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"She's coming!" Alix hisses to everyone. Immediately, Adrien and his classmates, dressed in their best casual party clothes, scramble to assemble under the Joyeux anniversaire Marinette! banner. Adrien brushes down his pale green button-up shirt and black pants, then adjusts the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and ruffles his hair, making sure he looks his absolute best and pointedly ignoring Nino's smirk.
He's just in time for Alya to lead a blindfolded Marinette over to them, and his heart does a backflip at the sight of Marinette in a pretty off-the-shoulder pink dress with a chunky black and white belt, her black hair in a loose side plait. He's about ninety-nine percent sure that Plagg would be snickering like a little shit right about now if they weren't around other people.
Okay, so visiting Marinette a few nights a week for the past two months may not have been the smartest idea. Sure, they've both have grown to anticipate the visits, but it hasn't exactly done wonders for his crush on her. If anything, he's only fallen for her even harder after seeing how competitive she can get over video games, and how she sticks her tongue out when she's concentrating on her sewing, and how her smell of strawberries comes from the shampoo and conditioner she uses; a fact he'd learned after she had a quick shower during one of his visits. The vanilla must come from living around bakers, then, unless she's got vanilla-scented soap or body wash – and nope, that's an avenue he does not want his brain to go down, not when he's a teenage boy catching up from years of being sheltered –
"Happy birthday, Marinette!" everyone around him choruses. Adrien blinks and yanks himself out of his head just in time to see Marinette's wide-eyed look of delight as she takes in the party that they've set up for her, thankfully not seeming to notice that Adrien had been a little too preoccupied to remember to join the collective happy birthday.
"Thank you, thank you!" Marinette bounces on the spot. Before his brain even knows what he's doing, Adrien's feet move without his permission and he's pulling Marinette into a hug, trying not to bury his face in her hair like a creep to get a stronger whiff of strawberries.
"Happy birthday," he says when he lets her go. Marinette's answering smile is brighter than the sun.
"Thank you!" she says.
"Presents!" Kim bounds over to the pile of presents like a little kid on Christmas. "Open presents first!"
"Or we could actually party for a few minutes," Alix drawls.
"Presents! Presents!" Rose follows Kim's example, while Juleka just shakes her head and smiles at her girlfriend.
"Then we can party!" Max says. "Opening presents first will heighten the excitement and lead to more enjoyment throughout the rest of the party!"
"Yay! Presents!" little Manon cries.
"How can we deny such a cutie?" Lila says and ruffles Manon's hair, making her giggle.
"Okay, okay! Presents!" Alya announces. Everyone cheers and crowds around the pile of gifts, ready to wade through and find their presents for Marinette until Ivan acts as a buffer and hands out everyone's presents to prevent them from being tossed around and squished. "Let's see…Mylène, you first!"
Beaming, Mylène gives her gift to Marinette, and Marinette gasps and hugs Mylène tightly when she unwraps a book, although Adrien can't quite make out the cover.
"Thanks, Mylène!" Marinette says.
"Adrien next!" Alya says, and Adrien jumps and smile when Marinette looks at him. Before he can give his present, however, something yellow pushes through the crowd.
"How about me next?" Chloé says as Sabrina stops just behind her. No one says anything. "Wow. Hi to you all too."
"What are you doing here?" Nathaniel says. Chloé rolls her eyes.
"I'm nice, remember? Obviously, I've got a present for Dupain-Cheng, even if I wasn't invited to this…uh, lovely little party." She thrusts a small yellow gift at Marinette, who looks just as taken aback as everyone else but quickly recovers. Adrien can't help the small stab of annoyance at being upstaged by Chloé, but he shoves it down with the reminder that Chloé is being nice like he'd wanted.
"Thank you, Chloé!" Marinette says. Chloé rolls her eyes again.
"Sure, sure. Just open it already. I've got places to be."
Chloé's present is a small gold bottle of perfume; Joy, to be precise. Adrien raises an eyebrow. Sure, Chloé's a princess who doesn't do ordinary, but he hadn't expected her to spend that much money on her archrival. Then again, they've been far less hostile to each other lately, so maybe that's changing.
"I've never worn perfume before," Marinette notes, examining the bottle from all angles.
"Of course you haven't," Chloé says. "And there's no way I'm allowing your introduction to perfume to be some cheap, common stuff. Ugh, get off me!" she cries when Marinette hugs her. Adrien can't help but grin at the sight. Maybe Chloé really is changing for the better! But he can't be her friend again until he's absolutely certain that she's genuine; not until he's sure that he's not the only reason she's being nice.
"Here's my present!" Sabrina holds out a thin purple box, which contains a pack of good quality sketching pencils. Her reaction to Marinette's hug is much more enthusiastic, smiling until Chloé pulls her away.
"Okay, okay, fun's over. Come on, Sabrina." Chloé grimaces and says, "Happy…birthday…Dupain-Cheng."
Before Marinette can reply, the sound of singing shatters the air, and everyone whirls around to see a green-skinned woman with vivid red hair and a witchy black catsuit descending on a broomstick-shaped flying motorcycle, accompanied by a faceless woman with dark hair and angel wings. Adrien's stomach sinks; judging from her clothes, the angel woman can only be Sabine Cheng, and one look at Marinette's horrified face confirms his guess.
"La Befana comes at night on her shaky broom in flight! She gives candy to those who are dandy!" The witch woman – Befana – jumps off her motorcycle at the end of her song and approaches Marinette, parting the students around her like water.
"Nonna?" Marinette gasps.
"You lied to your nonna, Marinetta," Befana tuts. Adrien's rooted to the spot, torn between jumping in to protect Marinette and running off to transform. However, when Befana shoots a ray of red light from her gun and only hits Mylène due to Marinette ducking out of the way, Adrien's able to force himself into action. He'll be able to protect Marinette and their classmates far better as Chat Noir than as himself, so he sprints off to hide behind a tree, looking over his shoulder to make sure that he won't get zapped into a crumbly black statue like Mylène.
"We didn't even get in on the buffet!" Plagg complains when he zooms out of the pocket of Adrien's pants.
"Party's over, my friend. Plagg, claws out!"
"It's rude to leave while Befana's still speaking to you!" Befana points her gun at Marinette, who's trapped between her and the fairy Sabine, but Chat Noir lands on one of the speakers and knocks the akuma's aim off with his baton.
"Hey, I never knew grandmas could be so nasty," he quips when Befana looks at him. She tuts and aims at him.
"You would look wonderful in white, my pretty kitty."
Chat Noir jumps out of the way, but only barely misses being turned into a fairy like Sabine. "Eh, not convinced. I'm much more into black – makes my eyes stand out, don't you think?" He resists the urge to wink at Marinette, which turns out to be a life-saving move as it allows him to dodge Befana's subsequent shots and leap up behind a nearby chimney without being distracted.
"Take care of this pesky pussycat!" Befana orders Sabine.
Great. As much as Chat Noir would love to protect Marinette, he can't exactly do that when her corrupted mother is on his tail, tackling him down to the pavement.
"Chat Noir!" she calls. The distress in her voice makes Chat Noir's stomach churn.
"Stay put, I'll be right there!" he calls, dodging Sabine again. Her next attack catches him in his worry for Marinette, sending him flying into a tree. "Uh, soon!"
The worst bit about being a superhero, he decides, is when he's unable to do his job and help people. In the background, he's very much aware of Alya, Kim, and Lila being turned to coal and Rose into a fairy, but he can't exactly do much to save his classmates while he's fending off Sabine. Finally, he catches a break and kicks Sabine away into a tree, then leaps over to Marinette's hiding place.
"Sorry I kept you waiting. We need to find you a better hiding place. Shall we?" He winks and holds out his hand, pulling Marinette to his side when she takes it, although he can't for the life of him figure out why her face is so red when he slips an arm around her waist to secure her.
"You're really calling Dupain-Cheng a spoilt brat?" Chloé's scoff reaches Chat Noir's ears. "Lavillant might be an airy-fairy princess, but she was actually right for once. Dupain-Cheng's so disgustingly nice that she makes me want to hurl."
Huh. Now that, Chat Noir hadn't expected from Chloé. Chloé gets a faceful of fairy ray for her trouble and floats up next to Rose, but Chat Noir can't help but feel that she would think it totally worth it. Anything to sass a supervillain, even in Marinette's defence, and especially because Chloé didn't even cause this one. Really, as selfish and cowardly as she can be, Chloé also seems to have no sense of self-preservation when it comes to the chance to diss an akuma. Probably because Ladybug always ends up saving her in the end.
Speaking of Ladybug, where is she? Never mind. First things first: get Marinette out of here and away from Befana, then focus on where Ladybug could be. With the help of his baton, Chat Noir rises back up to the rooftops with Marinette, then smoothly swings her into a bridal carry as he retracts his baton.
"Marinetta is getting away with the kitty! Catch them!" comes Befana's cry. There's no sound of flapping wings growing louder, so something must have happened to Befana's fairies, but Chat Noir resists the urge to look over his shoulder in case he stumbles and dooms both himself and Marinette.
"You must be a real cool girl if your friends are protecting you like that," he says as he dashes across the rooftops in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. If there's any good hiding place around here, it's there. "Not that I didn't know that already. So, why's your grandma flipping out, princess?"
"I think she wanted me to spend more time with her," Marinette says, her mouth drooping. Thankfully, Chat Noir arrives within baton-leaping distance to the Eiffel Tower at that moment, so he can focus on swinging through a gap in the metal rather than on Marinette's sad face.
"Don't worry," he says when he sets her down on the viewing deck. "I promise to get your real grandma back safe." He bounds over to the railing and hops up on it, then stops and turns back to her. "Oh, I almost forgot. Happy birthday, Marinette. Sorry I didn't get to swing by and give you anything."
"You got me a tour with a view!" Marinette gestures out towards Paris with a grin. "What more could I ask for?"
Chat Noir grins back and salutes, then jumps off the railing and leaps through Paris to find Befana. Not that he needs to look for very long; it only takes a few minutes before he hears her singing, and another moment before he catches sight of her turning an annoyed driver into coal.
"La Befana comes at night on her shaky broom in flight!" the akuma sings. "She gives candy to those who are dandy, and only gives coal to brats with no soul!"
Rolling his eyes, Chat Noir extends his staff across Befana's path so that she crashes into it and goes hurtling through the air, needing Rose and Sabine to catch her before she crashes into the ground.
"Chat Noir comes in to…unexpectedly…" Chat Noir blinks and pauses mid-song. "Uh, how do you make that rhyme?"
He's answered by a red blur landing next to him and singing in a melodic voice, "Fighting evil with his lady!"
"Of course!" Chat Noir grins at Ladybug. "Not bad, bugaboo!"
A purple mask appears over Befana's face and Chat Noir tenses, wondering what Hawkmoth's saying to her.
"You didn't say the magic word!" she scolds. Chat Noir blinks and exchanges a look with Ladybug. "Much better, Hawkmoth. Now!" Befana points at Chat Noir. "You little thief! Where have you hidden Marinetta?"
Chat Noir shrugs. "I forgetta."
Ladybug snickers at his joke. "Watch out or you'll be getting a time-out of your own!" she says to Befana, swinging her yo-yo. Befana just scoffs.
"Take care of these little villains," she orders. While her fairies attack Ladybug and Chat Noir, she races in the direction of the Eiffel Tower, and Chat Noir's heart rises into his throat.
"We can't let her get to the Eiffel Tower! That's where I hid her granddaughter!" he cries.
"Wait, no, she's –!" Ladybug shakes her head and bounds after Chat Noir. He can't help but wonder what she was going to say, but the worry for Marinette that curdles his stomach wins out and he just focuses on getting to the Eiffel Tower and Marinette before Befana does.
Chat Noir wishes he could say that he's surprised when Ladybug's Lucky Charm gives her a tuba after they've tied the fairies up in the Tower elevator, but he honestly can't; not when they've had far weirder. With a nifty use of Cataclysm to disintegrate a fire hydrant and the tuba to send the water gushing in Befana's direction, they manage to trick Befana into turning herself to coal when she tries to shoot the water as it touches her gun.
Miraculous Ladybug sets everything to rights, though, and Ladybug is soon swinging off with a, "Tell Marinette happy birthday from me!" called back at Chat Noir. He waves at her, then turns to Marinette's grandmother, who's still looking rather dazed after shedding her Befana skin.
"Are you okay, Mrs Dupain?" he says.
"Oh, please, it's just Gina," Mrs Dupain – Gina – says. "Where's my Marinetta? What happened?"
"I'll go find Marinette now and she'll be able to tell you everything that happened," Chat Noir says. His ring beeps. "Are you okay to get back to the park by yourself? I'm going to transform back soon."
Gina turns and spots her motorcycle, and she nods and strides over to it. "Thank you for protecting Marinetta, pretty kitty," she says, pulling her helmet on.
"Of course." Chat Noir preens at the "pretty kitty" comment. "You've got a real special granddaughter."
Gina beams. "I know."
Once Gina's speeding off, Chat Noir leaps up the Eiffel Tower until he's on the viewing deck. "Marinette? Where'd you go?"
"I'm here!" says a voice from behind him. Chat Noir turns and can't help but grin at the sight of Marinette unharmed, smiling at him. "Ladybug helped me hide somewhere safer. Thanks for saving Nonna."
Chat Noir bows and kisses Marinette's hand. "My pleasure, princess. Now, let's get you back to the park. You wouldn't want to miss out on your own birthday, would you?"
Marinette giggles and lets him pick her up. He's admittedly a little selfish as they head back to the park, taking a scenic route, but she doesn't seem to mind. It does mean that he has to leave the moment he deposits Marinette back at her party, though, and he doesn't get to tell her that Ladybug said happy birthday; but hey, Ladybug probably already told her when relocating her. Once he's detransformed, he rushes out to join the others and makes up a story about getting hit by Befana in his hiding place.
"Of course you'd be hiding," Chloé scoffs. "It's not like you were in the action like moi. Ladybug would be so proud that I stood up to that tacky akuma."
"She sure would!" Marinette says. "Chloé…do you and Sabrina want to stay for the party? None of us would mind."
Her classmates immediately school their faces into totally neutral expressions.
"Oh, no, of course we don't mind," Alya says with what looks like a painful smile.
"Yeah, you're totally welcome," Alix says through gritted teeth. Chloé smirks around at them, no doubt able to tell that it's causing them great pain to pretend that they don't mind her being there.
"Well, I suppose I can cancel my hair appointment this time," Chloé says. "I'll stay, Dupain-Cheng. It'll be…nice." Her face twists.
"Yay!" Sabrina claps her hands.
"Oh! We never finished opening presents!" Lila says. "I think –"
"Adrien, give her yours!" Rose cries before Lila can finish her sentence.
"Yeah!" Manon squeals. How she avoided Befana, Adrien has no idea; the kid probably has superpowers of her own, for all he knows. Everyone crowds around Adrien, and Rose hands Adrien the small blue box that had been dropped in the Befana crossfire, which he holds out to Marinette. Her eyes widen when she unwraps it and finds a small yellow and green charm bracelet inside.
"I always carry the lucky charm you gave me with me wherever I go, and I think it works pretty well." Adrien's stomach does a flip-flop at the smile that spreads across Marinette's face. "I figured it was my turn to make one for you."
"It's gorgeous!" Marinette tucks it into her purse, taking extra care to make sure it's secure. Then she pulls Adrien into a hug, and he gulps and tries not to spontaneously combust on the spot. "Thank you, Adrien!"
"No Marinette – I mean – no problem," he stammers. Over Marinette's head, he catches sight of both Alya and Nino smirking, and he rolls his eyes at them. For the tiniest fraction of a second, Lila looks downright murderous, but then she's grinning and winking at him and, well, what else can he do but brush it off as a trick of the light? Why Lila would even look so angry in the first place, he's got no idea.
"Hey, stop hogging her!" Alix complains. "We've still got presents to give to her too, Agreste!"
With a laugh, Marinette releases Adrien and turns to Alix. All Adrien can think is that he's so screwed.
Later that night, once the party's over and everyone's cleaned up the park and headed home, Adrien transforms into Chat Noir again and bounds across Paris to a familiar balcony. Marinette's sitting on one of the seats on her balcony, a light on overheard to illuminate her sketchbook as she makes good use of her new pencils from Sabrina. She's still wearing her party dress, but she's put on a white fluffy cardigan due to the slight chill, and she's so radiant in the soft yellow glow that Chat Noir can't help but smile at the sight. She looks up when he lands on the balcony railing, then gives him a smile in return.
"Hey, Chat," she says. "Thanks for saving me today."
"But of course, princess." Chat Noir gives an exaggerated bow. "I'm your knight in shining leather, after all."
Marinette snorts, then gestures to the second chair, which Chat Noir spins around so that he can straddle it in reverse and lean his chin on the back. "I didn't know that you made a habit of checking up on people after akuma attacks."
"I've been visiting you for the past few months, Marinette," Chat Noir says. "And you said I could drop by anytime. I'd say you're a lot more than just "people"."
Marinette's cheeks flush dark, and she bites her lip and ducks her head. Chat Noir's insides flutter at the sight.
"I got you a birthday present," he blurts out. He reaches into one of his suit pockets and pulls out a small black box, then presents it to Marinette.
"You didn't have to do that," Marinette protests, but she still accepts the box and snaps it open. She lets out a small gasp when she sees the contents, and it takes every ounce of Chat Noir's willpower to not preen when she lifts out the silver bracelet as delicately as if she was holding a newborn child.
"It's not much," he says quickly. "And it's not handmade or anything like the scarf you made for m – for Adrien. But I saw it and I…thought you'd like it, especially because you can add more charms to it later…but if it's not your style, I can –"
"How about you shush and put it on for me?" Marinette says, holding out the bracelet. A little silver cat's paw dangles from the chain, inlaid with tiny green gems; really, how could Chat Noir not have gotten it for her? She rolls up the sleeve of her white cardigan, allowing him to lean forward and drape the chain around her wrist, and it takes a few tries of fumbling with the clasp, but he finally gets it secured. Marinette holds up her wrist to examine the bracelet from all angles, the smile back on her face.
"I'm guessing you like it?" Chat Noir shifts in his seat. He's really not good at this whole birthday present thing, after a lifetime of being sheltered and only ever attending parties thrown by Chloé and maybe a few other rich kids. Shopping relatively inexpensively had been the biggest struggle of his life, only because giving Marinette something worth a fortune would've no doubt handed her a big clue as to his identity. Blond hair, green eyes, super rich? Yeah, who else could that be?
"No, I hate it," Marinette says sarcastically. "I generally make a habit of wearing things I hate."
"Fine," Chat Noir sniffs. "I guess I'll just have to take it back. Good thing I kept the receipt."
Marinette rolls her eyes. "Thank you, Chat. It's beautiful."
"Just like you." Chat Noir's blood turns to ice. Did he really just say that? Out loud? To Marinette? The gobsmacked look on Marinette's face confirms that yes, he really did say that out loud. "Damn it. I – uh – didn't mean to say that?"
The corner of Marinette's mouth turns upward. "Don't worry, kitty, I'm an expert in no brain to mouth filter. The things I used to say to Adrien make me want to curl up and die when I think about them now. Um…thank you, by the way."
Chat Noir groans and hangs his head. Fine. He's messed this up, so he might as well go the whole mile and lay his cards on the table for Marinette. She deserves to know the truth, in case she's not exactly okay with a dorky guy in leather having a massive crush on her.
"What's wrong?" Marinette says. "Was it something I said?"
"More like something I said." Chat Noir looks back up at Marinette, then rests his chin on the palm of his hand and attempts to look as casual as possible. "So. I…might…like you? A lot? Just so you know. So…I meant what I said just then. I just…didn't mean to say it out loud."
Marinette's cheeks once again darken in the soft yellow light. "Chat Noir –"
"You don't have to say anything," Chat Noir says quickly. "Seriously. I just…thought I should tell you before I make a bigger idiot of myself than I just did, so you don't sit there thinking "gee, he's acting so weird, does he secretly hate me or something?" And no, I definitely didn't get that from cheesy rom-coms, so you can just shut it –"
"Oh my god, you're such a dork," Marinette says. "Look, Chat…I think I like you? I'm not entirely sure yet. After the whole Adrien thing, my feelings have been a bit…gosh, all over the place. I still love him, even if I'm not stumbling over myself anymore, but I also love you and I can't figure out what that even is yet, so then I worry that it's a rebound thing or whatever, and oh my god, my life is such a mess –"
"Join the club," Chat Noir laughs, cutting off her rambling. It's as though a freight train has been lifted off his shoulders, telling Marinette how he feels and knowing that she has strong feelings in return, even if she doesn't necessarily return his romantic ones. "You don't have to stress, princess. Seriously, take all the time you need. It's just a relief to know that you're not going to utterly reject me."
"Now why would I do that?" Marinette reaches out and ruffles his hair. "That would be animal cruelty. I couldn't possibly abuse a stray cat like you."
"Ha, ha. You know…" Chat Noir pauses, searching for the right words. "In a way, I'm kind of grateful that Ladybug rejected me. Not that I wouldn't have wanted to be with her – she's an amazing girl, I've always thought that since she literally fell for me –"
Marinette lets out a rather unladylike snort.
"– but, well…being rejected and getting lectured by my kwami about not taking her friendship for granted was just what I needed."
"I'm actually kind of grateful that I've stopped trying so hard to be with Adrien too," Marinette says. "Especially after he learned about my crush. We're such good friends now, and I know I wouldn't have done any of this stuff with him before because I would've been too busy choking on my own words to say one thing to him. And even if we do end up together in the future, we've got that solid foundation…you know?"
"Yeah, I think I get what you're saying," Chat Noir says. He looks up at the half moon in the night sky, then sighs and swings himself out of his seat. "I should get going. I'll get the third degree if they find that I'm not in bed." He makes a face. "Early morning commitments and all that."
"Gross." Marinette wrinkles her nose. "Sounds like Adrien. He's got another photoshoot on tomorrow morning. I wish I could go and make it less of a drag for him, but my parents actually think that school comes first."
"Lucky girl," Chat Noir deadpans, forcing his laughter under lock and key so that he doesn't have to fumble for an excuse as to why Adrien having early morning commitments too is so funny. He reaches out to take Marinette's hand and kisses the back of it. "Happy birthday, Marinette. And seriously, no pressure about the feelings thing. I'm happy to wait, even if you decide that you don't feel the same way."
Marinette tilts her head and smiles. "Go to bed, kitty. I should sleep too. Although I'll probably still end up late for school." She stands up and approaches him. Before Chat Noir can even process what's going on, she cups his right cheek and stands on her tiptoes to kiss his left cheek. "Thanks again for today."
She opens her hatch and drops down onto her bed, then closes it after one last wave and smile. Chat Noir's left standing on the balcony, blinking again and again as his brain buffers and then reboots itself.
"Holy –" He touches his cheek, then heads for the balcony railing and leaps home in a daze. Even when he's in bed and drifting off, his fingers remain glued to his cheek, where he can still feel the ghost of Marinette's lips brushing his skin.
He is so, so screwed. And judging by Plagg's regular bouts of snickers, the little shit knows it too.