Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug.

EDIT 08/24/2018: I want to thank Rasiaa, she is a literal Angel who beta-read this.

Adrien and Chat, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

Ladybug knew she should be patrolling the city instead of sitting on a rooftop staring at Adrien's new billboard.

She was not to blame; really, Gabriel Agreste was the real culprit. He was the one who decided to launch a "Beach Collection" and have Adrien modeling swimming trunks. How was a superheroine supposed to do her job if everywhere she looked at there was a shirtless Adrien staring back at her from the nearest billboard?

It was impossible.

Marinette could tell the picture was not even supposed to sexy or seductive; after all, Adrien wasn't turning eighteen for another couple of months. It was just an "innocent" picture of Adrien on the beach, looking as if he was having the time of his life. Problem was, they miscalculated and didn't take into consideration that Adrien could look sexy even wearing a clown suit. So of course, a shirtless Adrien was a pure sin.

Those abs.

Marinette was weak, ok?

Lately, there have been days when she thought about letting go his crush on Adrien. After all, they have been friends for almost four years; her relationship with Adrien had made little progress. Maybe that was an exaggeration; there was progress. She no longer stuttered in front of him, they hung out more often and they texted lots. But there was little progress of the romantic type. They would go on separate ways after graduation and nothing would ever happen between them. Therefore, there was no point to keep on harboring feelings for Adrien.

Moreover, she had finally admitted – to herself and Tikki - that she might have a tiny, tiny crush on Chat Noir. Alright, it was a gigantic crush, same difference. Point is she finally had admitted her feline partner has wormed his way into her heart and made it his permanent residence.

Having a crush on both Adrien and Chat was confusing for her and unfair for them, so yes, sometimes she had considered letting her crush in Adrien go.

Problem was, Adrien made it so difficult. How was she supposed to let go of her feelings if he kept bringing her soup when she was sick? How was she supposed to stop thinking about him when they see each other in classes five times a day, hung out with the same group of friends, followed each other on social media, and texted all the time? How was she supposed to stop fantasizing about him when there were pictures of him shirtless all over Paris?

"How is patrol going, My Lady?"

She jumped at the sudden appearance of her partner.

"Kitty, you scared me!"

"Well, you seemed quite distracted bug," he smirked, "To be honest I kind of feel like I'm intruding between you and the billboard."

"Shut up," she said lamely.

"You're crushing on Adrien Agreste, that's fine. No need to be shy about it," Chat teased her, "I mean, the guy is really hot, so it's purrfectly understandable if you…"

"Did you just call Adrien 'hot'?"

"Don't you agree he is?" There was something weird in Chat's voice when he asked this. She could have sworn he sounded vulnerable, but that made no sense. Why would Chat care if Ladybug disagrees with him about a model being hot?

Of course, Marinette agreed with Chat. Adrien was hot. He was the hottest guy in Paris. Scratch that, he was the hottest guy in the world. And she would be a big fat liar if she denied it.

"He is hot, hottest guy I've ever seen, to be honest," she agreed. "But I do not like him only because he is hot, he's really kind too. He is always nice to others, even to people who aren't nice themselves."

Ladybug instantly regretted her words; it didn't feel right to talk about her crush to her other crush.

She stole a glance at Chat. She didn't know what she was expecting, but Chat beaming at her sure wasn't it.

Why was Chat so happy that she was complimenting Adrien? It made no sense. Why would someone get happy if you are complimenting someone else?

Well, she was happy when people complimented her parents or Alya, but that was only because they were important to her and she felt proud when someone else noticed how amazing they are. Maybe Adrien was important for Chat.

"So, you like him for his kindness huh? Good to know. What else do you like about him?" he asked smugly.

Was Chat fishing for compliments for Adrien? That was weird but if he really wanted to know, she was going to comply. She loved to talk about Adrien and to be honest poor Tikki and Alya needed a break.

She spent a good ten minutes reciting Adrien's multiple attributes. He was a loyal friend, a talented fencer, he was tri-lingual besides French, he was fluent in English and Chinese. Even angels couldn't compete with the perfection that was Adrien's hair.

It should be awkward to gush about Adrien to Chat, but the cat seemed perfectly content hearing her.

Way too content to be honest. He had the dopiest smile she had ever seen in a boy.

It kind of reminds her of that one time in school she gave a passionate rant about why Chat Noir was awesome and Adrien was so touched.

At the moment she thought that was weird, why would Adrien care so much about her opinion of Chat Noir? But she just forgot about it, it didn't seem that relevant at the time. In hindsight, she should've taken notes, maybe there was something going on here.

"And he has the most gorgeous green eyes, his eyes are the shade of emeralds. And his smile, he has a one million euros smile, just look at it," she said, pointing at the billboard.

"I don't know about that one bug." This was the first time Chat interrupted her in the past ten minutes. "His smile is kind of forced on that picture."

"You think so? He looks happy to me," she said dubiously. Now that she double checked, his smile did seem a little bit forced.

"He was mostly annoyed. He had to wake up really early because the photo shoot needed to be at six am for the lighting." Chat explained, "Besides, he is not a big fan of skipping school for photoshoots. And it really didn't help that there was sand everywhere and it was extremely itchy."

Why did Chat know so much about Adrien's photoshoot?

He seemed to noticed she was staring at him oddly and quickly clarified.

"Adrien and I are close friends. He tells me everything." He got on his feet and added, "Hey Buginette, I race you to La Tour Montparnasse."

With that, he was gone. She quickly followed him; she was not going to lose to that silly cat.

She didn't know Adrien and Chat were friends. It was a peculiar idea: cool and collected Adrien being close with her dorky and passionate kitty.

On a second thought, it made sense. Those two were tied for 'The most awesome person in the world.' Of course they were friends.

She had fallen in love with two boys and it turned out they were friends.

That was just her luck!

Marinette was woken up with the Ladyblog's notification at stupid o'clock. Apparently, some teenage girl got grounded by her parents for coming home so late it was early. Now the aforementioned girl was currently trying to 'ground' all parents in Paris by locking them in cages.

Only partially awake she transformed and swung to the akuma site. On her way there she stopped on a rooftop to try to contact Chat Noir. She dialed him with her yo-yo a couple of times but he was not picking up his baton. He was probably asleep like any reasonable person would be at this hour.

Hawk Moth, the asshole, was obviously not a reasonable person. Did he ever sleep? Probably not. Only a chronically sleep-deprived brain could come up with half of his plans.

From the building she was currently at she had a partial view of Adrien's house. She couldn't resist glancing at his dormitory. She was not spying on him, she wasn't even close enough see inside anyway. There was just something alluring about Adrien's window, maybe it was imagining him sleeping peacefully like the angel he looked like.

Suddenly, Adrien's window opened, and a black figure jumped out of there to the nearest rooftop. She had no problems recognizing her partner even in the distance and the dark of the night.

Chat didn't seem to notice her and started running to the Akuma.

What was Chat doing at Adrien's bedroom this late?

Chat had mentioned they were friends, but this wasn't the hours for a strictly friendly visit. Sometimes Chat visited her on her balcony, but he had never stayed this late.

A loud crash reminded her that was not moment to dwell on Chat's odd behavior. There was an akuma to defeat. Only after the 'bye bye little butterfly', would she allow herself to draw conclusions.

The sunrise found a wide-awake Marinette in the middle of a nervous breakdown. She never went back to bed after the akuma attack. Instead, she had been analyzing over and over again what she saw. She had drawn only one possible conclusion.

Adrien and Chat were in a secret-relationship.

You just don't sneak around your platonic friend's bedroom in the dark of the night. Besides, just seconds before she saw him, she had tried to call him and he didn't pick up his baton. Therefore, he was either not transformed, asleep or busy.

Even if Chat and Adrien weren't 'busy' with each other, that would still mean Chat Noir was either asleep or untransformed in Adrien's bedroom. That spoke volumes of the trust he had on the model.

In hindsight, it was so obvious she couldn't believe she had been so blind. Chat Noir and Adrien dating each other made so much sense. It explained everything honestly.

It explained how proud Adrien looked every time someone complimented Chat Noir. He was proud of his…boyfriend? Lover? Partner? She didn't know exactly what they were to each other, so she'd stick with 'significant other.'

It explained Chat's reaction the other day when she was drooling over Adrien's billboard. Marinette was there fantasizing about billboard-Adrien when Chat had the real flesh one. Of course, he was feeling smug, the jerk!

It explained how uncomfortable Chat looked every time they have to deal with Gabriel Agreste. It must be awkward to deal with your father-in-law when he doesn't know it's you under the mask.

The twist and turns of life; until yesterday she jokingly referred to Gabriel as her 'future father-in-law' when she was talking to Alya or Tikki.

Ironic, isn't it? She had been so torn between Adrien and Chat and turned out they were seeing each other. Her life was the punchline of a bad joke. Why did she ever thought she had a chance with either of them anyway? Chat used to have a crush on her back when they were fourteen but that was ages ago, whereas Adrien had only ever looked her as a friend as far as she knew.

Just the idea of Adrien or Chat dating a random person was enough to reduce her to tears. But the idea of them dating each other was simultaneously more and less painful. On one hand, she had lost both of them at the same time. On the other hand, Chat was probably the only person worthy of Adrien and vice versa. They were lucky they have found each other.

She didn't even know what she was feeling. She cared deeply about them both, and she wanted them to be happy. She knew eventually she'll be happy for them but right now everything hurt so much so she cried her heart out until she felt she had no tears left.

Tikki had been particularly unhelpful all morning. The little kwami had tried to comfort Marinette with cryptic messages about 'not having all the facts.'

Marinette didn't need that right now, she needed ice cream and hugs.

When it was finally a reasonable hour for Alya to be awake, Marinette sent her a text letting her know she really could use a friend right now. Alya showed up in Marinette's bedroom about an hour before school.

"Girl, what happened to you? You look terrible."

"Thanks, Alya! That's exactly what I needed to hear!"

"But seriously, you look terrible. Do I need to kill someone?"

"Adrien is in a relationship," Marinette explained.

Alya rushed to her side and hugged her friend. Marinette melted on the hug and started sobbing even though she had thought her eyes would be dry by now.

"Who is he dating?" Alya asked after Marinette had finally calmed down enough to talk

Not knowing what to reply she just shook her head.

That was a difficult question. She just couldn't tell Alya it was Chat Noir. She couldn't do that to Adrien or Chat. They probably had their own reasons to keep their relationship a secret. Marinette knew she would never be able to make Alya understand how painful this was for her since she couldn't just tell her she was in love with both people in the relationship. But it wasn't her secret to keep, so she'd shut her mouth.

"Since when?"

"I don't know for sure. Awhile, I think."

"How did you found out he was seeing this person?"

Marinette shook her head again.

It was not like she could tell Alya the truth without revealing both: The identity of Adrien's significant other and the fact that she was Ladybug. Maybe asking Alya to come over wasn't such a great idea. She made too many questions that Marinette couldn't answer. Maybe she should have suffered alone.

"Marinette, sweetie. Are you sure Adrien is dating someone?" Alya asked carefully.

Marinette nodded but didn't offer any further explanation.

"Look, I'm not saying you are lying but I'm thinking maybe you were misinformed," explained Alya calmly, as if she was talking to an unstable toddler. "I can't see Adrien getting into a relationship without any of us knowing. He is not that great at keeping secrets."

Marinette wanted to believe Alya was right, she really did. But she had seeing Chat sneaking out of Adrien's bedroom with her own two eyes. And she knew the chance she had misread the situation were slim. However, if there was a chance she was wrong about the situation, she was going to cling to it.

"Calm down babe, don't go crazy just yet," continued Alya, "I'll interrogate Nino today. If someone knows what's going on with Adrien's love life, that's Nino."

Marinette knew there was a chance Adrien hadn't told his best friend about Chat Noir. If Nino said Adrien was seeing somebody, then that would be the confirmation she needed. But if Nino claimed Adrien was single, that would mean nothing, since there was still a chance he just didn't knew about Adrien and Chat. She was didn't say that to Alya, of course.

"Thank you, chérie," Marinette said. "It's almost time for school, let's get ready."

The school day was the longest she ever had.

Marinette had washed her face and put on some natural makeup to conceal the fact she had been crying. Somehow Adrien still could tell something was off and spent the whole day trying to cheer her up. Poor, oblivious Adrien didn't have a clue he was the reason Marinette was suffering, and he was only making her feel worse.

He was such a sweetheart. Chat Noir was so lucky, he had the most perfect significant other in the world.

When she finally reached home she fell to sleep almost instantly to make up for the hours she had lost in the early morning. She woke up a couple of hours later with an upcoming call from Alya.

"Hello?"

"I have fantastic news for you! So, I spoke with Ni… what are you doing you two?!"

"Sorry?"

"No, not you, I was saying that... Etta sit down please!"

"Let me guess, you are babysitting the twins?"

"Yeah, and they are on a sugar rush because somehow they found my secret chocolate stash."

"Sounds like you are in trouble!"

"You have no idea! Anyway, I was telling you I spoke with Nino today and he said that as far as he knows Adrien is single and available! He is not seeing anybo…Ella, get off there! Hold on Marinette."

Marinette waited on the line while Alya dealt with the twins. So according to Nino, Adrien was single. That didn't discard the thesis Adrien was having a secret affair with Chat Noir, but it didn't prove it either. The conversation with Nino led to nowhere.

"Hey, girl! Are you still there! Would you believe the twins were trying to climb the bookcase?"

"They are a little bit restless, aren't they?" asked Marinette fondly.

"The understatement of the century. So, back to Adrien. He is single. And since I'm such an awesome friend I tried asking Nino if Adrien was crushing on somebody."

"You didn't!"

"I did, but Nino refused to give me any useful info. All he told me was that Adrien is crushing on one of Paris superheroes. I told him platonic crushes totally doesn't count but he… Fu…dge! Marinette, I got to go. The twins are at the bookcase again, goodnight babe!"

*Call disconnected*

To be honest, Marinette's head was still playing on repeat: "Adrien is crushing on one of Paris Superheroes."

This was the confirmation Marinette was looking for. Adrien and Chat were together.

Obviously, Adrien hadn't told Nino about his relationship with Chat Noir. Instead, he had pretended his affections for the superhero were nothing more than a celebrity crush. But Marinette knew better.

Tonight, she'll cry herself to sleep and from tomorrow on she'll start working on getting over both of them.

The weeks that followed were a blur.

Marinette had gotten used to the idea that Adrien and Chat were in a relationship. Don't get her wrong, she was still pretty heartbroken over the whole thing. But she had assimilated the fact that they were together and she had no business crushing on either of them.

She had been trying her best to get over the whole thing. Mostly, she had try to keep herself occupied so she didn't have time to focus on her broken heart. Chat and Adrien weren't making it easy.

Adrien had been smothering Marinette with affection whenever he noticed she was sad, which was often in the past few weeks. Chat Noir had also noticed something was wrong with Ladybug, but respected her reluctance to talk about it.

Both of them were so different but so sweet and perfect in their own way, of course, they were together. No one else deserved them. Marinette especially didn't deserve them. She had been (and still was) crushing on both of them, they deserved much better than that.

Every moment with either of them was a sweet torture. Since Marinette was the unluckiest person in the world, her Sunday afternoon was interrupted by an akuma targeting Adrien of all people. A rejected aspiring model got jealous of Adrien's face and currently, ModelBehavior was roaming the Agreste's house trying to turn Adrien ugly.

Not only Adrien's beauty - one of God's gift to mankind - was at risk, but also an akuma targeting Adrien meant Marinette was going to have to deal with Chat Noir and Adrien at the same time. She was not sure if she could survive that. Whoever said ladybugs were lucky was clearly confused.

The whole battle against ModelBehaviour was a mess from start to end. Not because of the akuma himself, but because it was as if Adrien and Chat were purposely trying to get on her nerves.

On one hand, Adrien insisted on taking the longest shower ever. Every ten minutes Ladybug went and asked him if he was done so he could go to a safe place, but he stayed on the shower for the entire duration of the fight. On the other hand, Chat Noir showed up late and kept disappearing every few minutes.

Marinette had been naïve enough to assume those were unrelated events until she caught Chat Noir sneaking out the bathroom where Adrien was taking his extensive shower.

Marinette's feelings aside, this was freaking un-be-liev-a-ble.

An akuma was causing a ruckus at Adrien's house and they thought it was an appropriate time for afternoon delight? Unbelievable!

It was not Ladybug's place to nag Adrien. Chat Noir was a whole different story, that mangy cat was in so much trouble!

Marinette didn't have time to talk to Chat after they have cleaned the Akuma because she was about to de-transform. She decided to just approach him that night at patrol.

It was going to be a hell of an awkward conversation, but it had to be done.

When they were fighting akumas Chat couldn't let himself be compromised just because he couldn't keep his hands-off Adrien. She understood that keeping one's hand to oneself while dating Adrien must be an incredibly difficult thing to do, but Chat had to remain professional!

Ladybug spent the whole patrol avoiding the talk with Chat. He had noticed her attitude and he asked her if she was mad at him. She didn't confirm it or deny it.

"The city is pretty quiet today. Well, as quiet as Paris can be. Shall we go to sleep?"

"Are you eager to get your beauty sleep Chat?"

He winked at her.

"Well, is not like you can relate since you already are the most beautiful girl on the planet; you do not need a beauty sleep."

She should not blush. She was used to Chat's flirting. She knew better than to take him seriously. He flirted with her both as Ladybug and as Marinette. He probably flirted with everybody. That was just his personality, a flirty silly kitty.

Besides Chat was in a relationship with Adrien-Freaking-Agreste, so he was definitely not serious about his flirtations with her. She knew there was no good reason for her to blush but her treacherous face was bright red anyway.

"Before we call it a night, there was something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Are you going to tell me why you were kind of mad at me?"

"I'm not mad at you, I'm just disappointed." Oh god, she sounded just like her mom. She might as well cut her hair and change her name to Sabine. "I saw you sneaking around the shower today when we were at the Agreste's house."

There, she said it. He was visibly taken aback by this information.

"So, you know?" He asked slowly.

"Yes, I know."

"And you are disappointed." His voice was slightly shaky and he was avoiding meeting her eyes. She realized he might have misunderstood her words.

"I'm not disappointed that you are dating Adrien." She was quick to clarify. She could never be disappointed in him for dating someone who makes him happy. She was heartbroken over losing both of them, but that was neither here nor there. "I'm disappointed that you were sneaking around to meet with your boyfriend when we were supposed to be fighting the akuma."

Chat looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

"You think I'm dating Adrien Agreste?"

"I know you guys are keeping it a secret or something and I respect that. I didn't mean to find out. I just caught you sneaking out of Adrien's bedroom the other night and…why are you laughing?"

Chat Noir was having a good laugh and Marinette was officially confused.

"Dating Adrien Agreste? Really?"

"Well, aren't you?"

Chat kept laughing as if he had just heard the best joke ever. His laugh sounded so similar to Adrien's. How was she only noticing that now?

"What's so funny about the idea of you dating Adrien?" Marinette was offended on Adrien's behalf. "He is quite the catch! He is handsome, smart and kind. That's a very rare thing to find."

Chat Noir blushed and stopped laughing and that only added to Marinette's confusion.

"Thank you Buginette. I'm flattered you think I'm quite the catch." He declared proudly "I'm not in a relationship with Adrien though. I would have to be a very special brand of a self-centered narcissist to date myself."

It took a few seconds for his words to sink in.

"Adrien?" she asked, shocked.

He dropped his transformation.

"I didn't mean to laugh at you, I swear. But for a second I thought you have found out my secret identity and you were disappointed I am Adrien," he explained, "I was so relieved to find out you didn't actually know my identity and you have misunderstood the whole thing, I couldn't help but laugh."

She had felt a kaleidoscope of emotions in the past few minutes. Shock, that cool and calm Adrien and dorky and restless Chat Noir were actually the same person. Joy, because that meant she didn't have to choose between them. Relief, that she still had a chance, even if it was a small one. Embarrassment for drawing the wrong conclusion.

She could rule out 'detective' from her career options. She had found all the clues and still got it wrong.

"Hi Ladybug! I'm Plagg, Chat Noir's kwami. It's nice to meet you!"

Chat's kwami was so cute. It was the tiniest kitty in the world.

"It's nice to meet you too Plagg! Tikki has told me so much about you."

"Only good things, I hope."

"When you caught me sneaking out of the shower…" interrupted Adrien, out of the sudden he started laughing again. "Oh god, you thought I was having shower sex with myself!"

Her face was bright red again.

"Is it possible to die from embarrassment? I think I'm dead."

"I'm pawsitive that would be a catastrophe My Lady."

She was used to Chat Noir's horrible cat puns, but they sounded so weird coming from Adrien's mouth. That would take some time to get used to.

"You know, since you revealed your identity, I think I owe you a secret," Ladybug said, eager to divert the topic.

"You owe me nothing Buginette," he declared, "However if you want to tell me a secret anyway, I'm all ears."

He had revealed his identity for her, it was only fair she did the same. She got close to him and whispered:

"I'm dating Marinette Dupain-Cheng".

She meant this as a hint for her identity. She had thought he was dating himself, so she told him she was dating herself. She thought he would get the hint instantly. Nevertheless, he only stared back at her in absolute shock.

"Oh, for cheese's sake! Subtlety doesn't work on this one! Ladybug, please, take pity on this poor kwami and drop your transformation before I have the spend ages hearing Adrien crying about the two girls he loves dating each other!"

The End

I'm not a native English speaker and I didn't have a beta for this work, so I apologize for any mistake.

THIS WORK WAS BETAED BY RASIAA ON 08/24/2018

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Tete