Marinette was lucky that Nino had mentioned Adrien's birthday. As the person who was supposed to be dating him, Marinette thought it would have been worth mentioning that his birthday was coming up. Apparently, he didn't agree which led to the dilemma of her not having a gift for him on his birthday.
Marinette had so many ideas and didn't know what to do with any of them. She didn't have time to make anything and she couldn't just give Adrien the gift of Ladybug like she had done for Alya in the past. Adrien seemed like he would be okay with the idea, but Ladybug wasn't his favorite hero.
Marinette tapped her fingers across her desk while she thought about what she could do. She had one idea, one that was so ridiculous, it might just work. She transformed into Ladybug and checked her clock. Alya should still be in class, but Nino should be done for the day. Hopefully, that would be okay for her plan.
She placed a call to Carapace's shell phone and he didn't answer. That didn't really surprise her, but she was a little disappointed that she would have to have the conversation in person in front of Chat Noir instead of taking care of it over the phone. She left him a message asking him to come to patrol that night.
Once she hung up, she realized the call might accidentally come across as Carapace being in trouble, but she figured that calling him again probably wouldn't actually reassure Nino that he wasn't. When she arrived at the start of patrol that night, Chat Noir was standing to the side while the turtle hero was Carapacing back and forth.
"What did I do?" Carapace asked nervously once Ladybug touched down. "Why isn't Rena here? I haven't told anyone and no one has seen me transform."
"Calm down, Carapace. You're not in trouble," Ladybug assured. Maybe she should have called him a second time earlier, but it was too late for that now. "I just know someone who needs your help specifically." Carapace raised an eyebrow at her from under his mask. He didn't consider himself a particularly needed hero outside of battle, but he supposed none of them were.
"What can I do for you, Ladybug?"
"Do you know that girl whose parents own Tom and Sabine's over in the 21st?" She knew that he did, but she needed to ask him. "Her name is Marinette." Carapace had a look of contemplation on his face, but Ladybug could clearly see how fake it was, but she didn't think it mattered. She was the only one who needed to 'believe' him.
"Yeah," he said, "she's the one who wears a bunch of hero merch, right?" Ladybug nodded.
"That's her," Ladybug assured, "she flagged me down because apparently her boyfriend's birthday is in a few days and she was hoping to get your help with making it special for him." Carapace nodded, silently asking her to continue what she was saying. "Apparently, you're her boyfriend's favorite hero and he wants to have a beer with you?"
Chat Noir was standing off to the side, trying to keep the size of his smile off of his face. His fake-girlfriend was going through so much effort to do something special for him for his birthday. It would have been one thing to chase down a hero to ask for an autograph for someone, but apparently, Marinette had tracked down Ladybug to track down Carapace for him.
Chat Noir almost found himself tearing up at the gesture, he didn't know the last time that someone had put in this much effort for him. "Oh, yeah, she's dating that one guy, the model," Carapace snapped his fingers to pretend he was trying to remember Adrien's name, "Adrien Agreste, right?"
"Yeah, him. She's willing to offer you two dozen lime macarons and a dozen salted caramel for Rena, and she'll provide the beer." Ladybug was probably taking the negotiation more seriously than she needed to, but she was feeling bad that she didn't have time to make something for Adrien in the next few days before October 13.
"I'll happily accept the macarons, but honestly, I probably would have said yes for the beer and the company. He seems like a pretty cool guy." Chat Noir felt touched that Carapace thought that he, as a civilian, seemed like a pretty cool guy. He wasn't really expecting the turtle hero to have any opinion about him and he didn't know what to do with the knowledge.
"Awesome," Ladybug said with a smile bright on her face, "I'll coordinate with Marinette and let you know when she has the details sorted out. For tonight, though, you can come on patrol or just head home. I bet Rena's just waiting on an update on the meeting tonight. You can tell her about what's going on, but Marinette's planning for it to just be you and Adrien and wants it to be a surprise."
"I'll see you soon LB," he told Ladybug, "see you around, Chat." Chat Noir gave Carapace a two finger salute as a goodbye and Carapace took off into the direction of Marinette and Alya's apartment to talk to his girlfriend about the strange meeting he had with Ladybug.
Carapace didn't hear from Ladybug for a few days. When he did, it was a text that came through his communicator. The text came through with a location where Carapace should pick up Adrien, then the location of where Marinette set up Adrien's surprise beer for him.
Adrien, or Chat Noir as it were, happened to be dying of curiosity for all of that day. As Adrien, he knew that Marinette was planning a surprise for him. As Chat Noir, he knew which rooftop he had recommended Ladybug to recommend to Marinette for the surprise. He ended up going out that way at 17h30, knowing his 'surprise' was going to arrive at their meeting spot at 19h00.
When he arrived, he was surprised to see a hero standing on the rooftop moving things around. It was the mouse hero, Multimouse, the one that Marinette designed the dress based on. The one that he was surprised that Marinette knew about. She was the one who was setting up the surprise.
He had kind of been kidding a few weeks back when he wondered if Marinette was Multimouse, but now he had a suspicion that the idea wasn't as ridiculous as it seemed at first. "Hey," he greeted in an attempt to not surprise her, "you're Multimouse, right?" His attempt to not scare her clearly didn't work when she jumped and let out a small squeak that matched her namesake.
She turned around to face him and placed a hand over the now-pounding heart in her chest. "Yeah," she said with a smile on her face, "I'm Multimouse. It's nice to meet you, Chat Noir. Thank you for suggesting this rooftop. I think it'll be perfect." Multimouse turned back around and adjusted the folding chairs she'd brought up there.
The two chairs were on opposite sides of a small patio table that had a cooler underneath. The cooler looked like it had already been filled and Adrien silently wondered how long Marinette had been out here, perfecting everything so that he could hang out with Carapace. "It already looks purrfect to me," he said honestly. "Adrien's a lucky guy."
"I'm the lucky one," she said quietly, "he's great and he's done so much for me. I just want to be able to say I've at least tried to do the same for him." Marinette was blushing lightly as she spoke and he could see the soft smile on her face. He knew their relationship was fake, but as someone who was supposed to be an outside observer, he understood how people thought they were really together.
"Is there anything I can do to help you get everything ready?" Chat Noir asked Multimouse.
"If you want to, I could use some help hanging these lights." She lifted a string of fairy lights that were set up with a battery pack and he helped her string them around the sides of the rooftop and wound them around the table between the chairs. Between all the effort she put in, the rooftop looked gorgeous and he couldn't wait to see it when the sun was setting.
"I should head out before Adrien gets here," Multimouse said with a smile. "Thank you for the help, Chat." She took off in the direction of her apartment and Adrien went to the place where he was supposed to be meeting Carapace. A few minutes after he transformed back into a civilian, he was standing out front of the café near his apartment building.
Carapace landed behind Adrien. "Happy Birthday, homme," Carapace said in greeting. Adrien was momentarily surprised by the fact that Carapace almost sounded like Nino did when he wished him a happy birthday earlier that day. He turned around and put as believable a look of shock on his face as he could.
"Wow," Adrien practically sighed, "are you the surprise that Marinette told me about?" Adrien's eyes widened in surprise.
"I'm about half of it," Carapace told him, "I'm going to have to take you to the second half if that's okay with you." Carapace extended a hand to Adrien and Adrien accepted. They didn't have a plan for how to get Adrien up there comfortably, so the two guys ended up far closer to each other than either of them expected when Carapace held Adrien in a princess carry.
They got to the rooftop that Chat Noir had spent the afternoon setting up with Multimouse. It was even more lovely in the light of the sunset. The soft orange hue on the rooftop made everything almost glow and the fairy lights on the rooftop gave the entire area a lovely atmosphere.
"Your girlfriend mentioned you wanted to have a beer with me," Carapace told Adrien. Adrien nodded excitedly and moved toward the cooler. He grabbed a beer for each of them. Marinette had thought ahead and tied a bottle opener to the top of the cooler for the two of them to use that evening.
He opened each of the bottles and handed one of them to Carapace before sitting in one of the chairs that Marinette had set up. Adrien looked around and admired all of the work that his 'girlfriend' did. Between the decorations, tray of pastries, and angle of the chairs, though, Adrien couldn't help but feel like he was on a date. Carapace was having the same thought.
Marinette had even gone so far as to set up a playlist of Adrien's favorite mixes that Nino created to listen to in the background while they were talking. The two of them sat together drinking their beers for a while and Adrien tried to make small talk with Carapace. "Do you mind if I call Marinette real quick?" Adrien asked Carapace with a slight wince on his face.
Carapace made a vague motion, giving him permission to call his girlfriend. Adrien pressed call on Marinette's contact and she answered after a few seconds. She greeted him with a smile clear in her voice. "Hey, princess," he said in response, "I want you to know that this was a wonderful surprise and I don't know how you pulled it off."
He took a deep breath. "But I need to ask, did you mean to set me up on a date with Carapace? Because I'm pretty sure you set me up on a date with Carapace." She laughed at the question he asked. He winced a little at her laugh and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.
"Of course not, buttercup," she answered honestly. "What makes you think you're on a date with Carapace?"
"Do you mind if we video call?" Adrien asked Carapace and Marinette simultaneously. Marinette changed the call to a video call and Carapace gave a thumbs up, relaxing into his seat while he sipped on his beer. Adrien held up his phone to show Marinette an extremely romantic-looking atmosphere that she had created on the rooftop without realizing it.
Marinette winced slightly. "Oh, gosh, I set you up on a date with Carapace," she admitted, "I'm so sorry Adrien. I didn't mean to. I can fix this, though. I'll be there soon."