(A/N) Thanks to Khanofallorcs for betaing!
Adrien adjusted the domino mask Marinette had crafted him. It was amazing what that woman could do with any stray bit of fabric; even a discarded shirt from a dumpster. Combined with the helmet she'd also retrieved, it should hopefully be enough to prevent him being recognized on sight. Unless whatever pictures of him most people were familiar with included him wearing a helmet and a mask, in which case, he was absurdly unlucky and really, really screwed.
Marinette kept on looking at the helmet and frowning, looking disgruntled. He couldn't understand why. "Is something wrong?"
She quickly looked away. "No, nothing, it's fine! Totally fine! Seriously, it's really silly."
Adrien's eyebrows flew up. "Now I really want to know."
Marinette stared at her feet and muttered something.
Adrien frowned. "Look, if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to. But whatever it is, it's okay."
Marinette bit her lip. Slowly she raised her eyes to meet his. "I was mourning the death of your hair's floofiness; a victim of the evils of helmet hair."
He burst out laughing. A few moments later, Marinette joined in, her giggles stirring butterflies in Adrien's stomach. "It's gonna be a close shave, but with your help, rest a sheared, my hair will get back to its full floofiness in no time!"
Marinette let out a loud groan. Considering that her laughter intensified to the point she had tears in her eyes and could barely walk, he doubted she actually hated the puns that much. "You— you— how are your jokes THIS BAD?!" she choked out, once she could breathe again.
He made a motion that, if it wasn't currently constrained by the villainous helmet, would have culminated in a hair flip. "Natural talent."
Marinette choked, descending into a fit of giggles once more.
"No-— no more talking," she gasped out. "We— we need to actually make it to safety, and I can't— I can't walk when I'm laughing this hard."
He grinned, miming sealing his lips. His work here was done.
A few minutes of (mostly) silence later (Marinette still let out a rogue giggle every minute or two) they arrived at an open area, filled with people milling about. Marinette reached for his hand.
Adrien looked at her questioningly. She looked away. "I don't want to get separated," she muttered, motioning to the crowd.
Hundreds of people walked around restlessly, some looking frustrated or scared, others just confused—Past Pirate's other victims, Adrien guessed.
A few minutes after their arrival, a man wearing a sash walked up to a nearby podium. After adjusting his microphone, he started addressing the crowd.
"Past Pirate has been apprehended by Majestia and Uncanny Valley," he said gratefully, "After a long pursuit across the ocean, he is once again behind bars, where he belongs."
The crowd clapped politely.
Adrien frowned. That seemed like a weirdly subdued reaction to a supervillain being taken out.
The man at the podium noticed too. "I know we all still miss our local superheroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir," the man continued.. "I— I miss them too. I talked with them regularly during their time protecting the city. But they'd want us to be warm and welcoming towards the heroes saving Paris in their absence, so how about we give Majestia and Uncanny Valley a round of applause?
This time, cheers and whoops erupted through the crowd in addition to the clapping, the din making Adrien want to cover his ears— except that he didn't want to let go of Marinette's hand.
"What about Past Pirate's victims?" A woman called, clutching a boy next to her, who Adrien guessed was her son. "Without Ladybug's Cure…"
Ladybug again. Sabine had mentioned her, too. A lot of people had a ton of respect for her it seemed. Judging by their tones when talking about her, they missed her greatly.
This Chat Noir, as well… he hadn't come up as often, but sash-man had mentioned him and Ladybug in the same breath, as if they were a package deal.
What'd happened to them?
His thought process was interrupted by a GIANT woman and a robot descending from the sky. "Don't worry," the giant told the crowd, loud enough that she didn't need a microphone. "We know how to deal with Past Pirate's tricks stateside. Our top expert in reversing mind-altering effects is heading over here, but I'm afraid his plane won't arrive for a few more hours."
Sash man took over, "Anyone suffering from amnesia, I'd advise going home with any known loved ones, if you are able. Anyone who doesn't know where home is and doesn't have someone to stay with may take a room at my hotel until your memories can be returned."
"Marinette?" Adrien asked, looking at her expectantly. It took her a moment to notice, as she was looking through her phone.
"Maman and Papa are on the other side of the city," she said. "They're not going to be able to pick us up for several hours. But two of my friends are here, Maman's sent them to pick us up until they can get home."
She pulled up her contact list, scrolling to 'Alya' and 'Nino'. "We've been friends for years, according to Maman," she explained, "and based on the texts I've sent to Alya, I can believe it."
Adrien peered over her shoulder, memorizing her friends' photos. "They look friendly," he noted.
She chuckled. "That's an understatement. Looks like they've been a couple for a while now, if Alya's complaints about Nino keeping her up at night are anything to go by. Dunno whether they're married yet, but with the tone of her 'complaints'"— she made quotation marks with her fingers, smiling slightly - "I think it's only a matter of time."
"Maybe we can ask them about this Ladybug person," he suggested. "She keeps on being mentioned; I'd love to learn more about her."
"You were hit by Past Pirate, I'm guessing?"
Adrien turned to face the new voice. The woman from before, the one who had mentioned Ladybug's Cure, continued, "She and Chat Noir were Paris' local superheroes a couple years ago, the first ones we've ever had. Dealing with Hawkmoth's attacks without them— I shudder to imagine."
"Hawkmoth? Who's he?" Marinette wondered.
The woman growled, clutching her son just a little bit closer. "Paris' local supervillain. He terrorized the city for years, trying to get ahold of Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous."
At Adrien's confused look, she elaborated. "Miraculous are magical, animal-inspired jewelry that gives people powers. Hawkmoth possessed the Butterfly Miraculous, letting him prey on others' negative emotions, turning them evil and giving them powers, as well as creating monsters out of magic wholesale with those same sorts of super abilities. Thankfully, he didn't unlock the monster ability until later - I'd shutter to think of what would've happened if he'd had it from the start, when those two were still inexperienced."
"Ladybug and Chat Noir defeated him?" Adrien guessed.
She nodded. "It took nearly four years, but they did it. The final battle…" Her eyes glazed over, her mind a million miles away. "Lights flew all around Paris, things moving around randomly, breaking, illusions popping up… complete chaos. I've experienced a lot of magic in my life, but this… this was so much, I could feel it. I still don't know what happened back then - I don't think anyone except for Ladybug and Chat Noir know the full story. Just that Hawkmoth was stripped of his Miraculous, live in front of all of Paris, freeing us from his attacks, and Ladybug and Chat Noir… they just vanished. They haven't been seen since."
"You think they're okay?" Marinette asked softly.
The woman nodded. "I don't know for sure, of course, but after everything they went through, I can't imagine the two of them succumbing. So long as they're together, they can take on anything."
Her eyebrows scrunched up in concern. "But… well, I still worry. Hawkmoth… he had a son. He said he didn't know anything about his father's activities, but I don't buy it. Hawkmoth was trying to resurrect his wife, he lived alone with his only son, and he never told him about it?" She shook her head. "No way. He had to have been lying. Him giving away his father's money to charity was just a cover-up. He's just waiting for his chance to get the Miraculous back or break his father out of prison or - or something! No one even seems to have eyes on him, I saw him working at a freaking BAKERY! The kind of person who'd be willing to expose the public to someone as dangerous as him… I don't know what Tom and Sabine are thinking."
Adrien's blood froze. "Tom and… Sabine?" he forced out, trying to keep his voice steady.
She looked at him curiously. "They're pretty well known around here, their bakery is the best in Paris," she explained. "They're also some of the nicest people you'll ever meet."
She sighed. "Adrien probably told them some sob story about how alone he is and how all he wants is another chance. They'd eat that stuff right up."
Her brow furrowed. "But, the danger… I worry about them. Especially with their daughter returning from overseas. Bad enough that they're in Adrien's crosshairs, they don't need to drag their daughter into it as well."
Marinette made a strangled choking noise from beside him. "Well, it's been nice talking to you," she said, a large, fake smile on her face, full of gritted teeth. "But we've got to be going. Thanks for the info!"
"Just be careful of Tom & Sabine's Bakery," the woman called as they walked away. "He might still be there."
Adrien walked wherever Marinette led him, dazed.
Had he known what his father did?
Was he a danger to Marinette's parents?
To Marinette herself?
He'd love to say that he wasn't, that he'd never think of hurting them, or allowing someone else to be hurt.
But how could he, when he didn't remember anything? When he didn't know what he was normally like?
"She's wrong," Marinette said, glaring up at him fiercely. "You wouldn't hurt anyone. And you wouldn't have stood by while people were being hurt, either!"
"How do you know that?" he asked, not meeting her eyes.
He wanted to believe what she was saying. But doubt kept on niggling at him.
"I- I just do," she said. "There's no way you're evil. None."
His expression softened. She believed in him, even without knowing exactly why.
He hoped he was worthy of that belief.
"MARINETTE! MARINETTE, OVER HERE!"
Marinette looked over towards the noise.
A familiar-looking girl waved at her enthusiastically, an equally familiar-looking boy grinning next to her.
She surreptitiously checked her phone.
Yep, those were definitely Alya and Nino. Unless they had doppelgangers running around. Considering how weird this day had been so far, it wouldn't surprise her.
"Sorry it took us this long," Alya said apologetically, hurrying over to her. "There's a lot of confusion and congestion right now, with everyone trying to get here at once and half the people not remembering standard supervillain attack procedures."
She glanced down at Marinette's hands.
And then at the person whose hand she was holding. "Wait, is that…?"
Marinette nodded, putting her free hand up to her lips. "Maybe we should talk about this somewhere more private," she said quietly. "You know, where people are less likely to get hostile?"
Alya nodded, smirking. "And once we arrive at my and Nino's place?"
She felt her face heat up. "We'll, uh- we'll see," she stammered out.
Adrien looked around the apartment, taking off his shoes as he entered and neatly stashing them by the welcome mat.
It was a decent size, considering the location. A small kitchen was tucked away to the side, a living room straight ahead, with two doors opposite the living room. One he guessed was the bedroom, and the other a bathroom. Everything a young couple would need.
Speaking of which…
"You two been together long?"
Alya nodded. "We started dating a few months after I moved here. I was 14 and had barely considered dating - I figured I'd try it eventually, but I had other things on my mind."
She looked at Nino, giving him a small smile. "Then Ladybug locked me and Nino in a panther cage during an akuma attack and forgot to retrieve us. Dad let us out eventually, but it gave us a lot of time to get to know each other. I couldn't help falling for the dork."
Adrien blinked. "Uh… Panther cage…?"
Alya laughed. "Akuma attack at the zoo. Don't worry, the panthers had already escaped."
"That's good… I guess…?"
She waved it off. "No one got hurt, don't worry. Besides, we've had way worse. Kissing zombies, dinosaurs, floods, the earth getting knocked out of alignment and nearly turning into an ice ball - all typical stuff during…"
Alya froze. "...Uh… never mind that," she said nervously, grinning widely to cover up her awkwardness.
Huh. That was weird. Why would she be so eager to end that topic?
"Typical stuff during what?" he asked.
Alya's face scrunched up as she seemed to have a mental debate with herself. At last she sighed. "Sorry, I wanted to keep references to your father to a minimum."
Oh.
"Did he hurt you?" he asked quietly.
It was weird. He didn't remember this man. Didn't know his father at all. Yet, somehow, he still felt responsible, like he should've been able to stop him.
"Dude, it doesn't matter," Nino cut in. "He's behind bars, and Ladybug always fixed everything, anyway."
"I heard about that," Adrien recalled. "No one knows where she or her partner went."
Alya nodded, her brow furrowing, her lips forming a thin line. "Yeah. I kept an eager look out for them for months after the battle, expecting them to show up triumphantly, for all of Paris to be able to celebrate Hawkmoth's defeat with them, but… nothing. It's like they vanished into smoke. I received some videos from my followers with what they thought might be Ladybug or Chat Noir sightings, but they were always either fake or mistaken."
"Your followers?"
Nino's face lit up. He put his arm around his girlfriend. "Alya here runs the most popular superhero blog in all of Paris - the Ladyblog! She even filmed the very first akuma attack and got the very first interview with either of the heroes! You can find footage documenting most of the akuma attacks, too -" he frowned at Alya "-mostly because she kept throwing herself into danger to document them."
She waved him off. "Hey, I cut down on it after Ladybug asked me to be more careful." She turned to Adrien. "Most of the akuma attacks from the last few years I got through my followers submitting their own footage, or security cams. Especially since I was busy studying and couldn't race after supervillains anymore; not if I wanted to pass my exams."
"Of course, that didn't stop her from putting out Miraculous news: Alya changed focus from documenting the fights to researching the Miraculous instead. She's won a few awards for it!" Nino said.
Alya beamed. "I've always found superheroes fascinating, so getting to research more about them, about magic in general, even being able to help Ladybug and Chat Noir with what I found? Was a dream come true."
Her face fell. "I hope they're okay…"
Adrien exchanged glances with Marinette. "You've researched magic?"
Alya blinked, noticing the weird look. "Yeah, why?"
"We've got some weird stuff with us," Marinette said. "We think they're magical? Either that or some really advanced tech I don't recognize, but considering what happened with my purse, I dunno how it could do that without breaking the laws of physics."
"Okay, I gotta see this," Alya said. "What weird thing can your purse do that's so unbelievable you think it might be magic?"
In response, Marinette reached into her tiny 6-inch-tall purse and pulled out her 2 and a ½ foot long umbrella.
"...Is this a magic trick?" Nino asked, taking the umbrella and studying it.
Marinette shook her head. "Maybe it's magic, but it's no trick."
Alya put her hand on her chin, frowning. Marinette looked at her hopefully. "You have any ideas? Did I tell you about this?"
Alya shook her head. "Nope, you never said a word about it. It always surprised me how you could always be so prepared for every circumstance, but I figured that you were just being, well, YOU. I joked about you magically being able to conjure up what you needed, but…" she trailed off, her eyebrows knitting together.
"Do you know why I would hide it?" Marinette asked, troubled.
Alya shook her head. "We were always pretty open with each other. Mostly. You've always had a tendency to make up bizarre excuses and vanish suddenly sometimes, but I just dismissed it as a quirk; you've been like that as long as I've known you. Well, until recently anyway."
"Recently?"
"You weren't really acting like yourself the past few months before you left on your trip abroad," Alya explained. "You've been more anxious and depressed than usual. I caught you crying sometimes, but you'd never give me a straight answer about why. Staying in New York seemed to help, at least. I mean, you were anxious after returning, of course, but-" she glanced at Adrien.
Marinette frowned, following her gaze. Alya was clearly dancing around something. Part of her was curious about what she kept herself from saying. But the stronger part of her felt queasy.
The queasy part won. Whatever Alya was purposely not saying, she had a feeling she didn't want to know.
"There's one other weird magic thing I found on me," Marinette told her. Hesitantly she pulled off her earrings, holding them tightly in her closed fist.
"Your earrings?" Alya asked.
Marinette nodded. "Take a look at my ears."
Alya eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, but she complied.
"Your ears look normal?" she asked a moment later. "I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for. With the way you were talking, I thought they might suddenly become pointy, or turn green, or something. Dunno how you fit those earrings in, though, the holes are so tiny I can't even see them."
"That's exactly it. There aren't any."
Alya blinked, moving closer, examining Marinette's ears a second time. "You're right, they're not there at all. You sure they're not just really weird clip-ons though? Or something? How'd you even put them on if there's no holes?"
"I just kind of put them up to my ears as if I was about to insert them in, and then they just… are there. Slotted in. I can't really explain it beyond that."
"Maybe they're just a weird kind of clip-on? Something that you know how to put on because of muscle memory, but with your amnesia, you've forgotten how they work?" Alya suggested.
Marinette shrugged. "I don't see how it could stay on. There's no backing or anything to keep it in place. Here, take a look for yourself." She opened her hand.
Alya's face flashed through multiple emotions as she took in the sight of the red-and-black spotted earrings, each going too quick for Marinette to identify.
"Hey, Nino, maybe you should show Adrien some of the cool songs you've been working on!" Alya said hastily, voice weirdly high-pitched. "I'm sure he'd love them. I've got some things to talk to Marinette about, you know, girl-to-girl."
"You know about these earrings!" Marinette accused. "You recognize them!"
Alya gave her a strained look. "Not now," she hissed quietly.
"Whatever you have to tell me, you can do it with Adrien here," Marinette said stubbornly. "He's involved in this too."
Nino was already leading Adrien away, arm wrapped around his shoulders, but the mention of his name caused Adrien to stop in his tracks. "What's going on?"
"Alya knows what's going on with our weird jewelry."
"Wait, 'our weird jewelry'?" Alya asked, sounding even more frantic than before. "Adrien has some, too?"
In answer, Adrien pulled off his ring, causing it to change to black again, the green pawprint on its face almost seeming to glow.
Alya stumbled a few steps to the nearest chair and collapsed.
Nino peered at the ring, then at Adrien, then back at the ring. "Dude," he said in awe, "you're Chat Noir?"
"Chat Noir?" Adrien cast his memory back. "The superhero?"
He blinked. "Wait, if I'm Chat Noir, then Marinette's gotta be-!"
Alya groaned. "This explains SO MUCH. You have no idea."
"So Adrien and I are superheroes?" Marinette asked. "We helped protect the city from-"
Oh.
Oh CRAP.
"My father." Adrien said heavily. "We protected Paris from my father."
Someone grabbed both his shoulders. Looking up, he met Nino's eyes. "His actions were NOT YOUR FAULT," Nino told him fiercely. "They were his, and his alone."
"But…"
"Dude, as someone who's been up close and personal with Chat Noir more than most, let me tell you; you did everything anyone could expect of you. You even freaking fought him off more times than I could count! Without you-" Nino broke himself off, shaking his head. "I don't want to think about what would've happened if you weren't around."
Adrien nodded, but didn't meet his eyes. He might not remember his father or the destruction he caused, but his stomach still churned at the thought of living in the same house as the man and not having known what he was doing until after he caused untold amounts of trauma.
*beep beep*
Marinette jumped about a foot in the air, arms pinwheeling wildly as she tried to regain her balance. In a flash Adrien was by her side, catching her before she could fall to the ground.
"You okay?" he asked.
She nodded, already looking at her phone, entirely unperturbed at the sudden physical contact or the way Adrien had seemed to teleport to her.
EMERGENCY ALERT: ALL MEMORIES OF PAST PIRATE'S VICTIMS WILL BE RESTORED IMMINENTLY. PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THIS COULD BE A DISRUPTIVE PROCESS AND CEASE ANY ACTIVITIES THAT WILL SUFFER FROM A LOSS IN CONCENTRATION.
"I guess they're getting the whole city at once?" Adrien said, reading over her shoulder. "Hopefully no one left the area."
Marinette nodded absent-mindedly, only half paying attention to Adrien's words. Hers and Adrien's memories were going to return. She'd remember everything, wouldn't be groping around in the dark, trying to figure out what was going on.
What was it going to be like, having her memories back? WHO was she like? She apparently had kept her being a superhero secret for years, something she couldn't even imagine right now. How different was she now, compared to the version of her with memories?
And Chat Noir-
She glanced at Adrien. As hurt as he'd been to find out how badly his father had screwed over people, how much worse would it be when he could actually remember the man and the attacks he'd launched?
"I hope you two remember this," Alya piped up. "Because if not… well, we're gonna have a lot of explaining to do."
"You mean because we accidentally revealed our identities?" Marinette asked.
Alya started to shake her head, then paused. "Well, partly. You hid them for so long, I'm betting it's gonna be a shock to find out that someone else knows." She grimaced. "Finding out your partner's identity is likely to be a lot more of a problem, though."
"...We didn't know each other's identities?!" Adrien protested once he regained control of his jaw. "Wha- HOW?! I can't imagine keeping it secret from someone I care about so much, and I've only been around her for a few hours that I can remember!"
Alya shook her head. "I can't imagine it myself. But there's no way in HELL that Marinette would have let her partner go through the shitstorm of Hawkmoth's reveal alone. Even if it would have been hard to explain how you two knew each other, even if it risked her getting caught in the media's crosshairs as well, she would've been there, whether you liked it or not. The only way she WOULDN'T have been there, was if she didn't know you were her partner."
Adrien nodded. He may not have known Marinette for long, but that assessment fit her perfectly.
Marinette felt the corner of her mouth twitch upwards. Maybe there wasn't such a big gap between who she normally was and who she was right now after all.
A flash caught her by surprise, seeming to drill into her brain. She vaguely sensed Adrien collapsing as well.
Searing pain made her curl up as she got the worst migraine she'd ever had.
Then? Blissful peace as she fell unconscious.
…
…
…
Eurgh.
Distantly she heard someone calling out urgently. Groaning, she tried to swat at it, even as she started preparing to get up.
"Damn Hawkbutt… need sleep…" she groaned out, still not opening her eyes.
Tikki might need to wake her up to deal with the purple menace, but that didn't mean she had to be happy about it.
"She's okay," she heard a familiar voice say, finally awake enough to process words. "How's yours doing?"
She heard a groan, not unlike the one she'd let out a second ago. "He's fine," she heard another voice say. This time, she was awake enough to place it.
"Nino…?" she asked distantly. Which meant the first voice was probably-
She opened her eyes. Alya looked back at her, relieved. "Gotta say, that was more dramatic than I expected," she said lightly. "I'm so used to your Miraculous Cure fixing everything, I forgot that most superheroes' rebuilding and recovery efforts are a little less clean and pretty."
Mairnette nodded. Then her brain caught up with what Alya had actually said. "You mean Ladybug's Miraculous Cure," she said hastily. "Not mine. I mean, that'd be ridiculous. Imagine me being Ladybug! I'd probably trip over my own feet within a minute!"
Alya's smile faded a little, looking… was that disappointment? "You don't remember, do you?"
Remember what?
Wait, why was Alya here anyway?
Because we came to her apartment.
Oh yeah, of course, they'd come to Alya's and Nino's apartment-
...They?
"What's going on?"
Her heart skipped a beat. She KNEW that voice. "Cha-!"
She turned her head, catching sight of the man who'd spoken. Her face fell.
It was only Adrien. Had she really been so out of it she'd made that sort of mistake?
Not a mistake.
Marinette frowned, clapping her hands to her cheeks in an effort to wake up.
She glanced at Alya, noticing the strange look on her face. Hastily, she tried to come up with an explanation for her outburst. "I saw a weird pattern in the wallpaper! It looks like a cat, see!" Springing to her feet, she ran over to the wall, tracing out the lines of a very lumpy-looking cat.
Alya didn't change expression. Marinette started sweating. Normally, Alya just went along with whatever weird explanations she came up with… admittedly, probably not because she actually bought them, but she was used to Marinette's mind working in strange ways, to her having weird reactions and running off suddenly.
Something was different.
Letting out a frustrated snort, Alya motioned for Marinette to come back over. Curious, she complied.
"Okay, you two need to talk. I felt like banging my head against the wall when I found out the full story, I'm not going to let you two dance around each other anymore," Alya said, addressing both Marinette and Adrien. She pointed at Adrien. "You're Chat Noir."
Marinette's eyes widened. There was no way. She'd have known her partner in a heartbeat. Alya had to be wrong.
So why didn't she feel more shocked?
Adrien put up his hands, stammering. "I'm not- that's ridiculous-"
Ignoring him, Alya pointed at Marinette. "And she's Ladybug."
Adrien froze, eyes dancing over her. After a moment, he gave her a pained smile. "My Lady?"
Her heart hammered. This… this was her kitty. She'd heard him say that phrase a thousand times, and hoped she'd hear him say it a thousand more.
Something broke in her mind. With a sharp breath, the memories of the past few hours came flooding back.
Digging through her purse (twice), the woman who'd told them about Hawkmoth and Adrien, being picked up by Alya and Nino, showing their Miraculous to the couple, hoping for answers… all the memories played back in her mind on fast forward, leaving her gasping, trying to comprehend it all.
Chat Noir was Adrien.
Adrien was Chat Noir.
Her partner had been right in front of her.
And instead of recognizing him, welcoming him in, or at least befriending him-
She'd treated him like an extension of his father instead.
Adrien looked down, not meeting her eyes. "Milady, I- I understand if you don't want anything to do with me now," he forced out. "I-"
Marinette rushed him, knocking him back with the force of her hug, crying.
"Milady…?" he whispered.
"Never leave me again," she whispered. "Please. I- I could barely function, these past couple years. I had to leave for New York, just to clear my mind for a while. Everything reminded me of you or of Tikki and I didn't know where to find you or how to find you and I'd failed as Guardian and as Ladybug and-!"
He embraced her, stroking her hair gently, like he used to do whenever she started panicking. She cut off with a sob. "I- I missed you too," he said, his voice cracking. "More than you can know. I looked for you every day, hoping I'd recognize you. Hoping you'd recognize me." He gave a small laugh. It sounded like a sob.
He'd hoped she'd recognize him- wait- "Don't tell me that's why you wear black everywhere!"
He rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh…"
She gave a small snort. Then a giggle. And finally, full-blown laughter.
"Hey, it might've worked!" Adrien protested.
"It's- it's not that," she choked out. "It's just- I'd always hoped I'd recognize you on the street, walk by you and instantly know 'yep, that's him, that's my partner'. I- I thought about dressing in red and black, but I- I didn't want to get recognized by-" she looked up at him, wincing. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I- I assumed you'd been the Peacock Miraculous Holder. I worried that you'd discovered who I was, that you were just biding your time to take the Miraculous."
He blinked, putting his hand to his chin. "You thought…? That- that actually explains a lot."
"Wait, wait, wait, hold up," Alya interjected, putting her hands out like stop signs. "This is adorable and touching, but WHAT Peacock Miraculous Holder?"
Oh right, only she and Chat knew about that. "Remember those times when, instead of turning back into a person, the magical being would disappear, leaving a feather behind? Those were sentimonsters, not akumas, and they're a product of the Peacock Miraculous. Hawkmoth must've had someone helping him, but we never found out who."
"And Adrien was your prime suspect, since he was one of the few people close to Gabriel who had a motive to help him," Alya said slowly, realization creeping into her voice. "Okay, now your reaction to Adrien working at the bakery makes sense."
Marinette nodded, looking away. She swallowed thickly. "I- I also- I think I wanted Adrien to have the Peacock Miraculous," she admitted hoarsely. "I mean, I was also scared about it, I- I even had a nightmare about it. About him transforming and attacking me and my parents and Chat, but… at least if Adrien had it, I'd know where it was. I- I could get it back. I could do something."
"Of course," Adrien said, his eyes lighting up. "You always try to find the solution to a problem."
"But with the Peacock Miraculous," Marinette said, continuing Adrien's thought. "I didn't have a solution. I had no idea where to look for it. I couldn't do anything to speed up the kwamis' awakening, and I- I had no idea where to look for you," she said, looking Adrien in the eyes. "I didn't even know if you were still in Paris, or whether you'd left like I did. I hoped, but…" she trailed off for a moment, then shook herself. "Anyway, I could at least try to fix one thing: getting back the final lost Miraculous. So I just… kept on pushing that idea, even when I didn't think you were evil anymore." She winced. "And- and I think I wanted you to be evil, on top of that."
Adrien blinked. "Why…?"
"Because you don't deserve any of the crap you've gone through!" Marinette burst out. "Losing your mother, losing your father, losing your home, being glared at and ostracized by the rest of Paris! All you did was be born to a supervillain, that's it! And- and I played a role in that. Because of me, you- you lost-"
He took her by the shoulders, bending down to eye level. "Listen to me," he said fervently. "None of that was your fault. You told me that it wasn't my fault that my father was a supervillain, right? Well it wasn't yours, either. He needed to be stopped."
"I know, but- but that- it's just not fair! At all! You had to throw your own father in prison, and then everyone shunned you because they thought you might be like him! Even- even me…" she paused, wiping at her eyes. Her vision had gone blurry during her outburst. "If you were evil, then- then I could tell myself that you deserved it. That it was justified. And that I didn't have to feel guilty that us taking down Hawkmoth meant that your life was ruined."
Adrien wrapped his arms around her. "It's not ruined," he said gently. "I'm still here, aren't I?"
She pressed her face into his shoulder, taking comfort in his warmth, in his familiar scent - though with distinctly less of a leather-and-cheese smell. "Yeah. Yeah, you are."
Tom threw the door to the bakery open, waiting just long enough for Sabine to bolt inside before slamming it behind him and racing for the stairs.
Sabine panted as she pounded up the steps, but didn't slow down. Intellectually, she knew Marinette and Adrien were fine. They'd texted her back, assuring her that they'd gotten their memories back and gotten home just fine. But still, with both of them wandering around with amnesia… she worried, especially for Adrien. She'd seen the looks passersby gave him, heard their hateful comments when they thought he was out of earshot - or worse, when they knew full well that he was listening.
Adrien probably wouldn't tell them how badly other Parisians had been treating him - he always downplayed it if he could - but they could still comfort him, show him that he belonged with them, at least.
Tom abruptly froze, his head popping up above the stair railing. She nearly bumped into him. "Tom-what-?"
He pointed at the living room couch.
More specifically, at the two figures who were wrapped around each other, melded so closely that it took a minute to distinguish where one began and the other ended - except for Adrien's fluffy blond head and Marinette's sleek black hair, which, with the way they were positioned close to each other and the slight moaning (along with the rumpled appearances of both of them)... well, it didn't exactly take a rocket scientist to figure out what they'd been up to.
They were both adults and she trusted them to be responsible, but… how? Marinette had barely been able to stand him the day before! She'd hoped she'd become friends with Adrien after getting to know him better, but she hadn't meant getting to know what he tasted like!
Sabine cleared her throat loudly. "Adrien? Marinette?"
"Mmm?" Marinette broke away from the lip-lock (causing Adrien to give out a small, needy whine) and blearily looked at the stairs.
Her eyes widened, the bleariness abruptly disappearing.
"I- ah- we were just- hugging! That's it!" Marinette shouted, scrambling off of the sofa. She nearly fell on the floor in her haste - and would have too, if Adrien hadn't grabbed her at the last second, hauling her back onto the furniture. Blushing red, she sat up, scooting quickly to a more respectable distance away. "Because we're friends now! Yep! And Adrien had a tough day! That's it! Nothing more!"
Sabine chuckled. "Marinette, you're a young woman now. I remember what it was like to be 19. You don't have to hide your… activities. Why, when your father and I were your age-"
"NOPE. DON'T NEED TO HEAR THAT. NOPE NOPE NOPE."
"Well, anyway- if you and Adrien are together now, that's fine by us," Sabine said.
"Really?" Adrien asked disbelievingly. "Even with my father-"
"We don't care about that, son!" Tom shouted. Unable to hold back any longer, he swept both Adrien and Marinette into a bone-breaking hug. "Oh, I'd hoped you two would get together. What flavor should the wedding cake be? Oh! Passion fruit, maybe? But then there's still Marinette's flavor to think of… what flavor do you want, honey?" he asked, looking at his daughter.
"Maybe you should slow down a little, Tom-"
"Strawberry!" Marinette declared. "With chocolate frosting on top. And also a cheesecake - made using Camembert, if that's possible. Oh, and several macarons as toppings, like with those Oreo cakes, you know?"
So maybe Tom wasn't jumping the gun as much as she'd thought.
"I'm glad that you two are- uh- getting along-" both Adrien and Marinette blushed. "But how'd this happen? You sounded friendly on the phone, but I hadn't expected you to get to this point already!"
Marinette and Adrien exchanged glances. The classic 'we need to come up with an explanation on the fly and manage to coordinate it non-verbally so we get our story straight' glances that teens often shoot each other under the assumption that parents had never been kids themselves and wouldn't recognize the look.
"You know how devastated I was after Hawkmoth was defeated, how much of a funk I was in?" Marinette said slowly.
Sabine nodded. "Because some friend you met online had his internet access cut off suddenly, right?" Though with some of the looks she'd seen on her daughter's face when she was talking about this supposed 'friend', she had a feeling she wanted a little something more than that. Marinette had tried to put on a brave face afterwards, but she'd never been a good actress.
"And I told you about the girl I lost contact with after my father was imprisoned, right?" Adrien cut in. "The one I've been searching for?"
"Yes…?"
Oh.
OH.
She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"You've been friends for a long time, huh?" she asked.
Adrien grinned, eyes locked on Marinette. "Yeah, we have."
"How'd you find out?"
The two of them gave each other the 'back me up' look again. "We looked at each other's phones and saw each other's usernames?" Marinette said- well, more like asked.
That was clearly a lie. But she doubted this particular lie was harmful, so she let it slide. If she wanted to keep the truth behind her reunion secret, then so be it.
"Well, you two have fun together," Sabine said, ushering Tom downstairs to give the young couple some privacy. "We'll just be downstairs."
"Make sure to wear protection!" Tom called out.
"DAD!"