What We Earn

There was a big part of Marinette that wanted Chat Noir to have been completely lying to her. that he wasn't in her class. That he wasn't even in her school. that he had lied to her to throw her off. She had made her guess... But she wanted to be wrong. She really did want to be wrong.

Today was Saturday, meaning Chat Noir would be showing up at her home again, acting all smug like he always seemed to do, and expecting an answer from the blue haired girl. He wouldn't even slightly hold back, she knew. He was going to reveal himself to her.

And part of her was looking forward to it. Hypocritical as it may have been, she had always been curious about who was behind that mask. Chat had always mentioned that he longed to know who Ladybug had been behind her mask, and she felt the same about him, but had declined due to fears about safety and security.. It would have been hard not to be curious about his identity. This was a guy who threw himself into danger next to her on a regular basis. Not being at least the tiniest bit curious as to who was doing this so readily, so easily, so willingly, would be absolutely insane.

He had figured out who she was completely by mistake... A very stupid mistake on her part, but it was done now, and nothing would change that. He could have chosen to keep his own identity a secret. He could have done that and Marinette wouldn't have been able to blame him in the slightest. She would have completely understood his choice to do that. She would have respected it. Not doing so would have been massively disrespectful to him.

Despite all of that, however... He had chosen to trust her with who he was. And she would forever be thankful for that.

But at the same time... She was worried about learning who he was. She was praying... Just not him...

Not Adrien.

"Princess~!"

Here he was, welcoming her as usual with his pet name for her. He was behind her, as she looked out at the Paris night time from her rooftop. Credit where it was due, he was very good at sneaking places without making a sound. She wasn't at all surprised. A few times, so suddenly hearing his voice had scared her senseless. Now she was just sort of used to it.

"On time yet again.." She sighed, turning around to face him, as he jumped down from the higher point just atop her roof. "You've been waiting for this for a while, haven't you?"

"Absolutely, my lady." Chat bowed. "I've been waiting for this all week."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" The blunette asked. "I mean... You don't have to. I mean, you're not, you know, required to! I mean..." She took a deep breath. She was just repeating herself. After a quick intake of oxygen, she tried again. "What I'm saying is, you don't need to feel compelled to show me who you actually are just because you know about Ladybug. Like..."

"Relax." Chat Noir said with a smile. "I want you to know. Doesn't really seem fair that I get to know and you don't." It was a simple explanation, but one Marinette accepted.

"I see..."

"Well?" Chat leaned closer towards the blunette girl with his usual grin, showing off his rows of white teeth. "You've had all week, and I gave you a few hints... Have you managed to figure out who this alley cat is?"

Marinette took a step back, and found herself leaning on the railing one the edge of her balcony. She took a sigh and looked at Chat, and looking at him now - Really looking at him - It supported her theory on who he was.

The past week had been a large scale game of Guess who, with Marinette looking desperately for whatever clues she could find of Chat Noir. She had looked at each member of her class closely, and when chat had given her the hint it was one of the boys she had spoken to, she had made it a point to investigate each one closely.

It would have been incredibly easy for Chat Noir's blond hair to be some sort of wig or cheap hair dye that came out with one use, so she never really relied on that knowledge. Of course, she knew the chances of that was unlikely but she never eliminated the possibility, which was why she went over each of her options carefully.

Nino was eradicated from the equation basically immediately. They didn't even sound remotely similar, and the DJ's skin was too dark to be Chat's. Not to mention, she had fought Nino when he was the Bubbler alongside Chat. And the same could be said about Nathaniel.

The only one of those three who Chat Noir and Ladybug hadn't fought against was Adrien.

But that wasn't enough.

But the more she had looked, to more evidence supported Chat being Adrien. The hair, the eyes, their skin, they all matched up. Their voices were somewhat similar when compared. But that hadn't been enough either. Her crush on Adrien, and her feelings for Chat, they could easily be making her correlate things that weren't correlated. Because that being the case... It would have been too perfect.

And right now, perfect was the absolute worst thing Marinette could be hoping for.

She took a deep sigh, and expelled the air in her lungs through a small hole she made with her mouth. "...Is it you, Adrien?"

Chat stared back at her, and there was no noise between the two of them for a few seconds. For a second, Marinette thought that she'd somehow offended Chat, but when he took a step back and started laughing, her worry was erased quickly.

"Ha ha ha!" Chat laughed, rather loudly. He had the biggest grin on his face, and was clutching at the sides of his stomach. Part of it was him being overly dramatic, and Marinette felt the need to call him out on this, but she didn't say anything.

"Chat?"

"You're good, Princess!" Chat congratulated, clapping his hands together twice. "You're good!" He smirked at her and held his arms open. "You got me!" As he said this, his transformation evaporated the tight black suit around him, starting from his feet and rapidly evaporating into magical energy, and back into a tiny black creature, presumably the Kwami Chat used.

There he was.

Adrien Agreste. Chat Noir. He was even wearing his Chat Noir grin. Of course he was. He was Chat Noir.

Tears started welling up in Marinette's eyes.

Why did it have to be him?...

Everything that she'd done to Chat Noir as Ladybug came flooding back to her, like a flood. Every time she had side stepped him. Every time she had blocked him from speaking to her. All those times she had pushed him aside, pushed him away. Sent him to fight the dangerous part of any given fight on his own. All those times she had been rude or a jerk towards him. Leaving him without explanation or reason to her madness...

And then, on the same day, would be basically his adoring fan, watching him from afar, and going out of her way to try to spend time with him, to get to know him, despite pushing him away as Ladybug without even knowing that she had been doing that. Causing him internal pain...

The night she told Chat about her Soul Link... When she had been convinced that it had been Adrien...

And how Adrien had looked like death the next day...

She'd broken him that night, hadn't she? Despite that cheerful person he had put on, for fear of upsetting her, or making her feel guilty... He had put on a brave face, and exploded his emotions at home. And had tried to make sure he was okay the day after... It was like she was beating him with one hand, and trying to heal him with the other.