Chapter 5: Day 2

Notes:

It was so hard to write this chapter. IRL has been so rough and writers block hit me like a wrecking ball. In other news, I finally figured out how I want to end it. And oh, boi. Y'all better buckle up. It ain't gonna be pretty.

Adrien barely got any sleep. Plagg was not pleased with him at all. The teenager had kept him awake most of the night asking question after question. Plagg knew he probably danced a thin line with what he had told him and what he should withhold. He was sixteen in human years; practically a baby by all standards. While he did care deeply for the kitten, he wasn't sure what would make his future self reveal the power of Black Hole. Unless Tikki was somehow tied Marinette's dire fate. There was also the prospect of a child born between the Ladybug and Black Cat holders. No holder had carried a child to term; especially after being nearly killed by dark magic.

Plagg could not remember any instance like the one the time traveler told them. The man had mentioned just one kitten. That in and of itself was odd. Anytime his chosen had mated, there had been multiple kittens conceived. Not that any of them ever survived.

Was that what had driven his future self to allow Adrien to play with the taboo? Had he finally had enough of watching his kittens suffer?

The cat grumbled as he burrowed deeper in his pillow to try to squeeze out a few more minutes of sleep before his chosen began his babbling again. Plagg knew Adrien would soon start on about the upcoming reveal. The boy had been frantic for hours about how he had not made the connection before now. There had been a moment of Adrien being angry again that Plagg had not let the cat out, so to speak, sooner. Grudgingly, Plagg explained that he and Tikki could not reveal the identity of the other unless the situation was life threatening. That of course brought them to the topic of staying clear of the other Adrien. It put too much of a strain on the time stream to have two Destruction wielders in the same plane. The time with the two Ladybugs had been so brief that it had not been enough to affect the true one. But now there had been two Black Cats in the current span for over twenty-four hours. While the strain was being balanced by one being near the Creation wielder, ripples would soon begin if the other Chat did not leave soon. Black Hole could only last for three days during the full moon. Chat had forty-eight hours to return to his time or he would be stuck for a month.

The space-time would collapse if that happened.

Hissing, Plagg gave up on trying to sleep. His headache was returning meaning Chat had left Marinette. And, he was getting tired of thinking so much.

His hiss woke Adrien from his light slumber and the boy rolled over in the giant bed. Adrien groggily blinked at him and Plagg frowned. "Feed me and tell me I'm pretty," the cat grumbled.

Adrien snorted. "I can do only one. Better pick wisely."

XXX

Adrien arrived at the Tower fifteen minutes early. He was too nervous to stay home any longer and he prayed Marinette would show up early so that they could get the reveal over and done with. While he had wanted this for years, he had always dreamed it would be more romantic. Not "my future self is kind of forcing us to do this because you're going to die having my baby in nine years and I have to stop it." Did they have a greeting card for that?

He sat on a bench and nervously bounced his leg as he pulled his phone out and thumbed it for the time. His fingers hovered over his message icon as he felt the temptation to text her. But, she deserved to find out better than that. She deserved to not find out how he did.

He hoped she would at least recognize him. He had gone without gel that morning to allow his hair to flop and frizz like Chat's would. He wore dark wash jeans and a black hoodie. His face was covered by dark Raybands and he wore black Converse. He didn't particularly like the goth style, but he needed to look like Chat enough to draw her attention. He doubted she would walk up to his Adrien self and reveal what had happened the night before with his future self.

And he seriously wanted to know what had happened.

For once, luck was on his side. The girl in question was a few minutes early as well. He stood from the bench and offered her a wave to draw her attention. Marinette beamed at him and jogged the few meters separating them to stand before him. The girl wore a simple white tee shirt and pink jeans. Her signature purse hung at her side over her black jacket. She carried a plastic bag broadcasting her family's bakery on the side.

Adrien smiled at her as he said, "Good morning, Princess. Did you bring me a morning snack?"

Her grin grew as his words seemed to confirm that he was indeed Chat Noir. With an eye roll she holds the bag up. "I figured this is what you wanted last night before…you know…" She trails off and lowers the bag. Adrien realizes she must be concluding what he is. That their secrets are falling away. That they are tittering on dangerous territory. Heck, they've already passed that and are in the post freefall. He takes her wrist and pulls her down to the bench he had claimed earlier.

"That's not exactly why," he admits.

The girl purses her lips and nods before gently pulling her wrist away. She digs through the bag and produces a chocolate croissant. She hands it to him. "I know you like those. My friend at school likes them too," she babbles. He's suddenly afraid that she'll pull away from him. That she'll retreat into the shell she carefully holds around Adrien. Chat takes the pastry as she continues. "Other you likes them too. He ate like three of them." She tilts her head back and looks up towards the Tower, the wind playing with her bangs causing them to lift slightly.

Frowning, he takes the delivery bag from her and returns his treat. He sets it to his side on the bench for later. Marinette watches him from the corner of her eyes but doesn't turn to face him. "What else does he like?" Adrien whispered.

Her shoulders rise and fall on a sigh as she turns to face him. "We didn't really talk about that," she admits. "He explained why he needed to stay close to me. And, um, that was mostly it. We slept together and he left this morning."

Adrien rears back and nearly knocks over the bag of pastries. "You what?!" He shrieks. He wanted to curse, but refrained in front of Marinette. But, seriously? They did that? Could his other self not keep it in his pants?

Marinette's face heats as she vehemently shakes her head. "You pervert! We slept on my chaise as in literally slept. My neck and back is stiff from it! I had to stretch for twenty minutes this morning to get a kink out!" She turns up her nose and turns away with a huff. "Besides," she grumbles. "He may be you, but he's like way older than me. It would have been weird. And I wouldn't just do that randomly."

"I'm sorry," he says. Of course, she wouldn't have just done that. He'd jumped to conclusions. "I should have never assumed you would do that with him. It's just…" This time he sighs as he rakes a hand through his unruly hair. "He loves you so much and I thought maybe he said or did something and you just fell for him, y'know? He probably knows every little thing about you."

She covers her face with her hands. "We shouldn't be doing this, Chat," she breathes. "We could just leave it alone until he leaves. We could pretend that it never happened."

"You know I can't do that…" He licks his lips and whispers her nickname. He knows he's entering dangerous territory, but he can't hold it back anymore.

"Bugaboo."

Her body twitches and Adrien lurches closer, his arms around her in an embrace. His mouth is near her ear and he holds her squirming body to keep her from running away. "It's dangerous for there to be two Chat Noirs," he begins. "Plagg told me who you were, milady. And believe me," her squirms still and he glides his hand up to the back of her head to cup it tenderly. "I didn't want to do it this way."

"Please," her voice is quiet as she begs. "We don't have to…" She whimpers and he can feel the tears dripping on his hoodie.

"I love you, Marinette," he whispers. "I've loved you since the very first day." Her tiny hands clutch the black material at his back in fists and she holds him closer. "And I swear, I will love you forever. You know, in case it's not obvious." He chuckles. "He's literally ripping time apart to keep you safe. The magic he's using is very taboo." He would have grinned at his use of the word again, but now was not the time.

She nuzzles closer to his shoulder. "I'm not worth all of this. He mentioned we stopped Hawk Moth, but afterwards…if I'm dying or whatever, it's not worth it. Just pass on the earrings."

Adrien pulls back. Marinette's wet eyes met his own. He releases his hold on her to push the sunglasses onto his head. His hair got hung in a hinge and Marinette's eyes widen in disbelief, but he pushes away the distractions. "Marinette, I promise I will try to keep you safe in the future, but even if I fail, I will do whatever it takes to save you. You mean so much to me…so much…" His voice trails off as his fingers attempt to free his hair from the hinges before moving to caress her cheek. So soft.

Marinette blinks and more tears escape. "Adrien?"

The corner of his mouth lifts upwards. "I hope you really didn't get over your crush on me otherwise this is going to be super awkward." He still couldn't process that Marinette had a crush on him. In hindsight, it made sense. He could have sworn she hated him from her stutters and hiding.

The girl scrunches her eyes shut and shakes her head. "No way. I'm dreaming. I can totally buy the time travel, but this…" She opens her eyes and blinks them a few times. "Nope. Chat is actually evil and killed me last night. I'm dead."

Adrien laughs. "Is it really that hard to believe that I'm Chat Noir?" He whispers towards the end, suddenly obvious that they're in a park and not alone.

Marinette untangles herself from Adrien and he lets her go. He watches as the girl begins to pace in a small circle in front of him. "Yeah, sure. I'd thought maybe it would be possible that you were Chat. But, there's no way I'm that lucky. And you two are just so different. And Chat's flirting! Oh, gosh!" She pauses and points at him, her eyes blown wide. "You were flirting with me!" Her finger points to herself and she lets out a noise somewhere between a squeal and a gasp.

The model laughs again. "Yeah. I guess I was." He reaches for her hand and pulls Marinette back onto the bench. She lands without grace and ends up tucked next to his side. "Now that the whole secret identity thing is cleared up." He pokes her nose with his fingers and she squeaks. "We've still got to figure out some way to help, um, them, us."

Marinette shakes her head. "No. We have to let him figure this out by himself. We both know how dangerous it is for you two to be close together. And I meant what I said earlier." She rests her head on his shoulder and snuggles closer. "I'm not worth all of this. It's far too dangerous. He's risking so much."

Adrien frowns and squeezes her closer before pressing a kiss to her soft hair. "I'll sit back for now, Bugaboo. But please don't ever say that about yourself again."

She silently returns his squeeze.

XXX

The tablet lays between them on the table as Fu fingers it. He swipes through the pages with a somber expression. Adrien drums the table with his fingers and Plagg frowns up at him. "Give it a rest, kid. I had to hold up your transformation all night. I'm exhausted."

Adrien returns his frown. "I couldn't tell her last night. And you know that."

Plagg grumbles and adjusts his position. "Whatever. Can we hurry this up? We've been at this for hours. Surely you've found something by now."

Fu pauses and gives the tablet one more tap to zoom in on the picture he desired. "I've indeed found something. But you won't like it."