Who's excited for more angst?

Not me. But we don't always get what we want in life, now do we?

MariChat

Adrien had managed to convince Nathalie to allow him to invite his friends over to hangout in his room on Saturday. His father, of course, being Gabriel, couldn't be bothered with the trivial details of his son's life.

Alya was the only one in awe. "Whoa, Adrien. This is a wicked set-up." She glanced at Marinette and Nino. "I was about to ask why you two weren't having the same reaction, but then I remembered about that stupid all-guy party that Marinette snuck into."

Her boyfriend laughed nervously. "Yeah…"

"I'm still mad about that," Alya said, giving them a dirty look.

Okay. This was starting to look bad. So Adrien intervened. "C'mon guys. Don't get stuck up in the past. We're here to enjoy time together as friends. Do you want to play a video game or something?"

Marinette perked up for the first time. She had been looking troubled before that, and not just in her typical nervous way. "YES!"

Alya frowned. "No way! You and Adrien will crush me and Nino!"
"Exactly!"

Okay. Intervention time again. "We can play on teams."

"Fine." Alya crossed her arms. "Girls against boys. That's the only way I'll agree."

Nino held up his arms in an X shape. "No way! That's unfair. Sorry bro, but Marinette will still kick our butts, even if it were all three of us against her."

Adrien was sure she could. The only person he knew besides her that even might be better at video games was Ladybug. No, don't think of her. Abort, abort abort!

Luckily, Marinette spoke up. "We could switch up partners every few rounds, so everyone gets a chance to play with whoever they want, and then we can move on to something else."

Leave it to everyday Ladybug to come up with a solution they could all agree on.

Adrien knew this was coming. And he was seriously beginning to question what to do more and more.

He had no doubt that Marinette's reason for talking to him today was in order to confess. Where she had finally mustered the courage to do that, he had no clue. But he found that the most likely, especially as Alya winked at Marinette and Nino gave Adrien a thumbs up right before they left.

Adrien was concerned about whether or not he should accept. Yes, since Nino had helpfully pointed out his crush on Wednesday, he had been falling hard. But, despite what he had told Ladybug last night, and trying to settle his feelings for her, he still felt something for her. Not to mention how much he felt like scum when he thought about how he would be moving onto someone else very quickly.

So no, Adrien did not know what to say.

He glanced at Marinette- still a little flushed and probably even more nervous- took a deep breath. "Adrien, I have something to tell you."

"I know."

"You… know what it is that I wanted to tell you?"

Oh, right. He wasn't supposed to know, was he? But he did, and he wouldn't deny that. "Yes. I know that you love me, Marinette."

"Oh." Marinette put her hands in her lap, fidgeting, biting her bottom lip. "So…?"

Adrien turned away so that he was facing forward instead of towards her. He ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't know what to say, Marinette. It's just… been a bit of a crazy week. I finally realized about your crush on Tuesday, and told Nino on Wednesday, who helped me realize that I've had a smaller crush on you for just as long, and…"

She held her hands up. "Wait. Slow down. What are you trying to say?"

Right. "I guess my point is… my point is that, since I've realized my feelings for you, I've fallen for you, hard and fast. But…"

Marinette's face fell. "But?"

He leaned back and took a deep breath. "You remember when we went to the wax museum a couple of years ago?"

"Please don't remind me," Marinette groaned.

Looking back, thinking about that prank gone very wrong, he realized that it very much was a confession on her part. But yes, he could understand her not wanting to remember that particular part. "No no no. That's not what I meant. I was going to talk about the car ride after, where I mentioned the girl I liked. It's probably the only time I've told any of my friends about her. And, even though she still doesn't like me the same way, I can't seem to get rid of my feelings for her."

Marinette stood up, blinking furiously. "Well, then. If that's the way you feel, I won't stop you from pursuing her."

She started walking away.

"Wait!"

Marinette didn't listen.

Adrien stood up, caught her wrist, and pulled her into an embrace. "That's not what I want, Marinette. Don't just give up."

She struggled, but with her arms pinned to her side by his, there wasn't much that she could do. "I want you to be happy, Adrien. So I'm putting your feelings first. Go after the girl you love, not m-Mmh."

She was cut off as Adrien (who, admittedly, didn't think too much about it beforehand) kissed her. He put all his feelings for her in the kiss, and for a moment, completely forgot about Ladybug.

After a second he realized just how rash of a decision it had been, but then she began to respond, pressing her lips to his, relaxing into his hold, moving her arms around him in return. Adrien tilted his head to deepen the kiss, letting go of his grip on her in order to cup her face with his hands.

Finally, he pulled back so that they could breath, and he rested his forehead against hers. "You are the girl I love. Don't doubt that. Everything's happened a bit too fast, so I can't accept your feelings until I get over this other girl."

Marinette pulled her head down to his chest, which was more comfortable for his neck, considering their height difference. "I can't really blame you. I'm also struggling with feelings for another boy."

Adrien didn't like to know that he had competition. But… it sounded like he might stand a better chance. "You do understand that I'm not rejecting you, right? This is just a not-yet."

Marinette finally used her hands that had been separating their chests to push away. "My brain does. But… it still hurts. Especially since this other boy, who's also a friend, is complicated as well."

He frowned. "Can we be okay? As friends, for now?"

Marinette nodded. "Yes. See you tomorrow, I guess."

After hearing the notification from her phone, Marinette moved to check it.

It was from Alya.

Hey girl, how'd it go?

What was she supposed to say to that. How did it go? She wasn't rejected, but also not accepted?

So what exactly was Marinette supposed to tell her best friend? She started typing.

It (was perfect and) went (wrong in every way imaginable.) okay I guess. We (kissed) talked and he knew about my crush already. (Did you or Nino tell him?) He (apparently loves me too and we) decided we should just be friends (while we get our feelings sorted out) for now.

Marinette stared at the message for a moment. Even with all the editing, she wasn't sure she liked it, and wanted to say anything over text message, especially while everything was so uncertain between them. She decided to discard the whole thing before sending back a simple.

Tell you tomorrow.

There. Sent.

Marinette discarded her phone next to her on her bed, sighing. She grabbed her giant cat pillow and held it to her chest. "Tikki, I don't know what to do. It seems like Adrien loves me, and I still love him, but between his mystery girl and Chat, I don't even know what I want."

Tikki came over to her, comfortingly. "It'll be fine, Marinette. I'm sure that you'll figure it out. Matters of the heart are always-"

There was a tap at the trap door leading up to the balcony. There was only two options of who it could be: Chat or a pigeon. Most likely the latter, considering that Chat had no reason to stop by her place tonight, despite it being his patrol.

Marinette signaled for Tikki to hide just in case it was Chat, despite how unlikely that was. She reached up, touching the door lightly before exerting a lot more force to carry it open- her sure-proof way to scare off pigeons.

It always worked with the annoyingsome birds, which was accompanied by a scurrying and fluttering of wings. But the very human groan that followed it told her that it was, rather than the typical pigeon, the superhero of Paris besides herself.

Who was now looking down at her with a dirty look, clutching his nose. "What was that for, princess?"

"Uhh… I thought you were a pigeon. That usually scares them away. I wasn't expecting to get visited by a superhero tonight."

It wasn't a lie in the slightest. "Why am I getting a visit from you, kitty?"

He shrugged. "Just your friendly neighborhood cat, trying to keep up spirits in order to prevent akumas. Helps my job in the long-run."

"If you're looking for free pastries, you're not getting any."

Chat put a hand to his chest as if he was offended. "You think I would take advantage of your pastries instead of simply seeking out a friendly conversation?"

Marinette raised her eyebrows. "You certainly didn't object to stuffing your mouth with them at that Sunday brunch debacle."

"…Touché," he admitted. "But tonight I really did just want to talk."

She sighed. This was more than likely not going to help her decide what she wanted to do between these two boys, but it couldn't hurt too much, now could it?

Marinette sat up, still clutching the cat pillow, and patted her bed next to her. "Come on in, then."

Chat looked uncharacteristically nervous at the prospect. "I'm fine just sitting here, thanks."

"I'm not. It's February, and if you're just sitting up there, you're letting all that cold air in. So, thanks, but no. If you want to talk, come in and sit next to me."

He relented, coming to sit next to her, closing the door once he was through.

"On second thought," Marinette mused, "I'm not sure how I feel about having your boots on my bed."

"Princess!" Chat protested. "These aren't just any boots that will track mud around. These are magic boots." He held up one of his feet, as if that would make his point. "They are pristine and clean at all times. Your bed is safe."

She tried not to laugh. She really did. "Fine. I guess you've got me convinced. Anything specific you wanted to talk about?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, but is there anything you want to talk about first?"

"Only if you care to listen to me complain about all of my boy troubles."

"Why not?"

Marinette narrowed her eyes at him. Why would he care? It's not like he knew one of the boys she was frustrated with was him, so why was he interested in it?

Then again… it would be nice to complain to someone. Tikki was nice, but Chat was someone she knew who could relate more, especially after last night.

"Fine. You asked for it, though."

He smiled all-too-innocently. Suspicious.

Marinette took a deep breath. "Tuesday, I told you about my hugenormous crush on Adrien, and how I was getting some advice from a friend about how to confess, right?" He nodded. "Well, I don't remember if I told you this or not, but this friend is a guy who has been pretty much head-over-heels in love with me for the past three years, and his 'advice' was trying different things to woo me or whatever, which I repurposed and used on Adrien."

She was walking dangerously along the line of being too specific, but she didn't think it was too much. "Anyhow, I've recently realized that I kinda have it bad for this guy, but apparently there's another girl he's been falling for, and he decided to give up on me last night. Today I confessed to Adrien, who kinda likes me back, but there's someone else he likes, and I also like this other guy, so… I don't know what to do now."

Marinette looked back up at Chat. Were his eyes always that wide? "Uhm… I think you should still try to make it work with this Adrien guy. He seems like a more solid option."

She sighed. "I just don't know. It would've been nice if I had realized how I felt about this other guy literally anytime in the last three years. Then this could have not been a problem at all."

Chat sighed, but it was more frustrated than hers. "How terrible. You like this guy who's finally moved on and aren't sure if you want to date the guy who's finally opened his eyes and realized how amazing you are after three years and even kissed you?"

Wait. Marinette hadn't said anything about Adrien kissing her earlier. There was no way anyone besides her and-

Adrien. Chat Noir was Adrien. That was the only explanation. And it made sense. His mystery girl, had she confessed to him on Tuesday? Without realizing it?

Now she really hoped that she hadn't accidentally spilled her identity to him. It was bad enough that she knew his.

"You're right, I should make things work out with Adrien. Would you look at the time? Thanks for the advice, Chat, but I really ought to get to sleep."

Marinette finished shooing him away. How the heck could she get things to work with Adrien sooner? Because if he was simply madly in love with all of her, she didn't know if she could give him the time to sort out his feelings.

Once back in his bedroom and detransformed, Adrien flopped onto his bed.

Marinette was Ladybug. Her scenario was too similar to simply explain it away.

He had really shot himself in the foot earlier, hadn't he? Now how was he supposed to explain to her that he was ready, since she was Ladybug?

Maybe he'd just wait for Valentine's day. That was just over a week away. He could make it super romantic, and then they could actually start dating.

For the first time in a while, Adrien felt like he didn't have his heart torn in two.

Okay… I liked that kiss scene. Finally, reading all those fanfics and k-dramas came in handy.

I was a bit exhausted over the weekend, and trying to mold the story to my original idea, which was really just not working. So I finally decided, who cares? I'll just let them do what they want, and if it'll still work out in the end, it doesn't matter.

So it's not really as much heartbreak as my original idea, but hey, I'm certainly not complaining about less angst. And it led to a double-blind reveal, which, if you didn't know, I'm a sucker for.