Work Text:
There were hundreds of things that Caline loved about being a teacher- the satisfaction of her students accomplishing something, creating fun lessons for her students, being a positive impact on the next generation, just to name a few. Her least favorite thing about working with this age of students was the constant dancing around each other.
She was thankful that Mylène and Ivan started dating early in the school year so that she wouldn’t have to watch him being constantly distracted by his crush. The same applied to Alya and Nino to a slightly lesser extent, and to Juleka and Rose. She thought that they all made lovely couples.
This did, however, leave her with plenty of spare time to think about her students that weren’t in happy relationships, namely her favorite superhero duo. Caline wasn’t sure she’d ever met someone less subtle than Marinette, both in regard to her identity and her feelings for Adrien Agreste.
She was certain that anyone who hadn’t worked with hundreds of students over the course of 10 years wouldn’t pick up on Marinette’s secrets as quickly as she did. Well, most people, short of Adrien himself, could probably realize Marinette had a crush on him, but Caline doubted that many others knew Ladybug’s identity.
As a romantic at heart, Caline knew that it was her duty to help Marinette get the guy of her dreams. And, if Chat Noir finally got his lady , well, *quelle coïncidence*. She’d been invited to dozens of weddings in the past for students she’d secretly set up, so she already had plenty of ideas in mind.
1.
The second term of the school year began and Caline knew that her choice was going to be a bit controversial with her students. Having a seating chart assigned by the teacher was something that might have made her students feel like she didn’t think they were mature, but it had to be done.
For True Love.
Marinette was, unsurprisingly, late for the start of class the day that their seats were changed. When she arrived, Alya waved her to her new seat, signaling the seat directly in front of her where Adrien was the only student seated alone. She swallowed the lump caught in her throat and followed the unspoken direction from her best friend.
Marinette took a notebook out of her backpack and opened it to the next blank page, planning to take notes as best as she could while seated next to the most distracting thing possible. The maths assignment made sense to her mostly, but the fact of the matter was that she stopped focusing.
When that happened, she started writing in the margin of her notebook. It would make sense if she tried to keep the maths going, even if she wasn’t paying attention to the lesson, so she started to write a mathematical expression.
‘M + A < 3’
She didn’t even register what was happening when a slip of paper was slid across her notebook. There was an arrow that pointed to what she wrote in the margin and in Adrien Agreste’s neat handwriting, the note said ‘Is this from last term? Can I borrow your notes on it?’
She felt like she was going to have a heart attack before she practically slammed her notebook shut, accidentally keeping the piece of paper that contained the note that he’d written to her. In her haste to get the notebook away from him, she managed to shift her weight enough to topple from her seat.
With his cat-like reflexes, Adrien was able to reach out to catch Marinette by the arm before she could fall out of her seat. “Sorry,” he apologized in a whisper to not further disrupt the lesson, “I didn’t realize how much you were spacing out. I’ll grab them from Nino later.”
She did her best to smile politely, but she was only able to think about the warmth of his hand when he touched her arm. She knew she should thank him for helping her, but she didn’t know what would come out of her mouth if she tried, so she didn’t. She curled her knees up to her chest, thankful that the benches were big enough for that.
Apparently, changing seats was strike one for Caline Bustier: Matchmaker.
2.
Marinette hurt herself in a baking accident, which was definitely not just an excuse she came up with after messing up her shoulder while using her yo-yo on a patrol with Chat Noir. What a niche excuse that would never happen. The very notion is ridiculous.
Caline definitely hadn’t watched the video of Ladybug messing up her shoulder that Alya had posted on the Ladyblog. She also definitely hadn’t planned in advance to have Adrien walk Marinette to the nurse to get a bag of ice the next day at school.
Normally, if the class representative wasn’t available, it would be up to the deputy to escort the injured person to the nurse’s office, but Alya was going over an assignment with Caline when Marinette needed to go. When Adrien, the kind boy he is, offered to walk with Marinette, Caline didn’t know if she, Alya, or Marinette were most excited about the development.
Well, it was pretty clear that whatever excitement Marinette held was overshadowed by the nerves that arose from her crush offering to escort her through the school. Caline gave the two students permission to leave the classroom and it didn’t take very long before they did.
Marinette walked down the stairs to the courtyard and Adrien trailed a few feet behind her to give her personal space, while also being close enough in case there were any issues that he needed to help Marinette with.
Marinette opened and closed her mouth several times as they walked across the courtyard. Every time she thought she knew what she wanted to say to him, she changed her mind almost immediately and practically slammed her mouth shut.
“What exactly happened to your arm?” Adrien’s question didn’t sound like an accusation, just someone being genuinely curious about their friend? Classmate? Associate? Marinette appreciated that he cared, but that didn’t help her come up with an excuse for what happened.
She opened her mouth to try to come up with a response, but before she could, she looked up and saw a purple butterfly mask again on M. Damocles. “Oh, crabapples,” she mumbled under her breath as she identified the akuma she knew she’d have to battle soon.
“Keep yourself safe,” Adrien said, “I’m gonna go find help.” Marinette easily accepted when he opened a supply closet where she could ‘wait out the akuma.’ She didn’t know why he wasn’t going to hide with her, but she ended up deciding it was for the best.
Caline looked out the window of her classroom just in time to see Ladybug and Chat Noir appear at the scene of the akuma battle.
Apparently, Adrien escorting Marinette to the nurse was strike two for Caline Bustier: Matchmaker.
3.
Was rigging the results excessive? Yes. Did Caline believe it was necessary to set up her students? No, not really. There wasn’t really a reason to make choosing partners a spectacle when she knew the class would’ve accepted whatever partners they were assigned, but that didn’t stop her.
By the time she’d gotten to the side of Adrien’s desk, she’d managed for the bowl to be filled with just Marinette’s name. The details of the false bottom of the bowl were some of her best-kept secrets. When Adrien pulled the name, he turned around to smile at Marinette, who looked like she was going to have a heart attack where she sat.
Marinette did her best to keep a smile on her face at the knowledge that Adrien was going to come to her house, but she didn’t know how to believably act like everything was okay. Marinette was certain that she’d reacted to what Adrien had said to her, but she couldn’t consciously register his words.
He smiled at her and she felt her heart rate speed. When he turned to face the front of the room, Marinette had seen a short scribble from Alya. In the margin of Marinette’s assignment, Alya had written a note about the time when Marinette had agreed to meet with Adrien. It was listed as the next day, at 18h00.
Marinette took out a yellow pen that was the same shade as the flower that was to blame for her nickname for Adrien. She’d never had a reason to use it before, but she made a note in her planner of the fact that they were going to work on an assignment together the following day.
She had a colored pen for every member of their class so that she could keep up with everything that she agreed to for different people. She’d had Adrien as green originally, but as Nino became more regular of a Miraculous holder, he’d gotten the green instead. Sure, Chloe fit yellow, too, but all of her events were listed in Sabrina’s turquoise, anyway.
Marinette knew that she was going to have to talk to her parents about Adrien coming over to learn about their family. After how great things had gone when Chat Noir had come over for a meal, she wasn't sure how her papa would react to her bringing over another boy, especially the boy whose face plastered her bedroom wall.
She took a deep breath and wrote 'redecorate' in her planner, hopeful that no one would think it was suspicious if they saw the note. When she got home that day, she placed a poster of Ladybug and Chat Noir over the spot on her wall where the pictures of Adrien sat. She considered taking them down, but covering them seemed easier.
Caline was happy to find out that the two students had concrete plans to work on their assignment together. She knew that Marinette’s parents were always happy to help with her work and they were supportive of her choices in friends. Caline was certain that Tom and Sabine would help Adrien feel like he was welcome there and hopefully , he would become interested in Marinette as a result.
The next day, Marinette was late to show up for class, but that was more than Adrien, who didn't show up. He was called out by Nathalie for a photoshoot, but Caline was just happy that it was because of a photoshoot, not an akuma.
"How was your date with Adrien?" Caline overheard Alya pose the question to Marinette the following day at school. Marinette’s face lit bright red and her face screwed into a look of discontent.
"Please don't make me think of it like that," Marinette quietly begged. "I thought the last time I had a boy over was bad enough, but that didn't even come close to last night."
"What happened?" Alya's eyebrow rose and Caline was practically certain that hers did the same.
“Papa decided to be himself,” Marinette replied, trying to hold back a cringe. “I love him, but he can be a bit overbearing. He wanted to get to know Adrien, find out the backstory to how we started dating, and tried to convince Adrien to help set up a dinner between him and M. Agreste.”
Alya’s mouth opened like she had something to say, but Marinette continued. “Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, he started showing off my baby pictures. It was mortifying and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to look Adrien in the eye again.”
Apparently, working together on an assignment was strike three for Caline Bustier: Matchmaker.
4.
Caline couldn’t help but notice the improvement in the friendship between Adrien and Marinette. Given how much of a disaster Marinette said the dinner was, she was expecting things to be awkward or tense between the two of them, but it wasn’t.
In fact, Caline was happy to note that the two of them were getting along better than they ever had in the past. Marinette was able to say full sentences around him and Caline was proud of her class representative. She wasn’t going to cause them to go back to Marinette’s house again, but she did decide to take advantage of the next opportunity that presented itself.
During a free work period of the day, Adrien walked over to her desk. With his voice lowered to a whisper, he spoke. “I’m sorry to interrupt your work, but M. Martin asked me to stop by his office when I finished my work. I’m not sure where it is, though.” Caline knew that M. Martin’s office was difficult to find if you’d never been there before.
“Marinette, could you please come over here?” A faint pink tint was added to Marinette’s cheeks as she walked over to the edge of her teacher’s desk. “As our class representative, could you please show Adrien to M. Martin’s office?” Marinette thought through the request and smiled at her teacher and her friend with a small nod.
Caline gave them each a hall pass and the two walked out of the classroom together. She was happy about the idea of the two of them getting the chance to talk on their way to M. Martin’s office. She knew that Adrien was going to talk to M. Martin about his extracurriculars and different courses when they got to lycée .
Around 10 minutes passed and Caline was surprised that Marinette wasn’t back. M. Martin’s office was a three-minute walk from the classroom and after walking Adrien there, there wouldn’t be a point in Marinette staying behind to wait for him. She knew it was a fruitless endeavor when Alya was still sitting in the classroom, but she checked the news.
There were no new akumas, so that immediately eliminated one possibility. Neither student wanted to miss class when they could be there, but that didn’t explain where Marinette had gone. Even if this was a free work period, Marinette usually liked to use them sleeping, designing, or catching up on work.
"Alya," Caline said, loud enough to get her attention without distracting other students. "Do you know where M. Martin's office is?" Alya nodded proudly without a second thought.
"Yeah,” she agreed, “M. Damocles showed me on one of my first days as class deputy.” That assured Caline that Marinette knew where the room was, at least. “Do you need me to bring him something?”
“No, dear,” Caline refused, “I sent Marinette and Adrien that way a little bit ago. Would you mind checking that they’ve made it to the right spot?” Alya’s face screwed up in contemplation.
“Does Mari know where his office is?” Alya’s question surprised Caline. “She wasn’t there for the tour I went on and I don’t know how much my explanation of ‘all the way down the hall to the right’ stuck with her.”
Caline hadn’t even considered that Marinette may not know how to get there. A minute later, the door opened and Marinette strode inside. She collapsed into her seat and sighed as though she had just gotten back from fighting an akuma.
She placed a hand over her face as Alya returned to her seat. “I took him on a wild goose chase,” Marinette admitted to her best friend when she sat. “You could have told me that M. Martin’s office was on this floor.”
“What did you think down the hall meant?” Alya asked, causing Marinette’s face to light up once again.
“I thought you said it was all the way down to the right. So, I went downstairs as much as I could then went to the right.” Caline smiled at her student. At least Marinette was doing her best with all of her responsibilities.
Apparently, though, Marinette escorting Adrien around the school was strike four for Caline Bustier: Matchmaker.
5.
It all came down to this. Caline Bustier’s chef d’œuvre . If this didn’t work to set up Marinette with Adrien, Caline would be convinced that nothing would work for the two teenagers. It was a raffle for the end of the semester. Every student in the class won a random bag that contained rewards, ranging from ‘extra credit’ passes to dinner at a restaurant.
Was it contrived? Yes. Did Caline care ? No. She just wanted her students to be happy, by whatever means necessary. She was certain that if she told the class that her plan was to get ‘Adrienette’ to a nice dinner, almost every student would’ve agreed. She made everything appear as randomized as she could, despite the backup plans she’d set in place.
Thankfully, Caline knew her students well enough to know that the reserved Adrien would pick the bag that looked inconspicuous, which contained the first dinner invitation. Marinette was a bit more complicated, but the rest of the class had chosen the bags they were expected to. Eventually, Marinette was called to choose her prize.
She, as expected, picked up the other dinner invitation and Caline was sure that things were going to go well this time for Caline Bustier: Matchmaker. When Marinette and Adrien realized they were gonna have dinner together, they shared a high-five, which was at least a step in the right direction.
The two of them were scheduled to go to the restaurant at the Grand Palais on Friday evening the following week. Which meant that, hopefully, in two weeks there would be a new couple in her class. She thanked her lucky stars every day that she and Marlena had kept a good friendship going after being roommates back in university.
After hearing about Caline's plan at their most recent wine and cheese night, Marlena was standing on deck, ready to tell Caline all the details of Adrinette 's date. It felt like no time passed between choosing the prizes and their actual dinner. “Cay,” Demeter said, looking up toward her girlfriend. “You’re pacing, again.”
Caline knew that she was right, of course, but that wasn’t going to stop her. They’d been together for years, and Demeter Mendeleiev was nothing if not an observer . It was part of what made her a good scientist. She did well at picking up patterns and finding solutions to problems, which often helped her deal with Caline’s franticisms.
“Of course I am,” Caline replied, “why wouldn’t I be?” Demeter stood from her spot on the couch and stepped over to wrap her girlfriend in her arms.
“I know you want them to be happy, but getting yourself into a tizzy over this isn’t going to help anyone. We don’t even know if they’re at dinner yet or not. How about the two of us put on our show and take a bit to relax while you wait to hear from Marlena?” Caline clutched the phone in her hand a little bit tighter, excited to hear from her friend.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She bit the left edge of her bottom lip before opening her eyes again. “You’re right, love,” she resigned. “A watched phone never rings.” Demeter chuckled at Caline’s statement and the two of them went into the kitchen to prepare dinner for themselves.
WIthin a minute of walking into the kitchen, Caline’s phone started going haywire, buzzing more than it ever had before.
MC: I thought this was gonna be fun.
MC: Caline, what have you unleashed on my restaurant?
MC: I… I’ve known Marinette for so long. How did I never know she’s an arbiter of chaos?
MC: Are we sure she even *likes* Adrien? A friend of theirs showed up and she immediately invited her to sit with them.
MC: Looks like the three of them are having dinner together now.
MC: Of course, Marinette tripped my best waiter. 3 accident-free years down the drain, and spilled straight onto Adrien Agreste . Good thing Chloé isn’t here, she’d have my waiter’s head for that.
MC: They only got two meals, I guess Kagami is only stopping by to chat for a bit?
MC: *NEVERMIND, I GUESS.* Orders have been brought out. Apparently, Marinette didn’t even order anything. Trying to get to the bottom of how this happened. I’ll be in touch.
Caline began typing up a response to her friend, but more messages came through before she had a chance to reply.
MC: Marinette, honey, we can’t give you chicken with a side of rickshaw. That’s not food. Smh.
MC: Update! Update! Update! Adrien is sharing his food with her!
MC: Update (derogatory)! Marinette’s apparently allergic to asparagus… Just got off the phone with Sabine, Kagami is going to take Mari to the hospital. Sounds like she’ll be okay, but I don’t think this date went very well for Operation: Adrinette.
Caline didn’t know what to say as the texts sped across her phone’s screen. It felt like as soon as she got halfway through reading one, the next was incoming. She was barely able to put the story together as it unfolded, but one thing was perfectly clear.
Apparently, a nice dinner together was strike five for Caline Bustier: Matchmaker.
+1.
Strike five was the final strike for Caline. That night, after making sure that Marinette was going to be okay, Caline had a conversation with Demeter. She came to the conclusion that she didn’t need to be as involved in her students’ relationship as she had become. She decided to take a step back from trying to set them up.
By a ‘step back’, she meant that she was done. If the two of them got together, great, but she wasn’t going to get involved in that. The hormones of her pregnancy were making her more frantic about the idea of matchmaking and after talking to Demeter and some doctors, they decided the additional stress wasn’t good for the baby.
Soon after she made that decision, she was coming up with a lesson plan for the coming week. In the ‘subject’ line, she’d written the words ‘hero worship.’ She knew that if she was trying to set the two up, the subject would’ve been a partner assignment about the representation of love in various forms of media.
As it stood, though, she wasn’t trying to set up her students anymore and she wanted to make sure that none of her kids were looking up too much to Paris’ heroes who were no older than them. She knew that Ladybug and Chat Noir deserved respect- of course, they did, but that didn’t mean that they deserved to be worshiped unconditionally.
It was an individual assignment, where each student was asked to look at what makes a hero a hero, what heroic traits can be seen in people in their day-to-day life, and any unheroic traits that their ‘hero’ embodied. Adrien, with most of the class, chose to write about Ladybug. Marinette, on the other hand, decided to write about Chat Noir.
On the day that their assignments were due, Marinette and Adrien were acting more awkward than usual. Where Marinette would usually avoid meeting his eyes to not embarrass herself, this time, Adrien was purposely avoiding her gaze, face bright pink with a blush every time she so much as glanced in his direction.
“Time to hand up your papers,” Caline announced to her class of students. From the back of the room, the assignments were handed to the students in the row closest to her. When Adrien moved to collect Marinette’s paper, their hands touched, causing him enough surprise to drop the stack of papers he’d collected.
He managed to catch all of the papers, moving with such agility that he didn’t even register that he had accidentally creased Marinette’s assignment. When he looked at the paper in his hand, Caline could see his adam’s apple bob with the swallow that he did.
“Have a great weekend, everyone,” Caline announced when the school day came to an end. Everyone left quickly, including Marinette and Adrien who had gone in separate directions when they left. Caline sat at her desk, wanting to get some grading taken care of before the weekend started.
She didn’t know how Adrien’s assignment got on top of the pile, but she was happy to start reading through it.
‘My hero is Ladybug.’ The answer was expected. Neither Chat Noir nor Adrien were subtle with their infatuation with the heroine. 'There are so many things that make Ladybug a hero to Parisians, but there are even more reasons that she's a hero to me.'
'I've been able to interact with her several times when she needed to protect me during attacks and she's just as strong as she seems. Of course, a hero is supposed to be strong, but Ladybug is more than just physically strong.'
'She happens to be the bravest person I've ever met. No matter how much she might be overwhelmed, she's constantly trying to be the best person that she can be. She's the type who would give someone a lucky charm just because they’re nervous. She would stand up for injustices, no matter how small.’
‘Someone else who embodies these traits, potentially even more than Ladybug is Marinette, our everyday Ladybug. Even though we got off on the wrong foot, she was quick to forgive and move on towards being friends. She has gone out of her way to stand up for me when it comes to experiences outside of school.’
‘She gave me a lucky charm and I didn’t expect it to work as well as it has. The charm has given me Ladybug Luck in the most unexpected ways and that’s something Ladybug herself wouldn’t be able to give me now.’
‘Some may argue that Ladybug being clumsy is an unheroic trait of hers, but I disagree. It isn’t elegant, but it shows her resiliency in the face of difficult situations. It’s admirable. Really, the main unheroic trait of hers is her stubbornness. She won’t share her burdens with others, no matter how much others worry about her.’
When she finished reading Adrien’s essay, Caline looked at the rubric that she’d created for the assignment. This wasn’t the first time Adrien had used an assignment as almost a sort of therapy, so she’d been sure to devise rubrics for her assignments so that her emotions wouldn’t get involved in grading the assignments.
In this case, Adrien got 80% for answering the assigned questions, 100% for reaching the minimum length, 95% for grammar and spelling, and 90% for providing sources. She made a note that she still needed to figure out how the students were supposed to accurately cite the Ladyblog. She wrote 94% on the top of the page and moved on to the next student’s paper.
‘My hero is Chat Noir.’ From the first line, Caline was fairly certain that she was either reading Marinette’s paper or Nino’s. ‘He deserves just as much praise as Ladybug.’ Scratch that, definitely Marinette’s. ‘He’s just as much of a hero as she is, even though he doesn’t get the recognition for it.’
The entire class was at least passively aware of Marinette’s passion for the hero. Again, subtlety wasn’t Marinette’s strong suit in life, she was loud and proud of Chat Noir and unapologetic about it. ‘Chat Noir isn’t my hero for everything that he does for Parisians, he’s my hero just because of who he is.’
‘More importantly than his powers and Cataclysm, his most heroic trait is his heart. He’s always there for Parisians and I admire him for that. He’s happy to support civilians who need it, from someone needing help carrying groceries home to someone soothing a broken heart. Ladybug is professional, which puts up a wall between her and civilians that doesn’t exist for Chat.’
'I've had a few chances to get to know Chat as a person instead of a hero and he's incredibly admirable. He’ll help people without a second thought, even if at first a request seems odd, and even if he’s unsure, he’ll at least listen to someone and hear them out before making a decision.’
‘Someone who I think has a lot of heart similar to Chat Noir is Adrien. He’s faced hardships of his own, but that doesn’t stop him from being the best person and best friend that he can, to me, Nino, Alya, and anyone else who can call themselves his friend.’
'In my opinion, Adrien is more impressive than Chat Noir in that regard. Chat's in the public eye as a hero just by nature of being a hero, but when he's not being Chat Noir, he doesn't have to think about how his actions impact his hero life. Adrien is constantly in the public eye and is still happy to show as much heart as he does.'
'The size and strength of Chat's heart is both his most heroic quality and his least heroic quality. It can easily get him into trouble if he’s not careful. It would be easy for someone to use it against him, like the Ladybug sentimonster a few months ago. I don’t want him to set himself up to be hurt by anyone looking to take advantage of him. He’s too good of a person for that.’
Caline looked at the rubric she made for the assignment. Definitely 100% for the word count, which was a good starting point. That was the easy part. 75% for answering the assigned questions. 100% for providing sources. 90% for spelling and grammar. She wrote 91 at the top of the page and flipped over the assignment.
She started reading through the next paper about Ladybug, but something kept niggling at the back of her mind. If the two of them admired each other so much and compared each other to their heroes, why would they have been so uncomfortable in class earlier? Did something change between them? Did one of them admit to feelings?
She decided that she was thinking about it too much. She had already decided to leave Caline Bustier: Matchmaker in her past and focus on the assignments. None of the other papers were particularly memorable to her, the rest of them were relatively generic in the grand scheme of things.
She was thankful that the assignments were short enough that she could get them graded that day and handed them back the following Monday, maybe still a bit distracted thinking about Marinette and Adrien writing about each other in their assignments. Distracted enough that Caline didn’t notice when she handed Adrien’s paper to Marinette and Marinette’s paper to Adrien.
Each of the students put their papers away quickly after receiving them, which was policy in the classroom. If they wanted to look over their assignments and compare their grades to what they feel they should have received based on the rubric, she was happy to hear them out, but that would have to be after class.
That night, Caline went home and was sitting on the couch with her girlfriend watching tv when a notification came through on her phone from the Ladyblog.
‘LadyNoir Is Official!’ Caline was surprised and clicked through to follow the link to the website. On the front page of the Ladyblog, below the headline, was a photo of Ladybug and Chat Noir on a rooftop. He had his arm wrapped around her and she was curled up to his chest. They looked comfortable, and happy, which was all that she wanted for her students.
The following day, Adrien approached Caline’s desk. “You handed me back the wrong assignment yesterday.” He handed Marinette’s paper back to Caline and she thanked her student. When Marinette came in a few minutes later, she gave Caline Adrien’s assignment back before she went up to him and gave him a big hug.
When the two sat down on their bench, they were in the same position as they were in the picture from the night before. Comfortable and happy. Caline decided it didn’t matter how the two finally got together, but she was happy to know there was no more use for Caline Bustier: Matchmaker… at least not this school year.