Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Adrien had never quite understood what his relationship with Marinette was. He wanted to say they were friends, and she would agree that they were, but there was just always something… different. She always seemed to keep her distance and fumble over her words, like she was uncomfortable.

It wasn't until a certain afternoon he would understand why.

Marinette was standing in front of him, eyes focused intently on the ground and hands fidgeting behind her back. “Adrien, I… I love you. I have for a long time, and it’s okay if you don’t love me, I don’t expect you to, and I don’t want anything to be awkward now. I just- I just want to be honest with you.”

“Oh. Um, thank you? I guess? But, Marinette- I love someone else. And I don’t think that’s going to change. I’m sorry, I am. I hope we can still be friends though. If that’s okay?” He didn’t want anything to be awkward either, but how could it not be?

"Yeah. That's fine. I'll- home. Me. I'm going home. Bye, Adrien."

She was running across the street in a blink of an eye. She had held it together as long as she could, he figured, but that didn't mean he missed the tears on her face as she pulled the bakery door shut behind her.

After a few minutes of standing on the sidewalk trying to process what had just happened, Adrien took off after her. He had to fix this.

Bursting open the bakery door, he saw Mme Cheng standing behind the counter. “Mme, I just did something horribly stupid and I need to talk to Marinette.” She just stood in silence as she waited for him to continue. “You see… I…”

“Xiǎo māo,” she said as she placed a hand on his shoulder, trying not to think about the way he winced as she lifted her hand. “You don’t need to explain. I’m pretty sure I know what happened. And it isn’t your fault. We both know you’ve got your eye on a certain somebug.”

“But I’ve hurt her- Marinette, I mean. I just want to help her.”

“I know you do. But right now she needs time. This was really hard for her to do and now - well, now she needs to recover a bit. She'll be back to herself before you know it."

“Are you sure?” Sabine nodded, giving him a small smile. “Then can you please make sure she’s taken care of? I don’t want to see her hurt more than I’ve already hurt her, and I don’t think I could bear to fight her if she were ak- akum- akuma- well, you know.”

“Of course, māo. I’m her mom, that’s part of my job.” She realized she had struck a nerve as something broken flashed behind his eyes.

“And if you ever need a mother to talk to, I’m always here. I know I’m not your mom, but you’re as much my son as Marinette is my daughter.” Sabine pulled him close as he started to cry softly, placing a kiss on his forehead.

Distantly, she wondered when was the last time he knew he was loved without any conditions. Not like his father, who only expressed his love- if you could even call it that- when Adrien did everything that could be asked of him and a dozen things more. She hoped he knew that wasn’t how love actually worked.

“Sabine, dear, Marinette was looking for -” Tom’s words died off as he saw Adrien crumpled in his wife’s arms. “Oh, dear. I guess everyone’s having a rough day. Is there anything that you want to talk about, son?”

A blurry-eyed Adrien peeked his head over Sabine’s shoulder before carefully taking a step back. Wiping the tears from his eyes, standing up straighter, and giving them both a smile- his real one, the soft kind- he slowly shook his head.

“No, I’m alright. Thank you Mr and Mme Dupain-Cheng, but if Marinette needs you then you two should really go check on her.”

“You know, son, you can call us Tom and Sabine. It’s silly to be so formal,” Tom said as Sabine walked up the stairs and out of sight. He grabbed a croissant from the counter and held it out to Adrien in an unspoken offer as he began to speak again.

“You want to know something else? We Dupain-Chengs are always going to have your back.”

Adrien didn’t say anything, but gave him another weak smile as he took the croissant from Tom’s hands. “I should really be going, but thank you again.” He missed the way Tom broke a little as he walked out of the bakery.

That night, as Tom and Sabine sat on the couch watching their favorite show, Tom slowly put his arm around her. “Do you think he’ll be okay? Adrien?”

“I don’t think anyone living with the man who dares to call himself his father is okay, Tom. But I think he’s going to be, as long as he has people like us around. People who truly care for him.” Curling closer into her husband’s side, she sighed.

“At least, that’s what I have to believe.”

Chapter Text

All through patrol, something was wrong with Chat Noir. After the … incident… 3 days ago, she had been impatiently waiting to see him and hear his jokes. But as her feet hit the rooftop, it became clear that he was in just as bad of a place as she was.

The two of them silently patrolled through the city, stopping for a brief moment to help an old lady pick up her groceries that had spilled all over the sidewalk, but Chat seemed to try to rush through it all. 

“Ladybug? Can I talk about something personal with you?” He asked as they were resting on one of the beams of the Eiffel Tower. “It’s not going to reveal my identity, I promise. I just don’t know who else to turn to about this,” he scrambled.

“Of course. Here." Ladybug scooted over on the beam, patting the spot beside her. She had loosened up the restraints on all things identity over the years, sometime after that fight Chat had with his dad when he was 14 or so. It hurt just to remember it, from the look on his face to the feeling of holding him while he cried. 

Chat hesitated before sitting down next to her, placing his baton on his other side. After that whole fight with his father, Ladybug started to realize that whenever Chat was upset about something, his first instinct was to hold it in. It balanced her, who dealt with her emotions by rambling about the end of the world - though she figured it was probably fair given how many ends of the world she had seen.

Maybe that's why they were chosen to be partners, their personalities balancing each other the way their powers did. Maybe they were just meant to be there for each other.

“One of my best friends told me she loved me the other day. And I told her I don’t love her, because I don’t. Not romantically- I mean - I love her as one of my closest friends. And now I’ve hurt her so badly and all I can do is watch her heart break.”

They sat in silence for a while as they looked out at the city lights. 

“Do you ever feel like this, when you turn me down?” Chat spoke up out of nowhere before he seemed to realize what he said as his eyes shot up to meet hers. “I didn’t mean to- I shouldn’t have said that-”

“It’s okay, I know what you mean.” Her eyes lit up as she looked out at the moon. She would look for a star so she could wish for things to work out for her partner, but it’s not like you could ever really see the stars in Paris. 

“You’re my best friend Chat, of course I do. I always hate doing it, and it always hurts afterwards. But then you’ll smile and make a joke and even though I know you’re hurting, it reminds me how strong you are. I know you’ll be okay eventually. Really though, why do you keep doing it if you know what I’m going to say?”

“Because I know what it feels like to not get to tell someone how much you care about them. If I lose you, I want to make sure you know how much I love you. If that means breaking my heart every so often, that’s a price I’m willing to pay.”

How much had he already lost? They were only 17, and yet he was already so hurt by the world. Every so often she got a glimpse into his heart like this, and every time made her worry that much more.

“I want to know what I should do. If you had your heart broken by that boy you love, what would you want him to do?” 

Ladybug's eyes snapped up to look at him. They never talked about him . It was an unspoken rule, really, that he didn’t get mentioned. 

Maybe because she was scared that it was too close to something that could reveal her identity or because he was trying not to think about it. 

It just felt wrong for both of them to do to each other.

“I’d want him to apologize. I know that’s not his job because it’s not his fault, but hearing him say that he understands he hurt me and that he’s sorry would mean a lot. It would let me know that I still mean something to him in some capacity. That I haven’t completely ruined the friendship we have.”

The words burned in her throat as a painful reminder of her own life, that maybe she wouldn't have Adrien’s friendship after this all was done. But well, Chat was worth hurting a little bit for.

"That's… fair. I'll try that." He sighed, eyes flicking to a clock in the distance. "I should go, bug, it's getting late. Thank you for everything."

-----------------

By the time he was halfway home, he realized he was nearly to the Dupain-Chengs’. He told himself he shouldn’t- he wouldn’t go looking for her. But then, he was there anyway, right? It couldn’t hurt to just peek if Marinette was out. Thankfully Plagg couldn’t speak to Adrien when he was transformed, otherwise he’s sure he’d be getting an earful right now. 

By some chance, Marinette was on her balcony when he got there. She looked distracted and he wondered if she would even notice him landing beside her. 

“Bonsoir, Chat Noir.” Well, she was more observant than he thought, then.

“Marinette, who would have imagined meeting you here?” He gave her an attempt at a sly smirk, but she saw straight through it. If she hadn’t just talked to him, maybe she would have believed it. How many times has she been fooled by his facade before?

“Ha. What are you doing here, Chat? Don’t you have maidens in need of defending?” 

“I’m a little worried about this maiden, actually. I heard you’ve had a rough few days, and I wanted to make sure you’re okay. You don’t have to be. And you don’t have to talk to me. I just saw you out and I wanted-" his words tumbling out and then dying out slowly.

“Do you want something to drink? Or eat?" She interrupted, ignoring his previous statements.

“I’m fine, and I would hate to impose. I really did just want to see you. I mean. Check on you. Or.” If only his father could see him now. All those public speaking and acting lessons, and he can't even carry on a normal conversation. 

“I’ll be right back. We have some leftovers in the bakery that we would have to toss tomorrow morning anyway. It would be such a shame for them to go to waste.” He glanced off to the side, debating whether he should just go. “Stay kitty, I better not come back to an empty balcony.”

Interacting with her was a bad idea, he realized. Since he looks like Chat, she wasn’t hiding from him the way she has been from Adrien. She was being much too kind to the boy who broke her heart. Not that she knew that, but he still felt wrong being here right now. By the time she came back, he was absorbed in his own guilt. 

“Are you okay, Chat?” She set the tray of food down on the table in the middle of her balcony before coming over to stand next to him again over by the railing.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, fine. Just thinking.” 

“About anything in particular?” Marinette prodded, even though she knew fully well what he was thinking about. He broke out of his daze, looking back at her then over at the tray she had brought him.

“A certain princess, of course. Thank you, for the food. You shouldn’t have.” She really shouldn’t have. Not for a so-called hero of Paris who hung around her balcony like a stray, but especially not for the boy that hurt her so badly. But he knew that it was much too late to turn down her kindness, she was too determined at this point, so he just smiled at her and took a macaron from the tray.

“He turned me down. Buttercup, that is. And it’s fine- it’s just tiring to see him everyday, and I start to feel all those things and I have to break my own heart again when I remember. I never thought that he would love me, but it was nice to live in the fantasy of not knowing for certain,” she confessed after they had been snacking in silence for a while.

She was gorgeous as she looked past him at the lights of the city. Not that he was interested in her like that- he hastily corrected his thoughts, in case his mind got the wrong idea- but he wasn’t ignorant of her looks. He could appreciate the way she looked with the night sky painted behind her, like it was put there just for her. He could admire her blue eyes that looked like a summer sky and her hair that barely stood out against the black night. 

He was in love with Ladybug, but that didn’t mean he was blind.

“Do you want to come in? I wouldn’t mind getting my mind off things, and I definitely wouldn’t mind kicking your ass at a few rounds of UMS. Besides, it’s getting chilly out here, and I would hate for our lovely superhero to cat-ch a cold.” They both chuckled, before moving towards her trapdoor. Chat held up the door as she walked down the ladder with the plate of food she brought and shook his head at the joke. 

It wasn’t like it was the first time he had been in her room, but something felt different this time. Watching her pull out his controller she had personalized for him, his heart felt like it got caught in his chest. 

How much love did she have in her heart if she was able to casually give him so much despite them only seeing each other once a week? What would it be like to be loved by her if he were to let her in? 

She unsurprisingly beat him in every round, and eventually he found himself thinking about the way it felt to have her next to him. Not just to have company, but to have her company. He distractedly thought about the feeling of her knee on top of his and the way her arm bumped his every so often. Had she always felt this overwhelming to be around, invading every corner of his mind?

When they were talking between rounds about one of her new designs, he noticed how empty her wall looked. Almost every picture she had of ‘Adrien’ him was gone, except for two he was in with some of their other friends. Guilt came crashing down on him again as he remembered what had brought him here in the first place. He was reminded that he was manipulating her, basking in her presence by hiding behind a mask. 

“Chat? I know you said you’re okay, but you can talk to me if you want. I know I’m just a civilian, but I’d like to think I’m your friend.” She had put her controller down on the desk and put a hand on top of his. Why did it seem to feel different now? 

They had held hands before, like when they went to the movies and he had her hold on to his hand to keep from losing each other on the crowded train as they looked for seats. But this was like he had been shocked, and all he could think was that it was because her comfort just reminded him of his guilt. 

“Of course we’re friends, Marinette. And I know I could talk to you, but you don’t need to worry. I’m getting through it alright for now.” There was some feeling lingering in the air as he gave her a small smile, but whatever it was disappeared as her phone began ringing with a call from Kagami.

“Sorry, I should take this. But don’t be afraid to stop by and talk, I promise I won’t mind.” Her hand left his as she got up to grab her phone off her bed. 

“You’re fine. Besides, it’s getting late and I would hate to keep you up. Sleep is very important in keeping princesses like you so beautiful.” He took her hand and kissed it as she answered the call, missing the way her voice stuttered as he did so.

Mouthing a ‘goodnight’ as he reached for the balcony door, he slipped out of her room and back into the night.

Chapter Text

“Marinette, can we - could I talk to you?”

It had now been about a week since the incident, and finally Adrien felt like he had the words together to apologize to Marinette. He had spent the past two nights talking things over with Plagg, though honestly it was more of talking to himself while Plagg was in the general area.

Alya shot Adrien a glare, then turned to Marinette with a look of concern. Marinette gave her a quick nod and turned to Adrien, bracing herself to try to answer him. 

“Yes. Do you want to talk now or after school or…?” Adrien felt like he could breathe again for the first time in a while, knowing she at least didn’t hate him so much to where she wouldn’t hear him out.

“Now? Is now okay?” Again, she only nodded, not being able to look him in the eyes. So when she did look at him after they entered the empty classroom next door to their own, he had the breath knocked out of him all over again.

Her eyes, now tentatively looking at him, looked just like hers. Ladybug’s. 

Marinette just stood there, waiting for him to say something. Right. He was going to apologize. He could do this.

Just. Don’t. Think. About. Ladybug.

“Marinette, I’m sorry. For everything. I had this apology planned but I can’t even begin to remember it right now. I guess I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for not loving you like that. It’s just… the girl I love, the things that I’ve gone through with her, no one else could go through that with me. Even though she doesn’t love me, I can’t give up on her yet. No one else could love me the way she could, because no one else will be able to see all of me the way she has.”

Shit. So much for not thinking about Ladybug.

He spared a glance up at her, and he really wished that he hadn’t. She looked broken all over again, with the same look on her face as when he broke her heart a week ago. 

“I’m just trying to say - I’m sorry that I loved her first. If she weren’t here, then it would be so easy to let myself fall in love with you. Maybe someday I’ll move on from her, and maybe then I could let that happen. But you deserve better than being someone's second choice. And you deserve better than waiting for who knows how long on a maybe.” Carefully, he reached out to place a hand on her shoulder, hoping to provide some kind of reassurance. 

Marinette placed her hand on top of his, leaning slightly into the touch. “You would be worth the wait.”

“I’m really not, I promise. Once you see more of me, you’ll see that I’m really not worth caring about,” Adrien said in desperation as he pulled away from her, placing her hand back by her side. 

After a few uncomfortably silent minutes, it seemed like that was going to be the end of the discussion. He had nearly reached the door when he heard Marinette begin to speak again.

“So that’s it? You wanted to tell me that you’re sorry you fell in love with someone else because if she didn’t exist, you would have fallen for me? And then you tell me that I wouldn’t like you if I saw more of you, the way she has?” Her bluntness had caught him off guard. This was the side of her he never got to see as Adrien, only ever as Chat. It suited her well.

“I guess so, yeah.” 

“Has anyone ever told you that you're awful at apologies?” 

“I mean plenty of people have told me that I'm awful in general but-”

“Adrien. Please do me a favor and shut the fuck up.”

Instantly, he looked like a kicked kitten. Marinette could almost see it, ears pressed against his head with a tail wrapped between his legs. God, she had been spending way too much time with Chat lately… 

But Adrien, how could she have forgotten even for a second the way his father is? She winced, realizing the way that her voice must have triggered so many fear-filled memories. How could she do that?

“No- sorry- I didn’t mean. That came out wrong. Just… give me a second to get my thoughts straight."

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to hear the person you love say that they don’t love you, but they could? That’s worse than just saying you’re not interested. It gives me hope, and that just makes it hurt more.” As Adrien started to apologize, Marinette shot him a look that she wasn’t done. 

“And for fuck’s sake do you not realize what an amazing person you are? I know your father is a piece of shit- don’t interrupt me, he is- and I know he doesn’t tell you that enough. Or possibly ever. But I swear to you on everything I am and everything I love, that you are incredible. 

You’ve been patient enough to become friends with me even though not a single sentence that’s come out of my mouth around you has made sense. You- you always see the best in everyone. When you first came to school, you treated me so well even when I was rude and really didn’t deserve it. I mean, that’s what made me fall in love with you in the first place.

You called me an everyday Ladybug once, and while I don’t know about that, I can say that you are truly some kind of everyday Chat Noir. So anyone who tells you that you’re not good enough can go straight to hell because you have always been more than that. You’ve always been… everything a girl could dream of.”

Everything Marinette said crashed down Adrien like a ton of bricks. But this was the kind of pain he felt in the comforting ache of every muscle when he laid down after a night of sparring with Ladybug. The kind he felt when Tom and Sabine called him their son.

“How can you say that? I broke your heart. That alone makes me nowhere near good enough for you.” 

“You didn’t break it, not really. Sure, it’s battered and bruised, and I won’t lie and say it doesn’t hurt, but my heart is still beating. I’ll still love you Adrien, now I just have to rearrange that into loving you as my friend.”

He just stood there in stunned silence, mouth gaping at her. “Adrien, I’m okay. Or at least, I’m going to be. Every day is a little better.” 

Both slowly and suddenly all at once, the world’s most agonizing fireworks bloomed in his chest. He remembered how he felt when he was with her the other night as Chat. All at once he had a moment of clarity and oh - that’s what that was. He was falling for her.

Then the feeling soured into guilt as he realized that he was starting to unintentionally fall for a girl he was in the middle of turning down. Just his luck, he thought. 

“Well then, thank you for uh- everything you said. I really appreciate it.” A bell rang out in the halls, snapping the both back to reality. “I guess lunch is over. I’ll see you later?”

“Later, Adrien,” she said, flashing him the first smile he's seen in ages. “I’m lucky to have you as a friend.” 

Right, friends. All he had ever said he wanted.

------

Adrien lost every round to Kagami at fencing that night, where she not-so gently told him to get himself together. She was right, though, his head was somewhere else entirely. Across the street and up a few sets of stairs, specifically. 

When he got home and promptly collapsed on his bed, he turned to face Plagg, who was sitting on his pillow.

“Am I an idiot for turning her down, Plagg?” he wondered aloud, though of course he didn’t get a response. 

Why hadn’t he just given it a try? He could have just told her the truth, that there was still someone else and he wasn’t sure that something between them would work because of that, but he could have said yes. He could have taken her out on a date to Palais Galliera, maybe grab dinner afterwards. There wouldn’t have been any harm in that, and maybe he wouldn’t have found himself in the position he’s in now. 

Sure, his heart twisted at the idea of dating someone else when there was still Ladybug. But now the idea of losing his opportunity to see how things would work out with Marinette felt just as wrong.

“Plagg, I’m serious. I know you’re not the mushy feeling kind, but I need advice,” Adrien pleaded. Plagg was tired of this run around his kid was going through. He was tired of seeing him so hurt.

“Fine. You want my opinion? My complete, honest opinion?” Adrien just shrugged helplessly. 

“Okay. First of all, you know I’ve already suggested you try to move on from Ladybug. And then you chose to date that fencing girl which was a short thing that let you grow and learn a lot.

Now, you’re looking at seeing Pigtails, who I’ve already suggested you think about having as your partner or whatever you call it. What can I say, I like the girl. I think she’d treat you the way you should be treated. So, yeah, turning her down was kind of stupid. We all do stupid things sometimes. The real question is what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know! What can I do?"

“I don't know? Spend time with her? Learn more about who she is and what you like about her, build your friendship back up."

So the next week, he told his father he needed to stay at school to work on a group project over lunch, taking the rare opportunity to spend some time with his friends. Looking around, he smiled as Alya and Nino were holding hands and talking about one of Nino’s music projects, and Marinette shared half of her croissant with him as she laughed at a joke he made before quipping back with one of her own.

A few days later, he snuck out to play a few rounds of UMS with Marinette. As he reached for his Chat Noir controller, Marinette batted his hand away and instead handed him a plain controller. “Sorry, it’s just I made that specially for Ch- a uh, friend- and it’s kind of his controller whenever he’s over. I’d kind of rather you didn’t use that one if that’s okay.” 

He was jealous for a second, wondering who had taken up such an important place in her life. He couldn't manage to fight his grin when he realized it was him.

Chapter Text

"I'm so sick of these stupid goddamn butterflies!" Chat yelled, jumping over a feather-shaped blade.

“Pretty sure this one is bird-themed, Chat.” Ladybug chuckled as she gracefully dodged the next blade, grabbing one out of the wall next to her. Rolling it over in her hands, she looked around for where Mockingbird’s akuma could be. She hurled it back at the akuma with equally lethal accuracy, taking the opportunity of them turning to catch it to look for akumatized items on her back.

“You know what I meant, Buginette.” That’s when she caught a glimpse of something silver glistening in the akuma’s hair. Looking closer, it was a decorative pin with a bird delicately carved on top.

“But it’s so much more fun to tease you.” She yelled back as she tried to subtly signal for him to cover her. 

“Then you have clearly never been mocked. You have no idea what it’s like to have something you love ridiculed and you get torn down in the process!” Mockingbird lectured at Ladybug. Chat batted another feather-blade out of the way before moving to be back to back with his lady.

“I have, actually. More times than I could count. I know just how much it hurts. But that’s not what this was, this was me joking with my friend,” Ladybug retorted as she moved in perfect sync with Chat while they dodged Mockingbird’s attacks.

Quieter, she said, “Chat, it’s in the hair pin. I just need a little luck to help me figure out how to get it.” Glancing over her shoulder, she caught the briefest nod from Chat before she called for her lucky charm. This time, a red and black spotted frisbee fell out of the sky and into her waiting hands.

“Got a plan yet or should we just wing it?” If she had processed what he had said, she probably would have rolled her eyes at him while trying not to laugh. But in reality, she was too absorbed trying to find how she was going to use her charm to even really hear him. 

That’s when it all started to get pieced together: the frisbee, Chat’s tail, and the walls of the building next to them. “Got it! Okay, the idea is-” she whispered in his ear before pulling back from him again. “Think you can do that?”

Instead of a response, Chat just took his tail from around his waist and switched it for the frisbee lying in her hands. Throwing the frisbee in the direction of the building, Chat ran along its wall, making his way behind Mockingbird.

The frisbee then served its purpose, not only in distracting Mockingbird from Ladybug’s approach, but also in blocking the blade that had been flying for Chat’s head. Ladybug took the opening, cartwheeling over Mockingbird’s outstretched hands while simultaneously tying them together with Chat’s tail. 

Chat came up from behind to kick the back of the akuma’s knees, causing them to fall. He grabbed the pin, crushing it in his hand. The akuma fluttered out of the pin as Chat gently tapped a wing with his cataclysm, purifying it.

Ladybug looked back at Chat and held out her fist for him, panting slightly from the fight. “Bien joué?”

“Bien joué.” He smiled back at her, pressing his fist against hers. Together, they watched their magic swirl through them and into the city. Little black spots broke down feather blades and red ones filled in cracks in walls. The spots intertwined, spiraling up to the sky before dissipating into thin air.

“That never gets old,” he whispered, looking up into the sky. Ladybug slowly leaned closer to him, resting her head on his shoulders.

“No, it doesn’t.” After a beep from her earrings, she pulled her head up and took a step away from him. “Want to recharge and meet up at the tower? I’d like to just… catch up with you if you wanted?”

“I’d love to. 15 minutes?”

“Give me 20,” she responded as she launched off the roof with her yo-yo.

20 minutes later, not a minute more or less, Ladybug landed on what she often thought of as their beam of the Eiffel Tower with a large box of pastries in her arms. "Figured you might be hungry," she said with a shrug at the questioning look he gave her.  

"So, did you work things out with her? Your friend?" Chat grabbed a mini quiche out of the box, practically swallowing it whole.

"It's… complicated. I think I'm falling in love with her."

"Hmm? What happened? I thought you didn't love her and that's what got you in this situation."

"Well, I didn't. But then I apologized to her like you said and she was just so honest and kind and actually a little bit intimidating- it's a long story- but it let me really see her. And now we're hanging out and talking and well, when I'm around her I feel like how I feel around you.

And now I don’t know what to do. I mean, I love you, of course. But I love her too. It’s just that there’s so much I could never tell her. I’d always be rushing off and lying and she deserves better. And… I’m scared I could never fully give my heart over to her when there’s still you.”

“Oh. I’m sorry, Chat, that can’t be easy. If it makes you feel any better, you have my blessing. I mean, if you really love her, then that’s enough in my opinion. You deserve to be happy. And it sounds like being with her makes you happy.” The words felt heavy and bitter on her tongue. No matter how much she meant it, something made her feel like she didn’t.

“She does.” He stared down at his hands, rolling his baton aimlessly between them. “But how am I supposed to come up with some lie every time I have to leave a date to go be Chat Noir?”

“Well, your father’s horribly protective, right? I have a friend like that, and his father always wants him to come home immediately whenever there’s an akuma alert. You could always just tell her that he’s decided it’s unsafe for his son to be unaccounted for during an attack, so you’ll have to go home, or something like that. If she’s as good as you’ve said, she should understand.”

He ran a hand through his hair, hand pausing at the nape of his neck. “Yeah, I guess… I just wish my feelings were clearer. What if we start dating and I realize I’m still just as in love with you as I am with her? Even if we,” he said, motioning between the two heroes, “aren't together, with all the time we spend together, it kind of feels like I’m cheating on her- emotionally, at least.”

“Go with your heart, chaton. No matter what you decide, your heart will tell you if it feels right or wrong. In the moment, you’ll know.” Looking at the stray pastries left in the box she brought, she pushed it towards him.

“I should be going, but you should take the rest of those. They’re for you, anyways. See you later, then. Love you, Chat,” tumbled out of her mouth before she slung her yo-yo at some tower in the sea of the city’s lights.

She didn’t turn around, missing the look of shock on his face. Lying on his bed that night, the only thing running through Adrien’s head was that she didn’t mean it. She couldn’t possibly have meant it.

What he didn’t know was that in the attic bedroom of a little bakery across the city, his Ladybug was lying awake with the same thing running through her head. She didn’t mean it. She couldn’t possibly have meant it. 

Right? 

Sure, she had started to feel a little different now that she got to know Chat a little more, but that didn't mean anything. It certainly didn't mean she was starting to fall for him. That would be crazy.

Not to mention lethal…

But it's fine because that wasn't what was happening. Everything was fine. Totally fine.

Chapter Text

Sneaking out of his room as Chat, Adrien decided to take the civilian route of getting to Marinette’s house. Sure, it took forever and the bus was overcrowded, but it helped him feel grounded. He felt human.

He knew he had already asked Plagg and Ladybug for their opinions about the whole situation, but he just wanted another opinion. Plagg was never really a good source of advice, and Ladybug only knew a part of him. And yeah, it was probably weird asking a girl’s mom for advice about her daughter, which was why he had avoided it originally, but at this point it felt like his best option.

“Mme Sabine? I need some advice about Marinette, and I don’t know who to ask. I know she’s your daughter so if it’s weird, then I could just go, but I really -” Adrien rambled in Mandarin, before Sabine chuckled and nodded.

She took off her apron, folding it and placing it on the counter next to her as she whispered something to Tom. Waving Adrien over, they both walked upstairs into the Dupain-Cheng’s living room. 

He shot a worried glance at Marinette’s room as he tried to settle onto the sofa.

“Don’t worry, xiǎo māo, she’s at Alya’s right now. You know, I’m trying to get her to learn Mandarin, so beware that someday you might not have your secret language to fall back on. You’re lucky she’s a slow learner when it comes to languages.” Sabine called from the kitchen before coming back with two cups of tea. 

Placing both on the small table in front of them, she sat back against the couch. “What was it you wanted to talk about? She hasn’t done anything bad to you, has she?”

“Of course not! No it’s actually that, well I uh, I think I’m falling in love with her.”

“Oh, Adrien. That’s nothing to be worried about. Falling in love is a wonderful thing.” As she said it though, he could see the wheels turning in her head. “Unless… you’re scared your love for your bug won’t let you truly fall in love with Marinette.”

He nodded his head, slowly reaching for the cat-themed cup Sabine had set on the table. “And - she told me she loved me.”

“I remember. But that was weeks ago and it seemed like you two had worked that out. Why would that be a problem now?” Sabine stared at him with an odd look, not comprehending what he was trying to say.

“I don’t mean Marinette. It was Ladybug, two days ago. I’m sure she didn’t mean it like that, I don’t think she even knows she said it.

It was just as she was leaving. She hugged me and said ‘love you, Chat’ and then just left. It’s not like she confessed her love for me or anything, and like I said she didn’t even seem to notice saying it. I think it just kind of slipped out, like when you’re hanging up the phone and say it on accident.”

“Do you think that her feelings towards you are changing? That she could have meant it, but didn’t mean to say it?” 

“Definitely not.”

The poor kid, he was so confident and sure and yet he was so wrong. She knew better, of course, Marinette’s realization of her crush on her partner had been increasingly clear ever since the ‘incident’ with Adrien.

“So then it doesn’t have any impact compared to where you were with her before she said that. It was probably exactly that, a slip of the tongue.” Sabine said, taking a drink of her tea to help hide the exasperated face she was trying and failing not to make.

“Is that all you’re worried about with Marinette, though? That your heart can’t be faithful?”

 “I’ve already turned her down, Sabine. Wouldn’t it be cruel to get her hopes up again only to realize once we’re dating that I can’t love her completely?”

“But do you love her?” Adrien took a sip of tea, before nodding his head again.

“I want you to be honest with yourself. Could you really be happy walking away from any chance with her without ever trying to see if you two could work out?”

The two just sat there as Adrien pondered her question, taking occasional sips of their tea. “I don’t think I could. I really don’t,” he decided after a minute or two, setting his cup back on the table.

“Just because it might hurt her if things go wrong, you’ll definitely be hurt if you miss your chance. At the end of the day, let her decide if she wants to put her heart in that position.

Relationships are about trust, so you have to trust her now to make the right decision for herself. But she can’t make a decision if she doesn’t know there’s a choice to make.”

“You really think I should tell her?”

“I think that when the head is confused, the heart knows the way. Listen to it.” She smiled, gently poking his chest over his heart. She only smiled bigger when she realized how much less he flinched away from her.

Marinette opened the door a moment later, placing her school bag at the bottom of the stairs to her room. “Hey Maman, oh, hey Adrien! What are you doing here?”

“Oh we- I -” Adrien stuttered back before Sabine cut in to answer.

“I saw him walking by and figured we should catch up. I’ve been wondering how he was doing, and I know he had a fencing tournament last weekend and I wanted to know how he did.” 

Switching over to Mandarin, she muttered, “You’re an awful liar, xiǎo māo. And as a civilian, you blunder just as much around her now that you have a crush on her as she used to around you before - well, you know.”

“Hey, I’m a pretty good liar! My identity is perfectly safe other than you. Maybe you’re just a better-than-normal lie detector. And I don’t blunder, I just-”

“Struggle to form complete sentences? Forget words? Drift off into a daydream about three kids and a hamster?”

“No! Okay, maybe. I just don’t want to say something stupid in front of her.” ‘ Her’ aka Marinette, of course, was just staring at the two of them, slightly irritated.

“I'm definitely learning Mandarin some day, even if it’s just so that you two can’t keep gossiping about me while I’m right in front of you.” Marinette crossed her arms, sticking her tongue out at the both of them.

“Sorry, Marinette. It was just a funny Mandarin saying about being busy that doesn’t really translate into French. I promise, no gossiping.” Adrien said, giving her a perfectly sweet model smile.

Okay, maybe he wasn’t that bad at lying. 

“I should be going, I’ve got homework. Which you would know of course, because we’re in the same classes! So yeah, classes, homework, all that.”

Or maybe he was that bad. At the very least he’s better than Marinette, so he’s only the second worst liar.

“Alright, yeah, me too. Later, Adrien!” Marinette chuckled as he opened the front door.

“Xiǎo māo? I meant what I said.” Adrien paused in the doorway, turning around to face Sabine.

Clearly disoriented from all of the bouncing between conversations, he just stared back at her. “About the hamster?”

“About following your heart.” Adrien smiled brightly before dashing out and closing the door behind him.

After a moment, Marinette turned to her mother in confusion. “A hamster, maman?”

Sabine just shrugged as she picked up Adrien’s cup and emptied it in the sink.

Chapter Text

It was one of Chat and Marinette’s weekly Friday night hangouts, watching a movie after dinner and some UMS with Tom and Sabine. 

"Chat?" He shifted on the chaise, eyes tearing away from the screen to look at Marinette next to him. She stared back at him, seemingly searching for answers to questions she hadn't yet asked.

"Have you ever regretted falling in love with someone?"

The question caught him off guard, but given the way life had been lately it really shouldn’t have been surprising. "Never. Why do you ask?"

"Well… it hurts, you know? Like with Adrien, I always knew I'd get rejected. It's like my heart would flood with these feelings and hopes and I knew it would never happen. When he rejected me for certain, it's like I was drowning in everything I used to dream about."

"I'm sorry-"

"And Luka…" A tinge of jealousy bubbled through his blood at Luka's name. Obviously Marinette would fall in love with him, who wouldn't? By why couldn't it have been him? "I mean, that just was cruel to him. I couldn't love him enough even though he was such an amazing guy who loved me with everything he had. And now…"

"Now?" 

"Now- things are so complicated. I can't take the risk of letting myself fall in love with… it doesn't matter who it is. The point is I know I'm already in love with him and I just keep trying to deny it." 

Hope leaked into his thoughts that maybe… maybe she meant him. Some side of him, it didn't matter which. Just as long as he was hers. Not Luka, not anyone else.

It was stupid, admittedly, to think that he could be an option. On one side of the mask, he had rejected her. On the other, well, what's the point when everyone knows Chat Noir loves Ladybug?

"Here's my opinion on it. Yes, love hurts. That's because it's important. If it didn't mean anything it wouldn't hurt so bad. But I'm so lucky to have people in my life that mean so much to me.

I'd rather love them and end up hurting than not have them at all. I would rather tell someone I love them and hurt and make things complicated than never say anything and miss my chance to tell them."

He hoped she could feel the way he poured every single feeling he had for her into those words. Because loving her hurts and it's messy and it's complicated and it's beautiful. 

For a moment he damned the fact that he had been both Adrien and Chat. If he was only one, this all would have been so much less complicated. And yet because he was both, he was closer to her than either side alone could have been. Adrien could never spend lazy evenings in the Dupain-Cheng’s apartment, and Chat could never spend so much of his days in her day to day life. 

"And if I said I wanted to make things complicated?"

What?

His heart beat out of his chest as she moved to put a hand over it. She was closer, now, but not close enough. 

His self control was dwindling with every second she looked at him like that until he lost it completely as soon as she started to pull away from him. Faced with a closing window of opportunity, he reached forward, hands capturing the collar of Marinette’s jacket as his lips captured hers. 

Kissing her felt…was it too cliché to say miraculous? But it did, it felt the way the magic of the miraculous did. It was similar to how it felt to transform, the feeling of coming home with the summer sun burning on your face in a feeling of freedom you didn't know you would miss. 

He didn't dare admit the thought lingering in the back of his mind- that it felt the way the mixture of his and Ladybug’s magic did after they defeated an akuma. Together their magic feels like a delicate mix of comfort, of balance, of belonging. 

Ladybug represents creation, maybe Marinette feels the same because she's just a different version of that magic. Marinette is everything Ladybug is, creating things from seemingly thin air. She's magic herself, without the help of a god.

Leaving her lips for a breath of air, that miraculous feeling drains out of him. Realizing what just happened, and more importantly who he was when it happened, regret takes its place. Not that he regrets her, not that he regrets kissing her, but the regret of the context it happened in. 

It was supposed to be Adrien that confessed to her, Adrien who kissed her. 

Chat can't take her on dates. Chat can't tell the world he loves her. Chat can't write his name on a marriage certificate - way too far ahead of yourself, kitten - a Plagg-like voice interrupted in his mind. 

"You know that this, us, can't happen, Marinette. I mean, there's just too many risks." 

“Yeah… Yeah, I know.”

Pulling back from him, she ends up sitting on the opposite end of the chaise. Running a hand through her hair and pushing it out of her face, she sighed. “And trust me, it’s even more complicated than you know and just- I wish we could just have a life of our own. Why do we have to sacrifice everything?”

Her question raises more in his mind as he wonders what all she’s sacrificing things for. He, of course, has to defend Paris. His question gets pushed further back in his thoughts as she rests her head on his chest and begins to cry. 

“Hey, look at me, Princess. It’ll be okay. Someday- I don’t know when, but someday, I’ll kick Hawkmoth’s ass and I can tell you who I am and then we’ll be free. Alright?” She turns against his chest, curling even further into him. 

A thought flickers that maybe she’s sacrificing things for the same reason he is, that she feels like Ladybug’s magic because she is Ladybug. That that’s why things are more complicated than he knows. 

Her soft voice, cracking through her tears, makes him put the thought aside again. “I don’t know what to do. I mean, maybe that’s a week from now, maybe that’s a few years from now, but Chat, maybe that’s a lifetime away. You deserve so much better than ‘maybe’ when it comes to your chance of being happy.”

“We both do. For right now, though, I don’t mind waiting.” Especially for her.

He’s not sure how long they’re laying there before he notices that she’s fallen asleep. Tucking her onto her bed and under her covers, he kisses her forehead before slipping out onto her balcony.

As he jumps through the window of his bedroom, his thoughts from earlier come rushing back to him.

Miraculous…Why do we have to sacrifice everything?...Complicated…

Oh shit.

Ladybug has been Marinette all along. 

Of course she would be. Was there ever really a possibility of it being anyone else? Detransforming, Plagg zipped off to find cheese, but Adrien was faster and grabbed him.

“You fucker! You’ve known ever since Dark Owl and you’ve just been making stupid jokes about it since.”

“I mean, chaos is kind of my thing, kitten.”

“You told me to consider having her as a partner!”

“I was pretty proud of that one, actually. Look, I would have told you if I could, but you know I couldn’t.”

“I hate you.”

“Yeah, sure. Hate you too, kitten.”

______________

"Tikki, why didn't you stop me? Or I don't know, warn me?"

"About your kiss with Chat?"

"Obviously! What else do you think I've been panicking about?"

"... You don't want me to answer that." Chat Blanc, who is Chat as a civilian, what happens next, can I reveal my identity?, etc. ... "Anyways, I didn't know. Not for certain."

"But you knew there was a chance?"

"Little star, I created the sun and have gone around it a few billion times here on Earth, of course I knew there was a chance. It doesn't have to happen with a kiss though, so I didn’t expect it. Whenever the two of you are close and feeling a strong connection, there's always the chance Plagg and I could react like that."

"How - what was it, anyway?"

"Simple. Your power is stored mostly with me and in the earrings, but as time goes on it becomes part of you as well. It's nearly impossible to manifest it into much of anything, but when you're with Chat it's- I don't know, closer to the surface. Easier to notice and more likely to react to other miraculous, especially his. Your kiss let your magic come out and combine with his in a similar way to when you cast the cure."

"Hold on, go back. I have some of your magic?" Thinking about it, maybe that's part of why she felt like she could endlessly design these days. And she had been healing faster in her civilian form. "Does Chat have some of Plagg's?"

"Of a sort. He probably won't get sick as often because his body destroys any diseases." The little god stopped to think, before continuing, "I'm sorry, I don't know as much about the black cat miraculous."

"It's okay, Tiks, I was just curious. So this reaction between our magic, is that safe?"

"Perfectly. If anything, it can cause minor miracles. You know, plants growing from nowhere, spontaneously curing someone's cold nearby, things like that."

"Right. I'll just become a low powered demi-god then."

"Exactly!" Oh, what Tikki would have given to capture the look of shock on Marinette’s face. 

Chapter Text

The following Monday was painstaking for Adrien. He thought that his self control was being pushed to its limit Friday night, and oh how wrong he was. His princess, his lady, was right there, entirely oblivious to the fact that he was hers. That she had staked her claim on his heart with the touch of her lips. 

And he couldn't do anything about it. 

Every time he dared to take a look at her, she was smiling as she stared off into the distance, and he wondered if it was because she was thinking of him. And every time, he just wanted to tell her everything. 

That he loved her. All of her. Because she was Ladybug and he was her Chat Noir. That he wanted to kiss her again.

But he couldn't. 

Maybe not ever, but especially not right now. Not here, in the middle of Mme Mendeliev's chemistry lecture.

When would he, if he could? On tomorrow night's patrol? At this week's Friday hangout at her house? Does it even matter? 

After all, she was so happy right now. How could he ruin that by throwing this whole mess at her? Besides, didn't he have to forfeit his ring if she found out he found out? If Master Fu was still here then certainly, but now that she's the guardian there was a chance that maybe he could keep it.

Was loving her really worth losing so much? Losing Plagg? Losing his freedom? 

But was all of that worth trying to not love her?

"Adrien?" someone called, breaking him from his spiral. Right. School. Chemistry.

So he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Hydrogen." 

There was a small chuckle from in front of him. Looking up, it had been Marinette. Why did he have to make a fool out of himself in front of her? Why couldn't it have been Nino or Max or you know, anyone other than the love of his life? 

Maybe he could play it off, right? "You know- like uh, hi-drogen. Like hi as in hello and then- I'm just gonna shut up now."

Or not. 

"No, I uh- I get it. Don't worry about it. I was just wondering if you were busy today? I'm having Alya over later and if you wanted you could come over too? No pressure, you don't have to."

Oh god… him - in her room? As Adrien, when she doesn't know about… all the everything? There was only one way out of this one - lie .

"Thanks for the offer, but I have piano tonight and I doubt my father would let me, anyways. Thank you for thinking of me though."

"Oh. That's alright. Maybe next time, then?" He nodded as he gave her a quick smile. 

"I love you- I mean- I'd love to. Hang out. With you. As friends. Just good friends. Like we are." Someone help - he thought as he continued to flounder. "Anyways, enjoy hanging out with Alya. I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"See you tomorrow." 

Adrien waited for the sound of her footsteps to disappear down the corridor before he let his head slam against the desk. 

“I have to tell her.”

“Which part? The lovey dovey stuff? Or knowing her identity?”

“I don’t know. Both. All of the above. I can’t keep doing this. It’s only been three days and it’s already killing me.”

"And if she takes me away?" Plagg seemingly shrunk, defeated by the prospect of losing his Chat, and of his Chat losing him.

"Then I'll respect her decision. She has her reasons."

"Well it would be the wrong decision, kitten. You two are the best team I've seen in a long time. Maybe ever…I'm just saying, kid, I won't let her change that because she's afraid."

What would she be - "Chat Blanc." The name slipped from his lips even before he fully realized what it meant.

That's why she's been so afraid of revealing herself. That's why she's worked so hard to keep him at arm's length.  

The idea was daunting, without a doubt. To lose himself again. To take her life again. Even without memories of it, he could always feel whispers of everything he had done. 

Sitting there, thinking through what he knew of that version of himself, a realization hit him. 

“Plagg, what if that's why I end the world… What if I end the world because I don't tell her?"

"Dramatic, much? Come on, you'll survive."

"I'm serious. She said Chat Blanc was akumatized because something happened that broke me after I found out about her civilian identity. That it was because of our relationship. What if in that world, I never told her I knew? And I get so angry and upset at Hawkmoth for keeping us apart that he akumatizes me?"

"I mean sure, that's one possibility. Here's another one for you- you told her, she lost her shit because of how much you’ve just broken her trust. What if that's what happened, and you're just walking straight into an akumatization?"

"Then her and Bunnyx will save me, and this whole timeline will get reset back to some point until I make the right decision."

"Bunnyx isn't your catch-all excuse for making dumb decisions that could end the world, you know that right?"

Plagg paused, hoping Adrien would just stop for a second to think about what he's doing. Instead, he could see him sitting at his desk, scribbling out some kind of plan.

"I'm not convincing you otherwise…am I?"

"She deserves to know, Plagg. I'm not going to keep lying to her."

"Fine, whatever. If this bites you in the ass, don't say I didn't warn you."

___________

"My lady- I… I need to talk to you about something."

Her yo-yo seemingly stopped mid-air before it rolled back into her hand. She tried to stay calm, but every inch of her face had worry etched into it. There's never a good way to start these kinds of discussions, is there?

"Of course. What's wrong? If anything is wrong. I don't want to assume, it's just -" Yeah, that was his Marinette all right. How did it never occur to him?

"Can we just sit, first? It just- it feels more stressful when we're standing." She nodded, sitting herself on her knees. Deep breaths, Adrien. She's your partner. You'll get through this together.

"I'm in love with you. You know that. I mean - all of Paris knows that. I can't seem to stop saying it. But uh… there's this girl, right? Marinette. And she kissed me - or maybe I kissed her - there was a lot going on and I wasn't really paying attention to that - anyways, we kissed.

And it was really good. Magic, almost. She felt it too, I know she did, but what she doesn't know is it made me put some things together."

"Yeah? What - what kind of things?" Each word fell from her mouth in a jagged stutter.

"That I really am completely in love with her. And that I ended the world for her once. Didn't I, love?" His eyes bore into hers, craving her response. Chat slipped a hand towards hers before she abruptly pulled her own back and turned away from him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He wasn't quite sure if she was still breathing, but he could still hear the faint rapid pulsing of the blood in her veins.

"Her mother's right, I have to say, she really is a bad liar. I'm impressed that it hasn't caused any issues with her job." The city glimmered around her, their own beautiful burden. She wouldn't look at him, undoubtedly lost in her own mind and fears.

If only she could hear his thoughts and know how desperate he was for her to understand they would be okay. They were Ladybug and Chat Noir, they'll always be okay when they're together.

"Bug, come on. The game's over and you know it." He gently placed a hand on her shoulder, willing her to just look at him. She spared him the slightest glance before collapsing in on herself with a sigh.

"Fine. So you know. That's fine. Totally fine," she insisted, but she was making that face she made when she was trying not to implode with panic.

"It’s okay that it's not." His hand traced along her neck up to the side of her face, ever so gently guiding her to look at him. "Tell me what you're really thinking in there."

"I don't know… I know I should but I don't. Honestly I think I'm in shock." She paused to study his face, a hand delicately tracing every feature before stilling against the right side of his mask. "Do I know you under there, Chat?"

"I think you know me better than anyone else does."

"That's not what I asked."

"Do you really want the answer?" Silently he hoped that she’d say no. He wasn't ready to tell her, which he knew that given the circumstances was selfish, but he just couldn't bring himself to risk this all blowing up even more.

"I don't know." Her hand dropped from his face only to fidget with her yo-yo string.

"Then I'll give you the gentle answer that yes, you do. I won't tell you which side of you, though, not until you ask." 

"Right," she sighed, head falling before she began begrudgingly pulling herself to stand up. "Right. Maybe tomorrow, just- not tonight. I'll uh, let you know when."

Delicately picking up her fidgeting hand, he pressed a kiss to it. "I'll be waiting. Goodnight, lovebug."

Tikki was pretty certain all of Paris could hear Marinette pacing a hole in her bedroom floor that night.

Chapter Text

"PROS OF LEARNING CHAT'S IDENTITY" was currently sprawled across the top of a notebook page in Marinette’s exhausted handwriting, with "CONS OF LEARNING CHAT'S IDENTITY" sitting on the opposite page.

One page was filled to bursting with reasons, and the other was… more than a little lacking. And yet, the nearly blank page kept winning time and time again. Stupid heart, stupid identities, stupid, stupid, stupid. 

"Tikki, what do you think?" They had been through this so many times. Marinette would ask what Tikki thought, and Tikki would say that's Marinette’s decision to make, and then they would fall into silence for a few minutes before it happened again.

Only this time, there was a gentle knock on the balcony door as a response instead. Peaking out, there was no Chat in sight like what she had expected, just a little card on the table.

"Here's a little something for when you're ready. 

x You know who."

Flipping it over, the backside had nothing but an address, somewhere on the outer reaches of Paris.

"What do you think that’s about?" Marinette asked aloud. She shrugged, taking the card into her room with her. It got pressed between the pages of her journal, which was growing ever thicker with pressed roses.

Her hand hovered over the most recent one, a purple rose from one of their favorite gardens, 2 months old now. It was right around the time that everything had gone off, when she had confessed to Adrien and Chat had that thing with the girl he liked. 

That girl - she had confessed to him, right? And somewhere in the same time frame as when she had to Adrien. Chat ended up kissing her as Marinette in the end, though, so maybe he wasn't really that in love with that girl after all. 

A thought caught in the back of her mind, fighting her every sense to keep it down. 

But what if… what if maybe this world had fewer coincidences than she thought? 

Because maybe it wasn't a coincidence that they fell in love and fell apart before crashing into each other. Maybe that was just their fate as two halves of the world's greatest powers.

Maybe… 

Nope! Nope. She was not getting into that.  

Unless…

No- for fuck’s sake, why couldn't her brain just shut up?

Jamming her headphones in, Kitty Section started blaring in her ears. It was nearly enough to drown out her thoughts, but not quite. 

Brushing past her parents, she screamed above the music that she was going for a run before darting out the door. She set off on a steady pace down the Seine. A breath in as her feet hit the ground, a breath out as her arms swung beside her. In… out… in… out… 

Where had she ended up, she wondered, as she realized she had left the banks of the Seine. Looking on her phone's map she realized she was towards the outskirts of the city, not… not far from the address Chat gave her.

It wouldn't hurt to stop by, right? Just… see the building. It didn't have to mean anything.

She quickly realized why the address was simply '8th floor' instead of an apartment number. The 8th floor was half made up of an apartment with huge, sprawling glass windows, the other half a rooftop balcony. Roses of every shade colored the balcony-turned-garden, and she couldn't help the smile that spread over her face.

Of course her chaton would love this place. Easy in and out access, quiet, and well…the roses. She didn't know there even were that many types of roses, and yet each one she looked at was different from the last. 

Her thoughts got pulled upwards towards the sound of humming starting to come from the rooftop. Taking a peek, she caught a glance of bright green eyes and an effortless smile. Dashing into the alleyway next to the building, Marinette squished herself flat against the wall, hoping he hadn't seen her. 

Taking a deep breath, she heard a ping from her phone. She nearly dropped it as the notification popped up. 

11.09.20.20.25

Hope you like what you saw, my lady. It’s all yours x

Admitting defeat, she walked back out of the alleyway. "Goodnight, Chat," she said, hoping she was loud enough he could hear her from his rooftop retreat. 

As she put her headphones back in and set up directions back to her house, Chat’s text ran through her mind. Thinking of his implication, her heart started racing.

------------------

“As we continue with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet…” Mme Bustier’s words faded into the background of Adrien’s mind as he thought about the night before. Marinette had seen him, as Adrien, up on that roof last night. She had seen him, he had looked her in the eye; and yet, there she was, sitting behind him like just another day. 

He absentmindedly rubbed a hand against where he had pricked his thumb against a thorn last night in surprise. It was her move from here and the anticipation was killing him. 

He prayed she wouldn't be mad at him for being so careless. He never thought she was going to come over that soon, so seeing her standing on the pavement was a shock he wasn't expecting. Still, he should have been more careful than that. Maybe she would forgive him in the end. 

Blood oozed out again as he continued to mess with the wound. These days he hated the sight of blood, it was too red, too Ladybug. Too close of a reminder to what will happen if he fails as Chat.

He dug through his backpack for a band aid, he knows he stuck one in here this morning. Feeling one, he pulled it out only for the paper to instead be a sticky note.

Rumor has it Pigtails conveniently has a band aid in her purse. You're welcome.

If he ever found out how to kill Plagg, he would. 

Chapter Text

"I was wondering-" Adrien started, before the words died out as he met Marinette’s gaze. Starting again, he blurted, "Do you have a band aid?"

She couldn't seem to help herself from laughing before she began digging through her purse for one. As Adrien took it from her outstretched hand and started to put it on, she continued, "I'm sorry, that just wasn't what I was expecting you to say."

"Yeah? And what were you expecting?"

"Something a little more like… you know." She glanced to the side, trying to hint at what they now both knew.

"I see. Were you hoping I'd be trying to ask you about what you did after school yesterday?" 

She looked away from him before quietly answering, "We both know that you know what I was up to last night." 

Ah, so they were doing this then. 

"Maybe. Tell me, did I keep you up all night thinking about me?" She refused to look at him, but she could practically hear the smirk he had on his face.

He walked around her so he would be in her line of sight again before continuing, "You were lying there, awake, thinking about me. I wonder, were you thinking of what it felt like when you had my lips on yours?"

There were a lot of shades of red in this world, but Marinette just invented the brightest one as it spread across her face. 

She took a deep breath, trying to gather herself. "Sounds like someone's projecting. Was that what you spent your night thinking about, then?"

They're going to have to set rules about these kinds of things, he's decided, otherwise he was going to run out of air in his lungs and she was going to combust. 

"You should come over to my place," she stated, and 5 minutes later they were standing in her room with a plate of pastries courtesy of her parents.

She threw a controller at him, his personalized Chat controller, and demanded an UMS match before anything else.

"So where do we go from here, Chaton? I know you, you know me, we both know our feelings for each other." Her character punched his off the screen. 

PLAYER 1 WINS.

"First of all, that's cheating. Second, why should I know? Last time I checked, you're the one who makes all the plans."

"We're partners and a team. It's not just me making decisions and you following blindly." Adrien just shrugged and received a glare from Marinette. "Don't make me go on another rant on why you should have better self-esteem."

"I know, bug. I'm working on it," he said, giving her a weak smile. "Seriously though, I don't know where we go from here. Start dating?"

"I certainly hope so. I more so meant that we have to tread carefully, you know? If Ladybug and Chat Noir date, are people going to think we're not prioritizing the city enough?

If Marinette and Adrien date, are people going to think I'm just using you for my career?" 

He hesitated before taking her hand in both of his. "Marinette, I don't care what people think of us."

Her other hand pressed to her chest in desperation as she fought back the tears in her eyes.  "I do, though. I don't want us to lose ourselves because of what people say and do to us because they know how much we mean to each other." 

"Maybe we start with just us then. We don't have to tell anyone if you don't want to," Adrien said, slipping one of his hands from hers to wipe the tears off her cheek.

"I'm sorry about this. I know it's so stupid, I'm just - I don't know if it's Chat Blanc or Lila or what, but I'm just so scared. I just need some time."

"Hey - being scared is never stupid. Just remember that you don't have to face your fears alone, though. I'm always going to have your back, just like you've always had mine."

Marinette lifted her head and readjusted herself in his arms. Laying her head on Adrien’s chest, she could feel him running a hand through her hair.

"Can we tell my parents though? Just, well, they've always known how I feel about you and they just love you so much anyways."

"I'd like that." 

------

Adrien wasn't sure his plate was going to fit another dessert as Tom kept piling them on. "You have no idea how happy we are to hear that, son. You know you're already part of the family here, no matter what, right? Oh, Marinette has been dreaming of this for so long, haven't you sweetheart?"

Sabine made a less than subtle kick at her husband’s ankle as she cleared her throat. "He's right, dear. Anything you need, just let us know."

"Actually, maman, I was hoping that we could keep this between us four?" Marinette spoke up.

"Of course, piáo chóng." / "Why? Aren't you happy?" her parents answered at the same time. 

A moment of silence passed as Adrien's eyes widened and met Sabine's. Two conservations broke out across the room in two different languages at once.

"Shit. I mean, you did know, right?"

"Of course I did, how do you know?"

"Could you imagine what people will think? I don't want to be followed by paparazzi and framed in the newspapers as the girl trying to get Adrien's money!"

"But they'll see how in love you are with each other in no time!"

"What do you mean, 'how do I know'? You two are the literal two worst liars on the planet!" 

"I can't believe you never told me, mama Sabine. This whole time you were just watching us run in circles around each other."

"The only thing people like Lila and Chloe see are the schemes they would pull if they were me. I want us to get the opportunity to be outrageously in love without that kind of judgment."

"I'm so sorry, Marinette. You shouldn’t have to live your life like this, the way your mom and I did."

"Xiǎo māo, what did you want me to say? It would have ruined everything if I said anything even a second too soon. Could you imagine what could have happened?!" 

Both Adrien and Sabine let out a sigh at that, Sabine already sick of yelling and Adrien thinking of the disastrous reminder of what could - what did - happen. 

Suddenly, Adrien walked across the room, throwing his arms around the woman. "Thank you for keeping her secret safe." 

Meanwhile, Marinette leaned into her father's side. "It's not forever. Someday we'll let our love face the world. Just not yet."

Tom's voice cut through the silence after a few minutes, "So everyone's good?" Everyone nodded in agreement before he continued, "Then how about we all get ice cream?"

Two little gods smiled at each other as they watched their favorite people share ice cream over the Seine. Things were just maybe going to be alright someday, so long as the four of them stuck together.