A/N: And the truth comes out! Song Rec: Be Someone by Benson Boone

After sending a warning to Gabriel Agreste about what had happened, Marinette was quick to pack up her room, checking out and making it back to their meetup spot in less than an hour.

Adrien, on the other hand, didn't show up until 30 minutes past the determined time. Marinette had begun to worry, ready to go look for him when he finally showed up, swooping in as Claw Noir.

He seemed keyed up as he landed, out of breath. "Kim and the fucking hornet were waiting for me. The Supreme didn't wait around, I guess. Had to fight them off."

Frustration built up within her. "I should have gone with you," Marinette said.

Claw shook his head firmly. "No, I'm glad you didn't. I didn't really need the backup anyway. I know Kim turned on us, but I don't think he's unreachable, even now. He didn't seem to be fully committed. Phoned it in, really, and let her do most of the work."

"That's a relief to hear. We might be able to convince him to spy for us, then."

They began walking, Adrien detransforming to guide them to a new, out of the way hotel.

"Your dad knows what happened, by the way," she told him quietly. "I didn't tell him who you were of course, but I did find a way to suggest he get out and find us a new meetup spot. He's working on getting set up in a new location, just in case, with some kind of cover story for why Gabriel Agreste is temporarily out of the city. I'm glad he went along with it; I thought it would be good in case the Supreme tries to go for him to get to you."

Adrien rolled his eyes. "If the Supreme was actually watching me close enough, he would know we aren't close." He seemed to hesitate a moment, before admitting, "It's probably a good idea though."

"Is there anyone else we need to warn? Anyone they might go after to get to you?"

Adrien slowed as they walked down the hall to their room. "No. Don't think so. Not close with anyone else but you."

Despite the assuredness to his tone, Marinette had doubts. "What about your class? The kids? Does he know about that?"

Adrien scowled and cursed. "I don't know. Maybe. I'll figure something out, just in case. Maybe see if I can bribe the place to cancel classes for a little while."

They finally made it inside the room, a nice place with a full kitchen and separate bedroom.

Marinette didn't pay any attention to it as she set down her bags and turned back to him, trying to figure out how much of what he was feeling was remaining behind that mask of his.

She thought he would have trouble standing back to watch her take the punishment, but she hadn't been expecting the reaction he had given.

Obviously, the Supreme was far more pissed about the identity reveal than he'd let on, if having a holder drop their transformation wasn't usual protocol.

Still, Claw hadn't waited very long before completely losing it, and she couldn't help but feel frustrated that he hadn't given her enough credit to handle it.

"Adrien," she said, crossing her arms as she looked at him intently. "What happened? Why did Bunnilark bring you back right then?"

He dropped the only bag he'd apparently been able to grab in his quick visit, before meeting her gaze head on. "It wasn't completely her fault. I think I fucked up her calculations, and it spat me out there. Should have realized what was going on before opening my damn mouth." He seemed casual as he said it, but she still felt like he was on edge somehow. Granted, they had just gone through a hell of a lot, but she couldn't put her finger on what was up with him.

Marinette let out a sigh as she dropped her hands, reaching over to grab his own as she towed him over to the small couch and sat beside him. "Adrien—" She cut off as he immediately reduced the space between them to zero, pulling her against his chest in a hug.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I know I screwed it all up. But nothing mattered more in the moment than you. I couldn't let him keep going."

Marinette let out a soft sigh, his words filling her with warmth despite her continued frustration. She gently pried herself from him, moving back to place her hands on his shoulders. "Why didn't you trust that I could handle myself? I could have transformed at any time, if I truly thought—"

"Because you're pregnant, Marinette." His deep green eyes remained on hers, unflinching.

She, however, blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to process that statement. "I'm…what? No, I'm not."

The corner of Adrien's mouth rose, though there was no humor in his tone. "Yeah, you are."

Suddenly feeling defensive, Marinette shook her head. "I'm not, Adrien. Why would you even assume that? That's ridiculous."

He shrugged. "Heard it from a reliable source."

Narrowing her eyes on him as she continued to deny his insinuation, she demanded, "Who told you that?"

The half-smile on his face grew into a genuine smirk. "Myself, of course."

She gaped at him. "What?"

"It's where I was with Bunnilark. She's been taking the piss out of me by apparently sending me backwards in time to give Shay updates. So I found out indirectly from my future self." His smile dropped away quickly. "I'm not joking. I was going to tell you before the meeting, but the timing got fucked up somehow. I'm sorry, Marinette. I know you didn't want this. Apparently, nosebleeds can be a side effect."

Still reeling, Marinette merely got out, "No, I'm not…"

She stood up quickly, pacing.

Nosebleeds were a side effect.

No, that didn't make any sense; she'd been getting nosebleeds for at least two months now, closer to three. She simply couldn't be almost three months pregnant. She'd had no other symptoms, nothing besides the random bout of dizziness she'd had earlier. She conceded that that might be a sign, but on its own? Her period wasn't a reliable indicator; those had always been crazy irregular for her.

Marinette walked quickly to the bathroom, flipping on the light and standing sideways as she yanked up her tank top, staring at her stomach as she ran her other hand over the flat plane of her abdominals. No bump whatsoever.

She turned to Adrien, who had followed her and was looking over her shoulder at the mirror. "Are you sure?"

He seemed uncertain now. "I…I thought…"

Apparently, it wasn't as clear as he'd thought, so she marched over to the door, opening it and heading into the hallway.

He caught up a moment later. "What are you doing?"

She didn't stop, determined. "Going to a pharmacy."

He didn't say anything else, falling quiet as he matched her stride.

They walked to the nearest one, and she bought a test without speaking. It took a little while to get the attention of the cashier, with how distracted the woman seemed to be with gossiping with her coworkers over the sudden changes in the city.

Finally, test in hand, she turned for the in-store restroom, leaving Adrien behind.

She didn't want to be upset with him over a misunderstanding, but damn was it difficult not to be frustrated with the timing. She could have cleared this up beforehand and eased his mind.

She did what she needed to before pacing for the required time.

When she looked at the test, she fully expected it to be negative.

Instead, two pink lines appeared in the display, and her breath caught.

Scrambling to find the instructions in the tiny box she had thrown away, she quickly read through them, certain she was reading it wrong.

But no. Two lines meant she was pregnant.

A mix of emotions twisted up within her, jostling with each other to come out at the forefront.

As she'd already been primed with frustration, that was what peaked first.

Marinette let out a groan.

Damn it. Now? Really?

She turned to look at her Kwami, who was floating by her shoulder. "Did you know about this?" The guilty expression on Tikki's face made that answer clear. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Tikki shrugged. "I would have if it became too much of a risk. I was taken off guard today, too. I'm sorry, Marinette."

Squeezing her eyes shut, Marinette tried to quickly sort through her feelings.

A baby. She was going to have a baby.

With Claw Noir.

It was difficult to dive down too deep into that at the moment, however, as the complications it would add to her plans quickly overwhelmed most everything else.

Taking a deep breath, she immediately began making new ones. Ones that started with talking to the man waiting for her outside. The man who had, apparently, jumped in to save them both, despite the consequences. She allowed herself to feel a moment of warmth at his protectiveness, a small smile lifting her mouth, before the need to get going on figuring out her plans jumped back into place.

Marinette finally got herself moving, leaving the room and coming upon Adrien, who quickly stood up from where he was leaning against a wall, his eyes tense. One look at her face, however, and his expression morphed into shock. "Shit. You're actually…?" Marinette nodded, not quite over the shock herself. Adrien cursed again. "I'm sorry, Marinette. I thought I was careful. I checked all the fucking dates, I swear."

She laughed, with only a tiny bit of hysteria as they started leaving the store together. "I know. I'm not sure what happened."

He seemed nervous, unsure as they walked beside one another. "So…" He trailed off, waiting for her to say something else.

It almost amused her to see him like that, so unlike his usual self.

Too bad the situation didn't call for very much amusement.

Frowning, Marinette stared at the sidewalk as they slowly made their way back. "I need to stay in the fight, Adrien. Especially right now, after what happened tonight."

"Right. I get it." His response sounded grim, and when she glanced over, she saw his jaw clenched.

Glad to see he wasn't putting up the fight she expected, Marinette moved on. "Can you pull those strings you mentioned to get me an appointment?"

"Yeah. Of course." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "I'm sorry, Sweetness, that you have to go through that right now. I don't know what happened, but we can stop so it doesn't happen again. I know the Supreme is the priority."

He wasn't looking at her, but the amusement she'd shoved away before returned in a wave. "I can't get more pregnant, Adrien. That's not how it works."

His eyes shot over to hers, confusion building within. "What? I mean after the procedure."

The humor faded. "I'm not…I'm keeping the baby, Adrien."

Surprise washed over him, erasing the harder edges of his demeanor as he came to an abrupt stop beside her, tugging her behind the edge of a building. "You…are?" She nodded, and he drew closer. There was something fractured about his expression, as though he were tipping on the edge between wonder and terror. "What does that mean for us? For…me?"

Marinette saw it then, the same emotion she'd noticed peeking out at her during moments when his shield was fully down.

Longing.

Moving her hand to rest on his chest, she said, "Well, it means whatever you'd like that to mean." She gripped his shirt tighter in her hand. "After we defeat the Supreme, come back with me to my universe."

"Really?" he said, his voice hoarse. "I can…do that?"

He'd joked about it sarcastically in the past, but apparently he hadn't realized it was actually an option for him.

"Yes, Adrien. Of course. What were you planning to do, stay here?"

His eyes shuttered. "I…tried not to think about it, to be honest."

Marinette realized how stupid it had been of her to not notice it was something he'd been apparently struggling with. She should have brought it up sooner, instead of making a presumption. "Shay's not coming back over here. I guess I just assumed that you would go with me when I returned. I…want you to, Adrien. I thought that was clear. I don't want to say goodbye at the end of this. And that has nothing to do with the baby; that's how I felt before—"

His lips cut her off as he pulled her against him, his hand slipping into her hair and holding her tightly. Marinette was left breathless by his sudden intensity, feeling it surrounding her.

He released her to breathe, his eyes wild as they met hers. "I shouldn't be so fucking ecstatic. I'm shit for you, I know it. But I'm not like Shade, not selfless enough to try and take myself out of the picture. I fucking love you, Marinette. I'm not letting you go, not without a fight."

The declaration left Marinette feeling thrilled, even as she wanted to argue with his self-deprecating statements. Before she could return the sentiment, however, he suddenly frowned. "Wait, speaking of fighting. What do you mean, you're going to stay in it?"

Marinette stood a little straighter. "I meant just what I said."

His eyes narrowed. "But, you're pregnant."

"So what?" Her chin rose slightly. "It won't stop me from fighting when I need to. Shady kept going for longer, and so can I. Having a Miraculous protects me." When he didn't seem convinced, she let out a huff, some of the carefully ignored panic within her leaking through. "I have to do this, Adrien. This is what I came here for. I can't be useless."

His eyes softened. "You wouldn't be useless, even if you couldn't fight. Who came up with damn near every part of the plan so far? Sure wasn't me; I got exactly nowhere on my own." Even though it was a nice thing to hear, Marinette opened her mouth to argue. He was quick to interject first. "I get it, okay? I understand. As long as your Kwami gives you the okay, I'll shut up about it."

Mollified, Marinette nodded. "I'm probably not even very far along yet, anyway. I know you thought the nosebleeds were part of it, but I don't think so. I have time. And we need to focus on how to get out of today's mess, and make sure we can keep finding a way forward."

She slipped her hand into his, pulling him out on the sidewalk as they resumed their walk back. Glancing up at him, she sent a small smile his way. "You know I love you too, right?"

He peered down at her, and the sudden happiness that appeared was quickly smothered by a smirk. "Unsurprising. I told you, I'm irre-fucking-sistible."

Marinette snorted, shoving into him with her shoulder. "Oh please. We both know you fell for me first. Maybe I'm the irresistible one."

Instead of arguing with her like she expected, he merely shrugged. "You're right. And there's no maybe about it."

As they made it back to the hotel room, Marinette found her smile dimming, suddenly feeling guilty for having a few moments of levity after the chaos of that evening. She needed to focus.

And focus she did, talking with Adrien and the others for hours as they became available, communicating through their Miraculous. Luckily, the Supreme couldn't track them through the communicators, or else the jig would have been up long ago.

They worked through a tentative plan that unfortunately revolved around getting farther out of the city and lying low for a while.

Thanks to the work most of them had done while in the Supreme's service, many in the city were loyal to the leader, offering unfortunate eyes in the majority of larger businesses in Paris.

"We need to let the city know we're fighting," Marinette said eventually, talking with Claw and Gabriel through the yo-yo. "They have to know something is changing after the cure healed the city. If we can get the message out, then maybe more people will start to rebel. At the very least, it'll up our chances of not being seen and reported on."

"I can't do anything directly," Gabriel said. "Not without revealing myself. But I do have a few ideas, as well as some contacts we might be able to use."

Finally, in the early hours of the morning, Adrien took her arm, stopping her pacing. "Leave it for tonight. You need some rest."

Marinette had to admit she was exhausted, barely able to stay on her feet. Still, she resisted. "No, I need to call—"

"Rest," Adrien said, more firmly. "We have time. You're practically falling over."

Reluctantly, she allowed him to drag her into the bed. Sleep didn't come easily, however, and eventually, Adrien pulled her closer into his arms. "I can hear you thinking, Sweetheart. Come on."

Finally, tucked against his chest, Marinette was able to leave behind her anxious thoughts and drifted off to sleep.

A/N: Would love to know what you think so far 😊 Thank you all so much for your comments, they mean so much to me!