Chapter Text
Marinette was standing on her balcony. The twinkling lights of the city her backdrop. She made sure before she placed the call that no monuments or other obvious landmarks could be seen, though quite frankly her face would be taking up most of the screen.
By the second ring, he answered. Chat Noir’s face showed up on her screen, a smile on his face, but Marinette could see the question still on his face. It wasn’t obvious, but they were partners for a reason.
“Hey there,” Ladybug greeted, her voice sounding a little rough.
“Hi Bugaboo, is everything alright?” Chat Noir asked, concerned in his voice.
Despite feeling under the weather Ladybug smirked. “Just a touch of a cold. Nothing to worry about, but my kwami suggested I not push it unless there’s an actual akuma threat. You don’t mind patrolling alone tonight, do you?”
“Not at all my Lady,” he told her, as she was sure he would. “You just take care of yourself, alright?”
As Chat Noir was talking a voice called up to Marinette from her trap door. “Marinette, your tea is ready. Come down stairs!”
Panic set in as she looked at her communicator. Did Chat Noir hear? “Thanks, see you later, gotta go,” she said quickly, shutting the communicator before the cat could say anything else as she moved quickly to drop down from her skylight. “Coming!”
Ladybug’s transformation fell away before her bottom hit her mattress. Marinette looked at her kwami with concern. “Do you think he heard?”
“I suppose we will find out soon enough,” Tikki replied, which didn’t calm Marinette at all. Still there was nothing she could do about it as she pulled at her hair slightly and headed down to the main floor of the family living space.
While her mother fussed over her, concerned with how flushed Marinette was, she showed no inkling to the internal distress of her daughter. Which was just as well, because Marinette wasn’t sure she had the capacity to talk her way out of any prying questions from her mother when her head felt like fluff.
She kept listening for any unusual thumps from the floor above, but she continued to hear nothing and slowly started to relax. Maybe he wasn’t coming. Maybe he hadn’t heard after all, or not well enough to make any guesses.
Meanwhile her mother asked her about school and projects and if Marinette was feeling up for going to school the next day. Marinette thought it would be nice to have a day without school, but in all honesty with a good night's rest and more tea in the morning she was sure she could manage through the day just find. It was only a little cold.
With a small snack to take up to her room, and a promise not to stay up too late, Marinette finally went back up to her quiet room. She looked around half surprised, and then shrugged happily, going over to her computer. There was a tutorial on YouTube she wanted to watch.
Marinette looked at the time, three videos later, and realized it was getting late. In fact it was about the time she would be getting back from patrol. “We should probably head to bed, right Tikki?”
Her kwami stretched in the air in front of the computer as Marinette shut it down. “That sounds like a good plan. Hopefully tomorrow you’ll…”
Tikki didn’t finish what she had to say as they heard something land on the roof. Something or rather someone. Marinette found herself hoping it was actually an akuma as she carefully went up the stairs to her bed loft.
Her heart sank as she got on her bed and saw a pair of green eyes looking through the window. Taking a deep breath, Marinette ran her hands down her face, still looking up. She thought he looked sheepish. Good!
Standing she started propping up her window, Chat Noir moving to the opening. “You probably shouldn’t be outside. Can I come in?”
At least he was being polite. Marinette nodded. “Just be quiet. My parents might be asleep, but I don’t need them waking up.”
He nodded and then dropped in, making sure to close the window afterwards. “Um, so, patrol was quiet!”
Marinette looked at him for a while, her arms curled around her chest. She didn’t like this. For some reason she felt so small under Chat Noir’s gaze. It was unreasonable since she’d met him several times in her normal persona and never felt intimidated around him before. “So, that’s why you didn't show up sooner?”
“I’m sorry. Should I? I know me hearing your mother over the communicator was just bad luck,” he smirked, likely despite himself, at the comment. “But I wasn't sure what to do. I figured it was best to just clear my head and patrol. Give you a chance to maybe do the same.”
“I honestly wasn’t sure you heard or heard well enough to figure it out,” Marinette sighed, looking down at her bare knees.
“Oh,” he said, sounding slightly embarrassed, which caused Marinette to look at her partner again. He rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess I should have come over right away.”
Marinette shook her head. “I was down stairs with my mother for a while. It’s okay.”
“Your parents are so nice,” he said. She would have thought it was just to say something, but the way he said it, with such confidence.
Marinette narrowed her eyes. “You just met them the one time. With Animan, right?”
Chat Noir flushed. “Well, actually…”
“Yes?” She cocked her head to the side.
“We sorta already know each other,” Chat Noir muttered softly.
Marinette’s eyes grew wide. There was no way, right? Yet here he was saying it was so. “How well?”
“Maybe I should just show you?” And before she could protest, because shouldn't one of them keep their identity a secret, but on the other hand it would level the playing field, Chat Noir dropped his transformation.
Instinctively she closed her eyes as the electric green flash enveloped her partner. When she opened her eyes there sat Adrien Agreste on her bed. It was completely normal for her to scream.
Thankfully, Adrien moved quickly, covering her mouth. “Your parents,” he hissed in reminder. All the while his eyes were wide, possibly surprised by her reaction, or scared, but why would he be scared?
Marinette looked at him, still in complete shock, but numbly nodded her head. Screaming was bad. Slowly Adrien moved his hand away. She noticed there was some laughter being muzzled not far away and Tikki’s voice soft but annoyed too. Most her attention was on the green eyes in front of her however.
She then turned away and pulled over her large cat plushy, burying her face in it. Her voice muffled in the stuffing. “This isn't happening. This is some sort of weird fever dream. There is no way that I’m this lucky!”
There was a moment where all she heard was unintelligible kwami voices, and then she heard Adrien take a sharp intake of air. “Lucky?”
Turning, to peek over at the blond boy that was still sitting on her bed, not magically morphed into something else like a dream normally would, she saw Adrien was still flushed and his eyes held more than a bit of wonder. “Um, yeah, um, because if you’re him. And he’s you. I… well… wouldn’t that make me very lucky?”
Marinette wasn't sure she was making sense. Being sick and being surprised twice over made it hard to think. “Um, well, I was thinking I was pretty lucky, because Marinette is my friend and Ladybug is my favorite partner.”
“I’m your only partner!” Marinette said with just a touch of indignation, and a full smack from her pillow.
When Adrien pulled the pillow away from his face he was smiling just as much as she was. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Later that evening.
“If you get sick, don’t blame me!”
“You say that like it wouldn’t be worth it to be with you.”