(A/N): Sorry it's been forever guys! Uni's started back up and I've been on a Teaching Placement the last few weeks. (High school kids can be so brutal.)
I've been trying to get this scene just right, needing to do the build-up justice. I'm hopeful that I've achieved it, and I'm already working on the next chapter. (Cross your fingers and believe, it might be up tomorrow!)
As always, you guys are the bomb and your comments are seriously the highlight of my days. (Checking my e-mails for notifications is sadly such an embarrassing obsession.)
Happy reading!

Chapter Twenty Five

She stared up at him with shocked, wide eyes. He was gasping silently, like he'd run across every rooftop in Paris and taken down an akuma. She blinked, looking almost dazed before she opened her mouth again.

"But I-"

There was a sudden banging on the stairs, the sound of someone pushing open the trapdoor. Marinette turned away from the window and through the gap she'd left in the fabric Cat saw Tom appear in her room.

"What's going on?" he asked, his voice gruff and concerned as though he wasn't sure whether to be worried or annoyed.

"Uhm." replied Marinette, just before Tom caught sight of him in the window.

"Is that Cat Noir?" he asked incredulously.

"Uhh, we were, ahh…" she trailed off, turning to glance awkwardly at him.

He knew it was a totally inappropriate time, but Cat Noir couldn't help but find her reddening cheeks and her stammering absolutely adorable.

"Arguing, by the sounds of it." Tom supplied, looking between them with a frown, at a loss.

"Sorry," Cat began. "We, uhh-"

"Were arguing about something Alya said." Marinette interjected. "It got a little heated, sorry Papa."

Tom's frown only deepened. He didn't look or sound convinced.

"Uh-huh."

"Alya thinks that he and uhh, LadyBug are together and I was telling him that we know they aren't. They, uhhm, they've been arguing about something lately and he- He wanted me to tell her something and I said he should tell her himself and it- We uhhm. Yeah."

Tom nodded slowly, looking suspiciously back at Cat Noir before he seemed to accept that Marinette wasn't in any danger or anything. He relaxed, and as soon as he had he suddenly looked very out of place, like he wanted to leave.

"Oh. Well, okay. Try to keep it down though, in case people think something's wrong."

With one last confused look between them he made his way over to the trapdoor again, shaking his head as he went back downstairs. They watched him go, staring at the closed door for a long moment before either of them spoke.

"Sorry." said Marinette. "He uhm, he's protective. But he- Well, he doesn't like coming into my room, y'know? Wants to make sure he gives me my space. I think he's scared I'll turn into a moody teenager if he doesn't leave me alone enough."

She knew she was babbling. She hadn't looked at him yet, but he nodded anyway.

"Somehow I can't really see you being like that, but I guess having your own space is good." he tried.

Something in his voice made her cringe a little, and she was reminded that all Adrien got from his father was time alone.

"I'm sorry." she said again, and he knew this time it wasn't about her dad.

She looked at him awkwardly, reaching up to unpin the fabric and push the window open. She looked down at her feet as she stepped back, and he gave her a moment to change her mind before dropping carefully into her room.

She hadn't backed away, so when the straightened he found her to be surprisingly close, looking up across the distance with those bluebell eyes so full of trepidation. It took every ounce of self-restraint he had not to reach out automatically. Instead he looked at her and she looked back at him, her mouth opening to say words that never quite made it to her lips. He could smell that floral-spice-sugar smell of her, the homey scent he'd missed desperately for all it had only been a few days since he had had a moment to notice it. Marinette closed her mouth after a moment, looking down at her hands as he watched the redness unfurl across her cheeks, her neck. Even the tops of her shoulders were going red.

"I've been horrible to you." she whispered, and Cat wished he could guess how she would react if he were to touch her.

"Mari… It's okay."

"But it's not okay, Cat. I-" Her eyes raised to meet his and she seemed to lose her confidence, her voice shrinking as she gave him that dreadfully mournful look. "I- I feel all over the place." she finally admitted, her eyes squeezed shut and her teeth finding her lip.

Cat Noir swallowed hard, lest he do something silly because he was suddenly shockingly aware of how close she was standing. She hadn't stepped back and neither had he, so there was barely half a foot between them, their toes nearly touching. As had become usual with Marinette, every inch of his skin was suddenly hyper-sensitive, aware of her presence.

"It's okay." he said, and he meant it.

He hadn't told her the very moment he'd worked it out and although he had many excuses as to why, he still knew he should have told her. Or at least let her know he knew. Getting so caught up in how wonderful it was that his friend, the fiery, stuttering Marinette, was his partner in saving Paris had pushed aside all thought as to how she might feel when he told her. He understood it, it's exactly how he would feel if he found out that the partner who had been visiting him for months turned around and revealed she knew who he was.

He was a little nervous himself now. Those nights ensconced in her room with her, whispering about new designs or watching movies or just talking on the balcony, those nights when he had been so beside himself with worry or misery that he had had no-one to turn to but her, those nights had become occasions when he had bared himself to her. He had been brave enough to do so because she was a wonderful person, but also because he was able to hide behind his mask and know she didn't know the real him. What if now she didn't want to know him?

"A-Adrien…"

It shouldn't have been so jarring to hear her say his name. He knew she knew. It shouldn't have surprised him. And yet it did.

"I should have told you." he said again, worried to see the tears falling down her cheeks.

She still hadn't looked up at him again, her hands clenched at her sides as she spoke so quietly he almost didn't hear.

"I- I thought that we were… That there was- For all those months I didn't know that you were- that you knew- I thought you- I thought you'd known the whole time."

Her voice wobbled that time, and an aching sprung up in his chest so suddenly it almost took his balance from him. He hesitated, reaching out to gently brush her fringe from her forehead. She turned her face away a little at the contact but she didn't move away.

"I didn't, Mari, I swear. I wouldn't lie to you."

Marinette sniffled, and then she did the strangest thing. A smile flickered palely across her lips and she released a half-hearted, wet chuckle. It took him so much by surprise that he forgot he was supposed to be quiet.

"Marinette?"

His answer was another sniffled giggle as she wiped a hand across her eyes. She shook her head, stifling another giggle with her other hand. Cat didn't know whether to feel worried or relieved and they battled it out as he reached for her shoulder.

"Mari? What's- what is it? I don't-"

She looked up then, a sparkle dancing in her tearful blue eyes.

"Bugaboo." she answered, another instead chuckle slipping past her hand. "You-" Giggle. "You told-" Giggle. "me that you wouldn't-" Giggled snort. " lie to your Bugaboo." she finished, before dissolving into a whispered sort of laughter.

"You!" she said, her eyes dancing with a mirth he didn't understand. "Adrien- ohmygod you- all this time you've had this awful-" More Giggles. "sense of hu-" Giggle. "humour!"

His ears folded as he feigned grave insult. It only made her laugh more, Her tears beginning to disappear as she stifled as much of the sound as she could.

"I'm sorry." she managed around the chuckles. "I can't- seem to stop. Every time you-"

She was fast becoming scarlet again, a deep red that would be almost worrying if it wasn't so fascinating. Her eyes were startling in contrast, vivid and beautiful as he had always found them.

"I don't quite- Mari, are you-"

A piercing scream cut through the air outside and Cat Noir was ashamed that his very first half-second thought was Why now. He glanced at his ring, wishing he had retransformed when he'd arrived and now what if Plagg couldn't take the strain of a fight when he's been geared up for so long already-

"Will you be okay to…" Marinette asked him, her face suddenly clear of all humour and her eyes hardening into that pre-battle determination.

With a sharp nod, trying not to think about how much Plagg was going to to chew him out about using the suit for stupid, human reasons, he reached out to offer her hand. She looked down at it before looking back up at him, her eyes flickering.

"Spots on, Tikki." she told the little red kwami who appeared like magic by her shoulder.

As the pink life unfolded around her and he had to shield his eyes, Cat felt her hand take his.

"Come on, Chaton. We have a city to save."

And she had thrown her yo-yo string out of the window at a perfect angle, catching on the chimney pot of the roof behind her balcony. They swung out and she released his hand as they hit the curve of her momentum, sending him vaulting across to the next rooftop. They raced into battle together, following the screams and each hoping that HawkMoth hadn't chosen another stricken parent.