He had somehow managed to get the sweet from her family's bakery. It was surprisingly sweet...and equally troubling.

In the wake of the battle that had dragged on for well over two hours, her brain was kind of fried.

Ladybug was still wanting to ponder that out, but her body desperately needed to rest up. She had slumped against Chat. It was the oddest feeling. She felt terribly exposed without the safety of her suit. But her partner was literally at her back, and she would hardly feel as safe nearly anywhere else.

Her fingers laced with his. Chat was really worried.

"It's bad enough that I can't help but think Hawkmoth...or someone who Hawkmoth knows might know how I am and have access to my schedule."

Her eyes widened, her head half turned over towards Tikki. For guidance. For anything. Her kwami just frowned.

She slumped back against him, her head searching the sky for some sort of guidance. "That's a scary thought…"

"Yeah," he breathed. "The question is...what can I even do about it?"

"We." She corrected, squeezing his hand. Whatever it was that they could do, Chat Noir definitely wasn't in this alone. "What can we do about it?"

Tikki coughed. "I think Plagg and I need to discuss on this."

Chat Noir's kwami smirked on in pure amusement, as he flit over and swiped another cookie for Tikki from the bag. In fact, he was just a little too amused for his own good. She'd definitely seem that same look on Alya's face on more than one occasion and it rarely ever ended well.

Ladybug had also seen that frowning, distant gaze on Tikki before, and it was clear that Tikki was worried.

That just made her worry even more. Why was it that Tikki knew who he was and thought it still wasn't safe for her to know? At least, not just yet.

But why wouldn't Tikki want her to know? Chat Noir was in danger. And he was convinced that his apparent revelation to their enemy would only serve to put her in danger, because someone was actively trying to keep him away. And when would that person decide to change their course of action and come directly after him?

Wouldn't their mutual ignorance make things so much worse at this point? They were all in the mess together.

Tikki shook her head and locked eyes with her. "You two behave. We'll be back soon to discuss a plan."

Shaking her head, Ladybug glanced at the bag from her parent's bakery.

She squeezed his hand comfortingly, before snagging the bag of cookies. If they were going to sit here and be left to wonder while their Kwami talked shop, then at least they wouldn't go hungry. She was sure they both had already burned more calories in the battle than were contained in that bag.

"Have you tried one of the macarons?"

"Yeah." He rifled through the bag. "I've had a bit from their shop before."

"Oh?" Ladybug gulped. So he either remembered it from helping or he actually lived close enough to stop. Most people wouldn't go too far out of their way for cookies from a particular bakery - no matter how amazing her parent's baking might be. "Like what?"

"Hm." Chat's voice was softer than usual. She was trying to not think about it too hard. "I'm pretty sure it was quiche. But it was seriously amazing"

"Huh." She blinked. That was not something they kept on the regular menu. In fact her parents only usually brought that out for special occasions. Or for their own dinners. The sales on it had historically been much too variable until they were getting a larger than normal .

She gaped, her hands flying up to her cheeks, the shock the warmth reddening them into a severe blush.

It was only after her posture straightened, tugging her just the slightest bit away from him that he seemed to notice.

"What the matter, Ladybug?"

"So." She chuckled nervously, before cleared her throat with a vengeance. "Do you think you can keep a secret from Plagg?"

"Uhh. I guess that depends on what it is."

"Well, something in the way he was grinning tells me he won't really mind." She sighed. "But Tikki is definitely going to kill me."

"Why?"

"Because I know my parent's menu much too well, Adrien."

His eyes bugged out as he spun around.

Her lips were pressed together, a fingertip pressed to her own lips reminding him to be silent. Her cheeks were just as red as his must be.

He clamped his hands down over his mouth, his green eyes wide. "Marinette?" he mouthed, half in disbelief. How had he not seen that? She had been sitting behind him in class all year.

She nodded, her blue eyes carefully not quite meeting his. "At least we know, how easy it can be to slip up. I'm sure you wouldn't have thought it was an issue. And if I had been anyone else..."

Adrien's hands dropped to his side, dejected. How did he keep screwing this up?

"Hey." With a sharp inhale, Marinette steeled herself, smiling softly. "That's not a bad thing, Chaton. Especially, not when you've been so careful keeping your tracks covered otherwise."

Adrien tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"Let's think of this as an opportunity." Her blue eyes flashed, her voice steady as it was mid-battle.

"Because you've been so careful to proceed as normally as you could, Hawkmoth won't suspect you're onto him."

He grinned, popping out his fist. "So we actually have the advantage."

"Right," she nodded, bumping his fist with her own.. "As long as you keep it up, and we both stay extra careful, we can take our time to figure out how you might have let that information slip...and to who."

"Yep!"

"And it should work," her voice grew just a little bit more shaky. "Just as long as we both pretend we don't know."

He gulped, spinning on his heel to drop back into where he had been seated behind her. "Yep!" Adrien winced as his voice wavered as well. "How hard could that be?"

Author's Notes:

You can follow me on Tumblr (same username).

Feedback of all forms and re-blogs of the Tumblr post are greatly appreciated!

This work has been retroactively dedicated to EnberLight and Fairia because they used the final chapter to befriend each other in the comment section over the details of the reveal. Even today I'm still amused by it.