"Tikki, do you think there's any point to staying here? Will he come?" Marinette asked her kwami. She sighed. She'd been here for almost an hour already. She'd pretty much just been ranting to Tikki, thinking to herself, and texting Alya.

She hadn't said who her soulmate was, of course. She'd just said that he'd promised to meet her, and then stood her up.

Even though Alya did know who her soulmate was, and was currently even angrier than she'd previously been, looking at those texts from Marinette, she wasn't going to tell her best friend everything she knew.

At least not until she'd properly discussed with Adrien. Wait, no Cat Noir. Jeez, this was getting confusing. Anyway, she needed to hear an explanation for this. Her best friend was even more hurt.

Meanwhile, Tikki had responded to Marinette's question. Flittering around her and speaking in her normal high pitched squeak, the kwami hesitated before shaking her head. "I don't think he's showing up, Mari."

Marinette put her head in her hands. "But that kiss..."

She couldn't stop thinking about it. Of course, she had kissed him before. But it just wasn't the same. The look in his eyes. The way he spoke to her. He'd told her he couldn't focus if he didn't know she was safe.

It was the sweetest thing he'd ever said to her, but she couldn't shake the feeling that he still loved Ladybug more. That he just loved her cool, confident exterior, and not for who she actually was: quiet and clumsy and altogether not quite put together.

And now this. He'd told her to stay there, he'd promised to meet her after, not just leave her there. And now he was just gone.

"There's got to be a good reason. There has to be. I'm just being silly," she said quickly, to dispel her alarmingly depressing thoughts.

Tikki nodded. "Definitely, Marinette. Cat Noir wouldn't just do that for no reason. He wouldn't break his promise."

Marinette knew the truth in Tikki's words, but the truth was, she took promises seriously. And after that kiss, she'd been prepared to believe anything he would say to her.

It was magical. She wanted to kiss him again and again, except for the fact that she was still so hurt, thinking about his confession to Ladybug.

The truth was, she was extremely confused. All these emotions were swirling around her head. She needed to get out of this dark closet, that was for sure.

"Tikki, I think I'm going to leave. I can't wait anymore."

"Good choice, Marinette," said her kwami as she flew into Marinette's purse and started to nibble a cookie.

Marinette opened the door. Dim light immediately flooded her face, and she rubbed her eyes.

The school was completely empty - well, except for the janitor, Mr. Bernard, who was currently giving her a weird look, seeing as she had just emerged from a closet long after school was over, She awkwardly smiled at him and leaned against a wall to text Alya.

Alya immediately responded and Marinette smiled at the angry tone of her text. Her best friend was so caring and protective of her. She was ready to do anything so Marinette wouldn't get hurt.

Marinette responded, grinning.

Alya's text came seconds later.

Marinette stowed her phone in her pocket and made her way down the hall.

As she walked into the late afternoon sunlight, she checked the time and was startled to find that it was dinner time, and her mother had texted her.

She immediately broke into a run.

At dinner that night, Marinette wasn't able to keep her mind off one thing: Chat Noir. She pushed her peas around her plate as she thought of her mixed anger and love towards him.

It wasn't as if he'd made a declaration of love to someone else, was it? She giggled to herself.

She immediately stopped. She was mad at him. Very angry. She couldn't just give in!

Except that kiss...

Everything was so confusing.

After dinner, doing homework in her room, she kept looking at her window, expecting a knock and a pair of green eyes to appear.

But there was nothing, and so she went to bed with a heavy heart.

Meanwhile, it was late at night and Adrien had finally gotten home. The photoshoot had been horrible. Chloe was all over him and the photographer kept ordering them to do ridiculous poses, wearing awful clothing. Adrien hated it. He hated everything about modeling, and especially with Chloe.

Well, maybe his feelings were just so strong because he'd been forced to stand up Marinette.

Or what if he'd defied his father for once, and not broken his promise? Marinette was important enough for it.

(Suffice it to say, he was feeling as confused as Marinette.)

The whole photoshoot, he'd kept thinking about the kiss. The kiss. The kiss of all kisses. He kept smiling to himself, causing Chloe to misinterpret it as because of her. She was his friend since childhood, but he didn't exactly enjoy time with her. Mostly because of the way she treated Marinette, and everyone else of course.

That kiss. He didn't know why they hadn't done it earlier.

Oh right, because he was busy being stupid and declaring his love for Ladybug. He couldn't believe she'd heard it. He knew she was still angry, but he didn't feel it in the kiss. All he felt was love. Love?

"Yeah, kid, you are are stupid," Plagg said from his bed, interrupting Adrien's thoughts.

"But - how'd you know I was thinking that?"

"Sheer intelligence. I was watching you. I knew you'd probably gotten to the point where you were cursing yourself for being an idiot. And trust me, you are right," said Plagg, before returning to his cheese.

Adrien sighed. There was no protesting. Plagg was right.

He sat bolt upright. "But Marinette! I have to go visit her!"

"Oh no, please don't -" came the panicked voice of his kwami before Adrien said "Plagg, claws out!" and Plagv was sucked into his Chat Noir ring, leaving a good deal of cheese uneaten on the bed.

Chat Noir raced through Paris, hoping to catch Marinette before she was asleep.

But when he reached her window, he saw lying on her bed, eyes closed. She was so cute when she slept.

He opened the window very quietly, not wanting to wake her up, and tiptoed through her pink room, dodging piles of clothing and furniture. He found a piece of paper on her desk and a pink fuzzy pen. He grinned at that pen - it was so Marinette - before he wrote the note.

He was about to leave before he looked at her again. He knew he might wake her up, but he couldn't resist. He bent down quickly and kissed her on the forehead, brushing a piece of hair out of her eyes. Her lips parted and she mumbled, "Chat Noir..." in her sleep. He smiled once again before leaving.

The first thing Marinette saw when she sleepily opened her eyes to the chime of her phone alarm was a folded up piece of paper on her bedside table.

She was fairly sure that hadn't been there when she'd gone to bed. Scratch that, extremely sure.

She sat up in bed, stretching and yawning, and grabbed the note. She unfolded it. Reading the scratchy handwriting, she couldn't help feeling a little better. There was a reason. He would explain.

And the postscripts just made her smile. She felt the exact same way about the kiss.

There was no name written there, but she knew who it was from.

The truth was, there were two sides of her battling it out. Her head, and her heart.

Her heart screamed, he kissed you! And he wrote you this adorable note and said he'd explain! He's perfect in every way.

But her head gently explained, what if there's no good reason? He should at least have checked on you. He should have found an excuse to get out of whatever it was he had to do.

Also, remember that declaration of love to Ladybug? What was that all about?

Marinette sighed. Once she had gotten to actually thinking, she knew she couldn't just drop everything and accept Chat's apologies. Go back to normal.

As of on cue, there was a gentle knock on the window. There was Chat Noir, in all his handsome glory, and all of a sudden she remembered the kiss and felt flustered.

"H-hello, Chat..."

"Princess," he smiled softly. He climbed in, and was suddenly standing in front of her.

"The kiss yesterday..." she said, staring up into his eyes.

"Yes?" he asked hopefully.

She suddenly remembered herself, and what she'd intended to say to him. "You broke your promise, Chat."

"I know, and I'm sorry. But you read the note right? There's an explanation."

"So tell me," she prompted, crossing her arms and walking away from him.

"I can't tell you exactly what it was. It might reveal too much," said Chat Noir regretfully.

That, she understood. "I get it. Just tell me as much as you can."

"Well, basically, I retransformed and was fully intending to go find you, and - and kiss you again," he smiled at her, causing her to blush deep red. "But then someone saw me and said I had to do something. If I didn't do it, it would make someone very angry at me. It was an obligation."

Marinette immediately forgave him, well, at least for the broken promise, in that moment. "There was no way you could get out of it?"

"No way," he confirmed, smiling hopefully at her.

"Well, in that case..." she paused. "I thought you'd forgotten about me," she said softly.

He looked shocked. "I could never forget."

Marinette looked at him. "Never?"

"Never."

"But, Chat, I..." she paused, confused on how to say this.

"... heard me confess to Ladybug that I loved her," he finished grimly for her.

She looked at him. "H-how did you know?"

He paused. He didn't think he should tell Marinette that Alya knew he was Marinette's soulmate. And definitely not that she knew his secret identity. No way.

"Uh, well, I just guessed. I figured there was no other reason you'd be acting so distant."

"Well, yeah," she said, and looked at her feet. "I can't believe you still love her more than me."

"But I don't, Marinette."

"I don't believe it," she said flatly.

"When I saw you in danger, yesterday, do you know how I felt? I could barely breathe, seeing you in danger. I couldn't focus. I needed to save you, before anything or anyone else. I wasn't thinking about Ladybug. I was thinking about you."

"Chat Noir," she interrupted.

"Seeing you like that, I needed to save you. That made me realize... you are more important to me than Ladybug. I don't just like you. I don't know how I could ever have thought that." He paused and took her face in his hands. She stared, wide-eyed, up at him.

"I love you, Marinette Dupain-Chang."