"You're telling me you aren't even a little curious about who she really is?" Alya says as they walk out of the school.

"Of course I'm interested; I think all of Paris is at least a little curious." Marinette quickly counters. "It's just that, uh, I think she doesn't want people to know her identity and I respect that, not to say that you don't; believe me, I want to know who she really is, but I think she'd prefer if we didn't go seeking her real identity..." she rambles on.

Alya rolls her eyes, "Oh, Marinette, always so considerate." she gives her a side glance, "How would you know what Ladybug wants anyway?" she wiggles her eyebrows the way she does when she's found out something while investigating.

Marinette feels the blood leave her face as she attempts to keep it stolid. "I mean- I just mean that, if I were in her shoes, I think that's what I, she, would want."

Alya puts an arm around Mari's shoulders, "Girl, no need to get defensive," she laughs, "Does 'investigator Alya' intimidate you that much?"

"Haha, you're just really good at what you do." she laughs away the tension in her own mind.

Alya sighs, "I guess I'll just have to figure out Ladybug's identity on my own."

"Did you say you know 'Ladybug's identity'?" Adrien asks as he comes up from behind them.

A gleam comes to Alya's eye, "No, we don't currently. Would you like to help me figure it out?"

He lights up, "Sure!" he smiles whole heartedly.

"Marinette, didn't you say you wanted to help too?" She leads, nudging Mari in the shoulder knowingly.

It takes a moment for her urges to catch up to Marinette who couldn't get past the twinge in her chest and the dumb smile on her face.

"Mari?"

She comes to, "Huh? Yeah!" she agrees instantly, still a little starry eyed.

"Cool! You guys wanna meet in the library later?" Adrien suggests as he changes course to go to his fencing lesson.

"Totally. See you then!" Alya quickly responds while trying to keep Marinette together.

Once he had walked away, Marinette fully snaps out of her trance. She takes a moment to recount what just happened. "Ohhh," she moans and covers her face with her hand.

"Yep, you're joining our mission, our quest!" She waves her hand in an arc in front of them.

She sighs, "I guess this won't be too bad."

"Yeah, now that Adrien has decided to help out..." she winks, sending blush blooming across Marinette's face, "you can thank me later."

They walk their separate ways with the promise to meet up back at the library in an hour when they knew Adrien's fencing lesson was over. After reaching an empty stretch of sidewalk, Tikki pokes her head out of Marinette's purse. "Are you seriously going to help Alya and Adrien find out who Ladybug is?" she squeaks.

She shakes her head, "Nope. I'm gonna pretend to be helping them, but I'll actually be leading them off course, as best as I can." She does a halfhearted smile.

"Did you just think of that?" Tikki asks.

She shrugs, "No, I've had it in the back of my mind for a while, just for a situation like this. I kinda hoped it would never come to me purposefully deceiving anyone, but I don't have a choice."

The Kwami nods, "It's what must be done." she pauses, "So Adrien seemed eager to find out Ladybug's identity." She offers.

Her blush resurfaces, "Yeah, well, so is most of Paris, like I said before" she brushes it off.

"Mhmm. I'd just be careful not to slip up, if I were you" she trails off.

Marinette rolls her eyes, "Ugh, Tikki please," she absent mindedly waves her hand around, "I am a professional superheroine. I know what I'm doing. Everything is under control" she assures.

"Just like how you had it 'under control' when you agreed to even be part of Alya's search?" her eyes widen with actual concern.

Mari bites her lip, "Okay, okay, that's just because I was caught off guard. Trust me, I am in control. My identity is a lot more important to me than most anything else." She looks down at her Kwami, "I've got this."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marinette runs into the library space to find Alya and Adrien sitting across from each other at a table. "Late as usual." Alya states, but continues on without skipping a beat, "We've already started off by listing some of Ladybug's characteristics" she slides a spiral notebook over to the seat Mari's spot next to her.

She looks over the list, some written in Alya's handwriting and some in Adrien's.

Ladybug:

*Black hair

*Blue eyes

*Pale Skin

*thin

Her eyes narrow a bit. She slides the list back to the middle of the table. She clicks her tongue, "See, my thing is, and partially a reason why I was unsure of joining you earlier, is the very real possibility that her physical characteristics change when she becomes Ladybug. We could never know, making an infinite possibility of her actual physical traits." she explains, inwardly proud of her reasoning.

"I don't think so." Adrien interjects, taking the notebook in front of him.

Marinette raises her eyebrows.

"She has a good point, Adrien," Alya defends, "We know Ladybug and Chat Noir's powers are somewhat 'magical'. What's to say that they don't go through a 'magical' transformation that changes everything about them?" A bit of discouragement comes out in her voice.

Adrien looks down at the list and shakes his head slightly, "I know it's a good theory; it's just that," he takes a slow breath through his nose, "I just have a strong suspicion to think otherwise."

There's a moment of silence as Alya leans across the table towards him. "And what exactly would cause you to think 'otherwise'?"

He holds in the urge to squirm under her gaze, "I've just been doing some research of my own, and I remember seeing something that contradicted that theory." He cocks his head to the side with thought, "Subtle changes, yes, but a complete change of their physical characteristics is... unlikely."

"Uh huh. And what source did you get this information from?" She raises an eyebrow.

"I... don't remember." He gives an apologetic half smile. "I just remember reading it somewhere."

Alya cracks her own smile, "Since when are you so into Ladybug, anyway?"

He shrugs, "She's always kinda... fascinated me. Well, her and Chat Noir" he quickly adds.

Marinette feels her cheeks burn under the surface.

Alya nods, "Very well. It's always nice to get together with other superhero fans. And in regards to the theory, Marinette it was a very good point but simply the idea of infinite Ladybug identities is a bit much to start with. I think we should just start with what we have here," she takes the notebook.

Marinette tenses up a little, 'So much for that.'

"We should also think about Chat Noir's identity. I was gonna just focus on him second, but I think whichever we find first will lead us to the other." She turns the page and writes "Chat Noir:" at the top, followed by:

*Blond

*green eyes

'Flirtatious, annoying,' Marinette thinks to herself, cracking a little smile and rolling her eyes before her breathing catches, realizing something 'I have to protect both of our identities now...'

"You really think that their real identities are connected like that?" he asks while sliding the notebook in his direction.

She nods, "Definitely. Even if they don't know each other's identities, I'm certain they are."

"Really?" Adrien asks, enthralled.

"Really...?" Mari echoes, a little less enthusiastically.

"It only makes sense" she explains, "They both appear to be around the same age, they both came about at the same time; there must be something that links their identities, why they were chosen. Speaking of which," she slides the notebook back to her, "Do you think that they go to our school? Like, maybe that's the link. They always seem to be around here." She turns the page and writes 'Francoise Dupont' at the top.

"I don't know about Ladybug, but I don't think Chat Noir is in our grade." Adrien testifies, "He looks at least a few years older than us." He shrugs.

"Ladybug looks older than us too, in my opinion." Mari interjects.

Adrien's nose scrunches up, "Really? She seems like she's our age."

She almost laughs, "If you think that baby-faced Chat Noir is older than us, then so is Ladybug." She defends, trying to keep Adrien and Alya's advances at bay.

"Are you two serious?" Adrien and Marinette turn to Alya. "Between their appearances, that textbook I found of Ladybugs, the way they talk, and everything else; they have to be in our grade. I was just questioning if they went, specifically, to our school or not."

Marinette and Adrien exchange the same dumbstruck and slightly embarrassed look. "Sorry Alya," Marinette starts, "we just can't seem to keep up with your amazing investigative skills"

"Yeah." Adrien adds sheepishly.

She gives them both a look, "Is there something you guys want to tell me? Or am I missing something here?"

The silence hangs in the air. Neither Adrien nor Marinette offering up an explanation, only confused looks.

She rolls her eyes "Moving on, I guess. I brought last year's yearbook so we can start picking some suspects..."

Marinette's heart drops a little, knowing how few people are going to match the 'Ladybug' profile. "I still don't think this will really prove anything" she comments as they start flipping through the pages of the yearbook.

"It's just a starting place," Alya dismisses as she writes down the name of a possible Chat Noir.

Mari tries to point out other dark haired, light eyed girls, but fails to convince Alya to write most of them down.

Eventually they reach their own class page. Alya laughs, "There are our usual suspects," she taps Marinette and Adrien's faces on the page. She moves to write their names down.

"What?!" "Alya," they exclaim simultaneously.

She tries to stifle her laugh, "What? You guys fall exactly under the description. We've got to take in all possibilities."

Marinette sneaks a glance at Adrien, only to meet his gaze, transfixed, upon her.

She feels Tikki nudging her through her purse. She bolts up from her seat, "I'm gonna grab something from the vending machine. Be right back." she excuses herself before leaving without waiting for a response.

She pushes past the set of doors into the empty corridor. Cornering herself between the machine and the wall, she unbuttons her purse, "Tikki-"

"Who ya talking to?"

Her hand clamps down on the top of her purse as she spins to see Adrien, thumbs in his pockets.

"Who's Tikki?"

Marinette feels her heart stop, allowing for too long of a silence before she stutters out "W-what? Oh, 'Tikki' is, what I call my phone," she takes her phone and shakes it in front of her, "Heh-"

He nods, obviously unconvinced, "Oh, for a second, I thought 'Tikki' might have been the name of your Kwami..."

She freezes in place, 'How does he know about Kwami's? Unless... This can't be happening...' her mind runs wild yet she stays in place. "'Kwami'? W-what's a Kwami?" She can't help the quiver in her voice anymore. She takes a half step back from him.

He takes a step forward, closing the lost space. "Marinette..."

"Adrien," she takes a slow, deep breath, steadying herself, "just say what I think you and I both know." she closes her eyes.

He fully closes the distance between them. He looks around, making sure no one entered the hallway. In a hushed, careful tone, he states "I think you're Ladybug. Am I right?" His eyes widen with anticipation. She does a small, slow nod, meeting his eyes. A smile blows wide across his face, "This is great! Ha," he holds his head in his hand, "a-nd it's alright because it's me, Chat!" he says with hushed excitement, but it dies down when he sees Marinette's less than enthusiastic reaction, "M'lady?" He runs his hand down her arm.

In her mind, walls came crashing down. The part of her that she kept so carefully secret, mixed and melded with her everyday self. With Adrien, she was now one identity, Marinette and Ladybug. In her mind she felt that she had failed one of her 2 jobs as Ladybug. 1: to protect Paris, and 2: to keep her true identity a safe...

"Marinette," he calls her back to the moment unfolding before her. "it's just me. Our identities are safe."

As she meets his gaze, she sees both Adrien and Chat looking back at her; the two people-- the one person she trusted the most.

She nods, "I'm glad it's you." she pulls him into a hug which he gratefully returns, holding her tight against him.

After a moment, a black cat Kwami pokes its head out of Adrien's shirt. "Yeah, yeah, this is great and all, but what are we gonna do about Alya who is literally in the next room over?"

"Plagg has a point," Tikki chirps.

Adrien and Marinette both give each other a look, nodding.

They return to the room together. Alya looks up at them from her phone, "Did you guys go to a vending machine across town or something?" Marinette opens her mouth to explain their delay, but she cuts her off "Don't worry about it. Did you guys work out what was eating away between you two?"

"Uh, yes..?" Adrien replies, unsure of what she meant.

She smiles proudly, "Then my work here is done." She slides the notebook into her bag and gets up to leave, "You guys can thank me when you're ready to let me in on everything." She winks before walking between the two of them, "See ya in class" she calls as she passes through the door and leaves.

A moment of silence follows her exit, an unsaid truth hanging in the air. Mari breaks it, "...Do you think-"

"No. But if she did, would she-"

"She would, because we're-"

"Yeah..."

Marinette laughs, letting go of any tension in her, "We should've known something like this would happen."

"Yep. But I think it's time to call it a day." He adds on. He holds the door open, "After you, M'lady."

She smirks, "This is gonna take some getting used to," she says as she flicks a bit of hair out of his face before he walks her home for the night.