Author Notes at the beginning this time:

Have you ever wished that your fanfic came in a choose your own adventure style? You are in luck! There are two versions of Chapter 21.

If you like things rated no higher than Teen where there is cuddling and kissing and bad jokes about vikings: scroll down, keep reading.

Otherwise you're going to have to head on over to AO3 and this stupid upload system won't let me link you but my username is the same over there and the story is called: Sick Day and Other Alternate Scenes from Sealed Away which is actually obnoxiously long now that I am looking at it but I'm leaving it for the time being.

Your choice.

Both Chapter 21s lead seamlessly into Chapter 22. It does not change the plot or the course that this ship is on. You don't miss any of the "important dialogue" all you miss is the porn. So choose what you're comfortable with.


Chapter 21: Sick Day

Adrien's alarm buzzed at him. His phone was still in his pocket and he groped for it in the dark. It wasn't an alarm. It was a phone call. He hadn't set any alarms. He groped for the phone and Ladybug shifted under him, he had fallen asleep half on top of her and hadn't moved. His arm was asleep and he was too comfortable to want her to get off of it. He could get used to not having an arm.

He answered the phone without looking at the screen.

"Hello?" he said.

"Is everything all right? You're late for the lighting tests. You're never late," Adrien grimaced but didn't groan or swear at the phone. He'd forgotten that he had volunteered for the lighting tests. They fit into his schedule before classes and all he had to do was stand on the runway stage while someone shone lights at him and other people debated whether the lights were sufficiently blue or fuschia or soft or harsh or whatever adjective they needed to be.

"Be sick," Ladybug whispered before he could answer. She was twirling the hair at the back of his neck between her fingers and it was making him shiver.

"I'm not going to be able to make it, Milo," he said, "I think I've come down with something. I'm so sorry I didn't call earlier. The cold meds must have knocked me right out.."

"Ah, well. We'll throw an intern up there for today but when we do the dress rehearsals, you owe me and nothing but Bo-Bo the Floating Death Clown will stop you from showing up," Milo said.

"Bo-Bo the Death Clown?" Adrien frowned at the faint glow on the other side of the curtains and tried to make that sentence sensible. He couldn't. Ladybug's fingers were still in his hair and he was only half listening to Milo.

"Yes or Frou-Frou the Building Eating Chihuahua. What I mean is nothing short of needing rescued by Ladybug herself will be an acceptable excuse for missing next week," Milo said.

"Right, Frou-Frou, Ladybug, Bo-Bo, got it," Adrien said.

"Feel better darling, get some rest, ciao-ciao-ciao," Milo said and the phone clicked off.

"Was that conversation as ridiculous as it sounded?" Ladybug asked.

He murmured something that was meant to be yes but came out as just a happy sigh. Her fingers were still trailing through his hair and they had dipped down below the collar of his shirt so when she rubbed his back, she was touching bare skin. He was going crazy, slowly but surely, crazy. It was a very good place to be.

"Let me up," she said after an elastic bit of time that might have been hours or just minutes.

"No," he said.

"I need to call in sick or they're going to be calling me too and there might be yelling. It's not a good week to be calling out," she said.

"Do you need to go in?" he asked trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice and failing.

"Yes but I'm going to stay here instead," she said.

"Good," he said cuddling in closer and pushing her back against the mattress.

"You still need to let me up, lazy fur ball," she said.

He groaned and rolled off of her. She didn't get off her side of the bed, she slid over him and then out of the blankets. He listened as she padded across the room to where her things were piled up on top of his dresser. It was dark. The curtains kept the room as dark as night but with the sun up, there was enough light to pick out details and shadows in the room. She was just shapes. She stumbled on the pajama pants and had to hike them up. Her hair was loose and hanging down her back but those were about the only details he could see.

She was rummaging through her bag for her phone.

All the way across the room.

She was too far away.

He got up so he could come and hug her from behind. She leaned back into his chest and he set his chin on the top of her head. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and breathed in the smell of her. It didn't matter that his human nose couldn't pick out as many details from her as his cat one could. She still smelled nice.

"Too tall, fur ball," she said.

"Too small, Bug," he said.

She called in and left a message on an answering machine. An employee number, an apology but no excuse or even a lie about being sick, and a promise to catch up on everything she was going to miss when she was back in tomorrow.

He started backing up towards the bed and she walked with him. He sat down and she turned in his arms so that she sat on his lap. He couldn't see her but this close he didn't need to.

"I read somewhere that if you sleep beside someone, your brain releases bonding chemicals and it makes you trust them," he said.

"You're a massive dork," she said.

"What?" he said.

"I am wearing your clothes, sitting on your lap, I just called out from my very competitive hostile work environment to spend the day with you and you're talking about brain chemistry," she said laughing and leaning her forehead against his shoulder. He could feel her hair against his cheek. She had such nice hair. He ran his fingers through it as she laughed at him.

"What would you like to talk about instead?" he asked.

"I don't really want to talk, I want to kiss you, maybe have some breakfast and then I want you to do that purring thing again," she said.

"It's good isn't it?" he said.

"Fantastic. I'd do it today, everyday, any day, I could be an addict by the end of the week," she said.

"I could get used to that, I could sleep like that every day for the rest of my life," he said.

His hands wandered down her back to waist and she took it as an invitation to slide closer. Her knees on either side of his legs had been one thing but now her body was against his and the feel of her thighs spread so wide was distracting him. From everything. The walls could have been falling down and he wouldn't have noticed because of the way she was straddling his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and held on.

She cuddled in and shifted just enough to make it impossible for him to forget where her body was. Her head was on his shoulder, her arms around his back, and she pressed into him rather than leaned. He rubbed his face against hers and she laughed and twitched away.

"You're such a cat, and you need to shave," she said.

"Oh sorry," he said pulling back.

"No, come back," she said catching his face with her hand. She ran her palm along his jaw and he could feel what she meant about shaving now that he was paying attention. Her thumb along his jaw and then down this throat was enough to make him want to purr again. Her hand dragged against the stubble and that made him shiver too.

"You'd look hilarious if you grew it out," she said, "Chat Noir with a viking beard."

"I would not be able to pull off a viking beard. Not as Chat Noir or at my day job," he said.

"I didn't say that you would look good, I said that it would be hilarious," she said still tracing his throat with her finger tips.

"It would be that," he said and his voice came out all soft and halfway to being a sigh. He pulled her in a little tighter and kissed her. He hit her jaw but that was it's own kind of electric. He kissed down her neck and she tilted her head back for him. He went slow, a kiss, wait with his mouth against skin, another, this one a little lower, wait again. She didn't stop him. She murmured encouragement and played with his hair and kept the rest of her body pressed flush to his.

"I want you forever," he said.

"We're going to figure this out, we're going to have forever. It just may not start today," she said.

"It started years ago, you've been my forever since almost the moment I met you," he said.

"The first time I met you, I thought you were another Akuma," she said.

"I know, but I won you over eventually," he said. "I went out there that day, to find you. I had transformed once, I could barely use my powers, Plagg and I still argued over everything but there was danger and I knew you'd be in the middle of it, trying to save lives. That was where I wanted to be. I wanted to be where you were. I wanted to be half the person you were."

"You're twice the person I am," she said.

"Not true," he said.

"It is but it doesn't matter because we're better together," she said.

"Always," he said.

She kissed him and his hands came up to catch her face and hold on as he kissed her back. Gentle for only a moment before she was kissing him hard, pulling him in and teasing at his lower lip until he opened his mouth for her. He was lost, he was hers and he had never been happier. He leaned back and she came with him, lying on top of him and not breaking the kiss.

They lay curled in the dark and every kiss made him smile.

"You really are perfect," he said.

"I am entirely not," she said.

"Ok, but you're my favourite and I like you best," he said, "Not perfect but better than anyone else."

"You're such a dork," she told him again.

"But I'm your dork and that makes me special," he said.

"It does," she pulled him in to kiss. He still had a hand on her thigh and he pulled it up with him as he leaned in to reach her. She kissed him hard and in the middle of it stopped to say, "And thank you for not saying purrfect."

"Damn it," he said shaking his head and propping himself up on his elbows, "I missed that. I blame you, you're distracting me and it's killing the quality of my puns, My Lady."

She couldn't see him in the dark but he wiggled his eyebrows at her and cracked a grin. His nerves were gone. Just gone. For the first time, possibly ever, she felt like a sure thing. She wasn't swinging away or racing against the miracle stone's clock. She was there and she was safe and happy and his. He was struck by a wave of possessiveness that threw him off. He lost his other desires in a wave of his heart beating out the same word over and over. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. He shook it off.

"I am a good influence is what you mean," she said.

"Yes, good," he told her.

"If asked you to stop making puns, would you?" she asked.

"Yeah, but only for today, once we're fully dressed again, all bets are off," he said, "Is that what you want?"

"Whatever," she said with a wave of her hand.

"You like them," he said with a laugh.

"I do not like them, I tolerate them because I like you," she said.

"Close enough," he said, "Damn, claws enough. You really are throwing me off."

She laughed and pulled him back down to kiss again.