As promised, here it is! Please review, and feel free to poke me on tumblr (fabulousanima)!

"M-Marinette? You're Ladybug?"

Nino, her classmate, Nino, someone she knew as a civilian, Nino, Adrien's best friend, was standing in front of her, a blank look on his face, hands limply holding the end of his dog's leash and a small plastic bag.

"No!" she squealed, but it only incriminated her further. She slapped a hand to her mouth. Act normal!

"I can't believe it," he said, a smile slowly spreading across his face.

"You shouldn't!" she cried desperately.

"All this time, you've been right in front of everyone."

"No I haven't!"

Nino's smirk grew wider as his dog began to sniff at the garbage cans nearby. "You've been Ladybug all this time."

"This is just a dream!" Marinette blurted out.

"Oh, Marinette," sighed Tikki in her ear.

Cocking his head, Nino raised an eyebrow. "Man, this is amazing. Marinette, how did you keep this a secret so long?"

"With difficulty, and Nino, it's very, very, important that you keep my secret too." She stepped closer, clasping her hands in front of her chest. "Please Nino. This is so important."

"But everyone has been trying to figure it out for, like, forever!" His eyes were glazed over, as if he were seeing something far away. "Could you think of everyone's reactions if they found out? Man, Chloe would be so shocked!"

Marinette put her hands on his shoulders. "Nino, that's the least of my worries. I don't tell anyone about my secret identity because I'm worried about my family. What if it puts them in danger? What if they become a target?" Nino's gaze finally seems to focus on her and his shoulders slump slightly under her touch. "And aside from that, could you imagine all the attention? I don't want the press hounding me at every turn. That would be awful."

"Sounds a lot like my man Adrien's life," he said sagely. "I see your point."

Opening her mouth to speak, Marinette paused. Filing that information away to think about later, she barreled forward. "Yes, exactly. And I don't want that, and I don't want to do that to my friends and family. So please Nino. This is serious."

He still didn't look totally convinced, so she turned to look over her shoulder at the darkened bakery.

"Can I make you something to eat?"

Nino chuckled. "Are you trying to bribe me?"

"If that's what it takes," she said, and with another laugh, he reached up and gently extricated her hands from his shoulders.

"I like cupcakes," he said.

Marinette turned on one of their smaller ovens as quietly as she could. Her parents went to bed fairly early to prepare for the demands of the bakery in the morning, and she didn't want to wake them.

She bustled around the kitchen, throwing together the easiest cupcake recipe she knew, feeling a tension in her shoulders that made it hard to stir properly. Tikki, of all things, had to decided to sit with Nino and his dog (after he had disposed of the plastic bag, thank goodness).

"I haven't had the chance to play with a dog for a long time!" she said delightedly, rubbing the animal's stomach. "Maybe about a century. This is wonderful!"

"Well, that's quite a statement," said Nino, trying to hold his dog on his lap while it squirmed with pleasure. "Bella, sit still."

"Yeah, Tikki is… very old," Marinette offered from the kitchen. She closed the oven door on the cupcakes and began to move the dishes to the sink.

"So there must have been other Ladybugs." He glanced around at Marinette. "Uh, do you need help with anything?"

"It's not a bribe if I don't do the work myself," she grumbled, only half joking. Nino and her kwami laughed.

"There have been, and it's been just as important to all of them that their identities be kept secret," said Tikki, floating up to look into Nino's eyes. "I've seen it too many times to count; it's just not good if the secret gets out."

Marinette tried to watch them from underneath her eyelashes as she scrubs the dishes. Nino looked pensive and serious, and she felt the knot in her stomach slowly abate.

She knew Nino would never do anything to intentionally hurt someone, but - just as she'd always feared - the shock of meeting the real Ladybug made his better judgement fly out the window. But Tikki seemed to be reasoning with him, and she hoped if she kept him with her until the initial excitement wore off, he'd be more amenable to agreeing not to say anything.

"What kind of frosting do you want?" she asked, drying her hands on a towel.

"I can have whatever I want?"

"Sure."

"Can I have orange?"

Marinette laughed, feeling lighter with each moment. "Yeah, I meant what flavor?"

They settled on vanilla, and she began to mix the ingredients while the cupcakes kept baking. Nino's dog eventually wiggled her way out of his arms onto the counter and he apologized even as Tikki and Bella began to play. Marinette laughed, feeling more and more at ease. It was - actually nice to share her secret with someone. Nino might not have been the first person she would have told, but it was fun to be able to see Tikki interact with someone (and some dog) totally new.

The oven timer went off and she pulled the tray out with a mittened hand. She opened the fridge and slid the tray in to cool them down faster.

"So do you always walk Bella near the bakery?" she asked.

Nino scratched his dog's ears absent-mindedly. "No, actually. I was on the phone with my cousin and we were talking about plans for a new movie to shoot together. I got really excited and decided to walk a lot farther than usual." He snorted. "I ended up carrying that bag a lot longer than usual too; I just didn't notice until I saw Ladybug swoop in." Sobering up, he looked at her. "Uh, what should I call you, by the way?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… you're Ladybug and Marinette. Should I-?"

"When you see me as Marinette, you should call me Marinette." Tikki flew up and landed on her shoulder. "And when you see Ladybug, you should call her Ladybug, and you should definitely not say anything that would make it sound like you know her."

"You mean you," he said, leaning forward.

"You know what I mean."

"You haven't said it yet."

"What?"

"You haven't said 'I am Ladybug.' You should! You should be proud of it, even if you can't say it to too many people."

Marinette bit her lip. Tikki gave her a small pat on the cheek. "Okay." She took a deep breath. "I am… Ladybug."

It was like a marble in her mouth, hard to speak around, but a smile blossomed across her face as she spoke. Nino nodded, a grin on his own face. "Yeah, and it's the coolest thing ever."

Tikki nuzzled into her neck, and Marinette patted her head. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"Adrien?!" Alya slowly lowered her phone as she stared at him, her mouth open in a wide grin. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights, face stricken and pale, eyes wide.

"Alya?!" he spluttered. "What are you doing here this time of night?"

"I saw Ladybug and Chat Noir rush past my window and I went to see if I could catch them on camera." She clutched her phone tighter. "I guess I did."

Adrien's eyes flicked towards the phone, then he lunged for it. Alya yelped and tried to dance out of his reach; he was fast.

"No! My phone!"

"Alya," he hissed, voice low and dangerous. "You cannot upload that video. You cannot reveal my identity."

"Adrien-!"

"I'll break it, I'm serious-"

"Wait! Wait! Okay, okay, you can delete the video." He glared at her but relented, and she slowly lowered the phone. She swiped in her password and handed the phone to him. He raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I said you can delete it," she said by way of explanation. "I want you to see that it's really gone."

With a frown, he took the phone. Alya heard the sounds of the last video she just took - the one in which Chat Noir landed in a darkened street and shed his catsuit to become Adrien Agreste - as he played it, then had to prevent herself from wincing as they were abruptly cut short; he had deleted it. He swiped his finger along the screen and Alya knew he was looking at the other videos in her phone. Adrien glanced up.

"That really is the only one you took?"

"Adrien, I swear."

With a sigh through his nose, he held the phone out again. Alya took it back. "Well, thanks," he said, deflating slightly. "I guess-" He seemed suddenly taken aback by her wicked grin. Alya tried to smooth out her features. Adrien blanched. "You can't tell anyone, Alya."

"I can't believe this," she said. Alya began to pace up and down the sidewalk. A white hot excitement was pounding through her veins; she felt the thrill of stumbling upon a big scoop. "I really can't believe this."

"Please-"

"Wait!" She startled him into silence. Glasses flashing, she whirled on him. "Does this mean you know who Ladybug is?"

"No," he said, sounding miserable.

She peered intently into his face.

"No! I really don't. We keep our identities secret from everyone, including each other." She noticed he glanced to the side as he said it, and there was something in the way his mouth turned down that made her think he was telling the truth.

"Fine, okay. But aren't you curious about who she is?"

"Well-"

"I had thought that she was 5000 years old, but if you're Chat Noir, then she must be someone living in the city too! Once we find her, we can ask her."

"Find her?"

"Yeah! We should try to figure out her identity together!"

Adrien's brow furrowed, and it was a testament to how he was definitely a model that he managed to still look good-looking while doing so. "Alya, no. She doesn't want anyone to find out who she is, and we need to respect that."

"But you don't care?"

"I do care!" and he was suddenly animated again. "I care a lot! You can't tell anyone!"

She waved her hand dismissively. "Okay, fine. But why doesn't Ladybug tell you who she is? Doesn't she trust you?"

"I- I hope so," he said. "But she's too important to me to try to press on the matter."

Alya's insides squirmed. The tender, faraway look on Adrien's face made her wonder just how much he cared for Ladybug. Poor Marinette; how could she hope to compete with that?

But she brushed it aside for the moment. "Okay, so we won't try to unmask her. That's fair. But I think we can both agree we want to know more about her, right?"

"I guess…" he said carefully. "Yeah, that's true."

"Excellent," she said, extending her hand. Adrien hesitated, then shook it. "And I will keep your secret, I promise-"

"Thank you," he said, shoulders sagging with relief.

"-On one condition."

"W-What?"

Alya grinned. "You have to go to the movies with Marinette."