Author's note: Another chapter that is not polished to my liking, but is done enough for those who are dying to know what happens next!
For those who wish to wait for the polished version, I'll update my notes once I've completed the re-write.
I hope you all have an amazing week :)
– Where We Left Off–
"Sorry, Mari, I lost myself there," he said, then turned back to her, " I hope I didn't hurt you…"
Marinette was redder than he had ever seen her, but she just shook her head and laughed.
"You and me against the world?" she offered, making sure not to step closer to him again.
"You and me against the world, My Princess!" Future Bug said with a bow, taking off before he could make any other decisions.
– Chapter 4 –
Marinette stood there and worked to compose herself, trying to remember the information that led her to whatever that was (she needed to not think about THAT right now, she could still feel the heat it had brought throughout her body). The sound of rustling behind her caused her to turn around just in time to see Adrien walking back toward her. Honestly, she forgot he was with her. Thank goodness he had ducked away during all of that.
"Hey Mari," he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. Okay, so maybe he did see...or oh my gosh, hopefully he didn't hear…(wait...which was worse?) what had happened.
Their eyes met and looked away from each other multiple times, neither quite knowing what to say to the other. Marinette was finally about to break the awkward silence when a familiar voice called out to them as a white and blue figure landed on the rooftop with them.
"If it isn't two of my favorite secret heroes!" Bunnyx teases as she approaches the two blushing teens.
Marinette sighed in relief, happy to see another friend and ally. Bunnyx tried to cover up a giggle with a cough as she smirked at the younger teens. After rummaging through her pockets, she held out two small boxes in her hands.
"Normally I wouldn't do this in front of both of you, but the circumstances are a bit unique and I'll need you both working as the best partners you can be. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrien Agresys, these are the Miraculous of the Mouse and the Miraculous of the Snake. You will use them for the greater good and, once the mission is complete, you will return them to their rightful place."
Neither being a stranger to this speech (not that either of them knew that about the other) both teens nodded their heads and reached for a miraculous box. Marinette donned the necklace of the mouse miraculous while Adrien placed the bracelet of the snake around his wrist. A concerned Mullo and Sass appeared before them but Bunnyx jumped right in.
"You'll all be bunking with me during your stay in this time. Fortunately, I happen to have secured us a space below! Once you two are done with…whatever it was I interrupted, Mullo and Sass can show you the way to our temporary home!"
Bunnyx smirked again and the teens and sent a wink in Marinette's direction before turning around and dropping to the alleyway below.
Marinette was almost certain her face was the most red it had ever been. When she met Adrien's eyes again, she saw a blush come across his cheeks.
"Well," Adrien began, "that was…something."
Marinette nodded and took extensive interest in the ground beside them, choosing to stare at it rather than her long-term crush. She heard Adrien shuffle a bit, then take a deep breath.
"Well, Sass and umm…Mullo, was it? Lead the way?" His voice faltered a bit, but Marinette was happy he was managing to move the conversation forward. She didn't even want to touch on the topic of whether or not Adrien had seen the depths of her encounter with older Chat just minutes ago.
She looked over to the younger blonde and saw a light blush dusting his cheeks as he extended a hand out to her.
"Well, shall we get going, Partner?"
His soft smile washed away her insecurities. She took his hand like it was second nature, though the closeness made her own cheeks burn. As she tried to quiet her pounding heart (unsure at this point which of the blondes it was racing for), Adrien intertwined his fingers with hers while he guided her forward. She gasped and looked over at him, but he seemed solely focused on following the instructions of their small friends.
– Adrien's POV –
After a quick tour from Alix filled with embarrassing hints at her plans to retire to her room where she "won't be disturbing" the two teens for the remainder of the night, Marinette and Adrien found themselves alone with their kwamis on opposite sides of the couch.
"It's nice that we were both chosen as holders," Adrien said, trying to break through the awkwardness that still remained between them.
Mari turned and smiled at him and he nearly forgot how to breathe. He quickly strained to regain his power of speech, unwilling to fall back into the awkward silence they'd shared earlier.
"I wasn't surprised that Ladybug chose you as a holder," Adrien continued as he turned to better face his friend on the couch. He wanted to ask Marinette what happened, in case he slipped and ended up mentioning what he knew as Chat, but there didn't seem to be a good way to ask without sounding rude.
"When did you get to use the Snake Miraculous?" Marinette questioned, looking over to Adrien shyly and then back to her hands in her lap. Adrien was grateful for the opportunity she unknowingly just gave him.
"How about a story for a story? I'll tell you about my one time stint with the snake and you tell me about your time with the Mouse Miraculous," he replied back. Adrien watched Marinette with a hopeful look in his eyes, like a child asking to open a gift early. I'm reality, he didn't have to fake the excitement to hear the story. After all, he only knew small pieces of it.
"Deal," she said softly as she turned on the couch to face him, too. His smile radiated as he turned more to do the same.
"Great!" he all but yelled in excitement, then quieted a bit as he became lost in thought, "But...I wonder where I should start…"
"How about when Ladybug gave you the Miraculous?"
Adrien's face grew red and he rubbed the back of his neck as he remembered Ladybug appearing to him as Adrien. He gave a nervous laugh and took a deep breath.
"It was like a dream, seeing her come to find me. At first I thought...that I might be in trouble…" he released a mirthy laugh, "but I realized it was just my fantasies playing tricks on me."
He looked to Marinette and saw the confusion on her face, then realized that must have sounded odd.
"I hadn't been sleeping much!" He tried to recover, "It's hard to explain. Anyway, when I saw her in my room I thought I was dreaming. Ladybug trusting me has always been one of my greatest wishes, and it seemed to be coming true! There she was, looking for me, a civilian, to trust me with the snake. I knew I shouldn't take it. I had other... obligations…and I knew that it could cause issues, but I couldn't resist. How can you say no to the love of your life?"
It was only when Marinette gasped that Adrien realized what he had said.
"Oh gosh, Marinette! That sounded weird didn't it? I'm so sorry. I don't mean for it to be creepy. Just...Ladybug has always been someone I look up to. From that first day when she saved the city, even though it meant that she had to face what she didn't know and solve for a problem she couldn't have realized would've been a problem to start with...seeing her stand up with so much strength and determination to protect the people of Paris...setting aside any fears she must have in the process...who wouldn't fall in love with someone so strong, so smart, and so caring? I mean...have you seen the way she figures out even the most elaborate of solutions? She's incredible! And beautiful, too!" Adrien sighed, "Whoever she is under the mask, I knew I loved her from the moment I first saw her and then, to see her standing in my room and asking me to take the snake miraculous...I couldn't disappoint her!"
Adrien rubbed the back of his neck and looked down, missing how red Marinette's face had gotten during his waxing poetic about her secret alter ego.
"Even though it meant I failed in the end," he grimaced and closed his eyes, willing himself not to cry at the memories. He felt a hand over his and looked up to see Mari with one of the softest looks on her face and just inches from his own. His face began to heat up as his heart started to race at the closeness. He shifted his hand as an invitation to hold hers and was shocked when she not only accepted but intertwined their hands together.
"Is this okay?" she asked softly, the tinge of red across her cheeks making him wonder if his heart might explode on the spot.
"It's perfect," he whispered, then looked away to compose himself.
"What...happened after that?" Marinette asked to break the silence.
Adrien looked up to her with a soft smile, "She needed someone else. She needed Viperion, not Aspik, and I needed to fulfill other obligations instead of wasting her time trying to be a hero to her."
Marinette tried to come up with a response, but she felt that there was so much more that she didn't understand. She almost questioned him when she saw him begin to tear up.
"Can I confess something to you, Mari? It might make you not want me as your partner in this, but I feel like it's only fair for you to know…"
Marinette squeezed his hand and whispered out, "N-nothing would make me feel like that, Adrien."
Adrien smiled in mirth again, "I appreciate that, Mari, but hold that thought...I tried for what ended up being MONTHS to protect Ladybug from that Akuma. Months of reliving my failure to protect her, over and over again. I had MONTHS to save her, and I couldn't manage it. Not even once! I watched Ladybug get destroyed right before my eyes 25,913 times! Some hero I am. How could I ever think I deserved someone as amazing as her? It's no wonder she doesn't return my feelings…"
His grip tightened around her hand and he closed his eyes tightly to try to keep the tears from coming out.
"Adrien?" she asked quietly, cause him to mutter a 'hmm' in reply as he desperately tried to contain himself, "is it okay if I hug you?"
She opened her arms as if to confirm her question and he dove into them without thinking. He ended up knocking her over onto the couch and tried to back up and apologized but she held him tightly to her and rubbed circles on his back.
"It's okay if you need to let it all out, Adrien. You can bury your face or whatever you need. I won't judge you. I'll be right here for you."
And that was all it took for Adrien to crack. He sobbed into Marinette, wrapping his arms around her as best as he could in this position. He cried into her shoulder, facing toward the couch as embarrassed as he was in this state. He felt her hand start to stroke his hair and he froze.
"Sorry," she whispered, moving her hand back to his back
Adrien shook his head, "No, it felt really nice…"
He felt her sharply inhale before relaxing and stroking his hair again. His body started to relax as he finished crying. He knew his face was a mess, even when the tears stopped. He couldn't bring himself to look at Marinette. She must have sensed something had shifted because she took in a deep breath and started to recount her time as Multi-Mouse, bringing the focus away from the pain he had felt.
She told him how terrified she was when she learned that both Chat and Ladybug lost their Kwamis. She told him how insecure she felt about the amount of people relying on her. How scared she was, but how she wouldn't want to put that pressure on anyone else. How she somehow found strength even as she felt the strain from so many miraculous at once. How she accidentally revealed herself too early.
"Yeah, I guess Ladybug doesn't trust Chat all that much," Adrien muttered without thinking it through.
"No! Of course she trusts him! He's her partner."
"I'm glad you see him in a good light, Mari, really, but you lost the mouse miraculous because she didn't want to trust him with your identity. I mean...I know the identity of the snake holder and she never took his miraculous away…"
Marinette gasped, "I didn't even think about that! You don't think Chat feels that way do you?"
Adrien shrugged, trying to remember that he supposedly wasn't Chat and shouldn't know how Chat feels.
"Just...if it were me...I'd feel like my partner didn't trust me."
Marinette tensed and her menstruations stopped. He glanced over at her and saw her eyes filling with tears.
"It's not your fault, Mari! I'm sure it's fine! Forget what I said!" He stammered out quickly, paining to see Mari breaking down.
"It is my fault," she whispered, her voice cracking with the tears that threatened to fall. "I couldn't be Multi-Mouse more than just that once. There was no way I could sneak away with all the other things I was a part of. I needed an easy way out, so Ladybug and I planned the reveal as a way to save face…"
Adrien gasped, taking on the memory with a brand new perspective.
"It was selfish," she admitted, thinking back to that day, "And you're right...he must think that I...that Ladybug couldn't trust him with my identity. Oh no! Poor Chat! He never said anything to me!"
Now it was Marinette's turn to cry. Adrien moved them both to sit up as he held her. He lost track of how long they sat like that in each other's arms. He vaguely registered the sounds of her deep breaths as he realized she had fallen asleep there with him. He felt his body becoming heavy and his eyes drifting closed. The last thing he noticed was his senses filling with the scent of vanilla and lavender, and the warmth of feeling at home.