Delicate, Chapter 16

Marinette and Adrien retreated to her bedroom, leaving the door open a crack in case Audrey woke up and decided to follow them. With Audrey currently claiming his overnight bag, Adrien simply stripped down to his boxers as Marinette headed to her bathroom.

A couple of minutes later, she emerged, wearing a knee-length gray nightshirt. The design on it was a mother cat and her kittens working in a kitchen, some paying attention and mimicking her actions while others wreaked mild havoc with flour nearby, with the caption "Makin' Biscuits" beneath it.

"Heh! I like that," Adrien smiled as she approached.

"Thank you," Marinette smiled, gesturing down at the nightshirt. "Mama got this for me last year. She saw it on the Internet somewhere and thought of me. For some reason, I've turned into a bit of a cat person."

"I can't imagine why," he laughed.

Adrien entered the bathroom for his own evening routine. When he came out, Marinette was sitting cross-legged on her bed, patting the spot next to her with one hand. He joined her as requested, put his arm around her and joked, "I guess the honeymoon is over, huh?"

"What do you mean by that?" asked Marinette.

"I mean... here I am, the love of your life, sitting on your bed, we're both nearly naked, and you're looking more sad than anything else."

Marinette smacked his arm, lightly. "Are you even in the mood right now? What are you, part goat?"

"Right now? Honestly, I'm not," Adrien clarified. "I was just teasing you."

"Well, I can't say that you don't still give me quite a thrill," Marinette replied with a smile. "If you ever don't, you'll want to check my pulse! But I do have other things on my mind right now." Her smile faded slightly as she continued, "They say, 'Never go to bed angry.' I want to make sure that we don't."

"I told you earlier, Marinette... I'm not angry with you," said Adrien, softly. "If I'm angry with anyone, it's with myself... I'm frustrated with myself, more like. I couldn't make myself just go there and confront Father, and that may have cost you dearly tonight."

"All right," Marinette stated. "Let's start there."

The Kwami Village jumped to attention as Wayzz, Tikki and Nooroo emerged from the portal. "Quickly, everyone!" Wayzz called in a loud voice. "Something remarkable has happened."

A semicircle of Kwamis formed around the three of them in short order. Tikki counted heads, making sure that Plagg was among them, then motioned to Wayzz to continue.

"Ahem," said Wayzz. "On the Guardian's prompting, I have been to the chamber in which Emilie Agreste rests, and inspected her personally. This is, of course, the person first affected by the damaged Peacock Miraculous."

"Was the Miraculous damaged when she used it... or did her misuse of it cause the damage?" asked Orikku.

"That... is actually a good question, and I do not have the answer," noted Wayzz. "Either way, it left Duusu in an unsteady state and Emilie in a magical coma."

"The poor thing..." worried Barkk.

"Do you mean Duusu, or Emilie?" Daizzi asked.

"I would say both," argued Pollen.

"Yeah, yeah. And then my host blew the Peacock Miraculous to smithereens," grumbled Plagg. "So I get the credit for giving Duusu a one-way ticket back into the ethereal plane, right? Tell us something we don't know."

"Obviously, I am about to," Wayzz lectured him. "Emilie's body is in stasis, as I expected. But exploring her mental state revealed something astounding! Duusu has not left the physical plane entirely."

Gasps rippled through the assembled Kwamis.

"...Say what?" Plagg boggled. "I can assure you, there is nothing left of that Miraculous. Adrien and I made sure of that."

"Perhaps not... but there is something left of that Kwami," declared Wayzz. "I could sense Duusu's presence - an awake and conscious presence, though I do not know how stable it may be - as plainly as I could Emilie's."

Plagg stared back, momentarily speechless.

"How... would that even work?" Kaalki wondered aloud. "Without a Miraculous, how can Duusu have any physical substance at all?"

"How do we get her OUT?" gasped Daizzi.

"Wait. If we do get her out... would that be at all safe for her?" Trixx pointed out. "Without a Miraculous as a focus, would she just be... out there on her own, free-floating? Or would she disappear completely?"

"I do not know, my friends," Wayzz insisted, trying to make himself heard over the hubbub. "The Guardian has recovered the Tome of Lore. She will consult it to see if any solutions may be found within."

Tikki floated over to Plagg, seeing his state of agitation. "Stay calm," she told him, softly. "Flying to that house and Cataclysming it to the ground won't solve anything."

"No, I - I wouldn't - I'm - agggh!" moaned Plagg. "I'm wrapping my head around all of this. I didn't banish Duusu?"

"You didn't banish Duusu. Not all of her," Tikki agreed. "We don't know how much of her is in there... or much of anything else, yet."

"Huh! That's... something, at least." Plagg mumbled.

"And you can look at it this way," added Tikki, trying to be cheerful. "If the answer is in the Book of Lore, you've already played a big part in this. We wouldn't have known Gabriel Agreste had the book without you and Adrien finding it there."

Plagg frowned. "So they've got the Book now. But can they read it?" he asked. "Adrien couldn't, when he had it before. Even Master Fu couldn't read all of it."

"We're... working on that," said Tikki.

"I want you to know, Adrien..." Marinette began, "that I did not go over there tonight because of anything you did. Or anything you didn't do, either. This was my own idea. Nothing that happened tonight was your fault."

"You can say that," Adrien countered, "but that doesn't make it true. If I had just gone straight back home when I returned to Paris, if I had found the nerve to just confront Father once and for all..."

"...That might have ended well. That might not have," said Marinette. "There's so much that you wouldn't have known when you walked through that door, that you know now."

"That's true. But your secret would be safe."

Marinette sighed, gently. "It is only unsafe if you think that your father would use it to his advantage now," she noted. "I think that I gave him several reasons not to do that, and a very good reason why working with me instead of against me benefits him. None of that would've been believable if I hadn't told him what I did."

"And what if he didn't believe it?"

Adrien's face betrayed a myriad of fears. "What if you wake up some night with twenty hired guys with guns storming this place, looking for the Miracle Box?" he worried. "Or if someone sneaks in while you're at work?"

"I do have a set of tiny magical watchdogs to keep an eye on things... and Kwamis don't sleep," replied Marinette. "Well, Plagg does, but most of the others don't very often. Or Audrey will chase them off."

"Hah! More like she'd nuzzle them into submission," Adrien parried. "What if they go after your mother and father instead, using them as leverage?"

That gave Marinette pause for a moment, but she continued. "The only reason your father would do that is if he thought the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous were nearby. That's what I'm betting on, anyway," she ventured. "None of the others would help in bringing your mother back. Hawkmoth never showed much interest in the others; he'd try to defeat or Akumatize their hosts, but he never made capturing those Miraculous a priority. Only ours."

"Look at it this way," argued Marinette, seeing that Adrien wasn't quite persuaded yet. "If your father had other aims back when he was Hawkmoth, he could've simply gone somewhere that we weren't and let an Akuma loose. If we were in Paris and he robbed a bank in Singapore, how would we ever know about it in time, much less get there?"

"The Horse...?" said Adrien. "That could teleport us there..."

"If we heard about it, but how could we? What I'm saying is, if he'd wanted to, your father could've been a worldwide terror with the Moth and collected a bunch of other Miraculous along the way, from all those times that Carapace or Rena or Queen Bee got Akumatized. Or when Miracle Queen did her thing, he could've grabbed a handful that day. But he didn't," Marinette pointed out. "I have to take him at his word that he had one goal - using the Wish to revive your mother - and that now that he has no Miraculous and he thinks that the Turtle is the only one left in France..."

"I get what you're saying, Marinette. Though I still don't like it," Adrien grumbled. "But you're a hard person to beat when it comes to battles of logic."

"I'm not trying to beat you at anything, Adrien," Marinette soothed him. "I just want you to understand why I did what I did. And you say that you're not angry... but I would understand if you were. I really would."

Adrien took a moment to gather his thoughts.

"I'm not angry at you, Marinette. Not... much at all, anyway," he began, choosing his words carefully. "I know that you were worried that you'd broken my trust in you... I was more surprised than hurt when I found your car outside Father's house."

"Go on," Marinette encouraged him.

"And everything that you've said so far has made sense to me. You did do this to help my mother, to help me get some closure with both of my parents. I should've seen that coming... you found me broken, and you've been trying to patch me back together ever since. That's the person that you are."

"I, um... don't know if I'd say that I found you broken," said Marinette, allowing herself a little smile. "You weren't going anywhere that night, but you were all right there waiting for me."

"Waiting for something," allowed Adrien, looking embarrassed. "And counting my lucky stars that it turned out to be you. But leaving that aside for a moment... you know how fragile I was that night, emotionally. I was feeling pretty helpless even before that blindfold went on. But then a miracle happened and you were in my life again, and you've blessed it in dozens of different ways."

"And if I'm angry at all... it's because of that," he told her. "That I have this incredible, beautiful, compassionate goddess in my life, someone that I'd give my own life to protect if I had to. And she just put herself in danger tonight trying to help me."

He quelled her silent protests with a raised hand. "I heard what you said. You do have the Kwamis and the Miraculous at your disposal, and Father doesn't. If something did happen, you could turn into a powerhouse with two words no matter which Miraculous you're wearing," he conceded. "And Father isn't stupid; if he has only one road left to try to save Mother, and that road involves your help, I'm sure that he'll play along as long as he needs to. It's just that..."

Marinette nodded her head, solemnly. "Keep going, Adrien," she told him. "I want you to let it out."

"You... have more faith in Father than I ever will again," he managed. "For him to turn out to be the villain we were fighting all that time, hiding Mother from me, nearly killing me on more than one occasion... that betrayal runs deep. I don't think that I can put anything past him, ever again."

"That's what I told him while I was there," said Marinette, quietly. "That your guard is still up, and it should be. That I was not telling him to forgive you and welcome you back with open arms... and that I was not telling you to do that, either. How the two of you end up from here on out is up to the two of you. I can try to help... and I did; I think I set the table for that tonight. But I do not want you thinking that I'm pushing you into trusting him again."

"Thank you for that," Adrien replied. "Because that's never going to happen."

"But... trusting him and being his son might not be the same thing."

Plagg mulled over the plan-in-progress, as described to him by Wayzz and Nooroo. To Tikki's eye, he didn't seem entirely impressed by what he heard.

"It's not that it's crazy," he grumbled. "Tikki, I can see why you'd want to help Adrien - all of you, really. He's... good at heart. He means well, for what good that is. Tikki, he was even your host for an hour or two once. But you two..."

They watched Plagg shake his head in disbelief. "His father enslaved you and forced your host - the GUARDIAN! - to mindwipe himself to protect the Miraculous. And you're going to work hard to try to give him his wife back?"

"If you think that I am doing any of this for that man's benefit, you are insane," snapped Wayzz. "This is all to a purpose, and indulging Marinette's compassionate nature. She wants to help Adrien and his mother, however she can! Granting Adrien's father his desire is an unfortunate side effect."

"If any one of us should be embittered against the Mas... Mr. Agreste, it would be me," Nooroo stated. "And I have made no secret of the fact that I am. I never want to see his face again, if I can help it, let alone come within shouting distance of him. His callous disregard for others makes him a pestilence upon this Earth."

Plagg opened his mouth to reply, but Nooroo wasn't done yet. "And yet... even I find myself feeling inclined to help with this," he said.

He stared down the astonished Plagg. "Adrien suffered under his father's care in many ways. You know how much he has been through. Does he not deserve some sort of happy ending?" Nooroo wondered. "His mother, to my knowledge, has offended no one. Does she deserve eternal slumber?"

"That sounds like your Master talking," Plagg snarled.

"I have found a new Master in Adrien, one who is his father's son in that he has made some poor decisions. But he possesses something that his father has never demonstrated..."

"Which is?" Plagg asked.

"Remorse."

After a moment, Plagg relented. "I'll give him that much," he allowed. "I'll give him that."

Adrien clasped his head, as if attempting to squeeze a growing headache out of his ears.

"I am always going to be his son," he muttered. "Whether he likes it or not. And when last I saw him, he was pretty emphatic that he didn't."

"I suspect that time and loneliness have changed that for him. At least a bit," Marinette ventured, cautiously. "He asked me about you; how you were doing, if you were well. That sort of thing. A lot more, once I dropped 'oh, by the way, I'm in love with him' on him, but I left the major details out. I said that if you wanted to initiate contact, you would, and he seemed content with that for now."

"He did, huh?" mused Adrien. "Very kind of him. More kindness than I used to get from him, sometimes."

"Look. Let me at least make sure that we're on the same page here," worried Marinette. "One of the reasons that you told me why you came back to Paris... was to try to reconnect with your father, one way or another. You thought about blackmailing him into giving you some of your old life back, for lack of a better way of putting it, because you felt like you had no other options. But if you had a better option, you'd take it."

Adrien considered that. "That's fair," he agreed. "We'll never be what we once were. But if we can treat each other like human beings rather than bitter enemies... I would like that to happen."

"So now you and I and he all have the same goal. Reviving your mother," Marinette said. "What I did tonight... I will keep worrying about how you really feel about it for a very long time. I know I will. But it was worth the risk."

"I'm not worth that risk," Adrien blurted out.

"The hell you're not," frowned Marinette.

"Marinette... you told Father that you had the Turtle Miraculous, and all the others had been sent away, right?" argued Adrien. "What happens the next time that something goes wrong in a big way in Paris, and Ladybug is needed?"

"I doubt that will happen any time soon," Marinette parried. "I've only transformed three, maybe four times in the last two years, and one of them was for you that night. The other ones were for cat-stuck-in-a-tree-level emergencies. Without a Hawkmoth, Ladybug hasn't been needed; Tikki stays out with me just in case, and because she's my close friend. Being the Guardian is much more of my responsibility now than being Ladybug."

"But it could happen. Say, there's a big apartment fire some night, and the news says the firefighters can't reach people. I know you, Marinette; you'd be out your door in three seconds to try and save lives," Adrien continued. "And they'd be lucky to have you. But then my father sees a dark-haired, blue-eyed Ladybug on all the front pages the next morning. Won't he know that your story was made up, that the other Miraculous are still here - if the Ladybug is, why not the others, too - and he then might be tempted to come looking for them?"

Marinette froze, processing that. His father's words floated through her mind:

"But I am not intent on picking apart your timeline of events, though I suspect that I could do so fairly easily if I made the attempt."

"I... will cross that bridge when I get to it," she muttered, angry at herself for missing that logical leap at the time. "But it means that it's even more important for what we want to do now to succeed. The surest way to get your father to renounce his old behavior is to remove the need for why he did it."

"Surest. Not sure," grumbled Adrien. "And now everything's at risk because you wanted to help me."

"No," Marinette insisted, with soulful eyes that shut down all resistance. "Because I needed to."

Some time later, Tikki and Nooroo floated back out of the Miracle Box once the Kwamis' discussions were done, being the two Kwamis whose Miraculous were currently in use.

"I do hope that they managed to iron things out," worried Nooroo. "They each have a heart as big as all outdoors, but whenever the... old Master is involved in any way, things can get complicated fast."

"That's hard to argue with," agreed Tikki. "I mean, they did what they did for good reasons... maybe not the best reasons, but good enough... so, surely they'll be able to see that?"

As they emerged from Marinette's closet, they found the lights off and a stillness filling the bedroom.

"Huh! Just how long were we in there?" Tikki wondered. "By the looks of the clock... a few hours. And by the looks of this..."

She gestured downwards with a smile. "I don't think that we have too much to worry about here."

Beneath her, Adrien laid sleeping on his back, with Marinette sleeping on her side next to him. His arm draped around her and hers over his chest indicated that general accord had been reached.

"Good," beamed Nooroo. "C'mon," he said in a quiet voice, nudging his head towards the main door. "Let's let them rest."

The studio room seemed as good of a place to retreat to as any. "Do you think that the Butterfly you'll generate will do the trick?" wondered Tikki as they arrived. "To let one of them translate the book?"

"To be honest with you, I have my doubts," Nooroo replied. "Granted, the Guardians were only human, and we have far greater magical resources to draw upon... but the early Guardians were among the craftiest humans I've ever met, and they were intimately aware of our capabilities. They bound us to the Miraculous only because we allowed and desired it... but bound we are, at least by degrees. I suspect that it will not be a straightforward affair."

"I was afraid that you'd say that," said Tikki. "But that makes perfect sense."

"Now that our Guardian has compromised herself... what comes next?" asked Nooroo. "When Master Fu was compromised, he ended up on the run rather quickly."

"That was with a Hawkmoth in play," Tikki noted. "At present, the dangers out there are more... mundane. Not to be ignored, but less dramatic than before."

She plopped down on the desk, wearily. "Believe me, I am not thrilled about her decisions here," she lamented. "I did my best to sway her into managing the risks intelligently, even though I knew I couldn't turn her from that path entirely. It sounded like she did a good job at it, but Gabriel Agreste is no fool himself, and we will see if he dares to try anything stupid."

"And with no other Guardians out there for Marinette to report to or confer with... she remains on her own," said Nooroo. "A difficult position for one so young to be in. For anyone."

"Well... not alone. She has her partner back, and the sum of them is stronger than its parts," smiled Tikki. "Her faith in that young man seems endless. His faith in her is deeper still."

"And they have found some peace with each other," Nooroo agreed. "And I pray that it lasts."

About two hours later, Marinette shifted slightly in Adrien's grasp. Perhaps his leg had twitched; perhaps it was some impulse from a dream. Regardless, she snuggled in closer, and the movement was just enough to rouse the two of them from a deep sleep into more of a halfway state.

Adrien's response was to hold her just a little bit tighter, feeling her breath on his shoulder and acting instinctively. His eyes opened very slightly; he saw hers open just a crack, and a lazy smile formed on her face.

Slowly, she lifted her head up and kissed him lightly on the cheek, then on the lips as his face turned to meet hers. The kisses were no more than light brushes at first, several seconds separating each. It took several repetitions of this for their mouths to begin to cling together, lingering in an unhurried manner.

Awakeness continued to return to each of them, very slowly. Neither one of them spoke a word aloud... but their gaze told each other what they needed to know in the moment.

I need you. I need you so much.

I need this.

I need you now.

Adrien watched as Marinette reached down, her eyes never leaving his, and slid her panties down her legs and kicked them away. He wriggled out of his boxers in a similar fashion, then welcomed Marinette into his arms as she climbed on top of him, intent on more kissing, intent on far more than that.

She hesitated before escalating further, the two of them soaking in their shared intimacy. She could feel his physical readiness and felt a similar need herself, but their emotional hunger was just as strong... so she simply let their closeness continue for the time being, savoring every kiss and touch.

His arms slid underneath the nightshirt, caressing Marinette, until she could stand it no longer and yanked it off in one smooth motion. Returning to his embrace, she allowed herself to slide downwards just enough...

And still they remained unhurried. The gentlest of rocking motions from both sets of hips, the kisses that neither ever wanted to end, skin gliding against skin, the slightest creaking of the bedsprings the only recurring sound beyond their breathing.

Adrien watched Marinette's face with what little of his brain could still think clearly, watching her eyes close with pleasure, then open again to gaze at him with obvious yearning... and words from a week before came to mind.

When I need you... to go hard and fast... you'll know it, she'd told him.

And in one smooth motion, they were flipping over, Adrien planting Marinette squarely on her back while remaining fully entwined with her. She gasped quite loudly, though not unpleasantly, and soon the bedroom was filled with sounds if not with words.

And soon after... there was a stillness, once more.

As this happened, Tikki watched Nooroo's face with some amusement.

The sounds that the two of them heard were unmistakable, even through the interior wall. Nooroo was visibly restraining himself from investigating firsthand, given the lectures he'd received recently, but it was agonizing for him to hold himself back. He was like a child on Christmas night, hearing Santa Claus downstairs but forcing himself to remain upstairs until morning.

"I'm not going to tell you not to look," Tikki giggled. "You know that they'll yell at you if they catch you, though."

"I know that I shouldn't," Nooroo lamented. "But the two of them together are just so... pure."

"I don't know that I'd describe it quite like that," Tikki replied, wryly. "Their first time doing that did involve handcuffs and a blindfold."

"Not the mechanics of it! I've seen every position and combination possible over the millennia. There's not much left to invent," Nooroo chided her. "I mean... in spirit. Their auras shine brightly even when they're apart. When they're together, they shine like the sun. But when they're making love...!"

He turned to Tikki with awe in his eyes. "It's like a newborn star forming, every time."

"And you are literally a moth drawn to their flame."

Tikki closed her eyes in resignation. "I get it, I get it," she sighed, though with a smile. "I don't see auras quite the way that you do unless I concentrate very hard, but I get what you're saying. They are like that. They've always been like that, but ever since they found each other again... it's off the charts."

The noises they were hearing began to fade... or, rather, they reached a crescendo from which down was the only likely direction to go.

"Give them a minute," Tikki advised him. "Then you can at least enjoy their afterglow. But do it discreetly."

"That, uh... sounds like a good plan to me," smiled Nooroo.

Adrien rolled onto his side, Marinette turning with him to remain facing him, still in each other's close embrace.

The quiet that had returned remained steady for about a minute. Marinette leaned in and initiated more kissing, feather-light.

"I need you to understand this," she ventured, just above a whisper. "I took a real risk tonight. I know that I did. And if that has consequences, I will deal with them."

"We will deal with them," insisted Adrien, just as quietly.

"We will, yes," smiled Marinette. "But I need you to understand that no matter what happens next... what I don't have about it is regrets."

Her eyes were locked onto his as she spoke from the heart. "Even if it means that I can never be Ladybug again... which time will tell... I'll stand by what I did. I needed to do it, to get this chain of events moving."

"I'm not worth that kind of risk-"

"You are," Marinette declared. "You are worth any risk to me. You mean that much to me, Adrien. You deserve to have your life back, and I need to help that to happen."

Swallowing hard, she added, "And I need that life to be with me, as much as we can, for as long as we can. I will do what I need to do to let you have that choice to make."

"There is no choice," Adrien replied. "Because being in your arms like this... this is the life I want."

He thought for a moment before continuing. "This isn't like the old days, where I could take a beating to protect you," he began.

"That was never your role," Marinette frowned. "You were my partner, not my bodyguard."

"I was both. I was by your side to help you save the day, every time. But... let me get back on track here," he fumbled. "I loved every minute of it back then... even the painful ones. Because those minutes were with you."

"Now, I know you well enough to know that if you have your mind set on something... I can't stop you. I doubt that anything in this world could," smiled Adrien. "And you weren't wrong about why you did what you did. I know that you wanted to help me. To help my mother, too."

"Yes," she replied, simply.

"So all I'll ask of you," he intoned, "is that we work together on what comes next. You didn't go behind my back tonight; you did it on your own. There's a difference there, and I assure you, I understand that."

"Good," sighed Marinette. "That part I still feel bad about."

"Then don't put yourself in a position to feel bad next time," Adrien insisted. "I don't know what's going to happen with my mother... and if nothing can be done in the end, I'll still feel better about it knowing that she's not dead, and she's not suffering, and she's at least being... cared for. Kind of. But whatever comes next, even if you think I'd try to stop you... especially if you think I'd try to stop you... talk about it with me first."

"It's not that I didn't trust you, Adrien. You have to know that-"

"Trust is the least of my worries, Marinette. You have my heart; all of it," replied Adrien. "You have to know that. But what we do next, whatever we do to deal with my father and our past... I need to be with you. I need to be by your side. To be your partner again... without the Miraculous."

"I think that you can tell that you are," Marinette smiled, a little nervously, pressing herself up closer against him.

"I do. And you know how happy that makes me," Adrien repeated. "But we'll do the rest of this together?"

"We will."

From the concealment of Marinette's closet, looking on and observing their conversation, Nooroo had a warm feeling inside.

These children are surely meant to be as one, he mused. After all of the heartbreak, the longing, the secret identities, the family secrets, the separation... Adrien fell right into the path of the one person who could heal his wounds and his soul. And good for him; the lad deserves some good fortune for a change.

And if there was ever good fortune personified in the form of a person... it would be her.

He watched the two of them embrace once again, glee apparent from Marinette's voice and manner... and shortly thereafter, his eyes widened.

Oh, my...

It was as if a cloud had been lifted from over Marinette's bedroom; what had preceded this moment had certainly been tender and heartfelt, but the remaining tension seemed to have dissipated. They watched broad smiles forming on each other's faces, and then...

"Ohhh!" Marinette squealed, hugging him happily. "It is so good to know that we're on the same page again."

"Very much agreed," Adrien grinned back. "Now I'll be able to sleep in peace again."

"Maybe you will... and maybe you won't," Marinette teased. "For a while, anyway."

Adrien saw the twinkle in her eye as her cuddling turned into more sensual movements and raised an eyebrow, though not disapprovingly. "After that just now?" he marveled.

"Oh, don't get me wrong," she beamed. "That was... that was completely amazing and emotional and special! I don't know if I've ever felt quite like that before... but that was, well... both of us half-asleep and on autopilot, right?"

"That sounds about right. You just started kissing me, really lightly, and I just melted into you," Adrien smiled. "I couldn't help myself."

"No complaints here," giggled Marinette. "And that's what I felt like, too... it was just so natural doing that with you. I wasn't awake enough to even think about it, but it was perfect! But I'm all the way awake now... and now I want to play."

"Oh, you do, do you?" Adrien teased back. "What are you, part goat?"

Before Marinette smothered him in kisses and then let her hands and mouth begin to wander, she emitted a brief sound:

"Baaaaa."

I should not be watching this.

At least not this intently.

Kwami eyes peeped through the closet door once more, studying young hearts and bodies feeling joyous and free with each other.

As if I had been somehow unconvinced of their compatibility before, Nooroo chuckled to himself, Marinette certainly knows precisely what my young Master likes!

"...You like?" murmured Marinette in a sultry tone, pausing what she was doing to enjoy Adrien's reactions and his facial expression.

"I like," breathed Adrien, as best he could in the moment. "Don't stop... but..."

"But what?" Marinette teased. "Is there anything wrong with my doing... this?"

"NOTHING wrong with that whatsoever," Adrien gasped. "But... I can't reach you to return the favor. And I really want to."

"Oh?" she giggled. "I think I can fix that and still keep going."

And she did.

Well, would you look at that? marveled Nooroo. It's almost as if they heard me thinking.

They, uh... DIDN'T hear me, did they?

Nooroo recoiled briefly, then reassessed the situation and relaxed again. It was clear to him that both of them were quite preoccupied; he could have been playing a trombone at that moment without being detected.

But it remains a remarkable coincidence... or perhaps simply their true natures showing themselves, a satisfied Nooroo beamed. Here I've been going on about how made for each other they are, two sides of the same coin, harmoniously balanced... and look at how balanced the two of them are now! I've seen one dominant and then the other before, but now?

A perfect yin/yang symbol if ever I've seen one.

A small part of Nooroo reminded himself that, having witnessed this symbol of harmony, he could choose to look away now.

Like the rest of Nooroo, it went unheard.