•••

As soon as they reached back to the Agreste mansion, Adrien rushed up to his room and flopped down on his couch.

Plagg flew to him and asked in his usual snarky tone.

"Something wrong lover boy?"

"The box..That box...a-a kwami..red..same hair colour and eyes..Sa-"

Seriously how much longer?!

"Oh for the love of cheese, yes she is ladybug!", Plagg yelled in frustration.

"God, you're so slow."

Getting the conformation that he needed, Adrien sat, wide eyed. There were so many things that he wishes to say now that he knew, but for some reason he chose, "You weren't supposed to tell."

"It's not like you wouldn't have figured it out, eh? Unless you were that slow. Besides, it was a torture watching your oblivious brain work.", Plagg replies nonchalantly, munching on his gooey Camembert.

Adrien chose to stare at his ceiling than to acknowledge his kwami's answer. After all this time, his love of the life turned out to be his close friend. It turned out to be the wonderful girl who sat behind him in class, who was always positive and full of life. A girl who was so nice and adorably clumsy. An amazing girl who was Marinette.

It's been 3 days now.

3 days ever since Adrien discovered the box and existence of a kwami at Marinette's.

3 days ever since he realised that Marinette is Ladybug.

3 days ever since they had talked to each other.

Today was the day. There was no avoiding it now. Today was the day of confrontations and reveals. Today was the day that they both clearly dreaded.

Sitting next to each other at a café, Adrien and Marinette stole awkward glances towards each other. It was Alya's idea to head down there after compiling the work, after she was done fangirling over the dress. Nino was ecstatic too so it didn't really leave a choice for the superhero duo but to comply.

The air around the two was thick with awkwardness and hesitation. Both were far too nervous to even make an eye contact. Luckily, Nino and Alya were far too engrossed in their own conversations to notice anything strange about their two best friends .

Adrien glanced secretly at Marinette in between those light laughs and giggles. He hated this being like the way it was. He wanted to talk to her so badly but an unknown fear and anxiety prevented him from doing so.

'Will she be mad?'

'Will she accept me?'

These thoughts kept assaulting his mind and her sitting next to him wasn't helping.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, Marinette too was stealing glances at him. Despite having a cheerful portrayal outside, her mind was completely clouded with worry. Were they back at square one? Were they reduced to mere acquaintances now? It broke her heart just thinking about things like this. They had come way too far from that stage to go back now.

After about an hour or two, a giddy Alya and Nino waved them goodbye, arms around each other.

Marinette waved back, smiling slightly. She then turned around to face Adrien.

"So..uhm..goodbye..? See you Monday."

Adrien just nodded in acknowledgement, unsure of what else to do. A look of hurt flashed through Marinette's face but she quickly masked it with a smile, and started waking away.

The boy was just left standing outside the café, debating furiously with himself. He wanted to talk so badly to her, but his nervousness was far too much. Finally, deciding to stall no more, he bolted towards her. He wasn't going to let his lady walk away.

"MARINETTE!"

The bluenette stopped dead in her tracks and turned around, surprise evident on her face.

"Adrien? What a-"

"I'm so sorry Marinette. I shouldn't have avoided you. I'm so, so sorry for acting like that."

Sh just stared blankly at him for a moment, taking in his apology. Then she broke into the widest smile that lit up her eyes.

"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have shoved you out earlier. And..truth be told, I was sort of avoiding you too. So can we start over?"

"I'd like that. Also I have something to tell you."

She nodded, urging him to continue. Adrien's heart was beating frantically. It was now or never. This measly confidence that he had, he had to use it to confess before it fades away.He couldn't chicken out now.

"Marinette, I know that you'e La-"

*CRASH*

The ground shook like crazy, and both the teens stumbled due to the impact. A cackling laughter echoed through before it faded away.

"An Akuma.", Marinette exclaimed. "I have to go, I'm sorry."

Adrien sighed. Of course an akuma just had to interrupt.

"I guess it's time to help m'lady, Plagg."

Fighting the akuma had been tough. But nevertheless, they were able to defeat it successfully. Watching Ladybug fight and knowing that it was Marinette behind the mask made Chat even more drawn towards her.

She dropped in on next to him and extended her fist.

"Pound it?"

"Pound it."

She smiled and was about to jump away before Chat grabbed her hand to stop her.

"Ladybug?"

"What is it, Chat?"

"Could you meet me at the Love Lock bridge tonight?"

"Chat, I-"

"Please? It's important."

Despite the evident look of conflict on her face, she sighed and nodded.

Marinette was nervously glancing at the clock, waiting for the minute hand to finally rest at 12.

Tikki munched on a cookie, having given up long back to try and calm Marinette down.

Finally, when the time came, Marinette called her transformation and yo-yoed away to the Love Lock Bridge.

Chat was already waiting for her when she arrived.

"What was it Chat?"

"Can you close your eyes?"

"W-What?"

"Please"

Knowing it was futile arguing with him, she hesitantly did so. She let out a gasp when she felt being lifted off the ground.

"Chat?"

"Don't open your eyes. I just want to show you something."

She put he arms around his neck and rested her head against his chest.

'God this brings back memories.', they both thought.

She her her cheeks grow hot as she remembered how she was in a similar situation with Chat, when he wanted to..

'Oh no..was he going to confess? This is bad.' , Ladybug thought.

After some time, he let her down and she opened her eyes slowly. Her eyes widened as she took in her surroundings. They were on the Eiffel Tower, surrounded by brilliantly lit candles.

"Care to dance with this feline bugaboo?", Chat asked her with a wink.

Ladybug blushed and even before she could answer, he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him, dancing to a familiar song which just so happened to be Marinette's favorite.

It took her some moments to realize but she did. The dance was awfully familiar to the super heroine.

"Déjà vu m'lady?"

Ladybug's eyes widened in shock, and she found it difficult to answer back.

"W-What do you-"

Chat smiled and leaned in close, whispering in her ear.

"Your dancing really is as good as your baking, Marinette."

Adrien

The class clapped as the final presentation was done. Everyone had prepared really impressive works. Rose, Juleka, Mylenè and even Alix were fawning over Marinette's creation and the designer just giggled in response.

Adrien walked by and gave her a sad smile. His smile brought tremendous amount of guilt or her. It was her fault that he was this way.

She had run away that night. It was too much information for her too soon. She had dashed away, right after he had trusted her with the biggest secret of his life. She had avoided him ever since, not even responding to the hundreds of texts that he left.

She was far too panicky to react clearly at that time. But now that she had taken in the information, the guilt was too overbearing. She had to fix it all, but she didn't know how.

Adrien was sitting alone on the bench, sulking, far too engrossed in his thoughts. He didn't even realize that someone had claimed the spot next to him.

"So when are we going to finish our dance?"

He jumped, startled due to the sudden intervention. He faced to his right, and found bright blue bell eyes boring straight into his green ones.

He was speechless and was furthermore shocked when she linked their hands and smiled. Resting her head on his shoulder, she quietly whispered,

"I'm glad that you're my Chat Noir, Adrien. Thank you so much.."