Chapter Text
Whoever told her to agree to this dinner is getting sued for emotional damage. This was a prank, somebody was pranking her and they needed to bring out the cameras now . She simply inhaled and exhaled, bit and chewed, and swallowed her dinner. She long lost her appetite and although she knew the pair in front of her could afford it, she wasn’t going to show that what they said had affected her in the slightest.
Adrien sent her worried glances, Kagami, always the stoic ate her dinner and carefully observed Marinette. All through dinner Marinette forcefully ate her overpriced food while Adrien spoke of what he had been up to the past few weeks, she nodded with a close-lipped smile. She asked him questions to keep him talking, she knew that he wasn’t buying what she was trying to sell but they would have words. Alone.
Soon enough the bill was paid, Marinette said her goodbyes to Kagami and Adrien drove her back home. The car ride was silent, Adrien had attempted to speak to her but she shook her head, sinking into her seat. When she processed the information properly she would talk to him.
“Thank you for the dinner, Adrien.” Marinette broke her silence once they made it to her house. Adrien turned the car off and hopped out of the car to open her door, she rushed to get out and the tip of her heel tripped her.
She was caught by steady arms, “You okay?” Adrien asked.
“I’m fine, thank you.” She took a step back from him, making sure there was a distance between them.
“You don’t have to thank me, Marinette. I’m always going to be here for you.” He tucked a stray hair behind her ear. She flinched at his touch, it hurt too much. He wasn’t always going to be there, she knew he wasn’t, no matter how many times he said that. Not anymore. “You know, you look really pretty with your hair down.”
She couldn’t do this anymore, “Good night, Adrien.”
As soon as she unlocked the door, tears came streaming down her face. Hot, angry tears of betrayal and deep, painful sobs tore through her throat. This was not how the night was supposed to go, this was probably the worst night of her entire life. A headache began to pound into her head and she couldn’t breathe. The dress was suffocating her. She dug her hands into the straps of her heels to force them off, she heaved as she went up the stairs. The tears not once stopped, making it hard to see, she was pretty sure she stubbed her toe on a stair but for once she couldn’t feel it.
“You need to breathe, Marinette,” She heard Tikki’s squeaky voice floating in the air next to her.
“I’m trying Tikki,” Her throat was already sore. God, this dress felt tight . She continued her way up to her apartment and into the attic where polaroid photographs of her and Adrien were littered all over her walls.
She started to hyperventilate again, she untied the knot for the wrap behind her back, breathing only slightly better than before. Marinette reached behind her back and struggled with the zipper, this wasn’t even hard to zip up so what the fuck? The zipper was stuck, by now she was sweating and crying and close to a mental breakdown. She fell to her knees, continuing to struggle to release herself from this cursed dress.
There was a loud thump from above her. Oh God, not now. Now was not the time for him. She let out a groan and whimpered. Her life really sucked right now. A knock echoed from the window. The noisemaker poked his head through the skylight above her bed.
“Hey, Princess, ready for movie night?” Chat Noir stood frozen at the sight in front of him.
“Kitty,” Her eyes welled up again. She didn't want her partner seeing her like this, though throughout the years he’d definitely seen her worse. But this was her in her civilian form, she didn’t need to be strong right now. Knowing that, made her cry harder.
“Hey,” He cooed. He hopped over the stairs from her bed and sat next to her, he put his arm around her shoulders, and her head fell into the crook of his neck.
“I can’t breathe,” She was able to wheeze out.
“What happened?” His voice was restricted.
“I can’t get out of this fucking dress,” Marinette sniffled against Chat Noirs' neck. It made his spine shiver. The guilt was heavy on his heart, he did this to her. He knew she wasn’t going to take the news well but seeing her like this made him feel sick. He didn’t think she’d be this upset despite her being quiet throughout dinner and the entire car ride.
“Here, let me help you.” He eased her off of him, turning her body, her back now facing him. He was careful that his nail didn’t catch on the fabric of her dress. She looked radiant, as she always did. Even now with her mascara running down her cheeks, her lips were plump, cheeks flushed. It physically pained him, his heart felt like someone had a death grip on it, squeezing when it saw her on the floor sobbing.
Once he unzipped the dress, he wanted to trace the line of her spine. He cleared his throat to compose himself and to signal that he was done with his task. She faced him again. She pulled her knees to her chest, her feet almost touching his crossed legs.
He didn’t trust himself with his words so he waited until she spoke first.
“He’s getting married,” She inhaled a shaky breath. “Buttercup, I mean. He told me tonight at dinner.”
Those few sentences were enough to send Chat Noir into anaphylactic shock. The blood drained from his face, he felt his eyes go as wide as saucers. The guy Marinette was in love with was him. IS him. Adrien him. He as Chat Noir had helped prepare a declaration of love for her ‘buttercup’. Buttercup was him.
Everything was piecing itself together. How had he not realized? He was fueled with elation and dread.
He was so in love with her, he was so blind to not see that she was in love with him too.
He shook his head, unintentionally, it went unnoticed by her. He hadn’t realized he zoned out. She was retelling the events of that night.
Adrien pulled the chair out for Marinette. She sat almost robotically, she was confused, he could tell by the look on her face she was caught off guard. His palms were sweaty, the room seemed to get warmer within seconds. The tells of her nerves were obvious to anyone who knew her. He wanted to hold her hand and tell her everything was going to be okay but that wouldn’t be appropriate of him with his fiancee right next to him.
He had to tell his best friend of 14 years, the love of his life, that he was engaged. He couldn’t tell her the full story in front of Kagami, she was already understanding enough by allowing him to tell Marinette the news like this.
“Marinette I just wanted to start off by saying that-”
“We are engaged.” Kagami cut him off, she shot him a look that he assumed translated to ‘better to rip the bandaid off'.
A squeak, barely audible to anyone without a supernatural hearing, came out of her. She squared her shoulders, something she did when she wanted to compose herself before reacting.
“Oh, I didn’t even know you were back together.” Her eyes were on Kagami, flickering only once in his direction.
“Yes, it was a sudden engagement,” Was all Kagami said in response. Adrien took that as his sign to tell his side of the story, leaving out the part that it was his father's manipulation that led to this.
“I would have told you sooner but as Kagami said, it was sudden,” He tried to catch her eye but she was keenly focused on the silver band on his finger. She no doubt was wondering how it slipped past her observant eye. He begged silently for her to know that this wasn’t his choice. “We aren’t getting married right away, our parents want us to wait until we graduate first.”
It was a struggle to get his father and Kagami's mother to agree to wait until graduation. They had an agreement that their heirs would get married right after they had turned 18 but his and Kagami's 18th birthday would be before they graduated. It took a lifetime's worth of convincing but he was successful in pushing the date.
“Congratulations,” Marinette smiled. The smile she used for his father whenever he acknowledged her presence. A fake smile that Adrien had never in a million years would have thought he’d be on the other side of. “I’m really happy for you guys.”
He wanted to speak to her privately, get her to see the full story, and tell her how much he really wanted it to be her that he was marrying. He would never gather the courage to tell her the last part. But it would not be fair to Kagami. So he would keep his feelings to himself, only hoping that Marinette would understand that their friendship would never change.
“-I wanted to die, Chat, the pain was unbearable.” The tears fell but she paid them no mind as she relived her pain.
“I’m so sorry, princess.” She would never know how much he truly meant that. Had they been missing each other all this time and not noticed? He wanted so badly to grab her face and pronounce his everlasting love for her, to tell her that he was here and he was sorry. She was the only girl he has ever loved and will be the only one he will love for the rest of his life.
Instead, he reached for her and she fell into his arms, wrapping her arms around his middle. He cradled her head with his hand on her waist. They were sitting in the middle of her floor, her chaise only a couple of inches away but he did not move. She cried and cried and cried until she couldn’t anymore.
“I never got the chance to tell him,” She wiped her wet face. He gave in to the urge, cupping her cheek and wiping the tears. “All that time we wasted on the speech and it was too late.”
“I wouldn’t call it wasted time, we spent that time together and no time with you is ever wasted. You hear me?”
She gave him a wobbly smile, a laugh with watery eyes. “You’re sweet, Chat Noir.”
“How nice of you to finally realize,” He joked. It made her smile again, he never wanted her to stop.
“I should probably get out of this dress,” She looked down at herself and then asked with pleading eyes. “Would you wait here for me?”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
She had no idea what he would do to stay with her. He could not get enough of her. As Adrien, he hadn’t seen her in a month. As Chat Noir, he was here every Saturday past 10 and sometimes on random nights of the week if he wasn’t too exhausted from a photoshoot and didn’t have another one lined up for him the next morning. That’s why he chose this night to tell her the news so that he didn’t have to wait a day or a week to see how she was doing with the news.
He still couldn’t believe that his childhood crush loves him back. The way he found out wasn’t ideal but now he knows what he needs to do.
Adrien needed to stand up to his father. He had to fix this, he was going to fix it.