Beneath The Mask
"Crap, crap, crap!" Ladybug cried as her earrings continued to flash. She and Cat Noir had just finished purifying an akuma and she didn't realize how low on time she was. She continued looking around trying to find a place to transform back into her civilian self and Cat Noir was trying to help her, but before she knew it, her earrings flashed and beeped one last time before a flash of pink and white light engulfed her. When it went away only seconds later, she stood in front of a wide eyed Cat Noir in her civilian form of Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
"Crap!" She exclaimed, looking to Cat Noir. "Well, at least we got away from the crowd before my time ran out."
Cat Noir said nothing, he couldn't. He was in shock. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the shy, clumsy, reserved girl who sat behind him in class everyday, was Ladybug.
Marinette sighed, seeing his face. "Okay, look, I get it." She said. "You're probably disappointed that it's me behind the mask, believe me, I would be, too."
Cat Noir blinked, finally coming out of his state of shock at her words. How could she possibly think that he would be disappointed?
"M'lady-" He began to say, but she cut him off.
"As much as I would love to stay and chat, Chat, I can't." She said, pulling a cookie out from her purse and feeding it to her Kwami. "We can talk about this later."
Her Kwami quickly finished eating the cookie and Marinette ran for a nearby alley. He ran after her.
"M'lady, wait!" He called out, but she ignored him, transformed and swung away on her yoyo.
Cat Noir stood there in the alley watching her swing away as his ring flashed one last time before his own transformation fell. Adrien Agreste now stood where Cat Noir once did and Plagg came and hovered in front of his face. Adrien didn't pay attention to the cat Kwami, there was only one thought in his head.
What the hell just happened?
"Crap!" Marinette said as she landed in her bedroom and dropped her transformation. "This is bad, Tikki. Really bad. Cat Noir knows who I am now!"
"It's alright, Marinette. It was an accident." Tikki said, trying her best to console the girl.
"I didn't want him to know." Marinette exclaimed. "Not just because I'm not allowed to tell him, but he's in love with Ladybug, and the girl he's in love with...that's not me."
"Sure it is, Marinette." Tikki said, coming face to face wit her chosen. "Just because you aren't as confident with yourself in your civilian life as you are when you're Ladybug doesn't mean that that isn't who you are. Being Ladybug just brings that side of you to the surface."
"Did you see his face?" Marinette asked. "He was totally expecting somebody different to be Ladybug."
"Marinette, you don't know if he was expecting somebody else or not." Tikki told her. "You don't know what goes through his head."
"I...I can't deal with this right now." Marinette said, sitting down on her chaise. "Oh, there's no way I can show up for patrol tonight. I'm staying home."
"Marinette-"
"Oh, but now he knows who I am and we might know each other in our civilian lives so he might know where I live and come find me and just agh!" Marinette rambled and let her head fall into the soft cushioning of her chaise with a groan.
"Marinette, it won't be as bad as you think." Tikki told her.
"How could you possibly know, Tikki?" Marinette asked her Kwami, raising her head. "It's like you said, we don't know what goes through his head. He could totally hate me! We'll probably never be able to work together properly ever again!"
With that thought, Marinette began to cry. Why did this have to happen? Why, why, why?!
Tikki, knowing there was nothing she could say to change her chosen's mind about Cat Noir might feel about her, fluttered over to and sat on her arm. Offering as much comfort as she possibly could to the crying bluenette.
Across town, Adrien was pacing in his room while Plagg watched from his desk and munched away at a thick slice of camembert cheese.
"This...this is crazy. This is nuts." Adrien said. "Marinette is Ladybug! How did I not notice before?! They look exactly alike!"
"The power of the Miraculous." Was all Plagg said.
"What do you mean?" Adrien asked, continuing to pace.
"I mean the magic in the Miraculous makes it possible for people not to recognize you when you're transformed not matter how much you look like your civilian self." Plagg explained with a sigh.
"So you're saying I'm not a totally blind idiot?" Adrien asked, finally pausing his pacing to look at his Kwami.
"Oh no, you're still a totally blind idiot, the similarities were definitely there." Plagg said. "After Dark Owl, I was kicking myself for not seeing them before."
This caught Adrien's attention. "Wait, you've know that Marinette is Ladybug since Dark Owl?" Plagg nodded. "That was like a year ago! Why didn't you ever tell me?!"
"We Kwami's aren't allowed to reveal another hero's identity if we happen to find it out." Plagg explained. "I couldn't just come up to you and tell you her name. I'd be breaking the Kwami Code!"
"You couldn't have dropped hints?" Adrien asked and Plagg shook his head, swallowing a piece of cheese.
"Against the Code." Was all he said and Adrien huffed in frustration, resuming his pacing.
"Okay, but you do realize that I've been fighting my crush on Marinette because of my crush on, well, Marinette?" Adrien asked. "You didn't think you could have broken the Code just a little bit on those nights when I ranted to you about that stuff?"
"Nope. Sorry, kid." Plagg told him and Adrien sighed heavily.
"Okay, but why would she think that I would be disappointed with who she was underneath the mask?" He asked, and Plagg shrugged.
"How should I know?" He asked. "I don't know what goes through the minds of teenage girls. You'd have to ask her."
Adrien huffed again and ran a hand through his hair, causing it to fall in front of his face. He held his hands behind his head as he continued to pace back and forth with his lips pursed.
"I have to tell her, right?" He asked Plagg, his pacing pausing once more. "I have to tell her that I'm Cat Noir? It's not fair that she has to go through her identity being revealed by herself. I should...I should tell her that it's me."
Plagg only shrugged. "If that's what you want to do, then go ahead. I can't stop you."
"Okay, but are you okay with me telling her?" Adrien asked his Kwami. Plagg nodded.
"Yeah kid." He said. "I hate the whole secrecy rule. It's so much easier if you know who each other are. That's been proven many times with past Ladybugs and Cat Noirs."
Adrien smiled at his Kwami.
"Okay, then it's settled." He said. "I'm gonna tell her. Tonight, after patrol."
The next morning, Marinette was up early, and not because she had set her alarm for an earlier time. She hadn't slept a wink the night before. She was up all night thinking about Cat Noir and what had happened. Thankfully, he didn't come to her house after she didn't show up for patrol. That either meant that he didn't know where she lived, or he knew but respected her wishes to be left alone. Either way, she was grateful.
She took her time in the shower considering she actually had the time to thoroughly bathe herself that morning. After she dried her hair, she pulled it back into it's normal two pigtails and got dressed. She had the time to eat breakfast with her parents for once, so she did and then brushed her teeth afterwards. When it was time for her to leave for school, she grabbed her purse and her backpack. She snatched some cookies from the bakery and put them in her purse for Tikki to munch on during the day and then set off for school.
Needless to say, Alya was surprised to see her best friend enter the school courtyard so early.
"Hey girl! Look who's early!" She said, giving her best friend a hug. Marinette hugged her bag with a smile. Genuinely happy to see her reporter best friend despite still being in a sour mood due to the events of the previous day.
Nino came over to them and smiled at he slung his arms around their shoulders and cracked a joke. Marinette giggled at his antics and Alya just facepalmed and smiled.
They trio made their way upstairs and into the classroom for their first class of the day. They sat in their seats and Marinette let her head fall into her arms on the desk.
"You okay, Marinette?" Alya asked her, and she nodded.
"Yeah, just tired is all." She told her, and Alya laughed with Nino.
"You're not used to being up this early, huh?" Nino asked her with a smirk on his face.
"Shut it, Nino." Marinette's muffled voice said and Nino only laughed.
Then Adrien came in.
When Adrien entered the classroom, he was nervous. Ladybug - Marinette - hadn't shown up for patrol the previous night and as much as he had wanted to go to her house and see her he figured she hadn't shown up for a reason and decided to leave her alone. So, he went home and tried to sleep as much as possible.
Though let's be honest, he didn't sleep a wink either. He had been awake all night worrying about her and how she was probably feeling knowing that he knew who she was when she wasn't Ladybug.
He didn't know what he was going to say to her when he saw her. It wasn't like he could just waltz right up to her and say, "Hey Marinette, I'm Cat Noir, just thought you should know."
Yeah, no, that wouldn't work.
He didn't want to just flat out tell her either. He kind of wanted her to figure it out for herself, he just didn't know how he was going to make that work.
However, when he entered the classroom and saw her laying her head on the desk, he knew exactly what to do.
He walked up to his seat next to Nino, but before sitting down he looked to Marinette and said.
"Hey Marinette, are you feline okay?" He said, making a classing Cat Noir pun. Marinette's head shot up at the sound of his voice, and she looked confused at first when she realized he had made a pun.
"Oh, uh, I, uh..." She stammered. "I-I'm fine. J-just...something happened yesterday...stressing me out."
Adrien knew she was talking about her identity being revealed to him, though she didn't know that he knew that. Not yet.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." He told her. "Say, do you think I could pawrow your notes from yesterday's lesson? I'm afraid that akuma attack got in the way of everything and I wasn't able to get a copy from anyone else."
Marinette only blinked as he made another pun. What is going on? She thought.
"Uh, um, s-sure." She stuttered and she reached into her backpack and pulled out her notebook. She ripped the pages out and handed them to him with a shaky hand. He took them from her and gave her his best Cat Noir smile.
"Thanks Marinette, you really are the cats meow." He said and then he sat down in his seat. Nino questioned him on why he was saying so many cat puns, and Adrien just told him he was in the mood for puns today. Nino seemed to buy it, but he still looked skeptical.
Marinette however, was trying to calm her racing heart beat and shaky hands. Alya was trying to help her calm down, but the teacher walked into the classroom and Alya had to start listening to the lesson.
It was the final class of the day, and Adrien didn't know if Marinette had figured him out yet after making plenty of puns and acting as Cat Noir like as he could around her all day. So, in a last ditch effort, he wrote her a note. He waited until the teacher turned to the board, quickly turned around and placed the folded piece of paper onto Marinette's desk. She looked at him with shock and confusion, and he just winked and smiled at her.
Marinette eyed him up and down after he turned around and then slowly picked the note up and read it. She suddenly forgot how to breathe as she read the words written in Adrien's neat handwriting.
'Hey purrincess. Think you could help this alley cat out? I'm not really understanding what she's teaching. Wanna study together sometime? You're a pretty pawsome note taker.'
Marinette's eyes lifted from the piece of paper to the boy sitting in front of her, taking notes and acting as if nothing was happening. She glanced back at the note, and then back at him. She gears in her head working at full speed. Adrien was making puns, cat puns, like Cat Noir. Adrien had smiled at her, but it wasn't just any smile, it was a Cat Noir smile. Adrien had winked at her in a very Cat Noir like manner.
Adrien has blond hair, like Cat Noir.
Adrien has green eyes, like Cat Noir.
Adrien is almost six feet tall, like Cat Noir.
All of the puzzle pieces came together in her head until they formed the big picture.
Adrien and Cat Noir were the same person. Adrien was Cat Noir. Cat Noir was Adrien.
"Ho...ly crap." Marinette said quietly to herself. Alya, having heard it, looked to Marinette with confusion, but Marinette ignored her best friend and wrote a reply on the piece of paper.
When Adrien saw the note fall in front of him on his desk and felt a slight kick on the back of his chair, she smirked. Knowing it had finally clicked for her.
He unfolded the note and read what she had written as a reply.
'When class is over, don't go anywhere.'
He gave Marinette a thumbs up behind his chair and went back to taking notes from the lesson.
When the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, Adrien stayed in his seat as well as Marinette while everyone else hurried out of the classroom to head home. After everyone was gone -except for Alya and Nino who waited outside the classroom to see what was going to happen- Marinette stood from her chair and silently walked to the front of the classroom. She walked over to the classroom door, gave a nod to Alya and Nino, and then closed the door, locking it in the process. Alya and Nino shared a confused look, but luckily both were tall enough to see what was going to happen through the big window next to the door. Alya found herself wishing she had popcorn for something.
However, both Alya and Nino were not expecting to watch as Marinette slapped Adrien across the face as soon as he stood up.
In the classroom, Adrien now held his cheek, a look of pain on his face.
"What was that for?" He asked her, she ignored him and shoved his chest.
"You stupid, stupid, stupid cat!" She exclaimed.
"Is there a reason I'm being assaulted right now?" Adrien asked, a little teasing in his tone.
"You..." Marinette began. "You jumped in front of me and got shot by Dark Cupid!"
"...Okay?" Adrien said, not seeing where she was going with this.
"You sacrificed yourself to an entire army of kissing zombies so they wouldn't get to me and ended up becoming one yourself!"
"I'm not seeing your point." Adrien said. "You jumped inside a dinosaurs mouth!"
"Yeah, because I had a plan!" She exclaimed. "You're always just being reckless!"
"I was never being reckless." Adrien defended himself. "I was protecting you!"
Alya and Nino were watching the argument between the two fold out with worried expressions on their faces. They couldn't hear what was being said, but whatever they were arguing about had to be serious for both of them to be so heated.
"No!" Marinette hollered. "You were being reckless when you jumped in front of me when we were fighting Timebreaker and got killed!"
It's those words that make Adrien stop and notice the tears in the bluenette's eyes.
"...What?" He asked.
A tear slipped from Marinette's eye and fell down her face. "When we were fighting Timebreaker, you jumped in front of me just as she was about to touch me and she killed you. She erased you from existence."
Adrien's eyes widened. He didn't remember any of that.
"I don't remember that happening." He told her. "I remember there being two Timebreakers and two of you."
"Yeah, that's because she dragged me to the past with her!" Marinette explained. "But Adrien, you...you faded away in my arms. Right in front of me. I lost you. So, I went back in time with her so I could save you. What did you think I meant when I told you not to let her touch you because your life depended on it?"
Everything fell into place for Adrien right then and there as he remembered that day. He had been so caught up with there being two Ladybug's and the impending akuma to even consider the seriousness of her statement to him.
"Marinette," He began. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"That's because I never told you until now." She said and she walked up to him. "Losing you...was the worst thing I have ever felt in my life."
She brought her hands to his chest and balled bunches of his shirt into her hands.
"You can't...you can't scare me like that, Adrien." She told him. "Okay? You can't scare me like that ever again."
"Marinette, I will always protect you." He told her. "If that means jumping in front of an akuma for you, then so be it."
"Why? Why are you so hell bent on protecting me?!" She asked.
"Because I love you!" He shouted, this made Marinette pause.
"You love Ladybug." She told him and he shook his head as she wiped a tear from her face with his thumb.
"Marinette, I was fighting my crush on you because I had a crush on Ladybug and I thought I was betraying her in some way because of it." He told her. "But now, I don't have to fight it because you're the same person, and I love you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng."
Marinette looked up into his piercing green eyes and her lip began to quiver.
"I-I love you, too." She sobbed out and Adrien pulled her into his arms. She clung to him tightly as she cried and he held her close, closing his eyes and relishing in her presence. "I've loved you since that day you gave me your umbrella. I was too scared to tell you."
"You don't have to be afraid around me anymore, Mari." He said softly into her ear. "Okay? Not anymore."
She nodded into his shoulder and he held her tighter.
"The day Timebreaker killed you..." She said into his shirt. "Was the scariest day of my life."
She pulled back and looked up at him. He listened intently as he wiped the tears from her face with his thumbs.
"Please don't make me relive it under any circumstances." She pleaded. "Please."
Adrien only nodded, then he slowly leaned down and kissed her. She got over her initial shock and kissed him back, bringing her hands to either side of his face.
"Okay." Was all he said after they pulled apart and he looked down into her beautiful, bluebell eyes. He smiled at her and she smiled back before wrapped her arms around him again. There they stood in the empty classroom, wrapped in each others embrace, not another care in the world.
Outside the classroom, Nino handed a smugly smirking Alya a ten dollar bill. However, he didn't mind losing the bet.
It was about time those two kissed.
A/N: Well hello! I hope you enjoyed this one shot! I thought of this last night and I was bored so I decided to write it out and publish it. I think it turned out pretty well! Let me know what you think?