"Do you know what it's like, my lady, to be in love with someone?" Chat Noir stepped in close to his partner, and cupped her jaw in his hands.
Ladybug met his intense green eyes with luminous blue, and her lip trembled. "Chat…" she began, but trailed off into silence.
He stroked her jaw with his thumb, and she shivered. "Do you know what it's like, to see that person every day, to feel yourself falling a little deeper every day, and to be summarily rejected, every day?"
Her eyes slid closed, and a tear slipped down her cheek. He brushed it away.
"No," she finally answered, her voice small. Then her eyes opened, and fixed on his once more. "No, to your second question. Yes to the first."
He felt her words as a blow, and he held himself very still while he absorbed them. His eyes tightened, but he gave no other outward indication. "Oh?"
"Do you know what it's like, to be in love with someone, to see them every day, to fall a little harder every day, only to learn that he is far more to you than you ever imagined?"
He shook his head in confusion, and she tilted her head into his hand, rubbing her cheek gently over the supple material covering his palm.
"Do you know what it's like," she whispered, "to discover that the one you love is the one you've been pushing away?"
His eyes widened, and his heart began to thump with nascent hope. "My lady?"
"The truth is that I've loved you all along." His breath caught at her quiet admission, and she took a tentative step closer, closing the space between them. "It just took me a while to see, and to understand what was right in front of me. Now that I do see…" Her eyes roamed over his face, and she touched her fingers to his mouth, tracing the bow shape of his lower lip wonderingly. "Now that I see, I can't imagine how I missed it."
He caught her wrist in a gentle grip, and her fingers curled around his as he recaptured her gaze. "What more are you trying to say?"
"I know who you are, Adrien," she whispered. "All of you. And…I want you to know all of me."