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This couldn't be happening.
It had taken them the better part of eight years to finally defeat and unmask Hawkmoth. Even now, several months later, Marinette could feel the weariness of the long battle tugging at her bones. With Hawkmoth gone, she finally had the Peacock and Butterfly miraculous back where they belonged. It stung that she couldn't share the good news with Master Fu the way she wanted to, but she believed in her heart that somewhere, somehow, Master Fu knew and was proud of her. Proud of them.
And now that Hawkmoth was finally gone, she had decided that she and Chat Noir could finally find out each other's identities. It wasn't a decision she’d come to lightly, though. She'd gone eight years without knowing who Chat was. That was the status quo between them. The thought of changing that had weighed heavily on her, but she also knew that they couldn't keep things secret forever. Even Tikki had told her that it was time.
So here they were, just the two of them, on a high up rooftop for privacy. The green and red glows from their de-transformations had faded away. But while the face behind Chat's mask had split into a huge smile, Marinette just felt completely frozen. She stared and stared, not even noticing Tikki and Plagg exchanging worried looks, totally dumbfounded by the fact that Adrien Agreste had been behind that mask the whole time.
"Marinette!" Adrien said joyously, clapping his hands together. "I can't believe it's you! It's been you the whole time." He laughed. "I can't believe I called you an 'every day Ladybug' without putting the clues together!"
Marinette smiled on autopilot, but she couldn't share in Adrien's amusement. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, a feeling that she couldn't quite put into words. And Adrien noticed, because of course he did. His smile faded into a self-conscious look.
"Are you - disappointed?" he asked quietly. Behind Adrien's back, over Adrien's shoulder, Plagg shot Marinette a murderously pointed look.
"No!" Marinette blurted out. "I - god no, Adrien, no. I'm not disappointed, I just - your father..."
"Oh, yeah." Adrien's smile was grim this time. "Don't worry about it."
"But all this time..." Marinette said, distressed. She thought back to the final battle and bit her lip as a swell of guilt rose through her. Chat had been distracted during that battle, and she'd been angry about it. She remembered scolding him for his inattention afterwards. Now, knowing that they'd been fighting against his father the whole time, she felt awful.
"It wasn't ideal," Adrien said, which was the understatement of the year. "But you know. We've worked through it. I won't say the last few months have been fun, but..." He shrugged.
Marinette nodded slowly. She'd barely seen Adrien for the past six months since it had all happened. Even Nino had barely spoken to him. They'd all assumed that Adrien was busy dealing with the company and the fallout that came from being Hawkmoth’s son. But it hadn't occurred to any of them that Adrien might be dealing with having had a hand in his father's downfall on top of all that.
"I'm sorry that you had to deal with all of that alone," she said guiltily. If they'd known - if she'd known who Chat was - she could have supported him better.
"I wasn't alone," Adrien said. "And it's, you know. Fine. We're getting there." He ran a hand through his hair, leaving some of it sticking up in spikes, and Marinette couldn't help a small smile. It was truly bizarre to see Adrien and know he was Chat.
"I'm glad. If I can do anything to help, just let me know. And I mean anything," Marinette said, and Adrien flashed her a gorgeous smile that made her knees a little weak.
It was then that the sinking feeling in her stomach truly crystallized, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng realized how utterly fucked she was.
Five years ago, on this very rooftop, Chat Noir had told her that he was in love with her. He'd been very sweet and very serious, so painfully earnest that even in her denial, Ladybug had known that he wasn't joking. The intense look in his bright green eyes had, for a single moment, taken her breath away.
But then reality had snapped back into place, and Ladybug had gotten angry. She didn't understand why Chat couldn't just let it go already, and she'd said as much to him. She'd said that the constant flirting was annoying and that she needed him to just get over it already. She'd told him that never, not in a million billion years, would Ladybug ever love Chat Noir like that. And she'd told him that she never wanted to hear him bring it up again, that this conversation was over permanently, and that it was past time to move on.
Chat had accepted all that with surprising grace, but then he'd probably been expecting it. He hadn't shown up for team patrols for four or five months afterwards. He'd still patrolled, of course, just not with Ladybug, and he still showed up for akuma attacks, but that was it. And it had driven Ladybug crazy. Alya and Tikki had finally teamed up to make her stop trying to talk to him and give Chat the space that in retrospect, he so clearly needed.
And eventually, just as Tikki had promised, Chat had returned. He’d started showing up for team patrols again. But to Ladybug, there was a poignant, noticeable difference in his behavior. He didn't flirt, he didn't call her by silly little nicknames, and he didn't smile at her in that special way anymore. Ladybug would never admit it to anyone but Tikki, but she'd missed the old Chat for a very long time.
"Thanks Marinette," Adrien said, pulling her attention back to him. "You know, I never expected that someone I knew would be behind Ladybug's mask. But I'm glad that it's you."
"I'm glad that it's you too," Marinette lied, but she wasn't.
She'd spent the last eight years in love with Adrien Agreste, not once realizing that she'd broken his heart five years ago. Tikki had told her once, very quietly, that she would regret turning Chat down so harshly. Marinette had blown her off at the time, especially once Chat went back to (mostly) normal. Now, she looked up at Tikki, hovering above her own shoulder, and saw the solemn look on Tikki's face. Tikki had known this moment was coming.
Adrien's smile widened. "It definitely makes things a lot easier," he said. Then his eyes widened. "Oh! Wait, Rena Rouge - Alya...?"
Marinette nodded. "She's my best friend. It made sense."
"And Nino too, then... wait - " Adrien's eyes widened and he laughed again. "Are you telling me 90% of the miraculous holders came from our little class in collège?"
"Um... well..." Marinette said, a little embarrassed. In retrospect, she could see how foolish that was. Plagg snickered, which earned him Tikki flying over to poke him, and then after a short scuffle, both kwamis flew off into the dark, leaving Marinette and Adrien alone.
"That's crazy," Adrien said, shaking his head. He didn't seem to notice their kwami's departure. "I feel so dumb for never noticing. I wondered for years who you were, and you were right there behind me all along!"
"You never pushed too hard, and I appreciated that," Marinette said. She took a deep breath. "Adrien, listen. About - about Chat and Ladybug - "
"I think I know what you're going to say," Adrien interrupted. "And I'm glad you brought it up."
"You are?" Marinette said. For a moment, she felt a wild flicker of hope. Maybe he still felt the same way? Maybe he hadn't moved on?
"I wanted to apologize," Adrien said. "You communicated how you felt about me in so many ways and I didn't pay attention because it didn't line up with what I wanted. Though it hurt at the time, I appreciate you telling me to move on. I needed to hear it. But I'm sorry you had to say it for me to take the hint. I know that made you uncomfortable."
"I didn't - " Marinette wasn't sure what to say. She would've been very happy to hear that apology if it had happened even two hours ago. Chat's feelings had always lingered between them as something that felt unresolved. She'd never been brave enough to ask him if he'd truly moved on, fearing it might open up a can of worms. And now...
"It's okay. I get it, truly." Adrien reached out and took one of her hands in his, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I wanted to bring it up to you before, but I wasn't sure if you'd be okay talking about it. So I decided to wait until we took the masks off... and even then I wasn't sure. But once I saw it was you, I had to say something. I needed to clear the air between us. You're my friend, and I don't want some dumb teenage crush to ruin that."
Oof, that was a dagger straight to the heart. Marinette forced herself to smile. "It's okay, Adrien. We were - " She paused, trying to sort out the right words. "We were in a complicated place," she said finally. "And I'm not mad at you, but I appreciate the apology."
Adrien smiled. "I'm sorry that it came so late," he said.
"So you..." Marinette gazed down at their hands. "You don't - feel that way anymore?" Her voice came out as a thin, nervous squeak.
"No!" Adrien exclaimed. "No, I promise you, I took your advice and moved on. In fact - "
"In fact?" Marinette prompted when he fell silent. She had the feeling she wouldn’t like what was coming, and she was right.
"Well, it's been a secret for a few years now," Adrien said shyly. "I couldn't let my dad know, so basically no one could know, and then everything was such a mess, but now - now there's nothing holding us back. I'm engaged, Marinette."
Engaged.
The word hit Marinette like a ton of bricks.
"You're - engaged?" she gasped.
Adrien nodded. "Yeah. I asked her to marry me a couple weeks ago and she said yes." His eyes sparkled with joy, and Marinette realized that she'd never seen Adrien look so happy. Literally. Not once in all the years they'd worked together, either as Chat or as Adrien, had she seen Adrien look as happy as he did right now.
"Who?" Marinette whispered, casting her mind around frantically. Who would be that close to Adrien? Because it had to be someone close to him, either a friend or someone who could have hung around close to Adrien without drawing Gabriel's attention too obviously. And it was a woman, obviously, because Adrien had said "her" and "she." But who?
"Chloé," Adrien said, a bit nervously, and Marinette's jaw dropped.
"Chloé?! Chloé Bourgeois?!" Her voice rose in shrill disbelief.
Marinette had not seen Chloé Bourgeois since the day they graduated from school, and she was not sorry for that. Though Chloé had somewhat faded into the background of Marinette's lycée experience, things had remained acrimonious between them until the end. One of the best things about graduating, if you asked Marinette anyway, was that she no longer had to worry about seeing Chloé or Lila on a day to day basis. It had never occurred to her that Adrien had kept in touch with Chloé, much less that they might be dating.
Adrien nodded again, unphased by her reaction. "I know that's probably a shock, but Chloé has changed a lot. She's been an amazing friend to me. We started dating a few years ago. She understood me wanting to keep it on the downlow. Only a handful of people know. But now that my father is gone, and I don't have to model anymore, I wanted to make it official. I don't want us to have to hide anymore."
"I'm sorry, Chloé, the same Chloé who bullied me for years, was an amazing friend?" Marinette said hotly, pulling her hand free from Adrien's. This couldn't have come as a more pointed betrayal if Adrien had tried. The only person worse than Chloé would be Lila, really.
"Marinette..." Adrien sighed. "This was also part of why we kept it a secret. Chloé said this was how people would react, and she was right." He surveyed her ruefully, and Marinette felt a jolt of irritation.
"Of course this is how I'd react! I mean - Chloé, seriously? It just doesn't make any sense," Marinette argued. She couldn't bear the thought that when Ladybug rejected Chat, she had inadvertently driven Adrien right into Chloé's arms.
"It doesn't have to make sense to you. It just has to make sense to me," Adrien said quietly, looking disappointed.
"But - " Marinette shook her head. She felt like she'd inadvertently wandered into a bad dream. If the Peacock miraculous weren't sitting securely in her closet right now, she would have thought that Hawkmoth had unleashed another akuma that dealt in nightmares.
"With all due respect, Marinette, you don't know Chloé anymore," Adrien said. "And you don't really know me either."
"Yes I do!" Marinette argued, stung. "You're Adrien! We've been friends for years. And you're Chat Noir too. My partner."
Adrien raised his eyebrows. "That's news to me. I haven't heard you call Chat your partner in years. It's all about how we're a team now, right?"
His tone, sharp and a little pained, made Marinette wince, because he was right. In the beginning, when Chat was the only person she could lean on, they were partners. But the strength of her connection to Chat had definitely faded as more miraculous holders joined the team, and their connection had taken a particular beating after Marinette told Alya the truth about who Ladybug was. Chat just couldn't compete against Rena Rouge after that, and everyone knew it.
Marinette squirmed a bit. "We are a team, but we're still partners. I still know you," she said stubbornly.
"But you don't," Adrien said, very patiently. "You know the parts of Chat that you let me share, but that's not even a tenth of who I am. You didn't want to know."
"It was too dangerous," Marinette said automatically, the excuse that she'd fallen back on for years rising instantly to her lips. Now that Hawkmoth was gone, she knew for sure that Chat Blanc would never come to pass.
"Yeah, sure." He rolled his eyes, which shocked Marinette. She'd never seen sweet Adrien be so callous.
"It was!" she said, stung. "There were things that you didn't know."
"Because you wouldn't tell me," he pointed out.
"I couldn't tell you!"
"But you could tell Rena Rouge, right?"
"That was different," Marinette insisted, and Adrien snorted.
"Sure," he said again. "Look, Marinette. I didn't come here to fight with you." He was quiet for a few seconds, as though trying to choose the right words. "We're friends on both sides of the mask, but we don't spend a lot of time together. I would like to change that. But not if you can't accept Chloé as a part of my life. I don't want to be around someone that can't respect my fiancée."
That hurt. Marinette bit her lip and didn't say anything for a moment. On the one hand, Adrien was right. They weren't close, either inside or outside of the mask. Though she still considered Adrien a friend, she rarely spent time with him even before Hawkmoth's defeat. Adrien was busy all the time, and frankly so was she. Most of what she knew of Adrien now came through Nino's occasional updates. So either Nino didn't know about Chloé, or Adrien had asked him to keep it secret and Nino had obliged.
But on the other hand, it was really hard to think of Chloé as anything other than the grade school bully who had made Marinette's life shit for years. She just couldn't see how someone who was so spoiled, so bratty, and so cruel could have possibly grown up. Yet here Adrien was, looking at her with that same earnestness as Chat. He definitely believed that Chloé had changed. But at the same time, Adrien hadn't been around for all those years either. He'd only seen a fraction of Chloé's bullying.
"I don't know," she said finally, sadly. "I just don't know. This wasn't at all what I expected when I came here tonight."
"What did you expect?" Adrien asked, looking genuinely curious, and Marinette shrugged.
"I thought you'd probably be someone I didn't know," she admitted. "And then when I saw it was you, I - " She stopped herself short. She couldn't admit to Adrien that for a few precious seconds, it had felt like everything was falling into place.
Of course Adrien was Chat Noir. They were meant to be! For those initial few seconds, Marinette had felt a blissful kind of excitement unlike everything else. But then reality had crashed in hard, and she remembered that Ladybug had already turned Chat down flat. Then she'd tried to convince herself that Ladybug turning down Chat didn't mean that Marinette had turned down Adrien, but that hadn't lasted too long either.
It was true what they said. Reality was a bitch.
"You were surprised? Disappointed?" Adrien filled in, frowning. "I knew it. I'm not what anyone would imagine as Chat Noir." He crossed his arms over his chest. "But I did my best, you know."
"Adrien, of course you did! That's not - I don't - ugh." Marinette rubbed her forehead and wished that Tikki would come back. She was making a complete mess of this. Nothing about this night had gone the way she'd planned. It was just so unfair!
“Maybe I should go,” Adrien said. “This has been a huge shock. We need time to get used to it before anything else happens.” He sounded as disappointed as he looked, which hit Marinette hard.
“No, don’t go,” she said. “We can make this right.” Surely, if he stayed, she could convince him that he was meant to love her, not Chloé.
Adrien shook his head. “Let’s give it a few days. I’ll skip patrol tomorrow.” He paused, then added, “I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone who I am yet.”
“But I tell Alya everything,” Marinette said automatically, and could have kicked herself as soon as she saw the look on his face.
“Fine. Whatever,” Adrien said. “See you around, Marinette. Plagg!”
Plagg zoomed back over to Adrien from wherever he’d been hiding, and one flash of green light later, Chat Noir leaped over the side of the rooftop and took off. Marinette watched him go, her throat tight and her eyes burning. She’d screwed up royally and she knew it. Chat was pissed off and she had no idea what this meant for the future of the team.
“Marinette?” Tikki said gently, flying over to her.
“Tikki, I – how did this all go so wrong?” Marinette asked miserably, brushing at her eyes. “It’s Adrien. This should be the happiest day of my life.”
Tikki sighed. “I did warn you,” she murmured. “I told you that Chat was a real person behind that mask.”
“I knew that!” Marinette snapped. “Of course he is.”
“Did you, though?” Tikki said, looking at her in that gently scolding way that always made Marinette feel like shit. “For years now, Chat Noir has just been a mask to you. I think you came here tonight expecting to meet the fourteen-year-old Chat Noir that’s always been in your head, not realizing that while you were growing up and changing, so was he.”
Marinette opened her mouth and then closed it. Tikki was right, she realized, and that made her feel even worse. It was so easy to think of Chat as just Chat, rather than as a whole person with a life that didn’t stop at the miraculous. She felt a little foolish for not having realized that earlier – and a little guilty. This would have gone much better, she thought, if it had happened eight years ago. Back when it was just Ladybug and Chat, partners against the world, just Marinette and Adrien, without all of the baggage they’d accumulated over the years. Back before everything got so damn complicated.
“He’s engaged, Tikki,” she confided. “To Chloé, of all people. What am I going to do?”
Tikki cam a little closer and put her paw on Marinette’s cheek, brushing away a tear. “I think you should go home, take a hot bath, eat some chocolate, and call Alya.”
“That sounds pretty good,” Marinette said with a wobbly smile. She felt a little better, thinking about Alya – her best friend was sure to freak out when she heard everything that had happened tonight, and sure to be on Marinette’s side too. Alya had always been her partner in crime when it came to Adrien. Surely Alya would be able to help her think of a way to get Adrien away from Chloé. She wouldn’t let it be too late for Ladybug and Chat Noir to have their happily ever after.