She was kissing him.
Ladybug, the red-and-black clad superhero was kissing him, and he, Chat Noir, should have been elated.
He should have kissed back with gusto, caution thrown into the wind. Let Alya sneak up from whatever hole she was hiding in to snap a picture for the Ladyblog. Let Nino be filming his next big hit from the sidelines. Let Plagg sit down and hush in his head while he was finally, finally having his dreams come true.
Except, of course, he was confused. Surprised. Shocked . Not to say he wasn't at least a little bit ecstatic over the current proceedings—which, by the way, seemed to pass in slow motion. Consider that we, the viewers, are following a stream of consciousness that usually runs a mile a minute. Usually, until the realization dawned. Because Chat knew who Ladybug was under the mask.
He'd kissed her just this morning.
Let time be slowed and rewound for us to understand the… odd predicament our much-loved heroes were in.
First, a few days ago.
12:35 pm on Saturday, to be exact. An akuma had just been cleansed and sent on its way home to wherever Hawkmoth's hideout was. A flash of light passed over Paris, as once again, the city returned to its old splendor. Chat hung back, neither of them under threat of detransformation just yet. "Ah, I will meowver get tired of that sight," he sighed, leaning over the Eiffel Tower. He had redirected his gaze from the cleansing light of the Lucky Charm to the bug it had come from.
Ladybug sat back down on the beam they were on, ignoring him. She was dreading the new school year, and wasn't getting enough sleep. "Too tired for this, kitty."
"My Lady?" he asked, concerned. "Need help getting home?"
"No, I—" Beep. "—gotta go." Ladybug offered him a tired smile before taking out her yo-yo. "I'm fine, really. And you don't even know where my house is."
"I believe I said 'home'."
"Same thing." She'd latched on to a nearby building. One, two…
"Home is where the heart is, my Lady," he added abruptly as she jumped. "And I think I know where mine is, at least." He bowed and winked.
Ladybug did the airborne equivalent of a wobble. She shot him a good-humored glare to make up for the fact she couldn't smack him this time. He laughed, wild and true, over the streets of Paris.
And now, the day of.
At 8:01 am that morning, Marinette had blasted through the door of their class in a huff—nothing new, of course. It was a near-daily experience that was almost three years running, now. Alya, Nino, and Adrien had been the only ones who looked mildly concerned that she was red in the face and out of breath. Which was also normal. Because they'd all grown into a steady friendship, with Marinette finding her footing around Adrien about a year after they'd met, and Adrien finding easy solace in her company. Alya and Nino already had good relations with each other as well as the other two, strengthened only by the fact that they were, in fact, dating.
"Er, you've got something—" Adrien whispered as the black-haired girl passed by, gesturing to her hair. Her eyes widened as she cleared off the small twigs and dried leaves from her ponytails.
Three years and yet to change her hairstyle, that one.
Alya discreetly passed her a comb under the desk as their teacher returned to the morning announcements. Marinette squeezed her hand gently as a sign of thanks, taking the plastic and undoing and redoing one of her ponytails.
Today was shaping to be a right mess; her alarm didn't go off, she spilled her breakfast, her parents had gotten word of her cutting class again, and of course, of course, it had been raining the night before, leaving puddles all over the uneven streets, and loosening some stray twigs and leaves from the trees above. In her rush to get to class, she'd been rammed into multiple times, somehow always when near a tree, and said twigs and leaves nuzzled themselves into her hair.
Because it was the first Monday of the her senior year, so of course. Of course.
She at least enjoyed some luck—Chloe was still out of town, and was therefore not to be there to ruin her day further.
…As if it needed any help. Rainy Mondays, as Marinette had clearly forgotten, seemed to always attract a lot of negativity.
At 9:15 am, someone screamed, "Akuma !" on the street outside, followed by blasts of ice tearing through the school. Bad Guy of the Day was yelling about a broken heart, and swearing to freeze everyone to "let their true natures shine through!"
Inside the school, everyone ran. Dodgy excuses weren't needed today—Alya and Nino had run to the forefront, cameras in tow. Adrien had somehow disappeared before Marinette could even come up with a lie, and she ignored the pang in her paranoid little chest that he might not have made it out of the school.
Defeat supervillain first, then find the love of her life and make sure he didn't get hit by one of the akumas blasts. Then again, clearing everything with her miraculous dealt with that problem, so…
Off she went, following the rest of her classmates as they ran out the main entrance of the school. Off into a side alley, calling on Tikki to transform her.
Off into the fray as Ladybug, a quick quip and hard hit announcing her entrance. As usual, Chat Noir managed to appear seconds after her, landing a second blow on the akumatized person.
Beep. "Regroup?" she asked.
Beep. "Sounds like a plawn," he answered, half-grinning.
Mr. Coldhearted had been surprisingly hard to tackle. He'd gotten a good few hits in after the superheroes' initial attack, and soon after Chat's Cataclysm had missed its intended target—Marinette blamed her current luck, or lack thereof—they were reminded that their kwamis needed to recharge.
They went in opposite directions. Marinette silently thanked her parents for shoving a pack of food at her before she left her house ("For breakfast!" they'd said hastily), feeding Tikki half a croissant. The little kwami nibbled tiredly, trying to down the bread as fast as possible. Marinette, for her part, ran in the general direction of the villain, cutting through the alleyways she'd grown accustomed to in her years as the city's protector.
Left here. Down an empty side street with a very confused looking pigeon. Right. Straight. Left again. She counted the blocks mentally, knowing just when to turn and cross the irregular grid. One more ri—
If she wasn't questioning her luck before, she was now. She mentally hoped the stranger she'd accidentally slammed into was averse to mauling people for kissing them without permission. She hoped it was a tourist who she'd never have to see again. Maybe someone planning on moving abroad. Anyone, really. Anyone other than—
"I'm so so—Mari ?"
Kill me, she mentally willed to Iceheart. Just aim at the random idiot down the street and kill me.
Not that Adrien was a bad kisser. Or that she didn't sort of enjoy it. She did. A lot. That's what scared her. Could he have noticed that?
"That was—haha, uh—I didn't mean to—wait, what are you doing here?" he said rapidly. His face was arguably redder than hers; if Adrien Agreste prided himself on one thing, it was being a gentleman. Locking lips with a stranger, accident or not, was not listed under "gentlemanly". Especially when said stranger was one of your best friends. Worse, it was the specific girl causing a whole lot of emotional confusion for him and his not-so-secret love for Ladybug.
Just my luck, he thought. Of all the places…
Marinette was mostly focusing on the fact that he was stuttering. Because of her. Or was it because of this awkward situation? Or both? Or—
A large blast cut into her reverie. Her mind switched to Ladybug-mode. "I was following Alya and Nino. You know how they are," she said with a tense laugh. "Always rushing into trouble. What are youdoing here?"
"I, uh," Adrien stammered, his eyes darting to read the street signs instinctively like a cat in a trap. He recognized the name with a muted grin. "I was going to my house."
"Oh." Marinette furrowed her brows. Adrien mentally noted how cute it looked, before remembering he was in love with someone else, don't do that.
She pointed over his shoulder, the blush finally leaving her features. "But isn't your home that way?"
The unmistakable outline of his mansion was, unfortunately, well within view from their current spot. Oops.
"Home is where the heart is," he whispered thoughtfully, turning to the villain who was still a few blocks away. He didn't see Ladybug yet, so he figured he could backtrack once his friend was out of sight.
(He also didn't notice how Marinette froze up when she heard what he'd said.)
"That's right," he said in full volume, chipper as ever. "I better go. There. Check on my father. Um."
Marinette stared at him with a weird look on her face. Something between herYou have ice cream on your shirt and I know you stole my sketchbook again faces.
"Marinette?"
Another blast. Something in her purse shuffled, reminding her she had a job to do. "Right. Sorry. I'll go, um, find the lovebirds?"
She willed herself to run off, even with the ring of Adrien's words catching up to her as she went. "Marinette! I'm sorry!"
She raised a thumbs up without looking back at him. If she was being honest, the blush had come back with a fervor, helped by Adrien's constant need to be a Good Human™. Marinette ducked into a side street a block away from her new supervillain buddy. If anyone wasn't too busy running away, they might've noticed the faint red light ushering in the arrival of their favorite superheroine.
Adrien had turned to his house, cut through another alley, and checked on Plagg. The kwami nodded, and when the green light faded, only Chat Noir remained.
"Found you!" Marinette said with a huff, running up to Alya and Nino. She and Chat had beaten and cleansed the akuma with a sudden (read: stupid) idea that included an ice cream cart, one of the Eiffel Tower's base legs, and a bunch of highly confused pigeons. They'd parted ways quickly—mostly her fault, honestly, because she was starting to notice a spell of little things that kept adding up in the worst (read: best ) ways possible.
They looked at her quizzically. "You were following us?" Alya asked. "I thought you hated being near the action?"
Well, yes. But I need to keep up my alibi , Marinette thought to herself. She had to run back and forth before actually finding her friends, considering her stamina had gone up considerably over the past few years and she wanted to seem authentic. "He was turning people into ice because they were in love," she offered, hoping that it was enough of an explanation.
They took it with sheepish grins. Nino casually wove his fingers into his girlfriend's. She responded by leaning on his shoulder quietly.
Marinette smiled.
They met at 10 that evening, passing high and low, criss-crossing the city they called home. Chat made every effort to lighten the mood, calling out pun after pun before accepting that whatever was going on in Ladybug's head was obviously not to be remedied by a bad joke and a flirtatious smile.
They'd grown accustomed to patrolling every night. Mostly out of the sheer need to be someone else for a couple of hours. To be free. To a slightly lesser extent, they wanted to be vigilant—that was their job, right?
That was the excuse Marinette gave herself two years ago. Now, if she was being honest, it was because she enjoyed the company. His company. Later on on quiet nights he would bring some snacks to share. They would talk. Joke. Laugh. And then he would flirt, and she would retreat back into herself, remembering to keep that line uncrossed on the off-chance that Adrien would one day reciprocate her feelings.
"Off-chance," she muttered, swinging away and leaving her partner scrambling through rooftops to follow. And the off-chance I'm wrong about this?
Except she wasn't. She knew she wasn't. She'd looked at Chat closely during the fight earlier that day. She'd scanned his face tonight as they'd talked in relative ease, which was right before she abruptly decided to go swinging through the city, and he'd followed because, well, he would follow her anywhere.
Thump. Th-thump. The shy girl in her wanted out of this. It's a bad idea, and if I'm wrong…
I'm not wrong, the strong girl answered. I'm just really, really blind.
They passed Adrien's house. The light in his room was off. That's normal, she thought. Normal people sleep at 10 pm.
It was a failed attempt at curbing her intentions.
They passed her house. Chat wondered why Marinette's room looked so… empty. Didn't she have a project to do with Alya?
Duh, he said to himself. Her house.
Ladybug saw his glance down. At her house. Hers specifically. He knew the girl who lived there. And she knew.
The red and black figure landed, finally, on a plain rooftop. Chat Noir followed her lead. The building's lights were off.
Without missing a beat, he flashed her a grin and spoke. "Have fun with your little game of cat and mouse, my Lady?"
She kept her eyes trained on his ring.
"Er, Ladybug?"
Screw it, she thought, the shy girl defeated. I've messed up one friendship already.
Two steps forward, two arms up, and light tug later, Chat Noir had his face dragged down to the heroine's own, and their lips crashed together.
And thus we return to the sight we had earlier beheld: a frozen black cat and a relieved little ladybug lip-locked on the roof of the Collège Françoise-Dupont. Adrien let his transformation go as they parted, no longer caring about their secret identity rule. Under closed eyes, he saw the dimmed light of Ladybug's transformation as well.
No, not Ladybug . It was—
Marinette stood in front of him with a large smile and shining eyes. "Oh, I hate you," she said with a laugh, looking up at the stars and relaxing for the first time that night. "You silly, silly kitty."
"I love you," he breathed. He couldn't stop staring. Nino was right—he was oblivious. He should've known the reason Marinette and Ladybug had shared so many traits was because they were the same person and I am obviously not ready for university .
"Is that Chat speaking?" she asked jokingly. Her face was red.
"No. Yes. I'm Chat," he answered dumbly.
"I can see that."
"You're Ladybug."
"Only when I'm in costume."
"I love you."
"You love her," she corrected, referring to her alter ego. Her hand tugged at her sleeve.
"No," Adrien said, walking forward. He refuses to look away from her eyes. "I love you. She's in you. I see it everyday. That's why I started to love you, too."
Marinette looked up. "You—"
"I'm serious."
"—are a huge dork," she finished, kissing him again. When she pulled away, she gestured to the both of them. "Also, how are we going to explain… this ?"
"Is there anything to explain?"
"Adrien."
"Marinette."
She frowned. They'd played this kind of game whenever he'd taken something of hers and made her say something nice for it to be returned.
He smirked.
Marinette swore she should've noticed that smirk at least a year and a half ago. She sighed in faux defeat, speaking in an almost monotone voice. "I am beyond relieved that the boy I'm in love with is the same one as the one that I was falling for."
"That wasn't so pawful, huh?" the blonde purred, bringing her close. She groaned at the joke.
Adrien kissed her. "We can tell them absolutely nothing. Walk in and throw a kiss or two when we go to take our seats in class. Real smooth, just like me."
"Oh, kitty. You keep telling yourself that," Marinette answered with a tilt of her head as she transformed again. Adrien followed.
They launched off to a new, unknown destination. Anywhere. Everywhere. "What, you don't think Adrien Agreste is smooth?"
"After the other year's syrup incident? Not entirely." She winked, swinging away.
He deadpanned. "Is that why you stopped stuttering?!"
"Maybe!" she yelled, climbing higher and higher on the Eiffel Tower, the black cat on her heels.
He watched her gracefully make her way to the top, breathing in the night air and feeling the pulse of new energy in his veins. "Ah!" he laughed into the heavens, claws finding their footing in the metal beams. "I will meowver get tired of that sight!"
They holds hands when they enter the classroom, and Chloe screeches something unintelligible. She probably wishes her vacation was cut shorter, as if that could somehow have changed fate.
Alya and Nino go bug-eyed—Adrien's words—and pester them every time the teacher's back is turned. The new couple shrugs it off like it's been common knowledge for ages. The old couple swears some akumatized soul has messed with the time stream somehow, and start low-key scanning social media for any current incidents.
Marinette and Adrien share a look. They'll tell them eventually. If the circumstances called for it. If they absolutely had to.
Probably.
Maybe.
...
Nah.
A/N: hi im literally here to post this One thing because thesis has taken over my life hahahahaha (help me)
also I will be at AX in July
also if anyone from my httyd crew is reading this, I have TOWTF outlined, don't worry. I'm finishing it after classes :'D