Chapter Text
Marinette wasn’t an idiot. As many precautions as she insisted they take, she knew she and Chat Noir were both going to find out sooner or later. Occupational hazard and all that.
She sort of assumed that, if the time ever came, they’d deal with it calmly and rationally. Their jobs were serious — lives were at stake everyday and their ability to function together while keeping each other safe was paramount.
Of course, Marinette assumed that the way they’d find out wasn’t by running right smack into each other in the hallway after a battle and detransforming in front of each other.
Marinette had seconds left on her transformation and swooping into one of the hallways she knew would be empty during this period, quickly letting her transformation fall, and sprinting back to class would be the best cover for her. She’d done it dozens of times.
Of course Chat Noir had the same idea and Marinette didn’t have the time to blink before they collided foreheads, flew into the air, and landed painfully on their backs.
They were both rubbing their foreheads and wincing in pain, but it was too late because Marinette was staring at Adrien and Adrien was staring at Marinette and the cat was officially out of the bag.
So of course, in a typical calm and rational manner, they pointed to each other and screamed.
Marinette slapped her hands over her mouth, and Adrien immediately reached up to cover his eyes.
“I didn’t see anything!” he said frantically, his voice cracking in panic. “I didn’t see! I didn’t see! I swear!”
She almost appreciated the effort, but Marinette already knew it was too late. Tikki was hiding in her purse and she briefly saw a black blur zip into Chat’s — Adrien’s, wow — shirt pocket that must have been another kwami. Plus, she saw him let his transformation fall. It was way too late.
“Chat,” Marinette began tiredly. “I mean, Adrien. I mean — ” Crap, this was going to be so hard to get used to. “It’s done, you can open your eyes.”
Adrien swallowed. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’m sure.”
Adrien slowly lowered his hands and Marinette was looking straight into his eyes, seeing all of his fear and uncertainty reflected back at her and taking in all of the little things about him that suddenly had an entirely different context this time. The hair, the height, the shape of his jaw, the ring on his finger, the dimple on his chin. They all matched up and it was like some strange veil had suddenly been ripped off because everything was clear, so so clear and so unmistakable.
And she panicked.
“Okay, never mind, I’m not sure, I take it back!”
She stood up and turned her back to him, raking her fingers through her hair and feeling her heart racing. There was no way she could just smash these two people together. No way. This wasn’t happening. This was crazy. There was no way both of them could’ve possibly been this oblivious.
Marinette whirled around and faced him again. “Quick. Tell a pun.”
Adrien squinted. “What?”
“A pun. Just tell one. Any one.”
“I can’t just give a pun out of the blue at a time like this!”
“Why not?”
Adrien scoffed, as if the answer were obvious. “Because there are situational factors that all go into proper pun delivery, and none of them are being met at the proper levels.” He lifted one finger. “For one thing, the mood in the room is too filled with conflicting emotions for the punch line to be appreciated properly. Second — ”
“Oh my God, never mind,” Marinette groaned. “That was proof all on its own.”
“Well, you asked! Wouldn’t you rather I confirm it?”
“No!” Marinette said. “...yes. I don’t know…”
“Alright,” Adrien sighed out, jumping up in place a little to shake himself of his nerves. “Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay.”
Marinette looked at him desperately. “Okay, what? ”
Adrien dropped his shoulders and frowned pathetically. “I have no idea. I mean, I know we always talked about this happening, but I didn’t think it would actually happen. And I...didn’t think it’d be. Well. You.”
Marinette was tapping her fingers against her temples and heard the tell tale sounds of students coming up from their gym classes to head back into the library. She sighed out in frustration, grabbed Adrien’s wrist, and tried to find an empty classroom. “Come on. We need to figure this out.”
Adrien looked over his shoulder. “We still have class.”
“We’ll worry about that later.”
“We have to go learn!!”
“I think we’ve learned enough today, don’t you?”
Adrien opened his mouth, closed it, and nodded. “Alright. Valid.”
One of the science classrooms wasn’t going to be open for another hour, and Marinette figured that would be enough time to get themselves sorted. She closed the door behind her and pressed her back into the knob as she watched Adrien lean against one of the lab tables and face her, keeping his arms crossed and jiggling his legs. She nibbled on her lip and slid her finger along the clasp of her bag. “Tikki,” she muttered. “I guess you can come out now.”
Tikki’s head poked hesitantly out of Marinette’s bag, and she looked around the large classroom until her eyes landed on Adrien. She floated out, sat herself down on Marinette’s shoulder, and waved carefully. “Hello, there Adrien.”
Adrien blinked as if he were in a daze and waved back slowly. He nudged his wrist against his shirt until a small, black creature came spiraling out of his shirt.
“Oh perfect, we’re going through this thing again. Honestly, it gets so dull after the billionth time.” He floated in front of Marinette and sighed irritably. “Plagg. Nice to meet you. Now can we hurry this up, I’m starving!”
Tikki floated up in front of him and glared. “Stop that! This isn’t something they should be rushing. This is a stressful situation for the both of them, don’t make it worse.”
“Oh it’s not that big a deal, so they found out! They’re going to be better off, and you and I both know that.”
Tikki sighed. “That doesn’t mean this is easy for them to digest.”
“I never understood why this was always so complicated,” Plagg complained. “They saw it with their own eyes. Pure evidence. It’s not like that’s going to change anytime soon. Just move on with it.”
“This is shocking for them!”
Plagg blinked. “So what are we supposed to do? Unshock them?”
The classroom was ringing in silence for a few minutes before Adrien lifted a tentative finger as if he were afraid of interrupting. “Um, sorry, hi. Could we…?” He gestured vaguely between himself and Marinette. “Just fifteen or so minutes?”
Tikki turned to Adrien, looking apologetic, and nodded. “Oh, of course. You probably need to be alone for a bit. Will you be okay, Marinette?”
Marinette nodded, not having moved from her place against the door. “Yeah, I think so.”
Plagg turned to Adrien and tapped him on the nose. “Look. Just rip the bandaid off, kid. Sort this out quick.”
Tikki grabbed one of Plagg’s arms and dragged him over to one of the open classroom windows. “Ignore him. We’ll just...we’ll be over here.”
Their kwamis zipped off out of sight and left Marinette and Adrien standing only a few feet across from each other, still scrutinizing each other, piecing things together, and trying to make complete pictures in their head. Almost as if they’d read each other’s minds, they both slid down, sat cross-legged on the floor, and let out identical sighs.
“So…” Marinette began awkwardly. “Your kwami seems...nice?”
Adrien snorted. “Your kwami seems nice. Mine just likes to get to the point. Helps him get fed quicker.”
“He looked like he was trying to help.”
“In his own way, I guess.”
The only thing they could really hear was the clock ticking on the wall and Marinette was suddenly having a hard time trying to come up with something to say. It didn’t seem like anything was substantial enough to fill up the space, and the two of them were eft with this strange, uncomfortable heaviness that they’d never had to deal with before. Talking to Chat was like breathing, and even talking to Adrien was charged with a completely different brand of discomfort that had more to do with her own insecurities and less to do with not knowing where she stood with someone else.
Adrien must have felt the same way, because it looked like all his nerves had finally bubbled up to the surface and resulted in a desperate sort of laugh that just escaped out of his throat without him meaning to. It sounded so forced that Marinette couldn’t help but chuckle in response. Adrien started smiling at her and suddenly he was bending forward at the waist and laughing harder than Marinette had ever seen him laugh in her life. Maybe it was the wrong place and the wrong time, but she started laughing right along with him and felt the anxiety start to untwist and release itself just a little bit.
Neither of them knew what was so funny, but pretty soon they had tears in their eyes, their chests were aching, and every time their laughter fell off, they’d make eye contact and start it back up again. Adrien leaned back against one of the lab stools and suddenly felt it slide back behind him until he fell back and knocked his head on the ground behind him. It left Marinette so overcome by her laughter that she had to crawl onto her hands and knees and try to find her breath again before she hurt herself.
Adrien was wiping at his eyes with one hand and rubbing the back of his head with the other. He shrugged helplessly. “Well...this is awkward.”
Marinette nodded in agreement and placed a hand on her chest to calm her breathing. “Yeah. Definitely awkward.” She paused for a moment and giggled to herself. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard your voice crack like that before,” she smirked, referring to his initial reaction in the hallway. “Does it crack when you panic?”
Adrien frowned. “You’re being furry mean to me. Please be mice.”
“Okay, now we’re in the proper conditions for a cat pun?”
“Hey, I don’t make the rules, Marinette. This is a delicate art. The timing was purrfect.”
“Oh come on, at least come up with something original.”
Adrien gave her an affronted look. “Excuse me, my Lady,” he said, sounding so similar to Chat Noir that Marinette almost wanted to cry. “I am absolutely appawlled by your clawful cattitude.”
She raised a brow. “Three. In one sentence. You’re ridiculous.”
“That still hasn’t beat my record though. I’m waiting for the day where I can actually smash six of them into one sentence.”
“Wasn’t the last one seven?”
“Wait, really? Which one was that?”
“You think I actually remember? You pulled it out of your hat at the end of a battle, it’s a miracle you didn’t rehearse it beforehand.”
Adrien grinned and relented the point. He looked at Marinette again and shook his head. “Still awkward?”
“Just a little,” Marinette chuckled. “I kinda...don’t know what we’re supposed to do now. I mean, we can’t just go outside and head to class and pretend everything is normal. Can we?”
Adrien blew air out from between his lips and tapped his fingers against his knee. “Welp,” he said, popping the ‘p.’ “Probably not. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be like this forever. Change always happens, and you just gotta get used to it. There’s nothing else to do.”
“So just...wait it out and see what happens?” Marinette asked. “That’s kinda vague.”
“Well, I’m kinda playing this by ear, to be totally honest,” Adrien said. “I’m not the best at planning things.”
Marinette grinned. “Yeah, that’s for sure.”
“Anyway,” Adrien ignored her with a smile. “This might be one of those things that we have to take one step at a time.” He took a deep breath. “Except that they’ll probably be really big, really wide steps.”
“Right,” Marinette said, more to convince herself than anything else. “Right, right. I mean, we should be fine, right? How complicated could this be?”
“We’ll be fine!”
“Yeah!
“Yeah…”
“Right…”
They stared at each other in silence, shoulders tensing again.
Marinette spoke first. “This is going to be a mess, isn’t it?”
Adrien smiled nervously. “Probably.”
“Great.”