Adrien watched as Marinette's eyes widened, tears still streaming down her cheeks. The tears brimming against her blue belle eyes looked like ocean water encompassed by blue sky.
He removed his hand from her cheek to wipe away her tears. "Please, stop crying, princess," he murmured.
"I-is it really you?" she asked, looking wary.
He chuckled softly. "Yes, I promise it's me," he replied, putting one hand on his chest and raising the other. "Cat's honor."
After a couple minutes of silence, her look of shock started to fade into a smile. "Wow," she finally breathed. "I'm so stupid."
Adrien cupped her chin with his hand. "What? No, Marinette, you're not stupid," he said, his eyes turning serious again. His mind raced. Was she disappointed that he was Chat Noir?
Marinette laughed in between sniffles. "Yes, I am," she said. "I can't believe I didn't figure out who you were, and that you figured it all out first."
Adrien cocked his head, looking confused and then burst out laughing.
"AHEM."
They both turned in surprise to find Plagg floating in the air, his arms crossed. "Sorry to ruin this beautiful moment, but I need cheese!" he huffed.
Adrien had almost forgotten that he'd used his cataclysm to break free from the handcuffs. He trembled slightly at the memory. Had he broken free any later than he did, he might not have made it in time to snatch Ladybug out of the air before she hit the ground trying to save the fake Adrien.
Plagg cleared his throat again and Adrien rolled his eyes, reaching into the pocket of his tux to pull out a piece of camembert. "Marinette, meet Plagg," Adrien said with a grin. "He's my pesky kwami who loves stinky cheese."
Marinette giggled, watching Plagg take massive bites out of the camembert.
"Is your kwami charged up?" Adrien asked her, realizing that she was still transformed. He leaned over to check her earrings.
"Yes, Tikki should be fine," she answered. "I haven't used my lucky charm."
"Good," Adrien replied. "As soon as Plagg is ready, we need to track down Photoframer. But where could he have gone?"
Ladybug's eyes widened. "Oh no," she breathed. "I think he's going after your father. Photoframer sent your dad a picture of himself dangling the fake Adrien over the edge of the roof!"
Adrien jumped up onto his feet. "What?" he gasped. "He must be going to my house, then!"
Plagg burped and that was Adrien's cue. "Plagg, claws out!"
Ladybug sprinted across a rooftop, stealing yet another glance at Chat Noir.
That's Adrien, she thought for the hundredth time in the last five minutes. She still couldn't believe it. She blushed, thinking back on all the times Chat had tried to woo her and how she had shut him down every time, not knowing he was the guy she was so in love with. Despite the current situation at hand, Marinette couldn't help but smile. She was actually very relieved and beyond happy that Chat Noir was Adrien.
Focus, she told herself. Adrien's father might be in danger. I can think about Chat - I mean, Adrien - later…
Ladybug and Chat Noir landed on top of the gates to the Agreste mansion. They could hear shouts coming from inside the main entrance. Chat Noir crouched, ready to pounce off the gate and into the house, but Ladybug held him back.
"Wait," she said. "Think with your head, minou. Don't make the same mistake I made."
She knew all too well how difficult it was to make the right decisions when someone she loved was in danger.
Chat looked at her and nodded, determination in his eyes. "I'll follow your lead, my lady."
Ladybug swung down, landing on the front steps. She kicked open the front doors and ran in to find Photoframer standing over Gabriel Agreste. Gabriel was chained up to a chair at the bottom of the main staircase.
"What did you do to my son?" Gabriel shouted up at the villain, his eyes wild.
Photoframer spun around when he heard the doors open. He seemed slightly surprised to see Ladybug.
"You survived? Hm, I know cats always land on their feet, but aren't you supposed to be a bug?" he sneered at Ladybug.
She rolled her eyes. "Ladybugs can fly," she sneered back, throwing her yo-yo so that it wrapped around one of the legs of the chair Gabriel was chained to.
She yanked on it, pulling the chair towards her. Photoframer lunged at her, but Chat Noir sprinted forward, slamming the villain's legs with his staff. The villain lost his footing and fell forward.
"Chat, get him free," Ladybug hollered, pointing at Gabriel.
"Cataclysm!" Chat cried out, running his hands along the chain that was holding Gabriel onto the chair.
"Lucky charm!" Ladybug said when she saw Photoframer getting back on his feet.
Something fell into her hands and she glanced down at it quickly. "A bottle of glue?" she asked, confused.
Photoframer lunged at her and she reacted quickly, throwing her yo-yo and swinging over his head and onto the top of the staircase. She had a good view from up there and looked down at the villain, noticing that he had a glove on each hand. Got it, she thought.
She tossed her yo-yo once more and swung back over Photoframer's head, squirting the bottle of glue as she passed. The line of glue managed to squirt onto one of his gloved hands. The villain let out an angry growl and used his other hand to try to rub off the goo. When his two hands touched, the gloves became glued together. He gasped, trying to separate his hands.
Marinette laughed, landing next to Adrien, who was helping Gabriel get up from the chair. "Oops, sorry," she said, giving Photoframer a wink.
She jumped over and landed in front of the villain. She reached out and pulled the glued gloves off his hands and tore them in half.
"No more evildoing for you, little akuma. Time to de-evilize!" she cried out, spinning her yo-yo as the black butterfly took to the air. "Gotcha!" She trapped the butterfly and pulled the yo-yo back towards her before pressing the top of the yo-yo. "Bye bye, little butterfly."
The white butterfly fluttered off and Marinette tossed the bottle of glue into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!"
Vincent detransformed and fell onto his knees, looking confused. "Pound it," Ladybug and Chat Noir said together, fist-bumping while looking into each other's eyes.
Chat turned to check on the victim. "Vincent?" Chat Noir exclaimed.
Gabriel Agreste turned to look at Chat in surprise. "How do you know Vincent?" Gabriel asked, his eyes narrowing. Chat gulped.
"Adrien told us all about him!" Ladybug intervened, grabbing Chat by the hand to drag him away. She turned to look at Gabriel. "You should go check on your son, Mr. Agreste. He should be upstairs, safe."
Gabriel scrambled onto his feet and headed for the stairs. Ladybug shot Chat a quick glance and he nodded back at her before taking off to head up to his room.
Adrien pulled out his phone and looked at the time: 11:27 p.m.
He couldn't sleep. He pulled up a blank text.
Marinette, he wrote. Meet me at midnight on top of the Eiffel Tower. Send.
He had so many questions for her, but there was also something he had been planning to do at the dance but had never gotten the chance to.
He felt a little silly, but he put his tuxedo and green tie back on. Perhaps they'd be able to finish their dance on top of the tower.
Once he was dressed, he walked over to his keyboard where Plagg was sprawled out sleeping. Adrien poked at the kwami's little round head. "Plagg," he whispered. "Time to transform."
"Are you crazy?" Plagg yawned. "It's almost midnight and we're not on patrol tonight."
"Plagg," Adrien said in a stern voice. "You know I need to talk to Ladybug."
"You mean Marinette?" the kwami said, grinning. "Alright, kid. Let's go get the girl."
Adrien's face lit up and he laughed. "Claws out!"
A few minutes later, Chat Noir landed on top of the Eiffel Tower, looking around for Ladybug. His heart was beating rapidly, and not just because of the long climb up the tower. He walked over to the ledge where he had sat with Ladybug one night a few weeks earlier. It had just been a few hours ago that he had showed up at her house to pick her up for the dance, but it felt like days had passed since then. He missed her.
He looked over and grinned as soon as he heard the sound of a yo-yo cutting through the air and wrapping around a pole nearby. The girl in red swung up onto the platform, landing with stunning perfection. Chat chuckled, suddenly unable to believe that this was the same girl who tripped at least once a day in class.
"What's so funny, minou?" she asked with a grin, whipping back her yo-yo before placing it around her waist.
"Nothing," he replied with a huge smile. "I just can't believe it's really you, Marinette."
Her smile disappeared and she stopped walking towards him. "W-why do you say that?" she stammered.
Chat's face grew serious and he reached out to her, closing the space between them. "My lady," he said softly. "You are amazing."
She looked down at her red, spotted hands. "Ladybug is amazing," she said. "Marinette is just a clumsy girl."
Chat pulled her chin up to look into her blue belle eyes. "Your eyes," he breathed. "I can't believe I didn't recognize them…"
He brushed the hair away from her face to look deep into her eyes. "But whether I looked into these eyes on Ladybug or Marinette, they had the same effect on me," he said. "They always mesmerized me, but it wasn't just your eyes..."
He took both of her hands in his. "You know I was always in love with Ladybug, but I cared a lot for Marinette as well," he said. "In fact, I was pretty captivated by Marinette, but I felt I couldn't betray Ladybug."
Chat laughed and Ladybug's eyes softened. He put his hands on her waist, pulling her closer to him. "My lady, Marinette is just as amazing as Ladybug. Because they are both truly you," he continued. "You're just less clumsy in the suit."
Marinette finally laughed, but Chat's ears drooped. "I wish I could say the same for myself," he said, sighing.
"What do you mean?" Ladybug asked, leaning into him.
"When I'm Adrien, I have to hide who I really am," he explained. "There's a lot of pressure on me to look like I have it all together… But when I'm Chat Noir, I can just be who I want to be."
He looked down, unable to look into Ladybug's eyes. "And I'm afraid you're disappointed because now you can see who I really am," he whispered.
Ladybug put her hands on his shoulders, just like she had when they were dancing earlier that night. "Why would I be disappointed?" she said softly, making Chat look at her. "Who always managed to make me laugh in the middle of a gruesome akuma battle? Who was always there to take a hit for me?"
"Who was there to cheer me up when Chloe made me doubt myself?" she continued. "Who was always there to make a pun when I didn't think it was possible?"
The corner of Chat's mouth turned up in a half-smile. "Chat Noir, the one and only," she said. "I can't live without Chat Noir. I even admitted to myself that if it weren't for Adrien, I would've fallen for Chat's romantic charm a long time ago." She giggled.
"I am not disappointed, minou," she assured him. "I was relieved to find out it was you… I wouldn't want you to be anybody else."
Chat smiled. "Claws in," he murmured, his suit vanishing in a flash of green to reveal his tuxedo.
Ladybug gasped and then burst out laughing. "What's so funny, LB?" Adrien grinned, raising an eyebrow.
"Spots off," she said. Her spotted suit disappeared, and there she stood in her red dress with the spotted sash. Adrien's breath caught, taken aback again by how stunning she looked. Then he laughed too.
"Well then, princess," he said. "It looks like we will be able to finish our dance after all."
She wrapped her arms around his neck and he placed his hands on her waist. Her heart beating against his chest felt so familiar and comforting. He looked down into her eyes and decided he would finally do what he'd been wanting to do ever since the day he fell in love with the girl with the blue belle eyes.
He moved his hands up to her face, cupping her cheeks. He heard her take in a quick breath as he leaned in, placing his lips on hers.
She melted into his body, moving one of her hands up into his hair. He ran his fingers back from her face into her loose hair, admiring the feel of every strand. After a few moments, their lips parted and they took a moment to take in a few breaths of air. Marinette sighed, her eyes still closed and a smile on her face.
"I love you, Marinette," Adrien said softly.
Marinette's eyes fluttered open. "I love you too," she said, and then she pulled him back towards her, taking his bottom lip in between hers.
And so they danced, unaware of their kwamis who were sitting nearby, watching them with huge smiles.
The night sky swallowed them up and the city of Paris glowed beneath them.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's pretty cool to read this final scene while listening to "In The Rain - 20 Minute Version - Miraculous Ladybug" on YouTube.
It was so hard to end this story. I hope to maybe write a sequel fanfic sometime in the next couple of months. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read it. I hope it helps you get by until season 2! I know it's helped me take my mind off of the agonizing wait.