Marinette had make up her mind last night. She couldn't keep lying to herself or to others, she hated lies, she hated them so much, she couldn't become a liar, that was just despicable.

But hating lies didn't make it any easier to say the truth, not when the truth could hurt someone; so as she worked on the last details of a night gown, adding little details of pedrería to the black dress, she also was working on her speech.

It's not you, it's me, was a phrase she had to avoid at all costs. But how did you say that without saying that? Because that was exactly what was wrong; Marinette didn't feel the same and it wasn't Nath's fault, it was all her, she felt different about herself, about the world and about the relationship. She loved him so much but being in a relationship with him wasn't what she wanted anymore, her heart had changed paths, she had to be honest about it.

"Marinette" Sébastien appeared at her workspace, two big pieces of different fabrics on hand

"What's wrong?"

"Burgundy chevron?" He pointed at the fabric on his left "Or mulberry Peau de Soie?"

"Sometimes I wonder if you choose the colors and fabrics by their names and not its uses" Marinette laughed "What kind of gown you have in mind?"

"It's for a wedding dress, she didn't want white, wanted something fresh, something unique; I'm thinking of a big mermaid skirt but somehow incorporate a long tail on it… but I don't want it to look that heavy, ugh, this is hard" He clenched his teeth "Look I have no idea where I'm going with this, I'm the edgy couture one, wedding dress have never been my thing"

"Gabriel is testing you" Marinette said "I know you have it on you, stop thinking about what you know of wedding dresses, she wants unique, give her unique… but if I can give a little advice, keep the chevron but change the colors, they are too dark for a wedding"

"What do you suggest?"

"Maybe lavender or periwinkle if you want to stay in the purple side" Marinette smiled at him

"Would you wear a periwinkle wedding dress?"

"No, I'm a classic girl, but I can appreciate a periwinkle dress"

"Everyone should be classic, in my humble opinion a wedding dress is not a wedding dress if it's not white" Sébastien said as he flicked the blue spikes of his hair

"It's a wedding dress if you wear it at a wedding" Marceline said, appearing at Sébastien's side

"Aren't you hilarious?" Sébastien rolled his eyes

"The most hilarious human on Earth" Marceline nodded "Did you finish, Mari?"

"I'm almost done, is the model already here?"

"No, but Mr. Agreste wants you at his office after you are done"

"Did he say why?"

"Not really, but maybe is about yesterday's photoshoot"

"Why would you think that?" Sébastien asked instead of Marinette

"Well, tall, blonde and handsome was there too"

"Really?! Why don't I get invited to Mr. Agreste office then?" Sébastien said surprised

"I don't think you are his type" Marceline winked at him

"What are you talking about? Don't you remember the scandal he caused four years ago? Pictures of him and his boyfriend were everywhere"

"He may be bisexual, but still you are not his type" Marceline said

"I don't remember that" Marinette said, winning two pair of eyes to look at her amused "C'mon, not because of the memory lost, but I just don't recall being invested in Adrien Agreste's life"

"He seems pretty invested in yours" Marceline pointed out "I hear Madame Sacreour yesterday at the shoot, she couldn't believe Adrien had just volunteered, she said you must be really special"

"Oh, he is totally into her!" Sébastien said in a sigh that came with a sad expression on his face

"He is not into me, he is just an old friend… I didn't remembered him, but obviously, he remembers me"

"How many famous friends do you have?" Sébastien raised a brow "Your best friend is a renamed journalist, and yesterday teen heartthrob Adrien Agreste and the DJ of the moment appear at your shoot just to say hi"

"I met them in school, and Nino and Adrien are not my friends anymore, they haven't been in my life for six years or so…"

"Marinette" Nathalie interrupted the conversation, making the three of them quite at the second she said the words

"Madame Sacreour" The three of them said

"Mr. Agreste wants you in his office, you two should come too" The designers nodded and followed Nathalie out of the room

Sébastien was doing a little joy dance as they did and Marceline and Marinette were trying not to laugh at it.

Adrien's eyes had a shadow on them, something was bothering him and he couldn't hide it, his face showed a mixture of sadness and anger that made Marinette tremble. She didn't remember a thing about Adrien Agreste, but somehow she knew that that wasn't an expression to usually appear on his perfect face, and it made her want to know what bothered him and fix it so his fuller lips could be curved in a smile again.

xx

Earlier that day…

"Your father will be waiting for us at his office" Those were Nino's first words as he walked across the front door of his best friend apartment.

Adrien, who was still wearing pajama pants, lying on the couch with a sleeping cat kwami on his abs, hadn't been pleased at all; not when he was eating a box of donuts by himself, something he wasn't allowed for years, as he remembered every moment of the past night, every moment of his time with Marinette.

Adrien ignored him, maybe he would go away

"Adrien, we have a meeting with your father, you can't avoid this forever"

Maybe he didn't have much luck

"I'm busy" Adrien said "I have to go to class"

"According to your father you only have one class today, at 5, I think we got time"

"Whoa, when did you and my father became friends?"

"We are more like… business partners" Nino said "Now get up and take a shower, we have to be on time"

"We were having fun!" Plagg said, still half sleep on top of Adrien

"Yeah, we were having fun! The Nino I know would never say no to fun"

"Sometimes responsibilities come first, and the Adrien I know, comprehended that"

"Ugh" Adrien hide his face on the pillow next to him, muffling his voice "I'm not ready for this"

"You will never be ready, that's why we are doing it as soon as possible, so you can get over it"

"Alright… you know I had a really nice evening and was having a wonderful morning, you will pay for this"

"You'll thank me later, so you don't scare me. Now get up!"

"Damn, one night with Alya and you are a bossy pants" Adrien stood up off the coach, making Plagg jump sacred at the fast move "Talking about that, how was your night?" Adrien smirked

"Very informative" Nino smirked back "How was yours?"

"Good"

"Only good?" Nino raised a brow "There are pictures of you and Miss Vigilante all around the internet"

"She cut my hair" Adrien said, shaking his blonde locks "I look pretty fantastic, uh?"

"I think is still too long for your father to like, good think we are going to be discussing other things that don't' relate to your hair"

"You can't let it go, don't you?"

"No" Nino stated "Now hurry, if you are lucky you may get to see Marinette"

"As an amazing motivation that is, I'm still taking as long as I can in the shower" Adrien said as he made his way to the bathroom.

xx

Adrien didn't get to see Marinette. He walked, on propose, outside of the interns work stations and Marinette was nowhere to be found. He wanted to see her, he wanted her to compliment his hair, he wanted to see that beautiful smile of hers.

But he didn't see her, she didn't bright up his day and now he was standing in front of his father. He looked as he always did, elegant suit, bright and unique tie, expressionless face; yeah, till Nino head up to him and shook his hand, then something similar to a smile flashed through Gabriel's lips

"Come in, we have a lot to talk about" He said, and then leaned to his son to pat his shoulder as a sign of affection.

Nino and Adrien walked inside the luminous office and sat on the couch close to the coffee table.

"Well, where should we begin?" Gabriel asked

"How much do you know?" Adrien asked immediately, apparently they weren't going to run in circles this time

"More than you could imagine Adrien or should I say Chat Noir?" Gabriel smirked which made Adrien nervous

"He knows?!" Adrien asked, thought he felt stupid asking it, of course he did

"Yeah, I told you he knew a lot" Nino said

"I got that part, I just thought I was going to reveal myself or something" Adrien gasped "Did Nino told you or you figure it out by yourself?"

"I have known for years" Gabriel said, his fingers intertwined as he looked at his son with an expression Adrien couldn't quite figure out "Missing classes, Nathalie couldn't reach for you at times, your behavior at akuma attacks and the ring, obviously, gave it away"

"But you were never there how—

"Adrien you don't get your obliviousness from me" Gabriel interrupted, raising his brows.

"You never said a thing and you… never stopped me" Adrien was really confused. If his father, the same person who had forbidden him to go to public school because it was "dangerous", hadn't stopped him from being a superhero who constantly put himself at risk, then the world as he knew it was a complete lie

"I knew I wouldn't have been able to stop you, you are just like your mother"

At the sound of that word, Adrien stiffed, giving a look at Nino to find comfort. Nino was smiling at him, trying to keep him out of panic.

"Sh-she… she was a…" Adrien's voice died down, he couldn't remember the last time he and his father had had a conversation about his mother. They had little conversations about her on days like her birthday or mother's day; sometimes when a police officer called to say that they had a lead, but they were tiny conversations, filled with memories or hopeless words, a conversation with crucial information like this one hadn't happen in years.

"She was a Miraculous holder, the peacock to be exact" Gabriel said "Difference to you she wasn't chose so young, she became a hero when she was eighteen, and she was absolutely fantastic"

"You knew her before that?" Adrien asked, he knew their parents had met at a young age, but he didn't knew the details

"Only a few months, I worked at a coffee shop to help my parents pay university, and she happened to go there every day, we became very good friends and after a while she revealed herself to me" That was the most information Adrien had heard his father give in like, forever.

He turned to look for Nino just to realize he was gone. He was expecting for him to do it, but not so soon.

"So you didn't know anything about the Miraculous till mom told you about it"

"Exactly" Gabriel nodded "I start to know and investigate to help her; I met Master Fu, who I'm aware you were acquainted, and helped with researches, mostly because it was fund and I got to spend more time with Céline, but then it became something really interesting to know"

"So you probably knew I was Chat Noir at the moment the ring was on my hands" Adrien sighed

"No, I did not, it took me more time that it should have if I'm being honest" Gabriel admitted "But when I discovered it, as scared as I was, it made sense to me, you are jut like your mother, of course you would be chosen"

Adrien smiled at that.

"You seem to know a lot"

"I don't know enough" His dad clapped back "Before your mother disappeared we were trying to figure it out a code, and once she was gone I have been trying to find more clues to decipher said code, but I haven't find what I need. Sadly that research has been put on pause, once your friend, the new Big Guardian called for help, I have been doing my best to search for Ladybug"

"Really?!" Adrien's heart stop. His father was looking for Ladybug!

"Yes, I don't have much but I have a few pieces of information that could be useful" He said, he made a sign for Adrien to follow him to his desk

Gabriel opened the third drawer on his desk and took an old book of it. Adrien recognized immediately

"Hey" Adrien said, not sure what to say

"Master Fu gave it back once he thought you two wouldn't ask about it anymore" He explained "Stop trembling, I'm not gonna ground you for something you did almost ten years ago"

"I freaked out when I lost that book, you know? When I found out Ladybug had took it I was relieved and then I couldn't take it back anyways, it's a burden you know?" The closest thing to a laugh came out of his father's lips

"I can imagine" Gabriel nodded "This book is really important as you already know, it has essential information of the Miraculous and its holders. By years of stud I managed to decode it all, and I understand most of it. The sad events of your mother's disappearance helped me a lot when it came to figure it out about Ladybug's"

"What did you found?"

"I already explained this to your friend Nino, so don't worry we are not leaving him behind" He said as Adrien turned and pointed at the door. He continued when Adrien nodded "Wayzz felt an energy coming from the butterfly Miraculous and as we all seem to agree is connected to Ladybug's miraculous as well. I have studied the butterfly stone, its Kwami gives powerful abilities, not only it changed and controls people as you saw when you fought akumas, it gives the holder the power of feeling other's people's feelings, they feel the world around them in a bold way that no one else does"

"That's how Papillon could know when someone was a good target" Adrien said surprised "It makes so much sense"

"Yes, exactly; it's powers are big, and while Papillon used them to control people it also work in different ways. The magic on it, when not used in other's can be used to get what you want"

"What do you mean? I don't understand"

"I haven't been able to understand it well myself, but the powers of the miraculous can give you what you want, the closest example I have is a genie in a lamp. The power of the stone can make your wishes come true, but it's too powerful and it dries the kwami's energy fast, so it's hard to use, no one has heard of anyone use it so it's hard to tell"

"How are you so sure?"

"I'm not, it's only what I have found on my research, but it's the only lead you have"

"Yeah" Adrien sighed but then something clicked on his head "You are suggesting that Ladybug tried to use those powers?"

"Yes" Gabriel walked closer to the window, not looking at Adrien. He knew how much Ladybug meant to his son, and was afraid to say anything, after all he had seen him suffer, he had seen him panic, all because the power of said miraculous "I think Ladybug tried to use it, and that something came out wrong"

"But what?!"

"That's what we are trying to find out, aren't we?"

Adrien sighed, he shook his head and then covered his face with his hands

"I miss her" Adrien admitted "The both of them… I know we will find them, I have never lost hope on mom, and now I'm not losing hope on my Lady"

"Neither am I, Adrien, I can assure you that" And that was an I love you coming from Gabriel Agreste, so Adrien leaned for a hug.

Gabriel accepted his hug but it didn't last long, Adrien wasn't expecting that either.

"We'll talk more about this once we get information for your reporter friend"

"Alya" Adrien said "Is she really going to help? I adore Alya, she is great and super smart but does she know the stuff we need?"

"We don't know what she knows" Gabriel said "I know you are worried and want big information at your door right in this moment, but the best way to do this is slow and taking every clue we can get, even if it's little"

"You are right"

"I usually am" Gabriel smirked "Now, change of subject, Vogue is really please with yesterday's photoshoot"

Of course he had to bring that up

"I'm glad, do Marinette's clothes look good?"

"They are brilliant so they look brilliant" Adrien felt proud.

"There's going to be a party for the launch of the edition, since you are in the edition it would be fantastic if you made an appearance, they sent you an invitation"

"I don't know that, it's not my scene anymore… the whole model thing was to save Mari, just that"

"Marinette will be there, it really would be sad if you missed her" Her father said, standing by his side

"Father" Adrien coughed nervously

"Do I have to repeat you that I'm not the oblivious parent you thought I was? Also anyone can notice that you are interested in her, after all those other partners you had is good to see you have some taste"

Adrien decided to ignore the comment of his old relationships, at first he thought Gabriel had something against his boyfriends, because they were, well, boys, but at the end it was Gabriel being Gabriel, because his behavior didn't changed much when he had a girlfriend around; he had decided what was good for his son, and that was the only thing that could make him happy.

"You like her a lot" Adrien said back

"She is very talented, a girl with feet on the ground and a natural leader" Gabriel nodded

"I know" Adrien couldn't help but smile at the words, they were so true, he was so happy that his father could see it

"You should ask her out, you two would make a wonderful pair"

"How long have you been waiting to tell me that?" Adrien smirked

"High school?"

"High school?!" Adrien almost shocked on air "What?"

"After the derby hat competence I told Nathalie to keep an eye on her, when you spoke about her it was only nice things. Nathalie investigated about her, and I got to see her a few times at your photoshoots. See? I do pay attention. Anyways it was more about her career than anything, but once she started working for me, I knew she was the one for you"

"Dad" Adrien picked the neck of his shirt and leaned his head to the side

"What are you going to say to me, Adrien? You obviously like the girl"

"She doesn't remember me" Adrien said "You know about her accident, right?"

"Yes, I am aware of the situation, I have known about it since the first day she crossed my office door"

"You never said a thing to me"

"I figure it out that I would have heard of Marinette's accident before that moment if you still kept contact with her"

"Yeah, I guess" Adrien mumbled "I think it won't hurt me to go"

"Perfect" As he said that, there was a knock on his door "Perfect time. Come in!"

"Your interns are here, Mr. Agreste" Nathalie said and two girls and a boy came in.

Adrien recognized the girl and the boy from yesterday's shoot, but his sight stayed on Marinette; she was looking at him. She looked worry, which made Adrien worry.

"Thanks for coming. Mademoiselle Béraut and M. Pascal I need you to call one of your models from yesterday's shooting and confirm them for the event at Vogue. Just that you can go, now" Marceline and Sébastien only got time to nod before they were out of the door "Marinette…"

"Sir" Marinette said, her sight turned away from Adrien to his dad

"Remember that suit you designed, the onyx one with hints of arctic silver?

"Yes, I do" Marinette answered

"Do you think you can bring it to life in a week?" Adrien looked at his father, the tone of his voice suggested he already knew the answer

"Yes, I can. A sample or for someone in specific?"

"For Adrien" Gabriel pointed and Adrien flinched in surprise "He will go with you to the Vogue Launch, the editors loved you and they loved my son in your clothes, it's a good strategy to put your clothes in the spotlight

"Father I don't think Marinette needs me to do so" Adrien said mad

"Is not that" Marinette said to Adrien "We are all going with a model, right? That's what you told Sébastien and Marceline to call their models. Not all the editors will remember the clothes, some of them will be more interested in the models, so if you go with me, wearing one of my designs they will ask about them

"Exactly" Gabriel asked "As always, you are brilliant"

"Thank you, sir" Marinette smiled at him

"Okay, both can go, Marinette has a suit to make" Marinette nodded and turned to the door

"I'll talk to you later" Adrien said to his father before running to catch Marinette, across the door and to the hallway.

"I need measures for your pants" Marinette said when she felt him closer

"Okay" He agreed. He started walking closer to her, he put his hands on his pocket so he didn't accidentally touch her, it was an habit as Chat Noir but not as Adrien

"Are you okay?" Marinette asked

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know, you seem… off" Marinette stopped in the hallway looking directly at him "I know I haven't been the sweetest but you can talk to me if you need to"

"I'll keep that in mind" He was glad she had said that, he had an excuse for another time. He passed his fingers through his hair as he smiled to her

"Did you cut your hair?" Marinette couldn't stop herself to ask that, the slow motion of his fingers on his hair had make her notice

"Uh yeah…" Adrien smirked "Don't I look good?"

"I guess" Marinette had to really focus on not stuttering. Of course he looked fantastic, he was gorgeous

"I'll tell my stylist, she is the best" Adrien laughed, and Marinette didn't understood why.

xx

So, now we finally caught with the AO3 version :)

Thank you for all of your reviews, you are all very kind!

Also wanted to remind that english is not my first language, I'm sorry for any mistakes and I always take constructive critic ! xx