All rights to Miraculous Ladybug belong to Zagtoon, Method Animation, Thomas Astruc, and Disney. This is my own creative work.
Thanks to his enhanced hearing courtesy of his faux cat ears, Adrien caught bits and pieces of the girls' talk from across the grounds.
"I'm not staring at him any more than usual!"
Adrien was already putting on a show being himself while being his other self. He could put another sipping his cider and shore up his weak spots. His features would be a fortress that would leave no opening for the boys chatting behind him to go and infiltrate with an assault of teasing. His cup was a solid defense to hide the deepening blush on his cheeks.
"Just go already! This is the closest I'm going to get to a Ladynoir pairing!"
Sweat lined the speck of a gap between his skin and the magical leather. His slit pupil couldn't help but peek open and wander over casually to the two huddling. The more he heard, the more he wished it could be just a dream.
"Ladybug and Cat Noir are NOT a couple!"
Adrien spit out the cider caught between his throat and teeth. It rebounded off the cup and spurt back into his face.
Now he was hoping it was just a nightmare. The cat boy coughed and spluttered, wiping his skin and sniffing out juice that might have, mortifyingly, gotten into his nostrils. His other eye peeked at the boys, all silenced and staring at him with confused looks. Adrien gave them his best 'everything is still as normal as they can be' smile and wave combo. He drank from his cup and gagged inwardly until all was clear and they resumed.
He retched the moment their backs were turned. That was one aspect of normal teenage boy-dom he could do without.
At the very least, he wasn't the only one accusable of getting his eyeballs perma-glued on someone else. Now though, the boy was also losing his mind. Were the girls saying what he thought they were saying?
And Ladybug and Cat Noir NOT a couple? Maybe not yet, but…
"Bonsoir, citoyens de Paris!"
Mayor Bourgeois's voice crowed out booming from every direction. Not a square inch of Place de Vogues was deaf to the man's voice emerging from the strategically placed loudspeakers. He stepped onto a podium before the carousel arms outstretched wide in a bright violet variation of his standard outfit with a sparkling golden sash across his chest. The grin across his face rivaled the decorations in brightness.
"Welcome one and all to the Heroes' Ball, brought to you by your beloved mayor! A-And by the hard-working citizens of course, without which none of this would be possible!" Rubbing his hands, his words were rushing out with breakneck speed. "Tonight we come together in celebration of the efforts of our city's heroes, those who risk their lives to protect us every day! In fact, I'd like to say a few words…."
It was a moving speech, if not long-winded. Chloe's father had the way of a poet, Adrien thought, which helped him a few steps of the way into becoming mayor to begin with. Though, fancy words might not be enough to save his political skin after a lot of the incidents. Most of them were his daughter's doing, after all.
Adrien listened all the way, with a swell of strength in his chest. It was good to feel the difference his and Ladybug's efforts made.
"…And with that final note, I officially commence the Heroes' Ball! Enjoy, everyone!"
Workers gathered with a large crystal ball refracting light across its surface. It took two men to hold it upright and attach the hook atop it to a large cable. The ball would be raised to the top of the merry-go-round; it was rather lavish for a community-held festival, but it still made for a nice touch. It must have taken some heavy cash to buy it.
But nothing in Paris could ever go as planned. The rope for the pulley snapped. A worker yelped and the others dropped the ball. It crashed and bounced away into the shouting masses.
An auburn-haired, hazel-eyed girl remained rooted as the ball bounced towards her.
"No!"
Adrien shouted, though he heard Marinette shout as well.
The boy broke into a run across the park. With feet between him and the terror-struck girl he hopped and switched into a series of front flips. With an aerial maneuver, twisting his body, he landed before the girl standing on his hands. The ball slammed onto the soles of his boots in time. Adrien bent his knees and shot them out, launching the ball midair.
He caught a flash of red and black-spotted legs passing by him.
Turning and flipping upright, he caught Marinette hopping off the stone trays of the fountain. At the tip she backflipped into the air and caught the ball just as she returned upright. Seconds moved like hours and air thundered in his ears, watching her move so gracefully, effortlessly. His classmate landed in a slight crouch but still on her feet.
Marinette nearly dropped the ball with its weight. He caught it just an inch from the ground. Their fingers nearly brushed though their sights were entangled as the crowd roared with applause.
They both chuckled setting the ball down.
"Okay, hello, WHAT!?" Alya screamed rushing with Nino as her captive towards them. "Girl, do you or Kitty Sunshine over here wanna tell us what the heck all THAT was!?"
"Uh…" Marinette visibly flinched. "What… what was what?"
"Uh-uh!" Alya chuckled, finger-wagging them both. "Do not try to play cute with me this time! I have got video evidence!"
She shot her phone which, of course, was never far from her hand. True to the journalist-to-be's word, every second of their display was caught and recorded. Alya had probably started filming the second the ball dropped. His ears picked up a groan of 'seriously' from Marinette.
"Dudes, that was some serious airtime you had there! Not even little-league jungle gym, that was like, Olympics-level!" Nino cheered. "Chinese, fencing, piano, AND gymnastics? Is there anything you're NOT super-talented at?"
"Not to mention the fact it was a doubles' routine we saw…" Alya added.
"Uh, w-well…"
They were both vocal messes. Adrien was rapidly combing through files of memory and background, selecting records to mold together into a proper answer. That was for his own sake, though he couldn't say anything on behalf of Marinette's. The afterthought left sand on his tongue. What was her explanation supposed to be? He was just as confused as their best friends were.
And he had no doubt she felt the same about him.
Adrien blurted out his answer first. "My… my rock wall! Come on, Nino, you've been in my room! You've seen my wall!"
"Oh yeah, your room has everything and then some."
"Exactly. I mean, when you spend as often in your room as I do, you got to have some cool things in it!" He chuckled nervously. "I practice on my wall ALL the time. Keeps me from switching my normal marbles for 24-karat ones."
"Huh… okay, guess that makes sense." Alya noted, though she was still giving him a skeptical look. A look she promptly turned on her own friend. "And what about you, Ms. Ladybug?"
"Uh… um… uh… PARKOUR!"
Alya raised her other brow. "Parkour?"
"Yeah, in my spare time, I do parkpour! I mean parkour!" Marinette laughed flailing her arms wildly. The boy could swear on his imaginary nine lives that steam was pouring out of her ears. "On the weekends, late at night when I don't have anything else to do-"
"Anything else to do!?" Alya shouted. "Girl, you're class rep, you're an up-and-coming designer, you have schoolwork, you've been making stage outfits for Kitty Section, and you help in your parents' bakery! I'm surprised you have time to blink, let alone make like a human bedspring around town!"
Marinette stammered. "Well, you gotta make time, sometimes. That's why I do it- with all my junk it's a wonder I haven't gotten my first grey hairs yet. Being a human bedspring makes for some great stress relief!"
"Okay, now that's-"
"OH MY GOSH! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S YOU!"
Amid their interrogation, they had forgotten the girl who was nearly turned into a sparkly pancake. Hands clench like in a dream, she shifted adoring looks between Marinette and himself. Her hunched shoulders and fashionable blue fairy outfit shrunk seven years off what he was sure was an age comparable to her own. Her cheeks had a rosy tint and plumpness to them as if she were given her favorite sugary treat.
"It's you, isn't it!? Oh, of course it's you! Who else could it be but you!?" The girl squealed. She grabbed a hand from either of them and bounced up and down. "My name is Celeste, and I am a major fan! Thank you so much for saving me back there!"
Adrien and Marinette both grimaced, but hid them behind large, toothy grins.
It was clear what she was thinking.
"What you did was so amazing! You didn't even need your weapons for it! Of course, if you pulled them out I think I would have just fainted!"
"Um, yeah, thanks." Marinette replied. "But really-"
"I have to tell you, I've seen all of your adventures on the Ladyblog since the day the site was put up!" Alya gave a proud nod behind the overenthusiastic Celeste. "I have to admit I scream like a maniac at the screen sometimes, but I always know you manage to pull it off in the end!"
"That's great, but-"
"It is awesome how you come up with all those crazy plans, Ladybug! You're an icon for girls everywhere! And Cat Noir, you're even more handsome in person! I love your moves!" Adrien blushed a bit at that.
"Really, we-"
"Oh, I'm rambling, aren't I?" The girl reached for her fuzzy heart-shaped purse at her hip. She pulled out a glitter-covered purple notebook. "Please, could I possibly have an autograph!?"
Adrien stuck his hand out. He was used to this kind of thing, being a celebrity figure in both lives. Better it be him to snap the girl out of it than Marinette. She should not have to crush people's hopes like he did sometimes. It was one of the things he hated most about his current profession.
"Look, I'm really sorry. But… we're not the real Ladybug and Cat Noir." Adrien was at least half sure that was a lie, but Marinette's 'parkour' made him sway a bit on that. "The truth is, we're just fans in costumes. We're here to have fun with our friends. That's really all there is to it."
Like a falling row of dominoes, there it was.
The cherub cheeks on Celeste's face deflated, the blush vanishing into peach. Her shoulders drooped, her fingers went untethered and slipped loose. That Paris-lit grin on her face dialed down, revealing a girl blinking like she'd been given the hardest slap of her life.
Her head rocked back and forth between them again. "W-what?"
Alya reappeared leaning behind the girl. Her eyebrow was quirked in that way that said she did not believe a word. It left his head feeling fifty pounds heavier and drooping between his shoulders.
"It's true." Marinette continued. Adrien turned to her as she smiled at him. "We're just wearing costumes. I'm not really Ladybug. Really, I could never be like her."
"Oh, I don't know." Alya came out in full and sauntered near them, hands on her hips. "You can be 'a lot of a lot' yourself sometimes, girl. In fact I remember when Darkblade came around. You had your act together when you were leading us. Wouldn't be hard to imagine you as Ladybug when she kicked that medieval moron's butt right off the roof of City Hall!"
"Come on, you of all people know Ladybug's not that gung-ho." Marinette sighed. "She tickled him while he was distracted. That's how she won."
"Interesting. Though I wonder how you know that." Alya smirked. "You said you were turned into a knight that time."
Marinette gasped.
Adrien turned to her in full. This was clearly one of Alya's traps, but how did Marinette fall into it? Like all his Akumatized fencing teacher's victims, she should have had no memory. Was she…?
"Uh, I… I saw everything on… the Ladyblog?"
"I was stuck inside City Hall with everyone else. Try again."
"The news?"
"Nadja Chamack was transformed too. Not to mention her camera crew." Nino came from the other end, scratching his own cap-covered noggin. "The news never got anything."
Marinette could only speak in squeaks and whimpers at that point. Adrien was all too used to seeing it whenever she interacted with him. He took her hand in his, feeling her soul jump to the moon and crash back into her body. The girl turned to him stiff as a board.
"Are you okay, Marinette?" He asked.
The girl only breathed in response. She was shifting panicked looks between him and Alya.
Adrien sighed. "I'm really sorry, again… Celeste, right? And Alya, come on. Marinette probably saw what happened from a video someone else posted online. You're not the only one who makes posts on Ladybug, you know."
"Uh-huh…"
Alya was not convinced, clearly. The girl was just jumping to conclusions again, Adrien reminded himself. It still didn't seem fair that Marinette was being put on the spot.
As for Celeste, she was already half-turned set to leave. "Right, um… I'm really sorry for bothering you…" The fangirl's head was hung low as she walked away.
Marinette and Adrien watched her go, wondering whether there was anything else they could say. For the umpteenth time that night, Adrien wondered how great an idea this really was.
Marinette turned to the ball, squatting, and tried to lift it with visible effort. All her straining to heave the heavy thing up resulted in a slip of her hands and a small tumble into the fountain. Adrien winced – it took two men with biceps the size of boulders to get it off the ground and up a ladder. The girl always did hers and two other people's parts for others, but super strength was no reward for generosity.
With the Miraculous enhancing his physical strength, he could spin the thing on a claw like a basketball. That would look a little suspicious to the crowd he was trying to convince he was not Cat Noir. Two people lifting it should not be a problem, right? He walked over just as Marinette gripped the ball's crystalline surface again.
"I thought you could use some help." Adrien spoke. She whimpered blushing again. "On three. One, two, three!"
The lift felt more on his part than hers. In fact she yelped like he was lifting her up as well. It must have been embarrassing for her, to have to rely on someone else.
The two carried the ball back to Mayor Bourgeois, who called his workers to take it out of their hands. The mayor shook both their hands with vigor. "Thank you so much, Ladybug and Cat Noir! The ball was saved thanks to you!"
"We're not Ladybug and Cat Noir!" They shouted together.
The sound of a record scratch came followed with an upbeat remix. The strung lights flashed different colors and people traded their drinks for partners on the dance floor. The mayor patted them both and headed off, leaving a boy and a girl without a partner and fate to fill in the blanks. Adrien gave a smile and looked to her.
"Paw-don me, milady, but the night's young and the mew-sic's just right." He bowed and offered his hand. "This kitty's ready to get down. Care to dance?"
"Oh, kitty. I'd bet your dance moves are as claw-ful as your puns. I doubt I'll be proven wrong."
They both blinked.
Adrien had gone full Cat Noir. He was not supposed to do that! He was supposed to be Adrien!
Marinette was nervous enough, and worse than a train wreck around him. She was supposed to have fun but so far, the tracks had been bombed at every point. Peeking, she was a four car pile up and stiff as a board.
Even worse, Alya was still near the fountain with her trigger finger on the record button on her phone.
Adrien shot back to his full height and offered his hand. "I-I mean, um, do you want to d-dance with me?"
"I-I-I'd l-love to! I mean, you, um, dance! We dance! Together!"
The boy took her hand and spirited her off into the mass of colored lights and costumed dancers. They would get lost in the visual madness, out of the watch of Alya and her phone, go with the crowd, and hopefully his little slip-up would be wiped from memory. To be so forceful with a lady was as good as a crime in his eyes, let alone a good friend. Adrien vowed then that he would give Marinette a truly enjoyable night.
More so when he felt the girl's weight double with every second he held her hand. He turned around and saw that she had collapsed, face-first, into the dirt.
Chloe watched with her back to a tree, clawing at the wood and leaving indents. She had seen the whole exchange and was ready to tear out someone's organs. Adrien and Marinette together, just because of a convenient pair of costumes?
"Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!"
The rich girl moved out and sauntered or stampeded over to her father. She grabbed his sash and spun him around like the defunct merry-go-round himself. As always, seeing his daughter so livid to the point she could burst into flame left him lost for words and suddenly lacking in spine.
"Sweetie, how nice to see you!" He whimpered. "I have some matters to discuss with the staff, so-"
"Do I look like I care!? Tell your little toads to carry rocks or whatever! I have something I need you to do!"
"Y-Yes, of course, my sweet angel." He shooed the workers away with a hand and they left grumbling. "Now, what is it you want? Anything in my power, I'll give it to you."
"Get me the number for Nadja Chamack and every news station in Paris. Have I got a scoop for them!"
These two really can't enjoy a quiet night without someone trying to sniff them out.
Heck they were doing so well until that little slip-up, too.
Sorry for the slightly late upload. I got caught up last night in watching the Wizards series on Netflix. This one was not my best work. I don't know if there was enough action or blocking involved. I don't know about the prose, either, but honestly, that's one of the last things you worry about in a story. Even a short one like this.
Not much to say, so let's move on to the reviews:
KaliAnn: Glad you liked it. I'm not 100% confident when it comes to writing funny fan-fics. Hopefully there's enough chaos in this one to keep you going to the end.
Pyr00tje: From what I've seen of these guys, you hand them a shovel and tell them to dig themselves out and the natural response is that they end up digging themselves deeper until they dig in a U-shape and come out the other side. I think that's an accurate depiction, and what I tried to show here.
Stag-beetle: Hey, Cat Noir's not alone anymore.
LunaWolf44: I don't know if Adrien's falling for Marinette right now. Remember, she looks exactly like the girl he knows he's head over heels with. Things are just open to interpretation right now. And Lila will not be in this one. I'm glad you think I'm still nailing all the characters. And I don't know how well they're acting like 'themselves' now.
Leafgreenflower: I'm not so sure they've convinced ALL their friends anymore. Alya will sniff those two out one day.
XTheauthorthatneverwasX: Glad you're reading. I hope the other classmates' reactions are on point as well.
So that's it for now. I think the next chapter will be ready by Wednesday, if this pattern keeps going as it is. As for my crossover story, I think I've mostly hammered out the first act, just gotta make a few tweaks. I hope everyone who reads this will come and read that one.
The next chapter is one I'm looking forward to. Lots will be happening.
As always, review, favorite, follow! Until next time!