Chapter Text
Adrien watched Marinette’s head bob ever so slightly, only for her to snap back up and continue watching the show. The teens had gathered on the couch to marathon Gravity Falls until its grand finale(Adrien shed unashamed tears as the cast wished Dipper and Mabel goodbye, Marinette hugging him in consolation), and Nino and Alya had already passed out in each other’s arms. Adrien was doing his best to stay awake, but as the Steven Universe theme song played for the 15th time, he knew he and Marinette were ready to knock out. He sighed and grabbed the remote from Marinette’s hand, and turned off the TV.
“Wha-Don’t you wanna watch?” Marinette whispered sleepily. Adrien nodded.
“Of course, but you look like you’re about to pass out. I don’t want to keep you up too late.”
Marinette laughed, whipping out her phone and checking the time. She smiled and showed him the screen, which read “2:08 a.m.” on a wallpaper of the different types of stitches.
"It's too late for that."
Adrien sucked in a breath and shook his head. “Yeah. We’re going to sleep.”
Marinette rolled her eyes but complied, getting up from the couch to grab two pillows from the floor.
“Uh, you can sleep on the other side of the couch, and I’ll take a pillow and sleep with the blanket on the floor, okay Adr-?”
“You know I won’t let you do that.”
Marinette huffed and put her hands on her hips in defiance. Adrien smiled warmly at her, seeing the Ladybug in her rise out as she defended herself.
“I’ll survive a night on the floor, Adrien. You’re my guest, and I refuse to let you sleep on the floor.”
Adrien opened his mouth to argue, but stopped himself. He sat on the couch in resignation.
“Well, can I at least talk to you for a bit before we go to sleep?” He asked quietly. Marinette’s eyes widened, and he could’ve sworn she was blushing, but it was too dark without the TV on to tell.
“U-uh, sure. Lemme bring the blanket first.”
Marinette walked upstairs in a quiet hurry, and Adrien sat alone with his thoughts.
Marinette opened her door room quietly, and found the strangest sight she’d never thought she would see; Tikki and another strange kwami, peacefully asleep next to each other on her pillow.
“Oh, it’s Adrien’s kwami.” Marinette thought, and she smiled at the little twitch Tikki gave in her sleep, probably from Marinette’s presence in the room. She quickly went to her closet and grabbed a spare blanket, and tiptoed out of the room.
Creeping down the stairs, Marinette watched as Adrien lay his head at the top of the couch, eyes closed and a peaceful smile on his face. Her chest flooded with warmth at the sight of his smile. If there was only one thing she could ask for, out of everything in this world, it was for Adrien’s eternal happiness so he could keep on smiling like that.
“Who knows; one day those smiles might be meant for me.” Marinette thought to herself, and a small smile creeped onto her face as she continued to slowly make her way down.
Adrien was smiling because of Marinette. He was in her house, because she wanted him to be. Marinette, his partner against crime, and best friend, made his life shine whenever his home life made it gray. She had always been his sunshine, even when he didn’t know it was her behind the mask. And so he smiled.
“Adrien? Are you asleep?” Marinette whispered softly, and Adrien’s eyes fluttered open.
“Oh, yes. I was just resting my eyes, sorry about that.”
Marinette waved him off and sat next to him, freezing as she landed a bit too close to Adrien, and her arm rubbed against his. She didn’t want to move, but she figured he would immediately adjust to her miscalculation. But Adrien was still. He simply took the blanket and extended it out across their laps, and leaned back against the couch.
“So, what’d you want to talk about, chaton?” Marinette whispered, hoping the nickname would give her some of the Ladybug confidence she needed as she leaned back.
Adrien smiled at the nickname and shrugged. “About everything, I guess. This week, today, your designs…..you.”
Marinette blushed, and she tugged the blanket up to her chin, snuggling underneath.
“Well, where do you want to start?” She asked him. Adrien turned to her, and they both drew in a simultaneous, barely audible gasp.
Marinette’s gentle eyes glittered like the ocean, the faint moonlight from her living room windows making her eyes magically glow. Her hair, slightly mussed from shifting around, fell in pitch-black strands all around her face, caressing her cheeks ever so slightly.
Adrien sat frozen, his eyes widening, and Marinette saw his eyes glint in the dim light, like the purest of emeralds were embedded into his irises. His soft, blonde hair somehow managed to remain perfect as he leaned against the couch cushions, and Marinette exhaled, forgetting to breath for a little too long.
“I think we should talk about today first.” Adrien said quietly, interrupting the moment. Marinette nodded her head in agreement.
“Sure. Well, let's see... Uh, if I’m going to be honest here, you were the very last person I suspected of being Chat Noir.”
Adrien laughed softly. “Yeah, I wouldn’t have guessed either, if I was in your shoes.”
“Did you ever suspect it was me? As Ladybug, I mean." Marinette ventured, bracing herself for the obvious answer she was expecting: No. Why would he, anyways, if he barely said hello whenever they met until they actually started to bond this week?
“I don’t think I suspected but more….” Adrien trailed off, seeming to search for the perfect word.
“Hoped.” He finally finished.
Marinette looked at him in surprise.
“H-hoped?” She asked nervously. He rubbed the back of his neck in slight embarrassment.
“I’ve….never been one to be afraid of showing Ladybug how I felt, though I wasn’t sure if she- you just took it as me being a flirt. I started to get to know you this week, and I started to realize that this whole time, me being flustered whenever I touched you by accident, trying to see what you thought of Chat Noir when I saved-”
He paused and smirked at Marinette, who just rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, yeah. What was I supposed to do if the Evillustrator needed Marinette? But go on, Adrien. I’m listening.” She said with a smile. Adrien smiled back graciously, though a hint of smugness was still left behind.
“Anyways, I had always thought of Marinette as someone…..to be careful around.” He said slowly, hoping she would press him to explain.
Marinette’s eyebrows furrowed, failing to hide her disappointment.
“Wh-Why? Was it because I kept being stupid around you, or because I kept falling-”
“No, no, nothing like that, Mari. I just…..I believed that my heart fully belonged to Ladybug, and that no one to change that. You were someone that I had to be careful around because I-I was scared of falling in love with you, too.” He said quietly.
Marinette’s eyes grew wide, and Adrien chuckled softly.
“Turns out I had already done that, no matter how I look at it, huh? In love with the same person who rejects me for my flirting, and who can’t seem to stand me for more than two seconds before running off.” He said wistfully, looking out of the living room windows to avoid Marinette’s stare. The two stayed in silence for what seemed like an eternity, the faint hustle of cars through the streets of Paris floating around the house.
“I felt the same about Chat Noir, you know.”
Adrien turned to Marinette in surprise. She was looking down at her hands, which she was wringing nervously.
“I-I always pushed forward, using the akumas as an excuse, but it was just because I knew if I let him-If I let you, then I’d just have another problem on my hands. I didn’t want to hurt anyone else, and besides, I was already head over heels w-with,” Marinette stuttered, and she sighed, closed her eyes, and whispered.
“With you. With Adrien.”
Adrien’s voice caught in his throat, eyes burning with the threat of tears. This was all just the craziest love square in history. His Lady was the same girl who he was scared to let himself love, but who would reject him as a hero for fear of losing him as a normal person. And he knew it wasn’t the kind of love every other girl so called had for him. She wanted nothing to do with him when they had first met, that bad first impression keeping her from getting to know him more. But after Nino had convinced him to just be honest, to apologize for this misunderstanding, she had changed her mind; she changed her mind after he showed his true self to her.
“W-With me?” Adrien repeated, completely dumbfounded by her confession.
“I’m sorry, you’re probably disappointed.” Marinette said weakly, beginning to feel subconscious under Adrien’s blank stares. Adrien blinked, and the tears he was holding back rolled down his cheeks one by one. And yet he did not move.
“Adrien, please don’t cry!” Marinette whispered harshly, and Adrien felt her arms wrap around him in a tight hug, her rubbing circles in his back soothingly.
“Shh, don’t cry, I’m sorry. D-don’t feel bad if you take back what you said before.”
“Take back?” He croaked out finally. “You make me the happiest person alive whenever you’re around, as Ladybug and Marinette. I’ll never take it back.”
He pulled back and cupped her face, wiping his tears away as he stared at her with gentle determination.
“I never got to tell Ladybug I loved her, but now that I’ve fallen in love with this part of you, too, this will be so much better.”
Marinette’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
Adrien grinned, and Marinette’s body rushed with heat, as if his eyes filled her with pure magic every time he smiled for her.
“Je t’aime.”
Marinette was absolutely paralyzed. Those words absolutely did not want to compute. She simply stared at him blankly, her mind struggling to process his words as it melted into a useless pile of mush.
“Je t’aime, mon cher, and I always will, for all of you.” Adrien continued, pushing forward as Marinette sat gaping at him. He let go of her face, too heated in his confession not to be expressive with his hands.
“I’ve been in love with you from the very start, Mari. I made a vow that I would love you, no matter who you were under that mask, because I knew that she would the one I truly loved. And it turns out I already loved you in the first place. How lucky, right, ma coccinelle?”
She snapped back to reality as he mentioned luck.
“Oui.” She whispered, a small smile lighting up her face. “How lucky, mon petit chaton.”
Marinette felt the butterflies in her stomach flutter into a frenzy, fueling her with stupid impulse-acting adrenaline, and she gently placed her hand on Adrien’s cheek, shut her eyes, and hoped her lips would meet his in a sweet stroke of good luck. But this is Marinette we’re talking about. When would that ever happen for her?
Her lips met a small curve, and she instantly knew she had aimed too high and kissed his nose instead. The kiss she planted was soft and quick, and she pulled back, her eyes snapping open to find a very surprised, completely flushed Adrien. All of her courage left her, and dread sank into the pits of her stomach.
“Oh, sorry! I was-I just-I thought-”
“Can I kiss you, Marinette?”
Marinette’s words trailed off, and her head seemed to nod on its own, admittedly a little more vigorously than she would have liked. Thankfully though, Adrien was not deterred, and as he leaned towards Marinette’s face, her beautiful blue eyes fluttering closed as their lips met, all coherent thoughts were tossed out the window, his sense focused on Marinette, and Marinette only. She melted into the kiss, becoming absolute putty in his embrace, and as he broke apart the first time out of fear of holding it for too long, Marinette had instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and crashed her lips onto his once again. Adrien chuckled, the laugh reverberating in his chest, and returned the kiss with just as much fervor. The two spent the rest of the hour testing the boundaries, learning the limits, and after so much discovery, fell asleep right on each other, a sleeping Adrien clutching onto a sleeping Marinette as if he were her lifeline.