It wasn't until they were most of the way back to St. Francis-Dupont that Adrien remembered one of the questions he'd wanted to ask Marinette when he ran over for lunch.

"So," he said, "Did you get a chance to talk to your parents about… us?"

Marinette blushed slightly. "Not yet," she admitted. "The bakery was really busy. I'll try and tell them over dinner."

"Same here," said Adrien. "Father was working through lunch, as usual. I did manage to get Natalie to lock him in for dinner, at least." He increased his smile to an outright grin, and added several tones' worth of whimsy to his voice. "So if I don't show up for classes tomorrow, you'll know that he doesn't approve of our relationship and decided to lock me away to protect me from gold-digging girlfriends like you."

"I really wish that sounded more absurd than it does," said Marinette with a grimace.

So do I, thought Adrien, though he kept his wince purely internal.

"Ah, don't worry," said Alya. "The jealous father locking away his child to deter suitors and the beloved having to sneak in and out to dodge the father's wrath is one of the oldest and most time-honored romantic plots. Though I'll admit, it's usually the girl who gets locked away. Having it be the boy will be a nice strike for gender equality."

"Thank you, Alya," said Marinette sarcastically. "That's very helpful."

"I aim to please!" replied Alya with a smirk.

"Now, if father does lock me away," said Adrien, allowing himself a smile of the sort he normally only used as Cat Noir, "do you think I should remain in my durance, or should I run away? I've gotten out twice, I can probably do it again. Though of course, that brings up the problem of where I should run away to. Marinette's would be the obvious choice, and I'm sure her parents would take me in, but it would also be the first place my father would look." He turned and flashed Alya a grin. "Alya, can I count on you if I need a hiding spot? I don't believe my father knows you beyond 'one of Adrien's classmates', so it should be safe enough."

Alya laughed. "Fine with me, but I can't guarantee the rest of the family. Mom and Dad are nice, but they don't have the Dupain-Cheng's…nerve would be the word, I guess. That determination to do the right thing, no matter what anyone else says or thinks. I don't know if they'd be willing to hide a fugitive, even one with a good reason. The little ones, on the other hand, would probably be willing to keep a secret, but they are only ten, and a tad excitable. Can't guarantee they wouldn't let something slip."

"I think we'd better table this discussion for the moment," said Adrien, gesturing to the nearby St. Francis-Dupont.

"Agreed," said Alya.

As she stepped into Miss Mendeliev's classroom, Marinette stopped in her tracks. Chloe and Sabrina had taken the seats Marinette and Alya usually occupied, right behind a rather uncomfortable-looking Nino.

Just like our first day, thought Marinette. Well, guess I'll have to try and face down Chloe again.

She drew in a deep breath, but before she could say anything, she was interrupted by the touch of Adrien's hand on her elbow. She turned to face him, and he shot her a very Cat Noir-ish wink and smile before hooking his elbow around hers and leading her into the room. For half a second, she had no idea what he was thinking, then it clicked.

Ah ha, clever kitty, she thought as the two of them slid into the seats Chloe and Sabrina had vacated. She glanced across the way to see Alya slip into Adrien's usual seat, next to Nino. Chloe looked absolutely bewildered, and for half a moment Marinette expected her to get back up and try and change seats again. But before she could, Miss Mendeliev spoke up.

"Good afternoon, class," she said, and to Marinette's relief Chloe subsided once again. "Now, today we will be covering…"

Marinette bit her lower lip and tried to focus. She already missed enough classes that she couldn't afford to zone out when she actually had managed to make it to class. But it was so hard to concentrate with Adrien right there! It had been bad enough when she was just sitting behind him, but now he was sitting right next to her, so close she could simply reach out and touch him. And worse, she now knew exactly how soft and tingly his lips felt against hers, exactly how right it felt to tangle her fingers into his hair and feel his fingers in hers…

"Miss Dupain-Cheng!"

Marinette jumped in her seat. "Yes, Mrs. Mendeliev?" she said.

"Would you care to answer the question on the blackboard? Just to show that you were following the lecture?"

"Of course, Mrs. Mendeliev," replied Marinette. She hadn't been, of course, but she'd managed to read ahead a bit, and it was a fairly simple problem. She climbed out of her seat, walked up to the blackboard, and began to write, narrating out loud as she went.

"Ok," she said. "Sixty-four grams of oxygen is four moles and sixty-four grams of hydrogen is sixty-four moles. Oxygen and hydrogen makes water, and that's H2O. So four…"

"Miss Bourgeois," interrupted Mrs. Mendeliev, "what on Earth do you think you are doing?"

Marinette spun round to see Chloe up out of her seat, striding across the room with an armful of books.

"Taking my proper seat, of course," said Chloe as she pushed Marinette's books onto the floor and dropped her own in their place. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

Adrien looked up and met Marinette's gaze, cocking his head slightly. Marinette shot a quick glance across the room. As she'd expected, Alya had her camera out and was recording the whole thing.

"Sorry Chloe," said Marinette, abandoning the half-finished problem on the blackboard to head back to her table and loom over Chloe. "But I believe that's my seat." As Marinette had expected, Chloe completely ignored her, instead walking her finger along the desk towards Adrien's arm. Adrien in turn leaned away, almost completely falling off his seat.

"Oh, and the answer's seventy-two grams of water and fifty-six grams of hydrogen gas," Marinette added over her shoulder. "Now seriously, Chloe. Get out of my seat."

"Aw, Adrikins, don't be shy," said Chloe, completely ignoring Marinette.

"Miss Bourgeois!" repeated Mrs Mendeliev. "Return to the seat you occupied at the start of this class at once, or I shall be forced to report you to Principal Damocles."

Chloe had started trying to scoot her stool sideways towards Adrien's, and completely ignored Mrs. Mendeliev.

"Fine," said Mrs. Mendeliev, and she turned for the door. Out of the corner of her eye, Marinette spotted Mrs. Mendeliev scoop something off her desk.

Uh oh. I think that was a voice recorder. So she's going to make sure her complaint is a matter of public record. I think things are about to blow up.

Marinette crossed her fingers, hoped fervently that a bit of her Ladybug luck would spill over into her civilian life, and darted around the table to bend over Adrien.

"What do we do?" she whispered.

"Just let it run," he whispered back. "I think it's out of our hands for the moment."

"Hey!" shouted Chloe. She leapt up out of her seat and tried to slap Marinette. Marinette ducked back to evade the slap, and Adrien slid sideways out of his seat and squeezed past Marinette.

For a long moment, the three of them contemplated each other. Marinette tried to keep her focus, but meeting Chloe's eyes, seeing that odd fey light alloyed with indignation in them, made her skin crawl. And of course having Adrien right there behind her, feeling his breath on the back of her neck and his hand resting on her shoulder, made her skin crawl in a far more pleasant, but equally distracting, fashion. Behind Chloe, Alya was still recording…

I hope she's not livestreaming this. That could be the last thing we need just now, with the situation this touchy.

… and Sabrina had just climbed out of her seat and scampered over to Chloe.

"Chloe?" she said, tapping Chloe on the shoulder. "Chloe, you need to sit down now, before Mrs. Mendeliev gets back."

"Not now, Sabrina," replied Chloe, without taking her gaze off Marinette. "Marinette, what do you think you're doing with my Adrikins?"

Marinette raised one hand and squeezed Adrien's hand where it rested on her shoulder, hoping he'd guess that she wanted him to take the lead here.

Adrien sighed, "Chloe, Marinette didn't do anything to me. I'm the one who started all this. All Marinette did was accept my advances."

Chloe stared blankly at the two of them for a moment. Then she smiled. It was not a happy smile. This was the smile that Chloe only produced when she was about to screw someone over dramatically.

"Well, Marinette," said Chloe, "I can understand the temptation, but I'm afraid I'm not one to share. Either you stop stalking my Adrikins, or I'll report you to the principal. You'll get suspended, maybe even expelled, and you won't be able to bother Adrien and me anymore anyway. So do yourself a favor and buzz off."

Adrien nudged Marinette in the side, and she slipped sideways to let him squeeze past her.

"Chloe," he said, his voice calm and level, heavy with sympathy. "I don't know how much of this is getting through to you, but if there's any part of you that is capable of understanding me right now, please believe me when I say that I can't let you do that. I do love you, of course. I probably always will. But it's not the same kind of love you have for me, or I have for Marinette. And no kind of love lets its subject spoil herself, not if it's true love."

He raised his left hand, the sapphire flashing in the light from the ceiling. "You can't make me love you the way you want, and I don't believe that you would want to if you were in your right mind. Marinette's my girlfriend now, not you. You can still be a part of my life, and I will never stop loving you, stop trying to do the best I can for you. But you need to accept that Marinette is my Lady. If you move right now, you might still have time to get back in your seat, your original seat, before Mrs. Mendeliev gets back. We can forget this ever happened, and everyone will be happy."

The pause that followed seemed to stretch on forever. With Adrien now standing in front of her, Marinette couldn't get a good look at Chloe and could only guess how much, if any, of Adrien's speech had gotten through to the blonde girl. For a brief moment, she allowed herself to hope that Chloe might break out of whatever madness had consumed her. Fighting Hawkmoth was exhausting enough, and she had no desire to have to fight Chloe as well. And this fate, to be trapped forever in delusion, was something she wouldn't wish even on her oldest enemy.

And then the door swung open and Mrs. Mendeliev stalked into the room, fury practically radiating off her.

Uh oh, Marinette thought, suddenly aware of the Ladybug Earrings in her ears. Almighty God, be with me now.

"Miss Bourgeois…" said Mrs. Mendeliev, then she sighed, the anger seeming to flow out of her. "Could you please take a seat? And Miss Dupain-Cheng and Mr. Agreste, the same to you? This is still supposed to be a classroom, and I would like to get through the lecture today."

"Of course," said Chloe chirpily, and she dropped back into her stolen seat. Having no idea what else to do, Marinette circled around the front of the desk to collect her things off the floor. Seeing motion out of the corner of her eye, she looked up to see Adrien, books and notes in hand, walk to the back of the room and drop into an empty seat next to Kim.

Heh, clever kitty, thought Marinette. She finished picking up her own things, and decided to claim the now-empty seat next to Sabrina. It wouldn't be the same as being next to her Kitten, but at least Chloe wouldn't be seated next to him either.

Besides, she thought as she dropped into her new space, this way I probably have a better chance of actually being able to pay attention to the lecture.

"Marinette?" whispered Sabrina, "Can we talk? Later this evening, maybe?"

"Of course!" whispered Marinette back.

"If I could have your attention, please?" said Mrs. Mendeliev, and Marinette obligingly focused on her teacher.

Looks like the danger is passed, she thought. Hawkmoth must not have been paying attention, and I don't think Mrs. Mendeliev is angry enough to be vulnerable anymore.

Thank you, Lord.

After classes let out for the day, Sabrina and Marinette paused on the sidewalk. To Sabrina's surprise, Alya joined them.

"What's she doing here?" asked Alya.

"I was about to ask the same thing," retorted Sabrina.

"Girls, calm down," said Marinette. "Sabrina, you're here about Chloe, right?"

Sabrina bit her lip. "…Yes," she admitted. "I don't know what happened, but she's been acting weird all day. You saw how she behaved in class, and the things she said to me at lunch didn't make any sense."

"Yes, we've noticed it as well," said Marinette. "Honestly, I don't know what happened to her either. But Adrien thinks that whatever it is, Chloe is going to need serious psychological help dealing with it. And I agree with him."

Sabrina flinched. "You really think it's that bad?" she asked, but she was afraid she already knew the answer.

"What do you think?" interjected Alya. "You know Chloe better than we do, and it sounds like you've seen more than we have."

Sabrina contemplated her shoes. "I don't know," she said. "I just don't know."

"Neither do we, not for sure," said Marinette. "But… well, I'm sure that I'm not sure, if that makes any sense. I'm sure that Chloe at least needs to speak to a psychiatrist, someone who can tell us whether there's something wrong with her."

"The problem," said Alya, "is that Mayor Bourgeois absolutely dotes on his daughter. He's not going to take it well if we suggest that she speak to a psychotherapist. So we're trying to gather so much evidence that he'll have to admit that something's up. Well, that and just waiting for Chloe to do something so spectacular her father can't sweep it under the rug."

"I… see," said Sabrina slowly. Then she nodded her head, her mind suddenly made up.

"Ok, I'm with you. So what's the plan?"

"That was the other thing I wanted to discuss," said Marinette. "I'm still leaning towards waiting and gathering information, at least for the moment. We still don't have anything more than circumstantial evidence, and we're going to need something pretty concrete to bring before Mayor Bourgeois. Plus, there's still the possibility that we're wrong about this, or that Chloe might snap out of it on her own."

"Agreed," said Alya. "I'll keep gathering the info, but I won't post it just yet. Though… we might want to let the Mayor know we have it. If Chloe goes through on her threats and tries to get her dad to sic the police on Marinette, we need to let him know that we've got proof and lots of witnesses that Marinette's not at fault here."

Marinette shook her head. "No, I don't think so. There will be time enough to use our evidence if we need it, and I don't think even Mayor Bourgeois is going to find it easy to bring a stalking complaint on Adrien's behalf when Adrien himself will refuse to cooperate. No point in starting fights we don't have to."

She turned to Sabrina. "Sabrina, you keep an eye on Chloe, and be there for her if she starts showing signs of lucidity."

"Will do!" said Sabrina, with a quick salute.

There were certain advantages to living in a bakery. For one thing, there was fresh bread with nearly every meal. Tonight, there was also turkey soup, with a chewy bread for dipping and a small salad. A good meal, one of Marinette's favorites. Perfect for discussing boyfriends over.

"Mom, Dad," said Marinette as soon as her father finished the blessing, "there's something I need to tell you about."

"Yes?" said her mother, looking worried.

"Um…" God, this was embarrassing. "You know Adrien Agreste? From school?"

"The boy you have a crush on?" said her father with a smile.

"Yeah, so… we'rekindofdatingnow," she finished in a rush.

There, got it out, she thought, taking a mouthful of soup.

"Dating?" said her father. "Really?"

"Is that where that ring came from?" added her mother.

Marinette nodded.

"How'd this happen? And do I need to give him the 'overprotective father' speech?" asked Marinette's father.

Marinette gulped down her mouthful of soup. "No!" she blurted out. "Please don't," she said. "Considering his father, there's a chance he'd actually take you seriously. I don't think I could stand losing him now."

Marinette's father raised his eyebrows. "Um… Ok?"

Marinette blushed. "Sorry," she said. "It's just… I've spent so long dreaming of this, that now that I have it I'm terrified of losing it."

There was a short pause, during which Marinette managed to get down a few more spoonfuls of soup.

"So when do we get to meet him properly?" asked Marinette's mother.

"I'm not sure," said Marinette. "His father's got him on a really tight schedule. Maybe I can bring him over for lunch or dinner someday? I can ask tomorrow."

As if on cue, the boulangerie phone rang. Marinette's mother rose to her feet and went over to take the call.

"Dupain-Cheng boulangerie, Sabine speaking," she said.

"Yes, Marinette just told us."

"I think… yes, Thursday should work."

"Half past six it is."

Marinette's mother put down the phone.

"That," she said, "was Gabriel Agreste. He would like to invite us over to dinner at his house at half-past-six on Thursday. Sounds like we have our answer."

Marinette tried to hide the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Dinner with Adrien's father. This is going to be… interesting.