Half Way

Lies, Memories and Broken Hearts

Chat Noir landed on the window ledge and jumped down to the floor of his bedroom. Not wanting to upset Marinette any further, he immediately detransformed into Adrien.

"Marinette!" he called out, searching the room for her. She wasn't there.

"Way to go," Plagg said. "There wasn't even an akuma attack, just a power outage like Marinette said. You revealed your identity for no reason."

"Where is she?" Adrien said out loud, ignoring the kwami. He needed to know that she was okay after everything that had happened. "Maybe she went back down..."

There was a knock at the door.

He smiled and ran to open it. "Mari..." he started to say but stopped at seeing Nathalie standing in the hallway.

"Your father told you to stay in the dining room," she growled at him.

Adrien blinked. "I'm sorry, we uh... I wanted to show Marinette my room."

She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. "Well what happened? She was upset when she left."

"She left?" he repeated, his heart sinking.

Nathalie gave him a confused look. "You didn't notice that she's not in your room anymore?"

"I uh... of course I noticed. I just mean that uh..." He racked his brain for a believable excuse. "She uh... she said that she wanted to try on her new earrings, so she was going to the dining room to get them."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Well she didn't go to the dining room. Did you do something to upset her?"

Adrien vigorously shook his head. "No."

Nathalie didn't respond immediately. She continued looking at him for a minute. "Alright," she finally said. "I'll come get you when dinner's ready."

Adrien closed the bedroom door and quickly pulled out his phone. Still no reception.

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Marinette ran all the way home. Her parents were preoccupied with the power outage, allowing her to get up to her room without having to face them.

She collapsed to the floor once she reached her bedroom. After crying for a minute, she collected herself and looked up at Tikki. "How long have you known?"

"Ever since you fought against the Dark Owl," she said quietly.

Marinette thought back. "That was months ago. And you didn't think it was important to tell me?"

"I'm sorry Marinette, but you weren't supposed to know."

"I can't believe this is happening. This is bad... this is really really bad."

"Look, I know that you're upset, but it's not that bad," Tikki insisted. "Adrien has been right next to you, and in love with you, this whole time. Isn't that a good thing?"

Marinette covered her face with her hands. "He didn't know it was me," she mumbled.

"It doesn't matter! He fell in love with you twice and you're happy together, so what's the issue?"

She looked back at the kwami and shook her head. "Don't you remember what happened the last time we were together?"

Tikki's smile faded. "That's not going to happen again..."

Marinette interrupted her. "He said 'Our love did this to the world.' Us being together got him akumatized and then he destroyed all of Paris. He was completely alone, singing to himself on top of a building. How can I let that happen again?"