Plagg would not stop laughing.

Adrien rolled his eyes, "It's not that funny."

"No, it really is." The kwami choked out. "You two are so close and yet so completely obvious."

"Just help me figure out what I'm going to tell Ladybug." Adrien growled, "How do I talk about the list when I shouldn't know anything about it?"

"Oh, that's easy." Adrien waited for Plagg to finish, but the kwami only grinned at him. Finally, he sighed and rolled his hand. Plagg shrugged, "You don't."

"Plagg!"

"What? You're not supposed to know anything about the list, right?"

"Right."

"So, don't know anything about it. Let her talk about the list, and find out what she knows. Maybe she'll actually give something away."

"There's something to that." Adrien plopped down into his desk chair. He leaned back, his eyes straying again to his bed. "I still can't believe Marinette. She completely fooled me this afternoon. I thought she was trying to trick me out of Ladybug's identity."

Adrien only caught the end of Plagg's muttered response. "-one that."

"What?"

"What what?"

"You said won that."

Plagg opened his mouth, seemed to think the better of it, and replied. "Yeah, that's totally what I said."

"Plagg." Adrien stretched out the word in a lower tone.

"What? I mean, she did outsmart you. You thought the conversation was going to be about Ladybug, and the whole time she was trying to steer you to Luka. And she succeeded. Then, she nearly got the best of you in that fight tonight."

"I didn't expect to fight with her." Adrien shook his head. He looked up at his companion, "I thought I was rescuing her. She was pretty amazing though, wasn't she? I had no idea she capable of that kind of thing."

Plagg sighed.

"Relax, Plagg. I'm still very much in love with Ladybug, I just," He looked at his bed again. It was far too easy to remember Marinette sitting on it. Her fingers curled into his quilt with one knee raised. Her expression, far from afraid, had been completely focused on his windows and the horizon beyond them. Then there was the way she'd tried to help him out by blocking the path to his other door. "I'm just impressed."

"Yep. And we can't think of anyone else who regularly impresses you." Plagg replied, rolling his eyes. "Speaking of your lady love, isn't it about time?"

"Right. Plagg, Claws Out!"

Cat Noir raced up the smaller of his ramps and sat with his back against the nondescript white wall. He settled himself to wait, but Ladybug didn't take long.

"Cat Noir?"

"Hey Bugaboo!"

She sighed, "Focus, Kitty. This is important."

"Right, so Marinette thinks Adrien Agreste is after my identity?"

"That's what she's worried about."

"You said, she tried to mislead him?"

"Yes. She used the description Adrien gave her to fit some friend of theirs she knew couldn't possibly be Cat Noir and he seemed to buy it."

Cat Noir feigned surprised. "My description just happened to fit a boy they both knew?"

"What are the odds, right?" Ladybug shook her head. "I have to ask, Cat Noir, because Marinette told me you wanted him to know: you didn't put Adrien up to figuring out your identity, did you?"

"No, I didn't. Marinette said she didn't really trust him, and so I agreed to wait until we found someone we could both trust."

Ladybug pursued her lips, but didn't comment. Her reaction surprised him. He might be impulsive, but to his knowledge he wasn't known for being particularly dishonest. Although, that thought in and of itself did trigger another, "Is Marinette sure she didn't give him the idea herself?"

"Why would she do that?"

"Maybe it wasn't intentional. They've been together for at least a week, maybe they talked about me or something, and that inspired him to figure out who I was." He wondered if Marinette would admit to Ladybug that she'd dreamed of kissing him.

Ladybug seemed to consider this, and then a sudden thought dawned on her face. "I can ask. I can actually ask her right now."

"You don't think you'll wake her?"

Ladybug grinned at him, "She was pretty anxious about the whole thing. I bet she isn't asleep yet."

"So, she can outsmart Adrien, is a pretty adept little fighter, but she's also super anxious." He shook his head, "That girl is so much more of an enigma than I ever realized."

"She's not that mysterious once you get to know her," Ladybug replied, focusing on something to her left. "But she'd probably be flattered you called her that. Okay, she says no."

Not that mysterious once he got to know her. Prior to this week, he'd felt like he'd had a pretty good handle on who Marinette was, but Ladybug clearly knew her better. If he wasn't had-seen-them-in-the-same-place positive that Alya and the other girls in his class weren't Ladybug...

"Wait, you just jogged her memory on something." Ladybug's eyebrows lifted and her mouth opened into a perfect little 'o', the paragon of feigned surprise. "She thinks you might be right, and she might be why he's keeping the list."

"Did she say what she did to inspire it?"

"No, she didn't." Ladybug replied a little too quickly. It was difficult to tell in the screen's lighting, but Cat Noir thought Ladybug's cheeks might have gone pink. He guessed that Marinette had told her everything, but Ladybug wouldn't betray her secret any faster than she would betray Ladybug's. "But she says that if it was her doing we don't have to worry."

"If it was? That sounds like I should still talk to Adri-,"

"NO!"

"No?" It was so hard not to tease her.

"No, if it was Marinette's doing, then she should be the one to fix it. Right? Otherwise, Adrien might figure out that something's up with our relationship to her."

"That's a good point." Cat Noir grinned. "I'd be a little worried, but from the sounds of it, she's already outsmarted him once today. I'm sure she can do it again."

Ladybug made a face at that. "She didn't really outsmart him. She just played with an advantage he didn't know she had."

"That's fair." Cat Noir couldn't help himself, "Does she have any other advantages that she can pull on him as their game continues?"

Ladybug thought about it. "None that I can think of."

"But she is ever full of surprises." He nodded. "Alright, well. Please tell her I have a vested interest in what she's doing, so if she thinks she needs help, she should call me."

"And how would she do that, Cat Noir?"

"She'll be at the Agreste mansion for the rest of the week, right? I know which room was hers, because Adrien was in there looking for her when I got him out. Tell her if she wants to talk to me to put a little cat in the upper part of her window. I'll make sure to go by the mansion at least once a day to keep an eye for it and if I see it, I'll come by that night."

"You'd go out of your way to do that?"

"Like I said, vested interested."

Ladybug smiled at him, making Cat Noir almost wish he wasn't taking complete advantage of the situation. But then, Marinette had played her advantage thinking he didn't know any better, hadn't she?

"I'll tell her. Thanks, Kitty."

"Anytime, Mi'Lady."

"Goodnight, Cat Noir."

"Sweet dreams, Bugaboo."

The minute she was gone, he de-transformed. Then he grinned up at Plagg, "Score one point for Cat Noir."

Plagg laughed a that, shaking his head. "That's hardly playing fair, Adrien. I'm so proud of you."

"Thanks, but I actually feel a little guilty about it."

"Less proud."

"But I also figure that Marinette's been such a surprise, that I can't afford to play fair." Adrien replied, ignoring the kwami's comment. He paused, "Ladybug doesn't consider anything Marinette's done surprising. The last time we talked about her, Ladybug implied she didn't know Marinette well, but tonight she said Marinette's wasn't that much of a mystery once you get to know her. So, who would know Marinette that well?"

"I thought you were specifically trying to avoid figuring out who Ladybug is."

"Well, yes and no. You're right, I should wait, but we don't know how much Hawkmoth gets when he invades someone's mind. Maybe everything, maybe nothing. So I probably shouldn't go looking for clues, but I should make sure that the clues I have don't go anywhere in case something happens, right?"

"Adrien, I'm the kwami of destruction, and I'm well known for my mischief. Don't try your convoluted justification on me. Just say, you want things you know you shouldn't, and tell me how you plan on getting them so I can help."

Adrien glared at Plagg, but the kwami was right. "Ladybug knows Marinette, and knows her well."

"Right."

"Most of Marinette's friends are in our class."

"Right."

"But everyone in our class has been present for at least one akuma attack."

"They have?"

Adrien frowned at Plagg. "Everyone in our class has been akumatized accept for me and Marinette, and Ladybug was there for every single de-akumazation."

The kwami cocked its head, a grin spreading across his face. "So?"

"So, that means it can't be any of them."

Plagg's eye roll was so dramatic that he moved his head for emphasis.

Adrien threw up his hands, "What are you trying to lead me too?"

"Every. Person. In your class. Has been akumatized, except:"

"Me and Marinette."

"So, the most likely candidate from your class for Ladybug is?"

"There isn't one." Adrien enunciated the words harshly, glaring at his friend. "Look, I appreciate what you're doing for Ladybug, but I won't be misled a second time today, Plagg. Marinette was standing less than half a meter from me when Ladybug confronted Timebreaker. So, no. She can't be Ladybug either."

Plagg sighed in defeat. "Alright, Adrien. You win. There's nothing odd or wrong with what you just said."

Adrien shot Plagg another look, but in the end he sighed too. Plagg had called him on his justification, and now he was doing them both a favor trying to keep Adrien from the truth. Adrien really couldn't ask for more from his friend.

"I'm tired, Plagg." Adrien stood, and carefully tracked down the ramp. "Let's go to bed."

Standing before his bed however, Adrien had the sudden visual memory of throwing Marinette on it. He hadn't spent any extra time looking at her when he'd done it, but that didn't matter when he could still vividly recall how she'd landed flat on her back with a slight bounce.

He pulled his quilt off his bed, found an extra pillow, and slept on his couch. He didn't remember his dreams the next morning, but if he had, maybe he would have remembered the two Ladybugs to the one Marinette.