Note :
Hi !
First of all, this is a translation of my fic "Oups", which you can find in French on my account.
Second, I translated this fic myself. I'm proud of my work and really excited to post it, but English is not my first language. Even if I tried to do my best, there are probably some mistakes (I just hope that there are not too much of them xD ) . Feel free to tell me if this is the case !
I also wanted to say the biggest thank you to mayuralover, thanks a lot for your help and advice !
And finally, I hope you'll like this little story :) !
Have a nice day !
It started off as nothing.
Really, really nothing.
After so many months of fighting side by side, the two heroes of Paris had finally discovered their real identities.
So, it was only natural that one day, Ladybug suggested to a Chat Noir running out of time to come at her house until his kwami regains enough strength to allow him to retransform.
Just once.
Then a second.
Then a third.
And little by little, whether there was an urgent need to transform or not, it became a habit for the two heroes to meet in the girl's room after a fight or a patrol. They could stay there for hours, chatting about anything and everything, bickering nicely, getting into video game tournaments or otherwise watching movies on Marinette's computer. After that, Adrien would systematically leave to return to his cold and vast home.
Then one day, there had been that stormy night.
Chat Noir and Ladybug were patrolling the streets of Paris when a violent downpour forced them to stop and take shelter at Marinette's. Initially, both teenagers weren't particularly worried. It wasn't the first time that Adrien stopped by her partner's house because of a bad weather, after all. They would just spend some good time together, after which Adrien would go back home, as usual.
But the weather wasn't just bad.
It was absolutely awful.
The hours had passed inexorably, without the heavy rain that swept over the capital weakening for a single moment. The raging of the elements had been such that Marinette and Adrien had begun to fear that a supervillain was the cause of this disaster. Thankfully, Plagg and Tikki had quickly assured them that the origin of this extraordinary storm was without a doubt perfectly natural.
Nevertheless, perfectly natural or not, this meteorological disaster-like storm forced Adrien to linger at his partner's house way much longer than he would have liked. The skyline was full of big, dark clouds, that rolled in the skies like a raging ocean.
The weather was so terrible that the night had fallen without the two teenagers even noticing. When Adrien had finally noticed the late hour, a worried glance through the window confirmed that the pouring rain would make his return home more than unpleasant.
That was then that Marinette had offered him to stay.
Just for that night, just long enough for the raging storm to calm down enough to allow him to return home safely.
Just once.
Then one second, when one of their Ultima Mecha Strike III tournaments had lasted so much longer than expected that the young man had literally collapsed from fatigue on his partner's bed.
Then a third, when one of their little evenings spent talking about everything and nothing had gone on much longer than it should have, and Marinette didn't felt to send her partner home at such a late hour.
And just as their meetings at the girl's house had gradually become part of their routine, so did the fact that Adrien spent his nights with Marinette.
The young hero's little nocturnal incursions into his partner's bed were of course perfectly innocent.
Well, perhaps not as innocent as they had been in the beginning.
Adrien had quickly made the charming habit of dropping a quick kiss on Marinette's cheek before they fell asleep. And one day, without either of them really knowing how, the young man had slightly missed his target. Just of an inch or two. Not much. But in doing so, his lips accidentally landed on the corners of those of his partner.
Blushing with embarrassment, Adrien had immediately apologized, while a Marinette on the verge of a heart attack had comforted him by assuring him that there was no harm done.
And she had smiled, her blue eyes sparkling as brightly as a cloud of stars in a summer sky.
And at this lovely sight, Adrien had felt his heart do loops, somersaults and other leaps of joy.
Following this interesting incident, the young man had been less and less precise about the location of his light goodnight kisses. He sometimes kissed Marinette's cheek, sometimes her forehead, sometimes her nose, sometimes again the corners of her lips, each time rewarded with delicious bursts of laughter from his adorable partner.
To Adrien's delight, Marinette gradually took pleasure in covering his face with kisses, and it quickly appeared to the two teenagers that their relationship was beginning to take on a direction that was as new as it was exciting.
Then, one night, there had been THE kiss.
Not one of their usual quite-innocent goodnight kisses, which could still pass for a somewhat tactile display of friendship.
No, this one had been slow, deliberate, and perfectly meaningful.
With his emerald gaze riveted to Marinette's intense sapphire eyes, Adrien had leaned towards the girl. Slowly, carefully, giving her plenty of time to read his intentions and offering her the opportunity to stop him if she wished.
Running a trembling finger over the young girl's lips, whose cheekbones had become flushed beyond what he would have thought possible, Adrien had stopped at the last second.
"Okay ?",he had whispered shyly.
"Okay", Marinette had firmly answered, her face lit up with the brightest of smiles.
Hearts beating like crazy, the teenagers had slowly erased the last few inches that still separated their parted lips, sealing them in a tender kiss that left no doubt as to the nature of their feelings.
This loving gesture had undoubtedly marked a new turning point in their relationship.
Much to Nino's and Alya's delight - and Chloe's dismay - Adrien and Marinette had officially started dating.
But while Marinette's parents were now used to seeing their daughter's boyfriend at home at all hours of the day, the teen's night time visits as Chat Noir or Adrien remained completely clandestine.
It had become a real routine. The two superheroes would meet two or three times a week to patrol the rooftops of Paris, then Chat Noir would systematically take her charming partner back home. They would then spend the whole evening together, laughing, playing or chatting, and when they both would begin to fall asleep, the young man would stay overnight, only to leave at dawn.
However, despite the very significant – and appreciable - change in status of their relationship, the nights they shared remained broadly similar to those they had spent together as partners. There were a few more stolen kisses, of course, and on the lips rather than on the cheeks. But it was still pretty innocent, neither of them having the slightest desire to push further the boundaries that were currently theirs.
Everything was perfect, and nothing seemed to be able to break this pleasant routine.
And there had been this Sunday morning.
The previous night had been disrupted by one of the rare appearances of a nocturnal supervillain. When Chat Noir had stopped at Marinette's, the young man had seemed so close to collapsing from fatigue that his partner naturally offered to stay to sleep.
The rays of the morning sun were now flooding the room of the Paris heroine, who sighed happily as she nestled lovingly in the arms of her partner and boyfriend.
"Hello Princess", the young man whispered in a voice hoarse from sleep.
"Good morning kitty", she replied in the same tone.
Adrien stretched out his fingers, gently sliding them through Marinette's jet black hair.
"I'm going to have to go", he whispered, the delicate caress of his breath on her teammate's skin sending a delicious shiver down the girl's spine.
"Mgnnng... already? ", she sighed, passing her arms around Adrien's shoulders to hold him close to her.
The hero let out a breathy laugh, before leaning into place an aerial kiss on the girl's forehead.
"It's already late", he replied in a low voice. "If I stay too long, your parents might surprise us. But if you want, I can come back this afternoon. In a more official way", he added with a mischievous smile.
As his girlfriend was about to reply that she would indeed love to have him visit her again later in the day, a slight noise suddenly startled the two teenagers. They first exchanged a puzzled glance, which quickly changed to a look of horror when they both noticed that the sound was coming from the trap door leading to the girl's room.
Trap door which was slowly opening.
" Marinette", rose Sabine Cheng's voice, making the entrails of the heroine of Paris freeze with terror, "do you have any laundry to wash? I'm preparing some laundry. "
Marinette stood up, letting out a surprised yelp, while hurriedly folding her quilt over the unfortunate Adrien, whose nose crashed against a cushion when his partner's sharp movement made him fall along the mattress.
Helpless, the young girl watched her mother finish opening the trap door before entering the room, a basket of laundry under her arm.
"In the dirty laundry basket, I suppose? ", Sabine continued.
" YES !", Marinette said, before biting her lips violently, realizing she had spoken much louder than she would have liked.
The dirty laundry basket.
Away from her and Adrien.
Away from her bed, where the body of his partner hidden under her quilt formed a protuberance whose presence would hardly escape close examination (or even a not-so-close examination, for that matter).
But now, Sabine was moving away.
It was perfect. Maybe they had a chance to get out of it.
Sabine walked into the room in a desperately slow pace, before glancing around.
"I don't see anything", she said, before turning to the rest of the room. "Ah, how many times have I told you not to pile your dirty clothes near your desk", she said, while Marinette let out an inner groan.
Not the desk.
Not the desk.
Not. The. Desk.
It was way too close.
As Marinette's mother approached dangerously close to the mezzanine where the two heroes were perched, the young girl felt Adrien begin to fidget beside her. Her partner was starting to run out of air, and desperately tried to let her know by furiously digging his fingers into her ribs.
"Mmmpf", he let out in spite of himself, as he raised his head to catch his breath.
"You were saying ? ", Sabine glanced at her daughter.
"N-nothing, nothing", Marinette stammered, hastily pressing her elbow on Adrien's head. "I was just breathing a little hard. It's good for your health to take deep breaths in the morning, it makes your lungs work", she continued with a huge smile on her face.
Sabine raised an intrigued eyebrow, before turning away to pile Marinette's dirty clothes in her laundry basket.
"You won't stay too long be in bed ?", she continued. "You should already be up at this hour. "
Marinette swallowed hard, her heart beating with such force that she wondered with horror if her mother might not hear the heavy pulses.
No way for her to go out now.
Her mother would certainly not fail to notice the presence of a second body under the sheets if she moved at that very moment.
"Yes, I... I'll get up, don't worry", she replied with a nervous laugh. "I'm just resting a little longer. "
"I hope you didn't pull an all-nighter playing video games again? ", Sabine immediately pointed out with a suspicious look. "You know what I think about that. I don't mind if you play a bit, but if it is to see you then sleep until the middle of the day, then that's not possible. I don't want to have to come and drag you out of bed. "
"No, no ! Don't worry! ", the girl yelped feverishly. "It's just... Classes, exams, all that, I was a little tired", she continued with a nervous chuckle. "But it's okay ! I'm just getting up in five minutes. "
Her mother opened her mouth, obviously preparing to add something, before finally changing her mind at the last second. More dead than alive, Marinette watched her finish filling her basket, while crossing her fingers with all her might so that her mother would finally leave her room.
A glimmer of hope crossed the girl's heart when Sabine took a step towards the trap door, before being replaced by a wave of terror when her mother made a sudden U-turn to head straight for her stairs.
"I almost forgot the mezzanine", she said to her daughter. "You have nothing at the foot of your bed?"
"No, no, there's nothing in my bed", replied Marinette. "AT THE FOOT ! ", she corrected herself with fear. "There's nothing at the foot of my bed. Nothing at all, really", Marinette stammered nervously, while frantically seeking a way out of the perilous situation in which she found herself.
As Sabine walked further and further, Marinette pushed Adrien with all her might with her knee in an attempt to tip him onto to the side of the mattress, against the wall opposite the stairs.
If her mother made it even a third of the way up the stairs to the mezzanine, there was absolutely no chance she would miss the young mans 'presence. The panicked heroine hoped that by at least partially sliding her partner into the tiny gap between her bed and the wall, the shape of his body could go a little longer unnoticed.
Long enough to convince her mother that it was useless to climb up here.
Sabine stepped one foot on the first step of the stairs, then a second, and Marinette pressed her knee a little harder against Adrien's ribs.
But Adrien, having quickly estimated the size of the tiny space in which his anxious partner was trying to push him, had not failed to note that the width of the place was far from being compatible with that of his rib cage.
This was a bad idea.
A very, very bad idea.
The prospect of being caught by Sabine Cheng in her daughter's bed was not very tempting. But honestly, the idea of suffocating death was even less so. This conviction in mind, Adrien offered a discreet but nevertheless fierce resistance to the attempts of his girlfriend, trying to make her understand that he was far from finding her plan perfect.
But Marinette's panic was the strongest, and by dint of hard, she finally managed to slide her teammate to the side, still hidden by the duvet. Adrien tumbled abruptly, letting out a choked "Oompf! "as the air escaped from his compressed lungs.
"What", said Sabine, putting one foot on the fifth step (but when had she crossed the third and fourth ?).
"What what?",Marinette blurted out in a high-pitched voice.
Mechanically, the heroine tried to rearrange the folds of her quilt to hide the smaller but still perfectly identifiable bump formed by Adrien's body, now half buried between her wall and her mattress.
"I heard a sound", clarified her mother, frowning slightly.
"A sound? ", the girl repeated again, so tense that she seemed unable to do anything else but repeat Sabine's words, who continued to climb inexorably.
"Yes, a sound", she confirmed. "Is there something in your room? ", she said in a surprised tone. "I could have sworn it came from here."
Marinette stiffened, clutching her sheets so tightly between her fists that the knuckles of her fingers had turned white.
"A CAT! ", she yelled in a shrill voice, suddenly starting her mother. "There's a cat that's been hanging out on my terrace lately. It's probably him! He must have dropped something! "
Sabine looked up at her daughter, puzzled, before directing her eyes to the hatch over her bed.
"Okay, I'll see that", she replied, moving one step further.
"NO, NO ! DONTWORRYILLTAKECAREOFITMYSELF !" , Marinette shouted immediately, backing up her words with wide, panicked gestures.
"Sorry ?", her mother blurted out, stunned.
"I'm going to... I'll take care of it myself. Don't worry", Mariette repeated, desperately trying to regain control of her voice and to formulate some coherent words.
"Are you sure?", Sabine insisted.
"Yes, yes, YES, absolutely, completely sure ! ", Marinette yelped, nodding her head frantically.
As her mother looked at her with a frown, the girl felt her heart rate reach dangerously high rhythms.
She wasn't gonna to survive this morning, it was impossible.
"Really, you don't need to go upstairs", Marinette continued feverishly. "That's all right. It's not as if there was anything here. Or anyooooone", she concluded with a slight cry of pain when Adrien vigorously pinched her thigh, frightened by his partner's dangerous tendency to let catastrophic words slip out under stress.
Marinette bit her lips violently before facing her mother again.
"There is no laundry, I mean", she said with a tight smile, while while giving her quilt a violent elbow. "You took everything. "
Puzzled, Sabine Cheng gazed at her daughter for a moment.
Then, to Marinette's relief, she nodded briefly, before turning back and finally (finally!) leaving the room.
The two teenagers let a handful of seconds pass, then Marinette quickly removed her quilt while Adrien struggled to pull himself out of the tiny gap in which he had found himself trapped.
"I thought I was going to end up suffocated !", he said, sitting on the bed to try to catch his breath.
"I almost died ! ", added his teammate, dramatically placing her hand on her heart.
"I almost died ! ", Adrien replied. "The choking, the fall... Whereas you, I don't see how YOU could have died!"
" Heart attack ! ", replied Marinette, rolling her eyes.
The two teenagers exchanged a brief glance, then both burst out of an irrepressible nervous giggle.
"S-Sorry for almost choking you", the young heroine hiccupped, laughing so hard that the muscles in her cheeks threw her painfully. "I-I assure you that was not the idea. "
"I-I hope so", stammered Adrien in the same tone, struggling to articulate a single word because of his uncontrollable outbursts of laughter.
They had come close to the disaster.
Verry, very, very close to disaster.
"Oh, sweetheart", Sabine suddenly said in a clear voice, sticking her head trough the trapdoor of the bedroom, "I forgot to tell you that- "
In a perfect illustration of denial of reality, Marinette closed her eyes when she heard her mother's voice suddenly choke. Maybe she was just about to have a straight cough. Or she had forgotten the end of her sentence. Or hit a toe on the stairs.
There were a thousand possible explanations. It was entirely possible that she hadn't stopped because she saw...
"...Adrien ?"
Oops.