Stuck in a Cabin (with you)

Written by: JuliaFC

Betas: Khanofallorcs, Agrestebug, Etoile-Lead-Sama and genxha. Thank you all so much!

Cover Art credit: Rosehealer02 on Deviantart

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc, TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

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Chapter 4 — Trapped

Marinette didn't know what had woken her up. Maybe it was the silence that was wrapping all around her? Or maybe it was how much lighter the room she was sleeping in was compared with her usual bedroom? Maybe was it how warm and comfortable she was feeling, as if… um… wrapped in a tight hug? Or maybe the tickling sensation of… what was that, hair, near her nostrils? There was also that lovely smell of lemon mixed with what (she gave it a good sniff) smelled like… lavender? Maybe even something else? Uh, that's a really pleasant smell. She was in the middle of giving it another sniff and deciding whether it was a good idea to open her eyes or not when she heard a 'crash' sound, as if something had hit the ceiling of the room she was sleeping in.

Her eyes instantly shot open and her gut feeling screamed 'akuma alert'. She fumbled to her bedside table for her phone to check the news, and that's when her senses were hit with the realisation that something was wrong. First, she couldn't find her bedside table. Second, now that she opened her eyes, she didn't recognise the room. She looked around and it appeared as if she was in a sort of… changing room? That or the person who owned the room had more clothes than Chloé Bourgeois. Nope. That would be impossible.

Where was she? Last thing she remembered was… uh, her head hurt, she couldn't actually remember what was the last thing she remembered.

What was this place? The more she looked around the less she recognised where she was. But it was only when she focused in front of her nose that she realised that the beautiful smell of lemon and lavender that had hit her nostrils when she woke up was coming from a blond mop of hair positioned just under her nose.

A very… familiar blond mop of hair.

And as she moved her nose just mere centimeters on the right, an even more familiar smell hit her nostrils. The stench of Camembert. Uggghhh… she wrinkled her nose and moved her face to the left, not before giving a good look at the cause of the offending smell.

Plagg. Plagg was sleeping on the top of a very familiar mop of blond hair. Of a boy. A blond boy with Plagg on his head. Sleeping. Wrapped around her.

Wrapped. Around. Her.

With his face buried in her chest.

Chat Noir.

Marinette was sure that her face had become redder than her Ladybug suit. Oh my God, what was the silly cat thinking? Her heart pounded madly in her chest just underneath his ear as she mentally listed all the different ways she could skin the cat alive for using her chest as a pillow. But suddenly, a second, even scarier, realisation hit. She eyed yet again the sleeping Plagg to her right.

A detransformed Chat Noir.

Marinette felt her breath catching. This was a DISASTER!

But she couldn't think of the consequences and about all the catastrophic scenarios that were coming to her mind. She couldn't think of a single way to get out of the situation without discovering his identity. She couldn't even think of why he was sleeping with Plagg on his head so tightly snuggled with her that she hardly had room to breathe. Because, suddenly, an even louder 'crash' shook the room like an earthquake, followed by a couple of extremely loud bangs, and the boy's head shot up. Marinette didn't manage to close her eyes on time, terrified as she also was of the new abrupt sound. Did the ceiling seem like it had gotten lower, by any chance? She totally forgot to close her eyes.

And, that very moment, her heart stopped. Sitting up in front of her, half naked, hair messed up and all crooked on the side he had been leaning on her, which also displayed a slightly pinker cheek (probably, again, because he had been leaning on her), his eyes still nearly closed... but still lighting up the whole room like a ray of sunshine, was Adrien Agreste.

THAT Adrien Agreste. The love of her life. Was… Chat Noir?

MERDE! Marinette brought both hands to her mouth and let out a little, almost unhearable squeaky sound as she gasped and lost the ability to breathe.

"Wh-what's going on?" said the boy at the same time, looking around, still rubbing his eyes, half asleep. As he said so, an even louder bang resounded around and the ceiling of the room on top of them lowered considerably and whatever light was lighting up the room suddenly went out, leaving them in a much darker atmosphere. Adrien jerked a little and looked up, his eyes growing wide.

A black furball zipped out of his hair, flew out of the ceiling and then came back in, eventually stopping straight in front of his nose. "Two big trees and a smaller one have fallen on the cabin. They're covered in snow and very heavy, I suppose. The top of the cabin looks damaged, gamin," said Plagg.

"Shoot!" he muttered under his breath, his eyes looking pointedly at the ceiling over them. "That's no good, Plagg. What if the cabin can't hold the weight? Is it still snowing?"

"Yep," said Plagg popping the p. "Quite badly, too." Then his electric green eyes darted towards her and she could clearly see his ears going flat on his head as he added, "Actually, Adrien, I think we have a bit of a more urgent matter at hand."

"What can be more urgent than the ceiling threatening to fall on our head?" said Adrien, his eyes still glued to the ceiling and completely ignoring Plagg who was smiling nervously at her and trying to get his attention to point down in her direction.

"I really think you should take a loo—" started saying Plagg, but Adrien interrupted him and said, "Maybe I can transform and Cataclysm the cabin?"

At that, Plagg stopped trying to get his attention and frowned, crossing his paws on his little chest. "And tell me, genius, if you do that, what is going to stop the trees from collapsing on you? Remember that your Cataclysm is very limited and can only destroy the first thing it gets in contact with, unlike mine. Besides, that window is too small for you to get out of and... I haven't eaten enough cheese to transform you again."

"All right," Adrien put a hand to his forehead and kept thinking. "Maybe… maybe then you can get out of the cabin and Cataclysm the trees!"

Plagg raised an eyebrow. "Adrien, if I was using my Cataclysm, the whole of Europe would be a distant memory. My Cataclysm made the dinosaurs and the dragons go extinct and submerged the continent of Atlantis."

"Oh," said Adrien with a little gasp. "But that time with Gorizilla—" he started, but Plagg interrupted him, "First of all, that time I had to work very hard to contain myself. Second, working through tarmac is very different from working through mere trees. Last thing I want is to kill you and your precious Lady Love with my index finger. Third, I knew that the Miraculous Cure would have fixed any extra damage I could have caused, since it was an akuma attack."

Adrien lowered his gaze, looking defeated. "I see," he muttered to himself.

"Besides," continued Plagg. He gave her a look. A little smirk appeared on his lips and he (on purpose now, she was sure of that) avoided mentioning the fact that she was awake. "Pigtails is sick and half naked," he seemed to be slurring the last two words a bit more than needed. Marinette's gaze went instantly to her body. Her eyes widened in shock when she noticed finally that the clothes she was wearing were different than the ones she remembered putting on. She was thinking that she had never seen that t-shirt, when the kwami continued, "There's a blizzard out there. Her clothes on the floor are still soaking wet, as they were when you took them off earlier…"

Wait—WHAT? Marinette sucked her breath in. She glanced at the floor and felt all blood rushing to her face when she noticed her clothes folded neatly in a little pile next to the couch they were lying on.

Including her bra. And her knickers.

More blood rushed to her face. "WHAT?" she said in a choked whisper. Adrien's gaze went instantly from Plagg to her, and she covered herself with her arms, although she had seen very clearly that she had a t-shirt on.

"U-uh, Marinette. You're awake," he muttered, his face blooming red as his hand went to the back of his neck and his gaze fell. She had never seen such a sheepish, guilty look on either Adrien or Chat Noir.

"Yeeeees," said Plagg with a little smirk, his paws firmly crossed on his chest. "That's what I was trying to tell you when you kept worrying about the ceiling."

"Aaaadrien?" she muttered, still unable to put one coherent thought after the next, as her head felt dizzy and full of cotton. She was starting to have a splitting headache that made it very very hard to concentrate. But she wouldn't let him get away with it. Nope. No, sir. "Ch-Chat Noir?" she continued to mutter, her voice trembling at every word. When he nodded very slowly, she looked at her clothes on the floor and frowned. "W-what happened?"

There must be a very rational explanation for this. She was sure that there must be. Anything other than thinking of the fact that he was half naked (uh, Marinette, even in her panicked state, couldn't help giving a quick glance at the abs. Those abs she had been dreaming about for quite a long time. Ok, Marinette, forget the abs. Although they're gorgeous abs. Forget the abs!) and that her clothes were on the ground and Plagg was saying that… "You've taken... my clothes off?"

Adrien's shade of red deepened. She had never seen his face that colour. This was bad. Very, very bad.

"Marinette!" something red zoomed in front of her face before Adrien could say another word. "You're okay, I'm so glad you're okay!" Tikki hugged her cheek and placed a soft kiss on it, breaking her escalation of panic. She patted the head of her little friend absent-mindedly, until she opened again her eyes wide and a further jolt of panic went through her core. Her gaze and whole face snapped towards the red kwami.

"TIKKI! WHAT? Why? A-adrien… oh God, C-chat Noir. You. Plagg. M-my clothes. What's going oooooon?" Her brain couldn't process more than one or two-word sentences right now. She moved her fists to her temples and closed her eyes shut, curling up a little into herself and hiding her face behind her clenched fists.

"Marinette, calm down!" said Tikki, but Marinette moved her fists from her face and opened her eyes to give her little friend a pointed look.

"How can I calm down, Tikki? Our identities are... He… NAKED? He's TAKEN MY CLOTHES OFF? He was SLEEPING ON TOP OF ME? And I should stay calm? Calm you say?" She started breathing very heavily and her voice raised a whole octave as she continued, "I'm very calm. So calm. I'm as calm as I can be. Can't be calmer than this. Do you see how calm I am right now? Look at me, I'm the IMAGE of calm. I'm smiling. I'm good. So very go—" She stopped uttering that avalanche of words when Plagg zipped to her face and looked at her straight in the eyes, but her breath started catching so much that she began feeling dizzy.

"It's not his fault!" started Plagg, at the same time as Tikki said, "You were dying!" They kept rambling on and on talking on the top of one another and making it hard for Marinette to understand what they were saying, she could discern something about "lake" and "drowning" and… was that "resuscitated"? Did Tikki say "Hypothermia"? Something about "freezing wet clothes" being dangerous, too.

OK. Maybe the situation wasn't as bad as she had pictured it to be. Maybe she should give the cat the benefit of the doubt? After all, she trusted Chat Noir with her life every day. And besides, he was Adrien, and Adrien was… She eyed him for a second as her cheeks blushed crimson and noticed that he was looking very uncomfortable and uneasy, too.

"All right, all right," she said with a loud sigh, closing her eyes and putting her hands up to calm down the two kwamis. She hadn't been a Guardian for long, but she had already experienced quite a lot of little arguments like these among the kwamis in the Miracle Box. She knew by now that, celestial creatures with immense powers or not, most of the time they behaved like three year olds. "Can you two please stop rambling and someone explain to me what happened a bit more clearly?

"You fell in the lake," intervened Adrien grabbing her hand. She felt even more blood rushing to her face at the contact and tried to jerk her hand away, but he kept strong hold of it and didn't allow her. "Tikki arrived asking me for help. I had no choice, I had to save you, M'lady." His face lit like a lightbulb up to his neck as his hold on her hand grew stronger.

"What exactly did you do, chaton, to get this flustered?" she asked. So he had saved her. A sudden overwhelming feeling of gratitude invaded her soul. She now vaguely remembered skating on the lake, the ice breaking, the waters swallowing her, the freezing cold, trying to transform, Tikki flying away, her getting her head out of the water again and holding onto some ice for as long as she could, until she couldn't even feel her arms and her legs any more and the world became dark, the feeling of drowning… He looked so embarrassed now. She'd never seen him so red in the face.

"Uh, I had to do, C-CPR," he muttered so quietly that she had to really concentrate to hear what he said. Her eyes widened.

Oh.

OH.

She knew that he had had to do it, because she was drowning. She knew that she was alive now because he had done it. She also knew that it wasn't really a kiss. But… but… She couldn't help her face turning crimson. Her hands ran to her very hot-feeling cheeks as she sucked her breath in and her fingertips involuntarily rubbed her lips.

"Y-you would've died if I hadn't—" he started to say, but he stopped when her gaze met his.

"I know," she whispered.

He breathed easier. "I-I wanted to take you to the hospital, but Nadja Chamack on the news said that there were up to four hours queue to be registered and I didn't know how long it would have taken to them to look after you, even as an emergency, and my phone had died and I didn't know where the closer hospital was and Tikki and Pl—"

She put a finger on his mouth to stop him from carrying on with the very Marinette-ish and so-very-unlike-Adrien word vomit. He looked so much on tenterhooks, and that gave her a warm feeling inside.

"So you brought me here?" she asked. He nodded. "What place is this? I've never seen it before." She looked around once more.

"My father was having a photoshoot for our new ski line here on Lac Daumesnil. This is the cabin arranged as a changing room. I was waiting for the Gorilla to pick me up when Tikki arrived." He sighed. "I wonder what happened to him. He should definitely be here by now."

Marinette lifted herself up with her elbows and felt that her legs were stuck. She tried to pull them towards her and saw him shifting. She suddenly realised that his legs had been firmly intertwined with hers. New colour rushed to her cheeks as she finally managed to sit up.

"I see," she muttered and looked around. It was a little crowded with clothes and now that she was far from his body heat, the cold of the room attacked her like a splash of freezing water on warm skin. And that ceiling looked worryingly damaged. It was actually creaking. And… did she see some pieces of… concrete fall off the side? It didn't look good at all! "I-it's c-cold," she admitted, embracing herself with her arms and starting to shiver. Then she noticed again the oversized t-shirt she was wearing. She had never seen it before and was suddenly extremely aware of her clothes piled up on the floor near the couch where they were now sitting. She lifted the thin fabric with her index and thumb and gave it a pointed look, moving her gaze then to him.

When blue met forest green, he crouched a little over himself, undoubtedly trying to disappear — or at least become smaller — and putting his hands in front of him, in a defensive pose. "I-I had to undress you." He must have heard the loud gasp she uttered, because his face became even redder and his Marinette-ish word vomit started again: "I-I… your clothes were wet and freezing. Plagg said you had hypothermia and I had to warm you up. I.. didn't see anything. I wrapped you up with a blanket. I swear! When you warmed up, I looked for something to put on you and found that t-shirt. Sorry if it's big and ugly, but… it was something I could put on you without, you know, seeing anything."

This made a warm smile pop back on Marinette's lips. She raised an eyebrow in pure amusement and crossed her arms on her chest. "So you're telling me that Chat Noir got his Lady naked and he didn't… peek at all?" She put a hand on her mouth and giggled a little noticing how much redder he'd become. But her reaction seemed to calm him down a little and after flushing redder than her suit, he dared peek at her. To emphasise the fact that she was joking she eyed him even more cunningly and moved closer to him, invading his personal space and giving him a look full of mockery, her lips now curled up into an amused little smirk. "Mmmmmmmmh?"

That seemed to make the trick, because Adrien relaxed visibly and started playing his part. He pouted (uh, she had never realised how totally adorable Chat Noir was when he pouted… or was it because the mask was missing? Nope. He was adorable even with it, she had secretly thought that many times before, but had always shrugged it off!) and raised a hand to his (naked. And totally gorgeous) chest.

"You wound me, M'lady," he started. "I'm a gentlecat, I would never take advantage of a Lady in distress." He leaned towards her, his face mere millimeters from hers, eyes sparkling mischievously as his lips curled in an innocent-looking smile. An expression she had seen so many times in her fun-loving partner that all masks and quantum energy barriers fell in her mind and she finally could see with painful certainty that Chat Noir and Adrien were just one and the same. How on Earth could she have been this blind?

She let muscle memory work for her and instinctively reached for his chin, scratching him affectionately like she did with her partner and nearly missing the presence of a bell to flick. She matched the soft look in his forest green eyes with her own. "Good chaton. I wouldn't have expected any less from you." She leaned in closer and placed a quick, feather-light peck on his lips, her heart racing in her chest for her daring move, her face feeling suddenly even warmer than it had ever been.

His eyes shot open and all that came out of his mouth was an incoherent, "Uuh?" Marinette giggled and gave him what she hoped was a flirty look.

"Well, this gentlecat deserved a reward, right?"

To that, his expression changed to the most Chat Noir-esque look she had ever seen on Adrien's face, his eyebrow raised, his lips curled in a Cheshire grin. "Was that all, then, M'lady, or did you have more in your mind?" He leaned in closer and wrapped both arms around her, his arms resting firmly on the small of her back. Marinette still felt very dizzy, but she wasn't sure if it was because the love of her life was finally flirting with her or for some other reason. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her forehead on his, unsure of what to do next. But as she did that, she saw Adrien's face darkening.

"What's wrong, chaton?" she asked warily.

He pulled back and placed a hand on her forehead, his expression now one of concern. "Wow, Marinette, you're boiling." He panicked a little and got up from the couch, starting to look around the room in a manic frenzy.

As soon as he left her side a cold feeling attacked her legs. She picked up the blanket that had been wrapped around them both and snuggled up underneath it, before whispering, "If you keep walking around like that, Adrien, my temperature will rise even more, you know. And not from a fever…"

He stopped, looked at himself and then at her, grinning from ear to ear. "Why, M'lady… I'm not much different than I have always been jumping around town in a skintight cat-suit. Starting to realise a little what you've been missing out on?" He winked at her and then seemed to have found what he was looking for as he picked it up triumphantly—the first aid kit. He started rummaging into it.

'More than a little,' thought Marinette, fanning her face. Then she noticed the surprise in his eyes. "Uh, did I say that aloud?" she asked. He nodded and it was her turn to crouch over herself trying to disappear. "Oh, God…" she muttered to herself, wishing the ground to open up and swallow her whole.

He walked back to her and sat on the couch next to her, without losing his surprised frown, but then he looked at her and coughed politely. "Okay. I'm dying to ask what you meant, but," he said, revealing a thermometer in his hand, "I think this is more important now. Be a good bug and put this in your mouth." He put the small glass stick near her lips. "Paw-lease?" he asked again, grinning. She instantly rolled her eyes, which made him giggle a bit, but opened her mouth enough to allow him to put the thermometer in. He smiled and patted the top of her head with his hand. "Good. Now maybe it's better if I put some clothes on," he said to himself. Marinette pouted, flipping the thermometer downwards. The detail must have caught his eye because he looked at her and braced himself. "It's just so cold here."

She kept the pout on her face, but she noticed the goosebumps on his arms and legs, so with her heart in her ears and gulping awkwardly she moved a shaky arm to lift the blanket that wrapped her and patted the couch next to her with the other hand. Then, she held her breath looking at him again.

"A-are you sure?" he said, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

She gulped again, but nodded. "Mh-h."

He still looked quite stunned, but didn't wait for her to change her mind and joined her under the blanket.

Author's Note:

Hi again! So… Marinette woke up and we had the big reveal. What are your thoughts? Sorry for posting this so late. I had a terrible time last week writing, with my kids off school and literally jumping on my head when I wanted to write and no time for myself. So I didn't have the time to finish the next chapter and had nothing to put in my little preview just underneath here. But I managed to write some tonight, so here you go ^^

In the next instalment of "Stuck in a cabin (with you)", "Gorilla to the Rescue":

— "Stay," she whispered, burying her face deep in his chest.

— "'Twas Adrien," she repeated again, even more sluggishly.

— "The door is stuck!"

So… I hope that you enjoyed the reveal. Let me know what you thought about it and drop me a comment! I will continue soon :) can't promise I will publish every week, but let me know what you think and I'll publish as soon as I can. Please subscribe if you're interested in knowing what is going to happen, so you will know when the next update is!

And please check out my other WIPs, "When Magic Fails", "Caught in the Loop", "Errata Corrige" and "La Caverne du Papillon d'Or"!

Last but not least, as usual, if you read this and you're not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server, Miraculous Fanworks (for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon. Not sure when I will update this story but it won't be too long! Promise!