"What are you up to?" Tikki whispered up at Marinette from the macaroon-shaped purse, bouncing at her side as she raced through the halls.

"I've got to find Alya! If anyone would have any potential leads it would be her!" Marinette replied more to herself than to her inquisitive Kwami.

"Leads on what?" Tikki insisted with concern.

"Shhh...hide Tikki, someone will see you," Marinette whispered back, and didn't slow her pace.

Marinette made it to the top of the stairs, and poked her head into the science class. Her eyes lit up as she spotted Alya pulling out her tablet, and scrolling through her phone before class. Marinette scanned the rest of the class, and luckily no one else had arrived after lunch yet.

"Hey Girl, felling better?" Alya looked up, noticing her standing in the doorway. "You're gonna feel 110% better when you find out who has been pinning away for you all morning!" she teased in a sing song voice.

"Alya, you're exactly who I needed to talk to! I've got to ask...wait...who was 'pinning away' for me?" Marinette crossed the floor to her best friend, and paused as Alya's words caught up with her.

"Who do you think?! Adrien of course!" Alya elbowed her playfully. "You should have seen him! He couldn't sit still, and kept whirling around to look for you. His face dropped when I told you you weren't feeling well. I don't know what you've been doing, but I think Buttercup has finally come around to realizing how amazing you are!"

"He was probably just concerned that I was sick or something. Adrien is always looking out for everybody like that," Marinette brushed of Alya's analysis. "I just saw him in the art room, and he seemed to just want to check that I was doing okay," she added offhandedly.

"You two were snuggled up in the art room alone together!" Alya leaned in wiggling her eyebrows at Marinette. "Did you offer to pose for him? Be his inspiration?"

"No! Of course not!" Marinette tensed, clenching her hands at her sides.

"Draw me like one of your French girls Adrien!" Alya sighed suggestively, brushing her hand across her shoulder.

"Alya!" Marinette screeched, giving Alya a well deserved whack with her sketchbook. "I've got a serious problem! I need your help!"

"Ohh! A mission! Got-ya! Another flower-garden stake-out to confess your love for Adrien over some of Andre's ice-cream?" Alya nodded ready for action.

"No, no! Enough about Adrien!" Marinette shook her head back and forth firmly, "I told you before, I've finally come to realize that he is and will always be..."

"...a 'friend'...fine, fine, I'll give it a rest," Alya rolled her eyes (Marinette was so in denial about her feelings toward Adrien). "So what is the problem?" Then Alya leaned in close, "did you need a certain vixen for backup?"

"Actually this time I need your reporter's skills," Marinette said in a hushed tone. "Specifically, what you've picked up during your time writing for the Ladyblog on Chat Noir."

"I thought Chat Noir turned up again?" Alya raised an eyebrow at Marinette.

"He did," Marinette's voice pinched tight.

"So the cat came back?" Alya inquired, again letting her eyes sparkle mischievously at Marinette.

"Um hmm," Marinette confirmed, through tight lips.

"You said the other day that after your cat went missing, that you thought you might be in love with him. So what happened, did you guys kiss and make up or what?" Alya teased, but then her mouth dropped when she caught Marinette's instant reaction.

Marinette's face went beet-red, and she couldn't even look Alya in the eye.

"NO! No freakn' way! You...you kissed him!" Alya's voice whisper-shouted, and she ducked her head next to Marinette. "Sooo...how was it?"

If Marinette's face could've gotten redder it would have. She glanced up at Alya's face and she couldn't push down the smile that made it's way to her lips.

Alya flopped back in her chair, eyeing Marinette with a knowing smile, "That good huh?!"

"It was incredible okay!" Marinette screeched, trying to keep her voice down, and pulling a chair up close to Alya's, and whispering, "that's the problem!"

"Making out with a super-fine super hero who has been worshiping the ground you walk on for ages is not a problem hun," Alya counseled, putting an arm around her friend. "Unless you don't want things to happen between you two?"

"No, I do! I really do!" Marinette assured her friend.

"So...the problem is?" Alya let the question hang in the air.

"The same problem that has always made it necessary to keep him at a distance...Shadowmoth," Marinette's voice croaked sadly.

Alya watched her friend's expression, and it broke her heart. She really did love Chat Noir after all, and Marinette deserved a love like that. Alya was one of the very few who truly understood how much of a burden Marinette had on her shoulders, and how it had weighed on her. "How can I help?" Alya pulled Marinette in close, and met her eyes determinedly.

"I need to find out who Chat Noir is," Marinette replied in a barely audible tone.

Her answer caught Alya by surprise, and she stared back for a moment without saying a word. "Even with all the risks?" Alya asked her friend with concern. "Maybe you should think about this. Are you sure you're not just feeling emotional?"

"I have never been more sure in my life," Marinette said decidedly. "Alya, he is passing the ring to someone else. I can't just sit back and have him walk out of my life, just when I've realize how much he means to me! I can't!"

"Maybe you should talk to Chat Noir..." Alya suggested.

"If I can find out who he is as a civilian, without there being any connection to the miraculous maybe we could be together. I don't know if I'll ever see him again. I just want...I just need to know," Marinette grabbed Alya's hands in her's.

"I...I...really wish I could help you," Alya squeezed Marinette's hands in hers softly. "But even at the height of my investigation into who Ladybug and Chat Noir were beneath the mask, I never found out. I never even guessed how close one of the heroes of Paris was to me every step of the way," Alya nudged Marinette, remembering the day that Marinette confided in her about her super hero persona. "On the one hand that is a good sign right? I mean I'm a pretty awesome investigator, and I never found out on my own, so you and Chat Noir have done a pretty great job about keeping your identities on the down low from Shadowmoth too!"

"Yeah, great," Marinette sighed glumly, sitting back in her chair.

"When Ladybug brought me on to the team as Rena Rouge, I laid off on digging up clues," Alya continued. "I know it is so hard not to know, but maybe it's best to keep this secret for now."

Marinette's face dropped, and her shoulder's followed. She knew that Alya was right. Chat Noir had been willing to even give up his miraculous to protect her. It just wasn't right! She had been the one to reveal herself to Chat Noir, and put him in this position. She had been the one rejecting him all this time they could have been together. Adrien's words about being willing to fight for the one you love sparked in her mind again. No, if it took the rest of her life, she would find him!

Marinette's lips set in a straight line, and her brow furrowed.

"You're not giving up are you," Alya observed with a sigh.

"I can't," Marinette replied.

"Well, I can at least send you some of the photos I've collected from the Ladyblog," Alya said scrolling through her phone.

"Thank you Alya!" Marinette threw her arms around her friend's shoulders. "I knew I could count on you!"

"You can always count on me, but this time I seriously wonder if I'm getting you into more trouble this way," she shook her head and clicked on a few photos in her folders. "Just promise me you'll be careful, and that you won't jump to conclusions. I don't think I will ever live down assuming Chloe was Ladybug!"

"That was pretty ridiculous," Marinette narrowed her eyes at Alya with a grin.

"Yeah, utterly ridiculous!" Alya added with a giggle, and they both laughed together.

"Here is a couple pictures of Chat Noir as Mr. Bug," Alya held up the phone for Marinette to see.

"Yeah, he looked pretty great with my Miraculous," Marinette looked over the photo, "but I don't see how this is going to help find out who he is. He's just in a different costume...just one more mask."

"Okay, but look at each of these pictures of Chat Noir using different miraculous'," Alya pointed out. "In each one his hair stays mainly blonde, he tends to have greenish eyes, and his height stays the same."

"But the miraculous can change a weilder's hair colour, or eye colour, or any other physical feature. I can't just scour all of Paris for all blonde, green-eyed hotties, and expect for him to..."Marinette closed her eyes and shook her head, only to freeze when she heard someone clear his throat just over her shoulder.

"You know you don't have to look too far, if that's your type," the voice over her shoulder said in an amused voice.

Marinette's eyes snapped open, and her throat went as dry as sawdust. There was Adrien Ageste looking over her shoulder at the photos of Chat Noir Alya had pulled up from the Ladyblog.

"I was just getting Marinette's opinion on one of the articles I'm doing for the Ladyblog," Alya quickly intervened.

Marinette was still speechless in her mortification, but nodded her head briskly to confirm Alya's cover story.

Adrien's eyes shifted over to Marinette, and then put on an easy going smile to put her at ease. He didn't buy the story for a second, but he expertly blinked innocently, and stood back to appear undaunted by the fact that he had just caught the woman of his dreams scrolling through photos of him...well...at least his alter ego that was still a problem. If only it has been photos from his last photo shoot or something. Plagg had been right; He was inadvertently in competition with himself!

"Hey Hun, I thought you were done this week's update!" Nino came up beside Alya, looking down at her screen.

Great! Marinette groaned to herself. Now they had a growing audience!

"Hey! That is a great shot!" Nino pointed out to one with Chat Noir catching Ladybug in mid-air. "Some of the poses he does reminds me of those models and actors you work with all the time Adrien," Nino mentioned, adjusting his hat.

"Heh heh, you think so?" Adrien gave a breathy laugh, "All the heroes do those moves though, right?! They're just busy saving Paris and stuff!"

Marinette looked more closely at the photos on the screen. Chat Noir really did have a way of showing off his best features to the camera...and he did have a lot of really great features...she mentally slapped herself to stay focused. Maybe Nino had something there.

"You're not going to have to miss our movie tonight are you?" Nino asked Alya. "This is the last night that Jagged's movie is playing, and you've been busy all week!"

"Actually, Marinette was going to help me on this article, so I can leave these pics with her," Alya gave a slight nod to Marinette to secretly make plans to connect later.

"I could help you!" Adrien piped up.

"Ahh, that's really nice of you, but..." Marinette looked back and forth between Alya and Adrien.

"Oh yeah, Adrien would be a great help!" Nino jumped in, misinterpreting the signals Alya was sending. (He and Alya had tried multiple tactics for months to get their two best friends together because come on! They were made for each other! He figured this had been Alya's plan to get them alone together all along!) "Seriously, Adrien knows almost as much as Alya about the heroes...especially Ladybug! When it comes to Ladybug he..." At this point unspoken alarm passed between Adrien and Nino's eyes, and Nino, swiftly added "He also knows tons about Chat Noir too!"

"You do? You know a lot about Chat Noir?" Marinette asked, looking up at him.

"Well, I..." Adrien shifted on his feet.

"Don't be modest!" Nino punched his bud in the arm cheerfully. "Adrien is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to details about the dynamic heroes of Paris, and I'm not just saying that so that I can steal away the official dictionary of heroes, Miss Ladyblogger away on a hot date tonight!" He turned his attention to Alya, and snuck a kiss against her neck, making her giggle and bat him away.

"If you don't mind," Marinette tapped her notebook, glancing up at Adrien, "I'd be interested in what you know about him...I mean them...the um...heroes that is."

"I don't mind at all. I'd love to," Adrien rubbed the back of his neck distractedly. "I could, uh, meet you after school if you like?"

"Yeah, um, thanks, that would be great," Marinette nodded, but kept her eyes down on the pictures that still looked up at her from Alya's phone.

"It's a date!" Nino slapped Adrien on the back, with a wide grin.

"But, I uh..." Marinette stammered, with a panicked look in her eye.

More students started to pile into the class, and assemble in their seats. Alya slipped her phone away, and Adrien gave Marinette a shy smile as he walked backwards to his own seat (nearly tripping over her backpack). Nino put his arm around Adrien's shoulder, saying something under his breath to his best bud that made Adrien look back towards Marinette and blush.

Marinette busied herself pulling out her tablet, and one of her textbooks. She buried her nose in her textbook, so that she wouldn't see Adrien looking over at her.

"I think that cool cat of yours might have competition," Alya whispered, looking over Marinette's head toward the two boys on the other side of the chemistry lab.

"My Kitty is in a league all his own," Marinette hissed back defensively.

"Hmm...'your Kitty' now?" Alya smiled. "You sure fall fast girl!"

"If I had fallen for him right from the start I wouldn't be in this mess!" Marinette groaned, not looking up from the pages of the textbook. She wondered where Chat Noir was right at this very moment, and she wondered if just maybe he was thinking of her too.

ooooooo

Thank you for reading the latest chapter of my story:) I hope that you are enjoying it! Thank you to those who have left such encouraging reviews, and have liked/followed this story. All the very best!