"So, you actually went through with your plan," Plagg said, amused. "You're taking Marinette to the dance?"
"Yes," Adrien said, feeling pleasantly surprised and excited. He didn't expect to feel this way, but he had been nervous to see what Marinette would say when he asked her.
Adrien sat down at his desk at home, pulling up the Ladyblog on his computer. Plagg flew over and sat down on top of the keyboard, causing Adrien's computer screen to go crazy.
"Plagg! Get off!" Adrien said, plucking Plagg off his keyboard.
"But I want cheese," Plagg complained, looking up at the screen filled with pictures of Ladybug.
"Anyway, what about Ladybug? I thought you were excited that she's in love with you," said Plagg, making a grossed out face.
Adrien rested his cheek on his hand, his face crumpling up. "Ladybug doesn't want me to know who she really is. And she doesn't want to know who I really am," said Adrien. "Besides, she says she loves Adrien, but rejects me as Chat Noir…"
Adrien sighed and walked over to the window. "I'm more myself when I'm Chat Noir," he explained. "If Ladybug prefers Adrien, then maybe she doesn't really love me for who I am."
Plagg flew over to Adrien's side, looking concerned for once. "Kid, I think you're taking this way too seriously…"
"Too seriously?" Adrien asked. "I'm just trying to be realistic. How could Ladybug really love me? I can't tell her who I really am. I'm just going to have to let this go for now… If it's meant to be, it'll just work out somehow."
Plagg rolled his eyes. "You're such a romantic mess, kid. Stick to cheese."
"Anyway, Marinette is an amazing girl. And I'm just going with her to the dance as a friend," Adrien explained, talking more to himself than to Plagg at this point. "I feel like I can really talk to her."
Adrien rubbed his chin. "In fact, maybe I will go talk to her tonight after my patrol."
"NO WAY!" Alya practically screamed. "Girl, you better get to work on that dress! This is your chance to blow Adrien away!"
Marinette couldn't stop giggling. She had asked Tikki to pinch her numerous times to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Adrien had asked her to the dance.
"I know!" Marinette squealed. "I still can't believe it, Alya!"
Marinette was running excitedly around the room, collecting the materials she needed to start on her dress. The incident involving Chloe at school that morning was long forgotten and she was determined to bring her design to life.
"And you're going with Nino!" Marinette reminded Alya, grinning.
Alya blushed. "Well, yeah, I couldn't say no to Nino today," she said, crossing her arms and acting like it wasn't a big deal.
"So what about your dress?" Marinette asked. "Do you want me to make you one too?"
"Thanks Marinette," Alya answered. "I know you would make me a killer dress, but you need to focus all of your time on the dress you're going to wear. Besides, my mom has a dress she's been storing away for me from her first school dance."
"That's so sweet," Marinette said, setting up her work space. "Well, time to get started!"
Alya left to go babysit her siblings until her parents arrived from work. Marinette worked all night on her dress, losing track of the time.
Later that night, she heard a knock at the trapdoor. Startled, she looked over to see Tikki asleep on her desk. She quickly covered Tikki up carefully with a piece of fabric before climbing out onto the balcony.
"Princess," Chat said with a quick bow. "I didn't think you'd be awake."
Marinette grinned, sitting down on a lounge chair. "I was up working on my dress for the dance and lost track of time."
Chat sat down cross-legged on the ground, looking up at her, and smiled mischievously.
"So, you decided not to give up on the dress?" he asked.
Marinette blushed, her eyes lighting up. "I got asked to the dance."
"Oh really?" Chat asked, grinning madly. "Was it the guy you have a crush on?"
Marinette couldn't help but wonder why he was so interested. "Actually, yes…" she replied, careful not to say that it was Adrien. She couldn't risk Chat Noir knowing she loved Adrien just like Ladybug did...
Chat sat up in surprise and blinked a few times. Marinette wondered why he was reacting so strongly to all of this information.
Chat seemed to compose himself after a few moments and replied, "That's great, princess! I'm very happy for you. You deserve the best."
He reached up to find her hand and kissed it softly. Marinette wondered why he had come back to see her so soon. He had just visited her earlier that day. Maybe he had thought about what she said, that even heroes need someone to talk to, and had decided to take her up on her offer to lend an ear.
"Is there something you want to talk about, Chat Noir?" Marinette asked, taking back her hand.
There were a million things he wanted to talk about, but he felt there was nothing he could say. Honestly, who could he really talk to anyway? Obviously not his dad or Nathalie, and Plagg was always worried about cheese. He wished he could speak to Ladybug, but she always tried to keep their non-akuma-fighting interactions to a minimum. Nino was a great friend, but he couldn't see him too much outside of school.
Chat looked up at Marinette. He somehow trusted those blue belle eyes. Maybe he could open up to her a little. At the same time, he felt guilty hiding his true identity from her and talking to her as Chat Noir. But, as she had just made him realize, she had a crush on Adrien! Now, he really couldn't talk to her like this as Adrien. She could barely speak around him, and now he realized why.
He didn't know how to feel about it. Marinette was undebatably beautiful and sweet. But what about his feelings for Ladybug? He couldn't think about that right now.
"How can you tell if someone really loves you?" he asked Marinette, surprised at his own question. He immediately felt very silly for asking that.
Marinette looked a bit taken aback by his question, but then she began to tap her finger against her chin, humming quietly as she thought of an answer.
"Well, I think that if someone is willing to risk everything in order to keep you safe and happy, then they really love you," she finally answered.
Chat thought for a moment of the times Ladybug had risked everything for Adrien. When she thought Adrien's life was in danger at the hands of Volpina, she had been ready to give up her miraculous, her secret identity - everything - to save him. But Ladybug also risked her life for Chat Noir. He thought back to when she had rushed to his aide when he had tried to stop Copycat by himself. He grinned slightly, thinking of all the times she had to catch him either by the tail or with her yo-yo in order to save him from plummeting to his death, like when he fell from Robocop's flying car.
But Ladybug didn't love him as Chat Noir too, or did she?
If someone is willing to risk everything in order to keep you safe and happy, then they really love you. Marinette paused to think about her own response as Chat also thought to himself in silence.
Memories came flooding into Marinette's mind as she thought back on all the times Chat Noir had sacrificed himself for Ladybug. He often threw himself in harm's way, acting as a shield for her. She thought about the panic in his voice and eyes the couple of times he thought she had died, like when she jumped into Animan's mouth when he was transformed into a dinosaur.
She looked down at Chat sadly. He really does love me, she thought. Maybe he wasn't as much of a careless flirt as she used to think. Just the fact that he came looking for Marinette to try to sort out his feelings showed how much he really did care for Ladybug. A wave of guilt washed over her as she observed his distraught face.
Maybe if Adrien wasn't in my life, I would give Chat Noir a chance… She immediately tried to take that thought back. Life without Adrien? No way! She felt she couldn't live without him. But she couldn't live without Chat, either. She trusted him with her life.
At that moment, Chat's green eyes looked up at her, looking electric in the dark of night.
"Thank you, princess," he said, standing up. "You've given me a lot to think about. Get some rest tonight, bonne nuit."
And with that, he disappeared into the night.
A week later, Ladybug and Chat Noir were running for their lives from an akumatized victim. Mayor Bourgeois had gotten upset after a news reporter uncovered on live TV that he slept with a teddy bear.
"What's the big deal anyway?" Ladybug asked when she and Chat Noir came to rest on a hidden rooftop. "I sleep with a big stuffed cat and I don't care who knows it."
Chat Noir grinned. "That's why I love you, Bugaboo."
Ladybug rolled her eyes. Even though she acted annoyed, Chat could tell she didn't mind it as much as she pretended to.
A flash of light lit up part of the roof and the two heroes ducked. The mayor, akumatized into an evil king, had control over all of the police force in Paris. They were currently searching the whole city looking for Ladybug and Chat Noir. The pair had been running and hiding all evening, trying to come up with a plan.
"Chat, look over there," Ladybug said, pointing to a small shed on the roof. "Let's take shelter in there until we can come up with a way to take down Bourgeois."
The two entered the dark shed, which was filled with empty bird cages and gardening tools. Ladybug sat down on top of one of the cages, finally catching her breath. Chat sat down next to her.
After glancing out of a small window next to them to make sure the coast was clear, he turned to Ladybug. "So, my lady, how are things going with Adrien?" he asked.
Ladybug's head snapped up from looking down at her yo-yo, which she had been using to track their location.
"W-what?" she stammered. "Oh minou, please don't ask me about that…"
"Why not?" he asked. "I just have to know, what is it about Adrien that made you fall in love with him?"
Chat watched her carefully as she squirmed uncomfortably.
"I can't say too much, minou," Ladybug started. "I don't want to give away my identity."
Chat dropped his eyes, disappointed.
"But if you really want to know, I fell for him because of his kind heart," she said. "He stands up for his friends and he always does everything he can to obey his father, even if it still isn't enough to please him."
Chat wasn't sure why he felt so surprised. If Ladybug loved Adrien for those reasons, she must know him in her civilian life. Chat had begun to wonder if maybe Ladybug was just one of the crazy fan girls who claimed to be "in love" with Adrien Agreste, the model. But Ladybug seemed to know him personally.
Who could she be? Chat wondered. Obviously, it had to be an extraordinary girl. Who did he know that was as amazing as Ladybug?
The only girl that really impressed him other than Ladybug was...Marinette…
"Chat! I have an idea," Ladybug suddenly exclaimed, pulling him out of his thoughts.
Chat shook his head, dazed. He would come back to that thought later.
An evil laugh echoed throughout a dark room in an unknown place before white butterflies took to the air, lighting up the room. At the center stood Hawkmoth, listening to the conversation between Ladybug and Chat Noir.
"I don't know who you are, Ladybug," said Hawkmoth. "But I know who you love, and that's all I need to know."
Ladybug let herself fall through her trapdoor and detransformed as she landed face first on her bed.
"Tikki," she moaned into her pillow. "I'm so tired."
Tikki appeared, giggling and chewing on a cookie. "You spent the whole night running from Bourgeois' policemen! You must be tired. But at least you were able to stop him."
"All in a superheroine's day of work," she sighed happily, closing her eyes.
She was almost asleep when she turned over on her back and noticed the trapdoor above her was still cracked open… and that a pair of green eyes were looking down at her.
She jolted upright, suddenly wide awake. "Chat?"
"Is it okay if I come in?" he whispered through the cracked door.
She was so confused. "S-sure?" she managed to squeak.
Chat Noir came through the trapdoor and dropped onto her bed. "I'm so sorry princess, I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to see if you were still awake."
"Barely," she said, scooting over on her bed so that he had enough room to sit.
Chat gave a quiet laugh. "I won't stay long, I had a pretty long night."
"Out saving Paris?" asked Marinette, thinking back to the exhausting night of fighting akumatized Bourgeois and his policemen.
"You could say that," Chat replied. He looked around at Marinette's room and his eyes came to rest on one of the pillows on her bed. He froze, his green eyes wide open.
"Chat? Are you okay?" Marinette asked, yawning. The sleepy haze was washing back over her.
Chat turned back to look into Marinette's sleepy eyes, his gaze softening. "Y-yeah yeah, I'm okay," he finally said. "I should go and let you rest."
"Okay...goodnight...minou," she said quietly, her eyes already closing as she grabbed her blanket and laid back onto her pillow.
Chat froze again, his cat ears pointing straight up.
Goodnight...minou…
The cat pillow on her bed...her calling him minou...and the fact that she had a crush on Adrien…
It all made sense. His mind raced as he thought back to the realization he had come to when he was in the shed with Ladybug earlier that night.
The only other girl I know who is almost as amazing as Ladybug is...Marinette! he thought.
But could Marinette be Ladybug? His heart almost beat out of his chest and suddenly, Marinette's room seemed to be spinning. He had to get out of here. He glanced down at Marinette, who was asleep by now. He paused, unable to breathe. Was this really Ladybug, sleeping so peacefully before his very eyes?
I need to talk to Plagg, NOW, he thought, quietly climbing up through the trapdoor.