Adrien sat on his bed, staring between the notebook he'd taken from his girlfriend and the necklace he had gotten for her. He hadn't looked at the inside of the notebook yet, he was kind of terrified of what information she'd noticed about the villain. He opened the notebook to the first page and it was filled with information and hypotheses.

He thumbed through the book and was shocked by the fact that there were dozens of pages that were filled to the brim with notes and information. He winced at the pages in the notebook and took a deep breath. "I need to call Ladybug," Adrien sighed. When Plagg was done with his cheese, Adrien transformed.

He dialed Ladybug's yo-yo on his baton and was sent to her voicemail. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Hey, Ladybug," he began, "something came up recently and I need to talk to you about it. Nothing for you to be concerned about, so don't worry, but… we really need to talk as soon as you're around… give me a call back when you can… Okay… bye."

He was pacing around his room for a while as he waited to hear back from Ladybug. He was still transformed, certain that he wouldn't be caught by his father, Nathalie, or le Gorille. He tapped his clawed gloves across his leg as he wandered around and he felt his heart pounding in his chest.

It felt like it had been hours since he had reached out to Ladybug when his baton finally rang. "Hey," he greeted immediately. "How soon would you be able to meet. We need to talk about something pretty serious and it shouldn't be a phone call." She knew that. She knew he wouldn't want to talk about the situation over the phone.

"I can meet you at our spot on the Eiffel in 10?" Her heart was pounding and his heart was doing the same. He let out a sigh of relief and agreed quickly. He picked up the notebook again and started thumbing through it again, stumbling upon a list of potential suspects. He felt sick at the fact that number 1 on the suspect list was Gabriel Agreste.

They hung up the call and he closed the notebook. He left through his bedroom window and felt his heart breaking at the fact that his usual path to the Eiffel Tower would involve passing Marinette's. He wasn't ready to see her after how much he had yelled at her earlier and he was certain she wasn't ready to see him either.

He took a different path than usual and got to the meeting spot before she did. "What did you want to taco bout?" Ladybug asked once she landed. Chat was sitting on the beam, staring again at the closed notebook in his hand.

He wasn't ready for the pun, but he couldn't help the soft smile that came over his face when he thought about the puns, they reminded him of his girlfriend. "Lettuce sit for a while so we can talk." She nodded in agreement and followed him to the edge of the tower where they could sit for a while.

When they were seated, he took a long, slow, deep breath with his eyes closed. When he opened his eyes, he spoke. "I think I need to tell someone my identity." He didn't meet her eyes, if he did, he might have seen the surprised expression on her face. That wasn't what she expected him to say.

"Why would you need to tell someone your identity?" She expected him to tell her about the notebook, and his concern for Marinette's safety, but she didn't think that he would be wanting to reveal his identity to anyone.

"I need to tell my baerrito." He winced at his own pun, not expecting it to sound that silly out loud. "She has been trying to figure out Monarch's identity on her own because she wants to help us and it's making me worried about her. She hasn't been taking care of herself and I don't think she knows I've noticed, but I have."

He held out the notebook to Ladybug. She didn't start looking through it, attention raptly focused on her partner. "If you take a pico in there, you'll see dozens of pages about information about him. All of it is scarily accurate and I can't let her be involved with me, not with a superhero. I care about her too much to let her put herself in danger."

"You don't need to tell her who you are to keep her safe," she tried to argue, knowing she was his girlfriend. "I know things might feel sour right now because she was trying to help, but if shell stop working on trying to find out his identity, is there still going to be an issue?"

"I don't think she'll stop, but this way, maybe she'll be willing to work with me instead of just overworking herself." He swallowed, knowing that would be a lot to ask of his girlfriend. "I just don't know what else I can possibly do to protect her, other than keep her publicly away from Chat Noir. I'm just so scared for her."

"You don't have to be scared for Marinette," Ladybug tried to remind him. "She's strong. She can protect herself, even if you carne't be around to keep her safe all the time."

"She can't protect herself better than I can and it's because of me. I found out she was Multimouse and even if we had the Miraculouses, she wouldn't be allowed to be a hero again because I found out her identity. I messed everything up and I don't know what to do now."

Ladybug felt a pounding in her heart and she knew that the time had finally come. She took a deep breath and looked at her purrtner. "She can purrtect herself, Chat. I purromise that she can."

"How do you know that?" His bright green eyes were looking into her and she was half convinced that even if she didn't tell him her identity, he would find out anyway from just recognizing his girlfriend in his partner.

"Because," she sighed. She closed her eyes and took a long, deep, slow breath. She opened her eyes and spoke, "It's mice to meat you, minou. I'm your purrincess, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and I can protect myself because I'm also your pawtner. And even if I wasn't, you've been there fur me since day one. You're not going to stop having my back now."

His jaw dropped and he felt his heart pounding in his chest as the quantum masking seemed to fall away. His girlfriend was left in place of his partner as two seemed to become one.

"I guess we have more to taco bout than I thought," he finally said, earning a playful slap on his arm from the heroine sitting next to him.