For some reason, the journey back to the Agreste Mansion seemed to take longer than usual. It felt as if the world had been put on pause and Chat Noir was doing everything possible to claw himself forward to his destination, one inch at a time. Chat's heart and mind were both in complete turmoil and confusion, trying to get a grip of the events that had just occurred in front of him. The open window to his bedroom couldn't come fast enough.

He vaulted through his window just in the nick of time, de-transforming as he landed in front of his foosball table. Adrien bolted to the kitchen and searched high and low for the one thing he was looking for at that moment. He finally found it, grabbed it and raced back to his bedroom before anyone could notice he was even there. It was then that he sat down on his couch and started breathing heavily into the brown paper bag he had found.

"Adrien, where's my cheese?" Plagg impatiently asked, paying no attention at first to the commotion his master was making. He finally floated over to where his master was sitting, realising that Adrien's eyes were dilated and he was having a massive anxiety attack. Plagg raced over to Adrien's dirty wash basket, pulled out a dirty gym sock and flew it back over to Adrien, dangling it right before his eyes.

"Ohh, PLAGG!" a moment later, as the horrible scent of the gym sock finally makes itself know to Adrien's mind and nose.

"Well it worked didn't it!" Plagg ducked for cover as the gym sock was ripped from his hands and thrown in his direction.

"That was completely uncalled for and you know it!" he yells as he returns to breathing into the bag.

"Why, just because you can't handle the truth that your beloved Ladybug just happens to be your princess doesn't give you the right to take it out on me!" Plagg raises his voice back to compete.

"Are you crazy! No, it can't be her! Plagg your lying, stop lying to me!" Adrien shouts before once again breathing into the bag, clearly in denial.

"Seriously Kid, you really need to calm yourself down"

"Calm! Calm! I am calm! I am the definition of calm!" as the tension in the air almost gets to boiling point, and the speed in which Adrien is now breathing into his bag is extremely fast.

"Adrien?"

"Why her? Why did it have to be her Plagg?"

"Adrien?"

"How did I not see it before?"

"grrrrr"

"I got JEALOUS of ME because she loves ME!" As Adrien's rant continues.

"Seriously Adrien, you need to stop right now before Hawkmoth akumatizes you!"

"How could I not see it! I 'friendzoned' her! But I'm not scary, am I? Plagg, don't answer that! Man, how she drives me crazy! She's my partner, but she's my friend. That doesn't make sense. MUUUM, WHERE ARE YOU WHEN I NEED YOU!"

"ADRIEN" Plagg screams

Adrien returns to breathing into his bag. "BANG" as the bag gives out "What is wrong with you Plagg!"

"What's wrong with me! What's wrong with you, Kid! You're the one that just blew a massive hole through that brown paper bag you were breathing with because you were freaking out!"

Adrien stopped and looked down to see that Plagg was right. He was holding onto a brown paper bag that was no longer a bag that you could put something into, he had busted it open. "Wh… What happened?" Adrien asked as shock started to settle in.

"You had a massive anxiety attack as soon as you detransformed. Are you ok? You don't look so good, kid."

Adrien's colour had been completely drained from his face, his body was now trembling uncontrollably. His heart was racing so hard and fast that he thought it was about to jump out of his chest and was causing his head to pound. "A… Am I dr… dreaming right n… now Plagg or is th… this really h… happening?"

"Last time I checked it was," Plagg said as he floated over to Adrien's arm and gave it a pinch.

"OWWWW! What was that for?"

"Told you, you weren't dreaming" Plagg sniggered, as he was enjoying the comical side to Adrien's drama that was unfolding.

Adrien sighed as the events from only moments ago started to come flooding back to him. "Plagg, did you know? Did you know that she was Ladybug?" He asked calmly as he stared at the magazine with Ladybug and Chat Noir on the front cover.

"Us kwami's are sworn to secrecy. Though Tikki would kill me right now if she knew that you had found out by accident, so either way, I'm dead"

"Plagg! How long?"

"Ok, Ok! Sheesh! Tikki and I have known since you guys detransformed in the sea container when you were up against Dark Owl. Now, can I have my camembert?"

"Nope, you have some serious explaining to do!"

"Aww man!" Plagg groaned as his stomach started to rumble. "But I won't be able to answer your questions on an empty stomach. I'm about to fade away to nothing if I don't at least get a slice" as he dramatically flopped himself down on top of the magazine that Adrien is staring at, posing with one arm over his forehead, his head slightly tilted to the right with his tongue hanging out faking being dead.

"Fine, but only because you told me how long you've known that M'Lady and my Princess just happen to be the same person" As Adrien pulls out a piece of the stinky cheese and throws it to him.

"Ah, Yes. Yum, yum, yum, yum" as Plagg scoffs down the slice.

"Plagg, why am I so confused right now? Shouldn't I be happy that I finally know who Ladybug is? Why can't I just accept the fact that they are both one and the same?"

"First things first, how do you feel about Marinette?"

"I don't know anymore. I always just thought of her as such a good friend"

"Then can you explain to me why she's the first person you turn to outside of Nino when you need help?"

"Um, because she the smartest person I know?"

"Then why do you still have the lucky charm that Marinette made? You have it with you at all times and don't even get me started on the look you make when you think that no-one is watching when you're admiring it."

"What look? I don't have a look!" Adrien protests.

"Yes you do, you just don't realise that you doing it"

"But, she's just a friend"

"Denial is the first stage, Kid!"

"WHAT! I'm not in denial!"

"Yes, you are! Have you ever noticed how you've started to lose your cool around her and struggle to get sentences out? Sound like anyone else we know?"

"Wait! What? Since when have I been doing that?"

"Hmmm, now let me think back. Oh yeah, it would have been around the time that Jagged Stone was akumatized. Ahhh, it was so funny watching you ask Marinette for her autograph of Jagged's album because she designed the cover of it!"

"What! Was I really like that back then?"

"Yep, can't you see it now, kid?"

"No, I don't want to believe you. It's not true!" Adrien replies all defensive.

"Are you serious right now!" Plagg says starting to get extremely agitated by how blind and clueless he's master really is. "Just for a moment, cast aside all your feelings for Ladybug. Even better still, just for now Ladybug doesn't exist"

"How can I just forget all my feelings for…"

"JUST DO IT"

"Ok, ok. Where are you getting at with this?" Adrien asks, both annoyed but curious as to where Plagg is trying to go.

"Just close your eyes and picture Marinette in your mind, then tell me what your heart's saying about her"

"And how's this supposed to help?"

"Just shut your eyes and do it!"

"Fine, I'll do it." Adrien swings his legs around to hang over one of the arms of the couch and get himself more comfortable. "Let's see. She's smart, kind and generous. Friendly to everyone she meets"

"Adrien, your using your head here, not your heart!"

"OK!" Adrien takes a deep breath and goes searching to find what his heart is saying. "She makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I want to spend more time with her, but I'm scared that she doesn't like me. I want to protect her and I don't like it when other boys try to make a move on her. She makes me laugh and knows how to make me feel better. I want to be near her and be with her all the time."

Adrien bolts upright, spins himself back around with his eyes wide open in shock and surprise, "Plagg… I'm in love with Marinette!"

'Oh No, I think I need more camembert before I have to deal with what's coming next!' Plagg thinks to himself "Adrien! I need some more cheese! You're killing me here!"

Adrien, still in shock, gets up off the couch, hands Plagg what remained of the open camembert wheel. He then starts pacing around his room silently gesturing the different emotional body gestures of 'how' and 'why' before flopping backwards onto his bed with a massive groan and arms outstretched.

Bringing the palms of his hands to his temples, Adrien groans again before he starts to ramble once more, "Plagg, why is this all messed up? I know I have to fix this but how? I need to tell her I know, but I can't because that would be breaking her trust even if it was by accident. What if this situation only gets worse? Should I talk to Ladybug about this but not from an identity reveal kinda way? That would be silly wouldn't it because it would be confessing to her that I have feelings for her without her knowing, but it might be awkward and make things harder for her when she finds out it's me behind the mask. Either which way, I can only see things ending badly. Argh! I'm doomed, Plagg, doomed!"

"Yeah, you're doomed! Would you like me to give you the shovel so you can dig your grave?" Plagg calls out laughing in hysterics. "Just kitten!" he says a moment later as he wipes away the tears from laughing so hard.

Adrien just rolled over to face his wall, back towards Plagg as tears start to form in his eyes. 'Mum, I wish you were here with me right now. You always knew the right words to say to help me solve my problems, so why now when I need you the most, are you nowhere to be found!' Adrien thinks to himself as the floodgates open.

"Adrien?" as Plagg suddenly realises that his master is silently sobbing on his bed and no longer taking the bait from his remarks and flies onto Adrien's shoulder. "You know everything going to be ok, right?"

"No, no it's not" Adrien sobs.

"Adrien, why don't we just take it one day at a time right now?"

"How? I don't even know how I'm going to look at her tomorrow now knowing everything that I know" as he tries to compose himself.

"True but you also just did tell Marinette that you, Chat Noir, would be coming back to visit her tomorrow night, didn't you? So regardless, you have no choice but to go and speak to her, it's up to you as to which side of the mask you speak to her in. With the mask, without the mask or both. The choice is yours and yours alone"

Adrien slowly rolls over and sits up on the edge of the bed, his face blotchy and his eyes red from crying. "Plagg" He quietly asks, "I have so many questions going on in my head and they're spinning out of control. I need answers to them all now. I can't go to school tomorrow like this! I'm going crazy!"

"What if we write your questions down? That way the questions I can answer straight away can be crossed off and the more difficult ones, well, we can work on them together to get the answer."

"It's worth a try". Adrien slowly gets up and makes his way over to his computer and switches it on. He then makes his way to the bathroom to wash his face in hopes that Nathalie doesn't walk in on him any time soon and notices that he's been crying. Satisfied that his face looked as close to normal as possible, Adrien returns to the computer, sits down in his chair and logs on.

Adrien immediately opens a new document and saves it as 'Drama' in his 'Homework' folder. 'Hopefully, no-one will suspect anything with that title' Adrien thinks to himself knowing that his father regularly checks his computer to make sure he's not disgracing the Agreste name online.

In no time at all, Adrien had been able to help clear his mind by putting all his questions onto paper, printed them out, cleared all the computer's logs to say he'd printed the document, thanks to Max's computer know how and was now ready to work through each question one by one.

"Plagg, I'm scared" Adrien sheepishly admits as he looks down at the printed pages in front of him.

"And you wonder why I hate dealing with humans!"

"Plagg!" Adrien turns to give Plagg a dirty look.

"What? They're too emotional" as Plagg floats up closer to Adrien's face, "Especially the hormonal ones!" he says sending Adrien a very stern serious glare.

"PLAGG! I'm not that bad! I'd love to see you try and survive spending a day with Chloe, then tell me I'm that bad!"

"I'll pass on Chloe thank you, she makes my skin crawl! Though I still find you humans overly emotional for my liking." Plagg replies turning to face away from Adrien folding his arms and gives off a little 'and that's that' nod.

Knock, knock, knock. "Adrien, can I come in?" Gabriel Agreste's voice drifts through from the other side of Adrien's bedroom door.

"Ah, yes father, come in" As Adrien hide the bits of paper into his school bag and pulls out his homework for the night to make it look like he has been studying the whole time.

"Adrien, I'm heading out on an important business trip for a few days. Nathalie has prepared your schedule for while I'm gone including a photo shoot after school on Thursday. Do not disappoint me."

"Yes, father. Can I ask where you are going this time, father?"

"I'm signing a new business deal in China, your photo shoot is part of the contract I'm signing there, so it needs to be perfect. Then I need to do some business in Tibet."

"Yes father, I will do my best father, thank you father" Adrien replies in a flat monotone voice.

"Good," Gabriel says, as he turns and makes his exit.

A moment later, Adrien whispers "Plagg, you're in the clear, you can come out now"

"Well that will make the next couple of days a little easier on you, you won't have your father constantly checking in on you."

"Yeah, it will make sorting things out easier" as Adrien looks up at the time on the clock, 8:23 pm. "Argh! Plagg, I almost forgot about tonight's patrol I was so distracted!" as Adrien bolts over to his computer and shuts it down.

"Ready Plagg, Claws Out!" Plagg immediately gets sucked into Adrien's miraculous as it transforms him into the comfortable black leather suit. He quickly opens up his bedroom window then vaults himself out and over to the nearby rooftops making a dash to their regular patrol meeting place on top of Notre Dame.