Work Text:
“I was worried about him, sugarcube. He was not just pining for her, he was pining away and I wasn’t sure if he’d last until he got back to Paris.”
“I get it, Plagg. She was the same way. She was blaming herself, she didn’t go a day without crying for him.”
The voices sounded nearby but still distant as Marinette resurfaced from her dreams. They had been great dreams. She was kind of mad at Tikki and Plagg for waking her up.
Wait. Tikki and Plagg. Her eyes flew open, but the room was dark and she couldn’t see much. Except that she could feel enough.
The warmth from Adrien’s body blended with hers and she couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. She was basically draped over him, in a way which wasn’t very comfortable. It was as if she couldn’t bear to put even a centimetre between them. Which was true.
“It’s been too long,” Plagg said. They were on her balcony, she could tell. It was her open skylight that let her hear them so clearly. “They should have gotten together years ago.”
“It was dangerous, you know it.”
“I know. But there were so many times when I just wanted to throw all the secrecy rules to the wind. Just to see him happy.”
“It wasn’t easy for her as well.”
“She wasn’t the one who got her heart broken again and again.”
Marinette swallowed thickly, feeling tears sting her eyes. She didn’t want to think about all the hurt she’d caused Adrien. Her kitty. She had been so in love with him that she had turned him down so many times without realising it.
“He’s too stubborn.”
“She’s just as stubborn and you know it. We wouldn’t be here if they weren’t both incredibly headstrong. They would have given up on each other long ago.”
“But they are made for each other.” Tikk sounded happy as she said this.
“I agree. But knowing this didn’t make waiting for them to find out the truth and to finally be together any easier.”
“They had to defeat Hawk Moth first. It was the responsible thing to do.”
“If only he hadn’t turned out to be his father.”
Marinette felt her arm, still around Adrien, tighten its hold instinctively. If only she could have saved him from this pain. If only she could have avoided this.
It had all happened so fast. They had defeated him, they had found out his identity and it had been over. But before Marinette could even begin to comprehend the fact that her partner was Adrien and it had been his father that they had been fighting for so long, he’d left.
It wasn’t his fault. His aunt hadn’t waited for his agreement before taking him to London. All Marinette had gotten was a text about how sorry he was about everything.
At first she’d thought that since he still had Plagg with him, they could meet up. Maybe halfway between Paris and London. Maybe she could go over to see him. But he hadn’t reached out with such an offer and she’d been too afraid to make it herself.
She had felt guilty for being the one who had put his father in jail. It was irrational, of course. She hadn’t made Gabriel choose to be a villain. And a part of her knew that Adrien would never feel bitter because of this.
But being away from him had given her too much time to worry. To go through all the missed chances. To miss him so much.
In fact, when he first called her to tell her that he was back in Paris, she thought it was a trick. He’d sounded so normal, as if they hadn’t been apart for months. As if they were just old friends meeting up. She’d thought that maybe this was all they were to him. Maybe he’d managed to get over her and now wanted to meet her for old times’ sake, not because he had missed her.
So she’d tried to pull herself together and ask him to dinner, saying that her parents were away. She could be civil. She could be a good friend to him. Now more than ever.
But hiding her true feelings had proven to be impossible from the moment she found herself engulfed in his arms. It was so familiar, the way he held her as if he didn’t want to let her go, ever. And it was something she’d missed so much that she had just burst into tears.
He had held her and had told her how sorry he was that he couldn’t get away earlier. His aunt had been a bit irrational, he explained. He was a legal adult and could look after himself. But she’d been left so shaken after all the revelations about his mother and his father that he hadn’t dared to oppose her wishes for him to spend some time in London. Except that a month had turned into two and then three.
He hadn’t contacted Marinette because he’d felt guilty for causing her so much trouble. It was his family that had put her life at risk, had made her waste years of her life for a fight against a madman.
He’d waited for her to call him and she’d waited for him to do it and they had only caused each other more pain. Oh the irony.
It was this, knowing that he didn’t hate her, that he’d missed her, that she was the reason he’d returned. All this, coupled with the fact that he was there, in her house. Adrien but also Chat. It had made Marinette do the thing for which she hadn’t gathered enough courage for years.
She’d kissed him. Knowing full well that she should talk to him first. That just crying in his arms wasn’t a good enough explanation for her actions. A part of her had expected him to gently disengage from her and tell her that it was too late for that.
It hadn’t happened. Instead, one kiss had turned into a lot more. The way he’d kissed her had told her enough - that he still felt the same way and would welcome the opportunity to make up for lost time.
They had been caught up in the feelings that resurfaced between them and all of a sudden it had felt as if they couldn’t stop.
They had left talking for some other time, choosing to use other ways to show each other how they felt. This was how then they had ended up in her bed and had spent the night together.
“What happens now though?”
Plagg’s question brought her back to the present.
“Well, it’s pretty obvious. They are together.”
“Are they? I heard a lot of things last night, enough to make me curse my supernatural hearing.” Marinette felt her cheeks warm up at the comment. “But I didn’t hear her tell him that she loves him.”
“She will.” Tikki’s faith in her warmed her heart but not enough to remove the guilt she felt again.
“I don’t want him to suffer again. He needs to know.”
“Plagg… you have to be patient. You know how emotional this was for them. They will talk about this and everything will be fine.”
“I will put up with all the lovey-dovey stuff, I promise. I won’t complain. I just want him to be happy.”
There was something incredibly touching about hearing about the kwami’s concern. Of course he loved Adrien. It was just that Marinette had never expected that he’d be so invested in his love life.
He was right. She had to be completely honest with Adrien. She had to tell him that him being her kitty was the best thing. That she loved him even more now. That she wanted to be with him. That this wasn’t just something impulsive.
She was so lost in thought, imagining how they would have breakfast together and would talk, that she didn’t realise that the hand on her hip was moving. It was a gentle, soothing motion that she didn’t register at first. He was awake.
Marinette felt her breathing speed up. Had he heard the kwamis? Did he know? Why hadn’t he asked her anything? Although of course he wouldn’t bombard her with questions. He knew her so well. He’d wait for her to do what she felt was right.
Taking a deep breath, she opened her mouth and said what she hadn’t been able to say for so long.
“I love you.”
It sounded so loud in the dark and quiet room. But she wanted it to be loud and clear. To leave no doubt in his mind that she meant it.
He shifted under her and she pulled back to give him some space. She wished she could see his face but she was also afraid of his reaction.
Except that she shouldn’t have been. What he did was to gently guide her back to him until their lips met. Their roles were swapped for once. She’d been the one to tell him how she felt while he’d chosen to show her.
Maybe he had heard the kwamis and didn’t need an explanation because he never gave her a chance to talk.
*
The morning came with the bright light from Marinette’s window and the even brighter smile on Adrien’s face. Breakfast was exactly the way she had imagined it. Plagg hadn’t said a thing when she handed him a plate piled with cheese, but she had seen the approval in his eyes.
So when Marinette started talking, she knew that it was going to be alright. They had spent a lot of time lost, blindly searching for each other and not knowing that they were already as close as they could be. Now they finally had a chance to make it happen. It might be late, but it wasn’t too late. This was what mattered.