Author's Note: What I had intended to be one chapter for the reveal to Nino and Alya became at least two. So, if you're wondering at this point how much more to expect, there will be at least two more chapters after this one before I mark this fic complete. Thanks for reading.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir and I make no profit from this story. No copyright infringement is intended I'm just enjoying some time with a few of my favorite television characters. The story is mine, except where directly quoting or referencing episodes.
For the second time that day, Adrien and Marinette stood outside a door with a story to tell. Marinette knew the visit was going to be tricky, but she was looking forward to sharing this with their best friends.
The door opened, and her slightly tired friend's face was transformed by a wide smile. "Marinette! Adrien! Come in, guys—did I forget we were getting together today, or is this a surprise?"
"Uh—no. Nothing on the calendar. But we did want to talk to you guys, if you have a second." Marinette preceded Adrien into the apartment, but in her nervousness, forgot to let go of his hand. Alya's eyes grew large at the sight. "Yeah, this is a surprise. Nino!"
"Al—ya—! I just got Aimee to sleep!" Newly screaming infant in his arms, an exhausted Nino entered their living room. "What could be so important— Dude! Nevermind." He grinned as he noticed their hands, even as the baby screamed on.
Marinette reached for Aimee, dragging Adrien's arm part of the way, then realized her mistake and turned a shade of crimson he hadn't seen on her face in years. She released his hand, then lifted the squalling child from her father's arms. "Aimee," she cooed, "tante Marinette came to see you."
The little girl stopped screaming and looked at Marinette with a quizzical expression so sweet it made her forget to be embarrassed about holding Adrien's hand. "You want to know why, don't you?"
Alya popped her hands on her hips. "Girl, whether she wants to know or not, you'd better spill, and now. Sleep deprived parents get cranky fast."
After getting Aimee calmed and back to her crib for a much-needed nap, Alya turned her attention to making some coffee.
"You guys want any? We're living on the stuff right now."
Anything to give her hands something to do besides clenching them in her lap. "Yes, please. I'd love a cup."
Adrien sat next to Marinette, his arm extended behind her as it lay across the top of the couch, tracing lazy patterns over her shoulder and the top of her arm.
"So—uh—Dude—" Nino struggled for the next words, trying to keep his grin from showing, since Adrien clearly had no conscious idea he was doing that. "Uh—what brings you by?"
"Well, we had something we wanted to tell you guys."
"Don't you dare start the conversation without me! I'll be there in a minute!" Alya's voice carried from the kitchen, but didn't have enough volume to disturb the baby.
When she entered with a cup of coffee in each hand, extending one to Marinette, she didn't miss Adrien's arm around her friend. How did this happen? After all this time, who finally made the move?
"Can I bring you one, Adrien?"
"Nahhh, I'm good. Thanks."
Alya sat next down on the floor next to Nino's spot on the loveseat, one arm draped over his knees while her other hand held the mug. She focused on Marinette and Adrien. "Okay. We're all ears."
Marinette took a deep breath. The warmth from the coffee cup infused her hands and the familiar aroma began to put her at ease. This was Alya, her best friend. It was going to be all right.
They had decided to go with a version of the truth, figuring it would be easier to remember and seem more natural than an outright lie. Adrien would be the one telling them, since Alya could immediately spot when Marinette was stretching the truth.
"So, Marinette and I have been spending more time together," he began.
"We've finally had that discussion you've been recommending for years." Marinette added, a smile overtaking her face. "We've both felt the same way for a while now, but neither one of us knew it."
Alya snorted. "Then you guys were the only ones."
Both looked a bit flustered at her comment, but Adrien continued anyway.
"I started popping in at the bakery after class every once in a while. Sometimes it was to pick up a treat, or something for the next day's breakfast. Lots of times, Marinette wasn't even around, but when she was, we'd talk as she and I would help her folks shut down for the day."
Okay, well, it didn't exactly happen that way, but Adrien had stopped by a couple times that she remembered, and her parents did tell her about a few times she had missed him, too, and said to tell her hello for him.
"One time, we sat at a table for a quick break and completely lost track of the time. It was dark before we knew it. No one had talked to us, and we hadn't noticed anyone coming or going, or even when her parents locked the door and went upstairs for the evening."
Marinette smiled. She remembered that particular day well, but it hadn't been in the bakery and she had no idea it was Adrien. After a rough couple of classes that afternoon, all she wanted was to put her feet up with a bowl of ice cream and the remote control. But when she came home, her parents had been slammed with customers. So instead of relaxing, she helped them finish up and clean up, and then taken a couple sweets and a thermos of coffee up to her balcony. She hadn't been up there long when Chat had stopped by.
It wasn't the first time he had done so, but it seemed different somehow, that perhaps he had sensed she needed a friend, and maybe a hug. Although there was no dire event to discuss, it helped to process her frustrations with someone unconnected to the situation.
"Then I found myself doing it more often, several times a week, even. It became a comfortable habit. We'd talk about how our days went, make each other laugh. If I didn't go see her, for just a minute or two, my day wasn't right. I—uh—I think I was in the middle before I knew I had even begun to fall in love with Marinette. But your wedding was what really opened my eyes to how deep I was."
"I knew it!" Alya crowed, but thankfully Aimee still slept soundly.
Adrien laughed. "After that, I did, too."
"But you dropped off the map—schoolwork, right?"
Adrien blushed a bit. "No. I panicked." While strictly true, it didn't cast him in the best light, but he'd take the hit to protect their bigger secret. "Being together like that made me see her differently, but I didn't want to scare her away. We'd been 'just friends' for so long, and I didn't want to ruin what we had. But I wanted more and I wasn't sure what my next step should be."
Marinette placed her hand over his and squeezed. She could hardly tell Alya that she had fallen, too, but with Chat, and was just as lost about what to do about her feelings at the time.
"I started doing things without her knowing it was me," he began. He couldn't tell them he'd been wearing a mask to visit her anonymously, so he improvised a bit with the details. "I left small gifts where she'd find them. My favorite was a single, red rose, left on the very table where we had spent so long talking."
That had actually been the only gift he'd really left, and it was at the small table on her balcony where her coffee cup and the thermos top he'd sipped from had rested while they talked that night. Marinette remembered finding that the next day, and how her heart stopped, then took off at a full gallop.
"Girl! You had a secret admirer and didn't tell me about it?"
They probably should've anticipated that response.
"Honestly, Alya. I thought I was reading too much into it. I wanted to believe it meant what I thought it did, but I—I was scared."
Adrien's head snapped around. "You didn't know I meant exactly what that rose implied? I thought for sure leaving it in that particular spot was a dead giveaway, Milady."
"I—uh—well—" Marinette became a bit flustered and had trouble finding the right words.
"Hold on. I thought you said you did it anonymously. How could she know you meant it, if she didn't even know that you were the one who'd left it?"
He couldn't tell her it was on Marinette's balcony so she knew it had been from him, but the him in question was Chat Noir, so technically, it was still anonymous.
"Well—uh—I—"
Alya waited silently. She'd give them time and watch their little cover story implode. Then she could get the truth out of them. What exactly were they hiding, anyway? They had obviously been together much longer than a couple of days. So why the secrecy, and why keep it from their friends?
Both Marinette and Adrien tried to recover, but ultimately had to admit it was over as their stammering slowed to nothing. With that minor slip between his Adrien and Chat Noir identities, the entirety of their carefully constructed cover story went out the window. What could they say now?
"Girl, you know your stammering is a huge tell, right, since you haven't done that since high school, unless you're trying to hide something? And I don't even know what to make of Adrien doing the same thing, unless he's caught it from you. If you think for a moment that I didn't notice you holding hands when you came in, you're out of your mind—I have been waiting for this for years. Plus, Adrien hasn't been able to go more than 30 seconds without touching you in some way." She nodded toward his arm draped over Marinette's shoulder.
Adrien drew back his arm like it had been burned.
Nino laughed. "Too late, Dude. She misses nothing. And you guys aren't exactly good at hiding it. Do you realize you're using pet names and all? What's the real story?"
Marinette and Adrien looked at each other, both asking the same silent question, then she nodded.
"Okay, then. I guess it really doesn't have to be a secret with you guys any longer, but what we're about to tell you cannot go any further. You guys remember back to the days when you occasionally helped out Ladybug and Chat Noir?"
"Helped?"
Marinette smiled. She had her. Alya couldn't scold them for keeping the same secrets she had kept all these years, now could she?
"You know, as Rena Rouge and Carapace?"