Adrien wished he could just call out Tikki and transform, because the trip would have been faster overall, but that would obviously reveal Chat Noir's identity to Past-Marinette, so he definitely wasn't doing it. Tikki was completely content to remain in his pocket and keep hidden. At the very least, their stroll through Paris went uninterrupted, as Adrien wore his own disguise to help deter any fans. He might have gone with a taxi service, except that sometimes, those drivers could wind up being even nosier than the press.

The trip wasn't long anyway. They were only a few blocks away from his friends' apartment when Adrien's phone—or rather, his wife's phone—buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out to glance at the screen and saw that he had a message from his own cell that read, 'Available to talk?'

He stopped walking and felt a soft bump against his back. Adrien turned to look over his shoulder and found Marinette rubbing her nose and fixing her skewed sunglasses from the unexpected collision. He couldn't help the soft chuckle that escaped him, and when her eyes shot up and realized he was watching, she gave him a lopsided grin and a thumb's up.

"Mind if I make an important call?" Adrien held up the cell phone, making sure to face the screen away from her, even though the case was some kind of cutesy, floral pattern. It was better than the alternative, because he knew for a fact that Marinette had a picture of the both of them together as her lock screen.

Under normal circumstances, Adrien would have prioritized getting Marinette back to Nino and Alya's apartment, but his pregnant wife—who had already scared them with two instances of fainting—was asking if he had a moment to talk. That meant it was something important that couldn't be shared over text, and the worry would eat at him if he didn't call her back soon.

Luckily, Marinette seemed understanding and didn't appear to question his taste in phone cases—then again, she had been there when he mentioned the phone mix up to Nino. "Of course! Go ahead." She glanced around the area and pointed behind them to the front of an older building that looked to be closed with almost no people crowding around in front of it. "I'll just give you some privacy and wait over there."

Before she could step away, Adrien reached out and grabbed her wrist. "Hold on!" He turned to look over his shoulder at the opposite street corner, where a quaint little café was located. It felt like a better idea to have her sit down than for her to just stand somewhere awkwardly. It was around lunchtime anyway, so he could get her something while she waited.

"How about we make a stop?" He nodded toward the café before turning his attention back to Marinette. "It might be a long call." Especially if I have to be cryptic with my words.

Adrien frowned when he noticed an odd look on her face. Beneath the sunglasses, she appeared to be flushed. Then his eyes followed her lowered gaze and he suddenly understood why.

Crap. He wasn't used to this Marinette, who—as Nino's text briefly highlighted the night before—had just become the Guardian of the Miraculous Box. That also meant that, in her time, she had resolved to completely give up on her feelings for his younger-self, and here he was practically holding her hand. From what he could see of her expression, she must have been fighting down fairly conflicting emotions.

He released her wrist and pointed at the café. "We should definitely get a table while they're not busy."

"Yeah…" she answered quietly with a nod, following after him as he approached the tables that were arranged neatly outside. Seeing as the place only had a few customers, a waiter immediately met them and was able to take their orders. Adrien asked for tea, and though he told Marinette she could get whatever she wanted, she simply ordered a sparkling water.

While she sipped quietly at her drink, Adrien brought out Marinette's cell phone again and dialed his own number. The phone only rang once, but before she even had a chance to say anything, Adrien quickly asked, "Are you alright?"

Marinette—his Marinette—let out a soft giggle. "Just the usual morning sickness, but I'm feeling okay." She paused when he let out a relieved sigh with the breath he'd been holding. "Adrien, I'm fine." Her voice sounded strained as she dragged out the last word. "That's not what I called about anyway. You better not have canceled the photoshoot just to talk with me."

"I didn't. We finished up sooner than I thought." He leaned back in the chair and glanced at Mini-Marinette, who appeared to be trying her best not to listen to the conversation taking place across from her. "In fact, I'm running a little errand for Nino while I swing back to his apartment."

"His apartment?" Marinette repeated. "But… Past-me is there, right? I don't think it's a good idea to meet her."

"Ah, yeah, about that." Adrien grimaced as he scratched at the beanie covering his hair. "It's too late. Way too late for that."

There was a moment of silence on the other end before he heard her gasp softly. "Oh no… She's the errand, isn't she?"

"Yep," Adrien replied. "I'll explain later, but it's not her fault. What did you need to talk about?"

"Well, first, I wanted to apologize for taking your phone," Marinette groaned. "That's what I get for waking up before the alarm."

He chuckled at that, because he was already used to her not being all-there when she woke up in the mornings. The exhaustion that came with her pregnancy just made those kind of situations more common. "It's fine. After I stop off at Nino's apartment, I can come to you."

"About that," Marinette started hesitantly. "Long story short, Papa's cooking set off my nausea, and I've just been hanging in the park all morning to avoid the bakery."

Adrien winced, already starting to think of alternative ideas. "Couldn't you come back?" His gaze moved to Past-Marinette as he heard her whisper something, but he quickly realized she was just talking to Tikki, who was hidden in the coat's pocket. "We'd be careful, not let you-know-who see. Because you know I'm not comfortable with a hotel, to be honest."

Adrien recalled her fainting incident at the restaurant… As well as the one from the previous morning. He didn't like the idea of her being left alone, even if Plagg would always be nearby. Granted, Adrien could stay with her, but if he had to leave, there was still the risk of her fainting. Even if one of her episodes hadn't been helped by the sweltering heat wave from an akuma, the doctor had said it could happen again.

"Well, Nathalie might have a solution for that." Her voice sounded uncertain, and a sense of unease grew within him. "She told me that your father is in Milan, so she suggested I stay at the mansion."

Two feelings immediately warred within him at that plan.

One: his need to keep Marinette safe.

Two: his distaste at the mention of his father.

Adrien had managed to keep his distance for so, so long. Despite the brief appearance he'd been allowed at their wedding, Adrien had no intention of ever forgiving Hawk Moth for anything that he'd done, even if Gabriel had returned the butterfly miraculous of his own accord…

At his silence, Marinette continued on, "And Nathalie said that the chefs can make me a special menu that won't incite my nausea."

"It does sound like a great idea," Adrien considered, feeling a little of his discomfort ebb away. With Nathalie as the one suggesting it, at least he knew that she was only being practical in her concern for Marinette's health. After the lengths she had gone to, to make up for her mistakes... And she was the one who had refused to fight when she learned Chat Noir's identity—not jumped at the opportunity to steal the miraculous. "And there's zero chance of running into him if I wanted to come over?"

"He's in Milan for the next eight days," Marinette clarified. "Our past-selves should be gone well before then, right?"

"He'll be in another country for the whole week! This akuma won't be on the run for that much time." Adrien smiled down at past-Marinette, who seemed to be watching him curiously, her attention obviously drawn by his mention of the akuma. "They usually don't last longer than a day at most." He then smirked. "My 'first' akuma technically holds the record for three months, of course."

"That doesn't count!"

Adrien jumped at the two nearly identical voices creating an echo of sorts, one from over the phone, and the other sitting right across from him. "Alright, alright!" He rubbed his poor, exposed ear and glanced at Mini-Marinette, who looked troubled for some reason that he couldn't decipher. "So, you'll go with the new plan, for now?"

"Only if you're okay with it," Marinette answered.

"I want you to be as comfortable as possible," Adrien said in a soft tone. "And this is the safest option." And it was, because he couldn't think of any better ideas. If she fainted again, Plagg could alert Nathalie, and she could take Marinette to the doctor, or even bring a specialist to her, if needed.

"Okay," Marinette said. "I guess I'll see you later if you decide to visit, then."

"Oh, I'll definitely be coming over as soon as I can, once I get everything taken care of on my end." Adrien couldn't keep the expectant grin off his face. It hadn't been a full day since he'd last seen her, but he was already eager to return to her side. "I could even spend the night?"

She laughed—that beautiful, joyful laugh that warmed his chest. "That sounds fun. And Nathalie brought me some calamine, so we won't have any interruptions this time." She added in a softer voice, "Love you, chaton."

He answered automatically, "Love you, too, buuuuuu—" His eyes widened as he caught himself before he could finish that particular nickname for his wife, his eyes switching to past-Marinette. "—uuuuh—bye."

He quickly ended the call, his eyes not leaving the girl still sitting in front of him. Over the years he had come to know her, he was confident in being able to read her expressions—and even with a younger version, found it was pretty much the same.

So an uncomfortable, cold feeling washed over him at the suspicious narrow of her eyes, and that calculating gaze that seemed to bore into his thoughts and unravel all of his secrets. It was very much the same expression she made as Ladybug, and he could practically see her connecting the dots in her head.

Had he spilled nearly everything with just one botched word?

"E-everything alright?" Adrien asked, a nervous pitch to his voice that he couldn't control.

His question seemed to jolt Marinette out of her thoughts when she jumped like she'd been shocked. "Oh, fine!" She casually tilted her head toward his cell phone, as if nothing odd had happened. "All done?"

Adrien asked the waiter for the check as soon as he returned, then the two of them promptly left the café.

The rest of their trip was awkwardly silent, Adrien not certain he wanted to say anything to clarify that it might have been a misunderstanding, or even ask about it in case that only helped to clue her in even more. Luckily, they didn't have far left to travel, and the two of them eventually entered the apartment, Adrien leading the way to his friends' home where he took out a copy of the key and unlocked the door.

Once they were inside, Adrien quickly removed his hat and sunglasses and curiously glanced around at the empty place. With the kitchen and living room right in front of him, and the hallway off to his left, he didn't have to go far to see that no one was home. "Huh, Nino's still not here? And we even stopped for a bit."

"Maybe he's stuck in traffic?" Marinette quietly responded while he sent a brief text to his friend asking what was up. Before he could even put the phone away, Nino shot him a flurry of replies.

Nino: Cabs r stupid!

Nino: And the Uber guy tried to scam me!

Nino: ONE STAR!

Adrien couldn't help the laugh that escaped him. Reading it in text form, he could only imagine how his friend was actually raging. "Looks like Nino's having some trouble." He turned to Marinette, who had already removed the coat and hat and neatly folded them into a small pile. "But don't worry, I'll stay here until he gets back."

"Oh!" Marinette seemed startled by that, her brow furrowed from her obvious discomfort. "That's… Alright."

"Marinette," Tikki's voice couldn't help but travel in the small, quiet apartment as she whispered into Marinette's ear. "It's okay. It's definitely not what you think."

Well, that probably wasn't a good sign. Adrien took a cautious step toward her, intending to get to the bottom of things. "Look, about earlier—"

"No!" Marinette suddenly shrieked, waving her hands around wildly. The coat and hat fell to the floor with the sunglasses clattering after, which she squeaked about and quickly dropped down to scoop up. "No, no no no no! I don't want to know anything else about the future! Even if it's the worst possible thing or-or something terrible..."

He stopped moving, raising a curious eyebrow. "Are we… talking about what I said on the phone?" She had heard him almost call Marinette 'buginette,' right? If she had come to the conclusion that he had said 'love you' to someone that might be Ladybug over the phone—which was herself —then… "Why would you think that's bad?"

"Why wouldn't it be!" she shouted, unceremoniously slamming the coat and hat over the back of the couch. "It's… ugh! I mean… It is bad, right?" Her expression suddenly wavered, and Adrien could see the doubt grow in her eyes.

He resisted the urge to wrap her in a protective hug. Instead, he kept his distance and wracked his brain to understand what she was thinking. What exactly did she hear out of that conversation? But the longer he remained silent, the more she appeared to worry.

"Did I jump to conclusions?" she mumbled. He opened his mouth to answer, but Marinette turned away and started pacing in front of the windows. "I did, didn't I!? I mean, of course I did! It was just some stupid idea in my head thanks to Nino and his bride, but it couldn't have been that, not in a million years! I was just…" She pounded the flat of her palms against her forehead. "Stupid, stupid. I assumed the worst possible thing and… I'm so sorry, Adrien."

He stared at her for a brief moment, trying to make sense of her mess of words before shaking his head and dropping onto the couch, gently patting the space next to him. She hesitated as her gaze switched between him and the cushion, but with a soft nudge from Tikki against her shoulder, Marinette eventually shuffled around and plopped down at the other end, putting a sizable gap between them. She stuffed her hands between her knees as she bit at her lip.

"So," he started softly, yet she still winced at the sound of his voice. "What was that about Nino's bride? We're not talking about Alya, are we?"

"No…" Marinette sighed. "It was Nino's DJ job. The bride that canceled on him?" She spared a quick glance at him before she averted her gaze. "Her fiancé cheated on her."

"Oh... Ouch." Adrien grimaced. "I hadn't heard that detail. So, what does that have to do with this?"

"Well… It's just… your conversation?" She fidgeted uncomfortably and lowered her head, seeming to curl further in on herself. "You were acting a little odd. I didn't mean to eavesdrop… But… Your wife is—Just from the one side, it just sounded like you were…" Her eyes finally moved up, and he could see the embarrassment flush red across her cheeks. "Sneaking around?"

He stared at her for a moment, his phone conversation quickly replaying in his head, only this time, he tried to hear it from Marinette's point of view before everything finally clicked in his thoughts. "Oh… OH." He had been acting suspicious, yes? At least, coupling the one-sided conversation she had heard with trying to avoid the cab...

He flopped against the back of the couch, staring up at nothing. "It… It really did sound like that, didn't it?"

She groaned as her head dropped into her hands, hiding her face. "I'm sorry! You can't say much in front of me, so that's why it sounded off! And I know you would never, ever do anything like that, but I got carried away and I… So much can change in seven years..."

Under normal circumstances, it might have been an extreme conclusion to jump to, but this wasn't a normal circumstance, was it? He knew Marinette, and with everything about their past revealed to him, it was obvious she'd only been worried. Because she probably thinks I'm married to Kagami, he thought glumly. She was just concerned for her friend.

"See?" Tikki hugged Marinette from where she sat on her shoulder. "I told you, you were overthinking things."

"Sorry," Marinette repeated, slumping against the couch and groaning as she rubbed her eyes. "I wasn't thinking straight."

"It's alright. Anyone would have thought the same, hearing that." Adrien managed to hold in the laugh that threatened to escape him. He couldn't help but find it funny that she'd thought he might have been cheating on her future-self with her future-self, even if she actually didn't know that little detail.

"I can at least explain this much," he started softly, wanting to be partially honest in order to ease her anxiety. "That was actually my wife. On the phone. I had a… disagreement with my father, and right now she can't stay in our apartment for health reasons. So he offered for her to stay in the mansion, and I was just being stubborn because I didn't want to see him."

"Is she okay?" Marinette asked softly. "Your wife?"

"Nathalie is with her." Adrien leaned forward and propped his head up on his palm, giving her a warm smile at the comforting thought. He wouldn't have to worry about her while she was at the mansion. "I don't think she likes the idea of having what's essentially a 'nanny,' but she's in the best possible company if she needs any help."

"It's not much." Marinette smiled back at him, and Adrien couldn't help but take in her expression, relieved to see that she didn't appear as tense as she had been a minute ago. "But it sounds like you two are happy."

"We are," he answered softly.

Marinette tapped her fingers together as she watched him quietly before she curled her hands around one another. "I'm so… so glad, Adrien."

His eyes moved over her again, and while she was still smiling, Adrien couldn't help but notice an off-putting look in her eye, almost as if she were trying to hide something…

He froze when the realization hit him.

She's letting me go.

That expression. Past version of Marinette or not, it tore him up inside to see her look at him like that. He didn't want to watch this event while it happened. He didn't want to bear witness to the suffering she had experienced from the weight of her responsibilities and the pain of thinking the boy she loved would never return it.

Why couldn't he have realized her feelings sooner? He could have erased her pain so easily.

"Marinette…" He reached out and laid his hand on her shoulder, squeezing her gently while Tikki flew off across the room, probably to give them space. Marinette looked up at him in surprise. "You don't have to..." What? Worry? Suffer alone because I'm right here and we'll be together in your future? What can I tell her without screwing this up?

She stared back at him, gaze wavering, until her eyes suddenly went wide. "You… you know?" she asked quietly. He could see the small hint of tears beginning to form. "About…?"

Crap. Crap crap crap. He had wanted to comfort her. This is worse. This is so much worse.

"Did I tell you?" He could hear the panic creeping into her voice again. "Or did you figure it out?"

"A little of both," Adrien found himself answering, his voice sounding broken even to his own ears.

Her expression said it all. The dismay. The hurt. The rejection. Every one of her fears about this moment seemed to be crushing her from all the assumptions she was probably jumping to. She still thought she was the only one with any feelings between them.

"It's…" he started softly, trying to find the words that would fix this without ruining everything. "It's okay. You—you're amazing and so, so strong…"

"A-are we still friends?" Marinette's voice was barely above a whisper as she interjected, turning her head away like she didn't want to know the answer.

"Best friends." Adrien smiled, wanting to tell her that it was so much more than that. But he couldn't. Her life was so much better now. His life was so amazing with her in it. But if she knew more than this, would their bright future still come to pass? How was it fair that she had to go through Hell just to be happy?

He wanted to reassure her, to spill everything just to see her smile again. He didn't want to be the reason for the pain and hurt that she was suffering. How could he… How could he not notice sooner that this amazing girl was his best friend, his partner, his everyday Ladybug and the love of his life?

"I'm sorry," Adrien blurted without thinking, but that was probably not the thing to say, because a tear finally slid down Marinette's cheek.

She wiped at it and sniffed. "I-I'm not upset." She covered her eyes and turned away.

"You are," Adrien said softly, aching to somehow wash away her misery. Without thinking about it, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and laid his head against her hair, but he didn't let go even when he felt her stiffen. "You don't have to hold it in and pretend that everything's okay." He fought against his own emotions as she shuddered with a quiet sob. "I'm sorry, Marinette. I'm so, so sorry."

Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, she collapsed against him, and he held her tightly, making sure that she didn't fall.

He wanted to say that everything would be alright. She was the light of his life, and they would become a family, the way they'd always dreamed. They would defeat Hawk Moth. They could be together. They even had a hamster!

But he could only hold her, and offer her some comfort that the boy she loved would be happy.

And he had to leave her thinking that it wasn't because of her.