Marinette was Ladybug. No one knew that. She was never able to tell anyone because she feared if someone knew they would be in danger. And then came the day no one would be in danger anymore. Hawkmoth was defeated by the joint efforts of her and her partner, Chat Noir. After he was defeated they had found out that their kwamis would leave them that night. Since they wanted to be alone with their kwamis the last time they saw them Lady and Chat had decided to meet up the day after, without masks. They were finally ready to tell each other who they were. And Marinette was ready to tell more people too. She would finally tell Alya and her parents. Maybe even Nino and Adrien. After parting with Chat Noir she released her transformation in a corner. She quickly called for a taxi to take her home to her apartment.

It was dark and misty, maybe that was to blame, or maybe it was because Marinette urged the chauffeur to drive faster so that she would be home sooner and have more time with Tikki. Or maybe it was just destiny playing a cruel joke on her. But that night Marinette was in a terrible car accident. The driver died instantly but Marinette was fine. She suffered brain damage and the doctors said that she would most likely have amnesia. But when she woke up she relieved everyone by remembering everything. Yes she remembered everything, except the part about her no one knew. She didn't remember ever being Ladybug. She didn't remember fighting akumas, she didn't remember Tikki and she didn't remember Chat Noir. Chat Noir who waited for her for five hours in the park without her even knowing he did.

Marinette was stressed. Not much, just a little bit. She was late for class just because she had decided to buy a coffee on the way. She was a little ashamed that she had gotten so addicted to caffeine since she started university but, really, which student didn't start their day by having a huge cup of coffee to wake up?

She finally burst into the classroom and settled down in her normal seat. Art. Something she was rather good at, as she had to be to be a designer. She quickly put her things in order while trying to keep up with the talking professor.

"Hey Mari" a voice said quietly from her side and she looked over to see an old friend from high school.

"Hi Nath, did I miss something important?" she asked before taking a sip from her coffee.

"Nah, it's basically the same thing as yesterday" he answered and shrugged.

Marinette took in as much of the class as possible and then went on to her other classes. The day was the same as any other, nothing special happened. She met up with Alya for lunch and then it was back to classes. She went to the absolute best university for art programs in Paris. She had been lucky to get in, and even get a scholarship. She had heard she was talented many times and certainly did everything to show it. To make money she took commissions for clothes online. Alya had helped her set up a website where she posted pictures of her designs and people could request anything they wanted, in exchange for some money of course. Marinette was already becoming pretty well known in the fashion world and had been featured in quite a bit of magazines. Things were certainly looking bright for her.

After school she ended up in the café where Alya was working to do her homework as usual. After a while the door swung open and a certain someone walked in with a big grin as if he was just bursting with news. Nino sat down across Marinette trying to look as casual as possible.

"What is it Nino?" Marinette asked and almost laughed at how hard he was trying to contain himself.

"Oh nothing, nothing" he said and waved his hand a little as if it would make it more believable.

Alya came up to their table and put a hand on her hip.

"Alright Mr. DJ, spill" she said and gave him one of those looks that made him do as she said immediately.

"Okay" Nino said and sat up straight. "Adrien is coming back and this time he's staying a whole month"

"WHAT?" Alya exclaimed with a shocked face.

"Yeah, he told me this morning" Nino confirmed.

"Holy shit, Mari did you hear? It's been ages since we last saw him. Oh I know, let's throw a party or something! We can…"

Marinette had stopped listening at that point. Adrien was coming. She hadn't seen him in about six months, and that time he had only stayed for a weekend. He was going to university in the UK and at the rare times he was free his father had him scheduled for heaps of things.

He had left Paris when they were nineteen. Something had happened – no one really knew what, he wouldn't talk about it – and he had become very depressed and said that he needed to get away. In fact it was around the time Marinette had her accident. He had stayed long enough to make sure she was fine, he wouldn't have left without knowing one of his best friends was okay. He had actually spent a lot of time at the hospital with her. They had been pretty close before but during that time they grew really close, they told each other everything. Except the thing that made him so sad all the time. Marinette had almost thought that something would happen between them, but then before she knew it he was gone.

Neither of them had been very good at staying in touch. They talked every now and then of course, but nowadays it was once a month at most. And now he was coming, and he was staying. Well not forever, but long enough. She never did get over her feelings for him and that made her very nervous and unsure about how to react to the news.

"Hey, earth to Mari. You there, girl?" Alya was snapping her fingers in front of Marinette's face making her almost jump in her chair.

"Huh, yeah. What were you saying?" she asked and smiled sweetly.

"That you should make decorations for the party, since you're the artsy one. Nino will fix the music and I will make sure to invite everyone" Alya said. "OH! And you should ask your dad if he can make a cake" she added and Marinette nodded.

"Yeah I'll take care of that" she said making Alya look very content.

The following days Marinette occupied every free moment with making the most perfect decorations for Adrien's welcome home party. Alya had invited everyone from their old class and they all seemed very excited. Nino was making an awesome playlists full of remixes he made himself. When the Saturday it would fall on finally came Marinette was the first one to arrive in Nino's apartment. They started to put up the decorations and when Alya came a few minutes later she helped them too. They put the cake on display on the kitchen table and soon after that everyone started to arrive. Nino left them to go pick up Adrien at the airport and the former classmates spent the time catching up with each other. And then the door handle was pushed down and the door opened.

"SURPRISE"

And he did look surprised with his eyes widened and a huge grin on his lips.

"Nino, what…" he started but Nino put up his hands to stop him.

"No, this was all Alya's idea" as if on cue Alya lunged forward and hugged Adrien.

"Welcome back Adrien" she said as she let him go and stood beside Nino who put his arm around her waist.

"Wow… Guys, thank you so much" Adrien looked on verge of tears.

All this time Marinette was standing quietly beside Nathaneal just watching and smiling. Adrien hadn't changed much since she last saw him, except his hair was a little longer. But he had changed a lot since the went to high school. He was taller, for one, and his face wasn't so round anymore. He had grown up.

"And the decorations" Adrien pondered as he looked up on the banner reading 'Welcome home Adrien'. "Marinette" he said and searched the room before finding her. His eyes met hers and she could feel herself getting very emotional. He smiled, she smiled back. A second later they had met in the middle and were hugging each other.

"It's great to see you" Adrien said and slowly pulled away. "I missed you"

"I missed you too" Marinette said and wiped a tear that was rolling down her cheek. "Welcome home"

The party was on full speed. Everyone were talking and dancing and eating cake. Alya had taken countless pictures and didn't have any plans to stop. Everyone wanted to talk to Adrien and was tugging him in all directions at once. Marinette hadn't gotten to interact with him more than at the very beginning. She supposed she would see a lot more of him during the month he was staying, but right now she didn't see him at all. Literally, not at all. He was gone. No one else seemed to have noticed yet but Marinette had. Maybe because she was over conscious about his presence. The door was open so she supposed he had gone out for some air and walked out to see. But there was no one standing outside on the street.

"Marinette" she heard someone call and looked up. There he was, sitting on the roof for some reason.

She smiled and walked inside again, taking the stairs up to the roof. She saw him sitting there, the blonde hair messy and wearing black shirt and jeans. Something flashed in her mind, a picture of a boy wearing black leather with messy hair sitting on the rooftop turning his head to look at her with a huge smile. She recognized the boy, she dreamed about him sometimes. She had no idea who he was but it felt like she loved him and she didn't know why. She had never met him.

"Hey" Marinette said as she sat down next to Adrien. "A little too much?" she asked with a smile.

"A little" Adrien admitted as he looked out over Paris.

Marinette inspected him. He had that sad expression again, the one no one knew the reason to.

"So, do you climb the rooftops of Paris on a day to day basis or is it a onetime thing?" Marinette asked with a joking tone in a try to cheer him up.

He laughed, but the sad expression stayed. "Believe it or not, I used to do it every day" he said.

Marinette was surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah" he chuckled. "It was the one place where I felt free from my father and everything he wanted me to be" and then his face fell again. "I haven't felt that freedom in a long time now"

Marinette looked down at her lap. She didn't know what to say, she didn't know how to make it better. So they just sat in silence beside each other. After a few minutes Adrien stood and brushed of his jeans.

"Come on, they're probably wondering where we are" he said and helped her up.

They walked back down to the apartment where the party was still just as wild as before. Adrien and Marinette started talking. They laughed and joked and Adrien told some terrible puns that for some reason twitched something in her memory. And then a slow song started playing. Adrien looked at her and smiled.

"May I have this dance, My Lady?" he asked as he bowed. He seemed to regret his choice of words immediately, as if he had directed them at the wrong person, but Marinette didn't notice.

'My Lady'. It was so familiar. She hadn't remembered anyone ever calling her that, until this exact moment. Memories flashed before her eyes. Memories of saving the city with her partner and friend, Chat Noir. Memories of coming up with bad excuses to get away and fight akuma. Memories of late night talks with Tikki. Memories of the last fight and the promise. The promise that they would see each other the day after.

"Chat" she whispered and for some reason Adrien perked up at that. But he didn't have any time to say anything before she had bolted and ran up back to the roof. She didn't know why she did it, there was no way he was out there to hear it, but she put her hands around her mouth and yelled: "CHAT NOIR!" and for a few seconds she waited before she started to cry.

She heard Adrien arriving on the roof and running up to her while she cried.

"Marinette what's going on?" instead of answering she only sobbed harder. "Come on Marinette, we should go back down, I'm sure Alya-"

"No!" Marinette exclaimed. "I-I need to find him, Adrien! I promised I would meet him and that we would tell each other who we were but then I had the accident and… and I forgot all about him! How could I do that? He was my partner, how could I ever forget him?" she cried.

A moment of silence, and then: "Ladybug?"

She looked up, surprised. From what she had said he shouldn't have been able to figure it out. But if he had… Maybe there was a reason that it was his voice saying the words that brought back the memories.

"Chat?" she whispered.

For a moment they just looked at each other, but then Adrien broke into a huge Chat-like grin and hugged her tightly.

"My Lady" he said once again. "I thought I would never see you again. When you never showed the day after I thought that you had decided you didn't want us to know each others identities after all. But you had the accident and that's why you didn't show up, it makes so much sense" he said while continuing to hug her.

"Chat… Adrien…" she was still melting the fact that they were one and the same. It had always been him. Her crush. "Adrien I'm so sorry! If I hadn't been in such a hurry to get home and get more time with Tikki-" she gasped. "Tikki! I-I never got to say goodbye to her, and then I didn't even remember her for years. How could I do this to her, and to you?" she was once again sobbing, this time into his shirt.

"Marinette, hey, I'm not angry with you and I'm sure Tikki isn't either. I'm just happy you're here now" Adrien said softly and lifted her head so that they looked each other in the eyes. "I feel so lucky right now because I fell in love with two girls, Paris' superhero and the girl who sat behind me in class. And now they turn out to be the same girl" he smiled as he held his hands on her arms.

Marinette sniffled. "So you're saying…"

"I'm saying I love you, Bugaboo" Adrien said and watched happily when she started laughing.

"Alright kitty, why don't you ask me on a date first" she proposed and he nodded eagerly.

"Of course, my lady. I would be honored if you would join me for dinner on Sunday?" he said and winked.

Marinette laughed. "Only if we can see each other tomorrow and talk things through" she said.

"Sounds purrfect my lady" Adrien answered and kissed her hand and instead of pushing him away like she used to do when they were younger she let him stand up straight again in his own time before tackling him with a bear hug.

She would never forget this night, no matter how many accidents she was in.