Story corrected by sdd-writes-things. Set at Riposte.
"Adrien, is true that you helped Ladybug to defeat an akuma?" Marinette asked, searching for her inner heroine's courage to manage to talk with the most handsome boy she had ever met, who, by chance, was the best friend of her best friend's boyfriend. It was still hard to make entire sentences in front of Adrien, but she was getting better at it. A little.
He blushed, something that she found curious, since she never saw him like this. He was always so composed, never showing too much emotion. Why had this question affected him so much? She wondered.
"It's not like that," he said quietly. "She is the one who saved me."
Oh, he is embarrassed, she concluded. It made sense; a person as kind and good as him didn't like to receive credit for something that was considered a duty.
"What is your opinion of her?" she asked, curious. She never thought she would have an opportunity to ask to her crush what he thought about her secret identity.
"I, well… She…" Adrien looked lost, for the first time. Marinette got worried, could it be that he didn't like the heroine and was afraid to talk badly of her? She would be disappointed if that was the case. Was it possible that she didn't have a chance with Adrien as Ladybug?
"Are you serious?" Nino interrupted. He seemed to be enjoying the expression of his friend. "Adrien's the biggest Ladybug fan I have ever met!"
Marinette looked, embarrassed, to Adrien. So, he not only liked her, he was a fan? A big fan? She would never had guessed, he wasn't a big fan of many things. It was so strange, the idea of Adrien as her fan and not the other way around. But she was happy, feeling strangely victorious. She had managed to impress Adrien, even if as Ladybug.
"No, I am the biggest fan of Ladybug," Alya corrected, revolted. "I have a blog about her, what does Adrien have?" It was absurd thinking he was more devoted to Ladybug than her.
Marinette observed as Adrien smirked, as if he was thinking about something funny that nobody else had realized.
And Adrien considered the fact the he fought side by side with Ladybug a little more important than having a blog about her. The way he saw it, he knew Ladybug a little better than Alya. Or any other person.
"A sick obsession for her," laughed Nino. "Dude, I can't believe you hid this from the girls all this time. He always goes on your blog, Alya, and talks about Ladybug. Many times, I've seen him stalking her on social networks." He wasn't even a bit reluctant in revealing his friend's secrets.
"Wow, Nino, thank you," grumbled Adrien. "But, well, it's true. I think she is amazing. What she does for Paris, without hesitation... She is very brave. And intelligent. I mean, she seems to be." He corrected himself hastily. "She would be someone very interesting to know." Oh, how he wished to know her behind that mask.
Marinette was charmed. Adrien was complimenting her (even if he didn't know what he was doing)! He was saying he thought she was amazing! And intelligent.
"And you are very interested in meeting her," added Nino. "He has a huge crush on her." This eliminated any doubt left about Adrien's feelings. Alya threw him an ugly look, pointing to Marinette. He shook his head, asking for forgiveness silently.
However, Marinette was far from being sad. How did Adrien have a crush on her? This was getting better than anything she could dream of! Who knew, she could visit him as Ladybug. Say hi now and then… Make him love her forever… She shook her head, trying to clean her thoughts. She couldn't take an advantage of him like that! No matter how good it sounded.
"Okay, I do," said Adrien, defeated. "But I can't help myself, you know? She is so… wonderful." He sighed, whispering the last word.
Nino looked at him, curious. He knew that his friend was crazy for Ladybug, however, he didn't think it was this much. It seemed that his platonic passion had gotten worse. A pity, because Nino really wanted to see Marinette and Adrien together one day – he had started to adore the girl and knew that she was one of the few that would want to stay with Adrien for who he was, not for his fortune.
Alya stared at Marinette, finding her friend's reaction strange. She thought that she would be sad, heartbroken to hear that Adrien had a crush on another girl and one that was practically unbeatable (it was very impossible to be better than a super heroine). But Marinette looked calm and even happy. Could it be that she hadn't processed Adrien's words yet?
Realizing Alya's look, Marinette decided to say something to take out the attention from Ladybug and herself. She searched desperately a subject to talk about until an old memory came back to her mind.
"But I thought that you were more fan of Chat Noir," she asked without thinking, surprising even herself. She blushed when she noticed that everyone was looking at her and explained: "You came to ask about what I thought of him one time…"
"I like him. I think he is pretty amazing too, don't you?" he asked and looked at her seriously. Like the first time that he questioned her about Chat Noir, she had a feeling that the answer was important. She just didn't understand why; if he wasn't a fan of the hero, why did he care?
"Well, he is very brave and talented," she answered. "Maybe a little arrogant, but very funny. I think he has a good heart." She didn't realize how easy it was to talk about Chat Noir, but she had managed to say several phrases in front of Adrien without messing things up. Talking about Chat brought a strange calmness to her.
Adriem was happy with her answer. He wasn't going to lie, the fact that Marinette liked his identity made him happier than he expected. He couldn't explain why her opinion mattered so much, but it was the truth. She was one of the best people he had ever met and to know that she liked him even as Chat Noir meant that maybe other people would accept him for who he really was. Marinette seemed to, at least. He smiled even more.
Marinette smiled back. She didn't understand why Adrien was so cheerful, but she was very happy. She still was in shock a little with Adrien's opinions about her and the fact that he was smiling to her now only made her more excited. He was handsome before, but was even more so now.
"Chat Noir is great," Alya agreed. "But I still admire Ladybug more." Marinette smiled a little, thinking about how offended Chat would be about staying in second place.
Yet, the real Chat Noir didn't care. His lady was amazing and he couldn't blame anyone for preferring her over him. Who wouldn't be impressed by her?
As soon as Nino and Adrien left, Alya used the opportunity to interrogate Marinette about why she wasn't sad with the fact that Adrien liked another girl. Marinette made up hastily that she preferred that he liked a super-heroine over any other girl he could have. She pretended to believe that Adrien didn't have any chance with Ladybug, and Alya accepted it.
A few hours later, the class ended and everyone went home. Adrien and Marinette, though, were still thinking about the unexpected compliments they had received.
"Tikki, did you hear? Adrien has a crush on me!" Marinette told her friend. Both were in her room, relaxing a little.
"That's great, Marinette," said Tikki, for what should have been the tenth time, but she didn't mind. It was so good to see how happy he girl was. "Maybe if you could act more like Ladybug around him, he would fall for you."
"Yeah, I don't think that is going to happen," Marinette said and hid her face in the pillow. Sometimes, she wanted to be braver in her civilian form.
Adrien was pretending to do his homework, as he tried to stop, unsuccessfully, thinking about Marinette's words about Chat. He was distracted by Plagg's voice, who was trying to get his attention.
"What's up?" he asked.
"Why are you so interested in Marinette's opinion about Chat Noir?" Plagg demanded, curious.
Adrien started, not very set on answering something that not even he knew the answer to.
"Marinette is my friend, her opinion matters to me," he said simply.
"To me, it looked like you were interested too much. You don't have a crush on her, do you?" asked Plagg, sounding uninterested. But he smiled when Adrien blushed.
"Of course not!" he denied, way too quickly for it to be convincing.
"Alright, if helps you sleep at night," Plagg replied.
"Plagg!" scolded Adrien. His Kwami was crazy.
"Whatever, boy. You have more cheese?"
Adrien rolled his eyes. He stood and went to kitchen. He didn't know why he listened to Plagg.