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Marinette’s sleeping habits were notoriously bad, known even to Adrien. Now that he knew about her moonlighting as Paris’ favorite superheroine, it made more sense, but even before his discovery he’d noticed that, along with her nearly perpetual lateness, she was almost always tired. Which is why he was not surprised to find her, on a warm spring day, stretched out, fast asleep, on the lawn of the school just a few minutes before the lunch break was going to end.
He walked up to her confidently, but hesitated before waking her up. She was uncomfortable around him, and he didn’t want to scare her. He wondered, more often than he’d like to admit, if that would change once she knew that he was Chat Noir, the partner she laughed and bantered with nearly every day.
Adrien shook himself out of his daydream. Deciding that Marinette really could not afford to be late to class yet again, he crouched down next to her.
“Marinette,” he said softly, unable to stop himself from gently rubbing her shoulder. “You need to wake up.”
“Chaton?” Marinette mumbled into her arm, squeezing her eyes together as the midday light registered in her mind. Adrien, who had been totally unprepared for the sleep-rough whisper of his alter-ego’s nickname, felt his cheeks burn. Of course Marinette—half-asleep and dazed— would recognize his voice, not as the classmate with whom she’s had a handful of awkward conversations, but as her most trusted partner.
He wanted to say Yes, My Lady. He wanted her to open her eyes and see him before her with no mask between them and he wanted to watch her eyes widen as the pieces slowly clicked into place. But she didn’t want that.
“It’s Adrien,” he croaked, instead, then grinned to himself as her languid stretching, not unlike a cat, ended abruptly with her jolting into a sitting position, eyes flying open. She met his gaze for half a second, then she looked away, blush prominent on her cheeks.
“I didn’t want you to sleep through the bell and be late for class,” Adrien explained, standing from his crouch and offering his hand to help her up. She hesitated for a long moment, then took his hand, her face getting even darker.
“Oh. That’s sweet. Uh, no! I mean, uh… thank you.” She shook her head to herself in annoyance at her stuttering, then began gathering her stuff.
“So, do you have a cat?” Adrien asked innocently as they began making their way back to their classroom. Marinette looked over at him, puzzled.
“No?” She said, her confusion making it seem like a question.
“Well, you said ‘chaton’ when you woke up and I thought you might have been dreaming about your cat.” He smirked, a little too pleased with how his teasing flustered her. Her gaze lingered on his distinctly Chat-like smile for a second, then she shook her head.
“Uh, no, I don’t have a cat,” she said, and Adrien thought that was the end of it, but her own mouth had turned up into a small, lopsided grin. “Well. There is an alley cat that hangs around sometimes.”
Adrien’s heart tripped over itself. The corners of Marinette’s eyes were crinkled, her smile slowly melting from laughing to herself about an inside joke to almost unbearably fond. He knew Ladybug cared for him, he could see it in the way she guarded his back and rolled her eyes at his stupid puns, but he’d never seen such obvious affection on her face before. Seeing it on Marinette, without the mask and the danger around them, made his whole body feel warm. For the first time, for just a moment, he was grateful that she didn’t know he was Chat Noir. He would never have been able to see this if she did.
Unwilling to let her moment of candor end, he asked, trying to sound casual, “What kind of cat is it?”
“He’s a black tom cat,” she answered, smiling sunnily up at him before remembering to be embarrassed by his presence.
“Sounds cute,” he said. It was getting hard to keep his grin under control. They’d reached their classroom and he quickly opened the door for her.
“He is.” She brushed passed him and went to her desk, not noticing that Adrien remained frozen in the doorway, his face glowing redder than a sunset.