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This is… surreal. So surreal. Like, in a million years, she never, ever would have imagined this.
They’re studying media and the news; how it’s constructed to present certain viewpoints no matter how ‘unbiased’ it tries to present itself. They’re doing this by studying the media around Ladybug.
So this has led to Marinette sitting quietly in class, watching herself fly over rooftops and beat up on akuma. And Miss Bustier expects her to analyse it.
So, so surreal.
“Okay,” Bustier says as the latest news piece comes to an end. She hits the remote to pause it. “What did we learn from that?”
Chloe is naturally the first to speak up. “That Cat Noir is like, the lamest superhero in the history of lame superheroes?”
Marinette fights to keep her face straight. Not that she’s entirely sure what expression she would have if she let herself.
Surprisingly, Bustier doesn’t object, but rather leans back against her desk as if Chloe’s raised an interesting point. “Why do you say that, Chloe?”
“Can he go a single fight without getting thrown into a wall?” she asked. “Or brainwashed? How many times has he been controlled now?”
“Twice,” Adrien supplies, almost absently. It’s rare to hear him speak up in class voluntarily, so everyone stares for a second before doing the count. Marinette almost corrects him before he adds, “And corrupted once.”
“Seriously,” Chloe says, rolling her eyes. “He can’t fix the butterfly thingies. He sucks at fighting. All he ever does is get brainwashed and distract Ladybug. So. Lame.”
“And where did you get all this information, Chloe?” Bustier prompts.
“I have seen it,” she says, pressing a hand to her chest before flicking it around at the rest of them. “We have all seen it.”
That derails Bustier a little, before she smiles and looks around at the class. “Fair point. Many of you have indeed met Cat Noir yourselves. Do you agree with Chloe’s assessment?”
Marinette glances around the classroom, to the people she knows Cat Noir’s spoken to. Most of them look conflicted.
She can’t blame them. She isn’t quite sure what she thinks herself.
On the one hand, her partner is her partner. She doesn’t like fighting without him. But on the other, she’s absolutely capable of doing it. She doesn’t need him to de-evilise, or fight, or anything. He does spend a lot of his time getting beaten up. He isn’t good at thinking on his feet, and when he does he doesn’t think things through. How many times has his solution to a problem been ‘just get in the way’?
Yes, okay, she is glad to have him there, and he makes things easier, but Chloe isn’t entirely wrong. The brainwashing thing is getting ridiculous. Also, the puns, bad jokes, and flirting? Distracting, to say the least.
“Cat Noir’s awesome,” Adrien suddenly says, breaking the awkward silence.
Again, everyone stares. He, however, is looking straight ahead. Marinette can see red creeping up the back of his neck in embarrassment, but his voice is steady.
“It’s not his job to save the day, his job is to save Ladybug. To get between her and the bad guys.”
“Wow, that is some paternalistic bullshit right there,” Alya says, and Adrien shifts just enough to peek at her over his shoulder. She’s staring at him like she honestly can’t believe he said it. “Ladybug doesn’t need protection, okay?”
“I didn’t say she does,” he replies quietly. “Ladybug’s amazing and she can totally do the whole thing on her own, but he helps. I just said how.”
Marinette blushes. Adrien just said she’s amazing. Oh, she could die happy right now.
“He stayed the whole time Mayor Bourgeois took me back to school,” Juleka pipes up. “He was really sweet. He kept trying to make me laugh, even though I’d just… you know…”
“Ah, excellent point, Juleka,” Bustier says, pointing the remote at her. “Does anyone else have similar experiences?”
Marinette knows people do, but maybe not anyone here. Cat Noir is usually able to stay longer than her, and either way he’s more likely to check in on the victim or at least make sure they get to the paramedics when they need it. She’s usually pulled away by the media or her miraculous.
A minute passes in silence before Nathaniel coughs, clearing this throat to speak up, “He came by my house, after I screwed up.”
Marinette turns, surprised. She didn’t know he did that.
“Yeah, mine too,” Kim adds. “Gave me this lame pep talk about fish. I didn’t get it.”
“Cultural differences, maybe?” Max suggests with a grin. “Lost in translation between human and cat?”
“He was attempting to comfort or at least check up on you,” Bustier says, before they can get caught up in that tangent. “Is everyone happy to agree Cat Noir does this sort of thing? And possibly, as Adrien has suggested, provides interference to allow Ladybug to act more effectively? Would that mean that he does have a place in the hero role, just in more of a support function, perhaps?”
They exchange glances, then shrug and make vaguely agreeing noises. Marinette twists her fingers under her desk. Cat Noir doesn’t… he’s not that… He’s her partner, but he’s not… And she can’t exactly tell them why she knows they’re wrong. This is seriously awkward and surreal and so, so weird.
Not to mention that she didn’t know about the visiting thing.
That’s going to bug her.
“But, while you may know this from your personal experiences,” Bustier continues pointedly, “it’s not what you think of when you think of Cat Noir. That’s because, as far as the news and even certain blogs tell us—” she says with an amused glance at Alya. “—Cat Noir is just an incompetent sidekick. Or am I wrong? Any comments, Adrien?”
He doesn’t say anything, and they all look at him for a moment, wondering why he isn’t objecting after defending Cat Noir before. But it is Adrien, and he’s still flushing red, so maybe it’s not surprising. Bustier lets him off the hook by raising her tablet.
“Okay, let’s watch some of these again.”
They do. They watch snippets of both battles and presenters, but this time Bustier gets them to focus on Cat Noir.
Marinette doesn’t get why everyone starts wincing at the battles. It just looks like normal to her – Cat Noir leaping in head-first without thinking and getting smacked around for his trouble. But she does see what Bustier means about the presenters. They talk about Ladybug and Cat Noir, but the camera lingers on her. The shots are framed to follow her. And the only times they show the victims up close is when she herself is leaning over them, saying a few words of comfort.
Ladybug is the hero, that’s a given, but as Bustier shows them, the news is very careful to imply she’s the only hero. They avoid mentioning Cat Noir without the words ‘Ladybug and’ in front of his name. He only appears in the background, or at Ladybug’s side. The only times he’s seen comforting victims or fighting alone is by accident – he appears in the shot after the camera is already rolling.
“I don’t get it,” Alix says, squinting at the projector. “Why would they do that?”
“Because they don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea,” Chloe snaps, obviously annoyed by this whole lesson. “He is not the hero. Ladybug is.”
“I cannot believe I’m saying this,” Alya mutters before raising her voice, “I agree with Chloe. No offence to Cat Noir, but Ladybug is the real hero. The news should be centred on her.”
“Even if that leaves out some of the facts?” Bustier prompts.
“It’s not leaving out facts, it’s…” Alya tries to find some way to reword it, but Marinette knows it’s at least partly because she’s guilty of the same thing. The Ladyblog barely ever mentions Cat Noir except in recaps. She’s only really interested in information about Ladybug. Marinette knows Cat Noir’s spoken to her more than once, and just gotten a few teasing remarks in return. It’s not that Alya doesn’t like Cat Noir – she just likes Ladybug a whole lot more.
“It makes the story simpler,” Bustier says. Then she turns to the rest of the class with raised eyebrows. “One hero, one story. The focus is simple, direct, and easy to swallow. You can easily put your full support behind a single hero that is strong, intelligent, brave, and—this is important—very cute. Contrast Cat Noir, who is in what appears to be black leather and is associated with both destruction and black cats, which are of course known for bad luck. He would be a controversial figure even if Ladybug weren’t the ‘greater hero’, quote unquote.”
Silence meets her, in typical class fashion. She checks the time and then takes a breath, pushing herself off the desk. “Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I’ll give homework assignments now and then you can head to lunch early. Two lists from each of you, one for Ladybug, one for Cat Noir. How do they appear according to the media? No, Alya, you cannot use your blog as a source unless the post has been explicitly linked to by an accepted news site. I want at least five items on each list. It cannot be handwritten, Ivan.”
They all dutifully copy down their homework, but Marinette is seriously considering mutiny. She hasn’t been enjoying this whole ‘media and the news’ topic they’re doing lately, but this is just ridiculous. It’s making her think really distressing things about Cat Noir and how he’s treated.
But she’s quickly distracted by Adrien standing up, asking Nino to wait for him while he hurries to the front of the class. She strains her ears to hear over the sounds of everyone heading out, and learns he has a shoot tomorrow morning and won’t make it to class. She copies that down in her Adrien-schedule file and avoids Alya’s glance. She’s tried not to be quite so stalkerish lately, but it’s a hard habit to break when her target is so wonderful.
Bustier, however, doesn’t seem nearly so impressed with him. Her eyes flick up to them—Marinette and Alya have waited alongside Nino so they’re the last people in the room—and she inclines her head toward the door. “The three of you can head off now.”
The order is implied. They leave the classroom, but keep the door open just enough for all three of them to peek through the crack. They can’t really see from this angle, but that only means Bustier can’t see them while they can still hear just fine.
“Another absence, Adrien?” Bustier asks. “I suppose I should be glad you at least remembered to tell me about this one.”
Adrien makes that soft, awkward noise that so regularly escapes him. They can’t see but they know he’s rubbing the back of his neck.
“Take a seat.”
“I – I’m expected at home for lunch, and –”
“It won’t take long. Take a seat.”
There’s a pause, and then Adrien slinks back into their line of sight, sliding into his usual seat with his head down. Bustier steps up to lean on the desk in front of him.
“I know you’re trying, Adrien, and no one can complain about your grades,” she says slowly, “but school isn’t just about tests and homework. Attendance matters.”
“I know,” he says, peeking up at her from under his eyebrows. Marinette doesn’t know how Bustier can stand it – she would positively melt under that look. “A-and I’ll speak to Na- my father about it. It’s –”
“It’s getting a little beyond that,” she says gently. “As I said, I know you’re trying, and this is obviously important to you. But I also know your… work is important to you too. I think you need to decide which one matters more.”
His eyes widen a moment before his head comes up, and there’s no other way to describe the look on his face but panic. But he doesn’t say anything for a good second, and even then he clearly has to swallow something else before he can speak. “I can do both. I’ll be better. I’ll do better. I’ll –”
Bustier reaches out and lays her hand on his shoulder, silencing him but also making his eyes go impossibly wider.
“I think you’re doing the best anyone can expect.”
It’s clearly supposed to be comforting, but Adrien doesn’t take it that way. He pulls out from under her hand, shaking his head as he moves out of their field of vision. “I’ll talk to Father. I’ll work something out. Please don’t – I’ll talk to him.”
“Adrien –”
But he’s striding away, tennis shoes squeaking in his hurry. Alya shoves at Nino and yanks Marinette back, but even so they only just manage to lean against the railing like they don’t care when the door yanks open. Adrien flinches at the sight of them, then smiles so broadly at Nino that it’s quite frankly a little creepy.
“Hey, thanks for waiting. Just needed to sort out the homework thing with Miss Bustier.”
“Everything okay?” Nino asks cautiously, and Adrien blinks like he doesn’t understand the question.
“Yeah, sure. But the Gorilla’ll probably be here in like two minutes, so I should get downstairs.”
“Yeah… I’ll walk you out. See you after lunch, girls,” Nino adds to them, and they both nod and wave to Adrien’s wink.
“Okay,” Alya says as the boys start down the stairs. “So… is it just me or did he do like a total emotional one-eighty just now?”
“Forget about that!” Marinette hisses, even though she’s cataloguing it for later obsession. “Didn’t you hear Miss Bustier? She told him he can’t keep doing school and modelling! She basically told him to drop out! If he drops out, I won’t see him every day which means I won’t ever get the courage to ask him out which means I’ll have to talk to Chloe to know what he’s doing and you know she wouldn’t ever tell me the truth but she would totally tell him I’m stalking him and then he’d put out a restraining order against me and you know I would break it because how could you not and I’d be arrested and thrown in jail and –”
“Are you done?” Alya interrupts, and Marinette takes the breath she’s been missing.
“Yeah, I’m done,” she decides. “What are we going to do?”
“It’s a good question,” she says, leaning her weight on one hip and putting a hand to her chin. “Miss Bustier’s right – Adrien skips more class than you do, no matter how much he does to make up for it. But everything Nino’s said about Mr Agreste says that if this gets back to him, school’s not gonna win out.”
Marinette bites her lips, but nothing’s coming to mind.
The rest of the school day passes fairly quietly. Adrien comes back after lunch and hands in two sheets of paper to Miss Bustier, who sighs but just thanks him before moving on to the history class. Nino corners him in study hall, but while they quickly get into a whispered argument, they both stop as soon as anyone comes anyone near them, so Marinette’s got no chance of finding out what it’s about. As soon as classes are done, Nino storms off without waiting for Adrien’s ride, leaving Adrien to watch him go with big, worried eyes.
Marinette’s made it all the way home before she remembers Adrien’s birthday. Nino had gotten so mad because Adrien’s dad wouldn’t let him… oh, boy.
“Tikki, spots on!”
She’s barely transformed when Cat Noir calls her, and while she’s amazed at the coincidence, she’s more surprised by his awkward expression. “Ahh… I hate to ask, milady, but can I beg a favour?”
“I’m a little busy right now,” she says, and he blinks.
“You are? Is it an akuma?”
“No, no, or, well, he was one once. Do you remember the Bubbler?”
He blinks again, so hard his ears bounce in the movement. “Uh, actually, that’s who I’m calling you about. I um, I heard from a source that he had kind of a rough day.”
“Really?” she asks, her voice a little too high-pitched. She’d ask who his source is, but then he’d ask why she’s interested in the Bubbler, so they leave it as is. They have these kind of silent agreements.
“Yeah, so… I kinda wanted to check up on him, but I’m really caught up,” he says, looking off to the side. “Do you think you could spare a few minutes to stop by and say hi? He’s a huge fan of yours, I hear. Boyfriend of that blogger girl.”
“Oh, really?” she asks. “Well, I suppose if he’s her boyfriend I can make some time!”
Cat Noir smiles, and not for the first time, she’s caught off-guard by it. It’s not a smirk, or his cocky grin, or even the hyperactive too-pleased smile. It’s something warm and kind and grateful and it leaves her slightly confused.
“Thank you, Ladybug. I really appreciate it. I’ll text you his address.”
“Yeah. Oh, uh, before you go,” she says, and he pauses, having obviously been about to shut off the call. She hesitates too but eventually decides it’s worth asking. “Do you know when you’ll be done with your stuff? We should catch up after I’m done with the Bubbler. Debrief.”
“Uhhh… yeah! Yeah, yeah, that’d be… I mean,” He stops, jaw clenching a little as he looks away again. “I um… I might not be done until midnight.”
Ugh. Another late night. Well, it gives her time to do her homework. “That’s fine. Meet you on top of the Grand Paris?”
“As milady wishes,” he says with a quick smirk. It’s so at odds with his last expression she has to blink, but doesn’t have time to process it before he shuts off the call.
Must be a boy thing.
She doesn’t need Nino’s address. While they weren’t really friends before this year, they’ve gone to school together for most of their lives. There have been birthdays and school projects and since neither of them had best friends they were often thrown together.
Nino hasn’t had much to do with Ladybug, but he still lets her in when she knocks on his window. His room hasn’t changed that much since the last time she was here. Just the bands and the music he’s blasting.
“Uh, wow, this is… man, I have got to call my man Adrien, he is like, your biggest fan,” Nino says, grabbing his phone. “D’you think I could get a selfie?”
“Sure thing,” she says. He doesn’t seem that upset. Maybe she and Cat Noir were worrying over nothing. And then the words filter and she blushes. “A-Adrien? As in… Adrien Agreste? Is a fan?”
He notices her squeak. How could he not? “You’ve seen his ads, huh?”
“Uh… well, I mean, he’s…” She rubs the back of her head and tries not to look like a total spaz. It doesn’t work, but she manages to play it off with a cute smile. “He’s a fan? Really?”
“Totally. Between you and me, I think it goes a little beyond the fanboy thing. The man is in lurve. You a fan of his?” he asks.
“Oh, well, you know,” she says, and flicks her hand. “It’s not like, I mean, you, pshh. I’m not here to talk about Adrien!” She isn’t, she scolds herself.
He nods, lowering his phone. “So, what are you here for?”
“Well, it was more just…” She hesitates. “I realised we never caught up with you after the whole… Bubbler thing and…”
“Oh. That was a while ago,” he says, and then sighs. “It’s weird you showin’ up here today. Something kinda the same as what caused all that happened today. But I rode it out and it’s cool.”
“O-oh?” She sidles a little further into the room. “Do you wanna tell me about it?”
He doesn’t want to, she can tell, but he does anyway. Maybe because she’s a superhero. Maybe because he knows he should talk it out. Not talking leads to akuma, so the newly-formed saying goes.
“So… my man Adrien, right? Great guy. Seriously, greatest guy you’ve ever met. Best friend I’ve ever had, too. But he’s just got so much going on, you know? I mean, I struggle just to get through school! He’s like, top of our class, and he does the modelling thing, and like a million sports, and Chinese classes, and music classes, and he still tries to make time for me, right? But it’s like it’s not enough, you know? His dad, I mean…” He puts down his phone a little too hard and glares at nothing. “I seriously hate that guy. Adrien tries so hard to be good for him and for what? He barely notices Adrien’s alive! And, I mean, I hate school. I’d do anything to get out of it. But Adrien’s fighting so hard to be allowed to come and today the teacher told him he doesn’t have enough time for it. You know what he said to me about it? Nothing! I had to tell him I heard her say it, and even then, you know what he says? ‘Don’t worry about it’! Because the only thing he can drop without dropping school is time with me, and he doesn’t want me to worry about that, because he’s insisting he can make it work!” Nino kicks his chair away from him and throws his hat across the room. “He ticks me off, you know? He’s so freaking miserable, and no one’s allowed to know. No one’s allowed to know he’s not some – some – some perfect doll! And that’s all he is to that freak! That’s all he is to anyone! And he wants it that way because then –!”
Ladybug nearly falls over when he suddenly stops, taking a deep breath and then letting it out. Marinette’s never heard any of this before. She knows Adrien’s got an insane schedule and she knows Mr Agreste is busy, but it hasn’t really occurred to her that Adrien’s life was anything less than wonderful. After all, it was his. Everything about him was perfect.
But here Nino is, absolutely raging about Adrien and his life.
“None of it’s Adrien’s fault,” Nino says, setting his hands on his hips. “And he says his dad just wants the best for him. And, y’know, if I didn’t know Adrien I’d say he was doin’ the right thing. The kid is pretty perfect. He just doesn’t get any time to do what he wants. Y’know?”
Marinette didn’t know.
She’s learning a lot about the men in her life, today.
It’s only the sound of his baton shrinking down to size that tells Ladybug her cat’s arrived. His boots make barely any sound until he’s right behind her, but his loud yawn is the first greeting he gives her.
“Sorry I’m late, but things ran long,” he says, dropping into a crouch beside where she sits on the roof. “How was Bubbler?”
“Upset. It sounds like his friend isn’t having a very good time of it,” she says, and Cat Noir tilts his head back before looking away. He says nothing, so she elaborates. “I think he’s worried about him. I would be, if I knew him like he does.”
She’s not looking, but from the way he shifts she knows he’s caught her attention. “You know the friend?”
“Everyone does,” she says, and gestures ahead of them to the billboard across the way. Adrien Agreste smiles at the Eiffel Tower, no doubt smelling of France and romance in equal measures, if you believe the ad that’s decorated their town for the last six months.
“Oh,” Cat Noir says, and looks away again. “Yeah, him.”
He’s surprisingly uninterested. Curiosity is normally one of his more prominent traits, but she supposes he is tired. She answers the questions he doesn’t ask. “It seems he’s under a lot of pressure, but he never complains. Not even to Nino—the Bubbler—and it makes Nino worry. Now it seems he might lose one of the few things he wants for himself, and he won’t let Nino get involved.”
“Maybe he shouldn’t,” he says. “Isn’t Nino getting involved in his problems what happened last time?”
“That wasn’t Nino’s fault!” she says, shocked that he’d even suggest it, but judging by the way he snaps around to stare at her, that’s not what he meant.
“Of course not. But if – forget it,” he says. “I’m just saying even airheaded models can take care of their own problems.”
“Adrien is not an airhead,” she snaps, and he raises an eyebrow, continuing his uninterested theme with an unimpressed glance.
“You’ve spoken to him what, once?”
She opens her mouth, then stops and looks around frantically as she tries to count Ladybug’s interactions with him. Really, it was just that time with Simon Says and Mr Agreste, and then again with Volpina. She made such a mess of it both times.
“If you really knew him, you wouldn’t be so impressed,” Cat Noir continues with a wry smirk, and then leans in close until their noses nearly touch. “But hey. You wanna waste your time on a pretty cardboard cut-out, be my guest.”
“Maybe I will at that,” she shoots, lifting a finger to push him back by the nose. “You don’t fool me, kitty. I know you’re just jealous you won’t ever be that handsome.”
“Hah. I’m much better looking than that hack,” he says with a toss of his hair. “I know you have to deny it, but if you ever want a signed photo to kiss goodnight, I won’t tell.”
“The offer is not returned,” she says, and he sighs dramatically before rising to his feet.
“So I assume the boy’s calmed down now? He’s alright?”
“I told him to talk to Adrien. Hopefully they work it out okay.”
“Hm. Welp, much as I’d love to stay and chat the night away, a cat’s gotta nap,” he says, but she snatches his tail as he turns and yanks him back down beside her. He scowls. “Oh come on, the puns weren’t that bad.”
“You got me out here in the middle of the night,” she reminds him. “The least you can do is spend more than five minutes here.”
He blinks rapidly, then shifts himself into a more comfortable position. He doesn’t mention that she’s absently wrapping his tail around her palm and neither does she, both of them just staring blindly at the billboard.
They don’t spend time together like this. They meet to do a job, and while that might sometimes take a few hours, they don’t even hang out during those long breaks between skirmishes. More likely, they go their separate ways to save kwami energy and come back at an agreed time. Honestly, they shouldn’t feel as close as they do – like they’ve known each other forever. This, sitting here like this, should feel awkward and uncomfortable.
Instead Ladybug’s absently petting the tail wrapped around her hand, and Cat Noir seems content to sit by her. She suspects he’d like to lean against her. Maybe even put his head on hers and curl up to sleep. She wouldn’t mind, she thinks. She’d prefer his head in her lap though, where she could run her hands through his hair.
She tries not to think about it too hard.
“Do you remember Anti-bug?” she asks quietly, and he rumbles an affirmative.
“Chloe Bourgeois. Your number one fan.”
“I heard her, you know. When she asked if it bothered you, playing the sidekick,” she says. “You didn’t really answer her.”
“We’re a team,” he mumbles. He sounds half asleep. “I don’t really care what role I play in that, as long as I’m by your side, milady.”
“You know I don’t mean to make you feel like that,” she says quietly. “I wish other people saw you as my partner.”
“Honestly, Ladybug, Cat Noir doesn’t give a damn what anyone thinks,” he says. “All I want is to help. I wouldn’t give this up for anything, as a sidekick, partner, or anything in between.”
She smiles, tightening her grip on his tail until he makes a noise that could be construed as a complaint. It’s probably more of a sleepy grunt, but she loosens her hold just in case.
“Is it true you go and visit people after they’d be de-evilised? To make sure they’re okay?”
“Hm? Mm. Yeah. If you haven’t already talked to them. It would suck to leave it on a fight.”
She looks at him. He’s closed his eyes and slumped slightly forward, mostly held up by his elbows on his knees. She reaches over with her free hand and shucks his chin with one finger, smiling when it makes him hum. Her big kitty. “You’re a great guy, Cat Noir.”
He opens his eyes just enough to return her gaze, smile broadening into something more conscious. He takes her hand from where it still rests under his chin and kisses her knuckles. For once, she doesn’t pull away, instead shifting in to press against his side in the closest she’ll come to a hug. She stays there until she feels his head moving toward hers, and pushes him up, refusing to get them caught in a position they both might feel too comfortable in.
“Come on, get up. You’re enough of a stray cat without falling asleep on roofs on your way home,” she says, and he hums before reluctantly pulling himself away. She lets his tail slip out of her grasp and gets up herself, trying to ignore how cold her hand feels without it. “Are you okay to get home on your own?”
He blinks blearily, then smirks and leans in. “Milady, you are always welcome in my bedroom.”
“Careful before I leash you, tomcat.”
“Was that a threat or an offer?”
She laughs, and he grins back, lifting a hand in farewell. “Good night, Ladybug. Be safe on your way home.”
“You too, kitty cat,” she says. She leaves first, as she always does. She thinks back over the day as she gets ready for bed, discussing everything she’s learned with Tikki and wishing Adrien good luck and better dreams. She goes to sleep thinking of green eyes, but dreams of slitted pupils and almost inaudible purrs.
She tries not to think about it when she gets up.