Chapter 2


Marinette didn't come to school the next day.

Adrien spent the entire day worrying his lip with his teeth and casting furtive glances behind him at the empty desk, trying his hardest to avoid the suspicious glare that Alya threw him every time.

Every time he caught Alya's eye, however, he was reminded vividly of the night before.

Her blue eyes were wide and glassy as she turned around to look at him. They were unreadable, but Adrien imagined that he could see fear and accusation within their depths, similar to what he had seen the first time he had laid eyes on Marinette Dupain-Cheng. But was it fair to liken some misplaced chewing gum on a bench to a lie this deep?

"I need to go,' Marinette said breathlessly and all at once, and Adrien felt his heart seize in his chest. He could hear the shell-shocked disbelief in her voice, and he didn't know what it meant. It terrified him.

"Marinette, wait, I—"

"No. No, nope, I'm.. B-bye..!" Came the stuttered reply, and before he could get his brain to work Marinette was tearing herself away from him, slipping past his fingers and sprinting back into the snowy street.

Nino, feeling extremely confused and apologetic to have walked in on what seemed to have been an important moment, had been trying to make it up to Adrien all day. Adrien could practically see the guilt radiating off of him, and he longed to make that feeling go away. It was his own fault that he was in this mess, not Nino's.

He had gotten in too deep, and it had blown up in his face like things always had. The worst thing was, he couldn't even blame Plagg for this particular bout of misfortune.

This one had been all on him.

It was with a heavy heart that Adrien turned to the power of his Miraculous that night for his scheduled patrol with Ladybug.

In all honesty, he dreaded seeing her for the first time since they had first met.

What was he supposed to tell her? He had compromised his identity and flaunted it like a fool. Now a girl from his school knew who he was behind the mask. Ladybug would be furious, then exasperated, then disappointed.

Or, worst of all, she would be unsurprised. She would say that she had seen it coming, that she knew he was flighty and wild and untrustworthy.

Those thoughts made his stomach clench and roil with anxiety, and as Chat Noir landed lightly on the rooftop of a building overlooking the Louvre, he almost turned right back around when he saw Ladybug's distinctive silhouette waiting for him.

What was he supposed to say? Should he open with a flirtatious remark and try to soften her before he confessed? Should he hide it, and wait for a better time? No, that wouldn't work, Chat told himself sternly. Secrets had ways of coming to the forefront at the most inopportune of times, and he really, REALLY didn't want to face Ladybug's wrath if she found out that he had kept something so important from her.

"You're late, you know."

Chewing at his lip, Chat Noir sidled up beside his Lady and made a quiet, noncommittal noise in lieu of a reply, or even his usual greeting. HIs footsteps crunched ever so slightly in the snow.

Ladybug started and turned to him, her eyes wide behind her mask.

"Chat? What's wrong, you—"

"I messed up."

Ladybug went still at his words, and Chat immediately winced. He hadn't meant to blurt that out at all.

"What are you talking about? Look, Chat, I've had a long day, can we just get patrol over and done with and then you can tell me about—"

"Someone found out," Chat interrupted again, then winced back when Ladybug shot him a disgruntled stare. He chewed at his lip and looked down, wanting to fiddle with his hands or his tail but instead keeping them clenched tightly at his sides. He tore a chunk of skin from his lips with his sharp teeth and hissed when he tasted the sharp tang of blood.

When he looked up once more, Ladybug was watching him, her face pale in the moonlight. "What do you mean? Found out..found out what?"

He hadn't heard her sound so uncertain for nearly a year, now. Not since they had first met, and not since she had gained so much confidence. It made his heart pound in his chest, so hard that he swore that she could hear it.

Chat tried to stand still, but couldn't help fidgeting and shifting where he stood, searching for the right words. Finally, he sighed and decided to just say it.

Ladybug was wonderful. She would understand.

Chat ran a hand through his blonde hair, messing it up further and brushing his bangs across his forehead in an agitated gesture. "My Lady, I may have..completely screwed up. There's this girl, at my school. Marinette Dupin-Cheng; you remember her, right? I've only spoken to her behind the mask a few times, I swear, but somehow she recognized my voice anyway. I completely blew it, My Lady, and now she knows who I am. She's best friends with the girl who runs the LadyBlog, and there's no way she isn't going to tell her."

Chat looked at his feet, finally succumbing to the urge to grab his tail and run it through his fingers repeatedly in a nervous gesture. He searched for more to say, and then finally gave up, saying miserably, "I blew it. I'm sorry, Ladybug."

The silence he was met with was expected, but he still wilted under it. The distant, echoing sound of stray dogs barking and the occasional car engine played the backdrop to his tension, but when Ladybug finally spoke, it was to say the last thing he expected to hear.

"…Adrien?"


Ladybug felt the name pass through her lips without her consent, and she wanted to take them back right away, but the shock and horror was too much.

The way that Chat Noir's ears immediately flicked back in shock, his eyes going wide, only made her want to force the words back into her throat.

Regret was a bitter poison, and she could feel it crashing down on her in wave after shocking wave.

Chat's—no, Adrien's—face was white with shock, seeming very pale beneath his black mask. "M-my Lady?" he squeaked, and oh.

Oh, he hadn't made the connection yet.

Ladybug struggled to speak, but all that came out was a strangled garble. She wanted to run. She wanted to scream.

Of course Chat Noir's first instinct when he thought he messed up was to go straight to her and apologize. Of course he would tell her right away. Of course.

She wasn't ready to face the truth, not yet, but suddenly it was thrust upon her in the most hilarious, pathetic of ways.

Adrien was Chat Noir. Chat Noir was Adrien.

Adrien hadn't been playing a cruel, childish joke on her the other day. He hadn't meant to scare her. He hadn't even meant to be recognized as anything but Adrien Agreste.

And now, everything was coming to a head, because she HAD recognized him, and as Marinette. Now, as Ladybug, she had laid herself bare.

Across from her, she could see the gears turning in Chat's blonde head. Slowly, his slitted eyes widened and he fixed her with a startled, stare. Half-scared, half-elated.

Ladybug felt a jagged shard of fear pierce her heart, full of insecurity and horror. She felt sick. She couldn't do this, but here it was, thrust upon her.

Reality.

"Marinette."

Ladybug flinched back, a painful lump in her throat, and to her horror she realized that she could feel her eyes burning. No, she couldn't cry. She couldn't add another indignity to the mess that was already thrust upon her, she couldn't let the disappointment Adrien felt be even more than it already was. She took a sharp breath, willing her tears away, and bit her lip hard. It hurt, but the pain did little to ground her.

She nodded, stiff and scared, and stared at the bell on Chat's suit. It glittered in the Parisian night lights. She could see the red of her suit, and she hated it all of a sudden.

It had given her a mask to hide behind, but it had also given her so much false hope that she had leaned upon even after she had lain lies upon lies upon it. Now, it crumbled under the stress.

She took a deep breath.

"Y..yeah."

Chat actually bounced in front of her, but she refused to look up. Even though she couldn't see his face, his voice trembled with emotion that she couldn't place.

"You're..you're Ladybug! Marinette, you're Ladybug!"

"Stop saying that," she blurted before she could stop herself, and they both flinched back at the same time. Horrified with speaking so harshly to Chat—to Adrien, to her crush, to the love of her life and her most trusted friend and partner—Ladybug looked up quickly, hands curling in front of her and clutching to her chest like she could protect herself from heartbreak.

What she saw shattered that hope into tiny, glittering fragments.

Chat looked like he was about to cry.

He had hunched back on himself when Ladybug had snapped at him, and he looked down at her with huge, wounded eyes. His hands were clenched firmly at his sides, and his shoulders were stiff, nearly up to his ears. Ladybug watched as he bit his lip hard, his chin wobbling and jaw clenching.

His voice was heart wrenching when he said, softly, "I'm sorry."

Stunned, Ladybug tried to cut in. "Chat, I—"

"I didn't mean to, My Lady. I didn't, I swear. I..I know I'm not much, but I..I just…" Chat hesitated, visibly struggling with himself, and then slumped. His whole posture changed as he hung his head, and his voice was monotonous when he mumbled,

"Even if you hate me, I'm just..so glad it's you.."

Green light flared at his feet, and in seconds, where Chat Noir had once stood now remained only a gangly blonde haired boy in designer sweatpants and a school gym shirt, his hair dishevelled and head bowed. A black blur zipped off behind him to hide just past his head, and Ladybug couldn't help but follow it with her eyes, staring like she couldn't see enough.

That had to be Chat's kwami. What had Tikki said his name was? Finding it so hard to breathe all of a sudden, she shook her head, pigtails flying about her face. She hadn't been imagining it. It was all here, all in front of her, right now. Chat Noir was Adrien, and Adrien was Chat Noir.

It was almost hilarious, so why did she want to cry?

"I..I'm sorry," she whispered, and didn't know why she was saying it.

Adrien looked up at her, peeking out from behind his perfect blonde hair with those gorgeous green eyes, and something in her thudded and jumped with a horrible, dizzying relief.

"I'm so sorry. For running. I don't hate you. How could I hate you, Adrien? You're kind, and perfect, and wonderful, a-and," Ladybug swallowed, the new information whirling behind her eyes, knocking her off balance, "A-and you're my partner. You're Chat. How could I hate you?"

An odd, slack-mouthed grin started to pull at Adrien's lips, but he looked shocked, half incredulous and half hopeful. "But you—" he said, only to be cut off as Ladybug continued, anxiety fuelling her suddenly non-stop mouth.

"I-if anything, I should be worried about you hating me! I'm always pushing you away, a-and I'm so clumsy, and nervous, and I'm always a wreck. I would understand if you were disappointed, if you would rather not have known, because me? Marinette? I'm just..I'm just me. I'm not amazing, or strong, or courageous. I'm not Ladybug without this mask, I'm just…scared."

"All the time?" Adrien asked, his voice quiet, and that was the last thing that she had expected him to say.

Eyes wide, she nodded.

Adrien smiled. It wasn't a Chat smile, and it wasn't a smile she'd seen on the cover of a Parisian fashion magazine. It was one she'd only seen once, when he had offered her, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, an umbrella so many months ago.

It warmed her heart and sent it into tiny, terrified flutters all at once.

"Me, too," Adrien said, shrugging a little, and Ladybug felt her breath stutter out in an unsteady stream of anxious laughter.

Slowly, she smiled, too.

"Then..that's okay, right?" she asked, fiddling with her fingers. They were still gloved, still red and black and spotted.

"Yeah. We can be scared together," Adrien said, rocking back on his feet. They were bare, she noticed suddenly, and a thrill of alarmed concern went through her. He looked smaller without his suit, more fragile, more human.

So did she, she knew.

Still, Marinette gathered all of her courage and pretended with all of her might that she was strong, and let the transformation drop.

Tikki flitted away with a little squeal, dashing up behind Adrien to—presumably—meet up with the other Kwami, but Marinette didn't watch. She stood there on the rooftop in nothing but her pyjamas and her little pink flats, and immediately curled in on herself with a violent shiver, slipping a little in the light powdering of snow.

Adrien blinked, then laughed, much like he had months before. Covering his mouth and half-embarrassed by his lack of decorum, he was red faced and relieved.

Shivering hard, Marinette couldn't help but laugh as well. The tension had left them, and suddenly it seemed to silly to be mad at each other or at themselves, just for a misunderstanding in the snow.

"It was the gloves that made me think you were Chat," she offered once she could stop giggling, and Adrien let out a choking laugh, feigning a swoon and grasping at his heart. He was standing so close to her, and his face looked so nice with those high spots of colour on his pale skin.

"I knew it! Leather was always my downfall."

"Such a vain kitty."

"Oh, but you like me best that way, don't you, My Lady?"

Adrien smirked at her, then, and all breath left Marinette's chest in a warm gush that fogged in the air between them. That was a Chat look, a Chat smile, and it looked so wrong and yet so right on Adrien's face. Suddenly she wondered if their miraculous had been a blessing as a mask for the both of them, and knew at once that it was true.

Suddenly, she was very aware of four things.

One, she was in love with Adrien Agreste.

Two, Adrien Agreste was Chat Noir

Three, Chat Noir was in love with Ladybug.

And four, she was Ladybug.

"Y-yeah," murmured Marinette, a new smile lighting up her face with none of the nervousness and yet all of the anticipation. Adrien's face lit up, and he perked up so visibly she could easily imagine the cat-ears of his suit perking up as well. It was as infuriatingly adorable as it was endearing. Warmth spread in her gut, and the cold outside could not compare to this new feeling. "Yeah, I really do."