Hi everyone!
So I came up with this silly oneshot idea and once I had it, I had to write it down ... Well, that plus I cave easily to encouragement (looking at you, Livinglittlelie). My brain clearly has no chill, because I wrote all of this in one sitting today and I already have ideas for a sequel.
I hope you like it! Please let me know what you thought in the reviews!
Operation Best-Bro-Break-Out
When Adrien came down with a fever, it was like his Father thought he was going to die. He wasn't allowed to go to school and was stuck inside at home for days on end. Fortunately, Adrien got better fairly quickly. Unfortunately, Gabriel didn't see it that way and refused to let his son out of the house.
That was where 'Operation Break-My-Best-Bro-Out-Of-That-Stupid-House-So-He-Can-Hang-With-Us' came in. (Nino was no longer allowed to name any future Operations).
The DJ, Alya and Marinette were spaced out around Marinette's bedroom, munching on snacks from the bakery and brainstorming ways they could either get into the Agreste mansion to see their friend or break Adrien out. Regrettably, they hadn't been making much progress.
"Maybe we can sneak in during an akuma attack?" Nino suggested.
"No," Marinette vetoed immediately. "Akuma attacks are for hiding in safe places, not trying to break in to a friend's house." There was also the added issue of her being Ladybug and she would have to go save Paris during an attack, not try to rescue Adrien from his overprotective Father. Still, Nino and Alya couldn't know that, so she just shook her head at the DJ and tried to come up with another idea.
"Plus, I need to be there when there's an attack for my blog," Alya added.
"Well, no, you don't," Marinette said. "Not really."
(She knew it was a futile hope, but Marinette really wished her best friend would realise how dangerous trying to get videos of the fights were).
Alya scoffed and Marinette's hopes were crushed. "The Ladyblog is known for the best akuma footage. I've got to be there!"
Marinette fought the urge to sigh and attempted to go back to their original point. "Okay, so akuma attacks are out. Anyone got any other ideas?"
"What if we're thinking about this too hard?" Alya said.
"What do you mean?" Nino asked.
"We're thinking of convoluted ways to get into Adrien's house and break him out, right? But we haven't even done the simplest thing: we haven't just asked to see him. We're just going on what Adrien has told us about not being allowed to see anyone until he's back at school."
The three of them shared a look. Sure, they hadn't gone with what seemed to be the simplest option because they were certain it wouldn't work. Still, it couldn't hurt to ask, right?"
"Monsieur Agreste has forbidden Adrien from having any visitors until he is one hundred percent better," the clipped tone of Gabriel's assistant came through the camera that was by the Agreste's front gate.
"But –" They chorused in protest.
"I'll let Adrien know you stopped by," Nathalie said.
And that was that.
Nino groaned as they began walking dejectedly away from Adrien's house, "Why won't they just let us see him?!"
"I'm sure we can think of something," Marinette said.
"We have homework here for Adrien?" Alya told the camera.
"Put it in the box," came Nathalie's disembodied voice.
Curses, foiled again.
"DJ Sickbeats to Ladyblogger and Cupcake Princess; I am in positon. 'Operation Best-Bro-Break-Out' is go. Over."
"Are the code names strictly necessary?" Marinette asked through their three-way phone call.
"Cupcake Princess, you didn't do the thing. Over."
"Saying 'over' is a waste of time."
"You can't see me but I'm giving you puppy dog eyes right now. Over."
"Argh! Not the puppy dog eyes! You know I can't handle the puppy dog eyes!"
"Girl, you can't even see him. Don't get worked up over puppy dog eyes you can't even see," Alya put in. "Also, DJ Sickbeats, what did we say about you naming the operations? Over."
"See, Cupcake?" Nino said, completely disregarding the last thing Alya said. "Ladyblogger said 'over'. Over."
Marinette let out a defeated groan, "Okay, Cupcake Princess is in position."
There was an expectant silence.
"Over," she finished.
"Good," Alya said. "Ladyblogger is in position. We're good to go. On my mark …. Now!"
"… So remind me again why we thought running through the gate after the car from three separate positions was a good idea?" Nino moaned as they regrouped in the park across from Marinette's home.
"Hey, man, it was your idea," Alya groused.
"We're lucky the Gorilla didn't call the police," Marinette said. "We were technically trespassing."
"We're lucky he was the only one who saw us," Nino replied. "And forget the police, can you imagine if he called our parents?!"
The three shuddered in unison.
"Not our best plan," Alya said after a period of contemplative silence.
"Hey, I was desperate!" Nino defended himself indignantly.
Both Marinette and Alya put a comforting hand on the DJ's shoulders. They knew how much he wanted to see Adrien. They all wanted to see him. Who knew how he was handling being cooped up in that big, lonely house all on his own.
"Hey! Hey, Adrien! Get a load of this! '18 Cheese Jokes That Are So Dumb They're Actually Genius'!"
"…. Plagg, please stop reading me Buzzfeed articles."
Needless to say, Adrien wanted out.
"We just need to be smart about this," Marinette said. "We just need to – oh! I have an idea!"
She went tearing off towards her parent's bakery and Alya and Nino only had time to share a quick, confused glance before they went hurrying after her. They caught up with her in the patisserie, just in time to hear her ask, "Maman, Papa, can one of you please make a phone call for us?"
Alya and Nino shared a conspiratorial grin. Now there was an idea! When in doubt, just get the adults to do their adulty thing and they should be seeing Adrien in no time! Who better to fight parents with than parents?
Of course, they were too overconfident in the power of Adults™ and didn't really think about the fact that the parent they were trying to sic the Dupain-Cheng's on was Gabriel Agreste, someone who wouldn't actually be phased by the power of parents.
"Damn it," Nino grumbled, once again sitting on Marinette's bedroom floor and chewing bitterly on a croissant.
They were back at square one.
"That's it!" Alya said, sounding fed up. "I'm adopting him. I'll be Adrien's mother from now on. At least that way he'll be able to see people."
"You'd have to actually see him first," Nino said through a mouthful of croissant.
Marinette turned away from the conversation to look at where she used to hang her Adrien posters. She had taken them down when she really got to know the model. She still had a huge crush on him, but now she really knew Adrien. He was a dork, liked puns almost as much as Chat Noir, and could eat fifteen croissants in one sitting if you didn't stop him. They were friends, and friends didn't have posters or copies of their schedule on pull down charts.
Instead, Marinette's wall was covered with pictures of her and her friends (she could willingly admit that there was a fair few of Adrien, but he no longer dominated the wall). There were also a few pictures of her as Ladybug with Chat Noir, taking from newspaper and magazine clippings. She thought she could get away with it because she and her partner were now such household names in Paris that a teenager having pictures of them up in her room wasn't that uncommon. (She just made sure they weren't too close to any pictures of her in civilian form. It wouldn't do for people to see the similarities).
Seeing the picture of her Chaton made her worry about him as well. Like Adrien, he'd fallen sick with a fever and hadn't been able to make it to patrol. But he'd called her and said he was feeling better and looking forward to the next one where he could 'grace her with his presence once more.'
And really, what were the chances that they'd both get sick at the same time? Her poor boys.
She zoned back into Alya and Nino's conversation just in time to hear:
"Okay, so we blow the door down, bust in, snatch Adrien and run."
"Yeah, dude! Sounds good. Where can we get explosives?"
"I've got it covered. I know a guy."
Rolling her eyes at their antics, Marinette got her phone out and snapped a picture of the two of them. She sent it to Adrien with the caption of: Just letting you know that these two are planning on blowing up your house to get you out of there.
Adrien replied back in an instant, because he might be on house arrest but Gabriel hadn't taken his phone (how else was the designer supposed to get continuous updates on how his son was faring?)
Adrien: Please don't let them blow up my house D:
Marinette: It's already happening. Alya apparently "knows a guy."
Adrien: … That wouldn't surprise me at all.
Marinette laughed and responded with: Alya's got the explosives, Nino's picked the getaway music and I've got the disguises.
Adrien: Et tu, Mari?
Marinette snorted at his response and it caught the attention of Alya and Nino. They pair then immediately began clamouring to talk to Adrien, which ended up turning to a video call with the model. It was filled was laughs, jokes, ridiculously convoluted plans to break Adrien out, and numerous shared looks of fond exasperation between her and Adrien over the antics of their best friends. It was clear that the model was happy to talk to them, even if it was just a phone call. Marinette just hoped they'd be able to see him face to face sometime soon.
She left home for her night patrol earlier than usual, intending on swinging past Adrien's place to see how he was (and by that she meant sneakily looking in his window with her Ladybug powers and not actually letting him know she was there).
Marinette was not counting on seeing Adrien talk to a like floating, cat like creature.
Adrien looked up from where his kwami was once again trying to get him to read articles about cheese on his phone.
"Did you hear someone scream?" He asked.
Ladybug clamped a hand over her mouth, but it hadn't been enough to muffle the squeak that came out of her.
Because holy shit, that was a kwami!
That meant –
That meant –
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
Marinette's thoughts were drowned out by a long, internal scream and she quickly yoyo'd her way out of there.
She wasn't entirely sure how she got through patrol, knowing what she did. Chat Noir was Adrien! Adrien! It made so much sense, she couldn't believe she hadn't seen it sooner.
Chat had picked up on her odd mood, of course, but he didn't press the issue. Her Chaton was too chivalrous for that.
Once their patrol was over, she'd darted off with a quick, "Gladyou'refeelingbetterImissedyougottagobye!"
When she arrived back at her room, she dropped the transformation and screamed into a pillow. This was too much. It was information overload. How was she supposed to deal?!
Tikki tried to help, giving comfort where she could, but Marinette was stuck inside her own head. Held up on the continuous thoughts of Chat Noir – Adrien – Chat Noir – Adrien – Chat Noir – Adren, that she barely heard what the kwami said.
Alya calling her was a thankful distraction … Until the blogger said they were going to Adrien's house.
Part of Marinette wanted to say no. She wanted to stay home and process what had happened; process it all and work out where to go from there. But she wouldn't let Alya and Nino go gallivanting off in the middle of the night on their own, so the reluctantly said she'd meet them there.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Marinette?" Tikki asked in concern (her chosen had just been having a bit of a meltdown, after all.)
She gave a weak laugh, "I don't even know but I'm going to go anyway. Maybe this is just something I need to face head on. If I think about it too much, I'll just stress out and neither Adrien or I need that."
Her kwami flew to her face and gave her cheek a hug, "It'll be alright, Marinette," she said in her bright, cheerful voice. "You and Adrien have a strong friendship, both as Marinette and Adrien and as Ladybug and Chat Noir. This won't change that. Are you going to tell him who you are?"
"… I guess it's only fair, isn't it? Is that alright? You always said to keep our identities a secret."
"That was in the beginning, but you and Adrien have been partners for some time now. You can tell him if you like. It would be a show of trust between the two of you. And you know what? I think Adrien will be delighted that it's you."
Marinette beamed at her, "Thank you, Tikki."
The kwami hugged her tighter, "You're welcome, Marinette."
"Okay, what are we doing here so late at night?" Marinette asked when she finally made it to where Alya and Nino were hiding outside Adrien's house.
"We are righting an injustice!" Alya declared passionately.
"And we're setting my boy free!" Nino finished.
Marinette looked at the imposing wall of the Agreste's property. She knew they were positioned just outside of where Adrien's room was located, but they didn't make them any closer to actually getting in there. "And how are we doing that?"
"We're climbing the wall!" They said in unison.
Part of Marinette couldn't believe they were actually having this conversation and actually considering breaking into Adrien's house. But she was also still shell-shocked after learning that her crush was also her flirtatious partner – Adrien was a flirt! What even?! – so she regarded the whole situation with a detached kind of wonder.
She made a decision, which probably would come back to haunt her later down the line, but she was tired, still in shock, fed up that they weren't allowed to see Adrien and desperate to talk to her Chaton, so her impulse control wasn't the best.
"I have a better idea," she said.
Alya and Nino looked at her curiously.
"Tell no one what you're about to see."
"What?" They chorused.
"Tikki! Transformez moi!"
She transformed into her superheroine self in a shower of pink sparkles. Disregarding Alya and Nino's dumbfounded expressions, she said, "Hold on tight!" and took out her yoyo. Her two friends only had moments to scramble to get a hold of her before she shot them up towards Adrien's window.
Thankfully it was unlocked and it only took her a moment for her to get it open. Unfortunately, Alya and Nino squirmed while she was doing so and it resulted in them tumbling through the window and falling on the floor with a dull thud.
As the three of them picked themselves up, there was the sound of a gasp and running footsteps. Ladybug stood to see Adrien there, staring at them in undisguised shock and confusion.
"My – L-Ladybug?!" He spluttered. "Alya?! Nino?! Are you alright?! What are you doing here?!"
They must have looked a sight. Alya and Nino were staring at her with their mouths agape, clearly still trying to put together the fact that their friend was also the superheroine of Paris. She disregarded them for the moment and focused on Adrien. The one they'd come to see; the one they'd tried so hard to see for days. Her beautiful, kind, loving, funny – although she'd never admit it to his face – Chaton.
Ladybug let her transformation go in a wave of pink. Adrien's eyes widened in shock and his mouth dropped open. She gave him a small wave and a wide smile.
"Hello, Adrien," she said, "we missed you."