He Knows!

Marinette was in class when the Akuma attack came. A thirty-foot-tall alligator woman was walking around the streets of Paris, snapping pigeons out of the air with her jaws and knocking automobiles over with her tail.

Ms. Bustier called for all the children exit the room in an orderly fashion and make their way to the underground Akuma shelter until Ladybug and Chat Noir arrived to save the day.

Marinette knew she had to escape the group so she could transform. Quickly, she tried to think up an excuse. "Oh! Alligators always make me have to pee! I'll meet you guys downstairs!" and she ran off to the bathroom before anyone could stop her.

Tikki emerged from her purse. "Was that really the best excuse you could come up with? These Akuma attacks aren't exactly new… you could spend some time at home pre-writing some less ridiculous and embarrassing excuses so you'd have one on tap!"

"Aiieee! Adrien heard me talking about peeing! I'll never be able to look him in the eye again!" Marinette exclaimed, turning pink with shame.

"Let's talk about this later, we have an Akuma to fight!" said Tikki.

"You're right, I'll crawl under a rock to die later, Tikki, Spots On!" Marinette transformed into Ladybug, and whirled around to exit the bathroom and seek out the Akuma.

But standing between her and the door was Adrien.

"Adrien!" stammered Ladybug. "How long have you been standing there?!"

"Long enough to see who you really are… Marinette."

"Oh! Adrien, I don't know what to say… but we can't talk about this now. You need to get to the shelter!"

"Oh, I think I can do more good out here. Plagg! Claws out!"

Adrien, to Marinette's shock, transformed into Chat Noir!

"Buh-buh-buh-buh…" she sputtered, drooling a little bit.

"Milady, we don't have time. Let's go take care of that Akuma!"

They ran outside and engaged in an epic four hour fight against the latest Akuma, Alligatrix, which unfortunately the budget for this fanfic does not permit to be described.

Finally locating the Akuma inside the Alligator's pink parasol, they were victorious. "Actually, that should have been over much quicker… how many alligators have a parasol? We should have tried that at the beginning!" said Chat Noir.

"Well, with the revelation we just had, I'm not thinking clearly!" snapped Marinette.

They pair ended up on the Eiffel Tower and detransformed. Tikki and Plagg snuck off to make out while Adrien and Marinette talked.

"Well, Adrien, I can't believe you're Chat Noir. That means you've been flirting with me as Ladybug this whole time, and I've been shooting you down because I liked someone else, when all the time it was Adrien that I liked. But you never seemed interested in me as Marinette. Now that you know who I really am… what do you think?"

Marinette smiled shyly, her heart racing, palms sweating. It was the bravest thing she'd ever said, and left her the most vulnerable she'd ever felt. Her pulse pounded in her ears and she waited for Adrien to answer her.

"Actually, Marinette, I've known all along that you were Ladybug."

"WHAT."

"Yeah, I mean the blue hair, it's kind of a giveaway. Ooh, your eyes are covered, big deal. It's obviously you. At least my eyes change color and my hair gets a different style. You're like, super obvious."

"WHAT."

"It's been really funny this whole time, but I started to get kinda bored so I pretended to catch you transforming today."

"WHAT."

"So, I'll see you in class tomorrow, and for Akuma battles and stuff…"

"Wait, Adrien! Chat Noir! What about you and… Ladybug? Aren't you in lo—I mean, don't you like Ladybug?"

"Oh, that? That was just a goof. It's hysterical when you get all tongue-tied as Marinette, and it's pretty hilarious when you get all annoyed by that 'Milady' malarkey…"

"WHAT."

"Well yeah, I mean, obviously I wouldn't really be interested in a girl like you. I mean, I'm a famous fashion model. I'm rich. You're the clumsy daughter of a baker that can't string together two sentences in front of a boy she likes. Getting superpowers from a Miraculous doesn't change that."

Marinette was frozen in shock as the tears poured down her face live rivers.

"Look, it's been fun, but I gotta go. I'll see you in class or whatever."

Adrien transformed again, calling Plagg back from Tikki's tiny arms, and flung himself off the tower, laughing and saying something like "Wait until I tell Nino…"

Marinette's heart was crushed. She slumped down and looked at Tikki.

"Tikki… Adrien doesn't like me… he doesn't even despise me… I'm just… I'm just NOTHING to him!"

Tikki looked at Marinette and said "Marinette, I know this is hard, but you need to do something for me."

"What?!"

"You need to wake up."

A blinding light filled Marinette's eyes and then dripped away like scales. She was standing outside her school, and Chat Noir was there looking concerned.

"Milady? Ladybug! Are you back?"

"Kitty? Wha- what happened?"

"The Akuma got you. You were trapped in your own worst nightmare, whatever that is. Hawk Moth explained it all while he was gloating. But I used my Cataclysm on the Akuma. I couldn't cleanse it, but I could destroy it. I'm hoping your Miraculous Ladybug can put everything back this time… otherwise I just killed someone."

Ladybug used her power to restore everything as once it was, including the Akuma victim, to Chat Noir's relief.

Ladybug and Chat Noir ended up on a nearby rooftop to talk.

"I have to go… but I'm still not clear on how much of what happened to me was my nightmare and how much was real."

"Uh, the part where we learned each other's secret identities… that was real."

"Oh."

"And, um, the part where I said, 'I love you, Marinette.' That part was real too."

"WHAT. When did that happen?!"

"Just now." Chat Noir released his transformation and reached a hand for Ladybug. "Can I… can I see you as you?"

Ladybug released her transformation. Adrien took her hand in his. "I've loved you as Ladybug for so long. Now I love you for the real you. I know you don't love me back, but I wanted you to know."

"Adrien, are you sure we defeated the Akuma?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Because I think I'm still dreaming. Only this time, it's not my worst nightmare."

Marinette put a hand on the back of Adrien's neck and drew her face closer to his.

FIN