Fic: All the Names I Know You By
Oct. 1st, 2017 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetFandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Summary: In the aftermath of an akuma attack, Ladybug's identity is revealed to Paris.
AO3 link: Right here! *internal screaming*
Beta:redsixwing, who volunteered despite not knowing the fandom, and was simply the best cheerleader I could ask for. Any remaining mistakes are mine. ♥ to you!
Wordcount: 8046?!
Fic: All the Names I Know You By
As the cleansing ladybugs swarmed Paris, Ladybug pulled Alya to her feet. "Are you okay?" she asked.
Alya resettled her glasses with her free hand, her other still clutched tightly by Ladybug's. "Yeah, I think so. That was a lot closer than I'd like, though!"
Ladybug winced. "You and me both!" At lunch that day, Alya had turned down Joshua, the new American exchange student - very politely, in Marinette's opinion. Apparently Joshua had a different opinion, though, as he showed up again not half an hour later possessed by an akuma, chasing Alya relentlessly. As Fiendzone, he'd turned anyone near-by into "fiends" he could command to shower the girl with compliments and gifts on his behalf - all of which got more and more terrifying as his possession continued. Ladybug and Cat Noir had finally managed to defeat him, freeing the akuma from the boy's fedora.
Ladybug's thoughts were interrupted by the beeping of her Miraculous. Alya smiled ruefully at her. "I'd love to get an interview, but it sounds like you need to be going."
Ladybug smiled at her biggest fan. Alya still wanted to know who was behind the mask, but she seemed to have stopped pursuing the superhero's identity quite so relentlessly. "I'll see if I can't manage to find a spot in my schedule later, okay?"
Alya beamed. "That would be amazing."
"Hey, what about me?" Alya started, not having noticed Cat Noir come up behind her. "Not going to share the spotlight with your favorite kitty?"
Ladybug rolled her eyes affectionately and held her fist out for their customary post-battle fistbump. "Sure you wouldn't hog it, alleycat?"
Cat Noir knocked her knuckles with his own, then raised his hand to his chest in mock offense. "My Lady, I would never! I just want time to bask in the sunshine of my life."
Her retort was cut off by her Miraculous beeping again, this time more urgently. "Crap, I've really gotta bug out. We'll continue this some other time."
"As my Lady wishes," Cat replied. With a nod at both her partner and her best friend, Ladybug swung her yoyo out to catch a near-by rooftop and begin her trek home. One last glance over her shoulder showed Alya and Cat Noir chatting; since Cat hadn't needed to use Cataclysm, it seemed he was taking an extra moment to make certain Alya was alright. Ladybug's heart warmed, and she smiled at the thought of her partner and her best friend getting along - a smile that quickly faded when she noticed Joshua, just meters behind them, reaching for a tire-iron a citizen had been using before the attack.
Ladybug's blood ran cold. What was going on? Hadn't the miraculous cure worked on him? She'd cleansed the akuma, she knew she had, so why wasn't Joshua going back to normal?
Except... Maybe this was normal for Joshua. Maybe the akuma had only given him the power to do what he'd wanted to in the first place. Ladybug firmly believed that there was at least the potential for good in everyone, but Hawkmoth seemed to find the potential for evil as well, and this time it seemed like he'd found more than any of them had expected.
Her Miraculous beeped another warning in her ears, but Ladybug ignored it. Instead, she swung her yoyo out again, eyes steely with determination. As soon as it caught on something, Ladybug jumped from the roof, aiming for her best friend. "Alya, look out!" she shouted as swung down, pushing her friend aside just as Joshua lifted the tire iron over his head to hit her.
A clang sounded, and Ladybug looked up from where she'd knocked Alya to the ground to see Cat Noir blocking the tire iron with his staff. "Not cool, dude," he snarled. With a quick twisting maneuver, Cat freed the tire iron from Joshua's hands, then knocked the exchange student off of his feet. Leveling his staff at Joshua's throat, the hero growled. "Wanna try again?"
Ladybug thought she'd never been more proud of her partner. She started to get to her feet so she could properly detain the former akuma victim, when her Miraculous beeped a final time. Frozen in shock, Ladybug could only stare, speechless, as her transformation dissolved in a wash of pink light. She caught sight of Tikki appearing from the corner of her eye. "Uh-oh," the kwami whispered.
"...Marinette?" came Alya's voice.
Marinette's eyes snapped to her best friend, then beyond to her partner and the surrounding Parisians, including Nadja Chamack live on camera. "Oh God," Marinette choked. "I can't - I have to go!" Stumbling to her feet, Marinette caught Tikki, swept the protesting kwami into her purse, and ran for home as fast as her legs could carry her.
-----
Cat Noir stared in the direction that Marinette - who was Ladybug - had run.
Marinette. Was Ladybug. Marinette was Ladybug. Marinette was Ladybug. Ladybug was Marinette who was Ladybug. Ladybug had been in his class since the first day they'd met. She'd been sitting right behind him, in arm's reach, and he'd never noticed--
Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he turned his focus back to the task at hand. "I don't think so," he said to Joshua, who had started reaching for the tire iron again in Cat Noir's distraction. With quick movements, Cat pulled Joshua's flannel overshirt off and bound the boy's hands behind him with it - then tied his right foot to the bundle as well, just to be sure. Satisfied, Cat Noir retracted his staff and tucked it into its resting place at the small of his back. What next?
Ah, of course: Nadja Chamack had recovered her composure and was addressing the camera again. "As you can see, Ladybug's identity has finally been--"
"A moment if you please, Ms. Reporter," Cat Noir interrupted, projecting his voice to be heard. He beckoned Nadja and her cameraman over, then glanced at Alya. "Actually, if you could get this as well for the Ladyblog, I'd really appreciate it," he told her.
"On it." Alya whipped out her phone and directed it at him. "Okay," she said a few seconds later. "We are now going live on the Ladyblog with a special announcement from Cat Noir."
Cat Noir nodded. "Thanks, Alya." He turned his attention back to the only slightly more official reporter, but made sure that Alya could still get a good shot of him. He'd learned a few things about communication in his modeling career, and one of them was about how to effectively address an audience. Another one, the champion of destruction thought with no small trace of irony, was damage control.
"Cat Noir? You had something to say about... all of this?" Nadja prompted.
"Right. I'm sure you're all very excited to finally know Ladybug's true identity. To be honest, I feel the same way. However, I would like to remind you that she is also a teenager with a lot on her plate - and that's in addition to saving the citizens of Paris. What happened today, the reveal of her identity to the entire city, maybe even the entire world, would be a lot for anyone to take in, even if she'd planned it. On Ladybug's behalf, I'm going to ask that anyone who wants to talk to her about what's been revealed to hold off for at least a week. You want to know things about our favorite superhero, I get that, but Ladybug has always valued her privacy. Give her some time to adjust and to decide what she wants to share with us." Cat's eyes turned flinty. "Until then, I will ensure that every person who tries to invade her privacy will end up with their recording devices destroyed." He raised his right hand and flexed it at the camera. "And you know I can keep that promise. I hope I've made myself clear."
Nadja and her cameraman visibly swallowed. "Very."
Cat beamed. "Great! Then I'll let you get back to your reporting, which I'm sure you will do without sharing too many unimportant details - like our heroine's civilian name, for example." He waited until Nadja's attention was back on the camera, then turned to Alya. The Ladyblogger had stopped filming and was fiddling with her phone, muttering to herself. "Listen, I've gotta get going, but I think you should know that when Ladybug is finally up for interviews, the first one she'll want to do will probably be with the Ladyblog."
Alya nearly dropped her phone. "Are you sure? I mean--"
Cat Noir grinned. "Of course I'm sure! You're her best friend, right?" Not waiting for a response, he whipped his baton back out and vaulted over the nearest rooftop, towards Tom and Sabine's Bakery.
-----
Marinette ran through the doors of her parents' bakery and up the stairs to her room, not bothering to answer their greetings. She shut the trapdoor firmly behind her and threw herself on her bed, burying her face in her pillows to shut out her panic. Tears soaked into her pillowcase. God, everyone knew; or they would shortly. She'd compromised her identity, the one thing she'd been adamant not to do since Tikki convinced her to keep the Ladybug Miraculous. And now she had put everyone she loved in danger, and they all would know what a fraud she was, and no one would trust Ladybug ever again because she was only silly, clumsy Marinette! Her only consolation was that afternoon classes would have been canceled due to the akuma attack, so at least she wouldn't have to clear that hurdle until the next day.
Tikki phased out of Marinette's purse and hovered by her charge's head. "Tikki, what am I going to do?" Marinette hiccuped.
The kwami tucked a stray strand of hair behind Marinette's ear, doing her best to be soothing. "It'll be okay, Marinette, I promise!"
"But how?"
A tapping sounded at the trapdoor to her room. "Marinette? Could you come downstairs for a moment, please?"
Her mother, Marinette realized. Her parents must both know by now; it seemed it was time to face the music. Swallowing against her anxiety, Marinette croaked out, "Okay, just a minute!" and lurched off the bed towards the stairs. Biting her lip, she looked at her kwami. "You'll come with me, right Tikki?" she whispered, wiping at her eyes.
Tikki nuzzled her charge's cheek comfortingly. "Of course, Marinette! I'll be there whenever you need me."
Bolstered by Tikki's encouragement, Marinette took a deep breath and descended the stairs.
Her parents looked up at her when she entered the living room. The concern on their faces was palpable. Taking another shuddering breath, Marinette decided it was time to introduce her parents to someone very important to her. "M-mom? Dad? I want you to meet Tikki, my kwami." Marinette clenched her eyes shut so she didn't have to see her parents' reaction. If they didn't know already, the next thing she said would remove any doubt: "She helps me transform into Ladybug."
All at once, Marinette found herself caught up in her parents' arms. "We're so proud of you, Marinette!" Sabine assured her, clutching her daughter tightly. "Just when we thought you couldn't be more amazing, you go and turn out to be a superhero, too!"
Her father nodded. "When that boy, Cat Noir, came and told us what had happened, well, it was quite a shock at first, but we could hardly think of anyone more worthy to be Ladybug than our daughter!"
Horrifyingly, Marinette found herself crying again. "Mom, Dad...!" she choked out, hugging them even tighter.
After a moment, Sabine pulled back and wiped a tear from her daughter's cheek. "No more of that, now," she reassured Marinette. "You know we will always love you, and you amaze us every day, but we need to lay down some ground rules about being Ladybug."
Tom nodded, and drew the other two to the couch beside the TV. "Your mother's right. That young man of yours explained to us that you're the only one who can cleanse the akuma, and we understand that you have a responsibility to protect this city and its people, but we still worry. We just want to set down some guidelines to help us worry less."
Still trembling from the rush of emotions, Marinette nodded. "What were you thinking of?"
"Well, for starters, we want you to text us any time you're about to go fight an akuma," her father said. "We don't want to find out from the news instead of from you. In return, if we find out about an akuma before you, we'll text you to let you know where it is."
"That sounds fair," Marinette agreed. "What else?"
"You'll text us as soon as you've beaten it," Sabine responded. "We know you'll win, so don't try to argue with us about that, but we'll worry anyway until we find out that you're safe again. And!" she added, "No taking unnecessary risks. We know being Ladybug is dangerous and you have to take care of people, but you need to take care of yourself, too! Even if the whole city weren't counting on you, you're the most important thing in the world to us, and if anything happened to you we wouldn't be able to bear it." She shook her head. "Just remembering that time with Animan, knowing Ladybug was you the whole time! I can hardly stand to think about it."
Marinette hugged her mother again. "Of course, Mom. I'll do everything I can to keep myself safe. And Cat Noir will help, too. Was there anything else?"
Her parents exchanged a glance. "Well," Tom said, a mischievous smile growing under his mustache, "We were hoping you could help us come up with a Ladybug Special for the shop. Since this is her favorite bakery, after all!"
Groaning, Marinette leaned her forehead against her father's shoulder. "Daaaaad!"
Tom chuckled. "Only kidding, sweetie. Well, half-kidding. We wouldn't say no to any ideas, of course!" He cleared his throat. "The real last thing is that we want you to bring your young man over for a proper dinner and introduction some time."
Marinette pulled back to look at him; there was that phrase again. "What young man, though? I'm not dating anyone right now; I've got too much on my plate already!" Though if Adrien were to ask...
Sabine harrumphed. "Don't be silly, girl! That dashing Cat Noir of yours! He looks at you like you hung the stars in the sky. But so thin! You really need to bring him over to meet us, we'll make sure he gets some meat on his bones."
Moaning, Marinette buried her face in her hands. Of all the problems she'd anticipated from her parents learning she was Ladybug, this was not one she'd imagined!
By her ear, Tikki giggled. Somehow, Marinette couldn't help smiling in return.
-----
Nino was startled out of a mix he was working on by a knock at his door. "Nino, you've got company!" his mother announced.
"Thanks, Mom!" Pulling his headphones down, Nino pushed away from his computer desk and went to open the door. "Adrien! Wasn't expecting to see you today, dude. I thought something came up?"
"Last-minute cancellation," Adrien replied. "Listen, I just wanted to give you a heads up that Alya is probably on her way right now; she's got some pretty big news to share."
"Oh?" Nino raised his eyebrows. "And you aren't going to tell me?" In the background, he could hear his mother greeting Alya, and then her exclamation of surprise at - Nino assumed - being pushed aside, followed quickly by a yelled apology from Alya.
Adrien smirked. "I wouldn't want to spoil the sur--"
"NINO!" Alya shouted, bursting into his room. "Holy crap, Nino, you'll never believe it! Marinette is Ladybug!"
"--prise," Adrien finished with a chuckle.
Nino practically fell out of his chair. "Wait, what? Marinette is--? How did you find out?" He squinted at her. "This isn't another thing like with Chloe--"
"Dammit, Nino, can we just let that die already? No, it's not like that! The akuma victim this time turned out to be a huge asshole in real life too, and Ladybug's transformation wore off when she saved me from normal-him, and it was Marinette! Can you believe it?!" Alya was pacing furiously back and forth, her phone in her hand. "They caught it live on film, too; I'm doing my best to keep up with things on the Ladyblog, but this is huge!" Alya froze in place, her phone hand going limp. "Oh my god, I've spent so much time trying to unmask her! What if she hates me now?!"
Now this was something Nino could help with. He crossed his arms and leveled a look at his girlfriend. "Alya, do you hate Marinette for keeping her identity from you?"
Alya frowned at him. "What? No! How could I?" She looked down at her phone briefly. "I mean, I'm still a little upset that she didn't tell me, but it sounds like she didn't even tell Cat Noir. I wouldn't expect her to tell some random civilian if she hadn't even told her partner yet, even if she is my best friend."
"And are you upset that it's her?" Nino continued.
"Nino, tell me right this instant that you did not just imply that I could be, or I swear I will smack you so hard that not even Ladybug's miraculous cleansing could bring you back!" Alya jabbed a finger at him. "My best friend is Ladybug. If that isn't the coolest thing to ever happen to anyone, I don't know what is!"
"And, even knowing that you were desperate to figure out who she was, didn't Ladybug go out of her way to do all sorts of interviews and stuff for the Ladyblog?"
"Well, yeah..."
"So, with all of that, how could you think that Marinette might hate you?" Nino leaned back in his chair, triumphant.
Alya looked down at her phone, an impossibly bright smile dawning on her face. "I guess you're right."
"Okay, last question. Now that you know Ladybug is Marinette, what do you want to do about it?"
"I don't know," Alya said. "I only ever wanted to know who Ladybug was so I could help her out somehow. And now that I know she's Marinette, that just makes me want to help her out even more."
"Why don't you start by telling her that, then?"
Alya pulled Nino straight up out of his chair and planted an exaggerated kiss on his mouth. "I don't know what I'd do without you," she told him when she pulled back. "Now come on, Nino; you too, Adrien," she added, finally acknowledging him. "We've got plans to make!"
-----
Text from Alya: Check the Ladyblog
At the end of the text was a link, presumably to the post Alya wanted Marinette to read. Marinette's finger hovered over it with trepidation.
Marinette had talked with her parents for several hours, explaining how she'd met Tikki, her transformation and powers, how akuma worked, everything they could think of. When she couldn't answer a question, sometimes Tikki would fill in, and sometimes the kwami would talk about her own life and experiences with previous Ladybugs. Overall it had done wonders to dispel any lingering doubts Marinette had about whether her parents accepted that part of her life. She honestly couldn't imagine them being any more supportive than they had been. Their conversation had gone on long enough that Marinette had even managed to forget there were other reactions she had to worry about - until now.
"Marinette?" Tikki was hovering over her charge's shoulder, reading the texts that had come in. "Aren't you going to click the link?"
"I'm scared to," Marinette admitted.
"I'm sure Alya would never write something to hurt you!"
Marinette bit her lip. "I know, but..."
"I'll check and make sure then, okay?" Not waiting for an answer, Tikki flitted over to the phone and pressed a paw against the link.
"Tikki!" Marinette exclaimed, fumbling the phone. She clenched her eyes shut and held it as far away from herself as she could.
"Marinette, I really think you should read this," Tikki said. Cautiously, Marinette peeled open one eye to see her kwami floating just in front of her phone screen. Noticing that her charge was looking, Tikki smiled and floated slightly to the right, revealing a large picture of Ladybug at the top of the blog post, as well as what looked like a video of Cat Noir.
Still nervous, Marinette drew her phone back in and began to read her friend's post.
Here, Alya had embedded a brief clip from her earlier live video of Cat Noir defending Ladybug's privacy, which Marinettte watched with more than a little awe before continuing to read.
Marinette sniffled and blinked back tears; she was not going to cry again today, dammit! She flipped back to her text messages to respond to Alya, only to find two new ones had popped up while she was reading the post:
Text from Alya: Nino and Adrien helped me write the post, BTW. They say that if you need anything from them, they're also here for you, so that's all three of us.
Text from Alya: PS: Make sure to watch the whole Cat Noir video if you haven't yet!
<3 <3 <3, Marinette texted back, a happy tear sliding down her cheek despite her best efforts. You guys are the best friends in the UNIVERSE.
Text sent, Marinette clicked over to watch the Cat Noir video. She still had school to deal with in the morning, but with Tikki, her parents, her partner, and her three best civilian friends backing her up, she felt like she could take on the world.
-----
Amazingly, Marinette woke up on time the next morning. Her parents had been at work in the bakery for several hours already, so Marinette didn't spend much time talking to them, but she made sure to hug each of them extra hard before leaving for school.
After discussing in the previous night, Tikki had decided to continue hiding in Marinette's purse for the most part, though both of them were looking forward to the kwami meeting Marinette's friends. Excitement at the prospect put a little extra skip in Marinette's steps, and she found herself at Françoise Dupont faster than she'd expected. Suddenly shy, Marinette slowed as she approached her friends by the stairwell.
Alya, Nino, and Adrien were deep in conversation, Alya especially animated. Adrien was the first to notice Marinette's approach, and tapped Alya on the shoulder to get her attention, pointing the young journalist in Marinette's direction. Alya turned obligingly, then beamed when she saw Marinette. Alya wasted no time in crossing the distance between them and sweeping her best friend up into a tight hug. "Girl, you are amazing, you know that, right?" Alya said into Marinette's hair.
Grinning, Marinette squeezed Alya right back. "You are too, Alya."
Alya pulled back with a huff. "Are you kidding me right now? You're Ladybug, how can you get more amazing than that?"
"Well, you're the girl that Ladybug revealed her secret identity to save, so I'd say that makes you pretty amazing, too," Marinette shot back.
Alya opened her mouth to retort, and then closed it again. "Well, damn, I guess you got me there. You're still super amazing, though."
"Damn right," Nino agreed; Adrien nodded as well. The two of them had come up while Marinette was getting the stuffing squeezed out of her.
Marinette blushed and looked to the side. "Oh!" she exclaimed, catching sight of her purse. "Guys, there's someone I want you to meet. Tikki?"
The kwami floated up from where Marinette had undone the clasp. "Nice to meet you, everyone! I'm a kwami; I help Marinette transform into Ladybug."
Alya squealed. "Ohmigod, you are so cute! Nino, isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?"
Nino held up his hands. "That is a trap question if I've ever heard one. She's definitely the cutest magic flying bug thing, though." He glanced at his best friend. "Adrien? Anything to add?"
Adrien seemed to be outright gaping at Tikki, but kept stealing furtive glances at Marinette, too. He blushed and turned his attention firmly back to the kwami when Marinette caught his eye. "N-nice to meet you, Tikki!" he blurted.
A part of Marinette noticed that this was about the most awkward she could remember Adrien being since he first started school - but most of her was too caught up in the fact that Adrien was talking to Tikki.
Nino grinned and rolled his eyes. "You'll have to forgive Adrien here, Tikki," he said. "Man's just the biggest Ladybug fan you can imagine - 'cept for my girl Alya, of course."
Adrien buried his face in his hands, the still visible tips of his ears going bright red. "Nino!" he groaned.
"R-really?" Marinette squeaked, feeling her own face heat up even more.
Adrien dropped his hands from his (still red) face and transferred one to rub the back of his neck. "I mean, well, Ladybug is really cool, and you're really cool too, Marinette; I'm not sure Ladybug would be half as awesome if she were someone else behind the mask."
Marinette felt like she was about to prove the existence of spontaneous human combustion. "W-well, I - I mean, you're--"
"Marinette," Ms. Bustier called, saving the girl from becoming a huge stuttering mess.
"Huh? I mean, yes, Ms. Bustier?" Marinette said, shooing Tikki back into her purse for the moment.
"Could you come with me for a few minutes? We need to discuss how... recent revelations will be affecting your academic career here."
Marinette swallowed, a cold wave of anxiety washing over her. This was not something she'd thought to expect. "R-right away, Ms. Bustier."
-----
Marinette trailed down the hallway behind Ms. Bustier, feeling more nervous every second. By the time they reached the principal's office, Marinette's heart was in her stomach, which seemed in turn to have lodged itself in her throat. It was like some American culinary disaster, except with her internal organs.
Ms. Bustier gave her a small smile as she reached for the knob. "You're not in trouble, I promise."
That reassurance could have come sooner, Marinette thought ruefully. Not that it entirely had the intended effect, either; Marinette still felt like there were akumatized butterflies swarming in her gut. If she wasn't in trouble (supposedly), that still left a lot of possible reasons she'd been called in, not all of them pleasant. Still, she followed Ms. Bustier into the principal's office, where she found not just Principal Damocles, but Mr. D'Argencourt and Ms. Mendeleiev waiting for her as well.
"Ah, Marinette." Principal Damocles folded his hands in front of him. "Good to see you're on time today."
Marinette swallowed. "Yes? I-I mean, I'll certainly try harder to--"
The principal waved her off. "Completely understandable, young lady. Or, well, it certainly is now, since we have a better picture of your life outside of school! That is, in fact, what I've asked you here to talk about today."
He rose from his chair and began pacing behind his desk. "Normally, when a student's ...extra-curricular activities interfere with their academics to the extent yours do--" Marinette flinched. "--we would take steps to ensure that the student, hmm, regained a healthier balance of responsibility. However, I think we can all agree that, in this case, that would be highly impractical, for a number of reasons."
He stopped behind his desk again and smiled mischievously at Marinette, his eyes twinkling. "Therefore, I have spoken with your teachers, and we have come to what we think is an appropriate arrangement."
Mr. D'Argencourt stepped forward. "Given the physical exertion which your ...other activities involve, we have decided to give you a permanent pass on gym and excuse you from the class. We recommend you use this time to work on your other studies. That said..."
Ms. Mendeleiev picked up then, a sharp but strangely proud expression on her face. "Considering how much the time you have to study is otherwise reduced, and how often you've had to leave class because of an attack, we will be adjusting your grades accordingly. This is not an excuse to slack off, mind you! This is simply an acknowledgement of the hard work you are putting in elsewhere and a desire to keep from stretching you too thin." The corner of her mouth turned up slightly.
Finally, it was Ms. Bustier's turn. "We've also taken akuma attacks into account, and will be retroactively excusing any absences from when one has shown up, as well as excusing you from class for any future battles. If there is a test or a quiz in that time period, we will try to arrange for you to re-take it - possibly during one of your new open periods. You will also be given a limited grace period for longer assignments whenever there is an akuma attack, with no less than one extra day to turn in your completed materials. We will make adjustments to your deadlines based on the number of attacks between the start and end of the project. You will also be given an extra ten minutes to get to class in the morning, though we do hope you'll still try your best to get to class at the same time as everyone else."
Mr. Damocles' smile had grown as Marinette's teachers spoke. "We hope you find these accommodations reasonable."
-----
Marinette trailed behind Ms. Bustier to the classroom, still not quite processing what had just happened. Since she started being Ladybug, school was one of the things that had caused her the most stress. She'd always done her best to keep up with homework and studying, but sometimes academics had to take a backseat, and that wasn't even addressing how often she'd had to skip class to fight akuma. The compromise her teachers had offered seemed like a dream come true in that respect.
A more cynical part of her noted that there was probably no school in Paris that would knowingly fail Ladybug, but that wasn't the impression she'd gotten here. Marinette felt like her teachers were truly trying to give her a chance to succeed on her own merits, while making allowances for her responsibilities as a superhero. After all, they could have just promised they'd give her top marks in every class as long as she deigned to show up occasionally. Instead, they were simply giving her more time to complete her work and to make up for any missed tests. Marinette couldn't think of a more fair compromise.
Still lost in thought, Marinette followed Ms. Bustier through the open door to the classroom - where she was greeted by the pre-class chatter falling abruptly silent. Startled by the sudden quiet, Marinette finally looked up to find her entire class staring at her. Blushing hotly, Marinette retreated quickly to her customary seat. She smiled at Alya, who put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Dude!" Kim exclaimed, breaking the silence. "I can't believe you're Ladybug!" All of a sudden, it seemed like the entire class had crowded around Marinette's desk.
"Ohmygod, this is so cool!"
"How did you end up being Ladybug?"
"Statistically speaking, the probability of Marinette being Ladybug was exactly--"
"What's the toughest akuma you've ever faced?"
"Marinette, you're so amazing!"
"Can you make me a superhero, too?"
The barrage of questions was interrupted by a loud clap. "Wanna give Marinette some breathing room, guys?" Adrien asked. "She's not going to stop being Ladybug in the next five minutes."
Marinette shot Adrien a grateful look, which he returned with a smile that in no way helped with her blush.
"Adrien is quite right," Ms. Bustier agreed, drawing the students' attention back to the front of the room. "Besides, it's time for class to begin. If Marinette is up for it, you can ask her your questions at the lunch period or after school." She looked over at Marinette, who nodded and mouthed 'thank you!' to her teacher.
-----
As expected, Marinette's classmates were ready with questions as soon as lunch started. Marinette answered query after query with incredible patience until her friends finally got fed up and dragged her away so she could actually eat. Their efforts were only partially successful.
"So that time with the Pharaoh, that really was your history book?" popped out of Alya's mouth almost as soon as the four sat down.
Marinette rolled her eyes at Alya's question, more amused than truly annoyed. "Yes, Alya," she replied, opening her purse and digging a chocolate chip cookie out of her bag for Tikki. The kwami zipped happily out of her purse to snatch the treat and perched on the table to eat it. "You can understand why I was so desperate to get it back, right?"
"So you definitely weren't turned into a mummy then. I'm guessing you weren't turned into a knight that time with Darkblade, either."
"Any time I claimed to have been captured or turned into an akuma's minion, I was actually being Ladybug and saving the day," Marinette confirmed.
Alya looked thoughtful. "So what about when--"
"Enough!" Nino interrupted. "Babe, you remember how we rescued Marinette from our classmates so she would actually have time to eat lunch? It's kinda not happening."
Marinette smiled gratefully at Nino. "Thanks, Nino. Alya, I'm happy to answer all of your questions, really, but I wouldn't mind a little more time to get used to things. Once things settle down, though, I'll answer as many questions for you as I can! We can even go through the Ladyblog and I can fill in details for you."
"About that," Adrien said. Marinette started and looked at him, her cheeks turning pink.
"Y-yes, Adrien?"
Adrien coughed slightly and looked down at his meal. "I, um. I was just thinking, you might want to look into getting a publicist or a publicity manager or something. Someone to help you interface with the press and keep track of public appearances and things." He glanced up shyly at her. "I, uh, could ask Nathalie to suggest some people, if you'd like?"
"That - that would be great, actually! Thank you, Adrien." Marinette beamed, feeling her face heat up even more when Adrien smiled back.
"Great!" Nino said. "Now, if we're actually done pestering Marinette about Ladybug stuff, how about we let her eat so she doesn't keel over in the middle of the next akuma fight?"
Adrien blushed. "Sorry about that, Marinette," he mumbled.
"N-no, it's fine, really! That was a really great suggestion of you. I mean, you're really great. I mean, your suggestion was great." Marinette groaned and buried her face in her hands. "Let's just change the subject to school or something and pretend I didn't just ramble like an idiot, okay?" She peeked at him through the cage of her fingers.
Adrien grinned, and Marinette melted a little. "I think we can do that. Anyone have any ideas for that Dumas essay Ms. Bustier assigned?"
Alya's face lit up, and she immediately started talking about the heroic themes of Dumas' work, while Marinette finally settled in to eat.
-----
By the end of the school day, Marinette had prepared herself for another deluge of questions. She had not, however, thought to prepare herself for Chloe.
"Sorry, everyone, your little questions are just going to have to wait," Chloe announced, pushing her way through the growing crowd of students by Marinette's desk and ignoring their protests. "Ladybug and I are going shopping."
Marinette frowned at the other girl. This was the first she was hearing of it! "Chloe, what--"
"A surprise?" Chloe interrupted. "I know, but if you're going to be seen with me as a civilian, we're going to have to do something about your wardrobe. It's simply hideous. Don't worry, though, I've got Daddy's credit card! I know your parents would never be able to afford anything remotely appropriate with the income from their measly little bakery." Chloe grabbed Marinette's hand and started dragging her toward the door. "Now come on, Ladybug, we're wasting--"
"No," Marinette said firmly. Enough was enough! She planted her feet and yanked her hand back. "First of all, Chloe, my name is Marinette, not Ladybug. Secondly, I don't know how you managed to forget that you spent the past four years making my life a living hell, but I certainly haven't. Suddenly finding out that I'm Ladybug in my off-hours doesn't automatically make us friends. In fact, considering the number of akuma that you personally have caused, I'd almost call you a professional hazard!"
Taking a deep breath, Marinette reigned her temper in a bit. She still didn't know if it was possible to be akumatized a second time, and she didn't want to find out now. "Listen, I'm not saying we could never be friends," she continued, a bit calmer. "I am saying that the way you treat other people doesn't make me want to spend a lot of time with you, even if you've suddenly decided to treat me like an actual human being. You've been friends with Adrien for a long time, and Sabrina still sticks up for you, so I know you're capable of treating people well, at least sometimes. But until it's a lot closer to all of the time, I don't think us being friends is going to work out." Done with Chloe's nonsense, Marinette collected her things and walked away from Chloe to rejoin Alya, Nino, and Adrien.
-----
Marinette headed home shortly after that. She'd debated spending more time with her friends, going to the park to hang out or maybe a cafe, but in the end they'd decided that was risking more attention than she wanted for the time being. Instead, they agreed to video chat later that evening, where Marinette promised she'd answer more questions about being Ladybug.
When she arrived home, Marinette was surprised to see Officer Raincomprix outside of the bakery. Slowing her steps, she approached him cautiously. She knew that he and Ladybug hadn't had a particularly good relationship at the beginning of her career, but she'd thought that things had been going better recently, especially with crime rates dropping once she and Cat Noir had started patrolling in the evenings. "Officer?" she tried, hesitantly. "Is there ...something I can help you with?"
"Ah, Miss Dupain-Cheng." Roger regarded her seriously. "I've been informed that you're one of our local superheroes."
Marinette's hand went to her purse protectively. "Yes, I'm Ladybug." It was taking less and less effort to admit every time she said it.
He nodded decidedly. "A concerned citizen has pointed out that you and your loved ones are more likely to be subject to attack with your identity revealed to the public. In recognition of your service to the city, the police force will be assigning a few officers to help cover your house until we can get a better idea of what your security needs are. Is there anyone else you can think of who might need protection?"
"I - my best friend, Alya Cesaire. Oh, and my other friends, Nino Lahiffe and Adrien Agreste. Though Adrien already has a really good security system, so maybe not? I don't know, it would probably still be good to check with him." Marinette's mind reeled. "M-maybe one at school, too? Oh, but you should probably talk to Principal Damocles about that first."
Chief Raincomprix nodded again. "Cesaire, Lahiffe, Agreste, and the school. Anyone else?"
"N-not that I can think of, no."
"Very well then. I'll speak to my team, and we'll get officers in place right away." He regarded her another moment, then saluted her with a smile. "Thank you for helping us protect our city."
Warmth flooded Marinette's veins, and she saluted him back, nerves forgotten. "Officer Raincomprix, I think I can safely say that it's been a joint effort; I wouldn't have done nearly as well without the police force backing me up."
-----
When Marinette left her room for patrol that night, she felt lighter than she had in weeks. Somehow, in the thirty-six hours since her identity had been revealed, all of her worries had been eliminated one by one. Even with Ladybug's luck, she had trouble believing things were turning out so well. Every time she expected the other shoe to drop, though, something ...diverted it. She still wasn't quite done waiting for something horrible to happen because her identity had been revealed, but the more time passed, the more it seemed that she really was that lucky.
Cat Noir landed on the roof next to her only a few minutes after she'd arrived. She smiled fondly at him. "Evening, kitty," she said.
"Good evening, Mar--My Lady," he responded. She tilted her head at him; he'd clearly been about to say her name, but as near as Alya could tell her, her civilian identity was still pretty well under wraps, all things considered. Could he know her in - well, 'real life' wasn't quite the term she was looking for, but under the mask? Cat, apparently having noticed his slip, plowed quickly on. "How's the post-reveal life treating you?"
"Better than I could have imagined," Ladybug admitted. "My school is willing to work with me being a superhero, the police have volunteered to watch out for my friends and family, I haven't had to deal with any paparazzi yet, and I don't have to keep secrets from the people I love anymore." She flashed him a grin. "Thanks for sticking up for me, by the way. And talking to my parents. I never would have thought of it, but it made things so much easier."
"No problem." If it had been almost anyone else, Ladybug would have missed the minute flinch at the mention of her parents; just a slight stiffening of muscles, a split-second of unnatural stillness before relaxation that she could tell took effort. She knew her partner's body language as well as she knew anyone's, though, and after everything he'd done for her, she wasn't about to let this slide.
"Cat Noir? Is this - are you okay? With this?" she tried, taking a step towards him.
"What? No, my Lady, it's nothing like that, it's--" Cat Noir met her gaze for a second, slit-pupil green eyes wide, then looked away and slumped in on himself. "...I'm jealous," he confessed.
"What? Cat, you have to know that I would have told you eventually, I would have told you who I am before anyone--"
He shook his head. "Not that. Though that's nice to know anyway, My Lady." He smiled wanly at her. "Being Cat Noir... This is the most freedom I have. My civilian life is nothing like yours. All schedules and rules and restrictions. And my father is - let's just say that he's not as understanding as your parents. If he found out that I did this in my off hours, well." Cat laughed bitterly. "He'd lock me up. Every minuscule scrap of independence I've managed to gain for myself would be gone in an instant. I'd never have this again, I'd never see you again, with or without the mask."
Her partner turned to look wistfully at her. "Do you think I could tell you, at least?"
Almost before he'd finished speaking, Ladybug's arms snapped out and she pulled her partner to her. She wrapped him in as tight an embrace as she could manage, pressing him close to herself, breathing in his scent. She heard the hitch in his breath as his own arms came up hesitantly to hug her back, and guilt twisted sharply in her gut. How could she have forgotten her partner? How could she not have thought of Cat Noir and how all of this would impact him? Of course she wasn't the only one this would affect.
The two of them varied the starting points for their patrols to avoid too much attention, and tonight's was fairly secluded. Still, it sounded like the potential consequences for Cat would be a lot worse than they'd turned out for her, and there was no reason to take chances. She waited until her partner relaxed, his breathing evening out, before pulling him through the warehouse's rooftop access. There, she turned to him and took a deep breath.
"If you want to tell me, you can. I promise I'll keep it a secret for as long as you want me to. And I'll be there for you if it ever does get out." She squeezed his hands, hoping the reassurance came through.
Cat smiled and squeezed back, his eyes glistening slightly in the faint light. He took a deep breath. "Plagg, claws in."
A flash of bright green light enveloped him and a small shadow zipped out of his ring, slitted green eyes glowing brightly. The kwami tilted its head at her. "Ah, the lady of the hour. Nice to finally meet you. I don't suppose you've got any Camembert?"
Adrien Agreste groaned and glared at his magical companion. "Plagg, you couldn't wait for five minutes?"
Plagg huffed and crossed his tiny arms. "I'll have you know that refueling is a very time-sensitive task. Cheese waits for no kwami!"
Ladybug looked between the two of them and started to giggle. Soon she was laughing outright, clutching her sides and leaning against a wall.
Adrien seemed perplexed. "It wasn't that funny."
Ladybug fought to catch her breath and wiped at her eyes. "No, no, it's not that! It's just," she bit her lip against a fresh surge of giggles. "The reason I've been turning Cat Noir down for so long is because I was already in love with Adrien."
"Oh." Comprehension dawned. "Oh!"
She nodded. "Right?"
Adrien grinned crookedly. "Well, my lady, for reasons outlined above, I don't think Adrien Agreste would be allowed to date you. However, if you'd be willing to reconsider a lonely cat's advances, there's a new mew-vie coming out this weekend that I'd rather like to see?" The line sounded slightly absurd coming from Adrien, but Ladybug was starting to understand how their personalities fit together - especially since Adrien didn't have a mask to obscure his blush.
"I swear, you have the worst lines ever," she murmured - then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "But it's a date."
--Fin--
I have lots of Thoughts about this fic, so if there's anything that stuck out to you or that you thought was interesting, I'd love to share them :)
Okay, now to work up the courage to actually hit 'post' on AO3...
Summary: In the aftermath of an akuma attack, Ladybug's identity is revealed to Paris.
AO3 link: Right here! *internal screaming*
Beta:
redsixwing, who volunteered despite not knowing the fandom, and was simply the best cheerleader I could ask for. Any remaining mistakes are mine. ♥ to you!Wordcount: 8046?!
Fic: All the Names I Know You By
As the cleansing ladybugs swarmed Paris, Ladybug pulled Alya to her feet. "Are you okay?" she asked.
Alya resettled her glasses with her free hand, her other still clutched tightly by Ladybug's. "Yeah, I think so. That was a lot closer than I'd like, though!"
Ladybug winced. "You and me both!" At lunch that day, Alya had turned down Joshua, the new American exchange student - very politely, in Marinette's opinion. Apparently Joshua had a different opinion, though, as he showed up again not half an hour later possessed by an akuma, chasing Alya relentlessly. As Fiendzone, he'd turned anyone near-by into "fiends" he could command to shower the girl with compliments and gifts on his behalf - all of which got more and more terrifying as his possession continued. Ladybug and Cat Noir had finally managed to defeat him, freeing the akuma from the boy's fedora.
Ladybug's thoughts were interrupted by the beeping of her Miraculous. Alya smiled ruefully at her. "I'd love to get an interview, but it sounds like you need to be going."
Ladybug smiled at her biggest fan. Alya still wanted to know who was behind the mask, but she seemed to have stopped pursuing the superhero's identity quite so relentlessly. "I'll see if I can't manage to find a spot in my schedule later, okay?"
Alya beamed. "That would be amazing."
"Hey, what about me?" Alya started, not having noticed Cat Noir come up behind her. "Not going to share the spotlight with your favorite kitty?"
Ladybug rolled her eyes affectionately and held her fist out for their customary post-battle fistbump. "Sure you wouldn't hog it, alleycat?"
Cat Noir knocked her knuckles with his own, then raised his hand to his chest in mock offense. "My Lady, I would never! I just want time to bask in the sunshine of my life."
Her retort was cut off by her Miraculous beeping again, this time more urgently. "Crap, I've really gotta bug out. We'll continue this some other time."
"As my Lady wishes," Cat replied. With a nod at both her partner and her best friend, Ladybug swung her yoyo out to catch a near-by rooftop and begin her trek home. One last glance over her shoulder showed Alya and Cat Noir chatting; since Cat hadn't needed to use Cataclysm, it seemed he was taking an extra moment to make certain Alya was alright. Ladybug's heart warmed, and she smiled at the thought of her partner and her best friend getting along - a smile that quickly faded when she noticed Joshua, just meters behind them, reaching for a tire-iron a citizen had been using before the attack.
Ladybug's blood ran cold. What was going on? Hadn't the miraculous cure worked on him? She'd cleansed the akuma, she knew she had, so why wasn't Joshua going back to normal?
Except... Maybe this was normal for Joshua. Maybe the akuma had only given him the power to do what he'd wanted to in the first place. Ladybug firmly believed that there was at least the potential for good in everyone, but Hawkmoth seemed to find the potential for evil as well, and this time it seemed like he'd found more than any of them had expected.
Her Miraculous beeped another warning in her ears, but Ladybug ignored it. Instead, she swung her yoyo out again, eyes steely with determination. As soon as it caught on something, Ladybug jumped from the roof, aiming for her best friend. "Alya, look out!" she shouted as swung down, pushing her friend aside just as Joshua lifted the tire iron over his head to hit her.
A clang sounded, and Ladybug looked up from where she'd knocked Alya to the ground to see Cat Noir blocking the tire iron with his staff. "Not cool, dude," he snarled. With a quick twisting maneuver, Cat freed the tire iron from Joshua's hands, then knocked the exchange student off of his feet. Leveling his staff at Joshua's throat, the hero growled. "Wanna try again?"
Ladybug thought she'd never been more proud of her partner. She started to get to her feet so she could properly detain the former akuma victim, when her Miraculous beeped a final time. Frozen in shock, Ladybug could only stare, speechless, as her transformation dissolved in a wash of pink light. She caught sight of Tikki appearing from the corner of her eye. "Uh-oh," the kwami whispered.
"...Marinette?" came Alya's voice.
Marinette's eyes snapped to her best friend, then beyond to her partner and the surrounding Parisians, including Nadja Chamack live on camera. "Oh God," Marinette choked. "I can't - I have to go!" Stumbling to her feet, Marinette caught Tikki, swept the protesting kwami into her purse, and ran for home as fast as her legs could carry her.
-----
Cat Noir stared in the direction that Marinette - who was Ladybug - had run.
Marinette. Was Ladybug. Marinette was Ladybug. Marinette was Ladybug. Ladybug was Marinette who was Ladybug. Ladybug had been in his class since the first day they'd met. She'd been sitting right behind him, in arm's reach, and he'd never noticed--
Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he turned his focus back to the task at hand. "I don't think so," he said to Joshua, who had started reaching for the tire iron again in Cat Noir's distraction. With quick movements, Cat pulled Joshua's flannel overshirt off and bound the boy's hands behind him with it - then tied his right foot to the bundle as well, just to be sure. Satisfied, Cat Noir retracted his staff and tucked it into its resting place at the small of his back. What next?
Ah, of course: Nadja Chamack had recovered her composure and was addressing the camera again. "As you can see, Ladybug's identity has finally been--"
"A moment if you please, Ms. Reporter," Cat Noir interrupted, projecting his voice to be heard. He beckoned Nadja and her cameraman over, then glanced at Alya. "Actually, if you could get this as well for the Ladyblog, I'd really appreciate it," he told her.
"On it." Alya whipped out her phone and directed it at him. "Okay," she said a few seconds later. "We are now going live on the Ladyblog with a special announcement from Cat Noir."
Cat Noir nodded. "Thanks, Alya." He turned his attention back to the only slightly more official reporter, but made sure that Alya could still get a good shot of him. He'd learned a few things about communication in his modeling career, and one of them was about how to effectively address an audience. Another one, the champion of destruction thought with no small trace of irony, was damage control.
"Cat Noir? You had something to say about... all of this?" Nadja prompted.
"Right. I'm sure you're all very excited to finally know Ladybug's true identity. To be honest, I feel the same way. However, I would like to remind you that she is also a teenager with a lot on her plate - and that's in addition to saving the citizens of Paris. What happened today, the reveal of her identity to the entire city, maybe even the entire world, would be a lot for anyone to take in, even if she'd planned it. On Ladybug's behalf, I'm going to ask that anyone who wants to talk to her about what's been revealed to hold off for at least a week. You want to know things about our favorite superhero, I get that, but Ladybug has always valued her privacy. Give her some time to adjust and to decide what she wants to share with us." Cat's eyes turned flinty. "Until then, I will ensure that every person who tries to invade her privacy will end up with their recording devices destroyed." He raised his right hand and flexed it at the camera. "And you know I can keep that promise. I hope I've made myself clear."
Nadja and her cameraman visibly swallowed. "Very."
Cat beamed. "Great! Then I'll let you get back to your reporting, which I'm sure you will do without sharing too many unimportant details - like our heroine's civilian name, for example." He waited until Nadja's attention was back on the camera, then turned to Alya. The Ladyblogger had stopped filming and was fiddling with her phone, muttering to herself. "Listen, I've gotta get going, but I think you should know that when Ladybug is finally up for interviews, the first one she'll want to do will probably be with the Ladyblog."
Alya nearly dropped her phone. "Are you sure? I mean--"
Cat Noir grinned. "Of course I'm sure! You're her best friend, right?" Not waiting for a response, he whipped his baton back out and vaulted over the nearest rooftop, towards Tom and Sabine's Bakery.
-----
Marinette ran through the doors of her parents' bakery and up the stairs to her room, not bothering to answer their greetings. She shut the trapdoor firmly behind her and threw herself on her bed, burying her face in her pillows to shut out her panic. Tears soaked into her pillowcase. God, everyone knew; or they would shortly. She'd compromised her identity, the one thing she'd been adamant not to do since Tikki convinced her to keep the Ladybug Miraculous. And now she had put everyone she loved in danger, and they all would know what a fraud she was, and no one would trust Ladybug ever again because she was only silly, clumsy Marinette! Her only consolation was that afternoon classes would have been canceled due to the akuma attack, so at least she wouldn't have to clear that hurdle until the next day.
Tikki phased out of Marinette's purse and hovered by her charge's head. "Tikki, what am I going to do?" Marinette hiccuped.
The kwami tucked a stray strand of hair behind Marinette's ear, doing her best to be soothing. "It'll be okay, Marinette, I promise!"
"But how?"
A tapping sounded at the trapdoor to her room. "Marinette? Could you come downstairs for a moment, please?"
Her mother, Marinette realized. Her parents must both know by now; it seemed it was time to face the music. Swallowing against her anxiety, Marinette croaked out, "Okay, just a minute!" and lurched off the bed towards the stairs. Biting her lip, she looked at her kwami. "You'll come with me, right Tikki?" she whispered, wiping at her eyes.
Tikki nuzzled her charge's cheek comfortingly. "Of course, Marinette! I'll be there whenever you need me."
Bolstered by Tikki's encouragement, Marinette took a deep breath and descended the stairs.
Her parents looked up at her when she entered the living room. The concern on their faces was palpable. Taking another shuddering breath, Marinette decided it was time to introduce her parents to someone very important to her. "M-mom? Dad? I want you to meet Tikki, my kwami." Marinette clenched her eyes shut so she didn't have to see her parents' reaction. If they didn't know already, the next thing she said would remove any doubt: "She helps me transform into Ladybug."
All at once, Marinette found herself caught up in her parents' arms. "We're so proud of you, Marinette!" Sabine assured her, clutching her daughter tightly. "Just when we thought you couldn't be more amazing, you go and turn out to be a superhero, too!"
Her father nodded. "When that boy, Cat Noir, came and told us what had happened, well, it was quite a shock at first, but we could hardly think of anyone more worthy to be Ladybug than our daughter!"
Horrifyingly, Marinette found herself crying again. "Mom, Dad...!" she choked out, hugging them even tighter.
After a moment, Sabine pulled back and wiped a tear from her daughter's cheek. "No more of that, now," she reassured Marinette. "You know we will always love you, and you amaze us every day, but we need to lay down some ground rules about being Ladybug."
Tom nodded, and drew the other two to the couch beside the TV. "Your mother's right. That young man of yours explained to us that you're the only one who can cleanse the akuma, and we understand that you have a responsibility to protect this city and its people, but we still worry. We just want to set down some guidelines to help us worry less."
Still trembling from the rush of emotions, Marinette nodded. "What were you thinking of?"
"Well, for starters, we want you to text us any time you're about to go fight an akuma," her father said. "We don't want to find out from the news instead of from you. In return, if we find out about an akuma before you, we'll text you to let you know where it is."
"That sounds fair," Marinette agreed. "What else?"
"You'll text us as soon as you've beaten it," Sabine responded. "We know you'll win, so don't try to argue with us about that, but we'll worry anyway until we find out that you're safe again. And!" she added, "No taking unnecessary risks. We know being Ladybug is dangerous and you have to take care of people, but you need to take care of yourself, too! Even if the whole city weren't counting on you, you're the most important thing in the world to us, and if anything happened to you we wouldn't be able to bear it." She shook her head. "Just remembering that time with Animan, knowing Ladybug was you the whole time! I can hardly stand to think about it."
Marinette hugged her mother again. "Of course, Mom. I'll do everything I can to keep myself safe. And Cat Noir will help, too. Was there anything else?"
Her parents exchanged a glance. "Well," Tom said, a mischievous smile growing under his mustache, "We were hoping you could help us come up with a Ladybug Special for the shop. Since this is her favorite bakery, after all!"
Groaning, Marinette leaned her forehead against her father's shoulder. "Daaaaad!"
Tom chuckled. "Only kidding, sweetie. Well, half-kidding. We wouldn't say no to any ideas, of course!" He cleared his throat. "The real last thing is that we want you to bring your young man over for a proper dinner and introduction some time."
Marinette pulled back to look at him; there was that phrase again. "What young man, though? I'm not dating anyone right now; I've got too much on my plate already!" Though if Adrien were to ask...
Sabine harrumphed. "Don't be silly, girl! That dashing Cat Noir of yours! He looks at you like you hung the stars in the sky. But so thin! You really need to bring him over to meet us, we'll make sure he gets some meat on his bones."
Moaning, Marinette buried her face in her hands. Of all the problems she'd anticipated from her parents learning she was Ladybug, this was not one she'd imagined!
By her ear, Tikki giggled. Somehow, Marinette couldn't help smiling in return.
-----
Nino was startled out of a mix he was working on by a knock at his door. "Nino, you've got company!" his mother announced.
"Thanks, Mom!" Pulling his headphones down, Nino pushed away from his computer desk and went to open the door. "Adrien! Wasn't expecting to see you today, dude. I thought something came up?"
"Last-minute cancellation," Adrien replied. "Listen, I just wanted to give you a heads up that Alya is probably on her way right now; she's got some pretty big news to share."
"Oh?" Nino raised his eyebrows. "And you aren't going to tell me?" In the background, he could hear his mother greeting Alya, and then her exclamation of surprise at - Nino assumed - being pushed aside, followed quickly by a yelled apology from Alya.
Adrien smirked. "I wouldn't want to spoil the sur--"
"NINO!" Alya shouted, bursting into his room. "Holy crap, Nino, you'll never believe it! Marinette is Ladybug!"
"--prise," Adrien finished with a chuckle.
Nino practically fell out of his chair. "Wait, what? Marinette is--? How did you find out?" He squinted at her. "This isn't another thing like with Chloe--"
"Dammit, Nino, can we just let that die already? No, it's not like that! The akuma victim this time turned out to be a huge asshole in real life too, and Ladybug's transformation wore off when she saved me from normal-him, and it was Marinette! Can you believe it?!" Alya was pacing furiously back and forth, her phone in her hand. "They caught it live on film, too; I'm doing my best to keep up with things on the Ladyblog, but this is huge!" Alya froze in place, her phone hand going limp. "Oh my god, I've spent so much time trying to unmask her! What if she hates me now?!"
Now this was something Nino could help with. He crossed his arms and leveled a look at his girlfriend. "Alya, do you hate Marinette for keeping her identity from you?"
Alya frowned at him. "What? No! How could I?" She looked down at her phone briefly. "I mean, I'm still a little upset that she didn't tell me, but it sounds like she didn't even tell Cat Noir. I wouldn't expect her to tell some random civilian if she hadn't even told her partner yet, even if she is my best friend."
"And are you upset that it's her?" Nino continued.
"Nino, tell me right this instant that you did not just imply that I could be, or I swear I will smack you so hard that not even Ladybug's miraculous cleansing could bring you back!" Alya jabbed a finger at him. "My best friend is Ladybug. If that isn't the coolest thing to ever happen to anyone, I don't know what is!"
"And, even knowing that you were desperate to figure out who she was, didn't Ladybug go out of her way to do all sorts of interviews and stuff for the Ladyblog?"
"Well, yeah..."
"So, with all of that, how could you think that Marinette might hate you?" Nino leaned back in his chair, triumphant.
Alya looked down at her phone, an impossibly bright smile dawning on her face. "I guess you're right."
"Okay, last question. Now that you know Ladybug is Marinette, what do you want to do about it?"
"I don't know," Alya said. "I only ever wanted to know who Ladybug was so I could help her out somehow. And now that I know she's Marinette, that just makes me want to help her out even more."
"Why don't you start by telling her that, then?"
Alya pulled Nino straight up out of his chair and planted an exaggerated kiss on his mouth. "I don't know what I'd do without you," she told him when she pulled back. "Now come on, Nino; you too, Adrien," she added, finally acknowledging him. "We've got plans to make!"
-----
Text from Alya: Check the Ladyblog
At the end of the text was a link, presumably to the post Alya wanted Marinette to read. Marinette's finger hovered over it with trepidation.
Marinette had talked with her parents for several hours, explaining how she'd met Tikki, her transformation and powers, how akuma worked, everything they could think of. When she couldn't answer a question, sometimes Tikki would fill in, and sometimes the kwami would talk about her own life and experiences with previous Ladybugs. Overall it had done wonders to dispel any lingering doubts Marinette had about whether her parents accepted that part of her life. She honestly couldn't imagine them being any more supportive than they had been. Their conversation had gone on long enough that Marinette had even managed to forget there were other reactions she had to worry about - until now.
"Marinette?" Tikki was hovering over her charge's shoulder, reading the texts that had come in. "Aren't you going to click the link?"
"I'm scared to," Marinette admitted.
"I'm sure Alya would never write something to hurt you!"
Marinette bit her lip. "I know, but..."
"I'll check and make sure then, okay?" Not waiting for an answer, Tikki flitted over to the phone and pressed a paw against the link.
"Tikki!" Marinette exclaimed, fumbling the phone. She clenched her eyes shut and held it as far away from herself as she could.
"Marinette, I really think you should read this," Tikki said. Cautiously, Marinette peeled open one eye to see her kwami floating just in front of her phone screen. Noticing that her charge was looking, Tikki smiled and floated slightly to the right, revealing a large picture of Ladybug at the top of the blog post, as well as what looked like a video of Cat Noir.
Still nervous, Marinette drew her phone back in and began to read her friend's post.
As I'm sure you're all aware by now, Ladybug's identity was revealed earlier today when she saved none other than your humble blog mistress from a de-akumatized civilian who apparently wasn't quite done being evil. I'm sure you're also waiting breathlessly for me to share what I've learned about her identity with you. Sadly, Ladyblog fans, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you on that account, and not just because of Cat Noir.
Here, Alya had embedded a brief clip from her earlier live video of Cat Noir defending Ladybug's privacy, which Marinettte watched with more than a little awe before continuing to read.
I know I was all about unmasking Ladybug back in the day, to the point of being akumatized myself, but I like to think I've moved past that. Yes, I wanted to know who she is, but even at the beginning it was only so I could support her better from the sidelines. While I also spend a lot of time on other things, supporting Ladybug has always been one of the core goals of the Ladyblog and my work in general. It is an incredible honor to know that Ladybug was willing to expose her identity in order to save my life from a non-magical criminal, and to compromise her privacy while doing so.
For these reasons, I am choosing to respect Ladybug's privacy, and will not be sharing any information on her identity on the Ladyblog without her explicit permission. Are there places you can go and find out the information? Yeah, probably. Cat Noir can't be everywhere, and the internet is a big place. But the Ladyblog won't be one of them. Anyone sharing the information in the comments will have said comments deleted and their account suspended, as according to the Ladyblog's commenting policy.
And Ladybug? If you're reading this, thank you again. For everything.
Marinette sniffled and blinked back tears; she was not going to cry again today, dammit! She flipped back to her text messages to respond to Alya, only to find two new ones had popped up while she was reading the post:
Text from Alya: Nino and Adrien helped me write the post, BTW. They say that if you need anything from them, they're also here for you, so that's all three of us.
Text from Alya: PS: Make sure to watch the whole Cat Noir video if you haven't yet!
<3 <3 <3, Marinette texted back, a happy tear sliding down her cheek despite her best efforts. You guys are the best friends in the UNIVERSE.
Text sent, Marinette clicked over to watch the Cat Noir video. She still had school to deal with in the morning, but with Tikki, her parents, her partner, and her three best civilian friends backing her up, she felt like she could take on the world.
-----
Amazingly, Marinette woke up on time the next morning. Her parents had been at work in the bakery for several hours already, so Marinette didn't spend much time talking to them, but she made sure to hug each of them extra hard before leaving for school.
After discussing in the previous night, Tikki had decided to continue hiding in Marinette's purse for the most part, though both of them were looking forward to the kwami meeting Marinette's friends. Excitement at the prospect put a little extra skip in Marinette's steps, and she found herself at Françoise Dupont faster than she'd expected. Suddenly shy, Marinette slowed as she approached her friends by the stairwell.
Alya, Nino, and Adrien were deep in conversation, Alya especially animated. Adrien was the first to notice Marinette's approach, and tapped Alya on the shoulder to get her attention, pointing the young journalist in Marinette's direction. Alya turned obligingly, then beamed when she saw Marinette. Alya wasted no time in crossing the distance between them and sweeping her best friend up into a tight hug. "Girl, you are amazing, you know that, right?" Alya said into Marinette's hair.
Grinning, Marinette squeezed Alya right back. "You are too, Alya."
Alya pulled back with a huff. "Are you kidding me right now? You're Ladybug, how can you get more amazing than that?"
"Well, you're the girl that Ladybug revealed her secret identity to save, so I'd say that makes you pretty amazing, too," Marinette shot back.
Alya opened her mouth to retort, and then closed it again. "Well, damn, I guess you got me there. You're still super amazing, though."
"Damn right," Nino agreed; Adrien nodded as well. The two of them had come up while Marinette was getting the stuffing squeezed out of her.
Marinette blushed and looked to the side. "Oh!" she exclaimed, catching sight of her purse. "Guys, there's someone I want you to meet. Tikki?"
The kwami floated up from where Marinette had undone the clasp. "Nice to meet you, everyone! I'm a kwami; I help Marinette transform into Ladybug."
Alya squealed. "Ohmigod, you are so cute! Nino, isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?"
Nino held up his hands. "That is a trap question if I've ever heard one. She's definitely the cutest magic flying bug thing, though." He glanced at his best friend. "Adrien? Anything to add?"
Adrien seemed to be outright gaping at Tikki, but kept stealing furtive glances at Marinette, too. He blushed and turned his attention firmly back to the kwami when Marinette caught his eye. "N-nice to meet you, Tikki!" he blurted.
A part of Marinette noticed that this was about the most awkward she could remember Adrien being since he first started school - but most of her was too caught up in the fact that Adrien was talking to Tikki.
Nino grinned and rolled his eyes. "You'll have to forgive Adrien here, Tikki," he said. "Man's just the biggest Ladybug fan you can imagine - 'cept for my girl Alya, of course."
Adrien buried his face in his hands, the still visible tips of his ears going bright red. "Nino!" he groaned.
"R-really?" Marinette squeaked, feeling her own face heat up even more.
Adrien dropped his hands from his (still red) face and transferred one to rub the back of his neck. "I mean, well, Ladybug is really cool, and you're really cool too, Marinette; I'm not sure Ladybug would be half as awesome if she were someone else behind the mask."
Marinette felt like she was about to prove the existence of spontaneous human combustion. "W-well, I - I mean, you're--"
"Marinette," Ms. Bustier called, saving the girl from becoming a huge stuttering mess.
"Huh? I mean, yes, Ms. Bustier?" Marinette said, shooing Tikki back into her purse for the moment.
"Could you come with me for a few minutes? We need to discuss how... recent revelations will be affecting your academic career here."
Marinette swallowed, a cold wave of anxiety washing over her. This was not something she'd thought to expect. "R-right away, Ms. Bustier."
-----
Marinette trailed down the hallway behind Ms. Bustier, feeling more nervous every second. By the time they reached the principal's office, Marinette's heart was in her stomach, which seemed in turn to have lodged itself in her throat. It was like some American culinary disaster, except with her internal organs.
Ms. Bustier gave her a small smile as she reached for the knob. "You're not in trouble, I promise."
That reassurance could have come sooner, Marinette thought ruefully. Not that it entirely had the intended effect, either; Marinette still felt like there were akumatized butterflies swarming in her gut. If she wasn't in trouble (supposedly), that still left a lot of possible reasons she'd been called in, not all of them pleasant. Still, she followed Ms. Bustier into the principal's office, where she found not just Principal Damocles, but Mr. D'Argencourt and Ms. Mendeleiev waiting for her as well.
"Ah, Marinette." Principal Damocles folded his hands in front of him. "Good to see you're on time today."
Marinette swallowed. "Yes? I-I mean, I'll certainly try harder to--"
The principal waved her off. "Completely understandable, young lady. Or, well, it certainly is now, since we have a better picture of your life outside of school! That is, in fact, what I've asked you here to talk about today."
He rose from his chair and began pacing behind his desk. "Normally, when a student's ...extra-curricular activities interfere with their academics to the extent yours do--" Marinette flinched. "--we would take steps to ensure that the student, hmm, regained a healthier balance of responsibility. However, I think we can all agree that, in this case, that would be highly impractical, for a number of reasons."
He stopped behind his desk again and smiled mischievously at Marinette, his eyes twinkling. "Therefore, I have spoken with your teachers, and we have come to what we think is an appropriate arrangement."
Mr. D'Argencourt stepped forward. "Given the physical exertion which your ...other activities involve, we have decided to give you a permanent pass on gym and excuse you from the class. We recommend you use this time to work on your other studies. That said..."
Ms. Mendeleiev picked up then, a sharp but strangely proud expression on her face. "Considering how much the time you have to study is otherwise reduced, and how often you've had to leave class because of an attack, we will be adjusting your grades accordingly. This is not an excuse to slack off, mind you! This is simply an acknowledgement of the hard work you are putting in elsewhere and a desire to keep from stretching you too thin." The corner of her mouth turned up slightly.
Finally, it was Ms. Bustier's turn. "We've also taken akuma attacks into account, and will be retroactively excusing any absences from when one has shown up, as well as excusing you from class for any future battles. If there is a test or a quiz in that time period, we will try to arrange for you to re-take it - possibly during one of your new open periods. You will also be given a limited grace period for longer assignments whenever there is an akuma attack, with no less than one extra day to turn in your completed materials. We will make adjustments to your deadlines based on the number of attacks between the start and end of the project. You will also be given an extra ten minutes to get to class in the morning, though we do hope you'll still try your best to get to class at the same time as everyone else."
Mr. Damocles' smile had grown as Marinette's teachers spoke. "We hope you find these accommodations reasonable."
-----
Marinette trailed behind Ms. Bustier to the classroom, still not quite processing what had just happened. Since she started being Ladybug, school was one of the things that had caused her the most stress. She'd always done her best to keep up with homework and studying, but sometimes academics had to take a backseat, and that wasn't even addressing how often she'd had to skip class to fight akuma. The compromise her teachers had offered seemed like a dream come true in that respect.
A more cynical part of her noted that there was probably no school in Paris that would knowingly fail Ladybug, but that wasn't the impression she'd gotten here. Marinette felt like her teachers were truly trying to give her a chance to succeed on her own merits, while making allowances for her responsibilities as a superhero. After all, they could have just promised they'd give her top marks in every class as long as she deigned to show up occasionally. Instead, they were simply giving her more time to complete her work and to make up for any missed tests. Marinette couldn't think of a more fair compromise.
Still lost in thought, Marinette followed Ms. Bustier through the open door to the classroom - where she was greeted by the pre-class chatter falling abruptly silent. Startled by the sudden quiet, Marinette finally looked up to find her entire class staring at her. Blushing hotly, Marinette retreated quickly to her customary seat. She smiled at Alya, who put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Dude!" Kim exclaimed, breaking the silence. "I can't believe you're Ladybug!" All of a sudden, it seemed like the entire class had crowded around Marinette's desk.
"Ohmygod, this is so cool!"
"How did you end up being Ladybug?"
"Statistically speaking, the probability of Marinette being Ladybug was exactly--"
"What's the toughest akuma you've ever faced?"
"Marinette, you're so amazing!"
"Can you make me a superhero, too?"
The barrage of questions was interrupted by a loud clap. "Wanna give Marinette some breathing room, guys?" Adrien asked. "She's not going to stop being Ladybug in the next five minutes."
Marinette shot Adrien a grateful look, which he returned with a smile that in no way helped with her blush.
"Adrien is quite right," Ms. Bustier agreed, drawing the students' attention back to the front of the room. "Besides, it's time for class to begin. If Marinette is up for it, you can ask her your questions at the lunch period or after school." She looked over at Marinette, who nodded and mouthed 'thank you!' to her teacher.
-----
As expected, Marinette's classmates were ready with questions as soon as lunch started. Marinette answered query after query with incredible patience until her friends finally got fed up and dragged her away so she could actually eat. Their efforts were only partially successful.
"So that time with the Pharaoh, that really was your history book?" popped out of Alya's mouth almost as soon as the four sat down.
Marinette rolled her eyes at Alya's question, more amused than truly annoyed. "Yes, Alya," she replied, opening her purse and digging a chocolate chip cookie out of her bag for Tikki. The kwami zipped happily out of her purse to snatch the treat and perched on the table to eat it. "You can understand why I was so desperate to get it back, right?"
"So you definitely weren't turned into a mummy then. I'm guessing you weren't turned into a knight that time with Darkblade, either."
"Any time I claimed to have been captured or turned into an akuma's minion, I was actually being Ladybug and saving the day," Marinette confirmed.
Alya looked thoughtful. "So what about when--"
"Enough!" Nino interrupted. "Babe, you remember how we rescued Marinette from our classmates so she would actually have time to eat lunch? It's kinda not happening."
Marinette smiled gratefully at Nino. "Thanks, Nino. Alya, I'm happy to answer all of your questions, really, but I wouldn't mind a little more time to get used to things. Once things settle down, though, I'll answer as many questions for you as I can! We can even go through the Ladyblog and I can fill in details for you."
"About that," Adrien said. Marinette started and looked at him, her cheeks turning pink.
"Y-yes, Adrien?"
Adrien coughed slightly and looked down at his meal. "I, um. I was just thinking, you might want to look into getting a publicist or a publicity manager or something. Someone to help you interface with the press and keep track of public appearances and things." He glanced up shyly at her. "I, uh, could ask Nathalie to suggest some people, if you'd like?"
"That - that would be great, actually! Thank you, Adrien." Marinette beamed, feeling her face heat up even more when Adrien smiled back.
"Great!" Nino said. "Now, if we're actually done pestering Marinette about Ladybug stuff, how about we let her eat so she doesn't keel over in the middle of the next akuma fight?"
Adrien blushed. "Sorry about that, Marinette," he mumbled.
"N-no, it's fine, really! That was a really great suggestion of you. I mean, you're really great. I mean, your suggestion was great." Marinette groaned and buried her face in her hands. "Let's just change the subject to school or something and pretend I didn't just ramble like an idiot, okay?" She peeked at him through the cage of her fingers.
Adrien grinned, and Marinette melted a little. "I think we can do that. Anyone have any ideas for that Dumas essay Ms. Bustier assigned?"
Alya's face lit up, and she immediately started talking about the heroic themes of Dumas' work, while Marinette finally settled in to eat.
-----
By the end of the school day, Marinette had prepared herself for another deluge of questions. She had not, however, thought to prepare herself for Chloe.
"Sorry, everyone, your little questions are just going to have to wait," Chloe announced, pushing her way through the growing crowd of students by Marinette's desk and ignoring their protests. "Ladybug and I are going shopping."
Marinette frowned at the other girl. This was the first she was hearing of it! "Chloe, what--"
"A surprise?" Chloe interrupted. "I know, but if you're going to be seen with me as a civilian, we're going to have to do something about your wardrobe. It's simply hideous. Don't worry, though, I've got Daddy's credit card! I know your parents would never be able to afford anything remotely appropriate with the income from their measly little bakery." Chloe grabbed Marinette's hand and started dragging her toward the door. "Now come on, Ladybug, we're wasting--"
"No," Marinette said firmly. Enough was enough! She planted her feet and yanked her hand back. "First of all, Chloe, my name is Marinette, not Ladybug. Secondly, I don't know how you managed to forget that you spent the past four years making my life a living hell, but I certainly haven't. Suddenly finding out that I'm Ladybug in my off-hours doesn't automatically make us friends. In fact, considering the number of akuma that you personally have caused, I'd almost call you a professional hazard!"
Taking a deep breath, Marinette reigned her temper in a bit. She still didn't know if it was possible to be akumatized a second time, and she didn't want to find out now. "Listen, I'm not saying we could never be friends," she continued, a bit calmer. "I am saying that the way you treat other people doesn't make me want to spend a lot of time with you, even if you've suddenly decided to treat me like an actual human being. You've been friends with Adrien for a long time, and Sabrina still sticks up for you, so I know you're capable of treating people well, at least sometimes. But until it's a lot closer to all of the time, I don't think us being friends is going to work out." Done with Chloe's nonsense, Marinette collected her things and walked away from Chloe to rejoin Alya, Nino, and Adrien.
-----
Marinette headed home shortly after that. She'd debated spending more time with her friends, going to the park to hang out or maybe a cafe, but in the end they'd decided that was risking more attention than she wanted for the time being. Instead, they agreed to video chat later that evening, where Marinette promised she'd answer more questions about being Ladybug.
When she arrived home, Marinette was surprised to see Officer Raincomprix outside of the bakery. Slowing her steps, she approached him cautiously. She knew that he and Ladybug hadn't had a particularly good relationship at the beginning of her career, but she'd thought that things had been going better recently, especially with crime rates dropping once she and Cat Noir had started patrolling in the evenings. "Officer?" she tried, hesitantly. "Is there ...something I can help you with?"
"Ah, Miss Dupain-Cheng." Roger regarded her seriously. "I've been informed that you're one of our local superheroes."
Marinette's hand went to her purse protectively. "Yes, I'm Ladybug." It was taking less and less effort to admit every time she said it.
He nodded decidedly. "A concerned citizen has pointed out that you and your loved ones are more likely to be subject to attack with your identity revealed to the public. In recognition of your service to the city, the police force will be assigning a few officers to help cover your house until we can get a better idea of what your security needs are. Is there anyone else you can think of who might need protection?"
"I - my best friend, Alya Cesaire. Oh, and my other friends, Nino Lahiffe and Adrien Agreste. Though Adrien already has a really good security system, so maybe not? I don't know, it would probably still be good to check with him." Marinette's mind reeled. "M-maybe one at school, too? Oh, but you should probably talk to Principal Damocles about that first."
Chief Raincomprix nodded again. "Cesaire, Lahiffe, Agreste, and the school. Anyone else?"
"N-not that I can think of, no."
"Very well then. I'll speak to my team, and we'll get officers in place right away." He regarded her another moment, then saluted her with a smile. "Thank you for helping us protect our city."
Warmth flooded Marinette's veins, and she saluted him back, nerves forgotten. "Officer Raincomprix, I think I can safely say that it's been a joint effort; I wouldn't have done nearly as well without the police force backing me up."
-----
When Marinette left her room for patrol that night, she felt lighter than she had in weeks. Somehow, in the thirty-six hours since her identity had been revealed, all of her worries had been eliminated one by one. Even with Ladybug's luck, she had trouble believing things were turning out so well. Every time she expected the other shoe to drop, though, something ...diverted it. She still wasn't quite done waiting for something horrible to happen because her identity had been revealed, but the more time passed, the more it seemed that she really was that lucky.
Cat Noir landed on the roof next to her only a few minutes after she'd arrived. She smiled fondly at him. "Evening, kitty," she said.
"Good evening, Mar--My Lady," he responded. She tilted her head at him; he'd clearly been about to say her name, but as near as Alya could tell her, her civilian identity was still pretty well under wraps, all things considered. Could he know her in - well, 'real life' wasn't quite the term she was looking for, but under the mask? Cat, apparently having noticed his slip, plowed quickly on. "How's the post-reveal life treating you?"
"Better than I could have imagined," Ladybug admitted. "My school is willing to work with me being a superhero, the police have volunteered to watch out for my friends and family, I haven't had to deal with any paparazzi yet, and I don't have to keep secrets from the people I love anymore." She flashed him a grin. "Thanks for sticking up for me, by the way. And talking to my parents. I never would have thought of it, but it made things so much easier."
"No problem." If it had been almost anyone else, Ladybug would have missed the minute flinch at the mention of her parents; just a slight stiffening of muscles, a split-second of unnatural stillness before relaxation that she could tell took effort. She knew her partner's body language as well as she knew anyone's, though, and after everything he'd done for her, she wasn't about to let this slide.
"Cat Noir? Is this - are you okay? With this?" she tried, taking a step towards him.
"What? No, my Lady, it's nothing like that, it's--" Cat Noir met her gaze for a second, slit-pupil green eyes wide, then looked away and slumped in on himself. "...I'm jealous," he confessed.
"What? Cat, you have to know that I would have told you eventually, I would have told you who I am before anyone--"
He shook his head. "Not that. Though that's nice to know anyway, My Lady." He smiled wanly at her. "Being Cat Noir... This is the most freedom I have. My civilian life is nothing like yours. All schedules and rules and restrictions. And my father is - let's just say that he's not as understanding as your parents. If he found out that I did this in my off hours, well." Cat laughed bitterly. "He'd lock me up. Every minuscule scrap of independence I've managed to gain for myself would be gone in an instant. I'd never have this again, I'd never see you again, with or without the mask."
Her partner turned to look wistfully at her. "Do you think I could tell you, at least?"
Almost before he'd finished speaking, Ladybug's arms snapped out and she pulled her partner to her. She wrapped him in as tight an embrace as she could manage, pressing him close to herself, breathing in his scent. She heard the hitch in his breath as his own arms came up hesitantly to hug her back, and guilt twisted sharply in her gut. How could she have forgotten her partner? How could she not have thought of Cat Noir and how all of this would impact him? Of course she wasn't the only one this would affect.
The two of them varied the starting points for their patrols to avoid too much attention, and tonight's was fairly secluded. Still, it sounded like the potential consequences for Cat would be a lot worse than they'd turned out for her, and there was no reason to take chances. She waited until her partner relaxed, his breathing evening out, before pulling him through the warehouse's rooftop access. There, she turned to him and took a deep breath.
"If you want to tell me, you can. I promise I'll keep it a secret for as long as you want me to. And I'll be there for you if it ever does get out." She squeezed his hands, hoping the reassurance came through.
Cat smiled and squeezed back, his eyes glistening slightly in the faint light. He took a deep breath. "Plagg, claws in."
A flash of bright green light enveloped him and a small shadow zipped out of his ring, slitted green eyes glowing brightly. The kwami tilted its head at her. "Ah, the lady of the hour. Nice to finally meet you. I don't suppose you've got any Camembert?"
Adrien Agreste groaned and glared at his magical companion. "Plagg, you couldn't wait for five minutes?"
Plagg huffed and crossed his tiny arms. "I'll have you know that refueling is a very time-sensitive task. Cheese waits for no kwami!"
Ladybug looked between the two of them and started to giggle. Soon she was laughing outright, clutching her sides and leaning against a wall.
Adrien seemed perplexed. "It wasn't that funny."
Ladybug fought to catch her breath and wiped at her eyes. "No, no, it's not that! It's just," she bit her lip against a fresh surge of giggles. "The reason I've been turning Cat Noir down for so long is because I was already in love with Adrien."
"Oh." Comprehension dawned. "Oh!"
She nodded. "Right?"
Adrien grinned crookedly. "Well, my lady, for reasons outlined above, I don't think Adrien Agreste would be allowed to date you. However, if you'd be willing to reconsider a lonely cat's advances, there's a new mew-vie coming out this weekend that I'd rather like to see?" The line sounded slightly absurd coming from Adrien, but Ladybug was starting to understand how their personalities fit together - especially since Adrien didn't have a mask to obscure his blush.
"I swear, you have the worst lines ever," she murmured - then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "But it's a date."
--Fin--
I have lots of Thoughts about this fic, so if there's anything that stuck out to you or that you thought was interesting, I'd love to share them :)
