Another tumblr prompt, from an anon.

4. kiss away the tears

Just One

This was a bad idea. Adrien landed on the tiny balcony that led into Marinette's apartment and set her on her feet between a hanging basket of flowers and potted bamboo. There she wobbled with the motion sickness that people always tended to get when he pole-vaulted them across the city. When halfway through patrol he had spotted her on the street below, still crying, a full seven hours after he'd gently turned her down as Adrien, he couldn't help himself. It's not like he could have cheered her up as Adrien. She probably never wanted to see him again. But maybe Chat Noir could put a smile back on that face.

Marinette paused halfway through her sliding glass door and turned back to him with a watery smile, and it lanced straight through his heart. She beckoned him inside, and he followed. Helplessly.

This wasn't just a bad idea. This was impending disaster.

"Thanks for taking me home," Marinette said, and he hated how raw her voice sounded. As if she hadn't stopped crying for even a moment since Adrien told her he was in love with someone else. He seriously hated himself right now. "I've had a bad day. Do you want something to drink? I have some some fancy wine if you feel like staying for a bit."

Adrien slid the glass door shut behind him. "Yeah," he offered kindly. "I noticed. Uh…" Was it wrong to stay and have a glass of wine with her when he was the reason she was suffering? Or was it the least he could do? "Wine sounds nice." As she mussed about in the cupboards for glasses and set about filling them, Adrien leaned on the counter and ached over what to say. "So. Who do I have to kill?"

Marinette snorted, and the tears that had been brimming in her eyes tapered off again. That seemed promising. "Please don't kill him," she sighed. "It's just… this friend of mine. I finally told him how I felt today, and he didn't feel the same way. It's okay!" she blurted, seeing the sudden sadness on Adrien's face and misinterpreting it entirely. "I sort of knew, all along. It's really okay. Now I can finally start to get over him, so at least there's that."

The wine was pink and sweet, which bit with a sort of irony that Adrien really didn't want to think about right now.

"You know what I think?" he said, looking around her living room at the half-dressed mannequins and pastel wall art. "I think you can probably do better than that idiot."

Exiting the tiny kitchen, Marinette crossed in front of him and made her way into the living room–only to turn around and face him again, as if she were lost in her own home. "If you think dissing the guy who turned me down is gonna make me feel better…" The intense eyebrow-heavy disapproval faded into something softer as she surveyed him. "It's sweet of you to try. You don't even know me."

Oh, I know you.

"Nonsense," he laughed, and a bit of his wine sloshed onto her counter top. "I've saved you a few times before. Don't you remember?" The surprised blush that spread across her cheeks tickled him. Had he flattered her?

"I remember," she said after a long moment. "I'm just surprised that you do, is all. You save people every day. I really didn't expect that I would stick out from the pile of civilian faces in your memory."

Adrien beamed. He had flattered her!

"If you must know," he went on, "I may have had just the tiniest crush on you back when I was in lycee."

She choked on the wine that she was currently swallowing, and was forced to cross in front of him again to set down her glass, lest she drop it in her coughing fit. "What the hell," she finally spluttered. "You can't just say stuff like that!"

"Why not?" he mused, pleased as all hell that he'd succeeded in his quest to cheer her. After all, what on earth was more uplifting than finding out a superhero used to crush on you? "It was like–" (he counted on his fingers) "–six years ago."

"Wait, you were being serious? Why?"

"Well, yeah," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing. "And I dunno. You were so… un-damsel-in-distress-y. It was badass."

"But? But? I thought you were in love with Ladybug!"

"Well, yeah," he said again. "But I'm not blind. And… I'm human, you know? I was definitely fighting the urge to spiderman kiss you on at least one occasion."

Marinette now had her face down on her arms on the counter, and was grumbling incoherently. "Okay, now I know you're just trying to cheer me up."

"Sure," he laughed. "Of course I am. But I'm also being honest."

That got her to lift her head. He didn't know what to make of the sudden intense look on her face, and definitely didn't know what to make of the sudden return of the brimming tears. Shit, he screwed up again, didn't he? Before he could apologize for making things weird, she sidled toward him, one arm sliding in behind him on the counter to come to a rest at his back.

"If we're being honest," she said slowly. "Then I may have had the tiniest crush on you back then, too."

"R-really?" he breathed. His throat was dry. Why was his throat so dry?

"Uh-huh. I was definitely fighting the urge to pull you in through my skylight on at least one occasion."

"Is that right?" He numbly watched her pull the wine from his hand, some faraway part of him wondering what she was doing as she set it on the counter, and some even farther part of him knowing exactly what she was doing.

"Do you still think about me sometimes?" she asked quietly. "Or was I just a teenage fantasy?"

Oh shit. Oh shit. The blinders vanished and Adrien was suddenly reminded of his 'disaster' premonition on the balcony. She had her fingers on his collar now, and her eyes were wide with anticipation. Too late to abort. He was in too deep. He couldn't turn her down twice in one day!

But…

But she didn't know he was Adrien. And if she never found out…

One kiss couldn't hurt.

"I still think about you," he confessed, and his heart rate spiked as her hand moved to his neck. Her thumb traced his jawline.

"So kiss me then," she whispered, and despite all the logical reasons not to, he did. She responded enthusiastically, the instant his lips touched hers, and threw her arms up around his neck. Her lips tasted of wine, and her tongue even moreso. There was the irony he'd been trying to avoid thinking about, that petal pink sweetness in the wine, that flowery light honey-smooth taste. It tasted like her. Now that he had his tongue in her mouth he couldn't help but make the connection.

When her back bumped into the counter she kept on kissing him, oblivious to the half-finished glass of wine that he accidentally knocked over as he pressed against her. Whether it was his or hers he didn't know. His knee knocked against the lower cabinet between her legs and she bit his lip, gasping in response to whatever he'd just done. Her legs went weak and her arms flew back to find purchase on the counter, to support her weight. The movement immediately sent the other glass tumbling into the sink, where wine splashed up the backside so far that a few pink droplets hit the ceiling.

"Ah… whoops," he said, shakily.

"Crap, I– I better clean that before it stains," she fussed. "This is just a rental, you know."

"I should probably be going anyway," he said as he backed off into the living room. "Kind of abandoned my patrol, there, a little bit."

"Wait," she said suddenly, when his hand was on the sliding glass door. "Will you come see me again?"

No, said Logic. No, no, no.

He glanced over his shoulder at her and Logic stepped out. "Yes."