I've been sick so this didn't flow as well as usual. Also I think the more I tried to edit and tweak the more annoyed I became with it. In the end I needed to just publish it and brace myself.

I realised while writing this chapter that I've been keeping them as collège students despite the fact that I've stated they're fifteen before and saying it's been eight months since Chat started to visit Marinette. This didn't make a lot of sense so I'm gonna go back and tweak a couple of lines and scenes, both in this fic and the one that came before, It Was You. Nothing major, just they'll use lycée when they talk about school and I'm going to change a teachers name. Somehow, miraculously (hehe) they will have basically the same class set up, mostly because I'm too lazy to do the leg work in re-seating them all and assigning new classes and classmates.

Early Morning Conversations

Adrien awoke that morning to his name being called as someone shook him gently. "Huh?" he mumbled as his eyes opened, searching around until they landed upon the figure of Sabine reaching over to stir him. Instinctively he panicked for a moment at being found unmasked until his memories caught up to his sleep-deprived brain and he relaxed back against the mattress again.

She smiled sweetly, keeping her voice low to avoid waking her daughter as well as the tired boy currently yawning. "It's 6am dear; you should get back home before someone comes looking for you." She leaned back once she could see that he was awake, and he let out another loud yawn as he tried desperately to keep from dozing off again. "Try not to wake Marinette up when you untangle her," Sabine said, "She'll only get grumpy with you."

He glanced round to see what she meant to find Marinette wrapped around him, her hands clenched together beneath his arms but over his chest, and one leg slung across his hip beneath the covers. His heart warmed. As much as he liked to cuddle into Marinette while they slept, he absolutely adored being the little spoon as she clung to his back like a fleshy jetpack.

"How did you know I was here?" Adrien whispered as he carefully tried to disengage his girlfriend from himself.

Sabine reached her arm out towards the bed, two sleeping kwamis nestled in her cupped hand. "I found them like this in the kitchen. I'm assuming this is Plagg?"

He watched her place them delicately on the bedside table, Tikki rousing as she did so and peeking open one eye at them. "Yeah," Adrien said, "he's my kwami, like Tikki is Marinette's."

"Tell him I'm sorry I couldn't stay to say hello, but I need to get back to the bakery and open up," Sabine told him with a wave, before finally disappearing down the ladder.

He waited until he heard the trapdoor to the room close behind her before he completely extracted himself from Marinette, very self-consciously aware that he was clad in only his boxer shorts. He dressed much quicker than he had ever managed before, and it was as he was reaching down to tie his shoe laces that he felt petite arms snake their way around his waist.

"Stay," came a sluggish voice from his lower back where he could feel a cheek pressing against the thin material of his t-shirt.

He chuckled and removed her hands, turning to help her lie back on the bed again as she began to slump in place. "I can't," he said, placing a soft kiss to her forehead, "Father would freak out and call the entire police force if he realised that I've been gone all night." She grumbled slightly in response and he laughed again. "I wish I could though. See you at school 'Nette."

Scooping up Plagg from where he was yawning next to a giggling Tikki, he made his way up to her balcony before transforming and darting home.

He made it back in record time, quickly stripping off his old clothes like they were diseased and pulling on fresh ones as soon as his transformation dropped. Plagg remained oddly quiet as he opted not to complain about having his sleep disturbed, in favour of immediately curling up and dozing on the pillow instead.

Just as Adrien had finished scooping him into his pocket, his door opened, and Nathalie walked in without so much as a knock.

"Nathalie!" he yelped, grateful she hadn't caught him sneaking back in full costume, "I could have been changing!"

He watched as she let out a deep breath and placed a hand against her chest for a moment before returning to her usual icy demeanour. "I see you're home."

He gulped. Ohshitohshitohshit, he thought.

"Adrien, it's one thing for me to keep it to myself that you go out without permission in the evenings - and all day some weekends," she began, her face a mask of indifference, "but when you're gone during the night like this, anything could happen, and it could be considered neglectful of me not to mention it to your father."

Dread settled in Adrien's chest like a sliver of ice stabbing him in the heart. "You're not going to tell him, are you?" he begged, eyes wide and panicked.

Nathalie simply stared at him for a moment, coolly. "No," she finally said, "but no more all-night adventures. You're back by midnight from now on. And-" -she lifted her chin at him with an air of authority- "you tell your father you have a girlfriend. I'm assuming it's a girl you're dating."

"What!?" He saw no future where his father finding out he was dating Marinette would go well. It was part of the reason that they'd decided just the other night that they probably shouldn't hang out at his house too much; they couldn't let anyone realise she had been in his room before. "I mean, yes she's a girl, but Nathalie, I can't-"

"This morning is perfect timing. I'm about to present him with some good news and I've been planting some seeds for a while now that the press might find it odd that you haven't shown any interest in anyone your own age."

Adrien crossed his arms over his chest in defiance. "I'm fifteen," he said with annoyance evident in his tone, "not everyone dates at fifteen."

"True," she said, "but whether or not the press will care is beside the point. Only that your father thinks they do."

Grinning widely, Adrien relaxed slightly, his gaze grateful. "Nathalie, you're a genius."

"Perhaps," she said, a slight smirk appearing at the corner of her mouth, "Now, are you two at least using the protection I left in your bathroom?"

"Nathalie!"

It was seven o'clock when Adrien entered the dining room for breakfast. He carefully disguised his surprise upon seeing his father sitting at the table waiting for him, Nathalie standing next to him, waiting for a response of some kind. Taking his usual seat, he began to eat slowly, watching from the corner of his eye for any sign that they had noticed his presence yet.

Gabriel appeared far too wrapped up in reading something on the tablet in his left hand, moving his food around with his fork in the right but never quite allowing anything he lifted to reach his mouth. The smile that appeared on his face began so subtly that Adrien barely noticed it, but soon it transformed his entire face. It wasn't exactly a warm smile -more of a sneer- but it still showed that whatever he was reading had pleased him greatly.

He turned to Nathalie who was still standing next to him, her hands clasped politely in front of her. "Are there any other articles like this?" he asked.

"Not yet," she answered, "so far it's exclusive to this publication but I'm sure everyone will have it online within the hour."

"Excellent," he said, handing her the tablet and returning to his food, beginning to eat with a gusto Adrien hadn't seen in his father since his mother had disappeared. He looked up at Nathalie in shock and noticed she was smiling as well, although she was looking directly at him instead of his father while she did so. She inclined her head towards Gabriel the tiniest amount and her eyes flashed; something he took to be his hint that now was the time to bring up the topic of his girlfriend. It was clear whatever she had shown him had lifted his mood much higher than his usual brand of tolerance. Taking a deep breath, Adrien opened his mouth-

"Oh Adrien," his father began suddenly, and all the air rushed out of the boy like a deflated balloon, "it has been brought to my attention that you should be…interacting more with girls of the same age bracket as yourself. As this morning has just demonstrated to me, the press can be very unkind regarding a person's love life -or lack thereof- and I think it's time you started dating."

Adrien was thrown completely off guard. He'd considered the lead into this conversation to be difficult and awkward, and yet his father had been the one to bring it up. Pushing down the anxieties in his chest he prepared to speak as soon as he was permitted a chance.

"Therefore, I am going to set up a gala in the next few weeks. All of Paris' influential elite will be attending, of course, and I am going to encourage them all to bring their children –of around a certain age– to give you an opportunity to meet some of their daughters."

For the second time that morning Adrien felt a cold spike of fear in his chest and he glanced at Nathalie helplessly. She too, looked surprised and horrified. Unfortunately, she also seemed unsure on how to proceed. His father was still talking about who would be invited and how some of the guests and their daughters would be invited purely for appearances sake, so he was to ensure to memorise who he was not to become involved with and…and Gabriel just kept talking.

Panicked, Adrien was about to interrupt, a sure sign of failure ahead, but he had no idea what he could do otherwise. Before he could seal his own fate, however, Nathalie finally rediscovered her voice and loudly cleared her throat. Gabriel was effectively silenced as she began. "Sir, there is always a chance that Adrien already has a young lady in mind and that it would be counter-productive to arrange an expensive gala if there is someone else who he would rather attend it with."

Gabriel looked up at her in momentary disbelief before a look of understanding passed across his features. Slowly, he turned to face his son. "Adrien," he said, his expression undecipherable, "Is there anything you need to tell me?"

A dark head appeared over the covers, face scrunched up as she patted around blindly for the phone that continued to ring and buzz disturbing her rest. Finally finding the wretched thing, she squinted at the screen. And groaned.

"Alya," she said once she had slid her thumb across the screen to answer and jammed the receiver to her ear, "It's not even eight yet. I could've had another fifteen minutes in bed."

"Sorry, but this is important," Alya said hurriedly from her end, "I take it you haven't seen the news yet?"

She frowned into her pillow, why would she care about the news right now? Her superhero brain seemed to catch up to her sleepy brain and she shot upright in bed. "Is it an akuma?" she asked abruptly.

"No, no nothing like that. But it does involve Chat. And…" There was an awkward pause on the other end. "And you I guess."