The Marinette Project, Chapter 14: Just One More Thing...

As the evening grew late, Chaton Noir snuggled up in Adribug's arms and whispered, "We really ought to change back... Though I am going to steal this ring from you every so often! I still love the way this costume feels."

Adribug asked, "What's the rush, darling?"

Chaton grinned. "Well... our friends are probably scouring the park to figure out why Marinette and Adrien disappeared at the same time... for an hour or two. Ever hear the song 'Wake Up Little Susie?'"

Adribug blushed. "Ah... yeah! We might want to make an appearance as ourselves, before someone sends out a search party."

With a "Spots off!" and a "Claws in!", they prepared to do exactly that, returning their Miraculouses to their usual places. Marinette was delighted to see that Miraculous Ladybug had indeed repaired her princess dress, and Adrien was back in his jingly jester suit.

Marinette wrapped herself around Adrien once more and smiled, "Plus, I have a burning need inside to go show you off, Adrien Agreste... now that you're mine."

"Mmm-hmm," Adrien grinned. "Shy, innocent Marinette Dupain-Cheng wants to take a public victory lap? Chat Noir is such a bad influence on you."

"Let's keep it that way," she winked.

Once back out in the open, it didn't take long for Marinette's circle of friends to gravitate to her and Adrien, with a thousand and one questions pouring out.

"I am SO HAPPY for you two! I've been shipping you two all year long!" bubbled Rose, beside herself with giddiness.

"Shipping?" Marinette wondered aloud.

"I'll explain it to you later," Adrien laughed. "It's a good thing."

Alix piped up, "Now... could we maybe get an explanation as to what the heck happened here tonight? You came here with a boyfriend, who turned out to be a superhero. Then you fought a dragon one-on-one - AND WON - and now you're back from making out with Adrien. What gives?"

"Making out is an extremely specific phrase..." Marinette ventured.

"And we're all hoping it's an extremely accurate one," giggled Juleka. "But talk to us! Chad was Chat Noir all along? And now he's with Ladybug? THAT'S new, too, isn't it?"

"Okay, okay, everybody sit down for a minute! I'll tell you as much as I can..." offered Marinette, trying to pull the conversation as far from "Are YOU Chat Noir, Adrien?" as she could.

"You're right, Alix, there never really was a 'Chad Black.' What's French for 'black? Say it to yourself that way," Marinette began, with a big grin.

The light bulb went on over each of their heads, one at a time. Adrien was rather surprised to see that Rose got it first, with a giggly gasp.

"THAT opens up a lot more questions than it answers," accused Alix. "Spill!"

"If it'll make you feel any better, I didn't know until yesterday, either," Mylène added, joining the circle with Alya and Nino. She took one look at Marinette and Adrien snuggled together, pointed at his arm over her shoulders, and stuck her hand out in Alya's direction. "Ahem!" she coughed.

Alya reached into her purse and pulled out a ten-Euro note. "Fine!" she laughed. "Best bet I ever lost."

"You were BETTING on us hooking up?" Adrien boggled.

"Anyway..." Marinette continued, choosing to ignore that completely, "Chat Noir and I have been good friends for nearly this whole school year! We met during one of the early Akuma attacks - Nathaniel's, I think - and we hit it off so well. He's been coming to visit me at my house for months - not for that, don't even go there, Alix! Just to talk and hang out."

Alix's grin said enough without her saying a word out loud.

Juleka asked, "So why did you never tell us about him?"

"He's a superhero, with a secret identity, Juleka! And, no, I don't know THAT, either!" whistled Marinette. "That was part of our deal - I had to promise to keep whatever secrets of his happened to leak out. He's pretty good at keeping his private life secret."

"And a lot of other things, I'll bet," Alya grinned, drawing a glare from Marinette.

"It wasn't like that, and you know it," Marinette chuckled. "We had our own little Lonely Hearts club, talking about all kinds of things, but a whole lot about how Chat was falling so hard for Ladybug and I had SOMEBODY I was crushing on..." She laid her head on Adrien's shoulder, making him redden. "We were trying to help each other, not fall for each other. He's an absolute sweetheart, SO different in private than he is in public, but we were both in love with other people, and that worked really well for us."

"And I can actually pick up the story from there," Adrien smiled.

"...You can?" asked Marinette, a little startled.

"Yeah, because I was part of what happened next! I... also know Chat Noir - same kind of deal, we met months ago, he's a cool guy! So around the time that school was ending, I noticed that Marinette was looking really down and sad over things, and I mentioned that to Chat when I saw him. He got a funny look on his face, and he said, 'You know what? I think I know why. She has a guy she's been crushing on, and I think he's in your school... I bet I can help her finally win his heart this summer, and get her confidence up enough for her to tell him how she feels.'"

Marinette jumped a little at that, but said nothing yet.

Rose looked confused. "He didn't tell you that it was YOU?"

"Neither of us knew that! SOMEBODY never told Chat who it was... and I was too clueless to notice it for myself," admitted Adrien. "I mean, I knew all along that Marinette was absolutely wonderful... but I needed someone to open my eyes for me, because I just saw her as a friend, like the idiot I was! So Chat started visiting Marinette quite a bit..."

Marinette did some mental math... and her eyes went huge. Wait - THAT'S how... all this started?

Mentally, she retreated from the conversation a little bit. I think my brain just broke. In the beginning, Chat wasn't trying to win me for HIMSELF, but to help me get confident enough to win ADRIEN?

Holy crap! It all makes sense now... I bet HE sent those secret admirer daisies, and never told me! And even when he was falling for me himself, he was prepared to hide that if it meant that I'd get the guy I loved, that neither of us knew was actually HIM! If I hadn't pried out of him that he saw me through Ladybug's mask, and that's who he'd really fallen for...

Marinette gave Adrien a look of pure adoration, jolting him out of his sentence for a moment. Adrien swore he could actually see little hearts floating behind her head.

"So... yeah, Chat was the sweetest guy on the PLANET," Marinette cooed, "and he and I got closer these last few weeks... and from what we learned from each other, I started flirting with Adrien, and Chat started flirting BETTER than he did before with Ladybug..."

Adrien wrinkled his nose at the insinuation that Chat Noir could ever be anything less than debonair, but let it go.

"And Chat and I came up with an idea to get him, me, Adrien AND Ladybug all here," she bluffed. "Plus, he thought the whole 'Chad' thing was hilarious, so we thought, hey, let's roll with it! We can pretend to be a couple for a night and make people wonder, at least. We'd find out what kissing each other felt like! But we also figured that if I finally told Adrien how I feel, and if he told Ladybug how HE feels... we might both end up with who we wanted all along. And it WORKED!" Marinette squealed, kissing Adrien on the cheek.

From afar, Marinette saw Sabrina in the distance, seeing them and pointing them out to Chloe. Go ahead, make Chloe mad! Marinette thought, giggling inside. If she makes a scene here, the price of her dress renovations triples!

"It certainly did," Adrien said, pulling Marinette closer. "Once Marinette told me, I realized just how much she really means to me..."

"Like I'd been saying ALL YEAR LONG that you would, if she'd just TOLD you..." interjected Alya.

"I know! But I'm beyond terrible at that sort of thing!" sighed Marinette, happily. "But tonight, I finally swallowed hard and told Adrien I loved him... and here we are."

"And from what we saw, Chat Noir and Ladybug are just as happy being a couple now!" Rose giggled. "And even kissier than you two are!"

Adrien raised an eyebrow. "That means we have some catching up to do!" He lowered Marinette in a theatrical dip and kissed her quickly, ignoring her when she briefly squeaked out embarrassed protests.

This got a cheer from the group, drawing the attention of some of their other classmates nearby. "Kim, Max, get over here!" called Mylène, beckoning to them. "Boy, do we have a story for YOU..."

"There IS one more thing I want to know about," challenged Alix. "It involves a freakin' DRAGON."

"Oh, him!" smiled Marinette. "Now, THAT, we weren't expecting."

"And we weren't expecting to see you fight him off with a baton and a trash can lid!" Alya marveled. "What possessed you to even THINK to try that?"

Marinette grew serious. "Chat Noir saved my life back there, when that tower collapsed; that probably would've killed me if he hadn't protected me! That really hit home for me. He's always been a good friend to me, but that was... special. Then he used his Cataclysm to free us, which meant that he only had a couple of minutes and then he'd be helpless. I saw him lying there and I just... I just couldn't let that happen to my friend and my hero. He means that much to me."

It was Adrien's turn to look at Marinette with pure adoration.

"Now, it probably wasn't my SMARTEST decision ever," she chuckled, drawing a laugh from the group. "But I knew something the villain didn't - that I knew how Chat's baton worked. He'd shown me, a long time ago... so I figured that if the dragon got close enough, I could surprise him and then we could run for it."

"And I saw her do that, and I was absolutely terrified that she was going to get hurt... or worse..." Adrien added, "so once she got clear, I made sure I caught up to her and talked her into hiding somewhere safer with me."

"And then we started talking..." said Marinette.

"And then we started kissing..." said Adrien.

"And then we kept kissing," beamed Marinette.

"And then you made his jester bells jingle?" asked Alya, with a big grin.

"A gentleman never tells such things," Adrien chided her.

Alya laughed, "That's why I asked her, not you!", drawing a huge laugh from the group.

Once everyone's stories had been swapped, it was late enough that most of the kids went their separate ways and headed home. Alya kissed Nino goodnight, then stuck around to talk with Marinette and Adrien.

"So..." Alya ventured, "I need to talk to you two about some things I learned tonight..."

"Yeah," said Adrien, looking away shyly. "I was expecting to give up my secret identity to Marinette tonight... but to YOU was a surprise."

"Oh, I'd figured that out days ago," Alya grinned.

Adrien stiffened and looked at Marinette, who shrugged. "I didn't tell her," she replied.

"But that Marinette was LADYBUG... that absolutely shocked me," continued Alya. "And she and I have a LOT to talk about... but first, um, Adrien, I want you to know that your secret is safe with me. And to prove it, I'm hoping Rena Rouge's secret will be safe with you, too."

Adrien looked puzzled for a moment, then caught on. "That's YOU? That... actually makes sense, now that I think about it."

"So now the three of us have run out of secrets," Marinette mused. "And I know you're not a full-time hero, Alya... I'd rather keep you as one of our secret weapons, for when we really need the extra help. But I had a wild idea after the fight, and I think I know a way that you could be a HUGE help without transforming all the time."

Marinette leaned in close. "Something that'll use your reporter's instincts, your knack for gathering information about everything in Ladybug's world, and that could make a real difference in fighting villains. Would you be interested in that?"

Alya nodded. "Definitely!"

"Here's what I was thinking about..."

A little while later, Chat Noir spun down onto Marinette's balcony with her, her dress billowing in the wind as they traveled from rooftop to rooftop.

"What an amazing night!" Marinette sighed, pulling Chat close yet again. "But I wouldn't have had it any other way."

"The feeling is mutual, love bug," Chat purred, sinking into another kiss.

"I... do have one thing I need to talk to you about before you leave, Chat," Marinette added. "I mean, besides the Ladybug thing - I have a feeling I'll hear about THAT the moment I get inside."

"Do you want me to come in with you?" asked Chat. "I'll be right there next to you, if you need me."

"Maybe tomorrow, you can come by and the four of us can talk about it," she assured him. "I can do this on my own, and I want you to get home before your dad wonders why Adrien never came home. But that's... actually part of what I need to figure out."

"What's up?" asked Chat, interested.

"When Brother Grimm faced off with me as the dragon... he said he wasn't supposed to hurt ME. Not Ladybug... Marinette. Then when I came back as Ladybug, he said something about 'Jesters and princesses aren't on the menu, but YOU, I can eat,'" Marinette said. "Why... would a villain not only know who you and I are, but have orders not to attack us in particular?"

Chat paused. "That is... oh. That IS unusual." He pondered it for a moment. "I... REALLY don't like those implications."

"Me, either," Marinette worried. "THAT suggests that Hawkmoth... is someone who knows the two of us."

"And has a reason to care about you and I, specifically... or at least some kind of use for us, or something," said Chat. "But who..."

His face darkened.

"I almost didn't want to say it," trembled Marinette. "But we suspected him once before."

"But he was Akumatized, as the Collector! ...But, then again, you saw Adrien and Chat in the same place together once, too," theorized Chat. "I really need to think about this."

"Don't do anything rash," Marinette asked him. "Don't just up and accuse him. I could be WRONG! And I don't want to wreck your relationship with your father if I am. And if I'm RIGHT, I wouldn't want you to confront him without Ladybug at your side! Just... when you go home tonight... be careful for me, okay? Just watch what you say and do for a while. If something happened to you, it would shatter me to pieces! Especially now."

"I promise, I'll be careful. I'm glad you mentioned that - I'd rather have my radar up than get blindsided," Chat admitted. "Thank you for that... and for loving me."

"Oh, that part I can't help," grinned Marinette, putting her arms around him.

"Should I transform back to Adrien for a goodnight kiss?" Chat asked.

"That's up to you," she purred. "But whether you have your ears on or not... you're always going to be my Kitty."

They shared one last, long kiss for the night, and then Chat Noir headed for home, wondering if the people of Paris could see him glowing against the night sky.

Marinette smiled warmly, watching him disappear into the evening, then turned to Tikki. "Okay, let's get inside and hang this dress up... and see if we have one more scary conversation waiting for us before bedtime."

Tikki looked up at her. "I'm trusting your judgment, Marinette... whatever you decide. That trust is more than earned."

"Thank you... that means a lot to me," Marinette smiled back, then opened the hatch and dropped down into her bedroom.

Back at the Agreste mansion, some time later, Nathalie checked in with her unusually agitated employer.

"Riddle me this," Gabriel began. "A powerful villain appears, destroying large chunks of the park without effort. He not only takes on one of Paris's superheroes... but defeats him, using his own heroic tendencies against him. And then finds himself challenged... and actually FLATTENED... by an ordinary teenage girl, protecting that hero with all her might and will, at great personal risk."

Gabriel ran his fingers along his temples, trying to make sense of what had happened. "What kind of young woman goes face to face with a supervillain, who'd nearly killed her once by accident... then face to face with a literal DRAGON... that actually breathed fire at her... and still stands her ground?"

Nathalie said, "A girl with a supremely important reason, who felt like she had no other choice? Who was defending someone she loved? Who'd just had her life saved and felt obligated to return the favor?"

"Something like that, any one of those," Gabriel mused. "But that kind of overwhelming protective impulse speaks to something even bigger going on. She not only stood her ground... but knew how the hero's weapon worked, and used it successfully. What does that suggest to you?"

"That our young lady is far more familiar with Chat Noir than most," replied Nathalie. "And then not long afterwards, she disappeared and Ladybug arrived to carry on the fight. Do you suppose...?"

"It is possible... but I will not leap to that conclusion without more evidence," cautioned Gabriel. "I've been... wrong about heroic identities before, just as they have been wrong about mine, and wherever a villain is, Ladybug is usually quick to arrive. However, let's add up what we know, shall we? Miss Dupain-Cheng is very close with Chat Noir; that evidence is circumstantial, but also overwhelming. You had told me that she was not Adrien's girlfriend largely because she was in a relationship with someone else. Could that someone else... be our feline foe?"

"From what Adrien told me when he got home tonight... and from the absolute joy he was radiating... THAT has changed," smiled Nathalie. "You'll be interested in knowing that she and your son are now very much a couple."

"And even that raises its own questions," Gabriel replied, folding his hands. "I suspected Adrien once of being Chat Noir... and he quelled those suspicions. I saw him and Chat Noir in the same place together. But could I have been fooled, somehow... just as I fooled Chat Noir by becoming the Collector?"

He leaned forward. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Adrien Agreste. Ladybug. Chat Noir. Four individuals... who appear to be linked in mysterious ways. Perhaps multiple ways. And I sense that somewhere in that web of relationships, lies SOMETHING that will be key to achieving what I must as Hawkmoth."

"The starting point is obvious," stated Nathalie. "The piece of that puzzle that lives under your own roof, and is now romantically involved with the second piece."

"Indeed," agreed Gabriel. "And we have several reasons to bring that second piece much closer. She is now dating my son, she crafted the remarkable dress you showed me, she stood toe-to-toe with one of my villains without flinching, she has some level of intimate familiarity with Chat Noir... no matter who he is."

He came to a decision. "We will tread lightly, for now, and not tip our hand. Tell Adrien tomorrow that I am delighted about his new relationship, and that I am equally impressed by his new love's design talent. Whether he chooses to invite her here for dinner some night, or if I should summon her to discuss a summer internship, perhaps... I will be most interested in meeting this young woman, personally."

Gabriel smiled, slightly unnervingly. "And I suspect that she will have a great deal waiting for me to discover..."

Once in her room, Marinette removed her tiara - that, she suspected, she would get herself a trophy case for, to remember the Night That The Most Wonderful Impossible Incredible Thing Ever finally happened - and carefully removed and hung up her dress, changing into some comfortable pajamas and slippers.

"Don't go too far, Tikki..." she said quietly, "I have a strange feeling that I may need you before long."

"I can ride along in a pocket, if you like," offered Tikki.

"I'd like that," said Marinette. "It'll help my nerves if I know you're with me."

"It's okay, Marinette," soothed Tikki. "The truth is usually for the best. But only go as far as you feel you want to tonight."

Marinette came downstairs with a big grin on her face and butterflies in her stomach, finding her parents waiting for her in the living room.

"THERE'S my lucky girl!" called Tom, reaching out to sweep Marinette up into a hug. "Congratulations, honey!"

Sabine ran over and hugged her from the other side. "You and Adrien looked so amazing out there tonight! In... all your costumes."

"I know, right?" bubbled Marinette. "I couldn't BELIEVE IT when he gave me his Miraculous to try! It fit like a glove, and it came out all feminine! It was SO cute!"

"That was quite the costume Adrien had, too!" Tom noted. "Can we... talk about that for a few minutes?"

"I had a funny feeling you'd want to," conceded Marinette. "Yeah, let's talk about that."

"First off," Sabine began, "I had the strange experience tonight of watching my fourteen-year-old daughter pick up a trash can lid and a stick... and fight a fire-breathing dragon with them. I'm PRETTY sure that took about five years off my life."

"Like I told my classmates, that MIGHT not have been my smartest decision ever," smiled Marinette. "But Chat had just risked his life to protect me, and he was moments away from being helpless, right in front of that villain. It was the only thing I could think of to do to save him."

"How DID you do that?" Tom asked.

"Chat showed me how his baton works - you push a button and it extends, for as long you hold it, then push again to retract it. So if you brace it at one end... it shoots out like a rocket on the other. I knew that, and I knew the villain didn't," she explained. "If that didn't work, plan B was to run like crazy, because I had nothing else... but I had to buy Chat as much time as I could to recover."

"Just... never again. Please? At least not while your parents are watching," Sabine shuddered.

"I'll do my best. Next dragon, I'm running, I promise."

"Now, the other thing that really had me wondering..." Tom debated how to phrase his next question. "When you were wearing Chat's costume... Chat was wearing Ladybug's, and it looked... very real. You told me it was real, in fact. So... Marinette..."

"...where DID that costume come from?" finished Sabine.

"From Ladybug, naturally," whistled Marinette. "She and Chat transformed back, Chat gave me his Miraculous, Ladybug gave him hers."

"I did figure out that much," Tom mused. "And where did Ladybug go, once she'd transformed back to... herself?"

"Not... far," mumbled Marinette. I'm not getting out of this one... and I guess that's okay.

Marinette stood up, shaking like a leaf inside. "Mom, Dad? There's... something that I really need to explain to you... and to show you."

Tom and Sabine both leaned forward, trying not to look as alarmed as they felt.

"You remember that day when Chat first came and had dinner with us, and he told you all about how he became Chat Noir in the first place?" began Marinette.

"Uh-huh..." said Sabine, almost registering what she was hearing.

"He told you how he was selected by someone he didn't know, it was a complete surprise to him, and even though he didn't expect it he felt like he needed to live up to the responsibility, remember?" Marinette added. "And he said that he expected that Ladybug was chosen the same way."

The room was silent.

Marinette swallowed hard, closed her eyes, and said...

"...She was."

She heard her mother gasp, quite loudly. Okay, deep breath, Marinette. You can do this.

"Mom, the day you found out that Chat Noir was Adrien... did he introduce you to his Kwami?" asked Marinette.

"His... what?" Tom asked, confused.

"He did," replied Sabine. "Tom, it's a... well, I guess you could say, magical fairy, or pixie, or something? It's part of the Miraculous. Adrien's was a cat, of course."

"I hope you don't mind that you've had an unexpected houseguest you didn't know about, ever since the first day of school," said Marinette, as gently as she could. "Mom, Dad... I would like you to meet Tikki."

The tiny red Kwami floated out of Marinette's pocket with a warm smile, causing Sabine's eyes to widen with wonder and Tom to stumble backwards. "WHAT in the..." he stammered.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Dupain, Mrs. Cheng," cooed Tikki. "My name is Tikki, and I am your daughter's Kwami, the spirit of her Miraculous. Your daughter is a truly remarkable young woman, and I am honored to partner with her."

Tom reached out, very hesitantly, with one finger. "I'm... not dreaming this, right?" he said.

"You can touch me," Tikki giggled, "but please be gentle! I'm very ticklish."

"That's... okay," laughed Tom, pulling his hand back. "I'll take your word on that. How does this... work?"

"The Miraculous takes the form of an item of jewelry - in Ladybug's case, it's a set of earrings..." the Kwami began. "When a new owner claims it, that calls me into existence to be a guide and advisor. When Marinette puts the earrings on..."

"...I nearly put those on, the other day!" realized Sabine.

"And we very nearly met that day," Tikki smiled. "Fortunately, you were just being tidy. Anyway, shall we show her, Marinette?"

"Yes, let's," said Marinette, putting the earrings on. "All I have to do is have them on, and then say to Tikki... SPOTS ON!"

A white flash filled the room, briefly... and the impossible became real.

"My daughter... is LADYBUG? My daughter is Paris's greatest hero?" Tom repeated to himself. "I... don't know what to say!"

"I am SO sorry that I couldn't tell you before now. This is something that is under extreme secrecy, and you can see why," Ladybug apologized. "Just like Chat told you that night, the very last thing I'd ever want to do is put you two in danger. Before tonight, there was only one other person on Earth who knew my secret - and it wasn't Chat."

"HE didn't know?" marveled her mother. "And you didn't know his? And you still... found each other, and fell in love?"

"It wasn't easy," groaned Ladybug. "I was in love with Adrien, who was Chat Noir... and Chat Noir was in love with Ladybug, who was me. And neither of us had any idea, all that time! And Chat used to come here, and we'd talk about our romantic problems..."

"...And you were right in front of each other when you did! And either of you could've said two words and... oh, HONEY, come here!" Sabine wrapped up Ladybug in a tight hug. "I knew how crazy pining for Adrien was making you, and to think you were that close!"

"A couple of days ago, that day that I was crying... that was the day Adrien realized how I'd felt. And when I saw how terrible that made him feel, I wanted to jump off a bridge," Marinette breathed. "But, well... things obviously got a whole lot better. And now we both know... and you two know... and I felt so horrible hiding this secret from you all this time..."

Ladybug teared up in Sabine's arms. "It's okay," her mother soothed. "It's okay, Marinette."

"Spots off," Ladybug whispered, changing back to Marinette.

"It's partly my fault," Tikki stated, as she reappeared. "I asked her to keep it a complete secret, unless absolutely necessary, even from her parents. Every person who knows is someone who might get Akumatized, or let the secret slip by accident... But I've spent the last year watching you two with Marinette, and I couldn't think of two more trustworthy people than you. And I've never known a better Ladybug than Marinette in my five thousand years."

"You realize how crazy all this sounds to us, right?" marveled Tom.

"I do! This is definitely not the first conversation I've had like this. But it's all true," assured Tikki.

"Mom? Dad? Are you... okay with this?" Marinette asked, nervously. "It's a lot to take in."

"I am always going to worry, you know that, right?" sniffed Sabine. "But I was always going to worry anyway, because you're my little girl! And if you ARE going to go out fighting dragons and supervillains, although I'd RATHER you didn't," she laughed, "I'd rather have you have superpowers than a trash can lid. And I know you have the best partner in the world."

"And if you think we had each other's backs BEFORE... imagine how protective we'll be now," smiled Marinette. "Dad? Are you okay?"

She caught her breath, just a little bit, because she couldn't remember the last time she'd ever seen her father cry.

"I'll be all right..." he managed, with a smile. "It's just going to be really tough being the single proudest father in all of Paris."

Marinette ran into his arms. "I promise we'll always be careful... and I'll always make you proud."

A couple of days later, Marinette was helping her father in the bakery, putting her creative energy to use with some intricate cupcake icing.

Her phone buzzed with a familiar ringtone. She checked, and found a message from Alya:

[Alya] We have a sighting... Headed down now to get my OTHER ears on.

[Alya] Meet Chat at the Eiffel and we'll coordinate.

"Uh-oh! Looks like you-know-who's at it again... Dad, may I be excused?" asked Marinette.

"Of course! Duty calls, dear," her father smiled. "Just be CAREFUL, okay?"

"I will," she assured him, kissing him on the cheek. "I'll be back soon, I'm sure."

On the way upstairs, she tapped her earrings as she passed her mother in the kitchen, to indicate what was happening. "Good luck, dear! Tell Chat we said hi!," Sabine called out in passing.

"I will, I promise! Luck is my specialty," she grinned back. Marinette reached the balcony, transformed, and swung out towards the Eiffel Tower.

When she got there, she found Chat perched about halfway up, waiting for her. He greeted her with a hug, then pulled out his communicator. "Rouge One, you online?" he asked.

In her bedroom, Alya replied, "Rouge One is here! Whatever Plagg did to this headset and tablet of mine, they're picking up your frequency clear as day!"

"Awesome!" smiled Ladybug. "So what have we got waiting for us today?"

Alya looked around the information center she'd set up around her computer desk. "I got tips of an Akuma sighting from LadyBlog users, somewhere around Montmartre. Police scanner confirms an Akuma got somebody - we think it's a middle-aged woman. She's holed up in the Salvador Dali museum... here!" She tapped away at the tablet in her lap. "I'm sending you a floor plan, she's on the second floor, according to what the TV news is saying now. I'm Googling everything I can on the museum and its history, I'll send you everything relevant. Not sure on her powers or her Akumatized object yet... "

"How did we get along without you coordinating things, Alya?" Chat grinned.

"Beats me. I take payment in small bills and cream puffs," laughed Alya.

"All right, then. Keep us informed, and thank you so much!" called Ladybug.

"Just turn your microphones off before you get all kissy!" Alya teased.

Chat put his communicator away, then took Ladybug's hand. "Well, how about it, my lady? A kiss for luck?"

Ladybug pushed him away by the nose, the way she always used to. "You know better than that," she said... then yanked him in very close to her.

"For luck, it'll take at least five or six," she grinned, eagerly.

A moment later, it was finally time for actual crimefighting. Chat leapt away and Ladybug launched her yo-yo, with an uncharacteristic "WOO-HOO!" escaping from her lips as she took to the air. She grinned at Chat and Chat at her, and she could see at a glance how happy he was... and a strange sense of peace came over her.

She laughed out loud, and Chat asked, "What is it?"

"Nothing, sweetie," she smiled.

From the day my Miraculous came into my life... and YOU came into my life, Adrien Agreste... everything has been one big ongoing puzzle for me, with a million pieces all jumbled up. I've been trying to put together what to do with my family, my friends, my crush, even myself.

Finally... all my pieces fit.

~fin~

Thank you for reading.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT MY RAMBLINGS YOU CAN STOP READING NOW THANK YOU

First off, I am sincerely grateful to the MLB community for reacting to this story the way that you have. If I compare traffic, stats, etc. to my other stories, this one's absolutely through the roof and I have been consistently floored by your responses and praise. Thank you to everyone, and I really mean it.

(It's also an object lesson for me: Write a Ladrien multi-parter, and people like it but don't go crazy. Write a MariChat multi-parter, and the world comes running. Picking The Right Ship for your audience is important, folks.)

People have been asking me about a TMP sequel for a while now. It should be obvious that, just in case, I wrote in a handful of plot hooks to make that possible. With Marinette's parents now in the know, the new active role for Alya, what the classmates now know about Marinette and Adrien (both their relationship and that Chat and Marinette were close before this), Ladybug and Chat's couplehood being kind of an open secret now, Gabriel's new focus on Marinette, Marinette's renewed suspicions of Gabriel, inevitable complications of "this many people on earth know both Marinette and Adrien's secrets" climbing from one to six... this could move forward in the future. Heck, I could see a chapter just of Tikki getting to know Tom and Sabine better. Another dinner at Marinette's. Dinner at ADRIEN's. The whole dynamic has changed, and not just for Our Heroes... so there IS some room there.

The problem is, I want to have a core concept for a theoretical Book II that's as good as I had for Book I before I'd even start it.

TMP spawned from a conversation I had with a reader of Reservations For Two... More May Be Coming. (And if you haven't read that and you like fluff, do it! There's a little Marichat goodness in that, too, I promise, even though it's Ladrien-centered.) It got me thinking about self-identity for two kids who juggle multiple identities, at an age where "Who am I, really?" is a common question for those who DON'T have Miraculouses. Where does Marinette end and Ladybug begin, really? Is it simply a costume change and confidence from having powers, or is there more going on? Does Marinette "Clark Kent" with Ladybug successfully, or do the people who get to know her well see right through that?

Her father's offhand comment ("Aren't half the boys of Paris crushing on Ladybug?") rocked her world because, frankly, she'd never even considered that as a possibility. (And it does amuse me that one line from Tom ended up being the catalyst for this whole thing.) Tikki's follow-up ("Chat crushed on the surface Ladybug; he fell in love when he got to know the real her underneath, aka got to know YOU") fried her brain. And we saw what I had follow from that. THAT was my story to tell for TMP, and I hope I did it well.

A dirty little secret... When I started TMP, I knew how it would begin, and I knew where I wanted my characters to be at the end. Almost everything else in the middle was one-chapter-at-a-time improvisation with my bare-bones outline as a very light framework for it. I didn't think up the Masquerade until I actually started Chapter 4, I hadn't planned on the emotional meltdown in 7-8, I was still actively tinkering with the Reveal and afterglow the week that I wrote it. (That's actually how I write most of my stuff.) I may get on Astruc's nerves on Twitter sometimes, but he and his team write some wonderfully dynamic and resonant characters, and I set myself up with a sequential writing challenge; if the situation is this, and I want them to take baby steps towards that, how would these characters get there in a way that isn't either OOC or hamfisted? And you just finished reading the result.

What I don't want to do is simply extend the story without having another defined goal in my head. A lot of really good stories go off the rails that way - they reach a goal, and then it's umpteen chapters of "and then they did THIS! and then they did THAT!" that turn into aimless ramblings. Kind of like what I'm typing at the moment, but that's a different issue. ;) I'd rather have another good idea with a beginning, middle and end and write that than just keep adding to this one.

So, the short answer to a sequel is: Not now... not yet. But never is a strong word...

There is a poll in my profile with a handful of story ideas; I'd be interested to see if any of them appeal to you. My PM box is also open for story prompts, ideas, or just general yelling at me about what I write and what you'd like to see, whether it's a specific story hook or a general concept/theme worth exploring. Who knows? You just might get it written...

And when in doubt... kiss your phone.

- DFC