Marinette and Adrien briefly discussed their project, arranging to meet up tomorrow and on Saturday to complete it.
Being able to see through Adrien's normally perfect manners and behavior was gradually making it easier and easier for Marinette to converse with the boy. She still needed to talk to Master Fu about everything, but was seriously hoping that she would be able to tell Adrien that she found out about his identity, and maybe even reveal her own identity to him. She didn't want to get her hopes up too much for the latter.
Adrien however, was still very nervous about everything. Marinette was acting normal for the most part, but stuttering significantly less than usual. Normally he would be happy to see Marinette acting more comfortable around him, but in this case, he couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with possibly knowing his identity.
"God, whatever your mom is cooking smells really good" Adrien commented enthusiastically, being reminded of just how hungry he was.
Marinette smiled at Adrien's eagerness. "It should be done pretty soon, let's head down stairs."
The two headed to the dining table, but Adrien stopped. "I'm going to use the bathroom really quick." Marinette simply gave a nod and Adrien went down the hallway to the bathroom. Once the door was shut, Plagg flew out of his pocket with a snarky grin adorning his small face.
"I take it you're not really using the bathroom?"
"No, I'm not." Adrien said shaking his head. "It's about Marinette. That love confession was super weird earlier, she usually doesn't tell me that much personal stuff about herself."
Plagg chuckled and reached for a chunk of cheese he had sitting in Adrien's pocket. "Yeah that was a bit strange. She's usually a babbling mess around you." He shoved the whole thing in his tiny cat mouth.
Adrien looked between Plagg and his pocket with a disgusted expression. "How many times have I told you not to leave cheese in my pocket! That's disgusting."
"Hey, let's keep the conversation about Pig Tails. You can criticize my habits later."
Adrien sighed and sat down on the toilet. Smelling like cheese was the least of his concerns at the moment. "I was the one who asked about Chat, but I didn't expect her to actually tell me her real feelings!"
"Yeah I honestly don't know why you did that. I would have kept my mouth shut about anything having to do with Chat Noir."
"I was curious if she would tell me! I didn't anticipate her getting so personal about it." Adrien groaned and lowered his head into his hands. "I don't know, maybe I'm overreacting… This whole situation is so confusing. If she somehow found out my identity, I really wish she would just be straight and tell me already."
Plagg floated just above his chosen's head, peering down sympathetically at the boy's sullen form.
If he didn't already know Marinette was Ladybug, Plagg was certain he would be just as confused as Adrien. However, he knew Marinette was Ladybug, making it evident based on her behavior that she had truly discovered Adrien's identity… and had a massive crush on him.
It was clear that her confession to Chat Noir just before their Weredad battle was some kind of ruse to distract Chat from discovering her identity. Because of this, Plagg couldn't see any reason that Ladybug would suddenly profess her love for Chat Noir after reacting so badly to them kissing, unless she already had a crush on Adrien and somehow discovered his identity since the events of yesterday.
It was hard watching Adrien go through mental gymnastics with this girl, but he knew there was likely a good reason she hadn't told Adrien yet. He did have to give props to the kid though, he is truly great at pretending like everything is fine in front of other people.
Plagg figured it was time to get serious about the situation. "Pick your head up and start using it kid, let's reason through this."
Adrien looked up to the floating Kwami. "What do you mean?"
"What do you mean what do I mean? We have to start thinking about what we're going to do. You not knowing if she does or doesn't know your identity is a risk and could be dangerous if we dismiss it, so I'm going to tell you what I think…"
Adrien felt at a loss earlier, but Plagg's sudden and surprising interest in his problem was… shocking, and perhaps a smidge hilariously unbecoming of the Kwami.
"Why are you suddenly so serious about this?" Adrien asked with a small grin
Plagg crossed his arms, looking a bit annoyed at the boy's question and growing attitude. "I'll admit- I'm not usually very serious about most stuff, but I've put some thought into things-"
The black Kwami was startled at the sudden burst of laughter that came from his holder. "Oh wow… didn't know you were capable of that." He snarkily interjected, making the Kwami's cheeks turn red at the underhanded jab.
"Look- I'm literally millions of years old kid, and hundreds of times wiser than you will ever be graced to know! You're lucky to even be able to look at me."
Adrien had to clasp a hand over his expanding grin to stifle another laugh, earning him a death glare from the tiny god of destruction, whose fists were now balled up in defiance.
He quickly sensed the oncoming aggression from the small creature, and tried his best to regain his composure. "Ok ok! Jeez, I was just kidding…. I'm listening now."
Soon after Adrien's words, the anger melted from Plagg's form. He still looked extremely annoyed, but continued on. "Now that you're listening, I've began to think that there's a good chance that Marinette really has found out about your identity. I think that her openness could be a sign that she knows you're Chat. You know- some misguided love confession to Chat in his civilian form. Tell me, what did you notice about how she described Chat Noir?"
"Well… she said that he probably lives a restricted life, and uses Chat as a way to be free. She also said that she likes his kindness and compassion for others…" Adrien spoke, thinking back to the conversation that happened just 20 minutes ago.
Before Plagg could say anything, Adrien continued on.
"She is the civilian that I've had the most interactions with as Chat Noir, so she arguably knows me best, but guessing that I have a restricted life did seem oddly specific to me…"
Plagg grinned, thinking that maybe Adrien was starting to realize things more on his own. "On top of that, kind and compassionate describe your sappy personality perfectly!"
" Oh ha-ha" Adrien laughed sarcastically, rolling his eyes at the Kwami's comment. "I don't really think those are my defining characteristics, Marinette is far more kind or compassionate than I ever could hope to be."
"Oh come on kid!" Plagg groaned. "It's clear that the girl was describing you as Adrien. You wouldn't have been chosen as my holder if you weren't those qualities, so it totally makes sense why she would see you that way. I know I doubted it earlier, but I'm really starting to think that she knows you're Chat Noir."
Adrien searched the small Kwami's face, only finding complete seriousness in his expression. It wouldn't be so uncommon for Plagg to be joking in a situation like this, but the intensity of his gaze was actually a little unnerving to the blond boy. Adrien sighed, clasping his hands together with one another.
"Let's talk about this later, I really need to be getting back to Marinette."
Adrien made his way back to the dining room where Marinette and her father were sitting. He took a seat next to Marinette just as Sabine was walking in. She set a bowl of food in front of Adrien. In the center of the table was freshly baked bread.
Adrien looked down at the piping hot dish. It had tofu and other vegetables floating in an orange sauce that had a small layer of bright red oil on top of it. The dish looked just as delicious as it smelled, and he couldn't remember the last time he was this excited for lunch.
Marinette peered over to Adrien who looked about ready to devour his bowl whole. The last time he had come to eat food with them was as Chat Noir, unbeknownst to either of Marinette's parents. She couldn't help but remember back to how ecstatic she was to receive a rejection from Chat, and nervously wondered if his opinion of Ladybug would change if he found out she was Marinette all along.
Adrien noticed her unsure expression. Not wanting to alarm her family, he gently nudged her arm and pulled her from her thoughts. "What's wrong Marinette?" he whispered.
"Oh nothing, just uh- just thinking about our project." She frowned.
Adrien nodded, but couldn't help but feel that Marinette was being bothered by something.
"You sound rather unenthused about that. Am I really that bad of a partner?" He joked with a grin.
She recognized his signature Chat smile and her expression immediately softened. "Oh, definitely not." Marinette said with a smile. "I couldn't have asked for a better partner Cha-"
Marinette quickly stopped that sentence, realizing what she was about to say.
Adrien's eyes widened in disbelief at the girl whose mouth was still hung open.
"Was she about to say Chat?!" Adrien concernedly thought.
Before he or Marinette could say anything, Marinette's mom walked back in from the kitchen with the remaining plates of food.
"I hope it's not too spicy of a dish for you dear, I can get you something else if-." Sabine paused, looking at the two teenagers who seemed as if they had seen a ghost.
"What's wrong kids? Is it too spicy?" She asked.
"Uh no…" He said with a slight shake to his voice. "I haven't actually tried it yet, but it looks really good."
In an instant, Adrien was able to re-collect himself. On the inside however, his mind was a chaos of thoughts. Sweat dripped down the side of his neck. He wasn't one to sweat while nervous, but then again, he didn't usually have reason to be this nervous about something. All he could do was stare at Marinette, who tried her best to act normal at her slip of the tongue.
"Oh no he's probably figured it out, he looked so weirded out by that! There's no way he didn't catch that."
Both simultaneously decided that shoveling their mouths with food was the easiest way to avoid talking.
After a few minutes of complete silence, Sabine and Tom looked to each other in confusion at the two teens who were completely avoiding eye contact with one another.
"Soooo…" Tom started. "How's the project coming?"
Marinette was thankful her dad broke the awkward silence, taking it as an opportunity to act normal again.
"Well, me and Adrien haven't really decided on much yet. We arranged to meet tomorrow and on Saturday to complete it."
"What's the project about?"
"We're supposed to present a literary analysis on two poems of our choice." Adrien added in.
"Oh!" Tom happily exclaimed. "I love poetry! Did you know I wrote your mother a poem when I became engaged to her?" He turned to Adrien. "Son, you should try your hand at writing a little poetry, I bet you could get any girl you want if you romanced her with loving words from the depths of your heart. Maybe even my sweet Marinette!"
"Papa!" Marinette exclaimed, turning bright red in the face.
"Oh no he's doing it again…" Sabine whispered.
Adrien was at a loss for words. "Well, I- Um…" he started, but Tom continued on with his rant.
"You know my daughter Marinette is one of the kindest and most intelligent girls you will ever meet. You'd be lucky to have her." He said. Marinette just covered her face and waited for her dad's ranting to be over.
"Sir… are you asking me to marry your daughter?" Adrien asked, wide eyed. He flashed back to the night Marinette's father got akumatized and how similar these situations were. Of course, her parents didn't know Adrien was Chat, but he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in the irony that this was the second time this had happened.
"Just put me out of my misery" Marinette muttered.
Sabine kicked Tom hard from under the table before he could respond. "Yowch!" He exclaimed, instantly knowing what his wife's action meant. He thought carefully about his next words.
"Well you know… of course not. I was just using Marinette as an example hee he…" He nervously laughed.
"Well I would say that was a terrible example Tom. Excuse my husband for his behavior."
Adrien raised his hand in reassurance. "It's fine, really." He felt the need to clarify himself right there in front of Marinette's parents, as he didn't want them to ever think he was leading their daughter on. Another Weardad situation was not exactly what he was looking forward to anytime soon, especially as Adrien. "Marinette is a great person, but truly I could only ever think of her as a friend Mr. Dupain." He emphasized.
"Ah that's quite alright…" Tom said a bit deflated.
Marinette's eyes widened a bit at his words as she let them sink in.
"He could only ever think of me as a friend, even if I'm Ladybug?" She questioned darkly, distractedly playing with the remaining food in her bowl.
It both hurt and annoyed Marinette to hear it coming from Adrien's mouth in such a straight forward manor, like it was just so easy for him to decide. She could feel something resembling anger building inside of her.
Marinette looked up. Adrien opened his mouth to speak, but Marinette quickly interrupted him.
"How about we just finish our food? Silence sounds really good right about now." Marinette said, with a little more aggression than she had intended.
Adrien was taken aback by her sudden annoyed words and expression, and everyone at the table looked at her a bit shocked. Her father suddenly had a very guilty expression overtake his face.
"Marinette I'm really sorry if I embarrassed you, I truly didn't mean it."
"No no… it's not you Papa." Marinette said sounding very stressed out. She peered out of the corner of her eye to Adrien, who immediately took notice to the slight eye movement in his direction.
"Oh no It's me" Adrien thought.
Marinette could feel tears prickle in the corners of her eye. She quickly stood up and began making her way to her room.
"I-I'm done eating. I'll be back down soon Adrien." She said with a slight quiver in her voice.
As soon as Marinette left, Adrien and Marinette's parents said at the table awkwardly. No one was really hungry anymore.
Adrien looked over to them. "She left because of me, didn't she?"
Neither of Marinette's parents responded, completely at a loss for what to say.
"Ok I'll just go out and say it then. Marinette likes me doesn't she."
Sabine looked to Adrien with a softened expression in her eyes. "That's not exactly for me to say, Adrien. But if she does like you, I would say the way you let her down came off a bit insensitive. Of course, you wouldn't know if she liked you or not, so don't blame yourself."
But he did know she liked him, he told her so earlier. The realization was painfully obvious now. Marinette knew he was Chat Noir and Marinette was in love with him. He felt like a huge jerk. Why did this feel so different than when he turned her down as Chat Noir?
Adrien stood up from his seat. "No… I had a suspicion that Marinette liked me. You're right, I should have been careful about how I said it. I'm going to go talk to her."
"Be careful with what you say to her, you could end up hurting her feelings even more." Tom warned as Adrien made his way to Marinette. Adrien acknowledged this with a nod and climbed the way up to her room.
He was about to knock on her door, but stopped when he heard Marinette's voice coming from the other side through sobs.