"Happy Birthday, Marinette!"

Marinette blew out the candles on the cake, and everyone cheered.

"I feel kinda silly doing this every year," she admitted, "It's fun, but still."

Her dad, Tom, chuckled. "Nonsense! Even my mother still does it!"

"Well, if she does it…"

Her mom, Sabina, cut the cake and gave everyone a piece (Marinette made sure the biggest one went to Adrien). When they finished, they moved on to gifts.

"This one's from Max," Marinette read the tag on the gift bag, then rifled through the stuffing paper, retrieving a new cell phone. "A new cell phone!? You shouldn't have!"

Max blushed. "You're quite welcome!"

The next gift was from Chloe, and it was rather small. Marinette tore through the wrapping paper to find a box that contained two rather beautiful earrings. "Woah! Chloe, did you actually get me these yourself?"

"I thought you could use more earrings than just those hideous black ones."

Marinette numbly said, "Of course."

The third gift was an envelope from Adrien. Marinette excitedly opened it, discovering an invitation to a fancy dinner on Thursday. "Oh, Adrien!"

Adrien smiled. "It took me a while to convince my Dad, so don't be late." He winked, and Marinette giggled.

Then there was a black gift that didn't have a name, just a tag that said 'You're one cool cat, Marinette.'

"Who's this from?" Marinette asked.

Most of the guests conversed among themselves, coming out with "It was here before we got here."

Marinette cautiously opened the wrapping paper, then opened the box and gasped. Inside was a black leather jacket with Marinette's initials stitched on the breast.

"Woah! It looks great!" She looked back at the tag, and realized from whom it must've come. She glanced at Adrien, then thanked Cat Noir in her head.

The final gift we're concerned with was a joint gift from Alya and Nino. She opened it and found...

A decorative hand mirror, with a red and black pattern on the back. And printed on the mirror itself was a mask that resembled Ladybug's.

"So you can feel as powerful as Ladybug whenever you need to!" Alya explained, then she and Nino winked.

"Why thank y—" Marinette began, then realized that they winked to her. "Er, would you excuse me for a minute? I need to talk to Alya and Nino."

"Certainly," Sabina said.

Marinette brought Alya and Nino into her room, making sure the others were well out of earshot.

Alya burst out, "We know that you're Ladybug!"

"What?!" Marinette was shocked.

"Chloe locked me in her locker right before Claw-Chella attacked, and I saw you transform!"

"Don't worry; only we know." Nino added.

Marinette started pacing about. "No, no, this isn't good! I was supposed to keep my identity a secret, but now two of my friends know!"

"Marinette, calm down!" came a voice from inside Marinette's purse. Alya and Nino looked as Tikki came out. "It's already happened, and there's nothing we can do about that?"

"Is that your kwami?" Alya asked, swamped by a cuteness overload. "Hi, I'm Alya, and this is Nino!"

"I'm Tikki. It's nice to officially meet you!"

From down the hall, Sabina called, "Marinette! It's time for the party games!"

"We'll sort this out later," Marinette said. Tikki hid, and they went back downstairs.

"...and that's basically how I came to be with Marinette," Tikki finished telling them their backstory (leaving out Master Fu, of course).

"Woah!" Alya gasped, having listened intently to the whole thing.

Nino, meanwhile, could still barely comprehend what was going on.

"Now, what about you two? I want to know more about you!"

"Well, okay… My name is Alya Césaire, I'm in 6 of 7 classes with Marinette, and have been her friend since grade school. I have three sisters, and I'm the girl who runs the LadyBlog, along with Nino."

Tikki looked at both of them. "Are you two…?"

Nino took Alya's hand in his. "Does that answer your question?"

"Well, not really."

Nino was taken aback. "Yes, we're dating," he sighed.

"Oh! Well, congrats!"

Marinette laughed. "Y'know, of all the people who could've learned my identity, I'm glad it was you two."

"I'm glad it was us, too," Nino replied. "We rarely ever hang out as it is. And besides, I can't imagine what would happen if somebody else were to find out."

"Yeah, like Chloe. What do you think would happen if she found out?" Alya conjectured.

"Disaster," Marinette answered, "that's what would happen. She'd probably blackmail me with it for the rest of our lives. Speaking of which…"

Marinette sat up, becoming more serious. "You two must promise me that, no matter what happens, you won't tell anyone that you know."

Alya and Nino did so.

"Good."

At that moment, Marinette heard her mom call from downstairs. "Sorry, guys, but I gotta bounce. We're going to the park for our picnic."

Tikki hid in Marinette's purse, and they went to the front door and parted ways.