The plan was simple—or at least it sounded simple but it would be harder to execute. It had been easy to steal Alyssa's kwami the first time, but the second time wouldn't be so easy. Fortunately, with Adrien's connection with her still intact and Plagg's ability to move around unnoticed, they should be able to pull this off. Before Alyssa knew what hit her, she would be Miraculousless and Ladybug and Chat Noir would have saved the day yet again.

"Are you ever going to leave my side?" Marinette laughed as Adrien followed her back home to pass the time before they had to enact their plan. "We've been together for almost twenty-four hours already. I thought you'd be sick of me by now."

"Sick of you?" Adrien gasped as if offended. "I've been waiting years for this day. There's no way I'm getting sick of you. Whether you like it or not, you'll be seeing a lot more of me in the future."

Marinette smiled and leaned into him as he wrapped his arm around her waist. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea at all, kitty."

When they entered the Dupain-Cheng's home, Adrien called out, "Look who I found! Home, safe and sound."

"Marinette!" Sabine cried as she flew around the corner and engulfed her daughter in her arms, followed closely by Tom. "Where have you been? Your father and I have been so worried!" She smoothed down Marinette's long, silky hair in a motherly fashion.

"An akuma got me," Marinette lied, partly. "I couldn't remember anything and Adrien found me wandering around the city. But you don't need to worry. I'm okay now."

Her parents fussed over her for at least another ten minutes before sending Marinette upstairs to shower and dress in fresh clothes. But when she disappeared, Tom yelped after looking down at his watch. "Sabine, we have that delivery at one and we're going to be late! Adrien, please do us the biggest favor ever. I need you to decorate the cake in the kitchen. Just a basic design is fine. Please and thank you!"

Sabine threw an apron over Adrien's head and thrust a piping bag into his hands, and then all became quiet in the house except for the shower running upstairs. Adrien just stared helplessly at the bag full of white frosting in his hands. What on earth was he supposed to do with this?

"I'm Chat Noir for heaven's sake," Adrien muttered under his breath, now staring cluelessly at the unfrosted cake in front of him. "I can put frosting on a cake."

But still, he inspected the cake for a couple minutes, spinning it around and around on the spinny wheel as he tried to find the right angle. White frosting on a white cake. Easy.

Very carefully, Adrien lowered the end of the piping bag to the cake and squirted out the smallest bit, grimacing as it smeared across the top. What was wrong with him? This shouldn't be so hard... But still, he kept trying, doing smear after smear until the entire top of the cake looked like a white moppy mess. Apparently Chat Noir couldn't frost a cake.

Laughter behind him caused him to spin around, but he relaxed when he saw that it was Marinette. However, he became embarrassed to the roots of his hair when he realized she laughed at his horribly frosted cake.

"Having a little trouble?" she asked as she brushed past him, making him feel floaty from her touch alone. This was his Ladybug. His beautiful, incredible Ladybug. He felt completely head over heels. Especially as she took the piping bag from him and took over frosting the cake. Her hands moved expertly and he found himself falling even harder for her at her graceful skill.

"Is it that obvious?" he laughed, his eyes sparkling humorously. "Your parents have more faith in me than they should. But if you and I are going to date, I'm going to have to learn."

Marinette's hand slipped and she smeared the next bit of frosting across the cake at the mention, her eyes wide in surprise. "Date? As in...you mean..."

Adrien dug inside his pockets inside his jacket until he found the blue pendant that perfectly matched Marinette's eyes, opening the box for her to see. But when he glanced back into her eyes, his confidence failed him and he became the shy Adrien he knew all too well. The one he had tried to leave behind in high school.

"I had wanted to give this to you after the Christmas party. Well, to Marinette, because I have to clarify these days." He chuckled but then became shy but serious at the same time. "And then I wanted to ask if you wanted the same thing I did—to make us official."

He held his breath, not knowing if he could bear yet another rejection from Marinette/Ladybug. After all, he had been trying for years to get her to return his feelings, but his efforts led him nowhere. Now that he knew she loved Adrien... Maybe he finally could have his shot at being with her. With no more secrets between the two of them.

"I've been waiting forever to hear you say those words," Marinette whispered huskily.

"Not as long as I've been waiting for you to say yes," Adrien winked. And when she nodded, he just about had a heart attack. He nearly expected her to push him away with one of her delicate fingers while snubbing him, but she actually said yes. She said yes?! What kind of world was this and how hadn't he found it sooner?

Very carefully, he clasped the necklace around Marinette's neck before gazing back into her beautiful bluebell eyes. Surprising even himself, he burst into laughter and smacked his forehead with his palm.

"I feel very stupid," he chuckled, shaking his head.

"About what?" she replied uncertainly while biting her lip in that cute way Adrien had always loved about Ladybug.

"You and Ladybug had the same color of eyes. Not to mention that I was always checking Ladybug and Marinette out. But now I know why. You're the same person." He palmed his forehead once more. "I guess there's just something about you that I'm drawn to."

Marinette smiled bashfully and was just about to open her mouth to say something when Plagg floated lazily in with a piece of cheese that hadn't come from his backpack.

"Adrien," the black kwami whined. "You're out of Camembert. I can hardly taste this mozzarella. This is an emergency."

With a frown, Adrien replied, "Plagg, don't steal the Dupain-Chengs' cheese. We've gone over this. Besides, I wouldn't be out of cheese if you didn't eat so much of it."

"You can try one of our cookies!" Tikki piped up. And that resulted in Plagg attempting to run away and Tikki chasing him around the house with a chocolate chip cookie in her small red hands. Adrien smiled—it was clear that the two kwamis had been friends for a long time.

Touching his hand briefly to bring him back to the present, Marinette said, "Here, let me show you how to decorate a cake. My parents would definitely be impressed if you were able to do it on your own next time."

"Definitely want to impress those parents of yours," Adrien chuckled.

Expertly, Marinette piped frosting out of the bag so it covered the cake in a simple design before she inspected it with satisfaction. "You can put the sprinkles on," she said while handing him a small tub of rainbow-colored sprinkles. "The kids love them."

The concentration in his expression magnified as he tried to do as Marinette instructed, albeit a little bit sloppier than he wanted it to look. But still, Marinette praised him for a job well done and ruffled his hair as if he were actually a cat. Did she even know how endearing she was?

Setting down the tub of sprinkles, Adrien grinned and coyly rested his arm on the counter as he gazed down into her eyes. "I have something very important to tell you, bug."

"What is it?" she whispered.

Adrien leaned closer and closer to her until his lips just barely grazed her ear. "I love...mew."

Marinette snorted and rolled her eyes at him, pushing his face away with her hand. "You stupid cat. Will the puns never stop?"

"Never," he snickered, but that resulted in her smearing frosting on his nose and he retaliated by smearing a bit on her cheek. However, he couldn't stop himself from kissing the frosting off her skin, making her blush stand out on her face.

When Marinette's phone rang, they both jumped in surprise before she answered it. It was Alya, talking her ear off and talking some more. To give them a little more privacy, Adrien moved to the other room and glanced around at all the family pictures. It made him happy that Marinette looked so happy growing up. To think that this girl in the pictures was his Ladybug.

"Adrien, open the door, will you?" Marinette asked as she poked her head around the corner. "It's important."

He shrugged but opened the front door nonetheless. However, he immediately regretted it as a snowball came flying in his direction and the cold powder smashed into his face. Only one person had that good of aim...

"Nino!" Adrien growled playfully as his best friend burst into laughter along with Alya who stood by his side. "I'm going to get you back for that!"

Without further ado, Adrien grabbed his jacket and scarf, bounding out the door with Marinette following after as his partner in crime. Together, they built a fort to counteract Nino and Alya's chilly missiles and in one particular instance, Adrien focused hard on his enemies up ahead, not expecting anything to come from behind. However, a snowball hit the back of his shoulder, the cold seeping under his shirt.

"Marinette!" Adrien gasped as he shook the snow out of his shirt. "I thought we were a team!"

"Not when it's a...free for all!"

Snowballs began flying in all directions and Adrien had to take cover to avoid being pelted from all sides. All four of them were laughing and throwing and laughing some more. Adrien aimed one snowball perfectly so it arced overhead and plummeted back down, hitting Marinette in the neck. She shrieked at the cold and he took this opportunity to burst out from his cover and pick Marinette up, throwing her over his shoulder while spinning her around and around as she giggled and shrieked. Finally, he threw her down in the snow and white washed her. To his surprise, she just laughed and took him completely off guard by grabbing onto his scarf and pulling him down until their lips met. All his insides turned to mush as he returned the kiss, but to his dismay, Marinette used the kiss as a distraction to shove snow right back in his face.

Adrien yelped and jumped to his feet, swiping the frigid snow off his skin, only to dive for cover once more when Nino threw another round of ammunition. The four of them continued the fight until they all fell in a heap of laughter in the snow. It had been so long since they had all been together like this.

"Soooo..." Alya said slyly as she turned around to face the other three, her grin widening as she looked from Marinette to Adrien and back to Marinette. "I saw you two kiss. What's the latest scoop?"

Immediately, Adrien's ears turned bright red and when he turned to look at Marinette, her cheeks were red, too, and not just from the cold.

"Umm..." Marinette said, looking as flustered as he felt.

Thankfully, Adrien's watch beeped and he sighed in relief. "Mari, we gotta go!"

"Uh, right! We'll have to meet up with you two later!"

"Where are you two running off to?" Alya called after them.

"Uh..."

Adrien cut in for her with a quick lie. "The movies!"

Nino grinned knowingly. "Can we come?"

"Um, nope! It's all sold out!"

Before the other two could say anything else, Adrien and Marinette escaped to the park to a place where no one was around before they turned into Chat Noir and Ladybug. It still amazed him to see Marinette change from Marinette into Ladybug right before his eyes.

"Are you ready to kick some trash?" Adrien grinned as he flexed his fingers. He was definitely rearing to go, especially after Marinette got hurt last time. He would never allow that to happen again.

"Adrien..." Marinette said hesitantly, averting her gaze so she didn't look at him. "Before we do this, there's something I need to tell you."

Why did her expression look so grave?

"Don't tell me you're hiding another secret from me," Adrien said with a smirk, trying to lighten the mood. After all, they were about to head into the lair of Hawk Moth herself and he needed all the extra punny wit he could muster.

Marinette reached out to him but recoiled her hand at the last moment, as if she didn't know whether to console him or keep her distance. "There's something you need to know about the original Hawk Moth... I know who he is. And I'm pretty sure you don't know yet."

The original Hawk Moth? How on earth could she have figured out who?

As if reading his confused, troubled mind, she answered, "I followed Alyssa one night. She went to the Agreste manor, to your father's house."

Adrien shrugged. "That's nothing new. She went over all the time when I wasn't there. I thought it was weird at first, but I guess she was using me and my father to stash her lair there. It definitely wouldn't be noticeable that way."

Shaking her head, Marinette gently placed her hands on Adrien's shoulders. "You don't get it. I know this will be hard for you to accept, Adrien. But your father... He's the original Hawk Moth. We never found him in the aftermath of the fight because we weren't looking for your father. Hawk Moth disappeared that night because he was in the hospital. I overheard the conversation between your father and Alyssa myself. Your father admitted to it."

Adrien shook his head disbelievingly and stepped away from Marinette, his eyes wide. His father, Hawk Moth? There was no way. Adrien would have seen it. He would have known.

"You're lying," Adrien said huskily, shaking his head again. "That can't be true."

"I'm so sorry, Adrien," she said softly. "But I'm not."

He squeezed his eyes shut as gravity threatened to seize on him and bury him in the ground. This couldn't be the truth. It couldn't!

But then he thought back on that night three years ago, about how Hawk Moth disappeared and his father was crushed by the rubble of the fallen cathedral. Now his dad was paralyzed and if he really was Hawk Moth, then it was Adrien's fault. He did that to his own father. He crushed him and made him unable to stand. That was all his fault.

His hand flew to his mouth at the realization and suddenly he felt sick to his stomach. His father had tried to kill Adrien and Marinette countless times, and that night at the cathedral, he almost succeeded in killing Ladybug. And then Adrien almost killed his own father.

A tumult of emotions flowed through him from anger to sadness to disbelief to anguish, and before he knew it, his hands started to produced wispy black tendrils as his anguish got the best of him. He suddenly wanted to destroy everything in his wake, to relieve that anger and horror that started to grow inside of him. He could smash this entire park down. He could—

"Adrien!" Marinette cried, bringing him back to the present. "I'm so sorry about your dad, but you need to control yourself."

Adrien swallowed hard but then nodded, the cataclysm in his hands disappearing as he focused on his breathing. They had a mission to complete and until it was finished, he shouldn't let anything else distract him from his goal.

He nodded to Marinette as a go-ahead. "Let's finish this once and for all."