Finally. Adrien silently hummed as he extended his baton, flinging himself onto the rooftop nearest his mansion. Finally he would get to talk to Marinette, to be alone with her - something he had desperately been pining for ever since the disturbance of that incredibly annoying akuma.
Early Finisher had been the villain's name, and oh how Adrien wished that battle had ended as quickly as the name suggested. But no…. hardly anything in that battle had gone completely right - at least the parts that involved any sort of Adrien's contribution. How could anyone expect a guy who had just kissed the love of his life to not be distracted in a situation like that?
Sure, he had seen Ladybug in her skin tight costume before, but back then she had just been a petite young girl with hardly any figure. Now, the suit accentuated every part of Marinette's womanly body, and Adrien couldn't help, no matter how much he tried, but to admire the absolute beauty of his girlfriend.
Then, there was that. The fact that Ladybug was actually now, practically, officially Adrien's girlfriend. It was easy to ignore the suggestive nature of her suit when nothing was going on between them, but this time things were different. Ladybug was Marinette, and unlike before, she actually wanted to be with Adrien.
"Is everything okay?" Ladybug softly asked him after he ended up getting caught in the trap they had carefully planned to catch the akuma. "You've fallen at least six times and totally messed up two of our plans."
If Adrien, Chat Noir, had been acting anything remotely normally, he would have responded with some sort of witty pun such as: Does it look like I'm okay? Get meowt of here, my Lady. But no, the only thing running through his head in that precise moment was his astoundment that Ladybug had addressed him with such genuine tenderness - her words echoing through his mind as a sweet fragrance lingers in its stead. She wasn't annoyed at his blunders like she would have been in the past. No, this time… this time her voice was laced only with love and worry, causing Adrien to slump even further down into a mushed up heap of uselessness.
If it hadn't been for Marinette's clever thinking and the use of Ladybug's lucky charm, then there would have been no way they - no… she would have won. But as usual, Ladybug pulled through even when Chat Noir was mentally unable.
After the fight had finished, Adrien had been hoping to steal away with his newfound girlfriend, but he had no such luck. As soon as the akuma had been cleansed, Alya was right by Ladybug's side.
"Ladybug!" the star struck reporter announced with enthusiasm, with one hand outstretched holding her camera, while the other was propped against her leg as she leaned forward, gasping for breath. "I can't believe I am actually standing here face to face speaking with you! It has been ages since you have had to save Paris. Welcome back!" She straightened, eyes sparkling in admiration at the return of her favorite heroine.
No longer bound by the trap he had so foolishly allowed himself to get caught in, Chat Noir joined his place next to his Lady's side.
"I wouldn't say the return of akumas is a cause for celebration," he butted in as he playfully flicked the bottom of Ladybug's ponytail. "But getting to see my beautiful Lady again," he continued while wrapping his arms around her waist and looking into her eyes, "more than makes up for the trouble it may have caused."
Adrien had waited, somewhat nervously, for Ladybug's snarky reply, but none came. Instead, her face turned as bright as a tomato right before she buried her head into his chest. "Chaton," she whispered, only loud enough for the two of them to hear, "you're such a hopeless romantic. And now that I know I'm in love with you… well, how should I put this…?"
But, much to Adrien's chagrin, Ladybug never got to finish that sentence, because right at that moment, her miraculous had begun to beep.
"Looks like that's our cue to leave," Chat Noir winked at a gaping Alya as he picked up Ladybug bridal style and reached for his baton while Ladybug feebly struggled in his grasp, her face turning more red - if that was even possible.
"Wait!" Alya barely managed to squeak out. "You're going together? What about your secret identities?
"Who said they were a secret to us?" Adrien smirked, extending his baton and whisking the two of them away - leaving an awestruck reporter standing motionless, mouth agape as the two superheroes disappeared in the distance.
Just as Adrien thought he and Marinette would get a chance to be together, she had sternly reminded him that there was no time for such things; they had to return immediately to the charity event. Nothing could have been worse for Adrien to have to wait through. He absolutely despised these types of events. Sure, Marinette's designs were stunning and sold for ridiculously high prices, but seeing her beaming smile from a distance and knowing he couldn't just gather her into his arms and fly away was just too much for his impatient mind to bear.
Even after the auction was over, Adrien couldn't get anywhere close to Marinette. She was surrounded by famous designers, complimenting her work, and honestly giving her the night of her life. In the meantime, Adrien had been stuck with having to socialize, answering questions, and trying to make it seem like he actually cared about modelling and his return into the esteemed career.
And just as the room had become practically clear and Marinette bounded towards Adrien, face beaming in pride, Alya stepped directly between them claiming ownership over Marinette that night.
If it hadn't been for Marinette forcefully making her way past Alya and promising Adrien that she would text him, letting him know when Alya had left, he would not have made it through the rest of the evening. But surely enough, after two long, excruciating hours, Adrien finally received that long awaited message.
The twinkling stars scattered across the cloudless Parisian skyline as Chat Noir gracefully sprung through the night. Nothing would hold him back any longer. Adrien would finally get to speak with Marinette.
Adrien felt as if his limbs were on fire; he had never felt so anxious or nervous in his entire existence. Exhaling as the bakery came into sight, he tried to calm down by telling himself he was just visiting Marinette - the girl who he had been seeing regularly - and that everything would be fine. But as he fell towards the balcony, landing inches away from an already blushing Marinette, he knew he could never see her the same again.
Chat Noir stumbled backwards, startled at Marinette's unexpected presence as his heart tried desperately to beat out of his chest.
"Careful, Adrien," Marinette smiled as she grabbed his hand, stopping him from crashing into the railing. "I always knew Chat Noir could be clumsy, but your blunders today have really taken the cake."
With a newfound confidence at hearing Marinette say his name, Adrien yanked her towards him with the hand she had already grabbed. Wrapping his free arm around her waist, and intertwining the fingers of their already clasped hands he softly said, "You called me, Adrien."
Marinette flicked his nose, a playful twinkling twirling within her eyes. "Well that's your name, isn't it? Would you rather I call you Chat? Because I…"
"No!" Adrien stiffened, "I'm just… it's just weird hearing someone call be by my real name when I am in uniform." He relaxed his posture as he began rubbing circles with his thumb on the back of Marinette's hand. "I guess… hearing you say my actual name made all of this real. You really do know who I am underneath this mask."
A silly, almost goofy looking grin spread across Adrien's face like a child who had just discovered he had gotten everything he had ever wanted for Christmas. His entire body buzzed and swarmed with raw emotion. Not only had his Lady called him by his real name, but here she was, standing contendely, no happily, right within his arms.
"I know what you mean, Adrien," Marinette solemnly said, her piercing blue eyes filling with sadness.. "If only I had known sooner."
"Don't talk like that," Adrien pleaded as he pulled her in closer - his smile slowly fading. Adrien didn't want to ruin this perfect moment. Things were so new - so happy. Did they have to talk about their regrets so soon?
Water pooled up at the edges of Marinette's eyes, "I have to! Adrien, I have to apologize!"
"Mari, you don't need to say..."
"I do!" Marinette demanded, a small tear slipping from her left eye. "Don't you remember the last time you visited me on my balcony like this? You showed me the beautiful date you had prepared for Ladybug and yet I still turned you down."
Marinette's words hit Adrien as a boulder smashes into the depths of a canyon, after spiralling, seemingly endlessly off the edge of a cliff. The memory of Ladybug's rejection still caused his body to respond in an adverse reaction. He had confessed his love for Ladybug to Marinette with and without her mask, but the result hadn't changed. Marinette's eyes were focused on only one boy. Of course, now he now he knew that boy had been him, as Adrien, but that current knowledge still didn't change the hurt and turmoil he had felt for years before discovering the truth behind her rejections.
"It's okay, Marinette." Adrien softly began, taking the arm from behind her waist and tenderly placing his hand underneath her chin. "I understand."
Marinette took hold of Adrien's hand beneath her chin, lowering it to her chest. "You might understand now," her voice wavered, "but not back then."
Tears were rolling down both of her cheeks, but her crystal eyes never once left Adrien's. He could feel the soft beating of her heart beneath his hand, the steady rhythm reminding him that all of this was really happening. He hadn't fallen asleep quite yet.
"Adrien, I turned you down time and time again. No matter how many times you confessed your love, no matter how many times you begged for us to reveal our identities, I wouldn't back down. I hurt you multiple times, and it doesn't matter how I tried to sugarcoat it, I knew the pain that my rejections caused."
"If," Marinette choked, as her tears became sobs, "I had just known. If I had just listened to you," she heaved, "we could have been together all these years."
Adrien couldn't take this self deprecation any longer. If Marinette wanted to go down this path, he would have to join her; Marinette wasn't the only person to blame. He freed his hands from Marinette's grasp, engulfing her into a tight embrace. She had to know he didn't care about what she did in the past. He had to show her how much he cared.
"Look, Marinette," Adrien nearly purred as he burrowed his cheek into her hair, "we can't live our life thinking about what ifs. All that matters is that we know now." He sighed - not looking forward to the next thing he had to say. "If you remember, I wasn't perfect either. I even told you that I liked Kagami!"
Marinette pulled her head back, her puffy eyes once again piercing through Chat Noir's mask.
"Oh...I remember that..." she hesitated.
Adrien flinched. "Well, I wish you didn't," he tightened his grasp around her back - the sickening feeling of guilt rising deep within his chest. "Because it wasn't true."
"What do you mean?" Marinette quietly asked.
"I only said that because I was trying to get over my feelings for Ladybug," Adrien admitted, his tail wrapping around their legs as if it had a mind of its own. "And without even knowing it, I ran straight to you."
Marinette squinted her eyes in confusion, "I don't understand."
Adrien paused for a moment as the depths of the words he just said sunk in. He hadn't thought back to this event since it had happened - never relating it to anything of importance. But why did he go to Marinette for love advice? Why not Nino or Alya? Honestly, no one else had even come to mind; he was automatically drawn to Marinette...
"Think about it," Adrien continued slowly as he continued to work out things in his own mind. "I came to you for love advice. You were the only person I even thought about asking."
"Okay…"
"And when you were hurt," he blurted as the puzzle pieces were beginning to fit together. "I ditched Kagami to go check on you!"
Marinette blinked. "What are you trying to say?"
Adrien grinned, removing one of his arms from her waist to wipe the tears from her face. "I didn't understand it then, even though Plagg tried to tell me. But I think that some part of me just knew I was in love with you."
"What?" Marinette shook her head, averting her gaze to the ground. "But I was so convinced that you loved Kagami."
"I know." Adrien gingerly replied, once again positioning his hand to lift her chin, his heart squeezing painfully within his chest. "And for that, I am truly sorry. Only now do I realize how much that must have hurt you."
"At least you didn't know you were hurting me," Marinette scowled. "Unlike me, who knew exactly what I was doing each time I turned away from you."
"No," Adrien lamented as the severity of his actions overflowed his being with newfound guilt. "I was way worse. I lied to you."
He lowered his hand from her chin, clenching it into a fist at his side. "I never knew who you were in love with. There was always the chance that it could have been me. But the moment I gave you the name Kagami, you knew I wasn't in love with you. If I had just told you the truth. That I was in love with Ladybug, then maybe things would have worked out."
Marinette looked at Adrien's hand, taking both of her own and smoothing out his fingers. Then, after placing his arm back around her waist, she wrapped her arms around him as well, making Adrien's guilt simply melt away within her warm hold.
"Adrien. It's okay," Marinette smiled. "You're right. We shouldn't live our lives thinking about the past. We both made silly mistakes, but nothing we can say or do will ever change that."
Adrien returned Marinette's smile as he remembered a much younger, sadder looking Marinette who had once cheered him up in this very spot. Little did they know, at that time, that they had both just broken each other's hearts.
"What matters is the here and now," Marinette added as if she were peering straight into Adrien's thoughts. "And right now, I need to get something off my chest."
Tenderly removing her arms from Adrien's waist and placing her hands, instead, around his neck Marinette confessed, "I, Marinette Dupain-Cheng am in love with you."
Adrien felt his pulse quicken as his entire body filled with a warm, tingling sensation. Even though this was the second time within the past twelve hours that Marinette had confessed, Adrien was elated. He didn't think he would ever get used to hearing those words coming from Marinette, nor did he want to. This feeling was like nothing he had ever experienced before - hearing that the girl he was desperately in love with loved him back- and he couldn't help but to display an adorably large and goofy looking grin in response.
Marinette smiled, clearly delighted at the joy her words had caused Adrien, "Even before I realized who was underneath that mask, I had figured out I had fallen for my sweet little minou."
Marinette paused, tracing the outline of Adrien's mask, leaving one arm fastened tightly around his neck. Her gentle, warm fingers gliding across Adrien's skin, making him close his eyes at her tender touch. How long had he longed for his lady to show affection towards him? And now that she was, he wondered if he could ever get enough.
"It may have taken me eight years to realize it," she continued, leaving her palm on Adrien's cheek, "but Chat Noir was my closest friend, and somewhere along the line, that friendship - the trust we had built with one another - turned into something more."
Adrien opened his eyes as he leaned against her hand, hardly believing the words she just said. He had always dreamed Ladybug would fall for him, as Chat Noir, and hearing her confess that she had done exactly that almost seemed too good to be true.
"It wasn't a crush, like I held for the civilian side of you," her voice shook slightly with the intensity of her confession, "but something much deeper. Something that I didn't recognize until I began to feel those same feelings once I started to spend these past few months with you."
"I was too young to understand the relationship we really had. I was so blinded by my, somewhat ridiculous, obsession with the seemingly perfect Adrien, that I didn't even notice that I was actually in love with the Adrien who was running around, dressed as a black cat."
Adrien wanted to speak, but somehow felt that his own words would simply get in Marinette's way. Instead, he tightened his grasp around her waist, nuzzling even deeper into her the warmth of her hand.
Marinette moved her other hand, placing it so that it matched the opposite, framing Adrien's face as she outlined the bottom of his mask with her thumb. Adrien wondered if she was trying to learn the features of Chat Noir's face all over again or if, perhaps, she were simply trying to recognize Adrien's own face beneath that mask. Either way, he relished in the fact that she seemed as if she wanted to get to know him in a more intimate manner.
"It took some time, I'll admit," she giggled, "but after so many years of working so closely together, I guess I couldn't help but to form a relationship with my childish partner."
"Even though you were silly and cracked puns at the most ridiculous of moments," she grinned as her fingers lovingly continued to explore Adrien's facial features, "my trust in your abilities - no, my trust in you never faltered. I always knew you would be there to protect me, even at the expense of your own life."
"Chat Noir was the person who opened up his heart to me." Marinette lowered one of her hands, placing it atop of Adrien's chest, "Not only did you tell me you loved me, but you showed me the person you truly were on the inside. You showed me your imperfections - the loneliness and pain you hid from the friends in your class. And no matter how upset you seemed to be, you always found a way to get past that, choosing to see hope instead of holding on to grudges."
Marinette gently removed the other hand which Adrien still had his face nuzzled in, leaving him longing - wishing that closeness didn't have to end.
"When you began to open up to me as Adrien, and we began to actually form a real relationship," Marinette playfully tapped Adrien in the chest with her index finger, "I began to realize that what we were creating was something I already once had."
Adrien couldn't help but to stare, wide-eyed, at the rosy cheeked bluenette pouring out her heart in front of him. The chill, late night air stung at his cheeks where the warmth of her palms once had been, but no environmental factor would ever touch or lesson the heat that flowed through him inside. This woman in front of him knew every single part of his life, and she was even admitting that the things he had tried so hard to hide were the very parts of him that drew her closer in.
"I didn't know it at the time, but that was why I wrote that first letter," she softly continued, once again gathering her arms around Adrien's neck. "I couldn't continue to live my life pretending as if Chat Noir was not an essential part of my existence."
She sighed. "I missed you more than words can describe, but regaining that longed contact just made me even more confused. Especially once once I realized a part of me was still in love with you! How was I supposed to deal with that? You can't even imagine how relieved I felt when I figured out the man hiding beneath that mask was you, Adrien!"
"Of course I can," Adrien broke his silence. "I was going through the same thing - torn between my reconnection with the girl I had been in love with and the newfound feelings I discovered towards you, Marinette."
Marinette gave her best attempt at a frown. Even though she could not hide the happiness Adrien's words had filled her with.
"Don't interrupt, you mangy cat!" She bopped the back of his head.
"I was on a roll and I only had one line left," she pouted.
Adrien chuckled, enjoying the emergence of Marinette's childish behavior, making her curl out her lip even further. No matter how much he was enjoying this, he really wanted to hear the last part of her confession.
Composing himself and trying to display a look of seriousness, Adrien boldly said, "Go on, princess."
"Nope," she removed her arms from his neck, crossing them in front of her chest.
"After all that," Adrien raised his eyebrow, "you're simply not going to finish?"
Marinette squirmed, trying to get out of Adrien's grasp. "Yep," she curtly responded.
Adrien held her even tighter. "Oh no you don't. There's no way I'm letting you go without hearing everything you had to say."
"But you messed up my flow!" she pushed against his chest. "Now it will just sound funny."
Adrien smirked. This was definitely the girl he had fallen in love with. At the most random of times, she could be even more silly and childlike than him.
"Please," he begged, drawing the word out and giving his best Puss in Boots impression.
"No fair!" Marinette shouted as all of her attempts to break free halted. "How can you give me those eyes when you're literally dressed like a cat?" She buried her head in his chest, mumbling, "How can I even resist that?"
Adrien smiled, a big toothy grin, knowing that he had won.
"Fine, I'll say it," she murmured. Then, she jerked her head back hurriedly shouting, "I love you, Chat Noir! I love you, Adrien Agreste!"
And with that, Adrien could hold himself back no longer. Raising his left hand to the small of her back, Adrien pulled Marinette even closer as he leaned forward, enveloping Marinette in a passionate kiss.
Her boldness from before stirred a fire within, and once he had gotten a taste, he was addicted to her lips - tasting of sugar and strawberry - a sweetness that could only be Marinette's. He had been waiting for this perfect moment all evening, and now that it was here, he wasn't sure that he even wanted it to end.
Adrien languished every moment their lips remained locked together - the earlier image of Marinette transformed into Ladybug coupled with the honestly and emotion she had poured into her confession, strengthening the intensity of his kiss. It was almost too much to handle - seeing the girl he once loved now blossomed into an even more beautiful woman. What he thought had been love before, had been nothing compared to the burning love and desire now he held for his Lady - for Marinette.
She was the one.
The woman whom he had somehow managed to fall in love with two times. His eyes had never wandered. This love was destined - not even their own stupidity could keep them from being together.
Releasing their kiss and resting his forehead against Marinette's, Adrien grabbed hold of both of Marinette's hands, whispering, "I love you, too, Ladybug."
Adrien raised his head, placing a gentle kiss on Marinette's temple. Then, placing his hand beneath her chin, he softly said, "Thank you for loving both sides of me."
He smiled, as he looked deeply into Marinette's eyes. He wished there were some way to convey to depth and intensity in which his love ran, but knew no words could ever summarize the feelings he had within. All he could do was simply speak the truth.
With the deepest sincerity that Adrien could muster, he softly promised, "I will never stop loving you, Marinette."
But little did he know that somewhere across Paris a fuming young girl with way too much power in her hands was scheming for him to do just that.