Chapter 3: The Liberty (Couffaine Houseboat)

Marinette, Alya and Nino are all summoned to the Couffaine houseboat to help out Kitty Section with a few things, however when they all get there; they get a little more than a surprise from their friends.


Things with Marinette were going great; Adrien couldn't be happier. Well, he could be, but it was way too soon to marry Marinette; they were still in Lycée. However, being by her side was like a dream come true, he no longer had to rack his brain trying to sort out his feelings for Ladybug and his blooming emotions toward Marinette. He didn't have to feel guilty for seeing her in a different light when she was the one making herself shine with all her amazing acts.

The greatest benefit was that Marinette no longer felt stuttery or jumpy around him anymore, something about finally getting her feelings off her chest- wait? Adrien realized that Marinette never actually confessed to him, all he had to go on was the beret, and what Ladybug had told him.

'That's dumb, she obviously loves me; she made the hat in the first place! Not only that, but she risked exposing her identity just to get it to me; so obviously she has strong feelings for me, right?'

Right, how long had Chat Noir been asking Ladybug for dates, only to be rejected because of her looming crush she had on this "boy"? Well now that he knew who this "boy" was, he would make sure that she never felt like she had to hide anything from him ever again! But first…

"One whole week…"

"What did you say, Adrien?" He nervously looked into the back seat of the family car where Alya, Nino and Marinette were all packed in. They all got mysterious notifications to head out to the Couffaine's houseboat immediately, and the Gorilla was "nice" enough to drive them there. "Uh nothing, oh hey we're almost there."

"So, wait what's going on again?" Nino asked.

"Well Luka texted me saying that there was something wrong with the new costumes for Kitty Section, and I needed to come over and fix them right away." Marinette answered by showing off her phone.

"Rose called me asking if I could take upgraded pictures for their InstaFrance page, she made it sound urgent." Alya added.

"And Juleka messaged me asking if I could help her with the soundboard." Nino finished.

They all looked at each other with questionable expressions, "Apparently, we've all been summoned to the Couffaine's for different reasons, what about you, Adrien?"

"Well since it's my free day, I'm spending it with Marinette, so wherever she goes I go." Marinette and Alya grabbed their chests and tilted their heads happily saying "Aww!" Then he turned and added, "Plus you guys needed a ride too…"

Both Nino and Alya agreed, "Oh yeah that's a good reason!"


Once they were all on deck, everything was quiet on the home front, but something was still off. Despite the urgent need for everyone to be there, no one seemed to be around. The friends all stared at one another as they searched the deck for any signs of life, "Hello? Luka? Juleka, Rose? Anybody here?" Marinette called out.

"SURPRISE!"

Above the stage appeared a large beige banner made with paint, markers and stickers spelling out in huge bright blue letters "Congratulations!" All the members of Kitty Section were all there with balloons and poppers to help celebrate. "Oh my gosh! What is all of this?!"

There were decorations, confetti and food all over the place; Luka slung his guitar over his shoulder before walking up to the microphone to make an announcement, "Hey everyone thanks for coming. We're gathered here to help celebrate Marinette and Adrien, finally happening; congratulations you two!"

There was a large roar of compliments, whoops and hollers over the joyful event, Adrien took a hold of Marinette's hand as they began to survey the party. Ivan shouted at Mylene as they walked up to congratulate the couple, "Yes! Adreinette is finally happening!"

"Adrienette?" Leaning over slightly, Adrien asked Nino quietly.

"It's your guy's ship name!" Marinette hid her face as she laughed, while Adrien gave the most puzzling stare.

"Y'know, like how everyone calls Alya and I Ninalya," Nino started to count on his fingers, "There's JuleRose, MarcNath…"

Alya interjected, "And of course my favorite ship, LadyNoir!" Alya interlaced her own fingers, toppling over on Marinette, with a whimsical look in her eyes.

Marinette was so surprised, her two besties and her new boyfriend managed to wrangle the whole band together along with some of their friends to help them with the celebration. Marinette tackled Alya in the tightest squeeze she could muster, Alya only patted her back in response, confused. "Oh my gosh Alya thanks so much!"

"As much as I'd love to take the credit for all this girl, it wasn't me…" Marinette pulled herself away, staring at Alya with confused brows then looked beside her.

Nino gave her the same look, waving his hands dismissively, "Sorry dude, it wasn't me either!"

"Then who-?" Marinette's eye fell on the band's leader as he was plugging up his guitar to the amplifier, he caught on to Marinette's gaze and simply winked at her; lastly the rest of their classmates arrived shortly after.

She blushed slightly before Adrien grasped her shoulders, "All of our friends wanted to help us celebrate our week-iversery, Marinette… Kinda nice dontcha think?"

Marinette looked back at Luka as he and the band started playing a special song for everyone. It didn't take the pair long to recognize that tune as their "slow dance" song from Chloe's party. Adrien bowed slightly, offering his hand to Marinette, "With your permission, my lady…"

"Wh-What?" Marinette looked shocked, where had she heard that before? She hesitantly pulled back.

"I-I mean... My la-lo-love my lovely!"

'Damnit Agreste, this is not the time to be "Chat Noir-ing" right now!'

Adrien soon cleared his throat, correcting himself, "Mari, may I have this dance?" He quickly pulls her to the dance floor, both getting a strange sense of deja vu. Once there Marinette squealed gleefully as she thrust herself into his arms. Soon after Nino and Alya joined in.

The three amigos forgave Rose, Juleka and Luka for tricking them but it was worth it in the end; this gathering was so much fun, and everyone was having a blast! There were drinks, food and friends around to entertain throughout the rest of the day. Adrien was making his way back from the food table when he got a chance to take a good hard look at Marinette; her hair was still tickling her shoulders as she moved around chatting with their classmates.

He had never seen her smile so brightly before, her normal nervous demeanor all but melted away. Taking away her responsibilities as Ladybug, and also the stress when it came to her own personal projects, he could witness her carefree easy going self. To witness this as Chat Noir; he no longer felt jealous of his other half, nor anyone else that got to see this side of her.

"Whose car is that?" Sure enough there was a strange vehicle that pulled up behind Adrien's car, soon thereafter the passenger door opened, and someone got out.

"Kagami…"

Everyone halted as they watched Kagami slowly approach the dock then continued on deck where she was greeted by everyone; she gave the best smile she could muster, waving anxiously.

"This is kind of awkward…" Alya walked over to Marinette, and leaned in close to her ear, "She was the last to find out." Alya whispered. Marinette stiffened up, nervously.

Adrien was the first to advance, "Kagami, glad you could make-" She quickly put her hand up in silence as Marinette approached them from behind.

"I just wanted to come here and congratulate you two; I've known for a while that you two were meant for each other, but I had to make sure before I told you this: you have a red string of fate that's tied around you, binding you two together for the rest of eternity. It's an unbreakable connection and no matter what you do or go through in life; even if you don't end up together, you will always be forever bonded. That's all I wanted to say, enjoy your party, goodbye…" She bowed then made herself scarce afterwards.

As Kagami scurried to make a beeline to her mother's car, Adrien wasn't far behind, chasing her down. "Kagami! Wait!" He was able to get her attention before she got in; after catching up to her, Adrien huffed, "That stuff you said about Marinette and I, is it true?"

Kagami opened the car door, tightly gripping the handle, "I would never lie, especially to you Adrien…" Hesitantly looking back, her eyes were filled with such sadness as she tried to grin as brightly as possible.

Adrien felt his heart skip a beat, he placed his hand over it; "No matter what, she and I will always be bonded?" Adrien reached up to scratch his face, turned slightly to hide the blush he was creating. Kagami nodded, turning her head to hide her falling tears, "I'm sorry, you know I never meant to hurt you…"

Sauntering closer, Adrien reached for Kagami, then reluctantly pulled back, instead placing his hand behind his head. "It's just that Marinette, she's-"

"I-I know you didn't, Adrien. It's just how life goes; things happen, people grow up and they grow apart. Circle of life." Kagami glanced towards Adrien only to see that he had his arms open to receive a hug, she wiped the tears from her eyes; then rushed over quickly giving him a tight squeeze and receiving her own. "Arigatou Adrien-san."

Once they let go, she planted a kiss on the corner smirk, then dove into the car, "Arigatou Kagami-chan…"

"An unbreakable connection…"

Adrien stood at the dock, waving into nothingness, Kagami's car was long gone, however he was still stuck on the last thing she said; "Plagg, is that true? That no matter what, Marinette and I will forever be bonded?"

The tiny kwami slowly arose from his charge's pocket, Plagg didn't want to give him false hope by telling him that Kagami was technically right, however… "Nothing is set in stone Adrien, like she said things happen and-"

He finally rotated toward the houseboat and began to walk back, "But does that mean for however long we have our miraculous that we'll always be together?"

"Well yes and no…" Adrien wasn't paying attention; he was too focused on his friends starting to leave. Looking at the slowly setting sun, he only had about an hour with Marinette, and if what Kagami and Plagg said were true, he was planning on spending every waking moment with her!


As the party was winding down, and their classmates were slowly leaving, Adrien stayed by the exit, giving out hugs and high fives as they all departed. Somehow through the sea of friends, he found himself back on the ship and was greeted by Ninalya, "Hey how's Kagami doing? She seemed really down…" Nino asked, covering Alya's shoulders with his arm.

Adrien nervously rubbed his arm, "Um yeah, she's fine, she just needs more time to process all of this. She's good, we're good." Adrien nodded trying to assure himself of his own words. Adrien reached into his pocket and retrieved his phone, typed something up quickly then placed it back into his pocket, "Hey guys, it's getting late, why don't you guys start heading out? I already asked my driver to take you home."

"What about you and Marinette?" Alya asked, recording some last-minute footage of the Seine. Glancing around, they found Marinette at the stern of the houseboat; she was giving out goodbye hugs to Kim, Max, and Alec who departed right after.

He massaged the back of his neck, feeling a bit embarrassed, but why? "I still have an hour to spend with Marinette, so I'd like to take her for ice cream at Andre's; I saw that he was at the Pont des Arts bridge right now." He pulled out his phone and quickly displayed a map with a blinking ice cream symbol.

The three of them made it to the stern of the ship where Marinette, Ivan and Mylène were chatting before giving each other cheek kisses; and saying farewell.

After moments of swooning, Nino punched Adrien in the back of his arm, "Dude, we get it. You want to make up for lost time with Marinette; it's not a problem." Alya ran to Marinette and snatched a quick hug before returning to her boyfriend, who he handed out his own hug and fist bump towards the couple then headed to the docks with Alya. "We'll have more double dates in the future!"

"Of course, man, that's a promise!" Waving goodbye. Moving his attention back to Marinette, it's ironic that the same night he waited for Ladybug for a rooftop date; Marinette was waiting on him to show up. Somehow, she managed to upset Andre, getting him akumatized into Glaciator.

'Maybe if I had shown up, I would've prevented that from happening…'

Adrien felt his heart swell in his chest, still in disbelief that he was with Marinette, she was so creative, brilliant and beautiful; the sunset exemplified that fact by the way her hair flew in the wind, making her look like a princess. 'My princesse…'

After thanking Juleka for having them, and Rose for the clever tricks; Marinette was finally left alone. She was taking a few last-minute pictures of the sunset on the Seine. When Adrien approached, she bent backwards to show him the recent photo she took, "It's such a beautiful sundown, isn't it?"

"It's even better now that I'm enjoying it with you…" Adrien engulfed Marinette in a bear hug from behind with his nose nuzzling her neck.

This new sensation tickled her skin, causing to jump out of Adrien's arms, "Oh that was so corny! Where do you get your material?"

"Would you believe me if I told you, it's from a wise cracking cat?" Marinette laughed, ignoring that comment and going back to her phone.

Marinette shared her phone with Adrien, swiping through the pictures of the decorations and selfies of their classmates, and Kitty Section. Before putting her phone away, she raised her phone above their heads, readjusted in Adrien's arms and snapped a quick pic of the two of them. "Now that's a good one…"

Adrien was too busy nuzzling his future wife to hear when Luka suddenly made an appearance, "Hi guys we're going to pack it up here soon, how was the party? Did you have f-"

Marinette leapt into Luka's arms, hugging him tightly around his neck, "Luka! Thanks so much for putting this all together. I really can't thank you enough…" After releasing him, she smiled, "I appreciate it a lot." Marinette cleared her throat then stepped back to stand with Adrien, grabbing his hand, "I mean, we really appreciate it."

Luka stole Adrien's signature 'placing his hand behind his neck', then tilted his head to the side, "Pardon?"

"Oh, you don't have to pretend, I know you were the one who set all this up and we couldn't be happier! This was really great, and we had a good time!" Marinette launched herself at Luka again, seizing his waist this time.

At first Luka was hesitant to hug her back; he looked over at Adrien, hoping he would give him an answer, however Adrien only put a finger to his lips and winked. Luka smiled with relief, at least Adrien knew what was going on. Nodding back, Luka soon encased his arms around her shoulders.

"O-oh y-yeah you got me!" Luka gave Marinette a tighter squeeze, "Couldn't pull a mask over your eyes, could I?" Once they let go, Luka looked very bewildered, "It wasn't a big deal, we were getting together for band practice today anyway so everyone was already coming over, so it was just a matter of calling the rest of the class, getting some decorations…and the food…"

Luka walked the pair down to the Seine, before departing; Marinette embraced him one more time, adding a tiny peck on his cheek. She then grabbed Adrien and waved goodbye as they headed towards the Pont des Arts bridge.

'I agreed with this plan because I wanted to show Adrien that there were no hard feelings between us, I wanted to show you that even though the two of us aren't together now, it doesn't mean that I wouldn't do anything I can to make her happy…' Adrien turned, shot him the wink and the gun before they're out of sight, 'Take care of her Adrien, don't let my sacrifice be in vain…'


A/N: So to clear up any confusion, Adrien organized a surprise party for Marinette with the help of Luka and Kitty Section, Alya and Nino legit didn't know about it either. Since Marinette assumed that Luka was the one that got the party together, Adrien just let him take all the credit, but yes Luka knew about the whole thing.

Translations:

Lycée = high school

Arigatou = Thank you

Princesse = Princess