Adrien almost had a heart attack when Bunnyx showed up in his room mid skincare routine last night, but if she was here that meant someone fucked up in the timeline and things needed to be fixed. And that's why Adrien was sitting on Luka's houseboat with the rest of the group watching and waiting for that akuma to show up.

Bunnyx explained that Luka was the catalyst for a series of events going horribly wrong. At no fault of his own, it was all on hawkmoth as usual. But Luka was the one who set that domino effect into motion, one that'd end with him leaving Paris, hawkmoth getting the miraculous and the whole world being rewritten. That couldn't happen, not only for the sake of the whole damn world, but for Lukas sake. The instructions Adrien was given were clear, an akuma would come for Luka, but it can't touch him.

If it did, he would be able to resist it, but the close call leads to the butterfly effect of a fucked up timeline. Instead, Adrien had to let that akuma touch him to prevent it from touching Luka. At first Adrien thought Bunnyx was crazy, if the akuma touched him then he could end up revealing to hawkmoth he is cat noir. But she had a solution to that. As soon as hawkmoth senses that Adrien has a secret, Adrien had to think of a completely different secret. Ignore cat noir entirely, focus entirely on something else to trick hawkmoth into thinking THAT was the big internal conflict and not the identity as cat noir. Fight off the akuma, and leave hawkmoth thinking the only secret he had was something aside from being cat noir.

Adrien wasn't sure what to do at first, what could he reveal about himself to direct hawkmoth away from the identity as cat noir? He was up all night thinking about it, but he came to the conclusion that if it meant saving Luka from certain harm and preventing hawkmoth from winning... he'd have to out himself.

Sexuality was absolutely a heavy secret to hold, hawkmoth would totally buy it that Adrien's true sexuality was the big secret rather than him being cat noir. Even though he was wrecked with nerves, he knew he had to do it. And he was willing to if it meant keeping Luka safe. Today not only would he save the world from a whacked up timeline, but he'd out himself. He has mixed feelings about it, he was scared how his father would react if he found out, or how the public would react. But he knew his friends and Nathalie would be on his side. It'd also just be a relief to get it off his chest.

All day he'd been watching and waiting, playing along like nothing was wrong so no one figured out he knew about the whole timeline mess. He'd been mentally preparing himself since last night, he was ready to fight off hawkmoth and trick him into thinking the only secret he had was his sexuality. The day started fine, life as usual for the group. Jagged showed up at one point to talk to Luka, Luka talked to several people actually. Poor boy was basically an unpaid therapist. He watched the band and friends get into that spat with the record label, watched as everyone rallied together to try and reason with that scammer of a record label holder.

And finally that all came to a head when he noticed the shift in Luka's calm domineer to a silent anger and the inevitable akuma came flying in. He took a breath, put on his best acting performance as if he didn't know this was going to happen all along, and sprung into action.

"LUKA LOOK OUT!" He exclaimed, shoving Luka out of the way and letting the akuma hit him instead.

He landed atop Luka, who'd dropped his guitar in the fall and luckily wasn't touched by the akuma. But that akuma had hit the back of Adrien's shirt and sunk into his clothes. He felt the sudden heaviness in his head of hawkmoth entering his mind, and despite the overwhelming urge to obey, he stayed strong.

"Adrien! Don't listen to him, fight it!" Luka pleaded.

Adriens tried to stay focused on Luka and the group around him as his head began to pound and he instinctively covered his ears trying to block out the voice of hawkmoth.

"Not exactly my intended target... but I can work with this. I sense you have a secret Adrien, something that's been eating you up inside"  the voice of hawkmoth rang in his ears.

That... sounded a bit like his dad actually...

"No, I'm not listening to you! Pathetic, big case of an old man" Adrien snapped back.

"Hmm... you hold a heavy burden, something about your identity... could it be?" Hawkmoth continued.

The second the word 'identity' entreated his mind, Adrien pushed every thought of Cat Noir away and focused intensely on the gayest things he could think of. All the fictional characters he definitely had a crush on as a kid, the hot models he couldn't help but glance over at when sharing a dressing room, the time he and Luka were practically nose to nose in that locker.

"Oh- I see. It's... that's not what I was expecting. But still, we wan work with this. Don't you wish you could be open about this, about the love you hold for the same gender? Don't you wish everyone who belittled you would just disappear? You could be your true self, you could show your true colours... what do you say, Hyacinthus?"

While Adrien would give him a little credit for hawkmoth knowing his mythology and equating the very male lover of Apollo to be his villain name, he wasn't going to give in.

"Stop it, STOP IT. GET OUT OF MY HEAD! I'M NOT LETTING YOU OUT ME" Adrien snapped.

His mind was fuzzy, he couldn't quite make it what the group was saying to him. But he could make out they seemed stunned for a moment, not expecting the indirect coming out from him.

"There's no way, is hawkmoth really trying to use his sexuality as an anchor?" Jueleka said.

"This is hawkmoth we're talking about, he'd absolutely stoop that low. Adrien don't give into him, I know the urge to punch bigots can be overwhelming but don't give in, for your own safety don't give in" Luka assured, grabbing his shoulders and looking him in the eye through the akuma mask.

His head hurt, but he knew he was doing this to save the world. To prevent Luka from leaving... Luka couldn't leave, he couldn't...

"Don't listen to them Hyacinthus, they just want to keep your true self hidden and repressed just like everyone else, if you get me the miraculous you'll have the power to make everyone able to live their most authentic selves" hawkmoths voice rang in his ears.

Adrien was finding it harder to resist, not because hawkmoth had an enticing offer but because the sheer pain from him digging into his head. It stung, like when you hold back tears too hard and the back of your eyes ache. He found himself almost disassociating, the voices of his friends a distant echo and his vision blurred. But like hell he'd let hawkmoth win this...

"Lu-ka-" Adrien managed to get out.

"Yes? Talk to me, fight him off" Luka replied.

"Hit me"

"What?! No!"

"DO SOMETHING TO GROUND ME! I can't- he's in my head, he's- it hurts-" Adrien stammered.

"Yes, give in Adrien... think of all you could do"  hawkmoth said.

Luka panicked for a moment, trying to find a way to pull Adrien back without hurting him. He couldn't have Adrien akumatized, it'd reveal he was Cat Noir AND out him to the public before he was ready. But then it dawned on him, this was about his internal struggle with coming out? Then Luka could guide his mind to something much more joyful than that struggle.

"Forgive me, I know you can't properly consent right now but- fuck, I'm sorry Adrien-" Luka said, grabbing onto the front of his shirt and practically slamming his lips onto the blondes.

Adrien was immediately pulled back into reality, the shock and the excitement of his bisexual egg cracker literally kissing him practically forced hawkmoth out of his head, and the akuma left his clothes. The akuma mask shattered, a powerful shockwave emitted off him knocking those around him down with the force. But he felt relief, he was free of the mental torture. His identity as cat noir was safe, Luka was safe, the timeline was fixed. And bonus, he got to kiss Luka.

The kiss broke, and he just stared for a moment taking everything in. His heart raced, his legs trembled and he almost collapsed back on top of Luka again. Everything was silent for a moment.

"Shit Adrien, are you ok? I mean, well done for fighting him off but fuck-" Luka asked.

"Do... do that again..." Adrien muttered.

Luka just chuckled, cracking a smile.

"Well, nice to know you're not mad at me for that"

Head out of the clouds, Adrien remembered that literally everyone on the boat just saw that, and the cat was definitely out of the bag now. The whole group knew he was bi, and they just watched Luka kiss him out of akumatization.

"Dude... are you good?" Nino asked.

"Yeah... yeah I'm... fine..." he replied.

"You know, pretty much all of us are some flavour of gay so... join the club. We got your back, we'll keep it from the media" Jueleka added.

Luka got up, pulling Adrien back to his feet too and gave him a reassuring smile upon seeing his blush.

"I know, I know you guys are fine to know. I guess I was just... nervous" Adrien replied.

"Fair enough, it's not an easy task. Hawkmoth is a fucking dick for using that as an anchor. Quite homophobic if you ask me" Rose scoffed.

"Facts, then again is anyone surprised he'd pull that" Jueleka sighed.

Adrien sighed, the adrenaline wearing off now. It felt good to get that off his chest and know that by outing himself he'd just saved the world... and Luka. Luka was the most important one in his mind, it was that kiss he didn't plan for it expect that had him so dazed.

"Sorry for that Adrien... I just- I couldn't think of anything else" Luka said.

"It's ok! It was needed. And uh... I... liked it" Adrien admitted, a shy smile and pink cheeks.

The group immediately broke out with teasing 'ooooohhhhh's and playful winks at the two. Luka just rolled his eyes and smiled. Here comes the shipping... not that he really minded though.