Hi everybody! At it again with another chapter, basically winging it at this point. I just came up with a new one shot idea too and it's gonna be fluffier than a Pomeranian puppy! I'll try to write it soon so keep an eye out. I went back and edited some of the earlier chapters too, some of those errors were making me cringe real bad. Anyway, a one-sided reveal is on today's menu, so onto the main dish!

Chapter 3: It's You!

After seeing Adrien walk in late - even later than her - Marinette immediately started scribbling on a piece of paper. 'Hi' Too awkward. She erased it. 'How are you doing?' Too vague. 'Why were you late?' Too rude. 'What's wrong?' Too forward. 'I'm worried about you' Too romantic. 'Are you ok?' Too... Well, it wasn't the best but she couldn't think of anything else do it would have to do. Now, one question mark or two? Maybe three? No, she didn't want to come off too strong. What if he was able to guess that she had a crush on him?! But she didn't want him to think she wasn't sincere. Middle ground, two question marks. She took a deep breath, wished her Ladybug luck into it, and threw.

Adrien felt something light bounce off his shoulder and onto his desk. A paper ball. From behind. Did Marinette drop it on accident? He turned around to hand it back with a questioning tilt of his head. She just nodded. Oh. Oh! He could have squealed in excitement. Passing notes in class! He had always dreamed of a moment like this, secretly passing notes in class with a friend. He eagerly uncrumpled the paper. 'Are you ok?' The blonde could feel his heart both warm with affection and sink with guilt. He didn't deserve her worry. Not with how he was lying to her, as both Chat and Adrien. And he knew as he touched the lead of his pencil to the paper that he was about to lie to her again. His grip tightened on the writing utensil. She didn't deserve to be lied to. Slowly, he scratched out the words, 'Yes. I'm sorry.' He crumpled it again and threw it back. He was just about to go back to his note taking when, to his surprise, the same paper ball rolled onto his desk. He opened it.

'Sorry? For what?' He threw it back.

'Worrying you.' Pause. Another throw.

'Don't apologize for that. I'd be more worried if I didn't know what was going on'. He fought back a self-depreciating reply. That would only make him look more pathetic.

'Thanks, but you don't need to worry about me.' Marinette pursed her lips, surprising herself by almost feeling annoyed at him for thinking that way. It banished her stuttering nerves and she threw the ball at him a little harder.

'I'll worry about whoever I want to. You came into class even later than I usually do.' Adrien smiled a little at the sassiness that he usually only saw from her as Chat. Could... Could his sorry mistake actually be the catalyst to getting to know the cute girl behind him? Not that he was doing it because he though she was cute, of course, he told himself.

'I found a toad and had to take it outside lol' She smiled. This was turning into an actual conversation! She could've squealed in excitement. But she knew she had started this for a reason.

'Oh lol. Seriously though, how are you feeling?' The smile that had grown on his face faltered. He steeled himself. Marinette had mentioned before that she hated liars and he knew that he would never earn her friendship without honesty. Besides, he could trust her. He had proven that as Chat.

'I'm actually feeling ok. Mostly. I just feel kinda stupid for doing what I did.' Marinette had to remind herself that the middle of class was not a good time to launch over your desk and hug someone.

'Don't feel stupid. It's not your fault that you were upset. Can I ask why you did it though? You don't have to answer.' Adrien couldn't help but soften when he read the last part.

'Combination of father issues, missing my mom, and... There's a girl I like. A lot. But she doesn't like me back.' Marinette almost didn't notice his nervous glance back at her through the throbbing in her head. And her heart. And everywhere and no no no, he liked someone. Someone that was clearly not her. Tears burned and threatened the corners of her eyes. She forced them not to fall. She needed to be strong right now. For him. She forced herself to breathe even though her lungs ached to sob.

'I'm sorry.'

'There's nothing for you to be sorry about. I'll talk to you later if that's okay.' She had barely finished reading when she heard the bell ring. He immediately stood up and looked back at her for an answer. She closed her eyes, afraid that he would see the excruciating pain in them, and nodded with a sorry attempt at a smile. By the time she opened her eyes back up, the whole room was empty.

Tears had long soaked the stuffed cat on Marinette's bed, it's ever smiling face looking away to give her some privacy. Tikki was letting her charge cry it out for awhile. She knew from millenias of working with mostly teenage girls that there was no helping until the initial meltdown was over. Especially with Marinette. The poor girl was one of the sweetest holders Tikki had ever met, but boy was she also one of the most emotional ones. The two always seemed to to go hand in hand, Tikki mused, floating up to pat Marinette's cheek now that her wailing had subsided a bit. She spoke for the first time since this whole ordeal had started, voice hoarse,

"Tikki... I just... I don't..." A fresh wave of tears waterfalled down.

"Shhh, Marinette, it's ok. This doesn't mean you can't still win his heart." The girl hiccuped,

"I-it does-sn't?"

"If course not," Tikki waved her paws around for emphasis, "Think about it! Alya thought of Nino as a brother before you locked them in a cage together. And Nino liked someone else entirely! And now they're dating! Just because Adrien likes someone right now doesn't mean he'll never like you." Marinette sniffled, rubbing her sore face with one hand,

"Yeah... Yeah. Y-you're right T-Tikki."

"Of course I am," Tikki giggled, nuzzling the bluenette's cheek. Marinette smiled for the first time since that afternoon,

"Hey... Do you think... A visit from a certain superhero might make Adrien happy?"

"Spots on!" the kwami squealed, twirling around like she was in a transformation sequence herself. They both laughed.

"Thats right, Tikki, Spots on!"

Ladybug hadn't realized how long she had been crying until she noticed disk falling around her on her way to Agreste manor. Thankfully she remembered where his room was and didnt need too much sight to find it. She was about to swing up to knock on one of the windows when she heard her crush's voice talking to someone. Fear immediately clenched around her heart. Maybe he was wrong and the girl did like him back and she came over to his house to talk and in his bedroom and...oh no... Ladybug or not, Marinette knew she would die inside if Adrien started doing things with another girl. Thankfully the cold claw of terror melted from her heart when she heard a second voice. A very oddly high pitched yet gravelly voice that definitely did not belong to a girl. Unless the girl he liked had a rare disease that made her voice sound like that! The fear rerurned, and Ladybug dared to peek in the window. Adrien was laying sprawled on his bed - Oh boy was that not a good sight for her heart - talking to... Thin air? She could have sworn there was another voice in there, was he on the phone? He suddenly jerked up, nearly shouting,

"I told her I would talk to her later... Never specified as who." There was the low thrum of another voice but she couldn't make out what it said. "Just eat your camembert, we're going on a visit." Suddenly Adrien turned towards the window and Ladybug jolted back so he couldn't see her. "Plagg, claws out!" Her breath hitched in her throat. That sounded like... No, it couldn't be... The bright flash of green light said otherwise. No... No. Nononononono. The one and only Chat Noir bounded out of the bedroom windows, right past her, and across the rooftops. Ladybug could only hang there by the thread of her yoyo, which was about as thick as her last thread of sanity. It didn't make any sense. But it did. It made too much sense. Her heart dropped to the deepest pits of her stomach as she started to realize what he had said. Talk to her later. He told Marinette he would talk to her later. Visits from Chat weren't exactly unheard of. The direction he- oh crap. Ladybug yoyoed faster than she ever had before, taking every known shortcut and nearly diving through the trapdoor to her bedroom. Her feet had barely hit the ground before she released her tranformation. Tikki's little head was spinning,

"Well that was definitely not how I expected that trip to go."

"Imagine how I feel!" Marinette screeched, hands immediately pulling at her pigtails. She barely had time to process the information any more before there was a thump from her ceiling. And a knock on the trapdoor. And what was she going to say?! No. She took in a deep breath. Its just Chat Noir. Just Chat. She'd have plenty of time to agonize over the fact that the definition of human perfection was standing on her balcony at night out of every single other person in Paris after he left. Right now she had to completely forget that he was Adrien and-

"Princess? Are you okay?" Chat's worried voice came from above.

"Y-y-yeah!" Marinette choked out, cursing her stuttering. Was she going to do this around Chat too now?! Tikki flew up into Marinette's face and quickly whispered,

"You've got this Marinette. Don't think of Chat as Adrien, think of Adrien as Chat with the horrible puns and overdramatic showing off and goofing around!" Marinette nodded right as the kwami scurried to hide again. She could do this. Steeling herself, she went over to the trap door and opened it.

"You sure you're alright?" Chat looked down at her with worried emerald eyes and a soft frown. Marinette's heart was doing backflips on her tongue,

"Just caught, yeah, bad time at me." He stared for a second before chuckling,

"I must have cat you at a really bad meowment to warrant that meowch stuttering." Ok, maybe she really could do this after all.

"Chaaatttt," she groaned, "You're as terrible as ever!"

"Only the finest puns fur my purrincess," he gave a bow and winked, inducing more than a slight blush on the teen girl's face. The act dropped in an instant, "But seriously, I didn't interrupt anything important, did I?" Of course, the ever polite Adrien showing through. She smiled and shook her head,

"Nothing's more important than you, kitty." She froze, realizing exactly what came out of her mouth. Before she could correct herself with stuttering, a high pitched noise came from her masked crush. He plucked her up from the hatch by her shoulders and pulled her into a fierce hug. "Chat? You... Ok?"

"That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me... Thank you Marinette. Really. That just made my entire day," he mumbled, not wanting to put her down. He knew just one glance at her face would most likely send him into tears, so he laughed instead, "You're the only thing in Paris that's sweeter than your family's pastries."

"I don't know about that, Chat," Marinette forced herself to say his hero name so she didn't melt at the concept of Adrien having just said that, "You're pretty dang sweet yourself." He just hugged her tighter.

"Can you guys just adopt me already? I'm housetrained, I promise I won't scratch up the furniture," he joked in a voice tight with sincerity.

"I dunno..." Marinette responded playfully, finally pulling away from the hug a bit. She was positive that if he held her any tighter she would spontaneously combust into rainbow fireworks. "My parents might need more convincing than that. We live above a bakery after all... We have very high standards." Chat held a hand to his chest in mock offense,

"Are you implying that I am not high class enough for you?!" Marinette couldn't help but giggle at the irony,

"I don't know, are you?" The leather-clad teen overexaggeratedly straightened his posture and tilted up his nose.

"Why, ma'am, I am absolutely appalled that you would not consider adopting this gorgeous purebred!" He was failing miserably at trying to keep the corners of his mouth from turning up in a goofy grin as he spoke, "This particular feline is our very finest. Allergen free, lusciously silky fur" - he dramatically flipped his hair- "Completely trained for every trick imaginable, and with the purrfect temperment. You'd have to be mad as a March hairball to refuse!"

"Well..." she drawled, doing her best to look contemplative, "I don't know if we're really looking for a cat anyways, maybe a puppy would suit us better." He didn't miss her sly glance at him.

"Oh but you are sorely hisstaken, princess!" He shot back, "Cats are far superior to dogs in every way! I don't require half as much time or attention while still being just as cuddly and affectionate! And can dogs purr? I think not! Purring has so many health benefits! It's soothing, it helps heal bones and tissue, it takes stress off of your heart-" Marinette couldn't help but snort at that one. She knew if this particular cat started getting all cuddly and purring, it would definitely put more stress on her heart than anything else. As if able to read her mind, Chat Noir threw himself onto her, gasping dramatically, "You don't believe me?!"

"Well, I- OOF!" Marinette started, but Chat lost his balance and the two fell in a heap on the ground. While the poor teen girl's face was burning, the cat themed hero just made himself comfortable. Well, as comfortable as one could get with their legs tangled up in someone else's. He grinned at her cheekily. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" she tried to glare.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didnt," he hummed a bit.

"I should kick you out for that," she grumbled.

"Meowch!" Chat chuckled, helping her up as he stood, "Though that won't be necessary." She tilted her head in confusion. "Don't worry princess," he smiled, "I just have something I have to do at a ridiculously ungodly hour of the morning and I Really must be getting back to my beauty sleep." She grinned, almost commenting that she doubted beauty sleep was necessary with a face like his, instead settling for,

"Who's the princess now, kitty?"

"Well, I'm sure you would make a very handsome knight in shining armor," Chat said with all the seriousness he could muster.

"Yeah, I'll come slay the dragon with my trusty sewing needle and scissors," Marinette rolled her eyes with a smile. The boy's smile softened and his eyes suddenly seemed to sparkle withat he light of every lamppost in Paris,

"Princess, you've slain so many of my dragons already with nothing more than words. If La-" He froze and his eyes widened at the words that had almost slipped out of his mouth.

"Chat? Are you ok?" Marinette asked at his uncharacteristic pause. He shook his head,

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I'll see you tomorrow Princess." With that, he leaped off of the balcony and back to his house. His throat was dry as his almost-sentence rang in his head.

If Ladybug wasn't around, I might want to be your prince.

FINALLY DONE. This chapter felt like it took forever, especially after this mess of a week. Accidentally confessed to my crush (who has a girlfriend), started a new medicine (which literally doesn't do crap), and applying for a job at the library. But it's done. And I feel pretty dang good about it too, I was worried about writing their banter but I don't think it turned out too bad. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately if you like longer stories, because of the banter I now have to add another chapter in. Next up: in which we find out the other person who knows Chat's identity. Dun dun dun.

PS. Next chapter we get some texting via Marinette's cellphone. Anybody got some ideas of what Nino's nickname should be on there? Let me know in the reviews please! (seriously, please, I'm stumped)