The akuma wasn't one of the worst and it wasn't new either; it turned out that it was Manon who had been transformed to Puppeteer. Fighting her the second time was easier as they already knew her powers and where the akuma was. In fact, that could have been their easiest and quickest mission in a long time if it hadn't been for him and his lack of concentration.

He tried to push aside his thoughts about that certain event, at least for the sake of their current situation, and he even managed to do that until he said her name. He thanked that his mask covered half of his face, especially his cheeks, and that his partner was fully focused on the fight, otherwise he would have had to explain his unnaturally red face to Ladybug just every other minute.

Overall, he wasn't much of a help. The success of today's job belonged only to the heroine. Normally, he would feel bad about that but not today where he'd been having a lot going on his mind and, to his misfortune, another thing was rapidly coming his way. He had to face her very soon.

Hiding in one of the rooms, he dropped his transformation and started looking for cheese for his always hungry kwami. Even if he hadn't done too much as Chat Noir, he began to feel exhausted, even more with his powers now taken and he just wished for this day to be finally over. Yet, he still had some things to do or rather to explain.

He heavily sighed with some sort of resignation. How was he supposed to tell her that? And where? Should he tell her privately or –?

He mentally smacked himself on the head.

Idiot! Of course it had to be a private conversation! But was she gonna yell at him? Hate him? Without a doubt both. Or kill him? Would she kill him? Yeah, she would definitely kill him.

How was she going to kill him?

The more he was thinking about it, the less he wanted to confess.

But she deserved to know, right?

"What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over. Or in this case the ear, what the ear doesn't hear. Something like that." Plagg recited between his munches which must have clearly taken Adrien aback because the black kwami added, "What?"

"Err, nothing, it's just… you surprised me a bit I guess." And made him think again.

"Listen kid, I've been hanging around in this world for thousands of years and I'll tell you two of the many things I have learnt during that time," the little cat-like god made a pause, using it to fully swallow the Camembert he had been relishing on, and then carried on, "First, humans are complex, difficult to understand and like to complicate things even more than they already are," he stated, making Adrien roll his eyes, "on the other hand, cheese is –"

"Plagg! This is serious! You are not helping at all!"

"Alright, alright, I just wanted to ease the tension, relax kiddo. Erhm, what was I saying? Oh, yes, what I was trying to say is that sometimes it's better to keep some things to yourself if they mean to cause only trouble, tears and broken bonds. You did something stupid, again, even if I had warned you, and you won't change that. Now tell me, what possibly good would come out of it if you told her the truth? She is going to only be embarrassed and will not talk to you, or even look at you ever again. And then you will be sad and heartbroken over your friendship and I will have to listen to everything, every day, till the end of our lives."

"But I'll feel guilty for not telling her for the rest of my life!"

"Meh, you'll forget about it, eventually," Plagg said, the last word almost a whisper. The truth was that deep down he knew that it wouldn't happen; his owner was too innocent for that, his soul too pure to follow kwami's advice.

"I – I can't… I – " the teenager started to panic, his head full of conflicted thoughts running every second. It was as if he had all the possible pros and cons for confessing and not confessing to Marinette, fighting with each other, trying to overtake his mind. He was slowly losing it.

"Adrien?"

He stopped his overthinking when he heard his name being called, loud. But it wasn't Plagg who was calling him. The voice came from a distance, just behind the doors he was leaning on and it belonged to a girl. Not some girl, it was Marinette's and he was getting nervous again.

He wondered how long his heart was going to last as he felt like he was already having a heart attack.

"Adrien, are you there?"

The blonde model turned to the kwami, "C'mon Plagg, you gotta hide."

"But what about you, did you come up with something?"

"No, I'm still thinking but my friends are going to find me soon so you better hurry up!"

When Plagg hid behind the jacket, Adrien took a deep breath and opened the doors. He was immediately greeted by blue like the ocean eyes, which were now wide open (probably just like his), and which belonged to the girl who was calling him just moments ago.

Her right hand was raised, indicating that she had been about to knock on his doors. She had a kind of a shocked expression on her face which made the boy wonder if that was caused by him suddenly leaving the room or that… she had overheard his conversation from earlier. The second thought made him anxious.

"Marinette, uhm, hi. Were you looking for me?" he tried to sound casual.

The said girl blinked a few times and then blushed. She quickly fixed her posture and smiled widely, "H-hi Adrien, yes, me was you looking, I-I mean I was looking at you, no, for you!" she tripped over her words which he always found quite amusing, even though he still hadn't figured out the reason of her stuttering.

"Alya and Nino sent me to, to find you, that's it, they are waiting downstairs." She added. And then she did something he had never seen her do before; she bit her lips and his eyes instantly followed.

Those plump, soft lips he kissed not even an hour ago.

The fresh memory set his face aflame, his whole body began burning from overflowing new emotions.

"A-Are they?!" he almost shouted, unintentionally, "Let's better not keep them waiting any longer then!" and he started to go to the stairs, praying that Marinette didn't see or suspect anything.

They quickly got to their friends not saying much on their way. Veronique was waiting for them as well, and when the four of them were together, she showed them the statue of Adrien which was surprisingly all ready, despite the akuma attack.

After that, they were shown a few more figures and then were walked to the car which was already there with his driver. They thanked and said goodbyes to Veronique and took their usual seats in the car.

Once inside, they were recalling today's events; mainly Nino and Alya. Adrien, on the other hand, was back to battling with his thoughts, whereas Marinette was staring out of the window, clearly lost in her own world too.

Fifteen minutes later, he was waving goodbye to Alya, who finished hugging Marinette, and the brunette disappeared behind the door to her house while the ravenette started walking back to the car where Adrien was holding the door open for her. When she took a seat on the other side of the vehicle, the model followed behind, taking her previous spot.

And then there was an awkward silence.

They were looking at everything but each other, both not sure what to say.

Eventually, Adrien was the one who decided to change that killing atmosphere.

"So, how did you like it?"

He didn't know why but for a moment Marinette seemed to be taken by (a big) surprise by his question and even her cheeks flushed a little bit before she recovered. He then realised that she must have misunderstood what he had said, in a certain way that made him flush now as well.

"Erhm, it was a fantastic and new experience for me and I'd definitely love to do it again!" Her choice of words made it harder for him to focus on what they were actually talking about.

"Y-yeah, m-me too." He stuttered which was very rare for the teenage boy to do.

Another silence came between them. He looked at his friend from the corner of his eye and he almost screamed out of frustration, seeing how she was all happy and smiling without knowing what a bad thing he had done to her.

He had it enough, he had to tell her.

"Marinette, I have to tell you – "

"I'm so lucky to have you guys as my friends."

Huh?

"Huh?" Was his only response right now.

"I know, it's so random but after today's day, it came to me that I'm being surrounded by such great, kind, honest, supporting people that it's a miracle. I'm," her eyes got dangerously teary, "I'm beyond grateful that I finally found friends, wait, best friends like you. Oh, I got so emotional now, I'm sorry." And she smiled with that adorable smile of hers.

Adrien, however, felt as if he was punched very hard in the stomach by the strongest akuma ever created. He felt guilt fully taking over his body, slowly destroying him, piece by piece.

At that point, he knew he was screwed.

"We are here." A grunt came from the driver's seat.

The car wasn't moving anymore. They reached their destination, too quick, much to the model's dismay.

He hadn't told her yet! And now, she was leaving the car. Dammit.

He quickly followed her steps and they both stopped in front of the bakery.

"Thank you for today, Adrien. It was really fun."

"I'm glad you liked it." C'mon, you need to say it!

He could feel his blood flowing faster, the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat. He pursed his lips and closed his eyes, trying to make the right decision. It was now or never.

"Adrien? Are you alrig – ?"

"Mari, I must confess. About earlier…" He opened his eyes again and looked into hers; they were so big, so blue and so beautiful. He was weak. "It was really sweet what you said about us, about me, Alya and Nino. You are a really great friend yourself and I wanted you to know it." And he heartfeltly, yet painfully smiled.

He was terrible.

'Sup my lovely readers,

I'm sorry you had to wait only a month and a half for another update, I hope you ain't mad cause we are back on track. With the newest episodes of Ladybug, I got a dose of motivation to write. Moreover, the "Ladybug" episode... damn, so many ideas came from that one and I really like the (spoiler alert!) theory about Adrien being, you know, a perfect creation of somebody. That's so dark, too dark to actually happen but it makes so much sense! Yet, at the same time poor Adrien, he really can't have a break from all of that drama, it's really heartbreaking.

And what do you think about the latest revelations? There are still a few episodes left, what else are we gonna learn from them? I'm really curious about the Chat Blanc one right now. And the final ones, obv.

Anyway, let me know how was this chapter, what should I change or improve.

See you next time,

With love, Al xxx