A/N: The original chapter title for part three was "Wear Your Heart On Your Sleeve (AKA Flirting 101)" but I didn't have enough room XD

It was unbelievable how quickly those pesky little butterflies found its way to its target. Hawkmoth's power was ridiculous.

By the time Adrien had arrived in the men's bathroom to check up on the poor employee, he had been far too late to stop the dark purple butterfly from "evilizing" its target. He saw a cloud of purple shroud the feet that peeked underneath one of the bathroom stalls before ducking into another stall himself. Carefully balancing himself on top of the toilet, he had no choice but to bide his time and stay out of the way before he got himself hurt.

He waited for the akumatized person to storm out of the bathroom with a loud bang—"I am Megaphone!" they cried as the crowd outside shrieked—before turning to the little kwami that hid in the inner pocket of his blazer.

"We've gotta go, Plagg," Adrien urged the kwami. "Claws out!"

"And just when I thought I could catch a break, too…" Plagg sighed right before being sucked into the miraculous.

(Ungrateful kwami couldn't even realize the urgency of the situation. Adrien swore there was nothing up in that head of his but cheese.)

One transformation later, he ran out of the bathroom and ended up bumping straight into Marinette. Her eyes were wide with surprise.

"Cat Noir!" she squeaked. She fidgeted around for a bit, adjusting her purse over her shoulder and twiddling her fingers around. "Thank goodness you're here! There's been an akuma attack!"

"Yeah," he responded, a concerned look spreading across his face as he looked glanced in the direction that Megaphone had fled. "I was just about to check up on the poor guy when Hawkmoth sent his akuma. By the time I got there, it was too late to stop him without risking my identity."

His green eyes were downcast as he realized just how useless he really was. If Ladybug were here in his stead, she would have stopped the problem long before it even happened. That akuma would have been purified sooner, and certainly before it had reached its target.

And Adrien? Adrien couldn't do anything. He watched that akuma take over and feed off the employee's negative emotions. He watched that akuma transform someone emotionally vulnerable into a villain. He watched Hawkmoth claim another to use as a pawn in his plan to take Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculous. He couldn't do anything but watch.

If he was this useless in the face of a situation that could be easily prevented, he couldn't help but feel that the same would hold true even more so in situations where the going gets rough.

How was he supposed to help Ladybug when it counted?

How dare he call himself a hero now?

"Cat Noir? Are you okay?" Marinette's voice called him back to reality. Her blue eyes were laden with concern.

Akuma. There's an akuma attack, he reminded himself. I gotta keep it distracted until Ladybug gets here.

I have to protect Marinette, he added as he turned to face her.

Adrien cast away his shroud of self-doubt and gave his princess a signature 'Cat Noir' grin. "Pfft, me? I'm feline purrfectly fine," he announced. Then, his cheery smile was suddenly weighed down with worry. "And you? Are you all right? You hurt anywhere?" He began to inspect her closely, lifting her arms, checking for bruises, and tilting her chin from side to side, before he realized his mistake. Cat Noir hardly knew Marinette. They've only met about three times now, and most of them tended to be interactions hardly a minute long.

Before he could even react to his error, Marinette smiled and gently picked his hands off her. "I'm fine, Cat Noir," she replied. "Really."

He sighed with relief. "That's good."

"And, um… Did you by any chance see my, um, friend there? Blonde hair, green eyes, was wearing a navy blazer? We saw what happened to the employee, and he went to check on him too, but—" She bit her lip, looking concerned once again. She was concerned for him, Adrien thought with a grin.

She looked cute when she worried, Adrien mused. Her nose with scrunch up all cutely and the light blush on her cheeks brought his attention over to her freckles. Her freckles were really adorable. Marinette was really adorable.

"Oh, that guy?" He huffed and ran a hand through his hair. "Saw him in there. He's fine," he reassured with a nonchalant shrug. "Don't need to worry about him."

Marinette gave him a puzzled expression. "Okay…?" She seemed to want to let that comment slide past, which only resulted in a wider smile from Adrien. "You should probably chase after that akuma now, Cat Noir," she added. "Talking to little ole me is just wasting your time—"

"Talking to you is never a waste of time, Marinette," he pressed, taking her hand in his and giving it a squeeze. It was only right that the comfort she brought him today would be returned in kind, even if she didn't know that it was Adrien underneath Cat Noir's mask. He gave her his smile—not the sly grins that Cat Noir often gave and certainly not the picture perfect smiles he plastered on as the famous model, Adrien Agreste, but a real, genuine Adrien smile. He broke the moment too soon and added, "But you are right about one thing, Princess. I gotta go. The city of Paris needs saving."

Then, with a quick wink and a two-finger salute, Cat Noir ran on after Megaphone.

Try not to mess up this time, Adrien, he reminded himself as he took off, using his baton to hoist himself on top of the movie theater to get a better view. The image of a familiar girl with brilliant blue eyes and jet black hair flashed in his mind. You've got people to save.

Cat Noir had only waited for a couple minutes before Ladybug met him on the roof, swinging from her yo-yo and landing on her feet by his side.

"Nice of you to drop in, my lady," he greeted. "You sure took your time."

She cracked a smile. "I do have a life outside of you, kitty," she was saying. "And besides, I was worried about a friend. He was way too close to the akumatized person when he attacked."

It was amazing how easily Adrien dismissed that. After all, that excuse sounded awfully familiar to what he had just done, and that would mean that Ladybug was Marinette.

How crazy would that be? The two girls he'd been crushing on turned out to be the same person? It's probably unlikely considering his luck.

And besides, he thought. I respect Ladybug's wish to keep her identity a secret.

(Then again, he also thought of watching Marinette just a little more closely. Ladybug didn't quite say anything about finding out her identity… right? Just something to bug her about later.)

"Well, now that you're here, my lady," Cat Noir began, stretching out his arms, "we can finally kick some akuma butt. What do you say we track down that Megaphone guy?"

"Will do. So, which direction did he head in?"

"I don't know, bugaboo. I thought someone wearing that loud an outfit would be pretty hard to miss."

"Cat Noir…"

"Okay, okay. I saw him head that way. Pretty sure he was following the old man's car, but knowing Hawkmoth, he might have caused a bit of trouble along the way."

"We better get going then!"

"Race you there?"

"Oh, you already know I'm gonna win."

"You never know, my lady. I might get lucky one of these days."

When Ladybug only replied with that smirk, so playful and confident, Adrien couldn't help but feel his heart soar as easily as she did, swinging away from roof to roof. He chased after her, glad for the carefree feeling that came with being Cat Noir.

It was little moments like these that made his life feel a little more whole again.

One threat, a very loud conversation about a twisted sense of justice, some supersonic waves that were hard on the ears, a Cataclysm, a Lucky Charm, a de-evilized butterfly, and a fist bump later, Cat Noir and Ladybug were tired and running out of steam. They only had a few minutes to go before they would transform back, but Cat Noir wouldn't let Ladybug go just yet. He's been itching for even the slightest hint about who she was behind the mask.

"My lady?" he asked her before she could depart. "Can I ask you a quick question?"

She smiled. "Of course! What is it?"

"Hypothetically, let's just say that I start to connect the Ladybug dots," he began, unable to resist the pun. "And let's say I manage to spot who you are behind the mask—hypothetically, of course. Would you… be mad at me?" His ears deflated ever-so-slightly as he waited on her response.

When Ladybug sighed, Adrien had a feeling it was because of more than just his puns. "Hypothetically," she said, "I would be mad at you. I would probably kill you for being an awfully nosy alley cat. Realistically…" She fidgeted with her fingers. "I wouldn't do much to stop you. I can't blame you if you managed to figure it out. I can be a little obvious sometimes." The corners of her mouth tilted up into a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Just… try not to be too disappointed, okay?"

She might have meant that as a lighthearted comment, but Adrien would not have it.

He rested his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him. "Hey," he told her softly, looking her in the eyes. "I could never, ever be disappointed in you, my lady. You're an amazing person, even behind the mask. I just know it."

Ladybug opened her mouth to say something when the second to last spot on her earrings began to disappear. "I-I gotta go," she said quickly, averting her eyes from his and, swiftly swinging away on her yo-yo.

Adrien couldn't help but feel the return of a dull ache in his chest, the familiar feeling of uselessness washing over him once again as he watched Ladybug leap away from him. He couldn't even manage to put a smile on her face.

She must have felt insecure about herself outside of her superhero alter ego, Adrien realized. And she must have thought that her civilian self was nothing compared to her hero self.

But if Adrien was right about his hunch that Marinette might be Ladybug, well… Maybe that will help put her at ease.

He can't be too sure about anything, but he was about 80 percent sure.

Marinette was a great girl, and she was just as great as Ladybug. They were both compassionate and caring, and always looked out for others. They were both selfless, in that aspect, and they tend to put others before themselves more often than not. They both had a strong sense of justice, too. Marinette was one of the only people to stand against Chloé's tyranny and managed to walk out unscathed. Ladybug fought akumas every day and had the power to undo all the damage they had done.

They were both amazing.

And 'they' were most likely the same girl that sat behind him in class. She was the same girl who gave him a good luck charm when he seemed down, and the very same girl who asked him out, even if she meant to hang out as friends.

She was freakin' Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and Adrien was hopelessly in love with her.

"Thank goodness you're okay!"

Marinette hurriedly ran up to Adrien as they rendezvous in front of the movie theater. Her eyes were once again filled with worry.

"I'm all right," Adrien reassured with a smile. "Not a scratch on me, I swear." It was his turn to look concerned as he remembered their conversation earlier. "How are you holding up, Marinette?"

"Just fine." There it was again. Marinette's smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "A-Anyways, I'm sorry that this, um, hangout didn't quite work out as planned." She began fidgeting with her fingers again. "Not only was the movie horrible, but we ended up under attack thanks to an akuma."

"It isn't your fault, Marinette." Adrien rested his hands on her shoulders, just like he had done earlier, telling her everything with a serious expression on his face. "You can't help anything that happened today." He smiled at her, moving his hands over hers and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "And I don't know about you, but I had a lot of fun today."

Marinette's eyes lit up a little at that. "You did?"

"Of course. It was great getting to know you better." Adrien laughed as he thought about all their interactions last year. "And you know," he added, "for the longest time, I thought you hated me."

"Hate you?" She sounded incredulous. "I could never!"

"You sure acted like it," Adrien pointed out. They began to walk, still hand-in-hand. "Whenever I talked to you or something, you would always make a cute little noise and hide behind Alya. You could barely say anything to me!"

"That's because I li—" Marinette stopped herself and cleared her throat abruptly. "Well, I had a good reason," she said instead. "At least I can talk to you now." The corners of her mouth curled into a playful smile. "And I'm really glad I got to know you better, too. Now I know how much of a dork you really are."

Adrien laughed. "You don't even know the half of it."

"Oh, really? What could be bigger and dorkier than the lamest cat puns in the entire world?"

"You have your secrets; I have mine." Adrien winked at Marinette. "Unless it's a fair trade, I'm afraid I won't be telling you a thing, Princess."

Marinette harrumphed, puffing her cherry red cheeks out. He had a feeling she wanted to talk about that nickname—Adrien had been not-so-subtly calling her 'Princess' for the past week—but she let it slide. Again.

(The truth was, this was the way Adrien flirted with Marinette. Calling someone a cute nickname and joining them on a friendly date where they held hands a lot was basically Flirting 101… At least, Adrien thought so.)

"Either way," Marinette said, "it doesn't change the fact that you're a nerd."

"I'm a nerd now?"

"Nerd… dork… Same difference."

"It's not the same thing!"

"And there you have it! Only a nerd would know the difference!"

"I— I can live with that, actually." Adrien grinned. "Say, Marinette?"

"Hmm?"

"Let's play Twenty Questions. You know. As another get-to-know-you game in honor of our first time officially hanging out. As friends, and all."

Marinette narrowed her eyes at him but agreed nonetheless. "All right, pretty boy," she said with a smirk. "I'll play with you. You first."

"Ladybug or Cat Noir?" asked Adrien. There was a wide grin on his face as Marinette turned to look at him, appalled.

"What kind of question is that?"

"You promised, Marinette!"

"Okay, okay…" She thought about that for a moment, nose scrunched and eyes deep in concentration. "I think I'd probably go with… Cat Noir."

"Really?" Adrien could barely hide the grin on his face. "How come?"

"Adrien! It's my turn to ask the question!"

"Yeah, but… I wanna know."

Marinette sighed. "Well…," she began. "I feel like I—we—never give him enough credit. He saves Ladybug countless times and hardly gets any of the attention. Sure, it's Ladybug that purifies the akumas, and sure, she's definitely stronger than him, but…" Marinette bit her lip and began to twiddle around with her fingers again. "She couldn't do half the things she does without him, even if he comes across as useless sometimes. Without Cat Noir, Ladybug would have probably lost her miraculous by now."

She had sounded so serious and so earnest about her compliment that Adrien had to restrain himself from "nerding out" as Marinette might have put it. He stuffed his hand into his mouth to keep himself from freaking out.

He was 90 percent sure that she was Ladybug.

(After all, as an ardent follow of Alya's Ladyblog, he knew for sure that even the most hardcore Ladybug fans wouldn't know what to call her earrings. It's not exactly the type of thing you would announce to the public.)

"You, um, sure like Cat Noir, huh?" Adrien was red in the face. He couldn't manage to look her in the eyes just yet.

"He can be admirable when it comes to it," Marinette admitted. "And if he would lighten up on the puns, he's actually not half bad." She bumped shoulders with him. "And like you said, helping Ladybug takes abs of steel."

"Y-Yeah…" Adrien coughed. "Your turn to ask me a question."

"Oh! Um…" Marinette hummed for a moment, contemplating. "Favorite color?"

"Easy peasy. Blue." Adrien made sure to look Marinette dead in the eyes as he said, "Blue's a pretty miraculous color, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Marinette said, meeting his gaze steadily. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "Totally."

"My turn." Adrien smiled at her before turning his gaze elsewhere. "Favorite musician?"

"Jagged Stone, for sure. Favorite movie?"

"Definitely not the one we just saw."

"Adrien!" Marinette was laughing. "That's not a valid answer!"

"Fine. I'll go with How to Train Your Dragon, the first one. Favorite spot in Paris?"

"The Eiffel Tower, of course! I love being up there and see how the world is so much bigger than I can ever imagine!" Marinette's eyes were sparkling. "Favorite food?"

"The chocolate chip cookies at your bakery wins by a landslide."

Marinette nudges him in the arm. "Liar," she laughed.

"It's true! Best thing I've ever tasted in my life. I'm stopping by way more often."

"Uh-huh. You do that."

"Anyways, it's my turn. What kind of career are you looking into for the future?"

"A fashion designer!" Marinette squealed. "I mean, for now I'm not nearly as good as your dad, but I'm hoping to get to that level someday."

"I have no doubt that you will, Marinette," Adrien reassured. "You have some purretty clawsome designs, if I do say so myself."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Dork," she teased.

"You are going to admit that you love my puns. One day."

"Yeah, and that'll happen when pigs fly."

"Meowch. That hurts my feelings, Marinette."

"And your cat puns are starting to hurt my ears."

"You love my puns."

"I do not."

"You do, too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

The two of them went on like that, laughing at a couple responses and sharing their love of others. It really was great getting to see Marinette come out of her shell like this. If anything, after today, Adrien fell more and more in love with a certain blue-eyed girl.

From her freckles to her smile to her laugh and to the way her eyes would shine— Adrien loved everything about Marinette. She was so breathtakingly amazing, and the only thing stopping him from confessing on the spot, was a deep-rooted uncertainty, a fragile feeling in his chest that told him that she might not ever return his affections.

Sure, they were friends, but that knot in his stomach kept Adrien from telling himself that he was okay with just that. He wanted to be by her side every step of the way to hear every laugh, every cry, and every little thing she had to say because everything was music to his ears.

He had officially come back down to earth when they stopped in front of the Dupain-Cheng bakery. They were still holding hands, and that was the most important detail Adrien observed before turning to face Marinette.

"Well," he began, "thanks for the awesome day out, Marinette. Definitely a lot better than some photo shoot."

She grinned. "Right back at you," she said with a wink. "Thanks for spending the day with me, Adrien. It was fun."

"We should totally hang out again some other time," he told her. "Just… maybe not the movies."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Definitely not," she agreed. "So what were you thinking of doing?"

Adrien shrugged. "I don't know," he replied. "Maybe just… hanging out at my place? We could even invite Alya and Nino over and turn it into a"—he raised his hands to make air quotations—"'studying session.' That'd be cool, right?"

"I thought Nino was banned from your house?"

"Oh, that's right… So, your house then?"

"Sure! We could do that!" Marinette smiled. "I'll text Alya the details."

Adrien grinned. "And I'll be sure to tell Nino about it later," he said. "We can always talk more about it at school, but does that sound like a plan?"

"It sounds perfect."

Home sweet home, Adrien thought as he walked up the steps of his house. Natalie was waiting for him with an angry expression, followed by telling him that his father wanted to have a quick little chat with Adrien in his office.

That conversation was an earful, mostly a one-sided talk about his responsibilities, certain things he must do as his son, and blah, blah, blah. Adrien stopped listening after his dad said, "Sit down, son."

To think, he looked forward to feeding Plagg some of that stinky Camembert more than having a sit down with his old man. Adrien's life was certainly glamorous.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, Plagg," Adrien said as he flopped down on his bed, "but you're one of the only people—well, kwami, I guess—I can count on."

"I'll pretend that didn't sound like an insult," Plagg said as he swallowed a slice of his favorite cheese whole. "And I happen to be the only kwami you know, by the way. Unless you happened to figure out who Ladybug was without me knowing and already met her kwami."

"Well, I do have a rough idea of who Ladybug is," Adrien commented, "but I haven't met her kwami yet. Do you know her? Ladybug's kwami, I mean."

"Tikki? Yeah, sure, I know her. She's got a real sweet tooth, that kwami," Plagg replied. He sounded nostalgic. "I got my thing with cheese, and she's got hers with cookies. But in my humble opinion, cheese is always better than cookies." He took another gulp of Camembert for emphasis.

"Sounds to me like you miss Tikki," observed Adrien, raising an eyebrow at his kwami. "And just when I thought you would only have eyes for cheese…"

"I've known Tikki longer than you've been alive, kid," Plagg said. "Centuries, I've known that kwami, and all she's done is cut back on my cheese diet! I'm so not looking forward to seeing her again."

Adrien grinned. "Aw, Plagg! Are you and Tikki in love?" he teased.

The black kwami harrumphed and stuffed another piece of cheese into his big mouth. "The only thing I'm in love with is cheese," he remarked. "You humans and your weird obsession with finding love. Now cheese"—Plagg held up the last slice of Camembert in his tiny hands—"is where it's at." And with that, he swallowed it whole.

"You're disgusting. Girls smell better than cheese, Plagg."

"Source?"

"I have a working sense of smell."

Plagg shook his head. "Nope. That's not a valid source because Camembert smells heavenly."

Adrien made a face. "Disgusting," he repeated.

"Hey," Plagg said in a warning voice. "Cheese will always be there for you. People? Not so much. Try and think about that next time you want to insult me and my Camembert."

Well, Adrien thought, thinking of his dad, he's not wrong.

"Whatever," he dismissed. "At least Ladybug's always got my back."

"You don't even know who she is behind the mask!"

"Maybe… but I'm like 90 percent sure it's Marinette."

Plagg's face lit up at the mention of her name. "Oh, that Marinette girl you went out with today!" he said in a singsong voice. "You should keep her! Her bakery makes the most amazing cheese bread. Keep her even if she isn't Ladybug!"

"Did you not hear my 90 percent?"

"And you know, she even got us cheese popcorn at the movies today," Plagg continued. "You gotta keep her, Adrien! She's great!"

"Plagg, you can't just keep a human!"

"Then you gotta marry her!"

"Plagg!"