"Looks like you won't find out my true identity today!" Ladybug joked, standing on Marinette's balcony. 'Standing on her own balcony.' Chat reminded himself. He had to tell her. He had to tell Marinette that he had accidentally seen her face in the fight with Troublemaker when she lost an earring.

Besides, the photographs all over her room proved that she liked him. Well, liked Adrien. Didn't they?

"I already know who you are," he spoke with fake confidence, trying not to let his voice shake. He had to tell her. He had to. "You're the girl of my dreams!" He chickened out. He just couldn't say it. The look of fear on her face when he said he knew… He just couldn't. Not yet anyway. Realising how unconfident he sounded he sent her a wink for good measure.

"Silly kitty," she laughed out in response to his flirt.

After their usual fist bump, they said their goodbyes. Chat extended his staff to launch himself off in the direction of his house, glancing back to see Ladybug swing off only to circle back around and land on the balcony once again.


Adrien knew Marinette would avoid him. Her crush had just been outed. What teenager wouldn't want to hide from that? He knew there was only one way to be able to talk to her without giving her a chance to run way. After all, he'd done it before.

So there he waited, hidden inside the empty locker next to Marinette's, peaking out through the ajar door just in time to see the girl tiptoe into the room. Clearly she was trying to sneak in, in hopes of not running into him. Well too bad. He needed to talk to her.

"Phew. Hopefully he didn't see me." She sighed in relief as she put her bag in her locker. Adrien took this as his cue to slide out of the empty locker and close it quietly, before casually leaning on it, waiting for her to close her own locker.

"Hey, Marinette," he greeted with a wave the second her door started to close. The girl let out a shriek of surprise, and probably fear as well he supposed, as she slammed the locker shut. "How's it going?" Be chill. Be cool. Don't let her know anything. Not yet. "After what happened at your place last night, I was worried that-"

"Oh! So you watched the show then!" She cut him off, letting out a spill of nervous laughter. "Well…. uh… look. About what you saw on the show. The totographs that you saw in my room-"

"You mean the photographs?" He couldn't help but feel the slightest bit angry, letting out a small frown. Why did she act like this around Adrien? Or more importantly, why didn't she act like this around Chat?

'Is it possible that she only likes Adrien because of my last name? Or even worse, the model status? … No. No, don't think like that, you idiot. She likes Adrien because she met him first. She didn't act like that on the first day we met, and I was still an Agreste then. I was still a model then.'

"The grotographs! Exactly! I-It's not what you think…" Besides, her shy stuttering side was really cute and endearing. He had always thought that. But now that he knows this is his lady, stuttering away simply because they were having a conversation... well it was certainly a nice change from her usual rebuffs.

"See, I'm really into fashion, and…" she trailed off, avoiding eye contact. 'Wait… so she doesn't like me? No. No way, not possible.' If she'd tried to pull that excuse a month ago he might have believed it. If he had only seen the photographs on her walls shown on tv, he might have believed it. But Chat Noir saw pictures under her bed and all over her entire room. There was no way that was just a fan of fashion.

"Are you lying?" He smirked, leering at her lightly, leaning in to her face. If he got her flustered enough, she might mess up and admit the truth.

"No!" She pushed him away. She was getting nervous. That's a good sign, right? He might just break her after all. "I'm so not into you. Sure I'm interested in you, but um, not in that way. Well you know." Wow, that girl really does like to ramble. He couldn't keep his smirk off of his face.

'Play it off. Go along with her for now. Don't admit to knowing anything.' "Just teasing," he threw in his own little chuckle for good measure, "I understand, don't worry" he threw his arm around her shoulder at this. This girl was just too much fun to tease. "I've gotten used to having lots of fans, and photographs of me everywhere. Even in the most unlikely places." He had to make the little dig. He couldn't stop himself.

'Okay! That's my new goal! To get Marinette to see another side of Adrien Agreste!'

"As if someone of you would have a picture under a bed right." Hmm. Smooth. He's gotta admit, that was a good one. If he was anyone else, he wouldn't have been able to pick up on that. But lucky for him and unlucky for her, he did.

So he went on to invite Marinette to his next photo-shoot. He had to make her more comfortable around him. And the best way to do that was to be chill. Be cool. Hang around her more. But for now, it was time to go. The poor girl would surely explode if he continued messing with her for much longer.

"I'm glad to have you as one of my fans." He sent her a sincere smile before walking out of the locker room. He cast one last look behind him before waving and exiting.