You're The Music That's Been Playing In My Head: Book 3

Ephemeral: Part 2

"Here's the plan. You stay here hidden. (s/n) and I meet up with Chat and I ask him for his identity. He tells me, and you'll hear him through your headphone. That's when you'll use your power of Second Chance to go back, I'll forget everything but you'll know and be able to back up (s/n) when she tells Su-Han Chat's identity." Ladybug says Vyperion asking:

"Can't I just ask him myself after explaining the situation?"

"No, Chat Noir will only tell if it's me asking with (s/n) backing me up."

"Then he can calm down and we can finally bug him about proper guardian training," I sigh, rubbing the back of my neck tiredly while Vyperion shoots me a sympathetic smile. 

"Are you sure that me knowing who Chat Noir is won't be a problem? Surely there's a simpler solution," Vyperion asks as if he knew what I was thinking.

"Like I said, as long as I don't know everything will be fine," LB reassures him while I roll my eyes.

Ladybug and I head to the top of the Eiffel Tower waiting for Chat Noir to show up.

"You don't seem to like this plan," Vyperion says to me and I sigh.

"No, I don't. It would just be simpler to just have me tell Su-Han and have Chat confirm it for me, and de-transform if need be but no like always there has to be some complicated plan that's probably gonna make things worse."

"That seems to happen a lot."

"You have no idea. With all these new responsibilities piling up on us she's begun to feel the need to control everything for everything to go well and another better idea has to be either her idea or after everything's gone to chaos. Which is what this is gonna end up being: utter chaos," I sigh again, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"What makes you say that?"

"Let's just say I have a hunch that when Ladybug learns Chat's identity she's not gonna want you to use Second Chance."

" Do you think Chat Noir will really agree to this?" Vyperion asks Ladybug.

"Yeah, he's been dying to tell me for the longest time. I see him, get ready."

The three of us sync our stopwatches for five minutes.

"We've gotta be done at 1:05. You'll rewind on my signal."

"I'm sorry I couldn't make it earlier," Chat apologizes when he reaches the top.

"No big deal, that's the thing about having a team. It's not the three of us anymore."

"OK then...Why'd you call for me then?"

I sit this one out and let LB explain how she wanted to know his identity to prevent a situation like today from happening again.

"We should tell each other our secret identities."

Chat's eyes widen in shock. "But aren't the secrets supposed to protect us?"

"I thought so but when you didn't show up, I didn't know how to get to you and things got complicated. If something bad happened to us (y/n) would have to shoulder it on her own. If we know we could be stronger, defeat Shadowmoth quicker."

"So we're actually doing this?" Chat asks, leaning against the railing, looking at me and I nod.

"You go ahead, M'lady. Ladies first."

"No, you first."

"Why not do it together?"

"No, I insist...I'm feeling akward..." She trails off, making me roll my eyes again.

"Adrien...I'm Adrien Agreste," Chat admits and LB's eyes widen before she bursts out laughing as she snickered out.

"I'm Audrey Bourgeois."

"Ladybug," I said seriously. "He's not lying."

She gives me a skeptical look when Adrien de-transforms to prove it, Ladybug's jaw-dropping.

"Ladybug, I heard his name should I rewind?" Vyperion asks but that doesn't seem to pull LB out of her shock.

"No...Wait...Not yet..."

"I understand. It's not easy to show your true self to someone, wondering what the other person will think about you or if they'll even like you still. This is hard for me too. My heart is beating so fast wondering what you think," Adrien starts to ramble about all the times he had to lie to her.

"Ladybug it's now or never," Vyperion warns but still nothing. 

I sigh in annoyance when contact with Vyperion is cut from him de-transforming. No going back now, I hope she knows what she's doing.

"I am...Ma-Ma-" She stutters before spouting "Madly akward."

"It's ok, I understand, take all the time you need. Besides, know that you know you and (y/n) will have an easier time reaching me."

She quickly takes off and Adrien turns to me worriedly.

"Let's just say you were the last person she thought Chat Noir would be because she's been given the 'perfect' Adrien personality. She just needs to get used to it," I reassure him before taking off.

Collecting the snake miraculous from Luka he asks "What do you think made her change her mind?"

"A lot of things I'm sure considering how those two have been over the years. Sorry, you were dragged into all this unnecessarily.

"Will everything be alright? She's not gonna tell him her identity?"

"For the moment no but I'll deal with the consequences like I always have," I give him a tired smile before heading home so we can tell Su-Han Chat's identity.

Spoiler, Marinette wasn't handling this revelation well despite Tikki being excited. Probably didn't help that this caused her to realize her developing feelings for Chat Noir that she conveniently hadn't taken notice of. It was worse at school as she told me she kept seeing Adrien switch from himself to Chat Noir and despite wanting to be one of his closest friends even began running away from him like she did in the early days of her crush-turned obsession with him. It got so bad even Luka became worried about her and went to go check on her. Whatever Luka said to her though seemed to do the trick as she began recovering from the shock and dealing with Shadowmoth's attacks had gotten faster because it was easier to reach him without coming up with some kind of lie to protect his identity.

"I'm going to tell him my identity," She sprung on me one day.

"You do realize you'll be taking a bigger risk than you already are by knowing his identity?" I ask, crossing my arms.

"Yes, but he's earned it and I've fallen in love with Chat Noir...Adrien...All of him. I think you should tell Luka your identity. You deserve to be happy too."

"No! He's already taken a big enough risk knowing Chat Noir's identity! You want me to add to that risk?! For a moment's worth of happiness that could lead to him getting hurt, akumatized, or worse?!"

"(y/n) for once stop thinking with your head. Think with your heart," Marinette tells me, poking me in the chest before going off to tell Adrien.

"I don't have that kind of luxury," I mumble, balling my fists up in frustration as I watched it all unfold and was not surprised when they became a couple.