Author's Note: Thank you all for the reviews, favourites, and follows. I'm glad you enjoyed the fic so far and I hope you continue to enjoy this final chapter.
"Marinette?!"
Chat Noir looked like a deer caught in headlights he was so startled. His luminous green eyes were wide and his mouth was dropped open ever so slightly, he then started to blink repeatedly as if he couldn't believe his own eyes. Marinette swallowed as dread flooded her stomach. All of her fears rushed back to her – would he be disappointed? Would he hate her? Would he wish Ladybug was someone, anyone, else but her? – when Chat Noir's shock suddenly melted away into a smile of pure joy.
"Marinette," he repeated in awe, "it's you!"
"Erm yeah," Marinette laughed nervously. "Erm, ah, err… hi?" she offered weakly.
Chat blinked once more and then smirked before he lunged down and landed on her bed. His knees caged her hips as his hands landed on her mattress just above her shoulders and so very close to her face. Marinette felt her face heat up as he brought his own so very close to hers. So close, that she could feel his breath against her lips as he exhaled happily.
"Hello Princess," he purred out. "So I'm a fumbling squire, am I?"
"W-w-w-what?!" Marinette stammered out.
"You called me a fumbling squire," Chat pouted childishly, "when we've been discussing what Ladybug has been up to."
"No I haven't!" Marinette protested. "You've been calling yourself a fumbling squire!"
"But you didn't correct me, did you?" Chat pointed out. "You didn't tell me that you were really being served by a dashing, handsome, rogue of a knight."
Marinette raised an unimpressed eyebrow at this. "Really, Kitty?" she deadpanned. "Really?"
"Yes!" Chat insisted. "Really!"
Beep, beep! Beep, beep!
Marinette jumped at the sound of Chat's ring beeping in her ear and she was immediately reminded that he was on the verge of de-transforming and panic began to rise up. "D-d-do you want to go to the bathroom and I'll fetch you some cheese?" she offered nervously.
"No," Chat said softly, "I know who you are. It's only fair if you know who I am."
"You don't have too," Marinette said timidly, "I don't mind if you want to keep it a secret a little longer until you're used to….well….this," she gestured towards herself.
"I'm already used to it," Chat said firmly, "it makes sense to me that the two most amazing girls in my life are in fact one and the same"
Marinette's heart fluttered at that. "Chat," she murmured softly, "I –mfple!" she simultaneously squeaked and choked as Chat Noir's transformation wore off and he was covered in a green sparkling light before a tiny black cat flew out of his ring and there, pinning her to her bed, leaning all over her, was no other than….
…..Adrien Agreste.
And within that moment Marinette's brain died a literal death as her heart stopped, her breath stuck to her throat, and her eyes widened so far she was sure her eyes will pop out unattractively and roll down her mattress.
It wasn't because it shocked her that much that Adrien, the boy she had been crushing on forever, and Chat Noir, the boy she had started to have feeling for were one and the same.
(Though it did totally shock her.)
It wasn't because this gorgeous, wonderful boy, was pinning her to her bed.
(Though that really didn't help matters.)
And it wasn't because there was now a flying, miniature, black cat in her bedroom.
(She was far too used to weird things like that nowadays.)
No, it was none of those reasons why Marinette's brain suddenly lost all ability to compute or why her insides had completely melted to useless gloop.
The real reason why she had suddenly become so gormless, as she took in Adrien's perfectly carved features and soulful green eyes and silky blonde hair, was because she suddenly remembered what happened when they were sitting on the sofa downstairs earlier.
When she had his head resting on her lap as she petted him and fed him as if he was some sort of Roman Emperor and cat rolled up into one, when Alya phoned her and distracted her from her 'duties', and when, out of sheer impatience and cheek, he had begun to lick and then suck on her fingers.
OH MY GOD! ADRIEN AGRESTE HAD SUCKED ON HER FINGERS!
Marinette internally screamed.
She was pretty sure this was what a mental breakdown was like.
"Marinette?" Adrien asked worriedly as he gently shook her. "Marinette, are you all right? You've gone really quiet." He shook her a little harder at this. "Marinette?!" he cried out panicked.
"Oh!" Marinette managed to gasp out. "Oh!" she repeated when words failed. "Oh! This is really unfair!" she complained.
Confusion flickered across Adrien's face along with something rather vulnerable and hurt. "What's not fair?" he asked fearfully.
"That you have made me fall for your twice now!"
That beautiful smile of pure joy reappeared again. "Oh, I don't know Princess," he murmured huskily, "I think it's really unfair for me. After all you make me fall for you every day."
Marinette's breath caught in her throat as she moved he mouth wordlessly. Her brain blanked out all over again and she wondered if she would ever be able to form a coherent thought again.
Adrien suddenly leaned in closer as he pushed Marinette's hair out of her face and gently tucked it behind her ear.
Yep, she was definitely never going to be able to form a coherent thought ever again.
And then, for one wild, insane, moment she thought he was going to kiss her. He leaned in so close that she could feel his warm breath tickle against her face while he looked at her questioningly. She tilted her head to the side in reply and as he leaned down she pushed up to meet him halfway when –
"Oi lovebirds!" the black cat Kwami suddenly yelled which caused Marinette to yelp in shock and Adrien to jump back. Adrien then, unluckily, lost his balance and fell onto the floor with a loud thud. "Smooch later, I need my cheese if I'm to make it for the next Akuma attack!"
"Plagg!" Tiki cried out exasperated. "Couldn't you see they were having a moment?! You could have waited five minutes more for your blessed cheese!"
"Please," Plagg rolled his eyes, "they're young. They have hundreds of moments," he said mockingly, "to look forwards to. I, however, only have minutes left to spare before I die of starvation."
Adrien and Tiki both rolled their eyes at that but it was pretty much silently agreed among all three of them that they better feed Plagg now before they ended up strangling him.
And on that note Marinette left her room hand in hand with Adrien feeling brighter and happier than ever before.
MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB
Adrien has never been as happy as he was now.
Once they got Plagg settled with the last of the Cheese Danishes, Adrien and Marinette happily helped themselves to the rest of the food (and Tiki to whatever sweet pastry she could get her hands on) and settled down to watch an anime of Adrien's choosing. The rest of the afternoon was spent feeling very fat and full, and so very blissfully happy.
With Marinette neatly tucked under his arm, Adrien found the whole watching anime experience was vastly better when there was a soft, cuddly, girl snuggling against your chest and letting you nuzzle your nose against her flower scented hair.
He was rather convinced that he might have died and gone to heaven somewhere between defeating the Akuma and arriving on Marinette's balcony because there was nothing that could compare to how heavenly this felt.
Then the door suddenly banged open and Plagg and Tiki quickly ducked beneath a cushion as a frustrated Alya and Nino stormed in. "Tell me Chat Noir is still here!" Alya said loudly as she marched across the living room. "Nino wouldn't let me go and film the Akuma attack at the park and I need to know what happened for my bl- Adrien?!" she interrupted herself bewilderedly. "What are you doing here? Where's Chat Noir?"
"Hey dude," Nino greeted him with a nod, "Marinette," he nodded to Marinette next, "could you tell your impossibly stubborn best friend that the whole point of Little Soldier Day is that she does what I say without complaint and that the world isn't going to suddenly end if she misses one Akuma attack."
"As I have told you before, Nino," Alya said irritably, "it is my duty as an investigative journalist to report everything that is going on accurately as possible even if it means sacrificing a personal life in order to witness important events."
"Babe, I think you're awesome, I really do, but that's just plain nuts," Nino said exasperated, "you can be both an excellent journalist and have a life of your own, and more importantly one where you don't get splattered by paint that could melt you or electrocute you or set you on fire. I did you a favour."
"You did not!" Alya shrieked. "Because now I have even missed a chance to interview Chat Noir about it because you just had to argue with that shop assistant about the price of that album."
"It's called haggling!" Nino snapped defensively. "And – wait," he turned abruptly to stare at Adrien and Marinette with big, wide, eyes, "what are you two doing?!" he yelped.
"Erm," Adrien moved his free hand to scratch the back of his head sheepishly, "cuddling?" he offered weakly.
Alya's jaw dropped open unattractively. "What?!" she squeaked. "When did this happen?! Why are you here?! Whatever happened to Chat Noir?!"
"Well, erm, you see," Marinette said nervously, "Chat had to go because of the Akuma attack and….well he didn't come back."
"He didn't?!" Alya said disbelievingly. "But he seemed to enjoy spending time with you."
"Yeah, well it's his day, and I think Ladybug wanted to do something with him," Marinette said hastily, "I can't fault him for that. He deserves to have a good time with her." she glanced up at Adrien questioningly.
"Oh," he murmured as he rubbed reassuring circles on her arm, "he's definitely having a good time with his Lady."
Marinette appeared to have melted at that as she beamed radiantly up at him. Adrien's heart burned with a fierce joy and pride he didn't know he was capable of.
"So, ah, yeah," Marinette snapped back to Alya as she realised belatedly (and after a pointed cough from Alya) that she and Nino were still in the room with them, "I still had a load of food spare and Adrien called looking for somewhere to escape, and well, one thing led to another and…"
"So," Nino blinked, "are you two a couple now or what?"
Marinette glanced up at him nervously and bit down on her lip which did nothing to help Adrien's own nerves as he now had to struggle with the urge to taste her bottom lip too. Adrien tilted his head at her questioningly and she widened her eyes appealingly.
"I…erm…don't know," Adrien mumbled, "I would like to though…if you wanted to!" he added hastily and loudly.
"Yes!" Marinette squeaked as she turned bright red. "I would like that! If you wanted to!"
"I do!"
"Then so do I!"
"So, erm, then it's settled," Adrien laughed, "we're a couple."
"Yes," Marinette agreed breathlessly, "we're a couple."
"Yeah, a couple of idiots," Adrien heard Plagg mutter darkly and then a light smacking noise, "Ow! Tiki!"
Fortunately though, Alya and Nino were completely oblivious to Plagg as Alya was busy congratulating Marinette and Nino was helping himself to a bit of quiche. The rest of the day ended with them chilling out in the Dupain-Cheng living room together until it was time for them to all go home.
Once Alya and Nino were definitely gone, Adrien transformed back to Chat Noir so he could sneak his way back into the mansion and turned to say goodbye to Marinette when she suddenly flung her arms round his neck and made him stagger back a few steps.
He chuckled delightedly as he wrapped his arms round her waist and relished the fact he was finally holding the girl of his dreams.
"I hope today was good for you," Marinette mumbled against his neck. He shivered in response as her soft lips ticked a sensitive spot "That you enjoyed it despite the Akuma attack."
"The Akuma attack was surprisingly fun today," Chat grinned wickedly at the memory, "We got to play with paintball guns after all!"
He could virtually feel Marinette roll her eyes at that. "Boys," she muttered.
He laughed again and squeezed her tight. "It was the best day I have had in a long time," he murmured reassuringly against her hair, "there is only one thing more that could have made it the best day of my life."
"Oh?" Marinette pulled away to look at him questioningly. "And what's that."
"This," he said simply.
And then he kissed her.
MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB
The girls were all in foul moods on Monday morning.
Well, Sabrina was as happy as she always was, and Mylene was annoyingly sweet and cheerful, and Marinette was late to class again, but the rest of the girls were just as miserable as Chloe felt which made her feel a little better about herself.
Her weekend had been terrible after Little Soldier Day.
Just utterly dreadful!
The press hadn't just snapped a photo of Chloe doing that stupid pose, they managed (somehow) to get a photo of Nathaniel dragging her out of the park from the Akuma attack and the gossip columns from the newspapers were all about whether or not the mayor's daughter has found love. Urgh. Then just to add salt to the wound her father just kept going on and on how much of a nice boy Nathaniel was and he hoped to see more of him in the future.
Any attempt of Chloe trying to tell him that Nathaniel was not her boyfriend just went over his head completely.
So she took great satisfaction that she was not the only one who suffered that weekend. Alya, as she had smugly predicated, was still irritated with Nino for making her miss the Akuma attack while Alix still complained about the state of Kim's toe nails, and Rose and Juleka were covered in bruises.
"What happened?!" Mylene cried out horrified. "Were you attacked or something?"
"No," Juleka scowled.
"We helped Max win a paintball tournament," Rose explained, "and you'd think, paint, that's harmless, but let me tell you it isn't. It hurts!"
"Did I mention how grateful I am?" Max laughed nervously. "You two were an amazing team together."
"My bruises," Juleka informed Max in her usual deadly quiet voice, "have bruises of their own."
"I….well…erm….you both still look pretty?" Max offered weakly.
Juleka and Rose ignored him in favour of comforting each other. Rose had a huge, hideous, bruises on her cheek that Juleka was trying to help her hide as she gently rubbed foundation in soothing little circles on Rose's cheek.
It was then when Marinette finally turned up with, much to Chloe's irritation, Adrien by her side. They both looked animated and ecstatic as they spoke to one another in low voice which did nothing to improve Chloe's mood.
And then she saw they were holding hands.
"Oh my God!" Km yelped as he pointed at the hand holding. "What is this? When did that happen? Are you two now a couple?!"
Marinette glanced up at Adrien with a sappy smile and, much to Chloe's disgust, Adrien returned it with an equally sappy look of pure affection.
Bile rose up in Chloe's throat.
"Yes," Adrien said in the most sickening lovey-dovey voice known to man, "we got together last Friday."
"We got to spend some time with each other since Princess Day," Marinette continued to explain without being asked, "and one thing led to another and now…"
She trailed off as she and Adrien met in another revolting gaze of adoration of one another. Chloe was going to be sick. She was literally about to vomit on her shoes because this was so utterly disgusting.
"So I suppose you can say," Alya said smugly as she shot a victorious smirk in Chloe's direction (she hasn't forgiven Chloe for rubbing it in earlier this morning about how she had been at the Akuma attack while she, Miss I'm Ladybug's Number One Fan Not You, hadn't), "that Chloe helped you two get together."
"Huh," Adrien's face lit up with realisation, "I suppose we can. If it hadn't been for Chloe's idea of Princess Day we would have never had the opportunity to get to know each other properly. Thanks Chlo."
That was the final straw for Chloe.
She grounded her teeth together as hard as she could to stop a furious scream escaping her mouth and immediately stood up. "I need to go to the bathroom!" she hissed as she dug her nails into her hand to fight back the urge to yank one of Marinette Dupain-Cheng's stupid pigtails as she passed by her.
She would just trip the stupid baker's daughter up when her Adri-kins isn't around to witness it.
She pushed past the last of the stragglers in her attempt to get to the bathroom so she could pout in peace. Several people yelped as she knocked them into their lockers and one girl screamed in alarm when Chloe pushed her homework project (one of those stupid volcano things) out of her way and onto the floor, destroying it completely.
She was just about to reach the bathroom when Nathaniel suddenly bumped into her.
"Oh!" he said startled. "I was looking for you."
"What for?!" she spat out. "If you didn't get the memo Little Soldier Day has been over for three days now."
"I only wanted to let you know that I finished your painting," Nathaniel said coolly, "but if you're going to act like that I won't bother."
Chloe glowered at him. "Urgh!" she groaned irritably. "Fine! I'm sorry."
"Did you-"
"Don't make me say it again!" Chloe snapped. "Now show me your painting," she commanded. Nathaniel raised an eyebrow in reply and she hastily amended herself; "Please," she added grudgingly.
"All right," Nathaniel said, "since you asked so nicely."
Chloe gritted her teeth at that jab but the snarky retort that was on the tip of her tongue vanished when Nathaniel pulled out the finished work.
It was a burst of vibrant colours.
A Greek pot was place in her hands which would explain the painfully awkward pose she had to keep up for all of those hours and it was filled to the brim with beautiful, bright, blue and green peacock feathers. She, herself, was dressed as a Queen with golden jewellery from head to foot and an elegantly styled Greek dress in white.
"I made you Hera," Nathaniel explained, "Queen of the Gods."
The most fitting role for Chloe, if you ask Chloe.
It was beautiful.
"You spent all that time," Chloe said awed, "drawing that picture of me?"
"No, of course not," Nathaniel snorted, "I had the rough sketch of this done within the first hour. I spent the rest of the afternoon sketching out pictures of the other girls in a similar theme. It's part of my Ancient Greek project. I just wanted to see how long I could make you stand in that ridiculous pose."
A sudden gush of fury, bitterness, irritation, and something as Chloe had no doubt that the others girls would include the likes of Marinette Dupain-Cheng, shot through the blonde as she trembled with the attempt to suppress these annoying feelings.
But her previous annoyance with Marinette and Adrien suddenly getting together did not help and she soon found herself losing her temper completely.
"ARGH!"
And that was when an Akuma attacked Chloe for destroying her homework project.
It was once again business as per usual in Paris.