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“Your heart is not actually going to burst out of your chest,” Adrien muttered under his breath. “Nino said that’s not actually a thing, even when the girl you’re apologizing to is super super mad for something you didn’t do.”
Breathing unevenly, Adrien stepped forward.
“It’s not , he promised.”
He’d deliberately waited until after school so the rest of the student body didn’t have to watch him botch his apology to Marinette, but the idea that she could probably murder him with a couple of well-placed words and no one would witness it was starting to make him second guess the decision.
Marinette stood at the front of the school, staring out at the drizzle of rain that had started. She lifted her hand to catch the raindrops falling from the roof, sighing before settling her bag on the pavement next to her. Adrien’s eyebrows pinched together.
I guess she doesn’t have an umbrella? Maybe she’s waiting out the storm.
“Hey.” Adrien waved, hoping the hint of a smile on his face would soften her formidable gaze.
Judging from the look he caught just as she turned her head, his smile did absolutely nothing to keep Marinette from glaring holes through his face. He swallowed, and wondered if she’d let him apologize before she killed him. With another steadying breath, Adrien opened his umbrella.
“I just wanted you to know that I was only trying to take the gum off your seat, I swear.” Adrien’s words felt rushed, running out of breath toward the end of the sentence. Years of being told to maintain eye contact when he spoke were the only saving grace that kept him from feeling like a complete idiot.
His heart doubled down on its attempt to squeeze out from under his ribs. Marinette had been more outspoken yesterday morning than he’d ever been allowed to be in his life. Even though she was nowhere near as sharp as Chloé typically managed, she made him feel like her judgement hung over his head, an axe ready to swing if he made a single mis-step.
It would be really nice to clear the air.
“I’ve never been to school before. I’ve never had friends. It’s all sort of new to me.”
Marinette’s eyes shot up to actually meet his, eyebrows disappearing into her hairline by the time he finished speaking. One eyebrow dropped back down and Adrien shifted from foot to foot as she studied his face intently. He forced himself to maintain eye contact.
She spoke hesitantly at first, frowning. “Okay. Thank you for your honesty then.”
Adrien beamed, the knot in his stomach beginning to unravel. Teeth tingling from the quick adrenaline burst that flooded his system, he stretched the arm holding the umbrella out toward Marinette in an attempt at a peace offering.
Her eyes widened and went from a pale pink to blushy rose before he realized he’d probably made a mistake. Adrien’s own eyes widened in panic.
She’s probably super embarrassed, like I’m calling her out on not having an umbrella. Stupid!
His fingers tightened around the handle and his thoughts momentarily distracted him from both the rain and the girl in front of him until she extended her hand to accept the umbrella. Their fingers brushed as he handed the umbrella to Marinette, and Adrien’s knuckles tingled at the contact.
Clearing his throat, Adrien began to open his mouth to say something else. He stopped short when he heard a quiet snap followed by the umbrella slamming shut over Marinette’s head. He stopped breathing and his jaw dropped.
She was gonna be so mad, but the sight of his umbrella standing in front of him wearing pink jeans was so ridiculous. A gasp turned into breathless laughs, forcing him to double over clutching at his stomach and giggling hysterically.
Right when Adrien thought he had his laughing fit under control, Marinette giggled along with him. Her face was still a faint shade of pink, but Adrien felt relief travel down his spine as her laughter became more genuine and less nervous.
Marinette shoved her palm against the frame of the umbrella, forcing the fabric back open with a determined moue.
Adrien tilted his head to the side, feeling like the look was oddly familiar.
“Yesterday was the first time we’ve met, right?”
Marinette’s eyes narrowed. Her mouth pulled into a tight line, and Adrien felt his own mirror it. She chewed on the inside of her cheek before responding.
“Yeah. I would definitely remember having met you before. Why?”
“You just seem really familiar to me. Like I’ve met you before but I can’t quite place when.”
Marinette rolled her shoulders back, dropping her chin to her chest and breaking eye contact with him. She made a low humming noise and Adrien wondered if she was going to ignore the comment. Raising her head back up, Marinette met his eyes again.
“I’ve actually been trying to figure that out for a minute or two. Maybe we’ve met before, if you’ve been to my parents’ bakery down the road.”
Adrien allowed his head to tilt back, catching a couple of raindrops on his face as he did. “You know what, I probably have. My mother used to take me to bakeries for some of our outings when I was little.”
He chuckled, happy to be rid of the twitchy bit of déjà vu that tickled the back of his mind. His eyebrows raised as he backtracked.
“Wait, which bakery?”
“Tom and Sabine’s.” Marinette pointed across the street, and Adrien twisted his upper body to peer through the rain at the little brick building that housed his favorite bakery for macarons. He spun back toward Marinette, a wide grin plastered on his face.
“I love that bakery! Maybe I’ll see you more often.”
Marinette’s lips pursed together and she snorted at his enthusiasm. “Maybe. For now, I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Tomorrow.” Adrien turned to walk down the steps and paused. “Hey Marinette?”
“Yes?”
“Does this mean we’re friends now?”
Marinette took a deep breath, letting it out in a gust of air. “I think maybe you’ll need to work up to that. How about a truce and I’ll see if I believe you about the gum?”
Adrien nodded, his soft smile more of a grimace. “Deal. See you tomorrow, Marinette.”
“Marinette!”
At the sound of Adrien’s voice, Marinette jolted violently and flung her pencil halfway across the room. Frustration bent her mouth into a frown. Running her fingers over the sketch she’d been working on, she checked for any dark-lined mistakes.
Marinette blew out a relieved sigh when she couldn’t find any indication that her panic ruined her work. She lifted her face to see the smile on Adrien’s face, wide despite the way his eyebrows pinched and his hands wrung the strap of his bag. She stood to grab her pencil before turning back to him.
“Good morning Adrien, “she sighed. “How was your evening?”
His face lit up, the smile extending to reach his eyes. “Good! How was yours? Did you get home okay?”
“I did, thank you.” Marinette dropped back into her seat, eyeing his face for any sign of another potential Chloé trick. She returned her pencil to the page in her sketchbook, lightly blocking in the face of the figure.
Adrien moved closer to her, craning his neck over her shoulder from the desk behind. Marinette ignored him, finishing the pose before addressing him again.
“Do you need something?”
“Not particularly.” Adrien’s eyes didn’t move from the paper while responding. “My father doesn’t let people in the room when he’s designing and it makes me curious about how the process works.”
He blinked, straightening and glancing around the empty room. Scrubbing at the back of his neck, Adrien took a step backwards. Marinette raised one eyebrow.
“What?”
“Nothing, I um. I just realized that you might not like someone watching you and I—“ He swallowed thickly, avoiding her gaze. “I probably should have asked.”
Marinette snorted, dropping her attention to the drawing once more. “It’s fine, I don’t mind. ”
Adrien stepped closer, feet shuffling against the tile. He watched her shade the line of the dress shirt with a tilt to his head.
“Can I sit next to you and watch?” Marinette rolled her eyes at the soft murmur, scooting herself over into Alya’s seat and allowing Adrien to take her own. He slid into the chair quietly and stopped fidgeting. Allowing herself to focus on her work, Marinette began detailing the lines of a pantsuit she hoped she could wear one day.
She was unsure of the color she wanted to use on the suit for the moment, allowing grayscale to define the folds and dips instead. Tilting her head, she placed delicate little polka dots along the undershirt, a subtle homage to the little kwami residing in her bag.
Adrien made small humming noises as he observed, his chin propped up in one palm and a beatific smile refusing to leave his face. As she began to shade tiny loops to indicate lace along the sides of the pants, Marinette spoke again.
”Why are you smiling at me like that? It’s not that impressive.”
Adrien cleared his throat. “It’s impressive to me , I can’t draw. But also, it’s just really nice to watch someone make something.”
He coughed.
”Also I’m trying not to make you angry again and I figured if I shut up and smile I have a better shot at that.”
Marinette rolled her lips together to stave off a giggle. She doodled a flower on the bottom hem of the pants, bringing the shape of the vines up the leg to mimic the one she’d stitched on her favorite shirt. She wrinkled her nose and shaded the area, changing her mind about so many design elements. She noted color ideas to the side for later and flipped the page.
”I told you I would give you a second chance, and I’m doing that. I’m not a jerk and I’m not going to get mad at you for talking.”
Adrien opened his mouth to reply, stopping short when the door to the classroom slammed open as Alya announced her presence. She grabbed at the door to keep it from crashing against the wall a second time, leaving it open as she made a beeline for her desk.
Her eyebrows furrowed as she took in the scene before her.
Alya set a hand on the table, towering over the pair and glaring at Adrien while she addressed Marinette. “Hey girl, you okay?”
Marinette slipped her sketchbook into her backpack and carefully stored her drawing pencil nearby while addressing Alya’s question.
“I’m fine, Alya. Adrien was just watching me draw before class.”
Alya’s eyes narrowed further, still not turning to Marinette. ”And you’re not still mad at him?”
Shaking her head, Marinette leaned back on the chair and stretched her arms above her head.
“He apologized yesterday. He’s on probation.”
Adrien’s smile grew thinner, a polite curve still firmly in place on his lips. He gathered his bag and dropped it on the desk in front of Marinette’s. He settled himself into the seat as Alya used her hips to slide a giggling Marinette back into the space she’d been occupying when he arrived.
Marinette pulled her class notebook out of her bag, and fell over when Alya grabbed her shoulder to yank her close enough to whisper.
“Are you actually okay, Marinette? Say the word and I’ll rip him a new one.”
Marinette pursed her lips. “I’m fine, Alya, promise. He apologized, gave me his umbrella when it was raining yesterday, and we have a truce.”
”A truce, huh? Not friends?”
Marinette snuck a look toward the back of Adrien’s blond head. She sighed a little, trying to keep her breath quiet and even so he wouldn’t hear.
“Not yet. He’s still Chloé’s friend, you know? I’m not sure if I can trust him.”
Alya nodded, giving her shoulder a pat and releasing Marinette from the death grip. She grabbed her own supplies for class, positioning her phone off to the corner of the desk so she could still see the screen over her book.
”So!” Marinette jumped again, cursing under her breath at how easily startled she was. She glared over at Alya, who hadn’t even noticed.
Alya tapped on her phone, bringing up video of Stoneheart at the Eiffel. Marinette held her breath.
“I’ve spent all night analyzing the footage from the battle, and Ladybug’s mannerisms of course, and I have a general profile for who it might be under the mask.” Flipping open the notebook in front of her, Alya drew her finger down a list of names.
Marinette’s heart stopped, and she forced herself to breathe so she could respond to Alya. Leaning forward, she glanced down the list.
I didn’t think she was this serious about the identity thing.
”Don’t you think this is a little invasive, Alya? You can’t put these people’s names on your blog.”
Alya made a dismissive noise, waving a hand in front of her face. “Of course I’m not putting the list on my blog. I’ll figure out who Ladybug is first, then I’ll post it.”
Adrien turned partially around, listening in. Marinette shot him a look, eye twitching. He just smiled back and turned to address Alya.
”Anyone in particular you have your eye on?”
”Actually, yeah!” Alya began pointing at names, detailing what made some of them better candidates than others. Marinette groaned, leaning her head back on the seat.
”Alya, she’s entitled to her privacy. She just saved Paris, can’t you cut her some slack?”
”But we have a right to know! And we can support her if we know who she is.”
Marinette gritted her teeth, loosening her jaw enough to hopefully seem uninvested. “Alya, Hawkmoth would definitely go after her family and friends if you do that.”
“He’s not going to be reading my blog , Marinette.”
”He might.”
Both girls turned to watch Adrien rub his chin, looking at the floor. “I mean, if I were a supervillain and there was a blog that was trying to out the identity of my nemesis, I would definitely be keeping tabs on that. Even if they were wrong a few times, it only takes one good guess.”
Alya began to argue, but closed her mouth when Adrien sighed dreamily and muttered to himself. “Pretty sure she’s too amazing to let her identity slip just like that, though.”
A wide smirk worked its way onto Alya’s face and she leaned over the desk toward Adrien. He leaned back, eyes widening and a moment of panic crossing his features.
”Sounds like somebody has a crush on our new superhero.” Alya drawled, lifting her phone toward Adrien’s face.
Marinette placed her hand on Alya’s phone, forcing her to set it back down on the desk. She covered her mouth with her free hand to stifle the urge to laugh at Alya’s pout.
Turning back to Adrien, she smiled as he lifted one hand to scratch at the back of his neck. He stared at the back of his seat.
”I mean, sort of. Who wouldn’t with the way that she called Hawkmoth out the way she did? It was amazing standing at the base of the tower and watching her take him on. She verbally annihilated him.”
His hand dropped to his lap and Adrien smiled again before lifting his eyes to meet Marinette’s and Alya’s in turn.
“ She’s amazing.”
Marinette blinked, shoulders relaxing at the awe in his voice, the admiration. It felt good being appreciated like that.
“You were at the base of the tower? I didn’t see you in the video! How close were you?” Alya’s voice broke Marinette out of basking in the compliments and her eyebrows drew together.
I didn’t see him there either. She shook her head, blinking several times to dismiss the thought. Though I was pretty distracted, I probably just missed him.
”Oh, I was kind of toward the back. I didn’t want my father to see me on TV and ground me.”
”Makes sense.”
A shrill voice announced the arrival of Chloé, and Marinette straightened her spine to endure the usual glares. Luckily, Chloé chose not to confront her again, glancing uneasily at the seat Ivan usually occupied, and took her seat as Madame Bustier arrived with the rest of the class close behind.
Adrien dropped into the seat next to Marinette, taking a long sip from his coffee cup before sliding Marinette’s double-shot gingerly toward her. She hadn’t lifted her head yet, so he made sure it was far enough away that if she knocked it over again it wouldn’t spill on her sketchbook.
Mumbling a thanks, Marinette reached for the cup without looking up. Adrien kept two fingers on the top of the cup to steady it until she blindly wrapped her hand around it.
Marinette finally set her pencil down with a deep sigh, taking a drink and stretching her neck from side to side. Adrien leaned forward over the desk and slid his bag onto the floor next to him.
“What are you working on today? Is it the same gown from yesterday afternoon?”
“No, I stayed up late to finish that one.” She poked Adrien in the nose when he leveled an annoyed look in her direction. “Yeah, I know I promised I’d stop doing that. Working on it.”
She ducked under the table, resurfacing with a small pastry bag. Adrien’s face lit up and he snatched it out of her hand while Marinette laughed. He shoved a croissant in his mouth, chewing while she flipped a couple pages back.
“Okay, so give me your thoughts on this one, I modified the cuff a little bit but I’m still not sure if there’s too much going on with the pattern near the hem.”
Marinette sat back, sliding the book toward him before grabbing a croissant of her own. Adrien brushed crumbs from his fingertips and leaned forward over the sketchbook, using the cover to move it closer.
He studied the sketch she’d asked about, a semi-formal suit jacket with a subtle floral pattern near the cuffs and lapels. He puffed his cheeks out as he considered it.
“It’s not bad —“
“But something’s not right.”
“Exactly.”
Adrien tilted his head to the side while sipping at his coffee again. “What color were you planning on making the embroidered floral design?”
“If the jacket is a dark blue, I was thinking of something to contrast. Maybe a lighter color, usually you only go with a darker color if you want to make it look lacy and delicate and that’s definitely not the goal for men’s jackets.”
“Why floral to begin with? It’s pretty uncommon for menswear.” He sat back, eyes locked on the sketchbook and eyebrows drawn together.
Marinette sighed, popping the last of her croissant in her mouth. “ Because it’s uncommon for menswear. I wanted to make something that would stand out. Seems kind of dumb now though.”
“I don’t think it’s dumb. Just unusual.” Adrien rolled his shoulders back. “Okay, so what if you did it in the same color but shinier? Like you’d use for a waistcoat or a pocket square?”
Marinette’s eyes shot up to meet his. Adrien rubbed the back of his neck.
“Is that stupid? I just figured if it’s the same color it won’t be too ‘feminine’, but it would still stand out.”
Marinette snatched her sketchbook back, scribbling frantically in the margins. Once she’d gotten the idea on paper, she dropped the pencil and launched herself at him, hugging tightly.
“Adrien, it’s perfect , thank you!”
Adrien’s arms wrapped around her waist and he smiled into the side of her head. His chest felt warm and tight when she let go, babbling about other design ideas she’d been working on.
He suppressed a grin when he heard Alya down the hallway yelling for Marinette. Snickering while she put her sketchbook away, Adrien leaned back to wait for the details from the latest akuma that Alya had managed to pick up.
“Marinette!”
“Hello Alya.” Marinette grabbed her coffee, downing a gulp of it and waving her free hand. “Go ahead.”
Adrien smiled as Alya sat directly on the desk in the next row down, launching into her interpretation of the akuma and its abilities. The smile drooped when Alya leaned forward and praised the way that Ladybug used her lucky charm to end the fight.
Adrien’s stomach felt hollow, and he set the coffee down before the combination gave him a stomachache. He was used to people seeing Ladybug as the hero, but it didn’t stop the sting from being ignored.
“Actually, Chat figured that one out.”
Adrien and Alya twisted to stare at Marinette, sipping her coffee with raised brows. Alya frowned, pulling the footage back up.
“No, Ladybug—“
“Did the actual work, but Chat figured it out and told her how.”
Alya looked up from her phone and Adrien’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Marinette.
“How do you know that?”
Marinette’s eyes went wide and she choked on her coffee, spluttering and coughing. Adrien patted her back gently, waiting for her to be able to breathe again. She waved at Aya to give her the phone.
When Alya handed the device over, she scanned through the footage on high speed. She coughed a few more times before handing it back over and pointing at the screen.
“See how they’re crouching over there talking?” Marinette croaked her words and Adrien winced in sympathy. “Ladybug looks really confused and smushes her hand over her face for a minute before Chat Noir says something. Right after that, she jumps up and doesn’t have any trouble. Chat solved that one, not Ladybug.”
“Huh.” Alya tapped on the screen, rewatching the scene. “I’ll have to update my write-up.”
Marinette grabbed her cup again, sipping more cautiously. Adrien watched her, chest warming more than it had from the earlier hug. A small smile turned the corners of his mouth.
“Kind of a fan, Marinette?”
Marinette spluttered again, but managed not to suck any coffee down the wrong pipe this time. Wide eyes met Adrien’s and he briefly wondered why she looked so panicked.
A garbled sentence filled with denial left her mouth and Adrien’s smile morphed into a teasing smirk.
Leaning forward, he let his voice pick up a tone of suspicion. “Are you lying, Marinette?”
Her face went bright red and Adrien couldn’t hold his laughter in any longer, collapsing on the table in front of him in hysterics. Marinette placed her hand on his shoulder and shoved him lightly, grumbling something about being mocked under her breath.
“Nothing to be ashamed of, Marinette. If you’ll recall, I have a crush on Ladybug.” He plopped his face onto the palm of his hand, smiling up from his place laying on the table.
“Yeah, yeah, fine. Maybe I’m a bit of a fan. I don’t have a crush on Chat Noir though!”
Adrien moved his hand to cover his mouth so she wouldn’t see the grin. “Never said you did.”
“Good. Because I don’t.”
He snorted, earning a glare. “I’m always game to talk about our resident superheroes if you want though. You obviously catch things I don’t in the videos.”
Marinette smiled smugly down at him, taking another sip of her coffee.
“Yeah, okay. Sounds nice.”
“You are never going to guess what Chat Noir did!” Marinette’s livid screech echoed through the hall as she hauled her locker open. Adrien’s eyes slammed shut and his face crumpled at both the sound of metal screeching and how painfully angry she was at him.
Thank everything she didn’t know she was angry at him.
“Oh?” He cleared his voice, trying to get it to do anything but croak.
Marinette’s answer was a growl, and Adrien instinctively raised his hands as he took a step back. He usually appreciated how much of a fan she was, but she took it very seriously when he took a hit for Ladybug and sometimes she was outright terrifying.
“He took another hit for Ladybug!”
Adrien leaned on the locker next to her, trying to remember how nonchalant looked and hoping that Marinette might be too angry to notice how stiff his neck had gone. “How is that different from any other fight? He usually takes the hits.”
“Yeah but I’m pretty sure I heard something crunch this time and that absolute idiot is going to get himself killed one day.” Marinette gathered her books for class, slamming her locker shut just as violently as she’d opened it.
Adrien winced, remembering the crack he’d felt in his shoulder when he hit the facade of a building during the fight and the way his vision had gone dark for a few seconds. Mindlessly rubbing his shoulder before catching the motion, he held a hand out for Marinette’s books.
She waved him off before returning to her irate ranting, leaving Adrien to fidget with the strap of his bag. He frowned.
“Hey, how did you know Chat Noir got hurt?”
Marinette froze mid-sentence and Adrien swore she stopped breathing. She sucked in a rapid breath and forced her words out just as quickly.
“Alya! She was there recording and I saw the video!”
His brows furrowed deeper and Adrien shrugged his shoulders back to loosen the muscles. “Yeah, but she hasn’t uploaded it yet. She always says that she wants to drop them around the time people get home from work for the most views.”
Marinette waved a hand past her face. “Adrien, she’s my best friend.”
He stuck his lip out. Marinette poked him in the nose, chuckling.
“Put that lip away, Alya was here first.”
“By like a day!”
“Still counts. Anyway, I get first peek at videos.” Turning with a shrug, Marinette began walking toward their classroom without waiting for Adrien to follow.
Adrien studied the back of Marinette’s head as she led the way down the hall.
If she’s back before Alya, how did she see the video?
He shook his head to clear it. The connection was tenuous at best, she was right that being friends with Alya gave them early footage rights regularly.
She wasn’t Ladybug, no matter how much he wished sometimes.
She’s just Marinette.
“Coming, Adrien?”
He nodded, following her to class and forcing thoughts of Ladybug’s identity out of his mind.
She couldn’t push Chat Noir’s identity out of her mind.
Adrien’s gentle encouragements when they worked on designs or projects together were too much like Chat’s nudges when she struggled with a particularly draining akuma.
Chat’s willingness to put himself in danger in battle was too reminiscent of Adrien telling Chloé to stop picking on Marinette for liking videogames by outing his own interests.
Their reactions to gentle touches and gifts of food were so alike that during their last gaming session she’d accidentally slipped and almost called Adrien “Chat” before she managed to course correct.
There were too many times during a conversation about the heroes that Adrien mentioned something she couldn’t pinpoint in one of Alya’s videos.
It couldn’t just be a coincidence.
“Marinette? Your mom let me up! Can I come in?” Adrien’s voice drifted through the trapdoor and Marinette scrambled to let him in.
“Hey! Right on time. I have the project supplies if you have the book we’re working on.”
Adrien climbed through the trapdoor, balancing a tray of treats from Sabine in one hand and carrying his bag in the other. Marinette snagged the tray, settling it on the desk while he closed the trapdoor.
Marinette dropped a stack of papers on the floor and started to sort through them to look for the notes she’d taken in class. Adrien grabbed the literature book he’d checked out, flipping quickly to the page they needed.
He pressed the spine flat, sliding the book toward her on the floor. “Okay, so I took a bunch of notes on the chapter we’re covering, but I wanted to see where you’d like to start.”
Surfacing with the paper she’d been looking for, Marinette shoved the other sheets aside haphazardly and started scanning the page. With a victorious little shout, she pointed at the section detailing the assignment.
“Okay, so here’s our guidelines, do you think you can work on this section while I outline the beginning and end? That way we can meet in the middle and smooth it out in editing.”
Adrien nodded, getting to work on the portion she requested. Marinette watched him read for a moment, distracted by the way his tongue poked out in concentration. Shaking herself to focus, she zeroed in on the assignment.
Several hours later, stuffed with pastries and satisfied with the result of the paper they’d produced, Marinette walked Adrien to the door to her room.
“Do you want me to walk you out?”
Adrien grinned, shaking his head. “No need, I think I can find my way. Thank you though.”
Marinette raised her hand to wave at him, startled when he managed to grab it in his own. Adrien leaned over it and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand. On instinct, Marinette grinned and poked the index finger of her free hand to his nose until he stood straight.
And both of them froze, staring at each other with wide eyes.
Distantly, Marinette registered Adrien’s driver honking downstairs. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again silently.
Adrien swallowed. “I have to go.”
Marinette watched him disappear down the stairs, still silent as the trapdoor closed.
Adrien swallowed, staring up at the trapdoor that led to Marinette’s balcony. His hands shook and he clenched them into fists to make them stop. He lost track of how many breaths he took in an effort to calm his nerves.
“Kid.” Plagg poked him in the chest and Adrien jumped. “Just go up there.”
“Everything changes after this.”
He swallowed again, meeting acid eyes peeking out of the pocket in his shirt. Plagg shrugged, settling back into position.
“Then don’t talk about it. The two of you can dance around the truth for a couple years and reminisce about how much time you wasted.”
Plagg opened one eye to meet the half-hearted glare Adrien sent his direction, only lifting one brow in acknowledgement. He pawed at his nose and yawned widely, eye shutting again.
“Well, unless you want to pretend you don’t suspect who she is and you want to move on—“
“There isn’t going to be anyone else, Plagg.”
“Then you’re gonna have to go up there and say something instead of standing in her room like a weirdo.”
Adrien’s eyes slammed shut and he let his head drop, ignoring Plagg’s wiggling in his pocket. Sucking in a deep breath, he squeezed his hands a couple more times before taking the steps up.
He stepped carefully over Marinette’s bed and eased the door open quietly. Once outside, he dropped the door back into place and turned to face the railing where Marinette stood with her back to him. The clouds were dark overhead, making the early afternoon fade into dusk but the city was bright behind her form all the same.
Marinette’s hair was down, loose around her shoulders as she leaned over the balcony to watch people passing by below. Prying his fingers back open from their fists, he crossed the small space to stand next to her. Marinette leaned her shoulder onto his.
Adrien blew out a rapid breath. “Having fun people-watching?”
She hummed, smiling down at the evening crowds. “Yeah, I am. I like making up stories about their lives, wondering what they do when they go home.”
“Why is that?”
Marinette licked her lips, frowning and not meeting his eyes. On a deep breath, she turned toward him but continued to stare at the bustle below.
“It feels important. To know that they’ve all got lives and families and—“ She cut herself off with a wave of her hand, jaw muscles tightening as she swallowed the last of the sentence.
Adrien turned his head, watching the people to try and see what she did. He rubbed his nose, resting one hand on the rail next to Marinette’s.
“And?”
A shaky laugh escaped her. “And it makes me think about the fact that they’re worth the effort.”
“Worth the effort of knowing them, you mean?” He swallowed, mouth dry. Marinette huffed, a humorless puff of air. She turned from the rail to meet Adrien’s eyes.
“Sure.”
He lifted one hand to scratch at the back of his neck before closing his eyes.
On one hand, Plagg was right and they would be better off talking instead of dancing around it.
On the other, he wasn’t ready yet.
She was his best friend. His confidante in every form. He wasn’t ready for things to change. She would let him avoid the subject until he was ready to move forward and talk about it.
Which really wasn’t fair to do to her.
His hands came up to scrub his face and Adrien blew out the breath he’d been holding. Turning back over the edge of the railing, he leaned on his forearms. While his eyes were closed Marinette had flung her arms over the side and allowed her hair to fall over her face as she stared at the rooftop.
“Back on my second day in school I asked you if it was the first time we’d met.”
Marinette jumped, lifting her head and furrowing her brow. She blinked before shaking her head. “Yeah, you did. Why?”
“You said you’d been trying to figure out why I seemed familiar too, if I remember.”
Marinette nodded, the frown still in place.
Adrien turned his upper body to face toward her while gripping the rail, knuckles going white. “Who was it I reminded you of?”
Marinette’s shoulders dropped at the same time her eyebrows smoothed and relaxed. A tiny smile appeared around the corners of her mouth. Rolling her lips inward, she met his eyes evenly before responding.
“You kind of remind me of Chat Noir, to be honest.” She giggled, eyes dropping. “Though at the time I thought he was pretty weird, a silly cat boy trying to be a superhero.”
Adrien frowned, puffing his lower lip out. Marinette laughed harder.
“But it turns out he’s surprisingly sweet.” She looked up through her eyelashes and Adrien felt his heart stutter. He reached for her hands, a shameless grin spreading across his face.
“Yeah?”
“Mmmhmm. He’s always got my back.”
Adrien opened his mouth to reply, but only managed to splutter when a raindrop hit him in the nose. Glaring at the sky only earned him several more raindrops to the face as the sky opened up with a steady shower. Marinette laughed, tilting her head back and closing her eyes.
“He always makes me feel powerful. Strong. Like I can take on the world.”
Bringing a hand up to his face without releasing hers, Adrien wiped the drops from his eyes. He watched her smile.
“I love the rain.” Marinette‘s eyes dropped to his again. “It always feels like a new beginning.”
Adrien nodded, desperate to regain his composure before speaking. He had to clear his throat twice before he could manage words. Marinette’s smile turned into a grin to match his. Wrinkling his nose, he lifted her hands to his mouth.
Breathing deeply, he pressed a kiss to the back of each hand. “So when did you meet Chat Noir, My Lady?”
Marinette went pink, and Adrien’s heart slammed into his ribs just as painfully as it did the day they’d met. She swallowed, blinking slowly at him like she was trying to commit the moment to memory.
“Probably about the time you met Ladybug, Chaton.”