Ladybug & Cat Noir Identity Reveal

1 - Adrien / Chat Noir

"Miraculous Ladybug!" Ladybug threw her lucky charm into the air and Chat Noir watched as her ladybugs cleared up all the messes they'd caused. 

She walked over, a brilliant smile on her face despite how tired she must have been and together they said, "Pound it!" 

The hapless young man began asking the usual questions, 'Where am I? What happened? Ladybug and Chat Noir?'

As they helped him up, and offered to take him home, Adrien wondered if they would ever solve this Hawkmoth mess. It had been years since they'd received their miraculous, and since they'd begun fighting him. He thought that over time it would get easier, and less frequent. Boy was he wrong.

The attacks had become more and more frequent, and at all hours of the day and night. Right now, it had to be sometime after 2am. Ladybug waved goodbye and took off with the Akuma victim. 

Chat headed back home too, utterly exhausted. Tomorrow was going to be a nightmare, it was a Saturday, but he had fencing, Chinese and a piano exam. Great, I'm going to die of exhaustion at 18, he thought. 

He practically fell through the window, landing a split second before transforming back. He caught Plagg and threw him a piece of camembert before flopping down onto his bed. 

"Well that was fun," Plagg flopped down onto the pillow beside him, "NOT! When will these stupid attacks stop? A cat needs his beauty sleep!"

"Jeez Plagg, I didn't know you were beautiful," Adrien tried to keep his tone light, but he yawned, completely ruining the quip.

Plagg floated up to stare down at him, "You okay, Adrien?"

"Yeah, yeah I'll be good just..." he rolled over, "Just gotta get some sleep.

***

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Gah! Plagg – Get the alarm!" Adrien shot up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The tiny cat dive-bombed the alarm so hard both of them fell off the dresser, and Adrien followed suit a second later in his rush to reach his Kwami.  

"Ugh...I feel like I only just got into bed..." Adrien groaned and tried to disentangle himself from his sheets. 

"Mmmmm," Plagg responded. Adrien saw that he'd fallen asleep again. With a slight chuckle, he placed the little Kwami back on his pillow, and went for a quick shower. 

He sighed as the hot water soothed his aching muscles. He'd never really felt the effects of being Chat Noir outside of the suit before, but he was feeling it now. No bruises or cuts marred his skin, but he could feel all the tender spots on his arms and legs. 

He turned off the water and dressed quickly, trying again to stifle his yawns. Heading down to breakfast. Neither Natalie nor his bodyguard were there and he tried to shove down his disappointment again. It seemed that lately his everyone was just too busy. Especially his father. It felt like Adrien didn't even know who his father was. Not the time, he shoved down the thoughts, gotta stay positive. 

Wandering into the kitchen, he saw a plate of food already laid out. It was still warm too, but there was no one in sight.   

Sighing he trudged back into the dining room, picking at his food until someone inevitably came to tell him the next thing he had to do. He tried not to get too upset about his life, but times like this just reminded him of how completely lonely he was. His friends were great, and he loved hanging out with them. But his father hardly every let him go out, and now with all the attacks he was even more exhausted. And Ladybug! Ugh...How many times would she reject him? He tried to respect her wishes and not push it too much, but it stung every time. 

He leaned back in his seat, Maybe I'm just destined to be alone...how sad. 

Natalie strode into the room, "Good morning Adrien. Your Piano instructor is ready for you." 

"Right. I'll be up in a moment," he pushed his chair back, and returned the plate to the kitchen, saying a little 'thank you' to whoever made his food – even if there wasn't anyone there. 

He trudged up the stairs to his room for the lesson and test. His instructor wasn't so bad, but he hated the fact that his father never allowed anyone over. They had to do every lesson by video call, and the instructor, Monsieur Lavigne was completely uptight and strict about it. Adrien could never understand why though, music was supposed to bring joy and happiness to people. It wasn't something one could just...perfect. 

"It's okay...I can do this...It'll go so fast..." he said to himself, hoping he was right.

Luckily for him, it did go fast. Unfortunately, fast did not mean painless. His fingers ached the entire piano exam, and his instructor spent most of the time lecturing him on how to properly care for them. His Chinese lesson wasn't too bad as his instructor was away on vacation, and had just left him a series of writing prompts and a movie to watch – which he slept through entirely. 

Then there was fencing. Adrien was so out of it today, so tired and sore that Kagami was getting annoyed with him for not being as good as usual.

"Ha! I win. Again. You are getting sloppy Adrien," Kagami stood over him, the victor of their fourth round of fencing. 

He pushed his fencing mask back, trying to muster a laugh, "Yeah, a little."

She offered him a hand and he allowed her to pull him up. Kagami looked up at him, deep in thought before saying, "I will be meeting with Marinette for a milkshake after practise. Would you like to join us?" 

Adrien was a little surprised but recovered quickly, "Yeah sure, it'll be fun." 

Kagami nodded decisively, "Good. Get some water. You look tired."

Adrien laughed, "Will do, Miss Kagami." He gave her a sweeping bow before heading to the bench where they all kept their water bottles. 

He'd always liked Kagami, she was an only child with a very protective parent – just like him. She didn't exactly have the best social skills, but he supposed didn't either. They'd been so sheltered for so long, it was so hard to bond with other people when you'd never been able to practice before. 

Yet, ever since he'd found out that she really liked him...things had been a little more awkward. They'd been out together a few times, but knowing that she liked him made everything so much harder. He kept waiting for the moment that he'd mess up and she would realise that she didn't like him at all. And then she'd leave too.

"All right everybody, that's enough for today. Go clean up," his fencing instructor called. 

Adrien joined the other boys, heading into the locker room and changing quickly. He met Kagami outside, and they got a lift with his bodyguard to the place where she was supposed to meet Marinette.

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