Chapter Text
“Chat Noir!!!! I have a plan to get us out of here!!!! Give me your baton, I need it to jump off the roof!!”
Chat blinked at Marinette, momentarily snapped out of his akuma-induced adrenaline high.
“I’m sorry, WHAT??”
...how exactly had they ended up here again?
One minute, he was cataclysming a bookshelf seconds before it crushed Marinette and whisking her off to find a safe spot, and the next, they were both stuck on the roof of Françoise Dupont...literally, in Chat’s case. Before leaving them to go hunt Ladybug, the akuma, Adhesiviser, had fired a sticky substance at Chat’s feet, gluing him to the roof and leaving him with a blinking ring inching dangerously close to expiration.
Sure, his identity was about to be revealed, Ladybug was nowhere to be found, and Marinette was clearly starting to go insane due to the pressure they were under but...he’d gotten out of stickier situations before...right?
“We don’t have time to debate this!!!!” Marinette stomped over to him from her position on the edge of the roof of the school. “The akuma glued all the doors shut and you’re stuck, so we can’t get down!!! If you detransform up here, someone is sure to see you and your secret identity will be exposed!!!! This is the only way, just give me your staff!!”
“But--” Chat’s brain rushed to catch up to her words. “But, but what if the akuma comes back?? I need my staff to protect us!!!
“And..and...and you don’t have any superpowers!!! You could get hurt!!! I...I couldn’t bear to watch you get hurt on my account again….let’s just wait for Ladybug, she has to get here soon…..” He flinched, painful memories of a certain brunch echoing in his head.
“I’ll be fine, Chat Noir,” Marinette assured him before stepping up and extending an arm to him. “Do you trust me??”
A moment lingered between them.
“....what?”
“I said, do you trust me??”
Something stirred in Chat Noir’s gut.
There was something about Marinette at that moment.
Maybe the determined glint in her eyes.
Maybe the utmost confidence etched in her brow.
Maybe the way she was so desperate to protect him, even without a Miraculous.
“...of course I do.”
Eyes wide, Chat relinquished his baton to Marinette. Without wasting a second, she ran to the edge of the roof, extended the baton to reach the ground, and vaulted across the street. She landed--a bit clumsily, but she landed!--on the roof of the building opposite Françoise Dupont and condensed Chat’s weapon.
“Now grab onto the staff when it reaches you and hang on tight!!!!”
Marinette extended the staff again, this time across the rooftops and directly to Chat. Chat gripped it tightly--and then he was flying across the street and landing in a leap next to her.
Marinette offered her partner a hand and helped him stand, grinning proudly. “I had a feeling the force of the stick pulling you from so far away would be enough to get you un-stuck!!”
“Wow, Marinette….that was beyond awesome!!!” Chat exclaimed. “You could give Ladybug a run for her money!” He paused, pondering for a second, before adding “Well, I guess you technically already have….” with a conspiratorial wink.
Marinette’s balance faltered. “W-what?”
And then Chat’s face brightened. “As Multimouse!!! You were so amazing when we fought Kwamibuster!!”
Marinette exhaled. “Ahh, right. Multimouse.”
“You know, maybe Ladybug COULD reinstate you as a miraculous holder….it’s not as if anyone else knows your secret identity...it would be safe with me! Once I tell her about today, she won’t be able to refuse!!”
Though his words warmed her heart, Marinette knew Multimouse had to remain retired for the time being. But she didn’t have to worry about reinforcing that. At least not in her civilian form, anyway. Ladybug, on the other hand, might have her work cut out for her…
“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!” she replied with a shrug.
“Well, either way, you’re AMAZING, Marinette!” Chat grinned, making a dramatic show of bowing before her to express his admiration. As he came up from the bow, something shifted in his expression.
“...sometimes I wish I could tell you my secret identity….” he mused, almost to himself.
Marinette blanched, as did Chat one he realized what he’d said.
“Uhm! That is! So we could hang out and be friends outside our masks! I don’t think you’ve ever met me outside of the mask, and it would be fun to get to know you better. Yup.”
If she’d been wearing her spots, Marinette would have pointed out that Chat was a terrible liar…..but she herself didn’t want to think too hard about his previous statement. “I think you have a kwami to recharge and an akuma to fight,” she reminded him.
“The akuma! Right!” Chat scanned the horizon before discovering his target in the distance. “Thanks again for your help, Marinette!
“It’s good to know Ladybug and I have civilians we can trust!”
And with a salute and a wink, he was off to shove cheese in Plagg’s mouth.
By the time Chat re-emerged in the battle, Ladybug was already there. He beamed, eager to brag about the cleverness of his own “Everyday Ladybug."
Adrien….was not having the best day. Pre-recorded piano music flitted about the room as he sat slumped at his desk, too downtrodden to practice piano but too burned out from his father and Nathalie’s scolding to risk not upholding the illusion of said practice. Plagg had tried cheering him up with jokes, but his kwami’s antics weren’t enough to lighten Adrien’s mood tonight. Not even going out as Chat Noir sounded enticing.
He’d barely spoken two words to his father all week.
Nathalie had snapped at him for getting home from school late yesterday.
Nino had been absent from school for the past two days with the flu.
And he hadn’t seen Ladybug since their fight with Adhesiviser last week.
...the memory of Marinette boldly grabbing his staff and effortlessly saving him teased a smile from Adrien’s mouth. At least SHE was always there to light up his days, whether it be with a bashful smile, a bout of clumsiness, or a flurry of inspired creativity.
But then the frown returned...because as amazing as Marinette was, he didn’t want to burden her with any of the sadness weighing down on him…he was still lonely.
Adrien was jolted out of his gloomy haze by a faint tapping on his window.
He whirled around in his desk chair...and was quickly grateful to be sitting down because he probably would’ve fallen over, had he been standing up.
Ladybug hovered outside his window, held taut by her yo-yo string. She waved with a timid grin.
Adrien practically flew to his window and tore it open. He hoped Plagg had the sense to hide because that was the last thing on his mind right now.
“Ladybug!!!!!” he gasped as she perched on his windowsill. “What--how--what are you doing here?? Is everything alright??”
Had Adrien been so busy moping that he missed an akuma attack?
Did his hair look alright??
Had he cleaned the dirty laundry he’d tossed on the floor this morning???
Ladybug smiled softly. “I should be asking YOU that question,” she replied.
“I, uh...that is...a little ladybug told me you’d been having a bit of a rough week.”
Adrien flushed crimson. Had his bad mood been so apparent that even LADYBUG picked up on it somehow??
“Uh, well, uh...I’ve just been busy and stuff….but nothing too bad, really…”
Oh shoot.
Ladybug totally didn’t believe him. She was gazing at him with that LOOK. The look she gave Chat Noir whenever he alluded to his own struggles, the look she gave hapless akuma victims who’d been hurt and truly didn’t know any better.
She KNEW he was in pain. And for some reason, sharing that burden with her, even just the slightest bit of it, made Adrien feel almost weightless.
Ladybug cocked her head at him, pursing her lips and pondering, “Hmm...you’re just super busy and don’t need cheering up? That’s a shame. I was hoping you’d maybe have time to...go explore Paris with me? You know, fly around, feel the wind in your hair, that sort of thing?”
Adrien’s heart practically leapt out of his chest.
Ladybug wanted to take ADRIEN around Paris???
He was speechless.
Beyond speechless.
He couldn’t even breathe.
Ladybug took his lack of coherent speech as hesitation. “Don’t worry, I won’t drop you…” she teased with a gentle giggle. “Come on, Adrien.”
She gingerly extended an outstretched palm towards him.
“...do you trust me?”
If Ladybug’s earlier invitation rendered him incapable of breath, this question practically knocked the breath out of his lungs.
“....what?”
Ladybug shifted her weight, the faintest hint of pink glowing beneath her mask.
“I said...do you trust me?”
Adrien was falling, falling, falling.
And suddenly, he was back on a rooftop wearing a mask and gazing down at Marinette.
Marinette, who was so brave.
Marinette, who was so clever.
Marinette, who was always there for him.
Marinette, who’d extended her hand and asked for his trust.
Adrien’s eyes widened.
And then he was staring up at Ladybug again, reverently, feeling as if he was seeing her, TRULY seeing her, for the first time.
“....of course I do…..” he whispered.