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The akuma was right behind them,and they were running out of time. If Marinette had been transformed, she could've fought it off, but in her civilian state, she decided to keep running.
She thought about fighting without her powers, to give Adrien a chance to run away, but decided against it. The last time she pulled something like that, Adrien had refused to leave her side.
It was a sweet gesture, but dangerous and stupid..if he just disappeared, she would be able to transform. She just had to figure out a way to ditch Adrien in a safe place.
They kept running, and wow it really wasn't her day.
It had felt like a dream when Adrien asked her on a date, but it quickly turned into one of those weird, borderline nightmare dreams (like the ones where you are on a date with someone you don't know so you avoid saying their name and you're inexplicably in your underwear, except marinette was fully clothed and knew Adrien quite well).
The day had started to go downhill when one of Adrien's fans recognized him while they were having a picnic in the park.
After a heated discussion, (in which Adrien was very polite and kept complementing Marinette, and the fan acted like she had been betrayed and called Marinette a slut at which point she and Adrien left), the fan apparently made an internet post.
Before they could do anything, a whole crowd of fans followed them around. Like last time, they had to hide behind fountains, sneak around and go undetected. This time though, Marinette was not in swim goggles and pajamas.
As they kept slipping away, the fans got more and more frustrated, until one of them became an Akuma. The Akuma decided it hated Marinette, and Adrien refused to leave her side, to make s ure she was safe.
It was really cute of him, but Chat Noir was nowhere to be found, and she couldn't show up as Ladybug, because Adrien wouldn't let go of her hand.
She was not ready to reveal her identity to Adrien. They'd barely been on one date. As their relationship progressed, she planned to tell him, eventually, but it didn't seem like the time.
Her current plan was to slip away, but Adrien seemed determined to protect her.
As they ran through the park, they found some sort of festival, with crowds and tents and plenty of places to hide.
It was perfect.
As they jogged through, Marinette whispered the plan to Adrien.
In sync, Adrien messed up his hair, as Marinette let hers down. They traded jackets and both put on sunglasses and hats. The perfect disguise.
They were practically unrecognizable-
"Is that Adrien Agreste?"
Adrien flinched.
Marinette laughed. Loudly. "Hahah no. Of course not. This is Badrien. Badrien Bagreste."
"You're worse at making up names than I am."
In an effort to protect their cover, she hissed at Adrien. "Act casual!"
Casual. Right. He could do that.
Adrien was perfectly calm. Perfectly casual.
They slowed down to a walk, to blend in, and much to Marinette's dismay, he started whistling.
They were trying to avoid attention, not get it.
Luckily, people ignored them, as Marinette walked and Adrien-
Was that skipping?
Marinette paused and did a double take.
It wasn't skipping.
It was moon-walking.
Adrien Agreste, who was on a date with her, was fucking moon-walking.
"You've got to be kidding me." She groaned.
"What? I'm being casual."
"Moon-walking is not casual."
"But-"
"It just brings more attention to us. We need to gone it down if we're trying to hide."
"I'm very casual." As he continued to moon-walk, Marinette sighed.
Something about this situation was familiar. Too familiar..
But it was such a strange situation, that she probably was imagining it. After all, it wasn't like she knew a different blonde boy who thought that "act casual" meant moon-walking, right?
Right?
Shit.
Marinette pulled Adrien behind a building and stared at him. Based on the smell, they were hiding behind a bathroom, which was both good and bad.
Good, because no one would ever look for celebrity Adrien Agreste next to a public restroom, but bad because it smelled like shit. Literally.
"You look angry. Are you angry?"
"I- I don't know. I'm frustrated."
"I'm sorry. I really like you Marinette. I didn't mean for this to go so badly I-"
He was cut off as Marinette pinned him to the wall and started kissing him.
"Damn." He smirked. "If this how you react to moon-walking, I should've done that hours ago."
"Nope." She stopped.
"What?"
"You ruined the moment."
"We were having a moment?"
"Yes, until I remembered the moon-walking. What part of that is casual?"
"What part of it isn't?"
"Uhh all of it?"
"What did you want me to do?"
"I don't know? Walk normally. Avoid eye contact."
"But that's boring. I always moon-walk when someone tells me to act casual."
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I've noticed."
"You have?"
"That's how I figured you out, silly kitty." She booped his nose.
"Fuck." Adrien looked around and lowered his voice. "You can't tell anyone. It has to remain a secret."
"I won't tell a soul."
"Especially Ladybug. She'll kill me if she knew my secret got out."
"I'm sure she'd be understanding-"
"Its like her biggest rule."
"Trust me. She will understand. Especially with how careless she is with her identity."
"What do you mean?"
"Tikki, Spots On!"
"Oh, that's what you meant-"
Ladybug pinned him up against the wall and kissed him again. "Stop being dumb."
"Stop being so hot."
"We have an Akuma to fight, c'mon."
"Yeah... I'm right behind you." Adrien transformed and together they ran into battle.
...
After a tough fight, they managed to being down the Akuma, when Chat Noir started moon-walking in front of it, and Ladybug used the distraction to break the akumatized object.
After she purified the butterfly, Chat moon-walked over to her in the least casual manner possible.
"Pound it?" He asked, holding out a fist.
"I'd rather kiss you."
"I like that plan too." This time he initiated the kiss, and it went until their timers started beeping.
Chat smoothly moon-walked away, and Ladybug face-Palmed
He was an idiot, but he was her idiot.
Also, how was he able to do it so smoothly? It looked like he was really walking on the moon.
...
Their second date was just Adrien teaching Marinette how to moonwalk in the park and then getting ice cream, together in a very smooth manner.
After that, they moon-walked everywhere together, from classes, to dates, to the park.
They even fought Akuma while moon-walking.
They taught the rest of their classmates how to moonwalk and soon it became a city-wide phenomenon. Everyone started moonwalking everywhere.
They caught Hawkmoth because he was the only man sad enough to resist the fun pull of the moonwalk.
And when they got married, and had three kids and a hamster, Emma's first steps were a moon-walk, instead of a normal toddler stumble-
....
Hahah just kidding. I really got you there didn't I?
Marinette is too clumsy to learn how to moonwalk. Babies can't moonwalk. This is crack but its crack with some sense of dignity. We aren't going for the impossible.
No, instead, Marinette teased Adrien for Moon-walking, as one should when someone else does something dumb.
(She also made a tiktok account where she posted Adrien doing dumb stuff like moon-walking and backflips and it went totally viral)
They did go on a second date, and it went significantly better than the first, with no Akuma interruption.
In fact, it seemed like as long as Adrien reminded his dad that he had a date, Akuma never interrupted his dates with Marinette.
It really was miraculous. Or Hawkmoth was nocturnal.
Either way, things between Marinette and Adrien worked out, and since they knew their identities they didn't have any secrets between them.
(Other than Adrien kept the secret of how to moon-walk to himself and Marinette was jealous, but pretended that she wasn't).
They were happy.