A/N: But where does Adrien keep Plagg's cheese, anyway? Secret Agreste Fashion pockets?

Part 2: Just Say No.

Chat Noir vaulted swiftly across the city skyline, mindful of how many seconds he had left, but not caring where he was going. His heart pounded almost painfully against the confines of his chest, and he couldn't say that it was entirely because of the way he tested his physical limits. He just needed to be elsewhere, needed to cover as many rooftops as possible, as far away from her as possible.

Just one more, he pushed, one more jump—

He was still airborne when his Miraculous gave its loud, final beep. He still had several meters to clear when he felt his staff disintegrate, when the green magic started to crackle from his feet to his shins, his knees—

Adrien grunted as he landed roughly onto the concrete, muscle memory enabling him to tuck in his chin and curl into himself until he rolled to a stop. Elsewhere else on the rooftop, Plagg had had enough energy to at least float before making his much softer landing.

"Do you have a death wish?!" he shouted in a mixture of a growl and a whine. "Did you not hear my warning, I don't know, five blocks ago?! You could've died from that height! Of all the brainless—"

"Careful, Plagg," Adrien managed a humourless chuckle as he rolled onto his back. His lungs were still heaving, and his voice scratched his throat like he'd been screaming for at least a few hours. "Someone might think you were actually worried about me."

Plagg scoffed, and it was such a familiar sound that it was actually comforting. Adrien felt his heartbeat calm minutely. His heart itself, though, was another story.

It was overwhelmed, overworked, overpowered— overeverything and that was just too much, too much for one day, for a single afternoon, and he needed a few minutes to process all this.

No, maybe he needed a whole year.

"Cheese," Plagg demanded, and, ah, there was another familiar sound.

"In a minute," Adrien said, still looking up unseeingly at the sky above him. "Just let me catch my breath."

"Right now," Plagg insisted, scoffing again. "You're going to make me transform you again once you 'catch your breath.'"

"I can just walk."

"Can you?"

Well, Plagg's got him there. Adrien didn't think he could manage to stand without falling to his knees and screaming from all the swirling, exploding thoughts in his head. And heart. And soul.

That was too much for one day.

Sitting up with a groan, Adrien produced the last piece of cheese he had on him. His kwami walked—walked!—towards him, climbed into his hand, and started eating. Immediately, Adrien felt guilty. He'd truly tired out his kwami, this time.

"I'll get you a bigger one when we get home," he announced as an apology.

Plagg nodded. "You're going to go crazy if you don't talk about it, you know."

"I'm going to go crazy even if I do," Adrien countered, sighing.

She hadn't seen him, back in those bushes. Of course she hadn't; she wouldn't have transformed if she had. She hadn't seen him, she had transformed, and she had leapt off to fight without looking back.

He hadn't even gotten to see her face.

What did it look like when she called for her kwami, Adrien wondered fleetingly.

But Paris came first— Paris always came first—and he had transformed without hesitation and leapt after her, telling himself to deal with all that later.

With the mask on, it had been easy. Paris had been turning into Jumanji, and the discovery of Ladybug's identity had been pushed so far into the depths of Chat Noir's mind that the usual routine of punning, flirting, and fighting together came naturally. For a blessed while, he had been able to forget about pink capris turning into red dotted suits. He had been able to enjoy Ladybug's appreciative scratch to his chin; he had been able to enter the Dupain-Cheng boulangerie and think to himself that Marinette was lucky to have such warm cookies and even warmer parents.

Until, that is, she had decided that it was a good idea to feed herself to an akumatized T-Rex bent on exterminating her.

That the crazy, idiotic, half-assed excuse of an idea had actually worked was irrelevant.

Plagg thought Adrien had a death wish? HA!Adrien had nothing on Ladybug, if that jumping-into-a-dinosaur's-mouth business was any indication. And by that determined, I'm-going-to-do-this-and-nothing-will-stop-me look on her face as she'd done it, it almost seemed like she was set on destroying him, too.

Because she hadn't left him to watch just Ladybug leap to her death.

He'd helplessly watched Marinette disappearing behind those giant reptilian jaws, too.

The mere memory of it almost flung him back into hyperventilating, and, oh god, he was going to have nightmares about this, he just knew it.

After those few seconds of agonizing torture, he hadn't been able to help himself. He'd flung himself at her and pulled her flush against him. Seeing her alive and well hadn't been enough; he'd needed to touch her, to have concrete, tangible proof that she was there and alive and with him. And if she had pushed him away, he wouldn't have protested much, because that was what she did: push him away and smile at him and come back to let him fight beside her another day.

But she hadn't pushed him away. If it had been any other day, he would have celebrated the delightful surprise of her acceptance, but this day was already filled to the brim with surprises and he couldn't handle another one.

Because Marinette was Ladybug.

Did Alya know?

Did Nino—

"NINO!" Adrien gasped, startling the peacefully eating Plagg. He flailed to search his pockets for his phone, and hit Nino's speed dial.

He'd told himself that he'd find his best friend and make sure he got to safety, but that had been before Marinette decided to turn his world upside down. He'd seen Nino racing past him at one point, and of course, Ladybug's cure should have fixed everything, but…

"Heeeey Adrien, my man, what's up?"

Adrien breathed a sigh of relief as Nino's greeting came through the earpiece that materialized back after his transformation ended.

"Dude, I'm so glad you're okay. You're okay, right?"

"I'm great!" Nino exclaimed shrilly. "Yep, all limbs still intact."

Adrien frowned. The tone was unnatural, and it reminded him of a frozen Nino who couldn't talk to—

"Are you with Marinette?"

The words were out before Adrien could stop himself. If Nino noticed his alarmed tone, he'd chalk it up to worrying about his friends' welfare.

"No, um… I'm actually— err…"

"Why are you stuttering?"

"I'm not stuttering. I'm in a cage."

Adrien let the non-sequitur slide to focus on the important thing: "You're in a what, now?"

"The panther enclosure. We stayed here for safety—"

"We?"

"Um… Me and Alya?"

Oh!

Well.

Adrien felt a grin crawl onto his lips. That was quite an…interesting development. A boy and a girl in close quarters. Who knew what that could lead to?

But Nino was still talking, and what he said next was, "So, this was empty when all the animals were out, but…ah…the panther's back."

All thoughts of matchmaking his friend with someone other than Marinette came to a screeching halt.

"WHAT?!"

"He's actually pretty docile and just sitting there…licking a bone. But anyway! He's asleep now. Maybe he got tired from running around all afternoon or something."

"I'll be right there," Adrien told him, already on his feet with a fresh surge of adrenalin in his veins. "Don't go anywhere!"

"I don't think we have a choice in the matter, really."

Adrien didn't like hanging up on people, but this time he did it without hesitation so he could summon Plagg back into the ring. Within seconds, Chat Noir was bounding across rooftops again.

It was a good thing that, in his aimless escape from Ladybug, he had coincidentally been going towards the zoo. It didn't take long before he jumped into the bush to de-transform. (Unlike Ladybug, he had the sense to check if the coast was clear, first. Really, but Ladybug was so careless today!)

Running out of the self-same bush where Ladybug was revealed to him, he dialled Nino again just to make sure—

"Nino!" Adrien shouted the moment the call connected. "I'm almost there, are you guys still okay?"

"Yeah," Nino answered. "We're— Oh!"

"What?" Adrien demanded. He heard the sound of scraping metal over the line. "What, Oh?!"

No. Nonononono. An "Oh" could mean anything, but in Nino's circumstances "anything" could mean something really, really bad—

"Marinette!" Alya's voice cried happily over the line, and Adrien literally stumbled in surprise. He caught himself on a wall, though, and when he looked up he found himself almost at his destination. He was near enough to see his friends, but far enough that they didn't notice him. If not for his earpiece, he wouldn't be able to hear what was happening, either.

He flattened himself on the wall and stayed hidden.

"Come on, before the panther wakes up." Marinette directed as way of greeting—her authoritative tone speared through Adrien's heart pleasantly, the same way Ladybug's always did. "Thank you, monsieur."

The zoo worker with them nodded as he closed the gate behind the teenagers. He turned away to go back to his work, but Nino suddenly spoke.

"Ah, excuse us, monsieur, but did you witness what happened earlier?"

"Yes, I saw everything!" the other man replied. "It was chaos. Good thing Ladybug was there, eh?"

Even from where he was, Adrien saw Marinette flinch. Was she uncomfortable when people talked about Ladybug in front of her? But Alya did it all the time!

"She wasn't alone, sir," Marinette spoke up. "Chat Noir was there, too."

Honestly. The effects of her voice on Adrien's heart should be illegal. He was going to get arrhythmia at this rate.

"That he was!" Alya agreed. "Monsieur, would you greatly mind an interview for the Ladyblog? It will only be a few minutes, I promise."

The zookeeper agreed, and Alya threw a thumbs up sign towards Marinette and Nino. Adrien wasn't sure if it was in celebration for scoring an interview, or if it was some kind of scheme to get Marinette and Nino alone together.

He hoped it wasn't the latter…

…even though, just that morning, he was scheming the exact same thing.

Funny how things turned out.

Nino turned to Marinette, smiling.

"Well…That was a crazy afternoon, huh?"

"Insane…"

"But we got to see the panther, at least!"

The banter was light and effortless. All stammering and awkwardness was gone from Nino's voice. He was friendly and amiable. Nino was being Nino.

Adrien should have been proud.

He wasn't.

Marinette giggled in response—Giggling! Why on earth was she giggling?!—her eyes crinkling at the corners as her shoulders bobbed.

"Yeah, well…" She shrugged, still smiling. "I'd prefer foregoing the running for your life part next time, though."

Adrien felt his whole being sag.

No.

No way.

Did she just—?!

"Did you just—" Nino asked, eyes wide. "I mean… Do you mean…?"

Marinette's eyes were wide, too, as if she didn't mean what Nino (and Adrien) thought she meant.

Say no, Adrien found himself urging her in his head so fiercely, it was a wonder that he didn't say it out loud. He wanted to go over there. Leave his pitiful hiding place, march over to them, and very casually sabotage his best friend's progress.

Oh god. What the hell was wrong with him?!

Marinette opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to come up with an answer but not quite deciding on one.

"Wh— I…" she stammered. "I— I don't—"

"I mean, it's okay if you don't want to—"

"It's not that I don't want to—!"

Marinette and Nino both stopped at the same time, clamping their mouths shut and looking everywhere but each other.

For a few seconds, no one said anything.

Adrien could hardly breathe.

Where the hell was Alya?!

"You know," Nino began again, sighing, "you can say no."

Say no. Dear god, just say no.—

"I mean," Nino continued, "we hang out in school, and—"

—You say no to Chat Noir all the time—!

"Yes."

And just like that, Adrien's heart plummeted to the ground.

This was too much for one freaking day.

"Yes?" Nino asked, incredulous.

Marinette's nod was slow, almost hesitant, but it was a nod. "Yeah…Sure. Why not?"

You have to turn him down so that I can ask you out, that's why not!

Before Nino could respond, Alya was suddenly there, smiling wide and waving her phone.

"Guess what I got!" she asked, jumping up and down. "Guess what I got, guess what I got, guess what I got!"

"A detailed interview?" Marinette asked calmly but encouragingly, used to Alya's excitement in her journalistic endeavors. Nino, on the other hand, looked thoroughly amused as Alya kept jumping around them.

"Not just!" Alya declared triumphantly. "The zoo let me have footage of Ladybug and Chat Noir from the security cameras!"

"Wow, that's huge!" Nino exclaimed. "Epic reporter moves!"

"You got that right!" Alya didn't care to deny it; she shouldn't need to, anyway. "Nino! You're going to help me edit the video."

"Okay. I just have to do a thing first. Your house tonight?"

"Sounds like a plan! Come on, Marinette, I want some of your parents' macarons as celebration! I'll bring you some later, Nino!"

Alya gave a thumbs up again, already running for the exit. Marinette jogged after her, but not before throwing a last smile and a wave to Nino.

No smiles or waves for Adrien, of course, because he was still unseen, rooted in his spot. His feet felt like lead. Everything felt heavy, actually.

"…Adrien. Are you still there?"

Adrien tried not to flinch as Nino's voice broke through into his earpiece. Nino, his best friend. Who had just secured a second date with Ladybug. Nino didn't know it, of course, but that was irrelevant. Even without looking at him, Adrien was sure that Nino was beaming, and if the circumstances were different, Adrien would have been happy for him. But as it was, Adrien couldn't give more than a grunt in response. He couldn't even tear his eyes away from Marinette's retreating form.

"You, my friend," Nino was saying, "are the best wingman ever."