Ladybug and Adrien stood together in the alleyway, Ladybug determined to think of a plan.

"I'm so sorry Adrien, I- I never knew…"

"How would you, you don't even know me." He said, avoiding eye contact. He didn't want her to see him upset, he was perfect in her eyes and he wasn't looking very perfect at the moment.

"I know this might be hard to hear," Ladybug said, trying to look into his eyes for more sincerity. "But I think you should go back home… To him." She watched his pupils expand.

"I-I can't! I can't do that, knowing everything… I-" Adrien started to panic.

"Listen, you would be able to help us so much, you could be like a spy, trying to figure out what he's planning." Ladybug was working her hardest to try and reassure him.

"What if he knows I told you?! What if he kills me!? I trust you Ladybug, but I don't think I can trust him. Not anymore. Not after him lying to me! After trying to convince me that I should be on his side."

"Why would he want you to be on his side? How would he even convince you of that?"

"He said he's doing this all for me." Adrien's voice broke. "He's trying to bring my mother back with the Miraculous' wish. He said he's trying to make me happy." He ran his hands through his hair.

"I understand if you don't want to go back there. If you're too uncomfortable, you should continue to stay at Marinette's. I can come up with another plan, a million other plans."

"Ok… wait how do you know that I'm living at Marinette's house? How do you know who she is?"

"UH- ER- She's my umm… friend! We are friends and she told me about you… she's a uhhh big fan of your work and she was… REALLY excited about it! That's all." Ladybug spoke just like she would've as Marinette. This was the most frazzled she had ever felt while she was transformed.

"Oh, ok." Adrien looked into her eyes. "I think I'll go back. I won't be alone this time, and I want to help any way that I can. Thank you Ladybug. I hope we will be able to defeat him, together."

"I hope so too, I'm so sorry about the situation you've been put in."

"Do you think that I could maybe get your phone number? To call in case of an emergency?"

"I… uhh, I can't. It could reveal my identity."

"Oh, so how should I contact you?"

"Next time we meet I'll give you a burner phone."

"And that will be…?"

"Uh, tomorrow, after you leave your school I'll wait for you outside."

"What about when my father comes to pick me up?"

"Hm… How about I give it to a friend of yours? And they'll give it to you."

"Ok, thank you Ladybug. Thank you for everything."

"Do you want me to take y- oh wait, I can't take you home, he'd notice. I wish you the best of luck Adrien."

"Thank you."

Ladybug shot into the distance and Adrien froze for a second. He was shocked and scared. Most of what he was thinking was how he was going to have to face his father again, knowing who he truly is, and just ignoring it. But there was some part of him that couldn't stop thinking some silly little thing. I think that Ladybug is Marinette. He knew it was a ridiculous thought, but there was just something about the way she reacted to him, and the way that she acted as if she already knew him. Because she does… He had to stop thinking about this, these thoughts would be far too dangerous for the holder of the Black Cat miraculous to have, and even more dangerous for the son of Hawkmoth to be having. No matter what the truth was, he would just have to ignore it.

As Ladybug was going away, her head was full of millions of thoughts. She felt so horrible for Adrien, she really didn't have any idea what he was going through. She never would've been able to guess this. She thought that Adrien had just come to her because he was fed up with his dad's controlling parenting, not that his dad was a supervillain. There was something familiar about what Adrien was saying, though. The way he sounded when he voice broke, the inflection of his voice in general. He sounded just like Chat Noir did over the phone. But that would be impossible. There is no way, they're both too different. There isn't even enough data for me to assume this, really. Just because their voices sound similar when they're upset… and that Chat Noir called me in the middle of the night… that he somehow was contacted by Adrien that late… how he woke me up coming back to bed… NO! I can't think about this right now, I don't have time and it couldn't possibly be true. Adrien is a beautiful sweetheart and Chat Noir is a lovable idiot. End of discussion.

Now on to her plan. She de-transformed, and entered her house. Now that she knew who Hawkmoth was, it was almost harder for her to figure out how to beat him.

"Tikki, how are we going to do this?"

"Marinette, I really don't know."

"Right! Mr Agreste is so elusive, I guess I understand why now."

"It almost feels obvious if we look back at it now."

"Yeah, we thought he was spending all of his time protecting his son, but the one he was really protecting was himself."

"He was protecting Adrien too. Just protecting him from the truth…"

"Yeah." Marinette sat down, defeated. She placed her head in her hands. "God, Tikki, what are we going to do?" Tikki flew up to her face and cuddled it.

Adrien started to walk through the streets of Paris, making his way down to Marinette's house to tell her the change in his situation. He didn't want her to worry about him, especially if he didn't return. Something inside of him was saying that it wasn't necessary to tell her, that she knew already. But that wouldn't make any sense, he had to tell her just in case. He took a deep breath and walked into the bakery.

The noise startled Marinette, and she came downstairs.

"Hi Adrien! Why— I mean what's going on." She resisted the urge to ask him why he was there. She wasn't supposed to know yet.

"Hi Marinette… I think it's time for me to try to go back home."

"Oh, ok are you sure? You seemed pretty upset about it when you first came."

"Yeah, I have some unfinished business to deal with."

"Ok. If you ever need me I'll be here for you."

"Thank you."

He turned around and started to walk home. Adrien wandered the streets of Paris in a way that made it seem like he was lost. He was trying to stall his time before he had to face his father again. He was down the street from his house and froze. Am I really going to do this… I have to, I can't let Ladybug down, I can't let Paris down. He took a deep breath and walked forward slowly. His heart beating in his ears, his throat tensing up. He closed his eyes and prepared himself, he looked into the security camera. Nathalie saw him and opened the gates immediately.

"Adrien! We're so glad you're back. I will tell your father right now." She didn't know that Adrien knew about his father, and Adrien didn't know about her secret either. He was nervous, he wasn't sure how his father would react. If he would punish him, how he would punish him. He didn't know anything, and that made it so much more terrifying.

It felt like an eternity before his father came into the entrance. Emerging from the top of the stairs, standing above and looking down at him. He slowly walked down towards Adrien, no expression on his face as usual.

"I see you've decided to return. Good. I assume you haven't…" He walked closer to Adrien, right up to his ear and whispered. "Told anybody about me, have you?"

Adrien swore his father could hear his heartbeat. He swallowed and shuddered,

"No." A lie, obviously.

"I trust you, for now." Adrien's father turned around and walked back into his room. "I expect you to be in your room until further notice."

Adrien relaxed, and walked into his room. It felt unwelcoming, even though it was built just for him. A familiar cage is still a cage. Plagg flew out into the open and started to speak,

"Now I don't have to hide from Mar-" Adrien snatched him before he could finish. He whispered into his hands,

"Plagg, we don't know if he's bugged the place, I know you can't show up on camera, but who knows how else he could track us. He could be recording everything I'm doing. We have to be as careful as possible. I'm sorry, I don't want to risk what he would do to me." Plagg was upset, but he understood. Hawkmoth was already suspicious enough.

At the last class of the school day Adrien waited until there was only two minutes left in class to ask the teacher to go to the bathroom. He needed to leave fast enough and meet Ladybug before he had to get picked up to go back to his house. Marinette had already snuck out of the class earlier to transform, telling the teacher she had some class representative duties to attend to.

Adrien snuck out the front door of the school right as the end of the day bell rang. There Ladybug was, small phone in her hand.

"Thank you for meeting me, Ladybug."

"Here." She handed him the burner phone. "If you can, could you try looking around your house to see if there's any way me and Chat Noir could sneak in secretly? Or just find a time where it wouldn't be noticed if we snuck in. If we're going to attack Hawkmoth, we're going to need to make it a surprise. I haven't talked to Chat Noir in a while, but I know he'd agree with me. Call me if you have any ideas or need anything. I'm here for you."

"A sneak attack would definitely be the best way, but I'm not sure how feasible it would be. The house is really well patrolled. I'll try my best, Ladybug. I know you can take him down!"

"Thank you, Adrien. Stay safe." And with that, she flew off. Adrien turned around and his car was waiting. Now he just needed a plan.