She was torn between skinning her cat alive and kissing him senseless.
Or so she told herself. There was no way she'd have the courage to pull that off.
"Marinette, you have school tomorrow. Get some sleep."
"I can't," Marinette whined while still pacing her floor. The clock proclaimed 11:03, but there was no way she was ready for bed yet.
Because Chat Noir, the guy she'd been pushing away for nearly two years, was the guy she had been madly in love with for two years. Chat Noir, who was Adrien, heard her talking to Alya about how she was going to marry Adrien and have three kids with him.
Yeah, because that totally wasn't mortifying. At all.
And now, Chat Noir/Adrien was now teasing her about it.
"He wasn't teasing you to be mean, Marinette," Tikki said for not the first time. Meaning Marinette had been talking out loud again.
"He was still teasing me, Tikki."
Tikki sighed again. "I don't think he was kidding about liking your dream."
"Of course he wasn't. Because Chat Noir likes Ladybug and would do anything to marry her."
"Chat Noir who is Adrien who loves you who is Ladybug,"
"Adrien who is Chat Noir who loves Ladybug who is me. Big difference."
"Chat calls you Princess. Chat calls you his Lady. No matter how you look at it, you're still royalty to him." She paused at that. "Actually, he calls Marinette Princess meaning he thinks you higher up on the royalty scale than Ladybug. Who is still you, by the way."
Marinette groaned and face-planted on her bed. "What am I going to do, Tikki?"
"Marry him, have three kids, and live happily ever after." Great Tikki thought I'm beginning to sound like Plagg.
Marinette whimpered at that.
Tikki sighed. "Get some sleep, Marinette. You'll feel better in the morning."
Except she didn't. Seeing as she didn't fall asleep until three, she was exhausted.
"Someone looks like she stayed up all night working on her designs," Alya greeted when Marinette ran into class. Frankly, it was a shock she was even on time.
Marinette stared at Adrien's empty chair. "More like fretting over Adrien."
"Yeah, but when don't you do that? I'm fairly certain you do that in your dreams."
Gee, some friend.
When the bell rang and Adrien didn't come in, Marinette thanked all her Ladybug Luck. She could process her next move.
Because it took her until the end of first class to decide that above all else, her kitty was not getting away with it. Not a chance.
It wasn't until after lunch did Adrien appear. "Photoshoot," he said, as was his standard answer for being late.
Nino rolled his eyes before returning to his heated conversation against Alya about which newly-released movie was going to be better. Marinette barely noticed, partly because she had already tuned them out and partly because Adrien was staring at her with the biggest pair of kitty eyes she hardly knew what to do.
Actually, surprisingly, those kitty eyes made it easier. This was Chat Noir, her partner. She could handle Chat. She could do this. She was Ladybug. Ladybug handles Chat on a near daily basis. She could do this. She could do this.
"Don't look at me like that, Adrien Hugo Agreste. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with you yet."
…Well, that works.
"Well," Adrien fought for words, "maybe accepting my offer on a date would be nice."
Neither realized Alya and Nino had stopped fight-conversing in order to watch the duo. Alya wasn't so blind as to not notice the attention that Adrien had been giving to Marinette this past week.
She also had kissed Nino when he told her he had relentlessly been goading Adrien to make a move. Not that anyone had to know anything about that.
"I didn't realize that was part of your dream," Marinette teased.
Suddenly, Adrien's green eyes of his sparkled with trouble. Crap. What did she get herself into now?
"Well, Milady, I didn't know you wanted to jump straight in. I'd have to speak about it with your parents first though. I am a gentleman."
There was something about his grin. So Chat-like, so teasing. His eyes glinting mischievously, playfully. This was Chat. And she was Ladybug. She could play along. That's what Ladybug did.
And Chat deserved to be strung along a little bit. What was wrong with that?
So she smiled back, hopefully matching that same coyness of Chat's. "I'll want a ring. A proper ring, presented with a proper proposal. And a nice wedding. Small, personal, just as you suggested. I'll also want a place to call my own. And you're right, I better have my own studio. We can go house-shopping tonight. I'll want one to move into immediately after the wedding, you see."
"Whatever the princess wants," he replied with genuine ease.
Oh, but she wasn't going to let him off that easy. "And I'll want to get started on the family as soon as possible. You ready for that, Kitty?" She went in for the kill and reached for the hollow of his neck, right where his bell would sit, and pretended to flick it. Instead, she ended up snagging his t-shirt with her finger, tugging the collar down a bit.
And the color that flooded his face was so worth it.
Now she really needed to get out of here before the ladybugs that were fluttering around in her stomach churned any more violent. Because, really, what she was implying wasn't exactly making her comfortable either. "You can pick me up after school and we can get started on all that right away. After all, can't keep our dreams waiting, can we?"
His face did get redder as he managed to nod.
"Good." She flashed him a big grin and started to walk past him. "See you after school," she said, reaching out to run her fingers once through his hair and leaning over just enough to whisper "Mon Chaton."
His face now rivaled Ladybug's suit, but considering how hot her cheeks were, she was certain her face wasn't much better. Time to take her leave. And fast.
Too bad Alya decided she wasn't going to let her friend off the hook that easy. The red-head bolted after the retreating bluenette. "Girl, what the heck was that?!"
Marinette was sure she was blushing now but was determined to keep face. "I don't know what you're talking about."
After spending the rest of the day bombarded with questions from Alya, Marinette wouldn't deny that she was ready to get home.
However, her perfectly laid plans to escape her well-meaning friend slid to a screeching halt when she was stopped by Adrien outside. "Well, Milady, are you ready?"
Her brow furrowed. "Ready for?"
"House-shopping. You said we'd go right after school," he said, cheekily grinning while pointing towards his car. "Also, what's your ring size?"
A/N: Finished. For now, this will be it. Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear your reviews. :)