Sorry for the delay! Marichat May took up most of my May, as well as school stuff. So far Ladrien June hasn't overtaken me yet, but that's just because school just got even crazier. When will I be free? No one knows...

Thank you for all the reviews, by the way! I'm very happy to hear your thoughts. You are all wonderful and I'm glad you're all enjoying the mess that is our Sunshine Cat Child.

Also, watch out. Things get serious this chapter. Way serious.

Chapter 4: Still The Night After Chat Noir Found Out

Chat Noir already knew too much.

After everything was cleaned up—again—and Marinette had changed out of her milk-soaked shirt, Chat Noir decided it was time to finally confess his sins. Because Ladybug totally had a crush on him too and there was nothing to fear anymore.

Except maybe her wrath for betraying her trust, but he was sure she wouldn't kill him if he explained it was a complete accident. She would surely understand and not decide to murder him. Probably. Hopefully.

But just as he was starting to speak, Marinette let out a despondent sigh, and he was forced to hold his tongue on the matter. Instead, he asked, "Something wrong?"

Marinette looked at him sideways from her chaise and then flopped down on it. "Since you're here, Chat," she said as she buried her face in her throw pillow, "I hope you don't mind if I ask your advice on something."

He frowned at her tone and rolled the desk chair he was perched on closer to her. Helping his Lady always came before any of his own agendas. "What is it, princess?"

"Well," Marinette began, sitting up and hugging her pillow to her chest, "Today, my, uh, crush acted really weird."

Oh, crap. Chat Noir looked sideways at the framed picture of himself on her desk and gulped. This was about the fiasco from this morning. Because of course, it was.

"Yeah, him," she said, nodding at the photo, and then sighed his name with such strong yearning that he almost fell out of his chair, "Adrien…"

Okay.

No.

Well.

Maybe yes.

Definitely yes.

But also no.

His heart was bursting with delight and his face was on the verge of catching on fire from how hot it was. His insides were warm, fuzzy gloop. His whole body was practically buzzing. The way she said his name just now should be made illegal in Paris. No, in the whole world, all across the continents. It just shouldn't be allowed, period. For his sake.

It took all his will-power not to tackle her right then and there and squeeze her to him until they've basically fused into one, big Marichat entity. No, he was a cool cat. No matter how much he wanted to pounce on her and cuddle her until daybreak, he really shouldn't. It was highly inappropriate.

"What—" he started but his voice came out an embarrassingly higher octave, so he cleared his throat and tried again, "What happened?"

Marinette blinked out of her love-sick expression (caused by him!) and returned to looking unhappy. "This morning he was really weird," she began, twiddling her thumbs, "I think I misunderstood something because he, um, he—" her voice rose in pitch "—hesaidIloveyoutomeeeEEE!" She ended with a scream and slammed her face into her pillow. And then continued screaming.

Well, then.

Chat Noir completely understood, though. If Ladybug randomly blurted out 'I love you' to him, he would have instantaneously combusted. But it would have been a happy combustion. Marinette was clearly not happily combusting as of the moment and he had a rising suspicion as to why that was.

It wasn't long before his Lady stopped screaming into her pillow. She straightened up, then looked up at him, expression embarrassed. "S-Sorry about that," she gasped out, face red, "it's just… I've always dreamt he'd say those three words to me, you know?"

He tried very hard to keep his face neutral as he cooed at her internally. She was so adorable and precious and he vowed that, once everything has been cleared up, he will say those words to her every day for as long they lived.

"But—"

He blinked at her hazily. But what?

"—he took it back immediately afterwards…" Marinette trailed off, looking down at her hands, her expression so crestfallen that it broke his heart into a million pieces. And made him irrationally angry.

What a jerk! What kind of guy tells a girl he loves her and then takes it all back?! If it were him, he would never—

Crap, wait.

That was him.

That morning he had said 'I love you' and then immediately took it back.

It was all him.

Chat Noir resisted the urge to toss himself in the trash where he rightfully belonged.

"I mean, I don't know," his Lady said quietly, still not looking up. Which was good, because he really didn't know what expression he had on his face right now. Today was a rollercoaster ride and he was stuck on the loop-the-loop. "Like I said, I might have misunderstood things." Her face scrunched up, and she let out a small, quite bitter sounding laugh, and continued, "I mean, why would he suddenly 'love' me? It's not like he even noticed me before today."

He opened his mouth to protest, to tell her that of course he had; he'd noticed she was kind, brave, strong-minded, pretty, and overall amazing even before he knew she was Ladybug. But Marinette had gotten up, started pacing, and continued talking, her voice getting higher and her words coming out faster, giving him no space to interrupt.

"Today was so frustrating! It was complete torture! He kept saying my name out of nowhere and I was so hyper-aware of his presence because of that! But then even while that was going on he was completely ignoring me and then Alya said he stole my shoe and threw it away! I had to walk home with mismatched shoes! And then the rest of the day he got all cozy with Chloe and even went on a date with her! She sent texts to everyone bragging about it and they took selfies and they went shopping and they looked like they had so much fun and I know there's nothing between us but it still really, really hurts!"

Chat Noir didn't know what to say. Not that there was anything to actually say. He'd been so focused on his own dilemma that he never realized just how his actions would've looked like to an outside observer; to Marinette—who, as it turned out, had a crush on him this whole time.

"I definitely misunderstood something," she whispered to her hands, and she stopped pacing to drop back down her chaise. To his absolute shock and horror, tears had formed in her eyes. "I shouldn't have let my hopes up even for one moment. No matter how nice that one moment had been…"

There go the shattered pieces of his heart. Her words ground them to dust. They were just dust now. Infinitesimal pieces of heart dust, scattered in the wind. Irrecoverable. Lost in the void.

He could only imagine the state of her heart.

Even if Marinette were not his Ladybug, he wouldn't have been okay with this. He'd messed up really bad. Like, worse than dead potted plants and milk spat all over her.

He'd hurt her.

Will there ever be a trash can big enough for a piece of garbage his size?

"Tomorrow," Marinette choked out, clenching her fists, and he wanted nothing more than to put his hands over them and squeeze, "I don't know what I'll do if… if they come to class holding hands or announcing they're official. I don't think I can take it."

Chat Noir wanted to scream that it would never happen. He didn't even like Chloe that way! He only liked one person and that was Ladybug. And she was Ladybug.

But he was stuck where he was because he couldn't trust himself to move or say anything. He wasn't sure what other things he'd end up making a mess of if he even tried breathing in her direction.

"But," she said, wiping at her eyes, her voice a little harder even as she sniffled, "there's really not much I can do if he likes someone else, you know? I think the most I can do is stop Alya from murdering him tomorrow." She smiled, like she just told her own private joke, and finally turned her bluebell eyes to his.

Caught by surprise, his breath hitched. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Marinette furrowed her brows at him, then after a few moments of staring at him, she gasped and covered her mouth, as though realizing something. "Oh, no, Chat! I'm so sorry!" she cried, sounding genuinely apologetic, "I didn't mean to vent to you like that. That must have been so uncomfortable."

"NO!" he exclaimed loudly before he could stop himself. Marinette flinched back, stunned, and he raised his hands in a pacifying gesture. "I-I mean, there's nothing to apologize for, my La—princess. It's just…" Quickly, he deliberated with himself in his head, wondering if he should come clean now.

Chat Noir wanted to bust out with the truth, just like ripping off a band-aid.

Adrien Agreste wanted to gently ease her into the truth, as that was the considerate thing to do.

(And, in one corner of his mind, he heard that Plagg wanted to eat some cheese, because he was hungry.)

In the end, there was a compromise, and Chadrien decided that they would gently come out with the truth, no easing, just straight-forwardness and honesty, nicely so as not to shock her, but also quickly so the situation wouldn't escalate further.

'Marinette,' he would say, voice deep yet soft, and laced with his love for her, 'I know for a fact that you did not misunderstand anything. Adrien does love you."

'What makes you say that, pretty kitty?' she would ask, her beautiful bluebell eyes sparkling under her long luscious lashes.

'Because, my princess, my Lady,' he would reply, cool as a movie hero coming back home from a mission to blow up an asteroid about to hit the Earth. He would kiss her hand and quietly release his transformation, finishing with, 'I am Adrien Agreste, and I've always loved you.'

Marinette's eyes would form tears again, but they would be happy tears. 'Oh, Adrien,' she would gasp out with that yearning that made his insides gloopy, 'I love you too!'

He would open his arms to her and she would fall into them, her smile as bright as the morning sun. Then they would gaze into each other's eyes and find the infinite beauty of the universe in their togetherness.

And then they would live happily ever after.

The end.

Beautiful, straight to the point, no shortcuts or lies, and a happy ending.

Perfect.

Except, he was Chat Noir, embodiment of bad luck and destruction. Hence, the very moment he opened his mouth to begin his happy ending, luck decided it was the perfect time for a phone to suddenly start ringing.

Confused and mildly miffed at the interruption, he whipped his head around to search for the offending phone and Cataclysm it.

"That's my phone!" Marinette yelped and scrambled up to her loft. He watched glumly as Marinette groped around her bed-sheets for her phone and clumsily tap at it. "Oh, it's Alya." He sighed as she picked up the call, a hand held up to him apologetically, and began a conversation. He nodded at her and turned his chair around to give her some privacy.

He tuned out sadly to the soft sounds of Marinette conversing on the phone.

His happy ending was so close, and a phone call had to ruin it.

Why did he ever think things would be that easy?

It felt like his whole life had turned on its head in the past day and a half. He learned of his true love's real identity by accident, and he learned that she reciprocated his feelings, also by accident. In the same vein, he also learned that he had a great capacity to make a mess of a lot of things. By accident. He killed her plants by accident. He spat milk on her by accident. He broke her heart by accident.

Basically, today he learned that he was a great big (albeit good-looking) ball of accidents waiting to happen.

"—what?!" came Marinette's voice, cutting him off from his musings. He turned to see her hurriedly climbing back down from her loft, looking at him with a horrified expression, phone held against her ear. "Y-you're coming over?!" He stiffened up, staring back at her in subdued panic. "You're at the door?!"

As if on cue, a woman's voice sounded from the floors below. "Marinette! Alya's here!"

Marinette let out a yowl that sounded like a cross between a new-born crying for the first time and a cat having his tail stepped on by a neglectful human.

With his hearing, he heard Alya's surprised, "Girl, what was that?" from both the phone in Marinette's hand and the floor below them.

Chat Noir sat frozen in his panic, knowing very well that he should move but was unable to get his limbs from working. Meanwhile, Marinette had dropped her phone and was now waving her arms frantically between him and the window, as though trying to articulate something.

"Chat Noir!" she whispered urgently at him, and he stared at her with wide eyes, "go! Window, go—"

There was a knock on her trapdoor, and they both stiffened, eyes trained on each other. "Marinette, open up! Why is your door locked?" came Alya's muffled voice.

Marinette let out a quieter version of her new-born and cat yowl and approached him to roll the desk chair he was on to the window. At that point, Chat Noir finally got his limbs working, and he grabbed at the windowsill mere moments before Marinette could crash him straight into the glass and throw him out four floors down.

"Marinette?" came Alya's voice again, and the trapdoor rattled against its locks.

Chat Noir could practically hear horror movie violin music punctuate the panic they both felt at that sound.

"Uh, I come!" Marinette said shakily, then corrected herself, "I mean, I'm coming! I'm just—" she fumbled with the window's locks just as he did the same, effectively blocking either of them from actually opening it "—not decent!"

She grunted in irritation and smacked his hands away from the window. He let out a "Hey!" of surprise, a little louder than necessary.

She squeaked and slammed both hands to his mouth, just as he did the same. Now both of their hands were on his face, and not opening the window. They stared at each other again, and he vaguely wondered how they managed to get themselves in this situation.

"…girl, what was that?" came Alya's voice again, quieter and more contemplative this time.

"No one!" Marinette yelled a little too quickly, and then paled as he pushed against her hands in an effort to tell her that was a dumb thing to say, "I mean, nothing! I mean, there's no one else here! It's just me, hahaha!"

Alya didn't respond, much to their relief.

They stood against the window for a while, just staring at each other, their breathing in sync. Chat Noir felt the furious beat of her pulse from her wrists. He also smelled the scent of cookies and milk on her fingers against his mouth. He couldn't help himself—he subtly puckered his lips against her fingers in a very light kiss.

His Lady gave him a glare, obviously having felt it, to which he responded with an unapologetic wink. She took her hands away, huffing, and quietly pulled the window open, giving him a subtle push. He mouthed a 'sorry' as he put a foot against the windowsill. She responded with shooing motions with her hands, and he chuckled a little because that was way too adorable.

Quickly deciding that he couldn't possibly ruin anything more for the night, he grabbed one of her hands and laid a kiss on it, just as he usually did for Ladybug. "I'll see you later, princess," he murmured, his lips brushing against her skin, and grinned at the rolling of her eyes in response.

"Just go," Marinette muttered, but didn't sound displeased. She lightly pushed him out the window and he laughed as he deftly mounted it backwards—

"Is that Chat Noir's butt?" came a disbelieving voice from directly below him.

Alya's voice.

Chat Noir gulped and slowly craned his head to look back below him, desperately hoping that it was just his imagination. He found, to his horror, that he was not imagining it, and that Alya was looking back up at him. More accurately, Alya was looking up at his butt from a window on the floor below.

He whipped his head around to face Marinette and she looked like she was going to have a conniption. Her eyes were wide and unfocused, and her lips were pursed together shakily, as though to prevent a scream from spilling out.

Just how many things could he possibly make a mess of in one day?!

"Marinette," Alya called slowly from below, and he looked back down to find that Marinette's parents had joined Alya at the window to view his assets, "why is Chat Noir's butt hanging from your window?"

I hope you enjoy the cliffhanger. Or should I say... butthanger?