A birthday gift for lunar-resonance on tumblr! She requested Ladrien and I gave it one of my twists, hope you enjoy!

He's surprised when he finds her sitting away from the madness downstairs, a hand straightening the ribbons in her pigtails. She's familiar in a way different than usual, different than what he's used to seeing or knowing, and he wonders at it.

My lady, he barely avoids saying, and instead what tumbles out is this: "Ladybug."

She turns, startled, as if she's not expecting anyone to call her name. "A-Adrien?"

Ladybug remembers his name, his civilian name, though they've barely met under those aliases, and he tucks away at the warm feeling that rises in his chest for a later occasion. To contemplate, to remember, to cherish when he's at his worst and the world feels like it'll come down if he lets go for more than a moment.

"You remember me," he says, and her eyes widen.

"Yes," she breathes. "How did you know it was me?"

He gestures at her spotted suit, her mask, the yo-yo that hangs around her waist. "Beyond the obvious?"

His lame attempt at a joke doesn't seem to convince her. "There's a costume party going on downstairs, Adrien."

He flusters at her raised eyebrow.

She raises it higher.

He slumps. "I'd know you anywhere, m- Ladybug."

He thinks he spots - hah! - a ghost of a smile drifting on her face, but it's lost to the dark. He thinks he can see the beginnings of a blush, too, and his hand nearly drifts away to turn on the light.

He doesn't dare do it.

Like this, in the dark, everything feels intimate. It's like his late night patrols with her as Chat Noir, when the night is deep and his secrets yearn to be let out, if only she'd let him. Instead of turning on the light, he steps a little closer - cautiously, warily, as if a wrong move can chase her and her secrets away.

"I didn't think you'd be here," he confesses, and it's the truth. He had been expecting an empty, silent room, an escape from Chloè and her suffocating affections. Adrien feels guilty admitting to it, even inside his mind - Chloè had been his first friend, though not one he'd made on his own. "Do you go to my school?"

She might stiffen a little, but not as much as she usually does. Maybe it's the darkness that softens her, or another kind of glint that shines in her eyes, but there's something different about her tonight that makes her seem less of a hero and more of a normal teen. "I was just taking a break."

"I see," he exhales, and doesn't press on the matter. "Are you okay, then?"

She smiles, and his heart flutters. "I'm better now."

He stumbles. He's clumsy, unsure, wishing he had Chat's confidence and Chat's friendship with Ladybug, but he doesn't, and all he can do is his best. "I'm glad," he manages to say. "I think people keep forgetting you're a person, too. Take a break tonight."

She shifts in place, and there's a darker spot on her suit, like water, or blood; she shifts again, and it's out of sight once more. "I might."

"Right," he says, awkwardly stepping away. It's a dance of back-and-forth he plays with his lady, never sure when to advance or when to retreat, and he doesn't want to push his luck tonight. "I'll- I'll leave you alone now. Take care."

"Bye, Adrien," she says softly, and he walks away.

The door clicks shut behind him, and all he wants to do is walk back in.

"Stupid," he breathes to himself, and walks down the stairs.

Alya laughs at him when she sees him, preparing to go upstairs herself. He wants to find a reason to stop her, to prevent her from seeing Ladybug when the hero isn't herself, but Alya doesn't give him the chance to.

"Did you stumble on Marinette?" she asks, an odd sort of knowing glint in her eye, and he's lost to its meaning.

"Marinette?" Another girl to keep away from Ladybug, though he thinks she wouldn't mind her so much. Marinette is that sort of person - patient, kind, brave - and if there's anyone in the world Adrien would trust Ladybug to, beyond himself, it would be to her.

"Chloè spilled some juice on her Ladybug suit," Alya says, frowning at the blond girl Adrien had been hiding from. "She was cleaning it on one of the classrooms upstairs."

She doesn't allow him to process her words before she barrels on, taking his view of the world with it. As Alya slides inside the very same classroom he had just left, Adrien feels his knees give out.

Oh, he thinks, head full of Marinette and Ladybug and polka-dots and knowing eyes.

And he knows.

He knows.

Oh.