Chapter Text
“Adrien,” Marinette giggled, “are you serious?”
Bracing his elbows against the counter, Adrien grinned at the phone in his hands. “I’m dead serious, M’lady. I can’t remember how to do a single thing you told me last time. Especially how to boil water. Remind me: does the water go into the pot before or after I turn it upside down?”
Marinette laughed harder, dipping her head and covering the screen with her hair. Adrien’s heart flipped around like a gymnast as he joined in, basking in her joy.
In reality, he hadn’t actually called her for cooking advice. This was all he wanted.
Because, sure, he might still be a little clueless about some things. And he might have almost had a breakdown the other day when a giant spider crawled out from underneath the couch. And then he might have screamed even louder than Chloé as they both leaped on top of said couch to avoid the demon-bug (he still had bruises from her clinging desperately to his arm until Kagami showed up to rescue them).
But, embarrassing encounters with arachnids aside, Adrien wasn’t stupid. He might not be winning any awards for his culinary skills, but nobody in the apartment had starved. At the end of the day, cooking was actually rather scientific, though thankfully a lot less stressful than organic chemistry labs.
Once he’d learned a few basics, like which spices paired well together, or how turning the burner up to maximum heat just made things burn, cooking became sort of freeing, even. Plus, Chloé and Kagami had stopped eyeing their plates suspiciously every time dinner rolled around, so Adrien was starting to think he might even be getting good in the kitchen.
But he didn’t regret the evening’s subterfuge for a second, smiling at the screen until Marinette calmed down. At least, he didn’t regret it until she lay back on her bed, still smiling fondly, and proceeded to call him out on his shit.
“You know, you don’t have to pretend you need help. You’re allowed to call me just because you want company while you cook.”
The follow-up question Adrien wanted to ask—whether or not he could invite her over to keep him company—died on the tip of his tongue. Because after a dream he’d had last night, which involved using the kitchen counters in a decidedly not food-safe manner, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep her from mistaking his face for the tomato sauce if she were there in person.
“I know,” he said slowly, even though he still wasn’t convinced some part of her wasn’t annoyed by the staggering number of times he’d called over the past few weeks. “The thing is…I actually did want to ask you something. It’s a big thing, sort of, but…well, you and I have been cooking together for a while now, and I think I’m ready to take the next step.”
Marinette sobered, her eyes suddenly wider than Chloé’s on the night she’d learned about instant noodles. “Yeah?”
Adrien took a deep breath, his heart hammering in his chest. He was being ridiculous, he knew that. This was no big deal. He should just ask.
“Minou? Everything alright?”
“Yeah! Peachy. I was just…wondering if you could teach how how to make bread.”
“Oh,” Marinette looked away from the screen.
“Were you expecting me to say something else?”
“No, no! I just wasn’t expecting that. Because why would I? I’m not psychic or anything, so…” She chuckled awkwardly.
Adrien scratched the back of his neck. “Right. So…”
“Of course I can help.” Her smile morphed back into something genuine. “I think making bread is pretty easy, honestly.”
Adrien made a face, and Marinette laughed.
“I mean, okay,” she said, “maybe I’m biased given that my parents own a bakery—”
“Just maybe?”
“—but I really don’t think it’s that hard!”
“Show-off,” he teased. “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Because only an angel could be so purrfect.”
She rolled her eyes, but did a terrible job of hiding her amusement. “That’s it. I’m not helping anymore.”
“Pleeeease? It’s the yeast you could do.”
Marinette’s lips twitched.
“Okay, okay, okay,” Adrien said. “I’m done.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
“No, really. Even if I think of another really good one…”
“Adrien, I know that’s your pun voice.”
“...I won’t rise to the occasion.”
“Alright, enough! I wasn’t bread-y for this.”
Adrien snickered, and before he could rebuttal Marinette spoke again.
“By the way, what’s with the sudden interest? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m still happy to help you. But we could do this anytime at the bakery. You know, I swear my parents ask more about how you’re doing than how I am. They’d love to see you.”
Although Adrien would have loved to see them too, he sometimes felt like he was taking advantage of their generosity as well. So he chose to focus on Marinette’s first question. “Well, we’re…trying to save money?”
“Right, but bread’s pretty cheap. There’s probably somewhere else you could cut corners if you—wait. Didn’t that shirt used to be white?”
Adrien glanced down at his decidedly pink T-shirt. “Heh. Yeah, well, we finally got Chloé to start helping out with chores, but…as you can imagine there were some consequences.” He shrugged. “I really don’t mind. And I figured not wearing the clothes she ruined would make her less likely to help out in the future, so…”
Marinette smiled. “You’re sweet, but do you really think—”
Adrien missed her next few words when the apartment suddenly went dark. By the time he glanced back at his screen, Marinette had frozen, though a second later her picture started moving again, as the phone no doubt switched off of Wi-Fi.
“Uh…sorry,” Adrien said. “I didn’t quite catch that. I think the power went out.”
“Ah. That’s annoying.”
It was, because Adrien had to cook dinner, and he definitely didn’t have enough money for takeout. Maybe he could scrounge up enough leftovers to satisfy himself and Kagami, but there was no way Chloé would be caught dead eating cold bolognese.
“Do you know how long these things usually last?” Adrien asked.
“Have you never had a power outage before?”
“Not really? There was one at school once, but…the mansion has a back-up generator.”
“Alright, well…people usually report outages pretty quickly. You should be able to go online and figure out how long it’ll take to repair the issue.”
“Hopefully it doesn’t take too long, or I’ll have to deal with hurricane Chloé.”
Marinette’s smile, half-amused and half-sympathetic, was the last thing Adrien saw before he opened a browser window to search for answers.
“There’s nothing on the site yet,” he said once he found the right page. He sighed. “How’s your day been so far?”
Marinette rambled on for a while about her summer internship prospects, her lunch with Alya, and another thing or two Adrien didn’t entirely process given that he was too busy trying to make sure his face wasn’t didn’t make it obvious he was in simp mode.
(To be fair, he was always in simp mode with her, so maybe she wouldn’t even notice the difference.)
Eventually, Marinette brought him back to the issue at hand. “Anything posted about the outage yet?”
Adrien took another look at the webpage. “Nope.”
“Huh. That’s strange. I guess you could call and find out for sure. Or, it’s possible it’s just a building thing. Check your email, maybe? The landlord has your info, right?”
“She does, yeah.”
Only, Adrien didn’t find an email from the landlord in his inbox. Instead…
“Shit,” he said.
“What’s wrong?”
“Uh…what happens when you don’t pay the electric bill?”
“I don’t understand,” Kagami said when she got home from work. Chloé, thankfully, wan’t home yet. “Did you try turning it off and on again?”
“Kagami,” Adrien said, lowering his cell phone, where he still had Marinette on the line. “There’s nothing to turn it off and on again.”
“There must be.” She walked over to the light switch by the entrance and flipped it up and down several times before turning back to Adrien. “It doesn’t work.”
Adrien stared blankly. “No shit.”
Kagami shook her head. “But I paid the bill.”
“And I’m not saying I don’t believe you, but…is there maybe a chance that you didn’t?”
His comment was met with a glare, but he was saved from having to defend himself when Marinette piped up over speakerphone. “Are you sure there was enough money in the account?”
“Yes,” Kagami said. “I’m not an idiot, you know. I’m a few years away from inheriting an entire company. I think I can figure out how to work a bank account.”
Adrien avoided pointing out that they’d still have power if that were the case. He doubted the electric companies had a habit of randomly cutting services for people who paid.
“I set up direct deposit for all of our bills the day after we moved in,” Kagami continued, “and I’ve been tracking the account balance to make sure there’s enough money. I remember the account being a little low the night before the payment should have gone through, but I deposited one of Adrien’s tutoring cheques so we’d have enough. And I made Chloé promise not to spend any money until the day after.”
“Are you sure she actually—”
“Trust me” —Kagami smirked, and Adrien had to admit the expression terrified him a little— “I made it worth her while.”
Marinette laughed, which Adrien didn’t entirely understand, but…whatever. Not the point.
“Okay…” he said. “Well, then the company must have made an error?
“Actually,” Marinette said, “I think I might know what the problem is. If the money was deposited the night before, they might have held the cheque.” Adrien stared at the screen until Marinette elaborated. “Meaning they wouldn’t cash it before they had a chance to make sure it wouldn’t bounce.
“Uh, I don’t think paper bounces,” Adrien said. “I mean, maybe if you scrunch it up into a ball, but even then…”
Kagami hid behind her hand. “Not literally, Adrien. It means the other person didn’t have enough money in their account.”
“Right…”
Adrien felt his cheeks burn, because honestly. That was probably something he should have known. And even if Kagami had messed up the payment, at least she knew what she was talking about. What had Adrien learned in the past few weeks? How to roast a chicken? He wouldn’t have lasted a day without Kagami and Marinette’s help, and hadn’t the whole point been to prove that Adrien could be independent?
“That doesn’t make sense, though,” Kagami said, shaking Adrien from his spiral. “They only usually hold cheques for large amounts of money.”
“Not necessarily,” Marinette said. “It’s not a business account, so depending on the terms and conditions of your contract...”
“That’s stupid,” Kagami said. “Who writes a cheque without even having enough money to—” she broke off mid-sentence before Adrien could point out the irony. “Oh. I see.”
Before anything else could be said, Chloé burst into the apartment. She stopped short as the door shut behind her, staring into the kitchen. “Why the hell are you both standing in the dark?”
“For fun,” Kagami replied drily.
Chloé sneered. Although, she also seemed to be…smiling? Nah. The darkness must be messing with Adrien’s perception.
Adrien felt a little bad as Chloé walked into the kitchen. Kagami was nothing if not prideful, and he knew it would be hard for her to admit to making a mistake. Still, he’d learned a thing or two about having two stubborn-as-hell roommates, one thing being that he had to stand his ground.
So he wasn’t about to take the blame for something that wasn’t his fault.
Chloé stopped in front of Kagami, crossing her arms. “Ok, seriously, what’s going on?”
Kagami met Chloé’s gaze, her chin jutting out stubbornly. “There may have a bit of an oversight in regards to the electric bill.”
Adrien expected Chloé to roll her eyes, toss her hair dramatically, or spit out some form of I told you so. He at least expected some sign of self-righteousness.
Instead, she nodded slowly. “Well, these things…I suppose they happen.”
Then she patted Kagami on the shoulder in what had to be the most awkward attempt at consoling someone Adrien had ever seen. Kagami only tolerated it for a couple seconds before shrugging her off, but there was a hint of a smile playing across her cheeks.
Adrien had the distinct impression of having missed something, but Chloé spoke again before he could begin to muddle through it.
“Well, have you called to get it back, yet?”
It took Adrien a moment to realize the question was directed at both of them.
He cleared his throat. “Well, I called them, and I paid the bill—but they said it might be a day or so before they can actually get the power running again.”
“No,” Chloé said. “That won’t do. I was going to finish watching Schitt’s Creek tonight.”
Adrien scratched the back of his neck. “Uh…I don’t really think they care so much about that, Chlo.”
Letting out a sigh that would have given Nathalie a run for her money, Chloé rifled through her purse and pulled out her phone. “What’s the number?”
Five minutes, a lot of yelling, and several threats to get the mayor involved later—threats Marinette kindly agreed not to share with Alix and Kim, lest they decide the name-dropping wasn’t in the spirit of the whole living without their wealth and privilege part of the bet—Chloé finally hung up the phone.
“It’s done,” she said. “Come get me if it’s not on within the hour.”
She stalked off to her room and shut the door without another word. But she didn’t slam it, so…progress?
“Huh,” Kagami muttered. There was an odd smile on her face that Adrien couldn’t interpret. “I guess it only takes one blonde to get the electricity going again.”
Adrien decided he was too tired to care about the strange fondness in her voice.
A weird peace settled over the apartment after the whole failing-to-pay-the-electric-bill incident. Sort of.
Kagami managed to get a part-time job as a barista, but only lasted halfway through her first shift. Chloé still did laundry, but conveniently forgot to ask her roommates if they needed anything done. And Adrien…wasn’t on the verge of tearing his hair out, but he was starting to get overwhelmed by school.
So, somewhat against his better judgement, he decided to ask Chloé for more help.
“You want me to what?” she screeched from the doorway to her bedroom. “You can’t be serious, Adrien.”
Adrien rolled his eyes, moving a couch cushion out of the way to search for his electromagnetics textbook. Honestly, it was baffling that such a small apartment had so many places where things could get lost.
“It’s not a big deal, Chlo. All you have to do is follow the instructions on the box. Pretty sure you know how to read.”
She shook her head. “I’m not touching raw chicken.”
“Then wear some gloves or something. Besides, I don’t think it’s actually raw. Just frozen.”
“Ridiculous.”
Adrien sighed, resigning himself to the fact that his textbook was nowhere in the living room and he’d have to go back and search his bedroom for a third time. He crossed his arms and turned back to Chloé.
“Look, I honestly don’t care what you do. If you want to starve? That’s fine. But I’m going to be at the library until late, and I’m not cooking when I get home.”
“Then what are you doing for dinner?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but Marinette’s parents invited me over.”
He didn’t quite catch Chloé’s response, save for something that sounded a lot like the word “cheating”. But Adrien didn’t care—if Chloé could get Sabrina to pay for her to have a spa day, then he could let Marinette’s family feed him one dinner.
What was the worst Chloé could do? Burn the apartment down?
On second thought…
“Just make sure you turn off the stove when you’re done!” Adrien called over his shoulder as he hurried to his room.
“God, Adrien. I’m not an idiot.”
It was near midnight when Adrien finally got home, and the apartment was thankfully still standing. But the sink was full of dishes, and Chloé hadn’t even bothered to put away the extra nuggets, meaning they had to be thrown out.
Adrien was exhausted, so he contemplated just leaving them for Chloé to deal with later, but he wasn’t sure she even knew about food safety, and he wasn’t cruel enough to wish food poisoning on her as some sort of twisted karma for driving him insane…yet. Still, he was irritable enough to debate whether or not she deserved it as he got ready for bed.
The forty-seven text messages she’d sent him throughout the day—ranging from “How do I turn on the stove?” to “Why haven’t they invented a way for people to live without food yet?”—really didn’t help.
He fell asleep nearly as soon as his head hit the pillow, only to be awoken way too soon by a blood curdling—and all too familiar—scream.
“Chloé?!” Adrien shouted, faintly aware of Plagg stirring and phasing into his pyjama pocket.
He fumbled for his glasses, only to accidentally knock them from the bedside table. And that would have been fine if he hadn’t accidentally stumbled into his desk as he stood, knocking his textbook off the edge.
Crack.
His racing heart sank. He knew even before he bent down to pick the glasses up that his lenses would be cracked.
Adrien didn’t have a the chance to properly mourn the loss or asses his next move before the door slammed open. His heart jumped into his throat as he shoved a grumbling Plagg under the covers, but thankfully it was only Chloé running in in a panic.
“There’s a fucking rat out there,” she shrieked, jumping onto Adrien’s bed.
If it hadn’t been the middle of the night in the middle of exam season, and if Chloé hadn’t been wearing away at his last nerve all day, Adrien might have had a little more patience.
As things stood, he just stared at Chloé for a few seconds before mumbling, “I’m going back to bed.”
He sat down on the mattress, about to slip back under the covers, when she grabbed him by the arm and tried to pull him up.
“Are you crazy?”
“I’m tired.” He pulled free from her grip and lay down. “Go ask Kagami for help.”
“She’s not home. Plus, she’s terrified of rats.”
“You expect me to believe that?” Kagami, the one person in the apartment who’d hadn’t lost her head at the sight of a spider. The girl who he’s once seen hold a snake twice the length of her arms and call it cute. Afraid of rats of all things?”
“It’s the truth,” Chloé insisted.
Adrien sighed. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll deal with it for tomorrow. But for now can you just go back to bed and let me sleep?”
“You can’t be serious! You’re sending me back out there?!!”
“Sleep here then, I don’t care.”
Chloé crouched on the mattress beside him and found a new way to grip his arm painfully. “What if it eats us?!”
“Come on, Chlo. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not! Those things carry diseases, Adrien! And I’m too pretty to die.”
“Mhm…” Adrien pulled the blanket over his ear, doing his best to ignore her.
His resolve didn’t last long. Chloé sat there whimpering, shaking his arm harder and harder until he finally gave up on sleep.
“Ouch!” He yanked his arm away, rubbing it fiercely as he sat up. “Fine.”
He left Chloé whimpering on the bed and locked himself in the bathroom to put his contacts in—if he was hunting down a rat he should probably be able to see. He tried his best not to think about how much money glasses cost—he definitely wouldn’t be able to replace those until the bet was over. And it didn’t matter so much, but it was just one more thing that had gone wrong.
Adrien didn’t actually have a plan when he entered the kitchen. But how hard could it really be to catch a rat?
Very hard, it turned out—especially since he couldn’t seem to find the damn thing. Oh, he could hear it—little pitter-patters through the walls that in retrospect he’d been hearing for days (and hopefully Chloé wouldn’t clue into that). But whenever he managed to narrow in on its location, it fled before he could trap it.
When he tried asking Plagg for help, he only received semi-coherent mumbling about Camembert-deprivation as a response.
At some point, Kagami did come home, only to run straight into Adrien’s room after he explained the problem. When Adrien peaked in later, she and Chloé were curled up right next to each other, so…yeah, she really must have been scared.
Adrien stayed up until he saw the sun start to streak through the windows, then gave up and crashed on Kagami’s bed for a few hours. He woke up to the sound of Chloé and Kagami bickering—such a normal thing that Adrien would have ignored it if Chloé hadn’t opted to start screaming his name few minutes later.
Groaning, Adrien rolled out of bed and stumbled back over to his room. “Calm down. It’s gone. I stayed up for hours and didn’t see a trace of it.”
“So you didn’t trap it?” Kagami demanded. “Meaning it could reappear at any moment?”
“Look, I tried, okay! I was up for hours, and—”
“We should just leave,” Chloé said, turning to Kagami. “This isn’t worth it anymore. I never even cared about this stupid bet in the first place, and Adrien’s—”
Kagami shushed her with a finger to the lips. Chloé narrowed her eyes and wrapped a hand around Kagami’s wrist, pulling it away. Kagami smirked, and Chloé’s lips quirked up a moment later.
“We’ll give you the rest of the day to sort this out,” Kagami decided. “Otherwise…yes, I might have to side with Chloé.”
They were gone from the apartment twenty minutes later—under other circumstances it would have been impressive that Chloé managed to get ready so quickly. That left Adrien sitting on the kitchen counter nursing a cup of coffee and weighing the pros and cons of calling Marinette.
On the one hand, it was a terrible idea. Marinette wasn’t a morning person, and he’d already disturbed her enough times over the past few weeks. And what would she really be able to help with that Adrien couldn’t Google himself?
On the other hand, everything he read seemed to involved poisoning the rats, and Adrien really didn’t want to do that. The idea of hurting an animal—any animal—made him feel sick. And maybe that was hypocritical since he ate meat all the time and had never thought of cutting back, but wasn't everyone a hypocrite about something.
So he took one more sip of coffee and dialled Marinette. The first call went to voicemail, and Adrien’s stomach twisted at the thought of calling her again, of disturbing her sleep. But at the sound more scampering through the walls he called back.
“Hello?” Marinette mumbled. Adrien heard the sound of a blanket rustling and he smiled to himself as he imagined herself cocooning herself further inside of it.
“Good morning, M’lady.”
Her next words were slurred, but Adrien was fairy sure she said, “What’s up?”
“Just, uh…well, I don’t know how to sugarcoat this, so…how do you feel about about rats?” he asked.
“Hmm…can we get a hamster instead?”
Adrien laughed. She was definitely still half-asleep. “Anything you want, Buginette. I’ll give you the whole world if you want it.”
An indecipherable grumble preceded her next words. “Not fair.”
“What do you mean?”
“Flirting with me before I’m awake? Not. Fair.”
Adrien debated making saying he could flirt with her anytime she wanted, but decided that would be overkill. Plus, he wasn’t really sure where they stood in that regard these days, and he was too afraid to find out. Still, the only response he could settle on was a bit flirtatious too.
“Well, it’s not fair how wonderful you are. Or how talented, or creative, or beautiful…” He trailed off when Marinette’s next noise sounded an awful lot like her screaming into her pillow.
“Alright, alright,” she said. “You’ve buttered me up enough. What did you need?”
“Well, uh…you’re not afraid of rats, are you?”
“No. Kim used to have a couple when we were younger, so I got used to them.”
“Well, Chloé found one here last night.”
“Ah, shit. I thought the building had dealt with that.”
Adrien bit back a flash of annoyance; apparently this was another trouble Marinette could have given him a head’s up on but had decided wasn’t important. Or maybe dealing with rodents was just supposed to be par for the course, and it was another sign of Adrien’s inadequacy that he couldn’t handle this.
“Do you know how to catch one?”
“Well, I don’t know much, but…there should be some traps under the sink.”
“Uh, I found those, but I don’t…I mean, I’d rather not…” He fumbled for a way to explain that wouldn’t make him sound pathetic.
“Chaton? What’s wrong?”
Adrien lowered his voice to a whisper. “I don’t want to hurt it.”
He braced himself for her argument, for her to call him foolish or idealistic. Instead he heart her blanket rustle again. “Okay. I’ll be over soon.”
Adrien sighed in relief. “Have I ever told you how amazing you are?”
Marinette laughed. “Yeah, like thirty seconds ago. But it can’t hurt to hear it again.”
“Well, in that case…did you hear there’s an eighth wonder of the world?”
“Adrien—”
“Her name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”
That time she definitely screamed into her pillow.
Marinette walked into the apartment looking like she’d just rolled out of bed—her hair was in a messy bun, her eyes were only half-open, and she wore the same sweater and leggings Adrien had seen her sleep in during a camping trip they’d taken with Alya and Nino last summer.
She still looked beautiful, particularly when Adrien handed her a mug of coffee and her lips quirked into a grateful smile. They both sat on the kitchen counter as she drank, shooting ideas back and forth while Adrien tried not to die when she leaned her head on his shoulder as they talked.
It was nostalgic, planning something like this. It almost made Adrien miss Akuma attacks, because working together with her reminded him they were still a team, despite everything. It made him feel good about himself and the progress he’d made. It made him fall the tiniest bit further in love with her.
Their solution at the end of the day wasn’t super sophisticated—they grabbed a cardboard box and a block of cheese—Plagg only allowed that because it was cheddar, and Marinette, the saint, had brought him Camembert again—and tried to make a trail from the open cupboard to the box. The rat didn’t at all seemed interested, so after a half hour or so of waiting, time Adrien spent listening to Marinette ramble excitedly about her classes, they used the Camembert and a handful of cookies to bribe the Kwamis into helping.
It took another fifteen minutes or so after that and a lot of screaming once Tikki finally chased the rat out into the open, but eventually they managed to trap the thing underneath the box. Marinette and Adrien stood on opposite sides of the box, pushing it down so the rat couldn’t escape from underneath.
“Um, what do we do now?” Marinette asked. Because sure, they’d come up with a plan to catch it, but not to get it outside. (And, according to the internet, they needed to take it far away, or it would just find its way back inside.)
Adrien frowned down at the box. “You don’t think Miraculous Ladybug would work, do you?”
Marinette met his eyes from across the box, and they both burst out laughing.
Miraculous Ladybug didn’t work to solve real-life issues, but luckily they had a couple of other Miraculous holders in their phones. Granted, Nino refused to go near the rat, but he lent them his Miraculous so Adrien could trap the rat in a circular shield and let it free in a park a couple miles away. After that, Adrien was in a particularly good mood, especially when Marinette stopped and turned back on her way out the door.
“You look good in green,” she said, blushing.
That left Adrien with his head floating in the clouds until a few hours later when Chloé walked back into the apartment and asked why he looked like a lovestruck idiot.
Even then, he wasn’t really deterred until he came out of his room later at the sound of his roommates bickering from the dining room table. He walked over, laptop still in hand, hoping he could solve their squabble quickly and get back to his paper. He gave up on that idea when he saw them glaring across the table at each other.
“For God’s sake,” Kagami said, setting down her mug. “The thing’s gone. And you promised you’d help out more.”
Chloé wrinkled her nose. “If there was one, there could be more. I’m not spending any more time in this kitchen than I have to until I know for sure.”
“It’s one load of dishes, Chloé.”
Adrien moved a couple things out of the way and set his laptop down as he took the seat between them. “Chloé, I promise there aren’t anymore rats.”
She rolled her eyes. “How would you even know that?”
“I…just do, okay? Trust me.” He couldn’t exactly explain that they’d have the Kwamis check, but hopefully his word would be good enough.
He ought to have known better.
“You can believe whatever you want to. I’m not—“
Chloe screamed, and adrien realized too late what was happening. A fly had buzzed beside Kagami, who lazily swatted it away. Adrien wasn’t sure if Chloe was just afraid of the insect or if she was just jump after the rat incident, but as she jumped out of her chair she accidentally elbowed her water glass, spilling its contents onto Adrien’s computer.
Which was…totally fine. Not like he only had forty-eight hours left to write a final paper or anything.
“Here.” Nino pulled a bluetooth keyboard out of his bag and set it on the table. “Some of the keys stick a bit, but it should work.”
“Dude,” Adrien said. “I love you so much. I literally can’t even afford to buy anything that’s not food right now. I’m just lucky it’s just the keyboard that’s messed up, not the whole computer.”
Nino studied him. “Love you too, man, but are you alright? I mean, I’m not saying you look tired, but…your right eye’s twitching. Wait, no…my right.” He narrowed his eyes. “Actually, I think it’s both of them.”
Adrien sat back, wrapping his hands around the coffee cup—a drink Nino had insisted on buying for him, and Adrien hadn’t even had the energy to try and talk him out of. Honestly, if Nino hadn’t been able to meet him that evening he didn’t know what he would have done.
“I’m fine,” Adrien said. “Just…stressed. I can’t relax when I’m at home, because Chloé has like a hundred different questions about how to do absolutely anything, and I’m scared she’ll start a fire or electrocute herself if I leave her unsupervised. And then I realized I misread the list of topics one of my profs assigned for our final papers, so I have to do the whole thing from scratch, and I just…want to cry. But I don’t have the time, or the energy, or even the money to afford tissues, so…”
“Ah. Just normal student stuff, then.”
Adrien laughed. “I guess so. If you don’t feel a little dead inside you haven’t really gone to university, right?”
“Yeah. Good point. Still, if there’s anything else I can do…” Nino’s expression grew serious. “It’s just a stupid bet, you know? It doesn’t mean anything, and you’ve already more than proved yourself.” He stared into his own mug. “I’m proud of you, bro.”
It made Adrien feel stupidly warm to hear that—he hadn’t had a lot of people telling him that after his mother’s death, but Nino had always known somehow when Adrien needed to hear it.
“I appreciate it,” Adrien said, “but I’ll be fine. How bad can one more week really be?”
One more week probably would have been fine, were it not for the events of the next twelve hours.
For starters, Nino hadn’t been kidding about the keyboard sticking. In particular, the P key was unreliable, and adrien had to keep going back and editing it in. Then Adrien realized he’d forgotten to save one of the papers he needed to reference. It took him an hour to track that down, by which point he was barely keeping his eyes open.
He slammed back some coffee and somehow pushed on for two more hours after that, knowing it would be easier to fluff things up the next day if he managed to scrape together the rest of his first draft.
Eventually, he couldn’t fight off sleep any longer, so he closed his eyes and told himself he’d take a micro nap on his desk. He woke up an hour or so later with his neck aching, and forced himself to get up and remove his contacts before crawling into bed.
He fell asleep immediately, but his stress definitely weaved its way into his dreams. He found himself running from an Akuma, his heart thumping in his throat when he first heard the screams. “Fire! Fire!”
At first he just thought it was part of the dream, but as the details faded away he could still hear the voice—which he now recognized as Chloé’s.
Adrien sat bolt upright in bed, heart still pounding as he struggled to untangle his limbs from his sheets. He fumbled for his glasses before remembering those had broken, so he scrambled out of bed and squinted his way into the hallway. When he got there he could see a small flame in the microwave, and it wasn’t hard to put the pieces together from there.
“Close it!” he yelled.
Chloé didn’t respond, just kept freaking out as Adrien walked past her and slammed the microwave door shut. Naturally, with it’s supply of oxygen cut off the flame quickly dwindled, and Adrien felt his heart rate slowly return to normal.
Kagami popped her head out of her room a split-second later, tying her robe. “What’s going on?”
“Chloé put tinfoil in the microwave again.”
“Seriously?”
Chloé let out an indignant hmph. “It’s not my fault! I told you both I didn’t belong in the kitchen.”
“It is your fault,” Adrien snapped, still frazzled. “I’ve told you like ten times not to do that. Maybe if you stopped whining for five damn minutes you’d actually hear me.”
“Adrien—” Kagami began, but Chloé cut her off.
“It’s not my fault we’re here. The whole reason we did this is because you—”
“Chloé,” Kagami interrupted. Adrien could still barely see her, but he thought she shook her head. Chloé growled in frustration, and a part of Adrien knew he should just drop it.
He couldn’t.
“I didn’t ask either of you to do this! Hell, I never even wanted to do this.”
“Then why are we all still here?” Chloé said. “This is stupid. And I don’t care what people think. Yes, I like having money. Because I’m not an idiot. So whatever. I quit.”
“No you don’t,” Kagami said.
“You don’t speak for me!”
“Someone should. You’re acting ridiculous.” She mimicked Chloé’s whiny tone. “Utterly ridiculous.”
They kept on bickering, but suddenly Adrien couldn’t handle it anymore. Tears stung his eyes, caused by a mix of stress, anger, and an overwhelming sense of failure.
The last one was the worst.
He really tried not to care—Nino was right that he had nothing to prove, and it wasn’t like he hadn’t learned a thing or two over the past few weeks. If he hadn’t been stuck with Chloé of all people, he probably could have survived the whole thing without even raising his voice.
But he doubted he’d had an hour of sleep that night, his paper wasn’t finished, and his adrenaline was crashing. He was done.
He made it to his room and sank to the floor, the heel of his foot still throbbing from the bead he’d stepped on during his walk. Without stopping to think things through, barely able to see his screen, Adrien called the one person he couldn’t seem to stop bothering.
She answered on the first ring. “Hello?”
“Marinette, I don’t think I can do this anymore.”
There was a pause before she answered in and even tone. She must have noticed something was off, because outside of Akuma attacks he’d never heard her sound so coherent at such an early hour of the morning.
“What do you mean?”
He couldn’t answer. He took a shuddering breath and squeezed his eyes shut as the first hot tears rolled down his cheeks.
“Adrien? Are you okay?”
“N-no.”
“What can I do? Do you need me to come over? Just unlock your window, and—“
“No. No, it’s fine. I’m just.” He took a deep breath. “Why did you make me do this?”
“What?”
“You know what,” he spat back. His hands shook, probably because he was yelling at Marinette of all people, but he couldn’t bring himself to lower his voice. “This stupid bet! I’m done with it.”
Her voice was smaller when she answered. “Adrien, I—“
“I don’t have anything to prove. To anyone. Even you.” Silence met his words, until horror washed over him. “Shit. Marinette, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. I—”
“It’s okay,” she said. Her voice was a little shaky, but still steady enough for Adrien to cling to. “You’re right, you don’t have anything to prove to me. You’ve already proved everything important a thousand times over.”
Adrien could only feel guilty about that, for how quickly she forgave him, so he let a few more tears fall as he tried to catch his breath.
“Chaton? What happened?”
Adrien did his best to explain the events of the past couple days, even though some of it was stuff she already knew. By the end he’d stopped crying, but he still felt like crap.
“I’m just so done living here with people who’s rather be anywhere else. Chloé’s hated this since day one. Kagami hides it better, but I know she’s miserable too. And I…”
Adrien dug his fingers into his pyjama pants as he found the courage to continue. “I’m a little mad that you just threw me into this, which might not be fair seeing as you’ve been here every single time I called, and I wouldn’t have made it a day without you, but…” He took another deep breath. “You never asked me if I wanted to do this. And if I’m going to learn how to do things for myself, then…I need to make decisions for myself, too.”
Adrien deflated, slumping with his elbows braced against his knees and barely holding onto the phone.
“You’re right,” Marinette said softly. “I’m sorry.”
The apology didn’t feel as good as Adrien had hoped; he just felt bad for upsetting her as well.
“Why did you do it?” he whispered.
“I don’t know? Kim pissed me off. The way he was talking at the party…” Adrien could practically picture Marinette’s scowl. “He has no idea of everything you’ve been through, or how amazing you are. I knew you could do anything you could set your mind to. And I couldn’t stand the thought of you doubting yourself for a second, because I never have.”
Once again, Adrien was distinctly aware of his heartbeat. “That’s…a pretty good reason.”
Marinette gave a strained laugh. “I mean, I thought so. But it’s not an excuse, and I’m sorry I didn’t ask.”
Adrien relaxed his shoulders and leaned his head back against the door. “Thank you. For understanding and for helping and…for believing in me. It does mean a lot, even if this turned into a huge mess.”
“It’s really not a mess. You’ve been doing great, I promise. And I’ll always believe in you.” She paused, and her voice was a little shakier when she continued. “You know, I might even have a way to make this up to you.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Just let me try! Please? I mean, you totally can say no. And maybe this is the worst possible time to ask. So actually, nevermind. I’ll tell you later. Sorry. I’m being such an idiot. I’ll just shut up right now, and—”
“Buginette?”
“Will you go out with me?” She blurted out. “My treat! I-if you want.”
Adrien couldn’t believe his ears. “You want to go out with me? L-Like on a date?”
“Mhm,” she squeaked. “Unless that’s stupid, and I’ve ruined everything, and you know what? Forget I said anything. I’m sorry I—“
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
Adrien smiled. “A hundred times yes.”
“Oh, thank God. Would have been awkward if you said no when I was trying to cheer you up.”
By that point Adrien was smiling so wide he could barely get his next words out. “I can’t imagine a world where I say no to that question.”
“I think there’s at least one. You and Nino are really happy in it.”
Adrien laughed. “Fair enough.”
They fell into silence again, but this time it was comfortable. Adrien was already starting to think about how to smooth over the fallout with his roommates when Marinette asked her next question.
“So, what are you going to do about the bet?”
“I don’t know. Kagami and Chloé still can’t stand being here with me.”
“That’s not true, Adrien. They’re there because of you. Do you really think either of them give a crap what Kim and Alix think?”
“I guess not.” Adrien twisted around and pressed his ear to the door. “They’re quiet now. I guess…I’ll go back out there and work things out?” It was only one more week.
“Is that what you want?”
“Yeah. It is.”
“Then I think that sounds great. And after that…my mom ended up finding an old laptop you can use. It’s a little slow, but at least it has a functioning keyboard.”
“Oh, thank God. I’ve been losing my mind.”
Marinette laughed. “Come by the bakery when you’re done talking, then. I’m sure you could use somewhere quiet to work, too.”
“You’re making me fall in love with you all over again.”
She laughed. “I love you too. See you soon?”
“Yeah. See you.”
Adrien stared dreamily at his phone for a few minutes, unable to believe how that had all turned out. Then he got up, got dressed, and snuck into the bathroom to finish getting ready for the day. The apartment was eerily quiet as he returned to his room to pack his backpack, but he hadn’t heard the obnoxiously loud front door so he doubted anyone had left the apartment.
That was confirmed when he heard murmuring from Chloé’s room, where the door was open a crack. Adrien took a deep breath as he slung his bag over one shoulder and marched across the room to apologize.
The first thing he saw when he opened the door was a dark bob of hair, and he thought he’d somehow gotten the wrong room. Then his blood turned to ice when he realized Kagami was half-naked, wearing nothing but a bra and…well, thank God the rest was covered by the blanket.
And underneath her…
“Adrien, what the hell?” Chloé shrieked as Adrien squeezed his eyes shut.
“You didn’t shut the door!” he shouted back. “Who doesn’t shut the door?”
“Get out,” Kagami hissed.
He didn’t need to be told twice. He stumbled blindly out of the room, backing into the doorframe and reaching blindly to slam the door shut behind him. Then he pretty much ran from the apartment, only stopping to catch his breath when he was halfway to Marinette’s.
In retrospect…a lot of things made more sense now. But damn it, at what cost? Adrien didn’t want to think of what he might have seen if he’d come in a couple minutes later.
Bets were overrated, he decided as he continued his shameful walk to the bakery. He was never going back to that damn apartment again.