Disclaimer: I don't own ML.
Finally got power back, hence the super late update. I'll update at the usual time after this, in like 12 hours or so.
Thanks to yellow 14, Evander1435, The Keeper of Worlds, AiRLoveLess, Shiranai Atsune, LeafeonPrincess, charlee13, acosta perez jose ramiro, DragoonSensei and The Dimensional Reader for your reviews :)
"This is weird," Marinette says after beating Misterbug at yet another game of Ultimate Mecha Strike III. Even though her arm's still in a cast, she utterly rules at this game, to the point where Misterbug's pretty sure that she must somehow be cheating. "It's been like three weeks and I'm still not used to seeing you in spots."
Welp. This is the perfect time. Misterbug's been putting it off for weeks but Tikki's right; he can't just not tell Marinette that he knows she's Ladybug.
"I get that," Misterbug says. "Must be like making out with yourself, huh?"
Marinette's cheeks pale ever so slightly. "H-Huh?" she stammers. "I don't get the joke."
"Marinette breaks her arm, then Ladybug can't fight properly?" Misterbug says. He gives her a soft smile. "I know it's you, bugaboo. Kitten."
A high-pitched noise escapes Marinette, as though she's a kettle that's been put on to boil. Before Misterbug can try and reassure her, to at least get her to stop making that sound and attracting every dog within the city limits, Marinette grabs the cushion from her chaise lounge and starts to scream into it.
"Well," drawls a familiar voice. Misterbug can't help the wide smile that spreads across his face at the sight of Plagg emerging from on top of Marinette's bed. "Good job, kid, you broke her."
"Plagg!" Misterbug holds out his hand to let Plagg land on it. When he scratches Plagg under the chin, the little cat kwami purrs and practically melts into a puddle of black goo.
"Oh my god." A wide-eyed Marinette is watching the exchange, the cushion clutched against her chest, ready for her to scream again. "You – I don't – oh my god."
"That's my line," Misterbug teases. "I can't believe I fell for the same girl twice. I – ow!" he yelps when Marinette punches him with her good hand.
"Why didn't you tell me, you – you jerk?" she bursts out. "Weeks! You've been pretending for weeks! I would've loved to know that my boyfriend knew my secret identity!"
"Hey! Easy!" Misterbug catches her hand and squeezes. "I'm sorry. I just…I was scared you wouldn't be interested in me if you knew who I was. I can't say why – identity reasons – but…you're amazing, Mari, and –"
"Wait, what?" Marinette's brow furrows. "I mean, you're an idiot if you think I wouldn't be interested in you unless you were, like, Chloé Bourgeois or Lila Rossi or something, but why would that stop you from telling me? I still don't know who you are."
"Oh. Uh…" Misterbug scratches the back of his neck with his free hand. "I guess I was psyching myself for an identity reveal. I didn't want to leave you in the dark when I knew who you were."
"Well, one of our identities should stay a secret, at least," Marinette says. "But I can tell you right now, if you think I'll run away from whoever's under the mask, you've got another thing coming. Would you have run if you'd found out I was Marinette back when you liked Ladybug?"
"What? No!" Misterbug says. "You're Ladybug. Ladybug's you. I would've thought myself super lucky because even back then, I knew you were an amazing person. I freaked out when I thought Chloé was Ladybug when Lady Wifi unmasked her because…I can't be into Chloé. I've never seen her like that."
"Gag me," Plagg mutters, but he's ignored.
"Then there's your answer," Marinette says. She leans in and gives him a quick kiss. "Trust me, if you're nothing like Chloé used to be, I don't think I'll be very disappointed."
"Right. Tikki said I wouldn't be."
"Tikki's very wise," Marinette says with twitching lips. "You should listen to her."
"I hear a certain princess is very wise as well," Misterbug says, and Marinette giggles and rests her head on his shoulder. "But I really do think it would be a good idea to tell you who I am."
"What? But if Hawkmoth finds out –"
"Hey." Misterbug squeezes her gently. "I'm the one who takes hits normally, remember? And I know who you are. It's way less dangerous for you to know who I am. And if we know each other's identities, we can coordinate as civilians. We can cover for each other. We can…we can be a team in and out of the mask, milady. I feel like I've got…more power over you by knowing, if that makes sense, and I don't wanna feel like that. We're equals. We're partners. Purrtners, if you will."
Marinette's quiet for a long, long time. Just as Misterbug's about to start babbling an apology, to say that he's not pushing her and he won't reveal himself if she really doesn't want him to, Marinette takes a deep breath and pushes herself upright.
"Okay," she whispers and squeezes her eyes shut. "Okay. You're right. I trust you, lovebug. If you're sure…"
"I've never been surer of anything, kitten." Misterbug takes Marinette's hands, then says, "Tikki…spots off." His transformation drops in a flash of pink light, and Marinette sucks in a reflexive gasp of air.
"Marinette!" Tikki nuzzles against Marinette's cheek. Giggling, Marinette releases one of Adrien's hands to reach up and cuddle Tikki, and…wow. She's never been more beautiful.
"Tikki!"
"Ugh, gag me," Plagg groans. "Just open your eyes already."
Marinette lets out an explosive breath, then nods and opens her eyes. Adrien can see the exact moment that she fully processes who's sitting across from her by tracking the journey mapped across her entire face: shock, disbelief, a split second of panic, then sheer, unmistakeable joy.
"Oh my god!" She slaps her hands over her mouth and rocks back and forth. "My god! It's – how did I never – Adrien – I've been fighting Hawkmoth with– I've been making out with Adrien!"
"What d'you think, Sugarcube?" Plagg says. "Most hilarious reveal so far or what?"
"Plagg, you're a jerk," Tikki huffs. "…But yes, this is one of the funniest."
"You know what's really funny?" Adrien says as Marinette's shoulders begin to shake. "You kept turning me down for me. And I let you go for you."
"We're both a bunch of idiots!" Marinette sags against Adrien's chest, laughing so hard that tears stream down her cheeks.
"I know, right?" Adrien grins. "We could've been dating months ago."
But Marinette shakes her head at that. "No," she hiccups when she's finally wrestled her hysterical laughter under control. "That's one thing I don't regret. We weren't ready months ago."
"Well, we're ready now," Adrien says. "And now that we know each other…holy shit, now I can hold you and kiss you whenever I see you. I don't have to wait till I'm transformed."
Marinette's cheeks stain a dark pink colour. "W-Well…if Adrien Agreste wanted to ask Marinette Dupain-Cheng to be his girlfriend…I don't think she'd say no."
"But what about a certain alley cat?" Adrien gasps dramatically. "His heart would be shattered!"
Marinette snorts and shoulders him. "I think that alley cat could learn to share."
"Hmm. You just might be right." Adrien jolts when an idea occurs to him. "Hey, wanna make it official right now?"
Marinette squints suspiciously at him as he fumbles to pull his phone out. Before she can protest, he's slinging an arm around her and holding out the phone, then kissing her cheek as he pushes the camera button. Thankfully, she seems to catch on just in time, as she's giggling with her eyes closed in the picture when Adrien pulls away.
"Are you okay with this?" he says once he's brought up Instagram. "I don't wanna post if you don't want me to. I'm not sure how my fans will react."
"You know what?" Marinette throws her good arm in the air. "Do it. It's either this or we make out in public at school tomorrow, and I'd rather save my eardrums from Alya."
Adrien snorts. He types out casual sat afternoon gaming w my princess xx as a caption, tags marinettedesigned, then presses post, and it only takes literal seconds before notifications start pouring in by the scores.
"My god," Marinette says over his shoulder as the notifications explode to the point where Adrien's forced to silence his phone. "What must it be like to have a normal life?"
"I dunno," Adrien says. "You tell me." He twists to kiss Marinette, and she squeaks and nearly falls off the chaise.
"That's cheating!" she complains. Before Adrien can make a witty response to that, Marinette's phone starts to ring, and she groans as she grabs it to answer it. "Great. That'll be Alya."
"Pardon the fuck me?" shrieks Alya's voice when Marinette presses answer, so loud that Adrien can hear even without the phone being on speaker. "Do you mind telling your best friend why she had to find out that you're Adrien Agreste's princess from Instagram? Like a common fangirl?"
"Uh, because it literally just happened two minutes ago?" Marinette says. Adrien settles back against her as she tries to soothe Alya's wounded pride, and his eyes slip shut against his control because…lying here with Marinette is just so peaceful.
She must be dreaming, because there's no way Marinette Dupain-Cheng is lucky enough in any universe to have two boys she loves be one and the same. But no, when she arrives at school the next morning and Adrien's face lights up when he catches sight of her, she's forced to concede that this is very much real.
"Marinette!" he calls, attracting the attention of everyone around him. Marinette speeds up into a run, her loose hair streaming behind her, because her boyfriend – her kitty, her lovebug – is waiting for her, and he's so radiant, and it's like she's running on a cloud to get to him and sinking into sunlight when his arms are finally around her.
"You only saw me yesterday!" Marinette says into his shoulder. Around them are the sounds of people either cooing or loudly sobbing, but Marinette can't bring herself to care about anyone else except the person holding her.
"Exactly," Adrien says. "It's been way too long."
"Such a flatterer, my sunshine."
"My sunshine? I like that one. Better than when Lila calls me mio sole."
"Oh, hush, you silly sunshine prince."
"Gag me," mutters a familiar voice from behind them. Alya's regarding them with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow, while Nino grins and shoots Adrien a thumbs-up from behind his girlfriend. "You're gonna be that sickeningly sweet couple, aren't you?"
"You're just still bitter that you had to find out on Instagram," Marinette teases. Alya rolls her eyes, but her lips do twitch, so she can't truly be annoyed at Marinette and Adrien.
"Dude, how'd your old man take it?" Nino says as they head into the schoolyard. Marinette's heart jolts.
"Oh! Right! You have to have told him, right?"
"Actually, he didn't say much," Adrien says. "He just gave me this look and said that so long as Marinette didn't distract me from my obligations and we didn't do anything to cause a scandal or make him look bad, he couldn't care less who I dated. Although he did remember Marinette as the winner of his contest and the one who impressed Audrey Bourgeois, so you really made an impression on him, princess."
Princess. Marinette giggles and rests her head against Adrien's arm. She's never going to get used to that, is she?
"Oh, hi, Chloé," Alya says when a familiar face steps into their path. Chloé takes in Marinette and Adrien, then grimaces.
"Congratulations," she forces out. "I'm happy for you, Adrien."
Adrien's face lights up. "Thanks, Chloé," he says, and he lets go of Marinette to throw his arms around Chloé. After a moment, Chloé melts into his hug and pats his back, and Marinette had thought that she'd feel even a smidge of jealousy…but how can she, when the look on Chloé's face is so genuinely blissful? After a moment, Chloé clears her throat and steps back.
"Just – you better not hurt him, Marinette, or I'll destroy you," a flustered Chloé says. "You'll wish you'd never heard of him in your life."
"Of course, Chloé," Marinette says, rather than shooting back with snark like she would at any other time. "And thank you for being okay with us. It feels good to have the blessing of Adrien's first friend."
"Yeah, whatever," Chloé scoffs. "You're just lucky his best friend approves of you. I'm gonna go find Sabrina now so I don't have to watch you two be disgusting." She turns and struts off with her nose in the air, and Marinette exchanges a little grin with Adrien when she catches sight of a little yellow head poking out of Chloé's purse. One look at Adrien's matching grin confirms that he's also seen Pollen.
"Oh my gosh, you two are together?" Lila seemingly appears out of nowhere, causing Marinette to jump. From her hazy memories of the day she'd broken her arm, she vaguely recalls a red and brown figure leading her away and saying something about Chat Noir, and although she can't remember for sure if it's Lila, it's still enough to leave her just wary enough around the other girl.
"Um, yeah!" Adrien kisses Marinette on the top of the head. "Just yesterday, actually."
"Really." Lila beams, but there's something…off in her eyes for the tiniest fraction of a second. It's something that's happened a few times now, but Lila's been nothing but friendly despite her compulsive lying, so Marinette's not sure if she can really trust what she sees. "That's so amazing, guys! But I thought you weren't into him anymore, Marinette?"
"I never said I wasn't into him," Marinette says. "I just put my crush aside to focus on being his friend."
"And that's when I realised I loved my angel," Adrien says. Marinette groans and buries her flaming face in Adrien's chest.
"Stop being such a sap, sunshine," she mumbles.
"Aww," Alya coos. Although Marinette can't see her, the wicked smile on Alya's face is audible.
"Well, you definitely deserve each other!" Lila says. "Oh, I have to go and call Paige Turner, the famous author! This would be the perfect inspiration for a book!"
"She's totally lying," Marinette grumbles when Lila's gone.
"Yeah, but sooner or later, she'll shoot herself in the foot," Adrien says. "Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, Paige Turner…one day."
"Alright, enough about that," Alya says with an unnerving smile. "It's interrogation time, you two!"