Marinette hadn't been expecting much when she went to her weekly check-in with Master Fu. The translation of the photographed pages in the book was going slowly, and so he generally just told her what he remembered from his training when he was a young boy. It was interesting, and maybe some of the information could be useful for future akuma fights, but mostly it was a good chance to catch up and learn a bit about Miraculous history with someone who had spent essentially their entire life focused on all things Miraculous.

So she was a bit surprised when Fu handed her a cup of tea and then promptly announced, "Chat Noir and his kwami have discovered Hawkmoth's identity."

Marinette nearly dropped her cup. Tikki let out a small shriek. "What?"

Fu nodded serenely, sipping at his own cup as though he hadn't just dropped the biggest bomb in the history of bombs. "Yes, I was quite startled as well. It turned out that Plagg- that's Chat Noir's kwami, Ladybug- was roaming around in search of cheese, and, well, he happened upon Hawkmoth and saw him transform. And it appears that I was correct with my theory that Hawkmoth might be able to akumatize himself."

Marinette's brain stalled out, completely in shock. She remembered that conversation well- Master Fu hadn't been convinced that Mr. Agreste was in the clear even after he was akumatized, due to the fact that the Butterfly Miraculous and the Miraculous book would have (or at least should have) been found in the same place. She had had to admit that it was a good point, but how could he akumatize himself? Miraculous holders were supposed to be immune to the butterflies.

But apparently Master Fu was right, and Mr. Agreste was Hawkmoth.

Her first thought was Well. That's good to know.

Marinette's second thought was Oh. Oh, no. Poor, poor Adrien. He was going to be left without a father, and they had absolutely no clue what had happened to his mother. He was going to be absolutely crushed when Mr. Agreste was arrested and exposed as a supervillain, and what would happen to him without his father there? Would Nathalie take care of him, or would he be forced to leave the city to live with other family members?

Did Adrien even have any other family? He had never mentioned any grandparents or aunts or uncles or anything before.

"Chat Noir and Plagg investigated more last night, and found that Hawkmoth has not only the Butterfly Miraculous, but also the Peacock," Fu continued, and Marinette stiffened further. Oh, that was bad. "And scrolls similar to mine, but they will have different information on them, and of course the book. Mr. Agreste also has notes on the training temple. It's expected, perhaps, because he did clearly find it in the first place, but I'll be interested in seeing those notes. They'll be doing some more investigating tonight, and then reporting back tomorrow. Will you be able to come around eight-ten tomorrow evening, so we can all meet together?"

Marinette's eyes flew wide. All meet together? Had she misunderstood something? "Transformed?"

Fu shook his head. "No, because I want the kwamis to be able to chime in. I'll put up a screen between the two of you so your identities remain secret for now, and you'll have to talk through your kwamis. But it's more efficient this way, and it's a better way to brainstorm."

Marinette nodded. That made sense.

"We're going to have to make a plan of attack, so that we can be as prepared as possible when you and Chat Noir face off with Hawkmoth," Fu continued. "We want to be able to take him off guard and keep him from being able to fight back. It could be difficult to fight him, especially if he can transform and get an akuma out so it's a two-on-two fight. Wayzz has told me that in the past, some Butterfly holders have had a butterfly pin-style weapon, or a thin sword. It would be better to catch him off guard and unarmed."

"Are we going to try to steal back the Peacock pin?" Marinette asked, shivering slightly at the idea of their arch-enemy with a sword. It wasn't a pretty thought. "And then what else is there to do?"

Fu nodded. "Yes, we want to recover the Peacock, so we can be sure that he doesn't have any backup that we don't know about. We also want to get some of the other artifacts recovered beforehand. If he's translated anything and has any access to any of the spells, that would be bad. He wouldn't have to be transformed to do a large amount of damage. If we have the book and scrolls, we can learn how to counter his spells if he knows any, and keep him from learning them if he hasn't managed to translate anything fully yet."

Marinette's head was spinning. Spells? She had known that there were spells of sorts to use with the Miraculous when they were transformed to access hidden powers- Fu and Wayzz had told her about them several visits ago, though she had yet to learn any of those spells- but it sounded like Master Fu was talking about proper spells, like a wizard or something. Magic without needing the Miraculous, and that was a terrifying thought. It wasn't something that Master Fu had told her about before, so she had no clue what kind of spells Hawkmoth- Mr. Agreste- might have at his disposal, or what the limits to those kinds of spells might be.

This was just all too much information all at once.

"But that's all conjecture for now," Master Fu told her before she could get too wound up. "There's no point in worrying about that right away. But right now- let's enjoy these treats you've brought me, and I'll fill you and Tikki in on everything that Plagg and Chat Noir have told me."

Marinette's mind was still spinning when she left Master Fu's apartment. She couldn't believe that Chat Noir and his kwami had somehow managed to stumble upon Hawkmoth's real identity. That was good news for her and for Chat Noir- once they got past the incredibly difficult task of actually defeating Hawkmoth, there would be no more akumas to interrupt her day. Next school year, she would actually be able to attend class without ducking out. There would be no more write-ups for missed class when she was saving the city, no rushed homework because she had spent hours chasing after a supervillain, no ridiculously late nights because Hawkmoth was an ass with no regard for sleep schedules, no worrying about what having to take off whenever an akuma popped up would do to her career. It would also be good news for Paris, because tourism had dropped because of the ongoing akuma attacks and the local businesses were seeing a corresponding drop in revenue.

But it was truly terrible news at the same time. Marinette had hoped for Adrien's sake that Hawkmoth wasn't his father, back when she first took the book to Master Fu and found out that the book and the Butterfly Miraculous would have been found in the same place. Even though it had meant the loss of a lead, she had been relieved for him when the Collector attacked, even though she knew that Adrien must have felt horrible for upsetting his father enough for him to get akumatized. She had thought that at least it meant that while Mr. Agreste was an awful father (really, really awful, and so cold and uncaring), he wasn't evil.

But now? Mr. Agreste was both an awful father and obviously evil. He had sent akumas after Adrien before, and several could have seriously injured him if she and Chat Noir hadn't been there to stop the akumas. Clearly he wanted to use the Miraculous to recover his wife- or, well, that was what she was guessing, at least- but that didn't excuse him for endangering his own son in order to try to achieve that goal.

"Do you think Mom and Dad would be willing to take Adrien in?" Marinette asked Tikki that evening. "I know they like him, and he could use the love. And I think he likes being over here, too."

Tikki giggled. "And because you could see him all the time?"

Marinette shoot her head, even as a slight flush lit up her cheeks. "I don't care about that, not really. Adrien need a friend right now, and he needs a family. That comes first." She wasn't lying- even though she definitely was still very much interested in Adrien, the whole situation had made her take a giant step back to look at the big picture. Once Mr. Agreste was arrested, Adrien would no doubt be suffering from the double blow of losing his one remaining parent and the attention of stupid reporters who just wanted to get a scoop. He didn't need one of his friends to still be stuttering over her words around him like an idiot. She wanted him to be able to consider her home a safe place, one where he wouldn't feel uncomfortable.

As Marinette turned back to the homework in front of her- how she was going to focus enough on it with her thoughts racing like they were to actually do a good job, she really didn't know- she didn't see Tikki's proud smile.

The next day, Marinette threw herself into her new resolution to be Adrien's friend first and foremost with earnest. No more trying to ask Adrien out or make romantic moves on him; right now, she was going to make sure that she didn't do or say anything that might make Adrien uncomfortable. Instead, she would be the absolute best friend to him that she could be, starting with bringing Adrien (and Nino and Alya) croissants to eat before class as a treat.

Seeing Adrien light up and grin at her as he reached for a croissant made Marinette smile, and she only had to fight a little bit to keep back the blush. Alya had elbowed her with a sly grin, but Marinette ignored the wriggling eyebrows and focused on Adrien, though now she was focusing more on him as a person and less on the way the sun glinted off of his hair and made his green eyes sparkle.

Adrien seemed a little more downcast than normal, just a bit quieter and more muted as they talked together before class started. Marinette had to wonder what was going on with him- did he suspect something was going on with his father? Had he had a long photo shoot or another argument with his father or Nathalie? Maybe he was just tired. It was impossible to tell, and Marinette didn't feel like she was close enough to Adrien to just come out and ask.

Besides, she was sure that if he did suspect anything amiss with his father, he wasn't going to tell them about it. Not unless he was 100% certain, and even then, he would probably go to Ladybug and Chat Noir first, not knowing that they already knew about Mr. Agreste being Hawkmoth.

As the day continued, Marinette made sure to actually join in with their conversations instead of hanging back and just staring at Adrien as he talked and brushed his hair back out of his eyes while he talked. Adrien looked happy with the change, and soon the two of them were deep in a discussion about Mega Strike 3 while Alya and Nino looked on.

"You and Adrien are chatty today," Alya commented after class as the boys headed up the hallway ahead of them. She grinned and wriggled her eyebrows at Marinette suggestively. "Anything you want to share?"

Marinette shrugged, doing her best not to blush and encourage Alya's prying further. "I figured that it would be better to focus on being friends first. And I like this more, honestly- Adrien is fun to talk to, and I'm not freezing up and saying stupid stuff."

Alya looked positively baffled by the sudden about-face in Marinette's attitude. To be fair, Marinette really couldn't blame her. Up until the previous day, getting a date with Adrien had kind of been all she had been focused on... which, in retrospect, was pretty dumb of her. "B-but you can do both!"

"No, I can't. I try, and then I end up a stuttering idiot. I'm going to focus on being his friend first." Friends are what he needs right now, not a girlfriend, Marinette added mentally, but there would be no way to explain that to Alya without sounding like some sort of complete raving weirdo. As far as her friends knew, nothing had changed between the previous day and now, even though so much had. "And when I'm not trying to ask him out, then I can actually talk like a normal person and I don't have to cringe when I think back to when I talked to him."

Alya just threw her hands up in exasperation. "Okay, fine! But at least think about trying to make steps in that direction. Like, you could ask him to the movies as friends, maybe."

Marinette tried not to snort, she really did. She failed. "Right, and somehow his father would just suddenly up and decide that it's okay for Adrien to go out to the movies after all? That didn't exactly go over well any of the other times the four of us tried to do that. Maybe we could study together or something instead." That would be both friendly and productive and also a Mr. Agreste-approved activity, and maybe if they were studying together then she could distract Adrien from whatever it was that was bringing him down.

Marinette frowned as something suddenly occurred to her. On the other hand, maybe she shouldn't commit to too many get-togethers with her friends right now. Since Chat Noir (or rather, his kwami- and didn't that just raise all sorts of questions that couldn't be answered?) had discovered Hawkmoth's identity, they would probably be having more frequent meetings with Master Fu as they tried to put together a proper plan of attack and talked about Hawkmoth's weaknesses. It would be frustrating to have to fill up her already busy schedule even more, since Alya was already complaining about how hard it could be to find time to hang out with her, but that would all be fixed after Hawkmoth was properly defeated.

Marinette would have spades of time to spend to her friends once the akumas were gone for good. She could only hope that Adrien would still be around to hang out with them then.

Going over to Adrien's house had always been intimidating. Part of it was the sheer size of the mansion, part of it was her nerves about being around Adrien, and a very large portion of it was completely due to Adrien's father's presence. Even when she wasn't returning something that she (well, technically Lila) had taken from Adrien (and that Adrien had taken from his father), it wasn't exactly something she had ever looked forward to.

Now, with the knowledge that Mr. Agreste was Hawkmoth- and that he had seen her with the Miraculous book, and he knew that she knew that he had it- Marinette was outright dreading going over to Adrien's house to work on a group project. She would much rather work literally anywhere else.

"At least he probably won't send out an akuma if the four of you are in the house," Tikki pointed out as Marinette packed her bag with the papers and books they would need for their project. "And you won't have to make some excuse to leave if there isn't an akuma. Besides, I can fly around and investigate, too, to make sure Plagg hasn't missed anything!"

"I suppose that is convenient," Marinette admitted. "And I know there are upsides to going over there, but it just makes me nervous. What if he does make an akuma and I have to sneak away and Nathalie or Adrien just happens to mention it to him later? That would be awful."

Tikki sighed. "Except you know that Alya would dash off first, and Nino would follow her, so then there wouldn't really be a point in staying and working on a group project with only the two of you there. I think you'll be fine."

Marinette just nodded, finished stuffing the last notebook in her bag, and headed down the stairs.

Alya met her in the bakery with a wide grin that spelled trouble. Marinette paused, suddenly nervous for a whole different reason. "Uh, what's that look for?"

"Oh, nothing," Alya trilled as she herded Marinette out the door. As soon as the door was shut and they were headed down the sidewalk, Alya flashed another wide grin. "I'm just excited to get to work on our project, that's all. And don't worry, Nino and I will be sure to make sure that you and Adrien get some alone time while we're there, too."

Marinette let out a long, exasperated groan. She had been trying to tell Alya that she wasn't going to be making moves on Adrien any more, but Alya had seen how Marinette and Adrien were interacting now and pounced on it, trying to manipulate things so that the two of them would be pushed together. "Seriously? Alya! I told you that I'm just trying to be friends with Adrien right now, nothing more. Besides, it's hardly the place to be screwing around," she added when Alya looked unconvinced. "You know that Nathalie will be checking in on us and that Adrien is going to get in trouble if we're messing around at all, even if it's not his fault."

"Oh, that's true." Alya's face had fallen at the reminder. "That's no fun! Fine, we won't try to get the two of you alone, then. But you can't talk me out of sticking you two together to work on a certain part of the project while Nino and I work on a different part."

"Just don't force it if the work doesn't divide like that," Marinette told Alya, figuring that that was as good as she was going to get out of her stubborn friend. "If it would work better for us to each be doing our own thing for a bit, then it wouldn't make sense to slow ourselves down by working as pairs."

"But what's the point of a group project if we don't work together?" Alya complained. They rounded the corner and headed up the block. Up ahead, Marinette could see Nino waiting for them. "Who cares if it takes a little longer?"

"Adrien, probably," Marinette suggested, feeling a bit bad for throwing Adrien under the bus when she also cared very much about how long the group project took. "He's got such a busy schedule that it could be hard to work around that if we drag out our meetings, and his father might start objecting to him coming out and joining us if we aren't getting our work done."

Alya just made a face.

"Ready to face the beast?" Nino called as the two girls drew closer. He was clutching his book bag, and the headphones had apparently been left at home, along with his baseball cap. "Maybe Mr. Agreste will be busy. Or out."

"I don't know if he ever actually leaves the house," Alya commented. "Have you ever heard Adrien say anything about that before? The only times I've ever heard of Mr. Agreste being outside is when he was dragged there by an akuma."

Marinette tried not to laugh at the reminder of the akumas that had gone after Mr. Agreste. She knew that she shouldn't find it so funny, but with the knowledge that Mr. Agreste was Hawkmoth and had therefore set akumas on himself and somehow thought that that would be a good idea...

Well, clearly Mr. Agreste didn't exactly have the greatest reasoning skills in the world. It seemed that putting himself in danger and relying on the superheroes to save him wasn't exactly the best plan in the world.

Much to everyone's relief, Nathalie was the one to let them in, and Adrien was the one to meet them in the atrium. They headed up to his room, Adrien leading the way and Marinette bringing up the rear so that Tikki could dart out of her bag unnoticed to go explore the house and spy on Mr. Agreste.

"I had the chef bring up snacks to eat while we work," Adrien told them, grinning when Nino let out a quiet whoop. "But we have to stay on track with our work. Nathalie is going to be checking in on us regularly, and she'll expect to see progress."

Nino groaned, but Marinette couldn't help but be thankful. Now he and Alya would definitely have to behave instead of spending all of their time trying to set her up with Adrien. That meant that they should be getting a good chunk of work on their project done now, which was good because it was a big project and the sooner they got it done, the better.

After a few more minutes, they were all settled in at Adrien's desk and starting their work. Marinette wasn't surprised that she had been pushed into the seat next to Adrien, but she wasn't upset about it either. Adrien was a hard worker and super smart, and now that she was focusing on just being his friend Marinette could really enjoy his company.

And they worked well together. Like, really well together. Strangely well together, considering that they hadn't really talked that much together before, since... well, since Marinette had been being a bit of a spaz whenever it came to Adrien and actually interacting with him like a normal human being. Thankfully Adrien didn't seem to be holding it against her at all.

Now if only Marinette could get Nino and Alya to properly drop the matchmaking attempts before Adrien noticed their less-than-subtle hints and hand gestures, then she'd be set.

There were times when Marinette wondered if maybe, just maybe, she had been right with her guess that Adrien suspected that something was up with his father. He looked miserable whenever an akuma attack affected someone they knew, and he had started to look upset whenever his father was brought up. He was definitely down in the dumps about something during their last get-together to finish up their group project before it was due, so much so that Marinette couldn't resist giving him a hug and a bag of cookies in hopes that it might help cheer him up, even just a little bit.

Adrien had always been such a positive, sunny person that it actually hurt to see him sad.

And Adrien wasn't the only one not to be his usual bubbly self recently. Chat Noir seemed tenser than usual during akuma fights, and the number of puns had dropped sharply ever since he and his kwami had discovered Hawkmoth's identity. Marinette suspected that it was because the final fight was a concrete idea now, something real and coming up soon instead of simply a vague idea of something that might happen in the distant future. Their nemesis had a name and an address and a face, and was clearly ruthless and driven enough to akumatize people who would have his son as a target. That knowledge was intimidating.

Marinette tried to help, she really did. But without knowing for sure what was causing Chat Noir's downcast mood, there wasn't much she could do to cheer him up besides praising him for his ideas and his fighting during akuma attacks and hugging him in place of their normal fist bump after the akuma was cleansed and the city restored. She hoped that Master Fu and the kwamis would agree to let them share their identities soon.

Surely it would be safe for them to know about each other for a few days prior to their final battle with Hawkmoth, right? They would want to be able to coordinate and prepare together, and it would be good to know who the other person was and who their family was, in case anything happened during the final battle.

(Not that anything bad should happen, considering all of the preparation they were doing. They were hoping to go for more of a final confrontation rather than a final battle, after all. Boring was better when it came to supervillain encounters.)

"You can always ask Master Fu when you'll be able to do the reveal," Tikki suggested after Marinette mentioned it for the fifth or sixth time. "I think that you're right about having to wait until you have a date set to go after Hawkmoth, but it wouldn't hurt to ask."

Marinette nodded, then glanced at her phone and yelped. "Oh, it's nearly time for our meeting today! I'm going to be late! Tikki, are you ready to go?"

Tikki zipped into Marinette's bag. "Ready! Are you going to ask Master Fu today?"

Marinette thought about it for a moment as she raced down the stairs, then shook her head. "I don't think so. If you think that we need to have a date set first, then I'll wait until closer to then. I don't want to get Chat Noir's hopes up and then have Master Fu tell us that we have to wait for another couple weeks or something, not with how down he's been recently." Her partner would probably feel the letdown even more keenly than she would, so she would either wait until they knew when they were going after Hawkmoth or wait until she could catch Master Fu alone. Considering that Chat Noir tended to linger after their meetings to chat with the old Guardian (presumably to make sure that he understood what Plagg had to investigate next; Marinette really didn't understand why her partner was so insistent that his kwami do all of the work when Marinette was perfectly willing to go hang out by Adrien's house so Tikki could do some digging, too) and Marinette really didn't have enough free time to keep heading over to Master Fu's place when they didn't have a meeting scheduled in hopes of catching him alone during the day, she would probably have to wait to ask.

Boo.

Marinette snagged the bag of pastries she had packed earlier in the day from the kitchen counter, then headed out the door. She speedwalked as she headed to Master Fu's, knowing how important it was for her to arrive right at the time the old master had specified. She and Chat Noir were given slightly different arrival times, and arriving early or late could result in an accidental early reveal.

Marinette arrived only a minute late, and found her partner already there, his voice ridiculously altered as always by the Darth Vader mask as he talked with Wayzz and Master Fu. Marinette waved to the old Guardian and took a seat on her cushion on the floor, pulling on her own voice-altering mask on as she did.

"Good to see you, Ladybug," Master Fu greeted her, taking the bag she handed him. He opened it and there was a squeal as Chat Noir's kwami dove in to claim a cheese bun. "Now that we're all here, let's start the meeting."

It didn't take long for Marinette to momentarily check out of the conversation, instead frowning slightly at the screen towards where her partner was sitting on the other side. She could tell that something was up with Chat Noir, even without seeing his face. His voice wasn't even close to being as energetic as usual- and no, it wasn't just the mask making it sound that way. Besides, she had noticed that he had been unusually serious and stone-faced during their akuma fight the night before.

Together, that was enough to spur Marinette to scoot forward and carefully reach her hand around the screen so Chat Noir could twine his fingers with hers if he wanted to. There was barely a pause before she felt his fingers slide past hers as he laced their hands together.

There were no flirty comments. That was when Marinette knew that there was something seriously wrong with her partner. When he leaned into the screen that separated them, Marinette didn't hesitate before returning the gentle pressure and tightening her hold on Chat Noir's hand.

No matter what was getting her partner down, they would get through it together.

Just like they always did.

A/N: So I had planned to update yesterday because I'm, like, a whole chapter behind schedule, but instead I did taxes because I'm a responsible adult who doesn't put important things off.

...who am I kidding, I was planning on doing my taxes for three whole weeks before I actually got around to it, and that was only because the deadline is coming up.

Next up is going to be another chapter in the main story, followed by THREE side story chapters (I got a little carried away, oops)! I kind of clumped a lot of side stories near the end since there was a lot going on (and Plagg doesn't always pay the best attention).

As always, reviews always make my day! :)