MiraculElse #20: The Truth Shall Set You Free

by DFC

(Timeline: Post-Season 4, Episode 1, "Truth.")

Ladybug tumbled across the floor of her bedroom, thrown off-balance by the explosive force of the sentimonster's entry. She could only gasp and cry out Chat's name as she watched its beam of light immobilize him, then as Truth's power contacted him squarely.

As Chat's lips turned white, Ladybug readied herself. I need to cut him off - finish his question with something harmless! she thought. Get ready...

"WhatisMarinette'sbigsecret?" Truth barked out, as quickly as he could say the words.

No!

He just... burst out with that! Too fast for me to think, or to react! Ladybug panicked. Now what can I say to continue that? Aiiigh! What can I add to that about Marinette... that Ladybug would know? THINK FAST!

Chat's face went slack... and she cringed as she saw him begin his answer.

Her biggest secret? Chat wondered to himself, his hypnotized brain whizzing at the speed of light. That could be a lot of things. I mean... Marinette is a very complicated person. Where do I begin?

Should it be that she was Multimouse once? I mean... that's big, isn't it? She was one of the only Miraculous hosts that wasn't compromised by Miracle Queen. Hawkmoth would really want to know that.

But... it's not the biggest thing in HER life, I don't think. It happened once, I caught her, and she can never have that Miraculous again... so that door's kind of closed for her now. It was an amazing day, but it was just one day.

Something embarrassing? I can't say 'she's clumsy and she falls over a lot.' Everybody knows that. That she actually DOES have fast hands, good reflexes and dancing feet might surprise some people... but is that the biggest thing I can think of?

That she's suffered from constipation?

Nah. Everybody gets that once in a while... and her friends know about that. That's not a HUGE secret.

That she told me that she was in love with me once? Not something she's told the world. But her parents were right there that day. They knew about that.

Maybe... that she once wrote me the sweetest valentine ever, and didn't sign it?

I can't say THAT. That would give away my own identity... and I'm still not completely sure that it was hers, after all.

I... part of me really wishes... that it was? But back then, she was very much in love with her... um...

Oh, boy.

I've got it.

"M-Marinette's big secret..." gasped Chat, "Part of it... is that I come to visit her here sometimes. She's a friend of mine. One of the few friends that I have in costume."

Ladybug remained in a defensive stance, but relaxed, the tiniest bit.

That's not GOOD... it just put a target on my back, as far as Hawkmoth is concerned. Though... there's a villain in my bedroom right now tearing up the place, isn't there? So I guess that was already true. And it's not like he said...

"But the big secret," Chat continued. "is that she's in love with a boy... but she can't make herself tell him how she feels about him."

Truth stared at him, silently. So did Ladybug, her jaw hanging down, stunned into immobility.

"When I've visited, she's told me about him, so many times. She spent months pining for him, agonizing over what to do about him. What to do or say to get him to notice her that way."

Ladybug tried to interrupt him... but Truth directed Pharo to target her, making her dodge from one side of her bedroom to the other, keeping her occupied so that Chat could keep talking.

"I don't know his name. She's never told me," Chat added. "But she describes him as someone amazing. Handsome, compassionate, sweet, charming... a total package. But he also has to be the most oblivious idiot on the face of the planet. Because if someone like Marinette thought so highly of him, wanted to be his, and he never realized it-"

"Yes, yes," Truth interjected, "I know about all that. His name is Adrien Agreste. Everyone keeps saying that that's her big secret, but surely there's something deeper and darker... so, what is it?"

Ladybug clasped her head with both hands to hold the shrieking in. I can't let Chat say any more, she told herself. I have to stop Truth, NOW...!

...huh?

All motion in the room stopped... because Chat Noir had stopped, his body and brain freezing, with all the grace and dignity of an elephant falling from a helicopter.

Truth took two hesitant steps towards Chat, expecting some sort of trick...

Then a third step, then a fourth...

...until a yo-yo abruptly yanked an immobile Chat out of his path.

"Snap out of it! Whatever it is!" Ladybug hissed. "Think later. Fight now!"

Chat reacted to that, slowly... turning to face Ladybug with wide eyes and an unsteady stance.

"You're in Marinette's bedroom. She's in danger if you don't act! Her whole family is!" shouted Ladybug. "This villain is tearing up her room; if she's nearby, she might get hurt!"

That statement seemed to jar something loose in the room. Truth stared at Ladybug, seemingly a bit confused. "N-no, I don't..." he countered. "I don't want her hurt..."

Chat, on the other hand, snapped out of his trance and was abruptly on high alert. "N-no..." he growled. "You won't touch her. Or Ladybug!"

Working together, Ladybug and Chat managed to break the necklace Truth was wearing... and before long, a semblance of relative order was restored in the household.

Once Ladybug had sorted things out... checking on her parents, getting Luka somewhere quiet for a talk, verifying that the Miracle Box was still intact... she headed for a familiar rooftop, one on which she'd met up with Chat on many an occasion. As she'd requested, he was sitting there, patiently waiting for her.

"Hey," she greeted him. "I talked with Marinette, she's okay... Luka's okay... but I'm still worried. Are you all right, Chat?"

"I don't know."

His tone was matter-of-fact, and rather subdued.

"I'm serious," said Ladybug, sitting across from her cross-legged partner. "The way that you, well, locked up back there... that isn't like you at all. Usually, I'm more likely to hold you back than to have to wake you up. I didn't see the senti blast you again, but I might've missed it... is that what happened?"

"It wasn't that," Chat replied, quietly. "That only hit me the one time."

"What was it, then?" she asked him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"What was said in there... It changes so much."

Ladybug gathered her thoughts before continuing. "What you said about Marinette... her secret... Luka won't remember it. He was Akumatized when you said what you said, so he'll have forgotten about it. And, er, I don't know why Hawkmoth was targeting her, specifically... he seems to do that an awful lot, now that I think about it... but you didn't put her in more danger by telling Truth that she's a good friend of yours. I'm sure that you didn't."

"No, I..." muttered Chat. "I mean, I didn't like that I said that... and spilling her secret like that was a breach of trust," continued Chat, undaunted. "She told me that in confidence."

"You didn't have a choice! And I'm sure that Marinette would understand that." Ladybug's eyes were nervous, but sympathetic. "And from what he said... a bunch of people told him the exact same thing, that she was in love with someone specific. Apparently," she sighed, "that's not as big a secret as she thought it was."

"He didn't know. I know he didn't know."

Ladybug gave him a questioning look, in silence.

"I can't say more than that. Not without revealing more than you'd want to know," said Chat. "Please trust me on that. But I've... I've been the biggest idiot on the face of the planet, 'Bug. And I need some time to think about that, and figure out what I'm going to do next."

"You've been an idiot?" asked Ladybug. "I don't understand. Chat, you've been a really good friend to her, from what she's told me. I don't know what more she could have asked for from you..."

"That's just it. I do know. At least now, I do."

An uneasy feeling filled Ladybug's stomach. "Chat... you're losing me here. You're sure that you're going to be all right, and you're not going to, uh... do anything right away?" she asked, anxiously.

He seemed to come to a decision... and flashed her a smile. "I'll be all right, I promise. I just need to... I just need to think for a little while, okay?" he replied. "And after that, I need to talk to somebody about something important. But I think that it'll all work out before long."

Standing up, he leaned over and hugged Ladybug, briefly - THAT was new, she blinked - and headed out to leave. "Tell Marinette that I said 'Hi,'" he called to her as he leaped away, "and that maybe I'll check on her later, once her family's settled again."

"Um... yeah?" Ladybug waved. "I'll... do that."

Much later that evening, after supper and some much-needed family bonding time, Marinette waited in her bedroom.

"You're going to wear a hole in your floor, pacing back and forth like that," Tikki pointed out.

"He's coming here tonight. I know he is. And I need to figure out how to approach this, because..." muttered Marinette. "You saw him today, right? I've never seen Chat look that shaken up before. Something rocked his world, Tikki... and what was being talked about was me!"

"Well..." Tikki began, choosing her words carefully. "Chat Noir does have a strong bond with you, and you had a supervillain in your bedroom, looking for something. That had to disturb him quite a bit, right? The other Kwamis thought for sure that Truth was going to find the Miracle Box; he came this close."

"That's going to keep me up all night," Marinette worried. "I need the Box and the Kwamis close by, but I'm putting my family in danger by keeping them here. I don't know what to do about that. Especially since Hawkmoth seems interested in me personally now!"

"I'm not sure quite how to read that," agreed Tikki. "Part of that was that the villain was Luka, so he was focused on you. Your father said that he asked about your diary, right? Not anything having to do with your being Ladybug."

"It's still really bad," said Marinette, not sounding very reassured. "Once Hawkmoth started zeroing in on Master Fu, that was the beginning of the end for him. I'm afraid that I'm next on his list now."

"We can talk about that later..." suggested Tikki.

"...But that's not my main issue right now," Marinette insisted. "Tikki... Chat heard that I was in love with Adrien, and he freaked. There's no other way to put it! That blew his mind. I keep asking myself... why? Why would that have blown him away like that?"

Tikki let that pass without comment.

"I mean... I've never said that Adrien was who it was... but Chat has been around my class enough times, right? We seem to have an Akuma there about once a week," continued Marinette. "He's seen Adrien in that class. He knows Adrien personally. He knows what a great guy Adrien is. Why would it bother him that much that I'd be crushing on Adrien?"

"It's... hard to say," Tikki ventured.

"And I know him," Marinette ranted. "He's going to come here tonight and ask me about that, I just know it. And I'm in no condition to even talk about it. I just lost my boyfriend a few hours ago, and that's killing me inside... You saw his face, Tikki! Luka was trying not to show it, but I hurt him! I hurt him so much that he got Akumatized. And that's my fault!"

"Marinette..."

"It is! And as long as I'm the Guardian, can I even think about dating anyone? Chat's liable to ask me if he can try to set me up with Adrien, or something like that, and I just can't even..."

Her frantic pace stopped, as she slumped down into a sitting position on her bedroom floor.

"I can't even let that happen. I wouldn't want Adrien to get hurt like that," Marinette whimpered. "And he would be, if he was even interested in me. Because I'm just... such a mess right now."

Marinette's face lit up with more worry. "That's what I've got to tell him," she exclaimed. "That I can't let him tell Adrien what he knows now! That's all I'd need... for that to complicate everything with Adrien, especially now that I'm trying to be just a good friend to him-"

"Marinette...?" Tikki interrupted, more insistently.

"Hah?"

"What I think that you need to do tonight, if he does come and visit... and I agree, I think that he will... is listen," counseled Tikki. "See what he has to say. If he has something important to tell you... he'll do it. If you need to stop him, you can stop him. But you're right... he really was shaken up by what he heard today. And maybe you should let him tell you why, in his own words."

"I'll... try," said Marinette.

Rather than the traditional *TH-BMMP* of Chat's landing... Marinette was surprised to hear a gentle knock on her hatch door.

She climbed up to meet him, finding him sitting on a lounge chair. "Hi," she greeted him. "I heard that you might be stopping by tonight."

"I hope that I'm not interrupting anything..."

"No, not at all. I'm still dressed," she smiled, a wave of her hand showing him that she hadn't gotten ready for bed yet. "You kind of faked me out, though... I didn't even hear you land."

"I, uh... I've been here about an hour, actually. Sitting here, trying to figure out what I was going to say."

Marinette's grin melted into confusion. "Since when have I been so fearsome, Chat?" she wondered, sitting down next to him. "And I don't want you to take this the wrong way... but you really don't seem like yourself tonight."

"Marinette... this isn't easy for me to say," Chat replied. "The Akuma today... he shocked me."

"Shocked you?" said Marinette, trying to play it off lightly. "He was in my bedroom!"

"He told me something, right in the middle of the fight, that just froze me. Something wonderful... but it was also like a knife to my heart," continued Chat, the joke rolling right off of him as if it wasn't there. "I've been thinking about it ever since..."

"What did he say?" Marinette asked, already knowing and dreading the answer but putting on a show for practical purposes.

"That you are in love with Adrien Agreste."

"Ah-HUH."

Marinette's eyes went to the floor. Green eyes were searching her face at that moment, and it took significant willpower for her to turn away from them.

"And, uh... did you believe him?" she asked, quietly.

"Is there a reason that I shouldn't?"

Chat's voice was steady and warm, but still sent a chill through Marinette. "He had no reason to lie to me, at least that I know of. Apparently, a bunch of people told him that. Underneath the Akuma, he's your boyfriend, so he'd be in a pretty good position to know..."

"Was."

"...What?"

"He was my boyfriend," Marinette clarified, still looking downwards. "Until about four hours ago. After you and Ladybug freed him, he and I had a long talk, and... we're still friends, but we're not a couple any more."

"No!" Chat exclaimed. "Marinette... I'm so sorry about that. I didn't mean... I wouldn't have... the two of you seemed so happy together..."

"Don't apologize," she interrupted. "It wasn't anything that you did or said. It wasn't even about Adrien, entirely... yeah, he knew that I had feelings for Adrien, but he was being patient with me while I worked that out in my head. What happened was..."

Sighing, she closed her eyes. "It was about me. I'm not... in a very good place right now, in my head... in general. I shouldn't be dating anyone. I wanted to make it work with Luka... I know just how much he wanted it to... but I'm not where I need to be for that to be possible."

She felt an arm being draped over her shoulders, and leaned into Chat in response, just a little bit.

"I'm still so sorry. I can't help it," Chat told her. "I... have to ask. These feelings for Adrien... are they something new?"

"Of course they're not."

Marinette looked up at Chat with watery eyes. "The boy that I've been telling you about, all this time? It's Adrien. It's always been Adrien, for as long as I've known him. Why is that important to you?"

"You have no idea how important that is to me. Or... maybe you do."

"Huh?" wondered Marinette. "Chat... I'm really not in the mood for whatever this is right now..."

"It's okay, Marinette. It's okay," he soothed her, somewhat ineffectually. "I'm just trying to work out something else that's important to me..."

"What's that?"

"When did you figure me out?"

Marinette's state of sorrow screeched to an abrupt halt as his question sank in.

"What... are you talking about?" she managed.

"It was right here on this balcony, not all that long ago," Chat began, "that you told me that you were in love with me."

The night before her father's Akumatization into Weredad flashed before Marinette's eyes. "Chat... we've talked about that," she muttered. "It was a combination of things on a really weird night, and my house had just been attacked, and my emotions were all over the place that night..."

"It did seem to come out of nowhere... but even though I was still in love with Ladybug, I'll be honest, it really touched me, deep down..."

"...And we've talked about this, and why are we even bringing it up now?" Marinette wailed. "My love life is a disaster area, I know that. I don't need you to show me a highlight reel-"

"...but after today, all of a sudden, it makes sense to me," smiled Chat. "You knew. You knew that night, and you were afraid to tell me that you knew. And that explains so much of the awkwardness that we've had between us, so many times... "

Marinette felt like her head was about to explode as Chat continued rambling. She caught fragments of what he was telling her, but that was all... "I wish that I'd known much sooner" - Known WHAT? - "I'm kind of in a relationship right now" - No, you're not, you liar! You've never told me that before as me OR Ladybug, so where is that coming from? - "I've been giving those feelings a lot of thought lately..."

"CHAT NOIR! PLEASE... STOP... TALKING!"

Shocked into silence, Chat did just that.

"Chat... I need you to just listen for a minute, okay?" Marinette insisted. "This is all... I don't know what's going on here, or where this is coming from, or what all happened in my room today. But it sounds like you're telling me that I know who's under your mask."

Chat nodded, anticipation in his eyes.

"Then let me say this, once and for all. I don't know your real name. I have never known. I don't think that I can ever know. There are, like, fifteen reasons and I can't even tell you most of them why I can't know," babbled Marinette. "Are you listening to me? That wasn't why I said that, that night... I don't even know for sure why I said it that night... but I'm not in love with you that way, Chat. Sometimes I wonder why I'm not... but I'm not. And I don't know what your everyday name is."

"You... don't?" asked Chat, barely comprehending. "You're sure."

"I don't," Marinette sniffled. "Do you want to know what I do know?"

He nodded.

"I know that I lost my first boyfriend today, someone who really cares about me, because I was keeping secrets from him," she whimpered. "Secrets that I can't even tell you. I know that I've been absolutely crazy about Adrien Agreste for months now... so much that I can't even compose myself around him sometimes... but that it needs to stop. He's with someone else now. She's really good for him, he's into her, and she's a friend of mine and so is he. And I'm putting all that behind me because I need to be the best friend I can be for him, because I can't be more than that with anyone right now."

Chat took that in, silently.

"And I know that the sweetest boy I know is sitting here next to me, trying to comfort me. And just because I'm crying right now doesn't mean that he's doing a bad job of it," she added, managing a small chuckle. "But I really need someone to hold me right now, just hold me, and tell me that everything's going to be okay somehow."

As Chat wrapped her up in his embrace, she hugged him tight and added, "Just tell me that I'm not all alone."

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng... for as long as I live, you will never be alone unless you want to be," Chat whispered. "Because any time you call me... I'll come running."

"I need you, Chat. So much," Marinette whispered.

"I'm here."

It was about an hour later that Marinette stumbled back down into her room, flopping face-first onto her mattress.

"I am pretty sure that I have done nothing to deserve all of this," she mumbled into her pillow.

"...Marinette?" Tikki wondered. "Are you going to be okay tonight? Do you want to talk about it? I gave the two of you your privacy up there, so..."

"I'll make it. Thank you, Tikki," sniffled Marinette, turning her way with at least a partial smile. "Chat did his best to comfort me over everything... though he did kind of blow my mind first."

"What did he say?" asked Tikki, suspiciously.

"He had a crazy idea that I knew who he was, under his mask. That I'd known that for months now," she explained. "And that I'd been covering for his secret all this time."

"Hmmph. He, uh... didn't come out and just tell you who he is, did he?"

"If I hadn't stopped him, he might've!" grumbled Marinette. "And I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I mean... okay, so he found out I had a crush on Adrien. What does that even have to do with HIM?"

"That's... a good question, I guess," mumbled Tikki. "Maybe we can talk about something else-"

"Chat brought up the night that I told him that I was in love with him. RIght before Papa got Akumatized," Marinette continued. "I don't know how many times I need to tell Chat how crazy that night was, but he shouldn't have come to that conclusion today! If I was in love with Adrien, why would he think that I was serious when I told him that I loved-"

Tikki closed her eyes.

"...him?"

Wait, thought Marinette, her eyes opening wide with recognition.

Chat Noir heard me tell him that I loved him that night.

Now, he found out that I love Adrien. That I loved Adrien back then, too.

All of a sudden, he thought that I'd figured out his secret identity.

Why would he think that? Did he think that I thought he was ADRIEN under the mask?

That's silly. HE knows that he's not Adrien. All he'd have to have done was to tell me that. But he got all emotional, instead!

Chat Noir... found out that I love Adrien. And that WRECKED him.

Why would that affect him so strongly?

Unless...

Marinette stared at Tikki, long and hard... and Tikki stared back.

"Oh, no," Marinette murmured. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no."