Forgotten

12

Dead silence.

That is, until Marinette started laughing. "That's a good one, Kitty. You almost had me for a second."

"I... I'm not joking."

Alya slowly reached up to cover her mouth as it fell open in the biggest smile.

"Adrien Agreste?" Marinette repeated, not believing him.

He nodded.

"The Adrien Agreste? The one who..."

"Sits in front of you in class, yes."

Alya started squealing.

Marinette turned to her. "He's just messing with us. This is what he does, he never takes anything seriously. He's not Adrien."

"I am Adrien, Adrien Agreste. My birthday is the twentieth of September. My parents are Gabriel Agreste, your favorite fashion designer, and Emilie Agreste, who disappeared last year before I started school."

"Wow," Marinette said sarcastically. "Congratulations, you know some basic information about one of the most famous people in Paris. Tell me, have you also heard of Beyoncé?"

"I gave you my umbrella on the day I started school," Chat Noir continued. "You were mad at me because you thought that I put chewing gum on your seat. And I told you how I had never been to school before or had any friends. Those details weren't written in your diary."

Her face dropped as she listened to him.

"You gave me your lucky charm while we were practicing for the video game tournament. Right over there," he added, nodding over at her computer. "Then I gave you a charm for your birthday. A charm that took me three days to make. And then on Heroes' Day I told you that you were our everyday Ladybug." He shook his head. "I should have known. I should have known that you were the real one. Then at the wax museum I played a stupid prank on you..."

"Stop!" Marinette suddenly shouted. After a second she kept speaking, only this time she was whispering. "Just stop. You're not Adrien."

"Yes I am," he whispered back.

"No. You're not. Just detransform so we can get this over with."

Chat Noir nodded, then he whispered his detransformation phrase. "Claws in."

In a flash of green light, Adrien stood where Chat Noir had been a moment before, Plagg floating at his shoulder.

Marinette froze in shock while Alya's mouth fell open even wider.

After a long couple of seconds, Alya broke the tension. "I'm really sorry for yelling at you earlier," she laugh-whispered.

"It's okay," he said, not taking his eyes off of Marinette.

Everything was perfectly still. She didn't move a centimeter as she stared at him. That is, until her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed down to the floor.

"Marinette!" Alya screeched, kneeling down to her with Adrien quickly following. "Oh for goodness sake, talk about being dramatic," she muttered. Then she looked at Adrien. "I can't believe that it's you! Has it been you the whole time?"

He nodded, leaning over Marinette to check on her.

"And you must be Plagg, right?" she asked the black kwami.

"That's me," he replied. "But more importantly, I'm famished. You don't happen to have any snacks, do you?"

She ignored his question and continued talking to Adrien. "I knew it! I mean, I didn't know it, but I guessed that you could be. I even told Marinette that you sort of looked like him. So you're Chat Noir. And that means that you've been in love with Ladybug since you met. And that means that you've been in love with Marinette since you met!"