Chapter Text
Adrien didn’t know how a conversation with his father could turn sour so quickly. He had been excited to finally eat dinner with his father for the first time in a week, but the moment he mentioned cutting his next fencing lesson just 15 minutes short to catch a movie with Nino, Gabriel Agreste’s mood quickly nosedived.
“It would just be 15 minutes—” Adrien pleaded, only to be interrupted by his father loudly placing down his knife on the dining table.
“I already said no, Adrien. Do I have to repeat myself?”
“But I haven’t hung out with Nino in weeks, and—”
“Spending time with friends is a privilege, not a right. This is the last I want to hear of this.” Gabriel stood up and began to leave, not even bothering to finish his meal with Adrien.
“Mom would’ve let me!” Adrien burst out in a moment of desperation. As soon as he said the words, he knew he shouldn’t have said them. Gabriel froze, and even just by the posture of his back, Adrien could tell he was fuming. Adrien swallowed and was about to apologize, but his father spoke first.
“Emilie is gone. If I could trade you for her, I would’ve done that a long time ago.” Without turning around, Gabriel stormed out of the room, leaving Adrien sitting alone.
Chat Noir was huddled in an alleyway, miserable and not wanting to go home. Not knowing if he ever really had a home or if it had disappeared along with his mother. The darkened, cloudy sky finally erupted into a torrent of rain, drenching Chat. He didn’t move from his spot, ignoring Plagg’s pleas for him to take cover. He took comfort in the way the raindrops hid his tears.
Chat Noir wasn’t sure how much time had passed when the rain suddenly stopped.
No—it didn’t stop—he was being…covered?
He slowly looked up. A familiar-looking black umbrella, held by an outstretched hand. Lightly dampened raven locks. Achingly warm bluebell eyes.
“…Marinette?”
“Hey, Kitty. Thought you’d need this.” Marinette smiled softly, and for some reason, it was enough to make Chat Noir’s eyes fill with fresh tears. Marinette’s expression quickly switched to one of concern and she hurriedly crouched next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong, Chat? Are you okay?”
Chat closed his eyes and placed his hand over hers, bringing it to his cheek and leaning into her touch. “I’m fine. Can you just stay like this for a bit?” he mumbled.
Marinette paused, and Chat was afraid she was going to say no until he was suddenly wrapped in her embrace. The umbrella laid on the ground beside them, forgotten, and now both of them were getting wet, but for some reason, being held in her arms was the warmest he’d ever felt in a long time.
The rain gradually subsided along with Chat Noir’s tears.
Marinette slowly walked into her house, closing the door quietly and praying her parents wouldn’t hear her. No such luck.
“Marinette? What took you so long?” Sabine Cheng called from upstairs. Before Marinette could move, her mother peered down at her and gasped. “What happened? I thought I told you to bring an umbrella!”
Marinette shrugged sheepishly. “I…ran into a stray cat. I didn’t want it to get wet so I just…left the umbrella?” Her mother sighed and shook her head, but didn’t question any further.
Marinette escaped to her room with two large, fluffy towels fresh from the laundry and a plate of lightly steaming croissants. Poking her head out of her balcony window, she beckoned a dampish Chat Noir inside and ruffled his head vigorously with one of the towels.
“Hey!” he protested, wriggling around. Marinette sandwiched his face between her hands and silenced him with a stern look.
“I’m not going to make you talk about it if you can’t tell me, but at least stay here until you’ve warmed up.”
Suddenly sobered with the reminder of why he had been out in the rain in the first place, Chat nodded and gave a half-hearted smile. “Thanks for saving a fur-reezing kitty, Marinette.” He looked down and handed her back the umbrella she had given him.
“I couldn’t just leave you out there like that. You’re always welcome here.” Marinette gave Chat one last affectionate ruffle with the towel before surrendering it to him and taking the umbrella. She set aside the umbrella and sat at her desk, pulling out her pigtails while she grabbed the other towel she had designated for herself. She started absentmindedly drying her hair until she noticed Chat staring at her in fascination. “What is it?”
“Those…those come off?” Chat Noir gaped in bewilderment.
Marinette blinked at him, baffled. “What, my pigtails?”
He nodded solemnly.
Marinette burst into laughter. Chat maintained his poker face for one more second, but finally felt his lips forming a genuine smile this time, and suddenly he couldn’t help but join in with her laughter. After Marinette almost fell out of her chair and both of their abs began aching from laughing so hard, they finally calmed down enough to speak again.
“You were kidding, right?” Marinette gasped, still short of breath.
“Only half-kidding. I just never thought you’d take them off in front of anyone.” Chat grinned sheepishly and grabbed one of the croissants from the plate in front of him.
“I don’t always wear pigtails,” Marinette protested, opening up one of her drawers and rummaging around. Chat raised an eyebrow at her while he munched on his pastry. She fished out her hair dryer and cocked her head. “Just…most of the time?” Chat just shook his head at her, too busy eating to argue further at that point.
Marinette plugged in the hair dryer and switched it on. As she began blow-drying her damp locks, Chat Noir made himself comfortable on her rug and relished in the warm draft of air blowing in his vicinity. About an hour ago he felt like his world was falling apart, but for some reason, sitting in Marinette’s room and laughing over dumb jokes with her as he ate fresh pastries made him feel more at home than he did in his own house. Something about being with Marinette made it easy for him to take a step back from his problems and just be himself for a bit.
“Stay still, Kitty.” Marinette suddenly scooted her chair behind Chat’s spot on her rug, rousing him from his line of thoughts. Evidently done with drying her own hair, she began to blow-dry Chat’s mess of blond hair. He had no complaints. The warmth of the hair dryer and Marinette’s gentle fingers against his scalp felt almost blissful. He was about to doze off but…Chat’s nose twitched. With Marinette leaning so close over him, he could catch a clear whiff of her scent, wafting through the air from her freshly blow-dried hair. It smelled like a combination of lavender and—he sniffed again as inconspicuously as he could manage—vanilla? It was a calming aroma. He really liked it, he thought drowsily. It would be nice if he could smell more of it.
“Chat?” He blinked. Marinette was sitting on the rug beside him now, leaning over and looking at him curiously. “I’ve been done for a bit. Are you okay?”
Chat Noir felt his face heating up. Her loose hair framed her face in such a charming way, and the way she fixed her clear, blue eyes on him was disarming, and—had he really just been thinking about smelling her? She was a bit too close for him to handle at the moment, and his eyes darted away as he fumbled with words and tried to think of something to say. “Yeah, uh…” His gaze caught the familiar-looking umbrella propped up against the wall in front of him. “Where did you, uh, get that umbrella?”
He wanted smack himself. Seriously? She bought it from a store, like any other person—
“It was…a gift from a friend.” He paused. Oh. A shot in the dark, but nice save. “I had actually been pretty rude to him, to be honest, but he gave it to me anyway.”
Chat looked over at her in surprise. “You were rude? You’re like the nicest person in this entire city.”
Marinette rolled her eyes. “That is not true. I was pretty rude to him and it was only his first day of school.” Something tugged at the back of Chat’s mind. “It was a misunderstanding too. His only friend at the time had put some gum on my seat and he was just trying to take it off for me.”
Chat had to keep himself from reacting. She was talking about him! No wonder the umbrella had looked familiar.
“He couldn’t just throw her under the bus, so he didn’t say anything to defend himself when I got mad at him.” Marinette sighed. “He’s so kind. Even after I was so mean to him that day, he gave me this umbrella so I wouldn’t get wet on my way home.”
It took a tremendous amount of willpower for Chat to keep himself from grinning. He had no idea that Marinette thought so highly of him.
“And that was the moment I fell in love with him.”