The Birthday Trap

Written by: JuliaFC

Language Betas: Mystic_Raven20 and Katieykat513

Concept Betas: Mystic_Raven20, EtoileLeadSama and Rosehealer02

Written for Malauu_Ladynoir's birthday

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc, TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Epilogue

oOoOoOoOoOo

They woke up to the annoying sound of something buzzing uncontrollably at the side of Marinette's bed. Adrien opened a sleepy eyelid and it took him a second to focus, because his ceiling wasn't pink. Uh, and his bed wasn't as soft.

"Mmmmmmh."

His bed also didn't moan. Oh well, at least not when the smell of Plagg's fouling cheese didn't reach his nostrils because the wee God had decided to bring a slice into bed with him and was in a cheese induced coma. But all that came to his nostrils was the wonderful smell of coconut and wildflowers.

Uh. Marinette's smell. Yes, now he remembered…

He lifted an arm to pick up the phone and Marinette lifted an extremely sleepy head that had been buried deep into his chest until then.

"If it's an akuma, I'm giving them my Miraculous. I'm too tired…fuck off, Papillon," she drawled, very slowly, eventually crashing her face again into his chest and hugging him tighter.

Adrien started chuckling. "Not a morning person, are you, Marinette?"

She groaned into his chest. "Stop moving. And you should know, I've known you five years."

She had a point. Adrien picked her phone from her bedside table, just to quickly glance which akuma they were relinquishing their Miraculous to, but was met with the grinning face of Alya from the phone's calling ID.

"Alya," he said, putting the phone down to pat her gently on the head.

"What about her?" she whimpered.

"She's calling you. And from the look of it, it's a video call."

"Fucking hell, video calling me at stupid o'clock in the morning…" She fumbled on the bedside table, picked up the phone and sighed. "Do you want me to get up to answer?"

His hold on her didn't loosen. "Not a chance, you stay right here."

She looked over her shoulder to meet gaze with him. "You know what this means, right?"

He smiled at her. "She deserves her reward."

"Indeed she does." She smiled back and pushed the green button.

"Oh good morning sleeping—uh!-beautIES. Hello there, Sunshine!" As she said that, Nino's face popped on the screen too and they both aw-ed.

"I knew my little bird would leave the nest finally," squealed Nino.

"NO! Don't tell me," said Alix's voice from the background. Sure to God, Alix's face appeared on the screen seconds later. "Good for you! Nice to see you not looking as perfect as usual, Adrien!"

By now, both Adrien and Marinette were redder than Ladybug's suit.

"Okay," said Marinette with a little growl. "Is there anyone else who wants to enjoy the show or can we just get back to sleep?"

Alya picked back the phone. "Marinette, my dear sweet Marinette. Have you forgotten we had agreed for a picnic today, for your birthday?"

Marinette rolled her tired eyes. "Yeah, not this early though."

"It's three o'clock in the afternoon, girl," laughed Alya, her laughter increasing to a roar when she saw their shocked faces and how quickly they had buckled out of bed. "Guess I don't need You-Know-Who to tell me whether you went through all the games last night! Ah, I wasted so much money on galettes for no reason…"

"About that…" started Marinette a little angrily, but Adrien picked up her phone and cut her off.

"By the way, Alya, maybe you could clarify a little doubt we had last night while we were, uh, playing your game." He put the phone down to pull up his underwear, and then his trousers.

"Spill, I'm all ears." Alya's smile was so dazzling she could have put the sun to shame.

"Would you rather have a Chateau in the Loire or an apartment in the City Centre for your next birthday?" He popped a little smirk on his face as Alya blinked on the other end of the phone.

"What?"

"That's not part of the choices, Alya. Chateau or City apartment?"

Alya got a slight greyer complexion as her eyes grew wide. "Agreste, you're fucking joking, right?"

"Do I have the face of one who's joking?"

Nino's face appeared on the screen, as shocked as Alya was. "Fucking hell, mec, that's a hell of a present!"

"Not even half as precious as what she's done for me." But the couple on the other side of the screen was still staring at him, dazed, so he added, "Come on, I'm so loaded I don't know what to do with my money, and you made me the happiest man on Earth last night so…you deserve a treat!"

Alix's face popped on the screen. "If you're so generously offering, I also helped…"

Alya's angry face reappeared on the screen. Her gaze was shooting daggers at Alix who was walking away laughing by the sound of it. Then, she glared at the screen. "Don't speak nonsense, Adrien, and get dressed, can ya? And don't forget to drag my girl here, because I want as many deets as she will feel comfortable to grace me with. See you in…" She eyed her watch. "Ten minutes. Don't be late or we start without you!"

"Yes, ma'am," joked Adrien as Alya hung up the phone.

When he looked around for Marinette, she was nowhere to be found, so he leaned forward on the rails of her loft to see her downstairs, already dressed, brushing her teeth with one hand while with the other she was trying to put some mascara on her lashes.

"Wow, you're fast," he said, taking the steps to get down. He straightened his top and went to look for his hairbrush, and his toothbrush, from his duffel bag.

"I've years of experience in speedy dressing!" Then she looked at him. "Do you need something to style your hair?"

He chuckled. "Marinette, it takes me an hour in the morning to do my hair. We'd never get there in ten minutes if I attempted to style it."

She chuckled with him. "Okay, then you'll get around with Chat Noir hair."

He gave her a 'I don't give a fuck' shrug, his mouth too full of toothpaste to answer. When he was able to speak again, he muttered, "I can't believe I slept until three o'clock…"

"What I can't believe is that we don't have a hangover, and that I'm only slightly sore." Marinette popped her lips after having covered them with a good amount of gloss. "And…I'm even more surprised that nobody tried to call you from home."

He flashed his phone in front of her face, showing that it was dead before plugging it on to an external portable battery.

"Oh, right," she said, "well then. Why hasn't your bodyguard broken into my house thinking I kidnapped you?!"

He shrugged again, also wondering the exact same thing. "I was meant to meet Kagami for a fencing session today, and the Gorilla should have picked me up early this morning to go home, and then go there this afternoon."

They both shrugged when Adrien's phone turned on and no new messages came on the screen. He gathered his duffel bag and put his pyjamas and still wet underwear from the night before into it. "I'll return the underwear I'm wearing to you as soon as it's washed," he said as they walked downstairs.

She smirked at him. "Keep it. I quite like the idea of my initials on your underwear."

He didn't say anything, but his smile was so dazzling Marinette thought she'd go blind.

§§§

The absence of messages on Adrien's phone, and of his bodyguard trying to save him from kidnapping, was a mystery until they reached the pic-nic area at Place de Vosges. Where Kagami was sitting with everyone else waiting for them. And the Gorilla too.

The look on Adrien's face must've been a sight to behold, because everyone laughed. Including the Gorilla, who messed with his phone briefly.

"Happy belated birthday, Adrien," said the message that appeared on his screen seconds later, coming from his chuckling bodyguard. "Couldn't do anything last October, but this brunette with glasses here convinced me that you also deserved a present, even if it was late. After all, better late than never."

"We were all part of it," said Kagami with a smile. "Luckily, Nathalie was too busy planning the autumn line of the Agreste brand to realise that it was weird of me to ask for a fencing session with you—on a Sunday."

Alya had to close two sets of jaws. "But enough of this," she exclaimed after. "It's time to CELEBRATE! I'm so proud of you both!"

They both took the colour of a ripe tomato.

"Your hair looks like Chat Noir's, Agreste," joked Alix, startling him, as he had completely zoned off.

He blinked. "Does it?"

"Yeah…" Alya tapped a finger to her chin. "I wonder…"

"Miaow," he said with an over-dramatic sigh. "Gosh, way to blow up a well kept secret!" He breathed better when everyone thought he was joking and started roaring with laughter.

"Yeah, of course, the Agreste boy being Chat bloody Noir…I won't believe it even if I see it!" exclaimed Kim, producing an even louder roar of laughter from the entire group.

The afternoon went on between more laughter, jokes, friendly teasing and a lot of pats on the back for both Adrien and Marinette. As Adrien looked into the happy gaze of the wonderful girl he was in love with, he thanked everything he held dearest to him that he had so many people who loved and looked after him.

Especially her. And Plagg.

Yes, for a Black Cat holder, he was definitely, very, very lucky.

Fin

Author's Note:

Hello there! This is the end :(

I know :( I'm so gutted, but hey ho, it couldn't go on forever! :) I was so happy to see all the engagement that this story got from all of you. I haven't gotten this many comments since The Naked Truth. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I'm so happy and proud that you're liking this story and that you're gracing me with all this feedback. Please make it continue! I'm beyond delighted.

I hope you all liked this epilogue, and please, let me know what you thought of it in a comment! I love hearing back from you all (as mentioned above)! I'm always open to a dialogue, I don't mind ANY type of feedback. To all of you who will write a review or a comment for this story, thank you so much! You always make my day.

As usual, if you read this and you're not part of our wonderful Discord server already, please join Miraculous Fanworks (for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks) or Miraculous Discordance /QwgKdUhJNJ (discord dot gg slash QwgKdUhJNJ).

Also, please join the Emerald Library Discord server at /rjQhnJNh (for people on FFN or Wattpad, discord dot gg slash rjQhnJNh) and access my personal channel. I'm there all the time so if you pop around we can have a chat. I promise I won't bite.

Thank you for following me!