I wanted to get this one up before Chat Blanc comes out, whenever that is. But that short description of the episode gave me an idea so I ran with it like a madwoman. Let me know what you think!

Set: This bounces back and forth between a few months after The Reveal (17/18 years old) and when they are 15/16.

She'd never have been able to tell anything was out of the ordinary. Except that he was more aggressive than usual. She was walking back towards the school with Alya after lunch when he dropped down in front of her. The landing startled them both, it was solid and hard, not the least bit catlike.

"Ladies," he purred, taking a step towards them.

Alya recovered first and smirked at him. "To what do we owe the pleasure of this surprise visit from one of the great saviors of Paris?" she asked, pulling her phone from her pocket.

"Just your enchanting presence, beautiful." He reached forward as he approached them and ran a finger beneath Alya's jaw. His eyes flicked over to Marinette. "Princess."

Marinette shook her head at that and let out a huff. "Chat Noir. Is there an akuma nearby?" Marinette asked, her fingers brushing along the side of her bag lying at her hip, but Tikki wasn't stirring like she would if there was trouble.

"He calls you Princess," Alya hissed to her, shooting her a glance while trying to keep her smile towards the hero before them.

"No, no Akuma," he drawled, spinning his baton. "Just me."

"Well, we're kind of in a hurry then," Marinette started, but froze when his expression darkened. Every alarm in her body flared at the same time and without thinking, she grabbed Alya's wrist.

"Girl, what?" Alya protested, trying to remove her hand from Marinette's. "Chat Noir wants to talk to us. You-know-who isn't even at school today."

"Everyone is in such a hurry to brush me off today," Chat murmured, taking a step towards them.

"Marinette," Alya pressed again, but whatever she'd been about to say vanished the minute Chat draped his arm across her shoulders. Her expression shifted into one of…Marinette could only call it admiration. Alya was staring up at Chat Noir and Marinette dropped her wrist and backed away.

"Alya's on my side, Marinette," Chat said slowly. "Come on." He held up a hand.

"You've been akumatized," she realized aloud. "Is…Chat, is Hawkmoth in your head?"

Chat flicked one of ears and grinned. "He's yelling at me back there somewhere."

"Chat, you can't give in! Whatever happened, you can't give him—"

"Give me some credit, Marinette," Chat rolled his eyes with a sigh. "He can't control me. He's just giving me the power to get the attention I deserve."

Her heart pounded in her chest, and she finally felt Tikki fluttering at her hip. She needed to get away from him, so she turned and bolted without another word. She could hear him move to follow her, but something Alya said stopped him. Marinette had never been more thankful for Alya's presence in a dangerous situation, but she knew deep down that Chat would never allow Alya to get hurt, akumatized or not.

"Tikki, this is horrible," Marinette said between gasps for air nearly five blocks away.

"As if today wasn't stressful enough," Tikki agreed, shooting out of the purse.

"What do I do?" Marinette cried, pacing. "How do I find the akuma on him? How is it even possible for him to get akumatized?"

"Slow down, everything will be okay, Marinette," Tikki soothed, flittering around until Marinette stood still. "Miraculous holders can still be akumatized because you still have feelings that Hawkmoth can manipulate."

"So, technically he can akumatize a dog," she guessed flatly.

"That wouldn't be the wisest, but yes."

"I can't fight Chat," Marinette whispered in horror after a few seconds of silence.

"Marinette, listen to me!" Tikki demanded, positioning herself between Marinette's eyes. "You must! If Hawkmoth gets his hands on the cat miraculous it would be even worse than having to fight him because Chat Noir wouldn't ever be able to help you again."

Marinette took a slow shaky breath. "You're right, Tikki," she nodded, thanking the small kwami before asking her to transform her.

-x-

They were sitting at a picnic table in the park for lunch. The weather was unusually nice for winter, even the tail end of it. February was always pock-marked with some warm days, but this as a t-shirt-and-nice-breeze kind. They welcomed it, celebrating their lunch break outdoors.

The last month or so since they'd found out about each other, Marinette had spent more time daydreaming, putting Adrien's face in place of Chat's and Chat's in Adrien's in her memories.

Like the first time she met Adrien, the first time she'd met Chat. Then embarrassing things like kissing Chat to break the akuma spell, and every other embarrassing thing she'd done. But now her mind was trying to uncover long forgotten memories of embarrassing things Chat had done that she could not pin Adrien's face to. The newest, wasn't so much embarrassing as it was interesting.

"You've been akumatized twice," Marinette mused aloud, completely wrapped up in her thoughts and the memory of it. Cheek resting in one hand, she took a bite of carrot, still staring off into the distance.

Whatever Adrien had been saying trailed off at Marinette's interruption.

"No he hasn't," Alya said with a frown, exchanging a glance with Nino before both turned to Adrien.

Marinette snapped back to reality and she glanced around at her friends' confused faces before settling on Adrien's ashen one. Her breath left her and her veins chilled at the realization of what she'd just said.

"He was Camera Man—"

"Still the stupidest name ever," Adrien grumbled, unfreezing and returning to his own packed lunch.

"—and that was it," Alya finished. She narrowed her eyes at Adrien. "Unless there's another time we don't know about."

"That you don't know about? Unlikely," he mumbled and Nino laughed.

"No, no, you're right," Marinette rambled, giggling nervously. "I was thinking of someone else. There's been so many…"

"Sure, girl, sure," Alya mumbled, unconvinced as she returned to her lunch.

Marinette hid her blush behind a napkin and she felt Adrien flick her thigh as Nino and Alya changed the subject. Her gaze lifted to meet his green eyes and her heart slowed a fraction beneath his comforting look. But she knew that look. It was a Chat Noir look. A look that told her silently that he knew what she was talking about, and she made a mental note to bring it up later that night during their Thursday night study session at her place.

-x-

They were lying on her bed, bodies tangled together like two puzzle pieces made only for each other. He had his arm beneath her head, bent and holding her to his side. One arm wrapped across his chest and a leg draped between his, she couldn't help but feel like they fit together perfectly. They had maybe ten minutes left before Adrien was due back under his father's watchful eye, and they'd finished the review a bit early.

"What happened that day?" Marinette asked quietly, finger lazily tracing the printed letters of the words emblazoned across his shirt. Her cheek was pressed into his chest, and she could hear his quiet breathing.

"What day?" he murmured.

She pulled away enough to look up at him, a little deflated when she noticed his eyes were shut. "The day Chat Noir was akumatized."

His chest swelled as he took a deep breath and let it out, but he didn't answer her.

"Adrien," she tried, poking his cheek. "Come to think of it, I think that's the only time someone was akumatized and didn't get dumb little name."

"Marinette," he sighed.

"Come on," she pouted, "it wasn't that bad, you didn't really cause much of a stir."

"I don't want you to feel bad," he mumbled, turning and planting a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Why?" Her heart flipped and she tried to push through the memory at double speed, but the fuzzy edges and the fact that it had been two years ago didn't help her in trying to remember specifics.

"It was my sixteenth birthday."

Marinette's heart sank.

-x-

"Nathalie?" Adrien called out, noticing the unusual setting in the dining room. His voice echoed faintly, the room completely empty. His eyes drifted to the long table, where only one setting was placed, and his heart sunk. He pressed his lips together and steeled himself as he approached and saw the note card sitting next to the plate of breakfast.

Running an errand for your father. The car will be waiting to take you to school. –N

His appetite abandoned him and soured his mood. Not only was his father absent on the morning of his sixteenth birthday, but so was Nathalie. What a great start, he thought bitterly. He had half a mind to grab the cheese cubes off the plate before heading back to his room.

"Excuse me, what is this?" Plagg demanded when he dropped the yellow cubes onto a plate next to the kwami.

"Deal with it," Adrian grunted before jamming all his books into his bag for school.

"I'm not equipped to deal with this," Plagg whined.

Adrien looked up to the doorway when Plagg flew past his hands and into his school bag.

"We have to leave early," Gorilla said. "I have to pick your father up this morning and take him to an appointment."

"Fantastic," he sighed before pulling on his shoes.

He thought his day would start to look up when reports starting hitting his phone as he ambled through the halls aimlessly about an akuma a couple blocks away. He quickly stowed his bag in his locker, transformed, and vaulted his way to where the reports indicated action.

"Fancy meeting you here," he said with a smirk as he landed next to a very irate looking Ladybug.

"You're late," she snapped.

Confusion took hold in him. "Got here as fast as I could, but maybe this guy could have helped me out a little." He studied the man hovering above the usual morning traffic, forcing cars to speed way beyond the safe limits.

"Everyone is in a hurry today," she sighed. "I don't have time for this."

"Well then, we should probably find a timely solution."

"Chat," she warned, uncrossing her arms and winding up her yo-yo.

Chat held up his hands in a placating gesture, but the fact that she wasn't humoring him in the slightest like usual was pushing his mood further south. "Okay, no need to get ticked off."

Ladybug rolled her eyes and dove off the ledge of the building towards the akuma. He pushed ahead of her to draw him attention while Ladybug did her thing figuring out where the akuma was.

"Did you know that six-thirty is the best time on a clock," he called out before beating his baton across the man's face like a bat. "Hand's down!"

"Chat Noir, focus," Ladybug yelled from somewhere behind him. "Help me figure this out so we can be done with this faster."

"Geez," he grumbled, all humor dropping from his face now. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're trying to get rid of me." He dodged an attack before glancing back at her.

"Chat, please."

"Must be something important." He lunge forward and caught the guy's wrist for half a beat, long enough to confirm his suspicions. "Wristwatch."

"This is the most important day of the year," she huffed, throwing out her yo-yo to wrap around the akuma's wrist.

"I'm not disagreeing with you, but—"

Ladybug took the risk of pulling herself towards the man as he reached out to attack her. Chat Noir leapt to intercede, but managed to only knock her out of the man's reach by a hair. Still, she just barely managed the rip the leather banded watch away.

"Chat Noir!" she snapped when she finished rolling across the grassy field they had been fighting in.

"What is wrong with you?" he asked, letting his baton slide back to its usual size before replacing it at his back. "That was stupid, Ladybug, hat would have happened if—"

"But it didn't," she mumbled, breaking the glass on the face. She did her thing, catching the blackened butterfly and purifying it quickly before setting off her cure.

"Ladybug—"

"Chat, please, not today."

Something in him snapped. "You nearly got yourself directly in the path of disaster, we are going to talk about that."

"I've got two minutes to get to class!" she cried angrily. "Two! I practiced this all night and it's already going wrong! I can't keep messing this up, Chat Noir. You don't understand, nothing else matters to me except…"

"Ladybug, I—"

"I just need a little less you right now, Chat Noir." She held up a hand and took a step away from him. And he watched her go, deflating.

Chat knew he was late to class ten minutes later. But what did it matter? No one had the time for him. So he stayed up on the roof as Chat Noir for as long as he could manage. He figured he'd go down into his classes with some bad excuse that no one would think twice about. But Plagg must have felt for him, because it was hours that he sat up there. And not a single minute made him feel any better. Chat Noir didn't even bat an eye when he saw the little butterfly coming for him.

"Chat Noir."

"Where are you, Hawkmoth?" Chat demanded, ignoring the voice suddenly speaking to him in his head.

"Nevermind that, Chat Noir."

"You going to try to make me tell you who I am?" he asked blandly, pulling his knees tighter to his chest.

"Of course not," Hawkmoth laughed. "The kwami prevent you from uttering your own name. Did you think it would be that easy? No. You're going to help me lure out Ladybug, then you're going to hand deliver both of your miraculous."

"Do you really think it's going to be that easy?" Chat mocked. He stood up. "What powers are you going to give me if I think about doing that for you?" He felt a tad bit vengeful, wanting to ruin Ladybug's day the way she helped to ruin his.

"I'm giving you the power to keep anyone's attention on you that you wish."

"Well, it'll entertain me at least," he grumbled, diving off the building and heading for the school. Lunch periods across the city varied between schools, but the general timing was the same. And he wasn't sure what school Ladybug attended, so he worked around the streets teasing as many girls as he could in an effort to draw her out. And the attention his powers gave him didn't hurt either.

To be honest, it was nice. Really nice. The attention he'd wanted all day. He'd never have had the guts to relish in the spotlight like this as his real self, he thought.

"You'll break eventually, Chat Noir," Hawkmoth murmured in the back of his mind, clearly amused. "They always do."

Chat grit his teeth and landed on his fit at the edge of a building. "We'll see. I'm still not giving you my miraculous." He looked down at the street, at the dozen or so girls following him from below. From the street on the other side of the building, he heard the telltale sound of a Marinette Panic Attack.

"What am I going to do?" she was practically yelling, no doubt to Alya. "What if he's sick? Or hurt? Even the teachers didn't know he was going to be out today."

The sound was soothing to him in a strange way. With little grace, he stepped off the side of the building ahead of the pair.

-x-

"Here, kitty, kitty," Ladybug crooned from a street light behind him, and Chat Noir stopped dead in his tracks to glance over his shoulder. "Looking for me?"

"Hardly," he laughed, and the sound sent chills down her spine. "Sorry, Ladybug, I was under the impression you were a bit busy today. I found some new people to hang out with." He swung his arm wide, gesturing to the dozens of people swarming around him.

He froze for a second, and Ladybug could see his eyes dull. Long enough for her to realize Hawkmoth was talking to him.

"Chat Noir, please," she begged. "Don't listen to him."

He blinked and returned, his eyes landing back on her. He bent an arm back over his head and tossed his baton at her like a throwing knife. It was a distraction, she realized too late. When she'd turned to dodge, her eyes following the movement, he'd sprung up towards her and landed a solid punch to her shoulder.

"Time to put this feral kitty down," she grunted, sitting up from where she'd landed.

"Aw, you wouldn't hurt me, would you Bugaboo?" For a second she could see her partner in this man standing before her. That lopsided grin and the way his tail flicked behind him. But the look soured and now he was sneering down at her. "I always knew this friendship was a little one sided."

Ladybug leapt up and retreated to try and figure out a game plan, and it quickly turned into a game of cat and mouse…

Five whole minutes and not a single pun or nickname. It kind of made it easier to pretend that it wasn't her Chat, but there was always that shred of reality that told her she knew better. "There's only a few places the Akuma could be, our costumes don't exactly have pockets," she grumbled, then paused. "You know what? He's a guy. I'll bet he has pockets…"

She flipped back away from him quickly, but stayed close enough to really look him over. The ears, the belt, his bell at his neck, or his baton. Slim pickings, really, but enough to be time consuming going through them all. And what if none of them held the akuma? She'd worry about that if that was the case…

First item—Ladybug threw out her yoyo and snatched Chat's baton from his grasp as it was shirking back into his hand. He get a yelp as he hit the ground roughly and the smooth metal snapped into her hand. She waste no time gripping it with two hands and slamming it down across her thigh to break it.

"Oh, god, why—that was so dumb," she grunted before tossing the offending metal bar as far away from them as she could. Still intact, she rubbed at the bruise surely forming beneath her suit. Hopefully that wasn't holding the akuma, because she'd need a better plan to break it.

"I think I would have been really upset if you broke my baton for nothing," Chat called down the street to her angrily.

"Well, this would be easier if you just told me where the akuma was," she tried sweetly, sauntering up to him casually. The bell would be next, she decided as she approached him. It would be easy metal to bend, and if she was wrong, the ears would be an easy second target.

She reached forward as quickly as she could and gripped the metal of the bell in her hand just as his hands landed on both her forearms. She let out a loud breath when nothing happened to her, but Chat froze. Ladybug opened her hand and let the twisted metal lump drop to the ground as a little black butterfly flittered away.

"Ladybug?" Chat breathed, confusion all over his face. "I thought you were in a hurry to be somewhere."

"In a minute," she mumbled, turning away to cleanse the akuma. She missed the way Chat's face fell at her words, though. He turned on his heel and headed in the opposite direction of Ladybug, trying to catch his breath and collect his memories.

His breath left him in a burst as Ladybug slammed into him from behind, and his feet lifted off the ground. She swung them up to the top of a nearby building, letting him free from her arms as soon as their feet were back on the ground.

"Alright, Kitty," she said, letting her yo-yo snap back into her grasp. "Tell me what happened."

-x-

"I'm sorry I played a part in that…" Marinette whispered when he didn't speak again. Why did he need to retell that particular part? She already knew.

"You didn't know."

She wrapped her arms tighter around his chest and pressed her cheek into his collarbone, tilting her head back enough to kiss his throat. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright." He sighed and ran a hand down her arm.

"I don't even remember any of that." She sounded slightly horrified. "I remember rushing that morning, and getting to class and you weren't there. And then of course fighting Chat, but I don't remember saying…I'm horrible."

"No, you're not," he murmured. "I think sometimes people just need to take a minute and realize the effect they have on others, whether it's significant to you or not. Whether intentional or not. Small things can make big waves in the lives of other people." He pushed back so he was leaning up against her headboard looking down at her, brushing a few strands of hair off her forehead. "I shouldn't have taken everything so personally." She hummed a sound of vague disagreement and turned her head away from him to glance down at the foot of the bed where the kwami were snuggling.

"I just wish I could go back…"

"You saved that day more as Marinette than as Ladybug, you know."

Marinette sat up, an almost angry questioning look on her face, and Adrien couldn't help the chuckle that passed his lips. "What did I o?" she demanded a little louder and shriller than she'd intended.

He tapped her nose with a smirk.

-x-

"Marinette?"

The dark haired girl jumped at the familiar voice, the quick unanticipated motion making her knock her head into the bricks she was sitting against. "Adrien!" she laughed nervously as she scrambled to get to her feet and brush the dust off her jeans.

"What are you doing here so late?"

Marinette noted the look on his face. He wasn't frowning, but he didn't look as friendly as usual, like he'd had a rough day. "You weren't at school today and I made you a gift and I wanted to make sure you got it an—" she rambled, holding out the small wrapped gift. She hesitated when he didn't immediately reach out for it. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?"

She pulled the gift back to her chest as she realized. She'd learned a long time ago that his father was distant, but it was only over the past year or so that she'd learned just how much. So she didn't ask how his day was or where he'd been instead of school.

With a boldness she could only attribute to that tiny part of Marinette that was always Ladybug, she reached forward with her empty hand and grabbed one of his. "Do you want to come have dinner with me?"

Realization as his eyes widened, she felt her own face warm and she wanted to die. "I-I-I mean with Alya and me and Alya and—" she stammered, dropping his hand like it was on fire. She took a breath like Alya had coached her—she'd been trying to help her get over the stammering. "Alya and I," she tried again slowly, focusing on the mailbox next to them, "were going to have a girls' night. We're going to that little bistro along the Seine. It's new and we've never been." Her eyes turned back to Adrien's, so bright and green even in the dim light from the setting sun. "I think you should come and we can celebrate your birthday instead!"

Adrien only blinked at her, and she bit her tongue against wanting to ask if he'd had other plans instead. She studied his jaw, much more defined and sharper than it had been two years ago when they'd met. His cheeks losing the baby fat that had lingered through the tail end of puberty.

"You don't have to," she said finally with a forced grin. "But I' really like it if you'd come."

"You don't mind me crashing your girls' night?" he asked hesitantly, a shyness that had Marinette's heart skipping in her chest.

"You—you're not crashing if I'm inviting you, which I am," she began to babble, "and it would be way more worthy to make this a celebration than just a girls' night."

"Okay," Adrien breathed with a nod. "I'll come. If you really don't mind."

His fourteenth birthday had been a disaster, his fifteenth had been low-key but at least Nathalie and his father hadn't forgotten. He'd snuck out for dinner with Nino, but this…this had him actually excited.

"I don't mind at all!" Marinette chirped, picking her shoulder bag up off the concrete.

"How long were you waiting here?" he asked quietly as she positioned it against her hip.

"Not long," she laughed nervously. "I just wanted to hand deliver my present to you, and the lady on the other side of the intercom wouldn't tell me where you were or when you'd be back." She frowned.

"She didn't know where I was," he scoffed automatically in a bitter display Marinette had never seen from Adrien. He caught himself, and she saw a blush dust his cheeks. It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen on him and she found herself unable to think of anything else. "I decided to skip school and celebrate my birthday on my own today."

"Understandable," she choked out, clearing her throat and pointing down the road. "This way."

It was a quiet walk to the bakery, and Adrien was afraid Marinette was regretting her decision to invite him. He had planned to spend the evening in his room sulking and ignoring Plagg until the day was completed and over. He deserved at least that much on his birthday, regardless of his age and especially if those closest to him had forgotten entirely.

But…

They didn't, he realized, feeling all the negative emotions he'd been suppressing since the akumatization vanish. Marinette had remembered. And she'd gotten him a gift. And waited outside his house just to give it to him in person.

Marinette shot a quick glance in her peripherals at Adrien, who was silently staring dead ahead of them as they walk, and noticed his cheeks reddening again. She pressed her lips together and stared down at her shoes.

"Did you enjoy your day away from school?" Marinette asked, immediately wanting to kick herself. The look on his face when he'd found her sitting at his mailbox—of course he'd had a bad day.

"No," he answered honestly despite the lie he'd been planning to tell.

Marinette smile softly, pushing open the door to the bakery. "Well, let's fix that, okay?"

She led them both inside.

"Papa!" she called, ignoring Alya sitting on a stool behind the counter. She hopped p when she saw Marinette escorting Adrien inside.

"Hey, Alya," Adrien greeted with a shy smile and a small wave.

Marinette ignored Alya's suggestive grin as Marinette passed through the bakery into the kitchen in the back to find her father.

"How was your day, sweetie?" he greeted, kissing her on the top of her head.

"I have a favor to ask," she replied instead.

-x-

"That was still, to this day, the best cake I'd ever gotten for my birthday," Adrien grinned.

"But—but—" Marinette spluttered, scooting off the bed and accidentally knocking both kwami off the bed in her frantic escape.

"Excuse you!" Plagg cried. "Tikki, your user is so rude."

"I didn't even do anything!" Marinette cried, ignoring the kwami entirely. "Papa made you the cake, Alya called Nino so that he could join us after dinner. I just got you a lame book of poems. Who does that?"

Adrien swung his legs over the side of her bed and began putting his shoes back on. "Someone who knew me very well and knew I liked poetry," he supplied. "I still have that book, you know. My mom had a copy growing up and we would read it together. I still don't know how you knew."

"I didn't," Marinette said flatly. "It was luck."

Adrien stood and placed his hands on her shoulders. "It wasn't luck that you showed up literally at my doorstep on probably one of the worst days of the year, or that you invited me out to dinner to help salvage my birthday. That was the greatest gift."

"I still think it as the Camembert cheese bread she gave you last year," Plagg interrupted, flying up to Adrien's face. Adrien simply rolled his eyes and nudged Plagg away.

"Okay, that one was luck."

Marinette dropped her face into her hands in realization. "No," she groaned. "That one was Nino. He said he could smell it on you, I figured it was your favorite."

"No." Adrien laughed and pulled her into his arms.

"You kissed me on the cheek when you left," Marinette remembered suddenly, pulling away enough to look up at him. "I was on a cloud for days."

Adrien grinned. "Least I could do to thank you. Like I said, Marinette saved that day for me. I did get in trouble pretty harshly with Nathalie that night when I got home."

"Really?"

"Well, she tried at least. She dropped all her threats when I reminded her it was my birthday. Father never found out. She hasn't forgotten since."

"Well," Marinette sign before a small smile took over her face. "I'm glad I could do something."

"You always do, Princess," he murmured before kissing her cheek, hands dropping to her waist. "You always have the best ideas right when you need them. It's one of my favorite things about you."

Marinette couldn't resist the blush, but stood on her toes to kiss him anyways.