Work Text:
Marinette didn't think she would have a hard time babysitting, but somehow Manon always made the task so much harder than expected. The mischievous child was running around with one of Marinette's unfinished hats, refusing to return it despite her babysitter's pleas.
Then Marinette's phone rang on the coffee table in the living room, a photo of her and her BFF Alya showing up on the brightly lit screen. Before Manon could even think to glance at it, Marinette launched herself over the couch to grab it while the TV blared out Alec's proclamation to vote for the next weather girl.
"Marinette! Let me use your phone to vote for Mireille," whined Manon as Marinette answered the call.
"Hey, Alya, what's up?" Marinette greeted while placing a finger to Manon's lips and pleading with her eyes for the four year old to shush.
"Girl, don't tell me you didn't see the pic I sent you," exclaimed Alya in disbelief.
"Uh… I've been kind of preoccupied. What's it of?" Marinette asked, sitting up from the floor and glaring at Manon's insistent grabbing for her phone.
"Your boyfriend at the Place des Vosges, duh!"
"Oh… Is that all?" Marinette pulled herself up to sit on the couch while Manon ran off with her unfinished hat, shouting that Marinette was a meanie and that she would never give the hat back.
"What do you mean 'is that all?'" Alya repeated, sounding appalled. "Why aren't you here to see him? I would have thought you of all people would love to be here. I've seen more fans of his getting scared off by his bodyguard than anyone else."
"I'm not there because Nadja asked me to babysit Manon, remember? I can't just leave her here all by herself."
Alec on the TV warned the audience that the time to vote was nearly over and Manon took that as her cue to double her efforts. "Marinette!" she cried, jumping onto the couch and making another grab for the teen's phone. "I want to vote for Mireille!"
"Not now, Manon. I'm using it." Marinette groaned as she stood, finding no other option to avoid losing her phone.
"Listen to you sounding like a responsible adult," Alya teased.
"Well, I am responsible for Manon as her babysitter…"
"And you're really not going to consider coming to see Adrien? Like, at all?"
"I see him all the time."
"Doesn't his dad lock him up in his house unless he needs to go to school, fencing classes, or modeling?"
Not unless he could sneak out as Chat Noir.
Wait… Alya didn't know that! Oh no! Did she say that out loud?
"Y-Yeah! At school, I meant. That's… what I meant! School…" Marinette gave a nervous chuckle, extremely glad this wasn't a video call.
"Then this is the perfect opportunity to see him outside of school, girl! You can even bring the little rascal along to ride the merry-go-round," Alya suggested enthusiastically.
"I don't know if Manon will want that."
"Have you asked?"
Marinette thought it almost apt that Manon was whining loudly about losing the opportunity to vote at that very moment. "Don't think that'll make her happy right now either."
She heard Alya groan on the other end. "Fine. Give me a minute."
"Huh?" It felt like Marinette missed a detail in this conversation.
Before she could ask what the other teen meant, Manon made a final leap from the couch for the phone, knocking Marinette to the floor. The child crawled over Marinette's back and grabbed the phone from the floor, Marinette having dropped it on the way down.
"Manon!"
The doorbell rang as Manon hurried towards the TV with the phone.
Marinette gave a loud, beleaguered sigh as she stood from the floor, rubbing a sore spot while walking to the door. She didn't even have to open it to know it was Alya, connecting the dots the moment the doorbell sounded again.
"Alright, where's the little monster at?" Alya asked the moment she made eye contact with Marinette.
"Alya, I told you, Manon is my responsibility. I'm not letting you take over babysitting just so I can go see Adrien." Marinette crossed her arms over her chest, her stubbornness on full display.
All the while, Manon was cheering at the results on the TV, bouncing on the couch and chanting, "Mireille! Mireille! Yay!" while letting Marinette's phone fall onto the scattered couch cushions on the floor.
"Ah, yes. I can definitely tell you've got everything under control here," teased Alya playfully as she strode past her friend towards the couch. "And anyway, it's not 'going to see Adrien,' it's going out to the park to enjoy the day. If you just happen to walk by and catch your boyfriend during his photoshoot, maybe get involved in it somehow and thank me later? That's just coincidence. And who am I to stop fate's hand?"
"You're incorrigible, that's what you are," Marinette grumbled, watching her friend grab the remote and shut off the TV, much to Manon's displeasure.
"Hey! No fair, you big meanie!" Manon cried as she took Marinette's unfinished hat off her head and tossed it at Alya.
Alya let out a dramatic laugh as she caught the hat with ease and handed it over to Marinette, who relaxed when she saw incomplete work hadn't suffered in all the chaos Manon subjected it to. "You must be the misbehaving kid I was called over to take care of."
"No, I'm not."
"Oh, yeah? So there must be another Manon around here causing problems for poor Marinette, then."
The child pouted and shouted, "Who are you?"
With a gleam of playful mischief, Alya shook her head. "I only tell my secrets to well-behaved kids who aren't trouble for their babysitters. Are you a good kid?"
Manon, though still upset with the current circumstance, nodded, her curiosity outweighing her other desires.
"Prove it. Apologize to Marinette," Alya stated firmly.
"Alya, she doesn't have to--" Marinette whispered to her friend as she set her hat down on the kitchen counter.
"I'm sorry, Marinette."
Oh. Well, if that was all it took… And it sounded genuine too.
Wow. Alya really was good at this.
"See? Was that so hard?" Alya questioned, chuckling at the shaking head she received in response.
"Secret! Secret!" Manon chanted and hopped off the couch, bouncing over to Alya.
The teen knelt down and hummed with consideration. "I'm going to need a magic word first."
"Please?" tried Manon hopefully, seeming to have heard that phrase before.
"Alright, but only because you've proven yourself good and trustworthy," Alya said, then dramatically shifted her gaze around towards the windows and closed front door before leaning in closer to the child. "I'm Ladybug."
Marinette was thankful she wasn't drinking anything at that moment because she was sure she would have done a glorious spit take hearing that.
"No way," Manon spoke with a disbelieving giggle.
"Oh yeah? And how do you know I'm not?" Alya asked, standing back up to present herself proudly.
"Because Marinette said Ladybug would never tell anyone her secret identity. Not even Chat Noir! Ladybug wouldn't want anyone knowing just in case they were put in danger because of mean old Hawkmoth," explained Manon, looking just as confident as the girl before her.
"And how do you know I didn't tell Marinette to tell you that?" Alya countered, wrapping an arm around her oddly nervous BFF.
This seemed to floor poor Manon, who stared wide-eyed at the two teens until a spark of amazement appeared in her expression.
"But now you have to pinky promise not to tell anyone," Alya declared, holding out a hand with her pinky extended.
Manon reciprocated rather quickly, if only because she was a strong advocate of pinky promises herself.
"Fantastic, Manon. Now, what do you say we take this fun time out to the park, huh?" suggested Alya. When the child bounced up and down again, begging Marinette to agree to going outside, Alya's smile turned smug towards the other teen.
The moment Marinette begrudgingly nodded and admitted defeat, Manon was picked up off her feet and sat on Marinette's shoulders by Alya, who tapped at Marinette's nose rather cheekily afterward before declaring that they were off to the park.
If Marinette wasn't already with Adrien…
She only fought to hide the light blush on her cheeks when Alya gave her a suspicious glance over her shoulder on their way out towards the Place des Vosges. Then Marinette realized they were, in fact, headed to the same park her boyfriend was currently modeling at and that blush came back tenfold.
What would she say to him if he asked why she was there and not home properly babysitting like she'd told him she would be? The whole reason he told her yesterday he'd be there was because it was so close to her home and he wanted her to be there too. When she told him about her promise to Nadja…
Ugh, it still crushed her heart to think about the sad look on that pretty face.
But he'd understood and been so calm about it afterward, even telling her the apologies she gave weren't necessary. What in the world had she done to deserve such a perfect boyfriend, she wondered not a moment after the conversation was slowly shifted to something else. She cuddled against him the entire rest of their lunch break because she wanted to make up for not being able to see him and here she was now…
Casually heading over to the park he was at like she wasn't betraying his trust in her.
Marinette wouldn't blame Adrien if he broke up with her on the spot.
"I see we're keeping the catastrophizing internal today," spoke Alya knowingly.
"H-Huh? I-I'm not--"
Why did Marinette even try to hide the truth from her BFF if her lies were easier to read than the alphabet?
And there Adrien was, sitting at the fountain and feeling so bored and sleepy that he was shocked Vincent hadn't complained about it yet.
He was so certain he had eye bags, what with staying up hours past his normal sleeping time because Marinette had been inspired during their evening post-patrol video call to make a new hat. Then, as she toiled away and he watched, he complimented her relentlessly, from her talent to her personality to her beauty and he had to stifle his giggles whenever she blushed redder than a tomato and darted her eyes away from her phone, stammering something incomprehensible in response.
His girlfriend was so cute.
"Perfetto smile! But now it is missing something…" The photographer hummed in thought, eyes darting about the area in search of inspiration.
And then, as always, his perfect angel swooped in to save the day.
"Ah! Yes! Some romance!" Vincent exclaimed, pointing towards Alya, Marinette, and Manon as they arrived. "You! Brunette!”
Adrien almost protested, but the gleam of opportunity showing in Alya's eyes made it clear… This whole thing had been planned out in her head.
He didn't know whether to be scared of Alya or thankful she was on his side.
"Me? No, no. You don't want me. I look horrible in photos; trust me," she spoke smoothly, picking Manon up off Marinette's shoulders. "But Marinette here? Born for this sort of thing. She's your perfect extra."
Vincent narrowed his gaze at Marinette, circling around her and sometimes looking at her through his camera lens.
Adrien hurried over to her, despite his bodyguard's grunt of protest. "Marinette! You made it!"
"Y-Yeah," replied Marinette with a gulp, avoiding his eyes. "I was… coerced…" Her blue eyes widened and her shoulders jumped to her ears. "N-Not that I didn't want to come! I-I just… With babysitting Manon a-and all, I didn't want--"
Gods, she was adorable.
He stepped closer, taking her hands in his and watching her nervousness seem to melt away.
"Magnífico! Spectacular! Yes! She is your world! Your every breath belongs to your signora!" exclaimed Vincent while his camera shuttered as fast as Adrien's heart raced.
He wasn't wrong about that statement.
"Bellísima!"
Alya stifled her mirth and pulled Manon away, offering the girl a ride on the merry-go-round and even one of the Mireille balloons a person was selling nearby. Anything to give the two lovebirds the space they needed to really sell that honeymoon look the photographer was clearly asking for now.
And if she snapped a picture of her own of the two of them kissing? Well, that was just a bonus.