A Visit
summary: Adrien transforms and goes to Marinette.
It was some time after midnight when, it was dark and he was in a bed, Adrien woke up, his hands were searching, but she was not there. Then he remembered, he was at Nino's. Of course she was not there. The boy was alone in the room, he vaguely remembered that Chris had came in ranting about Nino had to go in his bed if Chris had to be in his bed, so his best bro left.
"Plagg" Adrien whispered. He needed at least his kwami there, to be reassured, to know that he was not alone. The tiny black deity zoomed over much faster than the boy expected.
"Do you find your bed cold and empty?" Plagg teased.
It was not that, he felt the memories of his old room in the Agreste mansion and his mother and the temple and all the anxiety creep up to him in the middle of the night. Well, he had such reminders of the, but until that night, he also had Marinette to remind him that that was in the past.
Suddenly, the fact that it was not his vast room with high ceiling but a small room with his friends sleeping in another room did not make much difference. His anxiety was still there. Then he checked the time. It was the time difference, just the right time to wake up in China.
Adrien did not feel good being alone there, and somehow, Plagg was not enough of a company to really put his mind to ease. The sleeplessness made his mind go wild and memories crept up on him without warning. He needed company and distraction.
He could go to Nino.
Or he could transform.
"Plagg, claws out." He called. Plagg did not even complain while he was sucked into the ring. His wielder was seriously anxious and he needed help, if transforming into Chat was able to help, then the tiny black cat was happy to oblige.
Marinette walked home with her head hanging low.
Yup, it was time to separate, it was time to live their own lives, Adrien did not want to be adopted by her parents, and she agreed to that, both of them had different ideas on what to do. But they were fourteen, they were only fourteen. It was too early for that.
Sabine patted her shoulder sympathetically and her father held his arm over her shoulders while they walked.
"I know it must be hard dear." Sabine cooed.
"He is a good boy but he needs to be with Nino now." Tom smiled.
Sabine and Tom looked at each other. It was so clear that the two kids loved each other, but they were too young. They were too young for love and yet they were too young for many things they had to face, fighting villains was one of them (not that they knew they were also superheroes).
They knew that keeping Adrien under their roof would be a bad idea if the feelings of the teenagers were considered seriously. They would not mind if the boy had stayed for a few days or a week before he made up his mind. But he was certain that he wanted to go to Nino.
In the end, Sabine and Tom were holding hands on their daughters shoulder.
Marinette stumbled upstairs to her room. There was no homework, not really, the teachers somehow forgot about that. But she had not designed anything for, like, forever and that was exactly what she intended to do until she passed out.
And pass out she did.
It was dark. The city of Paris was lit up, but the streets were almost empty. Chat Noir vaulted over the familiar rooftops, but made sure to stay out of sight. Ladybug and Chat noir were not seen hopping around the city for weeks.
He smiled when he saw the familiar balcony in the distance. It was not very far, just a few minutes away. There were no lights on the rooftop terrace and no lights in the windows. He landed lightly on the tiles, he did not want to wake up anyone.
The black cat like hero sneaked up to the rooftop window. It never occurred to him that what he was doing might be slightly inappropriate. The bed below the window was empty. Suddenly his heart was in his throat. His night vision eyes scanned the room below.
And then he saw her. She was asleep on her desk. Of course she was. What else did he expect? He chuckled to himself. Of course she threw herself on her designs and fell asleep on them. She always complained about that when she arrived to the classroom exhausted in the morning.
But then he suddenly realized that was only half of the reason. She was Ladybug, and they had some late night akuma. What a perfect excuse. She was probably losing more sleep due to akuma attack than her designing.
He unlatched the rooftop window and sneaked into the room. The biggest photo on the wall above her bed was a picture of him. Now that he was at Nino's, maybe he could put up a few pictures on the wall above his bed? A picture of Marinette definitely, and Ladybug, no, identities, ugh.
He slipped through the window and closed it. Then he descended from her loft bed and observed his sleeping beauty. Well, it was good that he decided to go for a visit, because it would be awful if he allowed for his princess to sleep on her desk like this.
He bent over and sneaked his arms below her knees and back. He was going to carry her back to bed. It was good that he was a superhero, because carrying her up on the loft bed without waking her up would have been much harder as a civilian.
Marinette was having a nightmare. She was fighting an akuma or some other monster, she did not remember it later. But one moment she was fighting in her sleep and the next moment she felt herself being lifted in the air.
Everything was dark. She opened her eyes and it was still dark. She blinked a few times and it was still dark. Someone was holding her but she felt like she recognized those arms. The next moment she was sure she knew who it was, and then he turned and she could see his green eyes in the dark.
"Hey Chat." She whispered and smiled. It was good to see him after a nightmare. She had no clue how would she feel if she woke up from that nightmare alone. She was not used to waking up alone any more, and there were plenty of events that she relived as nightmares.
"Sorry to wake you princess." Chat smirked and put her down on the bed. "Claws in." He detransformed before he pulled his hands out from between her body and the bed. That was the easiest way to avoid hurting her with his claws. And Plagg did not complain.
"You're good. Nightmare." Marinette whispered quickly. Soon her arms were around the boy and her head was on his shoulder. It felt good. Whatever the nightmare was, she did not remember any more, and the feeling was gone too.
"Did you have a nightmare too?" She asked quietly. Because what else would be the reason for him to go to her? And he had even more reasons to have nightmares, it was him who was waking up in tears lately.
"Just missed you, I guess." The boy whispered. Maybe he did have a nightmare, but he did not remember it either. "I just woke up and you were not there." He gently rubbed her back. He did not feel that he needed any other reason to visit her and Plagg did not complain.
Plagg first floated away to fetch Tikki who was asleep in her usual nest hidden on a shelf above Marinette's desk. Then both of them floated back up to their chosen. Tikki nuzzled their cheeks while Plagg preferred to hide in Marinette's hair on Adrien's arm and scratch both of them.
"Were you bothered by the argument between Chloe and Felix?" Marinette uttered.
"Yeah, bout you're right, Lila should be harmless now." He replied.
"I'm not ready to give her a second chance." She admitted.
"And I don't want Felix to impersonate me and hurt my friends." Adrien added. "Anyway, what about that nightmare of yours?"
"It is not that bad, it was just a nightmare, I do not even remember what it was, just a feeling." Marinette muttered to both kwami. The truth was she only wanted to enjoy listening to Adrien's breathing, close her eyes and fall asleep.
"I do not even remember having a nightmare, just my bed felt so empty and the room was empty and I woke up only to be alone in a room in the middle of the night and I had to see her." Adrien replied tiredly. "I'm sorry I used my miraculous for that."
"That is all right Adrien." Tikki chirped but there was sadness in her voice. Plagg just scratched gently if only to emphasise the words that the tiny red goddess just uttered. It took a few minutes but both teens were asleep when Tikki floated back in the air and approached two green glowing eyes tangled in Marinette's hair.
They did not bother to set the clock for an earlier time than the last moment that allowed reaching the class in time (the usual wake up time for Marinette). And if Adrien wanted to return to his room at Nino's without his absence noticed, it had to be done.
"Have you been seen?" Tikki demanded from Plagg.
Plagg phased through the black hair.
"Not here, Tikki." He whispered.
Both kwami phased downstairs and straight to the fridge. There were several reasons for that. The first one was packed in a circular box and had a particular smell, the second one was that the fridge was rather sound proof, and the third one was a cake on the top shelf.
"Did you feel it too?" Plagg asked after he took a chunk of cheese and smelled it while he held it in his paws.
"Felt what?" Tikki demanded.
"The kwami calling us into the box." Plagg replied causally.
"We are not going in there without consulting our guardians again." Tikki chided.
"Okay okay, we'll ask them when they wake up." Plagg replied. "But it might be too late."
"You mean a request for help with Nooroo and Duusu?" Tikki inquired.
"I knew it, you felt it too. Why didn't you say anything." Plagg demanded.
"They are too young for that sacrifice." Tikki protested.
"You know that we can help them after a hefty meal." Plagg snickered.
"No, not now, and even if we do, we will not be able to get out for a while." Tikki was not in the mood.
"We can wake them up and ask them to go into the box, there are no akuma, I'm sure they'll let us." Plagg replied.
"No, we should tell them why we are going in there, and they should have a kwami outside just in case." Tikki scolded.
"If you tell that girl and that boy why we need to go into the box they will not let us in and then they will try to do it themselves and they are too young for that." Plagg smacked another piece of cheese just because he was so annoyed.
They continued to banter until the cake and the cheese were eaten.
Plagg was reluctant, but Tikki was determined to wake up their wielders, they floated back up and observed their sleeping chosen. Both of them looked at teach other and then back at the kids and sighed.
"Perhaps we could let them sleep for a little while, they will need their strength." Tikki sighed.
At that moment someone tapped the rooftop window.
Tapping was first gentle and then slightly harder.
Adrien opened his eyes.
"Come in Chat." Marinette muttered still half asleep and with her eyes closed.
Adrien chuckled and then looked up.
There was one more tap.
"It is not locked." Marinette muttered again.
"I'm here and I locked it." Adrien replied while he stared at the figure above him.
Marinette opened her eyes in a second and looked up.
Light blue and white suit of Bunnix was contrasted against the dark sky.
"oh no." Marinette breathed out, got to her feet and unlocked the rooftop window.
"So, that is why you were blushing so hard during the lunch break that day?" Bunnix snickered. "Pardon me, it was yesterday for you." She snickered again. "You would not believe what some people thought you did while you were only sleeping."
"Get your mind out of the gutter … Bunnix." Marinette replied tiredly. And she needed to force herself not to use the hero's civilian name as a form of punishment. The appearance of Bunnix gave her that unsettled feeling and reminder of Chat Blanc, but after the stunt from the studio it was not as bad.
Adrien felt entertained. He did not mind that the minds of his classmates put their relationship farther than both of them were ready to go.
"So, what do we need to do for you this fine evening?" Adrien smirked the way Chat Noir always did. He had so much fun in that Tvi studio and he was ready to do something like that again, his mind wrapped around a few puns he just did not manage to utter the last time.
Bunnix was serious and searched their surroundings. Her night vision was not as good as Chat's, but still better than an average human.
Marinette felt her gut implode. She looked around quickly and then back at Bunnix.
"Oh good, they are still out." Bunnix smiled when she noticed where the two kwami were hiding. They did not know from which time Bunnix arrived and if she already knew the identities of Ladybug and Chat Noir.
"What do you mean out?" Marinette protested. She looked at the kwami and then back at Bunnix. Then her brain started to process the information and she turned back to the two kwami. "What were you two up to?" She demanded.
"Um, nothing?" Plagg replied and grinned, his white fangs visible in the darkness. Tikki nudged him. "Actually we were meaning to ask you, but you slept so peacefully, and we just wanted to go into the miracle box into our magical world and since there are not akuma … "
Plagg trailed off. Adrien rolled his eyes. Marinette sighed.
"So that is why you were gone when I tried to reach Ladybug and Chat Noir later in time." Bunnix concluded. "Well, I have already released too much information about the future, let's just forget about that."
"Trust me, he will." Tikki glared.
"What was that all about?" Adrien muttered, as he got used to his kwami antics.
"Not important. Come on, you have to transform and come with me. And … Take extra snacks, you might have to detransform a few times" She jumped into the room and landed close to the chaise lounge. "And bring me a few carrots while you're at it."