Work Text:
“Fist bump,” Chat murmurs to Ladybug, holding out his hand.
“Huh?” she asks. She stares at his fist, blinking slowly. “Oh! Oh, right. Right.” She stifles a yawn and gently presses her knuckles against his. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine, I feel the same.” He holds back his own yawn as Ladybug turns to the akuma victim.
“The paramedics will help you get home,” she promises, helping the akuma victim, a little boy, to his feet.
Younger akuma victims still make Chat incredibly angry. He doesn’t understand why Hawk Moth is targeting anyone, let alone little kids who can’t help it. But he’s too tired to really think about it tonight.
The boy’s eyes go wide. “Did I—”
“It’s not your fault,” Ladybug says firmly. Chat is surprised she can manages the tone. “It’s not your fault at all. But if something is still upsetting you, there’s someone you can talk to with the paramedics. Come on.” She gently leads him towards the EMTs who are running over.
A small crowd of people has gathered on the edge of the street. Chat can’t fathom why people would be out at this hour. He knows that it was almost two in the morning when he left his room — he’d been fallen asleep at his desk while working on homework — and the fight had been at least half an hour long. Weren’t people tired enough yet to just go home and sleep ? What was so fascinating about akuma attacks anymore? Nino jokes about his noise cancelling headphones, but honestly, Chat would love to be able to sleep through an attack. He never would, he’d never leave Ladybug to fight alone especially during a night attack, but he also loves sleep.
Ladybug raises a hand to the few reporters in the crowd. “Sorry,” she apologizes. “No questions tonight.” They’ve said that every night for the past few weeks, and yet the reporters keep coming. Alya stopped about a week ago, but really? Do they think that their ‘no questions after midnight’ policy is going to change now ?
Ladybug wraps her arm around Chat’s waist and throws her yo-yo. He can’t help but feel like there’s something he’s forgotten about as they soar over Paris. There was something , but he can’t put his finger on it. Ladybug swings them away into a darkened alley. They land solidly on the ground and a rapid beeping chimes from Chat’s ring.
As he’s enveloped in bright green light, he thinks, oh. That’s what I forgot .
Plagg doesn’t even say anything to him, Adrien just feels him drop onto the top of his head. A moment later, Plagg begins to snore softly.
Adrien glances to Ladybug, unsure of what to say. He knows there are probably words to be said, but the gears of his mind have almost come to a complete stop and he can’t remember why it was so important that they kept their identities a secret from each other for the life of him. Mostly, he just wants to go to bed.
Ladybug is staring at him. No, she’s— She isn’t so much staring at him as he’s just…where her eyes are and she’s too tired to look away. She’s looking through him more than she’s looking at him.
She stifles a yawn as her transformation drops with a few rapid beats. It makes Adrien yawn as the air fills with pink sparkles. A red kwami perches on her shoulder and nuzzles against her neck when the light fades.
Marinette yawns again. “Can we do this later?” she mumbles.
Huh. Marinette.
Adrien’s head feels like it’s filled with cotton and each blink is slower than the last. Dealing with all of this right now is definitely a bad idea. He tries to stop a yawn. “Stop that,” he grumbles. “You’re making me yawn.”
He thinks she tries to glare at him but it’s too soft and tired of a look for it to be very effective. “Later, please?” she begs.
Tomorrow morning will be better. Tomorrow after a nap, maybe. “Yeah, later,” he agrees.
She rubs her eyes. “Send me the physics homework?”
Oh right, he hadn’t finished all the homework. “Did you do the compare and contrast on the readings?” There is no way he’s finishing that. Ever.
She nods. “Yeah. I’ll send you the link on Skype.” She pats the top of her kwami’s head with a finger. “G’night.” She turns to walk out of the alley.
A sudden thought enters Adrien’s mind, shocking him slightly more awake. “Wait, can you get home without transforming?” He reaches up to the top of his head and nudges Plagg awake. Plagg groans.
Marinette frowns, furrowing her eyebrows and staring at Adrien like she can’t exactly place him. “No,” she says slowly after a moment. “No I…needed to be Ladybug to get onto my balcony.” She sighs and leans against the wall. “I needed…Lady— ugh .”
“I can bring you if you give me a minute,” Adrien promises.
“Take your time,” she mumbles, sinking to the ground. “Should’ve brought cookies,” she murmurs to herself.
Adrien lifts Plagg off his head and shakes him awake, handing him a piece of camembert before Plagg can protest. Then Adrien joins Marinette on the ground before his legs give out. She rests her head on his shoulder and curls against him. Her breathing slows down and evens out as she drifts off to sleep.
“Can you hurry up?” Adrien asks Plagg softly.
Plagg glares at him.
“I just need five minutes to get Marinette home. We can go through the front door if we have to at home, I just need to get her back.”
Plagg rolls his eyes. “Sure,” he says before taking another bite of cheese.
Adrien groans and swats at whatever has been poking him.
Plagg tugs on his hair until he opens his eyes. “Come on, let’s go before someone finds you two asleep in a sketchy back alley.”
Adrien rubs the sleep out of his eyes before mumbling, “Plagg, claws out.” He halfheartedly waves his hand over his eyes and hair, too tired to do anything more. He debates waking up Marinette before deciding against it. He can do that when they get to her house. She deserves the rest.
Chat carefully scoops Marinette up in his arms and gets to his feet. She mumbles in her sleep before snuggling against his chest. Chat lifts them up into the air using his baton as smoothly as he can, trying not to disturb her. When they reach the roof, he’s relieved to see that they’re only a few streets away from Marinette’s. He holds her close to him as he leaps across the rooftops, landing softly on her balcony.
“Hey, Mari,” he whispers. “You have to get inside.”
Marinette groans and blinks up at him. “Chat?” she mumbles.
He smiles. “You fell asleep on me.”
“Sorry.”
He lets her down, holding onto her arm until she steadies herself. His ring beeps. Plagg really had only gotten him a few minutes. That’s probably what they get for using their kwami so often and exhausting them so entirely. “I have to go, but I’ll skype you, I promise.”
Marinette hums in agreement.
Chat doesn’t think before he does it. He’s too tired to have an sort of filter. He just leans forward and presses a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he murmurs before climbing up onto her balcony railing and leaping away.
Chat tumbles into his bedroom, nearly falling over as he tries to close the window behind him. He collapses on the couch as his transformation drops.
“Can I sleep now?” Plagg grumbles.
Adrien’s eyelids feel so heavy. “Mhm.”
Plagg pokes his cheek. “You can’t sleep yet. Marinette needs the physics.”
Oh, right. He promised he’d do that. As Plagg makes himself comfortable on a pillow, Adrien sits down in front of the computer. He squints at the harsh blue screen. His eyes are too tired for this.
He takes pictures of his work on his phone. He doesn’t actually think he did number eight right, but he also doesn’t remember doing any of this. Was he awake? Is he just doing homework in his sleep now? He honestly wouldn’t be surprised. He opens him and Marinette’s PM on Skype and sends the pictures before he forgets.
flowers are flowery: whats thsi
something about optimism:
I promised you I’ds end the physics homeowkr
Pretend I can type rihgt now
Yikes
flowers are flowery:
you promised that??
oh
oh you did
sorry i forgot
something about optimism:
Its ok
Its really late
flowers are flowery:
http://
docs.google.com/document/d/139a321lo2119akew1991316lyse20h5aen2e521/edit
heres the compare and contrast but i dont
knowhow good it is
just dont use the sam e exact words
or do
i dont actually care anymore
Adrien smiles a little to himself. He feels that on an emotional level. He clicks the link and quickly skims Marinette’s writing. It makes sense to him, or to his sleep deprived brain, and that’s all that matters.
something about optimism:
I have a thesaurus site open right now
I’m just going to put random words through it
flowers are flowery:
[‘V GBK
AHHH SORRY
IM SORRY
IDINDT MEAN TO
I FEEL ASLEEP AND MY HEAD HIT THE KEYBOARD
but good plan
thats a
good plan.
good
yes
Adrien shakes his head. They need a break. A really long break. He wonders if Hawk Moth accepts vacation day forms.
something about optimism: Go to sleep, Mar
flowers are flowery:
i will
i just need to
copy physics? is that what i was doing?
something about optimism: Yeah but you have lunch to do that tomorrow
flowers are flowery:
i do?
oh my god i do
something about optimism: Go to sleep?
flowers are flowery: only if you do
something about optimism : Im only going to spend a few minutes on this
flowers are flowery:
ok good
im going ot log off now
something about optimism: Goodnight, bug
flowers are flowery: sleep well kitten