Requested by @Baboon24

This is sooooo late. Jesus. I'm so sorry for that.

Lately, Marinette always has an excuse for ditching plans. Adrien sees it too.

So, Adrien decides to confront her about it.

As his alter-ego, of course.

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Lately, Marinette always seemed to have an excuse for ditching plans.

It wasn't as if they hung out regularly at all, but Adrien could tell she was avoiding her friends. She already avoided him on a regular basis, which he just assumed was because of the gum incident that, although she had made peace with him over, he assumed she hadn't necessarily forgiven him for. But he knew Marinette well enough to know that was usually a sweet, bubbly person around her friends and all the people she deeply cared about. And sometimes, she was also like that around him too. She would smile at him if she happened to meet his eyes across the classroom, and he would always smile back. Sometimes she would even give him gifts, usually in the form of some delicious treat from the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

But recently, he's been seeing less and less of Marinette, and when he does see her, she doesn't exactly give him a smile whenever their eyes meet.

She avoided his eyes now... and it wasn't just him. She avoided all of her friends' worried expressions, and whenever Alya tried to confront her, Marinette always found a way to weave around Alya's long list of questions or avoid her all together by somehow losing her in the school hallway. No one seemed to notice that Marinette was hiding something, only that she wasn't acting herself. But he noticed. Adrien was determined to find out what was wrong.

He couldn't approach her as Adrien though—Marinette wouldn't open up to Adrien.

So his only option was to confront her as Chat Noir.

He landed gracefully on her balcony that evening, dressed in his superheroine leathers. He used to visit Marinette often in this form during the summer, but when school started up again, he lost time that he usually had to spend with her. But Marinette hadn't seen Chat Noir in a long time, which meant there was no guarantee that she would open up to him.

But he had to try.

Exhaling heavily, Chat Noir gained enough confidence to lightly tap on her window.

A few moments later, he watched Marinette's bob of raven hair peak out.

He tried to contain his smile when their eyes connected through the glass. He ended up offering her a sheepish wave and a nervous grin, and although she she didn't return his wave, she did offer him a small smile when she realized it was him.

She opened the hatch for him to come inside.

He greeted her first. "Hello Princess."

"Hi Chat." She was genuinely smiling at him—which was a good sign, even if her smile wasn't as wide or bright as he remembered it to be. "What are you doing here?"

"I just thought I would check up on you." He said as he descended on her bed. His ears twitched as he heard Marinette close the hatch behind him. "We haven't seen each other in a while. How's school going?"

He figured he would jump straight to the point. Perhaps school was the problem.

Marinette seemed to deflate slightly, but somehow she was still able to uphold her smile. He wondered if it was forced now. "It's... going." She provided with a shrug of her shoulders. "Not exactly thrilled about all the assignments we've been getting. Can you believe we already have three quizzes and its only the first week of school?"

Chat Noir chuckled as he settled on her bed across from her. "It's almost as if they're eager to overwhelm kids with assignments."

"Honestly. It must bring them joy. It's sickening."

He couldn't help but smile, even though his insides screamed in confusion. Marinette seemed to be in okay spirits regarding school at least. But that still didn't explain why she acted so strange any time she crossed paths with any of her friends.

"So... besides that, school's been good then?" He reached up to scratch his cheek, suddenly feeling a bit itchy underneath his mask.

Her eyebrows lifted slightly in confusion, and he hoped she wasn't able to see through him. Thankfully, it seemed she didn't when her shoulders fell as she slouched her posture. "In a way yeah. But also no. I've been really stressed."

"Because of the assignments?"

"No." Marinette shook her head. "It's because of my friends."

Jackpot. Chat leaned forward slightly. "Your friends are stressing you out?"

"It's not their fault." Her mood seemed to fall just at the thought of them, and Chat Noir found himself also matching her frown against his will. "It's just... there's something I can't tell them, and because of that, I have to... distance myself from them."

That didn't make any sense, and only arose more questions. What couldn't she tell them? Why did she have to distance herself from them because of it? Why didn't she trust her friends?

He understood maybe not telling all of them... like Nino or himself... but Alya?

Didn't Marinette tell Alya everything?

"Why can't you tell them?" Chat probed gently.

Marinette pressed her lips together into a thin line before exhaling slowly. "Because it could put them in danger."

Now that definitely didn't sound right. Adrien had known Marinette for a long time, and Chat Noir had even grown to know her better, but Marinette was never known to be one who found herself wrapped in danger. Marinette was fairly innocent, sticking to her studies and friends and baking. What kind of trouble could she possibly be in?

"Are... are you in some kind of trouble..." He dragged his voice out as he asked her this, his eyes already narrowing as he watched her reaction carefully. He felt a protective instinct arise, and all he wanted to do in that moment was just shield her from whatever danger she was in. But Chat Noir nor Adrien were capable of doing so unless he had her permission, and he certainly couldn't do that if he didn't know what he was protecting her from.

Marinette shook her head. "I'm not in any danger."

"But you just said—"

"It's not dangerous for me." She clarified, her eyes searching his and almost begging him to drop the topic. "But it could be for them if they knew. And it wouldn't be fair to them for me to unload such a burden onto their shoulders."

He wanted to tell her that she was wrong. That whatever she was hiding couldn't possibly hurt her friends. But he couldn't. Not if he didn't know what it was. So he supplied with a different answer. "But it's not fair for you to be carrying this burden all by yourself."

Marinette shrugged her shoulders, but she didn't disagree.

He found himself letting out a heavy sigh of his own. "I think you should at least tell one person. Someone who you really trust. Someone who can help you with the load. I promise once you do that you will feel so much better. Plus... don't you think avoiding all of your friends is unfair to them?"

He was already looking at her when she raised her head to meet his eyes. Of course, Adrien really wanted to be that one person she would tell. He wanted to help her in as many ways as he could. But there was a pretty good feeling if Marinette did decide to take his advice, she would tell Alya her strange secret.

Marinette seemed to debate on what to do as she watched him carefully. He chose not to look away, he himself wondering what was going on in her mind.

Finally, she asked him a question. "Could I tell you?"

His eyes widened in a matter of seconds. He had wanted her to come to him as Adrien... even with knowing how far-fetched that wish was. But she wanted to come to him as Chat Noir? He would've thought Alya would've been her first choice. "Me?"

She nodded shyly, averting her gaze as she did so.

Chat Noir forced himself to swallow. "I mean... yeah. Yes! Of course you can tell me. But are you sure you want it to be me? Out of all the people you could choose, all of your friends who you're close to, and you want to tell me?"

His shock and confusion must've been amusing to her, because he watched with wide eyes as a small smile pulled at her lips as he continued to ramble.

"I trust you." She said as she looked up to meet his eyes once more. "That should be enough of a reason to want to tell you my burden, right?"

Yes... she was right. But how could she trust Chat Noir that much? Especially over Alya?

"Y-Yeah." He found himself saying. "Right."

Mariette scooted closer towards him. Before he could ask her what she was doing, she leaned forward to grab ahold of his hand. His eyes widened even further at their conjoined hands when she squeezed.

And when he looked back up to meet her eyes, she was already looking at him.

"My burden is the same as yours, Chat Noir." She said, her voice never wavering as she stared at him dead in the eyes. He found her gaze to be piercing; intoxicating even... and he was unable to look away. "Because I'm Ladybug."

His eyes widened even further... and his mouth quickly fell agape.

Oh.

So that's why she trusted him more than she trusted Alya.

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Hope you enjoyed it!

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