The night sky was overcast, thick clouds blotting out the stars, and the moon only a sliver of its usual self, granting almost no light to see by. Below the large ship, the sea was an abyss of shadows as the waves lapped against the bow.

This environment was perfect for Captain Chat Noir to set up an ambush.

Adrien adjusted the dark mask on his face as he peered through the lens of a spyglass, pointing it toward the hidden shore of a nearby island and marveling at all the detail he could see despite the pitch black of night.

Through the mysterious enhancements of the mask that he had inherited along with his title, Adrien was able to watch the drunken men as they stumbled about the shore. The cat ears on his head almost twitched as he picked up the raucous laughter, obnoxious boasting, and vulgar celebration of their latest raid. These pirates were responsible for attacking several towns on the French coast; stealing valuables along with kidnapping innocent women from their homes.

"I knew it would be a good idea to prowl around," Adrien practically growled.

Nino, his first-mate, groaned from beside him, squinting out at the dark shore despite not being able to see anything. "Now is not the time for making puns. Plus, that wasn't even remotely clever."

Adrien scoffed in mock offense. "Excuse me? I can make puns whenever I'm feline like it."

"Go cough up a hairball," Nino grumbled.

"Are we going to launch an attack?" Kim asked from off to the side. Chat turned to face him, and though they didn't have any lanterns lit on the ship so that they wouldn't be spotted, he could easily pick out the curious anticipation in Kim's expression.

Adrien lowered the spyglass with a nod and returned it to it's compact state before tossing it back to Kim. "They are heavily inebriated."

"Huh?" Kim nearly dropped the scope in his confusion.

"He means they're drunk off their asses," Nino clarified and Kim spun around in what looked like an attempt to cover up his laughter, lest he make too much noise and give their position away.

"And we're completely sober," Adrien said with a grin.

Kim's snicker was followed by a soft belch. "Nope! Most of you are sober."

Nino shook his head while Adrien signaled up to Max at the helm to bring The Cataclysm around. With the night so dark, and their ship blending with the shadows of the waves, the pirates would never know what hit them.

"Can we celebrate after the fight?" Kim asked as he stowed the spyglass in a pouch that hung at his belt. "All the bread in the galley has gone stale."

Nino rubbed his chin, an eager gleam in his eye. "We are close to Paris. It would be a shame not to pick up some fresh supplies."

"Let's not jump ahead of ourselves." Though he tried to follow his own advice, Adrien couldn't hide his expectant grin, already making plans to visit the small patisserie near his home. "But I suppose we're all on the same page with what we want."

Kim clasped his hands together and licked his lips. "Fight some pirates, rescue some damsels, then head home to gorge on croissants and chocolate filled eclairs!"

"Have you heard the latest news about Chat Noir?"

Adrien tried not to look surprised at the mention of his alter-ego's name. Instead, he kept his attention on the display of pastries in front of him, drawing out the time until he finally glanced up. "Something about helping Paris by apprehending a gang of thieves, I think?"

"Are you kidding? He did everyone in France a favor!" Tom jumped up and, using his rolling pin, mimed out slashing the air with a sword. "He ambushed the dread pirate Le Faucon and took out his entire crew of a hundred men! Saved some poor girls they had kidnapped in their raid, too!"

Adrien tried to hide the embarrassed flush on his face, but also couldn't help his widening smile. Tom may have been over-exaggerating the exploits of him and his crew just a bit, but his excitement to share the latest rumors appeared to be too infectious.

While it was true that they had saved the unfortunate group of women, Le Faucon only had about twenty men, and when he and his crew had taken them by surprise, most of them were too drunk to tell their sabers from their belt buckles.

"Tom, are you still going on about Chat Noir?" Sabine Cheng's exasperated sounding voice floated in from the doorway at the back of the bakery shortly before she entered carrying a large pastry box.

"Just filling Adrien in on the latest feats of Paris' hero," Tom said, quickly hiding the rolling pin behind his back. Sabine probably wouldn't have been happy to see her husband using it as a prop sword. "It might be difficult for him to keep up with news when he's sailing across the ocean."

"Actually, you'd be surprised what kind of stories we hear, even when docked in another country." Adrien suspiciously eyed the box as Sabine set it on the counter top. It was fairly large, more likely used for specialty cakes than what he had actually ordered. "That's not mine, is it?"

"It's exactly what you asked for, plus some chocolat au pain and a full set of macarons, on the house." Sabine winked as she patted the box.

Adrien shook his head, reaching for the extra notes in his pocket. "I can't accept those, I want to—"

Sabine cut him off with a quick wave of her hand. "You can and you will ." She took the box off the counter and practically shoved it into his arms, forcing him to accept it or drop it all onto the floor. "It's the least we can give you for everything you've done."

"I haven't done anything." Adrien frowned, his gaze quickly averting to the side. "We haven't actually found—"

"You're looking ," Sabine interrupted with a soft smile. "And that's enough to give us hope."

Adrien hesitated while trying to come up with another reason to either pay or refuse the treats outright, but instead he simply sighed in defeat. "Fine. Then I also want a batch of chouquettes, but I'm paying for those."

Tom chuckled, shuffling back to fill the order while Sabine simply responded with, "Whatever you say, dear."

Adrien soon bid them farewell. Though he carried much more than he had originally planned, he was certain that with the way his friends indulged in anything from the Dupain-Cheng bakery that the pastries wouldn't last long enough to spoil. He was too distracted by thoughts of the desserts himself to notice someone standing off to the side as he exited.

"Bought something extra?" Adrien jumped with a soft yelp before turning to face the speaker.

"Max!" Adrien hissed as his eyes flicked out to the scattering of people walking the streets. Luckily, no one seemed to be paying them any mind. "You can't just show up like this, I don't have my mask!"

"No worries," Max said with a shake of his head. "I have anticipated this and come up with a solution to deter anyone from discovering my identity." He glanced over his shoulder, then pulled Adrien by his elbow, leaning closer and lowering his voice. "I am wearing a disguise, so no one would ever guess I was a part of Chat Noir's crew."

Adrien's gaze flicked over his crewmate, but aside from the addition of a dark coat covering his shirt and suspenders, and a dressier pair of pants, Max didn't look any different than usual. "What disguise?"

Max pointed to his own face. "My eyepatch?"

True to what Max said, Adrien—in his panic—had missed that he was wearing an eyepatch over his left eye, awkwardly stuffed beneath his large-framed glasses.

"That's not going to work," Adrien said flatly.

"People are blind!" A high-pitched voice came out from beneath Max's coat right before a small parrot poked its head out.

"You brought Markov with you?" Adrien frowned down at the African Grey as Markov tilted his head innocently to the side. "Why couldn't you leave him behind?"

"Markov is my partner, and a valuable member of our crew!" Max scratched the feather's of Markov's crest, and the parrot clicked his beak with pleasure. "Aren't you, buddy?"

" We know that, believe me." Adrien's gaze turned to the street where a little girl appeared to have noticed and pointed at them with enthusiasm. "But he kind of sticks out for people that aren't used to him. Your disguise is one thing, but it's a dead giveaway if someone recognizes him from the ship."

"Hmm, fair point," Max hummed in thought before addressing the bird hiding in his shirt. "Perhaps it is better for you to return to the ship before you draw too much attention?"

"Aye, aye!" Markov nodded before squirming around in order to free himself. It was a miracle that Max didn't get whacked in the face when Markov took off into the air, making his way to the port in the Seine where the ship was docked.

"You should go too," Adrien said once Markov had flown out of sight. "Unless you want to sit through another boring tirade with my father."

"I didn't think you wanted to visit him this time?" Max inquired, following along beside Adrien as he started in the direction of his home.

"I didn't, but he wants an update on our finances and earnings." Adrien sighed. "If it keeps him from digging into what we're actually doing, I need to keep up appearances."

"We're doing well enough, so he should be satisfied." Max rubbed his chin, the two of them pausing at a corner to wait for a gap in the traffic before crossing the road. "Privateering is highly profitable, considering we spend nothing on acquiring trade goods."

Adrien nodded. "Almost too profitable to claim to be a standard merchant ship. We'll have to get rid of some money, or my father may start to wonder how we're making so much in such a short amount of time. He expects we might make a good fortune, but in only five months?"

That thought made him pause. Had it already been so long?

That makes eight months that she's been missing... he thought gloomily to himself.

Max's voice pulled him from his thoughts as he offered with a sly grin, "The rest of the crew would certainly know of a way to quickly spend any excess."

Adrien laughed at that. "I'm sure they would, but I'd rather it benefit someone who might need it." He looked back over his shoulder at the bakery, which was still visible down the street. "Maybe we could leave another anonymous investment with the Dupain-Chengs?"

"It is hardly anonymous when they know who it's from," Max deadpanned.

Adrien stopped walking and turned to blink back at Max. "Wait... You think they know?"

Max eyed the pair of boxes in his arms. "One of them might, at least. Those are more complimentary pastries from Madame Cheng, are they not?"

"Yes..." Adrien answered slowly while Max just nodded his head.

"Marinette's mother is a generous woman, but it appears that she is even more so insistent when it comes to showing us appreciation."

"She's just grateful that we're trying to find her daughter."

Max hummed. "Perhaps."

Their conversation settled into a comfortable quiet as they continued around a corner, the lull of the crowds bouncing along the cobblestones, muted amid the sound of horse and carriage traffic moving over the road beside them.

Max's voice eventually broke the peace. "You know that the odds of finding her are actually... quite minimal, at best."

"That's not going to stop me," Adrien quickly responded, his gaze set pointedly ahead of him while they walked. "Plenty of people are lost at sea. Some are eventually found."

"It wasn't my intention to stop you," Max mumbled while tapping his fingers together nervously and averting his eyes. "I just don't want you to feel... If we don't—I mean... The chance that Marinette may be—"

"It's okay, Max." Adrien stopped on the sidewalk and turned to him with a light expression. It wasn't exactly a smile; more of something that showed he appreciated his friend's concern. "There's only no chance of finding her if we stop looking."

Max eventually nodded before giving him a soft, "Aye."

"Now, then," Adrien said with a little more force than he intended as he shoved one of the boxes into Max's hands, eager to change the topic. "If you're going to accompany me, at least help with some of the lifting."

It didn't take very long for the two of them to come into view of the Agreste estate. The impressive mansion towered over the large stone walls that protected the decorated courtyard within.

"It never fails to astound me," Max said quietly as they slipped through the entrance gate, warily eyeing the guard that gave him a scrutinizing gaze. "My accommodations were not grand, but they were adequate." He motioned his head toward the two-story mansion. " This makes it seem as if I grew up in a dirt hole."

"It's not that big," Adrien grumbled as they walked up the cobblestone drive. There was a carriage parked off to the side that he wasn't surprised to see. His father often had meetings with partners and clients, and never cared to reschedule them even when he knew his own son would be visiting. If he was with someone, he usually made Adrien wait until he was through.

They continued on up to the door, and when Adrien swung the heavy knocker, it immediately opened to reveal Nathalie waiting for them. "Good afternoon, Adrien," she addressed him. "Your father wishes for you to join him in the study."

Adrien stifled a groan and simply nodded. It was bad enough he had to go over the doctored finances of his ship, now it seemed he would be dragged into another boring business meeting.

Adrien tried not to sag as he willed his legs to move through the pristine foyer and up the elaborate set of stairs. He knew his father didn't like to be kept waiting, but it still took them a moment to navigate the large mansion. As they approached the study, Adrien was surprised to hear a woman's voice float out into the hall.

Not that Adrien was shocked to think a woman might be discussing business deals. It was only because Gabriel tended to lean toward being more of a 'traditional' businessman. The only colleges that he had met before had all been men.

So it was this new development that first set Adrien's suspicions off.

"I can't thank you enough for your help," he heard a petite voice say through the open door. Adrien carefully balanced the pastry box in one hand and politely knocked against the frame with the other before stepping into the room. His father turned to face him as he entered, standing in front of the unlit fireplace while a young woman in a crimson evening gown sat in one of the chairs nearby.

"Ah, Adrien, how good of you to join us. We can hold off on any discussion of business for now. I first wanted to introduce you to our guest." Gabriel turned to the girl and swept his arm out toward her with a slight bow. "Due to some unfortunate circumstances, Mademoiselle Rossi will be staying with us for a while."

The girl in question stood up, taking her skirts delicately in her hands to give him a flourished curtsy. "Thank you, Monsieur Agreste." She smiled warmly at Adrien with a tilt of her head. Despite having just met her, he felt a flash of something uncomfortable squirm through him. "Please, call me Lila. Your father has told me so much about you, I feel as if we've already met."