He stared back at her, looking deep into her eyes and trying to figure out if she was really considering telling him.  "I would love to know.. but only if you really want to tell me...  You know I won't tell anyone, right?  And I trust you with my life.  I would tell you right here and now, no strings attached if you wanted to know; even if you kept your identity a secret.  But no matter how much I want to know, I wouldn't want to pressure you into telling me."

He would tell his identity without knowing hers? That seem unfair. Ladybug looked away from him yet again. Judging by tonight there was more too him and she wanted to know. But again it would be unfair if she didn't showed hers. She looked back at him nervously. What would he think if he knew who she was? He has spent some time with her as Marinette, but was enough for him to form an opinion? Then there was whole trusting thing. He trusted her with his life and she trusted him as well. Again it would make things easier for them.

"Well, if you really want to know," she began to say. "My name.." Then fear took over her mind. Stopping the Evillustrator together probably enough for him to form an opinion. He probably thought she was boring. Ladybug was way more exciting than her. "I can't. I'm sorry." She then placed her hand on his ring. "Not right now. We should wait until I'm ready." She then gave him a smile. "I promise." She meant it. Ladybug knew fear took over her and she wanted to get over it first.

Chat held his breath as she was about to tell him her name.  He was so close to finally know who his partner was, but she stopped as some emotion flitted through her eyes for a brief moment.  Was it fear...?  And that was that.   

The breath escaped him as she put her hand on his, covering his ring to keep him from removing it.  He couldn't lie to himself.  It hurt that not only did she not want to tell him but something was also holding her back.  What was she afraid of?

But he gave her a small smiled, covering his thoughts as he nodded. "As you wish, my lady," he murmured. He probably should have never brought it up.

She could tell he was upset and she didn't blame him. Ladybug could hear from inside ballroom that things were starting to wind down. She should probably get going. Ladybug then squeezed his hand. "Sounds like the party is ending." She then smiled at him. "I had a lot of fun tonight. I will never forget it." She then handed him back his jacket. "See you next time, kitty cat." She gave him a little wink and headed back into the ball room. 

Ladybug made her way back to the staff's bathroom. She slowly opened the door and saw that no one was in there. She went inside and closed the door behind her. Ladybug then detransformed. Tikki gave her a look of disappointment.

"What happened?" the kwami asked. "He trusts you."

"I know," Marinette replied. "I'm just not ready."

Tikki folded her arms. "You shouldn't be afraid."

"I know, I know!" Marinette walked over to one of the sinks. She ran some water and got her face wet. It helped her calm down from tonight's events. 

"Did you really mean that promise?" Tikki floated over toward her.

Marinette nodded her head as she turned off the faucet. "Yes, I just need more time."

Tikki gave her a small smile. At least her partner was willing to tell. It was probably best to change the subject. "I told you would have fun tonight, but I didn't know you would have that much fun."

"Tikki!!" Marinette shouted and turned red. Her kwami just laughed at her.

"What? I'm only speaking the truth. I can't believe you kissed him."

Marinette then stormed out of the bathroom. Tikki went after her and hid in her pant's pocket.

Chat smiled as Ladybug left.  She enjoyed herself tonight.  That was what he wanted and he was elated that he had not only succeeded, but also made some progress with her.  He would know the truth about her someday, but tonight just wasn't it.  

His eyes shifted back to the lights of Paris. Now that she was gone, he would have to turn back to Adrien and rejoin his father before the party came to a complete stop. His father wouldn't be happy about his absence (that was for sure), but it didn't matter. Tonight's disappointment aside, he had a wonderful time and all his mind wanted to think about was dancing and enjoying a kiss from the girl of his dreams.  Chat smiled and headed inside and back to the bathroom to detransform.

Plagg flew out of his ring as Adrien detransformed and stretched much like a cat after a long nap.  "Man that party was long," the kwami muttered.  He sounded tired even though Adrien had not used cataclysm or even used that much energy outside of dancing.

Adrien laughed. "You're just complaining because you were bored. You never were one for romance. Tonight must have been really annoying for you," he said. 

"Tonight was something," Plagg said, vaguely.

Adrien just shrugged. "We should get going before my father gets too upset. I'll see if I can snag some cheese before we meet up with him."

Plagg perked up a this and quickly flew into one of Adrien's pockets.  "I'm holding you to that."


Gabriel surveyed the ballroom as the music began to wind down and some participants headed toward the doors, eager to get out before the rush to the parking lot.  Where was Adrien?  He hadn't seen him all night despite his son's mention of mingling with the other party guests.  Some of his business partners had even commented on Adrien's absence, much to Gabriel's dismay.  What was that boy thinking?  

Then there was also the fact Ladybug and Chat Noir had both been right there in front of him.  Naive teenagers, unaware that their greatest enemy stood before them.  Had the circumstances been different, he might have been able to snag at least one miraculous.  But there were too many onlookers tonight, and stealing one miraculous would not only publicly reveal him as Hawk Moth but also draw the anger of whichever hero he didn't get the first miraculous from.

He finally spotted Adrien heading quickly towards him as more of the party guests filed out the door. His son stopped in front of him, gasping for breath from running, and looked up quickly to speak, "I'm really sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I didn't mean..."

"Let's get to the car. We'll talk then," Gabriel said. Adrien nodded, and they headed out to wait for their driver to bring the car ups.  He couldn't help but notice the spring in his son's step as they walked.  Anger bubbled up inside of him.  The teen was happy he skipped the party!

They entered the back of the car and sat in silence for a moment as the car moved towards the parking lot exit. Finally, Gabriel decided to speak, "Where were you? Don't tell me you were talking to people because no one I spoke to saw you the entire time."

Adrien was quiet for a brief moment before answering, "Sorry.  I didn't feel well and ended up in the bathroom all night."

Gabriel stared at his son. He knew for a fact that was a load of crap given the extremely high spirits his son was currently in. Sick was far from Adrien's current feelings. His son was lying to him again, and he didn't like it.

"You don't look sick.  I want to know what's going on," Gabriel said.

"I... I'm sorry... I just didn't feel like being there so I left for a bit.." Adrien's answer still seemed forced like a bad lie, but it was enough to turn Gabriel livid.

"You went behind my back and left the Palace? Something could have happened to you, and I wouldn't have known! This is why I don't usually let you wander around at parties.  You're always doing something you shouldn't be!" Gabriel said, his voice raising between normal tone and yelling.

Adrien didn't seem phased. Wherever he'd gone that night had been enough to take care of any punishment he received. "I know. I didn't mean it that way.  Sorry."

Gabriel stared at his son a moment longer.  The reprimand had not sunk in at all. He could ground him for the week, but he doubted whatever strange mood Adrien was in would let him feel anything remorse from that punishment. "Don't do it again," he said seriously.

"Yes sir," Adrien said. The car fell silent after that, and for some reason Gabriel couldn't help but think of his encounter with Chat Noir. He wasn't sure why the image of the hero wishing him a good evening had popped into his mind. Perhaps it was the fact they had both used the term 'sir' with the same type of tone.

Marinette entered the ballroom and saw all the guests have left. She then noticed Alya cleaning up some trash left on a table. She approached her and grabbed some of the trash to help out.

"Welcome back," Alya spoke to her friend with a sly smile.

"Uh, yeah," Marinette replied nervously.

"We'll talk later." Alya then moved on to another table.

"What!?" Marinette ran over to her. "What do you mean by later?"

"Well, we can't talk about it here now can we?"

"What's there to talk about?" Marinette laughed nervously.

"Girl, there's a lot to talk to about." Alya then moved on to another table.

Marinette let out a sigh. Of course Alya wanted to talk about tonight's events. She then kept on helping cleaning up the ballroom. It was the least she could do since she was gone all night.

It didn't take long to clean the ballroom and they returned to Alya's home. The girls retired to Alya's bedroom and got ready for bed. Marinette collapsed on her sleeping bag. She was going to sleep good tonight. Alya was sitting on her bed going through her phone. A grin appeared on her face, when she found the video she was looking for. She lean over her bed to hand Marinette her phone.

"What's this?" Marinette asked her friend.

"Just watch."

Marinette pressed played and saw that Alya recorded her first dance with Chat Noir. Her eyes widen and she looked at Alya in panic. "You recorded this!?"

"Yes. How could I not?"

"You're not going to post this on your blog are you?"

"No, of course not."

"Then why did you record it?"

"Because I wanted to."

Marinette bit her fingers. "You didn't follow us to the balcony did you?"

"No, sadly. I was busy severing food and making sure Chloe didn't interrupt you guys."

"Chloe was trying to join us?"

"Yep. She really wanted to hang out with you."

Marinette laughed. "If only she knew the truth."

Alya laughed as well. 

Marinette looked back at the phone and without thinking she replayed the video. As she watched a smile appeared across her face. Chat was such a good dancer.

"Marinette, you're smiling," Alya spoke in a teasing voice.

"Ahh!" Marinette quickly gave her friend the phone back. "I am not!!"

"Yes, you are. Now, admit it you like him."

"I do not!"

"Yeah you do," Tikki chimed in. Marinette glared at her.

"Girl, you like him! The way you were staring at him! It's the same stare you give Adrien!" Tikki let out a laugh. 

"I do not!" Marinette said and went under her sleeping bag. Alya just shook her head and crawled back to the top of her bed. "I only have eyes for Adrien!"

"Of course you do," Alya said as she got under her covers. She reached over to her lamp and turned off the lights. "Goodnight, Bugaboo." Marinette let out a scream into her pillow and Alya just laughed.

Monday morning Marinette was walking to school. As walked down the sidewalk she passed a newsstand. In the corner of her eye she saw a tabloid. She stopped and turned to look at it. On the front cover was her and Chat kissing. Marinette grabbed it. Her hands were shaking as she went through it. The photographer had pictures from their first and second dance as well. Even one of Chat putting on his jacket over her. Marinette felt her blood begin to boil. She couldn't believe that someone could do this! Marinette saw a free sign above the tabloid and she grabbed them all. Along the way to school she saw more newsstands and she grabbed more. When she got to school, she was stuffing them inside her locker.

"Marinette, what are you doing?" Tikki asked in a hush tone.

"What does it look like!?" Marinette replied in panic. 

"Morning, Marinette," Alya spoke from behind.

"Ah!! Alya!" Marinette slammed her locker door and she turned to face her friend. She then lean against her locker. "Beautiful day isn't it?" She gave her friend a nervous smile.

"Uh, yeah," Alya replied suspiciously. "So what's in the locker?"

"Nothing!"

Alya frowned and pushed friend aside. She opened the locker and all of the magazines came falling out. She gave Marinette a look. "Nothing, huh?" She bend down and picked one of them up. "Girl, if you were trying to hide this from people then good luck. This front cover all is over social media now."

"What!?"

Alya sighed. "You really should pay attention to celebrity sites seeing how you are one."

"Oh.."

Alya looked at the tabloid. "I'm surprise they didn't send this out yesterday." She flipped threw the pages. "So you two kissed, huh?"

"Yeah, we did.."

"She started it," Tikki whispered.

"Tikki!" Marinette hissed and shoved her back into her purse.

"Oh, man. Girl, you really should consider him!"

Marinette just ignored her and started to clean up the magazines. She tried cramming them back into her locker, but they all fell out again.

"So why are you trying to hide them anyway?" Alya asked deciding to change the subject.

"Because, Alya. This is a personal moment between me and Chat!" She bend back down trying to pick them all back up again. "I don't want all of Pairs to see it, but I guess it's pointless.."

Adrien woke with a yawn Monday morning.  Sunday had been a disaster of his mind focusing only on the ball despite his need to focus on what his father deemed 'more important matters'.  It was obvious his father knew something happened the night of the ball but had decided to ignore it.  That didn't stop the man from being extra irritable about it, though.  At least he could go to school today and try to get his mind back on track.

Adrien turned his computer on and headed to the various news sites he had bookmarked, earning himself an instant blush as every site's featured story was some version of the kiss and other pictures from his and Ladybug's dance. How it had taken the news this long to report it Adrien would never know, but he knew one thing for sure.  Ladybug was going to hate it. A lot.

"Woah, you two are all over the place," Plagg said, floating next to Adrien.

Adrien shrugged. He was used to the attention, and it was kind of nice having it directed towards his alter ego for once.  "I should have thought about it Saturday night.  It's obvious they'd want a scoop like that. It's probably good we didn't reveal ourselves. Whoever got these pictures might have overheard..."

"That's weird.  That blog your friend runs isn't reporting it," Plagg said, pointing to the monitor on the left.

Adrien raised an eyebrow.  He wasn't paying attention before. "Well, she was busy helping with catering.."  Plagg just shrugged, having no answer to that.

Adrien headed to school a half hour later and walked towards his locker. Nino had a doctor's appointment before school and would probably be right on time or slightly late, so he decided to swing by Marinette's locker on the way to his own and see if she was at school yet.

What he found was extremely confusing to him. Marinette and Alya were hanging out by her locker (nothing unusual about that) while Marinette was trying to stuff something into the locker. He walked up as a few copies of the tabloids fell back to the floor. 

"Good morning! What's with all the tabloids?" he asked, instantly recognizing each tabloid as he bent down to help her pick them up. There were at least two newstands worth of issues here, all featuring Ladybug and Chat Noir at the ball.

"Ah, Adrien!!" Marinette spoke in panic. "I uh.."

"She was helping Ladybug," Alya replied quickly saving Marinette. "She stopped Marinette this morning and asked her to hide these for her."

Marinette nodded her head. "Oh, yes. She's quite upset that something very personal has been exposed to the public." God she hoped Adrien fell for that. "I'm just not sure what to do with them.."

Adrien was quiet for a moment.  It made sense that his partner would be upset about this and want to get rid of as many tabloids as possible, but why enlist the help of a random civilian? Did the two of them know each other in real life? Couldn't Ladybug use her own civilian form to do the same thing?  Then again, getting help would cover more ground.

"Oh, that's great you're able to help.  I could take some of them off your hands since there's too many for your locker.  I promise I won't let any of them get out to the other students," he said with a smile.

"That would be great," Marinette spoke and returned his smile. Yes! He fell for it! She owed Alya big time. So the three them quickly cleaned up the tabloids and then headed to class. A few minutes their classmates filter in and of course the main conversation between their classmates was Ladybug and Chat Noir. Marinette tried to blocked them out. They kept going back in forth if Ladybug and Chat Noir were a couple or not. When the teacher finally showed up, it killed the conversation. No one brought it back up throughout the day.

After school, Marinette headed straight home. When she entered her apartment, she saw her parents were all dressed up. She threw her school back on the couch. "Are you guys going out tonight?"

"Yes," Marinette's mother replied. "A friend of ours gave use two tickets to An American in Pairs."

"That was nice of them." 

"So we're going out to eat before the show."

"We'll be back late," her father said. "Will you be okay by yourself tonight?"

"Yes," his daughter replied. She was actually glad they were going out. She could use some alone time after today. Throwing away the tabloids during her lunch break was such a pain. The janitor was not please.

"Alright, we'll see you later," Marinette mother said and both her parents then left.

Tikki flew out of Marinette's purse. "Sweet we have the place to ourselves tonight!"

"I know isn't it great?" Marinette said in excitement. "We can finally binge watch our show!"

"After homework, right?"

"Yes, of course." Marinette grabbed her school bag and went up to her room. She sat down at her desk and focused on her homework. Once she was finished, she changed into her sweats and put her hair up into a bun. She then grabbed her tablet and she went back downstairs to make dinner.

"So what will we be having?" Tikki asked her, when they entered into the kitchen.

"Spaghetti and meatballs!" Marinette placed her tablet on the kitchen counter and set it on its stand. She then turned on her streaming app. "The meatballs will be homemade."

"Yes!"

"I thought we needed some comfort food after today."

Tikki just smiled. She wanted to tease Marinette, but she understood why she was upset. "Can I help?"

"Sure." The two then got started on making the meatballs first since it would take awhile to make them. Marinette had her show playing in the background.

Adrien sat quietly through the school day.  He thought he was in for an entire day of their classmates' chatter about Ladybug and Chat Noir, but the debate was pretty clear cut (most thinking the two heroes were together), so it was done after the initial homeroom conversation. 

Unfortunately, the lack of conversation left him to focus on his after school schedule.  He had a photo shoot after school.  More dread than usual filled him at the thought. He would be working with Bridgette for the fifth time in the past few weeks.  It was supposed to be a couple's shoot with him and Bridgett acting the part of boyfriend and girlfriend, but the photographer continually accused them of having no chemistry.  They needed to get good pictures by this weekend or they were in trouble, and Adrien already knew today was not going to go well.

His suspicions were correct when he arrived at the photo shoot.  Bridgette was already complaining about something or other.  She was very much like Chloe in her lack of compassion towards people in general; the difference being Chloe was generally unaware of how terrible she could be while Bridgett purposely wanted to get one as many people's nerves as possible. It was surprising she hadn't caused any akuma attacks in Paris.  Probably because she didn't actually live in Paris most of the time.

"Oh, Adrien. How are things at your commoner school? Still enjoying the low-budget education and less educated peers?" Bridgette asked as he arrived.  

Adrien sighed. "We're here to work, not talk," he said while walking past her to check in with the photographer.  She thought they were friends for some weird reason.

He endured a good hour of photo shoot before the photographer shook his head in dismay, throwing his hands in the air in defeat.  "I give up! No one would ever believe you two are a couple.  Not even with a photo of you two sharing a plate of spaghetti!  I'm done for the day." 

Adrien sighed in relief as the photographer left, ending the session early. Bridgette had been unbearable, his father had joined them for a time and tried to direct better than the photographer (which made things worse), and he was starting to get hungry. 

He didn't really want to go home yet. The house would be empty until his father was done with work, and then he would come home and have a stern talk with Adrien about getting better at acting and doing his work properly.  Adrien needed a chance to vent before taking on that talk.

That was when a thought hit him.  Marinette had said he could always talk to her.  Maybe he could stop by..  Was that rude?  Would she get annoyed with him if he did?  He had no clue, but he wanted to talk to her.

It took a little convincing for the Gorilla to finally agree to take him to the bakery rather than home, but he agreed in the end and dropped Adrien off at the bakery.  Adrien thanked him, said he would walk home, and went to the door.  He took a deep breath and knocked on the door, hoping she wouldn't mind him being there.

Marinette and Tikki was sitting on her couch as they waited for the meatballs to be done in the oven. She then heard a knock on the door. She sat up and looked puzzled. She wondered who it could be. Tikki quickly flew up to Marinette's room as Marinette walked over to the door. She opened it and saw Adrien standing there.

"Ah, Adrien!!" She spoke in a panic voice. "What..you doing here.. I mean what's up?" Marinette wanted to smack herself.

Adrien paused, wondering if he'd stopped by at a bad time.  Just because someone said they were open for venting did not mean they were always open.  Judging by her clothes and lack of her parents, it occurred to Adrien that maybe she had planned alone time tonight.

"Sorry for stopping by unannounced.. I thought maybe we could hang out and talk. I probably should have called first. I can go if you're busy.  It's not super important..."

He hadn't meant to say so much, and he wondered if he'd gotten to rambling territory.  This was definitely a bad idea.  He should have called or texted, and now she would probably feel like she had to let him in even if she didn't want to.

He wanted to hang out and talk? She wondered if he needed to vent. Well, she did say she was always available. Marinette just thought he would call her, but this worked too. She gestured her arm to welcome him in. "No, come on in. I was just in the middle of making dinner." They walked inside and she closed the door behind them. "You're welcome to stay for dinner. My parents are out for the evening."

Then it hit Marinette. She recently put new pictures of him all over bedroom wall. Tikki advised not too do that, but she ignored her. What if they go up to her room? "Uh, wait right here!" She grabbed her tablet from the couch. "I just need to put this away. Just make yourself at home!!" Mairnette then ran up to her bedroom.

"Tikki, Adrien's here!" Marinette said in a panic voice. She threw her tablet on the lounge couch and started taking the pictures down.

"Oh, wow he came unannounced. I guess you are making progress with him."

Marinette glanced at her. "And what's that suppose to mean?"

Tikki shrugged. "It seems like he's still oblivious to your feelings."

"I'm taking things slow."

"You didn't with Chat."

"Tikki!!"

The kwami just laughed. "So why are you taking the posters down?" That was her cue to change the subject.

"Because he could see them!" Marinette stood up on her desk and was taking down the posters that were high up on the wall.

"Just don't bring him up here.."

Marinette's foot then slipped on her desk which made her fall off her desk. Her fall made a big crashing noise. "You're right.."

Tikki just shook her head. She noticed something in the corner of her eye. Tikki turned and saw Plagg peaking through the trap door. He made a quiet laugh and then went back downstairs. She looked back at her owner."You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Marinette stood up.

"Go, I'll take care of the rest."

"Thanks, Tikki." Marinette then quickly ran downstairs. She found Adrien sitting on the couch. "Sorry about that. How about some snacks?" She then quickly went into the kitchen hoping he wouldn't ask her what just happened. He mostly likely heard her fall.

Adrien smiled as Marinette let him in and asked him to stay for dinner. It was a relief to know she seemed fine with him being there. "Thank you," he said as he headed to the couch.

He was about to ask her how she was doing when she grabbed her tablet and headed upstairs to put it away. He sighed and relaxed a bit as he waited for her to come back. She was taking longer than expected. 

"I wonder what she's doing up there," Adrien murmured, again wondering if he should have called first.

"I could go see if you want," Plagg suggested from Adrien's pocket.

Adrien frowned and shook his head. "You shouldn't. It's her room. She deserves privacy."

Plagg rolled his eyes. "She's obviously doing more up there than just putting away a tablet. You know you're curious."

"Does the old saying, curiosity killed the cat mean anything to you?" Adrien joked.

"Suit yourself.  I'm still going to check it out.  I'll make sure not to get caught," Plagg said before flying off toward the stairs to Marinette's room.

"Plagg!" Adrien called as quietly as he could, but the kwami was already gone.

A crash sounded just as Plagg disappeared from sight, and Adrien hoped that was not an indication of his kwami doing something stupid.  The last thing he wanted was to bring Marinette trouble just because Plagg had a mind of his own.

Plagg returned moments later, an amused smirk on his face.  Adrien narrowed his eyes, "What exactly happened up there?"

"You said you didn't want to know."

"I don't want to know everything. Just what happened to make that crashing noise."

"Oh, that? Don't worry.  It had nothing to do with me. Your girlfriend was just doing some quick cleaning and tripped. Nothing major," Plagg answered, waving his paw-like hand dismissively.

"Cleaning?  But why would she clean up there if we're staying down here?" Adrien asked in confusion.  Then he suddenly registered the rest of what Plagg said. "And she's not my girlfriend.  We're just friends."

"If you say so. I think you should give her a shot, but that's just me.  Oh, here she comes," Plagg said, flying back into his pocket.