Chapter Text
"Plagg."
No answer.
"Plagg."
Still no answer. Adrien scowled and scanned the room. The silence worried him. He at least expected his Kwami to be moaning about cheese or Adrien's despicable love life.
"Plagg!" A moment after his voice echoed around the room, Adrien cringed, suddenly remembering his bodyguard's presence outside his door. He lowered his voice. "Where are you?!"
"Hiding," a stifled voice called, distinctly resembling the ancient Kwami Adrien had been feeding for months. "Because you are so blind." He had been like that ever since the Frightingale incident, although Adrien got the feeling it wasn't the actual akuma encounter that was causing Plagg stress. No – it was the girl who had fit Ladybug's part in Clara Nightingale's music video so well that even Adrien was suspicious. More than suspicious.
"Ladybug is Marinette, isn't she?"
A heavy silence lingered in the room. Adrien waited for confirmation, even though he was almost certain that his lady sat behind him in class. When Plagg finally deigned to speak, his voice was uncharacteristically somber. "Tikki is going to kill me."
"Her Kwami?"
Plagg zipped out from under Adrien's bed and hovered in front of him, ears flat against his head. "Yes, her Kwami. And her Kwami might look cute and have spots, but she is a nightmare!"
Adrien stared at him. "Ladybug is Marinette."
Plagg stared back and said, "Yeah, I know. I saw her. Dark Owl, remember?" Even as he thought, This kid has a one-track mind.
Adrien threw his hands up. "Ladybug sits behind me in class and you didn't think to tell me?!"
"It's against the rules!" Plagg protested. He crossed his arms in front of him. Were they arms? Adrien wasn't totally clear on the names of the Kwamis' anatomy aside from head, mouth, and eyes. "Besides, it was obvious!" Plagg didn't bother to mention his own surprise after having seen Ladybug de-transform. "Anyways," the Kwami continued. "You figured it out."
Adrien's glower was gloriously flat. "She was wearing a Ladybug costume."
"And then you told her that she 'doesn't look a thing like Ladybug'!"
"She told me that I didn't look like Chat Noir, so..."
Plagg rolled his eyes. "And also managed to call Chat Noir lame." He sighed. "Look, kid, Marinette is just... a little caught up in her own world. It's not that she's selfish or anything, it's just that she does a lot of stuff outside of school and saving Paris. Besides, you do kind of look different as Chat Noir. Eyes, hair... I've always been better at disguising my heroes, even though Tikki is the one who always insists they hide their identities."
Adrien tilted his head and crossed his arms. "And how do you know that?" He cleared his throat. "About Marinette, I mean. Being busy."
Plagg froze and smiled waveringly at his holder. "Tikki and I might have met up a few times since you defeated Dark Owl." He cleared his throat. "Just to, y'know, catch up."
"And talk about Marinette and I?"
"No."
Adrien's look was not impressed.
"What else are we supposed to talk about?!" Plagg burst out, voice higher pitched than usual.
Adrien rolled his eyes again, though a smile was playing at his lips. After a beat of silence, Adrien's smile faded and his gaze unfocused.
"What are you going to do?"
The boy glanced up, still frowning in thought.
"About Marinette," Plagg clarified. "I don't think you should outright confess your identity to her."
"Why?" Nerves leaked into Adrien's voice as he remembered Marinette's words from the day before. "Do you think she'll be disappointed?"
The look Plagg gave Adrien spoke levels, but Adrien missed all of them. Plagg snorted when he realized his holder hadn't caught his drift and flew to the plate of Camembert on the table, tossing a triangle of cheese into his mouth before answering. "No. Tikki's heroes have always had the rules of heroism ingrained into their brains from the first time they transform, and Marinette is no different. Furthermore, she-"
Plagg abruptly cut himself off. Adrien narrowed his eyes. "What?"
"She... okay, honestly, kid, open your eyes." Plagg groaned. "It's so painfully obvious that she has a crush on you – Adrien, not Chat Noir."
Adrien blinked.
"But Ladybug was always your first and foremost concern, so you never noticed." Plagg gagged. "Okay, I've overdosed on the love stuff. I need Camembert."
Adrien was tempted to take his Kwami's precious cheese away, but he restrained himself. "I think I know what I'm going to do."
Plagg actually stopped eating to turn back to Adrien. "What?"
Adrien grinned. "If you don't want me to confess... Then I'll just have her figure it out on her own."
…
"Hey, Mom." Marinette entered the bakery with a weary smile, her gaze slipping over the customers in the room. Sabine smiled as her daughter kissed her on the cheek.
"How was your day, honey?"
Marinette smiled. "Great!" Before Sabine could object, she ducked behind the counter and ran upstairs, her mind still racing. Adrien had been sending her odd looks all day – even Miss Bustier had noticed and told Adrien to pay attention. Marinette exhaled as she finally emerged into her room, hyper aware of Tikki's relieved sigh. The red and black kwami darted out from Marinette’s purse and floated in front of her. "What’s wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, Tikki."
"And I’m black and green," the Kwami deadpanned. "You’ve been quiet all day." She smiled at her holder. "Missing a certain black cat?"
Marinette wrinkled her nose. "I’m sure I’ll see Chat Noir soon enough, Tikki. It’s not like Hawkmoth ever takes a vacation." She scowled.
"You’re still bitter about Christmas?"
"Of course I’m still bitter about Christmas!" Marinette dropped into her desk chair, spinning around a few times. "I akumatized Santa Claus because someone was just waiting to send out a butterfly!"
Tikki giggled. It reminded the girl of bells. "Oh, Marinette."
Marinette ran a hand down her face. "Besides, Adrien was acting oddly at school."
"Oh?" Tikki floated closer to her holder, her expression the perfect mask of curious indifference. "Any idea why?"
"None," Marinette ground out. She exhaled. "He kept looking at me out of the corner of eyes like... like..." She groaned and forewent coming up with an adjective. "I think I might have offended him yesterday, after the shoot." Her face turned a shade of red that could rival Nathanael’s hair. "Oh my god, Tikki, what if he hates me?!" She let out an animalistic screech and stood, only to face-plant onto her chaise. She groaned.
"What’s wrong, princess?"
That time, the scream was more shocked than anything else. Marinette scrambled to her feet, staring towards Chat Noir, who was sitting on her bed with an impish grin. The hatch from her balcony hung open. "Chat!"
His eyes glittered. "My Lady?"
Marinette went absolutely still. "Excuse me?"
Chat Noir smirked at her. "C’mon, princess, you put on a Ladybug costume. Even this cat could tell you didn’t want to put on the mask – and why." He winked. "I don't know why. The get-up would have been purrfect."
Marinette’s jaw gaped. Tikki was still floating by Marinette’s desk, her mouth clamped shut to prevent laughter from escaping. Marinette turned her attention to her Kwami, jaw still hanging open. Then her gaze went back to Chat Noir, who glanced at Tikki and then at Marinette with that same ridiculous smile.
"So…" Chat Noir’s voice trailed off as he drank in her room. Marinette was suddenly glad that she had started taking some of her photos of Adrien down after she had realized just how stalker-ish it was. There were only a couple, but of course Chat Noir noticed. "You’re a fan?"
"I’m a fashion designer," Marinette finally managed to say, her thoughts racing. "And Gabriel puts his best designs on his son."
Chat Noir hummed in agreement, smirk fading into a more reasonable smile. His gaze trailed to the mannequin in the corner, the half-finished dress on it. "Ladybug dress?"
"It’s for Alya’s birthday," Marinette said automatically. Her brain was buzzing as she tried to keep up with Chat Noir.
Her partner knew her. Her partner knew who she was. They had broken the first rule Tikki had told her – no one must know.
Marinette finally cleared her throat. Chat Noir looked back at her, the top of his mask rising as he lifted his eyebrows. Marinette stared for a moment before speaking. "How did you…?"
He shrugged. "Well, I sort of suspected you before now, but I wasn’t really sure, since you and Ladybug act differently." He stopped short, noticing the odd expression on Marinette’s face. "Which isn’t a bad thing! I act way different when I’m not wearing my mask, too. Like, way, way, different. More reserved, I guess." He stopped himself before he could ramble for too long. "But yeah, I was kind of wondering if you were… you, but then at Clara Nightingale’s auditions, I saw you wearing the costume and that was it. I saw Alya Cesaire’s footage of it later - you know, from her blog - and you were really reluctant to put on the mask. Also, you have the same hair."
Marinette mumbled a soft curse under her breath. Chat Noir’s eyes widened, but he didn’t comment. "When did you start suspecting?" Marinette demanded.
"When Zombizou attacked." Chat Noir shifted and dropped from the bed to the floor, ignoring the ladder entirely. "Miss Bustier took you out, got akumatized, and Ladybug came in and we never saw Marinette."
"Oh." Marinette looked down as another villain she had caused flashed in her head. And the other events from that day. What would he do when he found out that he had gone to his lady to complain about his lady?
"What’s wrong?"
"Nothing." Marinette sat down on her chaise. "I just… When Glaciator…" She sighed and buried her face in her hands. "It was my fault. When I said sorry. It was because it was my fault Ladybug didn’t come."
She heard the impact of his footsteps across the floor of her room, and then felt the chaise sink as he sat down next to her. "I overreacted. You said you weren’t coming. I shouldn’t have been so…" His voice trailed off. "And then I was a brat about it when you - Ladybug, I mean - showed up."
"It was really nice," Marinette mumbled through her hands. She shifted her fingers to peek through them towards Chat, who smiled faintly. She tried to smile in response. "The candles and the flowers."
Chat snorted and flopped backwards onto her chaise. "Plagg gave me hell about it for weeks."
Marinette giggled and pulled her hands from her face. "Your Kwami? His name is Plagg?"
"Yup. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him I knew your name." Chat Noir sat up and looked at Tikki, who was smiling. "Before you kill him, you should know he didn’t help me at all. I figured it out by myself."
"You’re smart," Tikki commented idly. "And Ladybug’s costume is less… intense than yours."
Chat snorted.
Marinette huffed. "It’s not my fault that nothing changes other than my clothes!"
"She has a point," Tikki commented, looking conspiratorially at the black-clad superhero. "You do change your eyes, your hair… your personality…"
"My personality changes," Marinette said.
"Your demeanor changes," Tikki corrected. "You’re still you, just more forceful. And, really, the same is true of Chat Noir, just more intense than your shift-"
Chat’s eyes widened suddenly. "Oh."
Both Marinette and Tikki looked at him, frowning. Chat looked at Marinette.
"That’s why Ladybug hates Chloe so much."
Tikki huffed out a laugh as Marinette’s face dropped. Chat Noir snickered.
"So, m'lady... she ruffles your polka-dots, eh?"
Marinette jabbed her finger into Chat’s shoulder. "If you’re going to make fun of me, then you can leave, partner." Her eyes glimmered as she resisted spitting a pun back out at him.
"Now, where would be the fun in that?" Nonetheless, Chat stood up and sauntered towards the middle of the room. "So, Miss Dupain-Cheng… I figured out your identity." He smirked at her, and Marinette had a sinking feeling that she knew what he was going to say next. "Your turn to figure out mine."
And before Marinette could object, he vaulted out of her hatch and propelled himself into the distance.
"I think I need to start locking the hatch," Marinette commented.
Her only answer was Tikki’s chiming laughter.
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