Before she began, Marinette's suggested Chevalier detransform back into Adrien so Kaalki and Sass could join Tikki in her bedroom and give them some privacy.

As soon as he'd done it, though, she regretted the decision. Telling Chevalier, the horse miraculous version of Chat Noir, that they couldn't be together was one thing. Telling Adrien was going to be quite another.

"Now will you tell me what happened?" Adrien asked. He'd removed his shoes so he could put his legs over the lip of her skylight too without getting dirt on her bed. He was cocking his head, looking at her with gentle concern, though his hands gripping the edge of the window told her he was nervous.

Might as well get it over with. Marinette took a deep breath and decided to start from the beginning.

"Remember that beret I dropped off from your Brazilian fan club once?"

Adrien nodded.

"Well, it wasn't from a fan club. I made that up. It was from me. Originally, I'd signed the package, but while I was running back, Bunnix appeared out of her burrow in front of me and told me something had happened that would change the world forever, and I had to go fix it.

"Bunnix?" Adrien's eyebrows puckered in alarm, and Marinette nodded.

"I didn't know what she meant, but she took me through her burrow into a world where Paris was... destroyed."

She took another deep breath. Adrien reached over and picked up her hand, squeezing it in both of his.

"Destroyed how?" he prompted.

"There was water everywhere. Way past the rooftops. The Eiffel Tower was lying on one side with two feet sticking out of the water. There were buses and things, just floating... And in the middle of it all..." Her voice wobbled, and she decided it didn't matter if she cried as long as she just kept talking. "In the middle of it all, all alone for god knows how long, singing that kitty-on-the-roof song, was... you. Akumatized."

She felt his hands stiffen on hers, but he said nothing, and she continued.

"He was..." She stopped. If she wanted him to understand how much this scared her, she had to tell it to him the way she remembered it. "You, were all white. You had blue eyes. You called yourself Chat Blanc. You were... happy to see me at first, but then you attacked me and tried to take my miraculous. Then when I fought you off, you apologized. You said you'd done bad things. You c-cried... and then you attacked me again. You kept doing that, trying to convince me to give them to you and then attacking me when it didn't work. And then... you called me Marinette. You said I'd broken your heart." Her voice cracked, and she felt his hands almost leave hers so he could hug her, but she clamped her other hand on top of his and squeezed them. She didn't know if she'd be able to tell him the rest of the story if she could hear and feel how her words were hurting him from inside of a hug. And hurt him she must.

She took a deep, shuddering breath.

"You said a bunch of stuff that I didn't understand at the time. You said everything had been perfect until Hawkmoth found out. And that it was our l-love that d-did this to the world." He tried to reach for her again but she shook her head, unable to even look at him in case the distress she saw on his face stopped her from talking. "You said you wanted my miraculous so you could combine it with yours and make a wish, so that w-we could be i-in love again -" She squeezed her eyes shut against the sobs trying to climb up her throat. She felt his hands twitch, but aside from his thumb stroking the back of her hand a little faster than was comforting, he didn't move. She took another deep breath.

"When I still wouldn't give you my earrings, you said I didn't understand, and cataclysmed the beam I was standing on so I fell into the water. I think you did it on purpose, so I'd see... what I s-saw."

Marinette swallowed, and wondered if it was really necessary to tell him this part. She was probably hurting him enough as it was, making him feel guilty about this thing he hadn't actually done. But if she didn't tell him everything, how could she be sure he'd understand, and let her go?

"What did you see?" he asked, and she tried to ignore the crack in his voice.

"Myself," she barely whispered. "It looked like a statue of me, and there was one of Hawkmoth too, but when I touched it, it just...disintegrated."

A sharp gasp almost made her look at him, but she couldn't she couldn't she couldn't or she'd stop. She squeezed her eyes shut. The next part came out in a rush.

"I got out of the water and asked you what you'd done, and you said you hadn't done it on purpose. Then you said I didn't love you any more, and – and if I wasn't going to h-help you, then you m-might as well destroy everything..." Another sniff, another deep breath, eyes shut tight, seeing horrors in white as she squeezed his hands, unable to tell which one of them was trembling. "You held up your hand and made this huge cataclysm that kept growing and growing until I couldn't see anything else, and I-I was so scared, Chat, I didn't know what to do, so... I said I'd give you my miraculous-"

Marinette's voice broke on "miraculous", and she barely had time to register that he'd let go of her hands before he engulfed her in a hug so tight that it hurt. Sobs poured out of her like a crumbling dam, and she bunched his shirt in her fists and buried her face in it, drenching it, her own body wracked with them while he hugged her and rocked her and stroked her hair and back, kissing the tears off her cheeks and whispering "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." for this thing he hadn't done, and she wanted to tell him it wasn't his fault, it was hers, but she could no longer speak, could barely breathe...

How long they stayed like that, neither could tell, but by the time Marinette's sobs finally subsided enough for her to speak again, he'd managed to pull her into his lap. His shirt was soaked.

"I'm the one who should be sorry," she managed.

"No," he choked, and it occurred to her that some of the tears might be his. "Hawkmoth is the one who should be sorry." Adrien's jaw clenched around the name of their enemy, and she felt his hands spasm as he stopped himself from balling them into fists. He took a deep breath and she felt some of the tension dissipate, though not all of it. He nuzzled her hair and murmured, "Tell me the rest."

She released the two fistfuls of shirt and wound her arms around him for what felt like it might be the last time.

"I didn't know what to do," she said. "At some point during the battle I'd called my Lucky Charm, but it just gave me an eraser, and I didn't know what it meant or how to use it. I'd broken your staff, your tail... I didn't know where the akuma was. And then, just as I'd given up... you said 'I'm not Chat Noir any more, I'm Chat Blanc', and you flicked your bell. And that's how I knew where the akuma was. Because you showed it to me."

He kissed her head again, stroking her hair. "Go on," he said. "What was the eraser for?"

"I realized the only risky thing I'd done that morning was deliver your present as Ladybug and sign it with my real name. I figured you must have put two and two together, and told maybe one person, who told another, and so on. I didn't think... I never imagined that you might be Chat Noir." She gave a soft little laugh. "You really do act differently when you're in costume."

His only reaction was to hold her tighter.

"So I got Bunnix to take me back ten minutes before she found me, and erased my name on the present. Then, after the miraculous ladybugs had fixed everything, I went to leave, and you came in, and I made up that thing about the fanclub. So you wouldn't figure it out, and... I guess in that timeline you didn't tell anyone at all, you just... found out that I l-liked you. And when we started dating, somehow... Hawkmoth found out. And used that information to akumatize you. And that's why..." Another sob squeezed itself into her words, but she had to finish. "That's why we can't be together."

There was a long, tense silence.

"So, you're telling me that we can't be together because... our love will end the world?"

Oh no, oh no oh no...

"Adrien-"

"Bullshit!"

The word exploded out of him, and even though she was expecting it, she jumped back. Adrien's face was livid, belying the gentleness with which he now held her shoulders. "I'm sorry Marinette," and his voice was not one bit sorry, "but this can't... it doesn't make sense! I understand why you're scared, really I do, and I'm sorry-" his voice caught, tears shone in his eyes, "I'm so sorry you had to go through all this, but..." He took a breath, determination lining his every feature, and she knew they were doomed even as he said, "Marinette, we're not cursed! Sure, things went wrong in that timeline, but Bunnix came to get you so you'd fix it, and she hasn't come so far, so surely in this one..."

She had to try. She had to. "Adrien, we can't rely on Bunnix to come get us every time something goes wrong! She only came to get me that time because the whole of Paris was destroyed! The goddamn moon was split in half!" Fresh tears blurred her vision even as she felt one of his fall onto her hand, still bunching his shirt. "Please, Adrien, I can't... I can't go through that again, I..." she hiccuped. "I still d-dream about it... I couldn't bear to see you get akumatized ever again..."

He cupped her face and kissed her cheek, resting his forehead on hers, and his voice broke when he spoke. "So you're breaking both our hearts now?"

It felt like a punch in the gut. She'd thought she was suffering before, but this... she wasn't going to survive this. Neither of them were.

"LOOK OUT!"

The squeal came from her right, and she looked up in alarm to see Tikki hovering between them and something dark and fluttering, and horribly familiar.

Marinette's body moved on its own. It wrapped around Adrien and pulled him through the skylight, her forearm cushioning his head before it landed on her pillow. She barely had time to register the startled flush on his face before the skylight clattered shut above them and Tikki, Sass, Kaalki and Trixx phased through it and surrounded them.

"Tikki-!"

"No, Marinette, if you're akumatized while you're transformed it's all over!" Tikki cried, watching in horror as the akuma began to wriggle its way between the hinges of the skylight.

"Then what-?!"

"Kiss me."

She turned to Adrien, incredulous, and barely had time to say "What-?" before he grabbed her face and collided with her in a clumsy mash of lips and teeth.

"Ow," she gasped when he pulled back, and then froze when she saw his expression. His smile.

"You don't want me to get akumatized? Don't break my heart," he said in a breathy rush, positively beaming even as his eyes flicked apprehensively from her to the akuma over her shoulder. She tried to turn her head to glance at it, but he was still holding her face and wouldn't let her. "Look at me," he said. "Only me. In this timeline, we're meant to be together. That akuma is proof. Before, maybe it was too early, but now..." he let out a breathless laugh, and she blinked. He wasn't just looking for excuses, he really believed it. Marinette's mind began to race, searching for a flaw in his reasoning unable to stop a bright and giddy something take hold of her heart.

"Marinette, I love you," Adrien said, his eyes shining with a sincerity that threatened to undo her completely. "I love you so much, and I know you love me. If you didn't, this whole thing wouldn't have hurt you so much, but now..." his thumb stroked her cheek as he looked at her like she was his whole world. "Now, it doesn't have to. Not any more."

He waited for her to arrive at the same conclusion as him, smiling wider and wider as he watched her expression change. He was right. Bunnix hadn't turned up when she'd discovered his identity, nor when Lady Wifi had revealed that Marinette had a crush on him and locked them up in a closet, forcing Marinette to reveal her identity to him. In the very least, Paris wouldn't be destroyed because they knew. And it wouldn't lose its superheroes as long as they didn't get akumatized.

Which meant they had to follow their hearts, for once.

Hers was close to bursting.

She glanced over her shoulder at the akuma, and he let her this time, hands dropping to his sides as he shifted beneath her. The akuma was floating aimlessly near the skylight, its targets all but lost.

"Marinette." She turned back towards him and was startled to find that he'd pushed himself up onto his elbows so that their faces were just a few scant centimeters away from each other, their hair tickling each others' foreheads. He caught her gaze and held it. Her breath hitched, and she felt his own breath shudder, saw his cheeks flush and his gaze flit from her eyes to her lips and back again. "Kiss me," he said again, his voice low and pleading this time.

Her eyes fluttered closed as her lips found his, and the contact ignited her entire bloodstream. Her mind blanked out, her senses went into overdrive, and suddenly every single place where his skin touched hers burned with a searing heat she found herself wanting more of, more and more and more. She heard him hum breathlessly, pulling away, and she chased his lips with a wimper, catching them again as his arms folded around her, pulling her closer, closer, closer.

It was like sinking into honey.

It was like melting.

It was like coming home.

"It's getting away!"

A high hiss broke them apart, and they shared a shocked glance before Sass flew between them and back up, pulling their attention with him.

The akuma was escaping.

"Now, Marinette!" Tikki's voice cried.

It took a second for her brain to kick itself back into gear, but when it did she jumped upwards, out of Adrien's arms, pushing against the skylight as she gasped "Tikki, spots on!" without once taking her eyes off the akuma. She grabbed her yoyo and caught it, deevilizing it faster than she'd ever done before.

She released the butterfly and felt a rush of something almost like gratitude as she watched it flutter off into the night.

Quiet settled around them again, though her heart was still trying to beat its way out of her chest like a horse driven mad by heat and adrenaline and pure, unadulterated joy. She looked down at Adrien, and found him staring back at her with something like awe.

She grinned, and he seemed to come to his senses, smiling back.

"By the way," he said, pushing messy hair out of his eyes, "I promised to help you figure out how to make Plagg better during one of the second chances this afternoon. You told me to remind you."

Ladybug dropped to her knees and pounced, grabbing his face and kissing everywhere she could reach – ears eyes nose cheeks mouth – until he giggled and kissed her back. His hands reached for her hair and he tugged gently at her ribbons until she whispered "spots off" against his lips and her hair ties slipped off in his fingers. He dropped them, tangling his them into her hair with one hand while the other cupped her cheek gently, almost reverently.

"I love you," she said. "I love you so much, Adrien Agreste. I love you and I love Chat Noir, and I love every other possible version of you." She kissed him one more time, just to be sure he knew it, and then pulled back just enough to rest her forehead against his. "And you're right," she said. "It's time to get my kitty back."