Thanks for your patience, everyone! My exams are wrapping up and I figured I'd go ahead and put you out of your misery. I think I've teased y'all long enough. Even I can only tolerate Adrien being oblivious for so long.

I also think I should mention that I had a very dark idea about where to take this, like rating-bump dark, but I abandoned it because I really don't want to kill you all. I suppose I could make an alternate ending if you really wanted me to, though…


Lying awake and I can't go to sleep.
So what can I say
When I'm feeling this way.
And I just wish that you could talk to me

- DJ Giyani ft. Layla, "Talk To Me"


Adrien couldn't believe how stupid he was.

The revelation hit him at almost three am, tossing and turning all night until, just on the verge of sleep, his mind replayed the scene at the café with the girl – Marinette – and he sat bolt upright. Now a ball of restless energy at three in the freakin' morning, Adrien paced the perimeter of his room in nothing but his boxers, hands raking through his hair as if the motions would make things clearer. It was too perfect to be a coincidence

Fight with a friend. Black hair, blue eyes. Le Castel café. One o'clock.

She looked so torn up, nervous as hell, put together neatly as if to obscure her anxiety. And okay, understandable that she would be nervous meeting with a friend with whom she'd had a fight about a guy…

Wait.

Wait, what?

Adrien paused by the window, hands falling to his sides. It was a new moon tonight; thin strips of light cast from street lamps outside stretched like ghoulish fingers across the floor of his room, grabbing onto his ankles and rooting him to the spot.

Guy she met once. Didn't know his name. Really into this guy.

Haha, no way. She could barely look him in the eye. It was probably an online date gone wrong.

Still. Adrien didn't want to jump to conclusions. He had no proof that Marinette was Ladybug. All his evidence was circumstantial, based on the two coincidental times he had encountered her. He needed solid proof; he needed the words coming straight from the horse's mouth before he would accept truth as truth. He ran his hands through his hair, gripping the golden strands by the roots. Whoooooa god.

Adrien didn't want to get his hopes up. But damn, he couldn't think of anyone other than Marinette he would rather have Ladybug be. In the two times he had interacted with her, she was genuine, pure, humble, and wore her heart on her sleeve, quite the opposite of himself. Where he was quiet and laid back, she was out going and joyous, even in times of personal crisis. It was intoxicating.

But so was Ladybug. Her wit and sass, overladen with the sweet sense of comfort and warmth, everything Adrien wanted. Was it even possible to be torn between two people whom you barely knew? Adrien wanted to put his head through the wall in his frustration.

Adrien's phone went off, Ladybug's ringtone resounding in the darkness. He glanced at it for a split second, as if to make sure that really was Ladybug's ringtone. With a jolt of adrenaline, he realized it was, and made a dive for it, scrambling for the device and ending up sprawled in an uncomfortable position, barely managing to slide his thumb across the screen and accept the call. "Hello!?"


"Hello!?"

Marinette was suddenly wide-awake. Whatever dregs of sleep that still clung to the corners of her eyes vanished in an instant as her heart took off from the starting gate. She hadn't expected him to be awake at this ungodly hour. Only the heavens knew exactly how long Marinette had lain awake, staring at the ceiling of her room and trying to convince herself that Chat Noir had shown up, and she'd just missed him while engrossed with Adrien.

Adrien. Marinette wanted to sing whenever she thought about him, that small smile, gentle advice. He'd touched her hand, completely enveloping it within his own as if it was natural. It was so warm, so gentle. She got butterflies in her stomach just thinking about it.

But she wouldn't even have been there in the first place if it weren't for Chat Noir. The smile left her face as she recalled their failure of reconciliation. Had Chat blown her off? Was he so much of a scaredy cat that he couldn't even handle a face-to-face conversation, no matter how much he implied he wanted to? Or had he actually shown up, and Adrien had consumed so much of her thoughts that she had completely blown him off?

Marinette didn't want to think about that.

"H-Hi, Chat," Marinette managed, pulling her body up on the bed to lean in a more comfortable position against her giant cat pillow.

"Ladybug."

The silence that stretched between them was incredibly awkward, and made Marinette increasingly nervous by the second.

"Chat, I'm –"

"I'm sorry for – "

They both broke off whatever they had been trying to say, letting out breathy giggles at the clichéd action of speaking over the other.

"Go ahead," Marinette finally said, free hand gathering the plush she had made when she was a kid, named Tikki, against her chest. The little red stuffed animal had always provided comfort for Marinette whenever she felt overwhelmed or nervous.

Chat cleared his throat. She could almost imagine him doing the pulling-at-the-collar-and-swallowing move from cartoons. "Look, Ladybug, I'm – I'm sorry. I'm sorry I thought your feelings weren't valid, I'm sorry for yelling…"

"No!" Marinette interrupted. "No, I'm the one who has to be sorry, Chat! You didn't do anything wrong." She remembered what Adrien had told her. "You were just worried, and I'm the one who yelled, and I shouldn't have said the other things I did!"

"But Ladybug, I'm the one who dismissed your feelings."

"I dismissed yours," Marinette countered.

"But –"

"No! I'm staying firm about this. How about we just split the blame?"

"Split the blame?"


"Split the blame?"

Adrien swung his legs over the side of the bed, resting his elbows on his knees. Ladybug was determined to shoulder all the blame, and he would not stand for that. But, he knew Ladybug. And she was stubborn, and wouldn't take no for an answer. So he relented, letting out a deep breath and letting his tense shoulders relax.

"Yeah. Because neither of us are going to back down here, so one of us has to take charge."

"Okay, fine," Adrien breathed immediately, falling backwards onto his bedspread and absentmindedly staring at the small rocks that jutted out from his climbing wall. "We'll split the blame. I shouldn't have pushed you–"

" –and I shouldn't have yelled," Ladybug finished. He could sense her smile from the other side of the phone. "So, are we okay?"

"Yeah," he said. "We're okay."

"I'm glad."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence, breathing slowly as each came to terms with their first fight and make up.

The question was burning Adrien's tongue: Why didn't you come today? He yearned to ask, to know, to see if she would relinquish any information that contributed to his theory. But Adrien couldn't bring himself to do it. What if it wasn't actually Marinette? What if she actually did show up, saw him with another girl, and thought the worst? Adrien knew he shouldn't let the anxiety get the better of him, but he couldn't help the worry that descended upon him again.

"So, Chat, about today…" Ladybug must be psychic, as she suddenly spoke to address what was weighing on apparently both of their minds. "I'm sorry we didn't get to meet."

"No, no, that's okay," Adrien consoled, donning the mask of carefree and understanding indifference.

"No, really," she insisted. "I did go, but I didn't see you. I ran into a friend, and, um, got distracted. I was going to call you, but…"

Adrien sat up straight, both hands now clutching his phone to the side of his face. Marinette? No, no, he shouldn't jump to conclusions. Keep a level head. He couldn't allow his tumultuous thoughts to play through his mask, so he kept his voice level as he said, "Oh, I see. That's okay, I guess I'm to blame for that, too. I think I would know your wonderful voice anywhere, Ladybug."


"I think I would know your wonderful voice anywhere, Ladybug."

There. There he was. That was the Chat Noir Marinette knew. There was the flirtatious tomcat with a heart of gold and a laugh to match. Marinette would never have thought that she would miss his not-so-subtle advances, as joking as they were, and it was a relief to finally feel at ease again. She felt herself sink into the pillows and clutched Tikki tighter to her chest.

"I wouldn't know about that," Marinette countered. "Voices can be pretty distorted over cell phones."

"You forget, my Lady, that I have the ears of a cat, and can easily distinguish your voice from a crowd."

"Yeah, good luck with that."

"Why, my Lady, don't you know black cats are the embodiment of bad luck?"

"And my ladybug good luck overrides yours."

And there was the banter. The quips, the teasing, the back and forth that could carry on for hours. It was such a soothing return to normalcy that Marinette found herself getting teary, happiness swelling in her chest as they continued to talk, the stormy post-fight atmosphere giving way to clear skies and sunshine.

"I missed you," she heard herself say, interrupting Chat in the middle of his monologue (something about his part-time job). He fell silent, and for a second Marinette worried that she had done something wrong. Then,

"I missed you too, bugaboo," he whispered, and that's when Marinette let her joyous tears fall.