Chapter 10

The last few days had been... odd , to say the least. Every time Marinette walked into a room to talk to her friends, she found Alya and Adrien with heads bowed together, whispering. This wouldn't be altogether unusual, given Alya's penchant for conspiracy theories, except for the fact that they stopped as soon as they noticed her enter. What's more, Adrien would smile--no, grin --as soon as his eyes alighted upon her. It was the kind of grin that made her heart sore for someone else entirely, and it irked her that she could not fathom its source.

That alone would not have bothered her over much, if Chat Noir hadn't been acting strangely too. He seemed to have gotten over his anger at her, and was back to his silly flirty self, but the way he looked at her was strange. She'd caught him staring at her before in the months they'd worked together, but he always looked away when she turned to face him. Now, his stares were long, amorous, and completely unashamed.

Somehow, this made it more difficult for her to confess her feelings for him. Every time she turned to tell him, he was looking at her with hearts in his eyes, and her tongue glued itself to the roof of her mouth. And then, because her life was a mess, something would usually explode. It wasn't easy talking about feelings while in hot pursuit of an akuma victim, after all.

To make a weird week weirder, on the Monday after she'd ended her fake relationship with the previous boy of her dreams, she rushed downstairs to find several hundred francs worth of flowers in the bakery.

"Special occasion, mama?" she asked, despite being inevitably late for school.

Her mother smiled cryptically and pressed a card into her hand before pushing her through the door of the bakery and out into the street so that she could make it to school. As Marinette jogged over to Françoise Dupont, she looked at the card curiously.

I thought I might make your family's bakery as beautiful as you, Marinette. From your not so secret admirer , read the card, followed by a cartoonish doodle of a winking, green eyed cat.

Marinette slowed, her face suddenly very pale, and read the card again. Her gut instinct was to say that Chat Noir had sent it--after all, who else was a not so secret admirer? And that cat signature was telling, wasn't it? She tore her eyes from the card and walked into the school building, biting her lip as she tried to think of who else could have left the flowers for her. After all, she reasoned, Chat Noir didn't know who she was. Chat Noir couldn't know who she was.

There had to be another explanation, and that was that.

When she burst into the classroom, Adrien was already seated at the front, his hands folded on his desk. He looked at her expectantly, and she flushed slightly as she tried to slide the card into her pocket without him noticing.

As she settled into her seat, she took out the card and slid to to Alya. Alya scooped it up and peered at it critically, but the small smile playing about her lips gave her away. Although they couldn't discuss it in class, Marinette had a growing suspicion that Alya had something to do with this.

Silently, she began working out a hundred different scenarios in which Alya could have had contact with that silly black cat, and what reason he would have had for sending her such an extravagant and aromatic gift. She supposed, after a while, that it wasn't Chat Noir after all.

Suddenly, she eyed the back of Adrien's head. Would he...? No, he wasn't a secret admirer of hers, after all. He was just a friend. Right? He didn't have any other feelings toward her...unless...

No. She couldn't afford such doubts. It was Chat Noir pranking her somehow, probably.

"Do you have any idea who could have sent this?" she murmured to Alya, glancing at the card and then back at her friend.

Alya shrugged with a smile, and slid the card back toward Marinette. "Whoever it is, he probably really cares about you. Those flowers were nice, yeah?"

Marinette pointed at her accusingly. "You didn't see the flowers! And you're assuming it's a 'he!' You were involved with this, weren't you?"

The would-be journalist smiled innocently, but Marinette was not buying it for one second. "I may have pointed someone in the right direction," she said, her innocent smile breaking into a mischievous grin.

"How do you even know Chat Noir?" Marinette demanded.

"Chat Noir?" Alya repeated, looking genuinely puzzled. "Why would Chat Noir send you flowers? Is there something you haven't told me?"

Marinette clapped her hands over her mouth and shook her head, eyes wide. If it hadn't been Chat Noir, then she had absolutely no reason to assume, from Alya's perspective. She started to laugh, quaking slightly as she lowered her hands. The most obvious explanation was the best one, she decided.

"He's such a prankster! He comes by the bakery sometimes at night to tease me and flirt, I thought this would be up his alley," she explained, still laughing to herself.

Alya didn't look entirely convinced, but let it drop, instead choosing to pursue a more satisfactory line of conversation. "Don't you want to know who sent them?" she asked, poking Marinette in the side.

"Of course I want to know!" she replied, pouting out her lower lip. Unheeded, her eyes wandered suspiciously toward Adrien again. He was wealthy enough...

"Well too bad, I'm not going to tell you!" Alya declared, gloating. "But I'll tell you something almost as interesting."

"Do you think it was Nathanael?" Marinette mused, vowing to ignore whatever bait Alya was setting out for her.

"Listen, girl, I know who it was, and he's--No! You're not going to trick me into telling you!" Alya crossed her arms. "You might be terrible at keeping secrets, but I'm not."

Marinette chuckled. She'd half hoped Alya would fall for it, but was also partially glad she hadn't. She wouldn't be Alya if she'd fallen for it.

"Fine, don't tell me," Marinette said, taking the card back from her.

At a sharp look from Mme. Mendeleiev, the girls hushed their banter. It wasn't until the break for lunch that Marinette could seek more answers as to who her secret admirer was, if not Chat Noir.

However, as soon as she opened her mouth to ask, Adrien turned around in his seat to interrupt her.

"Did Alya let you know about karaoke yet?" he asked, his green eyes bright and hopeful. Marinette couldn't stay annoyed that he'd interrupted her if he kept looking at her like that, now could she.

"Karaoke?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at Alya.

Alya grinned. "I tried to tell her!" she said to Adrien. "But she was too hung up on some secret admirer she thinks she has."

Marinette felt her face turn pink. It seemed so conceited when Alya put it like that, and despite no longer being head over heels for Adrien, the remnants of romantic feelings were still there, and she didn't want him thinking badly of her. Anyway, he probably had hundreds of secret admirers, so he wouldn't understand her confusion over having just one.

Adrien turned toward Marinette with wide eyes. "Who do you think it is?" he asked eagerly.

Alya answered before Marinette so much as opened her mouth. "She thinks it's Nathanael, would you believe it? As if a shy boy like him would send her flowers."

"Flowers, huh?" Adrien said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Sounds like a real romantic gift. Did you like them?"

Marinette stammered for a moment before she could manage real words. This conversation had gone in an entirely unexpected direction. "I...yeah, they were really pretty," she said at last.

Adrien looked satisfied with her answer, and Nino shook his head as though he wanted no part in their shenanigans.

"But enough about those," Alya said dismissively. "We're thinking of going to a karaoke bar tonight, and it wouldn't be any fun without our Marinette there."

Once again, Marinette repeated, "Karaoke."

For someone who had seemed so excited about the idea just a moment earlier, Adrien looked embarrassed. "I just thought it would be fun if you came along, really."

Nino scoffed, and it wasn't quiet. "The whole idea was 'Do you think Marinette likes karaoke? Oh I guess you guys could come too!'" he said, mimicking Adrien's voice in a falsetto.

Adrien turned bright red. It was as though all the blood in his body had rushed to his face all at once, and he actively avoided Marinette's gaze. She recalled once, some months ago, when she'd told Chat Noir that she'd kiss him if he could leap an impossible distance without falling on his face. Of course, he'd immediately attempted the leap, and just as predictably flubbed it. Feeling generous between laughs, she'd followed him down and kissed him on the cheek. His face had turned a shade so red that it matched her Ladybug suit.

She didn't know why she'd suddenly remembered that. And she certainly didn't know why her cheeks turned pink in reaction to the memory.

"As long as we don't stay out too late," she said slowly, trying to ignore her curious train of thought. "It sounds really fun!"

———————-

Adrien was there early. Of course he got to the karaoke place early--he was the only one in his friend group who had a limousine and had told Nathalie that he had a very important school project so he couldn't commit to anything else for the night. The rest of them had to find their way there on their own, and ask their parents who cared about them deeply for permission. It made absolute sense that his friends might be delayed.

He squirmed in his seat. He hoped Ladybug showed up first.

Or rather, he hoped Marinette would show up first. He couldn't help but smile to himself, the dissonance between his two lady loves' identities having faded as he looked closer and closer the last few days. He'd already set in motion his plan to reveal himself slowly, incrementally, so as to make Marinette believe that she'd come to her own conclusions without his hinting. It was the only way he'd thought of that he could reveal himself without breaking their agreement not to out themselves in order to maintain the integrity of the team.

The first step had been the flowers. He'd asked for Alya's help in planning a mildly ostentatious gift, and intentionally signed it vaguely. With Alya knowing what he was up to, but sworn into secrecy, he'd hoped that Marinette might wonder if he was her secret admirer. In the meantime, as she figured it out, her suspicions about other people might lead him to who she actually liked. He'd told himself that it didn't matter who she liked--he'd win her heart by being genuine, hilarious, and her friend. She'd come around.

He did wonder if he ought to interrogate Nathanael, but--

"Oh Adrien, how long have you been waiting for us?"

Adrien's train of thought was promptly derailed as Alya's voice reached his ears. He looked up to see Alya and Marinette, arm in arm, entering the building. Alya was in the forefront, and Adrien's mouth nearly opened in shock when he saw that she was wearing a short plaid dress and a large sunhat, rather than her usual button up and skinny jeans combo he was so accustomed to. Marinette, trailing a bit behind her, in a simple white dress with lace sleeves and collar. Her hair was free of her typical ponytails and done up in a graceful bun. Her headband matched the dress, with delicate white flowers and pearls hiding in the deep black of her hair.

"I wish I'd known to get dressed up!" he said, standing to greet them. He wished he could ignore how breathless he was just from seeing Marinette in a dress. Honestly, he saw her in a spotted spandex onesie at least twice a week--he should be able to roll with her wardrobe punches at this point.

"Well, you know," Alya said, brushing back her hair from her shoulders. "We had to dress up for a date, didn't we?" Her grin was toothy enough to be somewhat menacing, even though Adrien knew she was on his side.

"She told me that you'd be dressed up," Marinette added, looking affectionately at Alya with a raised eyebrow. "And if I hadn't insisted that she wear this dress, she'd have had me be the only one overdressed to a karaoke bar."

Adrien grinned through his laughter, and tossed an arm over Marinette's shoulder. It was such a comfortable movement, after weeks of fake dating and months of an easy crime fighting partnership, that neither of them cringed or went stiff. It was exactly what both of them wanted from each other, in that moment.

"Hey, don't worry," Adrien said, smiling down at the tiny girl who'd managed to claim his heart twice over. "There's no such thing as being overdressed for a karaoke joint. They're classy places."

Marinette snorted, and all of them settled into a booth so as to wait for Nino. While they waited, they watched other groups of friends getting up on stage and making fools of themselves. Adrien watched closely, studying them as though he were trying to avoid staring at Marinette. In fact, that may have been exactly his intention. He knew that if she caught him staring, his tongue would turn to cotton, and he'd lose all nerve to go up on the small stage and sing his heart out. So he watched a small hispanic person with cat-eye glasses singing along to Hakuna Matata, hand in hand with an only slightly larger white person who seemed too giggly to continue for much longer.

He smiled, watching them laugh and clutch their sides as they tried to sing. Daring a glance at Marinette, he hoped that they had as much fun on stage. He didn't know what song Nino would pick, but his friend would definitely have his back and not pick anything embarrassing. Probably. As long as it wasn't a song from Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, it'd probably be fine. Adrien definitely wasn't going to worry about it, and definitely wasn't starting to sweat at the prospect of having to sing Wouldn't It Be Nice .

Maybe he should have thought to ask Alya, instead.

By the time Nino arrived, Adrien was low key panicking, and he wasn't certain if the girls had yet caught on. They were discussing Mean Girls and wondering what Chloe would look like with a shaved head over a bowl of tortilla chips and dip when Nino stepped in, dressed in exactly what he had worn to school that day. At least Adrien wasn't the only one dressed down, he thought, but he hoped to whatever deities were out there that Nino had come prepared with a song in mind that had absolutely nothing to do with surfing.

Nino slid into the seat next to him, turning himself and Alya into bookends for Adrien and Marinette, and threw an arm over Adrien's shoulders.

"What's happening, dudes? Did I miss anything?" he asked, grinning.

"Some dorks just went up and laughed instead of singing at all, and we ordered chips," Alya said, filling him in.

Soon after, two other dorks were stepping up to the, and the giggles had Marinette in their clutches, so it looked as though they might be replicating the performance as those before them. Marinette's giggling was infectious, and his nerves had never been quite made of steel, so nothing could assuage the nervous laughter bubbling forth.

Nino dutifully selected a song, and as Adrien closed his eyes and braced himself for Good Vibrations . Instead, the first notes of Just a Little Kiss , from the soundtrack of a movie Adrien had watched as a kid with his mom. His eyes lit up--this was one of the few songs outside of anime openings that he genuinely knew all the words to. A glance at Marinette's enthusiastic expression confirmed that she knew the song too, and a relieved smile broke over his face.

"To feel unbearable, never again," Marinette began, a bit hesitant as she followed along with the monitor in front of them.

"Even if I change deep inside I'll be the same," Adrien added in, his voice mingling with hers surprisingly well. He winked encouragingly, and plowed on to finish the verse; "We have a tendency to be ashamed. Let me show you how to help me break out of this chain."

The chorus, which was undeniably about kissing, came next, and although the dynamic crime fighting duo's eyes had been locked on each other for support just a moment previously, both nervously shifted their eyes elsewhere for the time being. Despite this momentary awkwardness, the up tempo beat of the music and the eyes of their friends on them kept them going, and it wasn't long before Adrien was able to throw himself back into the song again, wrapping his arm around Marinette's waist to pull her toward him in a bold move that transitioned to a dance as they sang together.

"Don't you know, it's enough to believe that every glass of water will return to the sea," Marinette sang, her blue eyes caught on Adrien's green as she grinned through the lyrics.

She began clapping as Adrien accompanied her through the rest of the verse, unable to look away from this silly, bold, beautiful girl he'd undoubtedly fallen in love with.

———————-

Adrien had agreed to walk her home--it wasn't far to her bakery, after all, and Alya lived across town so it would have been inconvenient for Alya's mom to drop her off. She couldn't believe how comfortable she felt in the slight chill of the evening, her arm almost brushing against Adrien's as they walked and talked. If she were to travel back in time and tell Marinette of a few months ago that she'd go on a karaoke date with Adrien, sing a sappy love song that she'd loved since she was 10, and walk home with him so close that she could touch him, she imagined that the Marinette of the past would faint right out.

Now, however, she could glance up and almost always catch Adrien's green eyes--which almost seemed to glow in the disappearing light of the evening--looking down at her affectionately. She felt a faint pang of guilt in her stomach, looking up at him now, thinking about the feelings he might have for her, that she'd completely disregarded in the hopes of pursuing Chat Noir. The guilt faded a bit as she realized that "purr-suing" was an all too obvious pun that Chat Noir would likely grip his sides and fall off a building laughing about.

Although, given the things Adrien had proven himself liable to snort about, it might be the kind of joke to set him off too. It was really curious how similar the two boys in her life were, despite their massive and undeniable differences.

Too soon, it seemed, the ex-fake-lovebirds came to Marinette's doorstep. She turned to face Adrien, looking up at him as she'd become so accustomed to doing. He smiled down at her, and she couldn't shake the idea that his eyes had a faint glow to them.

He licked his lips, and opened his mouth as if to say something very vital to him, when a crash was heard from Notre Dame across the way. A guard was throwing out a young man, probably in his 20s, with a several day old beard and a lot of film equipment. The two gawked as he stood up, brushed himself off, and with evident tears in his eyes, gathered up his cameras and shuffled off.

Marinette felt her expression grow stern as she stared after him.

"Another ghost hunter, I'll bet," she said, shaking her head. "They should stop trying to break in, but that guard seemed a bit over rough."

Adrien nodded solemnly. "You'd think Paris would learn to be kind to each other, given that the victims of cruelty have a habit of turning into monsters."

Marinette looked up at him again with a soft sigh. "Easier said than done, I guess," she said. "I don't know how you stay so kind and positive all the time, Adrien," she admitted, turning her big blue eyes toward the ground. "I find myself being petty sometimes, even though I know what happens if someone is pushed too far."

"Princess," he said softly, and touched her face. He moved her chin so that he could see her, and once again seemed to brace himself to tell her something urgent indeed. "I--" he managed before cackling came from behind him.

A glowing man clad in primarily white spandex floated into view, a large flashlight clutched in his fist. Marinette's jaw dropped as she saw him grin, shine his light onto a wall of Notre Dame, and phase right through the illuminated area.

"An akuma victim," she breathed urgently, her expression down to business. She loved the history of Paris too much to let some ghost-brain trash it, and if she were lucky (which she always was), she could talk to Chat Noir about her feelings.

She brushed Adrien aside and ran into her house, transforming quickly and yo-yoing out through an open window. When she checked over her shoulder to make sure Adrien was safe, at least, she noted that he'd run off. In the short time it took her to get into Notre Dame, she heard the soft footsteps of a certain kitty cat behind her.

She turned to grin at him, and she noticed how his green eyes glowed in the dark.

"Good evening, my lady," he said, leaning toward her as he always had done.

"Come on, Chat Noir," she replied. "You can flirt with me once we've exorcized this Poltergeist," she told him with a wink.

"Aw, that'll be in no time!" Chat said. "I ain't afraid of no ghost!"

The two bounded off, chasing the faint glow that the Poltergeist had left in his wake, trying to listen for any mad declarations or cackling that might give them a clue as to what his goal might be in Notre Dame. Ladybug had already figured that the flashlight was the only haunted thing in the place, so now it was just the trick of separating him from it. After some time of chasing him through the beautiful Gothic architecture, they caught him at the high altar, among the many kneeling statues.

Ladybug flung her yo yo at him, hoping to catch him around the ankle and trip him so that Chat could scamper forward and snatch his flashlight, but her yo yo passed right through his leg. It appeared that, despite his newfound ability to rip statues from walls without incident, he was functionally incorporeal.

"That's im-paw-sible! How are you going to catch him?" Chat said, possibly even missing the pun as he said it.

"There's only one thing to do, my silly kitty," she replied, shaking her head. This meant that she wouldn't have much time to talk to him, after all. Oh well, another disaster, another date. She flung her yo yo into the air, calling out, "Lucky charm!"

A handheld vacuum cleaner, appropriately spotted, landed in her hands, much to her bemusement.

Chat Noir snickered. "Looks like your lucky charm is looking to have you clean up the mess he's making in a literal way this time," he said, grinning at her with his too-sharp teeth.

She stuck her tongue out at him, and began casting around for inspiration. Her eyes went from the vacuum itself, to the head of one of the few remaining kneeling statues, to the obviously Ghost Busters inspired logo on Poltergeist's chest.

"Keep him here, Chat!" she called out, leaping and bounding toward the debris around the statues.

Chat dutifully collapsed a pillar across the most obvious exist from the area while Ladybug sprung from the head of the last remaining statue and activated the vacuum. Despite the size of the vacuum, it seemed to catch Poltergeist in its stream, and he found himself pulled toward it in such a way that even he couldn't escape. Chat leapt from the collapsed pillar and snatched the akuma object from the poor ghost's trembling hands, and tossed it at Ladybug.

With his luck, of course he missed, but the force of his throw snapped the akuma object neatly in half, and it was a snap to catch and purify the akuma from there.

Ladybug threw an arm over Chat's shoulder affectionately as they walked toward the street outside, glad to have rid Paris of another victim and saved an important part of Parisian history.

"You said I could flirt with you once the pesky ghost was gone, didn't you?" Chat said, practically purring.

"You know, Chat, I--" but before she could even attempt to sputter out any manner of confession, a warning beep from her earring stopped her in her tracks. "I should go," she finished lamely.

"Wait," he said, and his tone was suddenly quite serious.

"I don't have long," she said, pointing to her earring and stepping back.

"Neither do I, but I have something I want to tell you," he replied urgently, gesturing to his ring which was also counting down the minutes.

She fidgeted for a bit, before nodding firmly and crossing her arms. "Go on, then, kitty. What do you have to say?"

He smiled, then, his glowing eyes squinting in happiness as he took a deep breath. His transformation faded before her eyes, defying all logic--hadn't she used Lucky Charm almost a full minute before Cataclysm? How was this happening? And--he was out of costume. He was wearing skinny jeans, a black T shirt with a simple design across the front, and a pale grey overshirt, rolled up at the sleeves. Without his mask, his hair was arranged neatly around his face, framing his...his green eyes.

She was looking at Adrien Agreste.

Chat Noir was Adrien Agreste, and he was smiling at her nervously, tucking his hair behind his ears as she'd seen him do so often at school.

"I wanted to say that I love you," he said simply. "I love you as Ladybug, and I love you as Marinette. I love...all of you." His voice was hushed, shy almost, but he didn't waver. He looked right into her eyes, which were still wide with shock.

As her transformation dissolved around her, she punched him in the chest--hard. "You knew?!" she said, punching him again.

He laughed, and spread his arms. "Ouch. Yeah, I figured it out."

She stumbled into his arms, then, so grateful that he was who he was. Their lips met--not out of necessity, not out of showmanship, but out of love--and Marinette was warmed by the fact that this boy, this silly cat, was both her best friend and the love of her life. She'd grown to love two facets of him, grown to trust both halves, and finally, she could reconcile her feelings for both.

His hands rested on her lower back, and pulled her to him. In complete glee, she wrapped her arms around his neck and gladly went up on tiptoe to be as close to him as she could. She felt his lips smile against hers, nearly having her kiss his lips, and before she knew it, he was dipping her. They laughed together, and kissed through the laughter, bumping noses and clashing teeth all in the giddiness of their discovery.

When they finally split to breathe, Marinette's face hurt from smiling.

"I love you too, Adrien. I love...all of you, too."

—The End—