A/N: Apologies for the delay! I wrote and rewrote like 3 versions of this chapter, and didn't ever feel like it was the right story. Then, I sat down and wrote this all in one night, and I like it better. Writing's funny like that, isn't it?

Anyway, to quote Stefon from SNL, this chapter has everything: compulsory hand holding, identity reveals, absolute fluff, mentions of fake dating, and quantum theory metaphors. Since it's been so long, I wanted to get back to the roots of Behind the Masks, so this is a clear cut Adrien and Marinette reveal. Hopefully this chapter is worth your awfully long wait - I'm hoping to have a better posting schedule now that things aren't as crazy. Thanks for reading! I'll be back with more oneshots soon!

Season 3 spoilers for Oblivio apply.

Magnetized: After the events of Oblivio, something about Chat Noir and Ladybug's kiss forged a bond that draws them together, despite their memory loss. Meanwhile, the universe seems insistent that Marinette and Adrien reunite, but this has some drawbacks. Namely, they can't seem to stop holding hands.

At school the day after Oblivio, Adrien is cramming books into his locker when it happens. There's a tingle against his right palm, like wind passing across his skin. Bewildered, he looks around, wondering if maybe it's a draft from one of the windows, but none of them are open. Nobody else seems to have had the curious sensation, because the hallway is bustling with students going about their normal routines. It's a normal Wednesday for everyone else. But yesterday wasn't normal for Adrien.

Yesterday, he kissed Ladybug, and can't for the life of him figure out how it happened.

He does one more glance around, and the tingling intensifies into a distinct warmth. As if someone is holding his hand. He nearly drops his book bag and glances over his shoulder again, wondering if this is some kind of medical emergency. Is this a symptom for something? Maybe he should have paid more attention in anatomy.

Then he notices Marinette. She has her locker door open, so he can't see her face, but she is opening and closing her left hand, as if she's having the same problem. Adrien finishes unloading his books, grabs his math notes, and wanders over to her. She closes her locker door at that very moment, and suddenly they're face to face. Her eyes widen and she jumps back, arms flailing. A few students around them duck to avoid getting hit.

"Agh! You scared me! How long have you been standing there?"

He can't help but smile. "Sorry! Not long, I literally just walked up."

"Oh. Hi?"

"Hi." He's never really noticed before, but Marinette's eyes are really, really blue. Like the ocean. Peaceful, deep, mysterious. A riptide, pulling him in.

"D-Did you…need something?"

He blinks, startled. "Oh right." Now that he thinks about it, it feels weird to ask if something's wrong with her hand. "Uh, never mind."

They stare at each other awkwardly for a moment, before Adrien's hand moves of its own volition. It seems Marinette's does the same thing, because the hands meet mid-distance between them and interlock fingers. They both stare in horror; they're holding hands.

Never mind how right it feels to be connected to her (which…why is Adrien even thinking that?), this should not be happening. What is going on?

Adrien wrestles his hand away, which is harder than he expected. It's like pulling two strong magnets apart. He feels strangely disappointed when he's finally able to get free, though this thought is quickly surpassed by the fact that he is completely mortified. "I…I am so sorry. I have no idea what just happened."

"Me either," Marinette says faintly. "We should…um…go to class."

"Yeah."

They part eagerly, and Adrien doesn't have to look in the reflection of the glass door to his classroom to know his face is beet red. And the worst thing? The curious sensation of someone holding his hand is still there. And it's getting worse.

By lunchtime, his hand feels heavy, as if it's expending a lot of energy resisting some magnetic pull. Without meaning to, he finds himself in line at a café he never goes to. He hardly ever goes off campus for lunch. Nathalie insists on him bringing carefully curated, nutritionist-specified food and eating in the courtyard outside the school where he can get fresh air. But apparently Adrien disregarded this rule today; his lunch is still in his locker. The scary thing is he doesn't remember walking over here. Or making the decision to leave in the first place.

In front of him in line is none other than Marinette. She looks just as bemused to find herself here, and the crease between her brows only deepens when she notices him behind her.

"Adrien, this is going to sound really weird, but I don't remember how I got here. Did we come in together?"

Bewildered, Adrien shakes his head no. "But I don't remember choosing to come to this place either. It's like I was-"

They both finish, "-drawn here."

He looks down and his hand is laced tightly with hers again. When did that happen?

Marinette is horrified. "What is going on? What is up with this? Is this you being funny?"

"No, I thought it might have been you? I think something odd is going on here."

Adrien has to admit, under any other circumstances, it would be kind of nice to be holding hands with her, going out to lunch, sitting with her and just talking.

What is happening to him?

"I can't seem to get my hand free," Marinette says. She is clearly trying to sound casual since this is a busy public place. But Adrien can tell she's freaking out as much as he is. It's like their hands are stuck together. He tries to move his hand away, but to no avail.

"Me either."

"What do we do?" She stares at him with wide eyes. He's never noticed before, but her lashes are long enough to cast shadows on her cheeks when she blinks.

"I have no idea. Maybe we should try again? Maybe we need to think about separating? Maybe it's a mind thing?"

Nothing works. By the end of lunch, neither of them has eaten, and they've had to walk all the way back to school with their hands still clasped. They're both at a loss. Adrien flashes a panicked look at Plagg when the kwami pokes his head out of his jacket pocket, and Plagg shakes his head, worry pinching his tiny whiskers.

They obviously can't go back like this. For one thing, they're not even in the same classes, and for another, everyone's going to think they're a couple.

This, on top of the photo of Chat Noir kissing Ladybug yesterday that surfaced on the Ladyblog, is going to make Adrien's life completely impossible.

"This way," Marinette pulls him over where they are concealed by the bushes on the side of the school entrance. She seems to know exactly what he's thinking. "We can't go in there like this. Let's think this through."

"I know. There has to be an explanation. Do you have any idea why our hands would, um…"

"Decide to permanently attach themselves to each other? No."

"Me either. Have you done anything weird in the last twenty-four hours that would cause this? Interacted with any magical beings? Become akumatized? Angered any wizards?"

"No," she says, but she answers too quickly.

Adrien narrows his eyes. "You're lying."

She groans. "No I'm not."

"Yes you are. What happened?"

"I got hit by Oblivio yesterday, while I was on the field trip," she says, but her eyes dart nervously around. Is this another lie?

"So did I. What would Oblivio have to do with any of this?"

"I have no idea."

She stares at him, her lips twisted as if she's conflicted.

"What?" he asks.

"What if we can't fix it? What if we're stuck holding hands like, forever?"

"Well," he begins sarcastically, "we could probably pass it off as we're dating for a little while. That could buy us some time until we can get married. Or we could probably just move and change our names and live in disgraced infamy until they invent a surgery that can separate hands that insist upon being held." Adrien isn't sure where this side of him is coming from. He usually reserves this punchy attitude for Chat Noir, but the stress is starting to get to him. He can't restrain the sass for much longer.

Instead of looking irritated, Marinette just gapes. "Dating?" That seems to be the only part she heard.

"What? People would believe it. We could pull it off." He's still half-kidding, but now that he thinks about it, it doesn't seem that terrible. It might be kind of fun. Marinette is cool.

"You'd…you'd do that? Pretend to date me?"

"Well…yeah, sure. It's probably a more reasonable explanation than magic," he says, squeezing her hand.

She blushes furiously. "You shouldn't have to do that."

"What? Why? Anyone would be lucky to fake date you. Or real date you," he adds as an afterthought. "If I didn't have a crush on someone else, I'd totally date you."

She blinks, and those eyelash shadows are back. How come Adrien keeps noticing them? He never used to see stuff like that with Marinette before. He only noticed details like that on Ladybug until…until today.

"Who do you have a crush on?" she demands quietly, "Is it Kagami?"

"I…no. Kagami? Really?"

She is looking at her shoes. "Yeah?"

"No. We're friends. But no. I…I have a crush on Ladybug." The words are out of his mouth before he can stop them. He's going to regret bringing this up. This is edging dangerously close into revealing "I'm Chat Noir" territory.

She jerks her head up sharply, eyes pinned to his with new intensity. "Ladybug?"

"Yeah. She's…a lot like you actually. Smart and brave and really kind. I used to wonder if you were Ladybug. It would make a lot of sense, you're both kind of amazing."

"Adrien," she says, her voice quivering, "you can't say stuff like that to me."

"What? Why? It's a compliment."

The period bell rings. They're officially late for class, but Adrien doesn't care. They have bigger things to focus on right now.

Marinette steels herself. "Because…I like you. I've liked you for a long time. And when you talk like that, it sounds like you like me back? I don't know, maybe I'm not saying this right? But it's hard to hear you say those things and then be reminded you have a crush on someone else."

He freezes, finally understanding. "Oh…"

"And knowing you like Ladybug…well, it changes some things."

"What things?"

He tries to pull his hand away from hers, to test if maybe whatever weird magic is holding them together has worn off. They're still stuck fast. This probably isn't the best time to talk about crushes in case it gets awkward…but apparently they're doing it.

She squirms a little, as if deciding what to say. "Adrien, if I was Ladybug, would you still like her?"

"Definitely. I might like her more, actually. I already called you our Everyday Ladybug and I still mean it. It'd be a small world if you were the real one too."

"And if Ladybug was me, would you be disappointed?"

"What? No, never. Wait, why are you asking me this? Is this hypothetical?"

"Sure."

"It doesn't really feel hypothetical. Are you Ladybug?" He's kind of joking, but not totally.

She licks her lips nervously. "See, this is what I was afraid of."

"What do you mean?"

He can feel her fingers tapping against his knuckles, thinking hard.

"I was afraid of you thinking I'm Ladybug. I mean. Never mind. First, I think I know someone who can help us. He's a friend of Ladybug's, so he'll know what kind of weird magic is making our hands do whatever this is."

"Okay. Can we go there? Now?"

"Yeah. But I…need to explain something first. Because this puts him…and me…in a weird position. I don't know how to explain to you how I know about him, because everything will sound like a lie. So, you should know the truth."

"What truth? Does he not talk to anyone except Ladybug and you?"

"He only talks to Ladybug. It protects his identity."

"So…how do you know him? Why will he agree to see us?"

She takes a deep breath. "Well," she begins.

He knows immediately where this is going, and his mind gets there before his heart rate does. "Wait, are you actually Ladybug?" He's full on panicking now.

She casts her eyes down, and the sun gleams off her hair in a halo. "I was trying to avoid a situation like this. I didn't want to have to tell you, but if it gets us out of this mess, then so be it. Yeah. I'm Ladybug."

"This is awesome news," Adrien exclaims. "Are you serious? Please tell me this is real."

"It's real," she frowns. "Why are you happy about this? I shouldn't have even told you, but I'm desperate here. Are you disappointed it's me?"

"No, Marinette, this is fantastic. It makes so much sense that you're Ladybug. But that's not the only reason. It also explains why we're stuck together like this! How did I miss this? Why didn't I see it before?" He lifts his free hand to his head, the pieces falling into place so quickly it's overwhelming.

"Adrien, slow down, what's going on? What do you know?"

"We're stuck together because you're Ladybug-"

"What? How?" she interjects.

"-And I'm Chat Noir."

She takes a step back, reeling. She squints at him as if expecting him to say, "Just kidding." When he doesn't, her eyes go wide and her mouth drops open. "Oh my, you're serious."

Adrien continues, "I think it's because of the kiss yesterday. The one Alya caught on camera. Remember? We were holding hands."

"We…you and me…Ladybug and Chat Noir…we kissed. I kissed you," she says foggily, as if it doesn't seem real. "I kissed you. I kissed you." She giggles, suddenly, delighted by this. Adrien feels the same way. He's very conscious of the fact that her hand feels warm in his, and how near to each other they're standing. He can smell her lily shampoo. He is even close enough to admire the soft slope of her nose. It's making him dizzy.

He fights to maintain some reason. "Yeah. And our hands were together, just like this. I suspect that when your Miraculous Ladybug magic reverted everything back to normal and we forgot about the kiss, we forgot about the circumstances Oblivio put us in too. But some part of us still remembered."

She gasps. "Our hands have been trying to reconnect since that moment; they're trying to restore the balance in the universe, because-"

"-We're supposed to be together. And for a moment, we were."

"Wow," she announces weakly. Adrien stares down at their hands. The position is so familiar. No wonder it felt so right. They've done this before. Like muscle memory, they didn't have to think about it. They were made for each other, and fell back into place as naturally as gravity.

Which was great and everything – perfect, even – except for one thing.

"Wait, so if that's all true," Marinette muses, "how do we get unstuck? Can we do it without getting Master Fu's help? What is the universe waiting for?"

"I have some ideas, My Lady."

"It's so weird to hear you calling me that."

"Weird…bad?"

"No…weird good. I think. Definitely good. You said you had ideas?"

"Well, just one. If that doesn't work, we need to go see your friend."

He waits for her to get it, because spelling it out might take some of the magic out of this moment. Behind the fragrant juniper bushes, when they're in their own world, newly awash in their mutual revelation.

She catches on. "I see. We could try to recreate what we were doing last time."

"Are you okay with this?" He leans in.

"Yeah," she whispers, half-smiling. Like she's surprised herself in her own enthusiasm. "Are you?"

"Yeah." It's barely a word, more of a breath against her skin.

By now, their noses are nearly touching. Adrien definitely would never have guessed this was how his day was going to go. But in that infinite moment before they kiss, a million thoughts go through his mind. Of Marinette. Of Ladybug. Of physics, and spooky action at a distance, and forces of attraction, and magic. Of yesterday's memories on the tip of his tongue that he can't quite recall. Of lily shampoo and ocean eyes.

When their lips meet, there is an overwhelming sense of purpose and electricity. Adrien can't find it in himself to breathe, so he goes a little light headed. Their hands remain clasped for a moment, but then come apart. Surprised, Adrien pulls back too early.

"We're free," he says stupidly. He just kissed Marinette. He just kissed Ladybug. And remembered it this time. He feels amazing.

He and Marinette examine their hands, and without having to say a word, press them back together. After all, it's one thing to hold hands when it is through compulsory magic. It's another thing to choose it willingly. Marinette moves closer to him and they kiss again. They're already late, so they might as well make the most of it.

When they make their way back to their classes, they willingly face the shame of walking into their full classrooms. Ignoring the curious stares, Adrien picks up his pencil to start his Chinese quiz, but his mind is still back on that kiss. His other hand tingles again, and he thinks of her.

In chemistry class, Marinette looks down at her hand and smiles.

They may not have their memories back from Oblivio's attack, but that's okay. There's plenty of time to make new ones, and they both feel that today is off to a pretty good start.