Chapter Text
So, Tikki was hovering just in front of him. He had somehow managed to rendezvous with her at Marinette’s balcony without Marinette knowing, and he hadn’t even said a word when she pointed out, “You’re acting weird, Chat Noir.”
For some reason her knowing smile made him feel nervous out of the sudden. “Am I?” he asked just a moment before realizing that his attempt to stay cool was futile as he could feel himself giving her a very unnatural smile.
“I’ve never seen you being this jittery before,” she said with a nod.
“Well, I had some coffee before coming here.” At least that wasn’t a lie, though he wasn’t so sure that she would buy that excuse.
As expected, she just giggled at him. “I know how you like your coffee, and I don’t think that’s enough caffeine to make you feel jittery,” she said. “I assume this has something to do with Marinette, then?”
He gulped. “Yeah. It was that obvious, huh…” he said, looking away while rubbing the back of his head. Tikki and he had been practically inseparable before they found her a holder; she knew him the best. “You know the café I’ve been frequenting lately?”
“Yes, you told me about it before, but what does this have anything to do with her?” Then her eyes lit in realization, “Oh, could it be that you’re thinking about asking her out for some coffee? That would explain why you’re acting so unusually.”
Chat Noir froze. She wasn’t exactly wrong, but it made him realize… He hadn’t even asked Marinette out for a coffee! Why did he think it was okay to suddenly invite her for dinner? He was going too fast! In all fairness, the dinner wasn’t his idea at all (although he went along with it anyway), but he thought there was nothing wrong with it, at least until that very second.
“Suddenly I’m not too sure about this anymore,” he sighed. “Forget I said anything, Tikki.”
“Huh, why? Don’t worry, I’m not going to let a word out if you want it to be a surprise,” she reassured, though he could tell that she was being curiously inquisitive about it.
“Of course I trust you, but… this is just gonna sound stupid,” he mumbled under his breath, but he pulled out the envelope he had been hiding anyway, letting Tikki see it in plain sight. “I got this dinner invitation from the café owner. Well, he said that he made some arrangements with the restaurant someway or another ‘as a small present for Chat Noir and Ladybug’ so I want to pass on the message to her. I’m just not sure how, and that’s why I called you out here. Then you pointed out that I haven't even asked her out for a coffee so… yeah, we can forget about that dinner now.”
“You mean, a dinner at a fancy restaurant? With those mouth-watering desserts? No, we cannot forget about that dinner,” she said without missing a beat. Of course, the idea of getting to taste delightful desserts was enough to cloud her judgment… “I understand where your concern is coming from, though. You don’t want her to get the wrong idea if you suddenly ask her out for dinner. But if that’s the reason, why don’t you just go with the coffee date instead?”
That… should be the obvious solution, but why didn’t that cross his mind? It wasn’t like he had to invite her now. “You’re right. What was I even worried about?” he said. “That said, it’s not like inviting her for a coffee date would be any easier. And this is where I need your wisdom, O Kwami of Creation.”
“On… how to ask her out?” Tikki looked at him, her eyes squinted. “Like I’ve told you before, kwami relationships aren't quite the same as human relationships so my advice might not be as useful for you.”
“But you’ve been around for ages. I’m sure you know a thing or two about dates, at least better than I do,” he said. “Also, you’ve been with Marinette for some time now. Maybe you can give me some hints about what she likes and what she doesn’t, that kind of stuff?”
She looked away, seeming to be racking her brain. “Hmm, we both know that she’s into design and… Oh, you can make it a celebratory treat!”
That sure came out of nowhere. “Celebratory? Did something good happen?”
“Yup! But it’d be better if you hear it from her yourself.”
Thus, on her suggestion, he headed downstairs to find out more about this good news worth celebrating. It might seem like nothing more than a convenient excuse to take her out for a date, but he got genuinely curious about it. Just like usual, he entered her room as a cat and meowed to alert her of his presence. Only after that he jumped down to the floor while turning back into his human form.
“Hey, Marinette,” he greeted her with a smile even though she was facing away from him. She seemed to be busy on her computer browsing for… hats? “I heard from Tikki that you might have something good to tell m—”
“Adrien!”
Startled, he froze on his spot. He was not expecting her to suddenly turn around and shout at him, so he stood there with his tail standing up defensively, only managing to blink in confusion and dumbfoundedly say, “What…?”
“You won’t believe this, Chat Noir!” Marinette proceeded to jump out of her seat and grabbed his hands hard. “I’m going to design a hat for Adrien!”
She looked so happy and that made him happy too, but it didn’t change the fact that he still had no idea what was even going on. He understandably didn’t understand what made designing a hat such a big deal, but she definitely had her own reason to be absolutely thrilled about it, he guessed? “That’s… nice to hear!” he said, if not a bit hesitatingly. “So, what’s the story here? Is there something that makes this hat so special or do you just like designing hats?”
“Come on, you know what makes this hat so special,” she said with a huge smile on her face. However, when he didn’t say anything in return because, no, he didn’t know what made that hat so special, her expression slowly morphed into that of a complete bewilderment. “Don’t tell me you don’t know who Adrien is.”
“Am I… supposed to know?” he answered without much thought, though he immediately regretted saying that. He should’ve worded it more carefully, maybe a bit less ignorant? “I’m sorry, I mean, I have no idea who that is, but—”
“Adrien Agreste!” she cut him off again, this time while shoving a photo into his face. The blond guy in the picture sure looked very familiar… “Him! You sure you’ve never heard of him?”
“If you mean that guy from those perfume ads, of course I do; his face is literally everywhere out there,” he said while raising an eyebrow. Then it dawned on him. “Wait, so he’s like, some sort of celebrity? And you’re gonna make a hat for him?”
“Yes!” she said enthusiastically. “This feels so unbelievable, even more so than the Gabriel contest before! What am I supposed to do now?! Wait, no, I know what I’m supposed to do; I was already in the middle of this! How do I choose what kind of hat I should make, though? Anything would look good on him, it’s kinda hard to decide…”
Chat Noir couldn’t help but smile as he watched her rambling excitedly. She was so adorable… “He must be a pretty cool guy if you’re this excited. So what does he do, anyway? Maybe I can help you think of something that suits him.”
“He models! He acts! He plays the piano, he does fencing, and he speaks multiple languages too. He’s just so talented like that,” she said with a dreamy look on her face.
He had a hard time picturing anything remarkable from that, though. Sure, he seemed to be ‘a pretty cool guy’ alright, but her description was superficial at best. “And this hat is for…?”
Marinette gave him an embarrassed laugh. “Oh, right, I haven’t even told you the full story. Sorry, I’m just way too excited about this,” she said. “I was contacted by someone from the Gabriel brand, she said she saw my work during the competition before, and she told me about this upcoming project she’s working on. This project is specifically for young designers, so I was asked to apply by sending my portfolio and they’d decide if I qualify or not. The decision is up to Gabriel Agreste himself, she said.”
“And you got selected,” he finished for her.
“And I got selected!” she repeated after him, still with that beaming smile. “I just received the news and the project brief earlier, but I actually wasn’t expecting that Adrien is gonna be the model for this project!”
“That could just be anyone. So what’s so special about him, then?” he asked, for some reason he couldn’t understand. Somehow he got a bit of an uneasy feeling when he heard her sounding so increasingly happy about this Adrien guy. Almost like…
“Believe me or not, I actually met him in person,” she began her story. “You would probably assume that he’s just your usual celebrity, entitled son of a world-famous designer, but he’s not like that at all. He’s actually really humble and just… a very kind person.”
He imagined the scene in his head as Marinette narrated that meeting of theirs. She was helping out at her family’s bakery when she overheard a customer talking with her mother at the cashier about a photoshoot nearby. Curious, she excused herself to see it by herself; she wasn’t sure what the photoshoot was about, but there seemed to be more onlookers than the crew members themselves. Maybe there was someone famous on the set?
After watching the set from the sideline, Marinette deduced that it was probably for some fashion ad, and she was awed by the whole process. Stunning models and flashing cameras aside, it was how they changed into so many outfits in so many styles in just a few minutes. There seemed to be some kind of magic at work, where seemingly separate pieces of apparel suddenly turn into a cohesive look when combined together. And they had all sorts of accessories too! While Marinette planned on leaving the bakery just for ten minutes at most, she was so engrossed in watching how it went, half an hour had passed before she knew it.
Then it rained. Not a gentle rain, but a sudden downpour. Everyone scurried for shelter, including Marinette, who took cover at the front of a closed shop nearby. As she was thinking how unfortunate it was for everyone involved in the photoshoot, she heard a quiet but clear voice that almost made her jump in surprise. There was a guy standing not far from her, who gave her a smile when their eyes met. “That was surprising, huh?” he said.
“Yeah,” she answered. He seemed to be around her age, though it didn’t seem like she had seen him around the area. Not a guy from her school, then. “Were you watching the photoshoot too?”
For some reason he gave her a confused look, though there was a glint of amusement in his eyes. “Well, technically, yes. Were you?”
She nodded. “I live nearby. It’s not everyday we get this kind of event happening around here. And you?”
“I’m a model, actually, so I’m just here for work,” he told her.
His rather nonchalant answer caught her off guard. “Wait, you’re a model? So you’re modelling for that photoshoot?” she asked in disbelief. Only then she took a better look at him. Slightly messy blond hair, lush green eyes, sharp features yet soft-looking face, and the fact that he towered over her—okay, he was really good looking, there was no doubt that he was, in fact, a model. “Oh, wow, I really didn’t notice.”
He gave her a soft laugh. “Were you too focused on the outfits? It’s the newest summer casualwear line from Gabriel. Pretty neat, don’t you think?”
They continued to chat under the pouring rain for a while, seeing how they were stuck together anyway. It surprised Marinette how the conversation just flowed so naturally even though he was a complete stranger. Maybe because they were about the same age (he told her that he was homeschooled, though), or maybe because they found their common ground on fashion (somewhat; she was mostly interested in the accessories because she loved doing handicrafts), or maybe he just happened to be a pleasant person to talk to.
At least, until she received a call from her mom…
“I forgot! I’m supposed to be helping out at the bakery!” she told him after picking up the call from her mom. “Oh no, I was gone for too long, I should be getting back… but wait, it’s still raining! What do I do now, I’ll be chewed out! This is a disaster!”
While she was panicking, he handed her an umbrella. “I got this with me,” he said. “You can use it.”
“A-are you sure? Don’t you need to—” Then she stopped in realization. “Wait, you got an umbrella this whole time? Why are you still here?”
“Just in case someone will need it to get across this street,” he playfully told her. “Just kidding, I’m not a clairvoyant, I just happened to grab one before running here. The shoot’s not going anywhere as long as it’s still raining, anyway, you need it more than me,” he reassured her.
“Alright then, thank you so much. Sorry, I really can’t think straight when I’m panicking,” she admitted sheepishly. “Bye, it was nice talking to you.”
He waved his goodbye with a warm smile on his face. “It was nice talking to you too. Be careful on your way back.”
It didn’t occur to her that she didn’t even ask for his name, nor did she give him her name. She didn’t even realize that until she told Alya about it. “Wait, a model? Maybe he’s someone famous! You’re sure you’ve never seen him before? And you didn’t ask for his name?”
“That’s the thing. Somehow I didn’t think it was important at all,” she told Alya. “Blond hair, green eyes… and it was a shoot for the Gabriel brand?”
Alya gasped loudly and dramatically. “No freaking way. Adrien Agreste?”
Judging from Alya’s reaction, he must be a big deal, but Marinette didn’t know how Alya managed to pinpoint it down to one person just from her vague description. “Maybe…?” she said doubtfully while taking out her phone for a quick search. She couldn’t have met someone supposedly well-known just like that, she thought, but her search result proved otherwise. Not knowing his name was one thing, but she certainly didn’t forget what he looked like. “Oh, it’s actually him.”
Knowing that he was actually someone wildly famous (the son of world-renowned Gabriel Agreste and the face of the Gabriel brand himself?!) somehow made Marinette doubt everything about their interaction. She didn’t have the best experience with celebs or the kind, they were often snobbish and entitled, as she sometimes saw in her family’s bakery. Not to mention the likes of Chloé Bourgeois. Maybe it was part of an elaborate prank? Or was it all just an act to show the public how ‘nice’ he was, like a PR stunt?
Marinette spent a considerable amount of time keeping a close eye on Adrien. Not in a literal sense, of course, but she read and saw through every post on his socials, watched all his interviews and shows, got her hands on most media that featured him, and interacted with his fanbase regularly while posing as one of them. It went on for a month or so and she ended up knowing him a lot more than she wanted to, yet she couldn’t prove her suspicions, for better or worse.
No prank videos. No PR stunts. Nothing. As far as the public knew, Adrien never gave his umbrella to a random stranger (which seemed really trivial, but anything could be news if it was about him). It was like, only they know they even met at all.
Only then she could believe that he held a conversation with her and even gave her his umbrella just because he wanted to. She wasn’t even his fan—she didn’t even know him! But he did that anyway, without anyone looking or even knowing. Come think of it, he could actually introduce himself and tell her who he really was, but he didn’t. Maybe he really was just that humble, and also very kind too?
Suddenly her view of him changed once she came to that conclusion. All it took was just that realization for her suspicions to turn into admiration, and it definitely helped that she already had too many materials on her hands so she just could reread and rewatch everything again to—
“Whoa, Chat Noir, watch your tail, you’re gonna knock my stuffs,” Marinette stopped her story to say that, which made him realize that his tail was swishing behind him.
“Oh, sorry, it does that sometimes,” he said while reaching for his tail to hold it by his hand. That cat tail really did a poor job in hiding his emotions! Of course the story really went that way; the bad feeling he had from the beginning was right after all. He tried to keep his cool, though, and went on to casually ask her, “So, you’re a fan of his now?”
“Not just that, I think I’ve found my first love,” she said with a dreamy sigh. She quickly retracted after that, though very unconvincingly, “I-I mean, no, no way I fell in love with someone I only met once, of course not, haha. But maybe… just a teensy crush?”
His eyes followed her movement as she reached over her desk and picked up an umbrella, showing it to him. It was otherwise just a plain black umbrella, if not for the story she just told him. “It hasn’t been that long ago, but a lot has happened. I started to actually learn about fashion design and make my own outfits after that and, well, you know the rest,” she told him. “So, that’s the story. Now you know that I have a bit of a personal reason for being happy about this. Maybe I’ll get the chance to see Adrien in person and thank him for that day again?”
He could hear her raw, heartfelt emotion when she said that. He didn’t know what to make of it, but he felt his stomach churn a bit.
Though before he could dwell on it a little longer, in what seemed to be an epiphany, she suddenly exclaimed, “That’s it, Chat Noir! Black! What do you think of a black hat?”
***
“It seems like my plan didn’t quite work.”
Chat Noir had excused himself from Marinette’s place as it was getting late, yet he found himself staying in her balcony just staring at nothing in particular. He didn’t even notice Tikki coming up to see him, until she pointed out about their aborted plan. “Oh, no, don’t get it wrong, Tikki!” he quickly told her. “If anything, I was the one who didn’t go through with it. It’s just… It wasn’t the right time for that.”
And that was because he found out that Marinette was crushing on another guy! Of course he could just ask her out regardless, but would she appreciate that? Hey, thanks for telling me about the guy you’re crushing on, but let’s go on a date with me instead! He was being a gentleman for considering her feelings here! Forget about the dinner invitation; he couldn’t even ask her out for a coffee date!
Or was that because he was feeling a bit disheartened knowing that she already had her heart on someone else? Maybe it was his fault for assuming that her heart was for him to take, yet silently he tried to reassure himself that he still had his chance. She was crushing on a celebrity, a really well-known one at that; what were the chances anyway? But, still, that really didn’t feel right.
“Are you jealous?”
He let out an undignified screech when he heard Tikki suddenly saying that. “Jealous, you say?” he laughed nervously. “Why would I be jealous of someone who managed to capture Marinette’s heart so effortlessly? And a celebrity model too? He has a clear advantage here, what am I even supposed to do?!”
And to make things worse, there was his face staring at him from that huge billboard just across the street, as if mocking him for the situation he found himself in.
He could feel Tikki’s small paws patting his back in consolation. “Don’t be discouraged, Chat Noir, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance!” she tried to reassure him. “Marinette might be crushing on Adrien right now, but who knows, maybe she’d be head over heels for you in the end.”
“That really feels like asking for too much now, isn’t it,” he said in defeat, heaving a long sigh. “But you’re right Tikki, and it’s not like I can just get rid of my feelings for her.”
It really was a conflicting feeling. The one thing that he was sure of was his unmistakable fondness for Marinette. He could still picture the smile on her face, the red hue of her cheeks, the sparkling blue eyes full of joy and adoration as she told him that story. And yet, he wished that he didn’t need to know the whole thing about Adrien a.k.a. his love rival! Even though that wouldn’t change the fact that she was crushing on another guy, at least he could get his peace of mind. Ignorance is bliss, they say.
Seeing that Marinette’s deck chair was unoccupied, he took it upon himself to relax on it for a little while. All things considered, he still had his partner Ladybug, so even if his romantic endeavor didn’t work out, he still had a completely valid reason to visit her regularly. Yeah, that seemed fair. He might not like that outcome, but it was still better than nothing.
“And I thought my love story would be a smooth sail… But of course, it’s not going to be that easy, huh…”
Tikki gave him a sympathetic smile. “That’s just life, Chat Noir.”