Chapter Six – Freaking Out and Sneaking Out

Friday ends up being a rather trying day for Marinette.

Frist, Alya is hellbent on her coming to Lila's sleepover at Juleka's house, and no matter what excuse she comes up with – homework, babysitting, family dinner, Ultimate Mecha Strike III marathon, sewing, her period – Alya has a list of reasons why she 'needs' to come to completely invalidate her argument.

Then they have another akuma attack over lunch, despite it being less than eighteen hours since the last one, which lasts until half an hour after school ends, meaning she gets home to an email from Ms Mendeleiv instructing them on their homework with a link to an instructional video to make up for what they missed during their classes (Ms Bustier would rather them be behind than learn something the 'wrong' way, which means every time there's an akuma attack during school hours they're another lesson behind pretty much every other school in the country).

Then when she finally stumbles through the door to the bakery after running home after her transformation wore out, she discovers that when Alya couldn't get a hold of her to confirm that yes, she is coming to Lila's sleepover, she stopped by the bakery and told her mother, who is now insisting that she should go despite it being Lila's sleepover, and the fact that Lila will be there.

Has her mother forgotten who Lila is?

"But–" Marinette tries, but her mother cuts her off, clapping her hands excitedly.

"And this is a perfect opportunity for you to wear that new outfit you designed." Sabine pulls her daughter into a hug and kisses the top of her head. Marinette grudgingly wraps her arms around her mother and looks over her shoulder at her father pleadingly, but he seems just as excited as his wife. "Alya sounded so excited when she talked about the sleepover with me. She said you're giving each other makeovers and dressing up and playing SingStar, oh isn't that wonderful?" Sabine pulls back from Marinette and holds her at arm's length with her hands on her daughter's shoulders.

"But I–"

"And you can take snacks!" Tom squeals in excitement and rushes past his girls to the counter to grab a pastry box. "You can take some macarons and croissants and I just came up with a delicious new tart–"

"I don't want to go!" Marinette blurts out, stepping back from her mother's grasp. "I'm sorry," She says, feeling guilt wash over her at her parents' shocked faces. "But I'm not going. I just want to have a quiet night at home with you two." She squeezes her eyes closed and clenches her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palms to keep her tears at bay. "Please."

There's a beat of silence in which Marinette panics, wondering if perhaps that was too much and her parents are going to be so, so worried about her and they'll probably send her to an insane asylum where they'll hook her up to a machine designed to wipe all of the crazy out of her brain but there's so much crazy in her brain that she's not even sure if she has any brain left and then she'll become this brainless blob, and at least she'll be safe during the zombie apocalypse because, y'know, no brain, but she won't be able to protect the kwamis and that means the miracle box will have to be passed onto someone else but she doesn't have anyone to pass it on to because no one knows her identity so she can't exactly leave them a note, and she's only fifteen; she doesn't have a will so how would they even get that note if she's brainless and can't think for herself and–

"If that's what you really want, sweetie." Sabine says, smiling kindly at her daughter.

Marinette blinks her eyes open and shifts her gaze between her parents, before a relived smile breaks out on her face. "It is. It really is."

. . .

Adrien blinks his eyes open to his phone vibrating on his chest, where he'd dropped it before falling asleep. Apparently cat videos plus hardly any sleep can make you incredibly tired. Groaning, he pushes himself up so he's sitting and rubs his eyes to get the sleep out of them. He can hear Plagg snoring from inside the rubbish bin beside his desk even over the now slightly muffled sound of his phone ringing from where it's fallen onto his bed.

Sighing, he grapples in the dark, not bothering to turn his bedside table lamp on, and eventually finds where his phone fell between his legs. He looks at the screen – being blinded by the brightness of it in his dark room in the process – only long enough to see Nino's contact. Sighing again, he slides the green icon to the right and puts it to his ear.

"Hello?" He asks, voice groggy and still thick with sleep.

"Dude!" Nino's loud voice combined with whatever music he's playing makes him wince. "Where the fuck are you? I've been calling you for almost half an hour?"

"Um . . ." He runs his free hand through his dishevelled hair, already regretting answering. "Home."

"Well, you need to get down here." There's the sound of shouting on Nino's end and Adrien frowns.

"Where are you?"

"Lila's party. Well, I'm at Juleka's house, but it's Lila's party." The music gets louder, as if Nino's walked closer to wherever it's coming from, and Adrien winces, tilting the phone away from his ear a little.

"I thought she was having some kind of girly sleepover." Alya was complaining to him and Nino all morning about how 'annoying' Marinette was being for refusing to come. "Why are you there? You're not a girl."

"No shit." Nino laughs at his own joke and Adrien finally relents and swings his legs over the side of his bed, reaching to turn the lamp on. Upon inspection he realises he didn't completely get dressed after his shower and is just in his boxes, his towel still on the floor beside his bed where he dropped it before laying down. "Seriously dude, it's sick. You need to come!"

"Nino, have you met my father? I can't come."

There's more shouting on Nino's end and he says something incorrigible in response. He must bring the phone back to his ear or something because his inane giggling at whatever just happened fills Adrien's ears. "Just sneak out. He doesn't have to know." Adrien bites his lip nervously and Nino sighs at his hesitation. "Come on dude, I know you sneak out to meet Kagami. I may not stick my tongue down your throat, but surly I'm worth potentially getting into trouble for."

Adrien rolls his eyes even though Nino can't see him. He's also incredibly glad Nino can't see him because the memory of what Nino's talking about is coming back to him and is making this situation particularly hard.

"If my dad finds out I won't just be in trouble. I'll be under the earth." Nino laughs as if that's the funniest thing he's ever heard and Adrien frowns. "Nino, are you drunk?"

"Only on adrenaline, although there is alcohol here." His voice drops to a whisper as if he's sharing a conspiracy with him. "Don't tell anyone though, it's a secret."

"Don't worry, buddy. I won't say a thing." He knows the sarcasm in his voice will go undetected in Nino's present state, but he can't resist himself. "When did this sleepover turn into a party?"

"When Juleka's mum got an overnight shift at her work and said that there are no rules on her shit. I mean ship. On her ship." Adrien rolls his eyes. "Dude, seriously. You have to come."

"I don't know."

"Come on. Please? Even Marinette's here."

This grabs Adrien's attention and he frowns, tilting the phone back towards his ear so he can hear Nino clearly, ignoring the loud volume. "She is? I thought she wasn't coming."

"Neither did I, but she just arrived." There's some more shouting on his end, as well as a cheer and a squeal that Adrien assumes is probably either Alya or Rose upon noticing Marinette. "She looks hot. You should come to see how hot she is."

"Nino–" He hangs up before Adrien can finish his sentence and he groans, dropping his head into his hands.

"It's almost eleven, kid. Your dad won't know." Plagg says and Adrien raises his head enough to see Plagg's mischievous smirk. "If you leave now and get back at two, you'll get a good five hours of sleep."

He frowns, dropping his phone onto his doona. "That would only be four hours."

"I'm including you're cat nap." Plagg flips upside down to regard Adrien. "You should go though. Nino said the princess is there, and by the sound of it everyone else is drunk, so you should go so she isn't the only sober person there."

Adrien shakes his head even ass he gets up from his bed, walking over to his closet to get dressed. "Marinette may drink."

Plagg snorts. "Doubt it." He follows behind Adrien and watches with board eyes as he pulls on some clothes. "Plus, didn't you tell her you were looking out for her?"

"Yeah." Adrien shrugs on a random black jacket before sitting down to pull on his socks and shoes. "And I am."

"Good. Because I was starting to think you'd forgotten you're promise to her." He rolls his eyes at Adrien's glare. "You care about her, and even I have to admit she's pretty great. I mean, she can make cheese sticks and cheese tarts and cheese cake and cheese–"

"She's more than the food she makes, Plagg." Adrien mutters, standing up. He ducks into his bathroom to fix his hair, and by the time he comes back out Plagg's holding his phone and some camembert out to him, both of which he dutifully puts in his pockets.

"Ready to go to your first party?" Plagg asks excitedly, and Adrien raises an eyebrow at him as Plagg darts into a pocket on the inside of his jacket.

"I've been to a party before."

"Nino's akumatisation doesn't count."

Adrien rolls his eyes. "I was thinking of Chloé's parties and Marinette's birthday party." He crosses his room to the window that he always leaves unlocked and pushes it open. "And why are you so excited? I doubt they'll be cheese there."

"I like watching my kittens kick back and have fun." Plagg says, shrugging. "And this is your first real grown up party. With alcohol and sneaking out and stuff." He smirks at Adrien mischievously. "You should transform, it'll get you there faster, and save you trying to climb over that wall in the dark."