Delicate, Chapter 22

As Adrien entered his father's atelier, he saw his father standing motionless by the large portrait of his mother. A body language expert, had one been looking on at that moment, would have amused by both Agrestes; each of them appeared determined to project confidence and strength, but many subtle tells were there to suggest otherwise on both parts.

Adrien studied his father as he got closer to him. Their conversation so far this day had been civilized, at least... but what was to come next promised to be a wild card of Biblical proportions.

Gabriel nodded as Adrien joined him, standing by the portrait. "Did you find what you required upstairs?" he asked.

"I did," said Adrien. "As you had suggested... very little there had changed. And as I had suggested... that still surprises me."

"if you would like me to dispose of all of that," remarked Gabriel, "a charity auction could be arranged."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it," Adrien countered.

Gabriel paused before answering. "I am hopeful that the reasons for that will have more clarity in a few minutes," he parried. "Are you prepared for this?"

"...I am."

"Then follow my lead. I will show you the method of access, so that you will not need my assistance in future. I do, however, require your discretion as to how and when to use it," directed Gabriel. "I am sure that I do not need to explain myself there."

"You do not."

Hesitantly, Adrien touched the portrait where Gabriel directed him to, learning the sequence of button combinations. He let out a small gasp when the platform beneath their feet began descending rapidly.

"You get used to that," noted Gabriel, wryly. "But, yes, the drop can be a bit disconcerting at first."

The platform came to a stop, and a door opened up in front of the Agrestes. Adrien looked out with wonder and confusion at the chamber before him.

"Father," he managed, "you are telling me... that this was beneath the mansion, all this time?"

"I am," said Gabriel, evenly.

"...How?" asked Adrien, with obvious disbelief. "This wasn't here when the mansion was built, was it?"

"Some of it was," explained Gabriel. "This house is well over a hundred years old, as you well know. There were extensive wine cellars beneath it, and other storage areas for various goods. Barrels of spirits, sacks of grain, piles of wood in the old days, I imagine. I repurposed two of the larger ones as your mother's resting place and as Hawkmoth's lair."

"...What, did you have construction crews come down and remodel everything? This all looks very modern," puzzled Adrien. "And it's obvious that you had repair work done after... that night. Who did that?"

"The majority of it... I did myself, with Nooroo's help; it was one of my first experiments with butterflies," Gabriel answered. "I had him give me the power to transform surroundings within a short distance, and used that to build a suitable hideaway for your mother. It transformed the hidden passageway to the stairs into something more modern, as well; the elevator platform that we just used. It was only afterwards that I created my lair, then revealed my darker purpose for it to Nooroo."

"And after things blew up?"

"A private construction crew," shrugged Gabriel. "I had Emilie moved somewhere else for the duration, of course, as I did not want questions regarding her. I passed this off to them as some sort of meditation area, and Emilie's chamber as an experimental medical treatment, somewhat akin to the hyperbaric chamber that Michael Jackson possessed. They were accustomed to rich people making bizarre and expensive requests. Their services cost a fortune... and their subsequent silence quite a bit more."

"There goes my college fund," quipped Adrien.

"Speaking of which," Gabriel wondered, "have you been keeping up with your studies in your absence? I would have hoped to have placed you by now in a university suitable for your standing, had events gone differently."

"I... have been doing many things," Adrien replied. "I've taken a couple of night courses at a small school near where I'm living, but I am not a full-timer. Once things happened and I ended up on my own... that was not much of an option. France's tuition fees are nominal, of course, but I was rarely staying in one place long enough to make it work."

"Such a waste," muttered Gabriel.

"I think that we can say that about a good many things in our lives," said Adrien, flatly.

"Touché," he replied.

Gabriel watched Adrien's eyes migrate to the far end of the room. "Go to her," he suggested to his son. "Don't be afraid."

With each step towards the protective chamber, Emilie's appearance became clearer and the pounding in Adrien's ears grew just a little bit louder. He suppressed the urge to break into a sprint.

Finally, he reached it and touched the glass panel on the front, very lightly, as if afraid that the slightest pressure would break it.

"The keypad next to it," said Gabriel, a few steps behind him. "Enter 1-2-6-1-5."

Adrien typed in the code, then gasped slightly when the capsule popped open. "You're sure?" he asked.

"I am. I do the same thing myself, from time to time, when I cannot bear being apart from her any longer," his father answered. "Both my own experiences and Marinette's Kwami's examination are in agreement that no harm will come to her from this."

A shaking hand reached out towards Emilie's, not sure quite what to expect. When Adrien made contact, he jumped when he felt an unexpected warmth; not as warm as his own, perhaps, but certainly not the chill of the departed.

"Look closely," Gabriel directed him. "She is breathing, very, very slowly. She has not changed in any way since that fateful day. I have done many things of which I am not proud... but I would never send my son in blindly to view and touch his mother's corpse."

"She is alive..." breathed Adrien. "I... I can't believe it."

"She sleeps," replied Gabriel. "So I am told. So I have dared to hope, all this time."

Gabriel stepped forward, moving next to Adrien.

"I... come down and talk to her, whenever I am able," he continued, with some atypical vulnerability in his voice. "I do not know if she can hear me, or what she makes of what she hears, if she does... but I will never be ready for a world in which she will not awaken someday."

Leaning in close, Adrien put his lips next to his mother's ears.

"I told myself that I wouldn't let myself cry," he whispered. "Not here, not now. Not in front of Father. But I promise you... I have, and I w-will. I've m-missed you so much... I love you so much... and I swear that we'll find a way to b-bring you back."

He leaned in to hug her - still tentatively, of course - and then faced his father with raw emotion emanating from his every pore.

The door to Marinette's apartment opened, startling its small occupants. Audrey jumped off the couch and padded over to Marinette, hopping up onto her leg and begging to be picked up; Tikki fluttered in at a higher altitude, remaining out of Audrey's reach.

"Well, hello," Tikki greeted her. "You're home early today. Is everything all right?"

"Mostly," said Marinette, snuggling Audrey face-to-face before returning her to ground level. "The boss called out, and everyone else who came in was more than a little distracted... so we got some work done and decided to close the office for the day. Thomas told Amy that we'd all get paid for the full day."

"That's good," noted Tikki. "I take it that it was aftereffects of... you know what?"

"And then some," Marinette grinned. "None of us could stop talking about it! I mean, I kept out the important parts... that we caused it right here, and how... but the three of us there know more about each other's bedroom habits than we ever have before."

"Huh. Kiss and tell, hmmm?"

"We kind of left the kissing parts out of it," retorted Marinette, starting to turn pinker.

"I see," Tikki replied, turning away slightly. "Seems to be the topic of the day."

"Hey," Marinette interjected, watching Tikki carefully. "Are you all right, Tikki?"

"Um... well, obviously, this is a very tricky situation... and I know how worried you must be about Adrien today," she evaded.

"Of course I am," said Marinette. "I can't imagine what Adrien is going through right now... but that's not what I asked you. You've seemed very quiet ever since what happened yesterday, and then when you looked in on us this morning..."

"I didn't mean to. I didn't," Tikki exclaimed.

"Tikki...?" Marinette wondered, moving so they were face-to-face. "You've seen me - us - like that before, several times. You know that it wouldn't bother me if you had meant to," she replied, very gently. "There's something really bothering you. I've known you long enough that I can tell. What is it?"

"I don't want to trouble you. Not now..." begged Tikki, then stopped when she saw that Marinette wouldn't let that stop her. "...Okay, while we're alone like this. Can we go back in your bedroom and talk for a little while?"

"Of course we can."

Adrien stood silently, staring at his father, his face a bubbling mixture of pain and fury and so many questions.

Gabriel said nothing yet, but took two subtle steps backward to put some small space between them.

"Four years," Adrien hissed.

At Gabriel's silent nod, he continued. "It has been over four years since I have seen my mother. Since I have known for sure whether she was alive or dead! Without a single straight answer from you as to where she was, how she was, why she was," Adrien barked. "You have no idea what that feels like, knowing that you were deliberately hiding her from me."

"How was I supposed to respond to what happened?" Gabriel began.

"By telling me what happened!" Adrien snapped, but stopped when Gabriel cut him off with a hand gesture.

"I have done many, many things of which I am not proud," stammered Gabriel. "Which is how your mother ended up in this state to begin with. It is a long and complicated story, and one for which I will always blame myself. But the only path I saw to restore her was to sell my soul, to become a villainous caricature of myself, to wager my own future - and yours - on succeeding at - "

"Stop," Adrien howled. "Stop right there. This is not about your being Hawkmoth! This is about your not trusting your own son! You left me in the dark on purpose about my own mother."

"This was about not making my son complicit in what I had to do. In crimes - in atrocities that I anticipated committing." sighed Gabriel. "If I was caught... when I was caught, which you and your lady friend nearly succeeded at many times... you needed to have plausible deniability. You needed to be separated from my actions entirely, lest you go down with me. How ironic, of course, that you turned out to be my primary pursuer."

"You didn't have to tell me about your secret life to have the common goddamned decency to tell me half the truth. That I was sleeping a hundred meters over my mother's preserved body and I had no idea she was there!"

Gabriel turned his eyes to the floor as Adrien's accusation continued. "We never knew why you wanted the Wish so badly. That it was all about Mother. That you weren't trying to conquer the world or become a trillionaire or something. And we didn't care! Our only concern was stopping you from hurting people," Adrien half-sobbed. "And even on that night, when you were dead-to-rights and I had you cornered, you didn't tell me until after I'd almost killed Mother for real."

"Events did not give me much of an opportunity that night, did they?" mused Gabriel, not meeting Adrien's stare. "We had started to discuss things when Nathalie intervened. Once she did, all I could do was watch what unfolded in horror."

"You did try to talk her down. I'll give you that much," said Adrien, far from placated otherwise.

"And, do be honest with me," Gabriel ventured, finally looking up. "If I had come clean with you from the beginning... if I had told you of your mother's magical accident, and that I possessed two totems of unimaginable power, and that I planned on using one to capture the only tools that could bring your mother back... would you have joined me, the peafowl by Hawkmoth's side? Would you at least have felt capable of remaining silent as I did what I needed to do?"

It was Adrien's turn to stare back in silence.

"Of course you would not have," his father answered for him. "You have a moral streak in you beyond anything that I have ever possessed. Your mother's influence, surely. At times I have wondered that, if she knew what I was forced to do to try and revive her, whether Emilie would prefer to remain asleep."

With a pained look, Gabriel added, "But you do honor me by at least pretending that things could ever have been otherwise."

Slowly, rather reluctantly, Tikki relayed the sexuality conversation that she'd had with Nooroo during the Bliss Wave.

"I... don't know how else to explain it," admitted Tikki. "I certainly know what human sexuality is. How strongly humans crave expressing it, how satisfied they can be when it works well, how frustrated they are when it doesn't. I know the mechanics of it, and I've certainly teased you about it on many occasions."

"That's for sure," smiled Marinette. "And never in a bad way."

"But when that wave took off... that was the most intense sensation that I've ever felt. EVER," Tikki shivered. "Nooroo explained to me that his magic enhanced that first big one; he thinks that you might've broken a record with how strong that one was! But even when you were cooling down, so to speak, and he said that the pulses we felt were more normal waves of pleasure..."

"Uh-huh...?" Marinette replied, with wide eyes.

"I was completely overwhelmed, even by those."

TIkki landed on the bed, looking downcast. "Humans and Kwamis are very different. We're completely different species. As you've heard from us before, we simply don't have the parts, the right nerve endings... We don't reproduce sexually. Not at all, actually; it's just not how we're built," she explained. "Nooroo's been in other people's heads during... that before. Wayzz said that he has, too. It had been centuries for either of them since their last time, but they at least recognized what they were feeling. But I've... I..."

"You've never felt a human orgasm before," surmised Marinette. "I know that I've never had one as Ladybug; only as myself. But none of your other hosts, across all of history...?"

Tikki shook her head. "Joan of Arc didn't date much," she smiled, sheepishly. "And some of the others did have romances, some husbands... but they didn't ever make love as Ladybug. The closest I'd ever come to... that... was your night when you rescued Adrien from that party house."

"I, uh... did do that one thing as Ladybug, didn't I?" Marinette recalled. "But we talked about that right after I got home, didn't we? You assured me that it was no big deal, that you'd seen it all before."

"Let me put it this way. Adrien's... well... output and where it went were certainly new to me, but the experience wasn't entirely unpleasant," mumbled Tikki. "More curiosity on my part than any kind of squeamishness. Now, the strong arousal that you were feeling while you did it... the physical responses in your own body, the way that those nerves were still on fire from what came right before that, that sense of strong empowerment you felt while you were showing yourself to him... those got my full attention. I'll admit that I kind of... tuned out some of that, because I wasn't sure how to handle it."

"That's right... while I'm Ladybug, you can choose not to experience sensations and perceptions, right?" worried Marinette.

"Of course I can. Like, when you're fighting some giant broccoli-man and he's about to wallop you, sometimes I'll shut down those senses for a moment so that I won't get any painful feedback," Tikki assured her. "So if you are Ladybug and having fun with Adrien and something doesn't feel... well... right to me, I can easily avoid it while it's happening."

"That's good. I would have to rethink everything if I was... you know... forcing that kind of thing onto you."

"But that's the problem. You don't have sex as Ladybug, and I don't want to... um... I'm not going to ask you to," Tikki stammered.

Marinette sensed a subtle 'No matter how much I want to' behind that, but put that concept on hold in her brain for the moment. "Okay," she asked. "What's bothering you the most about that, then?"

"Two things."

"'What you were forced to do' is stretching the truth a bit," Adrien frowned. "Won't you at least admit that?"

Gabriel bristled for a moment... but swallowed down the impulse to be snarky in return.

"Adrien... you will not believe me when I say this. I know how much that you do not believe it already," he began. "You have spent years of your life brawling in the streets with my creations, so you have every reason to carry certain preconceptions."

"Your victims, you mean," replied Adrien. "Innocent people that you corrupted. My friends. My friends' families. Marinette and her parents. A baby!"

Gabriel smiled a small smile. "I am never going to hear the end of things about that toddler, am I?" he murmured. "I promise you that I did not target him on purpose the first time, at least. And he came to no harm."

"But he could have! And other people did," Adrien argued. "Lots of lives were endangered. Mine was; your Timebreaker literally erased me from history once, I'm told! The emotional scars on a lot of people don't fade easily, whether they were Akumatized or they were just bystanders. And, uh... you and I certainly punched each other in the face more than once."

"Well, I did not know that it was you, did I?" countered Gabriel. "Look... I am not asking you for forgiveness of everything that I have done. I know what I am; I know what lines I have crossed. Both as the dreaded supervillain of Paris... and as a father," he said, with some hesitation. "What I wish to explain to you is why. You know why, Adrien; at least, intellectually, you do, even if you disapprove of my methods. But I want you to turn around and look at her, please. Right now."

Adrien paused, but did as he was told.

"That woman... your mother... means everything to me. She has from the day that I met her," Gabriel declared. "As have you, from the day that we made you. I am well aware that over the last few years... it has not felt at all like that for you. Not in the slightest. I could spend years apologizing to you for that, and you know better than anyone how rarely my apologies are given. If we give each other the chance, however... I intend to prove that I am speaking the truth now."

Adrien watched his father's face contort somewhat, appearing somewhat shaken. "I love you, Adrien. And I love her. And I found myself in a position where my mistakes left your mother like this," he continued, gesturing at her motionless form. "I left my wife without a future. I left my son without a mother. Those weights were on my shoulders. And I found myself knowing of only one way of rectifying it... of giving you your life back, of giving your mother back to you... but having to destroy myself in the process."

"Do you think that I wanted to be a villain? To risk lives, to break things, to take advantage of the vulnerable?" Gabriel asked. "Will I say that the power was not intoxicating, in and of itself? I will not. It was a rush beyond comparison. It was a creative challenge, working to craft the perfect scenario with which to defeat you and your lady-love. But I did not do it just for the thrill of it. I did it for her - and for you."

Adrien shook his head, helplessly.

"As I said, I do not expect you to agree right away. But I do expect you to understand my perspective, somewhat," Gabriel challenged him. "I had the power to do something about this. To take the Ladybug and Cat and repair what I had broken. To repair lives, including yours! To put our family back together again... and to start over. No matter what it would cost me personally. If you could take action right now and save her, if you could snap your fingers and watch her come back to us... if such an action was within your capabilities, and no one else's. Will you tell me now that you would sit idly by and do nothing?"

The question rang in Adrien's ears.

Tikki gave Marinette a sad smile.

"One of the things that's bothering me is that I've realized just how ignorant I've been about this," she explained. "I was sure that I was Little Miss Smarty-Kwami, all-knowing about the human condition. I've only watched your species since it first came about, you know? I wasn't lying to you before; I really have seen every position, every combination, and every physical reaction from a distance. Some things that would send someone like you running..."

"I did walk in on Amy and Jacques that one time, with their... equipment and all that," countered Marinette. "They don't sell brain bleach at the store."

"Trust me. Some of what I've seen made that look like children's entertainment," Tikki declared, making Marinette grimace a bit. "The human imagination can be boundless. I don't like to judge others, but I'm pleased to see that you and Adrien are playful and creative and generous with each other, without being, well..."

"...Obsessive?"

"That's a good word, yes," Tikki agreed. "But it's one thing for me to watch sexuality from the outside, and to understand that much about it; it's another for me to know just how intense it is for you. How much of a primal urge it truly is."

"...I used to tease you about your hormones, back when we first knew each other. How desperate you were to be with Adrien... and I don't mean just for sex," she added. "I know that you weren't looking for that back then; you were both too young. But even the simpler thrills... kissing, touching, cuddling... I've underestimated all of that, badly! I realize that now. And I need to apologize to you for that... for then and now."

"No, you don't," Marinette countered. "I mean, thank you for saying that... but I never took it personally then, and I never imagined that you'd feel badly about that now."

"And the other thing is... um... I almost don't want to say this," mumbled Tikki.

"Do you think that you can't trust me with anything, after all this time?" Marinette encouraged her. "I won't laugh, I promise."

"You know what a phantom limb is, right?" Tikki offered. "Like, a person gets a leg blown off by a land mine, or an arm gets amputated due to cancer, or something like that. But they can still sense a limb being there even though there isn't one any more. The nerves react as if it was still there."

Marinette nodded, cautiously.

"Well... I think I'm... I'm trying to figure out how to say this," said Tikki, shyly. "I'm having phantom... sensations. Cravings. The biggest orgasm in the universe hit me like a freight train and I was completely unprepared for it, right? And then a bunch of smaller ones, but they were still... wow! So now, I'm... uh..."

"You'd like to feel those sensations again sometime," answered Marinette. "Or something close to them."

"Yes," sighed Tikki, "and I"m completely incapable of doing it myself, or even with another Kwami! You have the parts; even when Adrien's not with you, you can, you know... at least touch yourself when you feel the need. We're not physical like that! I could rub myself all over all day, or borrow that one gadget from your nightstand, and I still wouldn't feel anything like that! It's like an itch that I'm unable to scratch in any way. And it's killing me to know that."

Marinette considered that for a moment.

"I can't say that I've never envied what Kwamis can do," she noted. "That you can fly through the air, hover in place, float through walls... you can go wherever you want to, whenever you like. You're eternal, while our lives flit by so fast! How you can give such precious gifts to us humans through the Miraculous. It's kind of... sobering to hear that you're a little jealous of us about something."

"I'll get over this. I know I will," Tikki said. "It'll just take time. But when I flew in on you and Adrien this morning, and you two were making love again, and you were so clearly in ecstasy at that moment..."

"You're not wrong about that, I'll admit," Marinette breathed. "That was a big one. I had no idea that he'd try that position... See? I'm still learning, too."

"...I saw the two of you doing that and I felt... very, very strange," admitted Tikki. "It wasn't that I wanted to have physical sex with you or Adrien, you understand? I'm not trying to seduce either of you, and I couldn't even if I tried! But I saw that explosion of feelings and sensations and I... I needed to feel it, too, more than anything. It hit me like a tidal wave, and I didn't know how to explain it or turn it off... so I kind of apologized and ran away."

"Oh, my," worried Marinette. "That is serious. I'm happy that you told me about it, Tikki... that explains so much."

"If you're sure," Tikki worried back. "I don't want this distracting you while you have more important things on your mind."

She watched as Marinette appeared to be deep in thought for a moment.

Adrien gave his father a rather sad look.

"Father," he replied, "you're not... entirely wrong there, but you're forgetting something. Marinette and I did have that power; the same power that you wrecked many lives trying to take from us. We could have tried to Wish my mother back to health, or that whatever had taken her from us had never happened, or all kinds of things that could've changed our history. But we never did."

"And you know why not," he continued, as that sank in for Gabriel. "Because the universe requires balance. A Wish like that could've fixed things for us, but it would've broken them for someone else. Perhaps for one of us. Perhaps for someone we know. Perhaps for some random person who'd done nothing to deserve that kind of pain and suffering."

"And you knew that."

Gabriel accepted that accusation, though not without some internal struggling. "Yes, I did," he confirmed. "Nooroo did his best to explain that to me, and to persuade me to give up that notion. But to save your mother's life? To spare her an eternity of solitude? To spare myself coming down here and staring at her, and having to tell myself again and again, 'You can do something about this... but you're not going to?' Yes, I would act. I would, and I did."

Adrien's voice was soft, and full of resignation. "And that is what separates us," he said. "And it always will."

"Look at her, Adrien," demanded Gabriel. "Look at your mother. Turn around and look at her again, right now-"

"I've seen what I came here to see," Adrien replied. "Let's go back upstairs."

Back in the atelier, father and son faced each other, a palpable awkwardness filling the room.

"So. As far as moving forward with Marinette and Wayzz's plan... are we on the same page?" asked Adrien, quietly.

"We have an accord, yes," said Gabriel. "I have forwarded your list of herbs and whatnot to my staff for procurement. Some of them did not specify amounts..."

"...and neither had Wayzz," Adrien conceded. "From how he described these recipes, these won't be magic potions, like, 'Have her drink this and rub that on her forehead and she'll wake up' stuff. More like, these might be compounds that might be needed for a very long time, even if we can awaken her. So, uh, I don't know what some of the ingredients might cost... but you may want to get some for now and be prepared to place a standing order for more."

"That sounds reasonable, if unpleasant," Gabriel agreed. "I will forward what I can obtain to you."

"To Marinette's apartment, please," corrected Adrien. "Obviously, you are aware of where that is. I did give you my current address, but I don't know how much longer I'll be staying there... and she's the one who needs them more."

"I hope," sniffed Gabriel, "that the money I released to you will at least get you into a better neighborhood than where you're at now."

"I appreciate that, even though I'll say again that it was my money to begin with," Adrien grumbled. "And... I don't know what I'll be doing next. I'll certainly have enough money now to stay put, if I decide that my apartment's good enough for now. I don't want to burn my savings up on something bigger while I don't have steady employment."

"You could come back here, though I suspect that you won't," offered Gabriel. "On a strictly professional level. Despite what differences exist between us, you were always an immaculate presence before the cameras, and I would compensate you well."

"I... will consider that," allowed Adrien, "though my first impulse is 'no.' I don't hold anything against the company; I know how there are so many good people working there."

I'm just not sure that you can ever be one of them, he thought, wincing as he did.

"...And if I was to look elsewhere? Some other fashion house?" he added.

"I would ask you to speak with me before signing anything," Gabriel declared. "Not... that I have the right to tell you 'yes' or 'no,' of course. But there are things that I know about almost every fashion house in Paris; whom to avoid, whom to contact first, which of them do business the right way and which cut corners. I would rather see you come home to Agreste, where you belong... but if that is not possible, I would not see you fail somewhere else."

"You're not just saying that so that you could lash out against whoever would dare let me model for them?" wondered Adrien. "Threaten them with hellfire and brimstone, should they hire me?"

Gabriel paused. "I can be vile and ruthless when I choose to be," he stated. "But you are not worthy of that treatment. And even with all that has come between us... you never have been."

Adrien managed a small smile at that. "I appreciate that. I really do," he said. "I will be in touch with you as to what comes next in Mother's treatments. It's been... good to see you again, and that you and the others are holding up well."

"Likewise," replied Gabriel. "...A question, though."

"Hmmm?"

"I know that you will return here soon, if for no other reason than to visit your mother. But if things do not go well for Emilie... if your experiments do not work," asked Gabriel, haltingly. "Will I see you again after that?"

Adrien paused, but only for a couple of seconds.

"I think that you will," he answered. "It might seem strange for Hawkmoth to have Ladybug and Chat Noir over for supper some night..."

Gabriel laughed aloud at the irony of that. "Indeed," he agreed.

"...but I won't say 'never' to that," Adrien added. "You and I may not ever be again what we used to be to each other... but you are still my father."

"And you will always be my son," replied Gabriel. "No matter what an old, heartbroken fool said in his charred bedroom one night."

They stared at each other, neither one sure what the other would do... until Gabriel extended his hand for a handshake, and Adrien accepted it.

Back at his car, Adrien sat down in the driver's seat, then closed the door...

...and sat, completely motionless, eyes closed for a good ten minutes before he felt capable of starting the engine.

You know EXACTLY what you and Adrien could do to scratch Tikki's itch, so to speak, Marinette thought to herself. The question is... how do YOU feel about that, much less how Adrien might?

"Do... uh... any of the other Kwamis have these same kinds of cravings?" she asked Tikki. "You'd told me that the waves affected everyone in the Miracle Box, too... and we both know that Nooroo's been our most frequent voyeur. Though he and I have talked about that."

"Not that I know of... though I'd have to ask around to see what the others have to say. I know that Wayzz was very matter-of-fact about it, though obviously happy... the Zodiacs were all over the place... and Nooroo! My goodness... He was incoherent after the big blast, but once he recovered, he looked more relaxed and comfortable than I've seen him in ages. And Plagg thought that the whole thing was funny as could be."

"Hmmm," Marinette pondered. "That's good, actually... because we will need him soon. Do you think that his good mood will last when he sees Adrien again?"

"That's... hard to say," Tikki answered. "I've been talking with him about that, and now that he's free of that compulsion, he's not quite as bitter about Adrien... or at least he's calm enough to think before he runs his mouth now. But Adrien will still want to pick his words carefully, and when it comes to Duusu... you might want to be there with him to talk about that."

"I think you're right," worried Marinette. "Do you think that it will come to that, asking that of Plagg?"

"I certainly hope not."

"All right. Now, about your other issue... so, you're saying that this is just between the two of us, so to speak?"

Tikki nodded, affirmatively. She watched as an errant thought struck Marinette... and a smile crossed Marinette's face. "You don't have to think hard about that right away, I promise you. I'll be fine," Tikki assured her.

"Yeah... I had a small idea, but right now isn't when it'd happen," explained Marinette. "I am worried enough about Adrien that I'm not in that kind of mood... and, as you saw, I got my world rocked this morning, too! I'm kind of exhausted. And I need to do some more thinking as to how I would feel about trying it."

"What is it that you're thinking about?"" wondered Tikki, both curious and apprehensive.

"I'll let you know if I decide it's worth the try," winked Marinette. "As for now... how about this? Adrien and I will do our best to be discreet, and not... flaunt anything in front of you, if you'll do your best to hang in there while I figure out how I can help. Or how we can help."

"We?" Tikki asked. "Please don't tell anyone else about this yet, okay? Not even Adrien. I'm kind of embarrassed that I brought it up at all."

"It'll be our secret for now, I promise."

A gentle knock at the front door heralded Adrien's arrival.

"But, for now..." Marinette whispered, then rushed over to meet him.