Even when Adrien got home, he couldn't calm himself down.

"Who does she think she is?" he wondered aloud, pacing in his room. "And what a bold move with touching the earrings, as if she knows where they are! I bet you, Plagg, Marinette is more evil than she pretends to be. Such a nice girl, always kind and smiling, never turned into akuma... I should have guessed earlier something was wrong with her!" Adrien let out a frustrated groan and threw himself on the bed.

"Whoa, kid, calm down," Plagg said in amused tone. "You haven't considered the possibility of this Marinette girl being right. I told you before, at least her kwami, Tikki, is immortal."

"But how could she possibly know that?"

Before Plagg could answer, Adrien jerked up upon hearing a strange sound outside. The kwami immediately shot out of the sight, and Adrien decided to stay somewhat hidden in the corner of the room just in case.

The strange sound continued and became even closer, as if someone was climbing the wall.

Ten seconds later he realized he forgot to close the window, which proved to be a huge mistake.

Marinette climbed into his room from the said window, took a couple of steps away from this exit and immediately spotted Adrien.

"You!" he shouted and shot forward in attempt to reach her, but Marinette reacted very quickly, missing his attack. "What are you doing here?"

Adrien tried once again to catch her, but in the blink of the eye she slipped out of his hands and climbed up the rock climbing wall.

"I came here to convince you that Ladybug is alive, as I said!" Marinette cried from the top of the wall. "I promised to prove you wrong, so here I am! Otherwise you won't even listen to me!"

The boy cursed under his breath and started climbing up after her.

"You had no right to break in!" he shot back.

Halfway through his way to her, Marinette jumped from the wall to the sofa and ran to the stairs.

"I also couldn't do that in public!"

Realizing she was no longer on the wall, Adrien pushed himself from the wall straight to the stairs, rolling on the floor to soften the move.

"Still, it's no excuse to break into people's houses!" he retorted, stopping just for a moment to look at her, already upstairs, before continuing the chase up the stairs.

"You are the one to talk, Chat Noir!" Marinette argued back from the second floor before reaching the pole and sliding down back to the first floor in two seconds.

Adrien stopped dead in his tracks. He completely forgot about giving himself away just to scare the girl. He slowly took several steps, repeating Marinette's track before going down the same way and stopping in front of the girl, who also stood still. Both were trying to catch their breath after the chase.

"You can't tell anyone," he almost whispered, though still in terrifying manner. "I wasn't myself, I was mad at you. Even though Ladybug is dead, it's still dangerous, giving my identity away. It will cut short any chances of winning against Hawkmoth. I hope you understand at least that."

"She's not dead, Chat Noir."

Maybe it was her saying his other name, maybe the calmness of her voice, but Adrien stopped arguing with Marinette, gesturing for her to make a move.

"Then prove it."

She took in a deep breath. Exhaled. Looked him into the eye.

The next moment was forever printed in his memory.

"Tikki," Marinette said, then paused for a brief second. Adrien's mind caught on the name of Ladybug's kwami, and he opened his mouth to ask her how she knew or what did she mean by it, but she wasn't done speaking. "Spots on."

Adrien closed his eyes to protect them from the blinding red light. When he opened them, Ladybug stood in Marinette's place.

He gasped and involuntary stumbled back, tripping over his feet and falling to the floor. When Adrien's brain finally caught with his body, he jumped back on his feet and stared at the girl in front of him with horror.

"My lady..."

Oh no. He accused her of giving him the false hope, he raised his voice at her, he chased her in attempt to teach her a lesson, he allowed himself to be mad at her... Another part of his brain finally seemed to realize that she was considered dead by millions of people, yet here she was, standing right in front of him.

"...but how?"

Ladybug was extremely nervous.

"I'm so sorry, Chat! I realized I forgot to tell you about my plan as soon as I heard you calling out for me, but then it was too late and I thought that it'll be better for my plan for Hawkmoth to really believe that you believed that I was dead and I regret all this I can't tell you how much..."

Adrien cut off her rambling by enveloping Ladybug in a bone-crushing hug.

"Thank god you're alive... Never ever scare me like that!" he cried, tears steaming down from his cheek.

Ladybug hugged him back with an equal force.

"I'm sorry, kitty, it will never repeat again, please forgive me if you can," she also had tears in her eyes.

"Oh, Bugaboo, I think we're equal here," Adrien sobbed, "I was not myself and I'm sorry you had to deal with my inappropriate behavior earlier. I can never pour into words how hard it is, living in this world without you."

"I know, Chat, I know..."

They stayed like that for several hours, holding each other as close as it was physically possible.

-p

"About that wish," said Marinette after being detransformed and ready to go home. "Please don't go out as Chat Noir at least for several days. Don't show any signs of knowledge that I'm alive in any of your identities. I need my plan to work, and I don't want you accidentally giving me away."

"I guess that makes sense, my lady," Adrien smiled a little.

"And Adrien?" Marinette turned around before climbing out of the window. "Make my life as Marinette miserable, as you promised."

Before he could respond, she disappeared the same way she came.

"Stupid girl," Adrien mumbled to himself with a light smile on his face. "No, not stupid, I love you, I can't live without you, please forgive me, my lady..."

(Un)luckily for both of them, she was already on the ground and couldn't hear him as she started to make her way home.

-p

"You know, Nooroo, there is only one way to check if my attempts are vain," thought Gabriel aloud. "I will send one last akuma, and if Ladybug doesn't show up, I'm giving up being Hawkmoth. But if she does... I have to think about it."

Nooroo sincerely hoped Ladybug was smart enough to not give herself away.

Aloud, he said, "It's a wise choice, master."