WARNING: This fic is episode 2 in the 'Luck and Lies' mini-series I'm writing. You are welcome to read this as an individual story without reading episode 1 first – I divided the stories up in a way that they -could- be stand alones. Thus any relevant plot points from episode 1 will be rehashed here so you don't have to go back and read episode 1. However this means that if you do ever feel like reading episode 1, you will know a few spoilers after reading this fic. The choice is yours. If you choose to read episode 1 first, look for "Bitter Truth" on my author profile.
Opening Remarks:
Happy Easter everyone! I'm so glad you decided to read this fic! Whether you're a returning reader (from Bitter Truth) or a new one, I hope you like it!
Double Date
Part 1: The Invitation
"You did WHAT!?"
"Marinette, calm yourself," Sabine soothed, worried her daughter would soon hyperventilate, "All we did was invite him to dinner."
"Yeah, but – " The frazzled teen protested, grasping her forehead in an attempt to stop her thoughts from reeling.
"You know our rules, sweetheart." Tom interrupted, voice firm but warm, "Any boy taking you out on a date has to spend a little time talking to us first."
"Yeah, but – "
"Besides," Sabine interjected, "That boy clearly needs some good home cooking."
"Mom! He's a model, he won't let you fatten him up!"
"Model or not, he still needs to eat." Sabine asserted with finality, crossing her arms.
"Yeah, but – "
"And," Tom began, also crossing his arms, "If we're going to be interrogating him anyway, he might feel a little less nervous about it if there's food involved."
Snorting in frustration that she'd hardly gotten a word in edge-wise, Marinette rushed, "But this is Adrien; you guys have talked with him plenty of times already!"
"He hasn't taken you on a date until now." Her father stated, like it was the most logical conclusion in the world.
"For the last time, it's NOT a date!" Marinette wailed, hands pulling at her face in frustration.
"He's escorting you to your school's autumn dance." Sabine deadpanned, eyes narrowed in accusation.
"We decided to go as friends. FRIEND-SSSSS" Marinette insisted, emphasizing the last word in two separate syllables like she was spelling it out for a child. Why her parents couldn't grasp this concept at their advanced age, she had no clue.
Her parents gave no answer, stern glances only occasionally broken by an amused grin. Marinette couldn't be absolutely certain that they were only teasing, however, so she added, "Besides, I'm the one who asked Adrien to go, so if anything, I'm the one escorting him!"
"Rules are rules, sweetheart." Tom finished, letting her know the discussion was over by turning and proceeding to let himself out of her bedroom. "Besides, the invitation has already been extended and accepted, so be sure you're ready for dinner by five that day."
Marinette found the blood draining from her face as the possible outcomes – all horrible - of the impending event flooded her mind. Her mother paused only to smile reassuringly before she too exited the room. She stood, frozen in place, thinking of any possible way to make this situation go away, but came up empty every time.
"Marinette?" A high-pitched voice addressed the dazed girl, prompting her to snap out of it.
"Oh… Sorry, Tikki… Was I out of it long?" Marinette asked, for it felt like both an instant and an eternity had just passed.
With a giggle, the friendly kwami responded, "No more than usual."
"What am I gonna do, Tikki? This is such a nightmare!"
"You've come to the right place, girl." Alya affirmed, spinning in her office chair and leaning back to make herself comfortable. The tone in Marinette's voice indicated that this would take a while. Reaching up to adjust the camera on her computer so that she'd still be in-frame for the duration of the video call, Alya began, "There's no need to panic; it's just dinner."
"But, Alya, my parents might say embarrassing things about me, or make Adrien really uncomfortable with suggestive or prying questions, or - !" Marinette spewed, the intensity in her voice building with each word.
"Girl." Alya cut in, giving Marinette 'the look'. It was the look a mom would give her misbehaving children, with narrowed eyes and a cocked eyebrow, letting them know that if the children didn't quiet themselves NOW, they might not live to see what happened next. Alya prided herself on her mastery of it, having had years of practice while babysitting her younger siblings.
"Sorry…" Marinette breathed sheepishly, "It's just that… I mean, YOU know that I decided to give up and move on from my crush on Adrien, but my parents don't seem to believe it. If anything, they believe that I've made progress or something."
"Well I mean, you have…" Alya conceded, gesturing in her agreement with the Dupain-Chengs, "Now you can actually form sentences around the guy and he's started opening up more to you in response."
"I know, but that's only BECAUSE I decided to focus on being a FRIEND. FR-IEND."
Leaning forward in her seat, Alya pressed with a more serious tone, "Don't get me wrong, I'm super proud of you for the self-control you've shown… but I have to ask… is your heart really okay with this?"
"Well…" Marinette began, timidly playing with a loose piece of her hair, "It's not like you can just tell your heart to stop loving someone and have it listen immediately… But honestly, it's been a little easier than I thought it would be, and I think part of that is because of how well Adrien's responded to being thought of and treated as just a friend."
"Part?" Alya inquired, a quizzical turn in her brow, "'Part' implies that there's something else at play. So spill."
Marinette winced, kicking herself for her poor choice of words. Why had she said it that way? Lately, Marinette couldn't make heads or tails of her own thoughts, and sometimes it was maddening. She knew there was no way out of this situation… Her friend's insatiable appetite for mystery was piqued and nothing short of the truth would quell it. But how was she supposed to verbalize what she herself didn't understand? Particularly when it involved the secret, Ladybug-side of her life? 'Well… I learned the hard way that it's best to be honest… Guess I'll just tell her what I do know… maybe she could even help fill in the blanks.'
"To be completely honest," Marinette began, biting her lip in apprehension. She knew Alya always had her back, but it was still a bit scary, being vulnerable… "I'm not entirely sure what's going on with this 'part' myself, but there's this other friend of mine I've known for awhile… Shortly after I decided to be just friends with Adrien, this other guy and I had a fight of some sort…"
'Not a fight WITH him… but a fight with an akuma that separated us nonetheless…'
"Does this 'other guy' have a name?" Alya inquired, practically bouncing with giddy anticipation.
"What are you getting so worked up for?" Marinette stalled, hoping Alya would take the bait. She didn't want to outright lie to her friend when she was trying to be completely honest, but 'Cat Noir', nor any variant therein, would pass for a normal name.
"Girl, as your best friend, it is my DUTY to get worked up over your love life!"
"'Love'!?" Marinette squeaked, face turning red at the frightening word.
"Chill girl, forget I said it. I'm clearly getting ahead of you. Back up, take a breath, and tell me what his name is."
"Er…" Marinette mumbled, heart still pounding from the mention of the word she hereby banned herself from thinking or saying. Knowing that Alya would keep demanding to know the name until she gave it – or rather, any name… any name would do, right? – Marinette recalled a name from a book she read recently and blurted, "Felix. His name is Felix."
"Alright, so… You and Felix were in a fight… then what happened?"
"Well… he sort of disappeared from my life for awhile, and I wasn't sure I'd ever see him again…" Marinette's eyes clouded at the memory, the anguish she had felt still fresh in her mind, "I don't know why, but somehow, the 'getting over Adrien' thing didn't seem like quite as big a deal, you know?"
"You mean, after realizing you didn't know what you had 'til it was gone, you realized that Felix might mean more to you than you originally thought?" Alya confirmed, voicing what Marinette had been struggling to.
Eyes wide in surprise, Marinette asked, "How did you know? I've been so confused about it all…"
"Girl, when your dream is to be a reporter, you learn to read people better than they can read themselves."
"But… is it even possible to like two guys at once?"
"Of course, Marinette! It happens all the time! You just need to decide which one – Adrien or Felix – to invest in. Until you decide, your heart will continue to feel confused."
"But, didn't I already decide on not Adrien?"
"You made the initial decision, sure, but you haven't fully let go of him yet… If you had, you wouldn't be worried about him having dinner with your family."
"Alya…" Marinette began, gaping in awe of her friend's analysis, "Have you ever considered becoming a psychiatrist?"
"Well, I am a girl of many talents," the brunette answered, leaning back in her chair and positioning her hands in a 'and how does that make you feel?' posture, "But just like choosing who to love, one must also choose which career path they love most, and I've already decided on journalism. As for you, based on what you've told me, I think you're well on your way to choosing Felix; you just need time to get over Adrien."
Marinette blushed at the thought she'd avoided entertaining…. Her… with Cat Noir? It seemed so ridiculous, and yet… "But how am I supposed to completely get over Adrien? I decided I'd do so, but it's so much harder as I'm getting to know him better and my parents keep teasing…"
Alya nodded in understanding, then lit up as an idea struck her, "You know, them thinking it's more than friendship could actually work in your favor."
"Huh? How so?"
"Think about it… If they want to encourage you guys to date, then they're gonna be on their best behavior at dinner so as not to scare him off or make you clam up. I think they're just having a bit of fun, flustering you beforehand."
"I dunno… Even if you're right, their idea of 'best behavior' is still going to be awkward and embarrassing."
"Quit overthinking it, Marinette… I think you should just focus on the positive here… Friend date or romantic date, you scored A date with Adrien-freaking-Agreste! I mean, can you imagine the look on Chloe's face when she sees you two together at the dance!? You know how hard she was trying to get him to go with her!"
Smirking to match Alya's, Marinette's tune changed as she considered her friend's perspective. "Well… you do make a good point…"
"Of course I do."
"And you'll be sure to get plenty of photographic evidence that it actually happened, right?"
"You know it! I'll even throw in a few unflattering shots of Chloe!"
"Hehe, you have NO idea how relieved I am that you're one of the photographers for the dance. Every school event in the past managed to either catch me at my worst moments or not get any pictures of me at all!"
"Well your luck is about to change! Oo! Have you decided which dress you'll be wearing?"
The two girls prattled on late into the night, planning every little detail of the dance, down to each accessory and conversation point.
Yawning, Marinette crawled into bed, purposely avoiding checking the time. Tomorrow was a school day, yet she and Alya had stayed up to some ungodly hour, so she figured she was better off not knowing how much sleep she wasn't going to get.
Settling in, she tried to ignore the whispers of the kwami that now pierced her drowsy consciousness.
"Marinette!" Tikki insisted, voice growing louder.
Groaning, Marinette complained, "Can't it wait 'til morning?"
"Based on how excited you two girls sounded, I don't think so. You haven't forgotten already that you're double booked this Saturday night, have you?"
If she was being completely honest, Marinette would have admitted that that particular little detail had been pushed to the side during her emotional upheaval. She'd been so freaked out by the announcement that Adrien would be coming for dinner before the dance, and then caught up in giddy girl talk with Alya, that she'd nearly forgotten about that one little detail Tikki was complaining about.
"Of course not," Marinette fibbed, "But it's not like I can talk about my scheduling conflicts as Ladybug with Alya… We're supposed to be two different people!"
"Well unless you really do manage to become two different people," Tikki reasoned, "I fail to see how you're going to go to the dance with Adrien while you're supposed to be going on patrol with Cat Noir at the same time."
"I'll manage. I just need to change the rendezvous point with Cat Noir to somewhere really close to the school so I can alternate between locations periodically."
"Marinette, don't you think you'll be stretched too thin that way? And won't Adrien and Cat Noir get suspicious? I mean, what if one of them follows you when you're going to meet the other?"
"It'll be fine. Adrien's popular, so I'm sure he'll make small talk with others while I'm away. And Cat Noir is no stray. I've got his bell wrapped around my finger; he'll follow my orders to the letter."
"I still think you should cancel your plans with one of them." Tikki insisted.
"I can't do that, Tikki…" Marinette muttered, eyes suddenly downcast, "Adrien's just started opening up to us more, and Alya will be busy with photography and Nino is DJ-ing… I don't want him thinking his friends are abandoning him just as he's started trusting us more. And Cat Noir…"
Marinette paused, instinctively looking out her window towards the night sky, as though she expected his face to appear in the stars, Cheshire-cat grin wide as his eyes twinkled and winked. To be honest, she didn't know what to think of her crime-fighting partner anymore. But she did know one thing: after nearly losing him forever, she knew she never wanted to let him go. The scare had prompted her to initiate 'patrols', though her true plan was to encourage friendly bonding. Her hopes were that if they got to know one another better, they would not only be a better crime-fighting team, but they would also be able to help support one another emotionally when the other was going through a hard time. By doing so, they would hopefully avoid compromising situations like the one Hawk Moth had gotten them into with a recent akuma villain.
Marinette shuddered at the memory, still not fully recovered from the trauma it had caused. She'd nearly been robbed of her miraculous, Cat Noir HAD been robbed of his miraculous, and thus she had been partner-less for ten days, not knowing if she'd ever have a partner again… or if she'd ever see her Cat Noir ever again. For the first time in her year-long Ladybug career, she'd genuinely felt fear. The day she and Cat Noir were finally reunited was honestly one of the best days of her life. She'd been so caught up in the moment, she'd arranged for their first ever patrol haphazardly, forgetting the school dance entirely.
Breaking out of her reverie, Marinette finished, "I just can't cancel my first patrol with Cat Noir… Not when he nearly gave up the job. That stupid cat probably still thinks it was his fault his miraculous was stolen in the first place. If I cancel now he'll probably convince himself that I wasn't serious about wanting him to stay my partner."
Sighing, Tikki abated, "Your heart is in the right place, Marinette… But I still worry that you've bitten off more than you can chew."
"But I've got you to help me chew, don't I?" Marinette asked, turning to face her spotted friend with a sleepy smile.
Unable to stop herself from smiling back tenderly, Tikki affirmed, "Always".
"Be reasonable, Plagg!" Adrien pleaded dramatically, exasperated with his kwami.
"Why?" Plagg asked, tone mocking as he hovered just out of Adrien's reach, "You stopped being reasonable when you agreed to go on a patrol with Ladybug when you already agreed to go to the dance with Marinette the same night."
Adrien huffed in annoyance as he positioned himself to take another lunge at the cat kwami. Plagg had confiscated his computer mouse and was waving it about tauntingly, holding it in ransom to get Adrien to cancel his dinner plans with the Dupain-Chengs. He'd been none-too-happy while he agreed to the invitation earlier that evening.
"Adrien, there's a Mr. Dupain on line 1 for you." Nathalie informed, pushing the telephone towards the confused teen.
"What does Marinette's father want with me?" Adrien asked, hoping to garner a little insight before answering. It was odd enough that he was getting a call at all on the house line. If anyone needed to contact him, they'd always called or texted his cell phone directly. It was further puzzling that it was Mr. Dupain calling him… He had no business with the man as far as he knew, and if it was related to Marinette, surely he could've asked her for Adrien's cell phone number instead of calling the house line provided in the school directory.
When Nathalie only shrugged in response, Adrien picked up the phone and answered with a tentative, "…Hello?"
"Ah, Adrien, I presume? This is Tom Dupain, Marinette's father."
"Yes. How may I help you, Mr. Dupain?"
"My, you are a polite one!" A feminine voice chimed in, and Adrien could only assume it was Sabine, Marinette's mother.
"Oh, I hope you don't mind, Adrien; you're on speaker phone so my wife can hear you too."
"O-of course not." Adrien answered, though he had to admit to himself that though he didn't technically mind, he was nervous as heck, still at a loss as to why Marinette's parents were calling him. "Good evening, Mrs. Cheng."
After the light chuckling incited by his greeting dwindled, Adrien listened as Tom explained their purpose for calling. "Sabine and I wanted to invite you to have dinner with us and Marinette before you two go to the dance this Saturday."
Adrien relaxed immediately. So that was all they'd wanted? Now that he'd heard their request, it made perfect sense. Why again had he been so worried?
"Of course, if it's alright with your father." Sabine amended, sinking Adrien's prior elation at the invitation. His father didn't even know he was going to the dance, how was he going to get permission to go to dinner before it?
It seemed Nathalie had been listening in via her earpiece, for she motioned for him to put the Dupain-Chengs on hold. "Er, hold on a moment; I'll get right back to you." Adrien promised before pushing the hold button.
"Adrien, if you want to go have dinner with them, I'll tell them you have permission to go." Nathalie instructed, surprising him. He'd been starting to think that the secretary was developing something of a mothering instinct, for this was the second time she'd greatly surprised him recently. Back when he'd needed to get a parental consent form to register for the school dance, she'd forged his father's signature for him since the form was due the next day and Gabriel had insisted he was too busy to even take five minutes to look at it and sign it.
"Your father already thinks you're going to a mid-term study session at the school that night, I can just tell him that you decided to go straight from your piano lesson to the study session, grabbing dinner on the way."
Beaming in gratitude, Adrien could only whisper, "Thank you, Nathalie! I'll make it up to you someday!" He felt a jab to his side after he said so, but ignored it, thinking Plagg was just getting impatient for dinner.
Nathalie only nodded in response, face still stoic despite the warmth of compassion she'd just showed in covering for him.
Taking the phone once more, Adrien depressed the hold button and gave his answer. He felt another pinch as he did so, this one angrier than the last. It appeared that Plagg didn't like the idea of going to dinner, and it was probably because they most likely would not have Camembert on the menu.
"Wonderful!" Tom and Sabine cried in unison, and Adrien couldn't help but smile. He imagined they must have a happy marriage to be able to achieve perfect unity like that. A happy marriage like his own parents once had, if his faint and fuzzy recollections of long ago could be trusted. His smile faltered ever so slightly as he lamented the fact that those memories were only memories, if even that… Given how things were now, he doubted the existence of such happy memories… maybe they had only been dreams…
"So how does five o'clock sound?" Sabine questioned, pulling him out of his thoughts.
"Oh, uh… I've got a piano lesson at four, so I probably won't be able to get there until five-thirty."
"Five-thirty it is!" Tom bellowed, "We'll see you then!"
"Have a good night, Adrien!" Sabine called, and Adrien could perfectly imagine the kind farewell in her eyes as she said it.
"Wait!" he cried, hoping they'd hear him before they hung up. "What should I bring?" He'd heard that people usually brought food to share to parties and gatherings, but he wasn't sure what the proper etiquette was for a family meal. He hoped he hadn't just sounded completely naïve… maybe it wasn't customary to bring food… maybe he was supposed to bring something else? He really had no clue, and was beginning to curse his sheltered upbringing. The only bright spot in the midst of his panic was that they couldn't see him blush over the phone.
"All you need to bring is your appetite!" Sabine answered cheerily, and Adrien was once again relieved of his prior panic.
"Unless of course you want to bring some flowers or something for Marinette." Tom piped in with amusement in his tone, like his eyes were twinkling with humor as he said it.
Adrien felt his cheeks warm at the suggestion, suspecting it was teasing in nature, but he couldn't be sure. For all he knew, it was completely customary and not related at all to the tradition of bringing flowers to your first 'meet-the-parents' date. "Er, I guess I could do that." The flustered teen responded nervously, hand brushing his neck as he did so.
"Only if you want to; no pressure." Tom clarified, "We'll see you soon! Have a great night!" Mr. Dupain hung up the phone before Adrien had a chance to respond, so Adrien merely hung up the phone and bade Nathalie farewell. He needed to get to his room quickly, for there was a rather angry kwami in his shirt making angry little marks all over his skin with his pinching.
"Plagg!" Adrien rasped, worried that their cat-and-mouse antics might draw attention from the house's other occupants, "What's the big deal!? It's just dinner! You already agreed to help me switch between the dance attendance with Marinette and patrol with Ladybug! What's an extra hour or two out to you?"
"What's it to me?" Plagg asked rhetorically, taunting his bearer with a teasing dangle of the computer mouse, "With all the transformations you're expecting me to do, I need time to carb up before the game! And now you're trying to take that away from me… You'd starve your own kwami for the sake of a few pastries? I'm wounded, Adrien, truly."
Rolling his eyes at Plagg's dramatic monologue, Adrien nonetheless bit his tongue, for Plagg had often complained about Adrien's melodrama, so he shouldn't be one to talk. "Look, this is all doable, we just need to plan ahead." Adrien stated calmly, hoping that reason would reach through to his stubborn kwami. "We just need to, you know, stake out the area… Find you a good hiding place nearby where you can 'carb up' while I eat dinner with the Dupain-Chengs. We can establish a time and place to meet so I can meet up with Ladybug."
"But that requires even more work!" Plagg whined, "Why can't you just cancel your plans with Ladybug?"
Adrien paused his pursuit of the black demon as his guilt weighed heavy upon him, admitting, "I already screwed things up once, Plagg… I can't let Ladybug down now. Not when she decided to give me a second chance…"
"Ugh, fine… Guess I can't completely get out of duty for the evening… Cancel your plans with Marinette then. It'd at least be easier to keep you suited up as Cat Noir than transitioning back and forth all the time."
"But Plagg! She only just started speaking to me… You know, really speaking to me, and I think her asking me if I wanted to go as friends was her way of signing our peace treaty or something. After a year of her being frightened of me, I don't want to screw up that friendship now by backing out of that."
"Kid, you've got serious people-pleasing issues." Plagg stated with a sigh, frustratingly pressing his paw to his forehead as though Adrien was giving him a headache.
Taking advantage of the fact the kwami had let his guard down, Adrien coiled himself and leapt at Plagg, snatching him out of the air and landing with all the grace of a cat on the arm of his couch. "Gotcha!" He shouted triumphantly, like he had just caught an akuma butterfly exactly like Ladybug.
"Aw, no fair." Plagg wailed as Adrien kept him in his clutches.
Prying the computer mouse from ebony paws, Adrien smirked in triumph, stating suavely, "All's fair in love and war."
"Aw, didn't know you cared so much." Plagg goaded, matching his bearer's smirk.
Releasing him, Adrien casually strode back to his computer and resumed his seat, smug grin still intact. "You know, Plagg, I'm not sure if you're rubbing off on me or if it's the other way around."
With a small 'harrumph!', Plagg flew off to sulk, leaving Adrien alone with his computer once again. The Ladyblog was pulled up, now advertising a new section dedicated to him – to Cat Noir. He'd been dancing around it for days – pulling up the Ladyblog, hovering his mouse over the image, staring at his own Cat-Noir face grinning playfully at him…. And yet he hadn't been able to bring himself to actually click yet, a part of him still worried he wouldn't like what he saw.
Alya had been bragging about the new section for awhile, and how she'd set up a 'Thank You' page where anyone could leave a message of gratitude for the feline hero. He still found it hard to believe that there were Parisians out there who actually thought he was doing a good job. Surely they'd seen right through him in the footage from that decisive battle… He'd chosen Ladybug over Paris, endangering them all. But Alya was a persistent little bugger, and kept dropping hints to him at school that he really needed to check it out, with those intense -knowing- looks and winks that made Marinette and Nino question what unspoken secret lay between them.
Ever since Alya had found out his dual identity, she'd been supporting him in her own way, which often caused awkward situations when they were with their other friends. In a way, he was grateful for her support, especially when he realized how hard it must be for her to keep the secret when she's got reporter in her DNA, but sometimes it felt like she'd put him on a leash when it came to things like this – subtly manipulating him into doing her bidding. He supposed she thought it was for his own good, but that didn't make it any less irritating. He -really- didn't want to look at the 'Thank You' wall… It was unmoderated, and there was sure to be a fair share of hate mail… and he deserved every last one.
Sighing as he pictured Alya's fuming face in school the next day when she was bound to ask him if he'd checked out the 'Thank You' wall yet, Adrien resigned himself to finally take the plunge.
Steeling himself, he held his breath as he clicked the mouse.
Closing Remarks:
So if you wrote a thank you to Cat Noir on the Ladyblog, what would it say?
Sorry, this chapter is a bit of a tease… It mainly serves the purpose of setting up the story, particularly for those who haven't read Bitter Truth. Things will begin to take off in the next chapter!
'Felix' is the original name for the Cat Noir character used in the 2D PV for Miraculous Ladybug. I included it here as Marinette's chosen alias for Cat Noir as a little Easter egg for the more hardcore fans. After all, what's Easter with an Easter egg or two?
If you're curious how Alya found out that Adrien is Cat Noir, or how Cat Noir was without his miraculous for 10 days, or how Marinette decided to give up on her crush on Adrien, or how they made some progress in their friendship, check out my "Bitter Truth" story.
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