Chapter 9

"I don't know how you can fear getting rejected by Ladybug when you've never met her, dude," Nino said, not even looking up from his DS to address Adrien's concerns. Fair enough, really, given that Adrien had had the same thought probably a thousand times before. "Anyway, what's with all the Ladybug stuff again? I thought you were into Marinette now."

Adrien sputtered senselessly for a moment before finding words with which to respond. "Me? Marinette? Come on man, that's just...that's bananas."

Nino looked up from his game for long enough to blink passively at Adrien with a single raised eyebrow. He turned back to his game and said, "Either you got a really bad sunburn in the last five minutes, or something else is making your face red. Like, I don't know dude, a blush? Be real with yourself for a minute."

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, honestly a little surprised that Nino had seen through him this quickly. True, they were best friends, but given that Adrien regularly lied about where he was and what he was doing without Nino batting an eye, he figured he was a better liar than all that. As usual, however, girls were his weakness. When it came to Ladybug, he'd always been a lovestruck mess. And now, when it came to Marinette, he was a blushing idiot.

"Okay, maybe I like her, but that's not what we're talking about," he replied once he'd gathered his thoughts. "I really think Ladybug would hate me. Offer me like, moral support or something!"

Nino chuckled to himself, and switched off the game so that he could focus on his friend for a minute or so. Leaning forward, he offered his clueless white friend the best smile he could. "Literally no one in the world hates you, dude. Chloe Bourgeoisie, who hates everything but herself, has liked you since you were kids. It's probably the best proof I have that if you met the President of France he'd be honored to shake your hand. What makes Ladybug different?"

At last, Adrien felt compelled to smile. While he hadn't been expecting the pep talk of the century, Nino always knew how to cheer him up.

"Superpowers," he replied, laughing to himself. "Superpowers make her different."

Nino laughed too, and shrugged in defeat. "Plus, how can you beat a guy like Chat Noir? They're practically dating, and it's not like you can do backflips at the drop of a hat," he said, beginning to switch on his DS once more. He paused, and looked at Adrien quizzically. "Can you? Do backflips?"

With a nervous gulp, Adrien waved his hands, dismissing it. "I might manage a front flip if I tried. Or a cartwheel. Does that count?"

At school the next day, Adrien felt pumped up enough to handle just maybe dealing with some of his problems. He had to apologize to Ladybug for being irresponsible, but that wouldn't come up until there was an akuma attack. More immediately was his Marinette issue. He had decided, with Ladybug's anger making him feel shame coil in his stomach like an ice cold snake, that he needed to move on from the red clad savior of Paris. Her disappointment in him was enough to make him feel so dreadful that he couldn't bear it any longer, and he knew that the easiest way to knock her off of the pedestal he'd made for her was to place someone else on top.

He'd known he liked Marinette for longer than he'd truly admitted to himself, after all. With Ladybug it had been easy to reconcile himself with his crush on her--half of Paris felt the same toward her. With Marinette, his feelings had grown slowly to the point that he could not ignore them.

There was only one thing to do, he'd decided. He was going to confess his true feelings to Marinette, and offer her a way out of the fake relationship if she wanted it. That way she wouldn't have to be close to someone with unrequited feelings for her, but if she liked him back, then perhaps their relationship would go from fake to real.

He felt himself smile, thinking of what would happen if she wanted to be his real girlfriend. What would their anniversary be, the day he fake asked her out, or today? Would Chloe notice the shift? He'd have to introduce her to his dad for real. He wondered if he should get Alya's approval first, but ultimately decided that that would be old fashioned. He would just have to stand up, look her in those beautiful blue eyes of hers, and ask her--

"What's your excuse this time, Marinette?" Mme. Bustier asked, raising a tolerant eyebrow at her tardy student. "Air pollution again, or was there traffic on the one street between your bakery and the school?"

Marinette smiled awkwardly, shuffling to her seat awkwardly. "Well you see a family of ducks was crossing and I--"

Mme. Bustier laughed and shook her head, and resumed talking to the class as she had been doing a moment earlier. Adrien let out the breath he had been holding, waiting to hear Marinette's excuse, and looked down at the book on his desk so that he would have an excuse not to stare at her. Really, it was all too easy for him to get caught up in the simple act of looking at her.

She sat down behind him with a soft sigh, and he wondered if she was looking at him. In a motion that he thought was surreptitious (but likely was pretty obvious) he turned and glanced over his shoulder at Marinette. She was still unpacking her backpack, but she seemed to sense his stare, and looked up at him. She offered him a small smile, and then set back to work.

His heart beating fast, he turned back to face the front of the room. Adrien was not one for being overly nervous about anything, really, but given his track record with confessions, this would not be easy. After all, the last time he tried to confess to a girl he liked, he got shot by an anti-love arrow and lost about half a day.

This time would be better.

After all, he thought with a smile, he had the advantage of already dating the girl of his dreams..

———————

The last bell rang, and Marinette began packing up her bag. Adrien, as usual, waited around for her to get finished, and lingered at the bottom of the steps for her to join him on the short walk to his limo, which always awaited him at the front of the school. When she came to his side, she comfortably slipped her arm around his waist, aware that Chloe was likely watching them. Even if she wasn't, it was a comfortable way to walk with him, and Marinette no longer minded the proximity.

As they entered the hall, Adrien slowed, as though not quite wanting to say goodbye for the day quite yet. She slowed with him, casting a curious glance up at him.

"I...have something to say," he began, his green eyes peering earnestly down at her. He opened his mouth to continue, but her stomach seized up, and she raised her free hand to stop him.

She'd been thinking about this all day, and now was the only time to do it.

"I do too," she said, interrupting him. "Can I go first?"

He smiled down at her with an expression that, some weeks earlier, would have had her weak at the knees and babbling incoherently. Now, however, it simply left her aching for a broad grin that she'd never seen on Adrien's face. He nodded, so she took a deep breath, and embarked upon her question.

"I think we should end this," she said, cutting to the chase as quickly as she could. Not checking to see how he was reacting, she pressed on. "I don't think it's really helped with Chloe bugging you, and I...I'd like to be free to pursue the person I like..."

She looked at him closely, then, trying to determine his reaction. She watched him swallow, nod to himself, and put on his well practised smile. She was used to seeing him use that expression on Chloe or a fan, but never her. She'd always encouraged genuine smiles on Adrien's face, and she was not a fan of the change.

"That makes sense," he said, his face still fixed in the faux smile. "No problem, Marinette!"

Marinette smiled tentatively up at him, and detached her arm from his waist so that she could face him properly. "We're still friends, right?" she asked. "You don't hate me for leaving the arrangement?"

His face softened into a real smile. "I could never hate you, Marinette," he said, and it sounded as though he were telling her a secret.

She beamed back up at him. "I could never hate you either, Adrien," she replied, with absolutely no ulterior meaning under her words. "I'm gonna run home so I can start my homework, okay? I'll text you later!"

With that, she began walking away, but she thought she heard him say something along the lines of "Your crush is pretty lucky." She sighed to herself, wondering how true this was, and did not turn around.

Later that evening, when a nighttime security guard ran amok, Marinette was actively glad that an akuma had decided to take a victim. In retrospect, it was the type of reaction she ought to feel guilty about, but she was too excited to talk to Chat Noir and tell him her feelings for him. Even in the face of a flashlight based disaster caused by Nightwatch, she was too enthusiastic about her love life to be properly serious.

He was an easy victim to defeat, and with his flashlight broken over her knee, Chat Noir went in for a fist bump. He'd been almost silent the entire time, obviously still sore over their last encounter, and his silence hurt her worse than she'd imagined possible.

"Mission accomplished," he said, extending his fist with a sad smile.

Instead, she caught his hand in hers. "Chat, I wanted to tell you something," Ladybug blurted out, pulling him close to her. She only had a few minutes before her transformation would wear out, and she needed to do this now. "I broke up with my boyfriend," she said.

His eyes widened in surprise, and then narrowed in confusion.

"You did what?!" he demanded, shaking his hand free of hers. There was pain in his voice, which she had not expected, and she stumbled backward, shy of this emotion she'd never seen in him before.

Ladybug wasn't certain what reaction she'd expected, but this hadn't been it. Maybe she'd wanted him to wink, and say that this was his op-purr-tunity. Maybe she'd wanted him to look interested, or at least curious as to what she'd say next. She didn't know where this pain was coming from, and she was suddenly afraid to find out.

"I...I..." she stammered, unsure of what to say to turn him back into the smiling, silly Chat Noir she'd grown to love. With the beep of her earrings, she turned away from him. "I'll see you around, Chat Noir."

She yo-yo'd away from him to detransform, and ignored the tears of confusion in her eyes.

——————

Chat Noir sat down where he'd stood, and put his head in his hands. The day Marinette had broken up with him--if it could be called that--was the same day that Ladybug had left her boyfriend. Come to think of it, Ladybug had gotten a boyfriend at about the same time he'd started to 'date' Marinette. Any time they'd been on a date together and an Akuma had appeared, he'd never had to save Marinette, despite her frequently running off in the direction of the danger.

Marinette had laughed when he'd revealed his crush on Ladybug, and mentioned that she wished she'd known this earlier.

Blue eyes stared at him in his mind's eye, and he wasn't sure if they belonged to the superheroine or his classmate.

Marinette was Ladybug.

Ladybug was Marinette.

As Plagg detransformed him, Adrien began to laugh. He laughed so hard his stomach hurt, and shook his head incredulously.

"You okay, kid?" Plagg asked, floating around his head.

Adrien smiled up at him, his eyes wet but his face smiling. "I've been torturing myself over whether I like Ladybug or Marinette, and they're the same person," he said.

"Yeah? Seems pretty obvious to me," Plagg replied, digging in Adrien's pocket for cheese.

"This means I have a chance with her," he said. "She liked Chat Noir, I know it. She was...jealous, I think. I have a chance."

"You believe whatever you want, kid."

Adrien picked himself up off the ground, smiling into the night. Now he had two chances to win her over at once, no holds barred. He had a chance.