Disclaimer: I don't own Miraculous Ladybug
She Couldn't Accept It
Marinette couldn't believe her eyes.
Chat Noir was Adrien Agreste.
They had somehow both run out time while on the same roof after fighting a rather powerful akuma.
They hadn't been able to get away from each other and in flashes of pink and green light they detransformed, revealing their true selves to each other.
Now Marinette stood frozen as she looked into the green eyes of the boy she had a crush on.
"Plagg!" "Tikki!" out of the corner of her eyes she could see Tikki hugging who she guessed was Chat's - no, Adrien's - kwami happily as the tiny creatures spinned around but she didn't care about that.
She was too shocked to care.
Sweet, friendly, calm, handsome and perfect Adrien was loud, reckless, flirty and goofy Chat Noir.
This wasn't right.
Those two were complete and total opposites!
She was so far in her thoughts she didn't notice that Adrien was starting to grin at her.
"Marinette... It's you. You're Ladybug." he whispered as she slowly approached her.
Automatically did she take a step back, halting him in his track.
He blinked in confusion, eyes showing hurt.
For some reason that made Marinette angry.
'Why is he acting hurt while I'm the one who's supposed to feel that way!?' she thought to herself.
Adrien flinched when she glared at him.
"What is the meaning of this, Adrien? Is this some kind of sick joke?" she hissed at him.
"W-what? What is supposed to be a joke here?" he asked in surprise.
"This!" Marinette yelled, wildly at him with her hands, getting only more angry.
"Where is Chat?!" she cried loudly and he jumped and took a step back.
"What do you mean? I'm right here. I am Chat Noir. You just saw me transform." he said.
"But this can't be true! You can not be Chat Noir!" Marinette closed her eyes in frustration.
"And why is that?!" Adrien's voice then asked, just as loudly, catching her of guard and making her open her eyes to see him now glaring back at her.
"Why, Marinette?! Why is it so hard for you to accept I'm Chat Noir?!" he asked and this time she jumped.
She wasn't used to either her classmate or her partner getting angry at her and now it scared her.
Still, she didn't want to back down.
"Because you're nothing alike!" she answerred.
"Really now!? Then please do explain!" he challenged, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.
"Adrien has always been perfect! You're friendly, calm, smart and patient with everyone! Chat Noir is a loud annoying goofball who makes too much puns, flirts with everyone, is reckless and loud and he's-" "Not perfect?" Adrien cutt Marinette's rant off, his voice cold.
"Yes! Exactly!" Marinette nodded, glad to see he understood where she was going.
She however didn't expect to find his eyes glaring at her angily, no not just angrily but he was glaring hatefully.
She thought handle Adrien or Chat or whoever he was getting angry at her but to have him looking at her like that was not something she could handle.
"Is that it, Marinette? Are you upset because Chat Noir isn't perfect like Adrien Agreste?" the model hissed.
"Of course! Why are you acting like-" "Like it shouldn't matter to me?!" once again did he cutt her off and now Marinette took as step back as he yelled at her.
He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm down before opening them again.
"It figures. You're just like everyone else." Adrien growled at her.
"Huh? What are you talking about?!" Marinette asked, not liking thw way how he put her being 'like everyone else'.
"Seriously? Well, alright then! Why don't you tell me why you think I love being Chat Noir so much?" he challenged her and raised a eyebrow with his arms crossed.
Marinette blinked in thought, having honestly never really thought about why her partner liked being his hero self.
"Well, you obviously love the attention so that must be-" "Wrong!" she jumped when his voice cutt her off again.
She glared back again.
"What do you mean 'wrong'?!" she asked as that was honestly all she could think about when thinking about how Chat always acted.
"You just said it youself! Adrien Agreste is perfect! Do you have any idea how that feels?" he asked.
"What's wrong with everyone finding you perfect? That means they see you as flawless." Marinette frowned, honestly not understanding what was wrong with him.
"Do you even hear yourself?!" Adrien cried out loudly, surprising her again since it had really seemed like he was starting to calm down.
"I'm not flawless, Marinette! It's all just an act!" he explained, running his hands through his hair.
"But what about-" "It's an act! I'm literally the face of my father's whole company! I'm not allowed to be anything but perfect! I'm not allowed to make a joke, I'm not allowed to be tired, I'm not even allowed to breath other then how I'm told to!" now Marinette was finally starting to understand and she felt horrible for it.
She knew he was right as there had been more then enough times when she heard him and Nino talking about how much of a slave-driver Gabriel Agreste was.
"Being Chat Noir means I get to be whoever I want! I don't have to be perfect! I'm allowed to have my own opinion, I can laugh when I want, I don't have to worry about what other people think!" Adrien went on with his rant, panting heavily when done.
"A-Adrien... I'm sorry." was the only thing the girl managed to say, trying not to whimper when he glared at her again.
"Sorry? For what?! For literally telling me to my face you're expecting me to be a fake?!" he hissed and despite it being true she started to get angry again.
"Hey, you have no right to act like this! You're been doing the exact same to me or should I say Ladybug!" she yelled at him.
"No, I didn't!" Adrien defended.
"Yes you did! I know you always wanted perfect Ladybug!" Marinette stomped her foot.
"No, I didn't! Just because you expect others to live up to some fantasy doesn't mean I do!" "What did you say!"
Adrien was uneffected by Marinette's anger and stood his ground.
"Unlike you I always knew Ladybug wasn't perfect. Unlike the public I've always known she's not perfect." he said calmly.
"Yeah, right." Marinette rolled her eyes, not believing him.
"Marinette, I've seen Ladybug get scared of messing up with Stoneheart, I've seen her lose her temper with civilians, I've how she often believes only herself to be right, I've even seen her cause people to be akumatized, speaking of how she ignored and badmouthed Chloé, humiliated Lila and attacked an innocent Santa Claus." Adrien growled and Marinette flinched again.
It was true, both as Adrien and as Chat Noir had he indeed seen her at her worst.
She started to feel horrible again.
Adrien never liked Ladybug just for her good qualities but also her bad ones.
He'd seen her at her worst and he accepted her like she was.
"Tell me, when did you ever talk to Adrien without absolutely needing to or other people pushing you to?" he then asked.
"Ah! I-I was just too nervous!" Marinette stuttered as a blush.
"Nervous?" Adrien rose an eyebrow.
"Y-Yes! I was always too nervous because... Because I have a crush on you, Adrien!" she forced the confession past her lips in the 'now or never'- situation.
"A crush...?" Adrien blinked at her and she nodded.
"Yeah! I've loved you for a really long time! Ever since you gave me your umbrella! I get so nervous I could barely even talk to you without stuttering!" she tried to aproach him but this time he was the one who backed up.
"Marinette... You don't really love me." he groaned as he rubbed his forehead.
"Of course I do!" she yelled.
"No, you don't! Did you already forget what we just talked about?! You only love me because I'm perfect and you don't love me as Chat Noir because then I'm not perfect! You don't really care about Adrien Agreste the person! You just care about Adrien Agreste the model who can give you anything you want and will act any way you want! If you'd actually really liked me then you'd at least would have tried to get to know me personally instead of whatever you see from a distance or read in some manazine or whatever, all without stuttering since then you'd realise I'm just another human!" Adrien yelled as Marinette stood frozen to the ground.
She felt something wet and hot run down her cheeks and realised she was crying.
Adrien realised it too and snorted.
"Forget it." he sighed as he reached into his pocket and tossed a piece of camembert at Plagg who caught it but didn't eat it right away, looking back and forth between Adrien, Marinette and Tikki as if he wasn't sure what to do.
"Plagg, would you please hurry up?" Adrien snapped, making the kwami flinch before tossing the cheese in the air and swallowing it in one big gulp.
The cat-kwami gave Tikki a quick nuzzle before Adrien stuck his fist out and yelled "Plagg, claws out!"
Plagg got sucked into the ring and in a flash of green light Adrien was replaced by Chat Noir.
He looked weird without the usual happy smile he wore when he saw her.
He didn't even say anything as he turned around to leave.
"Chat! Adrien! Please wait!" Marinette cried before he left.
Luckily for her his cat ears twitched and he stopped at the edge of the roof.
"All those times you flirted with me as Ladybug... Did you...? Did you mean it?" now was when Marinette needed to know that more then ever.
"Yes. I did mean it every time but I guess you were so dead-set on my fake self that you took me for granted while I was actually being honest." he glanced over his shoulder with cold green eyes.
"I-I'm sorry! You're right about everything! I was only thinking about myseld and what I wanted and not about how you -both as Adrien or Chat- would feel! Just please! Please give me a chance to make it up! I promise to love who you really are!" Marinette stumbled closer to the boy as her words got desperate.
Chat turned around and held up a gloved hand to stop her in her track and timidly look at her toes.
"Marinette, stop it." he told her.
"We both know you're now making a promise you can't keep. Less then an hour ago you only loved the perfect side of me and felt nothing for the side that wasn't perfect. You didn't suddenly start loving both sides of me. You're just feeling guilty because you never did and selfish because no matter what, you're still hoping it'll turn out like you always wanted." he explained and she sobbed.
Chat gave a said sigh.
"I'm sorry but being Chat is more important then anything to me and you got upset at me for that."
"And I'm sorry for that!"
"That doesn't matter. I am Chat Noir and you couldn't accept that."
He turned his back to the crying girl again.
"And that is something I can't accept."
With that he jumped off the edge and he was gone, leaving Marinette alone.
The End
I kinda did this because while I love the usual "I'm so glad it's you because I love both sides of you"-thing, I've seen some people point out it's not always very realistic and I wanted to try to do a fic with that. Also, I honestly feel that if one of them scews it up, it's Marinette since she has a crush on Adrien for everything that makes him perfect and doesn't like Chat Noir for not being like that. She's got a fantasy in her head and she doesn't even realise it herself.