Chat Noir swooped into the empty alleyway overlooking the harbor. After a swift look to make sure no one else was around, he removed the Miraculous ring from his finger. With a flash of green, he transformed back to Adrien Agreste.

"Alright. Now to just chill here while I wait for Nin-"

"Gotcha."

Adrien yelped with a jump, as Nino suddenly appeared from behind a pallet of shipping containers.

"Nino!? But, how- You were just- Why…?"

"What's the matter, bro? Cat got your tongue?"

But ultimately, all Adrien could do was huff grumpily.

"How long have you known?"

"Ehhh… only for a day or so," Nino fibbed, emerging from his hiding spot. "I, uh… mmm. You know what it was, actually? I saw your 'kwami' thing at that dinner party the other day."

"Plagg!" Adrien shouted.

Plagg flew out in a panic.

"Ahh! I didn't do anything, I swear! She's lying! You can't prove I sold my soul out to Aly-" Then he caught sight of Nino. "Oh. Ummm… I am a harmless toy?" he sheepishly stated, trying once more to imitate a robotic toy.

Adrien gave him a light smack.

"I take it he's the one who constantly on my crackers and cheese when I'm not looking," said Nino, pointing a finger at Plagg.

Plagg flew in front of his face. "Hey, if you wanted them so badly, you shouldn't have put cheese on them."

"Because of you, I kept thinking my boy Adrien was a hoarder!" Nino spat back. "In that regard, I'm totally fine with you being a superhero instead of someone with a serious case of the munchies!"

The two laughed.

"Hey, Nino. I'm sorry I-"

Nino hushed him. "I don't want to hear it."

Adrien tried to speak again, but Nino just kept shushing him.

"Hey, don't sweat it, man. I know you had your reasons for not telling me…"

"Yeah, I-"

Nino put his arm over Adrien's shoulder. "…because you knew that I would want to brag to everyone that my best friend is the cool cat superhero that saves Paris!"

"Uh-uh. Yeah. Totally," Adrien jokingly agreed. "Umm, but you aren't… seriously going to tell anyone I'm Chat Noir, are you?"

"Course not, you're my friend. I would never actually plank you over like that. Nobody else knows about this, right? Not even your dad?"

Adrien tensed up. "Dude, no way. If my dad knew that I was moonlighting as a superhero, he'd probably imprison me at home for the rest of my days," he said resignedly.

"Then relax, dude. Nino's got your back." He patted Adrien on the back.

"Thanks, Nino."

The embrace was broken by Plagg however, who flew up to their faces.

"Finally, now we have someone else who can supply me with camembert!"

"Yeah, in your dreams, Plagg," Adrien retorted.

"What kind of name is Plagg?" asked Nino, raising an eyebrow.

"Got me," Adrien shrugged. "He came with it, along with the attitude."

The two of them shared a big laugh, and for the next several minutes, they talked as friends. They talked about all the times Nino had met Chat previously, all the weird times Adrien had to keep his double-life a secret, and the insane measures he often took to keep it that way.

"So you seriously just left your shoe behind on purpose, so we would all think you were kidnapped by Mylene?"

"Hey, it was a clever plan!" Adrien proclaimed in defense. "Certainly made for some great footage, you can't complain about that."

Nino laughed in response. Adrien's smile fell a bit, though. Something else came to his mind.

"Ummm… one more thing," Adrien squeaked. "So… you remember several months ago when I told you I had a crush on Ladybug, right?"

Nino's eyes widened. "Ummm-"

"Well, here's the thing. Just between you and me, because now that you know I'm Chat Noir, you're… probably assuming Ladybug and I are really tight and everything. I know Alya definitely thinks we are when she writes that Ladyblog."

"Umm, actually, I-"

"I mean, in a way, we are. But can I admit something to you? And probably just you, like, don't even tell Alya about this?"

Nino couldn't really muster up any way to respond.

"The truth is… I have no idea who she is, who that wonderful lady is outside of that costume. And she doesn't know the real me, either. I wasn't kidding when I said she never recognized me. I wonder how disappointed she'd be if she ever found out the handsome, cool Chat Noir is just… Adrien."

Nino held back a smile for a second, before noticing his friend's despondent look.

"Are… you okay?"

"Yeah, I am. I guess I just, need some time alone for a while," Adrien replied. "Spending the whole day as Chat Noir greeting fans like that kinda took a lot out of me."

"Yeah, I can see how it would. Of course, I'd feel that way too having to be nice to Chloé and pretend to not know who she is for that long."

Adrien let out a hearty laugh in return. Once it had subsided, he turned to leave.

"Alright, I'll… see you later."

"Yup. Take care bro!" Nino shouted back. "Friends to the end!"

He got ready to take off himself, but then he stopped as he realized something.

"Right. The… the crush on Ladybug," Nino thought to himself. "That's something I never told Alya about…"


Meanwhile, on a street corner across town, Marinette had completely run out of breath. She had spent the past hour looking high and low for her best friend, but turned up nothing.

"She's not at her mom's… She's not in the library… This is typical Alya," she said between breaths to Tikki. "Drop a huge bomb on your head and then just disappear so you can't get mad at her over it."

Just then, a sound came from her pocket. Marinette pulled out her phone… to see a surprising notification.

"A text from Alya!" Tikki chirped.

"About time."

She opened the text message. It was short and to the point.

HOLLMAN'S CAFÉ. JUST U AND ME.

Alya

Marinette sharply looked up. As it so happened, Marinette was across the street from that exact café. It was right there in the distance. Marinette walked up to it and looked closely through the window.

There she was. She was looking down at her phone at first, of course having just sent the text. Then she looked up and saw Marinette, and gave a friendly wave.

Marinette gulped.

Alya's eyes followed Marinette as she wandered inside and nervously made her way to Alya's table.

"Hey there, Marinette," she said rather slyly. She motioned to a cup of coffee laid on a plate on the other side of the table. "Fresh cup of mocha, same as you always like… Ladybug?"

Marinette jumped out of the seat she was just settling into.

"Sssshh, ssshh!" she shushed, looking to see if anyone else heard.

Alya just kept on smiling. It was a smile Marinette knew all too well. That sly, confident "I got you" famous smile of hers.

"How- how did you find out?" Marinette croaked.

"I have my ways," Alya replied. "I'm a master of deduction, Marinette. You hid yourself from me very well for a while there, and for that, I'll admit I'm impressed. But sooner or later, you were gonna crack, Bug."

"Alya…" Marinette let herself rest into the seat. "I'm so sorry I never told you. I really wanted to, the whole time. Honesty. But I couldn't-"

Alya put her hand up, and Marinette stopped.

"Hey, don't sweat it, girl!" Alya said more sincerely. "I totally get where you're coming from, believe me. If my best friend had a whole website with pictures and videos of me plastered all over it, I wouldn't want to tell her either. Lest I think she was crazy!"

Her nervous bubble cracked, and Marinette finally began to smile and chuckle.

"I just didn't-" she giggled out, but Alya interrupted again.

"No, seriously, though! The only girl I know in all of Paris with blue hair and pigtails like that, and all it took was a mask to fool me!? Girl, I knew you were clever, but I had no idea you were a full-on Solid Snake!"

Marinette laughed even more heartily. Alya chuckled back, glad to see her friend loose and smiling again. As the afternoon wore on, they began to chat as friends. Marinette talked more loosely about her double-life as Ladybug, and embarrassed Alya with the many incidents that she came super close to discovering the truth.

"Yeah, so forget what I said about being the world's greatest detective," said Alya, rolling her eyes at herself. "Yo Alya, who could this textbook really belong to? Gee, how about the girl that's trying harder than day to convince you that Ladybug doesn't even go to our school?"

The two of them shared a big laugh, finding comfort in the fact that no one else could hear them in the busy café.

"So… what happens now?" Marinette asked.

"I don't know. You tell me. What shoul-"

But Alya got distracted when she noticed Marinette's snapbag begin to shake.

"Oh yeah, that's right. So what is your little guy's name? …Or girl?"

"Oh! I should… probably introduce you at this point-"

Before she could finish, Tikki flew out on cue in front of Alya, like she'd been waiting for this moment.

"Hi! I'm Tikki!" she greeted.

"Hello, Tikki," Alya giggled.

"Marinette's told me so much about you!"

"Tikki-"

"Oh, really?" Alya responded. "Just what kind of things does she say about me?"

"Good things! Good things, I swear!" Marinette piped.

"Well, now we have all the time in the world to get to know each other," said Alya. "And you can stop looking like you're talking to nobody like a crazy person."

"Heh-heh."

Just then, an alert sounded from Alya's phone. Alya looked over to it… and grimaced. Marinette tried to lean in inquisitively. Alya sighed deeply, and after some hesitation, slid the phone over to her friend.

"It's an alert for… the Ladyblog?" Marinette remarked, not sure what to take from it.

Alya shot her a look.

"Oh… Right. The Ladyblog."

"It's your call, girl."

"Hmm?"

"I don't have to keep doing the Ladyblog if you don't want me to."

"Oh, but Alya… The Ladyblog is your hobby, your passion. It's been your life's work for like, the past year."

Alya shook her head. "Yeah, but you're my best friend, Marinette. You're way more important to me than some silly website. If it makes you uncomfortable, then there's simply no fun in doing it."

"Hmmm…" Marinette looked at the screen as she pondered.

"However, if you ever need a constant reminder of just how awesome and heroic Paris's favorite superhero is…"

Marinette giggled. "Can't argue with that logic."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I've dealt with it for the past year. What's the worst that could happen now that you know it's all about yourself?" She slid the phone back over to Alya, who grabbed it with enthusiasm.

"Oh, just watch me, girl. I'll embarrass you to kingdom come with my next blog post!"

"Great," Marinette giggled.

"On one condition. You, Marinette, now have to tell me who Chat Noir is."

Marinette's eyes shot up wide and she flew back in her chair.

"Huh!? But, but I-I really don't-"

"Relaaaax girl, I'm kidding!" said Alya, thrusting her hands at Mari. "I know you totally don't know who he is."

"Oh," Marinette said, easing back into being relaxed.

"Because if you did, then I would've walked into you guys making out in your room or something by now."

"A-ALYA!" Marinette squeaked.

Alya giggled coyly.

"Ugh," Marinette humphed. "Now that I'm being honest with you, you should know upfront that that Chat Noir is a pain in my side more often than not. He's a great partner and a cool guy, but he annoys me a lot."

"Soooo, you two aren't-?"

"No way, are you kidding? I can barely stand his antics just when we're saving the day!" Her frustrated scowl slowly melted into a smile. "Besides, you know who my heart is really set on…" She sighed dreamily. "Adrien!"

"Speaking of which…" said Alya, pointing behind Marinette.

"Huh!?"

Marinette whipped around, to see that Nino and Adrien happened to be walking by the café. Adrien glanced at them through the window and gave a friendly wave. Marinette panicked for a split second, and then frantically waved back… with both arms.

Alya rolled her eyes at her friend. She then looked Nino's way and winked at him. Nino winked back, smiling warmly back at her as they continued.

"Ohhhh, isn't he so dreamy?"

Alya stifled a laugh as best she could.

"Yeah, she ain't ready to find out who that 'pain in her side' really is yet…"