Wow you guys are loud. (rubs ears) I heard ya...
Now because of all the reviews and PMs begging for this, I have assembled a story I hope will be entertaining and satisfactory. Don't take my previous sarcasm too seriously. I am actually ecstatic that so many of you loved my one-shot and am very excited to write a continuation of the story. I only expected a couple reviews and some favs and follows. Not the slew of notifications that very nearly buzzed my phone off the nightstand.
I would like to say however that this extended story arc may or may not agree with you and if you don't like my direction, I kindly ask you to tone down the malice and take it elsewhere.
That aside, I have a resulting two or three chapters planned to continue this and maybe more to come if I can come up with enough clever humor and plot devices to make it interesting without overreaching.
Enjoy the extension, review, follow and boost my ego. Mwahahaha.
An annoying alarm sounded with its overbearing beeps shocking the system of Adrien into waking. He couldn't very well sleep as he had wished. The prospect of being in a relationship with the lady he had been chasing like the stray cat he felt like sometimes was almost too much for him to handle.
He looked to his side and saw the mussed-up sheets from where Marinette had snuggled with him for a while. They didn't dare let go of each other for fear that one another might fade away as if it were a fleeting dream. Adrien had wrapped his arms around her, while lying on his side, and Marinette had settled on gripping his shirt with both hands together against his chest.
Sadly, all good things come to an end. She had to leave so she wasn't missed from her own home, but they both promised to deal with this more after school.
Adrien stiffened. How should he deal with this now? The relationship basically became well and truly born now, but could he try getting closer to Marinette or work on keeping a distance until she said it was okay to go public?
His train of thought bogged down as question after question slowed down said train as if each resulting inquiry were another car linked to the end. He put a hand to his head, the vessels in it now throbbing with a slight pain as he silently seemed to work himself into a stressful state.
He hoped Marinette was doing better.
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She wasn't.
Marinette swung her way back to her room the previous night, and basically crashed face down in her bed, groaning and moaning about what she was going to do and what she had done.
While being brave in the moment, the sheer memory of everything she had initiated herself and was victim to from Adrien clouded her thoughts and brought renewed blushes to her face that made her feel lightheaded.
She eventually fell asleep from mental exhaustion, waking up not from her alarms, but from her mother shaking her awake. Thankfully, she hadn't missed her alarms by much time this go around, unlike previous days where she would be hours late.
She was in no state for elongated periods of walking and thanked all that was good that she didn't have to walk far to school.
Nearly half an hour later, she was trudging up to the school, in far better spirits after breakfast, but growing stiffer and more nervous at the oncoming interactions with her new boyfriend….
Marinette blushed and giggled a little maniacally to herself as the word sunk in to her own mind. Boyfriend. She had one. Marinette. Marinette had Adrien as a boyfriend and it wasn't a dream.
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Adrien sat rather heavily into his seat, cursing all that existed that his chauffer had to be overly punctual and got him to school earlier than necessary. That cut short his precious extra sleep.
Yawning, Adrien spoke aloud to the empty classroom, "Oh well… might as well take a cat nap." He dared to close his eyes for a second, when he heard a slight groan that wasn't his.
"Even when you're alone, you're still making puns," Marinette jibed sleepily at him.
"I assure you," the blonde started, "that was merely a coincidence." Marinette sat next to him, laying her chin on the desk next to him.
"Sleepy?" she asked, deigning to turn a tentative gaze over to Adrien. He nodded in the affirmative and smirked at her gently.
Even considering all that happened, Marinette still blushed at having her crush and new boyfriend give her such a soft grin.
The Cat in Adrien seemed to surface just a bit and he felt a semblance of renewed energy surge within him, goading him to take advantage of this new opportunity. Scooching closer to the blue-eyed beauty, Adrien gave her a lopsided smirk he had given her a thousand times before as Cat Noir and tilted his head to nuzzle hers slightly.
Whether due to some form of habit or just her sleepy manner, Marinette pushed the blonde off of her and kept her focus forward on nothing in particular. The boy pouted slightly and decided not to push his luck for now.
In silence, the two waited none too long before more classmates showed up. Alya and Nino appeared to have met outside and talked together for a minute or two before entering the room and noticing Marinette sitting next to Adrien.
"Girl, I didn't think you had it in you," Alya whispered in her ear, Marinette's groggy mind clearing now that her breakfast digested and gave her energy, her short almost nap let her recollect what mental capacity she lost, and the obvious bounce to her best friend's step becoming a little infectious.
All of that into account, the bluenette looked over and realized she hadn't thought about it when she sat down next to the blonde model.
Adrien now seemed to have enough mental fortitude to sit up straight and yawned. He looked around, Noticing the furtive glances being thrown their way. He chuckled slightly. FUR-tive.
"Ah… Ah… I guess… I was too sleepy to… to… care where I sat…" Marinette meeped out while touching the tips of her forefingers and throwing Alya a slack grin.
"Hmm… gotta be pretty out of it if you sat next to Adrien without thinking," Alya remarked, guiding Marinette back to her normal seat behind Adrien and Nino.
"Hey dude," Nino greeted his best friend, who was stealing a glance or two at Marinette.
"Hey Nino," the blonde replied with more energy than before.
"Know what that was about, dude?" Nino asked Adrien, pointing a thumb back towards the girls behind him.
Adrien thought about it for a few seconds and really didn't feel like putting any effort into toeing the line with this one, so… all or nothing.
"Marinette and I are dating now," Adrien said simply.
The silence was so still that the blonde wondered if he had gone deaf for a second until….
"WHAT!?" came the collective yell/scream from the ENTIRE class. The poor boy had to clap his hands over his ears at the sheer volume he hadn't counted on hearing.
"Geez…" he started. "No need to blow out my ears with that."
Marinette had a rather peculiar but still wonderfully cute expression, in its own way, plastered on her face. Her pupils shrank pretty small and one eyelid twitched as if it were worked by a bad gear in a clock. Her lips parted slightly in mid gasp and the blush that slowly filled her face made him wonder if he broke her.
No one seemed to focus so much on her though as much as staring at Adrien himself. He did speak the strange phrase that no one expected to hear.
Alya snapped out of her stupor faster than the rest, her inquisitive nature kicking in as she leaned over her desk to smile wide and ask, "How did 'that' happen?"
Marinette snapped back to reality enough to try shushing her friend, not noticing the curiosity of the rest of the class honing in on the two of them.
"Alya, it's not really important right now…" she mewed.
"Not important!" Alya guffawed slightly. "I beg to differ, seeing as you crushed on him for quite a while now." The bluenette clapped a hand over Alya's mouth, trying desperately to silence her. Even Adrien didn't know how long and in depth, as of yet, her crush was on him. The last thing she needed was those remaining few classmates, who didn't make that assumption, knowing that bit of info.
Her pleading gaze made the amber hair girl roll her eyes at her friend and pull the hand from over her mouth.
"You owe me dets later. No negotiations." Marinette nodded frantically, looking to Adrien and Nino respectively. Nino looked as if he wanted to ask something but was interrupted by an almost crazed gasp.
"Adrikins! You must be joking. Tell me I heard wrong." Chloe was standing in the door, Sabrina right behind her looking confused.
"No joke," remarked Adrien. "That wouldn't be fair to my l…. Marinette."
Chloe seemed to take that statement with a grain of salt, not that she likely knew what that meant, and sauntered over to hang off of Adrien.
"But she's so…. Not your type!" Chloe whined.
Marinette dug her nails into her desk as Chloe hung off Adrien, whom looked rather uncomfortable with the whole thing, glancing her way and giving her a strained and slightly fearful look.
The bluenette girl tried to quell the newfound surge of jealousy, that before only annoyed her since she wasn't actually dating her crush at those times, and allowed her boyfriend to deal with it.
It felt achingly slow to her when he finally made the effort to peel Chloe off of him like a bad banana. With the way she dressed, she could very much look like one.
"I think I can tell what my type is for myself, Chloe," Adrien responded to her, with a slight hint of annoyance. "I don't need you telling me who I should like."
"I'll bet this loser brainwashed you," Chloe accused, staring daggers with a pouted lip at Marinette, who rolled her blue eyes.
Adrien smiled gently at Marinette, lightly waving her down.
"I'd watch the cattitude, Chloe, because you might make more enemies than you want right now," he said a little smugly.
Chloe took a look around the room and saw the number of glares bearing down on her. Letting out a condescending huff, the pouty blonde took her seat, mumbling to herself and possibly Sabrina.
Madame Bustier chose the perfect moment to join the room, seeing as all the commotion had died down to leave little trace for her to take a second glance at the class and believe anything occurred. Most everyone forced themselves to mind their own business.
Chloe still glared at Marinette, who herself was bordering between embarrassment and annoyance at Adrien's blunt admission.
Right as the lunch period was starting, Marinette found a moment to tug Adrien away and shove the both of them into a broom closet, poking a finger into his chest.
"Why did you do that?" she whisper yelled. "We haven't even had a chance to talk about that yet."
Adrien smiled softly, making Marinette blush slightly, as was her normal reaction. He was secretly glad that their recent closeness didn't automatically diffuse her normal cute mannerisms around him.
"I was too tired to come up with a good lie," he sighed, "and in your state, I doubt you could handle Alya without getting all the 'dets' dragged out of you."
Marinette scowled in a very Ladybug fashion and puffed her cheeks out as she raised a finger to refute the point, letting out the breath she was holding.
She couldn't believe it, but he was probably right. She wouldn't have relented but she couldn't even come up with a good argument against him in her tired state. It only annoyed her to pieces further to see Cat looking rather chipper and energetic, considering he probably slept as well as she did.
Wait… she just referred to him as Cat. Looking up at her boyfriend, she could unfortunately see why. He had this lopsided, roguish smirk planted on his face. Whether it was a slip-up or intentional, she couldn't let him get too careless.
"Fine," she conceded. "But lay off the Cat Noir personality a bit. Alya already likes to imagine you're him sometimes and I didn't believe it for the longest time."
Looking back up at his face after rubbing her brow, Marinette realized she must have screwed something up. His smile evened out into something that she usually saw and blushed at when it was directed at her.
The problem was that this time, it lacked the life she usually saw in it. His eyes dimmed a bit and Adrien's soft spoken voice bled through the air with a mildly sad undertone.
"Alright," he said, "anything for you, Marinette."
Before she could say something or stop him, the blonde opened the closet and exited as stealthily as he could, leaving it cracked so a sliver of light spilled into the room.
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Adrien tried not to, but he knew that he sulked most of the day until departing for home.
The little conversation earlier may have been short, but it cut deeper than he was sure Marinette realized. They may have confessed to one another, but Marinette still seemed to see Adrien and Cat Noir as separate entities entirely.
He was Cat Noir and Cat Noir was the Adrien he wished he could be. Once he found his lady, he was ecstatic it was someone he already knew. Someone he spent time with and already tried to become friends with. Treating both of them as the same person seemed easy in his mind.
It was so obvious when he reflected upon it. While at first she didn't act like Ladybug, over time Marinette seemed to remind him of his lady and such a revelation as the one last night was a welcome godsend.
Tears tugged at his eyes and he tried to stop them, crinkling his nose and blinking.
He did believe that Marinette loved him, but maybe not all of him. He wondered who he could talk to about all this. Nino? The guy was understanding but he needed a woman's point of view… preferably one who knew Marinette.
A small laugh escaped him as he couldn't resist the joke rising in his throat.
"Alya or nothing."
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A call and subsequent car right later, Adrien waved at Alya as she opened her door to stare at him oddly.
"You didn't really explain what you wanted from me," she stated simply, blocking the door. "Spill."
"Uh… I have… questions about… Marinette," Adrien started carefully. "I knew it would be hard to get answers out of her so I wanted to ask her best friend."
Alya smiled brightly at that.
"Well I can give you plenty of details, Adrien, but you have to return the favor in kind."
"Yeah… yeah. I know," the blonde sighed.
"So, since you are the one who wanted this, I'll let you ask the first question," the amber hair girl remarked, sitting down on the couch and patting the seat next to her.
Adrien stayed standing and mulled over what he wanted to say. He ran through it over and over but now the words were lost to the wind.
"What does Marinette like about me?" he asked after thinking for several seconds.
Now Alya looked confused as she responded, "That's what you wanted to ask?"
Adrien held up a hand and waved her down.
"That's not all. I just… wanted to clarify a few things, please Alya."
"Ok… well she has… had quite the crush on you for a long while," Alya mentioned a little reserved. "She loves how… you're great at fencing, speak Chinese, thinks you're extremely smart, and overall thinks you are very cute. Don't tell her I said all this." Adrien nodded, looking a little solemn. "Basically, she believes you're perfect and if you mention one word of this to her, I will show you all the wrath this woman has to offer." Alya got in his face and waggled a finger.
She was a bit disarmed to see Adrien looking rather downtrodden.
"What's up, Agreste? I just told you she thinks you're perfect."
"I guess," Adrien mumbled.
The girl pushed Adrien down onto the couch and sat next to him, patting his shoulder.
"Ok. Tell me what's wrong? Why did you come here?"
The blonde tensed up a bit as he tried to figure out what to say without revealing his true problem too easily. Now he was regretting his decision to come here.
Marinette, from what Alya just told him, loved him for this…. 'perfect' image that he showed most everyone. All of this stuff was easily looked up on social media or websites pertaining to bios about him. There was nothing in that description about him as a person. And that earlier chastising from Marinette dug in the metaphorical knife when she inadvertently rebuked his other side from surfacing.
Yeah, he knew she wasn't saying it in malice or anything, but that seemed to make it worse and hurt plenty.
"I heard you think I remind you of Cat Noir," Adrien said, peeking over at Alya, who blinked.
"Sure, at one point, and only really in looks, but that ship sailed not too long ago."
"What did Marinette think of that? I promise I have a reason for asking." The blonde model sucked in a breath slowly, waiting for Mari's best friend to remember some details.
"Um… it was something like mentioning putting two opposites together. The thought of you being like him… was too odd to her."
Adrien felt pretty at odds given the new information. Maybe it was difficult for Marinette to see the crime fighting, punny partner as the object of her affection. He wanted… no needed Marinette to love him for more than 'Adrien'.
"What's the little comparison for with that anyways?" Alya pursued.
Something clicked with Adrien as he started to figure out a few things in his own head. Other than Plagg, he had no real confidant to rely on. Sure, there was Nino, but he couldn't spend much time with him outside of school except on limited occasions. Marinette's best friend made an appealing choice since she was so bent on getting the scoop on the crime-fighting duo that maybe this could turn to his benefit.
"I'm Cat Noir," he blurted out.
Alya's face was a mix of potential disbelief and skepticism. It took a few seconds of waiting on Adrien's part before he chose to wave a hand in front of her and….
"I knew it!" Alya shouted. "So, does Mari know? Does Ladybug know? Wait, I thought Cat Noir had a thing for Ladybug… You're not stringing my girl along are you?"
Adrien was prepared for a few of these questions but not so close together…
"Hold up, Alya…" the model pleaded. "You don't think I'm lying or something? Or even have a skeptical view on the whole thing?"
"Are you lying?" the amber haired girl questioned with a smirk.
"Well, no, but…"
"Then I'll keep my reasons for believing you to myself thank you very much," she said, as if it were the last word. "Now answer my questions."
"Fine," the blonde groaned, "Marinette doesn't know, Ladybug doesn't know, I did have a thing for her but It's a bit more complicated ending up with me falling in love with Marinette, and No, I am not stringing Marinette along."
He paused and caught a breath, trying to continue before Alya could bombard him with more questions.
"I'm worried Marinette finds Cat Noir annoying," he divulged.
Alya suddenly looks pensive as she spoke, "What does that matter? It's just your superhero persona, right?"
Seeing Adrien look rather nervous and casting his eyes down, Alya sighed.
"It's more than that, huh?"
"Yeah… It's who I am without the restraints of my image chaining me down. I love making jokes, saying whatever I want without worrying about who cares, and exploring the city that I can barely glimpse from my room. I'm…"
"Free," Alya finished. The blonde nodded solemnly.
"I want to be that way around Marinette, but I'm afraid I'll shatter that 'perfect' image for her and push her away." Adrien sighed again and turned to Alya. "Please keep my identity to yourself… Please. I just need someone to talk to about this and not many people I know come to mind with who I can trust with this."
"What about Nino?" Alya asked with crossed arms. Adrien laughed softly.
"Don't get me wrong, I would love to tell him all this, but I needed a female's perspective." The blonde tapped his chin in thought and added, "Plus, I trust you. You've never really steered Marinette wrong from what I've seen and you're always there for her."
"You got that right!" she confirmed confidently. "And thank you, Adrien… for trusting me. As much as it kills… I won't tell anyone. Even Marinette."
"Thanks, Alya. You're the best."
She crossed her arms again and smiled.
"My advice to you, I guess," said Alya, getting back to the main point, "might be to bring this to her attention. Not the Cat Noir bit, but the insecurities you have about yourself and being who you wish you could. Marinette isn't so shallow that she would fault you for that," Alya averted her gaze and scratched the back of her neck oddly, "even if my previous description may not paint that in the best light."
"It's ok," Adrien comforted, "I kind of knew that but I needed to hear it from someone else."
Adrien took off and exited Alya's house, catching a ride with the Gorilla and headed home.
He couldn't very well visit Marinette this late, so he chose to try waiting it out until the morning. It was the weekend and he could easily find a reason to visit her.
Upon finishing his schedule and school work, the boy chose to take some medicine to help him sleep, instead of working himself into a stressful state again for the second night in a row.
He wasn't sure how much time had passed before he himself passed out. Sleep was a welcome change to the tight feeling in his chest that wouldn't go away until his consciousness slipped away.
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Something disturbed the blissful darkness that allowed him restful sleep.
He tried to ignore it, and rolled over to escape the uncomfortable feeling that tugged at his mind.
More tugging. Distant whispers.
Adrien.
Not now…
Adrien….
Ugh… why can't the voices let him sleep.
Finally, he felt something more than the tugging and was awake enough to know it was someone gently rocking his arm and tapping his shoulder.
Opening his eyes, he groggily looked at the culprit disturbing his much-needed sleep.
Blue, black, and red greeted his view. His eyes snapped open.
"Marinette!" he gasped. Her hand clapped over his mouth as she shushed him.
Adrien looked around and saw the clock nearby. It read 1:12 a.m.
He couldn't help himself and smiled at her.
"Making House calls now, My Lady," he remarked. "A cat call would've sufficed."
Woo... that was fun. I will be officially taking off the Completed tag and letting you guys and gals fidget impatiently for the next update.
Watching the whole series and resulting tidbits that were made on the side, it's scary how close the core story for Adrien matches that of my 15 year old self. I would explain but i wouldn't want to sadden you with the details.
Now then, onto reviews. there was alot of you.
mistyrose224: thank you for the complement. I read your two-shot "The Black Rose" and love the short, sweet, and to the point tale.
Charli2006: I do try to go for cute and thank you very much.
KITTYNOIRFAN: Hope you recover from almost dying. only so i can make more puns.
pinksakura271: Thank you. I'd like to think that neither of their embarrassed reactions to certain sides of them would disappear instantly. and yes, they needed to know they were there... plus i needed something comical to diffuse the steamy situation i created.
96Tsubasa: love all the little hearts and steamy was what i was going for. i like a little bit of sensuality without crossing barriers. Hope you liked the current reactions. Nino's will come though. he hasnt had a chance to get a word in.
Trexfish: thanks you. love the pun. XD
hi: you make some good points. my rendition is basically from my collection of assumptions. Marinette talks about Adrien like he's a porcelain doll of perfection. as much as some like that, i believe Adrien would dislike being viewed like that. he wants to be as human as everyone else. and i think i expanded on Adrien's self esteem issues further here. Marinette on the other hand may wonder about how Adrien views her but as Cat Noir, he only ever complemented how she acted and many qualities that eventually manifested in Marinette near the end of the season. he always expressed interest in who was behind the mask, not the image of the girl wearing it.
Maybe i'm wrong but it was my understanding. thank you for the complements and constructive criticism.
Lila: I took a while trying to come up with a villain that made sense and could play into the story without seeming like it didnt belong to the series. I'm very glad you loved it.
FicsFromAnAnbuNin: I was hoping i did well with everything you mentioned. It was a bit tricky to organize that whole double life thing in my mind and i'm glad you liked how i dealt with the square.
jeswashere: thank you thank you. and i love the joke. sounds like something Plagg would say. XD haha.
Wierdodood116: I'm glad to see you crossing over to review this story as well. i agree its nice when an author you like that does well writes for other fandoms that you also adore.
It is an honor that you think so about my fanfic and I wanted to touch upon the aftermath of a reveal instead of the drama leading up to it. there are some entertaining stories out there to that effect and i wanted to make a new story with a different angle.
Pannydbz: I totally agree. I would expect a reveal between the two would be met with alot of pent up frustration, anxiety, and fear of rejection, laced with an undertone of unrestrained affection that would blow right past but not quite ignore the first three. Plus, i love those moments in romance when someone(s) is struggling with letting go of their mental restraints and going for what they desire. it's those tentative moments that make a good emotional read in my opinion.
Also... i changed the title. Just a bit. I wanted to make it like that in the beginning but wasnt sure if a pun for a title would be met with being taken seriously for story content.
instead of A Joke Too Far Gone, it's now A Joke Too Fur Gone.
Anywho... Until next time my little lovebug fans.