Part 11

Word Count: 4282

A/N: Okay, first of all, THANK YOU FOR 750+ VIEWS!

Also, I'd like to say that English isn't my first language and while re-reading this story I have noticed quite a few mistakes that I haven't realised before, so I apologise for those. I'll probably correct them once I've got time for it.

-♡-

"Too bad you aren't having sex with me, Agreste," Marinette said back, holding in a chuckle.

She turned around and was going to exit his room. Adrien bit onto his bottom lips for a second, accepting the challenge with slapping her exposed butt.

Marinette stopped walking, her jaw dropped when she turned around, raising her eyebrows at Adrien.

"You know I'm up for a good challenge," he shrugged. Marinette smiled in response, shaking her head lightly in disbelief. "Besides, you just sucked my dick."

"You should get dressed, we're still seeing your father," Marinette said, earning just a loud groan from Adrien. "You should safe your groans for something else," she winked before finally leaving his room to go get dressed in her own.

"She's driving me crazy," Adrien plopped onto his bed, his arms expanded.

"And you're driving me insane," Plagg complained from his cabinet dedicated to him, well, his cheese.

"Shut it, Plagg," Adrien said, sitting up.

"If I hear those noises from the bathroom coming from you once again, I will disown myself from you," Plagg fake gagged.

Adrien got dressed, as so did Marinette. Once Marinette was fully dressed she left her room and knocked onto Adrien's door, waiting for him to grant her access, yet he thought she was just allowing herself in.

He thought Marinette wasn't mad at him any longer. Like, yeah sure, maybe some anger was still left inside her, but he didn't think it was strong enough for her to still act as if Adrien would ever not want her around.

Marinette knocked again, this time Adrien told her to come inside. His voice was filled with confusion.

"Why didn't you just come in the first time you knocked?" Adrien asked, flattening out his flannel.

"I didn't want to invalidate your privacy, Adrien," Marinette's voice was cold, as if what just happened a couple of minutes ago never happened.

Adrien sighed heavily, just bobbing his head as he pretended to understand.

"Can we go?" Marinette then asked.

"Yeah, uh, let me just get my car keys and we're off to go," Adrien said with fear in his voice. He was still hoping they could just stay home and forget this all had happened. He hadn't seen his father ever since that very night, and he wasn't looking forward to doing so.

"I'm sorry, Adrien, but we're not going to take the car," Marinette stopped him from exiting his room, "I'm not facing Gabriel as Marinette, after all you wanted me to stay safe, right?"

Adrien nodded.

"So, if you want me to stay safe, wouldn't it be better if I went as Ladybug? He still couldn't possibly guess my identity, only if, you and I," Marinette pointed her finger from Adrien to her, "Adrien and Marinette, went there as a couple. And we're not a couple."

Adrien's heart sank down into the floor. It made sense, the Ladybug thing, but also them not being a couple. Despite his hopes of Marinette not hating him, they technically broke up the second 'Chat Noir died', and Adrien didn't get a chance to ask Marinette out.

"You told everyone Chat Noir moved away, it's day-time, don't you think people will see us?" Adrien asked in a sad tone, still struggling to fight the urge to cry over the fact that he's lost Marinette over his stupidity.

"People can come back. You're still Paris' Superhero, you belong here, if you want to or not. You've saved all of the Parisians from Hawkmoth. You've done an incredible job, even if you've hurt me in the process and afterwards," Marinette said, giving him a slim smile, he couldn't return it.

"I never wanted to hurt you, Marinette," Adrien repeated for the thousandths time, his throat clogged up, tears boiling up. He felt terrible for what he'd done.

"I can't say you never wanted to, Adrien. You've asked me if I've ever thought about faking my own death, I've literally told you it was so cruel to the people that loved you, and yet you went on doing just that. I get you wanted to protect me, and I'm glad to know you care enough about me to be wanting that," Marinette formed her lips into a straight line.

"I always cared about you, I still do," Adrien interrupted.

"I know you do. But, Adrien, you should have just talked to me, if not before you went to speak to your father, but afterwards. There was never a reason for you to hide. We've always figured things out and it honestly hurts me to know you don't trust me enough to be honest with me."

Adrien grasped both of Marinette's hand in his, his face dropped, the pain he felt from her words literally being visible on his face.

"I do trust you, I do. Marinette, you're the most important person in my life. I genuinely thought I was doing the right thing, I thought that was how I kept you safe. I'm sorry, I really am!" Adrien couldn't hold his tears back any longer.

"I don't think I can do this anymore, Adrien, I'm sorry," Marinette tired to turn around to leave, but since Adrien still had her hands in his, he wouldn't let her go. "Adrien," she said in a soft, teary voice.

To Marinette's luck, Plagg cut off Adrien from talking.

"Marinette, maybe Adrien shouldn't be wearing his Miraculous, just in case," Plagg said, feeling the same awful feeling in his stomach as Adrien did.

Even Plagg felt as if facing Gabriel as Ladybug and Chat Noir was wrong. It wasn't like Gabriel would have been standing a chance against the two of them, but it was still a little bit risky, right?

Marinette, who had already been transformed into Ladybug, glanced at Plagg, rolling her eyes as she couldn't believe Plagg's negative input.

"You two were definitely made for each other," she crossed her arms as she took a deep breath, "fine then, put it in your pocket and I'll take you there."

Adrien did as Marinette said. He took off his Miraculous, yet if there were to be an emergency, and Adrien would eventually had to transform, he would at least still have it with him.

Marinette was about to wrap Adrien's arms around her body so she would be able to leave together with him, when Adrien shook his head. She would furrow her eyebrows in confusion, growing impatient with him.

"Adrien, if this is about seeing your father, I promise you, I won't let him touch you," Marinette said, looking at Adrien. Her eyes filled with anger, but no anger towards Adrien, more like towards Gabriel. Adrien knew she meant it, which actually did made him feel more relaxed, yet he was still worried.

"It's honestly not even that," Adrien said, putting his hand into his jean-pocket. He pulled out the ring from his pocket and put it back onto his finger. "We've always been a duo, never just Ladybug or Chat Noir," Marinette smiled softly as she was waiting for Adrien to transform into Chat Noir.

Once Adrien was transformed, he took a deep breath before jumping out of his bedroom window, followed by Ladybug. She couldn't believe he actually did it.

Marinette was worried he'd be pushing himself to do things he didn't want to do, only because he might have thought Marinette would have wanted it that way. She was afraid that Adrien would now only act in her favour, and no longer care about his own well-being.

"Chat, you know I would have carried you there, right?" Ladybug said as she caught up with him, now swinging across Paris towards the Agreste Mansion.

A couple of screams were to be heard, but not anything in fear or horrifying screams in general, more like happy and surprised ones. Even a few "Is that Chat Noir?"'s could be heard through. Clearly people caught up on Chat Noir being gone, and suddenly he was back.

"I know, M'lady," he smiled while waving at a few younger looking people that were yelling Chat Noir over and over again, trying to get his attention. "Glad to see they've missed me," he chuckled, giving the people on the ground a warm smile.

Ladybug just rolled her eyes, knowing the sudden affection from the superhero-duo's fans wasn't exactly healthy for his ego

A couple minutes later and they had arrived at Adrien's childhood house. His body was shaking in fear, not knowing whether coming was a good or bad idea. At least he knew Marinette wouldn't let him get hurt, nor allow Gabriel to get anywhere near Adrien.

They entered the Mansion, looking around as once again no one was to be found. Of course Gabriel would be in his office and Nathalie, well, god knows where she would be at all the time.

"Claws in," Chat Noir de-transformed, so he could give Plagg some rest, after all, Gabriel knew about Chat Noir's true identity anyway.

Ladybug intertwined her hand with Adrien's, hoping this would somehow calm his nerves. It did, just not enough for him to be completely calm. Adrien didn't even really care about himself as much, he was more worried that Gabriel would try to hurt Marinette.

Without knocking on the door, Ladybug and Adrien walked right into Gabriel's office, finding him sitting at his desk, designing anything new for his Brand. He didn't even notice someone walking it until Adrien spoke up.

"Father," he said, squeezing Ladybug's hand as Gabriel looked up with a surprised expression.

Gabriel adjusted himself in his chair, fearing he was going to get locked away right about now. Adrien could see this very fear through his father's eyes, and although Adrien didn't even want to see Gabriel in the first place, he still felt bad for his father.

"We're not here to get you locked up," Adrien then said, letting go of Ladybug's hand. Suddenly all of his fears and worries disappeared as he could tell his father wasn't going to do anything.

"Mister Agreste, I need you to tell me why I should let you of the hook. I know Adrien could never make the call to get you arrested, but I'm not Adrien, and I fully can do that without hesitation. So I need you to be completely honest with me and tell my why you did what you did," Ladybug spoke coldly, her heart beating faster than it would after hours of intense work-out.

"I thought I did the right thing," Gabriel began, but Ladybug somewhat cut him off.

"What is it with you Agreste's fucking up, thinking it was the right thing to do?" She groaned, eying Adrien. Even Gabriel looked at Adrien as if he were to say: 'Yeah, you messed up'.

"Adrien deserved to have his mother around, and the longer it took me to, well, get your Miraculous, the more desperate I got. Adrien did open my eyes the night he came here, it was sick of me to be wanting to bring someone back to life," Gabriel explained roughly, Ladybug just nodded in agreement.

Gabriel continued to explain everything he'd already explained to Adrien a while back, hoping Ladybug would somewhat feel empathy towards him, she didn't.

All she could think of was how sick his behaviour was. And she was right, it was sick of him to think he was doing the right thing, it was sick of him to be wanting to bring his dead wife back to life, but that also meant Gabriel was sick and he needed help. Marinette couldn't possibly empathise his behaviour, but she sure could empathise pain.

Gabriel was hurt by his wife's death, which lead to his actions, good or bad. He was an awful father to Adrien, neglecting his own son to terrorise Paris to get back what he loved. It was awful and sick, but pain can cause people to do wrong things. It doesn't make it right, not in any way, yet Marinette wasn't sure if she wouldn't have possibly tried the same if it was Adrien she had lost.

If she would have had Chat Noir's Miraculous that very night, she would have done the same. She would have wanted to bring him back by merging the Miraculous, granting her the wish to bring him back. Maybe she would not have been the one to terrorise Paris to get it, but if she would have had the chance to bring him back, she would have done it.

"You see, Mister Agreste, if I would have had the chance to bring back Chat Noir," she eyed Adrien once again, "back when I thought he died, I would've brought him back as well, I don't blame you for wanting your wife back."

Adrien's eyes widened, not wanting to believe he was the only one who thought this was just plain wrong, yet he also felt kind of special.

"The difference is though, I would never have terrorised so many people like you have," Gabriel bobbed his head as he understood. "What you did was wrong, brutally wrong, and maybe letting you off the hook is just as wrong, but I also believe that there's good within everyone."

Ladybug took a step closer to Gabriel. At first Adrien tried holding her back, but Ladybug wouldn't let him.

"Despite me thinking that you could be a decent man if you wanted to, I think you've been punished enough already. You've lost your wife, and I'm certain you've lost your sons trust along the way of trying to bring Emilie back." Gabriel gulped at the sound of Emilie's name streaming through his ears.

"Look, Marinette," Ladybug shot her eyes open, choking on her own saliva as she heard Gabriel say her name.

"How did you-" Adrien tried to ask.

"Come on, Adrien, it's not that far off. You've always loved Miss Dupain-Cheng here, and your fascination with Ladybug had never stayed unnoticed. And besides, how else would you explain the pretty obvious similarities between the two of them now?" Gabriel raised his eyebrows, suddenly making Adrien feel even more stupid.

-♡-

"He does seem nicer," Marinette said as they exited the mansion. Adrien just agreed, yet he was somewhat suspicious of his father.

Adrien had already transformed into Chat Noir back inside, so once he was outside he thought he could just immediately make his way back home, but Marinette seemed to have different plans.

Only a moment after Chat Noir had extended his staff to get home, following Marinette, he had changed his mind.

Maybe what he was about to do would have added more to the 'Adrien fucked up'-list, or he could have been saving his relationship to Marinette with it, but he couldn't possibly make it even worse.

He made sure Marinette saw him switch directions, secretly hoping she was curious enough to follow him, but he made sure not to look back, fighting his own curiosity, his urge to make sure he was being followed by her.

The whole time while he was making his way towards his new destination, he was worrying if he was doing the right thing, probably not, but it was a try worth it.

He knew all Marinette ever wanted was someone to be bold and straight forward, Chat Noir was just that. Chat Noir never played games when it came to his feelings, Adrien on the other hand preferred to hide.

So if Adrien wanted to keep Marinette in his life, without her hating him more and more with every passing second, he would have to be straight forward.

Adrien had to make up his mind. He knew he loved Marinette, and he was sure it was a shock for Marinette to hear it from him, when all along he would have called Marinette 'just a friend'. He also knew Marinette knew Adrien loved her the second she had figured out his identity, but something still kept her from fully believing in it.

So bold and straight forward it was. No more hesitating, no more hiding, just praying he wouldn't mess up even more.

He had arrived at Marinette's parents' bakery. It was closed, which was pretty much to his surprise. It was Friday, day time, they were never closed at this time. He balled his hands into fists, looking at the closed door before trying to find another way inside the building.

Marinette's bedroom.

He extended his staff one last time, letting himself being shot up into the air before landing right onto Marinette's balcony. He checked if the trap door and window was opened, and to his luck, it was.

Chat Noir opened the window-trap-door enough to enter Marinette's old bedroom. He looked around the room for just a second before shaking his head, not wanting to lose his focus on what he was about to do.

He put his words together before, repeating them in his head over and over again as he would want to explain everything to her parents. But Marinette was unpredictable, she, of course, had to come in between eventually.

Adrien exited Marinette's room, taking the stairs down to the living room, where he would find her parents sitting on the couch, watching the news.

The news were mostly reporting about how Chat Noir was back, and some conspiracy theories as to why that was, but he didn't want to focus on those.

"Sabine, Tom," Chat Noir said from behind them, fidgeting with his fingers.

The both of them flinched at the sudden voice appearing from behind of them, turning around to face Chat Noir in shock.

"Chat Noir?" Tom then found his voice.

Adrien looked down at himself, chuckling as he had realised he'd never transformed back into his civilian self. He scratched the back of his neck before calling out his de-transformation.

"Adrien?" Sabine's eyes widened even more, but that still wasn't as far as they could go. Only until Ladybug entered the living room angrily was when Sabine's eyes extended to the fullest.

"I swear to god, you dumb fuck, why can't you just leave me and my family alone!?" Ladybug yelled at Adrien.

She most definitely was still mad, or so I'd say.

"M-Marinette?" Tom hid behind his wife, not sure of what was going on right there in front of him.

Adrien's expression softened as he saw how gentle Tom and Sabine were being to one another, but Marinette would quickly be all over his vision.

She had de-transformed, eyebrows almost squeezed together completely, her nose scrunched and her lips pouting the way Adrien could only ever find it cute, but he knew if he said that, she would only get more mad.

"I love you," Adrien said under his breath. Adrien himself didn't even notice he had said it until Tom's joyful screams were streaming through his ears.

Marinette looked at her father just as angrily as she did at Adrien, wanting her own father to stop getting his hopes up.

She knew Tom was shipping Adrien and Marinette ever since the beginning, but he also knew that it would never happen. Alya had told Sabine and Tom about Adrien's girlfriend, and they clearly crossed the thought of 'Adrinette' out of their mind ever since, or maybe they haven't, after all Tom was still trying his best to get Adrien to like his daughter.

"What do you want, Adrien?" Marinette then asked, trying to get Adrien to at least make his way up into Marinette's old bedroom so they could talk in peace, but that wasn't what he wanted.

"Your father's blessing," Adrien said with all of his courage, just earning a confused look from Marinette, but he would ignore that.

Tom on the other hand was jumping up and down behind his wife, barely being able to hold in his excited screams and joyful laughter.

"Oh my- you two are finally a couple!" Tom yelled in excitement, "Sabine, it's happening! Get out the, get out everything!"

Marinette tried so hard to keep that smile away from her lips, and she succeeded. As much as she always wanted this to be her life, she could never be with Adrien ever again, not after what he had done to her.

"Dad, we're not, nor will we ever be," Marinette said coldly, turning away from Adrien.

"That's such bullshit!" Adrien exclaimed, almost yelling in anger. "You know damn well that I love you, Marinette, and I know you love me, too!"

"Yeah, Marinette, he loves you! That's all you ever wanted," Tom would stand behind Adrien, laying his huge hands down onto his shoulders as he was taking Adrien's side.

Sabine on the other hand didn't like Tom's behaviour. She had always thought Adrien would eventually come to his senses, but she certainly wasn't going to force Adrien's too late coming love onto her own daughter.

At least she thought it was too late, until she had finally comprehended what happened before.

"Wait a minute, you two are Ladybug and Chat Noir," Sabine noted, "and Ladybug and Chat Noir are dating, that means-"

"We're not anymore, mum. Adrien decided to fake his own death, so we broke up the night he died. He didn't even tell me about anything, he saw me die on the inside for a whole day until I eventually put the pieces together." Marinette continued to explain everything that had happened ever since that night.

And although Sabine would understand why Marinette was having trouble trusting Adrien's words now, she also knew they were meant to be together.

"You can forgive my father for everything he had done, but you can't forgive me for thinking I was protecting you," Adrien's voice sounded sad, filled with pain even.

Marinette kept quiet.

"I just came here because I can't live without you, Marinette. You've been all I've ever wanted from day one, but you always seemed to be way out of my league, so I tried to move on only to fall for you all over again," Tom swung his hands around, always pointing back at Adrien as if he was trying to make Marinette realise something.

"I'm aware now that I've made a really stupid mistake, and I am here telling you I am sorry. How often do you need me to apologise until you forgive me?" He was crying, still praying he wasn't going to lose Marinette completely.

Sabine was even quieter than Marinette, not wanting to interfere in her daughter's relationship drama, unlike her husband did.

"I just want you to leave me alone, Adrien," Marinette said, holding back her tears.

"I will, after you've answered me one thing. Why did you fall for Chat Noir?"

Tom and Marinette's eyes widened, yet Marinette was also choking on air as she wasn't expecting this question.

She thought about it for a second before answering. "Cause he reminded me of you, but he was braver and more straight forward."

Tom rolled his eyes as Adrien just bopped his head.

"Alright," Adrien said as he then proceeded to face Tom, "mister Dupain, I know Marinette is not willing to forgive me just yet, but if I promise to continue fighting for her, would you allow me to marry your daughter one lucky day?"

Before Adrien could even attempt to say anything else, Tom was already hugging Adrien tightly, screaming yes after yes loud enough for the whole street to hear.

"Tom," Sabine's voice was harsh. She was in disbelief of her own husband.

"What? He said 'one lucky day' not 'right about now'," Tom defended himself.

Adrien thanked Tom, feeling relieved, which also brought back Chat Noir's typical humour and inappropriate talking in serious situation.

So Adrien quickly transformed back into Chat Noir so he could leave before Marinette was going to strangle him after what he was about to say.

"I know you're hating me right now, but whatever happened earlier says differently, Milady," he winked right before jumping out of the window.

Marinette groaned desperately, slapping her hands into her face. She walked over to her father, pressing her face right into his body as she was continuing to groan.

"You're so dead, dad," Marinette said.

"Don't kill that poor man, he really seems to love you a lot, Mari," Tom took Marinette into a tight hug.

"He messed up, dad."

"A relationship wouldn't work without mistakes, honey," Sabine then interrupted, finally saying something as well.

"Yeah, but he faked his death, that's more than a mistake."

"See, sometimes I'm not quite sure who's more dense, you or Adrien," Tom laughed, "he just tried to protect you, if you keep seeing protection as a fatal mistake you'll never be happy. Sure he could have used his brain cells, but we all know he doesn't have many of those, so let that kid be, forgive him and get married, with three kids and a hamster named-"

"DAD!"

"Dad? Now that's a pretty inconvenient name for a hamster."

Marinette chuckled at her father's silliness.

And although Marinette didn't want to admit to it yet, Adrien asking her father for his blessing to marry her did make her feel as if everything could be back to normal again eventually.