Note: I'll update this story every Sunday evening until it's complete.

I'm cross-posting this story at An Archive of Our Own. That version is more explicit, but for character-based reasons, not gratuitous ones. Whichever version you read, enjoy.

Ladybug, heroine of Paris, Guardian of the Miraculous, partner (ahem) to Cat Noir, alighted on the balcony to her alter ego's home. "It's good to be back," she said. "Spots off."

In moments, the striking red and black costume had returned to nothing, leaving only the young woman Marinette. The years she'd spent in super-heroism had been kind to her. Now in her final year of high school, Marinette's face had retained its youthful cuteness, complimented now with more maturity than her age would suggest. Her form had filled out with toned muscle—not the bulging but useless ornaments of the body builder, but the lean tools of someone used to throwing her body around. Her lower body in particular had benefitted, with legs and glutes befitting someone who ran rooftops on a daily basis. Her chest hadn't kept pace, and she had resigned herself to having one of the smaller busts in her class.

Not, she reflected happily, that her lover seemed to mind.

Sighing contentedly, she flopped back on to her own bed. "Another successful patrol," she said.

"Oh?" said Tikki. The kwami's oversized eyes were twinkling with amusement as she floated into Marinette's line of sight. Tikki was clearly a creature of magic, colored candy-apple red with black spots. Coloration was about all Tikki had in common with the ladybugs she was supposed to evoke. Then again, ladybugs didn't bestow or wield the powers of creation, so a loose interpretation was just as well. "'Patrol'? Is that what we're calling it now?"

"What do you mean?" said Marinette weakly. "What would you call it?"

"Well, since we're in Paris, I believe the word is 'liaison'," Tikki answered. "I think the more colloquial term is "booty call"."

Marinette flushed. "I don't know what you're talking about! I did go around Paris, didn't I? I looked out for crime and any evidence of akumas. That counts as a patrol, doesn't it?"

"And your route took you to the Agreste manor, where you de-transformed and visited your paramour… that was just a happy coincidence, hm?"

"Busted," Marinette sighed. She tossed her head. "I regret nothing."

"I can't say I'm surprised," said Tikki. "Young love is something to behold."

"Thanks for being so understanding," said Marinette, stretching out languorously. "You… er… don't mind that I'm using the transformation this way?"

Tikki gave a too-knowing look. "I've had plenty of Ladybugs before. You aren't the first to get tangled up with her Cat Noir, and you're definitely not the first to be seized by her hormones."

Marinette cringed. "You make it sound so bad when you say that."

"Au contraire—I think it couldn't be more natural." Tikki started floating from one to another of Marinette's fingers, using them to count off, since she had no defined digits of her own. "You and your Cat Noir are both young. You haven't escaped adolescence yet—you have all a teenager's hormones in a nearly-complete body. You're in a line of work that subjects you to frequent doses of adrenaline. Your state of fitness is excellent, and all that exercise pumps endorphins into your system almost constantly. All the danger has honed your survival instinct, which extends to other aspects of survival, too. And, if I may, you're both quite yummy, as humans go."

"Now you're making it sound all chemical," said Marinette with a frown.

"No, alchemical," Tikki corrected. "That's just the physical part. The emotional part is just as strong. You and Adrien had a bond of friendship. Ladybug and Cat Noir had another kind of bond, different but no less real, based on comradery under fire and proven bravery. Add on top of that the sexual tension that had been building between you and Adrien, and between Cat Noir and Ladybug, for literal years. When those bonds all came together…"

"…we snapped together like magnets," Marinette said, blushing furiously.

"Frankly, it would have been dangerous if the stalemate had gone on much longer," said Tikki. "Plagg and I were wondering if we would have to intervene. Luckily, you two found each other out on your own."

"I barely remember how it happened," said Marinette, losing herself in reminiscence. "It was after purifying an akuma—one of us went to detransform, the other followed on accident—I don't even remember which of us was first. All I know is I was looking at him, and I knew, and he was looking at me, and then he knew, and then…"

"And then?" prompted Tikki.

"…the rest is a blur," said Marinette. "Not much stands out, but I remember… wait, you were there! Why are you asking me? You know what happened!"

"Of course," said Tikki with a giggle, "but it's fun to hear about it from another's perspective. We kwami don't have sex, so we have to experience it vicariously, through our bonds with our hosts."

"Well, you're missing out," said Marinette, and she sprawled back out again, feeling very much at peace with the world. She fancied she could still feel the warmth he'd given her when he'd lost control at last…

"Yes," said Tikki, floating just into Marinette's line of sight, bringing her back from her reverie. "We miss out on sex. And everything that goes with it."

The words were just a little too pointed. Marinette sighed. "You're still going on about that?"

Tikki shrugged, with affected nonchalance. "I just think it's a good idea."

Marinette closed her eyes so she couldn't see her magical companion. "You're probably right," she admitted, but even as she spoke she ran her hands up her body, pretending they were Adrien's. She brought her fingers to her nose, hoping to catch some trace of his scent still on her hands. She felt the pleasant soreness that reminded her just how she'd spent the high point of her 'patrol', a soreness no exercise had given her before her and Adrien's mutual unveiling…

She hummed. No way she was killing this buzz. "I'll check tomorrow."

"You've said that before."

"Promise."

The kwami sighed. "I guess that's as good as I'll get. I'll get the lights, if you'll just tell me…"

"Top drawer," said Marinette, gesturing vaguely at her desk, where a partially-open wrapper of biscuits remained from earlier in the day.

"Goodnight, Marinette," Tikki said.

"Mmmm," murmured the heroine as the world began to dim. "Yes it was."

The smell was amazing.

It was a good thing few of the mansion's residents ever came into his room, Adrien reflected. Someone might just pick up the smell. It had faded since the night before, to be sure, but he could still detect traces of it.

The smell of sweat and sex.

Every one of Ladybug/Marinette's visits was a delight. He couldn't keep his hands off of her—or any other part of him, for that matter. To his amazement and joy, she felt the same. That was, after all, why she had appeared on his balcony last night, at a perfectly indecent hour, with perfectly indecent intentions.

He was erect, a combination of morning wood and delightful memories working their magic on his only-too-pliable body.

As with Marinette, that body had been treated kindly by a few years of superheroics. He'd already had a slim-but-firm sort of build, and the years had emphasized that. He hadn't filled out so much as filled in: while his profile was hardly larger, it was solid. His muscles were tight and well-defined; they barely stood out beneath clothes, but without clothes covering them, an anatomy student could trace his entire musculature. Marinette loved to do just that—loved to run her hands over him, following the lines of his chest, of his arms, of his abs, of his-

His alarm went off. He groaned his displeasure. That meant it was time for his morning hygiene rituals. He'd been performing them, in all their scrupulous and time-consuming detail, for years. It had started as a forced thing, the occupational requirements of a model, but it was internalized now. Automatic.

He found he almost didn't want to. It would get rid of the smell, and the dried evidence of how he'd spent his night.

Which of course was a compelling reason to do the routine. His father would flip a table if he even suspected Adrien was getting laid. Most of the staff would eagerly rat him out if they thought his father would reward them for it. The fact that his dalliances with Marinette were all tied up with their superheroics made it even more complicated.

Adrien frowned. He may have gotten used to the whole secret-life part of being a superhero, but that didn't mean it felt good. Hiding his relationship with Marinette—something that had made him happier than he'd ever been—felt even less good.

He'd need to have words with his father, sooner or later.

It was a bracing thought, and it was almost enough to make him lose his hard-on. But then he remembered why he would be confronting his father—for the right to fuck Marinette as much as they damn well pleased—and it came roaring back.

Later, he promised himself.

As he headed to his luxurious and over-stocked bathroom, he passed the basket where Plagg preferred to sleep. A thought occurred to him, so he diverted for a moment. The kwami was curled up so his head rested on his own tail. It was the sort of posture a cat might adopt, and Plagg did vaguely resemble a caricature of a black cat. It might have been adorable if Adrien wasn't fully aware of the kwami's attitude.

"Plagg," he prompted.

"If you don't have any cheese, go away."

The voice was a little too quick to reply, a little too clear, for Plagg to have just woken up. Adrien felt, as he often did, that the creature was being anti-social for the heck of it. "Plagg," he said again.

"What?" was the cranky reply. Those over-sized eyes, shaped like a cat's but a vivid green, opened at last and gave Adrien a critical look.

"I'll be transforming to go see Ladybug again," he said. "First chance I get. Probably tonight."

"And by "see" you mean "rut", don't you?"

Adrien's dick throbbed. "Well, yeah."

Plagg scowled. "You woke me up for that? As if I couldn't guess."

"You're okay with it?" Adrien asked.

Plagg rolled his eyes. "The holder of the Cat Ring is a human just like the rest, so it's expected he does the things humans do. It's nothing to me either way. Tikki is the one interested in that stuff. So long as there's some camembert waiting for me afterwards, do what you want."

The reply was too mercenary for Adrien's tastes. Adrien wondered, as he often did, how he'd ended up with the asshole kwami.

Still… "Good enough," he said, heading back for the bathroom. "I'll be a bit. Wouldn't want you to lose too much beauty sleep."

"Between you and me, you're the ugly one," Plagg said through a yawn. "Way too… human."

"Right," said Adrien with a grin. He headed for the shower.

His still-erect penis led the way into the hot water. It reminded him, sensation-wise, of his escapades the night before. It wasn't exactly making his erection go away. Sure, he wasn't helping matters by thinking about sex all the time, but for the past month and a half his thoughts had rarely strayed far from that topic.

Maybe he could persuade Marinette to sneak away for a nooner.

Grinning like the cat who got the canary, he started to wash.

"So, what is it that's changed?"

"Hm?" said Marinette, wrong-footed.

Alya adjusted her backpack as the two of them walked to class. The bushy-haired, bespectacled brunette had a wide variety of prying looks, the better to get at all the dirt she loved so much. Now, she turned her most penetrating on Marinette. "Don't play dumb," she said. "You're not good at it. Something has changed. I want to know what it is."

"Nothing has changed," Marinette said quickly. "I mean, some stuff has changed, we're going to be graduating soon, and we're all thinking about careers and college and all those things—that's changed. Sorry, what?"

Alya shook her head. "It's not any of that, duh. It's about you and Adrien."

Marinette blinked. "What about me and Adrien?"

Alya fixed her friend with a steady gaze. "Ten minutes ago, you and he greeted each other. You shared a quick joke, smiled freely, and moved on."

Marinette's eyes darted about. "What's suspicious about that?"

"That's an awfully defensive thing to say," Alya said keenly. "I didn't say it was suspicious. I just said it was different."

"Is it?" said Marinette, her panic rising. "How?"

Alya sighed. "You're not playing dumb this time," she said, "and that makes it worse. Remember how it took you a month to be able to say two sentences around Adrien?"

"Yeah?"

"And how you used to have entire strategy meetings with us just to arrange conversations with him? And when you actually got conversations with him they made you want to leave the country afterwards?"

Marinette buried her face in her hands. "Vividly."

"Compared to that, a normal conversation is decidedly abnormal."

"Well, maybe we got more comfortable with each other," said Marinette, trying to squirm away. "These things take time, don't they?"

"Three months ago you set the fire alarms off. Do you remember why?"

Marinette's blush skipped red and went directly to maroon. "Don't do this!" she pleaded.

Alya was remorseless. "You wrote a note to me saying that you wanted to go on a date with Adrien, but didn't know how to ask him. I threw the note away. When you realized it was Adrien's day to take the garbage out, you set the garbage can on fire before he could get to it."

"Just thinking about it makes me want to die," groaned Marinette.

"It would have been simpler to get the note out, or to offer to take the garbage out yourself. But no: you completely lost your head and committed minor arson."

"Hey, no one got hurt," Marinette protested. "And there was no permanent damage to anything. Well, except the garbage can, that was a write-off."

"And who helped cover for you?"

Marinette hung her head in defeat. "You did."

"Damn straight. Just to be clear: that was three months ago. Since then, the two of you have gotten positively chummy. What. Changed?"

"Uhhh… oh, look, we're at our classroom!" said Marinette, ducking inside.

Alya rolled her eyes and followed Marinette. "Don't think you're getting out of this," she persisted. "And don't think I'm the only one who's noticed."

"There's nothing to…" her denial wilted under Alya's gaze. "Okay, yeah maybe. Who else has noticed?"

"Literally everyone," said Alya.

"No way," said Marinette firmly.

"Glance to your right."

Adrien had entered the class behind them and gone to his desk. His eyes strayed to Marinette. When their eyes met, he smiled warmly and raised his head in acknowledgement. She matched his gestures, feeling tingly.

Some books came crashing onto Adrien's desk. "Oh, so sorry Adri-kins," Chloe proclaimed, hastening to pick up her 'mess'. Adrien started to help her; while his attention was occupied, Chloe shot a look at Marinette so venomous the blue-nette felt slapped. Chloe was well-practiced at this sort of gesture; her blonde hair, blue eyes, and delicate features would have been pretty if they weren't so often turned up in disdain. A privileged upbringing and doting father probably weren't to blame for her caustic personality, but they sure didn't help.

Chloe did not take losing kindly, as she was reminding Marinette at that very moment.

"Ouch," Marinette said.

"Chloe's feeling it, too," Alya said. "She's taking it less gracefully than I am. Haven't you noticed how she's been akumatized a lot lately?"

"There's always a lot of akumatizing in Chloe's orbit," said Marinette in a low voice. "She has that effect on people."

"She's been akumatized seven times in three weeks," Alya said. "Even for her, that's a record."

That took Marinette aback. "You know," she said, "you're right. I hadn't realized."

"You hadn't realized?" repeated Alya, unbelieving. "How could you miss it? What else would have your attention?"

The honest answer, the one that stuck in Marinette's throat, was, "The sexy bod of my super-partner, and the prospect of a hard fuck after we smash the bad guy but before anyone misses us, while the blood is still pumping hot in our veins, it's the best."

The answer she gave was, "Uh… stuff?"

She was wincing before the words were even out of her mouth. She was cowering before Alya in moments.

"I thought you could tell me, at least," the brunette said, and hurt crept into her voice.

"I'm sorry," was all Marinette could manage.

Alya sighed. "Look, I know you're not so much 'innocent' as 'awkward'. I get it if it takes you a minute to figure out how to say it. I just hope you don't let it drag out anymore. This is getting cringey."

"I'll manage it soon," said Marinette. Even she noticed that her voice had the edge of determination, the one that spoke to people; the effect on Alya was instantly visible. "But not here. There's a reason I'm being cagey, trust me."

"I get it," said Alya. "But you will let me in on it?"

"Promise," said Marinette with a nod.

Alya beamed at her. The difference was electric. "That's the Marinette I know!"

Bam, bam, bam.

"What was I thinking?" Marinette groaned in between impacts of her head against the bathroom stall's door.

Tikki's voice rose out of Marinette's handbag. "You were thinking that telling your friend would be better than hiding forever."

"I didn't want to hide forever, I just wanted to hide until the right time!"

"And when would that be?"

"Uh… shortly after the stars grow cold."

Tikki nodded. "You knew you'd have to do this eventually. Well, this just settles the 'when'. You still control the 'how'."

"That's something, I guess," Marinette answered. She banged her head twice more, for good measure, before sitting back. "I suppose you're right. I've just gotten so used to acting secretive. I've been Ladybug so long now that not telling my friends things became the new normal."

"It's a problem all Ladybugs face," Tikki said sympathetically. "It's one reason they end up falling for their Cat Noirs so often."

That took Marinette aback. She hadn't thought about it, but… "Because their Cats are the only people who can relate," she said slowly. "They're the only ones who have to deal with the same issue."

"You're in good company," said Tikki. "But that doesn't mean you should keep your friends in the dark about everything else. In fact, if you play your cards right, this can help maintain your cover."

Marinette perked up, and a beat later, she saw what Tikki meant. "You're right! If people know Adrien and I are a couple, then it's not suspicious if we disappear together or reappear together! We have a ready-made excuse for wanting some time together and out of sight, and we can always vouch for each other's location!"

"So long as Ladybug and Cat Noir keep appearing and retreating from different directions, the ruse should hold," Tikki agreed.

Marinette cringed. "Ooh… I don't know how I feel about this. What are people going to think about me if they believe I'm using every akuma attack as a chance to make out with Adrien?"

"But that's exactly what you are doing," Tikki pointed out.

Blood rushed to Marinette's face—and to other places. She was momentarily overcome by some very exhilarating memories of post-victory sessions with Cat, sessions where they'd doubled up on the euphoria of victory with the thrill of a quickie.

The naughtiness of stealing time in the middle of the day, of sneaking in some hot sex while their classmates were still emerging from cover, and returning to class with the rest of them but with him grinning incorrigibly and her dampening her panties with his offering to her…

She bit her lip and rubbed her legs together idly.

"Earth to Marinette."

"Sorry, what?" said Marinette, snapping back to reality. "Oh! Well, I guess… now that I think about it, people might give me a break. I mean, it is Adrien, after all. Let's be honest, half the school wanted to bag him. I don't suppose they'd blame me for… wanting…"

"You trailed off again," Tikki pointed out.

"Half the school wanted to get with Adrien," Marinette said ominously. "When we go public, I'm going to make a lot of people really upset. That's a lot of negative emotions flooding the streets. And Chloe! She's shooting me death glares just for talking to Adrien. When she learns that we're together, she'll have dozens of akumas following her."

"A whole flutter," said Tikki agreeably.

"A… what?"

"A flutter," Tikki repeated. "It's the collective noun for moths."

Marinette frowned. "You're making that up."

"I am not!" Tikki squeaked indignantly. "Anyway, don't be so sure."

"About what?"

"About there being so many akumas when you go public," Tikki said. "Incidentally, you are going to…"

"Yes, yes," said Marinette.

"You've said that before," Tikki said pointedly.

"Yeah, I… oh!" She smacked a fist into her other hand. "This afternoon, after school. I'll take Alya to the store with me. It'll give me a chance to have some privacy to talk with her, and I can make the purchase in the same trip."

"Sounds like a plan," Tikki said with a nod.

"Hey!" came a new, muffled voice from outside.

Marinette sat bolt upright. "What is it?"

"You've been in the bathroom forever! Either call for help or get out—we're dying out here!"

"Coming, coming," Marinette said hastily. She stood right up off the toilet, having never actually needed to go in the first place. Tikki took her place in Marinette's handbag quickly and without complaint. Marinette flushed the toilet to cover her tracks and went to wash her hands.

"Fancy meeting you here."

Adrien was grinning from around the row of books. Marinette felt like the temperature of the room went up two degrees instantly.

"Oh, hi!" she said, tensing slightly.

"What, you're gonna be bashful now?" he teased, and lowered his voice. "After all we've done together?"

"Shhhhh!" Marinette hissed. When she realized she'd drawn the attention of a nearby table, she gave a "shhh!" at them, too, before disappearing around the next row.

"You're cute when you're embarrassed."

"Eep!" said Marinette. She looked to where the voice had come from. Adrien's head was poking through a gap in the stacks where there were no books.

"I mean, you're cute when you're not embarrassed, too," Adrien went on. "You're cute all the time. But that blush you make, and the way your eyes get all big…" He suddenly looked thoughtful. "It reminds me of other times that you look like that."

"If I didn't love you so much, this would be super-creepy," Marinette told him.

"But you do, and I know you do, so what's the harm? It's just a little fun."

"You say that, but other people are catching on that we're… you know…"

"…together?" he finished.

"Or something," Marinette said.

"Good," Adrien said.

"What?" said Marinette, caught off-guard.

"Good," Adrien said again. "I never wanted to hide forever. It's fun sneaking around, but it'd be more fun to walk through school with my arm around you. I want to… just be with you, without worrying about it all the time."

Marinette's heart was pounding in her chest. She wanted to not move, and she also wanted to pull him through the bookshelf and smother him with kisses.

He looked to the side, suddenly taciturn. "We can't yet, though," he said, unhappily. "I need to figure out what we do about my father."

In her head, Marinette saw herself grabbing his hand and saying, "Whatever he says, we'll face it together! I know the power of our love will bring us through!"

Even in her head it sounded stupid.

"I don't want to make you choose between me or your father," she said in a small voice.

"Are you kidding?" He looked to her again, eyes blazing. "There's no choice, there—it's you, every time. I just want for it to not be a choice."

Marinette was so stunned by this admission that she was surprised to feel a smile stealing over her face. When she realized it was happening, she leaned into it. "Well, I guess we'll just have to show him, then."

"Show him what?" said Adrien, wrong-footed.

"Show him that you knew what you were doing," Marinette replied, her face set with determination. "We'll show him that you know how to pick 'em."

"Whoa," whispered Adrien.

"What?"

"You may be cute when you're embarrassed," Adrien said, "but when you're like this? When you're in "I've got a plan and I'm gonna do it" mode? Then you're drop-dead sexy."

"You're a serial flatterer." She glanced around quickly before dropping her voice. "Don't make me drag you to a corner."

"I'd love nothing more… my lady."

She shuddered. It was a subtle difference from his usual term for her, but it was filled with wholly different meanings and subtexts. It made her seriously ponder the logistics of the matter, until she felt her phone buzz in her bag. She heard Adrien's chirp at him in the same moment. She sighed. "Seriously?"

A moment later, the school's PA system announced, "Code red-black. Code red-black. All students, proceed to shelters. All students, proceed to shelters."

"I suppose we were due," Adrien said with a sarcastic shrug. "It's been a whole fifty hours since the last akuma attack."

"That's our music," Marinette said. "Let's dance."

"Meet you there," said Adrien, and he moved away—presumably to find a quiet spot to transform.

Marinette took in her surroundings and decided this was as good a place as any. She moved a little to be sure of her privacy, then opened her bag. "Tikki, it's that time again."

"I'm ready when you are!"

To be continued...