Day 25

"Day 25," Tikki said to Adrien and Marinette as they sat on the couch that morning. This, they decided, was going to be their new routine. They each had their coffee and their notebooks, and they eagerly awaited Tikki and Plagg's teaching. "Love forgives."

"We know you two had a crying fest yesterday," Plagg said. "But today, I think both of you need to be clear on what you're sorry for."

"And to do that," Tikki continued. "I think we need to go to the root source."

Marinette frowned. "And what's that?"

Tikki and Plagg gave each other a look that caused Marinette to worry. Plagg zipped off somewhere in the house while TIkki gave them a look of sympathy. "We should go back to the day this all fell apart."

Adrien's brow furrowed.

"The day you two defeated Hawkmoth."

Plagg returned with a box of tissues that he placed between the two of them.

The kwamis began by recounting that day and the plan between them to invade Hawkmoth's lair and take him down. The superhero duo was reminded of how they swore their love for each other before the fight in case something went wrong.

Which it did.

Adrien was the first to grab a tissue when the kwamis covered Ladybug's downfall. She had been the first to fall, Hawkmoth having grabbed her yo-yo and used it against her to pull her in and take a swing at her with his hidden sword. This sparked a round of apologies from Adrien about how he regretted he couldn't protect her and how he didn't know what he would have done if he lost her.

"You're the best thing to have ever happened to me," he choked out. "And I couldn't get to you. He… my father… he was going to kill you, and I couldn't get to you."

Of course, this led to Marinette's tears. She grabbed a tissue in one hand to blow her nose, then grabbed his hands and held tight.

That day, the other supers had appeared out of nowhere. Carapace had come in to protect Ladybug from the blow Hawkmoth was ready to give while Rena assisted in freeing Chat from the trap Hawkmoth had set up.

After that, Chat charged Hawkmoth, starting a sword fight between the two of them. Chat had been loathe to admit Hawkmoth was a good swordsman, which shouldn't have been surprising once the man had been revealed. Chat had won the fight, Hawkmoth falling to the ground. Ladybug had marched up to him, demanding his miraculous. She had reached for his brooch, but Hawkmoth had grabbed a hidden blade. Chat had caught sight of it before Ladybug did, and he'd ran to protect her. Queen Bee had been the second to notice, summoning her power ready to sting, but Hawkmoth was too quick. Chat had shoved Ladybug out of the way just as the knife landed in his side.

Within moments, Chat had been choking out blood.

Seeing his moment, Hawkmoth had grabbed the ring off Chat, revealing Adrien.

And things had gone downhill from there.

Once Hawkmoth saw Adrien, his immediate reaction had been to drop the ring in shock. Queen Bee had gotten him this time, freezing him. The brooch had been ripped, off revealing Gabriel Agreste.

Ladybug had to be reminded to use the Miraculous Ladybug power in order to fix everything. Tears had been pouring down her face as she clutched Adrien tightly. The moment the ladybugs washed over him, his gradually shallowing breathing had been restored to normal and the blood strain that had soaked his side vanished. Ladybug had even lifted up his shirt and stared at his side in order to prove to herself her kitty wasn't going to die.

She did it for days afterwards, too.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see the blade," Marinette sobbed, grabbing another tissue and blowing her nose. "I'm sorry. I'm a terrible partner."

"No," Adrien assured reaching cross the tissue box to grab her cheeks, wiping away the tears with his thumbs. "No, I should have held him down."

"No. It was my fault—"

"No, it was mine."

And their argument eventually dissolved into two people clinging to each other like life-lines as they sobbed in their bed of used tissues.

"Tikki," Plagg whispered as he looked over the duo. "I say that's enough for the day."

Tikki looked at them in pity. "I think you're right," she agreed. "Their problems are way too vast to be solved in a day."

"Maybe by this time next year, they'll have dumped all their baggage," Plagg said.

"You really think it will take that long?"

The kwamis looked over the duo again, who had calmed from ugly snot-bubble crying to clingy sobs. "Nah," Plagg answered. "I was wrong. Two years. Minimum."

Day 28

Adrien held tightly to his journal in his office. He took it with him everywhere as a reminder to think about the morning's issued love dare throughout the day. He hadn't been doing it as long as Marinette, but he did swear to do the dares to the best of his ability for her. He was determined to uphold that promise.

"Love makes sacrifices," he mumbled, looking over the dare and thinking just what he could do today to meet that goal.

Or, to use Kagami's terms, what he could do to strike that target.

A knock came at his door.

"Yes?"

Kagami entered. "Hey, you made it today."

"Yeah, barely," Adrien said.

"Back still hurts?"

Adrien nodded. "Surprisingly."

"You must have tweaked it really bad."

"Must have," Adrien agreed. "As long as it goes away, that's all I care about."

Kagami nodded. "It will, soon enough."

There was a pause.

"Was there anything else you wanted, Kagami?"

Kagami paused, glancing down at his hands. "I—"

There was another knock on the door. Thinking it must be a student, Adrien called them in.

Only for Marinette to appear in the doorway.

Adrien's heart leapt at the smile she shot him. However, when her eyes locked on Kagami, he suddenly wondered just how dangerous it was having two very powerful, very assertive women in the same room.

Particularly when they had already faced off.

"Sweetheart," Adrien greeted, hoping to disperse the tension between them. "What a pleasant surprise."

Marinette's shoulders immediately relaxed as she looked over at him. "I brought you lunch," Marinette said, holding up a bag with a grin while walking over to him.

"You didn't have to. I packed a lunch."

"I also brought IcyHot patches and the heating pad for you. Your coach told you to take care of that back injury."

He grinned down at her, a warm and fuzzy feeling filling him, but suddenly remembered there was someone else in the room. "Forgive me, Kagami," he began. "But have you met my wife, Marinette?" He slipped an arm around her waist, hand resting on her hip. Mostly, it was to hold her there because he'd seen his lady in action. He may not have seen the face-off between these two women, but knowing these women as he did, he knew it could not have been pretty.

Kagami frowned. "I can't say I have. I was unaware you were married."

Marinette shifted in his hold, meaning he tightened his grip on her. Even Adrien felt his smile strain at her words. He knew by Marinette's journal that Kagami thought he was only dating, but that was his fault for not wearing his ring. To think that that might have affected what advice she'd given him. Worse yet, to think he was close to following it…

He shoved that thought out of his mind.

"However," Kagami continued, "seeing as it was rather kind of her to bring you lunch, I will be taking my leave now."

"Thank you," Marinette purred. "Sorry to interrupt."

Kagami's eyes narrowed ever so slightly at Marinette. And in return, Marinette shot Kagami an exaggerated grin. Adrien knew her well enough to know that was a vicious smile. A dangerous one. One she shot akumas that said "try me. I dare you."

He loved this woman.

"Wait, Kagami," Adrien called out right before she was going to walk out the door. "What did you want to say to me earlier?"

Kagami looked back at him, her smile clearly forced. "Nothing we can't talk about later. I just wanted to go over some of the class information."

Adrien knew she was lying, but let it slide. For now. "All right. We can discuss that after the school day."

Kagami nodded, then slipped out the door.

The door closed slowly, but the moment it shut, Adrien dished out a firm smack to Marinette's rear.

She squeaked in protest, talking a step away from him to protect her backside. "What was that for?"

"Play nice."

"She was throwing herself at you and lying to your face, and you want me to play nice?"

"I will confront her later when you aren't in the same room together—"

"And why not?"

"Because I don't want to know how the confrontation between the two of you happened, but I need to confront her on those issues alone because who knows how you two will react in the same room."

Marinette rolled her eyes, but bit back her retort.

"And secondly, she wasn't throwing herself at me."

Marinette's brow immediately rose and she crossed her arms. He knew right then he was in trouble.

"That's just Kagami being Kagami," Adrien defended. "She's really assertive. She wasn't throwing herself at me."

Before Marinette could say a word, Plagg made an appearance, cackling like a mad-man. "Can you believe this idiot, Tikki?"

Adrien's expression faded as he took a seat in his office chair. "No. No way."

Marinette's brow somehow rose higher. "You've got to be kidding me."

Plagg continued rolling around in the air, laughing all the while.

"No," Adrien argued, feeling more and more like an idiot for missing something. "No, she's a co-worker. Maybe a friend, but that's it. Kagami doesn't see me like…"

He didn't complete that sentence. Plagg was laughing so hard it was only a matter of time before he attracted outside attention. Marinette, on the other hand, rubbed her temples with a grimace on her face.

Eventually, Marinette dropped her hands and stared straight at him, "Adrien," she said, coming up to him and bending down to get to face level with him. "You are an idiot."

He blinked a few times. "So… you mean she did see me as more than just a friend?"

Marinette hung her head a second before facing him with a newly exasperated look. "Little more than that," she said, tone dripping in sarcasm.

"Oh," Adrien said, trying to recall all her actions to see if they were flirty or forward whatsoever, and he guessed that they were. "I guess I missed that."

Marinette sighed, her grin turning exasperated as she regarded him. "Good gracious, you are an idiot. No wonder you were the only one not to know of my crush on you in school."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know. I thought we were just good friends," he whimpered.

She shot him a grin before shuffling forward and sitting down in his lap. He was already fried at that point because her pretty bum was on his legs, but then she took his cheeks in her hands and he nearly forgot what breathing was or why it was important. "All I care about," Marinette said, her tone sweet and gentle, "is that you're my idiot and only my idiot."

"Forever and always," he quickly vowed before he realized what she said.

Her grin was wide and her eyes glittered and her hands wove into his hair to pet it. His eyes closed on their own accord. "Good husband."