Marinette was being paranoid. Adrien wasn't looking at her funny—at least no more than usual. He did sometimes look at her like she'd grown a second head when she was spouting nonsense at him…why did she have to be like that? She was Ladybug, for goodness sake! She faced down supervillains on an almost daily basis and she couldn't talk to a single boy? Even if he was an extremely dreamy. She wanted to think it was all in her head but it had been going on for days. Days! Adrien had been periodically staring at her ever since the Copycat incident.
She wondered if maybe he had heard the voicemail after all before dismissing it. His phone may have been complicated to work but the voicemail box clearly stated that it was a new message. It wouldn't do that if he had heard it. So what was with the staring? She was equal parts uncomfortable and elated.
She decided the best way to see if she was being paranoid was to ask. Alya always told things to her straight. She leaned over and whispered, "Am I crazy or has Adrien been staring at me?"
"Adrien has totally been staring at you," Alya confirmed. "Is there something you're not telling me?"
"No way!" Marinette protested. "I have no idea what's going on! I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing."
Alya pondered this. "At least he's noticing you, right? That has to count for something."
Marinette banged her head on the desk. "I just want to know why. It's freaking me out!"
Her best friend laughed. "I can tell. Chill, girl. It can only mean good things when your crush can't stop looking at you."
"What if he's only doing it because he thinks I'm a dorkasaurus and is trying to figure me out like some sort of science experiment?" she moaned. "I can't deal with it, Alya!"
"You could always ask him," Alya offered.
Her head shot up. "Are you kidding me?! Nuh uh. Not possible. The strain would literally stop my heart."
Alya shook her head with a smile as the bell rang. "You're hopeless, girl. Come on. It's time for food!"
Marinette dragged herself to her feet and once again caught Adrien staring at her as she left the room to go home for lunch. It was really beginning to unnerve her.
"So what do you do when you're not Ladybug?" Chat Noir asked as they were chasing after Lady Wifi. She still couldn't believe her best friend had been akumatized. She was fighting her best friend.
Ladybug tried to cover her shock at the question. She had almost let her thoughts about Alya slip and that could have been a clue to her identity. "Can't you see we're a little bit busy right now?" She looked up and saw that Alya—no, Lady Wifi—wasn't above them anymore. "She's gone back into the hotel!"
Chat Noir glanced at one pink lock icon after another as they ran up countless flights of stairs. "She locked all the doors! Hey, you realize we might actually know each other in normal life."
The very thought was ridiculous. She didn't know anyone like Chat Noir—no one so cocky or with such a terrible sense of humor—so it wasn't possible. "Doubt it! It's locked!"
After several more floors, they reached the top level—the only one that was unlocked. "She's left this one open," Chat Noir noted.
"Get ready for an ambush on three! Three…two…one!" Ladybug shouted. They kicked open the door and found an empty dining room with a phone on every table.
"Ahh, so much for the ambush," Chat Noir said as he looked around.
"Follow me," Ladybug directed. "Where is she hiding? And what's up with all these phones?" It was more than a little weird.
Lady Wifi appeared from one of the phones and began to attack.
Chat Noir leapt over and ducked behind a table. "How now, brown cow? I thought it was you she was after!"
How now brown cow? He was so weird. Ladybug tied Lady Wifi up with her yoyo but the villain disappeared and reappeared on a different phone. "Ha! You can't get me!" Ladybug needed to find a way to get rid of those phones. She began smashing them left and right with her yoyo to prevent the akumatized girl's escape.
Ladybug followed Lady Wifi into the kitchen and realized too late that it was a trap, when she locked the door behind her and trapped her against the wall with two pink lock icons pinning her arms down. Come on, Chat Noir, she thought desperately.
"Who is Ladybug? Is she a superhero or a super-weirdo? How can we trust the girl when we have no idea who she really is? We have the right to know!" Lady Wifi insisted and tugged at Ladybug's mask to no avail. "Why doesn't it come off?"
"Uhhh…because it's magic?" Hallelujah! No one had ever actually tried removing her mask before. It was nice to know that wasn't possible.
The service elevator dinged and Chat Noir slid out. "You're out of minutes, Lady Wifi!" His comedic timing may not be the best but he was always right where Ladybug needed him.
Lady Wifi smirked. "Oh, how romantic. Tomcat's come to save his lovebug!"
Ladybug pulled a face. Her and Chat Noir? Dream on. "I am not his lovebug!"
"We'll come back to that later," Chat Noir said and Ladybug wanted to yell at him to actually do something instead of chatting with the villain. She wanted off the stupid wall! Her wish came true but only after Lady Wifi knocked her partner into a giant freezer and locked the door.
Hawk Moth's butterfly mask came over Lady Wifi before she spoke again. "If you don't get him outta there fast, your crush will be slush. Ha ha ha! Good luck with your cat popsicle! I have other news to cover!" She vanished, leaving Ladybug confused at why Lady Wifi thought she and Chat Noir were a thing before she remembered he was stuck in a freezer. She immediately rushed over to help.
"I'll get you out of there Chat Noir," she promised.
"Take your time!" he called through chattering teeth.
"Lucky charm!" Ladybug yelled and a polka dotted box landed in her hands. "This better be some lucky box…of course, the microwaves!" She put the metal box in the microwave, pushed it over to the locked freezer, and waited for it to explode. "Come on micro-thingies, jam this signal…" she muttered desperately. Chat Noir had been in there too long. He was freezing to death when she was two feet away!
The seal broke when the microwave did and Chat Noir tumbled into Ladybug's arms, half-frozen. "You okay, Chat Noir?" she asked with more tenderness than she thought she was capable of. She was just worried about him, that's all.
"You used your lucky charm…" he noted, his tone almost surprised that she'd do that for him. That made her sad. "There's not much time left." To her relief, his voice sounded stronger when he spoke again. "Open the kitchen door!"
"We can't, the microwave's busted." A thought struck her and she whispered into Chat Noir's ear, aware of Lady Wifi's camera in the room. "Here's what to do, listen to me…"
"Got it."
With a wicked grin, Chat Noir slid a pan over Lady Wifi's camera, blocking the view of her broadcast. Ladybug was freaking out. She was almost out of time!
It was honestly a miracle they were able to defeat the akuma and dodge Alya wanting interviews when both of their miraculouses were so close to losing power. Ladybug started to dash into a room to detransform when Chat Noir stopped her, desperation in his tone.
"Stay! I won't tell anyone. Cat's honor." He smiled at her sweetly and held up a hand as his miraculous beeped. After almost losing him…it was tempting. Today proved how much she cared. She wanted to know who he was. Even if he could be annoying, they could hang out and do things that normal friends did.
"Nobody must now who we really are," she said sadly. "Not even us." She shut the door behind her, not realizing it was open enough that her partner could see the flash of her transformation and was even more conflicted than she was.
She thought about it all the way home and told Tikki what she was feeling one they reached her balcony.
"Is that true? You're gonna tell him? Is that what you heart's saying?" the kwami demanded nervously.
Marinette sighed. "Sometimes your heart tells you one thing, but a great superhero always listens to her head." Telling Chat Noir may have been what she wanted to do but it wasn't the smart thing to do. She could deal with the curiosity.
After Alya surprised her on her balcony with her theory that Adrien was Chat Noir, Marinette was in a state of disbelief. There's no way. They were too different! Chat Noir was probably some class clown who wore leather jackets and rode a motorcycle. Not practically perfect model Adrien Agreste. The only similarities where the blonde hair and green eyes. Let's be real, the cat eyes of the mask could cover any eye color and lots of people were blonde. Chat Noir flirted with her at every given opportunity. Adrien just…stared at her weirdly. There really wasn't anything to compare.