By the time Adrien had backtracked to the park near Nino's house, he still hadn't found anything. He'd even made a point of surreptitiously checking trash bins but to no avail. He was left trying to quash his rising panic that he wouldn't see the envelope—or his lady's picture—again. He'd have to tell her, of course. He'd have to admit how careless he'd been. No one else would know the picture was of Ladybug, but why would she ever feel she could trust him with her secret after he admitted what had happened?

"Just ask her for another picture," said Plagg from his shirt pocket. The kwami evidently had no trouble interpreting Adrien's mumbles.

"If she'd even give me one," Adrien muttered as he collapsed onto a bench. "I don't deserve it."

Plagg's response was two paws' worth of tiny claws digging into his chest. Adrien yelped and jerked his jacket open, and the kwami said, "You two work as a team. Ladybug knows what that means. Do you think she's as much of an idiot as you are?"

Adrien frowned and let the jacket drop back. He couldn't afford to have people wondering what he was doing. He couldn't really afford to sit around, either, so he got back to his feet and kept looking even as he talked to Plagg, heading back out of the park and retracing his steps towards Nino's house. "Of course not," he said, ignoring Plagg's jibe. He knew Ladybug was cleverer than he was. "She's one of the smartest and most resourceful people I know. But that doesn't mean she's not going to—ow! Plagg!"

Plagg retracted his claws. "How many times did she tell you this wasn't a matter of trust?"

Sometimes Adrien wondered if Plagg was able to read minds, but more likely he just knew Adrien very well after all the time they'd spent together. "That was before I gave her a major reason not to trust me."

"So you ran into some bad luck. So did she. Do you not trust her after she lost her Miraculous and left you to deal with Blademaster?"

"That wasn't her fault," Adrien pointed out immediately. His roving eyes spotted nothing, and he feared they never would. "I wasn't there to back her up when she needed me." He hissed through his teeth at the sudden pinpricks of pain and added, "Enough with the claws!"

"Then start using your head," Plagg retorted. "You said it yourself: Ladybug needs you. And she's said she trusts you. I don't know why you think some lost picture is going to change that. It won't."

It wasn't just some lost picture. It was Ladybug's picture. "Plagg—"

"So you made a mistake," Plagg interrupted. "Fine. So did she. That happens. You looked for the picture, you couldn't find it, and now you need to move on."

Plagg was, in his own way, trying to be supportive. Adrien sighed, stopped, and did an about face. Plagg was right. He wasn't going to find the envelope. He'd lost more than his chance to know Ladybug's identity, but he had to make the best of things—and abandoning his friends probably wasn't a way to begin doing that.

Adrien pulled out his phone to see if he had a message from Marinette yet—if she didn't have his number, it would be easy enough to get it from Alya or Nino—but his eyes were immediately drawn to what Nino had texted him: Dude, why'd you let me think you were moping over Ladybug? You know I'd have your back!

"I wasn't moping," Adrien muttered, but he read Nino's message again with a frown. Alone, it didn't make sense, but what followed it….

If I'd known you weren't just being nice to Marinette, I'd have told you to ask her out ages ago!

Adrien had the distinct feeling Nino's text wasn't brought on by their exchange at the cinema. If nothing else, the fact that he'd abandoned Marinette would've given Nino pause. So why—?

How long have you been harbouring this crush? Because you've gotta have it BAD.

What had Adrien done to give Nino that impression? Adrien did like Marinette—she was cute and sweet and smart—but he wouldn't do anything to betray his lady, even if she hadn't yet accepted his heart.

Besides. MARINETTE. I can totally be your wingman! It was not okay to keep this from me.

Well, there was no question what Nino was thinking there. Adrien chuckled and texted back, What are you talking about?

Nino didn't answer right away, and Adrien was nearly back at the movie theatre when he got the response: Sorry, dude. I kinda got ahead of myself.

That was…odd. What am I missing?

Nothing, man. Then, I'm with Alya and Marinette at the café by the cinema.

It wasn't nothing, but Adrien had no idea what it might actually be. Nino was much easier to read in person. Adrien didn't bother replying and instead waited to catch up with his friends in person. He saw three guilty faces when he arrived, which didn't make sense to him. Nino might've jumped to some wild conclusion about him and Marinette—which would admittedly be considerably less wild if he'd ever actually seen that movie with her—and Alya, knowing Alya, could well have egged him on. But unless they'd actually told Marinette….

Adrien faltered.

They'd told Marinette.

Granted, that didn't explain why she looked guilty. Embarrassed, sure, but guilty?

He put on a bright smile anyway as he dropped down into the empty chair opposite Nino to join them. "Hey, guys. What's up?"

Marinette turned red. Alya and Nino exchanged glances, and Nino shrugged self-consciously. "I got myself in trouble with our favourite Ladyblogger over here."

Alya gave Nino a good-natured whack on the arm and added, "It's my fault as much as yours. I lost my head when I saw that picture."

Picture?

"Can we please not talk about this right now?" Marinette whispered.

Picture.

Picture.

He'd lost Ladybug's picture.

"What picture?" he blurted out.

Marinette cringed, and Alya went into damage control, waving it off and saying, "One Marinette dropped. It's no big deal."

Across from him, Nino mouthed, Of Marinette.

Adrien nodded in acceptance and quickly brought the discussion back to the movies playing at the theatre before Alya or Marinette or anyone else could ask him what he had lost, but he stopped paying attention to more than the rhythm of their words. A picture. Of Marinette. The logical part of his mind pointed out that this could very well just be a coincidence—Marinette had obviously claimed the lost picture—but if it wasn't….

Flamethrower had noticed similarities Adrien had never seen—similarities that did exist and certainly couldn't be denied. Ladybug had been around for at least five thousand years, but that didn't mean that Ladybug was this one, whatever they'd joked about. And this Ladybug had once dropped a history textbook used by those in his grade who attended his school.

Then there was the fact that, whatever he'd said, he really hadn't seen Ladybug and Marinette together—unless he counted the time he'd ended up seeing two Ladybugs.

And the one other time he would've seen them together, the one time he should've, above all others, was the one time they'd needed to protect Marinette—and that had just happened to coincide with some secret mission Ladybug had been sent on which she had claimed she couldn't tell him about. What if her so-called secret mission had simply been to fight as her civilian self?

And perhaps Ladybug's guilt and horror over what had happened with Flamethrower wasn't simply because innocents had been targeted in her name but had also been sparked by fear for her own family.

He and Ladybug had both accepted the risks that came with fighting Hawk Moth, but he had only ever been thinking about the risk it posed to themselves, not their families or friends. He'd always thought he could protect them, even after what had happened with Flamethrower. Now….

Now he wasn't so sure, if Marinette truly was Ladybug. And from what he understood from Nino and Alya, Marinette missed class about as often as he did—which made perfect sense if she was Ladybug. He'd always figured they were exaggerating, but if they weren't….

Adrien looked at Marinette from the corner of his eye. She met his gaze and quickly looked away, purposefully leaning across the table to ask Alya a question. He took the opportunity to memorize her features, comparing them to Ladybug's. Everything seemed to line up, right down to the shape of her earrings.

Her earrings.

Quite possibly, her Miraculous.

Adrien desperately tried to remember how Marinette had looked when he'd run into her Friday afternoon. Had she been wearing those earrings? Had she been injured in any way? He never saw Ladybug after the fight with Blademaster until everything had been restored. An injury incurred during a fight with one of Hawk Moth's victims would heal when Ladybug restored everything to its proper order, but Tikki had said Blademaster had torn away Ladybug's Miraculous. It certainly brought to mind a more painful picture than retrieved or removed.

Unfortunately, Adrien had no idea if Marinette had looked any different. He'd been so busy thinking about Ladybug and wondering if she'd receive and interpret his message—wondering if she'd trust him enough to meet him—that he hadn't even really seen Marinette. He'd looked at her, talked to her, but noticed anything out of the ordinary? No. And he wasn't sure if he should have, which bothered him, since he'd been raised to pay attention to the little details.

Granted, if Ladybug was Marinette, he'd clearly been more than blind when it came to her.

But maybe that wasn't a bad thing, especially considering that Ladybug had wanted to keep their identities secret. He wondered if he'd managed to convince her to look in his envelope yet. He wondered, if she hadn't and if he wasn't crazy to think Marinette was Ladybug, if Marinette had realized the truth now that she'd recovered her picture. He was sure, whatever the picture actually looked like, it was recognizable enough that she would know it for what it was. True, it reasonably could have been dropped by anyone who had been in or around the theatre, but if Alya and Nino had been the ones to find it—that certainly seemed implied given Nino's texts—then that scenario became considerably less likely. And if she ever thought about it, she would see the similarities between him and Chat Noir.

But if she did know, if she had realized, then was she not telling him because she thought he didn't know?

Was she still keeping quiet, trying to keep it a secret because of where they were and who they were with, for fear that a few whispered words might still be overheard?

Or did she…did she wish Chat Noir was anyone else but him?

The thought made Adrien uneasy, but he had to consider it. His father always spotted his failings, however well he thought he'd done at whatever the task. Perhaps Marinette could see them as well. Perhaps Marinette could see through him, through his mask, and knew that he could never match her, could never match Ladybug. Perhaps Marinette had looked at him and realized that he wasn't worthy of being Chat Noir, not truly, and that his being chosen had been a mistake. Perhaps Marinette finally saw him for who he really was and realized he wasn't needed, that he wasn't even fit to stand in her shadow, let alone fight alongside her. Perhaps she'd finally realized he was nothing next to her and never would be.

Adrien hadn't realized he'd stood up until he noticed the others had stopped talking and were looking at him. "I…." He trailed off, wondering what he could say. He had no idea what they had been discussing. "I just remembered I didn't reschedule with Nathalie. I'd better go." It took effort to keep his voice steady, to keep his face smooth. It took effort to retain his mask.

Alya gave him a suspicious look but, for once, didn't press the matter. Nino frowned, as if trying to decide if he should say something, and settled on giving Adrien a look that promised a long conversation later, be it in person or on the phone or through text messages. And Marinette….

Marinette looked guilty.

She had probably guessed that he knew what she'd been thinking. Adrien managed a smile anyway as he lifted his hand to wave goodbye, but he made a quick escape. He couldn't face Marinette—Ladybug—knowing that she was no longer proud of her partner. Before telling Ladybug his true identity, it had never crossed his mind that she wouldn't accept him. He hadn't realized how much he'd come to depend on his mask.

As soon as he was out of sight of the others, Adrien began to run. He stopped in the nearest alley and pulled Plagg out of his pocket. "We need to transform," he said.

Plagg blinked his eyes open. "There's no attack."

Adrien rolled his eyes and initiated the transformation regardless. He needed…. He needed to get away for a bit. He needed time to come to terms with the fact that everything he'd dreamed might happen once he and Ladybug knew the truth about each other was far from the harsh reality. He should never have expected anything else. Certainly nothing better. He didn't deserve better.

Adrien started running across the rooftops without any particular destination in mind. He just wanted to move, to lose himself in the numbing rush of wind over his face and through his hair. He just wanted to forget, if only for a moment, that he'd destroyed his easy relationship with Ladybug instead of making it perfect.

"I'm sorry, my lady," Adrien murmured. Ladybug might never hear the words the wind stole from his lips, but he felt better with them said. "I should never have pushed that we know the truth. It's my fault." If there was any way that he could change things, that he could correct his mistake….

But there wasn't.

He knew that.

Knowing just didn't make it any easier to accept. He'd give almost anything—

"Chat, watch out!"

Adrien jerked and twisted at the sound of Ladybug's—Marinette's—voice. He misjudged the jump and fell, having only a split second to see her racing along the rooftops about a block behind him before she was out of sight. He was so surprised that it was more by instinct than anything else that he was able to tuck and roll and recover his footing. He had just been lucky that the street—a residential one, he now realized—had been deserted.

Ladybug landed beside him a moment later, but instead of securing her yo-yo on her hip again, she lashed it out. Adrien flinched as it shot past his ear before he realized Ladybug had never been aiming for him. (Of course she hadn't been; she wouldn't miss a shot like that if he wasn't there to mess it up for her.)

"M-my lady?" He couldn't bring himself to call her Marinette, even knowing she would have realized he was Adrien.

"Gotcha," Ladybug said grimly. The yo-yo sprang back to her hand and she stared at it for a moment. He'd seen that look on her face before. He'd seen it on Friday and he'd seen it again yesterday. She looked like she was about to cry.

Instead, she opened her yo-yo and released a cleansed akuma Adrien had never even noticed.

Ladybug took a shaky breath and turned to look at him. "Whatever you're thinking," she said slowly, "just stop."

Adrien's stomach twisted. "It was coming for me," he realized.

She nodded. "Being Ladybug and Chat Noir doesn't give us protection from Hawk Moth. Didn't Plagg ever tell you that? We're stronger with them, but we still have to be strong enough to resist him on our own. What happened to your confidence, kitty?"

His confidence had never been anything more than a mask, and that had already been shattered.

When Adrien didn't answer, Ladybug sighed and returned her yo-yo to her hip.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Ladybug's head shot up. "Sorry?" she repeated, incredulous.

Adrien shifted uncomfortably. "This is my fault," he explained. "All of it. Beginning from when I pushed that we know each other's identities and…." He trailed off, for once not sure what to say.

Ladybug stared at him for a second before surging forward and enveloping him in a hug. "It's not your fault," she whispered fiercely. "Please don't blame yourself for this. I don't know why you think that. You're the best partner I could ever have and finding out each other's identities was a mutual decision. I didn't have to open that envelope, and I didn't have to give you one in return, either."

Adrien froze. "You opened the envelope?"

"Late Friday night," Ladybug admitted, mumbling her answer into his shoulder. "I know I should have told you, but I didn't know how. And…and I was scared."

Adrien frowned. "Because of who I am?"

"Because of who I am." A small laugh escaped Ladybug and she looked up at him. "You know who I am now, kitty. You know I'm just an ordinary girl who can't measure up to Ladybug when she isn't wearing her mask."

Adrien gaped at her for a moment. She thought she didn't measure up to—?

"I'm not you," Ladybug continued. "You somehow manage to be the perfect partner or the perfect, well…."

"Son?" Adrien whispered the word. He ordinarily would never admit this—even with Nino, he sidled around the truth of his feelings on the matter—but when he was Chat Noir, he could pretend Adrien was someone else. Not having Adrien and Chat Noir connected was vital, of course, where everyone but Ladybug was concerned. Ladybug was different. He could be himself with Ladybug. But he didn't need anyone else, least of all his father, pointing to Adrien and seeing all of Chat Noir's flaws. "It's a far cry from perfection. I never seem to be good enough, no matter—"

"Bite your tongue, kitty cat," Ladybug said, straightening up in his arms and giving him a playful shove. "You've perfected more than just how to wear a mask."

"Everyone wears masks," Adrien murmured. "Perhaps we're just both better at it than some people."

"Perhaps, even if we sometimes let our other personas bleed through."

"Like your fear for your family?"

"More like my anger at Chloé," Ladybug admitted. "But our masks protected us in spite of that. I trusted you enough to rip that protection away. Tikki never said so, but I think she would have preferred it if I'd shoved your envelope into my bookcase and didn't look at it until I had to. But I did look. Because I was curious, yes, but also because I trusted you and I believed you when you said we'd be able to get through whatever came out of this. I believed things would be better if we knew even if I was afraid of the price of our knowledge. You're right. Hawk Moth still doesn't know who we are, even if he's closer to me than he's ever gotten before. We can get through this, whatever's ahead, but we'll only get through it together. We'll both make mistakes, but if we stay together…."

"I'll never leave your side, my lady," Adrien promised.

"You nearly did," Ladybug pointed out. She was quiet for a moment. Then, "Did you really not look in the envelope I gave you?"

"I opened it," Adrien answered slowly, "but I couldn't bring myself to look when I wasn't convinced that's what you wanted. I didn't figure it out until back at the café, and—"

"And you ran because you couldn't bear the thought of me as your partner?"

Ladybug's words were light, but Adrien could hear the tightness in her voice. He pulled her towards him again, and she didn't protest. She leaned against him, and he breathed in the scent of her hair. "I ran because I didn't believe I was worthy of being your partner."

The response earned him another bone-crushing hug, but he couldn't bear to let her go. Ladybug. Marinette. He should have put them together ages ago.

"I'm the one who doesn't deserve you, kitty. I'm sorry. So let's promise to support each other, all right? We aren't in this alone, and we can rely on each other to do more than cover our backs in battle."

"I swear that I will do everything I can to protect you, my lady."

Ladybug stepped away from him then. She was frowning. "You can't, Chat Noir. You can't make a promise like that. Support me. Aid me. But don't sacrifice yourself for me. Not again. You can't make me go through that again. Especially not now. Please don't."

"Again?" Adrien repeated, having a sinking feeling that he knew what she was talking about.

"Six minutes," Ladybug whispered.

Timebreaker.

"You can cleanse the akuma," Adrien said slowly. "I can't." He might not know the details, but he could guess them. "You are the true hero, Ladybug. You are the only one who can save everyone. And I…." He trailed off. She knew how that sentence ended. He was there to protect her. And when he hadn't been, Hawk Moth had nearly gotten her Miraculous. He'd nearly discovered her identity and had nearly destroyed her.

And Adrien wasn't sure he could bear life without her.

"You are the reason Ladybug can win," she said, stretching out one hand to tap the tip of his nose. "Don't forget that, kitty cat."

Adrien caught her hand and kissed it. "I won't, my lady." He lowered his hand but kept his fingers entangled in hers. "What about the others?"

"They aren't expecting us back; I told them I was going to give you my picture after all. I can field the questions later." That was certainly no simple feat, knowing Alya. "Besides," Ladybug added in a softer tone, "I was told we could stop by the bakery for something sweet if we ever wished it, and now might be just the time. We can sit down with something and talk."

Ladybug was very careful not to say anything too direct about her identity, even now. Adrien could not fault her caution. They both had reason to worry, especially after what he'd nearly allowed to happen to him. He'd been careless. He should have been more careful.

He shouldn't have abused the freedom of the mask.

Plagg never had mentioned whether or not Hawk Moth would be able to control him, but Plagg did not mention a lot of things. He wondered if Plagg would be able to fight Hawk Moth off, to keep him from fully controlling Adrien, if at all, or if—

No.

Ladybug was right.

Plagg wouldn't have been able to hold off Hawk Moth, at least not for long. Adrien might not remember much about what had happened with Dark Cupid, but he knew enough to know that he'd been affected—and that he'd been transformed at the time.

If he gave Hawk Moth an opening, he was as vulnerable as anyone else.

And more dangerous because of it.

Knowing that any deal he made with Hawk Moth, however good it seemed, would turn sour was not necessarily knowledge enough to stand in the way of Hawk Moth's persuasive words, promising whatever he most wanted.

Adrien squeezed Ladybug's hand. "I'd like that." He could borrow her strength; she had far more of it than she realized. And even if he was hiding behind his mask, he wouldn't mind being able to enjoy the feeling of family again, just for a moment.

This was turning out far better than he'd ever dared to hope it would whenever he'd tried to wheedle Ladybug's identity from her. He hadn't truly thought it would be this easy for him to spend time with Ladybug when neither of them was wearing a mask. Given what Nino and Alya clearly believed, there would be no barriers to him spending more time with Marinette now when they weren't simply Chat Noir and Ladybug. He didn't think they'd really need an explanation, anyway. Matters of the heart weren't easily explained.

His father would not approve, and Nathalie would report it to him the moment she realized the truth—that Marinette, whatever her social station, meant more to him than any other girl—but for her, Adrien would argue. He had to. He didn't like the strict restrictions on his friendship with Nino—he would have preferred to be able to have friends over every once in a while—but he could not fight every battle, and he had to pick them carefully. He might not be as strong when it came to strategy as Ladybug, but he knew that much.

Ladybug finally freed her hand to unclasp her yo-yo. "I'll race you there," she proposed lightly. "Are you ready?"

Adrien grinned at her as he pulled out his staff. "Always."

Whatever threat Hawk Moth might have up his sleeve, Adrien planned to meet it with his claws out. He would go down fighting if he went down at all, and he would protect Ladybug to his last breath whatever she said. They would fight together, and they would win. Always.

A/N: This is the happy ending. *grins* That being said, I'm aware of the major thread left untouched, so I may write a part two or sequel of sorts to this at some point. Thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing! I can't tell you how much I appreciate all your comments.