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Oh course it was. Of course it was who else- what- what did he even do with this information? Die? Pass out? Sing? He wasn’t quite sure, but it was undeniable. He knew it like it was fact, he understood it as truth like he did with gravity, time, space and every other unchangeable absolute. It wasn’t just in her reaction it was watching her react if that made any sense at all. The pull of her lips into that gasping expression, the blue of her eyes, the subtle but unmistakable bounce of her pigtails, it was in the way the red looked against her skin. How he didn’t give the both of them away right on the spot was a testament to his willpower, because he managed to turn in his seat, staring wide eyed down at the desk while she stuttered some excuse. He knew it was an excuse, a lie to cover herself, because he knew what it really meant. He knew it was her. How could he not he should have seen it so much sooner it was in EVERYTHING about her. It was HER, every single day sitting just behind him the love of his life. She had been right there, the whole entire time. And he had seen her, in some way or another he had seen that she was Ladybug. In the way she stood, the way she laughed, the way she spoke so clearly and defiantly when she spotted some injustice. He had seen her in the fledgling classroom crush he had tried to ignore. Oh dear god… it was her.
Just what the hell did he do now?! No seriously he’d love to know, where the hell did he go from here? He had violated the agreement, not of his own will but trust was broken nonetheless. He knew, and he shouldn’t, it was a promise they had made. So what should he just keep quiet? That hardly seemed fair, in fact it seemed even more dishonest he couldnt just KNOW and not tell her that- god she was Ladybug. CRAP. What did he do? It was amazing it wasnt BAD it was just ALOT to deal with all at once in class surrounded by his friends who were growing steadily more suspicious of his and Marinette alike. He had to tell her. He had to tell her he was Cat Noir it was the only way to be fair but…
His thoughts petered off. His hands balled up into fists on the table top as his brain turned toxic and uncertin. What was the right move here… would she hate him even more? Would knowing that Adrien and Cat Noir were the same would that…
No. Not her. Not his Marinette.
When he thought of her in that capacity he felt warmth burning in his chest, because all of his love and devotion was now transferred on this more than deserving girl. This girl who was so kind and talented and brave and beautiful and…
She wouldn’t hate him. He knew that. She would understand, it would all be okay. But he had to be a man about it, he had to be fair. he couldn’t expect her understanding if he undermined her trust. He had to tell her, and he would. He’d find a way to tell her as subtly so she would know. Then everything would be… okay.
Marinette was angry with herself. It was such a stupid, stupid mistake, but it had been so easy to make! If only she hadn’t made another that was identical, she never would have had this problem. Or maybe she would have slipped up sooner?
She groaned to herself, running a frustrated hand through her hair as she headed back up the stairs of the bakery. The first thing she’d do was tuck herLadybug winter wear back into her closet, where it should have been, instead of hanging by the door with her casual one. And then she’d take her usual one back down to lunch with her mother and wear it back to school instead.
It was a flawless plan. It might make her a little conspicuous at school, but if anyone was going to think that dull, boring Marinette was Ladybug just from a coat, she was already in trouble.
But trouble couldn’t even begin to describe the rest of her day.
Alya’s ruthless teasing as they reentered the classroom together was to be expected, but Marinette couldn’t help glancing up at Adrien as usual when they walked through the door. As usual, he was beautiful and his golden hair was shining and his green eyes were mischievous and Chat’s winter coat looked so good on him–wait, what?
She had to do a double-take, but it was unmistakable. She’d made that coat by hand for a very flirtatious, very not Adrien feline superhero, so why was Adrien Agreste, the cutest boy she had ever laid eyes on, wearing something that could only be the actual item itself? She could even see the telltale stitching she’d turned into the words Chat Noir instead of Marinette along the hood, and only one person would have been close enough to see the delicate silver words, aside from herself.
“C’mon, Marinette, class is about to start!” Alya sighed, laughing, as she propelled her towards their seats…behind Adrien, oh my God.
But it had to be a mistake, Marinette reasoned, because Adrien was sweet, and perfect, and handsome, and smirking at her like Chat Noir.
And he winked.
She felt the heat rushing to her cheeks, but she also wanted to give him a what for right there…but no, Marinette, you can’t, you’re in CLASS, ran through her mind and she found herself collapsing into the seat behind him.
It was a miracle that Alya hadn’t recognized the Chat Noir inspired fashion of Adrien Agreste, but perhaps, since it was black and she hadn’t been very close to the superheroes because of the cold, she didn’t notice. But Marinette, on the other hand, was staring even more than usual at the back of the blond boy’s head. She was examining the fit, how the jacket was loose around his shoulders without the leather and thinking of ways to make it fit him–but it’s Chat’s, not Adrien’s!
She dropped her forehead on her desk.
How had she never noticed? Her feline superhero companion, the one who flirted with her constantly, was sitting right in front of her in class. She stared at him so often that it should have been obvious! The shape of his jaw, the slope of his shoulders, the way Adrien’s hair looked after gym, before they made it back to the locker room and he tidied his appearance up. The toothy grin he sometimes gave, the twinkle in his eye before he told Nino a horrible joke…all the signs were there, and she had missed them. And she claimed to like him!
And how had he not noticed, when he claimed to like her?!
She froze, the sounds of class fading in the background.
Wait. If Chat Noir liked Ladybug and Marinette was Ladybug, but she liked Adrien but Adrien was Chat Noir…didn’t that mean…?
WE LIKE EACH OTHER?!
It took all the self-control the baker’s daughter possessed in her tiny frame not to stand up and scream at the realization. Instead she bit her lip, eyes blown wide as she stared at the back of his head blankly. After a few long moments, she dropped her head heavily to her desk again, then murmured, “Ow…” as much of the class laughed and Chloe made a snide remark.
Alya’s hand rubbed soothing circles on her shoulders, but all Marinette could see was the flash of green as Adrien turned around, concern in his eyes, for a brief moment before the teacher called for attention.
Her heart fluttered.
It was probably going to be hard, but Ladybug and Chat Noir had to have a conversation.
Tonight.
Adrien was having a little more fun than he probably should have through the rest of the school day. She had figured it out there was no doubt about that, and now that he was mostly (at least on a surface level) past his own hangups he was having a BLAST. In little things, a cat pun here a toothy grin there, a wink, a very brave my lady. All of it was enough to drive her mad he could tell, and he could see from the cool icy daggers of her eyes that she was one step away from clobbering him brutally but it was so funny. How could they have been so dense? He was looking forward to it SO much, having her know. Having HIM know, just… knowing! In class every day, knowing each other better, maybe even just hanging out! He had been seeing her every day and he had never known. Would she smack him if he asked her to come over? Maybe he should wait on that a little.
However he did not have long to wait after school ended. He was in his room just as the sun was setting when Plagg piped up.
“You’ve got a call! This should be fun.”
“Mm.” Adrien responded, his slight nervousness returning. He had been having fun but now came the conversation, the real heavy part of all of this. Would she hate him? Would she say they shouldnt hang out? Would he even get a chance? Or had he lost his a long time ago… Crap.
He was freaking himself out.
“Let’s do it,” Adrien said, his nervousness evident to even Plagg who gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before vanishing into the ring.
Cat Noir looked at his flashing baton for a moment before answering.
“Hello m-”
“The tower, now.” She said sharply, then her voice faltered and seemed unsure, adding, “Please.”
“Be there in a minute,” he answered just as tensely. He hung up, taking a deep shaky breath. He grabbed his coat from its place on the couch and leapt out the window, sprinting for the tower and whatever uncertain future awaited him there.
Marinette had been unable to wait until the normal time. She couldn’t stand waiting until patrol, stewing in the knowledge of her partner’s secret identity and knowing that he was aware of hers.
And the fact that it was Adrien, sweet, perfect, Adrien…she just couldn’t.
A call to him and a plea, and she was pacing the beams of the Eiffel Tower, twirling her yo-yo at her side. She knew his home was close, now–even closer than hers–but she’d already been on the tower before she’d realized she was going to call him out, so she respected the few minutes she had to wait.
She would have respected it more if she didn’t keep recalling all the times that her stupid cat had pushed his luck in class today. She’d almost snapped and told him to stop…but that’s not how Marinette acted around Adrien, and now it was even harder to keep everything straight. The fact that he was interacting with her more than usual had Alya excited and normally Marinette would have been positively giddy. But this…? His flirtatious winks, the one time he’d daringly called her my lady–thankfully out of Alya’s earshot or the designer would never hear the end of it–and the puns. She respected them, sure, because it was part of her best friend’s personality, but hearing them out of her crush’s mouth was an entirely new experience.
A nagging thought in the back of her mind reminded her that she enjoyed that side of Chat, as annoying as it could be, but she shoved it away.
She was mad at him…or so she told herself.
“Evening, Princess,” the voice nearly startled her into falling, but her luck was intact as she regained her balance and turned to the black-clad superhero where he perched on his extended baton in front of her.
Hands on her hips and feet planted wide to hide her nervousness, she greeted, “Chat.”
He watched her, carefully, accepting her as she was. She stood firmly, hands on her hips, feet wide, and it fit. It fit her, as he knew her, the truth of her. She was like fact in that moment, as indisputable as gravity, an unmovable absolute. She looked so beautiful in that moment, framed against the blooming night sky.
But mostly, she looked like Marinette.
“I’m sorry.”
He said the words quickly, in a voice that was almost dull and far away, and he watched as her face pulled into one of worry, shock, concern. Confusion.
He dropped his gaze, examining closely the metal beams of the tower they stood on. He felt his words heavily in his heart, and he wasn’t.. .sad per say. He was sorry.
“I know I wasn’t supposed to know, I know it wasn’t supposed to be that way but I didn’t try to find the answer it was just there and- I- it felt unfair I didn’t want to just know and not tell you. I could have done that, I could have just kept quiet about it but I don’t think thats what you would have wanted and I wanted to give you something back. I wanted to tell you it was me that I was right there and- I don’t know if this-” he was starting to falter, looking anywhere but her, or rather trying too. His gaze would still drift over her, still see her and the small shifts in her expression. Concern into understanding, shock into something almost… pleased. But distantly so, still wary.
“I’m sorry,” he said again, his hands close to his chests as the claws twisted together in uncertainty. “I didn’t try and look. I know you didn’t want that, but I- i figured this was the closest to the right thing I could do.”
There was silence, and night settled in more closely around them, a black cat and a ladybug facing each other, one with an unshakable gaze, another looking at every light in the cityscape instead of the eyes of their partner.
He tried to speak again, unsure, falling more into a panic as he left himself time to think because he had his fun, he had made his jokes and tried to play it cool but he was worried. Her comfort must have been undermined, trust must have been… screwed or- something he didn’t know. he didn’t have the words he didn’t know what to say.
“Adrien.”
Something in him stopped, following the silent command that followed his name and freezing in place. It was a complete pause in thought and breath and movement. He waited like he was meant to, only moving enough to look her in the eye. She deserved that from him, she deserved everything from him.
And she was smiling.
Quietly so, subdued, but a real smile. It was the sort of smile he had seen from Marinette before, her most genuine one. Something so true coming from someone already so earnest, it was soothing. Because next she spoke it was the words his heart had waited for.
“It’s okay. This is okay.”
When he first started rambling, Marinette was honestly surprised.
This was Chat, her Chat Noir, and he didn’t ramble or run his words together! He was honestly acting as nervously as she did around Adrien–which was funny considering that he was Adrien–and she found herself smiling and saying his name before she knew it.
And then she was telling him words that she desperately wanted to hear from him without even realizing exactly why.
“It’s okay. This is okay.”
The way his shoulders slumped in surprise, in relief, made her heart twinge with regret. She’d caused this. She’d been the one to make her confident cat so nervous, so unsure. And despite how nervous she was, she found herself giggling softly. The way his leather cat ears perked up at the sound was endearing, and it only fueled her mirth.
“It’s kind of funny, isn’t it?” she couldn’t help asking. “After all this time, finding out that you were right in front of me is a little weird.”
He dropped forward on his baton, landing beside her on the beam of the tower, and chuckled along with her, sliding down to sit as he retracted his weapon.
“A little weird?” he retorted, “M’Lady, I’ve been seeing parts of Ladybug in Marinette for weeks and never connecting the dots. The way you’re always ready to step in when Chloe’s being awful, the way you take control of a situation when things get dicey…the signs have been there.”
“And with you sitting right in front of me, always telling Nino those awful jokes,” she almost couldn’t believe that she was already teasing him again, even though the surprise was still so fresh. But she slid down to sit next to him, close enough that she could cover his hand with hers if she wanted to, and laughed again. It felt so good to laugh, and she felt so free with just knowing.
“My jokes are pawsitively clawsome, thank you furry much,” Adrien responded, his face partially obscured by the mask.
Marinette groaned, but she knew the grin betrayed her.
After a few moments, though, she sighed.
“I’m sorry for putting you in that position,” she said softly, her words almost stolen by the breeze. He perked up and looked to her, a protest on his lips. “I was careless this morning and grabbed the wrong one, can you believe it? So just…don’t worry about it. What’s done is done…and I appreciate your honesty. It would probably have been worse if you didn’t admit to it.”
He scratched the back of his head and murmured, in an almost embarrassed manner, “I just felt like I was breaking your trust, you know, knowing what you didn’t want me to know.”
She lightly punched him in the shoulder, grinning at him when he turned to her. “I know. That’s why I’m telling you it’s okay. And that we’re okay,” she tried to be positive, but a nagging fear pushed her into asking, “We are okay, right?”
His eyes widened and he exclaimed, “Of course!”
He looked suitably ashamed of the force of his outburst after that, if the red blossoming across his cheeks was anything to go by. The thought of Adrien Agreste blushing in front of her had been a daydream until about 10 hours ago, but now she knew she wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Taking pity on him, she slid closer, dropping her head on his shoulder.
“You know you’re my best friend, right?” she managed, feeling him stiffen after her action. But a moment later, she felt an arm sliding around her shoulders and a weight against her hair as he leaned his own head there.
“I thought that was Alya,” he said lightly, but she could hear the warmth in his voice and decided not to respond just yet.
“I’m glad we’re okay,” she breathed, and his hand squeezed her shoulder.
“Me, too, Marinette.”
It had been a random day of some random month but it stood out prominently in the minds of their friends because it marked a certain kind of closeness between two of their classmates that no one was used to. Sometimes it was subtle, glances over their shoulders, smiles without prompting. Sometimes it was more prominent; an invitation to a dance, open arms on a rough day. No one really knew WHAT it was but no one needed to, no one but them.
You would almost think they liked it better that way.
THE END