Note: what if we switched for Adrien's side of view?

"Speed dating can begin! Ladies, these young men present tonight will each have five minutes to get to know you," explained the evening's host."At every gong ring, gentlemen, we will ask you to leave the table where you are and go to the table to your left," she then explained, pointing to the eight tables in the room." You will have the opportunity to get the contact details of your chosen one at the end of the evening if the attraction is mutual," she added with a wide smile."We remind you that this evening is organized in a friendly and caring atmosphere. We expect a respectful and polite attitude from all of you. Any excesses will be punished by exclusion without prior warning," she insisted in a stern voice.

Adrien nervously watched all the women sit on black velvet seats around white tables.

The decoration of the bar where Nino invited him to spend the evening was refined and rather chic. The only negative point that the model noted was the deeply frustrating absence of his best friend.

Not true.

Two negative points, actually. There was also the organization of this speed dating, which he'd been registered to without his knowledge. By Nino. Nino who didn't dare answer his calls. Nino who was quite capable of manipulating such a scheme when it came to the non-existent sentimental life —a scandal according to his best friend— of Adrien Agreste.

He wanted to back off. He had to back off. But, no. He remained completely frozen in place, when one of the pretenders of the evening caught all his attention.

She was a rather small and curvy young woman, developed right where she needed to be. Not too much, not any less. She wore a high-waisted black skirt, bent at the waist and pleated all its length, stopping just above her knees. A small satin red top with thin straps and a heart neckline was put inside her skirt. A golden belt underlined her fine waist and red velvet court shoes, open at the front, complemented her outfit harmoniously.

Adrien advanced without ever letting go of this mysterious maiden of his sigh of view. He could feel the beats of his heart accelerating madly in his chest. For some reason he didn't know, she captivated and sharpened all his senses.

He took his place where he was told, a few tables further than that of the mysterious unknown with a red lace mask.

It took Adrien a considerable time and mental strength to detach himself from his contemplation and greet the young blonde who was in front of him.

He tried hard to listen to her carefully, she was a marketing manager in a private company. She liked horse riding and... soy? He couldn't concentrate on the discussion, even with all the best will in the world because his attention was already troubled.

His gaze turned towards this unknown woman who made his heart beat at full speed, as only one other woman had been able to do before: Ladybug.

His hands were moist and he was left breathless. Not a day went by without him thinking about his partner. His partner, whom he had cowardly abandoned after defeating and discovering Shadowmoth's identity, Gabriel Agreste, his own father.

He felt powerless to have lived under the same roof as his nemesis for several years without realizing it. Not even once . He had also felt deeply unworthy to wear the Black Cat's Miraculous again, being the son of Shadowmoth and also, purely and completely unworthy of Her .

So he had given up and returned his ring to his kwami, to send him with it to the Guardian.

Since then, every day, he has bitterly regretted this decision taken six months, nineteen days and 2 hours before. Because he missed her. He missed her so much .

A gong ring startled him and suddenly took him out of his thoughts. He blinked and noticed that they were always landing on the mysterious young woman sitting at another table.

A ' fucking idiot' reached his ears as he stood up, whispering some apologies before completely leaving his seat.

He advanced to the second place designated to him, finding that he was now installed at the table just face to that of the mysterious young woman. He found himself wondering when his five minutes with her would come...

Adrien was now sitting in front of a pretty brunette, he could briefly see that she was tall. As tall as he is, and also very slender. She wore a white velvet mask decorated with a few beads. The other details, such as the color of her clothes, her eyes or her hairstyle, went unnoticed by him. Because from where he was sitting, leaning slightly to the right, he could see the other girl perfectly.

And there, again , all his concentration was focused on the young woman with a chinese bun who raised her eyebrows, her nose slightly scrunched and who was rolling her eyes, there, a few meters away from him and in a particularly familiar way. Eyes that, now that he could observe them more carefully, it wasn't at all foreign to him. Two blue irises underlined by a red mask. An azure blue gaze, intense, deep, bright and bored. Very bored.

The boy in front of her seemed to be of an undesirable company. Which made Adrien smile. He was certain that when his turn would come, he could make her smile. But also, to make her roll her eyes, to make her scrunched her little nose in a way or her freckles would be the only thing he could see, to make her sigh before her lips stretch into a smile that she would try to mask by coughing and then biting her lower lip.

It was a vision that gave him butterflies —the good kind of butterflies— in his belly every time Ladybug did it... and that was how he felt now looking at this beautiful stranger, even though his partner had been the only one who could make him feel like that: light, exalted, bewitching.

Something deep inside of him cried out for the familiarity of this feeling of comfort, inner peace, and even love, which suddenly invaded him. But another part of himself held that tiny hope, trying to put it away in the depths of his heart, to stick it in a double-closed drawer and reminding him that he didn't have the freedom to have that chance. The chance that this young woman sitting a few meters from him was Ladybug.

With his gaze still focused on her, Adrien heard a new sound and, this time, he managed to look away a fraction of a second. He shook his head to the last words of his pretender, with a fake smile, the one he had learned to wear on a daily basis thanks to his experience as a model, however still fake. He greeted her, his lips stretching out into a bigger lie, as Pinocchio's nose once did in the story his mother was telling him.

A story in which her mother had failed to tell hil that it isn't the children who lie, but the adults. All over again... Perpetually.

Lies become a mechanism of self-defense and protection. A process to justify their crimes, like Gabriel. To hide their feelings, like Nathalie. To protect a secret like Ladybug and Chat Noir. To flee as he'd done…

Adrien's life had been and was still filled with lies. But if there was one thing he had always been honest with, it was the nature of his feelings for his partner. And it was because of his same feelings, that he made the decision to withdraw from her life. Not to impose on her the burden of Shadowmoth's identity that he carried on his shoulders and not to force her to look every day the son's face of the man who had made their adolescence a hell.

"Young man, please come this way." A soft voice lifted him from his thoughts.

Like a robot, he looked at the hand outstretched in front of him, pointing to his next date. When he found that the fingers of one of the organizers pointed to the table where the beautiful stranger was sitting, his heart missed a beat. His mouth was dry, his breathing was blocked in his throat and his hands were shaking, at which point he was not giving much of the pitiful state of his blood pressure.

Adrien took a hesitant step towards the table before moving more decisively, quickly approaching the free seat.

He put a hand on the back of the chair in front of him, looking for a support he desperately needed as his knees buckled under his weight. He felt made of gelatin, indeed, the mysterious young woman had just looked up at him. Sparkling eyes of intense blue, highlighted by a bright red, struck him like a lightning bolt.

It was her. Adrien was ready to sell his soul to the devil and bet it was his Lady right there in front of him.

He sat down in front of her and gave her a shy smile, before taking her hand into his to carry it to his mouth, pressing a quick kiss on it.

He froze, following his almost misplaced audacity, the gesture had escaped him as the situation seemed normal to him. It was like on all these patrolling nights they had shared in the past. He had always greeted her with a hand kiss, and over time she had accepted these with an ever-widening, ever more sincere, ever more brilliant smile.

He was completely disconcerted when he felt the lady's hand shiver in his own. In. His. Own. She hadn't retracted, he found, his gaze now locked on their fingers that had intertwined without him even knowing when nor how.

Adrien frowned and swallowed. The confirmation was there before his eyes: a ring. Made of pink metal, even if his had been made of silver, he knew that the Miraculous had the ability to adapt to their wearer, adopting the perfect camouflage. Nevertheless, the shape was the same and after wearing it for years, he was certain to recognize it among any other ring.

Slowly, he caressed the cold metal, hypnotized and overwhelmed by the wave of happiness and love that suddenly invaded his heart. He finally found her. His precious ladybug, the one engraved in his heart forever and even on his skin, there, on the ring finger where he had once adorned his Miraculous… Miraculous, which had been the reason for their meeting... but also of their separation.

Slowly, his gaze drifted toward the young woman's face. She was petrified and the pink of her cheeks had turned pale and lost its shimmering radiance.

She jumped and he knew immediately that the realization had just made its way into the mind and heart of his partner. She was sharp enough to connect the dots, he had no doubt about it. Especially after she left her gaze dragged on his tattoo. A drawing so discreet that even his friends didn't know that it was there, because the little ladybug was hidden on the inside of his ring finger.

She lifted her head and their eyes eventually met, with a blazing intensity.

"Chaton…""M'Lady…"

Ladybug blinked several times before her eyes widened. She gave him a deep black and furious look.

Adrien felt very small. Of course, she was angry. She was mad at him and probably hated him right now. If she didn't already hate him for what he had done to her...

"Speed dating? Really Chat Noir? You gave me an intense kiss before we faced Shadowmoth." She yanked her hand free of his, clenching it into a tight fist, "You kissed me, sealing the promise of a better future for us and then you abandoned me. You vanished, without a word, and for what? So that I could find you six months later at a speed dating night?!" She murmured, clenching her jaw.

How could he forget that kiss? It had been the most beautiful day of his life, at least until he discovered the Shadowmoth was his father just an hour later, transforming that day that had to change their life forever, into a day that had completely destroyed their life.

Now he owed her some explanation. Fate had brought them together, and this time he wouldn't turn his back on the opportunity presented to him. No running away or lying.

"I was dragged here by force by a friend... I totally understand that you're angry with me." His hand went to the back of his neck, looking away from her, "I deserve it. I acted like an idiot. I'm sorry, Bug.""Angry? You think I'm angry? No, I'm not angry! I'm furious! REALLY FURIOUS!" She shouted.

She had drawn the attention of other participants to them. He swallowed and pursed his lips, sheepish in the face of her totally justified reaction.

She suddenly squeezed his hand and forced him to stand up, dragging him outside the bar.

Outside, she let go of his hand and pushed him away. He stood there and took it without so much as flinching because he was totally frozen by her reaction. A justified reaction he then thought.

"Do you have any idea what I've been through since you left? Do you know how hard it was for me not to see you anymore? Not being able to find you because you forbade Plagg to tell me anything?!" She sobbed.

The tears rolled down the young heroine's cheeks and again, the vice around his chest tightened. He was well aware of the suffering she might have felt because the same had taken place in his life since Ladybug had left it.

"I know what you've lived," he whispered, not able to hide the guilt that plagued his heart, "not a single day has passed without me missing you! Not a single day has passed without me regretting having renounced my Miraculous, without me regretting having abandoned you!" He answered, his body shaking and his voice trembling.

"Why? Why did you do this to me when we had defeated Shadowmoth together? When I was finally about to reveal my identity and give my heart to you, since Paris was no longer in danger? Why Chat Noir? WHY?" She screamed, striking her fists firmly against his torso.

The blows she was striking against him only hammered and anchored the pain deeper in his chest.

*

Inside the bar, Nino looked out of the window at his two best friends."Dudette, are you sure that was a good idea? They are screaming at each other and Marinette is crying.""Trust me…" Alya said, gently tipping her glass back and forth, "It was the best thing to do so that these two finally opened their eyes to the truth they refused to see.""Sometimes you're really weird…""They will thank me later, you'll see."

*

An impulse, an irrepressible desire, he ignored her complaints and hugged her tight, intoxicating himself with the sweet smell emanating from her hair. An orange blossom shampoo? The sweetness of the fragrance and the warmth of her body against his propelled him straight to nirvana. His place was there, within her arms, he'd been an idiot to think otherwise.

His hands were lost in her hair and her back. He wanted to bring her closer to him as much as he could, and never, EVER , let her go away again.

"I'm sorry, m'Lady. So sorry. I've been through hell since that night, and maybe if you're willing to see my face, you'll understand…"

He felt Ladybug slowly take a step back from him. She remained silent and wiped tears of salted water on her face with the back of her hand. Then, slowly, she wrapped her arms around his neck, her hands looking for the knot that held his black mask in place.

Stupor took hold of him before giving way to joy. Pure joy. She agreed to give him a chance to explain to her why he had abandoned her so reluctantly.

A slight pressure pulled the knot at the back of his head before it stopped pulling. She gave him one last look and he understood that she wanted to make sure that it was what he wanted too.

He nodded, giving her his blessing to tear down the walls that had stood between them for far too long. Allowing her to finally find the answers to all her questions.

When she came a little closer to him, he could feel the frenetic and nervous beats of her heart correspond to the same rhythm of his. Then, she surprised him by approaching her face too, the warmth of her breath caressing his lips and the smell of her coconut lip balm tickling his nose.

Suddenly, she pulled the black ribbon that held his mask in place, letting it fall to the ground, without ever breaking their kiss.

She tasted salty tears and coconut. She tasted sweetness and happiness. Forgiveness and hope. It simply gave him the taste to live. For her. For them .

Blown away, satisfied and dizzy, they separated to catch their breath, as well as awareness of the reality around them.

When he opened his eyes, Ladybug always had hers closed. Adrien carried a hand to her face, detailing and memorizing every of her facial features. He then fondled her cheek tenderly, before letting his hand drift towards her mask and the back of her head.

Without hesitation, with his eyes landing on her, he took off her mask, causing it to fall on the sidewalk. She hadn't opened her eyes yet, that her name was already at the tip of his lips: she was her best friend. In and out of the mask.

She quickly opened her eyes, finally becoming aware of her partner's identity.

"Adrien…""Marinette…"

He laid a sweet kiss on her forehead and she shivered to his touch.

"You have always been by my side all this time," she whispered. "You were the one for whom I tried to put stitches on my wounds, the one for whom I put my suffering aside because his own came before mine. I wanted to be strong for you... you... it's always been you... the other boy," she added, her voice overwhelmed with emotion."I was sure it was you... It could only be you!" He breathed, moved. "This strength and the determination with which you have supported me for months... I know such a strong devotion and kindness only in one person. My partner. Of course it was you. It's you! I love you Marinette, I love you so much!" He confessed in a cheerful and sincere voice.

He saw her eyes sparkle with such intensity that they shamed the brightest constellations, not holding them a candle.

"I love you too, mon Chaton," she breathed, kissing him once more, with renewed vigor.

A few minutes later, they parted, out of breath. Adrien set his forehead against the young woman's and locked his emerald gaze with her sapphire eyes.

"How did you understand that Chat Noir was sitting at your table?"

"Your look on me, and... the tattoo," she whispered, "I could even have understood that Adrien was sitting at my table, if only I had noticed that tattoo much earlier."

Adrien instinctively raised his right hand between the two of them and slightly pushed aside the ring finger and middle finger.

"I've only had it for nineteen days..." he explained. "After six months without you, I wanted to be able to remember every day what an idiot I've been. And... secretly... I was hoping that Marinette would see this little ladybug and... I was really hoping that... it was you…" he whispered.

She gave him a beaming smile, taking his hand into hers and gently caressing the red and black tattoo.

"Luckily I'm used to pricking my fingers with needles," she chuckled. "Because I think this little ladybug is going to need a little black cat to keep her company, what do you think?"

In turn, he gave her a bright smile.

"You are incredible," he breathed tenderly.

" YOU are incredible," she repeated before waving her right hand in front of her beloved. "I guess the ring betrayed me."

"Yes," he laughed, "but that was only the final piece. What betrayed you is simply you: what you are, your mimics, how you're beaming when you enter a room, even your little angry pout…" he teased her and she rolled her eyes.

Adrien choked a slight laugh and stroked Marinette's cheek. "That's why I suspected you were Ladybug... and seeing you with a red mask on your eyes... It was a real revelation, as if a lighting bolt was strucking my eyes and helped me to finally clearly see the truth," he admitted. "The ring was only the final blow to remind me how doubly stupid and blind I had been."

"We were both blinded by our feelings and our duty, Chaton. But now it's all over. You're here... and that's all that matters to me," she whispered, placing a quick peck on his lips.

From the corner of his eye, Adrien saw that they were being observed. Scrupulously observed.

"Alya and Nino are staring at us as if they had planned all this," he murmured.

"They did it," she replied, sounding sure of it. She wanted to turn around to look at their friends, but he stopped her.

"Don't look! Let's give them a run for their money. What do you say about that, m'Lady?" He proposed with a smirk.

"I say that it's a great idea. After all, we must thank them," she smiled.

He didn't waste a second to dive on her lips. His hands strolled all over her body before seeping under her blouse, caressing her slender waist and the bare skin of her lower back.

"Do you agree with this?" He breathed against her lips.

"Yes, but... we are in the middle of the street, Chaton ..." she moaned, when he kissed her in the neck.

"Mmm, my place?"

"Perfect," she answered, taking him by the hand and dragging him in the direction of the apartment which the young man had bought himself a few months after his father's arrest.

Adrien turned around, he didn't know when Nino had joined the bar, but what he was sure of was that they had just taken his breath away, judging by his jaw dropped and his eyes widened. And so is Alya: curiosity had killed the cats.

He and Marinette should still thank them later, for the plan they had prepared. Adrien even suspected his friends knew more... much more. But that would be a point to clarify later.

For now, all that mattered was the woman holding him by the hand, leading them towards a better future. Their future.

*

"You owe me a drink, Nino."

"Are you sure you don't have powers of illusionism, for real?" he asked, calling the waiter to honor his cost.

"No, I don't have anything like that. Even if it's true that Miraculous magic can be really powerful sometimes…" She sighed.

Alya's gaze was once again directed at the two lovebirds. They were hugging, kissing, exploring each other... in an intimate way... too intimate for the street they were on.

"Wow. They'd better get themselves a room!"

She turned to Nino who looked at them with wide-open eyes and red cheeks.

"I think they are making up for wasting time," Nino whispered.

Before their embarrassed eyes, the two lovers laughed and left.

Adrien turned to them and gave them a mischievous wink before disappearing from their sights.

Oh, it was certain, their friends were grateful but would only thank them later. When they had filled with all their love, passion and possible excesses, the six months, nineteen days and two hours they had spent separated from each other.

The End.

Happy birthday again Giulia.

The End for now... Other stories are coming. Stay connected!

Thanks for your reading.

Comments are always motivating and welcomed for the author.

Miraculous kisses.

Notes: