Updated 4/28/23
From here on out, I'm deleting the old chapters of Revelation. I have several NEW chapters that will be uploaded in the weeks to come that will be uploaded AS new chapters. I hope you enjoy the new journey we're going on!
May 23, 2015
Adrien's bedroom was enormous. It included a rock-climbing wall, a basketball half-court, skateboard ramps, and a zip line. His father had installed all of it and more in attempts to keep Adrien content and indoors. There was something in Adrien's room, however, that his father didn't know about.
Being a model, Adrien had a great deal of clothes; not all of which were his style. His father let him know which outfits he must absolutely keep and which ones he did not. Adrien kept those and his favorites in one of his two large closets where there was room to spare. His other closet he had modified with a false back to keep anything related to his double life a secret. It was in this secret room where Adrien had set up a "conspiracy" board of everything he knew about Ladybug.
Ever since the revelation of Ladybug's feelings towards Adrien one week ago, the boy had been quite busy.
In the center of the board, there was a newspaper clipping of a picture of Ladybug facing the camera head-on, almost posing for it. Around the photo, were the various pieces of evidence and clues Adrien had collected that related to Ladybug's identity: a screenshot of the Historie textbook Alya had picked up a couple days prior; a copy of the Valentine's Day poem he had written to Ladybug; the mysterious poem he had received as a response; a list of girls from his class year with their photos; random scribbles of information he had learned from his time with Ladybug in general.
Adrien wrote down the new information he learned about Ladybug's crush and added it to the board. Plagg sat in the little cushion Adrien had scrounged up for him, munching on a piece of Camembert. "Took you long enough to add that to your 'crazy board'"
"I still can't believe it, Plagg! She likes me… I mean, really ME as Adrien!" He scratched his head, staring at the evidence. "But how can this help me learn who she really is?"
Plagg kept chewing his cheese. "Okay, let's start simple: how did you know to look at the girls in your class? Why did you narrow it down to those 8?"
"Exhibit A: the textbook." Adrien tapped the photo with an extendable pointer. "I have the exact same textbook and when Alya first posted about it on the LadyBlog, she noted that our school was the only one in the city that uses them for our year."
"Exhibit B: the poem. I know it may not have been smart to write a poem to Ladybug at school, but I wanted to try and get something down on paper. That was the only copy I wrote when I gave up and threw it in the trashcan in the classroom. The only way someone could have answered it would be if they went through the trash. Thus, one of the 8 girls in my class has to be Ladybug!" Adrien smiled triumphantly.
Plagg finished his Camembert. "And not one of the custodial people or anyone else who uses that classroom?"
Adrien's eyes went wide. He ran a hand through his hair as he frantically began rearranging the red yarn on the board. "HOW COULD I NOT COUNT FOR OTHER PEOPLE USING THE ROOM?"
"Calm down, kid. I'm just messin' with ya!" Plagg cackled. He floated over to peer at the poem pinned to the board. "You threw it away during the last class of the day. And unless Ladybug really is the janitor, I think your detective work is pretty solid." The kwami read the poem aloud.
"Your hair black as night,
Your pretty blue bell eyes,
I wonder who you are, beneath that strong disguise,
Every day we see each other,
And hoping that you'll be mine,
Together our love will be so true,
Please would you be my Valentine?
"Wow. I forgot how sappy that was."
Adrien swatted at the kwami. "Plagg! Be serious. Help me figure this out."
The two looked at the board in earnest. "Thought: My hair and features don't change much when I transform; my hair just parts a little differently. Is that how it goes with all Miraculouses?"
Plagg shrugged. "Typically, the transformation will alter something, but not much. What are you thinking?"
His boy moved to the collection of markers on the desk he recently stashed in the secret room.
"One of the things I immediately notice about Ladybug are her gorgeous blue eyes. Since my eyes stay green, I'm assuming hers stay the same as well." He moved to the board and crossed Juleka, Alya, and Mylene off of the photo. "None of them have her 'blue bell eyes'."
"What about the 'hair black as night'?" Plagg asked. "Out of the girls with blue eyes left, who's got the darkest hair?"
Adrien's marker crossed off the girls one by one until only one remained: the shy girl who stumbled over herself and her words whenever she was around him. Marinette. He circled her picture in red and stood back away from the board. He was stunned. He had to get out of the enclosed space. Adrien and Plagg exited the closet and Adrien flopped down on his comfortable bed.
"Marinette… Could it really be her Plagg?"
"I dunno. All your evidence fits. Is there anything you can think of that makes sense now?"
Adrien thought back to all of the times he had been with Ladybug and Marinette – although… he had never seen them in the same place at the same time. Except for Timebreaker. He chewed his lip. That akuma dealt with time travel, so it was possible that instance was an anomaly.
Any other time, whenever one of the girls disappeared, the other appeared almost out of thin air. He chuckled to himself. She was also the only other person in their class, besides himself, that hadn't been akumatized. It was easier than he had thought, almost kicking himself for not seeing it sooner.
"Plagg, why haven't I been able to see these signs before? Now that I see them, they're kind of obvious."
Plagg shrugged his tiny shoulders. "It's long and complicated; but basically, it's magic. Keeps people from looking too hard into things they shouldn't. Don't question the powers that be."
The boy chuckled. "Is that code for 'I'm making it up as I go along?'"
As Plagg proceeded to list off all of the kwami and Miraculous facts that he did indeed know and were definitely not made up, Adrien flopped backwards onto his bed, looking up to the ceiling. A grin overtook his face. He had found his Lady; his smile faltered. What happened now?
