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The first one he finds is yellow.
A pale, creamy, cake-colored yellow sticky note.
Well, technically he didn’t find it. Nino’s rummaging through his bag when he plucks it out.
Nino hums, a satisfied smirk smoothing over his features. “‘Your hair shines like the sun’,” he snorts. "Which one of your crazed fangirls wrote you this?"
Adrien turns, grasping for the adhesive piece of paper. “Wh-what are you talking about!?” It couldn't be, he thinks. How could the poem from last year be in my backpack?
Nino only laughs at Adrien’s deepening blush as he deciphers the message. “Of course, you have millions of admirers on Valentine’s Day. Didn’t this happen last year too?”
He doesn’t say anything, but the bell rings anyway while he’s following the patterns of the swirly handwriting. It’s almost identical to the original.
‘Your eyes are gorgeous green,’ the next one reads, wedged between his fencing bag and the back of his locker. It sticks out like a fluorescent green ruffled feather. Adrien stares at it in awe for a few minutes before fishing the yellow one out of his pocket.
They really were the exact lines from the poem he memorized ages ago.
“Do you really think those could have come from Lady--”
“Plagg, shh!” Adrien scolds his kwami. “Shhh, someone could come out any minute!”
“Back to the point,” Plagg shrugs, “Even if it didn’t come from Ladybug, it’s definitely from the poem last year.”
“Well, I knew that,” he murmurs. He sticks the green one on top of the yellow and secures them back in his pocket.
The next sticky note is blue, and it makes him think of clouds.
‘I look at you and wonder,’ it starts, and Adrien thinks it sounds like a dream.
“Your innermost thoughts and dreams,” he finishes, accidentally out loud.
Alya swivels around, already in journalist mode. “Say that again.”
“I-I didn’t say anything!” Adrien stutters. “I just- uh, I’m really--”
“I have ears like a hawk, pretty boy,” Alya pokes him in the chest, and he flinches visibly. “Say. It. Again.” Beside him, Nino is almost falling over with laughter. In between bouts of hysteria, he eventually grounds out an “it’s his secret admirer!”
Of course, Alya’s on the case in an instant. Marinette stands behind her viciously curious best friend, trying to stifle her giggles while Adrien is being interrogated.
“I-I’ve been finding these sticky notes all day and I don’t know who they're from!” He holds his hands up in defense. “I m-mean, they’re really nice and all but I don’t know anything--”
Alya took a quick look at her best friend before grabbing her wrist and dragging her away. “I’m not done with you, Agreste!”
Marinette knew exactly what that glimmer in Alya’s eyes meant.
“You!” She shouts, pointing an accusing finger. “It’s--it’s your poem from a year ago! What made you do it again?!”
Marinette shrugs, grinning. “I thought I had a better shot this time.”
His search for the sticky-note-poem-writer-person unraveled a lot more than he originally planned. Not only did Alya and Marinette now know in addition to Nino’s merciless teasing but, Chloé was also horribly irritated.
She stands in front of his locker with her arms crossed, her foot tapping the ground in an aggressive manner.
“Adrikins, what is this?” Chloé shrills, holding the purple sticky note arm's length away. “It says that someone promised to be your valentine? Are you kidding me?” Chloé’s face distorts as if her closet was only full of last seasons’ clothes.
He catches a glimpse of the jet-black words. ‘Yes, your valentine I will be.’
A part of him wants to squeal. He only had another line to go in the poem.
But first, he knew he had to deal with Chloé.
“I think it’s one of my fans,” he lies, scratching his neck in a nervous tick. “Y’know, like a secret admirer?”
Chloé rolled her eyes. “You’re lying." Silence falls over them and Adrien doesn’t know where the conversation’s going next.
“Does she make you happy?”
Before he knows what he’s going to say, he rushes to hug his childhood friend. He understands it’s hard for her, to see him with someone else. But he knows--loves--that she wants him to be happy. Even if she doesn’t show it in the best ways.
“Thank you.”
He hadn’t found another sticky note since Chloé had practically handed him the last.
Adrien pokes around his plate, glancing up and noticing that (as usual) no one sat across the table from him. The table had always seemed like it stretched on forever.
With no one else to bother him, he pulls the sticky notes out of his pocket and arranges them in order. Yellow, green, blue, purple. Adrien studies the handwriting carefully, comparing it with the original poem in his memory.
Plagg flies down from wherever he was, dropping the old heart-shaped card in Adrien’s face. He catches it before it falls onto his finished plate.
“Plagg!” He hisses.
“I got it so you could look at the similarities,” Plagg grumbles. “You’re welcome?”
Adrien smiles. Plagg might have always been gluttonous and sarcastic, but he did care.
“Now, can I have some camembert for dealing with your Ladybug-obsession all day and not saying a word?”
A chuckle escapes Adrien. “Okay. I think there’s some in my room still--unless you ate it all.” He shakes his head. “You know what, I’ll just get more from the kitchen.” Adrien stands up, grabbing the silver tray with one hand, and the plate slides off towards the floor. He catches it, barely, missing the ground. But a pink sticky note grabs his eye against the silver. In a rush, he places the tray and the plate back on the long dining table and pulls the sticky note off.
“Our love will be so true,” he reads aloud, breathless. Plagg snorts, but ends up flying after Adrien when he runs towards the stairs up to his bedroom.
Another note is waiting for him, stuck right on the window Ladybug usually comes in through. The top half is open as if she’s been in already.
It’s red. It’s red and in black pen she’s scribbled half of the last line.
“Together for eternity--” He whispers, cutting himself off. Adrien knows the last five words. He could repeat them over and over and over.
It has to be her, he thinks, dazed and confused. But why would she only put half of the last--
A yoyo zips down, and Ladybug herself grins at Adrien, dangling upside-down in front of his window.
“My heart belongs to you,” she breathes, smiling up through her lashes at him.
Adrien thinks he’s going to die.
“It-it was you?” Oh god, he’s so flustered and she’s right here right now and her heart belongs to him.
“Each and every one.” Gracefully, she flips over him, back arching into the room as she sticks the landing perfectly.
She's just short enough that he can look into her eyes without straining too much. It's a perfect fit, but the thought barely registers as Ladybug bites her lip, a wave of nerves washing over her. Her pink, kissable lips did nothing to calm his jitters.
Gathering up as much courage as possible, Adrien takes a step towards her. “Even last year?”
“Even last year.” Ladybug takes his hands in hers and squeezes gently.
The night not only ends in kisses, but she kicks his ass in Ultimate Mecha Strike III. And he wouldn't have it any other way.