5"Where did he go? I swear I told him to hide here!" Ladybug paces frantically through the locker room, opening and closing different lockers as she goes.
Chat Noir fidgets in the door opening. "I'm sure he's fine, maybe he heard that the akuma is coming this way," he says, even though he can tell he doesn't sound convincing. "More importantly, the akuma is coming this way. We don't have time for male model hide and seek."
Ladybug turns to glare at him. "I can't believe you're being so dismissive of this! Adrien is a civilian! If he gets caught in this fight, he could get hurt."
"What does it matter? Your Lucky Charm will restore everything anyway," Chat says brusquely as he gestures impatiently to the door. Of course, the romantic in him is somewhat flattered that Ladybug is so concerned about his civilian self, but they really don't have time to look for someone who's standing right next to her, especially when he can't let her know about that. "We need to go. The akuma is destroying the school library as we speak."
"Well, going by your logic that doesn't matter either!" Ladybug snaps, raising her arms in clear frustration. "Because my Lucky Charm can fix that too! We need to clear the building, and to do that, we need to find Adrien!"
"If he was here, we'd have found him by now! Rich boy probably got scared and went running to his limo to escape. He's got a personal security guard! Wherever he is, he's fine." He knows he's being needlessly harsh, but he needs Ladybug to focus on the akuma instead of his far less capable alter ego.
"Are you jealous of him?" Ladybug asks, her voice like acid.
Chat can't stop himself, he bursts out in laughter. "Jealous? Of him? What does he have to be jealous of?" He lives in a fucking prison, and the only parent he has left hasn't spoken to him in three weeks, he doesn't say. "I just think there are more important things to worry about right now! I don't know why we're wasting time looking for some useless kid!"
As if to underscore his argument, an explosion blasts through the building, making the lockers rattle. Chat quickly holds on to a coat rack to prevent himself from being toppled over by the vibrations.
"There's an akuma downstairs!" he adds for emphasis, gesturing downwards to where he hopes the library is still somewhat standing.
"Useless kid?! I can't believe you!" Ladybug screams as she stomps over to him. Before he knows it, he has an angrily pointed finger right up against the tip of his nose. "When we're done with this akuma, we're going to have a talk about this, just you wait."
With that, she stomps out of the locker room. Chat sees her disappear over the edge of the railing as she swings down to the ground floor.
His shoulders sag. He can't believe she's mad at him for not being appropriately concerned about himself. What a joke.
With a tired shake of his head, he unfolds his baton and follows her down.
The akuma turns out to be a piece of cake. Like, literally. An angry cafeteria worker who got fed up with having to serve sub-par baked goods to students.
If anything, Chat is happy that this might finally convince the principal to raise the lunch budget. Nobody had ever really liked the cupcakes they sometimes got for desert.
Ladybug, however, seems to be in a less than stellar mood. She foregoes their usual fistbump, literally leaving him hanging as she swings off to a nearby rooftop. Chat waves apologetically to the gathered crowd and follows her.
She's pacing behind a chimney, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her hands balled into fists. Her earrings are beeping, just like his ring, but she doesn't even seem to notice.
Chat crouches down on top of the chimney and looks down at her. He's not exactly eager to poke this particular bear, even armed with a magical stick. "Listen, I'm sorry about your friend, but I saw him down there with the students," he lies. "Like I said, he's fine."
"That's so not even the issue right now," Ladybug bites back. She stops pacing and looks up at him, fists planted angrily on her hips. The glare she shoots him is seething. "You! I thought I knew you!"
His heart seems to seize. Did she figure it out? Does she know? Before the panic can fully kick in, she thankfully continues.
"Sure, you have always had a proclivity for bad jokes, even ill-timed ones! But being so hateful? I don't even know what to say. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were the akuma." She shakes her head, and with her next words, her voice breaks, "I've never been so wrong about someone."
Chat carefully lowers himself onto the roof. Standing opposite her, he wants to reach out, wants to hold her hand, but he knows she wouldn't want him to. "My Lady, I'm sorry, I just wanted you to focus on the akuma," he pleads, but she cuts him off.
"Don't worry, that was very clear!" she says. "It was also very clear just how much you hate my friend!"
Chat winces. His ring is beeping, now down to the very last paw pad, but he can't leave like this. She would never forgive him. "I didn't know he was your friend," he starts, but is once again interrupted.
"You are so missing the point!" she yells. She thuds her fists against his chest, not painfully hard, but sudden enough to shock him. "What I don't understand is why you're suddenly such an asshole!"
Her earrings beep. His ring beeps. He staggers back.
"Look, I'm going to detransform. And you are too. I don't want to leave this unresolved but I've got to go," he says, feeling torn between his desire to work things out and the necessity to hide his identity.
Ladybug looks at him, her eyes full of tears and disappointment. "I don't think I want to work with you anymore," she whispers. "I don't know how I can trust you when I know that behind that mask, there's so much hate in your heart."
Chat freezes. His pulse is going a mile a minute and for a moment, he can't breathe. "I don't— I'm not—"
Ladybug's wry smile shatters his soul into a thousand pieces. "Yes you are."
"No, I'm not," Chat insists. With a shuddering breath, he closes his eyes and takes off his ring.
Seconds turn into minutes. It is like the cogs of time are slowly being submerged in molasses. Everything. Stops.
Grimacing, Adrien slowly opens his eyes, preparing for her judgment. Preparing for her disappointment.
Ladybug stares at him in shock, her fingers pressed to her quivering lips. Her eyes are as wide as saucers. "Adrien?! But how?"
Adrien doesn't know what to say, but before he can even open his mouth to respond, Ladybug's earrings give one final desperate beep and then suddenly her mask dissolves into a flash of red light. Adrien looks away, momentarily blinded. When he looks back—
"Marinette?!"
"Adrien!"
"It was you?" he gasps out. Oh. Oh god. He is in love with Marinette.
"Oh, no, you must be so disappointed," Marinette says, now covering her whole face with her hands, her cheeks changing to the familiar dark pink colour Adrien is so used to seeing on her.
"What are you saying? If anything, you should be disappointed!" Adrien stammers. "Chat Noir is so much cooler than I am."
"Are you kidding me?! Is that why you were acting so weird?" Marinette asks, lowering her hands. "Sure, Chat Noir is badass and all, but Adrien is kind and thoughtful and—" She abruptly shuts her mouth, her face transitioning from deep pink to violent red.
Adrien blinks at her, unsure what to say.
Then, she squeaks, "Oh my god, I kissed you!"
Now it's Adrien's turn to blush. "I'm sorry, if I'd known we knew each other…"
"No, no, no, no, please stop talking." Marinette holds out a finger to his lips, but immediately pulls it back again, as if it burned her. "I can't— Wait… you have a crush on me?"
"I… have a crush on Ladybug?" Adrien tries awkwardly. Oh, no. He does not want to lose her friendship over this. Fuck. Why did he have to make things awkward by accidentally falling in love with one of his best friends?!
Somehow, it seems like that wasn't the right thing to say, because Marinette shrinks in on herself, wrapping her arms around her chest. "Oh, well, I guess that's solved now…" she says softly.
"What?" Adrien asks, feeling like an idiot because he does not know what is happening.
"You know," she says with a shrug, suddenly not meeting his eyes. "Now that you know it's me behind the mask."
"I'm sorry, Marinette, I really never meant to ruin our friendship like that…" Adrien says, heartbroken. "I can get over it. I know you don't feel the same." As much as he loves her, if their friendship is on the line, he has to get over it.
"What?" Marinette looks up at him, a confused frown on her face. "Do you… still like Ladybug? Even though you know it's me?"
Adrien awkwardly fiddles with his bangs, hiding behind his hand as he responds, "Well, yeah? But, really, I'll get over it. I don't want to lose you as a friend!"
"No, no, that's not the problem!" Marinette says hastily, holding her hands out as if to stop him.
Adrien has never felt so confused in his life. "Then what is?"
"I… don't know. Is there a problem?" she asks, as if he knows.
"I'm so lost," he admits, and this feeling, this stupidly confused helpless feeling is exactly why he prefers being Chat Noir.
"I mean, if you like me…"
"Yeah?"
"And I like you…"
"You like me?" Adrien's jaw drops and all he can do is stare at her as her cheeks flush once more. "Since when?!"
Marinette shrugs and toys with one of her pigtails. "Since… always? Why do you think I could never string two sentences together with you? Even as Ladybug, I could never really talk to Adrien."
Now that she mentions it, he had noticed that Ladybug seemed somehow nervous around him as Adrien. At the time, though, he'd thought it was just because he was always so nervous around her.
"Oh my god. We're idiots. All this time!" he says, staring into the distance as the last year of his life flashes before his eyes.
Marinette playfully slaps his arm. "Speak for yourself!"
He chuckles. When he looks at her now, blushing fiercely but still staring determinedly into his eyes, he can see it. His Ladybug has been right in front of him all this time.
"Marinette," he says softly, reaching out to hold her hand in his, like he has done so many times as Chat Noir. "Will you go out on a date with me?"
She bites her lip, and it's the cutest thing he has ever seen in his life. (He wants to kiss her, but that seems like it may be a little fast.)
"Yes, I do. But first… we should probably get off this roof."
"So we should…"