Day 24

Adrien was at least up and moving the next day, even if he was walking like an old man. He would count that as a win.

His next win was that his wife was back at his side, like the partners they were. They shared the bed last night. First time in month. Sadly, he didn't know how many. But waking up beside her, that petite little firecracker sprawled out over his chest, hair a fluffy mess and expression serene and happy, that was what he lived for.

She even stayed in bed a little later than normal today. It made him extremely happy.

Yet, he was still a little disappointed that she had to leave for work.

"I do have to go just check in on things today. And then I have an interview."

"Oh?" he said, raising a brow. "What position?"

"Nathalie's."

Adrien's eyes widened. He stood there frozen, looking stiffer than he actually was.

A soft blush rose to her cheeks. "You were right," she admitted. "You and Tikki. I let the company take priority over you, over Tikki, over my health; I let it consume me. I haven't even been designing anything lately because I've been so worked up over micromanaging the company. But that's going to change. I swear. I'm not going to let it consume me anymore, and if I need to hire people so that that all happens, then I hire people." She rounded the counter so that she was standing directly in front of Adrien. "I swear," she began, looking him in the eye and placing her hand over his heart. "I will not make you feel like you have to compete with the company for me."

He could feel the tears coming on. Even though he was smiling, he bit his lower lip to keep it from quivering. "I don't deserve you," he whispered, his voice unable to be any louder.

"A ladybug always needs her kitty," she returned just as softly.

He sniffed, and those tears poured over his cheeks. "Again," he said, reaching out to hold her hips and pull her close. "I don't deserve you."

By now, they were chest to chest, his hands holding her hips and her hands on his sides. Their eyes locked for a moment, but then he found his gaze drifting southward to her lips.

When their gazes met again, he could see that her expression had shifted. Her breathing was picking up, as was his. Slowly, he began lowering his head.

She shifted, slowly pushing herself up on her tip-toes while one of her hands came up to cup his cheek. His gaze fell to her lips again. He was close now, but he hesitated a moment, letting her back out now if she wanted.

But she was still there, and so he lowered his lips the rest of the way to meet hers.

They were soft. The kiss itself was gentle and tentative and testing. It was him pressing his lips to hers, lingering a good second, then pulling away. But only barely.

He had to take a step to widen his stance. He was so dizzy he could fall over at any given second.

And then that was all forgotten because her lips were back on his. Firmer, this time. They moved on his, and he eventually had the bright idea to respond.

It didn't grow heated, consisting of only sweet, needy touches, yet when she pulled away, he had to reach for the counter to stable himself. He knew in that moment that she was going to leave and he was going to pass out. And when she got home and found him on the floor—because with his back, he wasn't getting up on his own anytime soon—he would say that it was all her fault because she was deadly to him. She was his worst weakness.

They were silent for a moment. He couldn't open his eyes and instead focused on breathing normally because his heart was going faster than his sports car could.

"I…" Marinette began, her voice a weak as he felt. It wasn't helping knowing that he was the one to cause her breathlessness. "I should go."

"Oh… okay," was all he managed to say. He forced his eyes open to look at her. "Good luck on the interview," he said. "And have a good day."

She gave him a smile that was going to kill him. "Thank you. You rest and get better. Text me if you need anything."

"I will."

Next thing he knew, she was gone and out the door. He put both hands on the counter for support.

"You okay?" Plagg asked, floating at his side.

No. Adrien was not okay. He was two steps from passing out and being sprawled out on the floor because a simple kiss had left him weak and shaky like he was a teenager again and she was giving him a kiss for the first time and he didn't know how to handle it.

But Adrien was a liar. "Yeah. I'm fine. But I'm going to go lay down a bit."

"Need an ice pack or anything?"

"The heating pad worked really well. I'm going to go lay on that."

"Okay. Tell me if you need anything."

"I will. Thanks, Plagg."

Slowly, Adrien made his way back to bed. There was a notebook on the side table that wasn't there before. Adrien hadn't seen it before, but considering that it was pink with polka dots, it had to be Marinette's.

Curiously, he opened it, wondering if she forgotten it or not. It wouldn't surprise him if she did; it was a classic Marinette thing to do. He cracked the cover only to see the words "The Love Dare" written in loopy lettering on the front page.

He turned the page.

Day 1: Love is patient.

Love is communicated in a number of ways, but our words often reflect the condition of our hearts. So, for the entire day, demonstrate patience with your partner. Do not say anything negative to Adrien, and if you feel the urge to, don't say anything at all.

Slowly, he took a seat on the bed. Don't say anything negative to Adrien. Those words jumped off the page at him. He couldn't resist turning the page again, only to see a journal entry.

Dear Diary,

Tikki is making me do this. It wasn't my idea to journal at the end of the day and "reflect on my actions." But I don't want to argue with Tikki. She's scary when she's angry.

Adrien smirked. Tikki had nothing on Plagg.

It's the beginning of this forty-day challenge to "fix the box" so to speak. Do I want to save this marriage? Maybe. I don't even know. Adrien hates me. It's irritating dealing with him. I don't need his sass. I didn't even know "we're out of milk" could be as sassy and have as much attitude as he put in it.

Adrien froze. Day 1. He remembered that day because that was the day he had decided he was done and was just waiting for a reason to walk out of the house. Waiting for her to fight so he could have a reason to leave, permanently.

But she didn't give it to him.

He turned the page.

Day 2: Love is kind

In addition to not saying anything negative today, do one act of kindness for Adrien without expecting anything in return.

He turned the page, ready for the journal entry, though there wasn't much there besides her commenting on how frustrating it was that the dares all accumulated and what was she supposed to do—

He paused, re-reading that line again.

What was she supposed to do a day 40.

Forty.

Forty days of dares.

Adrien looked up from the journal to stare at the wall. She'd undertaken a set of forty dares from Tikki? All to save their marriage?

Before he knew it, Adrien was burning through the journal, reading every dare and journal entry.

At day 7, he looked at the ragged edge of the ripped page and wondered why it was there. By day 8, he knew why.

At day 18, he cringed at the journal entry. He had been such an ass.

At day 22, he stared at the entry, reading it over again as it recounted her 'visit' to Kagami, saying that there was no way she'd let that woman have Adrien if she had anything to say about it.

But she did have a say about it. A very big one.

By the time he finished, Adrien was crying. No way around that.

"Plagg!" he shouted.

His kwami came rushing in, eyes wide with worry. "What happened?"

"What is this?" Adrien asked, wiping the tears off his face as he held the journal in the air. "I know you know what this is. What is it?"

Plagg stared at the book, slowly sinking from his alerted posture. "We kwamis call it the Love Dare," he explained. "All kwamis know about it. It's a series of forty dares that we use to challenge our holder when they're going through a rough patch in their marriage. In this case, Tikki pulled it on Marinette because you weren't willing to hear it from me."

Those last words struck Adrien in the gut. Hard. Painfully hard. "You… you tried…"

Plagg nodded. "But you weren't ready nor open. You threw your ring off. However, Marinette was."

His ring. A wave of panic washed over him as he looked down at his hand. His ring. Instantly, he stood from the bed and began scavenging through the drawers. "Where is it. Where is it!" Every passing second, he was cursing himself. He should have found it two nights ago when he knew in his heart that he wasn't giving up on that woman, but he didn't. So now, he was painstakingly bending over to search for the ring he threw in a drawer. His back hurt so bad, but he deserved it.

Just as he was about to start sobbing, Plagg phased through one of the drawers, only to reappear with the ring a few seconds later.

Adrien shoved it back on his finger, wondering if he should superglue it there just to remind him that giving up on Marinette wasn't an option and never would be. He loved that woman more than he deserved to. And she clearly loved him back far more than he deserved.

Because frankly, what he deserved was her throwing divorce papers at his face and telling him that he can take a hike so she could find someone who actually cared enough to fight for their marriage.

Wedding ring on, he hobbled into the bathroom and decided to pull himself together. He took a hot shower, begging himself to stop crying countless times throughout. After that, he searched his closet, pulling out a pair of nice slacks, a white button down, and a vest. From there, he grabbed his phone and his wallet, but Plagg sat on his car keys. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

"Plagg, please, I'm not in the mood for this."

"Not until you tell me just what you're planning."

Adrien leveled a look at Plagg. "Fine."

Marinette got home in a really good mood. The interview was a success, and while there were several others lined up, Marinette felt that this girl might be a pretty good fit.

She walked inside. "Adrien," she called out the second she swung open the door. "I'm home. Where are you at?"

"Bedroom," he called out.

With a grin, she bounded off to meet him and maybe give him another kiss because heaven knew she'd been caving another hit like a junkie all day long. However, she slowed to a stop, her grin falling in surprise as she saw Adrien standing in the bedroom, dressed-up and looking as handsome as ever. In his arms was a huge bouquet of red roses tied together with a large, polka dotted ribbon.

"Marinette," he began. He looked off to the bed, pulling out from the sheets a notebook that looks suspiciously like hers.

Her stomach dropped. "Where'd you find that?"

"You left it out on the nightstand," he answered, setting the book down on the bed. "I thought you forgot it and needed it for work, but when I opened it…"

Her heart twisted into a nervous mess before sinking to the floor in shame. "You read it, didn't you?"

"I did," he admitted.

Marinette wasn't sure what to think then. Adrien looked equally lost for words.

"Marinette," Adrien said after a long time of just standing there. "I… I don't even know what to say other than I am so, so, so sorry."

Her gaze lifted from the floor to meet his.

Slowly, he stepped over to her, then painstakingly took a knee before her. "Marinette," he repeated, tears in his eyes just like she knew there were tears in hers. "Marinette, I don't deserve you. With the way I've acted not just these past few weeks but these past several months, the fact you pulled that," he pointed at the journal, "on me… blows my mind."

She smiled. "You're worth it."

"Not in the beginning, I wasn't."

"I'm sorry," Marinette quickly said. "I'm sorry for ever—"

"Don't you dare complete that sorry," he warned. "Because if you recall, I wasn't any better than you back then. In fact, I was definitely worse because I didn't even think about listening to my kwami when he was trying to suggest I do that." His head bowed in shame. "I wasn't even willing to try to save our marriage, Marinette. And for that, I am truly, deeply sorry. You have no idea…"

And that's when his shoulders shook.

Her heart may be broken and shattered all over the ground in a million little pieces and her brain may be fried out of shock, but she still reached out to cradle her husband's head to her chest.

"I'm so sorry," he said, curling his arms around her. "And I know no amount of flowers in the world will fix this, but I'm asking, Marinette—begging, really—would you consider forgiving me for being such an ass. Such an ass."

"Oh, minou," she said, burying her face in his hair as tears started rolling down her cheeks. "I forgive you."

"I'm going to finish the love dares with you."

That got her to pause. "What?"

"Yes," he insisted, clinging to her tighter. "Yes, because you deserve it. You deserve so much more than I can possibly give you. But I will be finishing those love dares with you. I went out and got a journal today. Plagg's been catching me up on all the dares so that I can start tomorrow with you, facing these dares together. You deserve that from me. You deserve more than that, but I can't go back in time, so that's what I can give. And I swear, I will be pouring my all into them because you are my wife and there is no one more important to me than you."

She was sobbing. She was outright sobbing, and there was no stemming the flow of tears pouring down her face right now. "I love you," she said. "You're the most important person to me, too, kitty. I love you so much. I can't… I can't lose you."

"I love you, too, bugaboo," Adrien returned, wetting her blouse with his tears. "I love you so, so much."