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After a particularly harsh akuma both heroes were exausted.
The villain who was self-proclaimed “Tired-mess” sure lived up to its name. Apparently, it was a college student who got an 'C-' on an assignment they spent almost three whole days writing, with barely any sleep. And obviously, HawkMoth probably didn't have anything else to do but to make things worse for everyone. The akuma itself wasn't that hard to deal with, as it was just lazily floating around Paris. At least that's what Ladybug and Chat Noir thought, until they got hit by the flash the villain aimed at them in a large rooftop.
“Ladybug, Watch out!” Chat shouted while jumping in front of her – as always. But unfortunately, it still hit her, as well as himself.
At first nothing happened, they were both the same as always, same costume, same everything. The akuma probably didn't really care if it hit them or not, because it just flew away to the next street, without any worries whatsoever.
Chat was laying on the rooftop's floor, where he had first jumped to try and protect Ladybug. They were looking at each other with confused eyes, looking for anything that could've been an effect of the attack.
“Strange. I don't think anything happen-a A A-” Ladybug's phrase was suddenly interrupted by a long, tired yawn.
Chat was already with a pun ready to come out, but the only thing that he could manage to do was chuckle quietly and hum. Ladybug extended a hand to help him out of the ground but she couldn't find the strength in her to pull Chat. He was just like a potato sack, laying on the ground and looking at her with hazy eyes.
“I want to sleep.” he said, pouting. “Does that akuma even hurt anybody? We could use a nap.”
“Are you crazy?” She retorted with the most powerful voice she could find, but turns out it sounded just like a little soft whisper. “We can't just leave the city with an akumatized villain just because we're tired… oh. So that's what happened.”
“C'mon Bugaboo. Do you really think we can fight like this? Maybe just a 15 minute break will be the best option.” Chat said with a little smile and open arms, inviting her to lay on the floor with him.
The words came out before she could manage them. “Fine. Just a lil' bit.”
Chat was laying on his stomach, and hummed happily as Ladybug settled down next to him, not quite touching, but still. She must've been uncomfortable since she got up and decided to lay on his back. Her nose was buried in his neck, close enough for him to feel her breathing on his scalp. Her hands were lightly clutching his shoulders and her legs were dangling off his hips. He never felt more comfortable in his whole life, and he was laying on concrete.
He felt her breathing get a steady pace and he was dozing off pretty fast.
The city sounded so peaceful. Maybe this akuma wasn't so bad after all. He was laying on a rooftop right about to take a nap with his lady! Should he thank Hawkmoth or was it too bad?
And then he felt something tugging on his hand. Oh! He was so lucky. Did his Lady wanted to hold his hand while she slept?
Wait a second.
'Her hands are on my shoulder. Both of them.' He thought.
When he opened his eyes, he was facing the akuma, with its cloak dangling all the way to the floor, and the villain was tugging Chat's ring from his hand! How dare he ruin such a perfect moment?
Before Chat realized, he was hissing and trying to scratch the akuma. 'Oh, what a clever thing to do, just act like a cat! You're literally in danger and you're hissing. Way to go Adrien.' he scolded himself internally.
Until he felt something get stuck in his hands and a ripping sound, just to see he had accidentally ripped the akuma's cloak.
Suddenly, the villain was engulfed in normal clothes and was on the floor, looking at a very confused teenage boy and a sleeping girl in his back, as a purple-ish butterfly was flying away.
“Wha- I- Who-” Chat couldn't really understand what he just did. Until he saw a bedsheet laying on the ground, next to a very tired looking young adult.
'So his cloak was actually a bedsheet where the akuma was hiding, and I ripped it. Cool. But i'm still tired. And the akuma is flying away… OOH THE AKUMA IS FLYING AWAY.'
“M'LADY! WAKE UP, CATCH THE AKUMA!” he shouted and felt a very sleepy Ladybug jolt right up from his back and almost trip over her own feet.
He turned as fast as he could so she wouldn't fall on the ground and she fell in his arms. He sat up in a straight position and leaned away from her so he could see if she hurt herself in the process, but instead, he was face-to-face with a very cute, very peaceful, very sleepy Marinette.
He was still a little dazed off, and couldn't contain a grin making its way across his features.
“Hey princess.”
...
Wait, wait.
What.
His eyes widened in shock but his grin did not faltered even a little bit. If it was possible, it grew even bigger.
“PRINCESS!” and before she could say anything he was hugging her as tight as he could manage to. He heard a squeak and realized that maybe even with his dizziness he was still quite strong, so he pulled away just to see a very very red Marinette, with blue wide eyes and an open mouth.
“Cat got your tongue, m'Lady?” he said smugly.
After a few seconds, what seemed like eternity, “Adrien?” she said quietly, lower than a whisper but he still heard.
'Weird. Why would she call me- oh no.' He looked at his bare arms, suddenly without his suit. But how did he de-transformed? He hadn't used cataclysm so he had plenty of time, as well as Ladybug. Why were they both without costumes?
He felt a tingling sensation on his ring finger and got the courage to look at it, just to see his empty hand. Marinette must've felt the same thing as her hands jolted to her earlobes, which were also empty.
She jumped off of him right away and ran straight to were the akuma victim was. She looked ready to fight and get her miraculous back until she saw the guy laying on the rooftop hugging his bedsheet sound asleep, with their miraculouses right by his side. He must've been really tired, so if they managed to get him to a safe place while he was still sleeping he may think it was all just a dream. Marinette grabbed her earrings and tossed Adrien's ring to him, putting them on, relieved at the sight of her kwami again.
“TIKKI! I was worried sick! How come I didn't saw the akuma taking my earrings? OH NO DO YOU THINK HAWKMOTH SAW US? I ALMOST LOST MY MIRACULOUS! OH MY GOD I WAS SO DUMB WHY DID I AGREED TO SLEEP-” she kept rambling, hugging the tiny red blob to her cheek, who was saying assuring words. Adrien found the view adorable, not really paying attention to his own black blob that was also coming to its senses.
“Hey kid! Look, it's pigtail girl! Now you can stop babbling about your terrible love life because of them… or may I say, her.” The black cat-like kwami said and pointed his green glowy eyes to Marinette, emphasizing the word 'her'.
“PLAGG!” Adrien hissed through gritted teeth, turning as red as Ladybu- Marinette's costume.
“Come on Plagg, don't be rude!” the red kwami – Tikki, apparently – scolded, and for the first time ever, Adrien saw Plagg wince and mumble an apology.
“Marinette, listen. You'll have enough time to freak out later, but now there's an evil butterfly flying around Paris and possibly looking for someone to possess! Transform!” Tikki pointed.
“W-We'll talk about… this l-later.” she said turning to Adrien, a little unsure, but the red on her face fading away.
“Whatever the princess says.” Adrien said with a smirk and kissed her knuckles, seeing her turn beet-red all over again. “Now go get the akuma, it's still flying around. Hopefully it didn't possessed anyone else on its way.”
She blinked a couple times, still absorbing all that just happened “y-YES! RIGHT, AKUMA, YES.” she turned away quickly and transformed, jumping to the rooftops across the city to cleanse the butterfly.
It was almost 1am and Marinette hadn't talked to Chat – ADRIEN – about their situation. He seemed pretty calm about it all, but she knew him well enough to see that he was a little jittery.
She was actually relieved it was him. Made things much easier. Who would have thought that Adrien Agreste, teenage fashion model would be Paris's black clad superhero and a pun-loving dork? Oh God, she had been in love with a pun-loving dork. Actually two, that turned out to be just one, but she couldn't tell him that or she never would hear the end of it.
She was on her computer comparing a picture of Chat Noir and Adrien. He really changed when transformed, but not enough that she couldn't see the resemblance. Not only that but he was just as sweet and bold in his civilian form. She was so not sleeping that night.
Chat was wearing that shit-eating smirk on the picture, and Adrien was smiling. But now she could see how his features changed from a really happy one to a fake model-smile.
Minutes later, she heard a persistent tap on her window. Despite knowing what, or better, who it was, she couldn't stop herself from panicking a little. Maybe she thought he was a little disappointed and wouldn't show up to talk at all? Either way, she stood up and climbed the stairs to her loft as silently as possible, opening the hatch just enough to see Chat Noir pacing nervously on her balcony, mumbling to himself and trying different ways to bow.
She suppressed a giggle and opened the hatch with a thud that caught his attention.
“Good evening Princess.” he said with a rehearsed bow.
“I kinda liked that other bow you did there better” she said, pointing to a spot next to the railing. She could see a light pink spiraling its way across his cheeks and couldn't believe that she, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, just made Adrien Agreste blush.
“I- Uhm- well, how much of that you saw?” he asked, rubbing his hand on his neck, a thing that both of his forms did very often. Seriously how come she never noticed?
“Enough, kitty. I saw enough.” she said giggling a little.
An awkward silence fell between both of them. Nobody knew what to say. They were partners for almost a year now, for God's sake, they shouldn't be like this around each other. First and foremost they were friends, and by that thought, Marinette felt very confident.
“So...you, uhm, wanna 'chat'?” She said in a tease.
He looked at her wide-eyed and couldn't bring himself to say anything but the first thing that came to his head.
“I KNEW YOU LIKED PUNS M'LADY!” he said giddily, jumping in place and tail swinging between his legs.
“Don't you even start Chaton.”
“May I come in?” he said, as bold as ever. Puns really were this boy's fuel.
“Okay, but be quiet! Also, we have to sleep, we have school tomorrow morning remember?”
“Okay, okay. Geez, you're as bossy as ever aren't you?” He said leaning a bit too much into her personal space but she was already used to it.
“If you say so, pussycat.” she said and flickered his nose, before climbing down the stairs and entering her room waiting for him to close the hatch. Thankfully, she had already taken off all of Adrien's pictures of her walls, replacing them with a few designs and color patches.
After entering, Adrien de-transformed and sat in her lounge chair, as she invited him to.
She was much more calm around him after realizing that he really was just as dorky as her cat-boy, so the familiarity of it all was really good. After a couple of awkward minutes they had already discussed the main root of their relationship and were already bantering as they always did in costume. Marinette had never seen real genuine smiles on Adrien, and despite the sadness that came with that thought, she was happy that she was the source of his own happiness, and honestly? She would do anything to keep him this happy.
As to Adrien, he never though he could be so blind and not connect the dots – or should he say, spots – to find his Lady, his Princess. The two most amazing, beautiful, fierce and funny girls in his life, that were for sure making a confusion knot on his mind and heart turned out to be the same person. Even with the task of carrying the literal god of bad luck and destruction on his pocket he could never be so lucky as he was now.
They were already exausted by the early events, and after a long time of chatting and teasing (which really amused their kwamis who were obviously-not-so-secretly-listening-to-their-chosen-flirting) they realized that the sun was about to shine.
“Adrien! Put that pillow down, stop hitting me!” Marinette said between cackles.
“You started it! C'mon Bug, don't act like it doesn't matress.”
“Okay, I'm literally shoving you out now. Look! Oh my God, we have to get ready to school! Did we really spend all night talking?”
Adrien was mid-yawn when his stomach made a low rumble. “And yet you've been here starving your cat.” he said with a smirk.
“Kitty, just go home and I'll bring you something to eat at school. I'll probably get there early since I obviously didn't sleep past my alarm… or sleep at all.”
“We are so going to sleep during literature class...” he muttered, rubbing his eyes, and Marinette nodded, yawning.
“I guess time fies when I'm with you, Princess.” Adrien said with a honest smile before transforming and made his way to the loft.
“See you soon” He said, planting a kiss to her cheek, which made both of them beet-red and very surprised. “Uhm.. lack of sleep. Sorry. I have no filter.”
Marinette was still red, but she just laughed and kissed his cheek too, again, surprising them both. “Me neither, minou.”
He smiled and left her room, while chanting his food wishes all the way until she closed the hatch.
“Dork.”
A few minutes later she was all set and wrapping up Adrien's breakfast, as well as two cups of coffee, they would certainly need it.
Her mother was surprised to see Marinette leaving so early to school, also with a paper bag full of pastries.
“Good morning, sweetheart! You're leaving early, that's new.” Sabine said a little suspicious, but mostly surprised.
“Yeah, I couldn't sleep that well tonight, so I'm going to school on time.” She said a little sheepishly.
“Oh… With… two cups of coffee? And pastries? Why don't you just eat here?” Sabine asked with a growing grin, which somehow made Marinette really uncomfortable.
“Uhm, actually, I'm having breakfast with Adrien… to...day.” she stopped mid phrase just to see Sabine spinning and dancing in place.
“YES!” her mother shouted. “Tom! You owe me 15 euros!”
“What?” Marinette asked incredulously.
“Ah, come on Sabine! Why do you always win this stuff?” The big man appeared from apparently nowhere and handed Sabine a few money bills.
“What are you talking about?” Marinette could feel Tikki laughing softly in her purse.
“We were betting on you and Adrien. Since you took off all of his posters we thought that or you made a move on him or you gave up on him. Apparently I WON!” she said turning to Tom as she resumed her victory dance.
“I can't believe you guys. You know what? I gotta go.” She said turning on her heels and started making her way to school, hearing her parents' giggles fade away as she was far enough.
“Marinette?” Tikki asked shyly.
“Can you believe that, Tikki? They were betting on me!” She took a deep breath. “Ugh. Sorry. What is it, Tikki?”
“Can you give me a five euro bill? I kind of owe something to Plagg...”
As Adrien arrived at the school stairs, he was obviously with bags under his eyes and very, very tired, but he couldn't take a grin off of his face.
He had just spent the night with the most gorgeous, most funny, most paw-some girl in the world, and he would be seeing her again in a couple of minutes. His heart was beating fast for whatever reason and he couldn't care less to Plagg's teases since most of them were true, anyway.
He spotted Nino on the staircase, probably waiting for him to arrive.
“Hey du- what happened to you?” Nino said, poking Adrien's face. “You look like a zombie bro. A happy zombie, but still one.”
“I couldn't sleep. That's all.”
“Okay… let's head to class.”
And they did. As they walked in the classroom, Adrien's eyes instantly met Marinette's, and he felt himself smiling again that his cheeks hurt. She was holding two coffees and one of the had a little black paw on the lid.
He made his way to his seat. The classroom was almost empty, after all, they still had like half an hour until the teacher came. There was only Nino, Nathanael sketching in his seat, Ivan with his head down on the table, and the girls of his dreams. Literally.
“Hey Pr-Marinette! Good morning!” he greeted, along with Nino.
She seemed to realize his almost-slip on calling her 'princess' because she just plastered that little confident smirk he had seen oh so many times on her, which made he turn a little pink.
“Hey boys. Adrien, you look tired, what've you been up to?” She said, still smirking.
“Oh nothing. You look pretty 'bugged out' too Marinette. What have you been up to?” He said, leaning into her face as he often did as Chat.
She just rolled her eyes at the pun and pushed him away by his nose with her finger. “Just take it and sit, silly.” She said, pushing the paper bag of pastries and one of the coffee cups towards him.
Adrien winked at her, which much to Nino's surprise didn't make her blush, and took the arranged-breakfast from her table. Nino looked shell-shocked at how she could suddenly say a whole sentence to Adrien and also, was that a devilish grin on Adrien's sweet angel face? Was that even possible?
“I uhm.. will wait for Alya outside. See you guys later.” Nino said, wanting to escape as fast as possible from that weird alternative dimension. That was the only possible explanation.
After eating his food and drinking his coffee, Adrien tuned around just to see Marinette napping on her table. She had also finished her coffee, but as it seemed, just as him, she was still very tired.
He had an idea. A crazy one, for sure, but there were only two people besides them in the classroom, and a very inviting patch of sun near one of the windows.
He let Plagg enter his bag and poked Marinette's purse, assuring Tikki no one was seeing, so she could sneak into his bag as well.
“Hey, Princess.” he whispered, tugging one of her pigtails lightly so she could wake up.
Her head snapped up and he jolted backwards a little but she was awake. He pointed to the patch of sun and made an asking expression to Marinette, which she almost immediately caught on.
“No, no, no. No way, kitty. Are you crazy?”
A sudden feeling of dejà-vu passed through his head and he decided to go along with it, so he just used the same argument.
“C'mon Bugaboo. Do you really think we can study like this? Maybe just a 15 minute break will be the best option.” He smiled at the resemblance of the situation.
“Really? Same argument twice?” She said and he nodded. “...Okay, you got me.” She sighed. “But just because that sun patch looks really nice and there are only two people here besides us. Also… You're… pretty comfortable.”
He couldn't help but giggle, and ran straight to the sun patch. The warm feeling was like a million tiny kisses on his skin, and he loved napping in the sun. Maybe because of cat-like tendencies? Meh. Who cares. His Princess was here to prove that it was really nice.
He was laying down and he felt Marinette lay down in his back, same as the day before. Her breath tingled his neck, and her arms hugged his shoulders. He could feel the sweet scent coming from her head, making him doze off. She was snuggling in his neck and the top of her head was headbutted in his own. They were perfectly comfortable, and he couldn't believe how she made him feel so happy, so excited, so loved.
He relaxed, sprawled on the floor, and felt she do the same. It was all fine, they just had to get up before class started. Or before a lot of people arrived. Ivan and Nathanael didn't seem to mind, so the others shouldn't too.
Long minutes passed and he was sound asleep when he suddenly felt Marinette stiff and sit straight in the floor, and he immediately missed her warmth.
“nOooO...” he groaned, still half-asleep and not caring to open his eyes.
He felt her start to try and get up on her feet, but their legs were intertwined and she was trying to get away. Before she could do it, she felt strong arms pulling her back to the floor.
“Adr-AAAH!”
And then they were properly cuddling.
For some reason, she was still trying to get away from him, but he was too sleepy to be annoyed by it.
“Princess, go back to sleep. I'm tired.” He said. His face was buried in her hair, so his statement came out a little muffled, but he didn't mind. He was in heaven. Her hair smelled like sweets and flowers, and his arms were tied up around her middle. Their legs were still intertwined and he couldn't be happier. He gave her a little peck on the head and went back to snuggle against her.
He heard a few muffled snorts, probably from Plagg and Tikki.
Wait.
Plagg and Tikki were on his bag.
“Um… Adrien?” Marinette said, very softly.
He didn't said anything.
“Adrien Agreste.” She said a little more loudly this time.
“Hmm?” He said, still very sleepy to deal with anything.
“Would you care to wake up and look around?”
“Geez, why so stubborn Princess?”
“ADRIEN JUST OPEN YOUR EYES” she said and he winced a little bit at the tone.
As he opened his eyes he shifted his head due to the sudden light, and with an arm still hugging Marinette he used the other one to rub his eyelids and scratch-off the tiredness.
He propped himself up in one elbow and looked around, just to see…
The whole class. And their teacher. Looking. At. Them.
Everyone was frozen by the sides of the tables surrounding them, and all of their classmates, including Ms. Bustier, were looking at a very angry Marinette and a very sleepy Adrien.
He was propped in one elbow and the other arm was still around Marinette's middle, who was looking at him with so many emotions he couldn't even tell them apart, but anger was definitely there.
“Hey everyone.” He said softly with an innocent smile, not really realizing what was happening and getting back to the floor. After a few seconds his eyes snapped open as wide as possible and he stiffened, sitting up straight. “HEY EVERYONE, FANCY MEETING YOU HERE!”
No one was able to say anything but a very giddy red-headed girl in the corner, tugging Nino's arm (whose eyeballs could easily jump out of its places) and jumping in excitement.
“FANCY MEETING YOU HERE! OH MY GOD, GIRL?! YESTERDAY YOU COULDN'T SAY HI TO HIM WITHOUT TURNING INTO A PUDDLE OF GOO AND NOW YOU BOTH ARE A PUDDLE OF GOO! LITERALLY! OH THE IRONY.” Alya said, too happy to hide her giggles.
“Bro.” Nino took a long breath, trying to come up with words. “...bro.”
There was a snort. “Smooth, dude.” Kim said with a grin.
“I drew you guys. Thanks for the free anatomy observation, though.” Nathanael said, looking a little disappointed but still smiling.
“Way to go, Marinette!” Rose said excitedly, being backed up by Mylène, Juleka and Alix, that helped her once.
“WHAT IN THE WORLD HAVE YOU DONE TO MY ADRIKINS?” Chloé said, taking a step forward but stopping at the sight of a devilish grin on Adrien's face. Seriously, it was terrifying. He should stop.
“Yeah, what did you do to me, Princess?” He said grinning, once again leaning into her space.
“Don't you even start.” she said snapping her fingers in his head softly.
“Meow-ch.”
After a few more seconds of shock at Mari's sassiness and Adrien's flirting, a loud squeal was heard and everyone looked at the source.
Alya took Nino's cap off and smiled as big as she could manage, extending the accessory at arm length.
“PAY UP, LOSERS! MY SHIPS ALWAYS SAIL.” she laughed as everyone groaned and started taking cash out of their pockets and putting it in the hat.
“What? YOU TOO? WHAT IS IT WITH EVERYONE BETTING ON MY LOVE LIFE?”
“Oh, so I am your love life!?” Adrien whisper shouted happily and Alya squealed for the hundredth time in the past 5 minutes.
Marinette didn't even mind to start another banter with him, she was too exasperated to do so.
“Ms. Bustier! Could you please tell them to stop?” Marinette pleaded, and her teacher could only laugh.
“Oh girl.” Her best friend said happily, still receiving money from her classmates. “Who do you think started the bet?” Alya said, high-fiving her teacher, who was bending over from laughter.