Author's note: Hello, friends! The following piece of literature is the first multi-chapter I have done in a long time and intend to actually complete. So, I should make it known that it is going to be a reasonably shorter fic to what most are used to, approx. 3-5 chapters in length of about the same word count and time for writing. That being said, please enjoy!

In the night sky of the metropolitan suburbia that made up Paris, a petite white butterfly softly fluttered away into the darkness, free from the bindings of the corrupted akuma that bared it's plight, floating out into the world in a peaceful bliss. The day had been saved again by the power duo known to Parisians as the Miraculous Ladybug and Chat Noir, the capital's exclusive superheroes. From a fixed point of view, it seems that they did a good job at reversing whomever was infected with subjugated sorcery to their sane state as well as any damage had been done to the city as a whole.

But battles are not always won mentally as they are physically.

The girl with blue-black hair curled into dual pigtails clad in the smooth mesh red suit with ebbing black polka dots on the body and the eyemask sat upon one of many slanted rooftops of the city skyline with knees to her, looking down on the city below with sunken morale. Beside her, a blond young man with a belt like tail, dressed in black and an eye mask that coated his vision green was crouched with an arm around her, as if to comfort.

The battle had been long and hard, as well as nearly proving fatal. And the scars of that encounter were already showing.
"Are you alright?" Chat Noir turned his head to Ladybug, eyes fixed downwards.
"Good question."
"Was it because of that fight?" Concern rang true in his voice. Ladybug sighed and moved her eyes to contact that of Chat's.
"I nearly died today... I nearly died and I would have ever seen anyone i thought were important or family, ever again." Tears looked as if they were welling up. "Nice one, Ma- Ladybug." This was arguably the most vulnerable Chat had ever seen his beloved princess, and that was saying something – she could hold herself out in a fight. It was remarkably impressive on how she kept her cool, but by God, this was different. This wasn't Ladybug at all.
"Hey, I nearly died too, y'know. Save some of the sulking for me." A grin spread across his face, just to try and rile her into cheering up. A slight break of salvation in Chat's method made way, as the corners of Ladybug's small mouth sprouted slightly upwards. But it was a sad smile. One of self loathing. She stayed staring out into the night. Chat flattened his legs horizontally and sat down next to her, following the direction that his lady's eyes were travelling."We really cut it close, huh?"
She nodded curtly. "We've been doing this for about 4 years now, and neither of us has come as close to that before then..." A silence washed over them, only to be broken by her anguish. "God, I am so stupid! What would have happened if I had just been a few feet closer?"
"My lady, I – "
"My friends, my parents, my- my everyone, what would they have thought if I suddenly just disappeared? What would that be like? Why did I almost put them through that, I just ..." Tears were forming in her eyes, looking perilously close to falling from them. Before she could say more, Chat wrapped his arm around her and locked her in an embrace. Ladybug gave a sharp breath, but relaxed almost immediately afterwards. There was a weird bliss about this whole embrace. It was... comforting. Chat pulled away, looking deep within Ladybug's eyes.
"Listen, I know it was close, and I know that you feel in shock. I'm there too." He grabbed her hand and placed it on his chest – his heart was still racing.
"I understand why you're acting like this, my lady, but we're alive, and we did it. Hell, even I thought it was going to be a close one, but we succeeded and we did our job." Chat gave a smile that was far different to that of the usual cheek-filled grin that always whiffed of sneakiness and cockiness. It was warm, calming, almost peacefully tranquil as the soft wind that blew the summer breeze. Behind the mask, Marinette saw it as something she had seen before. Something familiar.
A deteriorating beeping alerted the pair of them. The earrings that were clipped to Ladybug's ear lobe - her Miraculous - were running out of power. She was going to revert back to civilian form.
"Well, guess it's time to say goodbye, my lady," Chat Noir picked himself up quickly and turned away. "I'll see you next time."
"Wait."
Chat paused, spinning on his heels to face her. A strange flush of red has washed over her face. "Stay."
Chat was bewildered. "But, you're going to transform back. You set your rule of not knowing who we were, right?"
She was still quiet as silence passed by. "I... I want you to know."
"What?!"
Ladybug shot a hard stare back. "We've done this too long. We almost lost our lives. I trust you – if anything like that happens to me for real, I need –"
"Don't talk like that..." Chat quickly interrupted. "You're just shaken up from the -"
"-I need someone to look after and protect the people I love when I'm out of the costume," She finished, despite Chat's interruptions. "Like I said, I trust you. We've been doing this for a while now. I see that maybe we should let each other know for real."
Chat took all of this in hesitantly, but nodded slowly. "As you wish, my lady."

She took off the earrings. A bright light shone. And before the cat-clad Adrien Agreste, dumbfounded in shock, stood a very , nervous and blushing Marinette Dupain-Cheng.