The skylight suddenly swung open, revealing a disheveled Alya, clutching her phone to her chest for dear life. Panting and breathless, the brunette smiled broadly, surprising her best friend. Given what just had happened between her best friend and her leather-clad partner, shouldn't the former be upset over the latter's rather harsh scolding?

Voice dripping with excitement, Alya pulled herself on the balcony, closing the distance between them. "What are you doing out there? You missed on all the action!"

Marinette smiled back weakly, still unsure about how to react to her obvious excitement. "I was waiting for you to come back while doing a little stargazing. Always does wonders to soothe me when I'm worried about a certain reporter that keeps running toward danger. However, did you get any good footage? You seem to be pretty excited about it."

At this, her best friend purposely ignored the light reprimand about her dangerous habits and beamed, bouncing back and forth with pent up energy. "You just won't believe what happened just now! Chat Noir hugged me! Me! Out of all… oh. Wait a second. Adrien needs to be here for this."

"He does?" wondered Marinette. Had her beloved kitty's insane and thoughtless plan really succeeded that well?

Ignoring her raven-haired friend once again, Alya unlocked her phone and quickly dialed some number, putting the small device on speaker mode. It rang about twice before going through, a visibly (and understandably) wary Adrien answering. "What do you want, Alya? Getting tired of keeping Mari all to yourself? Can I finally talk to my girlfriend myself?"

If she hadn't known better, Marinette might have felt bad for her blond boyfriend. As things were currently unfolding, she had to fight the traitorously knowing smile creeping up on her lips. Thankfully for them, Alya was entirely focused on her own scoop, therefore being completely oblivious to her best friend's less than believable schooled expression as it currently was. Sighing impatiently, the reporter tapped her foot and shook her head. "Actually yes, Agreste. Get your sorry ass at the bakery A.S.A.P. I know some blue-eyed girl who's getting antsy to get her hands all over you."

As Marinette cringed at her friend's poor choice of words, she heard her boyfriend's breath hitch on the other side of the line. "Ugh. Why does it come across as a threat coming from you?"

Alya grunted, pinching the bridge of her nose. Marinette smirked, knowing perfectly well that Adrien was toying with the edges of her patience. "Just get here, Agreste. We have some pressing matters to talk about."

"Alright then, I was at the park anyway, I won't be long." He sighed a little louder than necessary.

Just as her best friend hung up the phone, Marinette crossed her arms in front of herself. "Care to explain to me what this is about? Why am I suddenly allowed to talk to Adrien, let alone see him? Isn't he a menace to my heart and my happiness anymore?"

In her defense, Alya had the grace to look sheepish, as her hazel eyes suddenly found growing interest in the tip of her shoes. "I may have gotten admonished pretty badly by Chat Noir a few minutes ago."

Marinette raised a suspicious eyebrow at that, reminding herself that she wasn't supposed to know what in the world her friend was talking about, leaning against the railing of the balcony. "That's why you're so pumped up? Chat Noir scolded you? About what?"

"Well, you see, I might have made an itsy-bitsy-tiny mistake. As it appears, Adrien didn't cheat on you after all."

"What?" exclaimed Marinette louder than she intended to, too eager to get her point across. She had never been great at acting, and truth be told, she was beginning to find the whole ordeal hilarious. She had been afraid that Chat Noir's rather aggressive scolding would hurt her friend rather badly, not willing in the slightest to fight Lady Wifi once again. As it would seem, though, Alya was apparently safe apart from a slightly harsh but much needed reality check and a really bad case of being star struck.

Right on cue, her boyfriend's blond mop of hair appeared through the still open skylight, and he smiled shyly. "Evening, ladies. You wanted to see me?"

Marinette turned around to face him, her inner Ladybug showing a little as she crossed her arms in front of her. "Apparently, Alya has some apologies to make if I correctly understood the bomb she just dropped on me."

Pulling himself up on the balcony, Adrien reluctantly had to remind himself to keep a safe distance between himself and his girlfriend. As far as the brunette knew, they were still fighting. So he remained by the opening, his hands resting on his hips as he eyed the brunette warily. "Well, what is this about?"

Alya gulped painfully and shamefully averted her eyes from him as she reluctantly answered "I might have made a little - OUCH!" Her hand flew to cover the spot on her arm that Marinette had just punched, and she eyed her best friend warily. "Okay, FINE. I have messed up BIG time, and I'm really sorry. To you both. Gosh girl, you're really stronger than you seem."

The young man had to repress the knowing smile threatening to spread on his lips, instead settling on squinting his eyes, giving the impression that he was searching for lies. "Care to explain this sudden change of heart? This morning you wouldn't even listen to my side of the story, and now you believe it? Without even hearing it? I'm a bit lost here."

Alya sighed dejectedly. "After the akuma attack, earlier, I… I said something really mean to Ladybug. I shouldn't have, it was uncalled for and petty on my part, but I'm kinda glad I did it anyway, because Chat Noir snapped. He stepped in and called me out on my shit without sugar-coating it. He told me about how irresponsible I had been for posting those articles on the Ladyblog without checking my sources first. He also told me that I'm their favorite reporter and that they don't want me getting sued over lies, and then he hugged me! Can you imagine that?"

"What does that have to do with me at all?" asked Adrien, still fighting a stubborn smile. The reporter was rambling, and if he hadn't know what had actually happened beforehand, he wouldn't have understood a single word of what she had just said.

"Ah, you see," stuttered the poor Alya, still uneasy over the mess she had created "Chat Noir made it quite clear that the picture that have been leaked to the media was a fake. Apparently, Ladybug and him were waiting for the hype to die on its own, but he got tired of the negative press about his lady. So if Ladybug hasn't cheated on Chat Noir, it means that-"

"That I haven't cheated on Mari either. Which I would've explained a week ago if you had let me talk to her at all."

Alya shifted uncomfortably, then seemed to make up her mind, giving a slight push to her best friend. "What are you waiting for, Mari? I know for a fact that you missed him like crazy, go for it!"

Marinette shook her head, a shy smile dancing on her lips. "Not with you watching our every move, Alya. Not gonna happen."

"Alright then, I'll give you lovebirds some privacy. I'm sorry again, Adrien. Still friends?" Alya smiled, for the first time that night meeting her friends' gazes.

Finally letting the smile he had been suppressing for too long already creeping up on his face, the blond stepped forward and held his pinky finger up, which Alya gladly locked hers with. "Of course we're still friends. You were only trying to protect Marinette, I can't get mad about that. But next time we have a fight, and let's face it, there will be a next time, can you please let us sort it out on our own?"

The bespectacled girl nodded sheepishly. "Of course, Adrien, you're right. I should've known better than to meddle in your relationship. Next time I'll stay in the bleachers and help you guys pick up the pieces after the fight. The worst part is that I know perfectly well that you could never hurt anybody on purpose, and yet I assumed the very worst of you. I really am sorry."

As the three of them made their way down the skylight, Marinette sighed. "I think I have apologies to make, too. I should've given you a chance to speak for yourself, Adrien, even if Alya disagreed. At least listen to your side of the story. It would've spared us all a lot of pain this week."

"It's okay, Mari, you were upset and-"

"I wouldn't have gotten a hug from Chat Noir and all the footage I got tonight!" Alya chimed in, holding her phone up as she gathered her things and put them back in her bag. Adrien seemingly deemed their separation, as fake as it had been, to have lasted long enough already as he stepped forward and laced an arm around Marinette's waist. His initiative was met with a bright smile from their friend when she looked up again. Securing her bag on her shoulder, Alya tucked her phone back into her pocket.

"I'll see myself out, you two work on returning to the sickeningly cute couple you were before this mess, alright?"

"Is that a command, General Alya?" huffed Marinette, her fingers brushing tenderly Adrien's on her hip.

"You bet it is. See you two tomorrow and you better be all lovey-dovey over each other, alright? I'm going to edit and post Chat Noir's declaration. Hopefully it'll be enough to get everyone off your case and rehabilitate Ladybug's reputation."

With a final wave and a playful wink to Marinette, she was gone. Which left a grinning Adrien turning to face his girlfriend, pulling her close to him. "This mess is finally over, Mari. Can I sleep over tonight? I missed you so much, I thought I was going crazy."

"Of course, Minou."

The witty reply he had been thinking about was muffled by the impatient kiss she planted on his lips.

---

They both slept better that night than either of them had over the course of the past week. Despite her best intentions, Alya was nowhere near as comfortable as Adrien was, and the brunette was definitely a fidgety sleeper, which made it hard for the poor girl to sleep soundly all week long with her best friend jerking all around in her bed. On top of that, Marinette had been painfully self-conscious about her sleeping habits, trying her best to avoid any inappropriate cuddling with her best friend, which proved to be rather difficult seeing how often she had slept in Adrien's arms over the past months. The familiar warmth of her boyfriend pressed against her longing body definitely helped Marinette's dreamless slumber.

They woke up well-rested, happy and hopeful about the day they were about to face. They still had a long way to go, but they would go through it together. And that certainty was comforting in a way they couldn't have imagined before.

The first surprise of the morning was how pleasant Marinette's parents were toward their (hopefully) future son-in-law and overall welcoming and accepting of Adrien. Marinette and Adrien both had expected her parents to be understandably wary of him, maybe even a little hostile considering the circumstances. But they weren't even close to that. Tom and Sabine were their usual sweet and kind selves, grinning and insisting that the boy eat his fair share of calories before going to school. The infidelity rumors weren't even mentioned in any way, Marinette's dad kept joking like he hadn't a care in the world while her mom kept that loving smile plastered on her face. It was just like nothing had happened at all, which the pair found odd, but were grateful for.

The young couple walked to school once again, Marinette's hand tightly secured into her boyfriend's as they chatted quietly and laughed together. They were unmistakably walking as close to each other as humanly possible, and when the school came into view, Adrien couldn't help but feel his lover stiffens beside him. "Don't worry, bugaboo. We're in this together."

She flashed him a grateful smile, but as they crossed the school's threshold, they both somehow felt as if they had just walked into the dragon's den.