Marinette ran for the rose garden, ducking behind a bush that she hoped would offer enough privacy to transform. She could figure out an explanation for Adrien later. Ladybug would do the most good now that there was an akumatized villain to fight against. She turned and sprinted out of the garden back into the fray.
Marinette did her best to get closer to the man and the scissors that she was pretty sure contained the akuma, but she was continually rebuffed by a whirl of fabric and the crowds of struggling people. Her suit was body tight and so it appeared that the villain couldn't rip it off of her, which she was grateful for. She hadn't tried to take off parts of her suit while she was transformed, and didn't want to test her theories in the heat of battle. She tried to use her yo-yo to get to the tree behind the now purple-clad antagonist, but couldn't manage to get it to catch around the tree's wide trunk. Marinette searched desperately for something else that she could do to get closer, but came up empty. There was a flash of black in the corner of her eye, and she allowed herself to relax. Chat Noir was here, almost impossibly fast. She had no idea where he lived in the city, but she pushed her questions out of her mind in order to better focus on the present. Wherever he was, she was glad he was able to get here so quickly.
With their combined teamwork, Marinette was finally able to approach the villain. Chat Noir used his staff to vault into the crowd and hold back the strips of fabric that clamored to wind around her ankles. She ran in as quick as she could, trying to make a grab for the scissors but mindful of the sharp edges which offered the only available hand hold. Marinette made a hasty retreat outside of the range of the twisting fabric, glad to see that most of the civilians had managed to flee unharmed (if not a bit undignified, clad in not much more than their undergarments). Now it was the collections of clothing that the other designers had slaved away over that were under attack. Marinette took a moment to collect herself, vowing to fight harder. She was lucky that her work was across the garden, but she couldn't imagine how she would feel if all the hard work she had put into her collection was spoiled in one fell swoop.
Marinette jumped into motion when she heard Chat Noir yell "Cataclysm" before pounding the stage. The metal supports under the platform buckled, and their target was temporarily distracted, looking around in shock. That window was all that Marinette needed, and she darted in and grabbed the scissors from him. She felt her heart beat double in speed as that action caused the edges of her mask to peel away from her face. She tried her best to ignore the rising panic as she pulled out her yo-yo again.
"Lucky Charm!" she yelled, watching the now-pure butterfly flit away with relief. The throngs of people that had run away were beginning to come back, and Marinette knew that it was time for her to transform back. Holding her mask onto her face as best as she could, she scrambled to head back to the gardens. If Adrien had watched her run away, he would expect to find her there. She privately wondered where he had gone, but figured he knew the manor grounds better than she did and had a better hiding spot than a rose bush.
Marinette ventured further inside to hide now that animated clothing was no longer distracting the crowd from other events happening at the same time. She had better transform quickly so that nobody noticed her abscence. She heard footsteps behind her and ducked down rapidly, almost into the bush. She winced at the prick of thorns.
"Marinette?" She would recognize Adrien's voice anywhere. The question was: detransform now and hope he didn't notice, or stay transformed and be prepared to answer some unusual questions about where she was there? She accidentally shifted her position in an attempt to get away from the sharp thorns digging into her side, and several things happened at once.
Firstly, her mask slipped from her tenuous hold as she pulled her arms back in pain. Secondly, Adrien walked over to investigate the weird rustling sounds he was hearing in the bushes.
He stared at her, dumbstruck. She stared back, eyes wide in shock. She scrambled for her mask, but the damage was already done. Her panic increased tenfold, and Marinette struggled to get words to come out of her mouth.
"I...um… this isn't what it looks like!" she exclaimed. Adrien didn't seem to hear here, simply staring into her eyes intently with a weird sort of… understanding?
"My lady," he whispered quietly, so quietly that Marinette might have missed it. But she didn't, and this caused her mind to go into overdrive. Nope. This couldn't be happening. How could she have missed it all this time? She heard a telltale beep and her costume fell away, Tikki finally out of energy. There was no hiding it from him now.
She awkwardly rolled away from the bush, stumbling to her feet.
"Chat?" she asked, looking critically at Adrien. Now that she thought about it, the two had always had a very similar build. The subtle differences from their outfits had been enough to allay any suspicions that Marinette might have had or dreamed of, but now that the idea had been presented to her, she couldn't let it go. The two teens stood there, unable to process anything else. She had an unbelievable crush on Adrien. Chat Noir was also madly in love with Ladybug. Ladybug wasn't nearly as annoyed by Chat Noir as she pretended to be. And Adrien liked her back, too?
Marinette felt like her whole world had come apart.