A/N: Since I was fourteen, 60% of my year is taken up by k-drama hell. Anybody that's seen a k-drama knows about The Hug. It's awkward, it's aggressive, and most of the time the girl is hopelessly confused, but it's still romantic as hell. Anyway, here's Adrienette doing The Hug.
Also, small time skip.
All Your Love Is Revenge
Ch. 10: I Know You Feel Like You're Mine
Marinette's laughter pierced the night air as he tackled her into the snow. Chat Noir reminded her that they had to be quiet, but his admonishment fell short since he was laughing too. They were surrounded by potential witnesses, only in the park across from her parents' bakery, the only thing keeping them safe was the fact that it was near three in the morning and no one was really awake at that time.
Chat had just wanted her to see the snow as it was only in the darkest hours of the night: white, pristine, and magical. Come morning, pedestrians and traffic would turn it into gray, forgettable slush. It had just started snowing around New Year's, and it was only until now that the snow cover had gotten thick enough that it was worth looking twice at. If the weather stayed as it was for one more week, he'd be able to take her ice skating for their fourth monthiversary. It would have to be on a frozen pond, since he was sure she would only glare him into submission if he tried to convince her to break into an ice skating rink after hours.
Marinette had gleefully agreed to go see the snow with him, and had changed into respectably strong winter clothes before climbing on his back as he propelled them to the park. It had taken about thirty seconds of her admiring the landscape before she knelt to make snowballs and started pelting him with them. He had defended himself, of course - his princess was a fierce warrior princess and didn't need to be treated like a delicate flower - but he didn't have much experience with snowball fights and he was quickly overpowered by the winter games veteran.
So, he tackled her.
"Surrender," he declared, a wide smile on his face.
"Never!" She was still laughing so hard tears were pricking her eyes.
He shook his head so that any remaining frost clinging to his hair would fall on her and smiled as her face scrunched up in response. So cute!
Chat ignored the redundant thought - he was quite aware that Marinette was cute already - and reminded himself that they started school again the next day and it was almost three in the morning. They both needed sleep and it wasn't like he was planning on leaving her any time soon. Step one was getting them both back into her room.
He noted the damp condition of her coat, "We should get back inside. It's my civic duty as a protector of Paris to get you out of these wet clothes so that you don't catch a cold."
"Oh my, how kind of you," her voice was part amusement and part flirtation. "And are you going to help me get warm after you get me out of my clothes?"
Chat burrowed his arms under her, wrapping them around her waist and pulling her closer. "Of course! I don't shirk my responsibilities, Princess, I will keep you nice and warm."
Marinette's hands trailed up his sides, gripping the overcoat she had made and gifted him at Christmas this past year. It was the latest piece in what he liked to call the Chat Noir Christmas Collection. Marinette had given him some sort of winter wear each Christmas since he became Chat Noir. The first time was a simple scarf the same shade as his eyes. The second year was more complex, as it was a beanie designed to allow his cat ears to slip through. The third year was a black jacket with green claw marks on its sides. And then he'd gotten a neon green poncho he regretted he couldn't wear more often.
He loved his collection, even though he knew it wasn't unique to only him. Ladybug had been the one to show up with a coat made by Marinette and informed him she had for something for him as well the first year. Rena and Carapace had received some sort of couples themed green and orange matching scarves, and Queen B owned a pair of gold leg warmers that she wore even though she didn't seem too fond of Marinette for some reason.
Still, he was the only one that had received something each year and it made him feel special. Despite having worked with each of Paris' superheroes at one point or the other, he was Marinette's favorite.
"What are you waiting for, then?" she smirked up at him.
Chat quickly lifted her up off the ground and pulled out his baton. He didn't even chide her for her peals of laughter as they launched up to her room.
Things had reached a weird sort of stasis after that weekend Marinette's parents were away and he had spent most of Sunday with her. After slipping home to prove to Nathalie that he was in his room and then convincing her to let him go hang out with Nino, he had transformed back into Chat and raced back to Marinette. They had spent the day playing video games and watching movies and making out on the couch. She had seemed weirdly insistent on that, not that he was complaining.
Since then, their arrangement hadn't been as frantic as it had been at the beginning. It was still passionate, but there was no longer a voice telling him he was betraying his feelings for Ladybug, or warning him he was manipulating Marinette. It was a steady sort of passion; it was the knowledge that she would be there waiting for him no matter how he messed up. He ignored the voice that told him that was what a committed relationship felt like.
Shut up, Plagg.
Plagg had been calling Marinette his girlfriend since they were in collége, and the fact that the kwami had called Ladybug his girlfriend for just as long sort of weakened his insistence that he was serious this time.
"You're going to burn yourself out," the tiny cat being insisted in his usual blasé tone, but Adrien was sure he was just being annoying like usual.
He didn't fall asleep in class because he was tired, it was because he already understood the concept and was bored! Nino had kicked him hard enough that he saw stars on the shin to wake him up before the professor noticed, so nothing even happened. And later that night he had mentioned the injury and Marinette had kissed the hurt away, which still counted even through the leather.
It wasn't his fault that his life as Adrien Agreste was starting to become busier since his father was finishing his winter clothes line only to start promotion for his spring line. Which meant more modeling jobs for Adrien. His only consolation was that as his modeling job grew more hectic, his akuma fighting job calmed down. Sometimes, he thought Hawk Moth was quite considerate of his day job, he always sent out less akumas at this time of the year.
His days tended to go much the same way: go to school, go to work, get home to cram as much homework as possible in as short a time as possible, so that he could go visit Marinette - which he usually only managed to do every other day, as it was. When he did see her, he did his best to be back home by three in the morning so that he could get a few hours of sleep before he had to go to school again. Except he usually didn't fall right to sleep, he usually found himself tossing and turning in bed or pacing across his room.
Sure, he was exhausted, but it had nothing to do with Marinette. On the mornings after he visited Marinette he would wake up with his muscles aching, but Marinette would show up to class happy as could be. It was obviously all his other responsibilities that were getting to him.
Besides, the pain would almost be worth it, knowing that he was the reason Marinette smiled so brightly.
"Why don't you think of yourself instead of a girl for once?" Plagg asked from his seat on Adrien's desk.
Adrien glared at his computer screen, trying to focus on the literature project he had neglected the entire school year. With everything that was happening, it was easy to push an assignment he had months to work on to the back of his mind. Except now he had a little over a month to do all the work since it was due on the last week of February.
"I'm just worried about you," Plagg admitted, floating over to grasp Adrien's wrist in the simulacrum of a hug. The rare show of affection was so shocking that he focused his attention on the kwami.
"You know I've always thought she was good for you, this Marinara girl-"
"Her name is Marinette, and you know it."
"Whatever. You know I've always thought she was good for you, but this is getting ridiculous. You're going to drive yourself insane going at this pace. At least take some time to relax!"
"I relax," Adrien insisted. That was what his time with Marinette was for. It was the only time he wasn't a model or a perfect student or even a superhero. He was allowed to just be a person with somebody whose company he enjoyed. And it wasn't like they only had sex anymore. They still played video games, they still talked about everything and nothing, sometimes they even got through an entire movie.
The time they saw La Vita é Bella they didn't have sex at all, because Chat was too busy crying at the end, insisting the title was misleading and that life wasn't beautiful at all. Marinette had held him, whispering words of comfort, and then looked for a comedy movie that they watched until Chat was laughing again. By the time that movie was done, it was so late Marinette insisted he get home to sleep.
"If I could change something I would," Adrien admitted. "But I can't just quit school, and I have to obey my father about my job, and I- I need to be with Marinette."
It was strange to admit it out loud. Other than his mother, he had never felt like he needed anyone, and even then, he only felt that way after she was gone. Not even Ladybug had ever made him feel that way. He had spent most of his adolescence wanting to be with her, desperately so. To the point that sometimes he complained about the lack of akumas because that meant he couldn't spend any time with his Lady. But he had never needed to spend time with her like he did with Marinette. It never felt like he wouldn't be able to breathe if he didn't have her in his arms.
How dependent he was becoming was frightening at times, but he never doubted that she would always be there for him. She had been so understanding about the whole LadyNoir picture debacle, that he was sure that even if they broke their arrangement - that is, when they broke their arrangement - and they each found their own partners, they would still have their friendship. Sometimes, it felt like their bond was so strong that nothing in the world could break it.
It was unfortunate that she couldn't be that way with Adrien as well. Maybe it was that Adrien was too perfect, or at least pretended to be. Marinette was loud, and joyous, and did everything with all her energy. There was a wildness in her that responded well to the wildness in Chat. Adrien Agreste, perfect, unflappable son of perfect and cold Gabriel Agreste probably did not fit easily into her life.
"I'm not saying break up with her," Plagg grumbled, releasing his chosen's wrist to glare at him instead. "I'm just suggesting a. . . break."
Adrien glared back. He had seen enough cheesy rom-coms with Marinette to know that "a break" was code for breaking up, and she would know it too. "No."
Plagg growled, "Fine! Destroy your mind and body. Ladybug has enough backup now to do just fine without Chat Noir after you crash and burn."
Adrien flinched at the anger in the cat kwami's voice and felt guilty for ignoring his concern. That was all it was, wasn't it? Plagg cared for him, despite all his snarky commentary and ceaseless teasing, he cared for him as a person and not just as the holder of his miraculous. It wasn't very often that Plagg expressed concern so blatantly, it was usually reserved for when Adrien was at his worst, so that he did so now meant that he actually was worried he may crash and burn.
"I'm sorry, Plagg."
"Yeah, yeah. You just don't want me to keep you from transforming and seeing your girlfriend."
Huh, that was true. If Plagg really wanted to, he could just phase out of the room and stay away when he wanted to transform. The fact that he didn't meant that he still had enough faith in Adrien to trust he could handle it. Or that he believed him when he said he needed it. Either way, it meant he didn't really need to fear the kwami keeping him from transforming.
"She's not my girlfriend," he insisted.
"Oh, you're right. Girlfriend is much too innocent for what you've got going on. Your mate, then."
Adrien blushed at the word. It sounded primeval, but, at the same time, it sounded kind of right. There were good connotations to the word mate, weren't there? It meant protection and providing and comfort as well as sex. It sounded like the perfect descriptor for their relationship, and it was far more elegant than sex-buddy or FWB.
"My mate," he tried the term out and Plagg's eyes widened, startled that he didn't try to protest. Adrien smiled at his kwami, "I'll try my best to take it easier, okay?"
Plagg quirked an brow.
"Only four visits a week!"
Plagg smacked his forehead.
There was very little Adrien could do to improve his friendship with Marinette as Adrien. She was as kind and caring to him as she was to just about everybody she came into contact with. They talked between classes and they shared lunch with Nino and Alya as often as he could, but since his father insisted he eat a carefully curated diet it meant sometimes he had no choice but to go back home.
He would take what he could get, though, now that he had promised Plagg to cut back on his time as Chat Noir. When the teacher announced they would pair up and peer review the first draft of their literature projects, he took it as a sign.
"Nino, pair up with Alya," he whispered, knowing that his best friend would assume they would be together like they always were when they could choose.
Nino huffed a laugh of surprise, and looked a second away from rolling his eyes, but turned to his girlfriend. "Hey, babe, come work with me. It'll be rad."
Alya blinked, "What about Marinette? We always work together."
"She can be with Adrien," he answered nonchalantly.
The blogger looked startled. Her eyes flicked from Nino to Adrien to Marinette back to Adrien before narrowing at Nino for a few seconds. It wouldn't be that weird if he worked with Marinette, would it? They were friends, weren't they? Finally, Alya smiled widely, and it looked almost devious for some reason. "That sounds perfect! Mari switch with Nino, I want some quality time with my boo."
Marinette's eyes widened like a deer in the headlights and she glared at her best friend. Honestly, they were just being rude now! Alya and Nino kept smiling like they had just pulled the greatest prank on Marinette when all they did was make her pair up with him. Her blue eyes narrowed, but she picked up her stuff and switched seats as asked.
"Hey, Marinette, how are you?"
She nodded noncommittally, "Fine."
Behind them, the loving couple giggled and Marinette glared at the air in front of her. "Want to work in the library?" she offered suddenly. A few of the groups had already left the room, the teacher not caring where they worked as long as they were back before class ended.
At least in the library his best friend wouldn't be laughing at him like a traitor!
"Sure, library sounds good."
They found an empty table towards the back of the library and settled in to work quietly, actually focusing on their assignment instead of using the opportunity to gossip like Juleka and Rose were doing a few tables away. Or at least Marinette was focused on her work. Adrien, on the other hand, was staring blankly at her essay, trying to pretend that he didn't already know each and every word of it. He had even helped her on some of it!
She was still stubbornly clinging to her belief that the poem provided a negative view of love and women in general, but at least at this point she wasn't calling the poet a sexist pig. The one time he had tried to defend the poem as romantic, she had glared and declared, "Romance is dead."
Apparently, it had been dead since 1906.
Honestly, she wasn't wrong in her assertion that the robber wasted his lover's death by flying into a blind rage and getting himself killed, but he doubted she understood the highwayman's feelings. She didn't make an effort to understand what he was feeling to make him turn right back around and enter a battle he knew he couldn't possibly win. She didn't know what it felt like to need someone to the point that life wasn't worth living without them like he did. The highwayman, he means.
It was romantic, even if it was tragic. But her essay was well written and had enough scholarly sources to back up her point of view that he knew she wouldn't have a problem writing her final draft.
"You're perfect," she declared suddenly. "I mean, your essay! Your essay is perfect."
Marinette flushed prettily and then, seemingly overheated, pulled off her coat, revealing the cream colored turtleneck she was wearing underneath.
Adrien swallowed heavily, "Really? I kind of did it last minute." As the weather was now cold enough that no one would look twice if she wore turtlenecks and scarves, she had so generously allowed him to go crazy on her neck and upper chest. And he had. He could still remember the way the marks had looked against her porcelain skin when he left that morning.
"Well you can't tell at all," she insisted, tugging at her sleeves. "It's better than mine and I've been working on it since October!"
He forced himself to tear his eyes away from her neck and look her in the eyes. Tried to shut off the voice in his head that had begun a litany of mine, mine, mine, mine since the first time they had sex with the lights on and hadn't ever really stopped. They'd only kept the lights on one other time, not because he didn't trust her, but because he didn't trust himself to not turn her around and force her to look at him. To growl mine into her mouth and have her cry out for Adrien instead of Chat.
"It shows, your essay's really good." He really hoped she didn't recognize the needy strain in his voice.
"Thanks, I had help," she told him easily. And then suddenly seemed to panic, as if worried he would ask after her study partner, "We should get back to class." She hurriedly gathered her supplies and stood so he had no choice but to follow her lead.
Marinette was a blushing, jittery mess as they silently walked back to class. She looked so cute he couldn't help himself. "I don't have any work on Friday, would you like to go see a movie?"
She froze so suddenly that he walked right into her and then jumped away when she seemed to curl in on herself. Her eyes were wide when she turned to him and when her mouth opened only a high-pitched sound came out.
Adrien panicked. He hadn't meant to freak her out! He only meant as friends, only wanted to get her more comfortable around his civilian self. Maybe he should have told her in front of Nino and Alya so that it would be a group outing. He really hadn't thought it through and -
"I'd love to," Marinette interrupted his mental rambling with a soft smile on her face.
"Really?" He couldn't keep the pleasant surprise from his voice. "That's great, I -"
"Oh wait, no, I can't!"
Wow, he's never had a smile drop from his face so quickly before.
"I, I mean, it's not that I don't want to. I'd love to! It's just- I just have a da- I, on Fridays I have a tradition. . . with a friend. We movies watch. Fridays we watch movies! So I can't go out, I need- I mean," she cut off her rambling and took a deep breath. "I already have plans on Friday, but I'll be happy to go to the movies with you on any other day."
It took Adrien a moment to put a semblance of order to her words. She couldn't go to the movies because she already had plans to watch movies on Friday. . . with Chat. She was rejecting Adrien for Chat. Her weekly movie marathons with Chat were important enough to her that she wouldn't go out even though she had said she would like to. He smiled again, much more brightly this time.
He pulled her into a hug and did his best to ignore the way she stiffened in his arms. It was probably weird considering he couldn't really think of a time he had hugged her without the mask, but he couldn't help himself. He was really lucky to have someone like her in his life. "You're a really good friend, Marinette."
Ever so slowly, her arms came up and gently landed on his sides. "You thank. I mean, thank you! You're good- a good friend too."
He really couldn't help himself. Not even Plagg could blame him, honestly. The kwami had only sighed when he asked to be transformed. He knew that if he wanted to keep his promise - and he fully intended to do so - and spend his weekend with Marinette, that he wouldn't be able to see her again as Chat until Friday, but he couldn't help himself. He needed to make sure she knew how much he appreciated her thoughtfulness.
Chat waited on a roof from across the Dupain-Cheng's bakery until it was late enough that her parents would be asleep before crossing over and knocking on her skylight. He barely gave her time to greet him before he captured her lips in a hungry kiss and carried her to the bed. Marinette quickly gave in to his eagerness but had the presence of mind to make him close the shutters before he dropped his transformation.
He was harsher than he was usually was, practically ripping her clothes off her and slipping inside her so quickly he was surprised she was so wet. Clearly, she liked it when he was rough. He'd focus on that fact later, at the moment he could only focus on the feeling of her skin and the way she practically squirmed beneath him.
Distantly, he felt her hands claw a path from his lower back around his waist and to his navel as she peaked. For the first time that night, he quickly decided. He didn't give her time to recover before reaching for her breast and playing with her nipple, and smirked at the way she struggled to keep her moan quiet.
He nibbled on her jaw and he knew he shouldn't, he really did, but he hadn't been able to quiet the voice that kept saying mine, mine, mine, and now mate, mate, mate. He couldn't stop himself from pleading, "Say you're mine."
His hips stuttered for a moment when he realized what he had said. That was crossing a line, he knew that. Friends with benefits didn't belong to each other, that was the point. Marinette didn't think in terms of mates, she'd think he was getting confused as to what it was they had together. His breath caught as he tried to think of a way to explain his words, but then her back arched and she pulled his hair and desperately whispered, "Yours, yours, I'm yours, I'm yours."
And it was the sweetest thing he had ever heard.
The next morning, Marinette had stumbled into class glowing and giggling and pointedly ignoring any of Alya's inquisitive glances. Adrien hadn't realized he had a goofy grin permanently etched onto his face until Nino leaned over and asked, "Dude, is something going on between you and Marinette?"
Adrien quickly disabused him of that notion, because he couldn't risk Nino telling Alya and it eventually getting back to Marinette. He'd just have to better control his emotions, he was a model, he could handle it.
What he couldn't handle was his father.
He hadn't even closed the door before Nathalie called to him, "Adrien, your father would like to speak to you now."
The emphasis was to make it clear that he wouldn't be able to use homework as an excuse to avoid him. Adrien sighed but made his way to his father's office, already knowing what this would be about.
Marinette had never needed to hold back when it came to leaving marks on him, because he had never asked her to. He knew enough about cosmetics to cover up the most obvious of blemishes himself, and his father, at the very least, did not ask him to pose shirtless very often.
Camila Espinoza, the head of his makeup team on the job, and who had been doing his makeup since he was twelve, had only choked back laughter and quickly covered up his hickies when she recognized them for what they were. She made teasing remarks sometimes, especially that one time she had seen scratches on his back, but he accepted it because she didn't report it to his father and it almost seemed like a sisterly thing to do. He trusted the Spanish woman to keep his secrets with nothing more than a twinkle in her eye and the willingly given right to poke fun at him every once in a while.
The problem was that she wasn't the only one on his makeup team, and sometimes she was too busy to do his final touch ups herself.
The problem was that his father had spies everywhere. Occasionally, there were people on his payroll whose entire job was to watch for any supposed wrongdoing in the company and report it back to Gabriel Agreste. Adrien had seen more than one life ruined by his father's whistleblowers exposing behavior he didn't approve of.
Evidently, it was his turn now.
"Adrien," his father's voice was as calm as it always was, but he could still tell he was displeased. "I would like to speak with you."
"Yes, Father?" Adrien's hand twitched to his abdomen, where the marks of Marinette's nails were still noticeable under his shirt.
Gabriel's eyes flicked downwards before drilling back into his. "Do you know why I have insisted that you not enter into an intimate relationship until now?"
Oh, were they going to play word games? Great! Adrien was good at those by now. "Image?" He'd heard the lecture before. Once, when Chloé spread the rumor that they were dating, and again when his father realized he had a crush on somebody, not realizing it was the untouchable Ladybug. "The image of the company?"
"And your safety, as well," his father insisted. "There are many women in the world that would use you for your money and your connections. Most of them would. I don't want you to be hurt because you were. . . seduced by some harlot."
Adrien did his best to not let his anger show. His father didn't know he was talking about Marinette, and if he blew up it would only prove to his father that he was being "corrupted" by some mysterious honey pot.
"I have not been seduced by anyone, Father. Thank you for the concern, but as you pointed out, if somebody was dating the Adrien Agreste it would be all over social media by now."
He did his best to focus on the concern and not the control. His father didn't even stop to wonder if perhaps Adrien was capable of making his own decisions, like he wasn't smart enough to decide if a woman showing interest in him was being sincere or not.
"True enough," Gabriel nodded and Adrien took that as a dismissal. He was halfway out the door when his father spoke again, "Oh, and Adrien, if I find out that you're lying to me, that there is somebody that's taking advantage of you, I will make their lives very uncomfortable."
Well, so much for that friendly date with Marinette.
A/N: I don't really like Gabriel. As a character, he's interesting, as a (fictional) person, yeesh. I don't like that there's a 99.99% chance that he's getting a redemption arc. I don't like that he's portrayed as a tragic figure while teenage girls are portrayed as irredeemable monsters. I wouldn't even like him if he pulled a Vader and sacrificed himself to save his son from an even Bigger Bad.
On a more positive note, Adrien was much more pleasant to write this time! I actually enjoyed it, that showed me.
La Vita é Bella (Life is Beautiful) is a 1997 Italian movie starring Roberto Benigni and Nicoletta Braschi that is one part love story and one part Holocaust story. It's a truly beautiful movie, but it made my entire Italian class cry and our motto for the rest of the school year was "Life isn't beautiful at all."
This chapter's title is (translated) from El Amante (The Lover) by Nicky Jam. The full line is, "Baby, I feel like I'm yours/ I know you feel like you're mine."
Also, watch k-dramas if you haven't, they are a gift to this world.
As always, let me know what you liked, didn't like, and what you thought could use improvement!
~ Destiny's Sweet Melody