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Part 2

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Relax? The word didn't exist anymore in her dictionary, not when she was lying there on the bench, and all she could think about was that his bare fingers were rubbing her neck.

His.

BARE.

Fingers.

He was standing there untransformed.

His civilian self.

She just needed to open her eyes slightly, and she would have seen him. The boy who stood at her side even in her darkest moment. The boy who had declared his love for her from the day she met him. The boy she had kissed twice now, and once willingly and because she had feelings for him.

No, hang on a second; she had kissed him three times.

It was easy for her to forget the kiss they had shared when they had faced Alya and Nino akumatised into Oblivio. Because she didn't know why she had kissed him, but did she need to understand why anymore?

Oh, and actually, it was FOUR times because HE had kissed HER to prevent her from getting akumatised.

Hang on. Did dreams count? Because if she considered the dream they had shared when Darker Owl hit them... the kisses would only increase. How many? Six? Seven? Yes, Seven. AND they also got married and had kids! And FOUR of them, even!

Besides, she could also say that, even without considering that dream, they had kissed more than four times if you counted even the kisses on the cheek they had shared. The one he had given to her when she'd rejected him after fighting Glaciator. The one she had given to him to tell him that he was still very special to her. Then those on the nose and the corner of the lips... How many? Gawd, some may think they had spent the last nine months making out!

The more kisses she remembered, the more her anxiety rose. She only needed to open her eyes, and she would see the face of her first kiss, the face of all those kisses...WHY DID HE HAVE TO TEMPT HER LIKE THAT? It wasn't bloody fair!

The only boy she had kissed.

Well, yes, she had given Adrien a couple of kisses on the cheek, but... she had only kissed Chat Noir on the lips.

Honestly, she was starting to question whether she had really only kissed him once because she had feelings for him. After all, only True Love's Kiss could break Dark Cupid's spell, and... she could've lied to everyone else on the day, saying that even friendship is a true type of love.

Did she believe it? Even after seeing what was her heart's desire when Darker Owl hit them?

Again, she could lie to him as much as she wanted, telling him Monarch had tampered with their heart desire. She couldn't lie to herself. She knew, deep down, that it wasn't true. That was all their dream. And not just HIS dream. THEIRS. HERS and his.

ARGH!

As she struggled to slow down the fast beating of her heart, Ladybug considered whether she still held feelings towards him.

She was with Adrien now. And she was happy. But—

Could she say that she held no more feelings for Chat Noir? Even after feeling this way only because he was standing behind her detransformed?

And just to be clear, she wasn't talking about feelings of friendship. No, sir. Romantic feelings. Yep. After all, she realised, she found herself in this pickle now because, very stupidly, she had been jealous of him going home and ringing his girlfriend for comfort.

Yes—jealous. Have the balls of calling it by its real name for once; she scolded herself. Chat had started passing his fingers on her back with such a light touch that it sent deep shivers through her core. At the same time, though, it was frustrating her.

"I'm not made of glass, you know? You should push harder, Chaton."

"You sure?" he asked, and she 'uh-huh'-ed, so he started putting more pressure on her back. "I don't want to hurt you."

"You don't have claws anymore, right? So how can you hurt me?"

"Gotcha," he whispered, and again, Ladybug felt shivers running through her whole spine. Why did he have to be so sexy in his confusion?

Maybe it was because she had her eyes closed. Didn't she read somewhere that the other senses get heightened when you can't see? She now understood what that meant. She could smell the fragrance of his cologne as if she had her nose on his neck, and she was highly conscious of his body standing next to hers. It was as if he was emanating heat, and she needed it to warm herself up. As if he was a magnet and she was a piece of metal.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

Chat Noir had finally started putting more pressure on his massage, and his intervention was beginning to become useful because, finally, he was moving his hands around her neck and across her back, and she could feel the pressure. Usually, this alone would help her relax—not now. She was a real bundle of nerves.

"You're so tense," Chat Noir complained. "I can feel it. Am I so bad at giving a massage that you can't relax, Buguinette? I'm sorry."

"No!" Ladybug had to physically hurt herself by biting her lower lip to prevent her eyes from opening and her head from turning around to look at him. "You're not doing that bad it's just—"

"Just?"

She opened her mouth to speak and took a big breath, but he gave her a more vigorous push at the centre of her back, which literally took her breath away. She was left gasping for air, her mouth opened agape, and gasped audibly—a gasp which Chat Noir, of course, misunderstood.

"S-sorry, LB, I—"

"It's okay, Chaton; you just caught me by surprise, that's all." She let out the air that she had taken in a moment before. "I'm just..." How would she say it without sounding a complete and utter fool? "Just... I'm feeling a little anxious because you're not transformed, and if I open my eyes by accident, I could see you."

"Oh, I see. So it's not because I'm doing a horrible job here, because I've no idea what to do."

"No," she said truthfully. "It's not that bad at all. It's all in my head, Minou." And it really was. She wasn't lying. "But maybe now you can retransform, and we can put a face mask on, order some food and relax watching a film on Netflix?"

He chuckled. "Sounds great, Buguinette. You've thought of everything, haven't you?" As he said his transformation words, Ladybug finally started feeling her anxiety wash away. She pulled herself up and opened her eyes, closing them almost immediately because the brightness of the dim light in the room was troubling her. She rubbed her eyes, and eventually, she could look around again.

"It's incredible how just a dim light can feel bright when you had your eyes closed for such a long time," she mainly told herself. Then, she stretched and looked at Chat Noir, sitting with his legs crossed on the floor beside the bench and smiling softly at her. Her heart tumbled in her chest.

"Thank you for going through all this trouble to cheer me up, LB. I'm really grateful."

"You're fine. I-I m-mean, I'm fine. It's fine. Yes, it's worry. Don't worry."

§§§

Chat Noir raised an eyebrow. That way of stumbling over the words sounded oddly familiar. Why would Ladybug wallow over her words while talking to him? She'd never done that before.

Now that he thought about it, there were quite a few things that Ladybug had done recently and that she had never done before, especially the day they had to swap Miraculous to face Safari. That day she almost seemed to want to... flirt with him? And now she was stumbling over her words just like Marinette did with his civilian self when she was in love with him.

No. Bad Adrien. Don't carry on this dangerous path. Because you've already thought Marinette could be Ladybug, but that's impossible. You've seen them next to each other.

Right?

And yet...

"—ton? Chaton?" Ladybug said, breaking the spiral of his threat of thought. He blinked to focus again and looked at her.

"Sorry, LB, I completely spaced out for a moment. What were you saying?"

Ladybug, luckily, just sighed and shook her head. "Silly Minou. I asked if you preferred to order food now or put the facial masks on first?"

Good question. Chat Noir brought a hand to his chin to consider both options. He was hungry. However... "Wouldn't it be better to put the facial masks on first? This way, when the delivery person comes around, they don't get a shock that two superheroes ordered pizzas or something."

"You're right, that's a good idea, Chat Noir. So..." She made the gesture of pulling up imaginary sleeves again and walked to a small cabinet near the gramophone where Fu hid the Miraculous box. She opened it and took out a beauty case.

Chat Noir blinked again.

"What?" Ladybug asked. "Master Fu wasn't great at keeping his stuff tidy; I made this for him long ago to keep his creams and massage oils organised."

Oh, so that was it; she had made it.

Hang on a second. She had… made it? Chat Noir narrowed his eyes and looked at her rather suspiciously. But before he could say anything, Ladybug continued,

"So? Which mask would you like to put on? You've got a choice between—" She grabbed a few bags. "A cooling mask gel, dead sea minerals, tea tree, moisture bomb gel, and hydrating moisturising face sheet." She put them all in front of him and looked at him expectantly.

"Uh...tea tree?" He hesitated but grabbed the plastic container of the mask and read the instructions. Yes, that could do. Minimises and refines pores. Harmless enough for Nathalie not to notice the next day. He saw Ladybug pick up the moisture bomb gel and looked at her expectantly.

"What, Minou?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Sorry, what do we do now?"

"We put it on."

She tore the plastic of her bag and sat with her legs crossed on the floor next to him. He glanced at the bag and then at Ladybug, who was putting the mask on her face helping herself with a middle-sized mirror that she had taken out of the same beauty case. He watched as she poured the content of the bag into her gloved hand, little by little, and proceeded to put it on her face. After a little while, though, he saw the girl balling over herself and not moving anymore.

"Are you alright, m'lady?"

"No," she muttered. "Gosh, I really didn't think this through, didn't I? I look hideous now. No way I'm moving until the mask is ready to peel off."

He smiled softly. "Ah, don't be silly, m'lady. You'd never look hideous. You know that. Even though my heart is now for someone else, I still find you beautiful. It won't be a facial mask that will change my mind."

She muttered something unintelligible. "Thank you, Minou, but really..."

He touched her shoulder, causing her to jump out of her skin. "Look, would it be better for you if I put my mask on too? I'm sure I'd look...hideous...too."

She laughed. "You hideous? You wouldn't look hideous even if you tried."

Chat Noir felt his face getting suddenly hot. "Uh, thanks, m'lady. But I guarantee you, I will surely be affected as well." As he said that, he tore the bag and poured the content of it into his hand. Uh. It was dark green. That wasn't going to make him look pretty! He frowned and started moving his hands on his face to spread the mask evenly. "There you go, LB. You can have a look for yourself and keep hiding if you wish. Even a clawsome specimen like me can look hideous with a dark green face mask splattered over his face." He glanced at the mirror and cringed.

She muttered something unintelligible again. "Agh, it's not fair if I look at you and you don't look at me." She paused for a moment. "You know what? We can do it together."

He nodded and then said, "Uh-huh!" realising that Ladybug wasn't looking at his face yet so that she wouldn't have seen his nod. "At the three, then?"

She "uh-huh"-ed as well, and then he saw her balling her hands into fists and grabbing the spandex-like fabric of her suit.

"But if you don't feel comfortable, LB, don't worry, just go into another room, and we'll wait for the mask to be ready to peel o—"

"No!" Ladybug said. "I was the one who decided upon the masks, so I really shouldn't chicken out. It's just very silly of me. At the three, Chaton. One..."

"Two," he said when she took a little too long to carry on, but then hesitated, his heart racing in his chest for no understandable reason until he heard Ladybug's voice whisper almost timidly,

"Three."

At that, Chat Noir's face shot up, and his gaze searched immediately for his partner's.

He thought he would see Ladybug looking a bit funny, yet still one of the prettiest girls he knew. But he wasn't prepared for what met his eyes the moment his gaze met hers. Oddly enough, the face mask was pink, in a complexion that looked very similar to her skin tone. And... well, he wasn't sure what had happened, but seemingly, wearing a facial mask must be hindering the quantum masking. Because when he saw her, his heart bounced in his chest, and his mouth fell open.

"Ma-Marinette?"

She audibly gasped, her hand reaching for her mouth. "A-Adrien?" Shoot. She had recognised him too! Her eyes went comically wide. "Gawd! And I also knew it was your mother's birthday today; how bad of me not to check on you at all!"

But Chat Noir still hadn't moved from his previous realisation. He kept staring at her with his eyes open wide. He stared and stared, sucking his breath in without remembering how to breathe.

Stupid. He'd been so stupid. How did she fool him that well when they had faced Kwamibuster? He'd been right all along! His lady was Marinette, his sweet and wonderful Marinette. Marinette, who was now looking at him with a massive frown.

"I was getting jealous of myself..." she muttered.

He also frowned at her words. Based on how she was darting her gaze around and rocking back and forth, Chat Noir doubted that she had realised she had said it. "I beg your pardon?" he asked.

She seemed to nearly wake up from a dream. "Oh my God!" she panicked. "THIS IS A DISASTER! I had no clue that a mere facial mask would hinder the quantum masking. We shouldn't have found out! This is so bad, it's terrible!"

But he grabbed her by the forearms and looked straight into her eyes. "You were getting jealous? Of yourself?"

She stopped in her panicky movements and cringed. "Uh, yeah."

"I don't understand."

She cringed again. "Y-you see, I organised this b-because I..." She looked up, her face looking positively flushed under the hardening mask.

A flash of understanding passed on Chat Noir's eyes. "You...like me?" Ladybug's gaze dropped, the girl doing her best to disappear from the world and hide. A wide smile spread Chat Noir's lips. "You do! You like me, you told me that day, on Swans Island." He put a hand on his heart. "I can't believe it. That's why you acted so weird when we faced Safari!"

She glanced at him briefly, to then hide her face behind her palms. "O-of course, now that you know it's me and you've seen me like this I—"

"Don't say it," he interrupted her. "Don't even think about it." He grabbed hold of her hands. "I love you, Buguinette. Now even more than before." But he couldn't resist flashing a grin at her. "The facial mask makes you even prettier."

She smiled and diverted her gaze. "Flatterer."

"It's only the truth! Hand on heart!" He followed his words with a gesture, holding his hand on his chest. "Seeing you like this, and finding out your identity, only makes me love you more!"

She looked at him again, and their gazes met for a long moment. They sat there, unable to move or say anything, the regular tickling of a clock the only sound that broke the silence in the room. Finally, after a long pause, Ladybug tore her gaze from his and put a hand over her chest. "Um, Adrien?"

"Yeah?" He couldn't stop feeling breathless after his discovery.

"Do you still want to order that food and watch a movie on Netflix with me?"

"Of course." He smiled and sighed. "Thank you for doing this for me, Marinette." Then his grin spread on his lips, a cheeky light flashing in his eyes as he elbowed her playfully before continuing, "I knew I should've gone home and called my girlfriend. She's the most beautiful girl I know, caring, amazing, always ready to listen and cheer me up."

As he said that, he gave her such an intense and lovesick look that Marinette thanked God she was sitting down—her legs felt like jelly under his gaze. Her cheeks burned, and she was grateful she had the facial mask on because her actual face was probably a darker shade of red than her Ladybug mask.

Although somehow, the fact that he had a green facial mask spread all over his face did help keep her body from melting on the spot.

Pun intended.

She lowered her gaze and pouted. "I'm sorry, Minou, I just wanted to cheer you up, but... it was a silly idea. How would it even work? I spent half of the time worrying — okay, more 90% of the time — worrying because I was attracted by you, and that was bad because I was with Adrien now, and you had a girlfriend, and I was giving you a massage, and you were giving me a massage, and it felt wrong and—" She stopped rambling only when she felt his hands fall on her shoulders.

He lifted her chin and forced eye contact. "Marinette, did you hear what I said earlier? It did work! You did cheer me up, and this... well, I can see how this can be a disaster for you, but for me—" His hands left her shoulders to rest on his chest, just over his heart. "I'm so happy right now; I feel my heart could explode!"

He glanced at her and noticed her playing with her fingers and looking down, occasionally throwing embarrassed glances at him.

"Although now that I know it's you, it's starting to feel a little... embarrassing because..." Could he talk with his heart in his mouth, he wondered? "We're kind of...alone...no supervision...so it's a good thing I have this mask on because all I'm thinking about right now is that I wish I could kiss you." He smiled sheepishly at her sudden gasp. "So, um, yeah, I'm kind of... keeping this thing on so... I don't get tempted because, um..." He loosened his collar a little and fanned his neck with his hand. "Huh, it's warm here, right?"

This was silly to say because the windows were open, and the wind from the rain outside made the room the opposite of warm. Almost chilly.

"Very warm," Ladybug muttered, and as she did, he noticed that her neck under the facial mask had become red. She cleared her throat and jerked into a standing position, pacing the room. "So shall we order that food?"

"Good idea!" He also stood up, causing Ladybug to nearly jump out of her skin and glide away from him. She grabbed her yoyo and took out from it...uh, was that her laptop? She must've noticed how comically wide his eyes had gotten because she laughed nervously.

"Okay, so... Just Eat and then... Netflix!"

He watched her concentrating on the task ahead and slowly loosening up next to him after putting the food order through and choosing the film to watch, ending up laying on his side, her head resting on his suited chest. As he protectively wrapped his arm around her frame, Chat Noir looked out at the cloudy sky, a soft smile spreading on his lips.

Days like this one would always be hard on him, and the pain of losing his mother wouldn't go away soon. But he knew he was going to be okay, thanks to Marinette. He was so blessed to have her in his life.

Fin


Author's Note


Hello everyone!

Here's part 2! Hope you liked this story as much as I loved writing it! Another different kind of reveal :D I think that when we will see the reveal in the show eventually, at some point, sometimes, ever, it won't feel anything special because of all the different scenarios that we fans have come up with. It's just so much fun ^^.

Please let me know what you thought of the second part! I won't be able to post my MLBB story for a few weeks, until after Easter, but I'll be back with it on the 22nd of April. I had to because I won't be around next week, and the following ones; the following few chapters have cliffhangers at the end. I didn't want to leave you hanging for too long with a cliffhanger!

xeron DX20: I had a thought about what you said in your review and rereading the paragraph, I thought you were right. So thank you for your feedback! I changed it in the story and it feels much better without it. Never feel bad about telling me what you think because I consider all feedback carefully. My stories go through many eyes but some problems can slip through the net. Thank you for helping this story be even better!

As usual, if you read this and enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join my favourite Discord servers, Miraculous Fanworks (discord dot gg slash mlfanworks) and Miraculous Discordance (discord dot gg slash QwgKdUhJNJ). I'll wait for you there!