MIRACULOUS LADYBUG: "HOW TO CRUSH YOUR CRUSH"

by Mythril Moth

Chapter Five: A True Test of Character

A deafening silence filled the kitchen.

Sabine slowly turned to face her daughter, whose eyes were wide with dread and panic.

Marinette opened her mouth to say something, but Alya raised a hand to ward her off. "Don't try to deny it. No lame excuses. You're Ladybug." She sighed. "It took me a lot longer to figure it out than it should have. I already feel stupid for not realizing it sooner. Don't insult my intelligence by lying about it."

"Marinette?" Sabine asked quietly, her hands clasped to her chest. "Is...is this true?"

Marinette bowed her head. "You couldn't have confronted me about this in private?" she asked quietly. "You had to do this in front of Mama?"

Alya sighed. "If you're mad at me for that, I'll take it like a big girl. But it's for your own good. If the reason you've been missing class and disappearing so often is because you're out there saving the world, don't your parents deserve to know?"

"Nevermind that," Sabine said. "If she's putting herself in danger fighting those...those things on the news, we absolutely have to know about that!"

Marinette looked up at Alya, hurt and betrayal in her eyes. "Who else knows?" she asked. "Have you told anybody else?"

"Of course not," Alya said, her own eyes showing hurt. "You're my best friend." She sighed. "Nino knows, though. He's actually the one who figured it out."

Marinette buried her face in her hands. "Do you know about—"

"Yeah. Him too."

Marinette shook her head. "I'm going upstairs," she announced, retreating to her room.

"Marinette, wait—!"

The hatch door swung open, then swung shut. Sabine quickly raced after Marinette, but paused when she heard something heavy scraping across the floor upstairs. When she pushed on the hatch, it wouldn't budge. She returned to the kitchen, eyes full of worried tears, and gave Alya a helpless, pleading look.

Alya ran a hand through her hair, letting out a weary sigh. "Yeah, that could've gone better," she said. "I'll...I'll give her a bit to cool down, then I'll try to...yeah." With a grimace, she turned and left the bakery.

Sabine looked up the stairs to her daughter's now-inaccessible bedroom. "Marinette..."

Marinette flung herself onto her bed, sobbing. Tikki flew out of her purse and landed on her shoulder, a sad look in her eyes. "Marinette..."

"DAMMIT!" Marinette snarled, sitting up suddenly and forcing Tikki to take flight. "Everything was perfect!" I finally got together with Adrien! I found out he's my partner! It was all falling into place! Then Alya had to go and—"

"Care about you? In her own really in-your-face, nosy way?"

Marinette sighed and flopped back onto her bed. "In front of my mother," she moaned.

Tikki heaved a tiny sigh of her own. "Yeah," she said. "It's always the hardest when Ladybug gets outed to her parents against her will."

Marinette looked up. "It's happened before?"

Tikki shrugged. "It's unavoidable," she said. "Sooner or later, somebody figures out you're a superhero. It could be your parents, your best friend, your lover, your children, your enemies..." She shuddered. "That one's the worst." She shook her head. "When I told you to guard your secret identity, that was to protect you and the people you care about, yes, but more importantly, it was to let you grow into the pressure that comes with the burden of your powers. Once you're used to being Ladybug and can handle the pressure of just being Ladybug, that's when one or two people usually find out your secret. Preferably by choice."

Marinette sniffled. "So you mean it isn't a rule of the Miraculous?"

"It's more to give a brand new Ladybug room to grow into the role without outside interference," Tikki said with a soft smile. "For the past several months, you've been tested as a superhero. You've fought enemies, lived a double life, balanced your own personal life and school with your responsibilities as Ladybug. I had kinda hoped that it'd be another year or two before this happened, and honestly I wasn't sure what to expect with you and Chat Noir knowing each other's secret, but..." She shook her head. "That had to happen. The way you were pining for each other and not knowing? That would've turned into a sickness of the heart if it stayed the way it was."

"A sickness of the heart, huh...?"

"Love with full disclosure is way better than pining away until you can't think straight," Tikki said. "That's what led to that whole mess with Max, remember? This other mess, though, with Alya and your mother? That's where your true test of character begins." She put her little paw-hands on her hips. "You're failing it so far, by the way."

Marinette glared at her. "Excuse me?"

"You got outed as Ladybug so you're hiding in your bed like a petulant child with your chaise blocking the only way anybody without superpowers can get in here," Tikki said bluntly. "You have every right to be mad at Alya for doing what she did in front of your mother, but she's still your best friend, and if you don't make up with her you'll regret it. But for now, you need to face your parents and, well...be an adult about this."

Marinette stared at her for a long time. Finally, she sighed and flung herself off the bed, then unblocked the trap door. "You're right," she said. "I need to go down there, face the music, and get grounded for the rest of my natural life..."

"We should ground you for the rest of your natural life."

As soon as Sabine had told Tom what was going on, he had immediately closed the bakery, citing a family emergency, while Sabine had called Collège Françoise Dupont to inform them Marinette would be missing her afternoon classes. The family now sat in their living room; Tikki, no longer needing to hide, sat in Marinette's lap. Her existence had come as something of a shock to Marinette's parents, but no more so than the revelation that their daughter spent a great deal of her time swinging around Paris on a magical yo-yo.

Marinette looked down at Tikki, abject misery written across her face.

"We won't, of course," Sabine said. "But you do realize this whole...thing has shaken our trust in you pretty badly."

"It does explain all those absences and disappearances, though," Tom put in.

Marinette sighed. "Mama, Papa..." She braced herself and looked up, a fiery determination in her eyes. "I'm not going to say I'm sorry, because I'm not. I don't know why I was chosen to become Ladybug, but it doesn't matter. Paris needs Ladybug. I need Ladybug. After everything I've been through, after everything I've seen, I can't stand by and do nothing." She absently picked Tikki up and held her close to her heart. "I couldn't tell you because it's a dangerous secret. I don't like keeping secrets from you, but this..."

"Don't blame Marinette," Tikki said. "I made her keep this secret. I knew in time she'd have to tell you, but she needed to—"

"No, I could've ignored you and told them anyway," Marinette interrupted. "I'm the only one here who had to make that choice."

Tom and Sabine looked at each other, wordless communication passing between them. Sabine looked at Marinette and smiled. "You've become so strong," she said. "This past year, I've noticed a change in you, seen you starting to grow..." She stood up, walked over to Marinette, and enfolded her in a motherly embrace. "It's not just because of you being Ladybug, it's because you've learned to accept responsibilities and...and make hard choices, and live with the consequences." She pursed her lips. "Now, you have lied to us, probably more than we realize, and I'm afraid there have to be consequences for that."

Marinette bowed her head. "Yes, Mama."

"So once we're done talking, you're going to scrub every inch of the bakery, including cleaning the ovens," Tom said. "They're long overdue."

"Yes, Papa." Marinette paused. "So how long am I grounded for?"

Tom chuckled. "I don't think grounding you would be fair to you, Adrien, or Paris," he said. "But your grades need to stay above average if you're going to keep leading this double life of yours."

"And we're very worried about, well...how dangerous what you do is," Sabine said. "I mean, we've seen what Ladybug and Chat Noir do, both on the news and in person." She frowned, putting her hands on Marinette's shoulders. "How close have you come to dying doing this? How badly hurt have you gotten? Tell the truth."

Marinette winced. "Well, I've never gotten too badly hurt," she said. "Mostly just exhausted after some of my fights. As Ladybug, I'm practically indestructible. I won't say there haven't been close calls, but—"

"I won't let anything happen to her," a new voice intruded. "Ever. I promise."

All three turned around to see Chat Noir leaning in the hallway door. Marinette's eyes widened. "Chat Noir, what are you—"

"Alya called me," he said. "Told me everything." He clenched his fist; his transformation reversed, leaving Adrien standing in his place. He walked over and pulled Marinette into a hug; she leaned into him, pressing her head against his chest. Adrien looked at her parents. "You can count on me to watch over her," he insisted.

Sabine blinked. "Adrien? You're Chat Noir?"

Marinette looked up at Adrien. "I, uhh...didn't tell them about that," she said.

Adrien blinked. "Oh," he said sheepishly. "Well." He scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously. "Awkward..."

"I told you to let the girl handle it herself," Plagg muttered sleepily. "She has more sense than you do."

Sabine turned a motherly frown on Adrien. "What about your family?" she asked. "Are you going to tell them?"

She saw Marinette's frantic "don't go there" gesture too late.

Adrien seemed to deflate. "My father's already determined to control every aspect of my life. Even getting him to agree to let me go to a regular school with normal kids took an outright act of defiance. Up until the start of this school year, I've always been privately tutored." He shook his head. "Chat Noir is practically the only thing I have that isn't either controlled or monitored. I'm not letting him take that away from me."

Sabine paled. "That's awful. What about your mother? Doesn't she—" She trailed off as she saw the pain in Adrien's eyes. "Oh," she said softly. She swiftly drew him into a hug. "I'm sorry..."

"Father must absolutely never know I'm Chat Noir, or that Marinette is Ladybug," Adrien said once Sabine released him. "If he finds out, I'll never see Marinette or any of my friends again. I can't live with that."

Marinette moved in to embrace him, her eyes wet with unshed tears. Tom and Sabine exchanged worried glances.

Adrien's phone beeped an alarm at him. He grimaced.

Marinette looked up at him. "Go on," she said. "Go back to school."

"I don't know," Adrien said. "Will you be—"

"I'll be fine," Marinette said with a roll of her eyes. "Besides, I'll be busy scrubbing ovens all afternoon. I don't think you want to stick around for that."

"Well..." Adrien looked at her hesitantly, then at her parents. "Okay," he said. "But after—"

Marinette grimaced. "After that, I...probably need to talk to Alya," she said. "I'm still way mad at her, and I'd better get some sort of apology out of her, but...I'm not going to shut my best friend out of my life." She paused, then added, "By the way, Nino knows about both of us. He's the one who figured it out."

Adrien let out a curse that made Sabine jump and Tom raise an eyebrow. "That sneaky little...!" He sighed. "Okay. I'll deal with that during study hall." He gave Marinette another hug and a peck on the cheek. "I will stop by after school. You can wait until after I check up on you to do your thing with Alya, right?"

"Okay," Marinette said with a smile.

Adrien waved goodbye to Tom and Sabine, then headed downstairs. They watched him go with fond smiles.

"You have the best boyfriend ever, you know?" Sabine told Marinette. Then, with a giggle, she added, "Well...second best." She squeezed Tom's massive arm.

Marinette blushed and giggled. "Mama!" She sighed dreamily. "But yeah, he's...amazing." She stretched and popped her knuckles. "Well, I guess I'd better get to work."

"Marinette? One other thing," Tom said.

"Yes, Papa?"

"From now on, try not to use your schoolmates as bait?"

Marinette cringed. "I owe Mireille so many apologies..."

Adrien ran into Alya and Nino at the school gates. Alya looked worried. "How...how mad is she?" she asked.

Adrien frowned. "How mad do you think she should be?" he asked. He glanced at Nino. "We need to have a little talk."

"Yeah," Nino said, shifting awkwardly.

Adrien looked back at Alya. "You owe Marinette an apology," he said. "You really should not have blown her cover in front of her parents."

Alya sighed, hanging her head. "I know," she said miserably. "Do you think...if I go over there after...?"

Adrien considered her for a moment, then nodded. "I'll drop you off on the way there," he said. "I'm checking up on her later."

"How much trouble is she in?" Alya asked.

Adrien snorted. "Please, you know her parents better than I do. Do you really think she's in trouble? She has to clean ovens all afternoon. That's pretty much it."

Alya deflated, her shoulders sagging. "Thank God." She shook her head. "It...it seemed like the right thing to do at the time, you know? I just—"

"Save it for Marinette," Adrien said, holding up a hand. He shook his head. "She'll forgive you. You know she will." With that, he headed into the school.

"Yeah, but will you forgive me?" Alya said softly to his retreating back. Nino patted her on the shoulder and guided her inside.

Once school let out, Adrien and Alya headed directly for the bakery. Adrien insisted on going in first; he went around to the private entrance instead of going in through the front, then made his way to the bakery kitchen.

He saw a pink-clad butt sticking out of an oven, wiggling back and forth in time with scraping sounds coming from within. Smirking, he crept up behind Marinette, leaned down, and tickled her rear end.

Marinette let out a piercing squeal and jumped, then yelped as her head hit the top of the oven. This was followed by a very unladylike curse and a sharp kick backward which caught Adrien in the shin. As he hopped back away from her, she hauled herself out of the oven, rubbing her head with a soot-covered hand, and glared at him, her face flaming red. "Adrien!" she said in a sharp tone. "Wh-what was that all about?"

Adrien grinned at her. "I couldn't resist," he said.

Marinette fixed a pouting scowl on him, then rolled her eyes, fighting a smile as she swatted him on the shoulder. "Perv." She winced and rolled her shoulders, rubbing her right shoulder with her left hand. "You know, it's funny how I can swing all over the city on a yo-yo and my arms never get sore, but a couple of hours mopping floors and scrubbing ovens? I'm aching all over."

"I think that's why they call it hard work," Adrien said. "Anyway, I just wanted to check on you. Are you—?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Marinette said. She grimaced at a soot stain she'd left on Adrien's jacket. "Umm...sorry about that..."

He glanced down at it and shrugged. "Eh, no biggie. If it doesn't come out, I've got five more." He grimaced. "Alya's waiting outside. Do you want to...?"

Marinette sighed. "Yeah. I'm about done here anyway and I haven't even eaten lunch and I'm kinda starving. Go ahead and send her in."

Adrien hugged her, kissing the top of her head. "I'll call you later." With that, he left; a moment later, Alya walked in, a contrite expression on her face.

"Hey Marinette," she said.

Marinette shoved a steel wool scrubbing pad in her mouth. "Chew on that while I go get cleaned up," she said. "Then we can talk."

Alya made a face as she extracted the grimy pad from her mouth and tossed it in the trash, then filled a glass full of water and used it to rinse her mouth out. "Gah!"

A few minutes later, a slightly less filthy and disheveled Marinette came downstairs, grabbed a leftover baguette from the day's unsold product, and headed upstairs; Alya followed.

In the smaller family kitchen on the second floor, Marinette busied herself making a few small sandwiches; she put one on a separate plate for Alya, grabbed a napkin and a small bottle of juice for herself, then took her plate upstairs. Alya got her own napkin and juice, grabbed her plate, and followed.

Marinette sat on her favorite computer chair, legs folded under her, stuffing her face. A tiny little creature that looked like a toy ladybug with huge eyes floated around her head. Alya blinked at that, but shook her head and sat down on the floor. "Okay, before I humble myself before the great and powerful Ladybug, I gotta ask: what's with the flying squeeze toy?"

"I'm Tikki," the flying squeeze toy said. "I'm the Kwami that gives Marinette the power to become Ladybug."

"I'll explain everything to you when I'm less mad at you," Marinette said through a mouthful of sandwich.

Alya scratched her cheek sheepishly, toying with her own food. "Yyyyeah," she said. "So, uhh...I really shouldn't have called you out like that in front of your mom. I was upset about the thing with Mireille, I've kinda been stewing about you being Ladybug and not telling me ever since I figured it out, I knew your mom and dad would have to be worried to death about you, so..." She shrugged. "I made a bad choice. I'm sorry."

Marinette eyed her for a long moment. Swallowing, she took a sip of juice, then sighed. "If I didn't forgive you for making a bad choice, I'd be a hypocrite. I also wouldn't be much of a best friend." She pointed her half-eaten sandwich at Alya. "Don't think you're getting off that easy, though. This thing? It's major, so you're gonna have to work pretty hard to make up for it."

"I know," Alya said with a sigh.

The girls talked for over an hour, with Marinette ultimately telling Alya everything about her secret life as Ladybug and extracting multiple promises from Alya to refrain from posting anything sensitive on Ladyblog. When Alya left for home, Marinette went downstairs to wash their plates and finish cleaning up, then joined her family for dinner. After dinner, she spent a half hour talking to Adrien on the phone before finally going to bed, exhausted but mostly content.

The last two days had been an emotional rollercoaster for Marinette, full of shocks, surprises, secrets revealed, and more heart-to-heart conversations than she'd had in a long time. In a short span of time, her partner had turned out to be her secret crush, her secret crush had become her boyfriend, and everybody important to her had learned about her secret double life.

As she drifted off to sleep, she reflected on the future that stretched before her. While nobody knew for certain what the future held, and Ladybug and Chat Noir no doubt had many more battles to face before finally defeating Hawk Moth, she had the support of her friends, her family, and the most wonderful and amazing boyfriend in the world.

She was Marinette. She was Ladybug.

She was invincible.

She was Miraculous.

Chloé Bourgeois watched the video of Ladybug's second battle with Antibug for the hundredth time since returning home that morning. Each time, she saw something new, something ugly.

She saw how everybody clung to Ladybug. She saw how hard Ladybug fought to protect Marinette from the supervillain she'd been turned into.

She saw herself go after Alya and Marinette, leaving herself open to an attack from Ladybug and Chat Noir.

She saw a close-up video of Alya and Marinette, and realized it wasn't Marinette at all. It was that weather girl, Mireille, wearing Marinette's tacky clothes.

She frowned, pursed her lips, and pulled up video after video of Ladybug, studying her intently. In her mind, she heard Ladybug's voice again and again. Every time Ladybug had made a rude comment to her and she'd ignored it. Every time Ladybug had blown her off as a nuisance.

It seemed to happen fairly often...

Chloé squinted as she paused a close-up, clear, high-definition video that showed Ladybug's face.

A brain that was unaccustomed to being used for anything but scheming, demanding, and self-admiration slowly began connecting the dots.

Chloé's eyes widened.

"Impossible..."

FIN...?

Author's Notes: And with that, this story comes to a close.

I can't promise there will be a sequel that continues this, because I already have a little too much on my plate as it is, but if I ever get ideas for something else to add to continue what I started here, we'll see. For now, however, I'm closing the book on this little tale of discovery and moving on to other stories.

Before I sign off completely, there are a couple of things I'd like to address from some of the reviews I've received.

The main thing I want to address is Adrien slapping Chloe. A few of you think he's "wildly out of character" for doing that. That it isn't something he'd do. Let me put it in perspective:

A shallow, self-absorbed girl who, yes, used to be Adrien's only friend, but who he has long since come to view as a nuisance, has shoved his girlfriend into a wall, rudely butted in when he tried to check on her, dismissed her feelings and well-being as unimportant, and called her something very racist and insulting.

In what scenario, I ask you, do you not slap somebody who does all of the above?

Adrien didn't beat her into the ground. He didn't hit her hard enough to knock her down. He slapped her. It's a natural response to the kind of pestilent, aggressively antagonistic behavior Chloe exhibits on a daily basis. And, frankly, it was deserved.

Now. One reviewer suggested I elaborate on Chloe's character by giving her emotions as much weight as Marinette's and delving deeper into her mind, but also suggests I strive to stay "true to the original portrayal" of characters as presented in the source.

Wow. What a paradoxical suggestion.

Characterization is a thing I pride myself on. I've been writing for twenty years, and it's been well over a decade since anyone has accused me of writing someone out of character without there being context given within the story that explains out-of-character behavior.

I'm writing Chloe exactly as she's portrayed in the show: she's a one-dimensional, shallow, self-centered bitch with no regard for other people's feelings.

Sorry if that comes across as a bit of a rant, but a certain reviewer made certain comments that I felt the need to respond to, and unfortunately said reviewer posted as a guest, so this is the only place I can address said comments.

Thank you all for reading!

Miraculous Ladybug is the intellectual property of Zagtoon, Method Animation, Toei Animation, and Thomas ASTRUC. This intellectual property is used without permission with no intent to profit from said use. The unique content contained on this page is the property of Mythril Moth, and redistribution of this content without express permission is strongly discouraged.