Chapter 16

Press conference day...

*Marinette's POV*

This week has gone by in a blur. Ever since the night Adrien and I escaped the confines of my room and had a bit of fun as our superhero alter egos, the media had been a buzz of rumours and speculation about why that was the only time we had been spotted. And today they would find out the truth.

We were standing in the side room waiting for the Mayor to start the conference, the length making Cat Noir pace the room with nervous energy.

"What's taking him so long," he asked as he paced. "I just want to get this over with."

I walked over to him and reached up to his shoulders to stop him, trying to look him straight in the eyes, realising too late that the height difference wasn't going to help the upcoming pep talk.

"I know you do, and we just have to get through this and then it's over. Remember that's why we're here as Ladybug and Cat Noir, we can make sure that nothing will blow up in your face. We're telling the whole world that Adrien and his girlfriend called us over when they found out Gabriel's true identity," I said, trying to ease his mind.

"You're right, I just really hope that it will all be ok. I don't know what to expect from the fall out," he said, tilting his head down to rest his forehead on mine.

"It will be ok, remember I will be here to support you through anything, you and me against the world," I reiterated.

"You and me against the world," he whispered back, putting his arms around my waist and pulling me into his arms for a hug.

"Ok, everybody's here now, are you…" Mr Bourgeois started before he spotted us in our hug. Cat Noir and I leapt apart before any of the Mayor's entourage spotted us, remembering that we were not together as superheroes. "...Ready?"

"Sorry, yes we are," I replied, feeling a blush extend across my face.

"Ok, so the way this will work is I will make the announcement and explain the basic story then pass on to you to answer some questions and any details that you feel may be necessary. How's that?" Mr Bourgeois explained.

"That sounds good," Adrien said, looking at me for confirmation. I nodded in agreement and watched as one of the entourage whispered into the Mayor's ear. He then turned towards us and signalled that they were ready for us. We followed him out of the side room and into the large conference room where we were greeted by a bombardment of camera flashes. I grabbed Cat Noir's hand as the knots in my stomach formed and we were led to the side, ready to take our places at the podium after the Mayor.

The announcement went smoothly, the press were told that Ladybug and Cat Noir were called to the Agreste Mansion and immediately responded to find out that Shadowmoth was none other than Gabriel Agreste. After the Mayor had finished his statement, he passed on to us. We added the detail that Adrien and his girlfriend were the ones who called us over, panicking as they had stumbled across his secret lair and his wife in a coma, one which we are working to reverse. We got a lot of questions about Adrien and managed to stop any ideas about him being in on his fathers villainy in their tracks. We also got a lot of questions about the relationship between Ladybug and Cat Noir, which we ignored, not wishing to risk our identities because of the similarities in our stories. Overall, the conference was a resounding success but utterly exhausting.

Once it was over, we voyaged back to an alley next to my house and then walked up to my room so we wouldn't raise suspicions from my parents as we had told them we were going to be standing backstage. They were so engrossed in a conversation with a customer that we managed to slip upstairs and avoid any questions. But, as soon as we closed the hatch, we were met by all the kwamis talking over each other, all trying to say the same things,

"Ok, ok, one at a time you guys, we can't hear you all," I shushed.

"Sorry Guardian," they all chorused, before Trix added, "It's just that we figured it out."

Tikki and Plagg took this as their cue to fly out of their hiding places to join in the conversation.

"You did! Really?!" Tikki asked.

"How?" Plagg added, for once taking a real interest in what was going on.

The cacophony of noise started up again as all the Kwamis started to explain everything to Tikki and Plagg, forgetting that they were supposed to be telling us what was going on.

"HEY!" I shouted to get their attention. "What did you figure out?"

Tikki then turned to me with a bright smile on her tiny red face.

"Marinette, they figured out how to wake up Adrien's mother. And they're ready to do the ritual as well," she exclaimed.

"You can wake up my mum," Adrien whispered from behind me, breaking his silence and stepping up next to me.

"Yeah kid we did. Are you ready to see your mum again?" Plagg asked Adrien.

"I don't know. But we do need to wake her up so lets go now," Adrien said. I took hold of his arm and turned him to face me.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "We can sleep on it to give you a little more time to be ready."

"You know I think I'm ok. I may not be fully ready but she doesn't deserve to be asleep anymore. Plus she's my mum, I'm slightly excited to see her again." A small smile graced his lips as he thought about it and a feeling of peace spread through me.

"I'm so glad to hear that," I smiled before turning back to face the Kwami's. "Ok, so are we ready? Kwami's, do we need anything?"

"No we don't master, we have everything we need. However, all of us need to go for it to work, especially Dusuu," Wayzz said.

"Ok, we'll voyage so you don't need to worry about being seen, but I'm merging Kalki and Tikki as I have been, especially as there is no battle so therefore I won't be needing my lucky charm and will not be able to undo any catastrophe," I directed before a thought crossed my mind. "We should take some clothes for your mum. She's been lying in the same outfit for years. I think I have some slightly oversized clothes we can take for her as she's a bit taller than me."

"That's a great idea," Adrien replied, helping me to rummage through my cupboard to find some choices and then placing them in his empty open bag before adding some basic toiletries and home comforts. He then looked at me and nodded, signalling that we were ready to go.

"Tikki, Spots on. Unify!"

"Plagg Claws out!"

*Adrien's POV*

We arrived in my mothers hotel room very quickly and transformed once we arrived, allowing Tikki, Plagg and Kalki to rejoin the rest of the kwamis for the ritual. I grabbed Marinette's hand as they flew over to my mum who was lying peacefully on the bed, in the same position we found her in in the lair underneath my house. But before the Kwamis started, they turned to the two of us, staring at us in contemplation.

"Erm, we're sorry but there can't be any humans here otherwise it won't work," Tikki said to us. Marinette and I looked at each other before turning around to answer Tikki.

"That's ok. We'll go down to the cafe. Alya's mum may be down there so we'll go say hello and grab some coffee. Come find me once you're done. But be discreet," Marinette said to Tikki.

"Don't worry, I will be," TIkki said, turning back to the Kwamis. We then left the room, picking up the keycard that was lying on the side table as we walked out, hoping that we wouldn't bump into Chloe roaming the halls of her fathers hotel.

We walked along the corridor hand in hand, a comfortable silence filling the space between us. It was like this during the elevator ride and the short walk through the lobby to the cafe. It was fairly empty when we arrived, but not surprisingly as it was close to 7pm now so everyone was most likely in the restaurant. Because of this, we did not manage to say hello to Alya's mum, who was probably very busy in the kitchen to be focused on the cafe right now.

Neither of us were especially hungry, the anticipation taking away our appetites, but we did order some coffee and one of the insanely fancy cakes that this hotel served to share. We sat there for a while before I broke the silence.

"Do you think it will work?" I asked Marinette. She looked up at me from the rim of her mug, gently placing it back on the table as she swallowed her sip of coffee.

"I do. But I don't think they sent us out of the room because humans couldn't be there. I think they were protecting you from having to see your mother go through anything. I guess there was a reason why your father never told you the truth about her 'death'," She replied.

"I guess you're right," I paused for a second in thought. "I don't know what to expect from her explanation. How do I tell her that her husband, the love of her life, became an evil magical supervillain and is now incarcerated? And do we go in there as Ladybug and Cat Noir or Adrien and Marinette?" I whispered.

"Good question. Do you want her to know the full truth or what everybody else knows?"

"I don't think I do want her to know the full truth just yet. We don't even know if what my father said was true but I don't think we should risk it. Your parents don't even know and we both know that we can trust them with anything. But then again, I don't want her to wake up to see the face of a stranger, I want to be there for her as her son."

"That makes sense." She placed her hand on top of mine and gave it a gentle squeeze as she thought. "Ok then, we have two options. We can go as Adrien and Ladybug or I can ring Alya and ask her to come with the fox miraculous from my room so she can create a Ladybug and Cat Noir illusion so then she won't have any inkling of our identities. Which option we do is completely up to you as I don't know if you want her to meet me yet as your girlfriend."

"I like your second idea," I said after deliberating for a minute. My free hand went up to Marinette's face to push a piece of her hair behind her ear, leaving it to linger for a second. "Because I do want her to meet you as my girlfriend. I want her to see that, despite how messed up everything has been, I am happy and in love and not alone." I watched as a smile formed on Mari's face while she took in what I just said, her hand reaching up to my lingering one and stroking the lines on it gently.

"I was hoping you'd choose that option! I'm glad I get to meet your mum as me as well. And don't worry about telling her about your father, the illusions can do that to take a load off you if you want."

"That will be good, I think. Hearing it from the heroes that defeated him will be much better than hearing it from her son. I don't even know if I'll be able to get the words out and I of course don't want the first thing I say to my mother since I was 13 to be 'your husband abandoned your son to become a super villain'."

"That's true. Ok then, I should go call Alya." Mari stood up and pulled out her phone from the bag hanging on the back of her chair. She was about to walk to the lobby to make her phone call when she paused and turned back towards me, leaning down to my eye level and placing a deep but short kiss on my lips. It took me off guard for a second, but once I regained my brain function I kissed her back before she pulled away and looked into my eyes.

"What was that for?" I asked a little breathlessly, still slightly taken back.

"No reason, just, despite the circumstances surrounding it, meeting my boyfriend's mum is a huge step that I'm so glad you're ready to take," she explained, a light blush forming on her face as she spoke. I reached my head upwards and kissed her forehead before I replied.

"Of course I'm ready to take the step. I don't think I'd feel so ready so soon with anybody else except you." Marinette's blush extended across her face even more before she stood up rather abruptly.

"I think I should make this call before you say anything else like that and render me completely useless for the next few hours," she said, the words rushing out her mouth in a way that resembled the way she used to talk to me. I couldn't help but laugh as she walked quickly out of the restaurant, turning her head as she reached the door to stick her tongue at me as she understood what I was laughing at, only succeeding in making me laugh even more.

*Marinette's POV*

Alya immediately agreed when I told her the plan and said she'd leave right away to go get the necklace from the box and then meet Adrien and I here. It was a relief to know that she and Nino were on our side and would always be there if we needed them. Plus they were the only two people to know the complete truth.

Just as I was hanging up the phone, I heard a voice that made my stomach sink.

"DUPAIN - CHENG! What are you doing here?" Chloe shouted once she spotted me from the top of the stairs.

"Oh, for no reason Chloe. Adrien and I decided to come here for a quick bite in the cafe after the press conference," I replied as she walked down the stairs, her haughty expression fading into one of genuine care and concern at the mention of Adrien.

"Oh of course. How is he? I can't begin to understand what he must be going through at the moment."

"He's ok actually. We've known for the past week and your dad graciously agreed to wait until today to announce so there would be a weekend in between when the announcement happened and when he needed to go to school on Monday. Plus the week has allowed him to work towards accepting it."

"That's good I suppose. Now it makes sense why the two of you were so out of it today."

We both looked at each other for a second before bursting into laughter.

"Yeah I guess it does," I said in between deep breaths once the laughter stopped. "I've just tried to be there for him to the best of my ability. He hasn't been able to stay at his house all week so he's been staying with me."

Chloe's face softened even more before she spoke again, with complete sincerity. "I'm glad he has you, Marinette. Adrien is one of my oldest friends, and I do truly care very deeply about him, despite the way I've been acting the past few years since he joined school. Plus I've never seen him happier than he has been since you both got together "

"Thanks Chloe, he makes me really happy as well." I reciprocated the small smile she gave me when a thought popped into my head "Why don't you come say hello to him. He's in the cafe, I just had to step out to take a phone call."

"Yeah ok."

I led her through the doors of the cafe and over to our table, where Adrien was sat scrolling through the news on his phone.

"Hey,' I said as I reached him. "Look who I found."

Chloe stepped out from behind me and gave Adrien a small wave. He immediately put his phone down and stood up.

"Hi Chloe," he said, a little reproachfully, as if he was remembering her cold attitude over the past few weeks.

"Hi Adrik.., sorry, Adrien," Chloe replied a little nervously. I sat down to give them a little room. They both stared at each for a minute before Chloe took the first move and started speaking.

"I'm so sorry about your father, Adrien, and my cold, stuck up attitude. I truly couldn't believe what I was hearing this afternoon and my first thoughts went straight to you. Plus your mum! I really hope she'll be ok. You know that I saw her as a mother, she was always there for me when mine was off on her trips," she rushed before she launched herself into Adriens arms, throwing her own around his neck. It took everything in me not to laugh at the expression of pure shock and surprise on Adrien's face before he relaxed and hugged her back. I smiled as I watched the two childhood friends make up without words, turning back to the table to pick up one of the strawberries that laid on the cake plate.

"Thanks Chloe. Here, why don't you sit down and we'll try to catch you up as much as possible," Adrien said as he and Chloe let go of each other. He pulled over a chair from another table and we spent the next 10 minutes telling Chloe the 'official' story. We then told her that 'Ladybug and Cat Noir' were waking Emilie Agreste up right now and that she could come see her in the next few days. Chloe sat and took in the whole story, getting increasingly emotional as the minutes ticked on.

"I don't believe it! I mean I do because now that you've explained it, it makes so much sense. But still. Oh I really am so sorry that you're having to deal with this Adrien. You're the last person who should be dealing with this," She exclaimed as she wiped a tear off her face.

"That's what I've been saying," I added, the last forms of animosity between Chloe and I disintegrating as we gently laughed together. Adrien looked at both of us and smiled.

"I'm so glad the two of you are getting along now, and that you, Mari, get to see the real Chloe, the one I know to be really sweet and caring, the one I've been telling you exists beneath all the walls," Adrien gushed as he took both our hands.

"I'm sorry it took so long," Chloe said, the tears flowing freely now. "I'm so sorry about this, I'm gonna leave you two now and go upstairs to wash my face," Chloe said as she stood up. She tucked her chair in and was about to leave when she added, "Ring me in the morning and let me know what happened with your mum."

"I will Chlo. She'll want to see you, I'm sure of it. I think she saw you as a daughter as well. It was as if we were raised as siblings," Adrien replied, standing up and hugging her goodbye.

"Haha thanks bro!" Chloe laughed, punching him gently on the arm as they let go, turning towards me as I stood up to say goodbye. "I guess that makes you my sister in law. Who would have thought!" She came up to me and hugged me as well, taking me by surprise. "But you should know that I will take my sibling duties very seriously and if you dare hurt him, I will hunt you down ank kick your ass," she said with mock sincerity. I burst into a fit of laughter, understanding the reference.

"If you can reference Friends so smoothly like that I think we'll be fine!" I laughed.

"Very funny Dupain - Cheng. But I think you're right!" With that, Chloe gave us one last wave and turned on her heel to walk straight out of the cafe, owning the fact that her eyes were red and her make up had run. Alya was walking in as she left, stepping out of Chloe's way before, making her way towards Adrien and I, her eyes wide with surprise.

"Were you just laughing and joking with Chloe?" she asked in shock.

"Yeah we were. Turns out Adrien was right and she really is a decent human being underneath the spoiled brat mask," I replied.

"Imagine if you'd actually believed me all those years ago," Adrien joked, knowing full well nothing would have changed.

I turned to face Alya, changing the mood to be serious once again.

"Are you ready?" I asked her.

"Yes I am," she replied, moving the collar of her shirt to reveal the camouflaged foxtail necklace.

"Good, because I think it's time to put the plan into action," I said, spotting Tikki waving from the corner of the cafe, keeping herself hidden behind the security camera.

A/N: I'm going to have to apologise for yet another pop culture reference, but I really can't help it! When the inspiration strikes I suppose!
About the Chloe stuff, I think I read in another fanfiction about the relationship between Adrien and Chloe developing into something that resembles siblings and I loved that idea. I really don't remember which story it was as I've read so many! But this is my take on that relationship.