Requested by @Luckbuginette_14

Adrien wasn't sure how he ended up reading Marinette's diary, but he sure didn't expect to find out that she had a rather... massive crush on his civilian self while currently dating his superhero self.

_______________________________

Adrien wasn't sure how he ended up reading Marinette's diary.

One minute, he'd been sitting on the floor, surrounded by numerous art supplies that they planned to use for their project, which was due in less than two days, and then the next, her diary had been knocked off of her desk (almost as if someone had purposely pushed it off).

The small book fell open, facing up. Being courteous, Adrien simply planned to close it and put it back before Marinette returned from fetching a snack for them from downstairs.

But then his eyes caught onto his name. His civilian name.

As her boyfriend (being Chat Noir), Adrien wasn't surprised to find that she had written about him. What shocked him was that, despite what she did say about his superhero self, she also had a lot written about his civilian self... and how much she had a crush on said civilian self.

He wasn't sure whether he should be feeling jealous of himself or not.

The reason he (as Adrien) had even come to her house was that they were partnered on a project they would have to present to the class in two days—a project neither of them had started yet. Adrien wasn't much of a fan of procrastination, but he had to admit there were more important things he had to do rather than do research on mayors of Paris who were their current mayor's predecessors.

For one, being Chat Noir took up much of his time, to the point where most of the free evenings he could've had to meet with Marinette to work on this project had been booked by Hawkmoth and his ridiculous akumas. And he wasn't the only one who was incredibly busy. Marinette also seemed to be just as occupied.

The fact that they'd both been free only two days before the due date was surprising in itself.

Plus, not having much free time was also hindering him from coming to visit her as Chat Noir. So, with not being able to spend time with his girlfriend recently, it was hard to spend time with her as Adrien and act as just her friend.

And it was even harder to do so now that he knew she liked both of his halves.

Marinette's approaching footsteps had him scurrying to put the diary back the way it was. He had just returned to his seated spot on the floor the second she opened the trapdoor, where she revealed an assorted platter of delicious pastries.

"Hungry?" She asked, grinning.

Eagerly, he nodded. A snack break might help him better process what he just discovered.

"Any progress?" She questioned as she closed the trapdoor behind her. Marinette placed the tray of pastries between them before she sat back down.

Adrien reached out for a macaroon. Passionfruit flavored, he realized in satisfaction when he took a bite. "Nah." He shook his head. "There are so many past mayors to choose from, and I still have no idea who we should write about."

"What about Alexandre Monet?" Marinette suggested.

"I thought about him... but he didn't really do much for the city, and Madame Bustier wanted us to mostly talk about their greatest success while in office."

Marinette hummed in agreement. He watched over another macaroon as her eyes scanned down the rough draft of a list of names they had concocted. "Cédric LeBlanc seems like he could be pretty easy to write about."

"Yeah... except Chloé and Sabrina already chose to write about him."

"She didn't choose to write about her own dad? Brutal."

Adrien couldn't help but chuckle. "I'd say let's write about him, but Nino and Max already chose him."

Marinette's finger skimmed down the list. He couldn't help but follow it. "There's Peter Cox, Henry Stroud... François Martin—he's the one who allegedly had a fallout with his wife and then tried to take custody of their children by kidnapping them."

"That's just a rumor, Marinette." Adrien chuckled.

She grinned at him. "That's why I said allegedly."

"We could do him if you wanted," Adrien said with a shrug of his shoulders. "There's a whole documentary on Netflix about him and his alleged kidnapped children. We could watch it instead of having to read a bunch of research."

"That sounds like a plan to me," Marinette said excitedly, "I'll get the remote!"

He chuckled as he watched her stand. Turning his sights back to the platter in front of him, he wiggled his fingers as he silently decided which flavor he was in the mood for next—

"Adrien... did you touch my diary?"

Appetite forgotten, Adrien quickly froze. Marinette was behind him, so she couldn't see the horror on his face. Nonetheless, his body stiffened, and his shoulders tensed. How did she even know it had been messed with? He put it back in the same spot!

Slowly turning his head to look over his shoulder, Adrien feigned innocence and offered her a smile. "No? Why would I mess with your diary?"

Her skeptical frown deepened. "Don't lie to me, Adrien. I can tell it's been moved."

How? Did she have hidden cameras in her room? Was she psychic?

Sighing, his shoulders dropped. "Okay, so I did mess with it," he admitted, "But only because it fell off your desk."

That was the truth, right? He didn't need to go into details by explaining that the diary fell open, which led him to discover her crush on his civilian self.

Right?

"So, you didn't read anything inside it?" She doubtfully questioned him.

Shoot. He was afraid she would've asked that. Quickly, he tried to think of the right thing to say. His first instinct was to lie, but he was a terrible liar, and not only did Marinette despise liars, but she would also see right through his lie in a matter of seconds. So, what was he supposed to do? Tell her he invaded her privacy and discovered something he wasn't supposed to know?

Swallowing uncomfortably, he decided she would be upset either way. So, he went with honesty. "I... I didn't... I didn't mean to, I swear—"

Her audible scoff as she threw up her hands in disbelief had him feeling even worse.

"It's just... it fell open, and when I went to pick it up, I just happened to see my name and... and I'm sorry, I swear. I didn't mean to read anything inside it." He tried to explain.

Marinette was pinching the bridge of her nose. He could tell she was frustrated. Sighing through her nose, she said, "Just for the sake of embarrassment, just pretend you didn't read anything in there, okay?"

No. No! That's not what he wanted! He wanted Marinette to know that he was Chat Noir!

"But—"

"Adrien, please," she shook her head at him. "Just drop it, okay? Let's just concentrate on the project and not talk about how mortifying this all is."

But he couldn't just drop it. If he did, his friendship with Marinette would never be the same. They would be tiptoeing around each other, each of them trying to make sure they didn't trip over the obvious line of awkwardness. Besides, if there was ever a time to tell Marinette who he was under the mask, now was that time.

So, inhaling a breath of confidence, he blurted out: "I'm Chat Noir."

A few things happened at once. Marinette's eyes widened. He felt out of breath with such a confession. Then, her mouth fell agape.

He offered her a sheepish smile in return. "Yeahhhh..." he drew out the word, unsure of what to say next. He thought about apologizing but decided to add: "Surprise... hehe..."

Adrien could see the gears turning in her head. It took a total of seven seconds before Marinette's genuine shock slowly began to morph into offense. With another sheepish chuckle, he tried to placate her. "I swear I didn't try to read your diary on purpose. I would never violate your privacy like that, but I just thought you should know that—"

He wasn't given the chance to finish. Said dairy came flying at him, smacking him right in the face.

He looked up at her, aghast, completely shocked that his girlfriend would even do such a thing. But Marinette was looking back at him with the exact same expression—because she wasn't the one who threw her diary at him.

The culprit snickered from behind, causing the duo to spin on their heels. Plagg, in all his mischievous glory, was floating midair with a sinister grin on his lips.

"Plagg?!" Adrien questioned in disbelief. "That was you?! Why would you do that?!"

"Because I was tired of barely getting to come over here anymore." The kwami whined. "With Chat Noir and Marinette being too busy and identities getting in the way, I just figured it would be so much nicer if she knew who you were. Besides, a kwami has got to eat, and I've been dying for Marinette's tasty treats for weeks."

Adrien could only gape at his kwami. "So... so you're the one who pushed her diary off the desk?!"

Plagg simply snickered. It was enough to leave Adrien speechless.

Turning to the still gaping Marinette, Plagg smiled smugly at her. "So, now that the secret is out, can I get a slice of your famous cheesecake now?"

_______________________________

Of course Plagg was behind all that. The sneaky little bastard.

See you in the next one-shot! (Be sure to check out my bio or the 'Welcome to My Profile' book underneath 'update schedule' for when the next scheduled update will be.)

Vote?
Comment?
Share?