Notes: One final surprise! Rather than leave you with the suspense from the last chapter, I'm going straight into the final chapter (this also happens on the same day so it's only fair, though this one goes into the next day, so you're getting it early in that sense!). Hope you've enjoyed it and are excited for the conclusion.

As they travelled across Paris to the collège, Cat Noir felt elated. It seemed he was finally about to learn who his Lady was, and she had even shared the most perfect kiss with him. Ladybug still wasn't quite sure what she felt about finally meeting Cat Noir without the mask, but she was certain that she did want to.

They reached the school and found a way in from the top. The building was empty, lights off and everything tidied away, school now closed for the weekend. Cat Noir led them to what had been their own classroom, albeit not knowing it had been hers too, explaining, "this was Ivan's classroom then, so how about here?" Smiling to herself she agreed and he held the door open for her as they went in. They stood a few feet apart at the front of the classroom and faced each other, Cat closest to the door. "How do we do this?" he asked her.

"How about on three, let's both drop our transformations?" she suggested.

"Ok," he agreed, "that works for me."

"Ok. Here goes… One…" she started.

"Two…" he continued.

"Three…" they finished.

"Spots Off", "Claws In," they spoke in unison.

Perhaps their kwamis had somehow decided this together in advance, or perhaps the anticipation was affecting their perceptions, but the transformations seemed to leave them in a way that was much slower than normal. It started at their feet and a green and pink glow brought some light into the otherwise twilit classroom, moving up their bodies as they were each able to see the other's pants, then shirts, until just the masks remained.

Seeing what each other was wearing, the recognition just started to kick in so that, as the masks disappeared from their eyes, their mouths had each fallen open to see who the other was standing in front of them.

For a little while they each stood there, beholding the other as the realization of who it had been all along washed over them.

Eventually their eyes met and almost in sync with each other both of their mouths turned to smiles. They each took a tentative step toward each other and started to laugh – at first a quiet giggle, rising to full-bodied laughter as they walked into each other's arms and embraced. "I can't believe it's you!" Marinette said through the laughter.

"I can't believe it's you!" Adrien returned. Their laughter had already subsided to a chuckle as they spoke and quietened down further as they held each other tighter. Soon, each realized the other was crying as they held their partner for what was in a way the first time of truly doing so. "I'm so glad it's you," Adrien told her through tears.

"I'm so glad it's you," she echoed back. They let the tears roll and held each other close for what felt like both an eternity and a second. Arms still around each other they pulled back enough to be able to look each other in the face, neither minding about how wet the others cheeks were knowing that their own eyes were just as watery.

"All this time," he thought aloud, "the girl of my dreams was sitting behind me in class…" She smiled at him, "…and I missed it!" he exclaimed, and she laughed with him as he hugged her again.

They stood embraced for a while again, each reinterpreting years of interactions with each other both in and out of masks – so much made more sense, and so much meant something else, now that they knew the truth.

Eventually he spoke up, pulling apart to look at one other again but still remaining in each other's arms, "Ladybu… Marinette…?" he asked.

"Yes…?" she responded.

"I'm sorry, but I have to ask…" he started, the smile fading from his face, "who's the other guy?"

She smiled a wide, sly smile at him, and teased, "Oh I think you might know him, Cat."

"Oh?" he asked her, confused by the smile at what he figured she must know would be difficult for him to hear.

"His name is Adrien Agreste," she told him, beaming.

"WHAT?!" he all but shouted in response, and she pulled him close again, laughing, with her nose pressed into his shoulder, while he was frozen in shock.

"And can you believe my crush was at my side this whole time…" she explained, echoing his own revelation, "…and I missed it! Rejected him even!" she said, the smile never leaving her face as the emotions of it all rushed through her.

He came to and placed a kiss on the top of her head. "I couldn't have wished for My Lady to be anyone better."

Repeating what had happened not that long ago she turned her face towards him and stood slowly up onto her tiptoes. Ready this time, he returned the kiss, just as soft as before, as they embraced each other fully.

Stepping back down she took his hand and led them to sit down on the floor, leaning back against the teacher's desk. She leant her head on his shoulder once more and held his hand again, and he couldn't believe how lucky he must be to be back in the position he thought he might never get to experience again.

"You had no idea I was crushing on you?" she eventually asked him.

"You can make fun, but how many times have you rejected me?" he teased her. She playfully smacked him in the chest. 'So that kind of thing is staying then,' he thought to himself, smiling.

"Seriously though?" she asked again.

He looked at her and grinned. "It was one of my theories," he revealed to her.

"One of?" she enquired back.

"Well, yeah, I wasn't just going to assume that you had a crush on me. I may be a 'smart, handsome boy'," he grinned at her, "but I don't exactly aspire to narcissism. Plus, I was being committed to, well, you." He felt silly to have ignored the signs for so long, even if he had never come to the firm conclusion that she had had a crush. How had he missed it? How had he missed her? "And how does it feel to know that we could have had this figured out years ago if you hadn't kept on rebuffing me?"

Another smack in the chest answered that. "I feel like a fool, ok?" she admitted. "But I was being committed to, you know, you…" At least it now seemed funny – the week had had each of them so focused on future possibilities that the idea of dwelling on the past didn't come naturally right now.

"So we spent the week apart from each other, but actually spent the whole week talking to each other!" Adrien commented.

"I know," she agreed. "Isn't it funny. Plus I guess we aren't each of us going to ask about sharing with one other person after all, huh?" she observed.

"So you're telling me that I can't just go out and tell Nino?" Adrien joked. He anticipated another smack but none came. Marinette had gone quiet, lost in thought about something else. "Marinette?" he asked, bringing her back to the room.

"About that…" she started. "Don't kill me…"

"You told Nino?!" Adrien responded, dumbstruck by even the idea that she might have done such a thing.

"No, no, not exactly," she calmed him. "No one else knows who I am other than Master Fu. It's just… Nino's Carapace." Adrien was left in shock once again as his jaw dropped. The revelations were not stopping here, he knew.

His voice rose as he spoke, "Nino! Nino! Nino is Carapace!" he nearly jumped off the ground with excitement, but kept himself down for fear of losing being this close to Marinette. "I'm gonna go out on a limb here – Rena Rouge has to be Alya then." The shock was already gone as things fell into place while he thought back to previous battles and the first appearance of other miraculous holders. She nodded at him in confirmation, a small proud smile across her cheeks.

They spoke for a while about the other miraculous holders and whether they should all meet up together and tell them the truth about who each other was. "We need at least another week to think on that one, don't we?" Adrien suggested.

"Yep, but perhaps let's just talk to each other directly this time," she joked and they smiled knowingly at one another.

When he spoke up again the tone was more serious. "Marinette… Princess…"

"Yes, Kitty," she asked him, and his heart fluttered to hear the nickname despite them being out of suits.

"I'm sorry for everything my family has put us through." He felt a burden knowing that his father had put this all into motion.

"Adrien, it's not your fault," she reassured him and lifted a hand to his cheek. "I'm sorry for having to break your family apart." She was feeling a similar responsibility for what Adrien was going through at home.

"It's not your fault either, Marinette," he assured her in return. "I'm looking forward to leaving all the dark parts behind us," he told her.

"Me too," she said, and nuzzled into his arm. They sat for a minute more before she spoke up. "Hey, how do you fancy something from my parents' bakery?"

"Will it be baguettes?" he asked mischievously.

She glared at him and stuck her tongue out. "Let's see what they have today, shall we?" she suggested instead, rising to her feet and pulling him up

"But what if I want a baguette?" he carried on as he stood. "Don't go bake-ing my heart now."

"Come on, you silly Cat." She took his hand to walk out before stopping abruptly at the door. "Wait."

"Forgotten something?" he asked, confused by her sudden stopping.

"Where's Tikki?" she asked, looking around the now dusky room.

"Right!" he suddenly realized. "Plagg, where are you?"

"You two have been fun to watch," Plagg's voice responded, and the two of them looked over to see their kwamis sitting on what used to be Marinette's desk. Funnily enough their position was almost exactly the same as the one Adrien and Marinette had been sat in on the floor.

"You've been adorable to watch," Tikki corrected him as they flew towards them.

"Adorable, cringe-worthy, whatever, I find it funny," Plagg told them as he perched on Adrien's shoulder, while Tikki hugged Marinette on the cheek. "It still can't believe you never figured it out."

"You already knew?!" Adrien berated Plagg, "and you never told me?"

Tikki spoke up again, "you know this had to be your decision together," She explained to him. "We couldn't have told you if we wanted to," she informed him smiling. "But it's wonderful to be able to finally all of us talk together."

"Marinette, does your bakery have any camembert?" Plagg asked her. She was momentarily confused by the question until Adrien informed her it was pretty much all he ate.

"I'm sure we can find you something," she told him.

"Then what are we waiting for?" he responded. "Let's all go and eat!"

…

Adrien came over to the bakery the next morning. They'd spent the evening before there, with Tom & Sabine fussing over Adrien, finally appreciating the embarrassment they were causing her when they spotted that they would hold hands whenever they were next to each other. Sabine continued to fuss over him though, speaking with him in Chinese here and there to keep the other two guessing. After an actual dinner Marinette and Adrien had climbed up to her roof, the spot having so much meaning for them. Marinette's face had burned red as they walked through the room she hadn't had time to remove all the pictures of Adrien from – "say another word about this and we'll revisit that conversation about action figures", she had warned him when he had started laughing and reminding her of his pledge to find out something embarrassing about her. The kwamis had come out to join them there and the four had sat together. Adrien had gotten to know Tikki and Marinette Plagg as the two stood side by side, leant against the balcony, and they had talked long into the night before Adrien went home.

Today was another big day though, and having greeted Marinette's parents affectionately and managed to talk his way into some free macaroons they headed out together and off towards Master Fu's massage parlor. They held hands, Marinette's free hand reaching up and holding his upper arm, leaning into him while they walked.

Master Fu was waiting for them, Wayzz at the ready to see Tikki and Plagg. "I see you found each other," he greeted them at the door, a proud smile across his face. They smiled at him and followed him through to sit on the mat once more.

"Did you know who we were when you first gave us the miraculous? Or who we were to each other?" Adrien asked him as the kwamis flew towards the miracle box. Now that all was done they were going to enter it to see the other kwamis for the morning.

"I did not," he told them. "I was simply guided to two people who showed simple acts of kindness and consideration in situations where most people walked past."

"Guided? By what?" Marinette probed.

"A secret knowledge known only to the guardians and the kwamis," he informed them.

"You mean Plagg knew from the beginning who Ladybug was?" Adrien asked, still reeling at having found out he had known her identity.

"No, he did not. Because of the danger neither Tikki nor Plagg were supposed to know who the other's owner was. Not until you faced Dark Owl and detransformed in front of each other did either of your kwamis learn who the other's holder was." That was a battle to remember, one of a few very close calls, but Hawkmoth had never made an akuma that had succeeded. "Kwamis know well enough the importance of keeping identities secret, and keeping the truth of their own knowledge secret too."

"I still can't believe Tikki talked me through so many freak-outs about Adrien without ever telling me he was Cat Noir." She had initially felt a twinge of betrayal when she knew that Tikki had known, but was always able to see things from Tikki's point of view and appreciated what she had done. "How much easier would it have been for us both if we had just known who the other was."

"While that may be true in one respect it is also difficult to know for certain." Master Fu informed her. "Looking back on it all, it turned out Cat Noir was living in the same house as Hawkmoth, things could have turned out very, very differently, and if they had and Adrien had known who you were, who's to say what might have taken place". In a way it was all irrelevant, since the two were so focused on the future now instead of the past.

"What should we do now then, Master?" Marinette asked. "Should we reveal ourselves to the other miraculous holders?"

"Once again, Ladybug, that is a question that you and Cat Noir must answer yourselves. I cannot decide it for you, though I have a feeling that once more I already know what you will both decide." They looked at each other, knowing in their own hearts what they wanted to do, but surprised that the guardian still seemed to know both of them better than they knew each other. "However, I would recommend that they not be brought here. The less people who know this location and the home of all of the miraculous, the better."

"Can we take our kwamis with us for another week to think about it?" Adrien asked him, mostly looking to delay the inevitable relinquishing of his ring and imagining Marinette to be just as eager to put it off as well.

"You wish more time with Plagg and Tikki?" he enquired, looking between them as they nodded. "Then I have something else for you to think on," he shared cryptically.

They both leaned forward.

"Now that I have had the opportunity for extended time studying the original miraculous grimoire, I have discovered hidden information about the temple of the guardians that I had never known before." They were transfixed on whatever he had to share with them, knowing that there was still so much to learn about the miraculous. "Would you both be interested in accompanying me to China, to explore whatever ruins of the temple remain?"

They really were going to have another intense week of contemplation ahead of them.

FINAL NOTES: Well, from my first piece of fanfiction last month to one that is more than three times the length of that one. It's been a blast to write, even knowing that both of them will probably not age well as changes take place in canon (I'm not planning to do any follow up to either of them, but perhaps I'll come back and update them to bring them in line with any canon changes – up to the reveal at least). In the meantime they have been fun to write, and I hope remain fun to read (why not try out my first one? /s/13066242/1/Revealed-in-a-Moment-of-Need), even if they do diverge from the show.

P.S. There's a fanart piece by buggachat that I think ties in somewhat (though not completely) to this reveal which you can enjoy here - post/174924330098/the-best-kind-of-reveal