A/N: Based on GalahadWilder's prompt and is a continuation of Seasonofthegeek's and GalahadWilder's stories! Read the previous ones over on Archive Of Our Own (I can't post links, unfortunately, but message me if you have trouble finding them), then come back to continue this drunken tale!
Part 1: seasonofthegeek's "Three Times the Charm: More Miraculous Drabbles, Chapter 79: "Marinette, Alya, Adrien, and Nino"
Part 2: GalahadWilder's "Drunk Dial"
I'd like to thank these two amazing authors for their inspiration for this story, as well as my sister for being a wonderful beta reader!
It turns out that getting Adrien, or rather, Chat Noir-Adrinoir? Chadrien? Marinette ponders-home was easier said than done. Adrichat was almost a full head taller than her-dang growth spurt-which made carrying him a bit cumbersome.
She thought back to the couple times she hefted him over her, either at an akuma villain or for some other reason, and realized that she may be strong, but the adrenaline rush during the battle quite literally did most of the heavy lifting. Knowing exactly who her partner is behind the mask, she wasn't surprised at his weight either. His father forbid that he would do any extracurricular activities that would bulk him up, but he was still muscular enough to make him weigh more than the typical sack of flour she was used to carrying around in the bakery. And to top it all off, she had to carry him several blocks back to his house using her yoyo. Settling for carrying him over the shoulder, Marinette figured that she could make it part of the way without having to grapple with her yoyo. She hoped that in the meantime, Noirdrien would wake up and get himself home the rest of the way.
Unfortunately, that was not the case, but she was thankful for what luck she did have because there were no civilians out walking near his house, and her yoyo was reeling the two of them up to his open bedroom window painfully slowly. Seriously, anyone with eyes down on the street below would be pressed to wonder why the heck Ladybug was carrying a snoozing Chat Noir up to a window of the Agreste mansion. But Marinette digressed.
With a sigh, she none-too-gently tossed Adrien Chat Noir Agreste onto his bed, squinting when a bright green light raced up his feet to his head, popping out a black cat-like kwami onto Adrien's stomach.
"Oh, woe is me! I'm so hungry!" cried the kwami. "Oh, where is my camem-oh hey, Ladybug, how's Tikki?"
"Uh, hi?" Ladybug waved. "Sorry, what's your name? I don't think Adri-Chat Noir-drien has ever mentioned it…"
"The name's Plagg. And you can just him by his name, Maribug, or you're just going to confuse yourself even more," Plagg replied, taking one of Adrien's confusing nicknames for the heroine after hearing him go crazy after the revelation.
Ladybug startled and asked, "Wait, so he really does know who I am? Oh geez, what on earth did I say to him two days ago?!"
"I dunno; you should ask him when he wakes up," Plagg said, making a beeline for the mini fridge near Adrien's desk to get some camembert. Phasing back out, he waved the cheese at Ladybug, saying, "Might as well tuck him in-goodness knows how much sleep he's gotten since then."
"Wait, shouldn't you keep an intoxicated person awake?" Ladybug asked.
"Nah, don't worry about it. Your Cure might not have fully worked, but since I'm out of the ring, I've taken most of the side effects away; he's just sleeping now. And he also owes me a lot of camembert for that," Plagg remarked, tossing the cheese up and catching it one gulp. "Tuck him in, he'll appreciate it." Big time, he added in his head.
"I guess I'll make him more comfortable…" Ladybug said, unlacing his sneakers and dragging him up to his pillows before reaching down for his comforter and draping it over his body. Unfortunately, Adrien rolled over in his sleep, taking Ladybug with him.
"Oomph! Uh! Adrien! Please let me go? Ah, wake up, please!" Ladybug said, blushing furiously and trying to untangle herself from Adrien.
Plagg flew over to see the commotion and just gave her a wide, toothy grin. "He's a cuddler, so you should get comfy as well. It's a weekend, so at least you don't have to worry about school, and Adrien doesn't have anything else scheduled today. Have a nice nap!" Plagg said, then flew away while Ladybug tried to reach out to him.
"Wait-what?! Oh no, this isn't happening!" Ladybug said, throwing her head back down on the pillow. "And he's just gripping me tighter, great."
At that moment, Tikki must have decided that enough was enough and detransformed her, popping out of her earring and smiling down on her chosen. "Like something out of your wildest dreams, huh, Marinette?" Tikki said, giggling at the sight before her. Adrien had taken to nuzzling against her shoulder, and Marinette's shoulders up to her ears were flushed from the intimate contact.
"Oh, not you, too, Tikki!" Marinette said, exasperated.
"Come on, Marinette, Plagg is right. Just relax a little and take a nap," Tikki said. "You may also want to talk to him about the whole identity thing when he wakes up."
Marinette rolled her eyes and said, "Fine, I'll take a nap. But I won't like it! And it's just for a little while." Unfortunately, the latter half of her statement was swallowed in a yawn, and Marinette unconsciously snuggled deeper into Adrien's arms. "Wake us up in an hour or two, okay, Tikki?"
"Sure, Marinette. I'll just be hanging out with Plagg; it's been so long since I've seen him," Tikki replied, flying over to Plagg.
Might as well get comfy, Marinette thought, and she turned onto her side, her back to Adrien. Her last thoughts were of how tired she was now that she was in a bed and not of how awkward this would be when they woke up.
Well, thought Adrien, this is awkward. He was aware of Plagg and something (someone?) else laughing in the background, but all he could focus on were bright blue eyes and a blushing Marinette staring at him from the floor. He had awoken from one of the best naps he had ever had to find that he was cuddling someone in his bedroom. The last thing he remembered was an alcohol-themed akuma and getting hit. Then sailing over Paris, but being really out of it? Taking mental notes of the person in his arms, he deduced that the person was a female with dark hair, and leaning over, he spied freckles on her cheeks.
She's Marinette! I was asleep with Marinette! Adrien mentally screamed, and in his haste to get away from her, he had unceremoniously shoved her off his bed onto the floor below. After a thump, Marinette woke up with a yelp, and looked around with a daze, rubbing the elbow she had landed on. She stared up at him, and that was the current situation they found themselves in.
Plagg zipped over between the two, glancing from Marinette to Adrien and said, "Nice going, pal, shoving your girlfriend off the bed. It's like you didn't enjoy holding her in your arms or something."
Marinette let out another squeak and hid her face behind her hands while Adrien's gaze comically darted from Marinette to his kwami. "She's not my girlfr-well, I'd like her to be-but wait, n-no, not like that-PLAGG!" Adrien yelled.
"Oh geez, don't tease them like this Plagg!" the red kwami said. Turning to Adrien, she introduced herself. "My name is Tikki, and I am the kwami that transforms Marinette into Ladybug-though, you might have already figured that out. It's nice to finally meet you, Adrien."
Adrien looked up at the kwami, nodding and replying with, "Likewise, Tikki." Glancing back down to the still hiding Marinette, he said, "Hey, would you two mind giving us some space. I think this is-uh-a lot to take in and we kind of-should-sort this out."
Tikki nodded and tugged on Plagg's tail, dragging him with her up to the bookcases above. "Take your time, you two! And behave!" she exclaimed. Marinette snapped up at the retreating kwami and huffed indignantly and what Tikki had insinuated.
Adrien ran a hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck, struggling to find the words to start a conversation. "So, uh, you want to come back up here and talk a little, Marinette?" Adrien asked.
Marinette looked up to Adrien and shook her head. "No, I-I, uh, I'm fine down here! Yep!" she said, tugging at one of her pigtails.
"Oh, come on, Princess! Here, up you go!" Adrien said, reaching down to grab one of her hands with one of his own and her shoulders with his other. With a firm tug, he pulled her back onto the bed. "Sorry for pushing you off the bed; I panicked."
"No, that's fine! I'd be weirded out, too, if I found someone in bed with me and not knowing how they got there…" Marinette trailed off and took back the hand Adrien had forgotten he still held. "I guess I should start with that. You kind of told me who you were after we defeated the akuma, and you still had side effects from being hit by the villain. So, I took you home."
"Okay, that explains how I got home, but not how you ended up in bed with me. Which is fine, I mean! Not like it wouldn't be nice to have you in bed with me-but NOT LIKE THAT! I mean to sleep with-gah, not that! Because it gets tiring fighting all the time! Yeah…" Adrien said, blushing and mentally face palming. Good going, Agreste. This will totally get her to like you more.
Marinette gulped at what he said, knowing that he didn't really mean sleeping together as in…you know…sleeping together. "No, I get you! You see, I was tucking you into bed, and you kind of rolled over and dragged me down with you? And then I couldn't really get out, so the kwami convinced me to just take a nap with you."
Adrien nodded and said, "Okay, that really does explain it. Well, ah, I guess it's too late to go back and eat with Alya and Nino…really late. But if you want, I can walk you home?"
"Actually, I have something else to ask you, Adrien," Marinette said, biting her bottom lip and thinking about how to phrase her next question. Oh, just out with it, already! "While you were drunk, you called me Princess and it seemed kind of obvious that you knew that I was Ladybug…how did you find out?" Marinette asked, peeking at him from under her bangs.
Adrien straightened up from his slouched position and his gaze darted from Marinette to the wall to his desk and back again. "Well, you see, a couple nights ago, you called me, and I think you were drunk-"
"I actually did that! I can't believe I forgot! Oh my gosh, what did I say?" Marinette screeched.
"Well, you told me that you are…Ladybug," Adrien replied, saying each word as slowly as he could to hopefully get her to remember what she had said in her drunken stupor. Unfortunately, the only result he got was a quickly paling Marinette, the blood draining from her face.
She put her head in her palms, crying out, "Oh dieu, I'm so stupid; it was me who started this whole thing! I'm so sorry, Adrien! And I was the one who didn't want to let out our identities and I can't believe that I called you to tell you that I like you, but instead I told you my identity!" She slapped her hands over her mouth and looked at Adrien, hoping that he didn't hear that admission.
"Hey, hey," Adrien said, gently taking her hands away from her face, "It's okay, it was a simple mistake. And if it makes you feel any better, I already knew about your crush. Nino told me yesterday morning after I told him that you drunk dialed me. But don't worry-I didn't tell him what you said! About the Ladybug thing! I know how important our identities are to you!"
Marinette smiled at Adrien, and said, "Yeah, you do know that, huh? And this has been such a mess; I'll probably never drink again!
But yeah, thank you for being someone I can trust, Adrien. I really appreciate it. I can't imagine a better partner and friend, Chaton."
Adrien smiled and blushed when he noticed that she hadn't pulled away from his grasp, instead turning her hands over to lace their fingers together. "Thank you, too, Bugaboo. I can't imagine a better person to be Ladybug and one of my best friends-inside and outside of the suit." He brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled brightly when she giggled. "So, are we okay?"
"Yeah," Marinette said, "We're okay."
Adrien took back one of his hands and rubbed his chin in faux-thought. "Well, we could be more than okay…"
"Oh?" Marinette asked.
"We could be, you know…a couple. Boyfriend and girlfriend? Since I know how you feel about me, and you know how I feel about you."
"Well, I know how you feel about Ladybug-" Marinette started.
"No, I mean it: you know how I feel about you, Marinette," Adrien said, taking both of her hands in his and raising them up to his lips to kiss her knuckles.
Marinette blushed again and acquiesced, "Fine, you're right! So, is that how you're going to ask me to be your girlfriend?"
"Well, we have already slept together…Ow!" Adrien yelped, recoiling after Marinette had playfully slapped his shoulder. "Any harder and you'll be bruising model material, Marinette! You should kiss it better." Marinette raised an eyebrow and made a show of rubbing his arm before kissing it.
"There, better?" she asked.
"Much. Now, Marinette Ladybug Dupain-Cheng, would you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?" Adrien asked.
Marinette scoffed before smiling and saying, "That's not my middle name, but I would love to be your girlfriend, Adrien Perfection Chat Noir Agreste."
Adrien blinked owlishly and gasped, "…Hey, that's not my middle name, either!"
