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Cat Noir watched it in slow motion. He watched as Ladybug was hit by Sandboy's dust. He watched as her yo-yo relaxed and whirred quickly back in. He watched as she started to fall, plummeting towards the ground.
He had started moving almost immediately, 1 thought running through his mind: Save Ladybug.
Cat flew through the air, baton in one hand as he reached out for her, panic already setting in.
She didn't usually fall so easily. she was usually much more stable when swinging. This wasn't like her.
His arm closed around Ladybug's waist as he extended the baton, launching the two of them up in the air. It was at this moment the sound came back. And he heard her scream.
"It's alright, My Lady," he whispered to her, to reassure himself more than her. "I've got you."
"Cat," She whispered, her words filled with fear and shock. "Cat, they're gone."
Confusion shifted across his face as he set the 2 of them down on a secluded rooftop.
"Gone?"
Ladybug nodded, gesturing with her yo-yo, which extended a little, before flopping onto the rooftop again.
"My powers. The Akuma, he hit me. And, well, my greatest fear is loosing my powers, I guess."
"That's it? just losing your powers? That's your greatest fear?" He leaned slowly closer to her. "Not one Cat deciding he no longer loves you, bugaboo?"
Ladybug snorted and pushed him away.
"In your dreams Kitty."
Cat just pouted and laughed.
"But seriously Kitty, I'm glad this is what happened. My other fear, well, it's a little more, embarrassing." For some reason, her cheeks started to turn bright red.
"What exactly do you mean, My Lady?" Cat asked curiously.
Ladybug seemed to flush an even darker shade of red. "Well, um, you see, well-"
"Marinette!"
A sing-song voice sounded out from the rooftop across from them.
Cat saw her face turn pale in the darkening light, her mouth hanging open in fear. Slowly, he turned his head to look across the rooftop at the intruder.
And saw himself.
Not transformed, of course. But, certainly Adrien was stood across the rooftop from them, and slowly making his way closer, lurching in an almost zombie-like fashion, a he continued to spit out rubbish left right and centre, words he would never say himself.
"I'm in love with a girl, and her name is Chloe!"
Huh. As if. There was only 1 girl who had a grip on his heart, and she was currently clutching him in fear and staring in absolute horror at the zombi-drien lurching slowly closer, muttering,"No, no no. Please no."
But her greatest fear was him? Well, him confessing his undying love for Chloe, which was still completely unrealistic. After all, Chloe was like a sister to him. He'd known her all his life, and not once had he felt anything more for her than that.
"Marinette!"
There it was again. the random calling out of Marinette's name, as though he was talking to her. Well, he supposed that would make sense, if he was Marinette's greatest fear- oh, and had he done so much to try and make her like him again that if that was the case he couldn't stand it- but Ladybug had been hit after all, so him calling for Marinette would make no-
Oh.
He looked back down at Ladybug, whose eyes were still filled with the same fear and it all clicked. Of course she was Marinette! Of course brave, strong and amazing Marinette was brave, strong and amazing Ladybug. Of course the 2 greatest women in his life were one in the same-
And she was afraid of him. That made his heart, which had been soaring in the skies with the knowledge of his Lady's identity, came crashing back down to earth with a deafening thump. She hated him, and there was nothing he could do to fix it.
"Marinette!"
Right. That did it. that sing-song mockery of his voice was getting on his nerves. Gritting his teeth, Cat gripped a little tighter to Ladybug and leapt into the air- where he headed to he did not care, just as long as he took Marinette away, away from the fight for a few minutes, away from the singing and creepy version of himself, away from what she feared.
The two of them settled down onto a rooftop somewhere far away, and he released her from his grasp. Ladybug swayed, before collapsing onto the rooftop in front of him.
"Cat," she whispered, "Cat, you can't tell anyone, anyone who I am. Please. Not even Fu. If he knows, he might take your miraculous away. Please, I can't do this without you."
Quickly, Cat dropped down onto his knees beside her and enveloped Ladybug- Marinette, whoever- in a tight hug.
"I won't milady, I promise. Cat's honour. I, I couldn't do any of this without you to, and I can't afford to loose you, or my miraculous. I promise, no one else will know."
"Thank you, Cat" she said, looking up at him with her bright blue eyes. "Thank you."
Then she straightened up, pushing his arms off her as she focused on the vague direction she remembered the Akuma being in. "Now, we've got an Akuma to take care of."
Cat Noir grinned. Now that was his Lady. Quickly, he shot back up and wrapped an arm around her waist, preparing to extend his baton out again.
"Well," he smirked, "We better go cat-ch him."
It was 2 hours later. The akuma had been vanquished, of course, and Cat had offered to take the young boy back to his home. Ladybug had seemed distracted, her head still reeling from earlier, and he didn't want to burden her with the troubles of finding a young boy's parents so late at night. Also, he had wanted the time to himself to think.
Cat had always imagined how their reveal would go, how she would finally agree to his insistent demands to learn who she was behind the mask. When she would voluntarily relinquish her transformation and tell him her name, and he would do the same. And when she would look into his eyes and maybe, just maybe fall in love with him.
Of course, that had all been dashed when he saw who her greatest fear was. And now, how would he ever be able to talk to Marinette again knowing how she truly felt about him. Well, not like she would ever stop to talk to him in the first place.
Sighing, Cat had handed over the young boy to his crying mother and, after a brief conversation ounctuated with tear-filled thanks, he zipped back home, dropping his transformation the second he fell into the window, before burying his face into his pillow.
"Finally!" his greedy kwami exclaimed as he zipped out of the ring, "Seriously, I thought that would never end. You spent way to long fighting that one, kid. Now, where's my cheese?"
"Where it always is Plagg," Adrien responded, his head still in the pillow.
The kwami zipped away and returned a second later, gulping down his cheese as he floated towards his holder's face.
"Still thinking about Pigtails, huh Kid?"
"She hates me, Plagg." Adrien muttered, turning his head to look at the cat.
A surprised expression seemed to appear on the Cat's face.
"Hate you? What gave you that impression?"
"Fear me then, it doesn't matter. I appeared when she was hit by Sandboy's dust. Despite everything I've done to make her feel comfortable around me, she still is afraid of me."
"And she told you this? She told you that she was scared of you?"
"No, but, well, why else was I her greatest fear?"
"She was yours," The kwami answered simply. "When you were hit, an evil version of her showed up. Not once did she think that you were afraid of her. Why do you think that is?"
"Well, no, of course she didn't think that. After all, the fake-Ladybug acted nothing like the real one."
"And the fake you did?"
That shook him, cause of course it didn't. He had even thought as much when they had appeared, the Adrien that Marinette was afraid of and the Adrien he was now were completely opposite. Well, the hopeless romanticism was still there, but everything else was so wrong.
"So, why was she afraid of me then?" Adrien asked.
"Beats me kid, but shouldn't you really be asking her those questions?"
Adrien sighed and turned his gaze towards his numerous, ceiling-high windows, and the Parisian city-scape sleeping quietly in the now morning air. His eyes roamed before they locked onto a rooftop that led dirrectly to Marinette's. It would be so easy, so simple, to just transform and run across the rooftops towards her, ask her how she felt about him, sort things out, and hopefully reveal things to her.
And not get thrown off the roof because she hated him.
That would also be a bonus.
"Fine Plagg, we're heading out."
The Kwami of destruction's expression shifted from one of exasperation to shock.
"Already? Come on kid, let me savour this cheese just a little-"
Adrien smirked as he leapt off his bed and reached out his arm.
"Sorry Plagg, but you were the one who suggested it. Plagg, Claws out!"
The wave of energy had not even finished washing over him before Adrien was at the window, leaping out into the cold air.
She was already outside when he landed on the rooftop behind her, huddled up beneath a blanket as she watched the sleepy stars blink beneath the clouds. Cat felt his heart soar higher as she turned to look at him, a drowsy look in her eyes.
"Cat," Marinette wispered, before letting out a yawn that set his heart a flutter, "I was expecting you to come earlier."
"I had to think some things over, Princess," he replied, slipping down to her level before sitting beside her, watching the stars up above, "You shouldn't have sat out here all by yourself, you know. Just because your a hero, doesn't mean your immune to the cold."
Marinette let out a deep sigh and sagged down, looking at Cat with sadness reflected in her bluebell orbs.
"I was really hoping you might have forgotten that. Or that I had imagined it. I guess my luck's not that good."
Cat chuckled at that.
"No, but your lucky everywhere else, My Lady."
"Feels weird to here you say that while I'm like this."
"Yeah."
The 2 sat in uncomfortable silence as they continued to stare at the heavens above, neither wanting to voice what was in their mind, neither wanting to cross that river least it change things too much, lest things break irredeemably between them. But, Cat was the first to crack.
"Tonight, when you were hit, Adrien Agreste appeared before you, started going off on a tangent about Chloe and whatever." He turned to look at Marinette, seeing tears beginning to form in her eyes. slowly, he lifted his right arm to her face and wiped away the tears. "What I wanted to ask, was why he appeared. Does," and his voice cracked, not wanting the answer, but still needing it, "Does he make you uncomfortable? Do-do you hate him?"
Marinette shuddered slightly, before turning to meet his eyes.
"No. I don't hate him kitty, and I don;t think I ever could."
Cat took a deep breath and, trying to settle his nerves and appear as a nuetral, third party that had absolutely no stakes in the next question. "So, why did he appear then?"
Marinette looked at him sadly.
"Kitty, I don't think you want to know." She began to shift towards the skylight, legs shifting to stand up.
"Please Marinette," his hand shot out and grabbed hers, "Please, tell me. I can't sleep, knowing something is hurting you. You offered me some sympathy before when me fear was you turning against me and when the cage appeared around me. You helped me then. Please, let me help you now. Tell me what's wrong."
She seemed to deliberate for a moment, hovering in the air and watching him questioningly, before she relented and settled back down next to him.
"Promise me you won't get jealous?" She asked, looking at him pleadingly.
He nodded, not exactly sure why she was asking.
She took a deep breath, before saying, slowly and deliberately, "It wasn't Adrien that I was afraid of, it was more what he was saying." She looked over and, seeing no judgement, began to talk with a little more conviction. "He, he was saying that he wanted to marry Chloe, bring her flowers, all that sort of thing, and that's not what I want, i don't want to see him married to Chloe, doting on her, I want to see him with me, married to me, that's why, it's all so stupid, it's a stupid little crush I have on him and now it will all be ruined because Adrien will find out that he was my greatest fear and he'll never want to speak with me again and my life will be over and I'll die alone without anyone with no kids and no house and no hamster."
Tears started to flow out from her eyes as she shook violently. Cat reached out and pulled her into a hug, his mind racing with the knowledge of all that had just come spilling out her mouth.
She liked him. Marinette liked him. And, she had been turning him down, turning Cat down, for Adrien, for himself. He almost laughed at the absurdity, but quickly realised that laughing at something around Marinette in the state she was in, not that he would be laughing at her, could be taken the wrong way, and he didn't want to fight her if she was akumatised.
"Have you told him? How you feel, I mean?" he asked, knowing the answer, but he needed to ask it in preparation for his next one.
She gulped, brushing away some more tears. "No, I can never do it. Every time I try to do something nice to him, every time I try to talk to him, i keep clamming up, I keep stuttering. I've been getting better, I've been talking to him more and more, but I still haven't been able to do it. And, at this point, I don't think I'll ever be able to do it."
"Tell him." Cat said, filling his voice with as much confidence as he could muster. "My Lady, you should tell him tomorrow. At School. I promise you, things will go well."
"But, but what about you? I know you like me, are you alright with this?"
"My Lady, you shouldn't be stopping yourself from happiness just because I may feel bad for a couple of hours. You should be able to enjoy life without superheroes getting in the way of everything."
Marinette seemed to mull over his words for a minute, before nodding.
"Aright, I'll do it. Tomorrow, I'll do it."
Cat hugged her again, before standing up, pulling out his baton.
"I wish you luck, My Lady." He said, turning to look at her.
She looked almost surprised to see him ready to leave.
"Your going? Just like that? I thought you would have tried a little harder to tell me who you were as well. Not that I want you to," she added hastily, "No, I want you to tell me when you're ready, when you feel comfortable, I'm just surprised you didn't push the matter."
Cat grinned.
"I was considering it, but really, there has been enough reveals for one night. I promise you I'll tell you tomorrow, if you ask out Adrien, that is."
And with that, Cat leapt off the balcony and soared away.
It was 8 in the morning. School didn't start for another 30 minutes, and Marinette still hadn't left. She knew she should have started going, to catch up with Alya, Nino and Adrien- Adrien, who she was going to confess to, Adrien who she would, for the first time, not stutter around and hold a normal conversation with. But now, she was frozen, sat in her room, unable to move.
"I can't do it Tikki."
The red-and-black kwami sighed and drifted infront of her chosen's face.
"Yes you can Marinette," she encouraged, smiling brightly, "You heard Cat, he thinks you have a really good chance with Adrien, you just have to speak to him."
"But I'll just clam up and start stumbling and tripping over my words and he will think I'm weird and he'll never love me and I'll be all alone and live on my own for the rest of my life because he will hate me and his dad will hate me and I will be outcasted from Paris and have to move as far away as possible and leave everythingh behind and-"
"Marinette!" the normally reserved kwami shouted.
The girl in question looked up in surprise.
"You know Adrien will never hate you. He has never thought bad of you before, and he won't think bad of you now. Sure, he will be shocked, but that won't be a bad thing. Now, unless you want Chloe to latch onto his arm all day, you need to get moving right now."
The words seemed to spark something within Marinette. She shot up, a determined expression set on her face as she grabbed her bag.
"Your right Tikki. I am Ladybug. I can do this. I can tell Adrien how I feel. I will do this,"
The Kwami giggled. "That's right Marinette."
And with that, the blue-haired girl ran downstairs, out of the bakery and across the street to school, tripping over her feet in her egerness to talk to Adrien.
She found him sat on a bench inside the main courtyard, tucked away towards the side of the school, picked to avoid the attention of as many fangirls as possible, his eyes trained on the main doors. Her eyes metb his and she fealt a burning blush begin to spread as he waved at her. Marinette took a deep breath of air, before approaching.
"Marinette!" he said, patting the bench beside him, "I hope your alright after last night."
"L-last night?" she stuttered. Surely he didn't know her fear, right?
"Yeah, that Akuma didn't hurt you too much, did he? I've been hearing people were terrified to their wits end last night, I wanted to make sure you were alright."
Marinette felt her heart beat faster. Why did he have to be so sweet when she wanted to talk to him? At this rate she'll never get it out.
Marinette sat in the proffered seat and turned to look at Adrien, who was still looking at her with those soft, kind eyes.
"I'm alright, but, well, there is one thing that I'm still thinking about."
Adrien looked at her with even more kindness behind his eyes than she ever thought was possible.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Her eyes darted to the floor as she felt her blush begin to spread.
"Well, you see, the Akuma made me realise that, well, I have been putting things off for long enough, and I should do what I should have done at the start."
"Which is?"
Marinette felt the blush creep further up.
"Adrien, I, I like you. Like a lot. As, well, as more than a friend."
She kept her eyes locked on the pavement bellow, avoiding his gaze for fear of his response.
"And- and I know that you probably don't feel the same way about me, but I just wanted to tell you, infact you probab;y don't feel the same, you probably hate me now that I've said that and now your going to run away and never look at me again and fall in love with Chloe and bring her flowers and get married and have 3 kids and a hamster and I'll be all alone because everyone will know that I was regected by Adri-"
She was suddenly cut off and a pair of arms were wrapped around her torso and holding her tight.
"Thank you, My Lady."
Shge stiffened and turned to look at Adrien, sat their, arms around her with a lovestruck expression on his face.
"And, like I said yesterday, I feel the same way."
"C-CAT?" Marinette whisper-screamed. Adrien began shushing her violently.
"My lady, we better not be too loud, can't risk letting the cat out of the bag now, can we?"
She huffed, trying to cross her arms over her chest in a fake pout, but they landed on Adrien's which he still hadn't moved.
"I can't believe I fell in love with a pun-spitting dork like you."
She tried to sound serious, but even she could tell that it sounded half-hearted. And it seemed Adrien thought so too.
"But you love me anyway."
Marinette couldn't help the smile that started growing on her face.
"That I do, kitty. That I do."
And she turned and wrapped her arms around Adrien, burying her head into his neck.
"Why didn't you tell me yesterday? When you learned I loved you? You just sat their, gave me advice and left."
Adrien seemed to think about it for a moment.
"Really, I don't know why. It's just, I felt it was wrong, you confessing your love to me when you didn't know it was me. You deserved to tell me on your own terms. After the reveal, it was the next best thing for you."
Marinette pulled back to look him in the eye.
"No kitty, there is one thing better." Her eyes flicked down.
His eyes filled with confusion, before widening in realisation. Slowly, be leant forward as she did the same, capturing her lips in their first of many kisses.
And, when they walked into class 20 minutes later, arm in arms with Adrien's lips slightly more glossy than usual, Alya exploded in glee. She swore up and down that day that it was the best thing she had ever seen.
That quickly dropped to second best thing that afternoon as, after an Akuma attack with a very irritated Chloe, Ladybug and Cat Noir shared one brief but equally passionate kiss.