"You didn't waste my time" she wished she had said. "You helped me realize something I never have before" if only she had said it to him while she had the chance. Chat would probably never come back to see her; she didn't feel like she helped him much.

She had never considered Chat's feelings. It was easy to forget his humanity behind a mask. She had just learnt that he really had strong, deep feelings for her, something she never thought he was capable of. But he was going to let those feelings go.

Her emotions were confusing her. She wanted to be mad at him for telling Adrien his identity, but she felt so sorry for him. And worst of all, she was too late to love him back.

"I could tell you wanted to say more to him Marinette." Tikki pushed a little. "Why didn't you?" She encouraged.

"He has a broken heart. His unrequited love was real. He has always felt for Ladybug... he thinks it's the real me." She uttered, with no particular order to what she was saying.

"Isn't Ladybug the real you?" Tikki replied questioningly.

"The real me is clumsy. And stammers and stuff. The real me is never good enough for a boy like him. I couldn't believe that anyone ever really could fall in love with me."

"Marinette, you might think you're clumsy, but when you're Ladybug, you're doing whatever you want, being whoever you want. Isn't that the true definition of who you are?" The little red kwami asked loudly.

"If you ask me, Marinette, Chat cares about you much more than Adrien ever has, and you know that Chat's mind is deeper than you previously believed. What do you know about Adrien?" She continued.

"I... don't know. I always thought... he..." she couldn't think of any words. On the first day of school, nobody seemed more caring than Adrien, and nobody seemed more full of himself than Chat. So why does this seem reversed now?

"I don't know, Tikki!" She cried, flopping onto her bed.

I did the right thing, so why do I feel so bad? He thought. He got it out, maybe he just expected Marinette to say more. Marinette was ace at giving advice, as far as he could tell from Alya's friendship with her, and her class presidency.

Should I have said more? Should I have said less? I need to stop overthinking.

"Kid, why are you worrying so much? If she really cares, you don't have to worry about it. If she doesn't, then just forget about it. The most important thing here is cheese" plagg sarcastically nagged, comically swallowing a full slice of Camembert at once.

"I've never gone to talk to anyone as Chat noir. Even Ladybug won't talk to me unless there's an akuma attack or an emergency."

"Ladybug is in your head, Adrien. You're carefree, remember? You don't need to follow her stupid rules? And if Ladybug is mad at you, you can't change her mind."

"Woah plagg. Since when have you been motivational?"

"Since I realized that the sadder you are, the less cheese I get." Plagg laughed. He did care, it was just easier not to show it.

"Okay class, get into groups of four." Miss Bustier announced. Out of habit, Nino and Adrien turned around, but this time, Marinette jumped as if it was something new. Probably because she was leaning forward so far.

"Woah, are you okay?" Adrien gasped as she nearly fell off the bench. Typical Marinette. Except she wasn't acting like typical Marinette.

"I'm fine!" She replied defensively. "I-I mean... yeah." She lowered her voice as she noticed Miss Bustier looking at her strangely.

"Okay!" Alya took charge, as she usually did. "So I think Nino and I will work on the research and Marinette and Adrien will work on the poster."

"Why..." Marinette shook.

"You're the artistic ones!" Alya laughed, then nudged and whispered "and that way you get to work with Adrien!"

"Cmon, Marinette. I have the paper here." Marinette got up and slid next to Adrien.

"So I was thinking that we could- Marinette? Hello?" He waved his hand in front of her face and broke her out of her trance.

He got that she might still be confused as to why Chat visited her the night before, but why was she so unfocused?

"Yeah! Of course, I'm listening." She lied.

"No you're not..." he replied. "What's up?"

"Nothing, it's just..." she paused to try to think of the right word. "Realisations."

If Adrien were Chat, his ears would have flapped in sudden interest.

"Do you mind if I ask what kind of realisations?"

She looked into his green eyes, and would have told him. If it wasn't private. Things had changed. She couldn't trust him anymore, even if he did know Chat's identity.

"Sorry. We should just get back to the poster."

"Thank you Chat." The thought came to her mind. "You don't know it, but you helped me realize that I don't need to superficially admire someone like Adrien to be loved back"

She looked another time silently at the boy writing next to her.

"I'll try to tell you that if I see you again."