The next morning, they met at foot of the stairs like they had met last week, a day after That Day. Adrien smiled to himself when he remembered his thoughts bothering him then.

"How are you?" he asked, coming closer, and Marinette smiled at him with this smile that always warmed up his heart.

"I'm OK." She answered. "You helped me a lot yesterday."

"I'm happy to hear that."

"I could get used to that you substitute for Tikki in the evenings." She whispered.

"I think I could get used to that as well. But I don't know what your parents will say to that." He winked at her.

"Why would they mind?" she was surprised, but he looked at her with such eyes that she blushed. "You are a little beyond the scope of Tikki's support."

"I think it's quite far beyond her support…" he replied with a grin. That was his sweet revenge for yesterday. And then he embraced her and kissed.

"Heeey, people! Adrien has come with his girlfrieeeend!" someone yelled again at school.

Marinette laughed and hid in his arms. And Adrien embraced her and led her inside. How different their entrance was in comparison to last Wednesday! Today they didn't care about all those people. The only thing that was important was that they were together. Besides, they could say they had already passed this stage last week.

"Hi, dude!" Nino patted Adrien on the shoulder. "How you're doing?"

"My condolences, Adrien…" Alya whispered and embraced him.

Adrien nodded without saying a word. He exchanged knowing glances with Marinette. After all, for their colleagues the death of his father was the news of the weekend, nothing else.

"Is it true that your mother was finally found?" Alya asked with typical journalistic curiosity.

"That's true." Adrien confirmed in short. He tried to overcome being surprised with the direction in which this morning talk had gone.

"What was happening to her for those two years?" Alya kept asking, so Marinette finally joined the conversation and admonished her:

"Alya!"

"Sorry…" she restrained herself. "I'm sure you're not ready for…" she stopped suddenly, looking at Marinette and Adrien standing hand in hand. "Wait… It's not what I'm thinking… Seriously?"

"What's going on?" Nino asked.

"Are you kidding me?" Alya frowned them down. "Couldn't you find a better moment?"

Adrien glanced quickly at Marinette. As he remembered the moment they actually had chosen, he had to admit that it was one of the worst possible. And probably the last possible one. It was almost too-late-moment. Judging from Marinette's face, she was thinking about the same. He almost burst of laughing, which – in the current situation – would be very inappropriate.

"You can say that we had no choice." Adrien muttered finally, and Marinette snorted of suppressed laughter.

"Marinette?" Alya frowned down again.

"Let her go…" Adrien said. "I was pushed to the wall. I can't even blame Marinette that she finds it amusing."

"But your father…" Alya began in a hopeless tone.

"He managed to give us his blessing." Adrien murmured, and Marinette bit her lip to not laugh.

"I'll kill you…" she muttered only.

"I'd like to see it."

"Me too." Alya added. "You wouldn't hurt a fly!"

Now even Adrien had problems with keeping serious when he remembered all the times when Ladybug had thrown the villains on the walls. Sometimes she hit even him, and she wasn't gentle in such cases.

"At least I've succeeded!" Alya noted.

"In what?" Marinette asked suspiciously.

"In shipping."

"What?!"

"Oh, come on!" Alya sighed irritably. "I've been shipping you for months!"

"What? If I remember correctly, you said you shipped me with Cat Noir and Adrien with Ladybug!"

"Oh, Marinette!" Alya laughed. "That was a smokescreen! You were so embarrassed in your own company, that I couldn't tell you the truth! So, I diverted your attention from the obvious. More, you started being jealous of each other. And voilà! You're together!"

Adrien exchanged glances with Marinette again. They didn't even try to convince her she was wrong. That was better. Her explanation was enough for people who would never know their secret and the truth about what had happened during the weekend.

"Apropos your superhero-admirers!" Alya began and Adrien felt that Marinette froze. "You know they disappeared?"

"What do you mean: disappeared?" Marinette pretended to be surprised.

"How do you know that?" Adrien asked at the same time.

"You don't watch TV?" Alya sighed irritably. "Yesterday there was a report about that. You know… I'm professional blogger, so I must be up to date. So, imagine that! The mayor informed officially that Hawkmoth had been defeated and Ladybug and Cat Noir left the city after their mission had been accomplished."

"Wh-what?!" Adrien and Marinette exclaimed.

Alya rolled her eyes.

"I got known later, unofficially of course, that the mayor had got a special message sealed with some mysterious signs."

Marinette looked at Adrien. They both knew who had sent this message. And they knew that it was addressed to them as well. Master Fu tried to tell them again that this chapter of the book had been closed forever. And although their hearts had been hurting for the last two days, they suddenly understood what his words meant.

"Do you think they are together now?" Alya asked.

"Yes, I think so…" Marinette smiled.

"You're too romantic." Alya sighed.

"Think about it, Alya. Maybe they didn't want to distract themselves as long as they had a mission to complete?"

"I don't buy it." Alya wasn't convinced. "There was no chemistry between them."

"Really?" Adrien asked in astonishment, and Marinette nudged him in response.

"I think the same. They were flirting with each other all the time." Nino agreed with his friend.

"Cat Noir was flirting with all girls." Alya commented.

"I think he was always loyal to Ladybug." Adrien said.

"So, what will you say about this picking Marinette up?" Alya didn't give up.

Marinette groaned from suppressed laughter.

"I didn't feel like being picked up…" she stammered. "You must be wrong, Alya."

"I give up then. But honestly, I like the idea that they are somewhere together. As a couple. Imagine how their kids will look like…"

Adrien and Marinette exchanged glances and finally burst out of laughter. Well, they had already known the kids' names… But this was a story for another chapter. They had just started writing the new one, with hope for more such moments like yesterday breakfast that would be repeated every Sunday since now, and like yesterday evening… And after a few years they will write the next chapter, and the next one. And in one of them there will be a story about Louis, Emma and Hugo…

Master Fu was right – each story has its beginning and its ending. The point is to write the story in a way that will make you keep coming back to read it again, and again… Then your life is happy and completed.

The end :-)