Gabriel Agreste's glass of wine dropped from his hand, and stained the carpet. He stood alone in a room, in a state he very seldom found himself: complete and utter shock.

It wasn't possible. It just wasn't possible.

He had called the akuma to wreak some havoc, cause some destruction. There would be some loss of life and property and then it would be dismissed, like Godzilla into the ocean. He had planned to wait another day or two and then call another, just to test the waters. Maybe number two would be challenged, maybe she wouldn't.

The third had been when he had planned for them to show up. They'd outplayed him by nearly a week.

He began to pace furiously around the room, stomping out a maniac pattern on the carpet of his ludicrously expensive hotel room. He hadn't even been watching through the akuma this time. He had

just seen the flash of red, and then felt the avatar missing, stolen away by some miraculous force.

Spinning, he turned on the television to a news channel. Sure enough, there they were. Attractive Americans were busy extolling the virtues of and speculating on what Paris' heroes could possibly be doing in New York. It was a little bit of a rocky start at first, John, but then with this just amazing aerial stunt they really brought it home, and there's even some speculation from fans that when they were in the air they might have ki-

Gabriel turned off the channel, and threw the remote into the television. Then he flipped the television.

He'd have to pay for that.

Gabriel ran a hand over his face and tried to come up with any plausible explanation of what Ladybug and Chat Noir were doing so far away from home.

Could they teleport? No, that was ludicrous. He would have seen that ability manifest well before this.

Did they know his identity? Could they track him? Had they even come with him?

Could they even be on Adrien's insipid class trip?

No, they could never have deceived him for so long. The plane. They must have come on the plane.

Gabriel picked up the phone and called Nathalie. "Give me the manifest of the Air France flight we came here on. Passengers and crew. I don't care what you have to do to get it."

He hung up without awaiting a response.

Gabriel righted the television, ran a hand over his hair, and looked out of his window.

He hated this ugly city.

Stepping out of the bakery, Marinette felt better than she had in years. She'd managed to up-end half the box of cookies into her purse for Tikki, and heard the kwami happily eating happily away at her much-deserved sustenance.

Marinette, for her part, couldn't stop grinning. She felt like an idiot, walking through Manhattan, radiating happiness like she'd just won the lottery.

"Do you want to talk?" Tikki asked, in between a mouthful of cookies.

Marinette thought, then nodded, removing her cellphone and holding it out before her mouth. Speakerphone. Worked every time in public.

"I uh... yeah," Marinette nodded. "Sure. What's up?"

"How are you feeling?"

Perfect.

"I'm good! I think I'm good. Better."

Tikki munched excitedly. "Is there anything... you want to talk about?"

Marinette giggled. She lowered her voice and brought the phone closer to her lips. "I... I kissed him, Tikki."

"You kissed him twice!" Tikki exploded from her pocketbook. Marinette heard the small sounds of applause down below, and couldn't suppress another laugh. "It was so romantic, Marinette!"

Marinette flushed, "I meannn I guezzzzit waaaass a little romantic-"

"Over the island, too! Oh, and with the ocean and the statue?! I was so happy for you!"

Glancing down, Marinette grinned at Tikki in her bag. The little kwami's elation shined out of the bag like a flashlight.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Marinette said conspiratorially. Tikki nodded eagerly in anticipation. Marinette brought her purse up to her face, and whispered directly into it: "I really want to do it again."

Tikki flew happily in a little circle, making unintelligible sounds of joy. Marinette cleared her throat, let her bag drop to her side, and resumed pretending with the phone.

"It's insane that he was here though, right? I mean what are the odds?" Marinette shook her head, still absolutely dumbfounded by the coincidence. She had always inherently known that when she was in Paris, Chat Noir had her back, but all the way across the ocean? It boggled the mind.

That stupid cat really knows how to spoil a girl. Marinette suppressed another laugh of happiness that threatened to boil out of her mouth. She had to stop laughing. Someone was gonna arrest her soon.

"But for real, though," Marinette asked. "What do you think he's doing in New York?"

A curious, cookie-filled silence.

"Tikki?"

Marinette glanced down into the bag, and saw Tikki worrying coyly on a cookie. The kwami shrugged.

The realization shot through Marinette like a lightning bolt from Zeus.

No!

She grabbed the edges of her bag, disregarding her act entirely.

"You know who he is?!" Marinette was aghast. Tikki finished chewing and tilted her head guiltily.

"I um... I have my suspicio-"

"You. Know. Who. He. IS!"

Tikki swallowed heavily and shot Marinette a strict look. "Marinette, we're in public..."

She resumed with the stupid phone gag, her eyes wide with the realization. The eyes probably helped to sell 'Crazy French Girl' to the handful of New Yorkers that had started to stare, but Marinette was well beyond charades. She tried to get her breathing back under control.

"I can't believe this..."

"Look," the voice from her bag continued, more softly. "A long time ago, you and Chat Noir made a mutual agreement to not discover each other's identity on purpose. Out of respect for you and him, I decided at that same moment that I would allow you both to find out on your own, in your own time."

"But... but you know..."

"And one day," Tikki continued, "you will, too. Probably sooner than you think."

"B-but this is, important, Tikki! What if I just kissed-"

Adrien Agreste didn't see Marinette as he stepped out of the cheese store, and the two collided bodily.

"{Oh, I'm sorry!}" he said, putting out an arm to steady whomever he just walked into. "{I'm really sorry, I wasn't look...}"

For a moment, two pairs of eyes met in equal parts surprise and embarrassment, and neither one knew what the hell to do.

Marinette was the first to move, looking at the ground and standing stock still next to him. Adrien cleared his throat and looked around the street.

Human traffic passed them by in a stream, completely unaware how bizarre and awkward this situation must be for the both of them.

Adrien took a breath.

"So-"

"I'm sorry," Marinette said.

Adrien looked down at her, surprised. She was still studying the sidewalk.

"I'm really... I'm really s-sorry about last night," she continued, "I just had some th-things going on, and I think I got a little over-um-overwhelmed by them, and I..." A breath to gather thoughts. "Look, I think you're a really nice guy, and I really like spending time with you, and I didn't want you to get the impression that you were being inappropriate or... or whatever, and... I feel like you felt that way after, but it was just me being an idiot, and I'm sorry."

She met his eyes and tried a small, brave smile. "This one's on me. I'm sorry, Adrien. I messed up."

Adrien felt a warmth spread across his chest that he hadn't expected the veracity of. This time it was he who had to look away in embarrassment. That girl could really stare.

Her eyes were so blue.

"It's r-really okay," he began.

"It's not! I felt awful and weird about it and I'm sure you did, too!" Marinette clutched at the strap of her bag. "But it really wasn't anything you did, I swear!"

"No! Nuh- um... I mean..." Adrien took a moment to collect himself. "Thank you. I really, honestly appreciate it."

Marinette smiled, the first real smile from her that Adrien had seen since the dance last night. The one that he had discovered could light him up inside.

"You're welcome." She said softly.

He genuinely didn't know how much he loved Marinette's smile until yesterday. Small wonder - he'd barely seen any face from Marinette besides shock and horror until about 48 hours ago.

It reminded him a bit of someone else, oddly enough, though he couldn't put his finger on whom.

How did I never notice how bright that blue was?

Adrien glanced at his sneakers and kicked at the ground. "I uh..."

Just say it. It'll help clear the air.

"I-I'm sorry that I saw you... naked," he mumbled.

Marinette blushed. Hard. She had almost forgotten about that.

"I-it's okay." she said.

"I mean, obviously it w-"

"Was an accident, yeah."

"-you know I wouldn't try to-"

"Yeah, of course, who would want to see that, right?"

Adrien stopped.

"Well, I mean," he said, wetting his lips. "I mean, I think a lot of guys would w-"

They both stopped.

"A lot of guys would what?!" Marinette asked.

"No! It's just that you said that like-"

"'A lot of guys' would want to burst into my room when I was changing to see me bending over in my underwear?!"

"No! I didn't mean-"

Marinette put her hands on her hips, completely aware that she was probably analogous in color to a fire hydrant right about now, but a little too indignant to care.

"Okay then! Please! Go ahead, Adrien: go ahead and try to explain to me what 'a lot of guys' would do if they could."

Adrien panicked. They're so damn blue! Adrien doesn't do 'panic' well. Say something!

A deep, dumb, panicky soliloquy erupted from him in a single breath:

"A lot of guys think you're cute, okay?! You just said that thing before like you don't think anyone would ever want to see you naked, and that's patently insane, because - - b-because I mean, LOOK at you! You're the prettiest girl in our class and everyone knows it! Don't you see that?!" He took a deep breath. "That's what I was trying to say!"

Marinette felt like she had a fever. Her voicebox had stopped operating.

Her everything had stopped operating.

Adrien straightened up and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. "U-um... um, s-so I'm sorry. I should have knocked."

We apologize, but a problem has been detected, and the Marinette D-S system has been shut down to prevent further damage to her everything.

Adrien looked left and right, not entirely sure what to do. Marinette was just standing there.

"Hey, um, are you okay?"

Nuffin.

Adrien took a small step closer.

"Um, Marin-"

Hard reboot.

"H-huh?!" Marinette shouted, entirely too loudly. Adrien leaned back a little bit.

"I asked if you were okay."

Marinette made the executive decision to shove this entire conversation into 'things she would have to unpack later', drew a deep breath in, and nodded.

"Uh-huh!" she said.

Adrien nodded slowly, once. "So... so we're cool, then?"

Marinette nodded quickly, many times. "Yes, we're cool."

"Okay, awesome." Adrien relaxed a bit, and took a deep breath, cracking his neck. He checked the time on his phone.

Marinette was busy mentally counting to thirty in a last-ditch effort to calm herself down.

He said I was cute. He said I was the cutest.

"Hey," Adrien said, "So... I know we should get back to the class and everything, but did you maybe wanna... I dunno. Go do something else?"

Crap, she'd only gotten to 17.

17 helped a little though.

Marinette straightened, running her hands down the front of her hoodie to straighten out its appearance. "Wh-what do you m-mean, exactly?"

Adrien glanced at the sky, seemingly a little embarrassed. "It's just that... this is gonna sound dumb, but there's this book store called 'The Strand', and it's not on the class itinerary, but it's really awesome. I wanted to visit it again while I was here." He cocked his head at her, questioningly. "Did you wanna maybe go with me? It's cool, I swear. We could grab lunch or something, too."

Marinette's eyes got a little wider.

"I..." she began.

This had been quite a roller-coaster of a day, and this was a Big Decision Moment. This was a branching path. It was time to take stock.

She actually did want to go. Deeply.

It would be a date, part of her brain whispered. Adrien is asking you to ditch the class and go on a date with him. He said you were the cutest girl in class.

If you had told Marinette a week ago that such a thing would have happened to her in the near future, she would have combusted like a phoenix right then and there. Poof! Up in flames, an ex-Mari in a pile of ash.

This was everything she had been desperately hoping for for two years.

But...

But then she remembered Alya's face on the subway. She remembered moping and screaming and not talking to anyone. She remembered how shocked Chloe looked when she had exploded at her. Marinette had no great love for Chloe Bourgeois, but she never meant to hurt the girl, and she looked...

...she had looked a little scared.

Marinette had been running from her problems all morning, but she had just gotten done being Ladybug.

Ladybug didn't run from problems. She made decisions and she faced consequences.

But he's asking you on a da-

It was time for consequences.

Marinette also looked at her phone, finding it in her hand. It was just past 11:00. She sighed, heavy with regret, and forced the words out of her mouth. She knew they were the right ones.

"I think w-we should probably get back to the class," she finished. "I was being a real jerk to everyone all morning, and I wouldn't want them to think we got... y'know. Hurt or anything."

Adrien deflated a bit. He looked guilty. "Oh, jeez. Yeah, I hadn't even thought about that..."

"B-but!" Marinette said, quickly. "I would honestly love to go after we're done with the day. W-we can head out after we all get dinner!" She shuffled her feet. "Rain check?"

Adrien look at her fondly, then nodded.

"Yeah, let's do it," he said, smiling. "You know, I actually think it's open late, anyway."

By the time the noon rendezvous rolled around, Adrien and Marinette were already waiting for the class at the Natural History Museum. They waved as everyone approached.

As the group matriculated in through the entrance, Marinette pulled Alya to the side, apologizing profusely.

Alya pulled her into a hug, "Mari, I was just worried about you! It's totally fine." She held the other girl at arm's length. "Everybody has off days. It's no big deal."

Marinette pulled Alya back into a hug, "I was so scared that you'd be angry at me!"

"Nah, I was just... ugh, y'know, Mari." Alya took her hand and started to walk them after the class. "I thought you guys might have had fun last night, and then I thought you guys might have fun last night, and then I thought maybe only one of you guys had had fun last night and the other one had kicked his dumb, horny ass out onto the couch, or..." She sighed, trailing off. "I just had a lot of thoughts. Unanswered questions."

Marinette dragged a hand down her face. "I know! And I was being such a bitch to you!"

Alya chuckled, patting her back. "It's really okay, girl. I swear." She looked at her friend sideways. "Did something happen, though?"

Mari rolled her eyes, "No, not really."

"You didn't have sex?"

"Ha! Not even close."

"Did you guys kiss?"

No, I kissed Chat. I kissed him twice, and I liked it.

Marinette stumbled.

Alya cocked an eyebrow. "Did he kiss something other than-?"

"NO. No, honestly," Mari shook her head and shuddered. "We didn't kiss. We listened to some music, danced a bit, he said some cute things and then I ran away like a weirdo. That's really all that happened. It was my fault."

"For real?"

"For real."

Alya looked a little unconvinced, but shrugged and nodded nonetheless. She knew that whatever it was Marinette was hiding would come out in time. Marinette was famously bad with secrets.

Marinette sighed airily and checked how far behind the class they were. When she had confirmed they were 'a respectable distance', she leaned over to Alya:

"...he did call me the prettiest girl in class and ask me on a date before we came here, though."

Alya spun them to face each other. "Mari! You've become such a player right before my eyes! I'm so proud of you!"

The friends pulled each other into another hug, giddy and jumping. Marinette tried to share in the excitement - and honestly she was excited - but she didn't seem entirely as stoked as Alya had assumed she would be.

This was because Marinette's brain had suddenly gone back into a very different place. That place was on the roof, feeling the concrete bite at her knees and feeling her lips on his mouth and the stubble beneath her fingers and his hands clutching at her back as if she was the only thing that allowed him still to breathe.

The Strand, if you've never been, proudly proclaims itself the home of "18 Miles of Books", which are spread across four floors. They are floor to ceiling, packed together along winding shelves, and give the impression that eighteen miles might frankly be an understatement.

Not that Marinette would know that. She wouldn't know how long a 'mile' was, anyway.

Currently she found herself deep in the back, perusing through various editions of the classics, currently stocked with the most likely Summer Reading assignments for New York's schoolchildren.

Mostly? Honestly? She was enjoying the covers.

The folio classiques were much cheaper, and there was a proud pull in her chest that France knew education and universal literacy to be of the highest priority, but...

But they were just so colorful! Marinette found herself taking books of the shelves just to see the design work that was put into it before sliding it back into place.

Adrien sidled up to her. "Pretty cool, huh?"

Marinette nodded, appreciatively. "Yeah! It's super nice. I like it." She beamed up at him, fixing him with an innocent gaze: "I'm so disappointed I can't read any of them. All of human knowledge, locked away from my grasp. Life is a cruel joke."

Adrien's look of shock made her crack up. She punched him in the arm.

"I'm kidding! Honestly, reading English is so much easier than speaking it that it's insane. You can take it slow - slow I can do." Her fingers flitted over the spines until they found a copy of The Tempest. She pulled it off the shelf, displaying it before her chest proudly. "I read this in English."

Adrien's eyebrows raised. "Really?"

Marinette nodded proudly. "Sure did."

"Did you like it?"

"I have no idea. I didn't understand a damn word of it," she smirked and put it back on the shelf. "I had one of those side-by-side editions, you know? I read the French, mostly, but... you know, the stuff I could understand I thought sounded really beautiful."

Adrien grinned and followed her as she walked down a narrower aisle. "I wouldn't start with Shakespeare, for sure. I don't even understand a third of it, and I'm pretty good."

Marinette ably avoided a wobbly stack of books, and continued on. "In comparison to me, you're a native speaker. How did you get so good, anyway?"

Adrien shrugged, "Tutors from near-infancy, travel... you know." He swallowed uncomfortably. "I'm the Prodigal Agreste, how embarrassing for the family would it be if I got on a shoot, and I couldn't understand what the Italian photographer was saying to me or something, you know? My father would never suffer me to be uneducated in public..." He sighed and stopped, glancing at the books to his left.

Marinette also came to a halt. Somewhere that had taken a turn.

She turned around and took a few tentative steps back towards him. Adrien seemed lost in thought, like he wasn't really there anymore. She'd seen this look on him before, in fleeting moments, when he didn't think anyone at school was looking. In those moments, she always wondered what it was that could possibly have made someone with such a seemingly perfect life look so downtrodden.

"Have you, um..." she took a breath. "Have you talked to your... dad? Since we got here?"

He scoffed, "Are you kidding? It was like he was trying to push me off the plane once we landed."

"I mean," Marinette ventured, "it's only been a little more than a day, I guess."

"Oh, I don't really expect to hear from him."

"Until tomorrow?"

"Until the plane back."

"Oh..." Marinette felt a small needle slip in her heart. This was hurting him. She'd suspected Gabriel was distant, of course, but she'd never known how it weighed on his son.

Adrien was still staring at the bookshelf, hands in his pockets, seemingly fascinated by the works of Bradbury.

"And it's funny, you know," he began, "When I asked him if we could help out your fundraiser he actually seemed excited. And it was... weird. To see him excited. But it made me hope that maybe... this time would be a little different?"

It wasn't a question, but it sounded like it. Marinette shifted uncomfortably.

"It still could be, Adrien. We've still got a lot of time."

A joyless laugh. "Nah, I don't think so. I'm not expecting it, anyway. It's always the same, every time. I just have to be quiet and be pretty. That's what an 'Ambassador to the Brand' does, right?"

She didn't really know what to say.

Adrien continued, still in that same, dead tone: "Do you know what's the nicest thing he ever gave me? A scarf."

Marinette straightened up. She spoke not a word.

"He gave it to me for my birthday. It was nice. Blue and soft. I wore it a lot. God, I cherished that thing. I still do, to be honest..." He shook his head. "We never talked about it."

Marinette's hand glided through the air and came gently down upon his arm. When Adrien looked at her, he was surprised to see her eyes were tearing up.

It's funny, he thought. I stopped crying about it long ago. Marinette, you should-

Her voice cut through his thoughts.

"You matter. You know that, right?" She sniffed. "I'm sorry if sometimes he doesn't see that, but I do. I have every day since I've met you." She squeezed his arm. A single tear navigated a path across her cheek. "And right now, I know that my trip to New York - my life - would have been so much lesser without you there. And I need you to know that."

There was a lot of empty praise in the modeling world. On every shoot, Adrien would hear about how great he was or how well he had done that day, but deep down, he never believed it. It was just a thing people said, to keep the status quo, to keep the models happy and placated. Adrien always thought that really anyone could do his job if they had the right cheekbones and the right posture - he was ultimately replaceable, and on a long enough timeline he would be replaced.

So when people would say those things to him, he would usually respond with a polite smile, and let it wash through him - adding no value and leaving nothing behind.

This felt nothing like that at all.

It felt like the most genuine thing anyone had said to him in a very long time, and he felt an overwhelming affection blossom somewhere deep inside of his chest.

It started as a groundswell, pushing up through his body until every part of him was filled with warmth and happiness and love. All that mattered in this moment was this girl in front of him. This stupidly beautiful girl with her hand on his arm.

And he realized quite suddenly that he would embarrass his father a thousand times over to hear her say those words again.

Marinette removed her hand and began to quickly wipe away her tears.

"Wow, I'm crying. I'm really crying right now, here, in front of you." She smiled, followed by a self-conscious laugh. "I'm really sorry. I don't know what came over m-"

Adrien kissed her.