Archive of Our Own

Marinette walked into class a whole 15 minutes early, dropping into her seat contentedly even though she was majorly sleep-deprived. There had been a late night akuma, leaving her to pass out the minute she got home, which happened to be 4 in the morning.

Still, she had gotten all her homework done and was prepared to survive the school day with a cup of coffee. That didn’t mean she had the energy for Alya to come running at her, followed by several of her friends, to start asking questions she had no clue about the meaning of.

“Since when?” “Why didn’t you tell us?” “If anyone would be able to pull a superhero, it would be you.” The last one had her tensing up, even though the whole sentence didn’t make sense to her; all that processed in her mind was the word “superhero”.

Alya, Rose and Kim kept firing questions at her while Juleka stood there, nodding along.

“Do you guys wanna maybe fill me in on what we’re talking about first?” They already had the attention of everyone in the class that wasn’t gathered around her at this point.

Alya sighed. “I forgot you’re like the only person that doesn’t religiously follow the Ladyblog,” she said fondly.

“Hey, not all of us can be Adrien.”

“Nino!” Adrien threw a mock glare at his best friend while Nino laughed. “Anyway, I didn’t have time to read it this morning. What’s going on?”

“Yeah, and what does it have to do with me?” She tried not to let her voice shake. Alya just shook her head and made her way to the front of the classroom.

“Play innocent, but I can’t wait to see you try and talk your way out of this,” she said, scaring Marinette even more. But Marinette knew that Alya would no longer do anything to endanger her identity, not since she’d told her the secret.

Seeing as they still had time before Ms. Bustier would arrive to start the class, Alya got to work on connecting her phone to the screen at the front of the room.

“Is this why you don’t ship ladynoir? It’s all making sense now,” Rose said and several of her friends gasped their agreements. Marinette could not be more lost.

“I don’t ship ladynoir because they’re clearly not a couple. Ladybug’s said it so many times,” Marinette said, exasperated.

Rose hums. “But we all know they’re meant to be. Or we did , at least.” Marinette gave her a puzzled look.

Alya turned on the screen and displayed the home page of the Ladyblog. Then Alya scrolled over to a tab for community discussions.

She immediately clicked on the currently top-rated discussion and clicked play on a video posted by a user.

Marinette was confused for a second as she watched herself standing in a fairly empty street, before the memory hit. This was from yesterday afternoon’s akuma attack, a few minutes after she had just transformed back to a civilian in a nearby alley after the miracle cure. She remained confused as to what could be so interesting.

Then she noticed that the video showed her speaking with someone as the camera eventually moved from a vertical position to horizontal, capturing both her and Chat Noir.

“And here I was, offering you a lift back home.” Chat Noir pouted as the Marinette on-screen rolled her eyes.

“Truly, I’m so ungrateful,” she said back teasingly. “Your ring’s beeping, I think you should take care of yourself first.”

He grinned and showed off the 4 minutes he had left, and said, “Just enough time to say goodbye to you, princess.” Chat took her hand and kissed the back of it. She let him linger a moment longer than she would have as Ladybug before pulling back.

“See you tonight,” he said before making his exit.

The video ended there and everyone turned to her expectantly. “I… don’t get it. What are you all losing it over?” This was apparently the wrong thing to say, as the class immediately started shouting.

“You’re secretly dating Chat Noir and wondering why we’re losing it?” Alix gave her an unimpressed look.

“I-I’m not dating Chat Noir!” She willed the heat to leave her face.

“Mari, please. He called you princess.” Alya crossed her arms stubbornly and was clearly barely containing a laugh. Marinette gaped at her. Alya knows she’s not dating Chat Noir, she just finds this funny.

“He kissed your hand,” Kim chimed in.

“That’s just because he’s a flirt! It’s how he is!” She defended herself. Most of her classmates looked at her with confusion.

“Um,” Alix said, “Since when?”

“Since always! Literally since the first time I met him for the thing with Evilillustrator.”

“Wait. Chat Noir has been flirting with you, Marinette , for a year. Oh my god,” Alya said, dazedly. Marinette didn’t miss her pointed emphasis on Marinette , and knew Alya wasn’t going to drop this any time soon. “Why was I not told about this?”

“Because he flirts with everyone, it’s who he is, Alya.” Only to be met with more confused expressions.

“He’s overly gentlemanly with the whole chivalry thing but that’s it?” Mylene looked around confusedly at everyone, who responded with nods. “I’ve never seen him speak like that with anyone but Ladybug.”

“He’s never flirted with me, and he’s saved me a few times,” Rose said. And infuriatingly, most of the class agreed.

“Unfortunately, he’s never flirted with me either,” Nino added. She heard Adrien cough, but her attention was quickly turned to Chloe.

“He’s never flirted with me, either. Nor Sabrina.” Chloe didn’t even look up when she answered. But that made the entire class, minus Lila, in agreement.

Lila’s voice spoke out, “Well… I don’t want to say he’s a flirt, but with me … “ Marinette was honestly not even going to be as angry as she usually would be if Lila’s ploy to take the attention worked.

“He said he would see you at night,” Chloe said with a raised eyebrow, voice cutting through before anyone had the chance to register Lila’s words.

Chloe had to choose to make an effort to be civil with the class right at this moment? The one time I want Lila to talk over me?

“For treats from the bakery! Because he loves them, and we just talk a little sometimes. That’s it, I swear!” But no one was having it.

“He can’t visit the bakery during the day? Or even as a civilian?” Dammit Alix.

“I think he just gets peckish during patrols and nightstrolls?” She was met with dry looks. “I don’t know, guys, I never realized anyone would think it’s such a big deal that he likes to get out of the chill for a bit after spending hours outside.”

“He comes into your room? Marinette . I thought he was just visiting you on your balcony,” Alya exclaimed. Marinette wanted to put her head in her hands.

“In your room…at night… dudette .” She looked at Nino in despair as everyone gasped at the implications.

“ Nino . Not like that. It’s just to watch a movie or play a game sometimes. But that’s it .”

“Even that alone isn’t normal, you get that right?” She pouted at Alix, who just shrugged unapologetically.

“Maybe he just likes Marinette’s company as a friend, guys,” Adrien, the lifesaver, said. “I mean, it’s not surprising. Who wouldn’t want to get to know her.” He flashed her a soft smile that made her just-dying blush flare up again.

“Thank you, Adrien,” she said.

“You’re right, that’s exactly it,” Alya said, making everyone quieten. Marinette almost relaxed, but then Alya continued. “Marinette’s amazing, the girl we’ve all had a crush on at some point, so it’s only natural she’s the only one that’s got any chance against Ladybug for Chat Noir’s heart!”

Everyone paused for a second before jumping up with responses. To her horror, everyone was agreeing that Marinette was competition for even Ladybug. She thinks she should be flattered.

She wasn’t, but it was still touching. Marinette glared at Alya. She looked so smug at having thought of this, knowing full well that they’re the same person .

Marinette looked over at Adrien for support, but he just gave her a shrug and a playful smile. “Can’t argue with sound logic.” And she almost forgot to breathe for a moment.

Of course, there was only one person that would want to break up this moment more than her.

“I don’t want to share too much,” Lila said, gaining everyone’s attention.

“Ladybug’s probably told you about this right? If Chat Noir told her about it,” Alix said excitedly.

Lila played with her hair and looked off to the side. “I don’t know if I should say…”

“This won’t leave the room, promise!” One sentence from Mylene and the others’ following nods had Lila continuing immediately.

“Well, I happen to know for a fact that Chat Noir isn’t interested in Marinette that way, she isn’t really… a superhero’s type.” Marinette was about to agree just to put an end to this, but Chloe beat her to speaking.

“Dupain-Cheng’s everyone’s type.” Everyone turned to stare at Chloe, momentarily stunned. She looked up. “What? This is a fact, not a compliment.” Then promptly went back to staring at her nails.

Marinette fought to control a small blush as everyone broke the silence to pipe in with their agreements.

“Queen Bee, Rena Rouge and Carapace make three superheroes that would say Marinette’s their type,” Alya said, a little too loudly and with an edge that she had previously not used in conversations with Lila.

“Viperion would bring the total up to four,” Max said.

“Kagami said she had a thing for you, right?” Marinette slowly nodded to Rose’s question, one hand over her face. Not that it was necessary for Marinette to confirm this, since Kagami had been very bold about it. It still didn’t mean Marinette wasn’t still shy talking about her friends’ past crushes on her, and it was the first time she sort of regretted choosing these people as heroes.

“With five superheroes having had crushes on you, it’s highly likely that a sixth would as well.” Max stated firmly.

“Of course, of course,” Lila quickly spoke up, noticing that she had allowed an opening for people to bring the focus back to Marinette, and in a way that infuriated her. “I just mean that Marinette’s not someone who permanent heroes like Ladybug or Chat Noir would – I didn’t mean to offend Marinette. Oh, I always say the wrong things.” She looked down at her lap with a hurt expression.

Marinette resisted the urge to throw her textbook at her.

The class jumped to reassure her that they understood she hadn’t meant it that way. Marinette was happy to note that Alya was not among those people – another joy of having shared her secret with Alya, thus allowing her to share Ladybug exclusive proof against Lila.

“It’s just that it’s really hard to not be able to say anything when people are suggesting that my boyfriend would be interested in another girl.” Lila dramatically slapped her hand over her mouth. “Please forget I said that.”

Immediately, there was a rush of people questioning her. Marinette rolled her eyes and saw Chloe do the same without even raising her head from her nails.

When she looked ahead of her, she saw Adrien glaring daggers at Lila. Before she could question that, Alya got the room’s attention again.

“What about Ladybug?” Everyone seemed to stop a little at that reminder.

“She approves, of course! She trusts me wholeheartedly and didn’t even get angry when Chat Noir realized I was just better for him,” Lila said without pause, probably relishing the opportunity to call herself better than Ladybug out loud.

“But Chat Noir’s madly in love with Ladybug. I mean, we’ve all seen it,” Alya said.

“That is true, and the probability of him moving on after he’s been so confident in his feelings isn’t high,” Max added.

Lila adopted a waver to her voice and said, “I don’t know why you guys don’t believe me when I’m only admitting this out of my trust for you. Everyone was so open to another girl having stolen his heart,” She sobbed.

Rose, sweet Rose, turned to comfort her. “It’s not that we mean to doubt you, Lila,” she said with some hesitation.

“Personally,” Adrien spoke up while the rest of the class was awkwardly silent. “I think the only person that could make Chat Noir consider giving up on Ladybug is Marinette. She’s just special in that way.”

He looked at her with a smile when he said the last sentence, but then went back to staring down Lila.

Marinette willed herself not to make an embarrassing noise and hoped her face wasn’t as red as it felt. She hadn’t felt this nervous in response to Adrien in a while. Since…well, since she’d been spending more time with Chat Noir.

She saw Alya throw a grin at her before joining Adrien in staring down Lila.

“Adrien, I can’t believe you would call me a liar when I’m just trying to put a stop to rumors,” Lila sobbed. “I’m even willing to forgive Marinette for clearly starting these rumors herself and asking him to visit her when he isn’t interested.”

At this, Rose pulled away from Lila. “Marinette would never do something like that. There must be a misunderstanding here.”

Lila gaped at her.

“Yeah, and Marinette’s been denying anything between her and Chat Noir all morning,” Mylene added.

“It was Chat Noir who said he would visit her that night in the video. Marinette didn’t ask him to, as far as we saw,” Nathaniel said from his spot beside Lila.

Lila saw the situation not working out in her favor and quickly backtracked. “You’re all right, of course. It must be the stress of all of this speculation getting to me,” she said quickly. “I just have really heightened anxiety. I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding we can work out. Right, Marinette?” Lila threw a perfect smile Marinette’s way, and it took all she had not to scowl.

“Of course, Lila,” She said flatly, which set her classmates at ease. Then she turned back to glower at the textbook in front of her.

Alya sat down beside her with a huff and a final glare Lila’s way. Then, she smirked at Marinette. “Just because they’re distracted doesn’t mean I won’t be getting details from you.”

Marinette actually did put her head in her hands this time. “There are no details to get. You know this.”

Alya lowers her voice. “I know that it’s obvious Ladybug has feelings for Chat, even if she won’t let herself act on them. And you won’t tell me why.” How could she explain all of Chat Blanc to Alya? She barely understood it herself.

“And now,” Alya continued, “I find out that Marinette’s no stranger to him either.”

Marinette sighed. “It really is nothing, Alya, but I can fill you in later with all the boring details later.” Alya lit up and Marinette shook her head fondly.

Classes went by with Lila gushing about the romantic things Chat Noir had done for her and how he had realized she meant more to him than Ladybug ever could, while their group of four muttered angrily between themselves.

Well, it was mostly Alya and Adrien. Marinette, as angry as she was with Lila lying about her partner, only joined in occasionally. Nino nodded along, only speaking up occasionally, like Marinette.

They hadn’t explicitly acknowledged Lila’s lying between their group, but Nino had been stepping away from Lila despite occasionally walking home the same way as her, just seeing how the other three kept a distance from her.

When lunch rolled by, Marinette was almost regretting having packed her lunch that day instead of planning to go back home. Alya dragged her to a lunch table in the corner of the cafeteria and put her hands on the table, palms flat.

“I want to be clear that you understand your situation with Chat Noir,” Alya began, and Marinette put her head in her hands.

“There is no situation! We like each other’s company!”

“That’s my point.” Alya looked Marinette in the eyes, and Marinette was almost scared again. “Chat Noir is in love with Ladybug and possibly even Marinette. If your fears have anything to do with not being good enough to be Ladybug and not living up to his expectations: get rid of them.”

Though those weren’t Marinette’s only fears since Chat Blanc, they were still a huge portion of what kept her from initiating anything with Chat Noir. She hadn’t voiced this to Alya yet, but of course she had figured it out.

Before she could say anything, Nino dropped into the seat beside Alya. Marinette and Alya were sitting across from each other instead of beside each other as usual, so Adrien sat down next to her with a smile. She gave a quick smile in return.

Alya gave her a Look. Marinette picked up a macaron and threw it at her face.

“Hey, no fair, dudette. Don’t we get any?” Nino asked as Alya happily ate Marinette’s projectile weapon. “I would also like to be pelted with macarons.” Adrien chimed in.

Marinette snorted and moved her container closer to the center of the table. “You guys haven’t earned that privilege. Pick them up yourselves.”

A tray was set down gently beside Adrien. Marc sat down and stared her down from beside Adrien. “Hello, Mari. Care to explain why you didn’t tell me my cousin-in-law is going to be a superhero?”

Adrien nearly choked on his food and picked up his water.

Marinette groaned. “Because he’s not .” Marc raised an eyebrow.

“So auntie lets you have anyone over at night?”

“Obviously she doesn’t know about this.” Marc gaped. “Stop thinking whatever you’re thinking, they’ve met him obviously, all of us even had lunch together, but–”

“He’s met your parents? You two are that serious?” Aurora exclaimed from another table.

“ No !” But she’s not sure anyone listened to her, with the chatter that erupted.

“He met your parents?” Nino asked, eyes wide. She looked at him helplessly. “The lunch was so unrelated." She paused and thought of how she had lied about being in love with him at that time, and started again, "Well…”

“Well? Well, what? Marinette!” Mylene said. Marinette put her head in her hands.

Lila coughed loudly. Mylene blinked. “I guess it must have been unrelated? If…well since. You know.”

“Since what?” Mireille asked with a tilt of her head.

“I suppose we’re already talking about it so I may as well clear this up amongst our classes,” Lila said with hesitancy, “Chat Noir can’t possibly like Marinette that way because he loves me.”

“So you and Chat Noir are a thing? You’ve got to tell us everything.” Asked someone Marinette didn’t recognize. Lila looked happy to start doing just that.

“Okay, I still have a question,” Alix declared loudly. Most of the cafeteria turned to her attentively. Chloe kept eating, of course. “Why was Chat Noir kissing Mari’s hand and promising her late night visits if he’s with Lila?” Everyone paused for a moment.

The first to break the silence was Lila. “I don’t know if I should say this but maybe he just felt bad for Marinette. Maybe she was just standing there alone so he was extra nice to make her feel better?”

Everyone turned that over in their heads. Marinette’s eye twitched but she knew she couldn’t risk saying too much on this subject. Even if she wasn’t Ladybug, she could easily be put under suspicion as a candidate if she let them think Chat Noir liked her more than the average person. She would just have to take the hits to throw them off this line of questioning.

“Marinette wasn’t the only person he’s ever seen standing alone. It’s quite common in the confusion of an akuma attack, especially,” Max chimed in. Everyone murmured agreements.

“Not to mention that he’s seen her with all of us enough times to know that Marinette’s never lacking company when she wants it,” Alya said flatly. Lila frowned in suspicion, still confused about how Alya had stopped entertaining her recently.

“And standing alone doesn’t mean the person’s lonely?” Marc supplied.

“Well, you guys wouldn’t be accusing him of cheating, right? It’s Chat Noir, Paris’s protector.”

Everyone rushed to say that they would never think that of him. Lila smiled. “So, this must just be a casual friendship, at best. Marinette might just be a convenient stop on his patrol route.”

Marinette gritted her teeth. Before anyone else could say anything, and it looked like both Alya and Adrien were gearing up for it, the bell rang to signal the end of their break. Chloe immediately walked out with her lunch bag and Sabrina in tow. Everyone else followed at a less rushed pace.

“For the record, I think you’re full of it and so is Lila but in different ways. She clearly isn’t dating him and you clearly are,” Marc said, before walking away with a smile and a wave, ignoring her protests.

She sighed and looked back at her friends to laugh about it, but Adrien and Alya both looked murderous. Adrien’s fists were clenched.

She put a hand on his shoulder. He blinked and looked at her. She tilted her head at him and he shook his with a half smile. She returned it and looked over at Nino, who looked contemplative.

“So, you guys all agree she’s a liar, huh?” He asked. The other three blinked.

“I always have. I’ve already said this.” Marinette said flatly. This was Nino, not a different classmate. She could be honest, even if he didn’t agree.

And true to that, Nino nodded. “But you two as well.”

Alya and Adrien looked at each other, then at him. “Yeah, yeah we do.”

Nino hummed. None of them said anything else on the topic, and they went off to Mrs. Mendeleive’s classroom.

They had just taken their seats when everyone’s phones went off with an Akuma alert and a warning for the students of their school particularly.

Just as they were about to evacuate the classroom, however, the Akumatized villain burst in.

Everyone stayed still in their spots, unsure of what to do as Mrs. Mendeleive wasn’t there to instruct them on how to act.

The villain solved that issue when she called out, “Where is Marinette Dupain-Cheng?”

Everyone snuck glances at her, but nobody said anything. Until the villain looked around herself and saw Marinette in the second row and vines began to wrap around her.

Alya and Nino tried to pull away the vines but it was useless. The other classmates, minus Lila, shouted for Marinette to be released.

“Not to be rude,” Marinette said, hesitantly. “But what did I even do this time? I’m pretty sure I don’t know you.”

The girl screeched. “You know Chat Noir, though!” And it clicked.

Marinette sighed. “If I say I’m not his girlfriend, will you put me down?”

The villain glared at her. Another sigh from Marinette.

“When he shows up to rescue you, I’ll get his and Ladybug’s miraculous, and they’ll only get them back when he loves me, Love Bloomer!”

“Mr. Pigeon’s plans had sounder logic than that,” Chloe said.

The girl glowered at her. “You talk tough for someone that doesn’t even have a miraculous anymore.” Chloe stiffened at that and glared at her.

Out of worry that Chloe would do something rash and get hurt, Marinette spoke up, “Well, it seems like neither do you since Chat Noir might not even know you’re here in a random classroom.”

“Poor planning skills are probably not what Chat Noir looks for in a girl,” Alya said.

Nino shot them both an ‘are you crazy?’ look.

“Shut up! We’re meant for each other!” The girl’s vines tightened around Marinette, lifting her off her seat and into the air.

“I have some opinions on that.” Love Bloomer whipped around to see Chat Noir standing by the door, leaning on his baton.

“There you are! I knew you would come for her ,” She said before she sent vines shooting at him. He dodged them easily and used his stick to fight her off.

“You may have noticed, but rescuing people is kind of my job. Especially princesses, though.” He threw a wink at Marinette and got an eye roll in response, as well as some squeals from her classmates.

“Ugh! Shut up! What’s so special about her ?!” Love Bloomer attacked harder.

“Would you like an alphabetical list?” He dodged again.

Chat Noir used his stick to push her out the window, and quickly jumped over to free Marinette from the vines.

“Everyone get out,” He shouted as he scooped Marinette in a bridal carry.

“I can walk just fine,” She exclaimed.

He looked down at her and smiled, softly instead of his usual grin. “You can walk when I get you to safety.” She opened her mouth to respond, but he continued. “Let me take care of you, for my sake.” He sounded so sincere that she couldn’t bring herself to scold him. She just huffed.

He carried her out of the classroom while she tried to avoid her classmates’ stares. She saw Lila trying to make her way out of the crowd as everyone walked through the hall.

“Not gonna carry your girlfriend out too?” Chloe caught everyone’s attention as they remembered that Lila had been regaling them with stories of how in love Chat Noir was with her. They looked expectantly at him.

“You guys can’t ask questions like that,” Lila said. “It would put the girlfriend in danger, so he won’t answer.” She smiled, clearly thinking she would get away with this, as several people nodded thoughtfully.

“No, no,” Alya said loudly. “Tell us about your girlfriend Lila .”

Marinette thought maybe Chat Noir would roll his eyes and drop it, but instead, he scoffed.

He faced Lila directly as he said, “Has nothing that Ladybug and I have said to you stuck? First it was claiming Ladybug as your best friend, then lying about being the fox miraculous wielder. And now this.” His icy tone left no room for Lila to interject.

Marinette watched her classmates realize what was happening, their faces those of pure shock. Some, like Alix, looked angry.

“I don’t see why you would even bring me into this when I’ve made it very clear how disgusted I am with you ever since you helped that akumatized villain attempt to steal Ladybug’s miraculous.” There were gasps at this. “Charming, truly. Now, I have to get my princess out of here.”

Marinette tried not to blush at “my” as Chat Noir made to leave, hoping she wouldn’t miss anything interesting as her classmates gave Lila hell for lying.

It appeared she wouldn’t miss anything at all as Lila ran away without another word.

This made Chat Noir pause for a moment, and unfortunately that was enough time for Love Bloomer to jump back into the school.

Thankfully, their class had moved far enough from the classroom that Love Bloomer hadn’t seen them yet. She continued marching towards their now empty classroom.

Chat Noir assessed the situation for a moment then silently ordered everyone into a nearby, empty classroom with a tilt of his head. Kim shut the door behind them all. “You should all be safe here, at least for a little while. Is everyone accounted for?”

“Besides Lila, I think so,” Mylene said.

“Wait!” Marinette cut in. “Where’s Adrien?” Everyone suddenly realized he was missing and began to worry.

“Come to think of it, he wasn’t with us back in the classroom either,” Alya said. “Was he Nino?”

Nino shook his head. “No, I haven’t seen him since before Love Bloomer got in.”

“I saw him on my way here. He must’ve slipped away while Love Bloomer was distracted with Mari,” Chat Noir said hurriedly. “He was the one who told me to go to your classroom.”

Marinette relaxed, and the class did too.

“Mari, huh?” Alya asked suggestively. Marinette shot her a dirty look.

“Okay, now put me down,” She said before Chat Noir could respond, knowing the class would take whatever he said the wrong way.

“If you insist,” He said with a dramatic pout, then set her down.

She huffed and took a step away from him.

“I know this isn’t really the time but can we discuss all of this? The visits and hand kisses and carrying and calling her princess ?” Alya asked. “Because I want to.”

Marinette gave her a dirty look. “I don’t.” Alya shrugged unrepentantly.

“There’s not much to say,” Chat Noir began, and Marinette nodded until he continued. “Marinette’s amazing. I wish there was more to say, but there isn’t.” Marinette felt like she had stopped breathing but her heart was racing. She turned to him, eyes wide.

He looked at her with another soft smile. Her breath continued to stutter, meanwhile she heard a whispered “what the fuck” from Alix behind her. She shook her head to snap out of it and looked away.

She was just about to suggest they try to sneak out, so she could find somewhere to transform, when vines crawled out from under the door and traveled up, blocking it. Chat Noir tried to cut through the vines, but it seemed they had gotten stronger in the past few minutes.

“I’m putting the school on lockdown until you bring me Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Love Bloomer shouted over the speakers. “I’m going to check every classroom until I find you!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Marinette grumbled.

“As soon as I get that door open, run out.” Chat Noir waited for nods of agreement before he called for his cataclysm and destroyed the vines blocking their way.

Instantly an even thicker layer of vines shot up from beneath and Chat Noir had to jump back in order to avoid being hit by them.

Chat Noir cursed as everyone realized they were trapped in.

Then Chat Noir’s ring beeped, making everyone’s eyes widen as they understood that unless they got out of there in five minutes, his identity would be revealed.

Marinette turned to the windows frantically and saw that they were covered in vines. She tried to not let panic set in as she realized that Chat Noir’s identity would be revealed, and they would be left defenseless against a villain because Marinette would be taken hostage, unable to transform into Ladybug.

She cursed as she heard Chat Noir’s ring beep again, and made a decision.

“Guys!” Everyone quietened down to look at her. “What happens in here cannot leave this classroom, alright?”

Everyone agreed immediately, reassuring Chat Noir that his identity would be safe with him. He still looked like he was trying not to panic but said, “I trust all of you. Though Ladybug might not be very happy with me.” He said with a halfhearted laugh, trying to lift the mood.

Marinette sighed and then made eye contact with Chat Noir and said, “I don’t think you need to worry about that. This really isn’t how I thought this would happen.” He looked a little confused but nodded anyway.

She took a deep breath. “Tikki, transform me.”

A flash of pink light later, she tried not to let how anxious she was show on her face as she awaited their reactions.

“What the fuck.” Alix broke the dam as everyone started shouting over each other.

She heard Alya gasp out a fake “ No way ,” and almost giggled despite her stress.

She steeled herself and turned to Chat Noir for his reaction. He was staring at her with his eyes wide and lips parted slightly.

Before she could say anything however, Rose chimed in, “No wonder you and Chat Noir act like that around each other.”

That brought Chat Noir out of his shocked stillness. “I actually didn’t know until right now.”

“Uh, surprise, Chaton?” He gave her a fond smile.

“Of course you knew Lila was lying from the first day. This makes so much sense ,” Nino said, laughing to herself.

“Do you get it now? Lila’s not Ladybug’s best friend because those are Alya and Chat .” Marinette smiled as she spoke.

“I can’t believe you managed to hide it from us for so long, Nettie.” Marinette shrugged in response to Kim. She didn’t know either. “It feels so weird to call Ladybug that.”

“Wait so, Chat Noir is in love with Ladybug and Marinette? Who is the same person but he didn’t even know?” Alix pointed out.

“What a great point you bring up, Alix! Let’s talk about this,” Alya said cheerily.

“Let’s not,” Ladybug replied.

“No, I really want to discuss the fact that Ladybug seemingly rejects Chat Noir but is also friends with him as a civilian , somehow. Spending more time with him doesn’t really help your point, Ladybug.” Alix said.

“That’s what I’ve been saying!” Alya jumped up from her spot on top of a desk.

“Hold on,” Nathaniel said. “Alya, did you know? It feels like you knew.”

“Who? Me? No .” She put a hand to her chest but then grinned. “Ladybug’s best friend privileges.”

“Did you know she knew?” Alix asked Chat Noir. He blinked. “I knew Ladybug’s civilian best friend knew she knew, but I didn’t know that it was Alya specifically. That might have spoiled Ladybug’s identity for me.” He paused for a second. “It definitely would have actually.”

“So you know Marinette and Alya outside of being Chat Noir?” Nino pointed out. Chat Noir grinned.

“That kind of explains why you spent time with a civilian? I guess. But if she’s really the only one,” Mylene paused to look at him, and he nodded. “Then you must really like Marinette. As Ladybug and Marinette.” Everyone piped up in agreement.

“How did the conversation come back to this?” Ladybug asked exasperatedly.

“They’re not wrong,” Chat Noir said, smiling when she threw him a dirty look. “Stop instigating,” She said.

“Wait, hang on: you really didn’t know each other’s identities?” Mylene questioned.

Both heroes shook their heads.

“Well,” Chloe said, looking like she hadn’t quite recovered from the shock yet. “We’re all about to find out Chat Noir’s any moment now.” They looked to see his last pad flashing.

He blinked down at it and then looked back up. “I guess you are.” Green light covered him momentarily before leaving behind a grinning Adrien.

Now it was Ladybug’s turn to stare at him in shock as the class exploded once more. “I guess the cat’s out of the bag now, My lady,” He said, sounding so much like Chat Noir that she wondered how she hadn’t seen it before.

She giggled nervously for a second before she careened backwards, registering Adrien’s eyes widening. But she didn’t hit the ground like she thought she would.

“Caught you,” Kim said, grinning down at her. “I jumped for you as soon as he detransformed.”

“You know me so well.” She sighed. “Now let me process. By passing out.” Kim and the rest of the class laughed.

“I’m not joking,” she mumbled.

Adrien looked confused. “I feel like I’m missing something.”

“You miss a lot, kid.” A black blur flew upwards and caught everyone’s attention. He nodded at Marinette. “Hey there, pigtails.” Ladybug waved wordlessly.

“Are you Chat Noir, er, Adrien’s kwami? Cool,” said Nathaniel.

“The name’s Plagg, kwami of destruction.” He bowed several times before Adrien rolled his eyes and smacked him lightly with a block of cheese. Plagg stuck his tongue out. “I’m mistreated.”

“You’re a menace is what you are.” Adrien turned back to Marinette with a grin. She had composed herself enough to breathe again.

“I can’t believe Lila pretended to be your girlfriend without knowing it was you,” Nathaniel said.

Adrien’s face twisted. “Not pleasant for me either.”

“Wait so…you and Marinette aren’t dating? Because we know Marinette and Adrien aren’t dating.” Mylene said, then paused awkwardly and several people shared looks. “And Ladybug and Chat Noir have publicly said they’re not dating. But Marinette and Chat Noir aren’t either?”

“It would be incredibly risky for Chat to date a civilian. And my identity would be in danger as well. It would be suspicious to people even if I wasn’t actually Ladybug,” Ladybug said automatically. Adrien tilted his head with a playful smile. “So the only reasons, once again, are safety precautions? Otherwise we could’ve been dating?”

“Don’t push it,” she said with an attempt at a flat look, knowing a smile was pushing through.

“Pinch me,” Alix said, mouth agape and eyes wide. Kim did. “ Ow .”

“You told me to.” He snickered.

“How are you not even a little tripped up over this?” Alix demanded.

Kim shrugged. “I’m just going with it.”

“And that’s why you got the monkey, Kim,” Ladybug said fondly.

Nathaniel blinked. “That’s right, you gave out those miraculouses. That makes so much sense, why else would Ladybug trust so many people in this class?”

“How did none of us put it together even after so many of our identities were revealed and we all knew each other ?” Nino groaned.

“It was always…a very low chance, statistically, that Ladybug would just happen to trust all of us without knowing us personally,” Max said, seeming to be kicking himself back into gear. “Of the temporary miraculous holders whose identities we know, the only ones who aren’t from our class are close friends of most people in this room.”

A smacking sound shocked everyone as Chloe slapped her palm on the desk in front of her. She was staring intently at Marinette.

Many of the classmates shared looks and wondered if they should step in. Marinette didn’t look away from Chloe.

“Dupain-Cheng. I,” her voice had started off in its usual assertive tone, but lost strength as she looked off to the side. “Thank you. For Queen Bee.”

“Chloe,” Ladybug waited for Chloe to look back at her, “you earned that yourself. I gave it to you accidentally at the start, but you earned it for yourself in the end.”

Chloe shook her head. “It’s not just that. I’m sorry for Miracle Queen.” She took a breath and turned to face the others too. “I’m sorry to all of you. You were…good heroes. I would have…liked to be on a team with you, truthfully.”

“We can’t really judge you. It’s not like we’ve never been akumatized,” Mylene said hesitantly. Chloe looked at her, surprised, then nodded.

“Actually, the only people who haven’t been akumatized are Adrien and Marinette. So the miraculous must protect you, right?” Max asked.

“I’m not sure because there was that one time with Lila when Marinette almost got akumatized,” Sabrina said. Everyone including Sabrine froze as they remembered that and realized the implications of it.

“Oh my god. You nearly got akumatized because of Lila’s lies. Ladybug almost got akumatized,” Alix said.

“No, I think Ladybug almost got akumatized because of us . The butterfly didn’t get to you until we doubted you,” Rose said quietly.

“Rose-” Marinette was cut off by Mylene’s gasp. “It’s true,” she said, “we nearly got akumatized at the same time too. All because we believed her over you.”

“She set everything up well . I’m not blaming you guys for that.” She put up a hand as they tried to interrupt. “It did hurt. But I don’t want to point fingers at my friends. We’ll work this out.”

Any other words were cut off by the sound of the akuma’s voice calling out down the hallway outside.

Ladybug and Adrien looked at each other and nodded.

“Plagg, transform me!” In a flash of green, Chat Noir stood before them again. When the door opened, it was Ladybug and Chat Noir that the villainess faced.