Reunited (A Miraculous Ladybug Romance)

25: New Emotions

7/12/18

    Tap, tap. Tap!

    Adrien groaned, covering his head with his sheets.

    Tap! Tap! Tap! TAP!!!

    "Ugh, Adrien will you get that?" Plagg whined. "That incessant banging is interrupting my sleep!"

    "Get it yourself if you want it to stop that badly," Adrien's muffled voice growled through the sheets. "Besides, you know I'm only staying home from work so I can get my rest. Getting out of bed kind of defeats that purpose, don't you think?"

    Rolling to his side and hunkering down into his bed, Adrien thought of the hypocrisy of his words. Even though Adrien had followed Marinette's orders of not getting up, he had not done a very good job of staying relaxed. There were too many crazy thoughts running through his head.

    Why had she asked him whose idea it was to decorate her balcony like that? As soon as she had asked it, he had found the question rather odd, but answered honestly - being astonished at her resulting, almost devilish looking grin.

    "Good, that's all I need to know," she had said. "Now let's focus on getting you home."

    Everything from then on went very quickly. Marinette carefully led him down the stairs and drove him home in his own car. She accompanied him to his room and made sure that he lay down. But Adrien couldn't help but notice that she seemed to be excited, or even nervous, ever since they left her house.

    Something had changed. It was almost as if she had figured something out. As soon as she had left, Adrien pondered on the significance of her last question. What could she have learned by knowing that he had been the one behind those balcony decorations? Of course, he had used that exact same set up as Chat before, but that had been for a date that he had set up with Ladybug, not Marinette.

    Adrien thought back to that night - the second time that he had tried to confess. Ladybug had been late, and he had originally thought that she wasn't even going to show up. He remembered the pain, thinking that she didn't even care enough to spend time with him unless they were in the middle of an akuma fight. He had been heartbroken, and lonely, at least until he caught sight of Marinette.

    Marinette! Adrien remembered. Before seeing Ladybug that night, he had shown his perfect set up to Marinette. How could he have been so stupid? How could he forget such an important event? Of course that question would be significant! It would directly relate Adrien to being Chat. Had Marinette figured out that he was Chat Noir? Was that why she had been acting so strange?

All night he analyzed this question and could only come to the conclusion that she most likely had. And after hours of tossing and turning, Adrien suddenly started fretting over the answer of a new, equally important question.

Had Marinette figured out who he had been in love with?

If she had figured out that he was Chat, then wouldn't she have been able to put those two simple pieces together? But then, why had she said they hadn't screwed up their relationship? Discovering that Adrien was Chat and that he had been talking to Ladybug, the girl that he had been in love with, should have been enough reason to fill Marinette's head with doubts.

But it didn't.

Why wasn't she more upset?

Just as Adrien had been working through these thoughts, that incessant tapping noise began, and neither Plagg nor Adrien wanted to deal with it.

    "Plagg!" A high pitched voice squealed from outside Adrien's window. "I tried to be polite, but I guess I am just going to have to let myself in."