After what felt like an eternity of searching, Adrien found Marinette sitting on a bench, alone, shoulders shaking.
She was crying.
"Hey...what's wrong?" He asked her.
"Luka was supposed to come, but he didn't...not for me, anyways. Look."
She showed him a text message from Chloe.
Adrien frowned. "It's a forward. Somebody else sent it to her first; and I think that it'd be Lila. Luka wouldn't abandon you like this. He isn't like that. Nor would he jump into bed with a random person—and take a lewd photo like that with the risk of it going all over the place. Cheer up, some."
Marinette only kept crying. "The past two weeks have been utter, absolute hell!" She sobbed. "I hate my life, I hate Luka, I hate Chloe, I hate Lila, and I hate every responsibility that I have! I fucking carry the weight of the world on my shoulders!"
Adrien raised an eyebrow.
"Hate is a strong word. It shouldn't be applied to Luka. Or Chloe, I must say. But disliking could be fitting to her, for you at least.
Lila—it makes a lot of sense. Every breath she takes makes this living hell of lies one degree hotter. Responsibilities — c'est la vie. And the weight of the world on our shoulders..."
"Our?!"
"Well, that's our lives."
"I...Adrien...no, no, no! Please tell me I'm hallucinating!"
"Contrary to popular beliefs of only my lady, I do have multiple brain cells. And when you slipped up, I pieced it together."
"You must be...I can't predict how you feel...so...how?"
Adrien sat next to her, thumbing his ring. "I promised you that I loved the girl under the mask—and that's you." He poked her nose, causing her to blush.
"Were you sending me letters?"
"Yep."
"So you...yourself...you had interest in me."
"Yes, Mari."
"Without the mask?!"
"I had no clues to you being Ladybug...so no."
"Wow. Nobody...hypnotized you?"
"As far as I know, no. Do my eyes look any different?"
"Nope. Still a really pretty shade of green...yours don't alter color, though..."
"Yes, they do alter color. You just don't see it much because a, I'm good at masking my emotions, and b, I wear contacts with the same shade."
"You were contacts? How did I fail to learn that?!"
"Well...I've worn contacts ever since I was a little older than five or six. They just weren't very noticeable. They still aren't. I hated glasses when I was small."
Marinette giggled. "I can't believe that I was rejecting the love of my life for the past several years! I'm an idiot!" She groaned.
"Yes, but who's been missing every sign or attempt for you to grab my attention? Me. I'm the bigger idiot."
"No you aren't."
"Try me."
"You haven't kissed me." She told him with a smirk.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"I kissed Chat Noir to break him from a spell. It had to be a true love's kiss. But then I denied my feelings afterwards. Beat me by kissing me, and I'll let you be the bigger idiot."
Adrien rolled his eyes. "You're stubborn, has anyone ever told you?"
Marinette only smiled at him. "You just did."
He grinned and pulled her close to him for a kiss.
She smirked at him. "Seriously? It'll take more to satisfy me, y'know."
"I wasn't done." He replied, giving her a much more passionate kiss.
The two were in the middle of an awkward, yet heated make out session when the cries of terrorized civilians rang out.
Marinette broke from Adrien's arms and whined. "Must we?"
"This wave will be different, m'lady, I promise. I won't be able to see my ladybug the same. Besides, the quicker we finish this, the quicker we can get back to us."
Marinette sighed. "C'mon then, kitty."
"So?! Care to explain how you and Adrien were making out last night?!" Alya asked.
Marinette was just about ready to fall over.
She banged her head on the desk, in an effort to stay awake. Adrien set a coffee cup on her desk, winked at her, and walked away.
"I want this to be our secret. Our happiness. As a model I don't get individuality. I don't wanna face our friends, or our parents, or our popularity."
"I don't mind that. But don't you hate keeping secrets?"
"That doesn't apply." He told her. "Smartass."
"I'm just saying." She giggled.
She took a long, long sip of the coffee.
"It...was an illusion."
"An illusion? For what?"
"Uh...Lila...has powers...and made one so that Adrien could confess to me. He told me no. I'll just move on."
"After every effort? I can give him a piece of my mind, then you can move on."
Marinette sighed. She just took a long sip of coffee. "Kagami understands him better and relates to him more than I do. These past years have just been a silly celebrity crush. We graduate this year, so I guess this'll be the last of seeing him. We can still be friends."
"Ha! I knew you were lying!"
Marinette shrieked as she scrambled out of her boyfriend's lap.
"Illusion!"
"Prank!"
They glared at each other.
"Prank!"
"Illusion!"
"Fess up."
"Fine, we're dating."
"Dating? The ring, girl."
Marinette blushed a little.
"Engaged."
"How do you forget you're engaged?!"
"Baby brain..." She giggled.
"Baby brain?! Now you're pregnant?! Any more secrets?"
"To be fair, that was a very personal secret, Mari." Adrien admitted.
"Why do you think I quit coffee? Or why I'm so obsessed with the right wedding dress?"
"You'll look beautiful either way." Adrien told her.
"You two aren't going and getting frisky without being interrogated." Alya warned. "I wanna know every drop of the tea."
The two groaned. "We walked ourselves into this, didn't we?" Adrien asked.
"Yes, but it's worth it if we're happy."
~fin~
I know I said I was gonna do 4 love letters but my second sem started and I'm buried in lessons and note taking and often times extremely tired. I wrote this a while back, took a bit out, edited it, and bam! Valentine's Day special.
My Valentine this year; I have many.
My bed.
My tablet.
My sketchbook.
My books.
And my dog.
(that's not many but whatever)
I'm gonna take a little hiatus again until...maybe the beginning of March or so? I dunno, I need a break before I start working on Love Chain. I have state testing in May, spring break at the end of March...
I've decided that after Love Chain, I'm still gonna write oneshots and maybe stories if I get ideas, but be inactive on AO3 and fanfiction . net because I want some downtime to myself. Ever since October, things have definitely changed. I didn't know a lot of people we're going to read my stories. I'm thankful for it. It feels unreal. So to everybody, thank you.
See you soon!
-Thorne