Self-Centered Author's rant:
Yup. I have not written in the past few years. Sorry bout that. I have been working on my CS/Math BS. It sucks up quite a bit of time, especially later in the program. But I am about to graduate! So... Uh... Maybe I will start posting again?
I should have been working on my senior project, my super final, and all of my essays, but I wanted a solid four hours of me time. So I banged this out. It's been kicking around my head for awhile. Probably not going to write the rest of this story until a few months to a year from now when I have a 9-5 job and can afford to sleep for more than 4-6 hours per night while also feeding myself and having a roof over my head. If I am super lucky, I might even be able to afford to go to doctors and dentists! The Modern American Dream: having a slightly better life than Elizabethan factory workers.
Adrien's brain felt fuzzy, like a comforting fog had fallen over his consciousness.
An apartment, cozy and familiar, surrounded him. In a small kitchen, a figure stood. He knew this figure. It was his lady. Adrien knew that she was his wife.
He walked over to her. She was stirring something. It was probably macaroons. He loved macaroons. He smelled almonds. Delicious.
He wrapped his arms around her stomach. His chin rested on her shoulder. Her head tilted to rest against his. He reveled in the soft warmth of another human being. He sank into the quiet comfort of touching another person for as long as she would allow him. She didn't seem to mind. He wasn't hindering her work at all.
She talked to herself as she worked. The gentle hum of her words reverberated into his chest. He knew that she knew he wasn't listening. He knew that she didn't care.
After staying in that moment for awhile, he lifted his head. The neck of her shirt revealed a patch of skin on her shoulder. He kissed it. He kept his lips there for a few seconds. She continued working and talking.
"Alright, Kitty. I have to put my macarons in the oven. You have to let go for a minute." Her voice was soothing, musical, and filled with amusement. He squeezed her gently, and then released. She walked over to the oven, and put the macaroons in.
He hugged her, her face against his shoulder. He kissed her hair. She smelled like almond, vanilla, and that certain smell that was all her own. Her arms rested just above his hips, and snaked around his lower back. He hummed contentedly. She breathed.
After a few moments, she pulled her head away slightly, her face angled toward him. He didn't have to open his eyes to know she wanted a kiss.. Her lips were warm. He held her tighter. He stayed there, enjoying the feeling of being kissed and hugged and loved.
Adrien returned to consciousness slowly, lazily. He didn't want to leave. He felt his sheets around him, while still feeling his lady's embrace. When he finally realized he was in his bedroom, he reveled for a moment in the feeling of comfort, love, and touch that he had just experienced. His eyes stung. He rubbed them, and found that they were wet. Why was he crying? Were they tears of happiness? Tears of loneliness? He couldn't remember when he had last been cuddled.
Adrien sobbed. He wished it had been real. He desperately wanted to be loved. Not by screaming fans which only cared about his looks. He wanted a quieter, more sincere kind of love. A love that is born of a friend, a family member, and a lover rolled into one. The kind of love that is wholesome and good. The feeling of genuine comfort that only comes from being known and accepted by the other person, and doing the same for them. The kind of love that makes you want to simply exist with them. That existence may not be exciting, but would embody contentment.
And frankly, he just wanted a fucking hug. One with no time limit, unlike the ones he shared with his friends at school. Girls could apparently touch each other for as long as they needed, but guys had to keep it five seconds and under. It was a stupid rule. He wanted physical affection from his friends, because his father and staff sure as heck wasn't giving him any.
He was still crying. He looked at the time. Two in the morning. Ugh. Well, that just meant he could let himself cry until he fell asleep. He always felt much better after a good cry. A cry a day keeps the hawk moths at bay.
He cried himself out, and sighed contentedly into his pillow. He sunk back into the warm embrace of his bed.
"Oh Adrikins, it was just awful! I had a terrible dream that I was living like a peasant! I had no designer anything, and my nails were completely short!" Chloe hung off of Adrien, fluttering her eyelashes at him. Her arms were around his neck, and pulled down painfully. He looked around awkwardly, aware of the scene Chloe was making.
" And then this- this grubby little twerp climbed on me, and called me Mommy! Like, where is the nanny when you need her?" Chloe moaned.
"Oh, no! What happened next, Chloe?" asked Sabrina. Adrien hadn't noticed her. He felt bad that he hadn't. She had been right beside them.
" Well- Um… I can't quite remember that part." Chloe said. She let go of Adrien. That was unusual… didn't he normally pry her off?
"That's strange, I had a similar dream. I remember being in a beautiful little apartment, and I was holding a child. I remember setting her on the ground, and picking up the cutest little shoes you've ever seen! I was about to put them on her when- uh… when nothing happened! I woke up right afterwards!" Sabrina looked down quickly. Weird. She sounded almost nervous. Chloe was very interested in her nails. Adrien took this opportunity to slip away to his friends.
"I swear to you, I was in his arms while making macaroons! It was so realistic! I just know it was a vision!"
"Yeah, well, you always say that, and it hasn't happened yet. Hey, was it one of those dreams where you thought you were kissing him and you were actually kissing a mannequin?" Alya And Marinette were talking rather loudly as Adrien rounded the corner. Adrien's face felt hot, he didnt intend to breach their privacy. He turned to leave, not wanting them to think he had intentionally eavesdropped.
"I didnt actually see his- GAAAHH!" Shit. He had been seen. Adrien turned around, rubbing his neck, getting ready to apologise.
"How much did you hear?" Marinette asked. Adrien was a bit distracted by her flailing limbs.
"Uhh… I'm so sorry, but I heard you were being…Uh... intimate with someone in your dreams…" Marinette squeaked. Adrien grimaced ."Shit, I made it sound like you were having a wet- Wait, I didn't mean! Shit! Uh… I really should just stop talking." Adrien was staring intently at his shoes. Dammit, why did his dad homeschool him for so long? He really was bad at talking to people. Adrien took a breath. He looked Marinette in the eye.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop on you. If it makes you feel better, I didn't hear who you were with in your dream" They stood there awkwardly for a moment.
"Alright, pretty boy, we accept your apology. My boyfriend is in the library looking at the sound equipment." Alya said. She gently scooched Adrien toward the double doors of the school. "Run along kiddo"
Adrien stared toward his feet as he walked. He pushed away his embarrassment, and started thinking about his dream. It had definitely been a good one, even if it made him feel lonely by comparison. He remembered how familiar and comfortable he had felt in that kitchen. When he got home, he would have to ask Plagg if there was an equivalent of a patronus to fend off hawkmoth's butterflies. If there were, Adrien might want to use this as his memory. The conversation he overheard had made him wonder…. Was it a vision?
He hoped so. He hoped that he could look forward to experiencing this moment, and all of the similar moments that surrounded it. Though the dream felt special now, when he was experiencing it, it felt mundane. It felt like one of many similar moments. Nothing special. He looked forward to a life where this affection and comfort were routine.
Who was she? That woman that he had clearly been in love with in his dream? He was pretty sure she had called him "Kitty". Was it Ladybug? Or was it a civilian who had found out he was Chat? What it just a coincidence- something unrelated to Chat Noir? He tried to remember more. Nothing. The harder he tried to remember, the less he could.
He hoped she was Ladybug. He would be the luckiest guy in the world if he was married to Ladybug.
Adrien donned his pajamas. For the seventh night in a row he was desperately hoping that he would have another dream. He took his time doing his usual routine, remembering again the happy contented dream that he had.
"Yeah, I think this will start it. Oh… yup! I remember this part!" A flicker of amusement trickled through Adrien, despite himself. Adrien looked into deep blue eyes surrounded by a polka dotted mask.
"What, you gonna call me that stupid pet name from when you were fifteen? What was it, 'Bugaboo'?" Adrien cringed, he had forgotten he used to say that. "Hey, in my defense, I was homeschooled, I didn't know any better!"
"That's okay, it was fun to see you squirm." She grinned, devilishly. Adrien's heart fluttered for a moment. After all these years, he couldn't get over how much more confident and… well… sexy she was in her suit. He tried… and somewhat failed to not remember how much fun they had had with that particular aspect of their relationship.
"Princess, children are in our heads, we need to tone it down." Ladybug sobered.
"Okay, so first things first. Hi Adrien, this is Marinette. Yes, Adrien is Chat Noir. Yes, Marinette is Ladybug. Sorry Kiddo, but you can't hide behind Ladybug, Something more important is happening."
"Oh yeah, and Marinette, you married the one, the only, the awesome model and supercat….. ADRIEN AGRESTE!" Adrien flexed as best he could while holding onto the Ram miraculous and the Artifact of Time. Marinette groaned.
"Awww man, Shit, I remember you saying that! Man, that made me go absolutely insane when I remembered that part!" Marinette whined. Adrien sighed.
"Hey, I freaked out too. But dating gave us an excuse to be together all the time to train. Plus, knowing we were going to get married got a little bit of the tension out of the way."Adrien ran his hand over hers.
"Oh, you sooo do not remember how spastic I was as a teenager." Marinette said. Adrien grinned.
" I remember finding you charming." Adrien kissed her on the forehead.
"Anyway, back to the topic. Hawkmoth is going to start getting really bad soon. Hawkmoth is going to start changing up his M.O. in two years, and you have to be ready for it."
Adrien remembered how much harder it was when Hawkmoth started to kidnap people so that he could form an army of akuma's at a time. They were more subtle. Less after school cartoonish. They actually sent people to the hospital. Then he stopped. Hawkmoth had stopped, presumably because he had found out that the Artifact of Time existed and was trying to track it down. Over a decade had passed since then. Hawkmoth still broke out Akuma's for heists and to slow Chat and Ladybug down, but the loud public villany days were behind them.
"We think that the butterfly brooch changed hands with that dramatic change in behavior. We just found the Artifact of Time. Last time this thing went off, there was an ice age. You'll find a way to destroy it, because you have to."
Adrien remembered his long hours studying for his PHD in Quantum physics with an emphasis in theoretical micro-macro temporal distortions . He got it remarkably early, but it still took him a few years of constant work to finally figure out how the Artifact of Time would work, and how to destroy it. It would be an exhausting road ahead.
"Once we destroy this thing, we are going to try to take down Hawkmoth. You can do this. You will do this. Start now, so that we can be in the position we are now."
"Oh, and by the way… we had to test this thing before we did this. It's easier to send memories than it is to send- well I guess you could call it a recording. So you are going to get a couple of other dreams. Maybe a tip or two along the way." Adrien grinned. He had picked a few good ones.
Marinette delivered the final parting wisdom. "I know it feels like the weight of the world is on you. But try not to forget to live a little. The nice moments help you power through the rough patches. Love each other. Keep each other safe. Don't get too cocky…. Uh… shoot… I can't remember anything else. Cool. Lets sever the-"
And Adrien awoke, in his bed, completely shell shocked.