25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug.

Lucky Us

By: Princess Kitty1

Chapter 25

Chat NoirRE: SummerJust now

Ladybug. LADYBUG. LADYBUG.

x.x.x

LadybugRE: SummerJust now

I take it you accepted the image, then? :-)

x.x.x

Chat NoirRE: SummerJust now

(THIS IS THE SOUND OF ME BEING SPEECHLESS.)

x.x.x

If anyone at Agreste HQ expected Adrien to be productive, helpful, or even remotely present that day, he had terrible news for them. His brain flipped back and forth between the Ladybug and Marinette channels, rapidly and without cease, screaming at the top of its lungs.

Marinette was a finalist. Ladybug was a finalist. Both of them would be in that very building—standing in the very same room—the following afternoon.

He didn't know whether to laugh or to throw up.

Marinette. Ladybug. Marinette and Ladybug. Ladybug and Marinette. Marinette or Ladybug. Ladybug or Marinette.

Oh no.

Adrien closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had to calm down. The spreadsheets in front of him made no sense. He needed them to make sense. But the Ladybug and Marinette channels in his brain had started to blur together and something was trying to break the surface and a panicky feeling took hold of him because what if… what if…

What if Marinette was Ladybug?

No. She couldn't be. If Marinette was Ladybug, she would have had a stronger reaction to finding out about Plagg. She would have said something to Adrien in the bakery that day.

Adrien leaned back in his office chair, spreadsheets momentarily forgotten. He tapped his fingers against the desk.

Marinette wasn't Ladybug.

Was it wrong of him to be disappointed about that?

x.x.x

LadybugRE: SummerJust now

I have rendered Chat Noir speechless.

It is a momentous day.

I can't exactly tell what you're speechless about, though.

Is it disbelief that I've made the finals?

Or are you perhaps freaking out because now you know my name?

x.x.x

Chat NoirRE: SummerJust now

All of the above, though I never once doubted your talent.

You have a beautiful name, Ladybug. (Even if I don't know which name it is.)

x.x.x

LadybugRE: SummerJust now

Hmm…

Would you like a hint?

x.x.x

Chat NoirRE: SummerJust now

…would my Lady be so kind?

x.x.x

LadybugRE: SummerJust now

It has the letter A in it.

x.x.x

Chat NoirRE: SummerJust now

You're SO FUNNY. -.-

x.x.x

When Adrien returned to the mansion that evening, he was a bit surprised to find Nathalie out in the foyer. She looked up from her tablet, and although her expressions seldom varied, Adrien had grown well-versed in the many moods of Nathalie Sancoeur over the years. This particularly flat expression raised a red flag in his mind. Something wasn't right.

"Your father wishes to speak with you," she said. "Immediately."

Adrien pointed at Nathalie's tablet. "Is he online?"

"He is in the dining room."

Something definitely wasn't right. His father should not have been home. Adrien muttered a weak thanks and turned towards the dining room. What could have caused his father to deviate from his schedule? Nothing short of a disaster would have made Gabriel change his plans. Had he fallen ill? Had somebody else fallen ill? Had Plagg fallen—

A whining meow from the other end of the foyer answered that question. Plagg emerged from a dark corner and rubbed up against Adrien's leg. Then he ran and stood in front of the dining room entrance, shaking his tail.

"What?" Adrien stepped around him. "You don't need my permission to come in here."

Plagg merely darted ahead and crawled under the table.

Gabriel sat at the head of it.

For all the progress they'd made in the last couple of days, Adrien still couldn't help feeling like a five-year-old whenever his father summoned him. He stood at the other end of the table, not sure whether he should sit there or pick a closer seat, or whether he should sit at all.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked.

Gabriel looked up from his tablet screen, and Adrien suddenly remembered how his mother would scold him for working at the table. A plate of food remained untouched beside his father's arm. He wondered how long it had been there.

"Yes," Gabriel said. He stared at Adrien for a moment without speaking, then took a deep breath. "We need to talk about the competition finalists."

Adrien felt a familiar wave of panic swell within him. He grabbed the nearest chair for support. "Should I be sitting down for this?" he asked.

"If you'd like." His father's tone remained neutral. Adrien pulled back the chair, making sure he didn't accidentally hit Plagg, and fell into it. Gabriel set his tablet aside. He folded his fingers together. "I see that your friend, Ms. Dupain-Cheng, made it into the top ten."

Adrien went on the defensive. "I had nothing to do with that."

"I know," Gabriel said. "I choose my judges carefully. They are not the type of people to be bribed, nor are you the type of person to bribe them. There is no doubt in my mind that Ms. Dupain-Cheng earned her spot in the finals."

"So what's the problem?" Adrien asked.

"You brought her to our house."

He wanted to argue that he hadn't, in fact, brought Marinette to the house. She'd been standing at the gate when he came home for lunch. But he had invited her inside. Any attempt at arguing would have made him sound as immature as he felt.

"And not only did she come into our house, but she met me in person." Gabriel sighed. "You know that I take care not to meet any of the entrants until the finalists have been chosen. We have those rules for a reason."

Adrien couldn't meet his eyes. "To prevent conflicts of interest," he said.

"Precisely."

He thought of Marinette, at home just a few streets away. She hadn't replied to his congratulatory text. He could only imagine how busy she must have been, preparing for the final round of the competition, making plans for her afternoon at Agreste HQ the next day. "Are you going to disqualify her?" he asked.

Because that would be wonderful, really, having to tell the girl he had feelings for how his lack of thought had robbed her of a shot at her dream.

"No."

Adrien lifted his head.

Gabriel removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "I have spent the day monitoring news and social media feeds. No one seems to have linked Ms. Dupain-Cheng back to you yet. But I would advise you not to make contact with her until after the competition ends. Any sign of partiality and both her reputation and ours could be in serious jeopardy."

Adrien stared at his father in disbelief. Just a few weeks ago, he would have disqualified Marinette in a heartbeat. But he'd taken time out of his schedule to make sure the situation didn't sour while Adrien was at work, to be available in case he had to defend his son. A smile almost found its way to his face. Almost.

"Wait," he said, "but I'm supposed to meet with the finalists tomorrow to go over the details of the last round. How do I avoid Marinette then?"

"Simple. You're fired."

Adrien's jaw dropped.

Gabriel put his glasses back on. "Effective tomorrow, Nathalie will take over your duties as head of the competition. Have all your work submitted to her by morning." He gave Adrien a look that he would have interpreted as stern, had it not been for the slightly raised eyebrow which, for Gabriel Agreste, indicated amusement. "You must understand, Adrien, that I do not tolerate such careless mistakes from any of my employees. It would be unfair of me to treat you differently because you are my son." He leaned a bit closer to Adrien. "Therefore, I strongly recommend you start looking into alternative career paths. Is that clear?"

Adrien gawked at him.

"Do you understand what I am telling you?" Gabriel asked.

His father had fired him. Cut him loose. Set him free of his obligation. He'd essentially given Adrien his blessing to pursue a career outside of the family business by declaring him unqualified to work in the family business.

"I understand," Adrien said. "I made a careless mistake that could have tarnished your good name. It was my oversight, and I take full responsibility for it."

"That is very mature of you," Gabriel said.

Adrien stood up and gestured towards the doorway. "I'll just… go send Nathalie all that work, then. She's got a lot to catch up on." He looked under the table and found Plagg crouched near his father's feet, staring at him with wide eyes. "You coming or no?"

Plagg blinked at him.

"That's what I thought," Adrien said. He straightened up and walked to the dining hall entrance, hesitated, and turned back around. "Oh, and no business at the table, Dad. You know Mom hated that."

Gabriel's eyes widened. Adrien grinned at him. He snorted and picked up his dinner plate. "I suppose I should reheat this," he said.

Adrien shook his head and walked out of the dining room. Nathalie waited for him in the foyer, looking quite unrepentant about taking his job. Adrien knew that she knew how much his father's dismissal meant to him, and he almost hugged her for looking, in her own way, like she was more than happy to take the work off his hands.

But it wasn't until he sat at his computer desk gathering all the necessary files to send to Nathalie that a thought kicked him in the head:

If he was no longer in charge of the competition, he wouldn't have the security clearance to get near the contestants.

Which meant he wouldn't be able to see Ladybug until the competition finale.

Adrien lowered his head to his desk and thumped it against the surface. Repeatedly.

x.x.x

Marinette's afternoon had been eventful, to say the least. Between teasing Chat Noir and receiving praise from everyone she knew—including people that she hadn't spoken to since high school—she'd responded to the competition email, touched up her final designs, ate two hasty meals, and then entertained half of her employees, who'd shown up at the door with booze and cake and their most heartfelt congratulations.

"We have to pick a place to watch the competition finale. They're streaming it online, right?"

"There's room for everyone at my place!"

"Oh my God, Marinette, you're going to showcase your work to Gabriel Agreste. Can you believe it?"

"I always knew you would make it. Didn't I say I always knew you'd make it? I did. Shut up. The rest of you can fight me."

And so on.

Now, warm and happy and full of dessert, she lay on her chaise with one leg over the side swinging back and forth. The next afternoon, she'd be in Agreste HQ with her fellow finalists, getting briefed on how the rest of the competition would proceed. She wondered if the other women were friendly. No doubt there would be a few who weren't interested in making friends with their competition—and she'd be just as cutthroat with them as they were with her.

She grabbed her phone and opened Chat Noir's latest email. Adrien's latest email. She wondered how he felt knowing that both she and the mysterious Ladybug were in the competition together. Who would he cheer for? And how would he react when he found out that he'd really only been cheering for one person?

Marinette pushed her anxiety aside and tapped reply. She had already taken the first step beyond the point of no return by sending him the email snippet, so she considered her words carefully as she took the next.

x.x.x

LadybugRE: Summer45 minutes ago

Sorry chaton, I couldn't resist!

Truthfully, I've given it a lot of thought…

And I don't think it'd be very nice or fair of me to keep my identity a secret from you after this.

You'll know I'm one of ten people in the competition, but not who?

What's the point of that?

If you're going to support me during this competition, I want you to support the real me.

What happens after that is up to the both of us.

x.x.x

Adrien, sitting on his couch, bent over his phone, heard nothing over the sound of his heart pounding in his ears.

Was she about to tell him her identity? Just like that?

He stared at his television and tapped his phone against his mouth, half in rapture, half in agony. Did he want to find out this way? He whined, wrote a short response, and hit send.

x.x.x

Chat NoirRE: SummerJust now

Ladybug… are you sure?

x.x.x

Marinette sat at her computer desk and opened her web browser.

You can do this, she thought as she made her way to her inbox.

You can do this. She pulled up Adrien's email and attached a file to it.

You can do this.

She took a deep, calming breath, and pressed send.

x.x.x

LadybugRE: SummerJust nowAttachment: LuckCollection-Final

I'm sure.

x.x.x

Adrien put his phone down and stood from the couch. He walked a full circuit around his bedroom, but it wasn't enough to clear his thoughts, so he left and took a stroll through the entire mansion. Plagg followed him for half the journey before he realized Adrien wasn't going to the kitchen to give him camembert, then settled for waiting for him under one of the seats in the foyer.

Eventually, Adrien returned to his bedroom and stared at his phone as if it were ready to explode. Then he went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth. Then he returned and stared at the phone some more.

"It's okay," he told himself. He picked up the phone. "It's okay." He unlocked it and came face-to-face with Ladybug's email, the unclicked attachment. He bounced from one foot to the other. "It's okay," he insisted.

He tapped on the attachment.

An image file opened on his screen. In the middle of a white canvas were two designs, and Adrien had to look away and tell himself it was okay another half dozen times, because the designs were not just any designs, they were ladybug and black cat designs. The female model was draped over a chaise lounge, dressed in a strapless black gown with jagged, vibrant green claw marks that started at the top left and trailed diagonally down the length of the dress. Around her neck, she wore a thin choker with a tiny bell. The male model, who bowed at the waist and placed a kiss on the female model's hand, wore a vibrant red tailcoat with a gauzy white inside lining that imitated wings, and black slacks.

Adrien couldn't think straight. Warmth spread through his body. The designs Ladybug had chosen to show the entire fashion world were designs inspired by their relationship.

Oh, he hated himself. He hated being so unbelievably happy and confused at the same time. It wasn't fair. How could she do this to him? And he wouldn't be able to see her the next day, when he would have given anything to find her and throw his arms around her and lift her off the ground? He fell back on the sofa with a groan, but he couldn't stop smiling.

He loved Ladybug. He loved her. Romantic love, platonic love, it didn't matter. He didn't care. He loved her. It was as simple and as complicated as that.

Adrien laughed out loud, saved the image on his phone, and closed it so he could reply to her email. "I am in such deep shit," he said, and kept right on laughing.

Security clearance be damned. He was going to see Ladybug. Tomorrow. No matter what.

x.x.x

Chat NoirRE: SummerJust now

They're beautiful, buginette, and so are you. Have I ever told you that? I think I must have told you that already, but I feel like saying it again. You are the most beautiful person I've ever met.

x.x.x

LadybugRE: SummerJust now

I had a feeling you'd like them. :-)

Now if you'll excuse me, I must be going to sleep.

Important day tomorrow and all that.

Don't stay up too late contemplating my beauty.

x.x.x

Marinette shut her phone off and tucked it onto the shelf above her bed. She stared up at the skylight, eyes wide open, her heart beating a thousand beats per minutes.

By the end of next week, Adrien would know who she was, and there wasn't a thing she could do to stop it.

x.x.x

Nino Lahiffe: Good morning Marinette! You're probably wondering why I'm texting you so early hahaha

Nino Lahiffe: Long story short, Adrien's father fired him from the design competition and he's not allowed to talk to you until it's over. He wanted me to let you know. And to say sorry on his behalf.

Nino Lahiffe: So, Adrien's sorry.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng: WHAT

x.x.x

"What do you mean his father fired him?" Alya asked.

Marinette walked beside her with slouched shoulders and a grim expression. Up ahead, Agreste HQ stood tall, proud, and menacing, casting its shadow over the street. "He got in trouble for letting me into his house, knowing that I was entered in the design competition," Marinette said. She'd sent many an incoherent message to Nino that morning but no amount of reassurance had taken away her guilt. "Apparently if people find out he and I are friends, it could call the integrity of the whole competition into question."

"Oh my God," Alya said.

"I know."

"No, I mean, oh my God, your relationship is forbidden now. That's kinky." She threw a wink in Marinette's direction. "Are you sure you aren't a ladybug? Because you seem to be having all the luck lately."

Marinette laid her head on Alya's shoulder. "Be my eyes. I need to finish moping before I walk into the building."

Alya pushed her back upright. "Be your own eyes. And quit overreacting! Nino said Adrien didn't seem very broken up about it, yeah?"

Marinette sighed. Chat Noir's good morning email had been perfectly cheerful, but she knew from experience that Adrien could hide his feelings well both online and in person. If she could just get a look at him, she'd have a better idea of his emotional state. Unfortunately, Gabriel Agreste had just made looking at him impossible.

"In any case—and you're only ever going to hear me say this once—you don't have time to worry about Adrien now." Alya gestured to Agreste HQ. "This is your future. Your rise to stardom starts today. So what are you not going to do?"

"Worry about Adrien," Marinette said. She straightened her posture and stared at the building ahead. Alya was right. From the moment she walked inside, the first impressions would begin. She needed to be confident. She needed to carry herself like someone who'd been hand-selected by one of the world's top fashion designers, like someone who deserved her spot.

Adrien would be there at the end of the week.

And he would know she was Ladybug, but she couldn't worry about that either.

"Why don't you go in ahead of me?" Marinette suggested. "You're press, so we'll have to split up anyway. And I wanted to send a quick email to Mom and Dad. Promised I'd keep them updated."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. We'll see each other soon." She gave Alya her most confident I-will-do-my-best-not-to-humiliate-myself smile.

Alya shrugged, then threw her arms around her shoulders and squeezed. "I am so, so, so proud of you," she said.

Marinette squeezed her back. "Please don't make me cry. I spent way too long on my makeup this morning." She let Alya go and waved at her as she crossed the street, then she reached for her phone. Her parents weren't the only ones she'd promised to keep updated.

x.x.x

LadybugRE: SummerJust now

I'm at the Agreste building.

And I'm freaking out.

Help.

x.x.x

Chat NoirRE: SummerJust now

Deep breaths. You are one of the chosen. Until the competition ends, you are on equal footing with the other nine women on that list. And because Gabriel Agreste's employees don't know who his next protégé is, they will bend over backwards for each and every one of you.

Do you feel better now?

x.x.x

LadybugRE: SummerJust now

Yes.

Thanks, minou.

Give yourself a scratch behind the ears and pretend it's from me.

x.x.x

"More coffee?"

Adrien looked up into the pink racoon eyes of Café Reflekta's owner and smiled. "No, thank you. I need to get going," he said. He'd been hanging out at the café for about an hour, enjoying a light lunch and pretending he wasn't about to cross town and sneak into his father's building.

He'd devised a simple plan: go in through the back, act like he was supposed to be there, and avoid security for as long as humanly possible. He only needed to be inside long enough to get a good look at the competition finalists, anyway.

Ladybug. Marinette. Ladybug and Marinette and his no-good, two-timing heart.

The café owner, whose nametag read Juleka, collected Adrien's empty coffee mug. "Big day," she said.

Adrien blinked at her.

"For Ladybug," she added.

His heart did a somersault in his chest. "Y-Yeah! It is!" He fiddled with his phone, wondering why the hell he felt so shy talking about Ladybug with someone who knew her. "She's really nervous," he said. Juleka nodded at that, but ventured nothing further. Adrien wondered how far he could push his luck. "So how did you meet Ladybug?" he blurted out before she could get away from him.

Juleka paused. "Middle school," she said at length.

"Wow, then you've known each other for a while." He couldn't tell how old Juleka was under all her makeup, but she looked around the same age as him. "Was she always interested in fashion design?"

Juleka nodded. "Yo-yo, too," she said. "Very talented." She gave Adrien an indecipherable look, then smiled. "And cute."

Adrien watched Juleka walk away. He reached up and felt his face. An ear-splitting grin. If Chloe had been there to witness that exchange, she would have called him pathetic, and she would have been one hundred percent right. He was pathetic, but that didn't seem to matter nearly as much as the fact that Ladybug was cute.

Had he ever doubted Ladybug's cuteness? Of course not. He'd called her the most beautiful person he'd ever met just the night before. But he could say it all he wanted and still not know for sure. Now he had proof. And if he didn't get moving, he would miss his chance to see for himself.

He left Café Reflekta and took the metro to his father's building. Normally he would have gone by car, but Gabriel had ordered the Gorilla to accompany Nathalie to Agreste HQ, leaving Adrien stranded. Luckily, no one had been home that morning to notice how dressed up he was and question where he might be headed.

For Adrien, after what felt like an hour of debate, had chosen the outfit Nino claimed capable of inciting a riot: the pale blue Oxford shirt, white slacks, and navy blue blazer with the sunglasses he'd finally stolen back from Chloe. And if the numerous stares he attracted from the women at Café Reflekta, on the train, and on the street were any indication, he'd made the right choice.

He arrived at his stop and quickly made his way above ground. Agreste HQ stood one block away. Adrien took the long way to reach the back of the building, tiptoed to the door, and swiped his employee ID to unlock it. He felt a bit guilty; his father must have trusted him enough to follow his instructions if he hadn't removed him from the system yet. But his excitement quickly overwhelmed his guilt, because for what may have been the first time in his life, he was in the same building as Ladybug.

Adrien collected himself, rounded the nearest corner, and started off down the hall at his usual saunter. Act natural, he thought.

A female employee did a doubletake as he passed. "Good afternoon, Monsieur Agreste. We thought you weren't coming in today."

Crap. "I wasn't," Adrien said, "but I, uh, remembered I left something in my office." And he hurried away from her before she could ask any more questions.

More people than usual clogged the hallway, no doubt following orders to see to the whims of both the competition finalists and the reporters there to get pictures of them. Adrien's heart sped up as he came upon the first large conference room. Laughter and chatter reached his ears and he stopped beside the door, straightening his jacket to give off the appearance he had some business with the people within. Then, once the hallway had momentarily cleared, he leaned over, peered into the room…

…and saw Alya standing with a group of reporters, holding a cup of coffee. Her eyes blew wide open at the sight of him.

What are you doing here? she mouthed.

Adrien could think of nothing else to mouth back, other than Where is Marinette? He needed to be where Marinette was.

Alya held up two fingers and pointed to the left. Adrien nodded. Two conference rooms down.

A hand closed on his shoulder and spun him around.

The Gorilla.

Adrien stared up into his bodyguard-turned-bouncer's face, horror stricken. One of the only people in the building who knew he wasn't supposed to be there, and he'd caught him two rooms away from the competition finalists. Adrien had years of experience trying to reason with this man. He also had years of experience to tell him that there was no reasoning with this man. But he could still try.

"Have I ever told you that you're one of my favorite people?" he said.

The Gorilla narrowed his eyes at him.

Adrien broke down.

He discarded all thoughts of charm and grabbed his bodyguard by the sleeves of his suit. "Please," he said, "just give me five minutes. Five minutes. Have I ever asked you for anything in my entire life? Wait, don't answer that. But it's really important this time. Possibly the most important thing that has ever happened to me and if you can't pretend for four-and-a-half measly minutes that you never saw me, there is a ninety percent guarantee that I will never be happy again."

The Gorilla stared.

"Please," Adrien whispered.

A tense silence passed. Then the Gorilla removed Adrien's hands from his sleeves, smoothed the wrinkles out of his jacket, looked back at Adrien, held up three fingers, and walked away.

Adrien ran.

x.x.x

Two conference rooms away, Marinette held a cup of water in her trembling hands and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She wasn't the only one fidgeting: the other nine women in the room with her moved around, sighed, picked at the finger foods delivered by the caterers, tossed back wine, and made attempts at small talk before lapsing back into silence. Soon they would be addressed by the head of the competition, and Marinette couldn't help but wonder how that would have gone down if Adrien hadn't been fired.

Would he have been able to concentrate knowing that Ladybug was watching him? Would he have dropped a hint that he was Chat Noir in front of everyone, or played it infuriatingly cool?

Marinette sighed and brought the water cup to her lips. Guess I'll never know, she thought as she glanced at the door—

—and choked on her water when she saw Adrien on the other side.

Marinette coughed into the crook of her elbow. What the hell was he doing there? Was he even allowed in the building? How had he gotten past security?

Adrien lifted his hand and wiggled his fingers at her in greeting. He seemed genuinely happy to see her, and she would be lying if she said she wasn't happy to see him, too. Especially in that blue suit. Marinette would have to figure out how an outfit that looked so good on a human being could make her want to rip it off of him.

But then Adrien's eyes slid past her to the rest of the women in the room.

And Marinette forgot how to breathe.

She had never seen such naked anticipation, such wild and desperate hope on someone's face before. She almost couldn't bear to keep watching.

Because that was her Chat Noir, searching for his Ladybug.

Searching for her with the expression of a man drowning in the depths of his love.

"Oh my God, is that Adrien Agreste?"

Marinette blinked out of her stupor. Of course her coughing had drawn the attention of the other finalists, and now all nine women stared back at Adrien, too stunned to do much else. But when the shock wore off, it wore off for all of them simultaneously, and the room burst into a frenzy.

"Oh my God, he's even more handsome in person!"

"How does my hair look?"

"Do you think he's coming in here?"

"Should one of us, like, invite him inside?"

"Crap, crap, crap, I knew I should have worn the other dress!"

"Does that mean Gabriel Agreste is here too?"

Marinette raised her water cup and took a sip, both to soothe her throat and to keep from saying something ridiculous like Adrien is mine and the rest of you can go jump off a cliff. She had to admit she felt a little smug knowing that she'd bested them in that category before they'd even gotten a chance.

But just as quickly as the fun began, it ended: Adrien's bodyguard appeared behind him, grabbed him by the arm, and dragged him out of sight. Marinette shook her head as the other women let out disappointed whines. So he'd snuck his way into the building, then. All that trouble for one glimpse of the girl who called herself Ladybug.

She knocked back the rest of her water, hoping it would cool the fire in her blood and erase the image of Adrien's hope-filled face from her mind.

Because her kitty cat had no idea how mutual the feeling was.

To Be Continued

A/N: The hiatus is over and we are on the update train to hell.

…as soon as I recover from finals, anyway. Hope you've all been well!

Thoughts? Feelings? Let them out in the box below!