Hawk Moth smiled, knowing but not caring at the moment that she was diverting the subject. He leaned in, their lips touching for only a moment before he started a deep, passionate kiss. He couldn't help that she was good at keeping him from mentioning home.

Chat fidgeted now suddenly aware of how rude it was to wake her up out of nowhere when there was no danger. "Well.. no..." he answered, pausing briefly to gather his thoughts before he continued, "I just.. I was out and I saw Hawk Moth and Peacock together. And they were really close.."

Marinette was about to scold him for being out late, but she was thrown off by his comment about his father and Peacock. Briefly her mind wondered off to the possibility of Peacock was his mother. But she could be wrong. She quickly got rid of those thoughts. "Did you confront them?"

Chat shook his head. "My father would be mad that I'm not home in bed. He'd probably take my miraculous at night to keep me from transforming if he found out." He took a few steps to the left and started pacing like an agitated cat. "But I just don't get it. Why would he do this after spending all that time trying go get mom back?"

Marinette sighed and rubbed her forehead with her hand. "There's a simple solution to all of this. Talk to him. If you're afraid of him taking your ring then use the ball for evidence. Both him and Peacock were mostly mia during the whole thing." She then folded her arms across her chest.

Chat stopped pacing and stared up at the dark night sky. She was right, he knew. All he had to do was ask. There was a good chance that his father would give him some type of explanation that would account for his closeness with Peacock. But he wasn't sure he wanted to confront his father. He could just as easily watch from the background and try to figure it out on his own; though doing so would take a lot more time and effort.

"I guess so..."

"Which means you won't," she said with a sigh. Marinette turned her back to him. "Go ahead let it eat you up inside. A simple conversation would solve everything." She then glanced back at him. "You know if you want I can ask him. Oh Mr. Agreste your son saw you talking to Peacock late at night while patrolling. Why were you two so close?"

Chat quickly shook his head, his cat ears lying flat on his head in dislike of that plan. "Please don't do that. It would make him mad." He walked over to the railing and leaned against it while facing inward toward her. "I wish you wouldn't try to push me into talking to him so much.."

Marinette took a deep breath. "I'm pushing because I know you, Adrien! You hate confronting people about your feelings! And you do know that things will get better if you just sit down and talk to him." She paused for a moment. Marinette didn't want to tell him, but she had no choice. "Before your birthday I met with your father. He asked me what to get you for your birthday. And you know what else he asked me? He asked me if you were happy. That clearly shows that he feels bad about everything and wants to fix things. But no keep being stubborn and wait to talk to him when he's on his deathbed." A little harsh, but it was the truth. She then climbed back into her room and shut the window.

She sat down on her bed and sat there angrily. Tikki floated beside her wondering if she should say something. Marinette then buried herself in her covers and laid down.

Meanwhile Peacock pulled herself away from Hawkmoth. She glanced up at the moon. "It's getting late.."

Adrien stared at the closed window for a moment in surprise that she would end the conversation so abruptly. Sure, she was mad at him, but he hadn't expected that bad of a reaction. Plus, she'd just thrown a bomb of new information at him and left before he could ask her more. He stared into the window for a moment like a hungry stray before realizing she had already gone back to bed. There was no way to get her to speak to him any more tonight.

He stood and took a running leap onto the railing and then to the next rooftop, thoughts about what she said biting at the back of his mind. His father had gone behind his back to talk to his girlfriend just to check up on him and figure out what kind of gifts he might like? It sounded like way more effort than the old man usually made. And the new clothes had been really well-thought out..

He shook his head, reminding himself that he really needed to pay attention to where he was jumping when he jumped slightly too short. His foot caught on the edge of the rooftop, and he fell forward right on his face. Yep. He definitely should not be thinking about this right now. He stood and headed the rest of the way home while pushing any thoughts of his father to the back of his mind.

Hawkmoth frowned as she broke away from him. "I know..." His hand found its way to hers and gently squeezed, not wanting to let go. "You know, you don't have to go back to Fu's tonight.."

Peacock stared down at his hand for a moment. She then shook her head and stood up. "I have to go back to Fu's." She then leaned toward him and kissed him on the forehead. "Goodnight, my love."

She then walked to the edge of the building and muttered. "I have to do this.." Peacock then flew off.

"Good night," Hawk called even though she was probably already out of earshot. What did she mean with the words, 'I have to do the'? She didn't have to do anything she didn't want to do, especially when he could tell it was hurting her..

He glared at the ledge she flew from in frustration. This proved he couldn't let the topic wait until the end of the conversation; when she could escape. He would have to confront her and push even if she was crying. No matter how hard it would be.

He lingered only a moment longer before heading home.

Marinette woke up the next morning. She sat up in and bed and played with her hair. Her conversation with Adrien last night was rushing through her mind. She sighed. She shouldn't have gone off of him last night. Marinette reached for her phone and grabbed it off the nightstand. She then texted him.

Sorry about last night. But I did mean every word. Please talk to him about this.

She hit sent and laid back down on her bed. Why did he had to be so stubborn?

Adrien woke to the sound of his phone and reached to turn it off. He didn't remember setting an alarm. It was Saturday, after all. He had time to sleep in. He rolled back over, away from the phone, his mind not registering that he hadn't turned the "alarm" off before the phone went silent. He was just so tired from last night. Marinette's words had made him restless and kept him up.

Not a lot of time passed before he felt a tiny paw poking at his cheek. "Hey. You do realize you have a message, right?" Plagg said. The kwami poked him one more time before returning to a curled up position on the pillow, obviously deciding he'd put enough effort into waking his miraculous holder.

Adrien let out a non-committal "uh huh", his eyes still shut, before going back to sleep. Of course, he slept in longer than intended and truly woke up an hour later. He sat up and grabbed his phone to check the time when he noticed Marinette's message from an hour ago. Crap. What if she thought he was mad at her?

It's okay. I wish you wouldn't have went inside so suddenly, though. He hit send without answering the rest of her text.

Because I knew you would just blow the conversation off. Like you just did with the rest of my text.

Marinette hit send. She then stood up and walked down her loft stairs. Time to get ready for the rest of the day. She placed her phone on her desk before going over to her dresser.

"You're being pushing," said Tikki. She read the text Marinette just sent Adrien.

"Well I have no choice. I'm getting annoyed with his attitude. He comes to me in the middle of the night to complain about his father and Peacock. Instead going to straight to his father and demand answers," said Marinette as she pulled out a pair of jeans from one of her dresser drawers. She then turned to face Tikki who was sitting on her desk. "He's making this hard on himself because he rather act like a brat."

"Marinette."

"What! It's true!" Marinette turned out her dresser and opened the top drawer. "I understand his father hurt him, but he has a chance to fix things. Some people don't get that chance..."

Tikki just nodded her in agreement. "True.." She wondered what Plagg thought about all of this.

Adrien stared at the text for a while reading, and then rereading it. There wasn't much he could say to defend himself when she was right. Seeing his father secretly meeting with Peacock was slowly eating at the back of his mind. It made no sense. But asking his father about it directly was undesirable to him.

He sighed and put the phone down. Maybe he'd think of a response after his shower.  He stood from his bed and stretched. Plagg floated up next to him, piercing green eyes staring at him. "Aren't you going to answer that message?"

He shrugged and headed towards the bathroom. "I don't know how to respond. She wants me to talk to my father. I don't want to. So, we're at an impasse." He stood in front of the mirror, looking himself over and grabbing his toothbrush.

"Adrien, how long is this grudge of yours going to last? It's getting annoying," Plagg said, floating lazily on his back.

"I'll talk to him when I'm ready. Why is everyone acting like I have no right to be upset?" He started brushing his teeth. 

"You have every right to be upset, but it's out of hand if you can't even work with Hawk Moth during a beast attack. Carrying that fight into battle is going to get one of you killed. Besides, you might enjoy meals more."

Adrien contemplated this as he brushed, the inability to talk giving him extra time to think before he answered. He finished brushing his teeth and turned to his kwami. "I know what I'm doing, Plagg. I can work with Hawk Moth if I need to.  And I don't see how me not speaking to my father is any different from him not speaking to me the majority of the six years my mother was gone."

"Grief versus anger is a pretty big difference," Plagg answered.

Adrien frowned. Plagg was being really chatty this morning, and he wasn't thrilled with what he was hearing. He turned away from the kwami, "I'm going to take a shower. Why don't you go have your morning cheese?" With that, he undressed and started his shower.