"Excuse me?", Adrien croaked. "You saw what exactly?"
"Adrien, he left!", Marinette repeated, "He made a big deal of getting me into a storage closet, and then after a minute or so, he sneaked out of the room without telling me. I just.. I just find it hard to wrap my head around why he did that. Why he didn't take me with him."
Adrien stared at her, his head swirling with a mix of confusion and panic and a tiny bit of .. excitement?
He had left the room as Chat Noir.
Had Marinette seen him?
Was she telling him that she k-n-e-w?
"How do you know that he left?", he asked, "Weren't you inside your own closet?"
Marinette blushed a little.
"Well, I was frightened", she said, "And I peaked into the room to make sure we were safe, and then I saw him leave."
Adrien was trying to read her. Nothing about her showed the kind of emotional reaction that he would have expected if one of his friends found out about his identity. How could she stay so cool at such a big reveal?

Chat Noir really needed a break. The poor boy looked completely freaked out. Marinette almost regretted bringing up Adrien's mysterious escape at all. It was a bit weird, but surely leaving her behind, safely hidden and out of immediate danger, wasn't that bad?
"Marinette", Chat began hesitantly, "I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. This whole situation is .. complicated. Are you angry at me?"
"What? No!", she cried. "Of course not, why would I be angry with you?"
"I know you're a very understanding person, Marinette, but this.. it is a lot to take in", he said, making puppy eyes. Or kitty eyes?
She shrugged. "It just doesn't seem like Adrien."
"No?", he said, looking confused.
They were staring at each other, apparently both puzzled by the other's reaction, when his baton chimed and her phone buzzed.
"Another one today", she groaned.
Chat looked at his baton as if he wanted nothing more than to throw it from the balcony.
"Marinette, I hate leaving you like this", he said, taking her hands. "But.. you know that I have to go and help Ladybug."
"Of course you do", Marinette said, trying to speak with a firm, reassuring voice, "And you don't have to worry about me. I'm safe here and completely fine on my own."
He shook his head.
"You really are something", he mumbled, and then louder: "I'll be back as soon as we have taken care of the akuma."
"No, Chat!", she said, "I think you should get some rest. You look very tired."
"But.."
"Do your hero thing and then go home. It has been a long day for both of us. I need some rest, too."
He looked at her incredulously.
"Don't you have questions?"
Marinette shrugged.
"Questions can wait. And anyway, I'm not sure you can help me with this. I might just need time, to think about it all and make up my mind on my own."
"Oh, ok." He was still staring at her with an odd intensity.
"I'm sorry that I have to ask you this but.. please promise me that you will not tell anyone. That's important!", he said.
Huh? Marinette studied her partner, but he was looking at her as serious as she had ever seen him, and even gripped her hands to make her meet his gaze.
"Please?", he said again.
"Er, sure", she responded. The poor boy really needed some rest.
"Now go get that Akuma, Tiger", she squeezed his hands.
He looked at her questioningly, but when she just kept up her smile, he sighed.
"I'll give you space then", he said, "But .. please come talk to me whenever you are ready. I think.. it would help."
He gave her a heart-crushingly hopeful, crooked smile.
She just nodded and waved him forward, and when he finally moved, jumping from her balcony to zigzag away across the roofs of Paris, Tikkie already appeared from her room.