MARINETTE'S POV

Last night was quite an adventure. Nothing will ever compare to fighting crime alongside Chat Noir. Even with all of the close calls we've had, I would never give it up the rushing feeling of it. My life had finally become something more than just going to school and doing homework.

I woke up in bed the morning after defeating our last akumatized victim. I was feeling a little more tired than usual, since the battle took place much later than usual. I looked at my phone realizing that once again, I was late for school. I rushed to put on my clothes, eat, brush my teeth, grab my bag, and get to school as fast as I could.

"Marinette." Tikki said with a longing voice.

I didn't hear her.

"Marinette!" Tikki said louder.

"Huh?! Wha-" I said, running out the front door.

"Marinette, you're forgetting something!"

"Oh my gosh! Sorry Tikki!" I said, placing her into my bag.

I ran out the door to the bakery and locked the it on the way out. I got to school, out of breath, and ran into Alya at her locker.

"Hey, girl! Slept in again?" Alya said with a giggle.

"Sorry, Alya! And yeah, you know me! Always staying up late designing!"

I felt bad lying to Alya, but she couldn't know what I was doing.

I walked back to my locker and grabbed my books for class. I saw Adrien walk by in the corner of my eye, so of course, my face turned bright red and I shoved my head into my locker. I waited to make sure he was gone before I poked my head out and shut my locker.

I ran to class, extremely lucky I wasn't late, and sat down next to Alya. The bell rang as soon as I did. The teacher stood up from her desk and started roll call. The whole class wasn't very interesting, so I just stared at Adrien the whole time.

After school, I went home, ready to take care of the bakery while my parents went to a friends home. The bakery was busier than usual, so my clumsy self had trouble keeping up with demand. I called Alya to come help. Thank goodness she came, I would never have been able to help all the people there.

As soon as my parents came back, I ran up the stairs to my room to start my homework, before I realized the time.

"8;00? Tikki, I'm late for patrol! Chat Noir has been waiting for an hour now!"

"Well you did have to take care of the bakery." Tikki said in a calming voice.

"Yeah, I'll have to come up with an excuse. Tikki, spots on!"

After transforming, I quickly got out my yo-yo to swing to our meeting spot on the ledge of a building. Chat Noir wasn't there.

"What was I expecting? He's probably doing his job…" I mumbled to myself.

"What was that bug-a-boo? Were you talking about me?" Chat Noir said with a smirk.

I turned around, startled, to see Chat Noir standing directly behind me, leaning on his staff.

"Chat! You scared me!" I yelled.

"You were talking about me, weren't you?"

"Yeah, yeah." I said, rolling my eyes.

"So, where were you all this time?" Chat asked.

"Busy."

"Busy with what?"

"Stuff."

"What stuff?"

"Stuff you don't get to know about." I said with a huff.

Chat noir raised his eyebrows and took a step closer. He leaned his head in and looked into my eyes, until reverting his attention to something behind me. He squinted his eyes and tilted his head before stepping to the side. I turned around, to see what he was looking at.

"Alya?" I whispered.

Chat Noir's head quickly spun to look at me.

"You know her?"

"Well, duh, she's my…" I said before covering my mouth with my hands.

Chat Noir smiled and jumped down to go talk to Alya. I watched him talk to her as I clenched my fists, mad at him for going down there.

"Ladybug!" Chat Noir called. "It's Alya! You know her!"

I felt anger bubble up inside me before taking a deep breath to calm down. I jumped down to Alya and Chat Noir.

"Oh my gosh! Ladybug! Hi!" Alya said excited.

"Hello Alya, do you mind if I have a little chat with my cat here?" I said looking chat directly in the eyes angrily. Chat rubbed the back of his neck, nervous.

Alya looked back and forth at the both of us for a couple seconds before confusingly saying, "Oh yeah! Totally! Take your time."

I dragged Chat Noir to an alley by his tail to confront him.

"I don't know what you think you're doing, but it's not going to work!"

"I wasn't trying to do anything, m'lady." Chat said with a wink.

I rolled my eyes and shoved him against the wall. Chat's face turned red.

"If you're trying to figure out my identity, you're not going to!" I started yell.

Chat looked down at me, flustered. He didn't say anything as his face kept getting redder. I let him go off the wall, sighing.

"I'm sorry, Chat. We just can't know each other's identities."

Chat stared at me before quickly saying, "Oh-yeah-it-I mean- I won't." He groaned. "It's okay LB. I understand." He said with a small smile.

"Hey guys!" Alya called from around the corner. "It's getting kind of late, I have to go home!"

I walked around the corner and asked what time it was.

"9:30." She answered.

In a panic, I told Chat and Alya goodnight and that I had something to do. I flew off before they could get a word in.

When I got home, I de-transformed and got straight to working on my homework. Before I could even get started, there was a knock on my window.

Scared out of my mind, I fell back out of my chair. I got up quickly to see who was outside.

I peeked out my window to see Chat Noir peeking his head out with a quirky smile. Again, I fell down.

After processing it through my head I got back up as Chat Noir was asking if he could come in. I opened the window and stuck my head out.

"What are you doing here?!" I asked.

"I was coming to see if you were okay." Chat whispered.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I exclaimed, confused.

"Well, with the evillustrator incident last week, I wanted to make sure." He said.

"Oh," I laughed nervously. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"So, can I come in?" He said with a pout.

I thought about it for a second. Should I let him? What if he sees something that indicates I'm Ladybug? What would Tikki think?

"Yeah, come in." I said, stupidly.

Chat climbed through the window and looked around my room before focusing on the pictures of Adrien I had hung up. He stared at them for awhile, completely frozen.

I ran over in front of the photos, completely embarrassed.

"Oh! Don't look at these. They're nothing just some regular pictures I have of the most...amazing, funny, perfect boy… I've ever met…" I said, starting to day dream.

"Um, Marinette?" Chat said confused.

I jumped. "It's nothing don't worry about it."

"Do you… have a crush on him?" Chat asked skeptically.

"No!... Yes? Oh, why do you care?" I said, embarrassed.

Chat's face turned as red as a strawberry. "I don't."

Chat sat down on the couch, eyes wide, still not moving. He would watch me as I walked around the room, putting things in my bag for school and getting ready for bed.

As I brushed my teeth, I looked in the mirror to see Chat looking back at the pictures of Adrien, then at me, then , then me, and so on. He made eye contact with me in the mirror, and I quickly looked away, flustered. Now that I was looking at him, he was starting to look more… familiar.

Chat stood up and came closer to me. He stayed quiet, and he kept staring, putting butterflies in my stomach. Butterflies? Why are there butterflies in my stomach?

Chat kept coming closer as I brushed my teeth, and before I realized it, he was standing right next to me. I set my toothbrush down, since I was done, and I turned toward him. He was standing extremely close. I looked up at him and his eyes were squinting like he was trying to figure something out.

"Marinette?" He said quietly.

"Yeah?" I asked nervously.

"You're… Ladybug?" He whispered.

My heart dropped. Did he just say what I think he said? How did he find out? What does this mean for us? What do I do?

My eyes widened as I just stared at him, listening to my heart beating in my ears. You could hear a pin drop.

"Marinette… You're Ladybug, aren't you." He said, more confident.

I took a deep breath. No point in lying now. "Yes…" I mumbled, as I felt a lump in my throat. I closed my eyes, as a tear rolled down my cheek, afraid of what to do.

Chat wiped the tear off my cheek and pulled me into a hug.

"It's okay bug-a-boo. Your secrets safe with me. I promise."

I sobbed into his chest for quite a time before he sat me down on my couch, leaning up against him. I stopped crying as we sat in silence, my head resting on his shoulder.

"Marinette. I can tell you who I am, if it makes you feel better." Chat said, interrupting the silence.

"NO!" I said as I shot up, with tear marks still on my face. "I won't put you in that position! I can't have you in danger!"

Chat tilt his head sadly and pulled me down on his lap. "Okay, Marinette, I won't tell you."

I put my hand on his chest and leaned into him. He rested his head on top of mine. I looked up at him again feeling helpless and lost.

We stared at each other for what felt like forever before he leaned in to kiss me. I pulled away at first and looked at the pictures of Adrien on the wall. I felt guilty until it hit me. Chat had always been the one who was there for me. Chat was the one who came to check on me and put my needs above his own. Even when he didn't know who I was, he still felt the need to make sure I felt good and I was safe, something Adrien had never done. I realized it wasn't Adrien who I loved, it was the thought of him, blinding me from seeing what was really in front of me the whole time.

Chat.

I leaned into to kiss Chat as he pulled me closer to him. I wrapped my legs around him and ran my hands through his hair. Our kiss was shy at first before it became more passionate. He ran his hand across my cheek and down until he wrapped both his hands around my waist.

I felt an instant connection to Chat. I had never felt this feeling before.

Chat leaned back as I fell onto him. I pulled out my legs from other him and kissed him harder.

After kissing for a long time, we sat back up looked at each other. We both smiled and blushed.

"Well, I better get going… see you tomorrow." He said with a smirk.

I smiled and said, "Yeah, see you, Chat." My face turned red.

Chat got up and jumped out the window. I watched him jump away back to wherever his home is, already excited to see him tomorrow.

I layed down in my bed and stared at the ceiling. I didn't care if Chat knew my identity, I knew I could trust him.