Once they both finally recovered enough to pull apart from each other, Marinette frowned as she remembered what brought them in Adrien's room to begin with. "I guess I'll have to put back on my wet clothes…" she whined softly into his neck.

Stroking her back absentmindedly, Adrien tenderly kissed the top of her head. "Actually, I have some spare clothes on hand for you here."

Startled, Marinette's head jerked upright, looking at her boyfriend quizzically. "What? You've taken up designing too?"

Suddenly looking uneasy, the blond whispered softly as he shook his head. "After I found out about… well, who you were, I figured I might as well be ready for any situations that might arise. I asked Natalie to find one or two outfits that would fit you along with some toiletries. Considering how we both had to deal with detransforming in unfit places on our own before, I fully expected things like today to happen. I wanted my room to be ready to offer you shelter, and have clean clothes ready for you should you need them someday."

Marinette smiled fondly at her boyfriend. "That certainly was very thoughtful of you, but didn't she find it was a weird request?"

Making his way toward his dresser in his naked splendor, Adrien just shrugged. "I'll remind you that I'm the one stuck with the camembert-eating kwami. A gluttonous one, to top it off. So asking for a spare outfit for a dear friend of mine known to have a great tendency to clumsiness wasn't that farfetched compared to the endless amount of camembert she thinks I'm ingesting daily."

Marinette was about to answer when Plagg protested loudly, "Hey! I'm not a glutton!"

"Always been, always going to be," retorted Tikki, half laughing from the cupboard where both kwamis had been sleeping, giving their charges privacy.

Marinette took the clothes Adrien was offering her shyly and immediately tried them on, astonished to note they were a perfect fit. They were simple yet beautiful, a black pair of skinny jeans paired with a hot pink chiffon blouse adorned with black lace short sleeves. Even the underwear, panties and bra cut in a baby pink light cotton, were surprisingly fitting her nicely and had obviously been chosen with comfort and practicality in mind. Noticing the tag, the young woman squealed, "Adrien, this is way too much, I can't possibly accept Agreste brand clothes!"

He quirked an eyebrow at her, visibly vehemently disagreeing with her. "You mean I can't offer clothes designed by my father, to which I have absolute free and unlimited access at any given time, to my gorgeous girlfriend?"

Marinette blushed deeply, analyzing her reflection in Adrien's mirror. "I can't win this argument, huh?"

With a smug smile, the young man shook his head. "Not a chance."

"Alright then. Thank you, they're lovely."

Grinning, the blond laced his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. "No, you are lovely. About what happened earlier, though…"

Bluebell eyes met his green darkened gaze and read an infinite amount of worry in it. "What about it?"

'" don't like it. We always thought we were virtually untouchable as our civilian selves while suited, and that your cleansing spell would fix everything at the end of the battle."

Marinette's expression turned grim as she processed his words. "Yeah, it's been bugging me all afternoon too. What if a civilian gets hurt by the commotion created by an akuma apparition instead of by the akuma directly? I won't be able to fix it and-"

Tikki's small voice interrupted them. "You both need to stop worrying that much about everything. Yes, the cleansing spell has its limits. In all the years you two have been fighting, it's the first time ever either of you suffers lasting consequences from an encounter. What does that tell you?"

"One time is one time too many, Tikki."

Plagg flew into view, gently patting his charge on the cheek, an unusually tender gesture for the black creature. "I know you're worried kid, but you've both been doing fine all along. Just be careful and look out for each other's safety, like you always do."

Both young adults nodded, eying each other warily. Marinette knew her lover was upset by the mere idea of her getting hurt, but she wasn't doing much better on her part. Ever since Plagg had slipped up about the heart-wrenching fate of his previous kitten, she was madly worried about her chaton. Though she fully intended to cheat fate and having him walk out of the final fight with Hawkmoth on his own two feet even if it cost her her very life in order to do so, she perfectly well knew it wasn't going to be easy.

As if he had read her grim thoughts, Adrien reached for her arm, gently drawing circles with his thumb on her milky skin, seemingly shaking his own worries away. "Hey, we're in this together, okay? Plagg's right, we just have to do what we always do, protect each other in fight. One mishap doesn't mean it's going to happen again. It just means we have to be more careful from now on."

She frowned slightly, wrapping her arms around herself in a protective manner. "I still don't like it. If Hawkmoth learns about that limit he may…"

"He won't," countered Adrien confidently. "Because we won't let him, okay, Bugaboo?"

Marinette simply nodded, not trusting her voice to be steady enough to answer him. They packed their things, the young lady insisting that Adrien to bring his overnight bag considering her dad's growing obsession with getting him to sleep over. He sent a quick text to Natalie to let her know about his whereabouts for the evening, and then they were on their way.

---

When they reached the bakery, they barely even made it through the door when they both were grabbed into a bone crushing bear hug, Tom Dupain sighing loudly in relief. "Sabine told me what happened. Thanks for taking care of my baby girl, Adrien."

Blushing deeply, the young man pulled away from the hug. "What kind of boyfriend would I be to her otherwise?"

Sabine's soft voice came from the other room, with an obvious smirk spread on her face as she entered the dining room, a steaming pot clutched in her hands. "The kind that wouldn't ever get invited for dinner in this house. Good evening, dear. How are you feeling, Marinette? Still cold?"

The young woman by his side smiled warmly at her mother. "I'm okay, I took a hot shower at Adrien's and he borrowed those clothes from his father's designs for me. You should see his bathroom, though, it's ridiculously huge for one person."

The older woman sighed disapprovingly. "For one way too thin growing person. Eat up, Adrien, you need to put a little meat on those bones.

The blond smiled as he saw his lovely girlfriend roll her eyes at her mom's antics and sat down beside the young woman, happily digging into the delicious casserole that had been served. The meal was spent in a comfortable conversation, her parents asking about his likes and dislikes, about the kind of childhood he had and what his plans were for the future. When they brushed that topic, Adrien couldn't keep himself from casting a glance to the woman he loved. He wasn't sure about his career plans just yet, but he knew for certain that he wanted Marinette to be a part of his future, no matter what it would take to make it happen. If her parents noticed his stray glances, they didn't mention it, which he was grateful for. "I'd like to be a physics teacher. Or a stay-at-home dad, whichever comes first. Anyway, it's more than likely that I'll get some managing position at Agreste and be stuck with it, so…"

Tom shook his head. "Nonsense. You shouldn't be pushed into a career you don't want. Let's say your career will last from twenty to sixty-five, that's forty-five years of your life you're going to waste on something you despise."

Taken aback, Adrien could only muster. "I-I know that, but-"

"No buts, son. Choose a career path that fulfills you. If your father disagrees, he'll come around eventually. And if he doesn't, I'll be more than happy to fill his shoes for you."

Tearing up, Adrien could only nod and whisper softly, "Thanks, Tom. That means a lot to me."

Smiling broadly, the baker suddenly donned a very serious expression. "Can I ask something from you two, kids?"

Startled, Marinette prompted her father to go on, "What is it, Papa?"

"Could you two try to be careful, please? It seems you both are always caught up in the crossfire of akumas, and I'm about to lose my mind with worry."

Both young adults looked at each other warily, Adrien nodding ever so subtly to his lady, who answered her father softly, "Of course, Papa. We'll try our best to stay away from trouble."

---

A few hours later, long after both young people had retreated to Marinette's bedroom, Tom Dupain pushed the kitchen's door open watched silently as his wife was skillfully brewing a kettle of tea, her lips barely even a thin line. "What are you still doing up, Sabine? We have to be down in the bakery in not even two hours, you should be fast asleep."

His wife shook her head, clutching on her mug as she headed toward their couch. "I couldn't sleep."

A rather heavy silence fell between them.

"I'm scared for them, too," Tom finally stated as he poured himself a cup of tea from the still-brewing kettle, taking a sit beside his wife, ever so careful to lower his whispers so the young lovebirds he assumed to be sleeping upstairs wouldn't hear their discussion.

"I know," his wife answered gently. "But you can't try to force them to reveal themselves like that, honey. What did you expect them to answer by asking them to stay away from akumas? Grandfather specifically demanded they keep their identities to themselves, and they're actually obeying him. Knowing our daughter as we do, even Adrien finding out was more than likely an accident."

The burly man frowned. "That old bat of yours is downright crazy. Giving that kind of responsibilities to poor kids…"

Sabine sighed. "It's way more complicated than that, and you know it. Grandfather didn't choose them, the magic did on its own. Considering their genetics, it was to be fully expected, Tom. I mean, I'm the only generation that was blissfully spared, and we both know fully well it was only because I was pregnant with Marinette at that time. And Amelya…"

The woman's voice broke evoking her old friend, and her husband patted her back reassuringly in little circles, prompting her to resume her train of thought. "She would be truly heartbroken, seeing her only son being so lonely and miserable. It truly does scares me, Tom. Marinette's gonna fight tooth and nail to come back home to us. But Amelya's boy doesn't have a home to go back to anymore. I'm afraid he'll do something rash to protect our baby and we'll lose him along the way."

Tom features softened considerably hearing his wife's concerns. "He does have a home now: here, with us. It's up to us to make him feel like he does, honey, and make him want to come back to us."

Sabine pushed her mug away on the coffee table in frustration. "I know, but it'd be so much easier for all of us if they could talk to us, know they can rely on us no matter what."

The big man fidgeted nervously with his own mug, before finally speaking what was truly on his mind. "Do you think he knows?"

"That his very own son is Chat Noir? I really, really doubt it. He would probably have taken his miraculous away in the poor boy's sleep already if he knew."

Tom frowned even further. "This is wrong on so many levels…"

The small Asian woman smiled softly at her husband. "Gabriel was never meant to be a miraculous holder, Tom. He stole the butterfly brooch from his wife's dead body, and he is driven by nothing but grief. He wants Amelya back, no matter the cost."

Shouldn't we tell them?"

Sabine shook her head vehemently, all the possible consequences of such a reveal playing before her eyes. "That Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth? I don't think it would end up good. Somehow, I can't picture Adrien taking the news very well. And both of them will need to be levelheaded for the final encounter to go as well as possibly can be."

Seeing as her husband was still frowning deeply, Marinette's mom asked as softly as she could, "Why do you care so much about Adrien's well-being suddenly, anyway?"

The baker looked at her like she had totally lost her mind. "Our baby girl loves him so much… If anything was to happen to him, I don't think she'll ever fully recover from it. And if Adrien loses her …"

A finger was placed upon his lips before he could even finish his sentence. "That boy is way stronger than his father ever was. Should anything happen to our sweet little Mari, he won't ever lose his mind like his father did from the loss. Besides, we'll be there to support him and take care of him."

Sighing as he looked into the distance of his livingroom window, Tom Dupain took in the beautiful Parisian night they had been granted with. Sighing lightly, he added softly, "Is it wrong of me to wish it would be us instead of them?"

"Believe me, honey, I've been wishing the same thing ever since our baby got her kwami."