In which Marinette Protects Her Kitty, Darn It.

Sorry about the delay in posting! We had some long workdays and then my computer ended up in the shop for a couple days to see if I could prolong its inevitable decline towards total failure (aka the graphics card is going out) and that ended up taking longer than anticipated (but the computer is still dying).

So, without further ado, the last chapter!


Adrien's day started with a media fuss about the fact that Gabriel Agreste wasn't getting a funeral, just a private burial. Adrien would have ignored it- after all, he had other things to deal with- but one article was suggesting that perhaps Gabriel Agreste had been Hawkmoth and that was why there was no funeral.

Groaning, Adrien rolled his way out of bed and headed downstairs to prepare a media statement saying that the reasoning behind having no funeral was because his father hadn't been a good parent in years, if ever, always putting work before family; that Adrien had been planning on cutting off contact with his father anyway once he was through university and on his own because he didn't need a toxic presence like that in his life; and that despite what the press wanted to believe, the decision to not hold a funeral for his father was entirely based on that. There was no point in him dedicating the time and effort to put together a funeral to celebrate the life of his father when his father had never spared any time for him, and besides, Adrien had exams and the rest of his life to think about.

Either he would come off heartless and cold to the media, or he would make a good chip in his father's reputation. Considering that a number of people already had an inkling about what his father was like- there had been articles commenting about the lack of Gabriel Agreste at Adrien's assorted sporting events before and more than a few reports about how he blew people off and regularly insulted his designers- the claim that father and son hadn't been at all close was hardly coming out of nowhere.

By the time lunch rolled around, new articles had been posted with Adrien's official statement. They all seemed to take the statement at face value, thankfully, and it was a much more relaxed Adrien who slouched down in front of his TV after he finished his lunch. That was one crisis averted, at least for now.

And then Nadia Chamack popped up on the TV screen, announcing that she was going to be interviewing people around the Louvre about their responses to Ladybug and Chat Noir's unwillingness to release Hawkmoth's identity to the police and to the public.

"Oh, not this again," Adrien groaned, muting the TV before pressing his hands to his face. Ladybug had said that it would probably take a bit for the interest to die down, but couldn't they give it a break for even a little while? "I don't really want to listen to a bunch of people talk about how apparently they have the right to screw up my life even more-"

"Kid." Plagg's voice cut Adrien off mid-complaint. When he looked up, his kwami was staring at the TV. "Look."

Adrien looked. Onscreen, Rose and Juleka were talking to Madam Chamack. On a small banner across the bottom of the screen, text read In Favor of Ladybug Keeping Hawkmoth's Secret.

Adrien managed a smile at that. At least there would be a couple people in Madam Chamack's piece that weren't clamoring for the release of Hawkmoth's name. They would be in the minority, surely, but at least they were there. People would have to admit that not everyone in Paris shared the same point of view. It wasn't much, but it was something.

And then the familiar faces kept coming.

Mylène and Ivan made an appearance, apparently out and about in the area for a picnic. Adrien turned the sound on long enough to catch Mylène decrying both the pressure on Ladybug and Chat Noir to change their mind and reporters' attempts to figure it out independently, pointing out that the search would involve harassing people who just suffered a loss in their family no matter how the reporters did it and that was just plain cruel. One dissenter followed them, but they sounded less than certain about their opinion after hearing Mylène's words.

Madam Chamack approached a group of roller skaters next, and Adrien spotted Alix's distinctive spiky pink hair among the skaters as they told the camera that they supported Ladybug and Chat Noir's decision, too. A group of university students told her the same thing, chattering with each other how having the information out could impact the remainder of Hawkmoth's family even though they had been declared innocent, and a flash of familiar teal hair in the back of the group made Adrien do a double-take.

That was Luka among the group. Adrien had thought that his university was on the far side of the city.

The next two passer-byes were strangers, who admitted that they were curious but that they could see everyone else's points about why making Hawkmoth's identity public would be a bad idea. They were followed by Aurore and Mireille- seriously, how were all of these people that Adrien knew just happening to be passing by?- then another dissenting stranger before Jagged Stone, Fang, and Penny all showed up to tell Madam Chamack that they stood by the superheroes' stance, too.

"What on earth," Adrien said, leaning forward with a bit of a smile teasing the corners of his mouth. "Where did Jagged Stone come from? How did he just happen to show up when Madam Chamack was interviewing people? That's so- oh. Of course. Of course she would."

The answer to his question had just appeared on the screen. Madam Chamack had approached Marinette as she headed across the square to join Rose and Juleka in their impromptu picnic, and everything fell into place at once.

Marinette had been talking to a lot of people over the course of the morning and also spending a lot of time tapping at her phone. Adrien had thought at the time that it was a little strange- normally Marinette didn't spend that much time talking to people and she definitely didn't spend that much time on her phone- but he had written it off. As class representative, Marinette was in charge of the end-of-year picnic and could have easily been collecting suggestions for what people wanted to do before exams were on top of them. It was obvious now that that wasn't the case at all. She must have been recruiting people to show up at the Louvre.

As for how Marinette knew about the live interviews in the first place, well- her mom knew Madam Chamack, so Marinette could have overheard when and where they would be taking place. And considering how irritated she had been with Alya earlier with the 'Hawkmoth identity debate', it was just like Marinette to organize as many people as she could to be in the area so that she could control the narrative being presented.

He was being protected by two incredible girls, it seemed. Ladybug stood between Chat Noir and reporters, and Marinette was providing a civilian intervention.

"I like her," Plagg said approvingly, watching as Marinette launched into an impassioned explanation of why she supported Ladybug and Chat Noir's decision, pointing out that Hawkmoth's family had been very brave in going to the superheroes when they could have just hidden the Miraculous and let the akuma attacks come to an unexplained end. "Very clever. Underhanded, maybe, and manipulative, but used for all the right reasons."

On screen, Madam Chamack was looking as though this interview thing wasn't quite going the way that she had planned. She had clearly tried asking Marinette a few follow-up questions and gotten completely flattened by Marinette's thought-out answers, and now she wasn't quite sure what to do.

"So that's the, uh, lycée and university population pretty well covered," Madam Chamack told the camera. "And, uh, a couple adults shared their views as well. Let's approach some of our more seasoned Paris residents! Sir, do you have a moment?"

The camera panned out to show an elderly man lugging a bag of flour across the plaza. He looked irritated at the sight of the camera, muttering something under his breath, but he came over to join Madam Chamack anyway. He seemed oddly familiar, too, and Adrien furrowed his brow, trying to place him. Was he a former akuma, maybe? Perhaps a recent one? For some reason, that didn't seem quite right.

Plagg cackled. "Oh, this one should be good."

"Today's hot news is that Ladybug and Chat Noir refuse to release Hawkmoth's identity to the public now that he has died," Madam Chamack told the man. "The police and the public want to know who Hawkmoth was. What are your thoughts?"

"In my day, people respected the opinion of the experts!" the man said in a half-bellow straight into the microphone that had Adrien scrambling for the remote to turn the volume down. "And Ladybug and Chat Noir are the experts here, because they're the one who know how the Miraculous work and have been the ones fighting all of the akumas." He scowled at the cameras. "All of these petitions and ignoring experts' opinions and acting as though the public's opinion should be the final judgment- that's not how you're supposed to do it!"

The familiar line had Adrien practically choking on his laughter as he finally placed the face with a memory. "Marinette's grandpa! No wonder I remember him! He's a character, that's for sure."

"All this push for scoops and hits and views- that's not how you're supposed to do it!" Roland Dupain continued, slinging his bag of flour over his shoulder so that he could punch his fist into the palm of his opposite hand. Madam Chamack was starting to look like she rather wanted to sink into the pavement. "In my day, we had responsible reporting! News reporters considered the consequences of information going public before smearing it across the headlines! We called this kind of shameless digging and pushing no-good, trashy tabloid reporting!"

Plagg was howling with laughter. "Oh, I love him, too!"

"Ah, thank you," Madam Chamack managed, and Roland Dupain nodded shortly before stomping off back across the plaza. "I think that's all we have time for right now. Uh, there were a lot of interesting and at times unexpected opinions and a lot for Paris to consider. Back to you, Alec!"

Adrien grinned as he shut the TV off, catching sight of a baffled Alec before the screen went dark. "Oh, Marinette is my favorite. I do worry a little bit, though- most of Paris won't notice the theme there, but Alya will, if she watches it. And she might call out the planting people on the scene on the Ladyblog."

Plagg made a face. "That's true, but all it would take is people saying that they were there together for some completely normal reason- like, all of your classmates except skater girl had picnic stuff with them- and Madam Chamack just happened to pick them all to interview because they were easy to approach or something. It's not like they were approaching the reporter lady, she was approaching them. And does Alya know Marinette's grandpa? You only know of him because of when he got akumatized."

"I'll have to ask Marinette." Adrien pushed himself up off of the couch. "But right now, I have homework to do. And I'll get you more cheese."

Plagg cheered, following Adrien at once.


Marinette looked rather like the cat that got the cream when Adrien entered the classroom. Alya wasn't there yet, so Adrien sat himself down next to Marinette and grinned at her when she looked up. "Someone had a busy lunch hour."

"Shhh. Don't let anyone hear." Marinette leaned closer to him, though, clearly not at all upset. A small smile was playing at the corners of her lips. "So you saw the interviews?"

"And all of the people you planted? Sneaky, sneaky." Adrien snorted at Marinette's preening grin. "But what if Madam Chamack does more interviews or Alya picks up on the fact that most of those people know you?"

Marinette snorted. "What do you take me for, an amateur? I have backup plants, those weren't all of them. I'm actually surprised that as many of them were picked as there were this time around. And I have an ear in the Kidz Plus studio who can give me a heads-up about what's going on there. If they do another round of interviews, I have the plants that weren't interviewed this time ready for the next round. And there are a lot of them who Alya won't recognize- friends of friends and coworkers of people I know and friends of my parents' and their bakery staff. And Alya doesn't know my grandpa. He was the last person that Madam Chamack interviewed, by the way. I don't know think you've met him, either."

Adrien grinned at the memory. "How did you persuade him to come out and do that, by the way? Wasn't he that old-timey akuma that didn't like new stuff?"

The giggle that Marinette let out was absolutely adorable. It was also a little devious. Actually, scratch that, a lot bit devious. "Oh, it wasn't hard. I just had to agree to go bake with him this summer and learn how to make some of our bakery's items the old-fashioned way. He's been dying to get the chance to teach me. It's not that I didn't want to before, but I just haven't had the time during the school year."

Adrien could relate to that. Still, he couldn't resist the urge to tease Marinette, just a little bit. "Should I be concerned about how good you are at this whole deception thing?"

"I only use my powers for good, I promise!" Marinette grinned at him. "Would you like to join me for the baking lessons? I know you've enjoyed watching my dad make stuff."

Adrien perked up immediately. Learning how to do Dupain-Cheng- or, he supposed, just Dupain- baking? Yes, please! "Ooh, yeah, I'd love to!"

Even though most of the interviewees had been planted, it seemed like the general attitude at school was more split now than it had been before. People had heard normal civilians like themselves admitting that their curiosity about Hawkmoth's identity wasn't worth destroying Hawkmoth's family's relationships and job prospects by creating a bias about them, and they were actually starting to listen.

There were still dissenters, though. And it didn't help that the Ladyblog was one of them. Alya had moved on to claiming censorship, which was actually ridiculous and was very much not likely to help her secure a reporter job in the future.

(Adrien had to wonder how many articles on the Ladyblog were going to end up getting edited or deleted entirely as Alya went through her journalism program in university and she realized that they were in bad taste or weren't good examples of reporting. He had noticed that Lila's video and the subsequent article follow-ups had quietly vanished as soon as Lila's lies came to light, and there were a couple earlier articles that had been edited to sound a little more professional and not so fangirl-y. Some of her earlier mistakes could be written off as inexperience and excitement, but the later ones?

Alya should have known better by now.)

It didn't escape Adrien's notice that Marinette was talking about literally anything other than Hawkmoth as they went through their afternoon classes. She told him about her parents' plans for trying to make some new treats for the summer, and about some of the designs that she was working on, and mentioned some of her own plans for summer break. It was surprisingly normal conversation, especially considering that Adrien had kind of expected that she would be fired up from her success with the interviews and eager to talk about the planning that had gone into them, and he had to wonder why.

Was it because Hawkmoth's death was sudden and recent and Mr. Agreste's death had been the same, so she didn't want to inadvertently poke at any sore spots? Did she suspect who Hawkmoth had been? Maybe it was just because she picked up on the fact that he needed something normal right now.

Or maybe it was because of the fight that Marinette had gotten with Alya over Hawkmoth's identity and she was sick of the topic. According to Nino, the two girls still weren't on speaking terms by the end of the school day.

"Alya's actually even more ticked off now, because she thinks that Marinette set up a bunch of those interviews near the Louvre," Nino told him after school, once both Marinette and Alya had gone their separate ways. "And she confronted Mylène and Rose about it, but they said that they just happened to be in the area with their picnic and Marinette got invited last-minute, which is why Alya hadn't been told. Which is still kinda strange- like, how likely is it that they would go to the Louvre for a picnic? And Alix was there, too- but I guess it's possible?"

Adrien tried not to laugh. Marinette's team clearly had their excuses lined up. "I guess. And it's not like it's a bad location."

Nino made a face. "It's crazy busy there, though. I'd much rather just go to a park. And it's also weird- like, I know that Alix was super-curious about Hawkmoth's identity before, and the rest of them were, too. I mean, they weren't so intense about it that they would join the people following Ladybug and Chat Noir around to yell at them about it or anything, but they weren't exactly supporters of Ladybug and Chat Noir not telling Paris until Marinette got to them."

Adrien could only shrug. "Well, Marinette made good points. She's persuasive."

"Oh, not you, too!" Nino exclaimed. "I think that people are exaggerating the potential effects on Hawkmoth's family, if they actually didn't know about him before. It couldn't possibly be that bad."

"See, that right there is why it would be bad," Adrien shot back, pointing at Nino. "People assuming that his family actually did know. Ladybug and Chat Noir said that they didn't, so why don't people trust that?"

"Uh, maybe because Ladybug and Chat Noir are two teenagers, not trained professionals, and people lie?" Nino suggested. "And the police are trained to pick up on lies, so they should be the ones doing the interviewing. Not Ladybug and Chat Noir, who are just trained to fight akumas."

Oh, for... "Didn't Chloe once say something about a little creature giving her her powers as Queen Bee?" Adrien pointed out, remembering one of Chloe's superhero vlogs. It had been super annoying at the time to have her sharing Miraculous secrets with the world, but now? It was positively useful. "Isn't it likely that Ladybug and Chat Noir interviewed Hawkmoth's little creature? Like, if I were in their shoes, that would be the first thing that I would do."

Nino paused, mouth half-open as he struggled to find an argument. After several seconds, he frowned, his mouth closing fully. "...huh. I guess, yeah." He groaned. "There goes the last of Alya's decent justifications for them needing to share Hawkmoth's identity."

Adrien didn't say anything to that. It sounded like Nino was still on Alya's side, even though he didn't have a good reason, and that was frustrating.

"Dunno if I'm going to say that, though," Nino added, running one hand over his hair. "She's already not super-happy about so many of our classmates changing their minds, and I'd like to actually finish the year with a girlfriend, thanks. And I can't deny that I'd really like to know, too."

"Right," Adrien managed, feeling more disappointed than he was willing to let on. He had been hoping that his friends wouldn't be in a fight right now because the timing was obviously less than ideal, but clearly no one was going to budge on their position. Not that he wanted Marinette to budge, because obviously she was right, but Nino and Alya? Couldn't they see that they were wrong?

He didn't know who he was kidding. Alya could be stubborn as a mule. She wasn't going to change her mind.

At least he had Marinette, Adrien thought as Nino bid him good-bye and headed off. Even if Alya got angry at him about the Hawkmoth thing, he wouldn't be the odd one out in the classroom.


He got a message from Ladybug after school on Friday that she wanted to meet up at midnight. Adrien groaned- that was late- but he couldn't deny that the late time made sense. Despite the fact that Marinette's interview plants were helping change some people's opinions about finding out Hawkmoth's identity- clearly she had ears in more than just the Kids Plus studio, because several of the main TV stations had done the interviews and come up with similar results- he and Ladybug still hadn't been able to go out and about without people bugging them, yelling after them as they ran across the rooftops. The portion of the population that still wasn't agreeing with their decision was very vocal about it. The only way that they could was by going out so late that people wouldn't be able to see them. Still- midnight?

Even though it was nearly summer and days were longer than ever, that seemed late. Maybe she was just being extra-careful because of recent events.

Chat Noir didn't know what to expect when he met up with Ladybug on top of an abandoned warehouse, one that was large enough that no one would be able to see them from the street. Maybe she just wanted to check in on him, but they couldn't exactly spend a lot of time hanging out with it so late. Even though it was the weekend, he couldn't just screw up his sleeping schedule by staying up long past his usual bedtime. He had studying to take into account, and he had his normal activities still to consider.

His stomach dropped when he spotted the nervous look on Ladybug's face as he approached her. In a flash, he started thinking of what that might mean. Had the police or the mayor made some sort of order that they had to comply with? Had Master Fu told her that they had to share Hawkmoth's identity with Paris? Was there something wrong with the Miraculous? Had Nooroo revealed that another household member had been working with Hawkmoth, or maybe he had reconsidered Nathalie's culpability?

"You look like you're about to panic," Ladybug commented, nerves vanishing into a frown as he joined her. "Did something happen?"

Just like that, the rising terror vanished. "I- no? It just- it looked like you had bad news to share, maybe, and I just- I was trying to think of what it might be, and-"

"Oh! Oh, no, nothing bad," Ladybug assured him hastily, reaching out to take his hands. "Just- something I was nervous about. I was talking to Master Fu today, and he suggested that we be less visible for a bit, because we keep getting harassed whenever we go out and people aren't going to forget about Hawkmoth and move on if they're seeing us every day."

Chat Noir's stomach dropped. Out of all of the possibilities that he had thought up, the possibility of losing Ladybug as his support system hadn't been one of them. Of course, they could still transform and talk via their communicators, or meet up late at night so that no one would see them- it would be summer soon, he could stay up then- but it wouldn't be the same. He- he needed Ladybug. She knew everything that he was going through, and could help him more than anyone else could, and, and-

"And I didn't want to have to stop seeing you," Ladybug continued, and suddenly he could breathe again. "I know- I know that you haven't told anyone in your civilian life about everything, and that it's good for you to be able to talk about it if you want to, and you're probably not getting enough hugs, and I would miss you too, obviously, and-"

Chat Noir couldn't help but grin. Ladybug was babbling, which meant that she was nervous about something but not something bad. He knew her well enough by now to know that if it were bad, her words would be punctuated by long silences and nervous lip-biting. "Uh-oh. Here comes the word vomit."

"-it's not fair that- hey! It's not- I'm not-"

Ladybug spluttered as Chat Noir laughed. "You are babbling. I'm not going to bite, my Lady. You can spit it out."

Ladybug let out a huff, her tensed shoulders finally relaxing. "Ugh. Okay. Fine. So anyway, I didn't want you to lose any support or not be able to talk, so I got- I got permission from Tikki and Master Fu to reveal my identity to you so that we can still see each other. I don't want you to feel any pressure to reveal your identity," she added hastily as Chat Noir's jaw fell open. "Like, if you want to come over to my house in a trench coat and sunglasses and a hat to hide your costume, that's fine. But I want you to know where to find me if you want to talk about anything, or just hang out, or- or anything, really."

Chat Noir nodded, swallowing. He hadn't been expecting a reveal tonight, but this- he had been hoping to learn Ladybug's identity for a while now, but he had all but given up hope that it would happen any time soon. "O-okay."

"I'm just a bit nervous about it," Ladybug admitted, giving herself a little shake. "Give me a minute."

"It's just me, my Lady," Chat Noir reminded her, stepping forward to give her a quick hug. "Nothing to be nervous about here."

"I know, it's just- no one besides Master Fu and my kwami knows my identity, and I'm not used to transforming in front of people." Ladybug squared her shoulders, then closed her eyes. "Okay. Tikki, spots off!"

Chat Noir shielded his eyes as a pink flash lit up the rooftop. As soon as it faded, he lowered his arm and then a grin split his face.

"Oh, of course you're Ladybug," Chat Noir chuckled, reached forward to scoop his detransformed partner up into a hug. "Of course you are. Who else could it be? You're perfect."

Marinette's cheeks flushed pink in the moonlight. "I- I'm-"

"I saw you on TV, working to persuade people not to dig about Hawkmoth's identity," Chat Noir told her, burying his face in her hair for a long moment. Of course Marinette was Ladybug. She had been protecting him in and out of the mask, throwing absolutely all of her energy into it and going above and beyond to keep him safe. "And I heard rumor that you were in charge of organizing to have people who support us in the area to get interviewed for TV."

"Lies and slander," Marinette said primly, sticking her nose up in the air. She gave up the charade after a second. "I had help from Pollen and Trixx and Wayzz. They staked out at the main TV stations and let Tikki know if they heard anything about interviews, and then I sent out mass emails to my contacts with the where and when and which station, so people knew what to look for."

Chat Noir grinned. That was his Ladybug, always the planner.

"You know where I live, right?" Marinette asked, snuggling back into his hug. Her arms twined around his waist. "If you want to come at night, you can just come in via the balcony. I can hide a key for you up there. And I could give you my phone number, too, so I can know if you're coming over. Or Plagg could probably look it up, too, on your communicator."

"Right," Chat Noir agreed happily, instead of telling her that he already had her number. He wasn't entirely sure why, but he wanted his secret for just a little bit longer. He hadn't come to their meeting expecting to reveal his identity, and he just wanted a little time for the idea to sink in. "I know where you are. I've visited you before, princess."

"Of course you have. Your kitty nose came sniffing around for treats." Marinette grinned up at him, and how had he not made the connection before? That look was pure Ladybug. "Now you can come 'round for the treats and the company."

"I came for the company before, too!" Chat Noir protested, knowing full well that she was kidding. Marinette knew that he enjoyed her company. "And to be your model, too, on more than one occasion."

Marinette giggled again, squeezing him in a hug, and the two of them ended up sinking down to sit on the rooftop together. Chat Noir pulled Marinette into his lap- after all, his suit protected him from the cold, rough rooftop and she wasn't transformed- and the two of them spent nearly an hour there on the rooftop, talking and just hanging out before finally deciding that they had to go home.

Chat Noir was practically bubbling with happy energy as he headed home, slipping through the window back into his room. Detransforming, he spun around the room before flopping down on his bed. "Ladybug is Marinette!"

"Surprise," Plagg drawled, landing next to him. "No wonder she was willing to get into a fight with Alya over the whole Hawkmoth identity thing."

"Right, because she personally knows me." Adrien rolled over to look at Plagg as a thought hit him. While most of Paris had only found out about Hawkmoth's death several days after Mr. Agreste died, Ladybug- Marinette- had learned about it less than 36 hours later, and knew for a fact that she had found out about it within that timeframe because they had just met up the day before everything happened. "Plagg- she knows that Chat Noir lost his father at the same time as Adrien did. There- there's no way that she doesn't suspect that I'm Chat Noir, is there?"

Plagg snorted. "Yeah, I bet she has her suspicions already. There were too many similarities there for Ladybug to ignore. But I'll also bet that she's been doing her best to ignore them until you decide to reveal yourself, so you can at least feel like you're in control of that information."

Adrien could only grin helplessly, still over the moon about- about everything. Marinette was so thoughtful, and kind, and gorgeous, and of course she was Ladybug. How did he get so lucky?

Even with as late as it was, it took him a while to settle down enough to fall asleep, too caught up in thoughts about Ladybug. Once he finally did drop off, Adrien slept well for the first time since his father's death, dreaming about ladybugs and going on a picnic in the park with Marinette at his side. He woke up late, rolling out of bed with a smile and a leisurely stretch, one goal in mind.

"I think I'm going to go over to Marinette's house today," Adrien told Plagg as he got ready for the day. "I just- how could I possibly stay away?"

Plagg considered him. "Are you going over as Adrien or as Chat Noir?"

Adrien just smiled, checking his reflection in the bathroom mirror before heading out into his room. "I'm both, aren't I?"

"That's not an answer!"

Half an hour later, with breakfast eaten and his school things packed up in his bag so that they could at least pretend to study, Adrien headed out the door with a wave to the Gorilla. He headed through the streets on the familiar route to Marinette's house, going around the park instead of through, avoiding all of the families hanging out and enjoying the sunlight. Lazing in the sun sounded fun, of course, but he had a bit of a different place to relax and enjoy the sun in mind, up on top of a certain bakery with a lovely dark-haired girl by his side. It didn't take long to reach the bakery, and Mrs. Cheng let him in at once. With a fresh croissant in hand, Adrien headed upstairs, excitement replacing the last bits of lingering anxiety with every step.

They were Ladybug and Chat Noir. They had closed one chapter of their life now with Hawkmoth's death, and now they could move forward together. Maybe there would be bumps in their road and times when things got tough, but they could handle anything together.

With a smile on his face, Adrien rounded the last set of stairs and came face-to-face with the door. With one last deep breath, Adrien moved Plagg to his shoulder, raised his hand-

And knocked.

Fin.


a/n: And that's the end! It's been super-fun getting to explore a fic that isn't my usual fare (though I gotta admit that there was a lot of fluff at the end :D gotta get it in there somehow.

As always, reviews make my day! :)