Chapter Text
Marionette got there first, of course. She swung herself right over the tall concrete and into their yard, looking around. The last time she’d been here was as Ladybug, defeating the Bubbler. A fleeting worry crossed her mind about Tikki, but it was gone as soon as it came. Hopefully Hawkmoth couldn’t actually read her mind. How he knew which window was Adrien’s room was something she wouldn’t question right now. She swung herself in and waited by the window.
Adrien pushed through the doors and darted up to his room, as Tikki suggested. “To think Ladybug will have been in your room,” Plagg teased. Tikki rolled her eyes and urged Adrien on.
The door to his room opened with ease, the two kwami hiding in his jacket. Marionette waited with bated breath across the room. Adrien decided to proceed with caution, taking slow steps forward. He was trying to get her back to normal, right? “Marinette?” he questioned. The strings tied around her fingers recoiled, her face curling in disgust. “Please, don’t do this. You don’t have to be Marionette anymore, I promise.”
She shook her head with a laugh and looked to the ground. Beneath the white gloves, her knuckles were white in gripping the windowsill. “You’ve never noticed me. And I was stupid for thinking you would. But now-” Her eyes shifted to him, looking through her eyelashes. “How could you not?”
“Marinette, please-”
“It’s not Marinette anymore,” she said through gritted teeth. She took a step towards him, and Adrien took a step back.
“Marinette!”
“I said don’t call me that!” she screamed. Her strings lashed out to wrap around him and capture him. Marionette walked to him without loosening up. She was less than a foot away when she started talking again. “I-” she cut off. A look of realization crossed her face as she looked away. “Why am I doing this?” A step away from him. “I can’t do this,” she breathed. Adrien felt the strings loosen ever so slightly. That familiar mask outlined her face again, and the strings tightened with the tightening of her fist. “Until Cat Noir shows up, I can’t leave.” She laughed. “It shouldn’t be too long, right? The famous Adrien Agreste is in trouble, he should come running in no time.”
A pit of fear balled in Adrien’s stomach. Ladybug wasn’t an option, and Cat Noir was a little tied up right now. What now? How long would it be before Marionette started realizing things? Before Hawkmoth did? “Marionette,” he sighed.
She turned to him. “Yes, Adrien?”
“We might be waiting for a while. Could you at least not keep me like this?” He used his limited arm motion to gesture to the strings. They loosened until she could retract them, allowing Adrien his full range of motion. It was about that point that Adrien realized what he could do with the situation. Marionette’s goal was to get Adrien, right? How perfect. “Marionette, you were akumatized because you thought I liked Chloe, right?”
Marionette seemed to curl in on herself. She took a step back, strings trembling around her. “Yes, I guess.”
“Well, that’s stupid,” Adrien laughed off. “I’m just going with her so she’ll stop asking me about it. I could never love someone who causes so many problems for Ladybug.”
She raised her eyebrows. “For Ladybug?”
“Yeah,” Adrien said. He shrugged and strolled over to his desk chair. Marionette’s eyes followed him. “She causes so many akumas. No wonder Ladybug’s fed up with her.”
“How would you know how Ladybug feels?” Her face flushed in anger.
Little warning bells were going off in Adrien’s mind, but he went on. “I don’t, of course, but I like to think I know her well enough-” Don’t blow your cover, minou, “-that I know how she feels about Chloe.”
Her eyes narrowed as she stalked towards him with crossed arms. “I guess so,” she mused. Adrien stood, putting them less than two feet from each other.
“And Ladybug, she’s so sweet. I’d love to get to know her beneath the mask.” The two kwami flew out to hide just behind Marionette. They both made gestures to him, asking what the everloving hell he was doing. He put a hand on her arm. “But I bet she doesn’t hold a candle to you, Marinette.”
Beneath the pink mask, she blushed so much that you’d think she wasn’t akumatized. Tikki paused her gestures as she realized what Adrien was doing. Plagg held back a groan and floated down.
“You’re so much better than Chloe, honestly. You think I haven’t noticed you before? Please, I notice you every day,” he reassured. “You, the sweet fashion designer, so compassionate, so kind.” He stepped closer to her, putting them less than a foot apart. Marionette’s strings twirled around them, just hovering in caution. “Hair darker than night and those bluebell eyes.” He might have been somewhat stealing from his poem now. Plagg rolled his eyes and sunk down further behind Marionette. “I want to know who you are beneath that mask, Marinette.”
He slowly bent down to press their lips together.
A rush of black dust swirled around them both. It erased the strings, the dress, making everything back to as it was before the akuma touched Marinette’s purse. All at once, it stopped, leaving just Marinette and Adrien embraced in a kiss. Marinette’s eyes flew open. Adrien pulled back, opening his eyes with hesitance. He didn’t really see how in shock Marinette was. He just saw that she was herself, and that was just about all he needed. Tikki beamed from behind Marinette. Plagg was on Adrien’s desk, knocking his head repeatedly against the tabletop. He hid behind one of the monitors before either of them noticed.
He separated them with a grin spread across his face. “Marinette,” he welcomed.
“Adrien,” Marinette managed to breathe out. Not that she was sure she could breathe. The last thing she remembered was- “Oh my god, was I akumatized? What happened? Why am I in your room? Where’s Cat Noir?” She stepped back, looking around wildly. More importantly to her, where was Tikki?
“Uh.” Adrien looked around for answers. “It’s a long story. But we need to get to school, right?” He noticed, out of the corner of his eye, Tikki dart into Marinette’s purse.
Her hand instinctively darted over it. Okay, she was safe. “I’m more concerned about what’s going on right now.” She took a step back, shoulders tensing. She could feel the light weight of the earrings, so she knew that was safe.
What was he supposed to tell her? How could he say anything without giving away his identity, or the fact that he now knew who hers? Or should he hide it at all anymore? “Y-you were akumatized,” he started. He’d have to decide quickly and choose his words carefully. “I-” Tikki glanced at him from the purse, clasp cracked just a tiny bit. She nodded and waved him along. He sighed. “Ladybug didn’t show up, but then Cat Noir did, and he realized that Marionette was after me.” Marinette blushed so red you’d think she’d popped a blood vessel, but Adrien went on. “So he led you here. He was really worried about Ladybug, so he went to go find her, and then-”
Tikki’s eyes were burning a hole through him. How did he say even a word more without telling her the truth? He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but Marinette cut him off with a hand raised. “I’m sorry,” she said with eyes averted. “You don’t have to tell me the whole thing. I don’t know what happened, but you’re probably really uncomfortable. I shouldn’t have been so upset, anyway. It’s not like-” she cut herself off, blushing a shade deeper.
Adrien stepped toward her to gain her attention. It worked. Her eyes met his as he looked down at her. “Marinette. I had this conversation with the Marionette. But that date with Chloe isn’t something I want to do. At all.” He rolled his eyes. “It’s just so she’ll stop talking about it all the time.”
The thought crossed his mind that the girl he’d been pining after for so long was standing right in front of him, whether she realized it or not. And she liked him back. This was his chance. “But maybe you’d like to go with me instead?”
Plagg peeked out from behind the monitor to watch the exchange. Of course she would say yes. How many times in his life had Ladybug and Cat Noir been perfect for each other? Too many, if you asked him, but that was beside the point. Marinette’s eyes lit up with her smile, and she nodded. She could feel Tikki radiating encouragement from her purse.
What came next would be difficult, wouldn’t it? Cat Noir stopping his pursuit after Ladybug despite what he knew. And how long would it be before he finally confessed?
That didn’t matter now. What mattered that the girl of his dreams, the boy of her dreams, was finally saying yes.
Cat Noir could worry about the rest later.