AN: Yesterday I finished the first draft for the story that I'm publishing after this one. It takes place after "Tit for Tat" and focuses on Alya and Nino, particularly Alya playing detective (I have about 3 different "Detective Alya" stories planned…). So there won't be a long wait after this story finishes before the next one starts up! But this chapter is just the one-third mark…

To The Keeper of Worlds: Hopefully by the end of this story, they will have answered that question…

To Toshiro of the Eternal Dream: Thanks! It's not that I disliked the chapter or anything in it. I actually really liked the bromance with Adrien and Nino, but didn't want the story to drag in the beginning. The reason the opening felt so weak was more than just the 1 chapter; I just wasn't sure if that chapter really fit the new plan. And I love getting suggestions, but I don't use them unless it's something I'm comfortable with and want to use. For example, the second story to come after this one was inspired by a reader suggestion, though the story itself is mine.

"Hi, Marinette," Adrien called as she crossed the school entryway toward him, a bakery bag in her hand. "How are you this morning?"

"Hello, Adrien," Marinette replied stiffly, leading him to a corner away from the other students. She handed him the bag, and he smelled the sweet aroma of fresh croissants. "Mama sent a care package for you. She feels bad that you've had to rely on Mme Lenoir's cooking this week."

"Will you thank her for me?"

"I will." Marinette nodded and stepped back. The silence grew between them.

"Marinette –"

"I'm not angry at you, Adrien," she interrupted. "I'm not – not anymore, at least. But I can't forget what happened, either. I can't get the image of that store exploding out of my mind. When I close my eyes, I still see those robbers' bloody faces." Adrien opened his mouth to protest, but she held up a hand to stop him. "I know they hurt me. I know you wanted to protect me. I know maybe they deserved what they got. But I can't forget that you were the one to do it. I can't forget that I was the reason you did it."

Adrien sighed. Her silence toward him had made this his worst week in a long time. Even though he had his friends – Nino had stayed at the mansion with him every night that week – he felt a gaping hole in his life where the two most important people in his life, his partners, Ladybug and Marinette, should have been. "I'm sorry."

Marinette nodded. Her still expression broke just slightly and her lip quivered on the verge of tears. She opened her mouth as if to say something more to him, but immediately turned on her heel and marched across the entryway to where Alya was waiting for her. Alya wrapped an arm around Marinette's shoulder and gave Adrien a regretful look. Adrien turned to head down the corridor to his first class. As he went he reached into the bag and pulled out a cheese pastry as well as a wedge of Camembert. He slipped the cheese into his pocket for Plagg while he bit into the pastry.

"Adrikins! Hold up!" He heard the familiar voice shout behind him and groaned inwardly at hearing the nickname. He'd been dreading Chloe's reaction ever since news of his semi-breakup with Marinette spread through the school the day after it had happened – almost as much as he had been dreading Lila's. Fortunately, Lila had not approached him once that week; he suspected Kagami might have something to do with that.

"Hi, Chloe," Adrien called, glancing back to see Chloe approaching. Uncharacteristically, she was alone; Sabrina was waiting by the door, near Rose and Juleka. Adrien stopped to wait for her to reach him.

"Hey, I haven't seen you in forever!" Chloe said, giving him a quick hug and peck on the cheek. "I miss having all our classes together! And" she dropped her voice so he had to strain to hear "I miss spending the whole summer with you guys."

Adrien forced himself to smile. "Sorry, Chlo, I've meant to call, but I've been busy this week. The new spring lineup needs to go into production by Monday, and the factory is trying to renegotiate at the last minute."

"And I'm sure this has nothing to do with your favorite designer?" Chloe raised an eyebrow at him pointedly.

"That's got nothing to do with it!" Adrien protested. "Marinette's still coming in. She's still completing in her designs! Her part at the fashion house is fine. It's just me that she has a problem with." He stopped, face burning, as Chloe gave him an appraising look.

"I'm sure," was all Chloe said for a moment. Then she smiled at him a little too cheerfully and said, "It's been too long. We need to catch up. Tell you what, why don't we stop in for coffee at the café across the street after school? We can catch up there!"

"Um, I don't—"

Chloe giggled. "I'm not asking you on a date, Adrien. I'm not interested in being your rebound or anything like that. It's coffee. As friends. We're still friends, aren't we?"

Adrien let out a breath. As helpful as it was to talk to Nino, he did need a girl's perspective on this, too – someone other than Alya. And since it directly involved Ladybug and Cat Noir, the number of remaining options at the moment was exactly one. "Yeah, we can get coffee after school," he finally agreed. "It'll be good to catch up."

"Excellent!" Chloe beamed. "I'll meet you at the front door after classes!"

"What was that about?" Nino asked, coming up behind Adrien as Chloe disappeared around the corner.

"I'm not sure," Adrien replied, still looking at the corner where Chloe had gone. "I… guess I'm getting coffee with Chloe after school."

"Huh," Nino observed. "Sounds exciting, dude. Loads more exciting than the skateboarding we were going to do!"

Adrien slapped his forehead. "Sorry, Nino. I completely forgot about that."

"Don't worry about it," Nino told him, grinning and slapping his back. "You enjoy your coffee; I'll hang with Ivan and Kim."

After his final class, Adrien packed his books away and hurried out of the room. In the entrance hall he caught sight of Chloe standing by the door and walked over to her. Marinette and Alya walked past him. Although he felt Marinette's eyes on him, she didn't turn her head in his direction; Alya gave him a sympathetic smile as they left the school together.

"Adrien!" Chloe greeted him, giving him a peck on the cheek. "I've missed hanging out with you over the summer. We need to correct that!"

"Oh, um, yeah, I-I would like that, Chloe," Adrien managed as Chloe grabbed onto his arm and steered him out of the school and down the steps. Chloe turned to the left and walked down the street, past a group of businesswomen walking in the opposite direction. They eyed the two teens as they passed, and one gave them a smile.

Adrien held the door open for Chloe to enter first, and she led him up to the counter, where they both ordered their drinks. Although Adrien offered to pay, Chloe simply laughed in his face and pulled money out of her purse to cover both their drinks.

"Well, where should we sit?" Adrien asked, gesturing toward the crowded seating area. "It doesn't look like there are too many empty tables."

"Hmm…" Chloe thought. "How about… ah! Come on, follow me."

Chloe led him toward the far corner of the room, edging their way past the other patrons, blocking his view of the table she was leading him toward. Adrien noticed a couple empty tables on the way, but Chloe ignored them. He still couldn't see exactly where she was leading him, but hurried to keep up.

"Here we are!" Chloe called. Adrien peeked around her, but the table she indicated was not empty. Of the four chairs, two were already occupied – by Alya and Marinette.

Chloe pushed Adrien into the seat across from Marinette while she herself claimed the final empty chair, across from Alya and with Adrien and Marinette to either side of her. Adrien's eyes went wide. Apparently Chloe didn't want to just "catch up" with him. Alya grimaced ruefully.

"Chloe? Adrien?" Marinette squeaked in surprise, eyes wide. "What–?"

"Sorry," Alya replied, patting Marinette's hand. "Chloe here thought it would be a good idea for the two of you to sit down and talk after everything that happened last week."

Chloe scowled at her. "What Alya meant to say is that we both know how difficult this whole ordeal – this whole week, even – has been on both of you, and we wanted to help you work through it. Mend fences, maybe."

Adrien looked at her in surprise. When had Chloe taken such an interest in his relationship with Marinette? What made her think it was her business in the first place? A glance across the table showed him that Marinette was thinking the same thing.

"Look," Chloe went on, "I know it's not my place to tell you how to live your lives. You need to figure this out on your own. But this is bigger than just the two of you. Everyone is being affected by it. Sabrina has had trouble concentrated in school all week because of the emotions she's been picking up from you both."

"Mylène was close to tears while we were on patrol last week, and she doesn't even know the connection between Ladybug and Cat Noir's issues this week and your breakup," Alya admitted.

"And Ryoku asked me which of you I thought she needed to beat some sense into with the flat of her sword last night!" Chloe added. "Face it, guys: your falling out is hurting the rest of the team. You need to figure it out, or the team might collapse.

"But even more than that, you are both our friends, and we want what's best for you. Marinette, sweetie, I know I haven't always been nice to you, but I want to see you happy. And you haven't looked happy since before this happened. He thought he had just lost you, and he lashed out. He did what he did because he cares about you. It's not what you wanted, but can't you find it in you to see it for what it is, forgive him, and move on?"

Marinette opened her mouth to respond, but Chloe didn't wait for her response before she turned to face Adrien. He met her gaze without flinching. "Adrien, Adrien, Adrien. Where to start? You're my oldest friend, I love you to death, but what were you thinking? You nearly killed those men and for what? Because you thought they might have killed Marinette. How many times have we gotten hit doing what we do? How many more times will it happen? We already know the suits are impervious to all but miraculous weapons, so unless they're melting down miraculous to make bullets, bullets can't kill us!"

"Maybe not, but they sure sting," Marinette muttered under her breath.

Chloe ignored her as she continued. "Now, do you want Marinette to give up being Ladybug so she never gets hurt again? Don't tell me you haven't thought about it in the last week." Adrien was silent. "You can ask her all you want, but if she did give it up because you were scared, would she still be the same girl you fell in love with, the same girl that all of Paris looks up to?"

"No, I guess not," Adrien replied, studying the pattern on the tablecloth.

"Of course not! And as for your actions, do you really think that's what Marinette wanted?" Chloe asked him, pulling his gaze back up to her. "Because I can tell you: the Ladybug we all adore would rather be hurt herself than see one person harmed because of her.

"I know you don't want to hear all of this, so Alya and I are going to leave you two to talk it over together." Chloe stood up, nodding for Alya to do the same. "You have three choices here: you can talk it out and reconcile. You can make out until you forget all of this ever happened. Or, if it would suit you better, suit up and go a few rounds. Whichever way you choose, you need to work this out because you're both miserable, and we can't have a miserable Ladybug and Cat Noir who aren't speaking to each other as the leaders of the Heroes of Paris. So we'll be waiting outside, and you'd better come out together and smiling. Because if not–" she glared at them "–I have a Venom with your name on it! Bye!"

After Alya and Chloe left the table, Adrien stared after them for another minute while his mind tried to process what had just happened. Finally he looked over at Marinette, who was looking at him with an unreadable expression on her face. He narrowed his eyes in a question; after the years of their partnership, she was usually an open book to him, but not this time. She didn't respond. Finally he broke the silence. "Well, that was something else. Chloe usually means well. But I didn't think Chloe had something so… caring, I guess?… in her. I'm sorry they ambushed you like this."

Marinette let out a breath and caught his hand with her own. Adrien jumped at the contact. He squirmed as she made eye contact. "Adrien… we do need to talk. I'm sorry for avoiding you this week. And I do know how much you care for me; believe me, I feel the same way! I've been miserable this week, and I know you have, too. I don't want us to be like this. But I need you to promise me that you won't kill someone just because I get hurt."

Adrien had just opened his mouth to respond when a new voice cut in from across the room.

"Yeah, that's not happening, honey."

Adrien and Marinette whipped around to see who had just spoken. Adrien recognized her as the woman who had passed him on the street outside the coffee shop, but now he looked closer. His jaw dropped open in shock. Her blond hair was in a pixie cut and streaked with grey. She wore a modest professional suit. Wrinkles creased her face. A long scar ran from her forehead all the way to her jaw line. She limped as she strode across the room and fell into one of the empty chairs at the table. And yet she had the same eyes and mouth, the same expression and mannerisms. It was –

"Chloe?" Marinette whispered.

"Hi, Mar," Chloe said. "I need your help."