Author's Notes:

Thanks to Kellarhi! This chapter is a BEAST, and she did a wonderful job keeping me focused.

Even with the early spring rains, it was easy enough to sneak along the rooftops. Yet, it was far harder to find access into the building since he knew from his legwork that there were cameras throughout the inside. At least his night vision had come in handy.

Scaling up to the top of Montparnasse, moving with all the stealth and grace he could muster… was a challenge in the daylight. But on a rain slick night, with the occasional bolt of lightning arcing across the skies? It was next to impawssible...

For now, at least her eyes wouldn't be on him… so it was easier to focus on the task at hand...

Alighting down onto the rooftop, Chat spotted some vents. It might be a problem to try and sneak down multiple floors, but there was far less security up there. After quick visual surveillance, he noted a couple of cameras… they seemed to be positioned just to make sure no one managed to hurt themselves.

After a some quick thought, he decided it would be easier to get to the elevator shaft and use the baton to work his way down... except, finding the right floor was already going to be a problem without that as an extra hassle. None of the security cameras he'd spotted were outfitted with any motion detecting devices to alert security, so the stairs would work just as well for now.

He usually knew just what he was looking for… this time, it was untried territory. The Eiffel Tower staff knew him well, and let him take whatever he needed.

But Montparnasse? If he went in as Adrien Agreste, he could probably make an argument… something about worrying over rabid fangirls. But there was no way they would leave him alone in that room. And with no way of knowing just what he was looking for? They couldn't afford for anyone else to see what they might need to hide…

There was no telling what was on that footage - apparently enough for Ladybug to have finally fallen for him - but since he had no clue what was there, there was no telling the danger.

As curious as he definitely was… the fear of what else might be there drove him all that much faster.

As much as he wanted his lady to be with him for operations like this, her plans were forward thinking. "The best defense was a great offense"… and to a degree, that worked. But she did enough leg work with her quick-thinking lucky charms... and he was the shield. It was his job to puzzle out vulnerabilities. And Hawkmoth had upset the apple cart with his increasingly intricate plans. Chat fully suspected that he was also reviewing all the footage that was broadcast live.

So, it was just a matter of time before he came to the same conclusion that Chat had.

From his previous forays, he'd discovered that Security Offices tended to be a bit closer to ground level, to strategically handle any problem or waylay any threat… but sometimes, they had more than one. Their tour of the tower - before Oblivio had started to run amok - had helped a little bit. At least he had some idea of where to start looking.

He'd spent most of the early evening sighing over every scrap of news footage, committing the little evidence there was to memory. He'd spotted Ladybug taking a hit as they'd tried to escape with the rooftop elevator, but after that, everything went "dark". He'd deduced that it had taken approximately an hour before they had both eventually reappeared on the roof to finish their battle.

For that much time to have passed, it meant that he had to have been protecting her… somehow. And for his efforts? A genuine kiss from the woman of his dreams.

Prior to disappearing down the elevator, he had been trying - and failing - to catch her eye on the rooftop. There was a certain irony - and mystery - that he'd finally figured out the trick to doing it… only to have no idea how he'd managed.

He continued down the stairs, winding through hallway after hallway checking doors and avoiding any obvious surveillance. There definitely could be a few security offices in a building this large… and with his night vision - and any security notes hiding behind the doorways Plagg was jail-breaking for access - he was confident that he'd be able to clear the tower of any potentially incriminating evidence.

It had only taken them about fifteen minutes to locate one of the security offices… and another ten or so to find where all the camera footage was being stored.

So by the time they had entered the security room, a plan of attack was mostly formulated in Chat Noir's mind.

He had the initial time of the elevator "escape" from Nadia's footage, and - thanks to metadata - the time of Alya's picture that was posted to the Ladyblog. So he had a time frame in which to search the clips, and decided he could start from the end of the fight and work backwards to recover any footage.

Although he knew he'd be able to get into the camera feed, any other security details were likely locked behind the building's computer infrastructure. Meaning, there was no good way to tell exactly where that elevator stopped after they'd disappeared from view. He'd have to move through camera footage around that time floor by floor from the top down to figure out which floor the elevator opened at… and then make chase from there...

Before sitting down to start scouring the video, he re-locked the door as Chat Noir... but it was Adrien who pulled a gloved hand away from the door handle. He always used a pair of gloves to keep from leaving fingerprints, and having Plagg as a second pair of eyes was immensely helpful. But this time, he wasn't sure that the extra help would be enough to comb through it all.

The amount of footage was staggering, and within minutes, it was clear that it would be hard to establish a baseline. He was used to a continual feed, which these recordings apparently didn't do - maybe due to the sheer amount that would be required to cover most of the building? And the timing of what they were reviewing was shaky, at best. Finally, he caught a mere glimpse of his civilian form disappearing down a hallway… just as Oblivio's eerie form took over the screen...

But from there, it was as if he just disappeared.

The best that he and Plagg could figure at this point was that there were some locations they wouldn't place cameras - certain offices, and restrooms - as a matter of privacy and courtesy.

The pair kept scrubbing minute by minute from different sections of security tape, but hadn't found any other hint of himself... or Ladybug for that matter. After twenty minutes of searching, the only indication he'd even been there in the tower seemed to be that sole clip where he was escaping from Oblivio. It was like they'd just vanished after entering the elevator.

His eyebrows rose in excitement when he finally spotted movement in a clip… and a large vent fell away from the duct in a wall. He watched himself climb out, waiting to see his Ladybug in red. He was baffled when it was Marinette Dupain Cheng who toppled over him as he'd lifted her out of the vent.

"Had she been hiding away in one of the offices after Oblivio was unleashed?" He mused aloud. "She must have been hit with one of Oblivio's beams… and I must not have wanted to leave her alone…"

"That assumes you remembered anything, kid…" Plagg snickered as they watched their slow progression down the stairs to the exit. "You were hit by that Akuma, too. While you were Chat Noir… which means you had to have de-transformed somewhere."

Adrien shrugged. "It isn't like I remember any of the things I forgot… as Chat or Adrien. But, I didn't leave her alone… even if it seems like I left Ladybug alone…"

"Ladybug can take care of herself." Plagg chuckled. "Besides, pigtails might have thought she was rescuing you… assuming she hadn't been hit herself..."

"Still, separating doesn't sound like one of Ladybug's plans…"

"Maybe you split up to evade the Akuma before you both de-transformed… with plans to meet back up somewhere? Especially if either of you needed to refuel."

"And then I ran into Marinette?" Deep golden brows arched high. "That is possible… I just wish this had sound. I might be able to puzzle out what was actually going on."

On the series of small screens, Kwami and holder watched as the pair raced back up the stairs a fair bit to the relative safety of a large, open office.

Adrien was smiling softly at Marinette's unschooled panic as they chattered openly - in such an easy manner that he was actually a little jealous at this other version of himself.

But her adorable antics weren't as… anxious... as they usually seemed to be.

It only made him worry more. Why was it that she was normally so uncomfortable around him?

She'd always seemed just fine around him as Chat Noir... except for the time that she'd suddenly confessed to having feelings for him. That had been a little awkward, but at least she'd understood that he couldn't exactly get over his hopeless crush on his partner in Akuma-fighting.

He knew how tough it could be, pining away when it was entirely uncertain that anything would come of it.

He watched as they eventually pulled out their phones to try to reach the outside world. His own reaction told him that he had probably called his Father… he was almost 100% certain after he saw there was no answer from the other end.

They'd paced around the room a little, Marinette gesticulating wildly… with a little more frenzy and fervor that added to the general anxiety he felt over what he might find…

Video Adrien mimicked the wild actions, only settling himself once Marinette had slumped back down against the flat surface of the support beam. He was somewhat relieved to see the same from himself on the monitor. He couldn't see her as well from this angle...at least not until she'd swung around to show him her own phone screen... but they were both clearly trying to plan, and looking over their phones...

Plagg just snorted aloud at the antics, muffling his grumbles into a bit of Camembert. "All these heart eyes you two keep sending at one another are making me struggle to keep this down, you know?"

Adrien just rolled his eyes. "You've never struggled to keep down cheese in your very long life…"

But he had very much doubted the words of his Kwami, at least until he saw Marinette's soft expression in return. He hated that the visual was dark and grainy.

Plagg was definitely more eagle eyed, a lilting sneer in his voice. "Aaaand… L-O-L. What is on her phone screen?"

As Adrien tried in vain to figure out what Plagg was seeing, the two on screen suddenly bolted over to the window. Oblivio stalked into the room shortly after that, and the last thing they saw in the clip was Marinette tugging an alarmed looking Adrien to safety. What sort of hero am I supposed to be?

Plagg froze, his ears visibly flattening against his head in the dim light of the monitors. "I take it back. That thing is super creepy up close… and especially without my powers to protect you."

"But I had to get out somehow… I wouldn't have made it to the rooftop otherwise."

"Maybe you got hit again?" Plagg mused, biting into another bit of cheese he'd pilfered from the pocket of Adrien's hoodie. They watched with some trepidation as the pair from hours ago plotted behind large desks. "I mean, there are worse powers an akuma could use… though I wonder what you might forget if you got hit a second time…"

Wide eyed, they witnessed the Akuma hefting entire workstations across the room in the apparent game of chase they'd been having. Adrien saw that he'd leaned down to whisper something to Marinette… but it was evident that she had already come up with some sort of plan of her own from the vantage point.

They appeared to be sitting in anxious silence as the Akuma drew ever closer. At least, until Marinette swiped his phone, rueful smile plain on her face.

Plagg snickered. "Yeah, I heard she was good at that…"

"Hmm?" Adrien peered back over his shoulder, taking his eyes away from the screen for the briefest moment. His own face was hard to see from this angle… and they could hardly see a thing already since the two on screen were still crouched down.

He could just barely see Marinette's pigtails as he watched himself creep away with her beneath the desks. It was freaking him out, leaving him all too worried that his friend was going to get caught. It felt like one of those jumpscare horror sequences. He shook his head, trying to stay focused on something - anything - that he could control. "It's funny, you know? Marinette's plan actually reminds me a lot of Ladybug. She doesn't go the most direct route very often… and it was really clever of Marinette to quickly come up with a distraction that would keep us safely out of sight."

The pair escaped Oblivio once more, by dashing into the stairwell.

Frowning, Adrien puzzled over the boards where the footage was playing, struggling yet again to get a visual of where he and Marinette were both in the stairwell.

Plagg just kept chuckling, steadily working his way through the stash of Camembert and bemoaning the lack of popcorn.

The trail continued with a single clip of Adrien running off into the stairwell without her.

Nervously wringing his hands as he watched the monitor, Adrien could barely blink- considering she was nowhere to be found, it really looked as if Oblivio had caught up to Marinette in the video. Why else would she have disappeared?

He knew that he got away - eventually - but was eager to find proof that Marinette did too. Despite the Miraculous cure, he always hated to see bad things happening to his friends. He was resolved to fight harder and keep them safe.

Plagg continued poring over the monitors as Adrien swapped a few of the feeds. Although they had yet to find the two classmates together in the stairwell, the original footage from before continued, and after Oblivio ran from the room, Adrien watched himself sneak back into the office from the stairwell with Marinette in tow.

Plagg's eyes narrowed as he watched the two just talking to each other. "Who are you guys calling now?" he asked, as he watched Marinette hold up her phone for a call over the speaker.

Adrien's eyes squinted as he tried to make out the details on the screen that Marinette was holding up. "No idea. Safe bet that it wouldn't be Nino or Alya… not with them already Akumatized." He tapped a gloved finger against his lips as he tipped back in the rolling chair. "She probably called her parents back. Maybe she was trying to find some way out… or someone to pick us both up?"

Meanwhile, on the screen, Marinette and Adrien were both freaking out a little bit, panicking as the Akuma clearly was up to something outside Montparnasse. It must have had to do the major orb Oblivio had generated. He'd only seen it from the news replays, and it hadn't been in the earliest reels...

Adrien shook his head, watching as Marinette wheeled around on the screen.

He hadn't had a clue why they both weren't running away, fleeing back to the lower floors at least.

Not until the soft glow of scarlet and pink started to flood the screen.

Adrien gaped, fingers digging into the arms of the rolling chair. It was impawsible for them not to.

He had only spotted the fleeting glow and her arms moving in the shadows before the camera angles switched. But there was no doubt in his mind what he was seeing. He'd seen his own hazy version himself on occasion in his bathroom mirror. But this time, even the grey toned screen couldn't mask the truth.

Marinette hadn't been separated from the class. At least not accidentally.

No, she had been pulled into all of this mess - from the very beginning. She had been the one hiding at his side, all along.

It was too much information, all at once, and his mind was reeling from the revelation. But as he watched himself on the screen, he couldn't help but notice that he wasn't even really reacting to the news. Why wasn't he reacting more? He must truly have lost his memory - the whole of it - when he took the hit from Oblivio. There was absolutely no way he'd forget how much just knowing who she was would mean to him. And he would never forget wanting to know her - not if there was any way for him to remember.

He didn't realize he'd spoken aloud until Plagg answered. "But you did. Otherwise we wouldn't be in this fix in the first place…"

Adrien paled. "I don't understand."

'Understand what?" Plagg's green eyes narrowed. "That she's Ladybug? I would have thought it happening in front of your eyes would finally erase that mystery…"

"Not that…" Adrien grimaced, standing as his hands bracketed the screen… searching for some elusive clue. "Well… not only that. Why am I not joining her? Clearly, she figured out how to transform… so why am I not transforming, too? No. I'm just standing there, beaming... like that was the most incredible thing to witness in my life."

And, in a way, his far more oblivious self wasn't wrong…

He sighed, pressing his forehead against the screen. He would have given anything to remember that soft smile directed at him… and not committed to electronic memory on a grainy camera that had to be at least a decade old.

At least the quality would make it hard for anyone else to make heads or tails of it. But he was definitely going to have to erase it all…

It was too risky even taking it home...

"If you're quite done being hopeless… at least we know for sure that you did transform… even if it took a few extra minutes." Plagg chided, puffing his chest up as he hovered valiantly over Adrien's shoulder. "I can only assume that I'm off trying to tail after the Akuma… and derail him from you. I can phase through walls after all…"

Adrien exhaled unevenly as he plopped back into the chair.

Ladybug - Marinette, he corrected mentally - looked puzzled, peering over her yo-yo as he hovered at her shoulder on the screen, screaming and scrambling back as she accidentally summoned her Lucky Charm.

In a way, it was like watching it all over again, right from the uncertainty at the beginning, when they were both just learning to battle together.

He'd almost gone complacent in his review when Ladybug scrambled all the way across the room, leaving his onscreen self to follow aimlessly, picking up a makeshift baton as he trailed in her wake.

It was only when he could spot those her pigtails - a clue that would probably haunt him for the rest of his days - that he felt the fullest weight of the realization land. If only she hadn't stopped him from looking all those months ago, he might have noticed her already standing beside him almost from the very beginning of their partnership...

Although he looked distraught on the series of screens, he was even more so in the current moment. Every fiber of his being screamed that even now he should be standing with her… beside her.

Those pangs of worry ebbed away once he noticed that Ladybug had grabbed his hand… lifting up ever so gently on her tiptoes before backing away, clearly smiling… and clearly on a mission.

It wasn't until he saw that his hand lingered at his cheek that he was sure...

"Oh gross!" Plagg whined. "Did she just give you another kiss?"

His gloved hand ghosted over his cheek. He didn't need sound… he knew exactly what he must have said as his past self stood dumbfounded in the vast, open office space before turning back out to see the massive memory orb darkening Paris's skies.

Those same words running through his head now…

She had kissed him… once to save him… and once when his own words had made her feel as appreciated without the mask as she was so often while behind it.

But this kiss? This one was freely given.

He still wasn't sure what he'd said - or what he'd done - to win her favor.

"Kid…" Plagg hissed softly, ears perked.

It wasn't loud… but it was enough.

He'd moved just in time, mere seconds before the door creaked open, allowing the night security guard to shine a light into the darkened room.

Chat Noir didn't dare to breathe - and barely dared to blink his eyes open when the light was turned in his general direction... where he had wedged himself up into the corner of the ceiling. His ears were perked at the ready, claws lingering over his baton in case he had to act quickly.

The chair he'd occupied still spun slightly, creaking as it turned. The guard hesitantly stepped in, the tentative but heavy footfalls of a clearly spooked man. The guard's grip would no doubt match his own, as it drifted back towards his weapon.

The screens were all clear as a beam from his flashlight cut across them… all but the one room, with desks overturned… and one teenager, standing in the middle of the mess, looking up at the sky.

The guard cursed, scowling and squinting at the corner of the screen before wheeling about and heading back out the door on a tear.

Glancing back down at the screen as the guard must have seen it, there was no doubt where he would inevitably be headed… and that he would come up empty handed and suspicious.

On the screen, he could see his earlier self already scrambling around the room, pulling together every spare scrap of tape and office supply he could find, to play at being a knight in corrugated cardboard.

Chat Noir grimaced... glowing green eyes reflected back from the curved display as he summoned his cataclysm, and crackles of darkness pulsed beneath his claws.

There was little doubt that his mission tonight would have to be cut short. He could only hope that this little string of luck would still hold. That he'd be able to hide or eliminate the damning amount of evidence that existed in this tower, and that it all really was being kept in just this room alone.

Otherwise, he'd already managed to do enough damage for one night… damage that not even Ladybug's miraculous magic could manage to erase.