Stuck In A Bakery (With You), Chapter 46
"Okay... come on up."
Marinette gestured down to Adrien, who took her outstretched hand as he reached the top of the balcony ladder.
There was a certain nervous energy in the air. On the one hand, the kids knew what had happened the last time they had come up for a long talk; a cuddle, a confession, and the start of something wonderful. But this time, there were things that Marinette felt like she couldn't, if not shouldn't say aloud... and she had a sense that Adrien sensed that, too.
Marinette strode over and flopped down on one of the lounge chairs, patting the seat on the chair next to hers to beckon Adrien.
"My pleasure," smiled Adrien, as he stretched out alongside her. "We're not sharing one chair this time?"
"Oh, we certainly might," giggled Marinette. "But when we do, I don't know how much talking we'll be doing. And you had some things that you wanted to talk about tonight, right?"
"Yeah, nothing too serious," Adrien assured her. "It was just a very weird day, you know? And I just wanted to make sure that you were all right, and that we were on the same page about things."
"Like what?" ventured Marinette, brightly.
"Well, for one, I'm dying to know how Ladybug contacted you!" he asked. "I know that she can move quickly when she wants to, but I didn't see any signs of her around the bakery this morning. And then you were gone, just like that!"
"Oh! Um..." Marinette mumbled. "She sent me a text message. Once in a long while, she'll do that. It's never from the same number twice, so I suppose that she has a bunch of throwaway prepaid phones."
"Huh," mused Adrien. "So how do you know when a message is from her, if the number's always different?"
"Uh..." Marinette thought quickly. "This time, she referred to Multimouse in her greeting. No one other than you and her knew about that, and I knew that the message wasn't from you, so..."
"Yeah, it wasn't from me," agreed Adrien. "So I suppose that I shouldn't ask for her number, and send her a message before she dumps that phone?"
"I already deleted it," stammered Marinette. "Can't have something like that fall into the wrong hands!"
"Of course not," said Adrien.
Adrien looked thoughtful. "So... does Ladybug ever message you when it isn't an emergency?" he wondered. "Like, just as friends?"
"Once in a long while?" Marinette bluffed. "I don't know what her private life is like; we don't talk about anything like that. More like... just checking up on me now and then, seeing if everything is good. We keep it short."
"You're lucky," Adrien replied, wistfully.
"How so?" asked Marinette, noting his mood shift.
"Oh, I don't want to be greedy or anything, or seem like I'm jealous of you," said Adrien. "I just... well, Ladybug gave me a Miraculous once, too, and I kind of felt like... we had... um... a connection, and... well, I don't hear from her like that, personally."
"Hmmph. Maybe she just doesn't have your phone number?" suggested Marinette. Or had never thought of doing that before now, but now it's completely on her to-do list? Once I figure out where to get some cheap burner phones, anyway?
"I guess. It's not like I ever wrote it on a napkin and handed it to her," admitted Adrien. "Or asked her... uh... what I'd want to ask her."
"Once or twice, she's asked my opinion on something fashion-related. I think that she's thought about adjusting her costume, but hasn't had the nerve yet to try it in public," added Marinette, trying to shift the subject.
"Oooh!" cooed Adrien. "Now, that could be something amazing. Ladybug wearing a Marinette Dupain-Cheng original! Defeating evil Akumas with style alone."
"Oh, I wouldn't go that far," Marinette evaded. "Just my opinion on some little things, like... would it look good if she put some black panels on the sides, or maybe add some minor accessorizing? So far, I've suggested keeping the basic design simple. Fewer things for Akumas to grab onto."
"No capes, huh?" Adrien chuckled.
"Nope. She's Ladybug, not Batbug or the Bug of Steel," laughed Marinette.
"You should tell her to add pockets. Like how most dresses don't have pockets, but they totally should! But I suppose that that's a running gag between girls," noted Adrien.
"You know... maybe I should mention that to her," Marinette considered.
"So how does Chat Noir contact you?" asked Marinette next.
"Uh..."
It was Adrien's turn to squirm a bit. "Usually, he just kind of... appears. He does have an email account that we use sometimes," he bluffed.
"I know all about the 'just showing up,'" smiled Marinette. "I'll be working on something in my room and, *TH-BMMP!* There he is."
"...So he should learn to call ahead?" asked Adrien. "You're not into that?"
"Oh, no, it's not a problem. He has secrets to keep, and I'm not about to push him to share them with me if he can't or doesn't want to," she explained. "Plus, appearing out of thin air is part of his charm."
"Ah! So you do find him charming, hmmm?" Adrien grinned.
To his surprise... Marinette looked uneasy. "Adrien... did my father say something to you?" she asked, nervously.
"N-no?" he answered. "Why... what would he have said?"
Marinette took a deep breath. "That he wasn't entirely sure if Chat Noir and I were... um... something."
Briefly, she gave Adrien a rundown of what her father had said to her. "You and I talked about this the other night, after he'd visited," she explained. "Apparently when he plops down on my balcony... Papa can hear that," she admitted.
"Oh! That's... good to know," said Adrien. For both of us.
"And he and I have been... complicated at times." Marinette described the Weredad saga, of which Adrien feigned polite ignorance. "But just for the record... I meant what I said before. Chat is a very, very good friend of mine, but you have nothing to worry about there."
"I didn't think that I did. And from what I know of Chat Noir... I don't that he thinks that way, either. Though I can confirm that he speaks of you very highly," smiled Adrien. "He doesn't give just anyone a free ride home, like he gave you today."
"Yeah... he did," said Marinette. "Though he kind of looked at me like I was crazy when he first found me this afternoon. And through most of my story, too."
"It was a strange turn of events, though, wasn't it?" Adrien continued. "I mean... don't get me wrong, Marinette, I believe your story. It makes sense to me."
"...That's one of us," mumbled Marinette, wearily.
"...But is there anything else you need to talk about regarding that?" he asked, gently. "Like, I've never heard of a Lucky Charm going wrong like that. You're sure that you still feel okay? Is there anyone that Ladybug can take you to, to get you checked out?"
"I... don't know what to say," Marinette sighed, after a long pause. "There's not much else that I can say. I feel okay. What happened, happened. I'm just glad that I could help and that we all got home in one piece."
"If you're positive," Adrien repeated. "I'm still not very good at reading other people's feelings... but I like to think that I'm getting the hang of reading yours, and you looked troubled to me when you were talking things out with your parents. That's all."
"I was... freaked out about admitting that I'd had a Miraculous, even temporarily," evaded Marinette. "That's kind of a big deal."
"...Okay," Adrien replied, leaving it at that. If she wants to come clean... she will. I won't push too hard.
"So... speaking of Ladybug," Marinette continued. "You seem to have your share of questions about her..."
"I..." gulped Adrien, "I'm just curious," he stammered. "I don't know that I've ever met anyone who's at all... close to her before, that's all."
"Close might be a bit of an overstatement," backpedaled Marinette.
"How about this? You've been picked to be a Miraculous hero twice so far. That's a pretty exclusive club, I think," Adrien noted. "At least from what I've seen on the Ladyblog."
"I don't know how much of the Ladyblog you can take for granted as being accurate," shrugged Marinette. "Alya does her best to sort out the rumors from the news, but... things slip through sometimes, I'm sure."
"I'll bet," agreed Adrien. There was the time that she printed a rumor that Chat Noir was seen dating Jain, the singer! he laughed to himself. The Chat Noir in the picture was a cosplayer, and they were on their way to a costume ball together! Ladybug gave me an earful about that until I straightened THAT out. I mean, she's beautiful, but Jain's probably twice my age!
"Anyway... it's not like Ladybug and I... like... hang out together," Marinette said. "I think that she's a very nice person; I wish I could know her better. But it's just like with Chat Noir; she doesn't tell me her real name, and I don't ask."
"If she did... or if he did... what would you do?" wondered Adrien.
"...Panic?" laughed Marinette. "Knowing that kind of thing would be a huge responsibility, don't you think?"
"Oh, definitely!" agreed Adrien, quickly. "I was just curious."
"Heh," she smiled. "You know, you called me your 'everyday Ladybug'... and the more I've gotten to know you, Adrien, the more you remind me of Chat Noir."
"Wh-what?" stammered Adrien, caught off-guard.
"That's not a bad thing!" Marinette insisted. "Not at all. You have his sense of humor, when you let it out. You're quite a flirt with me when you want to be."
"Like right now, for instance," Adrien purred, trying to distract her.
"And you have his inner sweetness. Something that he doesn't let out around just anyone... but it's there, just the same," smiled Marinette. "Green eyes, though yours are prettier."
"And then there's what else we have in common," Adrien added. "I'm crazy about my everyday Ladybug... and he's in love with his heroic one. In fact..."
He cut his sentence off, realizing his slip.
"In fact what?" asked Marinette, looking curious, increasingly so as she watched his reaction. "It's okay; you can say it."
"Do I have to?" Adrien retorted, turning red.
"You don't have to if you really don't want to," Marinette replied. "But I think that we've found out that when we're brave and say the truth up here... sometimes very good things can follow."
"O-okay," stammered Adrien. "Remember how I told you how there was someone out there that I'd had a major crush on?"
"The mystery girl? The one you'd mentioned where it didn't work out between you?" said Marinette, quickly. "The other girl that you'd said that you'd kissed?"
"That was just a peck on the cheek! The more I think about it, I'm not sure if she even felt it, or knew that I did it," Adrien panicked. "But... fine, I'll say it. That girl that I had a huge crush on... that was Ladybug. From nearly the very first moment that we'd met."
Marinette Dupain-Cheng simply froze in place.
Adrien... had a crush on LADYBUG?!
THAT'S who...
I was my OWN COMPETITION all this time?
She stared at the nervous boy across from her, her heart pounding wildly.
...Adrien was in love with me all this time, and I didn't know it?
...Can it be true?
...Were we really meant to be all along?
An emotional rush seized her, focusing everything that was Marinette on the revealed truth. The remainder of her brain took the hint, turned off the lights and pulled down the shades for a little while.
Adrien wasn't sure how Marinette was going to react to his confession... but she didn't react in a way that he'd anticipated.
Her eyes went huge, fixed on his. Her facial expression was difficult for him to read, seemingly a mixture of emotions... but it was intense.
"Say that again," she asked in a quiet voice, climbing across from her lounge chair to right next to him on his.
"Say what again?" mumbled Adrien, visibly startled.
"Your crush. The girl that you were in love with," said Marinette, her arms wrapping around him. "Say that again."
"I thought that I was... I didn't know her all that well, but the feelings just kind of swept over me like-" he stammered.
"Tell me, just to be sure," whispered Marinette into Adrien's ear. "Tell me again. Please, Adrien... please tell me what her name is."
"...I was... I was in love with Ladybug, before I fell in love with you."
On the night that Marinette had confessed her love for Adrien, right here on these chairs, she had described something that she was looking forward to very, very much.
"A real kiss... our first no-doubt-about-it kiss," she had told him that night. "That makes my knees buckle, that makes your hair stand on end, that tells me that we're there. Something to save for when you really mean it, and so do I. When we're both sure."
Lying on that padded lounge chair on a cool spring evening, the warm body of the young woman whom he'd fallen for pressed up close against his... Adrien Agreste felt utterly helpless.
Their remaining fully clothed didn't matter; every nerve ending that he possessed was on fire. He was drowning in love, suffocating under wave after tumultuous wave of it, and the only lifeline he had was the perfect, sweet mouth pressed firmly against his.
He clung to it, to her, with a desperate desire and a sense of complete wonder, and she returned every bit of it with an intense passion. Their kissing up unto this point had been completely wonderful... carefree, playful, innocent and adoring. This kissing possessed all of that, as well... but it was also like graduating from vanilla pudding to a four-course meal.
Rational thought deserted him. Self-control, mercifully, did not. Not entirely, at least.
There would be no going back from this moment...
...wherever it had come from.