Here is chapter 4 from Marinette's perspective. Epilogue to follow. Thanks again for all your love and support with this silly story of mine.

I do not own anything Miraculous Ladybug

Marinette was furious. She was also terrified. And freaking out. Tikki had to talk her out of the alleyway she'd de-transformed in and coax her into going back to class. Once there, she glared at everyone suspiciously. Chat knew her name. As much as she dreamed of being someone famous, one day she was under no illusions that she was not. At least, not outside the suit.

That meant that for Chat to know her meant one of two things. Either he had followed her for a while after finding out who she was, or he was someone she already knew. Tikki also pointed out that Chat had spent most of the day trying to protect her not that long ago, but Marinette was sure it had to be one of her ideas.

Alya had watched her with increasing concern as she glared suspiciously at everyone in the room. Was one of them Chat? Had Chat told one of them? If Chat figured it out, then who else had? HOW DID HE FIGURE IT OUT?!

Thoughts chased themselves endlessly around in her head for the entire school day, and she only managed halfhearted responses to Alya's constant questions on her mental state. As soon as the final bell rang, she ran. Ran fast and hard, booking it out of the building and across the street to her home. She gave a rushed excuse to her parents about tons of homework and no time before she barricaded herself away in her room. Tikki flew out as soon as Marinette shut her bedroom trap door.

"Marinette, I-"

"Tikki, what am I going to do?"

"Well, I think-"

"How am I supposed to face Chat again after this?"

"If you would just-"

"What if he's disappointed in me? What if he gives up being Chat Noir because he never wants to see me again? And then, he gets akumatized because he's so disgusted at who I am. Then I would have to fight Chat Noir. I can't fight Chat Noir; we're partners! I mean, I guess I've done it before, but it's different when someone is doing it because they're under the influence of an akuma victim verses being the akuma victim themselves. What if he tells someone? What if that person tells someone? What if everyone that finds out I'm Ladybug gets akumtized because they're so disappointed in me. What if-"

Her next words were muffled when Tikki grabbed a cookie from her emergency stash and shoved it in her mouth, effectively silencing her chosen. Tikki then flew up into her face so they were looking in each other in the eyes. "Calm. Down."

Marinette swallowed her cookie and meekly nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

Tikki continued to stare her down for a second before nodding in satisfaction. "Good. Now, worrying won't do any good, so let's set it aside and you do your homework."

"But-" Marinette began.

"No buts. You need to calm down, and to do that you need to focus on something else for a while. Then, we can talk about what to do."

Marinette nodded begrudgingly and pulled out her tablet to start on homework. It was hard to concentrate, and she frequently tried to divert back to the previous conversation. Tikki now raised a cookie threateningly any time Marinette opened her mouth. Eventually though, she was able to fully turn her mind to her homework as the struggle of physics demanded her full attention.

By the time she was done, darkness had fallen, and her mother had left her a plate of dinner, not wanting to interrupt her daughter's concentration (that was saved for when she brought boys over). Marinette answered her last problem and pushed her laptop away with a groan. "Finished."

Tikki flew up to her, nodding her head approvingly. "Very good, Marinette. How do you feel?"

"Better," Marinette admitted. "Still nervous, but I'm not freaking out."

"Good. Now, let's talk about what you're going to do next time you see Chat Noir."

Marinette pulled at one of her pigtails as she thought. "While it's very tempting to just say I'll avoid talking to him so I never have to deal with this, that would cause problems with our teamwork which in turn could endanger Paris."

The kwami nodded at her encouragingly. "Very wise. So what will you do?"

Marinette groaned and let her head hit the desk. "I guess I'll just have to talk to him. Find out what mistake I made that gave me away, so I can know what not to do so no one else finds out. And hope and pray that he's not too disappointed to find out it's me under the mask."

"Of course he won't be. A mask is what makes Marinette amazing. Marinette is what makes the mask amazing. Ladybug wouldn't be half the superhero she is if it wasn't you under the mask."

Marinette felt tears come to her eyes at the sweet words of her kwami. They hugged- well Tikki snuggled up against Marinette's cheek while the girl cupped her hand over the diminutive creature's form, but it was as close as they could get with the size difference. Inevitably though, Marinette's Marinette-isms started to surface once more.

"Tikki, what if he didn't know it was me and my reaction is what gave it away? What if he just decided to start shouting random girl's names to see if I'd react, and he just happened to get it right?"

Tikki sighed. "Marinette-"

"But if he didn't know it was me, do you think I could convince him that I just reacted because I know Marinette. Then my identity would still be safe and no one would need to know it's me. Tikki, this could be the solution!"

"Marinette, I thought we already had a plan, and from the way he acted, I'm pretty sure he wasn't just shouting random girls' names."

"But he might have, and it's worth a shot, don't you think?"

Whatever Tikki's response was, it was drowned out by something thumping onto the terrace above her bedroom. Both froze and looked at each other wide-eyed. Carefully, Marinette made her way over to the stairs leading up to the roof trap door, while Tikki flew off to hide. When she opened the door, she found none other than Chat Noir waiting for her. At least it wasn't an akuma, but what was he doing here? His face fell in shadows, so she couldn't read his expression.

"Chat Noir. What a pleasant surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

His hands went to rest behind his head in a practiced devil-may-care stance. "You said you wanted to talk later. It's later, so let's talk."

Her most recent rant with Tikki came to mind, and she figured it was worth a shot to feign ignorance. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Chat sighed, and his hands went from behind to head to on his hips. "I know you're Ladybug, and even if I didn't before, I'm pretty sure I heard you talking to your kwami just now."

Anger overshadowed any fear she felt, and she rose the rest of the way up the ladder to face him. "You were spying on me?"

"No, no," he said hurriedly, palms up in a peacemaking gesture. "I just have really good ears, and you weren't exactly being quiet."

Before she could retort, Tikki took action and flew out of hiding to hover in front on Marinette. "He's right, Marinette. There's no need to take it out on him because we were careless."

Defeat hit her like a physical blow, and she felt her shoulders droop as she turned to face her partner once more. It was time to bite the bullet and get this over with. "How did you figure out it was me?"

His teeth flashed in the light coming up from her open trap door, and he held out his hand palm up to her with something in it. "I'll give you a clue. You charmed me so thoroughly, how could I not notice?"

She ignored his flirt in favor of examining the item in his hand. She recognized it immediately, but how in the world did Chat Noir end up with it? "I gave this to Adrien. How did you get it?"

His grin widened. "The person I like gave it to me." Marinette recognized them as the same words she had said to him before patrol last night. But her brain still didn't compute.

A frown tugged at her lips as she looked between it and Chat's face. "So, you were flirting with Ladybug to hide your crush on Adrien?"

He facepalmed and groaned. "No, I do not have a crush on Adrien." He pouted, and Marinette only barely caught what he said next. "Right now, I don't even like him."

Marinette's temper flared once more. "Hey! Don't you dare talk about Adrien like that. He is the kindest, sweetest, most wonderful, amazing-"

Chat Noir cut her off with a flash of light, and shock kept her from looking away or continuing with her tirade, because standing before her was none other than ADRIEN. FREAKING. AGREST! She screamed and jumped backwards. Unfortunately, there was nothing there, and her arms started to pinwheel as she tried to regain her balance before she fell down the hole of the trap door. Adrien lunged forward and grabbed her about the middle, pulling her towards him until their chests were pressed together. Marinette's brain nearly short-circuited at the close contact to her long-time crush.

He flashed her a smile that was nothing like his usual demure, polite ones and would have looked for more in place if she slapped some black over his eyes. "Do go on, purr-incess. I believe you were talking about how I was your most fur-vorite person in the whole world."

Nope. Done. Died. Gone. Does not compute. Mairnette felt the beginnings of a panic attack, and then her eyes started to tunnel vision, right before everything slipped away completely.

More to come, just as soon as I write it. . .