Chapter Text
“The key component of any surprise party,” Nino says, idly tapping on the open math textbook with his pen, “is that the person the party is for isn’t expecting one.”
Adrien nods. He’s only sort of paying attention, a little focused on his chem homework. This reduction equation is ridiculous.
“The problem is,” Nino continues, “that the key element of a surprise birthday party is that the birthday boy thinks everyone’s forgotten his birthday.”
Adrien stiffens a bit at his words. Memories of every lonely birthday flash through his mind, every year that his parents forgot, and he barely manages to suppress a shudder at the thought. He doesn’t want to say anything, but... that sounds hellish.
“See!” Nino says, pointing his pen, before sheepishly sinking into himself as he remembers that they are in the library and he should probably not be yelling. “I knew that would be a thing for you. What with...” He coughs a bit into his hand, then purses his lips, pretending to blow bubbles through his fingers.
Adrien snorts.
“So I just, you know,” Nino says, turning back to his book, “wanted to make sure you knew.”
“Knew what?” Adrien says. Oh! Hang on, that should be three hydrogen ions, not four. Electron there...
“Nobody forgot your birthday next week,” Nino says, scratching out a few extra data points on the quadratic chart he’s making. “Marinette’s planning a surprise party for you, and she swore everyone else to secrecy.”
Adrien’s breath catches in his chest—his classmates are planning a party? For him? His chemistry homework starts to blur as he feels tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. I’m getting a birthday party! the Chat Noir voice inside his head shrieks with delight. Adrien forces it down. Library. No squeeing.
Then something else Nino said processes, and Adrien squints. “Back up,” he says. “Marinette?”
Nino tilts his head. “Yeah?”
“Marinette is planning a birthday party. For me.”
Nino looks up at him, one eyebrow raised. “Yep.”
“What the hell?” Adrien hisses.
Nino’s eyes narrow. “Why is that... surprising?” he says, setting aside his pencil. “She always goes overboard for her friends, dude. You know that.”
Adrien snorts. “We are talking about the same Marinette who was the only person in our class who didn’t show up to my birthday party last year?” he says. He feels a twang of guilt as Nino winces at the mention of the party, but honestly Adrien has made no secret of the fact that he’s kind of grateful to the Bubbler anyway. “The same Marinette who can barely stand to be in the same room as me. And don't think I didn’t notice that she was the only person who didn’t give me a present.” He stares down at his chem homework, trying not to fiddle with his pencil. “I mean, not that I care about the presents really? But—”
Nino groans and collapses, slamming his forehead into the table. “I knew that would backfire,” he mumbles. “I told them.”
Adrien furrows his brow, scrapes his teeth over the edge of his lip. ”You’re confusing me, bro,” he says. “Backfire?”
”The scarf,” Nino groans, not lifting his head. “The blue one. Nette forgot to sign it.”
Adrien’s pencil skitters across the des, thumping to rest against Nino’s math book. “What.” The scarf? The scarf? The one from his father?
”Marinette made you that scarf, bro,” Nino says. “Delivered it herself.”
Adrien’s brain is ticking over. “What did... why did she—”
Nino sighs. “She said, and I quote, you ‘seemed so happy that your dad made you a present’ and she ‘didn’t want to take that away from you.’”
Adrien's not sure what to feel. On the one hand, Marinette was right—he feels like like his father has gone inside his stomach and scooped out his intestines with a blunt spoon. On the other, Marinette doesn't hate him. His heart is soaring straight out of his chest like a freshly cleansed Akuma butterfly. His gut is roiling with joy and devastation and he's one step short of exploding. “I... think I need to re-evaluate a year’s worth of interactions,” Adrien says. "Please hold."
His father didn't care enough to handmake the scarf, or even pay someone else to handmake it. Instead, he'd stolen someone else's work so that he didn't have to get his own son a present. And Marinette, who'd only known him a month, who had every reason to dislike him, had gone out of her way to make him a present and then had let him believe—
My father doesn't care.
The day at the movies. The lucky charm. The, oh, she'd invited him to ice cream at André's...
“Oh, cats—the museum!" he says, slapping himself in the forehead. "She was serious, wasn’t she!”
”The museum?” Nino says. “What did she say?”
Adrien swallows. “That’s, um, private.” And also horrifically embarrassing—tiny gods, no wonder she freaked out and tried to deny everything! He purses his lips. “So you’re telling me,” he says, “that the mystery boy that’s been Marinette has a crush on is—” His throat seizes and the bottom of his stomach drops out. "It's me, isn't it." I told her I was in love with someone else.
Nino snorts. "Took you long enough," he says, rolling his eyes.
"Why didn't anyone say anything!" Adrien cries, shooting to his feet and slamming his hands on the table. He's immediately met by a number of pointed stares from the rest of the library, and he sheepishly sits back down.
"Look," Nino whispers, leaning in. "She's been... too scared to say anything. Didn't want anyone else telling you either."
"Marinette," Adrien whispers back, flatly. "Scared." Marinette, as far as he can tell, isn't scared of anything.
Nino nods. "She's been prone to catastrophizing as long as I've known her," he says. "Worse than you, even."
Adrien breathes in sharply. "And she keeps trying to talk to me anyway?" he says, shocked. "I'm... wow. I'd be paralyzed." He sucks in his lips. "I, um... I need to think about this. For—for a while."
Adrien can't help staring at Marinette after lunch. She's incredible—brilliant, brave, and kind. Widely acknowledged as Fraçoise DuPont's most eligible bachelorette; every single one of his classmates has admitted to having a crush on her at some point except Alix, and even a few people outside of his class. And somehow, she likes him. Literally everyone he knows would stab their mother for even a fleeting chance at her romantic attention and she likes him.
She's planning a birthday party for him, and doesn't that just light a fire right under his lungs.
He's not sure what to think, or at least he shouldn't be, he realizes as she laughs at something Alya said, blushing, her eyes closing and squeezing his heart like a pillowcase left in the dryer to shrink, tumbling on high. He's in love with Ladybug, right? Always has been, since the moment she got back up and decided that she wasn't going to let her fear keep her down. But Marinette doesn't have superpowers. Marinette, if Nino is to be believed, is more scared of him than he has ever been of anything, even his father. And for all that, she keeps trying. To talk to him. To make him feel appreciated.
Everyday Ladybug. He'd called her Everyday Ladybug.
She looks at him, and he has less than a second before the burning in his face grows unbearable and he can't hold her eyes. He drops his gaze. Swallows.
He's lucky when Mme. Bustier starts class, but he still feels the heat of her gaze on the back of his neck.