Marinette Dupain-Cheng was not a morning person. Even when she got plenty of sleep, she was grumpy and slow to awaken. When she stayed up late sketching, clearing her mind as she tried to figure out how to show her partner what love really meant, then spent the next few hours tossing and turning as she tried to shut her brain off, she was less than appreciative of a certain black kitty that knocked on her skylight a half hour after dawn, even if he did bring her coffee.
Her parents were already up and working in the bakery, so when Marinette opened her eyes to the persistent knocking overhead, she didn't hesitate to let loose a growl that her partner would have been proud of… had it not been aimed at him.
While he was a little taken aback at the hostile reception, Chat Noir knocked again, this time making sure the cup of coffee was in her line of sight. One eye cracked open, and, although momentarily tempted by the coffee, Marinette closed her eyes and pulled her blanket over her head. Finding her antics amusing, and having zero sense of self preservation, Chat knocked once again. On a groan of frustration, Marinette sat up, opened the skylight just enough to snatch the cup out of Chat's hand, and slammed the skylight closed. Meeting her partner's eyes, she muttered, "Come back in 3 hours and I'll feed you" before setting the cup down and rolling herself back up in her blankets.
She stayed like that until she heard Chat sigh heavily and leap off the roof, heading off into the sunrise. For Marinette, however, the damage was done, and she lay there, now wide awake, as she sipped at her coffee, thinking about the day. She'd finished her history homework, an essay on a historically significant event in the life of Notre Dame, assigned as a tribute to the damaged structure that they had worked so hard to save. Unfortunately, magic was no help in a disaster like that, so she and Chat had fed their fire power-ups to the kwamis, and asked the firefighters how they could help. They had trekked in and out of the building, saving everything that they could until the spire collapsed, and it was deemed too dangerous, even for superheroes. She'd stood watching, hand in hand with her partner, as they'd mourned alongside the rest of Paris.
The homework she had to do with Adrien that morning was her physics. She knew the equations, and what numbers to plug in where, she just didn't understand why. Why those numbers went there, what any of it really meant, or even why Planck's constant was important in the first place!
After homework, they had to go and see Master Fu. Marinette had been meaning to all week, but hadn't made it a priority, and now Tikki was really nagging her about it. She thought that it would be a nice thing to do with Adrien, she wasn't sure if he had ever been to Master Fu's storefront, although she knew they'd met. In the guardian's neighborhood, there was a street market that day, so she thought about taking Adrien there afterwards, just as a way to wander the stalls and spend more time together.
The caffeine was starting to work its magic, and Marinette was humming a Kitty Section song to herself as she got ready. She'd been to several of their rehearsals in recent weeks, helping to design and create costumes for them, as well as acting as an unofficial photographer/videographer, and found herself often humming or singing their songs.
Once she was dressed in a sky blue sundress that matched her eyes, and a navy cardigan, she headed down to the apartment's kitchen to keep her promise to her partner. Switching the music over to Jagged Stone, Marinette sang along as she chopped up the fresh fruit to go along with the crepes she was making for breakfast. She was just placing everything on the table, when he mother called up that she had a visitor, and Adrien appeared at the top of the stairs.
After his less than friendly greeting that morning, he tentatively waved at her, and she laughed, pulling him into a quick hug before stepping back over to the table. "It's ok, Chaton. I'm awake now. I'm so sorry for earlier, but you were so very early, and I just don't do mornings!"
Tikki floated up from where she had been hiding. "It's true. She also stayed up late, worrying about you."
"TIKKI!" Marinette blushed.
"What? You actually growled this morning. It was funny, but he should know why."
Her blush deepening, Marinette said, "I actually growled?" They both nodded. "Oh, Adrien, I'm so sorry."
Plagg joined the conversation, "It was very impressive. If you ever want to switch, I would be proud to be your kwami."
The other three rolled their eyes. "Don't worry about it, Marinette. I've always been up with the sun. I forget that not everyone is. Now that you are no longer looking at me like I ate your hamster, the whole thing is quite funny." Adrien chuckled, rubbing the back of his head with his hand.
Closing the distance between them, Marinette engulfed him in a real hug, laughing softly, her breath on his ear raising the hairs on the back of his neck, and sending warmth flowing though his veins. She released him, but grabbed his hand, pulling him over to the table. "Breakfast, as promised" she said, gesturing at the food she had laid out.
"Wow!" This looks delicious! Thank you Marinette!" Adrien exclaimed sliding into the seat next to hers. As they ate, Marinette filled him in on her plan for the rest of the day, and Adrien eagerly agreed. He was free from lessons for the day, and had been given a little bit of free reign, as long as he was having an "all day revision session" with one of the few friends his father approved of. Not that Gabriel has ever come out and directly acknowledged his approval of her, but Adrien's father had admitted that she was talented, and more often than not let him attend things if he knew that Marinette would be present.
After they ate and then washed up their breakfast things, the pair spread out over the kitchen table to work on their homework. Adrien was a good teacher, and Marinette was finally able to make sense of the concepts her teacher had been explaining. Adrien loved being able to do his homework with a friend, and the time seemed to fly by, as they knocked out their remaining assignments.
It was a warm, clear day, and the teens were happy to be out of the house, strolling in the sunshine. It was only a half hour's walk to Master Fu's shop, and as the pair had nowhere else to be, they enjoyed themselves, chatting and people watching as they made their way through Paris' streets towards the guardian of the Miraculous.
Raising his eyebrows as the pair entered together, Master Fu greeted them with a smile, as Wayzz came over to greet Tikki and Plagg. Marinette rubbed his head, passing along the message that Carapace sent his regards, catching herself from adding "dude" to her sentence.
The three humans sat down, each with a steaming mug of tea, as Marinette outlined what had happened: the Miraculous Cure had worked on the surface, but they'd both had dreams about their partners' true identities. Identities which had been confirmed as true once they sat down to talk about it. They told Master Fu that they were friends as civilians, not being aware that he already knew that, and explained how they had become closer over the past two weeks, even before their identities had been confirmed. Marinette surprised Adrien by telling Master Fu that she wanted to entrust Chat Noir with the civilian identities of Rena Rouge and Carapace, in case there was ever a time that she was unable to come to him, or to deliver their miraculous. The guardian explained that Ladybug had been given the power to select and the knowledge of identities, as she was to be the next guardian, but that he would think about their situation, and let them know.
He went on to explain that while the Miraculous Cure does restore Paris to how it was before Hawkmoth sent out his Akuma, it did not fix everything, as nothing could ever be exactly the way that it was before. There are always small marks left behind. Scars on a healing city. This usually manifests as a car with a flat tire, a broken window, or the unfortunate case of the purple elephant that the last Ladybug had to deal with. While Chat Noir and Ladybug's memories had been wiped clean of everything that happened while they were being chased by Oblivio, some part of their subconscious remained untouched, manifesting itself in their dreams.
Once their tea was over, and their talk wound down, the pair called for their kwamis to join them, and headed out for the street market. They stopped at all the different stalls, checking out a plethora of souvenirs made for tourists, paintings, housewares and stalls overflowing with toys. They decided to eat lightly for lunch, because there were so many other goodies that they wanted to try as they walked around, so they made their way to the food stalls, Adrien picking out a hand held pie, and Marinette choosing a cup of delicious smelling soup. They sat on the short wall overlooking the path along the Seine as they ate their lunch, both freely sharing their food with the other. As they were finishing their food, a few of their classmates approached. Marinette called a greeting to Rose and Mylene, waving them over. They all sat together, chatting about their weekends. Mylene had spent much of it on the Couffaine's houseboat, as Ivan had been there all day Saturday for rehearsal. In fact he was meeting the two girls shortly, along with Juleka and Luka. A quick text from Mylene, told the others where they were sitting, and to come meet them there. Rose was telling everyone how adorable she thought all the yarn-bombed trees looked as the others walked up, carrying food.
Internally, Marinette was in a state of panic. This was the first time talking to Luka since he was akumatized, and she wasn't sure how to handle what he'd said to her. "You're the song that's been stuck in my head since we first met." It was possibly the most flattering thing that anyone had ever said to her, and she definitely liked spending time with him, but she couldn't feel the same way, especially after the past week. She was sure that Luka knew of her love for Adrien. She was fairly certain he'd figured it out on his own, and if not, his sister would have told him.
Her panicking proved unnecessary, however, as neither Luka nor anybody else brought up Silencer, instead they were focused on how colorful things had become with Domiknitrix. When Adrien blurted out that if they thought it was cute, then "She had really pulled the wool over their eyes", Marinette stood up to the sound of her friends' groans, and announced that it was time for them to leave. Still chuckling at his own joke, Adrien followed her.