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“And now, the last player in your starting line up, lucky number three, the Ladybug of ladies lacrosse, Marinette Dupain-Cheng!” The announcer's voice rings out over the college sports arena, and the audience erupts into cheers at the sound of the players name.
No one cheers louder than her boyfriend. “Yeah, Mari!” He shouts over the crowd. “Kick ‘em in the ass!”
Her hand flies up into the air, waving at her adoring fans as she jogs out onto the field, and Adrien is certain she makes eye contact with him.
She looks so good in a kilt.
The girls line up in the center of the field, jostling and chatting with each other as they wait for the National Anthem to start. Their energy spreads through the observers with a buzz as they begin to get hyped up.
Tonight is all set up to be a great game. The home team, University of Paris, is having a great season, all wins, no losses, but their opposing team tonight is on a winning streak too.
It was anybody’s game, they all said. Adrien knows that wasn’t true.
As long as his lady was on the field, they had the game in the bag.
The final notes of the anthem rign out, and Marinette struts over to her position in the middle of the center circle, smiling and shaking hands with the opposing players before kneeling down into her position for the draw.
The whistle blows, and Marinette snaps her black and red stick back and leapt up for the ball, snatching it out of the air with ease, causing the crowd to go nuts. She flashes the audience one of her infamous grins before sprinting down the field to pass it to her teammates to her left.
They move down the field as a unit, the ball moving fluidly from stick to stick as the girls bob and weave in a flurry of ponytails and cleats. Before their opposition even knows what hit them, his Marinette dashes behind the goal cage, the head of her stick reaching to the sky as she cries out to her teammates for the ball. In a smooth motion, Marinette lunges forward, grabbing the ball just before it hit the ground. In a blur, she fakes out her defender, and chucks the ball into the goal cage with one of her patented behind the back throws.
Adrien springs to his feet, his popcorn flying out of his lap in his excitement. “Hell yeah! Way to go, princess!” His voice cracks, but he was too happy to care. “That’s my girlfriend! Marinette Dupain-Cheng is my girlfriend!”
As he celebrates up in the stands, she celebrates on the field, slapping the girl who had been her assist on the back and pumping her fists in the air as she runs back to her place for the draw.
When college had rolled around, Adrien and Marinette had come to the same conclusion: they couldn’t stay Ladybug and Chat Noir forever. So, with tears in their eyes and fond memories in their hearts, they had waved goodbye to Tikki and Plagg and headed to the University of Paris together.
Marinette had lasted about a month before she was itching to do something, anything, with her energy. Adrien remembered the day she had marched into his dorm room and slapped the Paris Ladies Lacrosse flier into his lap.
“I’m doing this,” she had said, her eyes smarting with passion.
Adrien remembered blinking in surprise before leaning forward and grabbing the flier. “Lacrosse?” He had asked, “Have you ever played lacrosse before?”
“Well, no,” she admitted, “but I’m gonna learn, and I’m gonna be great.”
She was right. From that day on, she threw herself into the sport, hitting the gym daily and spending every spare second she had fooling around with her stick. Adrien could recall many times where he had stopped by the weight room late at night to find her there, on the treadmill while reading her Advanced Econ textbook. He would have to drag her back to her room, and she would yawn as she mumbled something about having to be competitive.
And competitive she was. Somehow, despite the fact that it was her first year playing the sport, Marinette had managed to work up her skills to match some of the best players at the tryouts, earning her place as the only freshman starter.
It wasn’t long until the entire campus, and then, the entire Paris college lacrosse league, was buzzing about the one and only Marinette, the girl who had managed to become one of the best attackers in the city with almost no experience.
Adrien had been with her when she had first gotten her nickname. Her phone had gone off in the middle of a date, and she was surprised to see a call from Alya, who usually never called on date night.
“Marinette!” She had winced and held the phone slightly away from her ear, and Adrien had chuckled as Alya kept shouting, loud enough for even him to hear. “Have you seen this article!”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“This article, Mari! They’re talking about you in the sports section of the local newspaper! Here, here, lemme read it for you. It says ‘Marinette Dupain-Cheng, or the University of Paris’ very own Ladybug…” Tears of joy had lept to her beautiful blue eyes as her hand flew to her mouth.
She was so happy to be called Ladybug again.
Since that article, the nickname had stuck, and Marinette had become known as the Ladybug of lacrosse.
While Marinette was becoming well known in her sport, Adrien was gaining a reputation for himself as one of the most prominent young pitchers in college baseball.
Marinette had been the one to send him the link to the article. He had been in the middle of Physics when his phone dinged, letting him know a new email had arrived. The subject line read “Ladybug and Chat Noir.” Marinette had sent him the contents of an interview they had done for their college paper as one of the most well known couples in college sports. She had highlighted and bolded one particular line.
“With Dupain-Cheng’s lucky shots and Agreste’s sneaky pitching style and cat like reflexes, one could call them the universities personal Ladybug and Chat Noir.”
He was so happy to be the dynamic duo once again.
Both of them came to every one of each other’s games. Just knowing that their soul mate was in the crowd as an incredible effect on how they played.
And Marinette is certainly playing incredibly tonight. By halftime, three of the five goals on the board belong to her.
The game is drawing to a close, and the clock is ticking down the final minute of the game as Marinette sprints down the field. The score is five-five. If Mari can pull through, she will have secured a victory. If not, they’ll go into overtime. The crowd is on the edge of their seat, waiting with breath to see what their Ladybug will do.
In a hurricane of motion, Marinette lobs the ball at one of the seniors, who then whips around and throws it right back at her. She nabs the ball a moment before it hits a defender’s stick, and, with a well placed fake, she sends the ball into the net.
Time seems to slow down as the bright yellow ball travels to the net, rotating into the top corner. Unfortunately for the goalie, she moves a second too late, and Marinette’s ball makes it in with a satisfying thump .
The crowd leaps into the air, bursting into screams of joy as Marinette’s teammates swarm around her, jumping up and down in a sweaty bundle of endorphins and laughter.
They break apart a few moments later, and Marinette blows the crowd a exhilarated kiss as the lines up for final handshakes.
Adrien imagines it’s for him, and reaches out to catch it, bringing it into his chest.
Twenty minutes later, Adrien is waiting outside of the locker room door, waiting for the lady of the hour to appear.
In typical Marinette style, she’s the last one of her teammates to leave the locker room, and she meets him with a bubbly giggle.
“How was it, love?” She asks, passing her bag to him as she slings her stick over her shoulder and reaches for his hand.
“It was amazing,” he assures her, pulling the strap over his head as he interlocks his fingers with hers. “You scored big tonight, baby.”
Her smile is plastered to her face as they walk out of the stadium entrance and into the parking lot, swinging their arms between them as they step.
“Speaking of scoring big,” he says with a waggle of his eyebrows, “does tonight’s victory mean that I’ll be scoring big too?”
She throws her head back laughing. “Someone’s feeling thirsty,” she teases back. “Maybe you will, if you get me ice cream.”
He chuckles as he leans over and pokes her in the stomach. “Ice cream? Don’t you have to stay on a strict athlete’s diet?”
“I thought you wanted to score big tonight?” Marinette’s sing-song tone of voice communicates to him that she knows she’s won.
“Fine, fine,” Adrien says, “We’ll get ice cream, then I’ll score big.”
“Bigger than you’ll ever score in baseball, you loser.” She taunts, referencing his team’s recent defeat against the school she had played tonight.
“Oh, now you’re gonna get it.” He leans forward to tickle her sides, and she squeals with laughter as she darts away from him and barrels towards the cafeteria. Their laughter rings up towards the night sky as he sprints after her, thrilled to be chasing after the girl his heart belongs to.