And Suddenly
by MellyMiraculous
Summary: As Adrien dashes for place to transform into Chat Noir, he encounters a scene he didn't expect. Chat Noir wants nothing more than to share his discovery, but Ladybug is resistant.
Story Notes: Reveal AU in Three Parts. It starts fluffy, then gets a bit angsty. Not sure how that happened.
Part II: Rejection
0o0
Ladybug was convinced she wasn't imagining it. Maybe at first, but now? No. Chat Noir was definitely behaving differently, even if she couldn't pinpoint exactly when it started.
"But don't you think we actually know each other in our civilian lives?" her partner was questioning aloud.
She shot him a frown, watching as he walked along the peak of the roof they were on. It wasn't the first time he had voiced such a theory, of course. It was, in fact, about the twelfth time in two or three weeks. "Aren't you curious?" he had asked one of the times, holding onto her wrist as the time to their de-transformation drew near. "We might really know each other!"
"Why are you being so persistent?" Ladybug asked, coming to a stop.
Chat Noir continued a few more steps, presumably so he could lean insouciantly against the chimney. "Well, don't you want to know?" he asked, green eyes especially luminous in the moonlight.
They were on patrol – a task which they frequently undertook together. Mindful that they both had daytime lives and commitments, they tried to complete their rounds by midnight. Some nights, this was easier to achieve than others. Ladybug thought it a wonder that she didn't oversleep her alarm more often than she did.
"Chat Noir, we talked about this," she sighed.
Chat Noir seemed to visible deflate, even as he straightened up out of his lean. "Did we?" he said plaintively. "Because as I remember it, you did all the talking."
The look he was giving her made her heart feel like it was being twisted in her chest. Why must he look at her in such a way? Ladybug had thought - she'd been certain - that he agreed with her on this. Apparently, she'd been mistaken.
Part of her was tempted to give in right then. What could it hurt?
She knew, however, that it could hurt a lot. If they knew one another's identities, Hawk Moth or some other villain could find a way to extract the information from them and use it against them. Knowing could put them both in danger.
Even so, as valid a concern as it was, Ladybug knew that was not her greatest reservation. Chat Noir knew the confident her. He knew the girl who could do and achieve anything. The heroine of Paris; a capable person worthy of fighting beside him. But the real her, the person she was without her miraculous - why, she was just Marinette. Clumsy, awkward Marinette, who couldn't even stand up to the likes of Chloé before she had Alya at her side.
Ladybug couldn't bear the thought that Chat Noir might be disappointed in who she was behind the mask. Try though she might, she couldn't quite shake the fear that he would be.
She was shaking her head before she'd made the conscious decision to do so. The words that crossed her lips came as little surprise to her.
"No one can know who we really are," she echoed the very words she'd said the first he had suggested they share their identities, "not even the two of us."
He looked so crestfallen then and her heart ached in the most bewildering way. Ladybug wasn't certain what it was about that look on Chat Noir's face that suddenly made breathing itself seem painful, but it did.
"We should separate for the night," Ladybug said, struggling to keep her tone light. Everything was the same as always. There was no reason for her to be feeling like she suddenly wanted to cry. "It's about time we both went home, anyway."
Chat Noir gave her an obviously forced smile in answer and Ladybug turned to leave as quickly as she could without appearing as though she was fleeing. She didn't see the tears that welled up in his eyes and spilt down his black mask. She didn't witness how he'd pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes a second later, sinking into a despondent crouch.
In fact, it was a wonder she could see anything that night, for the whole of Paris itself had managed to become a messy blur before her very eyes.
A/N: And that is the end of Part II! (I dunno where the angst came from.) The third and final part will follow soon. Hugs, Melly.
