Real talk… this is the first ML fic I ever wrote. Yeah you heard that right. Worse, I started writing it before I ever saw an episode (I was extremely taken with the fanart on Tumblr and before I knew it I'd read a few fics and started writing one lol. Well, before I finished this I watched the whole show and got distracted with side projects. So unfortunately I completely lost direction with this and it's been idling away in Google docs purgatory ever since, unfinished. But I still really like it and so I figured, hey. Might as well just post it as is. This was originally gonna be 2 or 3 chapters, so this is extremely long because I just lumped in everything I had.

(P.S. I think I may have stolen a few lines from this for other fics since I thought I'd never publish this so don't judge me if you see a metaphor I have already used somewhere else or smth…)


Sunshower


Dark rain clouds spotted the sky that afternoon, and in between shone great stretches of contradictory sapphire. On Marinette's way home from school the sun blinded her and yet she was caught up in a few minutes of freak rain, which forced her to duck into a shady cafe for cover.

"Oh, a sunshower! Haven't been caught in one of these in a long time."

A few streets to the west, Adrien held his hand out from under an awning, letting it pool in his palm, staring raptly at the sun glares flecking off the raindrops. He peeked sideways at the old woman who had come out of the laundromat to stand next to him and observe the sudden freak rain. It was she who had spoken.

"I've never seen anything quite like it," Adrien admitted. A passing truck splashed through the sun in a puddle, spraying their ankles with glittering raindrops.

"Bad luck, innit?" A few streets east, again, Marinette looked up, realizing the nearby man had been talking to her. He was sitting on a bench by the road, scruffy and skinny and hunched over a weathered book beneath an umbrella. "Though I s'pose it could be good luck, if you like rain." Marinette opened her mouth to ask which one he was, but he just pointed to his umbrella, as though that was all the explanation that was needed.

So Marinette simply nodded and leaned against the wall to wait. The rain subsided, but even as she crossed the road it started up again.

It was just one of those days; like a tossed coin, up in the air and flipping. Soon it would land.

When an akuma attacked a public park uptown an hour later, both Ladybug and Chat Noir were on the scene in record time. In fact they jokingly congratulated each other on their timely appearances, having swooped into the square marking the center of the park at the exact same moment. The akuma, who appeared to have once been the operator of a cotton candy stand, didn't take well to being ignored as the town heroes patted each others' backs on their town-hero-timeliness-record. He promptly declared himself The Swirler, demanded they surrender, and launched his offensive.

But today was a good day. The wind hadn't swept the rain to this part of town yet and Ladybug and Chat Noir had unbreakable duality on their side.

They fell into sync like they were born to work together, and when Chat flawlessly carried out a series of unspoken directions to distract the akuma while she helped a group of park goers that had become stuck to the info booth with swirly sugarwebs, Ladybug would have sworn she was on top of the world. Over on the other side of the fountain, Chat caught the wild smile lighting up Ladybug's features, and it spurred him on the way a cup of coffee could only dream. They were on top of their game. They moved in tandem. They fought like two halves of a whole. The Swirler proved quicker than any akuma they'd ever faced, but today it felt more like a dance than a fight. It was fun.

Maybe that was why they weren't worried, even though they still hadn't managed to pin The Swirler when Chat had to use his cataclysm to free Lady from a particularly nasty cotton candy web. It meant he had only five short minutes left to help her. But he couldn't rush her, and she couldn't be rushed. Ladybug was saving her lucky charm for the right momentㅡthe moment when all the cards were setㅡand that moment hadn't come yet.

She'd know when to call it. She always knew. Chat trusted that the way he trusted oxygen.

The four minute beep hit him when The Swirler got to the carousel at the northwest corner of the park. It stood old and faded between the swing set and the jungle gym with an ominous 'condemned, do not operate' sign hoisted up on the wrought iron fence that encircled it. A pang of doubt dug at his concentration when the little beep sounded from his ring. Chat cursed internally at their miraculouses' Achilles heel and motioned to Ladybug that time was spreading thin.

She nodded, then tossed her yo-yo far ahead and swung onto the roof of the carousel, where their opponent was currently dancing circles around the metal canopy, taunting and threatening them with words they knew spewed right down from Hawkmoth. Chat lingered behind by the control panel, wondering why the old familiar carousel had been condemned. Something had to be done about this akuma, and quick. They'd had so much trouble getting a pin on the guy that it would be borderline impossible for Ladybug to defeat him on her own. That's when the three minute beep revved him into third gear. It was time to throw the akuma off balance so LB could get the upperhand. This must be it: the lucky charm moment.

There were only a few buttons on the control panel, so he didn't have to think twice. He jammed his fist into the one marked on.

Voila. Marquee lights flickered to life around the canopy's edge and along the interior mirrors, and after a sputtery mechanical cough, a Renaissance piano song began plinking from hidden speakers somewhere underneath the plaster-cast horses.

Ladybug shot him a look that said, Really?

Chat grinned sheepishly, letting her know, That's not what I was trying to do.

In that split second when they caught each other's eyes, The Swirler landed a brutal hit on her. Chat gasped as the sloped roof gave way beneath Ladybug and she went crashing through it to the floor below, the falling debris crushing one of the festive horses on its way down and shattering one of the central mirrors into a dozen fat shards. The Swirler peered down through the ragged hole at the dust cloud with a bark of amusement.

Chat vaulted over the iron fence to defend her, and upon seeing this the akumatized cart owner sprinted down the metal canopy and leapt off itㅡright toward Chat Noir. But he sailed straight over him.

"Haha, sucker!" Chat shouted. "Missed me!"

Chat ignored the two minute beep and lurched onto the dias, grimacing at his lady's misfortune. When she fell she had ended up partially in the seam between the central mechanism and the flat floor where the horses stood, and was now struggling to remove her leg from the splintered crevice there, hissing each time she brushed up on a mirror fragment.

"I'm stuck!" she coughed, choking on the cloud of paint and plaster. "Really, really stuck." He kneeled before her and realized that her yo-yo was out of reach, slung on the hip that was currently wedged inside the carousel's damaged turning mechanism. Dang. She was really in there. Suddenly Ladybug's eyes widened in terror as she spied something beyond his shoulder. "Chat!"

Spinning around on a dime, his own heart plunged into a frigid glacial lake. The Swirler was at the carousel's control panel and was eyeing them with a chaotic gleam in his eye.

In a flat second Chat had torn back across the pavement to the control panel. "Oh no you don't!" he growled, twisting the man's wrist right as his finger brushed the 'begin rotation' button. If that thing starting moving while LB was half inside it… Bile rose in his throat and he forced his own body between the attacker and the control panel. The ring beeped again, this time marking its final warning. One minute. But he couldn't do anything except struggle. Couldn't run for cover, couldn't reach his weapon, couldn't even let go, because the second he did… He eyed that button over his shoulder. 'Begin rotation.'

"Hurry, LB!" Eyes on the akuma, Chat redoubled his efforts, but for all his superhuman strength it was all he could do to keep the man from reaching the button. "LadyㅡI'mㅡout of time!"

"Just get out of here," she hollered back. "I'm almost free. If I could just reachㅡ"

"Nothappening," he grunted.

"Chat, don't!" she cried futilely, knowing exactly what was about to happen.

Without preamble the detransformation swept through him, and suddenly it was Adrien Agreste standing there grappling with a murderous akuma. Ladybug wasn't looking. She had refocused all efforts on dragging her leg out of its prison. But around them at a safe distance stood over a hundred onlookersㅡreporters, civilians, young and old, you name itㅡand they all gasped as one as the infamous Chat Noir was replaced with an unarmed civilian.

The majority of Adrien's strength drained out of him with Plagg and he was shoved backwards, bodily, into the control panel. A jolt ran up his spine. He could hear his kwami yelling at him but the words didn't register. Black spots poured into his field of vision at the pain on his back, a warning sign that he was in serious trouble, yet all it did was remind him of Ladybug. Of his need to protect her. Even still, it was more than a regular human could handle, and soon The Swirler had slammed him into the control panel for a second time, a third time, buckling his legs and sending another shockwave through the distant unwitting audience.

Lucky for him, The Swirler had become so engrossed with his newfound easy target that he didn't even notice Ladybug had freed herself. In the back of his mind, under all the white noise, he heard her call out her lucky charmㅡbut only seconds later she was already at his side to tear the akumatized nametag from the cart owner's uniform and purify the butterfly within.

And just like that, it was over.

But…

It wasn't.

Even though the broken rib he was damn certain he'd just sustained on the back of his ribcage was drowning out most other thoughts, Adrien recognized that he had fucked up. Boy, had he fucked up. Sometime in the last three minutes he had stepped sideways out of a dream and into a nightmare, and this was not the kind of nightmare he could wake up from. Shakily he glanced over at Ladybug, who was clutching her completely unused lucky charm to her chest, like it was a homemade parachute and she was about to jump out of a rocket with it.

A blanket? How was she supposed to have used that, anyway?

Adrien caught her eye, a crazed half-smile on his lips. He shrugged at her, as if to say whoops, and the fractured control panel creaked again under his weight. Then he closed his eyes to reality, noting distantly that the crowd of onlookers had seen the all-clear and begun to swoop in on them. No use trying to run now. There were cameras. Too late.

"Adrien."

Her voice was so soft and sure that for a moment the pain felt duller. When he opened his eyes she was there, leaning over him with undisguised concern dancing across her face, followed quickly by sadness, elation, and resolution. He watched her emotional progress with rapt curiosity. Adrien, she had said. Not Adrien Agreste. The girl under Ladybug's mask didn't merely know of him, she knew him. Nerves swept through him then like a static shock and he pressed his lips tightly together, earnestly, eyebrows furrowed as he awaited her next words. A rain drop hit his face. Then another, and another.

"Why did you do that?" she breathed, torn now between emotions so raw he couldn't hope to decipher them without some kind of manual.

"I couldn't leave you on your own."

A smile touched her, and then the crowd was on them in a swarm, shoving past Ladybug in their haste to confront the boy who was Chat Noir. The weird scattered rain finally hit the park, heavier than ever. Adrien went numb as cameras and microphones shoved in at him from all directions from under disposable plastic coverings. A few of the reporters recognized his face and from then on his name was batted around the circle like a beach ball at a concert until he was so nauseous he began to grow faint. After a long minute of this, Ladybug had had enough; she stamped her foot and shoved a few feet of space between the reporters and her partner.

No, she thought, not just my partner. My friend. My... No, this wasn't the time for that. She peeked at him sideways, through her lashes, steeling herself to do the stupidest thing she had ever done.

The blood drained out of Adrien's face as he saw determination taking root in his partner's soul. He knew exactly what was about to happen. "Ladybug," he pleaded through clenched teeth, hyper-aware of the prying microphones, "don't. It's not worth it." I'm not worth it.

The undertone didn't go unheard, and it bothered her to her core. Ladybug squared her shoulders, seeing this boy for the very first time, not as Adrien and not as Chat, but as someone in between. Someone new.

"I'll decide that," she declared hotly. "I won't leave you on your own either."

The eavesdropping crowd pressing in on all sides less than a meter away didn't matter to her. This had nothing to do with them; this was a private moment between friends. As they stared each other down the white space between them crackled with intensity. Adrien shut his mouth. This battle was lost before it even began, he realized. You made this decision the second I lost my transformation.

And she had. Abruptly Ladybug turned away from him, stepping in front of him to obscure him from view of the cameras, then met each reporter once in the eyes before clearing her throat.

The sea of questions sputtered to a stop as they collectively took note that Ladybug was about to speak. But instead of launching into a speech, she whispered, "Release."

With a flash of light, Ladybug was no more and Marinette Dupain-Cheng stood blinking in an onslaught of camera flashes and shrieks of delight and surprise. She could no longer hear any distinct questions; they all crashed together into an indistinguishable cacophony. Tikki flitted straight into her purse, and if she wasn't mistaken she saw someone small and black streak out from behind Adrien and follow in after her. Must be… No, this wasn't the time for that either. She'd have to meet the new guy later.

Inside her chest her heart had flatlined and inside her head was a giant exclamation point that had yet to grow into the fifty-page essay on why this was the stupidest thing she'd ever done. Oh, to be frank, it surely would by the end of the day. But for now it was just (!). She felt almost numb, in fact, and lifelessㅡuntil something warm brushed her wrist.

She glanced down. Saw a hand.

Followed the arm with her eyes up to the shoulder it was attached to.

To the face.

To Adrien's warm smile, to the crinkles at the corners of his eyes.

His calm, familiar face stood out in stark contrast to the chaotic hurricane around them, enveloping her in an island of security. A simple gesture of solidarity was all it was. She recognized that, somewhere deep down as his fingers curled into hers. Yet she melted anyway.

"Everyone shut up! Just shut up, shut up, oh my god shut up, we won't hear them talking with all this shouting going on!"

Both Marinette and Adrien started violentlyㅡit was Alya who had spoken. She was panting and sweating, probably having just sprinted here from way across town, and her hair and clothes were all askew like she had physically fought someone for the place at the head of the crowd where she now stood, holding her video camera aloft.

"Well?" Alya entreated in the ensuing deathly silence. Her eyes sparkled and pleaded. There would be emotions later, when she was alone, but in this once-in-a-lifetime moment she was a journalist. "Say something."

Adrien clung to Marinette's hand like a lifeline and waved at Alya's camera lens. "Hello," he offered. He was dead. He was so dead.

He bit his lip and checked Ladybug'sㅡuh, Marinette's reaction. She was giving him the patented Really? look.

He smiled sheepishly. Sorry? It was too much, it was all too much. Ladybug's eyes on Marinette's face.

"And?" Alya demanded. Seriously? Hello? She turned her camera on Marinette, raising an eyebrow. Give me something better than that to work with girl or so help me god...

But for once, Marinette's inner monologue was startlingly silent, her brain a white blank page. "And... goodbye!" she panicked, then promptly started tugging Adrien by the hand through the crowd toward the street.

Adrien stumbled at first, running into a dozen different people, disoriented by the sudden rain and the sudden movement. But once they'd broken the dense inner circle he came to life, and then it was he who was pulling Marinette through the crowd. He faltered at the road, cringing away from the too-close inquiring shoulders, but Marinette knew what to do.

"Taxi!" she yelled, bouncing up and down and waving the arm that Adrien wasn't hanging onto for dear life. "No way," she breathed as one peeled a U-turn and splashed to a halt about four meters away. "Just our luck," she giggled manically, and leapt off the sidewalk toward the door.

Adrien crawled in after her and had to wrench the door shut; two of the cameramen were trying to hold it open. "Go," he urged the driver.

The man in the driver's seat was slender and almost too tall for the car, and tipped his bowler hat at them in the rearview mirror. Blinking slowly and unwitting to their hurry, he pulled into the road at a leisurely pace and began to drone on about fees and their potential destination. While the cabby was talking, both their phones started to ring in their pockets, and Marinette spotted a couple reporters catching a taxi back at the park.

"Doesn't matter where you go, just drive faster please," she said, pitch rising as the other taxi pulled in behind them at the first red light.

The man, who had introduced himself as Pasha somewhere in that snail-pace intro, raised both eyebrows at them in the mirror.

Marinette fought the onslaught of texts to her settings menu in order to put her phone on airplane mode, and Adrien borrowed the idea happily. After today they would truly appreciate the phrase 'my phone is blowing up.'

"And can you lose that car behind us?" Adrien added, giving it a furtive glance.

Pasha's eyebrows raised so high they were out of sight beneath the brim of his hat. "What do I look like, a Hollywood stuntman? Or is this a practical joke?"

They were moving again now, and the other taxi stayed bumper to bumper as they made their way north. "I'm not joking," Adrien pressed. He knew they'd have to deal with the press eventually, soon even, (and far, far worse than the pressㅡfriends, family), but that was all backseat to this thing with Marinette. They would need an hour to themselves, bare minimum. One hour alone with Marinette was all he asked. He chanced another glance at her. Still clutching the unused lucky charm, she worried at her lip and squeezed her eyes shut. But she hadn't pulled away from his hand yetㅡin fact, she hadn't even scooted all the way over when she'd clambered into the car. She sat in the middle seat, still, squeezing his hand. That was good, right?

Right?

When he'd taken hold of her hand he'd meant it as a show of solidarity in the eyes of the world, more than anything. But now… they were alone. He brushed his thumb along the side of hers and watched the tension in her shoulders dissipate ever so slightly.

Right. Focus!

"I'm serious," he reiterated to the driver, and used his free hand to empty a stack of bills from his wallet onto the front passenger seat. "I'll pay you double. Triple. I'll pay your speeding ticket if you get one. I'll pay off your loans! I don't care, just please lose that car! And get us somewhere out of the public eye."

Pasha gave the pile of cash a gobsmacked stare, then shrugged. "So be it."

It took a lot of quick turns and yellow lights, but somewhere downtown Pasha managed to lose the other taxi. All three occupants breathed in relief when it finally vanished in the distance behind them, obscured by other cars as the light changed at the intersection. Even if there were news copters out, what were the odds of them picking out the right taxi in the sea of cars? Negligible. So they were golden! At least for awhile...

With the immediate danger gone, Adrien found he could no longer keep his dread tucked in. He dropped his forehead into his free hand, groaning. "My life is over, Marinette."

She squeezed his hand. "Our lives are over," she corrected mournfully.

He shook his head. "I can't believe you did that. We didn't both have to suffer. You should have let me do this alone."

LadybugㅡMarinetteㅡpulled his hand from his eyes, prompting him to lift his chin and look at her. When he did, his heart stuttered over its next beat. There was that willful spark he had fallen in love with, glowing on her small frame like fire on a wick. She whispered so only Adrien would hear. "I don't think so, chaton." He couldn't help it. He swooned. His stomach flipped over so hard that he felt it in his broken rib. He would have kissed her right then and there, manners be damned, if Pasha hadn't cleared his throat in the front seat.

"I take it you kids are in some kind of trouble," he posed casually.

Marinette flushed and turned away. Their noses had brushed, briefly, and they were alone in the world. But now they were back in a taxicab in Paris, their deepest secrets were open source material, and their driver was growing ever more suspicious of their crime.

"You could say that," Marinette conceded, then promptly doubled over in laughter.

With one eyebrow raised, Adrien asked, "What's so funny?"

She held up the blanket her lucky charm had given her and shook it, still laughing. "I didn't even use this!"

He couldn't help it. He joined her in laughing.

After another few minutes of these manic suppressed giggles Pasha pulled the cab into an empty parking lot behind a large brick building. "There's another park just south of here," he told them as the car idled, pointing the way. "A little neighborhood one. It closes at six, so you'll have to hop the fence, but it should be empty. I hope that's secluded enough for you."

They thanked him profusely, and Adrien scribbled his personal phone number on one of the bills in the front seat before climbing out, assuring the man that he'd been serious about paying off his loans. Adrien thought that was more than fair for their rescuer. Pasha nodded politely, though he didn't believe for an instant that this possibly-delinquent teenager really had that kind of money at his disposal (boy would he be in for a shock later on), and wished them well.

After scanning the area and concluding the park was too small to have any sort of security guard, they climbed the chain link fence with ease and disappeared into the grove of trees. Already the sun had vanished behind the mountains and the sky above them continued to darken, from rose to gold to deepest indigo. They had driven straight out of the rain in their attempt to lose that other taxi, but they could still see it cascading down in a distant part of the city.

"What are we doing here?" Marinette fretted. Adrien rested against a thick white trunk and she plopped down between two bulges of root at his feet. "Everyone in the world is probably looking for us."

As soon as she hit the ground, Tikki and Plagg emerged from her purse, watching their charges earnestly.

"Hi," Marinette said, wiggling her fingers at the unfamiliar black kwami.

"Hi yourself," Plagg deadpanned. "You guys are in it deep this time." He turned his withering gaze on his own miraculous holder, who immediately averted eye contact. "Seriously, Adrien? Hello? That was all you had?"

"Leave him alone," Tikki admonished. "He did fine, considering the circumstances. Hi, Adrien," she added, shifting from icy to sweet. "I've heard so much about you."

"Tikki!" Marinette hissed.

Adrien flushed. Me? "Nice to finally meet you," he said politely, tapping his fingers on the tree. "Look… Do you think you guys could give us a minute alone?"

Snickering, Plagg followed Tikki up into the branches above them, where they vanished. Adrien and Marinette watched the leaves shaking for a minute, certain that their friends hadn't gone far and were going to be eavesdropping.

"So," Marinette choked out when the silence got to her.

"So." He couldn't take his eyes off her. Not now. Now that they were alone, nothing between them, not even a mask. "I know you didn't want this," he said sadly. She'd only said so a million times over the last few years, that she never, ever wanted her two lives to mix. "Are you… alright?"

She immediately flushed. "Leave it you to be worried about me," she murmured, toying with her hands in her lap. "I'll be okay. It's you I'm worried about. Your dad, your job, your name... That's why I… I thought it would help, you know, if it was both of us instead of just you in the spotlight. I thought it would balance the scales."

Balance the…? Ohhhh.

Belatedly, Adrien realized the full implication of the stunt Mari pulled back there. She wasn't simply getting his backㅡwell, she was, but it was more than that. She had widened the spotlight he'd reluctantly trained on himself to include her. To include Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Prior to her flashy reveal, the story brewing there on camera had been one about Adrien Agreste, part time model and newly revealed vigilante, and it would not have turned out well for him at all. But LadybugㅡMarinette, my friend Marinetteㅡhad taken the narrative by the reins and blossomed a potentially disastrous seed about a model's secret life into a daring story about Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Adrien slid down the tree, landing next to her with a soft thud. "You are incredible, Mari."

For some unfathomable reason this caused her to droop forward. "Because I'm Ladybug, right?"

Shame swept through him at her despondency. A moment ago he'd felt closer to her than ever, but those four words opened a chasm between them. He'd spent so much time praising Ladybug in the past… Was it possible that one of the reasons she had been afraid to reveal herself, even to him, her most trusted confidante, was because she was afraid he'd be let down by who he found?

"No," he assured her softly, and it was true. "Because you're not Ladybug." She glanced up, squinting one eye like she was questioning his sanity. "You're not Marinette either," he decided. "You're…" He pondered, tapping his chin, searching for the words and finding none to describe the brand new person sitting beside him. "Somewhere in the middle, maybe," he settled with an uncertain smile.

That caught her off guard. She wondered briefly if he could read mindsㅡafter all, that was precisely what she had been thinking of him ever since she caught sight of his face by the carousel and learned who was hiding beneath Chat's mask.

"I'll concede that," she said. "Thanks for saving my skin, by the way."

He leaned over her, pressing a hand resolutely to his heart. "My secret identity is not more important than the life of my lady."

Heat crested on Marinette's cheeks and she shied away, freshly shellshocked at the reality of it, that the two most important boys in her life were one and the same. It had always been easier to write off Chat's flattery as just thatㅡflattery. But knowing it was coming from soft-spoken, kind-hearted Adrien made it (and her heart palpitated dangerously at the mere idea of this) sincere. Oh god, it was true. He was sincere! All this time Chat Noir's loving devotion had been totally, irrevocably sincere. God help me. Even though it had grown quite dark she pressed her hands to her cheeks to hide the telltale blush. "This is so weird," she whispered.

Adrien frowned. "Good weird or bad weird?"

"Good weird!" she choked out. "I think?"

But he didn't seem to have heard her. "I've mostly been terrified about what this meant for my life outside Chat Noir," Adrien mumbled, picking at a bit of moss on the fat tree root that stuck up between their thighs. "I haven't even had time to think about what this means for us yet. I mean for Lady and Chat, as partners. You still want me, right?" His voice broke as he said it, but it had to be said and now it was out there, out of his hands.

The question hit her like a slap. Here she was wallowing in her own self-pity about Adrien loving Ladybug and not Marinette and she had forgotten that, at least to his knowledge, neither of her halves loved either of his. (Definitely the least true thing ever assumed by anyone ever. But still, he didn't know!) That crack in his voice... It was rejection.

Oh my god, Adrien Agreste thinks I'm rejecting him.

"Adrien," she ventured shyly, like she was stepping on eggshells. Then she sighed. Screw it. It was time to throw it all on the table. Might as well get the rest of the secrets out there before a reporter dug them up and waved them around shouting yoohoo, look what I found! "That was the dumbest question I've ever heard. Of course I still want you. If anything I want you more than ever."

"Oh." His voice was all gentle surprise. Her words filled his bones with something warm and fuzzy... although, on second thought, that might have been the shock setting in from the whole broken bone thing.

He should probably mention the fracture at some point. Later. Not right now.

He'd always kinda suspected (hoped?) that Marinette had a crush on him, and her kwami's thoughtless comment had sorta confirmed it. Still, it was nice to hear her say it. So the whole time he'd been chasing Ladybug's tail, she'd been chasing his right back. Around and around in circles. Now that they finally caught each other, what were they going to do?

"You're right," he agreed with a laugh, "this is weird."

"Good weird or bad weird?"

"Ugly weird," he replied instantly, then instantly regretted it. This was so not the time for bad jokes, was he insane? "That was a terrible joke and I'm sorry. My mouth said it before my brain said no."

But Marinette was stifling a giggle. "Was that a The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly joke?"

He groaned. "Yes. You've seen it?"

Marinette let the giggle loose, then, and it cascaded down on him like bells. "I love spaghetti westerns. They're so… weird. Italian cowboy movies. Like, how do they even exist? Why?"

Adrien bit his lip to hide his irrational smile. "I know, right? It's the same as if Japan got really big on mariachi music or something. It's the strangest phenomenon ever."

"Leave it to you to mention mariachi music when you've got the girl of your dreams two centimeters away," Plagg droned down from somewhere in the tree, but then went silent after a thump and a rustle of leaves. Adrien went white as a sheet and turned away. Plagg was right. But how was he supposed to handle this, huh? What was he supposed to do? Marinette was Ladybug and she knew he was in love with her. What more could he say?

"I guess this is kind of ugly weird," Marinette mused, toying with her purse strap where it lay forgotten in the grass. "It's all so… messy."

"Yeah." He couldn't bring himself to turn back. "Messy." But he could feel her shrug because her shoulder brushed his, sending a little shock through his heart.

"I always thought if we ever did reveal ourselves it would be… I don't know. Romantic?" she blurted quickly. "I thought it would at least just be between the two of us, alone somewhere, on a rooftop, maybe, or on top of the tower…" she trailed off, remembering that she was not daydreaming and that she was actually speaking out loud.

She almost jumped out of her skin when Adrien's fingers snaked into hers once more, for the first time since they had left the taxi. "I dunno," he murmured. "I thought it was pretty romantic."

Marinette looked up slowly and saw that he was leaning over her again, staring down with a thick intensity that had her frozen in place like he'd hit her with a tractor beam. She thought back on that afternoon, how he'd sacrificed his sanctity for her life, and how she'd in turn sacrificed her sanctity to walk the precarious road by his side. She was very still. "I guess it was," she whispered.

"Mari," he breathed, raising his other hand to brush his thumb across her cheek. It wasn't cold but goosebumps prickled up along her neck. "How do you feel about me now that you know? I mean… all of me."

Marinette could only lean into his hand, feeling the rest of the world slip away from her, like they were in their own little snow globe. Just him and her and the grass below. "Guess."

Adrien smiled ruefully then, watched her intently, fascinated at her demeanor. She'd never acted this way with him before. Not as Adrien and not as Chat. It was like they'd been given a fresh start.

"Okay," he ventured. "Um… messy?"

Marinette rested her hand on top of his. "Yeah," she had to agree. "Really messy. Still trying to reconcile the both of you in my head, you know?"

"I know. Me too."

"Messy," she concluded.

He nodded once. "Yeah, me too. Messy isn't bad, though, right?" Sure it would take some time to rationalize his different feelings toward Lady and Mari and merge them internally, but as far as he was concerned that stuff would come. He wasn't worried.

"No." She wasn't worried either. So Chat and Adrien were the same. Sure it was complicated but the primary emotion she felt toward the boy sitting in front of her was still love, and what was wrong with that? Nothing at all.

"So…" he said slowly, that impish look in his eye.

Her heart fluttered as his nose brushed hers again. "So."

"This sucks but somehow I'm so glad it happened." He pressed his nose further into hers, until their foreheads lay against each other. "Is that crazy?"

Not any crazier than the way I feel about you, she thought. "Where do we even go from here?" she laughed. "This is all crazy."

"Well," he said, dead seriously, "first I am going to kiss you. After that, we'll see. I'm making this up as I go along."

"Chat," she whined, a flood of self-consciousness winding her at her partner's shameless flattery. Then she bit her lip. Whoops. "I mean, Adrien. Crap, why is this so hard? Am I talking to Chat or Adrien right now?!"

But Adrien was far away. He'd been waiting his whole career to hear Ladybug say the word Chat like that, wistfully and sexily and… oh god, he was a goner. "Definitely Chat," he grinned, then pressed his lips to hers.

She made a soft hmf noise, followed by a delicious moan that sent shivers running up his arms. He moved his other hand to her face then, cupping her cheeks firmly as he tilted further into the kiss. When he took a breath, meaning only to pause for a second, she launched into nervous talking.

"I'm kissing Chat," she whispered. "And you're kissing Marinette. You're in love with Ladybug, though, aren't you? Isn't this weird? Is it wrong?"

Adrien moved his hands to her neck, steadying her as she began to fret. "Nothing is wrong when you're in love."

She took hold of his collar and shook him. "You're so hopeless. That doesn't make any sense!" But still she launched herself back at him, throwing her arms around his neck as she kissed him again. He hadn't been expecting it and therefore he floundered for a second before reacting with shameless enthusiasm, wrapping both arms around her waist to pull her toward him. There was no confusion in this kiss. No misunderstanding. There was only them. Marinette moved one hand into his yellow hair and sighed; it was exactly as soft as it had always looked.

Little did she know, head scratches were Adrien's ultimate weakness. He melted instantly in her arms. She smelled of raspberries and dough and yet her lips tasted like… He pulled her lower lip between his teeth and ran his tongue over it experimentally. Yep, definitely honey.

"Chat," she complained again, a lively tremble running up her arms and weakening her grip.

"Sorry!" He released her lip, chastised. "Too much?"

But even as he pulled back, her lip stayed puffed out in a pout, her mouth slightly ajar. It killed him. "No," she shot back. "Not enough. You're teasing me on purpose."

He hadn't been trying to, really, but he couldn't blame her for thinking so. "You know me, LB, I just love teasing you."

A ponderous look crossed her face, causing Adrien to give pause right as he was about to pick up where they left off. "What is it?" he asked, missing her hands in his hair the moment she moved them to his biceps.

"It's just… we slipped back into it so easily," she mused, thinking back on the last couple minutes. She calling him Chat, he calling her Ladybug. "I feel like Chat and Lady know each other better than Adrien and Mari ever could."

Subconsciously Adrien unfurled his fingers from the fabric of her shirt and released her. She sounded so… forlorn. "We have time to get to know each other better."

With a great deal of trepidation, Marinette pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them as if she was cold. The skin on her left thigh was latticed with cuts from the broken carousel where she'd been stuck, and ached as her arms brushed the fabric there. In the midst of their double reveal she had completely forgotten to use her lucky charm to heal everything. (Hell, she hadn't even used the lucky charm! She was still stuck with that useless blanket. What was she supposed to do with it now?) That was all very unlike Ladybug. But… it was typical Marinette.

"Are you sure you want to know me better? Underneath Ladybug it's all just Marinette, Adrien. There's nothing more to Ladybug that you haven't already met. It's just me from here on down."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." The words tasted sour in his mouth.

Marinette shrugged. "Maybe it is."

"Marinette!"

"I'm not trying to be self-deprecating or anything like that," she prattled, "I'm just being honest. I don't want you to be disappointed. Ladybug just isn'tㅡ"

"I know what you meant," he interrupted, "and I hope I only have to explain this once. I know things between us are a little confusing now that we know the truth. But I'm still in love with you." It was the first time he'd ever said it like that, simple and factual. He'd thought it would be like ripping a bandaid off but it wasn't; now that he'd done it he felt more like a bonfire under a spigot of gasoline. "I don't just love pieces of you, Mari, that's not how love works. I love you. All of you. Which is more of you now than it was this morning, but it doesn't matter. I could find out you were living a third secret life tomorrow and I'd still feel the same. I couldn't love you less if I tried. You understand that, right?"

"I understand," she soothed. In the wake of his confession, Marinette could only blink. It was very dark now, and a distant lamppost reflected back at her from a surreal spot in the back of his shadowed eyes, reminding her of Chat's luminous green irises. Who knew her words would cause him such distress? "I guess I just didn't realize that was how you felt about me." How deep his love went. So far she hadn't dared wonder, but here he was telling her in so many words. She would never question it again. "I feel the same."

Dangerous ideas leapt into his head at her choice of words. "You mean…?"

"Yes, chaton." He was going to make her say it, wasn't he? "I love you too."

Adrien groaned, positively beside himself. "You have to stop calling me that."

"What? Why? I thought you likedㅡ"

"Because I really like it and the struggle is real andㅡ"

"I can call you whatever I want, chatonnnh!" She squeaked as he pounced on her, knocking her flat on her back. A slice of pain glanced through his ribㅡcrud, he forgot about that againㅡbut her body was his morphine. There was something electric about the way his warm stomach pressed against hers as their shirts rode up a couple inches, about the leftover rain on the grass that wetted his forearms as he pressed her to the ground with his full weight. In the heat of the kiss he felt his belt buckle catch on the button of her jeans, and shifted his hips against hers in an innocent attempt to relinquish itㅡ

ㅡand broke her.

Adrien heard the break: it snapped like a twig in the back of her throat, a faint, enticing whimper. What he couldn't guess was that it was the last part of Marinette's brain that still warned, "These are uncharted waters. Be careful. You might get your heart broken. You might break his! Figure this shit out before diving in headlong, for God's sake!"

It was that part of her brain giving up with an abrupt, "Fuck it. This is fine."

Because Adrien Agreste had just ground his hips on hers and he was so much heavier than he looked. So many times she'd felt his weight: lifted him, tossed him, thrown him, dodged him, carried him, hell, she'd even been underneath him before. But always in battle. Never here. Never like this.

Having witnessed Marinette go catatonic (hahano, bad cat, focus), Adrien pushed himself up on his elbows to reassess the situation. "Marinette? Are you alright? Should I move?"

"No!" She sprang to life, throwing her arms around him as he made to get up, trapping him there with her. "Sorry, I'm fine," she assured him, though her voice sounded vaguely like a tea kettle that had been left on fifteen minutes too long. "I'm just… so mad at myself!" she blurted, which was a convenient truth that helped steer the subject away from the fact that Adrien had just ground his hips on her. (Which she didn't think he had done on purpose anyway. If she thought that she might have exploded.)

It worked. Adrien tilted her head at her endearingly, blinking slowly. She wondered if he had any idea how very much like a cat he looked in that moment.

"Why?" he asked gently. "Specifically."

Marinette bit her lip, moving her hands from his back into his hair once more. When she dragged her fingernails lightly up the base of his neck his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed, nuzzling his face into her hair. Head scratches, huh? With devilish glee, Marinette stowed that precious bit of information in the old brain-vault.

"Because," she answered. "Here I've been pining away after you for three whole years and I could have had you any time I wanted!"

Adrien rose over her again, the playful Chat-like glint in his eye softening into something a lot more Adrien-y. "You were pining after me?"

Feeling her cheeks grow hot again, Marinette averted her gaze. "You're surprised? I already told you I was in love with you."

"Yeah but… you said pining that time," he pressed, and she felt the back of his fingers come to rest on her cheekbone. "I'm sorry, Marinette. I was so busy chasing Ladybug that I couldn't see anyone else. If it makes you feel better, I was pining too."


...

Sorry, but uh.. yeah that's where it ends hahaha. I know it's an unbelievably stupid place to end and would've made for a better finished project if I just cut out everything after they get into the taxi. And I was going to do that but, hey, there are no rules in fanfiction lmao and I reeeally liked that kissing scene and I thought you would too. So whatever, just take it. *jazz hands* P.S. The blanket was gonna be for when they accidentally fall asleep in the park.

The next two stories are gonna be like this too. (Small self-contained pieces of larger unfinished works, I mean.)

One last thing, please don't beg me to finish this. I would never post something that was half done like this unless there was no chance in hell of me ever finishing it. I just figured you guys might prefer to see it in this condition than not at all (this is definitely one of my funner reveals and I get sad every time I scroll past it in Google docs). So pls don't ask it'll just make me feel bad lol.

Instead, try checking out some of my multichapter fics. :) Those are wayyyy more interesting than this, I can promise you that. Specifically, Strange Aeons! That story is setting out to be my ML magnum opus and it's where 90% of my energy is going right now. xoxo