A Revealing Patrol
Written by: JuliaFC
Language Betas: Khanofallorcs, Agrestebug, Spntumblrin2021, Ohlittlebarchie, MahouOkami
Concept Betas: EtoileLeadSama, Malauu_Ladynoir, Genxha and Rosehealer02
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc, TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
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Part 3 - Fears
Adrien spent most of the night looking worriedly at his window. He expected Marinette to come to him, and had gone through every different scenario that came to his mind, from the most idyllic to the catastrophic. He had eventually fallen asleep, his nightmares populated with images of his Lady, sometimes falling into his arms and kissing him senseless, but in most cases looking at him with a disappointed frown, her arms folded over her chest, and demanding his Miraculous back.
A few times, in his nightmares, Marinette was becoming a giant Ladybug with red eyes shining in the darkness, trapping him inside a cage of bars that would wrap around him. Other times, Plagg was cataclysming everything and they were running away and opening the cheese shop his kwami had previously suggested. A few times he woke up with a start, covered in sweat; other times, he managed to keep himself in that state halfway between awakeness and sleep. But when he woke up in the morning, he wasn't in any way more rested than when he had gone to bed.
He was tempted to pretend to be sick and skip school, but he decided against it. Not only would he still not be able to get a rest, worried as he was, but no distractions meant no chance to get his mind off what had happened. Which meant that his anxiety would go even more through the roof.
Eventually, after snoozing his alarm for the umpteenth time, he sat up in bed and sighed. Plagg opened a lazy eye and looked at him with a frown.
"At last," he muttered. "This cat needs his beauty sleep. I haven't been able to sleep a wink with you tossing and turning like a madman."
"Sorry Plagg." Adrien sighed. "I was restless."
"That's an understatement." Plagg stretched and yawned, eventually opening two very tired eyes and looking around. "What happened? You disrupted even Sass's sleep, and usually not even an earthquake wakes him."
Adrien pouted as he glanced at the Snake kwami floating over Plagg. "Sorry, Sass. It's all my fault, I shouldn't have lied to her like that."
"Oh, I'm finally going to find out what happened! Sass only told me that you somehow messed up."
Adrien sighed. "She knows who I am. Ladybug."
Plagg raised an eyebrow. "Didn't she already? I thought she was the one who brought you Sass yesterday."
"No. She knows. I messed up. I lied to Multimouse about what Ladybug had told me." He paled, getting wrapped in a world of his own, his anxiety escalating.
"Oh dear," muttered Plagg, as his little muzzle took a slight grey tinge.
"I didn't know that I was telling Ladybug lies about what Ladybug had told me only hours before."
Plagg's muzzle became greyer. "Don't be silly. You were patrolling with Multimouse, not Ladybug," the kwami tried to say, but Adrien's stern glare shut him up.
"She lied to me about what Chat Noir had told her, Plagg. She said things that only Ladybug knew."
Plagg gulped. "That means nothing. S-she could have been told those things by Ladybug previously."
Adrien raised an eyebrow. "Don't give me that. She's Ladybug. Marinette, I mean. There's no other explanation. And now she knows I'm Chat Noir."
Plagg was quiet for a moment, crossing gaze with Sass. "Was it that bad?" he asked his fellow kwami.
"He called her My Lady," stated Sass.
Plagg facepalmed. "Okay. This is bad." He shot a glare at Adrien who grinned nervously.
"I panicked. She had figured me out already anyway. And it didn't seem right to learn her identity without giving her a clue that I had done it. But when she just stood there, frozen, it didn't look like a good idea anymore." He hid his face behind his hands and muffled a cry. "I'm so screwed. I spent half of the night fearing that she'd come around and demand my Miraculous back."
"And half of it hoping she would come around?" Plagg shot him an amused glance, which became even more amused when Adrien peeked from behind his fingers and pouted. "Ah, I know you too well…"
The boy sighed again, moved his legs to get out of bed, stood and started getting dressed, absentmindedly. "It's the first time since I started attending school that I dread going."
Plagg's ears curled down at Adrien's remark.
"She's sitting right behind me, Plagg. I can't avoid her."
"Do you want to?" Sass asked, and Adrien jumped, suddenly made again aware that the Snake kwami was still there.
He slouched his shoulders. "I don't know. I'm delighted she's Marinette. And to be honest, I would've already figured her out twice if Plagg hadn't diverted my reasoning, or if Marinette hadn't been so clever and tricked me majestically when we faced Kwamibuster."
He paused to put his socks and shoes on and sighed, his gaze taking a dreamy look as he stared into the blank space in front of him. "I still can't get it. I saw Marinette and Ladybug next to each other."
"Trixx, the fox kwami, was one of her unifications," said Sass.
"But…Marinette grabbed Ladybug, so none of them could've been an illusion!" said Adrien, his index finger tapping thoughtfully on his cheek. Then, suddenly his eyes widened. "Unless…"
"Yes, gamin, they were both illusions; it was all a big, massive illusion," huffed Plagg, his little paws folded across his chest.
Adrien sighed and closed his eyes as a fond smile curled the edges of his mouth. "So clever…"
As he did that, he heard a ringing sound coming from his computer and he opened his eyes again to see Nathalie's stern face staring at him from the calling screen. He clicked on the answer button and started listening to the plan Nathalie had set up for his day.
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When he sat down at his seat and started taking out his books and tablet for the first lesson of the day, Adrien kept eyeing the door of the classroom waiting for Marinette's face to appear. Dreading it, but anticipating it also, unable to decide if he was terrified or…lovestruck. Mesmerised. Awed, but anxious and fearful too. He was dreading hoping that Marinette would get there early to discuss things with him, but she wasn't arriving and the more the time tickled on and the classroom filled with students, the more his anxiety rose.
"S'up, mec? You look pale," Nino asked, bringing him back to reality. "That door won't move from there even if you stop staring at it, you know."
Adrien felt his face getting warmer. "You're right, mec, sorry." He looked down and was about to try pretending to read when Nino's hand landed firmly on his shoulder.
"You can talk to me if you need to," said Nino with a smile. Adrien smiled back, but didn't act upon it.
Finally, way before the usual last minute break-neck speed run she was used to, Marinette poked her head through the front door, followed closely by Alya.
So if Marinette was Ladybug, Alya must've been Scarabella, mused Adrien. The realisation left him half ashamed, for having attacked and so fiercely tried to kill a person that turned out to be one of his best friends, but also half deceived. Marinette had preferred telling her identity to the girl who ran the Ladyblog than to him, her loyal partner? Why? Don't misunderstand him, he knew that Marinette was going away and hence, she needed to pass on the earrings to someone. He knew that she couldn't leave her earrings to him because if he'd needed the cataclysm during a fight, he would've been in trouble. But…it still stung.
Had Marinette told Alya about his mess up? Did she know he was a royal idiot? Part of his brain was shouting at him that no, that wouldn't be Marinette's style. However, the other part of his brain couldn't help but dart his gaze briefly to Alya's eyes and feel judgement in them.
He kept his eyes down as the brunette passed his row and climbed the next step to get to her row, but his gaze was glued to Marinette's. Who blushed redder than a ripe tomato. When he crossed gazes with her, he caught himself frowning. Marinette was a mess: her hair was combed, but not as perfectly as usual. Her eyes were blood-shot, the skin underneath them swollen and a little red, even before her whole face became the colour of her alter-ego's suit.
So he hadn't been the only one that hadn't slept a wink. Somehow, this knowledge didn't help him, but possibly made things worse. He looked down, feeling blood rushing to his face and making him feel even worse when Marinette didn't say anything, but just carried on walking to her seat.
"Adrien? Are you alright? You look flushed," said Nino at his side. When Adrien turned towards him, he saw that his friend had frowned and seemed worried.
He flushed deeper, based on the heat rushing to his face, and couldn't hold Nino's gaze. So he nervously bent down to pick up his tablet from his bag, trying to regain some composure before Nino started asking more questions. But opening his bag wasn't a good idea, because he went from looking at his best friend's worried frown to stare at the concerned ones of the two kwamis that were hiding in there. His heart jolted in his chest; his throat clenched painfully as he took the tablet out, ending up facing his best friend's gaze again.
"I'm okay. Just caught a bug," he muttered, his heart sinking when he heard the groan coming from behind him. Shoot. He had spoken before connecting his brain to his mouth and, as usual, when he was feeling awkward and tense the first thing he'd said was a pun. Which evidently didn't sit well with the girl behind him.
He just heard Alya whispering to Marinette, 'what's wrong?', but he couldn't listen further, because Nino blinked and grabbed his attention. "Uh, if you feel sick you shouldn't be in class. To be completely honest, you didn't look your usual self when I saw you this morning. That make-up does nothing to conceal the bags."
Adrien's head was too numb to listen to Nino properly. "What bags?" he drawled.
"The ones under your eyes, dummy," said Nino with a chuckle. He poked Adrien gently. "Maybe others wouldn't notice, but I know my mec. What's the matter? I've never seen you like this, even when your father dragged you out of bed at dawn for an 'impromptu photoshoot' as you call it. And you're distracted, which is another weird fact."
Adrien sighed. "No need to go all detective mode on me, Nino. I'm not that bad. Just…couldn't sleep last night, that's all." He picked up his notebook from his bag, distractedly, trying not to look at the kwamis again. He opened it and pretended to skim through the pages but hadn't even wasted a glance at it.
"No need for detective mode, Adrien. Never seen you opening your notebook upside down before."
Oh shoot. He gasped and looked at his notebook, realising that indeed Nino was right and he was pretending to skim through it while holding it upside down. He felt his face getting even warmer. He crashed his face against it, trying to hide from the world and luckily Mlle Bustier came into the room, saving him from further embarrassment.
He silently thanked the teacher as she started greeting the class and going through the names of the students for roll call. However, a quick glance at Nino made him aware that his best friend wasn't satisfied at all with their little exchange and hadn't lost his worried frown. And a further glance over his shoulder at Marinette, who quickly diverted her gaze from the back of his head and blushed deep red, made him aware that his Lady wasn't in better condition.
The next two hours were pure torture. He couldn't pay any attention to what Mlle Bustier was saying (something about a tiger burning bright?) and then, he felt a vibration coming from his phone. He picked it from the pocket of his jeans to shoot a quick look at his messages, glancing constantly at Mlle Bustier to ensure she wasn't looking in his direction, but what he read made his heart sink and caused him to pay even less attention to the lesson.
Marinette: [We need to talk]
Just four words. Four otherwise innocent words, but the situation was giving them a weight that felt unbearable. His heart skipped a beat as he glanced furtively at the teacher again and took the phone out of his pocket to type a quick answer.
Adrien: [When?]
His hands felt like ice as he hit send, his heart somersaulting in his chest, but for the wrong reason. He replaced his phone into his pocket and clenched his left hand on his right, index and thumb wrapped around his ring. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt the vibration of a further message. He had difficulties remembering to breathe as he carefully took the phone out of his pocket, his gaze glued to the back of the teacher's head.
Marinette: [Can you sneak out at lunchtime?]
He sighed.
Adrien: [No, sorry. Nathalie watches me eat and then uses the rest of my lunch break to give me instructions for my afternoon]
He didn't even manage to return the phone to his pocket, when it vibrated in his hand. He glanced again at the teacher and since she was still turned around, he dared shoot another glance at the screen.
Marinette: [Okay. Patrol, then]
Shoot. That meant he had to stay on tenterhooks for the whole day, because today their patrol was just before sunset.
Adrien: [For all it's worth, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lied to you]
He had to get it off of his chest, but his hands felt very slippery when he picked up the phone again after it vibrated once more.
Marinette: [I lied too]
He knew that, but it didn't make things easier. He was still staring at the screen when he felt the phone vibrating again and more messages appeared:
Marinette: [I'm scared]
Marinette: [and sorry]
Marinette: [I'm so sorry, minou]
He shot her a glance from over his shoulder and saw tears in her eyes. His heart sank—he didn't like seeing her upset. He grabbed his phone to write her a quick message and blinked in surprise when he saw it being taken out of his hand.
"Adrien, I'm not impressed. This stays with me for the rest of the lesson." Adrien's heart literally jumped in his mouth as he crossed gaze with Mlle Bustier's disappointed frown. She didn't even look at his screen; luckily, thought Adrien, and just put it in her pocket.
"I…I'm sorry." He blanched, his hand reaching for his nape as his eyes went back to the black screen of his tablet. He switched it on nervously and, as the teacher returned to her desk, he tried to focus on the subject of the lesson. To no avail.
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Marinette kept looking at the back of Adrien's head, feeling extremely guilty as the teacher pocketed his phone and went back to her desk, turning her back again to the class and resuming writing verses on the blackboard. He was shifting his weight from one side of his seat to the other, alternating from slumping his top part on the desk, pinning his elbows on it and running his fingers through his hair, and constantly shifting position. He looked the complete opposite of his usual calm self. She couldn't avoid thinking that it had been her fault. She had sent him four messages in a row, distracting him; she too hadn't paid any attention to the teacher as she did so. It wasn't fair that he had gotten into trouble, and she hadn't.
Besides, she knew that she looked messy (from her previous conversation with Alya before getting into class, and it had been very hard to hide from her best friend why). However, she had never seen Adrien looking dishevelled at any time before and, for once, even his concealer hadn't been able to hide the bags under his eyes. His hair looked less than his usual perfect too, which told Marinette he probably hadn't spent the usual amount of time on his morning routine. The fact that he had apologised for lying to her at the first opportunity told her a lot about his mental state too. She had to talk to him sooner rather than later.
"Mlle Bustier, can I use the washroom, please?" she said, lifting her hand. The teacher turned around and nodded, and then resumed her writing on the blackboard.
Marinette started walking down and then deliberately turned towards Adrien, waited for him to look at her and gave him a wink, moving her head towards the door in the hope he would understand to follow her. He nodded, and she turned around and left.
To be Continued…
Author's Note:
Hello there! Here's chapter 3 of my Snekmouse story.
I hope you liked it. Adrien is anxious and scared, they both didn't sleep last night, they're both tense and messy, they're both making mistakes. Now, hopefully Mlle Bustier will allow Adrien to go to the toilet. What do you think? ;)
Please let me know what you thought of this chapter in a comment. I really hope you liked it! I'm always open to a dialogue, I don't mind ANY type of feedback! To all of you who will write a review or a comment for this story, thank you so much! You always make my day!
I'll update the Cheesy Situation next week, so for the next update of this story you'll need to come back in a fortnight :)
As usual, if you read this and you're not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server, Miraculous Fanworks (for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). Also, I recently joined another wonderful server! Even this one is friendly and there's a lot of wonderful people to discuss Miraculous and fanfictions with, so…now you get two invites :D Miraculous Discordance /QwgKdUhJNJ (discord dot gg slash QwgKdUhJNJ). I wait for you in one of these servers :D
