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Part 2

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"You're coming trick or treating with me." She saw Adrien trying to object, so she put her hands in front of herself. "I-if you want to, of course. If you just want to—" She glanced at the screen of his game. "T-to stay here and play your game, we can do that too." She nervously sat down next to him, but then stood up again as if the couch was on fire.

Adrien's gaze sparkled for a brief moment, but then dropped again. "My father would never allow…" But he couldn't continue because Marinette interrupted him, her hands clenching into fists as she stood in front of him and glared at him.

"He will."

Adrien flashed his brows, his eyes growing huge as he looked at Marinette in what appeared to be utter disbelief. "Huh?"

Marinette's glare hardened. "Let's grab your costume. We'll get out, go to my house, dress up and go trick or treating. Then," she said as she marched towards the wardrobe where she had seen him put the clothes he had in his shopping bags earlier near the couch. "Then you will come back to my house and have dinner with my family and spend the evening with me, eating sweets and listening to spooky stories that my dad tells." She noticed how wide-eyed and shocked he was and gave him a funny look. "Don't worry, papa's stories are worse than Chat Noir's puns. They're not scary at all."

"A-are they?" A nervous little grin popped on Adrien's lips at the mention of Chat Noir's name—was he cringing or had she just imagined it? That took her aback for a moment, but she bounced back very quickly.

"Uh-huh," she agreed as she opened the wardrobe and immediately found the bags she was looking for. After all, Adrien had just dumped them in there a few minutes before. She picked them up and marched to his bed. Which, by the way, he had just made, very quickly, so quickly that it didn't look made at all.

But never mind. Marinette, stop thinking about Adrien's UNMADE bed, for God's sake. Think of Chat Noir's.

Okay, scratch that too. Think of Chat Noir. Yes, like that. No s's needed.

DEFINITELY, no s's needed.

Trying to prevent a massive blush from flushing her face, she put the bags on top of the bed and looked inside to take out the costume.

And blinked when she saw the content of the bags. She blinked again.

"A…black werecat?"

She may be wrong, but the cringing smile was back on his lips. He looked around and put a hand to his nape. "Eh, uh, I only bought it as a joke. I-I didn't really mean going out in it." He lowered his gaze. "Thank you for trying, Marinette, but the most I can do is dress up here in my room and pretend. I'm fine, really. I promise I'm not upset about Halloween. It's just…I just realised that my dreams will never come true and, well, it hurts." He put his hands in front of his face. "Th-that's all!"

Do you call *that* 'all'? It's not 'all' at all! Marinette's frown hardened. How could he be so dismissive about his dreams? What dream was never coming true, by the way?

"Don't be silly, Adrien. Your dreams will come true; I promise you that they will," she whispered, not knowing where this positivity was coming from, considering that she didn't even know what dreams he was talking about; but those were just details, she decided. She took a big sigh and said louder, "Well, I suppose the costume will do. You can be a black werecat. I think I have some fangs laying in my room somewhere, from a previous Halloween." Then she glanced at him and put her hands up. "Uh, I m-mean, they are washed. Sterilised. My maman would never allow—"

But he grabbed her hands and gave her one of those looks that melted her insides. Marinette's knees felt weak. "Don't worry Marinette, I don't mind."

ARGH. Why did he have to be so sweet? Marinette's heart went into overdrive and she did the first thing that came to her, which was to reach out for his pillow, grab it, hug it, and clench it. To then try to fit it into the bag.

"Haha, s-sorry, I j-just thought you may want a…pillow. Yes, b-because if you stay—" But as she rambled and vomited words to cover her faux pas, her gaze fell on the mattress of his bed, right where she had just grabbed the pillow from.

Her heart stopped.

There on the mattress was what looked like a little black plushie made with a sock, with cat ears and green button eyes. A perfect resemblance to…

"Oh my God," Marinette whispered as she forgot how to breathe and all blood drained from her face. From the corner of her eye, she saw Adrien's gaze following hers, noticing the black sock plushie, gasp, and jerk forward to grab it, but she was faster. She lunged and grabbed the little toy before Adrien could make it disappear. Then she held it strongly and looked at it for a very long time.

A very, very long time.

Even if she tried looking at it differently, she couldn't deny the resemblance. It was even the same size—uncanny. She gulped dryly.

The smell of rotten cheese when she entered his room.

The werecat costume.

Suddenly, the treacherous light of the sunset shone right on Adrien's hand, which was reaching out to her, making his silver ring sparkle.

A silver ring. Marinette's eyes widened even further. On his right hand. At his right ring finger. A silver ring that was the exact shape of…

Yes. The dream that would never come true; the same that was haunting her nights since they had both fallen victim to Darker Owl—oh my God!

Her mind ran back to a lot of things that Adrien had told her over these last months. The girl who didn't like his jokes. The girl he loved. That time he told her that he'd gotten himself a girlfriend (and then discarded it saying he was joking—he wasn't joking…). That time they fought Desperada and Chat Noir didn't show until she gave the Miraculous to Luka. That time they fought Moolak and Chat Noir didn't show…wasn't there a conference Adrien had to participate in right at that time? That time Plagg had been spotted at Collège Françoise Dupont. That time they had swapped Miraculous because…because both of them weren't wearing it. That time Adrien had been turned into a gold statue and, conveniently, Chat Noir had lost his ring? Pffft, yeah right, she should never have believed an excuse that lame…And…

Oh.

Oooooooh…

Shit. That's why Félix tricked her!

And now…she had tried to move on from Adrien by…falling in love with Adrien all over again. She couldn't help it, she pressed the sock toy to her chest and closed her eyes, a little content grin popping on her lips.

"Mon Minou…" she whispered and as soon as she did, Adrien stiffened next to her.

"What did you say?" he inquired, which brought Marinette back to reality.

She gasped, flinched, and brought the sock toy closer to her heart. Then she looked at him again, tears in her eyes. She couldn't allow her sweet kitty to suffer and get depressed all alone because of what they had dreamed together.

Oh Gosh, her sweet kitty was…Adrien! That meant that she had rejected Adrien for Adrien? All that time? She had fought and denied her feelings for Adrien because she was in love with Adrien. HORROR! SHE HAD DUMPED ADRIEN AGRESTE IN A TRASH CAN! She fisted her hands and brought them to the sides of her head. She had thrown him around and grabbed him with her yoyo and crashed him against buildings and… ARGH! She had KISSED Adrien, and not only when she thought he was a statue!

Of course, the kiss against Dark Cupid would work. Now it made perfect sense. Oblivio made even more perfect sense! And Chat Blanc… oh God, that's how he knew! And how did she break his heart? Why? Would their love really destroy the world?

She was so focused in her moment of panic that she had completely lost all awareness of her surroundings. At least, she did until she saw a hand passing in front of her eyes and she blinked, then blinked again, and her gaze met the very nervous and embarrassed gaze of Adrien.

"Sorry Marinette, can I have that back?" he said, presenting an open hand so that she could give him the black sock-doll back. "It's just…when I was little I always wanted a cat and—"

"Save the lies for someone else," she interrupted him.

He deflated and dropped his shoulders, a pout curling down his lips. "B-but…"

Change the subject, thought Marinette. Her heart was racing madly in her chest, and her brain was running a thousand miles per hour. No, this wasn't the way she wanted him to find out that she was Ladybug. It wasn't the day. Today it was about him, about helping him get out of a possible, very possible state of depression. And for her to get used to the idea that her kitty was her crush—hang on. She had already come to terms with the idea of having a crush on her partner, but the fact that her long-term crush happened to be her current crush and… OMG, she had practised her love declaration for Adrien with Adrien! How crazy was that!

Okay, she took a big breath. The time for the truth would come later. The time for freaking out would come later. Now she had to focus on him. He had always been there for her, even in her darkest moments. Even when she didn't know it was her partner trying to get her out of a panic attack. It was definitely crazy how much he had been her rock. All the time!

Now it was her turn.

With a decisive gesture, she returned the sock toy to his hand. "Yep. Now…do you need anything for the evening, because you know, you may stay longer than I initially thought you would." Much, much longer if she could do something about it.

Why not forever?

Her bed was big enough for two, after all.

Okay, Marinette, scratch that.

There was the guestroom.

SCRATCH THAT, MARINETTE! AGAIN. She shook her head to clear her thoughts that were undoubtedly taking a path they shouldn't take. Not at all.

"Yes!" she suddenly shouted, rummaging inside the bag with Adrien's costume. "You're the Black Cat." She sucked her breath in. "I m-mean…the black werecat. Yes." Her hand grabbed a sort of collar with a long chain ending up with a bracelet, filling her mind with images of Adrien wearing the said collar. And the bracelet on her— "Aaaah! Oh my God… I'm going as a NUN!"

Adrien blinked. "A nun?"

"Yes!" She put the collar down. "A nun. Religious. Evil. And DEFINITELY not in love with you. No, not like me…"

Adrien gasped so loudly that Marinette saw all her life passing in front of her very eyes in literal seconds. She replayed in her head what she had just said and…she suddenly was very aware of how red her face had just become.

"You're…in love with me?"

Marinette didn't look at him so she failed to realise how his current smile would be putting the summer sun to shame. Instead, she screamed and grabbed his hands. And then screamed again and dropped his hands and started gesticulating, and then tripped on her feet and nearly fell on his bed; so she stood up again as if the bed was made of lava and lowered her gaze, hiding her face behind her fingers. "N-no, I m-meant… NOT in love with you."

Adrien cupped his hands on top of hers and moved her fingers to reveal her face. He lifted her chin, forcing eye contact, his dazzling smile nearly blinding Marinette. Her knees felt like jelly. "No, no, no, Marinette. You said, 'NOT like me.'" And then, he gave her a cheeky grin. Such a Chat Noir-esque grin that Marinette for a second was able to place the black mask on his face and the black ears on his hair.

HOW ON EARTH HADN'T SHE SEEN THIS BEFORE?

She was going to die there and then. He was going to be the death of her. He and his cheeky, happy, super dazzling grin.

Wasn't he supposed to be depressed?

"Evil. That's what I meant. The nun is evil. Not like me!" She cringed at his disbelieving frown and slouched her shoulders. "It was worth a shot," she muttered between her teeth, but then she made the mistake of looking him in the eye.

And she got lost. She got lost in an immensity of sparkling green looking back at her with such intensity that a whole kaleidoscope of butterflies flew into Marinette's belly. Her knees feeling wobblier than they had ever been, she literally gawked, suddenly getting very aware of the drool that she felt coming out of the corner of her mouth. She wiped it, chuckled nervously, and cringe-smiled, forcing herself to tear her gaze from his.

"S-so… have you got everything?" No, she thought to herself. He hadn't even looked into his bag, which currently contained only his Halloween costume and his pillow by the way, but that was just a detail. "A-after all my mother and father have everything you could need. Even spare toothbrushes. Yes, you need nothing else. Just your handsome self. Uh, I m-mean…"

She jolted forwards and started marching stiffly towards the door. Leaving a stunned and immensely happy Adrien behind, fighting with himself to come down from his little spot in the sky between clouds 9 and 10. Until Marinette's face popped back from the small ante-room and frowned at him.

"Are you coming, Adrien?" she said.

This helped him reach the ground much quicker than anticipated. "Yes! Coming!" He gasped and followed her.

§§§

Marinette was still walking as stiff as a robot next to Adrien as they reached the boulangerie. She had insisted on not taking the sedan, even if Nathalie had offered and Gorilla had pouted quite dramatically when he had been told that his services weren't required.

"Walking is good for the mood," Marinette had said, and to that, Nathalie couldn't object anything. "Besides," she continued in a lower tone, "Adrien owes me a walk back to my house. It should've been in the rain—" She sighed as she looked at the very clear sky tinged with the orange and indigo shades of the late sunset. "But even a dry walk will do." So she had grabbed his arm and had dragged him out of the mansion on a whim, but then had stiffened as she had to walk like that, mechanically and nearly holding her breath from the tension, for the entire distance. Because… Adrien Agreste hadn't moved away. Adrien Agreste seemed to have very much appreciated the contact with her hand and had intertwined his fingers with hers and squeezed her hand with his, trying to keep as much contact as he could. And he kept looking at her. She was sure that at some point he had nearly walked into a lamppost because his gaze was constantly fixed on her, each time she looked.

Finally, however, they had reached the boulangerie, and Marinette had the excuse for taking her hand off his grip because she had to open the door of the shop and needed both hands to do so. When they walked in Marinette gasped as she noticed Alya talking to her mother, her two little sisters dressed like witches were arguing about which treat they wanted to take from her father's hand.

"Talking about Marinette, here she is," Sabine said, smiling warmly at her as she came through the door, but her smile widened and became even warmer when she saw Adrien's head popping through. "And Adrien! So nice to see you after such a long time." She hastily moved from beside Alya and marched straight to the door, wrapping Adrien into a tight hug.

"It's nice to see you too, Mme Cheng," Adrien answered, and smiled back with similar warmth.

Marinette noticed the gleam of amusement that shone in her mother's eyes as she looked at her, and saw the little wink her father had shot her as soon as he had seen Adrien. Also, she noted how Alya's arms were folded over her chest, her best friend cocking an eyebrow at her as she smiled knowingly. So Marinette sighed, walked straight to Alya, grabbed her arm, and dragged her to the back of the boulangerie, her pace increasing as soon as she was out of the way, trying to put as much space as possible between them and Adrien.

"Woah, Woah, girl! What's wrong?"

Marinette glared at Alya, but immediately her glare turned into a frown, and then into the look of a kicked puppy. She grabbed Alya by the collar and pushed her against the wall, looking her straight in the eye.

To then lower her gaze and cringe.

To then grab her collar again and glare at her.

"Marinette?" Alya asked again. "As much as your wall feels nice behind my back, I have two little sisters to take trick or treating tonight." Then she gave her a cunning little look. "And I believe you have one Adrien Agreste to cheer up…"

Marinette cringed some more. "You don't understand, Alya," she finally managed to say. She grabbed her by the collar more strongly and leaned on the wall through Alya's shoulders, looking again straight into her eyes. "I'M IN LOVE WITH ADRIEN!"

Alya widened her own eyes, then she sighed, detached Marinette's hands from her collar and her body from the wall, and started to pat her arms and body free from some invisible dust. "Yes? Tell me something I don't know, girl, you've been in love with him for just over a year now." Then she glared at her. "Besides, hadn't you told me only yesterday that you were over Adrien and had fallen in love with Chat Noir?" Alya pointed a finger at her best friend and started moving forwards towards her, Marinette holding her breath and cringing again and walking backwards until she felt her back hitting the wall behind her.

"Uh…" was all she managed to say, Alya, sighing again at yet another cringe smile coming from her best friend.

"Don't do this to me, Marinette. My poor Ladynoir heart wouldn't be able to take it. You're going to give me a heart attack. What do you do, you change sides like a flag in the wind?"

Marinette flopped over herself, her gaze falling to the ground as a pout stretched her lips downwards. Then her frown grew determined again and she grabbed again Alya's collar, starting to shake her. "No, you don't understand Alya! HE loves ME too? This is a DISASTER!"

Alya's gaze hardened as she sighed a deep, exasperated sigh. "Gosh, tell me again something I didn't know!"

"What?" Marinette jerked backwards. "You knew?"

Alya growled. "For Goodness' sake, girl, the boy has been trying to tell you for days. You've been avoiding him like the plague for this very reason!" She leaned forward, grabbed Marinette by the collar this time, and glared at her. "And don't tell me you haven't, don't lie to your best friend, Marinette! You've been avoiding him and trying to be anywhere but near him as if you were terrified that he was going to confess to you. Everyone could see that. I'm starting to get fed up! You must choose between the two blonds, girl! I know they're both gorgeous and they both love you, and it's the most difficult decision in the world. You're the luckiest and most envied girl in the whole of Paris, but you owe it to them too. You owe it to me. You can't come to me one day and tell me you have feelings for Chat Noir and then come back to me just mere 24 hours later and tell me you're in love with Adrien again. DECIDE YOURSELF! You need to draw a line somewhere, to not hurt both. And with this, I'm going. I've got two sisters to bring around trick or treating, as I said. Alya out!" That said, Alya dug her index finger deep into Marinette's chest, let out another loud growl and marched out of the door, grabbed her two sisters, and left.

To be Continued…

Author's Note:

Hello! Here we are for chapter 2. I hope you had a lovely Halloween yesterday and earned a lot of sweets while trick or treating. Hope you liked this chapter! Tomorrow I'll post the end of the story. Thank you so much for all the feedback on chapter one. Please keep letting me know what you thought of chapter 2 ^-^

This chapter has the idea that originally inspired this story after watching Kuro Neko, but of course, when I watched that episode the reveal was a little different in my head (e.g. that Marinette found the black sock cat in the trash while trying to help Adrien out of his depressed state. That was what had triggered this—the black sock cat in the trash. I thought "what if Marinette had gotten in his room and seen that?" and the idea popped out). Of course, since it wasn't anymore a Kuro Neko fix it, I had to change that part a little but…I still wanted the black sock cat to reveal, so there you go, hope you liked it ^^

As usual, if you read this and you're not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join my favourite Discord servers, Miraculous Fanworks (for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks) and Miraculous Discordance (discord dot gg slash QwgKdUhJNJ). I will wait for you on one of these servers. I promise I don't bite, don't be shy and join us!