Chapter Text
Adrien Agreste was known to be protective of his friends, really. Everyone, who had the pleasure of knowing him knew that, but still people tended to underestimate him.
From an outside perspective everything in Adrien’s life was great. He was handsome, rich, popular, smart and, according to the public, had a doting and beautiful girlfriend, who was very disappointed that just a few weeks prior, they had to cancel the world tour for the Gabriel Agreste brand due to unforeseeable circumstances. The moment he heard the rumors of him dating one Lila Rossi, the boy in question wanted to throw up.
Adrien’s opinion about his life was only known by few. Mostly his Kwami Plagg, a small black creature with cat ears and mischievous green eyes, that gave him the power to escape his hasty life and fight a magical terrorist as the well-known hero Chat Noir, and his friend Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Everyone else around him, seemed oblivious to his discomfort.
The boy disliked his modelling job most of the times and the few times, he actually enjoyed it or at least didn’t mind it too much, was whenever the forementioned ravenette with bluebell eyes was involved. But that was a rare occasion.
He hated the attention towards him and longed to be seen as a normal person, who just wanted to spend his time with the people close to him. And he absolutely loathed the rumors. But after a long talk with his father, that his Kwami Plagg helped him prepare, he finally managed to get the permission to publicly deny those rumors. At first, Gabriel had been adamant to just go with the lies until they died down and date Lila for publicity, however, this time Adrien had done his homework. He told him about some incidents regarding Lila and might have exaggerated a bit about how the public could see her, if they found out just a quarter of her doings.
Sickeningly enough his father seemed to be aware of what kind of person Lila Rossi was but refused to do something about it as long as she was useful for the brand.
In the end though, he called Adrien back into his office to inform him, that he had thought about it, and that it would be preferable if he was seen to date a more acceptable person than Lila. So, Adrien was excited for the interview Nathalie had scheduled, but until then he had to survive four more days of people assuming he would choose a person like Lila to date.
Sure, Lila being a psychopath was only knowledge to a few, but still, it made his stomach churn uncomfortably whenever he thought about it. But in the end, it was just a few more days until his official Interview. A few more days where he had to keep calm, shut his trap and…
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard voices close to the locker room. Despite being always punctual due to his upbringing (and personal driver, but that’s details) he usually wasn’t early. He was on time. Always. Not today though. After his shoot ended earlier than intended, he had a little more time to spare, but refused to go back to the mansion. Instead, he planned to have a good talk with his best friend Nino, who had just answered his text when Adrien entered the building.
Best Bro: I’ll be there in a few, mec.
He let out a relieved sigh and put his Phone back into his pocket.
But back to the voices. One of them, he realized, belonged to his least favorite person right now. Well next to Felix, but that’s a different matter entirely.
“Project Buttercup was another unsuccessful attempt. Thanks to you, guys.“ – “I am still not sure why we were doing that.” A voice that sounded terribly like Rose, said. “Aren’t we supposed to help Marinette finally confess to Adrien? She has been in love with him for so long and tried to tell him so many times. Don’t you think she deserves to at least get her rejection, so she can move on?”
Adrien’s brain came to a screeching halt as he realized several things at once. First of all: Marinette, sweet, caring, beautiful and sometimes totally crazy Marinette, his second favorite person right after his lady, was in love with him. And second: That also made him buttercup. He felt more than he heard Plagg cackle under his shirt. Damn that cat! They were going to have a long conversation over this later.
“It’s not like we are trying to hurt Marinette or anything.” Lila said to her audience. Whoever it was in there with the liar hummed in agreement. “But she is such a sensitive person, and I really don’t want her heart to get broken like that even if she doesn’t like me, we still have to watch out for her, right?”
The false concern in her voice made his skin crawl.
“Her obsession with Adrien, despite him being taken is getting out of hand. She should really just take the hint.” Another voice said. To Adrien’s surprise though, it was Alya that answered: “I don’t know why she is like that, girl. She really supported Adrien and Kagami dating and now that you two were finally able to make it official, she totally snapped.”
He told Lila to stay away from Marinette, so why couldn’t she just take the hint?
“Well, he was never really dating Kagami anyway.” Lila answered and then continued to feed more lies about Adrien’s and her secret lovestory, that made him gag. But his personal discomfort about the situation had to wait, because this was not just about him anymore, but about Marinette too. And according to the girls, who were still aahing and oohing about Lila’s lies, they were still planning to sabotage any attempt of Marinette confessing to Buttercup.
And that means they were going to sabotage every attempt of Marinette confessing to him.
And that means it was up to Adrien to get Marinette to date him.
Which, for the lack of knowledge about her crush on him, was the plan anyway, but that’s beside the point.
Right now, despite how horrible the situation was for Marinette, Adrien was elated.
Marinette was in love with him.
Marinette was in love with him.
After getting rejected by Ladybug more times than he could count, he was finally close to having his happy ending. Maybe not with the person he once hoped, but Marinette was amazing and ever since he noticed that he had feelings for his shy classmate and friend, he struggled, uncertain whether or not he should act about his feelings.
Plagg was the most supportive, right after Ladybug.
After Felix’s betrayal and Shadowmoth’s or Monarch’s how he likes to call himself these days, win, he and his Lady finally took the time to have a talk. It was emotional to say the least. There had been tears on both sides, angry ones as well as sad ones. They yelled at each other quite a lot too, getting all their cards on the table.
And she had told him about Chat blanc and the nightmares that followed. He told her he felt useless if he was no help and that his happiness depended on his time with Ladybug, because he just couldn’t find it in him to stand up for himself and change the things that made him unhappy in his civilian life.
In the end, they had held each other so tightly it almost hurt. And with the promise of friendship and a reveal after Monarchs defeat, they parted once again, as partners.
With Adrien knowing and understanding why Ladybug was so reluctant to give them a chance romantically, he was finally able to just let go. Of course, his feelings for Ladybug were still intense, but it was getting easier, because he understood.
It was the same day that Marinette had found him in the park around the bakery again and this time, she just held him, whispering sweet nothings into his ears, while resting his head on her shoulder. And it was the same day that it struck him like lightning that he was indeed in love with Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
He was just too blinded to see it at first and then too scared to admit it.
The love for Ladybug was sudden, powerful and all consuming.
His love for Marinette was shy, sweet and snuck inside his whole being until it filled every pore of his body with nothing but warmth.
“Hey mec, what’s up?” Nino’s voice from behind suddenly snapped him out of his trance and he realized that the girls must have headed to the classroom already. He greeted his best friend with their customary handshake and smiled up at him. He could do this. Even if Alya would stand in between him and Marinette, because of Lila, if Adrien pulled the rights strings, he could totally make Nino support him this time. So, with a heavy heart he said: “Can we talk? Like confidentially, just you and me?”
The request took Nino by surprise, but he nodded and then slowly lead him down to the boiler room. The very same room where, just a few months ago, Adrien had listened to his troubles.
They sat down at the table, still situated in the abandoned room and looked at each other.
Adrien took a deep breath and then started to explain the situation to Nino. About his crush on Marinette and how he was afraid to mess things up. About his definitely non-existing feelings or relationship with Lila and about what he really thought about leaving paris with her and travel the world.
The last was just for good measure, because after everything, he really just wanted someone else to understand him. And Nino was his best bud.
“Wait,” Nino said. “So, Marinette was right? You didn’t want to travel the world with Lila?”
The blonde boy just nodded, green eyes grazing the floor. He took another deep breath, still unsure about how to talk about his feelings. “It wasn’t just Lila, even though she makes me feel extremely uncomfortable with her constant flirting and clingy attitude despite having told her several times that I am not interested.”
He started, his voice quiet and shaking. “I didn’t want to go, like, at all. All I ever wanted was to go out, meet people, sure. But you guys are the people I want to meet, not strangers. You are important to me and I don’t want to give that up to travel around as an asset of my fathers company. I know people think my life is so cool and I probably should be more grateful for it, but I really just want to be like the rest of you guys. No modelling, no crazy fans chasing me around, no Lila spreading rumors in hopes I am just to tired to deny them until they are true.”
Nino just looked at him, dumbstruck. After a moment of silence, he finally said: “Damn bro, I am sorry I didn’t notice. It’s just I always thought you liked what you did. Sure, you were exhausted, and I know you would have loved to spend more time with us, but I guess I was just starstruck because of how cool your life looks sometimes.”
Then he stood up and hugged Adrien so hard, the boy almost fell off his chair. But he returned his affection eagerly, soaking in that Nino had listened to his complains without calling him stupid. And he was incredibly relieved that Nino believed him about Lila too.
“So, you have a crush on Marinette, huh?” he finally said and looked at the now furiously blushing blonde. He couldn’t help but laugh at his expression.
“I always thought you were crushing on her man, you just had to figure it out and come out of your shell.” Adrien hummed in agreement.
“The problem is that Lila is manipulating the girls to ruin any attempts of Marinette confessing her feelings for me.” Maybe Adrien should have waited to drop that bomb until after Nino swallowed his sip of chocolate milk, because the boy in question almost choked.
“Wait, you know?” Nino asked, incredulously, while trying to pick up his cap that had fallen to the floor.
“I accidentally heard the girls talking about it in the locker-room.” Adrien explained and then told him in detail about what exactly he had witnessed.
“Damn boy, that girl is evil.” He hissed, almost disbelieving. “And you are sure Alya was part of that group?”
Green eyes locked with brown and that’s all it took to convince him. Nino sighed and held his hands up in defeat.
“I love Als, I really do and it’s hard for me to believe that she would do something like that to Marinette. They are as close as they get, you know that.”
Another nod followed. “But I also know that Lila has her around her finger and, even though it goes against everything I believe in, I promise I will keep this from Alya, until you managed to confess to Marinette.”
The smile that Adrien gave his best bro was almost blinding. “Thanks bro, you are the best!” And he really meant it.
And for the following few days, people could see a slight shift between the members of Miss Bustier’s class.
People could sense that something was off.
But right now, that didn’t matter. Because it was girls vs boys in a fight, no one was really aware off.
Because now Operation Bluebells was a go.