Marinette pushed against the door. She pulled. She shook the handle for all she was worth. The wind screamed outside, carrying crashes and yells from the other students.

The darkness in the closet was oppressive, and no light was coming in around the seams of the door. Was that because it was still dark out, or was there something blocking the door? There was no way for her to tell.

And what's worse, Adrien still had his chest pressed against her back. He hated tight spaces. But she couldn't get them out. Rule number two was still in effect, trapped or not. She couldn't transform.

Why hadn't he just shoved her in here and left? Why hadn't he taken her suggestion that they separate earlier? They both knew he needed to get away to transform.

"Okay," Adrien said, voice shaking, but only a little. Despite everything, her heart squeezed slightly at his attempt to mask his anxiety. "Okay, I've got an idea. Claws out."

"What?!" Marinette whirled around just in time to be blinded by his transformation. She blinked away spots as he disintegrated the door. A gust of air rushed in, making her gasp at its force. It was louder than anything she'd ever heard. Whistling and roaring like a train at high speed.

He scooped her up and ran down the hallway. The trip was not smooth. He was buffeted by the wind as he tried to find somewhere more sheltered, and he jumped and dodged more often than he ran straight. She could only guess he was avoiding debris. It was just as dark outside the closet now as it had been inside. She couldn't see a thing.

"You should put me down and find the akuma," she said. "I'll be fine. Just drop me behind a pillar or something."

"No! I need to find somewhere safe for you."

"Find a classroom, then," she said, growing more desperate.

"The teachers barricaded the doors."

He stumbled, and her stomach lurched as they went down, but he shielded her from hitting the ground.

"I'm weighing you down," she tried. "I'll be safer once the akuma is defeated."

"I'm not letting you go," he growled, pushing them both back up and continuing down the hallway. He jumped, and they were in freefall until they hit the ground and jerked to a stop. Marinette had to unwind her arms around his neck inch by inch. Being blinded was disorienting and unsettling. She guessed he had jumped over the railing.

He backed them up until his back hit the wall with a thud, then slid sideways until he found a door. He let go of her waist only briefly to turn the handle and let it blow open. The air felt colder, and the wind more gusty, but more scattered and less precise. If she had to guess, she would say that was the front door. He set her down, and she felt around until she found one of the tall stone pillars. It wasn't much for shelter, but it was a little better than nothing.

The noise that surrounded them increased in pitch until she thought her ears would pop, and then without warning, like the air had all been sucked out, the windows above them shattered. They both ducked their heads, Chat Noir trying to cover both of them from the glass, and the wind suddenly disappeared. A little bit of the light seeped back into their surroundings, enough for her to see a figure floating away, above fifty feet in the air, and Chat Noir, uncovering his human ears.

"I'm fine now. You need to go," Marinette whispered when she got her breath back.

"I can't."

Marinette folded her arms. She was never going to get this fight finished at this rate. "Why not?"

"Because I love you!"

Again, Marinette felt like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs. Glass shards lay in pieces around her. An akuma was on the loose. And all she could do was stare at Chat Noir, standing earnest and wide-eyed in front of her.

She was the girl? She couldn't believe they both were that stupid, that she hadn't been able to see what was happening, and him because he'd fallen for her twice.

How had she not realized?! (Maybe she just hadn't wanted to.)

Chat Noir had fallen for her in and out of the mask. No matter how she acted or what she was wearing, he loved her. For who she was at her core. Maybe he could sense deep down that Marinette and Ladybug were the same, but the thought floated to the edge of her consciousness along with every other idea that she'd had when she saw his face start to drift closer to hers.

He slowed, gauging her reaction, waiting for her to respond.

Rule one was still in play. They weren't allowed to be together. They couldn't do this. But she wanted to kiss him so badly.

Marinette didn't know what to do, but inaction was also a choice. She remained frozen for far too long.

Chat Noir pulled back. "I'll take you home."

He gently dropped her off on her balcony and waited until she had climbed through the skylight and was safely on her bed with the latch secured.

She counted to 30 to make sure he was gone, and then followed quickly after him.

Marinette never made it back to school that day. The fight was difficult, and classes were dismissed because of the severity of the attack. They didn't have patrol that night, and it was unlikely they would have another fight before tomorrow, which meant Marinette had to take matters into her own hands if she wanted to see Adrien.

He'd looked upset during the fight. Maybe not enough to get akumatized, but more than she liked. It was only natural Ladybug would want to check on her partner, even if she already knew what was wrong. She'd fix it tomorrow as Marinette, once she figured out how. But for now, he needed comfort. It's what any good partner would do.

She wasn't going over there to tell him her identity, she reminded herself as she swung over the school. And she wasn't visiting as Ladybug because it would be so easy to call off her transformation either. She passed their statue. She definitely was not going to admit to loving both halves of him and apologize for freezing up earlier, that she hadn't meant to make him think that she didn't reciprocate.

She couldn't do any of those things. It was far too dangerous.

But she could imagine what his reaction would be as she slowly approached his window. How he would smile. Or maybe he would be so happy he would cry. He'd scoop her up into his arms and kiss her. She had no doubts about that.

She blinked at her blissful reflection in the glass of his window. No, she was just here to check on him. That was all. Chat Noir needed to know that Ladybug cared about him and was there for him no matter what.

As soon as she rapped her knuckles, he jumped up from his seat at the computer and ran over.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he opened the window for her and stepped aside to let her in.

"Me?"

"I noticed you weren't yourself during the attack today. What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"Oh," she said.

Adrien looked worn down, and she knew he must still be hurting from what must have looked like a rejection. And yet here he was, asking her how she felt, putting other people's needs first, even when he no longer had feelings for them. He was so selfless, and so kind, and so good.

"I love you," she blurted. In the time it took for the shock to register on his face, a flurry of thoughts had tumbled through her brain. How she'd only loved him more since learning who he was, how much she looked forward to hanging out in her room, the way his polite laugh was nowhere near as beautiful as his real laugh. She hadn't meant to confess, but she wouldn't have taken the words back if she could have. "And I'm tired of pretending that I don't. I know it's not safe, but-"

"Ladybug," Adrien cut in.

She was a little relieved he'd cut her off. She didn't know what was about to come after that "but."

"You shouldn't have told me this now. I'm in love with someone else."

"But–" She held herself back, mercifully, from yet another confession.

"And she doesn't–" His voice cracked. "She doesn't love me back, either."

This was too much. They couldn't live like this. It wasn't fair to either of them. She couldn't let him wallow in his grief. It made him a target, and it hurt to watch as he curled in on himself about something that wasn't true. About something that she'd done to him.

"She loves you."

"What?" His head, which he'd hung down, snapped back up. "How do you know that?"

But she couldn't love Adrien. He wasn't allowed to know.

Her rules were all tangled. Nothing was the right answer. "I can't," she whispered, backing up until she felt the cold glass of his window. "I can't. I can't."

"Ladybug?"

She pushed open the glass and ran away.