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Adrien’s heart was racing, his hand pressed against his bathroom door as he listened intently to try and understand how bad the situation was. He could hear Ladybug’s weak voice encouraging Tikki to eat and recharge quickly so she could transform back, and he started tapping his leg on the floor absently, holding his breath as Plagg hovered next to him anxiously.

It felt like infinity before a flash of pink light could be seen from the space between the door and the floor. He tensed as he waited to hear what was going on, but everything came out muffled through the door. Still, it wasn’t hard to hear the devastated gasp of Ladybug.

The Miraculous were all gone, then. Hawk Moth had them. Félix—he was the reason everything went wrong. Ladybug had entrusted a Miraculous to him, thinking he was Adrien, not knowing that Adrien was already by her side in a different costume. And now this mistake cost them all of the Miraculous but the ladybug and the black cat ones.

This was… really not good. Really, really not good. His hand was shaking slightly as he said Ladybug’s name uncertainly. She was so quiet, he was beginning to think she’d left to mourn someplace else—after all, why would she stay in Adrien’s room when everything went wrong because of him?

Plagg didn’t need prompting before hiding in Adrien’s jacket before as determinedly opened the bathroom door. To his surprise, Ladybug was still there, sobbing on the floor, her face pressed against the cool tiles and her fists clenched as she folded in on herself.

“Ladybug…” he said, voice broken and unsure. “I’m… I’m so, so sorry.”

It didn’t feel like enough. It wasn’t enough. A part of him was aware of the fact that it wasn’t completely his fault—he wasn’t the one who’d tricked Ladybug and stole the Miraculous from her—but Félix was his cousin. It felt like his responsibility to make sure he wouldn’t trick the people in his life that mattered. And a significant one was Ladybug, obviously.

She kept on sobbing, unresponsive. Her body shook as she sniffed and gasped, clearly trying to stop crying with no success. Adrien moved momentarily, just to pick up a pack of tissues and put them next to her, in case she needed any. Still, she didn’t get up, she didn’t open her eyes; she didn’t acknowledge him in any way, really.

“What can I do?” he said desperately, his hand hovering over her back awkwardly as he contemplated how weird it would be to try and soothe her as his civilian self. “Please, Ladybug, there has to be something to do against Hawk Moth. There has to be something I can do…”

She mumbled something he couldn’t understand.

“Huh?” he said, crouching down on the floor next to her in an attempt to hear her better. “What was that?”

Ladybug shifted on the floor. She brought her hands close to her chest before wrapping them around her middle as she heaved in and out, her body still trembling with her sobs. She looked so broken, it made Adrien’s stomach churn and his anger at his cousin flare. She didn’t deserve it—she didn’t deserve any of it.

“C-Chat,” she cried weakly, her voice shaking. “I n-need Chat Noir.”

“I—” His throat choked up as he stared at her, heart beating loudly, erratically. “I’m sure he’s looking for you, Ladybug.”

Her head shook from side to side as she tried to speak a few times, her voice always too high-pitched and distressed to form any real words. She took in several deep breaths, trying to calm herself down a bit before she sat up, her bluebell eyes red-rimmed and filled with tears as she looked at Adrien.

“He hates me,” she said.

“What? Who?”

“Chat Noir—h-he hates me.”

“What?”

“You saw how we—I mean…” She took in another breath. “We kept on fighting throughout the entire fight. I’ve been keeping him at a distance for so long, I kept on lying to him, I wouldn’t tell him anything unless I had to… I was a horrible partner, and I thought I was doing everything correctly, but I was messing everything up even more! He should hate me!”

His stomach flipped. “I…”

He what? He wanted to say that he didn’t hate her. Because, well, he didn’t. Not that she knew he was Chat Noir, but still. But he couldn’t tell her that none of this mattered to him because she was right—they did keep on fighting the entire time. Ladybug’s secrets repeatedly pushed him away and he felt like he was imposing more than helping at this point.

Was it really such a stretch to believe that he might hate her for all of this? From an outside perspective, maybe people would’ve wanted him to be more upset with her; but he couldn’t muster up any type of hatred. Anger—sure. But he couldn’t hate her. He loved her, even if he knew it was hopeless. He could be mad at her while still being in love with her—even if it was a little confusing at times.

“He already tried to leave me twice,” she continued obliviously, her voice now quieter, like she couldn’t conjure up anything louder than a whisper. “Back in New York and then one time again. I’m lucky he even chose to come back at all, but now… what if he decides I’ve failed too badly and leaves me? I’ll have no one left…” She curled her shoulders inwardly. “I have no one left.”

She sobbed harder again, her shoulders shaking as she covered her face with her hands.

And Adrien… felt pretty useless. He wasn’t sure what he could say to make things better. What words could cheer Ladybug up when she was feeling this bad? They no longer had any other Miraculous; they didn’t have teammates to turn to; they only had each other, and Ladybug believed he hated her, perhaps even enough to leave her right now—when she truly needed Chat Noir more than anything.

“You should… um… I mean…” he floundered around helplessly. “Sounds like you really should talk to Chat Noir, so… maybe you should go out there and look for him, right? I’m sure you’ll find him, and I’m sure he’ll hear you out. There’s no way he’ll disappear now. He’s your partner, right?”

Ladybug wiped the tears from her cheeks and mask even though new ones streamed down instantly. She looked at Adrien with a look so filled with despair, he nearly wanted to give up himself. He wasn’t used to seeing Ladybug this hopeless. She was usually the one to come up with plans, to figure out the next step, to stand up tall and face a problem head on.

But she looked so fragile now; her shoulders hunched and her face contorted from the pain and devastation. It wasn’t her fault, but she was blaming herself for everything. Really, this could have all been avoided had she just known who he was under the mask—apparently—but he figured this wasn’t the time to point it out. She was already chiding herself for everything; no need to make her feel even worse.

Without saying a word, Ladybug reached for her yoyo and tried to call Chat Noir. Adrien suppressed a wince when he realized she would be sent to voicemail immediately. After all, he wasn’t transformed right now. The look of shattering hope on Ladybug’s face at the sound of the voicemail greeting her squeezed his heart until there was no blood left inside.

Her hand dropped by her side numbly as she stared ahead, unseeing. “He’s not picking up,” she said hollowly.

“Um…”

She dropped her gaze back to the yoyo she was clutching tightly, then threw it in the air to summon her Lucky Charm, her tone of voice not sounding all that hopeful as she held out her hand to catch the item that fell down lightly. Adrien blinked down at the image of a polka-dotted cat toy resting in the palm of her hand, alongside its red remote control.

He recognized it immediately—it was a copy of the toy Ladybug had shown him before she (and later Adrien) left to New York. She’d given him the remote so that he’d be able to contact her in case something went wrong back in Paris. It ended up not being used, but he still had it hidden somewhere, waiting for an emergency to occur.

Ladybug’s eyes brimmed with fresh tears at the sight of the familiar toy and she hugged it close to her chest, weeping with renewed vigor.

“I don’t know—I don’t know what to do with this,” she sobbed. “I don’t know what to do.”

He bit his lip as he looked at her unsurely, his insides squirming unpleasantly as she kept on crying in his bathroom. There was nothing he could say to make Ladybug feel better because Adrien was just a civilian to her—he didn’t mean anything special. She needed Chat Noir, but wouldn’t it be extremely obvious if Adrien vanished and Chat Noir showed up a moment later, knowing exactly where to find Ladybug?

His gaze dropped down to see Plagg peering up at him with wide, catlike eyes. When he caught Adrien’s gaze, the black Kwami nodded somberly while pointing his paw in the direction of the Lucky Charm Ladybug was embracing. Ladybug’s broken calls for Chat Noir pierced his ears, making him shudder as he looked from his Kwami to her, understanding dawning on him.

She wasn’t going to like it…

Then again, she didn’t seem to like any of the last few hours—days, maybe. What was one more thing gone wrong, right?

“The Lucky Charm isn’t for you,” he said slowly, twisting the ring on his finger anxiously as Ladybug peeked at him through her fingers, looking confused and so utterly lost. “It’s for me.” He offered her a weak smile, then looked back down at Plagg. “Claws out.”

Ladybug gasped in shock and flinched away when the flash of green engulfed Adrien for a moment before fading away and leaving Chat Noir in his place, looking at her with that same worried and soft expression on his face, as Ladybug gaped at him, her hold on the Lucky Charm loosening a bit from the shock.

“C-Chat?” she muttered. “Are you really…?”

He plucked the remote control from her hands and pressed the button, making the cat toy meow. The sound was so adorable, Chat had to fight back a grin as Ladybug stared at the cat in her hand, then turned to look back at him in shock, the tears momentarily forgotten as she just eyed him openly.

“I’m here,” he said, setting the remote on the floor and focusing all his attention on Ladybug. “I’m always around, m’lady. And I certainly don’t hate you. Maybe a little annoyed, but…” He shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter right now. We have bigger things to worry about.”

Her breath hitched a little. “Y-you’re—Adrien?”

He nodded and tentatively reached out to grab her hand. When she didn’t fight him or pull away, he sighed in relief and smiled reassuringly. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault that Félix pretended to be me in the first place. He made me think it would be a great idea because he knew I didn’t want to leave Paris. I didn’t know he was planning to betray you and steal all of the Miraculous to give them to Hawk Moth. I would never have agreed if that were the case.”

She opened and closed her mouth several times, no sound coming out. He was half convinced he just broke Ladybug accidentally. He didn’t mean to stun her—he was just following Plagg’s gestures and the gut feeling he got from seeing the Lucky Charm. Maybe he got it wrong, sure, but he felt like this was what Tikki wanted him to do right now—be there for Ladybug, even if it meant giving up his secret identity in the process.

Then she started shaking her head from side to side, slowly but steadily. Her eyes blinked furiously for a moment or two before she threw the cat toy away and leaned forward to hug him, her arms squeezing him so tightly that he let out a startled huff, the air leaving his lungs in a rush and leaving him a little breathless. Still he wrapped his arms around her with no hesitation.

Soon Ladybug started crying again, her tears dampening his suit a little. Her head was resting on his shoulder so when she started mumbling incoherent apologies quietly, he could hear it since it was so close to his ear. Plus, he had the cat ears to allow him to hear even better.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he said soothingly. “This may be bad, but we’re going to fix this. We’ll get every single one of the Miraculous back from Hawk Moth and finally defeat him, once and for all.” He wiped some of the tears from her cheeks. “I promise you, Ladybug—we’ll face this all together. I’m not going anywhere.”

Leaning back and wiping her eyes, Ladybug searched his face desperately, her eyes wide and puffy behind her mask. Then she slowly started nodding uncertainly. “Y-you’re not Félix,” she said hesitantly.

“I’m not,” he agreed. Then he frowned. “For his sake, he’d better be halfway around the world right now because if I see him again, I’m probably going to Cataclysm him.”

He wasn’t actually sure he was joking.

She kept on looking at him, still teary-eyed and clearly overwhelmed by everything that’s happened. The look on her face wasn’t the kind of fierce look Ladybug usually supported. She looked vulnerable and scared and completely and utterly lost, staring at him as if she was waiting for him to tell her what to do.

“Should I…” Ladybug cut herself off and bit her lip uncertainly as he cocked his head to the side. “Should I tell you who I am, too?”

His heart skipped a beat. Yes! he wanted to shout. He yearned to know who the girl under the mask was. Ever since he met Ladybug, it was one of the things Chat’s been obsessed with—discovering who she really was. He daydreamed about knowing her, about walking down the Parisian streets with her, without the masks and the secret identities. Of course he wanted to know who she was.

“No,” he found himself saying instead.

His brain screeched at him in fury.

Her lips parted in surprise. “W-what? But—”

“I want to know—don’t get me wrong,” he hurried to explain. “You know I’ve wanted to know who you are since the beginning, Ladybug. But I didn’t do this so you’d tell me who you are. You just needed me, and I felt like it was the right thing to do. But you’re really emotional right now, and I don’t want you to share with me something you’ll regret later.”

It hurt—so much—but he couldn’t imagine knowing who Ladybug was only to see her face contorting in discomfort at seeing him in the future. He didn’t want to abuse her uncertainty right now just to discover who she was. And he certainly didn’t want her to unmask herself just because she felt obligated to do so after he went ahead and transformed right in front of her.

He's been dreaming of finding out who Ladybug was for months now—he could handle not knowing for a while longer if it would mean she was comfortable.

They both tensed a little when her earrings beeped, letting them both know that her timer was running out.

Ladybug looked at him skeptically. “But it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t tell you, too…” she said weakly, still sniffing.

Chat smiled and offered her the tissues, which she took gratefully to blow her nose and dab at her eyes. He let her do it quietly for a few seconds, just waiting patiently for her to focus on him again. Then he widened his smile just a tad.

“I want you to go and collect yourself, because right now you’re kind of a mess—we both are—”

“Rude,” she muttered with an amused huff.

He grabbed the remote from the floor and put it in her hand, closing her fingers around it. “I’ll be fine, m’lady. I don’t need to know right now. I don’t want it to be something you’ll come to regret later on. So just… think about it. Take a day, or a week. Heck, even if it’ll take you months to decide what you should do, I’ll wait for however long it takes for you.”

“What if… I decide not to reveal myself?” she asked.

Well, that would suck, he thought bitterly.

Still, he shook his head. “It won’t matter. I haven’t known who you are so far—it won’t change a thing,” he promised.

Ladybug inhaled and exhaled a couple of times, an unreadable expression on her face. Then she smiled softly and tossed the used tissues in the trash can. Of course she didn’t miss—Chat didn’t even need to check. He kept his eyes on her as she got back to her feet; still shaky, but obviously much less so. He followed her up, his hands itching to support her in case she needed him.

“Okay,” she said, meeting his gaze again. “Okay, I’ll think about it.”

He nodded. “Cool.”

For a second longer she stared at him, her bluebell eyes seemingly taking him in, drinking in his sight. Then she thrust the cat toy into Chat’s hand. “I’ll let you know when I’m back in my room. Just so you’re not worried.”

“I’ll be waiting. If anything comes up, give me a call.”

“I will.”

“Like, any time. Not just today,” he pressed as she moved closer to the window of the bathroom. “Or, well, I suppose I won’t be able to answer unless I’m transformed so I won’t actually be able to always come immediately, but—”

Her tender smile widened slightly as she threw him a look over her shoulder, her yoyo already wrapped around another building. “I actually have your number, kitty, so I can reach you in your civilian form anyway.”

He blinked at her. “You do?”

She bit her lip, looking anxious as her cheeks seemed to gain a bit of color. He thought he was imagining it—he had to have been imagining it. Then she leapt out the window and disappeared in a blur of red and black into the tense night.

Two and a half minutes later the cat toy meowed, letting Chat know that Ladybug was back in her house. A second later it disappeared as if it never existed. De-transforming, Adrien looked through his stuff before finally finding the old remote for the original cat toy Ladybug had.

Hoping she still had it stashed somewhere in her room, he pressed the button, thinking this might let her know he received her message.

With his heavy head resting on his desk, Adrien tried to drown out the sound of his classmates talking excitedly (and fearfully) behind his back, all of them crowded around Lila, who was spouting lies as usual.

He barely managed to sleep. He kept on tossing and turning the entire night after hearing from Nathalie that his father decided to stay in Paris after all. So on the one hand, Adrien didn’t have to leave, but on the other hand… he felt like he would’ve gladly left Paris if it meant Ladybug could have all of the stolen Miraculous back.

Plagg tried to calm him down and get him to close his eyes and sleep, but Adrien’s brain kept on conjuring up horrid images of what their next fights against Hawk Moth (Shadow Moth? Monarch? Ugh, was it really necessary to change the name all the time?) would be like. With the help of the other Miraculous, what chance did Ladybug and Chat Noir stand?

Seriously, the future has never looked as bleak before—not even after Hawk Moth had discovered the identities of the other Miraculous holder when he’d Akumatized Chloé. Which, honestly, was a really, really bad thing to come to terms with.

So now his head was aching and his eyes were slightly burning as he sat in his seat next to Nino, desperately trying not to focus on what his friends were talking about, because he feared he might actually cry if he let their words sink into his brain. He did not need to think of how hopeless the situation seemed to be for Ladybug and him, okay? His brain was doing this job just fine on its own.

At the sound of the door creaking open and tentative footsteps reaching his desk and stopping right in front of it, Adrien lifted his head a little and blinked tiredly at an anxious Marinette. She was fidgeting with a box of macarons, looking at them with a horrified expression, like they were little monsters and not sweets.

Then she met Adrien’s gaze and offered him a nervous little smile. “H-hi, Adrien.”

“Hey, Marinette.” He tried not to sound like he was on the verge of falling asleep, although Marinette herself looked like she was dead on her feet. “Are you okay?”

She frowned a little and looked down at herself, as if only just now realizing that she was exhausted. “Well… obviously not, because everything went absolutely disastrous yesterday so it’s been a… really long night, you know?” she rambled quickly. “But I thought everyone would appreciate a tasty snack this morning—to start the day with something sweet?”

He smiled, some of his weariness lifting as he straightened up in his seat. “Wow, that’s really thoughtful of you.”

His words seemed to encourage her because she stopped fidgeting and instead smiled a little more, her cheeks flushing lightly. “Thanks! Oh, also, I figured… I mean, since Alya said that Nino told her you weren’t leaving after all, it could also be considered a ‘glad you’re still with us’ gift or…” She trailed off awkwardly and ended up just thrusting the box of macarons in his face. “There’s chocolate, strawberry and passionfruit macarons.”

“Passionfruit?” he said eagerly.

Marinette nodded and pointed at one of them, and Adrien picked it up and popped it in his mouth. He hummed happily when the taste filled his mouth and his eyes closed as he focused on the macaron alone. It was so perfect, it almost made his problems shrink a little.

When he opened his eyes again, he found Marinette looking at him worriedly, like his lack of a response was making her concerned.

“This is delicious!” he said quickly. “Did you make them?”

“Oh, I only made some of them. I didn’t really have enough time to make all of them, so my dad let me take a few of the ones from the bakery.” She lit up at the praise, her eyes widening. “I’m glad you like it!”

“Of course I do. Everything you and your parents make always tastes amazing.”

Then the others seemed to notice that Marinette was there and that she was holding the box of macarons because they called her name eagerly, Alix physically dragging her over to their little huddle so they could all pick themselves macarons.

Adrien watched them for a moment with a smile. It was kind of amazing that even in such a dark time, Marinette somehow managed to make everyone that much happier with nothing but a smile and a few treats. Maybe he could get some of them from her parents’ bakery and give them to Ladybug… this would surely brighten up her day, right?

And right now, he figured both he and she needed anything remotely positive in their lives.

The rumor started, of course, because of Lila. Adrien heard it from Nino and Alya when he got back to school after lunch. They were walking together toward their classroom when they started ranting to him excitedly about how Lila told them all that Ladybug—her best friend—claimed that Chat Noir was the reason the Miraculous all got stolen by Hawk Moth.

It made his skin prickle, knowing that they actually believed that even though they were both right there when their team fought the Akuma. They were supposed to know better than anyone that Lila was both lying about being Ladybug’s best friend and about Chat Noir being responsible for this new catastrophe.

When they took their seats, Adrien turned to Nino with a frown. “You were there, Nino—did you really see Chat Noir losing all of the Miraculous like that?” he said, trying to keep the hurt and accusation out of his voice.

“What do you mean ‘you were there’?” said Alya. “Nino wasn’t there—he was with me. I would’ve totally uploaded a video of the fight to the Ladyblog had I been there to see it.” She faked a wistful sigh. “Man, that had to be some fight… and I had to rely on other people’s videos.”

Nino’s face contorted like he was in pain and he avoided Alya’s gaze as he looked desperately at Adrien. “I was hoping you wouldn’t bring it up again,” he said in a low voice.

Alya’s eyes narrowed. “Won’t bring what up again?”

“Okay, so I may have mentioned to Adrien once that you and I were… um…” Nino lowered his voice even more, looking agitated. “That we were Rena Rouge and Carapace.”

“What?”

A squeak came from behind Adrien and he turned around with wide eyes to find Marinette standing there, her body frozen in shock as she looked at Nino’s alarmed expression, Alya’s resigned and annoyed one, and Adrien’s concerned look. Her eyes seemed to bore into him as she stared for a few silent moments, seemingly lost for words.

Then she quickly moved around and up the stairs before claiming her seat next to Alya and lowering her head closer to the others. “What’s going on?”

“Uh… nothing!” exclaimed Nino.

“Babe, it’s already too late for that,” said Alya wearily.

Adrien wasn’t sure whether he should cry or laugh. On the one hand, his friend was terrible when it came to secret identities, which made Adrien that much more glad he’s never revealed himself to Nino. On the other hand, the clear distress on his best friend’s face was, quite frankly, hilarious.

Marinette’s eye twitched. “You’re Rena Rouge and Carapace? No way!” she said belatedly, blinking at Nino and then giving Alya a stern look that her friend seemed to reply to with her eyes, though Adrien wasn’t sure what the message was. “That is so cool! Oh, but I guess you won’t be able to become your alter egos now that Ladybug doesn’t have the Miraculous.”

“Doesn’t Rena Rouge keep the Miraculous, though?” Adrien couldn’t help but ask.

The blue eyes that focused on him at the question almost looked pained, like Marinette felt guilty or hurt by his words for some reason. He didn’t ask—this conversation was already going off the rails—and it kind of was his fault that she found out about this, seeing as he made Nino talk about it in the first place in the middle of a classroom filled with people. Probably not his best moment.

Lowering her head a little, Alya shrugged and shook her head. “I gave it to Ladybug since, um, Hawk Moth found out I was still active.” She bit her lip. “I thought it would be the right thing to do, but apparently I should’ve kept it with me anyway—then it wouldn’t have gotten to Hawk Moth along with the other ones.”

A look of compassion crossed Marinette’s face as she put a comforting hand on Alya’s shoulder. Nino grabbed his girlfriend’s hand in both of his, looking like he was trying to figure out a way to calm her down or make her feel better about the latest developments in their life.

“It’s not your fault—you couldn’t have known that would happen,” said Adrien, hoping to offer his support in some way.

Marinette flashed him a grateful smile when Alya sagged a little, as if some of the pressure was being lifted off her shoulders.

“I still can’t believe Chat would do that, though,” she said, facing her desk as she leaned her forehead on her hands and groaned. “Next time I see him, I’m gonna punch him so hard in the face—”

Adrien flinched but tried to keep his face blank.

“What?” Marinette said, looking at the three of them in confusion. “What are you talking about? What did Chat Noir do?”

“Dudette, Lila’s been telling everyone about this—haven’t you heard yet?” said Nino grimly. “Ladybug told her that she lost the Miraculous because of Chat Noir. He’d betrayed her and gave the Miraculous to Hawk Moth.”

Jaw dropping, Marinette gaped at both Nino and Alya.

Pursing his lips, Adrien crossed his arms over his chest and tried not to frown too much. “Yeah, Nino, and then I asked you if you actually saw it happen,” he said snappily. “You know, since you were actually there, and Lila’s just recounting something Ladybugs has supposedly told her.”

Marinette blinked several times, then furrowed her eyebrows. “Come on, guys, you don’t seriously believe that actually happened. Chat Noir would never do anything like that. And if you’re really superheroes, you should know that better than anyone.”

“I never liked the guy,” said Nino.

“Nino, you thought he was flirting with me,” said Alya dryly. “That’s why you didn’t like Chat. And then you moved on when you realized that wasn’t the real story behind all of this.” She turned to Marinette. “Still, why would Lila lie about this? We don’t actually know what caused this disaster to happen—it might be because of Chat Noir for all we know.”

“No, it can’t!” snapped Marinette.

They all turned to stare at her; Nino and Alya looked slightly taken aback, but Adrien just felt a warm, soothing feeling spreading through his body at the knowledge that someone was standing up for him in this mess. At least he could count on one person to be in his corner.

It brought a smile to his face that he tried to swallow quickly so no one would notice how suspicious it looked.

“Marinette,” sighed Alya, “don’t tell me you think—”

“Lila’s lying!”

Alya and Nino exchanged an exasperated look and rolled their eyes.

Clearly furious, Marinette turned to face him. “Adrien, back me up here!”

He blinked at her. “Um…”

Was it a good idea to stand up for himself like this? It was one thing when someone else did it, but what if he said something that made it obvious he knew way more than he should know about Chat Noir? What if he let something slip and Nino, Alya and Marinette all learned that he was Chat Noir? What if they still thought he was the one to betray Ladybug after they did, too?

Nino already hated his superhero alter ego—Adrien didn’t like the idea of him hating his civilian self on top of that.

Marinette’s eyes shined like she was trying not to cry. She stared at Adrien with a look that wasn’t filled with the disappointment he’d anticipated from her, but rather with sorrow, like she was feeling bad about something regarding him that he wasn’t aware of. It made him shift a little in his seat as he offered her a small, helpless shake of his head.

“Marinette, we know you don’t like Lila, but isn’t it time you let her try and prove to you that she’s honestly a good person?”

Adrien scoffed a little and Marinette growled.

“Fine, don’t defend Chat Noir,” said Marinette as she sent him a pleading look. “Just tell them that you believe me and know Lila’s been lying all along about everything else. Like… like how you know that Ladybug’s best friend isn’t Lila.”

That he could do. “That’s true. Ladybug told me so.”

Nino and Alya rounded on him quickly. “What? What do you mean Ladybug told you so?”

“When Lila first came to our school she and I went to the park after school. She showed me a pendant of hers and claimed that she was the descendant of the holder of the fox Miraculous. And then Ladybug showed up and told me Lila was lying to me and that they weren’t friends—they didn’t even know each other.” He shrugged. “That’s why she got Akumatized that day.”

“Ladybug got someone Akumatized?” gasped Alya, her hand itching to grab her phone.

“That’s all you got from that?” said Marinette flatly.

Adrien frowned. “Lila lied about knowing Ladybug. And about plenty of other things, really. Marinette’s been telling you guys the truth.”

She still looked skeptic. “Come on, Sunshine, I know you want to be a good friend, but that doesn’t mean you have to lie in order to side with Marinette. She doesn’t need to be encouraged to spread lies about her fellow students.”

“Oh, yeah, and Lila should,” grumbled Marinette.

“Why are you so sure that Lila is telling the truth and we’re lying?”

Alya and Nino exchanged another look.

“Why would Lila lie?”

“Why would we lie?” countered Marinette. When Alya opened her mouth to speak, the girl quickly said, “No, even better—why would Adrien lie? I know you think I’m biased, but Adrien isn’t! He’s been trying to be nice to Lila this entire time, hasn’t he? So why would he lie? Why would you assume he’s lying to your face instead of telling the truth, but you never doubt Lila?”

Alya’s mouth snapped shut and Nino’s eyebrows scrunched together as he seemed to mull the words over in his head.

“But…” started Nino uncertainly, moving his eyes from Marinette to Adrien, “if you’ve known Lila’s been lying this entire time, why would you keep quiet for so long?”

“I thought she might stop eventually if she sees it doesn’t actually matter—I thought she was doing it to make friends,” he explained weakly. “But she keeps on lying all the time. And, I mean, if it’s really that important to expose her now…” he trailed off and gave Marinette a look.

She nodded once. “It is important. And it’s precisely when something is important that it’s important to say it, no matter what,” she declared, not taking her eyes off him, her words tingling his brain, like they were familiar; but he couldn’t decide where he knew them from. “And if she’s trying to defame Chat Noir, it’s important.”

Pursing her lips, Alya sent a look toward the back row, where Lila was sitting and chatting with Rose, Juleka and Nathaniel with a fake kind smile. “I’m going to talk to her after class, all right? I’m sure it’s all just a misunderstanding.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Though I’m still shocked that Ladybug actually went out of her way to Akumatize Lila. That’s not okay.”

Marinette looked like had she been a cartoon, smoke would’ve come out of her ears. “But—”

“Quiet down, everyone!” called Ms. Bustier from the front of the room.

Adrien turned around to face her, heaving a small sigh of relief at the abrupt end of the conversation.

It came back to him when he was sitting through their last lesson together, absently taking notes as he let his eyes wander over to the window where he saw a distant advertisement staring back at him over the buildings of the city, displaying different toys and plushies that were being sold in a store on the other side of Paris.

His eyes landed on the image of the Ladybug plushie on the sign and his elbow slipped at once and made him lose his balance as he floundered a bit to prevent himself from smacking his chin against the desk, his mind reeling.

“Dude, you okay?” asked Nino, a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Adrien, is everything all right? Did you just fall asleep?” asked Ms. Bustier, sounding less than thrilled about this option.

“N-no!” he shook his head quickly and plastered on a fake smile—one he’s been perfecting for years for his modeling job; it really got in handy sometimes. “Sorry, I’m fine. I’m listening.”

Ms. Bustier kept her eyes trained on him for a moment longer, then went right back to speaking to the class with her kind smile. Nino took a few seconds longer before he let it drop, instead giving Adrien an intense look, as if waiting for some problem to present itself to him. Not that there was any problem—Adrien was perfectly fine.

Once his friend’s eyes trailed off him, Adrien sighed in relief, then chanced a glance over his shoulder and found Marinette sitting there while tapping her pen against her textbook, her eyes glazed over like she wasn’t entirely paying attention to what was happening around her.

Apparently she could feel his attention on her because she blinked several times, then focused on Adrien. Her face flushed a little before she offered him a small smile. It took him a second to realize he should smile back. Then he snapped his head back around and tried to focus on the lesson instead of the thoughts that were insistently hammering against his head.

It's precisely when something is important that it’s important to say it, no matter what. The words were so familiar to him because they were his words spoken back to him. And there was only one other person in that room when he’d said it—other than the wax figures that had attacked him and Ladybug.

He found himself absently doodling ladybugs in his textbook until the bell rang. When he lifted his head to try and stop Marinette so they could talk, though, he found her being dragged away by Alya, who was chattering quickly about something Adrien couldn’t hear.

Okay, what now?

He transformed the moment he closed the door of his bedroom and left his phone playing the recording of him practicing the piano. At least then he’d be left alone—hopefully.

Flinging himself through the city, Chat Noir tried to ignore the few people who stopped to point at him and call him a traitor. Seriously, word got around fast in Paris—especially when the rumor being passed around wasn’t even based on anything concrete. The only thing people were listening to right now was the words of a random girl.

It was concerning to realize that people were willing to just believe anything without getting any evidence to support the claims.

He stopped for a moment so he could use his baton to see the news. It showed Nadja Chamack speaking in the studio with a grim expression and an accompanying picture of him—Chat Noir him. She was actually telling the entire city—no, the world—that Chat Noir has betrayed Ladybug and was the reason Hawk Moth got all of the Miraculous.

Seriously?

His hand shook as he glared down at the reporter. How could people actually believe that? Was he that much of a wild card that everyone was just willing to instantly turn on him, just because one person started the rumor that he was at fault here? No, it was more than that—they all believed that Lila was Ladybug’s best friend, so of course she’d know what she was talking about.

“Chat Noir!” a voice called.

He flinched and readied himself for more insults.

“Hey, kitty, come here!”

Wait, this was a familiar voice. Chat raised his head and found himself staring at Marinette. She was standing on her balcony, waving her hands around to grab his attention, her phone nearly slipping out of her grip and down to the pavement below.

Hopping over to the railing of her balcony, he crouched down there and offered her a smile. “Why, hello princess—just the person I was coming to see.”

She didn’t look surprised, though she still managed to lose her grip on her phone at long last. Chat reached out and caught it before it could fall down and break. When he offered it back to Marinette, he saw that it was showing the same news report that he just saw. His lips tugged down before he could control his expression.

Turning the screen off, Marinette shoved the phone into her purse. “Don’t listen to them. We both know none of this is true,” she told him.

“Why, of course. I would never betray you, m’lady.”

Her eyes crinkled as she smiled at the nickname.

“I can’t believe you quoted my words back at me,” he added as he got more comfortable.

“I can’t believe it took you so long to realize that!” she countered mirthfully. Then she frowned. “Why didn’t you defend yourself in class, though? You know you weren’t the reason the Miraculous got stolen. It was Félix and Hawk Moth. Why wouldn’t you say anything?”

“You heard Nino—he can’t seem to keep his mouth shut about this stuff, and I didn’t feel like accidentally saying something that might reveal myself to him, just in case he ended up spilling the secret to someone else like he did with his and Alya’s identities.”

Marinette frowned. “Oh, yeah…” She leaned on the railing next to him and stared down at the school across the road. “Did he just let it slip today or…?”

“Remember Rocketear?”

She scrunched up her nose. “When Nino got Akumatized because he thought you were hitting on Alya?” she said. Then she blanched. “That was ages ago!”

He inclined his head a little, his bell jingling softly at the movement. “Yeah, well, before he got Akumatized he got really… obsessed with that whole thing, trying to find out what it all meant and doing really bad detective work,” he explained. “And I guess he needed to vent to someone, because he dragged me to the school basement and started telling me everything.”

“So he told you about him and Alya all the way back then?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Marinette stared at him blankly for a moment, then dragged a hand down her face. “All right, so we can’t trust Alya or Nino with our identities. Good to know.”

“Why is Alya off the list?”

She pursed her lips. “For one thing, she runs the Ladyblog and is obsessed with unmasking me. And for another thing, she told Nino that she’s still Rena Rouge because she couldn’t keep it a secret from him. If she knew who Ladybug was, she might tell him about it, too. Then he’d tell someone else and it will just snowball from there until it’d reach Hawk Moth and he’ll target our families and friends and we’ll have no way of defeating him so we’ll both be forced to hand over our Miraculous and—”

Chat hopped off the railing to stand next to Marinette and grabbed her hands, which effectively snapped her attention back to him as her mouth snapped shut. She looked at him with wide—slightly panicked—bluebell eyes that were so familiar to him, he felt stupid for ever allowing the Miraculous glamor to obscure his vision enough to not realize that his partner was the same girl that sat behind him all year long in school.

“Calm down,” he said as comfortingly as he could. “None of this is happening—none of this is going to happen. Hawk Moth won’t discover who we are, and neither will Nino and Alya, all right? We’ll be extra careful to make sure no one else finds out about this.”

“He’s right,” said a familiar, high-pitched voice. A red blur flew out of Marinette’s purse to hover next to Chat’s face and look at her with a smile. “You and Chat Noir will be okay. You’ll deal with this just as well as you handle every other Akuma fight. You’re a great team—and now you can rely on each other even more!”

Tikki smiled at Chat for a moment, then nuzzled Marinette’s cheek lightly until the girl’s shoulders sagged down in relief.

“Right, right. Everything will be fine, just fine. I’m just catastrophizing!”

He had to bite back a joke about the word catastrophizing and instead offered Marinette his fist. “We’ve got this.”

She nodded and met his fist with her own. “Absolutely!” Her eyes gleamed with determination. “Now we just need to figure out a way to make this stupid rumor about you drop already.”

“Oh, yeah, that.” He rubbed the back of his neck as distant calls of cusses and insults were thrown his way—things Marinette wouldn’t be able to hear without catlike senses.

Marinette’s lips tugged upward. “Or, even better, we can prove every single thing Lila says should be taken with a grain of salt.”

“I’m listening.”

Shaking her head, Marinette smiled sweetly—but there was something cunning in her gaze that looked so much like the expression Ladybug sometimes wore before she executed a perfectly complex and confusing plan that Chat nearly got whiplash from it.

“Let me handle this, kitty—I’ve got this,” she promised.

He tilted his head to the side but still shrugged. “As you wish, m’lady. Just as long as whatever plan you’re concocting doesn’t involve me getting soaked—Plagg is definitely rubbing off on me.”

She let out a small giggle and only smiled at him brightly in reply.

When Adrien got to school the next day he considered waiting outside for Marinette so they could walk in together—after all, they were closer friends than they’d thought, so they could do stuff like that without it feeling awkward. Heck, they’d kissed before—even if he couldn’t remember a single one of those kisses now—so walking side by side into school would be a sinch.

But then he noticed Nino waving him over so they could walk together with Alya, and Adrien gave up and joined his two friends, hoping Marinette won’t take long to join them in the classroom because he felt like now that he knew who she was, he couldn’t help but long to see her again as soon as possible.

“So I did a bit of digging yesterday,” said Alya as they entered the class and went to their seats, waving hello to the others that were already occupying the room (which included everyone but Chloé, Sabrina and Marinette), “and here’s what Lila had to say—Ladybug only said what she said that day in the park because she was worried Lila might get targeted by Hawk Moth if he got wind of how close the two of them are.”

Adrien stared at her blankly. “And you bought that?”

“Dude, it totally makes sense!” said Nino. “Lila was new back then, remember? She didn’t know how brutal Akuma fights can get, so she told everyone about her friendship with Ladybug without thinking about the consequences. Ladybug was doing her a solid by coming to her aid and making it look like she didn’t know her after all. Lila was probably not in on the plan, though. That’s why she got Akumatized.”

Nodding, Alya beamed. “See? Lila wasn’t lying. And Ladybug was only helping out her best friend. It’s completely understandable.”

Ladybug’s best friend was starting to get on Adrien’s nerves. It was almost surreal to look at Alya and realize that she was Ladybug’s best friend… and she wasn’t even believing Ladybug, but rather taking the word of someone else as fact while dismissing Ladybug’s insistent claims that she was trusting the wrong person.

Okay, yeah, he got why Marinette’s been this frustrated with Lila now. Up until now Lila hasn’t said much about Chat Noir so he couldn’t care less, and he knew that she and Ladybug weren’t friends thanks to the heroine herself dropping by to disprove the claim. But if Marinette had to deal with Lila spreading lies about herself only to be dismissed by everyone else… yeah, it made sense she was this strung up because of this situation.

And now that he got a taste of this—of being the subject of Lila’s lies—Adrien felt a newfound respect for Marinette for not completely losing it with Lila much sooner. He kind of wanted to go up the stairs and sew the girl’s lips shut just for turning the entire city against him. And Marinette’s been handling this whole thing without any help for months.

Man, he messed this up really badly.

“Alya, isn’t Marinette your best friend?” he asked.

The girl blinked at him in confusion. “Of course she is! Why?”

“Shouldn’t you take the side of your best friend instead of the girl you’ve known for much less time?”

“Oh, Sunshine, if only you knew the full story here…”

He had the feeling he saw more of the picture than Alya did. “What is the full story then?”

She shook her head determinedly. “No can do—can’t tell you. It’s Marinette’s secret, not mines.”

“So you can keep her secret but you can’t believe her?” he said wryly.

“It’s this secret that’s the reason why we can’t believe her,” said Alya, and she did sound a little apologetic about it this time. “Look, I get that you want to believe Marinette—it’s actually really sweet that you do—but Lila hasn’t given us any reason to distrust her so far.”

“You mean you refuse to listen to any proof that she’s lying.”

“Of course not!”

Nino put a hand on Adrien’s shoulder. “Come on, dude, you can’t blame us for being skeptic when Marinette goes after the girl that we all know you’re close with. It’s like Kagami all over again—”

“Nino!” objected Alya in a hiss.

Frowning at the two of them, Adrien moved his eyes between them both. “What are you talking about? Kagami and Marinette are friends.” He scrunched up his nose. “And I am not close to Lila—not even a little bit.”

“So why would you buy her that expensive bracelet—ow!”

“Nino, she told us not to bring it up! It’s a secret, remember?” chided Alya and Adrien noticed her pulling her leg away after she kicked Nino. Taking in a deep breath, she turned to Adrien with a tight smile. “Look, we know that things are complicated and that you’re worried word might get to your father, but we’ll keep it all between us, all right? It’s fine. And Marinette will eventually get over it.”

He was so confused right now. What in the world were they talking about?

Seeing as Alya was still being rather vague, Adrien focused on his best friend instead. “What bracelet?”

Looking more than a little uncertain, Nino shifted in his seat and tugged at his headphones anxiously. “Oh, you know, the ones you got her? About a month ago?”

“I never bought her a bracelet,” he argued.

“Hey, it’s cool, we won’t tell your father or anything. You can trust us with this secret, my dude,” Nino said, which wasn’t really all that reassuring. “And it’s kind of obvious you guys are close. Those shoots, the smiles, helping her with her schoolwork—”

“—that cute picture you guys took when she came over to your house,” added Alya.

Nino nodded. “See? It’s kind of the least kept secret I know.”

“Says the known superhero,” noted Adrien dryly.

This made Nino’s cheeks burst with color as he ducked his head and awkwardly fidgeted with his red cap. Unlike him, Alya was shaking her head as she gripped it with both hands, clearly frustrated and exasperated by the direction of the conversation. Adrien could relate, but clearly for different reasons.

“Look, it’s clear that you guys don’t believe me because you think Lila is a saint of some kind that always tells the truth so others are perceived as liars instead, but I’ll try telling you this anyway.

“I’m not close to Lila. I don’t even like her. I’d very much like to be paired up with someone else during photoshoots, but it’s not really my call; I help her with our schoolwork because I’m forced into it by either you guys or our teachers; and that time she took the picture in my house? She got Nathalie and my bodyguard in trouble for sneaking in like that without permission, and then she took the picture and sent it to everyone even though I was just trying to get her to stop going through my stuff and to preferably just leave.

“And this bracelet—I have no idea what you’re talking about, but it’s definitely not a gift from me. If I had to guess, I’d say she probably got it herself and then bragged about receiving it as a gift to make people fawn over her as usual. She’s lying to you, and you’re just eating it up.”

When Nino and Alya shared a look filled with skepticism and doubt, Adrien gave up with a heavy sigh and turned to face the front. “Forget it,” he muttered to them and trained his eyes on the door, waiting for Marinette to just step into the room and brighten up his day already.

Logically he knew that Marinette will most likely skid into class and stumble straight into a desk during rollcall like she tended to do almost every day, but he still had his fingers crossed as he ignored Nino and Alya’s hushed conversation next to him and instead kept on eyeing the door, willing it to reveal one tired Marinette, whose face would (hopefully) light up at the sight of him.

Instead, a few minutes before the bell was supposed to ring, a red and black blur zipped through the open window of the classroom and landed right in front of the teacher’s table. Everyone turned to stare in awe at Ladybug, who was staring at them all with a look of steely determination.

Adrien’s jaw dropped for a moment before he collected himself quickly and shook his head. He tried not to show how familiar he was with Ladybug or her confident stance. It helped that she didn’t look at him at all, instead looking at everyone else—probably because they both knew it would be hard to pretend like they didn’t know each other if they actually made eye contact.

“Ladybug! Oh, my God!” called Alya excitedly as she pulled out her phone in a movement so quick, it looked more like a blur than anything. “What are you doing here? Is there an Akuma attack? Are we all in danger?”

No, Adrien could tell just by looking at her that this wasn’t the case. Ladybug was one of the most familiar people to him. He learned to read her enough to know when she was in actual danger and when she was just steeling herself for something, and this was definitely the second option in this case. Plus, there hasn’t been an Akuma alert—he would’ve noticed.

“No,” said Ladybug, her voice so similar to Marinette’s that Adrien was really having trouble understanding how any kind of magic could ever prevent him from recognizing her instantly. “I need to deliver a message to all of Paris as soon as possible, and what better way than to go straight to the Ladyblogger, right?”

She wasn’t smiling. She didn’t look like she was coming to Alya for the sake of helping out her friend with the blog. Instead, she looked like this just fit whatever her plan was because the Ladyblog was just so well-received by Parisians. It would make sure everybody in the city—and out of it—got Ladybug’s message quickly.

“Right, of course!” said Alya as she moved around her desk to come closer. “I’m certainly going to help you! This is so cool! I’m so glad you came to me with whatever this is!”

She started recording and held the phone in front of Ladybug, shushing at the other people around so they’d shut up and won’t interrupt the video.

Adrien glanced back and saw Rose leaning forward excitedly, Juleka putting her hand on the girl’s shoulder, as if to make sure she wouldn’t topple over the desk and onto the floor; Nathaniel looked up from his sketchbook to give Ladybug his full attention, though his hand was still seemingly itching to draw; Mylène and Ivan were cuddling next to each other, with Ivan keeping a secure arm around Mylène to prevent her from getting afraid.

Lila, he noticed, was sitting with pursed lips and a tight expression next to Nathaniel, her green eyes slightly narrowed as she glared at Ladybug like she wanted to stab her with Nathaniel’s pencil. And when he turned back to the front he realized that Ladybug was glaring at the girl right back—right, because Marinette hated Lila, and Lila hated Marinette and Ladybug (which turned out to be the same person).

Nothing’s changed, then.

Taking in a deep breath, Ladybug focused on the phone in Alya’s hands and offered it a stern look. “I heard the rumors going around, that Chat Noir was behind the theft of the Miraculous,” she started.

Alya gasped. “Are you here to comment on it yourself?” she said enthusiastically. “Are you trying to ask us to keep an eye out and let you know when we see him, so you can capture him?”

“No!” Ladybug said sharply. “I’m here to tell you that everything you heard about him—every claim about him betraying me—is nothing but a lie,” she exclaimed, clenching her hands at her sides.

The students all gasped in shock. Adrien could see that some of them were glancing between Lila and Ladybug, clearly unsure as to what they were supposed to think about these two contradicting claims. Alya herself lowered her phone a little, her smile dimming as she furrowed her brows at Ladybug. Nino looked just as baffled by this statement as his girlfriend.

Letting out a little unsure chuckle, Alya said, “What?”

“The rumor that Chat Noir gave the Miraculous to Hawk Moth is false. It’s baseless. It’s not true in the least. I know how the Miraculous were lost—it was because of a mistake made by me, no one else. Chat Noir was by my side the entire time, trying to help. And he helped me afterward when I panicked, too. He’s not the reason Hawk Moth has the Miraculous.”

“Then… why would you tell Lila that it was Chat Noir’s fault?” asked Alix.

Ladybug snorted. “Trust me, I wouldn’t talk to Lila Rossi without being forced into it if you paid me,” she said bluntly.

Alya stopped the recording and lowered her phone completely, offering Ladybug an understanding smile. “Hey, it’s okay, Ladybug—we know that you’re only trying to protect her by pretending not to be close to her. Lila’s explained it to us. It’s no big deal.”

“She doesn’t need protecting. I’m telling you the truth—Lila Rossi’s been lying about being my best friend.” Ladybug raised her hand and pointed a finger at Adrien without looking at him. “Ask Adrien Agreste if you don’t believe me—he’ll tell you that since the first day I already said that Lila and I weren’t friends. I didn’t even know who she was when you posted that first interview with her, Ladyblogger.”

“Wait, seriously?” said Kim. He turned to Adrien. “What?”

Shrugging, Adrien tried not to look like he was immensely amused as he said, “Yeah, Ladybug dropped by the day Lila joined our class and told me she and Lila weren’t friends—that they didn’t even know each other.” He smiled innocently at his classmates. “It shouldn’t be news to you guys—Marinette’s been telling you for months that Lila keeps on lying to you.”

Alix muttered a small curse under her breath as she sent Marinette’s empty seat a look.

“Wait, no,” said Rose sweetly, “Lila wouldn’t lie. Why would she? I’m sure there’s just a misunderstanding here, guys.” She turned to Lila, her big, blue eyes wide with hope. “Right, Lila?”

“Of course!” said Lila, her eyes already filling with insincere tears as she pouted at Ladybug. “Oh, it’s okay, Ladybug—you don’t need to pretend with them. I trust everyone in this room completely. Hawk Moth will never hear about this from any of them, you know. You can tell them the truth about us.”

Adrien snorted into his hand and tried not to burst out laughing at the absurdity of it as Ladybug’s glare intensified tenfold. Alix looked suspicious now, with Nino, Ivan and Juleka seemingly sharing the feeling. The others still looked unconvinced, still clinging to the claim that Lila and Ladybug were secretly best friends.

“I just did!” protested Ladybug. “You’re a liar, Lila. Chat told me that you tried to separate us once during an Akuma attack so that I’d lose and die. If there’s anything between us, it’s hate. You can’t stand me, and I sure can’t stand you.”

“Ladybug!” gasped Alya and Rose. Mylène was covering her mouth with both hands and curling closer to Ivan.

Lila burst out into tears and Nathaniel eyed her warily and scooted his sketchbook away from her as Rose jumped forward to try and soothe her.

“I-I know why you’re doing this,” said Lila through her fake sobs, sending Ladybug a quivering smile that didn’t fool Adrien in the least. “You’re just t-trying to trick Chat Noir into believing that you really don’t think he’s in trouble. Y-you want him to come out of h-hiding so that you c-can capture him. It’s r-really smart, Ladybug. D-don’t worry, I understand.”

When Adrien looked around, he noticed that there were more skeptical expressions on the faces of his classmates than understanding ones, although Alya was still clearly eating up Lila’s lies without realizing she was picking the wrong side of this. Or, well, she probably didn’t think there were sides, since she really did believe Ladybug was lying to protect Lila.

It was giving him a headache.

“I’m not—” started Ladybug.

“You know what you should do?” said Lila as she sniffed and wiped her tears away, Rose’s hand still rubbing her back comfortingly. “You should add to the video an admission that you’re in love with Chat Noir—everyone knows he’s, like, super into you. He’d rush to meet you if he thought he had a chance. Then you’d be able to capture him with ease.”

“That’s an excellent plan!” said Alya.

Kim nodded. “Wow, that might actually work.”

Adrien felt his face heating up as he tried to cover it with both hands to block the sight of a flabbergasted Ladybug standing right there and hearing all of this. Even if she won’t actually do anything like this, it still felt so much more different now that he knew the girl behind the mask and she knew who he was. He felt more vulnerable, maybe, like she might turn to face him right now and reject him again.

Instead, he could see Ladybug turning completely still from the gap between his fingers. She was still staring at Lila, only now her face was blank. And then her eyes momentarily drifted to the side to land on him and she looked almost horrified, like some kind of realization dawned on her—probably that the classmate she had that always made her uncomfortable was the same guy who’s been confessing his love for her for months.

Her lips parted in awe before she set her jaw and stood tall in front of the entire class. “I’ll never trick him like that,” she said firmly, her voice cold as she glared frostily at Lila. “I really am in love with him.”

His hands fell down and he openly stared at her, not caring that she kept her eyes away from him. Her words kept on sluggishly swimmingly around his mind, replaying on an endless loop that made his skin tingle and his stomach flip and churn excitedly. Because the sincerity in her voice was unmatched—she was telling the truth.

But she’s told him she was in love with someone—some boy she never told him the name of, someone in her life that was important to her, though it sounded like she’s never found the courage to confess to them. His first guess was that it was Luka, but Marinette and him had dated for a short while and Adrien figured it had to be someone else then.

And then a conversation popped up in his head, of Marinette and him—as Chat—talking on her balcony after she’d waved him over to help her.

“See, I have a problem with my boyfriend, who’s not my boyfriend yet, because I can’t talk to him about how I feel, so I need someone to play my crush who for sure doesn’t have a crush on me, and you’d be perfect for the role since there is no way you’d fall for me since you don’t love anyone!”

“No one! Exactly! And I mean no one! But—er—I still don’t get it. You need me to do what exactly?”

“To play my boyfriend who’s not my boyfriend yet; and I’ll be the girlfriend—but the girlfriend who does things right, who doesn’t mess up everything she says. Know what I mean?”

“Uh… not much more than before?”

But he understood a little more now that he had some context, maybe. Or at least… he thought he did. Because even though Marinette’d later dubbed her love interest Buttercup (which still made Adrien want to crack up), she’d also told Chat Noir that she couldn’t speak coherently around her crush, which made it that much harder to confess to him.

And so far, he hasn’t seen Marinette ramble nonsense in front of anyone… but himself.

Has he really been missing it this entire time? The closest thing to a confession he ever got from Marinette was when he’d played that trick on her and pretended to be a wax statue. And, um, yeah, that didn’t go so well. Although he figured her utter distress when realizing he wasn’t really a statue made more sense now, if he was right and she really was in love with him.

Alya’s loud squeal made him shake his head and clear his thoughts. The girl was lifting her phone again to record Ladybug again, her grin wider than before and her eyes so big it looked like she was trying to insert this moment into her brain by looking at it hard enough.

“You’re in love with Chat Noir?” she screeched. “Since when? I thought the two of you weren’t a couple! You deny it every time people bring it up!”

Ladybug blinked at the phone shoved in front of her face and took a step back. “W-we’re not a couple. I—er—haven’t even told him yet.”

“What are you waiting for then?”

“Uh…”

Then Lila spoke up again. “Oh, so that’s why you’re really protecting him—you don’t want to admit to yourself that the boy that you love is really a traitor,” she said sweetly, her hand pressed over her heart. “I understand, Ladybug. We all have our flaws, after all.”

“Yes, that makes sense,” agreed Alya easily.

“No!” snapped Ladybug, stubbornly stamping her foot. “You’re not listening to me. Chat Noir never betrayed me or anyone else in Paris. The only one who keeps on lying to the faces of everyone around her here is Lila Rossi.” She pointed at the girl accusingly and narrowed her eyes behind her mask. “I’m tired of trying to convince people that I’m telling the truth—trust me or not, know that I would doubt everything that comes out of this girl’s mouth if I had to listen to her all the time.”

Then she threw her yoyo to the top of the nearest building and zipped out of the classroom.

Alya lowered her phone again, looking at the others around in confusion. “So… what just happened?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” said Ivan. “Ladybug came here to expose Lila’s lies.”

“Oh, but I’m sure she’s really just trying to protect Lila from Hawk Moth—” started Rose.

“It-doesn’t-really-seem-like-it…” mumbled Juleka. “Looks-like-Ladybug-really-can’t-stand-Lila…”

Kim threw the girl behind him a baffled look.

“I don’t know, dudes,” said Nino slowly. “Marinette, Adrien and Ladybug tell us that Lila is a liar… feels like it’s for real. Can we really afford not to trust Ladybug of all people? I mean… has Ladybug ever lied?”

“She probably has—as a civilian,” said Alix. “But as a superhero? I don’t think so. Hey, if she says that Rossi is lying to us, I believe her.”

“Alix! I thought we were friends!” gasped Lila, tears gathering in her eyes again.

Alix ignored that and instead turned to look at Adrien. “And let me guess—you don’t actually like Lila, do you, Sunshine?”

The urge to sigh in relief was pretty strong, but Adrien managed to hold it in as he only shook his head and offered Alix an innocent—slightly confused—smile, trying to seem like he had no idea what she was even talking about, even though he’s already heard bits and pieces of it from Nino.

Frowning and shaking her head slowly, Alya said, “No, guys, come on—we don’t have any evidence that supports the claim that Lila is a liar. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions just like that—”

“Is Ladybug’s testimony not enough evidence for you?” said Ivan flatly.

“She’s obviously trying to protect Lila—maybe she thinks one of us might be a spy for Hawk Moth,” said Alya reasonably.

Adrien’s eyes narrowed as he stared at her, barely reacting to Marinette’s appearance as the girl skidded into the room through the door, mumbling something about sleeping through her alarm as she managed to avoid collision with Ms. Bustier’s desk. Still, he caught her eye for a moment as she climbed up the stairs to her seat, smiling at him.

“Alya, you want to base everything off of solid facts?” he said. “Fine. Show me the proof that Lila is telling the truth.”

Even Lila fell silent at that. Alya blinked, looking like she was suddenly lacking every single one of her memories, and stared ahead blankly. She was probably trying to think back to something that would prove that Lila was telling the truth and coming up with nothing.

Mylène whimpered as Alya’s silence dragged on. Rose retracted her hand from Lila as if burnt and took a couple of steps back before cuddling into Juleka’s side, looking mortified and aghast. Alix stared intently at Alya, her arms crossed over her chest as she waited for the verdict.

When the silence kept on dragging on, Alix said “Unbelievable” and the class erupted into noise as everyone started talking about the last few minutes while sending Lila offended and annoyed looks which the girl tried to deflect as she rambled on excuses to try and win back the trust of the class.

Nino slumped down. “Wow,” he said, then turned to give Adrien a look. “Sorry I didn’t believe you. Man, she really fooled all of us, huh?”

“It’s all right,” Adrien shrugged it off, then turned around to smile at the girl sitting in the seat behind him. “It’s such a shame you missed it, Marinette—Ladybug showed up and told everyone that Lila is a liar. You would’ve loved it.”

She beamed at him, her eyes shining. “For sure.”

“Oh, man,” Nino kept on muttering to himself.

“By the way,” said Marinette as she leaned forward on her forearms, her smile turning a little more nervous as her cheeks blossomed with color, “I wanted to ask you if—uh—maybe you’d like to go get ice cream from André after school.” She blinked, then added, “Together.”

It felt like the world stopped, time stood still. Or maybe it was just the result of all the conversations around him ceasing as the students in the class focused their full attention on Marinette and Adrien, like they were just as invested in this new development as the two in question.

He could imagine his father berating him for his wide grin had he been there, telling Adrien he had to keep himself composed. He could imagine professionals telling him that he needed to keep the image of his perfect self at all times instead of beaming at someone the way he was right now.

Frankly, disobeying these voices only made Adrien want to smile even more, because the girl he loved just asked him out—plus, Marinette just did something he knew she’s been trying to do for a really, really long time. He was so happy, elated, proud, giddy and ecstatic that he felt like he might be able to fly and sail through the sky effortlessly.

“I’d love to,” he said earnestly, earning himself a sigh of relief from Nino and an eyeroll from Kim who seemed to mutter something about how long it took for this to finally happen.

A few of the girls squealed excitedly—especially Rose—and Marinette seemed to awkwardly try and ignore them as she kept her eyes locked on Adrien, her face reflecting his own feelings back to him.

Leaning closer so that nobody other than her would be able to hear him, Adrien said, “And if I’m not allowed to, I’ll just sneak out later.”

Her eyes twinkled. “There’s gonna be an Akuma alert in the middle of it, isn’t there?”

He had to admit there was a pretty good chance of that happening.

Everyone turned to the still open window when they heard people screaming outside. They all got up hurriedly and went to see what was happening, Alya finally snapping out of her funk in order to try and get a good shot of whatever it was that was happening this time.

“Or,” whispered Adrien, “Hawk Moth will send an Akuma now instead.” He got up and held his hand out for her. “Shall we, Bugaboo?”

She scrunched up her nose. “Still don’t call me that.”

He ignored that as she grabbed his hand and slipped out of the classroom unnoticed so they could both go and find a place to transform, the two of them laughing lightly despite the fact that there was a villain on the loose, more powerful than the typical Akumatized victims.

Hours later, they both sat side by side on top of the Eiffel Tower, sharing an ice cream cone—spearmint, vanilla, blueberry and rose—and staring down at the Ladyblog that Adrien had opened on his phone to see Alya’s latest post.

Neither one of them was surprised to see that rather than focus much on the fight itself, Alya seemed to talk more about the new dynamic of Ladybug and Chat Noir that’s seemingly changed overnight.

“Stronger, united and more efficient than ever—is it possible that our city’s beloved superhero duo finally became an official couple?” Adrien read the last line, then he grinned at Marinette. “Want to give her an exclusive interview to put her out of her misery, m’lady?”

Marinette took a bite from the ice cream and seemed to melt right along with it. “Not yet—I think we should let her stew in this for a little while longer.”

“Is this payback for not believing you about Lila?”

“Not at all—this is to protect our identities,” she objected, though there was a glint in her eye that let Adrien know he was on to something, too. “I just think it would look too suspicious if both Chat Noir and Ladybug and Adrien and Marinette started dating at the same time.”

“Of course, that’s all,” he laughed and took a bite from the ice cream, too. It was perfect. “I guess I’ll have to trust you on this.”

She met his gaze for a moment and her face flushed before she leaned her head on his shoulder—probably so she wouldn’t have to look him in the eye again. It was obvious she was still extremely flustered around him every few minutes; and frankly, Adrien kind of enjoyed seeing the blush that dusted her cheeks every once in a while—it was adorable.

“Have I ever steered you wrong before?” she said after a moment or two.

“How about when Sabrina got Akumatized, and Chloé—”

Marinette groaned. “Chaton!”

He laughed. “You know I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth, m’lady.”

She hummed in contentment and they both fell silent as they enjoyed the light breeze and the peaceful buzz of the city life coming from below as they enjoyed their ice cream, basking in their little moment of tranquility.