So here's the sequel I promised everyone. It's just starting and I'm still pretty busy so it might be a slow start but we'll get there ;) Enjoy!

Aftermath

"So..." Adrien started from where he sat crossed legged at the end of his bed, before trailing off and picking at the denim of his jeans self consciously. He self-consciously lifted his shoulders up until they met his ears and gave Marinette the distinct impression of a tortoise attempting to hide inside its shell.

"So?" Marinette said back from her own spot near his pillow, using an upward lilt at the end of the word to turn it into a question to encourage him to continue. He briefly glanced up at her before his face dropped once again and he turned his head away from her slightly, looking over towards the ladder that led to his upper level instead.

She raised an eyebrow at the boy's timid behaviour before reminding herself once again that this was Chat. There was no need to be surprised by his sudden lack of confidence. As Adrien, he may feel like he had few reasons to let her see him when he was feeling unsure of himself but she'd seen Chat at his most vulnerable several times now. She knew Chat better than anyone, or at least she liked to think so, and Adrien was Chat. She knew him.

Of course, she'd only learned that Adrien was Chat less than fifteen minutes ago so it was going to take a while to sink in fully.

After his identity had been outed and she had tackled him, he had immediately responded to her kiss wholeheartedly but ultimately it had been short-lived. He'd finally remembered his ring and had been so panicked about getting it back as soon as possible that Marinette had taken pity on him. She'd quickly found Tikki and taken him home as Ladybug, dropping her transformation the second they were inside to help him search for where the ring had disappeared to when he'd thrown it away.

He'd been so relieved when he'd found it beneath his bed and had happily accepted Plagg's anger at his actions as she watched. But now that Plagg was back and had been dragged off mid-rant by a very amused Tikki, Adrien appeared to have suddenly realised he was out of distractions from the fact that Marinette now knew who he was. He couldn't seem to look at her for long and his fidgeting was becoming more pronounced. Currently, he was twirling his ring around on his finger and biting his lip which was beginning to make her feel nervous too.

"Adrien?" she prompted and he finally glanced up at her properly, giving a small sigh as he did so.

"What happened back there - after I changed back to me...d-did you mean that or was it just a spur of the moment, 'thank Dieu it's over' kind of thing?" he mumbled.

Marinette couldn't help but roll her eyes. She'd kissed him so hard he'd had to gasp for air once she pulled away and here he was, asking if it was real?

"Of course I meant it, you silly Kitty," she told him, leaning forward a little. She watched as he smiled an almost unnaturally wide, toothy and extremely familiar grin in response.

"So...can I take you on real dates now?" he asked excitedly, bouncing in place a little.

Marinette grinned back. That sounded wonderful. They could visit those little markets she loved to shop in and go out for coffee at a cafe and have homework dates with Alya and Nino and...Shit. Alya.

Her smile dropped as the thought formed and Adrien's froze at the sight suddenly, his own smile fading away slowly. He reached up to rub the back of his neck awkwardly as he spoke.

"But if you don't want to-" he started.

"I want to!" Marinette interrupted him sharply, flinching slightly at her own harsh tone before trying again in a hushed voice, "I want to, but you're forgetting that the 'Safe Sex Patrol' knows I'm dating Chat."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Adrien couldn't help but let out an explosive snort of barely suppressed laughter at the name.

"I'm sorry," he said, still giggling, "The what?"

"Oh," Marinette replied, her face bursting out in an adorable pink blush, "That's what Alya started using to refer to herself and maman and papa. Ever since I told her that they gave you the same mortifying treatment she gave me, she decided they were in some kind of weird club."

She laughed awkwardly and dipped her head a little but couldn't help feeling overjoyed that the light had slipped back into Adrien's eyes again. She eyed the large patch of red staining his cheeks along with it and leant forward to press a quick kiss to his mouth before returning to her previous spot to watch the blush grow.

Adrien scratched the back of his head awkwardly and grinned sheepishly at her, feeling his embarrassment rise at what he wanted to share but being sure that it was just the thing he needed to break the weird tension he was feeling over his identity being out in the open now.

"Uh," he started, smiling at his bedspread instead of his girlfriend, "You know, w-when I finally detransformed after that talk they gave me -" he glanced up to see Marinette watching him from a much closer vantage than she had been a moment earlier and swallowed heavily at her proximity, "- the condoms they'd given me disappeared. It was weird but I didn't think much of it at the time."

She was even closer now. Her knees had snuck into his line of vision where he was looking down at the bedspread and he gulped. Once again he felt like he had back when they had only just started dating which meant he was back to being flustered from simply being near her.

"A-Anyway," he continued, "Do you know how weird it is to discover that they'd materialised there the next time I transformed?"

Marinette cocked an eyebrow. That was...kind of interesting really. She almost wished her armour had pockets for her to experiment with. She wondered what kind of things she could carry without fear of them being discovered when she was in civilian form. Some place to hide her diary would be the dream goal. As she remembered how long ago it must have been since Chat-Adrien had learned this, she couldn't help but give a small smirk.

"Don't tell me you've been carrying condoms around every time you've been Chat for the past two months?"

Adrien's face paled.

"I wish..." he whispered, glancing at her nervously. She raised her eyebrow and nodded at him to continue, pulling herself forward a little more until their legs were touching. She noted his blush immediately this time and her smirk widened at her renewed ability to affect him like this. She leaned in to push her Ladybug luck.

"I didn't know you were Ladybug back then and I'd transformed for patrol," he started, his heart pounding as she began to nuzzle against his ear. This was not something he was used to without the extra confidence his miraculous afforded him.

"I didn't want you somehow discovering them and teasing me so I threw them out onto my bed before I left. When I got home, they were gone."

"What!?" Marinette yelled suddenly, making him jump since she was so close to him. Her heart was in her throat right now. Someone had come into his room while he was out being Chat? Did that mean-?

"Turns out Nathalie checks in on me from time to time. She knows I sneak out apparently, but I'm almost completely certain she thinks it's just to hang out with friends and stuff. She hasn't said or done anything that made me think she knows I'm Chat."

Marinette breathed a huge sigh of relief and chose that moment to climb into his lap, which made him give off a strangled whine as he desperately tried to continue his story while she straddled him.

"A-Anyway, I detransformed and was f-freaking out that someone had been in my room while I was away and that of all the things th-they had to find, it was that. So after a good long freak, with Plagg being no help by the way-"

"Hey!" came an annoyed voice from the second level and both teens smiled in its direction for a second.

"-I went to take a shower to calm down and found a bathroom drawer full of condoms."

Marinette giggled relentlessly at that and her head fell to his shoulder as he rolled his eyes at her. He was starting to feel more comfortable again and was actually enjoying her closeness once more. He instinctively lifted his arms to cradle her back.

"Nathalie had left a note saying not to leave them out where Father could see in case he has a heart attack and not to worry because she wasn't going to tell him I was having sex, even though I'm actually not. So I guess we can add her to, what was it? 'Team Safe Sex' or something?"

"The 'Safe Sex Patrol,'" Marinette said, the occasional giggle still bubbling over as she spoke into his neck.

She pulled back to look at him and he felt his heart swell with adoration for the girl, the girl of his dreams. She didn't seem to be freaking out at all about his identity, an outcome he hadn't even considered when he'd been so worried about revealing himself to her. He guessed her good luck was overriding all of his bad luck while they were together.

"So, you really aren't mad at me?" he asked softly, tilting his head up to look at her face.

"For what?" she asked, her hands lifting to his scalp to run through his hair and scratching just behind where his cat ear would have been if he were transformed. Adrien enjoyed the feeling for a moment before he shook his head a little to dislodge her. He needed to be able to think straight right now.

"For being the guy who stupidly turned you down eight months ago?" he finally replied, his smile disappearing mournfully, "and then started dating you as someone else a couple of months later?"

"Aww, Kitty," she said in the soothing child-friendly voice she used whenever he seemed upset, "Are you mad at me for turning you down when I was Ladybug and then dating you as me?"

"Well no," he said, eyebrows pulling together in thought, "You never used to like Chat like that. Not until we started to hang out differently and you got- oh, okay. I see what you're saying."

He hadn't liked Marinette as more than a friend until he'd seen another side of her. Just like she hadn't liked him until they'd started hanging out much more often than they did in costume and she'd gotten to know him better.

"You silly kitty," she said, pressing the tip of her nose to his, "But now that that's over, we still need to work out how we can date without those in the know wondering what's going on."

"Maybe we should make a list of ideas?" he asked, his arms tightening around her.

"Sounds like a good idea..." she said as she lowered her mouth towards his so that there was barely a centimetre of space between them. As she spoke, her breath ghosted across his face and he shuddered involuntarily. His eyes began to close until he was watching her through the tiny opening left between his lids. He could feel the heat of her lips above his.

"...but I think it can wait a while."