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“How’d work go today, Chaton?” As Ladybug spoke, Chat watched her lace her fingers above her head and stretch, his brows raising at the incredibly sexy way her back arched. Her body was limned in an orange glow, the silver hexagonal patterns on her suit catching the fading sunlight on the girders of the Eiffel Tower.
Chat knew staring was rude. But he sure did like looking at his girlfriend.
“It was great,” Chat said, his mouth watering at the quiet little moan she made as she extended her arms even further over her head. He licked his lips, hoping she’d kiss him senseless tonight. “Will you marry me?”
That had been the inside joke between them ever since they’d started dating eighteen months, one week, and three days ago. Chat had stopped courting her years before, when he was dating Kagami. After they’d broken up, Ladybug started courting him. He was stunned, grateful, and beyond thrilled to finally be the subject of her attention, but their relationship had begun in fits and starts as they figured out each other’s boundaries and how not to cross them.
But they’d always had the joke.
Back when they’d first began figuring out how to be boyfriend and girlfriend, Marinette had been having an awful day. She’d been stuck in the process of designing a wedding dress for a particularly awful client. A Bridezilla in every sense of the word, the woman had changed her mind as frequently as the wind changes direction and ended up shrieking at Marinette over the phone more than once.
She’d turned to Adrien, her new boyfriend, to cheer her up. “Variety is the spouse of life,” he’d said, and she’d groaned. “Just remember, a hitch in time saves nine.”
“That’s terrible,” she’d said, biting her lip, her eyes swimming with mirth as she sat at her computer desk. “You’re terrible.”
“I had hoped the marriage jokes would get a better reception.” Adrien had wrapped his arms around her from behind. She had turned in his hold, facing him head-on with a soft, sad smile curving her pretty lips.
“Thanks for trying, Adrien.”
He’d knelt before her, then, taking her hands in his own. Keeping eye contact, he’d pressed a kiss to her wrist, delighting in the dusky rose coloring that bloomed in her cheeks. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng, will you marry me?”
Then he’d waggled his brows.
And she had laughed. “Not today, Chaton.”
“Maybe next time, then.”
Ladybug laughed again the day he repeated his question on the Eiffel Tower, her nose wrinkling. Stretching apparently forgotten, she lowered her hands and crossed to him, hips swaying. Chat drew a breath through his nose, standing still as she approached, repressing his desire to tackle her to the Tower’s girders and count the rapid beats of her pulse with his mouth.
As he stayed rooted in place, Ladybug gently cupped his cheeks and leaned so close he could taste the chocolate coffee on her breath. Winking at him, she pressed a chaste kiss to his lips that left him hungry for more. “Not today, Chaton.”
“Okay, my Lady,” Chat said, beaming at her. She released him, and he let loose the breath he hadn’t known he was holding. He watched her turn to face the city she loved, determination shining in her eyes and jump-starting his heart. “Maybe next time, then.”
Gosh, he loved her. He loved her mind, body, and soul. He’d die for her. He already had.
Two months later, he asked her again. “Hey, Bug, will you marry me?”
“Not today, Chaton,” Ladybug said, frowning as she whipped her yo-yo forward into the akuma’s space, forcing them to backpedal to the edge of the Montparnasse Tower. “Do you really think now is the time?”
Chat agreed that now was probably not the time. “Sorry, Bugaboo!” he called, leaping in front of her to shield her from the akuma’s projectiles with his spinning baton. “You caught me wed-handed! Maybe next time, then!”
They’d subdued the akuma that day. Almost exactly a year later, they defeated Hawkmoth together, in a battle that had destroyed half of Paris and had killed Chat twice. Ladybug had brought him back with the Cure only to send him forth into the fight again.
“Chaton?” she asked, cautiously approaching him as he stared down at the unconscious forms of Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he mumbled, numb from the heart down. “Will you marry me?”
Ladybug sniffled. “Not today, Chaton,” she lamented, throwing her arms around him and letting him bawl his brains out for the rest of the week.
Things were easier afterwards. For a time. No new villains showed their faces for a while, and Paris became calm. Tranquil. At peace. Ladybug and Chat Noir still patrolled and still remained as beacons of hope for their city. Adrien started a charity with his trust money to provide clothes for homeless women and had thrown himself into the work. Marinette’s designing career took off, though she still found the time to help make clothes for the women of Adrien’s ‘New Threads, New Homes’ charity.
“Did you pick up milk?” Marinette said, hunched over her sewing machine at two in the morning.
Adrien kneaded her shoulders, making her groan. His mouth watered at the sound. “Yep. Will you marry me?”
She giggled, the tension flowing out of her body like water poured onto the floor. “Not today, Chaton.”
“Okay, Buginette,” Adrien said, kissing her cheek. “Maybe next time, then.”
Another year passed with him occasionally, jokingly asking her to marry him. “Not today, Chaton,” she’d say. And she would laugh, and Adrien would laugh, and then the cycle would repeat.
June fifteenth didn’t start any differently. They were eating Andre’s ice cream in their suits on the girders of the Eiffel Tower, sitting next to each other and watching the setting sun cast an orange glow over the Seine.
Ladybug leaned her head on his shoulder, her peach and mint ice cream cone loosely gripped in her hand. “How’s your new receptionist working out, Chaton?”
“He’s great,” Chat said, taking a lick of his strawberry with black chocolate chip ice cream. He’d already devoured the blueberry and blackberry flavors, and he was plowing his way through the red and black scoop. “Will you marry me?”
“No,” Ladybug said, and a rock dropped into Chat’s stomach. His breath hitched, and he raised a trembling hand to clutch at his chest. Ladybug, seeming to sense his distress, raised her head and smiled gently at him, her eyes soft.
She set her ice cream down on the metal girder. Then she reached below it, seeming to hunt around for something, her brow furrowed and her tongue poking out the corner of her lips. She looked… cute to Chat. Cute but determined, which was also cute.
Apparently, Ladybug found what she was looking for. She pulled out a small, red, velvet box. Chat peered curiously at it, his brows raising. Ladybug stood. Then, while he remained seated with his legs dangling off the edge of the Tower, she knelt before him. Wh-What? Chat thought. His girlfriend smiled tremulously and opened the box.
“Chat Noir,” she said, holding up the box, which contained a simple, silver band. “Adrien Agreste. Will you marry me?”
Chat dropped his ice cream in his lap. He reached out for the box with trembling fingers but then drew his hands back to bury his face in them. Fat, hot droplets welled in his eyes and spilled over his cheeks, leaking through his fingers.
“Chaton?” Ladybug whispered, her voice tinged with concern. “Are you all right?”
“Yes!” Chat exclaimed, lowering his hands and closing them over hers, trapping the box between them. Tears rolled off his chin and plonked onto his thighs. “Yes, I’m… I’m fine. And yes! Yes, Ladybug. Marinette. I will marry you.”
Ladybug extricated her hands from his to cup his clean-shaven cheek and bring his face close to hers. She kissed him, then, lightly at first. But as her lips glided across his, he tilted his head, mentally questioning her as to whether he should deepen the kiss.
She parted her mouth, inviting him in, and he lightly flicked her tongue with his, threading his clawed fingers through the inky strands of her hair. His eyelids fluttered closed.
They worked in tandem, as the partners they always had been and always would be.
Then she moaned. Fire shot through Adrien. Panting, he pinned her tongue to the roof of her mouth and let the wet muscle loose again. She licked his teeth and sucked on his tongue and bit his lip. He growled into her mouth, dragging her close to him, his hands smoothing down her back to her hips to pull her into his sticky, ice cream-covered lap.
Unfortunately, that action unbalanced her. She gasped into his mouth and he opened his eyes only to see the ring box bouncing off her thighs and down, down, down, away from the Tower and towards the streets below.
Chat let go of her immediately and dove off the Tower, using his powerful legs and feet to shove himself off the girders. He plunged through the air like a hawk diving down to capture a mouse. His wild mane whipped back off his face.
The ring had come out of the box. It spun as it fell, glinting in the dimming sunlight. Reaching out for the ring with one hand and grabbing his baton with the other, Chat caught the band. He ignored the box and thrust his baton out in front of him, extending it with a thought.
The baton’s end caught on the ground. The metal pole bent slightly under his weight. He vaulted himself forward, landing on his feet and spinning the now-shortened baton into its place on his back.
Ladybug landed beside him shortly afterwards, but he was too busy examining the ring to turn to her just yet. The band was simple enough, a silver ring with no adornment except for a plain, loving engraving on the outside.
He faced Ladybug with a teary smile. “‘You are my heart’?”
Ladybug beamed back. “Do you like it?”
“I love it,” Chat said, offering her the ring. She took it, and he extended his left hand. She slipped the band onto his ring finger and kissed his cheek.
“We’d, uh,” she said, offering him a sheepish grin, “had better find that ring box.”
“Oh, right,” Chat said, chuckling. “I guess when it comes to littering I should let my conscience be my bride.”
Ladybug groaned and threw her head back. “Really? Puns?”
“My puns are great, thank you marry much,” Chat chirped, grinning goofily at her.
“You know what they say about puns.” Her eyes twinkled as she looked at him from under her lashes. “They’re easier wed than done.”
Chat laughed joyfully. “I love you, Ladybug.”
“I love you, too,” Ladybug said, a smile curving her lips. “Now, let’s go find that box!”