Archive of Our Own ^beta

In Adrien’s opinion, Lila Rossi’s general existence is wholly unnecessary.

He’s not in favour of murder, of course, just.. not quite opposed, either. Being the moral compass is Ladybug’s job after all, not his. He’s allowed to be a bit morally faulty.

Watching Lila cry her eyes out at 8am on a Monday, Adrien just thinks murder might make a lot of things easier for a lot of people.

He sighs as he sees Alya dart from her seat to run towards Lila, leaving Marinette alone mid-conversation.

With Nino sick and therefore nobody else to pay attention to anyway, Adrien turns around in his seat to rest his head on his arms on Marinette’s desk.

“What is it this time?” he asks, watching the girl watch Alya and Lila. She sighs as she turns her eyes on him to answer.

“No clue, but I’m sure we’ll find out very soon,” she replies.

Actually, fully, replies to him, eye contact and everything.

Adrien still feels giddy about that recent development in their relationship. Ever since he’s started seeing her as Chat Noir, he’s yearned to see that side of her as Adrien.

And now, ever since their talk about Lila’s lies the first time around, she’s finally opening up to him, accepting him into her closer space. Adrien has no doubt it will be a big help in his mission to shield her from Lila’s schemes as much as he can.

His eyes follow Marinette’s gaze back to the rest of the class, huddled together around Lila.

A loud gasp moves through the group and Adrien is sure they’re about to find out right now.

“Marinette, how could you!” rings out from the back of the group; Rose, always the first to take personal offence.

Marinette sighs, visibly bracing herself for the onslaught of blame.

As the group rapidly moves over to surround Marinette and Adrien, he notices Alya hanging back just a second, looking.. lost, somehow.

The only person that stays seated on the other side of the class is Chloe, sparing Lila one uninterested glance before going back to her phone.

Marinette is surrounded immediately, Adrien caught in the crossfire with her.

Accusations come from left and right, yelled over each other, completely incomprehensible.

Adrien thinks it’s way too fucking early for this.

“HEY!” he shouts, straightening up in his seat. All the voices go quiet as eyes turn to him.

“Maybe someone can tell us what happened first?” he then asks, looking around at all the still-stunned faces of his classmates.

Alya steps into the circle from the back to explain the supposed situation.

Her eyes look determined, albeit still slightly unsure.

“Lila says someone tripped her down the stairs this morning. She didn’t see the person clearly, but says she looked like Marinette,” Alya explains, hesitance underlying her voice towards the end.

Adrien raises an unimpressed eyebrow at the story.

“Marinette, how could you do this to Lila?” Ivan asks, Mylene clinging to his arm, equally furious.

“I didn’t do anything!” Marinette insists, though her voice betrays her determination; she already knows the fight is pointless.

“Wow, not even admitting to an accident? Just outright refusing? Not cool,” Kim throws in.

Lila can still be heard sobbing from the side of the group when Alya stops everyone.

“Okay, let’s not jump to conclusions here, okay? We don’t know for sure if the person Lila saw was actually Marinette, or if it was someone else who tripped her,” Alya reasons and the group begins to hesitate in their accusations.

Adrien sighs in relief at Alya’s persisting defence of Marinette. She’s still absolutely gullible in the face of Lila’s stories, but at least she defends Marinette neutrally when needed; still not what a best friend should be doing.

“Alya..?” comes Lila’s broken voice, “I thought you were my friend?”

At this, Alya seems genuinely stunned.

“What?”

“I thought we were friends,” Lila continues, sniffling, “you’re supposed to be on my side!”

Alya’s eyebrows scrunch together in guilt, but she continues looking between Lila and Marinette, torn.

As Adrien watches her, Lila’s intentions become more and more obvious; just, why?

Clearly, Lila is trying to remove Alya from Marinette, but what’s the point if Alya is already on her side?

“We are,” she eventually says, “I’m just saying it’s not definitive! Look, let’s go over the events again-”

Alya takes Lila gently by the arm, leading her back over to her seat to console the crying girl, the rest of the class following the two with suspicious glances at Marinette.

Adrien rests his head back on Marinette’s desk and begins watching the girl.

She sighs in defeat, her shoulders sagging with exhaustion. She throws one last hurt look to Alya before focusing back on Adrien in front of her.

“Well,” she says, “I can’t say I’m surprised.”

Adrien doesn’t reply at first, searching Marinette’s eyes for something; he finds it, straightening up in his seat.

“Forget what I said about the high road,” he says.

Marinette’s eyes widen in shock.

“What?”

Before Adrien can explain further, Miss Bustier enters the classroom. While everybody else settles in their seats, Adrien makes his way to the teacher’s desk.

“Morning, Adrien. Do you need something?” she asks before he’s even stopped at her desk. Adrien nods with a smile.

“I was wondering if we could change the seating chart? There’s a lot to consider these days, you know how it is with Lila, but I have a suggestion, if that’s alright?” he asks, hopefully innocently enough. Miss Bustier looks surprised and slightly unsure, but nods anyway.

“Yes, of course, I’m always open to suggestions.”

Adrien pulls out the sheet of paper he’d messily sketched his idea on a minute ago, handing it to Miss Bustier.

She scans it slowly before nodding and sending Adrien back to his seat.

Once everyone has settled in to listen, she starts talking.

“Good morning, class! First thing today is a new seating arrangement, since there have been some concerns with the current one recently. Thank you, Adrien, for the suggestion. Please pick up your stuff and follow my instructions.”

As she begins calling out names and instructions, Marinette looks at him, puzzled.

Adrien just smiles at her, silently asking her to trust him.

She seems wary when Miss Bustier sends her to the very back of the class while Alya is already seated at the front; less so, when Adrien follows her to sit down next to her.

He smiles at her reassuringly and she seems to relax a bit in her seat.

Once class begins, he leans over to Marinette.

“My advice was shit, is what I’m trying to say,” he whispers. Marinette looks at him from the corner of her eye.

“Why?” she whispers back.

“Obviously, she is hurting you,” he replies – though apparently not quiet enough, as Miss Bustier shoots a glance in their direction.

Marinette seems to notice too and pushes her paper over to him.

‘She’s making good on her promise’ is written at the edge of her paper.

‘What promise?’ Adrien writes back.

‘She threatened me in the bathroom once’

Marinette pauses to send him a guilty look for not telling him, which Adrien will make sure to address again.

‘She told me she’d take all my friends and turn them against me’

Adrien can feel the indents in his palms from the way he’s digging his nails into his skin.

A wave of protectiveness comes over him, followed by such pure rage he has to physically hold himself back so as not to jump over the table and strangle the bitch.

After a few very deep breaths and a promise to himself to reconsider his morals later, he grabs his pencil to reply to Marinette.

‘We’re finding a different way to ruin her, just need to figure out how far I can act’

Marinette gives him a concerned side-eye as she replies.

‘Because of your dad? Also, you look murderous. What exactly do you have in mind?’

Adrien almost laughs at the implication; Marinette always seems to read him too easily.

‘Yeah, she works for him. Not planning murder yet but it’s not out of the question’

He puts his pencil down. Marinette sends him one more smile before turning away to focus on class. Adrien decides to ignore the way his heart flutters in favour of trying to find out what class they’re even in. Plotting Lila’s downfall is an issue for later.

-----

Chat lets his feet dangle from the platform of the Eiffel Tower. The night is cold and calm, few people still bustling around in the city streets below. Small snowflakes fall from the sky, though none of them stick, melting once they hit the ground.

The sound of a retracting chord breaks through the silence high up in the tower.

Ladybug drops down to sit next to him.

“Evening, Chat,” she greets with a smile, not quite picking up on his mood yet.

Chat doesn’t raise his eyes, claws digging into the steel below his hands.

“Would you let me kill someone, my lady?”

He’s met with silence.

Ladybug looks over at him, scanning his face in concern.

“You’re serious,” she says, eventually, voice hesitant.

Chat finally looks up from the city below to meet her eyes. He doesn’t need to reply to her to confirm her assumption. She shakes her head slightly as she searches his eyes for something.

“No, no person is worth losing you as a partner,” she says and he sighs.

“Not even if it’s Lila Rossi?” he asks, although her response already decided it for him.

She smiles slightly, hearing the humour return to Chat’s voice.

“Believe me, I would love to give you the go, but we do have to have morals. What brought this on?” she then asks, head tilting as she continues watching him.

Chat lets his eyes drift back to the city lights as he begins talking.

“I have this friend. Lila has it out for her, trying to turn her friends against her and make her miserable. My friend is strong, but it’s really hurting her. None of her friends see the obvious lies and the bullshit Lila constantly spreads,” Chat explains. He can feel the emotion boiling up inside him as he retells the events, but Ladybug’s presence is calming. She puts her arm on his shoulder in comfort.

“I get it, believe me, but we can’t just kill someone for being a bitch,” she says, and Chat understands, really, but it’s just not fair.

He bites the inside of his cheek to hold back his misdirected anger.

“You know,” he says instead, “if you’d said yes, I honestly would have done it.”

Ladybug looks at him with so much concern he feels sick. He doesn’t deserve that kind of look from her.

“I know,” Ladybug says, voice soft. “Your friend must mean a lot to you.”

Chat sighs again as he lets his eyes drift in the direction of the bakery.

“She does. Marinette is just so good, you know? She doesn’t deserve any of this,” he says, not noticing his slip-up until he turns to look at Ladybug, who has become uncharacteristically silent.

Her eyes are wide in shock.

“Marinette?” she asks.

“As in, the girl from the bakery?”

Chat winces as he realizes his mistake, but nods in confirmation.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to mention who it was.”

Ladybug shakes her head softly to let him know it’s okay.

“I know you’ve worked with her during Evillustrator. I just didn’t think she meant that much to you,” she says, head tilted and still looking at him like she can’t quite believe it.

Chat chuckles, somewhat embarrassed and also desperately trying to find a way out of this without exposing his identity.

“Yeah, um, I’ve been visiting her from time to time since then. She’s lovely, you two would get along clawfully well,” he says in the end, not noticing the way Ladybug narrows her eyes at him in suspicion.

“Well, if you say so. I trust your judgement,” she says, shrugging.

A moment of silence stretches between them and he’s sure Ladybug is about to stand up to start patrol, but he speaks up again.

“I just don’t know how to help her anymore,” he says, eyes still roaming across the city.

Ladybug doesn’t say anything, just waits for him to go on.

“You already know my home life isn’t exactly easy, so,” he continues, watching Ladybug as she sighs in sympathy.

“I’m sure you’ll think of something. Until then, there are other ways to be there for her. I’m sure she appreciates you for that,” she says, smiling at him encouragingly. Surprisingly, Chat does feel better.

He smiles back at her as she gets up, holding a hand out to help him up.

As they make their way across the rooftops of Paris, Chat begins plotting.

-----

Chat lands on Marinette’s balcony as carefully as he can. The lights in her room are on and he can hear music playing, so he at least knows he won’t wake her up.

He knocks gently on her skylight, watching her scurry around the room before opening it for him.

“Chat!” she greets him, the hand not holding the skylight still holding a pin cushion and scissors.

“Hey purrincess, am I disturbing you?” Chat asks, eyeing the mid-progress project pinned to Marinette’s mannequin. Marinette shakes her head and opens the skylight further.

“Never, kitty. Come in before you get a cold,” she says, already disappearing back into her room. Chat follows hesitantly, looking around as he heads inside.

He makes himself comfortable on the chaise lounge as she finishes up her pinning and puts all of her stuff away. It only takes her a few minutes, in which the two stay in comfortable silence, until she eventually joins him on the chaise.

“So,” she begins, finally breaking the silence, “what brings you here today, kitty?”

She’s smiling at him with such ease, something he still hasn’t quite reached as Adrien. He’s glad to see her this way as Chat, though; the side of herself she shows to him now allowing him to see her properly, see her beauty. It’s been harder and harder to ignore his growing feelings.

A strand of her hair has slipped out of her pigtail and hangs over her temple.

Chat doesn’t stop himself from reaching out to tuck it behind her ear.

Her light blush and soft smile are like a reward.

“I wanted to check in on you,” he says finally, “I’ve heard some things about your class recently.”

When Marinette’s smile falters, Chat wants to take everything back and just keep her in that blissful bubble, away from everyone else.

Marinette sighs, eyes dropping.

“You mean Lila, right?” she asks, and Chat nods.

“You want to tell me about her, princess?” he asks, hand on her arm in reassurance.

On one hand, he doesn’t want to force her to relive it again and again, but on the other, he has to show his support, and Chat Noir isn’t supposed to know as much as Adrien, so he has to hear it from her first.

Marinette takes a shaky breath and starts talking. She starts from the very beginning, doesn’t skip one detail; she retells all of Lila’s lies, explaining why they’re lies in the same breath.

When she starts talking about Alya and everyone else slowly turning away from her, tears begin running down her cheeks. Chat has to concentrate to keep his anger from showing too much, not wanting to scare Marinette off now that she’s trusting him with this. His hands rest on her cheeks, wiping away her tears as they fall.

Once she finishes telling the events of that morning, Chat pulls her into his chest. She hugs him back without hesitation, crying into his shoulder for a minute before her breath begins to even out again. With one last sniffle, she pulls back from his embrace.

“Thank you, Chat” she says, eyes shining. She’s smiling.

Chat would still kill for her.

“If there’s anything I can do,” he starts and he really should school his voice into something less fierce, “and I mean anything, ever, or if I can help in any way to take that bitch down, tell me. Whatever it is, I’ll be there.”

Chat doesn’t know if he’s ever felt more protective over someone.

Marinette is looking at him like he hung the stars.

Maybe he’s past the point of being able to ignore his feelings.

Marinette is kissing him.

Chaste and sweet, her lips are soft, and warm.

She pulls away before Chat has a chance to react, her gaze nervous and so reminiscent of the way she used to look at him as Adrien. The only thing he can think about is getting that look off her face before she runs away from him again.

Chat can no longer ignore the feeling in his chest as he surges forward to capture Marinette’s lips in another kiss. She gasps in surprise, hands gripping Chat’s shoulders for leverage.

His hands, in turn, grab her by the waist to pull her closer, her thighs coming to rest on either side of his.

With her essentially straddling him, she has the upper hand; her right hand slides up to tangle in the hair at the back of his neck, tilting his head back as she goes.

Chat’s lips part, Marinette taking charge and pushing her tongue past them to meet his.

He lets his hands slip under the hem of her shirt, returning to her waist; his attempts to feel her skin under his are futile. The warmth he can feel through his gloves is almost enough.

Marinette tugs at his hair, fingers roaming over one of his ears; Chat almost moans, but despite Marinette’s efforts to make him, he resists.

When they both need to catch their breath, Chat detaches from Marinette’s mouth to instead latch onto her jaw; he revels in the feeling of her skin. He trails kisses along it, Marinette sighing softly above him, before he slowly makes his way down her neck, where he begins biting carefully. At the point where her neck meets her shoulder, he sucks on the skin softly until a mark starts blooming across her skin. Satisfied, he looks back up at Marinette’s face.

What meets him there is glorious; Marinette’s expression is open, blissful as she watches him. Her eyes shine down at him, her breath still ragged. Chat can’t help but grin.

Marinette bends down, capturing him in another kiss, much softer than the previous ones.

Once they part, her head drops onto his shoulder with a content sigh, his arms wrapping around her back comfortably.

They sit in silence for a moment, just enjoying the atmosphere.

“As much as I don’t want you to leave,” Marinette says, quietly, “it’s very late and we both have class tomorrow.”

Chat sighs into her shoulder, defeated. He knows they both need sleep, but he would rather do anything than leave Marinette right now.

“I know,” she says, as if she read his mind.

Reluctantly, they get up from the chaise and head up to her balcony.

“Promise you’ll come by again soon?” Marinette asks before he leaves, seeming nervous. She shouldn’t be.

Chat grins down at her.

“As long as you want me, I’ll be here,” he says, leans down to kiss her one last time, and runs off into the night.

-----

Marinette is almost late to class. She tends to be, these days; always coming in right before class starts to avoid any confrontation Lila might have in mind.

Eyes pinned to the door, ignoring Chloe and Sabrina’s chatter in front of him, Adrien waits for her to show up. At 8:14, a minute before class starts, Marinette comes through the door. She rushes up the stairs and sits down next to him.

“Morning, Mari,” Adrien says, day lighting up as he looks at her.

“Morning!” Marinette replies, seeming uncharacteristically happy this morning. (Uncharacteristically ever since Lila arrived and made her life hell, anyway.)

What’s also uncharacteristic is her hair. Gone are her usual pigtails, instead replaced by a braid trailing over her right shoulder. As Adrien keeps watching her unpack her things, he scans her outfit; her tights, her blue skirt, her light pink, very oversized sweater, and- as she leans down to her bag one last time, braid slipping off her shoulder- the purple hickey above her collarbone.

Adrien turns his eyes away very quickly.

Because that’s one thing he didn’t quite consider last night, as the creator of said hickey; that it would be visible, at school, next to him, while he has to keep his composure and pretend he didn’t do that.

“Miss Bustier is late, huh? Lucky for us,” Marinette says, turning to Adrien now that her desk is ready. Not wanting to hurt his friend (?), he, reluctantly, turns towards her as well.

“Yeah,” Adrien agrees, but he really cannot take his eyes off that braid. So, he continues, “I love your hair today, by the way. A braid looks great on you.”

A beautiful blush spreads across her cheeks, catapulting Adrien into another fight for his composure. Images of Marinette last night, soft and bossy and on his lap flash by him and he really should remember they’re at school.

“Thank you,” Marinette replies, a bright smile gracing her lips. (Lips Adrien knows the feeling of.)

A loud crash interrupts them. At the front of the class, Lila pushed something off her and Max’s desk, who looks right on the edge of mad. Next to him, Lila is apologizing in her whiny victim voice, pushing the fault onto one illness or another.

Next to Adrien, Marinette sighs.

“While we’re on that topic, I might have a plan,” he announces quietly, turning back to Marinette as the class around them grows in volume. She raises her eyebrows in surprise.

“What, already?”

“Well, it’s more of a rough idea so far. But it’s a start,” he explains. Marinette seems convinced.

“Alright, lay it on me. What are you planning?”

Adrien pulls out a sheet of paper and a pencil. He draws a crude looking version of a Jenga tower and three stick figures next to it.

“This tower is Lila’s character in front of the class. Each block is a lie. This ugly one here,” he says as he points to the single figure right next to the tower, “is Lila. With everything she’s constructing around herself, she’s practically playing Jenga; eventually, she has to contradict herself so much it all collapses around her. That was, originally, what I was going for,” he explains. Marinette nods, following the metaphor.

“However,” Adrien continues, “what I didn’t know is that the whole time, she’s been throwing blocks at you.”

He adds a small square being thrown at one of the two other figures, then another one for the other character.

“And at me too, although I just dismissed that before. So now, we have to get a new strategy. We have to join the game.”

Marinette stops him.

“You’re not suggesting we become her friends, right?” she asks, expression borderline disgusted. Adrien smiles, shaking his head.

“Not us. Our job is from the sidelines. We watch her play and figure out her weak points; which blocks will make the tower collapse? And then, we gather what we need to steal them. Evidence, statements, proof. And then we set the stage, make sure she has no way out, and tip her tower.”

Marinette is nodding along, although she doesn’t seem too convinced.

“But how do we do that? She doesn’t trust either of us enough to get anything conclusive from her. If we want to do this right, do it on a legal level, we’re going to need help.”

“Exactly,” Adrien replies.

“And I already have our targets planned. Alya is already doubting Lila, so we just need to pull her and Nino in fully. We can probably do that after the first bit of evidence. I was thinking catch the heroes for an interview, you know? Once we’ve got them, they can stay undercover next to Lila and get what we need from her. Then we need to get some more statements; Jagged, Prince Ali, anyone Lila’s mentioned. Then, finally, Chloe will help us pull legal strings, and there we go.”

Marinette looks unsure.

“You really want to involve Chloe? I know you two are friends, Adrien, but.. she hates my guts. And she’d probably rather work with Lila than me,” she says, sighing. Adrien bites the inside of his cheek.

Marinette isn’t wrong, but Adrien knows in this case he can get Chloe on their side.

Adrien takes Marinette’s hand under their table. Her eyes snap up to him, surprised, her cheeks tinged red.

“Trust me, Mari. This time, things will work out.”

Marinette still looks unsure, but eventually, she sighs.

“Alright,” she says, an easy smile on her face, “I trust you.”

As Miss Bustier walks in and the class turns to face her, Adrien begs his heartbeat to calm down; but the way Marinette is suddenly open and easy around him, the way he’s always wanted, makes it hard.

-----

Snow has started to stick to the streets of Paris. A light sheet covers the city, flocks falling from the sky slowly. The night is unusually serene for the middle of the week.

Two light feet land on the roof behind Chat Noir. Slowly, Ladybug makes her way over.

“You know, Chat,” she starts, prompting him to turn around and watch her approach, “when I said ‘there are other ways to be there for her’, I didn't really mean fucking a civilian.”

Chat chokes on air, sputtering and blushing until Ladybug sits down next to him.

“That’s not at all what happened!” he finally gets out, ready to defend himself to the death, when Ladybug starts laughing. Shoulders sagging in relief that she’s not angry, he joins in.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Chat Noir is incapable of consoling girls because of his immense charm,” Chat says, watching his lady laugh with a slight fascination; despite moving on to Marinette, she’s still his beautiful partner.

After recovering, Ladybug looks back up at him, suddenly serious.

“You know you need to be really, really careful, right?”

Chat nods, equally serious.

“Of course. Her safety is my top priority, but I really think she needs me right now. Besides, she’s more than wonderful; she’s honest, brave and very trustworthy. There’s nothing you need to worry about, my lady,” Chat says, smiling ear to ear as he thinks about his friend.

Ladybug is nodding, but she looks.. calculating.

“Chat?” she asks. He nods.

“Are you just playing with her, or.. do you love her?”

Chat sighs. This conversation had to come up eventually.

“I think I might. Love her, I mean. She’s.. I can’t even describe it. Everything about her is so good, and beautiful, and.. I could talk about her for hours.”

Ladybug looks at him in a way he can’t decipher. She looks moved somehow, but something looks out of place.

“Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean I don’t love you anymore. Of course I do, I always will; you’re my first love, my partner, my best friend. But it’s different now, and I think we’re both glad for that,” Chat explains, smiling at Ladybug in the most sincere way he can muster. He needs her to understand how important she is to him.

Ladybug is hugging him. Her head buried in his shoulder, she clings to him, tightly.

Chat barely knows how to react, wrapping his arms around her back.

“You’re my best friend, Chat, and I love you so much. I hope you know that,” she says, quietly, muffled into his shoulder. But that doesn’t lessen the impact. They cling to each other for another moment before they part, smiling brightly.

“I’m fine with you dating, as long as you’re careful,” she adds. Chat flinches at her phrasing.

“We’re not dating!” he replies, slightly unsure why he’s defending this.

Ladybug raises an unimpressed eyebrow.

“Then what are you doing?” she asks. Chat shrugs.

“I don’t know, not much? Dating would be complicated. For now, we just kind of.. are.”

Ladybug smiles at him despite his explanation making zero sense.

“Okay,” she says, “I’m fine with you two being as well. As long as you’re careful.”

“Of course, my lady.”

Chat can tell Ladybug is about to get up to start patrol, but he stops her.

“You could do that too, you know,” he says, eyes roaming across Paris.

“What?”

Chat looks at her.

“You could have someone. Use the mask to let loose, have some fun on the job,” he explains. Ladybug looks at him like he’s insane.

“You realize that’s not the point of the miraculous, right? I have responsibilities as Ladybug. Besides, maybe my civilian form has someone.”

Chat laughs at her, receiving a playfully angry look in return.

“Sorry bug, but I doubt that. And I mean, sure, it’s not the point of the miraculous, but it’s not misuse either. If we’re already forced to live two lives because of some duty, we might as well live those lives.”

Ladybug sighs.

“I guess so, yeah. But I’m not too interested in having any relations, honestly,” she says, shrugging. Chat Noir smiles at her.

“Of course you don’t have to. I’m just saying, you should recognise Ladybug as a version of yourself, as a life of its own, not just a job. With the masks, we’re people beyond people’s expectations,” Chat elaborates. Ladybug is smiling, yet shaking her head at him.

“You’re just full of wisdom today, aren’t you?” she chuckles. Chat gives a small bow, equally laughing.

“Okay, here’s something unwise: if you did choose to have a little mask fling, who would you choose? If you could have anyone, without pressure?” Chat asks her. Ladybug laughs, head tilted back. (And she’s still gorgeous.)

“Anyone?”

“Anyone.”

Ladybug is still laughing as she comes to a conclusion.

“Adrien Agreste.”

She giggles, embarrassed, face in her hands, and Chat Noir feels like he’s falling off the Eiffel tower.

Then he thinks of Marinette waiting for him after patrol and rests his feet back against the wall of the building they’re sat on.

“What??” he asks, laughing too, almost hysteric.

“Don’t tell me you’re a fan of that model boy! That’s embarrassing, bug, he’s not even that hot!”

The longer he goes on, the longer Ladybug keeps laughing. Eventually, she straightens up.

“He’s actually a good guy, believe it or not. And he is that hot,” she defends, and Chat keeps shaking his head at her.

“I guess, if your taste is that bad already, you might as well go for it. Fuck around and find out, bug, because that guy is a social disaster,” Chat says. Ladybug, surprisingly, agrees.

“Social disasters can be charming.”

Screams break out behind them. With one last gleeful shared look, they head off towards the Akuma.

-----

Akuma cleansed and Ladybug headed home, Chat lingers around the Parisian rooftops for a while longer. Only when his stomach starts growling does he decide to make his way- not home, but to Marinette’s house. (Not to mention she feels more like home anyway.)

The skylight is already open when Chat lands on her balcony, despite the gentle snowflakes raining down onto her bed. When Chat drops down into her room, Marinette is already heading towards him.

She’s in her short pyjamas despite the cold, pale skin exposed no matter where Chat directs his gaze; he begins to think it might be on purpose.

“Hi there, princess,” he greets her, watching cautiously as she scooches towards him on the bed. In place of a greeting, she grabs his bell, pulling his face down towards hers. With a surprised noise from Chat, their lips meet. Just as he starts melting into her, Marinette pulls away.

“Hey, kitty,” she says, looking at him with eyes full of stars that Chat is almost sure he doesn’t deserve. He doesn’t reply. Too busy staring at her, slack-jawed and in awe. She scans his face, giggles, then climbs back down to her room. After taking a second to compose himself, Chat follows.

“You sure know how to greet a guy,” he says as he lands on her carpet, right next to her mannequin, work in progress pinned on it. Marinette keeps her back turned to him, fiddling with something on her desk. Chat is pretty sure she’s smiling to herself, anyway.

“Won’t Ladybug get mad if you keep showing up here?” she asks. Chat makes himself comfortable on her rug.

“No, we actually talked about it today. As long as we’re careful, you can keep me,” he replies, grinning up at her as she throws him a look over her shoulder.

“Well then,” she says, finally turning around, “you hungry?”
Marinette is holding a tray full of fresh, delicious-looking baked goods, smiling down at Chat like she just knew what he was craving.

Chat stares at her, eyes the size of dinner plates.

“Mari, I might have to marry you,” he says, reaching out for a croissant as soon as the tray is set down in front of him. Marinette just giggles and grabs a pastry herself.

Two croissants down, Chat tunes back into the conversation.

“So, how is your plotting going? Any plans yet?”

Marinette swallows the last bite of her pastry.

“Not really,” she starts. “We’ve got a rough idea to gather statements and get her into legal trouble, but I’m not too sure if it’ll work out.”

Chat’s ears droop slightly. He thought his plan was good.

“Why not?”

Marinette sighs, seeming uncomfortable with the topic she’s about to breach. Chat has a feeling he knows what’s coming.

“Adrien’s plan is pretty good, but it hinges on Chloe Bourgeois helping us. She’s hated my guts all my life, so I doubt she’ll help out that easily.”

Chat watches her wring her hands, eyes to the floor. He needs her to never be upset again.

“If it’s any help, despite her being a terrible person half the time, she was really decent as Queen Bee,” he says. Marinette looks at him, eyebrows raised.

“Well, obviously she fucked up and therefore lost her hero role, but she did do good. She had a sense of duty, a protective instinct for us other heroes and Paris, and I really do think being Queen Bee made her better as a person. The fact she started by revealing her identity was a stupid mishap, and she regretted it adequately in the end,” he expands, shrugging.

“You really think so?” Marinette asks. She looks unsure, but open; like she trusts him enough to sway her opinion. Chat smiles at her.

“I do. She’s come a long way.”

Marinette nods, a bit lost in thought. Then, she nods more forcefully, looking back up at Chat.

“I suppose if both you and Adrien are convinced she can change for the better, I’m willing to give her a shot.” Chat smiles at her, claws reaching out to take her hand absentmindedly.

“You trust Adrien that much?” Chat asks, voice slightly teasing, intending to take them off the subject that stresses Marinette out. To his surprise, Marinette starts blushing.

“Yeah, sure,” she says, eyes avoiding Chat, “we’ve been getting closer, I think.”

Chat watches her for a moment, scans the way her blush travels below her top. Her hand is comfortable in his, warm, her skin probably smooth. He wishes he could feel it, the same way he wishes he could test if her thighs are as soft as they look.
He tears his eyes away. They need to stay on topic for a minute longer.

“Aww, you like him, princess?” Chat asks, testing the waters as subtly as he can manage. Marinette blushes furiously. Chat’s eyebrows shoot past his hairline; there is no way.

“Holy shit,” he continues, shifting up onto his knees to crowd closer to Marinette, “you actually do! You have a crush on the model!” Chat’s voice is dripping in glee, grinning down at her in pure delight. He can’t believe his luck; she likes both sides of him.

Marinette swats at his approaching face.
“Shut up! I don’t have a crush on him anymore,” she says, face hidden behind her hand, turned into her shoulder. Chat’s grin expands to an impossible size. By now, he’s leaning over her, a stabilizing arm across her body and on the floor behind her.

“But you did!” he exclaims, almost honest-to-god giggling. His other arm takes her by the wrist, revealing her deep red face to him. With the way he’s towering over her, he can almost feel the heat radiating off her skin.

She turns her face towards his, still burning up, but determined.

“Maybe,” she says, “but now I have you, don’t I?”

Chat doesn’t halt, considering, for more than half a second. He crashes their lips together, pushing Marinette down on her back as he crawls on top of her fully. Marinette is already pushing her tongue into his mouth by the time her back meets the floor, Chat’s tail curling around her left thigh. Her hands in his hair, she scratches along his scalp, pausing behind his ears. Chat has one hand beside her head, keeping him upright, while the other one travels down her side. He passes the end of her top, sliding over the bit of exposed skin before landing at the hem of her shorts. Briefly, he digs his claws past it, gripping her hip below the fabric. Marinette gasps into his mouth as his claws dig into her skin. He moves his hand back up eventually, sliding under her top and over her ribs.

Marinette’s phone starts ringing. Chat ignores it in favour of focusing on the way Marinette’s back is arching into him, seeking contact they both know they won’t achieve. Chat pulls her top up anyways, watches Marinette’s blissed out expression as he pulls it over her head, commits her blown-out pupils to memory. Her breath comes out shakily as Chat finally scans her body; pale, soft skin, lacking blemishes Chat plans to create; lean muscles, strength always hidden behind her soft persona, yet always visible to him; her lilac bra, lace curling over her skin so beautifully. Chat never wants to stop looking at her.

Marinette’s phone starts ringing for the second time. They don’t pay it any mind, lips meeting again, both feverish. Marinette curls her legs around Chat’s torso, a hand coming down from his hair to travel across his chest and over his shoulders. Out of breath, they part again, Marinette scanning his face like she can’t get enough of looking at him. Chat attaches himself to her neck, kissing his way down until he stops at her collarbones, sucking a pretty hickey into her skin. She sighs above him as he gives it a soothing lick afterwards, making his way further down her chest. There’s a quiet purr in the back of his throat.

Just as his teeth sink softly into the skin of her hip, Marinette sighing in a way that’s almost a moan, her phone rings for the third time. Purr morphing into a groan, Chat reaches for her phone, off to the side of her head. Marinette whines in protest. He picks up the call.

“Oh my god, finally! Marinette, I need to-” Alya’s voice is slightly annoyed and mostly urgent. Chat really does not care. He interrupts her mid-sentence.

“Alya, shut up. Marinette is extremely busy right now. Bye!”
A surprised sputter is the last thing he hears before he hangs up the phone and tosses it across the carpet.

As he leans back down to a giggling Marinette, he feels just a little bit cliché. He still doesn’t really care.

-----

When Adrien enters the classroom, Marinette is already seated at the back. Lila and most of their other classmates are nowhere to be seen. He takes a second to admire his friend (?) from the entrance, braid draped over her shoulder where he knows he left something to be seen, before walking up to join her at their seats.

“Morning,” Adrien says as he sits down, but before Marinette has a chance to respond, Alya bursts into the classroom and stomps up to their desk. Marinette looks at her like a startled deer, apparently unaware of the reason for Alya’s entrance; Adrien, on the other hand, is extremely aware of what’s about to go down.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Alya says, hand slamming down in front of her friend. Marinette seems on the verge of fearing her next words.
“You ignored my calls for the entire night last night even though I had to talk to you about something important,” Alya continues, eyes narrowed. Marinette’s eyes widen, blush forming on her cheeks as she seems to remember why. Before she can reply, Alya goes on.
“Not to mention the fact you didn’t tell me you and the model boy are suddenly a thing, (don’t you look so shocked, Agreste!) and I had to find out through your phone of all things!”

Now, Marinette’s face is truly up in flames.
“Alya, stop,” Marinette starts, hands on her desk as well.
“No,” Alya immediately replies, “I had a right to-”
“Alya, that was not Adrien.”

At this, Alya shuts her mouth. She looks between him and Marinette, calculating.
“You have to be joking, right? I swear to god that was his voice,” Alya says (more like loudly whispers), leaned further across Marinette’s desk, who is still blushing furiously. Besides that, Marinette has her eyes narrowed, a bit like she wants to kill Alya, and refuses to look at Adrien. (Who is, by the way, doing an amazing job of pretending to be clueless.)

“How about we talk about this later?” Marinette says, voice barely threatening. Alya looks between them again, but nods eventually.

“What was so important, anyway?” Marinette finally asks, leaning back into her chair with a sigh.

“Well, while you were busy with your mysterious lover,” Alya begins, interrupts herself with a yelp (definitely not due to the kick Marinette delivers to her shin), then continues, “I was doing elaborate research on our new classmate.”

Finally, Marinette looks over at Adrien again. His expression, eyebrows raised in surprise, is mirrored on her face.

“And?” Marinette asks, careful but encouraging.

“And,” Alya says with a sigh, “it appears you were right about every single thing.”

Marinette’s palm suddenly appears below Adrien’s side of the desk. He claps his palm to hers, sending a small smile her way as well. Alya just saved them a lot of work.

“Alya, would you like to join us at lunch in the bakery?” Marinette asks, smile prominent on her face again. (The way Adrien has been missing it.)
Alya grins at her. “Absolutely!”

As Miss Bustier walks in, Alya makes her way to her seat with a wave. Only once class has started does Adrien notice Lila appears to be completely absent today. Might come in handy, he thinks.

Miss Bustier leaves the class for a parent meeting, leaving them a worksheet on political propaganda that nobody plans to work on.

Adrien leans over to Marinette to keep her from working, too.

“So,” he says, causing Marinette to turn to face him. “Lover?”

Marinette drops her head on her desk with a groan. “I’m going to kill Alya,” she says, mumbled into the worksheet. Adrien chuckles and waits for her to return to normal.

“But seriously,” he says, “who is it?”

Marinette steels herself with a deep breath and keeps her eyes on the desk when she speaks. “Chat Noir.”

Adrien whistles in an attempt to feign surprise. Marinette is already blushing again, and Adrien plans to make it worse.

“So he’s the cause of the braids?” he asks, trying to hide his self-satisfied smile at least a little bit.

Marinette’s head snaps to look at him, blush going darker, absolutely mortified.
“How’d you figure that out?” she asks, voices wavering in embarrassment. Adrien chuckles.

“It’s a bit obvious, since you don’t normally change your hairstyle much. It suits you though,” he says. Marinette pauses in her mortification to stare at him for a second, somehow surprised. (It’s normal to make note of your friend’s hairstyle habits, right?)

“Either way, I’m happy for you,” he adds. Marinette turns away from him again, hands on her face. Adrien watches her for a second, thinks of their conversation last night. “Any other guy I might’ve fought about, but Chat Noir is maybe the only one I’m not willing to match,” Adrien says with a laugh. He hopes it was clear enough, but not too forward. (Not like he has any experience with this.)

Now Marinette is looking at him truly shocked, blush returning full-force. She looks at him like there are cogs turning in her head.

“Uh,” she says eventually, “it’s not like we’re dating or anything.”
Marinette looks like she can’t believe she just said that. Adrien is incredibly proud of her.

“Oh?” Adrien replies, giving her the nicest smile he can manage. Marinette tears her eyes away very quickly. Instead of allowing him another word on the topic, Marinette continues talking.
“He offered his help, by the way. For the project,” she says, eyes still to the desk, pretending to care about the worksheet.
“That’s good,” Adrien replies, fine with her changing the topic to something more comfortable. “Getting a hero interview might be one of the most important things.”
Marinette just nods.

Adrien decides to pay attention to his worksheet after all, deeming their conversation finished. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Marinette watching him, eyes calculating. Adrien has a feeling being close to her on both sides might cause him problems.

-----

Everyone is packing up to head off to lunch. Alya, at the front of the classroom, is talking to Nino, who is heading towards Max (for some reason).

Adrien feels a tap on his arm. He turns to look at Marinette.

“Invite Chloe,” is all she says before she starts heading down the stairs. Adrien stands frozen for a second. He is so incredibly proud of Marinette for the leaps she’s taking in order to stand up against Lila.

Adrien steps down from his desk, stopping next to the one in front of it. Sabrina is already off, despite Lila being absent today. Chloe, much more subdued these days, looks up at Adrien from her phone.

“Come to lunch at Marinette’s?” he asks, giving her a small smile. Chloe raises an eyebrow.

“Won’t she kill you for inviting me?” she asks (instead of saying “bakery girl?”, instead of looking disgusted, instead of laughing in his face). Adrien can’t stop his grin.

“She asked me to invite you.”

Chloe looks surprised in a way Adrien’s never seen before. Again, she doesn’t say anything; she nods, gets up and follows him down the stairs.

They pick up Marinette and Alya by the lockers, then head over to the bakery. When they enter, Marinette’s parents are appropriately surprised at the odd group, but send them upstairs with some food nonetheless.

Once sat down at the Dupain-Cheng dining table, Alya breaks the silence first.

“First of all, Marinette, I am so sorry,” she says. Marinette sighs, already exhausted by the topic, but nods along. “I was being a terrible friend and a terrible journalist and I fucked up so bad. You were right from the start and I should have listened to you.”
Marinette smiles at her, always too forgiving. But she doesn’t say anything, doesn’t jump to going back to normal; she watches Alya talk, content in letting her back in, but not forgiving her quite yet. Alya continues talking, not expecting an answer.
“I will absolutely talk more in depth about this to you, but right now I think we need to focus on the issue at hand: getting rid of the bitch.”

Marinette sighs again, nodding.
“Besides the food, that is what we’re here to do,” she says, intending to start the briefing on their current plan. She stops when Chloe raises her hand.

“Before we start, can I have a moment, too?” she asks. Adrien can see the way her behaviour registers in Marinette’s head before she nods, giving her the floor. Chloe sighs, takes a sip of her water and begins.

“First of all, I know you just apologized two seconds ago, Césaire, but allow me to add something: you were truly, and I mean truly, embarrassing,” Chloe begins. All eyebrows around the table go up; for a moment, Adrien is afraid he misjudged her development, but he trusts her to not disappoint him. “Besides the fact you left your best friend behind in the dirt when she’s never done anything but her best for you, your behaviour was so unworthy of being a reporter. I could smell Lila’s bullshit the moment she walked through the door, yet you don’t think to fact check a single one of her stories? Not even the ones you put on the Ladyblog that you care about so much?”
Alya looks down at her croissant, clearly guilty. Marinette throws Adrien an amazed look, which Adrien mirrors. Chloe keeps going despite the reactions around the table.
“I’m sure you feel guilty enough as it is, so whatever, but I wanted to put it out there. Not sure if you guys are aware, but I do actually care about my best friend, so it would be great if we managed to take down Lila so I can get Sabrina back.”
At this point, Marinette is nodding along to Chloe. “That’s the plan, Chloe. Which is why we need your help,” she throws in. Chloe nods and points at her, confirming she is on board before she goes on with her prologue. She takes a quick bite of her croissant.

“I hate the bitch,” she says, shuddering at the thought of her. Marinette and Adrien both give a surprised laugh through their bites of baked goods. Alya hasn’t dropped her eyebrows since Chloe started talking.

“Honestly,” she continues, “I don’t know how you do it, Marinette! If that bitch was constantly up my ass and trying to steal my totally-not-boyfriend, I would’ve already killed her!” Chloe laughs as she bites into her croissant, watching gleefully as Marinette hides her face, embarrassed.
“Yeah,” Marinette says from between her fingers, “I don’t know how I deal with all this either.”

Adrien watches her, grinning, pretty sure everyone but Marinette can see how embarrassingly in love with her he is. Chloe certainly knows, judging by the way she smirks at him when he turns back to look at her.

“How did this happen, by the way?” Alya asks. When nobody responds, she clarifies, “I mean you being on Mari’s side, Chloe.”

Chloe shrugs, putting down her croissant to take a sip of water.
“Her and Adrikins got real close real quick, so I thought, ‘if he likes her so much, she must actually be a good one’,” she replies. Marinette looks sceptical.
“You didn’t consider me being a good person when you were violently bullying me in middle school?” she asks. Adrien takes note of her phrasing, making sure to ask more about her past after all of this is over. Chloe cringes.

“Guess it’s my time to apologize. You’re right, I really didn’t consider- or care for it, back then. I was a horrible, spoiled brat that wanted to be like my great big mother so, so bad. Took a while for me to realize my mother is one of the worst people I know,” Chloe explains, toying with the pastry on her plate. She looks sullen while she talks, like she honestly regrets who she used to be. Adrien is more than glad to see this side of her, more like the Chloe he used to know as kids, who was kind to him and just wanted to make her parents proud.

“Queen Bee helped me realize that, I guess. Suddenly I had a responsibility to fullfill and a city to help protect. Ladybug trusted me. It was like I got a second chance at who I chose to be. When I had to give up my miraculous, it felt like I left a piece of myself behind. Then I realized I could just.. give myself a second chance, too. I could be a different person outside of Queen Bee.”

Marinette is watching Chloe with slightly calculating eyes; when Chloe mentions leaving her miraculous, she looks understanding, suddenly. Almost as if she knows what it’s like to leave behind a kwami.

“And then when you two got close,” she goes on, looking up at Adrien and Marinette again, “I was seeing you for who you were for the first time. I was done with my rivalry bullshit, there was suddenly a genuine threat in our class, and I could see the real you next to Adrien, all the time. Really made me reconsider how awful I always was to you. So, uh.. I’m sorry, Marinette,” Chloe says. Alya gasps next to her. Marinette’s eyes widen, but she waits for her to finish. “If you let me, I’d love to help you take down Lila.”

Adrien holds his breath as he waits for Marinette to react. Eventually, she smiles at Chloe.

“Thank you, Chloe,” Marinette says, “I’d love your help. You’ve come a long way.”

Chloe sags slightly in relief, smiling back at Marinette. Adrien looks over at her, so full of pride for how far his childhood friend has come.

“Okay,” Alya says, clapping her hands. “Now that we’ve all made up, let’s get to planning.”

“Right,” Marinette replies, reaching for a pastry, “Adrien, if you would.”

Adrien smiles at her, nodding.

“Alright, we have a decent plan so far, and we need both of you. Alya, you need to stay undercover as Lila’s friend to gather evidence of her stories,” he begins. Alya groans in annoyance. Chloe snorts at her reaction.

“Come on, you’ve dealt with her for so long, what’s a couple more weeks?” she says. Alya whips around to face her.

“Weeks?!” she exclaims, looking to Adrien next. He nods, similarly unhappy.

“I’m afraid so. Everything’s going to take a while.”

Marinette sets down her glass, food finished, and tunes back into the conversation.

“Me and Adrien are on statement duty; we gather evidence against all the stories that you, Alya, get for us. Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, Ladybug, all the big names. If you can, get Nino on our side too, we could use him for the tech stuff in the preparation later on,” she continues explaining. Alya nods.

“Already on it. He’s having lunch with Max because of an extra-credit science thing, but I’ve already talked to him about this.”

“Good,” Marinette continues, “then Chloe, you and me are doing the legal wrap-up. Police, law, school director – whoever we can get to assist us. I’ve already talked to Miss Bustier, so I’m assuming we can get the director on our side as well, since we likely need access to some of her documents.”

Chloe is nodding along, smirking into her water.

“My dad is obviously on our side, so we have the city. Police is pretty easy too, since we can nail Lila down for some genuine crimes. Also, Sabrina’s dad loves me, so he’ll be glad when we solve this shit.”

“How do we execute this, though? Just get her arrested? That won’t necessarily solve the mass manipulation,” Alya says. Marinette looks to Adrien, who looks to Chloe.

“Party,” Chloe says.

“What?” ask three voices from around the table. Chloe looks startled for a moment before starting to explain.

“Well, we expose her publicly. We’ll have police on standby so she can’t run, and have them informed beforehand with all the evidence we gather. If our entire school is there, she loses her power over them immediately; once everybody sees her lies laid out, the masses will turn against her. So, we throw a party,” she concludes. Adrien looks to Marinette, who is staring into space, calculating.

“Yeah, actually, that might work. But how do we make sure Lila shows up?” she asks. Chloe looks down at the table, contemplating.

“We throw it for her,” Alya says, like it’s obvious. All eyes turn to her.

“It’s obvious, right? I go up to her all like ‘heyy the class wants to thank you for all you’ve done for us and the charities and whatnot so we’re throwing you a party!’ and all her followers will be excited too, so she can’t refuse. Best case scenario, she’ll be so blinded by the praise she won’t even realise what’s happening until she’s in handcuffs.”

“Hm,” Chloe says, slightly impressed, and nods at Alya.

“Sounds solid, right?” Adrien asks, directed at Marinette, who is also nodding.

“Yeah, this is really good. I think it might just work out.”

High-fives are passed along the table. After one look at the clock, everyone grabs a croissant and starts sprinting out of the house. No need to miss class and draw attention to themselves.

-----

The streets of Paris are still covered in white, despite the first snow sticking weeks ago already. Chat really doesn’t mind, though; he loves the peace that comes with late winter. (Hawkmoth seems to be on his side for this one; the amount of akumas is always drastically lower right before spring.) On top of that, Chat gets more time to be Chat, too. His father is always the busiest when preparing the spring collection.

But the more peaceful atmosphere is no reason to lower their guard, so Chat is perched on the edge of their rooftop, waiting for patrol as always. He doesn’t have to wait long for Ladybug to show up.

“Good evening, my lady,” he greets her as she pulls herself up next to him. His grin is met with a sternly neutral expression, which makes him worry, a little bit. Ladybug sits next to him, expression unchanging. Chat watches her from the side, waiting for her to speak.

“I think,” Ladybug says, “we should reveal our identities.”

Chat stares at the side of her face.

“You’re serious,” he says, voice airy with shock. Ladybug finally meets his eyes, determined. She nods.

Chat is shaking his head, ever so slightly, disbelief spelled out across his features. “Why?”

Ladybug sighs, hesitant to begin her explanation.
“I think keeping our identities secret was right. But I also think things have changed, and it might be safer for us to know each other outside of the masks,” she says, struggling through her sentences. Chat still can’t believe his ears.

“I don’t understand,” he says, “how have things changed?”

Ladybug shifts uncomfortably. She turns her eyes back to the city.

“I’ve almost been akumatized multiple times as a civilian,” she confesses eventually. Chat, not for the first time, remembers the feeling of tipping forwards off the Eiffel tower. Ladybug looks at him, sees the shock written across his face.
“I know your home life sucks. I know I’ve been in danger too many times recently for it to be safe. I think we’d be safer being able to protect each other on both sides,” Ladybug says. Chat slowly comes back to his body, nodding slightly.

“Okay,” he says, “if that’s what you want, my lady. I’ll be honoured to show you who I really am.”
The smile he throws her, as close to his normal grin as possible, seems to ease her nerves. If Chat strains his eyes, he thinks she might be blushing as she says he next words.
“I want to know all of you, more than anything.”

With one last deep breath, she gets up and leads them to a more secluded area on the rooftops of Paris; a spot that no doubt both of them have previously used for a quick recharge.

When they come to a stop, Ladybug’s hands are shaking.

“I’ll go first, okay? In case you change your mind,” Chat says. Ladybug takes a shaky breath before nodding. Chat tries not to let his nerves get to him.

“Plagg, claws in.”

Ladybug’s eyes widen as the transformation rolls off of Chat in a green wave. Plagg takes the cheese from Adrien’s pocket, but stays silent for the moment, watching the two.

“Holy shit,” Ladybug says, voice no more than a whisper. She opens and closes her mouth multiple times, obviously having a lot to say, but not really able to put any of it into words. Then, she starts laughing, hands on her knees, eyes scrunched shut. At this point, Adrien starts feeling just slightly afraid.

When Ladybug finds her composition again, she straightens up. She’s downright grinning at him, tears in the corners of her eyes.

“So I was right after all,” she says, and Adrien almost starts yelling.
“What? How could you possibly have known?” he exclaims, smile tugging at his lips despite everything.

“Tikki,” Ladybug says, and Adrien really isn’t ready, “spots off.”

And there she stands, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, in all her glory. His partner, his best friend, his secret lover, his partner-in-crime – how could it have been anyone else?

Adrien doesn’t find any words appropriate enough, so he just runs into her arms. She’s laughing as he lifts her up, face buried in her neck, her perfume unmistakeable now that he thinks about it. Even as he’s laughing gleefully into her shoulder, he can feel tears in the corner of his eyes, mirroring hers.

After a while, Marinette pushes him back slightly so she can grab his face instead. She kisses him; of course she does, this arguably wasn’t their first kiss, but – Adrien can barely believe it’s his partner holding him. When they pull away, neither of them can get the grin off their face.

“Thank god, I was getting tired of all the back and forth,” Plagg says, mouth full of cheese, off to the side of the scene.

“Plagg!” Tikki exclaims, slapping him on the arm. “You’re ruining the moment!”

Plagg shrugs. “They’re gonna have enough moments!”

Marinette starts laughing, shaking in Adrien’s arms, and he can’t take his eyes off of her.

“I love you.”
It feels like the sentence bursts out of him, unstoppable in its need to be known.

Marinette stops in her tracks, looks up at him with stars in her eyes.
“I love you, too.”

After an appropriate few minutes of lovingly staring at each other, they sit back down at the edge of the secluded roof they’re on.

“In hindsight,” Marinette starts, “kind of embarrassing to admit my crush on you to your face.”
Her cheeks are red from smiling so much.

“Which time?” Adrien asks, smirking. “As Ladybug about Adrien to Chat? As Marinette about Chat to Chat? Or about Adrien to Chat? Or to Adrien about Chat as-”

“Okay, okay, enough of that! I get it, you charmed me in every way possible,” Marinette interrupts him, hand on his arm. Chat doesn’t have to speak for Marinette to know how many times he’s fallen for her.

Behind them, Plagg and Tikki are excitedly talking to each other. Adrien thinks it must be a gift for them, too, to be able to spend time together again.

“On another note,” Marinette says, “do you realize what a crazy advantage we have over Lila now?”

The smirk forming on Adrien’s face mirrors Marinette’s, again. Instead of talking about her for much longer, or, god forbid, going on patrol, Adrien grabs Marinette’s face to kiss her. Her hands coming up to rest on his chest, Adrien thinks he could do this forever.

-----

When Marinette steps out of the bakery, Adrien is already waiting for her outside.

“Morning, princess,” he says, smiling brightly. His hair is glowing in the first sun beams of the day.

“Morning, chaton,” Marinette replies, hand held out for him to take. He does, and they make their way to school. As soon as they pass Lila’s group, Alya spots their hands, immediately pulling out her phone to frantically text their groupchat. Despite the buzzing in her pocket, Marinette ignores Alya for the time being. Instead, she and Adrien approach Chloe, who is just coming out of the locker room.

“Morning, Chloe,” Adrien greets her.

“Well well,” Chloe replies, raising her eyes from where they were focused on their enjoined hands, “look who finally got their shit together.”
Her grin is directed at Marinette, who returns it like it’s natural.

“Thanks,” she replies, recognising Chloe’s comment for the compliment it is.

With a bit of time to spare, the three head up into their classroom. Once seated, Marinette pulls out her phone, Adrien leaned over her shoulder to read along. She opens their ‘the plot’ groupchat, containing her and Adrien, Alya, Nino and Chloe. Adrien skims over Alya’s elaborate freakout, disbelief, celebration and eventual congratulation. Nino joined in about halfway through the wall of text and both of them shoot the new couple a quick thumbs-up as they enter the classroom behind Lila.

Lila scans them, looks for a second like she wants to head over to them to start something, but retracts back to her ‘friends’ once Chloe turns over to talk to them. As inconspicuously as possible, she sits at their desk, practically halfway on top of it to talk in hushed voices.

“Party planning is looking good,” she says, “I was thinking the extended weekend we get in early April? Exams will be over, but it’s before spring break.”

Marinette and Adrien both nod; the only proper requirement they had was to throw it in spring so they could do it outside and not freeze.

“So we’ve got around three weeks left? A bit less, I suppose,” Adrien says, slightly lost in thought, going through their leftover points in the plan.

“Should work fine,” Marinette replies. “I’m seeing Mister Damocles with Miss Bustier tomorrow after classes, so we can check over her records and get what we need for copies.”

“So we can head to the police on Friday as planned?” Chloe asks, receiving a nod from Marinette.

“Alya said the hero interview is Saturday night, so we’re making good progress this week,” Adrien adds. The rest of their classmates slowly make their way to their seats.

“How far are you with your dad?” Chloe asks Adrien.
“Almost done, actually. He agreed to sever the connections on charge of sexual assault, which should be enough. Nathalie will provide me the official statement soon and agreed to wait with official announcements until we’re done.”
Marinette escapes a relieved sigh. Getting Gabriel to help them was one of the harder parts of their plan.

“And Lahiffe?” Chloe asks next. Adrien has no idea, so he looks to Marinette, who is checking her phone; likely, their groupchat again.

“Um, looks like he’s already started. He says he’s done cutting Jagged, Nightingale and Ali. He needs our input for the intro next and is waiting for the rest of the statements,” Marinette recites from her texts.

“Alright,” Adrien says, “so we’re ahead of our plan. That’s good.”

Marinette puts her phone away and Chloe sighs, resting her head on their desk.

“Can’t wait for this to be over,” she says. Marinette chuckles, reaching out to ruffle Chloe’s bangs, just slightly. She still receives a playfully mean look in return.

“You’re not the only one,” Marinette says with a smile.

As the two keep chatting, Adrien watches them. He never thought he’d see this friendship become a reality; especially not with Alya at the other side of the class, not forgiven, while Chloe smiles at Marinette.

He’s more than happy, anyway.

-----

A week later, their project is almost done.

Adrien and Marinette are in their seats at the back, talking quietly while the rest of the class does similar things that come with being left unattended; at least until Chloe walks up to the teacher’s desk and clears her throat. Everyone goes silent, listening.

“Spring’s coming up,” she starts. A few confused looks get passed between their classmates.

“I thought this might be a good time to throw a party, since we haven’t done that in a while. So, uh.. Saturday next week, 6pm, Place des Vosges. Food and drinks will be there, but feel free to bring something if you like. You can bring other friends too, and wear something nice. That’s all.”

For a second, Chloe stands in front of everyone in silence, more than a bit awkward.

“Cool! Thanks, Chloe, I’m sure we’ll all have fun!” Alya finally says, breaking the dam of excited talking in the class. Chloe sighs, relieved, and goes back to her seat.

Before she can turn to Marinette and Adrien, Rose calls her name.

“Wait, Chloe, what kind of food? This isn’t a dinner party, right?” she asks. Chloe turns to the side to address everyone, again.

“No, we’ll have a buffet with little snacks. As for drinks, we’re setting up a bar, so we’ll have basically anything.”

“And another thing,” Mylene asks next, “how nice is ‘dress nice’?”

“Well,” Chloe replies, “it’s not prom, and there won’t be any crazy celebrities. But it’s meant to be a nice evening, so you should find something pretty that’s not necessarily daily wear.”

When the class continues mumbling to each other and nobody jumps out with another question, Chloe turns to her friends.

“You did fine,” Marinette says before Chloe can groan and sigh.
“I know,” Chloe says, sighing anyway. “Now it’s Alya’s turn.”

Just as Chloe says that, Adrien watches Alya get up from her seat and sneak over to Lila. They whisper back and forth for a moment before Lila gasps, turning to look up at Chloe with a hand on her chest. Then she nods, and Alya goes back to her seat.

“Looks like it went well,” Adrien says. “Now that she knows it’s supposed to be a surprise for her, there’s no way she won’t show up.”

Before Marinette can reply, her phone buzzes. As she reads, shock spreads across her face and she grabs Adrien’s arm.

“What?” he asks, curious, trying to look at her screen. “What did she say?”

Marinette tilts her screen towards him. On it, Adrien sees a text: ‘Alya: Lila just said she wants to win over Adrien at the party!!!! p sure shes gonna involve the other girls too!!’

Jaw practically on the floor, Adrien meets Marinette’s eyes again, who is hiding her laugh behind her hand. Adrien takes her phone and hands it to Chloe, who eventually matches their expressions of surprise.

“This is going to be so much fun,” she says, smiling into her hand.

The three spend lunch at Marinette’s dining table, planning their actual party attire over some croissants. Besides exposing Lila, they also plan to actually enjoy the party they’re putting so much effort into. Ten minutes before the end of lunch, Chloe heads out early to grab something from a nearby store while Marinette and Adrien stay back. Before they can make use of their spare time, an akuma alert rings out across the city.

After one quick shared look, they head up to Marinette’s room. Adrien is already transformed, halfway out the window, but Marinette hesitates. In the corner of her eye sits the guardian box.

Out on the streets, Chat is already following the akuma when Ladybug spots Chloe, jumping down to drag her into an alley.

“Woah, what is going on, Ladybug, I-” Chloe starts, but Ladybug holds out her closed fist, silencing her. Chloe’s eyes widen already.

“Chloe Bourgeois,” Ladybug begins, “this is the miraculous of the bee, which grants you the power to immobilize your opponent. You will use it for the greater good. Not as Queen Bee, but whoever you choose to be, as a new hero. After the job is done, you may keep it permanently. Can I trust you, Chloe?”

As Ladybug talks, Chloe looks close to tears.

“Yes, Ladybug, I will do my best. Thank you for this opportunity,” she replies, voice shaking. Ladybug has a good idea of why she wants her miraculous back this bad. With a nod, she hands it over. As soon as Pollen manifests, Chloe genuinely bursts into tears, so Ladybug gives them some privacy for their reunion and goes to find Chat and their akuma.

When ‘Parabee’ suddenly shows up and Ladybug talks to her like an experienced hero, Chat wants to tackle Ladybug in a hug.

-----

Chat drops into Marinette’s room on Friday night to see her on the floor, in between a bunch of history books. Chat grimaces at the sight. He also makes note of the pile of fabric on her chaise, sketchbook open next to it.

“You never stop studying, do you?” he says, dropping down next to her and detransforming. Plagg waves to Marinette before disappearing in Tikki’s little drawer nest.

Marinette smiles up at him as she puts her notebook down. “We’re almost done with exams, so I’ll have plenty of time for you then.”

Adrien sits down next to her with a sigh. Marinette stretches next to him, arms above her head, shirt lifting with them. Adrien forces himself to look away.

“Thank you, by the way,” he says in place of something incredibly distracting. Marinette turns around to face him.

“For what?” she asks.

“For giving Chloe her miraculous back,” he says, even though he could have reasonably thanked her for anything and everything and also existing.

Marinette smiles softly.
“Well, she deserves it. She’s changed for the better by a lot and has gone miles for our Lila project. Besides, we get along super well now, which is fun. Sometimes I honestly feel like she’s become more important to me than Alya in just these last three months. It’s kind of crazy to think about.”
As she talks, Marinette plays with Adrien’s fingers, so he lets her get lost in her ramble for a while.

“Well, I think it was the right decision. She’s worked hard to earn her honour back,” Adrien eventually agrees. Marinette smiles at him, so lovingly, halfway in his lap already.

Adrien does the most reasonable thing and kisses her. Marinette smiles into it, settling herself properly in his lap.

“I think you need to take a study break,” Adrien says in between kisses. Marinette, disappointingly, pulls away to look at him.

“Adrien,” she says, warning tone.

“It’s a Friday night!” he argues. Marinette shakes her head.

“The exam is on Monday!”

Adrien bites his cheek, thinking. His hands are still resting on her waist, so he pulls her against his chest, burying his head in her neck. He lets his hands wander under Marinette’s shirt when she starts complaining about her history studies.

“Princess,” he whines into her neck, long and drawn out, “please?”

Marinette sighs heavily before she finally relaxes into him, giving him permission. Right away, he sweeps her up and deposits her on her bed.

“You,” he says pointedly as he gets on right next to her, “need to learn to enjoy your Friday nights.”

-----

The night of the party comes a lot quicker than anticipated. The date they picked was incredibly lucky; the day had been almost unbearably warm for the middle of spring, so the evening was more than pleasant.

Adrien exits the car to see the park already knee-deep in preparations. He waves to Chloe, coordinating in the distance, then enters the bakery.

Marinette’s parents, as happy to see him as ever, send him up to her room. When he enters through the floor, Marinette is at her desk in front of a mirror.

“Hey, kitty,” she greets him without taking her eyes off her brush.

“Hey, my lady,” he replies, coming to stand behind her. Once she takes the brush off her eye, she tilts her face up so Adrien can lean down to give her a kiss.

“What are you wearing?” she asks as she gets back to her makeup.

“You’ll see in a second, I still need to change,” Adrien replies as he starts taking off his daily clothes. “Nathalie’s covering for me, by the way, so I can stay here,” he adds. Marinette grins at him through the mirror. Instead of replying, she swivels around in her chair to watch him as he takes off his shirt. Adrien raises his eyebrows at her, but she scans him for a moment anyway, until she nods and turns back around. Adrien laughs at her.

He finishes getting dressed eventually, wearing black slacks (that might just look really good on his ass) and a black dress shirt, top two buttons left open. As Marinette moves on to braiding her hair over her shoulder, Adrien retrieves his small jewellery box from his bag. He puts a pair of short dangling earrings in and matches them with two additional rings, a stacked necklace and a solid bracelet.

When he turns back to Marinette, she’s watching him with a smile.

“What?” Adrien asks, approaching his girlfriend.

“Nothing,” she says, still grinning when she gets up from the chair and takes a step towards him, “you look good. Like yourself.”

“Like myself?” he asks, watching as Marinette lets her hands wander across his chest and up to his neck.

“Like my Chat,” Marinette adds. Adrien returns her grin.

“Just wait until I’m finished,” he says then, stepping past Marinette to claim the makeup spot. (He’s a model, after all. He’s allowed to look like one occasionally.)

Marinette walks to her chaise, then, where her outfit is already laid out. She gets undressed first, definitely not being watched through the mirror, before reaching for her freshly sewn dress.

Clearly, her and Adrien had had similar ideas about tonight’s theme, as she picked an unusual, red fabric for her dress. The corset top is slightly sheer in between the boning, leading up to the separate, pre-formed cups and their heart-neckline. Below the flowy, longer skirt coming down from the waist sits a tighter, shorter skirt with small slits for each leg. The top skirt separates asymmetrically over top of her right leg and the right half of the material is pinned up by a small rose brooch, revealing the lower skirt.

As Adrien is positioning his eyeliner, he watches Marinette pull on two mesh sleeves; the top, bound by a small ribbon, sits in the middle of her biceps while the bottom of the fabric widens out towards her hands, long ends curling around her wrists.

Adrien finishes his subtle black eye makeup, leaning back against the back of the chair as Marinette approaches the desk again.

“Do you have any idea how beautiful you look?” he asks. Marinette blushes, smiling down at him.

“I’m glad you like it,” she replies, hand on his arm.

“Like it is an understatement, my lady.”

Instead of indulging Adrien further, Marinette grabs her own jewellery box to rummage through. She pulls out a thin, matching red choker and puts it on.

“By the way, I have something for you,” Adrien says as he gets up. He goes back to his own box, pulling out a smaller, cardboard box.

“Don’t you dare,” Marinette says before Adrien can even show her what’s inside.

“Shut up, let me do something for you,” Adrien replies with a chuckle, pushing her to sit back down in front of the mirror. She does so, though with a heavy sigh.

From the box, Adrien pulls a silver necklace with a single black drop at the end of it. He puts it around Marinette’s neck while she watches in the mirror, mouth agape.

“To match your earrings,” Adrien says. Marinette gets up as soon as the necklace is fastened, turns around and kisses him.

When they part, her subtle red lipstick no doubt also on him now, she smiles at him.
“Thank you, chaton,” Marinette says.

Marinette’s phone rings, interrupting them as usual. With a sigh, Marinette picks up. It’s Alya.

Unsurprisingly, they’re late. Not awful, considering the party is across the street, but they start rushing a bit anyway.

They put on their shoes, Adrien ruffles his hair a bit more, Marinette grabs her purse and the lipgloss she has yet to put on, and they leave her room.

When they arrive at the park, it turns out they weren’t late – they end up being five minutes early. Adrien admits Alya was smart for that one.

As everyone slowly starts showing up, Adrien and Marinette head to Chloe, dressed in a classic short black dress, jewellery matching to compliment her eyes.

“Hey there, boss,” Marinette greets her. Chloe scoffs a laugh.

“I might have organized this but you two clearly look like the stars of the show,” Chloe replies, pulling Marinette into a short hug. (Adrien thanks whatever god is out there that he gets to see these two become friends.) When they part, she pulls Adrien in as well.

“Where is our real star, by the way?” Adrien asks, looking around the quickly filling guests.

“Hasn’t arrived yet,” Chloe replies, “but as soon as she does, she’s gonna try to kill you, Mari.”

Marinette chuckles, throwing Chloe a sideways glance as she, too, scans the crowd.
“She can try for sure.”

An hour later, everyone is there and brought an extra friend, but Lila is still missing. Adrien is having trouble keeping Marinette in his line of sight, too, since she can’t seem to escape people constantly complimenting her. Even the classmates Adrien knows are committed to help Lila woo Adrien and keep Marinette off of him seem to be constantly whispering about her; for good reason, Adrien thinks. Marinette looks more than gorgeous.

The music switches and suddenly, Lila is in front of him. Her dress is a shade of orange just off of complimenting her eyes. Her hair is no different than usual, clashing with her outfit.

“Lila,” Adrien greets her, attempting to be as neutral as possible so as not to piss her off before the show.

“Hey, Adrien,” she says, voice lowered, and steps into Adrien’s personal space. Adrien takes a step back, but she follows him.

“You look hot,” she says next. Adrien searches the edge of his vision for a red dress.

“You know I’m not interested, Lila,” he replies, voice strung tight. Lila has him backed up against the side of a bench. Instead of Marinette, Adrien can see his classmates quietly cheering for Lila at the edge of his vision. He feels suddenly disgusted by them; it should be obvious to anyone that he is fleeing form a situation that makes him uncomfortable.

Lila doesn’t stop there. She reaches out her hand, intending to place it on his chest, but he grabs her wrist before she can touch him.

“I have a girlfriend,” Adrien says, a last resort at convincing his classmates that Lila is clearly overstepping. Instead, as he should have anticipated, they start whispering about his secret? fake? girlfriend. Adrien wants to slap them each individually.

“I think you’re lying,” Lila continues, voice saccharine, “and I think you should date me.”
She blinks up at him, leaning closer to him. The bench is digging into his back.

“I think you need to get away from my boyfriend,” comes Marinette’s voice from behind him, and Adrien wants to sigh with relief.

“Marinette, dear, I think you need to stop being delusional and get some help,” Lila says, smiling at Marinette over Adrien’s shoulder. The crowd of classmates around them gasp.

“I think you need to learn what ‘no’ means, Lila,” Adrien concludes before pushing Lila away from him and saving himself to Marinette. When their hands intertwine and he leans down to whisper in Marinette’s ear, gasps ring out across their classmates. (Apparently being a couple in public in school wasn’t clear enough for them.)

“Did I fuck up?” Adrien asks. Marinette throws a quick glance over his shoulder, seeing a shock-still Lila and Alya on the small stage, reaching for the mic.

“No, you’re fine,” she replies. Before they can talk more, the music lowers and Alya’s voice comes out of the speakers.

While Adrien and Marinette make their way to their spot by the bar, Chloe already waiting for them, Alya bids Lila to come join her on the stage. Lila, not yet suspecting a thing, does so and takes a seat on the chair prepared for her on stage. Everyone else settles down to watch the show.

“This video was made for you, Lila, so please enjoy; here’s to all your stories!”

Alya puts down the mic, Lila grins at her, and the video starts. Everyone else is too focused on the screen to notice the stationed officers crowding around all stage exits.

Adrien hands Marinette a drink as she leans back against him. Chloe smiles at them once more before they all look forward to enjoy the show.

The first faces on the screen are Ladybug and Chat Noir. Alya’s voice comes from behind the camera.

“What do you two know about Lila Rossi?” she asks. Chat Noir immediately groans, Ladybug looking similarly displeased.

“Lying bitch who pretended to have a miraculous to manipulate another student,” Chat begins.

“I was informed she pretends we are friends, which is obviously not true. I don’t do civilian friendships as Ladybug, it would be incredibly irresponsible and endangering,” Ladybug says.

“Oh, and she actively works with Hawkmoth, so I guess she should be considered a minor terrorist?” Chat adds.

The heroes go on like this for a minute, reminding each other of other things Lila has done in the past. The crowd begins to murmur more with every statement. Lila shifts on her chair, looking to Alya, unsure. When she spots the officers next to her, she becomes very still.

A few different celebrities follow, each debunking Lila’s blatant lies about them, which are featured as short clips, voice notes and texts from Lila herself. Just as Lila, on stage, begins to look like she’s about to pull something, maybe make a scene or call for Hawkmoth, Gabriel Agreste appears on screen. A gasp goes through the crowd.

“In the past, Lila Rossi has been associated with my brand. She worked for me as a model alongside my son, Adrien. Recently, it has come to my attention that she has not only been lying about fellow designers and other celebrities, but also actively harassing my son. This apparently extends to sexual harassment on set as well as threatening him and his friends in class. This behaviour is more than unacceptable and I hereby sever any and all connections between Lila Rossi and my brand.”

Lila sags in her chair, apparently, somehow, out of options. Out of hope, since no one will believe any tantrums anymore. A few clips from Mister Damocles and Miss Bustier follow, referencing behaviours in class in connection to her legal records.

The video is almost finished, Lila hopeless in her spot on the stage, the crowd already wildly discussing, the police ready to take her in, when Alya appears on screen. The camera gets shifted until her and Chloe are well in frame and Adrien and Marinette’s torsos are visible, at least. They’re sat at the Dupain-Cheng dining table.

“Do you feel like she actually changed you?” Marinette asks, seemingly in the middle of a conversation.

“I do,” Alya replies. “I feel like I almost can’t trust my own mind, sometimes. People will tell me about something I know is true and yet, for a second, I’ll consider if our entire relationship is a lie. I think what Lila did to me and the rest of the class went further than just manipulation.”

Adrien, barely visible, takes Marinette’s hand under the table.

“I think she was planning to do even worse,” he says. Chloe nods.

“We’re lucky you had Mari’s back, Adrien. Lila could have done some real damage, even beyond what she already achieved,” she says, sighing as she leans her elbows on the table.

“Yeah, I mean, she was making good on her threat,” Marinette says. Nino’s hand reaches in from behind the camera to grab his glass of water. “She said she’d take all my friends, take Adrien and make my life hell, so.. she was on the way to real damage. I got lucky in the end.”

Adrien, outside of the camera’s view, gives Marinette a forehead kiss. After a moment of silence, Chloe speaks again, quiet.

“I miss Sabrina.”

Marinette leans forward, more into frame, and grabs Chloe’s hand across the table.

“You’ll get her back,” she says. They smile at each other and the video cuts to black. The crowd is silent.

Lila doesn’t resist when the officers arrest her on stage. The classmates in the crowd quickly make their way to Marinette and Adrien to apologize for a million things. Marinette, to Adrien’s delight, treats them as she did Alya at first; they aren’t forgiven just yet, but she recognizes their apologies and appreciates them for what they are. Adrien loses sight of Chloe when Sabrina tackles her in a hug. After the crowd around them clears out, Alya is back on stage.

“Thank you all for listening intently to our display. As you can see, a lot of us present have been a victim of extreme manipulation due to Lila Rossi. Therefore, this opportunity was used to help clear everyone’s minds and get Lila to where she belongs. Nevertheless, this is a spring party, so please let go of the heavy emotions we just brought up and enjoy the rest of the party!”

As Alya leaves the stage, the crowd seems to calm down again and begin mingling like normal.

Marinette sighs in relief, falling backwards into Adrien’s chest.

“Holy shit, it’s over,” she says, smile audible in her voice. Adrien wraps his arms around her, holding her tightly to his chest.

“Yeah,” he says, “it’s finally over.”

A moment later, Chloe rejoins them, Sabrina going off to talk to someone else, apparently.

“Hey, lovebirds. How you feeling?” she asks, smiling brightly. Adrien and Marinette both mirror her smile.

“Free,” Marinette replies. Chloe nods, looking up at the sky like she’s breathing fresh air for the first time.

“Feels amazing, right?” she agrees.

The trio, as they seem to have become now, spend most of the evening at the bar or strolling around the park in between the other guests. When it’s time to leave, Chloe hugs both of them and watches them leave together to Marinette’s house with a smirk. The two have made it after all, and she’ss more than glad to be by their side.

-----

On the rooftops of Paris, Ladybug, Chat Noir and Parabee sit on a picknick blanket, surrounding a large bag of Dupain-Cheng pastries.

“You know, it’s kind of funny,” Parabee says after finishing her choquette.

“What is?” Ladybug asks, biting into her second croissant.

“You guys started dating right around the time of my two friends,” Parabee continues.

Ladybug and Chat Noir exchange an incredibly subtle glance.

“Yeah?” Chat asks, “How’d that happen?”

Parabee picks another choquette, lets her eyes wander across the rooftops.

“I have this childhood friend, right? Grew up super secluded, only had me for a friend. So eventually he joins public school, right, just in time for high school. And I was raised like a damn bitch, so I had been bullying this poor girl into the ground for years. The two meet and boom, dream couple. Ridiculous to me, considering I hated one and loved the other, but it’s not like I could do anything about it,” she explains. Chat nods along to her story, inconspicuous.

“Then that bitch Lila Rossi shows up, ruins everything for everyone, you’re aware. And meanwhile I become Queen Bee and immediately get it revoked again. Sucks, right? So I go on a journey of self discovery; a lot of hating Lila until I accidentally liked Marinette and a lot of missing Pollen and wishing I was a better person so I could keep her around.”

Ladybug and Chat Noir listen intently, eyes focused on Parabee, who is as nonchalant as ever.

“So then I get a revelation: what if I just became a better person? So I did. I supported my childhood friend, apologized to the girl I used to bully and befriended her, did some good deeds and got Pollen back. Win-win all over. You could’ve told me sooner that being a good person has so many perks,” Parabee eventually finishes, looking at the pair of heroes across from her with a smile.

“Well, you definitely came a long way in becoming a better person. You deserve to be a hero again, and you deserve to be reunited with Pollen,” Ladybug says, sitting up from her position to appear more professional again.

“Thank you, Ladybug,” Parabee says, smile genuine and bright. Before Chat can give his five cents, Chloe gets up from their makeshift picknick.

“Well anyway,” she says, smiling and waving down at them, “gotta buzz! Have a good night, guys!”

Chat clears his throat to fill the silence.

“She knows, right?”

“She absolutely knows.”

Chat and Ladybug burst out laughing.

“Right, well,” Ladybug says after calming down, “I think it’s fine. We can trust her.”

Chat leans into Ladybug’s space, scanning her face.

“Yeah,” he agrees, “it’ll be fine.”

Ladybug leans up to give him a quick peck.

“Pack up and head home?” she asks. Chat grins at her.

“Let’s go,” he replies.

Portable picknick in hand, they head off to the Dupain-Cheng bakery, together.