Seven Seconds

Backs Against the Wall

Zero akuma attacks.

One tray of macarons.

Two teenagers.

Add them together and you get an amazing night.

Chat stayed as late as possible the following evening at Marinette's, but eventually she did have to kick him out. There couldn't be any more sleepovers no matter how much they both wanted him to stay.

It was fine though. The memories of her sweet kisses would hold him over until the next time he had the pleasure to receive them.

Back in his own bed, Adrien couldn't get his mind off of those beautiful lips of hers.

Those beautiful lips that would smile at him. Those beautiful lips that would move as she said wonderful things. And of course, those beautiful lips that would caress him as they kissed.

They were everything.

Lying there, Adrien had an overwhelming desire to punch himself in the face. He had foolishly denied those lips for too long. If he hadn't been such a blind idiot, he could have been kissing Marinette for weeks now.

When he was dating her as Adrien, she tried to kiss him. Not once, but two times. And before the famous incident, he almost kissed her.

So much precious time was lost. All because he wasn't paying attention.

But one thing was for sure; he would make up for it now. As either Adrien or Chat Noir, he would accept those beautiful lips every single chance he got.

They were the reason. The reason he was able to get through the school day.

He gave Marinette plenty of space. After all, he had already done too much to upset her. The last thing he wanted was to be hanging all over her.

Correction: that's exactly what he wanted to do. But he knew that he shouldn't.

So Adrien kept a respectful distance.

Looking forward to the upcoming evening at Marinette's, he went home after school. But he didn't stay there long.

After reaching his room, he immediately transformed and hurried across the city. Ladybug was already waiting for him on a rooftop near the Eiffel Tower.

It was time for patrol. Every few days they would meet up to take a look around Paris. Besides akuma attacks, sometimes their assistance was needed during other types of emergencies. But that didn't happen too often. They usually just made sure that things were good, then went home.

Of course, Chat Noir used to love going on patrol. It was a chance to spend more time with Ladybug, so he was all for it. But now that he was seeing Marinette, it didn't really have much appeal.

Unless... he made a little detour from the usual route to go and visit her. That way he could get some extra kisses in before their nightly session. That would make it worth it.

But Ladybug didn't seem interested in doing any patrolling. "Hey Chat," she said with a smile as he landed beside her. "I was thinking, would you want to skip patrol today and do something else instead?"

"Something else?"

"Yeah, like something fun."

He blinked at her. Okay, who was this, and what did she do to the real Ladybug? "Something fun?" he repeated, dumbfounded.

"Well don't sound so surprised," she laughed. "I like doing fun things."

Definitely an imposter. "Since when?"