Adrien blew off his homework in favor of wallowing in his misery. He couldn't go and see Marinette until it was dark, and that would be hours.

He completed thousands of treks around his room, slumping into the couch just to bounce around with nervous energy before pacing around again. He noticed Plagg watching him, but the Kwami never commented, and Adrien thought dispassionately that he must look deranged.

The sunset was probably beautiful, but Adrien frowned at the sky anyway. It took forever for the shadows to lengthen enough to sneak over to Marinette's balcony without drawing attention to it. Even feeling like he was about to lose everything he needed to survive, he pushed aside the frantic worry to protect his Mouse.

When his room was pitch black, he finally leapt out into the night. Chat Noir landed on Marinette's balcony with a muted thud, and he heard her footsteps on the staircase in her room immediately.

"Why would you write that?" Marinette asked before the skylight even closed behind her.

Chat pinched the bridge of his nose. Marinette hated when he used humor to cover up his feelings, but he really didn't want to be honest about this. Even knowing that Marinette wouldn't make fun of him, he felt tense and sensitive. But he owed her an explanation.

He sighed and turned toward the balcony railing so he wouldn't have to look at her while talking about this. He started hesitantly, "Honestly, I don't have anyone to talk about… my feelings with." He peeked at her with a sidelong glance. She appeared to be reserving judgement, with lips pursed and eyes wide and searching. He was encouraged to continue, "When I get overwhelmed with what I'm feeling, I write out the um… daydream I guess, so that it's outside of my head. I read on a message board that someone was writing out their romantic exploits in terms of Ladynoir fanfiction, and I kinda copied the idea. I started posting the daydreams as fanfiction and read the comments to help me."

He turned back towards her to gauge her reaction, but she was still considering his words. Wanting to prompt her to speak, he asked, "Did you read all of the stories once you figured out who was writing them?"

"Yes."

Ugh, one word answer. Discouraged, he started babbling, "Look, I never expected you to see it. I didn't know that Alya followed me! My works have never been very popular because what I wanted for me and Ladybug was so simple and well… self-indulgent, and not what most people want to read when they are looking for fanfiction. I just wanted to get it out of my head so that I could think straight again."

"Breathe Kitty. I'm not angry. Just…" she paused to bite her lip. Chat could see that she was trying to not get flustered, and the slight blush on her cheeks was encouraging.

"Just what?"

"Did you mean it?"

He answered carefully, "I meant what I wrote, but I didn't mean for you to see it."

She nodded absentmindedly, like that was what she was expecting to hear. Chat watched bemused as her restraint fell, and she started babbling, "I had no idea that that was what you felt for Ladybug. All these years of flirting with her, you were hiding so much of yourself! And now to think that's what you think about me…" She placed her cold hands on her heated cheeks, and it was the cutest thing Chat had ever seen. Her eyes were huge, and her blush was peaking around her hands.

Chat opened his mouth to respond, but Marinette cut him off saying, "I wrote you a response!"

For the first time since school started that morning, Chat felt hopeful. "How do I find it? Is it posted to the same site?"

"I didn't post it. I printed it out."

Chat snickered at that. Who bothered to print anything anymore? "Oh?"

"Yes," she said as she stuck her tongue out at him. The simple gesture had him relaxing, things hadn't changed that much between them.

She sighed and appeared to choose her next words carefully. "Promise me that you'll come talk to me once you've read it."

"Of course, I will," he responded without hesitation.

"Even if it makes you angry, come talk to me. You can yell at me if you need to, but I can't lose you over this."

His face fell. Maybe he had lost everything. "If your response is going to make me angry, then just tell me."

She huffed, "I don't know that it will. I don't know how you are going to respond to this." She bumped her forefingers and thumbs together in a nervous gesture he knew well from school, though she had never done it in front of Chat before.

"I promise, Princess. Even if your story made me angry, I wouldn't push you away because of it."

She smiled at the use of the nickname, but her serious tone didn't fit the happiness in her eyes. "Look Chat, I trust you, but I have to say this: no one else can see this story. K? It has my real name, and my Kwami's name, and it would be disastrous…"

"Absolutely no one will see these pages except for me," he cut off her rambling without remorse. She didn't need to worry about that; he would protect her identity at all costs. "I know how to protect a secret identity, Princess."

She scurried back into her bedroom and returned with a packet of paper. She handed it to him with a cheeky, "Now go read it. I need to figure out what the homework was today. I've just been writing since school let out, and I'm exhausted!"

He chuckled and took the precious pages, carefully slipping them into his pocket for safekeeping. She was waiting for him to leave to go back inside, and he was encouraged to step forward and take her slender hand to press a kiss to the back.

He saluted her and jumped away towards home. The entire way home he thought, please let that not be the last time I get to kiss her hand.