Ladybug's eyes were fixated on the little butterfly cupped in her hands, half of it was a pure white that illuminated in the darkness and the other half was a deep purplish black. Faintly, in some distant part of her consciousness, she thought she could hear Chat saying something, possibly asking her if she knew what was going on, but her brain had tuned him out. In that moment all she could focus on was that butterfly.

It wasn't until a rough jerking brought her back to her senses, staring down into her – or rather, Chat's – light blue eyes. His hands were clasped around her arms and a look of concern was spread across his face. Concern about what happened or concern over her out of character response to it all? Probably both she concluded.

Upon seeing her snap out of her trance, Chat loosened his grip.

"Ladybug, are you with me?"

She nodded, not sure of what to say in this situation. The akuma wasn't purifying fully which meant they had to change back if they wanted to do so, but they couldn't change back unless the akuma was purified. No matter how you looked at it that was an impossible scenario, how were they supposed to fix this!

Chat recognized the panic rising once more in Ladybug's face and quickly shook her again to keep her with him.

"Ladybug, listen to me, it's going to be fine. We've been in a lot of sticky situations before but we've always made it through. We'll figure something out, we'll fix this, so don't worry."

He forced a smile but was growing increasingly worried over Ladybug's reaction. He had never seen her like this. Ever! Not when Lady WI-FI almost exposed their identities or even when she jumped into a dinosaur's mouth! She was always the one with a plan no matter how reckless, and her plans always worked. When looking at Ladybug's panicked and lost expression, Chat knew that she had no clue how to solve this.

That's why she needed him the most right now. He may not be the one who came up with the solutions, but he was the one who always provided her with the opportunity to think. In battle he was the one who distracted the enemy while she tried to figure out a way to take them down. This couldn't be much different, right? He had to distract her from her worries so she could think of a way to solve this. But could she solve this?

The duo were both so transfixed in their own thoughts that it seemed as though nothing could drag them out, nothing except the one sound that they could never ignore because it had been ingrained into their memories. The sound when both their miraculous beeped.

They were pulled out of their trances and instinctively went to check their miraculous, Chat peering down at his ringless finger and Ladybug grabbing her earlobes where her earrings would normally be. They both lowered their arms upon remembering their situation.

"What should we do?" Chat asked.

Ladybug shook her head in frustration, but tried keep the Marinette side of her from showing. "I don't know, but for now we need to go somewhere private."

Chat nodded and they made their way through the streets of Paris, deciding it would be better to walk than get themselves stranded on the top of a building once they detransformed. Though the streets were bright, lit with streetlamps and the glow from windows of shops open throughout the night, the duo turned down a lone alleyway and were soon engulfed in darkness. Ladybug led the way with her new ability of night vision while Chat stumbled along behind her, letting out quiet complaints as he tripped on everything he came across.

Ladybug abruptly stopped when the last beep from her ring signaled, Chat colliding into her back.

"Why did we come so far in, I can't see a thing?" Chat questioned, blindly waving his hand in front of his face as if to make a point.

"So we don't see each other when we revert back," she said as though it was obvious.

Chat stared in the direction he thought she was in with a confused look on his face. "But won't we only see ourselves once we change back?"

Ladybug let his words sink in before releasing a frustrated groan and would have done a face palm had she not been carrying the butterfly in her hands. How had she not realized it sooner, they were in each other's bodies so obviously they wouldn't be able to see each other once they returned to normal. Was she still not thinking straight even though she made sure to go into her Ladybug mode? She shook the thought aside.

"It doesn't matter, I always carry cookies in my bag so we can just feed out kwamis and transform back right away. Then we can deal with the akuma."

"Cookies?" Chat was growing increasingly more confused. "My kwami eats camembert."

"Camembert?"

He nodded. "You know, the cheese. My kwami only eats camembert."

"What?" Ladybug threw her arms up in annoyance, "why does he only eat camembert!" This was ridiculous, where were they supposed to get camembert at one in the morning!

Chat simply shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, I ask him that same question nearly every day."

Ladybug was about to make another comment but she was cut off as their bodies were engulfed into a bright light. As the light traveled across her body she could feel her senses dull, the sounds and smells around her growing faint.

As quickly as it had started, the blinding light disappeared and Marinette was thrown into the darkness. A small shape fell from above her and landed on her head with a groan. In front of her she saw Tikki being caught by Chat. The little kwami emitted a faint light that was only enough for herself to be seen in the darkness.

Chat brought her up close to his face. "So you're Ladybug's kwami? It's nice to meet you."

She returned the greeting and introduced herself, giving him a smile but worry could be clearly seen on her face.

Marinette had her hands full and couldn't scoop up the kwami on her head so instead she just glanced up to talk to him.

"Hi, what's your name?"

"I'm Plagg, do you have any cheese?" He replied in a very bored like manner that caused Marinette to frown. Something told her Chat's kwami was going to be very different from hers.

Adrien looked down at Tikki. "I take it you don't know how to solve this situation any more than we do?"

She shook her head. "Nothing like this has ever happened before, I'll need some time to try and think this through."

Marinette glanced back up to the kwami resting on her head. "Do you have any ideas?"

"I wouldn't count on Plagg to be of any use," Adrien stated bluntly.

"Neither would I," Tikki added.

Plagg shrugged and leaned back in Marinette's hair, making himself comfortable. "They've got a point you know."

Marinette, impressed with their reactions, turned to Tikki. "Eat up quickly and transform. I may not be able to right now, but you're the only one able to purify the butterfly anyways."

Adrien looked at her with a solemn expression.

"Ladybug, I don't think this is something that we can solve right away. We should take some time to think things through and come up with a plan to solve this."

"Then what you're saying is..." She didn't have to finish her sentence, she knew exactly what he was going to say next and the very thought weighed heavily in the pit of her stomach.

"We have to reveal our identities." He spoke with a serious demeanor, something that Marinette never knew Chat could be. He had always be the openly carefree one between the both of them.

Adrien continued. "I know this isn't something you want to do, and I've respected your decision up to this point, but now we don't really have a choice anymore. We have to at least go home and pretend to be each other so as to avoid out families calling the police to send out search parties."

She hated it, but he was right. She knew that this was their only option, and as Ladybug she couldn't let her personal opinions get in the way of her job as a hero of Paris. She gave him a curt nod and asked how he supposed they should go about it.

Adrien though for a moment. "Well, we could either tell each other who we are, or we could look for a mirror maybe."

"We should probably go with the mirror option," Marinette concluded. "I highly doubt we know each other in real life so just telling each other our names wouldn't do anything."

"You don't know that, we might possibly know each other. Hey, we might even go to the same school," he suggested.

Marinette rolled her eyes at that. "Chat, do you know how many schools are in Paris? What do you think the odds are that we would go to the same one?"

Plagg let out a snort from on top of Marinette's head. She raised her eyes upwards to where he lay.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing. You two keep doing what you're doing," he said while shooing off the question.

The two heroes decided to ignore him and continued on. They stopped by the first open store they could find and bought a small box to temporarily put the butterfly in, when they then stored in the bag that Tikki was kept in.

Afterwards they found a little boutique with bright lights shining from the window and a sign advertising that it was open 24 hours. Adrien brought up the changing rooms and how they could use the mirrors in them. They looked to each other and nodded in a silent agreement, then pushed through the doors.

Inside the store clerk, who was drinking a coffee, cocked an eyebrow upon seeing the two enter. She probably didn't get many customers at this hour, more so a couple of teenagers. Adrien located the change rooms and made his way towards them, grabbing the first article of clothing he passed as an excuse to use them, with Marinette following nervously behind. Just as they approached the front of the changing rooms section, Marinette stopped before they could go any further, a blush forming on her cheeks.

"I'm not so sure I want to do this here," she paused to take in their surroundings, "is a change room really our only option? Shouldn't we be doing this somewhere else?"

Adrien turned around to look at her. "We don't have much if a choice, there's not that many places for us to do it."

Marinette avoided his gaze. "But..."

Taking her hands in his, Adrien looked her in the eyes. "Listen, I know for a fact that being inside of me won't be easy for you, but-"

Their conversation was cut short as the clerk choked on her coffee and stared back at them in disbelief. Her eyes, wide as saucers, moved from the nervous blonde boy with an uneasy look on his face, to the girl who held his hands and continuously tried to coax him into the changing room, a skimpy piece of lingerie draped over her arm.

"Hey!" She barked at the pigtailed girl after finally regaining her ability to speak. "Stop trying to force your boyfriend into doing weird things in a public change room! I'm sure there's rules against whatever it is you're planning."

Marinette's face grew terrified, but not exactly for the right reasons. "B-b-boyfriend!" She stuttered.

Beside her Adrien hastily lifted his arms up in surrender. "It's not what you think, I swear! We weren't planning on doing anything of the sort!"

The clerk glared and shifted her gaze between the two, not knowing how to react. Should she just kick them out? Her eyes settled on the boy as he began to speak up.

"He-SHE'S telling the truth, we weren't planning anything...weird. I think you must have misinterpreted what we were talking about."

With a grumble and a warning about kicking them out if she hears anything suspicious, the clerk let them into the aisle of changing rooms. When they were sure she wasn't looking, the two chose the furthest room away and quickly closed the door behind them.

Adrien hung up the clothing he had on a hanger and Marinette's felt her eyes explode out of their sockets.

"Why did you choose that!" She squealed.

Adrien looked at the article of clothing he had chosen out for the first time and jumped.

"I don't know, I just chose the first thing we walked past!" The garment was a deep red, the colour of Ladybug's suit, with black laces.

A smirk grew on Adrien's face as his Chat side decided to emerge and make a comment about the situation. "But I don't think I would mind it if my Lady were to wear th-"

Her glare shut him up.

They stood with their backs to the door where a large mirror hung. Marinette took a deep breath, she didn't want to do this. Why had she always been so adamant on them not revealing their identities? Part of it was due to self-consciousness, believing that Marinette wasn't good enough to be Ladybug, but the other part of her also didn't want to ruin their perfect partnership. She had always felt that revealing their identities would cause conflict and awkwardness between them. But at this point they had no other options, it was either reveal themselves now or not find out until someone they know calls out to them.

"On three," she said, to which he nodded. She counted up slowly, taking a deep breath with each number as each second that ticked by brought a new wave of butterflies through her stomach. When she reached three, the both turned around and came face-to-face with their real identities.

The first thing she noticed were his green eyes, the eyes which she had spent hours ogling at on her wall, then her gaze travelled over his familiar blonde hair which was swept smoothly to the side, very much unlike Chat's more messy style. As she took in the face that stared back at her, a single name ran itself through her head and caught in her throat. Adrien.

The silence was deafening, wrapping itself around her like a strangling python until she suddenly became aware that she couldn't breathe. Was she going into shock? No, she had to calm down. But how could she, this wasn't possible, Chat couldn't be Adrien!

"Marinette?" Adrien's voice, barely above a whisper, brought her attention to him though his gaze was still fixed on her image in the mirror. "You've been Ladybug this entire time?"

He tiled his head up in her direction, a small smile playing on his lips. "What was that you said about highly doubting we would know each other in real life?"

She startled at his comment which clearly did not match the situation and shot him a glare, if that's what it could even be called anyway. The look she gave him both showed that she was highly unimpressed with his statement but at the same time was too distracted with her newfound knowledge to actually make a comment about it.

She turned back to the mirror and spoke in a nearly inaudible voice. "Adrien was the one person who I thought couldn't possibly be Chat."

Adrien took in what she said and also turned back to his reflection. He had also never considered that Marinette could be ladybug, though it was mostly due to their different personalities. Who could have guessed the clumsy girl in his class who could barely form a sentence around him was Ladybug? He nodded in agreement before a smirk formed on his lips.

"I guess you could say we were all mixed up."

"Chat!" Marinette faced him and glared angrily, "this isn't the time for that!"

Could he not read the mood!

Chat however only snickered to himself, obviously pleased with his choice of words. She was about to make another comment but then realization struck her and she turned her head to once again face the reflection of Adrien that stared back at her, his mouth hanging open in a very Marinette like way.

"This entire time Adrien has been the one flirting with me. Adrien has been the one making all those lame puns." Her mind jumped back and forth between the two realizations "Adrien, flirting with me! The puns!"

What should she feel more strongly about, which one was a bigger deal? Adrien had been the one flirting with her, meaning Adrien had a crush on her! Should she be happy? But-but the puns! No, it was impossible! A creepy smile spread on her face and she let out a dry laugh.

"Adrien would never make puns like that, so you can't be Adrien."

Adrien scratched his head and glanced up at her. "But Adrien's the one who writes down puns in his free time."

Marinette couldn't believe it, resting her now throbbing head in her hands she went over it again. Adrien was Chat. She peeked at him between her fingers. What was his reaction to all this? Marinette glanced down at him again with a quizzical look. He stood there staring at his reflection of her in the mirror, the faintest smile playing on his lips. He didn't seem to be in the same mental state as her. While she was shocked and in denial, he continued to act as though nothing was wrong, like this was something he went through on a daily basis.

"Are you even taking this seriously?" Marinette shot at him with annoyance tinged in her voice.

Adrien looked at her confused, he was taking this seriously. Maybe couldn't tell because of his trained ability to mask how he was feeling, but in reality he had a flood of emotions flowing through him. Things between him and Marinette had always been fairly awkward, she had always acted strangely around him so he had never really known how to act around her either. Just the thought of Marinette being Ladybug made him a little nervous, leaving him to wonder how their relationship would be affected from this. But, more than anything, he was actually relieved. Shocked, yes, but relieved that Marinette was Ladybug.

It wasn't as though he was picky about who his partner truly was, he had told himself that he would love her with or without the mask, but obviously there were some limitations to that statement. There was a reason he had been more than a little worried when Alya had suggested that Chloe was Ladybug. He had fallen in love with his Lady because of the person she was and the traits that she possessed, traits which Chloe clearly lacked. He loved his Lady for who she was, and if her civilian self was anyone similar to Chloe then his feelings towards her would probably change.

But Marinette on the other hand. Sure, he didn't know much about her but he still knew enough. He had been so willing to set her up with Nino because he knew she was a good person, someone who was kind and truly cared for those around her. More than once had he witnessed her standing up for her classmates when Chloe was being a nuisance, or going out of her way to help or encourage them when they needed it. Marinette made the perfect Ladybug.

Marinette sighed and placed her hand on her head, this was too much to take in for one night. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"We'll have to go home," Adrien replied.

"You mean to each other's homes, don't you." She couldn't help but let her gaze fall as he simply nodded in reply.

As much as she didn't want to do this, he was right. It wasn't as if they could just hide out someplace until they found a way to change back, so they would just have to put up with it until they did. But Marinette didn't know how much more of this she could take.

She silently followed Adrien out of the store and to a secluded spot where he opened the little purse at his waist, allowing Tikki to fly out. A numb chill spread across her skin as she watched him transform with her little kwami into Ladybug. He offered his hand to her which she took and was drawn in close to him where he secured his arm safely around her waist. The chill spread further causing her to release a shiver.

Her and Chat were no strangers when it came to physical contact, but suddenly it felt awkward for them to be this close. Marinette's reaction didn't go unnoticed to her partner. It caused his heart to sink, but he opted to ignore that feeling as he made a series of flips and jumps off the walls of buildings around them until he was standing on top of the tallest one.

With a running start he flew above Paris, bounding from one building to the next just a shadowed figure that went unnoticed to the illuminated city below. Wind whipped past their faces, not bringing the usual thrill of excitement that it usually did, the feeling of being free to go wherever they wanted to go and do whatever they wanted to do never crossed their minds that night.

Marinette's mind was blank and she didn't realize where they were until they began approaching a house, his house, the large mansion that stared back at her. Chat made his way into a window, bringing them inside a dark room, his bedroom she assumed. Just earlier that day she would have died to be able to enter Adrien's room, but now she wished for nothing more than to curl up under the covers of her bed and wake up from this dream.

Adrien started at her for a moment, eyes glowing in the faint light that shone in from outside.

"Will you be alright?"

She nodded.

"Then I'll be leaving now. We'll talk more in the morning, okay?"

She nodded again.

He uncertainly made his way towards the open window, not feeling like he should be leaving her in that state, but knowing he had to go. With a final glance back at her as she seated herself on his large white couch, he leapt through the window and into the night.

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