A/N: Sorry for keeping you waiting, my lovelies! I'm running low on sleep, so I ended up snoozing away all my free time. Thankfully tomorrow is a day off for me, so I get to do plenty of writing after catching up on the sleep I've missed!

26.

This time, Marinette was the first to wake up. It was already light outside. The sweet scent of freshly baked bread wafted in from under her bedroom door. She tried to move, but found that she couldn't. There was another body on the chaise longue with her. She craned her neck forward before attempting to push him off of her. A blanket slid off of them.

A blanket. Marinette blinked.

"Shit."

Adrien opened an eye at that. Marinette looked panicked. It woke him up faster than a cup of coffee would.

"I'm so sorry," he apologized awkwardly, scrambling to get off. He slipped and his face landed on something soft. Marinette's eyes fluttered closed, as an extremely dark shade of red colored her face. Adrien's eyes widened at the contact and he was even more eager to get away from the bed, worried he might have crossed a line or two or three.

There was a knock on the door. Marinette jolted up, putting some distance between herself and Adrien and called "Come in!" even though her cheeks were burning so bad she thought she would die. She tried to look brave. Even though she was an adult, she was at her parents' house! Their opinion was still important to her.

"Glad to see you're awake," Sabine smiled at them. There was a glint in her eye that made her daughter feel a little uncomfortable. Adrien grinned like the cat who got the cream. Marinette wanted to smack him.

"Breakfast is ready downstairs," the older woman continued, not embarrassed at all at having found her daughter in the arms of a handsome man. In fact, she felt gleeful inside, but knew better to let Marinette know. "Alya tipped us off that you might be here."

Sabine let the door close behind her before either of the two in the room could react. A wide smile spread over her face. It was just like back when Marinette had been a teenager.

And Marinette certainly felt like one.

"It could have been worse," Adrien chuckled.

"How?" The way she saw it, it was bad enough to be discovered like that.

"Oh, I don't know. We could have been naked."

She turned a shade of red Adrien had never seen on her before.

"Come on, let's get this over with," was what she finally said, dragging her feet to the door. Adrien followed, a little nervous, a little excited.

Marinette led him to the table without a word. She took the seat next to him and leaned forward, elbows on table, hiding her face again.

"Good morning," Adrien greeted the old man who grunted in response. Marinette's father didn't look up from his newspaper. It was hard to believe it was the same man who had laughed so hard when baking with Hugo.

"Err… I don't believe we've met," the blonde offered his hand. "I'm Adrien Agreste."

Tom Dupain lowered his newspaper just enough to see his smile. Encouraged by it, Marinette's father put the paper down and shook his hand. "Call me Tom."

He was as nervous as Adrien and loved Marinette just as much. Ever since he had almost scared off Luka and faced Marinette's wrath for an entire week, Tom Dupain had been wary of the guys she was involved with. In all honesty, he just wanted the best for his darling daughter. It had been a difficult lesson to learn that sometimes, his best and hers were not the same.

"Thank you for that other time," Adrien smiled, remembering the last time he visited the bakery. "Hugo had a lot of fun."

Tom recalled the little blonde and why he'd been over.

"Thanks for helping my kid with her homework," he chuckled. "She's smart, but when she looses her footing…"

Marinette shot him a warning look. It burned with a silent threat.

"Coffee, my dear?" Sabine came to the rescue. She poured the drink into the cups with a small smile playing on her face.

"Alya mentioned Nino is watching Hugo today," she informed Adrien. "And Nino asked her to pass on a message. Something along the lines of… " Sabine paused to think about her wording – Alya had insisted she memorized it. "A prince stirring up trouble again. She said Nino said you'd get it."

"Right." Adrien frowned. He felt curious eyes on him. "It's kind of like a code to say my cousin is in town. He's not the nicest guy." He was reluctant to admit it. "He and Chloé were great friends."

Marinette snorted. That said enough.

Félix Graham de Vanily adored the city of love, even though he would never admit it to anyone. When he was in London, his heart pined for Paris. When he was in Paris, something pulled him back to London. He could never win. But when he'd seen the news, he had known immediately that he would go down trying.

Adrien and Little Ladybug – he could hardly believe it. But one look at her face had been enough for him. After all, he had been looking for her for nearly 20 years to wipe that sweet smirk off her face. Félix wasn't sure why she irritated him so much. But it wasn't what mattered anyway.

What mattered was that he finally knew her name. Marinette Dupain-Cheng. He almost laughed at the coincidence – it was the girl Chloé had constantly complained about. In his mind, it made sense though. He just hadn't seen it earlier. If only Adrien was less oblivious, he would have noticed it too. Félix was blessed to have such an idiot for a cousin.

He thought back to the party with twisted fondness. He remembered how jealous he'd felt, watching Chat and Ladybug dance in the moonlight, lost in the moment. He hadn't understood his envy that time. But it wasn't that difficult to understand it 20 years later – that there had been a wall between him and the other two.

Walls were meant to be broken though, he decided. Same went for hearts. Without a thought, he'd called Chloé.

But Félix wasn't the only clever person in town. After having called the Dupain-Chengs, Alya crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Nino.

"What's this thing about a prince and how come you didn't tell me?" she demanded. "It would look great on my blog and maybe even get me an article."

"It's not a real prince!" Nino could tell Alya was serious from the way her eyes were shining. "And he'd probably kill you, if you got too close! I was trying to protect you!"

"Really now?" she said in a dangerously low voice.

"Really! I swear!" Nino leaned away from her, earning a smack on the arm. "It's Adrien's cousin. Adrien calls him prince, because a long time ago, there was a party and Félix was dressed up as the little prince. You know, the book character."

Alya's mind came to a halt. She felt as if she'd been hit with a brick.

"Did you just say… that Adrien's cousin dressed up as the Little Prince?" she asked, wondering if she'd somehow misheard it. Or dreamed.

"Yeah, why?"

"Any chance a certain Cat was in attendance?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I think Adrien said he was dressed as a black cat at that party."

Alya sat down, her brain processing the info. And then she squealed, jumping to her feet again.

"Oh my god! And you claim to be Marinette's best friend! I just… Wow. Oh my god!"

Nino frowned. "What am I missing?"

"Chat," Alya said between fits of laughter. "Noir."

"Yes?"

Alya took a deep breath. "Didn't you notice? Marinette was like head over heels for this Chat Noir, if I dare say so myself. She can deny all she wants, but she never shut up about him, even though they met like once. It's not even a real name, you know? They made up fake names and pretended to be superheros at some fancy party. Gosh, I can't believe Adrien is Chat Noir!"

"It's like a dream come true!" she squealed. "Marinette is not going to believe this!"

"You're kind of all over the place, love," Nino smiled smugly, catching her in his arms. "Start from the beginning."

Another deep breath filled her lungs as she tried to focus her thoughts. "Marinette's first love was a guy she met at a costume party. He was blonde, had green eyes and wore the costume of a black cat. They met after she saved the Little Prince." Alya sighed dreamily before continuing excitedly. "Wait until she hears about this!"

"Alya," Nino said calmly. "Maybe you're wrong. Think about how much it would hurt our dudette."

"I'm not wrong," Alya huffed.

"I'm just saying, love," his voice turned soft and endearing, mellowing Alya's heart, "that if you're right, then they'll figure it out on their own eventually. Wouldn't that feel even more special, if they did?" He was a true romantic at heart. "Maybe give them some time to get there on their own?"

Alya kissed him. "You're a big softie, aren't you?" she teased. Nino kissed her back.

"Fine. I won't tell them yet." She agreed. "But I swear to god, if they haven't figured it out by the end of the week, I'm telling."