When Marinette cut open the bread with practised ease, Adrien could only stare at the steam gently rising.

'Now you're really supposed to wait until it's cooled, but honestly,' she handed him a slice, 'steaming fresh bread is a gift from the heavens. Don't put anything on it, just take a bite first.'

He looked between her and the bread, before taking a tentative nibble.

He chewed for a moment, before hastily shovelling as much as he could fit into his mouth with wide eyes.

''If is fo goo'!' He exclaimed through a mouthful, looking up at her.

She grinned back, finishing cutting a slice for herself. 'Of course, good bread doesn't need anything else.' She gestured to the slightly wonky A carved into the top of the loaf. 'And this is your one.'

He swallowed hugely. 'Are you sure this is the one I made? There's no way,'

'Yup. You're good at it, it seems.' She started on her slice, with an expert palette. 'Uh huh, nothing beats it.'

'I think all that shopping I did may go to waste' he said, eyeing the charcuterie he had carefully spread on the table a few minutes earlier. 'I won't want anything else after this.'

Marinette grinned at him, before reaching over and taking up a slice of cured meat. 'We'll just have to make it work. There's enough here to last us for a while.'

They chewed quietly for a moment, before both made to speak at the same time.

'So-'

'Are you-'

They paused, grinning awkwardly.

'You go,' Adrien started.

'No, it's fine,' Marinette prompted.

'Please, I insist,'

'There's no need to be polite,' she flapped at him with a free hand.

'Are you sure?'

'Yes, I'm sure!'

'But-' he started.

'Adrien, just say it.' A hint of exasperation was coming into her voice.

He hesitated, before looking down at his food in embarrassment.

'Well, are you really,' he suddenly seemed to be struggling with his words. 'Are you truly Ladybug?'

Marinette flushed red. 'Are you really Chat Noir?'

He took in a deep breath, and let it out.

'Plagg, why don't you help yourself to the cheese I bought.' He addressed the air around them.

'What makes you think I waited for the invitation?' The air replied, and a black kwami appeared from the direction of the windowsill garden, a wedge of cheese under one miniature arm.

'Tikki? There's fresh bread here,' Marinette also addressed the air, reaching for the bread knife and Adrien's loaf from next to her.

'It smells so good,' Tikki replied, zooming over from the window. 'Thanks, Marinette,'

Marinette frowned at her, the knife paused at the crust of the bread.

'Wait a minute, were you two hanging out together over there?'

The two kwamis exchanged a guilty look.

'No?' Plagg suggested.

Adrien also looked between the two of them. 'Plagg, you knew about Marinette?'

'Tikki, you traitor!' Marinette said, but her heart wasn't in it. 'How long did you two know?'

'Um, forever now,' Tikki said, looking down abashedly.

'Well, not forever forever, it was after we were assigned to you two,' Plagg corrected.

Marinette facepalmed. 'I can't believe this.' She turned her attention to the bread, and Tikki looked crestfallen.

'I hope you're not angry,' Tikki said, 'we were just doing our job,'

In a move of solidarity, Plagg put down his half-eaten cheese and looked up at Marinette.

'No, I'm not mad,' Marinette said, finishing cutting a small slice and handing it to her kwami, 'I'm just surprised. Does this mean you know who the owner of Hawkmoth's kwami is as well?'

'No, it's not like that. You two sat so close to each other in school that it would have been weird if we didn't run into each other.'

'It's not like a magic thing!' Plagg said defensively. 'We really found out when you two had detransformed in front of each other to recharge. It was bound to happen eventually!'

'That's true.' Adrien said thoughtfully. He took another bite of bread.

He chewed for a moment, before reaching forward and placing his hand over hers.

'I'm really glad Ladybug is you, Marinette. I can't think of anyone else who would be better suited.'

Marinette flushed a deep red, her eyes flying between his hand and his soft gaze. 'I-I'm sure there are plenty others who-'

'But they wouldn't be you.' He smiled slightly.

'Oh come on you two, I'm eating here.' Plagg groaned, and Tikki threw a crumb at him.

'You spoilsport. You were young once too.'

That evening, after more grazing of the day's spoils, and Adrien being resoundly defeated at MechaStrike, he found he was struggling to keep his head up.

They worked to pull out the fold-out bed from the couch, and Marinette disappeared into her bathroom with Tikki in tow.

Adrien watched the door close, then sat down on the edge of the bed.

'I'm going to marry her.' Adrien said, and Plagg rolled his eyes.

'It was only a matter of time.' Plagg replied defeatedly. 'Also you're not doing very well at this whole "not now" business.'

'Well, I can't help it.' Adrien shrugged. He slumped back onto the bed and looked up at the ceiling with a grin. 'She's so wonderful.'

'She cooks well, I'll grant you that. What more do you need in a girl?'

Adrien peeked down at him. 'I'm betting your perfect girl is a cheesemaker.'

'Well, a few Chat Noirs ago I met someone like that, now there was a girl who could balance her work-life-superheroing.' Plagg grinned. 'She'd spend all morning milking cows and making cheese, then the rest of it was for saving lives.' He shrugged. 'Shame she only made hard cheeses, but I saw a bright future for her.' He glanced up at Adrien. 'Though to be honest I like you better, you can buy all the good stuff online.'

'I'm glad to see you care so much.' Adrien shook his head, smiling.

Plagg was quiet for a moment.

'So what are you going to do now?'

Adrien's smile fell.

'Both Marinette and Ladybug were right, even though they were the same person in the end. I don't want to go back home.'

'So you're going to move out?'

'I don't have a lot of things that are important to me for me to take with me, so maybe I already have. I have my miraculous,' he raised his hand to look at it, 'and I have you, what else do I need?'

'Well I'm just glad you bought a toothbrush while you were out today.' Plagg grinned. 'You were starting to smell like some of my delicious cheeses.'

'It wasn't that bad, plus I brushed while I was in the bathroom earlier.'

'Sure sure.'

'But, I don't know what I'm going to do about Father.' He rolled onto his side, curling up slightly. 'I really don't. I do still care about him, but,'

'You want my advice, kid?' Plagg moved to land on his shoulder.

'Sure.'

'You've officially moved out. Give it some distance, it'll give you the space to figure things out.'

'You sound like Marinette.' He smiled slightly.

'Well, it shows the girl's got a good head. Give it a few thousand years, and she'll be almost as good as me.' Plagg grinned.

'Heaven forbid,' Adrien laughed.