Chapter Text
Incoming Facetime From: ❤️Adrien❤️
At least, that’s what the phone said. Marinette looked up at Tikki, confused, but the Kwami could only shrug.
”I thought he was getting the homework from Nino,” Marinette said. “Why would he be calling me?”
“Are you going to answer it?” Tikki asked.
“I… I don’t know?” Marinette said. “Maybe he found out about my crush, or maybe—“
Tikki zipped down to the phone, tapping the “accept call” button, then disappearing beneath Marinette’s desk.
”Augh!” Marinette dropped her phone, tried to catch it, and smacked her head against her desk as it slipped through her fingers and landed, face-down, on her floor.
”…Hello? Princess?”
Marinette’s fingers scrabbled for her phone. “Hi it’s not a bad time at all sorry I dropped my phone are you okay did I hurt your face?”
“Is that why my teeth hurt so much?”
Marinette blinked, finally turning her phone around to face the boy she had a crush on. “Wait, no,” she said. “You had wisdom teeth surgery today.”
”Izzat why I can’t feel my face?” he said. He was lying facedown on his bed, his feet up by the headboard, dressed in silk pajamas. His hair was a mess, one that seemed almost familiar somehow.
”I, uh, yes?”
”Oh.”
The two of them stared at each other for a moment, Adrien’s gaze blank and glassy, Marinette’s panicked and searching, before she finally broke the silence. “Did you… get the homework?”
Adrien flopped his hand. “Pshh,” he said. “Superheroes don’t have homework.” He stopped, stuck out his tongue, and tapped his nose. “Cept patrol. But that’s more cause I like it.”
Marinette’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Adrien?”
”What? No, I’m not… Shhh.” He put a finger to his lips. “You aren’t supposed to tell anyone.”
”Don’t tell anyone what?”
”My secret identity,” he said. “Ladybug said no one was supposed to know.”
Ladybug said…? What was he TALKING about?
”She’s so pretty,” Adrien mumbled, wiggling happily against his bedsheets. “Pretty like you, Princess. You’re so pretty.” He tapped his finger against the screen. “So many freckles. How many freckles?”
Had he just called her pretty? She forced down her instinctive need to panic—he was delirious, probably didn’t even know what he was saying. “Adrien, are you okay?”
”Who’s Adrien? I’m Chat Noir,” he said, rolling his head. “Your eyes are so blue…”
Marinette shook her head. “You’re not Chat Noir,” she said. “That’s… that’s not possible.”
”Sure it is, Princess!” he chirped. “I brought you that leaf, remember? Did you like it?”
Marinette gasped. She hadn’t told anyone about that—Chat Noir had dropped by her house a week ago, carrying a leaf in his mouth and presenting it to her like a cat with a freshly dead mouse. He’d seemed so proud of it at the time…
”You’re… you’re Chat Noir!” she stammered. “You’re…”
”That’s what I’ve been saying,” he responded. “It’s your Kitty, Princess.” He scowled. “Why does my face hurt?”
”You got… wisdom tooth… surgery…” Marinette’s kind was racing. Chat had canceled patrol tonight. He NEVER did that.
There was a sound from somewhere offscreen, causing Adrien to jump. “Whoops, sorry, Princess,” Adrien said. “Nathalie’s coming. Gotta go.”
The screen went blank, leaving a very confused Marinette alone with her thoughts and a thoroughly flabbergasted Kwami.