STORMY WEATHER
Part 1
It was a beautiful, sunny day, straight out of the cover of a tawdry YA romance. The fluff of every angel-white cloud was perfectly coiffed, and the blue of the sky played off the clear water of Paris's scattered fountains like a liquid crystal, the sunlight beaming down at the world as it woke them up at the crack of flippin' dawn.
"Kid, are you sure you aren't emo?"
"I'm not," Adrien huffed, slumping backwards on his pristine white couch, taking in the day with a pout on his face and bags under his eyes from yet another late night akuma. "I'm just saying things as they are."
"Yeah," Plagg threw the last piece of camembert into the air and gulped it down, swallowing it whole, "sarcastically. If I didn't know that you spent all of last night cursing Scarlet Lady's name-" Adrien growled, which Plagg ignored, "-I'd frankly be quite impressed by your entire lack of agreement with today."
"Yeah, well," Adrien grumbled, "maybe you should be impressed I even care about my extra-curriculars at this point. Oh my god, did Nathalie actually book me for Chinese at 9pm? I know she means well but I genuinely want to strangle her right now."
Plagg rolled his eyes. "You said it best, kid." he flopped into Adrien's lap. "So, got any more cheese?'
"I swear if you ask one more time-"
"Adrien?" Nathalie called from outside his door. "You've got-"
"YEAH, I KNOW!" He yelled back, resisting the urge to hiss. More calmly, he said in his most official voice, "Please kindly leave me be, Nathalie. I will be with you in a moment." He turned his eyes back down to see Plagg miming his father, affronted expression and all, and snorted.
"HA! Knew that would would get a smile out of you," Plagg snickered. "C'mon, kid, you've got to go to the picture-taking thingy before today ends. Let's go before my camembert goes off."
"Camembert doesn't go off, Plagg."
"That's because you don't have my delicate sensibilities!" His kwami retorted.
The argument lasted all the way to the limo with harsh whispers whenever nobody was looking.
"Pleeeeeease, Alya?" Marinette begged into the phone, one hand tucked around Manon so she couldn't escape and endanger herself. Again. "Just for today! I mean, you have all those siblings and you're always so outgoing so I hoped maybe-"
"Alright, girl, but you owe me big time. Does this mean I can finally tell Nino the goth dress story?" She inquired, sounding so eager that Marinette could hear her grinning over the phone.
Marinette gasped. "Alya, how dare you, you said you'd never tell!" She whined. Curse her and her big mouth! "Anything but that, Alya."
"Anything?" Marinette could hear Alya wiggling her eyebrows from the other end of the call.
"Anything," Marinette caved.
"Then I want two scalding hot coffees and five of your parent's best croissants," Alya demanded. "And bring them to the park down the street from my place, with the little troublemaker." Marinette groaned. "C'mon, girl. Let me chat with the little miss while you get ready."
With a bit of guilty relief, Marinette passed Manon off to Alya, the young girl immediately becoming enraptured in what was apparently a wild story about unicorn princesses and alternate dimensions. She dodged out to the kitchen just long enough to grab the frankly unhealthy spread that Alya had requested, pouring some of her father's serious business coffee into a pair of travel mugs and stuffing several warmed croissants into a doggy bag. Sighing, she returned to the main room. "Manon?"
The girl peeked up from behind the couch, one ear still pressed to the phone. "Yea?"
"We're going to the park," Marinette said, bracing herself to grab the girl before she could barrel out the door without shoes. Manon dropped the phone and raced up to her, grabbing her leg firmly and refusing to let go.
Once Marinette had said goodbye to Alya and ended the call, she began to drag a rather unhelpful Manon to the park.
Adrien had one word to describe this photoshoot: BORING.
It was plain and uninspired. The fountain was an okay touch, but there was no power in it, no movement, and he was forced to compensate by pulling ridiculous poses. He did not have the energy for this today, and all he could think about just then was how jealous he was that Plagg got to take a cat-nap while he had to smile like his mother had just brought him spaghetti. (He really wished the photographer would stop asking that. It never worked to make him smile.)
"Ugh, no, no, what kind of smile is that?" the photographer growled. "Smile, Adrien, not scowl! Smooth the lines, keep a joyous expression! You'll give yourself wrinkles like that!"
What he needed, desperately, was a distraction.
The photographer glared at the most recent photo and threw up his hands. "I give up, take a break, maybe you will recover enough to give me a proper face afterwards."
Adrien tried not to look too relieved as he dropped away to find Plagg. It took him a few minutes, but he eventually found the little imp hiding in one of the prop cases. Digging the reluctant black feline from it, he gently dropped his friend into his pocket. "Sorry, Plagg," he whispered, "but I need the support, otherwise I am going to glare daggers into that camera and I'll have to do this all over again." Plagg shifted, curling up against him, and Adrien let out a soft sigh.
"Hey, look, it's Adrien. Hey! Adrien!" He turned around quickly, and found himself smiling for the first time that day.
Alya grinned at him, dragging Marinette and a small girl with her. The red-haired girl was making quick progress towards him, and the three girls were accompanied by something that smelled amazing. "Hello, Alya," he greeted her, "Marinette, and who's this?"
"Manon!" The little girl announced, still gripping tightly to Marinette's leg.
"Marinette and I are technically babysitting," Alya explained, grabbing Manon and swooping her up to sit on Alya's shoulder. "Marinette bribed me with croissants."
Ah, so that's where the heavenly smell is coming from, Adrien sighed. "Sounds tasty," he quipped. He blinked solidly to try and get the sleep out of his eyes and not his makeup.
Alya nodded firmly in agreement. "It is!" She paused at something the girl on her shoulder whispered in her ear, and whispered quietly back. "Right. Seems like the Unicorn Princess is needed by the carousel. I'll catch up with you two." That said, Alya vanished.
The silence lasted for a few moments between them. Marinette had two mugs of coffee in one hand and a bag of croissants in the other, and she was nipping her lip as if she wanted to say something. Finally, he couldn't take the silence. "Um, hello," he greeted her again. "H-how are you?"
Good going, Agreste. Can't even talk to a girl without stuttering.
"Oh, I'm good," she murmured shyly. "Alya's a godsend. How are you?"
"Tired," he replied immediately, long before his brain got there. "But, ah, also good. Good." Curse me, curse my insured face, and curse my big mouth.
"Oh! Um, would you like some coffee?" She held out the two mugs.
Adrien felt his face rise before he'd even accepted. "May I?" He asked quietly, glancing briefly towards his photographer. His father would probably kill him if he found out Adrien was drinking coffee, but his father wasn't exactly here right now. Marinette nodded kindly, and he quickly took the mug off her hands, pulling in a sip while he was certain his watchers were preoccupied.
It was still warm edging towards hot, and it scalded his throat in a way he could approve of. It was strong, too, almost black, and he could already feel his eyes popping open. "Thank you," he sighed happily once he gave up trying to chug the whole thing in one go. "I needed that. I woke up too late for breakfast."
Marinette blinked, and Adrien cursed his mouth for the second time that day. It seemed to always want to yammer on when she was around. He felt almost self-conscious as she studied his face.
"Would you like a croissant?" She offered, holding up the doggy bag. It smelled like heaven on earth.
"God yes." At her face, he revised, "I mean, um, yes please." Curse me and my big goddamn mouth.
Marinette, bless her sweet-hearted soul, gave him one anyway. It crumbled slightly under his fingers, flaky yet soft like the best croissants always were. He bit some off and found himself smiling around it. Soft. Buttery. Just a hint of the subtle taste of bread, mixed with care until fluffy and sweet-
"SUMMER'S OVER!" There was a snap, and Adrien found himself on the ground, bowled over by a frigid wind. His croissant - and the angel-sweet Marinette - both fell to the ground. Marinette had a scrape on her arm. His croissant was unsalvageable. His coffee had spilled all over his shirt.
Adrien dropped his coffee and flipped over to see a girl wearing a thick purple skirt. Her face was painted a frankly alarming lavender purple, and most of her outfit was a darker purple which curled around her pigtails and covered her umbrella, no doubt the akuma.
Only Marinette being a few steps away stopped him from getting up and swearing up a storm. "C'mon, we've got to get out of here," he said instead, helping Marinette back to her feet. The two of them turned just in time to see the akumatized girl shoot a beam at the carousel, encasing it in ice.
"Alya and Manon," Marinette gasped softly, and he felt his already foul mood deepen. He knew it was just Hawkmoth taking advantage of someone, but he'd never wanted to punch someone quite that much before. "We can worry about them later," he said reluctantly. "We should get to safety first."
"R-right." She quickly glanced around. "Alya's parents should let us in, let's head that way." That said, she plucked up his hand and began running, sending a reluctant look as they left Alya and Manon behind.
She held Adrien's hand tightly, dragging him along as she led the way. She didn't have time to be polite about it. Thankfully, Adrien didn't seem to have a problem keeping up with her.
The Parisian streets were already abandoned, the routine practice for akumas at this point. It was unlucky that they were so close to the villain herself. Paris was unnaturally silent save for the slap of their shoes on the pavement, and the roaring background noise of a snowstorm in the distance. She pulled Adrien down a left turn, just in time for a blast of wind to race past them, overturning one of the cars.
Marinette winced as the car fell with a resounding crash. "Why is she following us?" She muttered to herself.
"I don't know," Adrien answered, letting go of her hand briefly to quicken his step and match her stride for stride. The two leaped apart when a ball of lightning shot down, dissipating with a sharp buzz.
"GET BACK HERE! YOU HAVEN'T HEARD THE NEWS!" The maddened voice of the akuma called. Adrien shared a glance with Marinette, mirroring her worry-etched face. If they tried to hide with Alya's family now, they'd certainly be attacked.
Then Marinette's eyes turned further, and widened. Her hands went out and pushed him aside, throwing him off his feet and painfully into a bike rack. His eyes followed her gaze and he felt his breath hitch.
A frozen beam of power slammed down where Marinette stood.
A/N:
Oof. I'm rereading the first chapters and I already want to rewrite them, but I'm going to barrel on because I am not going to get stuck on this this early in the writing. That said, writing a convincing AU Adrien is kind of hard because he's normally the Eternal Sunshine Boy (tm). Tell me how you think I did.
Chose Stormy Weather to kick-start our standard issue AU stuff, since it's fairly early and has no direct connections to most of the plots points we need to hit later. I was going to start with Pharaoh but then I realized I'd already placed Lady Wifi before that on my mock-up timeline, so I picked this as my plan B. Hopefully it fits? I'm trying to do this in some semblance of order.
Next time on Marigolds and Catnip: Adrien Agreste Gets His Revenge
Sorry for the long author notes. I put them at the end so you can do a Hard Skip on these things.
Tumblrs to check out for more of this AU: thescuttlebugg, zoe-oneesama and kenechi-nor all inspired this AU heavily, as well as the scarlet lady AU tag!