30. Chapter 30

Adrien wasn't much of a stranger in Dupain-Cheng's household. After that Ultimate Mecha Strike III practice he had with Marinette way back in troisième, he often visited the place both in civilian and superhero selves.

So he wasn't that much surprised to see the shocking pink painted on her room's walls, but not after he was greeted by a poster.

Correction, posters.

Not just an ordinary posters, but posters of himself.

Himself as the model in various poses, starting from his collège days up to lycèe. Magazine pin-ups, newspaper clips that featured his runways. And was that a copy of his schedule?!

"Someone has an obsessive crush~" Plagg floated out from his charger's pocket, then gave him a smug after seeing the blond's shocking pink state.

"Shu - shut up!" the boy stammered, trying to whack his snickering kwami but his aim accidentally fell on the desktop mouse. The darkened screen lit up, revealing a made-up collage of him set as wallpaper.

His shocking pink became a blazing red.

Wait, didn't she confess to him about her stalkerish activities yesterday?

She did, he recalled. He didn't expect that it'd be this extensive.

A scream downstairs snapped him from his reverie. He first thought it was an Akuma attack, and about to rush for Marinette's aid when he heard a thumping step, followed by a flying trap door and a flustered girlfriend.

"What's wro - OOF!"

He was taken aback when his said girlfriend suddenly grappled his arm then flung his body for a back throw.

"Nooooooo!" she wailed, unaware how his boyfriend painfully wheezed for air. "Don't look!"

Too late.

She bolted towards her wall to remove the posters, but before she could grab one, a pair of strong arms pulled her down to the floor. It was a heavy fall, but her head was protected by something soft.

"Falling for me, My Lady?" he rasped.

She squealed with defeat, more when her tongue couldn't spat back because his pun was so spot-on literally and figuratively. All she could do was to squeeze her eyes shut, curl and cover her face with both hands.

"You're not supposed to see...those."

"Why not?" he retorted with a grin. "There's nothing to be embarrassed about it."

"There is!" she whimpered, still unable to look at him.

He nudged his nose in between her finger gaps. "Hey, you told me about this yesterday. Besides, nobody has ever done something like this to me before."

"You have no idea," she muttered with an eye roll behind her palms. "These are nothing compare to your avid fan's collections."

"Not as interesting as Buginette's though."

Marinette was about to retort back when a warm liquid suddenly contacted her hand. It greatly alarmed her, especially when she caught him sniffling. She immediately cupped his face, wiping the stray tears with her thumbs and pored at his bleary green eyes with confusion.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

Instead of answering, Adrien dropped his head on the crook of her neck and whispered. "What did I do to deserve your affection?"

"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" she sighed as she gently raked his blond locks. "Shouldn't I be the one who does the crying here because you've found out my excessive crush?"

"You were attracted to my faked self, rather than my real self."

"Now you're stealing my words from my mouth. Aren't you attracted to Ladybug first before Marinette?"

She felt his smile forming on her skin. "But that's just logical, My Lady. Ladybug gave me an initial impression of maladroit, but she redeemed herself as a kickass. Marinette, on the other hand, made me fear her on our first meeting, and when I thought I was able to redeem myself, she started to fear me. You got me worried there, Princess. I thought your accusations about me being a 'Second Chloe' was real."

"Now that you know the real reason - "

"Now that I know the real reason," he interjected, burying his face more. "Plus the fact that I've seen your sides outside Adrien's point of view, and you being Ladybug, it made everything about you so damn perfect."

She frowned but didn't stop her ministrations. "How did Badass Ladybug and Coward Marinette became perfect in your equation?"

"First, you got a wrong description. Second, I'd rather associate Sweet than Coward. Don't get me wrong - Ladybug might be kind towards everybody, but not as sweet as Marinette. Unlike me..." he paused as fresh batches of tears leaked out. "I'm a fake both inside and outside of the mask. I might've said that being Chat Noir was my truest self, but at the end of the day, he would still be an insecure boy who didn't know how to make personal decisions. Or whenever he decided one, it always ended either with bad results or garnered disappointments. I'm just a Momma's boy with Daddy's issues, and I'm using my Miraculous as an excuse for temporary freedom."

The designer cupped his face again so that she could see him eye to eye. And there she finally saw the face of the person she'd been looking for since that rainy day.

"The real reason why I have all of your pictures, and yeah, your daily schedules Alya probably hacked from Natalie's file, was because I want to see a glimpse of your self again. Your pure self," she confessed with a smile. "You weren't wearing a mask literally as Adrien, and figuratively as Chat, but a separate fragment of the boy I fell in love with. And it's logical to begin my search in Adrien because it wasn't Chat who gave me an umbrella."

"Mari - "

"You're not a fake, Adrien. You're real. Didn't I tell you that your imperfections made me love you?"

Adrien breathed as he beamed at her.

Both of them have insecurities, but their imperfections made them found each other. Yin and yang. Two peas in a pod. Two lost souls that miraculously discovered one another by fate.

"But you're only like this with Adrien." he pouted childishly. "How about Chat Noir?"

She was tempted to shove her diary on his face, and read her entry about choosing Chat if Adrien wasn't around, but he might misinterpret that his other half was a consolation, so she chose the most obvious route.

She already embarrassed herself anyways.

"Uhm, remember that Chat Noir doll?"

Of course, he remembered. Now that she mentioned it, he didn't see it among the pile of dolls on her side table. It was only Ladybug and a battalion of miniature Akumas.

So where...

"My bedside," she said sheepishly as if she could hear his thoughts. "And there's - "

"HOLEY MOLEY CHEESE! ADRIEN, YOU GOTTA SEE THIS!" Plagg's yell interrupted her. "SOMEONE RIVALED YOUR LADYBUG'S COLLECTION!"

Without further ado, the blond rose up and climbed towards Marinette's bed, much to the girl's horror. There he witnessed how Tikki flung his kwami for 'ruining the moment', but not enough to distract him from seeing the cat-themed pillows, blankets, PJs in black and green motifs, and in the midst of it rested a Chat Noir doll.

"You don't have my permission to climb he - OOF!"

Adrien cut her complaints by pinning her down again, but this time it was in her bed. Her Chat Noir themed bed.

"You love me!" he chortled while pressing wet kisses sloppily around her face. "You love both sides of me!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble but I do. Now I'm regretting it." she laughed while squirming on his attacks.

"Nuh - uh. You're stuck with me forever."

"Stop it, Adrien. Or else I'm going to - "

He silenced her by pressing his lips to her. It was supposed to be chaste, but the electricity that shot within them urged them to go deeper. He trailed lower, making her moan for more, then moved to her pulsing neck, but stopped when a burning smell permeated the air.

"You smell nice, Buginette." he sniffed. "But I'm starting to smell...something different."

She copied the same gesture, then paled when she remembered the cookies.

"Oh crap!"

She had to push him away and leaped a flight of stairs akin to her superhero counterpart.

Panicking, she ran towards the kitchen and greeted by a smoking oven. It must be her trained reflex that she unknowingly wrapped her hands in mitts before opening the door and pulled the tray of charcoaled cookies, else she'd be suffering from a second-degree burn.

"Oh no, poor cookies!" Tikki lamented.

"Yeah, poor cookies." Plagg deadpanned.

"Indeed." the third voice added, and on his tone, she knew that the cheekily bastard was highly amused. "Poor cookies."

Marinette looked at her audience with a death glare.

"Utter another cookie word." she snarled. "And I'm going to bake someone here in this oven."

"What a teff decision, Princess." Adrien gave a Cheshire smile. "Dough I nut mind that to be crummy wheat you."

"You and your stupid puns!" she huffed jabbing his chest with her index, only to be grabbed and kissed boldly. "You-you're distracting me!"

"Hey, It's not my fault I find you so hot we almost burn this house on fire."

Innuendos or not, his words gave her a profused blush she had to smother it with a slap on his arm. He chuckled.

"Listen, you tomcat. You better grab that bag of flour, sugar, chocolate chips and some pounds of butter in the pantry, or else we'll face a wrath of a god."

"Roger that."

In a typical action-adventure scenario, the protagonists would prepare their ammunition in the form of bullets, guns, grenade and high-class gadgets before they face the enemies. But in Ladybug and Chat Noir's case, they would use a slab of cheese, a pack of cookies, a rapier wit and a strong conviction that they could save the day from Papillion's aide.

.

.

.

.

"What do you think?" Adrien asked after he finished crossing some landmarks surrounding Sacré-Cœur and Notre Dame.

The Paris map was laid flatly on the dining table as the teenagers waited for the cookies to bake.

"Nearest from here is Notre Dame, so obviously we go from there first. The route's quite hard if we'll skip Le Jardin but risky if not. We're lucky Catacombs is out of our way, but that doesn't mean Twiddle Gain spared Île de la Cité from 'wormholes'"

"It'll be a job well done if the Akuma is actually in there," Marinette responded, breaking a croissant into two then shared the half to her partner. "But what if it's in Sacré-Cœur? Aside from crossing the Seine, going to the right means passing Pompidou or go beyond Bataclan. Going to the left means passing Pont des Arts."

"You have the key to my heart if you know what I mean."

"Anyways." she brushed him off nonchalantly, which earned her a sullen face. "If we head straight to Sacré-Cœur first, then we can swivel Le Grand Paris and the 9th arrondissement without passing many monuments. If Twiddle Gain is not there, then that'll be a wasted effort."

The teenagers looked at their kwamis for assistance. Unfortunately, Plagg was snoring audibly on top of the fridge while Tikki shook her head with sadness.

"I'm sorry, but we kwamis don't have that ability to sense nearby akumas. If we did, then both of you won't struggle this much since the day you got your Miraculous."

"Point taken."

"I think Twiddle Gain is in Notre Dame." Marinette declared, encircling the landmark with a red pen.

"Is that a wild guess, My Lady? Or with a supporting proof?"

"The Rosary," she told him. "Remember the object where the Akuma resided with Twiddle Doom? It's in his necklace, which turned out to be a Rosary. Felipe was wearing it during our visit and likely held it with importance. Probably a gift from Marcelo, basing on the way he touched it whenever he mentioned his brother's name. The crucifix was a True Cross, and the center engraved the Crown of Thorns. Where do you think these relic symbols are located?"

"I was blindsided to notice such details." he shook his head with awe. "If Marcelo was the one who gave Felix the rosary, and being twin brothers, does that mean he might have a matching pair?"

"I guess so."

Adrien stood up. "Twins. Rosary. Twiddle Doom Akuma was in his rosary. Twiddle Doom has a power to destroy dimensions. Twiddle Gain has a power to alter dimensions. If Twiddle gain has a matching rosary, then that means the Akuma might be in there?"

"We don't know, mon Minou. Not until we find Twiddle Gain."

"Then Notre Dame we'll be," he muttered, then looked at the encircled landmark. "He must be claiming a sanctuary there."

"You're watching too much Disney films, Chaton." She teased.

"Hey, the Hunchback of Notre Dame was originally a novel by Victor Hugo." he defended with crossed arms. "Disney only mellowed the settings for kid's sake."

"As well as yours."

A loud ping sounded, telling them that the cookies were finished and ready for Tikki's consumption.

As Marinette placed the cookies on the rack for cooling, Adrien went back upstairs for the cheese. Checking the inventory, he sighed with relief that his kwami didn't finish the entire bag.

He sized up the pink room again with glee and made a mental note to send her a monthly cover of his photo shoots to add to her growing collection. All with his autographs.

That, if both of them would still remember.

Heading downstairs, he saw her packing the final batches of cookies in a slim container and slipped them inside a pink knapsack. He met her bluebell eyes, and when she saw his knowing grin, she scowled.

"Did my shrine stoked your ego, Kitty?"

"Not as much as knowing you're mine, Lovebug." he snickered, then shook his head. "I can't believe I'm so dumb not to see those posters when I first enter your room."

"I removed them when you first went here as Adrien," she answered matter-of-factly. "But not during Puppeteer as Chat. Imagine my horror when you deflected Lady Wifi's attacks and hit your face."

"Yep. I'm a dumb."

"I'd rather call it as a 'tunnel-vision'." she chuckled, then sauntered towards him with a nose poke. "You're too focused on a goal that you failed to notice the things around you. But on a positive note, you're not a type that can be easily distracted."

"You have no idea." he mused with a wink. "How distracting your beautiful smile could be on my ill-fainted heart."

She rolled her eyes. "Then we better suit up, Hot Shot. Before your tunnel vision kicked in."

The two called their transformation, leaving Ladybug and Chat Noir in their respective places.

"Buginette?" the feline superhero reached his partner's hand, then drifted his own upwards to cup her masked face. "Thank you."

"For what?" she blinked, puzzled on his serious demeanor.

"For loving me," he responded with a smug. "For letting me love you."

"Oh, Chat." she breathed as she drew their bodies closer.

He kissed her languidly, tilting her head to access her lips more which she complied happily. Ladybug didn't mind doing it for a greater period of time, probably forever, but they need to stop or else...

A loud crash jolted the two superheroes from their activities, and on that brief seconds of breathing and logical thinking, they turned their heads towards the sound and witnessed how Sabine's jaw slacked as she held the door open while Tom dropped the paper bag on the floor.

Seems like the two broke the Dupain-Cheng's couple.

"Oops."