Adrien searched through the different tuxedos in his closet, he wasn't feeling his normal black penguin suit for the evening's events instead opting for his maroon jacket in honour of his wife. He took it from the hanger and threw it onto his bed before finding his bow tie and turning to the full length mirror in his room. Expertly twisting and turning the bow tie, he managed to perfect it in only three attempts, a new record he could tease the guys about. Even after all these years, what he learned from his modelling days was still coming in handy, especially when it came to fundraisers and galas.

Tonight was a rather special occasion and he wished more than anything that his Lady could be there with him, hanging wonderfully off his arm as he showed her off to the world. The press were still coming down hard on him, his new 'disappearing' act not going a miss, especially since he had started to miss events he would usually be a prominent feature at. But tonight was different, he was about to be awarded 'Player of the Year' for his team, the honour both unexpected and extremely welcome.

His time with the Charlotte Hornets had been memorable in so many ways; it had been the first time he was free just to be him, yes once again he'd been dragged into the limelight, though this time in the tabloid crazy United States, but it was from a skill he possessed not just his photogenic face. He was the youngest player to receive this award in the past 50 years; both a shock and surprise to everyone on the team. But damn, he deserved it, he was a great player, and he loved the game. He was hoping that when he returned to France maybe he could continue playing. He'd already looked into possible teams and any up and coming positions available.

He was still trying to play off the 'playboy' image, his manager wanting him to make amends with Louella and explain to the media that the intensity of his feelings scared him after he had been left heartbroken by his high school sweetheart. What left his mouth that meeting was something his father would definitely have pulled him out of school for. There was no way any woman was coming near him now. He was happy, he was married and he was in love. He looked down at his left hand, grabbing a hold of his wedding band and twisting it around his finger, his heart swelling at the sight.

Closing his closet and moving to his bed, he picked up his phone to text Ladybug. He knew she was out this evening, but her responses were always quick regardless, and even if she couldn't reply there and then she'd send him a cat emoji with heart eyes.

Kitty: Hey Buggy, I hope you're having a good evening. I miss you, and wish you were here <3

Shutting down his phone, he pocketed it before picking up his jacket and shrugging it on over his shoulders. Brushing down the lapels, he made his way into the lounge to find Plagg and grab some cheese. He checked his watch one last time, a beautiful gift for his 21st Birthday from Marinette, before heading for the door.

Stepping into the elevator, he reached for his phone to check if Ladybug had replied to his message.

Nothing.

He continued towards the door before exiting the building in the direction of his limousine.

"Mr Agreste." Adrien nodded in greeting to his chauffeur, straightening his jacket once more before going to step into the vehicle. Climbing in, he reached for his phone out of his back pocket, careful of the door as it was closed behind him.

Just as they began to pull away, a buzzing sensation went through his hand.

M'Lady

Pulling up the message, he quickly undid his seatbelt and opened the door, his driver cursing at him as he attempted to get out. The brakes were slammed on hard, almost sending Adrien head first into the screen in front.

"Sorry, I need to go water my cat. I won't be needing you tonight. Have a good one." Darting out the car he ran back into the building, heading straight for his apartment.

•••••

Marinette stumbled into the bedroom and collapsed on their bed, a groan leaving her mouth as she clutched to her stomach and tossed her bag to the other side of the room. Bringing her knees up underneath her body she began to rock, a small whimper leaving her throat. She'd been having a good night, a great one really considering Chat wasn't there. The gang had all met back up on 'The Liberty' having a laugh, as Kitty Section reminiscent and played their 'greatest hits'. It was all fun and laughter until it was this month's moon time, and it had kicked in like a bitch. Hello, Auntie Flo.

And that is why she needed to make sure she kept track of her pills.

She'd said her goodbyes through a painful smile and a doubled over stomach; Luka, Nino and Kim offering to bring her home 'to her apartment' unaware that she didn't live there anymore. Suddenly she hated the fact her friends didn't know that she had moved on with her life and was currently living in a multimillion euro apartment in the centre of Paris with a grown catman who was her husband. She knew Kim would want to come and be noisy, maybe even take a swim in their super sized bathtub. One day it would happen, but that day was not today.

Luka had become exceptionally vocal which was unusual for him, and Marinette was worried he had taken a liking to her once more. Ugh, she couldn't deal with that at the moment; not when her insides wanted to fall out.

So here she was, at midnight, screwed up on her bed and crying because being a woman was a pain in the arse. Not only that, but her website had become inundated with orders over the past week or so, and she was struggling to keep on top of it. A day of no work would seriously put her behind schedule.

Her phone vibrated beside her.

"Tikki," she said, her face muffled from where it was pressed into the bedsheets. "Tikki!" she called again.

A blur of red sped over and came to hover alongside her.

"Phone," she mumbled, her hand reaching out towards the desired object, patting around on the bed sheet trying to find the damn thing.

"I've got it for you," Tikki grabbed the phone, dropping it into Marinette's hand.

"Thanks, Tik."

Groaning, she lifted her head and pulled the phone in front of her face.

Kitty: Hey Buggy, I hope you're having a good evening. I miss you, and wish you were here <3

"Kitty!" she said, reading the message and letting out a sigh. "I wish I was there too." Pushing herself up to sit, she made her way to the chest of drawers pulling out her wheat bag before heading to the microwave and shoving it in.

"Roarr," she called, waiting for the tiger kwami to make their appearance.

"Yes Marinette?"

"Do you know where Plagg put the paracetamol? Chat was the last to use it after our date." That was a memory she wanted to push to one side. She was quite sure that date would go down as one of the worst first dates in history.

Roarr flew off leaving Marinette alone in the kitchen, another bout of pain pulsating through her stomach. God, sometimes she hated being a woman. Maybe she could kick Chat in the balls and he could get a representation of how this feels, or would that be classed as animal cruelty?

The microwave 'pinged', the noise a sound of heaven. Pulling the wheat bag out of the heated box, she placed it over her stomach and made her way back to the bedroom, moving to the bedside drawers and grabbing her pyjamas. Slowly, she changed into her Chat Noir shorts and vest before climbing under the covers and into the bed. Tikki, once again, bringing the phone over to Marinette.

M'Lady: I'm home. Feel crap! I really need hugs, feeling sorry for myself.

"Oh Marinette, you might want to put your wig on?"

"Why?"

"You know exactly why?" Tikki said.

"He's not going to come just because I said I feel crap," Marinette looked at her phone expecting a message from Chat Noir. Unfortunately, she came up short.

"You know as well as I do, he will come to check on you."

"And then he'll leave. I'll just transform for a couple of minutes, let him know I'm okay and he'll go."

Tikki looked at Marinette suspiciously, "You want him to come don't you?"

"Pfft, no."

"You do! Oh my goodness, you sent him that message hoping he'd come and see you."

Marinette crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. "No!"

"You did!"

Roarr appeared alongside Tikki holding what was left of the paracetamol, just enough to get her through to the next day. Thank God! She didn't really want to have to go out and search for painkillers this time of night. Just as she was thanking Roarr, a flash came from outside the open bedroom door followed by someone calling her name frantically.

"Told you so!" Tikki announced, only for Marinette to stick her tongue out at her kwami.

"Don't be so smug," she said, before turning her attention to the doorway. "I'm just in the bedroom, I'm not transformed though, so just give me a second."

Quickly brushing her hair down (not that it mattered when she was transformed) she straightened up the bed a little before calling Tikki into her earrings.

"You can come in."

Chat came through the door with enough force to take it off its hinges, his face stricken with worry as he stumbled to her side of the bed.

"Are you okay? What's wrong? Should I take you to the hospital?" His words came out frantic and she had to hold back the want to laugh. That would not be ideal right at this moment.

"I'm fine, kitty. It's just that time of the month." She stretched up and ran her fingers through his hair. A sharp pain striking her again, a groan leaving her mouth as her body doubled over.

"It's not fine, you can barely move. I thought your pills were meant to stop this kind of agony."

"You know what I'm like with them. Seriously kitty, I've dealt with this for 7 years. As sweet as you're being, I'll be okay. But-" she added, "while you're here could you please get me a glass of water, I need to take some painkillers, then I'll just sleep." She yawned as punctuation to her sentence.

Nodding, he stood up and left the room Ladybug relaxing back against the pillows.

Of course he would come and help her out, she didn't know why she expected anything less.

•••••

Chat Noir made his way into the kitchen and found Ladybug's favourite pink rabbit glass, filling it with water and taking it straight back into the bedroom giving her a comforting smile.

"Do you want anything else?" he asked as he handed her the glass, moving to the opposite side of the bed and sitting down beside her.

She popped two pills into her mouth, taking a swing of the water and placing it on top of her bedside table. He studied her, her eyebrows frowning in pain as she moved back and repositioned herself next to him, her head gravitating towards his shoulder.

"Thanks, Kitty."

"You're welcome. Do you want me to get the laptop so we can watch something in bed?"

"Chat, I'm really grateful," she said, turning her attention to him, "but you don't need to stay with me. I'm not a little girl you know, I'm kind of super."

He laughed, placing a delicate kiss in her hair. "I know, but this is part of my job. In sickness and in health and all that jazz."

"Don't you have something to do?"

He looked at her face, the pain settling and the drowsy look taking over her eyes. Did he have something to do? Yes. Should he go? Yes. Did he want to go? Suddenly, Ladybug did a funny little stuttered yawn and he couldn't stop his eyes from softening at the sight. Did he want to go? He asked himself again; most certainly not.

"I have nothing on tonight, M'Lady, I'm right where I should be."

"What were you supposed to be doing tonight, Chaton? I want to know about your life." She was going into sleep mode and he knew this was her equivalent to being drunk.

"I was just going to catch up on a show I'm watching and then have an early night."

"I'll watch it with you then," she said, yawning once again before stretching up and kissing him on the cheek, "thank you for staying with me."

"You're welcome." His arm was wrapped around her shoulders as she buried herself into his chest, his fingers lazily running up and down her arm.

"Tell me something about you," she said through a yawn, "not anything that would reveal your identity but something about your life."

He smiled, his head falling to the side and landing on hers as his fingers continued their slow caress of her arm. "What would you like to know?"

"I don't know, just tell me a story. Something you remember from when you were younger."

He sat quietly for a while thinking through different happy memories of his, unsure whether to go before or after receiving Plagg; the little kwami being one of the most amazing moments of his life. Then a memory hit him hard, almost taking his breath away and he couldn't help the smile.

"My mother was the most kind and caring woman I had ever met. You remind me a lot of her to be fair, and your eyes, whether it's the quantum masking or something else, but they are just full of life and love exactly as I remembered hers to be. My father used to call her his 'Pixie'. She was daring and mischievous, but also beautiful and full of love."

"A lot like you then?" she turned her head looking up at him and smiled, his own mouth mirroring the action.

"I suppose," he laughed.

"You miss her a lot?"

He sat in silence as he thought. Oh course he missed her, she was his mother after all, but he'd learned to live with the fact she wasn't coming back. The pain had become a way of life that had faded over time.

"I did," he sighed, nuzzling his nose into her hair, "but I suppose it's just an absence you eventually get used to. Not that it hurts any less."

"She'd be proud of you, Kitty." She looped an arm across his stomach and pulled herself closer into his body, the gap closing with her affection.

"I remember one year, she took me over to England to see some family and she wanted to give me the whole London experience. I was only...I don't know...10 at the time? Maybe? And my aunt booked us into this restaurant called Sarastro's. It's a little Greek restaurant which does pre-show meals; fully booked every night and just crazy. We'd booked in to see 'Wicked' at the Apollo Victoria as part of our visit and apparently even though it was a fair few stops away on the tube, Sarastro's was the place to go. Have you ever seen Wicked?"

She shook her head against his body. "I've got the soundtrack though, and seeing the show is on my to do list."

"It's good, maybe I could take you sometime. We could visit London, or go and see it on Broadway, maybe we could even do a new rendition of 'New York, New York' on the way."

Her angelic laugh vibrated through his suit, and into his heart. The noise making it grow even larger.

"Would you duet 'Defying Gravity' with me on the way?" she asked.

"I was thinking 'As long as you're mine' would be a better duet." Chat replied.

She laughed again, his head bending and lips pressing into her hair once more, nothing beat moments like this. Moments which were becoming more and more frequent as their relationship developed.

"Anyway, stop distracting me." He tapped her on the head before continuing his story. "So we're in this restaurant, and it's crazy. It looks like the home of 'Pulcinella', honestly it was complete commedia dell'arte with velvet curtains and little trinkets and masks everywhere; and I needed to use the restroom. My mother has - was - always very protective of me so of course she stalked me to the toilet, making sure I didn't try and escape through a window or anything, and she took me to the ladies room, waiting for me outside the door."

He started to laugh, the memory as vibrant as his Lady's eyes. "And the walls of the toilet had these drawings all over them. Now, at 10 I may not have had a complete understanding of what the positions were, but I'm quite sure I was amazed by the amount of bare flesh that was on the walls and women displaying themselves to whoever was on the toilet."

He smiled at the scene replying in his head.

"I remember shouting boobies as clear as day. My mother scolding me when I came out of the cubical for saying such a word in public, until she looked into the toilet as well. She pretty much dragged me out by my ear and threw cash down on the table just to get out of the place. I had some rather interesting dreams for the next few weeks and my father's assistant had a sern conversation with me about my computer search results; believe me, it wasn't just full moons I was looking at."

"I always knew you were a little pervert."

He laughed again, pressing his lips back into her hair before nuzzling her head. Taking in the smell of her shampoo and the softness of her hair.

"My mother didn't speak to my aunt for a week."

"I bet you were adorable as a kid, all wide eyed and bushy tailed," she said, yawning again in the battle to keep awake.

"Something like that." He turned his head to the clock on the bedside table, he needed to go and call his manager. He was going to have a bollocking anyway, so he may as well have one before his manager was hammered at the awards night. "I just need to recharge Plagg, and then I'll be back." He moved her gently, placing her back against the pillows before shuffling himself off the bed and headed towards the doorway. "Try not to fall asleep on me, Bugaboo."

"I can't make any promises." She grinned back.

He stood and watched fondly as she snuggled down under the covers, clutching her wheat bag to her stomach and sighing contently. Yes, this was exactly where he should be.

He closed the door behind him, calling off his transformation and heading to the mess which they called the office. The entire room filled with cardboard boxes and, for want of a better word, crap.

"What about the awards evening? You've been looking forward to that for weeks?"

"I can't leave her in this state. What if something happened?"

"Can't leave her or won't leave her, Adrien?" Plagg asked.

"No comment," Adrien replied.

"You're father's in jail Adrien, you know there's no super threats around."

"You're just angry because you're not getting a cheese plate."

Plagg huffed and flew towards a box, flying in it before reappearing a couple of seconds later.

"You can't just look at her things Plagg, that's private!"

"I've been in her room before, kid, there's nothing I haven't seen."

"That sounded wrong on so many levels." he laughed, finally finding the laptop and pulling out his phone.

He searched for his manager's number and waited for the call to connect, preparing himself for the wrath; and his manager certainly was not holding back tonight.

"Okay, I understand that," he said down the microphone, "But here's the thing, I'm kind of engaged and my fiancée is ill."

Adrien rolled his eyes at Plagg as his manager was shouting some rather colourful profanities at him down the phone.

"Family is important to me and I am not leaving the woman I love when she needs me. Make up an excuse, I don't care, but I'm not coming so deal with it."

Ending the call, Plagg crossed his arms and looked at Adrien. "I like this new ballsy attitude, your Lady is definitely rubbing off on you."

Adrien laughed, handing Plagg a triangle of cheese, before calling on his transformation once more and heading back to the bedroom.

"Bug, I've got the -" a smile graced his lips with a look of pure affection as he watched Ladybug's chest rise and fall. She had fallen asleep in the ten minutes he was gone, and he'd never seen anything more adorable in his life, especially as he noticed the black Chat 'plushy' Noir tightly squeezed under her arm.

•••••

The bed was shaking, and she wasn't sure if it was an earthquake or she was building up a fever of sorts. The bed was most certainly a lot warmer than usual.

The bed shook again, before a snickering noise brought her around and out of her sleep. Rolling over, she noticed she was in red, not the black and green Chat Noir pyjamas she believed she'd put on the night before, she also noticed the familiar black of her partner laying next to her, on top of the covers with his legs crossed at the ankles.

"Kitty?" she asked, not entirely sure if she was dreaming or not.

"Oh sorry, LB, did I wake you?"

"You're still here?" She stifled a yawn as she tilted her head to look up at him. They were both still in their suits, phew!

"Where else would I be? If I left you I would have been worried sick." he said, bending down and placing a gentle kiss to her forward, her face warming and a smile pulling her lips.

"Sometimes I wonder how such a horrible world made such a sweet man."

His laugh echoed through the room, and she sat herself up beside him, her head resting against his shoulder as she peered over at his phone.

"What are you doing, Chaton?"

"There's this website called Archive of our own and it's full of fanfiction so I'm just reading some of ours."

"Oh really. Anything interesting?"

She tried to look at the chapter and read a little of what's on there.

"I'm just reading one called 'A Masked Deal', it's about us deciding to get married without knowing who the other one is, and we're going to reveal our identities at the altar."

She let out a laugh, "Like we would be that silly."

"I know! The best thing is you've just broken your leg and are high on pain relief. I'm about to find out your identity." Chat started laughing, kicking Ladybug's curiosity up a notch.

"And who does the writer think we are?" she asked, bewilderedly.

This was becoming a new occurrence, one where fanfiction writers were beginning to guess their identities and either use celebrities as their civilian personas or even themselves.

Chat Noir reached up and scratched the back of his neck.

"I think it might have something to do with the Ladyblog interview because they think we're - um -"

She noticed his voice was stuttery, the usual confidence devoid from his speech. She couldn't help but giggle.

"What's got you all worked up, kitty cat?"

"It's just, I've guessed this person before and I know her so it's slightly strange to read, especially when I'm now married to you... Ugh! I can't really explain."

Can't explain? Guessed her before? What the hell was going on with this? Who was it?

"What is it? Do you like her or-"

She looked down at the screen scanning the page for a name only to freeze when she noticed something else.

Adrien.

"They think you're Adrien Agreste?" She burst out laughing, moving away from him and laying back on her own pillow.

"What's so funny? I could be Adrien Agreste?"

"Oh yeah, because Adrien is known for his 'wild side'."

"I'm sure he can be 'wild' when he wants to be."

She continued to laugh. Now that was a first, no wait, second. Alya had mentioned back when her and Chat were new to this whole superhero thing, that she thought Chat Noir was Adrien, but still no. She knew both boys, and they were like chalk and cheese.

"Wherever Adrien is now, he's going to be offended that you don't think of him as superhero material."

"He said it himself?" Ladybug told her husband.

"What? When?"

"I gave him a Miraculous once and he handed it back to me."

She watched Chat's face morph through a whole array of emotions, it was quite comical really. He went from confused; to understanding; back to confusion; then disbelief in about three seconds flat.

"Did you, now? Is that because you fancied him?"

Her cheeks turned crimson as she looked at him. How did she get out of this one?

•••••

Chat Noir looked at her as a blush took over her face.

"Oh my God! You did! Was he the other boy?" Chat crossed his arms over his chest and looked to his wife, waiting with baited breath for her response. Was it the wrong thing to pray she said yes?

"Fine!" she growled without warning, sitting up more and bringing her knees in tight to her body. The wince penetrating her lips showed she was still in pain. His automatic reaction, to pull her into his hot suited body and begin to purr, he prayed it was enough to control the suffering.

"Yes," her muffled voice said, as her face buried into his chest and he let out a warm, deep laugh.

"Then at least you get the two guys you like in this fic." He pressed his lips into her hair again, wanting so much to be pressing them to her lips. Oh man, she liked him in both ways, how the hell did he get so lucky!

"And who is the girl? Do you get a double crush too?"

"I don't know how to respond to this."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"If I answer yes, or no, I think I'm going to lose on this one." Using his free arm, he stretched it to the back of his neck, rubbing up and down in a nervous anticipation. If she demanded it, could he actually tell her?

"Why?" she laughed. "Do you really think I would be jealous? Come on, Minou, you've been after me for eight years and we're married. You don't seem like a guy who would swan off after another woman. You're far too loyal, Kitty cat."

"I don't want to risk this!" Could she not understand how much he didn't want to go further with this? Bringing up the name only opened a can of worms further, and once she realises he was good friends with said person, it could only get worse.

"Marinette!" she shrieked from beside him, waking him from his thoughts and noticing his phone was no longer in his hand. "As in Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

He watched as she scrolled through the remainder of the chapter, her mouth gaping and eyes widening.

"This is crazy! And it's all from that interview?" she said, her voice laced with disbelief.

He wasn't going to tell her that he found it from looking at his own fan fiction stories and falling on a 'Ladrien' fic that ended up being a reveal one shot of Ladybug being Marinette and Adrien actually being Chat Noir. He knew he should be worried about how accurate they'd gotten his identity, but he was more mesmerised by the fact 'Ladrien' had suddenly become something called 'Adrinette'.

From the one fic he began to fall on more and more where Ladybug's identity had been revealed. There'd been reveals of Ladybug being Clara Nightingale, Lila Rossi, Chloé Bourgeois and other famous women...but then there were these ones. The original, which was written by Wayhem, was inspired by Gorzilla and Chat had to admit it was good. He couldn't help but start looking at his wife differently, looking once again for Marinette's quirks because his mind was back on the 'best friend being Ladybug' roundabout. Would it actually be a massive impossibility? The more he thought about it...no!

"It seems people were asking who Marinette was from this one fanfic and one of Adrien's crazy fans posted a picture of the two of them together. Then it kind of expanded into more Ladrien stories, then Adrinette, then eventually MariChat, along with the Ladynoir ones, of course."

"MariChat?" she asked, her eyes growing wide.

"Me and...Marinette. But I swear, this is nothing. I promise."

"Kitty, don't worry. It's just fan fiction." She pressed a kiss to his cheek, wanting to calm him from the spiral he had launched himself into. She knew him so well.

They stayed awake for a little longer reading the fics together and laughing, each putting in their own commentaries before calling it a night.

Rolling over, away from Ladybug, he pulled his phone out once more and held it under the sheets, only the soft breathes of his Lady in the background to keep him company.

The time difference was interfering big time and he just couldn't sleep yet. So instead he clicked the link for 'Adrinette/Ladynoir' fics, falling on one that took his fancy.

Cosying further under the covers he clicked on chapter one, not noticing the 'E' rating on what he thought was just a normal texting fic.

•••••

There will be an 'E' rated extra story being posted soon... it adds nothing to the fic though so you DON'T need to read it if you don't want to; you won't be missing anything if you ignore it.