Chapter Ten

She was sitting in the living room watching Romeo while Adrien was at work. He was playing with an assortment of toys spread out all over the floor, the television playing one of Adrien's Studio Ghibli movies when she heard the report. There was an akuma attacking Paris and Ladybug needed to be there immediately. She couldn't leave Romeo by himself though. She tried calling Adrien, waiting to use the excuse that there was some sort of family emergency and she needed to leave immediately and couldn't watch Romeo, but he didn't answer. She tried calling Alya, but that didn't work either. After all these years the LadyBlog was still running and the go to source of all thing Ladybug and Chat Noir. She was on the verge of freaking out when she finally got ahold of someone, that someone being Nino. "Hey, Mari? What's up?"

"Can you please do me a huge favor?"

"Uh, what is it?"

"I had a family emergency come up and would really appreciate it if you could watch Romeo for me!"

"Family emergency? Is everything alright?"

"Y-yeah, I believe so. I don't have all the details but I just really need to be at home. I'll drop Romeo off at your place, alright?" She was already grabbing a backpack and filling it with toys and movies so the little boy was entertained while he was at Alya and Nino's.

"Sounds good. Be careful, though. There's an akuma attacking and I don't want either of you to get caught up in it."

"We'll be careful!" Nino really didn't need to know that the real reason she was leaving him on babysitting duty was because of the akuma.

"We're going to go see Nino, alright?"

Romeo looked up from his game, confused. "Why?"

"Because I have an emergency I need to take care of. I'm sorry."

"Is there a bad guy attacking Paris again?" Romeo tilted his head to the side, his large eyes looking up at her, trying to get a read. "Do you have to go save the day with Papa?"

"Yeah, there is. I need to make sure Paris is safe from Hawkmoth." What was nice about little kids was even if they told someone that she was Ladybug people would just believe it was just the little boy's imagination. There wasn't any harm in that. It's not like she believed Adrien was Chat Noir.

"Okay!" Romeo picked up one of his toys and held it under his arm, holding out one hand to Marinette, who had slung the backpack for Romeo over her shoulder. "Let's go, Mommy!"

Hearing him call her Mommy made her heart race slightly in her chest, and normally she would have corrected him, but at the moment she just really needed to get to Nino's so she could help her kitty. She could see lights flashing in the distance and make out the faint shape of Chat flying through the air, using his baton to catch himself and throw his weight around. She rushed to Nino's, which was thankfully only about a block away, practically threw Romeo at her friend before running away, disappearing into an alley nearby.

"You really need to do something to thank Nino, you know. This isn't the first time he's covered for you," Tikki said, giving Marinette a smile.

"I know, Tikki. He's a great friend. I don't know what I would do without him."

"Being Ladybug is a full time job. I'm glad you've got friends you can rely on." The kwami flew around so she was floating next to Marinette's earrings, ready to help her transform.

"Friends like you?" Tikki giggled at Marinette's response. "Tikki, spot's on!" Bright light surrounded Marinette and she was jumping onto a nearby roof before swinging over to where Chat was fighting against a man with a snake wrapping around his neck, throwing illuminated items that turned into reptiles as soon as they hit the ground, both toxic and harmless.

"Sorry I'm late, kitty! Had something I needed to take care of."

To her surprise Chat just smiled at her, not concerned by the tardiness. "Don't worry about it. You got here as soon as you could, that's what matters."

"So, what are we dealing with?" Ladybug looked over the scene and saw the akumatized man surrounding himself with the creatures, slithering around at his command, chasing passerby's, tourists, and fans, some of the dangerous ones getting frighteningly close to the civilians.

"He calls himself Snake Charmer. He summons snakes and other reptiles and has been terrorizing everyone with them. It's been a workout trying to avoid them on the ground. I've been moving from roof to roof to avoid them since the lizards can scale the walls."

She looked around, trying to figure out how to get the item away from the victim, safely. He was well guarded. "I'm going in!" Ladybug flipped off of the building and onto the ground, Chat Noir calling for her to come back. She couldn't, not yet at least. She needed to see Snake Charmer up close, figure out where his item was. "Ah, Ladybug." The man threw a ball of light at her and before she could dodge she found herself wrapped up by a snake, immobilizing her. Snake Charmer took a step towards her, closer and closer, his hand brushing her earlobe, when Chat stepped in, Cataclysming the snake constricting her, causing it to disappear in smoke.

"Get away from her!" he hissed. He looked feral, not like the tame kitty she was used to. His face was contorted in rage and he grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the danger. "Why did you do that?" he demanded once they were out of the way.

"I needed a closer look! I needed to see where the akuma was!"

Chat crossed his arms and placed his weight on one leg, shifting uncomfortably. "Well, did you find it?"

She thought back, thinking about the man's outfit. Hanging out of his pocket was a keychain with a snake depicted on it. That had to be where the akuma was hiding. "I think so." She smiled and threw her yo-yo in the air. "Lucky Charm!" it came down as a hair dryer. She looked around, seeing an outlet against a building, a billboard, a dumpster, and a large piece of gratified plywood next to the dumpster. "Chat Noir, grab that plywood and push the dumpster over to that outlet, making walls with them. We're going to have ourselves a rattlesnake round-up!"

Chat did as he was told, grabbing the plywood and pushing the dumpster, thankfully nearly empty, over. Ladybug grabbed the billboard and passed it to Chat Noir who seemed to understand what was happening. Ladybug plugged in the dryer and perched on top of the dumpster. The day was fairly chilly, so turning the heat of the highest setting and blowing it the snake's way caused them to come over, seeking the heat source. Once they were all corralled Chat closed them in with the billboard. Snake Charmer tried to release them, but Ladybug reached into his pocked at pulled out the keychain, breaking it and releasing the akuma, purifying the city, the snakes and other reptiles disappearing, going back to wherever they were summoned from. Ladybug held out her fist for a fist bump but Chat was looking at the ground. "Please, don't put yourself in danger like that. I really though that snake was going to kill you! I don't know what I would do without you."

"You'd be fine. You'd hardly know I was gone."

"You underestimate your importance to me, M'Lady."

"You obviously do too!" Ladybug crossed her arms and looked at the man standing in front of her. "I did that to defeat the akuma, but I don't want you sticking your neck out for me every time there's an attack. I want to save you too, you know. You're my best friend. I've seen you be other people's puppets and minions. I've seen you die. I don't want to go through that again. I can't risk losing you, and neither can your family."

"You are my family, Ladybug!" He looked like he wanted to say more, but he swung off, his miraculous beeping, signaling to him that he was dangerously close to detransforming in front of her. Her own miraculous started beeping as well and she ran off.

She landed in an alley and saw a flash of green light from the alley opposite of hers. She didn't mean to land somewhere where she could see him lose himself. She had all intention of turning away, refusing to look at the man in the alley across from hers, who was emerging from the shadows like a cat in the night, but she was still shocked that out of all the alley's in Paris they had to get neighbors. It didn't seem like he had seen her, at least. Ladybug had every intent of turning away, but a flash of familiar blonde hair was seen out of the corner of her eye. She turned and saw him glancing around, looking to make sure no one had seen him, before leaving the alley. Adrien had emerged from the alley.

Ladybug felt her own transformation fade away and she ran to the alley, looking to see if there was anybody else there. No one. There was not a single soul in the alley. That could only mean one thing: Adrien was Chat Noir.

She couldn't believe it. Her kind friend was the same person as her brave partner? The two were completely different! The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Saturdays were the only days Chat could come out when there wasn't an akuma attack. Those were the days Romeo was with Gabriel. Adrien had been the only other student to show up late as often as she did while they were in school together. Chat had adopted a son right after she left for America. Adrien had as well. It made sense. Romeo was always declaring that his father was Chat Noir. This whole time he was telling the truth. Romeo's father was Chat Noir.

Did Adrien know that she was Ladybug? If he didn't then why did he ask her out as Marinette when he was in love with Ladybug? Of course, then the pieces started to fit together. Chat ran off after receiving the cookies. He was the friend that helped her bake them. He recognized them. That had to have been the moment he realized who she was. When he said "Looks like I fell in love with you first," he was referring to Ladybug, not Marinette. Marinette was the one who crept up on him, though.

There was no one else who would have possibly been able to be her Chat Noir. Warmth filled her chest. She knew who her partner was. Despite the happiness, she also wanted to smack herself. They could have saved themselves so much time by just revealing themselves earlier. Tikki must have known that Adrien was Chat Noir. Her poor friend probably wanted to help Marinette more than anything. This was probably an incredibly hard secret to keep. She made a note to make Tikki extra special cookies next time she baked some.

Marinette walked over to Nino's knowing she needed to pick up Romeo. Nino had basically no warning but was completely okay with watching him. She made a note to bake some cookies for Nino as well as a thank you.

The revelations filled her mind and filled her heart. She was in love with Adrien, and she had been so afraid of breaking Chat Noir's heart. She didn't have to, now. She just had no idea how she was going to tell him that she knew that he was Chat Noir. She also didn't know why he didn't tell her who he was. Was he afraid? He shouldn't be. After all, Marinette was the one behind the mask.


Yay! Everyone knows! Huge relief off of everyone's chest, I'm sure. I'm still reading the reivews y'all send in even if they don't show up on the page. I'm hoping that bug is fixed soon... Y'all are so amazing! We got past 100 reviews! I didn't think that would happen and I cannot thank y'all enough. Let me know what y'all think and I'll see y'all tomorrow!