Secrets

Chapter 2

This is kinda short, but I'm on an updating high, so...(can you get an updating high? Is that a thing? Or am I just crazy?)

Ladybug zipped to the usual meeting place, brimming with happiness. She had told someone! She had finally told someone! And it was Adrien! She felt like squealing. Now, she and Adrien would spend more time together. And then he'd fall in love with her, and then they would get married, and have three kids-

"Hello, Ladybug."

Chat Noir. Ladybug had been expecting him.

But she hadn't been expecting all this...guilt.

Waves and waves of it.

She had told Adrien, her crush who she really only knew the surface of. Yet she hadn't told Chat, the boy she would trust with her life.

"Hey, Chat."

There was a mask for a reason.

Use it, she told herself.

Chat sat next to her, silent for once.

A few minutes passed, both not talking.

Ladybug hated it. She never realised how important Chat's jokes and flirts were, to fill the silence that came with not knowing each other's identities.

But why were they gone?

"Chat...is everything okay?"

Chat flinched, and for the first time, looked at her straight in the eye.

Well, he was most definitely not okay.

"What's wrong?"

Chat sighed.

"You wouldn't understand."

Ladybug understood the hidden meaning behind his words. He couldn't tell her without revealing his identity.

"Just...leave out names, or anything else...you know."

"Ok."

Silence.

"So..." Ladybug prompted.

"Well, there's this girl I like, right?"

Ladybug nodded.

"And I know her really well. But...I found out she trusts another guy with her secret more than me. And now I don't know what to feel. Sad? Angry? Resigned? Happy? I don't know!"

She frowned. Chat's situation sounded rather like hers, except she...

Was the girl.

Oh my god.

"Chat?"

"Hmm?"

"Who was the girl?"

Chat stiffened, as straight as possible, and said stiffly,

"I can't tell you. Secret identities, remember?"

With that, he jumped up and bounded away, yelling,

"I'll take east and north, you take west and south!"

Yup.

She was the girl.

And she had no idea what she was supposed to do about it.

Once Marinette got home, she was presented with another puzzle.

How the heck did Chat Noir know that she told Adrien?

"Adrien!" Marinette called, spotting him outside the school, standing alone with a thoughtful expression.

He looked up, surprised, and immediately wished he hadn't.

Because Marinette, who was also Ladybug, was running towards him, her blue eyes sparkling with curiosity, her blue/black hair flying behind her, and all in all Adrien found it breathtaking. And he really shouldn't be having these thoughts about her, because she had all but told him she didn't like Chat Noir aka him yesterday.

By the time Adrien had recovered, Marinette had reached him.

"Yes, Marinette?" he asked, trying and succeeding to keep the breathless tone from his voice.

She leaned in, her breath tickling his ear, and he would be lying if certain fantasies weren't going through his head at that moment. Which they really shouldn't be, for previously mentioned reasons.

"How the heck does Chat Noir know I told you?" she asked forcefully, the strain in her voice betraying the fact that she was holding herself back from saying a few choice words.

Adrien winced.

Ah. Yesterday's patrol. That had been torture. And he had accidentally slipped a few facts.

How had he forgot he was talking to his lady, one of the smartest people he knew?

"Yeah...about that."

She stepped back (why had she stepped back? Never mind, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO THINK THAT) and faced him, hands on hips.

"I'm waiting..."

Who did she remind him of?

Oh. She reminded him of Ladybug.

"I-I mean, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to sound demanding! Please don't hate me!"

And there was Marinette.

But they were both waiting for an answer.

"Uh...you may not be the only superhero I've talked to..." Adrien rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"You're friends with Chat!?" she whisper-hissed.

"Yes...is that wrong?" he asked, worried.

She backtracked.

"No! I'm just...surprised, that's all. Did you tell him?"

"Um..."

"Why?"

"Well, he came to visit me that night...and I couldn't lie?"

She's going to find out, was all that was running through his head.

He's so perfect, was all that was running through her head. Until she remembered that Adrien was still waiting for a response, his green eyes looking at her, frightened that he had done something wrong. Which was ridiculous. The only thing Adrien Agreste had done wrong was being so damn perfect.

"It's okay. He...he wasn't too sad, was he?"

Adrien's heart broke a little more as she asked that question, her bright blue eyes earnestly begging him to answer the question positively. Even though she didn't like him that way, she was still concerned about him. God, why did this woman have to be so perfect?

"I don't know, he said he had to leave for patrol."

She smiled at him, and for a moment, Adrien was sure that the sun was right in front of him.

"Thank you, Adrien." She breathed out, and hugged him.

And Adrien, arms gently wrapping her, steeled his heart.

She needed him as a friend.

She didn't need a lover.

So that was what he would be.

A friend.

And nothing more.

I'm breaking my own heart here. I can feel it cracking. Why do I do this to myself? Why?