'Okay if I call?' Marinette sent the text at 22h00 that night. As Ladybug, she knew that Chat Noir finished the akuma attack and took the kid home at around 13h10 that afternoon. As Marinette, she knew she learned her… Adrien's secret identity, then he went AWOL. She didn't blame him for either of those things.
Instead of getting a text in response like she expected, a phone call came through from 'Adrien (beau goose) Agreste.' The contact photo attached to the name was taken one day when their date was 'attacked by pigeons' which meant that there were like 2 pigeons sitting about a meter away from them when they were on a 'date' one time.
It was one of Marinette's favorite photos of him. Most of his pictures were taken specifically to look attractive and they did, but there was something more charming about the candid pictures. She stared at the screen of her phone and almost regretted texting him. She pulled her knees up to her chest and swiped to answer the call.
"Hey, Adrien," she greeted, not sure what else to say. She was just happy that she had gotten past the point of trying to combine his identities in her head and accidentally just creating new ship names for him and his secret identity. "How did the akuma attack go?" She already knew the answer to that question, why did she even ask it?
"It was fine," he responded. It was only half a lie. The attack wasn't too difficult to deal with. "We finished up pretty quickly today. It seemed like Ladybug knew how to deal with the character the Akuma was based on, so that was convenient." Marinette could hear the rustling on his side of the phone when Adrien flopped down onto his bed at his apartment.
"How have you been, after that?" Adrien's voice was nervous, he didn't know if he actually wanted to know how Marinette was doing. Chances were high that she was stressed after he had to reveal his identity and he hated the idea of making her feel like that.
"I've been fine," she responded, "just peachy." He could hear the fake tone to her voice as she spoke and he almost wanted to throw up. She wasn't fine or peachy, he could tell. She was lying for his sake and he hated that she felt like she needed to do that. "I'm sorry you felt like you needed to…" She trailed off, but Adrien understood what she meant.
"It isn't your fault." He audibly swallowed on the other side of the phone. "I wanted to. Well… No, I didn't want to, but I don't regret that it was you who found out. I wish it didn't have to happen because now I have to tell Ladybug what happened and I'm scared she'll take away my Miraculous, but I'm just glad you got out of there safely."
"Thank you, for saving me. Well, and saving Paris, but you do that all the time and today you saved me specifically." Marinette was certain she sounded stupid as she thanked him for doing the same thing he had been doing for years.
"You're taking this a lot better than I expected," he said with a nervous chuckle, "after how much you were panicking when Box Ghost first trapped us, I thought you would be less able to talk than you are. I'm sorry that I tricked you into letting me help you set up my own birthday surprise."
She thought back, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Adrien could hear a small smack of skin on her side of the call as she facepalmed. "I'm sorry I accidentally set you up on a date with your teammate," she responded, "that was probably kind of weird. I just set you up to have a beer with one of your friends."
She mentally noted that it was even more ridiculous because she had set him up to have that beer with someone who was already his friend several times over. It was different when she thought Adrien had never met Carapace before, but Adrien was already friends with Nino, and Carapace and Chat Noir were clearly already friends.
She momentarily considered if she could get away with getting Nino and Chat Noir in a room together to complete the friendship square for the two of them, but she decided that now probably wasn't the time to think about that. "It was sweet," he assured her, "plus, it was really nice to know that Carapace thought Adrien was cool before we actually met."
She heard him moving around again and she could tell that he sounded like he was just pacing instead of actually trying to accomplish something with his wandering. "We're okay, though?" he asked for clarification, "like, you still want to be my friend? Still okay with pretending to be in a relationship?"
Marinette considered her answer to his question carefully. If she were being totally honest, she had known for months that she wasn't okay pretending to be in a relationship with him, but that was when she developed feelings for him and she didn't think that was something he would be ready to talk about so soon after his identity was revealed.
"Of course," Marinette hurried to assure, "now you're just even better. I mean, having you as my friend has been wonderful, and you being you just adds to that. Seriously, Adrien. You're incredible and I don't plan on giving up what we have for a long time." She hated how cryptic she had to make her words while she spoke, but Alya was home.
"Can you come over?" Adrien asked, and it felt sudden, but he was quick to explain. "We still need to talk about today and I really don't think it would be good for Alya or Nino to overhear our talk. We wouldn't have to worry about that at my place." She could hear that he had gone from pacing to tapping something. She assumed it was the pen that was constantly on his desk.
"Yeah, yes. That would probably be a good idea." She looked over at the clock for one of the first times since she got home after the akuma. "Have you eaten yet? I can grab dinner for us on the way there and be there by 23h00?" She heard the tapping in the background stop and bit her lip, not knowing how he'd react to her suggestion.
"Or I can come pick you up and we can make something here" he offered, "I mean, now that you know… That's just how I usually get around the city. That's why I didn't have a metro pass the day you had to take me to get one." He didn't know why he was telling her this, but she wanted to know anything he wanted to share with her about himself so she didn't mind.
She agreed to meet him next to her building because she didn't know how to explain to him that she was planning to transform and get to his apartment in pretty much the same way. She told Alya and Nino that she expected to spend the night at Adrien's place that night, so she made sure she had something to wear the next day before she left her building.
Marinette was scrolling through her phone, trying to look casual while she stood there waiting for Chat Noir to arrive. She couldn't help but be nervous when she saw his form making its way across the Paris rooftops. He made sure she saw him so that he didn't scare her when he landed about a meter in front of her.
"Hey," she greeted, now stumped as to what to call him. She was comfortable calling him Adrien when they were on the phone, but now he was right in front of her and he was her chaton when she was Ladybug. He was her buttercup when he was Adrien, but Marinette didn't know what she was supposed to call the boy she'd been fake dating for the last 6 months.
"Hey, princess," he greeted, apparently unaware of her inner turmoil. "Are you ready to go?" She felt her heart skip a beat when he said the word princess. It wasn't something that she'd ever expected Chat Noir to cause, but he was still Adrien and she spent months pretending to date him while she tried to keep her feelings to herself.
"Yeah," she responded, "definitely. I'm ready to go whenever you are." She needed to tell him. She needed to tell him her identity. She needed to tell him how she felt. She needed to tell him everything about herself, just like she wanted to after his birthday. He scooped her up in a bridal carry like she knew he had done to Ladybug and other civilians hundreds of times.
She looped her arms around his neck as he took her home and she was silently hoping that anyone who saw them assumed he was doing his normal Chat Noir thing of taking a civilian home. It wasn't like it was the first time he'd done it. It wasn't even the first time he had escorted her somewhere so she'd get there safely.
She stared at him, thinking about the fact that the first time Marinette had interacted with Chat Noir was the night when she met Adrien at that party. Did he leave Alya and Nino when she left just so that she'd get home safe? She tried not to focus too much on that, but she couldn't help that knowing he's Chat Noir recontextualized what she thought she knew about him.
It didn't make her like him any less, finding out he's her partner. It would have been crazy if she did like him less because she learned he's a hero. On the contrary, actually, she found herself thinking about every sweet thing that Chat Noir had ever done for Ladybug and remembered at the start of their fake-relationship when Chat Noir asked Ladybug for advice for his 'girlfriend'.
"I'm going to drop you off at the front door, then I'll meet you upstairs," Chat Noir told her quietly. "I'll see you in a minute." He put her down next to the front door to his building and wanted to kiss her cheek, but he decided it would be a bad idea. She opened the front door to the building and went upstairs to his apartment.
Adrien opened the door as she approached and Marinette's breath caught looking at him. He gestured to her to enter his apartment and she came inside. He closed the door behind her and as soon as he turned back toward her, she wrapped her arms around him because she'd been wanting to hug him since the reveal happened.
He was surprised for a moment, but wrapped her in his arms shortly after that. "I love you," he whispered to the girl he was holding. "Thank you for agreeing to come over. I know we have a lot to talk about, and I'm so sorry for burdening you with this." He placed his chin on the top of her head and she felt her heart pound in her chest.
"I'm sorry that you felt like you had to reveal your identity to me," Marinette said quietly, continuing to hold him. She was kind of mumbling into his chest as they stood there hugging about a meter from the doorway. "If I hadn't been panicking, you wouldn't have had to do that." Adrien stepped back and placed a hand on Marinette's cheek.
"Never apologize for your feelings," he told her. "Everyone has different responses to stressful situations and you can't blame yourself for the reaction that either of us had when we were trapped in that box during an akuma attack." Adrien rubbed a thumb across Marinette's cheek and she found herself filled with a sense of calm as he held her face in his palm.
Marinette placed her hand on top of his and bit her lip. She tried to think of what to say in response to his claim, but she couldn't form any words that felt appropriate. She landed on saying, "I love you." She wanted to say more, but Plagg flew out of the bedroom to greet her now that she knew Adrien's identity.
Plagg greeted her like the two of them were old friends and Marinette was uncomfortable because it felt like that was getting close to him outing her identity as Ladybug. Adrien mentioned while they were talking that night that he knew about her identity as Multimouse and Marinette was calmed by the fact that that was why Plagg would know her.
They spent the rest of the night talking about Adrien's experiences as a hero. Marinette made hot chocolate for both of them while they sat on his couch, talking about anything and everything. Eventually, the two of them fell asleep, slumped against each other on the couch. Tikki came out to spend some time with Plagg while their chosens slept.