Chapter 9-Trust

"What are you talking about?" Ladybug asked. Cat Noir wasn't making sense. Despite the seriousness of their conversation so far this evening, he had a very frustrating smirk on his face. "What do you mean he already knows? How could you possibly know that he knows? You didn't even know until you visited that other universe. I never told him about his father being Monarch."

Ladybug could feel her pulse pick up and her breathing come in quicker. Cat Noir couldn't be right about this, could he?

"Let's see if you can figure it out." Cat Noir teased. "Sorry, but if I tell you everything then I'm not mysterious anymore. You wouldn't want to spoil all the fun, now would you?"

Wait, that was exactly what she had said earlier that day when she was talking to-

Ladybug froze, an utterly terrifying possibility coming to her mind. She wasn't sure what was showing on her face, but Cat Noir could clearly read something in it.

"Now we're getting somewhere."

It couldn't be, could it? No. No, no, no. There was no way. It was impossible. Cat Noir loved acting like a clown. Adrien was much more serious. They were completely different. He couldn't possibly be-

"Claws in."

And just like that, Ladybug's entire world tilted on its axis. Adrien Agreste stood before her, his black kwami appearing to hover above his shoulder. Reaching into his shirt, he pulled out a piece of cheese to hand to Plagg who immediately scarfed it down.

Adrien didn't say anything. He seemed to be waiting for her to speak, or perhaps for her to unfreeze. She realized she hadn't moved since he'd spoken, quoting her from earlier in the day.

"This isn't a dream, is it?" Ladybug almost pleaded with the boy in front of her.

He shook his head. "Nope, it's completely real." He hesitated, "Take your time processing this; trust me, it was a pretty big shock when I saw one girl I'm in love with turn into the other." His entire demeanor had changed since transforming back. His grin had transitioned from Cat Noir's smirk to the very sincere smile that she loved so much to see on Adrien's face. The one that didn't stop at his mouth, but reached all the way to light up his eyes. But now his face had a much more restrained look, as if he were holding himself back.

How could I have missed it? Marinette thought, her mind continuing to reel. I thought I knew everything about Adrien, but if he's been Cat Noir all along, then I didn't know ANYTHING about him at all!

In her mind numbed state, she started putting the pieces together. Cat Noir had stopped pursuing Ladybug right around the time Adrien had fallen for her as Marinette. Cat Noir had even pursued Marinette, taking her to Andre's, the very same night that Adrien had come to her family's bakery to see her. Adrien had never been akumatized, unlike almost everyone else she knew. She had fallen for Cat Noir, just as she had for Adrien, because she had finally seen the strength of his character, and how good a heart he really had. Just as good as Adrien's. Yet from the very beginning, she had spurned his advances, stubbornly shutting Cat Noir out, not trusting him until it had been too late.

Trusted him. Her mind flashed back to the day she lost the miraculous. That day had been fresh in her thoughts, thanks to their conversation that night. And with how serious the event had been, the memories were as crisp as ever. After she'd realized that Felix had used the dog miraculous to steal her weapon, she'd panicked. She hadn't known what to trust or what to believe. She'd been right in front of Adrien when that happened. And Adrien had said, "If you're gonna' trust me once, please let it be this time."

She had been too distracted by the stolen miraculous for the meaning of those words to even register, but looking back, it made no sense for Adrien to say that to her, to Ladybug. Why would Adrien Agreste expect Ladybug to trust him? Why trust him 'once'? Why 'this time'? But someone else had been frustrated by Ladybug's lack of trust in him. Someone that had been close to Ladybug many times. Someone that she knew she hadn't trusted enough.

And with horror, she realized Adrien knew everything. He knew her for the liar she was. Of course Adrien was holding himself back. He'd probably been waiting to yell at her the entire night. She'd finally managed to be with Adrien and work out her feelings with Cat Noir, only for her to ruin everything by keeping secrets. It was exactly what had happened with Felix all over again. Her stubborn desire to control everything had led her to disaster.

For a moment, all Ladybug could think about was what Cat Noir had wanted to speak of since asking to speak with her privately. Asking about how she had really felt about Cat Noir, talking about Monarch, but how could Adrien possibly be Cat Noir?

Wait, it seemed like Adrien didn't know about everything. Judging from how their conversation had gone so far, he wasn't aware about his status as a senti-human. But that only made things worse! How could she tell him that now? How could she not tell him now?

There was no way he'd be able to forgive her.

This was a disaster!

Adrien struggled to hold himself back from reaching out to his lady to comfort her as he watched Ladybug digest the information of his identity.

He could tell that she wasn't just shocked, although there was plenty of that on her face too. She now knew that he was aware of the secrets that she'd kept and the lies that she'd told, and her reaction was absolute terror. She probably assumed that he was furious with her; that he planned to break up with her or even to give back his miraculous. In fairness, he had been furious and if he'd been close enough to her when he'd first found out about the truth about his father, he might well have done both. He supposed it was a blessing in disguise that he'd been sent to that other universe. His time there had given him the chance to process the information and had allowed his and Marinette's counterparts to reason with him, before he had said or done something that he couldn't take back. This was a significant hurdle for them, but their conversation had dislodged something in him that night; a two day old blockage he hadn't fully recognized was there until it had gone. And he knew they loved each other enough to overcome this obstacle.

The situation changed when Ladybug's knees appeared to buckle underneath her and she collapsed to the rooftop. Forgetting that she wouldn't be hurt by something like that, Adrien rushed over to her, calling out "M'lady, are you-"

He cut off as he realized she was sobbing uncontrollably. Tears flooded down her cheeks as she realized he had come over to her and suddenly Adrien felt her arms around him, pulling him tightly against her. Adrien smiled as he started to make slow circular motions on her back with his hand, saying, "Shhhh, shhh, it's ok."

"ImsosorryImsosorryImsosorry!" Ladybug sobbed incoherently, her words running together. Adrien got the gist, however. He leaned back a little to try to look at her, but she wouldn't meet his eyes. He had never seen her crumble like this before, but he had heard her. On the day they had lost the miraculous, he had heard her despair and her tears through a door when she broke down as she realized the magnitude of her mistake. He now had an image to connect to that moment in his mind. And as he finally understood the depth of her regret and remorse, recognizing it in the form of the girl he loved falling to pieces in his arms, he felt the last of his anger at her fall off of him.

"I know, I know," Adrien said, as soothingly as he could. As he reached up to stroke her face, for once he knew exactly what he needed to say. More importantly, he knew the words were true.

"And I forgive you."

As he had expected, and hoped, those words stunned the girl in his arms into silence. She finally looked at him, her face still trailing droplets from her eyes, as if she didn't dare to believe what she had heard.

"I mean it." Adrien said simply, brushing some of her tears away. "I'm not happy about the secrets and the lies, but I believe you when you say that you were trying to avoid piling more rocks on top of me. I was pretty angry when I first found out." He gave an uncomfortable laugh and looked to the side. "I really got into it with our counterparts. At one point they were both transformed and they had me pinned to the ground."

"Really?"

Adrien nodded, looking back at her. "It was a crazy few days. But after the shock wore off, I think the thing that bothered me the most was the idea that you thought I couldn't handle the truth. That I couldn't be trusted enough to deal with it."

"That isn't why-"

"I know." Adrien interrupted. "I know, Marinette. The whole reason I wanted to get the answers from you as Cat Noir was because I knew I could trust you to be more, well, honest," he said awkwardly, "than you would if I'd confronted you as Adrien. I knew I could trust the answers more. And I mean it; I believed you when you told me you were just trying to avoid giving me more than I could handle. That's basically what Plagg and our counterparts told me, over and over again. I wanted to believe they were right, but I couldn't get rid of the doubt. I needed to hear it from you to do that. I needed to hear the answers you gave me tonight."

He looked at her, feeling weak, as if admitting to his insecurity implied that he really was as fragile as she had worried. "I meant every word I said." she told him, her voice cracking a little. "About how strong I know you are, and how big a heart I know Cat Noir has."

"Not the other way around?" Adrien asked playfully, perking up slightly.

"Oh, your big heart and Cat Noir's strength were always a given," Ladybug replied, slightly calmer than she had been. "You'd both proven that to me a hundred times over."

Adrien laughed.

"We're going to be okay." Adrien said, taking her hand in his. "As long as we trust each other, we're an unstoppable team."

"You and me against the world." Ladybug said, still shaky.

Adrien reached up to cup her face, and his lips touched hers. Pulling away slightly, she leaned her forehead against his. "Spots off."

Adrien leaned back a little and gazed at the girl that had stolen his heart twice over. They leaned toward each other, and as their arms encircled each other and their lips met, it seemed all was right in the world.

Until of course, they heard the sound of a tiny stomach rumbling just beside Marinette.

"Tikki!"

Marinette scrambled to extract herself from Adrien and reached into her purse to pull out a macaroon. Adrien just burst out laughing at the sight. Whatever else had happened that evening, his lady was still very much Marinette. And as she glanced back at him, an embarrassed look plastered to her face, Adrien lost what little control he had, and fell over, his laughter echoing across the rooftops. The release of the built up tension over the course of the evening was something that he sorely needed.

"This really isn't how I expected this evening to go." the kwami commented, her mouth full of macaron. She looked toward Adrien. "It's nice to see you again, Adrien."

"H-hi Tikki." Adrien replied, trying to bring himself under control.

"And I have to say, this is certainly surprising." Tikki continued, swallowing her food.

"Yeah, this is definitely high up on the list of unusual nights I've had." Marinette said weakly.

"That too." Tikki corrected, "But I was talking about Plagg. I can't believe he's managed to keep his mouth shut since you de-transformed, Adrien."

The black kwami just glared at her.

"I bribed him." Adrien said, unashamedly. "I told him that if he managed to keep quiet after I changed back and talked all this through with Marinette that I'd request Natalie add a cheese cellar to the mansion when my aunt renovates it next year."

That got a storm of giggles out of the red kwami. "And how long is he required to stay quiet, exactly?"

"For as long as some kwamis are about certain subjects, I'm guessing?" Marinette said, trying, and failing, to keep the accusation out of her tone.

Tikki shrugged, unimpressed with her holder's glaring. "You know how it works. You wanted to enforce the secret identity rule more than anyone. Besides, even if I tried to step in, there were a hundred different ways things could have gone wrong. Which is why Plagg and I agreed to keep out of it. And anyway, isn't this the best possible way for you two to have come together? Each of you falling for each other, in costume and out?"

Marinette glanced back at Adrien, and Adrien himself couldn't help but smile. "She does have a point," Adrien admitted. "Finding out you were both the girls I fell in love with felt like a dream. Honestly, it still kind of does."

Marinette hesitated, clearly not wanting to admit defeat. But when Adrien took her hand in his, she couldn't help smiling either. "I guess you're right." she said, begrudgingly. "I get to be with both of the two best people I've ever known in one. The most handsome, generous, and caring boy ever, and the bravest and most forgiving and trustworthy partner imaginable." She was gushing her words at this point, "What more could a girl want?"

"And I get to have the most beautiful and talented girl in Paris all to myself." Adrien bragged. "The most brilliant, confident, and capable superhero, and the most compassionate, kind hearted, and bravest girl ever." Adrien could feel his fingers curling through Marinette's. It was a feeling he never wanted to end.

Neither spoke for a moment; both basking in how lucky they felt.

Growing more serious, Tikki broke the silence, "I hate to bring down the mood, especially since you two managed to work through something as significant as you have, but we do need to worry about your secret identities. I know I said you two coming together like this was the best way, but I'm not so sure about you revealing yourself to Marinette. Especially since we haven't recovered the butterfly miraculous. It was bad enough that you found out about her, but I understand that was an accident. Are you sure about this idea of yours?"

Adrien nodded, standing up, and helping Marinette to her feet. "Tikki's right. We need to take care of that. Like we said earlier, we should be able to akumatize, or kamikotize ourselves with our counterparts' butterfly miraculous in order to make magical charms."

"But magical charms have been overpowered by megakumas before." Marinette argued.

"True." Adrien agreed. "But that's why we're going to add another miraculous power on top of that to protect ourselves. And that's actually the reason I needed to tell you who I was."

"What do you mean?" Marinette asked.

"It's pretty simple." Adrien shrugged. "If we could have done it before, one of us, okay…you, probably would have thought of it. We're going to use the peacock miraculous to create senti-monsters with the power to protect each other from akumas."

Marinette's eyes lit up. Adrien could see that she was intrigued by the idea, but she hesitated, looking to her kwami. "Could that work?"

"Well," answered Tikki, slowly, "Senti-monsters-"

"Senti-beings, Tikki," corrected Marinette. Her eyes flashed toward Adrien for some reason as she said that. Probably in disapproval of Adrien's choice of words earlier.

"Senti-beings," Tikki continued, "are created from powerful emotions. And the stronger the emotion, the stronger the senti-being. So if one were created out of a desire to protect someone from something specific…"

"There is no one in the world that I'd want to protect more than you, Marinette." Adrien said simply. "No one I'd want to keep from getting akumatized more than you. Both as Marinette and Ladybug, I wouldn't want either of you separately to get akumatized. But after I found out you were the same person, the idea just kind of hit me."

"And the same is true for me." Marinette whispered. "You and Cat Noir both; I wouldn't have ever wanted either of you akumatized, more than anyone else. And if I'm protecting both of you at once…"

"I kind of assumed." Adrien said, his free hand going behind his head. "It might be a little arrogant of me to do that, but I figured that would be the case. Which is why, after talking it over with Plagg and our counterparts, I thought that it could work."

"But is it safer than us not knowing at all?" Marinette questioned. "Don't get me wrong, I agree with you. This," she smiled at Adrien and raised their still intertwined hands, "this is wonderful. Knowing you are my partner? It feels amazing. More than amazing. And I really don't want to forget, but are we sure this is safer?"

"Your counterpart brought that up," Adrien explained, "and so did her Tikki. And I wasn't sure at first. But after talking about how things had gone differently in our universe and about the full team, my counterpart had an interesting point."

"What's weird about the team?"

"The fact that we have one." Adrien answered. "Our counterparts never actually needed more than just the two of them, so they were surprised that all the miraculous had holders. Master Fu still had his memories in their world-"

"He did?" Marinette interrupted.

Adrien nodded. "So, they were also surprised when I told them you were the Guardian here. And that you had hand picked every miraculous holder, except for me and Felix. And you had given him a second chance, and allowed him to hold on to the peacock."

Marinette gave a soft, nervous, laugh at that, but Adrien just continued. "And while I don't know all of the other miraculous holders, I do know about half. And that brought up the question of what would happen if either of us ever got akumatized, even if we didn't know each other's identities."

Marinette went quiet at that, but Adrien could see the wheels in her head turning. This was a legitimate problem, and they both knew it. If there were a way to help protect everyone's secret identities, not just their own…

Marinette looked to Tikki, but didn't say anything. She seemed to be waiting for Tikki to speak. The kwami appeared to be thinking hard. "I guess, he does make a good point," Tikki admitted slowly.

Adrien felt himself growing excited, and by the expression on her face, Marinette felt the same.

"But," Tikki continued warningly. "Can you honestly say you think this is safer? That this isn't just an excuse to avoid giving up your memories?"

Adrien spoke up immediately. "I've had days to think this over Tikki, and I've talked it over with Plagg. He brought up the same arguments you have." Adrien glanced over his shoulder toward his kwami. Somehow he'd managed to remain silent.

He must really want that cheese cellar, Adrien thought.

Looking back to Tikki, Adrien continued, "It's true that this is the option I want to take, but part of that is because I think it's the smarter and safer one. But I also meant what I said when I suggested erasing our memories. If Marinette wants to go that route, then I trust her judgment."

His eyes turned to Marinette's, and he could see her grow a little tense. He hadn't meant to put the decision totally on her like that, but he wanted her to know that he trusted her completely, even after finding out about his father. He waited, holding his breath.

Marinette didn't answer right away. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Adrien." she finally said.

Adrien felt his heart sink, and let this hand fall out of Marinette's. Well, that was it then. He'd made the decision to leave it up to her, and he'd stick with it. That was all he could do, he-

"But I'm afraid you're going to need to remember that you owe Plagg that cheese cellar."

Adrien blinked a few times as he saw a wide smile spread across Marinette's face as she opened her eyes. He threw his arms around her as he felt a grin split his own face.

"I owed you that one." Marinette laughed.

Adrien cringed, but his smile grew only wider. "It was awful, but I guess you did." He pulled back and wiped some faint tears out of his eyes. "I guess I know which option you want to go with."

Marinette nodded. "You're right. This is the better option, since it helps protect everyone's secret identities, along with ours." She paused, and emotion filled her voice. "You don't know how much it means to me to hear you say that you trust my judgment, especially after everything that's happened. So I think it's time I start to put a little faith in your judgment. After our counterparts get back, we can go ahead and get started with the first part."

"Let's get started then." said a voice from behind the rooftop chimney.

Marinette deadpanned. "And how long have you been standing there?" she asked.

"Long enough." Cat Noir answered. He stepped out from behind the chimney, Ladybug right behind him, and popped something into his mouth and started chewing. He looked at Adrien. "I take back what I said. Your street food isn't better, but it's still solid."

"Told ya' so."

Picking up the jar with the akuma in it, which had gone largely forgotten during their conversation, Cat Noir glanced back and forth between the couple. "I guess things worked out between you two, huh?"

Marinette looked over toward her Adrien and smiled. "You could say that."

Ladybug rolled her eyes. "I'll translate that for you. That's Marinette for, 'I'm giddy beyond belief, but I'm embarrassed to admit it'. Does that sound about right?" Ladybug asked, looking at her counterpart.

"Pretty much." Marinette blushed.

They all laughed at that, with Adrien coming up behind Marinette. She felt him putting his arms around her. "Me too," he whispered in her ear. Looking to his counterpart, he asked, "Did you guys find the theater?"

Theater?

"Unfortunately," Ladybug answered, "That building was torn down in this universe."

"What building?" Marinette asked curiously.

"My mother, our mother," Cat Noir corrected, nodding to Adrien, "was an actress. She was in movies in this universe, but she performed in plays back in ours." He gestured toward Ladybug. "One place that she put on a lot of performances is still standing in our Paris. It's abandoned, and no one really uses it anymore, so we started using it as a sort of a safehouse. We keep food and water there and stop there for breaks while on patrol."

Marinette perked up at that. That was something their team should start doing.

Her musings on that idea were interrupted by Cat Noir. "We can talk about that later. Right now, let's akumatise you both! Mwa ha ha ha ha!" He attempted to say this in a dramatic way in a clear attempt to be funny.

Everyone else on the roof, including the two kwamis, just stared at him.

"Geeze, tough crowd."

Shaking her head, Ladybug stated, "He's right though. Let's go ahead and give this a shot. You should transform," Ladybug instructed Marinette. "Kitty?"

The whole process took less time and was far less dramatic than Marinette would have expected. After unifying the Plagg and Nooru from their universe, Cat Noir (now Moth Noir) used Adrien's white shirt and the salvaged butterfly from Hole Spacer to akumatize him. They had considered using kamikos instead of akumas, but they decided it would be better to use Nooru's power as similarly to Hawk Moth as possible. It took a few tries, but after a suggestion from the taller Ladybug, Adrien turned his thoughts toward his father, and the anger he felt was enough for Moth Noir to akumatize him. The shorter of the two Ladybugs immediately caught him with her yo-yo, pulled his shirt off of him and tore it in two. The released butterfly was subsequently purified and Ladybug was able to produce a magical charm from the energy. Loaning her miraculous to Adrien (after feeding Tikki another macaroon), Marinette allowed Moth Noir to hit her with the akuma produced from his cane and let it enter her hair ribbon. The guilt and shame she still felt for keeping secrets from Adrien was more than enough for her to be willingly akumatized. Mister Bug quickly ended that, however, and despite never having made a magical charm before, he had witnessed the process enough times to produce one for Marinette.

After returning her miraculous and handing Tikki a piece of camembert (Marinette was out of macarons), Adrien said lightly, "I think that takes care of everything for tonight. We'll track down Felix tomorrow and ask to borrow Duusu. I don't think he'll object." Adrien's eyes darkened. "And he and I need to have a conversation anyway, so I need to find out when he'll be able to meet his cousin face to face."

"Let's all meet up tomorrow evening." Marinette said, putting her earrings on. "After we use the peacock miraculous, we should probably try and test how effective all this will be, and I want to think on that. What are you guys planning to do tomorrow?"

"Sleep." Cat Noir said tiredly. He looked to the light purple kwami next to him, who was swallowing his own piece of cheese. "Using your power is a lot more draining than I thought it would be."

"That's probably just because of the negative emotions." Nooru reassured him. "You only used my power that way a couple of times, so you should be ok."

"We'll stick together." Ladybug assured Marinette. "I'm not about to let this idiot out of my sight." There was enough of a smile in her voice that even Cat Noir gave a sleepy grin in response. A grin that only widened as she pecked him on the cheek, and Cat Noir slipped his fingers through hers.

Well, Marinette thought happily, their relationship status is obvious enough.

"And we'll make sure only to go out in costume. Let me text you the address of the safehouse we found, just in case." Ladybug added, nodding to Adrien and pulling out her yo-yo.

Marinette nodded, then a thought occurred to her. "Why don't you stay over with me tomorrow night? I'd love the chance to find out about your universe. I bet we'd learn a lot from each other. And there's someone I'd like to introduce you to."

Marinette was imagining a sleepover between her, Alya, and her counterpart. She could tell her counterpart that Alya knew she was Ladybug, but didn't have to reveal her as a miraculous holder.

Ladybug looked to Adrien. "Would you mind keeping an eye on him for me tomorrow night?"

"I think I can do that." Adrien said amenably.

"You two think you'll be ok in the meantime?" Cat Noir asked Adrien.

Adrien smiled at Marinette and took her hand. "Yeah, I think so. I got the answers I needed from Marinette. I still need to have a conversation with Natalie about her part in all this," He glanced down for a moment, "because there's no way she didn't know."

"Don't be so sure about that." Cat Noir countered.

Everyone on the rooftop looked at him again, this time curiously.

He just shrugged tiredly. "I know for a fact that my Natalie didn't know, so there's a chance yours didn't either."

Adrien shook his head. "I have a hard time believing that with my Natalie. So she and I will be having a very difficult heart to heart. I'm tired of secrets, and I'm going to let her know that. But now that we don't have to worry about that," he raised his and Marinette's hands and looked at her, "there's no way I can't handle it."

His words made Marinette's insides squirm. Adrien had forgiven her for her secrets and lies, but there was still one last secret he didn't know about. Plagg couldn't have told him, and Adrien hadn't asked, which meant their counterparts probably didn't know. He trusted her; he had just proved that when he left the decision of keeping their memories up to her. It was time she proved she was worthy of that trust and that she trusted him in turn. He deserved that.

Whatever the cost, no more secrets, no more lies.

"Wait," Marinette called as Cat Noir and Ladybug turned to leave. "There's, there's something else you need to know."

Everyone on the rooftop looked at her.

"I'm sorry," she said slowly to Adrien, "but there's something else I haven't told you."

Adrien dropped her hand. He looked stunned. Marinette didn't blame him.

"I know you're probably really, really angry at me, and for good reason." Marinette began in a pleading tone, "But I swear, this is the last one."

She could read the anger on Adrien's face as he opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Ladybug had rushed over and caught him by the shoulder. "What was it you said before, about her making the choice to tell you? She's making that choice now. Hear her out.."

Adrien glared at Ladybug for a moment, but then his anger deflated. Taking a deep breath, he looked back toward Marinette.

Needing no prompting, Marinette said carefully, "It's hard to explain, but it's about your family's history."

That got a stunned reaction from both Adrien and Cat Noir. Before either could respond, however, she continued, "But I'm not the best person to explain." Again, both of the young men in front of her had the same expression; disappointment. Marinette held up her hands. "I swear, I'm not trying to get out of explaining this. But I want to do it right, and I can't do that by myself."

Adrien took a deep breath. He looked shaken, but Marinette could see that he was trying to calm himself. He spoke only two words. "Why not?"

"Because as things stand right now," Marinette said carefully, "I think this secret that I'm talking about doesn't really matter. At least, I can say that it doesn't change anything for me. I couldn't care less about it. No," she corrected herself, "actually there's a part of it I really like. But it will probably upset you, even though it's not really a bad thing. But you'll probably still be upset, so I want to tell you the best way possible, and I need help for that."

Confusion was clear on nearly every face on the rooftop. Even Plagg looked nonplussed.

Tikki spoke up. "I think I know what Marinette is talking about. And if I'm right, I can vouch for what she's saying." The kwami looked at Adrien, "I know you're upset with Marinette that she's got another secret, but I don't think she was wrong to worry about telling you about your father or about this. I agree that you deserved to know, and I would probably have nudged Marinette to tell you about everything eventually, but try not to be too angry with her."

This time, Adrien spoke only one word. "When?"

"As soon as possible." Marinette promised immediately. "A few days. A week at most."

Adrien didn't say anything for a few moments, his face a complete mask. Marinette waited for his reaction, trying to hide her anxiety. Eventually, he walked up to her, still a blank expression on his face. Then, quick as a flash, he leaned in and kissed her. It was so quick, Marinette didn't react until Adrien had already pulled back.

"There," he said, grinning again. "Now it's a promise sealed with a kiss. No breaking that one, m'lady."

It was Marinette's turn to be stunned, but only for a moment. She threw herself at Adrien, into a kiss deeper than any they'd shared that evening. The couple lost themselves in that moment; everything else seemed to disappear. The city, the people, the stars, none of it existed to them in that moment. To them, only they two mattered.

When the perfect moment ended, Marinette looked around to notice that they actually were alone. Their counterparts and kwamis had clearly given them a much needed moment of privacy.

Adrien didn't say anything. He just took her hand again and smiled.

"You promise you aren't mad?"

The couple was on top of the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Their counterparts had each sent a text to Adrien letting them know they'd meet up again the next day, if only to raid his house for clothes and food. For some reason, Adrien wouldn't show her the message his counterpart had sent. But after their kwamis had returned, the couple had decided to call it a night. Unable to resist taking advantage of the situation, Cat Noir had insisted on escorting his lady home. Ladybug had shaken her head, but didn't have the heart to say no to him. It did make her realize, however, that there were many other things that they needed to discuss about the changes in their relationship. But not tonight. They had already made it through so much. She didn't want to add to that now.

Cat Noir knew what she was talking about. "I promise," he said with a grin. "Your counterpart's right. You went out of your way to tell me about this one, so it's okay. As long as you keep your promise to tell me everything in the next few days."

"Cross my heart." Ladybug swore, making the motion over her chest, then hugged him tightly and added softly, "I don't deserve you."

Cat Noir just shook his head, smiling. "That's impossible. You're the greatest hero this city has ever known. The kindest, most caring girl in the whole world. And honestly," he added guiltily, "I've felt like I was unworthy of you, both Ladybug and Marinette, plenty of times. I made plenty of mistakes, too. Looking back on it, I know I was more than a little pushy when I was pursuing you. And I made a fool of myself more times than I can remember."

Ladybug laughed awkwardly. "I don't think you need to feel bad about that. I may or may not have gone to some ridiculous lengths to get closer to a certain model. Trying to make you a miraculous holder isn't even close to the top of that list."

Ladybug cringed. She had just committed to having no more secrets between them and then said that!? Now she'd have to tell him about all the crazy stuff she'd done from stealing his phone to memorizing his schedule to planning out gifts years in advance!

Cat Noir didn't even seem to notice. "I mean, I'm the guy that couldn't ever say no to his father, who I now know was a super villain." he continued, "How pathetic is that?"

"You don't have anything to feel guilty or ashamed of about that." Ladybug said sharply. Cat Noir looked up, seeming surprised at the conviction in her voice. In fairness, it was the most certain she'd felt all evening.

"I mean it," Ladybug said. "Your relationship with your father isn't even worth thinking about. But I don't deserve someone who's been so forgiving, so understanding and supportive. And as for being the greatest hero in the history of Paris? Even if that's true, I didn't get there alone; I always had you. Forget about all the stuff I said this afternoon, or I guess that was days ago to you." She grimaced. "The fact that you would give me the chance to explain myself instead of just yelling at me. Listening to my side when you had every right to be furious at me, even with the time to cool off, that just proves how good a person you really are." Cat Noir didn't appear completely convinced. "This is the second time you've been so forgiving after I made a disastrous mistake. And even after you found out I've been keeping something else from you, you still gave me another chance. How could I be good enough for someone who could do all that?"

"You really underestimate yourself, you know that?" Cat Noir told her.

"I think it's safe to say that's true for both of us, Kitty." Ladybug parried.

Cat Noir's expression still held a little doubt.

"I can also tell you're not going to accept a word I say about that, are you?" Ladybug asked.

Cat Noir smiled, a reminiscing look coming over his face. He remembered speaking those words to her.

"Then I'll just have to find a way to convince you," Ladybug laughed, kissing him goodnight.

Cat Noir just laughed too, turning to leave.

"Oh, and don't think I missed you saying that you've done ridiculous things to get to know me."

Ladybug froze.

I always feel the most significant triumphs for a character, or people for that matter, are the triumphs over themselves. Not when they achieve something external such as defeating a difficult opponent or winning some contest, but when people manage to overcome their past, their pain, or their failings. And that is why this chapter was by far the most satisfying for me to write.

Adrien letting go of his anger at Marinette is a big step for him; it shows he's capable of growth. Overcoming feelings of betrayal is never easy, but will Adrien be able to achieve something similar with regards to his father?

And what of Marinette's hinting at Adrien's status as a senti-human? Will she really tell him? If so, how? How will Adrien react if she does? One way to find out. See you next time!

Please comment and review, I love getting the feedback!

~Sneak Preview~

I'm sure you'll need time to prepare how you're going to tell loverboy about his competition.

I guess the old saying is wrong. You can be too careful.

I certainly wouldn't mind being your knight in, well, black armor.

P.S.

Most fans (myself included) are convinced that the show will likely have Adrien find out the truth in some way and will end up breaking things off with Marinette because of it. I don't know how that would happen, but unlike my story, I suspect it will not involve Adrien learning Marinette is Ladybug, restoring some tension to the love square as Adrien/Cat Noir becomes furious at Ladybug. Perhaps Betterfly makes a return appearance. Who knows? But I suspect without the time to process, like in my story, Adrien will likely flip out at Marinette/Ladybug, and he'll be so upset and stubborn that it will take a long while to repair the damage. I only hope that it doesn't happen between seasons, as that would be painful to endure.