With great power comes great responsibilities. It was a quote every superhero worth their salt knew and Marinette was no exception to the rule. In fact, being bug themed and wearing red spandex, she sometimes liked to compare herself to spiderman, who had made that sentence so iconic.

Now, the Ladybug was someone who took responsibilities very seriously. Saving Paris, saving people, helping people, making the world happy… It was all at the top of her agenda as a masked vigilante.

However, like most superheroes, Marinette couldn't say that she only used her powers for the good of the world. She had superhuman abilities for God's sake! Who would not take advantage of that to make life easier? Sure, she had set herself some rules: no doing anything that could be seen, no using it in competitions or class or anything where she was up against civilians, no using it more than twice a day for Tikki's sake… But in the end, when she was late to class, Ladybug was her only chance of survival.

And when she said survival, she meant it. Religiously. Their History-Geography teacher was a dragon.

After a bit of wandering at night as Ladybug once, Marinette had found the perfect path to get from her house to the school unseen. The particularly tricky part was sneaking into the school; she couldn't be seen as Marinette jumping from rooftop to rooftop and she couldn't be seen as Ladybug inside the school. Luckily, there was a solution to that problem.

The school had a small, cage-like staircase at the end of one of its corridors with a window that was fairly easy to open. It wasn't used by anyone unless every other path was clogged, which really only happened during fire drills and at the end of the day. Nevertheless, it was somewhere she could revert back to herself and no one cared to ask why a student would choose one staircase over another when she came out.

It was the perfect plan.

Or so all evil masterminds thought before their plan was smashed to bits by heroes.

Everything went down the drain on a cloudy Thursday morning. Marinette's late night promenade had given her a tardy start on her way to school again. Without a second thought, Marinette found a narrow alley to transform and there she went again, soaring in the skies of Paris.

Most people would wonder at the beautiful view but all that was on Marinette's mind was a choice selection of swear words as she pictured Mr. Terre's 'You're late' welcome committee. To be honest, she did enjoy her little parkour excursions on most days and nights but there were priorities in life and at the moment, Ladybug was on a mission and pretty sceneries were just going to have to pretend not to exist for a while.

With record time and stealth, Ladybug landed on the tree branch that led to her way in. She checked cautiously for anyone using the staircase and as soon as she confirmed it was empty, she slid inside.

Tikki popped into her hands as soon as she straightened up. The two shared conspiring grins before Marinette tucked her little kwami comfortable inside her purse.

Two minutes to go before it rang.

Marinette started making her way down the stairs when a small click resonated behind her. Curious, she turned around to see Chat Noir sneaking inside the same way she did.

Casual.

While Marinette was frozen halfway down the stairs, eyes wide and staring at her partner in crime (or justice?), Chat Noir obviously hadn't noticed her. The black-clad superhero carelessly stretched a bit before his body gradually became enveloped in a green light and-

Oh. Marinette's mind didn't immediately compute what he was doing and when it hit her, it was too late to turn away. Oh, She thought again, a bit more panicked then the first time.

He was releasing his transformation. And she was just standing there, watching as he did so.

Startled green eyes met wide blue ones.

He blinked.

She blinked.

The light vanished.

"I thought you said no one used this staircase!" A floating small black… cat-like… thing (Kwami, her mind told her, it's his Kwami! It's him! He's Chat Noir!) groaned as it noticed Marinette.

"They don't… People don't… Usually… On most days…" Chat Noir (You've been crushing on him all along! You have been crushing on Chat Noir. Chat freakin' Noir.) stammered, his face slowly reflecting Marinette's very own 'oh crap' expression, "Any chances you didn't see… anything…?"

Marinette didn't answer. Instead, she stared. And stared. Inside, her mind was displaying some sort of error message with an alarm wailing in the background.

"Uh… Marinette?" Chat Noir tried again nervously, taking a step towards the girl, "Are you okay?" He genuinely looked concerned for the girl but even he couldn't hide how freaked out he was by the situation. His voice was hesitant and his hands fidgeting; Marinette had never seen him so scared.

Was it so scary that Marinette was the one to find out who he was? Did he hate her that much?

"Could you at least say something?" Chat Noir asked, taking another cautious step towards her, like she was a wounded bear.

Oh wait, he was freaking out because she was still staring at him and hadn't so much as blinked for the last few minutes. Understandable. Chat Noir being the Adrien Agreste? Not so much. Her having a crush on Chat Noir? Ridiculous. Oh God - All that fist bumping and stupid flirting - Was that -? It totally was. Marinette was totally Adrien's best bro and she hadn't even known about it.

"Marinette?" By now, Adrien was shaking a hand in front of her face, trying to get a reaction, "Er… I can explain?"

But what did that mean for what kind of person Adrien was? What was she to him? What did she feel about him? She knew he could shove twelve ping pong balls in his mouth, that he was a closet fan of anime and that he had a notebook where he wrote all the bad puns and jokes he thought of and yet they weren't even technically on speaking terms. Chat Noir was a huge dork and she had had a crush on him for over two years. Well that was… embarrassing? Weird? It was hard to tell - she just couldn't look at Adrien seriously anymore.

Now it wasn't going to be a matter of keeping down the blush around him. It was going to be about trying hard not to laugh at all his fails. God knew she loved Chat like brother, but he was Chat. He was her best friend, her partner, her other half.

… And apparently her crush too.

"Mari-"

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

Marinette ran to the classroom.