Adrien had a rough time falling asleep that night. He was struggling to make heads or tails of all the emotions coarsing through his veins.
Firstly, he felt immense guilt for not being able to become Cat Noir to aid his Lady. He knew she suffered from a crippling fear of spiders and was so proud of her being able to vanquish the akuma without him, but wished he'd been able to help so she didn't need to do it alone. Well, sure she had Rena's help, but without him.
Secondly, he felt something he couldn't quite describe, that was like his heart would burst from his chest any time he thought about his kiss with Marinette. It had been amazing, just like her. There was no doubt in his mind that his friend was incredibly wonderful and special. But he was still in love with Ladybug. Which was the very reason for the third obvious emotion he was feeling at that moment.
Confusion.
How could he be in love with Ladybug and be having these feelings for Marinette? What were these feelings he was having for Marinette? He wished he could make sense of it all. His brain felt groggy, like it was an engine running low on gas, slowly grinding to a halt.
"Ugh why does this all have to be so hard?" he exasperated.
"Why do you have to be so annoying?" Plagg whined. "Can't a well-deserving kwami take a cat nap here?"
"Why are you always so bereft of compassion?" Adrien almost whined.
"Because I'm so tired of listening to my Chosens mooning over their Ladybug!" Plagg did whine.
Adrien made an annoyed sound in his throat but refrained from speaking anymore. Not like his kwami was ever much use anyways. He just liked having someone to talk to.
He continued to stare around his darkened room for some time, eventually drifting off into a fitful sleep.
Marinette felt awful when she awoke the following morning. Despite sleeping in until 11:30, she still felt as though she hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. She probably hadn't. She recalled glancing at the clock time after time, running through similarities of Cat and Adrien in her head, until it became so maddening that she had to move to her desk to compile a list to straighten things out.
Said list contained all the similarities and differences she could come up with between the two.
Similarities:
1. Blonde hair
2. Green eyes
3. Gorgeous smile
4. Similar ring worn on the same finger
5. Strong desire to help other people
6. Dependable
7. Brave
8. A very good friend
9. Identical lips = same kiss!
Differences:
1. Cat Noir is a smooth talker, Adrien is a sweet talker.
2. C.N. has an annoying love of puns.
Truth be told, she couldn't really think of many concrete differences between the two. The two she had written down seemed like she was grasping at straws. It was easy to change your attitude to conceal your identity. Heck, she did it every day as Ladybug. She never had Ladybug's confidence as Marinette. Maybe it was the same with Adrien and Cat?
The fact that she had never actually seen Adrien and Cat Noir together at the same time during an akuma attack, and that Adrien always made excuses to disappear whenever one showed up, just like she did, made it hard for her to believe she hadn't made the connection before.
She needed to come up with a plan to confirm her suspicions without Cat-Adrien knowing what she was up to.
While she was working on her chart, she eventually fell asleep with her head on her desk. She woke up some time later with a throbbing neck and dragged herself to her bed, where she awoke later that morning.
She stretched and crawled out of bed and glanced back over her scribblings on the desk. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she made her way downstairs for some breakfast. As she sat eating and scheming while her mother flitted around the kitchen, a plan slowly came together in her mind. She knew exactly how she was going to confirm her suspicions. She smirked and rushed through the rest of her meal, before racing back upstairs.
It was Saturday, so she would have patrol with Cat Noir that night, and it would be the perfect opportunity to test her theory.
"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Tikki questioned after Marinette had relayed the plan to her kwami.
"Of course I am! I have to know Tikki, it will be the death of me if I don't figure this out!" She was always so dramatic about anything Adrien related.
"Fine. I trust your judgement," Tikki said cheerily, knowing full well that Marinette was right.
After finding out that Adrien was Cat Noir during their battle against Dark Owl, it was incredibly difficult for Tikki not to say anything to Marinette about it. She almost wished she hadn't stopped Plagg from speaking when it happened. Then she at least wouldn't have had to keep this secret for so long. She would definitely be relieved when they could speak freely about it.
