Marinette stood, her back pressed against the front door and her heart racing. She'd done it. She'd just kissed Adrien! Then she basically ran away, scampering through the front door and slamming it in his face, but that wasn't the important part right now. She, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, had kissed him, Adrien Agreste. Sure, it only took two years of incoherent conversations and wistful longing from afar, but tonight she'd not only managed to go on a successful date with the boy of her dreams, but she even mustered up the courage to initiate the kiss goodnight.

She stopped leaning against the door and straightened her posture, lifting her head proudly as she walked towards the stairs, pretending that she didn't see her parents asleep on the couch, clearly having tried to wait up for her. She marched up to her room with a self-satisfied smirk, having accomplished her goal and having it go ten times better than she ever imagined-which was saying something, because she'd imagined it a lot. She'd just never thought she'd be courageous enough to try it.

But then, he didn't seem as unattainable as he once had. Ever since that night he ran into Ladybug on her way home from patrol, things had changed between them. Marinette found it much easier to talk to Adrien as Ladybug, and he seemed much more open about himself and his life with her superhero alter ego. Whether it was the implication of anonymity of the mystery of who she was that gave their conversations the feeling of confidentiality, she didn't know. What she did know was Adrien. She really knew him for the first time and found she liked the flawed version of him much better than the picture perfect version on her walls. And he seemed to like Marinette just as much.

That had taken her for a whirl when he first mentioned it to Ladybug, but then every time she saw him, she discovered something new. Even about herself, though she wasn't quite ready to face that right now. Especially not while she was still floating on this cloud.

She rolled her shoulders, trying to keep her mind from wandering to him.Tonight was about Adrien. Smiling, she flopped back on her bed, allowing herself to reminisce about how it all started, stubbornly clinging to her blissful state...

Ladybug spun, fist raised and looked towards her partner, only to find him gone. She furrowed her brow and recovered quickly, moving to make sure the akuma victim was alright and waving to the press, but all the while her eyes were darting in search of his face. He must have ran. She didn't realized he'd been so close to transforming back. Still, she felt petulantly upset that he hadn't at least stayed for their traditional fist bump. She didn't like being the one left behind, but then she reprimanded herself for being so petty. She should be more intune with her partner to realize how close he was to running out of time.

Sending one last smile she wasn't actually feeling towards the press she swung off into the distance before plopping into an alley, trying to shake off why she was so annoyed. She was about to release her transformation when she heard his voice.

"Wait! You're not alone!" She turned with a gasp and was suddenly face-to-face with none other than Adrien Agreste.

"Adrien?" She narrowed her eyes in confusion at him as she felt a blush rise to her cheeks. Every single time, she thought exhaustedly just as the final warning beep sounded from her earrings. She darted around Adrien, plastering her back to his just as a flash of light bounced off the walls of the alley around them.

She caught Tikki in her hands and her kwami looked up at her in exhaustion.

"Ma-"

"Shh!" Marinette quickly used a finger to cover Tikki's lips and had to fight the urge to turn and make sure Adrien hadn't heard. "Umm," she laughed nervously, trying to think of something-anything-to say and move on from Tikki's almost slip of her name as she hurried her kwami into her purse to recharge on food.

"I guess we're stuck here for now?" Adrien saved her, speaking first. "At least until your kw-I mean, until you can transform back?"

"Yeah," she answered immediately, pleasantly surprised by his quick understanding. He must be a fan. "That's how it works. I have to...um...recharge in between. Sorry," she looked down at her fidgeting hands and tried to figure out how to get out of the alley without him seeing her. It wasn't that she didn't trust Adrien, but human curiosity was just too great. She couldn't be sure that given the opportunity, he could resist the impulse to see the actual face of Paris' masked hero. "I'm sure you have better things to do."

"Better than hanging out with my favorite savior of Paris? I don't think so."

She took a moment to register his words. There was a joking lit to his statement, but an undertone of something more sincere that she couldn't quite place. But then, her mind didn't dwell on his words for long before it focused on other things; mesmerized as she was by the heat of his back against hers and the slight vibration of his every word. Her senses went on Adrien-overdrive as the feel, sound and scent of him enveloped her in the waves of mind-numbing tranquility. It was amazing, actually. Every time she tried to talk to him face-to-face, she couldn't help but be flustered. As much as she admired him for who he was as a person, those eyes and that smile...it was impossible for her to concentrate. He would smile at her, his eyes squinting and nose crinkling in a decidedly non-model way, and she would melt at the honesty in his expression. It was the carefree moments when Adrien's face lost it's polite shield that drew her in while simultaneously making her incapable of speech.

"Ma, huh?" He spoke, pulling her from her thoughts. "Hmm… what could your name be."

She cringed, the tension collecting in her shoulders as he dashed whatever hope she had that he'd somehow missed Tikki's slip.

"Marie? No...Madeline? Hmmm...Maurice?" He nudged her shoulder with his own and she heard the amusement in his voice. She took a breath, realizing he wasn't actually trying to puzzle out her name.

"How did you guess?" She gasped, a smile creeping into her expression. "That's it," she threw her hands up in the air in a motion of surrender before she remembered that he couldn't see her. "I've been ousted."

She felt rather than heard him chuckle and her smile grew.

"Ma," he said again. "I guess Chat is closer than he realizes. I could just call you M'lady."

She could tell he was still joking, but she froze.

"No," she replied vehemently, surprising herself with how adamant her voice was. He was obviously joking, but for some reason while the name sounded right coming from his lips, the knowledge that it was Adrien and not Chat calling her that turned her veins to ice. She cleared her throat and tried again. "No, don't call me that."

Adrien was silent for a moment too long, and she wondered if she'd somehow upset him.

"I didn't realize," he finally said softly. So quietly, she questioned whether it was actually meant for her ears. "I didn't realize that you hated that name so much," he said more loudly.

"No!" she responded quickly again, then winced. How could she explain herself? "It's just...I don't hate the name," she pronounced her words meticulously and proceeded with caution. "It's just his name for me...not yours."

She honestly didn't know what had gotten into her. Here was Adrien, the boy she secretly/not-so-secretly loved, and she was yelling at him and probably ostracizing him from her superhero-self just as much as her stuttering did from her civilian self. It really was her most infuriating talent.

Much to her surprise though, she felt his posture straighten against her back.

"Oh!" His voice sounded cheery, and she officially decided that she would never understand boys. Before she could open her mouth to question him though, the sky opened up and it started to pour rain. Not enough time had passed, and Tikki was definitely not ready to transform yet.

"Shoot, shoot, shoot," She muttered, looking for a corner to back them into and escape the rain.

"Wait," Adrien exclaimed and took a step away from her. "Here!" She squeaked, thinking her was going to turn, but when she covered her face and peeked, she saw him standing and disentangling himself from a large hoodie, his eyes closed tightly. He faced away from her, eyes still closed and holding out the sweatshirt to his side.

"The hood should cover your face," he explained, but she hesitated. Taking a moment to admire his face openly, the rain cascading down his cheeks and making his lips glisten. Then she looked up at his shut eyes and smiled. Not one attempt to peek. He really was remarkable.

Taking the sweatshirt, she slipped it over her head and pulled the hood low and drawstring tight. It must be huge on him too, because it engulfed her and practically reached her knees. Once her face was completely obscured, she turned to face him, his eyes still closed.

"Thank you," she remarked simply, and he smiled, giving her a formal bow.

"At your service, Mademoiselle," she smiled and, leaning into an impulse, reached over to hug him before dashing out of the alley. She paused for a moment on the street before looking back around. There he stood, smiling but eyes still shut. His body pointed towards her, as if unconsciously drawn to her. As if he was watching her go in his mind's eye.

She practically skipped all the way home.

That night, once it had stopped raining, she gone to give Adrien his hoodie back and they ended up talking until night faded to day. It'd become a tradition of sorts since then. Her just popping by, and him always welcoming the distraction. They talked about everything, it seemed like, but she was more than a little surprised the first time her name came up. Her real name, that was.

Lying on the floor about three feet apart, they both sprawled like starfish and still only took up only about 5% of the floorspace in Adrien's room. They'd been relaxing in companionable silence when Adrien's phone buzzed and he sat up to dig it out of his pocket. While he responded to something Nino had sent, she noticed something had fallen out when he reached for his phone. Leaning over, she picked up the bracelet she immediately recognized as her lucky charm. When she looked up, Adrien was staring her with a guarded expression.

"Put that down, please," his monotone voice floated over to her. He was polite as always, but she was stunned by the change in his demeanor.

"Sorry, it fell out of your pocket," she reached over and placed it in his outstretched palm.

"No, it's just," he cleared his throat. "It's just delicate." He carefully coiled the bracelet and placed it back in his pocket. She watched him perform the action like a ritual, like he carried that bracelet with him always, and then she focused on his words. She'd made that bracelet herself. It definitely wasn't delicate.

"From someone special?" She smiled at him and teased.

"Yes," his immediate response surprised her, and she tried not to squeal at the obvious affection in his tone. "My uh...friend Marinette gave it to me."

"Your friend," she repeated, her ego successfully squashed. Of course

"Yeah," he laid a hand over the pocket where the bracelet was now securely stashed. "No?" he questioned himself, and her eyes shot back to his face. "I don't know," he finally decided and flopped back onto the rug.

Ohmygod, she squealed internally. OhMyGod.

She sat silent, not sure how to approach this conversation. Adrien sounded like he was maybe looking for some counsel, but what exactly were the ethics of talking to someone about yourself while disguised as someone else? She couldn't very well encourage Adrien to talk about her civilian self as if she were an uninterested, third person party.

Luckily Adrien didn't need any prompting.

"I feel like I've been in love with y-someone else for over a year now," he stumbled slightly over his words, but Ladybug was too engrossed in what he would say next to care. "But Marinette...well, she was one of my very first friends. It was a rocky start," he chuckled at the memory and Ladybug winced, remembering how mean she was to him at first. "But she's honestly wonderful. And the more I know her, the more I want to know more."

"But you're still in love with someone else?" Ladybug questioned softly. As weird as it felt to engage in this conversation, she suddenly needed to know her who her competition for Adrien's heart was.

"Yeah," he looked over at her briefly, but looked away just as fast, a slight blush creeping onto his cheeks. "She's great too, but I don't really know her, you know? I mean, I think I'm starting to, but the more time I spend with Marinette, the more I realize that she already is all the things I imagine this other girl to be." He looked over at her, a serious expression on his face. "Have you ever just...met someone and pieced together this version of them you thought to be true, even though you had no idea for sure? And then you hold onto it for so long, even when you start to really know them, you can't pull apart the reality from the fantasy?"

She stared at him, jaw gaping, and just nodded. Yes, she knew exactly how that felt. She'd done it to him. Yet the more and more she visited him as Ladybug, and the more that ease around him seeped into her interactions with him as Marinette, she realized how wrong her fantasy had been, and how much better the reality actually was.

"I think I did that to this other girl. I like her, but it's complicated. She's one of my best friends, but I don't think either of us will ever fully know the other. We've created an impossible situation for ourselves. But Marinette," he took a breath. "The more I know her, the more I want to tell her everything. I think Marinette is the real deal," he looked back up to the ceiling.

She flopped back onto the floor herself at that admission, her mind spinning as Adrien put feelings into words in a way that she would never have been able to. How many times had she thought the very same thing about Chat? She decided she knew his type from the beginning, and even as he proved her wrong time and time again, the precedent between them had been set. They didn't share their identities to protect the other, and it had become so ingrained in their relationship at this point, she didn't know who they would be without that mystery between them. He was her partner and best friend, and she trusted him implicitly, but without the mask between them, who would they be? Even as she started to feel more for him, she ignored it. She pushed him away for so long, she felt like she didn't have a right to feel those things.

Just like Adrien and that girl, they'd created an impossible situation for themselves. Or rather, she had, and now she could never know Chat, not really. Not like Adrien. Yet, somehow, she didn't feel like Adrien was her second choice. Marinette didn't feel like Adrien's second choice either.

"Are you going to tell her?" She finally asked.

"Yeah," he said, sounding surprised by himself. "You know what? I think I am."

That was how, a week later, Marinette had ended up on the best date of her life. Well, the first date of her life. And her first kiss...her smile fell. Well, not technically her first kiss.

"Ugghhh," she rolled off her bed and elected instead to pace around her room. There it was again. Or rather, there he was again. Ever since last week when she had the conversation with Adrien, Chat was ever-present, sitting there in the back of her mind. Nothing had changed. He was just as out of reach as always, but her conversation with Adrien had forced her to face feelings for Chat that she'd never let herself admit. She knew they were there of course, but she'd steadfastly avoided confronting them, as if by ignoring them, she could pretend they didn't exist.

But they did exist, and even though she'd fallen and fallen hard for Adrien, they refused to disappear.

It shouldn't matter. Adrien had admitted to being similarly conflicted, to Ladybug and tonight, to Marinette. The difference was, he didn't know she was in the exact same predicament. How could she explain it? She could be vague, telling him it was some guy he didn't know, but if she was going to do this, then she was done with the lies. She would either tell him everything or nothing. That meant she had to tell him. Everything.

Her mind made up, she turned towards the open window leading onto her balcony.

"Now or never," she squared her shoulders and nodded to herself. "Tikki, spots on!"