Ladybug races back to her home, pleading to some higher power that Chat stayed behind a little longer to help the victim, so that she'd have enough time to turn back into 'Marinette' without any suspicion. The blaring beeps from her earrings also alarm her how quickly she'd need to get home before she lost her powers, or she for sure wouldn't get back before Adrien did.
Luckily, her powers last long enough to make it with a leap through the window, before a burst of pink light fills her bedroom, and Tikki appears beside her, clearly tuckered out.
"I'm sorry, Tikki." Marinette cups her hands underneath her kwami to rest in. "I really pushed it this time, huh?"
"It's okay, it all worked out in the end." Tikki smiles warmly, and lets herself drop into Marinette's hands. "After all, I'll have plenty of time to eat and rest." Her smile falters for a second. "I'd be more worried about you- you found out about Chat Noir's secret identity. I trust you'll keep it a secret, but what are you going to do when he gets back?"
"That," Marinette sighs. "I have no idea. What am I supposed to do? I don't think I can look at Adrien, or Chat Noir the same! What do I even say? He said we'd talk about it later, but..." Marinette trails off, anxious jitters filling her body with white noise as she bites her lip. "I don't think I'm ready for that, Tikki."
Meanwhile, after Chat Noir managed to get the victim back down the stairs- a nice person who'd been laid over from writing articles for the paper, insisting they write about Chat Noir and Ladybug- and watches as they run back to ask for their job back, Chat's mind wanders back to his problem at hand. The black cat bounces up onto his pole, back in the direction of the Dupain-Cheng bakery.
'Marinette must be startled.' He can't help but think to himself. 'She acts so differently when I'm Chat compared to when I'm Adrien. She's probably disappointed that I'm not as exciting as she imagined I'd be.' Uncertain of what would result of their conversation, Chat continues the trek back to Marinette's place.
In anticipation of Chat's arrival back from the scene, Marinette paces back and forth in agony.
"Oh my god!" Marinette shouts, groaning as she holds her head. "Adrien is the one that's been telling me all those terrible puns?" She turns to Tikki in anguish, who simply eats the cookie, already having dealt with this for ten minutes. Finding no help in her kwami, Marinette huffs, and turns to continue her pacing rampage.
"Knock knock!"
With a startled choke, Marinette spins on her heel to face the window, where the boy in black knocks on the glass. While Marinette tries to pass the breath caught in her throat, Chat winks, and points up to the trap door, which she realized must have locked behind her when she swung it shut. Without a second thought, Marinette ducks away from the window's view, and books it to the door leading down to the bakery.
"Wait!" She hears the muted shout from the other side of the glass, and she hesitates for a split second, realizing just how similar their voices were in that moment. She shakes her head to herself, as if it would rid of her thoughts, and continues on her way out, slamming the door above her. Tikki appears through the door just after, and gives Marinette a sad look, but decides to say nothing.
"Mama!" Marinette calls out to her mother, tucking Tikki into the pocket of her shorts. She takes a cookie from the shelf on her way towards the door. "I'm gonna take a quick walk!"
"What about A-"
She doesn't even let her mother finish her sentence before she rushes out the door, and quickly winds around the corner into the alleyway near their bakery's trash can. Tikki flies out, and Marinette quickly shoves the pastry into her kwami's small hands.
"Eat up quickly. Tikki." Marinette whispers, craning her neck to check for anyone at the end of the alleyway. Tikki, however much she wanted to finish Marinette's mother's question, decides to chow down on the cookie. She'll get her to talk once they're a little further away.
With Tikki fed and her energy replenished, Marinette wastes no time in shouting 'Spots on!' The red and black polka-dotted jumpsuit cloaks her wildly underdressed pajamas, and Ladybug replaces her citizen self. She swiftly twirls and latches her yo-yo onto a nearby lamppost, and takes off above the rooftops of her beloved city of France.
In her hurry to get as far away from the bakery as possible, Ladybug almost misses the black cat sitting at her windowsill peering in, waiting to be let in. With a silent apology to her feline friend, Ladybug quickens her pace. The superhero doesn't come to a stop until she reaches the roof of the Bustier hotel, expansive and comfortable for her to unwind and come to terms with the chaos that was the thoughts in her brain.
Marinette lets out a loud sigh once Tikki removed her disguise, and drops herself onto a lounge chair.
"Marinette," Tikki begins in a soft, but stern tone. "You know you shouldn't have done that. What is Adrien supposed to do now that you've run away?"
"I don't know!" The pig-tailed girl shouts into the void that was the night sky in response. "This wasn't supposed to happen- ever! How am I supposed to know what I'm supposed to do, much less what Chat- Adrien- he's supposed to do?"
"I understand it must be a lot to take in," Tikki continues, settling down on the ledge beside Marinette. "But this is a lot bigger than just how you feel right now. You know you two are strictly forbidden from knowing each other's secret identity, for both of your sakes. And on top of that, how do you think Adrien is feeling? He didn't have much of a choice given the situation, and I think you should cut him some slack and talk it out."
Marinette's lips fly open to jut out a response in retaliation, but she pauses, and shuts them again, mulling over every word Tikki has said. As upset and shaken she was over the recent series of events, she knew her kwami was right. It wasn't fair of her to run away without hashing it out with Chat, he was probably just as shaken sharing his hero-self with her, and trusting that she would keep it secret, unaware of her own secret identity.
"You're right…" Marinette trails off in a sigh. "Yeah. You're right, Tikki. I should have talked to him. I can't keep running from him. But-"
"No buts!" Her kwami cuts her off, making an 'x' with her small arms. "We need to go back and you need to talk to him- properly."
Marinette purses her lips, resting her chin onto her arms as she gazes up at the moon. Then, an idea strikes her.
"Tikki," she whips her head around "Spots on!"
The minute her transformation was over, Ladybug grabs the yo-yo fastened to her hip and opens it to reveal her call contacts. The first listed is none other than Chat Noir. With a sigh to calm herself, Ladybug presses the call button.
After Marinette had run off on him from her room, Adrien was in a sad shock. He droops himself over the ledge of the Dupain-Cheng's balcony, staring down at the nightlife that lay below. Marinette was obviously disappointed or in shock of the revelation that he was Chat. Who wouldn't be? The person she knew as Adrien, turning out to be someone as wild and unhinged as Chat? He understood… Well, he tried to understand.
"Cheer up, kid." Plagg appears beside him, downing another slice of cheese in a single gulp. "She probably just needs another minute to settle with the fact. She'll come back eventually."
"I hope I didn't scare her off," Adrien says in a pout, chewing on the inside of his cheek. "I trust Marinette, but now I realize that she needs to trust me too in order for this to work. She's always so flustered around Adrien, but around Chat she's… comfortable." He furrows his brow in thought. "I thought maybe she'd be cool about it, but I guess anyone would be freaked out."
Adrien presses his face into the cold metal bars and closes his eyes. As much as he wanted to go home and sleep this off, he absolutely needed to talk to Marinette ASAP. While he trusts her, he needs to be absolutely sure that she doesn't tell anyone.
Just as his cheeks were growing cold against the metal, Plagg tugs on Adrien's sleeve.
"We'll probably be here a while." Plagg flies to hover in front of the blonde boy. "You could always transform and go out to look for her, or we could wait here for her to come back."
Adrien lets out a sigh and slumps backward. "I don't know Plagg, I'm getting kind of tired of always chasing people."
To this Plagg doesn't say anything, but nods in understanding.
"Well, if we're gonna wait here," Plagg exclaims excitedly, resting his hands under his chin to appear cute. "You got any more cheese on you, kid?"
After three calls and no response, Ladybug panics a little. Was he purposely ignoring her calls? Had he de-transformed already and wasn't getting them? Did something happen to him while she had recklessly fled and was panicking like a child?
Ladybug stares down at Chat's contact, about to press call for a fourth time, before pausing. What was she doing? He was probably waiting for her at her house, wanting to talk about what happened before the fight. Taking a deep breath, Ladybug closes the phone on her yo-yo and gazes up at the setting sun. The sky was turning miraculous shades of orange and pink, and she had to get back home before Adrien had to leave. It wouldn't be right to leave him hanging like this. Her internal dilemma somewhat resolves, Ladybug tosses her yo-yo back in the direction she had come, in the direction of her home.
All the way at the Agreste manor, the head of the household taps his finger impatiently on the marble dining table. The one time, the one time he set aside work to eat dinner with his son, Adrien is out late?
"Nathalie," Gabriel directs at his assistant, who stands patiently at the door. "Pray tell, where in the hell is my son?"
"I intended to tell you before," Nathalie responds, visibly nervous. "I got a call from Adrien's teacher today. Apparently, he took off before class started and didn't show back up. The last time Gorilla saw him-"
The woman is cut off by her boss making a loud, irritated groan. He rises from his chair and takes off towards the door.
"I'm going to look for him." He simply says in passing.
Nathalie whirls as he strides past, her voice almost caught in her throat. "S-sir-"
She stops as the giant golden doors leading to his office swing shut behind him. She sighs, tired of today's antics caused by the Agreste family, and heads back to her own office.
Gabriel heads directly to the back of his office, to the sculpture piece adorning the wall behind his desk. If his staff couldn't find his son, then someone else surely could.
Once the outline of her home came into view, Ladybug could feel herself break into a cold sweat. Was she really going to do what she was doing? She knew it was a bad idea, but she couldn't think of anything else to do. When she returned home, he would probably see her swing in as Ladybug anyways. She lands with a thud back in the alley
What exactly was she planning, one might ask? She wasn't so sure herself, she realized as she returned the yo-yo to her side. What did she expect to come of this? That they would know each other's identities and then everything would be just hunky-dory? There was a reason they were forbidden from knowing each others' identities, as it came with many risks they probably couldn't cover or handle being as young as they are. However dangerous the risks, she decided a while ago it was even more dangerous for her to hide this from Chat.
Thankfully it was still somewhat light outside, but the sun was setting quickly and Ladybug knew they would both need to go back home soon. She commands Tikki to unmask her and races back into the bakery, not even stopping to wave or tell her parents that she had returned. Making sure to lock the door behind her, Marinette makes her way back up the stairs, where she's begging some other-worldly creature that Chat Noir was still waiting for her return.
To her luck, as she swings the hatch to her room open, she almost misses the sad belt tail belonging to none other than her feline partner, sorrowfully dancing behind him as he sits on the ledge of her balcony. Marinette takes a deep breath and catches Tikki winking at her from her desk. After a few moments of silence, she knocks on the window.
The sudden clacks behind him startle Chat, and he whips his head around to see what it was- only to whack his head on the railing he had been leaning his head on. He hisses in pain, holding his forehead with his eyes shut tight. Marinette gasps and pulls the hatch open, headed straight for the injured boy.
"Are you alright?" She asks panicked, trying to move his hands to see the damage her metal railing had done.
"Yeah, I'm good," He answers in a grimace, but an embarrassed smile on his face. "That was just stupid of me." When Marinette finds no serious wound on his head, she leans back onto her knees and sighs of relief.
"So, Chat…" Marinette begins, playing with her fingernails in her lap. "You said we had to talk?"
Chat's eyes open again, and his eyes dart right for the girl beside him. His hands slowly falling from his head, he nods. A kind smile takes over the grimace of pain, and he juts his head in the direction of the hatch.
"Mind if we talk inside?" Marinette wordlessly nods at his question, then gestures towards the door, motioning for him to go first. They both rise to their feet, and Chat leads the way back into Marinette's room. One inside and the door is shut securely behind them, Chat asks Plagg to decloak him. Marinette finds her eyes darting away as the bright green light once again fills her room, and Adrien takes Chat's place. As the light disperses and Plagg appears beside his kwami owner, Adrien hand flies to the back of his head for an awkward rub.
"Sorry to spring all of this info on you, Mari," He manages a hesitant chuckle. "I know it's a lot of pressure, but given the situation-"
"No, it's okay," Marinette cuts him off, her cheeks ablaze as she holds her hands up, palms facing him. "I know you had no choice. Thank you, for trusting me in the first place."
Adrien lets out a breath of a chuckle. "Well, that's easy. You're really trustworthy, Marinette."
"Thank you," Marinette squeaks out, pressing her hands to her tomato red face, her palms cool against her fiery cheeks. "And sorry for running away at first."
"Oh, no, I don't blame you." Adrien physically waves the thought away. "It is a lot to take in, I know. You can take all the time you need to come to terms." His smile slightly falters, and his unbroken eye contact breaks to glance at Marinette's clock on the wall, before darting back to Mari's bluebell eyes. "But, the most important thing with all of this, I need to make sure you don't plan on telling anyone. I know Alya is your best friend, but you can't even tell her. Having my secret identity exposed to anyone risks it getting to all the wrong people, which can put me and anyone close to me in danger. I haven't even told Ladybug."
"Woah," Marinette says in mock-shock, pretending as if she wasn't suffering from the same dilemma. "I had no idea you had that much responsibility. Balancing your everyday busy schedule and your hero duties must be tough."
"Yeah, but anything to keep everyone safe, right?" Adrien chuckles, his attention wavering back to the clock. As Adrien continues to talk, Marinette is drawn out of his dreamy green eyes to a fluttering behind him. She raises herself on her tiptoes to investigate, only to find a deep purple butterfly outside the window. Panic rises in her core, and without thinking goes to grab Adrien's shoulder.
"There's an akuma!" She belts, spinning him around towards the window. Adrien, in shock, barely gets a glimpse of the insect before it flutters away. Marinette starts shoving the boy towards the window. "Quick, you have to follow and capture it before it akumatizes someone!"
"But I can't without-"
"Go!" She insists, stepping away and waving him towards the window. Adrien looks back at Marinette, then clicks his tongue and clambers out the window. Marinette sees the flash of lime light at his transformation, and assumes he's off to chase. "Tikki," Marinette spins around to where she left her kwami, who quickly brushes cookies crumbs off of her face and flies over. "Spots on!"
Thankfully Lucky Ladybug had seen it so quickly. As she takes off out the window, she spots Chat tailing the akuma only a few meters away, on the next rooftop over. Trailing close behind, Ladybug readies her yo-yo for de-evilizing.
"Chat Noir!" The feline hero is startled by the shout behind him, but his eyes dart behind him, finding his reliable partner chasing after him. Seeing her yo-yo swinging vigorously behind her, he jumps out of her way, just in time for the weapon to be launched at the insect, opening up and successfully trapping it inside. As Ladybug catches the yo-yo back in her hand, and releases the butterfly, she lets out a sigh of relief. "That was a close one. It's been a while since we caught one before it akumatized anyone."
"I wouldn't doubt the Great Ladybug to have missed it anyways." Chat replies with a smirk, his arms hanging from the pole resting across his shoulders. "That was wicked fast though, M'lady. I only just saw it moments ago."
"Makes me think," Ladybug trails off, watching the pure white butterfly flutter into the night sky. "Hawkmoth usually doesn't release more than one akuma a day. I wonder if he was looking to accomplish something specific today."
"Well, we stopped him right in his tracks, huh LB." Chat's grin only widens, stopping right in front of the spotted bug. She looks back up at him, an amused grin on her lips. He lifts his fist towards his partner, a gesture which she happily returned after their job well done.
"We'd better go," Ladybug sighs as her gaze finds the bright full moon illuminating them from above. "It's pretty late. Get home safely, Chat Noir."
"Sweet dreams, Bugaboo!" The feline hero waves to his partner as she swings off into the night. A sigh leaves him, as his gaze returns to the full moon.
Indeed, it was late. His father was going to kill him.