This is the long anticipated story of how Adrien Agreste fell in love with Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and how Paris's dynamic crime-fighting duo got even better.

Normally they wouldn't have bothered. But I knew that Ladybug's heart would have inevitably persuaded her to go. So the moment I saw that she had gotten to the scene(curtesy of the Ladyblog), I was there not too soon after, as Chat Noir. It was an armed robbery of a grocery store, and 40 civilians were trapped inside, 15 of them children. In the four years of fighting alongside My Lady, we had only intervened into non-akuma related situations once or twice. And never to this extent.

Getting into the grocery store was not the most difficult part, it was convincing the robber to let everyone go that was the issue. The robber was convinced that they could give them more money than they already had, so he was going to keep them until they did. While attempting to talk to the perpetrator, Ladybug took a step forward, startling the robber. His reflexes acted, and he shot his gun. Ladybug's reflexes were also quick, but not enough. The bullet did not pierce her flesh, but it did graze the side of her beautiful face, leaving her with a deep scrape. I had never been more scared than I had in that moment. Realizing what he had just done, the man dropped the gun and surrendered.

I thought about the event as I waited for Ladybug to be done with the paramedics. After the paramedics looked Ladybug over, I made sure she was alright. "Can't you use a Lucky Charm or something to help it heal?" I slowly reached my hand up to inspect the wound.

"Since there wasn't an akuma and I didn't need my Lucky Charm it won't help. I'll just clean it up at home — the paramedics told me it won't need stitches."

"Well if you say you're fine; but please, My Lady, tell me if you need anything."

She swung out her yoyo and prepared to swing off, "Of course, Chat, I know I can always count on you." And with that, she swung off.

I was up half the night worrying about Ladybug. What if she was hurt more than she lead on? Eventually, Plagg made me stop messing with myself — telling me that I needs to give Ladybug some more credit, that I should know that she's stronger than she looks. Hell yeah she is, was the last thought that I had before finally drifting off to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up to my blaring, stupid alarm. I groaned and stretched as I looked out the window, deciding what to wear for the day. As I had gotten older, I was 18 now, his sense of style has begun to flourish into something with variety. The same thing had occurred with the rest of my classmates as well. We had all stuck to the same types of clothes day to day, but now we were all more comfortable stepping outside of the box. Alya had ditched her signature flannels for blazers and pencil skirts, all in a variety of colors and patterns. Nino had started wearing his graphic tees with open button ups with the sleeves rolled up above his elbows over them. Marinette's, however, was the greatest transformation. She wore only her own creation, favoring skirts and dresses. She took inspiration from everything around her, Paris, her friend and family, and even Ladybug and Chat Noir. But now that I thought about it, Marinette wore more Chat Noir inspired pieces than she did Ladybug.

I looked into my closet and grabbed my fencing team shirt and a pair of jeans, and pulled them on. I grabbed my bag and walked past Nathalie on my way out. "Adrien you need to eat breakfast!"

"I'm getting breakfast from the Dupian-Cheng Bakery!" I slipped out of the door before Nathalie could say anything else. Happily for me, in the past four years, Marinette and I have gotten to be a lot better friends, and I usually walked her to school if I didn't have a shoot. She lost her nervousness and started initiating hanging out outside of school with me. I was glad that her first impression of me wasn't the lasting impression. It definitely helped that we were the best friends of their school's power couple, Alya and Nino.

I walked into the bakery and Tom treated me with his usual bear hug and clap on the back. Sabine came and handed me my lunch — ever since she found out how much I loved their croissants she started packing some away for me to have at lunch. "Thank you so mach, Sabine, I can't wait to eat them! Can I also maybe grab a croque monsieur to have for breakfast?"

"Of course Adrien! I'll add it to your check, Nathalie should come by later today as well to grab some macaroons for the week as well."

"Perfect, you know I love your croque monsieurs and macaroons best, Sabine," I said giving her a smirk and a side hug.

"Yes, yes, I do know. Now let me go so I can make your breakfast!" the woman said with a laugh. "Marinette should almost be ready, you can go upstairs and hurry her along if you'd like."

I made my way upstairs into the quaint apartment, and ascended another level into Marinette's room, yelling knock-knock as I went.

"Come on in!" she yelled, "I'm almost ready!" I walked into her room and saw her looking intently at something in the mirror. She finally sighed and turned to say hello and I saw the wound on her face. In the exact same place as Ladybug's wound a few hours ago.

Don't worry this is going to be a reveal fic, but you may need to put up with me for a few chapters. I shouldn't make you suffer for too long. I would like to thank one of my friends for encouraging me to post my stories on here, and apologize to her for not letting her read this one ahead of time.

Thanks for reading,

fandomsenigma xoxo