Chapter Text
Luka was tired of secrets.
His hands were full of them. In the lines of his palms were the secrets of his mother, his sister, and his absent father; deep and gouging family ties that ran vast and branched out like the valleys of a canyon. In the wrinkles of his knuckles were the secrets of his friends, his companions; sometimes loose and bunched together, other times pulled taut and pale.
And in the callouses of his fingers, the secrets of his partners. The synchronicity of their breathing, the beating of their hearts, the pain of their burdens. Luka held onto all of it, and he was exhausted. Even his fingers felt tired as he ran them over steel strings, but maybe that was just because he’d been playing for hours now.
It was mid-summer. The sun was high at noon, the hull of the Liberty was unbearably hot, and Luka had long since stopped wearing his jacket in favour of a hope for a cool breeze. He didn’t blame his sister for escaping the heat and going window-shopping with her friends. He might’ve done the same--his favourite music store was always willing to put up with his browsing for a few hours--but he had someone important to meet.
Or at least, Luka had invited her. He had no idea if she would show.
Admittedly, Luka Couffaine did not know Kagami Tsurugi that well.
So he was very surprised when he saw her walking down the bank towards the Liberty. Carefully, he set aside his guitar and went to greet her, making sure to give her a wide, polite smile and hold out his hand as she came to a stop beside the gangplank.
“You came,” he exhaled, trying not to let his jitters get the best of him.
“You invited me,” she stated, eyeing his hand cautiously before just dipping her head in a polite bow. Luka dropped his arm and copied her. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I wasn’t sure; we barely know each other. Would you like something to drink?”
He led her onto the deck, and Kagami followed, her shoes clicking against the wood. Her clothes were only a slight deviation from her school uniform, with a plain red skirt and a plainer white blazer. Her eyes were sharper than her outfit, and she seemed put off by the clutter of the boat. But Luka trusted her, if only because if there was one thing he did know about her, it was that she cared just as deeply, just as strongly, for the same people he did.
“Water, if you have it.”
Luka gestured for her to sit while he retrieved two bottles of water from a cooler, and he noticed out of the corner of his eye that she was reluctant. She brushed off the chair before sitting, and she half stood to meet him as he handed her a bottle. Kagami twisted off the cap neatly, took a small sip, and said, “Thank you.”
“No problem,” Luka replied, plopping into the chair next to her and opening his own. The water wasn’t ice cold, not anymore, but it slid cool and refreshing down his throat. He had to stop himself from anxiously drinking all of it; he still wasn’t sure how he was going to broach this subject with her.
For a while, he fiddled with the cap, letting it tumble across his fingers. Kagami watched him, and Luka shifted uneasily.
“You’re nervous,” she stated, as if she was remarking on the weather. Luka smiled at her, but it was strained.
“You noticed?” he jested, but her frown only deepened.
“You’re fidgeting. Marinette fidgets too. She only fidgets when she’s unsure.”
Luka glanced away.
“Why are you fidgeting?” Kagami asked point-blank, and Luka flinched.
“I…”
“You’re hesitating.”
He wrapped his fist around the bottle cap, clenched until the plastic dug sharp edges into his palm, before slowly relaxing and twisting it back onto the bottle. He placed it on the ground and flicked his thumb to his ring instead, feeling the cool metal spin under the pad.
“I have to talk to you about something,” Luka blurted. Kagami gave him a look that said more than her words could: Do you take me for an idiot? It was the same look Marinette gave him when he asked silly questions about fabric or thread.
“Obviously. Why else would you invite me here but not Adrien and Marinette?”
“Because it’s about them,” Luka confessed, his thumb spinning the ring faster and faster. He stopped it as the hiss of metal-on-metal grew too loud. A distraction wouldn’t do Kagami or him any good. “You… Do you know?”
Kagami’s eyes narrowed in suspicion - or maybe she thought he was crazy. Luka wasn’t sure. He was basing this off of a feeling and nothing more. It hummed and pulsed and oscillated across his skin, as if his nerves were responding to a metronome. And beneath that feeling were the secrets, crawling and scratching and screaming to be loose. It was going to drive Luka insane if he didn’t find solace.
His best bet was Kagami. He was willing to take that bet.
“Do I know what?” Kagami said, her voice dropping low and cautious. Luka didn’t blame her.
He swallowed thickly. “About Adrien and Marinette. That they’re...” Luka gestured vaguely. “Y’know.”
“No, Couffaine,” Kagami snapped, standing up and dropping her water bottle. It rolled across the deck. “I don’t know. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Either be frank, or I will leave. I did not come here to talk with a lunatic.”
“Okay, okay!” Luka stood up with her, throwing his hands up. He was suddenly frantic; if Kagami didn’t know, that meant his intuition was wrong. While Luka felt that it was not his place to spill the secret, he could be vague enough while also asking her. He could do this! Words weren’t his friends, but he could be clever. “I’ll try to explain!”
Kagami eyed him wearily, and Luka slowly sat back down. She copied him.
“There’s...a secret,” Luka said with hesitation. Kagami’s face remained neutral. “It’s not my secret to speak: it’s theirs. I won’t… I love them both too much to expose them.” Something softened in Kagami’s face, and Luka wondered if it was due to his honesty. “So please believe me when I say that I can’t tell you what I know. I just… I need to find out if you know, too.”
Kagami looked down at her lap. She carefully looked at the rest of the Liberty. And then she looked out over the Seine. Luka figured she was thinking; he had never known her to take so long to speak her mind. Several long, arduous seconds ticked by, until even he was unnerved by the silence. Only the beat of the waves on the hull allowed him to remain calm.
“Adrien has many secrets,” Kagami said quietly, her gaze still lingering on the water. “But there is only one that he shares with Marinette.” As stiff as a mast against the pull of the wind, she turned to him. Her eyes were hard. Her mouth was set. “If that is the secret you are referencing, I know it.”
It was like pulling the plug on a sink of dirty water: all of the weight, the grief, the trepidation, bled from his shoulders and his hands and down the drain, condensing in his chest until he breathed it out in a single, loud, exhausted breath. Kagami eyed him oddly, but her mouth was pulled up at the corners. Luka slouched in his seat, his left hand twitching to grab his guitar. Instead, he spun the ring.
“Thank goodness,” he gasped. “I had no idea what I would’ve done if you didn’t know already.”
Kagami snorted. “Told me?”
“Hell no,” Luka insisted. “I’d rather take it to my grave.”
She was quiet for a moment, before she said, “Me too.”
And there was solidarity in that as they sat, quiet and contemplative.
Yet Kagami was not one to remain passive. “Well, you know that I know, and I know that you know. What now?”
“I don’t think they know,” Luka stressed, running his palms over his face. This was the root of the problem. “After… Do you remember, when you and Adrien came over, about six months ago? And that Akuma showed up, took out the whole party?”
Kagami warily nodded. “Desperada,” she answered.
“Yes,” Luka confirmed, dropping his hands. “Desperada. Adrien was given…a gift.” He paused, trying to organise his thoughts and say what he had to say - without giving away too much. “The same gift that was later given to me. He couldn’t use it, he wasn’t successful. He told me about it, because... Because he knew I had also used it. And he…” Luka looked down at his hands, etched and chiselled and roughed up by hard work, determination, and passion.
“Because he has nightmares about it,” Kagami continued for him. “I know that, too. I did not know why.”
Luka blinked at her, surprised. “Yeah,” he muttered. “He’ll sleep in my bed a lot.”
“Marinette’s too,” Kagami added. Luka nodded.
“I wondered about that,” Luka said, his voice firmer than before. “Why did she give him a gift, if he already had one of his own? Why did he accept it? And the only answer that made sense to me was that… They don’t know. They can’t possibly know.”
“You think…” Kagami looked around them, at the open water, at the airiness of the deck of the ship, at the sidewalk stretching far into the distance in either direction. She stood.
“We need privacy,” she stated. “We need to be able to talk freely. I can not hold a conversation like this.”
Luka shifted uneasily. “Mum’s at work and my sister’s out with some friends… But it’s hot downstairs.”
“A little heat will not bother me.” Kagami stood again and picked up her water bottle from the floor. Condensation slipped off its surface, dripping onto the wooden boards. Her confidence and poise reminded him of Adrien. “I would prefer to speak plainly.”
Luka grunted his agreement. He slung his guitar over his shoulder as he stood up, and he picked up his own water bottle. He gestured for Kagami to follow him to his room, closing doors as they went so they wouldn’t be surprised when someone came home.
Twin trails of water droplets marked their steady march. They sizzled and evaporated in the hot summer sun.
Kagami sat on the edge of Couffaine’s bed, tapping her chin and thinking over everything they had said. She had shed her blazer, and it was draped over a chest on the floor. Her camisole exposed her shoulders and back, but it was so hot and stuffy in the cabin of the Liberty that the jacket felt suffocating. Yet Kagami had long since decided that, if Adrien and Marinette trusted him, she, too, could trust Luka Couffaine.
And considering all they had openly discussed, she had just trusted him with a lot.
They were both temporary holders. He had wielded the miraculous of the snake, and his kwami’s name was Sass. It granted him the power of intuition and second chance, which allowed him to go back in time. Kagami was still reeling from that tidbit of information.
“I understood that Marinette was Ladybug when she saved me,” Luka had said, his eyes closed while deep and solemn reverence crossed his face and vibrated through his voice. Kagami thought he looked like he was praying. “And I understood Adrien was Chat Noir when I had to save him.”
Looking back, Kagami could not say quite the same for herself. Like Luka, she only remembered bits and fragments of her times as an Akuma - memories that were strengthened by watching news footage and reading Ladyblog posts. She could not say that she knew after being Riposte, but she could say that she knew Chat Noir was Adrien following her time as Oni-Chan.
How else would he have known the context of Oni-Chan’s conflict with Lila? For what else would he harp on about Adrien, when all of Paris seemed to adore him? Why else would Chat have been so surprised, so suddenly attentive when she was purified? Understanding that Chat was Adrien, and Adrien was Chat, had been key in her learning to accept more of him for, well, him.
And...
“When my mother was Akumatised by Papillon,” Kagami whispered into the stifling heat. Luka was watching her, but his gaze was gentle. Understanding. He was an attentive listener, and Kagami found that pleasing. “It was obvious who Ladybug was. No one else saw what my mother did. No one who knew me. Ladybug was so quick to the scene, and she knew to give me the dragon miraculous. What other answer could there have been, but that Ladybug was Marinette?”
“It feels like a veil is lifted, doesn’t it?” Luka was turning the pegs on his guitar, strumming one corded, steel string at a time, the notes wavering in the air. When the string hit the right frequency, he switched to the next one. “It’s like suddenly everything makes sense. And you’re left beating yourself up, because why couldn’t you see it before?”
Kagami shrugged. “Not really. Their identities are supposed to be a secret.”
Luka frowned, all of his strings now properly tuned. He played a chord, and it hovered in the air, as choking as the humidity. “Still… I felt like an idiot, for so long. Now I feel like I’m putting them at risk.”
Yes, she could understand that. Kagami stood up from the bed and started to pace, past the divider that separated Luka’s side of the room from his sister’s and back again. Her camisole felt soaked with sweat, but she paid it little mind. Her feet needed to move.
Luka was fiddling with notes and chords and progressions. Up and down and up again his fingers moved as Kagami moved her feet. Some part of her understood that this was how he sorted his emotions and this was how she sorted hers. As he made music, she made her body move.
“We need to tell them,” Kagami finally spoke, stopping in front of him. Luka looked up at her, his forehead furrowing in concern. She folded her arms in front of her chest, and Luka glanced down and quickly back up. Kagami raised an eyebrow at him, and he flushed.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “I think we do. But…” He scowled and played a tense and pensive passage. Kagami rolled her eyes.
“You’re worried,” she stated simply. Luka nodded and laid the guitar down beside him on the bed, before collapsing backwards, covering his eyes.
“I’ve never been so worried,” he grumbled. Kagami turned and sat beside him.
She understood. Knowing Adrien and Marinette were superheroes was one thing. Confronting them about it, forcing them to reveal themselves? Confirming their suspicions? Entirely another.
“I know we have to talk to them,” Luka spoke as he lowered his hands. “But I think we should convince them to tell each other, too.”
Kagami contemplated that. “Why?”
“We’re all in a relationship. It’s a delicate balance. It relies on communication and trust and honesty. With this many people involved, and with a secret this big, it’ll rot and destroy us if we don’t address it.” Luka grimaced at the end, his blue eyes turning hard. Kagami thought they looked a lot like Marientte’s.
She looked away from him and towards the divider across from them. “You don’t think they’ll leave us once they know?”
Despite the heat of summer, the temperature in the room suddenly plummeted several degrees.
Luka was quiet. Kagami let him mull over her question, but in reality, she was becoming just as agitated as him. The thought had been at the back of her mind ever since she had put the pieces together: she had fallen for one half of a whole, just like Luka, and then she fell for them both. Adrien and Marinette completed each other - their friendship, their relationship, their partner ship, was sanguinity and perfection. It was no wonder Luka and her had been pulled into their love, too. If Adrien and Marinette learned that their love was destiny, was fated, was magical, would they up and leave their other partners?
They both knew it was ridiculous. They both knew it was an honest probability. How could any relationship hope to compare to the connection between Ladybug and her Chat Noir?
“I want to be optimistic,” Luka finally spoke, pushing himself up. He pulled himself to the edge of the bed, sitting beside her. He put his hands in his lap and leaned forward. Kagami could see that he was looking at her.
She looked back at him, his messy, sweaty, ruffled and dyed-blue hair reminiscent of Adrien’s after a tough fencing match.
“I, too, would like to be hopeful of a positive outcome,” Kagami said. Her hands felt numb as she curled her fingers into fists. “But a good fencer considers every possibility. We have to be prepared for the worst.”
Luka frowned again. “It’s not a fight,” he claimed. “And it wouldn’t be the worst thing for them to realise they would be happier without us.” Yet Kagami thought he sounded meek, and when she tried to meet his eyes, Luka looked away.
“What could be worse?” she bit back, surprised at the emotions in her voice. “What could be worse than them abandoning us, Luka?”
He snarled, and Kagami saw the anger, the rage, that had produced his Akuma. She felt her own heart fluttering and pounding against her ribs, and she wondered why she was scared. Did they doubt Marinette and Adrien’s love for them? Or did they believe that the connection between Ladybug and Chat Noir ran so deep, that there was no way it could possibly include other people, no matter how closely they attached themselves?
“What’s worse,” Luka stated, standing up from the bed and picking up his guitar, his knuckles instantly turning white with his grip. The strings made a sour note. “Is if they decide to abandon each other.”
Marinette was accustomed to Luka’s anxiety.
It came in waves. Most of the time, he was calm and steady, if a little choppy, and the days were smooth sailing. Other times, he was rolling and unbalanced, but otherwise cheerful. Yet today…
This was the worst storm Marinette had seen yet, and she had been there when he had broken down over his Akumatisation.
She sat across from him in her rolling desk chair, the pink of her room a pastel contrast to his blue hair. His long fingers were trembling, and while Marinette had said he could bring his guitar, Luka had insisted that the instrument would only be a distraction. She had never thought of it as such: she loved listening to Luka play while she sewed, loved how he created atmosphere and emotions in a few gentle chords. And Adrien loved it too, for he would hum and tap his fingers along with the tunes. Its mere absence was startling.
He was flicking his ring until it spun so fast, Marinette thought it would fly off his fingers.
“Luka…” Marinette said softly, scooting her chair a little close to the chaise where he was seated, her knees bumping into his. When his text message had simply said that they needed to talk, she had been expecting the worst. But obviously this was something even her catastrophising could not imagine.
“You can talk to me,” she continued, tender and quiet. The sounds of birds and people in the streets came through her walls as a dull murmur, but Marinette’s voice still rang clear.
Luka inhaled with her. His shoulders went still for several seconds before he exhaled in a low sigh.
“The other day,” he finally started, the first thing he had said all afternoon since he had greeted her parents. His knee bounced as he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. Marinette could feel the vibrations through her chair. “I asked Kagami to come over so we could...talk.”
Marinette blinked before she felt shock come over her. “Luka!” she yelped, joy and spark launching her forward so she could pull one of his hands into her own. He let her. “You know Adrien and I would never object, you’re completely free to da--”
“I-I-- Marinette, no,” Luka firmly intoned. “We’re not going to date. We barely know each other.”
She pouted, and Luka chuckled. He reached forward and brushed some of her hair out of her face. “We know each other better now,” he said. “But I invited her for a reason. There’s a secret between the four of us, and I… I couldn’t ignore it, not anymore.”
Luka’s hand fell from her face just as Marinette deeply frowned.
“What secret?” she asked, feeling her voice tremble in the warm air. She could see Luka’s throat bob as he swallowed; he was steeling himself, and she feared what he would confess.
“I didn’t tell her, I swear,” Luka pleaded, his expression breaking. “I asked her if…if she knew. And she does.”
Marinette could feel herself closing herself off, recoiling away. Only one secret would cause Luka to act like this, to be so disconcerted that he would leave behind his guitar. When had he found out? How much did Kagami know? Did Adrien know as well now? Her mind was firing a dozen questions, one after the other, but no words could fly free from the cage of her mouth. Her chest felt tight, her throat clogged, and Marinette realised she was on the verge of panic.
Luka picked up her hands, and everything snapped back into focus. Her mouth opened, and air rushed into her lungs. Marinette felt the tears at the corner of her eyes as her awareness came back full force.
“I know it’s terrifying,” he mumbled. “And I’m sorry that I found out.”
“Wh-What did you find out, Luka?” Marinette inquired, her curious smile feeling fake even to her own muscles. “What did you and Kagami talk about?”
She was in denial, firm and hard and desperately so, but Marinette had to make sure. Her identity had to stay protected, she couldn’t put him at risk, Adrien at risk, Kagami at risk… She loved all of them, too much, too vastly, to risk their lives to Papillon’s terror. Her hands were shaking, even as they were held in Luka’s strong grip, and she was shocked to find that his own fingers were steady.
He was trying to be her rock when he himself was already shaken.
“We found out that you’re more incredible than either of us could’ve initially guessed.” Luka leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “We… We found out that you’re Ladybug.”
All Marinette could do was gasp and start to cry, and Luka wrapped her up in his arms to hold her.
Adrien was not accustomed to Kagami’s hesitancy.
She was never one to waver. She always knew what she wanted, as solid as an evergreen knows that it wants sun and water and rich, dark soil. She made her decisions, and she stuck with them, and she was always one to speak her mind. Adrien loved all of that about her.
Yet Adrien had never seen her so reluctant in all the time he’d known her.
She was perched on the edge of his couch in his room, her hands neatly folded in her lap, her eyes staring out the wide, empty windows at the barren sky beyond. If Adrien didn’t know her so well, he would’ve said she just had nothing important to say. But he knew there was something on her mind - he could almost see it, spinning endless circles in her brain.
“Kagami…” Adrien said softly, moving a little closer to her on the couch and laying a hand on top of hers. She turned her palm over out of habit, entwining her fingers with his, but she did not look at him. When Kagami had arrived at the mansion’s front door with only a quiet, “We need to talk,” Adrien had assumed she meant maybe something about their parents, or fencing, or maybe even Marinette.
But it must’ve been much bigger than all of that, and now, he was worried.
“You can talk to me,” he added, leaning against her. She deflated and leaned back, their bodies touching from shoulder to hip to knee. They craved touch, both of them, but they were often too scared to vocalise a need they had few words for. Thankfully, Marinette seemed to always understand when either one needed a hug, and Luka was always more than happy to settle down for a long cuddle session.
Adrien did not expect Kagami to launch into her story so easily at his prompting.
“The other day, Luka Couffaine invited me to his place of residence,” Kagami started, turning her brown eyes away from the windows to look at him instead. Adrien blinked, then nodded.
“The Liberty,” he clarified simply. Kagami nodded back.
“Yes. He asked me a very confusing question, and I was short with him, but once he clarified himself, I knew that if I was honest, many things would change.” She looked down at their joined hands. “I was scared, Adrien. I am scared that what Luka wants will cause change between us.”
“Us?” Adrien asked nervously. “If this involves all of us, we should--”
“No,” Kagami shook her head. “Luka is with Marinette today. We agreed on this.” She looked uneasy again, and Adrien wished he could unwrinkle that expression from her face. He wasn’t used to it. “Couffaine wants there to be no more secrets between the four of us.”
Something tickled at the back of Adrien’s mind, and he pushed it back. He blinked and tilted his head, eyes wide and face curiously blank. “Secrets?” he repeated, surprised at the slight tremor in his voice. Kagami frowned, and Adrien knew she was disappointed in him. Yet she didn’t voice it, didn’t acknowledge it, and she gripped his hand a little tighter.
“You might already know this,” Kagami said, her eyes flickering between his bedroom door and his own. She steeled herself and sat a little straighter. Adrien smiled; there was the confident woman that he loved. “But I was once entrusted with a gift and a power to fight evils in our city. Luka was too. We know that it’s dangerous to tell you and Marinette, but letting these secrets rot could destroy our relationship.”
Adrien hastily pushed away the urge to deny and flee. Instead, he grinned broadly. “That’s incredible, Kagami,” he breathed, his very breath laced with veneration for her. “I’m really impressed and proud of you.”
However, Kagami’s frown only deepened.
“Adrien,” she prompted, the bite back in her voice. “Don’t you have a secret of your own?”
Adrien went still from shock. As if all his blood had turned to ice, a chill came over him. He could feel goosebumps rise along his arms and legs; if Adrien had been a real cat, all of his fur would’ve stood on end. Suddenly, he broke his gaze with Kagami, unable to look her in the eye anymore. The shock was quickly being replaced by a burning sense of shame, guilt, and fear. He knew Kagami could read him, knew his heart was on his sleeve, but Adrien couldn’t bring himself to bottle this.
“I don’t--” But Kagami’s eyes narrowed and her face hardened, and Adrien caught a glimpse of it as he glanced at her and away. “I can’t,” he forced out instead, pressure building in his face. “Kagami, it’s too dangerous, I’ll be in trouble, I… I could lose…”
“Adrien, look at me.” Kagami shifted her body so that she was no longer pressed against him, yet she picked up both of his hands and cradled them in her own. As his shudders gradually calmed, she gently lifted one of her hands and cupped his cheek. Adrien pressed his face into the warmth her palm provided, trying not to let his tears fall.
The panic was slowly receding, but it also kept boiling over, like a pot of water he kept shifting off and on the heat. He had to address this if he wanted to continue their relationship, but at the same time, he’d rather walk away and pretend it hadn’t happened.
“Kagami…” Adrien whined, but he slowly opened his eyes and looked into hers. He was met with resolution and love, but Kagami’s guidance was always firm.
“We already know, Adrien,” she declared, and he felt his mind recoil from her statement. His body tried to as well, but there was nowhere to go on the suddenly small couch. “I didn’t tell him, and he didn’t tell me. We had figured it out separately.”
Adrien tried to choke out a retort, something to cover it all up, but it was like Kagami was pulling the secret from his chest. Like she was pulling his heart from his chest.
“You know,” Adrien groaned, slumping weakly against the cushions. “You, and Luka, and Marinette…”
“Marinette doesn’t know,” Kagami said, and a rush of hope swirled in Adrien’s heart. Perhaps, then, Kagami and Luka were referring only to his time as Aspik, as a temporary hero. She destroyed that hope with her next sentence. “Luka and I suspect that Marinette has no idea you are Chat Noir.”
He couldn’t hold it back anymore. Terror and fear came for him, and Adrien shook and started to cry, as Kagami awkwardly tried to comfort him.
The choking dread was the worst part. Marinette had to battle it at every step, beating it back and telling herself she could find a solution to this. There was a strong possibility Bunnyx would fix everything, bring Marinette back to the past so she could tell her former self, but the idea of another doomed timeline was too much to comprehend. Luka held her as she sobbed; he had dragged her out of her desk chair at the first sign of tears, and now, they were curled up on her chaise, his back in the corner and Marinette in his arms.
It didn’t feel perfectly safe, but it felt safer than being alone.
Marinette sniffled loudly, her nose plugged, and she buried her head in his chest as Luka laid another kiss to her forehead. Slowly, the thousands of questions running through her head were sorting themselves out, and she took a moment to breathe in time with the rise and fall of Luka’s chest.
“Wh-When did you find out?” she mumbled, wincing at the raspy sound of her voice. Luka shifted beneath her, settling in.
“After you saved me,” he answered simply. “I don’t know when it clicked exactly, but it was that day. Seeing you, seeing Ladybug, so close in time to each other... I just couldn’t shake the feeling.” He brushed her bangs out of her eyes. Marinette looked up at him, and Luka smiled softly. “I followed my intuition and looked for other clues. I…” He frowned.
“Luka?” she prompted when he didn’t continue. Luka sighed.
“I didn’t want to believe it at first,” he said, not without remorse. “I didn’t want to believe that the girl I loved was putting herself at risk every week.” He curled around her, protectively, and Marinette positioned herself appropriately so that they were more comfortable. “But I believe it now, and it only makes me love you all the more.”
Marinette swallowed thickly. “I love you too, Luka, but--”
He pulled away a little, and Marinette bit her lip. “But?” he repeated.
“You said Kagami knew too.”
Luka nodded. “She… She said she made the connection when you gave her a miraculous.”
All of the air rushed out of Marinette’s lungs again.
Not only did Luka know her identity, and Adrien’s identity, he now also knew Kagami’s. She pulled away, sitting up in his lap, and Luka let her go. He watched her wearily, but Marinette was determined to not let herself spiral again.
“Does Kagami know that you were Viperion?” she asked, her tone sharp and commanding. It was her Ladybug voice, but Luka didn’t react to it - he only nodded.
“You told her?” Marinette whined, somewhat appalled.
“Like I said,” Luka replied, his own voice on edge. “I couldn’t ignore the secrets anymore. And I think Adrien deserves to know the truth, too.”
“What! No! I can’t--” She flailed helplessly, pulling away from Luka even further, her body unbalanced. He chased after her, sitting up straighter so he could hold onto her when she wobbled backwards. She gave him a thankful look, but she was still anxious. “I can’t tell Adrien!” she reiterated. “It’s one thing for you to know, but Adrien is-- I can’t do that to him, Luka, he’s--”
She was choking on her words again, the clogging dread creating a block in her throat she couldn’t quite swallow. Luka quickly pulled her to him again, cradling the back of her head as she tried to wiggle away. When she felt him tremble beneath her own hands, Marinette went still.
“Chanson, please…” Luka begged, and Marinette had never heard him speak so brokenly. She wrapped her arms around his back, and Luka shifted. He pressed his face into her shoulder. “I can’t do this. Not anymore. It’s tearing me apart. No more secrets…”
She was quiet as he sniffled. Luka wasn’t crying, but he was obviously upset and torn by this, and Marinette felt her heart go out to him and Kagami. She sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping under his weight. Cautiously, she pulled away from him.
Luka looked up at her, his blue eyes swimming with unshed tears, and Marinette ran a hand down his face, tracing his jaw - it felt rough beneath her fingers, like he hadn’t been able to bring himself to shave today. She was surprised when he willingly leaned into her touch, laying feather-like kisses on her palm and wrist.
“I… I’ll try,” Marinette said, giving in. “But I have to talk to someone else first.”
Luka’s eyes met hers, and she wondered at his confusion.
“Who?” he asked, his voice a combination of curiosity and incredulousness that made Marinette snort and giggle.
“My partner of course,” she stated proudly. “Chat Noir.”
The fear was so consuming that Adrien lost sight of his own bedroom for awhile. Kagami’s hands weren’t as comforting or as gentle as Marinette’s or Luka’s, but she was doing her best to ground him. Adrien sank into her hold, unsure why he was being overwhelmed by something so simple, but his thoughts kept circling back to one, firm, point: If anyone found out, he was supposed to give up his miraculous.
Master Fu was no longer an option, Adrien thought numbly. He would have to give his--no, the ring back to his Lady, but then where did they go from there? Would Kagami and Luka lose access to their jewels too, even if they were only temporary heroes? Would Adrien be allowed to see Plagg on occasion, like how they got to see Longg and Sass? It wasn’t like Papillon had learned his identity - just his girlfriend, his boyfriend: the people he trusted just as much as he trusted Ladybug.
Slowly, the whirlwind started to ebb. He could breathe again, and Kagami stood up and walked away. Adrien blinked, his bedroom coming back into focus in bits and pieces, and Kagami came back with a box of tissues. With shaking fingers, Adrien hastily plucked one out and started to clean up. She held the box for as long as he needed it, and when he was done, she presented him a trash can. He threw the bundle away.
Without a word, Adrien stood from the couch, walked over to his bathroom, and washed his hands. Plagg phased through the mirror, but he only sat silent by the faucet as Adrien sniffed and scrubbed.
When he came back out, Kagami was still standing.
“I apologise for upsetting you,” she said stiffly, her body tipping forward in a bow. Adrien carefully copied her - a subtle indication that he accepted her apology.
“It’s alright,” he rasped, moving to stand by her side and pick up her hand. He kissed the back of it, and Kagami watched him with a slight smile. “I’m… I’ll be okay.”
They sat back down together on the couch, and Adrien put his head in his hands. “When did you find out?” he asked, his voice muffled as he spoke to his knees.
“Chat Noir was acting very oddly when I let my jealousy control me,” Kagami explained. “It took me a few days to come to the right conclusion, but once I did, it was easy to see the other clues.”
Adrien nodded, still not looking at her. “And Luka?”
“He…” Kagami paused. “Luka said he made the connection when he had to save you.”
For a moment, Adrien had to dig through his memories, wondering when Luka ever had to save him. And then, it clicked, and Adrien exhaled sharply.
“You know about him too, don’t you?” Adrien sat up straight, looking her in the eye again. His voice didn’t waver. “You know about him and he knows about you.”
“He told me about Viperion, yes,” Kagami confirmed. “And I told him about my time as Ryuuko.”
“And you’re sure that Marinette doesn’t?”
“We’ve concluded that Marinette does not know your identity, no.” She folded her hands in her lap, but Adrien could see that she was uncomfortable about what she wanted to say next. He nodded for her to continue.
Kagami took a deep breath before continuing. “And we agree that Marinette deserves to know.”
“What!” Adrien exclaimed, reeling back. “No! I’m not putting her at risk!”
The fact that Kagami’s reaction was to roll her eyes shocked Adrien, and he felt shame and anger burn through him. He opened his mouth to further retort, but Kagami stopped him with a look.
“Marinette can take care of herself,” she insisted, her tone sharp, and Adrien flinched. “You know that more than anyone. And I think she deserves to know who you are, just as much as Luka and I deserved to know. If there is one thing I agreed with Couffaine about, it was that: No more secrets.”
Adrien deflated, and he marvelled at how tired his body suddenly felt. It was like he had run across several Parisian rooftops untransformed, but nothing felt particularly bruised except his ego.
“These were secrets I had to keep,” Adrien mumbled. “I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone; not even Ladybug.”
“We understand,” Kagami said, not unkindly. She reached forward and laid a hand on Adrien’s knee, and he instinctively laid one of his on top. She turned her palm upwards so they could twine their fingers together once again. “But we’re a team now. A partnership between all four of us can’t be expected to work without cooperation and extensive communication. Choosing to keep any one of us in the dark breaks trust. Breaking trust--”
“Leads to miscommunication and misunderstandings, which leads to conflict,” Adrien finished, giving in. He sighed out his nose, and Kagami grinned widely at him. “Fine, I’ll… I’ll tell her.”
“Thank you, Adrien.” Kagami moved forward and kissed his cheek, and Adrien pouted.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Adrien grumbled. “There’s someone I’ll have to beg forgiveness from first. She… She has the final say in all of this.”
Kagami watched him, waiting for his answer, but Adrien suspected she already knew it. When it seemed like he wouldn’t speak, she opened her mouth, and Adrien forced the name from his lips at the same time that Kagami whispered it.
“Ladybug.”
When Luka rolled his eyes at her declaration, Marinette playfully hit him. “Don’t do that!” she scolded him, and Luka chuckled. “He’s my friend! My best friend!”
“I always thought that was Alya?” Luka teased, but Marinette only shrugged.
“Outside of the mask, I guess,” she said simply. “But as Ladybug, I only have Chat Noir. If Adrien deserves to know my identity, then Chat deserves to know that I’m telling people.”
Luka was quiet for several seconds, and Marinette thought that he was contemplating the complexity of the situation. But he eventually relaxed, and his eyes went soft. “Will you tell him who you are?” Luka whispered, his voice oddly quiet.
“Probably not,” Marinette admitted, her shoulders slumping. “It’s… It’s dangerous. There are other secrets, Luka, that I’m not ready to tell. Please forgive me.”
Her mind kept wandering back to a destroyed Paris, a whole universe purged from existence, and a lonely cat sitting at the highest point he could find.
As she expected, his face wrinkled at the disclosure of more secrets, but she also saw the exact moment he decided to let it slide. “We’ll start with this one,” he relented, kissing her cheek before sitting back against the chaise. She smiled in relief, the weight slowly easing off her back.
Maybe… Maybe she could trust Luka. No, scratch that, she could definitely trust Luka. And she could trust Kagami, and Marinette knew she could trust Adrien. She had trusted him over twenty-five thousand times - and while she regretted the results of her decision, Marinette did not regret trusting him. Resolve fortified, she gave Luka one sharp nod, and climbed off the chaise - nearly tripping over his legs, until Luka grabbed her arm and steadied her.
“Th-Thanks, Luka,” she stuttered awkwardly. He was smiling at her, but it had that teasing lift to it.
“It’s no wonder that you have everyone fooled,” he remarked. “You’re very clumsy.”
Marinette gasped and huffed, crossing her arms and turning away. After a moment of thought, she grabbed her desk chair and dragged it back to her computer. “You’re not always graceful either, y’know,” she teased back, sitting back down.
Luka proved her statement when he, too, tumbled off the chaise. Marinette giggled as he groaned, shaking his right leg - the one she’d been primarily sitting on, she supposed, when he had held her. He limped over to her, his stride growing in confidence until he reached her. Luka wrapped his arms around her from behind, bending over so he could rest his head on her shoulder.
Marinette reached up and ruffled his hair. It felt soft but stringy, and she rubbed at his scalp as the tension bled from him and back into her.
“Please tell him,” Luka mumbled into her neck, his warm breath causing goosebumps to rise along her arms. “Please. I don’t want to be the one to do it.”
“I’ll… I’ll try, Luka,” Marinette mumbled, kissing his temple as she nudged her computer awake.
“That’s all I ask. Thank you.”
“Why does Ladybug’s opinion of this matter?” Kagami asked point-blank, and Adrien groaned. A sense of restlessness came over him, and he pushed himself off the couch to pace around his room. At first, he folded his hands behind his back and bowed his head, watching his shoes as he walked.
“Because there are rules in place that she may have to follow,” Adrien explained, his fingers curling. “I… I honestly don’t care that you and Luka found out.” He rubbed the back of his neck, for he felt sheepish admitting as such aloud; his identity was important, yes, but the trust he felt for Kagami and Luka far exceeded his concerns for the consequences. “Now that I’ve had an opportunity to process, I… I’m okay with that.”
Kagami furrowed her forehead as she watched him pace the stretch of floor in front of the windows. He turned abruptly on his heel each time, and he was soon holding his chin as he continued to contemplate.
“And?” Kagami pushed. Adrien hesitated, but he soon let the words bubble from his mouth.
“Remember what she told you?” he asked, stopping in front of Kagami momentarily. Adrien didn’t give her even a chance to nod before he was continuing. “If Papillon, or anyone close to you, or even if I, Chat Noir, find out someone’s identity, that person can’t have that miraculous again. It’s a safety measure. Only the Guardian can know who the holders are, and Ladybug’s the Guardian right now.”
He breathed deep, took in Kagami’s slightly worried and stunned expression, and picked up his pacing once again.
“So there’s a possibility she’ll want the ring back. And… That’s what I’m afraid of. I’ll hang on to it, I’ll even fight for it, but if it’s what she wants… I can’t disobey her, Kagami. I…” Adrien stopped again, but this time, he looked out the windows. His arms crossed in front of his chest, and he rubbed at his biceps as if cold. Kagami picked herself up off the couch and came to stand beside him.
“I still…” He trailed off, unable to confront his feelings when it still felt like trying to handle hot coals with his bare hands.
“You still love her.” She finished for him. Adrien looked at Kagami and nodded. He could feel the tears shining in his eyes, but he refused to cry.
“It’s getting easier,” he whispered. “She has a boyfriend now, and I have all of you. But it still hurts a little.”
Kagami shuffled herself a little closer and wrapped an arm around his waist. Adrien repeated the action to her, leaning against her with a quiet sigh.
“I think you’ll be surprised,” Kagami muttered into his hair. “And we still want you to tell Marinette.”
“I will,” Adrien mumbled back. “No matter what Ladybug decides, I’ll tell her. I promise.”
Kagami kissed the crown of his head, and Adrien relaxed and smiled.
“Thank you, Adrien.”