has stopped responding. Her brain short-circuited as she tried to reconcile everything about Chat Noir and Adrien in a time span of three seconds. When it finally caught up to who he was and how he had made her feel only hours before, she followed with a gut reaction. She slammed the door in his face.
Rushing back to her couch, she picked up her phone and immediately dialed Alya. The phone rang only twice before she heard it connect, and she didn't even wait for Alya to say hi.
"Alya, why did you send Adrien to my house? How did you know he was Chat Noir?"
"I didn't know until tonight. I made Nino tell me through some...rather unorthodox means, and then I yelled at them both. I think Alix from high school has a video of it, she's probably already put it on Facebook."
"But if he's Chat Noir, why did you send him here? I don't want to see him!"
"I'm going to be honest- I didn't think he would try and apologize tonight. Did he do something that seems like it belongs in a 1980s rom-com? That was my advice."
"He just showed up at my door with a giant bouquet of roses, and tells me he's Chat Noir!"
"So, what did you do?"
"Well...I...freaked out and slammed the door in his face?"
"Marinette!...I'm so proud. How do you feel about that, though? I know that being mean doesn't come naturally to you."
"I can be mean! I just was! I don't know if he left or if he's still in the hall."
"Hang up on me and go check. I'm not saying you need to forgive him, because you don't and that's your choice and I will support you no matter what. But, also, notice the effort this person is putting in to apologize to you when they didn't even realize they had done something wrong in the first place."
"Alright, fine...thank you, Als."
Marinette hung up her phone and crept back to her front door, slowly opening it and peeking her head out into the hall. Glancing to the right, she noticed Adrien was still there. He was sitting on the floor, head leaned back against the wall with a pained look on his face, the roses placed on the floor next to him. He opened one eye as he heard the door open, and immediately sat up straighter when he saw Marinette looking at him, scrambling to his feet.
Marinette held a hand out to stop Adrien as she saw him open his mouth to speak. He closed it and paused, inclining his head as if to say, go on.
"I'm not ready to forgive you. Not tonight, and...maybe not for a while." Marinette took another breath to steel herself, words coming out with more force and power as she processed. "So, here is what I ask of you: let me have tonight to stew and think things 've become too important of a fixture in my life as Chat, and I'm not ready to lose that. But I need time to be angry. Tomorrow, let's meet for coffee around 3, at the Starbucks just a block from here. We can sit, you can talk. I just need space."
Adrien nodded in agreement to her plan, unsure if he should say anything else. He was okay with that. He didn't feel like he would have been able to coherently say what he needed to say at the moment either, and he was thankful for the time it gave him to think everything over- even if it also gave him more time to be anxious. He turned slowly to leave, nervously brushing his hands over his jeans to dust off invisible lint.
He bent down to pick up the apology bouquet and held it close to his chest, as if it was his lifeline, but he seemed to think better of it, and turned back to Marinette once more. They were for her, after all. He strode back to where she stood in the doorway of her apartment, and offered them to her. Her hand reached out to take them from him, and internally he smiled. There was hope yet if she was willing to accept his gift. Their fingers brushed as the flowers switched possession, and he said, "Keep them. They match your pajamas, Ladybug."
Marinette felt her face heating as she pulled the flowers close to her, cognisant of her spotted pajamas that matched her moniker. "Good night, Adrien." His hands dropped as he stepped away with a small wave.
She closed the door once more, placing her back on the door and sliding to the floor, burying her still-red face in the fragrant flowers. Of course he would bring roses. What a romantic.
She was still upset and was already mentally plotting all the ways the conversation would go tomorrow, but for that moment, she wanted to pretend she was a girl without all the stress of the situation
Marinette opened her eyes, being confronted face to face with the soft petals of the roses and eyes alighting on a ladybug crawling on one of the stems. It felt like the universe was conspiring against her- or, maybe, for them.
Whatever happened tomorrow, she blamed Nino.
The gentle atmosphere of the Starbucks didn't do much to quell Adrien's nerves. He had built everything up between himself and his lady in his mind, and it's been quickly crumbling to pieces. To say he was anxious was an understatement.
He and Marinette had greeted each other with some tension, and he had taken it upon himself to order after she had found a table. Her pink tank top accented with white polka dots had been donned to lend her some of the bravery that she felt behind the spots of Ladybug. Adrien had also brought part of his alter ego with him as well, wearing a black ring that had a paw print on it.
He was still up waiting for his drink at the counter, rather than sitting down. He heard the barisa yell out his order, and he grabbed his drink, thanking them as he braced himself to walk to the table where she sat.
After waiting for him to pull his chair out and get settled, Marinette began. "So, Adrien, a whole host of crazy happened last night. I think I've done most of the talking so far, and that's not entirely fair to you. You can go first."
He mentally noted that her longtime stutter around him seemed to be gone, and he wasn't sure whether to be thankful or not for that change. "Well, a lot of this got messed up all because my cat knocked my phone off the charger. He's kind of a jerk- if you ever meet him, feel free to lecture him all you want about it. But it's my fault that I didn't check. I was in such a rush to get to the concert that I didn't even think to look. I was just excited to meet...you."
Marinette shook her head. "Not me. You made it very clear you didn't want to see me. You wanted to see Ladybug."
"I'm sorry. I really am. What I said was completely rude and inexcusable. It's never okay to tell someone they're unimportant."
"No, it's not. Words mean things, Adrien. Whether or not you meant it, it's what came out of your mouth, and people have to take you for what you say, not what you mean. And what you said hurt me."
"I know. And no amount of apologizing will make that better, because you won't forgive me. I understand that. But I'm prepared to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to earn that forgiveness from you. I meant it when I told Ladybug that I loved her, even if I didn't quite mean to say it like that or when I did. She- I mean, you, have become so important to me. You're the first person I think of in the morning and the last person I think of at night. I see things and think of you. I hear things and think of you."
Marinette was already shaking her head before he finished speaking. "You love the idea of me, Adrien. Ladybug isn't really me."
He asserted, "She is, too! Ladybug is every bit of you as Chat Noir is of me. When you talk to me as Adrien, I'm a nice, unassuming kind of guy. The trope of being a boring, safe, boy-next-door was practically invented for me. When I can be Chat, I get to make lame jokes and flirt and do things I can't do when people know me for my reputation or my father or my money. I'm still that same person, you just get to see more of me than most people do. The Marinette I talk to at the fashion company is sweet, and quiet, and driven- she's got amazing work ethic and always has a smile for everyone. Ladybug is funny and bossy and can tease like nobody's business, and she's always so passionate about everything, even if it is something as silly as a type of mango-"
"It's not silly, that really does have merit-"
"My point being, Ladybug isn't someone separate from you. She's you when you don't have to be the Marinette everyone else knows and expects something from. I was excited to have someone who cared about me as a friend that wasn't after me for my money or because they already knew I was attractive. And I was hoping that whoever Ladybug turned out to be, she wouldn't care that I was all of those things. I looked you over because I was already falling for you."
"I did the same. I kept turning Chat down because I...well...I have a bit of a crush on you. Adrien you."
His eyes widened marginally. And then he began full-belly laughing, which prompted Marinette to devolve into giggles of her own. They were drawing some looks, but the laughter wouldn't stop. After what seemed like several minutes, they began calming down, wiping the tears from their eyes.
Marinette was still giggling as she said, "I can't believe we were such idiots. We kept turning the other person down, only to have a chance with the same person."
Adrien was red from the laughter that had rendered him breathless, and across his face spread a devious looking smirk that she had yet to see from him. "I'd like to think of this as a positive- I've gotten you to like me twice, now. I'm very likable."
Marinette let out an undignified snort and crossed her arms. "Who says I like you?"
His face dropped, slightly, and he shrugged. "Well...no one. But I'm hopeful."
"Of course I like you, kitty." She leaned over and booped him on the nose. He wrinkled his nose at the touch and crossed his eyes to follow her finger, which only made her start laughing again at his silly expression.
Adrien almost breathed out a sigh of relief at her words. It seemed that, though he hadn't been forgiven yet, he was going to be allowed a chance to earn that from her. He could be happy with those results. He stuck out a hand to her across their table, garnering a confused look from the bluenette across from him. She grabbed his hand in a handshake, and he said, "Hello there, little lady. My name is Adrien. I teach physics, I love Jagged Stone, and my best friend has a crazy girlfriend."
Her confused look changed into a slowly-growing smile as she replied, "Hi, Adrien. My name is Marinette. I'm a fashion intern at Gabriel, I also love Jagged Stone, and your opinion on mangoes is wrong."
The air was officially cleared. They sat around the coffee shop for a few hours, learning new things and bantering and discussing old texts they had sent. Once the incident had been discussed, the pair seemed to relax into an already-familiar state of being. Adrien glanced at his phone and noticed the time. He had papers to grade before class the next day, and told Marinette as much. She understood, and she gathered up her purse from the table, sliding the strap over her head.
Before they parted at the door, Adrien turned to an older couple seated by the window and offered his phone. "Excuse me, but could you take a photo of us?"
Marinette turned to him and asked why.
His hand went behind his neck to rub sheepishly. "I have one of those feelings that this is a special moment, and I want to have a picture of it."
The couple smiled, and they both replied, "We would love to, young man."
And as Adrien slung his arm around Marinette's shoulders and felt her arm slide around his waist, he felt right. He felt like he belonged.
They handed his phone back, and he smiled widely at the photo. Their smiles were genuinely happy, and he immediately set it as his lock screen after forwarding it onto Marinette. Part of him wanted to get it printed so he could hang it up in his room. This would be a memory he wouldn't soon forget, nor did he ever want to.
Maybe black cats weren't so unlucky, after all.
He would have to thank Nino.