to see his father in the doorway.

"Father, what are you doing?"

"I came to say goodnight."

"Okay then. Goodnight." Adrien went to close the door but his father stuck his foot in the doorway.

"Father, what is it? I get it, you want to try again at the whole dad thing, but I'm tired and I want to sleep."

"I know you left to go be Chat Noir about two hours ago."

Adrien shifted his feet. "So what?"

"You don't need to be Chat Noir anymore," his father stated plainly.

"Well…"

"Relax, Adrien. I'm not going to stop you. Besides, it reminds me of my younger days. Sneaking out to go see your mother."

"You actually did fun stuff when you were younger? Impossible."

His father took a deep breath. "Yes, Adrien, when I was a youngster like you-"

"Never say youngster ever again-"

"As I was saying, it reminds me of how my parents didn't let me see your mother when I was younger. They said it was because I had to marry someone with a less 'frivolous' career. They thought I would never amount to anything when I said I wanted to go into fashion. I don't want to be the kind of parent that my parents were."

"Okay, father, that's very sweet and all, but I have to sleep-"

"Say, I remember a certain video on the Ladyblog where one Chat Noir kissed Lady-"

"Nope. Nope. We are not discussing this. No-"

"Oh, come on, Adrien, now you're the one who's no fun-"

"Why were you even reading the Ladyblog-"

"A good villain does his research-"

"I don't even like Ladybug anymore!" Adrien gasped, exasperated.

"Oh." Gabriel scratched his chin. "It seems I was wrong."

"Yeah, you were. Now if you'll excuse me-"

"Is it that Marinette girl?"

"I- wait- what?" Adrien's eyes grew wide and he felt his face heat in embarrassment.

"You know, the one who won my fashion contest a while back. Is she the girl you like?"

"What?" Adrien sputtered. "No! Marinette's just one of my close friends! How was she even one of your guesses-"

"I could've sworn-"

"Father, I get that you're trying to be a better dad, but meddling in my love life isn't how you do it."

"So you agree?"

"What?"

"That you're in love with Marinette."

"Goodnight, Father!" Adrien closed the door despite his father's protests.

"Uh, alright. Good talk, son," Gabriel said from the other side of the door, his footsteps retreating.

Adrien groaned and collapsed onto his bed, his entire face ablaze. Plagg emerged from a desk drawer, cheese danish in hand.

"So, loverboy-"

"Plagg, I swear, if you say anything about what just happened, I'm swapping out all your camembert for brie."