"That peacock is awfully suspicious."

Marinette lifted her eyes to meet Adrien's over the top of her coffee, quirking an eyebrow. "Come again?"

Adrien leaned back in his chair and put his hands in his sweatshirt pocket. "I said the peacock was suspicious," he repeated. A few customers gave him sideways glances and he pouted, proceeding to push his quiche around with his fork.

Marinette tried to resist giggling; he was terribly adorable when stewing over something like he was. And his recent trend of mussing up his hair a bit, so that he looked more like his alter ego, wasn't helping. She cleared her throat. "How so?"

Adrien sighed. "One, she kept me up really late last night-"

"Adrien, I told you you needed to get more sleep," Marinette interrupted, scolding the boy. He held up his hands in surrender.

"I know, I know, but listen," he insisted, "keeping a kid like me up till three in the morning is flat-out mean. That makes me wary." Marinette snickered.

"Sleeping Beauty's pretty worked up about that, isn't he?"

"You were the one scolding me just a second ago!"

Marinette giggled into her hand as Adrien huffed at the other side of the table. "I'm sorry, continue," she laughed.

Adrien frowned at her for a moment. "ANYWAY," he carried on with a harumph, "the main reason I'm suspicious of her is that she just…showed up. What if she's an akuma, like Lila was? Or what if she's really a Miraculous wielder but works with Hawkmoth?"

Marinette stirred her coffee in thought. "That's not all, is there?"

Adrien shook his head. "No." He'd resumed leaning on his forearms on the table, and now he rubbed his thumbs together distractedly. He looked up and met Marinette's eyes. "I'm pretty sure I've seen her as a civilian somewhere before."

Marinette opened her mouth to say something but then Adrien's phone rang. He sighed and picked up, excusing himself for a moment to talk somewhere quieter.

"Adrien."

"Hello Nathalie," Adrien greeted, trying not to groan. "Was there a photoshoot I didn't know about?"

Adrien knew full and well there wasn't, so what his father could have possibly wanted he had no idea.

"Your father has requested your presence for a fitting," Nathalie droned. "He is expecting you to attend the Summer Solstice Gala and there is a custom suit he needs you to wear."

Adrien pinched the bridge of his nose. "I thought father said I didn't have to go this year."

"Your father's colleagues are expecting your presence this year and he wants to make a good impression," Nathalie continued. "You have to be there. However, while he is allowing you to bring a 'date' of your choice-"

Adrien's eyes lit up for a moment.

"-he would prefer it if you took young Ms. Bourgeois."

"Of course," Adrien muttered under his breath. "Okay. What time does father need me for the fitting?"

"He considers you late already, Adrien. I would suggest leaving immediately."

"Right now?!" Adrien exclaimed, earning some looks from passers-by. He repeated, at a quieter tone, "Right now? But Nathalie, it's a school day and I have important tests I can't make up!"

"Now, Adrien. Your grades can wait."

Adrien sighed. "Yes, Nathalie. I'm at the Dupain-Cheng bakery for lunch. I'll be waiting outside."

"Your chauffeur will be there in five minutes."

There was a click as Nathalie hung up and Adrien shoved his phone into his pocket in a huff. He slid inside the bakery and Marinette smiled at him from taking a sip of coffee.

"Who was it?" she asked cheerily.

"Nathalie." Marinette's face fell and she looked like her coffee had suddenly turned bitter.

"Ew. What'd she say?"

Adrien sighed again. "I have to leave in five minutes for a fitting," he explained, "and my father has no regard for the fact we have a physics test today."

Marinette frowned. "I'll grab you a sheet today then and you can work on it at home," she decided. "If Ms. Mendeleiv has a problem with it then sucks for her."

Adrien laughed a little. "Thanks, Mari."

She beamed at him, then stood up and grabbed her bag. "I'll wait with you. I have to walk back anyway."

As they waited, Marinette made conversation with him. "So what's the fitting for anyway?"

"Father's having a custom suit made for me," Adrien shrugged. "The Summer Solstice Gala is coming up in a month and I didn't have to go this year until my father's co-workers decided they wanted to see me there. I hate these rich-people parties because nobody has any emotion and they just kind of…stare at you when you walk by."

Marinette laughed. "Fun."

"The only upside this year is that I get to choose who to take with me as opposed to having Chloé drag me around the place," Adrien continued, looking sideways at Marinette. Her cheeks were tinged pink as she looked at him.

"Are you implying that-"

Adrien bowed with a flair. "Would you like to attend the gala with me, My Lady?"

Marinette giggled and shoved him lightly. "Who do you take me for, minou? Of course I do!"

Adrien laughed and righted himself. "It's a date, then." Marinette looked flustered again.

"Well, I mean, if you want it to be," she stammered. "Oh! Are you, uh, still planning on taking me to that café next week? Because I know you're really busy and I don't want to interfere…w-we can reschedule if-"

Adrien laughed again, his cheeks a bit warm at the mention of it. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

Marinette turned an even brighter shade of red and muttered something about how dumb he was before staring at her shoes. Adrien's chauffeur pulled up and he sighed. "Tell the teacher I'm out for a fitting and probably won't be back," he requested of Marinette. Grinning mischievously, he kissed her hand and strode to the car as she stammered after him.

"You dumb cat!"

"Love you too, Princess!"

Marinette's face burned and she buried it in her hands. "Oh my god."

The car drove off and Adrien waved through the window. Marinette waved back, still visibly flustered, before discreetly flipping him the bird and running off to catch up with Alya and Nino. Adrien smiled after her and leaned back in his seat.

He really did mean it when he said he loved her too.

And he knew Marinette's rude hand gestures were affectionate. Two years of working with Ladybug made him quite sure of that. Marinette could call him dumb and it wouldn't hurt because she'd be blushing up a storm at the same time. Ladybug could call him an idiot and he'd just purr because she'd be scratching him in that spot behind his cat ears that he couldn't quite reach.

Plagg made a disgusted noise from Adrien's shirt. "You're thinking about her again, aren't you?"

Adrien gave him a fake gasp. "Whoa, how could you tell?" he countered sarcastically.

Plagg squinted at him. "I don't know, maybe you were just kind of sitting there and smiling for no reason?" he suggested with an indignant sniff. "Also your cheeks are bright red."

Adrien rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I've said it before and I'll say it again: you don't know anything about love."

"We'll see about that, kid."

The car pulled up in front de Gabriel, the boutique Adrien's father ran. Adrien walked alongside Gorilla and stared at the huge lettered sign, vaguely acknowledging Nathalie as she flitted about him and handed him schedules. He hated that logo, hated the butterfly-like symbol that accompanied it. Hated the smell of cleaning solutions and shape-holding chemicals and leather and rubber. It was cold and its snobbish atmosphere made him want to run all the way back to the boulangerie where it smelled of cookies and bread and Marinette.

He liked it much better there.

As a result Adrien was on a hair trigger, tensed and ready to run at any moment even though he knew he couldn't. And when Gabriel himself entered the room and the temperature dropped even further and the air pressure seemed to increase, building up around and inside Adrien's ears and making them pop, Adrien jumped. He started because he was on such an unstable fuse that the mere presence of the man who was becoming more of a warden than a father made his sense of self-preservation kick in and take over.

Adrien didn't fear his father, he told himself that over and over. But the need to be a normal kid who could even have friends over without worry of being shut inside overrode his senses and made his desperate want to live feel like fear.

And this, he thought, this store for people with more money than others where he regularly got told to stand still while someone held a measuring tape to his body, this wasn't living. He was sixteen and still barely got to dress himself. He was a doll.

"Nathalie, Adrien," Gabriel greeted. He bore no emotion and when he looked at his son Adrien felt numb. Gabriel squinted at the boy, walking a little closer and giving him a once-over. "Mm, you've been spending quite a lot of time at the Dupain-Cheng bakery the past few months," he observed coolly. "I do hope they're not feeding you too much, Adrien. I wouldn't want you to be overweight for our next photoshoot."

Adrien tried to ignore how hungry he was. "What's wrong with photoshop, father?" he countered, his voice just as sure and level. "Is our graphic design team incapable of erasing a few inches of waist?"

Gabriel frowned, looking about as taken aback as he could. "Was that attitude, Adrien?"

"Of course not, father. I'm above that."

"You're not, and you know it." Gabriel looked to Nathalie. "Come. You're already late."

In the back room Gabriel examined the choice materials while a couple employees went about their business briskly, pulling out pins and measuring tapes and speaking with the designer about the selected fabrics. Adrien pulled off his sweatshirt and threw it on a chair while Nathalie took notes.

Gabriel looked at his son. "Your tee-shirt too, Adrien," he ordered. "I want this as form-fitting as possible."

Adrien huffed and wiggled out of his tee, muttering, "You never ask me what I want." The plastic measuring tape was cold against his skin and goosebumps prickled along his arms and across his stomach and he had to fight the urge to curl inward.

Gabriel held a few fabrics to Adrien's bare chest for a moment, while the boy's measurements were being taken, for a frame of reference before deciding on one and selecting the appropriate thread.

"Adrien, who is this Dupain-Cheng girl to you?"

Adrien started. He knew this would happen and yet…

"Why, father?" he inquired. "Is she of some concern to you?"

His father's hesitation confirmed his suspicions and he tried not to sneer. "You seem to have taken a great liking to her, Adrien. Your frequenting of the bakery is not solely for sweets, I presume?"

"You presume correctly," Adrien affirmed. "She's a great person to be around and she's amazing. She was the one who won your hat contest last year."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yes, and if you have anything to say against my friendship with her I suggest you say it now."

Gabriel gave Adrien that same disapproving frown again. "For now I do not," he sighed. "You're lucky. I assume she's the one you'd like to take with you to the Gala?"

Adrien swallowed down the fluttering in his stomach at the thought of it. "Y-yes father."

"Your suit is made to match Chloé's. Your little seamstress will have to make her own dress to match your outfit, or not come at all."

Fire lit up in Adrien's chest. "Marinette is more than capable of doing that!"

"Then she should have no problem."

"That still doesn't change how unfair it is to her! You've given her a month and she has other things to do!"

"Then it will be the perfect challenge. She needs to prove herself to me."

"Why?" Adrien demanded. "Tell me why."

The room went silent. The tailors around Adrien backed up slightly and everyone stopped what they were doing in favor of the crackling, tense atmosphere between Gabriel and his son.

Adrien turned to face his father. "Tell me why you think a girl as capable as her needs to prove herself to you when in my opinion she already has. Tell me why any girl I take to parties besides Chloé has to be a seamstress of professional merit. And tell me why, father, you choose to overwork Marinette simply for her to go anywhere with me."

Gabriel's expression remained constant apart from the slight twitch of the lips that might have been a smile, one of satisfaction like he had won somehow. His eyes shifted to the employees grouped at the back.

"Get back to work," he ordered before looking directly into his son's eyes. "I've heard what I needed to hear."

Adrien watched his father leave with a slight gape, following him a few steps. "You were testing me!" he accused.

"Perhaps," his father responded. "Now hold still, Adrien. You'll mess up the measurements."

Chat landed on the balcony and rapped on Marinette's window. Within a few minutes she opened it and he jumped in, stretching.

"You were there awfully long," Marinette observed.

"Father wouldn't let me leave until I'd rehearsed for the party," Chat groaned, now detransformed and sitting down heavily on the floor. "Why I need to rehearse for that, I don't know."

Marinette handed him a blank test from earlier in the day. "Do you have to meet with the Peacock tonight?"

Adrien sighed. "I probably should," he mumbled, leaning into Marinette's hand as she ran her fingers through his hair and scratched him behind the ears. "But I don't want to go…not yet."

"Then don't. You look like you've had a long day."

"Mmmmbut Mariiiiii…" Adrien protested, closing his eyes and rubbing his head against her hand. "What about…mm…Hawkmoth…?"

Marinette smiled. He'd started to purr and it made his voice sound funny when he talked.

"Adrien, you're tired and need some rest," she told him. "Tell your Peacock she can wait."

"But...this is…mmmimportant…it would mmmmake me…feel better, at least…" He'd begun kneading the carpet, his purring growing louder than any normal human could attempt.

Marinette sighed heavily. "Fine. But at least stay here awhile," she ordered. "Tell me about your day."

He let out a small mewl of protest but gave in and wiggled his top half into Marinette's lap so she could pet him easier. "Mm…it was fine until I had to get fitted," he grumbled. "Father thinks you need to make your dress to match my suit for the gala. He knows you don't have time enough for that and what with trying to get the Miraculous back…"

"I can manage," Marinette shrugged. "Just send me a picture of it when you can and I'll see what I can do."

"But-"

"It's okay, Adrien."

Adrien rolled up and out of her lap so that he was facing her, propped up on his elbows. "No it's not, Marinette," he assured her. He looked at the ground. "It's not okay. Nothing he ever does is okay. This is unfair to you and…" He trailed off as Marinette placed a hand on his cheek and he melted into it, resuming his purring.

"Fine, it isn't okay," Marinette relented, "but I'll be alright. Don't worry." She rubbed her thumb on his cheek and his eyes opened a crack.

"That's not all of it…I can't eat much more than a croissant every time I come here or else he'll notice that I weigh more than I should and he won't let me come here anymore," Adrien pouted. "I can still sneak out as Chat but I won't be able to eat as him either."

Marinette's thumb stopped moving. "I knew model diets were bad but…" She shook her head. "You're so thin, you don't eat enough. This isn't fair to you."

A sudden wave of exhaustion washed over Adrien and he nodded tiredly, leaning into Marinette's hand. "I'm so hungry…"

"I don't care about what your dad says, I'm getting you something much more filling than a croissant," Marinette decided. "Wait here."

Within a few minutes she was back with a sandwich, one of sizeable portions that Adrien never got the luxury of having. He tore into it hungrily and Marinette watched watched him with a hint of sadness in her eyes. "How long has he been like this?" she asked.

"About three or four years," Adrien replied with a mouthful of food. "I always ate enough before my mom left."

Marinette ruffled his hair affectionately. "Oh, Adrien…"

There was a period of time where the two just sat in silence before Marinette looked at the clock. "It's midnight, Adrien. If you want to meet with Peacock you'd better leave now."

He grumbled and Plagg made a similar complaint, not wanting to leave Tikki. The little black cat god had become extremely protective of his counterpart since the earring got taken and now he mewled in protest, curled up around her.

Adrien had been sleeping in Marinette's lap and now he stretched, mumbling something about not wanting to leave. Marinette sighed. "You said it yourself, kitty," she reminded him, "you need to do this."

Adrien opened one eye halfway. "You were the one telling me not to earlier."

"Yeah, and I changed my mind because I need my earring back and she's our biggest chance at doing that."

The boy moaned. "But Princess…"

"Adrien if you set your mind to something you'd better follow through with it. Now hurry!"

He stood, albeit a tad wobbly, and groggily called on Plagg to transform him. In his place stood Chat Noir, still tired but with more energy than he'd had before.

Marinette scratched his ears and rubbed her thumbs on his cheek, making him purr again. "Wake up, kitty," she whispered. "It's no good having a dead-to-the-world superhero in town."

He smiled lightly. "I'm only dead to the world because of you, My Lady."

Marinette blushed. "Stop it, I have to go to bed." She let go of his face and held his hand in both of hers, pressing it to his chest. "Please stay out of trouble. I don't need you going and getting beaten up or held hostage tonight."

The cat laughed a little. "No promises, Bugaboo," he yawned, "but I'll try my best."

"You'd better," Marinette snorted. "Now get going and make it fast; you need to sleep."

Chat hopped into the skylight and gave Marinette a salute. "As you wish, My Lady." And then he was gone. Marinette watched him till his suit blended into the night and the neon shine of his eyes were but specks bouncing along the rooftops. A gust of wind whispered through her hair and left a wet promise of rain and she shivered.

It was odd and it didn't feel right. Rain wasn't supposed to come this often at this time of year. The clouds weren't supposed to block out the sun as much as they had and the smell of rain on the wind was bittersweet, ensuring sinisterly that a storm was brewing.

Marinette closed the skylight and huddled on her bed. Tikki floated lopsidedly up to the girl and settled with a drunken wobble on her knee. "I feel it too, Marinette." The god trembled a little. "Something big is going to happen and I don't know what but I feel that it'll mark the end of our current Hawkmoth's power," she squeaked before shaking her head. "Or…something else might happen sooner. It's hard to say. The wind has never been good at delivering clear messages."

Marinette flopped backwards, staring at the moon. "I would say that it was just an odd storm," she sighed, "but you're a wise, ancient god and I'm a teenager. I'm going to trust you on this and see what I can do to prepare."

"Right now, nothing," Tikki supplied gloomily. "I wish I knew what to do but I don't because I'm not one hundred percent sure anything is going to happen at all. For now just set to work finding leads to Hawkmoth and making your dress, and we'll figure out the details later. Okay?"

Marinette watched a cloud obscure the moon, her brow creased with worry. "Okay."