*Peaks from a corner* hi, sorry for being gone so long but I'm slowly getting back into writing. Plan to update some stories that need to be updated but until then enjoy this one. Thanks again for stopping by and see you later.

"Bye-bye little butterfly. Initiating 'Miraculous Ladybug'."
Marinette typed a few commands on the computer screen and lines of code that looked broken became repaired again. The noirette stretched her limbs after sitting in her chair for hours. Her voice chat window popped up with an incoming call.
"Hello Rena Rouge," answered Marinette.
"Hey LB, nice work on the Akuma Virus. That makes six tonight."
"Yeah, Hawkmoth's been very active lately. Hopefully he'll take a break for a while before he launches another attack."
"Or he could not launch attacks," said Rena Rouge.
"Like that's going to happen. Hey, let me log off and call you on my cell."
"Right, later."
Marinette shut down her machine and headed out of her office. Working for a cyber security company had her going after hackers, solving data breaches, and patching open doors. But the hours were long and not always conducive for socializing unless it's with other workers. Like Marinette, Rena Rouge, or Alya had a similar task of taking on cyber attacks and assisting Marinette, or code name, Ladybug.
"Are you still in the office," asked Marinette on her cell.
"I'm almost done, meet you by the elevator," answered Alya.
As Marinette waited, a text message came through and it was from a familiar contact.
"Excellent job on taking out those viruses, My Lady," said the message.
Marinette smiled and responded.
"Couldn't have done it without your help, Chaton."
"Oh purr-lease, I only just informed you of the hack. You did all the work."
"Yes, but without your firewall and your Cataclysm program, the situation would have been worse. You really helped me out a lot tonight."
"Well, happy to be of service then."
A GIF image of someone bowing followed the response. And then, the image of a rose being presented followed next with a cartoon cat winking. Marinette rolled her eyes but giggled at the cheesiness of it. She didn't notice Alya walking up.
"Did Mr. Smooth Operator send a message," she asked as they got on the elevator.
"Yeah, he's actually pretty cheesy really."
"But you love it."
"I don't know what you mean."
"Oh come on! It's obvious the guy is in love with you and you just shrug it off?"
"Hey, you know I only have eyes for Adrien!"
"He's a model, what are the odds of you two getting even remotely together? At least this Chat Noir guy seems legitimate."
Marinette knew she had a point. She'd been crushing after Adrien since she was fifteen. She used to stalk him, er, happened to be in the same place he would be sometimes to just maybe have him fall in love at the first sight of her. Sadly, that hasn't happened and despite not being able to make it into the fashion scene to get near him the right way, she was creative with computer programs and developed her skills as someone who found a way to create a program that deletes viruses, called Tikki. But then the tougher Akuma Virus appeared and databases and information was being breached, deleted, sold and published. Tikki was powerful enough but not fast enough which was compensated when another antivirus called Plagg was launched to help Tikki slow down the Akuma Virus so Tikki could do its job of deleting the virus and restoring the original data and or code. The creator of Plagg went by the alias Chat Noir and was a freelancer and only wanted to work with Ladybug. Marinette's superiors have been asking her to recruit Chat Noir but he always dodged the question or asked her a question, either about who she really was or if she wanted to go on a date with him. Both were answered with a no. But, she couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she did say yes.
"Maybe, but I'm not sure yet," said Marinette.
The two ladies continued their conversation on office gossip, world gossip and other topics that only seemed to matter to them. Alya went to her apartment with her fiancé and club DJ, Nino while Marinette went to her apartment. She was greeted by her tabby cat named Tikki. No, she did not get a cat because of Chat Noir; sort of. She was getting her dinner together when she heard frantic knocking on her door. At first she thought it was Alya who got into a fight with Nino and wanted to crash at her place till she calmed down and then go home to make up with him. She looked at the peephole on the door to find a tall man wearing a black and green hoodie with cat ears on it, jeans and orange sneakers. The top part of his face was covered by a mask which made his green eyes pop out against the black and she could make out blonde hair under the hood.
"I know you're in there Ladybug! It's me Chat Noir! Please let me in! It's an emergency!"
Marinette wasn't sure if it really was Chat Noir; her gut said yes but she had to be certain.
"What was the first thing you said to me when you first sent me a message," she asked.
"I believe I told you how purrfectly pawesome you were at executing your Miraculous Ladybug program," he snickered.
Marinette groaned at the puns. Only he would do that. She steeled herself for a moment, knowing she was about to show herself to Chat Noir. He obviously found out where she lived but doesn't know what she looked like. She hoped he wouldn't be too disappointed. She took a deep breath and opened her door. He looked up and saw the noirette for the first time and he smiled. She looked even more beautiful than he imagined.
"Good evening, my Lady," Chat said with a bow. But as he stood back up, he grew serious. "I'm sorry but you need to get your laptop."
"What? Why," she asked as he walked past her.
"I'll explain later, just hurry and log on."
Chat Noir sat on her couch and pulled out his lap top and began to type furiously. Marinette sat next to him and opened her lap top.
"What's going on?"
"A butterfly followed you home," Chat said.
That was all he need to say to get her going on her lap top. Marinette quickly pulled up her command screen to see a message.
"End Tikki or I end you in one hour. Your information will be released to the public."
A timer appeared and it was counting down.
"How?! How did they find me?!"
"I've been tracking a piece of the virus that seemed to have managed to copy part of itself and latch onto to Tikki. I found your IP address and managed to triangulate your location and came straight here."
The two began to type in silence, each trying to get a ahead of this virus.
"Why would they go after me," Marinette wondered aloud.
"You've been a thorn in their side. Based on my Intel, these guys do more than hack and steal information. They sell secrets to some very bad people and thanks to your program, they're losing money and they figure the best way to end Tikki is to end you," answered Chat.
"But why expose me? What would they do with my identity?"
"If they knew where you were, they could find you. Do you really want me to spell it out for you if they knew where you live, what you looked like and what they could do to you," said Chat worriedly.
That made Marinette even more determined to stop the virus before her vital information was leaked out. They each typed frantically in silence. Marinette was starting to get worried. She wondered what he was thinking about.
"Are...are you, disappointed," she asked hesitantly.
"What," Chat exclaimed and whipped his head toward her. "Why would I be disappointed?! You're better than I imagined," he beamed. Then he turned back to his computer. "I've isolated the program. Launching Plagg now."
"Launching Tikki."
The two of them worked feverishly trying to get ahead of this virus. It wasn't going well.
"Hawkmoth must have had this thing upgraded because it's re-spawning faster than Plagg can slow it down," cried Chat Noir.
"Let me call Rena Rouge," said Marinette grabbing her phone.
"Might not be enough. I'm calling Carapace," stated Chat Noir while grabbing his phone.
Meanwhile, both Alya and Nino were watching a movie when both their phones went off. They each went to the opposite of the room to answer.
"Hey girl, what's up?"
"Get on your laptop right now! There's a butterfly on the loose in my computer," shouted Marinette.
"Yo dude, how's it hangin'," greeted Nino.
"I need your help! This butterfly is tougher than I can handle!"
"On it," both Nino and Alya responded.
After establishing a voice chat, the hackers got to work.
"Initiating ," said Carapace.
"You think that's going to work," asked Rena.
"It will help protect the data at least," he replied back.
"What about my Lucky Charm command," asked Ladybug.
"That might help, but I don't think that will be enough," said Chat Noir.
"My multiplier can," stated Rena Rouge.
Rena activated a protocol that copied the Lucky Charm command to delete several rows of the Akuma virus data. Chat Noir used his skills to locate the source of the hack and use Cataclysm to cut it off.
"I think I found the IP address. Launching sequence now," he stated.
"Ready with the firewall," said Carapace.
"Cataclysm initiated," Chat announce after a few keyboard taps. "Signal broken."
"Firewalls on and scanning for additional malware," added Carapace.
"Bye-bye little butterfly," stated Ladybug. "Akuma has been deleted. Initiating Miraculous Ladybug."
"Adding Multiplier," said Rena Rouge.
"Thanks for your help," sighed Ladybug.
"No problem and Ladybug, give my dude a chance will ya," Carapace replied and hung up.
"Yeah, and don't do anything we wouldn't do," added Rena who also hung up.
Now with one crisis over, Marinette had to deal with another. She shut down her laptop and placed it on her coffee table. She looked over at Chat who was still looking at his computer. She gathered up her courage to address him.
"Hey, I really appreciate you saving me like this."
Chat looked up and smiled.
"No problem, My Lady. I will always have your back. I just need to check one last thing and then I'll get out of your hair."
Marinette was hesitant about letting him leave. She wanted to properly thank him this time.
"Is there anything I can do to repay you for this? For everything," she asked nervously.
Chat stopped what he was doing and set his laptop down. He stood up and slowly approached her with a soft smile on his face. Now that things were relaxed and more calm, Marinette could get a better look at his face. His green eyes reminded her of emeralds, like Adrien's. His face looked familiar as well, and the blond hair too. The only thing really keeping her from seeing it clearly was a black mask and his cat eared hood.
"Have dinner with me," he whispered softly.
"As in a date," she asked.
"If you want it to be."
Marinette thought about it for a moment. She liked the sound of it really, just needed to clear up one other thing.
"On one condition. Take off your mask?"
"You sure," he asked with uncertainty in his voice.
He used Chat Noir as a persona to help him feel more confident and the freedom to be himself. He only showed his true face to one other person but he was with Rena right now. Chat had been wanting to meet his Lady and show her who he was. He was surprised at first when he discovered his former classmate was her but also very, very happy. He just hoped she would be happy with him.
"Please," she pleaded. "It's only fair."
"You have a point. Just, please don't freak out."
Chat moved his hood off his head letting his blond locks loose. After a quick adjustment, he moved his hands to his mask and slowly removed it. Marinette's eyes grew big as dinner plates. Standing before her was Adrien Agreste; the man she's been in love with since lycée.
"It's you," she squeaked out. "It's really you?"
"Uh yeah, it's me," he chuckled out.
Adrien hoped this wouldn't make things more awkward between them. What happened next was a surprise to him and Marinette if she were honest. Marinette grabbed his hoodie, brought him down to her level and smashed her lips to his. It took Adrien a couple of seconds to respond and when he did, she moaned blissfully. Both were in heaven, but had to release for air. Both were now panting.
"Do you want to eat here," Marinette asked. "Would really rather to continue this."
"Yes, please," Adrien begged and dove back in.