Work Text:
It had been a few days since the quad-akuma, and Marinette was starting to feel a little better. Alya had been there for her and allowed her to get everything off her chest. She had also stepped up and taken on some of Marinette’s duties.
“We can have sleepovers at my house next time. We can just tell them you have too much on your plate to host it.”
“Don’t worry about it. I can babysit the kwamiis while you take Manon to the park.”
“Let me plan the class trip. You need some sleep.”
Marinette couldn’t have asked for a better friend. Now, Alya had taken it all in stride at first, but there had been a few moments where she had freaked out.
“So all the times I thought you were scared and running away from the akumas, you were actually the one running into danger?”
“So THATS how you got me an interview with Ladybug.”
“OH! That’s why you are so against Lila. She lied about being your best friend!”
Just a few, random comments throughout the time they spent together, showing her how much her life really had become convoluted. These often gave Marinette a reason to chuckle. That is, until the kicker came:
“Wait. I have to choose between Adrientte and LadyNoir? Wait! Is You and Chat an option? What would your ship name be? Chatonette? MariChat?”
Marinette sighed sadly. “I can’t do love while I’m Ladybug, Alya. There will always be dates that get interrupted by an akuma and disappearance because of stuff like that I can’t explain away.”
Alya paused for a moment, before lighting up. “Well then, LadyNoir it is! You guys already work together so flawlessly on the battlefield.”
Marinette shook her head. “Honestly, he so cute and funny, and such a support. I’d probably go for him in a heartbeat.”
“…But?”
“Do you remember that time I made a beret for Adrien?”
“Yeah, you never made it through the gate.”
“That’s not entirely true, you see, after I was turned away, I transformed into Ladybug….”
It was that day that Alya learned the secret of Chat Blanc.
“He said it was our love that did it to the world. And he knew my name, Alya, he called me—as Ladybug—he called me Marinette.”
Alya gave her best friend a hug as Marinette started crying. Once the tears disappeared, Alya pulled away and asked,
“Have you told him this yet?”
“What?”
“Have you told Chat this story? Minus the whole you-being-Marinette thing.”
“No, I, I..”
Alya cut her stammering off with another hug. “I can’t believe you had to carry this all on your own.”
“Oh no.”
“Oh no? What’s oh no? Alya asked, confused.
“I’ve got to tell Chat that I’ve told you. I don’t know how he’ll react.“
"Let me come to, maybe I can hel-”
“No, I have to do this alone.”
At the next chance she got, Marinette transformed into Ladybug and sent a message to Chat.
“Hey Chat, let me know when you get this. I need you to meet me at the Eiffel Tower at midnight tonight. I have something important to tell you.”
Ladybug closed her yo-yo with a click. She knew Chat’s home life was pretty demanding. She really hoped he showed up tonight though. She couldn’t wait until the next akuma attack to tell him.
Smash!
Ladybug was interrupted from her train of thought by a glass beaker breaking behind her. She turned around to see Xuppu hovering sheepishly by the edge of her desk, next to him on the floor was a now broken glass beaker with a slowly growing puddle of red liquid.
“Oops?”
“Hey Marinette, you have a meeting!”
Tikki’s voice rang out through Marinette’s room, jolting the noirette awake. She looked around the room to find the source of the voice, her eyes finally landing on the open yo-yo beside her. She grabbed it and looked at the screen, where bright white numbers greeted her.
“11:55?”
Marinette turned around in her swivel chair. It was near-pitch-black in her room, but her eyes had adjusted enough to the light coming from her yo-yo to be able to see. All the kwamiis seemed to be asleep. But that didn’t explain Tikki’s voi—
Marinette caught a glimpse of herself in her bedroom mirror. She was Ladybug right now.
“OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH.”
Ladybug finally remembered what she was supposed to be doing. She climbed to her balcony and shot her yo-yo into the night sky.
It was 12:09 when Ladybug finally reached the tower. Chat Noir was pacing the deck restlessly. She paused above him to watch him for a moment to catch her breath. He looked really worried. He even checked his baton a few times. It wasn’t until Chat looked up a few moments later did Ladybug realize she was the reason he was worried. She had asked to meet him here 10 minutes ago, and she was rarely late to their meetings.
Chat’s face flashed with relief when his gaze met hers. His skittish stature disappeared, his countenance brightened, and he seemed to be back to his ol’ goofy self. It made Ladybug wonder what else he hid under his goofy charm.
“Hello, m’lady”. He bowed before her as she landed next to him on the platform. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
Ladybug shook her head to clear her previous thoughts. She took a deep breath and started, “First, I wanted to apologize.”
“Apologize?” Chat cut her off, “For what?”
“Let me finish, Kitty,”. She let out a somber chuckle at his antics. “I told someone my identity.”
Chat, for once, was silent. He stared at his partner, which egged her to continue.
“It was a heat of the moment thing, and it was as a civilian and I just needed her to know and Iknowthatitshould’ve—“. Her ramblings were cut off by a prompt hug. Once she had calmed down, they split apart. “You’re not mad?”
“I know I’ve been pressuring you to reveal our identities to each other for a while and I know I wanted to be the first one, but…” Chat paused, taking a moment to place his hands on her shoulders and look her in the eyes. “I can tell you’ve been dealing with a lot with being your civilian self, Ladybug, AND the guardian. You need support in all those areas, and there’s no guarantee that even if I knew your identity I could help you out with that. I can only help with 2, so as long as whoever this is can help you…”. Chat smiled. It wasn’t his joking smile, or his crowd smile, or his ‘trust me I’m fine’ smile. It was real, genuine, and….loving. “How could I be mad at you?”
The End