Chapter Twenty-One

The next couple of days went by rather normally. She stayed up late at night talking through everything with Tikki and she was starting to come to terms with a few things.

One, she could be way more relaxed around Adrien now because he and Cat were the same person and she was relaxed around Cat. She had started to feel that calmness around him at school while looking at the back of his head during class. Unfortunately, as soon as he looked at her she felt her cheeks turning pink and her heart beat speed up. So, while she technically knew they were the same person and that she should feel the same around them she still couldn't enact that change yet.

Two, Cat had been trying to help her every time they spoke about Adrien because he wanted them to be closer in their civilian lives and that was kind of sweet actually. As much as she originally thought it was manipulative of him to talk to her about himself and listen to her talk about him without her knowledge she knew his intentions weren't malicious.

Three, she couldn't be mad at either Cat or Adrien for lying and trying to pretend they didn't know things because she did the same thing all the time for the sake of keeping their identities secret. She had to pretend she wasn't Ladybug around her friends all the time and as Ladybug she had to pretend she didn't know them on a personal level. It was a rule she came up with that neither her nor Cat Noir could share their secret identities with anyone. She couldn't be upset with him for following the rules.

Four, she was going to have to tell him soon that she knew his secret identity and she would most likely have to reveal hers in the process. She was uncertain about that last part. She didn't know how to reveal that she knew and how he would react to her knowing or to who she was. The longer she kept it secret the angrier he would probably be though. But she wanted to process it before telling him about it.

It was easy for the most part to act like nothing was wrong at school because she had all of her friends to talk to about school stuff. The first day she noticed Adrien giving her a lot of secret concerned looks but the second day the looks were way less frequent. She figured he must've thought that whatever problem she was going through she had worked out. Which was true for the most part.

She didn't have any patrols with Cat Noir for the next couple of days either and while she heard him land on her roof the night after their conversation he didn't knock to try and get her attention. She thought about going out to check on him but decided the space was a good thing.

"Hey, Marinette, I need to go shopping this weekend. Did you want to come with me to the mall?" Alya asked as they left the school.

"Oh, um, sure. I'll have to make sure my parents don't need me to help at the bakery though. What day?" Marinette asked.

"Saturday. I'm going to see if Nino and Adrien want to come too so hopefully your parents won't need you. You need to make up for not being able to work on that paper with him." Alya said playfully.

"Can you stop bringing that up? I already feel awful for having to cancel on him but I couldn't help that I was sick. It would've been way worse to end up getting sick in front of him." Marinette said grimacing.

"Yeah, that's true." Alya said chuckling. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"When we visit pigtails tonight can you please just talk to her about what's wrong. Your constant sighing is starting to seem like a medical condition rather than a mental one." Plagg said crossing his arms.

Adrien hadn't been feeling well since the other night. Knowing that Marinette was upset and not being able to help her or talk to her about it or ask if she was okay while they were at school really bothered him. He didn't want to push her but tonight when he went to visit her as Cat Noir he was going to make sure she was feeling better.

When he got to Marinette's he tentatively knocked on the trap door and stepped back waiting to see if she would be willing to talk to him. She poked her head up and gave him a small smile.

"Hello, kitty." She said.

"Hello, Princess." He said giving her a flirtatious smile.

"What are you doing here, Cat?" she asked shaking her head.

"I'm here to check on you. Are you feeling better?" He asked.

She stepped out all the way and leaned against the rail looking over Paris. She had a thoughtful look on her face and although she stood close to him like she normally did Cat noticed she was more tense than usual.

"I am feeling better. Still not perfect but I'm doing better. I just had a big shock and I had to kind of come to terms with some things. I still can't tell you what this is all about but I do promise I will eventually." She said without looking at him.

"This involves me doesn't it?" he asked worriedly.

She jumped but then took a deep breath.

"It does. Before you say anything I already told you that you didn't do anything wrong. I wasn't lying. You said everything will be fine between us and I believe you." She said confidently.

"But…if it involves me can't I help make this right?" He asked hesitantly.

"No. The only one who can fix anything is me. So, since this topic if off limits let's talk about you. Is there anything I can help you with?" she asked turning towards Cat with a smirk.

Cat wondered if he was imagining the flirtation in her eyes. There was something he wanted to talk to someone about and while it might be a little wrong for him to talk to Marinette about this she was the only one who he could talk to as Cat Noir. He couldn't talk to anyone about this as Adrien because too many people would have too many questions.

"Do you think you could like two people at once?" He asked before he could stop himself.

"Yes." Marinette said quickly.

They stared at each other blankly before they registered what just happened and a shocked look came over both of their faces.

"Wait, does that mean you like someone other than Ladybug?" Marinette asked while Cat asked a similar question.

"Does that mean you like someone other than Adrien?"

"I asked you first." Marinette said as her cheeks burned.

Cat stiffened up and looked almost guilty with his flattened ears and droopy tail.

"I- I don't know. I might. That's why I was asking if you think it's possible to like more than one person at a time. So…why did you say yes so quickly?" He asked.

"Well…I have liked more than one person at a time before. I think there's only one person for all of us but it doesn't mean we're going to know who that one person is right away. We may have to find them through trial and error and I think that's okay." Marinette said feeling a little guilty herself.

"Who was the other person you liked besides Adrien?" Cat Noir asked curiously.

"Who's the person you like besides Ladybug?" Marinette asked a little more angrily than she meant.

She couldn't help being a little upset that he would ask a question like that now that she knew who he was. Why would he care anyway? He clearly wasn't comfortable with answering the question and seemed to realize why it wasn't a good question to ask.

"Well, how do you figure out which person you should be with?" He asked.

"I'm not sure. I guess just hanging out with both people and finding out which one you're most comfortable with and have the most fun with and which one you like most." Marinette said giving him a reassuring smile.

"Marinette." He said.

She looked at him expectantly and he felt such a strong urge to tell her how he felt right then. To just tell her that she was the one he had feelings for other than Ladybug. He did like her. Whether she was Ladybug or not. Looking at her now he knew it but… what if he was meant to be with Ladybug? What if he would always feel something for her even if he was with Marinette? Marinette deserved better than that. He couldn't do it.

"I'm so glad to have you in my life." He said instead.

Marinette felt her eyes widen and her cheeks must've been bright red from how much they burned.

"I'm glad to have you in my life too." She said looking away embarrassedly.

Author's Notes

Hey guys. I want to thank you all again for being patient with me this month. I kind of wrote this chapter in a couple hours and I'm deciding to post it without editing it because it's been so long since I posted anything for you guys lol. I appreciate all the support. Leave me a comment to let me know what you think of the chapter. Thank you guys so much. Ya'll are awesome.