(A/N): Hey guys! I know a few chapters ago I announced we were nearing the end, but I'm afraid I have to rescind that for the moment. It seems the story has gotten away from me (again) and as such there's still a bit to go. Apologies to those who are awaiting the ending, and a huge thank you to all who have commented to tell me they don't want it to be over just yet.
I'd also like to shout out to Jen on AO3 whose comments mirror my own opinions quite closely. There hasn't been a full resolution yet, I'm aware, but it is en route.
As always, you guys are the reason I post and very often the push I feel when I think "Oh, I'll just write a few more lines before bed."
Your comments make my day.
Happy reading!
Chapter Twenty Nine
"-sorry! My alarm clock-"
Marinette burst into the classroom at a speed that put her dangerously close to stumbling. She was red from her run and looking highly uncomfortable to have her whole class stop to stare at her. Again. Worse still was the look the teacher was giving her, disapproving eyebrows high on his narrow face.
"This is becoming a habit, Miss Dupain-Cheng."
Marinette lowered her head.
"Yes sir. But my-"
"See yourself to your seat. I think you've disrupted us enough without having to listen to whatever excuse you've concocted this time."
Marinette gave a meek nod, turning with the intention of scurrying to her seat as fast as possible. Ignoring the snickers from her classmates and Chloé's under-her-breath comments about Marinette's life being a state, she made her way past the teacher to the steps. Just as she was passing him, Adrien's hand seemed to slip from the desktop to brush a comforting little mark against her wrist.
Of course Marinette's heart tripped, and so did she, landing with a soft thump and feeling a split second's urge to just not bother getting back up, she was so tired. Chloé and Sabrina found this hilarious, naturally, and Marinette only sighed as she pushed herself back to her feet hastily, before Adrien could even stand up to help her.
"You okay?" Alya whispered as soon as Marinette has slunk into her seat.
"I guess." Marinette replied miserably with a yawn. "I didn't get any sleep at all till almost five and I just wish I'd stayed home."
She yawned again, grinding the heels of her hands against her eyes to try and rouse herself. Alya made a sympathetic noise, forced to face the front again when the teacher shot them a disgusted look. She and Cat- She and Adrien had spent the night talking in low voices about anything and everything they could think of, and she was paying for it now.
Somehow the process had been possible because she'd known he was her partner, but even telling him things she'd already let slip to Cat Noir was… strange. She was still fluttery and nervous whenever she thought of Adrien. At least with Cat the way her heart trembled was balanced by how comfortably herself she could be around him.
Marinette dozed on and off during the remainder of the lesson, earning herself the promise of a note home from the irksome teacher as he gathered his things and left. While they waited on their next teacher to arrive Marinette buried her face in her arms again and tried her best not to whine about how unfair it was that she was so tired all the time.
Surely being a superhero wasn't supposed to be this exhausting?
"So." Alya stage-whispered, prodding her with a pencil. "Anything you'd like to tell us?"
Marinette turned her head so that half of her face was visible to her friends.
"What?"
Really, the grin on Alya's face should have been her first clue. The look on Nino's face, while a lot less aggressively nosey, should still have given her pause. But of course Marinette was sleepy and she didn't see the warning signs until way too late.
"Don't play dumb, you practically knocked us flat, Girl!"
Marinette scrunched up her face in confusion as her brain tried to click into gear. Why couldn't Alya just leave her out of conversations every now and then? She'd had such peace when she was sleepy on her own. But then again, back then she had been dozy because she'd been designing all night, not because of akumas and drama over the identity of her partner and back then she'd only had Nino to check on her.
Not that that had been a bad thing. He was a much more chilled out sort of pseudo-parent. When she was sleepy he would give her a smile and sometimes share his coffee if he'd brought one. It was easy with Nino because if she didn't give a reason he wouldn't force one from her unless he thought it was something serious. And even then he would coax her in his own way.
Alya was a whole other matter.
"Last night!" she demanded, eyes bright and curiously gleeful. "You ran right into us? Ringing a bell?"
Marinette tracked Alya's emphasised hand gestures with mild curiosity.
"Uhm.."
She did remember doing something of the sort, so focused on checking her partner was okay that she wasn't paying attention to where she was running. It was a wonder she'd made it home without getting in the way of traffic. Or maybe she had and just hadn't noticed.
"Sorry?" she tried, unable to work out why Alya was so… excited about it. "Wasn't looking where I was going?"
Alya's grin only widened, and at last Marinette began to get a vague, worried feeling in her stomach.
"What?"
"I think," Alya said in a low voice, leaning closer to her as though to pass on a secret, "that you were too busy getting home to check on… your super-crush."
Marinette pulled away in bemusement, her mouth opening to query her friend's cryptic words before it dawned on her.
Her super-crush.
Alya thought Marinette was crushing on Cat Noir and now she'd seen Marinette racing home, and she must have seen…
Oh dear.
Marinette paled considerably, looking between Alya and Nino slowly, hoping she was wrong. She could feel Adrien's eyes on her and she just couldn't find the courage to look directly at him just yet. Despite their conversation and despite his protests, she still felt uncomfortable with the fact that she had so very wrongly thought him shallow. And worse still, she had treated him so poorly when all he'd done was try to be her friend.
She swallowed, feeling herself begin to fiddle with her pencil and knowing it was a neon sign of her nervousness and yet unable to stop herself.
"Wh-What?"
Alya shot Nino a triumphant look and Marinette just knew she wasn't going to get away from this one.
"The one you're always doodling." Alya prompted her, her gleeful expression turning slightly sly as she winked. "You know… Tall, fair and… good with puns."
Yepp, she was doomed.
"I- Uhhm. I have no idea what y-you-"
"Nett, we know. It's okay, bro. Alya's just being…" he eyed their friend warily. "Alya."
Marinette groaned, hiding her face in her arms.
"Please don't tell anyone." she pleaded. "I don't want to get him into trouble."
Not technically a lie, and playing to Alya's soft nature might just pay off.
"Puhh-lease." Alya snorted with a laugh. "Believe it or not, I can be discreet."
At the three matching, disbelieving looks turned her way she shrugged.
"Well, when it comes to Marinette, I can." She smiled at her dark-haired friend. "I won't tell anyone it was you, Girl. No-one would find out. I just want to know, y'know?"
Marinette peeked up at her suspiciously.
"Know what?"
Alya rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh, as if it should be perfectly obvious and Marinette was being deliberately obtuse.
"Well, two things. Firstly a clarification on your relationship and when you were going to tell us he drops in to visit you in the middle of akuma battles."
Marinette squirmed, her cheeks beginning to acquire that familiar pink tinge.
"I have no idea what you-"
"We saw." Nino interrupted, his curious tone gentler than Alya's, but just as teasing. "He jumped right onto her balcony, Ad. You should have seen it. Man, it was like he'd done it before."
Marinette looked away from his amber gaze as Alya hummed in agreement, her elbow knocking Marinette.
"He was hurt." she tried, forcing one shoulder to shrug. "LadyBug told me she'd sent him to my place because she knew it was away from the battle."
"Why you?" Alya eagerly seized upon the gap in Marinette's speech, cutting off further denials. "Why your balcony? Is it because you're totally in love with him? It is, isn't it?"
Marinette ducked her head, feeling her cheeks burn as she tried to remain cool.
"Alya-" Nino tried, but their nosiest friend was practically vibrating with excitement, and he had no chance of popping her gleeful bubble, so to speak.
"Marinette you can tell us. We won't tell anyone. Look, here's my phone, it's not even on…"
Marinette ignored the device placed in front of her as she tried desperately to think of a way around their current predicament. If she admitted it, Alya would only press her for information, but she couldn't think of a good enough excuse and she couldn't bring Adrien into it without throwing the whole thing up another level on Alya's scale of curiosity.
"He's a friend." she said, truthfully. "I- Sometimes he comes over when he needs someone to give him painkillers or something. I guess they know I can keep a secret?"
One glance at Alya told her she maybe had a chance at selling her cover-up, if she was convincing enough.
"He just needed to recover before heading home, and I gave him a glass of milk. No big deal."
Despite the dire air of the grilling she was getting, she was on the verge of giggling at the expression she could see Adrien pulling at her comment about milk. It had always caused such hilarity whenever she had teased Cat about a feline's preference for milk. Now she realised she could do it with Adrien too, and-
"We'll come back to that." Alya told her,. eyes gleaming as she grinned again. "After we've clarified the second thing I want to know."
Marinette had a bad feeling about this one.
"Which is?" she squeaked.
"Who he is!" Alya squealed, catching herself half-way through her sentence when Nino winced, and rapidly lowering her volume. "Come on, Marinette! Don't you think Paris has a right to know?"
Marinette shook her head before she'd even had time to think about it.
"No." she said. "Absolutely not."
Alya looked surprised, as though she hadn't considered that Marinette wouldn't agree, and she looked to Nino for confirmation. He shrugged uneasily, and Adrien shook his head a little when she looked to him. In her haste to convince Marinette she failed to notice that he'd gone very pale, his eyes startlingly green in contrast.
"But Marinette, people want to know! They want to know who to thank for saving them, and if we find out who Cat Noir is, then maybe we can get him to tell us-"
"No." Marinette repeated, her voice quiet but firm. "Their identities are secret for a reason, Alya. If HawkMoth found out-"
"Well, what could he do? LadyBug and Cat Noir would stop him anyway, just like they always do, and-"
"He'd target their families." Adrien interrupted suddenly, a strange blazing in his eyes. "He'd target their friends, their classmates. It would put everybody close to them in danger, Alya, don't you see?"
Alya looked a little less confident as she glanced between her two very serious-looking friends.
"But they'd beat him. They always beat him. I just-"
Marinette shook her head again, sitting up properly and opening her mouth, but Adrien got their first, looking more intense than anyone had ever seen him in his civilian form.
"He'd send akumas after LadyBug's parents." he hissed, his tone so dangerously like Cat Noir's that Marinette was becoming worried he'd get himself caught, even as part of her melted in the face of his obvious concern for her family. "He'd target her friends, the people she loves. You would put her through that just because you want to be the one to tell Paris who she is?"
Alya looked stricken, very quickly losing confidence in the face of Adrien's sudden anger. Nino's mouth had fallen open a little and he looked so thoroughly confused that Marinette felt sorry for him. Secrets were always getting in the way. Marinette felt stuck as though she'd fallen into syrup, her eyes wide as she looked at the boy who cared so much for her and her family. The boy who was so quiet and gentle. In that moment he looked the way Cat did in battle and for a moment Marinette couldn't understand why it was so difficult for her to see them as one person.
"Adrien…"
She reached out for his arm where it leaned against her desk, her fingers gentle but firm as she wrapped them around his wrist. He turned to look at her, and when he did the anger in his eyes was so very clearly washed over with worry that she couldn't stop her heart from skipping and tumbling as she met his gaze.
"She doesn't mean any harm." she told him. "She doesn't want to get people into trouble, she just… She's just curious, that's all."
Alya and Nino watched in astonishment as Adrien deflated under her words, as he seemed to shrink a little. He nodded, suddenly shy and awkward as he looked away from them all. When she was sure he was okay Marinette let go of his wrist, but he left his arm where it was, and her hand came to rest very close beside it. Something that didn't go unnoticed by their journalistic friend.
"Wait, wait, wait."
Alya leaned back from them with curious brown eyes, her mood shifting instantly as a new grin came over her face. Marinette wasn't sure the relief in her system was fully justified as they fell under scrutiny for a whole other reason. She drew her hand back onto her lap, but the damage was done.
"Are you two-"
The classroom door opened and their English teacher strode in.
"Alright class, please open your workbooks to page seventy eight; the prose of Jane Austin."
Marinette busied herself with tugging the book from her schoolbag, trying not to drown in the relief flooding her veins and ignoring the frown Alya was sending her, as well as the elbow that kept poking her side. For the next hour Marinette was more focused than she had been in class for a long time, scribbling down every note and forcing herself to answer questions if only so that Alya couldn't pester her.
When the bell for Interval rang Marinette was out of the classroom like a shot, leaving behind two very confused best friends and a concerned partner.
The rest of the day went by much the same, full of Alya's (now less aggressive) pestering and Marinette's firm refusal to confirm or deny any of the increasingly wild theories the curly-haired girl sent her way.
By the time the relief of the final bell rang out, Marinette was exhausted and craving her favourite cat pillow and her blanket, determined to make a dent in the growing pile of homework that was taking over her life. She dodged Alya and Nino, intent on locking herself in her room and not leaving until she could truthfully say she was a pro-active student once more.
Of course, the second she stepped foot in her room she heard the movement on her balcony, and sighed. Her dismay at interrupted peace was short-lived, however, when the masked face appeared at her window.
"My, my, Milady. Remind me never to bet against you for the 100-metre dash."
