((A/N: This is 2 situations in one chapter because in my head they happened probably within a couple minutes of each other))

Juleka and Rose found out first. it was sudden, on accident, and out of sheer luck. Or bad luck in Ladybug's case.

Hiding away in the library to avoid roaming kids during lunch was a common occurrence for the pair of girls. They found a back corner away from the world and basked in it every chance they got, including during akuma attacks if no imminent danger was around. It wasn't surprising or quite as scary after Ladybug and Chat had saved them from so many different villains. A couple minutes after the bell for lunch sounded off on this faithful day, thumping was heard from a distance away. Probably 3 or 4 miles still, just enough that the principal didn't bother to evacuate but the destruction could be heard in a quiet place. They had some pretty high levels of faith in the heroes. The couple had already settled into their seats, snuggled close with earbuds connecting them, not fazed by the commotion at all. 2 or 3 months ago, they would've tried to make a way to safer ground with the thumping moving closer and closer but they had confidence in the saviors of Paris like the administration of the school did. The two read their own books in quiet most days, Rose glancing over to see what was on her girlfriend's mystery page occasionally, and Juleka doing the same to Rose's cheesy romance. They were usually too caught up in their books and music to pay attention to the sounds or sights around them, that's why it was a twist of sheer dumb luck they paid any that day.

Rose had looked up just long enough to see Marinette come crashing in, she assumed her friend was probably startled by the impending attack.

"Hey, Mari!"

Rose spoke out to her but received no response before the girl dashed into a close by aisle. She must not have noticed the cuddled up couple beside the stacks. In a fifth of a heartbeat, Marinette was running back out. But it wasn't Marinette. It was a certain red and black superhero everyone knew and loved. Rose shook Juleka's arm and asked if she had seen it too or if she was more insane than she previously thought.

"Marinette? Really? Hm. Cool."

Juleka didn't act nearly as shocked and excited as the other girl.

"Ahh! We know Ladybug! That's really awesome! Why are you not more excited!?"

She just shrugged a bit and drew her attention to the way Adrien bolted in, also ignoring the couple. Considering the events of the last minute, they weren't even surprised to see Chat Noir run back out and into the hallway.

"Now that one is actually not what I expected"

Rose twisted her body to look over at Juleka

"Really? He makes the same terrible puns as Chat though"

"And Marinette has the same courage as LB, I mean she stood up to Chloe of all people"

They sat back for a second in near disbelief that it took seeing them transform to make the realization.

"So, what now? Do we keep it to ourselves? I don't think they know it for themselves who the other is so we can't mention it or anything." Juleka reasoned to Rose but also more to herself. In the middle of her reasonings, Rose's face lit up and she started to bounce a little.

"It's like my book! They love each other so much but don't realize it because of something getting in their way! The thing getting in their way is being super awesome superheroes!"

Juleka placed a light hand on her girlfriend's shoulder

"Calm down, love, someone could hear us. Who else do you think knows? They weren't careful enough to check for people before transforming, maybe this isn't the first time?"
The two girls kept on for a couple more minutes before Ivan and Mylene came into the room near them. Before they could come within earshot Juleka leaned down a bit and whispered

"What's next, they turn into superheroes too?"

Rose giggled and snuggled closer, both for comfort and an unsuccessful attempt to make more room for the couple walking up. Ivan sat next to them first and put his bag out of the way for Mylene to sit in his lap. The weight of the small girl not phasing him at all

"Mornin' girlies" Mylene said.

The four remained sat in shifting silence for a second, waiting for the newcomers to be situated before Juleka spoke. She carefully calculated her words to avoid letting on just how much she knew

"Do you.. ever wonder who Ladybug and Chat Noir really are?"

Rose tensed a little, but a comforting hand came to the rescue again. The two added kids nodded a little and looked confused, Mylene asking if the akuma they were taking care of across town made her think of it.

Rose couldn't hold it in. She burst. Whisper burst, but burst none the less.

"Adrien and Marinette are Ladybug and Chat Noir!"

Juleka's eyes bulged from her head, now her muscles were tensed

"Rose! We said we weren't gonna tell anyone! Yes, okay- they didn't see us here and transformed in the aisles over there, it's them."

They shared the same amount of shock Juleka did, which was little to none.
"It doesn't sound impossible"
Ivan said his first kinda-sentence since they sat down, the girl in his lap nodding before thinking about it harder

"So they know who each other are? Like they transformed together?"

Juleka shook her head

"No, Marinette changed over there and ran out then Adrien ran in and did it too on the one next to it. I doubt they realized they were so close. Like if they had've waited a couple seconds they would've found out"

The two offered no other questions or surprise, just a simple 'oh'. The group soon switched topics to how Juleka's book was going and if the main guy had figured out the murderer yet, seemingly unfazed by the new revelations.

Nathaniel sat in the art room for lunch almost every day, doodling away in the low light and comfortable quiet. The hum of the air conditioning was smooth and didn't bother him. The kid across the room using a hair dryer to finish off some painting wasn't bothersome either. The noise that was grinding his gears was the loud thumping coming from some distance away. He tried to focus on the almost blank page in front of him instead of whatever was producing the annoyance. He looked at the couple lines he had drawn already, two vague figures next to each other, one's arm around the other who was waving. The slightly shorter girl was already lightly sketched to look like Marinette in the face and hair but no clothes had been added yet, the other figure was pretty much reserved for himself but not started other than posing. As he tried to continue Marinette's pigtails from where he started in class earlier, the noise got progressively louder till he couldn't stand it, finally asking the stranger a few feet away

"What the hell is that?!"

His question was answered by a flash of red and black by the window. Ladybug and her partner dashed past, heading to the outskirts of the campus. He thought to himself there must be another akuma victim out in town.

He left his seat for a minute to follow them with his eyes on the other side of the glass, but they were too fast for him to watch much of them. Once he finally sat back down he stared at his art once more, picking up his pencil and resting it on Marinette's collar. He picked it back up and started messing around with the person next to her. He absentmindedly added the hair, paying more attention to his wandering thoughts about Chat and Ladybug. It wasn't until after there was an almost finished face and hair not like his own at all that he fully connected he was so distracted by thoughts of Chat that he drew him instead.

It looks pretty good though so I'd hate to erase it. And it would probably be less creepy to draw Ladybug and Chat Noir than myself and my crush.

Nathaniel flipped his pencil and hovered it over Marinette's face before noticing how much it already looked like the hero's.

So am I a terrible artist or is Marinette- Ladybug?

He looked it over again and again before pulling out his phone and looking through photos of Ladybug on Google. None got very close to her face, so he opened up the Ladyblog. Alya always got closer to her than normal reporters. He found the interview the two girls did together ages ago and studied her face intensely. It was the same one he had drawn every time he doodled his crush. The same face he admired daily. How did he not notice before?
So that's why she always gives Alya exclusive interviews. They're best friends. Alya can't know, could she? She'd have already blabbed about it

He thought over Marinette being Ladybug for a few minutes, and it actually made a lot of sense. But thinking about her made his mind drift over to Chat too.

If she's in my class, is he too?

He studied the face on the Chat he drew, taking into consideration it was drawn from memory so it probably wouldn't be exact. But even in it's premature, doodled-with-no-reference state, it looked a lot like Adrien. That made sense the more he considered it too, actually.

"Ah Shit"

He let what he had been thinking slip out loud, earning a confused look from the kid now cleaning up paints.

"Oh- sorry. Messed up the nose. Gets me every time"

He awkwardly laughed to cover up the incident and continued the rest of the thought on the inside

If Marinette is Ladybug and Adrien is Chat Noir there goes any chance I have with her. Chat is in love with Ladybug. Everyone knows that. And as much as it sucks to admit, Mari is very into Adrien. So once they figure it out, that seals the deal

He continued to work on the art piece even if the thought of the inevitable hurt him a bit. He went on that night to transfer it to a better type of paper on his light box and add shading and color.