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kasienda · 1 year ago

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Celebrity Status - Ch 12: Something Important to Tell You

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This chapter was written for @ladrienjune Day 28: Sharing Secrets. I'm super excited to bring this story to a close for all of you! I had a lot of fun with it and I hope you do as well!

Chapter 12: Something Important to Tell You

Once out of hearing range, Adrien was tempted to find the nearest alleyway, transform, and storm Marinette's balcony. But Ladybug might not forgive Chat for figuring out her identity. It was safer to do this as Adrien.

He would have gotten to the bakery faster if they had eaten at school, but it ended up not mattering because Marinette wasn’t home.

He ended up back on the streets, wandering aimlessly.

He texted Marinette, but she didn’t respond.

A few minutes later, Ladybug was seen swinging overhead. And he grinned. Time for a new plan.

He found an alleyway and transformed. He didn’t go directly to her. It was still safer to do this as Adrien.

He found the most isolated rooftop that he could find - one without sight lines.

He shot off a message to Ladybug.

CN:

Please meet me here as soon as possible. It’s important.

Then, he let go of his transformation and just waited.

It didn’t take long. She was there in less than five minutes. And it was wild how clearly she was Marinette under the mask.

He found himself smiling fondly at her.

She did not share his expression. Her expression twisted into panic.

“That damn cat! We can’t do this!” she insisted, raising her arm to cast out her yo-yo.

“No, wait!” He leapt up from the roof to block her departure. “I didn’t mean to trick you. I have to tell you something. It is important, and has nothing to do with us.”

Well, sort’ve.

Her stance softened. “Adrien,” she whined. “We can’t risk this.”

“No one can see us up here. Chat Noir made sure of it.”

Her scowl deepened, but she didn’t leave.

He bit his lower lip.

“Well?” she prompted. “What is it?”

“I'm sorry! I’m just nervous. I think you’re going to be pissed.”

She softened completely and came to him, her hand reaching out for his, which he took instantly. “If it helps,” she said with a shy smile, “it’s literally impossible for me to stay mad at you.”

He barked a laugh. He doubted that would hold once she knew he was Chat Noir.

“I love you,” he said.

Her forehead scrunched together. “You said this wasn’t about us.”

“And it’s not. Not really. I just–” He rubbed the back of his head nervously.

She frowned in concern, stepping closer and squeezing the hand she already held. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “I’m fine. Better than fine, really.” He squeezed her hand back, and looked up into her crystal blue eyes, still swirling in concern. “I know who you are.”

Her eyes widened and she froze, but said nothing.

"Marinette," he added.

She jerked away from him, her arms pinwheeling backwards. He leapt forward, to catch her. Suddenly, he was laughing.

"Oh my god. Did I break you?"

She clutched onto his arms to steady herself, and then looked right at him. "How?" she asked.

“So… Alya kinda crashed my lunch with Nino.”

Her face paled. "Ayla knows ?!"

"No!" he was quick to reassure. "At least, I don't think so. She wouldn't be so mad at you if she knew."

And then Ladybug deflated completely, and burst into tears. His arms were around her in a second.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, holding her tightly. "I know it sucks."

"I didn’t want to run out on her. She’s so important to me. But there’s the whole city to think about, and Chat had just been thrown into a building, so it’s not like I had a lot of time—”

"Shhh…” he soothed, rubbing her back. “I know. I know."

She dissolved into tears again, and then they dropped down to the roof with him continuing to hold her. She let her suit dissolve in a flash of pink light. His fingers were interlaced through hers. He was touching her bare skin!

He knew who Ladybug was and she was the precious friend who had a crush on him!

"That's how you figured it out? Because Alya was mad that I bailed on her all the time?"

"Not just that. It was that you were fighting in general. You told me as Ladybug that things were dicey with your best friend, but I hadn’t realized you and Alya were fighting until today.”

He still felt guilty about that.

“She was angry that Marinette didn’t go to her award dinner where Ladybug presented her award, but it made no sense that you wouldn’t have gone given the way you were talking about it the day before. Then, you disappeared in the middle of your apology lunch during an akuma.” And she had a crush on him, but Adrien didn’t know Ladybug had a crush on him. Chat did. “It just fit. And then once my mind went there, it was obvious and I felt like an idiot."

"Can I ask you something?" her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Anything.”

"Why did you never get mad at me for ditching you? I've even managed to irritate Nino before he just decided that's who I was."

His hand flew to the back of his neck. "I... well, uh..."

"It wasn't that you felt guilty was it? For all the times your father pulled you away?"

There it was - a ready made explanation held out to him on a silver platter. He didn't want it though.

"The truth is Buginette, I wasn't even in a position to notice. When Alya lost it because you were flakey I was so confused."

Her brows furrowed. "But what about—”

He put a finger to her lips. "Let me finish."

She nodded.

"Every time you darted away with some lame excuse, I didn't notice because I was too busy trying to come up with my own explanation."

Her eyebrows furrowed. “An explanation for what?”

"Think about it. Why would I need to bail on my friends at the same time as you?"

She looked puzzled, and then she turned to him in shock.

"Chaton?"

He grinned. "Hi?"

“Oh my god!” She bolted to her feet and paced back and forth. She looked entirely like Ladybug to him in that moment for all that she wore Marientte’s clothes.

"Are you mad?" he asked.

"Yes!" she screeched, throwing a glare in his direction. "Chat Noir was trying to convince me to keep dating Adrien! You self serving jerk,” but her tone held absolutely no bite. “And no," she fell back to the rooftop, immediately cuddling into his side. "I mean, I get it. If I had learned Adrien liked Marinette while I was Ladybug, I probably would have been far less normal about it than you were. And I was the one who insisted on secret identities."

Her phone went off, and she pulled it out of her pocket and her eyes widened in panic all over again.

“It’s Alya.”

…

Adrien pushed the phone towards her urgently. “Answer it! I’m not here.”

Marinette swallowed, her heart was pounding in her chest as she slid her thumb across the screen to answer the call.

“Alya?”

Alya was sobbing.

“Alya! What’s wrong?”

“I’m awful. You’re right not to trust me with your secrets.”

Marinette’s eyebrows scrunched together. “What are you talking about?”

“I was angry with you and Adrien said something about how you never flaked on him. And I was angry. I may have let it slip that you have a crush on him.”

Her gaze shot to Adrien.

“You tom cat!” she mouthed at him.

He grinned cheekily at her. That’s totally how he figured her out.

“I’m so sorry, Marinette,” Alya cried. “I had no right to share that even though I was angry.”

“Alya! It’s okay!! I actually have to thank you! Because he just confessed to me, and I asked him out!”

Adrien’s eyebrows rose into his hairline.

“No way! Really?! What did he say?”

“Well… umm… I’m kinda still waiting for an answer,” she said, staring right at him as his lips stretched into a smile.

“Oh my god! He’s there, isn’t he?! I’ve been trying to get you to confess since forever and you finally do and I’m interrupting! I’m sorry! I’ll just go—”

“No! Don’t go!” Marinette begged. “Adrien can wait! Are we… are we okay?”

There was a long pause, and Marinette held her breath.

“I want us to be. And right now, I’m mad enough at myself that I think I could say we are, but if this keeps happening… I don’t know.”

Marinette squeezed her eyes closed. “I think you’re right to be mad,” she said. “At me, not at yourself. That’s totally fine. I promise!”

Adrien squeezed her hand in encouragement and she flashed him a smile. “I feel awful for how much I’ve hurt you. I feel absolutely terrible, but I can’t fix it, I can’t explain, and I can’t… I can’t promise it will stop happening.”

Her eyes welled with tears.

“I actually appreciate your being that honest. Can I ask for one thing?”

“Of course!”

“Can you just not lie? Just tell me you can’t explain. We can come up with a code word or something.”

“Yeah, we can do that.”

“Then, I think we’re good. We’ll figure out that part later. Now, go finish your conversation with Adrien!! And then call me later with all the deets!” Alya literally squealed.

“Okay! Sounds good! I love you!”

“Love you, too! Before I go, can I talk to Adrien for a second?”

“Umm… you’re not gonna give him a shovel talk are you?”

“No no no. Nothing like that!”

She handed over the phone.

…

“She wants to talk to you.”

Adrien took the phone with more than a little trepidation, knowing he had pissed off Alya himself less than an hour ago. And Alya was someone he knew he didn’t want to piss off.

“Hello?” he answered.

“You know her secret, don’t you? Something I said at lunch, helped you put some pieces together.”

He tensed. Marinette noticed. “She promised no shovel talk!”

He shook his head, and held up a finger.

“Umm… what secret?”

Alya laughed. “Yeah, that’s fair. Can you just do me one favor?”

“Depends on the favor,” he said.

“Do a better job protecting her secrets than I did?” She asked softly.

He smiled. “Yeah, I’ll try. Thanks Alya.”

“Okay, now scat! Don’t leave my girl hanging!”

He laughed. “Thanks, Alya.”

The call ended and he held out the phone to Marinette. But she didn’t take it. Instead she just smiled at him. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were smiling.

“You going to answer my question?”

He grinned, feeling playful. “I don’t know. I distinctly remember you telling Chat Noir that you had feelings for someone else, and Adrien that we couldn’t be in a relationship.”

“This is payback for all the times I’ve rejected you, isn’t it?”

He pulled her into his arms, and leaned in for a kiss, but he stopped two centimeters from her lips. “I think I could be persuaded.”

She closed the distance between them. And kissing Marinette was exactly like kissing Ladybug, except better because he could feel the warmth of her hand, and the beating of her heart against his chest.

Because he didn’t have to be worry about Adrien and Marinette being caught in quite the same way.

“I would absolutely love to go out with you,” he said. ��I love you so much, m’lady.”

It felt so good to finally be able to call her that as himself.

Her cheeks bloomed with pink and she kissed him again. “I love you, too. Can we take a selfie of us kissing?” she asked, grinning.

“You’re not tired of the picture we already have of us kissing?”

“Honestly, I kinda love that picture,” she admitted. “I might not have chosen to share it with the rest of the world, and I definitely would have preferred they didn’t all feel like they were allowed to ask invasive questions or interpret it however—”

He was never going to stop smiling. He interrupted her with another kiss. He wasn’t actually trying to interrupt or stop her from talking. She was just so pretty, and she had just asked him out, and he was still definitely over the moon. And so he kissed her.

He took the picture she wanted for her a beat later, but the kiss kept going so he took more.

When she finally pulled away gasping for air, he held out his phone so she could choose her favorite.

“This picture can be just for us if you want,” he offered as she swiped through the pictures, picking out her favorites.

She winced. “And maybe for Alya?” She asked, smiling guiltily.

“You already sent it to Alya?!”

He got three texts in rapid succession.

“I’m sorry. I’ll ask next time.”

He laughed, and pulled her in again. “Is it weird that I’m happy you want to share it instead of keep it a secret?”

She smiled softly, her fingers brushing locks of his hair out of his face.

“No, not weird at all. I’m sorry we had to be a secret before. If I was brave enough to confess as Marinette instead of being creepy with you as Ladybug—”

“Your visits were never creepy!” he objected. “I loved your visits!”

“—maybe we could have had this without the scandal and maybe without the reveal.”

His heart sank into his gut. “Do you regret that we know now?”

She shook her head, grinning. “No, probably not. I just— I want you to be safe.”

“I am Chat Noir,” he reminded her. “I can protect myself.”

“That almost makes it worse, but yeah, I do feel better.” She grinned, her front teeth were biting down on her lower lip. “I’m super excited that we don’t have to risk being out as Ladybug and Adrien. We can just be Ladybug and Chat. No one will suspect a thing.”

Not a thing! Until they got kissing on camera again, but Adrien wasn’t about to bring that up.

…

They lasted a week. A whole seven days without being caught with lips locked. And that was a miracle with how much they had been meeting up to do exactly that.

But it felt different.

When reporters came out of the woodwork asking for details, Chat Noir was right there, holding her hand. This time, she denied nothing, and instead she dipped him into a kiss for all the world to see.

“What softened you towards the cat?” Alya asked her in an interview that Marinette was only too excited to grant her.

Ladybug giggled. “Honestly? It was how supportive he was when everyone was hounding me over my dalliance with Adrien Agreste. He was so respectful of my boundaries and he defended my right to make decisions in my own life when I knew he had feelings for me.

“That told me he cared more about my happiness than his own and that he would always respect my boundaries. He has already died for me. How could I not fall in love with that?”

Chat Noir pulled the mic towards himself.

“Thank you, Adrien Agreste. You truly did me a solid!”

“Oh my god! Stop!” Ladybug squawked.

The interview dissolved into incoherent giggles and silliness after that. Alya didn’t cut any of the footage. It was her most popular post to date.

…

At the end of the day, nothing had changed for Marinette. And yet, everything was different.

Adrien sought out Marinette at school. She didn’t stumble over her words. He actually kissed her and they didn’t have to hide any of it away.

His knowing her identity didn’t make her flake out on Alya less often, or suddenly stop driving her parents to madness with too many truancies. Ladybug’s fans were still mostly sweet if exhausting. Others were still beyond aggravating.

The difference was Marinette had three people – well, beings might be a better word – that knew her on both sides of the mask.

Tikki was a great listener and gave great advice just as she always had.

Plagg was more fun. He would give into her more frustrated rants or violent fantasies. He would occasionally play mostly harmless pranks on people who were giving her a hard time, which, while childish especially in Tikki’s eyes, always made her feel better.

And Adrien... Adrien understood. He understood the pressure of living up to an impossible ideal, the stress of living a double life, and how being a celebrity could push into your private life. He could listen, he could back up her stories. When they both disappeared they could pretend they were together.

Although it wasn’t really pretending. They were together. Just not hiding or making out in some broom closet like everyone thought.

And with the support and with time, she got better at covering, at telling selective truths instead of outright lies.

Of making it up to her friends in general, and Alya in particular. Of pulling off miracles in her attendance record. Though that may have involved hiring a guy Adrien knew to do some hacking. She earned the best marks ever with access to a study partner who would pull all nighters on rooftops with her though, so she figured it didn’t matter.

Hawkmoth was still at large, but Ladybug was confident that with her partner’s aid, they would hold him at bay for as long as they needed to until they could uncover his identity and recover his stolen miraculous.

Life as a hero and as a celebrity just didn’t feel quite as overwhelming as it had before.

In fact, Marinette was loving it.

#miraculous ladybug #ladrienjune2024 #ladrien #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #ladrien with marichat tropes #sharing secrets #talking things out #post reveal #alyanette friendship #my own content #we finished a story!!#celebrity status

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