Chapter Text
"Ohhh Marinette!" Chat Noir called through her rounded window. He hung from it, half inside and half out in the setting sun of Paris.
He was drunk.
Marinette rushed to the window. Dragging the Alley Cat™ into her room, she set him on the chaise before he promptly vomited on the pillow.
"Adrien! That's disgusting!" She scolded in a hushed tone. "Why the hell are you drunk?! And then you run around Paris as Chat Noir? Not exactly setting the best example, mister superhero."
Marinette scrambled to scrub the pillow while Chat made himself comfortable. Tikki giggled from her spot on the back of the chaise lounge.
"Ooohhhhh hey Tikkiiiiiii!" Adrien said loudly, rolling onto his back. He reached up to pat her head, stopping when Marinette shushed him harshly.
"Adrien! My parents are downstairs!" She warned in the same tone as before.
Adrien only grunted, curling himself into a ball on her furniture. After the pillow was thoroughly washed out, Marinette threw a worn, wool blanket over him. He played with the loose edge of it before his head went limp, resting on the seat cushion. Marinette turned her head at an angle, trying to catch his eyes. It was too late though, he had already shut them and was on the verge of passing out.
"Adrien, before you go night-night in my room, please explain why you're running around Paris drunk?" Marinette asked, concern and sarcasm both rimming her voice and placed a hand on his blanketed knee.
Words began sliding from his mouth like jelly, most of them unintelligible and slurred.
"Weh I wehnta my fathar an he was alre-ee drunk." He paused, turning his head to stare at the ceiling. Simply talking seemed to be sapping him of energy. "He axed me ta drinb withim an ssso I did."
Seemingly finished with his magical tale of slurred words, a magical beep rang out from his ring. Marinette's eyes widened at the knowledge he must have used his Cataclysm for the transformation to be wearing off. She suppressed a shudder, hoping he had only done minor damage to some wall, and hopefully not hurt somebody.
Swallowing her nerves, she ran her hand over his chest as he continued to stare straight up from her chaise.
"I-I didn't know your dad drank." She said, her wide-eyed gaze being placed past his shoulder onto the back of the couch.
"Me neither." He replied, relatively clear of impediment. Adrien didn't seem sad necessarily so much as accepting it as fact. Marinette supposed part of that might have to do with how Chat smelled like a distillery himself.
"Well, lets get you some water and then I'm taking you back home." Marinette said with a sense of finality.
"Nooooooooo." Chat whined. His protests went unacknowledged though as Marinette went downstairs. A few minutes later, she opened the trap door. Closing it again, a final beeping chimed and a green flash shone through her windows.
A shirtless Adrien replaced the black cat on her couch. He immediately put a hand over his mouth. A knowing and panicked Marinette was far too slow in her dash for the trash bin.
"Dammit Adrien." She grumbled, gathering her supplies again to clean the floor.
"Hey, don't blame him too much." Plagg countered. "I was holding most of the side effects back for you." Plagg himself seemed a little unsteady in his flying. He not-so-gracefully plopped down next to Tikki.
Next to her partner, Tikki giggled. "Look, Adrien's already out like a light!"
Sure enough, Adrien's head lolled back over the arm of the sofa. His unclean mouth hung open and one vomit covered hand hung limply above the floor.
He was anything but the graceful model he normally was.
In the moment, Marinette was vehemently annoyed. She knew though, that an opportunity like this only came once in a lifetime. Seeing her chance, she paused in her cleaning.
*Snap-click*
Adrien managed to wake up the next morning, just barely though. His pounding head was increased by the sunlight pouring through his wall of windows.
Burying his face for what felt like aching hours, he heard Plagg snicker above him.
"Heheheh. Rough night there champ?" He teased.
Adrien only grunted into his pillow.
"You should probably check your phone before trying to pass out again." Plagg said, so nonchalant that Adrien had no choice but to give into curiosity. When he opened the lock screen, a single message showed on his phone.
Sitting up, Adrien noticed a red drink on his desk next to where his phone had been. He picked out the celery stick before sipping the concoction. He was already smiling to himself as he looked closer at the message.
(<3 Mari <3)
Slide for more
And a picture that his blurry eyes couldn't make out.
He opened it up to see. It was himself, surrounded by the pink of Marinette's room. Both a black and a red dot sat on the seat back behind him.
His own position was the epitome of grace. Hair hanging upside down, swampy-brown-green liquid chunks on both his hands and mouth, and legs sprawled out over the chaise, he was all the dream Marinette could ever have wanted.
As if.
He facepalmed himself, dropping the phone into his lap and quickly noticing just how clean his hands were compared to the picture. Marinette went and cleaned him up, vomit and all. He smiled into his palm, thinking of how much he didn't deserve her kindness, but relishing in it regardless.
The picture was...incriminating, to say the least. The fact that he was drunk only being one piece of the puzzle, he knew normal Adrien wouldn't have gotten into her room like that. He vaguely remembered making Plagg transform mid-shower.
That meant...
Oh no.
He checked the picture again, and just as he suspected, the navy blue blanket was sliding down his torso. Adrien's chest was exposed.
Which meant the rest of him had been exposed under that blanket.
This time Adrien planted his face firmly into the mattress, taking mind not to spill his drink. It took Plagg laughing hysterically at the photo, minutes later, to make him finally pick his head up.
He quickly sent a text to Marinette,
A: sorry
A: for everything.
Such as his life, the fact he existed anymore, and the fact his face hadn't burst into flames and killed him from embarrassment yet.
M: nbd, you would've done the same for me. Now get to class, you're 45 minutes late.
Adrien knew that it didn't change the fact that he had fully embarrassed himself, but the fact Marinette was being relaxed (at least over text) comforted him enough to get up and around.
He was walking out to meet his driver when he heard a buzzsaw from his father's study. Daring to see what could've made a noise like that, he cracked the already ajar door open.
To see his father face first on the floor was stunning, to say the least. He was snoring, laying behind the podium-like desk. A smell permeated the room, it was distinctly alcoholic but there was also the smell of something more...sour. Whatever caused that part of the smell must have been hidden in the study somewhere.
The remnants of their revelry were scattered around the room. Quite a few bottles sat around the painting of his mother, the rest were lying around various parts of the floor.
Different liquors, some harder than others, were on their sides, contents either half drank or spilled out on the floor. Two margarita glasses sat at his father's desk, neither of them used for the intended drink and still half full of a God-only-knew-what concoction.
A tiny wine bottle sat, hidden from his father's point of view. The glass had scratch marks, and Adrien's still half-drunk mind couldn't place together the two pieces, even though he knew something was off about it.
Next to his father, a wine glass and a bottle of merlot, the glass that had started it all.
Adrien smiled at the unconscious man, pulling out his phone.
*Snap-click*
He sent it immediately and promptly deleted it, knowing his father would not appreciate a photo like that being on his son's phone. He sent a text along after it.
(Father -_-)
A: That was fun ;3
He sent another text right after.
A: Yes, I deleted the photo.
Satisfied when he heard his father's cellphone chime a second time, he finally left that day. He was groggy, riddled with head pain, and a full hour late for school.
He smiled to himself the entire car ride to school.