Delicate, Chapter 33 (Epilogue 3B - Conclusion)

Adrien watched Marinette bite her lip, slightly. Both her excitement and her nervousness were obvious. "We don't have to. Everything that happened tonight could very well have changed your mood," he told her. "And it's fine if it did. It can wait for another time, if we do it at all."

"I'm... still interested," she smiled, shyly. "But I've never done this before... like, intentionally. You were handcuffed like that when I found you, remember? And I just kinda... went with it, once you let me."

"This would be my first time at this, too... but as incredible as you looked like that, all stretched out, gasping and wriggling..." Adrien smiled back, "I'm game if you're game. But this has to be your idea, and we'll set up some ground rules first. The last thing I would want to do is to cross a line in a bad way."

Good, Marinette breathed. He seems like he's into the idea, and not going 'what kind of weirdo am I in love with?'

"Adrien... it is my idea, and I want to do this," she replied, her heart pounding. "And I'll tell you why."

"Please."

"I just ragged on you about letting Suzie lead you on that time, but I shouldn't have. I didn't know what you were feeling like back then, how long it had been since someone had even... touched you," Marinette began. "How much nerve it took for you to let yourself get handcuffed, to put yourself at their mercy... I thought that I understood that, but I didn't really get it until tonight, when they did it to me."

"It was... scary for me. I won't lie about that," Adrien said. "I was trying not to think about it too hard, right at the point when I should've been. And when I was thinking straighter, it was too late."

"And then when I came along and you still didn't know who it was... and then it was ME, someone who knew you, and you still said to keep going... one of the reasons that I did keep going was that you trusted me that completely. And I trust you that completely. I want to be that brave tonight... because I know that you'd never hurt me, you'd never whip me or beat me or do something cruel to me."

"Never! Not even if you'd ask me to. I'd sit you down and want to talk about that, instead," Adrien replied, gently.

"And I won't, don't worry," she insisted. "What I'm asking for isn't about leather and spikes and dominance and licking Master's boots.. This is about..."

She trailed off, then continued. "I love you, Adrien. And I want to give myself to you... all of me... and let you have control of me for a while. Because I love you and trust you enough to know that when it's time, you'll give that control back to me. Just like you gave yourself to me that night, up in that bedroom."

"I can do that," he smiled. "You don't want me to control you in scary ways," putting horror-movie overtones on the word. "You want me to play with and please you, in my own ways, and have fun doing it."

"Exactly! I knew you would get it right away," Marinette smiled. "Okay... so, obviously... nothing involving pain. I'd rather be teased than spanked, for instance. And nothing... messy?"

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

"Like... I don't want to get covered in hot candle wax or chocolate syrup or canola oil, or anything funky like that. I want you to play with me and make me squirm, not empty my kitchen onto my clean sheets," she noted. "Just use what's in this room."

"That does leave some interesting possibilities. Soft makeup brushes could be interesting," he mused. "Or a little something that's in your nightstand."

"Why am I giving you these ideas?" muttered Marinette.

"You know why."

"Yeah, I do," conceded Marinette, giggling. "And... I can't believe I'm saying this, but... no superpowers."

"So I shouldn't have Nooroo turn me into the Overstimulator, the Vibratory Villain, the Nemesis of Nerve Endings?" Adrien laughed.

"I was picturing more like Elasti-Dong, the Prehensile Penile Peril," countered Marinette, laughing harder.

Adrien mimed whipping something firehose-sized around the room and lassoing her, causing them both to break down laughing for a while.

"S-seriously," a recovering Marinette wheezed. "I know that you can make me shake with just your natural talents and simple things. I think that those will be more than enough to wreck me."

"I'll do my best, I promise," Adrien declared. "Wreck you, huh... just how intense should I try to make this?"

"I know that you'll make me regret asking for this, at least a little bit... because I'm telling you to," she added, nervously. "Like when you were touching me tonight, and telling me that I couldn't stop you..."

"You could've have stopped me. You can always stop me," Adrien insisted, quickly.

"It excited me that I couldn't stop you. That felt amazing... even if it was just role-play, kind of, and I did know better," Marinette admitted. "You know exactly how to make me dance right on the edge. And I need you to, uh, kind of... test my limits tonight."

"You have some pretty high limits, Marinette," said Adrien, in an even tone. "You're sure that you want me to... go all-out, and then some?"

"I am," gulped Marinette. "The night of the Bliss Wave... we had the greatest sex of our lives. Maybe of anybody's lives! And we can only remember a little bit of it," she said. "I want to try and see how high we can send each other when we can remember, without Nooroo boosting us."

"Nooroo told me that he kind of... muted our memories of that night on purpose," Adrien noted.

"I know... but let me put it another way," Marinette explained. "Being helpless like that, having you kissing me, touching me... if I don't do this, I'm going to lie awake half the night wondering what it would've felt like if you'd kept going."

"Yeah... I can understand that."

"This'll be my turn... and, whenever you want, if you want, I'll return the favor," Marinette offered. "If you'd want to see how high I can send you."

"Oh, I'll want," Adrien insisted, quickly.

"I had a feeling about that."

"Okay, then. Do you want to pick a safeword?" asked Adrien. "Some word or phrase that you can say to stop everything right away, or to let me know that you're not comfortable and that I should back off what I'm doing?"

"I have just the phrase in mind... 'Spots off.'"

"Ohhhh," Adrien replied, a bit surprised. "You want to do it... that way, like we had talked about the other week?"

"Y-yeah," a hesitant Marinette said. "If you'd want to."

"That could be... very interesting," mused Adrien. "And, yeah... I've talked to him about it, and he's on board. I thought that his eyes were going to bug out of his head, but he's willing to do his part."

"Heh. I'll bet he is," Marinette grinned. "Horny little devil that he is. And Tikki kind of looked at me like I was blowing her mind when I brought it up... especially this part... but she's in."

"This part?" Adrien considered. "The tied-up part or the costumed part?"

"The tied-up part."

"So... this isn't a spur-of-the-moment thing for you. Is this a fantasy that you've had for a while now?" marveled Adrien. "To the point of telling Tikki you might do this?"

"It is," breathed Marinette. "I've fantasized about you doing this with me... and once or twice, about Chat Noir doing this with me with his tail-belt. So... you're the best of both worlds, huh?"

She blushed at the look on Adrien's face. "Hey," she complained. "Don't get all wide-eyed on me now. You know how dear you've always been to me, even before we reunited... and I don't need Princess Justice's powers to want to be completely honest with you."

"Good," smiled Adrien. "That's the way that we should be."

"And if you have fantasies that you'd like to explore, another time... I'm all ears. You can tell me whatever, and I'll try and make it happen. It means a lot to me that you're willing to indulge me in this."

"Marinette... it's not like I'm not going to enjoy myself very, very much doing this," he grinned. "Trust me on that."

"Then in that case, before I lose my nerve... Costume: Seduction Mode, spots on!"

Adrien's eyes widened as his lady-love transformed... yet appeared almost entirely naked after she did so! There was the faintest of ladybug patterns visible against her skin, when he squinted just right to see it... except for her mask, which had no eye-holes in it but otherwise appeared normal.

"Oh, no!" she giggled. "Ladybug, the heroine of Paris, has been captured by an arch-villain! He's scrambled her costume, so it's only molecules-thick and she's blindfolded! And he's about to tie her up with her own yo-yo."

"You named this costume 'Seduction Mode?'" marveled Adrien.

"Shut up," she grinned, a little bit embarrassed by his reaction. "I don't want that costume coming out when I transform, unless I really want it to."

"Ladybug... you look absolutely beautiful like this," he admired. "If you're ready... lie down on the bed."

She did.

It took Adrien a moment of contemplation and some legwork to arrange her as she'd suggested... but before long, Ladybug was tied securely to her bed, yo-yo loops around her wrists and ankles, each firmly secured to a separate bedpost.

"Those aren't too tight?" worried Adrien. "I don't want to cut off your circulation, or worse. They're not digging into your skin at all?"

She tugged at each, gently. "They're good," she assured him. "They're kind of more... symbolic than anything else. If we end up doing this again, like... taking turns at this once in a while, we ought to buy some of those fuzzy cuffs."

"A good idea. And you know, of course... that 'spots off' will end things instantly, if you're uncomfortable or if something's wrong. You'll transform back and the yo-yo will disappear with your costume, and you'll be free. If something hurts, but you don't want to stop everything, yell that out and I'll back off instantly."

"Absolutely. So if you hear me beg for mercy... I know exactly how to get it, if I really want it. It's up to you whether you listen to me if I don't say that phrase."

"We'll see," he laughed. "Or, rather... you'll find out."

Adrien admired his restrained girlfriend for a moment, enjoying the tantalizing view and taking a deep breath... then played along. "Aha," he cackled. "I, the new arch-villain of Paris, have Ladybug at my mercy! Costume number four... Spread my wings!"

A white flash filled the room once more.

"Are you... dressed like I am?" Ladybug asked. "Since I can't check for myself like this."

"I am. Except that I have eyeholes," he confirmed. "And now, the Lepidopterist will..."

Ladybug burst out into a giggling fit. "You're calling yourself... the Lepidopterist?" she laughed. "That's your pretend-villain name?"

"It's a butterfly thing, okay? I'm improvising," Adrien whined.

He leaned down and kissed Ladybug, slow and soft. "Are you sure that we're not being too weird about this?" he laughed.

"Adrien," she grinned, "we're two young lovers who dress up as bugs and fight magical crime. Nothing will ever be too weird for us."

"I think you're right," Adrien agreed.

"Now... I'm all yours, Lepidopterist," Ladybug declared. "No... I'm all yours, Adrien. I'm not calling you that during sex," she giggled. "So... whatever will you do with me now?"

Adrien grinned a wicked grin. "I told you to be careful what you wished for, Ladybug," he told her. "And I meant it."

It took about forty-five minutes of blissful overload, if anyone had been there with a timer in hand, for Ladybug's willpower to give out completely. This was a testament to both her strength of will and to her young lover's patience.

She adored how Adrien was quite creative in his handling of her... maddeningly so, at times. There were periods when his motions were extremely slow and deliberate, the lightest possible strokes and nibbles and touches, enough to make her little gasps reach higher and higher pitches.

There was a stretch early on in which he tickled her, fast fingers starting at her tied feet and working his way all the way to her neck, where she thought that she'd lose her mind. When he approached her hips, she felt sure that he would switch his focus to a more intimate caress... but, instead, he dug his fingers up into her sides, under her ribs, and had her shrieking. His determination at making her wriggle in ticklish agony caught her by surprise, and she very nearly safeworded during it... but she was sure that there would be rewards in store if she hung on and let him continue.

Adrien seemed to agree about that... especially since, after he'd relented, every millimeter of her skin seemed even more hyper-sensitive, as if fearful that the ten-fingered assault could start again at any time.

I wasn't expecting that at all... Ladybug grinned to herself. I... don't know if I should tell him that part of me liked it! Because the other part kind of wants to get a LOT of payback for him doing that to me!

He'll get his... soon enough, when he's roped up and it's my turn!

The soft and eager-to-please mouth of Adrien's that she'd admired that morning? It was very, very busy. And very, very thorough. And very, very intent on drawing interesting noises from her throat... at which it succeeded.

She learned how she might give pleasure as well as receive it without being able to move... just as she'd asked the same of Adrien, when these roles had been reversed on a certain improbable evening. She was afraid that, without her hands to guide things along, it might become awkward or uncomfortable for either of them... or that she'd lose control to the throbbing that he continued to inspire in her, and cause him some injury. But Adrien was patient and careful, and had no complaints about her efforts. She didn't need to see him to know that; she could feel and hear that.

Partway through, Adrien leaned down and kissed her, very gently, very slowly. "Are you enjoying this?" he asked her.

"Very, very much," Marinette panted.

"Do you want me to keep going?"

"If you want to... please, yes. I am loving this so far."

"Do you want me to go hard and fast now... no more teasing... and just give you all I've got, all at once?"

He watched Marinette's muscles tense with anticipation. "Yes," she breathed, lustily.

"Too bad. That's not up to you right now," Adrien smirked.

"Nnnngh," she grunted in frustration... but smiled, as well. "I love you."

"I love you, Marinette," breathed Adrien. "Let me keep showing you how much."

Ladybug's Luckiest Charm made its way out of the nightstand drawer; she could tell that from the sound of the drawer opening, then from the sound of it operating, then from the sounds she was making because of it. Somehow, it seemed very different when someone else was moving it... and somehow, even more different and sweat-inducing and toe-curling when she couldn't stop it, or control where it went, or for how long, or at what setting.

Ladybug felt her self-control ebbing rapidly. Adrien was doing a masterful job of overwhelming her senses, particularly for his first time being in control like this... but he also made a point of subtly checking on her at regular intervals, making sure that she was within her limits, making sure that those groans and moans were all pleasurable ones, working out what might best please her next. He loved her flushed reactions as he told her how beautiful she was, how wild and untameable she looked with all of her inhibitions cast into the wind.

And I don't know if I HAVE ever let myself go like this before, Ladybug gasped. It's a little scary, and it's so freeing at the same time! I can just lose myself in the sensations... just drown in pleasure... and wonder when he'll finally let me come.

She felt both toyed with and treasured, overwhelmed and protected, teased beyond what she'd thought was her breaking point and adored beyond measure.

His over-sensitization of her body was intensified by her temporary blindness; not knowing where she would be touched next, or how, or by what made everything Adrien did that much more stimulating. She could tell that he was deliberately pacing himself; he knew very well what she liked most, and what would send her screaming over the edge in seconds... but he was keeping her off-balance instead, making her guess what would be the next part of her to catch fire.

All at once, Ladybug felt Adrien's weight shifting... cried out enthusiastically as he climbed on top of her, kissing her with passion... and cooed with delight as he reached his destination.

"Oh, god, Adrien, yessss, please," she groaned. "Come on, I need this, I need this so much... I... uh..."

A moment passed... silently, and without motion.

Frustrated beyond belief, she asked, "If this blindfold was off, I would be looking at the most evil grin in the world, wouldn't I?"

"Mmmmmmaybe. So... this feels insanely good for me right now. Even if I'm perfectly still like this," he declared.

Ladybug bit her lip, grasping at the yo-yo bindings, trying to rock her hips to get him moving again. It didn't work nearly well enough.

"So... should I keep going?" asked Adrien, in a teasing tone. "Pick up the pace a little?"

"Nnnnnrrrrf," Ladybug grunted.

"Should I take that as a-"

"Yes, damn you," she managed. "Please don't stop."

"Since you asked so nicely..."

Even that familiar rhythm felt very different. She tried to match his motion with her own, but she could barely manage moving at all - being stimulated out of my GODDAMNED MIND doesn't help my concentration much, one of her last gasps of rational thought declared - and was at the mercy of his desired pace, the highs and lows that he chose. And when the familiar build-up took hold of her, when her cries told him that her explosion was imminent...

...he backed away from that, keeping his lower body completely still, while covering her with light, whisper-soft touches and kisses that made her scream in delicious agony.

And just when she was ready to transform back just so that she could grab him and make him give her the climax that she was far past simply craving... he did something, she wasn't even sure what in her blur of sensations, but something fast and intense and rhythmic that sent her spiraling into another mental world in seconds.

And it didn't stop.

He recognized her state and refused to give her a breather, keeping up a steady pace and driving her through it and into greater heights.

Just when she'd mentally categorized his movements and thought that she could predict the next surge of pleasure, it would change. A different angle, a different depth, a varying speed, and each time she moaned and thrashed in her bonds unashamedly.

She begged for more... then begged for less. His answer to both requests was more.

She cried out for him to stop... that it was too much... and he did, but for just a moment. "That's not how this works, and you know that," he whispered, and returned to what he was doing... a little more gently than before, but still maddeningly intense. "You know what to say to make it stop."

"O-okay, fine! You win! You're the Lepidopterist."

Adrien laughed hard at that, losing his own composure and slowing down despite himself, amazed that she could still manage even a little bit of defiant wit. "Not that! The other thing," he roared. "But if it's really too much, say so. I don't think that I can make you say your safeword..."

"I... know you can," Ladybug replied, softly and breathlessly. "I want you to, Adrien."

"I love you, Marinette," Adrien glowed.

"And I love you."

With that kind of encouragement... Adrien redoubled his efforts, to her obvious delight. There was no way that Ladybug could mistake this now... playtime was officially over.

Unable to grasp at him, to guide his movements, she could only ride these powerful waves for so long. Only two words were left in her vocabulary, and she was determined not to say them for as long as she could hold out.

But when one body-shaking crush of sensation swept into another and another, when Ladybug could no longer tell where one peak stopped and another began, when unconsciousness or utter madness seemed the only other option, her mouth opened in desperation...

"Spots off!"

In an instant, she was herself again... and he was himself, as well... and she was curled up in a ball, shuddering, wrapped up in Adrien's warm arms, the safest place on Earth.

She heard him whisper soft words to her as he stroked her back, comfortingly; the words made no sense to her at first, until rationality began to return to her world. As it did, he felt her snuggle closer to him, and held her more tightly in response.

"Are you okay?" Adrien asked her, insistently. "Please tell me you're okay, Marinette."

"I'm... so much... better than okay," she mumbled. "I'm... I don't know what... I am right now. But it's so good."

Adrien held her against him, making only the slowest and gentlest of motions with his hands... letting her return to being herself at her own pace.

After a while of this, he felt her head turn, and saw the most beautiful blue eyes gazing up at him, half-closed.

"Tikki's gonna need a therapist," Marinette panted.

"Probably, after that."

"I'm gonna need a therapist," she declared.

Adrien laughed at that, pleasantly.

"And when I get my turn to do this for you... you're going to need one, too," grinned Marinette. "Not tonight! God, no," she gasped, seeing his eyes widen in surprise. "I would fall over dead."

"I won't let that happen," smiled Adrien. "I've got you."

"You always will."

"Was that something near what you had imagined?" he asked her, tenderly.

"Oh, god, yes. Way, way beyond that," she replied. "I don't even know what you did to me at certain times, but I'm going to beg you to do it again."

She cringed in mock horror as he grinned and reached towards her once more. "Eventually!" she begged, drawing a laugh and another hug from him.

Marinette reached over and touched his hair, wonder in her eyes. "Oh, wow! You are soaked with sweat, Adrien!" she marveled.

"So are you," Adrien pointed out.

"Yeah, but I've been... that all this time!" argued Marinette. "Moaning and screaming and quivering non-stop."

"When you tell me to keep going... there's no way that I can refuse," he smiled. "No matter how tired I might be."

"Now who's controlling who?"

"I am always under your spell, Marinette," said Adrien. "You can be sure of that."

A long, tender, silent cuddle filled their world for a while, until Adrien sensed her watching him intently once more, and met her gaze.

"...Please?" she asked, simply.

An entire universe of ideas was contained in that word, but Adrien understood what she meant, what she needed him to do. Their lips met, their bodies moved, and this time Marinette was free to respond in kind and fully express herself.

"You're sure about this?" Adrien grinned. "You have to be beyond sensitive."

"Yes," she answered. "Go slow with me. As slow and gentle as we ever have. No rush, no worries. Just you and me. Make this last as long as we can."

"I love you," Adrien whispered, guiding her into position.

"I love you," Marinette replied, her eyes shining.

And those two sentences were the last words until morning... because they were all that either of them needed to know.

~fin~

AUTHOR'S NOTES

So... I'm guessing that some of my regular readers might want an explanation right about now. ;)

This story started out as something of a thought exercise on my part. I spent the better part of the spring of 2020 writing a story, Stuck In A Bakery (With You), that was in line with almost all of my other works: canon-friendly, set in the current time period, and full of blushes, awkward flirtations, pining and innocent teenage romance. The response to that story was VERY strong and always appreciated, and almost all of my readers were quite happy with its style and plot development.

But I did have those who were hungry for something a bit different. With two lovestruck teenagers under one roof, with Marinette's parents giving them discreet room for their feelings to emerge, and with their mutual desire to avoid hurting Kagami's feelings warring with their mutual desire... not to mention occasional hijinks revolving around Marinette's shower, midnight tuck-ins and the Tom Dupain School of Sex Education... many hoped that teenage hormones would express themselves in more than cuddling and kissing.

Or, as one anonymous commenter put it frequently, "just let them fuck already."

Those who have followed my authorial career know my feelings on that. Marinette and Adrien are 14-15 years old in canon. The mere act of Adrien holding her hand has been enough to send Marinette pinwheeling into pink cloud land. It took all of her courage to kiss him on the cheek... once. It's not that the two of them don't possess sexual desires... but that neither are currently capable of acting on them, even if their desired partner was actively inviting them to, which they are not. In short... they are fourteen. Let them be fourteen. Let them grow into confident sexual beings on their own terms and at what most would consider to be a more appropriate age!

"Give the people what they want," however, is also a good rule to live by. So how to bridge the gap and still remain true to my principles?

I decided to write a NSFW story for once, but with conditions. If I was going to age up Our Heroes, it couldn't be just so they could be mature enough for full penetration, for instance. I'd have to dig into what happened in the years in between. Why had they not gotten together intimately before now? Did they really just spend four or five years fighting monsters-of-the-week, or was something more interesting than that going on in the interim?

So I wrote out what became Chapter 1, and while I felt like it was a steamy (if delightfully implausible) scene, it didn't seem right to me. Chapter 2 followed quickly, to flesh out how Adrien got into that situation, how both Chat Noir and Adrien had disappeared from Marinette's life and how much that would have affected her, pushing the "there are only so many people Ladybug could have been" button... and it worked well enough to post.

To my surprise, people really liked it! And the little plotting demon in my head started working more and more and more of the backstory for those missing years, how each of them might be living now, what Adrien's dark secret would be... and before I knew it, what was supposed to be a one-and-done or two-and-done turned into a running story. Plotting this out took over the part of my brain that had been writing Throw Me Around Like One Of Your French Girls (sorry, fans! I _swear_ that gets finished next. But it's just tricky to balance mature-sex-gods-antics with wide-eyed-innocent-teen plotting at the same time.)

And so... here we are, in my second longest story to date.

Other random notes:

* Audrey was absolutely the most fun part of this to write. More than the sex, more than the romance, more than the Kwamis recovering from the Bliss Wave. She is a precious angel and will make Marinette (and Plagg) proud for many years to come.

* No, Gail, Amy, Peter and Jacques were not based on anyone in particular. I simply wanted to give Marinette a new supporting cast that would be appropriate for where she was in her current life, and give them a little individuality.

* One of the late chapters addressed a very common question: What happened to the rest of the cast?

Well... to a degree, "out of sight, out of mind" is a part of the human condition. Some of us are better at overcoming that than others, granted, and as Gail pointed out, our modern technology makes keeping track of people far easier than it was before this era. But...

...I find it unrealistic to expect that Marinette would have her entire analogous-to-ninth-grade class on her permanent contact list, remain up-to-date on what they all went on to do years later AND do the same for whoever she was in class with in lycee, then in her short university stay, then...

Don't look at me like that. Maybe you can rattle off current phone numbers from memory for your ninth grade besties. I know that I can't, and not just because that was over three decades ago for me.

People move. People change. People move on. People have new people enter their lives, they start new jobs, they rearrange their social circles accordingly... and friends who were once very close to them can turn into people that they hear from once a month on Facebook, maybe, or whom they used to make sure they got together with in person at LEAST once a month but they eventually fell off the wagon with that, or... you get the idea.

Rest assured that once the smoke had cleared, Emilie was revived and harmony was restored... Marinette sent a little note to Alya saying "...Guess WHAT? :3"

In the chaos of Marinette's life being upside down, everything that she thought she knew about Adrien and Chat Noir being scrambled, falling in love all over again, dealing with his father's secret, dealing with his FATHER, negotiating with the Kwamis, helping Plagg and Adrien heal, dropping orgasm bombs on Paris... those old friends were kind of left hanging for a little while. As Gail noted, they weren't exactly burning up Marinette's phone in the interim, either. But Marinette voiced how she'd LIKE to reconnect... and she will.

And they _will_ all be at the wedding... whenever it happens.

* One of the riskiest elements of this story was how it began - the cruel prank played on Adrien, and the obvious implications of what it might've been like if they had had a more sexual degradation in mind for him... and I did worry that I minimized that element for too long. Marinette's vengeance upon them was originally going to be around Chapter 8 or 9 or so... but it kept getting delayed because I didn't feel comfortable _not_ treating it with the gravity that it deserved. This confrontation couldn't be a throwaway, especially if Marinette became part of it.

Sexual consent, with or without alcohol, can be a fucking minefield. (Literally.) I am not a woman, but I am at least cognizant of the stresses and perils that women face because far too many men do consider them to be winnable sex objects at best... and often far worse than that. I do not mean to diminish or trivialize sexual assault, rape, abuse of those with diminished consent due to alcohol, or the difficulty faced by those who are abused and seek just punishment for their abusers.

At all.

AT ALL.

I hope that I did not make anyone feel diminished by either the initial scene with Adrien or the follow-up with 'Molly,' and that no one opens this story and flashes back to their own ill treatment at the hands of stupid male fucks. If this happens, I am truly sorry and I strongly suspect that you'll never get far enough in this to read this apology. I am hoping that I threaded the needle just enough to reflect some realities of the situation without being either heavy-handed or dismissive-sounding.

As I rambled on in the comments for Chapter 32, I expect that many wanted Ladybug (or Princess Justice) to whisk Michel and Suzie straight to jail. But there were problems with that idea - proving what had happened, explaining away their own parts in it, lack of evidence for other victims numbering among them - and Our Heroes walked each other through that, verbally. This wasn't a colorful villain with a butterfly to purify; this was a group of people doing horrible things, stopping short of what they MIGHT have done but crossing gruesome lines nonetheless, and it was not an easy scenario for Marinette and Adrien to navigate.

* There will be no slut-shaming in this house. If someone is into risky sexual behavior and makes a choice to engage in it, that's their call. If Marinette and/or Adrien decide that spicing things up occasionally might be yummy - and, clearly, they do and will from time to time - good. If they decide they want to do that ALL the time - that's their choice and good for them. If they put that back into the closet and never try it again, that's also their choice and good for them. But consent and communication are the keys to any intimate relationship.

* I am positive that I am going to get SOMEBODY who will write to me and inform me that "bondage encounters don't work this way."

Which is silly, of course. The number of variations on bondage scenarios is n, where n is the number of couples who have even thought about tying someone up or being tied. Some form carefully-defined master-and-submissive relationships with ground rules, symbolic accessories and lifestyle alteration. Some find it to be an occasional and fun booster shot for special sexual occasions, or simply good bedroom technique. Some saw "Fifty Shades of Grey" once and thought "wow, I should try that."

My intent with the scenarios in this story was to avoid all harder edges of dominance/submission between these two. Marinette is a walking compassion factory. Adrien apologizes to his dinner roll before he slices it open. Does anyone truly imagine a world in which either of them could raise a hand to the other and inflict any kind of intentional discomfort, however temporary it might be? Me, neither.

Neither of these kids knows what they're doing with that sort of thing, even if they'd want to. They're head over heels in love, and strongly invested in pleasing each other in every way possible. They're finally in a relationship where their partner is actually invested in not just finding out what pleases them and gets them off, but delivering it. So I figured that their first planned experiment would have to be both tender and hilarious, spicy and awkward, transcendescent and ridiculous; they'd trip over each other's comfort levels, they'd check with each other every step of the way, they'd have wonderfully squirmy orgasms and find time to make corny jokes at the same time.

Because it, like this story as a whole, is about trust.

Marinette knows that Adrien would never, ever, ever hurt her deliberately, and that if he even did so inadvertently, he'd agonize over it... to the point where she'd allow Adrien into her deepest secret of being Ladybug, she'd invite him into her bed and her life and her future, she'd do anything - even give up her ID to the man who was Hawkmoth - to try to make his life better. She'd know for sure that he would treat her tied-up form like a goddess... but that if she gave him carte blanche to tease and pleasure-torture her, that he'd understand both her desires and her limits and stop on a dime at her safeword. That time, adversity and maturity have made Adrien into the kind of man whom she can entrust her very life to... and she has, and she will.

Adrien knows that, even with anonymity cast away, even without knowing who was behind Ladybug's mask... that this was HIS LADY leaning over him that night. This was someone who would never hurt anyone, much less him, and to whom he could entrust his helpless form... body and heart. That she could understand what happened on the terrible night with his father and Duusu... and that she deserved the full truth whether she would understand or not. That his red-and-black miracle of his teenage years has done nothing but become more amazing since then... and that it's worth any price to make her life better. And that he's brave enough to face his errors and his evasions of the past... and to build a better tomorrow with his father, with Plagg, and with his lady-love.

Gabriel being savvy enough to recognize altruism and compassion and to allow it to work to his benefit... shouldn't have been stunning. This is a man who played the game, and lost; and in doing so, he lost both his son and his chances of reviving his wife in one fell swoop. Marinette was his sole remaining option... and he knew it. But a man sworn to one goal who found that goal seemingly forever out of reach could certainly give up hope. The CEO and archvillain was now completely without agency in the one area that mattered to him, and that was destroying him. So, to find himself in a situation where one last desperate ray of potential salvation exists? ...Even he can learn to trust again, and even to the point of finally admitting his own failures and trying to be a better man.

And the Kwamis may be ancient sources of wisdom and power... but the learning process never ends, even when you're timeless.

Audrey? She already knows whom to trust and whom to pounce on. She'll be just fine. ;)

I sincerely hope that you all enjoyed this ride. Now, back to fluffier and more innocent topics...

- DFC