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After being dropped off at her place (or rather, at the roof of her place), he kissed Marinette’s hand goodbye before leaving in a rush and true to her gut feeling , she had received a voicemail from him almost immediately after he left. While the situation wasn’t the most ideal one, she appreciated the fact that he wasn’t going to hide what had happened to her hero persona.
She only had two minutes to have a small freak out session about the fact that Adrien was Chat Noir (you know, her very silly goofy flirty partner) before Tikki urged her to call him back, where they had agreed to schedule a meeting within the next half an hour.
Though her superhero-self wasn't supposed to know what had happened, she still would have picked up the urgency in his voice and the insistence on meeting up as soon as possible even if she hadn’t known anything at all.
She waited some good ten minutes to make sure Chat Noir wasn’t around the neighbourhood anymore before transforming and yoyoing to their meeting spot. She headed to the Eiffel Tower, where she could notice even from afar that her partner was waiting for her anxiously.
She landed in front of him ( she was meeting up with A d r i e n !!) , doing her best not to give herself away about knowing more than she (Ladybug-she) should. “Hey Kitty, what did you want to talk about?”
“Ladybug,” he breathed out, the sound of her superhero alias coming from him feeling so unfamiliar to her ears. “I..I…”
His eyes travelled in all directions but hers, fists clenched and cat ears flattened above his head.
“I did something, Ladybug,” he started and she waited patiently, knowing the confession that was about to come. “I know you’re going to be really mad and I know it wasn’t the smartest choice but I couldn’t let her win and it meant the world to me to actually do something for once and- ”
“Chat,” she touched his arm gently to snap him out of his panic and she didn’t think his shoulders could slump down any more than they were right now.
“Please don’t take my Miraculous away, Bug. I’m really sorry..”
He had yet to tell her clearly what happened at school (even if she already knew) but after seeing him struggle with his words for a while now, she decided that she'd end his inner turmoil and give him a little push.
“You know,” she started carefully, “I came across Marinette on my way,” she said, her voice firm but not angry. He was already under the impression that his kwami would be ripped away from him and she believed that it was enough of a punishment.
She made no comment on the way his tail, that was once vibrating with anxiousness, suddenly dropped down on the metal beam they stood on. “You did?” he asked, dejected, no doubt expecting the worst to come. “She must have told you I’m…”
“No,” she interrupted smoothly, and it wasn’t exactly a lie, “Marinette didn’t go into details.” A half-lie.
She watched as his Adam's apple bobbed when he gulped in nervousness.
“Look at me, Chat,” she said as gently as she could. He took a few seconds to make up his mind but he eventually gave in, meeting his eyes met hers. “Just shake or nod your head and I’ll do the rest, alright? That’s easier, no?”
He nodded eagerly, genuine gratitude pouring out of his eyes.
“So you’re a student at collège Françoise Dupont, is that right?”
He gave a tiny nod.
“And something happened today that made Marinette… learn about your secret identity.”
Another nod, though he broke eye-contact, almost as if he felt guilty, and mumbled something under his breath after a small while.
“What was that, Chaton?”
“And Lila,” he said a little more loudly, “Lila knows too.”
Ladybug inhaled sharply, noticing how his shoulder dropped lower at her reaction. While this wasn’t news to her, the knowledge that Adrien and Chat Noir were the same person almost outweighed the fact that Lila now knew the identity of one of Paris’ best heroes, and she had just been reminded of this sweet little fact.
“Okay,” she said out loud after a couple of seconds. She had an idea, but not one that Ladybug could play a part in it. Marinette on the other side…
“ Okay ,” she repeated more firmly. “How much do you trust Marinette?”
“I’d trust her with my life, Ladybug,” he said without missing a beat and she looked away to hide the blush that slowly crept on her face as her heart stuttered.
“R-really?” she couldn’t help but ask.
She felt her insides melt when his eyes lit up at the mention of her alter ego.
“I don’t regret Marinette knowing, LB,” he said and she didn’t fail to notice that it was the first and only time he spoke confidently that afternoon. His feline green eyes bored into hers with such an intensity she almost wanted to kiss him. Wait, what? “In fact, if there was someone other than you I’d trust my identity with, it would still be her, even under different circumstances.”
Speechless, she could simply nod at his words and look down at the city under them as the setting sun swarmed the buildings with flashes of orange and yellow.
“Then I want Marinette and you to find a way to silence Lila.”
Her head snapped in her partner’s direction when she heard him choking on his own spit suddenly, his eyes wide open and his magical leather tail shooting up in surprise.
“You want us to kill Lila?!”
“What?!”
“I really don’t want to question your judgement, My Lady! But don’t you think resorting to.. murder, ” he whispered the word, cupping his hands on both sides of his mouth as if they weren’t all alone on the top of the Eiffel Tower, “is a little extreme?”
“I’m sorry, what?! ” Ladybug straight-up yelled because what the heck was going on.
She was going all-Marinette at the moment, aggressively waving her arms in front of her face like she often did whenever she was panicking. “That’s not at all what I meant, Chat!!”
He seemed to have calmed down at the reassurance, though he still looked at her with curiosity and some skepticality.
“That I meant is, ” she took an exaggerated deep breath and exhaled loudly, “Marinette and you probably know how Lila acts more than I do so you two could come up with some kind of.. truce with her.”
He thought about it for a few seconds. “I understand where you’re coming from but I’d like to avoid getting Marinette involved the most I can.”
Her right eye twitched. She had a plan but she needed Marinette-she for it to work, and it would prove to be quite complicated if Chat Noir was reluctant on Marinette’s implication in the whole situation.
“Marinette is an incredibly creative, smart and brave girl,” she tried to convince him despite feeling uncomfortable at the self-praise she had to say. “Having her help us would be like having the Joker in our hands. You said it yourself; you would trust her with your life!”
He shook his head as if there was something she wasn’t understanding. “You don’t get it, Bug. Marinette should absolutely not be involved, especially if it concerns Lila.. You don’t know half of the things she suffered at-”
“Just go see Marinette dammit!”
He recoiled back from her at the sudden outburst, eyes shining in suspicion for a few moments, no doubt wondering why she kept insisting about Marinette. But he quickly neutralised his expression and nodded seriously and boy , that cat put too much trust in her.
“Very well, Buginette.”
“ Urgh , I’ve told you to lay it down with the stupid nicknames,” she replied, though for once, she didn’t have the heart to truly feel annoyed. And if her partner noticed the playful tone in her voice, he didn’t bother to hide his grin.
“ Mew-ouch! ‘Stupid nicknames’?” he dramatically placed a hand on his heart, “My Lady wounds me.”
Though she wouldn’t admit it out loud, she couldn’t help but smile back as they fell once again into their usual banter. She wished to never see Chat so distressed again.