After the events that unfolded with her friends who became the villain Gang of Secrets, Marinette knew she couldn't keep her secret forever. She put her friends in danger because of her secret. She had gotten them akumatized because she was so afraid of everything. The only thing she felt was guilt.
When she told her friends about her break up with Luka, she wasn't telling the full truth.
She could have told Alya that she was Ladybug. She wouldn't have to be as alone anymore.
Even though she didn't tell Alya the whole truth, she had made a sedition as the girls were standing up to leave. She made eye contact with Juleka, tilting her head slightly and giving her a small nod.
The goth girl got the message and stayed back with the bluenette as the others left the room.
Rose paused for a moment and looked back over her shoulder. "Jules? Are you coming?" She asked the other girl who shook her head.
"Go on Rose, I'm gonna stay here for a little while longer." Juleka shifted her gaze from Marinette and back to Rose. "Don't worry Rose, it's fine. Just go already before you're parents loose their shit."
That last comment made both Rose and Marinette start giggling uncontrollably. Neither of them had ever heard Juleka say a cuss word before in their lives! So cut them some slack for goodness sake!
Once the laughter had finally died down and Rose had left, albeit while stilling giggling quietly to herself every few seconds, Juleka turned around and faced her blue-haired classmate.
"So what's on your mind Nettie?" The taller girl asked her as she took a seat next to Marinette on her bed.
The pigtailed bluenette sighed softly and stared down at her lap, her hands clenching tightly into fists as unshed tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.
"I-I... I wasn't telling you girls the entire truth earlier. But I'm afraid that things between us will change if I were to tell you." Marinette's shoulders trembled and tears were streaming down her face like a waterfall. Juleka reached out and pulled the sobbing girl closer to her.
Juleka felt her own eyes start to water, but she refused to let them fall. Her friend needed her right now and Juleka were stay with her for as long as she needed.
"How would our friendship be changed?" Juleka asked in a near-silent whisper. "What are you talking about Nettie?"
The bluenette rubbed furiously at her eyes and took a shuttering breath. "I have this secret that I have to keep for the safety of everyone. But because of that I have to lie and make excuses to the people I love." She paused to take another deep breath before she began speaking again. "My mentor had drilled into my head from day one that my secret must never be discovered: But it getting harder and harder with each passing day. My secret-keeping is the reason that you girls were Akumatized in the first place."
Juleka's heart broke even more at hearing the last few words that came out of her friend's mouth. It was pretty clear to Juleka that Marinette blamed herself for her friends getting Akumatized.
The purple-haired girl had just opened her mouth to start saying something when another voice spoke up from seemingly out of nowhere.
"Nettie, it's not your fault. Shadow Moth is just an asshole obsessed with power! He's the one to blame here, not you."
Juleka smiled a little bit when her comment about Shadow Moth being an asshole made the blue-haired girl giggle quietly to herself.
If there was one thing that Juleka would not stand for, it was Shadow being a shithead and decide to use Marinette's discard to his advantage! There was no fucking way in hell that Juleka would let that son of a nice anywhere near the pigtailed French-Asian girl.
After a few more moments of silence had passed between them for a bit longer than Juleka thought safe, she looked to Marinette, trying to print her with her eyes to say something.
And much to the goth girl's delight, Marinette got the message and started speaking again.
"Ok Jules, what I'm about to tell you cannot leave this room. Do you understand?" At Juleka's slow nod, Marinette took one last deep breath before saying something that flipped Juleka's entire world upside down.
"I am Ladybug."
Juleka was pretty sure that her brain had just short circuited. Did she just her Marinette correctly? Had she really just said that she was Ladybug?
Oh my God! This whole time I've had a crush on my classmate, who've I have liked for years! But to find out that she's Ladybug? Did she even have a chance with the pigtailed superheroin who is also her clumsy, dorky, kind-hearted, and sassy classmate whom she's had a crush on since their elementary school days? There's no way in hell that Marinette has the same feelings for Juleka that Juleka herself has for the French-Asian teenager.
But to be fair, Juleka had also somehow forgotten that Marinette was a lot more perceptive than most people, and she also forgot that she and Marinette were still holding onto each other. Oh fuck! Now what?
"Hey Jules! You okay?" Juleka nearly shrikes when Marinette's face was only an inch away from her own. "You're blushing!" The other girl giggles softly and gave the purple haired girl a small smile.
"I-I uh... you're really pretty!" Juleka blurted out before she could stop herself. "I-I mean, you've always been pretty! But I think you're really cute and I like you a lot!" The goth girl put her hands over her mouth before she could blurt out anymore embarrassing things.
But before Juleka could even think of the best way to apologize, she felt as pair of small hands cup her face and could feel Marinette's lips on her own.
A bright red blush paints both of their faces like a sunset as they pull away to gaze lovingly into each other's eyes.
Juleka's heart is still racing and she's still trying to wrap her mind around that fact that she had just kissed Ladybug! Ladybug: one of the heroes of Paris who also just happens to be her best friend. And she just kissed her!
She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost missed the next few words that came out of the bluenette's mouth. "I like you too, Juleka. I've never realized how much I did until now. I always thought you and Rose would become a thing so I never acted on this but now... Juleka Couffaine, would you do me the honor of becoming my girlfriend?"
Juleka felt her heart stop at hearing those words come out of Marinette's mouth. She could help the wide, excised grin that formed on her face as she stared into the eyes of one of the heroes of Paris.
"I would love to be your girlfriend Nettie!" She nearly shrikes out of pure joy. But Juleka cloaks up to Marinette's Ladybug confidence rubbing off on her.
Marinette's smile is as bright as the sun and her bluebell eyes shimmered brightly like sapphires as she brought her head closer to Juleka's own.
"I love you so much Juleka Couffaine." Her tone was soft and her bluebell eyes were glowing like a thousand sapphires had been painted inside of them.
Juleka smiled right back at Marinette, her ruby-red eyes shining like the sun as she swept her hair out of her face and bent down to give the shorter girl a quick kiss on the cheek.
"I love you too Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Juleka whispered softly into the bluenette's ear. "You're my best friend and the most amazing girlfriend! I'm so lucky to have you in my life Nettie."
The soft-spoken purple-haired girl smirked to herself when a bright red blush the color of her girlfriend's kwami formed on Marinette's face.
Juleka's only response was to give her a cheeky, cat-like grin, her ruby-red eyes gleaming with mischief. "Should we tell the girls or keep it a secret and shock the hell of them?"
Marinette just rolled her eyes in a very Ladybug-like manner. "Are you kidding! We're obviously gonna scare the hell out of them! And they'll be so damn shocked that they'll have the shit scared out of them!"
Juleka's eyes narrowed and she gave the shorter girl a playful public in the arm. "Woah Bug! You're a dramatist little bitch! I think you've gained the rifle as the new so called "Ice Queen for your boldness and brutality."
Marinette burst out laughing and Juleka soon joined in. They spent the rest of the evening together and Juleka informed her mother that she was staying at her new girlfriend's house.
Her only response was a thumbs up and two short questions? "Who is it? Rose or Marinette?"
Juleka snorted and took a selfie with Marinette and sent it to her mother. In the text box she wrote "Does this answer your question?"
After that had been taken care of, the two girls changed into pajams and climbed up the ladder to Marinette's loft bed where they cuddled close to each other and watched some horror movies until it was time for dinner.