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It’s not that he meant to stalk the Parisian rooftops in the middle of the day. He never really means to do it outside of their scheduled patrol hours, but Adrien felt cabin fever from being locked in his bedroom begin to crawl its way up the back of his neck. So, he had snuck out, as he’d done plenty of times in the past, ever grateful for his powers that granted him the ability to do so. He was sure he’d have gone crazy without his suit.
Watching people bustle about the city during a sunny afternoon was hardly exciting, but it was infinitely more entertaining than pacing between the four cramped walls of his room on increasingly restless legs. Adrien sat crouched on a roof, not really trying to hide because people were used to seeing Chat Noir bounce along the chimneys on a daily basis. The intersection below him was busy with both vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Even with his enhanced vision, the people passing by looked almost as small as ants.
One person in particular caught his eye because she looked more like a giant box with legs. Adrien immediately recognized the poor, tiny girl carrying the cake box as Marinette. Who else would try and take more than she could handle and refuse to ask for help even after she realized she was in over her head? Adrien chuckled to himself as he watched her bump into passersby. Even from up high, he heard her stutter out an apology to someone who turned out to only be a street lamp.
It would have been fun to watch her for a while longer, but then Marinette stepped into the crosswalk without looking where she was going. Adrien called it his cat-like reflexes that got him moving a second before he needed to. He swung down to street level on his pole and wrapped an arm around Marinette’s waist. In a flash, they were back on the sidewalk, and a truck sped past them, blaring its horn as it barreled through the intersection.
“I don’t think the customer ordered a road-kill shaped cake,” Adrien said. His pupils dilated back down to normal size after the spark of adrenaline wore off. He didn’t need to think about what a disaster the day could have truly turned into.
“Chat Noir,” Marinette said, sounding winded from behind the cruelly tall and wide box. Adrien took it for her and set it on the ground next to them. She looked flustered at her own clumsiness, Adrien decided after seeing her face for the first time. “I guess I should say thank you for being there when you did.”
“A hero needs no thanks for the job he does every day. Though a kiss of gratitude from a princess would be nice.” He winked, causing Marinette to smile and shake her head at him.
“I’m not that grateful,” she answered with a roll of her eyes.
“I’ll take a raincheck on that, then.” Before Marinette could tell him to stop dreaming, Adrien asked, “Why are you carrying this two ton thing around all by yourself anyway? Don’t your parents have a car for deliveries?”
Marinette rubbed her arm and cast her eyes off to the side. “Well, they do, but the customer called and asked if it could be delivered early. My parents aren’t around to drive, and I can’t drive, but I figured it’s just a couple of blocks and that I could do it myself to make the customer happy. And here we are now.”
“I don’t think the customer--”
Marinette interrupted him with a panicked gasp, hands flying up to her hair. “It’s not squished, is it? Oh no, please tell me it didn’t get ruined…” She mumbled to herself and she bent down to open the top of the box and inspect the cake inside.
Adrien raised an eyebrow and peered over her shoulder. All he could tell from the cake was that it looked delicious, but Marinette seemed to fuss over one small part in the corner that had bumped into the wall of the box during their little stumble.
“The icing is smudged.” Marinette sighed in defeat. Adrien leaned closer to see what she meant, only to find barely a centimeter long of any kind of blemish in the decoration.
“Oh, I’m sure they won’t even notice that tiny detail.”
“It’s ugly.” Marinette’s shoulders slumped.
“I think there’s an easy fix for that,” Adrien said, licking his lips.
“It’s hopeless. The cake is due in ten minutes. There’s no way I could possibly--Chat, don’t you dare!”
But Adrien was already smirking and dipping his gloved finger into the icing on the opposite corner of the cake. He swiped up a small portion of it and stuck his fingers between his lips. When the sugary and creamy taste flooded over his tongue, he hummed in satisfaction.
“Just as sweet as you,” he said after his finger was completely clean.
“Are you actively trying to lose my parents a loyal customer?” Marinette balled her fists at him, and it would have been a little threatening if it didn’t make her look so cute.
“I made both sides match. Now it looks like it’s just part of the decoration.’ Adrien gestured to the cake, and Marinette followed his gaze. Her lack of rebuttal told him she could see it too, and the pout on her lips disappeared. “You can thank me later. Now, about that kiss.”
“Kisses can wait. I have to get this cake delivered.”
“Allow me to offer a paw.”
Together, they carried the cake the remaining block to its destination, with significantly fewer near-death experiences. Before reaching for the doorbell, Adrien perked his ears at Marinette.
“Same time tonight?” he asked.
There was definitely a hint of a blush on her cheeks when she smiled. “You know where to find me.”
With the promise of a date, Adrien rang the doorbell and disappeared before the customer would find him standing there with Marinette.
Well, they were both hesitant to call their meetings actual dates. Adrien didn’t really know what to call them. A tryst or a rendezvous sounded too serious, while just hanging out didn’t feel substantial enough. There had to be a word that described when two friends met in secret in the middle of the night to talk about their hopes or fears or anything at all, usually including shared snacks and sometimes even including curling up together on a lounge chair and looking at the sky. He just didn’t know what that word would be.
Marinette’s balcony became for Adrien what he couldn’t escape from as his civilian self or even as his masked persona. Adrien Agreste and Chat Noir both turned heads on the street. He couldn’t go anywhere without someone asking for an autograph or a picture, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to spend his entire life hiding in his room. So Marinette’s warm and welcoming balcony was the best place to be.
Ever since the first time he found her there, he’d been coming back. That night, she made him feel better about his feelings for Ladybug. More at ease with the way his partner saw him as only a friend. He wished he could have done the same with Marinette and whoever the object of her affections was. But she was hesitant to open up about it, and Adrien didn’t want to pry. The balcony visits became more and more frequent until there were familiar, comfortable, and something Adrien looked forward to all the time. Marinette didn’t care that he was a hero. Marinette didn’t put up pretences around him. She talked to him like he was a real person. She never asked him about his personal life like she knew how important his secret identity was, which was incredibly refreshing.
He still didn’t know what to call them. The long-hand version, he guessed, would be ‘friends who have learned to trust each other unconditionally, flirt on the fly, and cuddle in a way that just felt right’. But that was a bit of a mouthful. As long as Marinette was content with not having to label whatever unspoken relationship this was, he would be too.
When Adrien landed on the railing, Marinette was already sitting under the lights. She hummed to herself, unaware of Adrien behind her, stirring packets of hot cocoa mix into two mugs of warm milk. Adrien paused to smile. When had this started feeling like coming home?
“Don’t you know cats are lactose intolerant?” he whispered when he was right behind her.
“Agh!!” As expected, Marinette screamed and jumped high into the air as if she was electrocuted. Adrien was there to catch her princess-style before she could crash onto the floor. She caught her breath in his arms, then gave him a death glare.
“You’re going to make me wake my parents and half of Paris if you keep doing that,” she grumbled, struggling to get down from his hold.
“I can’t help myself from wanting to see my damsel in distress so worked up.” Adrien gently set her down on her feet, then moved to sit on the single lounge chair.
Marinette sat next to him and handed him one of her two mugs. The heat from the drink warmed his hands, and it smelled and tasted absolutely divine.
“If you don’t stop, you can say goodbye to all the treats I give you,” she threatened. She took a sip of the hot chocolate, then immediately recoiled from the temperature. “Ah, my tongue,” she said, with said appendage sticking out of her mouth.
“See? A damsel in distress, just like I said. Where would you be without me?” All teasing aside, Adrien settled a hand on Marinette’s lower back and rubbed it to soothe whatever fractional amount of pain she was in. Call it an instinct to look out for her.
“Road-kill, to use your words.”
“With you, there’s danger to be had around every corner. I should be by your side every minute of every day, just to make sure you don’t get attacked by a cup of hot tea or something like that.”
Marinette laughed softly. “I don’t think my parents want a house cat.”
“Nonsense. I’ll just stay in your room. They won’t even know I’m there.”
Marinette leaned against Adrien’s embrace, her head tucked under his chin. The next time she went to sip her drink, she blew cool air over the top of it as a precaution. Adrien’s free hand slipped around her waist.
“It might be kind of nice having you around whenever I need you.” The words were as sweet as the hot cocoa, but because she was Marinette, she had to add, “as long as you don’t root around in all my stuff.”
Adrien pretended to be offended before he succumbed to a laugh, knowing she was right to accuse him of such a thing.
“Curiosity and cats, you know how that goes.” He allowed himself a few brief moments of imagining how living with Marinette could be, maybe even seriously considered the possibility of it. Marinette’s room would be better than his because she offered him company and warmth and kind, wise words. Marinette never acted like this around him when he was Adrien. Maybe not everyone needed a mask to wear different personalities, but he couldn’t blame her for that.
It wasn’t like it could work, in reality. There was no way Adrien could keep up his secret identity around Marinette if he lived with her. Some parts of him wanted to tell her because he trusted her as much as he did Ladybug. Other parts of him feared that their connection would end when she saw the face of one of her classmates.
“Can we go in tonight?” Adrien whispered before he could stop himself.
“In what?” Marinette asked, raising her head from where it rested.
“Your room. If that’s okay with you.”
A small frown formed on her lips, and she looked away to consider the question for longer than Adrien thought it prompted. She seemed to be debating something more than just a yes or no answer, but for what reason, Adrien had no clue.
“I-It’s not that I mind,” Marinette started, stumbling slightly, “but I just don’t think it’s a good idea right now.”
Her hand pressed to his chest apologetically, and the look in her eyes had Adrien wishing he knew what was on her mind.
“I’m sorry. That was too presumptuous, wasn’t it?” Of course, asking a teenage girl permission to enter her bedroom was probably too inappropriate, even for their unique relationship. Adrien should have thought a little more before asking that.
“That’s not…” Marinette chewed on her lip as she trailed off, debating something again in her wandering eyes. “Could we go to yours instead?”
“M-Mine?” Adrien searched her face to find some kind of ‘just kidding’ or ‘gotcha’, but they were nowhere to be found beneath her batting eyelashes. “Do you really want to?”
“If that’s okay with you,” Marinette echoed.
Adrien had a lot to consider in the following few seconds. If Marinette saw where he lived, she’d know who he was an instant later. But it was night, it was dark, and if she could keep her eyes closed, they could both pretend their arrangement was a little more normal than it actually was. Adrien was already in love with the idea of having Marinette fill the empty space in the bedroom.
“It’s okay with me,” Adrien confirmed, unable to keep the smile from his face. “I pretty much live alone.” Which wasn’t exactly a lie.
Their half-emptied mugs left on the little table, Adrien stood and offered his hand to Marinette. The second she took it, he lifted her into his arms just like the first time they had met on the roof.
“Hold onto me,” he whispered. “And no peeking.”
He was extra careful holding Marinette as he slipped through his window. When he softly sat her on his bed, he was delighted to see that she still had her eyes sealed shut. Her trust for him really showed in the gesture, and Adrien wanted to make the task a little easier for her.
“Hold your hands out,” he instructed quietly. After rummaging for something soft enough, Adrien found the blue scarf his father had given him and placed it into Marinette’s upturned palms. She ran her thumbs over the fabric.
“It’s soft,” she said with admiration.
“You can wear it around your eyes, just in case.” He scooted to sit behind her on the bed and helped tie it into place. It did the job at blocking everything from her sight. Adrien felt bad for having to hinder her like this, but he knew she knew why it was important.
His hands settled on her shoulders. With the window behind them, there was enough light for him to see the back of her neck. Some kind of impulse had him raising his fingers and slowly pulling the ties from her pigtails. Her short hair covered just barely below her shoulders. Adrien carded his fingers through the strands, wishing he could feel how soft they were without his gloves in the way.
“What’s it like?” Marinette asked, breaking the silence he didn’t even know was there.
“Your hair?”
“Your room, silly.” Marinette giggled.
Adrien settled more comfortably behind her, legs bracketing hers as they dangled over the side of the bed. He rested his chin on her shoulder, and their hands fit together in her lap.
“Just your average boy’s room, I guess.” He didn’t want to give too much away, and mentioning the skate ramp or foosball table or climbing wall might have done it. “I have some video games and music posters. But the best thing in here has to be this giant window. It’s like I can see the whole sky through it.”
“That sounds lovely,” she hummed, leaning back into Adrien. “What kind of music posters?”
“Your favorite,” Adrien answered.
Marinette giggled again as she thought about it. “Jagged Stone. I love him.”
Conversation continued, and they found themselves laying properly on Adrien’s bed. Marinette burrowed her head into Adrien’s chest, and her curled around her with both arms holding her close. She played with his hair and his ears, and he couldn’t help the pur that rumbled in his chest.
Conversation lulled after a while. Adrien didn’t know how long. He thought maybe Marinette had fallen asleep, and as content as he was to let her rest, he knew having to explain to his father why there was a blindfolded girl in his bed would not be fun.
“Marinette,” he called tenderly to see if she was up.
“I wonder what you’re like,” she said quietly. It wasn’t phrased like a question, so Adrien didn’t have to answer. He wasn’t sure what he could possibly say to it.
He turned his head into her hair. It smelled like the pastries she made with her family every day. Against his lips, he could finally feel how soft it was.
“You know me,” he answered above her ear.
Marinette’s fingers lowered from his hair. They smoothed down the line of his jaw, and she felt around blindly until she could run her fingertips over his lips. Even with her eyes covered, Adrien could tell she was thinking about too many things at once. But he still couldn’t tell what thoughts rushed through her mind. He had plenty of his own, too.
“I know I know you, Chat,” Marinette said simply. “I just wonder if I’ve ever seen you in real life.”
The urge to tell her to call him Adrien was never as strong as it was in that moment. Whatever they had been dancing around, they both knew there were other feelings with other people involved. Adrien loved Ladybug. Marinette loved someone else. Ladybug loved someone else. But where Adrien had tried to give Ladybug her space, he found himself drawn closer and closer to Marinette. It wasn’t fair for the girl. He shouldn’t try and pull her away from the boy she loved.
But the thing between them, nameless as it was, felt impossible to ignore. Marinette was a treasure to Chat Noir and to Adrien Agreste. He had no answer for her question, so he responded by pressing his lips to hers in a kiss that hopefully conveyed all the confusion and all the affection he felt in that moment. Marinette answered in turn, lacing her fingers through the hair at the back of his head and holding him there.