Chapter Text
It had been raining for two days by the time Thursday rolled around, which had the entirety of Paris in a bad mood. It was mid-June already but seemed more like January thanks to the dark clouds and drops that plagued the city. Streets were gloomy, shops were closed and everyone seemed to walk with an air of tetchy aggravation. Not everyone was so disappointed however.
Adrien, for one, was thrilled, as this meant he hadn’t been to any of his scheduled photoshoots. His father’s company was working on a men’s swimwear line at the moment which meant all of the shoots would be outside by a rented pool for test shots, then on-site in Brazil for the final looks. Though rain wasn’t usually an issue for regular sessions, both the amount of rain and the lack of breaks left nothing to be done that wouldn’t both ruin the camera equipment and jeopardize the models’ healths. On top of that, his fencing instructor was out of town and his foreign language tutor had come down with a flu of some sort, which meant Adrien didn’t have to attend any of his usual father-sanctioned activities for at least four more days. He hadn’t had a weekend to himself in almost five months, and the idea had his head spinning! What would he do? Where would he go? He stared thoughtfully out his bedroom window, watching the umbrellas move along the pavement below.Though his options were still limited by the possibility of being spotted by fans, which would be excruciating, he was excited at the prospect of just being able to hang out in his room or see his friends without needing to cut it short and hustle off to his next commitment. He pulled his attention away from the glass and fired off a quick text to Nino;
20:14- A: Hey you around this weekend?
20:14- A: My father’s cancelled all my shoots b/c of the weather. Down for a movie night?
20:17- N: Yooo dude that’s awesome! Wish I could but Alya and I are still in Spain and can’t get a flight back until Tuesday.
20:17- N: *1 image attached* No rain here 😎
Adrien clicked on the image and chuckled at the picture of his friends laying on the sandy beach. Nino had worked with Alya’s mom to surprise his girlfriend with a week-long trip to Marbella for their 4 year anniversary, and though they were supposed to get back on Friday, the unexpected monsoon they were currently experiencing prevented any flights from taking off or landing anywhere near Paris. Adrien sighed.
20:18- N: I heard Marinette’s around though
20:18- N: You could always ask her?
Unbeknownst to a certain blond, Alya and Nino had been scheming to get Adrien and Marinette together for years with no luck. But for around the past year, they had laid off. They still made the odd suggestive comment or minor ploy- sitting them together at brunches or movies, wandering off together and leaving the two to talk- but they didn’t lean into it as much as in past years. It wasn’t that they didn’t want them together, no no! It was that recently, by some miracle, they had succeeded in forcing out the awkward nature of their relationship and replacing it with something that felt calm and comfortable. That tension in the air was gone, their friend group had never been stronger, and that was enough for them. For now.
Said blond was thinking Nino’s suggestion over carefully. Would Marinette want to hangout with him? He was happy with where their friendship had been developing since lycée, what with her holding full conversations and occasionally making jokes, but she was still quite shy around him. Her quick-wit and confidence were at an all time high, but every time Adrien addressed her, it seemed to fly out the window. And they had only ever hung out in a group. What if she only tolerated him because of Alya and Nino? He didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.
He wandered over to his desktop, currently displaying a picture of said friend group. His eyes drifted to Marinette, her smiling face making him grin inadvertently. She really was a great friend, and if choosing between being stuck in the Agreste mansion and hanging out with her, he’d choose her in a heartbeat. Not that it would be a hard decision to make. But would she be happy to see him? What would they even do? They had played Mecha Strike all those years ago, would it be weird if he asked her to play again? He paced his room slowly, deep in thought.
“God, kid, you’d think your floor would have holes in it by now” Plagg groaned, floating up from his napping spot in the nightstand and hovering around Adrien’s shoulder. He paused his pacing, now back in front of his computer, and sat down in his desk chair. He swiveled back and forth slowly, narrowed eyes staring at the illuminated screen. Finally, he spoke.
“Plagg, what do you think of Marinette?”
“Uh.. what?”
“Do you think she likes me?” He picked up a pencil and twirled it between his fingers. “Like, enough to hangout this weekend?”
Plagg flew over and sat on his desk, staring with Adrien at the pigtailed girl on his monitor. He smirked and let out a chuckle.
“You have no idea, kid.”
“I know we’re technically friends and everything, but I feel like every time it’s just the two of us she gets, I don’t know, weird again. Like she’s not fully being herself around me. Do you think she’s just tolerating me because of our friends?”
Adrien grabbed his mouse and scrolled around, opening the photos icon on his desktop to the auto-constructed album titled ‘You and 1 other’. Realizing he should probably fill in the blank for his computer, he changed the name quickly, swapping the ‘1 other’ to ‘Marinette’. Though they didn’t have many pictures together, his heart swelled as he scrolled through the ones he did manage to snap over five years, the memories coming back to him fondly. Plagg sighed.
“Listen, I’m not trying to give you an ego or anything but Marinette is very capable of choosing who she does and doesn’t want to hang out with.” He sat up and flew towards Adrien’s face, blocking his view of the screen to captivate his attention, “She never tolerated Chloe’s behavior when she was with Sabrina, right? Why would it be any different with you?” Adrien mumbled and cast his eyes down towards his mouse, which he scrolled absentmindedly.
“Plus, you and I both know she’ll go toe to toe with any of her friends who act out, no matter who it is. She can have a hard time saying no sometimes but I don't think she’d be around someone she truly doesn’t like, even if it’s for her friends’ sake.” Adrien shuddered at the memory of the first time he witnessed Marinette’s wrath. He hadn’t chewed gum in school since that first day, worried it would remind her of the person she had originally thought he was. Though it was a long time ago, he still worries sometimes that her stuttering and awkwardness those first few years were an ill-attempt at hiding her continuing distaste, and every once in a while it nags at him like an itch he just can’t seem to scratch.
With pace, he quickly turned his chair around and walked to the edge of his bed, flopping on top of the covers as soon as his knees made contact. Plagg hovered above him, watching as the boy rolled over onto his stomach, then his back, then stomach again. Vaguely, he reminded him of an inchworm or a roly-poly. One of those fuzzy caterpillars, maybe. He remembered overhearing that the baker girl had had a cocoon on her balcony a few months back, which she had nursed until it hatched and the newly born butterfly took to the skies.
.
.
.
That’s when, suddenly, Plagg got an idea. Smirking, he flew closer to Adrien’s groveling form and spoke.
“If you really want to know kid, you could just ask her what she thinks of you.” His voice lilting as he spoke. Adrien groaned and rolled onto his back to glare at the black cat god he unwillingly lived with.
“Oh yeah? Great idea. That won’t be awkward at all.” He said, sarcasm dripping off his words.
“Or.. have someone else ask?” This was met with a wry chuckle.
“Riiight. Because that’s not weird,” he sat up and crossed his legs, “Who would I even ask, anyways? Nino and Alya are in Spain and there’s no way anyone from our class is going to walk through this rain to ask Marinette about me.”
“What about..
a hero?”
Adrien scoffed at the thought, leaning forward to run his hands through his hair frustratedly.
“I wish. It’s my patrol tonight and I don’t want to wait until tomorrow to ask because by then she’ll probably have plans. Besides I don’t even think she knows Ladybug that well, she’s probably closer to Chat N-” His speech came to a halt as his eyes lit up with understanding. Slowly, he glanced over to Plagg, snickering as he shot his miraculous wielder finger guns.
“Bingo.”
Adrien carefully slid off his bed and walked over to his phone. 21:30. Perfect time for an early patrol. And maybe, if he was lucky, he could pop in on his favorite Parisian and very causally ask her some very random questions. About himself. Well, his civilian self. He toyed with the ring on his finger and grinned.
“I think it’s time I head out on patrol, don’t you think?” He walked over to the window, popping it open and holding a hand out to feel the rain, “ And maybe make a stop along the way.”
“Oh?” The god inquired. Green stared into green as Adrian smiled, pearly whites glinting in the soft light.
“I’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth tonight. And I happen to know exactly who can satisfy my cravings.”