Out of all the days of the year, one particular cat-like being looked forward to April Fools' Day with an unusually strong excitement. Considering the only thing he usually got excited about was cheese, Adrien wasn't sure if he should be worried or not. The toothy grin that greeted him when his alarm sounded on April 1st left him feeling unsettled.
A faceful of water from a rigged tap, getting locked in the closet, and discovering all the underwear in his drawer replaced with a colourful picture of a fish left Adrien irritated while Plagg simply snickered with delight while floating out of reach.
Tearing his room apart proved pointless, other than to fuel Plagg's laughter, forcing him to wear nothing beneath his usual school attire in order to make it to breakfast on time.
7 am and already Adrien was tired of April Fool's Day.
Sitting uncomfortably at the dining table as Nathalie droned on about schedules and plans for the day, Adrien mused about how much cheese he could remove from the kwami's stash in punishment for the feeling of stiff jeans against sensitive skin.
The moment she left, Adrien growled at Plagg. "Where did you hide them?" The cat just grinned smugly. Even the threat of cheese loss didn't knock the smirk off.
Nathalie returned to the dining room, forcing Plagg to slip into Adrien's shirt collar. An order to get his school books sent Adrien running to find his bag. A quick glance inside assured him that his kwami hadn't messed with his books. Phone. Wallet. School books. Check.
"Come on, Plagg. Please. I have school today. Commando is fine for photoshoots but not for class! What if someone notices?"
Plagg snickered in response, leaving Adrien without a clue what to do. That kwami definitely was going to regret this decision at cheese time.
Gorilla waited in the car, grunting in greeting as Adrien slid into his seat with a frown. The car pulled away from the house slowly, leaving Adrien to check on his phone for any messages. A quick glance at his screen made him groan loud enough to get an eyebrow raise from his bodyguard.
Cats. Plagg had changed every single app icon to a picture of a different cat.
It was going to be a long day.
School, at least, started off better than his morning. The over-exaggerated set of morning affections from Chloe. The secret bro handshake with Nino. The sharp-witted comment from Alya. The flailing arrival by Marinette which he barely managed to prevent from turning into a nasty tumble. The soft feeling he got in his chest when she would blush at him for helping. It almost felt normal.
"Too bad you don't have anyone to play pranks on today, bro," Nino drawled, "I got Chris good today. Froze his cereal last night. Totally hilarious." Adrien forced himself to laugh, still annoyed at his own prankster.
Surprisingly uneventful, math class finished without a single prank or sign of Plagg mischief. Adrien felt suspicious, nerves on edge for whatever his kwami might have planned next.
Pulling his books from his bag for science class, Adrien dropped them on his desk before grabbing his phone to see if he could figure out how to change the icons back.
"Dude, what is that?" Nino hissed from Adrien's side. Thinking his friend had caught sight of the cat faces (and one exceptionally unnecessary butt) on his phone, Adrien scrambled to come up with a reason for the change.
"Oh, it's just a-" Looking up at his friend, Adrien realized Nino's eyes were elsewhere. Following his gaze, Adrien found himself staring at his own notebook, tossed carelessly open on his desk. The page, which should have been blank, instead featured sketches of... Marinette?! Hearts of various shades and sizes framed the doodle of her face. Adrien blinked for a moment, stunned by the randomness of the drawing but the feeling that he wasn't completely opposed to it. At least until the subject of the drawing herself came walking into the classroom.
A flush burnt his cheeks as he slammed the book closed with a frantically pleading stare at Nino. His friend simply looked confused, shrugging as he sat back into his seat. Eyes turning back to Marinette, he took in her startled expression at his loud and unexpected action. Trying to ease her, he threw out what he hoped was a casual and friendly smile, despite the fact that he felt a little wild. She smiled back nervously, sliding into her seat behind him.
Adamantly avoiding opening his notebook, Adrien slid it back into his bag, hoping that somehow it landed straight on Plagg's little obnoxious head.
Phones placed on desks and in school bags rattled and buzzed throughout the classroom.
"Akuma!" cheered Alya, already on her feet and rushing out the door to catch the latest scoop. Adrien followed in her footsteps, waving his arms in some pretense of needing to run for safety. Finding a place to hide, he called for Plagg, making sure to glare at his black cat friend before transforming.
Instantly, Chat knew something was wrong. His usually comfortable suit felt… different. A quick glance down revealed what appeared to be a tutu around his waist. Tulle bracelets wrapped his wrists and ankles, the usually sturdy boots on his feet replaced with black satin slippers. His zipper was gone—replaced with a thin black collar that housed the ever familiar golden bell at his throat. He could practically hear Plagg's laughter. There was no way Adrien was going to give his kwami the satisfaction of begging off another of his stupid pranks.
"You think you are hilarious, don't you, annoying little pest? Well, watch me stun the world as Chat Noir with a Tutu."
His feet slipped slightly in the unusual soles of his temporary footwear, but he found himself making his way to where the Akuma wreaked havoc on the city of Paris. Skidding to a halt beside his partner, he posed for a moment with a grin as she stared at him in surprise.
"That's… new," she muttered, poking the ruffles around his middle.
"It's not tutu much is it?" Ladybug's annoyed glare made him laugh sharply. "Plagg decided April Fools' Day would be a great time for a costume upgrade. So I'm proving him right."
The akuma was simple - a man angered by a stupid prank done to him by some youth, armed with a toilet paper gun that covered the city in streamers of white cotton-y soft fabric. Chat simply danced around happily, avoiding getting tangled into the paper shot in his direction, while goofily exaggerating pirouettes and grand jetes. It took every ounce of effort not to let crass jokes roll off his tongue while they found the akuma and freed the butterfly.
Cameras out and people laughing at his silly costume made his day. At least Plagg's inane prank gave the people of Paris smiles. With a wave to the crowd, Chat threw himself up to the rooftops as his ring chirped in warning, Ladybug hot on his tail.
"I hope that Plagg hasn't been too hard on you today. Sounds like he's enjoying April Fools' Day a little too much."
Chat grimaced. "It's been a mess of a morning. He's certainly going all out."
Her hand on his arm made him smile. Taking her fingers in his, he raised them to his lips.
"Of course, not having the chance to share Plagg's antics with you would have made the day pointless." Wiggling his eyebrows, he kissed her knuckles before pulling away to dance on his toes. Another chirp of his ring made him toss her a quick salute before vaulting off the roof with a grin.
At least he had a chance to see her. Any day with Ladybug was a wonderful one, even if it meant being dressed in a tutu.
A quick transformation around the corner from the school led to a wildly laughing Plagg and a mildly cussing Adrien before racing back to the front door. Crashing into Marinette was a completely unexpected event, one that knocked her clean off her feet and onto the sidewalk while he flailed about trying to maintain his own balance.
Instantly, Marinette began a wide-eyed, panicked flow of words, scrambling to her feet and nearly knocking her head into his face—an incident he missed only by letting himself fall backwards.
"I'm so sorry, Adrien. I didn't see you and I was just trying to get back to class and-" He could barely keep up with her rambling words. Standing up, he took hold of her arms and forced her to stop flailing around and look at him.
"It's ok, Marinette. Calm down. We're both ok, right?" She relaxed in his grasp, the relief in her eyes tangible. Taking a step, he realized his tumble had skewed his clothing, the waist of his jeans slipping dangerously low on his hips while his shirt sat crooked. Marinette's eyes dropped to the sudden evidence of bare skin, her face flushing a brilliant scarlet red before she snapped her eyes back to his face. A sheepish grin hit his own face as he quickly pulled himself together, unable to deny the slight tingling feeling of pride he had at her reaction.
"I thought it was socks that people knocked off," he joked, trying to make light of the moment but cringing on the inside at his near wardrobe malfunction. He gave her a smile to help reassure her before grasping her elbow and walking her up the stairs. Plagg deserved another earful and a definite cutback on his allotment of cheese today.
Slipping back into class together while everyone attempted to settle down after the akuma chaos provided no challenge. Adrien just prayed that the rest of the day would go Plagg-prank free.
Soft chuckles from Adrien's school bag that thankfully seemed audible to only his over-sensitive ears left him cringing in worry. Breathing through his nose to keep his cool until the end of class, Adrien scooped his bag at the sound of the bell and nearly raced to the waiting car for lunch.
Flipping back the cover, he glared at a grinning Plagg lounging inside in a manner that was anything but innocent.
"No more Camembert for you." Plagg didn't even bat an eye, grinning silently to himself.
"That's what you think," the whiny little voice from deep within his bag purred. "I think tomorrow will be a wonderful day of cheese heaven."
Punctuating his statement with a satisfied thump on his stomach, Plagg flashed his teeth in a way that made Adrien excessively nervous.
Lunch break didn't last long, just long enough to shovel food into his mouth and tear apart his bedroom in a continued search for his missing underwear. His father would have a fit if he found his room in such a state but Adrien pulled things apart anyway.
A sharp rap on his door forced him to call off the search and head back to school. Only a few more hours of April Fool's Day hell from his kwami and then he could finally rest.
Thankfully, Plagg seemed to settle for the afternoon, not making any trouble or noise during both his afternoon classes. Suspiciously quiet, actually, Adrien thought, eyeing his school bag with some trepidation and a growing sense of impending bad luck. He felt on edge, considering kicking his bag to give Plagg a silent warning.
With only half an hour left of history, the sound of Marinette's phone buzzing in her backpack made Adrein nearly jump out of his seat. Turning around to see her, he watched as she scrambled to stealthily pull it from her bag. Her eyes grew wide as she read whatever was on her screen, flashing up to look at him in gaping surprise with a quickly growing spread of adorable blush across her cheeks.
He just smiled, turning his attention back to his notes. The sound of his own phone buzzing made him frown. Reaching down, he yanked it out of his bag to see a message from Marinette on his screen.
A quick swipe had it open, his eyes tearing over the contents in shock and a shiver of excitement.
"Really? You want to kiss me?"
It took all of two seconds to see why she had sent him that text, why she had looked so surprised.
Sent from his phone to hers was a text message combined with a GIF. In a brilliant, flashing yellow neon style script, the image simply said, "I woke up this morning wanting to kiss you." Beneath it, text added:
and I have been thinking about it all day.
Adrien internal visualization instantly took to imagining what it would be like to kiss Marinette. Soft and sweet, with lips that tasted like cookies. He would be lying if he didn't admit that there was… something… between them. Something that he very intentionally shoved way, way down to avoid ruining the preciousness of their friendship and because of his feelings for Ladybug.
All his careful insistence that they were only friends despite the fact that he always felt strangely drawn to her had been single handedly blown out of the water due to a certain little black cat kwami who was definitely losing all his cheese privileges.
He didn't know how to answer, thumbs hovering over his keypad. An elbow in his ribs by Nino reminded him to pay attention and hide his phone from the still rambling teacher.
Twenty minutes left. What could he say that could get him out of this situation without hurting her or making everything an awkward mess? Silently he cursed the whole premise of April Fool's Day and his kwami's need to be an infernal pest.
He left her hanging for the rest of the class, tempted to just bolt at the bell. Very intentionally, he tossed the phone into his bag right on Plagg's head as he quietly gathered his school supplies still unsure what to do.
The classroom emptied quickly, other than Nino who drawled on about some jam that he'd been listening to between classes. His chatter ended abruptly with a yelp at being dragged out of the classroom by Alya's grip on his collar.
He didn't need to turn around to know that the only other person left in the room was Marinette. He could practically feel her standing nervously behind him.
A fortifying breath brought his pounding heart under control. He could do this - apologize that something strange had happened and that he didn't send her that message. That he valued their friendship more than anything. That his heart belonged to someone else.
At least, he believed he could do all that until his eyes connected with hers and it felt like he was struck by lightning, pulled to her by the shocking blue of her eyes. Her lips were parted just enough, trying to breathe, he supposed - just like he was.
"Did you really want to kiss me?" she whispered, searching his face for something. He blinked, frozen in response. Yes? No? Maybe? He didn't know. "I want to kiss you."
Suddenly, she was there, breathing his air, closing her eyes as she leaned in and he couldn't do anything but respond in kind. Her lips were just as soft and sweet as his brain had expected, pressed against his in a gentle, innocent kiss for little more than an instant. When she pulled away, he thought maybe his brain was broken, watching in slow motion as she gave him a shy little smile before grabbing her bag and rushing out the door.
Plagg still laughed when Adrien shoved him into a locker for fencing practice. He needed some kind of distraction to force his brain back into some level of functioning. All he could think of was the look in her eyes the moment before she shut them, the feel of her lips on his, and that smile before she ran away. Over and over.
Resting his forehead against the cool metal of his locker, Adrien took a moment to reset himself before facing his teammates and Mr. D'Argencourt. If his kwami could just give him some time to successfully make it home without causing any more trouble, he could do this.
With a nod, he stepped back, swishing his foil back and forth. Only an hour of fencing, then he'd be safe at home. It was the look on Kagami's face that tipped him off that something was wrong, the frown she gave a second before she asked what was on his mask. Ripping it from his head, he groaned as he discovered a smiley face drawn to the front.
Homework done, phone returned back to normal icons, smiley face scrubbed off and underwear recovered from some unknown place - Adrien stretched before flopping face first onto his bed with a sigh of relief. Somehow, he had survived an entire day of Plagg's foolishness.
How he was going to face Marinette tomorrow, he wasn't completely sure, but at least it hadn't gotten any weirder. The memory of her lips and that sweet smile would probably haunt his dreams in the most fantastic of ways. He pulled the pillow over his head with a soft moan.
A ping from his phone made him check it again. Maybe it was Marinette. Instead, the text he read made him throw his phone and glare at the kwami curled up on the pillow beside him.
Delivery Notification: Your order of 210 cases of Camembert cheese will be delivered by noon on April 2nd.
"PLAGG!"
Just some April Fools Day shenanigans. 3