Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

OMG! You guys will never guess what just happened! I’ve got the major scoop!

So today, due to a very embarrassing event, my boyfriend Nino and I were Akumatized into the super villain, Oblivio. We were embarrassed on a field trip today and wanted everyone to forget... a certain incident… so naturally our supervillain powers were to erase memories. Usually, I’d be very upset and ashamed for allowing my negative emotions to get the best of me, but at the same time, I’ve never been more grateful.

  Ladybug and Cat Noir KISSED! And I was right there to see it (photo above)!

  Now, before you scream and squeal like I did: right after this photo was taken, Ladybug sent off her miraculous cure, and her and Cat Noir’s memories were reset back to normal (If you didn’t know, our heroes were blasted by Oblivio and, like everyone else, temporarily lost their memories). Ladybug and Cat Noir are not a couple.  Sad face.

  The scoop is that apparently, Ladybug is already in love with another boy! Sorry, Cat Noir. :\

  But, what did happen after their memories were erased? According to news reports, Cat Noir and Ladybug each used their powers before being hit by Oblivio. Taking the five-minute rule into account, one can only assume that their transformations dropped, thus revealing their identities to each other. Sadly, they have no memory of anything that happened after they were hit, and before everything was fixed, so we may never know what led up to the kiss.

  But one thing is for sure! We have amazing heroes. Imagine waking up and not knowing who you are, and then finding out you’re a super hero and have to save the day without any memory of who you are or how you do this! AND you still defeat the villain!!

  Ladybug and Cat Noir, you guys rock! Thank you so much for saving Paris, once again!

P.s. you guys would make an awesome couple!

Alya proofread her writing three times before she hit submit and uploaded her post to the Ladyblog. 

With a satisfied sigh, and a huge grin on her face, she sat back in her chair and waited. It was less than five minutes before the comments started rolling in.

 Ahhhh!!!!!

 OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

Ladybug is in love with someone else?

Aww, I wish they could remember this :(  

Wait, Ladybug has a boyfriend?

I wish Cat Noir was in love with meeeeeeeeee

Whoever Ladybug is in love with is so lucky!

The comments continued to pour in like rain, and Alya switched off her post notifications, knowing this particular post would garner a LOT of traffic, which was good for business. The Ladyblog was definitely the number one stop for finding out delicious and TRUE information about Ladybug and Cat Noir. That alone was enough to keep Alya fighting to always be in the middle of the action.

This was the best. day. ever! 

Alya spun around in her chair, still psyched about the day. As she mentioned in her post, she wasn’t too happy about being akumatized, but man was it totally worth it!

“This is a disaster!” Ladybug had cried out, back on the rooftop when Alya showed her the photo. It was hilarious to see the cool and collected Ladybug freak out like that. So much so, that Alya was still chuckling about it, hours later. Something about the memory felt…like déjà vu. Whatever was nagging at her caused Alya to replay the memory a few times in her head.

Cat Noir had been happy about the kiss. Smug, even. He insisted that they’d make a great couple. Which pretty much confirms all of the rumors about him being in love with Ladybug. But Ladybug said she was in love with someone else.

Hmmm.

Alya got up from her desk and locked her bedroom door, the investigative journalist in her beginning to come out. Nobody was home anyway, but she could never be too careful. She walked over to her closet and opened the door. It was the kind you slide open, and it was deep enough to walk into. She glanced over to her door again to double check that it was locked, before stepping into her closet and sliding the door closed.

Alya reached up to pull the string on the light, squinting her eyes from the sudden transition from darkness, and pushed aside all of the clothes that she had hanging on the rack in front of her. Behind her clothes was a framed poster of Jagged Stone. She’d begged her parents to get it framed after he signed it at a concert earlier in the year. She wasted no time with the memory and removed the poster from the wall, placing it carefully on the floor beside her. Here, in her innermost sanctum of investigations, was her evidence board—hidden as well as she could think to hide it.  

It was the type of evidence board you see on crime shows: photos connected by strings. They were color coded, of course, to make it easier to keep up with each connection. Beside the evidence board was a map, with different colored tacks, to match the strings and the photos to different locations around Paris. And under the map and the evidence board was a timeline, also color coded.

Three large question marks were at the top of the evidence board, connected by red, green, and purple strings, to the photos of Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Queen Bee. Under the photos, were the names of the true identities of the heroes.

Alya stared hard at her work, looking for clues she might’ve missed.  Ever since she started her blog, Alya’d been gathering evidence on Ladybug and Cat Noir in an attempt to unmask them. But then Ladybug called on her to become Rena Rouge, and she finally understood the importance of keeping a secret identity a secret. Yet, even though she no longer wanted to be the one to reveal Ladybug’s identity to the world, she couldn’t help the curiosity of finding out who was behind the mask of her favorite superheroine.  

And each time the list of heroes grew, she added their photo and added them to the investigation as well, hoping they’d somehow provide clues that she could use to decipher the mystery of Who Was Ladybug.

Alya picked up her black marker and drew another question mark onto a slip of paper. She added it to the board near the red question mark that represented Ladybug. Another clue. Whatever identity she could match to this new question mark, might be able to help her figure out Ladybug’s identity.

She reached above her head, without looking, and pulled down a woven basket that contained the yarn she used for her connections. She reached her hand in to pick out a color, but paused to Alya again at the board and all of the connections she made.

The board was mostly red yarn, since Ladybug handed out all of the extra miraculous.

Alya had been the first, as Rena Rouge. Then Nino as Carapace, and last Chloe as Queen Bee. All of whom were connected to each other’s strings and a picture of the school.

The biggest connection Alya ever noticed was that all of the extra miraculous holders were in the same class, and while she wanted to believe that wasn’t just a coincidence, there wasn’t any evidence to prove that it wasn’t. In fact, it mostly said otherwise.

Rena Rouge was the first extra miraculous holder. As the owner of the Ladyblog and Ladybug’s biggest fan, it only made sense that Ladybug would choose Alya to be Rena. Right? After all, Ladybug already knew, from all of the chasing around, that Alya could handle the danger and wouldn’t be afraid to jump in and help.  Plus, the night she was chosen, it was her own sisters who’d been akumatized. Who better to help reign them in?

Nino, Alya’s boyfriend, only became carapace after trying to help save her. Once again, after one of Alya’s sisters had been akumatized, and Cat Noir had been captured, Ladybug brought out another miraculous for help. Nino had just been around when Ladybug needed help. The way he stood up against Anansi, even without super powers, must have proven to Ladybug that he was willing to do whatever it took to stand up against the villain. Nino was a classic case of being in the right place at the right time.

And Chloe? That was an accident. Ladybug had first approached Alya with the Bee Miraculous. She thought back to the day when Style Queen was brought forth, and imagined how she would’ve looked in the Bee suit, had she not been turned to glitter. She decided yellow was not her color. Shaking the image out of her head, she got back to her original train of thought. Due to the following events of Style Queen, Ladybug lost the miraculous, and Chloe found it. Why she ever gave it back to Chloe was a mystery, she thought. But then again, she proved to be useful during the heroes day attack. Anyway, Chloe was never supposed to have the miraculous in the first place. Once again, this hero was a product of being in the right place at the right time.

So honestly, the fact that they were all in the same class was really only a matter of circumstances. Had Nino been captured by Anansi, not Alya’s boyfriend, or any random person, Carapace could’ve been anyone. And anyone could’ve been the one to find the Bee Miraculous.

She reached down into her yarn basket again and decided on gold. That’s a meaningful color. She attached the gold string between the new question mark and the red question mark. Perhaps if she could find out who this mystery boy that Ladybug was in love with was, she could find out who Ladybug was too.

And so it continues.

The next day, Alya sat in Marinette’s room recounting to her the entire story of how she and Nino became Oblivio, and then the kiss after Ladybug and Cat Noir saved them.

 Of course, it wasn’t much to tell since she didn’t remember being Oblivio at all, and there wasn’t much that happened after Ladybug set the city straight and yo-yoed out of there before transforming back.

Still, it was very exciting for Alya, and Marinette was her best friend. She had to share every detail, even if she knew Marinette already read them on her blog post.

Marinette sat and listened patiently to her friend. While she was excited for Alya’s scoop, as her supportive friend Marinette, she was dreading everything about Alya’s enthusiasm as Ladybug.  There was a picture of her kissing Cat Noir plastered all over the internet and she didn’t even remember it happening! She was glad Alya hadn’t left out the details of how they had no memory of who they were at the time and that she set the record straight on their status as NOT a couple (!), but she could’ve done without Alya telling the internet about the reason why they weren’t a couple.

Now Alya was telling her about all of the theories that had already been formed overnight due to the revelation. Everyone was wondering who was Ladybug’s Mystery Lover, as Alya repeatedly referred to him. Some said he was an older guy who went to college in another city, and that’s why they weren’t dating. Others claimed that they had been dating since before she became Ladybug, which is why she never fell in love with Cat Noir. And even others said their relationship was going through turbulence since “The Kiss” happened. None of this information came from any reliable sources, of course.

“I’m pretty certain that they aren’t dating. Otherwise Ladybug would’ve said she had a boyfriend, not that she was in love with someone.” Alya was saying.

“Maybe she’s just in love with her boyfriend.” Marinette chimed in.

“Maybe, but I doubt it. Usually, ‘I have a boyfriend’ implies the love. It doesn’t have to be stated separately.”

“That’s true. Any idea on why they aren’t dating?” Marinette asked.

Inconvenient as it might’ve been sometimes, Alya’s investigative mode was something that Marinette always admired. She was able to pick up clues and deduce facts that nobody else seemed to be able to. She was a force to be reckoned with. And she was always two steps away from discovering Ladybug’s identity. So, it was a huge relief back when Marinette realized that becoming Rena Rouge slowed Alya’s investigations to almost a halt. But every now and then Alya’s curiosity peaked back up, and Marinette needed to know exactly how close Alya was to the truth.

“I’ve got a few. The most likely reasons are that either they can’t be together for some reason, probably the fact that she’s a superhero, or that he doesn’t love her back. I doubt he knows her identity, because that’s something that Cat Noir doesn’t even know, and it would make sense for her to tell him before anyone else. Or he simply doesn’t know how she feels.” Alya had come up with her own theories the night before, being the expert that she was.

Once again, Alya was hitting the nail on the head. Well she was close to hitting it. She at least had the nail in her options of nails to choose from.

“Which means, there’s no way their ‘relationship’ is rocky, because 1) they aren’t in one and 2) he doesn’t know she’s the one who kissed Cat Noir.”

Marinette raised her eyebrow.

“I mean, he—whoever he is—knows that Ladybug kissed Cat Noir, but he doesn’t know that whoever-she-is-to-him kissed Cat Noir. Are you following?”

Marinette nodded her head, her eyes trained attentively to her friend’s.

“The real question though, and everyone wants to know, is what led up to that moment between the two? How do you go from zero memories to in-love in less than an hour?” Alya tapped her chin.

“Beats me,” Marinette answered.

It was the same question she’d been asking herself all night. Everyone else who was hit by Oblivio’s blasts seemed to remember having the amnesia. Alya had mentioned as much when she was telling Marinette about the interviews she’d conducted before coming over. They’d all had no memories at all, but could remember not being able to remember, even after Ladybug fixed everything. So why couldn’t she and Chat?

“That’s what everyone on my blog is dying to know.” Alya said, interrupting Marinette’s thoughts.

She thought for a moment before her eyes lit up. Marinette recognized the look on Alya's face; she'd just had an idea. Marinette had to stifle a groan before asking,

“What did you just think of?”

Whatever it was, it had to be good. Alya was nodding to herself and her eyes got wider and she was practically vibrating with excited energy.

“What would you do if you woke up with no memories?”

Marinette shrugged and giggled. Because she did wake up with no memories, and had exactly no idea what she’d done.

“Think about it: You wake up in a weird costume, in a place you don’t know, with a person you don’t know, and then what?”

Marinette tried to take herself back to the day before where she woke up in an elevator and didn’t know who she was. But the memories didn’t exist. She had no idea what she would’ve done, or did, but somehow she made it work.

“I don’t know.” She finally said.

“Me neither! But I bet I could find out!” Alya was grinning now, like she could see all of the pieces falling together. “Come on!”

Alya grabbed Marinette by the hand and dragged her along, not answering her once about where they were headed.

Chapter Text

Ayla and Marinette stood outside of Montparnasse Tower. Alya still had her gleeful expression on her face and hadn’t spoken a word of her plan on the way over. She was staring at the glass building, like she was on the verge of the greatest discovery in history.

“What are we doing here?” Marinette asked her as she stared up into the sky, trying to see the top of the tower.

“We’re going to retrace Ladybug and Cat Noir’s steps. This is where all of the action happened, right? So, this is where the answers are going to be.”

Alya took a step forward to enter the building, but Marinette grabbed her hand, unsatisfied with that answer.

“How are we supposed to retrace their steps? This is an office building, Alya. We can’t just go prancing around. Only the terrace is open to the public.”

It had been a good plan, one Marinette wished she’d thought of herself. But there was no way they’d be able to do that, since it had only been accessible to the students because of their school trip. Not to mention that the building was 56 stories tall. Even if they could find a way to look around, how would they know which steps to retrace?

“Just follow my lead, Marinette.”

With determination, Alya yanked her forward, and together they entered the tower.

It was a busy place. People were coming and going, some were in line for tickets to the terrace, others were standing around chatting. It had been much the same when the class arrived the day before for their school trip. Alya stood on her toes and scanned the crowd for a moment.

“Ah, follow me.” She told Marinette.

Curiously, Marinette did as asked, and Alya led them to a security guard. Without hesitation she pulled a lanyard out from inside her shirt.

“Alya Cesaire, The Ladyblog.” She presented her pass to the guard. “I’m doing a story on the events that took place here yesterday, and I’d like to take a look around to see if I can find some information for my article."

The guard studied the pass and then Alya and then the pass again. He glanced over at Marinette and raised an eyebrow.

“She’s my assistant.” Alya said, pushing her glasses forward on her nose.

He handed her back her badge and pointed her towards the elevators used by the employees who work in the many offices.

“Thank you.”

The girls headed in the direction they were told and Alya placed her lanyard back inside her shirt. She laughed when she caught the questioning expression that Marinette was giving her.

“It’s a press pass,” she said, pointing to where it hung under her shirt. “There aren’t too many places that are off limits to the creator of the Ladyblog.”  With a wink, and a smug grin, Alya reached out and pressed to button to go up the elevators.

And just like that, they were in. Operation Remembero was in full effect. Marinette hadn’t thought they’d get this far, but now that they had, she really gave thought to Alya’s plan. There were both pros and cons to what was possibly about to happen.

Marinette was dying to fill in the gaps in her memory, and while Alya’s plan wasn’t exactly solid on its own, Marinette was hoping she’d find something that could jog her memory or at least give her a hint as to what took place.  Pros, if this worked, Marinette would find out why she kissed Cat Noir. Cons, Alya could find out vital information about her secret identity.

Marinette snuck a sideways glance at Alya. Yup, that look was still there. There’d be no talking her out of this one even if Marinette wanted to. But honestly, she didn’t. Nodding inwardly to herself, she tightened her firsts and got ready to be on the look out. If there were any clues, she’d have to make sure they weren’t too revealing.

The elevator doors slid open, and the girls stood aside to let the passengers off before entering. There was only one, and to their surprise, they knew him. He seemed to be in his own world and didn’t even notice that the elevator doors had opened.

“Adrien, hey.”  Alya said with a wave and a glance over at Marinette whose eyes had glazed over with a grin spread across her face.

He shook off whatever he’d been daydreaming about and noticed the girls standing in front of him.

“Hey Alya, hey Marinette.” He said, returning Marinette’s smile and adding a wave. “What are you guys doing here?” 

“Research. How about you?” Alya answered.

Adrien scratched his head, “I was just uh, checking out the terrace. Yesterday was so crazy, I didn’t really get a chance to appreciate it.”   

“Sorry about that.” 

“Don’t worry about it. What are you guys researching?”  he asked, looking between the both of them.

“We’re blogging for the Lady. I mean the steps are for the research we’re tracing.” Marinette blurted out. And just when she thought she’d been making progress, too. 

“What she means is, we’re doing research for the Ladyblog. Since Ladybug and Cat Noir lost their memories, we’re going to try to retrace their steps and learn a little more about what possibly went down.” 

Adrien’s eyes widened a little.  Not that he thing he said about not having a chance to check out the terrace yesterday hadn’t been true, but what he hadn’t told them was that he was trying to jog his lost memory. He’d been unsuccessful and ready to leave when he ran into them, but maybe…Alya’s a pretty good detective, he thought. Maybe with her help, I’ll have better luck at finding out what made Ladybug fall in love with me.

The elevator doors began to beep after staying open for so long. Alya glanced over at Marinette who’d begun fidgeting and back to Adrien who hadn’t seemed to make up his mind about getting off of the elevator or not.

“You know Adrien, if you’re not busy, we actually could use your help. What do you say?”

She felt Marinette freeze next to her momentarily, and pushed her onto the elevator.

“Uhh, sure it sounds like fun. What do you need me to do?" 

Now that they were all on the elevator, they let the doors close. Alya pressed the button to the top floor, since that’s last place Ladybug and Cat Noir were before losing their memories, and began explaining her plan to them on the way up.

“Okay guys so here’s my plan: it’s safe to assume that Ladybug and Cat Noir had no idea who they were or what was going on after they got hit by Oblivio’s blasts, which means they weren’t Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting a villain, just acting regular people trying to figure out what to do. So that’s what we’re going to do. We’re just going to put ourselves into their shoes, and pretend we have no memories either. Marinette, you act as Ladybug; Adrien, you act as Cat Noir. I’ll act as though I’m Oblivio, but I’ll also help out as Alya. The last piece of footage we have from the news had Ladybug and Cat Noir on this elevator. So, we go back to the top and start from there. If we take this one step at a time, we might be able to recreate the situation that followed. Any questions?”

The three of them looked at each other.

 “It sounds like a good plan Alya, but how can we be sure we’re making the same choices they made?” Marinette asked.

 “Well, nothing is for sure, but we have three heads to put together.”

“I think it’s worth a shot.” Adrien said.

Alya squealed with excitement. “If this works, we’ll know the story behind ‘The Kiss!”

“Wait,” Marinette said, “I thought we were just trying to find out how they fought through the memory loss and remembered that they were heroes.” She looked at her friend through squinted eyes.

“Well yeah, that’s part of it. But my readers are dying to know the full story, and quite frankly so am I. Aren’t you?”

“Not really. That kiss couldn’t have meant anything if Ladybug said she’s in love with someone else.” She shrugged.

“I don’t know, Marinette,” Adrien chimed in. “I wouldn’t say it couldn’t mean anything. At the very least it means that Ladybug could fall in love with Cat Noir. And if it happened once, it could happen again.”

As cute as Adrien was, there was no way Marinette was going to let him have this one. And Alya was content to listen to them argue it out. It was great to see her friend talk to her crush without stuttering or being nervous.

“What? No way, nuh uh!” she argued, “Cat Noir is way goofy, and I’m sure whoever Ladybug is in love with is much cooler, and probably way more handsome too.”

“Well I think he’s cool, and…wait…weren’t you in love with Cat Noir once?”

Adrien had his hand on his chin as he tried to remember the details. He didn’t understand why Marinette was saying these things about Cat Noir when just the month before she’d confessed her love to him. Hopefully, she wasn’t harboring any bitterness since he had to let her down.

“OAOEJLA WHAT?”

“You never told me about that.” Alya said, failing to hold back her laughter.

“That was…I…never mind. It’s a long story.” Marinette said, crossing her arms and leaning back against the elevator wall with a blush. “Anyway we’re almost to the top.”

Marinette was skeptical, Adrien was pumped, and Alya was determined. Each one of them had their own reasons for wanting to know the truth behind the previous day’s events. The elevator reached the top of the terrace and opened its doors.

“Okay so according to the footage, after they were hit, the elevator went down and stopped at the thirtieth floor.” Alya said as she pressed the close door button.

“Then why’d we come all the way to the top?” Adrien asked.

“That’s the only thing we know that happened for a fact, and it’s our biggest lead. So now, we’re riding the elevator down, and we have no idea what’s going on. First thing’s first. What do we do? According to the people I interviewed, Oblivio’s blasts knocked them out for a few minutes. So you guys get down on the floor. ”

“What?”

“You heard me, you’re knocked out!”

Marinette and Adrien exchanged glances with each other before following Alya’s orders. They got on the floor of the elevator and closed their eyes to wait for their next instructions.

“Okay, now open your eyes and pretend you have no memories.” Alya commanded. “What’s the first thing you do?”

Marinette opened her eyes and blinked. She looked up at Alya, and then over to Adrien, and back to Alya, who had pulled out her notepad and a pen.

“Well, first I want to know who you guys are. And where I am.”

“Well that’s easy, we’re on an elevator and I’m…I don’t know.” Said Adrien after catching Alya’s warning glance.

“That’s probably when she realized that she didn’t know who she was either. I guess the next thing would be to get off of the elevator, right?”

“And don’t forget, I’m chasing you. So, you’re both probably really freaked out on top of that.”

“Right. So how do we get out of here?” Adrien asked.

Marinette looked around.

“Well the only way off of the elevator is through the door right?”

“Or the roof.” Adrien answered.

“Oblivio probably tried to get in through the roof.”

Just then, the door opened to let them off on the 30^th floor.

“This is where the elevator stopped,” said Alya, “so lets assume this is where they got off. So you don’t know where you are, but you know something is chasing you and you have to get to safety.”

Alya looked around at the office level she was on. They were in a hall that had lots of doors to choose from.

“Where would you feel most safe?”

“At home, under a blanket.” Marinette replied.

“Very funny,” Alya replied while Adrien laughed, “but something is chasing you and you have to get out of here quickly.”

“Well there are a lot of doors,” Adrien said, looking around him, “so we wouldn’t want to waste time trying all of them because they could be locked or lead to dead ends.” He spotted a bathroom sign. “The bathroom! You don’t have to worry about locked doors, and it’s at the end of the hall so it would buy you a little time.”

“Good thinking Agreste.” Alya said as she began marching her way down to the bathroom.

The three of them stood in the bathroom, unsure of what to do next.

“I feel like this is a dead end.” Said Marinette.

“Well, Ladybug and Cat Noir probably transformed back by now, which means they had their kwamis to help them. So their kwamis probably told them that they were superheroes and that they had to defeat oblivio.” Alya had a discouraged frown on her face. The answer shouldn’t have been that simple.

 “Unless the kwamis lost their memories too.” Adrien and Marinette said at the same time. They looked at each other with startled expressions and followed up their unison phrase with,

“Just a guess.”

“I mean, it’s possible right?”

Alya was too caught up in her investigation to notice anything weird about their behavior, but what they said made sense. From her own experience with being a superhero, not that either of her friends knew, was that the suit was powered by the miraculous, and the miraculous was powered by the kwami. So it’s possible that the blast that affected the heroes, affected the kwami as well.

She was suddenly excited again. This wasn’t a dead end after all!

“Okay, so we’ll go with that. The kwamis had amnesia too. But amnesia or not, before they could transform again they would need to recharge.”

“So they’d head to the food court then?” Adrien suggested.

“That’s it!” Exclaimed Alya. “So they’d have to figure out how to get there from here.”

“Hmm, I’m not sure about that.” Marinette spoke up, “Ladybug and Cat Noir transform almost every day. Sometimes more than once. It would make sense that they carried food with them for emergencies.” 

“Good point,” Alya said. She checked her watch. They’d been talking in the bathroom for a few minutes now, long enough for Oblivio to have caught up with them.

“Okay guys, we’re going to have to raise the stakes. Don’t forget you’re being chased, and the villain is closing in. How would you escape this bathroom?”

“Well in the movies, the quickest way to escape is always a ventilation shaft.” Said Adrien. “Let’s look around and see if we can find one.”

They split up and checked each stall.

“Found it,” called Alya to her friends. “We’ll see where this leads.”

She stood on top of the toilet and removed the grate so that they could crawl through. One after the other, they made their way through the air duct until they saw a light. They followed it to then end and popped out the grate on that side. First Alya came out, then Marinette, then Adrien. They were in a large office space.

And being the middle of a work day, they were not alone. Each desk had a person sitting at it, some were on phone calls, others were sending emails, and they all stopped to stare at their new guests. 

Alya pulled out her press pass. “Alya Cesaire, The Ladyblog. Don’t mind us, we’re writing an article.”

Everyone stared for a moment before going back to work, and the sounds of the office resumed.

“Okay guys, we’ve bought ourselves a few more minutes before you-know-who shows up.” Alya said to her ‘assistants’, careful not to say anything that could cause panic in the office. “Let’s look around and see if there are any clues here.” 

They split up and strolled through the office, looking for answers.

Marinette went to the left. She walked past a few cubicles, smiling at those she past, and made her way to the end of the aisle. She spotted what appeared to be a utility closet and made her way towards it. She looked around her to make sure the coast was clear before ducking inside.

“Does any of this seem familiar to you, Tikki?” She asked immediately opening up her purse.

“No, nothing rings a bell.” She answered. “But Marinette, if I lost my memories too, then I couldn’t have been able to tell you how to turn back into Ladybug.”

“So, do you think you kept your memories instead?”

“No, I think we had help from someone who knew our identities.”

“Master Fu?”

Tikki nodded.

“But how?”

To this, Tikki shrugged, and Marinette let out a sigh. 

“We’d better get back to the others.

Adrien went to the right and trailed along the walls of the office. He noticed a few boxes laying around, but that didn’t seem to mean anything to him. He wasn’t paying attention to where he was going and almost ran right into Ladybug.

Huh?

His eyes adjusted to what he thought he’d seen, and realized it was only just a picture of Ladybug. It was the poster for the animated Ladybug and Cat Noir movie that was coming out that summer. He’d been the one to do the voice for Cat Noir, which he hadn’t wanted to do since someone might have recognized his voice as the real voice of Cat Noir, but his father had insisted. 

He realized that this poster might’ve been a clue. He had to tell the girls!

Alya went straight. What would I have done if it were me? She asked herself. Theoretically, Oblivio is searching the building for them right now, and they have limited time to hide. Something about what Marinette said in the bathroom was nagging at her mind, but she couldn’t figure it out. All around her the office phones were ringing, and it was making it a little bit harder for her to concentrate. 

She pulled out her phone to check the new footage, and then it hit her! Marinette said Ladybug and Cat Noir must’ve kept food for the kwamis, but they didn’t think about what else they wouldve had with them. They must have had their phones! Memories or no, Ladybug is smart. She would’ve done the same thing that I’m doing, and checked her phone for answers. 

Alya made an about face and headed back to regroup with the others.

Once everyone was back together, Adrien took them to the poster to show them his discovery.

“They must’ve seen this poster and that’s how they figured out that they were superheroes!”

“And check this out,” Alya began, “What if they used their phones to find out more information about themselves? Let’s check the news footage again.”

They checked the footage, and Marinette was the one to point out that Ladybug had to have left herself a message on the wall. After her conversation with Tikki, it made so much sense. How else would she have known to contact Fu?

“Look there, she leaves a message. That was their clue to their powers, maybe?”

“But that still doesn’t tell us what led to the kiss,” Alya said.

Chapter Text

The three of them continued to look for clues until the offices were closing for the night. They hadn’t been able to find anything after the poster, and Alya was disappointed that they’d wasted a whole day and had nothing to show for it. 

“It’s not nothing,” Marinette told her, “You figured out how they were able to escape Oblivio and save the day. That’s a pretty interesting story that I’m sure your viewers would love to read.”

“I guess you’re right. It’s not the story I wanted, but it’s the one I’ve got.” She let out a sigh. “I mean, I knew it was a long shot going in, so I’m glad we even discovered that much.”

Adrien’s car had picked him up outside of the tower, and the girls were now each back at home talking on the phone before going to bed.

“I guess the only thing to do now is find out who Ladybug’s Mystery Lover is.” Alya said after spitting out her toothpaste.

On the other end of the line, Marinette tried not to freak out at her relentless friend’s new quest. Sure, it could only expose her secret identity and put Adrien in major danger, but as long as she was careful Alya would never get close. She climbed up the ladder into her bed and cozied up under the covers.

“Well I wish you good luck with that investigation. But as for me, I think I’ve satisfied my curiosity enough. Goodnight, Alya.”

“Goodnight, Marinette.”

Alya finished her nightly routine, changed into her PJ’s, and sat at her computer desk. Her blank screen stared at her from the Ladyblog’s submission page while she contemplated what to write.

Hey Ladybloggers,  

Alya here, and I hope your day was as eventful as mine.

Yesterday’s events left us all REELING with questions, and as your trusty news source I decided to put the investigative journalist inside me to the test. As to whether I passed or failed, I’ll let you be the judge. If you’ve been under a rock somewhere and have no clue what’s going on, check out yesterday’s article here before continuing.

If you’re anything like me, you’re wondering: How did they do it? How were our heroes able to defeat the villain without their memories? What happened in that fateful hour?

Well, I couldn’t just sit back and wonder forever, so I took it upon myself to retrace their steps and garner some clues. For the most part, I’d say I was pretty successful at figuring it out. Sadly, there were no clues about The Kiss.

Alya recapped her day in the article for her readers. It seemed like a cool enough read, but Alya couldn’t help be disappointed in the fact that she really hadn’t learned anything at all. A poster and a note. That was the true reason behind Oblivio’s defeat. Really, Alya probably could’ve figure it out from the news footage alone.

The reason she couldn’t find any clues about The Kiss were simply because there were none to find. The biggest clue Cat Noir and Ladybug had to figure themselves out was their phones, wherever they were.

 Through my investigation, I’ve surmised that all of the answers lie in the form of the data and information on Ladybug and Cat Noir’s cell phones. My assistants and I were able to determine that in such a situation, your personal cell phone would be the number one source of information about who you are. Trust me, I know from experience that my cell phone is a guide to my soul.

My curiosity has officially piqued. I wonder what kind of things I would learn about Ladybug and Cat Noir from their phones. The identity of Ladybug’s Mystery Lover perhaps? Which, by the way is still the number one question of the week.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

Alya out!

She hit submit and leaned back in her chair. Unless she could get her hands on both Ladybug and Cat Noir’s personal cell phones, she would never have all of the pieces needed to finish the puzzle. And, since she knew exactly zero about their true identities, she doubted she’d ever have the opportunity. So, as much as she hated it, she knew she’d have to move on from the story.

Alya sighed and pushed her chair back from her desk. She walked over to her bed, pulled back the covers and tucked herself in. The next order of business, she thought sleepily, will be to find out the mystery boy’s name. She drifted off to sleep knowing that this, too, was a near impossible quest.

But she wasn’t going to let that stop her from trying.

School the next day had been exceptionally boring, with each class worse than the one before. She was extremely grateful when the lunch hour finally rolled around. Usually she would go home for lunch, but today she didn’t feel like making that walk. Instead, she made her way to the courtyard, sat on her favorite bench, and began checking the comments on her blog post from the night before. She became so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn’t notice the blonde boy standing in front of her.

“Alya?”

She looked up to see Adrien in front of her and realized he’d said her name a couple of times.

“Hey, Adrien. Sorry what was that?”

“I just wanted to tell you that I had a lot of fun on the investigation yesterday.” He said as he sat down beside her.

“Well, I’m glad you had fun. I felt like it turned out to be more of a big waste of time than anything else.”

“I don’t think so. We have more information now than when we started. That’s something. Maybe you’ll find out more details later.”

“I’ve pulled a plug on that investigation.”

“What? Why?” he asked, his eyes going wide.

To Alya, he looked very concerned. Worried, even.

“I’m out of leads. Without Ladybug and Cat Noir’s phones, I’ll never be able to truly figure out what went down.”

“We could always guess what they had on their phones. Like say, what if Cat Noir had a bunch of pictures of Ladybug?” he asked, blushing a little and scratching his head. “That wouldn’t be weird, would it?"

Alya had to hold back a giggle. She was tickled by Adrien’s enthusiasm and sudden nervousness.

“No, it wouldn’t be weird but it seems like a stretch. It’s true that we could guess what was on their phones, but journalists have to have proof. Otherwise, who knows if we’re reporting fact or fiction.”

“Oh. I guess that makes sense.” Adrien’s head drooped a little. He seemed to be disappointed. “So what are you going to do now?” he asked her.

“I’ve got a new topic to investigate.”

“Can I help?” he asked

“Since when are you so interested in the Ladyblog?” she asked, eyeing him.

“Uh, I’ve always thought it was pretty cool.” He scratched the back of his head again. A nervous tick.

It was nice that he’d been willing to help her investigate yesterday, and she hadn’t expected him to be this excited about it. But, if she didn’t know any better, she’d say he was acting a little strange.

“Are you interested in finding out who Ladybug’s Mystery Lover is?” she asked him.

Immediately, Adrien’s demeanor changed. It was subtle, but Alya picked up on it. His shoulders slumped ever so slightly, his smile faded just a hair, and his eyes went straight to the ground. 

“Well, not particularly.” He answered.

He’d been lit up with excitement a moment before, but now it was as if someone blew out the flames on his birthday candles. He’d been acting strangely this entire time and now this? Alya did a quick recap of the conversation in her head. He’d been blushing just about any time she mentioned Ladybug and now perhaps…was this jealousy? She glanced back over to Adrien who still had his eyes trained on the ground.

“Adrien,” she began slowly, “do you by any chance have a crush on Ladybug?”

His posture straightened immediately and the blush poured back into his cheeks. His hand flew to the back of his head again, just like Alya’d expected it to.

“What? No way. Me?” he put on a grin, but he was trying too hard.

She didn’t buy it for one second, and the expression on her face said as much.

“Okay, okay. Maybe I do.” he was looking nervous again. “I haven’t told anyone though, so can we keep that between us?”

Alya nodded. “Of course. Although, for a minute there I kinda thought you had a crush on Kagami.”

“Kagami?” Adrien laughed and shook his head. “No, she’s just a friend.”

Alya shook her head too.

“Well I guess this explains why you never notice when a girl has a crush on you.”

“What?”

“Never mind,” she said quickly, “back to Ladybug.”

“There’s nothing else to say really. She’s already in love with someone. And if even she weren’t, she’s a superhero. I doubt she even knows I exist.” He let out a sigh and Alya laughed.

“Adrien, she swings around the city that has your face plastered on every billboard. At the very least, she knows you exist.”

They both laughed for a moment, and then fell quiet. Slowly, they turned their heads to look at each other.

“No.” Adrien said.

“But what if?” Alya asked.

Adrien had a look of disbelief stitched to his face, while Alya had an ever-increasing grin. Already the wheels in her head were spinning. It was a crazy idea, but not impossible.

“Still wanna help with my investigation?” 

Chapter Text

I should really invest in finding an office space. Alya thought, as she made her final checks around her living room. The carpet was freshly vacuumed and the pillows on the couch were fluffed. Every surface had been dusted and the curtains were closed.

Alya glanced over at the clock. 6:58.

Perfect.

She'd spent the last hour scurrying about to make sure everything was in order, and she'd made it with two minutes to spare.

Now where did I put my…. Oh yes.

Excitedly, Alya walked down the hall to her room to grab her notepad and a pen from off of her desk and flipped to the page she'd spent all afternoon preparing. As she was looking over her page, she caught movement outside her window from the corner of her eye.

She whipped her head to the side just in time to see Ladybug land in front of the balcony door, and Alya was there to open it in a flash.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you SO much for agreeing to this interview with me, Ladybug."

"Of course. I'm happy to do it, just as long as you remember what we talked about." She said with a cautious smile.

She was referring to earlier that day, after she and Cat Noir defeated Hawk Moth's latest villain. Alya managed to catch Ladybug's attention and practically begged her to meet for an interview.

"Alya, you already know that I don't remember anything that happened during the Oblivio attack, and I can't tell you anything about my love life," Had been her initial answer.

" No, it's not about that, I promise. I won't ask you anything personal."

She'd still been a bit reluctant, but agreed after Alya promised not to pry for the details about her admiree, claiming that she'd figure that out on her own. She'd given her a slip of paper with her address on it and asked her to meet her there at 7 o'clock.

Alya grinned back, and showed her to the living room where everything was set up and waiting. There was a pitcher of water and two glasses sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch. Ladybug took a seat, and Alya poured a glass for Ladybug and sat it in front of her.

"You have a nice home." Ladybug said to her.

"Thank you. It's an honor to have you here."

"Don't be silly." Ladybug gave her a gentle smile, and Alya had to clear her throat before any feelings of guilt took hold. To distract herself she asked,

"Are you ready to get started?"

"Yes," Ladybug settled into her seat on the couch and looked at her expectantly.

Alya shot a quick glance over at the clock. 7:05.

Her grin widened and she clicked her pen, "Okay…Once again, thank you for being here. I think it's important for the citizens of Paris to be able to connect to our heroes through these sort of sit downs."

She paused for a moment, studying Ladybug. She seemed relaxed and eager to participate.

Alya went on, "I wanted to talk to you about the animated Ladybug and Cat Noir film, directed by Thomas Astruc. As you know, the movie premiered two weeks ago, right here in Paris. Now, I understand that you declined the invitation to the premiere. Can I ask why?"

"Well, I'm a superhero not a celebrity. My job is to protect Paris, and as flattering as it is that there was even a movie made about me at all, I don't want to let that get to my head." She was calm and sure of herself and her response.

"That's sensible." Alya replied as she wrote down Ladybug's response. "Well, with that being said, do you think you would ever watch it?"

"Oh definitely. In fact, I've seen it already. I just didn't think it would be appropriate for me to attend the premiere. But, yes, I've seen the movie."

"Perfect! This would've been a short interview otherwise." Alya chuckled. "Now I was wondering—"

Alya was cut off by the sound of a knocking on her front door. Ladybug looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"Are you expecting someone?"

Alya looked at the clock again. 7:10. Right on time.

"Yes, that's just my assistant. I had him grab us some pastries, but I guess it took him a bit longer than expected."

"I didn't know you had an assistant."

"He's new. I'll be right back."

Alya went to open the door for her "assistant". She was only gone for a few moments before reentering the room.

"Ladybug, this is my assistant, Adrien Agreste."

Ladybug, who'd been drinking some of the water that Alya had poured for her, choked and began a huge coughing fit at the sight of Adrien standing there in Alya's living room, holding a small pink box.

"Are you okay?" he asked her as she struggled to regain a normal breathing pattern.

"Yes, *cough* just went down the wrong *cough* pipe is all." She cleared her throat and held up her hand, "I'm good."

Adrien placed the box on the table next to the water, along with a stack of napkins.

"Sorry I'm late." He said. "The lines were a little longer than I'd hoped."

"It's okay," Alya said, "We were only a few questions in."

Adrien took the seat next to Alya and across from Ladybug, and Alya gave him the notepad and pen duty. She noticed that all so suddenly Ladybug seemed nervous, and there was the slightest bit of pink in her cheeks.

"Okay, let's continue," Alya said. "Back to the movie. What were your overall thoughts about it?"

Ladybug was looking anywhere but at Adrien. "Oh yeah, I thought it was great. The, the animation was nice. I…liked the creativity of the villain in the movie. And, um yes. It was nice."

Adrien jotted that down.

"That's great," Alya continued. "I know it was just a movie, but how would you say it compared to real life?"

"Well in real life, I'm not afraid of cats for one thing. And, speaking of Cats, Cat Noir is way funnier in real life. But it was a solid attempt."

Adrien tried to hide his smirk as he wrote down Ladybug's answer, and at the mention of Cat Noir, Alya took this very important opportunity.

"By the way, did you know our friend Adrien here, was the voice of Cat Noir in the film?" Alya smiled proudly at Adrien, who blushed a little at the praise.

"Um, n-no I didn't. Concatul- congratulations."

The stuttering was not lost on Alya. She'd followed Ladybug everywhere and this wasn't her first interview with her either. The only thing that was different this time was the presence of a certain boy. Her little experiment was on the way to proving itself successful, but it was still too early to tell for sure.

"Thank you, Ladybug." Adrien replied with a smile. A smile that made Ladybug blush again.

"I wonder if he's had a chance to see it. Cat Noir, that is. I should see if he'd like to do an interview sometime too." Alya said, drawing the attention back to the reason they were there.

"That's a great idea." Ladybug said, tearing her eyes away from Adrien and hoping to get back into the questions to distract her.

She wasn't distracted for long, however, because Alya had Adrien ask the rest of the questions. Her reasoning was that, as her assistant, he needed experience in conducting interviews, and who better to practice with than someone that everyone admires? Alya watched as Ladybug struggled to regain control over her blushing and stuttering throughout the rest of the interview. She almost felt cruel for it, but it was a necessary experiment.

The interview lasted about an hour they ran out of the questions that Alya prepared. It might not have taken so long if Alya had been the one to ask the questions. Instead, Ladybug seemed unable to focus on what was going on anymore. It was completely contradictory to her natural behavior. It was completely perfect. Adrien Agreste totally was the boy that Ladybug had been talking about on the roof that day!

Adrien had begun to clean up the leftovers from the pastries, that Ladybug had been nervously chewing on since their arrival, when Alya stopped him.

"Do you know what this means, Adrien?"

"Ladybug really likes strawberry tarts."

She frowned at his clueless expression before realizing he was serious.

"Adrien, Ladybug is totally in love with you! Now remember, we have to keep this a secret."

He looked at her with confusion. He'd been in the same room that she'd been in the whole time, but apparently, they saw two completely different things. Ladybug didn't seem to be in love with him at all, so how had Alya come to that conclusion?

"You got all of that from one interview about an animated movie?"

"You've got a lot to learn Adrien. Have you ever heard of body language?"

"Well yes, but she just seemed nervous to me."

"And why do you think that was?"

"Because you were interviewing her?"

Alya facepalmed and shook her head. "No silly! Have you ever seen Ladybug get nervous before, even in an interview?"

He thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"The only difference was, this time you were in the room. It's science. And, as a journalist it's my job to read people. From the moment you entered the room she was blushing and stuttering, and she couldn't sit still. That's nothing like the Ladybug that I know."

Come to think of it, Adrien thought, he'd fought side by side with Ladybug for a long time now, and he'd only ever heard her stutter a few times. Each time, he'd been Adrien, not Cat Noir.

"And that means she's in love with me?"

"In my experience, yes. Trust me. Sometimes that's just how girls react when they love someone."

"You don't act that way around Nino."

"Well, no. Every girl is different, but there are some signs that you just can't ignore."

"Oh." Adrien began, his eyebrows scrunched together with a faraway look in his eyes, "Wait, did you know you'd be able to tell? Is that why you had me come along on the interview?"

"Well I had a hypothesis, so I tested it."

"Isn't that like tricking her?"

"No. It was an experiment. All we did was observe her behavior."

"But—"

"It's just research, and still only a theory. A theory with circumstantial evidence, but still it wasn't a trick. You are my assistant after all right?"

"Yes."

"Okay then. We didn't trick her."

After their conversation, Adrien left and Alya began cleaning up. It wasn't much, just the pastry box and the few glasses of water. She picked up her notepad and took it back to her room, rereading the notes that Adrien had taken.

She sat at her computer desk and drew up a post on the Ladyblog about the interview, leaving out the details of Ladybug's crush on Adrien. Once she completed it and hit submit, she printed something else out, locked her bedroom door, and went into her fortress of discovery.

Pulling back her clothes to reveal her board, she felt a twinge of guilt in her stomach. She took the image she printed, and tacked it over the latest question mark. It was a picture of Adrien.

Perhaps he'd been right. Maybe Alya's tactics had been slightly dishonest. Ladybug trusted her to do an interview without knowing that Adrien would be in attendance, and ended up revealing something about herself that she otherwise would not have revealed. And that had been Alya's plan, after all. If her hypothesis had been wrong, then it would be water under the bridge. But she wasn't wrong. And she wasn't going to tell anyone else either, so no harm done, right?

Suddenly, she wasn't so sure any more.

Chapter Text

The next three weeks were slow for Alya as she tried to shake off the guilt. For the most part, she was successful, but every now and then it crept back into her mind, reminding her of her dirty tactics. The result of this guilt was that she and her blog were focusing less on Ladybug's identity and secret crush, and more on the details of each battle. Unfortunately for her, the battles lately had been pretty boring.

It was typical for a villain to have petty goals, so that was nothing new, but Hawk Moth usually gave out better powers than jelly-bean-magnet-hands. Seriously, how did he expect to get anyone's miraculous with that. That fight was so minimal that they'd been able to resume the school day afterward.

So, there she was: sitting in class, not paying attention to the lesson, and jotting down any detail she could remember from the boring battle to put into a blog post later. She'd probably need to make a bonus post in light of all of the recent less-than-scoopish material she'd been posting lately. Maybe a collage of photos that'd been sent in? Something.

Alya was still engrossed in her blog thoughts when she noticed a folded piece of paper slide onto her desk. The fingers pushing the note along belonged to Nino, but her name on the outside of the paper was written in handwriting that was way too nice to be his. Alya glanced up at the teacher, who was facing the board and explaining an equation, before taking and opening the note.

Can we talk after school?

-Adrien

She raised an eyebrow. They really hadn't spoken much since the interview with Ladybug, so Alya wondered what this could be about. She quickly scribbled a 'yes' in response and slid the note back to Nino, who transferred it over to Adrien. Finally, something interesting was going on.

Adrien was pacing back and forth outside of the building when Alya walked out, and he appeared to be talking to himself.

"Adrien," Alya called, "Is everything okay?"

He looked startled when she called is name, and he rushed over in a hurry.

Now Alya was definitely curious as to what this was about. He seemed fine in the classroom, but now he seemed frazzled beyond repair.

"Alya, thank goodness. I need to ask you something."

"What is it?"

He ran his hand through his hair, his most obvious nervous tick, and contemplated his words before speaking again.

"Is there anyone…do you know if…"

Alya watched as he took a deep breath before he spoke again.

"I think Marinette might have a crush on me. I don't know what to do."

Woah. Alya's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. Never in a million years did she expect this to be a topic of discussion between her and Adrien Agreste. He was always so clueless, who knew he'd finally catch on? For a moment she was speechless.

"I always just thought she was a little bit shy," he went on, resuming his pacing, "but then after our interview with Ladybug and what you told me, I noticed she only ever seems to be shy when I'm talking to her. I've seen her give presentations in class without messing up a single word, but sometimes she can't even get a sentence straight when she's talking to me. Among other things…" he continued listing off all of the ways Marinette's behavior made her crush on him blaringly obvious.

"So, does this mean you're going to ask her out on a date?" Alya asked him, hoping internally that Marinette wouldn't kill her when she found out about this conversation. Though, honestly the girl would be thrilled. Her crush finally noticed her crush, and it was all thanks to her best friend explaining how girls worked.

Adrien stopped in his tracks with a panicked look on his face.

"What? I can't do that."

"Why not?" Alya said, mirroring the same look on her own face.

"Alya," Adrien said quietly and looking around to make sure nobody was close enough to hear them, "I told you, I'm in love with Ladybug. You have to help me let Marinette down easily."

Crap.

This was awkward. Alya's sworn duty as Marinette's best friend was to help her gain the affections the one boy she liked, in all of Paris. Now this same boy wanted her help to, and I quote, "let her down easily?" Alya quickly wracked her brain for a way out of this situation. She had to convince him to change his mind. All he had to do was give Marinette a chance, and he'd have the same feelings for her. Alya knew it. But how could she convince him to do that?

"Adrien, you can't be serious. You don't even know who Ladybug is."

"Yes, I do. She's the girl of my dreams."

Alya had to fight against rolling her eyes out of her head.

"You know what I mean Adrien. You don't know who she is under that mask! What do you even really know about her?"

"It doesn't matter who she is. She's kind and brave and beautiful and-"

"And she's a superhero, Adrien. Let's be realistic. You can't date a superhero. Even if you did know her, she'd never put you in that kind of danger. But I know another kind, brave, beautiful girl who is very safe to date, and you already said she was our everyday Ladybug. Marinette! And you really should consider giving her a chance."

"Marinette is an amazing girl, Alya, but she's not the one I'm in love with. And if you're right, if Ladybug loves me too then—"

"What if I was wrong? I just guessed really. What if I was just seeing what I wanted to see for my blog? Look, Adrien, Marinette is my best friend. I can't do what you're asking me to do."

She turned and hurried down the school steps and didn't look back when Adrien called after her. This was a mess. A huge terrible mess that she'd made with her assumptions about Ladybug, and now she'd ruined things with Adrien for her best friend. All she'd wanted to do was find out the identity of Ladybug's Mystery Lover, and now she practically set the two of them up together. Marinette is going to be devastated when she finds out.

Alya turned on her heels and headed straight for the bakery. This could not wait.

Meanwhile, back at school, Adrien watched as Alya headed towards Marinette's home and imagined the conversation they'd have when she arrived. Every scenario that passed through his head made him flinch. Marinette was an awesome friend, but she was bound to hate him come this time tomorrow. And that thought hurt, tremendously.

He sighed and dropped his shoulders. It wasn't his fault that Ladybug already held his heart. He'd love to give Marinette a chance if he could, but it wasn't up to him. It was the stupid thing in his chest that called the shots, and the only name written across it was Ladybug's. He didn't want to lose one of his best friendships because of it.

He turned to head towards the car that was waiting for him, but the doors to the school swung open, nearly knocking him down. He managed to maintain his balance, but the person exiting the school did not. Adrien reached out to catch her before she fell face first into the concrete.

Blue eyes and flushed cheeks looked at him as he righted her.

"Sorry, Adrien. Are you okay?" Marinette asked, embarrassed that she almost knocked him over.

"I'm fine, are you okay?"

"Yes, thanks to you. Sorry again." With a nervous smile and an awkward wave, she began marching down the steps, no doubt headed home to find Alya there waiting for her.

"Marinette," Adrien called to her, "Can I talk to you for a moment?" he asked.

Chapter Text

Adrien Agreste. It was so simple, and yet, so complicated. Two little words that made up half of his identity. For three weeks, Chat Noir had been trying to decide what to do with the information he and Alya gathered about Ladybug. He was the answer to all of his own problems. Or so they assumed. There was still the possibility of Alya being completely wrong, and it was way past time Chat figured that out or not. And tonight, was the night. After all, today had been a day for courage in conversations. What harm could one more bout of diarrhea of the mouth do?

Chat Noir headed towards the Eiffel Tower to meet his partner before starting the evening's patrol, his tail whipping back and forth nervously. He was giddy, nervous, and had the jitters, but he needed to play it extra cool. When he spotted her in the distance,already atop the tower, he took in a deep breath and prepared to put on his most charming act. This would be nothing more than a little recon. Everything would be okay. As he got closer, a Cheshire grin spread across his face to greet her.

"Good evening, M'Lady. Don't you look mew-tiful tonight." He said, as his baton raised him to her level where she was sitting, legs dangling off of the edge.

"Hey, Chat." She replied with a weak smile.

Chat stepped onto the ledge next to her and attached his baton back to his belt. He'd been prepared for some playful banter to get the conversation going, but as soon as he looked at her, he could tell something was up. The usual light in her Ladybug eyes was gone.

"Is everything okay?" he asked as he sat beside her.

She nodded in reply, swinging her legs back and forth, and looking down at the city. He'd known Ladybug for a long time and could count on one hand the number of times he'd seen her down like this. It never made him happy to see.

A silence passed between them and Chat Noir placed his hand over Ladybug's.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked her.

She shook her head, and Chat nodded, allowing them to sit together in silence.

A few moments passed and Ladybug let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry." She told him.

"It's okay."

She let out a weak laugh. "You don't even know what I'm apologizing for."

"Oh, well in that case it is most certainly not okay." He said wagging a finger at her and earning himself another laugh from her.

She took a deep breath. "I just…I wish…I'm sorry." Chat raised an eyebrow, but let her continue. "You've always been there for me, and I know you want more than I can give you. And I finally understand how that feels. It sucks, and I'm sorry."

He looked at her wearily, "Ladybug, you don't ever have to apologize to me about how you feel or don't feel. But where is this coming from?"

She laughed bitterly, "I uh, got a taste of my own medicine today. The boy that I—" she looked at Chat quickly and then back down, "He told me today that he 'cherishes my friendship and hopes nothing changes between us, but his heart belongs to someone else.'" She shook her head to get rid of the tears that were threatening to well up and spill, and she smiled through it, taking a deep breath.

"Chat, do you think you could handle patrol tonight? I'd really appreciate it."

"Of course, M'Lady." He watched as she stood up to leave. "Ladybug?"

"Yeah Chat?" she looked down where he sat.

"I hope you cherish my friendship." He said with a crooked smile.

She giggled, "Always," Before shooting out her yo-yo and leaving him there alone on the tower.

Chat Noir leaned back against the tower and let out a very deep sigh. As soon as the words left her mouth, he knew the reality of his situation. Because honestly, how likely was it that Ladybug's crush was another guy who just happened to say the exact same thing to her that he'd said to Marinette that exact same day? Ladybug was crying, because of what he'd said to her as Adrien. And Ladybug was Marinette. Who he justrejected. Oh, boy.

He dropped down from the tower to start his patrol, while his mind worked on a way to fix the entire situation.

"Marinette, thank goodness that you're home." Alya said when Marinette entered her room for the first time since school let out that day. "We really need to talk."

"Can it wait until tomorrow, Alya? I'm really tired." Marinette said as she trudged in, dragging her feet.

"It's about Adrien." Alya said, wringing her hands. She'd spent the afternoon pacing about Marinette's room trying to figure out exactly what she'd say to her when she got there. She'd had plenty of time to think about it since Marinette hadn't been home for hours. Alya vaguely wondered where she'd been.

Marinette stopped in her tracks and sighed, "It's okay, Alya. I already know he's in love with someone else."

At this, Marinette's tears finally broke free and her friend rushed over to hug and comforther. They stood in the middle of the room for a minute while Marinette cried and Alya held her, letting both of their cheeks become saturated in salty tears.

"I waited too long," Marinette was saying, "If I hadn't been so shy and wasted all of this time…"

Alya could hold back her guilt no longer.

"No, girl, this one's on me. It was that stupid interview with Ladybug. I should've never brought him along. I'm sorry."

Marinette sniffled and pulled back to look at Alya.

"What are you talking about?"

"I sort of found out that Adrien was in love with Ladybug and I got him to help me with a theory I had about her crush. We thought maybe it could be him, because of the billboards and everything, so I had him tag along to the interview to watch her behavior around him, and she seemed to really like him. Now he's got crazy ideas that they can actually be together and I practically set them up. I tried to talk him out of it, but he's determined. I'm so sorry and I'm a terrible friend!"

Alya winced as she blurted all of this out to Marinette, finally able to get this off of her chest. She knew she was the absolute worst friend on the planet and was willing to suffer any punishment she deserved. The room grew dangerously silent as Alya awaited the verdict, and she cracked open her eye ever so slightly to peak at what she expected would be Marinette's ire.

And yet, Marinette seemed to be strangely calm, staring off into space. Alya became like a statue, not wanting to break the trance that bought her time for Marinette to internally reason. Marinette sniffed, coming back to reality and turned her gaze towards Alya and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You're not a terrible friend, Alya." She said with the tiniest hint of a smile. "But, I am really tired though, and I just kind of want to go to bed."

Alya stood back, nodded her head, and grabbed her phone off of the dresser. She opened the hatch to leave Marinette's room before she changed her mind, but not without one last glance at her friend.

"You're not mad at me?" she asked

Marinette shook her head and shrugged. "She's Ladybug."

Alya gave her friend one last look before descending the steps and heading home.

Chapter Text

For the rest of the week, Alya waited for the other shoe to drop, but it never came. Not on Monday, when Marinette was unusually on time to class. Not on Tuesday, when they ate lunch at Marinette's house. And not on Wednesday, when Adrien and a Marinette bumped into each other in the hall, scattering each other's books everywhere. Each day was incredibly more tense than the one before, for Alya, but Marinette was strangely unbothered. She went about her normal routines: taking notes in class, bringing pastries in the mornings, disappearing for unusual amounts of time and then reappearing out of nowhere; not a hair was out of place.

But none of it made any sense. Marinette was taking this rejection insanely well. In terms of her relationship with Adrien: there was no cold shoulder, she was as friendly as ever, and Alya noticed that she'd completely stopped stuttering around him altogether. This girl had been head-over-heels crazy about Adrien for so long, and to just get over it like that? As if it never happened? It was bewildering.

Could it be that Alya had completely underestimated Marinette's level of maturity?

Then again, this was the girl who stole Adrien's phone after she let a voicemail calling him hot. She had his whole schedule committed to memory, and what she didn't know by heart was kept on a calendar in her room. She baked fresh a single macaron every week in his favorite flavor. Alya shook her head. No way. She knew something was definitely up.

And she wasn't the only one paying attention to Marinette's behavior; Adrien had been pleasantly surprised that his big mouth hadn't ruined his friendship with Marinette. The first few days had kept him on his toes, trying to figure out whether she hated him or not. At first, he'd barely chanced eye contact with her. After a couple of days with no incidents, however, it became clear that she wasn't just putting on a nice face, and he relaxed a little. Hopefully, he thought, this was a situation he could mend.

"All I'm saying is that you seem to be taking this extremely well." said Alya to Marinette after a long day at school.

The weather was nice. It was a warm day with light breezes for when the sun beat a little too harshly, so they were seated along the edge of the fountain in the park, each with a cup of ice-cream in hand.

"How else should I take it?" Marinette countered, stuffing a spoonful of strawberry into her mouth.

"Touché. You shouldn't be cooped up in the house sad and crying, but I expected you to at least want to."

Marinette laughed and Alya continued.

"You know, it's okay to want to." Alya said cautiously, "And you don't have to pretend you're fine if you're not. I'm always here if you wanna talk." She peered at her friend over her glasses, trying to discern her true feelings.

"I'm fine, really," Marinette said, rolling her eyes, "You don't have to keep grilling me, Alya."

"But we're talking about Adrien, here. Adrien!"

"Yes, I know, Alya."

"And you're okay?"

"I'm okay."

Alya watched Marinette's expression as she finished her ice cream. She didn't seem to be faking. Marinette said that she still had feelings for Adrien, but she just wasn't sad. That perhaps they'd fade with time, or if she kept being a good friend towards him that maybe he'd eventually feel the same. Sure, she knew that she had competition now, but she'd rather Adrien fell for Ladybug instead of someone terrible like Chloe or worse, Lila.

Maybe she really was okay with everything.

And it was time to realize that that was a good thing. Alya shook her head. Marinette was happy, and everything was okay. What's the point of looking for sadness where it isn't? Alya thought. She took another scoop of her ice cream, smiling, and decided to finally drop the topic. If Marinette said she was okay, then she was okay.

"Okay. So, got any plans for this weekend?" she asked, starting up a new discussion.

The girls finished their ice cream under the sun, enjoying their afternoon. The birds were taking a bath on the opposite side of the fountain, kids were playing in the carousel, and there was music drifting through the air. They'd been sitting there for about an hour when Adrien noticed them and decided to walk over.

"Hey." he said with a smile when he got within earshot. They greeted him back, and he closed the distance, dropping his duffel bag next to his feet.

"How was fencing?" Marinette asked, gesturing to his bag.

"It was great. We learned some new moves today. What are you guys up to?"

"Ranking ice cream from best flavor to worst." Alya answered. "What's your favorite flavor?"

"Hm, that's a tough one. Pistachio?"

Adrien laughed at the faces they made at his answer, and they all finished discussing which ice creams were the best and which ones should never be mentioned again. It turned out that there were a lot of flavors that they all still needed to try, and someone suggested that they'd get through them all together that summer.

It was a normal afternoon. The weather was nice, and they'd had a moment to all just hang out and chat, like friends do. Paris needed more days like this one. It was always a shame when a nice day, like the one they were having, got cut short by some poor soul being akumatized. It was almost always something petty. Small, petty occurrences that not only ruined that person's day, but everyone-around-them's day as well. For once, Adrien needed a normal day to just stay a normal day.

That was the thought passing through his head when he heard thunder crack through the clear, blue sky and laugher echoed around them. Clouds that hadn't been there before began rolling in, and riding atop one of them was, without a doubt, Hawk Moth's latest victim.

Looking to the sky, Adrien saw the villain donned in sharp, white boots. Her dress was short and purple, and her pigtails were in two swirly shades of purple and lavender pointed out to her sides. In her gloved hand was her weapon and key to her powers—a purple umbrella.

Adrien recognized her as Stormy Weather, whom he and Ladybug had fought against before, and felt a small sense of relief. If his afternoon had to be interrupted, at least it was by someone he already knew how to beat.

Alya and Marinette jumped to their feet at the sight of her. The three friends exchanged glances with one another, all thinking the same thing.

"We need to get out of here."

But they wouldn't be going anywhere. Before they could move a muscle, Stormy Weather whipped her umbrella around her head and shot out ice from the tip of it, trapping the three of them inside an impenetrable dome of ice. The laughter that they heard next was muffled, along with whatever speech she was spouting—undoubtedly calling out taunts for Ladybug and Cat Noir to come and try to stop her. Her shape was blurred through the ice, but they were still able to see that she'd flown off in the direction of the Grand Paris Hotel, still shooting ice from her umbrella.

The warm day that they'd been living in, not five minutes sooner than this moment, was long gone. The ice that trapped them sent an intense chill down to their bones, and their teeth were chattering almost immediately. The walls of the dome were thick. Too thick for the pounding that Alya was doing against them to have any effect.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, turning to her friends before opening them again. When she did, she saw the panic in their faces. Perhaps pounding on the ice hadn't exactly helped put anyone at ease.

"Don't worry," she said, sounding immensely more calm than she felt, "Ladybug and Cat Noir will handle this in no time." She cupped a hand around her eyes and pressed into the ice to try to get a clear look through.

It was useless though. With the frost clouding the ice, and the way the clouds make the sky as dark as midnight, there was no way Alya could make out any of what she saw.

"Ladybug and Cat Noir will handle this in no time." Alya's words echoed in Adrien's head as he watched her peer through the ice. Her back was turned to him and Marinette, so she was oblivious to the both of them running through the possible scenarios in their heads.

Adrien wasn't getting his hopes up over Ladybug or Cat Noir coming to the rescue. He knew exactly where the heroes were in that moment. He knew they probably weren't the only ones trapped like this. There was a decision to make, and with the way the temperature in the dome was dropping, the decision needed to be made quickly. A glance over in Marinette's direction told him that she was thinking the same thing. She didn't know where Cat Noir was right then, but she knew that wherever he was, he was counting on her to show up and help him. She couldn't do that from inside the ice.

Adrien saw her eyes shift over to Alya's back, and then flicker again in his direction. He watched her close her eyes and take a deep breath before opening her mouth to speak.

"Guys? There's something I should tell you…" she began, taking another deep breath.

Alya, with her arms wrapped around her torso and her teeth chattering, turned to face Marinette and raised her eyebrows in response.

"I'm—"

"Wait." Adrien said, stopping her. He'd subconsciously taken a step forward, surprising himself with how close he was standing to Marinette, her eyes wide.

He knew how she felt about her secret identity. He'd wanted to share his with her on so many occasions, but she'd been the one to stick to her decision. It wasn't safe for them if they, or anyone else, knew who was behind the mask. Adrien knew if she were ever to tell him or Alya about who she was, this wouldn't be the way she would want to do it. So, he couldn't let her choice be taken away from her by a villain. (Not to mention, Cataclysm was a way better choice for getting them out of there, but that wasn't the point.)

"There's something I should tell you first." He said, as his fist tightened by his side.

She started to say something else, but he grabbed her hands, catching her off guard.

"Trust me." He said, peering into her bluebell eyes with his sharp green ones. Forgetting, just for a moment, that there was another pair of eyes focused on the both of them.

He took half a step back and gave a soft chuckle. "Well, this is a little awkward." He looked at Alya, and back to Marinette with a wink. "I hope you ladies can keep a secret."

"Plagg, CLAWS OUT!"

A flash of green later, and Cat Noir was standing where Adrien had been.

"Get away from the walls." He told them, and they did so.

He called for his power, and his right hand filled with the destructive magic that he needed to destroy the dome that was trapping them. A single touch on the ice did the trick, and the walls crumbled down around them.

He turned back to face the girls, who still had their jaws on the floor. If the situation weren't so urgent, he would've found it funny.

"Guess the cat's out of the bag." He said, with a hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck.

A rumble in the distance called his attention and shook the girls out of their trance.

"Get somewhere safe." He said to them before extending his baton and bounding out of sight.

Chapter Text

Things were never simple in Paris. They had superheroes and supervillains for crying out loud. But never in all of her days, had Alya expected ANOTHER one of her classmates to be one of those heroes. All it took was a couple of magic words and a flash of green, and boom. Cat Noir had been right in front of her the whole time. Literally, right in front of her in class. One row ahead. Either she was getting sloppy, or he was really good at hiding his identity. (Obviously, it was the latter.)

The ice walls crumbled down around the three of them, and she and Marinette still stood there in their shock, not believing what their eyes told them. In her surprise, she'd managed to stop shivering, but there wasn't much of a difference of temperature on the outside of the ice than there had been on the inside.

There was a rumble in the distance, drawing her attention away from Cat Noir – Adrien – who told her and Marinette to get somewhere safe. He leapt away using his baton, but Alya's feet were still frozen to the ground, watching after him. Suddenly his feelings for Ladybug made a lot more sense.

Marinette recovered more quickly than she had, and Alya felt herself being tugged away in the direction of Marinette's home. Snapping out of her trance and back into her skin, she was able to take in the scene that Stormy Weather left around them.

Ice. And snow. Everywhere.

Remember the ice age? Well that was ALMOST as bad as this. Everything was frozen over. Cars were stuck in their places, and the trees were covered in thick layers of ice, but the leaves were still intact. Birds that had been sitting on the power lines hadn't had time to fly away before becoming permanent fixtures. There were other ice domes around, which presumably had more people trapped in them like she had been a moment ago.

Alya shivered. Maybe it was from the snow falling around her, or the thought of people freezing inside the domes. Whatever it was, she knew these temperatures weren't survivable for long. Ladybug and Cat Noadrien were going to have to wrap this up quickly.

Alya nearly tripped when Marinette, who was still holding onto her hand, suddenly stopped in her tracks. She'd been too busy looking at Stormy Weather's handiwork to see what made Marinette stop so abruptly, but coming back to her senses, she saw what it was. The bakery, a place that was usually glowing with warm light, was dark and seemed deserted. The door was frozen shut under a thick layer of ice.

So much for getting to a safe place. There was no way they'd be able to get inside. Come to think of it, Alya took a glance around, there was no way to get in anywhere. Everywhere she looked was the same. Buildings were completely shut and frozen solid. She could only hope that the people stuck inside were able to keep warm.

Wracking her brain for another plan of action, Alya again found herself being tugged away by Marinette. She expected her to try another door, but instead she led her around the corner and down an alley, stopping to make sure there was no one else around.

Alya scanned the alleyway, trying to figure out why Marinette had brought them there. There were no doors, no ladders or stairs, not even a dumpster to at least hide in.

"Marinette, what're you—"

Marinette, who'd been pacing, turned to Alya and grabbed her wrist.

"Alya, I need you to stay here."

"What? You're not going back out there." Although, out there was a bit of an overstatement, since they'd never made it in anywhere.

"Trust me, Alya. Cat Noir needs me, and we might need Rena Rouge for this one. So, stay put, and I'll be right back."

Alya was already freezing, but even still she froze at Marinette's words. Did she know Alya was Rena Rouge? Why else would she have said that to her? But, wait, Cat Noir needs her? Why?

Alya positioned her mouth to ask Marinette what she meant, but Marinette seemingly read her mind and cut her off, shaking her head.

"I'll explain everything later, but right now, Tikki—Spots on!

For the second time in the last ten minutes, Alya's jaw hit the ground. Ladybug shot her yo-yo and let it carry her away to destinations unknown. All Alya could do was stand there and watch her get further away. Her mind was exploding, and she could barely hold on to a single thought. Her best friend—her BEST FRIEND. HER BEST FRIEND WAS LADYBUG. Her head was spinning with events both recent and old that were suddenly making more and more sense. Marinette's lame excuses weren't so lame anymore. Her disappearances no longer such a coincidence. Her choice in hero companions?! Not by accident!

Alya put her hands on either side of her head to try and stop the spinning. She could not believe she missed this. How often had she been with Marinette when there was an attack? Ladybug always seemed to know where to find her when she needed Rena Rouge. Of course she wouldn't just trust some random stranger to wield a miraculous. And now her behavior that week made sense! Marinette wasn't upset about Adrien being in love with Ladybug, because Marinette WAS Ladybug! Adrien was already in love with her. This was the other shoe!

Her inner rambling was interrupted by the familiar sound of a yo-yo and the thud of someone landing next to her. Alya peeked over her shoulder, and surely enough, Ladybug was standing there with her hand outstretched towards her, holding a box that she'd seen plenty of times before.

Alya took the box and opened it, releasing a blinding light and a small fox like creature. Trixx.

"Nice to see you again." The kwami said to Alya.

"You too. Ready to do your thing?" Alya asked.

"Wait." Ladybug interrupted, catching Alya and Trixx's attention.

Alya hadn't noticed, being that she was so wrapped up in her inner freak-out, but Ladybug looked a bit different. Her suit wasn't the usual red and black. Well, it was, but there was something different to it too. A pattern, almost like a snowflake, covered the entirety of her body. And there was a fur lining around her neck and on her arms. And Ice skates were on her feet as well. She was totally prepared for the environment they currently found themselves in.

"You'll need this." She said, opening her yoyo (which apparently doubled as a magic purse) and pulling out a blue macaron. "Feed this to Trixx and say, 'Trixx, power up'. Then you'll be able to handle the ice as well."

"Awesome! I love transforming!" Squeaked the kwami floating in the air.

Alya took the cookie from Ladybug, and did as she was told. She watched as Trixx began to glow and spin around too fast for her eyes to follow. After a second, her usually bright-orange kwami emerged completely white as snow. Like an arctic fox. Alya's eyes grew wide with amazement at the sight of her kwami looking so different. She didn't even know this was a thing!

"Arctrixx!" Trixx proclaimed, giving Alya a nod.

"Arctrixx, let's pounce!"

Alya's transformation felt the same as it usually did, but her suit looked nothing like she was used to. Like Trixx, she was covered in white from head to toe. Even her hair, which always changed, grew longer and went completely white. Only the palms of her gloves and soles of her boots were black. Instead of skates, like Ladybug and Cat Noir, she had pads on her hands and feet, and she sprouted claws made for gripping onto the ice and snow. Her eyes turned black, and the ears on her head had a black fur lining and were pink on the inside. Her mask extended to cover more of her face, resulting in a snout with a cute black nose. If it weren't for her orange miraculous sitting on her chest, she would almost blend right into their current surroundings.

"This is unbelievable!" Rena said, admiring her new transformation. It always gave her enormous amounts of energy and power, but this time she felt like she had even more than usual. There was a part of her somewhere that just wanted to bound through the snow and roll around in it and play.

"Come on." Ladybug called as she threw out her yo-yo. "We need to catch up with Chat."

"Right." Rena replied, getting her head back into the game.

Surprising herself, she chased after Ladybug on all fours. She usually ran on two legs as Rena Rouge, but this transformation seemed to bring out more of the canine side of the fox. Her tail whipped out behind her, helping to keep her balanced as she ran. It was exhilarating, and she had to remind herself not to let her tongue flap out of her mouth.

She came to a stop beside Ladybug on a rooftop not far from where they'd been moments ago, and looked around to see if she could spot Stormy Weather and Cat Noir, but they were nowhere in sight.

"Why are we stopped?" Rena asked.

She looked up from her haunches to see Ladybug squinting through the darkness. That's right. It's dark out. Rena had completely forgotten that visibility was low, being that she could see clearly through the darkness. Ladybug didn't have the same night vision that Rena was granted through the fox miraculous, and so she was having a difficult time finding her partner and the supervillain. But even with her night vision, Rena couldn't spot them.

"I can't see a thing." Ladybug answered. "Do you see them anywhere?"

Rena took another glance around before answering, but there was still nothing—wait.

Yes. There in the distance. It was faint, but she could just barely see what looked like Cat Noir going at it with Stormy Weather in a hand to hand combat battle of Baton to Umbrella.

"Follow me!" she shouted to Ladybug and took off at top speed. 

Chapter Text

The sharp, clanking sounds of the duel pierced through the darkness, growing louder with each rooftop that brought Rena Rouge and Ladybug closer to the fight. What had been a faint movement in the distance, was now a clear picture of Cat Noir and Stormy Weather in a dance of arms. For each blow Stormy Weather threw towards Cat Noir, there was a block and a counter attack thrown in return. Cat Noir's movements with his baton were graceful as he ducked and weaved past Stormy's Umbrella.

I guess all of Adrien's fencing lessons actually do come in handy, Rena mused, who knew?

Rena Rouge and Ladybug were still several rooftops away from being able to help, but Cat Noir was closing in on Stormy– gaining the upper hand. Dodging another attack, Stormy Weather seemed to become aware of this, for out of the darkness came a blinding light. There was a wave of heat and a thunderous crash that almost brought the girls to a halt. It was lightning, and it struck dangerously close to Cat Noir. The ground where he'd previously been standing was sizzling and steaming from where the lightning struck, turning the ice into vapor. Had he not been moving already; Cat Noir would've been burnt to a crisp. A quick exchange of glances and Rena Rouge and Ladybug picked up the pace.

Another flash of lightning. Another. Stormy Weather was living up to her name.

Cat Noir, somehow, was maintaining his dance while evading the lightning that was threatening to barbeque him. If he read her movements, he could determine where her next lightning strike would be and have time to dodge. But it was an ill twist of fate when he slipped on the ice that surrounded him, and Stormy Weather was able to knock his baton from his hand. Cackling, she moved to aim her umbrella at his head.

But she was a moment too slow. Ladybug's yo-yo wrapped around the barrel of the weapon and jolted it aside in time to disrupt the trajectory of the icicle that came shooting from the tip. Furiously, Stormy Weather whipped her head in the direction of the intruder, and Cat Noir breathed a small sigh of relief at the arrival of his comrades. She let out a scream in Ladybug's direction and tried to yank her umbrella free, but the yo-yo held fast. Cat Noir made a break for his baton while Rena Rouge moved in to corner Stormy Weather from behind.

With her yo-yo still wrapped around the barrel of the umbrella, Ladybug was now the immediate target of Stormy Weather's fury. Icicles as sharp as knives began firing from the tip of the umbrella. They whistled through the air at a high speed, and the only way Ladybug could dodge was to let go of her hold on the weapon. She rolled out of the way as the icicles whizzed past her, only barely missing her shoulder.

Now outnumbered, the villain let out a frustrated cry, realizing that she'd lost the upper hand.

"Don't you love the polar bears?!"

Unwilling to be stopped, she took to the sky again, on the path to her goal. She flew in the direction of the television station, lightning trailing behind her to slow down her pursuers.

"We can't let her reach the broadcast tower." Chat yelled to his partners, "If she gets her umbrella to the top, she'll be able to connect to the satellites and freeze the entire globe."

"What could she have to gain by that?" Ladybug asked, dodging a lightning bolt.

"She's trying to reset the global temperature."

"I hate climate change just as much as the next girl," Rena Rouge added, keeping pace, "But doesn't this seem a bit extreme?"

"Only a little," Cat Noir chuckled.

Having to dodge the lightning attacks was a major disadvantage for the heroes, and it gave Stormy Weather all the time she needed to reach the television station. She'd even reached the edge of the broadcast tower by the time Ladybug's yo-yo wrapped around her leg and wrenched her back. Stormy Weather thrashed around to face Ladybug, the rage evident in her eyes. Once again, she began shooting razor sharp icicles at the one who held her.

Rena Rouge brought her flute to her lips, poised to use her power. If Stormy Weather's goal was to reach the tower, well then, she'd just have to make the tower that much harder to find. And with Stormy's attention on Ladybug for the moment, Rena had the perfect opportunity to make it happen. She played the magical tune that activated her power, and directed it toward the broadcast tower.

"Mirage!"

Now there were five towers on the roof.

"Looks like you have to guess which is the real tower, Rapunzel." Chat taunted as he dodged an icicle.

Rena smirked. Not only had her mirage added towers, but she also hid the real tower from view. There would be no 'guessing the right tower'. She ducked as an icicle flew her way.

"Care to wrap this up, Ladybug?" Chat asked as he lunged to avoid an icicle-lightning combo strike.

With a nod, and a toss of her yo-yo, Ladybug called on her own magic power.

"Lucky Charm!"

Her outstretched hand caught the item that fell to her aid. It was…

"A balloon?" she questioned.

"What are you supposed to do with that?" Rena asked, hitting an icicle out of the air like a baseball.

Ladybug checked her surroundings to find out how her gift should be used. When all she could see was the villain in front of her, an idea sprang to life. Quickly she blew air into the balloon while Cat Noir drew Stormy Weather's fire.

This was the third time Stormy Weather had been akumatized. She was used to the usual distract and conquer routine that Cat Noir and Ladybug put into action. When Cat Noir had moved far away enough from Ladybug to cover her fire, Stormy Weather quickly changed targets. Ladybug had been busy blowing air into the balloon and only just managed to jump out of the way of the attack. The action, however, caused her to let go of the balloon and sent it flying.

"Looks like you're out of a Lucky Charm, Ladybug." Stormy Weather boasted, "That's too bad." The lightning was still coming down all around the rooftop, and the villain grinned an evil grin. Her teeth glistened with each flash as she leveled her umbrella to aim at Ladybug.

Stormy Weather was so filled with glee at the prospect of defeating Ladybug, that she failed to notice the balloon flying right towards her.

SMACK

It landed right on her face, covering her eyes, and providing enough of a distraction to give Rena Rouge an opportunity to jump in and snag the umbrella. Rena quickly tossed it to Ladybug as Stormy Weather let out an outraged and defeated cry. She moved the balloon from her face just in time to see her umbrella come down over Ladybug's knee.

Since he'd been the first to use his power, Cat Noir had to leave immediately after Ladybug cleansed the Akuma. He was relieved that he had an excuse to escape Ladybug's prying eyes. He knew her identity, and she knew his, but she didn't know that he knew hers. So, though she might have wanted to question him right then, there was no reason in her mind for Ladybug to know that he was Adrien. But he knew that she knew, and he thought about the conversation that they'd eventually have to have—at least as Adrien and Marinette. He'd have to find a way to tell her what he knew. He contemplated this as he dropped down onto his bedroom floor and his transformation broke.

With his usual dramatics, Plagg flitted over to Adrien's minifridge and helped himself to some Camembert. After scarfing down a few slices, he burped and turned to Adrien.

"The Cat's out of the bag?" he questioned him, reciting the words that Adrien said to Alya and Marinette after freeing them from the ice dome.

Adrien flinched and rubbed the back of his head. "Well…it is?" it came out as a question since he had no better response. And well…it was.

"You're right it is. Great job telling your secret identity to a reporter who's been out to unmask you since the beginning. I bet her fans will love this one."

Adrien's expression blanked a bit. "Alya wouldn't do that." She was his friend. He was sure he could trust her. Though, remembering the tenacity she had for her blog and pleasing her fans, his assuredness waivered a bit.

And Plagg's deadpanned expression didn't help either.

"We were stuck in an impenetrable dome of ice. What else could I have done?"

Plagg yawned, unable to come up with a good answer. "All I'm saying is that you might want to have a talk with her sooner rather than later. Just to be sure."

"Yeah, yeah". Adrien said, waving him off. Still, he took a seat at his computer and logged onto the Ladyblog.

He spent the next few hours refreshing the page, confident that Alya wouldn't have posted anything about him. Each time he held his breath, and each time he felt silly for doubting her trust. Still, Plagg's words echoed in his mind. It was silly, he knew. After all, it had been weeks since the interview with Ladybug, and Alya had never even hinted about having a lead. If she kept such a juicy detail under wraps, then certainly she would keep his identity safe too, right?

Of course she will, he reassured himself. He trusted her. He truly did. Still, it couldn't hurt to talk to her like Plagg suggested. And with that thought, he transformed, resolved to pay her a visit.

It was dark for the second time that day, when Chat leapt across the rooftops leading to Alya's house. He saw the light on in the living room, and peeked in to see if she was there. She was. She sat on the couch, and a movie played across the television screen. He waited a moment to see if anyone else was home, but she seemed to be alone.

Alya turned her head towards the window when she heard a light tapping on the glass. She was very surprised to see Cat Noir outside on her balcony. A mischievous smile broke out across her face as she rose to let him in. She'd had a million questions to ask him that she hadn't had a chance to ask after the battle, since he'd never come back to the fountain. She figured she'd just have to corner him at school, but he'd shown up to her home instead. How perfect!

"Well, look what the Cat dragged in." she said through her smirk. "What brings you here?"

"I was in the neighborhood." He said, cautiously stepping inside. "Is your family home?"

"No, they just left to go see a movie. "

"Awesome! I was hoping we could talk." He looked down at his feet and raised his hand to his head, "You know, about a certain secret that I don't think you're going to post to your blog, but I need to make sure."

Alya laughed.

"I'm all over it, Cat-Boy. Trust me, I know better than to out one of Paris' heroes as much as I may want to."

At this, Cat Noir visibly relaxed, and he smiled.

"I knew you could keep a secret."

Alya grinned, "Of course I can. In fact, I have a secret that I'm sure you'd never guess, but I think it's only fair to tell you since you told me yours. I'm Rena Rouge."

Adrien blinked. "No way."

"Way." Alya laughed with a wink and pulled out her necklace from where it was hiding in her shirt. Ladybug said she would still have to return it, but she'd let her hold onto it just for the night, "Why else would I hardly have any good shots of her for my blog?"

"Alya, who are you talking to?" came a voice from the directions of what Chat could only assume was Alya's bedroom.

A second later the owner of the voice appeared. It was Marinette. And she was in her pajamas.

"I thought you said you were alone." Chat whipped his head back to Alya.

"No, I said my family was out to see a movie." Alya corrected before turning her attention to Marinette, "Look who popped in to see us, Marinette. Our friend, the cat."

Marinette, who'd been a statue since entering the room, slowly came back to life at the mention of her name. She'd agreed to Alya's demand of an emergency sleepover so they could dish out everything that was their secret life. She'd never imagined the third part of that secret life would show up here. And while she was in her pajamas. Though, it wouldn't be the first time Cat Noir saw her in them. Or the second for that matter, since he was actually Adrien. Cat Noir was Adrien. As many times as she and Alya had gone over that fact in the past few hours, it hadn't quite stuck. Even with him standing there in Alya's living room, it didn't seem real.

"H-hey, Cat Noir." This is weird, Marinette thought. "What are you doing here?"

Chat smiled his roguish grin before answering. This seemed as good an opportunity as any, "I just came to see how Ladybug and Rena Rouge were doing after earlier today. You haven't seen them around have you?"

Marinette stiffened and peeked over at Alya, and back at Chat.

"You told him?!" she gaped at Alya, who was already raising her hands in defense.

"Hey, I only told him that I was Rena Rouge. I said nothing about you."

"Actually," Cat Noir interjected, clearing his throat, "I sort of figured out your identity on my own the other night." he hesitated sheepishly, "On patrol."

"Oh." Was all she said.

An almost awkward silence to fill the air while she mulled it over in her head. It took a moment, but then it landed.

"OH." She said again, the realization hitting her. And then another "oh…" as it sunk in.

"What am I missing?" Alya asked, looking between the two.

In response, they both only blushed and looked in opposite directions. Then it clicked. Alya's mouth popped open as she realized what she was missing. Cat Noir's been in love with Ladybug since forever. Ladybug rejects Cat Noir because she, Marinette, is in love with Adrien. Adrien is Cat Noir.

"Oh, em, gee."

Both blushes deepened.

Of course, I invited him to stay and watch the movie with us. He stayed, and the movie ended up watching us instead. I got to meet Plagg and Tikki, and we let all of the Kwamis hang out with us as well— which might've been my favorite part of the evening. Especially since I don't get to spend much time with Trixx. She's so sweet, and it made me happy to see her spending time with her friends, since they don't see each other very often. (You know, being secret magical beings and all that.)

Adrien and Marinette were total gems, and they answered any and every question that I could think to ask. They answered a lot of questions lol. There were so many. Like, did you know, Plagg loves cheese. Camembert is his favorite. And Tikki loves cookies, especially chocolate chip. It made me wonder what kind of thing Trixx likes to eat, since I've never had the chance to ask. Turns out she loves strawberries! So do I, which is awesome. Further proof that we were meant to be together.

Oh! I almost forgot. The absolute best part of the evening was when it finally dawned on me to ask Adrien and Marinette to show me their phones. Of course, they had no idea why, but I had an idea. So they handed me their phones, and I could NOT contain my laughter. Ever since that Oblivio incident, I'd wondered what had been on their personal phones to make them fall for each other. Get this, they BOTH had the other as their background XD. Adrien had Ladybug (of course) and Marinette had Adrien! They had no idea why I was so hysterical until they saw it for themselves. Our sides hurt so much after that, I'm pretty sure I'm going to wake up with abs in the morning. I would say we're all going to wake up with abs, but they both already have them. Perks of being a hero lol.

Anyway, I can say with full confidence, that this was probably the best night of my life. So far, anyway, haha. Until next time. ;)

Alya, out.

Alya closed and locked her diary, put it back into the box that Marinette made for her, and slid the box back under her bed where she kept it. It was a little bit after two in the morning, and everyone in the house was asleep, including Marinette who was staying over and had fallen asleep in the living room. Alya had been bubbling with energy, but was finally starting to wind down. It was a great night, she thought, as she made her way to her printer and grabbed the two photos that were waiting there for her.

She locked her bedroom door before heading into the depths of her closet. Removing the framed Jagged Stone poster, she was once again greeted with by her evidence board. An excited smile took over her face as she looked between the differently colored threads. She reached out to tough the rough strings, remembering all of times she'd made the connections. The identity journey was a long one. And now she knew.

Alya took the photos in her hands, one of Marinette and one of Adrien, and tacked them over their respective question marks. It was a sight to behold. Nobody else in Paris, except for the heroes themselves and someone named Master Fu, knew the identities behind Paris' beloved heroes. She beamed at the evidence board which was now 2/3's complete. They'd find out Hawk Moth's identity one day, but for now she just took it in.

And then she took it down. One by one, she removed the photos identifying each hero. It had never been her intention to show this to anyone else anyway, but suddenly it just felt too dangerous to have. Being determined to fill the blanks, and having the blanks filled were two entirely different things. So down it came— tack by tack, string by string.

And though it was gone, it would never be forgotten.