A/N: First: You guys are awesome and amazing and I adore each and every one of you. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for sticking with me through this entirely silly story. I had no idea where it was going from the very beginning and you guys still encouraged me. You guys are all just wonderful!

Second: YAYS! Here it is! The final chapter! I'm so proud of myself. I have sooo much going on in my life and a few other chapter stories that while not abandoned, are definitely not finished and have been in the works for literally years. This is my first finished chapter story EVER and it's so exciting.

Anyway, enough of that. Enjoy!

Chapter Six

Why Does She Have to be so Mean?

In which… We conclude.

Adrien paced his room that evening going back and forth over whether it was possible that Marinette could be Ladybug. Plagg was surprisingly silent on the matter which Adrien was grateful for. He needed to be able to think, and Plagg's incessant prattling about cheese would be no help.

On the one hand, if she was Ladybug, then he found the love of his life and she liked him back, and they could live happily ever after. "After you grovel for about ten years maybe," the Plagg in his mind whispered.

On the other hand, if she wasn't Ladybug, then she knew far more than she should, and he should probably alert Master Fu. Except, he didn't want to bother the elderly man with this. He wished he could call Ladybug right now and discuss this issue with her, but what if Marinette was Ladybug?

Then he would be talking to her about her. Although he supposed if she was his masked partner in red then he had already talked to her about her.

Ugh! He was so confused.

"You need to go to bed," Plagg said in a surprisingly gentle voice as he landed on Adrien's shoulder.

"What? Oh no." Adrien shook his head. "I'm good. I just need to figure a few more things out."

"You're getting all worked up for nothing, Kid. So what if she's Ladybug? You like the girl. Nothing is going to change."

Adrien deflated a bit at that. "I told all of them that I didn't like her. She's clinging to that. I think it's why she's been so distant lately." He hung his head and mumbled, "And if she's Ladybug, then it also explains why she hasn't been around so much."

Plagg didn't say anything to that. What could he say that wouldn't out Pigtails for who she was and bring on Tikki's ire. Seeing that Adrien had gone back to his internal debate, Plagg sighed and floated back to his favorite garbage can. This was a mess and one that he knew these two idiots needed to figure out no matter how determined Ladybug's chosen was to stay away.

It had been two weeks since his rooftop encounter with Marinette, and he had barely been able to sleep since then. He was convinced that she was Ladybug, and it wasn't just because of what she had said that night. A few days later at the end of an akuma battle when they went in for their celebratory fist-bump, he quipped, "As always, m'lady's brilliance has saved the day again." He had expected her to brush him off, but instead she laughed and looked away shyly. That was new.

But then she huffed, and said," You shouldn't say such things when you don't really mean them, Chaton," and threw her yo-yo onto the next building, pulling herself away from him. The comment was not that far off from the sly comments and quick comebacks that Marinette would give him when they worked together in class, though she never allowed him to form a rebuttal. She always saved the words to just before the teacher said something or it was time to leave.

He was so tired of seeing Marinette's back. He thought about cornering her on her balcony a few times, but then decided against it when he figured that she would probably just ignore him. She was endearingly stubborn like that. Just like his lady.

It all came to a head one fine morning when his father was in his office ranting. It was rare that Adrien ever heard Gabriel raise his voice, but the anger that he heard that morning was something he would remember for the rest of his life. His yells reverberated off the walls and into the hallway, and though Adrien couldn't hear everything that was being said, he caught Monique's name, the MDC label, and something about contracts.

Though his interest was piqued, he tiptoed past the office in the hope that his father wouldn't notice him and include him in his ire. When he got to the head of the stairs, he bolted down to them and grabbed his bag. Just as he opened the door, Gabriel stormed out and down the stairs.

"Adrien."

Groaning quietly, Adrien turned around. "Yes father?" He tried to inject as much cheer into his voice as he could, but even he could tell that his smile fell flat.

Gabriel paced towards him. "You're on your way to school?"

Adrien tried to keep the "duh" look off his face lest his father got any angrier. The narrowing of his father's eyes and tightening of his jaw told the young man that he wasn't that successful. He cleared his throat and said, "Uh – yes Father."

Gabriel nodded. "Good. Good. When you get there, you can tell that meddling friend of yours to leave her hands off of my models." He became more agitated as he spoke. Adrien stared at him with wide eyes not knowing what to say. He had never seen his father be that dramatic.

"I – uh – I have no idea…" He started to say.

Not listening to his son, Gabriel shooed Adrien out the door.

Adrien opened his car door to the usual throng of students. Nino was sitting on the wall listening to music with Alya beside him updating her blog. Marinette, as always, was nowhere to be seen. He wished that just once she would be on time so he could maybe work through whatever these issues were.

"ADRIKINS!" He braced himself for the oncoming tornado that was Chloé and was glad he did when she jumped on him and started kissing him all over his cheeks. He grabbed her arms from around his neck and pushed her off, firmly aware of the mutterings and stares of their peers.

Undeterred, Chloé looped her arm through his and started dragging him up the stairs. He shot Nino and Alya a look clearly begging for help. Alya just rolled her eyes and Nino pretended to be too engrossed in his music.

His friends sucked. Could he get a trade-in?

The whole time Chloé chattered on about latest shopping trip, how terrible the girls at the boutique were where she got her mani/pedi, the gossip at her father's hotel, and how awful it was that Jagged Stone insisted that Marinette get an invitation to the party being held that weekend.

"It's just not fair, Adri-honey!" Chloé whined. "Why should she get an invitation, but not me?"

A vision of Jagged Stone running up to Frayer, yelling, "Put my designer down," came to his mind and he stopped on the stairs, almost throwing his blonde companion down them.

"Mon Dieu!" He whimpered. "How could I have been so stupid?"

"Adrien!" Chloé yelled, grabbing hold of his arm to steady herself. "What the hell?"

"Sorry Chlo," he muttered walking again.

"What is it? What happened?"

"Nothing. I just – " A crowd coming up the sidewalk caught his attention and his words trailed off.

"An akuma?" He whispered, his body tensing and readying to protect his friend.

Chloé shook her head. "Well if it is, it's not my fault this time."

Her response was so dry and out-of-the-blue that he snorted out a laugh. "Glad you recognize your capabilities," he giggled.

Her face crumpled into something that looked like a kicked puppy. The action was so foreign to her personality that his mirth sobered up quicker than it probably would have.

"Okay. I'm sorry." He held his hands up in a type of surrender. She looked away from him and stuck her nose up.

"You should be," she huffed.

"Marinette!" He thought he heard Monique's voice call from below them, drawing his attention away from Chloé and back to the crowd on the sidewalk and the possibility of an akuma. He really hoped Monique wasn't going after Mari again. He wasn't sure if he could handle another heart attack.

He saw his princess dart across the street, and oh lord, was trying to kill him? She was wearing a red with black ladybug-dotted leather miniskirt that had a zipper from the top to bottom in the front middle, with a ring at the top and a belt that looped around her waist. Her sweater was black knit and came to rest at the top of her skirt. Her socks were sheer black and came to a rest just above her knees, and were those cat ears on the cuffs of them? She had a black pouch spotted with red dots instead of her normal pink one at her side.

"Oh my gosh! Marinette! I can't believe you were able to do it!" Monique yelled, throwing herself on the girl as she made it to this side of the road.

He didn't realize when he started moving towards them until he was amidst the crowd. He recognized quite a few of the people as being models from MDC's lineup at the photoshoot, along with Luka.

He scowled briefly at the other man who merely smiled widely and waved.

"You're the absolute best!" Monique was still hugging Marinette and he was sure she was going to suffocate. He breathed a little easier when another model stepped in and gently pulled her off.

Marinette was smiling brightly as she said, "You're quite welcome. It's the least I could do. You shouldn't have been treated that way, and it was my fault."

"You're too good," said his giddy friend, but he watched in fascination as Marinette's face turned a shade of red that he hadn't seen since before he announced it to everyone that he didn't like her.

He missed that blush… and just – Oh. Well, he supposed he should have figured out his feelings for her ages ago.

"Your outfit is amazing!" Monique continued gushing. I can't believe you made it, I mean – I guess it shouldn't surprise me since you're – well you." She gestured to the whole of Marinette making some of the others laugh at her words, but the dark-haired girl just grinned and patted her shoulder.

"It's all right. We just can't let too many people know. I like my anonymity. These guys," she waved her hand to take in the whole of the group, "They only know because they have to."

"What do they know?" Adrien spoke up. He was suddenly in front of her and he saw with an even closer inspection how much more of a nod to Chat Noir she had given in her design than he had originally thought. The zipper on her purse was an emerald green, matching the small Chat Noir paw print on the tiny baton that was attached to the ring of the belt on her skirt. Slung across her arm was the Chat Noir jacket he had modeled a few weeks back.

"Nothing," Marinette squeaked. He realized that he had missed that too. His grin turned Cheshire as he moved more into her space, Monique moved out of the way and the entirety of the group watched this strange mating dance.

"'Cause it seems to me that you may have some secret identity your hiding from your closest friends, M."

"What? No, I… No," she stuttered, looking behind him. Glancing back, he saw Alya, Nino, Chloé and several others had joined the group to see what was going on.

"Leave her alone, Adrien," Monique said, cuffing him on the back of his head. He ignored her though and leaned even further in, catching the sound of Marinett's hitching breath. Grinning at the affect he was having on her and even more at finally (finally!) having the upper hand for once, he whispered so that only she could hear, "It must be clawful tiring juggling all those secret identities and stealing my father's models away from him, M'lady?"

He expected her to be a blushing mess when he retreated from her space. However, when he took in her face, all he saw was that steely determination that he had fallen so much in love with. She was unsmiling, though her eyes couldn't hide the amusement dancing within.

The bell rang causing some of the group to break away and go inside.

Marinette took a step back from him and grinned before saying, "Oh, Chaton. One could argue that it's not necessarily thievery if the thing, or person in this case, is let go." She tilted her head to the side, gazing up at him softly, making his heart jump into his throat. "You should know this. After all, you've had my heart for quite a while now." She giggled at his awestruck face and took another step back, turning away from him again.

His hand shot out and grabbed her arm pulling her back to him. "No. Not this time," he murmured before his head descended towards her surprised face. He only caught a brief glimpse of her widening eyes before he finally tasted her incredibly sassy mouth.

It was Marinette who broke away from him, blushing hard and giggling at the clapping and whistling from the group around them.

Burying her head in his chest, but lifting her face just enough for him to see her eyes through her bangs, he was just barely able to hear her say coyly, "But I thought you didn't like me?"

Adrien groaned. "I'm never gonna live that down, am I?"

She sighed and giving him a grin, she said cheerfully "Nope," and then dragged him behind her to class, completely ignoring the calls of the other models, their best friends, and Chloé's groaning.

A/N: It feels so anticlimactic…

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