Work Text:
Marinette lifts her head from her desk in surprise as a chime interrupts the music.
“Ayyyy, here he is!” Alya cheers.
“Took you long enough,” Nino mumbles.
Marinette rubs her eyes. She doesn’t know if she was actually conscious before they started talking again. “Huh?”
Adrien laughs. “Morning, Marinette.”
She groans and puts her head back down. “Nino, what time is it?”
“Uh…”
“Chop chop, Nino,” Alya says.
“Shut up I had a video open full screen. It’s 10:36 for me, so it’s 11 for Mari.”
Marinette sighs and sits up straighter. “Well. I’ll regret this in the morning.”
“Sorry, Mar,” Adrien apologizes. “I had fencing.”
“I know you did,” she says quickly. “I didn’t have to stay up.”
Alya snorts.
“Shut up I was distracted earlier and couldn’t finish my homework.” Marinette shuts her physics book. “I’ll ask Max for help tomorrow after class because I have no idea what’s going on.”
“Hashtag relatable,” Nino says. “Speaking of needing help: Adrien, can you help me out with English this weekend, bro?”
“Yeah, of course.” Adrien’s username pops up in the chat as he types something out. “I’ll let you know when I have time and we’ll figure out when we’re both free.”
“Sweet.”
Alya clears her throat. “Not to rain on this very nice parade, but Mari?”
Marinette sighs. “Please don’t say it.”
“Too late, I’m gonna say it anyway.”
“Aly—”
“Go to sleep.”
“What if I don’t want to?” Marinette protests.
“I’ll kick you out of the voice channel,” Nino volunteers.
“I should’ve taken admin privileges when I had the chance,” she mutters.
“Night, darling,” Alya sing songs. “See you in the morning.”
“Yeah yeah, whatever.”
Nino laughs. “Don’t show up in the chat.”
“I won’t,” Marinette promises. They’ve yelled at her every time she’s attempted that. “Good night.”
“Night, dude.”
“G’night, Mari,” Adrien says. “Sleep well, don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
“I’ll try, night,” she says before disconnecting from the call. She watches the screen for a few moments, although she knows nothing will change in the text chat.
She closes the tab and checks her school email once more before shutting her computer monitor down for the night. She’s tempted to log on on her phone, but the moment her status changes from offline to online, someone will yell at her to sleep.
Marinette loves her friends, but she hates how they make her take care of herself. Okay, she doesn’t really hate them for that. She’s not very good at functioning as a human being. Without their help, she’d probably get all caught up in her work and forget to eat.
She lays in bed and stares at the ceiling, reminiscing about how they got tangled up in each other. It had just started as a huge group chat that someone had made for a show they all liked. Marinette isn’t entirely sure why she got invited to this chat, she liked the show but wasn’t in love with it, but she did, and her and Alya became friends almost immediately. To be fair, no one else was online at the time, because the majority of the members seemed to be from the Americas. It was fairly early morning for Marinette and she still isn’t entirely sure why Alya was awake at what was an ungodly hour in Martinique, but she’s glad Alya was.
And somehow, despite the overwhelming number of people in the chat, Marinette had ended up talking to Alya, Nino, and Adrien more than anyone else. To the point where Nino just created a separate chat for them because there were too many conversations going on for the four of them to talk. The rest was history. Or at least, it was about seven months ago.
It feels like they’ve been friends for years, but Marinette also remembers the first time she saw their faces like it was yesterday. Especially since when she saw the selfie Adrien sent, she’s pretty sure she stopped breathing.
She’d been staring at his picture as Alya had joked “u didnt tell us u were a model”. Adrien sent back a shrug emoji as Marinette typed a response and then deleted it and then typed another. By the time she’d just given up and sent her original message, they’d already moved on.
mari mari quite contrari: Youre a model
ninope: little late there
adrien: Wait what
your lady of the wifi: she was blinded by adriens smile
mari mari quite contrari: NO
your lady of the wifi: mhmmmmmmmm
mari mari quite contrari: I mean adriens literally a model
ninope: ???
mari mari quite contrari: ajksdhflkjadsfjkef
Hes ADRIEN AGRESTE
ACTUAL MODEL ADRIEN AGRESTE
adrien: I didn’t think you’d know that
mari mari quite contrari: I pass one of your ads on the way to school????
Your dad is super famous??????
Hes one of my favorite designers???
your lady of the wifi: dont look now adrien
actual model adrien agreste: Huh?
Oh wow
Thanks Al
your lady of the wifi: <3
ninope: dang dude youre hot
your lady of the wifi: oooohhhh are we googling him now
actual model adrien agreste: No
ninope: yes
your lady of the wifi: OHHHHH
ok yes i do know this designer mar
pff i didnt think to connect adrien to gabriel
actual model adrien agreste: Please don’t tell me this is going to get weird now
ninope: dude
the first time we talked you punned your way through most of the conversation
you were up until 3 am watching sailor moon
you casually speak three languages fluently
your lady of the wifi: yeah whats up with that no fair
ninope: you casually picked up bass in like a week????
you were already weird
alya runs entirely on coffee and pure willpower
mari once texted us for over half an hour upside down
i definitely was singing really loudly and passionately while walking to school yesterday
were all weird
this is weird
but its all cool
now we just know youre hot
your lady of the wifi: @mari mari quite contrari where did u run off to
mari mari quite contrary: To hide magazines
your lady of the wifi: someone has a fangirllllllllll
mari mari quite contrary: Shut up have you seen gabriels designs??
I mean no I do not hoard magazines with gabriel designs in them
*awkward cough*
your lady of the wifi: uhhh yes i have.?? im looking at our marshmallow modelling them rn
work it babe
actual model adrien agreste: You say that like I’m modelling right this second
your lady of the wifi: hmmm something tells me you just model all the time
ninope: ok ditto
mari mari quite contrary: Yeah I see it
actual model adrien agreste: Why do I speak to any of you
Marinette pulls her phone out from under her pillow and climbs up onto her balcony. She doesn’t know how three people so far away from her became so important to her, but she’s so glad they did. She takes a picture of the view from her balcony, the lights of the cathedral reflecting onto the river. She writes a quick message on it in swirling pink and white letters before sending it off.
She can finally sleep once she’s sent it in the chat.
“Bonne nuit! Amour de France!! <3”
Marinette can’t help but smile when she wakes up to three notifications the next morning.
Nino scribbled “À demain! -Morocco B)” on a picture taken from his window. She knows he always chooses the window that’s facing toward Paris and she’s memorized his skyline by now.
“Dormez bien~ Bises de Martinique ;*” is written on a picture of Alya’s sunset. None of them can figure out how she always captures the sunset at the perfect moment. Alya swears she never uses filters.
Marinette saves their pictures to her album of goodnight pictures before opening Adrien’s. His familiar neat print reads “Amour de America! Fais de beaux rêve” just above the lights of New York City.
She smiles to herself and saves it before climbing up on her balcony to send a morning picture of the baby blue sky.