Hypothesis 2: The power of the suck and area of the body will determine the depth of the hickey.

Variant change: Power of suck and area of body.

Test:

Ladynoire positioned herself behind her polka dotted partner and traced the spots on his back, as her claws trailed up his spine he couldn't hold back the shiver of anticipation and need. He wondered if she had any idea she had him in the palm of her hands.

"Okay, so you have one on each shoulder and then three down the centre of your back. Which do you want me to go for?" Her clawed caresses continued stroking up and down his back and he was quite sure he was in heaven.

"All of them." He sighed out. His voice, deeper and more sensual than intended. Who knew he could be seduced by a simple back stroke?

"All of them? What if someone sees them?"

"Use a different technique on each and then we'll see what does and doesn't work."

"I thought the whole idea was to use the same pressure each time," she asked, "are you changing the variant, Mon Chaton?" Was it just him, or had her voice become liquid honey, because the sweet, sultry sound was doing nothing for his teenage desires.

As he soaked in her words, unable to reply, she bent forward and applied pressure on his shoulder blade. He wasn't sure if it was a kiss, a bite or, entirely something else, but he couldn't help the smile knowing that she was doing 'it' to him. It was like a dream come true; Ladybug was touching his body with (what he hoped) was her mouth and not a vacuum cleaner.

"I'm changing the rules." He groaned in answer, the pressure on his shoulder blade building up before releasing and moving to the opposite. Had she just bit him? Oh God!

He closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of her suctions against his back, her hands moving around his waist to hold him in position, fanning out over his abs. This was by far the most sensual thing that had ever happened to him, and he didn't want it to end. Even the embarrassment of what was happening elsewhere in his lower regions couldn't stop him from enjoying this moment. If she ended up touching it then so be it! It's not his fault, she's the one making 'it' happen.

"And done."

"No!" The word spewed from his lips before he had time to kick start his filter. "I mean - no way! That was quick."

Crap save Agreste, well done. You're 19 now for crying out loud! Hold it together! It's just Ladybug, who is your best friend Marinette sucking and leaving lovebites on your back, no big deal. Nope! Except it was huge. Marinette hadn't given permission for this to happen, there was a huge chance when she found out it was Adrien she'd freak out and hate him.

Her giggle sounded through the night sky, bringing him back to the now and out of his depressing thoughts. "Don't worry, Chaton, if this doesn't work, there's always the next hypothesis." She dropped him a wink before moving behind a chimney and calling off her transformation, a clear signal she wanted them to swap back.

The next hypothesis? Was she already thinking about what she wanted to do next? Oh his heart couldn't take such sweet words coming melodically from her lips. Maybe this would be fine, no issues. He was good, she was good, they'd be good. But they weren't meant to know each other's identities. Crap!

Moving to the opposite side, he followed her lead, releasing Tikki before removing the earrings. "Here you go, little bug."

"I thought that was one of my nicknames!" Ladybug shouted out, her laugh setting off the butterfly farm in his stomach. If he wasn't careful he was going to take flight around the chimney and present himself to her like a blank canvas.

My body is yours, M'Lady. Paint me with your hickeys.

"Don't forget to document how it turns out."

Before he could come back to Earth from his Picasso fuelled dream, his Lady had transformed once more and was already swinging away.

Blowing a kiss in her direction, he bid her goodnight. "Au revoir, Princess."

Findings:

"Hey look, my man has once again escaped the temple of doom." Nino marched over to Adrien, greeting him with their normal handshake, even at 19 years old they still continued their multi-part routine.

"I had to sell my soul to the devil, but I'm here." Adrien laughed, moving his way over to the rest of the group of lads, greeting each of them on the way.

He noticed a distinct difference between those playing. Kim, Marc and Max were wearing their shirts, whereas Ivan and Nino were bare, oh no! He took a quick look over to the side, noticing Marinette and the rest of the girls were sitting on the sidelines. Well, he supposed, it looks like the time to reveal is now.

"What's the game then?" The gang had met up at a local park which was complete with a basketball court. Thanks to his father believing he was having 'extra practise' it had been easy to escape the confines of his prison, aka the Agreste Manor.

"First to 10, the winner gets ice cream from the losers."

"I'm in." Adrien walked over to where the girls were sitting, greeting each of them as the guys sorted out their teams. He noticed Marinette kept her head down, seemingly unable to meet his eyes and he couldn't help gulping. If she couldn't look at him now, how was she going to react when she knew he was Chat Noir. For the first time fear struck through him that she'd take the Miraculous away from him, though he knew what happened last time. Catwalker could always make his spectacular return.

"Agreste," Kim shouted, "you're a skin. Take it off!"

Adrien looked from Alya, to Alix, to a rather red faced Marinette and shrugged if he was going to go down he was going down in style.

The girls, minus an explosive Marinette, started chanting 'take it off', Adrien crossed his arms over his waist and grabbed hold of the edges of his shirt pulling it up and over his head. Now he wasn't stupid, he knew his body was well toned so of course he'd have to play up his little stripper act, throwing his shirt straight into Marinette's face. He's yet to know if he intentionally did it, or whether it was a very convenient accident, either way it worked in his favour.

"Keep it for luck?" he said with a wink, only to watch the raven haired girl's mouth drop open and a rather peculiar noise escape.

Before he could question her reaction further, he felt a hand stroke along his back, turning sharply to find who it was.

"Um - Adrien? What's wrong with your back?" Nino said, examining Adrien's back before looking between him and Marinette.

What was that about?

"My back?" In a complete idiotic move, causing all concerned to question Adrien's smarts; he rotated himself attempting to see his back, spinning himself around like a dog chasing its tail.

"Dude!" Kim came over to look, getting his hands in on the action too. "You've got five pretty decent bruises on your back."

Spinning once more, Adrien ended with his back to the girls; a shriek sounding from one of them and a rather loud 'thadunk'. Adrien turned around once more, to find Marinette laying on the ground slightly dazed and Alya fanning her with some sort of crisp packet.

"Oh!" Adrien finally said, his brain slowly starting to function again. The hickeys, he thought. "Yeah, my - um -" He stretched one arm to scratch the back of his neck. "My back's been playing up, so I've been having cupping therapy. All those model poses and everything, kills the back, you know." He decided to add in a stretch to make it a little more believable, only resulting in his muscles flexing more.

"What hap-" Marinette sat up with a hand on her head only to spot Adrien and his iron biceps. He watched as her eyes rolled back in slow motion, her body collapsing onto Alya once again.

Oh dear! He'd killed Ladybug.

"Why are they all different colours? I'm not going to lie, Agreste, it looks like someone's been experimenting with hickeys on your back." Kim burst out laughing as Adrien blanched. There's no way it was that obvious, was it?

"Experimenting with hickeys? Pfft, me? No way. I haven't even got a girlfriend." Oh he was on fire with his lies today. "It's more of a little suction to relax my hardened muscles."

A squeak started the symphony of sounds behind him. Alix followed with a blast of laughter, the other girls snickering as Nino and Kim raised their eyebrows at him.

"I'm sure a suck helped soften that hard muscle of yours." Kim turned and made his way back onto the basketball court, taking the ball from Max and slamming it into the net.

"Um - guys?" Alya said, causing Adrien to turn once more to face the girls. "I think we might need to call an ambulance."

Some 30 minutes later, Alya had received a call that Marinette was awake and would be discharged later that day. But thoughts were still bubbling through Adrien's mind. Firstly, why had it affected Marinette so much? Secondly, had she linked it together herself? All he knew was, he would not be first to tell.

Conclusion:

Sucking power does vary the intensity of the hickey on one's back. Other results include the sight of said hickeys can cause female friends to faint. Therefore the area must remain covered at all times.

Evaluation:

"It was just a coincidence, many people do have cupping therapy. Just because it would be amazing to be marking Adrien doesn't mean Chat is Adrien. Chat is Chat; Adrien is Adrien, and I am a mess!" Ladybug collapsed down onto the rooftop, head in hands as she tried to control her breathing. She ran through her head all the techniques the doctor had given her from her recent trip to A&E. Breathe Marinette, that way you won't pass out again.

But what if she was right? What if Adrien was Chat Noir? That would mean he'd sucked on her breast whilst she'd decorated his back. She'd been playing hickeys with one of her closest friends and worst of all, he wanted to leave a hickey on her ass. Oh, goodness! Adrien Agreste wanted to claim her ass. She didn't know whether to be mortified or thrilled.

She sat replaying the day over and over again. It had definitely been something she'd be writing in her diary when she got home. It was all too comical. Not only did she have to deal with the startling revelation that her partner was actually her crush, but she'd have to live forever knowing both the doctor and her Maman knew the reason why she fainted. Okay, maybe not the whole truth, after all she was good at twisting things. So, instead of telling them the tale about how she was in a crime fighting duo who'd been leaving love bites on each other the past couple of days in name of an experiment, she bent the truth a little and just went for the classic girls dream of seeing Adrien Agreste topless.

The can of worms had been opened and now she couldn't help thinking about ways of proving or disproving this theory.

Suddenly the hypothesis needed to change again, and she was going to disprove this crazy theory currently running through her head, because if Adrien and Chat did turn out to be the same person, well, she hadn't a clue what she would do.