"Please don't do this," he whispers softly against her lips. His forehead is pressed to hers, their hands entwined tightly as Marinette's breath comes out in shakes. Her eyes are closed, unable to face the boy whose heart she's breaking for the second time.
Chat Noir releases one of her hands, his fingers gently curling around the back of her neck; he would pull her closer, if they weren't already only a breath apart. "Marinette. Please."
"It - it's the right thing to do, Chat," she replies, letting go of his hand and moving back, closer to the entrance to the balcony; Chat Noir's hands drop to his sides as her eyes open, determination coursing through her frame. "You know it's the right thing."
"It's not." Chat says with a shake of his head, unable to pull his gaze from Marinette's blue eyes, darkened by the clouded midnight which refused to let moonlight filter through.
"It is." Her words are firmer now, but still tainted by sadness.
"Marinette-"
"What else can we do?" she says, exasperation in her voice. She pushes her bangs out of her face as the midnight breeze slips through her hair, and Chat Noir hears her breath hitch. "This can't work. We should never have started in the first place."
"So what are you saying?" Chat asks; the words, which could so easily be aggressive, come out as a plea. "That this - us- was a mistake?"
"No! Yes. I don't know!" Marinette cries, wrapping her arms around herself; the night is cold, and her jumper isn't providing much warmth. Usually Chat would offer to help her warm up, but he can't tonight. He can only stand, frozen on her balcony, watching as Marinette rips his heart apart.
"Look, you know I care about you. A lot. More… more than I should," she says quietly, her words twisting through the night to slice Chat Noir's heart, and Chat has to grip the balcony behind him to stop himself from moving to her and holding her tightly. "But we have to face the facts. We can't work - I can't tell anyone about you. Not my friends, or my family. And… and I don't know you!" she exclaims.
You do, though, he thinks, and it's the first time he's seriously considered revealing his identity. Because how can he talk to her as Adrien, knowing she didn't want him as Chat Noir? School tomorrow was already going to be painful; Marinette just didn't know it. And the thought of telling her, of letting her know his biggest secret, is so tempting - because maybe, that way, he can stay with her for a little bit longer…
He takes a step backwards, the small of his back pressing against the railing of her balcony. His fingers move to the ring which grants him this power, this mask, and Chat Noir holds Marinette's gaze steadily as his grip tightens on it.
"I would tell you in a heartbeat, if you asked me to."
Marinette's eyes widen as she realises what he means.
"No," she says firmly, shaking her head. "No, Chat. I would never ask you to do that. Secret identities… they're secret for a reason."
There's a crack in her voice which fractures Chat Noir's already fragile heart a bit more, and he knows that this is the reason. Not because she can't tell Alya or her parents about him, or even because of that boy she refuses to tell him about, the one who caused her to hesitate the first time Chat leaned in to kiss her; no, it's that two lives is one too many for her.
And that's okay. Sometimes it's too much for him. But it kills Chat Noir because Marinette thinks he's a stranger, and has no clue that the boy who sits in front of her every single day has slowly been falling for her behind a mask.
She knows him. And, now more than ever, he knows her. Kind, smart, beautiful Marinette, who stands up for her friends in the blink of an eye, smiles like a work of art, and let an injured cat into her home to patch him up after a particularly vicious akuma fight.
A girl who could take on the world and win, he has no doubt, but who can't love someone who has to run away at the beep of a ring.
It's not fair. For either of them.
So he drops his hands, and relief flashes through Marinette's eyes.
"It's best to keep it a secret, Chat. Even between us," she says, and the words are so gentle that he knows that she understands how important keeping his lives separate is.
Chat Noir nods, closing his eyes in acceptance as something presses at the back of his mind. There's a familiarity to her statement, but now isn't the time to question it; in the midst of heartbreak, Chat Noir can only focus on the girl in front of him, whose words make sense to his head but not to his heart.
"You're right," Chat replies, his voice barely a whisper as he resigns himself to the end of this beautiful, delicate relationship. "I'll… I'll go." He gives Marinette a half-hearted grin and salute before pushing himself onto her balcony rail and extending his baton.
"I'll see you round, Princess," he says, not wanting to end the conversation badly. "Stay safe."
Chat Noir barely hears her reply of "You too!" before leaping off the balcony, trailing his way over the rooftops of Paris back to his empty house.
He runs quickly, the breeze whipping through his hair as he jumps across rooftops and balconies, replaying the conversation over in his head.
Maybe he should have stayed; maybe he should have fought for her - for them. But he can't deny Marinette anything, even at the cost of his bruised heart. Her words run through his mind, tiny daggers twisting in the wound of her goodbye.
And suddenly he stops running. He's nearly home, standing on the roof of a neighbour who would probably be scandalized to find Chat Noir loitering on his property, when the niggling thought at the back of his mind makes a reappearance as he rolls through Marinette's words one more time.
"It's best to keep it a secret, Chat. Even between us."
He's heard that before. A memory of a hotel broom closet after fighting Lady Wifi flashes through his head, along with thoughts of the girl he loved keeping him at a distance when he promised to keep her secrets.
"It's best to keep it a secret, even between us."
And all at once, it clicks; the eyes, her smile, the hair.
They have the same hair. How could he have been so blind?
Chat looks at his ring, and can't believe his luck when he sees that he's in the clear, five neon-green toes beaming on his cat's paw. He spins on his heel and runs, faster than he knew he could, back to the balcony where he left his heart with a girl he fell for twice.
As he runs, more and more pieces of the puzzle slide into place; the sheer number of akuma attacks Marinette has missed, how Ladybug knew all of his classmate's names. He still isn't over the fact they had the same hair, and he didn't notice.
Whilst a minute part of him is screaming coincidence! It's all a coincidence!Chat Noir is sure that Marinette Dupain-Cheng is also his partner in crime-fighting, Ladybug. And if she is, then the game has changed.
If she is, then she has some explaining to do.
And so does he.