After a period of embarrassment that Marinette definitely assimilated to post-traumatic shock, the two teenagers quickly returned to their old habits.

Chat Noir had stopped at Marinette's once again, just to chat a bit. Then he had stayed for the night. And he had stayed at her home again three days later.

And so, little by little, the nights that Adrien spent at his partner's home had reappeared.

Marinette didn't know if her parents suspected the frequency of her partner's incursions under their roof. But to her relief, if sometimes Tom or Sabine raised a suspicious eyebrow when they saw her come down a little too late in the morning, never again had they forced such an embarrassing conversation on her as they had when they had surprised Adrien in her bed.

It took several weeks for Adrien to find the courage to come back "officially" to the bakery and meet the inquisitive gaze of Marinette's parents.

But now, everything seemed to be back to normal, and the innocent evenings Marinette spent with Adrien continued to go smoothly.

And there had been the release of Mecha Ultima Strike IV.

The idea of being able to play it on Adrien's indecently large TV screen had been waaaay too tempting.

This is how the two young heroes had decided by mutual agreement to make an exceptional breach of the prudent rules they had established, and for once, it was Ladybug who had snuck into her partner's room.

Just for the evening.

Just for a few hours.

Just the time to test this long-awaited game, to crush Adrien flatly in each fight, after which the teenage girl would discreetly go back home to sleep.

That was the plan.

But Mecha Ultima Strike IV had turned out to be addicting.

Terribly, dangerously addicting.

The graphics were stunning, the battle arenas surprising, the new features completely amazing. This game, that the two teenagers had been waiting for for months, gloriously kept all its promises. The hours passed without Marinette or Adrien having the slightest desire to let go of their controller.

Everything was a pretext to postpone the moment when they should stop their exiting hobby.

Just a few more minutes. One more game. The rematch. Mischievous "Ready to be crushed again, kitty?", accompanied by very optimistic "not this time, my Lady ". Test out a new, freshly unlocked character. Try an unprecedented attack. Play the rematch of the rematch. Five minutes, just five, no more...

Completely absorbed by their game, the two teenagers did not notice that the night sky began to fade delicately on the horizon, announcing the imminent arrival of the new dawn. Nor did they notice that their own yawns were becoming more and more frequent. Or that they said themselves that tired as they were, to nestle on Adrien's bed to keep playing comfortably was probably far from a great idea. Each passing moment brought Marinette and Adrien dangerously closer to the moment their exhausted bodies would ask for mercy.

Until finally, without them even realizing it, the two young heroes slowly slip into the realm of dreams.

A sharp noise snapped Marinette out of her blissful sleep.

She stood up abruptly, her body reacting instinctively as her brain was still struggling to analyze what was going on.

Soft light flooded a room that was not hers, while the quilt she sat on was a whole different color than the soft pink she was used to. As the girl's eyes wandered mechanically over the bed she had fallen asleep on, her gaze fell on a shape curled up beside her.

The silhouette of Adrien, bathed in rays of sun adorning his hair with golden reflections.

The boy's awakening was obviously just as laborious as that of his teammate. Straightening himself on an elbow, he blinked painfully before directing a puzzled look at her.

"What...", he began with a slight frown, before suddenly stopping.

His green eyes widened, and Marinette's mouth formed a silent "Oh" as the events of the night before came back to their memory with as much violence as a punch.

Mecha Ultima Strike IV.

The evening.

The countless hours spent in front of the screen.

The tiredness.

The last game, one too many.

Before Marinette and Adrien had time to say anything, the noise that had woken them up a moment earlier was repeated once more.

Knocks, brief and insistent, struck with the tips of the knuckles against the door of Adrien's room.

The two teenagers immediately exchanged a horrified look.

"Surely Nathalie", murmured Adrien in an alarmed tone, while standing up as fast as if he had been propelled by a spring. "Quick, she'll come in!", he added hastily.

"I have to get out of here!", Marinette agreed in a panicked voice.

The girl started a move to get out of bed, while Adrien put his hand on his girlfriend's back to help her up faster. Unfortunately, in her haste to get out of her partner's bed, Marinette accidentally got her feet caught in the sheets.

Interrupted in her momentum, the teenage girl rocked awkwardly on her side.

Her arms vainly described all sorts of absurd convolutions in the air in a vain attempt to interrupt her fall, before she finally crashed down with a little graceful "Oooooops!" on the unfortunate Adrien.

Reflexively, the boy stretched out his hands to cushion the shock, as he had done dozens of times for Ladybug.

But this time it wasn't a costumed heroine falling on him, and when Adrien's fingers instinctively wrapped around Marinette's waist, the teenager's T-shirt pulled up slightly to reveal a few inches of skin.

"Oh no, I'm sorry!", the blushing girl exclaimed, "I-"

"Adrien?", an incredulous voice interrupted them suddenly.

The two teenagers froze, petrified with horror, before slowly turning their heads towards the entrance to Adrien's room.

Standing at the doorframe, Nathalie stared at them in amazement. Behind her glasses, her eyes were wide in surprise, and her fingers were clamped so forcefully around her tablet computer that it was astonishing that the latter hadn't snapped in two.

Adrien's gaze went from his father's assistant to his girlfriend, then he flushed furiously as he realized how easily the situation he found himself in could seem much, MUCH more compromising than it actually is was in reality.

At this early hour, he should have been alone.

And there, not only was Marinette in his room, but because of her unfortunate fall, she was ON him as well.

On him. In his bed. And the girl's T-shirt was pulled up slightly above her waist, revealing an area of bare skin on which Adrien's fingers were firmly gripped.

Adrien removed his hands as quickly as if his girlfriend's skin had burned him and the two teenagers pulled away from each other with a frightened yelp. While Nathalie frowned severely, the young heir to the Agreste family stood up awkwardly on his bed.

"I assure you that this is not AT ALL what you think!", cried Adrien with sincere despair, while his interlocutor mechanically put her hand to her earpiece.

"I'm sorry, but that will be for your father to judge", implacably replied Nathalie. "Stay here", she ordered, pivoting quickly on her heels. " I'll be right back."

As Nathalie walked away, Adrien turned his gaze to his girlfriend. Marinette's eyes reflected the same incredulous horror which must most certainly be read in his own, and her face had turned chalk pale.

"Oh no no no nononononononono…", Marinette stammered, while passing her trembling fingers along her cheeks. "It is not possible. This. Is not. Not. Possible."

" My father. She's going to tell my father", added Adrien, as stunned as if he had received a violent blow on the top of the head.

It was a disaster.

Feeling overwhelmed by a new wave of panic, the teenage boy glanced at one of his windows. Perhaps it was not too late to run away. To leave quickly, far, and to start a new life. Or, he might as well use Cataclysm on his bedroom walls to barricade his door, and stay locked in the room forever.

Anything rather than facing the cold anger of his father, which would certainly befall him and Marinette.

As his thoughts led him to his teammate, Adrien looked at her with anguish.

Still pale, Marinette now seemed to be in a daze. Her gaze remained fixed in front of her as the pupils of his huge blue eyes were now dilated in horror. Sitting on the edge of the mattress, she rocked back and forth while muttering a few words over and over, which Adrien's keen hearing managed to catch without difficulty. "A seagull on the ocean... I am a seagull on the ocean...", Marinette kept repeating, in a desperate attempt to maintain some semblance of self-control.

Suddenly, the sound of a door opening made the two teenagers jump as surely as a violent electric shock would have done.

"Come with me", Nathalie told them in a firm tone. "Both of you."

The resigned teenagers followed Nathalie in a heavy silence disturbed only by the sound of their footsteps echoing on the marble slabs.

They advanced with as much enthusiasm as a pair of convicts led to the scaffold, not daring to exchange even a single glance. Finally, Nathalie stopped in front of the office of her illustrious employer, before opening the door still without saying a word. While Marinette repeated for the last time "A seagull ... I am a seagull ...", Adrien took a deep breath, then Marinette and him entered the room where the famous Gabriel Agreste was waiting for them.

While Nathalie discreetly slipped away, the door closed on the teenagers with a slam that seemed to Adrien as heavy as that of a prison door. With a gesture, Gabriel Agreste invited them to take their places on two chairs arranged in front of him, while he himself remained seated behind his desk.

More dead than alive, Adrien and Marinette did so without a word. Trying to ignore the shudder of horror that ran through his spine, the boy used all of his modeling experience to try to put a serene expression on his face.

"Listen, Father, this is just a terrible misunderstanding", Adrien began with a look of apology to his illustrious father. "I will-"

"A misunderstanding?", Gabriel cut him off severely. "Are you telling me that Nathalie didn't find Miss Dupain-Cheng in your room this morning?"

"I-I...", stammered the young man. "W-Well, she did, but ..."

Adrien let the rest of his sentence die on his lips when his father stopped him with a brief gesture of his hand.

"And Nathalie also informed me that it seemed to her that she had ... interrupted something", resumed Gabriel after a slight pause.

"THIS is a misunderstanding!", cried Adrien in a desperate voice.

If the young man was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Marinette seemed to have fallen into a state of deep catalepsy under the effect of panic. The teenage girl was now so pale and motionless that without her barely perceptible breathing, she could perfectly have been mistaken for a marble statue personifying the most absolute terror.

"I assure you, Father", resumed Adrien in a pleading tone. "There isn't... We didn't... Nothing happened. I promised you. Absolutely nothing. Marinette had just come to play a video game last night... "

"Without me being informed", added Gabriel, frowning severely.

"... without you being informed", confirmed his son, swallowing painfully. "Which is contrary to all the rules that you instilled in me and which will never happen again", he added in a mechanical voice under the inquisitive gaze of his father.

Satisfied, Gabriel nodded briefly before waving to his son to continue his speech.

"A-And we lost track of time", continued Adrien. "We both fell asleep in front of the television and woke up when Nathalie came this morning. W-We got scared, Marinette got up a bit hastily and she fell on me. And that's where Nathalie came in. That's all. That's really all, you have to believe me!", he concluded in a voice as desperate as it was sincere.

The famous stylist gazed sharply at his son, before letting out a heavy sigh. He took off his glasses briefly to run his hand wearily over his face, then put them back on.

"I believe you", he finally replied. "But the fact remains that your behaviour and that of Miss Dupain-Cheng are unacceptable," he continued, glancing briefly at the girl. "I expected a more mature attitude from you."

Adrien lowered his head shamefully, blushing under reproach. In the corner of his vision, he saw Marinette curling her hands around her knees, so much that her knuckles had turned white.

Normally, he would have placed his fingers on her arm as a sign of comfort. But now, he didn't dare to move. Just as petrified with terror as Marinette, he clenched his teeth as he waited for his father's cold anger to pass, hoping with all his might that he and his partner would get away without trouble.

"Well", finally resumed Gabriel in a resigned tone, "I suspect that you certainly don't want to hear what I'm about to tell to you..."

"NOTHING HAPPENED AT ALL!", Adrien cut him in a horrified voice.

Beside her, her partner emitted an unintelligible gurgling sound, her blue eyes now so wide in fright that they seemed ready to burst out of their orbits.

"Nothing has EVER happened", Adrien insisted feverishly, without giving his father time to say a word. "And Marinette's parents have already given us a speech about being careful, so honestly, you don't need to worry. It's REALLY not worth it. "

"I was going to tell you that your bodyguard will chaperone all your dates for the next three months", replied Gabriel, raising a cautious eyebrow. "But now that you're talking about it..."

A moan of despair escaped Adrien's lips.

It was a nightmare.

Blushing to the roots of his hair, Adrien leaned forward, burying his face in his hands.

"Father, please...", he begged in a barely audible voice.

He wasn't ready for this.

He definitely wasn't ready for this.

The bitter memory of THE talk he had with Marinette's parents still danced in his memory, and he wasn't sure he would survive such a discussion with his own father.

"Listen, Adrien", resumed Gabriel in a patient voice. "I know this must be a touchy subject for you, but you are at an age where you sometimes start wanting to explore-"

"I DO NOT EXPLORE ANYTHING AT ALL!", the boy exclaimed, leaping from his chair, horrified. "OR ANYONE! "

Gabriel frowned disapprovingly but decided to interrupt his tirade, obviously taking pity on his son's obvious embarrassment.

Adrien let out another moan of despair, while glancing briefly at Marinette. His girlfriend hadn't moved an eyelash since the moment she sat down, and her tense silence was starting to become disturbing.

Seeming to follow his son's thoughts, Gabriel leaned forward slightly to gaze at the teenage girl with renewed attention.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng?", he asked in a worried voice. "Are you fine?"

"I'M A SEAGULL!", Marinette yelped feverishly, jumping in her seat.

Surprised, the stylist raised his head sharply before exchanging a puzzled glance with his son. At this very moment, the two heirs of the Agreste family did not need words to guess that they both shared deep concerns about the girl's mental health.

"Marinette?", Adrien whispered softly, while resting a soothing hand on his wrist. "Are you okay?"

Seeming to finally come out of her panicked torpor, his teammate turned her eyes to him.

"Yes, yes, yes, I'm okay", she stammered. "I-I… I'm calm. Perfectly calm. Like a seagull on the ocean. Everything is fine. Everything. Is. Fine. "

Adrien noted with concern that far from being "perfectly calm", Marinette seemed on the contrary on the verge of a panic attack. Now that he had emerged from his anguished paralysis, the girl's body seemed determined to vigorously manifest itself. Marinette's hands were trembling, her eyelids fluttered a little too fast, and her chest lowered and rosed at a far too quick space.

"Marinette...", Adrien continued with concern. "Relax. You have to breathe. "

"Yes, ok, I'm breathing", she approved in a shrill voice. "It's good to breathe, you have to breathe. Because otherwise you're dead and it's immediately less practical so it is good to breathe and I'll stop talking right now in fact", she concluded, blushing at Gabriel Agreste's stunned expression.

Never had she wished so strongly to disappear from the surface of the Earth so much she felt mortified to be in such a situation.

If she could have lifted one of the marble slabs that adorned the floor of the room to hide underneath or go and lock herself in a nearby closet, she would have done so without hesitation. Anything rather than staying here to make a fool of herself in front of Gabriel Agreste.

Marinette felt so ashamed that she would almost have been tempted to transform into Ladybug to escape through the office window.

Almost.

Blessed be her self-preservation instinct which preserved her from this dangerous gesture of panic.

Gabriel allowed a few seconds to pass, the time for the two teenagers to regain some semblance of composure. For a moment, Marinette et Adrien even surprised themselves hoping that their ordeal was over.

But the famous stylist was obviously not quite finished with them.

"I hope that this kind of incident will not happen again", he said, directing a stern look on Adrien. "You made a mistake. But I won't tolerate this kind of attitude anymore. "

"You have my word", replied Adrien feverishly. "And... And there is no point in having all my dates monitored by the Go-..., er, by my bodyguard", he added, exchanging a brief glance with his teammate. "I promise you Marinette won't come here without your permission." "

As Marinette nodded vigorously in approval, Gabriel raised a skeptical eyebrow. He gauged the teens for a moment, his blue-gray eyes first resting on Marinette before lingering on Adrien.

Finally, Gabriel let out a deep sigh.

"Listen", he said in a tired voice. "I was young before you, I know what it is."

Ignoring the dubious expression on the faces of the two teenagers, the stylist continued.

"I was your age", he continued. "And I've been in your shoes, I know exactly how it goes."

Suddenly realizing the turn the conversation was about to take, Adrien gave his father a horrified look.

"You're young, you're in love", Gabriel continued relentlessly. "And despite the promises, you can still get to hang out. Especially since the fact that it is forbidden can add a certain… appeal to the situation", he added with a little too much certainty for Adrien's comfort.

No.

No no no.

The boy categorically refused to imagine his teenage father sneaking into his girlfriend's bedroom.

Girlfriend who could otherwise very well be his mother.

No no no and definitely NO.

Gabriel straightened up, blinking slightly, seeming to suddenly realize his thoughts had wandered off.

"Anyway", he concludes with a fit of embarrassed cough. "Adrien, you are punished. No unsupervised dates for the next three months. Miss Dupain-Cheng", he continued, focusing his gaze on Marinette, whose large blue eyes were immediately crossed by a new glimmer of panic. "I hope I can trust you too. From now on, your presence is only allowed in this house if I have been informed beforehand. Otherwise, I will be obliged to renew Adrien's punishment as many times as necessary. Have I been clear enough for both of you? "

Swallowing painfully, the two teenagers shyly nodded.

Obviously satisfied, Gabriel silently reached for his agenda to consult it quickly. Marinette and Adrien exchanged hopeful looks, guessing that the famous stylist was obviously about to end this painful interview.

Their suspicions were confirmed barely a moment later.

"Well, you can go", dismissed them thoughtfully Gabriel.

The two teenagers jumped out of their seats before moving rapidly out of the room.

Adrien bit the inside of his cheek hard, fighting the nervous giggles that threatened to take hold of him. Her situation was far from glorious, but at least her father had given up on making them undergo THE talk that had so humiliated them at Marinette's parents.

And this simple observation filled the teenager with indescribable relief.

As he was about to walk through the office door, a smile on his face, Adrien heard Gabriel's voice suddenly rise behind him and Marinette.

"Adrien? Miss Dupain-Cheng?"', he called out to them in a voice that sounded the death knell for all his son's hopes. "One more thing: make sure you're here next Saturday at 3pm. Nathalie will give you a sex education class. I don't want to become a grandfather before my time", he finally concluded.

Ignoring the horrified looks of the two teenagers, the famous stylist plunged back into his agenda, showing the most perfect indifference.

Too stunned to think, Adrien closed the door mechanically before glancing at Marinette. Obviously just as shocked as he was, his teammate stared at a nearby wall without actually seeing it.

The talk.

She and Adrien were going to have THE talk again.

Marinette was still struggling to realize that not only had her own parents inflicted a slow and stinging humiliation on her a few weeks earlier, but that Gabriel Agreste himself was now getting involved, while inviting his assistant in passing to repeat the matter in a few days.

"You know, kitty", she said finally. "There are days when I tell myself that our parents are really mad at us. "

Heaving a heavy sigh, Adrien grabs her hand in his to draw some semblance of comfort.

"I think you're absolutely right, my Lady."

*** THE END ***

Note :

Hello !

This is the end of this little story, I hope you liked it :) . Big thanks to mayuralover and littlechildofvenus for your fixes, it really helped me !

I hope I did an decent job and that there weren't too many mistakes (or at least no mistakes that make reading too difficult ). Feel free to say what you think about it ! I have other fics that I would like to translate. I never dared because I thought I did'nt have a sufficient level in english, but if you think that it's ok, maybe I'll do it one day ^^.

Have a nice day !