Chapter 4: Vert

In the coming months Marinette had found out a variety of things about her soul mates. She was always eager to learn to learn as much about them as she could, but in this learning process had come some information she never wanted to know.

Through phone conversations and dangerous akuma fights Marinette had learned that Chat Noir was exciting and odd, and grew up in an estranged setting. He had an affinity for terrible puns that made her feel like both bowing over with laughter and groaning so loudly that one couldn't hear her eyes roll out of her head. He was an expert at balancing serious with casual and it made him an excellent partner to work with. He was completely reliable and hopelessly romantic, bringing her small gifts whenever he could after learning something new about her.

She learned that he had a taste for fine things but without realizing that there were other options for things that weren't quite as fine. It made Marinette curious about his surroundings. Did he come from a wealthy family? She became more suspicious as she learned that he was homeschooled and work a job that he referred to as "A family job that isn't typical for a family and garnered a lot of attention from people outside of the family." She wondered why he didn't just tell her what his family did, he knew that her family owned a bakery, would she know who he was if he told her?

It made her worry about him, he was lonely, she could tell, and was unaware of how things worked in the real world. Her worry didn't reside when she learned how he resented his father for sheltering him too much and not allowing him to go to public school. She tried to make him feel better about his inexperience in the world, and keep him from feeling lonely as much as she could. She tried to talk down public school whenever it came up in their conversations, it was easiest to talk about how terrible some of her classmates (Chloé) were. However there seemed little else she could do to help him, she greatly disliked being unable to help her soulmate.

Yet Chat's composure whenever they faced an akuma remained ever strong, he never let the things that bothered him underneath come out during the fight. Marinette couldn't help but admire him for it.

Marinette also unfortunately learned a thing or two about Alya, for one, Nino was right, she had little regard for self-preservation.

She was constantly on the scene whenever a new akuma emerged and it was quite nerve wracking for Marinette to see her soul mate so close to danger without any source of protection or ability to fight back. She had to admit though; it was rather romantic too, getting to save Alya like that constantly. In all honesty that was what really made Marinette feel like a superhero, being able to save her loved ones.

Marinette had truly learned how much of a pain it was to keep Alya and Chat from meeting each other's eyes because of Alya's constant reporting. And she had learned of all the technicalities that that counted as "looking your soul mate in the eyes without actually looking them in the eyes." The fact that Alya constantly had her phone up to film the actions of Ladybug and Chat noir's endeavors had saved Marinette more than enough times. And she had found many an inventive way to prevent two people from looking each other in the eyes, leading to just as many awkward conversations during and afterwards.

Marinette had also learned in the most painful way that one cannot meet their soul mate when consumed by the anger of Hawkmoth's akuma.

Seeing Alya become engulfed with rage and become an akuma was worse than seeing her pinned against the car when Marinette was first acting as Ladybug. It had been undeniably heartbreaking for her and Nino, and Marinette nearly broke down during that fight. When it was over she held Alya tighter than she ever had before as Ladybug and made sure that she got home safely as soon as possible.

Chat had questioned Marinette a lot after that attack. He knew something was wrong then, but she couldn't really tell him why that particular attack had disturbed her so much. This unfortunately led to Chat being more and more curious about the reporter girl and led to Marinette having to work even harder to prevent them from making eye contact. She was all too aware that a public soul mate reveal was much more dangerous than a private reveal.

Which begged the question from both Chat and Tikki as to when she was actually going to reveal anything?

Marinette had no idea.

She had become very close to Chat in the few months since their first meeting, and Marinette had come to undeniably love him as he did her. She just wasn't ready, she kept telling them and herself, but the question always followed in her head "Would she ever be ready?"

She kept telling herself that she would, in just another week or month, just a bit more time. Whenever it came down to it though, she couldn't bring herself to say anything, not after seeing Alya like that.

She afraid that it could happen again, to Nino, or Chat, or even Alya again.

Every time Marinette had an itch to tell Chat about her identity and about their soul mates she couldn't help but think of how he would react. After so much time of keeping them apart he would undeniably become angry at her actions. Possibly even angry enough to be turned by an Akuma, and Marinette knew that if that had happened she wouldn't be able to stop him. Not without him by her side, she needed him. She undeniably and irrevocably needed Chat in every fight, what would she do if she was fighting him? Probably break down for real.

So Marinette stayed quiet, for the thought of how her situation could harm her and her soulmates scared her far more than the strain it had put on her and Chat's relationship as of recent. He was getting antsy, and while he respected her wishes and kept his distance, she knew that he was putting forth a lot of effort to contain himself.

It was a vicious cycle that could only result in disaster for Marinette, but she couldn't think of anything else to do, so she let it continue and boil.

The past few months had been unbelievable for Adrien. He finally had a way to visit the outside on his own terms and get to really understand and experience it. Getting to fight monsters and know more about his soul mate was simply icing on the cake.

He found Ladybug fascinating, she was strong, wise, energetic, and witty. She found beauty in everything she saw and rarely hid how she felt towards people. He learned that she worked in a bakery with her family and always smelt faintly of pastries because of it. Ladybug was undeniably beautiful in every way and Adrien had fallen hopelessly in love with her. And he had noticed with much happiness that she was in love with him too.

Which had begun to bother him as of recent. He had learned much about who she was, but he still didn't know who she was. He had no name aside from Ladybug and didn't know of the beautiful face that undoubtedly remained behind her mask. They had yet to reveal their true identities to each other and he was starting to get worried.

She was afraid to tell him who she was, he had figured out that much, but why? What was she scared of? What could she be afraid of? That he wouldn't like who she was under the mask, doubtful, she found her just as exciting over the phone as when they were fighting akumas. And Adrien made sure to emphasize this point to her whenever it came up, but she remained ever mysterious. He couldn't think of what could possibly be holding Ladybug back, and it had infuriated him to no end.

He wanted to be there for her, he wanted to be there with her.

A/N: Originally I was going to leave out the bit about Alya being akumatized because I couldn't get around the fact that she and Adrien would have to had made eye contact then, until I realized it's pretty fucked up to meet your soulmate while you're an akuma. And I wanted to make Marinette hurt. : 3c

I'm very proud of myself for actually updating to a weekly schedule, but next week's chapter may come a little late, I don't have it pre-written like the others and I have finals the next two weeks, bleh.

Please leave a review if you enjoyed this little chapter, or even any piece of this story!