She didn't quite know when her doodles became little black cats on the side of her notebook and if she'd had a marker or a colored pencil or something, their eyes stood out the with the brightest green she had.
Marinette wasn't sure how it came to be that instead of drawing, sketching, designs that would look good on her or Adrien or sometimes even Alya, her notebook became full of Cat Noir inspired or based designs.
She drew suits, fancy, elegant, something a charming gentleman would wear and grew increasingly frustrating when she couldn't draw his face, just a mask, some cat eyes, and whatever else hid his identity. Even slicking his hair back in the pictures was difficult; the messy hair just messy enough that she wished she could run her hands through it and may be grab some hair gel and smooth it into a neat less than mess.
She was doomed, hopeless, and yet her drawings continued. Tight T-Shirt with cat puns galore, tracing muscles on his chest that she could just sort of imagine. Black jeans with rough designs that highlighted his strong legs and somehow left her in a daze to imagine, and once when she was exhausted or may be bored or just plain weak, she drew him in a suit inspired off of hers, a ladybug esque superhero suit.
It was a real bummer that he'd look hot in it too. Probably hotter than her anyway.
All of her sketches became this huge plethora of Cat Noir themed, and she was getting so done with it and yet she couldn't stop. Every second spent trying to get his green eyes right sent her belly abuzz with butterflies and ladybugs in the best kind of way. She could even argue that there were cats as well since she'd recently become cat obsessed.
Naturally despite everything, it had to blow up in her face, almost like all the times that she'd embarrassed herself in front of Adrien when he was all that she could think about before Cat Noir just took over his place, stretched out like the cat he was, and became something impossible for her to forget.
Her notebook tumbled out of her hands and fell open on a weak page, Ladybug X Cat Noir in big, loopy letters, a drawing of her and Chat, an imagining of Cat Noir without his suit, just a nice casual cat themed top that clung to his muscles, tight black jeans that showed off more than any one piece of clothing was allowed to, and her as Marinette, the two caught in an almost kiss like someone had taken a picture at the wrong time, Cat Noir's mask half off.
Marinette held her breath, because that had to be one of the most incriminating pictures in her notebook, something that the world wasn't supposed to see especially her ex-crush who was now staring at her slack jawed; the only people that it would be worse for them to see is Cat Noir for more than just her crush, for her identity too that the page spelled out with ease, and for Alya who would be all levels of excited and hopefully miss the part that says that Marinette is Ladybug. She practically bounces on her toes as she hopes that it isn't too obvious that she's Ladybug, but then again, her luck never carried over enough outside of her suit.
"M'lady? Ladybug?" Adrien practically tripped over himself which was vaguely impressive since he was usually quite graceful and because he was standing up.
"A-Adrien?" Her mind refused to connect the dots; she couldn't have fallen in love with the same person twice. She refused to believe it.
Cat Noir was so, so enchanting, stunning, mischievous sometimes, but mostly he was just an endearing gentleman who perhaps tried too hard. She couldn't imagine Adrien making the same faces, couldn't imagine Adrien so bent on discovering her identity, but she could imagine him respecting it like Cat Noir always did.
She blew a stray hair out of her face, beyond frustrated with herself that was connecting dots where she really shouldn't.
"Marinette." She blinked when Adrien's hand cupped her face, and he gingerly, more of a tap than a kick really, shut her notebook.
"Adrien?" She wasn't sure how she'd kept her stutter at bay when her heart fell through to her stomach, may be it was because she'd moved on, and yet her face tingled wherever his fingers were and if they moved, the tingling stayed behind.
"I'm your Cat." He murmured, soft as a dove wing in her ear, "I'm Cat Noir."
Her world fell beneath her feet, all topsy turvy, but one thing was certain, she couldn't speak without stuttering if she tried. Marinette stood on her tiptoes and helped close the gap between them regardless.
If she could spend an eternity just kissing her Chat, her Adrien, then she would; certainly a reveal wasn't supposed to be so sweet. Marinette would freak out later, because right now, pressing into her superhero partner was far more important than having a breakdown over his identity.