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Adrien was upset.
Okay, Adrien was upset quite a bit these days, but this had hurt him much more than Kagami's break up, or his father's distance, or the Miracle Queen incident.
Ladybug had revealed his identity. And it hadn't been with him.
He didn't know why she didn't feel safe enough to do it; he had always thought they were in this together. It was them against the world, and it would always be that way.
But it wasn't.
And Ladybug had chosen to tell her civilian best friend and told him that if he wanted, he could tell someone that he absolutely trusted. But it couldn't be her.
Why couldn't it be her? They had never been akumatized, they never would, because they had each other. They were two halves of a whole.
So why couldn't it be her??
Nonetheless, the stress was getting to Adrien. He wanted someone to talk to, about Ladybug and his father and his love life and his worries and his puns and jokes. Yes, he wanted that someone to be Ladybug, but that... that wouldn't work.
But he would take the opportunity to choose someone else. The stress was suffocating him.
He mentally created a list of all of his friends (alright, there weren't that many, but still):
Nino
Pros: his best friend, is always there for him, Carapace (so Ladybug trusts him)
Cons: can't keep a secret to save his life
Yeah, that wouldn't work.
Alya
Pros: also a good friend, Rena Rouge, held off akuma
Cons: runs the Ladyblog
That was way too big of a risk.
Marinette
Pros: can definitely keep a secret, hasn't been akumatized, very kind and is friends with Chat Noir, Multimouse
Cons: is sometimes uncomfortable around him?
Alright, so far on his list, Marinette was definitely the best option.
Kagami
Pros: Ryuko, deals with overbearing parents
Cons: they just broke up. and she definitely wasn't happy with him.
Maybe best not to do that...
Chloé
Pros: childhood friend
Cons: Miracle Queen. that's it. Also, she doesn't like Chat Noir, she's working with Hawk Moth, she's occasionally rude, she shared her identity with all of Paris...
What was he even thinking?
He made to add more people, but realized that was pretty much as far as his list went. Sure, he knew the rest of the class, but he definitely wasn't close enough with them to tell the secret. So.
Marinette.
He knew that sometimes (he didn't know why), he made her uncomfortable, and she would stutter (he found it endearing) and make an excuse to leave, or blush at the smallest things. But she was also their Everyday Ladybug, she had never been akumatized, and she was getting better at spending time with him (also one of the only people who he really liked to spend time with). And in addition to that, he knew that she loved Chat Noir (yes, there was also the actual confession, but they had put that past them), and definitely wouldn't tell anyone such a big secret. And, she was Multimouse, which meant that Ladybug obviously trusted her to a certain level.
He had made up his mind.
He was going to tell Marinette that he was Chat Noir.
Nothing could go wrong with that, right?
Adrien debated for a while whether it would be easier to confront her as Chat Noir or as Adrien, and in the end decided on Chat Noir, as Marinette always felt more comfortable around him then.
He did have patrol that night, but it was over quickly, leaving him with more than enough time to visit Marinette's balcony.
He knocked on the trap door, only having to wait moments before the bluenette's face popped up, more happy than it had been the past few weeks.
It made his heart flutter.
"Hello, Chat Noir. I have some cookies that were just baked earlier today if you want," she said, leaving the trap door open and heading out of the room. Chat looked around the room, unconsciously noticing that there were less photos of himself than usual. He didn't get to ponder it for long, though, since Marinette returned within minutes.
"Mmm, these are wonderful, princess!"
Marinette giggled and took one of the cookies for herself before facing him. "What can I do for you today, Chat?"
Chat swallowed his cookie, "Well, a few days ago, Ladybug revealed her identity to someone in her civilian life."
Marinette paled quickly, but Chat didn't take notice. "I was a bit upset," understatement, "but she said that I could reveal my identity in return to someone."
"But Chat, you don't even know -"
"And so I had to think about it for a while, you know. And I created a list. The first was Nino, but he can't keep a secret to save his life."
Marinette raised an eyebrow.
"Then, I thought about Alya, but she runs the Ladyblog and as much as she's great, she'd probably tell Nino, and we've already said that Nino can't keep secrets."
Marinette gasped.
"Then, you were actually right after Nino on my list, but I'm going to complete it. Then, I had Kagami, but we just broke up and there are still a few hard feelings, since, well, she broke up with me since I was keeping a secret."
Marinette squeaked.
"And the last one was Chloé, but... well, it's obvious that that won't work out. So," he grinned at Marinette, "I'm guessing you probably already know."
"Adrien?!"
"Claws in."
"Adrien!" Marinette yelped, glancing nervously around the room. "You-you're him- and you told me- you weren't supposed to tell me," she muttered the last bit so that Adrien didn't hear.
Adrien chuckled awkwardly, raising a hand to scratch his neck. "I don't know if you like me that much as Adrien, but I know that you know Chat Noir and like him... you've also never been akumatized and I trust you."
At that moment, a black cat kwami swooped up and looked in between the two.
"So, you finally decided to reveal yourselves, huh? Nice to see you again, Pigtails."
Adrien rolled his eyes. "No, Plagg, if you had been listening, you'd know that I revealed my identity. I already know that Marinette's Multimouse."
Plagg turned to Marinette. "See what I have to deal with everyday?!"
Marinette giggled, but Plagg kept going. "Anyway, I know that you live in a bakery, so do you have any cheese?"
"No, but I've got lots of cookies! That worked last time, right?"
"Eh, it's alright, but if you've got any cheese -"
"I'll go check downstairs."
Marinette left the room again and Adrien was severely confused. "Wh- when did you meet Marinette?"
"Keep up," Plagg groaned, "I can't deal with this stupidness. Where's sugarcube?"
"Sugarcube?"
"Tikki!"
"Tikki- what would Ladybug's kwami be doing -"
Marinette entered the room again, holding a plate of bread. "This isn't cheese but it's cheese bread. It's the best we've got."
Plagg looked at the plate judgemently, but ended up swooping down to eat it, clearly liking it.
"So," Marinette turned to Adrien seriously, "You're Chat Noir."
Adrien nodded.
"And you decided to tell me."
Adrien nodded again.
"This is a disaster!"
Adrien had prepared to nod again, but tilted his head in confusion. "How is it a disaster-"
"You weren't supposed to tell me, you were supposed to tell someone else in your civilian life! If I had known that you were going to choose me, I wouldn't have given you that stupid advice in the first place! I didn't think we actually knew each other. Tikki?"
Adrien's eyes widened as the ladybug kwami flew out from behind Marinette's sewing machine.
"There's nothing we can do now," said Tikki cautiously, "and Bunnyx never arrived, so I assume that it's alright."
"But Master Fu -"
"You're the guardian now, Marinette. Your judgement is best."
Marinette sighed and sat back down on her chair. "Well, the cat's out of the bag, I guess."
Adrien only blinked.
"So you're- you- Ladybug- of course! I called you our everyday Ladybug for goodness' sake!"
Marinette chuckled but got back up. "This is still a disaster; maybe Wayzz can do something?"
She walked over to her sewing kit, only to press certain spools of thread. As soon as she finished, the sewing kit opened, revealing... the miracle box.
Right, Ladybug was the guardian and Marinette was Ladybug so she had the miracle box.
She pressed the top button of the box, letting all of the kwamis out. They started chatting in excitement before noticing Adrien there- still in shock. Marinette whispered something to Wayzz, who looked gravely at Adrien.
"I suppose that it's not ideal, but it would have happened eventually."
"I'm glad it didn't!" Plagg exclaimed, "I've been waiting for ages for him to figure out it was pigtails- but he's just so oblivious!"
"Plagg!" Tikki countered, "You shouldn't speak that way about your owners -"
"No, Plagg's right," Adrien laughed, "I was oblivious. I didn't realize the love of my life was right in front of me."
Marinette squeaked and giggled awkwardly.
"That brings us to another important conversation," she said conversationally, refusing to meet Adrien's eyes.
"You're the other boy."
"...What?!"