Summary: For a while, at least, Kagami, Marinette, and Adrien find a way to pretend that everything is fine.

At school the next day, Adrien walked into class, a worse sight, surely, than he had been yesterday because he couldn't even remember sleeping or waking up or how he got here. It was all just a muddle.

Students filtered in, faceless. He could hardly see he was so tired and lost. As Madame Bustier began to deliver her lecture, he realized something that should have been obvious.

Marinette's desk was empty. She wasn't here today, and the guilt rose up. Was she staying away from school because of him?

Heedless of the class in progress, he stumbled from his seat and down the stairs, stabilizing himself by slapping a hand to Marinette's desk as he arrived. Was Madame Bustier saying something? The noise was garbled; distant.

He wheeled on Alya, clutching at her shoulders, his grip bruising tight, and demanded she tell him where Marinette was.

Broad and happy smile on her face, she only looked at him funny: "She's gone."

She was gone.

Then, his flight a blur, he was in the bakery, run by two strangers, and on the way out of the door he met Jagged Stone who was showing off his Arc de Triomphe sunglasses that he'd commissioned from Lila Rossi.

He'd lost her.

Simply gone.

He bolted off down the street in a desperate race to find Kagami because together they could save their partner, their best friend, their girlfriend. Unfamiliar and featureless pathways of houses dotted with black pock-mark windows stretched out in every direction, without end. The tenebrous footpath and homes swelled around him like they were alive, growing as they feasted on what little light let him see until everything was an inky black paste that gummed up his feet as he screamed, only for it to plunge into his mouth, blown-wide, strained, sluicing down his throat like molten rock, completely painless, until everything was black.

Then he woke, smashing face-first to the floor as he groped for his cell-phone, groggy and lost, until Plagg lugged it to him so that Adrien could send a flurry of messages to Marinette, begging her to just let him know that she was alive and that this wasn't the dream.

There was no response, and after fifteen minutes and fifty texts, he sent three to Kagami.

Sorry

Please

Marinette's

Chat Noir was out the window in a frantic rush, tripping over the lips of rooftops and leaving behind gouges and holes in tiles and chimneys in his violent hustle.

The entire trip was just a prismatic glaze of city lights and terror that washed out everything else until he arrived at Marinette's rooftop, collapsing into a roll that left him sprawled out in front of her hatch. Senses tuned to the room beneath him, and particularly sensitive to the shifting moods and intimate little sounds that gave her away – the groan that built up from the pit of her stomach, light flutters of the jaw and cheeks that caused her lips and tongue to smack, and the suckling sound she made when she was trying to quench the burn of repressed sobs in her throat– he was able to hear her.

A quick tug at the hatch handle turned into a wrenching motion because the scent of vanilla and musk and tears and pain wasn't enough; it was worse, and the latch snapped when he tossed the hatch open to reveal Marinette. She jerked up, red-rimmed fearful eyes wide, to stare through the opening at his head haloed by stars beyond. Her hair fanned out over the pillow and rather than making her look regal or refined, the wide swath of black seemed to render her disproportionately small, swallowing her up.

Bands of light from her window sent streaking shadows across her body, while a little glimmering red dot shone for a moment, illuminating her face and highlighting the twisted contortions of her cheeks and quivering lips, and then flitted under the bed,. Normally, the sight of her sleeping shirt, exposing her thin bare shoulders, would have caught his eye, but all that he could see was how those shoulders rocked.

Without even thinking he was in the arms that opened up to him the moment that she looked out beyond the hatch and saw him there, and he was hissing and fumbling through "I'm sorrys" as he pressed into her throat, arms around her waist so tight that he thought that he might break her, tasting the smell of her in his mouth, letting it fill him.

She murmured and sobbed into his hair, and she didn't forgive him or accept his apologies because all she could whimper over and over again was "Kitty."

They lay together until the clattering of the open hatch above them had Marinette starting, but he held on even tighter, clutching at his forearms, looped around her back, as if in fear that she would leave. The droning buzz in the back of his skull told him all he needed to know as Kagami clambered down on the bed, wrapping her chitinous-armoured limbs around both of them, only making it to Adrien's sides before her transformation dropped.

It was the first time that any of them had "spent the night" at each other's homes, but there was nothing lurid or arousing about how he held their bodies to his, the way they breathed together, the great scraping deep in Marinette's lungs that made her sound like she'd been running for hours in the cold, the smell of her hair, still like the scent of a bakery but greasy, unwashed, and beautiful because she was holding him and Kagami was holding both of them.

They hid in Marinette's bed, under a blanket and tucked into the corner between the mattress and the wall. When her mother came in to wake her for school, she took one look at Marinette's stricken expression, and told her that she would call the school to inform them that she was sick.

Did they fool her, even partially? Even at the odd angle from the hatch to Marinette's room, might she have been able to detect the presence of a pair of other teens? How much did she know?

The trio stayed in bed for hours, just holding each other and talking softly about nothing, and Adrien didn't even think to care about what his father would do to him or how he would cover for being gone when Nathalie tried to rouse him for school and found his room empty.

It didn't matter what his father did to him, even though it was awful.

Worse than anything else that he'd ever done.

They managed to convince Gabriel and Tomoe that Kagami and Adrien were merely being "rebellious" again, and sneaked out during the night for a clandestine rendezvous, the nature of which was left vague. Of course, that was partially true.

It was also why Kagami and Adrien would no longer be allowed to date.

Gabriel and Tomoe disagreed as to who was a "poor influence" on whom, but the separation of their children was a given.

They were officially broken up, their fencing matches being permitted from that point forward, but only under the direct supervision of the Gorilla. Nothing more.

All three of them thanked God or fate or luck for that man, who just gave Marinette yet another 'thumbs up' whenever she showed up to those meetings bearing choux pastries filled with vanilla whipped cream, his favourite.

Several unpleasant conversations with Nathalie ensued after that night, most of them consisting of teen and secretary-cum-substitute-mother trying not to look at each other while she fumbled her way through some questions, before she handed him off to the family physician for "the talk."

Confirming that, no, he was not sexually active and that wasn't why he'd sneaked out at night to meet with his girlfriend had actually been easier when talking to a stranger than Nathalie, even if no one in his circle believed him.

Between the elderly man, favoured by his father, Gabriel, who didn't even acknowledge it, and Nathalie, and the very specific examinations that he'd undergone because Gabriel loved him and was worried about him, it left him feeling like he had just spent a photoshoot with Lila.

Worse.

The feeling lingered - that sweaty, dirty sensation like he'd been pillowed down in the black mold he could smell festering in the estate's basement whenever he transformed into Chat Noir and now couldn't get out from under his skin.

Like he'd done something wrong.

It mingled with the other form of shame that he had felt, and still felt, for letting his Lady get hurt, or hurting both Marinette and Kagami.

The three adults and the tests left him exposed and cold and ... filthy for something that he hadn't done.

If Kagami hadn't already known who "Chat Noir" actually was, that would have been enough for Adrien to tell both her and Marinette everything, secrets and 'Ladybug' be damned.

Several days later, all three teens found themselves ensconced in Adrien's wide bed, the girls having unwittingly played out an old fantasy of his wherein Ladybug and Mitsubachi had dropped in through his bay window for their scheduled cuddle appointment, but it was sour in its own way.

Though they soothed it away with every touch, that feeling was still with him.

Kagami took center stage this time, both Adrien and Marinette having agreed that she was owed the attention after the months of lies and the single-minded egotism that saw them almost ignoring her, cutting her out too. In a way, she had suffered the most because of them; they'd been selfish, thinking about how they felt, again, and how angry they were, rather than her fears.

She thought that she was responsible.

She hadn't been clever enough or fast enough to find a way to help them to reconcile while they sulked on their own, Marinette spiralling into a depressive haze that she fought with all her strength because she couldn't be akumatized while he pouted and whined to himself like a spoiled child, little worthless brat that he was.

Both of them, as if sensing that, had told him that he was entitled to his feelings when they met the evening after all three of them had... not reconciled but begun to talk, yet that kind of reaction was still beneath him and he didn't want to be 'entitled' anymore.

How had they not been akumatized, he had to wonder?

At that question, Marinette had shared her horror story that left Kagami crying for them and Adrien blubbering because it was just too horrible to imagine.

Again, Kagami saved them both, though, plying Marinette with gentle, restrained questions and then declaring that there was no such thing as fate, and even if there was, she'd overcome it for them. Hadn't she already? In that 'future,' that lie that would never come to pass, Adrien had said nothing of Kagami, had he?

She was with them, and the world was on a different path.

But it wasn't all bitter and angry, of course, as the three of them pieced together what had been lost, and after several days of solid conversation collectively and contemplation individually they had actually reached the point that they could actually start enjoying some moments where they were themselves again.

Even if they weren't.

One such moment that let them forget, let them pretend that there wasn't still a great deal of work to do in order to get them back to where they thought they were even though the love and the care were just the same, was when Adrien recalled that, apparently, Kagami had known his identity already.

"By the way, 'Gami, you never told me how you figured out that I was Chat Noir," Adrien prodded while angling his hips to make things slightly more comfortable for the girl who was currently being squeezed in Marinette's arms, giving them both more room.

She arched a brow in his direction. In a reversal of roles, the rather sardonic look was partially concealed as Marinette smoothed her hands through Kagami's hair, butted up against the Japanese girl's back.

"We should really take a lesson from the bees," Kagami began monotonously as, in the peripheries of Adrien's vision, Marinette froze, her hands falling slack. "They went on strike because they wanted more honey and less working flowers."

Oh.

Adrien had dropped that one after a particularly arduous fencing lesson and the pair began to compare their respective schedules.

"Chloe's like a pretentious wasp, just plain snob-bee," Kagami drew out with a sigh.

That one spilled out of him when he and his two girlfriends had been lamenting the heiress' latest insensitive jibes that led to yet another akuma. It was too good to pass up, though, working on so many levels. Granted Chloe was nominally Catholic, but still...

"Why do bees get married?" There was an airy, humourless laugh from his first girlfriend and a whine from his second. "Because they found their honey, just like me," she deadpanned.

When had he delivered that one again?

"You know, bees can fly in the rain if they're wearing their little yellow jackets."

Ah, yes. When the trio had stepped out into the rain after going to a movie together and Adrien had offered them the umbrellas that he had been carrying for them.

"Could you pass the wasa-bee?"

Sushi data night, at Kagami's request. Apparently Marinette had never had "proper" Japanese cuisine prepared by a master chief, and their girlfriend resolved to address that culinary oversight.

"How are you remembering all of these?" Adrien groused with a wince. Having them thrown back at him was... kind of embarrassing.

"I'm a romantic, just like that male bee. He couldn't help pollen in love."

"Oh, for the love of God, stop!" Marinette wailed, though her face bloomed red with repressed laughter. Her head was now pressed into her hands, and her words came out all but indecipherable. "I had to put up with half of those already!"

"Then there was Chat Noir being you all the time. I said you were trying to keep it a secret, Adrien." A quick thrust of her fingers into his diaphragm poked the air out of him and he rubbed at the sore spot while she shook her head almost pityingly. "I didn't say that you were trying well."

"I'm kind of a dork, aren't I?"

"And we're both dolts!" Marinette interjected, looking up at him, almost manic, before Kagami could reply. "How did I miss this?"

"You were too infatuated with Adrien to notice," Kagami noted simply.

"Well that's not going to be a problem again."

"My Lady," Adrien gasped, hand to his wounded heart, scooting away slightly so that he could avoid any impropriety as Kagami's chest had been against his. "Your words sting!"

It was a simple delight to be them again, though something had shifted in a way that made them different. Marinette was a little less 'blushing mess' and Adrien was a little more ... 'little shit.'

He missed, and at the same time didn't miss, the way they were.

"Aw," Marinette cooed with a pout. "Does kitty need a cuddle?"

"No," he sniffed, while trying to draw Kagami to him. "You're too cruel. I'd rather have Kagami-cuddles."

"Sorry, Chaton," Marinette retorted, pulling on the girl between them in a little game of tug-of-war that the fencing prodigy didn't seem to mind overmuch. "I think those are all mine."

"Fight me, Bug!" he challenged. Ladybug could take that.

Marinette snorted while curling both arms around Kagami's chest in a way that had the Japanese girl blushing for once as she tensed, though the baker appeared so focused on her sparring match that she didn't even notice what she was doing.

Adrien did.

"Well, with all that flirting, I came this close" - her fingers pressed together just under Kagami's chin, drawing Adrien's attention for just a moment - "to hog tying you and choking you out with my yo-yo, so why not?"

"Milady!" he gaped, nearly choking in feigned shock. "Scandalous! I never knew that you had such a knot-y secret fetish."

There was a suffering grunt of pain. "Punning on 'naughty' doesn't work if I can only hear you, Adrien."

"Clearly it does if you got the pun." The retort was instantaneous, and it was so beautiful, he realized in the little corner of his mind that wasn't chugging away, looking for playful barbs and retorts.

"Oh, lord, you've infected me," she lamented, looking truly horrified.

"Are you two ... alright?" Kagami interrupted hesitantly, scrutinizing each one in turn as she shifted in Marinette's hold.

"That's how they were before they started drooling over you. They're going to be like this forever. This is our life now, and it's going to suck," Plagg groaned from the corner of the room.

As the three teens turned to him, they found that the small black kwami was seated on Adrien's computer desk while, as per usual, scarfing down a gooey slice of Camembert. Sharing similar, revolted expressions, Tikki and Pollen tumbled around on the other side of Adrien's keyboard while fighting over a cookie.

Plagg threw a grimace of pure vexation in their direction.

"Trust me. I know how you feel."

And he buried his face in cheese.

"Oh, yes, Kagami," Marinette began, sobering as she ignored the little glutton, "there's one last thing that we have to talk about."

"What's that, Mari-hime?"

"Since Hawkmoth knows how Ladybug feels about her, I think that we have to retire Mitsubachi."

In the coming weeks, Paris was saved by an increasingly diverse array of superheroes.

Zhulong, whom the media recognized as a new dragon-wielder, Mitsubachi, and Ladybug were seen in a half-dozen locations one evening, breaking up a small-time car-theft ring.

Multimouse, the fiery red-head, La Tigress, and Huli Jing got in an intense sparring session under Chat Noir's watchful eye, part of which was caught by a shaky cell phone camera.

Ladybug and Mitsubachi were seen playing a rather flirty game of tag across the city while Chat and Zhulong patrolled another district.

Then Ladybug came as close as was humanly possible, without merging Mullo and Pollen, to being smothered inside a hot defensive Japanese honeybee ball. At least as close as possible while they both still had their costumes on because Marinette wasn't ready for that sort of thing ... even if she kind of lamented that fact.

Zhulong and Mitsubachi were seen having a little tiff while Multimouse tried to break them up.

Ladybug, a male Bumblebee, and Multimouse put a stop to a bank robbery.

Bumblebee, Chat Noir, and an as-yet unnamed turtle hero just happened to get caught sharing pizza on a guys' night out by a lucky civilian.

Huli Jing and La Tigress reciprocated and the two rather hyper-aggressive women made short work of Gigantitan for the fifth time while Ladybug swooped in to cleanse the liberated akuma.

Ladybug paired up with La Tigress to grapple with "Mr. Pigeon" yet again, aided by a blonde woman wielding the snake miraculous who ushered Kagami and Alya, who had been visiting a cafe, and a gaggle of other civilians away from the battle.

A trio of reptiles - the turtle hero, Aspik, and Zhulong - tackled an apartment fire, 'Water Dragon,' 'Shelter,' and 'Second Chance' seeming to synergize perfectly, while Kagami was away in another city, participating in a fencing tournament.

A dozen different heroes, a dozen different miraculi, a dozen different costumes, and a half-dozen different people in those costumes, or, at least, so it appeared thanks to some kwami swapping, use of the expanded miraculous box, illusions, Kaalki's teleportation, and a little bit of Marinette ingenuity.

Finally, when Mitsubachi stopped showing up for patrols and was replaced by regular appearances of Aspik, Multimouse, and Zhulong, no one really thought anything of it. There was a great deal of speculation regarding Mitsubachi's relationship with Ladybug, and a number of questions posed during interviews, which Ladybug deflected coolly by saying that her personal life was not a matter for discussion, but citizens were used to the seemingly random changes to the teammates that Chat Noir and Ladybug selected for themselves.

Fluidity had become the norm, and even swaps between the main pair became somewhat normal, Lady Noire out and about with Mr. Bug, finding ways to better balance and understand each other's powers – and, far more importantly, each other – while still remaining fully committed to their own and, again far more importantly, each other.

Hopefully that was enough to throw off Hawkmoth, and no one suspected that, after, by appearances, having been cast from the team, 'Mitsubachi' might pick up the Bee miraculous again with a substantial costume change and a new nom-de-guerre.

Pollen didn't want to lose another queen, especially not due to Adrien and Marinette's "incalculable stupidity," as she put it, and as a worker bee, she was perfectly content to share her queen with Longg.

And 'Aspik' did indeed get to live out his dream date of rooftop cuddles and sugary pastries, washed down with the tart, fresh-squeezed orange juice brought by Kagami, with both of the girls he loved.

As it turned out, that was pretty near the top of Kagami and Marinette's 'dream date' lists as well.

They had to make do with that.

And with the fact that Marinette was edging closer to being ready for ... those things that Adrien was starting to feel that he, like Kagami, might already want, as they worked him through the last, lingering effects of his experience with his father.

But they all realized something as they fed each other bits of pastry, Zhulong alternating between popping macarons into her mouth and feeding them to Multimouse, and Aspik licking up a smear of cream from the side of the mouse's lips, tongue flicking out to taste her as if he was judging her suitability to be eaten. She might be "a little less blushing mess" these days, but she still had her moments. Like this one which saw her wrestling the thermos of juice away from their girlfriend so that she could chug it.

They realized, painful as it was, that they were more committed than ever to taking the good with the bad, the healthy parts of themselves along with the sick, and the sweet with the sour.

Author's Notes

We're nearly there, now. Only the epilogue left. Thank you all for the kind act of reading.