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If it wasn’t for the long study sessions getting ready for final exams, Marinette would never have learned Adrien’s secret. Adrien talked in his sleep.
The first time it happened was at Nino’s as they were all laid out on his bed, quizzing each other with examples from their books. At some point Adrien had nodded off. Marinette figured it was the three days in a row of photo shoots. She thought the blond had the right idea, four days in a row of akuma attacks were starting to drain her.
She wondered if it was Nino’s turn to ask a question. He hadn’t said anything in a while and the background music was nice. So much so it was starting to lull her to sleep surrounded by the friends she trusted.
“You’ve cat to be kitten me,” a soft voice muttered.
Marinette’s eyelids opened wide as she looked around the room looking for the source of the voice. Then she heard unintelligible words in the same voice. Looking over she was surprised to see Adrien’s mouth moving. “Been there, done cat.”
Marinette covered her own mouth to keep from snickering. The barest trickle of memory trying to come to the surface, but all her concentration was on the boy who she moved closer to. Even though she found the idea of Adrien talking in his sleep absolutely adorable she worried he might not be sleeping so well if he was talking. “This looks like an un-fur-tunate situation.”
“Adrien,” she called out softly as she shook his shoulder. “Adrien, wake up.”
“Yes my…,” Adrien blinked his eyes a few times before his eyes focused on her face. “Marinette?”
She smiled adoringly at him, much more than she would have let him see if she was more awake herself. “Sorry to wake you, but you were talking in your sleep.”
Adrien yawned, and carefully moved Alya’s arm off his chest so he could sit up. “Thanks. I sometimes do that when I’m overly exhausted I guess.”
“Oh,” Marinette frowned. “I shouldn’t have woken you then!”
Adrien shook his head. “No, no, it’s fine. I probably wasn’t getting a restful sleep anyways?” He looked around the room, at the time on the clock and then at their passed out friends. “I think study session is over. I should probably go home.”
Marinette hated to admit it, but she probably needed to do the same. Carefully they untangled themselves from the pile. Leaving Alya and Nino to sleep a little longer.
Over the next week they rotated houses to study at. They would eat dinner together and stretch out over each other on the floor or a bed as they reviewed. Sometimes, just sometimes, Adrien would fall asleep and usually when he did he would start muttering words.
“I don’t think he likes to admit it,” Nino whispered to Marinette, for a change not having passed out himself. “He’s stressed out. Probably over finals on top of everything else.”
“Don’t stress meout,” Adrien muttered. Marinette gave Nino a look, wondering if Adrien really had heard them. But then he started muttering low again. Nino shrugged as she reached over to wake him up.
When finals were done, and Marinette had finished with the damn akuma (Really she got getting akumatized during finals, but it still made the day extra stressful!) the four of them met up for some fun. They decided on Adrien’s place, because even if it wasn’t the most homey, there were enough games to keep them busy all night.
Who passed out first was hard to judge. They’d all settled down on the couch to watch The Rescuers Down Under and Marinette knew she got passed the failed proposal dinner. After that she couldn’t be sure. What she did know was she heard her name. Or at least one of her nicknames.
“That was a bit close Bugaboo.”
Marinette turned slowly, unsure if she was still dreaming. Somehow, even though she knew she had been sitting between Alya and the arm of the couch, she now had Adrien draped over her. She couldn’t be blamed for letting out a meep.
“Hawkmoth has clawful designs,” sleeping Adrien muttered. “If they weren’t so bad they’d be hissterical.”
Marinette tried to concentrate on breathing. Cat puns were one thing. Sure it seemed odd, but everyone adored Chat Noir. It could have been a type of hero worship or just too much time on the internet. But calling her, okay not her but just saying Bugaboo, and now talking about Hawkmoth’s akuma like her partner had just a few hours ago? That’s more than a coincidence, right?
“Chat Noir?” She whispered, not sure what to do, because surely this was not happening.
“Yes my Lady,” came the response and she wasn’t sure what that meant. Well other than there was no way he wasn't Chat Noir.
It took her a bit of wiggling to climb off the couch and her movement was enough to wake Adrien, who was looking at her in a upside down pose because he was half atop Nino and Alya. Not really unusual for them, but the sleepy confused look was frying her brain. A brain that added the words ‘cute kitty’ to the confusing mix. Then he blinked in an adorable fashion and she meeped again.
“Is everything alright Marinette?” He asked his voice still thick with sleep.
“You pun in your sleep,” she said in an accusing tone. “Cat puns!”
Adrien looked a bit more awake now as he tried to carefully get off their friends, and just ended up rolling off and ending up on the ground in a heap. No no she was not going to think about how he looked when he was flung across a room. Nope!
“Do you not like puns?” Adrien asked with some confusion once he righted himself.
“You don’t use cat puns,” she explained instead. “Just like you don’t call me Bugaboo!”
The color drained from his face. “Marinette it’s just sleep talk,” Adrien tried to hurriedly explain as he got closer to her. “Dreams are just weird things!”
“Not weird enough to make the same remarks about bad fashion of akumas as my partner did.” When did she start pulling at her pigtails?
She could almost see his mind going ‘oh shit oh shit oh shit’ and she couldn’t blame him. It was a lot to take in. “Wait,” he finally said as something settled for him. “You said partner?”
Had she? She couldn’t recall. She was still freaking out and not completely sure this was real. Still she nodded. She wasn’t expecting the shout of glee, nor for him to practically glomp her. He did let go far too quickly for her liking but looked at her with such utter joy she couldn’t help smiling back. “Sorry, sorry, I should probably be taking this more seriously.”
Marinette giggled. “It’s alright kitty. But we really need to talk about your sleeping habits!”
“Finally,” a black blob flew out from the trash can by Adrien’s desk. “I’m so glad this is over!”
“Plagg, this is serious!” Tikki scolded coming out of Marinette’s purse, also by Adrien’s desk.
“Yeah, yeah…” Plagg said, not seeming the least bit concerned.
The kwamis conversation was lost though by their chosen who were still processing the fact that they already knew their partner. They had a lot to discuss. Yet it didn’t seem so daunting at the moment as they grabbed each other’s hands and jumped up and down as they both started recalling to each other all the times they nearly figured it out.
It would be three more minutes before they noticed the other two people on the couch watching the whole thing unfold.