Chapter Text
Although she lived next door to her school, Marinette didn’t always go home for lunch. Sometimes, she’d use the time to patrol Paris, and ensure no one needed her help. Other times, she took the opportunity to catch up on all the homework that so often got pushed aside in favor of way more important things. Still, she had to keep up appearances. She made an effort to come home for lunch several days a week.
She was just finishing up her meal when her mother called up to her from the bakery. “Oh, Marinette, would you water your plants before you go back, please? I went up this morning and they’re starting to dry out in the heat.”
“Huh? Oh-- yeah, of course.”
Keeping plants was a new thing, and Marinette sometimes forgot that she had to water them regularly. She was only keeping them to watch them grow; she didn’t care too much for the maintenance, especially now that it was nearly summer. But they made Tikki happy, so she’d done her best to keep them alive.
Marinette filled up the water pail and carried it upstairs, careful not to spill on anything. She’d filled it up a little much, but she didn’t want to come all the way back down again. Easier to do it all in one go. She pushed open the trapdoor to the roof and climbed out--
And froze as she caught sight of Adrien Agreste sleeping on her chaise.
In hindsight, it had all been Plagg’s fault.
Adrien had been warned, early on, that he might find himself with a few feline mannerisms. For the most part they were easily managed. Years of modeling had conditioned him to control himself, and if anything he found the superhero persona to be an outlet for all of his nervous energy. At times, things leaked over to his normal life, but he found ways to explain them away.
The real problem was the sleeping.
Adrien liked class. He’d realized that this made him unique among his peers, but after so many years of being homeschooled it was nice just to be around other people while he was learning. Even if it was something he’d gone over before, there was always some kind of different spin on it.
“And in the seventeenth century…”
He wasn’t sure what it was about today, but he couldn’t focus. Adrien usually took down notes, but he’d barely touched his tablet in the past twenty minutes. He slumped forward in his seat. Had the heat been turned up?
“Kim, if you could read the next passage?”
Adrien glanced down at the text they were going over, but the words seemed to blur before his eyes. He blinked a couple of times, but they didn’t get any clearer. Instead, every time he closed his eyes, he felt like it would be easier to keep them shut. Maybe no one would notice if he looked like he was reading…
There was a jab in his side. Someone was hissing his name. Nino?
Adrien lurched upright. His eyes were clouded, and he blinked a few times to clear his vision.
“If you’d care to join us, Adrien,” Mme. Bustier’s voice cut through the haze.
Had he just--
He had. He absolutely had. He’d fallen asleep in class.
The entire class was staring at him. Not a single one had spoken -- not even Chloé. He realized they were all waiting for him to say something.
“I-- I’m so sorry!” Adrien stammered. “I was--”
I was out chasing an akuma until 2 in the morning with Ladybug, we barely got it and she pulled off the most brilliant plan, I wish someone had filmed it so I could watch it over and over again--
“I had a late night,” he mumbled.
The other kids were whispering to one another. Chloé gave him what she probably thought was a comforting look and before he knew it her arms were around his shoulders. “You poor thing,” she simpered. “You work so hard, and you never have any time to rest. I think I should take you home and make sure you get a good night’s sleep.”
“I’m fine, Chloé,” Adrien protested, pulling back from her. He looked up at the teacher, apologetic. “I’m sorry, can we just--”
“Let’s all return to our seats, please,” Mme. Bustier said. “Chloé, if you’d read the next passage?”
Adrien wasn’t really sure why the other kids didn’t tease him; maybe it was because they knew how busy he was, or because they’d all been so surprised to see him in that state. He was grateful for it, either way.
Of course, Nino took it as an opportunity to lay into him. “Dude! You’ve gotta do less stuff! Look what it’s doing to you!”
“It’s fine, Nino,” Adrien said as they headed outside. They’d been having this conversation ever since class ended. “I told you, I just had a late night. I’ll sleep tonight and I’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, until you come in tomorrow with bags under your eyes.” Nino frowned. “Come on, dude. Don’t models need beauty sleep or something?”
They did. Unfortunately that block of free time was also needed by a certain superhero. “I get plenty of sleep,” Adrien said. He glanced at the street. The limousine was waiting for him. “I gotta go.”
Nino looked as if he still wanted to argue, but few could win against Adrien’s calendar. “Okay, man. See you tomorrow.”
About two hours later, it was Adrien’s piano teacher prodding him in the back with that baton she always carried around. Adrien lifted his head and groggily rubbed at his face. He could feel the imprints of the piano keys against his cheeks.
So much for making it through the rest of the day.
Even then, Adrien had thought it was a fluke. He’d been perfectly fine the next day, and no one said anything about it. He did have a busy schedule, after all. It wasn’t absurd to think he might need to catch up on sleep every now and then.
Three days later he fell asleep during fencing practice. Masked. Standing up.
It was a wonder he hadn’t been seriously injured.
“You’re doing great, Adrien. Gorgeous as usual, just gorgeous. This shade looks great on you. I’ll be done with your makeup in just a couple more minutes, okay? ...Okay? Adrien?”
He’d fallen asleep again during the shoot, but given he’d been lying on a bed for half the photographs it was only to be expected.
He tried drinking coffee.
The good news was that Adrien managed to stay awake for twenty-four hours.
The bad news was that it tasted awful, the sugar he dumped in to improve the taste made him hyperactive, the caffeine gave him headaches, and the ensuing withdrawal made him sleep through half an akuma attack and even though Ladybug didn’t say anything, he knew she was unhappy with him.
Coffee wasn’t going to work.
“This is getting ridiculous,” Adrien said, upon returning home.
“I’ll say,” Plagg replied through a mouthful of cheese. “Who ever heard of a teenager that doesn’t get enough sleep?”
Adrien glared. The kwami continued eating. Plagg had, to this point, been completely unhelpful. His only advice, when Adrien complained, was to sleep more.
“I can’t get any more sleep,” Adrien protested. “My schedule--”
“You and your schedule.” Plagg sniffed in disdain. “You’re going about this all the wrong way.”
“Oh this should be good.”
“You gotta make time for sleep. Sleep’s like a good cheese. You gotta put in a little bit of effort, and then you let it happen. It’s like magic.”
Adrien paused. Considered that for a moment. “...That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Sure it does.” Plagg munched on his cheese. “Think about it. You need sleep one way or the other, don’t ya? Why not make the time?”
“I’m not going to find twelve hours a day,” Adrien muttered. “It’s hard enough finding six.” He stared at his calendar moodily. Even on those days he didn’t end up going out and fighting an akuma, he had to get up early for school.
“Listen, kid,” Plagg said. He floated up from his cheese. “This is why catnaps were invented.”
Great. Now Plagg was making puns. He really was doomed. Adrien groaned and sagged back on his bed, exhausted. This wasn’t helping at all and now he was going to be even more tired tomorrow. He had basketball after school and a shoot in the evening. There was no way he was going to make it that long.
Unless…
Adrien took another look at his schedule.
“Plagg, you’re a genius,” Adrien said.
“Obviously.”
Over the next few weeks, Adrien developed a schedule of his own.
Even with his variable calendar, there were a few constants Adrien could count on. The first was the Gorilla.
He’d fallen asleep in the limousine before, even before Plagg came to him. It was comfortable, after all, and at the end of a long day he was usually exhausted. Now, though, he didn’t just doze off occasionally -- he made a habit of it. Ten minutes in traffic meant ten minutes of sleep.
Adrien felt like a fool when he realized just how much time he’d been wasting sitting around in the car. All that time, he could have been sleeping.
Of course, it wasn’t easy to fall asleep the moment he got in the car, or wake up the moment he arrived somewhere. He still wasn’t managing it on most of his shorter commutes. But now, every time he saw the limousine, he felt himself getting tired.
The second and equally important constant was lunch.
Every day, he had about two hours for lunch, less the time it took the Gorilla to drive him to and from school. Adrien took to requesting his meal in his room, ate quickly, and slept until he had to return to class.
That, too, was hard to do. There were days when he didn’t want to get back up and go to school, especially if there had been an akuma attack. And sometimes he was called away during lunch for work -- usually to meet someone in the industry, but other times his photoshoots would start during lunch and go into the afternoon. Still, lunchtime was the biggest block of time he had, and Adrien fought for it as much as he could.
But he hadn’t slept through any more akuma attacks. That made it all worth it.
It was when spring rolled around that he started taking chances.
Springtime in Paris was, as a rule, quite lovely. Adrien found himself wanting to go outside and enjoy the breeze and the warm sun. He made do as best he could by soaking it in whenever Paris called on him to defend against an akuma, but being Chat Noir seemed to amplify the effect.
He didn’t realize how much it affected him until Ladybug found him sprawled out on a rooftop, half-dozing.
“...Do I even want to know what you’re doing?”
There was a significant part of Adrien that knew he had to look ridiculous like this, lying on the top of a building with his limbs spread out. A larger part of him, however, couldn’t help but reflect all the sunlight into a beam at Ladybug. “I’m enjoying the weather, of course! Care to join me, my lady?”
Ladybug looked over the hard concrete he’d made himself comfortable on and quirked her lips. “I think I’ll pass.”
“Are you suuure? It’s very com-fur-table down here.” Chat winked.
“Uh-huh.” Ladybug shook her head with a smile and offered him a hand up. “Come on, silly kitty. Let’s get going.”
Forget sunlight -- he swore he could feel the warmth of her hand through the suit.
Sometimes he went home after akuma attacks. Sometimes he didn’t.
It didn’t really matter, either way. Paris had grown accustomed to them, in the way that one grows accustomed to a pest that won’t go away. To the regular citizen, despite all the terror and horror an akuma could inflict, ultimately Ladybug would save the day and make everything go back to normal, no matter what the issue. Whether an Egyptian pharaoh had risen from the grave, a mime had gotten a little too realistic, or a dragon had taken to the skies, sooner or later Ladybug would miraculously save the day.
If Chat wasn’t there for the whole process himself, he’d wonder how she managed to be so consistent. Surely anyone else would have slipped up by now. Certainly he had.
By and large, the whole thing had become somewhat routine. An akuma disrupted the city; he and Ladybug took care of it; depending on the scale of the attack city functions were back on track within six to twelve hours. Rinse, repeat.
So maybe he took his time getting home after akuma attacks. It wasn’t like he had other opportunities for free time.
When Adrien went looking, there were actually a number of comfortable places on high rooftops. Most of the time the Grand Palais was fully booked and its rooftop pool bustling with people, but in the early hours before dawn it was usually empty.
He should have gone home. Would have, if home wasn’t cold and empty. Here he could catch a few hours of sleep and watch the sun rise over Paris. There was a chill to the air but nothing he couldn’t tolerate in the suit.
He wondered where Ladybug was.
He wondered who Ladybug was.
At seven, just as the sun came up over the city, he went back home. There was no sign that anyone had noticed he had left.
Adrien had had a few mishaps here and there. As much as he tried to keep to his schedule -- both of them -- there were some days where things just didn’t go his way and he ended up in the same place he started, dozing off in the middle of one of his activities.
The key, he’d found, was to fall asleep during the right activity. Hair and makeup were the easiest. Adrien had found it difficult to stay awake during those tasks from the beginning, and now he barely made it to the chair before nodding off.
And if he caught his Chinese teacher in the right mood, Adrien could convince him to tell one of his stories, and he’d get so wrapped up in it that he never noticed the dozing boy in front of him.
More often than not, though, his schedule didn’t line up to make things easy on him, and he definitely wasn’t going to fall asleep playing basketball again. And that left Adrien with school.
He didn’t want to sleep during class. If he had had a choice, he’d be alert and awake for every lesson. But sometimes, after a night spent fighting an akuma, all he could do was bow his head over his tablet, close his eyes, and hope no one noticed...
Of course people noticed. Nino elbowed him. Chloe snorted and tossed her hair over her shoulder and he knew she was asking why he wasn’t taking care of himself, didn’t he know better, he’s a model. After class Marinette tried to talk to him and stumbled over half her words but it sounded like she was asking if he was okay. He gave her the standard answer.
“I’m fine, there’s nothing to worry about. I just didn’t get enough sleep last night.”
Marinette’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Adrien knew his luck would catch up with him eventually. It was only a matter of time.
He’d gone home for lunch, but spring was bleeding into summer, and it was so warm out that he couldn’t stand being inside. He needed to soak in all in before he had to go back to school.
He told the Gorilla he was walking back to school and transformed in the next alleyway, leaping from one rooftop to the next.
It didn’t take long before he found something-- a nice little chaise tucked away on a balcony. No windows, so nobody would see him. Only a couple of plants and a trapdoor.
Perfect for a quick catnap.
Ten minutes later, Marinette Dupain-Cheng went up to water the plants on her rooftop, and found Adrien Agreste sleeping on her chaise.
Her fingers went slack on the water pail. It overturned on Adrien’s head. He yowled and fell off the chaise with a clatter. It was, perhaps, the most undignified he’d ever looked.
Marinette’s eyes had gone impossibly wide as she stared at him. “A-A-A-Adrien?” she managed to squeak out.
Adrien squinted at her through wet hair. “Marinette? Why are you here?”
“This is my house,” Marinette said. She looked from Adrien to the trapdoor and back again. “I… how did…”
Adrien looked down at himself. His transformation had released.
Two things became blindingly, painfully clear.
One: he was going to murder Plagg.
Two: there was no reasonable explanation he could give her to explain this situation.
“I. Uh.” Adrien swallowed and forced a smile. “...Hi?”