As promised, here is the first chapter of the sequel, "The Seduction of Adrien Agreste." Find the rest of the story in my author page!

Follow me on Instagram for updates on my original works and cute pictures of my pets! Because who doesn't need more adorable dog pictures in their life, am I right? na_davenport

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With quick light strokes of her stylus, Marinette added the finishing touches to her latest design. The hand stitched lace wrapping up from the hem of the gown would be a very delicate and time consuming job. And getting it to hang right, without twisting the fabric or weighing it down too much, would take a good deal of ingenuity. But the resulting effect would be breathtaking.

She stuck the plastic stylus between her lips and chewed lightly on the end, a bad habit carried over from working with pens and pencils in her old paper notebooks.

"Maybe the train is too much. A little old fashioned, don't you think?"

Tikki floated low over the screen, examining the dress design Marinette had been working on for the past several hours. "Not at all, Marinette. I think it's really pretty," she chirped, smiling up at her mistress with shining blue eyes.

Marinette chuckled. "You say that about everything."

"Well, everything you design is really pretty!" Tikki laughed.

Marinette rolled her eyes and grinned at the little red bug kwami. Tikki was truly the embodiment of the force of creation in a package scarcely the size of Marinette's hand. But it was hard to think of her that way when she was being so cute.

"Well, if the ceremony or reception ends up being outside, a dragging train might get dirty. I think a tea length dress would be cute, and it would keep the hem clean. Then everyone would be able to see the shoes, too…" She started erasing the lower portion of the dress, undoing hours of careful work.

"Marinette!" Tikki squeaked. "What are you doing? The dress was perfect!"

Marinette shook her head. "No. It was good, but not perfect. And if I'm going to be getting married to Adrien, I have to have an absolutely perfect dress."

Tikki landed on the desk and stared up at her mistress, furrowing her little brow in frustration. "I never thought you would end up being a bridezilla." She rolled her eyes and sat down with a sigh.

Marinette paused. "Am I, really? Tikki, am I making everyone miserable?" Was this why Adrien…?

Tikki laughed and shook her adorably oversized head. "No, not everyone. Only yourself. You should relax a little. You don't even have a date for the wedding yet and you're tying yourself up in knots over it."

Marinette looked at the half erased design on her tablet, biting on her lower lip. Tikki was right. They didn't have a date set yet. But this was actually a big part of the problem.

She and Adrien had discovered each other's identities as the superheroes Ladybug and Chat Noir. They'd confessed their love for one another. And, eventually, Adrien had proposed to her.

But he'd only proposed because she'd threatened to run off by herself to find his mother, who was missing somewhere in the remote parts of Tibet. Adrien wouldn't let her attempt that rescue mission alone, and the best way for them to go together, without arousing suspicion, was for them to be married. It was a good plan, really. But it made the whole engagement feel like a cover up. A sham.

And if that wasn't bad enough, he seemed to be distancing himself from her lately.

She sighed. Things used to be less complicated between them. Back when they had first learned each other's identities, Adrien had been quite willing to be affectionate with her. He'd exulted in the new freedom of being himself with her, while she was still holding on to the remnants of her nervous awkwardness around him. So, for a while, he'd been roguish and flirty, constantly trying to steal kisses and sneaking away to be alone with her.

Things changed when his father died. Perhaps Adrien blamed himself, somehow, for his father's death. It would be irrational and unjustified, but grief often is irrational. Finding out that his father had been Hawkmoth—the man they'd been waging war against together for years—and that he'd died all at once? And not just died, but sacrificed himself in a final act of desperation to save Adrien. She would have been surprised if it hadn't messed with his head a bit.

She didn't understand why he was distancing himself from her, though. He still wanted to be with her. He kissed her willingly enough. But he'd stopped being the same carefree, brazen flirt she'd known and loved before. He no longer made any attempt to visit her bedroom. He only invited her to his condo during the day, making sure to see her home by dinner time. And their romantic encounters always seemed to come to a close prematurely, without even a hint that anyone was going to be shedding articles of clothes.

He needed time, that was it. Who wouldn't need time after what he'd been through? She would be patient and try not to let it get to her. She could always comfort herself by working on wedding planning.

While she was creating planning boards, designing dresses, and discussing cake options with her parents, it felt a little more real. Like they really were just two people in love who were getting married because they wanted to, not two superheroes who were using a wedding to cover up a clandestine scheme.

She ran her thumb over the rose gold ring on her finger, the engagement ring Adrien had given her. It sparkled dimly in the light from her tablet.

He did love her, she knew that. But something about using her wedding—or, more specifically, their honeymoon—as a coverup just didn't sit too well with her.

She sighed, rested her head on her hand, and ran her stylus over the screen again, filling in the bell shape of a tea length skirt and started adding a swirling cascade of lace around the hem.

The door opened in front of her and a beam of yellow light flooded into the room. She looked up, to see Adrien's tousle-haired silhouette framed in the light of the doorway. His kwami, Plagg, hovered over his right shoulder.

She blinked, a little surprised at how dark it had gotten in her office. How late was it?

"Hey, princess! There you are." Adrien's voice was like warm butter, and filled her with a mixture of conflicting emotions, most of them good.

He flipped a switch on the wall, filling her office with light, and smiled at her.

All of the desks out on the design floor were empty already. Almost everyone else in the building had gone home hours ago, which explained why Tikki had been so comfortable sitting in plain sight on her desk.

"Working late?" He smirked, a very Chat Noir-like expression, and walked across the floor toward her. "Did you lose track of time again?" He stepped around her desk to see what she'd been designing on her tablet.

Marinette bit her lip watching him approach. Did he have to look so impossibly gorgeous all the time? Even in simple casual work attire?

Tikki flew off the desk and embraced Plagg in midair. The two kwamis zoomed once around the room together, then flew out, probably heading to the break room where Marinette kept a stock of cheese and cookies for them.

"Well…sort of," Marinette said, answering Adrien's question. "I'm designing a wedding dress… for myself."

Adrien hesitated for a second, then said, "Oh? Good. That's good. Yeah. It looks really pretty."

Marinette struggled to contain an eye roll. She hadn't failed to notice his moment of hesitation. "It might take a while to put it together, though. Especially with all this lace. If I knew when our wedding was going to be, I'd have a better idea of—"

"Go ahead and start it now," he interrupted. "It wouldn't hurt to have it made early, right?" Adrien grinned at her like he was giving her a present.

She frowned. "No, I guess it wouldn't hurt. But, still, there are a lot of other things for the wedding that are time sensitive. Like invitations and catering, and renting the venue. Don't you think we should set a date soon?"

His smile faltered a little and he shrugged. "We will. Of course we will. But there's still a lot of preparation to do before we go to Tibet. I don't want to miss anything. We've barely scratched the surface of all the journals my father kept. And there are so many unanswered questions about where they went and what they were doing there. We can't just jump in blindly."

Marinette huffed in exasperation and looked away, suddenly stifling tears. Of course he was right. If they got married right away, without having an idea of where they should go in Tibet to look for his mother, or what they should do when they got there, they would surely run into trouble.

Adrien's father had been with his wife when she'd disappeared. He'd perhaps been the only person alive who really knew what had happened to her. Even though he was gone now, he had been a meticulous man who kept extensive and detailed records. When he died Adrien had inherited everything, including his vast collection of journals and artifacts, a veritable mountain of information. Sifting through it all to find what was useful for their quest was taking practically forever.

Bringing up these truths didn't make Marinette feel any better, though. It only reminded her that getting married to Adrien, something she'd been dreaming about for years, was going to be a show put on for the world. They would be saying "I do", but it would be as secret personas for an ulterior motive, not really as themselves. Maybe if Adrien hadn't been acting distant from her lately it wouldn't be such a problem.

"Marinette? What's wrong?" Adrien's fingertips traced under her jaw, lifting her chin up so that she faced him. "Why are you crying?"

She shook her head. "I just… I want it to be real. Doing it like this makes it feel like a show. I want you to marry me because that's what you want to do, not because it's convenient for Ladybug and Chat Noir."

His eyes widened in shock. He knelt next to her, wrapping his arm carefully around her shoulder. "But it is real! Marinette, I love you! More than anything! And I want to be married to you. It's not just a show, you know that, right?"

Marinette wiped her eyes and sniffed. Now she felt guilty, too, but she still wasn't satisfied. She didn't doubt Adrien's love for her, not really, but scheduling their wedding around their secret superhero schedules just felt…artificial.

"I love you, too," she said. "And I know you love me. But can't we… can't we just set a date now? We can still give ourselves time to gather all the information we need. Why don't we set it for this spring?"

Adrien heaved a deep sigh and—to Marinette's annoyance— took back his arm. "I just don't know if that will be enough time. I know it's frustrating for you; it is for me, too. Once we open up all those boxes and go through everything, we'll have a better idea of what we're looking at."

It was maddening talking to him like this, like they were speaking two different languages. Marinette groaned and covered her face with her hands, attempting to stifle her frustration. Not succeeding.

"Forget the cover up!" She turned to face him with tears of anger in her eyes.

He stared, stunned by her outburst.

"I don't care about the cover up anymore! Once we're married, who cares if we take another "vacation"whenever we want?" She made air quotes for "vacation" to get her point across. "We'll be married and we can go places together whenever we want to, without anyone ever questioning it, right?"

He pressed his lips together and leaned back, nodding his head thoughtfully. "Well, I suppose so, but then we might have other obligations after we're married. It might not be so easy…"

"What other obligations? The business? Moonlighting as superhero vigilantes? We do those things already!"

"I wasn't thinking of that exactly—"

"Then what?" she demanded.

He shook his head and chuckled. "You know what? I totally got off track. I actually came here to talk you about a vacation we might take together next week." Adrien smiled, obviously trying to distract her.

It worked. "Huh?"

"Your grandmother called me. She's been trying to get ahold of you all evening, but your phone is on silent."

"Grandma Gina called me?" She pulled her phone out of her bag. Sure enough, she had five missed calls.

"She wants us to go visit her in Florence," Adrien was still grinning.

"Together?"

"Yeah. Sort of an early Christmas celebration, I guess. We'll be back here in time to spend Christmas Day with your parents."

"We're going to visit my grandma together?" She could hardly believe it. Not that Adrien would want to visit her grandmother, of course. He'd met Gina during their graduation and the two of them had really hit it off. But she was surprised that he would be okay with both of them leaving on such short notice.

Adrien had inherited his father's business along with all his money and properties. Gabriel was a world leader in fashion, worth billions of dollars, and it took a lot of managing. For his youth and experience level, Adrien had done remarkably well. One of his earliest and smartest moves had been hiring Marinette as his partner and new head of the design department. With Adrien's natural gift for diplomacy and Marinette's gift for design, they had kept Gabriel's sudden death from running the brand into the ground. Instead, the'd launched it into even greater heights of success.

So it seemed counterintuitive that they would just run off to Italy for a week on the spur of the moment, even to visit Marinette's grandma Gina.

"I love your grandmother!" Adrien laughed. "Are you kidding? She's one of my favorite people. And I think we've been working too hard lately. It would be good to get away for a little while."

"But can we really just leave?" She gestured vaguely in the direction of the design floor.

Adrien scoffed. "The spring line is already out, thanks in a big part to you, I might add. The summer line is well underway. I can leave Campeau in charge of administration for a while. He's trustworthy and capable, maybe even ready for the challenge."

"And what about our other jobs?" She gestured toward the windows overlooking the city.

"I think Paris can handle a week without Ladybug and Chat Noir. Maybe you can call up Rena Rouge to do our rounds. I bet she'd love it."

"She definitely would," Marinette laughed. Rena Rouge, the part time Fox super-heroine, and also Marinette's best friend Alya in her regular life, would pounce at the chance to go full time for a week.

Adrien stood up and held out his hand to her. "What do you say, partner? Shall we visit your grandmother together?"

Marinette grinned at him, took his hand, and stood.

Adrien might think that he'd won their argument about the wedding. He might believe that he'd completely distracted her. But he was wrong. Marinette knew that if there was any woman in the world who could persuade a reluctant fiancé to tie the knot, it was her grandmother, Gina Dupain. And she was absolutely positive that her grandmother would be on her side. She was about to gain a very powerful ally.

Marinette wrapped her arms around Adrien's neck. He smiled and leaned in to bring his lips softly against hers for a moment.

"I would love to go visit my grandmother with you," she said.