The next evening, after she'd finally made it past the high of the kiss and gotten through another terrible day at school, Marinette paced frantically in her room. "Tikki, I made a mistake." Her Kwami flew up to hover near her as she continued to fret. "I shouldn't have done that. I took advantage of him! Ladybug is a superhero!"

Tikki tried to chime in, "Do you –"

Marinette continued on, not hearing. "What if he thinks Ladybug only kissed him because he's famous?" Her eyes widened and she held her head with both hands. "This is a disaster. I have to go apologize."

Tikki tried again to interrupt her spiral. "Marinette, are you sure that's a good –"

"Tikki, spots on!" Marinette missed her Kwami's look of exasperation as she was pulled into her earrings.

The next thing she knew, Ladybug was crouched on the building across from the Agreste mansion once again.

She still hadn't thought this through enough. How was she supposed to get his attention? The row of windows lining his room were flat against the building, with no visible ledge to stand on. Maybe she should hang from the top of the building and lower herself down? But what if there was some type of security system?

Before she could make a decision, she saw one of the windows swing open, and Adrien was leaning out. "Hey, Ladybug? Are you—"

In line with her recent tendency to make decisions without thinking, Ladybug swung over into his room once again. This time, Adrien didn't move aside quick enough, and she crashed into him, taking both of them to the ground. For a second, they just stared wide-eyed at each other, Ladybug above him on the floor.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" She jumped up from on top of him, taking his hand to pull him back up with her. "I don't know what I was thinking. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine m—Ladybug. Are you?" He still looked concerned, but there was something else there as well she couldn't quite parse.

"I'm good. Wait — no, I'm not, but not from falling for you – falling on you, I mean." She felt flustered as she tried to get back on track. "I came by to sorry – to apologize. I shouldn't have kissed you last night. It wasn't good." Adrien's face seemed to fall slightly at that, and she wanted to smack herself as she fumbled to explain. "Of me. It wasn't right for me to do. I didn't mean the kiss wasn't good. It was amazing, actually."

"Oh." They gazed at each other, Ladybug losing her train of thought as she watched her own blush mirror itself across his face. His expression changed slightly, moving from disappointment to something else, something more focused. He shifted, moving the tiniest bit closer to her, his eyes darting down to her lips.

She tried to clear her throat, trying and failing not to be distracted by him. "Um, so, yeah, I shouldn't have taken advantage of you like that." The responsible part of her brain was yelling at her to turn around and leave, but she found herself matching his movement despite her words, his intensity acting like a magnet pulling her closer. "So, I'm sorry."

The bright green of his eyes held hers. "It's alright, Bug."

The sound of the nickname shot through her; he'd never called her anything besides her hero name before, and the sound of it felt…intimate. "I shouldn't do it again." That didn't sound quite as firm as she'd planned it, but the look simmering in his eyes was wreaking havoc on her thoughts.

He took another step closer. "Why not?" His voice was lower than normal, and his eyes – damn him and his beautiful eyes – kept dropping to her mouth.

Ladybug tried to remember. "I—I'm a superhero. You don't know who I am."

He was close enough now that his hand ghosted up the side of her arm, barely brushing against her suit. Still, she felt the light touch reverberate through her, and her breath hitched.

"I'm just a model. Why come to me?"

The question was enough to clear her mind briefly. "That's not – you're not just a model. That's not why I like you." Her hand came up, resting lightly against his chest as she gripped his shirt.

Adrien sucked in a quick breath, bringing his other hand between them to grip hers. "You…like me?" His eyes were wide with wonder.

Something about his expression kept her from bolting. She bit her lip, the movement drawing his eyes once again. "I – yes, I do."

"What if –" he breathed, "—what if I told you I liked you, as well?"

She felt shocked. "I—"

This time, he was the one to start the kiss. He crushed her to him, his mouth muffling her squeak of surprise that quickly turned to a moan as his tongue met hers and sent shocks of pleasure through her.

All thoughts of leaving disappeared as she lost herself in him once again. He took a more active role this time, guiding her to the wall and pressing her against it. His lips left hers momentarily, trailing kisses down her jaw to the part of her neck he could reach. When her suit prevented him from going farther, his hands took over, trailing lightly along her suit before tightening against her skin in time with his kisses, driving Ladybug crazy. Finally, she flipped him around, his back hitting the wall as she took over control again, her fingers dropping to the edge of his shirt. Adrien's breathing went ragged as her fingers teased his stomach. She was about to lift it off of him when her reasoning finally returned, and her movements slowed. She broke away from his lips, breathing hard.

She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against his shoulder. "Shit. I didn't mean for this to happen again."

Adrien let out a quiet huff of laughter. "Now we're even."

She just groaned. "This was… a bad idea. I shouldn't have come back."

His arms tightened around hers. "I'm…really glad you did."

She stood there leaning against him for a time, trying to gather the will to leave as she breathed him in. Finally, she stepped away. He let her go, but before she could exit through the window, he spoke again. "Will you come back?"

"I shouldn't." She turned back, catching his gaze.

His expression was slightly forlorn as he responded. "Please? We can just talk, next time, if that helps. I want to see you again."

She hesitated. He looked at her so earnestly, and she believed that he really did want to see her again, and perhaps not just for this. "I…maybe. Yes. I'll come back."

The smile he gave her was like sunshine, lighting up her gloomy day. She found herself smiling back before she left through the window once again.

After transforming back in her room, Marinette found herself burying her head in her pillow. "That did not go as planned."

Tikki plopped down on her head. She'd expected to receive a lecture, but the Kwami giggled instead. "I'm not sure you really had a plan at all, Marinette. That's not exactly like you."

Marinette rolled over. "I don't know why I can't say no to him, Tikki. But, he seems so lonely. We hardly ever see him anymore outside of school. He's so busy with work and extracurriculars he doesn't even seem to care about. He did say we could just try to talk next time, so maybe that's safe."

It was not, in fact, a safe assumption.

A/N: While editing my Power of Destruction story, I felt a desire to come back to this one-shot from 2019 and add on. I don't have any particular plans on where this is going, so enjoy with me as we see! Shoot me a review if you like and want to see more. Ladrien is fun to explore, as it is literally the opposite in many ways of Marichat. I'm having some fun thinking about it.