"Pound it!"

The akuma victim returned to normal, looking up at me in confusion.

"Don't worry, everything is fine now," I put a hand on his shoulder and smile, only to be interrupted by my earrings giving me a final warning that I'm about to transform. "Chat noir, we have to go!"

"Until next time, M'lady," Chat Noir gave his trademark bow and flung himself away, while I went back towards the school.

An akuma during class, again. It was pretty close to the school, with one of the janitors being the akuma victim this time. I wonder how Chat Noir got to the scene so quickly…

I quickly opened the door of a utility closet in a secluded hallway. As soon as I looked inside, I was met with the eyes of Chat Noir himself.

"L-Ladybug! I—," his transformation began to drop right in front of me, his bright green eyes staring at me in horror. I was staring into the eyes of Adrien Agreste himself. The super-awesome-and-amazing love of my life. I couldn't help but stare. Was Adrien Chat Noir? Adrien is Chat Noir. I just saw it, with my own two eyes, right in front of me. Chat Noir was Adrien Agreste—

"Ladybug, your earrings!" Adrien pulled me into the small closet with him and shut the door, keeping me from transforming out in the open. I felt my suit dematerialize from my body while I held eye contact with the boy in front of me. Who was Adrien. Who was Chat Noir. Who was Adrien. Who was—

"Marinette?" Adrien gawked in disbelief as a pink blush touched his cheeks. "I-I'm sorry, I couldn't help but look, I promise this will stay between you and me…" he trailed off, avoiding eye contact.

In my mind I was at a loss for words, but my mouth began to move on its own, "i-it's okay, there's nothing you could've done," I feel my face grow hot as he draws his closer to me, "w-we, should go to kiss I-I mean class, y'know, because school and stuff, because Chat Noir is in my class, a-and is you, who is Adrien, who i-is in m-my class—," Adrien pulled my face to his and placed his lips on mine ever so gently, and only for a moment, my nervousness melted away under his touch. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but it was the best few seconds of my life.

"I'm glad it was you, Marinette. And here I thought I had a crush on two different girls this whole time," Adrien sighed and placed his forehead against my shoulder and clutched my arms for stability. "M-My legs feel all wobbly, I think I'm falling for you, M'lady," I could feel breathing become uneven as we both stood in silence, processing what we just got ourselves into. I placed my hands around his neck and pulled him closer.

"And here I thought having feelings for you and Chat Noir would end poorly for me," I giggled. What a silly situation fate has put us in. "Maybe, deep down, we both knew, kitty." Adrien blushed at my words. It felt so weird calling Adrien kitty, but now everything makes sense. The whole picture has become clear, how have I been so blind this whole time?

"You have to get back to class Marinette, everyone is going to wonder where you are!" Tikki's voice brought me back to reality; I was at school and missing class. Again. I let go of Adrien and opened the door, peeking into the hallway.

"No one is here, let's go!" I quickly pulled him out of the closet and towards our classroom.

The bell rang to signal the end of the day, not that I was really paying attention in class anyway. Instead I was freaking out that that Adrien-goddamn-Agreste was my trusted super partner, who I was trying to get over my recently realized feelings for. This just made everything worse. How am I supposed to fight akumas if I could oogle Adrien in a skin tight leather suit? Oh god, I've always shrugged off his flirts like nothing, not knowing that the love of my life was under that mask. Ugh.

I packed up my bag and walked towards the door, until I noticed Adrien, staring at me, blushing. That's cute.

"Hey, uh, we have a lot to talk about, don't we?" I chuckled, "if you have time today, would you like to come over to my place for a while?"

I think I broke him. I don't think he was ready to be alone with me again. There was so much I wanted to talk about though, and sooner is better than later.

"Oh, uh sure M'la-arinette," he blushed at his stutter and looked around to see if anyone noticed. "May I walk with you?"

He's having a harder time getting his sentences out than normal, it seems. It made me want to bring some of that Chat Noir trademark flirtatiousness out a little more to his Adrien side. I have love for both sides of him, and I'm glad to have learned more about Chat than I thought I would ever know.

"Of course," my ears grew hot as I watched Alya smirking at me behind Adrien, intently watching the whole thing and giving me a thumbs up. I left the classroom with Adrien close behind me.

The walk home was awkward. Neither of us said much, afraid of being overheard by passerby. I'd occasionally glance over at him, only to be met with his gaze as well, making us both look away awkwardly. When we reached the bakery it was like a sweet release.

"Maman, Papa, I'm home," I saw their eyes widen as Adrien entered the bakery behind me. "Adrien and I are going to work on homework upstairs, If that's okay?"

"Of course, dear. Here, take these up with you," Papa gave me a plate with assorted pastries; cookies, croissants, among other things.

"Thanks, Papa," I kissed him on the cheek and headed upstairs, closing the hatch behind me.

Tikki had no problem taking one of the cookies off the tray before I could even sit down.

"It's about damn time this happened," said the voice from Adrien's shirt. A black cat kwami revealed himself and headed straight to the platter. "You got any cheese, Ladybug?"

"Uh, no?" I looked over to Adrien, "is this your kwami?"

"That's Plagg," he explained, "he'll eat just about anything, but her prefers camembert cheese for some reason."

"Hah! 'For some reason' he says! Camembert is only the best of cheeses!" Plagg grabbed a croissant and sat next to Tikki on the desk. "Oh, don't let me distract you though; it looks like you two have some talking to do."

I blushed and glanced over at Adrien, who stiffly sat down on my chaise, equally as embarrassed. I sat next to him and placed my hand over his. "Is everything okay?"

"Of course it's okay, it's better than okay!" Adrien put his other hand over mine and squeezed, "it's just, I never expected it t-to be you." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, unable to stop fidgeting. "And now that I know, It's just so obvious. Everything seems…"

"Clear?" I added. I giggled and leaned back on the chaise. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." I felt bad for not telling him after he took me, Marinette me, that is, to see the beautiful setup he had put up for Ladybug.

"It's funny to think about all the times we have interacted with each other without knowing, as our civilian selves that is," Adrien leaned back with me, pressing our shoulders together. "And there's no need to apologize, though it feels like we were just delaying the inevitable. There were so many times we were so close…" Adrien sighed again and rolled his head to look over at me, "...to figuring it out." The look on his face was so…tantalizing. He had that Chat Noir smirk with an intense desire in his eyes, and it was a desire for me. I felt heat rise to my cheeks.

"Y-yeah, I'm glad you're not disappointed," I looked away. I couldn't handle those eyes for too long.

"What do you mean?" his voice grew soft and worried.

"Well, y'know, because super cool ladybug turned out to be…me," this wasn't at all what I wanted to talk about, but the word vomit just kept coming. "I'm not exactly superhero material." Tears welled up in my eyes as I focused on the screensaver on my monitor.

"Marinette," Adrien gently pulled my face to look at him. "I never, ever thought I would be disappointed when I saw you. All I ever thought was how happy I'd be when I could see you when there wasn't danger, and I could just…" he lifted my hand to his mouth and pressed his lips against it, making me melt. "…kiss you properly."

"K-kiss? Aha, well, i-if you want." What. What. Why did I say that? Of course he wants to! I want to! Why is it even a question?

Adrien chuckled and pulled my face closer to his. I studied his expression, his cheeks were red and his bright emerald eyes haven't stopped looking at me this whole time. "I do want to, Bugaboo. But only if," his thumb trailed over my bottom lip, "you'll let me."

My heart melted. Chat or Adrien, he was stuck with me either way, and he loved it. I sighed and placed my hand on his neck and pulled him to me, giving him the most passionate kiss I could muster. His kisses became more heated and hungry for more. All of those flirts he would throw at me weren't hollow, after all. He was really just crying out for my attention, a cry I was ignoring. It just made me feel worse about it all; I was never even giving him a chance.

"Adrien, I—," my phone went off in my pocket, it was Alya calling. I sighed and picked it up.

"H-hello?"

"Marinette! I saw that stunt you pulled with Adrien! Is he there? You better give me all the details!" I could hear Nino in the background laughing at Alya.

"Yes Alya! He is here so I have to call you later," I huffed.

"Oh shit Marinette please tell me what's happening!" She was way too excited.

"Goodbye Alya," I hung up before she could get another word in.

"Alya huh?" Adrien asked. He scooted himself closer to me and put his arm onto the back of the chaise.

"Yeah, she was being nosy," I sighed. She was a great wingman, but sometimes she was a bit too much for me to handle.

"May I ask you something?" he said as he twirled a few strands of my hair between his fingers, making my heart flutter.

"Of course, kitty. You don't even have to ask." His face grew red from my answer. He looked away and covered his face with his free hand.

"Well first, you have to stop calling me that," he peeked over his hand at me.

"Calling you what? Kitty? But I always call you that," I said. Why would he want me to stop calling him that? Did he not like it?

"Y-yes that," he covered his face with both hands this time. "Now that I know it's you, I-I can't," his breathing became uneven, "handle it. It's too much."

I was still confused. "What do you mean, 'too much?'"

He turned his whole body away from me, and the tips of his ears were tomato red.

"I…It makes me want to kiss you, like a lot." He ran a hand nervously through his hair, trying to find the right words. "But in more of a…Push you on the bed way."

Oh. Oh. I blushed at the thought of Chat Noir pushing me into the bed, dragging his hands across my—no no no, not now, dirty thoughts. It was my turn to cover my face in embarrassment. I didn't have a proper response to that, it totally caught me off guard. I peeked over at him through my fingers; he was nervously bouncing his knee, covering his mouth with one hand, and trying to steady his jitter with the other. He was…flustered? How cute.

Instead of cowering away, I took this as a challenge. I want to see more of this new side of him. He was so vulnerable, which never shown through his Chat Noir flirtatiousness or his reserved and lovely Adrien side. I was his weakness.

"Is Chat Noir flustered?" I said. I smirked at the notion, that Chat Noir, could get flustered.

"You're one to talk, M'lady, as your cheeks are looking a bit rosy," his attention was directed to the rose Chat Noir gave me the day he planned a surprise for me. "Oh god, I can't believe I went to Ladybug after Ladybug stood me up. How, cat-astrophic." He theatrically let out a sigh and fell back onto the chaise.

I giggled. Even though that night was a little grim itself, I had fond memories of Chat dropping by to make me feel better. It brought me back to my train of thought before Alya called. "About that, I'm sorry I didn't give you a chance. As Chat Noir, that is. I guess I never realized that you were serious about your feelings for me," I sighed.

"It's in the past, M'lady. You are here in front of me now, and that's what matters. Ah, which reminds me," he placed a hand on my cheek and gently rubbed with his thumb, "I remember you mentioning some other boy…" his expression turned troubled.

"You mean, you don't know?" I blushed. "I-I thought I was being pretty obvious." I looked over at Tikki who was keeping herself busy by tossing a stress ball back and forth with Plagg.

"Well, I'll be honest, I've tried figuring out who it was you liked but came up with nothing. Marinette you, that is. I knew I could never guess Ladybug's lovebug," he pulled his hand away and sighed. "There's someone else, isn't there?"

I couldn't help but laugh. I knew he was a bit blind but not downright oblivious. The more I thought about it, the more I couldn't stop laughing. This whole thing was stupid.

"Adrien," I finally muster, "it was you this whole time, silly! I had a crush on you!" I booped his nose with my finger, flashing him one of my brightest smiles. He looked back at me wide-eyed, in shock.

"M-me? Me? I had no idea! Oh wow, Ladybug had a crush on me! Adrien me!" he started to shake his leg again and furrowed his brow in thought.

"Careful Adrien, you might hurt yourself," I giggled.

"This is ridiculous, Marinette," he said, a soft blush dusting his cheeks.

"Yes it is, dear," wait. What. Did I just call him dear?

"Awwe, you called me dear! Does this mean we're official?" he flashed me one of Chat Noir's mischievous grins. "This is going so fast; I feel like a deer caught in headlights!" his hands fiddled with the collar of my shirt. "Though I should ask you," Adrien stood up, walked in front of me, and leaned very closely to my face, placing a hand on the back of the chaise for support, "Marinette, bugaboo, will you be my lovebug?" He leaned close, brushing his lips against mine ever so gently.

Ugh, there's that Chat confidence again, my weakness. I swallowed hard, and my words became lost as I placed my hands around Adrien's neck and pulled him into a kiss. My dear kitty was right in front of me, with no mask; no façade to hide behind.

"Of course, kitty," I giggled.

He buried his face in the crook of my neck, moving his hands to mine; entwining our fingers. "Choose your words wisely, M'lady, you're treading some dangerous territory." He lightly grazed his teeth against my soft skin, making me gasp. He gave me a soft kiss, leaving a tingling sensation in its wake. I heard footsteps leading towards my room. Adrien swiftly sat down in my desk chair, picking up my notebook and pencil.

"Knock knock, Marinette, dinner is almost ready. Adrien, will you be joining us?" Papa popped his head through the hatch, eyeing us both quizzically.

"Thank you for the offer Mr. Dupain, but I must be getting home. My father will be expecting me." Adrien put back down the notebook and winked at me, making me blush.

"Alright, it was nice to see you Adrien. It'll be waiting for you for when you're ready, Marinette." Papa came up and took the empty platter from my desk and headed back downstairs.

I sighed and stood up from the chaise. Adrien followed suit and headed over to his bag, obviously untouched since he got here.

"C'mon Plagg. Time to go," Adrien opened his shirt and Plagg settled into the inside pocket.

I walked him out to the front of the bakery, "so, I'll see you later?"

"Of course, bugaboo. Now that I know who you are I won't be able to stay away," he lifted the back of my hand to his mouth and kissed my knuckles ever so softly. He waved as his bodyguard pulled the car up in front of the bakery.