Going Public
"Wait a minute. You're doing what!?"
Alya stared hard at Marinette, mouth hanging open and disbelief evident in her expression. Her eyes were practically saucers as they widened further and further the longer her best friend remained silent.
Marinette swiftly let out the stale breath she was holding and quickly gulped in another, hoping oxygen would kick-start her confidence. Her chest tightened and a familiar queasiness unsettled her stomach as she mentally braced herself for the rest of the conversation to follow. "I'm...um, dating Adrien now," she said with as much conviction as she had left in her, which was actually about as strong as a piece of paper. A really wet piece of paper. With a pen stabbed through it.
Alya's jaw opened and closed a few times as she floundered for words. As her eyes narrowed and her brows pulled together, Marinette suddenly felt like she was attempting to swallow a rather large, rough stone which was caught in her throat. She gulped and the sandpaper sensation refused to go away but she could almost feel the stone drop heavily to the bottom of her stomach.
"Yeah, I thought you said that," Alya said in a dangerously low voice, "What the hell, Marinette!?" Said girl watched as her best friend eyes flared and she raised her voice, "What about Chat!?"
"Alya! Keep your voice down," Marinette said in a whisper-shout, hands waving out in front of her and head swivelling around to make sure no one was paying them any attention. She hadn't been able to secure a free room during their break like she'd initially planned as M. Francois had taken it upon himself to stand at the top of stairs, policing classroom loiterers. She had wondered if there was an available promotion he was hoping for and mentally wished him luck, but now - stuck in the corner of the quad and praying no one had been attracted by Alya's use of Adrien's hero name, - she couldn't help but curse him a little too.
"I'll be quiet when you start explaining," Alya said, face all fury and arms crossed tightly over her chest, her flesh paling from the tension where her arms met.
"Okay," Marinette said, despite the fact that she felt anything but okay. She was almost sure she was going to puke, though that may have just been her dramatic side trying to talk her down. After all, there was no way she could pull this off. If only she could have had Adrien with her while she talked. He'd be able to calm her down with his soft smiles and reassuring elbow touches. She glanced across the quad surreptitiously to see him apparently chatting with Nino in the far corner. Every few moments, however, he glanced up in a not so subtle attempt to decipher how her conversation was going without giving himself away to his own best friend.
Internally, Marinette sighed. This wasn't Adrien's talk to have. She was just going to have to Woman Up (trademark to Alya) and do this. She took a huge inhale of breath, turned back to give Alya her full attention, and bit the bullet. "I'm still dating Chat," she said, voice muffled by the lip she was chewing anxiously.
Alya's eyes only narrowed further in suspicion. "Uh huh...And does Chat know about this? Does Adrien know about Chat? Not only is cheating wrong M, but you do know Adrien would want to come up to your room at some point, right? The same room that Chat spends practically every second he's not fighting Akuma in? You're going to get caught and break his heart, you hear me!?"
"Alya, Alya, wait! You don't understand!" Marinette's hands moved from place to place as she flapped them around in order to gesture somehow at what she meant, "I'm dating both of them, and they both know I'm dating both of them!" She finished with a flourish towards the other side of the quad where Adrien was clearly pretending not to notice.
Alya's eyes slowly widened and her eyebrows lifted up to meet her hairline in surprise before returning to their previous alignment, this time a confused pout accompanying them. "Adrien-" -she pointed at the boy who was openly watching them now as Nino looked over with confusion of his own- "-knows? About Chat?" Marinette nodded. "And Chat...is okay with...him?"
Marinette launched into her well-rehearsed story concerning her new relationship status - the one she'd tried to use on her parents on Saturday evening before they'd dropped their knowledge bomb on her. She explained that Adrien had admitted to Marinette that he'd liked her ever since she'd confessed her feelings for him all those months ago. She told her about talking it over with Chat and his admission that much the same thing had happened with Ladybug. She went into depth on how laughing about it had then turned to jokes about dating both of their loves before, finally, it had become a serious discussion. She hated every second of her own lies, but she had to remain convincing for the sake of their identities.
After telling Alya that Adrien had been brought into the know about her and Chat's relationship and that he and Ladybug had then been asked their opinion on some sort of poly arrangement, Marinette slumped against the wall to her side, sliding slowly until she was sitting in a heap on the floor. "So I'm dating two people, and so is Chat," she concluded.
"And everyone's...okay with this?" Alya said incredulously. Marinette nodded. It was the best she could do now that the adrenaline had gone and she was left with nothing but exhaustion and nerves. "Is this why Adrien can't stop looking at us?"
Marinette glanced up to see her boyfriend watching her again, his neck craning awkwardly until he noticed that he had been spotted. He pretended to be stretching and turned his head away just in time to see the dirty look his clearly confused and annoyed best friend was throwing him. "He wanted to tell everyone we were dating right away," she said with an amused smile, "I told him he had to wait until you knew, because - well, you know about me and Chat. He knows how worried I was to tell you."
Alya watched the tender look that passed over Marinette's eyes as she observed Adrien and in turn his loving glance when he saw her smiling softly at him. "This is really happening, isn't it?" she said, looking back and forth for a moment, "You two are actually really into each other. And you're not even breaking up my new favourite ship 'cause Chat's here to stay too."
"And you'll probably catch a little LadyNoir at times too." Marinette's smile dropped. "Is that okay with you?" she asked hesitantly from her spot on the ground. This was the moment when she found out if Alya was not only buying this but if she would be accepting of it. She desperately wanted to believe in her best friend, but this arrangement she was describing was far from traditional.
She need not have worried, as Alya smiled. "As long as no one's getting hurt, all I care about is that grin, girl. Come on, show me those chompers." Marinette did smile at that and she turned slightly, giving a subtle nod to Adrien, who instantly grabbed Nino's arm as Marinette snickered.
Alya's voice suddenly penetrated her calm thoughts, "So, who gets to tell Chloé?"
It was barely thirty seconds after Marinette nodded to go ahead that Adrien was finally splurging to Nino that Marinette was his girlfriend. His friend was unsurprisingly shocked at the turn of events but thankfully he didn't know about Chat's part in their relationship so there were fewer awkward questions and the rest only needed tweaking instead of outright lying to answer.
After all, he wasn't exactly lying when he said Marinette's confession all those months ago had made him consider her differently. He just had to omit that part where he had started to hang out with her on the weekends, then the odd weekday and eventually every night. He couldn't quite explain how he had slowly fallen for the more relaxed yet confident version of Marinette everyone else saw because she had been willing to show that part of herself to Chat Noir. So instead he told him it had simply been on his mind for a while and Marinette's behaviour had changed enough around him for him to realise how much he cared for her over the past eight months.
When Nino's surprise wore off, it was already time to start heading to class, so the girls joined their boyfriends and the four of them walked back together. Naturally, the topic quickly turned to how to tell the rest of their classmates that the Adrinette thing (another Alya trademark) was happening.
"I still think it's no one else's business," Marinette said, "Let's just keep it quiet but not hide anything. They can work it out for themselves."
"Nuh uh," Alya added, Nino's arm slung around her shoulders and her hand grasping his wrist, elbow swinging playfully, "We go in - full guns blazing. We make such a spectacle of this that their grandkids will be asking to hear the story."
"As much fun as that would be," Adrien said, "I liked Nino's idea best."
"What was Nino's idea?" Alya asked, head twisting to look at her boyfriend.
"He thinks we just go in, subtle but obvious-" -he slipped his hand into Marinette's as he spoke, their fingers intertwining comfortably- "-and Alya and me switch seats so we're together. Then we can just act all...all...what word did you use?"
"Smitten," Nino said, "It's my grandma's word. I've never used it before but somehow I think it fits you two."
"So basically, the two of you are just going to flirt until people catch on," Alya concluded.
"Yeah," Adrien said, "That okay with you 'Nette?" She nodded, nervous at his use of her nickname, a faint blush staining her face from the unfamiliarity of being openly together in public for the first time. She was so busy gazing shyly at Adrien that she missed Alya's raised eyebrow.
"I should've asked earlier, but just how long has this...thing been a thing?" Alya asked drawing the attention of the rest of the group, "You two seem a little too cosy for a weekend romance."
Marinette and Adrien both froze for a half-second as they realised their mistake. It was Marinette who came to her senses fastest. "A week?" she answered a little unconvincingly at first until she saw the strange looks Nino and Alya were throwing them, at which point she doubled down and put on a fake air of confidence. "We discussed it all and worked it out a week ago," she said using a little emphasis for Alya to extrapolate details from without giving the rest away to Nino, "And I guess having gotten my confession out of the way months ago meant I was over my shy, awkward phase of it – at least when there's no one else around to judge."
"And I may be a little too enthusiastic for affection," Adrien added, "It was unexpected but totally wanted."
"Oh my God," Nino said suddenly, laughing, "She jumped you! She totally dove right past the awkward stuff and had you two making out immediately, didn't you Mar?"
Marinette sputtered. As embarrassing as it was, that was actually a good cover story. But oh my God! How mortifying! Marinette gritted her teeth. "No comment!" she squealed as she pulled ahead to make her way through the classroom door, Adrien snickering a little as she dragged him along by the hand and the other two smirking knowingly in her direction.
She quickly made her way to her seat and sat down, Adrien following behind and taking the space next to her on the bench, never once breaking their hands until he needed to lift his bag strap over his head. Marinette kept her flushed face low as he rummaged in his bag for his things, the other half of their group sitting in front of them and turning to show their support on the new seating arrangement with a teasing grin.
"Damn," Adrien said suddenly from her left, "Do you have a pen? I think mine has exploded in there. Almost like someone was chewing on it." His voice was chiding and he glared into his bag at the mess as he spoke. She smiled affectionately as she realised this must be his everyday way of trying to shame Plagg for his unruly behaviour when he couldn't openly get annoyed with him. It warmed her heart to see her kitties acting like dysfunctional siblings.
"Sure," she said, taking out a spare for him and placing it on his desk with a smile, "Sorry, the casing's pink, but it writes in black."
He picked the pen up with his left hand, spinning it around his fingers in a very showy way that was completely unnecessary and before she'd even finished rolling her eyes, he'd used his right arm to pull her in by the waist, surprising her by placing a sweet kiss atop her head. "Thanks, 'Nette. You're the best."
There was a sudden, excited squeal from the other side of the room and both teens turned -Adrien's arm still around Marinette- to see the whole class watching them in varying levels of surprise and elation. Rose appeared to have been the one to have squealed, her hands clasped tightly in front of her chest and a giddy bounce in the way she sat upon the bench showing her utter joy.
"Are you two together!?" she squeaked out, bouncing even more than before, "Because that would just be amazing! You're sssooo adorable!"
Marinette found herself blushing heavily again, despite the embarrassed grin that forced it's way onto her face as the blonde girl spoke. She nodded shyly and found herself pulled back against Adrien suddenly when an onslaught by the class began. He tightened his grip on her waist, using both hands to press his chest against her back as everyone made their way towards their bench, surrounding them in an explosion of questions that were suddenly very overwhelming for her. Adrien instantly took over the talking and answered for the both of them, being attuned enough to Marinette's bouts of anxiety now that he could see when she needed the time to collect herself.
Eventually, their classmates began to back off, Nino having to make a few choice comments on giving people personal space for it to happen and actually giving a not-so-subtle shove to Kim's shoulder when he didn't get the memo. As people moved away to their seats, Adrien abruptly realised that he hadn't spotted Chloé. He looked towards her seat and saw that she was hunched over at her desk, arms crossed across the top and leaning forward with an irritated pout on her face as she stared straight ahead and ignored everyone else.
"Hey, Chlo?" he said loudly, feeling Marinette stiffen against him and squeezing her gently to reassure her before he continued, "You okay?"
The girl turned slowly to look at them, her pout still in place at first before she sighed instead, shaking her head so that her blonde ponytail swept over her shoulder attractively. Maybe she should've been a model instead of him, he thought, she certainly had a knack for the dramatic posing required.
A familiar smile returned to her face, the soft smirk he'd always seen her pull out whenever something hadn't gone quite her way, but the one which also showed that it was okay because she hadn't been fully invested anyway. That the thing in question had only been her backup plan and she still had the main objective in play.
"Well Adrikins," she started, "It's about time you stopped mooning over her and actually did something about it. You've been hopeless for the last six months, you know." His jaw dropped a little. He'd been sure he was keeping his feelings for Marinette in check when he wasn't transformed so finding out that Chloé had apparently known for a while was a bit of a shock to the system. "Besides," she added, "This means you've given up on that silly crush on Ladybug. And that means there's all the more chance I can win over our very single super-heroine."
Adrien laughed a little, which Chloé seemed to simply write off as relief, but that didn't entirely explain to her why Marinette and Alya started snickering too.