Did you "Cat"-ch That? Tuesdays! – The Evilustrator
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Adrien scowled at Nathanael's back as Ms. Mendeleiev held the boy airborne by the scruff of his shirt. Nathanael looked defeated, even weak, Adrien thought. His eyes narrowed further at Chloe's words and he started to get out of his chair. He subconsciously heard Nino start to rise from his seat next to him, obviously sensing the tenseness Adrien must be radiating.
"Enough! Nathanael, go." Ms. Mendeleiev ordered the orange-haired boy.
Marinette deserves better than this featherweight, Adrien thought smugly. And I am no featherweight.
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From the top of the lockers, Adrien had always been able to see or hear pretty much everything. With his class around him, Adrien opted for just listening; he laid, completely still, on top of one set of lockers, hands lazily clasped over his stomach. Nino was chatting with Rose, Kim was heading out the door, and Chloe and Sabrina talked right next to him. An eyeroll or five might have escaped him as he listened to the stuck-up blond walk all over her "best friend". Though Adrien had known Chloe his whole life and completely understood just how hard it really was to tell the girl "no", he was disappointed in both her and her "friend" at the present tête-à-tête; Sabrina should stand up for herself, but, seriously, Chloe should lay off.
Metaphorical cat ears twitched when a new voice floated through the locker room, headed in Adrien's direction. With a grin he realized it was Marinette. Unfortunately, that was when Plagg decided to make an appearance.
"Why are you up here again?" Plagg wondered, amused by his chosen's odd tendencies. Adrien tried to shush him with a finger to his lips, but the Kwami wasn't having it. Of all the times – !
"Seriously, Kid, this is getting a little weird."
"Would you get down and keep your voice down!?" Adrien angrily whispered. Plagg rolled his eyes and floated defiantly to the edge of the lockers to watch the argument that had broken out below. Now that there was silence from the little black fairy thing, Adrien was able to listen as Marinette told off Chloe. Everyone, including Chloe, started walking out soon after. Marinette followed a moment later, and Adrien heard a shuddering sigh come from the only person who seemed to be left in the locker area. Adrien peeked over the lockers and almost blushed when he abruptly met Sabrina's eyes. She blinked slowly, eyes wide, as if she didn't quite know what to do. Adrien burst into conversation, trying to play off like this was completely normal teenage boy behavior.
"You know," he spoke evenly. "You should go talk to Marinette. She really would be a good friend to you."
Sabrina, though she was puzzled before, looked like she was seriously considering what he said. To seal the deal, Adrien, only a hand and his face from the eyes up poking over the edge of the lockers, pointed to Sabrina and then toward the door Marinette had just walked out of, accenting the pointed gesture with a few darting looks with his eyes. With a sigh and a slight smile, Sabrina waved awkwardly toward Adrien before rushing out toward Marinette.
Adrien breathed a sigh of relief. That could have gone better, but it could have also gone a whole lot worse.
With a drop, Adrien alighted to the ground and jogged to the door. He caught the last parts of Marinette and Sabrina's conversation. Without another moment, he sent Nino a text.
A-Dog: Let's meet up in the library.
A-Dog: For the project.
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Poor Marinette. Adrien really did feel for her as he continually stole glances from behind the bookshelf. She had her hands on her cowering head and looked like she was about to pull out her hair. The other two girls squabbled around her. Adrien sighed and looked around for the first time at the section he had wandered into; he had only picked it because it provided the best "covert" area to spy on – research – a certain, intriguing blue-haired classmate. He didn't really need a book, seeing as 1, he could do the particle physics project without a problem already, and, 2, he already had found a book to check out: 101 Puns and How to Use Them. Smiling to himself, he turned from the thin black book clutched in his arm to really look at the books in front of him before blinking again at the blank covers staring back at him.
There were several copies of each book here, but Adrien couldn't tell what the books were. There were no letters on them, no numbers, no references of any kind. Looking around, confused, a sign posted above the shelves stood out to him as the only answer to where he was. He grinned when he read it: Mystery Section.
Ha..haha…hahahahaha…BAHAHAHA…!
Well played, Madam Librarian.
Adrien would have lost it laughing out loud then if he hadn't heard the cacophonous yelping that was Chloe screaming. Her Gabriel hat had multiplied, the pile sprouting out of nowhere crashing into her head. Adrien glanced quickly around before transforming.
Adrien was about to jump up when a less-sneaky Marinette clambered into the bookshelf right next to him and…transformed. Into Ladybug.
Huh.
Alrighty then.
Well, that transformation sequence was hot.
Chat Noir jumped up to the upper story unseen once Ladybug had dashed away. He bent low, glancing quickly in his book quickly under the topic "Hair" after seeing a giant hairdryer coming after Chloe and then His Lady.
….HAHAHA, perfect.
Chat set the book down in a secret spot so no one else would be able to check it out before he could come back to it, then joined in the fray happening below him.
"I got wind that you were being blown away by a hairy situation."
Snigger.
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Once it was clear that the Elvis-lustrator had left the building (had to, sorry not sorry), Chat had challenged Ladybug to a race to Chloe's hotel. In hindsight, he should not have ticked off Ladybug any more than she already was. Knowing it was Marinette made sense to how she always reacted to Chloe, but she seemed even more tense after losing to Chat on the way to a place she didn't want to be to help a person who they all knew was probably responsible for the Akuma in the first place, and who didn't care about that fact in the least.
Although, really, it was kind of…funny.
"…Yeah, 'cause you're so adorable," Ladybug tried to mutter under her breath. Chat tried not to snort at her comment. Chloe, however, had a special ear tuned to anything that even resembled a compliment to herself. She shot up to Ladybug with an excited squeal.
"Yeeeeeees! Ladybug just said I'm adorable!"
It was all Chat Noir could do to keep a straight face. But, when the moment presented itself, he couldn't help teasing the edgy bug-girl.
"Looks like somebody's got a fan," he said, a hand on his hip. Ladybug crossed her arms at his comment.
"Yeah. Great."
Oh, wow. She really was taking this hard.
"So what's the deal?" Chat pressed. He knew Ladybug didn't like Chloe, but something seemed to be especially bothering her now. "Why are you acting so weird? C'mon, you gotta admit that having this girl worship you is pretty awesome."
Ladybug didn't respond right away, just picked up a picture Chloe had been scribbling on earlier. Scowling, she nearly growled before dropping the paper down back on the couch. Chat glanced at it: it was the picture of Marinette with a superhero version of Nathanael (that looked mysteriously like the Evilustrator?). There was a curvy mustache drawn on Marinette.
Oh.
"UGH! Seriously?" she spat out, clearly exasperated. With a jolt, Chat noticed she was heading for the balcony they had come in from. "I'm over this. Let's go."
Chat only paused for a blink of a moment. The temptation to split with Ladybug when she called for him was beyond enticing, but he knew they had a job to do, a job that was bigger than petty disagreements and schoolyard grudges.
"Are you kidding?" he shot at her retreating form. "And what if the Evilustrator attacks her again?"
"FINE! You stay! Later!"
"What do you mean, 'Later'?" Was she really serious?
"I mean, you're the one who wants to protect her so you don't need me."
WHAT!?
"So…LATER!"
And with that she was zipping away.
Leaving him alone with Chloe.
"Ahhhh!" Chloe rushed to the balcony, oblivious, waving with two arms at Ladybug's back. "Ladybug! Text me, okay?"
Chat felt more annoyed with the situation with each passing moment. This bad luck thing was going too far now.
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Chat Noir was not going to do Chloe's homework. He sat down with a gruff and seriously contemplated either scribbling all over her paper, doodling poorly-drawn kitties, or just jotting down all wrong answers. Thankfully, a ringing on his baton saved him from anymore of Chloe's cat "jokes". Ugh.
At the mention of protecting another girl, Chat looked down and started at the sudden picture of Marinette flashing a peace sign and an endearing smile. He had to hide the picture from Chloe when she came out on the balcony. Seriously, that girl was getting under his relatively very patient skin.
"What about you?" he asked Ladybug, knowing he had to, at least to cover up his new knowldge, still undecided as to how and when he would let her know that he knew she was Marinette.
"I'm going on…" Ladybug started slowly. Her next words came out in a bit of a forced rush. "…a very important secret mission. I'll catch up with you later. Can you handle this alone?"
Chat scoffed. 'Alone?' Hahaha, nice.
"Ha! Please. It'll be a cinch."
Especially since you'll be there anyway.
He smiled to himself at the whole irony of the situation. Ladybug, as Marinette, was going on a date with an Akuma victim who was a boy in their class who had a crush on her, and Ladybug told her super awesome crime-fighting partner, also her classmate (and her love of her life, winky face) though she didn't know it, that she was going on a secret mission and to protect a girl who was actually her, asking if he would be ok on his own, though he knew that she knew they would actually still be fighting together.
Whew boy, that's a little complicated. He smiled to himself, adding the picture – that was obviously a selfie – of Marinette to the memory of his baton. He'd send it to his actually phone later.
The last thing he heard after bidding farewell to Chloe was her yelling about her presentation.
He didn't look back.
But when he got to Marinette's, he saw Sabrina already talking to the blue-haired girl at the outside doorway to her building. Chat hung back – he did not want to get in between His Lady and another potential argument again today. After Sabrina stalked off, Chat jumped down in her place. Marinette barely blinked at him.
If his little plan that formed in his head on his way over was going to work, he had to distract her and talk and act fast enough she wouldn't be able to pull away fast enough. Chat was looking forward to the challenge, along with the quick reward that may or may not be there at the end.
"Whoa!" he cried when he landed. "I thought I was going to have to save you from that girl's claws. Get it? Claws? Heeey, I haven't even introduced myself." He dropped to his knees after his fast-pace recital, an eagerness there he was trying to hide. A clawed hand reached out and grabbed Marinette's. When he continued, he tried to put every "dreamy" tone into his words that he possibly could. "I'm Chat Noir."
NOW HURRY AND KISS HER HAND BEFORE SHE –
Chat mentally fist-bumped himself at his success. Though Marinette had pulled her hand away directly, he had done it, had kissed her hand, her real hand. It was soft and filled his skin with bubbling happiness. He rode that high through their conversation, trying not to laugh at how she was laying it on pretty thick playing the fangirl. She was absolutely adorable. He could play at this game. He would gladly play at this game.
While he "explained the plan" to Marinette, he posed – model-worthy poses, of course – showing off what hot muscles looked like wrapped in magic leather. It wasn't often he had His Lady as a trapped participant to his antics.
And then, when she turned around for a moment, Chat didn't hesitate in giving her a looksy-over.
Though he had specific hiding spots around the school where he would escape to peek at various classmates or interactions without being caught (sometimes he needed social help and tried to learn by watching…and yes, it was weird, and the irony was not lost on him), Marinette always proved to be the most elusive. Whether he was hiding or (more especially) out in the open, she always seemed to be gone or scurry away suddenly. Some of that made sense now that he knew she was Ladybug – the sudden disappearance, the many bathroom breaks, the lateness – but when she "talked" (lose term, here) to him, she was always a stuttering mess of incoherent blurps.
So, yeah, when he had a chance to "check out" the girl he wanted to more than anyone else, you better believe he would take any and every chance he had to do so.
Suddenly, Marinette forced his attention to return. He had leaned up against the doorframe, wanting more closeness, but now she was really acting the part now, and at her abrupt closeness, Chat nearly lost his cool. Taking a necessary step back to put distance between them, he answered what she had asked him a moment before. It was, he knew, what she had planned on doing anyway.
"Just get that drawing pencil away from him Little Lady. I'll take care of the rest."
With a two-finger salute, he sprinted off.
Toward home.
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Adrien detransformed when he got close to his house. He walked in, ate dinner, feigned a homework assignment to complete, and walked into his room.
Where he realized reality.
And promptly had a slight mental breakdown.
That ended in Plagg throwing a pillow at him before plugging his little Kwami ears and diving into the waste basket.
Plagg was probably trying to stem the 20-minute long "SQQQUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" he was emitting uncontrollably.
MARINETTE IS LADYBUG.
The "SQQQUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" was 100% excitement.
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The rest of the evening went smoothly.
Marinette got the pen.
She threw the cutest hissy-fit Chat had ever seen. With a foot-stamp and everything.
When they were trapped in a box, Chat had a slight panic at being so close to her again and could only stupidly bang against the side with his baton. And then he almost kissed her. And then she was all over while trying not to be held by him. And then he carried her bridal style. And then he ran off so she could transform and he could see her again.
And when he did, she was in a much better mood.
The look she gave him through her spinning yo-yo as she talking about her secret mission in a tone barely about a whisper, that coy smile on her face, made his legs feel like jelly.
Keep your cool, Agreste.
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"And…why are you up here again?"
Adrien tried to ignore Plagg, but, from experience, decided to answer quickly before he really started interrogating.
"Surveillance."
"And this might have something to do with Ladybug?"
Adrien scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"It had everything to do with Ladybug!"
Adrien shifted a bit on top of the lockers, waiting for Marinette to be alone again. As she made to shut her locker, he dropped down, leaning against the locker doors in a wave that he could only describe as "suave".
"Hey!" he said brightly to Marinette.
"BBLLEEAAAAHHHH!" she said back.
"I heard about your adventures with Chat Noir yesterday. Were you scared?"
Pffft. Ladybug. Scared. Hahahaha!
Marinette seemed to be working along the same wavelength. The surprised surfaced in her eyes at his questioning for a mere moment before she jumped into the conversation. Well, at least to the best of her stammering abilities.
"Me!? Scared!? Psh." She flipped a dismissive hand in his directly. "It was a dream…"
Huh!?
"I mean! You're a dream."
SAY WHAT NOW.
"I MEAN! In your dreams!"
Er, uh…yes, please.
Marinette, obviously frustrated with herself, shook her head, placing a steadying hand on her forehead as she closed her eyes.
"Oh…this is a nightmare."
"O…kay…." Adrien said, thinking hard. He'd have to try to get some type of desirable answer another way. He wiggled his fingers, thinking as he spoke aloud. "So! What'd you think about Chat Noir?" he started again, hopeful. "Was he awesome?"
Marinette, he noticed, was comfortable again with this line of questioning. For as much as she stuttered and squirmed around him, Adrien, she seemed abundantly comfortable with him, Chat Noir. Whether this was a good thing or a bad thing, Adrien couldn't decide. On the one hand, he liked the idea that Ladybug was comfortable around her partner, and Marinette was comfortable around her friend (friend, right? Were they friends? Acquaintances at least? Yeah, go with that.) But the fact that he didn't illicit the same reaction as both sides of himself to either side of herself told him that either she wasn't comfortable with Adrien, or she was too comfortable with Chat. If that makes sense.
Adrien mentally shook him from his own confusing thoughts and focused on Marinette's ready answer.
"I mean, sure, yeah," Marinette answered, almost with an eyeroll. Adrien appreciated that the tone she used was not mocking, but matter-of-fact. Like Chat Noir was awesome, and didn't he know that?
(He did know that.)
"But not as awesome as you of course because pffft! Who could be? You're the most awesome of awesome!" Adrien had stared wide-eyed through this linguistic display.
"So…that's a…yes?"
Sweet Mother Hubbard. She likes me!
QUICK AGRESTE, QUIT THINKING ABOUT YOUR FUTURE WITH HER AND DO SOMETHING NICE.
So, quick-thinking, smooth-operating Adrien Agreste looked approvingly at Marinette before nodding and…patting her shoulder in a "ya done good" fashion.
He was lucky no one was in the hall. Plagg was laughing hysterically at the interlude of the most awkward almost-couple in Paris and thankful for once that he got another weird one. Those were the most entertaining, apparently.
Adrien could only take very concentrated, small, quick steps all the way out to his car. Before he forgot about his book in the library. With a grin, he turned on his heel and sprinted with more purpose toward the library, the exercise helping him to recover more rapidly than he thought he would have been able to from his last encounter with Marinette.
He had to get that book.
Marinette – Ladybug – had no idea what would be awaiting her the next time they were together. It didn't even matter if she laughed or pun-ched him in the arm.
A pun was its own reward.
"At first I was intimidated by punning, but it's groan on me."
BAHAHA.
Fin!
(( Good gracious this turned out way longer than I thought it was going to! Haha I regret nothing. I hope you enjoyed this. And that it was worth the 3K words. The ending petered out, but I'm flipperty flippin' tired. Thanks again, and leave a review! I mean. If you want. I won't make you do it. I'm not Hawk Moth. I mean, don't look at my name. Ok. I'll go to bed. Nighty night. (8 ))