A/N: Ok, so I know I said that there'd be one chapter left, but I wrote so much for it that I had to split it into 2 parts. I will post the second part tomorrow though because I wrote it last week and it is the ending of this chapter!

Chapter 18: Part 1

Eight Months Later…

*Adrien's POV*

The past few months have flown by in a haze of school work and readjusting to life with my mother.

The weekend after she woke up was one of the best I'd had, coming in close second to the first weekend of Marinette and I's relationship. After Chloe had caught up with her, she and Marinette helped Mum and I get settled into the house. We even went shopping to get a few new bits to warm the place up a bit. Mari and I were then shooed out of the house to spend the evening together, which we spent having a burger in a park and then leaping across the roofs of Paris as our superhero alter egos, stopping in one of our usual spots to look over the view of the lit up Eiffel Tower which may have led to a rooftop make out session.

Things with my mother have been amazing. We had settled into our new normal fairly quickly and everything was great. Mum had taken over Father's fashion house, rebranding and separating the company from Shadowmoth. It was now thriving as the only fashion house to showcase ameteur designers with their own collections, along with permanent collections designed by the professionals. It truly was a great way to discover future designers, plus, to kick the programme off, my mum commissioned Marinette to design and make the first collection after she was so impressed by the options Mari had provided for her first weekend back in civilisation. Mari had immediately said yes and created one of the best collections we had ever seen. It was so well received that Mari immediately got accepted into all the schools she had applied to. I was so proud of her, but all of these extra commitments and the intense workload we were both receiving from school meant that we had struggled to find any real time to spend together.

This was very much to my father's dismay. He'd always been a firm believer that his company shall only be run by him and that all the designs that were created were to be his own sole creations. It was one of the main reasons why the company had gained a very exclusive reputation and did so well, despite it's very cold and anti-social owner. Despite this, the rebrand had made sales go up and the company is far from struggling, proving to my father that there are more than one way of doing things.

Talking about him, my mum had visited him the week after she woke up. I watched from the side room that Mari had observed from as she gracefully walked into the room and put my father in his place, never once raising her voice. It was chilling to witness but 100% what he needed to hear. Then, just as she was leaving the room, she turned around and reached into the bag she was allowed to bring with her, lifting out a file of papers and slapping them on the table, announcing that they were divorce, company sign over and custody (even though I was going to turn 18 in a couple months) papers. The look on my fathers face was a priceless mixture of shock, confusion and anger. He immediately asked for an explanation, one which he received in such a cold manner that I have no doubt that he regretted asking. He had no choice but to sign, and that was the moment we were free of him.

After that, it was decided that he would not even get a trial because of the abundance of proof against him, and an agreement was made with the order of the guardians through Ladybug and Cat Noir. Our superhero selves delivered him to the temple in China with the assurance of knowing that he would be punished by having to spend eternity there, watching everyone else live with the magic of the miraculous that he had spent so long trying to seek for his own selfish gain, and never being allowed to interact with any of it. He was locked up over there and paid no attention to, the supreme punishment for an egomaniac. We were also told that he'll never be allowed to forget the life he could have had had he not misused the miraculous, with sparse and very simple updates given to him about his company and how well his family were thriving without him.

All of this craziness led to now, the week of Marinette's 18th birthday, luckily falling just after the intense amount of final year school work had finished. To make up for all the missed moments between us, Marinette and I had spent the first couple nights enjoying the Paris sunsets as Ladybug and Cat Noir, dangling our feet off the edges of many different rooftops as we watched a view that would never get old.

We had agreed as a partnership that our identities shall always remain a mystery, keeping us and our families away from the fallout that was bound to follow a public reveal. We had even decided to keep the secret from our parents, allowing us to keep being the superheroes we have been for the past few years. Plus, Marinette is still the guardian and Alya, Nino and I have sworn that we will forever protect her from having to reveal that fact to anybody else.

One evening, the two of us were sitting on the rooftop from our first night as a couple, discussing plans for summer and University. I did not know what I wanted to do until Mari chose her top school from the many that wanted her. It was an amazing one situated on the outskirts of the city where she had chosen a degree in fashion that also allowed her to expand her knowledge of business as it happened to be not only a great fashion school but also has the best business school in the city. This was also my top school for business if I wanted to do that, but I had decided last week that I did not want to do business but instead pursue a Maths degree to hopefully follow it up with becoming a Mathematics professor. This decision had stemmed from a conversation with my mother about the company and what I enjoyed. She helped me realise that I did really enjoy school and academia and wanted to carry on with that rather than be molded to take over her company one day. It was at this point that she expressed her desire to bring on Marinette once she was out of University. I thought this was a brilliant idea but I had been sworn to secrecy about that so mum could offer her the job when the time was right.

"Hey," I heard Ladybug say, her voice bringing me out of my trance. "You just got very quiet and haven't said anything for a while. What's up?"

"Oh nothing," I replied. "I was just thinking that I still had to tell you that I got accepted to the Maths course that I wanted."

I watched as her mouth dropped open and tears of joy started to well in her beautiful blue eyes, making them sparkle in the orange light of the sunset.

"Congratulations future Professor Agreste!" she exclaimed as she threw her arms around my neck. "I'm so happy for you! And I still feel incredibly guilty for laughing when you first told me, it's just that the image of you in a smart button down shirt wearing those new balck glasses you had to get this term and standing in front of a class of university students seemed so unlikely. But the more I've thought about, the more I can't wait to see you like that because I know that you will succeed in anything you do," she gushed. Now it was my turn to feel the tears forming in my eyes in response to her words.

"Thank you so much. And the best part is that the school is only 45 minutes from yours which is perfect. We both get to have our own experiences but we're still close enough to spend time with each other," I said as I pulled her further into my arms, bringing her right into my chest.

"You're right. I can't wait. But one thing we have to [promise each other is that we won't get jealous of friendships and to tell each other the absolute truth. Always," she said, her tone going very serious.

"Absolutely. We trust each other." I let go of her and made to stand up pulling her up next to me and wrapping my arms around her waist. "You know I love you with my entire being," I whispered into her ear. She laughed, tipping her head back a little as she did so, unwittingly giving my lips access to the little portion that her suit did not cover. Her laugh died in her throat as she gasped.

"Yes I do and I love you too. So much," she whispered back, putting her hands on either side of my face and pulling my head up to look into my eyes for a second before slipping her hand to the back of my head and into my hair, pulling me closer until her lips collided with mine in a mind blowing kiss. Her arms fell around my neck as I pulled her flush with me by her waist, deepening the kiss and nipping at her lower lip. Eventually, we broke apart, resting our foreheads together as we caught our breath.

"I've missed you, you know," she whispered. "I can't wait for the summer and all the free time we'll have to spend with each other."

"I do know, because I've missed you so much as well. Although I'm so incredibly proud of everything you've achieved this year that I really don't mind that we've had to get on with our own separate thing," I smiled back at her. Then I let go of her waist and grabbed her hand. "We really should get you home now. You need to be ready for this weekend!"

Ladybug looked at me with wide eyes before realising why.

"Oh that's right. The amazing weekend that you've planned for my birthday!" she replied, a smile breaking on her face. "I still can't believe that you won't tell me a single thing!"

"Well I have been planning for a while and I think you'll really enjoy the next few days! And I know that your birthday is on Sunday but I thought that because it's your 18th that we should celebrate for the whole weekend!" I laughed as she looked at me with her cute pouty face.

"Come on please tell me something!" she pleaded, making me laugh even harder.

"Ok, get dressed for dinner around 5pm tomorrow. That's when I'm coming to pick you up," I said, winking as she started to ask a lot more questions. "I'm not saying anything else!"

To stop her from asking anything else, I trapped her lips with mine, effectively taking her mind off the surprise.

"Now come on, we have to head home."

The Next Day...

*Marinette's POV*

I don't believe Adrien. He's already taken me on a surprise date a few months ago and saw how much it drove me crazy to not know what's going on, and yet here we are again. The day of another surprise. All the trouble he's gone through really is making me feel guilty that we were too busy to do anything other than a special picnic lunch with everybody for his birthday. Ugh, why does he have to be so perfect!

It's now 3 in the afternoon and I'm struggling with finding clothes to wear for tonight. Alya is here with me but she's being absolutely no help.

"What about this?" I ask, holding up a knee length A-line yellow dress.

"Nope, too casual," Alya replied, popping one of the chocolate macarons she'd grabbed from the bakery into her mouth. I hung the dress back in my cupboard and turned to face her again, hands on my hips.

"You're supposed to be here to help," I grumble, making Alya laugh and stand up, brushing her hands off as she walks towards the cupboard to search through my vast collection of clothes.

"Hmmm. Too casual. Too dressy. Too skimpy," Alya said as she flicked through the hangers, holding up the last one with her eyebrows raised. It was a low necked little red dress I'd bought on whim a little while back. I still had no use for it, especially not in the last few months of only seeing my boyfriend while studying and on rooftops in superhero suits. Alya kept flicking until she gasped and pulled out one of the last hangers from the cupboard.

"Now this is perfect!" she exclaimed. She was holding out one of the dresses I had designed for the collection that I did for the new and improved Agreste fashion house, but had deemed not quite right for that specific brief. I had still made it anyway in a hope to use it for something else because it was one of my favourites, so when Alya picks it out, I 100% agree that that is the outfit for tonight.

I leapt up from where I was sitting dejectedly on the chaise longue and took the dress from Alya's hands, dashing behind the screen to swap my dressing gown for the dress. The second I put it on, I felt like a whole new person, channeling my confident side into my daily life. I stepped out from behind the screen, giving Alya a full view of the deep indigo velvet, so deep that it looked black unless light was shining on it. The form fitting A line skirt fell to just above my knee, accentuating my waist without being too tight. The bodice was fitted and had a sweetheart neckline leading to off the shoulder straps, tiny red, white and pink roses embroidered along the edge, circling round the entire neckline. To finish it off, the back of the bodice was only lace, in the same colour as the velvet, giving the dress a small amount of scandal while still providing coverage. To complete my look, Alya curled my short hair and applied a small amount of makeup to my face, giving me a glowy shimmer while still looking like myself. The finishing touch was a pair of strappy silver heels with a matching silver clutch, big enough for my phone and Tikki.

All too soon, it was 5pm, and there was a quiet but firm knock on the apartment door. I ran down the stairs from my room, as carefully as I could in my shoes, and opened the door to see my insanely handsome boyfriend. He is dressed in perfectly tailored navy chinos and a white shirt. He looked so casually smart that I almost looked overdressed next to him. But the expression on his face told me I was fine.

"Wow! You look…" he stammered, his mouth gaping like a goldfish.

"I know!" I laughed. "You look great too! Here come in." I opened the door a bit wider to allow him room to enter and then shut the door behind him.

"So, where are we going?" I asked in a last ditch attempt to figure out the surprise.

"You'll see," Adrien replied, laughing as he walked closer to me and wrapped his arms around my waist, leaning down and placing a quick kiss on my lips, rendering me speechless for a minute. "Hi by the way," he whispered.

"Hi," I managed to say as he let go of me and waved to Alya who was standing on the stairs to my room. I thought I saw him wink to her, but I must have imagined it.

"So are you ready to go?" Adrien asked, seemingly trying to tamp down his excitement, but failing miserably. The smile on his face was radiant with anticipation.

"Yeah, give me a sec to grab my bag," I replied, dashing back up the stairs to my room. Alya came down them as I was going up, making her way into the living room. I quickly walked to the open cupboard door where I had hung up my little bag. I was heading back towards the stairs when I heard a whispered conversation.

"...at 8:30."

"Perfect, I'll make sure..."

I ran down the stairs to see Alya and Adrien with their heads together. I may have an idea what they're planning.

"Hey, I'm ready now," I called, startling them both. Adrien regained his composure quickly and walked towards me, holding out his hand.

"Great, let's go," he said, grabbing my hand and leading me out the door. I waved Alya goodbye and gave her a look that I knew she'd understand. One that said I know something. She just winked and mouthed 'have fun' as I closed the door behind me.

I followed Adrien's lead as we headed down the stairs, shouting goodbye to my parents as we went out the door. And there, standing in front of the bakery, was a beautiful open top car. I stopped in my tracks, my mouth falling open at the surprise.

"You didn't!" I exclaimed, turning to face Adrien. "Since when can you drive?"

"Oh, I've been learning this year. Mum said I could after I told her that father never allowed it. I didn't tell you because I thought that I could somehow weave it into a surprise. I'd say that I was pretty successful!"

"Oh you were! I love you so much!" I flung my arms around his neck and gave him a massive kiss which he returned with full gusto.

"I love you too. Now come on, let's go," he said, opening the car door for me before going over to the driver's seat. It was a beautiful early summer evening, absolutely perfect for taking a drive around Paris, which we did by taking a massive loop around our beloved city, driving past all our favourite places that we normally see from the rooftops. We even drove past Master Fu's old place, the breeze coming off the Seine blowing through my hair. Eventually, we stopped in front of one of the highest class restaurants in Paris, my jaw dropping yet again when I realised where we were. Adrien pulled the car up to the valet and got out of the car, handing the keys over to the attendant and walking back round to my side of the car, opening the door and giving me his hand to help me up from the low car. I was speechless as we walked into the gorgeous dining room and were shown to a table by the enormous windows that provided a wonderful view.

"Adrien! How did you manage to pull this off?" I asked in an excited whisper as the waiter left to get our drinks.

"Marinettw, you have friends in very high places. All I needed to do was mention to Jagged Stone that it was your 18th birthday and he immediately helped get me this reservation. Oh and here comes his birthday gift for you," Adrien replied, nodding to our waiter who was returning to the table with the drinks we had ordered, plus two flutes of Champagne and a wrapped gift. We thanked the waiter as he laid down the goods and I immediately reached for the card and opened it. It read:

Marinette,

Happy 18th Birthday!

Seeing as you can now legally drink alcohol, I thought I'd treat you and your very caring boyfriend to the best celebration drink you can find!

Enjoy your weekend and the gift!

Lots of love,

Jagged

"This is unbelievable! If you had told me 3 years ago that I would be spending my 18th birthday with Adrien Agreste in the fanciest restaurant in Paris opening a gift from the jagged Stone, I would have laughed you out of the room. But this is reality!" I exclaimed. "One thing though, I turn 18 tomorrow, is it still ok for me to drink this," I asked pointing to the flute filled with golden liquid.

"Yes it's fine, I checked. You're 6 hours away!" Adrien replied. "Now please open the gift, it's been driving me crazy to find out what's in it ever since I was told that it was waiting!"

I laughed and reached for the gift. It was wrapped in purple paper and felt soft. I carefully peeled back the paper to reveal a pink crew neck sweater with a printed picture of me and Jagged stone back to back, both wearing the glasses that I designed for him all those years ago. On the back were pictures of all four album covers I'd designed for Jagged over the years, captioned with 'designed by sweet Mari' near the case of the sweater. It was absolutely perfect. Then I spotted something else. Inside the wrapping paper was an envelope with my name written on it. I carefully picked it up and pried open the seal, pulling out two tickets for any Jagged Stone concert ever. I nearly squealed when I read that they could be used as many times as I wanted, but quickly remembered where I was and dropped the tickets onto the table instead as I covered my mouth with my hands in shock. Adrien looked quizzically at me and picked up the tickets to investigate my reaction. His eyes skimmed them and then he reacted in the exact same way, but recovered before I even had the chance to fully process.

"That's so cool!" he exclaimed. "You really do have friends in high places!"

The rest of the night went very smoothly and the food was delicious. We did not order anymore Champagne, finding that 1 glass was enough for very new drinkers. As the time started to near 8, I could tell that Adrien was getting squirmy. I didn't mention anything, instead choosing to finish my lemonade and observe his body language. We left soon after 8 and got back into the car as twilight started to descend over the city. After a 20 minute drive back to mine, Adrien parked the car on the other side of the park in one of the bays.

"So, have you enjoyed your evening?" he asked me as he took my left hand in his, gripping it tightly as he led me through the park.

"I've loved it. Thank you so much for arranging that. Just one thing. Who's car is that really?"

"Ahhhh! That is my mum's. She felt that after a few years in a coma and waking up to find that her husband is really a maniac, she deserved to treat herself a bit. So she bought that car a few weeks ago and it arrived only the other day. I was lucky that when I told her what I wanted to do, she said I could borrow the car. She truly loves you, you know? I think she now sees you as a daughter as well as Chloe."

"Wow, that was so nice of her! And I love her too. I see her as more of an amazing aunt rather than a mother just because I have a truly wonderful mother, but I get the feeling she'd prefer it like that anyways, what with my romantic relationship with her biological son!"

"True! But I guess I see your mum as a form of mother figure, especially after taking me in for a bit all those months ago."

"I didn't think of that," I was lost in thought for a second before I realised that Adrien had stopped and was pulling me back to him. We were right in the centre of the park. "Hey, why'd you stop?"I questioned as I stepped back towards him. He was looking up at the clear sky, now turning from dusky darkness to the deep blue of the night sky. Right above us was the astonishingly bright moon, lighting up the surrounding area with an eerily beautiful glow. Adrien then turned towards me and placed his hands on my hips, shifting his gaze to look deeply into my eyes.

"Do you remember that night in New York with the magical hot dogs that made us float?" he asked, his eyes gleaming at the memory.

"Of course I do. We danced in the moonlight to the same song we danced to at Chloe's birthday party. It was the best night we had over there."

"That it was. I think it was that night that my feelings for you started to grow, but I was still in denial for quite a while after that happened. But I remember an overwhelming feeling of comfort and safety, despite the fact we were floating in mid air!"

It was at that point that I heard the first tinkling notes of our song float through the trees towards us. Adrien pulled me closer to him and rested his head next to mine, his chin on my shoulder. I nuzzled my head next to his, not thinking about where the music was coming from. I closed my eyes, enjoying the closeness of the moment and the comfort of being enveloped in Adrien's arms. Eventually, the song finished, tailing off into an upbeat tune. My eyes shot open as I registered the change in tone standing up straight to find the source of the music. That was when I spotted the people dancing around us, stopping to watch my reaction.

"SURPRISE!" My friends shouted, all of them dressed in cocktail attire. The park was now dressed up with balloons and streamers that seemed to have popped out from nowhere. I turned back to Adrien, my mouth gaping as I tried to find something to say.

"So… what do you think?" he whispered to me, a look of slight worry crossing his face.

"I love it! How did you manage to pull this off?" I asked for a second time that night, truly shocked.

"Well that was careful planning on my part," I heard a voice behind me say, turning to see that it belonged to Alya. "But I guess it was pretty boy here's idea! And it wasn't that difficult, this guy really knows you. So all we had to do was prep everything and then when you walked in and got sucked into your moment, we silently put everything up and bingo!"

I really couldn't believe it. These people really were my best friends. Around us was everyone we knew, including Kagami and Luka, two people I was very glad to see. I turned back towards Adrien and wrapped my arms back around his neck, kissing him thanks.

"You're the best. And I have no idea how I can make this up to you," I whispered to him.

"You don't have too. Just enjoy yourself," he whispered back, kissing my forehead and letting go of my waist.

The rest of the night was amazing and so much fun. It was filled with so much laughter and celebration and I loved catching up with everybody after the last few months of craziness. Kagami was heading back to Japan for university, going back to her roots to study fencing. Luka was going on a musical tour of the world, looking for inspiration in some of the most unlikely places. Max was going to a top technology school in America - MIT - and so many more of my friends were about to take new and exciting steps towards their futures.

Then, near midnight, Adrien came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder before telling me to follow him. He grabbed my hand and led me towards a table on the edge of the park, where I spotted my parents waiting by a gorgeous 2 - tier cake. I let go of Adrien's hand and ran towards them, enveloping them both in a hug.

"Happy Birthday Sweetie," my dad said. "It is now officially your birthday, the day you become an adult."

"I know I don't believe it," I sighed. "This cake is stunning by the way."

'Thanks honey. At least we managed to get through making it without your father accidentally throwing it in the bin to hide it from you like he did for your 15th birthday!" Mum laughed.

"He did not!" I exclaimed.

Now all my friends were surrounding the table and had started to sing Happy Birthday. I quickly blew out the candles and then my parents cut and dished it out to everyone, the buzz of conversation starting up again, as my parents pulled me to one side.

"Have fun tonight sweetie. Don't leave it too late and we thought we should let you know that Adrien can stay over tonight because it will definitely be too late for him to drive home across the city on his own," Dad said.

"Thanks Papa. I think he'll be relieved to know that. Somehow I don't think he wanted to drive home tonight." I replied, giving them one last hug before they said goodnight and made their way home, probably to jump straight into bed to get at least a little sleep before their regular early start. I turned back to the party, making my way over to the drinks table to pour myself some water. I watched from the side as my friends talked and laughed together, some of them making their way to the 'dance floor' as the music started to pick up again.

"What are you thinking?" A voice said from behind me. It was Chloe pouring herself another drink. We really had gotten a lot closer in recent months, mainly due to the relationship she had with Adrien's family. It was as if the last few years never happened and I can truly say that the real Chloe behind the mask was a really sweet and caring person, and one that nearly everyone in the class had seen during the last year of school stress.

"Oh nothing," I replied with a content smile. "It's just that I can't believe we're all about to follow separate paths soon. We've all grown up together and it's strange to think that those paths may mean that we'll never see some of these people again."

"I know it's bizarre," Chloe responded, walking around to my side of the table and perching next to me. "I'm glad that you and Adrien managed to convince me that these people can be my friends. And I'm so happy that I listened. The past few months really have put everything in perspective. I only wish I knew what I wanted to do like the rest of you," she sighed.

"It's ok, you'll find something. You have been accepted to a great school in London. And I don't think the rest of us do know exactly what we want to do, we're still figuring it out."

"Thanks Mari. Now come on, enough school talk, come dance with us!" With that, Chloe took the glass out of my hand and placed it onto the table, grabbing my hand and pulling me to the group of nearly everyone dancing to the upbeat music that Nino was playing.