Luka and Adrien sat on the couch together while the adults talked things over. Luka had his arm wrapped around Adrien who leaned up against him, just basking in his presence. He was so tired, emotionally and physically. It'd been a long fight, having to survive under the same roof as his father and finally managing to escape. His cheeks still hurt from the slap, but with each kiss Luka placed on them he felt a bit better.

"What's going to happen from here? Do you know?" Luka asked.

"I have to sneak in as Cat Noir with Ladybug to steal the miraculous. I deliberately left a window open to do that... once he has no power left as hawkmoth that eliminates one big problem. Then... then we have to deal with the mess that will be him trying to get me back" Adrien sighed.

"At least things can finally start to fix up now. No more Hawkmoth means no more villains to fight at 3am on a school night"

It was late, midnight by now. He was tired and sore but it was time to put Hawkmoth to an end. Once the adults finished their talk about the situation, and the kids were told to go to bed it was go time.

Crouched in the windowsill, Adrien now transformed held onto Lukas hands tightly.

"I'll be ok, it's only a quick trip in and out to get the miraculous" he assured.

"Come back safe ok? I'll be awake and ready to tuck you into bed" Luka replied.

They shared a quick kiss, before he turned to jump onto the window of Nathalie's room a few windows away. She was staying in one of the guest rooms, and up and waiting for this as well. She opened the window and leaned on the sill to talk to Adrien.

"It's behind the portrait of Emilie-" she began.

"I've seen that safe before, I knew it was sketchy..." Adrien replied.

"Here's the code, disarm the security system on the wall first so no alarms go off"

"Got it. I'll be back asap"

"Be safe Adrien" Nathalie said.

"I will, promise. Now get some rest, you're still sick" Adrien replied.

They parted ways, Cat Noir off across the rooftops and contacting ladybug to tell her it was go time. It was a bit late, and he felt like bad for potentially waking her up, but it was now or never. They met atop the roof of the building opposite the Agreste mansion and scouted out the place to make sure everything was ready to go.

"I'm glad Adrien is out there... looks like Nathalie wasn't kidding when she said she was going to make sure he was safe by any means necessary" Ladybug said.

"Y-yeah, good thing he's safe. There's the window, and I got the code from Nathalie for the safe. Let's go" Cat replied, still having ti pretend he wasn't Adrien.

"Wait, cat-"

He stopped in his tracks as he was about to jump into the window, and turned to face her.

"You ok? What happened to your cheeks?" Ladybug asked.

He froze up for a moment, panicked. He needed to come up with a believable lie or his cover would be blown.

"I- Ahem... I fell off my skateboard and face planted" he said.

"Ouch, I thought cats were meant to land on their feet" she teased.

"Haha, Funny. This cat seems to be good at tripping over when I'm not in my suit"

While he was a little on edge about the whole thing, he managed to get the bug to believe him. They focused their attention back on the mission and carefully snuck through the open window. The house was dark and quiet, and every step they made had to be completely silent. Carefully creeping through the house they made it to the office where the portrait hung.

"Ok, she said to disarm the security on the wall first. Here's the codes" Cat whispered.

"Alright, I can't see well in the dark. You disarm it and I'll keep watch" Ladybug replied.

Carefully and quietly, he punched in the code to disarm the security in the room and heard it switch off with a small beep. Ladybug confirmed there was no one awake and roaming the house and they went for the safe. Pulling the portrait away, the safe behind it was big and imposing. Reading the code off the slip of paper, they twisted the dial in the right order and felt the lock undo itself. Slowly opening the door so it wouldn't creak, they were in.

"What even is half this stuff?" Ladybug asked, seeing all the random objects inside.

"You'd think he'd hide expensive stuff in here and yet he's just got old plane tickets and photos..." Cat replied.

He knew why family photos would be kept in a safe, just in case a fire broke out or something. But there was so much seemingly random junk in it.

"Ah! There it is!" Ladybug whispered.

On the shelf by some old tickets to Tibet, the missing peacock miraculous sat. She quickly grabbed it and held looked it over for any damage.

"Looks like he managed to fix it. Nathalie really wasn't lying about anything, she totally threw him under the bus" she said.

"Queen shit" Cat replied.

Ladybug silently snickered at his humour and closed the safe putting everything back in place.

"We still need to get the butterfly, which he'd have with him. This is going to be terrifying..."

That it would, he agreed with his partner. Adrien really didn't want to see his dad after what happened, but he needed that miraculous back. Fast. Creeping up the stairs and to the bedrooms, they quietly pushed the door open and peeked inside.

Gabriel lay in bed, asleep and completely clueless that his son and assistant were gone. And that the two heroes he'd been fighting were right outside his door.

"There it is, on the bedside table" Ladybug whispered.

Gabriel had taken it off along with his neck scarf to sleep, and it sat underneath the lamp. It was so close, they just needed to grab it without waking him up.

"You can see better in the dark, grab it and if anything happens I'll be ready to restrain him with my yo-yo" Ladybug said.

Adrien took a breath, he was terrified, but determined. He could feel the adrenaline pump though his veins as he slowly and quietly crept into the room while his father- Hawkmoth, slept. Ladybug held her breath as she watched ready to pounce if she had to. The quiet sounds of Gabriel breathing as he slept was all they could hear. Adrien reached out, touched the miraculous with his claws and slid it over to him slowly to make as little noise as possible.

And then, he grabbed it.

Holding it as tight as he could, he immediately whipped around and quickly and silently snuck back out the door.

"We got them! Go, go!" He whispered.

He and Ladybug practically ran out the window as silently as possible and with the adrenaline rushing through them they zoomed away over the rooftops before coming to a stop on one of the shop buildings in the city.

"We did it... we got them... WE GOT THEM! CAT NOIR WE DID IT!" Ladybug exclaimed.

He looked down at the butterfly miraculous in his hands, he was holding it. He'd done it. His father no longer had the power to be Hawkmoth.

"We did it... WE FINALLY DID IT! WE DEFEATED HAWKMOTH!" He smiled.

The two jumped around and cheered in joy, hugging tightly and laughing together. Cat quickly handed the miraculous to ladybug and made her close her hand around it tightly.

"Quick! Put them back in the miracle box before anything can happen to them" he said.

"Yes! I will, they're going in there and not coming out unless it's an absolute emergency" she agreed.

"I can't wait to tell Nathalie, she's going to be so relived"

"Oh... that reminds me"

He tilted his head, the way cats do when you say their name in a baby voice.

"About... that wish. I've been thinking about it and..." Ladybug began.

Adrien's cat ears perked up, his eyes sparkling with hope.

"I think... I'll let Adrien do it"

Immediately, overcome with joy he pulled ladybug into his arms and hugged her tightly.

"Thank you! Thank you, thank you!" He smiled.

"Woah! I knew you were hoping for it but damn, that's a reaction" Ladybug giggled.

Oh yeah, she didn't know he was Adrien. He awkwardly broke the hug and cleared his throat trying to reel back and act more natural.

"It's just that... you know. I also lost a parent so I understand-" he began.

"I get it, you understand the feeling on a much deeper level than I do. We'll meet up with Nathalie once things with Gabriel have calmed a bit and we can go over everything then. As long as Adrien is the one who does it and there's no alternate motives, it's done exactly the way we discussed then it'll be able to happen with no problems. I did some serious thinking... I uh... I know Adrien has been though a lot. He deserves it" Ladybug explained.

Part of her decision was the genuine desire for Adrien to get his mum back, and Nathalie to have her lover back. But she'd be lying is she said part of her decision wasn't because she felt bad for blowing up at him and Luka as Marinette. While she was still a bit sad she essentially lost her crush, after some time to let the emotions simmer and after finding out the full story of what Adrien was going through and how Luka had been helping him... she felt a bit bad. She understood that you can control who you fall for, or your sexuality for that matter.

She'd been hoping to talk to them once she had the chance.

"Thank you, ladybug. Seriously... loosing a parent is the worst thing you can go through, this... would mean the world to him" Cat thanked.

"I understand. Now I'm going to get these miraculous home safe before anything else can happen, and you need to go to sleep! It's late as hell!" Ladybug said.

"I know, I'm so tired. Pound it?"

"Pound it"

Bumping fists goodbye, they parted ways. It didn't take long for Adrien to get back to Lukas place and meet him at the window where they'd parted earlier.

"Did it go well?" Luka asked, as Adrien climbed in the window and detransformed.

Adrien sighed, wrapping his arms around Luka and pushing him over onto the bed where they landed with a bounce and snuggled up together.

"It's over, Hawkmoth is done"