Chapter Text
After another lonely dinner had ended. Adrien forced himself to trudge back up to his room. His door opened with a noisy creak, echoing in the cavernous and colorless halls.
It wasn’t often that he was glad of the acting lessons, but it was better not to betray the excitement bubbling just beneath the surface.
Checking his phone one more time, he set it down at his desk before anxiously pacing the floorboards in front of his windows.
Plagg snorted as he lounged on his desk, devouring morsel after morsel of Camembert. “Are you going to keep doing that all night?”
“If that’s what it takes…” He confided. “I’ll do it.”
He trusted her. He even trusted most of her crazy plans.
However, today had been especially rough. After all, his girlfriend -- the very same one he still loved to distraction -- had been forced to break up with him very, very suddenly.
Without warning… or reason.
Adrien bit his lip, pausing to rest his palms on the glass. Well, without good reason at least.
Even if one of Paris’ superheroes had swooped in to save Marinette from almost certain Akumatization, Adrien Agreste was supposed to look broken up about it. No one would fault him for that. In fact, they would be expecting it.
Especially after pictures of Chat Noir princess-carrying his now “former” girlfriend over the neighborhood rooftops lit traffic up on the Ladyblog.
Nino’s message had arrived mere minutes after the post hit, before he had even landed back in his room and de-transformed. The rest of the class had reached out within the hour.
All except Marinette.
“Where is she?” He fretted, scanning the roofline for that streak of scarlet that forever held his gaze.
Closing his eyes, Adrien's shoulders slumped as he wearily rested his forehead against the chilly pane of glass. It felt like he’d waited forever for Ladybug to give him a chance. With his rotten luck, he couldn’t help but worry that it could still all go wrong.
A knock interrupted his quiet fears. Glancing back over his shoulder at the door, Adrien waited for it to be pulled open. Plagg had already veered out of sight.
When the knock happened again, he noticed it wasn’t as far off. His gaze shot back up to the giant pane of glass.
Ladybug stood on the window ledge, one hand behind her back. She beamed as he gaped up at her. “Can you let me in?”
Dumbly, he took a giant step back, realizing belatedly he was standing in front of the unlocked window.
Gracefully, Ladybug leapt down to the floor.
In spite of himself, he couldn’t help but marvel at the sight.
The light dusting of pink on her cheeks was muted as she shifted a bouquet of red roses nearly the shade of her suit into the scarce space between them.
“You know. The last time you were here, you also brought me something.” He leaned down, smelling the sweet fragrance before brushing his fingers over hers as he took the offering from her. “I think you might have outdone yourself…”
“My ideas are pretty clever.” Her blue eyes warmed as he lingered close. “But I actually did come to ask you a question.”
“Oh?” He smiled guilelessly. “And what is that?”
With glee she leaned in ever closer, playfully tapping his nose. “Well, since you’re suddenly single again… I figured it was time to see if you might still be willing to take a 24,914th chance with me.”