Chapter 8: Sunday, Sunday, Sunday...again!

With Marinette's parents on the way home, she and Chat Noir have a short amount of time to talk about hints and hunches. As a last ditch effort, Chat makes it over to Marinette's to ask her one last thing before he makes a major life decision.

What a day! With his normal photographer, Vincent, out sick due to the rain; Adrien had to suffer with this last-minute replacement, who coincidentally was also named Vincent. Besides him being an inadequate photographer, he also lacked the talent and finesse of the original Vincent. Adrien walked into his room, closing the door behind him.

"Whoot, I'm glad that's all over!" Adrien undid his tie as he flopped backwards on his bed. Aza, the substitute photographer, decided it was a good idea to tweak Giuseppe's original photoshoot. Because of the rain, he wanted to do a shoot with Adrien out in the aftermath of the storm, walking alone.

What he was going for was the stability of the umbrella, they could use the photos for another advertisement. "Yeah, but why was the goat there?" Plagg asked before he went to his cheese stash and took out a wedge.

"I don't know; something about 'experiences with hard times' or some crap like that!" Adrien sighed before he rubbed his face up and down, trying to get his mind right. He angrily rose to his feet and started for the restroom.

KNOCK KNOCK

Adrien turned around then glanced at Plagg; he rolled his eyes and then after grabbing another slice of camembert he zipped to his hiding spot. When the coast was clear, Adrien answered "Come in."

"Good afternoon, Adrien. How was your photoshoot?"

It was Nathalie, she had her solemn look on her face as always, however there seemed to be quite a glimmer of happiness in her today. Her stance was lacking, and she didn't appear so stiff today.

'That was odd, Nathalie didn't normally ask how the photo sessions went, but it must be a part of her new motif, perhaps.'

"Um it was okay, Vincent was out so I had to deal with his understudy, but other than that…" Adrien began to walk towards his bathroom again, when he stopped and noticed that she had a small package in her hand.

"Well, I'm glad the shoot was successful." Nathalie met him by his secondary door, "This package came for you." She presented the item in her hands; it was his beret from his Brazilian fan club, fresh from the dry cleaners. Nathalie handed it to Adrien then fixed her glasses, "Dinner will be ready in 20 minutes."

"All right, thanks Nathalie." Adrien opened the plastic and examined the hat, there appeared to be no damage and it was back to being bright as the day he got it. "Will Father be joining me tonight?" Nathalie placed her head down briefly before she shook her head. "Yeah, right. Thank you, Nathalie…" She nodded then about-faced back out the room.

Once gone, Adrien turned to examine his beret again, then disgusted, he threw it on his bed. Absentmindedly throwing it far enough to hit Plagg's camembert tin. "Hey!" Plagg moved out of the way just in time, "Don't throw things, that's rude. Although since it's not food, I don't blame you…" Adrien chose to ignore him and went for his computer.

It didn't take long for Plagg to comment on the hat, "Isn't this the one that Ladybug dropped for you, from your fan club or whatever?" He grabbed it and floated over to Adrien, "Why was it at the dry cleaners?"

Adrien sighed, before he snatched the garment away, "Surprisingly, my father liked the design enough to have me wear it at a few shoots, so it was time to wash-wait…"

"I made him a Santa hat for Christmas, passion fruit macarons 'cause they're his favorite, a beret for his 5th names day…"

Why did those words flash into his head? Adrien brought the beret to his face for a better look, the five stripes lined up matched his iconic shirt. 'Wait, what else did Marinette say?'

"Oh, and a scarf for his birthday!"

Adrien dropped the beret and went straight for his closet, he searched in the back through his winter wear. Once he found it, he fingered the material, and the stitching was similar, but this scarf had one thing that his beret didn't. A tiny "MDC" stitched into the corner, barely able to be seen to the untrained eye.

Adrien collapsed, all this time he was under the impression that his father pulled his head out of his ass long enough to do something for his son for once. Unfortunately, no. He was the same cold unfeeling bastard he's always been.

"Kid, what happened, what's wrong?!"

The dining hall of the Agreste manor was quieter than any library could ever be, even with the accompaniment of patriots inside; tomes made more noise. At one end of the elongated table was Gabriel with Nathalie at his side, he was eating a salad and reading some paperwork. On the opposite side, Adrien was brooding with Gorilla standing near him.

Adrien sat fuming for the last half an hour, going between clutching onto his fork staring at his food and glaring at his father. On the verge of speaking his mind, Plagg complained, "You might want to calm down kid, your heart is knocking me around fiercely!" Angrily whispering.

Too fed up to keep up appearances, Adrien sighed, "May I be excused, please? "He stood up, placing his silverware and napkin on his plate being followed by Gorilla.

Fixing his glasses, Gabriel sighed, placing his paperwork down. "You request an audience with me, yet you run off as soon as dinner gets underway?"

Adrien stopped abruptly, "I didn't 'request an audience', I asked for my father to join his son for dinner but if you're too busy then we can skip dessert…" He started to head off again.

Gabriel slammed his hand down on the table, standing up in anger, "Adrien, that kind of outburst will not be tolerated!" He brought his hand together and began anxiously rubbing his wedding ring.

As if it were magic, Adrien instantly deflated; relaxing his shoulders and releasing his fists at his sides, "Apologies, I've suddenly lost my appetite…" Gabriel nodded then sat back down, allowing Gorilla to lead Adrien to his room.

Adrien stormed into his room, slamming the door behind himself, he threw himself on his bed, forgetting about Plagg in his pocket. "Hey hey, watch out!" Adrien apologized by rolling to his side, letting Plagg go. "What was that all about?"

Adrien growled loudly into his pillow, muffling something about how life isn't fair and how he didn't want to be in this house anymore. "Fascinating…Sounds like every day of my life…" Plagg commented before leaving briefly to feed his face, but came back in time to see Adrien take out his phone.

"No new notifications… Nothing from Marinette either…" He sighed and put his phone back. "I wonder how she's doing?"

"So, I was thinking, when you're available, you can come over; you just need to send a quick text. We'll do what we normally do, however when it comes to us being…*ahem* intimate, that's when we'll call each other by our…'lover's' name. How does that sound?"

"Why don't you message her?" Plagg came back with two pieces of cheese. "She would have closed down the bakery by now, oh I know! Let's go over and maybe we can have some leftovers!"

Chuckling, Adrien rotated on his back, "No, Alya is still over there, and I don't want to disturb them…" Thinking about Marinette, Adrien went to his gallery and looked at the photo of the contract he took earlier…

"In the event that one party member starts to fall in love with the second party member, all previous agreements and actions will be null, and void and all further actions will be immediately disbanded. Furthermore, if either one of the two parties decide that they no longer wish to involve themselves with the second party, as part of the initial agreement, the relationship is to be dismissed and discussed no further."

Looking at the words on the paper, Adrien saw that the font looked familiar; he shot up and ran to his desk. After rummaging through papers, he found a heart shaped card. 'I know I looked at this thing before, but…' Adrien sat down, setting his phone and the card next to each other, 'Marinette made the card, she made the scarf and she made the beret…'

So, does that mean Marinette asked Ladybug to drop off the present and to tell Adrien that it was from his fan club? But why? Was she afraid that he wouldn't like it? Or was she embarrassed? If Marinette loved Adrien as she said he did, why wouldn't she want him to know it was from her? Unless…

"Marinette is Ladybug…"

"WHAT?!" Plagg seemingly teleported in front of Adrien's face, dropping his cheese in an instant, "What did you just say?"

"Look Plagg!" He shoved the items in his face, comparing the beret and the scarf to the similar stitching. "Don't you see, Marinette made everything!" Adrien fell backwards in his chair, "I can't believe that all this time…"

"Just because the material is the same, doesn't mean-"

"Plagg, she told me everything…" Adrien shot up and began pacing the floor. "Marinette told me that she made the scarf for my birthday, she wrote the poem for Valentine's Day, and she made the beret for my fifth's name day!"

Adrien leaned back into his desk chair, running his fingers through his hair, "Marinette has been in love with me the whole time, how else would she have known about my fan club in Brazil! -gasp- Which is why she wouldn't date Chat Noir as Ladybug, she's been in love with Adrien the whole time!" He stood up in triumph.

Plagg panicked, "Adrien, you're not supposed to know each other's identity! It could ruin everything!" He waved his claws in front of Adrien, trying to calm him down.

Adrien paused, he rotated towards Plagg. His brows were furious, his smile disappeared, and a scowl was in its place. "So, you knew?! You knew Marinette was Ladybug the whole time and you didn't tell me! I've asked you-"

"I know! I know!" Plagg shielded his face from Adrien's swinging fist as he punched the air, "I'm sorry! I couldn't tell you! It's against the rules! Master Fu told us not-"

"Fuck the rules!"

KNOCK KNOCK

"Adrien, may I come in?" It was Nathalie again. Adrien stormed over to the door, opening it harshly. Nathalie stepped back as she was not expecting the door to fly open so fiercely. "Oh, I was checking on you. What happened at dinner-"

"I'm fine, Nathalie. It's nothing I'm not used to already…" He leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms in disgust.

"Right. I know your father is…difficult to deal with at times, but he does have your best interest at heart…"

Adrien was not in the mood to have smoke blown up his ass, he got off the doorframe and reached behind the door, "Of course. Thank you, Nathalie. Have a good night."

Again, Nathalie was shocked at the sudden dismissal, however she understood. "Good night, Adrien." She nodded, put her glasses back into place then turned and left.

Closing the door, Adrien went back to his bed, he glanced at his gifts all together. "I need to figure this out…" He quickly grabbed his school, dumping out the continents, then replaced them with Marinette's presents.

Plagg sprinted in front of Adrien, attempting to stop him again. He crossed his arm into an "X". "Adrien, please you need to reconsider what you're doing!"

"Plagg, claws out!"

After launching outside, and landing on the next building over, Adrien, now Chat Noir, thought about how he was going to approach Marinette. How was he able to look at her the same way all the things they've done together? He went through how he would act and thanked heaven he had a second thought about taking that picture of the contract…

"Oh I know! Plagg, you can go down there and tell her we're leaving!"

He gave Adrien a dumbfounded stare, "Adrien, you do know that kwamis can't be seen on videoright?"

"I know that, but you're small enough where you can't be seen." Plagg was hesitant, he turned his back to Adrien and crossed his claws. Adrien slid in front of Plagg with his hands together, "Please Plagg, the girls are probably too busy with the shop to even notice yo-."

"Fine! If it will get us outta here faster, I'll do it!" He bolted down through the trap door

After Plagg disappeared, Adrien began to get dressed in his civilian clothes, he didn't want to get caught in pajamas that didn't have the Agreste brand on them. After he put his shirt on, he glanced over to Marinette's desk; in his haste to leave her a note, he absentmindedly pulled out their written contract. Thinking it would be good for a laugh later, he took a photo of it then proceeded to finish getting dressed.

"There! I said goodbye and I've brought food. Can we go now?" Plagg suddenly came back holding a warm and flaky croissant, which Adrien popped into his mouth instantly.

Munching happily on the bread, Adrien nodded, while he threw his shoes on. "Plagg Claws out!"

"Aw man, is it normally like that?" Alya asked, stretching her arms over her head.

"No, sometimes it's way busier!" Marinette chimed in, lifting her arms up then flopping them back down to her sides.

It was past midnight and the girls finally made it to Marinette's room; Alya was laying down on her chaise, her head and arms dangling off the edge while Marinette had her feet in her desk chair as her body was on the floor. After Nino came by with his little brother and had lunch with the girls, the rush came in.

"OMG I'm so glad I did all my homework already! I don't think I can move my arms anymore!" Alya rolled over onto her front, then grabbed the chaise's throw pillow and tucked it under her head as she laid down on her arms.

"Now you know why papa is so strong!" Marinette sat up, massaging her bicep; she sighed when she rotated her shoulders, then laid back down.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCKY KNOCK

Marinette sat back up, she recognized that secret knock anywhere; her eyes went imminently to her skylight. She looked over at Alya to see if she heard anything, but she was too tired to have noticed. Slowly standing Marinette went to her ladder, placing her left foot up on a step, "Um Alya, I'm going to go up and get some…"

Too late, Alya was already sleeping. Marinette smiled before she continued up her bed ladder. Once she was up in the cool night air, Marinette found Chat Noir sitting in her chair; he was slumped over with his fingers interlaced and his elbows were planted on his knees. Marinette stood in front of him then placed her fists on her hips. "Chat? What are you doing here? You know I had company, what if Alya heard you knocking, or even worse what if she saw you! Do you have any idea- Chat?"

He just sat there unwavering, he appeared to be deep in thought, appearing as if he hadn't heard anything she was yelling about. "Chat, did you hear me?" She stepped closer, raising her hand to pat his head to get his attention, but was stopped when he caught her by the wrist, "Ch-Chat?"

Chat rose to his feet, hovering over Marinette, his hair managed to hide his expression, "Your hair is as dark as night, your pretty bluebell eyes, I wonder who you are underneath that strong disguise. Every day we see each other, I hope that you'll be mine. Together our love could be so true, please will you be my Valentine?"

"N-No…" Marinette snatched her hand away as she backed away covering her mouth, "It can't be…" Chat followed her reaching out to take her hand again.

Marinette bumped into the railing of her balcony, trying to avoid Chat Noir, but there was nowhere for her to go. Chat managed to take a hold of her wrist again and pull her forward into him, swooping her up by the waist then maneuvered his hand to lace together with her fingers. He placed his claw into her hair, fingering her strands as he pushed her face in his chest, "Marinette please be honest with me,"

Chat dipped her backwards, forcing her to stare at him, "I'm asking, no begging; I need to know, are you Ladybug?"

He released her hand then brought it to her cheek, caressing it softly. The look in Marinette's eyes was that of fear and confusion that she couldn't hold back her tears from forming. Chat brought her back up to a standing position, the pure astonishment in Marinette's eyes only confirmed his suspicion; still holding her face he chuckled. "I love you…"

Marinette couldn't move at first, still letting his words sink in, but this time was different. Before, she wasn't on the verge of having her identity revealed, ready to tell her partner that she's been the sweet baker girl he's been messing around with for the past week. She pushed her way out of his grasp then wiped her eyes, "No you don't! You can't say that!"

"Why not, it's true!" He laughed again as he reached out for Marinette once more, only to have her retreat closer to her railing.

Marinette quickly withdrew to the other side of her balcony, and started crying again, "No it's not! You don't love me, and this isn't real!" Using her hands to motion between them.

Chat smashed his hand on his forehead, "What are you talking about? This is real! It's you and me and I love you!" Going towards Marinette, she put up her hands in protest.

"NO! You don't… This isn't real. This is a figment of your imagination, a hellish illusion, a horrible nightmare…" Marinette wrapped her arms around herself, finally settling on the balcony railing.

Chat slowly approached Marinette from behind, first gently placing his claws on her hips then putting his chin on her shoulder, "If this is a nightmare then I'd gladly wake up every night in a cold sweat if that means I get to spend the rest of my life with you…"

Marinette relaxed in his arms, allowing herself to be held, but kept her hands on the banister. "I thought that this could work between us, but it looks like I was the one that breached the contract; I saw your worth and how you treated me. Without realizing that it would be the hardest decision of my life, I fell hard; then it came to me, that I was the only one feeling this way and that I was on an island by myself."

Marinette sighed before pushing off the railing, Chat let go long enough to twist her his direction. He held her shoulders as she continued talking, "With your help I was able to get over Adrien, at least to the point where I can talk to him, but it seems like I haven't helped you get over Ladybug." She sniffed, looking elsewhere. "This is crazy! I don't know who you are, and you don't know me…"

Chat deflated, he fingered Mari's chin, so she'd look up at him, unfortunately that caused her tears to start again, "That's not true, you've shown me that you know me very well, inside and out." He leaned down, placing his forehead against hers, "And trust me, I know you more than you think I do…"

She pushed him away then spoke again, "But you called me your 'everyday Ladybug'…"

Chat started laughing again, upsetting Marinette in the process; he ran his claws through his hair then bent over, collecting Marinette in his arms. After a tight squeeze, he let her go as his laughter began to die down. "Do you know why I called you that?" She shook her head, "It's not because you look like her, or because you smell like her and not because you sound like her; it's because we were made for each other."

Marinette cocked her head to the side in confusion, she needed more of an explanation, "I love you because you're courageous, sweet, smart and helpful. I trust you like the sun trusts the moon to come out at night, and your safety is important to me," Chat removed himself from Marinette's bubble and traveled to her plants, coming back to present her with a rose. "I love you; Marinette Dupain-Cheng and I want to be with you."

At first, Marinette aimed for the flower, slowly stretching her fingers to grasp it, but however one more look at Chat, she immediately dropped her hand. Taking the rose back, Chat huffed before escaping towards her balcony chair; Marinette meanwhile turned her back to stare out at the city. Earlier when Chat arrived, he stored his school satchel behind Marinette's deck chair, until he needed it, depending on how the conversation went.

"You made this, didn't you?"

Twisting her head in his direction, Marinette didn't recognize the material at first considering how long it's been since she had made it, however after she made a full rotation; all became clear.

Marinette snatched the beret from Chat, fingering the snitching; spinning it around making sure it was in fact that same one she gave to Adrien. "I made this for Adrien, how do you have it?" She gripped the hat in anger, she didn't want to believe that her sweet Kitty was a thief, but she also knew that he couldn't possibly be- "Wh-Where did you get this?"

Chat chuckled before he put his arm behind his head, and his hand on his hip, "From you…when you dropped it off at my house…from my 'fan club'…" His stance was reminiscent of a certain model boy.

Marinette started crying again, she shoved the beret in her face as she whined silently; without warning she lunged at Chat, hugging him tightly around his waist grasping the back of his leather suit crying into his chest. Chat Noir absorbed Marinette, hugging her so tightly he felt it in his arms.

Marinette wiped her face against his torso, then pulled back to take a hold of his face, "Yes, it's me, Mon Chaton! I'm so sorry I lied to you all this time, but I couldn't bear the fact that you would know it was me!"

Taking her face into his claw, Chat brought Marinette's lips to lips then sighed when contact was felt. After pulling back, he engulfed her in his arms again, "Is there something you want to tell me?" Mari muffled.

He chuckled, squeezing her tighter, "Claws in…" Marinette screwed her eyes harder as a bright light flashed behind her eyelids, "You can open your eyes now, Bugaboo…"

Once Plagg was released, he nodded to Adrien before he zipped by; desperately searching for Tikki. Once she was found, he tackled her in her little bed, and they cuddled. Until further notice, they would stay out of the way and out of sight as they allowed the two teens to silently cry. As their tears dried up, they sniffled and giggled ever so often; going back and forth from hugging to staring at each other as time was going by steadily.

Adrien scooped up Marinette's legs in his hand, slowly lowered them down to the floor, so that Mari was sitting in his lap. He wrapped his arm around her waist as it became clearer and clearer in his mind of what was happening. When he realized that the two loves of his life were the same person, he squeezed her so tightly; worried that this dream and he was back alone in his cold, dark, loveless mansion.

Tears begin dripping down hitting Marinette's shoulder, causing her to look up with very blurry eyes; snot began to run, "Why are you crying, minou?" She touched his face, removing his tears with her thumbs.

Adrien snickered, "Because this is the happiest day of my life! I can honestly say that you, Plagg and Ladybug are the only things in my life that matter to me, besides my other friends! Turns out that your stupid model boy and silly kitty are also the same person!" Adrien turned his head to use his shirt to clean his nose, "I use my mask to not be 'Adrien' or should I say, 'Gabriel Aggres-sive's model son'; I can be Chat Noir, the fast-talking, pun joking, cookie devouring Kitty Cat that ever roamed the streets of Paris!"

Pulling away, Adrien grasped Marinette's face, watching as the river in his sockets flowed freely. Not caring, Marinette allowed them to hit her face as they connected their foreheads; continuing to hold each other tightly. "I can't believe all this time I've been staring blindly at those same big, beautiful eyes and never noticed; I mean your hair doesn't even change!"

"No, it gets more blue-ish when I'm Ladybug from what I heard…" Marinette blushed as she covered her mouth to giggle. "I didn't think about it, but your hair does this woosh thing that throws me off too!"

Adrien shook his head, "It doesn't matter if your hair is blue or if Ladybug is clumsy, they are two wonderful halves all rolled into one. Having the mask on makes you feel like a different person, and with people not looking at you the same way, you can be who you truly are."

Marinette shrunk, "You seem to know an awful lot about using masks as an outlet…" She brought her hand up to caress his cheek.

Adrien grabbed her hand and kissed in the inside of her palm, "I can't get over how stupid I was not to realize you were Ladybug, I even told myself you possibly could be her, but then I saw MultiMouse and everything just convinced me otherwise."

"I think it was the glamour on my part," Marinette placed her hand over her heart, "My blind obsession over Adrien caused me to shield my eyes from seeing that you, Chat Noir you, could possibly be something more than my special partner. I didn't want to think that my partner that drove me up walls was the same one that wet my panties underneath…"

Marinette accidentally spewed something she didn't mean to; she quickly buried her face in Adrien's chest. Squealing and shaking her head about, silently whispering apologies. Adrien didn't care, he was just excited that she was finally comfortable around him to make complete sentences and look him straight in the eyes.

Those eyes he could stare at forever, those same eyes that's saved him so many times, Adrien just held her tightly; almost feeling like crying again, until she spoke. "So where does this leave us now?"

Adrien hugged around Mari's waist and nuzzled her neck, he swept up her legs, helping her up to her feet. "Looks like you're locked into this thing with me forever now…" He followed suit by rising to his feet and dusting off his clothes.

"Am I locked up with you or are you locked up with me?" She spun around and placed her arms around his neck, standing on her tiptoes, she kissed his nose.

"Both…" He stated before he grabbed her face and kissed her lips.

"Marinette? OMG, Marinette, where are you?!" Both jumped at the sudden screaming. It was Alya, she must've woken up and saw that Marinette was missing, she was probably freaking out.

The couple separated, staring down at the trapdoor, Adrien panicked, he had no cover in the event Alya came up here looking for Mari.

"Hey times up kid, we gotta go!" Plagg and Tikki made an appearance just in time, which both teens breathed a sigh of relief.

Adrien plucked Plagg out of the air and squished his body against his cheek, "Ah Plagg, you're a lifesaver!"

"Yeah yeah I know, I'm the greatest, now can we go please?" Plagg was doing his best to escape Adrien's loving grasp, once released, he went by and gave Tikki a kiss, "Until next time Sugarcube…"

"Plagg, claws out!" Now Chat Noir again, he hopped up on the banister then turned back and saluted Marinette, "See you tomorrow, Princess!"

Marinette placed her arms on the railing with Tikki on her shoulder, "Yeah text me when you get home…"

Before he pounced, Chat turned, taking her face into his claws, *"I'm going back to my house, but my home is with you and I won't be home until I'm with you again."* Chat stole a kiss, then backflipped off the balcony just to pole vault away.

"Marinette!"

She and Tikki both stared at each other then started giggling, "Come on Tikki, let's let Alya know we're safe…"

THE END

A/N: *Ending line Sonic Reunites With Amy | Sasso Studios