Adrien Agreste had, at fifteen, developed a very refined ability to filter. He could wander the Les Halles mall with Nino for two solid hours without noticing the twenty odd posters with his face on them, plastered to walls and windows.

The first time Nino had asked about it, Adrien had tried to explain how alien his own image became after all the editing and processing. "When I model, it's not me. I can be happy or angry, or really sad…it's all the same. Modeling is about what they want you to show the world, not you. I mean…look."

He'd pulled out his tablet, scrolling through ads of the first brand name that came to his head, and held his airbrushed, poised face up against a candid picture of him with an ice cream cone, courtesy of Alya.

"I kinda see it. It's you, but without what makes you, well…you."

So when news of Chat Noir started cropping up in regular newspapers, and later in tabloids and gossip press, Adrien discovered he was perfectly capable of doing the same thing.

Unless, that is, the news involved Chat Noir and Ladybug.

It wasn't like he went out of his way to find these articles and videos, of course. But once in a while, if the title spurred his interest enough, he'd give in to the glaringly obvious click-baits in his social media accounts, and maybe laugh a little at how enamoured Paris was with the idea of Ladybug and his alter ego together. Teen Vogue's "10 Reasons why Chat Noir and Ladybug should be an item" had been a favorite of his, and he'd only clicked on the circulating link to a fanfic once.

Other than mild emotional scarring from that one fanfic, Adrien found the articles one of the (few) pleasantly hilarious sides of being a superhero.

Until February the 15th.


"'Amazing Video – Chat Noir and Ladybug, a couple?'" The video description strategically cut off after that, and the thumbnail showed a slightly fuzzy Fontaine du Palmier. Classic click-bait.

"I'll never get people's obsession with love. Or with you." Plagg happily shoved another piece of Camembert into his mouth, as if to show the people just what ought to be important.

Adrien ignored his kwami's noisy gnawing and let the cursor hover over the play button, curious but unsure. Yesterday's fight had been in the fountain, so the footage was probably real.

And probably had prime highlights of just how much of a brute he'd been to Ladybug.

"Just my luck, getting hit with a hate spell on Valentine's Day." It had also struck precisely during his confession. The accompanying sigh sounded pathetic, even to him.

The cursor was dragged away resolutely.

…then again, this was probably his only chance to really know what had happened the day before. Ladybug had been far too nice (and a little vague) about it, and for all that Adrien knew an Akuma's influence completely overrode everything else in a person, he'd been gnawed at by a faint sense of guilt for the past day and a half (with help from Plagg, who'd kindly reminded him that he'd said all sorts of 'horrible thoughtless' things until he'd been threatened with a steady diet of processed yellow cheese).

Quickly plugging in his earbuds, Adrien clicked play and braced himself for a humiliating one and a half minutes.

The video had been taken from one of the nearby shops, barely a street away from the commotion, and caught the scene in profile: it started with him in an aggressive crouch as Ladybug dropped onto the carved stone sphinxes from somewhere high above. A rapid hop-chase over the sphinxes ensued until he pounced, finally pinning her down.

Adrien felt his stomach clench with revulsion as he saw the telltale black sparks of the Cataclysm on his fist. He'd really meant to use it on her.

But it was to the next few seconds to which Adrien would find himself returning insistently for the next few days.

Dark Cupid swooped in, heading for the fountain. Chat Noir glanced over his shoulder, nodded and returned to his prisoner, gloating, hand poised to strike.

Then, Ladybug put a hand on each side of his face, brought it down to hers, and kissed him. For twenty precious seconds.


Natalie heard the cry from the home office, two stories up. She was at Adrien's door within four minutes, the hulking mountain that was his bodyguard within five.

"Is everything alright in there?" She knocked twice and, hearing no answer, let herself in. The telltale sound of a boy tripping over a wheelie chair led them to Adrien's study; the boy was there, standing in the middle of the room with an innocent smile. The four screens of his computer were on, but there seemed to be nothing on them.

"We heard screaming."

"Ah, yeah, I-I tripped over the chair after seeing this…shocking video."

"Twice?"

"It was a really shocking video."

While that was good enough for Natalie personally, she was employed to be Mssr. Agreste's eyes and ears in regards to his child, and Gabriel Agreste would at least give his son a good, disbelieving stare before leaving. She did it, just for effect.

"If you're sure."

"I'm sure. Thank you Natalie. Thank you, Beaumont."

She noticed the empty packets of Camembert on a decorative side table as she turned for the door. "And Adrien, try to remember to throw these away. The smell might set in."

"Yes, right away."

She closed the door and made it five steps down the hallway before an excited whoop came from the room.

Hands to her temples, Natalie wondered just how she'd survive the rest of Adrien's teen years.


"She kissed me!"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you say so!" Adrien half pranced, half danced to the study windows.

"Because she told you."

"All that about a kiss after the Akuma was caught…"

"Yeah, 'parently kissing broke Dark Cupid's influence on you."

"But why didn't you tell me! You just kept going on and on about how I told her I loathed her!" Because Adrien Agreste's humiliation just had to include using Shakespearean insults on the girl he loved desperately.

"I was getting to that part. Then you told me to shut up and threatened me with…yellow cheese squares from the plastic foil...eugh…" Plagg cringed and shuddered dramatically at the very thought.

"Ladybug kissed me…and I can't remember a thing." But even though the thought saddened him, Adrien felt increasingly like an ice cream cone in the sun, thawing and melting from the warm, golden joy.

Ladybug had kissed him. Of course, it had all been part of the plan to save him from the hate-inducing spell, but she hadn't gone around kissing any other of the Akuma victims.

And she hadn't seemed repulsed. She'd been a little embarrassed, of course, and he hadn't really understood why until now. She'd also been quick to fall back into their usual repartee, so it wasn't very likely that she'd be traumatized for life.

Adrien picked himself off the floor. Lying on his desk was the mysterious Valentine card that had answered his poem. He traced a finger across the red ink wistfully: he'd handed the rest of the cards to Natalie. This was the only one he'd kept.

A kiss from Ladybug. A mysterious Valentine.

If nothing else, Chat Noir would have a few things to say to his Lady the next time they met.