Secrets Worth Keeping (Miraculous Ladybug Identity Reveal Story)

Meeoow This Is Interesting

"Adrien Agreste?" The teacher called.

No response.

"Adrie--"

"Sorry I'm late," Adrien yelled, running in the doorway. He slid into his seat.

"You're excused. Just don't be late again." She smiled, looking at him.

"Will do." He smiled back at her.

"Okay, Ivan Bruel?"

"Here."

Adrien looked over at Nino, who was mouthing 'what happened?' to him. Adrien grabbed his notebook out of his bag, producing the note Chloe had given to him the previous day. He passed it on to Nino.

Nino looked at it, gasping. His eyes darted to Marinette, then to Adrien, then to Alya, and then back to Marinette. He finally looked back at Adrien.

"You . . . you didn't . . ." Nino whispered.

"I did," Adrien said flatly. "I'm an idiot."

"Ohhhh man Alya is going to kill you when she finds out . . ." Nino paused. "Wait, how did she--"

"She's fine."

Nino looked as if he didn't believe it. "H-how man?"

Adrien smirked. "I have my ways. Like I said, all you have to do is be yourself." And by himself, he totally meant his other self, and then his real self. Or maybe . . . his true self?

"Bro, you owe me a story after class."

"Yep." Adrien was a bit worried. He of course couldn't tell Nino about the Chat part . . . so he really couldn't tell him any of it . . . he and Marinette had to figure out a cover story, and soon by the looks of it. If Nino was sensing something was off today, Alya couldn't be far behind.

____________________________________________________________________________________

So, as it happened, Alya somehow didn't know. Adrien wasn't sure if it was because Marinette had refused to tell her anything, or if she hadn't been acting off in the first place. It felt a little weird that Marinette wouldn't be at least (if not more) as flustered as Adrien was all day, considering that her shyness before was because of her crush. But alas, there was really no good reason that Adrien could think of, unless Marinette wasn't telling him something.

Which, he figured, wouldn't be that much of a bad thing. She deserved her privacy, too.

But Adrien's thought's were interrupted by a sudden, yet gentle, squeeze on his shoulder. He turned to look at the culprit, who was already walking down the rising towards him. It was Marinette. "Class is over, Adrien." She giggled, "I hope you didn't get too lost in thought. We have a huge assignment due Monday!"

"Y-yeah, I got that." Adrien replied. He seemed to recall something about a big project . . . he couldn't remember the details, something about "making your poems sing!", but he'd ask Nino about it later. "So . . . wanna sit together at lunch?"

Marinette giggled again. God, how he loved that sound. "Oh, kitty, you just can't wait to be with me, can you?"

Kitty? That's what Ladybug called him sometimes . . .

"But you do realized we sit together already, right?" She continued.

Maybe it was just a coincidence. After all, Marinette probably couldn't think of punny nicknames as fast as his lady could, and kitty seemed like one of the first ones one would try. He decided to put it in the back of his mind for now.

Adrien realized he still hadn't responded. "Oh, er, yeah. Whoops . . ."

Had he really just thought that Marinette couldn't think of things as fast as his lady? For goodness sake, he was basically dating Marinette now! Not that he didn't love it, or her, but his feelings for Ladybug were apparently going to take a little longer to go away then he'd hoped. But maybe that was the problem? He still wasn't really sure how he felt about Marinette, even without Ladybug in the picture . . . How was he going to decide between the two if he thought he loved them both?

Adrien realized, again a little too late, that Marinette was just standing there. Twiddling her thumbs. There was no one else in the room. Even Madame Bustie had left for lunch. 'Dang it,' he thought to himself.

"S-sorry! I kinda got lost in thought . . ." Adrien stood up, looking a bit redder than usual.

"Yeah, you seem to be doing that a lot today . . ." Marinette paused, "is it . . . is it because of what I . . ." she didn't have to finish.

Adrien smiled awkwardly at her, "no . . . well, kind of, but not that specifically . . ."

The answer seemed to satisfy Marinette. "Okay then," she said, "we better get to lunch. Alya and Nino are going to be wondering where we are."

"Yeah, they probably are . . ." Adrien grabbed his bag.

"You know, you don't need to pretend with me."

"W-what?" Adrien asked, startled. He turned back to look at Marinette.

"It's just that . . . you can be you, Adrien. You don't need to pretend you feel things . . . or that you don't . . ."

"Marinette, I--" where had this surge of courage come from?

"And you don't need to smile when you don't want to. You can be . . . you can be human."

That actually meant a lot. A whole lot more than Marinette probably meant it to. A whole lot. Adrien's father had always expected him to be . . . perfect. Perfect, not human. But when he was, he was still treated like he was human. He guessed that was fair, since the whole point of this little pep-talk he was giving himself was to prove he was human, but it kind of seemed like for what Adrien offered, he didn't get his fair payment.

Adrien was staring. Again. "Thanks," was all he said as they strutted out the door together, walking towards the lunch area.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Hey guys! I'm so sorry for taking so long on this part! I'll have another part up tonight. I've just been so busy with school and life lately (it's exam week!) that I had ZERO TIME to update this! I hope you guys like how the story is going! Please leave a like and comment below to tell me what you think so far! Constructive criticism is encouraged and appreciated!