Marinette finally settled down and took a break from writing stuff down on the cork board. She sat down on her loveseat as Adrien stood by her side. He was worried about her, but he knew that she just needed to blow off some steam after what happened with Midoriya's Miraculous.

He never really had the chance to talk to her after the mission.

He sat next to her and noticed that she didn't dare to look up at him. Not even a little.

Adrien hoped that whatever was going on with her that he could help her out somehow. They were partners after all.

Midoriya and the others looked at the cork board, wondering what she could've written down. Nothing really jumped out at him. A lot of the stuff she wrote down was things he already knew. Stuff about One for All being passed down to others, AllMight being the one before Midoriya, and of course, the predecessors before him.

Midoriya knew nothing about them, so hoped she wrote down a little bit about them.

And then he spotted what she had just written down. Black Whip.

"What's Black Whip?" Ashido asked Marinette.

Marinette looked up to see the others examining the cork board. Ashido was pointing to the post it note written in black.

"Oh, that. That's one of Izuku's quirks. I'm pretty sure it's actually the one that you lost control of the other day," Marinette explained.

Midoriya looked back at Marinette and realized it was the quirk that he'd accidentally hit her with. He looked at her with worried eyes, and she seemed to know right away what he was thinking.

"Izuku, I'm fine. It happened awhile ago," She told him, "You don't need to worry about it."

"Bu-But... it could happen again!" Midoriya said as he unattached the Miraculous from his belt loop, "You said it glowed. What did it look like?"

Marinette tried to remember, but it wasn't that hard to do so.

"It looked like a shimmering rainbow," Marinette explained as Adrien tried to support her, "It felt... strange... and I didn't even touch it..."

Midoriya's green eyes glistened when he remembered what she was talking about. He saw the same thing and feeling when he was fighting Hitoshi Shinso during the Sports Festival. He looked at his hands, thinking back to when he broke his fingers to get out of the trance he was under.

Dekku poked his head out of Midoriya's pocket and flew over to his head of hair and laid on it. He wanted to swat him off of his hair, but he let him lay there anyway.

Ashido looked like she was going to squeal because of how adorable they looked together.

"Dekku, do you know anything about this?" Marinette asked him, "I mean, you are Izuku's Kwami."

"Well, yeah. I had the same dream as he did last night," Dekku explained, "Only, I felt you enter you the dream when you went to touch it."

Marinette's eyes widened and looked at the Miraculous in Midoriya's hands. She wondered if anything were to happen if she touched it now. Her hand went to reach for it, when Adrien stopped from doing so.

"Marinette, no. This is not the time for that," Adrien said to her, "You're going to ware yourself out if you keep doing this."

"I have to do this, Adrien. I'm the Guardian of the Miraculous, and I need to help them find a way home," Marinette explained to him.

"So, that's what this is about? Finding another way to get them home?" Adrien pointed out as he held her hand, but she pulled away.

"And what's so wrong with that? They helped us defeat Monarch and now I have to find them a way back home," She told him, barely looking him in the eye, "Unless, you don't want them to go home..."

Adrien felt her tone change subtly. It didn't sound sincere, but more suspicious of what he might be up to.

"No, of course I want them to find their way back home! It's just... It'd be nice to get to know them better before they go."

Marinette stood up to face Adrien. She had a sad look in her eyes, one that he somewhat felt responsible for. An image of Jirou and Adrien kissing flashed in her head as looked at the one person she cared about the most.

"What, you mean someone like Kyouka?!" Marinette cried out, bringing tears to her eyes.

The others's eyes widened, especially Ashido's. She watched Marinette stand up over Adrien and didn't like where this was heading.

"Um, guys... Maybe we should stay calm about this..." Ashido said to the Parisian heroes.

"Why should I calm down?! It's not like I saw the two of them kissing!" Marinette yelled out.

Adrien gripped on her hand, looking at her a little nervous.

"Yo-You saw that...?" Adrien asked her, a little taken aback, "It was just... We're..."

Marinette looked down at Adrien's hand holding hers and felt something she shouldn't be feeling. Not when Jirou was with him now. She swiped her hand out of his grip. Tears rolled down her face, staring into his soft green eyes.

"Adrien, I can't do this right now..."

Marinette walked away from him and quickly climbed up the ladder to her balcony.

Everyone sat there, staring at Adrien with wide eyes.

"You and Jirou, kissed?" Kirishima asked him, just to be sure this wasn't some sort of joke.

Adrien tried to avoid eye contact, but eventually nodded his head. Ashido felt bad for both of them, Marinette was in love with him while Adrien had just watched his father get put in jail. She didn't know what to do at this point.

"Adrien, you should go talk to her," Ashido said to him, "She really does need you."

Adrien looked up at the balcony door, hoping she'd just come back down. But she didn't.

He let out a long sigh and went up to the balcony to make sure she was okay.

He opened the door and found her sitting on the lounge chair. She was holding Tikki close to her as tears fell from her face.

"Marinette?" Adrien said as he sat next to her.

She didn't dare to turn around. Not even a little.

Adrien played with a leaf that was on the floor of the balcony, trying to think of what to tell her.

"When you were akumatized, I really didn't know what to do. I was worried about using both of the Miraculous at the same time since you gave me the Ladybug Miraculous. So, I gave Kyouka the Black Cat Miraculous..."

Marinette felt like Adrien was just making it worse by telling her this, but she also wanted to see where he was going with this.

"I didn't know who else to pick. She stood out because she helped me deal with my mother's disappearance. I wanted to let you know that, I found her."

Marinette's eyes widened as she whipped around to face him. His face was lit up with joy that she couldn't help but give him a hug.

"Adrien! Really? Th-That's amazing!" Marinette cried out, "Bu-But how?"

"That was my father's wish. He wanted to bring her back after she got sick from the Peacock Miraculous. All I know is that Natalie got a call from the police, and they found her. She's in the hospital right now. Hopefully one day she'll wake up," Adrien said to her.

Marinette couldn't believe this. She was so happy for Adrien that what was going on with Jirou seemed really silly.

"I'm so happy for you, Adrien," She said to him, "We never really got the chance to talk about... what happened... you know..."

"What? That I'm Cat Noir," Adrien said with a sly smile.

"Yeah... that..." She said to him trailing off, "I'm really sorry for walking away from you like that... We were all upset, and you kept the secret about your father that I thought--"

"There's no need to explain. I'd be upset too if I were you."

"Well, don't worry about it. I'm over it, kitty," She said with a slight giggle.

He smiled back at her, and he knew she'd be okay.

Adrien and Marinette sat in silence for a little while as a subtle breeze blew past them. She caught herself looking at Adrien's glowing facial features and looked back out to the scenery.

"When I found out you were Ladybug, I didn't know what to think at first," Adrien said to her, "But now it seems so obvious that you're her. You're always late to school, always making up these weird excuses whenever an akuma shows up..."

"Hey, you do the same thing too!" Marinette yelled teasingly.

They both laughed at one another's silly ways of getting out of something to go transform.

Marinette looked down at the floor, and all she could think about was that night. Jirou and Adrien kissing.

"You know, I am happy for you. I really am, Adrien," Marinette said to him, "I just..."

She stopped herself from saying something she might regret and looked elsewhere.

"I think you and Kyouka are pretty cute together..."

Adrien seemed to take that really well and gave Marinette a shining smile that almost made her want to confess right there.

"Thanks, Marinette. I really hope we can still go on our daily patrol around Paris just like we use to," He said to her.

"Yeah..." Marinette said back with a gentle smile, "I'd like that."

Adrien raised his fist up to her, and all Marinette could see was Adrien. No Cat Noir in sight.

"Friends?"

She raised her fist up as well, even if she still felt something for him and bumped fists together.

"Friends."

Another amazing chapter!

This chapter was interesting to write. Marinette found out some stuff about One for All, but this was more about Marinette and Adrien talking about what happened during the mission, and their identities being revealed to each other. I like where this is heading and just something different with Jirou and Adrien. I thought it might make things interesting with Marinette and her feelings for him.

More to come soon!