Adrien lost many hours of sleep that night. Better yet, it's much more easier to say that Adrien didn't sleep at all. He kept staring out the window or to the ceiling.

"What's up kid?" Plagg said, settling on the pillow next to Adrien.

"I know who she is." Plagg's ears perked up, letting out a chuckle.

"So you finally figured it out." Adrien blinked, before turning in his bed to look at the cat with disbelief.

"You mean to tell me you knew? This whole time?" Plagg sat up, lifting his two little hands.

"Now, now, don't get your fur rumpled." Plagg said, trying to settle the boy. "I haven't known the whole time. I just recently found out that Marinette was Ladybug."

"When?" Plagg hummed.

"The train ride."

"The train ride?" Adrien asked exasperatedly.

"I've always been able to sense Tikki's magical presence around me. I just never knew exactly who and where it was. You know, you should consider yourself lucky. Often times more than others, Chat never ends up with Ladybug. You should go and tell her that you're Chat and you can both live happily ever-"

"Whoa, whoa, hold the phone." Adrien interrupted the small cat. "How am I supposed to tell her?" Adrien asked. Plagg blinked.

"You just show up as Chat and adopt that flirty manner you have and just detransform and poof, problem solved?"

"I can't just do that!" Plagg stared at him.

"Why not?"

"We've had these secret identities this whole time and to suddenly go 'Hey, by the way, I know you're Ladybug. Oh! And I'm also Chat Noir'!" Plagg remained in silence, staring at Adrien at disbelief.

"It's that easy Adrien."

"It's not that easy Plagg." Adrien argued.

"If you don't do it, I'm going to go over there and tell her myself." Plagg started to get out of the bed and began going towards the door, when Adrien got up and grabbed him, looking at the kwami with narrowed eyes.

"Don't. You. Dare. Plagg, I want to find a time and place where I can do this on my own. I don't need your help. Just... Don't let Marinette see you." The black kwami stared at the boy. "Please."

Plagg had seen many things through his years. As a kwami, he was centuries old. He's seen Chat Noir go from a witch familiar, to a standing human, to being partners with Ladybug. He's seen all the previous Chats, the ones who simply saw partnerships, others who's love was left unrequited as they watched their Ladybug go with someone else. Plagg had seen his boys suffer from love and Adrien who was suffering already out of love, didn't want him to have the same fate as the others.

Yet as the boy pleaded him to not interfere, Plagg bit his tongue and his ears flattened against his skull. "Fine, but on one condition." Plagg spoke, Adrien letting go of his small form.

"Yes?"

Plagg floated before Adrien's face, pointing a single paw at him. "You will tell her."

Adrien was surprised by his tone of voice and how serious his usually goofy cat was. "I will." He nodded.

That morning, Adrien woke up feeling like death, but he woke with a pep in step to see Marinette. He took a quick shower and slipped some clothes on and headed into the kitchen. He left the sleeping kwami two extra chunks of Camembert for the talk they had last night, as thanks.

Adrien began working on breakfast, when Marinette began to stumble out of the bedroom.

"Good morning princess! How are you feeling?"

Marinette jumped, startled by Adrien in the kitchen. "Good morning Adrien." She ran her hands through her loose hair, bringing it up into a high bun.

Adrien had never seen her hair in a bun before and he thought that she was the prettiest angel he had laid eyes on.

Marinette caught him staring and he flushed, turning quickly to look down at breakfast.

"I-I'm setting up breakfast! Hope you're hungry!" He stammered, scrambling some eggs around in the frying pan.

Marinette hummed, intrigued that he could cook, and went to lean on the counter, watching him cook.

"I didn't know you could cook." She mumbled.

She was still half asleep Adrien realized.

"You're like... The perfect husband." Marinette leaned her arm down on the counter and laid her head against it, watching him flush.

"I-It's, uh, you know, kind of an acquired skill." Adrien mentally face-palmed. What the hell is that Adrien? Get your act together. He heard Marinette giggle and got up from leaning on the counter, going to him.

"Thanks for breakfast. I'll be back." She wrapped her arms around him stomach and hugged his back, humming at his warmth.

Adrien was sure she could hear his heart pounding against his chest, but he was surprised as she simply turned around and walked back to her bedroom. It was soon after that his head started to pound dully, remembering the injury Ladybug had sustained last night. He looked towards Marinette's bedroom door, hoping she would come out soon so she could eat.

By the time Adrien had breakfast set up on the table, Marinette came out dressed and freshened, her hair still up in her bun. "G-Good morning!" She said, fidgeting. Her demeanor seemed a whole lot different than it did a couple minutes ago, which concerned Adrien.

"Are you okay?" Adrien asked, standing before his seat.

Marinette quickly nodded, moving some stray hair behind her ear. "Y-Yes! I just, um... Did I come out here? A couple minutes ago?" She asked, rubbing her arm. Adrien nodded. "Oh man. Uh... I didn't say or... Do anything weird, did I?"

Adrien was slightly confused as to what she meant, but it hit him and a smirk slid on his lips.

"Oh yeah, you started saying really lewd things. You almost started to strip, but I, being the gentleman I am, stopped you." Adrien crossed his arms as Marinette gaped.

"You're lying!" She cried and Adrien laughed.

"But you did say I would make the perfect husband." He rose a curious eyebrow at her and she flushed red, stammering for words. "Is there something you're trying to tell me Marinette?"

"As if!" She stammered, going to sit down.

Adrien chuckled and sat down across the table from her. The two began to eat silently for a moment, but Adrien couldn't help what was biting at him.

"Surely the baker's daughter would make a good wife as well."

Marinette almost choked on her juice and she slammed her hand on the table, trying to hold back her coughs. "Look here mister! You trying to pick a fight?" Marinette pointed her fork at Adrien and he simply smirked.

"Is that a challenge?" Adrien asked.

Marinette let out a chuckle."Perhaps." There was a prolonged silence in between them as they had a staring contest that Marinette lost to, before they continued to eat.

"Children, be decent, Mother Alya is coming in!" Alya called from the front door as she began to turn the knob.

"Hold on!" Marinette called out. Adrien looked at Marinette confusingly and she brought a finger to her lips, motioning him to keep quiet. "I wanna play a prank on Alya." She stood up and went over to Adrien.

"What's the plan?"

She smiled mischievously. "Sorry, but..." She rose her hands and ruffled Adrien's hair up, until she was satisfied with the outcome. "Are you a good of an actor as you are a model?" Marinette asked and Adrien almost seemed offended.

"What kind of question is that?" He asked her.

"Pretend to be out of breath then. And try to not be awkward in the most awkward way possible. Got it?" He nodded, catching onto her idea. "O-Okay!" Marinette purposely stuttered and as soon as the door started to open, she rushed to her seat and tried to sit as straight as possible.

Adrien cleared his throat and fixed his collar a little, Marinette fixing some hair behind her ear. Alya immediately caught on to the blush on Marinette's face and the way Adrien was breathing.

"O-Oh, hey um, good morning." Adrien avoided eye contact with them and Marinette didn't look up from her plate of food. Alya gasped, very loudly.

"WERE YOU GUYS- OH MY GOD." Alya began to fan herself and freak out and Marinette looked up at Adrien before they both burst into laughter. Alya was very confused at their laughter, looking at Nino who only smiled and shrugged.

"Your face! Priceless!" Marinette said between laughs.

"Who knew you two were big troublemakers." Nino laughed, joining them to sit, leaving a speechless Alya in the doorway.

"Wait! You mean, you guys weren't!"

Adrien tried to settle his laughter, running his fingers across his eyes. "No. We wouldn't do such things when you guys are down the hall." Adrien chuckled.

Alya caught onto this and rose an eyebrow, quick to sit down at the table with them, leaning her chin into her hand.

"So what you're saying is, you would if we weren't around?" Adrien smirked.

"Perhaps. What do you think Marinette?" He looked across the table at her and shot her a wink, which she dismissed with a roll of her eyes.

"This morning meant nothing Adrien."

"This morning?" Nino asked, surprised.

"Let me guess, you met the half-asleep Marinette Dupain-Cheng?" Alya asked.

"Ding ding ding." Marinette mumbled and the boys chuckled.

"Is there a problem with the Half-Asleep Marinette?" Nino asked.

Alya giggled and Marinette huffed. "You see, Marinette is like, the biggest, deepest sleeper in the whole wide world. She needs like, ten thousand alarms to wake her up."

"Ten thousand-" Marinette started.

"Alright, alright." Alya stopped her, raising her hands defensively. "Ten thousand and one alarms to wake her up. But that's not the best part. Half-Awake Marinette is like a completely different person. She's not as clumsy and she's very flirtatious." Alya wiggled her eyebrows and Marinette sighed.

"And you know this because...?" Adrien's voice trailed off.

"Because I slept over Agreste, duh." Adrien rolled his eyes at her and Alya's impish smirk returned. "So? Did she try to make a move on you?" She asked, nudging her elbow into this ribs.

"Perhaps."

"What's with all this secrecy bro?" Nino asked, getting a kick out of them evading Alya's questions.

Adrien simply smiled. "Can't have them knowing all our secrets, right Marinette?"

"Of course!" Marinette added sarcastically.

Breakfast was done and over with, when Alya and Nino told them about today's plans. Their train wasn't leaving until three in the afternoon, so they had the day to do what they pleased.

"We should all go out to like, the park or something- OW." Nino was elbowed in the ribs by Alya, who whispered something to Nino. "Oh that's right. We got two free tickets for the London Eye, wanna go?"

"We were on that thing almost all day yesterday." Alya chuckled, sending Nino some flirty eyes.

Adrien's eyes wandered over to Marinette, whose eyes were sparkling. He recalled Ladybug having said something about wanting to ride the London Eye during the sunset.

They couldn't stay until sunset, but Adrien would try his best to take her on there before they left.

"We'll take them." Adrien said, taking the tickets.

Alya smirked and stood and brought Nino along with her. "Well, pack your things kids, cuz we're going home soon! See ya on the train!" Alya called as she dragged Nino out.

Marinette and Adrien went to their bedrooms, gathering their personal items and putting them in the luggage.

"So, did you enjoy London?" Tikki asked Marinette quietly.

"Aside from the Akuma attacks, the trip was enjoyable. So many things happened between... Between the two boys." Marinette gave a sigh and plopped into her bed, looking up at her ceiling. "Tikki? We can have more than one string of fate, right?"

The small kwami nodded. "Your fate is intertwined with many people, so you have many smaller, thinner strings that connect you to others, in contrast with your thick red string that connects you to your mate."

Marinette listened to her wise kwami, letting out a soft hum."Can new bonds ever be formed?"

Tikki nodded. "Of course."

"Can strings ever be broken?" Tikki shrugged.

"A red string supposed to be indestructible, however... Depending on the conditions of the heart and the person, red strings can fade away."

Marinette let out a long sigh before sitting up. "Well, carpe diem, right?" Marinette got up out of bed and gathered the last of her things, ushering Tikki into her purse.

Marinette and Adrien gathered their things in the living room, both of them sitting down on the couch.

"It's too bad we didn't finish our marathon. I was looking forwards to it." Adrien frowned.

"I'm sorry Adrien. Last night's dinner didn't go down so well so I got sick." Adrien hummed. Are those the ridiculous excuses we come up with?

"It's okay. You're just going to have to make up for it." Adrien stated, standing before her.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Marinette looked up at him and he extended his hand out to her.

"Will you come ride the London Eye with me?"

Adrien was nervous, yet happy. Marinette was Ladybug, his princess was his Bugaboo. He's shared kisses with Marinette both as himself and Chat, Chat ironically being the luckier one and getting to touch her more often.

Adrien let out a sigh as it was their turn to get on a gondola of the London Eye.

Marinette glanced back at Adrien, a teasing glint in her eyes. "Not afraid of heights, are you?" She asked. Adrien scoffed.

"You wish." He stuck his tongue out at her, boarding after she did.

The gondola began to rock slightly as Marinette picked a side and Adrien considered sitting across from her but decided fuck it, and sat down beside her, startling Marinette slightly.

The ferris wheel started to jolted to move and they started ascending. Marinette let out a gasp as their view got bigger and bigger, the River Thames expanding before them.

In his shirt pocket, he could feel Plagg moving, Adrien glanced down at him, his green eyes glowing in the shadow of his pocket as he stared up at him.

Adrien internally sighed, patting his pocket gently. "Marinette?"

Marinette turned, looking at Adrien with a childlike smile. "Yes?" It was a little overwhelming and Adrien immediately backed out.

"H-Have... Have you ever had a secret that you couldn't tell anyone?" Adrien avoided her gaze. "A secret that you couldn't even tell your best friend?" Adrien could hear Marinette let out a soft sigh.

"Yes." She spoke quietly.

"I want to tell someone. Just one person and I feel like maybe, maybe-"

"Maybe that it will take some of the weight off your shoulders."

Adrien looked up at Marinette and their eyes met. Her blue eyes held feeling of sympathy but sparkled with understanding.

Adrien hesitated his next move, but went along with it. "I... Marinette, I... I've never been so comfortable around someone before..." His hand came over hers, her warmth running through his. "I don't know... I'm not sure about these things, but-" He stopped when Marinette put her other hand over his.

"Adrien." He looked down at her hands before looking up at her. "Let me... If you want, I... I can be the person that you can confide in." She let out a shaky sigh and she had a blush on her cheeks.

"Mari..."

"Adrien."

"I don't know if our strings tie us together but-"

"Adrien."

"But, can we make this-"

"Adrien, just shut up."

Adrien did and he couldn't stop looking at her crystalline blue eyes. His eyes did flicker down to her lips and he hesitated, suddenly afraid of rejection.

"May I?" He asked in a whisper.

Marinette put her forehead to his and she let out a soft smile. "No."

Adrien gaped and she laughed, pulling away. Adrien smirked and cupped her cheek, bringing her in close to press his lips against hers. With the breathtaking view and the wondrous moment, Marinette's last hours in London were pure bliss.