Silence. He couldn't move. He couldn't talk. He couldn't breathe. Time seemed to stop as he replayed the words over and over in his head to try to make out the meaning. "What‽" Was all he could utter in pure disbelief. "You'r.. You're in love with.. with..me?"

"I'm in love with you." She repeated muffled in her hands.

There was a long silence. She was sobbing softly and he was frozen in shock. "You..You mean that?"

"Why would I say it if I didn't?" She wiped her tears and looked to him. "After you started avoiding me, I realized how much I used to miss you, your jokes, your talks, just your presence and ever since then the feelings just kept growing." She lowered her gaze, "I don't know exactly when but I fell in love with you."

"Sorry for dumping this so suddenly on you, I know I'm too late and you don't love me anymore so I'm sorry for getting upset. You deserve better. Better than me." She hugged herself for comfort, keeping her gaze everywhere but on him, his reaction would only hurt her more.

He didn't know what to think so he just spoke. "I never stopped loving you." She looked at him in confusion before nodding in negation, "You don't need to pretend, it's okay."

"I started avoiding you cuz I had a girlfriend." He continued despite her reply, "She loved me and I knew if I tried, maybe I could love her back and get over you. But it didn't work. Then I started falling for someone else and-"

"There's a third girl?" She snapped taking him by surprise. "Sorry continue." She muttered.

"I fell in love with her and I thought that I maybe somehow got over you but anytime we got close, I'd still feel it, I'd feel my heart beat and I was confused. I'm in love with the both of you."

"You can't love two people equally. People say if you fall in love a second time then the first time wasn't real." She still looked away.

"You're right, I do love her more. And it wouldn't be fair if I led you on, I'm sorry I kissed you. And it wasn't a mistake, you know, it felt amazing. You just remind me so much of her. I thought you were her." He looked away too. If it were under previous circumstances, he knew he would have gone to hell and back to hear her say she loved him.

But all he could think about was Marinette. Even when he knew he didn't have a chance with her, he wanted to do anything to get her. "I'm sorry." He repeated. It wouldn't be fair if he weren't sincere to Ladybug so he explained it all to her.

There was a long silence when he finished and he finally looked at her gauging her reaction. But he couldn't read her expression, it almost seemed blank.

"You know..." She started and suddenly paused to think then continued. "I was in love with Adrien, yeah, I guess I still am but then I fell in love with you. It was stupid to think you'd still have feelings for me."

"You're in love with Adrien?" He was appalled, almost losing his footing, "As in Adrien Agreste?"

"Yeah.." She slowly moved to the edge of the roof and rested on the railing to view the quiet city. "It's funny, you chose her over me but I chose you over him. I thought I would only ever love Adrien this way, but when I fell for you, I fell so deep and hard."

And now he really couldn't breathe, his legs rooted to the ground in disbelief. Ladybug loved him. And not just that, she fell in love with him twice. She loved both sides of him. His head spun. Ladybug loved him. Completely.

"I fell so much in love with you." He was sincere with her, she might as well return the favor. "He even tried to kiss me earlier at the party." She chuckled dryly. "And I rejected him. For you. If someone told me I'd do that months ago, I'd say the person was delusional."

"What¿?" He muttered and shook his head in confusion. What was she talking about? He was Adrien and the only person he wanted to kiss was...

"Marinette?"

"Don't call me that." She murmured still not turning to him and definitely still not realizing he had just found out who she was.

If there was a way he could scream into the night right then and there he would but he could barely form words. Marinette was Ladybug and Ladybug was in love with him and he was in love with her. And they had been running around each other in circles, hurting each other for almost a year.

Tears brimmed in his eyes. Tears of extreme happiness, he'd been in love with the same person the whole time. And she loved him. And things had never been more perfect.

She was still in thought, resting on the railing looking at the city, "It hurts so much when the two boys you love make a move on you and call it a mistake. Yours hurt the most tho." Crying that much had left her exhausted and she felt a wave of drowsiness as she leaned more and let out a yawn.

"It must be really late. Could you help me pack these up?" She turned to see him nod and proceeded to fold up the blankets and pack all these.

He couldn't keep his eyes off her and he wanted to talk but he just couldn't. He could only stare at her, watching her every moment. He wanted to tell her who he was, but speaking was becoming a problem.

As he helped her pack, he saw the yellow and red rose and he recognized it immediately. That is if he wasn't mistaking. "You still have them."

She looked at him to see the roses and she nodded, "I'm in love with you, what do you expect?" She said casually, maybe it was the exhaustion but she didn't feel like crying anymore, she'd probably continue tomorrow, at least it was a Saturday.

He blushed at her words. He couldn't get used to it. Marinette..er.. Ladybug loved him. Too perfect.

She hung the pink bag and he could see the detailed M on it. How could he have missed that? "Okay, kitty, I'll get going. I hope we're cool. Goodnight tho." She yawned again.

"You look tired, let me take you home." He offered and she looked at him like he'd grown a second head before nodding in negation, "You know I'm no mood for jokes."

He surprised her again as he hooked his arms under her knee and lifted her up bridal style. She held his neck and looked at him horrified that he was serious. "No way, you're using those beautiful legs especially not when you're tired." And still she could only look at him in confusion and internal panic.

"Do you trust me?"

And after spending the next minute staring into his eyes, she slowly nodded. "Completely." And she held on to him, burying her face into his neck as he launched them into the night.

She didn't want to open her eyes when he landed and dropped her on the floor. Because she was scared they'd be in her balcony. Accepting the inevitable, she finally did.

"Bu..B..But how did you.." She looked back at him and he had a huge smile on his face. He took slow calculated steps till he was right in front of her.

He placed his hand on the curve of her waist pulling her flush against his chest and she gasped as her cheeks tinged pink. He placed the other hand on the base of her neck and tipped her head back as he captured her lips in his.

She closed her eyes and tilted her head back as he kissed her with an intensity she couldn't comprehend. She was too stunned to even kiss back. She felt a click, like something beautiful had just been created for the first time in the universe and she felt something new.

He put everything into the kiss. He wanted to let her know how much he loved her and he was going to make sure she got the message.

She was out of breath when he pulled away and her chest rose up and down unevenly. He smiled at her flustered reaction.

"I..uh..W.. Wh.." She couldn't form coherent words as she tried to catch her breath. He pecked her lips, "What was that for?Not that I'm complaining." She breathed.

"I love you."

"You love her mo-"

"I just needed you to know how much." He continued and she could only stare at him. "Did you feel it?" She nodded timidly and he smiled.

"I love you, Marinette." He brushed her hair out of her face and lifted her chin, "And that was why I wanted to kiss you earlier at the party. And Kagami also kinda dumped me so I wanted to know if you'll like to date this dumb cat."

She covered her mouth in surprise as tears spilled down her cheeks. She nodded in negation continuously. It couldn't be. She wasn't that lucky. She wasn't...She simply wasn't.

"Please tell me those are tears of jo-" He was interrupted as she threw herself on him. He laughed and held her waist tightly as she wrapped her legs around his torso.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" She tightened her hold on his neck, burying her face in the crook. "Oh God, Adrien, I love you! Yes!" She cried even harder. It was him. It was him all along and he was in love with her. Completely. And she loved him too.

She withdrew and rested her forehead on his. "I love you."

"I love you too." And then they shared a passionate kiss, the kind that made her whole body tremble.

"H..How d-do you do that?" She asked out of breath. He laughed, "Do what?"

"You just kiss me and I forget how to breathe." Her breaths were uneven and unsteady, "I guess I love you a lot?"

"I guess I love you a lot too." She closed her eyes and let the moment sink in. It was too perfect. It had to be a dream.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked when she stayed silent for too long. "I'm just waiting to wake up from this dream like every other night." She quoted his words from earlier and he smiled at her.

"You're not dreaming." He slowly dropped her to the ground.

"Try pinchin.." The rest of her words muffled out as he kissed her again. Again she was too stunned to react. He pulled away leaving her speechless and breathless.

"See...not a dream."

She nodded mindlessly and almost fell over as her knees trembled. He held her up, "Are you alright?"

*Yeah...it's too perfect. I can't feel my legs." He laughed and helped her balance, his hands at both sides of her. "You mean your beautiful legs?"

"Yeah...my beautiful...legs." She repeated trying to breathe normally. "I think I broke you. You should rest." He carried her up again. "Don't you want to de-transform?"

She nodded and whispered her de-transformation words. And his smile grew even larger as it was Marinette in his hold now. "You're amazing." He gushed out and pecked her forehead.

"I'm pretty jealous. You seem to love Marinette more." She pouted and he laughed. "Don't be silly. I love all of you. Every bit of you."

"You sure?"

"I love you. To bits and pieces."

"What if I gain a little more weight? Would you love that bit of me too." He laughed and she traced her finger on his jawline. "It'll be even more of you to love." He winked and she blushed.

"De-transform. I want to be sure I'm not dreaming."

He nodded and de-transformed. She blushed even harder that the Adrien Agreste was carrying her on her balcony. "You're like a prince coming to save me from my tower. It's even more unbelievable."

He chuckled, "Come on, let me get you in."

"Aww, so cute." Tikki gushed and Plagg groaned, "Ugh... Too cheesy. Even for me." They all laughed and eventually went in through the trapdoor.

After spending the whole time talking, they were cuddled up on her bed under her blanket. "It's 3AM, Adrien." Marinette muttered dazed once again after his magical kisses. "I'll only stop kissing you when you fall asleep."

She leaned further into his chest and listened to the rhythmic beating of his heart, "You think it was the right time to know our identities. I mean, it all happened so sudden."

"We'll talk about this tomorrow. Let's just cuddle, Kay?" He pecked her forehead and she nodded.

"You sure you want to us to stay together on the bed. We just started dating." She raised another topic breaking the small silence. "Unless you're gonna do anything, I won't." He assured her.

"Hmm...I wouldn't say the same. You know you're too hot and irresistible for your own good." And he nearly fell off the bed in shock, his cheeks flushed, he was flustered and she laughed.

"That's revenge." She laughed as she saw how affected he was.

"Very funny. Wait and see, tomorrow, I'm going to carry you around Paris yelling that you're my girlfriend."

"Great! Paris should know that you're mine. We can start 10am tomorrow." She smirked back at him and he held her even closer to him. "Let's see how far you can hold up."

"We'll see, hot stuff." And he flushed red again. Oh boy was she ready to make him faint.