Chapter Text
“ I t’s been almost half a year since Hawkmoth’s first attack happened, since brave and loyal heroes appeared to help and save us from the danger. But we’ve always had the one question on our minds: who should we thank? Who should we blame for the butterfly terror? Of course, there are people among us who want to find out the truth. I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and today, I’d like to share with you some theories about the identities of the masked heroes and villains.
A s I guessed before, it was confirmed in Alya “Ladyblogger” Cesaire’s interview that Ladybug and Chat Noir are both younger than eighteen years old. Well, of course we heard Ladybug ‘confess’ to the camera that they’re older than five thousand years of age, but come on! Do you actually believe that? She wanted to lead us astray; she’s Ladybug after all! But look at those gestures, all those little slips!
T o help you recognize some of these, I must ask you to look at the interview again, and watch it closely. When Alya was preparing for this interview, I asked her to try and use some teenage slang; do you see it now? Ladybug immediately switched to it without any pauses or stuttering, which means that she’s definitely used to it! Obviously, she was hiding that before, unlike Chat Noir, who talked with that sort of slang since almost the beginning. It’s one more point to help prove my theory about their age.
N ow, if you’re a school student or college student - look around! Who knows, maybe your best friend or your neighbour is the one that secretly saves you and the whole city from destruction!
T his is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and I’ll see you on Friday with new theories about Hawkmoth’s identity!”
“And… send!” Marinette was visibly pleased when she clicked the button to submit a new post.
“I must admit that I disapproved of that ‘helping people figure out’ idea, but now I see that this was your brightest plan!” Tikki squealed happily while reading the text from the screen. “People like to read you, and nobody even suspects you!”
“Agreed, it was one of my best decisions since this whole hero stuff began,” Marinette hummed a little before leaning back into her chair. “After Alya nearly spotted me the first three times, I thought that was it - now she’s no longer suspecting me, and even asking for advice to figure out our identities!”
Sure, she’s not that naive, as it was a long time ago when she first became a hero. Stoneheart, Pariah, and Lady Wi-Fi were very close calls for her, but her cover as being a clueless girl paid off. Marinette knew that even a Miraculous glamour wouldn’t be a safe thing with more and more people searching, so she needed to find a cover. A very good cover that would be able to save her time and time again.
But how, exactly, was she going to accomplish that?
***
Oddly enough, it was Nino who helped her figure out what to do, albeit accidentally.
One day after Literature class (that Marinette half-slept through and half-stared at Adrien’s back), Nino had an idea to prank his best friend, so he hid Adrien’s school bag by Marinette’s side and asked her to be quiet. At that moment Marinette had a fight between desire and her mind; it was Adrien’s school bag that kept his warmth and smelled like him (also it smelled like cheese, why?).
Adrien failed to find his bag.
So he was very grateful when Marinette - after her mind won in the blood battle with desire - brought it right to him.
“It was tricky,” Adrien had smirked, looking at Nino. “You hid it in plain sight , very clever. I’d have never suspected Marinette to be hiding something ! Thank you, Marinette, for bringing my bag back!”
“You’re welcome,” Marinette had said mechanically, her mind and brain already far away from Earth.
“... hid it in plain sight. ”
“... never suspect Marinette to be hiding something. ”
That was it - the solution to her problem!
If you want to hide something - just put it in plain sight. So if she wanted to hide a hero’s identity, she needed to become the #2 enemy for heroes (#1, of course, being Hawkmoth): a theorist. Who would suspect a theoretician of being a secret hero, especially when most of their theories were in fact true?
Though, Tikki was very against it at first, reasoning that Marinette might actually help not only herself, but Hawkmoth too.
But the fear of revealing her identity to the world was enough for her to take that risk.
Eventually, Tikki conceded and even started to help Marinette in gathering and sorting the information for “theories,” citing two reasons:
First, to keep an eye on her Chosen.
Second, Tikki trusted Plagg’s judgement, so when he said once that people are usually blind, she knew it was likely to be true.
***
“Marinette, wow! That was really something in your last post!” Alya said in lieu of ‘Good morning’ to her the next day, as they were waiting beside the classroom door. “Would you let me use a link to your article? All credit, of course, will go to you.”
“Good morning to you too,” Marinette waved her hand weakly. “And sure. Though, people already know that we’re friends and that we work together on this kind of stuff.”
“Yo, Marinette!” Nino saluted from his desk. “Have you thought about trying to make a video or something yet? If you are - I'm always at your service!”
“No, Nino, I don’t think I’m ready yet,” she shook her head. “I’m not sure that it’s even a good idea and I’m afraid that it’s going to end pretty badly.”
“H-hey, Marinette! I heard that you had posted a new theory? Cool!” Internally, Adrien was certain that it was definitely NOT COOL but his years of training as a model stopped it from showing in his expression. “I’ll read it when I've got free time!”
“A-Adrien?! N-nan-ny thanks!! I mean, m- many thanks! I’d b-be glad t-to know y-your onion! I mean, opinion!”
“It’s perfectly fine, don’t worry. I like your theories, though I still don’t fully understand - why do people want so badly to figure out the identities of our heroes? It’s dangerous not only for the heroes, but for the journalists too!” Adrien couldn’t help but ask out loud.
“I could tell you why I’m doing this, and I’d be perfectly happy to repeat as many times as you wish to hear. I want to know who we should thank for each and every day, who we should thank for defending us and risking their lives. To make sure that people would know not only the fancy masks but the real people, the heroes, behind them. But I want to know not only about the ones who save us day after day. I want to find out who has that callous and hatred-filled soul. I want to know how and for what wicked reason Hawkmoth is attacking our city. I want to bring truth and justice to our city. But even if I fail at that, I’d still be more than happy just to be able to thank the heroes for their job,” Marinette said, the most serious expression Adrien had ever seen taking a hold of her face.
Adrien gaped at her, astounded. Though, he wasn’t the only one who’d had this reaction to Marinette’s passionate monologue.
“That was… bold,” Kim finally spoke, after what felt like an eternity of silence.
“Unexpected,” Mylene squealed from her seat.
“Alright kids, we have class now!” Madame Bustier entered the room. “Please, take your seats and then we shall start!”
The whole class seemed to wake up from being frozen, chaotic motion masking Adrien’s thoughtful glance towards Marinette.
Something was off in that speech. No, not that Marinette didn’t stutter at all (though he still needed to find out why she stuttered only in front of him). Just call it a cat’s intuition and you’d be right about it, but he felt that there was something behind that was held back, as if Marinette knew more than she wanted to show them, more than she let on. Or maybe that speech seemed almost… prepared in advance?
Regardless, his classmate was clever, and he needed to keep a close eye on Marinette to warn Ladybug about a new potential threat to their secret identities.