Adrien was Chat Noir.

That was the only possible explanation.

The only way for him to have known such things about Ladybug, things even Alya wasn't aware of. The hidden cause of all of his absences, that Marinette had never noticed because they coincided perfectly with all of hers.

The girl's surprise made it so that she could no longer think straight. It was too much, way too much, to try to sort through in one fell swoop. The identity of Chat Noir. The double-life of the one she loved. These hints that had always evaded her until now. The possible implications of this discovery. The future of their relationship.

Marinette's mind was no longer following. She had to leave. To take some time to calm down and analyze the situation.

Overwhelmed by the panicked thoughts that swirled around in her brain, Marinette felt a rush of uncontrollable nervousness rise up inside of her. It was an immense wave of panic that surged relentlessly, crashing against her ribs, compressing her lungs, eroding the fragile barrier of composure that still separated her from hysterics.

She needed to leave now.

"O-Okay," she stammered shrilly, "I-I think I should get going, my parents are going to noticed that I'm gone. And d-d-don't worry about me. I mean, don't worry about Ladybug," she corrected herself, waving her hands so violently that she almost hit Adrien in the jaw.

The boy's perfect teeth were only saved thanks to an instinctive recoil, as Adrien tossed a frightened look at his classmate.

"I won't say anything!" Marinette insisted, frantically shaking her head. "Absolutely nothing. I swear!"

"Okay," agreed Adrien, as his worried expression quickly became one of relief. "Thanks, Marinette. And thank you again for coming."

It only took Marinette a handful of minutes to flee make a strategic retreat to the rooftops.

After having transformed and slipped away in record time, the girl took refuge on top of a building facing the enormous Agreste residency. Sitting cross-legged, leaned against a chimney, Ladybug stared at her classmate's room without really seeing.

The heroine of Paris was still in shock from her unbelievable discovery. Her entire body trembled, as if an invisible hand had taken hold of her and was shaking her like a snow globe. Her gaze was empty, her lips letting out incoherent murmurs, as Ladybug desperately tried to sort through her thoughts.

She told herself that she loved Adrien. She insisted that Chat Noir was just a friend.

What couldn't she understand?

Suddenly, Ladybug's eyes caught on an almost undetectable movement. A dark little ball, that floated around in Adrien's room so lightly that, if anybody other than her had seen it, they would have just marked it up as a shadow or some sort of optical illusion.

But for the heroine of Paris, there was no doubt. That tiny thing as black as ink was a kwami, and Adrien was Chat Noir.

It was certain now.

"Marinette, I think that this is a bad idea," Tikki repeated. "A very, very bad idea."

Three days had passed since the girl's miraculous realization.

Three long, hard days punctuated by muffled screaming in pillows, endless speeches, and uselessly dramatic questioning that had put the kwami's patience to the test.

Fortunately, Marinette seemed to finally be recovering.

Unfortunately, she did not seem to be willing to use as much common sense as Tikki would have liked.

"I think that it's the best thing to do, actually," the girl retorted, clearly indifferent to her kwami's reservations.

"And why not just simply tell him who you are?" Tikki objected, fluttering at her side.

Marinette shook her head vigorously.

"No," she repeated stubbornly, crossing her arms defensively to back up her words. "I want him to guess."

"Marinette…" sighed Tikki. "Don't you think that's just making things needlessly complicated?"

But the girl had made up her mind. She had discovered Chat Noir's identity by herself, thanks to the hints that Adrien had unknowingly dropped. It was only fair that her partner had to figure out who she was. He just had to guess who was hiding behind Ladybug's mask.

And for that, she had a foolproof plan.

The next evening, Marinette snuck into her partner's house the same way she had done a few days earlier.

But this time, she was no longer a ball of nerves ready to faint at the mere sight of the love of her life.

This time, she was a girl on a mission.

It took Marinette just a couple of minutes to reach her teammate's room, and only a matter of seconds more to slip inside. She quickly spotted Adrien, sitting directly in her field of view. Comfortably settled on his couch and clearly unaware of his classmate's intrusion, the young man distractedly turned the pages of the book that he held in his hands.

A little smile slowly drew itself onto Marinette's lips.

It was time to set her plan into motion.

The teenage girl took a deep breath and let out a small cough. Alerted by the sudden noise, Adrien whipped his head around toward her. In his surprise, he jumped from the couch, waving his arms so wildly to keep his balance that he sent his book flying two meters away.

"M-Marinette?" he stumbled, eyes wide with shock.

Then, regaining his composure at a remarkable speed, he approached the girl, passing a hand through his hair out of habit.

"Good evening," he greeted her with a warm smile. "I didn't expect you to come visit me again."

"Hi!" she replied excitedly. "And well, last time, you told me you were a little bored here, so I thought some company would make you happy."

"And you would be perfectly correct," Adrien approved with a new smile that made Marinette feel like she would melt with happiness.

Undoubtedly, Adrien, Chat Noir, it didn't matter.

This boy made her head spin.

"You climbed up the outside of my house again?" Adrien asked, unaware of the emotions he inspired in his visitor.

"Exactly," Marinette lied with remarkable confidence. "I even came in from the roof, to be exact. Through a little window of an old office," she specified when the boy gave her an appalled look.

"You… WHAT?" he cried. "But… That's… That's not possible!"

"It is when you have a good technique," Marinette retorted, her eyes sparkling with mischief.

Her hands resting on her hips, she raised her chin proudly in a perfect imitation of Ladybug's confident attitude when a fight turned to her advantage.

"I would even say that it was simple, as if I had flung myself directly to the top of your house," she added, punctuating her statement with a little giggle of satisfaction when Adrien shot her a suspicious gaze.

Things were starting off well.

A few hints here, a few compromising words there, and soon, Adrien would finally figure out that she was none other than his dear partner.

The following week, Marinette made a point of not letting a single day pass without spending a few hours in her teammate's room.

Each night, she went to visit him, hoping to finally catch a glimmer of understanding in his eyes.

And each night, she left disappointed in her lack of results.

To her despair, even if Adrien welcomed her warmly, even if his face lit up with a wonderful smile every time he saw her, he never seemed to ask questions about her strange appearances.

Not the slightest questioning.

Not the slightest progress.

But Marinette wasn't giving up. She now came directly through the window of Adrien's bathroom, emphasizing the lack of hold on the wall of his house there. Throughout the long hours of chatting between the two, she tried her best to point the conversation toward Ladybug, stressing less and less subtly the common traits between them. Their heights, their voices, the color of their eyes… She didn't forget a single detail.

Alas, even if Adrien was asked to talk at length about the heroine of Paris, he never seemed to realize the obvious resemblance between the two girls.

Out of desperation, Marinette had even started to bring a real yoyo - a red yoyo, specifically - with her. While Adrien conscientiously finished his homework, she spent hours juggling it, learning the most impressive tricks, hoping that this accessory would finally open Adrien's eyes.

But nothing happened.

Marinette was becoming an expert at handling a non-magic-yoyo, and Adrien still didn't seem to realize that she was Ladybug.

Once again, Tikki advised her friend to just talk with her partner once and for all. To speak with him frankly about their secret identities rather than continue to waste her time.

But Marinette was stubborn.

Stubborn AND creative.

After yet another failure, she returned to her own room more determined than ever. Under the perplexed watch of Tikki, she rummaged through her closet in search of a specific garment and dug through her sewing supplies to pull out a bolt of black fabric and thread of a similar color, and then set herself up in front of her sewing machine.

For over an hour, she alternated between measuring, cutting, and sewing, working with skill worthy of the greatest professionals, until she achieved her desired result.

"Okay," she finally proclaimed, holding the fruit of her efforts out in her hands to get a better look. "This should do it!"

The next evening, faithful to her recent routine, Marinette made her way to go visit Adrien. Once there, she hung in front of the bathroom for a moment. After making sure the room was empty, she slipped in through the window, de-transformed, and slowly opened the door, carefully scanning the room. Then, after concluding that her classmate was alone, sitting at his desk, she moved toward him.

"Hi, Adrien!" she greeted confidently.

"Oh, good evening, Marinette," her partner replied, raising his head to look at her. "How's it go-..."

Adrien's words stopped in his throat as his eyes landed on the clothing being worn by his visitor. For the occasion, Marinette was wearing a pair of sneakers, some black jeans, and a comfortable hooded sweater.

Specifically, a red sweater. With black spots.

A sweater in the colors of the heroine of Paris.

Marinette couldn't help but smile at Adrien's stunned expression. Eyes wide and stuck on her, her teammate stood up without even realizing it. He took an automatic step towards her, then a second, then a third, his eyebrows raised so high in astonishment that they almost disappeared under his blond hair.

"Marinette," he began hesitantly, pointing at her sweater. "You… Your top… It's really…"

Marinette's smile grew larger.

This was it.

He finally understood.

"It looks just like Alya's!" Adrien exclaimed triumphantly, unknowingly drowning all of Marinette's hopes with it. "She has almost the exact same sweater! Wow, you must have made hers then? You made two of them? It's amazing work!"

Marinette stared at him in disbelief, suddenly feeling as if a bucket of water had been dumped on her.

No.

It wasn't possible.

She must have heard wrong.

"That's why I had a feeling of déjà-vu when I saw you," her teammate continued. "Because of Alya!"

Refusing to bear anymore, Marinette buried her face in her hands and let out a frustrated groan. Adrien was clueless, yeah. But the difference between being clueless and not being able to see the obvious similarities between his best friend and her alter-ego was a stretch.

Marinette loved her partner with all her heart. She really did.

But now, her patience was at its end.

Adrien was really proving to be blind, to be lacking simple deduction skills such that the girl started to doubt that he would understand that she was Ladybug even if she went and transformed right in front of him.

"Okay, I look like Alya!" she cried, rolling her eyes in irritation. "And not at all like Ladybug! After all, it's not like we have the same hairstyle, the same skin color, the same height…" she listed off in an exasperated voice.

"Well of course you look like Ladybug," replied Adrien, shooting her a perplexed look, as if it was hard to believe that she could have uttered such absurdity. "That's obvious."

Marinette was speechless.

Never, NEVER would she have expected such a statement from her teammate.

Especially not after seeing his lack of a reaction to the clues she had given him with as much subtlety as a shove to the head.

"Between us, the resemblance between you two is so striking that for a moment, I was convinced that you were one in the same," the young man elaborated with a little chuckle. "If I didn't have proof that you COULDN'T be Ladybug, I would have figured that I'd discovered her identity a while ago. I was really shocked when I realized that you couldn't be her."

Marinette couldn't believe her ears.

Adrien had suspected that she was Ladybug.

And yet, for some mysterious reason, he was now convinced that it was impossible for her to be the heroine of Paris.

"P-Proof?" she stammered, baffled. "What proof?"

"Well, I've seen you two together," Adrien answered with an unsettling ease.

Marinette was now the very image of bewilderment. Mouth gaping like a fish out of water, eyebrows raised comically high, she stared at Adrien in shock, as if the boy had just grown a second head.

"Together?" she repeated incredulously. "Ladybug and… and me? But… But when?"

"It was that time when Alix was akumatized," her partner patiently explained. "I don't know if you remember but you were standing right next to me when Ladybug arrived. And with that, that was the end of my nice little theory," he finished with a remorseful smile. "You couldn't be Ladybug."

In Marinette's mind, everything suddenly clicked. A sudden, vivid revelation that lit up her mind like a flash of lightning in the darkness.

The akumatization of Alix.

Of course.

She remembered it perfectly well. It was the day that Ladybug went back in time. The day that another version of herself fought beside her.

The day that, for a brief moment, her friends had seen both a Marinette and a Ladybug at the same place, at the same time.

The situation was ridiculous, so absurd, that Marinette felt the corners of her lips curve up despite herself. She bit the inside of her cheek to try to keep her composure, but to no avail. A tickling sensation swelled up in the pit of her stomach, running under her skin, and quickly, the girl fell victim to an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

For a few long minutes, she couldn't do anything but laugh, laugh, and laugh still, struggling to catch her breath under the stunned gaze of her teammate. Restless body shaking and lungs panting, Marinette had to call upon all of her strength to calm herself from this unexpected fit.

"Ahhh yes, I remember it," she finally replied, wiping a tear that had collected in the corner of her eye. "But if I remember correctly, there were TWO Ladybugs that time," she continued, holding up two fingers in front of her theatrically. "So for your hypothesis to be right, you would have had to see me with the TWO Ladybugs at the same time. Because otherwise, I could very well have been one of them."

This time, it was Adrien who was bewildered.

The young man went pale, teetering, as if he had just been struck in the head. Silent with surprise, he looked Marinette up and down, eyes so wide that they seemed ready to spring from their sockets.

And slowly, as the notion seemed to gradually sink in, his skin streaked crimson more and more. If Marinette thought she had seen Adrien blush before, it was nothing compared to the red that now dyed his cheeks.

"Y-You… I'm guess that you're not actually a climbing champion?" the boy sighed embarrassingly.

"Absolutely not, kitty," Marinette answered with a huge smile.

Adrien paled a little more, the skin of his face now offering a striking contrast to his beautiful scarlet cheeks.

"You know?" he gulped, looking at her horrified.

"That you're Chat Noir?" Marinette completed with undeniable satisfaction. "Definitely."

Nervously running his fingers through his hair, the boy let out a distressed groan.

"I really am an idiot," he grumbled, shaking his head back and forth.

Then, finally seeming to recover, he buried his pure green eyes into the extraordinary blue of Marinette's. A smile of incredible happiness slowly drew itself onto his face, erasing little by little the look of embarrassment that still haunted his features. Adrien was now overflowing with a palpable, vibrant joy that seemed to radiate through his entire being.

"It's you!" he cried out with a thrilled laugh. "It's really you! I feel really dumb for not figuring it out sooner. I had my suspicions, and… And I never saw it. And yet, the evidence shows it all! You and Ladybug, you're both… I mean, just you… You are the most amazing girl I've ever known! I'm not surprised for moment that you found out my identity first," he continued, his eyes shining with glee.

He took another step toward Marinette and set his hands on her shoulders. The girl quickly felt herself blush all the way up to her hairline. She may have become more confident in front of him in recent days, but it was clearly not enough to fully immunize her against the charm of the love of her life.

Her heart beating wildly, Marinette felt a delicious shiver travel up her spine.

A shiver of joy. Of excitement. Of the most wonderful emotions that promised to become dangerously addictive.

"And you continue to support me even if I am such a fool," Adrien went on with a smile that would have definitely melted Marinette's heart if it had not already belonged to him. "I never could have dreamed of a better teammate. You're amazing, courageous, creative…"

Marinette felt like she was on the verge of exploding with happiness. Even in her wildest dreams, she never imagined that her nighttime visits would end up like this. The undeniable affection she heard in Adrien's voice, the very words he uttered, and his eyes, oh, his eyes…

The way he looked at her was worth a thousand declaration of love.

Marinette felt like her heart was about ready to give out, and if Adrien continued to shower her in compliments, she would surely faint.

So, by sheer survival instinct, she cut off his flow of speech in the only way that she could think of.

She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pulling him towards her, and she kissed him.

Adrien froze and quickly, Marinette asked herself in an icy terror if she had made a huge mistake. But just a fraction of a second later, she felt her teammate smile against her lips. Adrien relaxed, wrapping his arms around Marinette's waist, and he returned her kiss with such fervor that the girl felt like her legs were jelly beneath her.

Closing her eyes, Marinette unabashedly savored the languid movement of Adrien's lips against hers, the exhilarating smell of his skin, the soft caress of his fingers along her jaw. Her heart sang her joy with enthusiasm from the core of her chest, beating with such force that it made her head spin. This torrent of marvelous sensations crashed fiercely over Marinette, drawing her into an ocean of bliss full of heat and sweetness.

"Marinette," Adrien whispered breathlessly, leaving the girl's lips to cover her face in tender kisses. "My princess… My Lady…"

Marinette couldn't help but laugh at hearing the nicknames roll off of her partner's tongue so affectionately.

Finally, Tikki was wrong.

These nighttime visits were definitely the best idea she had ever had in her life.

*** END ***

Note : XanLee, thank you for the translation ! :D