A Reveal Where Marinette Doesn’t Have Identity Issues

A Reveal where Marinette doesn’t have identity issues

“Marinette? Marinette, please talk to me. You haven’t moved for ten minutes and I’m getting worried.” Tikki hovered around Marinette’s head. She tapped her on the cheek.

That apparently snapped her out of whatever funk she was in. Marinette leapt out of her desk chair. “Tikki! Chat Noir is Adrien! Adrien is Chat Noir!”

Tikki giggled. “I know. I was there.”

“He detransformed in front of my eyes! That stupid boy should’ve looked around first! What if somebody else saw him?”

“You two have similar taste in hiding spots.” The kwami munched on her cookie unhelpfully.

“Do you know what this means?”

“That the love of your life is secretly a major dork?” Tikki teased.

A dangerous light flared in Marinette’s blue eyes. “You’re right. He is a major dork. A dork who’s in love with Ladybug.”

“You’re Ladybug.”

“Exactly, Tikki.” Marinette gently bopped her kwami on the nose. “That means Adrien is in love with me! He just doesn’t know it yet. And moreover, he’s a dork! Adrien Agreste is a pun-loving, leather-wearing, shameless flirt who runs around wearing cat ears and flies face-first into brick walls. I can’t believe I’ve been so nervous around this goofball!”

“A goofball who likes confident women.” Tikki seemed to be catching on. She gave Marinette a coy look. “So I take it you won’t be stammering around Adrien anymore.”

“Oh, Tikki. This will be like shooting fish in a barrel.”

-

The locker door snapped shut. “Hi, Adrien.”

To his credit, Adrien didn’t leap into the air with a yelp like Marinette did when he’d snuck up behind her locker door. He definitely jolted, though, and his eyes went wide for a second. Ah, revenge was sweet.

“Are you free any time this week?” Marinette easily felt herself slip into her Ladybug persona. The one she wore confidently like a second skin around most people. Those big green eyes and sweet smile still sent her heart galloping and made her cheeks feel hot, but her voice remained blessedly steady.

Adrien looked startled, but covered it up quickly. “I don’t think I have anything on Thursday afternoon or Saturday. Why do you ask?”

“How do you feel about getting crushed at DDR this weekend? You didn’t get to play with us last time. And we haven’t hung out in a while, just the four of us.”

Adrien smiled. “That sounds awesome! I’ll do my best to get my father’s permission.”

Marinette leaned against his locker. She planted a hand on her hip. “If you need help with that, give me a call. I can be very convincing.”

“I might just do that. He seems to like you,” he chuckled. Marinette’s face heated. She forcefully pictured Adrien somersaulting off a roof and hanging upside down from her yo-yo. The visual made her laugh a little. 

“See you in class.” Marinette glanced back as she walked away. Adrien was staring at her.

-

“Marinette, did you really just invite Adrien over to my apartment?” Alya demanded, leaning forward on their desk with her arms crossed.

Marinette jumped. “You heard that?”

“Yeah, I heard that. Two things: one, when the hell did you get so smooth? And two, when were you going to tell me we had plans at my house?”

“You beat me to it by twenty seconds. Come on,” Marinette pleaded. She gave her the patented big blue eyes. “I know you’re not busy this weekend! We haven’t hung out with Nino and Adrien in weeks.”

“Sometimes you’re like an actual puppy,” Alya relented. She couldn’t stay mad and Marinette knew it. “Are you trying to turn this into a double date?”

“Yes and no. This time I know exactly how to get him to fall in love with me.”

Her eyebrow quirked up. “Another plan? Gonna let me in on it?”

“Let’s just say I’ve figured out how to stop getting so anxious around him.”

Alya laughed. “You’re so sneaky, you know that, right?”

Marinette giggled. “I’m taking that as a compliment.”

-

Step 1 was to invite him to Alya’s place.

Step 2 was to flirt lightly with him.

Tuesday through Friday, Marinette kept up a steady stream of jokes, casual touches, and playful teasing with Adrien. Just to torture him she liked to throw in a random pun. Sometimes she’d catch him responding flirtatiously like Chat Noir. When he realized what he was doing, he’d turn pink and clear his throat, snapping back into perfectly-behaved-model-student mode.

It occurred to Marinette that he probably acted so ridiculous behind the mask because he was under a lot of pressure from his job and perfectionist dad. Chat Noir’s anonymity afforded him to let loose completely. She’d probably be similar in his shoes.

Step 3 was to team up with him against Alya and Nino.

Step 4 was to flirt shamelessly while they danced.

-

“Nice work, hot shot.” Marinette smirked up at him.

Adrien lifted her from the dip and spun her out. “We sure make a good team, m’lady.”

He froze, eyes bulging and face flushing. Marinette laughed at his bright pink cheeks and winked at him. If Adrien looked like a deer in the headlights before, he was beyond flustered now, his face ladybug-red. He realized he’d lost the beat of the game and misstepped, and trying to spin her in too fast. They tripped over each other’s feet and collapsed in a pile of sprawling limbs on the floor. Marinette landed mostly on top of Adrien with her forehead resting against his collarbone. She untwisted herself and moved so her face was level with his, propped up by her hands on either side of his head.

Adrien’s chest heaved. God, he’s gorgeous like this.

“Whoops.” Giggling more, Marinette pushed herself to her feet and held out her hand to help him up, the gesture both familiar and strange without their masks. “Looks like we lost the game.”

Adrien took her hand and stood up. After a moment of stunned silence he gave her a look. “You totally did that on purpose.”

She gasped. “What, you think I tried to make you fall? It’s a cooperative game, why would I do that?”

He shrugged. “Throw me off my rhythm. Leave me guessing.” He leaned a bit closer to scrutinize her face. His expression was half-confused, half-devious, and Marinette was 100% satisfied with her plan. She planted her index finger on the bridge of his nose and playfully pushed him back.

“I’m surprised you didn’t just land on your feet. I’d think a mew-cision like yourself would have purr-fect timing.”

Adrien gulped, looking down at her. “Next time you’ll just have to cat-ch me.”

Marinette grinned at him and went to sit on the couch. Nino and Alya kept glancing between her and Adrien, clearly trying to figure out what just happened. Adrien’s face was red, but he took a seat next to her anyway.

Who knew torturing her crush like this would be so much fun.

Alya and Nino stood up to take their turn. “You two are going down,” Nino declared.

“With that fall, it’ll be a cakewalk,” Alya chimed in.

Marinette became so absorbed watching them that she gasped when she felt something warm brush against her ear. Adrien was leaning close, tracing the shell of her ear, the back of his hand just barely brushing against her neck. “Those are beautiful earrings,” he murmured. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without them.”

“Th-thanks. They were a gift.”

“Is that so?”

“They’re very special to me, so I don’t like taking them off.”

He hummed thoughtfully. “I can’t tell if they’re black or red.”

Marinette looked him straight in the eyes. “Both.”

Adrien stared at her with a challenge in his eyes. She blinked at him innocently. The tension built between them, a dangerous game of chicken and Marinette was determined not to break first.

Finally, he said, “You’ve been driving me insane these last few days, Bugaboo.”

She smirked and lightly brushed their lips together. Her heart felt ready to explode. “Silly kitty.”