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It was too good to be true,it had to be, there was no way this could have happened so suddenly. Right? She’d hoped for it for ages but to happen like this? Someone had to be pranking them, someone had to be using Adrien in his infinite naivety to hurt Marinette and she was too lovestruck to question it.
An hour ago things were normal, it was excruciating and they were stupid, but it was normal. They shouldn’t be able to turn everything around that fast? There was admitting that the feelings are mutual and then there’s, whatever this was ? They’d managed to become almost intolerably sweet and all she’d done is step out to see the akuma?
“I doubt it’s something as bad as that” Alya snapped back to reality as soon as she heard her boyfriend start to talk, “Maybe it’s just something like when we got locked in the panther cage?” Nino offered.
“I mean… Yeah, I guess, but we were still awkward and slow for weeks after that, and they- they’re acting like they’re going to catch their honeymoon flight any minute now.” Alya responded, “I mean I sorta expected that from Marinette but he’s just gushing as hard back. I didn’t even think he had that in him.”
The two had just returned from trying to get akuma footage to what had seemed like every other one of their attempts at a “double date” to wingman the usually hopelessly oblivious and nervous two together expecting it to be no different than when they left and no different than any other time for that matter.
Instead they were greeted with a lovey dovey pair who insisted on shrugging off every question they’d had with the most handwavy non-committal answers she’d ever hear and Marinette had given her some big ones in the past. And just as obviously fake, but this wasn’t like all those ‘I’m too much of a ball of anxiety to stand around during this akuma’ kind of thing she’d always written off the other ones as.
“Babe, it’s not like he flipped from not liking her at all to completely gooey eyed and gushing either. I mean he’s been sighing dreamily over their ‘very good friendship’ since even back when he and Kagami were a whole semi-official thing.” Nino tried again in a vain attempt to draw her back to reality.
She narrowed her eyes at the new couple ahead of them on the sidewalk, suspicions running wild in her head before her face seemed to be overcome with a devilish grin, “Nope!”
Nino just let out an exhausted sigh, “Nope?”
“Nope,” she hopped giddily, preparing to open the floodgates on her idea, “Obviously…” she lingered on her word to check ahead again and make sure they weren’t listening in, “they’re been dating in secret! Those two have been together for weeks, months maybe, and were hiding it!”
“Okay?” He tried not to smirk at the seriousness she was giving to the theory, “ and which Ladynoir fanfiction is that one from?”
Nino watched as she shifted out of her jubilant theory crafting to hunched over and avoiding eye contact as she pouted out, “It was Renapace.”
“Babe,” he grinned back at her, “that’s adorable.” She smirked off the embarrassment and opened her mouth to continue with her theory again only for Nino to interrupt her, “still, probably not remotely close to whatever happened with my boy over there.”
“Well then what did you have in mind mister ‘that’s unrealistic’? Because it can’t have just been nothing. You’ve been watching them as long as me, you know how clueless he was.”
“Look, all I’m saying is that maybe it wasn’t as instant as us being gone for a half hour and suddenly being together, they’ve made small progress in the past. They probably just built those little steps up to a point where it just overflowed and they’re still overflowing?”
“They said that the akuma just set the mood though!”
“I know, I just-“
“What kind of mood does a sludge monster that makes everyone experience the most revolting smells I’ve ever encountered set!? There’s been some bad ones but that’s easily in the top five for least romantic akumas that they could’ve possibly put the blame on.”
“They probably just hid toge-“
“They ran away in two completely different directions! Even if they did regroup afterwards they ran back in from two different directions. How long could they have possibly spent together in between to be split up twice? They claim they had ten minutes of running from the smelliest akuma ever and that’s what did it?”
“So?” Nino stopped her on the sidewalk, they’d trailed behind far enough that Adrien and Marinette were off in their own little world somewhere out of sight by now. “Are you just upset that after all your plans when it finally happened it was just something random?”
“No,” she groaned, “I’m mad that I missed it, it was just such a huge event in my head for ages and now it’s…” Alya mimed aimlessly, “it’s just? Gaaah!” She clenched her fists almost roaring. “They’re too confusing and I need to know. I need details. I want to know everything and they’re giving me nothing.”
“Hey,” Nino ran his hand through her hair, as he tried to ease her mind, “you’ll figure it out. Nothing stays hidden for very long from the best reporter in the world”
She sighed as she raised a hand to intertwine with his, “The flattery is nice but I’ve still got theories.”
———-
A few minutes earlier:
“Don’t you dare try to sacrifice yourself like that!”
“No! You are worth it!”
They’d taken refuge here during countless akumas.
“How? Without me yo-“
“You’re worth it to me Adrien!” She cried.
A place they’d had so many heart to hearts and rallying moments in the past.
He stepped back stunned, it was the first time she’d actually used his name since he’d detransformed and had to pull her away from the battle as she sat there stunned.
“You deserve to be safe!” She shouted before sniffing a bit, finally letting her emotions run their course, and mumbling out, “why don’t you ever see that?”
“So just because you don’t want me doing anything dangerous you think you need to be the one to do it?! How is that any better? Just because what? You find out I’m slightly famous and suddenly you’re not okay with me taking risks and it has to be you?”
Ladybug slumped against the wall at his accusation. “It’s not that.” She was practically whispering but his attention was unwavering.
The two heroes of Paris were hiding in what was ironically the safest place from the putrid stench that flooded the streets above.
“I, just, I think it’s like why you were always willing to sacrifice yourself for me.”
“Oh?” He was still mad about her recklessness but he wanted to hear her out.
“I mean I also just sorta froze up back there and that was stupid but I had to protect you. I love you Adrien,” wordlessly she tugged at her earring, letting her transformation shimmer away, “I have for a really long time. And I’m sorry I didn’t recognize that you felt the same Chat.”
He knelt down and hugged her against the arched walls of their safe haven, “We need a less stupid way to show that then. How about after this we turn that tag-along with Nino and Alya into a double date?” She just laughed back
She’d been blushing from his closeness but then he’d just gone that extra step to confirm to her that he was Chat Noir, “It… kinda was supposed to be anyways?” She watched his face shift from confusion to elated as he processed her meaning.
“So? It’s a date?”
“We beat this akuma and we both promise no more self sacrificing and it’s as many dates as you want Kitty”
He stood up and helped her to her feet by her hand,”Well then. It’s just you and me against the world, My Lady.”
“Like always,” she smirked.
And as the two of them transformed and busted out of the Paris sewers to charge into battle one thought kept crossing her mind, ‘Alya is going to freak out when she sees us’