A few days after defeating Stoneheart and accepting her role as Ladybug Marinette took a moment to admire her Ladybug outfit and realized something very important; Cat Black has an amazing disguise while hers is just awful. Cat Black has cat eyes, ears, a tail and even a bell while she just had a red and polka-dot spandex. People who saw Cat Black could be too distracted by his adornments to pay attention to what he looked like while her own outfit was nowhere near distracting enough for people to ignore her face or hair. For goodness sake, Cat Black's eyes being cat shaped and colored was enough of an oddity to throw most people off his civilian scent while her eyes were unchanged!

There was no way she was going to be able to keep up her civilian identity a secret; her personality may change when she puts on the suit (wearing a super suit and gaining powers really changes your outlook of life) but she looks identical to Ladybug, has the same voice, and similar mannerisms. Ladybug and her secret/normal identity were too alike for it to remain a secret for long, especially with her best friend being a big fan of Ladybug and determined to 'reveal' the heroes' secret identities.

But she still needed it to be a secret, so how could she do that?!

Then she remembered something she read on the internet. Something about the comic book superhero Batman wearing a shirt while a civilian that read "I'm not saying I'm Batman, I'm just saying you've never seen me and Batman in the same room together".

It was the perfect solution.

If Marionette was super obvious about the connection between her and Ladybug and made a point to point said similarity out to everyone while Ladybug was adamant that no one know who she was… no one would believe Marionette is Ladybug. Someone who embraced that they looked identical to a hero while said hero was adamant about hiding their identity? The personality difference would have people subconsciously searching for more differences instead of similarities. After that, anyone who brought up the idea would look like a fool as the people around them pointed out all of the 'differences' between the two!

Now how to get Tikki on board...

They were in the locker room grabbing their books for the next class when her new best friend finally asked the question.

"Why are their red ribbons with polka-dots in your hair?" Alya asked, confusion evident on her face.

Marinette smiled, here goes nothing. "Because I'm Ladybug."

Silence. Begin the questions in 3… 2… 1.

"Girl," her tone was nothing but confusion, "what do you mean you're Ladybug?"

Marinette smiled. "Well… you know how Ladybug has blue-ish hair that she wears in pigtails?"

"Yeah?"

"And blue eyes?"

"Okay?"

"And is about this tall?" She held her hand out to her own height.

"Yes? What's your point?"

"We look identical."

Alya paused, surprise clear on her face. "Okay but there is no way you're Ladybug. I may have only known you for a few days now and seen Ladybug in action less than a handful of times but the two of you are clearly different people. You act nothing alike!"

"Yeah, I know." Marinette smiled in a self-deprecating way. "But other people who don't know me very well are going to point out that we look alike. I can't ignore it or deny otherwise people will just see it as more evidence that I am Ladybug. Then where will I be? My only option is to embrace how similar we look and point it out to others. If I'm the one pointing it out by doing my hair the same or wearing a shirt that says 'I am Ladybug' then even a stranger will know that my personality is just too dissimilar to Ladybug for us to be the same person!"

"So… you're going to prove you aren't Ladybug by telling people you are?" She looked confused for a moment before it dawned on her. "Because Ladybug obviously doesn't want people to know who she is and you running around saying you are her is the exact opposite of what she would do!"

"Yep."

"That's really clever, but why? Given enough time people would realize you aren't the same person."

She shrugged. "Maybe. But I don't really want to be stopped on the street and thanks for saving someone when I didn't do it. Or asked questions about Ladybug's life when I don't know her. Or, worse yet, get targeted by Hawkmoth because he thinks I'm Ladybug."

"That would be bad." Alya agreed. "Come on, we've been talking too long, we're going to be late for class!"

"What are you wearing?!" Chloe screeched, er, asked.

"A shirt?" Marinette answered, confused.

"I think she's referring to what your shirt says on it Marinette." Nino pointed out.

She looked down to see what she was wearing. To be honest she had gotten ready in such a rush this morning that she didn't even know which shirt she threw on in her mad dash out the door. Turns out she had grabbed her "I am Ladybug" shirt. She had been saving it for a special occasion but today was as good a day as any to wear it she supposed.

"Well, I am Ladybug so…." She trailed off.

"You're not Ladybug. I would know because I'm her best friend while you…" Chloe scoffed. "You're Maritrash."

She rolled her eyes at Chloe while internally she was smiling. Having Chloe, an adamant Ladybug enthusiast, on the "Marinette isn't Ladybug" group was a huge help to the plan (even if there was no way Chloe would ever believe Ladybug and Marinette were the same person).

After ? Akuma:

"Where were you girl?"

"Off saving Paris from an Akuma."

"Uhuh. If you don't want to tell me just say so next time."

During Lady Wifi:

Marinette coughed into her fist. "Uh, Aly- Lady Wifi? I'm right here."

Lady Wifi just gave Marinette a Look. "I'm not an idiot. I know you aren't her even if you look almost identical. Your personalities are just too different."

Sometime after Timebreaker:

Today Marinette was wearing the shirt she made that read "I'm not saying I'm Ladybug. I'm just saying that you've never seen me and Ladybug in the same room together." It was amusing to see how many people read her shirt and laughed, asking where she got it. The look on their faces when she told them she made it herself were even better.

"Hey Marinette?" Alya asked.

"Yeah?"

"You know your shirt is wrong right? We saw you a few days ago in the same space as Ladybug. Remember Timebreaker?"

"Because, uh… time travel?" Marionette attempted to explain. "That was my future self and my present self joined the fight later on."

Alya laughed. "Good one Marinette. Still, like the shirt!"

During Evilustrator:

"I don't think going on a date with me is going to work out." Marinette said before quickly rushing to explain as his face began to scowl. "I mean for you! Because I'm Ladybug so our date will probably just turn into a fight you know?"

Evillustrator's face broke into a smile. "I love how you joke about being Ladybug. It's so cute."

She sighed. Sometimes having everyone believe she isn't Ladybug could be a hindrance.

During Horrificator:

"Marinette? Are you here?"

She hid behind one of the eggs to call out "Yes." And then she paused and added "and I am definitely the one in the Ladybug costume."

"Glad to hear you're still in good spirits Mari." Alya called back with a smile.

After Darkblade:

"And what happened to you?" Chloe demanded.

"What do you mean what happened? I changed into costume and fought Darkblade." Marinette paused while Chloe's eyebrow just raised. "And I definitely didn't turn into a knight."

"Well I did." Adrien said as he dashed by. "And it was a knightmare!"

After some neighbors see Marinette:

"Hey, is that Ladybug?"

"No, it's just my neighbor Marinette. She does look like Ladybug though."

"Maybe Marinette is Ladybug!"

"Dude, no. The two have completely different personalities."

"Well maybe she's just a really good actor?"

"Marinette goes around wearing shirts that say things like 'I am Ladybug.'"

"… Okay yeah, she's nothing like Ladybug; she would never do that."

During Gigantitan:

The woman and her baby looked at Marinette and Tiki in shock. In their defense, they had just seen and heard Tiki talking to Marinette.

Before Tiki could open her mouth to try and come up with a way to distract the two Marinette spoke. "Hi! This is Tikki. She's a magical creature that gives me the super powers of Ladybug."

Tikki almost tumbled out of the bag in shock. What was Marinette doing?!

The mother smiled. "No, you're not Ladybug, she would never outright say she was! Is that a toy then? Where did you get it?"

Tiki couldn't believe it. Marinette outright told this woman she was Ladybug and she ignored it to come up with an excuse for what Tikki was all on her own!

Well, this was probably better then what Tikki planned. She was just going to meow and pretend to be a cat like Plaug does.

After Captain Hardrock:

"Are you okay?! I was so worried when Luka was caught and you were nowhere in sight!"

"I'm fine. Besides, you saw me as Ladybug later on right?" Marinette smiled. "But seriously, Luka hid me under his bed and pretended I had jumped out the window to throw off Captain Hardrock. It worked but I was still trapped in that room."

"I'm just glad you're okay."

During Syren:

"Marinette! Where are you going?!" Alya called out once she noticed Marinette in a boat rowing away from the building.

"Off to transform in private!" She shouted back.

"MARINETTE!"

"Calm down! I'm just going to get help and check on my parents!"

"Oh." Alya blushed before shouting back "Okay, say hi to them for me?"

"Will do!"

During Frightningale:

So… how was she supposed to do this? It was one thing to go around saying 'I am Ladybug' but it was a different thing entirely to walk around wearing a Ladybug costume. What possessed her to come to Clara Nightingale's music video tryouts?! Why did she have to interrupt Chloe and volunteer to be Ladybug again? She could try hiding the mask but they probably had a dozen backups waiting in the wings just in case they lost one.

This… wasn't going to go well.

She sighed. There was only one option; fake it 'till she made it.

(Several minutes later)

"Girl you look just like Ladybug!"

Marinette smiled and slid into a 'heroic' pose with her hands on her hips. "That is because I am Ladybug!"

Alya and the rest of the group burst into laughter, tears streaming down a few faces as several people around them just looked confused.

"You need to work on your impression." Alya said once she stopped laughing. "Ladybug doesn't do poses."

"Excuse me," a member of the watching crowd interrupted, "but what do you mean you are Ladybug?"

Marinette had to struggle not to laugh. "Well, when Ladybug first started crime fighting I noticed that the two of us look eerily similar and I realized that if I wore her costume I could probably pass as her double."

It was obvious many people around them were still confused.

"What she's trying to say is that if she noticed, other people were also bound to notice. And what's the point of denying if that would just make people think she was trying to cover up that she is Ladybug?" Alix explained. "There isn't really a point."

Marinette shrugged. "So I just decided to embrace our similar looks. Besides, if I say I'm Ladybug then even complete strangers quickly notice how different the two of us are personality wise."

THE END

AN: So yeah, that's it. It anyone wants to take this any further or use the idea for their own stories go for it! All I ask is that you let me know so that I can read them too :D