The first few times Plagg disappeared during class a few weeks ago, Adrien didn't think much about it. The cheese disappeared way before they had reached the school too and he was back before the bell rang for the first break so he didn't say anything. He got a little suspicious when Plagg started to save the Camembert for later, but it was gone along with the kwami by the time he did his routine check of his bag. He though nothing of it. And then was when things started getting weird. Sometimes the cheese was left untouched, others even the container was gone. And today Plagg hadn't returned until the final bell ring; he even stayed MIA through the lunch break. Something's going on, and he doesn't like it one bit.

On the way home, the little sprite stays silent, nibbling on a thin slice of Camembert absentmindedly. He doesn't speak as they enter the mansion and doesn't demand another piece when they get to Adrien's room. The god of destruction just swallows what's left of the cheese he still has and floats to the trashcan. Adrien frowns, but he has a ton of homework. He will ask him later.

It isn't until two and a half hours later, when his own stomach grumbles, that he notices that Plagg has stayed silent the hole time.

"Plagg?" Adrien gets up from his chair and walks to Plagg's 'room', only to find him asleep. "Plagg! Snack time!" the god opens his eyes slowly and blinks at him. Yawning, he floats upwards. "C'mon, I'll get you some Camembert." Before he can turn to the fridge he has in the room for that sole purpose, the little sprite speaks.

"I don't want it."

Adrien freezes. Has Plagg just…?

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You heard me. I don't want it." And with that he zips to the second floor of the room.

Yep, Plagg has just refused Camembert.

Camembert.

Plagg has refused CAMEMBERT!

What the hell is going on?!

The next few days, Plagg disappears around the first class and Adrien doesn't see him until the final bell, unless there's an Akuma attack. Sometimes part of the cheese vanishes with him, but most of the time it stays untouched.

Today, by the time Adrien's taking his tablet out of the bag for his first class, the kwami's already gone. The Camembert forgotten in its plastic container. He looks around the class: Chloe and Sabrina at his side, Nino and Alya behind him, Mylene and Alix at their side, behind Nino and Alya Ivan and Nathaniel, at their side Kim and Max and behind them Rose and Juleka. And then… his eyes catch the dark form that has become the last of his classmates. He turns immediately; the pain and guilt that overcomes him every time he sees her is unbearable. Just last week, he had found her drunk in an alley; crying a single tear before wiping it away, laughing a second before stopping abruptly.

He'd done that.

He's the reason she's completely shut herself of the world, why even her best friend hates her. He's showed Paris that Marinette and Miss Fortune are the same person. Instead of doing the right thing and help her cope with the fact that she'd killed Ladybug, he had lashed out and taught the people of the city that they could do the same. That they should do the same. And even now that Alya was going to start to help Marinette –had been planning how to do it for the last week, actually–, he couldn't find it in himself to do it. He couldn't even look at her, for Christ's sake!

He gives up his search for Plagg when Madame Bustier enters the class. He'll come back eventually, he has to eat at some point after all.

He doesn't. And Adrien doesn't notice until he's in his room that Plagg isn't with him. He looks in the trashcan but there's only a bunch of folded pieces of paper. He looks into the fridge, the second floor, under the bed… but the god of destruction isn't in the room. Which means he's still in the school.

With a panicked shout Adrien races out of the room and yells at Nathalie that he'll be back soon. She tries to ask where he's going, but he's already out of the door and almost at the gates. He doesn't stop till he's at the school. He pants all his way to the classroom and finds the door shut. He deflates and is about to turn around when he hears voices.

When he looks through the window, he gasps.

|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|

The first time Plagg had seen one of the drawing was when Chat Noir had found Marinette drunk in an alley. Adrien hadn't noticed, but the tinny god had. He hadn't seen much, the paper half crumbled and hidden behind the intoxicated girl but it had been enough for him to get a glimpse of a big blue eye and a pencil drawn antennae. It had stricken him, it almost looked like…

The next day, while the class had been having an exam, he'd snuck out of the bag and into the one of the murderer of Ladybug. Once there, he'd searched for something similar, but all he found was a couple of books and a sketchbook with a few ripped pages. He'd skimmed through it and found a very rough sketch of something that vaguely reminded Plagg of his own form.

In the following days, he got to see how the girl –who he wasn't so sure was the murderer of the heroine anymore– went through the stages to complete the drawing slowly, until one day, when he opened the pad, he found himself looking at the lively and happy eyes of his mate. Tikki.

He'd almost hugged the picture before realizing that it was just that, a picture. How was it possible? Marinette wouldn't have been able to even know of Tikki's existence, much less to draw her with such detail. Not unless…

The next day, Plagg stays in Marinette's bag and goes with her to her house when the girl leaves for lunch break. He listens to her mother's attempts to talk to her and to he woman plead for the child to take some food. She finally seems to relent –if the smell of pastries is anything to go by– and he feels as they go up stairs, the sound of a door opening and then closing and suddenly, the plate clatters on a hard surface and the bag's dropped harshly to the floor. He resists the urge to yowl, he won't startle her more than it's necessary. The kid has been through enough already.

Peeking through a hole, he sees the mess the room is in. Well, the girl has made a habit of sleeping in alleyways, it stands to reason her private room will look the same. He starts to unzip the zipper, making plenty of noise so Marinette hears and sees that something is in her backpack. By the time he pokes his head out, the girl is already staring at him with the most expressive face he's seen in her since this all started. He feels shy all of the sudden.

SHY! HIM! The god of destruction feeling shyness! Tikki would have a fit if she saw him. Looks like there's a first time for everything. He floats upwards and towards the frozen teen, stopping a meter away and at eye level.

"Hi, Princess…" he says bashfully. Princess… it seems so long ago when Chat had called her that for the first time. He had unconsciously taken to call her by that same nickname. She's looking at him with misty eyes. The last prove he needed to confirm his suspicions. "The name's Plagg. I'm…" her quiet voice almost sounds delicate when she cuts him.

"Plagg…" she licks her lips and raises her trembling hands, cupping them beneath him so he can lower himself and rest on them. "You're just like her…" the tears finally fall and silent sobs quake her body. She puts him under her chin and nuzzles him close to her. He's so shocked that he doesn't even notice when Marinette falls to the floor, her legs rendered useless. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… I couldn't save her, he has her! Oh, God, I'm sorry."

She keeps babbling for what seems like hours, telling Plagg what had happened between pleads for forgiveness. Finally tired –and hungry really, that delicious smell won't leave him alone– Plagg starts to purr for the girl. It has always calmed his kittens, he doesn't see way it wouldn't work for Tikki's lil' ladies.

Five minutes later Marinette is breathing normally again and separates the little cat from her neck. She rearranges herself so she's cross-legged and sets the kwami on her right knee.

"You calm now?" the teen sniffs and nods.

"Yeah, thank you. Um… how…?" she hesitates for a second, before trying again. "How did you find me? Does Chat…?" Plagg shakes his head.

"Nah, he doesn't and don't worry, I won't tell him if ya don't want me to." Marinette nods so he continues. "I um… I saw a drawing of Tikki, in the alley that day Chat found you." Her eyes snap open and he gives her a small smile. "I wanted to confirm if it really was Tikki or just some other thing, so I've been sneaking into your bag this past week. I haven't touched anything!" he's quick to add at her alarmed face. "I just wanted to make sure and yesterday… I saw the finished drawing, the one she's like this…" he imitates the pose, his arms stretched wide and his legs slightly bend and to the side.

Marinette nods and goes to the bag, takes the sketchpad and flips some pages until she finds the one he's talking about.

"This one, right?" the little sprite settles on her shoulder and nods. A tear escapes at the memories the little gesture pulls from her subconscious.

"Yeah… that's so much like her. She always does that face right before saying something mushy." Marinette smiles and nods, another lonely tear sliding down her cheek.

"Do you… do you want to see the others?" Plagg looks sharply at her, his big green eyes sparkling.

"There's more?" the girl hums and, after setting the pad down, gets up and goes to her bed. She sticks her hand beneath the cat pillow and takes a plastic folder, presenting it to Plagg. She opens it for him and spreads on the bed the dozen or so laminated papers with the drawings she's done. Tikki laughing, Tikki pouting, Tikki eating a cookie, Tikki sleeping, Tikki, Tikki, Tikki…. His emotions almost choke him, so he does what he does best: joke. "Tikki's everywhere! I don't know if I'm in heaven or hell!" Marinette laughs a second before cutting it sharply. She caresses the cheek of the sleeping Tikki.

"I just wanted her back… I couldn't save her and she's the only one I can actually talk about everything. Well, was the only one I could talk to." She sniffs and wipes her eyes. "I failed her, I couldn't hide the earrings in time and now she's with him, all alone!" she sobs, once, before catching herself. Seems like he was correct in his earlier assumptions: she's blocking her emotions, as if she shows them, something bad will happen. And, taking into account just who everybody thinks she is, it might.

He ends up making her eat half the plate of pastries under the argument that 'Tikki will kill him when she comes back –because she will– just to find her chosen half dead'. He isn't certain, but he's almost sure he sees a real smile on her lips when he reiterates that Tikki will come back to them.

When they leave her room to return to the school he asks her to grab something with cheese for him. And when he sees the face of her mother, he knows that this simple gesture is going to help their relationship, at least a little.

The next few days Plagg stays with Marinette as long as possible, not leaving the warm spot in the crook of her neck unless necessary. He spends his day watching her sketch Tikki over and over again, some of those drawings being set aside to become perfect pictures, most of them left in the sketchpad. Marinette makes him a drawing of Tikki everyday, not the perfect near photo ones, but not rough sketches either. She managed to give him one of the perfect ones she had saved, but he saw that is was difficult for her. Almost as if she was giving the real Tikki away. He kept that one safe under the mattress of other drawings he had on his room. He hadn't been able to fold it, so it stayed perfectly smooth, hidden from Adrien's eyes in the bottom of the trashcan.

Adrien. He loves the kid, but at the moment, he doesn't like him very much. He watches the kid from his hidden spot against Marinette's neck and makes a little hissing noise, low enough that only the girl hears him. She pets his head a little, already aware of what he's doing. She's a very smart kid, she had found out his chosen's identity the second day he'd stayed with her. Thankfully she had taken it pretty well, not making a big fuss and actually recognizing that it made sense. He's sure that it's just because she's blocked her emotions and was able to skip the emotional part and go straight to the rational part of the whole reveal thing.

"You ok?" Marinette's whisper rips him away from the memory and he nods against her fingers, still posed on his head.

"You should tell him…" he mutters darkly. Adrien should be aware of what he was doing. Everybody should. "You should tell them all!"

Marinette stays silent and just keeps stroking his head and petting his ears. The final bell will ring soon, he knows, so he lets her have this little moment to finish the last drawing she's done. In this one Tikki is seated on a smooth surface, a table probably, and she's surrounded by a dozen ladybugs. She's playing with them, laughing and her big blue eyes shining with happiness. He already knows it's going to become one of the perfect pictures.

The final bell rings and Marinette stays on her seat while he watches Adrien leave. He's always back with him before the kid leaves the class, but today he's staying. He can feel Marinette's confusion when the class is already empty and he's still here. Madame Bustier looks at her with concern in her eyes but leaves her be and closes her door behind her, she already knows Marinette waits until there's nobody left in the school to leave herself.

"Plagg?"

"We need to talk, Princess." Plagg separates from her and watches as she packs her things and sets the bag on her shoulder. When her eyes are locked on his, he starts. "You hafta tell everybody." Marinette sighs, she should've seen this coming.

"Plagg, please…"

"No, don't 'Plagg please' me! You're being bullied, beaten, for something you wouldn't have been able to do in the first place! You didn't kill Ladybug and everybody should know!"

"And who will believe me, Plagg?" her voice is soft, as if she's trying to explain to a child why he can't have another kid's toy.

"I don't know! We… we could tell Adrien! He'll believe us! We'll show him the drawings and I'll bite his face!" Marinette shakes her head and Plagg deflates.

"I don't want him to know I'm Ladybug. It'll crush him." Plagg bristles again and hisses loudly.

"Then let him be crushed!" the girl looks at him wide-eyed, the rage in his voice surprising her. "This is all his fault! If he'd listened to you none of this would've happened!" he's yelling, he knows, and it's making Marinette nervous, but he can't care less. She's going to listen to him, one way or another. "He should be apologizing for what he's done, they all should! All Paris should fall to their knees and beg for your forgiveness!" he's trembling now and his eyes are cloudy, but he won't cry. Plagg the God of Destruction doesn't cry, even if it's out of anger and frustration.

He sees Marinette move out of the corner of his eye and suddenly her hands are around him and he's pressed to her chest. He nuzzles closer, he can't help it, he has grown to care for this little clumsy girl as if she was his own chosen.

"I'm ok, don't worry about me." She cradles him with one hand and starts to stroke his head with the other, massaging his ears just as softly as Tikki does when their chosens are together.

"You're not ok! You shouldn't have to be going through this. Please, Marinette!" he makes his best kitten eyes at her, but she just smiles tenderly, the same smile she has when she's looking at Tikki's drawings.

"I'm sorry, Plagg, but you know I can't. Please, the last thing I want is for Adrien to –" she feels as Plagg tenses in her grasp and before she knows, the little god is hissing like mad, his ears plastered to his head an his fur spiked. He's glaring daggers at the door and when she looks up, her bluebell eyes collide with grass green ones before they disappear.

"Oh, now he's gonna hear me!" and before she can stop him, Plagg is out of her hands and a second later, out of the class.

She runs after him, scared of just what he might tell the blond. She looks at both sides of the corridor and turns to the right, Plagg's voice seemingly coming from there. As she rounds a corner, the voice gets louder and when she enters the last classroom of the hall, she spots Adrien pressed against the wall, a stricken look on his face and Plagg screaming his throat raw.

"Plagg, stop!" the kwami whirls around and hisses at her. She's taken aback for a second, he's never done that to her before. "Please…" she keeps her voice soft, trying to urge Plagg to do the same. It doesn't work as much as she would've liked.

"NO, I'm not stopping until he sees, until he's conscious of what he's done!" he turns to his chosen again and makes a hissing-yowling noise she hasn't ever heard form him. "Look at her, kid, and look at her good, because she's the living, breathing prove of what your soul is capable of! I said look at her!" Adrien's eyes snap away from the god to the girl five meters away from them. Dark, skinny, sad, lonely, broken. His eyes go back to Plagg's and the little sprite let's another hiss scape his lips. "Do you know what she goes though every day? DO YOU?!" Adrien shakes his head rapidly.

"Plagg, please don't –"

"Shut it, Princess!" he doesn't turn, but his tone is softer in his next words. " She wouldn't want this, she wouldn't stand for it and I won't either! Not anymore." A tremble races up Marinette's spine at the mention of Tikki and her lip trembles.

"She wouldn't want you to do this either." His ears droop a little, his whole posture slumping. He turns his head, looking at her with big lost eyes.

"He should know, Marinette… he should know what you have to go through because of what he did." A little spark of anger returns, but Plagg doesn't turn to Adrien, instead letting his gaze fall to the floor at Marinette's feet. "Did you know, Adrien? Did you know that her father barely speaks to her? That the man can't even look at his own daughter? That people chase her on the street and she has to run every time she leaves her house or the school? Because this are the only places she goes, she can't go anywhere else." Plagg looks at Adrien once more, his eyes a mix of sadness and rage, but his voice stays soft. "Did you know that she has to wait almost thirty minutes every day before leaving the school so she doesn't get corralled by other students? That she blocks her emotions because whatever she feels earns her a glare or an insult? That even after figuring out just who you are, she kept pleading for me to not tell you anything? Than even after all that's happened to her –because of YOU– she still cares enough about you to want to protect you? That –"

"Plagg, please that's enough." Her voice trembles and he knows he's crossed the line.

Thankfully, when he flies to her, she cups him in her hands and nuzzles him to her cheek. A silent tear hits his head. What he doesn't expect is the second one, and the third. By the fifth she's gotten ahold of herself again and the tears stop. She sniffs and stays still as Adrien gulps and rights himself from his sagged position against the wall.

The blond is still in shock, reeling from the information his kwami has just thrown at him. When he'd seen them –Plagg cradled in Marinette's hands, the girl stroking the kwami's head and ears– he'd been shocked. A second later Plagg had his eyes on him and was acting like a feral cat, hissing and showing him his fangs. And when he'd looked up, Marinette was watching him too. So he did the only thing that came to mind, he bolted.

He had run to the last classroom of the hall, but Plagg being Plagg had followed him and had him pressed against the wall the next moment. The god had started screaming right away, only to be stopped by Marinette a minute later. They had talked about someone but he doubted it was Ladybug, just who was that 'she' that was so important to both of them?

Plagg had lost his fire then, his whole body seemingly deflating like a balloon.

And then he starts talking again and Adrien doesn't know what's worst: the screaming or this muted rage. He listens as Plagg tells him what had become Marinette's life. He imagines her father, the 'big, warm teddy bear' as she'd once called him, ignore her as if she wasn't even there. He imagines her running, a maddened crowd chasing her through the streets. Imagines her waiting, alone, until there's nobody in the school. Imagines her pleading Plagg to not tell him what he's just been told, because she still cares about him.

He watches as Plagg cuddles close to her, purring and trying to console her. And she lets him, because even though she needs the support, she knows the kwami needs it too. From the looks of it he'd just broken a promise, and Plagg never breaks his promises. Ever.

As he rights himself, Marinette stays still. Her eyes are downcast, but he catches the kwami's. the little god is looking at him intently, his little cheek pressed to Marinette's.

"You know the worst, kid?" Adrien blinks. Plagg's voice seems worn, tired. Green collides with green and Plagg raises a little paw to press it on the girls chin. "Marinette didn't kill Ladybug. Not even Miss Fortune did." Adrien tenses and Marinette whispers the sprite's name. He nuzzles her before continuing. "She did take the earing to Hawk Moth, but the girl beneath the mask still breathes. I've seen her myself." At that little piece of news, Adrien skips the shock altogether and is instantly demanding who she is, stepping forward. Marinette recoils instinctively, taking a few steps away and bumping into a table. Plagg hisses, warning the kid away. "Do you really think I'm gonna tell you?"

"But… but why? You have to tell me, Plagg! I need to see her!" the god bristles and presses himself harder against the girl.

"You see her every day and you don't even notice. I've broken a promise today, I'm not breaking another one." Adrien stops and Marinette moves away from the table and a couple more steps back. Nobody approaches her if it isn't to beat her, so she's wary of Adrien being so close to her.

"I… what? That's… that's not possible! I would know! She would've said something, tried to contact me in some way!" it's then that Adrien realizes that Marinette has been listening to them, and still hadn't freaked out that he was Chat Noir. He looks at her and frowns. She matches his stare with her own.

"I already know. I figured it out the second day Plagg stayed with me." The kwami hums.

"She's definitely smarter that you. She just spend five minutes thinking on it and didn't ask one single question. And here you are, with your lady right before your eyes and you're so blinded that you can't even recognize her." He's being overly cruel, he's aware of it, but he simply doesn't care anymore. He's going to give Adrien all the information, even if he has to pound it in so the kid get's it. Marinette tenses at his words, but Adrien looses the very literal meaning.

"W-Why aren't you helping me?" with a last nuzzle, Plagg leaves Marinette's warmth and floats to Adrien's broken visage.

"Because I promised her I wouldn't tell you, at least not until you saw what you'd done and she trusted you enough. Until she felt safe enough with trusting you with her secret." Adrien stares at him wide-eyed.

"You've spoken with her?"

"I've been in her room, what do you think?" Adrien opens his mouth to retort but Plagg spins around to Marinette.

"You ready to leave?" Marinette's eyes widen and, looking out the window, she nods her ok. Plagg floats to her and plops down on her shoulder before turning to Adrien. "I'm escorting her home. I'll fly back to yours after I eat."

Marinette looks at the boy one final time, as if she expects him to say something and when he doesn't she turns and walks out of the class. He hears her steps face down the hall. Thirty seconds later, he follows. There's no way he's leaving her unprotected.

Plagg's right, he'd screwed up. He just hopes it's not to late to try and fix things. He runs down the halls and finds her frozen on the entrance, hidden behind one of the doors. He watches her for a few moments before directing his gaze past the door and down the steps, where a group of men talk near the hedges with baseball bats in their hands. They don't look much older than him, maybe seventeen, nineteen at most. From now and then they look up to the doors, as if they're waiting for something. Or someone. Marinette.

Hidden as he is by the shadow of the doors the group doesn't see him, but the movement of Marinette's hair tells him that Plagg has. The little sprite's green ethereal eyes glow at him from between silky strands of back hair and he motions him to come, and to bring Marinette with him.

There's another way out! Come with me!

Plagg's eyes narrow but he nods and the green spheres disappear. A second later Marinette turns around, her big blue eyes wary but after another fearful glance at the group she separates her hands of the wood and approaches silently. He reaches out to take her hand but she jumps back, he arm wrapping around her torso. Plagg flies from her neck and hovers over his ear.

"Don't touch her, don't get too close without her knowing and don't do sudden movements. Ask questions, even if it seems stupid. You get me?"

Adrien nods and takes a few steps back, giving Marinette the space to round the corner. She stays as far as possible from him and Adrien finds himself resenting the three meters of space between them. He'd done that. He was the reason she needs a minimum of three meters between herself and another person to feel comfortable.

With a last look to the boys outside, Adrien turns and starts walking. He expects Plagg to settle on his shoulder but when he doesn't he turns around and finds him whispering something to Marinette. She smiles, a little smile he hasn't seen in months, before it falls a second later. She really is blocking her emotions.

They walk through the halls; up and down, right and left until they're at the other side of the building. Adrien is careful to make sure nobody is following before opening the back door of the school. He looks around the little side street and seeing there isn't any suspicious people he get's out and a little behind the door so Marinette feels safe enough to get through.

When she's at a save distance he closes the door and walks in the direction of the bakery, sticking to alleys and side streets, the least transited the better. They finally reach the alley where the back door of the bakery is situated and Adrien stands aside so she can reach it and open it. She whispers something to Plagg and disappears inside, while the god returns to Adrien.

"She said to wait here." He informs and Adrien nods. He gets his phone out of the pocket and looks into the screen. 37 messages and 10 calls from Nathalie, 273 messages and 79 calls from Chloe and 5 calls from Gorilla.

When has that happened? Has my phone been vibrating the whole time?

He texts Nathalie and Gorilla telling them that he'll be home shortly and absentmindedly scrolls down Chloe's texts, not really seeing them till he catches Marinette's name in one of them. He stops and reads it.

[CHLOE: Did i tell u, adrikins? i managed to convince a bunch of guys to go to school today to give Marinette a leson, isnt that great?!]

[Anyway, daddy bought me this amazing purse that…]

Adrien's brain is jumping around inside his skull. She's done WHAT?! He's barely able to control his features by the time Marinette appears again, a big brown paper bag in her arms. He doesn't notice her mother behind her until he feels Plagg hiding behind his head. She goes down the stairs slowly and approaches him, her eyes darting all over him as if trying to see if he's going to attack her. He stays as still as possible and when she's close enough she offers the bag. He raises his arms slowly, giving her as much time as possible to see he doesn't plan to hurt her. As soon as he has a firm grip on the bag she releases it and takes a step back, away from his reach.

"All the cheese related things are for Plagg. There are some other pastries for you too." She says quietly and he breathes in the heavenly smell of the food, Plagg practically vibrating against his head. "Thank you and see you tomorrow." And with that she returns to the house. Her mother stays on the door for a second before approaching him. She sizes him up before speaking.

"Adrien, if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing with my daughter?" she has a frown on her face, clearly suspicious of him.

"There was a group of guys at the entrance of the school waiting for her. I just showed her another way out and escorted her here. I-I swear I wasn't going to do anything to her! I-I just –" she raises her hand to shush him and he swallows. She regards him again before asking her next question.

"Why?" Adrien takes a deep breath and shifts his feet.

"Somebody has told of what's been happening to her. A friend of mine has shifted my perception of things. She didn't do the things that happened while possessed by the Akuma, it was the Akuma itself." She nods, already aware of that. "I… I actually knew Ladybug, we were friends, so when Miss Fortune said she'd killed her it hit me hard and instead of doing what was right and blame the Akuma, I followed Chat Noir's steps and blamed Marinette." Sabine nods again, her hard features morphing into softer ones. "Now I know that I was wrong. She was a victim, like all the other people that have been akumatized before and after her. And… I've been made aware that she didn't actually kill Ladybug." Sabine gasps and he gives her a little smile. "I know, pretty hard to believe, but my friend know who Ladybug is, and she's still alive."

"But Marinette says se did kill Ladybug!" Adrien nods and the woman just looks more puzzled. A vibration in his pocket tells him he has to end this soon.

"Kinda. She took the Miraculous, so technically, Ladybug is dead, but the girl underneath the mask still lives." His phone vibrates again, this time it's a call. "I have to go now but…" he thinks his next words carefully and finally nods, a look of determination in his eyes when they return to lock with Sabine's. "Do you have a pen?"

|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|

Adrien lies sprawled on his bed, eyes on the ceiling and one of the pastries Marinette had given him on his mouth. Plagg, for the first time in days is sitting next to him, munching in what he called 'the best thing you humans have ever created' and by the looks of it, it was even better than Camembert. He wouldn't know, Plagg hadn't even let him touch anything of what Marinette had given him.

He'd been in the same position for almost an hour now. He'd been isolated here for refusing to give the bag to Nathalie, and he was grounded until he yielded and surrendered the bakery goods. Not happening, ever.

"Adrien?" he turns his head and looks at Plagg. The god stares at him for a minute before grinning, his tail flicking behind him. "I'm proud of you, kid." Adrien blinks at him, surprised. "You didn't have to do that, but you did. I was already thinking you had lost what made you the perfect Black Cat, but looks like you were just hiding it." Adrien blinks again, now confused. "Your heart, kitten! Your selflessness, your need to help the ones that can't help themselves." Adrien's lips form a little O, now understanding what the kwami was talking about.

"Do you have a pen?" Sabine looks confused, but takes one out of the apron she's wearing. When he has it in his hands he scribbles his phone number on a corner of the bag and tears the piece. "This is my personal number," he says, returning her the pen and the note with it. "could you ask Marinette if it would be ok if I escorted her to school tomorrow?" the woman gapes at him and he shifts his feet again, self-conscious. "It's just that there are a lot of people that want to hurt her and I'm tired of ignoring it. Just ask her if she'd feel comfortable with it and text me her answer? And tell her that it's alright if she says no and that the offer it's always open for when she feels ready to take it." He opens his mouth to continue but the phone starts to vibrate again, with a frustrated groan he takes it out and looks into the flashing screen. NATHALIE. "I'm sorry, I really have to get going. Thank you for the food." He bows to her, just as his Chinese professor has taught him and turns around, walking quickly out of the alley and into the street.

His phone chimes, breaking him out of his reverie and he pats his bedside table for it. He takes it and looks into the screen.

[UNKNOWN NUMBER: Hi, sweetie, it's Sabine. I commented to Marinette your proposal and she said that it would be ok. You can come get her at 7:00 (she likes to get inside the school early).]

[And, Adrien, don't pack lunch. Marinette will give it to you.]

[Thank you for helping my daughter, Adrien, you're a good young man. I hope you've found the pastries of your liking ;). Have a great afternoon, dear.]

With a fond smile on his lips Adrien answers that he'll be there in time and tells her that the lunch won't be necessary.

[ADRIEN: I really don't want to be an inconvenience. The pastries you've given me today are enough. They're awesome, btw.]

[You shouldn't thank me, it's what it should've been done since the beginning. I've someone has to be thanked, that would be Nino. He's the one that's been trying to protect her since the beginning.]

[Mme. CHENG: Hush, I'm making you lunch and that's it. I'll make sure it's low on calories so don't you worry about that.]

[Tell Nino the same, will you sweetie? If he's been helping my girl he deserves to be spoiled a little too ;P]

[ADRIEN: You aren't going to change your mind about the lunch, are you?]

[Mme. CHENG: What do you think, dear?]

[ADRIEN: Now I know from where Marinette got it XD! I'll make sure to tell Nino. I have to do my homework now. Thank you so much and see you tomorrow!]

[Mme. CHENG: See you!]

Sending a quick text to Nino, Adrien sets the phone down and goes to his desk, mind set on doing his physics and literature homework but just as he sits on his chair, his phone starts ringing. With a little whine –he wants to do his homework, dammit!– he gets up and picks the device from the table. NINO.

"Yes?"

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN SABINE'S MAKING ME LUNCH?!"