Adrien relaxed in her embrace.  He wasn't completely convinced she couldn't do this without him, but the reminder she wanted to fight with him rather than alone was still reassuring.  It was clear to him now that he needed to regain some confidence he hadn't realized he lost.

He returned her smile as they separated.  "You're right.  I can do this.  I just need a little time to get back into this.."

He glanced to the streets below where the akuma was busy freezing buildings shut and making ice sculptures around benches and other fixtures.  He put on his best game face to get himself ready.  "We should finish this.  Do you have any ideas?"

"Hmm," Ladybug said. She placed her arm on his shoulder to think. Fighting on ice was difficult for both of them. The best thing to do was to take out the ice. She looked at him. "You can destroyed the ice. In the mean time I can use Lucky Charm."

Chat nodded while a wave of uncertainty washed through him.  Chat Blanc had been right when he told Marinette he didn't realize the extent of cataclysm's power.  Now something he may have done on a whim before seemed like a major risk. Unleash too much power and it could spread to the cement below, but not using enough power would not break all the ice and his transformation would drop.

He pushed the worry away and took a step toward the edge of the building. This was not different than any other akuma. He would go in first and make sure Ladybug had her chance to use Lucky Charm. Then he would continue keeping the akuma busy while she executed whatever plan she cooked up to use the charm. No difference at all.

"Ready when you are," he said with a smile as he jumped to the street below.  He braced himself for a slippery landing and let himself slide a short distance before getting Skater's attention. "Hey Frosty! Winter's over," he said before raising his hand, "Cataclysm!"

He brought his hand down, concentrating extremely hard on directing the power to only affect the ice, and let it go through the ice. He couldn't keep the relieved smile from his face as the ice cracked and melted, showing untouched concrete beneath.

She just nodded her head and gave him a smile. After he jumped down the building, Ladybug called out Lucky Charm. A jar of honey appeared in the air and she caught it. She held it out in front of her and looked really confused. She stuck her finger it and tasted it. Yep it was honey alright. Ladybug then noticed her finger sticky. "Of course!"

Skater fell looked angry that his ice rink was gone. He couldn't move around without the ice due to his stakes. So he started to blow an icy breath on the ground and ice was slowly forming on the ground again. Ladybug jumped down from the building and ran as fast as she could. She had to act fast. When she got close to him, she tossed the jar of honey at him. The jar landed on his feet and honey went everywhere.

"Ow!" Skater cried out. The jar of heavy and hurt his foot. The honey was all over his skates and it ruin them. The Skater tried to move back, but he ended falling down on the ice he created underneath him. His stakes couldn't move across the ice. 

Now to find the akuma. Since he was the skater it had to be in one the skates right? So Ladybug was able to pull off his right skate by using her yo-yo and grabbed a hold of it. She ripped the fabric as hard as she could since it was sticky. The butterfly came out and she quickly purified it. Ladybug then tossed the jar of honey into the air and Pairs was no longer a winter wonderland.

Before Ladybug could do anything the media came out of no where. She knew exactly what they were going to do. She quickly got in front of Chat and she pointed her finger at them. "Before any of you ask yes Chat Noir is still my partner." She put her arm around his shoulder. "And he will always be my partner. We're a team and we're always going to watch over Pairs. Now, we must be going. We're not taking any interviews about Chat Blanc and nor we ever will! We're moving on and Pairs should to. Goodbye! Have a nice day!" Ladybug then grabbed Chat by the hand and ran off.

She took them down an alley far away from the fight scene and let go of his hand. "Hopefully I successfully told off the media." She faced him with a smile and laughed. "I hope I didn't get you sticky. Lucky Charm can be quite amusing sometimes."

Chat smiled as he watched her work with the honey to defeat the akuma. That was one thing he missed during his two week absence from the fights. No matter what object, she was always able to figure something out.

He saw something out of the corner of his eye and looked away from where Ladybug was purifying the butterfly.  The media...  They looked ready to pounce, and he took a step back as they deemed it safe enough to approach. Chat braced himself for the storm of question he did not want to answer, his heart suddenly racing, when Ladybug intervened. He relaxed as she pulled him out of the danger zone and off to a random alley.

He smiled at her gratefully, even as she changed the subject from the media to her Lucky Charm. He shook his head. "I'd say you actually got me out of a sticky situation," he said before surprising her with a kiss.

The kiss surprised Ladybug and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. As they kissed they detrasnformed. The kwami floated above them. Tikki smiled and Plagg stuck out his tongue in disgust. After the kiss they separated, Marinette just laughed. "Is this the new pound it?"

Adrien smiled. "I would be up for that," he said.  He could hear Plagg groan with disgust.


Gabriel sighed as he detransformed. That akuma was underwhelming, and all he could think of was how Adrien seemed off for the majority of the fight. Because of him...  He shook his head and exited his lair with Lycca following behind. 

"Your heart's still not in it, is it?" Lycca asked.

"You can't assume that just because I chose such a pathetic host for an akuma."

Lycca shrugged, "Usually you have more to say when you lose. Oh, hey, what's that?" The kwami suddenly asked, flying over to Gabriel's desk. At some point between Gabriel entering his lair and now, someone had put a tabloid on his desk.

Gabriel picked it up and stared at the picture and the headline. That had to be from Friday. He suspected Marinette was the person he was about to akumatize (Adrien said she was upset), but this was as good as confirmation. He wondered, though... Did Marinette know Adrien was Chat Noir? Surely, he didn't leave, detransform, and come back as Adrien.

He stared at the picture. There was something nagging at him. Something...  Her earrings. They were hard to see with this picture but they were there, small and plain silver.  He shook his head. She couldn't seriously be...  But it made sense.  Dark hair, blue eyes, and the fact they were suddenly dating when Adrien had been in love with Ladybug for the longest time.  

"Lycca..." he said as he dug through his desk drawer for a photo.  There it was.  He pulled out the photo of Marinette and Adrien modeling his couple line from last year. It was a higher resolution photo that was close up enough to clearly show her earrings.  "What do those look like?"

Lycca flew over and took the picture from Gabriel, staring at it for a moment. "Well, I can't know for sure until I see them in real life, but...  The Guardian does have a knack for keeping the cat and the ladybug close," he said.

Gabriel was silent. Of course fate would be so cruel. His son was Chat Noir, and Ladybug was the one person right now who made Adrien happier than anyone else.

Marinette laughed some more. "Alright, but in private. We can't let Hawkmoth know we're together. He might use that against us." She took a step froward. "We better get back to class."

When they arrived back at school, Tikki pulled Plagg into Marinette's locker. Neither of their owners noticed their kwami running off. Ever since Chat Blanc Tikki has been suspicious about Hawkmoth's identity. She has been meaning to talk to Plagg about it, but she didn't want to say it in front of their owners especially Adrien.

"Plagg, I think I may know Hawkmoth is," she said before Plagg could ask her anything. "I think it's Adrien's father. I know it sounds crazy, but there are clues. Before Adrien was akumatize his father was over working him and Hawkmoth was sending out akumas like crazy. That can't be a coincidence. If anything Hawkmoth knows Adrien is Chat Noir."

Plagg stared at Tikki. He didn't know what to expect with this random meeting, but this was not it.  "You're joking.." He paused for a moment, realizing Tikki was serious. "Okay, there are some coincidences, but it could also be that his father realized he's Chat Noir and was trying to keep his schedule so full he couldn't go out to fights.  The old man came into Adrien's room after Jackady and noticed the miraculous.  He seemed pretty surprised by it and Adrien stupidly acted like it was a big deal when his father asked."

Plagg knew his reasoning wasn't really solid. That was around the same time Hawk Moth started acting strangely.  That would prove Tikki's point.  And it would make so much sense if Hawk Moth knew Adrien's identity before akumatizing him.  But still... It would hurt Adrien too much if Tikki was right, and Plagg didn't want that to happen.

"What!" Tikki nearly shouted. "You never told me about that!" Tikki fluttered around the locker as she think. "Everything is making so much sense now. Plagg, should we investigate?" Tikki was going to suggest him to do since he lives with Gabriel, but there was a chance Plagg could get caught.

Plagg's tail twitched.  He couldn't remember why he hadn't told Tikki about that, but now it seemed like they were opening a can of worms that needed to be opened.  Still, he was reluctant.

"We'd have to be really careful.  That security system is tight, and there's a lot of workers during the day.  I guess we could do it at night.."  He fidgeted.  "But what will we do if you're right?  Adrien's still an emotional wreck, even if it doesn't look it.  He was afraid to use cataclysm today because of the chance of it going out of control.  It will kill him if his father is Hawk Moth."

"I..," Tikki was lost with words. What would they do? They couldn't directly tell their owners. They weren't allowed. They could tell Fu, but would he do? She sat down. "I don't know.." she frowned. "I don't want to hurt Adrien, but Hawkmoth needs to be stop."

Plagg sighed.  "I know he needs to be stopped, but I think we should drop this for now.  We're not going to get anything out of investigating right now.  Give Adrien a little time to get back to 100% and then we'll figure it out.  It's not like Hawk Moth's targeting him right now."

"Alright," Tikki said. She wasn't happy about this. "We better go." Tikki poked her head out to see if the coast was clear. No one was around so both her and Plagg were able to return to their owners undetected. Tikki was tempted to go to Fu, but Plagg would get mad at her. She felt they were getting close to the end.

The rest of the day went fairly quickly.  Adrien had planned on confronting Chloe and Bridgette, but after a weekend to think about it he decided it wasn't worth the effort.  Marinette hadn't shown any intent on getting back at them, and provoking them might evoke an even worse response later.  Better just to let sleeping dogs lie.

That night his father knocked on the door.  "Come in," he said.  It was one of the few times he was able to tell his father what to do.  Plagg quickly hid in his pocket.

His father entered the room.  "How was school?"  

Adrien shrugged.  This was obviously a low effort lead into some other conversation.  "Fine.  No tests just homework that I'm almost done with."

His father nodded.  "Good.  You have a couple photo shoots next week.  Nathalie will update your schedule."  He paused and Adrien nodded.  There was more.  He continued, "Mrs. Morin's party is in two weeks.  As always, both of us are expected to be there."

Adrien sighed.  Mrs. Morin was his father's first and most influential investor.  Without her, his fashion empire would not have happened.  But that was over 15 years ago, and Adrien did not understand why it was still so important to keep her happy.  "What if I have plans?"

His father raised an eyebrow.  "You don't."

Of course he didn't, and it was a stupid argument.  "Right...  But I don't understand why she wants me there.  We barely talk, and I'm the youngest person there."

"She enjoys having you there.  Plus, she saw the tabloids.  She said you could bring Marinette."

Adrien's eyes brightened as he ignored the part about the tabloids and focused on the chance to bring Marinette.  "Really?"

"Yes.  Also, try to stay out of the tabloids for a while.  The entire office is full of gossip, and it's hurting productivity," he said before turning and exiting the room.  Adrien was quick to text Marinette and ask her to come.

Two weeks passed with the relatively fewer akuma attacks than before Chat Blanc.  Quite a few of them felt like halfhearted attacks that served only to keep them busy.  Or main it was the fact the akumas all but ignored him unless he forced them to pay attention to him.  It was annoying to say the least.

Then again, it gave him time to reacquaint himself with his powers, and by the end of the two weeks he felt way better about himself.  All-in-all, he was finally past the worse of it with a nightmare here and there.  It also helped Alya had finally been allowed to get on her blog and remove Chat Blanc's video.

The night of the party, he dressed in a new black suit his father had made just for the occasion (he always wore a new suit to this party) and a nice green tie that complimented his eyes.  He had to laugh at the fact it also matched Chat Noir's color scheme.

"Do I have to go?" Plagg asked, floating nearby.

"Yeah.  You never know when there's going to be an akuma.  Besides, I don't trust you in my room."

Plagg sighed in annoyance.  "At least tell me there will be cheese."

Adrien rolled his eyes.  "There's always cheese at those things.  But you can't just raid the snack table, got it?  I'll get you cheese during the party."

"Yeah, yeah.  I know," Plagg answered.


A few rooms away, Gabriel was having a similar conversation.  "You will stay in my packet, understand?"

Lycca nodded, unconcerned.  "I know, I know," he said.  "Although, I bet Plagg will be there.."

"Don't even think about it.  I would leave you in the lair if I didn't need you to get a quick look at Marinette's earrings."

"You're no fun."

"Just do what I say and hide in my pocket.  It's time to go," Gabriel answered.

Adrien met his father in the garage next to the limo.  They got in the limo and headed to Marinette's house to pick her up.