Please Keep My Secret

Chapter 4

Marinette did feel a lot better about how everything went down the night before. Butterflies tickled around inside her. After being a superhero for so long, she felt like she had partly mastered the act normal in public thing. Minus when trying to talk to a certain model. So, even as she approached the school, she was smiled and greeted Ayla like any normal day.

"Hey, girl," Alya greeted.

"Hey!" Marinette greeted, adding an extra bit of pep to her voice.

"Ready for the history test today?" Alya asked.

Marinette said yes, though in reality she had no confidence in getting a decent grade. Her focus was far from studying as of late. Alya didn't sense anything off, and walked to the stairs to their class. Marinette followed, and the two climbed the stairs to their classroom, but once at the top, Alya stopped and looked back at Marinette. "So...I have something serious I need to talk to you about."

If it were possible, Marinette could have died right then and there. Her eyes went wide and her mouth hung open. She froze. Alya gave her a strange look. "Okay...so not that serious. It's about the Ladyblog."

That hardly eased Marinette, who quickly got to the top of the stairs and stood next to her friend. Alya continued to the classroom and Marinette quickly followed. The panicky teenager fought to remind herself that she had to act normally around her ever clever friend. "I am thinking about completely re-coding the blog entirely and I was wondering if I could get your input about it?"

"Mine?" Marinette choked out. "But I don't know anything about coding!"

"Oh, nothing like that," Alya said, taking a seat at their desk. "I'm going to ask Nino about that at lunch."

"So...what do you need my opinion about?"

"The design, or rather designs. I have multiple ones I like, but I can't figure out which ones I like best. I'm going to ask the other girls what they think too."

"Oh, yeah, sure, I can do that," Marinette said. "What made you decide to change it?"

"It felt time," Alya explained.

"Well, sometimes change can be good, right?" Marinette suggested.

Marinette was reaching into her bag to get her textbook and notebook out for first period, but froze for just a moment when Adrien and Nino walked in side by side. They were chatting among themselves, and each took a seat in front of Marinette and Alya's desk. Only when they were seated, did Nino turn to greet his girlfriend. "Good morning, beautiful."

Alya playfully rolled her eyes but smiled at her boyfriend. "Good morning, dork."

"I got your text this morning, you said we had to talk. Why so serious?" Nino asked.

"Its not that serious. Just some coding questions. I'm updating the Ladyblog."

"Oh, yeah?" He asked.

Marinette turned to get the rest of her stationary out for class, and perhaps check her phone before the teacher arrived, but she stopped what she was doing when she noticed that Adrien was smiling at her, his body completely turned to face her. The pencil case in her hand nearly dropped onto the floor, but she quickly scooped it up and juggled it for a bit before it came to rest in her lap. A blush came across Marinette's cheeks as she realized what a fool she had just made of herself, again.

"A-Adrien, g-good morning," she tried to recover. Internally she was screaming at both herself and the love of her life in front of her. At herself, reminding herself to get a grip and also why in heck he was talking to her here right now in the classroom of all places. Everyone would notice. He seemed to light up when she talked to him first, but she was sure her reaction was the opposite of what he wanted it to be, because she was fighting the urge to scream and go hide in the girls locker room.

"Good morning, Marinette," Adrien replied.

'What the heck happened to pretending nothing changed?' Marinette thought, her inner voice screaming as loudly as possible.

Marinette glanced over to Alya, who had stopped talking to Nino and was looking at the two of them. Nino was staring as well. Marinette tried to pretend she hadn't noticed, but it was clear the ever sharp, Alya knew, and now rightfully suspected something big was going on, because there was Adrien Agreste, talking to her! In school!

He finally opened his mouth after she felt the silence go on forever. "You ready for the history test today?"

It was a causal question, and she could sense that he was trying to make it seem like they hadn't been secretly talking for a few days now, but that didn't matter. Alya was too smart for that. Still, the shy girl did her best to pretend like this was simply a dream come true, that the boy she liked had noticed her. Nothing more, and nothing less.

"Yes! Oh, the history test! Yeah...I mean I hope I studied enough," she stated. "I assume...you're all ready?"

"Definity," Adrien replied. "I was up pretty late studying. Did you as well? I have a terrible habit of staying up really late myself."

Marinette could feel Alya's stare on her and it was burning a hole in her skull. Her face only became redder. She knew Alya was trying to figure this out. Marinette` wanted to talk to Adrien. She really did, but right now she wished for a distraction. Any distraction? Where was Miss Bustier? Shouldn't class be starting right about now?

"N-no. I actually went to sleep fairly early," Marinette answered. She didn't look at Adrien when she spoke, but pretended to be searching for something in her book bag, but everywhere she looked she could feel herself having a harder time hiding the panic inside. She took in a deep breath and prepared to look the blonde boy in the eyes, but before she could muster up the courage, there was the interruption she had been wishing for earlier.

"Adrikins!" Chloe's voice cut through the air.

8 8 8

Adrien had promised himself the night before that he would push for them to become friend's at school as well, but he could sense her discomfort. There were a lot of regret's going through his mind about t

his plan. He could see Alya and Nino from the corner of his eye staring at her, and he realized now that what she told him was true. Her awkwardness around him really was never about her non existent hate for him, but her shyness. Clearly he should have just listened to her. He would follow her lead next time, if she ever spoke to him again after this.

Nino popped his head around the corner and spotted Adrien sitting by himself eating his lunch in silence. "Yo, dude!"

Adrien turned his attention to his best friend. "Hey, Nino."

Nino sat down beside Adrien, and opened up his brown paper bag, and pulled out his packed sandwich. "So, like, is Marinette the one who found out your secret?"

Adrien nearly choked on his baguette sandwich Nino quickly grabbed his bottle of water and offered it to Adrien, who drank it down greedily. He was able to clear his throat and leaned back onto the wall. The young model gave his friend a look and then a nod.

"Is that why you were trying to talk to her all of a sudden in class today?"

Adrien didn't know how he could talk to Nino about this without giving away too much, but still he tried. "I just wanted to try and be more friendly with her."

"Well I mean…is she blackmailing you over this secret?" Nino asked.

"What? Marinette? No! Not at all," Adrien replied. "She keeps telling me she will keep the secret, but its a huge secret and I can't afford for it to get out."

Nino paused to think about the information he was being offered but after a few minutes. "I'm not expecting you to tell me, but what kind of secret is it?"

Adrien sighed. "A very personal secret. That's all I can say, I'm sorry."

"Nah, dude, I get it. Everyone has secrets they can't tell anyone. I respect that," Nino explained. "But if you are worried about Marinette sharing your secret and she hasn't, she probably won't. If you want to be her friend though, I have the perfect idea."

Adrien's attention was peeked. "Yeah? What is it?"

"Well, you know that Marinette is like seriously into fashion, right?" Nino stated. "You're a model. Your dad works in the industry. You already have a ton you could talk to her about."

Adrien's eyes went wide. "Yeah! You're right! I have a shoot Sunday for the up coming winter line, I could invite her to watch. She'd probably be really into that."

Nino grinned. "That's my man!"

8 8 8

When Marinette got home from school, she threw her school bag on the floor by her bed and collapsed onto her soft mattress. Tikki flooded above and looked down at Marinette who was groaning into her pillow. Tikki chuckled and floated down to meet Marinette's line of sight.

"Come on, that wasn't that bad of a day," Tikki stated. "You've had a lot harder days."

"But he talked to me at school!" Marinette cried. "And Nino and worse, Alya noticed! I can't just explain that away."

Tikki shook her head. "Its not that bad. You could just tell Alya when she asks that you expressed interest in the fashion industry and go from there."

"Alya's too smart for that," Marinette sighed.

She rolled over and reached into her back pocket when she felt her phone buzz. "That's probably Alya now since I avoided the topic most of the day."

Marinette checked, and her eyes went wide and her cheeks went red, and she shot up from her laying position. She shook a little and dropped her phone with a yelp. Tikki retrieved the phone and looked at it, and saw a message from Adrien. It simply said, "Hello."

Tikki looked at Marinette with a look that said Really? Though Tikki flew over to Marinette and handed the phone to her. It took a moment for Marinette to even reach for it, and several more before she took it from the unimpressed Kwami.

"Talk to him," Tikki stated.

Marinette took the phone and pressed reply.

Marinette: Hey there Adrien. How are you?

Three dots appeared, and Marinette bit her bottom lip as she waited for his response.

Adrien:I'm alright. I just wanted to apologize for making you uncomfortable at school today. I wanted to get to know you better since I know you don't actually hate me. I though that if I tried to strike up a conversation with you at school that we could start to talk at school without Alya being suspicious. I can see now that she doesn't miss a beat. I'm sorry.

Marinette: Its alright. It did end up with me dodging her most of the day, but I can think of an excuse maybe.

Adrien: I could maybe help. I had something I wanted to run by you, but I'd like to talk to you about it tonight. If you don't have any plans.

"You better say yes," Tikki stated, hovering over Marinette's shoulder, which made her jump for a second.

Marinette blushed but replied to Tikki. "O-okay."

Marinette: I don't have any plans. Did you want to meet somewhere?

Adrien: I can come to you if you'd like. I can meet you on your balcony at 9PM.

Marinette: Yeah, sure, that works. Gives me time to eat with my parents and get some homework done.

Adrien: Perfect, see you then.

Marinette's face was completely red, but she got redder when she noticed there were still photo's of him around the bedroom. She dropped her phone on the bed and leaned over her bed and grabbed some of them off her wall, and then hurried down to the rest of her room and took them down as well. Tikki peered over.

"What are you doing?" Tikki asked.

"Its embarrassing. And if he comes inside again, I don't know if I can deal with him seeing his face plastered everywhere," Marinette stated. "Please don't lecture me on this Tikki. I just need this one thing."

Tikki sighed. "Alright. Fine."

8 8 8

Marinette was actually dressed warmly out on the balcony that evening. She was wearing layers, and a warm hat, and some fingerless gloves that she currently had stuffed into her pockets for extra warmth. It was just past nine now, and she couldn't see Chat Noir in the distance, though to be fair she had no idea what direction he was going to be coming from. She turned and looked over, seeing him coming from the direction past the park. She took in a deep cool breath, trying to ready her nerves for the visit and whatever it was he was trying to do.

He came down, and jumped onto the balcony with the grace she knew Chat Noir to always have. He smiled at her. That charming smile she saw almost every battle. Her felt herself become a little flustered seeing it and now realizing that it had been Adrien who had been giving her that smile this entire time. She tried to give him a smile in return, but she knew she must have looked like a mess.

"How you doing tonight?" Marinette asked.

"I'm still good," he chuckled.

"R-Right, I asked that earlier on text," Marinette responded.

"It's freezing, why don't we warm up inside," Adrien suggested.

"Right, yeah. I have some tea ready if you'd like some," Marinette said. "I made it just in case."

"A hot drink sounds great about right now," he stated.

They moved inside, and Marinette moved to her large desk, at the end where she did her sewing usually. She poured the drinks, but peered over to him. He had climbed down to the main part of her room and was glancing around.

"What you looking for?" Marinette asked.

"Nothing," he explained. He stopped right beside her to grab his warm cup of tea. "I just…was surprised you took the photos down is all. You had a lot of them. That disappointed?"

Marinette nearly spilled her tea over her desk as she poured it. She quickly put down her tea pot, and reached for a scrap of fabric to clean it up. Her nerves were getting the best of her, but she could only shake her head. "N-no, that's not it."

"Can I ask why?"

Marinette couldn't make eye contact with him but could see see his expectant form waiting for her to make any response. "Well, Chat Noir is known to be flirty. You've flirted with me in the past. I've known Adrien as the cool and mature model. Neither are bad or wrong...I just realized I liked part of you, but didn't really know all of you. I didn't know you really at all, if I'm being honest. Besides, I thought I had a chance with you. I know now, that I don't because you love Ladybug. And don't take that as me pitying myself. Everyone in Paris knows you love her, and I'd hate to try and get between you two."

She did manage to steal a glance and she could see his serious expression, though he just looked down at the cups of tea. He did take a long drink before he put the cup down and he looked at them. "I'm both, but I'd like to think of Chat Noir as my true self though. When I'm out of this mask, I have to be the serious boy model, who is serious about everything and not do anything to make my father ashamed of me, but as Chat Noir, I get that freedom I have always wanted. I get to be silly and live as a normal teenage boy, who just happens to have superpowers. If that makes sense."

Marinette nodded. "No, I get that. It would be like if I was Ladybug. It would be quite the contrast, don't you think?"

Marinette added a chuckle to try and cover herself, but she could see Adrien wasn't laughing. He was still looking very serious. "You know, I don't even know who My Lady is? Or how old she is? I think she goes to our school. But I do think she is probably a very different person out of her mask too. So, don't think that it would be a bad contrast," he explained to her.

"You'd love her even if she wasn't what you expected?" she asked.

"I was told by my kwami once that the power doesn't change who we are, it simply allows us to be the people we want to be and will be. So even though I think she's too scared to tell me who she is, I will wait until she's ready, because I know she can be that person too. Besides, you have to love the person for who they are, even with their flaw's."

Marinette's heart was racing so hard in her chest and she felt her breath leave her as she forgot to breath for a moment. His words struck her and she wondered if she could really be that person for him someday. Even with his words she still didn't have the courage to actually come out to him as Ladybug.

"Can I ask, what you love about her?"

Adrien smiled. "Sure. What I love about her is how confident she is. How smart she is. Level headed and brave. Whenever we are in battle, she just always knows what to do. Even when I am unsure what to do most of the time, she is always there to keep me level headed with her. She honestly makes me feel safe, and if I'm even more honest. She's the only person I know who doesn't treat me like a sidekick. She see's me as her equal."

Marinette had to fight back the urge to cry. Her silly stupid partner, a side kick? She never thought of him as a sidekick. And she certain didn't notice that he felt that way. Marinette felt like he contributed just much to every battle. Even though he never seemed to take anything nearly as seriously as her. He was just as brave as her, and yes while he was a huge flirt, he never allowed it to get in the way of saving the day. She never could have imagined that Adrien could feel that way. She wanted to reach out and grab him arm and tell him how wrong he was, but she didn't move.

Adrien cleared his throat. "A-Anyway," he started. "I actually have a photo shoot on Sunday. And I know you're really into fashion. Would you like to come watch? See how it works from the inside?"

"Could I?" Marinette gasped.

"Yeah, it would help give us an excuse to get to know each other better, and Alya couldn't be suspicious, right?"

Marinette felt touched that he would invite her to a shoot. "That could work. Thank you for thinking of me. I always wanted to see how that part of the industry works."

"Great! Its going to be at Champs de Mars at 1PM. Usually Nathalie allows me to hang out for a bit after a shoot. So we could go for a walk around the park for a bit before I have to go. Since I can't actually talk to you during the shoot."

"Oh, no! Of course not. I totally understand," Marinette said. "And if you can't go for a walk after either, I understand. I'm jut happy to go watch. I know your father can be….strict."

"Well either way, I will find time to at least talk to you," Adrien said. "I better get back for now though. I'm glad we did this."

Marinette smiled. "Me too."

A/N: This was surprisingly hard to finish. But it is done. Please enjoy. And I promise there won;t be such a long delay between updates from now on.