Cat Noir waited, not so patiently, on the roof where he was to meet Ladybug. He was there about twenty minutes early, restless because of the information he knew. Or rather, the information that he was close to knowing. He scanned the skyline hoping that he'd see her bright red figure swinging in to join him, but there was no such luck. He tried calling her with his baton, but it went straight to voicemail, meaning she hadn't even transformed yet.

Cat Noir sat down, sighing as he did. And restless as he was, he laid back and stared into the sky. His chest rose and fell at an even pace as he idly looked at the twinkling stars. He was not quite relaxed, but this was the calmest that he'd been all day. Between the time of his conversation with Meg and now, Adrien had had nothing to do but sit and wait for patrol with Ladybug, and that hadn't exactly been easy with everything going on those past couple of days. His eyes glazed over as he replayed the last few hours in his head.

Meg hadn't told him directly, but she knew Hawk Moth's identity. Maybe if she wouldn't tell Adrien, she'd tell Ladybug—although with the way she acted when he pressed her, he doubted it. Still, it was a possibility; they'd been talking to each other, after all.

Cat Noir shifted uncomfortably at the thought of the girls talking together. He'd been too caught up with Meg knowing his identity, and then with her having the valuable information about Hawk Moth, to really digest what she said to him in his room. But having to wait at home for patrol time to come around gave him ample time to consider her words.

"So what are you going to do now?" Plagg asked him, earlier that evening at the mansion.

"All I can do is wait for patrol so I can talk to Ladybug." He answered.

"So you are going to talk to her then?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Adrien asked, confused.

"Last I heard: you were playing hard to get."

"Considering everything that's happened since then, I don't think now's the time for those kinds of games."

Truth be told, Adrien had completely forgotten about his 'Business Only' plan. But with something this important on the agenda, there probably wouldn't have been talk of anything else anyway.

"Are you kidding?" Plagg shot up from where he'd been lounging. "Now's the perfect time. Meg said she's trying to guide Ladybug to her feelings for you, right? So now Ladybug's really going to notice everything you're doing or not doing for her."

"What makes you think that?"

"Simple. I notice cheese, or the lack, of it a lot more when I'm actually thinking about it."

"You're always thinking about cheese." Adrien pointed out.

"True, but when I really, really think about it, I feel its absence a lot deeper." Plagg put his hand over his heart in an overly dramatic gesture, the way he did when he got started on cheese.

Adrien chuckled and rolled his eyes in a fond manner in response to his little friend. He knew what Plagg meant and, in a weird way, he sort of had a point. It's easy to miss something when you're not looking for it, but when it's drawn to your attention it suddenly becomes all you can see. Like when you get a new car and finally notice how many other people drive one just like it.

"I don't know, Plagg, it just seems so petty right now. And since when do you care about this stuff, anyway?" Adrien asked him.

"Since it became interesting." He answered, opening up Adrien's mini fridge to find a snack.

Interesting as it was, Adrien was unsure how he felt about Meg trying to play matchmaker. On one hand, he really wanted Ladybug to love him back. On the other hand, he never needed help knowing how he felt about Ladybug, so why should it take someone else to show her that she was in love with him? Then again, he was only in love with Ladybug, and she had two loves to choose from. But if she didn't choose Cat Noir on her own, then what was the point? Although, Meg did say that she wanted Ladybug to get there on her own. But how was Meg going to get her to do that? What were their conversations like? Why was Meg so confident that she was right? And on top of that, how did Meg know any of what she knew?

The sound of approaching footsteps made Cat Noir turn his head. A figure in red and black stood over him with a blank expression on her face. Finally, he thought as he got to his feet. This was the moment that he'd waited all day for. Now standing, he looked down at Ladybug, briefly wondering what she was thinking as she looked at him, her blue eyes wide.

"We need to talk." They said, simultaneously.

"Follow your heart, Marinette. Listen to your heart, Marinette."

Marinette groaned, throwing her head back onto her pillow mimicking the voices of Master Fu and Meg in her head. Why were they both so sure that her heart had all of the answers? It was still early, and she had a few hours before patrol to figure out what she was going to do about Cat Noir.

She grabbed her phone to scroll through the Ladyblog to find images of herself and the boy in question. She looked at him there; again finding herself attracted to his features and feeling butterflies take flight in her stomach. Her heart quickened, knowing that she'd be seeing him tonight.

"Listen to your heart" she mimicked again. Judging by the way it reacted to the thought of him, maybe her heart did have the answers after all.

"It's time to face the truth," she said aloud mostly to herself, but also to Tikki who was close by, "I can't keep denying that I feel something for Cat Noir. "

Tikki turned her head, waiting patiently to hear more, but Marinette was quiet, thinking about what Meg said to her. She'd honored her love for Adrien by ignoring her feelings for Cat Noir all of this time. Cat Noir wasn't a second choice; he was just second. Not that he was second in any way to Adrien or inferior at all, but she fell in love with Adrien within a few days of meeting him. She loved him first. Her feelings for Cat Noir snuck up on her quietly and over time, but she couldn't just set her feelings for Adrien aside because feelings for Cat Noir came along. But now, she was finally free to unlock and embrace them.

Marinette laid quietly, thinking of every time Cat Noir made her smile and made her laugh, her heart warming at the memories, and she wondered what kind of jokes he'd tell later that night.

She thought about his bright green eyes and how they sparkled in the moonlight, grateful for the clear sky and full moon tonight that would provide a chance for her to fully appreciate the sight.

She thought about all of the times she pretended not to notice the way he looked at her, and allowed herself to feel the flutter in her heart that she always suppressed, hoping he'd look at her again that way tonight. This time she wouldn't look away. Her imagination carried her to that moment and held her there, standing in front of Cat Noir, she reached out to grab his hand. He leaned his face towards hers. Closer.

Marinette sat up in her bed, blushing at her imagination.

"Tikki, I think I'm in love with Cat Noir." She said, an astonished smile slowly spreading across her face.

"That's wonderful, Marinette."

She let the revelation fully hit as the feelings that she'd been suppressing for so long took her over. Still seeing images of Cat Noir in her mind, feelings of warmth and giddiness, nervousness and excitement tickled her all at once. It was like a light switched had been flipped in her brain and her memories were all experienced in a new light. And she'd be seeing him later that night. She felt butterflies at the thought.

"What are you going to do now?" asked Tikki.

"I…don't know." Marinette fell silent again.

She'd accepted that she was in love with Cat Noir. These feelings were new to her, but they felt good. They felt right. But what was she supposed to do with them?

"Are you going to tell him how you feel?" Tikki asked her.

Marinette thought for a moment about how that conversation would go. She'd never been able to spit out a complete sentence about anything slightly related to her emotions when it came to Adrien, but would that be the case with Cat Noir? She was normally so comfortable around him, and hoped that wouldn't change, but the thought of expressing her new feelings made her nervous.

"Meg did say that she'd told him that she was trying to get me to realize how I felt about him. Which she was right about," she cringed, doubting that she'd be able to avoid the topic if she wanted to.

But she was kind of glad that Meg had told him, because she knew she might not have had the guts to bring it up otherwise. She wondered what he thought about that, and what kind of reaction he had. Did he believe her? I wonder what else she said to him.

"I think I will tell him, Tikki. I mean I have to sooner or later, right?"

"Only if you're sure that's what you want. You know how he feels about you."

A picture of Cat Noir down on one knee, presenting her a single red rose, came to mind. This time she accepted it.

"I'm sure." She said, her resolve forming.

Cat Noir had waited for her affections long enough. She didn't want to make him wait any longer. He deserved to be loved, and to feel the happiness that it brings. He deserved to feel the warmth in his heart that kept a permanent smile on his face. She wanted to give him that. She wanted to make him smile and laugh and make him happy. She would make up for every time she rejected him and every time she hurt him.

She smiled to herself as she thought of the possibilities. How would he react to what she had to tell him? Where would they go from here? What would it be like to finally accept the love he'd been trying to give her?

Marinette glanced at the clock, still a few hours away from patrol. Now she was counting down the time, looking forward to her new adventure. She sat on her bed and looked around her room. Photos of Adrien still plastered the walls. With the same smile still on her face, she got out of bed and started taking them down.

Ladybug swung across town to her meeting site with Cat Noir, going over what she would say in her head.

She landed on the roof where he was and found him lying on his back, looking at the stars. He didn't seem to notice her approach until she was standing right over him. Ladybug looked down at his face and the expression on it, wondering what he was thinking about. He stood up and now he was the one standing over her. She held his gaze for a second, appreciating how handsome he was, and wondered for the first time what he would look like without the mask.

"We need to talk." They said, simultaneously.