Part 5: Too Many Puzzle Pieces

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Luckily the akuma – Mandrake, as Hawkmoth had named her – was relatively easy to take down. A single mom whose son had taken their Christmas Eve dinner as a good opportunity to tell her that he would be moving away for university at the end of the term. Hawkmoth had given her the power to turn their apartment – which was just a few floors below Alya's parents' – into an impenetrable fortress made of tree roots. He had also given her the power to render anyone who came too close to her or her son immobile with her deafening screams.

Ladybug's lucky charm was unusually straight forward – a pair of noise cancelling ear muffs, and then Chat seemed to be more focused than usual. He cataclysmed the largest of Mandrake's tree roots without any instruction, and immediately ushered Ladybug forward through the small entrance he had created. The roots began to grow back together behind her, but it didn't matter. With her ear muffs on she was able to locate Mandrake's son without problems, and tear the small stuffed bunny he had been holding. It had been his very first birthday gift from his mom.

As the roots faded from around her, and Mandrake returned to her normal form, Ladybug used her lucky charm to restore order. When her earrings beeped, she instructed Chat to make sure both mother and son were okay, and she swung out the kitchen window.

Careful not to be seen by her friends, she swooped back through the same window in Alya's apartment that she had left just fifteen minutes ago, and scampered into the closet where Chat had left her. She dropped her transformation and sighed in relief. She had gotten back before him; her identity was safe.

Marinette was about to pull out a macaron for Tikki, when the closet door behind her was yanked open.

"Marinette!" Chat said with a relieved sigh, "you're alright!"

"I – yeah – but, Chat you – "

Beepbeepbeep

His pupils dialed down to pinpricks as the bright green light of fear and panic washed over them both. In a flurry of gasps and motion, he slammed the closet door to shut them both inside before he pressed his fingers over her eyes. Bare fingers.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap," Chat groaned, less than an inch away from her.

Marinette had to hold back nervous laughter. It shouldn't have been funny. But with her head still a little fuzzy from the kiss earlier, he brain wasn't functioning totally normally yet. She couldn't help but think of the irony that the whole reason they had been together tonight was because Chat was upset about Ladybug not knowing his identity and wanting to spend time with her. And here he was, just a fraction of a second away from it happening.

"Sorry, sorry, I was so worried about leaving you and everyone else here that I raced back as fast as I could and didn't think about how much time I had left, and oh man Ladybug is going to kill me."

"Ladybug won't be mad," she shook her head beneath his hold, "I didn't see anything."

"Oh, thank god." She felt his hands relax against her cheekbones. "That would have been pretty awkward." The sound of his relieved smile filled the small room.

"What, you mope to me about wanting Ladybug to know who you are, but when it's me who almost finds out, it would be awkward? That cuts deep, kitty," she teased lightly, taking the small opportunity to distance herself in his mind from her alter ego. Hopefully if she downplayed this whole situation, they could move past it more easily.

He scoffed, the pads of his fingers further loosening their grip on her eyelids. "Yeah, well Ladybug doesn't actually know who I am. Trust me, it would be awkward if you suddenly found out who your date had been all night."

That icy feeling of electric shock ran through her again. A mixture of fear and excitement. "Wait, what?" She whispered.

Was it possible to see the color drain out of a person's face if you couldn't actually see them? Chat's hands turned clammy, and returned their pressure against her as his whole body went stiff as a board.

"A-are you saying… that I know you… o-outside the mask?"

Why did she ask? She could have just let it be, brushed it off and pretended she didn't hear it. Everything would be easier without this tiny bit of enormous information. But it was too late, it was out there, swirling in the air between them, begging her to reach out and just know.

A nagging thought, a memory from a year or so ago surfaced so vividly that he didn't have to answer her for it to be confirmed. When Madame Mendeleiev had been akumatized it was because she found Tikki and Plagg at her school. Their school. It could have been a coincidence then, easy to explain away. But not now.

Now it made sense how he had fit in so easily with her friends tonight. Why he had acted so bashful from Nino's compliments - because he probably emknows/em Nino. Even her own comfortability with him began to make more sense to her. She had always attributed her natural connection with him to be because she was used to being around him as Ladybug, she had never considered the possibility that he was holding a similar secret.

Before, she had never really understood his desire to know Ladybug's identity, because knowing him as Chat was always enough for her. He was her partner, someone who was there for her always. That was more than enough.

But now it was there. The curiosity. Who was this mystery boy standing in front of her, who somehow had managed to unknowingly know her on both sides of her own mask. The answer was only fingertips away.

Her hands moved as an entity separate from herself, the knowledge tugging her closer and closer. They trailed from his wrists, over the light friction of his arm hairs, to where he was wearing a light cotton shirt, sleeves rolled up just above his forearms. He was shaking slightly.

"Marinette…"

She wasn't sure if she could stop asking now that she knew the question. This boy had been by her side for years as her partner. But tonight, he had been by her side as her friend. Marinette's friend. They had danced and goofed off and… kissed - an action that she hadn't expected to lodge itself so deeply into her psyche.

Her finger tips brushed over his jaw, until she cradled his face between both her palms. Thumbs brushed over his cheekbones, under his eyes where his mask usually hid him from her. Cheekbones that had smiled at her, teased her, and annoyed her to pieces.

And she knew.

He was Chat. Even in plain clothes, without his mask, she knew who he was. Maybe it was some kind of miraculous magic, maybe she was blind, or maybe her subconscious desire to stay in the dark was just too strong. But feeling the warmth of his face held in her hands, she couldn't picture anyone in front of her other than her fun loving, pun making, overdramatic and occasionally lovely, partner.

He must have felt her smile beneath where his hands were still holding back her vision, because she could feel him wince beneath hers.

She shook her head. "I don't know if I'm just stupid," she pinched his cheek, "but you just feel like Chat to me."

He let out a long breath. "So, you… you don't want to know?"

"I… I'll admit I'm curious," she shrugged. "But I've decided it doesn't matter. It's not my place to know who you are. You're my friend Chat Noir, and that's more than enough."

It was his turn to shake his head. "Well, one thing's for sure. You're definitely not stupid. You're amazing Marinette." He leaned forward and moved his hands around her back to bring her into a hug. She kept her eyes shut tight as they pressed into the fabric of his shirt.

"Okay, okay as sickeningly sweet as all of this bonding is, I'm hungry," a familiar rough voice surfaced beside them.

"Plagg," Chat hissed as he shifted to cover Marinette's eyes again. "Where have you been!? I could have transformed back minutes ago if you had to just grabbed some cheese from my pocket – I know you know where it is!"

"I'm tired, A – " there was an acidic bubbly sound, that Marinette guessed was Plagg's natural kwami reaction to almost saying his holder's name out loud. "You've been transformed all night flirting with the baker girl, and then there was an akuma, and I decided I deserved a little cat nap."

"Um, who's talking, Chat? Is that your kwumi?" Marinette flubbed purposely. It had been over a year since Chat had seen Marinette as Mulitmouse, so she had to be careful with how much knowledge she showed.

"Oh, uh. Marinette, this is Plagg, my kwami, yeah. He's supposed to be helping me transform!"

"Yeah, yeah alright I'll eat and then you can transform so that I don't have to watch you two touch each other's faces anymore."

Marinette felt Chat's cheeks warm beneath her hands. Slowly she lowered them back down to her sides. She had been holding him for a little too long, hadn't she.

"I, um… about earlier," he started sheepishly. "I'm so sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I don't, uh, I don't know exactly what came over me. I've only ever kissed Ladybug, and I don't even remember those times, so this was sort of my first real kiss and well, I wanted to - no, I mean... I wasn't thinking and it just... I don't know, it just sort of felt…"

Right.

Another something unspoken hanging between them, neither of them daring to say it, for fearing it would mean things had changed.

"It's okay, Chat, I think I get it."

"Y-you do?"

"Mm, well, yeah," she absentmindedly twirled his corsage around her wrist, "I mean, I did sort of kiss you back too so… we were probably just so caught up in everything, and it just happened, right?" At least that's what Marinette had been telling herself when they were fighting the akuma. Knowing now that Chat was actually a boy she already knew, did make her stomach flip when she thought about how his bottom lip had captured hers. And there was the fact that she was pretty sure she wouldn't have wanted to stop kissing him if it hadn't been for her friends watching them... But she said she wouldn't go down that path, so she shoved the thought away.

"R-right." He swallowed. "W-we just got caught up in the moment. That makes sense."

When Plagg was done with his cheese, Chat called for his transformation, and clawed fingers replaced the smooth skin that had been covering Marinette's eyes. She found herself mourning the loss of the skin to skin contact.

"We've been in here a while, I'm surprised no one has come looking for us," Chat pointed out.

"I'm not," Marinette scoffed, "Alya has probably known we were in here the whole time and purposely left us alone."

"But why would she – "

The closet door swung open, and there was the friend in question. "Ah, ha! I knew you two would want some privacy after that steamy mistletoe kiss!"

Chat immediately took his hands away from Marinette's face.

"Alya, you know it's not like that," she glared at her best friend.

Alya shrugged. "That's not what it looked like from out here."

"Um, where is everyone else exactly?" Chat asked, thankfully changing the subject.

Talking about the kiss with him had been awkward enough, let alone talking about it with Alya in front of Chat.

"Oh, they all left after that akuma attack, their parents wanting to keep them safe and have them home for the rest of Christmas Eve ya know."

"And you waited until now to come get us, because…?" Marinette drawled.

"Oh, because Alix, Kim and I took bets on how long you guys would stay in the closet. And considering you lasted way longer than either of them guessed, it looks like I won!" She pulled out her phone gleefully, presumably to tell them about her win. "Anyway, Marinette, your parents texted mine and said you could stay the night as long as you're back early for Christmas morning. But the cat here has to go home."

Chat nodded. He hesitated a moment, looking between the two girls. Alya took it as her cue to give them some more space, and she ducked out of the room.

Biting his lip, Chat paused only a moment longer before he tentatively grabbed Marinette's hand, and led her over to the nearby window.

"I know things got a little, uh, weird, there at the end," he looked away from her shyly, "but I did have a really good time with you tonight, and I'm glad you invited me."

He was certainly right. As much as Marinette wanted to deny it, she could feel that something had changed between them. She didn't know what it was, but somehow after knowing him for all this time, this felt like some sort of beginning for them. The now familiar squirming feeling in her stomach when he looked down at her told her that he felt it too.

"I had a really good time too, Chat." She beamed up at him.

"Maybe that boy you wanted to ask won't be able to make a future dance, and we can go together again. Except, maybe without the whole almost finding out my identity thing."

Her face flamed at the mention of Adrien. "W-well, that'll probably be pretty likely. He doesn't seem to get to go out much."

This felt dangerous. Knowing that Chat knew her as his civilian self made her rethink everything she had ever said to him. Had he pieced together that she had wanted to ask Adrien? If he knew her, then he probably knows Adrien too. If she wasn't careful, he'd find out about her crush, and then the teasing would be endless.

"Or I guess I could always ask you as myself, and you'd be none the wiser," he smirked.

Okay, this was really dangerous. It was like she suddenly had all the puzzle pieces; she just didn't know where they went. She wasn't sure she wanted to know. "Ugh this is too weird, Chat! Now I'm just going to be constantly wondering if you're like secretly watching me or something!"

His grin grew wider. "Wouldn't that just mean I've been watching you the whole time?"

Her eyes narrowed and jaw clenched. "Stop. Making. It. Weird." She lightly punched him in the chest. "No watching me at all!"

"Well, if I stop talking to you all together then that'll be pretty suspicious too won't it."

"How are you so casual about this – stop laughing!" She threw her hands up in the air. "God, it's almost like you want me to find out who you are!"

His face quirked in consideration. "Mm, no I don't think so. You're a lot more comfortable around me when I'm Chat and teasing you like this is too much fun."

Her eyes widened. "Stop giving me hints!"

His warm chuckle filled the air, and she wanted to smash her head against the wall. Tikki is SO going to kill me.

"This is a disaster," she mumbled.

"Okay, okay, I promise. No more hints, or anything. I'll act completely normally around you alright?"

"You better." She shot him a death glare to tell him she really meant business.

The angrier she made her expression, the softer his became. It was one of those looks he gave Ladybug from time to time. The kind that she tried to ignore in the heat of battle because it was too full of adoration. A soft smile played on his lips, as he leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead.

"Merry Christmas, Marinette."

Still scowling, she bit back a smile. "Merry Christmas, Chat," she grumbled.

He held her gaze a moment later, and then with one final wink, he jumped out the window and vaulted himself off into the night.

"Ooh, girl! Scoop!" Alya swooped back into the room. "What was all that about? I know I've been teasing you to no end tonight, but now I'm seriously asking. You like him, don't you?"

"Come on, you know Chat's just a friend."

Alya gave her a knowing look. "Are you sure about that?"

Marinette sighed. Running everything over in her head, this night had been such a whirlwind. It was exhilarating, exciting, and awkward at times, but the more she thought about it, the feeling she took away from it was an ever-growing warmth. A warmth that she could attribute only to playful smirks and soft eyes.

This time Alya was right. Chat was more than just her friend. More than just a partner to her too. She wasn't even sure there was a word for what he was to her. She just knew it was more. Something unquantifiable. More than unquantifiable. It was irreplaceable.

"I don't think I'm sure about anything anymore."

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A/N: That's it - that's the final part! I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope I didn't tease you too much with that almost reveal! I just didn't feel like they were quite ready yet, and I wanted to try a bit of a different take on things. I liked the idea that they've learned more about each other and are starting to see each other in a new light, and I didn't want the slow shift in feelings they'd been having all night to be overtaken with a full reveal.

Thanks again for reading, and to everyone who's been leaving reviews! I love seeing your reactions to my favorite dorks being awkward and unknowingly in love lol! I had so much fun participating in the Secret Santa exchange!