Shout out to slkworm for being the best beta in the world.

Jumping to conclusions

Why did Hawk Moth keep sending akumas at weird hours of the night? Was it some kind of master plan to get Ladybug so sleep deprived she would be willing to trade her Miraculous for a good night of sleep? If that was his plan, it was going to backfire, since she was going to work twice as hard to defeat him. The sooner they defeated him, the sooner she could sleep eight hours instead of dealing with whatever insanity Hawk Moth came up with in the middle of the night.

This particular night, it was Sandboy again.

"Do you think Hawk Moth is running out of ideas?" asked Chat Noir while he fought something that looked like a vampire. "This is like the third time he's turned this poor boy into Sandboy."

"I'm also concerned about the boy," Ladybug replied. "He seems to be getting nightmares really often and I…"

"WATCH OUT!" Chat Noir interrupted as he suddenly pulled her out of the way of a giant octopus. It didn't look scary or intelligent - it looked like a regular octopus - but it was huge and it could have crushed her.

"Thanks, Chat," said Ladybug.

"You're welcome, Ladybug!" replied Chat. His response felt very un-Chat-like. A few weeks ago, he would have added a flirty comment and called her something ridiculous like 'M'lady' or 'Buginette'. However that didn't happen anymore. One day, out of the blue, he had stopped flirting with her.

It had been three weeks ago since that first time he'd shown up to patrol and hadn't once called her 'M'Lady' or flirted with her. It was so unlike him that, for a second, she thought he was an impostor.

She had asked him about his change of behavior. Not because she missed his flirting - she was in love with Adrien after all - but because it was off-putting to see him act so differently. He had explained to her that a part of him was always going to love her, but she had made it clear that she was not interested and he had finally decided that maybe it was time for him to move on. He had told her that he was exploring his feelings for a wonderful person.

Apparently, he'd had feelings for this other person for a while, but he had refused to acknowledge them out of loyalty to her.

She wanted to be happy for Chat. It was good for him to finally let go of his obsessive crush on her, and it was good that he had found someone who could make him happy. Especially now that Adrien seemed to have noticed Marinette and, according to Alya, was going to ask her out any day now. But for some reason, she missed Chat's dumb pet-names for her.

"What kind of stupid nightmare is a giant octopus anyway?" asked Ladybug, trying to distract herself from her thoughts.

"I know, right? If anything it looks pretty tenta-cool," replied Chat. Ladybug resisted the impulse to roll her eyes at the pun. Suddenly, his gaze shifted to something behind her, over her shoulder. He stared at it with a shocked expression and said, "Forget the giant octopus, what kind of nightmare is a zombie-like Adrien Agreste?"

Ladybug turned her head praying to whatever deity that it was not her nightmare behind her. She would die of embarrassment if Chat found out she was scared of Adrien loving Chloé. It felt so silly compared to others' nightmares. Besides it could jeopardize her identity if zombie-Adrien started talking about naming their hamster Marinette again.

"I'm going to marry Chloé," screeched Zombie-Adrien.

Clearly the deity had sent Ladybug's prayers to voicemail, because that was beyond doubt her nightmare. She sneaked a glance at Chat, hoping he didn't realize it was her nightmare. He seemed mildly shocked and was staring at Zombie-Adrien.

"Just me and Chloé together for eternity," continue Zombie-Adrien.

Some sort of realization illuminated Chat's face.

"Oh! That's another one of my nightmares then," he exclaimed before going back to fighting Sandboy.

Ladybug was thankful that Chat didn't seem to have a clue that it was actually her nightmare, though she didn't understand why he had assumed it was his. She didn't have time to think about that though when they had an akuma to defeat.

"Why do you think Chat thought my nightmare was his?" Marinette asked when she was lying in her bed after defeating the akuma.

"Aren't you just glad that he didn't figure out it was yours?" asked Tikki.

"Of course I am," replied Marinette. "I'm just confused. Why did he think it was his? That doesn't make sense."

"Is it really that important?" asked Tikki, snuggling into her pillow. "Let's sleep."

Marinette closed her eyes, but it was impossible to turn off her brain.

"I mean, it makes sense for me to be scared of Adrien marrying Chloé, I don't want to see my crush marrying someone else, especially someone like her, but why would Chat…" Then she had a horrible, horrible suspicion. "Do you think Chat has a crush on Chloé?"

If Chat had a crush on Chloé, that would explain why Chat thought a supermodel saying he wanted to marry her was his nightmare.

"Do you think Chat has a crush on Chloé?" countered Tikki looking annoyed that they were not asleep yet.

"That would explain why he thought Adrien saying he was going to marry Chloé was his nightmare," replied Marinette. "And remember, he did say he was moving on to someone else, someone he had always had feelings for."

And for some reason, it hurt Marinette that Chat was moving on. She shouldn't be hurt, she didn't like him like that, they were just friends. Besides, she was well aware that she was not entitled to be hurt over him moving on. She had been the one that had rejected him multiple times. But that didn't lessen the pain in her chest.

Maybe she was just hurt because he was moving on to Chloé, of all people.

"And you think that someone else is Chloé?" asked Tikki.

It was clear that Tikki was a detractor of Marinette theory. But the more she thought about it, the more sense it made.

Chat was always nice to Chloé. Well, he was nice to most people, but Chloé was hard to be nice to. She could put the patience of a saint to the test. So it clearly meant something that Chat was nice to Chloé and never seemed too put off by her rude behavior. The only other people that Marinette knew that could put up with Chloé were Sabrina and Adrien. But Adrien had a whole childhood to develop immunity to Chloé's Chloéness, so he didn't count. And Sabrina worshipped the ground Chloé walked on, so she didn't count either.

Add that to the fact that Chat believed that nightmare-Adrien professing his love for Chloé was his nightmare, and it was clear that there were some feelings there.

The thought of Chat having feelings for Chloé made her stomach turn over. She tried to tell herself that it was only because she didn't want one of her closest friends to end up with someone as selfish as Chloé, but honestly, there might have been some teeny-tiny amount of jealousy there too. She tried to suppress that last part and only focus on her concern for Chat.

"I guess she is," said Marinette, more hurt than she was willing to admit. Tikki, the traitor, had fallen asleep while Marinette was having her internal crisis, so Marinette decided to just go to sleep too.

Her dreams were filled with images of Chat professing his undying love for Chloé. Chat giving Chloé roses. Chat marrying Chloé and adopting a hamster and naming it Ladybug.

She woke up feeling sick.

Marinette spent the following days obsessing over Chloé. She had always disliked Chloé, but after finding out about Chat's crush on her, she found her ten times worse. Even the way she breathed was bothering her.

Marinette had tried to convince herself she was not jealous. She was just worried about Chat. How could he be crushing on someone like Chloé? What did he even see in her? She was shallow, rude, and selfish, all things Chat was not. Marinette had to admit, albeit reluctantly, that Chloé was a beautiful girl, if you like a plastic doll kind of beauty, but she wouldn't have thought that Chat was the type of person to crush on someone just for their good looks.

She really shouldn't care about who Chat was crushing on, especially not when she had feelings for Adrien and things were going great with him.

She had even stopped stuttering in front of him.

On Friday, Adrien offered to walk her home after school, which was kind of ridiculous because her home was across the street, but it was a couple of extra seconds with Adrien that she was going to accept gladly.

"So, you know how the Ultimate Mecha Strike Live Action Movie is coming out tonight?" asked Adrien once they were alone in front of her house.

"I've only had it marked in my calendar since months ago," replied Marinette. "I'm excited, albeit a little nervous about the idea of a movie plot based on a fighting game."

"Yeah, that worries me too. But I think it has potential," answered Adrien. Then he rubbed the back of his neck nervously and asked, "I'll be busy tonight, so I won't be able to go to the premiere. But I wanted to ask you if maybe you want to watch the movie with me tomorrow?"

"I would love to!" exclaimed Marinette. "But Alya won't be able to make tomorrow because she's babysitting the twins, so maybe Sunday is a better day, that way the four of us could go together."

There was something about Adrien's body language that reminded her of when Chat Noir's ears dropped. She should stop thinking about Chat; she was getting way too obsessed with him lately. It was probably because she couldn't believe he had a stupid crush on Chloé.

"Actually…" started Adrien nervously, "I was hoping maybe we could go only the two of us, without Nino and Alya, just you and me."

Marinette brain stopped and her heart started beating at twice its usual pace. Was she hearing things or had Adrien just asked her out? He'd seemed to pay a lot of attention to her lately and Alya was a firm believer he was crushing on her, but Marinette needed to be sure he meant a date before she could embarrass herself with a misunderstanding.

"You mean, go the movies with me alone?" she asked. He nodded, so she inquired further. "Do you mean as friends or as more like a date type of thing?"

She resisted the urge to hide her face when she asked that.

"Well, it could be as friends if that's what you want," started Adrien, and Marinette's heart slowed down a bit. "But I was hoping it could be more like a date type of thing."

Marinette's heart was going three times faster than before. She was about to reply that yes, she absolutely wanted to go to the movies with him. And go on several more dates with him. She wanted to hold his hand, kiss him, marry him, have three kids and adopt a hamster together. But she was interrupted by screaming and beams of light coming from the school.

Of course, a freaking Akuma attack had to interrupt the moment she had dreamed her whole life. She was going to murder Hawk Moth with her own two hands.

"I would love to go on a date type of thing with you," replied Marinette, smiling at Adrien. "I'll text you later, but right now I really need to go to the bathroom, bye."

Without giving Adrien time to reply, she went inside her home and transformed into Ladybug. She headed to the akuma's location, trying to suppress a cringe over how the conversation with Adrien had ended.

Ladybug was the first to arrive on the scene. She made a quick evaluation of the situation. The akuma was some girl from her school - not one of her classmates, but a girl she recognized from Max's robotic club.

"I swear, Hawk Moth is trying to ruin my life. I was in the middle of something very important when the attack started," complained Chat Noir as he joined her on the rooftop.

"That makes two of us," said Ladybug. She briefly wondered what Chat was doing that was so important but she didn't ask because keeping their identities a secret was important and the less they knew about the other's personal life, the better.

"So, what do we have here?" asked Chat.

"I haven't been here long, so I don't know a lot. But apparently she's calling herself GlassHeart and turning people into glass statues, and she seems especially mad at Chloé," replied Ladybug, not surprised at all. When it was not Chloé? That girl was responsible for like half the akuma's victims. "I'll take Chloé to safety, you distract GlassHeart and try to find out where the akuma is located."

"Understood," said Chat Noir, before running to GlassHeart saying, "You know, when I say I like transparent people this is not what I had in mind."

Ladybug tried to not smile at her partner's dumb joke before leaving to look for Chloé.

She carried Chloé as far from GlassHeart as she could while trying to not let her face show her annoyance even as Chloé talked about how people didn't like being told the truth and how GlassHeart was being ridiculous and how the battle would go much more smoothly if they were aided by Queen Bee.

Of course, Ladybug could have been the one to distract the Akuma and she could have told Chat to carry Chloé, but the idea of Chat carrying Chloé lovingly in his arms was even less appealing to Ladybug than having to put up with Chloé herself.

She was not jealous, dammit!

"Pound it!"

GlassHeart turned out to be fairly standard as far as akumas went and it didn't take long to defeat her.

"Oh no!" said Ladybug. "I left Chloé stranded on a rooftop on the other side of the city, and I only have one spot left, so I can't pick her up before turning back to my civilian self."

"If you tell me where she is, I can pick her up. I used Cataclysm way later than you used Lucky Charm," suggested Chat Noir.

On a rational level, Ladybug understood Chat's suggestion was perfectly logical, but imagining him carrying Chloé in his arms didn't sit well with her.

"You would love that, don't you?" mumbled Ladybug.

"I don't understand," said Chat.

"Oh, don't think I haven't noticed your crush on Chloé," replied Ladybug. "I don't know what you see in her, but that's your problem so I won't say anything. I'm sending her location to your baton so you can pick her up and flirt with her while you carry her or something."

She didn't intend to sound so bitter about it, but she couldn't help it. To avoid Chat's eyes, she concentrated on sending him Chloé's location.

"For a second there, I almost laughed because I thought you were joking, but you look completely serious about it," said Chat, putting a hand on her shoulder. Reluctantly, she looked into his green eyes. "I want to make something clear," he continued. "I do not have, have never had, and will never have a crush on Chloé, ever."

He shuddered when he used the words 'crush' and 'Chloé' in the same sentence. He looked so sincere that Ladybug had to believe him.

And suddenly Ladybug stopped feeling as if the world was ending.

"Then why did you say Adrien Agreste saying he was going to marry Chloé was your nightmare?" asked Ladybug, confused.

Chat Noir suddenly looked nervous.

"We're kind of out of time here. I need to go pick up Chloé and you're about to turn back to your civilian self," replied Chat Noir, avoiding the question. "Farewell, Ladybug."

He took off hastily without giving any other explanation, and he left behind a Ladybug who was very confused about his strange behavior.

She got back to her bedroom with barely enough time before her transformation dropped. She gave Tikki a cookie while she analyzed Chat's behavior.

He'd looked disgusted by the idea of having a crush on Chloé, and that was a good thing. But then it left Marinette confused as to why he thought that Zombie-Adrien claiming he was going to marry Chloé was his nightmare. And why he had reacted so nervously when she asked him about it.

It was her nightmare, and she would have acted nervously when confronted about it, but that was only because she was in love with Adrien, but why would Chat…

Oh.

Oh.

Oh no.

"Tikki," said Marinette, staring blankly at the wall. "I think Chat Noir is in love with Adrien."

Tikki stared back at her for a couple of seconds before apparently deciding she was not going to dignify that with a response. She resumed eating her cookie.

"I can't believe I thought he was in love with Chloé when this makes much more sense. It would explain why he thought Adrien saying he was going to marry Chloé was his nightmare. Besides, I can understand why he would be in love with Adrien, who isn't? While I didn't understand why he would be in love with Chloé."

Tikki just kept staring at Marinette.

"Besides, he said the person he was moving on to was a wonderful person. Adrien fits that description, and Chloé doesn't."

Tikki still said nothing.

Marinette laid on the bed when another thought occurred to her.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Marinette. "Adrien just asked me out today!"

"Why is that a bad thing? I thought you liked Adrien." Apparently Tikki's vow of silence hadn't lasted long.

"I do, but don't you see? I already broke Chat's heart before, as Ladybug. Then he starts to move on to Adrien just when Adrien finally starts noticing me," explained Marinette. "I'm going to get his heart broken again."

Marinette buried her face in a pillow.

"My poor kitty," she murmured without removing her head from the pillow.

Tikki just finished her cookie.

The End