"Adrien, you awake?" I blink slowly, my eyes focusing on Mother's voice. Mother. Mother is alive and well, and I want to spend time with her. "Coffee first," I smile as I stretch, "But yeah, I'm awake."

"I'm sure your eager to see Marinette, but I made pancakes when your ready to have breakfast." "Okay," I whisper, staring at her as if she is a dream. "You certainly have grown up, Adrien," Mother strokes my bangs and gives me a loving smile. "I'm very proud of you."

After she leaves, I shower and dress quickly. As I brush my teeth, I check myself out in the mirror. "It feels like I've gone backwards in time, Plagg. Before she got sick. But things are even more beautiful now that Marinette is in my life."

The smell of pumpkin and syrup tempt me down into the kitchen, and Mother is standing the stove humming a little song. I wish I could take a snapshot of this moment, perfect and everything is at peace.

"There you are, sweetie. I'll have your food ready in a minute." "No rush," I say, clambering onto one of the kitchen island stools and pull out my phone when I hear a soft ding in my pocket.

Marinette: Good morning, Fluff ball. Will my coffee be delivered soon?

Adrien: Good morning to you, too. When you also like it served on a golden platter?

Marinette: Its only 7:15, and your already starting to tease.

Adrien: Yeah, and after we're married the puns are going to get a lot worse, M'lady.

Marinette: Help.

Adrien: You'll survive.

Marinette: Oh, hey! My mom invited your mom to lunch, if you can pass on the message.

Adrien: Will do. See you soon, love.

"Marinette?" Mother asks as she slides my food towards me. "Yeah. Her mother invited you to lunch." "Oh, how wonderful. Sabine was my best friend when I was younger. Oh, how we loved to laugh and visit the stores together. Of course, hers was always the paint and craft stores." "So, that's where Marinette gets some of artistic abilities."

I eat my food, but I'm watching Mother's face which seems far away. "Is something wrong, Mother?" "No, no. I'm happy that your marrying Marinette, but then your going to whisk her away and I may never see you again." "Marinette won't let that happen. Don't worry, I'm not going to disappear."

"Adrien," Mother's voice is quiet. "What was it like after you thought I disappeared?" "I didn't believe it at first. I would get up in the night looking for you, but you were never there. At first, Father told me you had been sent away to get better, and he slowly faded away." "Those days must have been very dark for you." My pancake seems lodged in my throat as I answer. "I may have worn a mask and a grin while fighting evil, but even so I wore to mask the pain of your absence."

Mother hugs me for a long time, then smiles. "Thank goodness those days are gone. Now, Marinette is waiting!"

I decide to take the shortcut to Starbucks, and I dash across the rooftops hoping the skies won't open at any moment. Just as I land on Marinette's balcony the skies open.

"Cat, how many times do I have to tell you, no one likes the smell of wet cat!" "I don't control the weather, Princess, but if I did it would only rain cats!" Marinette giggles as she plops down in her desk chair at her sewing machine. "What's wrong with dogs?" "Nothing, but if cats are falling from the sky, maybe I'll make some new friends!"

My eyes start to gleam as I butt at her hand. "What?" "Scritches." "Not tell you've gone in the tub. Go on, take a bath and I'll dry your hair when you come back." "Better not cause a windstorm, Princess." "That was accident, I hit the wrong setting!" "sure."

But I head down the hall, and clamber into the tub…..not knowing my mother and Marinette's are downstairs chatting about us as I splash around in the tub.

"Emile, its so good to see you again! Its been to long. Come in, the tea is hot." "You haven't changed, Sabine," Emile smiled. "You always had a pot of tea ready for any situation." "At least today I have tasty finger sandwiches and desserts." The two ladies sat down and selected their food.

"Your Marinette is a fine young lady, no wonder Adrien adores her. And why she was picked to be Ladybug all those years ago. Did you know?" Emile asked, blowing on her tea. Hm, just the righ amount of honey. "I've had my spiciness, but I didn't know tell recently. After all, your son saved our lives as Cat Noir. Cat woke us after Gabriel started the fire, and then detransformed before passing out from the smoke." "He's always been loving and selfless, wanting to please people."

"And now they'll be married and move away from Paris, its all a fairy…." Sabine paused. "Excuse me a moment," she stood up and walked up the short flight of stairs to Marinette's attic room. "Honey, I hear a lot of meowing. Everything okay?" "Yep, all good!" "Help!" Sabine chuckled.

"For the love of bread and butter, sit still!" I guess I'm in antsy mood, but I try to say still so Marinette can dry my hair. I'm happily surprised when the warm air is a soft breeze, and not a hurricane like it was last time.

"There. You are officially cute again!" I give her a side eye. "What do you mean by cute again?" "No one likes a stinky wet cat, not even a ladybug."

A ding from her phone as her scurrying over and she sighs. "What?" "Oh, I'm going to be out of town tomorrow, and I'm going to miss you."

"Think of this way," I give her a wink and a flick of my tail. "You won't have to put up with my puns tomorrow! But you will have to put up with them today! Uh-oh."

I watch her pretty face go from white to red. "M'lady, your beginning to resemble a strawberry." "You-you…" she splutters. "What's the matter?" I saunter over to her, giving her a sweet little kiss. "Cat got your tongue?" "Spots on. Now, I'm going to count to ten and you need to run…."

Downstairs, the two woman smiled at each other as they heard muffled banter. Ah, young love.