41. Chapter 41
2020 Update: After much deliberation, I've finally decided to mark this fic as complete. Yes, the last chapter obviously teases more, but after receiving dozens upon dozens of messages asking if the fic is over/am I going to post more chapters, I feel it's best for both my readers and my own mental health to end The Ladybugs and the Bees here. I appreciate all the love and feedback y'all have given me over the years more than I can say, and I just want to thank everyone who's ever commented/kudosed/created fanart based on my story. You truly made the experience worthwhile <3
Now, this does NOT mean I will be abandoning TLATB completely. I love the little universe I've created here, and have been dreaming up post-reveal plots for FOUR YEARS NOW. My hope is that by closing the book on this particular fanwork, I'll be more motivated to polish up and publish the post-reveal scenes on my own time. Either as a collection of one-shots or a full-fledged sequel. I can't make any promises right now, but be sure to bookmark the series on my profile titled "TLATB Universe" if you want to be alerted of any future installments.
For now, please accept this silly little drabble as a reward for getting through 40 chapters of... whatever the hell all that was. This scene didn't fit with the vibe of last chapter and ended up being too short for its own chapter, but I liked it too much to delete it altogether. So consider it a small, un-beta'd epilogue. I hope reading it makes you smile as much as I did while writing it.
Stay safe, love y'all <3
By some divine miracle, Marinette made it a whole forty-five minutes without a panic attack.
...Okay, so technically it was forty-three minutes and eight seconds but who was counting? Certainly not her! Marinette certainly didn’t spend the entire time she was down in the bakery over-analyzing Adrien’s every word and behavior until she’d somehow convinced herself he was only faking being okay, and was actually back at home having a mental breakdown. She certainly didn’t dwell on how simultaneously over and underwhelmed Adrien must be about this whole situation, subsequently dropping a tray of pastries and earning herself a gentle banishment from the kitchen. And Marinette certainly didn't spend a solid five minutes curled up against her cat pillow, agonizing over how best to check up on him without seeming clingy, desperate, and insecure. All of which she totally was.
Marinette settled on a text...
[ you sure you're okay? ]
...then promptly tried to swallow her phone.
“Drop it!” Tikki admonished, rushing forward to intervene. Having gotten used to this kind of behavior years ago, the kawmi delivered a sharp swat to the girl’s nose, startling her into releasing her alligator-like death chomp. Marinette (again, behaving more like a reptilian predator than a teenage girl) hissed loudly in response, attempting to retrieve her phone from where Tikki now kept it hostage near her bedroom ceiling.
“Give!”
“Marinette, calm down,” Tikki soothed. "It’s all out in the open now. Adrien’s fine, you’re fine. Everything is okay. Breathe."
Marinette took a deep breath in, only to crumple dramatically to the bed on exhalation. “He hates me," she whimpered, muffled by her face-full of mattress.
“That’s not true! I specifically heard Chat say he loves you. Multiple times, in fact.”
“He’s in a state of shock. I broke him. I broke Adrien Agreste.”
Tikki sighed. Knowing better than to argue with her chosen when she was like this, she instead fluttered down to softly pat her trembling jaw.
“Poor Kitty," Marinette sniffled, leaning into her kwami's touch. "This was all so sudden. I can’t imagine how conflicted he must be feeling right now…”
“I wonder if she wants a Spring or Autumn wedding,” Adrien mused softly, swooning against the hands propped beneath his chin.
The young man was seated at his computer desk, scanning the no less than three dozen pictures of Marinette splashed across both monitors in search of a new desktop background. Oh don’t get him wrong- he loved the Ladybug collage! But now that Adrien had a real life actual public girlfriend to show off he wasn’t going to waste a single opportunity to do so. Problem was, his classmate turned close friend turned love of his life was just too damn photogenic for her own good. Every new snapshot of Marinette had Adrien melting further and further into his seat, unable to decide which image should greet him every time he booted up his pc. The current frontrunner was the picture Alya had snapped on their field trip to London. The one where Marinette had fallen asleep on his shoulder on the train ride back to school. Adrien grinned at the memory- an even more treasured one now some three years later. Marinette had looked so adorable with her cute sleepy face, had felt so nice nestled against his arm.
God, he couldn’t wait to wake up next to her like that every morning.
Then again, there were the pictures they'd taken while modeling together back in collège. Or any of the numerous selfies she'd posted to social media. Or the concert photos, which remained some of his favorites. How was he supposed to choose just one picture of Marinette when they all made his heart melt?! It was an impossible choice that Adrien refused to make.
'Slideshow it is,' he thought, dragging the pictures into a handy folder. A small shadow loomed over his shoulder.
"I'm calling the police."
"Since when is love a crime?"
"It's not, but I still feel like you should go to prison for this."
"Do you think she wants kids?" came Adrien’s dreamlike reply. Plagg was spared the effort of answering by the same sound that'd been interrupting his precious daily 20 hours of sleep every day for the past few months. The kwami rolled his eyes as he watched Adrien nearly break his hand in his haste to unlock his phone.
[ you sure you're okay? ]
Adrien bit down a smile at his Lady’s concern, spinning happily in his office chair. A quick shower and a cold glass of water had all but cured his hangover, but it was nice to know someone cared enough to check up on him. Unlike certain other people in his life. People who had only poked their head into his bedroom to announce he was under house arrest on his one day off and was not to leave his room under any circumstances. People who then boarded the company car to board the company plane to presumably board the company CEO while he "attended to business" in the Bahamas. People who were decidedly not his mom but sure as hell liked to pretend they were.
...Anyways.
[ if I say no will you come over and nurse me back to health? ]
Was it weird to want to see Marinette again less than an hour after he'd left her? Adrien didn't think so. If anything their brief, post-reveal encounter only made him crave her company more. It was astounding, watching the Marinette he knew and the Ladybug he loved slowly blur into one person. Their speech patterns, their mannerisms, all their charming little quirks- everything about these two previously separate entities just melded so beautifully together. She was the perfect sum of both halves...
[ yes ]
[ if you want me to ]
..and Adrien was smitten.
Twenty minutes later found Adrien swinging open his window for the newly-arrived Ladybug, who graciously accepted his offered hand despite being possibly the last person on earth who needed help climbing through a window.
“Hi Kitty,” she greeted, stepping through the pane and into his bedroom with a practiced ease.
“Hi Marinette,” Adrien echoed, loving the way his partner visibly perked up at the sound of her name. Sure, the address felt rather odd considering she stood before him in full Ladybug attire, but it was worth it to see a pleased flush creep out from beneath her mask. Gloved hands found purchase atop his shoulders, followed by Ladybug rolling onto her tiptoes, and Adrien had already instinctively begun to dip his head for a kiss when Ladybug abruptly swerved into a hug. The resulting whiplash left him reeling.
“Sorry,” she mumbled into the nape of his neck, squeezing him once before withdrawing with a nervous laugh. "Sorry. Almost forgot. No funny business and all that. I'll behave."
Adrien blinked hard in realization. Ah yes, he was the person actively sabotaging his source of Ladybug kisses.
...Why had he done that again?
A reminder of "why" was quick to follow, when Ladybug took a single, purposeful step back and called for “Spots off!” The de-transformation was quick and flashy. Nearly blinding. One moment Ladybug stood before him, clad in her signature scarlet and spots. Then, from a burst of pink light, emerged Marinette, leaving Adrien's jaw on the floor. Because yeah, logically he'd already accepted the fact Ladybug and Marinette were the same person. It was hardly a bitter pill to swallow. But to see one become the other before his very eyes...
"Ta-da," Marinette trilled, waving the dorkiest set of jazz hands he'd ever laid eyes on. "You like?"
He wasn't sure whether she meant the transformation itself, or the slightly flour-stained girl it revealed, but it hardly mattered when both answers were the same.
“Yeah," Adrien replied oh-so-intelligently. "I mean... That was... wow.”
"Aw, thank you!" replied an unfamiliar voice. "The sparkles were my idea~”
Adrien's attention drifted to the previously unnoticed figure floating just over Marinette's shoulder. The creature’s size, shape, and coloring was an instant giveaway of their identity. It had to be-
“Tikki!” A black blur flew from the loft above to collide with the crimson kwami, sending them both spiraling around the room in a tangled mess of tiny limbs. Adrien and Marinette watched the display with twin smiles, even sharing a laugh when the tiny pair began to ricochet cartoonishly off the walls.
“Hi Plagg,” Tikki giggled once they regained equilibrium, "It's nice to see you too." For all her composure, Tikki still clutched Plagg just as tightly as he clutched her, only withdrawing enough to address the pair of humans below. “Don't mind him, he gets clingy when we’ve been apart for too long.”
“Three whole years!” Plagg wailed. “Most Ladybugs and Chat Noirs take half that time! It’s like they don’t even care if we’re split up!”
“Split up?” Marinette questioned. Her eyes darted between the two kwami, widening slightly. “Are you two… um…?”
Taking pity on the poor girl's confusion, Tikki tossed Marinette a lifeline. “Humans dont have a word for what Plagg and I are to each other,” she explained. “Our connection is… hard for mortals to understand.” The creature’s intelligent eyes danced from Marinette to land on Adrien. “Well, most mortals that is...”
“You're kind of like soulmates, right?” Adrien posited, having spoken to Plagg about his other half many times before. “Two parts of a whole?”
“Exactly,” Tikki praised, nuzzling against her feline tackler. “Destruction and creation is a symbiotic act. One cannot exist without the other. So while technically we can be separated-”
“Things make more sense when we’re together,” Plagg finished with a contented purr. Tikki nodded in agreement, glancing between the wielders.
“Do you understand now?”
Adrien looked down at Marinette just as Marinette looked up at him, their eyes locking with a similar question; A similar realization.
The two stood so close that their fingers brushed with every synchronized breath, as if gravitating towards each other. A moment passed. And then, ever so gently, Adrien felt a slim pinkie twine against his own. A warm smile was soon to follow, the kind that made her blue eyes crinkle at the ends and his heart riot in his chest. He captured the rest of Marinette’s fingers, marveling once again over how perfectly they slotted between his own, before bringing them up to his lips.
“Yeah,” Adrien answered in a near-whisper. “I think I understand.”
Marinette nodded, her face a lovely pink. “Me too."
“Bout time!” interjected Plagg, master of both subtlety and reading rooms. Either unaware or uncaring of the tender scene playing out before him, the kwami ascended towards the loft. “Now stay together, will ya? We’ve got soap operas to catch up on!”
“Have fun you two!" Tikki called behind her. "Let me know when it’s time to go!”
“Yes Mom,” Marinette giggled. She watched the pair disappear over the bannister with a profound sense of… was relief the right word?
No, not relief.
Satisfaction?
Joy?
Perhaps it was another of those unknowable things. A phenomenon humans simply did not have the word for. Whatever it was, it settled pleasantly in the cradle of her chest, warming Marinette from the inside out. Here in this moment, she felt as if all were right in the world. Like somewhere in the vast expanse of the universe, two little cosmic puzzle pieces had snapped together, completing a larger picture that had yet to be seen.
(Perhaps more than two ,’ her subconscious whispered, urging her to squeeze the fingers threaded between her own.)
“So…” Adrien began, softly swinging their joined hands.
“So?” Marinette prompted with a smile.
“What shall we do now?”
...
“Wanna lay on the couch and play Animal Crossing for ten hours?”
“Fuck yeah .”
Then Marinette caught like six ladybugs and Adrien got stung by bees until he passed out THE END