Adrien stared wistfully at the computer screen as he scrolled through pictures of Ladybug.

She's so beautiful, he thought, leaning closer. Oh right, he thought, sitting straight up. Marinette's gift, gotta choose a picture.

He had taken a Photoshop class last semester and wanted to make something special for each of his best friends. He knew each of them were interested in their city's superheroes, especially Alya, so he thought he'd do something with that.

He considered editing Alya as Ladybug, but he just couldn't see her in that role. But she did look remarkably similar to Rena Rouge. As Nino was her boyfriend it seemed a bit odd to put him as Chat Noir, and Carapace had a similar manner of speech to him. And Marinette...

Well, she's their everyday Ladybug. What more is there to say? And of course, he couldn't put himself as Chat Noir, if anyone saw it and noticed how similar it looked to him, his identity would be exposed. Besides, he's photoshopping gifts for them, not for himself.

He'd already finished the pictures for Alya and Nino. It was pretty easy to find pictures of the two of them together, Alya was constantly posting couple photos on Instagram. It was a little bit harder to find pictures of Rena Rouge for some reason, but she had taken some of Volpina for the Ladyblog so that worked out nicely.

He felt he had to make something particularly special for Marinette though. She always seemed so uncomfortable around him, even though they were friends. He hoped that this would melt some of the ice that seemed to have frozen between the two of them.

So here he was, looking through pictures of his Lady, trying not to be distracted. It was difficult, there were so many action shots showcasing her in all of her glory. Her raven hair glowing in the sunlight, or her spots shining in the stars. Any one of these would perfectly capture his princess' selflessness and charm... not that he thought she was charming, of course. Well, she was of course, but not like that. Of course not, she's an amazing friend who anyone would be lucky to date.

He finally settled on two options. One was of Ladybug and him on the Eiffel Tower, one that Alya had taken when she'd asked for a posed shot after a very easy battle. It was so easy in fact, that she hadn't even needed to use her lucky charm, not even to fix any wreckage, so they had plenty of time for pictures. In this one she had Chat Noir leaning on his cane like a fine gentleman with both arms, while Ladybug had her left arm around his shoulder, and her right hand on her hip while her yo-yo was stretched out about a foot toward the ground.

The other one was of Ladybug swinging away from a fire, clutching a dog she had rescued from a burning apartment. There wasn't even an akuma, she had just been on patrol and saw the fire. She was so amazing.

He finally decided that he would photoshop both but keep the first option for his own collection, and give the dog one to Marinette.


The next day...

Well, this isn't working, Adrien thought as he tried to pull out his phone to take a picture of Marinette when she was in just the right pose to photoshop into the image. She kept moving right before he could snag a photo. But that was to be expected of course, as humans move constantly, a fact which he was suddenly so profoundly aware of.

He once again noticed her take up the perfect pose to photoshop into the dog image. He quickly pulled out his phone and shot a picture, keeping only the camera part above the cafeteria table. He took a look at the new image and beheld... a picture of the table. He had taken it too fast. And now she was in the wrong position.

He felt a sudden vibration coming from his phone. A text from Alya: "Any reason you're trying to snap pictures of Marinette?"

He looked over and noticed her looking over at him and then back at her phone.

"Well I was TRYING to be sneaky, but I" he started typing, but then he remembered that the pictures were a surprise. He'd have to come up with a reasonable excuse. That shouldn't be too difficult, right? He was Chat Noir after all. "realized I don't have any picture of her. Feels kind of weird to ask her if I can take a picture of her" he finished.

"You know she'd be perfectly fine wit that, right?" Alya messaged him back. "But if you want I have a TON of pictures of her"

Oh yeah. She would, wouldn't she.

"Yeah, that would be perfect actually, thanks!" he texted her back.

He waited a few minutes while Nino was talking about Smash Kart Gorilla 4: The Legend of Pink. Apparently, it was really hard to get your hands on, but oh man he got his hands on it.

He felt another vibration and checked his messages. 197 pictures from Alya. It came with a message: "Enjoy;)"

He would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't so in public, so he just settled on imagining a fidget spinner spinning. Well, he didn't want to roll his eyes at the images. They were... astounding. They showed his princess in a very flattering light. All he had to do now was the find ones with the closest pose, and choose the best of them all.


Later that day…

Wow, these pictures are beautiful, Adrien thought as he scrolled through the collection Alya sent him. He had downloaded it to make it easier to scroll through. No other reason. Although he was quite transfixed as he scrolled through them, almost forgetting that he had to find some very specific poses.

The photos were quite amazing, however. Some were pictures that it looked like Marinette had asked for where she posed with flowers, or trees, or road signs, or whatever else. Some seemed very candid, but she looked… cute. That was a new word for her, but it fit.

He was able to settle on three options this time. In one, she was carrying a cat in a remarkably similar position to the dog photo. The other two weren't in the right pose at all, but she had a smile that was just stunning.

He decided to photoshop the posed one first, to warm up for the gift. He sent all three via Bluetooth to his computer and opened up Photoshop.

First, he got to work on his pictures of Alya and Nino, to get them out of the way for practice. He wanted theirs to be amazing, but Marinette's to be even more amazing.

Next he moved on to Marinette. He uploaded the picture of Ladybug at the Eiffel Tower first, then inserted the smile second. He clicked on the free crop tool and started cutting out her face. It took a couple of tries as he kept clicking wrong and an ugly diagonal line went right through the image. But finally, he had finished. He Cut the crop and Pasted it. Then he deleted the outline and set to work lining up her face.

After a bit of maneuvering, shadow work, and trimming the face a bit more, he finally settled on a complete image that looked… exactly the same? That couldn't be right.

Frowning, he looked at the original picture, then at his edited version. Then back at the original, then the edited one. What.

No no, that couldn't be right. There's no way that his Princess and his Lady were the same person. Of course, Marinette would be an amazing Ladybug, but Ladybug just had a confidence to her that Marinette could rarely match.

He had to be sure.

His heart race increased as he saved the first image to his personal collection, and pulled up the next image to photoshop. He repeated the same process to edit this one, trying his best to capture her heroism. It took a bit longer, he messed up more times, but the final result was even better than the last one. He sat back, a job finished, and once again…

It looked exactly the same. Marinette and Ladybug had the same raven hair, the same bluebell eyes, and the exact same smile.

Marinette is Ladybug.

Adrien started smiling, then laughing. Finally he shouted for joy and pumped his fist in the air, spinning around in his chair.

Oh yeah, I need to save it, he remembered. He clicked on File and exported the image.

MARINETTE IS LADYBUG.

He sent the second image to his phone where the other two were and sent the first two off to Alya and Nino, with an extra thank you note to Alya for the images she sent him.

Finally, he put Marinette's image along with the original into a text message: "Hey Purrincess! I know you didn't want me to find out this way, pawbably not even at all. But I found out anyways. I'm sorry, but I thought you should know that I know meow. I was editing a picture as a gift to mew and realized that it looked exactly the same when I put you in it. Once again, I am so sorry for finding out, but here's the image anyway along with the original for compawrison. I hope you like it, and I hope to Chat with you soon:3"