May I walk you home?

When they had to fight drunken, grown-up akuma-victims, Marinette found the whole two-teenagers-saving-Paris setup even more absurd than normally. Drunken victims were tricky: while their reflexes were bad, they were also unpredictable and cared little about casualties.
This akumatized lady was no exception, and so Marinette was glad when she made the connection and used her lucky charm to redirect the foam and soap from the weird party inside the club out on to the street, where it formed a slippery mass that brought the akuma victim to a fall and gave herself and Chat Noir time to free the akuma.
It had been a difficult fight. Chat had been off his game throughout, confirming Marinette's worries that he had been overdoing it and needed a break. After they pounded fists on the victory, she reached out to hold on to Chat's arm.
"Hey Kitty, a word?", she asked.
He just nodded tiredly and followed her up to a secluded corner on the roofs.
"Are you alright, Chat Noir?", she asked, "You seem very tired."
He shrugged.
"I am", he said. "Tired."
"Is that all?", she probed. "You were really distracted tonight. Is there something I need to know?"
He looked guilty, opened his mouth to say something, then looked at her, then closed his mouth and buried his face in his hands, moaning.
She gently placed her hand on his arm.
"You will hate me for this", he said between his fingers. Then he dropped his hands, and sighed. "But there is no use hiding it. I think one of my friends has discovered my secret identity."
What? How could that happen? Who?
Marinette's thoughts immediately jumped to Adrien.
Did Adrien know who Chat Noir was? Because of her Christmas present?
Was that bad?
Adrien was trustworthy, there were much worse people who could have found out.
She tried to stay calm.
"You think or you know?", she asked.
"Well, she did not tell me directly but there is no other explanation.. and we couldn't talk it out because the Akuma attack interrupted us!"
So it was a girl. Not Adrien. Unless Chat Noir was being careful and lying. But if it was a girl…
Holy macaron – was he talking about her? They
h-a-d been interrupted by the Akuma attack after all.
"Ladybug?", Chat said, but she was too deep in her frenzy of thoughts.
It couldn't be her, she had no idea who he was under his mask.
Unless he only thought she knew although she did not know, but however could he have gotten this idea?
"Ladybug", he said again, "I am sorry. I will find out, and then we can discuss what to do.. She … she is a wonderful person. I mean, she is trustworthy. Even if she knows, I will be able to continue my work."
Wow, he did like this girl a lot. Why did the thought of Chat liking another girl bother her so much? "How could this happen?", she asked.
Chat blushed.
"I.. I was maybe a bit careless because I wanted to protect her and I did not think through what I was doing", Chat Noir admitted.
"You like this girl?", she couldn't stop herself from asking.
He blushed even further.
"Yeah. I .. I like her a lot. And, I think, well, she was telling me that she likes me, too. But, I'm sorry, I think I should not talk about this too much. It might give you clues about my identity, too."
Marinette was staring at Chat Noir.
He liked her. Had he really fallen for her..
twice .. first as Ladybug, then as Marinette?
"When exactly did you find out about this?", she asked.
"Erm", he hesitated, "I was visiting her tonight, right before the akuma alarm. But like I said, I think we need to be careful about what I can tell you."
"I..", Marinette was struggling to keep her mouth shut.
Chat Noir thought that she knew who he was.
Whatever had she done to make him think so? All they had been talking about was.. Adrien.
And he liked her. Chat.
And he thought that she liked him back, the delusional…
"Ladybug, please, I am so sorry. I will make this right. She is a very good friend of mine and I.. I know we can trust her. If I had to trust anyone with this, it would be her. I will make sure that she does not tell anyone, I promise. I just need to get back to her now." Chat was looking at her, pleading.
Well he was right about the part that she was trustworthy. If anyone understood the importance of keeping his identity a secret..
"Ok", she managed to say, "We will figure it out. It is not the end of the world, otherwise Bunnix would have appeared to make us correct our mistakes."
She tried a reassuring smile.
"Thank you, Ladybug", he said.
Her earring beeped.
"We should leave quickly", he said. "Do you live close enough to make it home? Or should I wait until your kwami has recharged? I haven't used the cataclysm, so I can wait."
He might be a lunatic, but he was a gentleman behind that mask. He did not leave her on her own to feed her kwami in some dark alley.
"It's ok if we leave right away", she said. "But.. I need to know what you find out tonight. Could we meet again tomorrow and you tell me what happened with your .. friend?"

They arranged a meeting the next day, and then Marinette watched Chat Noir hurry, as expected, away across the roofs into the direction of the Dupain-Cheng bakery.
She didn't have much time left before she would transform back, so she had to follow him. She tried to keep a little distance between them, hoping that he was too distracted to notice that she was practically following him.
When she saw him land on the balcony, her earring beeped again. Quickly, she headed for a sidestreet, close to her parents home. Ducking behind a dumpster, it was a bit dark and scary.
She checked to make sure that no-one was watching and when she felt safe, she whispered, "Spots off". An agitated Tikki floated hectically up and down in front of her.
"Marinette, what a mess", Tikki said in a desperate tone. "You need to explain to him that you do not know who he is, before he can slip up and reveal himself by accident."
"Here, Tikki", Marinette handed her a macaron. "Calm down. Of course I will do that."
Her Kwami took the macaron, but she seemed to want to keep the mouth free to talk to her.
Something rustled behind Marinette in the dark – a rat?
"Let's talk inside", she said, and opened her bag for Tikki before she stormed off towards her parent's place. Maybe she could get in unnoticed, and otherwise, she preferred her parents scolding her for sneaking out at night over whatever dirty animals were lurking in the gutter. And if Chat Noir saw her, she would just …
"Marinette, what are you doing out here at night?"
She squeaked. There he was. She hadn't even finished the thought, and he had already landed next to her on the pavement.
Stupid cat night vision.
"I.. I just went out", she offered weekly, and looking at his shocked expression: "Please don't tell me that this is too dangerous. I am way too tired to argue with you tonight."
"May I walk you home then?", he said gently, with a questioning tone.
"Well, actually, since you are here.. Would you mind giving me a lift to the balcony so that I don't have to wake my parents?"


Hello back! It's a time for fluffy stories to enjoy, and it felt so good to take the time off yesterday to write. I hope you equally like the show down of this story in the last chapters to come.
If you do not remember the last episode, maybe read again the last two or three chapters. Marinette has just confessed to Chat that she likes Adrien and Chat thinks that Marinette knows his true identity, but she actually does not – Tikki just messed up a little bit…. Basically, it is a big mess of secrets! And an Akuma attack has interrupted Marinette and Chat Noir before they could figure it all out.