Chapter Text
“You can do this,” Chat Noir told her. “Because you’re the bravest, smartest, strongest person I know.”
“I said no flirting,” Marinette teased back. She took a deep breath. “Plagg, claws out!”
This was where Marinette made a critical error, because she looked down at her– at Chat Noir’s hands. And there was a moment, however brief, where she gained Chat Noir’s nightvision but his hands hadn’t quite transformed yet.
The Miraculous had a magic to them that made their users unrecognizable in costume. Alya had been able to talk directly to Ladybug and said she’d never noticed all the obvious Marinette quirks until after the identity reveal. Marinette could look Chat Noir in the eyes and examine every detail of his face and never recognize him.
This magic apparently didn’t apply to untransformed body parts. Marinette saw Chat Noir’s civilian hands, and she saw both friendship bracelets she herself had made. She saw the carefully manicured nails, and she knew that their owner chewed them off when he was stressed and which salon he went to to fix them up, and that his father gave him a hard time if he built up callouses from fencing, because it interfered with modeling work. She recognized the tiny mole on his thumb. She’d held these hands countless times.
Marinette’s blood ran cold. She knew Chat Noir’s civilian identity now, and she’d never unknow it. She’d ruined it. She’d ruined Chat Noir’s life, and she’d ruined Adrien’s life because Chat Noir was Adrien.
“Marinette?” Chat Noir asked. “Are you ready to go kick butt?”
She felt… kind of dumb, actually. No wonder he hadn’t been able to stop flirting with her.
How had she never noticed, magic aside? How much was Adrien holding back of himself, hiding his Chat Noir qualities? How many bad puns had he held his tongue on?
Was it really so bad if she knew his identity?
He’d called her the bravest, smartest, strongest person he knew.
“Ma-ri-neeette,” Chat– Adrien said, waving his hand in the vague direction of her face. She could see in the dark now, but he couldn’t. “Let’s get this show on the road and save some people!”
“Hold on, Chaton,” Marinette said. “We still need Ladybug.”
“But she’s–” Adrien started, and then Marinette reached into the dark and very gently started replacing her earrings in her own ears. In her body, Adrien froze. “Uuuuh, Marinette?”
“Say, ‘Tikki, spots on,’” Marinette said.
Adrien stared into the dark. He made an average half-panicked Marinette face, understanding slowly creeping into his expression as a mixture of confusion, wonder, and little bit of anxiety.
“There’s only one boy running around Paris with camembert in his pockets,” Marinette said gently. “And it turns out he likes me even when I’m a disaster, and I like him even when he makes bad jokes.”
Adrien’s face relaxed, and then he laughed. She laughed with him.
xXx
Good news: they de-akumatized Monarch’s latest victim and switched their bodies back.
Better news: they grabbed hot chocolate from the chocolate store, and headed up to their usual spot on the Eiffel Tower to unpack what this would mean for their relationship. They were, very fortunately, still in love.
Best news: Adrien could make the worst jokes Marinette had ever heard, and she loved him for it.