Marinette was never going to complain about having to get out of bed ever again.

Two weeks she'd spent confined to the tiny space of her hospital bed, and it was driving her mad. There was a TV in her room, her parents brought her books, games and schoolwork, plus there were frequent visits from her friends, but she'd barely moved in a fortnight and she was permanently on the edge of just screaming and jumping out of the window.

She'd never had an issue with bed rest before, but her hospital bed seemed like a smaller and smaller jail cell every day.

It turned out that getting shot took quite a toll on her body (surprise!) so the doctors had decided that even standing up would put unnecessary stress on the injury. Mari was basically carried everywhere- on the way to the bathroom she was lifted into a wheelchair, she had baths rather than showers and she hadn't even gotten to the stage of standing up unsupported yet. Just sitting up still hurt, so she was secretly grateful, but also going insane.

The hospital staff were all kind and intuitive and could sense her frustration, but there was nothing they could do. Nobody wanted to run the risk of straining her injury even further, least of all Marinette, so she complied with the bare minimum of complaining. But everything was just seeming to pile up to contribute to her growing bad mood: she hadn't been Ladybug in weeks and the news was full of speculation and rumour-mongering. Tikki was staying with Adrien as they hadn't wanted to run the risk of someone seeing her while they were asleep and though she visited frequently, Mari missed the little bug. The hospital food was boring and tasteless, and she even found herself missing school after once resorting to reading the same book twice in a day due to her fathomless boredom.

But today was going to be different. Today was the day she'd been counting down towards for the last two weeks; the end of Adrien's grounding. For the first time, he was allowed back out of the house unaccompanied, and though he'd visited every single night as Chat, they'd agreed not to risk him de-transforming and being caught as a civilian, so she hadn't seen Adrien for all that time. But last night he'd promised to be here as soon as visiting hours began, and she was finally going to see him as his civilian counterpart. So Marinette didn't complain as she was wheeled to the restroom and back, didn't whine at the repetitive blandness of the hospital breakfasts and instead waited on tenterhooks for the blond to arrive.

"Excited?" The redheaded nurse asked laughingly as she wheeled the girl back to her room, noticing the way she was bouncing in the chair.

Marinette nodded, trying to contain her childish animation.

"My friend's coming to see me today." She squeaked and the nurse bent down to help her back into bed with a knowing smile.

"Ah. Your friend."

Marinette blushed at the wink she was given and ducked her head. Truthfully, she wasn't quite sure why she was so excited- she'd secretly seen the boy every single night she'd been there, but it technically hadn't been Adrien. This was the first time she was going to see the blond as himself now she knew who he really was, and she was oddly anxious. But tremendously enthusiastic.

"Uh-huh."

The nurse chuckled and rearranged Mari's pillows so she could sit up comfortably.

"Well, I think today's your lucky day, Mari. A little birdie told me that Doctor Angarius might possibly have some good news for you. He'll be here later to give it to you."

Marinette perked up her ears.

"Good news? What sort of good news?"

"Ah, ah." The nurse smiled and tapped the side of her nose secretively. "Sorry, no spoilers. You'll find out soon enough. But why don't I go and get your hairbrush so you can look all clean and tidy for your friend?"

The bluenette sighed disappointedly, then nodded. The nurse left swiftly with a grin, and Mari was left alone.

Good news… Sounded enticing. She was curious, and a little hopeful, but that was quickly swept from her mind when she heard footsteps in the corridor outside. Familiar footsteps.

He was here.

Straightening abruptly and combing anxiously through her loose, damp hair with her fingers, Mari waited. Moments later, the door was cracked open and a blond head was pushed round it, looking slightly nervous.

For a moment, there was a silence as the two teen superheroes looked tensely at one another, and then Adrien let a huge smile spread across his face.

"Hey, Mari." He said, stepping fully into the room, his grin infectious and his eyes sparkling.

"Hi," Marinette's voice was squeaky and she cleared her throat, embarrassed. "Adrien. Hi. Hey."

He chuckled and she noticed he was holding one of his hands behind his back. She raised an eyebrow, impressively cool considering the blush dusting her cheeks and he smirked coyly.

"These are for you," he announced, flamboyantly producing an extravagant bouquet of exquisite flowers, tied together with green ribbon and dusted with glitter. Mari gasped, her face lighting up at the sight of the beautiful blooms.

"Oh, Adrien! They're gorgeous! Thank you so much," she squealed, her heart fluttering at how damn romantic he was. How was he so good at this? As if reading her thoughts, Adrien smiled even more widely and stepped over to sit next to her, placing the bouquet in her hands.

Suddenly, Marinette stopped squealing and intensely surveyed the flowers, her heartbeat quickening as she recognised the blossoms. Adrien noticed and grew worried. He tried to play it cool.

"What's wrong? Stunned into silence by my romance and suave attitude, my Lady?"

"No," Mari giggled after a moment, covering her mouth with a hand as she dredged up distant knowledge she'd never thought she'd need. "But rouge amaryllis, lavender roses and spider flowers? Bit... forward, isn't it?"

A wary frown crossed his face, his cheeks darkening slightly as he stared at her. Marinette could sense his confusion and laughed, setting the bouquet on her bedside table.

"What? What are you- what?" He looked even more bemused when she laughed again and shook her head.

"Adrien, what exactly did you tell the florist when you picked out the flowers?"

Adrien frowned again.

"Uh, that they were for a girl. Um, an important one. And… that she liked pink. That was about it. Why?"

When his only answer was more giggles, he narrowed his eyes at the flowers, thinking hard. A thought struck him and he looked at Mari, alarmed. "Wait- this isn't about the stupid flower language, is it? Oh, god, are these not good flowers? Because I swear, I have no idea what these mean."

Marinette was practically shaking the bed in her laughter and Adrien grew even more embarrassed and scared by the second.

"Come on- Mari- what do they- stop laughing- I- what do they mean?"

Marinette struggled to compose herself, managing to plaster a straight faced-mask over her smirk.

"Well, let's see," she began counting on her fingers as she listed the flowers and their meanings. "Okay, well the amaryllis are certainly flattering, they mean 'majestic beauty'… so thanks for that."

"Oh god." Adrien covered his face with his hands as she continued.

"And lavender roses mean you're enchanted with me. That's cool, that's always useful in a relationship. But then we get to the- oh, you put dodecatheons in here as well? I hadn't noticed… that makes this even better."

"What?" Adrien felt like he was dying in horror, especially when he saw the smug glint in his girlfriend's eyes. "What do the dodecahedrons mean?"

"Dodecatheons," she corrected. "Dodecahedrons are a type of shape.

"Whatever. What do they mean?"

"Dodecatheons… hmm. Well, I knew you liked me, but telling me I'm your 'divinity'? Especially through floriography… oh Adrien. And then there's the spider flowers. I'm flattered, but I really think you're going to have to talk to my father first."

"What?"

"I mean, I'd love to elope with you, but we've only been together for a couple of months…"

"What!?"

Marinette laughed again at the horrified expression on her face, only stopping when the redheaded nurse strolled back in with a questioning smile on her face.

"Having fun?" Then she noticed Adrien and a gleeful expression crossed her face. "Oh, Marinette… This must be your friend- gosh, look at those gorgeous flowers!"

"Aren't they beautiful?" Mari crowed, showing them off and ignoring the imploringly embarrassed look her boyfriend was giving her.

"Hmm. They are indeed." The nurse seemed to be giving the flowers a lot of attention and Adrien felt his stomach drop.

"Oh god, please don't tell me you have an advanced degree in flower language, too?"

The nurse laughed and Adrien wanted to sink through the floor. He was soo going to kill Plagg, the damn kwami was the one who'd picked out the stupid flowers.

"Not exactly an advanced degree, but I know my aconites from my amaryllis, and those are some stunning amaryllis right there. Marinette's a lucky girl." With that, the nurse placed a hairbrush on the bedside table, gave him a sly wink and exited the room.

"So, are we going to have a spring wedding, or were you just planning to whisk me off to Las Vegas?"

"Maaariiiii!"

Marinette laughed again, the chiming bell of her voice almost enough to quell the pool of mortification churning in his stomach.

"Adrien, I'm just teasing. They're beautiful, really. Thank you."

Adrien sighed and let a rueful smile tug at the corners of his lips.

"Good, I'm glad you like them. And Plagg was the one who picked them out, so you can blame him… Oh! Now the look the florist gave me when I bought them totally makes sense…"

Giggling, Marinette leaned over to grab the front of his shirt to tug him in for a kiss. It was short, but when Adrien pulled back he was smiling even more widely and he was definitely less embarrassed.

He smiled at her through hooded eyes and she gazed back, love in her face and a grin still on her lips. Footsteps sounded in the corridor outside, and they looked round to see a doctor enter the ward, a clipboard in his hands.

"Doctor Angarius, good morning." Marinette smiled, sitting up straight. "Nurse Dulcifer said you had something to tell me."

The dark-haired man nodded a greeting to Adrien, then turned to Marinette.

"I do indeed, Miss Cheng. But I'm afraid, there's good news and bad news."