Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir and I make no profit from this story. No copyright infringement is intended I'm just enjoying some time with a few of my favorite television characters. The story is mine, except where directly quoting or referencing episodes.

The wind whipped through her hair as she swung through the night with the help of her yo-yo, her long-time partner at her side, bounding from rooftop to rooftop. When they arrived at the Eiffel Tower, they took up their customary perch, high at the top, and looked out over the city lights, some of which were reflected in the shiny ribbon of the River Seine below.

"I'm glad we decided to do this one more time, Milady."

Marinette smiled. It seemed right for Chat Noir to be calling her that again as Ladybug. So much had changed in the past few days, and yet much of it seemed a simple continuation of the way it had always been. She moved closer and he draped his arm over her shoulder, both of them enjoying the contact.

"I agree. I will miss the freedom that comes with Ladybug, though. Flying through the air is an incredible experience."

"Regrets?"

"No, Chat. Not really. This view is something spectacular, but it's time." She looked at him. "Time to start living during the daytime again, just one life this time."

Chat Noir's famous grin spread across his face. "Music to my ears, Milady."

"What about you? Anything you'd do differently?"

"It's been a wild ride, but no." He looked into her face, wondering again how he could have missed the obvious for so long. He chuckled. "Well, maybe I'd have seen earlier what was right in front of me."

She smiled. "But think of all the fun we'd have missed if we had seen it sooner."

He grinned back at her. "The fun is just beginning, Milady." He sealed the promise with a kiss.

They stood outside the door the next morning, hesitating for some reason; they had agreed, they both were ready. But the goodbyes they had shared with their kwamis earlier made it all seem so final somehow, despite the promises to visit whenever they were able. Adrien lifted his hand, prepared to knock, then looked to Marinette for confirmation. "You sure?"

At her nod, his knuckles struck the door several times.

"Coming!"

"There are a lot of happy memories I'm taking with me. And now I get to take you with me, too." She grabbed his hand and laced their fingers together.

"Ladybug, Chat Noir. I've been expecting you." Master Fu smiled and swung the door wide, inviting them in.

"You have, sir?" Adrien asked.

"Of course. Once I had both the butterfly and peacock miraculous back within my possession, I knew it was just a matter of time before you paid me a visit."

Marinette's jaw dropped. "B-b-back? You have them both?"

"Naturally. Where else would they be?"

Speech fled, and with it coherent thought.

Knowing her propensity to get tongue-tied when surprised, Adrien spoke up. "Master Fu, we knew there hadn't been any attacks for several months, but you never told us that they had been returned. Why? We could have brought ours back to you sooner had we known there was no longer a need."

"But there was still a need for you to have them, Chat Noir. You had much to learn before returning them, did you not?" The smile forming at his lips became a wide, knowing grin.

Leaving Master Fu's flat, Marinette reached for Adrien's hand again. This was quickly becoming a habit with her, but Adrien was very much in favor of it.

They grabbed a carryout lunch from a small deli and headed for the park, enjoying the early afternoon sunshine while they ate.

"You know, before we do anything else, we need to go see Nino and Alya."

Marinette glanced at her watch. "Now should be a good time. Even if they were up late with Aimee, it should be fine."

"Good. While no one could be happier than we are, if anyone could come close, it would be them. They have been more subtle over the past few years, but they've always been looking for ways to put us together." He popped a grape into his mouth.

Suddenly, all color drained from her face. "Adrien! How am I going to explain us to Alya?"

Adrien looked confused. "I thought we were just going to say we had been getting to know each other for a while, keeping it quiet because of my high visibility, only now deciding to go public?"

"That will work with everyone else, but not Alya! She will kill me! She's my best friend, and I didn't tell her I'd been secretly seeing my high school crush after all these years?" Marinette groaned, then inhaled sharply as another thought came to her. "What about Nino?"

"Well, I never said anything to him. I thought about it, during our first year in college, but once I decided against asking Alya to set us up, there was no point to it. What if he'd known how I felt, and then I resisted a matchmaking attempt? I had no way to explain that."

"All. Through. High. School." Marinette wished for a convenient brick wall against which to knock her head. Repeatedly. "She knows I focused on moving on that summer, she walked with me through it. But it is completely unbelievable that when we did start seeing each other, even years later, I wouldn't have floated right over to tell her."

"So, did you tell her about your new crush, then?" Adrien leaned closer, arm sliding along the top of the bench. He quirked an eyebrow the way Chat Noir often did when he was flirting and that smile would have made her knees wobble had they not already been sitting down.

Marinette elbowed him. "Focus, Kitty. And no, she had no idea that I'd been meeting you more and more frequently as Chat Noir."

He grinned. "Why not? Surely she'd understand the magnetism that pulled you irresistibly in my direction." He shifted slightly and tightened his hand on her far shoulder to pull her nearer, nestling her at his side. When she leaned her head onto his chest and sighed, he closed his eyes and relished the moment before he spoke again.

"I really enjoyed those hours we shared on your balcony, Marinette."

"Me, too." He could hear the smile in her voice.

"The only thing was, it did cause a bit of a problem for me at the wedding."

She lifted her head to look up at him. "Nino and Alya's?"

He nodded, then laughed softly, even though he didn't seem all that amused. "I have to tell you, that was its own special brand of torture. Being with you at all those events, dancing with you, holding you in my arms without the mask, finally, but I couldn't say anything."

"Is that—is that why—? Alya said something seemed to have shifted. She joked that one wedding usually brings on another, and that you were looking at me—differently."

"Uh—yeah. I was afraid of that. Their wedding was when I first began to seriously consider revealing myself to you, giving us a chance to be together like this, maybe having a future like theirs. I wanted to be more than your old friend, Adrien."

"I had no idea. And I wouldn't have figured it out, either, since we hardly saw you after your final year of schoolwork became so intense."

"Did it?" He kissed the tip of her nose, finding her confused expression at his words adorable. "Adrien wasn't around much, but perhaps you noticed a marked increase in Chat Noir's visits? Their wedding and all the stuff that went along with it had ruined me, Milady. I had to avoid you as Adrien because it was too hard to hide how I felt, especially with no mask to cover my face.

"Every time I saw you while Adrien, I wanted to tease you, to get you to smile at me like you did on the balcony. I craved those little touches that come with being close to someone, the slight brush of your hand, absently rubbing your back as we talked, draping my arm across your shoulders as we sat in comfortable silence.

"I wanted to wrap my arms around you, bury my face in your hair, and never let go. But you didn't know that we had spent all that time together, getting closer. It would have looked like it came out of nowhere. So if I couldn't do that as Adrien, I had to do it more often as Chat Noir." He kissed the top of her head and squeezed her shoulder gently.

Her jaw dropped. "That was why?" She was silent for a moment, then giggled. "Alya kept inviting me over to their apartment all the time, worried her comments about you had caused some sort of lovesick relapse. I told her I was fine, and I loved her for trying to help. But I couldn't tell her I turned them down most of the time so I could hang out on my balcony, hoping a certain cat might get lost on his way home." She leaned away slightly, then nudged his shoulder with her own.

His answering grin came swiftly, and had he not already turned in his miraculous, he would have surely been purring.