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Ladybug landed at the usual meetup rooftop twenty minutes before her patrol with Chat Noir, feeling unusually nervous. Too anxious to stand still, she began to pace through the warm summer air, but she was too wound up to enjoy the cool breeze wafting across her face.
She was hardly ever early to patrol, usually working on projects into the late hours of the night until Tikki reminded her that she had somewhere to be, so it felt rather odd to be the first one there. But today, she wanted to make sure that if asking Chat didn’t go well, she had time to convince her partner. And if that meant she had to leave in the middle of a designing spree, so be it. It wasn’t like she was able to do much while stressed, anyway.
Five minutes later, Chat arrived, and Ladybug turned to face him. His baton quietly retracted and he tucked it into his belt.
This was it.
The time had arrived.
“Hey, Chat,” she said, giving him a little wave and mentally cursing her voice for cracking.
“Hey, LB,” he said, seeming unusually anxious. “I had something I wanted to ask you.”
“Same,” she admitted.
“You first?” Chat asked.
Ladybug was tempted to take him up on his offer, but her nerves got the better of her. “No, you can say your thing first,” she told him.
“No, no, it’s okay, you were waiting here longer–”
“Seriously, you go first.”
He sighed. “How about we both spit it out at once?” he asked.
“Why not?” she acquiesced.
They both shifted uncomfortably for a moment.
“I wanted to ask my girlfriend to marry me–”
“I was planning to ask my boyfriend to marry me–”
“It doesn’t feel right to marry her without revealing my identity–”
“I wanted to reveal my identity to him–”
“And I know we promised we’d be the next–”
“Wait. What?” They both stopped.
Silence fell over them, their flushed stares lasting for more than a few seconds.
“Uh….” Ladybug was the first to break the silence.
Chat broke into a grin. “I think we both had the same question, My Lady,” he said. “Which means we probably already know the answer.”
She let out an exhale, her body releasing tension she hadn’t realized she had, before sitting down on the roof tiles. “Wow, I feel so silly for worrying about this as much as I did,” she told him, flopping backwards and spreading her arms out.
“Same,” he replied with a chuckle, joining her. “I kept convincing myself it was a bad idea. Plagg had to talk me down from straight up skipping patrol more than once.”
“Tikki too!” They shared a laugh. “Shall we get started on patrol, then?”
“So, tell me about your boyfriend again,” Chat said as they began to run across the rooftops. “He genuinely sounds like someone I’d get along with. And now that he’s gonna be Mr. Ladybug–”
“Chat!” Ladybug laughed. “He hasn’t even said yes yet!”
“So, where are we going first?” Marinette asked her boyfriend from the passenger seat of his car.
“It’s a surprise,” Adrien said, winking at her.
Marinette crossed her arms and grumbled, but she couldn’t keep a smile off her face. “Come on, not even a little hint?”
“It’s somewhere special,” he said, grinning even as he kept his eyes on the road. “We’re almost there, anyway.”
“Really?” Marinette turned her attention to the buildings flashing by outside, hoping she’d recognize where they were. Then it hit her, and her smile was slowly replaced with a wide-eyed expression of shock. “Adrien. You didn’t.”
“I so did,” he said, not doubting for a second that she’d figured it out.
“Whyyyyyy…” she groaned. “You know that was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life!”
“Aww, love,” Adrien said. “If you hadn’t done that, I doubt today would have been our tenth anniversary. I was so oblivious back then.”
Marinette was too busy burying her face in her hands to respond.
“Anyway, we’re here,” he said, turning the engine off. “Welcome back to the Grévin Museum!”
“Fine,” Marinette said, stretching the ‘i’ out far too long. “Please tell me our entire tenth anniversary isn’t going to be spent here.” She touched her purse, thinking of the tiny box hidden inside with Tikki.
Adrien laughed. “Don’t worry, I got us a dinner reservation after this. We’ll only be here for about an hour at most.”
She let out a sigh of relief, then pouted at Adrien’s poorly disguised chuckles.
“Adrien and Marinette!” the curator of the Grévin Museum, Véronique, said, catching sight of them showing their tickets at the entrance. “It’s such a nice surprise to see you here. How are you two?”
“Pretty good, how are you, Véronique?” Adrien said pleasantly.
“Oh, same old, same old,” Véronique said, twisting her gray-streaked brown hair around her fingers. “Anyway, Marinette, I was hoping to ask you a question.”
Marinette nodded. “Oh?”
”Did you get our email about getting your statue added to our catalogue?”
Marinette touched her chest as though she was confirming that Véronique was talking to her. “Uh, no? My statue?” she asked incredulously.
“Of course! You are an up-and-coming designer, are you not?” Véronique asked, a smile on her face. “And we have quite a few designers here already.”
“Yeah, I guess…” She trailed off.
“Mari’s just being modest,” Adrien bragged. “She signed on as Clara Nightingale’s full-time designer, and she’s running a very successful online business. She’s even planning on opening a store sometime soon!”
“Wow!” Véronique said, looking impressed.
“Everyone wants to see the hot new designs from MDC!” he finished.
Marinette blushed. “Adrien!”
“What?” he asked, sending her a crooked smile. “Am I not allowed to brag about my amazing girlfriend?”
“Anyway, I have some work to get done,” Véronique said, clapping her hands. “I’ll leave you two to it! Happy anniversary!” She waved, walking off in the direction of the workshop. Marinette vaguely remembered where it was from the embarrassing fiasco that happened at the museum when she was fourteen.
They explored the museum for a bit, marveling at the updated superhero sculpture room and going through the many hallways. They took selfies in front of some of the statues of their friends, and Marinette posed for a photo by the Clara Nightingale figure in celebration of her new job. As they neared one of the side hallways, Adrien’s eyes lit up. He took her hand and led her down the hallway, stopping in the middle of a room.
“Remember this spot?” he asked, smirking.
“I’m gonna die,” Marinette moaned as the familiar surroundings finally clicked in her mind. “Why are you trying to embarrass me?”
He laughed. “It’s too easy!”
“Well, remember that spot over there?” she asked, her own smirk appearing on her face as she led him over to the round room. “That’s the spot where Luka hugged me and you got jealous.”
Adrien’s cheeks flushed, but he kept his grin. “What can I say? I get possessive sometimes.”
“We weren’t even dating yet!” she snorted, elbowing him.
“Yeah, well this is also the place where I realized I was in love with you,” he told her, his smile softening.
Marinette blushed. Even after ten years of dating this dork, she still wasn’t used to how romantic he got sometimes. If fourteen-year-old Marinette saw him like this, she would have fainted.
“If we were visiting the places we fell in love with each other,” she said loftily, cheeks blazing, “we really should have visited our old collége.”
“We could–” Adrien’s phone let out a sudden beep, and his eyes widened. “Oh, shoot, we’re gonna be late for our dinner reservation if we don’t leave now!”
After dinner, the two of them took a walk through the Place des Vosges, talking quietly as they strolled on the footpath lined with trees. “Want to go visit my parents for some pastries?” Marinette asked when she spotted the familiar building she’d lived in for most of her life.
“Your parents’ pastries are the best,” Adrien said, rubbing his stomach. “I can already taste their delicious chouquettes and éclairs.”
“Pastries it is,” Marinette said, leading them out of the park. They walked through the front door of the shop, where Sabine was just starting to close up. “Hi, Maman!” she greeted enthusiastically.
“Oh, Marinette! Adrien!” Sabine said delightedly. “Tom! Get out here, your daughter and her boyfriend are here!”
Tom burst out of the kitchen. “Marinette, sweetheart! It’s been too long since we’ve last seen you! And you, Adrien, my boy! How are you doing?”
“I’m doing great, Tom,” Adrien said.
“And anyway, Papa, we saw each other three days ago,” Marinette added.
Tom laughed. “That’s three too many!”
“We miss you, sweetheart,” Sabine added with a fond smile.
Tom sighed and patted his chest, staring up at the ceiling with a goofy smile on his face. “I miss the days you lived with us. The house is so quiet without the constant noise of your projects in the background.”
“Oh, Papa…” Marinette hugged him. “I’ll try to visit more often, promise.”
Tom laughed. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Just don’t forget your old man, eh? Anyway, I’m sure you came for more than to just visit your aging parents. What would you two like?”
“Chouquettes as usual, Adrien?” Sabine said, already scooping the pastries into a bag.
“Yes, please, Sabine,” Adrien said, grinning as Sabine handed him the bag. He pulled a chouquette out and popped it in his mouth. “Delicious as always!”
Stealing a chouquette from Adrien’s bag, Marinette grinned as he tried to protect it from her with a pout on his face. “A box of assorted macarons?” she asked.
“I knew you were going to say that,” Tom said, already putting various leftover flavors of macarons into a box for her. “You know, sweetheart, when you lived here, I swear you used to eat all the leftover macarons we had at the end of each day.”
“What can I say? I love macarons,” Marinette said, glancing down at her purse; she knew Tikki was inside trying to stifle a giggle.
Adrien pulled out his wallet to pay for the treats, but Sabine waved him off. “You know that these are just the leftovers we didn’t get to sell during the day,” she said. “Don’t worry about it.” When she saw that Adrien still hadn’t put his wallet away, she playfully glared at him until he finally tucked it back into his pocket.
“Anyway,” Marinette said, changing the subject. “Maman, Papa, do you guys need help with closing up?”
Tom shook his head, handing her the box of macarons. “No, no, go enjoy your date with Adrien,” he said, ushering her out of the bakery. “Have fun!”
Once Tom had shoved them out and closed the door, Marinette turned to face Adrien. “You know, our old collége is right there,” she said, gesturing. “It’d probably be kind of cool to see how it has changed, right?”
“Wouldn’t it be closed, though?” he asked.
“Oh, you’re right,” she said. She still grabbed his wrist and dragged him across the street toward the front steps of the school. “Luckily I didn’t fall in love with you inside the school, I fell in love with you outside of it. Do you still remember that day you gave me your umbrella?” she asked.
“How could I forget?” he said fondly, putting another chouquette in his mouth. “It was the day that I convinced an amazing and beautiful and fierce girl to not hate me forever.”
She laughed. “I don’t think I would have hated you forever, maybe just another couple of days. It was obvious you were nothing like Chloé from the start.”
They stopped in front of the giant double doors of Collège François Dupont, and Marinette experimentally pressed against them to see if the school was open. They didn’t budge. “Wow,” she said with a laugh. “It feels really weird to be back here.”
“It’s been so long,” Adrien agreed. “How many years, ten?”
“Something like that, yeah,” she nodded. “Wow, I can’t believe I’ve been in love with you for more than ten years. Literally since collège.” She put a hand on her purse; she couldn’t think of a better moment to ask him to marry her. She took a deep breath–
“Marinette,” he suddenly said seriously, and she turned to face him, a little confused by the gravity in his voice. He carefully put the bag of chouquettes on the ground beside him, then got down on one knee. Her breath hitched. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now.”
“Adrien…” she whispered.
“You are the most important person in my life,” he said. “You’re my best friend and the love of my life. You’ve been there for all the ups and downs in my life. Younger me had no idea,” he continued, “but the best day of his life was that day with the umbrella in the rain. Because that was the day I met you. I want to be by your side for the rest of our lives,” he finished. “So, will you do me the biggest favor ever and marry me?” He opened his palm to reveal a rose gold ring with a large diamond on top.
“Oh, Adrien,” she said, her eyes blurring with tears of joy. The box of macarons slipped from her fingers as she embraced her boyfriend– no, her fiancé. “Yes, a million times yes!” She carefully held out her trembling hand, and he slid the ring on. “You know, this is kind of funny, though,” she added thoughtfully, wiping her eyes.
“Why?” he asked curiously as he got back to his feet.
Marinette reached into her purse and Tikki pressed the tiny box into her hand. “Because of this,” she said, pulling it out. “I was planning to propose, too!”
Adrien’s eyes widened. “Really?” he asked, carefully taking the box from her and opening it. He pulled the gold ring she’d picked out from the box, looking over it with suspiciously shiny eyes. “This is beautiful, Mari.” He slid it onto his finger, admiring it in the streetlight.
Marinette’s smile fell. “Before we do anything else, though, there’s something I have to show you,” she told him. “We’ll probably need to go somewhere more private.”
“Okay…” he said, picking up his bag of chouquettes and the sad remains of Marinette’s box of macarons. Tikki would be so disappointed that all the cookies lay in pieces inside. “Which reminds me. I need to show you something, too.”
She pulled him into the alley behind her parents’ bakery, where she’d often detransformed while she’d still lived there. “Don’t freak out,” she warned.
He frowned, but didn’t say anything.
“Tikki, spots on.” She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for a response.
When, to her surprise, there came an echo of “Plagg, claws out.”
She opened her eyes in shock to find Chat Noir standing in front of her, a grin on his face. “Well, My Lady, turns out you fell for me after all,” he purred.
“A-Adrien?” she stuttered. The last person in the world that she’d expected Chat Noir to be was her boyfriend. Yet, there they were, two superheroes that had thought they were dating other people, discovering that they’d secretly been dating each other. A blush filled her cheeks as she remembered all the times she’d gone on and on and on about her boyfriend to her partner, and now they were the same person? How was she supposed to cope with that without dissolving into an embarrassed puddle on the floor?
At her lack of response, his smile dropped. “This is okay, right?” he asked nervously. And suddenly all Ladybug could think was that Adrien was Chat Noir and everything was right with the world.
“More than okay,” she said, throwing her arms around him. “Of course it was always you. There’s no one else it could have been.”
“And it looks like I fell for you twice, Marinette. I couldn’t be happier that the love of my life turned out to be my superhero partner,” he said fondly. Then his eyes widened. “Think about it, though. We have twice as many nicknames we can use for each other now!”
She snorted. “You goof. Our identities still have to be secret from everyone else, you know. You can’t call me ‘Bugaboo’ or anything when I’m Marinette, just like I can’t call you ‘Kitty’ when you’re Adrien.”
“Hey, I just realized,” he said slowly. “We promised that the next people we’d reveal our identities to were each other. And looks like we kept that promise!”
“You’re right,” Ladybug said. “Tikki, spots off. Well, fiancé, shall we head home?” she asked, holding the hand with her ring out.
He grinned, detransforming. “We shall,” he said, taking her hand in his.