Thank you all for sticking around. This is the last chapter! Enjoy :)

Chapter 12: Gowns

It's officially 7pm on Monday. Marinette is in full outfit that she finally completed. Her mask is laced with an outer-lining of a deep red and cover with black lace. Her dress reaches to her mid-neck, with black Organza fabric that turns into a long-sleave dress. The rest of her dress reaches her chest with a dark red that creates a heart shape. The dress tightly hugs the red around the rest of her curves and slants off around her right knee on one side and drapes down to her ankle on her left leg. This is all thrown together with black high heels that strap around her ankle, an up do for her hair, with loose strands dangling, and her usual miraculous earrings.

Arriving at 7:50 pm, she is first met with her two friends, Alya and Nino. Alya was prancing over to her friend as Marinette watched her beautiful best friend's hair bounce with light curls and silver pins tucking half of it up. Her face shined bright with her matching mask, while Her skin glistened with the matching tones of her dress. The sunburned orange faded to a white at the ends, that frilled to a slant as well. At the top of the dress it held snug straight across her chest and was supported by two thin spaghetti straps.

Her handsome apprentice, Nino, was lathered in shades of dark and light green. His suit jacket was a forest green on the outside and lined with a Kelly green. His pants were a Sacramento green that stopped at his black shoes. His hair was nicely slicked into place so you could see his black and hint of green mask.

"Where is your mystery knight?", Ayla joked.

"Hopefully arriving soon…", Marinette stated with a little fright in her voice that her 'Knight' won't show up. She had to have four people either way, but if he didn't show up at eight then it would make everyone late trying to find a substitute. You couldn't enter the doors without your four people.

As Marinette grew impatient her mysterious figure stepped out of a blackened car that pulled up. Golden slicked back hair held in place as the figure stepped out of the car. His suit, although black, was also lined with a green and met with a golden bow tie. His black pants met with dark green shoes. And a black mask with hints of gold to tie everything together. His eyes perfectly matched the costume so there was no need to elaborate on his masks design.

As Marinette caught sight of the figure that she knew was a part of her group of four, she was stunned. He looked amazing, even model like.

"Hey, I thought you weren't inviting Adrien?", Nino said dumfounded.

"That's not Adrien…", Marinette replied.

"Now I see why you like him. He looks exactly like Adrien, girl!", Alya stated.

"No, he does not? I don't see it.", Marinette tried to reassure herself, but she did see it. She saw it a lot. Chat Noir looked almost exactly like Adrien. Her thoughts were disrupted when he arrived in front of the group and was about to introduce himself.

"WAIT!", Marinette screeched with wide eyes in terror that he was going to say his actual name. She looked at her friends with a scared look then realized they didn't understand the situation she was in, "I-I mean, I need to talk to this shining knight before you guys get to meet him, uh hehe, we'll be right back…", Marinette rushed the golden boy to a corner where no one was outside of the building so they could talk in private.

"Is everything okay, my lady?"

"Yeah", she said with a huff, "I just thought we should go over some things before you introduce yourself."

"Okay?"

"I don't think we should say our actual names until the end of the night so that we can focus on each other as we know each other, if that makes sense?"

"Yeah that makes sense. Pretty much so we can focus on being comfortable around each other, instead of being focused on practically meeting someone new?"

"Exactly, thank you for understanding."

"Well how is that going to work, if your friends know who you are. wont they call you by your actual name?"

"Shoot! Youre right, I'll talk to them."

"Guys, I think tonight we should all go by the nickname of our pieces instead of our actual names… yeah! That way it keeps the mysteriousness and image of the mask and outfits.", Marinette hoped that this would be enough to work.

"That sounds fun! I like that idea!", Alya boasted.

As they all agree on to call each other their alter ego names, they walk inside to get to the event that started right away. The pieces are shown within the first 30 minutes of the event. Marinette's pieces went 5th to be shown. Everyone seemed to really like hers and continue to talk about hers throughout the rest of the shown pieces. After they were all shown there was an hour before the winner was to be announced. This gave each candidate a chance to talk to the designers and explain their pieces. Mostly all the big designers rushed to Marinette's side to have a better look at her work. All her friends were ecstatic at the attention they were getting. Alya confidently posed for each fashion designer that came by and showed off each part of her outfit while the guys just awkwardly sat there letting the fashion designers walk around them if they wanted to see something.

Marinette was bursting with joy. With the free time the group finally got, they took the dance floor and paired off. Marinette finally got to spend a closer time with Chat Noir.

"Are you okay, with dancing? We don't have to…", Ladybug said shyly.

"Of course I'm okay with it. I want to be as close to you as possible.", he gave her a genuine grin and pulled her in close, as he wrapped a hand around her waist and placed her hand in his hand.

Marinette wasn't used to this side of him, she was always preparing for the flirt and jokester, but tonight he was a sincere flirt.

"Mar- Ladybug, you look beautiful tonight."

"Thank you, you look quite handsome yourself actually."

"Why thank you, my outfit was designer made. Pretty top of the line stuff." He showed off his coat.

"Pretty rare for you, huh alley chat.", she flicked his nose playfully.

"Hey, you may be surprised when you see the real me. For all you know, I could be famously rich.", he fake flipped his hair.

"I'll believe it when I see it, Chaton.", she laid her head into his chest lightly and stayed close to him.

"Ladybug, would you still like me if I was?", he said with a quiet tone than usual.

"Chat…", she said looking up from his chest placing a hand lightly to hold his face, "Rich or an alley chat, I will love you no matter the circumstances. I want to be with you for you, not for any background perks. I hope you feel the same."

"I do.", he said with a smile and kissed her forehead.

They danced for a while longer, but Adrien couldn't get it off his mind that he knew the real her without her knowing. He had to tell her.

"Ladybug.", he said in a nervous jitter.

"What's wrong?"

"I need to talk to you; can we go outside?"

"Of course?"

The two leaned against the edge of a balcony outside that overlooked the garden.

"My lady, I have been keeping something from you, please don't get mad."

"I'm sure it isn't that big of a deal, chat. Really, whatever it is you can tell me."

"I, I know you wanted us to keep our identities a secret, but…"

"Chat wait, not yet, remember I wanted to tell each other at the end of the night."

"Actually, this has to do with yours…"

"…oh?"

"Yeah… Ladybug, remember that night at the Eiffel tower when we both wondered if we lived close to each other or went to the same places?"

"Yes…? I remember chat…"

"Well, there are some things that make me believe that its true."

"What are you saying? You think that we know I each other outside of the mask?"

"Yes."

"Why would you think that… What do you know?", Marinette said anxious.

"I know that you're Marinette.", he said pushing a loose strand behind her ear.

"Yo-…you know me in real life?", Marinette was stunned.

ALL CANIDATES COME TO THE STAGE!

"I guess we should go.", Chat stood up and lent out a hand.

"We are talking after this! Don't think youre getting off so easily, kitty", she said pointing a finger in his face with squinted eyes.

"Don't worry, I'm looking forward to my lady getting to know me.", he kissed her on the cheek and escorted her to the stage where they met the rest of the group.

As the announcer went on describing each design again, Marinette's head was racing with thoughts. 'How could he know who I am! I have been so careful. I didn't even sign my design so he wouldn't know who I was. The only one who even saw the design I had for Chat was Adrien.

"'hey, I thought you weren't inviting Adrien?'' now I see why you like him. He looks exactly like Adrien, girl'", replayed in her head. He does rather look like Adrien… And him and Adrien are the same size… could he be? She looked up to him as the stood on the stage waiting for them to announce the winner. She tried hard to picture him without the mask and It was true, whenever she did this Adrien was all she could imagine, but she thought she was just replacing Chat in Adrien's shoes to make things easier for her. She whispered under her breath in disbelief…

"Adrien…"

Chat heard the breathily girl next to him say his name. She finally figured it out for herself. He turned to her. As the met eyes, it hit Marinette. Chat just responded to me saying Adrien. He is Adrien! Her mouth parted to say something but was interrupted.

MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG!

Adrien winked at the girl who was blinking rapidly, not knowing how to process anything happening at the moment or why her name was shouted.

Alya came excitedly jumping up and down at Marinette screeching for her friends win.

"You won Mari! I'm so proud of you!"

"I won?"

"Yes! You did!"

After Marinette accepted her scholarship she then was forced back into the see of designers to talk and figure out who she wanted to work for. With lots on her mind she had to shut everything off and focus on her task at hand with the fashion designers until later.

At the end of the night of overwhelming, but positive events, she made her way outside to group back up with her friends.

"Hey, guys.", Marinette said still trying to put her thoughts back together.

"Marinette! There's our super star! Girl, you're like famous now! I'm so proud of you!", Alya squeezed the life out of Marinette.

"Haha I'm not famous, Alya."

"Yes, you are! Everyone couldn't get off of you in there."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry for leaving you all."

"Are you kidding, we are all so proud of you! Don't apologize. Anyways I wish we could go out and celebrate tonight, but we do have school tomorrow. What do you say I take you out for a celebration this weekend?".

"I would love that, thank you for coming and supporting me Alya and Nino. It meant a lot having you guys here with me."

"Of course, girl. I'll text you tonight!"

Adrien turns toward Marinette and offers his arm for her to hold, "So… shall we finish that talk?"

"I think so.", she said excitedly wrapping her arm around his.

As they got in the car together they sat in an awkward silence. Chat finally broke the silence.

"So… whose Adrien, huh?", he said with a Chat like grin.

"No way alley chat, you brought it up first, you get to go first. How did you figure out it was me?"

"The costume."

"The costume? But I didn't show it to anyone except-"

"Exactly, except me. I worked hard on helping you, you know. It sure does fit perfectly. I don't think I have ever had a suit that fits this nicely. Receiving it from Ladybug made it pretty obvious."

Marinette put her palm to her forehead, "That's how you found out?"

"Well there were other hints, but that's what fully confirmed it."

"Are you okay that it's me?"

"I am!... but, if this whole thing makes you uncomfortable i understand if you'd want to move out…"

"No way! I'm keeping that office!"

"Well, if you'd like… you could have more than that, Mari…", Adrien said taking off his mask, "you could… fully move in, if you would like…", he said with his heart beating fast.

"Adrien… I'd love that!", she said lunging at him with a hug, "This way I can help you finish decorating the rest of the mansion easier too!"

"I also have one more thing to ask you, Mari… I probably should have asked this before I asked you to move in…", he said with a slight giggle while rubbing the back of his neck.

"What is it?"

"Will… will you be my girlfriend, Marinette?", he said looking her deep in the eyes with one of his hands on top of hers.

She slowly removed her hand from under his which scared him a little, thinking that she was going to say no. instead she took off her mask as well and replied with a, "Yes, I would very much love to be your girlfriend, Adrien Agreste.", as she moved closer and gave him a soft kiss on the lips that he returned.