"We need to come up with a convincing story. A reason you and Chat noir had a breakup." Adrien said, looking into Marinette's eyes.

"Go on..." Marinette said, catching on to what he was saying.

"We can't be like... you know... hugging like we've been doing. It's too risky. I'll come visit as Chat noir. Make it public that it's too dangerous for us to date." He explained.

"Hm... that seems too dangerous. Why not at dinner I just eat quietly and upset? They will simply ask me what is wrong and I can explain." She said.

"Your parents will do that?" He asked.

"Y-yeah.." She said, understanding that his family situation was more... cold than her own.

"Anyways... We should go inside and get some dinner." Adrien said, letting go of Marinette's hand, and started walking toward his home.

"O-oh... uh... Yeah." Marinette said, looking down at her hand that was still slightly resonating heat that he had held.

Adrien pushed the door open and walked up to his room, walking into the bathroom after grabbing some clothes to change into. Marinette was going to go with him but decided to stay in the dining hall and sit down at the dinner table by herself instead. Tikki opened her purse and looked up at her, and smiled.

"What's wrong Marinette?" She asked.

"Nothing's wrong Tikki. It's just... deceiving my parents? It feels wrong." She confessed.

"It's for their safety and for yours as well as Adrien's identities," Tikki explained.

"I know... I know..." Marinette groaned. "I want to tell him soon."

"And you will... just not right now. Remember what Alix said about Chat blanc?"

"I'll at least talk to him as Ladybug then and explain that time gap." Marinette sighed. "I feel like I'm not only deceiving my parents... but I'm lying to Adrien as well."

Marinette heard someone coming and shut her purse, hiding Tikki, and looked up. It was her mother and father. They sat down at the table with her and started to talk and Marinette remained quiet most of the time until Adrien showed up and sat down beside her. Nathalie brought out everyone's food and sat down beside Sabine with her own plate.

"So.. how was your first day at the company? Adrien? You took good care of her didn't you?" Tom asked.

"Of course I did sir!" He said, a little intimidated.

"It... was fine," Marinette said, playing with her food.

Sabine looked over at Tom with a worried look, which caused Tom to glare at Adrien instead.

"Adrien? What happened at the company?" Tom asked. "Did you hurt Marinette's feelings?"

"Huh?! N-no!"

"We saw you hugging her outside dear, what happened?" Sabine said.

"Mom... dad... he was comforting me outside. It's alright. He didn't do anything." Marinette sighed, seeing everyone look at her.

"Then what happened?" Tom asked.

"Do I really have to talk about it again?" Marinette asked.

Tom looked over at Sabine and frowned and looked over at Adrien.

"I'll uh... go finish eating in my room. I have homework to finish anyways." He smiled awkwardly, picking his plate up to give them some privacy.

Nathalie sighed and picked her plate up and went toward the kitchen but instead of leaving she leaned against the wall and listened in on their conversation.

"Come on sweetie... We just want to understand." Tom explained.

"My boyfriend broke up with me alright?" Marinette explained, fighting back tears.

Marinette turned her head away. Marinette didn't think she was going to be able to cry but from all of the drama and stress that day, she found herself crying a lot harder than she thought.

"Oh honey, tell us what happened," Sabine said, standing up from the table and going over to Marinette, wrapping her arms around her.

"He said that with everything going on, with akumatizations and it's hard having his secret identity... It puts me at risk. He said it would be better to cut things off, at least until Hawkmoth is caught." Marinette cried into her mother.

Tom gripped his fists and stood from the table and went over and hugged his wife and daughter comfortingly.

"It will be alright, Marinette. Chat noir was always sweet to you, but I can understand he is thinking about your safety."

Nathalie's eyes widened hearing the conversation and walked into the kitchen and sat her plate down into the sink to be washed later. She then quietly made her way into Gabriel's room.

"What is it, Nathalie? Can you not see that I'm busy?" He said sternly.

"I have some important information, sir." She explained.

"What is it?" He said looking up from his work.

"Apparently, Marinette is a lot closer to the Cat miraculous than we originally thought. She was dating him. What would happen if we put her life in danger?" Nathalie smiled.

"Hmmm... what would he do indeed? Interesting... very interesting. Thank you, Nathalie." He smiled.

After explaining the situation to her mother and father, Marinette made her way upstairs. Before entering the bedroom, however, she tried her best to wipe her tears away and look like she hadn't just bawled her eyes out.

"Marinette? I think you went a little overboard with the acting, don't you think?" Tikki said.

"Well... at first it was acting... then... seeing Kagami and Adrien together today... I guess brought back a lot of dread and emotions. It was hard. I'm also a little worried about my parents moving to the U.S. and my new job. It's just a lot." She explained.

"You know he loves you. Why not talk to him about your feelings?" Tikki suggested.

"I will... right now... I think I just want to sleep. I'll talk to him tomorrow about it, I'm just really tired." She smiled.

Marinette opened the bedroom door and stepped inside. While closing the door behind her she heard rustling behind her. Marinette turned her head and was met with two warm arms hugging her. Marinette smiled and hugged him back.

"We did it. That was the easy part. Now for the hard part." He said, pulling away from her to look at her, but stopped mid-thought when he saw her face.

"Wait... were you... crying?"

"I had to make it believable... didn't I?" She tried to smile.

"I mean... I didn't want you to cry." He frowned.

"So... what's the hard part you were talking about?" She asked.

"Are you sure you're alright? We can talk about this later." He said, worried and a little skeptical.

"I'm fine. Really." She said, pulling him into another hug, letting her head lean downwards toward the floor as his arms wrapped around her.

She saw Tikki poke her head out of her purse and give her a worried expression but Marinette ignored it and leaned up and kissed Adrien's cheek instead, taking not only her mind off of the conversation but his as well.

Adrien's face blushed red as he saw her twirl around him and go sit on his bed, reaching into one of the dressers for a change of clothes. He followed her and sat down on the side he slept on.

"I'm going to change out of my work clothes and if you want to... put on a movie and we can talk about the complicated part of the plan?" She suggested.

"I like that plan." He smiled.

Marinette smiled while taking her clothes and proceeded to go into the bathroom, disappearing out of sight. Adrien turned the TV on and pulled the blankets over him as he scrolled through the movies. A few minutes later, Marinette returned and crawled into bed beside him.

"Did you find a movie for us to watch?" She asked, yawning.

"Are you sure you're good to watch a movie? You look pretty tired." He said, seeing her yawn.

"I'm good really, put on a movie," Marinette said, laying her head down on her pillow, facing the TV.

Adrien was hesitant, but he clicked on a movie that he thought they would enjoy but it was one they had already seen. She didn't complain though and remained silent. He laid down next to her and while the movie started his eyes drifted towards her, seeing that her eyelids were already shut.

He smiled and brushed her bangs back out of her face seeing that she was asleep and kissed her cheek goodnight and turned the TV off. He turned over on his side, pulling the blanket on himself, and was about to go to sleep himself when the light of his phone on his side table lit up. Adrien reached over and took hold of his phone and turned the brightness down so Marinette wouldn't wake up and saw that it was a text message... from Kagami!