Fighting crime is emexhausting/em. Honestly, Chat Noir doesn't know how he and Ladybug have gotten this far without passing out on a rooftop during every single patrol. They typically had 2 akuma fights emin addition/em to one fight with an akuma and a sentimonster on a given week. They also tried to patrol at least twice a week.
If they were lucky, the akuma was M. Pigeon and they could take care of the entire battle in a nice little 23 minute segment. Despite all of his akumatizations, they weren't usually that lucky so it would almost always be a new villain who would take at least a few hours to defeat. The fights with an akuma and a sentimonster were much worse, taking a minimum of three hours.
They would try to patrol on Mondays and Fridays. As university students, both of them were able to schedule their classes to start later on Tuesdays. This Monday they both seemed slightly worse for the ware than usual.
"You want to stop for some caffeine," Chat Noir asked Ladybug when he touched down on the rooftop next to her. She looked around at him and considered for a second.
"Not today," she said. "I didn't bring any cash and I don't want to use my card… for hopefully obvious reasons." She motioned a hand to encapsulate her hero costume and smiled at him. "Caffeine does sound like a pretty good plan in general, though. Kwamis know I need it." She stretched her arms a bit, trying to roll out her muscles.
"I can bring us some for the next patrol," Chat Noir offered. "What coffee do you usually order?"
"I don't," she admitted. She sounded more abashed by the admittance than he expected her to. Even if she was a university student, there was no reason why she should be embarrassed about not drinking coffee.
"More of a tea girl, then, what do you usually order?" She shrugged.
"I like coffee, I just don't order it." He nodded with a willingness to listen to her. She rubbed her left forearm with her right hand. "I don't know what kind of coffee I like. I haven't had to order coffee in," she paused to do a mental calculation, "uh, 4 years."
He raised a quizzical eyebrow at her and she sighed. "Energy drinks?"
"Well, yeah, but I still like coffee."
"But you don't order it? Do you just make your own coffee?"
"Me, make coffee? No. Never. I just gain coffee once in a while." She laughed nervously at her own admission.
"You just… acquire coffee."
"Well it sounds weird when you say it like that!" She raised her arms defensively. "I just know people who work at coffee shops." He didn't look satisfied by her answer. "As a civilian, I usually just walk into a shop, smile at an employee, and pay for whatever they give me."
Chat Noir's face looked even less satisfied than it did before she tried to explain herself. "You'll just walk into a coffee shop and let strangers pick your drink?"
"No. I'm not a weirdo. I have friends and between our group, at least one of them has been working in a coffee shop at any given time for the last like 4 years. I'll usually only get coffee if one of them is working. So, I'll go into a shop and smile at the barista. Depending on who is working, who I'm with, where I am, and how busy the shop is, I'll sometimes wink or something. I just accept what my friends think I'll like and no one has steered me wrong yet."
"Do they not tell you what they're giving you?" Ladybug shrugged.
"I think they do, but they're just sounds to me. The only words I know I hear are the words I need to know how much to pay. They wait for me to respond to whatever coffee thing they suggest, but I always just go along with it." Chat Noir chuckled. THe chuckle erupted into a full laugh.
"That's ridiculous," he told her. "What happens when you show up at a coffee shop and you don't know the person behind the register? What if you go to a coffee shop for a first date and have to order for yourself?"
"I have gone into a coffee shop precisely one time in the last 4 years without knowing who was behind the register. I needed to use their restroom to change. I was with a friend and he ordered for me. It was good. I don't know what it was, but it sure was caffeinated." She nodded her head once. "I usually like to have 'backup' on first dates anyway, so I honestly prefer to have someone I know on the register. No one can get someone out of somewhere faster than a rage filled part-time employee."
He shook his head and his laughs lightened up. "That's inspirational," he told her, "amazing strategy. I'm getting you a drink." She held up her hand to stop him. "Not right now, but I'm bringing you a drink on our next patrol. I feel like I can probably guess your taste just as well as your friends can."
She rolled her eyes. "Do you get something out of it if you get me a drink that I like?" He lifted his hand to his chin pensively.
"If I get you a drink you like, you have to learn the name of it." She giggled a little, lifting her hand to hide her smile.
"And if I don't like it?"
"Not going to happen, but if you don't like it… I'll buy you a case of your favorite energy drinks." Her eyes widened in surprise. A 24 pack of the energy drinks she would usually get was €40. She considered it a win-win situation.
"You've got yourself a deal, Chat." She smiled and extended a hand to him. He shook it and they both laughed lightly. He knew he needed to start practicing making drinks as soon as he started his shift at Café Corallien in the morning. They finished their patrol for the night and both went back to their own apartments for the night.
The next morning, a groggy Adrien Agreste woke up far earlier than anyone ever should. He had made sure his classes started late on Tuesdays, but his boss knew that too and insisted he take the early shift every other week.
He didn't mind it too much, at least not as much as Marinette, who would stop into the shop every time he took that shift to get a cup of coffee before her 8 am textiles class. Apparently, it was the only section of that class that was offered that didn't conflict with the rest of her schedule.
She entered the almost empty shop and smiled at him.
"White Chocolate mocha," he offered, pushing up on the brim of his uniform required baseball cap. She nodded sleepily.
"Mhmm…"
"3€95." She gave him 2 2€ coins and he put it into the till. He offered the 5 cent coin back to her, but she waved it off. She moved to the other side of the counter and put down her bag on one of the nearby tables. She stretched, trying to wake herself up while she waited for her drink. It didn't take long for one of his coworkers to finish making her drink.
"Mari," he called to her. He held out the drink in her direction. She picked her bag up and slung it over her shoulders.
"Merci, Adrien," she said through a yawn. She took the coffee in her right hand and used her sweatshirt covered left hand to hide the size of her yawn. She smiled at him before she left the store to head to class.
He smiled as she departed and he kept thinking about drinks to make for Ladybug. Maybe she would like White Chocolate Mochas like Marinette did. He would make the same drink for her every Tuesday morning he was working. He was pretty sure it was her favorite.
He wrote it down in a small notebook to keep it as a possibility.
On Wednesday, he saw Marinette walking around with Nino between classes. It was 13h30 and he had an hour until his next class. He jogged through the campus to catch up with the two of them.
"Hey, mec," Nino greeted. He opened the door to the coffee shop they were next to. It was different from the shop where Adrien worked, but it was nice. At least it was nice enough for Marinette to smile at the people who were working that day. The shop he looked at was a lot more colorful while this one was more subtle. He saw the name on the cash register, 'Dichotomie.' He looked up from the register to see a very familiar face.
"Dirty Chai," Alya, their barista behind the till said, pointing to her boyfriend, "Caramel Macchiato," she said pointing to Marinette, "and a vanilla latte."
"Sure," Marinette said with a smile on her face.
"12€," Alya told them. Nino took his card out of his wallet and paid for the three of their drinks.
"You didn't need to do that," Adrien told him, "I would have been happy to cover it."
"Yeah, just like you've been happy to cover the last 5 times," Nino teased, "you know the rules as well as I do. You get to pay like 5 times in a row, then Mari, Alya, and I have to cycle through at least once before you can pay for anything else."
Adrien knew it was something that he agreed to, but that didn't make him feel better about his friends paying for his things when he was perfectly capable of handling paying for all of them. He gave Nino a pat on the shoulder.
"Thanks, Nino." He smiled his full smile at his friend and the three stood to the side of the counter while they waited for their drinks. Eventually, Alya motioned for the three of them to come to the counter to grab their drinks. Nino grabbed his first, then Adrien grabbed his. Marinette picked up hers last and Adrien looked at the cup in her hand.
It was clearly not a White Chocolate Mocha. Has he been getting her coffee order wrong the whole time he'd been making her drinks? Does she not like it? Is she just too nice to say he's not giving her the right thing? No, why would she come back so often if he was wrong.
She gave her drink a shake, slightly blending together the coffee, milk, and caramel. She took her first sip and her smile brightened.
"Thank you, Sweetheart," she said to Alya. "It's perfect." She never said Adrien's drinks were perfect.
"Not as perfect as you," Alya responded flirtingly. Both girls giggled.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. We get it, you two are in love." Nino rolled his eyes at the two of them and walked toward his girlfriend. At his height, he could lean over the counter and kiss Alya on the top of her head. There weren't a lot of people in the shop, so that's precisely what he did. "I love you."
"I love you too, see you at home." She waved at the three of them before they walked out of the coffee shop. Adrien spent some time thinking about the exchange he just watched. He looked at Marinette's cup and noticed that she was drinking what Alya gave her slower than she drank the white chocolate mocha from the other day. He swelled with a little bit of pride in that even though he didn't necessarily think it meant anything.
The next morning, Adrien ran into Nino again. He was leaving a local Starbucks and walking in the direction of Marinette's apartment. "What's up, mec," Adrien said, sneaking up to surprise Nino. Nino gripped the coffee a little tighter and jumped slightly.
"Marinette sent me money to get her caffeine," Nino said with a chuckle, "apparently she's swamped with commissions and Alya's at her internship." Nino held the cup with the green stopper into the air for Adrien to see.
"Oh, cool. Can I come on your quest?"
"Of course, homme. I think Marinette could use some friendly faces with how busy she is right now." Adrien smiled and the two of them walked side-by-side to Marinette's apartment, chatting the whole way.
"What did you get her?"
"Cappuccino," he responded, "same as always." emAlways/em. That word bounced around the inner walls of Adrien's head. emMarinette's 'always' was a cappuccino/em? He looked at the cup in Nino's hand like he could get answers out of the paper cupped beverage.
"I didn't know she liked cappuccinos," Adrien said. Nino nodded.
"Of course she does. When I used to work at Milo's, she used to come in and I'd get her a cappuccino at least once a week. Unless Alya was with her. If Alya were there, she'd usually get a caramel macchiato. It was an interesting pattern." Nino shrugged a little bit, not thinking Adrien was particularly interested in Marinette's coffee habits.
Adrien, on the other hand, was interested in Marinette's coffee habits. He bit his nail and thought about the three different drinks that were simultaneously Marinette's usual. Maybe he should make one of the three for Ladybug. He figured that if Marinette liked them, it was safe to assume they all had a pretty good chance at being something Ladybug would enjoy as well.
They continued their walk, eventually making it up to the door to Marinette's apartment. Nino knocked on the door. They heard rustling inside the apartment before seeing Marinette's dishevelment when she opened the door. She tried to smooth herself out a little bit when she saw that Adrien was at her door, but she figured after a second that it was probably too late.
"Caffeine?" She turned to Nino in her doorway and held out a hand. He placed a cup of coffee into her hand before taking his backpack off one shoulder to get a Monster energy drink out of his back and putting that into her other hand. Adrien raised an eyebrow
"Thank you, Nino," she said, removing the stopper from the cup in her hand.
She pressed her lips to the lid of the still steaming drink. It was visibly hotter than the drink he'd given her on Tuesday, but she drank it faster than she had any of the others. Adrien became convinced that Marinette just didn't respect the coffee that she drank. She would just accept whatever you put in front of her.
"It's great, just what I needed." She smiled at the two of them. "Just decided it would be fun to stop by," she asked Adrien, turning to face closer in his direction.
"Yeah, I saw Nino walking around and decided having an adventure would be a little more fun than just going to my photoshoot." he explained. "I still have to go when we're done here, but why would I leave so soon when spending time with my husband and his girlfriend's wife is so much more fun." He placed a firm hand on Nino's shoulder. Nino pushed his hand off and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're just using me for my music taste."
"I sure am," Adrien admitted, winking at his best friend. Marinette smiled at the boys in front of her door.
"Consider yourself lucky," she said to Nino, "he's only using me for croissants." She feigned exasperation. The three of them chatted in the doorway of Marinette's apartment for a few minutes before Adrien had to head out for his photoshoot. Nino walked with him out of the complex.
Adrien worked early again the following day. He got more sleep than he had the night when he had patrol then got up early for work the next morning. He still had a cup of coffee when he arrived for his shift. He yawned before he went out on the floor to take orders.
He was surprised when Marinette walked in the next morning at 8:30. He was pretty sure that Marinette didn't have anything until later in the morning on Fridays. She walked in and smiled sleepily at him. His smile brightened and she shot him a wink in response. She walked to the register.
"What can I get for you, Mari," he asked. She seemed to wake a little bit more at his question. She was pretty sure this was the first time he hadn't just given her whatever drink he usually gave her.
"Oh, uh." She looked up at the menu board behind him and thought about what words and if any of them seemed familiar. "The usual."
"Which one? Apparently, you have three." HIs voice was playful while he acted like he was trying to catch Marinette in a serious lie.
"You're smart. You can probably figure it out." Her comment was deliberately flirty. She winked and aimed a kissy face at him. He came up with a plan and smiled.
"Yeah," he said, "I probably can." He tapped something into the machine and mentioned the name of the drink with the price. She wasn't paying specific attention to what the drink was. She gave him a 5€ bill before she walked away from the register.
He made his own favorite drink for her. After a few minutes, he brought her cup over to her and she took a sip of the Vanilla Latte in her hand. "Merci, Adrien," she said with a smile on her face. "Just what I was hoping for." He stopped himself from chuckling when he realized that she really didn't know anything about coffee.
He took a few more notes on his small notebook and started brainstorming what he should do for Ladybug's drink that night. He did a few small batch tests of what to make for her. He tasted a little bit of each before he came to the correct ratios for her drink.
His shift ended at 12h30 that afternoon, but he knew that if he made the drink for Ladybug before he left it would get cold and stale and not as good. This was his chance to give her something memorable and he wasn't going to start it off with an unfair disadvantage.
He ended up scheduling himself for a later shift that day in addition to opening. The shift was 18h15 - 20h15. Patrol started at 20h30, so that worked out well for him. He could make the drinks at the end of his shift and immediately go find her.
He made it to their patrol before she did. He was sitting on the side of the roof when she landed a few feet behind him.
"Hey, Chat," she greeted when she approached him. He held the cup out to her in greeting. "Wow, I didn't even have to smile at you to get this." She nudged his arm with hers. He looked at her expectantly and she took the first sip.
She considered it for a second. She was sipping it with the palette of someone who worked around food for her entire childhood. She considered the flavors and how they interacted. She tapped her chin as if in deep contemplation. "So, what's the verdict?"
"It's pretty good," she said, grinning at him. He was confident that she would say that no matter what he actually gave her. "So, what is the name of my new usual drink?"
"I hope it's called the Marinette," he said nervously. He was almost certain that he was right, but he was filled with nerves. "At least, it is if you order it at Café Corallien. If you order it anywhere else, it's a vanilla latte with a pump of caramel syrup and a white chocolate drizzle."
She stared at him with a dazed expression on her face. The expression was generally positive, but he didn't know if that positivity was just leftover from the sip of her drink. He mimed playing a piano on his leg while he waited for her response. "What?"
It wasn't the reaction he expected, but she didn't scream or run away, so he hoped he could take that as a generally positive sign. "There were a lot of similarities between what Ladybug said and what Marinette did while getting coffee this week. I wasn't trying to seek you out, but I couldn't ignore it after a while."
She wanted to act like she could ignore the information he was giving her about his identity. She couldn't. He was someone she had seen while getting coffee this week. No one would have been paying attention to her orders except for maybe her friends.
"I was the friend who got you a drink when you had to change in that one coffee shop. I got you a white chocolate mocha and you said it was your favorite." She blushed brightly at the memory and the irrefutable evidence about Chat's identity.
"I lied," she admitted. "That's not my favorite drink." She smiled at him and held up her custom drink, "this is." He smiled brightly at her and chuckled lightly. "And I think that I can probably order it from a cute barista with just a pretty smile and a wink." She stepped a little bit closer to him and he stood to get closer to her.
"Are you flirting with other baristas," he joked, "I thought what we had was special." She rolled her eyes, but they were just about a foot apart.
"There's just one," she said, "he works where you got our drinks tonight. He opens on Tuesdays. Between the two of us, I've had a crush on him for a while."
"Really? I heard he has feelings for someone. Word on the street is that he is crazy enough about this girl that he even named a drink after her." They moved slowly closer to one another and met in a soft, sweet, Vanilla Latte flavored kiss.
