She carefully painted the last paw print in, a bright nearly neon green over a black background.
Marinette sighed as she glanced out her window, to the balcony, and suddenly felt like it was too big; it was a distraction tactic anyway to cope with the fact that Adrien was marrying Chloe soon, the fact that Cat Noir stopped flirting with her a while ago, some time after Queen Bee had joined their rag tag team of superheroes.
The designer sighed; she had her dream job regardless though some days it hurt way too much.
She often found herself getting ready and debating over which of her own designs looked best on it and not only in a professional sense; old habits died hard. It's not like Adrien would look at her like she was his girlfriend; she just worked for his dad like any of the other designers though she was the youngest and had her own line of fashion underneath Gabriel's guiding hand.
Rumors speculated that she was going to be the new head of Gabriel Fashions after Mr. Agreste couldn't run it anymore; she was the same age of his son, had severe potential, and naturally she got along with the older man pretty easily.
Adrien couldn't run it which became apparent after he'd retired as a model, and everyone realized that his heart wasn't in it and that he couldn't really draw or design worth anything special though he'd found his recent new job as a Physics teacher amazing from what Marinette often heard.
She'd tried moving away from group hangouts with Adrien though she couldn't completely avoid it; she'd seen how much Chloe had grown up, saw in her a woman that could make Adrien a great wife, and yet she knew that the two of them were not qualified to take over his father's business.
Marinette was the only single one of her group; Alya and Nino had long since been married and had been trying for their first kid. They'd sat her down on a regular three person patrol to tell her after Alya had revealed to her who Carapace was after all.
She'd coached Alya through being a superhero though it hadn't taken much effort at all to train her, and she remembered briefly that Cat Noir had coached Queen Bee at first which seemed mighty ironic to her.
Alya's only qualification to being a superhero was that she had to tell her boyfriend before everything got out of hand; Marinette understood though she'd been nervous and hadn't quite handled it all that well.
She and Alya had no idea who Queen Bee and Cat Noir were as civilians which was one thing that had never changed; Carapace or Nino as Marinette had more recently become aware of was their guardian now that Master Fu had died and was the only one that knew all of their identities, and he'd slowly let the other two know his sometime after being promoted. He was the only one that they all knew about and the only one that knew about all of them.
Queen Bee and Cat Noir had gotten engaged pretty recently and also the news that they were having a little kitten soon became apparent; Queen Bee called it a kitten, and Cat Noir referred to it as his little honey or something along those lines that it hurt to think about.
Marinette doubted that she'd find anyone that she felt like marrying or even dating anymore; her feelings for Adrien were just as polluted as her feelings for Cat Noir, but she knew well enough to know that neither relationship could go anywhere now.
She sighed as she finished up the last paw and carefully tied the bow on it.
It was a surprise gift for Cat Noir and Queen Bee's baby shower as she figured that they'd like Cat Noir decorations; it was a lot easier to deal with her feelings for Cat Noir than it was for her to deal with her feelings for Adrien.
She remembered when Cat Noir's flirting with her had begun to dwindle and how it accidentally started up with Queen Bee just months after stopping with her; it was weird to hear nearly endearing bee puns and loving remarks from his lips.
Marinette ignored Tikki's worry and plastered the fakest smile on her face that she could as she shifted over to toy with something else in her room; she kept to the motto of always staying busy now.
She wondered vaguely if that's something that Gabriel liked about her work ethic now.
By the time that patrol rolled around, Marinette's baby shower decoration for the lucky superhero pair had finished drying.
She realized dimly that she'd have to go on many solo missions and fight Akumas alone once all of her partners had kids or were having kids, because she certainly wasn't married or running any risk of getting pregnant any time soon.
Ladybug swung to a stop on their usual meeting spot and nervously held the decoration looped gingerly over her arms as she waited.
When Cat Noir landed with Queen Bee in his arms, Marinette bit her lip before she said something more than a little hurtful, "Here for your baby shower. I thought that you might like something a little Cat Noir themed."
"Won't that reveal our identities?" Cat Noir asked yet he took it gently into his arms regardless.
"Only to us." Ladybug whispered, "No one else will guess."
"Okay then. Thanks, LB, it really means a lot for you to do something like this for us." Cat Noir smiled.
Ladybug didn't tell him that she'd had to keep her hands busy or else she'll break under pressure, but she smiled as much as she could anyway.
Cat Noir returned to place the decoration in his home while she waited with Queen Bee who watched her some days like tonight as if she expected Ladybug to have alterior motives.
She shifted and sent a nervous smile Rena Rouge's way as the fox themed superhero jumped down beside her with Carapace dropping in just moments later, "Did you do something stupid?"
"No, Rena, I hope I did not." She knew that Alya was aware that she couldn't help but keep her hands busy nowadays and that fact haunted Marinette.
She shook her head, but Rena smiled at her anyway, "So did you take me up on that offer? You know after all this time, he still likes you, right?"
"No, I can't date someone for those kinds of reasons." Ladybug sighed, ignoring the curious look that Queen Bee sent her way though quietly relieved when Cat Noir soon joined them.
The conversation steered to easier topics like what do you think the next Akuma will be like.
Ladybug didn't much feel like banter.
Baby Shower was the optional word for the event, because despite what they'd been calling it, it didn't look like a normal one.
Adrien and Chloe had both decided that they didn't really need any help with their baby as they each came from well off families, but they did want their friends to support them through it.
Marinette had no idea what she was walking into with Alya by her side; Nino had been helping set up and probably laughing with his best guy friend while the two ladies took their time to show up.
The first thing that she saw were those darned lights: lit up paw prints hanging casually by bows and interconnected to one another hanging in the room opposite to where she was standing.
Bees and kitties seemed to be the theme, she surmised as they littered the place with puns thrown here and there; clearly, they'd outdone themselves.
She remembered that she'd gifted Cat Noir the lights and yet found a part of herself choked up; both people that she'd fallen in love with before were one in the same and had found her old rival from school, who now was a superhero, and married her.
Marinette shifted though she shot a faint smile Alya's way, who held her in place in case she bolted.
Adrien was coming out of the back with some treats and more decorations when Marinette and Alya were spotted by him.
"I know that you said no gifts, but," Alya smiled back at him, "We couldn't resist."
Alya had a cute, little, brown box in her hands or rather a brown, gift wrapped gift for the future Agreste child.
Marinette held a work in progress in her hands that she'd finish up as a Marinette original whenever she knew of what size the baby was, shortly after he or she was born.
Adrien smiled back at both of them, "Thanks."
Chloe waddled over, and Marinette recalled how beautiful the woman was especially now that she'd soften that old attitude of hers and after she'd ended up with child.
"Thank you for coming." She smiled, leaning towards them for hugs despite the fact that Marinette hardly ever hung out with them anymore: too busy working on designs.
She wondered if Adrien would be happy that he dodged the bullet of a potentially workaholic wife when he ended up with Chloe rather than Marinette.
Marinette didn't tell Cat Noir or Adrien that she'd realized they were one in the same, just buried herself in work, and finally in her misery asked Nathanael out on a date like Alya had been trying to get her to do.
She was pleasantly surprised at how well the date had actually went though knew that it couldn't cement in feelings that never were there to begin with; she'd try until it became too much though they were both busy, often too busy to hang out or go on dates, though Alya had laid off on the two of them because of that.
Marinette wished that the two people that she'd fallen in love with so long ago weren't one in the same, because it shown how hopelessly smitten she was with them both; she worried though that if she did get Gabriel's business, she'd practically be an Agreste and see Adrien and his wife all of the time.
She hoped that she wasn't promoted for that case above all.