Adrien couldn't take his eyes off of her.
Of course, that was no surprise. Marinette had snuck up on him slowly throughout the years. At first, he'd been too deeply entrenched in his infatuation with Ladybug to notice her. Then, after a photoshoot at the pool a couple years ago, his umbrella had shut over both of their heads and he'd been captivated by her laughter. He'd been caught up in the feeling of wanting to spend more time with her, and the disappointment of watching her walk away without him. He'd been hit in the head with the truth that day, somewhat literally since he seemed to recall having banged his head on the roof of the car as he climbed inside. Marinette was…something.
Days turned into weeks, which turned into months and finally years. And something? Something turned into almost everything.
There had been a time when being Chat Noir had been his everything, and maybe that was why he'd latched on so tightly to Ladybug when he'd been younger. But running away from his real-life problems by running across rooftops had lost its effectiveness over the years. His father had steadily became more and more distant, which Adrien hadn't really believed possible. His schedule became so packed on some days that he'd considered joking to Nathalie that she ought to schedule him some time to breathe. Superheroing became just one more part of his hectic life and stopped being the simple escape he'd once so desperately craved. He'd found himself needing something to tether himself to the real world before he lost himself in the darkness.
Marinette wasn't responsible for all of that, of course. It was too much for one person, and he'd never want to burden her with that. But aside from Nino, who'd wanted to help but hadn't quite known how, Marinette had been the first to notice when the light inside him had started to dim. She was the one who'd gone out of her way to coax even the smallest of smiles out of him. It was her encouragement that he could make his own decisions about the future, be whoever he wanted to be, that had made him believe for the first time that maybe he really could.
He and Ladybug were still close—they had to be to trust each other the way they did. Even though Rena Rouge had become a permanent hero, it was mostly still the two of them against the world, and he considered Ladybug to be one of his best friends. But because of the masks between them, she couldn't understand him the way he needed. And Marinette could. She was there for him.
Marinette was there, and he couldn't look away.
He was hopelessly in love with her. Not to be dramatic—except ok, maybe a little bit to be dramatic, since he was Chat Noir and all, so he kind of had a knack for that—but he felt as if every molecule in his body was alerted to her presence when she was nearby. He'd all but developed a sort of preternatural sixth sense for knowing exactly when she walked into a room.
And if he was spending the entirety of his break at today's photoshoot, which his father had surprisingly allowed him to invite her to, staring at her? Well, it was the Universe's fault for making her eyes sparkle in a way that drew him in. For the way her smile tugged at her lips as she talked to Grace, the junior designer assisting with the shoot. For the way that when she noticed he was staring she blushed crimson and looked away quickly, only to peek back at him a second later and giggle as she no doubt caught the dopey smile on his face.
Today though, the fact that he couldn't take his eyes off of her happened to be a particularly good thing.
He ought to have known that things couldn't possibly go this well at a photoshoot where Lila was present. His stomach had flipped nervously when Nathalie had informed him that due to a last-minute change, his Friday afternoon session was no longer the solo shoot he'd expected. He'd never have invited Marinette along if he'd known, given the fact he knew Lila was out to get her, but when he'd told Marinette about the change she'd been determined not to let Lila ruin the day she was already excited about.
Two hours in, things had been going strangely well for the most part. True, Lila had her hands all over Adrien even more so than usual, shooting pointed looks at Marinette the entire time. But Marinette had managed to make good with the photographer during the first part of the shoot, and had started making subtle comments about how it might look better if Lila moved her hands off of Adrien's chest, or how it might introduce tension into the shot if the two of them were separated. The entire time she made it seem like she was suggesting things to accentuate the clothes the pair were wearing, but Adrien knew she'd only interfered after she'd locked eyes with him and seen the discomfort he was sure was all over his face.
By the time their break had arrived, Lila had stormed off in a huff, and Marinette had given him a sly smile as she passed him a bottle of water before being called over to help out with something. Now, as Grace was called off in some other direction, Marinette glanced around the room briefly before taking out her phone. Adrien was pretty sure she was looking for him. He was somewhat hidden from her line of sight, so he stood and started to walk over.
It was only because his eyes were still glued to her that he noticed the way the light that had been shining on her hair seemed to flicker, and he looked up to see one of the heavier stage lights above her head swinging dangerously on its cable. He called out her name to warn her, but she only turned towards him with a smile at the sound, brow furrowing in confusion when she caught his panicked expression. She looked up just as the light started to fall, with next to no time left to react, but Adrien had already leaped towards her.
He tackled her to the ground out of the way, his heart beating fast against her chest as he landed on top of her. He had only a split second to appreciate the fact that she was safe before the light fell, right where she'd been standing a split second before, instead landing right on one of his ankles.
The moment before the pain hit, he swore he could see Lila walk across the edge of the room with something shiny in her hand. Then a stabbing sensation shot through his foot, and he felt a strangled scream escape him right before he passed out.
Adrien woke to an annoying beeping somewhere in the background. He was lying on something soft but firm, a bed probably. The light was too bright, even though his eyes were still closed, so he scrunched them tighter and turned his head to the side a bit. Someone was holding his hand, and there was a throbbing sensation in his ankle. He felt a little foggy, unsure of where he was, and started to feel a little panicked until a voice sounded, calming him.
"Adrien?"
"Hmmm." He smiled. He'd have known that voice anywhere. "M'lady," he mumbled with a small sigh.
A small gasp sounded, and he noted that the soft fingers that had been wrapped around his hand let go suddenly. "Wh-what did you say?"
Oh. Oh no.
"Marinette," he corrected, eyes flying open to see her sitting in a chair beside his bed. She stared at him wide-eyed for a moment before shaking her head and giving him a soft smile.
"How are you feeling?" She seemed to have shaken off her earlier shock, and he felt a wave of relief that he seemed to have kept his secret identity intact.
"I don't know, I—" he looked around, taking in the scene. Nurses walked around carrying medical supplies and clipboards. A man lying on the bed across from him had one hand heavily bandaged. A doctor was stitching up a small head wound for a young child who sat bravely on his mother's lap in one corner. Then he looked down to see the ice pack resting on his splinted ankle. "When did I get to the hospital?"
Marinette glanced briefly at her phone. "About twenty minutes or so maybe? The doctor hasn't been by yet, but the nurse who admitted you just left. Your father was supposed to be here already." She pursed her lips in displeasure, leaving no doubt that she was unimpressed that he hadn't arrived, though Adrien wasn't really perturbed. She was a much nicer sight to wake up to. Her face softened when she caught his gaze. "Do you remember what happened?"
"Yeah, sort of. We were at the photoshoot, and the light fell on my foot…Ugh. I passed out, didn't I? That's embarrassing."
She stood up from her chair, settling carefully on the edge on the bed as if taking special care not to jostle him. Then she reached forwards and grabbed his hand again, staring intensely into his eyes. "You saved me from...I don't know. A really bad head injury at best. At worst…" She inhaled sharply, and shut her eyes for a brief moment. "You're not allowed to feel embarrassed for that, understand me mister?"
He nodded, smiling at the warmth in her gaze, then tried not to self-combust as she leaned forwards to kiss him on the cheek. He couldn't help but think that maybe a broken ankle wasn't such a bad price to pay if it got him kisses.
She continued to sit beside him as they waited, answering all of his questions about what had happened after he'd fallen unconscious. To be honest, it sounded as if it had been quite an ordeal, and in retrospect he was pretty glad he hadn't been awake for all of it. Eventually a nurse came over to see him.
"I see you're awake now," she said with a smile. "How's the pain?"
"Um…a five?"
"Uh-huh. And what would the pain be if you weren't trying to impress the pretty girl holding your hand?"
Marinette snorted and he only hoped his face didn't look as red as it felt.
"An eight," he mumbled.
The nurse nodded. "I'll fetch you some pain meds before they take you for X-rays. The X-ray technician should be coming to get you soon, so I'll get you a bag for you to keep any jewelry you might have in."
A jolt of panic shot through him and he clenched the hand where he wore his miraculous—the one Marinette wasn't holding—into a fist. The nurse seemed to notice, and before walking away she added, "Or you can give it to your friend to keep, if that makes you feel more comfortable."
When he turned back to Marinette, she was smirking at him. "So, you're trying to impress me?"
"Heh. Yeah. Maybe." He took a deep breath, and pulled his hand from Marinette's so he could slip the ring off of his other hand. He tried not to think about how much he was going to miss having Plagg around for the next little while. "Look, Mari…I need you to keep this for me," he said, placing the ring in one of her palms and closing her fingers over it before she could see it revert to the form it took when it wasn't on his finger. "And I um...I need to tell you something about it."
She scrunched her face up in confusion, and it was really cute, but he couldn't let himself get distracted by that. He had to explain what he needed her to do—he couldn't leave Ladybug and Rena alone to defend themselves. Of course they were capable, but it wouldn't be fair, especially without being able to explain why he was out of commission—he wasn't sure transforming with an injury was such a great idea and he had no other means of contacting them. But he knew Marinette would make a wonderful short-term replacement. She'd been incredible as Multimouse that one time, and he'd always thought that she and Ladybug would get along wonderfully. They were both creative geniuses after all.
And yeah, a part of him was giving it to her because he had no other choice right now, but he'd probably have picked her anyways if he'd had a chance to think about it. Honestly, his biggest fear was that Ladybug wouldn't want to take him back after having Marinette on her team.
But man, he still felt terrible abandoning Ladybug, even if it wasn't his fault.
"What's wrong, Adrien?"
"Um. Nothing. Everything's fine, I just...Ok, I want you to open your hand and look at my ring, but you have to promise not to scream or anything. I might not have enough time to explain everything before my father gets here or somebody else comes by, but I know you've done this before, and uh...Plagg will help you out."
Her eyes practically bugged out of her face. "Plagg?" she squeaked, and then she opened her hand and looked down to see the black ring with the green paw print, and promptly closed her fingers over it again. She glanced around quickly, then leaned in close to him and whispered. "You're Chat Noir?"
"Yes," he whispered back. "But I can't really be him with a broken leg, so I need you to replace me for...the foreseeable future."
"Oh my God, Oh my God," she whispered.
"Look, Mari, I know it's a lot to take on, but you can definitely do this. You're amazing, you're my everyday Ladybug after all." She let out a strangled sound, seeming overwhelmed, and he realized that he hadn't thought of what to do if she didn't want to take on this responsibility. "Ok, I know...maybe this is too much. I understand if you don't want…I mean you can give the ring back to Ladybug if you don't feel comfortable doing this, and she can find someone else to replace me for the time being."
"Give it... back to Ladybug?" she said, and for some reason she burst out laughing.
Ok. Not exactly the reaction he'd expected. Maybe this hadn't been the best idea after all...But before he could explain anything else he caught the sound of his father's voice. Marinette seemed to have picked up on it too, because her eyes widened even further, and she quickly slipped the ring into her purse. He wished she'd put it on her finger, because God forbid she lost it, but he trusted her. Well at this point, he really had no choice anyways. No way was he going to risk his father finding out.
His father started walking over, and Adrien swallowed nervously, knowing this was his last chance to calm Marinette down. "Marinette I—"
"It's ok," she interrupted, squeezing his hand firmly as a determined look overtook her features. "I'll take care of it. Don't worry."
He sighed in relief, unable to say anything else as his father walked over and Marinette regrettably let go of his hand. The reassuring smile she gave him as he was wheeled out of the ER to get X-rays some time later made him sure he'd chosen well.
Marinette was freaking out. Sure, she'd been able to put on a brave face as she said goodbye to Adrien and had to explain to his father what exactly had happened. But her mind was in chaos trying to reconcile her polite, well-mannered, dorky and too pure for this world former crush with the goofy, flirty, supportive, and also very dorky superhero partner she'd definitely also fallen for.
She was so busy freaking out about Chat-drien that she didn't even have the time to panic about what she'd say before talking to Gabriel. She was half-convinced that he was going to find a way to blame her for this whole thing, because how dare she stand under a light that she'd had no reason to believe might fall on her and injure his son who'd saved her because he was a freaking superhero and holy shit he had definitely died for her before not that Gabriel knew that.
She left the hospital after updating Gabriel, although she'd rather have stayed. Gabriel was hardly a comforting presence for his son after all. But he'd all but dismissed her after he'd gotten her side of the story, and she figured Adrien didn't need the stress of her arguing with his father while he tried to heal. She'd asked if Gabriel would please update her when he had more information, and he'd only replied that Nathalie would add her to the email update she sent out later to those members of the company that had been at the shoot earlier. Marinette relied on every ounce of her self-control to keep her from snapping at Gabriel for lumping her in with his employees when Adrien was literally one of the most important people in her life, but she managed to keep it together. She left, hoping that Adrien would be able to send her a more detailed update soon.
She was also panicking a little about having to fight akumas for the next little while without Chat Noir at her side. Of course she'd make due with Rena Rouge for now—oh God, what was she supposed to tell Alya about this?—and some of the temporary heroes if needed. There was no question about giving the Black Cat Miraculous to anyone else. She could get through the next couple months of akuma attacks without him since she'd have to, but she wouldn't work with another Chat. That was out of the question.
Naturally, as soon as she got home and finished explaining the edited version of what had happened to her parents, she excused herself to lie face-down on her bed and scream into her pillow. The Kwamis all flew up to float around her, no doubt wondering if she was having some sort of mental breakdown.
"Is she crying?" Kaalki's voice inquired.
"No, I think she's just making angry sounds again," Barkk decided.
"Will it be like the time before, or was it the next time or the time that didn't actually happen?" Fluff asked, as usual making absolutely no sense as she mixed up her timelines.
Tikki giggled. "She's just having a lot of feelings, I think. Not all bad ones exactly, but a lot happened today. She found out who Chat Noir is, and he's injured, so he won't be able to help with akumas for the next little while. But I'm sure she's happy with who it is behind the mask, even if that's not exactly how she pictured him giving her a ring one day."
"Shit!" Marinette yelled, sitting up as she remembered the ring sitting in her purse. She hadn't been able to put it on of course, since combining it with the earrings was dangerous, but she needed to keep it safe until she could see Adrien again and give it back.
She descended from the loft and pulled the ring from the purse she'd tossed on her desk, then entered the passcode in the sewing box surrounding the Miracle Box. As soon as she set the ring down in the box, an irate Plagg popped out.
"I can't believe you took me away from my kitten," he said, green eyes narrowed and tiny arms crossed over his chest. "He's injured, and you left him alone with the man who seems to forget he exists until he needs something from him."
"I'm sorry, Plagg," she said, fixing the Kwami with a no-nonsense look. She'd learned over the past couple years of being the Guardian that she needed to be firm with the Kwamis or they'd try to get away with murder. Given that she now had the tiny God of destruction in her possession, that seemed especially important. Still, she understood where he was coming from. "I don't like it any more than you do, but I didn't have a choice. Gabriel was right there, and Adrien had to take off his ring for the X-rays. I promise I'll take you back as soon as I'm able to visit Adrien, ok?"
"Hmph." Plagg stuck his nose up in the air, then floated up beside Tikki. "You'd better at least get me some cheese."
She sighed. "Of course Plagg. I'll go see what I can find."
Over the next couple hours, Marinette sent Adrien several texts, waiting impatiently for some sort of response. Alya called to ask how the photoshoot had gone, so Marinette had given her a brief rundown of how things had turned out, minus the unexpected reveal. Then Alya had hung up to call Nino, since she was pretty sure nobody had told him about Adrien yet.
Mostly Marinette just lay on her bed, playing back the events of the day.
She'd been so distracted worrying over Adrien's injury and then by his confession that she hadn't even had a chance to process the events that had led up to it. So now that she had some time to breathe, she let her recollections of the day play through her mind.
The lights had already been set up when she and Adrien had arrived on the set, but nothing had seemed amiss at the time and she had no reason to assume that they hadn't been secured properly. Adrien had been familiar with all of the members of the camera crew since he'd worked with them before, and he'd had nothing but good things to say as he'd introduced her to them. Marinette hoped they wouldn't be fired for what had happened today.
Everything had gone according to plan during the first part of the shoot, so much so that Grace had been joking something was bound to fall to pieces any second, because things never went that smoothly. Clearly, she hadn't been wrong.
The moments leading up to the event were blurrier in Marinette's memory, likely due to the shock of everything. She'd been excitedly talking to Grace about the industry, something about the competition between the prominent European brands prior to the release of their spring lines. The camera crew had just finished adjusting the lighting for the next scene they were setting up, and the photographer had been taking a few test shots—
That's it, Marinette thought. If anything weird had gone on in the few minutes prior to the accident, maybe the photographer had caught it in one of his pictures. It was a long-shot, but maybe that in combination with whatever security cameras had been in the room could help put together what had happened.
She had her suspicions as to what had happened of course, particularly with the way a certain model named Lie-la had tried to accuse Marinette of having pushed Adrien into harm's way when the light fell. Of course, too many people had seen what had really happened for that accusation to stick, and Marinette had been too concerned about Adrien as they waited for the paramedics to show up to have even given it much thought at the time, but it had had set off some switch in her brain, reminding her to look into later.
Accusing Lila of something this serious wasn't something she would do without proof of course. But she sent a quick email to Nathalie suggesting that she follow up with the photographer to see if he'd caught anything strange, then went back to staring at her phone.
When it started to ring and Adrien's caller ID popped up she fumbled it so much she managed to drop it off the side of her loft. Thankfully, Plagg caught it before it hit the ground. He gave her an unimpressed look, which didn't phase her too much since it seemed to be his default expression really, then set the phone on her pillow. She grabbed it carefully, and answered the call, quickly putting it on speaker so that Tikki and Plagg could listen in. Thankfully the rest of the Kwamis had gone back into the miracle box, because she wasn't in the mood to deal with all of them.
"A-Adrien, h-hey!" she stuttered. She was glad this wasn't a video chat as she quietly smacked herself in the face for stumbling over her words. Why was knowing he was Chat suddenly making her act like she was fourteen again?
"Hey Princess," he said. She could practically hear the wink in his voice as he pulled out the nickname he'd given her civilian self that time they'd partnered up to take down Evillustrator. Hearing him greet her with his superhero persona made her giddy all over, but also calmed her. Suddenly his identity didn't seem so strange, it just felt right.
"How are you feeling, Kitty?"
"Hmmm...wonderful. I don't know why they tell us not to do drugs in school, Princess. I feel so good right now."
She couldn't help but laugh. "Different kinds of drugs, Kitty. But I'm glad they gave you the good stuff." He mumbled something in agreement that she didn't quite catch, and she had to stifle another laugh at how loopy he sounded. "Are you safe at home now?"
"No," he said, now sounding like he was pouting, "apparently it's not a clean break. They're keeping me overnight and in the morning they're going to operate."
"I'm sorry Kitty, I wish I could do something to help."
"Mmm, talking to you is helping Princess. You know...you're so beautiful, have I ever told you that?"
Her heart fluttered. "Look who's talking, handsome."
"Really? You think I'm pretty?"
Marinette snickered. "So pretty, hot stuff."
He let out a long, contented sigh. "Can you sneak into my hospital room tonight and visit? Plagg can help you sneak out. I want to see what you look like as a black cat."
She chuckled again, not mentioning that he'd already seen that. This clearly wasn't the time to come clean about her own identity, especially since she wasn't convinced he'd even remember this conversation in the morning.
"I'm not so sure your father would like that."
"Oh, he went home for the night," Adrien said, causing her stomach to roll in anger. What kind of father left his teenaged son alone in the hospital overnight?
She felt an overwhelming urge to rush over to his side, but she couldn't exactly show up as Ladybug before he knew, and she'd have a lot of explaining to do if someone caught her using the Black Cat Miraculous to visit him, so she hastily came up with another excuse.
"I don't think the nurses wouldn't be very happy if I snuck in. But I can keep talking to you for as long as you want."
"Until I fall asleep?"
"Yeah."
"That's so sweet. You're amazing. Remind me to tell you that more often. And beautiful. Did I say that already?"
"Heh. You did say it, but it's nice to hear again anyways"
"You're nice to hear again anyways," he parroted, then giggled.
She joined in on his laughter, wishing she'd thought to record this somehow to play back for him later. She was sure Plagg would never let him hear the end of it regardless.
When they fell back into silence, she was struck with the realization of just how much he meant to her, especially since she'd realized the two most important boys in her life were one and the same.
"You're my hero, you know that?" she whispered through the phone.
"Really? Not Ladybug?"
"Eh. She's alright."
"Pssssh, Princess. She's amazing. But so are you. So amazing. I guess that's why I love you so much."
Marinette's heart skipped a beat. "Oh yeah?" she said. Did he mean it the way it sounded, or was she reading too much into it?
"Yeah. I really, really, really love you Mari. I think I'm allowed to say that. Friends say that to each other, right?"
She tried to ignore how her heart sank. "Yeah. Yeah they do, Kitty. I love you too."
"That's good. Because—" he was cut off by a yawn "—I have a secret for you Princess."
"Yeah? What is it?" she asked, trying not to let her voice break.
"I love you like more than a friend too. I've just been too scared to tell you."
The disappointment she'd felt moments before was wiped away in an instant, and she was bursting with euphoria again. She wanted to laugh at how ridiculous it was. After all, they'd both done the same thing—fallen for each other twice. But he didn't know that, and laughing might make him feel bad.
So instead she just said, "I love you like that too, mon minou." A moment of silence stretched between them. "Kitty? You still there?" Silence. "Chaton?"
A few seconds later she picked up on soft snores coming through the phone, and she laughed quietly as she ended the call. She really did love that boy. She'd just have to tell him again when she saw him.
Adrien wasn't released from the hospital until late in the evening the day after his accident, at which point he was still so hopped up on painkillers that Nathalie barely managed to get him settled in his bed before he passed out. It wasn't until the next day that he felt vaguely like a human again, and after nibbling on a bit of the breakfast that had been brought up to his room he sat up in bed, cast propped up on a bunch of pillows, swiping through his phone trying to catch up on the messages he'd missed. He smiled as he read through the messages Marinette had sent, and had decided to call and check in on her rather than relying on messages when a voice sounded from his slightly ajar doorway.
"Knock, knock," said Marinette. A second later her smiling face popped out from behind the door.
"Hey Princess. Come on in."
"Don't mind if I do."
She walked in and sat beside him on the empty half of his bed, opposite from his injured leg. As soon as she'd settled herself she leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and yeah...he could definitely get used to that. She was blushing a little as she pulled away.
"Are you real?" He asked, making her laugh. "No really. I kind of can't believe my father actually let you in."
"Ah. Well I'm not entirely sure he knows I'm here. Nathalie let me in with strict instructions to be as quiet as possible on my way up, so I think she's covering for me."
"Huh. Well that's...nice of her I guess." And pretty rude of his dad, considering Adrien hadn't seen him once since he'd gotten back, and the least he could have done was allow him some company, but whatever. Adrien was used to it.
"Oh!" Marinette said suddenly, rifling around in her bag. She pulled out a box of macarons. "I brought you these—they're passionfruit! Nathalie said you hadn't really gotten back your appetite since the surgery, but I'll leave them with you now so you have them when you're feeling up to it."
"Thanks," Adrien beamed. "You're amazing."
"Heh. You said that on the phone the other night. A few times actually."
"Oh." Oh no. "Um...I didn't uh...I mean...what else did I say exactly?"
She smirked. "Nothing much really." She tapped a finger to her lips. "Although I do remember a little something about how you really, really, really loved me."
Oh shit. "Ah...well I um...I do. But uh...look, I hadn't really planned on telling you, and I totally understand if you don't feel the same wa—"
"Who said I didn't?" She said, her voice soft. The look in her eyes was somehow softer. "I love you too, Adrien." Adrien swallowed. She leaned in closer, her lips tickling his ear. "Can I kiss you better?" she whispered.
She pulled back to look at him, and he just nodded dumbly. A second later her lips pressed to his. It was a quick peck at first, testing the waters. Their foreheads pressed together a moment as they took each other in, and she placed a careful hand on his chest without putting any weight on him. His hand moved to wrap around her other wrist on the bed beside him, and their mouths met once more.
Their lips parted together, crashing into each other a little until they found a rhythm and started moving in sync. Her tongue slipped into his mouth. His tongue teased the edge of her lips, taking delight in the taste of her fruity lip gloss. Her fingers trailed softly up his chest and sent a chill through his entire body.
He forgot for a moment that a world outside of the two of them existed. All he wanted was to pull her closer, to never let her go. He leaned in further, trying to angle his body towards her, until—
"Ow," he hissed, and she sprung away from him.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!"
He clenched his teeth together, trying to ignore the sharp pain shooting through his ankle. "Not your fault. I got caught up in the moment. Forgot I probably shouldn't be moving my leg around too much right now."
She smiled sympathetically. "I guess we should hold off on the physical activity for a bit, hey?"
"I guess so," he said sadly. "But I totally want to try that again soon."
She grinned. "Of course, Kitty."
He looked to the hand where his ring usually rested. "Shouldn't I be calling you that right now?"
"Right. About that…" She opened her purse and pulled out his ring, then pressed it into his palm and curled his fingers around it, mirroring the way he'd passed it to her a couple days previously. "Ladybug wants you to keep it."
"She does? But what if she needs Cataclysm for something?"
Marinette laid a hand on his cheek, a tentative sort of smile on her face. "Kitty, do you really think I keep you around for your Cataclysm? You're my partner, and I love you. Nobody else could ever be my Chat Noir."
He stared at her in shock, momentarily forgetting how his voice worked. He opened his mouth to say something, then shut it. Opened it. Shut it again. Open. Shut. Open. Shut. Openshutopenshutopenshut.
Finally, his brain caught up to his lips. "M'lady?"
"Yeah. It's me, mon minou."
"You're telling me...I got over you...just to fall in love with you all over again?"
"I guess so."
"Wow. I really have a type, don't I?"
She giggled. "Yeah. I guess I do too."
"Huh." He fell silent, letting the truth settle in for a while. It wasn't all that surprising in retrospect, thinking about all of the wonderful qualities that the woman beside him possessed. Ladybug's passion. Marinette's creativity. Ladybug's confidence. Marinette's goodness. The way that both of them felt like home .
"Wait…" he said after some time. "When you said you have a type, you did mean me, right?"
She cuddled up next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. "Silly Kitty. As if there could be anyone else."
Marinette sat at her desk before her morning literature class the Monday after the photoshoot incident, half-dead and wondering if she could transform and use her Lucky Charm to summon more coffee now that her cup was empty. She was lucky that this was the only class she shared with Lila in their last year of Lycée, but she doubted that all the coffee in the world would be enough to give her the patience she needed to get through it. At least she hadn't shown up yet, so Marinette could enjoy a few last minutes of peace.
There was an open investigation for the incident, but apparently the police were allergic to working on the weekend or something, so nothing had actually happened yet, and Marinette had no clue if they'd have enough evidence to pin the blame on Lila or not. After talking things over with Adrien though, and comparing notes about the things they'd noticed about Lila's behaviour throughout the shoot, they were both convinced she was at fault.
Then Chloé walked into class holding two cups of coffee, one of which she placed in front of Marinette, and sank into the seat next to her.
Marinette stared at the coffee in awe. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I'm actually a little in love with you right now."
"Whatever, Dupain-Cheng. I just heard you had a rough weekend."
Marinette smiled, took a sip of the coffee, and fell silent again. She didn't think she was ever going to get used to the weird truce she had going on with Chloé at the moment, but it did pay off in these rare moments. And if she was honest, sometimes Chloé's snide comments during class were entertaining.
At the beginning of the year, the blonde girl had taken one look around the literature class, her eyes lingering a little on Lila sitting near the front and Marinette scowling from a few rows back. She'd walked straight up to Marinette and told her that the only way they were making it through the year was by setting aside their differences and putting up a joint front against Lila. Since nobody else in the class had attended Collège Françoise Dupont and witnessed the way Lila's lies had been exposed near the end of collège, Marinette had accepted the offer. The enemy of your enemy was your friend, after all.
Chloé's choice of seatmate had shocked a couple of the girls who were acquaintances of sorts with some of Chloé's mean girl friends, but Chloé didn't seem to care much about their reactions. In fact, as the year had gone on and Chloé had started opening up more, Marinette had learned that Chloé wasn't really even friends with the other mean girls. She just thought it was a smart tactical move to keep the girls who'd be likely to screw her over close, so that she could learn their secrets and hold power over them if they ever came for her. Luckily Lila was the exception to that, since she was too much of a snake for Chloé to pretend to like.
Although Marinette found Chloé's motivation in choosing "friends" to be slightly diabolical, she had to begrudgingly accept that it was also smart. And from what she'd observed, Chloé didn't actually use the dirt she'd gathered unless someone else came at her first. She'd stopped seeking out attention at other people's expense so much as they'd gotten older. Whether that was due to Zoé's influence—the two sisters had definitely grown closer although they'd never be on the same wavelength exactly—or some other factor, Marinette didn't know, but she knew she was glad to have Chloé's support when Lila walked in a minute or so later.
As soon as she appeared, a group of girls flocked to her immediately, mostly the ones who were friendly with Chloé's so-called friends. The news of Adrien's accident had somehow made it into the tabloids, and of course Lila made no secret of the fact that she worked for Gabriel from time to time and therefore was super close to Adrien. Obviously the last part was a lie, but the other girls ate it up.
"Lila, oh my God, how are you? How's Adrien?" asked one girl whose ponytail was somehow even higher than the pitch of her voice.
"Oh, you're so sweet for asking. It was so hard seeing him in pain, you know? But I've been by his side the entire time, and he's been so grateful to have me there…"
Marinette was silently shaking in her seat as she tried to tune out the rest of Lila's fake sob story, but she didn't dare to speak her mind. If she engaged with Lila today, she was definitely going to punch her in the face, and getting expelled with only a few months left of school didn't really sound all that appealing. Chloé however, opted not to be quiet. She let out a loud snort, causing the group of girls to turn towards her.
"If you girls really want to know how Adrien is, you should ask his new girlfriend," said Chloé, gesturing a well-manicured hand in Marinette's direction. "I can guarantee that Lila hasn't been near him this weekend, since Adrien can't stand her, and oh yeah! She's likely the one who pulled that little stunt that landed him in the hospital in the first place."
Marinette hadn't known Adrien had even told Chloé about their relationship status and Lila's presumed role in things, but she couldn't complain when her outburst made the group turn to look at Marinette with varying degrees of shock playing over their faces.
"Chloé, I can't believe y-you. Why w-would you say that about m-me?"
The blonde stood and slammed her palms against her desk. "Because I won't stand by and listen to psychopathic liar who tries to hurt my friends."
Before Lila could respond, the teacher walked into the class and made everyone take their seats. She was a no-nonsense kind of woman, who had always seemed to be able to read Lila's bullshit from the beginning, and paid no attention to the forced tears running down her cheeks now.
"Friends, huh?" Marinette teased quietly as the teacher started up the lesson. "Like friends, plural? As in me too?"
"Shut up," Chloé mumbled, glaring at her playfully. "It's called trauma bonding. From being stuck with you in this prison of a class all year."
"Aaaw, come on Chlo. You even brought me coffee this morning. You have to admit it, you liiiiiike me."
"No I don't," she insisted, poorly concealing a smile. She looked back to the front of the class, and Marinette almost missed it when she quietly added, "I don't have to admit it, at least."
By lunch that day, the rumour that Marinette was dating Adrien had already spread around most of the school. As she sat with Alya and Nino at a picnic table in front of the school, it was hard to ignore the looks everyone was shooting in her direction.
Alya picked at her salad dejectedly. "I can't believe all the fangirls found out that you and Adrien got together before I did."
"I'm sorry Alya! I wasn't going to say anything, Adrien and I wanted to tell you guys together, but then Lila was being Lila, and Chloé got pissed off, and—."
"I know, girl. I know. I'm not mad, just disappointed. But also super happy my second favourite ship has sailed."
"Oh, only your second?" Marinette teased, knowing perfectly well that her first ship had also gotten together, and that Alya was going to flip out when she found out about that .
"Well yeah. But I suppose that at this point LadyNoir is never going to happen."
"Never say never," Marinette mumbled, suppressing her urge to laugh.
She only realized she'd spoken loud enough to be heard when Alya started choking on a crouton. Oh shit, Marinette thought as Nino started whacking Alya on the back. Adrien's going to kill me.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"
"NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING."
Nino looked between the two of them in confusion. "What's going on?"
"Nothing," Alya said, even though she was practically vibrating in her seat. "I'm just so happy for Mari and Adrien."
A lot of unexpected things had happened to Adrien over the past four years or so—such was the life of one of Paris's favourite heroes. But Rena Rouge showing up unannounced to his room in the middle of the night might have taken the cake.
A soft thump as she landed on the floor inside his open window alerted him to her presence, and he turned around in his bed, inasmuch as he could with his injured ankle surrounded by a mountain of pillows. He watched her walk over, arms crossed tightly across her chest as she glared at him. And while normally he and Rena got along pretty well, the look on her face was absolutely terrifying.
He gulped nervously. "Um...hi. Can I help you?"
"I don't know, Chat Noir, can you?"
"You uh...how did you know?"
"I think we'll skip over that part for now. I was just wondering why you didn't turn up to the akuma fight earlier today."
"Oh." He looked down to the foot of his bed, realizing his blanket was covering his cast. "Ladybug didn't tell you?"
"She mentioned something about you not being able to make it, but I'm here trying to figure out exactly why."
"Oh, well—"
"You see," she interrupted, "She also told me something else interesting. You know what that was?"
"Um…"
"She said she was seeing somebody. Did you know about that?"
"Uuuuh...Yeah. I do know about that." Hard not to when he was the one she was dating. He couldn't figure out how that related to Rena's visit though.
"So what? You just decided not to show up because you're jealous?"
"What?!" Where on Earth had she gotten that idea? He barely even flirted with Ladybug these days. True, that would probably change once he was back on his feet again, but still..."I'm not jealous!"
"Oh no? How do I know I can trust you?"
"Be-Because I—" he broke off when he realized that Rena had burst into laughter. She was shaking so hard she'd bent over and was leaning on the edge of his bed for support.
"Aw man, Sunshine," she said when she managed to catch her breath. "You should have seen your face."
Wait... Sunshine? The only person who called him that was…
"Alya?"
"Duh. Who else would Marinette have trusted to join her team full time?"
"Yeah. I hadn't really been thinking about that much."
"Oh no? Got other things on your mind then, lover boy?" Rena—Alya—grinned.
He felt himself blushing. "Kind of, yeah. I mean Marinette told me that you knew her identity, but she didn't tell me you were...you know. I guess in retrospect that was pretty obvious."
Just then, another thump sounded near the window, and Adrien craned his neck around to see Ladybug standing there, hands on her hips.
"Alya," she said in an exasperated tone, "I leave you alone in my room for five minutes while I help out my parents and I come back to find that you've disappeared to do exactly what I told you not to do."
"Mari, come oooon. It was hilarious. What's the point of being superheroes if we can't have a little fun?"
"The point is saving Paris," she said, walking over to stand next to her friend. She smiled at Adrien.
"Well yeah, officially, but—"
"Was there even an akuma today?" Adrien interrupted.
"No," admitted Rena.
"Alya!" Ladybug slapped her friend playfully on the arm then crawled across the bed to snuggle in next to Adrien. "What did you even say to him? You traumatized the poor boy."
"What? I just wanted him to know what he'll be up against if he ever hurts you."
"Psh. Like he'd do that. And besides, I can take care of myself."
"I know that." Rena took a seat near the foot of the bed. "But it's my duty as your best friend to make sure you don't have to."
Adrien crossed his arms across his chest, feigning indignation. "And who's supposed to defend my honour? I can't believe you told Alya about us, we were supposed to do that together," he whined. He actually was a bit disappointed he'd missed out on that.
"Ah, well," Rena said, "that was kind of Chloé's fault."
"Chloé told Alya that I'm Chat Noir?"
"No, that part was me," Marinette said, "but I didn't think Alya would hear. Sorry mon minou."
He smirked, meeting her eyes. "Well, I can think of a couple ways that you can make it up to me?"
"Oh yeah?" She shifted onto her knees, leaning forward to meet his lips with her own. "Maybe you can make a few things up to me too, then," she whispered.
"And, that's my cue to leave," Rena said, standing up. "Hope you get well soon, Sunshine. Saving Paris isn't going to be the same without you."
Adrien tore his eyes away from Marinette's and held out a fist towards Rena. A moment later, two gloved fists joined his in a triangle.
"Pound it," the three of them said in unison, before Rena flew off into the night, leaving the other two heroes a little time for making out with making things up to each other.
"Stop laughing."
"I'm not!" Marinette protested, but as soon as Adrien looked her in the eyes she burst into giggles again.
"Seriously, Bug, you wound me."
"I'm sorry! It's just that you've spent the last four years running across the rooftops of Paris and bounding across the city with a baton, yet in the last five minutes on those crutches you've only managed to make it up eight steps."
"It's harder than it looks! I'd like to see you try, miss maladroit."
She sighed. "You could at least let me take your bag so it doesn't keep getting in your way."
"I'm not some damsel in distress, I can carry my own bag."
"Alright fine, but I'd like to get to class some time today. I have enough lates on my record already."
He made it up one more stair before he let out an exaggerated sigh, realizing he was only halfway to the entrance of the school. When Nathalie had said his father was allowing him to go back to school today, he really hadn't factored in the stairs. To get down the steps at the mansion he'd sat on the ground and shuffled his way down awkwardly, but there was no way his father was going to tolerate that sort of behaviour in public.
He balanced himself on one crutch and slid the strap of his messenger bag off of his shoulder. "Just take it."
Marinette smiled as she pulled the strap over her head. "Don't worry. You make a very handsome damsel."
He snorted, but managed to get the rest of the way up the steps in about half the time as it had for the first half. When they made it inside, they noticed a larger than normal crowd gathered inside the entrance.
"Do you have any idea what's going on?" he asked.
"Nope, but people are looking at us, so maybe—" she broke off as the crowd of students in front of them parted, revealing a pair of police officers escorting one handcuffed Lila Rossi down the hallway.
"Woah," Marinette said. "They're actually charging her. Is it wrong that this feels a little like Christmas?"
Adrien thought back to the fear that had run through him when he'd seen Marinette's life flash in front of his eyes. "Nah. She deserves this."
Marinette leaned a head on his shoulder as they watched their nemesis being ushered out of the building. Adrien didn't miss the glare Lila sent their way as she passed them, but he couldn't bring himself to care. She would be out of their hair now, and they were...well, about as safe as two superheroes could be.
"Well," said Adrien when she'd walked through the doors and the hush that had fallen over the entryway had started to break apart into regular conversations, "aren't you glad that I took so long to make it up the steps this morning? If I'd been any faster we might have missed the show."
Marinette rolled her eyes fondly. "Yes. I'll be forever in your debt for that, Chaton."
Life was pretty different for Adrien over the next few weeks. At first, he'd had a lot of homework to catch up on after missing nearly a week of school, but once he'd done that he'd been gifted with an unexpected amount of free time. His photoshoots and fencing lessons had been cancelled for the foreseeable future since he couldn't exactly walk, and he no longer took mandarin lessons since he'd become business fluent, so there was only the occasional piano lesson breaking up the free time in his calendar.
Aside from wishing he could get better so he could get back to being Chat Noir, he was very much enjoying the free time. And it had given him a lot of time to think. One night, while he was cuddled up with Marinette in the chair on her balcony, he decided to put one of his thoughts into words.
"I want to move out of my father's house," he said. "As soon as I turn eighteen."
Marinette's eyes widened in surprise. "I can't exactly blame you, but...that's less than a month away."
"I know." He sighed. "I mean, I get that I can't do it that soon. Especially when I can't even walk right now, but I just wish that I could."
Marinette pulled out of his arms, sitting up and twisting to stare down into his eyes. Then she stood and started pacing slowly across her deck.
"Bug?"
"I'm thinking." He fell silent, watching her work things through. Seeing her work through a puzzle was one of his favourite things. A while later she started nodding and turned back to him. "Ok. We can make that work."
"We? You're going to help?"
"Of course." She shot him an amused look as she sat back down beside him. "I highly doubt you know what you need to buy to stock an apartment."
"Hey, I resent that. Just because I'm a rich boy doesn't mean I don't have a brain. I'll have you know that I've done my research." He pulled out his phone. "I even made a list of all the things I'd need. It's very organized, with different sections for furniture, bathroom stuff, kitchen stuff, and even a very long list of cheeses to stock that Plagg made me include."
She laughed. "Alright, alright. Let me see." She perused the list for a few minutes, letting out a soft chuckle or small eye-roll every now and then, but eventually nodded. "Not bad. You should probably add toilet paper though."
"Oh. Right. Would be pretty shitty to forget that" He took back the phone and added it in, smiling in spite of the glare he could feel her shooting in his direction. "Done. Do you really think I can do this though? How do I even find a place that fast?"
"Well...it might not be easy, but it's definitely possible. I'm not going to pretend to know how much money you have set aside from your modeling, but I'm assuming it's no small sum, so it's not like you won't have options. And I'm sure my parents would be willing to give you some pointers on what to look for in a place, since I imagine your father won't be all that helpful."
"No kidding. He wouldn't even let me out of my room if he had a choice, you think he's going to encourage me to move out?"
She gave him a sympathetic smile, then returned to planning. "Once you have a place you just need to arrange for furniture to be delivered and then you can move your stuff over gradually. As long as you have a mattress for the first night you should be good, really, but we can try to get as much stuff set up to arrive on your move-in day as possible. And don't worry about the crutches. Alya, Nino and I will help with the boxes. You can think of it as an extra birthday present if that makes you feel better, but really it's no big deal. We just want you to be happy."
He smiled at her, at the woman who'd become his entire world. Maybe they'd only been dating for a few weeks, but he already couldn't imagine a life without her. He could easily imagine all of the things their future had in store for them. They were starting university in the fall, having already been accepted to their schools of choice. Eventually she'd become an amazing designer, and he'd figure out exactly what it was that he wanted to do with his life. They'd defeat Shadow Moth one day. He'd ask her to marry him. They'd have a family. Two or three kids running around and driving them crazy but always smiling happily when they'd walk through the door after a long day at work. Most of all, they'd have each other.
"I am happy, Buginette." He wished he had the words to properly explain to her just how happy he was.
"Alright dude," came Nino's voice from the doorway leading into Adrien's new apartment. A series of thumps followed his words, and when Adrien hobbled over on his crutches to greet his friends he saw three last boxes sitting in front of them. "You're officially moved in."
"And I'm officially dead on my feet," Alya said. "Nobody had better expect me to do anything else productive for the rest of today. I'm not lifting another finger."
Marinette and Alya exchanged a meaningful look, which Adrien roughly translated to, "If Shadow Moth has the audacity to send out an akuma today, we're going to track him down and kill him with our bare hands."
Marinette walked towards Adrien wearily and wrapped her arms around his waist. "How are you enjoying your new home?"
"I love it. And you guys are amazing. Seriously, I can't thank you enough. You're all incredible."
"What about me?" sounded an annoyed voice from the kitchen.
"Chloé, you barely even helped," Marinette pointed out. "You carried like two boxes." Her jab was good-humoured, which Adrien still found strange. Even stranger was the fact that Marinette had been the one to invite Chloé over to help out today. If Adrien thought about it too hard, he had to admit that their newfound friendship terrified him a little. It somehow had the potential both to be a powerful source of good in the Universe and to completely implode and rip the world to shreds.
Chloé scowled. "I was keeping Adrien company. Besides, I made lunch. Which is quite impressive considering I spent half of my prep time unpacking kitchen supplies."
"What she means is that she kept handing me packages to open," Adrien said, "but she's right about the other part. She did cook."
"Are we sure it's edible?" Alya muttered so Chloé couldn't hear, making Nino snicker.
"It's fine." Adrien said. "I made her stop putting the poison in before she reached the lethal dose."
Nino laughed. "I still can't believe she cooks. Where on Earth did she learn that?"
Marinette shrugged. "Apparently her ex-girlfriend was a chef. Sensitive topic, so don't bring it up, but now Chloé makes the best boeuf bourguignon I've ever had, so I'm not complaining."
Alya looked to Marinette, shaking her head disbelievingly. "I can't believe we live in a world where Chloé has cooked for you multiple times."
"Well, I'm not totally ruling out the possibility that she's been replaced with a very realistic sentimonster, but if she has I think I'm going to keep this model. I mean do you smell that? She made garlic bread."
They all laughed as they walked into the kitchen, marvelling at the paths their lives had taken.
"I'm not saying it."
"Come on, Princess. You have to." Adrien whined, balancing on his crutches in front of the laptop they'd set up for karaoke. Night had fallen after hours of the group helping Adrien unpack and assemble furniture, and now they were lazily lounging around a few half-eaten pizzas.
Marinette rolled her eyes, leaning against the back of the couch and putting her feet up on boxes they were using as a makeshift coffee table. "I already said good luck."
"That's not what I wanted you to say," he pouted.
"You're being ridiculous." Chloe's voice sounded from the beanbag chair she occupied in the corner of the room. "Utterly ridiculous. I can't believe I let you convince me to hang out with you guys."
Marinette shot Chloé a pointed look. "Well, I can't believe that you have a secret love of karaoke and all but begged us to let you stay."
"It's not my fault! What else do you think Adrien and I had to do when we were kids and our parents abandoned us together for boring dinner parties all the time?"
Alya snorted from her spot on the loveseat beside Nino. "I can't believe I'm actually watching Chloé Bourgeois eat pizza from a paper plate."
"Ok, you know what, Césaire—"
"Oi! Stop bickering." Adrien waved one of his crutches in the air to get everyone's attention. "Now, Marinette...I'm waiting."
"No."
"It's just one little pun."
"Absolutely not. You're only supposed to say it to theatre performers."
"That's not true. It's applicable to any type of performing art."
"Not karaoke."
"Come on, you know you love me," he pleaded, looking at her with kitty cat eyes. "Pleeeease?"
Marinette crossed her arms across her chest. Adrien stared innocently back. She raised her eyebrows. He one-upped her, raising a singular eyebrow, because of course she'd made the mistake of telling him how jealous she was of that particular skill. She tried to scowl at him, but he just laughed. Finally she narrowed her eyes. He blew her a kiss.
"Fine," she huffed, trying not to smile as he broke into a triumphant fist bump. "Break a leg."