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Marinette thought herself to be a fairly good person. She helped her parents in the bakery, she stood up against bullies like Chloe, and she kept her room relatively clean. She was a considerate person, no matter how clumsy she could be without Tikki. The eurasian middle schooler had many talents - sewing, crafting accessories, graphic design, saving the world weekly from a supervillain, baking, acting — she was proud of all that!
She was a good person.
She didn’t deserve this.
In her defense, as Ladybug, she got asked for photos and autographs all the time! Whenever she’d have time between akuma attacks and the fear of de-transforming in public, she’d happily grant the people of Paris their wish of interacting with their favorite superheroine. She’d sign Ladybug with big swirling script so many times that she’d often almost write it on homework assignments. She wanted her alter ego’s autograph to be constant and memorable, was that such a crime?
Still, Tikki did have a point when she made a joke about it back home, the kwami and Miraculous holder free to chat in the privacy of Marinette’s room.
“It’s so great that Adrien asked for your autograph, Marinette!” the ladybug kwami had mused. “You were in such a lovestruck daze, though. I hope you didn’t sign the CD as Ladybug!” The two had giggled together for a moment, before Marinette froze abruptly, her eyes wide, her mouth agape.
I...Wait. Doubts flooded her mind, and in an instant she sunk to the floor. Her fingernails dug into her scalp as she tried to suddenly recall her interaction with Adrien. He asked for my autograph. He asked for Marinette’s autograph. I gave him my autograph. I wrote my name. I wrote Marinette, right? Didn’t I? Or did I mess up? Ladybug. I didn’t write that. I couldn’t have. Did I write Ladybug or Marinette? Ladybug. Or Marinette? It’s not that much of a reflex that I would sign Ladybug as soon as I heard the word autograph, right? I wasn’t Ladybug then, so I couldn’t have signed Ladybug. I signed my name. Marinette. Right? Didn’t I? Oh, why can’t I remember? Did I even look at the stupid CD when I wrote it? Why was I so absorbed in Adrien talking to me? Ooohh, I couldn’t help it — he seemed so shy and sweet and adorable and I wasn’t — But — But! Aaahh!
When Marinette opened her eyes, panic coursing through her veins like adrenaline, Tikki, the sweet little thing, was the first thing she saw. The kwami was easy to see when floating right in front of her face. Tikki gazed into her friend’s eyes with the utmost sympathetic and comforting expression.
“Tikki,” Marinette moaned in despair, ‘Tikki, I messed up! Oh, this is even worse than not leaving a signature on Adrien’s birthday present or his Valentine’s Day card! I think I actually did give him Ladybug’s signature! What am I going to do?” She felt her eyes prick with tears and a lump emerge in her throat. Someone would know she, the quiet, boring, clumsy Marinette Dupain-Cheng, was masquerading as the beautiful, confident heroine Ladybug! Adrien would know! Oh, just what would he think of her now? She’d be a joke.
“Oh, Marinette, I’m sorry,” murmured Tikki, spreading her tiny red arms and hugging Marinette’s nose. “Hopefully Adrien is dense enough to not connect you writing Ladybug as an autograph to the possibility that you in reality are Ladybug.”
He isn’t.
. . .
When Adrien thought of Marinette, he thought of the pretty girl that sat behind him in class. The girl who, although a tad clumsy and tongue-tied, had one of the biggest hearts in the world. The girl with more talent in her finger than most people had in their whole body. A girl that was brave and smart and close to her family. A girl that would become a star in the Fashion World, the Art World, probably becoming an even bigger success than his father. An exceptionally nice girl that Adrien was happy to call his friend and classmate.
That was probably why he had been so nervous about asking for her autograph. He wasn’t surprised when Marinette thought he wanted an autograph from Jagged Stone; but, while the musician was his favorite idol, Adrien already had more than enough autographs from the man from all the times he had interacted with the famous Rock Star, like when Jagged Stone had been a judge at the culinary competition that Master Cheng had justly won. Adrien had more than enough signed merchandise hanging on a wall in his room.
It wasn’t every day that a girl in your class, a girl you knew, was given the opportunity to design the album cover for the legend at the top of the charts. Plus, Marinette’s design was amazing! Beautiful! It captured Jagged Stone and his style perfectly!
Adrien had been one of the first in line to buy the album as it was released, and he had been floored when he saw Marinette Dupain-Cheng credited on the back for the album design. He had been so shocked that he tripped walking out onto the sidewalk. Plagg had, of course, secretly laughed from inside his shirt pocket.
That same night, the boy steeled himself for talking to her at school the next day. The fact that Marinette had caught Jaggard Stone’s attention only reestablished the fact that Marinette was one of the coolest people Adrien knew. After Ladybug, of course! He’d never forget his lady. Adrien had ranted about Marinette’s art the whole night, much to Plagg’s chagrin, going on and on about the album cover’s detail as well as the other work he remembered her creating.
Initially, Adrien had wanted to tell Marinette, “Great job, Marinette! Your design is beautiful. I’m sure Jaggard Stone was really impressed. You’re amazing!”
But, like the dork he secretly was, Adrien asked for her autograph.
He was so grateful for Marinette signing his album copy that he basically just walked away, not sticking around to talk to her as he looked at her signature. Looking back, a jerkish move on his part. It was only when he was in the privacy of bathroom that he took a good look at Marinette’s autograph. Plagg freed himself from Adrien’s shirt to get a look at the letters printed in neat, wide script.
Ladybug.
Adrien blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. He glanced at his confused face in the mirror and stared at the letters again. Ladybug still stared back at him. Adrien took a breath. “Uh,” he exhaled, “what...?”
Adrien jumped when Plagg suddenly burst with laughter, the black cat kwami clutching his stomach as he floated horizontally in the air. “Oh, man!” Plagg roared. “This is hilarious! I never thought she’d reveal herself so carelessly—”
“Plagg!” Adrien reached out and captured Plagg in his hands, the creature trapped between Adrien’s palm and new CD. “Quiet!” he hushed, looking around the empty bathroom. Adrien took a breath and urged Plagg back into his school bag. The kwami only continued to chuckle.
“It’s just...It’s just, she is the one always careful about her identity, and she just went ahead and confessed it on your CD!”
Adrien glared, temporarily storing the CD between his side and arm in order to forcefully scrub his hands in the sink. “You don’t know that Marinette’s Ladybug. It had to be a mistake. It doesn’t make sense!”
“Or does it?” Plagg poked his head out. “I’ve seen Tikki in her purse when she sits behind you in class all the time!”
Adrien flinched and the CD hit the floor with a bang. The teen cringed. Hastily picked it up, dusted it off. “And you never told me?”
“Fu’s orders. ‘Don’t reveal another Miraculous Holder until they discover the truth themselves,’ or some wise junk like that.” Plagg stuck his tongue out. Adrien flicked his nose. “Ow! Rude!”
Pinching the bridge of his own nose, Adrien took a deep breath. Okay, he thought, so. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the girl that has sat behind you in class all semester, the baker’s daughter, the fashion genius, the class president, the best friend of the girl that runs the Ladyblog, the girl that had fought amazingly well against Evillistrator, the girl you are friends with, is Ladybug. Go figure.
He closed his eyes and compared Ladybug’s and Marinette’s appearances. They were exactly the same, if not for the red of Ladybug’s suit accenting her eye and hair color more. Adrien smacked himself across the face. He was so stupid! It’s so obvious! They have the same voice — sure, Ladybug was much more confident when he was Chat, and Marinette was much more tongue tied when he was Adrien, but they had the overall same tone, same diction. How had he missed that?
Adrien groaned and looked back at the album in his hands. Ladybug printed against Marinette’s phenomenal design.
Marinette was Ladybug, his lady, the superheroine of Paris, his partner. Marinette was the girl he secretly claimed to love, the girl he had known almost nothing about, the girl he suddenly knew a lot more about. She was the girl that he wanted to know better, the girl he wanted to give his heart away to.
He needed a plan.
. . .
Marinette continued to sit in her room as the hours ticked by, this time gazing at her ceiling from her lofted bed. She had pulled herself together enough to eat dinner with her parents, even washed up and dressed in her pajamas. She’d reassured Tikki that she would be okay, that she would try to calmly talk to Adrien tomorrow.
Irrationally, she hoped she’d never see him again. A stark difference from her mood earlier in the day. Before she blew everything. Before Adrien discovered she was a liar, a fraud.
This was partially why Marinette had sworn to herself that Chat Noir would never discover her identity: she didn’t want to disappoint him. Surprise! The Super-Cool Super Heroine, Savior of Paris, Ladybug is actually Boring, Dumb, Average, Clumsy Marinette! Ta-da!
No. Who in the world would possibly see that as good news, an improvement?
Marinette stared at her alarm clock, the tenth hour blinking at her, mocking her, and sulked.
Tikki, the kind dear, tried everything she could to comfort Marinette, but the girl only gazed at the hatch to the roof, not saying a word.
The thump above her head shocked Marinette into action. She sat up in a flash, listening. Someone just landed on my roof! she realized. A thought struck her like lightning: Is it an Akuma? For an instant, Marinette and Tikki, both startled, gazed at each other, eyes flashing in anticipation. “Tikki, Sp—”
There was a knock.
Tikki dove into Marinette’s top as the middle schooler forced open the hatch, her eyes warning that a fight was fast approaching whether she was transformed or not.
Chat Noir sat on her balcony railing, his hands and feet holding him up, and smiled his most sheepish of smiles, eyes twinkling with an emotion Marinette didn’t have the time nor energy to place.
“Chat, what are you doing here?” Marinette stood on the roof, gripping her bare arms as the cold hit her. At least it wasn’t an Akuma attack.
Chat’s grin only grew wider, and the masked boy jumped down from the banister. A plastic rectangle was placed in Marinette’s hand. It smelt of sweat and leather. From the light that came from her room, Marinette was able to clearly see the object. Jagged Stone’s album. Her autograph. Ladybug’s autograph. The one she mistakenly gave to Adrien that day. Marinette was quickly captured in Chat’s eyes, trying to see beyond his mask, trying to see if she understood correctly.
Chat’s smile was open, reassuring and kind.
“Lovely evening for listening to Jagged Stone’s new album, isn’t it, My—Princess?”
Chat cupped Marinette’s face with his ringed paw and closed his eyes. First, Marinette saw the neon green light, felt skin instead of leather against her face, and suddenly Adrien Agrest stood before her, giving her a look with so much hope, so much affection, that Marinette didn’t know what to say.
Adrien took a deep breath and wrapped Marinette in a long hug, the words, “I always knew you were amazing,” caressing her ears like a warm gust of wind.