Chapter Text
It was a perfectly normal Thursday morning in Paris, the sun was shining brightly despite there being plenty of clouds. The streets where jamming up because of the morning rush, the Dupain-Cheng bakery was already bustling with costumers. Pigeons remind people of their dominance by walking in everybody's way without seeming to care. Tired-eyed people where bumping into each other on the sidewalk leading to a Starbucks, whilst mumbling something about a lack of coffee. Street musicians were unpacking their accordions to start their daily routines. Marinette Dupain-Chen was refusing to listen to her alarm clock, Adrien Agreste was trying to cancel out the sound of his Kwami complaining about improper ripening of cheese and a pulse of cerulean-coloured energy was waving over the city.
Nevermind... it was definitely not a perfectly normal Thursday morning in Paris.
Adrien was preparing to leave for school, checking a last time if all his homework was actually finished, putting his books and tablet in his bag, making sure his lucky charm was still in its usual spot in his pocket, now he just had to wait for Nathalie to confirm today's schedule, so in the meantime he pulled out his phone to check the Ladyblog for any updates, lucky for him Alya had updated just after he went to sleep last night, with a brand new picture of his lady. And he had to admit she had caught her at a good angle, keeping her radiant smiling (perfect) face, facing the camera, perfectly in the top centre of the frame while the rest of her body was still perfectly captured without any blur as she was mid-swing on her jo-jo. If he didn't know any better because of the 'Ladi Wifi' incident, he would have put Alya near the top of his 'possible ladybug's secret identity list' (Not that he was putting much effort into said list, whenever he tried to work on it he just starts daydreaming about him and ladybug dating and lost track of time), because if there was anything he had learned from watching Spiderman movies it was that 'photographers and journalists make for good superheroes'.
"Hey Plagg, what do you think of this picture of Ladybug?" Adrien asked his kwami, who was eating his breakfast cheeses. Only a second too late did Adrien realise that Plagg had a discontent look on his face, one of those looks that indicated that once prompted, he'd start complaining. "Oh no" where the two words that shot through his head before Plagg responded.
"who cares about a single picture of ladybug when cheese could be ruined forever?" Plagg nagged.
Somehow Adrien felt the need to respond, "What are you talking about?".
"Camembert, kid. I'm talking about camembert. They changed the recipe for it." Plagg stated.
"They changed... the recipe?" Adrien said, "Is that even something that can be done?".
"Is that even that can be done!" Plagg shouted "OF COURSE THAT'S SOMETHING THEY CAN DO, ADRIEN, and it's objectively the worst thing anybody has ever attempted to do".
Hoping to end this rant before it could even begin, Adrien reasoned "Plagg, maybe you just had a bad roll of cheese, I doubt they changed the recipe for camembert"
"but what if they did" Plagg responded immediately "Good camembert is ripened for about 2 to 3 weeks in a damp chamber. The one I just had clearly was only ripened for about a week and a half, and it was definitely too dry, what if they stared doing this to all of the camembert, to save on production time or something, Adrien we have got to do something about this, you have GOT to start buying me my camembert from a different brand in protest, or oh no what if they started a trend and everyone stars doing it, don't they understand how important the ripening of the cheese is-"
It was clear Plagg wasn't going to stop any time soon, so Adrien just turned his phone's screen back on, it was 8:03, the device was 98% charged and there was a new notification for the ladyblog.
to see if there was anything else new on the blog that was of note. Trying, desperately not to hear Plagg's waterfall of complaints and baseless paranoia about cheese. The only thing that was interesting where some blurry pictues of ladybug swinging around L’arc de triomphe that were taken last night, which wasn't exactly news to Adrien seeing that he knew they decided that she would patrol in that area on Wednesday night after the last akuma attack that Sunday, Chat noir would patrol the other side of Paris on Friday. Seeing these pictures, Adrien kind of started planning to use his upcoming patrol night as an opportunity to pose for some tourists, or anyone with a camera really. "I mean I've got to show the people of Paris that their heroes are looking out for them, and how to do that better than to show the people clearly that the great Chat Noir is watching out for them even when there are no Akuma around, besides Alya's blog deserves better quality pictures of the heroes than these" He thought to himself.
Adrien usually didn't really care for his modelling work, but for whatever reason he didn't mind smiling and posing for cameras when he is chat noir, he himself couldn't really explain why, it probably had something to do with the fact he could pose and act however he wanted when wearing the mask. "Maybe I'll do a one hand handstand that's something people would like to see" Adrien thought while chuckling to himself.
Suddenly, a wave of faint blue energy washed over Adrien, so faint he didn't really notice it as it was happening. what he did immediately notice however was the immediate aftereffect of the energy a sudden shock electricity he felt coursing through his body, originating from the ring on his finger.
Adrien screamed out, more out of surprise than pain.
"Eugh, plagg, I'm still listening you don't have to-" Adrien started before noticing he didn't actually see Plagg anymore. And maybe more importantly, he didn't hear him anymore.
"Plagg?" Adrien asked, loudly in no particular direction
No response.
"Okay Adrien, don't panic he's probably just annoyed I wasn't paying attention to his cheese rant and hid" the confused boy said, out loud, to himself as he started to walk towards the cheese fridge, Plagg's usual hiding spot.
He opened the door to the fridge but the only thing that greeted him in there was the chilly, cheese scented air.
Adrien sighed, stood up and saw himself in the mirror. And the first thing that popped into his head upon seeing his reflection was: "are those cat ears?"
But out loud all that came out of his he could mutter was "merde".
The second thing that popped into his head while watching his reflection was: "is that a tail sticking out of my trousers?"
All he could say out loud was: "Merde this can't get any worse"
He then heard knocking on his bedroom door and Nathalie's familiar voice coming from the other side "Adrien, your schedule is all set for today and your chauffeur is ready to bring you to school, are you ready?"
Still out loud, the only sounds that Adrien manages to get out of his mouth were: "Merde, this just got worse".
Marinette's Alarm went off. She reluctantly opened her eyes, pulled her herself upwards, looked at the number 8:00 flicker on the scream of her clock, turned off the alarm, lay back down and closed her eyes again.
"Please just give me some peace" she thought, hoping the universe would hear her and grant her the sleep she so desperately needed. But it was not to be, because barely 10 seconds after making her plea she heard Tikki's cute, high pitched voice say "come on Marinette, you have to wake up, or you'll be late for school" right next to her ear. Marinette did nothing for five seconds, then she groaned, also for five seconds.
"Just give me five, no, ten more minutes, Tikki.", Marinette bargained with her kwami.
"Oh Marinette, you're going to be late for sure if I let you do that." Tikki replied.
Marinette, still refusing to open her eyes, rolled on her side, burying herself deeper in her blanket, and said, smugly, "pffffft I can eat breakfast and get to school in 20 minutes, easy.
The kwami looked amused and said in a singsong tone "I have no doubts you can Marinette, but you also need to get dressed, and pack your bag, and brush your teeth, And-"
Marinette cut her off, "Okay, okay fine, fine I'll get up, I'll get up"
"that's good" Tikki said, happily.
"Just give me 3 more minutes, first" the girl replied suddenly.
"Oh, Marinette, I know getting out of bed is hard but I just want to help you give it your all"
"And I'll do that Tikki, but after 3 more minutes of sleep" she mumbled "just wake me up in 3 minutes and I'll literally jump out of bed, okay?"
"Fine" Tikki sighed.
Marinette thought to herself, "This is what I get for offering to do patrol on a weekday, what was I thinki-" But she didn't get to finish her thought because she was already back asleep.
And finally, Marinette had some of those well-deserved Zzzz's
Until suddely A surge of electricity coursed through Marinette's body and she shot up.
"AAAUUW" Marinette screamed out "Tikki! it hasn't even been 3 minutes yet".
Marinette looked to her clock, it was 8:04. She continued, "and what even is your problem today?"
She looked around but her Kwami was nowhere to be seen.
Marinette backed away shuffling herself further away from the edge of her bed, when she felt her back touching the wall she yelped.
She knows the size of her own bed and she should definitely not feel the wall yet. Marinette slowly moved her hand to her back and yep, there was a giant bulge under the backside of her pyjamas. Even more slowly than before she reached her hand down her collar hand and, yep for sure she felt a pair of giant ladybug wings of about 20 centimetres in diameter big coming out of her back right between her shoulder blades.
Marinette's first instinct was to panic.
"What was that?" Nathalie said, still from the other side from the door.
"nothing" Adrien yelped in response. "Give me more 3 minutes to get ready, Natalie" He continued more calmly this time, but don't be mistaken dear reader, he was still very much panicking on the inside.
"Okay, Adrien, but please make sure you're ready by then."
"Of course, Nathalie" Adrien responded. He heard her walk away
Good, Adrien bought himself 3 minutes to have a complete breakdown, about one minute into said breakdown however he thought "I have to find Ladybug, she'll know what to do" leading to the rational conclusion that "being grounded forever for having turned myself into a catboy won't help me ladybug" with his next thought in this line of reasoning being "I have to get to school where I'll be able to sneak out most easily". Now he knew what to do yet, he felt like he was missing a step somewhere. Adrien pulled down his trousers, he didn't know why yet. But then he realised what he was doing, he had to put on some clothes that could better hide the cat features. So, he looked through his closet to find a pair of jeans that weren't slim fit, so he could hide the tail in them, without anyone noticing the giant bulge coming out of his butt. It took him about half a minute but he found something that fit was right, why did he have to own so many slim fit jeans? It was slightly too big for him but that was nothing a belt couldn't fix. His tail was resting next to his left leg, which kind of tickled, although his rising feelings of anxiety over this whole situation kind of overpowered that feeling so he didn't really notice it. The place where his tail began was right under his belt and it made a little bulge on that spot, "now let's hope nobody want to stare at my butt today.", He thought.
He now noticed that his ring was currently coloured black and seemed stuck to be stuck to his finger, "so that's where Plagg went" Adrien realised. But he didn't really have the time to think about that so he just tried to file away that problem for now.
"Okay what's next?" He asked himself. "The ears", the rational part of his mind replied, so he jumped back into the closet and he feverishly started looking for a hoody, but in the distance, he could hear Nathalie's footsteps coming up the stairs, and to his chagrin, he knew he picked up those faint sounds with his cat ears instead of his human one's, he had to hurry. He saw a black hoody and basically dove right into it, only once it was one did he realise it was a black hoody with a big green cat paw print on the middle of the chest. "Okay this isn't ideal but it'll have to do" He heard himself say. "But I can't' have my hood up during class" he suddenly realised. He sprinted into his bathroom, grabbed a bottle of hair-jell and almost emptied it all into his blonde hair. He furiously moved his hands over his scalp trying to make his hair stand up, hoping the hair would cover the ears. it got even messier than when he's chat noir. He was inspecting himself in the mirror to check if he was successful, as Nathalie walked into his room. "Are you ready, Adrien?".
The startled boy almost yelled his reply as he quicker than was inconspicuous pulled up his hood over his head "Yes".
He ran out of his bathroom grabbed his bag and presented himself before his dad's secretary.
Nathalie inspected Adrien with a suspicious look on her face "I didn't know you wanted to try something so different today, Adrien." She said calmly.
"Well yea, I felt like I wanted to change things up a bit, and apparently, according to euhh, my friend Marinette, hoodies and loose trousers are the newest trend in, euhm, Rome..."
Nathalie raised an eyebrow at that, "really?" She said, "according to your designer friend, hoodies and big trousers are the newest fashion item in Rome of all places, in this weather, at this time of year?"
"Yes", said with a (vary much faked) confidence was all he had to offer as a reply to that question.
"Okay, let's go, we don't want to let your chauffeur waiting" Nathalie said, it seemed like she didn't want to waste any more energy on that conversation.
Adrien followed Nathalie, and all he could think was "why do I have the feeling that today is gonna be a long day?".
Marinette Ignored her first instict and went directly to her second more helpful instinct, she tried taking her earrings off, but they seemed to be stuck to her ears, so up to instinct number three "I have to get to master Fu". But then she realised that last time she went there, Fu mentioned something about going out of town to do some research for a while, and she didn't have his phone number for safety reasons, "I doubt he left his copy of the book unguarded, so that isn't an option either" Marinette realised. She was gonna have to figure out something on her own, at least some way to hide the wings Until Fu gets back, she figured. "Okay marinette, you've been in worse situations than this (I think), you can manage this." She said to herself, in order to calm her nerves, "now let's figure out the next steps". "So, I need to get out of here, because if I say I'm sick maman and papa will check on me and notice the wings." Marinette reasoned, "now the next question is whether or not I actually should go to school or not." She figured the answer to that one quickly enough, "yea, that's probably for the best, if I don't show up people will start asking questions, and those are not questions I need to get asked."
Marinette now knew what she had to do, now to just figure out a way to hide the wings. Marinette looked through one of her closets and there it was, the solution to her problem. Her backpack from last schoolyear. She grabbed a pair of scissors and cut a hole in the back. She then did the same to a t-shirt and vest she didn't really like anymore and tried it on, lucky for her the wings are quite bendable and she could fit them through the holes she made in her in everything, but it was very much unpleasant to do so. Okay she was clothed, she quickly threw on her new, old backpack, and it fit around her wings, altough it was quite awkward and uncomfortable.
She quickly cramped as many of her things as she could fit into her purse and noticed that it was already 8:25, "dang I work fast" she said with a content smile on her face only to realise she was going to be late, as she said it.
She almost jumped down her stairs in one go. Gave her parents a quick kiss hoping they wouldn't notice she was wearing her old backpack and bolted for the front door, only to be stopped by Sabine yelling her name
"Marinette!"
"Oh no I'm busted" Marinette thought to herself as she turned around to face her mother.
"Yes, maman?"
"when we realised you weren't coming out of your room till the last second, we decided to pack your breakfast for you to eat on your way to school" Sabine said with a smile but still with a tone that was almost mocking her daughter for her predictable tardiness.
Upon hearing her mom talk about breakfast she realised her stomach was grumbling louder than most Akuma victims could yell, she gently took the paper bag out of her mom's hands and said, "thank you, Maman. I don't know what I would do without you two".
She turned around to start her sprint to school as she heard her dad's voice coming from the back
"Probably starve" He said with clear amusement in his tone of voice
"Very funny, papa" Marinette sarcastically yelled back, as she began her journey.
"Why do I have the feeling today is going to be a very long day" she thought to herself as she stuffed a croissant in her mouth.