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It had been a perfectly nice morning at Collège Françoise Dupont. The sun was shining, Marinette had somehow managed to make it into class before the bell. Hell, even Chloe of all people seemed to be up in spirits. Things were looking, well, peaceful! With how everything was going, she hoped maybe (if her Ladybug Luck came through for once) they could get through the day without an Akuma.
The class work hadn’t been hard. It seemed Miss Busier was having a good day too. After she had finished the assignment, Marinette spent the rest of class sketching some new designs and quietly talking to Alya.
All had been pleasant until the conversation turned to her crush, and Alya got a bright idea.
“I’m telling you, today’s your day!” Alya whispered (In reality, Alya’s version of whispering more closely resembled shouting at a low volume, really). She knew her friend only had her best interests at heart, but sometimes she could be so pushy.
“And I’m trying to tell you no! It’s just not going to work out Alya. I haven’t even planned anything anyway!” She urged, attempting to keep her voice low.
“Please settle down girls, not everyone is finished working yet,” Miss Bustier scolded looking up from her desk.
“Sorry Miss Bustier!” Both girls rushed, sending their teacher the sorriest looks they could muster. Satisfied with their apology, Miss Bustier smiled and went back to grading homework. As soon as she wasn’t paying attention, they turned back to each other and she sent Alya a pointed look.
“I really just don’t think this is the right time,” she protested.
If she was being honest, she wasn’t sure if it would ever be the right time. She was trying, she really was, to be more comfortable around Adrien. It had worked for the most part. They had started hanging out sometimes, mostly accompanied by Alya and Nino, and every now and then she managed to actually say full sentences around him; in order! These days they could even be considered real friends.
Or more accurately, ‘Good friends’, to quote the boy himself.
She didn’t really know how to feel about that part. Obviously she was happy to be closer to him, but she also wished that he could see her in the same way she saw him; romantically.
That didn’t mean she wanted to tell him that though!
“Come on girl! It’s a perfect time. No better time than the present!”
“I don’t know,” she muttered. She slumped over her desk and buried her head. “Maybe I should just get over it and give up.”
“Give up? Okay, what alien abducted and switched places with you last night? Because there’s no way in hell the Marinette I know would ever contemplate giving up on anything.”
Adrien and Nino must’ve finished their work by then, because they turned around in unison, looking eager to join the conversation.
“What’s this about Marinette wanting to give up on something?” Adrien inquired curiously. “Because I’d have to agree with Alya on this one, doesn’t sound much like you at all.” He flashed a grin at her and her face turned bright red. She slumped further into her seat, desperately wanting to change the subject.
“See Marinette, Sunshine agrees with me!” Alya declared pumping her fist in the air triumphantly. She smirked at her in a way that Marinette took to mean ‘he’s right there, go get him’.
Marinette answered her with a pleading look that could only be interpreted as ‘stop! go no further! Danger! Danger Will Robinson!’.
But maybe that got lost somewhere in translation.
“Adrien, wouldn’t you say it’s a nice day today?” Alya asked mischievously.
She was going to kill that girl.
“Yeah, I guess I would,” he responded. Then, looking directly at her, he smiled and said “Perfect, actually.”
No, Adrien was going to kill her first.
“Weeeeell” Alya drawled, “Marinette is thinking of confessing to someone, and since it’s such a nice day, I’m trying to convince her that she should go for it.”
Scratch that, it was decided: she was going to kill Alya.
Adrien seemed to think about his response for a moment before turning his attention back to Marinette. “Well, any guy would be stupid to turn you down Marinnette. If you really want to, then maybe Alya is onto something.”
Alya and Nino grinned conspiratorially. Meanwhile, Marinette felt like she was going to dissolve. She wasn’t sure if she should be elated or mortified. On the one hand her crush just said that anyone would be stupid to turn her down. On the other, Adrien didn’t know it was him that she liked. She laughed and waved her hand around nervously as if swatting a fly.
“Well uh- you thank- I mean… tee ganks- I…” she mentally cursed herself for mincing words, and tried to push through. “Thanks Adrien. That's really nice of you to say!” She eventually managed without any trouble.
‘Okay, this isn’t going too bad’ she sighed with relief.
And at that very moment, the lights shut off and an Akuma alert rang over the loudspeakers.
‘So much for a nice day’ she thought bitterly.
Half the class ran to look out the window in case they could see what was happening, while the rest took to their phones to check the news or text they’re parents. Trying to see for herself she surveyed all the nearby areas to see how far the outage went. From the looks of it, most of the city was out.
‘At least it’s still daytime’ she thought. Having to fight without any light would definitely make her job much harder.
“Okay class,” Miss Bustier announced, signaling for everyone to calm down. “According to the news the Akuma attack is close by but not on school property. That means we don’t have to evacuate but just wait it out here in class until Cat Noir and Ladybug handle it.”
“I forgot something in my locker!”
“I have to use the bathroom!”
Both her and Adrien shouted simultaneously.
Nino and Alya eyed them strangely, but shrugged it off, now well accustomed to their two friend’s odd behavior.
“Uh… Bathroom I need- I- I’ll be back.”
Just glad that no one seemed to think anything of her excuse, she grabbed her purse and stood up, speeding out the door.
Once she was in the clear she ran down the hall and into the girls bathroom, making sure no one was around before opening her purse.
“Tikki, spots on!”
____________________
It didn’t take too long to find where all the commotion was. The akumatized man called himself ‘Electro’ and was only a few blocks from school. He had large, expanding robot legs, 6 metal arms attached to some contraption on his back, and electricity shooting out all around him.
“You shut off my power, I’ll shut off yours!” He boomed, zapping the power from every electrical device and building in the vicinity. Citizens ran in every direction trying to get to a safer area. She grimaced, and scanned the crowd to see if anyone had been hurt. She really hoped he wasn’t planning to actually electrocute anyone, but she wouldn’t put it past him. Hawk Moth’s Akumas tended to vary in strength all the way from controlling pigeons to wielding giant chainsaws, and she had really wished today's fight wouldn’t have to be a violent one.
“Hey!” Chat Noir shouted at Electro touching down next to her. “You should learn to conduct yourself better! Or we’ll have to charge you with assault and battery!”
“Do you even have any puns left after that?” She huffed.
“I’m shocked you’d ever doubt me my Lady.” He clutched his chest dramatically and feigned offense. “That one really hertz.”
She pushed him lightly and rolled her eyes.
“I’ll get your Miraculous Ladybug and Chat Noir! And then, Everyone will know the power of Electro!” He began to wave his metal arms around, sending bolts of electricity everywhere. she grabbed Chat Noir and quickly ducked behind a nearby car.
“Have you figured out where the Amuma is yet?” He asked.
“It’s hard to tell,” she said trying to get a closer look around the side of the car. She studied Electro, trying to pick out anything that the akumatized item could be. Sure enough, after a few seconds her eyes landed on a small piece of black paper he was clutching in his right hand.
“I think it’s in the paper he’s holding!”
“Purr-fect as always my Lady,” Chat grinned. “It’s time to pull the plug on this guy!” He extended his baton and waited for her signal.
She gave a final nod.
“Let’s go!”
____________________
‘This isn’t working!’ She thought frantically as she dodged another one of Electro’s attacks.
They’d been at it for almost an hour and had barely even managed to make a dent.
They had found out early on that Chat's baton twirling did almost nothing against electric blasts, and Electro was too large for her to take down with her yo-yo. To say that they were tired would have been an understatement, they were exhausted. Chat had already used his cataclysm to fend off a car that had been aimed her way, and she hadn’t yet figured out how to use her lucky charm. They didn’t have long, and would need to find a hiding place to detransform soon if things kept going like they were.
‘Stupid electric powers!’ she grumbled. ‘It couldn’t have been a rainbow care bear monster? Umbrella man? Literally anything besides a giant electricity welding metal man?!!’
As one of Electro’s arms came crashing down, Chat jumped and pushed them both out of the way. They avoided being crushed, but landed in a tangled heap on the cobblestone.
“We seem to have our wires crossed my Lady,” he tried to joke.
“Really Chat? Punning at a time like this?”
Their miraculous beeped, signaling they had only three minutes left before they would need to detransform. Electro swung another arm towards them and they scrambled away.
“We need to go. Now!” She grabbed his wrist and began to run.
Unfortunately for them, Electro remained hot on their tails at every turn (no, that was absolutely not a pun). They had no time to spare, and she searched around desperately trying to think of a plan. Swinging to the rooftops, they took to higher ground. She tried every door hoping to find some open stairwell they could hide in, but it was no use. There was only one minute left before they’re timers ran out and they still hadn’t managed to lose Electro.
Thinking quickly she formed a plan.
“Trust me?” she said turning to Chat.
He answered immediately, “Always.”
She slowed at the edge of the roof they were on, fastened her yo-yo to a manhole cover below, and yanked. She kept hold of Chat and her yo-yo, and as the last seconds of their timers ran out, they jumped.
Chat wrapped his arms around her instinctively as their transformations dropped. She looked up as the magic of their miraculous dissipated, and the last thing she saw before closing her eyes tightly was the manhole cover plop right back into place as her yo-yo faded out of existence.
It wasn’t a very good landing.
Actually, it was a very bad landing.
They crashed to the bottom of the sewer clutching each other sightlessly. She groaned as she tried to reorient herself (which was particularly difficult when she’d just fallen into a sewer with her eyes closed).
They could hear Electro walking the street above. He paused, probably confused about where the two heroes could have gone, but continued stomping away after a few moments. Marinette held her breath until the sounds of his stomps had completely faded.
“You closing your eyes?” She whispered once she was sure it was safe.
“Yes, of course,” He said sincerely.
“Are you okay?” If the aching of her joints was anything to go by, she could only imagine that taking the brunt of the weight would have made the fall even worse for him.
“Yeah, a little sore, but I'm a tough cat... Are you okay?”
“Seems that way. Thanks to you.”
Marinette realized belatedly that he was still holding her. She could feel the foreign fabric of his clothing on her skin, his bare arms wrapped tightly around her torso. It was an odd feeling, having him protect her like this without the suits as a barrier between them. He’d saved her plenty of times as Marinette, but he had been transformed then. This time they were on equal ground. It was… nice? It was nice.
“Look I don’t mean to interrupt you two love bugs but I need cheese!” Plagg whined, breaking her out of her thoughts.
“We should… aah.. Kwamis!” she stuttered.
‘That’s weird?’ She thought. ‘I only get tongue tied like that around Adrien, and I definitely don’t like Chat like I like Adrien… right?’.
They moved away from each other, and she was glad that he couldn’t see the blush that had taken over her face. Blindly finding the spare macaroon in her purse, she handed it to Tikki, and heard Chat give some cheese to Plagg. As she went to stand, she felt a sharp pain in her ankle, and despite herself she let out a strangled yelp.
“What’s wrong?” Chat said, concern apparent in his voice.
“My ankle must have gotten hurt when we fell, I don’t think it’s too bad. One sec.” Attempting to stand again, she gingerly put her foot on the ground and tried a step. Immediately the pain came back as her foot failed to take the weight. She stumbled, losing her balance and falling toward the ground. Strangely however, the ground never came. Instead, two strong arms found their way around her once again, reaching out with learned precision and stopping her mid air.
“You caught me,” she murmured.
“Always do my Lady.”
She didn’t think it was possible to wink with your voice alone, but Chat seemed to have worked it down to a science.
They were so close, faces only inches apart. She could feel the warmth of his hands through her blazer, and she shivered slightly. Somewhere along the line she had wound her arms around him to help steady herself, and she came to realize that she didn’t want to let go. Slowly, as if pulled by some invisible force, Marinette leaned in. Tilting her head up ever so slightly, she parted her lips and closed the gap between them.
He froze at first, and she began to wonder if she had made a mistake. Before she could consider pulling away though, he brought her closer to him and pressed back eagerly. She melted into him, hands finding their way to his hair and he smiled against her mouth. Their positioning was a little awkward, what with her standing on one foot and neither of them able to see where they were aiming, but there was a heat behind it that Marinette had previously never considered possible between the two of them.
He kissed her gently, so gently, lips soft against her own as she drew herself further into him. She was weightless, floating in some vast expanse of feelings and desires where her worries couldn’t touch her. She wasn’t thinking about what it meant. Actually, she didn’t seem to be capable of thinking about anything. In the moment, there was only Chat’s ardent embrace, and the feeling of her lips flush with his. Reluctantly, they separated from one another, the need for air winning out over the want to continue.
“Wow,” he whispered dreamily.
All at once she came back to herself and the weight of her actions crashed down around her. It was too much. They were supposed to be saving Paris! Not kissing! Especially not kissing! In her haste to back up she completely forgot about her ankle, letting go of Chat and all but jumping away.
Then, for the third time that day, Marinette was falling.
Arms scrambling wildly to try and right herself, she opened her eyes in a panic. Before she could even register what was happening it was too late.
The next seconds seemed to move in slow motion, but the important parts were these:
Green eyes.
Blond hair.
A face that she had plastered all over her bedroom walls.
His arms reaching out to stop her descent once more.
And as quick as it began, it was over.
She couldn’t have guessed how long they just stared at each other. Neither spoke, neither moved. She supposed even if she had managed to speak, she would have had no words at her disposal to use.
Even in her wildest dreams, she had never been prepared for… this.
“Yes! Finally!” Plagg yelled breaking the silence.
“Plagg!” Tikki flew up to glare at him disapprovingly.
“What? It was bound to happen at some point! What’s the point of just letting them suffer? Maybe now they can stop being so insufferable all the time!” he humphed.
Tikki grabbed Plagg by the hand and smiled at them apologetically.
“We’ll just…let you two talk for a moment” she said as she dragged him away to give the teen heroes some space.
She looked back up at Chat, at Adrien.
Chat, who was Adrien.
Adrien, who was Chat.
Chat, who was her best friend.
Adrien, who she loved.
Him, who was everything.
“Just couldn’t stop falling for me huh?”
Oh, he didn’t even know the half of it.
He had tried to mask the tremble in his voice, but there was no missing it. Her heart beat uncontrollably, and she was half convinced that if she wasn’t careful it would jump out and run away; leaving her to handle this herself.
“You looked,” she said, but there was no accusation behind her tone.
“So did you,” he replied dazedly.
She was thankful that his arms had remained firmly grasping her waist, because she was sure that without them there she’d have collapsed out of shock.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean too.”
“Neither did I.”
“I know,” and she did.
She tried to make sense of it, of him. She flipped back through all their interactions as Adrien and Marinette that could have connected her kindhearted crush with her most trusted partner and friend. All of the times he had disappeared during Akuma fights, the way he seemed to know who she was when he visited her balcony as Chat.
She studied his features closely. His golden blond hair, now tousled from their landing, was all Chat. His warm smile, the one she had fallen for on that first rainy day they met, was the same smile that accompanied some of the cheesiest puns she had ever heard. His emerald green eyes, which she’d always assumed were simply part of his transformation, were the same eyes that she got lost in every time he talked to her at school. Lines blurred and she fit the puzzle pieces of their lives together as she would with a lucky charm.
If Chat was Adrien, and Chat loved Ladybug, and she was Marinette, who was Ladybug, who loved Adrien, then that would mean…
Shit
“I need to sit down.” she was panicking.
Carefully, as to avoid another falling incident, he helped her to the ground and sank down next to her.
“It’s really you,” she said dumbly after a moment.
“Guilty,” he shrugged. “And you… it’s been you all along.”
“Yes, me,” she repeated shyly. Trembling slightly, she dared to pose the question that she feared the most. “Are you… disappointed it’s me?”
“How could I be disappointed?” He said as if the very idea offended him. He took both her hands in his, and smiled reassuringly. “You're still the same person, in every way that counts. The only difference is now I know that you're my lady and my princess. I always hoped maybe we could be friends on the other side of the masks one day, and we already are! I’m over the moon that it’s you Marinette. After all, you are our everyday Ladybug.”
She smiled at that.
“Just friends huh?” She said coyly.
“Well, my feelings haven’t changed about you. I’ve always thought you were amazing as Ladybug and Marinette, in and out of the mask, and I love you even more knowing that you're both. I understand though if that’s not really how you feel about me. I’ve always gotten the feeling you didn’t really like me as Marinette much, and then there’s still the other boy you love, so I assumed that-”
She stopped his rambling by pulling him into another kiss, making sure to put as much feeling into it as possible before pulling away.
“We’re really stupid” she said as they separated.
“I mean like… really, really dumb.”
“I don’t follow.” he tilted his head in confusion.
God he was adorable.
“Adrien is the other boy- the one I told you about. You… you are the other boy.”
“But- but you always get uncomfortable around me!” he sputtered.
“Yeah, because I like you so much I get too nervous to form coherent sentences around you dumbass!”
He opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to grasp the full scope of her words.
“...oh” he croaked.
“Yeah...Oh.”
“So… when Alya was saying you wanted to confess to someone today, that was- you were talking about... me?”
She nodded.
“And as Ladybug when you turned me down because you loved someone else, that was… also me? You turned me down- for me?”
“The one and only.”
“Your right,” he said laughing at the ridiculousness of it all “we’re total idiots.”
“The biggest!” she giggled, and soon enough they were both in stitches, cackling like hyenas at the whole stupid mess they’d made.
“I can’t believe you were right in front of me whole time” he mused, eyes shining.
“Well technically I sit behind you in class, so you were in front of me.”
“Touché,” he beamed.
She recognized the look he gave her as one he had used exclusively on Ladybug in the past. It was painfully earnest, and she could almost feel the love coming off of him in waves. She wondered, briefly, how little she’d ever truly seen him smile as Adrien before, and vowed to do everything in her power to make it happen more often.
“Plagg is probably right you know,” she said after a moment. “This was bound to happen eventually. Secrets have done nothing for us lately besides make everything worse. I know I’ve had my reservations about knowing each other’s identities, and we’ll have to be extra careful now, but maybe… maybe it’s better this way.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” He cradled her hands in his own as if holding something very precious, and rubbed his thumbs absentmindedly along her palms. She smiled, heat rising to her cheeks as she reveled in the contact.
“What do we do now?” She wondered out loud.
“Well I love you, and you love me,” he declared proudly, voice soft with affection. “I guess we do whatever comes after that.”
She smiled brightly. “Whatever comes after that.”
“Hey you two done making out yet?” Plagg yelled in the distance. “Me and Tikki are all charged up!”
“Oh my god!” She shrieked, bringing a hand to her face. “We still have an Akuma to catch!”
He cast a worried look at her injured foot.
“But you can’t walk. What’ll we do?”
“Transforming should help!” Tikki remarked as her and Plagg rejoined them. “I’ll try to channel some extra energy into stopping it from hurting too much. You should be able to perform all your duties as Ladybug without too much trouble. However, since you got hurt as your civilian self, it won’t go away with the miraculous cure.”
“It’s alright Tikki,” she affirmed. “As long as it’ll be enough to get us to the end of the fight, that’s good enough for me.” She stroked her Kwami’s cheek in appreciation and turned back to her partner, who still seemed apprehensive to let her fight while hurt.
“I’ll be okay kitty,” One of her hands was still in his, and she squeezed it reassuringly. “I’ll just try to take it easy on this one.”
“Okay,” he relented as he helped her back up. “But I’m walking you straight to the nurse's office when we get back to school.”
“Deal,” she nodded. “Ready?”
“Ready when you are Bug.”
“Oh, and Chat?”
“Yes M’lady?”
She leaned over, planting a quick kiss on his cheek, and whispered, “I’m so happy it’s you.”
She sent him the fondest smile she could conjure, and this time it was him who blushed. He laced his fingers through hers and they shared a look of mutual understanding.
“Spots on!”
“Claws out!”
In the end they both made it out in one piece. They fought as a unit, perfectly attuned to each other in every way. Where Ladybug fell short, Chat would always be there to catch her, and the same went for him. They were partners, through and though. It wasn’t easy, but they were able to win side by side, as always. As her butterflies washed over the horizon, their usual fist bump was swapped for a tight hug.
True to his word, Adrien insisted that she let him take her to the school nurse to check her ankle. There, she was told that it was only a mild sprain. She’d have to rest it for a while and put a compression bandage around it, but it would be back to normal in a week or two. All in all, it could have been worse.
It wasn’t perfect by any means.They still had a lot to talk about, and hadn’t worked everything out yet, but she knew they would, together. They walked (well in her case limped) into class hand in hand, and if Nino slipped Alya 20 euros under the desk while she gloated about being right, Marinette didn’t notice.
It had been a good day after all.