Chapter Text
Adrien peeks out of the abandoned classroom, his robes pulled over his head and his Hufflepuff scarf wrapped over his nose and cheeks. This is the worst possible thing that could've happened. Why did he agree to do this again?
He scans the hallway for someone, anyone, friendly and his eyes fall on a familiar set of pigtails. She’s sitting across the hall, her head bent over the sketchbook in her lap, smudging her charcoal stick across the page. The tips of his ears heat up at the thought of even asking Marinette, best and brightest in their class, for help, but he’s desperate.
“Psst.”
Her head pops up and swivels, looking for the source of the noise. He waves with a sleeve covering his hand to get her attention. Her eyes narrow at him suspiciously, but she closes her sketchbook, tucks it away, and shoulders her bag before she walks over to him.
"Adrien?"
“I need your help,” he says, clutching at her wrist and pulling her in with him, closing the door behind them.
She spins on him, wand out, as soon as they’re alone. He puts his hands up in defense, forgetting momentarily that he has claws. Her wand drops a fraction when she sees. Welp, that’s one way to reveal it to her. He sighs as he pulls the robes off his head and the scarf away from his face, revealing the cat ears mussing up his blond hair, whiskers, and fine black fur covering his face.
Her wand lowers all the way to her side. He squirms as she just stares at him. He wasn’t expecting her to start giggling.
“It’s not funny!” He hisses at her. Unfortunately, his tone does nothing to help his case. Her giggles intensify and she puts up a finger for him to wait.
The tail he had sprouted swishes behind him and he chases it for a minute before he catches it, looking at it fully for the first time. It’s fluffy. He has a fluffy black tail attached to him. Unbelievable. He drops it indignantly. Marinette can't even look at him; she just keeps bursting into new peals of laughter.
When she catches her breath, she manages to pant, “You're right, you're right, it's not funny.” She suppresses the last of her giggles and wipes her eyes before clearing her throat, regaining her composure. “So you want to tell me why you were messing with Polyjuice potion in the first place?”
Crap. Of course she knows what he screwed up. “I was... trying to help a friend.”
“And ‘helping a friend’ translates to ‘Polyjuice potion’ because…?”
Because his friend Juleka was being bullied and he and her Slytherin brother came up with this brilliant plan to transform Adrien into the biggest guy they knew so he could pretend to be dating her so people would back off. Who knew Ivan volunteers to play with kittens in his spare time?
“Can you help me fix it or not?” he asks instead.
“You think I know how to fix this?”
“Why not? You’re the best at potions in the whole school.”
She blushes and tucks a strand of hair back behind her ear. "H-how do you know that?"
Because he stares at her in every class they share. Because he's caught her sticking her tongue out when she's working on a particularly tough potion. Because her name is like a neon sign whenever he sees it, and it's always at the top of the exam scores.
"Everyone knows that," he says. But he can feel the heat creeping up his face, and it has nothing to do with the addition of the fur.
She blinks at him. "Of course. Right. Here, let me see." She puts out a hand. He swallows past the lump in his throat as he sets the back of his clawed hand in hers. She grips his wrist and tests his claws with the pad of her finger, then flips his hand so their palms are together.
If he had more presence of mind, he would be embarrassed about the dense fur covering the backs of his hands. But Marinette is running her fingers through it experimentally, and she's holding his hand, and she's sticking her tongue out like he's a tough problem to solve. And his heart is trying to pound through his ribcage.
She looks up at him and brushes his hair out of his eyes to see them better. He can only assume they’re much more feline than normal. Her fingertips are cool against his forehead. He's never noticed before, but there’s a smattering of freckles across her cheeks. She has a smudge of charcoal on the right side of her nose. Her eyes are steely blue, intensely focused, softened with concern. Beautiful.
His tail flicks behind him, bringing him back to reality with a crash. He's currently a half-cat disaster. Not his most attractive look.
She reaches up to feel one of his cat ears, and it surprises them both when he reflexively butts his head into her hand and starts to purr with the force of an engine. He claps a hand over his mouth and pulls away from her hastily until his back hits the door with a thud. She seems stunned, her hand paused in the air.
He’s only had a crush on this girl for going on four years now. He’s never even been able to talk to her before outside of class. This is their first real conversation. And he just asked for pets. Mortifying. He’ll be surprised if she ever wants to talk to him again. At least she hasn’t run away yet.
After a moment, she clears her throat and drops her hand. "I'm officially way out of my depth here."
"Marinette, please-"
"But I can get you to the hospital wing and make sure no one sees." She gestures to his scarf and he takes it off hurriedly to give it to her. She circles him to wrap it loosely around his head in a way that conceals the ears and his face handily. She adjusts it in front so just his eyes are uncovered. She's wearing some sort of perfume on her wrists, and he tries not to think about how long the scent might linger on his scarf. Then she reaches in her bag and pulls out a pair of Slytherin gloves and offers them to him.
"But… the claws…" he says apologetically. She flops the gloves at him again insistently. He takes them from her and puts them on, doing his best to avoid catching his claws, and she takes a step back to look at her handiwork.
"The tail… hmm... you'll just have to try to keep it still under your robes."
As if on cue, his tail pokes out and practically waves at her. He blushes, shoving the incorrigible appendage back behind himself.
"Easier said than done, I take it? Oh!" She digs in her bag again and produces a loose bit of yarn and a pair of pink scissors. He glances from the yarn, back up to her, and down to his feet. They can tie the tail down.
Before he can answer, she’s snipped a length of yarn off, tucked the extra back in her bag, and stooped down as if she’s about to tie his shoes. A jolt goes through him when she catches his tail and he has a curious instinct to hiss and yank it out of her hands. An instinct that he steadfastly ignores. Her fingers work quickly, though, and when she straightens up again, his tail is secured to his calf. It’s uncomfortable. But then again, this whole ordeal has been uncomfortable. Next time Luka suggests Adrien should pretend to date Juleka, he’ll just do it as himself, and not worry about Marinette possibly finding out he has a ‘girlfriend’. Not like he has a chance with Marinette now, anyways.
“Now, if anyone asks, you’re my cousin, visiting from… oh, I don’t know, someplace hot... And you find it unbearably cold here.”
He looks at his hands, encased in her gloves, and flexes his fingers. It’s a plausible excuse. As long as no one looks too closely.
“You’re amazing, Marinette.” Did he really just say that out loud? Wait, is she actually blushing? The end of his tail flicks impatiently against its constraint. They should go. He clears his throat.
“Do you mind leading the way? I can’t really see over the, you know, the scarf.” Tentatively, he offers her a hand.
She hesitates, blushing deeper than he thought possible, before she shakes her head and squares her shoulders, grabbing his hand forcefully. She opens the door to poke her head out, checking that the way is clear before she tugs him out with her and they’re off down the hallway.
With every step, he can feel the tie around his tail loosening. He can only pray it holds. Marinette has a quick, determined stride, and he stumbles a few times trying to keep up while being led by the hand. While he’s not paying attention, she stops abruptly and he barrels into her back. He hears her curse under her breath, then she spins him around to head in a different direction. He can’t imagine what she might’ve seen that made her change trajectory, until he hears someone calling after them.
“Marinette, wait up!”
It’s a familiar voice to him, although he can’t quite place it. Marinette certainly knows who it is, though. She clutches his hand tighter and pushes forward, trying to lose whoever’s back there. He can feel his tail slipping out of the yarn. He’s grateful for Marinette’s urgency, but they’ll need to stop soon to resecure it.
“Marinette, geez girl, who are you running from?” Finally, through what little he can see over the scarf, he recognizes Alya, Marinette’s best friend, as she catches Marinette’s shoulder in front of him. Marinette pauses, caught between him and Alya, and she turns slowly, pulling him back behind her as she does. As subtly as he can, he ducks behind her.
“Oh, hi, Alya, I didn’t know you were back there!”
“Who’s this?”
“Who is…? Oh! This is my….cousin… from, um…”
“Africa,” Adrien supplies behind her, the first hot place he could think of.
“Right, Africa! I was just showing him around, you know, the sights and everything.”
He can practically feel Alya raising her eyebrows in the silence. But the more pressing issue is that his tail has worked itself completely free of the yarn. He tugs at Marinette’s sleeve, but she shrugs him off.
“That’s the lamest excuse I think I’ve ever heard. What’s going on?”
Marinette shifts from one foot to the other, and she itches the back of her calf with the toe of her shoe. She’s stalling to think. He wishes he could help her come up with something. Instead he finds that he’s focused on how one of her pigtails is tied slightly lower than the other. Do not bat at the ribbons. Do not bat at the ribbons.
“Why are you hiding him? Is he your secret boyfriend or something?” Alya’s tone has turned teasing. The scarf is not helping the heat roasting Adrien’s face. He wishes.
“What? No!”
“Uh huh. Is it Adrien hiding back there? You’ve only been head over heels for him forever, it’s about time you asked him out.”
“Alya,” Marinette hisses.
His cat ears perk up under the scarf. Marinette? Head over heels for him? A purr starts deep in his chest and he coughs to cover it. Marinette turns her head a fraction to glance back at him. He shrugs, and he can see the corner of her mouth turn up in a smile.
“Uh, Marinette? Whatcha got there?” Marinette looks down at her feet, where Alya must’ve pointed. Adrien looks too. His tail had curled itself around Marinette’s calf while they both weren’t paying attention. Oops. There’s an awkward pause between the three of them, and then Marinette’s head snaps back up.
“Gotta go, I’ll explain later, bye!” The words rush out of Marienette’s mouth and she’s grabbed his hand and spun him around before he can blink. For some stupid reason, he looks back and waves at Alya. She waves back, dumbfounded, before Adrien and Marinette turn a corner. Marinette pulls him into an alcove, just in time to hear Alya running past. He should’ve known she would follow them. Apparently Marinette did.
They both wait anxiously for her to pass, and when Adrien turns his head back, he realizes he and Marinette are practically toe to toe. She’s still clutching his hand. She drops it when she notices, and she looks away while her face turns bright red. Marinette, head over heels for him.
“You should’ve told me it came loose,” she mutters.
“I did try.”
“Well, there goes the ‘no one seeing’ thing. Half the school will know within twenty minutes if I know Alya.”
He looks down before tapping the toes of his shoes against hers. “Does that mean half the school will also think I’m your secret boyfriend?” He dares to glance up at her through his bangs, grateful for the scarf for hiding more than his whiskers.
“My secret boyfriend with a cat tail and a penchant for winter wear.” She rolls her eyes at him, but she’s smiling. Teasing.
He flexes his fingers at his side. He might never get this chance again. He pulls the scarf away from his face to look at her properly. Here goes nothing.
“Maybe it wouldn’t have to be a secret?”
A mischievous glint flashes through her eyes. She pushes him back by the nose, a smug smile on her face.
“Lose the tail first, then we’ll talk.”