(A/N: Originally, this was not going to be an angsty fic. It was going to be sweet and happy and they would see each other in real life and realize that everything made sense and they were made for each other. In the end, though, I decided not to do that.

You get angst.

Enjoy!)

Adrien strolled into the café five minutes early, trying his best to look cool but bursting at the seams with excitement. After two years, Ladybug was finally revealing herself to him. He should have been nervous, but he couldn't keep himself from grinning.

And then he saw Marinette.

She was dressed differently than normal, in a simple, flowy red dress and with her hair down. It was longer than he had expected it to be. Her eyes widened when she saw him and he felt a little bit bad that he made her feel uncomfortable. It was for the better, though.

"Hey," he greeted her. "You look nice."

She blushed and bit her lip. "Thanks," she mumbled. "I'm… um… I have a date." She avoided his eyes.

Well, that was fast. Although, it did go to show that she wasn't that serious about him if she had already moved on. "Great," he said, because he wasn't sure what else to say. "I'll leave you to that." Cue finger guns.

She nodded, staring at the tiled floor. He walked back next to the door and glanced around, but he couldn't see anyone who seemed to be her. He checked his phone, but didn't see any notifications. He opened his email, closed it, and repeated the process until ten after two. Finally, he sent her a message: Are you here yet? I don't think I see you.

She responded quickly. Yeah, I'm here. I don't see you either.

What are you wearing? he asked.

A red dress.

And my hair's down.

He looked around, but the only red dress he saw was Marinette's.

And her hair was down.

He watched her intently, but all she did was check her phone every three seconds.

Marinette? he sent, watching her. He saw her eyes widen as she glanced around anxiously, and then made eye contact. He walked over and stood in front of her.

Neither of them knew how to respond.

Marinette looked frozen over. After a moment, her cheeks grew pink as hurt fogged over her eyes, and she narrowed them at him. "'I bet you're wonderful all the time,' huh?" Her voice was low as she shot his words back at him "What kind of garbage line was that, anyway?" She scoffed and looked away from him. "And I fell for it! What the heck, Adrien? And I… I even… And you just listened to me! You just listened to me cry over you!" Of all the words in her head, everything she wanted to say, she didn't want to do any of it here. Not dressed up, certainly not dressed up for him, not in public. She looked at the EXIT sign over the doorway behind him, at the window to his left, anywhere but his face. Panic was setting in next to her anger. She was about to start crying and she didn't want him to see it. Again. "You've got to be kidding me," she ground out, forcing herself not to stutter, before shoving around him and stalking out of the restaurant.

Adrien stood where she had left him, shell-shocked.

She was right. This had to be some cosmic joke. Adrien took a deep breath, all of the pieces slipping into place in his head. For two years, he had ignored the ditzy classmate crushing on him, while he pined over his superhero partner in much the same way, and she ignored him because she was in love with the fashion model who sat in front of her in class.

He understood, but he was struggling to react. What was he supposed to feel? Sorry? He wasn't. Relieved? Certainly not that. Ashamed? A little, actually.

He had been unfair to Ladybug… to Marinette. Not classmate Marinette, but… Yeah, classmate Marinette. They were the same person.

He had put Ladybug on this pedestal and assumed that his admiration for her was special because he wasn't just a fan, he was her partner. He knew her. But he didn't, really. He had expected the real Ladybug to be something like Joan of Arc or Athena or Cleopatra. He had expected some sort of goddess, and for two years he had rejected her because she wasn't that.

So what if Marinette was barely different from his other fans? She was a person. She was compassionate and fiery, respectable and talented and giving. She wasn't wonderful all the time. She was still a bit air-headed, she was hasty, and she didn't listen very well. She could be unforgiving and self-righteous. But she was humble enough to admit when she was wrong and try to make it right.

And she was brave enough to ask him out, and get rejected, and talk about it to her friend, who assumed that he would always, always stand by her, always accept her.

He was slightly comforted by the fact that Marinette was at least as embarrassed as he was, but she hadn't been so arrogant. They were in the same boat, but he had rejected her where she had accepted him.

He had written her off, and she had given him a chance.

He really was an idiot.

000

She wasn't responding to his emails.

Or text messages.

Or phone calls.

He went to her house, but her parents informed him that she wasn't home.

He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. Marinette had disappeared and probably—no, no, definitely hated his guts. He wanted to talk to her about it, but that wasn't an option right now, and he couldn't talk to anyone else about it, either.

He would have to leave it for now. In the meantime…

He texted Nino.

You home?

Where else would I be on a Monday afternoon?

I'm picking you up in an hour. Don't ask questions.

You good bro?

I said not to ask questions.

000

Marinette was barely inside Alya's bedroom before she broke down.

"Whoa, girl. What happened?"

Marinette just shook her head, vigorously, sobbing. Alya took her by the shoulders and guided her to the bed, sitting her down before sitting next to her.

"Is this about Adrien?"

Marinette nodded. Of course it was. Everything was about Adrien.

But it wasn't Adrien's fault. She would be disappointed to find out she was Ladybug, too. She was just hurt because she thought that maybe Chat Noir could actually see value in Marinette. But Chat Noir had to be Adrien, and Adrien already knew that Marinette wasn't good enough.

"I'll kill him," Alya seethed. "Come on. We're egging the mansion."

Marinette shook her head, trying to calm down. "It's not his fault," she got out. "It's me."

Hearing that only made Alya angrier. "It is not you, Marinette. You are wonderful, and sweet, and soft, and freaking beautiful, and strong, and he would be lucky to have you. What, you think he knows you better than I do? Just because he thinks he's too good for a 'civilian?'"

"That's not it, Alya. I'm just… me."

"So? Who else are you supposed to be?"

Who else indeed? Marinette pulled up her knees and wrapped herself into a ball, crying again. It wasn't even her fault. She couldn't do anything about it. She was destined to not be good enough.

Suddenly, it sucked to be Ladybug. Because no one cared if anyone else was just themselves. Before the Miraculous Ladybug, Marinette was Marinette Dupain-Cheng and that was okay. She was timid and clumsy and nothing special, but no one else was particularly special, either. But now she was faced down with the obligation to be something better, and she simply wasn't that something.

Adrien didn't even have to worry about that. When he wasn't Chat Noir, he was Adrien Agreste, son of Gabriel Agreste, model and genius. Marinette could save Paris as many times as she wanted, but at the end of the day she was the baker's daughter, a below-average student who liked fashion and video games.

No wonder he was disappointed.

"Screw Adrien," Alya declared. "He's just a pretty boy with his daddy's money."

"Alya, please don't talk about him like that." Even if he had hurt her, Adrien was still her partner. Angry or not, she didn't want anyone talking bad about him.

"Whatever. By tomorrow, no one will be looking at him, anyway."

000

Adrien wasn't usually a believer in retail therapy, but he had been looking for an excuse to splurge on this for a while. If he was going to be miserable, he might as well be miserable and materialistic.

"Bro," Nino whispered, staring at her appreciatively.

Shoving his thoughts of Ladybug to the back of his mind, Adrien grinned seductively. "They say what a man really needs is a good woman. I'm naming her Belle."

"I approve. Where's she taking us?"

"Let's find out."

Adrien and Nino spent an hour speeding through Paris on the sleek silver Voxan Charade before deciding to blow their school night in an arcade.

As Adrien methodically beat Nino at everything except for that dumb Stomp dance machine ("It's not even real dancing!" "Don't be a sore loser, dude"), his mind tried to fit Marinette's face beneath Ladybug's mask. Teaching her to waltz, purifying akumas, soothing victims, the moment they met and she wrapped him up with her hanging from that streetlight—it all fit. The only difference was that Ladybug could speak around him.

Actually, even Ladybug tripped up around Adrien. That made sense now.

But she barely even knew Adrien! He was more himself as Chat Noir than he was as Adrien Agreste, and she had never been interested in that side of him.

Which was exactly the reason he had turned down Marinette.

Nino caught him glaring at the screen on which they were shooting down zombies in some warehouse somewhere.

"Calm down, bro. They're not real."

"Sorry," Adrien mumbled. "I got distracted."

000

"I'm not sure about this, Alya."

"It's either this, or I cut all of it off right now."

"Alya!"

"Come on, Mar! It'll be so pretty!"

"But… I've never bleached it before."

"Good, that means this won't ruin it. Now put this towel around your shoulders before we get this on your shirt. Prepare to behold the power of blorange."

000

The Gorilla tailed Adrien to the school, but Adrien didn't mind as long as he was allowed to take his new bike. He garnered a lot of stares in the school parking lot, and Chloe especially was ecstatic.

"Adrikins! OMG! You'll have to take me for a ride later."

He smiled at her. "Of course, Chloe."

She looped her arm through his and they walked like that to the classroom, Sabrina following quietly behind them as Chloe kept the conversation going without any feedback from Adrien. It was a talent, really.

Marinette wasn't in the classroom, but Alya was, and there wasn't half of a second that she spent not glaring at Adrien. He tried to look nonchalant, but it was hard. He took his seat next to Nino without saying a word.

When Marinette finally came into the classroom precisely thirty seconds before the bell rang, Adrien wasn't the only one staring, as evidenced by Kim's loud whistling from the back of the classroom. Adrien had barely recognized her.

In addition to her newly peachy-toned hair (he had heard the word "blorange" passed around between some of his stylists and recognized the hue), in addition to her hair being down, in addition to the short black T-shirt dress that definitely did not meet the dress code, her lips were painted a bright red that brought her whole face to life. Reports say that men stare for 1.3 seconds longer at red lips than pink, but Adrien was far past the average seven seconds when Marinette walked past his desk, careful to avoid looking at him.

He didn't notice his eyes following her until she walked around him and he caught more of her legs than he had been prepared to see. He snapped his gaze to the front of the classroom, where Ms. Mendeleiev was setting up her desk. When he glanced behind him, Marinette's lips were pressed together and her cheeks were pink. Adrien couldn't tell if she was angry or uncomfortable or both.

Alya was staring at her appreciatively until she caught Adrien's eyes and glared at him until he looked away.

Point taken.

000

Alya had styled Marinette that morning (Marinette could have coordinated the look but would never have worn it herself), but Marinette had spent several minutes staring in the bathroom mirror at school trying to decide if she could actually walk into the classroom like this. In the end, she had, and although the attention made her uncomfortable, it was also empowering in a way.

Come lunch, Marinette had adjusted to feeling so conspicuous and was prepared to conspicuously ignore Adrien. As it turned out, this would be the easiest thing she had to do all day.

Adrien turned around right as the bell rang.

"Marinette," he started, "I really need to talk to—"

"Oh my gosh!" Rose squealed. "I love your hair! It looks so dreamy!" Over the years, Rose had discovered a few synonyms for 'romantic' and overused every one of them. It was cute.

"You look awesome," Juleka agreed. She had discovered no synonyms for awesome, but it would have felt weird if she had.

Marinette beamed at them. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "I was really nervous about it."

"It looks great," Alix assured her. "Super cool."

"Super cool," Mylene agreed.

"Hey, Mar," Kim called from behind the group of girls. "You joining for lunch today?" Even though Marinette and Alya went out with Kim's group for lunch often enough already, the invitation felt special today. Was this the power of blorange?

"Yeah," Alya called back, "we're coming."

Marinette, Alya, and Alix followed Kim, Max, and Nathaniel out the door, leaving Adrien and Nino to watch them leave. Marinette had wanted to eat with the girls, but Alya had stressed the importance of going out with the guys today. She made a mental note to invite the girls out to lunch tomorrow.

000

Adrien tried to catch Marinette after class, but Chloe caught him first, demanding a ride back to the hotel. He knew trying to get away was a losing battle, and getting brushed off by Marinette was starting to get irritating, anyway. So he drove Chloe around the area for about twenty minutes before dropping her off at the hotel and going home. He plowed through the homework he hadn't touched the night before, went down to the kitchen for a quiet dinner, and waited for night to fall.

Once it did, he transformed into Chat Noir and made his way across the area to Marinette's house, landing on her balcony.

It was time to work this out.

He braced himself and knocked on the door.