Adrien looked up at the sky. He'd been by the river all day, listening to the rush of water and thinking off and on, and now it was starting to get dark. He looked over at Plagg who seemed to be enjoying this lazy day and sighed. He knew he should be getting back home soon, but couldn't bring himself to move. He dreaded going back to that place. Not only that, he wasn't exactly sure which way home was.

He got up and followed the river, knowing it would lead him to a road eventually. It did, along with a sign telling him how far he was from Paris as well as a few other cities. Looking at the sign he got an idea: his family had vacation homes all over France, and Versailles was not too far from where he currently was. Maybe he didn't have to go back home right away.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, which he'd earlier turned off in a more successful attempt to ignore Nathalie's calls, and turned it back on. It took about five minutes before the missed calls and messages stopped rolling in and he could finally send the text he needed.

[ADRIEN] Call the villa in Versailles and let them know I'll be staying for a few days. Don't come.

He didn't bother with a "please" and sent the text to Nathalie. He would've rather ignored her, but she handled those sorts of things, and it was better for her to hear from him than to have her send the police searching after him. He quickly scrolled through the messages to see what he missed. They were nearly all from Nathalie demanding to know his whereabouts, and to his slight surprise and disappointment not a single one was from his father. He was silently hoping that he'd find at least one message or missed call from his father after being gone all day. Not that the reason he left was to get his attention, but the thought crossed his mind when he turned his phone back on. Nevertheless he knew he shouldn't have been too surprised when there was no indication that his father cared. Why expect any different?

He continued scrolling through unopened texts before he came across the one he received from Marinette the night before.

[MARINETTE] I'm here for you.

He hadn't known how to respond, but those four words did comfort him a little.

He was surprised to know that the girl he loved and saved Paris with on a daily basis as Cat Noir, was also a girl that he knew and was friends with as Adrien. He'd wanted to know Ladybug for so long, and this whole time he was just one row ahead of her in class. And of course Ladybug would be Marinette. She was a help to everyone and a natural leader when they needed one. Adrien could think of no one better to wear the mask.

His phone began ringing and he looked down to see Nathalie's name pop up on the screen. He thought about not answering, but knew he had a better chance of getting the villa set up if he did.

"Hello?"

"Where on Earth have you been? I've been calling you all day. You've missed all of your appointments and they've had to be resch—"

"Did you set up the villa?" he cut her off.

She paused for a moment, seemingly taken aback by Adrien's attitude. It gave Adrien enough time to interject again.

"Set it up. I should arrive in an hour or so." He hung up the phone and looked over to Plagg on his shoulder.

"Will there be food?" he asked.

"If she does her job. Claws out."

Adrien spent the next couple of days at the Villa, continuing to ignore his problems. He knew he had to face them sooner or later, but he really didn't know how. Yes, he'd have to go back home, but then what?

He mulled over his options while absent-mindedly pressing the controls on the game he was playing. He could A) tell his father that he was Cat Noir and that he knew everything that happened, or he could B) pretend that nothing happened. Of course he could always C) say that Ladybug and Cat Noir told him that Gabriel was HM so that he could still address the issue without blowing his own identity or he could D) pretend that everything was normal. Though, the timing of Adrien's little holiday suggested either A or C more than it did B or D. He would need an explanation for his sudden departure.

His character got eaten and 'Game Over' appeared on the screen. He tossed his head back and sunk into the sofa with a sigh. He still hadn't gotten so much as a text message from his father during his stay at the villa. Part of him wondered what he'd been doing since his defeat. Had he been trying to come up with some wild revenge scheme? Probably. Adrien knew his father was not the give-up type. Why bother checking on your son when you could plot instead? He shook his head. It didn't matter anyway, it's not like he even wanted his father to check on him. Not after everything he'd done as Hawk Moth.

Adrien closed his eyes and sighed again. He knew that wasn't true either. No matter how hard he tried not to get his hopes up, there was a part of him that hoped to see a difference in his father. Part of him hoped that, now that Gabriel was no longer Hawk Moth, he might reach out to his son and they could finally mourn the loss of Adrien's mother. Together. Instead, Adrien was however many miles away and Gabriel showed no interest in his son's return.

He rubbed his temple. Why do I even care?

Adrien grabbed the phone beside him scrolled to his text thread with his father. The last messages between them were stale at two months old. He sighed, exiting the thread and his eye caught the message that Marinette sent him two nights before.

[MARINETTE] I just want you to know that I'm thinking about you.

He still hadn't responded to it, or to the text she sent a few nights before that one. He stared at the newer message in his hand not sure how to respond. Thanks? Me too? I love you? He sighed, tossing the phone aside and slumped further into his seat.

"You sure are doing a lot of that." Plagg said from across the room.

Adrien looked over at him, not sure what he meant. "A lot of what?"

Plagg let out a heavy, exaggerated breath to tell Adrien what he meant. "I know this is Versailles and all, but come on."

Adrien let his lip curl ever so slightly at the pun as Plagg floated over to the armrest next to him.

"Things will get better."

Adrien smiled a little more at his kwami. Plagg had been trying to comfort him all week and Adrien thought it was sweet of him. Plagg usually hated feelings, or at least pretended to, so it meant a lot to Adrien that he'd been sensitive.

"Thanks, Plagg." Adrien said, letting out another sigh.

Plagg raised his eyebrow at him and Adrien chuckled.

"It's just…Marinette. I can't believe I never realized...This whole time the girl I was in love with was right behind me and I never knew it. I mean, I always knew Marinette was awesome, I just..."

Adrien thought about his encounters with both Marinette and Ladybug and compared them to one another. Marinette was sweet but she could be clumsy, and though he knew Ladybug to slip up here and there, he'd never seen her as clumsy as he'd seen Marinette. And Ladybug was always so confident and took charge, and while he'd seen Marinette do the same, he'd also seen her become flustered more often than not. He'd hardly ever seen Ladybug fluster that way. I guess I could see how I missed it. And Marinette was smart and kind and beautiful. She always looked out for her friends and was willing to help anyone in need. Like Ladybug.

"But of course now it makes so much sense."

"Hindsight is 20/20."

He remembered the first time he talked to Marinette as Cat Noir and groaned at the memory. He must've looked so silly! And she just played right along, pretending that fighting a villain was new to her. He laughed at the slightly embarrassing, yet now fond memory. Ladybug had a secret mission that night, which he now realized was that she had to be on the boat with Evilustrator.

And then there was that time he landed on her roof after Ladybug stood him up.

Adrien put his face in his hands. He was supposed to meet her, Alya, and Nino that night for ice cream. She'd already had plans to hang out with him that night and neither of them knew it. So technically he was the one who stood her up.

Then on her balcony, he let slip to Marinette that he was in love with Ladybug, but she was Ladybug. And then he took her right to the surprise that he had planned for HER. How ironic.

He sat there trying to wrap his head around the whole thing. Ladybug said there was another boy, but he hadn't known Marinette had so much as a crush, let alone have someone she was in love with. Then again, that same night Marinette said she'd had her heart broken, and that was equally a surprise then as it was now.

Who was this boy? Adrien sometimes wondered who he was before, but that was when he could've been anyone in all of Paris. Now that he knew Ladybug was Marinette, he figured he probably knew this boy too. He idly wondered who this mystery boy was, but only out of curiosity. After all, she loved him now. I suppose it makes sense. After he broke her heart, she was finally able to move on from him. Not that he was glad she'd had her heart broken, but whatever idiot hurt Marinette did him a huge favor. Wait, that came out wrong.

He shook his head to try and reset his thoughts.

Adrien's mind carried him back to the night exactly one week ago when Ladybug told him she loved him. It seemed like forever ago now. That night was perfect. It was before his world got turned upside down with the truth.

He looked again at the text message from his lady that he left unanswered and realized how much he missed her. He's spent the whole week at the villa, thinking that he wanted to be alone, but all that made him feel better was rereading the texts that Marinette sent him. He missed her. He missed her smile, her laughter, her warmth. He didn't want to be alone at the villa anymore.

Adrien stood up, and looked at Plagg.

"You ready to blow this Popsicle stand?"

Plagg stretched and yawned, "Yeah. It was starting to get boring around here."

Cat Noir was just a few buildings away from Marinette's. He could see the light on in her room, but for some reason he still hesitated. What am I going to say to her? He thought of a few worst-case scenarios before shaking off his fear and making the last couple of leaps.

As he got closer, he heard familiar laughter and realized Meg was with her. The laughter stopped when he landed on the roof and he heard Meg say she'd be downstairs. He listened to Marinette scramble up her ladder as he waited for her to open the hatch.

He nearly felt all of his stress melt away when those beautiful blue eyes peeked out at him.

"Cat No—Adrien."

"Hey M'Lady. Care to take in a stray?"

She was speechless for a moment as though she didn't believe he was really there. When she finally snapped out of it, she let out a small "yeah" and moved back so he could enter her room.

He'd been in her room twice before, once as Adrien playing video games with Marinette and once as Cat Noir fighting Troublemaker with Ladybug. Ironic. It was the same as he remembered it: very pink with photos of him everywhere. Although the photos had only been up when he was Cat Noir.

She seemed to remember that fact right as he did because she blushed before they made eye contact and burst out laughing together.

"That's funny on so many different levels." She said, remembering how flustered she'd been, knowing that Adrien had seen the pictures of himself on her wall from the broadcast and then saw the pictures in person as Cat Noir. Still have to get my head around that, she thought.

"I wish I'd known M'Lady had so many pictures of me on her wall." He said, waggling his eyebrows.

She snorted, " I wish I'd known I had so many pictures of you on my wall."

"It's a good thing you're into fashion or I never would've made the cut."

She was confused for a moment before she blushed, remembering how she explained all of the photos to Adrien the next day at school.

"Oh, right."

They moved off of her bed and onto her floor and kind of stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to say or do.

"So…how are you?" Marinette asked cautiously. She was trying not to look too worried, but Cat Noir could tell that she was anyway. It wasn't too long ago that she sent him a voice mail, and she wondered if that was the reason he was here now.

"I'm…better." He answered. It was the truth at least. He'd had time to process during that week, and so he wasn't in the same mindset that he was when he left, but he was still far from okay. But he wasn't there to talk about that. He missed her and just wanted to feel normal for a while. Even if being in Marinette's room as Cat Noir wasn't normal at all.

"Mind if I…?" he gestured to himself, meaning to drop his transformation.

"Oh, yes of course." She blushed, again. She'd only recently learned that she was in love with Cat Noir, and now he was Adrien too? And they were both here in her room. It was only one person, but wow this is weird she thought. No wonder Cat Noir was so handsome. How did it take me so long to realize that? Marinette couldn't keep the awe off of her face as he dropped his guise.

"Claws in."

Plagg appeared out of the miraculous and floated into the air.

"Nice to see you again." He said.

Marinette giggled, "Nice to see you too."

"Wait, you two have met?" Adrien asked. When did this happen?

Plagg nodded while Marinette answered, "Yes a couple of times. The first time was when he helped me battle Style Queen because you…wait…ooohhhhh!" she said, her eyes wide as she come to a realization.

"He told me Cat Noir lost his miraculous, but really—"

"I was turned to glitter."

"Wow." She whispered as she sat down on the chaise. Adrien came and sat next to her enjoying the surprise on her face.

"And to think, I just thought you were irresponsible."

"Me, irresponsible? Never." He teased. "Then again, there was that time I snuck out to go to the movies and you had to save me from that crazy mob. Then my bodyguard got akumatized, and you saved me again as Ladybug." He smiled at her and the memory. "I knew you wouldn't let me fall." He said, poking her in the ribs.

She giggled, "I wondered what was taking Cat Noir so long to show up that day. But wait, how did you pull off being in two places at once?"

He grinned at her, "Well when Ladybug told me how much she trusted Cat Noir, I knew I couldn't let her down. So I got that crazy fan to pretend to be me so I could swoop in and help you out."

She blushed, remembering how she gushed to Adrien about how much she trusted Cat Noir. Who was Adrien. How many times had they done that to each other?

"This is cute and all, but you got anything to eat around here?" Plagg said, breaking up the fluff.

"Plagg!" Adrien whined.

Marinette laughed it off, "It's okay Adrien. Actually, Plagg if you want to head down to the kitchen, Tikki is down there with Meg. I'm sure they'd be happy to see you, and Tikki knows where all the good stuff is."

"What about your parents?" Adrien asked.

"They're out of town and wont be back until some time tomorrow."

Plagg zipped through the floor in search of food, and Marinette and Adrien continued talking about all of their Ladrien/Marichat encounters.

"Remember that time we were both supposed to be in Clara Nightingale's music video as ourselves?!"

"I was so nervous because I knew that everyone would recognize me as soon as I put on the mask, so I hid mine!"

"I hid mine too! Those costumes were just too good!"

They laughed until their sides hurt. Wow, looking back that was a crazy coincidence that the actual Ladybug and Cat Noir had both been chosen to play themselves, alongside themselves.

Adrien was having a really good time, laughing with Marinette in her room about all of the memories they made together and loving how knowing that it was her all along made the memories even better. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little sad with each one, knowing that the were all marred by the truth that his father was the reason they'd been in each and every one of those situations.

Marinette tried to keep Adrien laughing, but could tell there was no way to erase his father's impact on each memory. She searched for a way to change the subject to something lighter about their relationship.

"The funniest thing to me is that the whole time you were chasing me as Cat Noir, I was chasing you as Marinette." She laughed, but realized Adrien wasn't.

She looked over and saw the confused look on his face.

"What do you mean you were chasing me as Marinette?" his pulse quickened when Marinette's brow furrowed and he heard her say

"Well Adrien I…" She blushed and looked down, she giggled and felt silly. It was only Cat Noir next to her, her partner whom she'd already confessed her love to. "I was crazy in love with you since like the day we met."

Adrien felt his expression drop. She had to be joking.

"I was the boy you were talking about?"

She smiled a tiny smile and nodded.

He felt like an idiot.

"I was the boy who broke your heart." He said in an almost whisper.

He groaned and covered his eyes. THAT'S why she was upset that night.

"What do you mean?" she asked. He peeked out from under his hand and saw her confused expression.

"That night when I came to your roof, after we were supposed to get ice cream. You told me you had your heart broken."

He watched her face as she remembered the incident. Her expression softened.

"That wasn't really your fault though. You weren't allowed out of the house."

He smiled a sheepish grin.

"That's not entirely true," he paused at the look she sent him. "I didn't come because I was setting up my surprise for…you."

Marinette felt her face freeze as she locked eyes with Adrien. So much miscommunication. They stared at each other's expression for a moment before doubling over in laughter again. This was going to take some getting used to.

They continued that way, laughing for a while and talking for a while longer. Adrien eventually felt the pull to tell her about the week he had and she sat and listened compassionately. This talk with her helped him so much more than the entire week away had helped him. He was able to work through a bit more of how he felt with her listening and offering encouraging words and insight. Why hadn't he done this sooner?

Adrien grabbed his phone to check the time and noticed it was a little past two in the morning. He jumped to his feet, surprised at how much time had past. He'd gotten there around ten.

"What's wrong?" Marinette asked, startled by his sudden movement.

"I didn't realize how late it was," he showed her the time.

"Wow! Time flies. Oh man!" she said looking down at her door. "We left Meg downstairs. She probably ended up falling asleep on the couch." Marinette felt a little guilty. You don't ditch your friend when she's sleeping over at your house! Girl code.

Adrien scratched the back of his neck, sharing in some of Marinette's guilt. He hadn't meant to crash their party.

"Sorry about that, M'Lady. Should we go get her?"

Marinette thought for a moment about whether she should wake her friend up or leave her be, but before she could answer Adrien's phone started ringing.

They glanced at each other, wondering who'd be calling at this hour. Surely even Nathalie was asleep by now. Adrien picked up his phone and nearly dropped it.

His father was calling.

This entire week his father hadn't called, text, or even sent a message through Nathalie. But now he was calling at two a.m. Adrien froze, not sure what to do.

"Answer it," Marinette urged him. She knew from their talk earlier that he'd wished his father would've reached out to him.

"Right," he said, still a little shocked. He answered it, not knowing what to expect.

"Hello?"

"Adrien. I called the villa but you weren't there. Tell me your location so I can send a car to pick you up. We need to talk."

Adrien was shocked. He called the villa looking for me? He wants to talk to me right now?

"It's two in the morning." He answered, dumbly. He was still trying to process the request and that escaped his lips.

"Please, son."

Adrien's eyes widened. He couldn't remember the last time he heard his father say 'please' to anyone. Especially not to him. And the way his voice seemed to crack. Whatever he wanted to talk about had to be important.

Adrien looked to, Marinette and she nodded her head, before he told his father the address to her bakery and hung up with his father.

He sat down on the chaise beginning to feel knots form in his stomach. Was his father ready to tell him about, well, everything? Why now so suddenly? Had something happened?

Marinette could tell Adrien was feeling nervous and she placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. He looked up and met her eyes.

"You can do this," she said, before leaning in and giving him a soft kiss.

That was the first time they'd kissed that night and suddenly Adrien wondered why they hadn't done that sooner. He grinned and kissed her again, to which she giggled, before standing up to leave. He knew the car wouldn't take long to get there, and he needed to fetch Plagg from downstairs.

The car stopped outside of Adrien's home and he got out and walked into his house. His nerves were rolling off of him wondering what his father was going to say.

"He's waiting for you in your room." Nathalie said. She'd been waiting in the foyer for Adrien's arrival.

He wasn't really sure what to say to her, but after his talk with Marinette he'd been able to sift through some of his feelings.

"Thank you." He managed.

He headed up to his room and paused outside of his door, bracing himself before going in.

He'd expected to see his father waiting for him on his couch. He hadn't expected to see his mother waiting there beside him.