Marinette – already dressed in jeans and T-shirt and with dried hair tied in a bun – ran out the dressing room, as if she was afraid that Adrien could mysteriously disappear. She sighed with relief when she saw him, sitting on a box with a woofer. It hadn't been a dream – he really was here!

"I hope you didn't get bored waiting…"

"Never!" he denied immediately, standing up. "I've just chatted a bit with your manager."

"You made another deal with her?" Marinette asked, winking at him. "Tikki has never let anyone in my dressing room before. How did you convince her?"

"I promised her your eternal happiness…" Adrien whispered then embraced her and kissed her on the cheek.

"Eternal happiness?" she spotted and looked at him suspiciously. "Are you so sure?"

"You're not?" he was surprised. "I've honestly believed that you figured out long ago that I'd fallen in love with you."

Marinette lost her breath trying to process the news. Uhm… What?

"How could you be in love with me, if you said in Versailles…" she stopped, embarrassed.

"I said in Versailles what?" he smiled meaningfully.

"You know…" she mumbled. "During our game in the maze. You answered affirmatively to both those questions…"

"Yep. True. Affirmatively." he nodded amused.

"So… How's that possible that…"

"That I was already in love with you?" he finished her question, and when she confirmed he replied: "Honestly, I don't know, how it could happen so fast, but we were learning about each other quite intensely during two days and your last questions made me realise what I really felt."

"And who told you they loved you?" she blurted out, before she thought. "I mean… Why did you answer 'yes' to the other question?"

"Well, I had to say so, because I had received so many declarations of love in my life that I would have lied if I said 'no'. Yet, I wouldn't say they were confessions of true love. Your question wasn't too precise."

"So… You made fun of me?"

"None of the kind! I just dreamed of you changing your answers…"

"Today we both would go to the right…" she whispered blushed, and he immediately embraced her tight and spun around in happiness.

"If I wasn't so happy, I'd ask you how's that possible…" he winked at her.

"Better stop joking or I leave you here and now!" she warned him, frowning.

"You can't leave me here, because I've told Tikki I'm taking you for a walk."

"A walk? It's still raining." She noticed reasonably.

"I have an umbrella." he informed, leading her to the exit.

"I should go back to the hotel, Adrien… Tikki organised a meeting for tomorrow."

"I know about it. I promised her that it will be a very short walk. Just… I just wanted to spend more time with you. Last time we parted too early and look what happened…"

"I can see that we don't have to worry about your assertiveness anymore. You've learnt it quickly."

"You've been a great influence on me, M'Lady…" he grinned, then opened the door for her and they left the building.

They hid under the umbrella and walked in the direction of the beach.

"Have you come alone?" Marinette asked quietly.

"Impossible. Plagg sent me with escort."

"Nino?" she guessed at once.

"Yeah." he nodded. "Though… I think he had his own reasons."

"What do you mean?"

Adrien smiled under his breath.

"He promised to take care of that Alya would stop bother you."

"How is he going to do it?"

"I guess he's going to make her focus on more interesting subjects. Besides, he's always said that she's too good for tabloids and should write for the good magazines."

"You mean they know each other?!" she exclaimed outraged. "He lied to me?!"

"Uhm… Not quite… You asked him if he knew her. And he probably had never known her well. She'd let him down when he realised she'd been flirting with him only to get information about me."

"If he was with Alya, why your father thought you both were gays?"

"My dad never got known about it. Probably he would fire Nino as disloyal to our family. Honestly, I'm grateful that it was her in that club."

"What?!"

"Any other journalist would be to frightened of my father. Probably they would inform him about what they saw, but no one would write about it openly. But not her. She's fearless. Actually, I'm here thanks to her…"

"I don't get it."

"She wasn't afraid of asking you about me. And about my father. I know that it encouraged the rest of journalists to ask you more questions on this subject and that made you cry. Believe me, I'm going to talk to her about it as soon as I meet her. On the other hand, thanks to Alya I stopped caring about my father's opinion. Because I realised that no matter what, I had to be with you."

"Your father is so powerful. He managed to terrify my Tikki. What will happen now when he discover you've come here against his will?"

"I don't care. If he doesn't like it, it's his problem."

"But he can ruin your career! What will you do then?"

"I'll become maintained by you…" he joked and gave her a wink.

"Haha! Very funny!"

"There are some bright sides of that. I can go with you on tour. I like being backstage."

"You'll get bored soon."

"Don't worry, I'll find something else to do. Besides… I'm getting too old for modelling."

"You're joking, aren't you?" she stopped and looked at him in shock.

"Not at all. A few more years and I should retire. And honestly… I really hate that job…"

"Seriously? You would leave it?"

"For you?" he was surprised with her question. "I wouldn't hesitate even a second. I promised you the eternal happiness, remember?"

"Uhm… I'll hold you to your promise, Adrien Agreste!"

"That's great, because I can't wait to prove how much reliable I am, M'Lady." He grinned and then embraced her under the umbrella and kissed her.

x x x

"Don't you even dare!" Nino muttered and grabbed Alya's hand before she reached for her smartphone.

"But…" she began.

"I imposed one condition, and the only one. There will be no third chance." he warned.

They crossed their eyes in a silent duel, but Alya gave in first.

"OK." she nodded.

"I think we can leave them there." Nino commented. "I can buy you a drink as consolation."

"As consolation?" she repeated.

"I've just robbed you of the material for an article." he grinned.

"Don't worry. I'll draw you a bill."

"I hope I won't pay as much as last time."

"I pro-promised you, Nino. And I'm sorry for what happened last time."

"It's OK, Alya. Let's go, before they notice you. I can't promise that you'll survive."

"Yeah, let's go."

She didn't look back. It was a bombshell for every journalist, but this article would have a price that Alya didn't want to pay. Not this time.

x x x

THE END