Um. So. I got a bunch of people asking me for a continuation on Tumblr, and even though this was marked as completed, I sort of wrote one anyways? And now it's going to be a series of oneshots/scenes/snippets? And I've already started calling it the Fistbump Verse in my head? And it's probably going to be an Identities Known AU combined with an Established Relationship AU for the entire show, with this fic being pre-series? Um. Yeah. Oops. Yes I make terrible life choices somebody stop me now. :P

HUGE THANKS to ilarual, Krazyfanfiction1, BLA, bleedingnightingale, Winter Coma, Jessica Jayme Bell, guro000, Le Chasseur, FutureMageOtaku99, and review here for reviewing! Holy crud, ten reviews for a little thousand-word ficlet?! That's amazing! This fandom is so great! :D

To ilarural: Welcome to the fandom! Glad you liked the fic! :)

To Winter Coma: Aw, thanks! I'm flattered! Alas, as if it would ever happen this way... the writers will probably make it huge and dramatic and in the middle of the final battle or something. I can't wait until it happens in canon!

To guro000: I'm glad you enjoyed the fic! I don't know how to read a word of Japanese, but according to a translating site those characters were mostly laughter, I think? It sounded good. Glad you liked it!

Disclaimer: I don't own, etc etc etc. Enjoy the fic, and feel free to send a PM or leave a review telling me what was good and what was terrible! :)

Edit 10-31-15: added in a couple paragraphs, fiddled with Marinette's reaction a bit. Huge thanks to Minirowan for pointing out what was off with Marinette's dialogue!

"You're Chat Noir?!" Marinette all but shrieked, the two of them sequestered away behind the gym. She'd dragged him out there the moment class ended, much to the confusion of both Alya and Nino. Luckily for the two superheroes, it was lunch, so they had plenty of time to work things out.

...Assuming Marinette didn't hyperventilate, of course. Or pass out completely. Either one would have been very much not good.

"Um," Adrien said blankly, still trying to wrap his mind around Marinette plus Ladybug and somehow make them equivalent. "Yes?"

He didn't know how he could have missed it. As superheroes, they spent a good chunk of time together every day, and they'd been meeting fairly regularly for a few months now. Perhaps it wasn't that long in the scheme of things, but still. He'd met Ladybug even before he had ever laid eyes on Marinette. How in the world hadn't he noticed?

"How is that possible?" Marinette asked, more for herself than anything else. "How- how could I have missed this? How did I never notice?!" She unconsciously mirrored his own thoughts, tone utterly shocked. She looked up at Adrien, eyes wide and somehow frantic. "You're Adrien. How can you also be Chat?"

Plagg chose that moment to pop out of Adrien's bag, flying right up to Marinette.

"Well, I certainly help," he said dryly, nibbling on a small wedge of cheese. Waving with one paw, he looked down at the small purse hanging at Marinette's hip and greeted, "Hey, Tikki! Long time no see!"

The top of the bag opened, a small red kwami with two waving antennae instead of ears emerging from inside. She stopped and hovered just in front of Plagg, the two little sprites right between Adrien and Marinette.

"Hi, Plagg!" Tikki cheerfully waved back in response. "Wow, it's been a long time." She turned back to Marinette, pointing at Plagg. "Don't try to deny it, Marinette! There's your proof that Adrien really is Chat!"

Adrien couldn't help but stare. Tikki… so that was Ladybug's kwami. She certainly looked the part, colored bright red with a large black spot on her forehead. Just as Plagg's presence was irrefutable proof that he was Chat Noir, Tikki's presence dashed any lingering disbelief on the subject of shy, clumsy Marinette being Ladybug.

"You're Ladybug," Adrien said. He couldn't seem to muster up anything more complicated than that, still somewhat in shock. "You're Ladybug?"

"Yes, I am," Marinette sighed, resignation clear in her tone. She frowned, shoulders drawing in on herself as she looked up at him. "Are you… disappointed?"

"What?!" That was enough to snap Adrien out of his thoughts, shocked. "No, of course not! Why would I be?"

"I don't know." Marinette furrowed her brow, expression becoming somewhat melancholy. "I mean, I'm just me. Ordinary, boring, clumsy Marinette. I'm not famous like you. Or rich, or popular, or-"

"So?" Adrien interrupted, because even if he was still trying to figure out what the heck was going on he could still recognize the glaring falsehoods his partner seemed to believe. "I'm not- I'm not that great, really. I have almost no social life, I'm not actually very good with people, and I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time. I'm not a good designer like you either, and I always smell like cheese because Plagg's obsessed with the stuff. I don't even like cheese," he added plaintively. "But now Nino thinks I love it so he keeps giving me his mozzerella sticks, and I can't say no because then he'll ask why don't I like cheese if I always smell like it, and-"

Adrien was rambling, and he knew it, but once he had started he couldn't seem to stop. The words tumbled over themselves in a barely coherent mess, even as he gradually became aware of what he was actually doing. He talked and talked and talked, somehow moving from his own faults to the other teen's strengths as both as a superhero and a civilian.

"But you're really pretty and really cool both as Ladybug and Marinette, and it shouldn't matter because you're the same person anyways," he finished somewhat lamely. Then his brain caught up to his mouth and he smacked his forehead, groaning. "Oh no did I actually just say all that? I didn't mean to say the cheese stuff. Shoot. Um. I'm not good at this."

Adrien's jaws snapped together, teeth meeting with a sharp clack as he shut up before the hole he was digging himself got any deeper. Face burning with embarrassment, he mentally went over the last few seconds of life and promptly decided that time travel was going to be a thing. Yes. It was. He knew it existed because of Timebreaker; now he just needed to figure out how to use it because crap that been a mortifying spiel.

(Plagg wouldn't stop laughing in the background. Adrien studiously ignored him.)

Awkward silence fell. Adrien fidgeted. Marinette had the strangest expression on her face, like she was torn between breaking down in a fit of laughter or imploding from sheer confusion. At length, she seemed to decide on the laughter option. On one hand, this was a relief, because Adrien did not know how to deal with breakdowns of any sort unless they were his own. And even then, his solution was usually something along the lines of, "hide in a corner and disappear until it goes away and then forget it ever happened". That… probably wasn't healthy, now that he thought about it.

On the other hand, he wasn't entirely sure why she (his classmate and the girl he'd been pining after for months holy crap) was laughing at him. What had he said? Had he done something wrong? No, then she wouldn't be laughing. Wait, maybe it was the cheese. She was probably laughing at the cheese. Oh no, now she was going to think he was a total idiot because he'd gone and just blurted stuff out with zero brain-to-mouth filter whatsoever-

"Sorry, sorry," Marinette gasped, a wavering grin stretching across her face, "but for a second, you sounded just like me whenever I talked to you. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh, but- it reminded me of myself." She looked him up and down appraisingly. "Wow. I guess you really do look like Chat, huh."

Well, when in doubt, fall back on the tried-and-true method of acting completely cool. "Yup, that's me," Adrien agreed, putting on a flirtatious smirk as he added, "My Lady."

"I- wow. Wow," Marinette laughed, breathless. "This is really weird. And really sudden. I've actually had a crush on you for ages," she admitted, looking slightly surprised by herself even as it came out. "That's part of why I never, um, acted like I liked you back as Chat Noir. I was holding out for you. Adrien. Ironically enough." She paused, and tacked on, "But once, I thought that, maybe if I had met Chat first…"

Adrien blinked. Registered what she was actually saying. His jaw dropped once it all computed, disbelief at the sheer ridiculousness of the whole situation rendering him momentarily dumbstruck.

"W-wait," he sputtered once he regained his voice, "you had a crush on me? But you didn't know I was Chat, and even though I really liked you back, I didn't know you were Ladybug, so-" he cut himself off, burying his head in his hands as he dissolved into helpless laughter at the convoluted mess everything had become. "Oh man, it's like we've been living in some sort of reality television show this entire time!"

"It does feel sort of like that," Marinette agreed, giggling. However, before they could speak further, the pair were interrupted by the sounds of their stomachs growling in unison.

"...Um," Marinette ventured, face going pink, "do you want to, uh, come and have lunch at the bakery with me? We can talk more there. Um. If you want. You don't have to."

Adrien didn't even need to think about it before he grinned in response, slipping into the more casual personality of Chat Noir. It was relief, if he was going to be honest, to finally act more like himself. Adrien was more the mask than Chat, and he was glad that he could now be natural around the only other person who truly understood.

"I would be honored, My Lady," Adrien replied with a grin. His heart beat a rapid staccato in his chest, a hammering beat in the background that only he could hear. His palms became sweaty, somehow even this simple interaction making him infinitely more nervous than any death-defying stunt he performed as one of Paris' superpowered protectors.

What made this so much more nerve-wracking, he wondered? Was it because she was inviting him over to what was essentially her home? Was it finally knowing that Ladybug- no, Marinette -acknowledged and even reciprocated his feelings? Maybe it was one of those, or even all of them combined. He wasn't sure. All he knew was that he couldn't let her go, not now when they had found each other at last.

They'd work something out, he figured, unable to wipe the ear-to-ear grin off his face as he followed Marinette out of the school and down the city's streets. After all, they were Ladybug and Chat Noir. Paris' most famous duo of heroes. They fought supervillains on a regular basis. They were a team, and they would always stick together.

A simple discussion about feelings and what to do next? While as their regular, civilian selves? It would be a piece of cake.

(He hoped, anyways.)