Chapter Text
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Now, Adrien Agreste was dead, that was for sure. He could feel it, he just knew, instinctively. “He” being the dead man in question.
Now, the issue with that was that no one could hear him. Or see him. Also, he was dead, which wasn’t exactly preferable. Another problem was that he couldn’t seem to remember anything about himself other than his name, Adrien. He wandered, aimlessly, unsure of where to go. From advertisements he saw around the city, he put together that he must have been some kind of… Celebrity? Model? He couldn’t be quite sure.
Without noticing, he drifted towards a school. Something deep within him tugged towards it, and he couldn’t resist. Desire burned through him.
He wanted to be there. He needed to be there.
Adrien didn’t know why. Maybe he studied here? He considered going inside, but ultimately chose not to, opting for sitting on the steps instead. He decided it would be best to focus on settling into his new reality before he tried to piece together the old one.
He thought he died in a car crash. He didn’t know why, but that’s just what he felt. This new reality was a lot of just feeling. The more subtle feelings had been described, pinned down, highlighted, named - but what about the actual emotions?
That was a bit harder to detail. Adrien himself wasn’t sure how he felt. Sadness would be expected, but he really only felt confused. There were a lot of questions he couldn’t answer, and it unnerved him. Not knowing who you are is certainly disorienting. A strange blanket seemed to cover him, smothering many of his emotions. Which, oddly, he didn’t feel very concerned about.
The only things he seemed to feel strongly about was this school, the few ads he’d seen, and… Well, that was it.
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The school day passed uneventfully, all things considered. Life must continue.
Alya had to nudge her multiple times to make sure she was paying attention throughout the day, and Marinette always blamed it on grief, which Alya understood.
Of course, that wasn’t what was truly plaguing the young girl’s head. Instead, she spent that time thinking about what to say to Adrien. If, that is, she could find him. He couldn’t be too hard to find, could he?
The bell rang, and Marinette packed slowly on purpose, trying to convince Alya to leave without her.
“Marinette? You coming?” Alya said, door peeking from the doorway of the classroom. Marinette shook her head. She faked a sigh, before smiling.
“You go on without me Alya, I’ll catch up.”
Alya frowned. She didn’t exactly feel comfortable leaving her supposedly sad friend alone.
“You sure?” Alya said, almost pleading. Marinette winced slightly. Alya was such a good friend, and Marinette felt bad lying to her.
“Yes, I’m sure. I’ll call you,” Marinette smiled gently. Alya began to speak, but Marinette interrupted, “-I promise I’ll call, Alya. Don’t worry about it.”
Alya nodded reluctantly and headed out of the classroom, leaving the door slightly ajar. She hesitated outside the door for a moment, before sighing heavily and exiting the school.
Marinette waited to make sure that Alya was far from the school before exiting.
“Okay, just practice your lines,” she thought.
“Hi, I’m Marinette. Hi, I’m Marinette. Hi, I’m Marinette, Hi, I-” She stopped abruptly.
He was there. Golden haired, beautiful Adrien was sitting right there on the steps of the school. He waved instinctively, before frowning and dropping his hand, remembering his predicament.
Her jaw dropped and she exhaled sharply in shock. She pointed at him, stuttering. “I… You… I-I’m dead, no, you’re dead, heh, I’m—” She stuttered quickly, her face bright red, eyes wide. Adrien’s eyes widened too.
“You can see me?” He said excitedly, a hint of a smile on his face, hopping up and beginning to move towards her. As soon as he approached, however, she immediately backed away.
“Not yet!” Marinette thought panickedly. She dashed past Adrien, rushing home.
“Oh, no, what am I doing? Go back! Go back go back go back!”
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Adrien reached out towards the girl, but she was already long gone. Oddly enough, he felt that strange, burning desire again, something pulling him to follow. Ignoring it, he frowned. He sighed while running a hand through his hair.
“She could see me… But she didn’t look too happy about it. Maybe she’s afraid of ghosts?” He mused, scratching the back of his head. “Or…” His head drooped sadly, his arms doing the same. “Maybe it’s just me…”
He sat down sadly on the school stairs again, thinking deeply. He couldn’t remember anything about who he was - what if he was a terrible person? He had no way of knowing, and that piercing sadness from that fact pierced through the strange blanket over his emotions. He put his elbows on his thighs, propping his head up.
Then something rather peculiar happened. Adrien, inexplicably, was now a cat sitting on the stairs instead of a human - well, ghost - boy.
There was no real way to describe it. It happened quickly and suddenly, without warning. There was no halfway point, no transition. There was just the blink of an eye and there he was, a cat. As if things couldn’t get more confusing for poor Adrien.
His new cat ears twitched nervously as he tried to figure out what was going on. “Hi?” He said, testing to see if he could still speak. Luckily for him, he could. He listened to see if anyone responded, but no one seemed to notice him now either. He walked around in circles outside the school for a bit, trying to get the hang of this new feline body. Surprisingly, he navigated with ease, as if he had been walking on four legs his whole life. He went up and down the stairs a few times, too, just to get the hang of it.
Good thing no one could see him right now, he supposed.
Cat-Adrien sat down awkwardly - he didn’t have quite everything down yet, but he was trying his best. His ears gently twitched in thought.
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Marinette tried to force her legs to stop running home, but to no avail. She only stopped once she had reached her destination. She sighed heavily and went inside. Her father smiled happily at her, before seeing her sorrowful expression.
“Marinette?”
Marinette continued her walk towards the stairs, but her father enveloped her in a hug. He leaned down, kissing the top of her head softly.
“Is this about Adrien?” Marinette stiffened. How did he-?! “I know his passing has been hitting you pretty hard,” Tom continued, causing Marinette to relax. Of course he didn’t know. She reached out her harms under his, wrapping her small hands against his much larger ones.
“...Yeah, Papa. I just…” Tears formed in her eyes, threatening to spill, “I just wish I could have talked to him.” It wasn’t entirely a lie, so it was okay, right?
“Oh, sweetheart,” Tom said, giving her a squeeze before pulling away, wiping the tears from her eyes softly. “Here,” He said, leaning over and grabbing something from the counter.
It was a moderately sized slice of vanilla cake, fresh from the oven, with no frosting or decorations. It was poorly cut, as Tom had done it while leaning over at an angle. Marinette let out a small chuckle, the corners of her lips quirking upwards.
“An unfrosted cake, Papa?” She said, grabbing the plate.
“Come on dear, you of all people know the magic of a warm slice of cake,” her father smiled, a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. He pulled her into a gentle hug, careful not to squish the cake.
“I love you Marinette. It’s going to be alright.” He planted a soft kiss on her forehead, and Marinette felt like she might cry from the intense parental love she was receiving.
“Thanks, Papa,” she said softly, before going on her toes to plant a light kiss on his cheek.
“Anytime, Marinette,” he said, gently pushing her towards the stairs. “Alright, you’re free to go now. Just… Wanted to check up on you.” Marinette smiled and gave him a quick nod before rushing up the stairs to her room.
Upon entering the room she immediately headed up to her balcony, a quiet place. A safe place. Any time Marinette needed some time alone to think, or to cry, she always went here. She came here when she dropped a book full of designs into the fountain on accident a year ago, she came here when she and Alya got into a large fight a few months ago, and she came here when Adrien died the previous afternoon. Yet again she found herself on this balcony, swallowing tears.
However, something was different this time. A few minutes into her quiet contemplation, she wasn’t alone anymore, and it certainly wasn’t quiet.
The reason why is because some odd, floating cat was desperately clinging onto the railing of the balcony, his already very poofy fur coat poofed to an extreme.
“Um, a little help?” The cat spoke, straining to keep his already feeble grip on the railing. Marinette gave something in between something of a laugh and sigh before gently grabbing his paws, moving him towards the floor of the balcony. She held him there.
“Ground yourself. Think of the ground and your feet connecting, gravity pulling you down,” Marinette said casually, albeit a bit bored sounding, as if she had done this before. Which she had. It’s surprising how many ghosts have no idea how to be ghosts.
Adrien obliged, closing his eyes to imagine himself standing on the ground, feeling his four paws on the roof. He felt the feeling of gravity tugging him and the pressure it sent through the pads on his feet. He opened his eyes to be pleasantly surprised that he was no longer floating (although, he didn’t actually feel any tug of gravity).
“Wow. How did you know that would work?” Adrien asked, surprised at this living girl’s knowledge of being dead.
“Experience,” Marinette answered, not really paying attention.
“...What?”
“Someone told me,” Marinette clarified. She wasn’t in the mood right now. She sniffled, and Adrien just then realized she had been crying when he arrived. He was a bit distracted by his efforts not to fly away.
He hadn’t meant to fly, really. All he did was start bounding off in the direction she saw her go in, and when he saw her on the balcony a few blocks away, he jumped to pick up the pace. Which, for whatever reason, sent him flying upwards.
He was going to attempt to jump up onto the railing to see her better, but, remembering his earlier incident, he decided that wouldn’t be a very good idea. He settled for just looking up at her instead, and then noticed yet another thing he had missed. This one was a bit harder to miss, though, and he wasn’t quite sure how he managed it.
Adrien couldn’t see her eyes.
There was something there; it wasn’t just a hole. But it certainly wasn’t her eyes. It was almost like a fog covered them, combined with… White squibbles? He tried to focus on them, but they seemed blurry, too, and kept moving. He quickly moved on from that to return to his original - well, second - goal to comfort her.
“...Were you crying?” Adrien asked, his ears perked up, alert, but twitching ever so slightly out of nervousness. His head tilted to the left as he waited for a response Marinette turned to him, wiping her eyes.
“Just a little. I’ll be okay,” she said, feeling silly and embarrassed now that her tears had been called out. She glanced at the cake, realizing she should eat it before it got cold. A soft, almost tired smile passed across her face as she grabbed the plate and sat down on her chair. Adrien followed her with his gaze.
Marinette struggled for a moment to get the fork to actually grab the cake, but it was worth the struggle as the warm flavor melted in her mouth. Her father was right; warm cakes certainly did have a kind of magic to them. She glanced back to the confused cat in front of her and threw a small piece of cake his way.
Adrien approached it cautiously. Could he even eat? This girl clearly knew a lot about ghosts, so she wouldn’t throw it unless he could eat it, right? He sniffed it, and upon doing so and realizing how good it smelled he immediately ate it. To his benefit, he could indeed eat. It tasted good.
“Good, right?” Adrien nodded in response. “Papa always makes the best pastries,” Marinette said, beaming with pride. Her face fell. “Sorry for being rude before. I haven’t had a very good day,” Marinette apologized. Adrien swallowed his food and jumped up onto her lap, repeating “heavy thoughts” in his mind.
“Nonsense, Milady,” Adrien began. Marinette gave out a small laugh.
“Milady?” She asked, a giggle in her tone.
“Well, I don’t know your name, I had to call you something. Now-” Adrien attempted to continue, but Marinette interrupted again.
“I’m Marinette. You?”
“A-” Adrien stopped himself. She didn’t seem to like him before, but seemed perfectly fine with him now that she didn’t recognize him. Adrien could only get one conclusion from the evidence provided - he must have been the problem earlier when she ran. He spent a bit too long pondering, so Marinette took initiative.
“Alright then, don’t tell me your name then, Chat Noir. ” Marinette said playfully. Huh. That worked, Adrien supposed.
“Well, as I was saying, Milady, ” Adrien finally continued. Marinette rolled her eyes, but didn’t interrupt. “I was the one who… Well…” Adrien wasn’t quite sure what he did, honestly. It was certainly a spectacle, though.
“The one who arrived screaming on my balcony?” Marinette snickered.
“I didn’t scream!”
“Ehhh…” Marinette teased, looking to the railing. “Debatable.” Adrien kept an angry look on his face, glaring/pouting adorably at her, before breaking into a laugh. Marinette joined him shortly after.