Tikki took a seat next to Marinette's box for her diary. "Marinette, you do know what happened last night, right?" Marinette cleaned herself up and finished her orange juice from earlier.

"I went on patrol with Chat… we stopped, talked for a while, and went home." Tikki sighed.

"This isn't like you. Don't you remember…?" Tikki urged her owner. She already knew Adrien was Chat Noir by sensing Plagg near her at school (and maybe being a witness to his bracelet incident a while back), but now that Marinette knew, she was ecstatic. Tikki wasn't keen on keeping their identities a secret, but she knew it was for their own good. Now, looking back, it seemed like a stupid idea. They're smart people, they know how to handle this massive secret alone. Together, they would be a piece of cake. Tikki watched as Marinette sat on her swivel chair and spun around once.

"I remember… I just don't believe it." She looked at her Kwami. "Did you know…?" Tikki smiled innocently which gave Marinette all the answers she needed.

"Uuugghh…. Tikki what am I going to do?! I can't even talk to Chat anymore normally without mentioning Adrien!" She covered her face with her hands. "How would I tell him? There's no way he's going to be happy when he finds out it's me… well… maybe… but that could be an act, I don't know his life!" Tikki was thinking as Marinette rambled on. Unlike Marinette, she had nothing to freak out over which gave her time to think of a good plan.

"You said you like Chat Noir, so at least you like all of him! Right?" TIkki asked. Marinette shrugged a little.

"It could be my influence of Adrien. I can think of all of our meetings from attacks or patrols and I can't see Adrien at all. I still don't believe it." She shook her head and looked at the pictures on the wall. "Maybe that's why he was upset… I feel horrible." She groaned, covering her face again with her arms this time.

"Look on the bright side. You two already know each other! And you know that Adrien likes you, so if you just reveal yourself, everything will be fine." Marinette sighed, enjoying Tikki's positive aspect of this situation. It seemed that easy, but it didn't feel that way.

"Tikki, he only likes me because I'm Ladybug. Maybe if he looked at Marinette a little-"

"But he has! Look at how he was treating you earlier! He cares enough about you to show so much emotion that Chat has never showed Ladybug." Tikki was becoming frustrated and Marinette could feel it.

"Can we continue this discussion later? I need to talk to Alya about that project… Might as well start early, right?" She laughed nervously and called up her best friend.

That afternoon, Alya showed up with her binder in hand. Marinette offered some snacks before they went up to her room to spread out the poster board and began to do research on their assigned book for English literature. They chose Sleeping Beauty because it was the only one the two girls knew well (not to mention they just finished the book in the class). Alya was in charge of gathering the information needed for the essay portion while Marinette worked on the poster board filled with historical facts of that time, analysis of a few chapters, the summary, and an in-depth conclusion. There were also quite a few designs Marinette doodled on the corners to give it some personality rather than just a boring old white board. The assignment kept Marinette's mind off of Chat/Adrien all the while being productive. Maybe she was wrong about Chat. Maybe this situation was too simple to handle. She was probably freaking out over nothing. All she had to do was reveal herself and all will be happily ever after. At least she hoped. But there was a small nag in the back of her mind that kept protruding forward. She knew Chat's character around Marinette was faked. He was just showing off, most likely. But even though he denied that she was boring old Marinette, she didn't feel like he really knew anything about her, Adrien or not. She could use a second opinion, but there was no way she could ask anyone else without them getting suspicious. Especially Alya. But Alya was her best friend and maybe she'll assume Marinette is hiding something but it'll at least give her answers. She could deal with her friend's wrath later.

"Hey, Alya? Can I ask you something?" Marinette capped the marker and set it aside as she turned towards her friend. "It's… sort of hard to explain, but I need your opinion on something." Alya saved the draft for the essay and turned.

"What's up girl?" She asked.

"It's a really really weird question… but… what if you're friends with someone you don't know or you don't know who it is exactly, but then you find out and you actually know that person but they don't know who you are because you're hiding it. Would you keep hiding it or tell them?" Marinette asked. Alya thought for a while about it.

"If I know them, yeah. Why? Did you find some creep online or something?" Marinette laughed.

"No, but thank you. Just Trying to help a friend is all," she smiled. "Are we done for the day?" She gestured to the project. "All we have left is the final draft of that essay. I can help you with that. Just send me the file and I'll work on it tonight." Marinette stood and collected her things to put away. The project wasn't due until next week, but any head start works best. Alya left the thumbdrive containing the essay on Marinette's desk.

"Just give me that when you're done and I'll work on any edits. Hey, want to catch a movie later with Nino and I?" She nudged her friend. "Adrien will be there~"

"Sure! What time?" Alya looked at her phone.

"About two hours? Meet us at the park, the theater isn't far from there." Marinette nodded and cleaned up the rest of the supplies and put them in her desk drawer. She rolled up the poster and set it beside her window.

"I'll see you then." Marinette followed Alya down to walk her outside before closing and locking the door to the bakery. She ran back up to her room and flopped face down onto the couch.

"Tikki, what do I do? God, I'm such an idiot." Tikki appeared and sat beside Marnette's head.

"When did you remember what happened anyways?" Tikki asked. She was confused that Marinette remembered but didn't say anything to Chat earlier.

"Tikki, can't you talk about something other than last night? I remembered before Chat showed up, but I couldn't not freak out when he was here. He was still Chat, I couldn't see Adrien at all." Tikki frowned.

"Maybe that's who Adrien is. Maybe that's why Chat was so upset." The kwami flew to her diary, unlocked it and pulled it out. "Maybe you need to write down your thoughts before you start getting scrambled again. It might help." Marinette looked up and took the book.

"Thanks, Tikki. But writing out my feelings won't help much. He deserves to know, I just have to find the right time to tell him.

Alya sat on the park bench waiting for Marinette and Adrien to show up. It wasn't like her best friend to be late for something involving Adrien, but it wasn't like they were going to leave soon anyways since he wasn't there either.

"Nino, can you text Adrien and find out where he's at? The movie starts in thirty minutes and I really want good seats." Alya pulled out her phone and called Marinette. She picked up on the third ring.

"I-I'm on my way! Sorry, I lost track of time." Alya could hear heavy breathing on the other end.

"Chill girl, Adrien isn't here either. But if you two don't show up in five minutes, Nino and I are leaving without you." Alya smiled at her friend's clumsiness when she could hear the clatter of her phone being dropped. In the distance, she could her apologizing and then the line went silent. Alya pulled her phone from her ear and frowned, calling again. There wasn't an answer.

"Yo Alya, Adrien isn't picking up his phone. Should we ditch and go now?" Nino asked. Alya shook her head.

"They have five minutes to get here, otherwise-"

"W-we're here!" Marinette called out. Alya looked up to see Marinette and Adrien jogging up towards the couple. "Sorry, I got here as fast as I could." Adrien nodded.

"Me too. We kind of ran into each other on our way here," he laughed awkwardly. "Anyways, you guys set?" Alya and Nino stood up from the bench and stretched out.

"You guys are too slow. I'll be sure to make the plans twenty minutes ahead of the meet-up time," Alya teased. Marinette rolled her eyes and the group walked towards the movie theater. On her way there, she ran into Adrien who was going just as fast as she was, though, somehow tripped and left them both falling to the floor. The walk there was quiet spare for the occasional comment about how excited they are for the movie. As a group, they haven't gone out all together in so long. On their way there, however, they passed a billboard with Adrien posing for the shoot that was for the hat competition. If one were to pay close enough attention, there was a bit of red around his nose due to the heavy amount of sneezing, but the editors covered it up nicely. Marinette smiled up at the image, proud of herself.

"I'm sorry that it was made of feathers, I would have never guessed," she said. To her surprise, it was coherent sentence. Adrien smiled at her.

"It's okay, Marinette. You didn't know and it was a really cool design, especially with your name on it like that. Do you put that on all of your designs?" Adrien looked down at Marinette and noticed her hesitate before answering.

"After what happened, I've thought about it, yeah." She glanced up and noticed him looking right back. She quickly looked away and walked faster. "A-anyways, I'm glad you liked it!" she blurted out. The boy laughed it off and continued to walk. He wondered if she was okay after that incident, with Chloe stealing her work. He spoke to his father after the contest about recommending Marinette to work for their company. Gabriel agreed, though, when she gets a little older. Now she was far too young to start on something so big and Gabriel fully believes she should start where most other people should start. Therefore, Adrien promised his father not to tell Marinette about the position held exclusively for her after she manages to sell a few of her designs herself. Though, he didn't promise to not help her. After the movies tonight, the group planned to eat out at a diner across the street before heading home and that would be the perfect opportunity to place his offer as a model for her work. It would surely get some attention online and earn her some extra money. Lately he noticed the lack of tasty treats in her parent's bakery and as a friend, he couldn't just stand by. He could do something good as a civilian, at the very least.

When the group approached the entrance to the theater, each individual payed for their respective ticket to the movie. Alya and Marinette headed off to the restrooms first while Adrien and Nino stood in line for the snacks. Nino glanced at his phone and while he was turning it on silent, he received a text from Alya.

Alya: Meet me by the doors 2 the movie after u get ur drinks. Operation Arienette is in action!" Nino smiled and sent back a thumbs up emoji and while moving in line, slowly inched in front of Adrien.

"You ready for this movie bro? I've heard lots of bad things about it," Nino said. Distracting Adrien from the cut in line helped, though, it wasn't like Adrien cared much anyways.

"Really? I've heard nothing but great things. Where do you always find these reviews at?" Adrien asked.

Nino shrugged and moved forward some more. "Places. People. Look dude, all I'm sayin' is that don't expect much from this one. Especially from the cast. I can't believe they picked those people!" Adrien watched his friend rant about the movie they haven't even seen yet and noticed only Alya go into the theater.

"Hey, Nino, should we buy them their stuff? The lines are pretty long and I'm not sure they could get back in time. Do you know what they might want?" Nino grinned. This was perfect to gain more time.

"Uhh… yeah! I guess some slushies will work and popcorn? How much money do you have?" Nino asked. Adrien scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"Not much… After eating some of the food from my dad's business party, he restricted my allowance. I've only got about fourteen euros left after the ticket." Nino was actually surprised but shrugged it off.

"Well you'll figure it out." He looked at the prices of the snacks. Most were pretty high.

"Maybe you can share the popcorn with whoever and they'd pay for half? Or a soda or something. You take care of Marinette, I've got Alya." At that point, Nino was next in line and ordered a medium popcorn with two small sodas for himself and Alya. After the order was placed, he fast-walked towards the room their movie was in and searched for Alya. After finding her, he handed her the drink and sat down, sinking down as low as he could. They were in the far back corner of the theater, hiding themselves from their friends' sighs. Marinette was still in the restroom, cleaning herself up after Alya "accidently" got mascara over her face. It wasn't even anywhere near her eye but Marinette most likely wasn't paying attention about where it was.

"Hope this works," Alya said, taking a sip of her drink. "Nino! You know I don't like diet!"


Oh gosh, sorry for the long awaited update! This has been sitting as a lonely tab on my laptop for a long time. Hopefully the ending to the previous chapter is explained here. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a review or PM me! I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible! Warning: lots of angst ahead in the near future. Hope you have a great day!