Work Text:
Marinette has a few rules when it comes to her partner.
- Don’t let him take patrols on his own. He’ll fall asleep on a random rooftop somewhere because he likes to stay out until the break of dawn, watching over the city as it sleeps.
- If he calls after midnight, always answer.
- Don’t trust him with gifts. He always goes unnecessarily over the top and spends far too much money for her (or anyone else) to be comfortable with it.
- Don’t put him in charge of food. For the same reason as the gifts, but also because he’ll eat half the food before she shows up.
- Don’t smile at him too much in class. Alya is getting suspicious.
But it turns out that Marinette has to add a new rule to the list:
- Don’t let Alya and Nino plan anything for the four of them.
—«·»—
“Are you sure you can’t come?” Marinette asks, pacing back and forth as Tikki watches her burn circles in the floor from the desk..
“ I really can’t, ” Alya apologizes over the phone. “ We can’t find a sitter this last minute and there’s no way my mom is letting Ella and Etta stay home alone. ”
“Could you bring them?” Marinette tries. “Because I can just bring more food and—”
“ Marinette ,” Alya interrupts gently. “ With this last week of akumas, I don’t think my mom wants even us going to school. A park without adult supervision? No way. ”
Marinette chews on her bottom lip and resists the urge to ask ‘what about superhero supervision?’ Instead, she asks, “Are you sure?”
“ Positive .” Alya sighs. “ I’m sorry, I really wish I could come. But you’ll be with Nino and Adrien, you’ll still have a fun time without me there .”
Yeah, but she needs Alya there so she doesn’t make a complete fool out of herself around Adrien. Nino might know about her massive and slightly embarrassing crush, but he’s no Alya. He probably won’t realize Marinette is about to humiliate herself until it’s too late.
“Okay,” she says after a pause. “We’re going to miss you though.”
Alya scoffs. “ You see me every day, Mar. You’re probably sick of me at this point anyway .”
“Definitely not!” Marinette protests. She drops into her desk chair and starts spinning circles. “What would we do without you?”
“ Probably be at least twenty percent less impulsive ,” Alya jokes. “ My mom is calling me in the kitchen so I have to go, but I’ll call you later for all the deets. ”
Marinette hums in agreement. “I’ll talk to you then. Bye, Al.”
“ Bye! Enjoy yourself! Have fun,” Alya says before hanging up.
Marinette buries her face in her hands and groans.
“It’s going to be okay,” Tikki promises. “You spend plenty of time with Adrien! You’re friends!”
Marinette spins so she’s facing Tikki. “But most of the time we spend together alone is as Ladybug and Chat! That’s like… completely different.”
Tikki gives Marinette a look. “How?”
“It’s just— we—” Marinette gestures randomly with her hands. “It’s not the same! We’re not… I don’t?” She drops her head down on the desk. “I don’t know,” she mumbles, hitting her forehead repeatedly against the desktop. “It’s just not .”
Tikki puts a paw on Marinette’s temple. “Marinette, giving yourself a concussion isn’t the answer to this problem.”
“Are you sure?” she murmurs. “Because if I have a concussion I can’t go—”
“You like Adrien, don’t you?” Tikki asks.
Marinette sits up with a sigh, pushing her bangs back. “You know I do, Tik. That’s the problem.”
“Do you like spending time with him?”
“Of course, but—”
“You’re going,” Tikki says firmly.
Adrien stares at the texts on his phone, his stomach dropping to his feet.
From: cue the beat drop
To: model man
dude im not gonna be able to make it today
i think im dying
ok im not dying
but i do have a fever and am about to take sooo much medication
“You okay there?” Plagg asks from where he’s lounging on top of Adrien’s textbooks.
Adrien nods wordlessly and attempts to seem perfectly calm and collected in his reply.
From: model man
To: cue the beat drop
Oh no!!
Drink lots of water and sleep a lot
From: cue the beat drop
To: model man
lmao thanks mom
i arleady got the skinny from al
sorry i cant make the picnic ://
i know its your only day off for a while
Yeah, Adrien’s about to be left alone with his partner (who he has a not so subtle crush on) and her best friend (who has a habit leaving them to their own devices whenever possible), so this is good. Great.
He can’t blame Nino for getting sick, but there’s a pretty high chance that Adrien is going to embarrass himself multiple times today.
From: model man
To: cue the beat drop
It’s fine, don’t worry about it!
We can Skype later if you want
I’m just worried about making a fool of myself without you there to stop me
From: cue the beat drop
To: model man
uhhh who said i was ever gonna stop you??
nah youll be fine dude
just be your usual charming self
From: model man
To: cue the beat drop
But Mari
From: cue the beat drop
To: model man
is one of your close friends who you like being around
that you just happen to have a crush the size of the eiffel tower on
chill my dude
youll be fine
i have faith
From: model man
To: cue the beat drop
I don’t
From: cue the beat drop
To: model man
excuse me
i am sick
i do not need this kind of negativity in my life
if i wanted pessimism id call up hawkmoth
From: model man
To: cue the beat drop
:(
Ok
From: cue the beat drop
To: model man
yo tell me all the details though
i gotta know what im missing
and youre gonna gush about mari anyway
From: model man
To: cue the beat drop
…
Yeah I’m not even going to argue that
From: cue the beat drop
To: model man
nope
youre not
i can feel the medicin e kicking in
talk to you later
From: model man
To: cue the beat drop
Feel better!
Adrien puts his phone down on his desk and pushes his chair away. “I’m going to die,” he says flatly.
Plagg rolls his eyes. “Okay Monsieur Dramatic. If you’re going to die, can we at least get to the park first? I want cheese and you promised.”
Adrien sighs. “Yes, fine. Cheese then death.”
“Perfect.”
“You’ll be fine, you’ll be fine, you’ll be fine,” Marinette murmurs to herself as she finds the spot they’d picked out in the park earlier that week.
“Breathe, Mari,” Tikki whispers from Marinette’s purse. “It’s all okay. It’s just a picnic with your two friends.”
“Two friends,” Marinette repeats. “Right.” She shades her eyes from the sun and spots Adrien approaching. She raises her hand to wave. ya
“Hey,” he says as he jogs up to her, a bag over his shoulder and another in his hand. “Sorry, I had to grab some extra stuff.”
“Same.” She gestures to the basket on the ground. “Alya has to babysit, so…”
Adrien’s eyes go wide. “Oh, uh…”
Marinette groans. “Please don’t say it.”
He puts his bags down on the blanket and straightens slowly, smiling sheepishly at her. “Nino has a fever and can’t make it.”
She crosses her arms and tilts her head. “Do we really think he’s sick?”
“Uh…” Adrien rubs the back of his head. “I feel like as his friend, I should take his word for it?”
Marinette shakes her head, unable to hold back a smile. “ Chaton , you’re far too sweet. We totally got played.”
“Do you really think—”
“ Alya .”
Adrien winces. “Okay, yeah, we got played.”
“At least we have food?” Marinette suggests.
He considers the picnic basket for a moment before sitting down on the blanket. “That’s true. Might as well enjoy what we’ve got, right?”
Marinette sits down next to him and is just glad they didn’t have to discuss why they got played. Marinette has to calm down with her pining. If Alya and Nino are scheming, then Marinette is in trouble. Because eventually that means an Alya and Nino intervention. And she really doesn’t want to go through that again.
(“Just ask him out!” Alya had insisted. “You barely ever stutter around him anymore!”
“Until I try to ask him out ,” Marinette had said pointedly.
Nino had just shaken his head. “Dude, you just have to do it.)
“So…” Marinette drawls as she starts pulling out food. “How was your day?”
Adrien gives her a weird look and unzips one of his bags. “Uh…fine. After school I just went home and did some homework. And now I’m here. You?”
“Take out the homework and I did the exact same thing.”
Adrien forces a laugh. “Wow we are…really good at small talk.”
“We never need small talk,” Marinette points out. She fiddles with the cups before handing one to Adrien. “We always have something else to talk about. I don’t think we’ve ever had to talk about the weather.”
Adrien raises an eyebrow and takes the cup from her. “Stormy Weather.”
She shakes her head and pours herself a drink. “Doesn’t count.”
“Why not?”
“Because that was work related.”
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” Adrien says sagely.
“Consider this,” she suggests, “less puns and more work.”
He scoffs. “That’s an awful idea. Someone has to be the comic relief, and it just so happens that I get to double being that and a superhero. Comic relief and dashing superhero, what more could you ask for?”
Literally nothing , Marinette thinks to herself as she passes Adrien the bottle. Or tries to. Because instead, she knocks over her own cup, and spills her drink all over him.
Adrien jerks back and Marinette slaps her hands over her mouth. They stare at his wet shirt for a long moment before they make eye contact.
Marinette drops her hands and starts apologizing in an attempt to not die from mortification. “Oh my god I’m so sorry—”
“It’s fine! It’s just—”
“I really didn’t mean to I’m just—”
“It’s only a shirt it’s nothing—”
“Literally the clumsiest person ever and—”
Crash!
A loud crash on the other side of the park interrupts their rambling. Both Marinette and Adrien jump to their feet.
“Do you think—?” she asks nervously, wringing her hands. She swallows her embarrassment the best she can. If she has to be Ladybug right now, she can’t die from shame. Unfortunate.
“God I hope it’s not,” Adrien grumbles. He takes the bottom of his shirt in his hands and wrings it out over the grass. “I haven’t eaten since lunch and I’m kind of starving.”
Marinette gets enough confidence back to lightly elbow him in the ribs before she goes off to find the source of the noise.
“Don’t be an akuma,” Adrien whispers, a few steps behind her.
She sighs when she spots a knocked over trash bin. That has to be it. “It’s nothing,” she says. “I’m just glad trash didn’t go everywhere.”
With a grunt, Marinette pulls the metal trash bin upright.
“Heavier than expected?” Adrien asks, head cocked and lips curled up in a taunting smile.
She sticks her tongue out at him. “I don’t see you lifting trash cans.”
Adrien flexes his arm. “Don’t need to prove anything when you’ve got guns like these.”
Marinette rolls her eyes. “I forgot that I hate you.”
He just shrugs and makes his way back to their briefly abandoned picnic. Marinette trails behind him. He’s clearly not mad about her spilling a drink all over him, but she still feels bad about it and would like to not be reminded of it.
She’s not sure how he’s moved on so quickly while she still feels like she’s dying.
Adrien drops down on the blanket and opens a bag of chips. “If you hated me,” he says after a handful, “you wouldn’t spend so much time with me.”
“You say that like I had a choice in the matter,” she teases, trying not to sound as nervous and awkward as she feels. “Besides, I thought we’d moved on from this.”
“Never, because I know you love me.”
Marinette ducks her head and pretends she’s busy with a sandwich, because she can feel herself blushing bright red. “That’s so not true.”
There’s another crash, this one significantly louder than the last. Marinette looks up with a jolt when car alarms start going off.
Adrien sighs and lowers his sandwich. “We just can’t catch a break.”
“This one’s definitely an akuma,” Marinette says, reaching for her purse as she hears people scream. She freezes when her hand touches blanket. She twists toward the picnic basket, pushing stuff aside and opening the basket. It was right there. She swears she put it there—
“Uh…my schoolbag is gone.”
Marinette meets his eyes. Plagg.
She swallows thickly. “I have some bad news.”
Adrien swears under his breath. “Okay, um, let’s just—” His eyes go wide and he reaches out and grabs Marinette’s hand, dragging them both to their feet. “Maybe if we don’t move it won’t see us,” he hisses.
“It’s an akuma not a dinosaur,” she hisses back.
The akuma has one of Hawmoth’s ghastly bright color palettes, and Marinette can’t exactly figure out what they’re supposed to be. Adrien seems to be equally confused.
When the akuma narrows their eyes at them and floats closer — because of course the akuma can fly because nothing can ever be easy — Adrien clears his throat.
“So, uh…why were you akumatized?” he asks.
Marinette and the akuma stare at him.
“Oh my god.” Marinette hits his arm. “You can't just ask someone why they're akumatized!”
The akuma snarls and shoots at them. Marinette yanks Adrien to the ground and pulls them under the akuma.
“Run!” she shouts, leaping to her feet. She takes off as fast as the shoes she’s wearing will let her, heading toward a cluster of trees with Adrien hot on her trail.
Marinette skids to a stop and slams her back against a tree, panting.
Adrien bends over, resting his hands on his knees. “Where can they be?” he wheezes.
She peers out from behind the tree. “Do you think we lost the akuma?”
He shakes his head. “Even if we did, it’s not for long. We need to find Tikki and Plagg and transform, or we’re in serious trouble.”
Marinette sinks to the ground and pulls off her shoes and throws them a few feet away. She loves the shoes, but if she has to run like that again, that is so not happening. “We’re already in serious trouble. Paris needs Ladybug and Chat Noir and we’re—”
“A mess,” Adrien finishes. “Many, many things have gone wrong today.”
Marinette groans and leans her head back against the tree. “I am so sorry about your shirt. I just— I’m a disaster.”
He laughs. “It’s fine, I promise. It’s incredibly low ranking on unfortunate things that have happened today. Don’t worry about it. Let’s worry about the actual important stuff, like missing kwami.”
“Do you think we can be Ladybug and Chat without kwami?” Marinette muses. “Like as a last resort?” She winces as she hears the destruction the akuma is causing.
“What?” Adrien asks. “Slap on a mask and hope for the best?”
She nods.
“Well our chances of dying increase greatly, but I can’t see a reason not to try.” He gets to his feet and offers Marinette his hand.
She takes it and lets him pull her to her feet. “Barefoot bugaboo,” she says with a crooked smile.
“Tailored tomcat,” Adrien says with a smirk, gesturing to his clothes.
Marinette holds up her fist for him to bump. “To trying our best?”
He shrugs and bumps it. “To trying our best.”
“Nope!” someone shouts. Alya tumbles out of a bush, twigs in her hair and eyes wide. She shoves a bag into Adrien’s hands. “There’s not going to be any dying today.”
Adrien and Marinette stare at the bag. “Um…”
Nino stands slowly from the bushes Alya fell out of. He raises an awkward hand and holds out Marinette’s purse. “You might, uh, want this?”
Marinette hesitates before taking it. “Thank you?”
Her and Adrien exchange a look.
Marinette puts a hand on her hip. “I told you they played us!”
“I’m sorry for having faith in our friends!” Adrien protests.
Tikki bursts out of Marinette’s purse. “Akuma!”
Marinette drops the purse in surprise as Alya shrieks and Nino stumbles backwards, almost falling back into the bushes.
Adrien glances over his shoulder. “Yeah, that’s definitely something we should do.” He unzips his bag and a very unhappy Plagg floats up. “Cheese later,” Adrien says quickly. “Akuma now.”
“You’re going to owe me so much cheese,” Plagg grumbles.
Adrien shrugs. “Whatever. Plagg, claws out!”
Marinette shields her eyes as Adrien transforms in a flash of green light.
Alya and Nino stare at Chat in shock, like the information that they’d overheard hadn’t actually processed until they actually saw Adrien become Chat.
Chat stretches out his arms. “You going to transform, LB, or am I on my own?”
Marinette blinks. “Do you want to?” she teases.
Alya shakes herself out of her daze. “Flirt later, save Paris now!” She pulls out her phone.
Nino covers the camera of her phone. ‘After you’re done,’ he mouths to Marinette.
She smiles gratefully. “Tikki, spots on!”
When the pink light fades, Nino drops his hand and Ladybug has no doubt that Alya is already recording.
“Let’s get this over with,” Chat says. “After all we’ve been through, I think we really deserve this picnic.”
Once they’re transformed, the akuma isn’t actually that hard to defeat. It’s definitely not the hardest akuma they’ve ever encountered, and they cleanse it a lot faster than they usually would. Honestly, Chat chalks most of it up to being absolutely starving. There’s nothing you can’t do when determined and on an empty stomach. If you’re hungry and something’s standing between you and a meal, that something is either getting out of the way or you’re going over it.
They detransform near a store and buy Adrien a new, drier, and cleaner shirt. Marinette tries to pay, but he won’t let her. It’s really not a big deal, it’s just a shirt. He’s had worse accidents backstage before, a spilled drink is probably one the least consequential fashion disasters he’s ever had. Marinette tries to slip money into Adrien’s pocket, but he puts it right back into her purse when she isn’t looking.
She apologizes a few more times too. Adrien accepts the apologies, but he also keeps insisting that it’s fine. He’s just not sure how to convince her yet.
When Marinette and Adrien get back to the park, with their kwamis, they double and triple checked when they left the store, Alya and Nino are sitting on the blanket eating.
“Starting without us,” Marinette asks as she sits down next to Nino. She steals one of his chips.
“Kind of rude,” Adrien points out. “Since we set this all up and you lied to us.”
Alya gives him an offended look. “ We lied?” She shakes her head. “You know what, we can have this conversation later. I’d be mad at you for not telling us earlier, but honestly I’m just in shock right now and need some time to process. Sit down and eat.” She pats the blanket next to her.
Adrien sits down and finally gets to take a bite of his sandwich.
“We’re having such a long talk about this,” Nino says. “Like, dude, I have so many questions.”
Marinette raises her eyebrows. “Do you? Or is that the fever talking?”
Nino pulls his hat down over his eyes. “Listen, it was Alya’s idea.”
Adrien looks to Alya, expecting her to roll her eyes and say she’s not entirely to blame, but she just shrugs and says, “I’m not ashamed.”
“Also?” Nino pulls a speaker out of his bag. “I brought tunes. I should be immediately forgiven.”
“Let me look through the playlists?” Marinette asks. “Then we can see about forgiveness.”
Nino hands her his phone to scroll through as he sets up the speaker.
Alya bumps her shoulder against Adrien’s. “Wow, you two are even worse than I thought,” she mutters to him.
“What do you mean?” he whispers back.
She gives him a look. “You’re really just going to pine at each other?”
Adrien feels his face go hot.
“I mean you’re Ladybug and Chat Noir ! You have more chemistry than a science textbook.”
Adrien looks over to Marinette, who’s bent over Nino’s phone, going through playlists as Nino gives commentary over her shoulder. His expression goes soft.
Alya scoffs. “You’re ridiculous.”
Nino snorts and leans away. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Adrien murmurs to Alya. “But I’m okay with being ridiculous for a little while longer.” For now, just being with Marinette is enough. And that’s really really sappy, but it’s been a long day. For now, he’s going to enjoy their time as friends with their friends.
Marinette laughs as she starts playing a song.
Alya groans and flops onto her back. “ Mari —”
Marinette smiles and looks to Adrien eyes twinkling as she shrugs apologetically. “I kind of forgot this was an actual song.”