Chapter Text
Previously on Aru Shah and Other Fandoms,
The last thing I remember is seeing a girl and a boy. The girl looked like she had been stung by a radioactive ladybug and the boy, well, he was dressed up as a black cat.
“Oh my god! You're… you're-” Shreeya started.
Then I passed out.
Marinette's pov
“-Ladybug and Cat Noir!” the girl exclaimed “Vedant!” she said, as she knelt down next to her friend(?) and put his head on her lap.
She was wearing high-waisted ripped jeans, a navy blue shirt and sneakers. Her hair was tied back, with a few loose strands, framing her face. Her eyes were puffy and red behind her glasses and her cheeks had tear stains. It was obvious she had been crying, though I have no idea why.
I hoped it wasn't because my yo-yo had hit her friend(?) and he had passed out. No, it couldn't possibly be because of that, since she had been crying before Cat Noir and I had got here. Ugh, this mission was already turning out to be a failure. We've just gotten here and something bad has already happened.
I glanced at Cat Noir, ''What should we do?” he whispered
“We can't just leave them here. We're literally the reason that guy is unconscious.” I whispered to him, pointing at said boy. I walked over to the girl and got down so we would be eye to eye. “Look, I didn't mean for anything like this to happen. If you'd like, we can try to help you heal him.” I said.
“Oh, I can heal him.” She said as she wiped her tears.
“And how do you plan on doing that?” I asked quizzically
Instead of responding, she touched where he had gotten hurt and closed her eyes. I looked over at Cat Noir but he just shrugged. When I looked back at the unconscious boy I noticed the swelling had disappeared, and he was starting to gain consciousness again. The girl put his head back on the ground and stood up but she looked a lot more tired and drained.
The surprise was probably very clear on our faces since she said, “Oh uh, I have magical powers, I'll explain later. Anyway, what are you guys doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in Paris? Fighting akumas and Hawkmoth or Shadowmoth?”
“Well… Shadowmoth has made a really powerful villain, the akuma is revealing everyone's deepest fears and the amok is making the fear come true and apparently there are people in Paris who fear a ton of monsters from Greek myths. I'm pretty sure I saw a Minotaur, Medusa, Cyclops, Furies and a whole bunch which I don't know the names of.” Cat Noir said.
“And we can't possibly defeat the akuma, amok and all those monsters by ourselves, so our kwamis sa-” I was interrupted by a certain kitty.
“Kwamis are the things th-”
“I know what kwamis are, please continue the story.” the girl said, impatiently
“Ok so, our kwamis told us that if we come here we would get help for the monster problem at least. And that's why we're here.” I finished
“More monsters?” a new voice said.
I turned to see that the unconscious boy had finally gained full consciousness and was standing a few feet behind the girl. He was decently handsome, not as handsome as Adrien(I don't think anyone could be as handsome as Adrien… maybe Cat- no Marinette don't think like that), but still handsome. He was wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt, along with sneakers. The girl ran to him and threw her arms around him. He looked surprised at first but hugged her back, holding her as if she was the most important thing in the world, for him at least.
“I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. Please forgive me for running off like that.” She said as she sobbed into his shoulder.
“I'm the one who should be saying sorry. I should've never said that. You should be the one to forgive me.” He replied
“But what you said was the truth, I do use my powers without thinking sometimes an-”
“And you do it to help others, there's nothing wrong with doing that.”
“Bu-”
Before she could continue, I cleared my throat and the two of them separated. They both had matching blushes on their faces. We were all just looking at each other, it was really awkward. Then the guy cleared his throat.
“So, uh, what's this about more monsters?” He asked
“I'll explain in just a sec.” the girl told him and turned to Cat Noir and I. “Aren't you guys worried about the citizens of Paris? Like, are they safe from the akuma, the amok and all those monsters?”
“We've already taken care of that, we rounded up all the citizens and asked Wayzz, another kwami, to use his power to make a giant force field around them. And the other superheroes are providing them with essentials, such as food.” Cat Noir responded
She nodded, “Well at least that's some good news. Moving on, we know just the people who can help you defeat the monsters, but you need to do exactly as we say. Got it?”
“Woah, woah, woah, hold on. How do we know we can trust you?” I asked
She muttered something under her breath before sighing and saying, “Because if I wanted to betray you I would've already done it, don't you think? I mean, I've got magical powers, I could've done anything I wanted.”
“You make a fair point. Fine, we'll do whatever you want.” I said
“Great, you need to reveal your identities to each other before anything else happens.” She said this super casually. Does she even have any idea of what she had just said?
“What?!?” Cat Noir and I both shrieked
“We can't reveal our identities.”
“We aren't allowed to reveal our identities to each other.”
Cat Noir and I said simultaneously.
‘No no no, the last time Cat Noir found out my identity he was akumatized into Cat Blanc.’ I thought
“The only way we are going to introduce you to those people is if you reveal your identities. Besides, Vedant and I already know who both of you are.” the girl said, and I was even more surprised how the hell could these two people who neither I nor Cat Noir have ever met know both of our identities, she had to be bluffing, right? Yeah she was probably bluffing.
“You don't know who we are, we've never even met you. You're just bluffing.” I said, voicing my thoughts and Cat Noir nodded his head in agreement.
“You're right, I have never met either of you, but I know exactly who you are.” She said this with so much confidence that I almost believed her.
“Oh yeah, then prove it. Without obviously saying our names.” Cat Noir said
She just smiled smugly and said, “Ok.” She then pointed at me and said, “You're always late, have a ton of friends, are class rep, and have gotten threatened by that” her face morphed into one of resentment and disgust before she continued, “liar. And you” she pointed at Cat Noir, her face back to normal “were really lonely before you became Cat Noir, have a harsh father, and are famous, without the mask. Do I need to go on?”
I started to panic. ‘How could someone I have never met before know so much about me?’ I wondered. I turned to look at Cat Noir, from the panicked look on his face, I knew that whatever she had said about him was true.
‘So he is famous without the mask? How many teenage boys who have blond hair and green eyes are famous in Paris?’ Part of me wondered
‘No no no, Marinette, you are not supposed to know who Cat Noir is.’ The other part responded, this voice sounded almost like Tikki.
‘But I'm the Guardian now, shouldn't I know who Cat Noir is? Master Fu knew who was behind the mask.’
‘Yes but Master Fu wasn't Cat Noir's partner. Besides, don't you remember what happened last time? Aren't you afraid of that happening again?’
“How do you know these things?” I asked the girl
“I-” Before she could continue, I interrupted her.
“You know what, it doesn't even matter. We are not going to reveal our identities, not until Shadowmoth is defeated at least.”
She sighed, ''Look I know what you're afraid of but you don't need to worry about it.”
She knew?
“How do you know that?”
“I can't tell you that here, I'll need to talk to you alone.”
“No, tell her what you want here.” Cat Noir said.
She shrugged and looked at me, the decision was all mine. If she did say it here, in front of everyone then my identity could be in danger.
“I'll come with you, but if you try anything then I will not think twice about hurting you and your friend.” I said, threateningly.
“But M'lady-”
“Don't worry about me, kitty. I can take care of myself.” I turned to the girl and gestured forward, “Let's go.”
She nodded and turned to her friend, “You stay here with Cat Noir. I'll try to explain this as quickly as I can, we still need to explain things to the others. Actually, could you call Aiden and tell him we're running a bit late?”
He nodded, ''Ok, but be quick, there are a lot of people waiting.”
“Ugh, don't remind me. We have so much going on.” With that she walked deeper into the woods and I followed her.
After walking for about five minutes, she stopped and turned to look at me.
“So, what exactly are you scared of? I mean I know you don't want him to see him akumatized again, but you do know that Hawkmoth is still in Paris. Meaning he can't akumatize Cat Noir.” She said
I hadn't even realized this until now. Wait… how does she know about Cat Blanc? That was a completely different timeline.
“How do you know about Cat Blanc?”
She got a slightly panicked look on her face as her eyes widened and darted around as if she was looking for something. After a few seconds she said, “Look I know you have a lot of questions but if I answer those questions you'll probably be even more confused. I need you and Cat Noir to trust me. Vedant and I need to meet up with those people who can help you with the monsters, if you want you and A-uh Cat Noir could come with us. I'm pretty sure you'll find some answers to your questions if you come with us.”
“Fine, we'll come with you.”
“But…you will need to reveal your identities to each other before you can come.” I opened my mouth but she wasn't done yet. “Before you say anything, just think about it. Besides you're the Guardian now you should know his identity. I promise, nothing bad will happen.”
‘Maybe she's right, Cat Noir and I have fought so many battles together, maybe it's time for us to reveal our identities.’ I thought
I sighed, “Ok, we'll reveal our identities, but we will do this privately.”
“You need to promise that you will reveal your identity only then I will get Cat Noir.”
“I promise.” I replied
She nodded, “I'll go get Cat Noir.” she started to walk away “Oh and don't worry, I know you will be pleasantly surprised when you find out who he is.”
Before I could ask her what she meant by that she was out of my sight. After a few minutes she returned with Cat Noir following her.
“See, I told you she would be fine.” She said to Cat. “Well, I'll leave you both alone. When you're done just come back to where we met, Vedant and I will be waiting for you.”
I nodded and with that she left again, I turned to Cat Noir.
“M'lady, if you don't want to reveal our identities, we don't have to.”
“It's ok kitty, I think it's about time we revealed.” I took a shaky breath and continued “We'll close our eyes when we detransform and open them in the count of three. Ok?”
He nodded and closed his eyes as I closed mine.
“Claws in”
“Spots off”
“On the count of three… 1… 2…… 3.” I said
When I opened my eyes I came face to face with Adrien Agreste.
“Adrien?!?”
“Marinette!”
“You're Cat Noir?!?”
“You're Ladybug!”
This means that I've been rejecting my crush this entire time. This is a DISASTER, how did I not notice they were the same person. He's probably super disappointed, if he's disappointed that means we'll never get married or have two, no three kids or the dog, no not the dog a cat, nah forget the cat a hamster named-
“Can you stop panicking? If you ask me it was super obvious and you're both stupid for not realizing this a lot sooner.” Plagg said, interrupting my mental freakout.
“Plagg! Leave them alone, this is a very important moment for them.” Tikki said
“Whatever. Adrien, give me camembert.”
Tikki rolled her eyes and went into my purse to get her cookies.
“So……… you're Ladybug.” Adrien said
“Yeah, and you're Cat Noir. Are you disappointed?” I asked
“Disappointed? Why would I be disappointed? You should be the one who's disappointed. Adrien is so lame compared to Cat Noir.”
“You and lame? You're joking, right? I'm nothing like Ladybug, behind the mask I'm a total klutz, even as Ladybug I make mistakes. I'm the reason Master Fu had to give up the Miracle Box.”
“Hey, it's ok. Sure you make mistakes, but what's important is that you fix those mistakes. Master Fu giving up the Miracle Box was completely his choice, he knew it was the only way to save Paris. And of course you're like Ladybug behind the mask, Marinette, you've stood up to Chloe, Lila and even my father. If you ask me, I think you're even better than Ladybug as Marinette.”
“Thank you. And for the record, Cat Noir and Adrien are both really amazing people and apparently they are the same person.”
After that we were just staring at each other, trying to think of what to say.
Finally he asked, ''Is it Luka?’
“What?”
“The other boy, is it Luka?”
“The other bo-oh uh no it's not Luka.”
“If it isn't Luka then who is it?”
“Oh um it was you. That's why I could never talk with you properly, I was too nervous.”
“Me? Really? That's-”
“It's okay, if you don't feel the same way. I know you have feelings for Kagami and that I'm just a friend. I hope we can still be friends when we get back to Pa-”
“I don't have any feelings for Kagami. I've only ever had feelings for you, Princess. Bugaboo, you captured my heart when you fell out of the sky on the first day we became superheroes and then as time went on Marinette also made her way into it, I just didn't think you could ever have romantic feelings for me so I just ignored them. But then when we came to New York, I just couldn't ignore them anymore. Those feelings were part of the reason Kagami and I broke up-”
“You and Kagami broke up?!? When?”
“Yeah, not too long ago. It was the day after she was akumatized into Lies.”
“But why would you ever have feelings for plain old me? I'm noth-”
I was interrupted by Adrien's lips being pressed against mine, my eyes were blown open. Once the shock subsided, I kissed him back. It was amazing, I wished we could just stay like that but we were interrupted.
“Yay you're dating.” Plagg said, very unenthusiastically.
Adrien and I jumped apart.
“Plagg! You ruined their moment.” Tikki scolds him
“I don't care about their moment, I just care about my cheese. You know that, don't you? Sugarcube?”
“How many times have I told you to not call me Sugarcube, Stinky Sock?”
“We should get back, Shreeya was saying something about explaining things and getting answers?” Adrien said, interrupting their squabble, Tikki went into my purse and Plagg went into Adrien's shirt pocket.
“Who's Shreeya?”
“That girl we bumped into, she's Shreeya and her friend's name is Vedant.”
“Oh. Yeah, she said something about meeting those people who could help us with the monsters and how it gives us some answers to our questions.”
He nodded and we started walking. After a few moments of awkward silence Adrien said, ''So, what are we?”
That was a good question, what were we? Friends? Best friends? Lovers? Boyfriend/Girlfriend?
“I… I don't know.”
“Oh come on, just say you're dating already. This is getting annoying.” Adrien's shirt pocket said.
“Be quiet, Plagg!” My purse responded
“Sooo, boyfriend/girlfriend?” Adrien asked
“Boyfriend/girlfriend.” I agreed
We were about to kiss again when we heard a voice call out “Shreeya!” Adrien and I looked at eachother and ran towards the voice, when we reached there we saw….