"Know this, heroes, I will not stop, I will not rest, if I am to hunt you to the ends of the Earth, I will make it my eternal quest to see you both kneel before me for your transgressions. I alone will strip everything you care for away from you. Then, when you have known despair beyond comprehension, I will rule this wor-

Thwack!

"Thanks. I thought that guy would never shut up." Chat Noir had never acknowledged how truly wonderful silence could be.

"Maybe he can write a more interesting villany speech in prison."

A snarky quip from Ladybug necessitated proper retaliation. "I guess you could say," The wind up. "The bad guys know that we mean business," Success. "Eh?" He elbowed his partner in crime-fighting in the ribs as she rolled her eyes. She often rebuked him, but he knew she adored his puns.

It had been a good day. Someone calling himself 'The Ravisher' had manufactured a prototype suit of high-tech armor and used it to take the top executives of Crisis Defense Logistics LLC hostage at the corporate headquarters. Not only had the superhero pair managed to stop the armored miscreant with minimal collateral damage and no casualties, but the board of directors informed them that they each had guaranteed highly lucrative positions at the company should they ever feel compelled to switch professions. Of course, they both politely declined, but it was certainly worth considering for the future, Adrien thought. He had gotten pretty good at this superhero gig, getting paid for it would be sweet.

"You know I'd love nothing more than to sit around and exchange puns with you, but I must be going." Seconds later, she was gone. A graceful leap to the adjacent building followed by her lifting herself over to the alley below. It was mesmerizing.

"Oh!" Of course, it had only been after he had concluded admiring her departure that he recalled that he had a critical piece of evidence: The Ravisher had been using a specialized flash drive to download information and Adrien wanted to look at whatever he was downloading before informing the company. Anxious to inform her and excited that he had an excuse to interact with her outside of a crime-fighting related scenario, he mentally recreated the path she had followed before making his move.

"Darn." His eyes jumped around every direction to find...nothing. A cursory appraisal of the rooftop and alleyway revealed no sign of Ladybug's presence. How was she that fast? He would just have to wait to tell her tha-

"Is that… Marinette?" Before Adrien could conclude the thought, he was taken off-guard by a discovery that his good friend Marinette looked like she was making her way out of the alley. What exactly had she been doing there? Did she possess a clue as to the whereabouts of Ladybug? In any case, it was always nice to talk to her as Chat Noir. A few more graceful leaps with a newfound spring in his step utilizing the adjacent fire escapes, being sure to take the most circuitous route possible to make Marinette aware of his supreme athleticism, and he was only a few feet from her. Keeping his fists at his waist and puffing out his chest ever-so-slightly, he turned up to face his friend.

"Greetings, Mari-" A somewhat forced cough escaped his lips as he needed an excuse to drop some octaves. "Marinette."

She whipped around to face him. "Oh, hey, Chat Noir," Her face flickered between a hundred variations of anxiety and dread in a handful of seconds. "What-uh-what are you doing here?"

It was true that seeing Marinette stutter was hardly an uncommon occurrence, but she was at least somewhat capable of forming coherent thoughts when conversing with Chat Noir, relatively speaking. "I was wondering if you happened to see Ladybug wandering about. I have some top secret superhero information to give her."

"Ladybug? Nope. She's not around. She said she had to do something suuuper important over in that direction." Marinette's voice became increasingly frantic as she wrapped her arm around her waist and pointed behind her while still facing her target. The more pressing matter at hand, however, was that her explanation seemed to imply that Ladybug had spoken to her. Why would Ladybug stop to inform Marinette about her present objective? Were they acquainted somehow? Adrien's eyebrow arched, practically bursting with suspicion.

"Huh. You know Ladybug?"

Somehow, her eyes widened even further. "Yeah. Yeah, no, I totally know Ladybug. I'm kind of her civilian informant. I keep my ear to the streets, she's Peter Parker, I'm Spider-Man." The thought was concluded with a nervous smile which only lasted for a second. "Uh, I mean, she's Spider-Man and I'm Peter Parker. I help her out with her costume. You know, design, production, marketing. I'm totally not a hero like you guys." How he adored her flustered rambling. It was painfully endearing. There was also the matter of her hair. For some reason, she let it hang free today. The way it lazily fell past her shoulders-

"Hold it together, Agreste." Still, though, Adrien found the exchange and Marinette's rapidly magnifying anxiety, to put it mildly, perplexing. There were quite a few mental queries to filter through, but the priority right now was Marinette's safety. The streets where supervillains lurked around every corner were no place for a civilian.

"Mmm. I get it. But even if you are working in our league, you're still a civilian and potential damsel-in-distresses, which you know I specialize in," He supplemented it with a subtle grin. "If my lady needs an escort, just say the word."

Her expression instantly shifted to unrepentant disgust, which shot a slight burst of happiness through Adrien's veins. "I can take care of myself." Pestering her was one of his beloved pastimes. Retaining his smug grin, he retrieved his staff, eager to prepare for his dramatic exit.

"In that case, I bid you farewell. Until next time, my love." With that, he was gone, returned to his original scouting position.

And grateful, too. Despite his near-superhuman level of stamina, he needed a moment on the rooftop to catch his breath and process the day's events. Were Ladybug and Marinette the same person? Was such a thing even possible? Perhaps a more pertinent conundrum was what possessed him to use such verbiage. He hadn't employed the nomenclature around Ladybug even once. Since when did he refer to Marinette as 'his love'?

"What did he say?"

"He asked if I knew Ladybug."

"What did you say?"

"I said I was her civilian informant. Like she's Spider-Man and I'm Peter Parker."

Thwack! Ayla semi-lightly smacked Marinette in the back of the head. Though it was with only a meager portion of her strength, Marinette nevertheless nearly toppled over at the blow.

"What the heck was that for?"

"Because, genius, Peter Parker is Spider-Man. They're the same person!"

Marinette had no response. The only sign of life was the stone faced thousand-yard-stare of unmitigated dread that found its way onto her face.

"Thanks. I had to tell someone."

Despite only interacting through text message, Nino could sense Adrien's pervasive anxiety even before he arrived at the Agreste mansion. He stood for a moment as Adrien frantically slammed keys on his computer before practically leaping out of his chair and power-walking to his printer. It was clear that either Adrien had discovered some sort of nefarious global conspiracy or uncovered provocative photos of Miss Bustier. He wasn't sure which would be more Earth-shattering.

"What do you know about Marinette?"

Nino arched an eyebrow. It was a rather vague question. Then again, Adrien looked as if he was on the path to spontaneous combustion, so an answer was necessary. "Uh, she's short and has short-ish hair," It was good to start with the essentials. "She's a fashion designer, she goes to class with us, she han-"

Nino's suggestion was halted by Adrien's shockingly powerful hands clamping over his shoulders. The shock was presumably what it felt like being electrocuted. "No, I mean, why is she always late to stuff? Why does she always run off whenever one of those supervillains shows up?"

The intensity of Adrien's face could likely power a small island nation, Nino thought. "Because she's a bit of a goofball and a rational human being."

"No. Let me tell you what happened yesterday."

"So it was just an analogy. Besides, I'm pretty sure Marinette would be the last person on Earth to be a superhero, dontcha think? She can barely walk down the street without tripping over a pebble." Adrien's tale as Chat-Noir gave only some credence to the idea that Marinette was Ladybug.

"That's just it. What if she uses that to throw us off the trail?"

Now things were getting farfetched. Marinette was intelligent, certainly, but a master in duplicity? Hardly. "Dude, are you sure you're feeling okay? Did you hit your head on the way down that alley?"

"Look at this," His inquiry went utterly ignored. "I've acquired a list of the three most popular fictional superheroes and cross-referenced them with their secret identities. It makes total sense." The product of Adrien's frantic typing was brought a few inches from Nino's face.

Clark Kent: Bumbling, kindhearted reporter
Superman: Stalwart defender of truth and justice

Bruce Wayne: Callous, self-indulgent playboy
Batman: Fearless vigilante, strikes fear in the hearts of criminals

Peter Parker: Stammering, awkward photographer
Spider-Man: Superhuman athleticism, perpetually equipped with repertoire of snarky rebukes

Marinette Dupain-Cheng: Bumbling, stammering, awkward amateur fashion designer
Ladybug: Fearless, stalwart, superhumanly athletic defender of the innocent

"Very scientific, but I think Alya would be better with this superhero stu-" He was grateful that he halted himself. Adrien was clearly in need of a friend's open heart. "First off, the first three aren't real, and Marinette is." There was absolutely no way Marinette could be Ladybug, right? The mere thought of such a thing was utterly preposterous. "Second…" There had to be a second point.

Then again, it would explain where Marinette always ran off. And the stark contrast between the hero and the civilian was sort of a 'thing' with superheroes, especially in this case of Adrien and, now, Marinette. Ladybug and Marinette also shared the same hair color, style, and body type. "Even if you're right, what are you going to do? Ask her? She'll deny it, and she'll start stuttering regardless of whether or not she actually is Ladybug." Regardless of the truth, this was likely the best path to get Adrien back to normality.

He let out a hefty sigh. "I have a plan."

"This has the data Ravisher was trying to steal. It's mostly financial gobbledygook, but there's also some stuff about his armor. I know it's kind of dull, but I recommend reading it in case this guy ever comes back." He tossed her the flash drive.

"I'll be sure to take a look," Her voice carried an air of knowing. "But I get the sense there's something else on your mind." And there was that subtle, knowing grin. The butterflies that had previously retreated had made an immediate resurgence, deadlier than ever.

"Do you know Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

Ladybug's lips pursed. As expected the query struck a nerve. "Yes. Yes, I do. She's my civilian confidant," It was rather strange how she was able to retain such confidence as Ladybug which instantly dissipated as Marinette. Then again, Adrien knew a thing or two about that. "It's good to know the goings-on of the world. Fighting crime isn't a one-person operation, after all, and Marinette is very, very smart." The thought was bolstered by a more prominent version of her knowing grin. "Do...do you know Marinette?"

"Yeah. I do." Though he had expected to trip over his own words like a fool, he remained completely steadfast. He hadn't stammered, looked away, or blushed. "And I totally get why she helps you out. She's smart, she's super easy to talk to, she has great taste in music and fashion, she's amazing at videos games, and she's reeeealy easy on the eye-" It was only after he had actually processed the final comment in his appraisal that he truly understood the gravity of what just happened. If he, for some bizarre reason, had control over this reality, he would transport himself into a hole so far removed from any carbon based lifeform that the universe would slowly forget about him, the only reminder of his existence being the supertanker levels of embarrassment currently washing over him. His face burned like a hot summer day and he outright refused to even turn in Ladybug's direction.

After several seconds of mercilessly painful silence, Ladybug spoke up. "You can go on and keep saying stuff, if you want."

"Nothanksgottarunbye!" Before the possibility of death by embarrassment became a legitimate one, he was gone.

"Thanks for letting me use your computer. My printer is on the fritz."

"No problem. Always glad to have you her-to see you. Always good to see you."

The trap had been placed. Soon, the veil of destiny would be pierced, and the obfuscated truth would come to light. All it took now was…

"Oh, darn. My laptop connection has also been on the fritz recently. Do you have a flash drive I could borrow?"

Marinette ventured over to a corner of her desk to rummage. "Here you go."

Seconds later, Adrien's heart stopped. It was the exact same model that Chat-Noir had given Ladybug. "Okay. I don't know if it's the same. The model is super common." For what felt like an eternity, he simply gazed at it as if it was a diamond-encrusted jewel from the treasure vault of Zeus. "Thank you." He methodically took it from her hand, being absolutely certain not to graze her hand. It couldn't have been the same. All he had to do was check and-

82. There it was. Before giving it to Ladybug, he had been sure to write the number 82 on the top of it with a felt tip marker. "Could be a massive coincidence. Maybe she also likes the number eighty-two." He gulped and plugged it into his laptop. Please, please, please don't let it have the file-

IronMan. It was the document that had the schematics for Ravisher's armor. Adrien's heart stopped. His palpitations made him wonder if his heart was going to self-destruct.

Marinette was Ladybug.

His eyes darted back and forth. From the roof to the floor. Anywhere but Marinette's deep, blue-

Oh, dammit, what was wrong with him? He had to get out of there. "Thanks, Marinette. I, uh, gotta run." He darted for the exit. "I think my printer is better now."

"Wait! Do you want your laptop?"

"Are you feeling okay? You've been acting weird all day."

"Faster! We have to go befo-"

"Adrien?"

His escape plan had been thwarted. Adrien had done a pretty good job of avoiding Marinette throughout the day. He ducked out of each class, spent lunch in the computer lab, and made a distinct effort to avoid so much as the slightest bit of eye contact. Even still, activities like breathing and thinking were borderline impossible if she was so much as in the same time zone. He had nearly escaped school consequence-free, but he turned to face Marinette. There was no avoiding her now.

"Oh, hey, Mari-nyahht," She had her hair down. Why, oh why did she have her hair down today? Did she procure some perverse masochistic thrill from his suffering? Her only response was to look at him like he had spontaneously sprouted a second head. "Nino and I have to do a thing. Uh, downtown. Over in that direction," He threw his right arm over his left shoulder and pointed vaguely in the direction of what he suspected was downtown. "And we need to be there in, like, five minutes." He politely but forcibly hit Nino in the stomach, whipped around, and made the final steps to freed-

Thunk! His path was obfuscated by a door which he failed to operate properly.

"Adrien! Are you okay?" Marinette called out to her friend.

"Yeahgottarunbye!" Before he could sink further into embarrassment, he shoved the door open with superhuman strength. Nino followed shortly after.

"Dude! What is with you?"

Once Adrien was certain they were a good distance away, he sucked in his lips before turning to face Nino. "Marinette is Ladybug. She had the flash drive with the Ravisher file."

"Wow," He paused for a moment to let the truth soak in. "So, what are you going to do?"

Adrien rubbed his arm with the other and looked away. "What am I going to say? Hey, Marinette, you're super cool and pretty and nice and a superhero, but I like you. What do you think about that?"

Nino snorted. "Right. Not like she's gaga over you or anything."

"What?" A barely audible whisper escaped Adrien's lips. "R-really? She likes me?"

He made no attempt to hide a massive chortle. "All that and sports at eleven."

"Did Alya tell you this?"

"No, my eyes told me. Have you not been paying attention to the way she can't stop drooling if you're so much as in a twenty kilometer radius?"

"You got this. You totally, totally got this. Just tell this gorgeous, super smart girl who's also a superhero that you're also a superhero and you have a huge crush on her. No problem." The plan was set in motion. As Chat-Noir stood atop his perch gazing out at the flickering, eternally distant lights, he struggled to keep down the cavalry of butterflies in his stomach. The dazzling view of the Paris night sky always assuaged his anxieties, but they today seemed insurmountable. Ladybug was actually Marinette, and apparently she liked him.

All things considered, he wasn't sure which terrified him more.

He felt a bit weird about confessing his affection to her like this. Sure, the night sky of dancing lights provided a solid backdrop, but he wondered if maybe girls liked it when things were fancier. Maybe some candles, some slow music. How did that one song go? "I knnnooow this much is trruuuue." No, no singing. That would utterly demolish the mood.

"You got this, bro. Be the Batman. Unleash the beast." Nino's words of encouragement. He breathed in, and out. In, and out.

"Be Ben Affleck…"
"Be Ben Affleck…"
"Be Ben Affleck…"

Adrien mentally recited his mantra. Apparently, all it took to win the truth and, perhaps more importantly, Marinette's heart was to 'be Ben Affleck'. Nino's justification for such a thought was that "he was a total badass in the movie Alya forced me to watch".

"See den Bafleck? Are you feeling unwell, Chat-Noir?" Adrien's eyes bulged and he whipped to the source of the disturbance to find that Ladybug had successfully gotten the drop on him.

"Dammit." He cursed himself for being so foolish. She probably thought he was a total weirdo standing there grumbling to himself. "O-oh, hey, Ma-" No, no, no. "Mah lady." There's dodging bullets, and then there's dodging nuclear warheads. "Thank you for meeting me on such short notice."

"When Chat-Noir is in distress, I am there."

Adrien rolled his eyes at her response. It was rather comforting that despite her facetious delivery, a great deal of truth had been embedded in that statement. The thought provided a great deal of comfort and gave him the strength to power forth. "Ladybug," He paused for one final relaxing breath. "I have something to tell you," Her eyes widened and her lips pursed. "I know you're actually Marinette." And so the truth was made free.

"Wh-wh-whuh," She began to toy with her hands. She was truly adorable. "How did you know?"

The strength of his smile was insurmountable. "Because I'm Adrien." Despite her mask, it was easy to see that her cheeks were practically radiating heat. Her mouth was presently hanging open, totally incapable of speaking. "And I would really, really like it if we could do something. Just the two of us," Even he could see that made little sense semantically speaking. "Like a date."

With her mouth still hanging open and her cheeks burning, she nodded.

That confirmation sent him into the stratosphere. Not only did Marinette actually like him, but she agreed to go on a date with him! He was on top of the world! Having eclipsed a whole new level of confidence, he cupped Marinette's cheeks in her hands and planted a powerful kiss on her lips, infused with ever fiber of his willpower. They were as soft and delicious as he expected.

"So, do you wanna...cuddle?" He inquired with another brilliant grin.

With a grin of equal power, Marinette nodded.

The sheer joy in Adrien's stomach had been interrupted. A second after agreeing to go on a date wit him, Adrien found himself flat on his back after a shove from Ladybug. Had she reconsidered his offer? Dread festered in his stomach.

"Fools! Your romance has been cut short!" It was the Ravisher. Luckily, a cursory appraisal of his armor revealed the crease in the tendon. Hit that, and he would go down instantly, supposedly. "I warned you that you would pay the ultimate price for your misdeeds, for I am stronger than ever!"

Adrien exchanged a glance with his beloved. "Let's send this guy back to jail, then we can cuddle, bugaboo." He concluded with a wink before the two superheroes sprung into battle, stronger than ever.