Heads up warning guys! In two weeks I'll be leaving for about a two week vacation with my family. I'm going to try and get all my fics updated as much as possible before leaving, I'm hoping to at least get one more update after this for Skipping Beats.
I am going to try writing on this trip and will hopefully be pouring out chapters when I get back.
Thanks for reading and for your patience!
Adrien became Jagged Stone's favorite "pizza guy".
That's how the doorman came to know him. He doesn't even stop the disguised model when he comes holding an empty pizza box. That door is just opened for Adrien the instant he was close. It's been great.
Even more so when he got the helmet and cape clean.
And Chloe avoids him like the plague due to carrying around "greasy food".
He could move around the hotel entirely undisturbed!
And the mayor still didn't know that he was hanging here!
He even stopped him to pat on him on the back for doing a good job keeping one of his guests happy!
He had no idea that he had congratulated the currently banned Adrien Agreste for showing up all the time.
This whole set up shot a spark of glee through Adrien.
As naturally honest and sweet as he was; he would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy being sneaky. Being under the whole hotel's radar, and the only ones that really knew where Marinette, Jagged Stone, and Penny. It was pretty hilarious.
Didn't help that Marinette shared in his mirth.
They shared hushed snickers when Chloe and Sabrina slipped by, their noses in the air and completely oblivious to the fact that he was there. Sharing a few stories that summed out his hang outs with Chloe, Marinette was all the more amused with how easily he was able to hide from her blonde radar. Especially since she spent most of her time sulking in the hotel, impatiently waiting for the week to end so she could shop.
The only downside, was that Adrien discovered that Chloe found other means of entertainment.
Like now.
He was just slipping in when he saw her trip Marinette, taking advantage of the distracted girl while she was walking and drawing.
"There goes Skipping Stone," she sneered, grinning as Sabrina cackled.
Marinette wrinkled her nose in displeasure.
"Hey!" he cried, rushing over to help the noirette up. With a big wrinkle of their nose, the two girls quickly fled away before Adrien could get more out, eyeing the empty box in disgust.
Grimacing under the helmet, he asked, "You ok?"
"Yeah," she eased, accepting his hand and letting him pull her up, pencil and sketchbook secured in her hand. "I'm pretty used to it. Why do you think my nickname's Skipping Stone?" She cracked a humored grin.
"I thought it was because your awesome," he blurted out, snapping the shade up. Only to stiffen as he realized what he said.
Marinette blinked up at him, cheeks tinting pink.
Adrien blushed darkly and quickly snapped the shades back down, trying to hide it. "Um," he uttered.
Giggling with a slight blush on her cheeks, she took his hand and dragging him to the sitting area. "I want to try an experiment," she said once they both sat down, sketchbook nestled in her lap, pencil tapping her skin.
"Oh?" he hummed, leaning back in his seat. He could faintly still hear Chloe from across the room, grumbling to Sabrina. Before Marinette could get started, he asked quickly, "Do you want me to talk to her?"
Giving him a curious blink, she spared a glance across the room to Chloe. She shrugged. "I've had worse bullying," she eased, missing the startled jerk Adrien gave.
"W-what?!" he demanded, drawing her back to him. "You used to be bullied?!"
By who?
Why?!
Tilting her head curious, she bit her lip warily as she considered him. "Yeah," she said, "a girl didn't take it too kindly when I wouldn't let her see Jagged Stone as much as she wanted." Huffing, she grumbled, "Which wasn't my fault since he was busy at that time."
Flipping the shade up, he narrowed his eyes and asked, "Was this... the person that was..."
"Using me to get close to Jagged Stone?"
"...Yeah."
"It was," she confirmed. "It was a bit of a disappointment, she seemed pretty cool too." Pity she turned out to be such a petty liar. "Anyway!" she rushed out before Adrien could offer more on the topic. Holding out the sketchbook, Marinette declared, "I want to see if anyone would recognize you in this. And don't worry, I'll use newer materials."
Allowing the matter to drop, Adrien took the sketchbook, curious to see this design she wanted to dress him up in.
He gaped at what he saw.
It was him.
This, this had to be him.
Dressed as a... hero. That was the only work he could think of to describe what he saw on the page. And not just any hero. A cat hero.
She drew him as a cat hero!
...He might be in love.
Especially with just how awesome this was!
A belt tail.
Little claws at the end of the gloves.
Cat ears!
He even had a bell!
AND WHITE SOCKS ON HIS BOOTS.
He slowly turned to her with a wonder filled gape.
She sat expectantly, her beam just a little nervous. She babbled, "The design was inspired by Chat Noir, your favorite bot on UMS... And I haven't really thought of a different name for it yet, that is, if we want to change it. We could do a different name. And uh, you uh, want to wear it?"
"Yes!"
A little surprised by his outburst, her smile grew huge as she did a cute excited wiggle.
"Yes!" she whooped. Grabbing his wrist, she dragged him to the elevator. As soon as the doors closed behind them, she plucked the helmet off his head, shoved it into his arms and started to mess with hair, much to the blond's surprise.
"I spent on hour on that!" he complained, blushing as she scrunched it up, a nice feeling tingling over him when her fingers slid over his scalp.
"Chat's got messy hair," she states, "we got to see you with messy hair. Plus I already got the ears done. I want to see them on you."
Blushing, he absently rubbed the back of his neck, letting her do as she wished. Helped that it did feel kinda nice... She stepped back, looking over his messed up hair in approval. When the elevator opened with a ding, she rushed ahead to her room.
Blinking after her curiously, Adrien trailed after her, balancing her sketchbook and the helmet in his grasp
Peeking into the room, he immediately caught sight of Jagged Stone, standing right next to Fang, both of them staring off deeper into the room. Turning to him, the rockstar jabbed his thumb back, asking, "What was that about?"
Adrien shrugged.
Shrugging back, Jagged leant over, cooing to the croc, "You ready for a bath? You want a bath Fang? Let's go have a bath!"
Fang rumbled excitedly, dancing in place.
"Yeah! Then we're totally going to hog the pool afterwards!"
The two wandered off, developing their evil plan to hog the hotel pool, and leaving the blond to slowly wandered into the room, peering after them.
It took a couple of days, but he starting to see that the rockstar was a bigger dork than he had thought originally.
"Got them!"
Turning, Adrien watched Marinette rush towards him, black cat ears in hand and a mask in the other. He just had enough time to set the helmet and sketchbook on the couch before she was on him, setting the cat ears on his head and adjusting his hair to work with them.
Once settled, she lifted up the mask, lightly pressing it against his face. Humming as she looked over it, she declared, "A pretty close fit, but could use a few adjustments."
"Feels comfortable," Adrien offered.
"Closer fit!" she insisted. Withdrawing, she dashed off once again.
Left alone, Adrien wandered to a mirror, tilting his head about as he took in his messy hair and dark, leather cat ears sticking out. He offered his reflection a cheeky grin. He did look good. Maybe he should stop messing with his hair so much in the morning...
Marinette was back on him before he was ready, fitting the mask back over his face and checking the adjustments she made. Latching it, she stepped back, leaning about in front of him as she judged how it fitted. Adrien kept still like a true model, letting her make the adjustments as she wanted. She'd tug the mask a little bit, smooth it out over his forehead, and even dragged his face closer and squinting at his eyes.
Adrien found his cheeks were quite warm under her gaze, held this close to her.
Satisfied, she dragged him deeper into the hotel room, declaring that it was time to get measurements down so she could get started on the suit.
Ah yes, Adrien thought eagerly, Chat Noir was going to wow the crowd.
In a few days.
Once the suit was done.
Jagged Stone plopped down beside her with a loud sigh, snatching some popcorn from her and munching on it loudly as he observed the hotel lobby. There was quite an active crowd today, most of them gathered around this newest... star that suddenly appeared. Why just today. A star that's just been gobbling up the attention with cheeky grins, and eager claws.
Another of Marinette's creations brought to life, and having fun.
And maybe he could have a few of those designs incorporated into future concert attire...
"So what're you up to this time?" he asked, grabbing more as Marinette leaned the bag to the side, easier to grab the plush treat. "And who's this supposed to be?"
"This is Chat Noir," she introduced, waving to the kid that was having way too much fun in that costume, "and this is an experiment. Seeing how many people recognize him as Adrien Agreste."
"And?" Jagged pressed. She's been gone most of the morning, they had to be out here for a while now.
Marinette smirked and Jagged felt his own slide up humorously.
"Nobody has noticed that's Monsieur Agreste over there."
Jagged exploded, smacking his knees in his rush, and starting the guests that were near him.
Which he didn't care for the moment, this was just too funny.
It wasn't even that drastic change of a look!
"You should do something similar," Jagged requested through his snickers.
Marinette snorted beside him. "I'm not recognized enough. Nobody would know who I am."
Jagged blew a raspberry at that. "You could be anyone then."
"It's more fun with famous people."
Jagged hummed at that, watching as "Chat" practically frolicked around the lobby, probably having the time of his life. He offered a big welcome to everyone that came in, humored the kids that were curious enough to come up to him or allowed too, let them tug at his fake ears and tail, let them feel the "claws" at the end of his gloves; "Chat" even let one kid check his mouth for fangs. One little girl went into a giggly fit when she poked his bell and it rang out.
He posed and flexed for the guests, joined them for selfies, let them take pictures.
The only thing Jagged heard the cat refuse was when one girl asked if he could pick her up.
"There's only one Lady I'd like to pick up!" Chat declared, shooting a flashy wink towards the area he and Skipping Stone were sitting at.
Marinette made a strange noise beside him, and Jagged slowly turned to her, dark brow raised high.
She turned to meet his gaze, eyes big.
"There somethin-"
"No," she said quickly.
He leant back in his seat, eyeing her coyly. "Uh huh. If you say so." He grinned at her cheekily while Marinette huffed back. Slyly he added, "Seriously, you let me know if you ever need any mood music."
Red faced, she grumbled back, "Thanks Uncle Jag, but no. I heard your 'mood' music, and I don't care what you say, that is not mood music."
"It so totally is! You just got strange taste Skipping Stone."
"I got strange taste?!"
He waved towards Chat. "You dressed your boyfriend up in a cat suit."
Marinette squeaked, "First of all, he's not my boyfriend! Second of all, that cat suit is sexy!"
Jaggged flashed her a smirk.
"Shut up!"
He threw his head back and laughed. Coming down from his fit, he leaned into her space, tapping her sketchbook insistently. "Ok, seriously, make me a costume too."
"Pardon?"
"This game is only fun with famous people, right?"
Pinching her chin, she looked over him, eyes flickering as ideas started to flutter in her mind.
Quickly, Jagged said, "I want to be Guitar Villain."
Marinette blinked, her creative process interrupted. She raised a brow at him. "Guitar Villain?" she repeated slowly.
"That's who I want to be."
"Ok," she said slowly, eyeballing him again as she started imagining from scratch.
"Can you make two costumes?"
"Might take a week but yeah?"
"Well, in about a month, I want you to grab Sunshine there," he jerked his head to the cheeky cat that was playing airplane with a kid, "and drag him along with us when we visit the children's hospital. I think we could put on a little show for them."
"Sounds like a wonderful idea," Penny voiced, coming up to them, baring two cups of coffee.
Jagged and Marinette both perked up with excited, "Ooooh!" and happily accepted the cups. They hummed happily as they took a sip of the warm brew.
"If you want to do a show I can help plan it out, or you three could just walk around in costume. The kids would like it either way I'm sure."
Grinning, Jagged, "What would I do without you Pen?"
"Probably fight and scare off every producer you meet, and make childish choices."
Jagged blew a raspberry at her.
Marinette snickered beside him, and shrugged when he shot her a glare. "She's not wrong," the noirette said.
"I trusted you!" Jagged proclaimed dramatically.
"Marinette!"
All three gave a start, looking to see Chloe glaring at her angrily. Pointing to the sheepish Chat aggressively, she snarled, "Don't bring in strange cats into this hotel! We didn't want him!"
Marinette quickly set her cup on a near table before she submitted to her laughter, falling out of her chair as she cackled. Laughing all the harder as Chloe snapped, "This isn't funny!"
Oh if only she knew who that was.