Archive of Our Own ^beta

So, it didn’t go exactly how she had ever imagined it would.

Not that she imagined it often - if anything, she often refrained from thinking about it. The idea of it all filled her with a specific type of anxiety that compelled her to avoid the thought altogether. That didn’t stop her from creating a million back up plans in case of every emergency, though, see back up plans were her vice. In fact, she had even thought of a back up plan for this exact moment.

Except, the plans she fantasized about executing flawlessly in her shower and at sinful hours of the night never lived up to expectation, did they?

It had all come out of nowhere, in Marinette’s defense. One second, she’s summoning her lucky charm and she’s figuring out a plan, the next she’s being chased around by her own lucky charm and her earrings are obnoxiously beeping in her ear. Her partner was only meters apart from her, using his baton to combat the bombarding objects as they came hurdling after the pair across the Parisian rooftops. The akumatized victim herself was about a half mile behind, guiding the blind objects toward the duo, but she got so far behind that the objects had to learn to guide themselves. In fact, the objects were able to hear . That’s how they were tracking the two, which Ladybug quickly grasped onto the fact when a stupid joke about running refrigerators from Chat Noir drew the attention of 2 chairs and a vase outside of a patisserie to come barreling towards his head.

Eventually, Ladybug’s earrings were insistent on her departure and she practically fell down between the buildings into a random narrow alley. Well, not practically. She did. It wasn’t a pretty tumble, either, her body slapping against the walls before eventually hitting the ground with a muffled oomph. Looking up from the now particularly blurry alley, she made out two things: one - a cacophony of enchanted blind objects, hurdling over the gap between the buildings and listening for any sign of the superhero, and two - her stupidly noble partner scaling down the alley to check on her.

She almost wanted to curse him out and tell him to go away, to close his eyes, or stop, but the overwhelming presence of noise-tracking murderous household items somehow prevented her from lashing her tongue. So she was left with one decision to make.

The fall only gave Marinette mere seconds to decide which part of Chat Noir’s face to cover. On one hand, the obvious was his eyes. She could feel her magic starting to fade away within the confines of the corridor and what else is ever on her mind regarding Chat Noir except for their integrity? ( You mean your avoidance, she could hear Alya in the back of her mind saying.)

However, the only thing on Marinette’s mind in this particular moment was that this cat needed to keep his mouth shut. Possibly his least reliable trait, but there weren’t many unreliable things about Chat Noir to choose from, anyway.

So, as her partner was landing next to her, she sprang to her feet with the rest of the energy left in her transformation and pushed him against the wall with her hand smothering his mouth. She cringed at the sight of the red hexagonal leather disappearing off of her fingertips and ignored the feeling of Chat’s surprisingly smooth skin completely normal feeling face on her now very bare hands.

Instinctually, he reached towards her wrist to shove it off, before freezing as the realization hit him on what was suddenly going down. His eyes were… Large, and full of something Marinette had never seen before that made her want to squirm. He pushed against her hand and hummed something in protest, to which Marinette grounded herself and glared daggers at him, putting a finger up to her lips and pushing him back. Marinette couldn’t get herself to look at him. She hadn’t even processed what had just happened , and honestly, she wasn’t about to. So, in Marinette fashion, she doesn’t give Tikki or her partner a chance to pry as the stampede above them rerouted and dissipated.

Instead, once she removes her hand from her partner’s face, she immediately calls for her transformation and swings back to the rooftops. Chat Noir took about 30 agonizingly long seconds to reconvene with her.

Needless to say, Ladybug finished the rest of the akuma attack in an unusually swift and painfully quiet manner.

At the end, she tried - she really, really tried - to make a completely natural and brief exit, however her partner’s tail caught around her wrist like a slap bracelet. She looked at him with a bashful expression of disgusting feigned innocence. In return, Chat Noir tilted his head and gave her this awfully knowing and intelligent look that made Marinette get filled with deja-vu and made her nauseous. Chat Noir was many things, but intelligent? She had her doubts. She just looked at him for a few seconds, trying to think of any reason or excuse to get out of this. Usually, she is the CEO of awful-excuses-to-get-out-of-things, but for some reason her feet weren’t moving and her mouth was pushed into a tight line.

“Okay.” She relented, and she winced at how small her voice sounded when it came out, how completely Marinette it was. It made her self conscious, and she wasn’t used to feeling so vulnerable while in her suit, especially in front of him. It made it even worse. She turned away from him to pull out her yo-yo.

Marinette

DISASTER. Complete. Disaster.

Alya 

Girl seriously what now

She put her device away, still without looking back at her partner, and silently flung herself toward their normal patrol meeting area. Upon arrival, they ducked behind the roof’s edge and she immediately started bouncing on her feet anxiously and fidgeting with the texture of her suit around her fingers. Eventually, a few seconds of silence passed, and she could not handle such overwhelming tension anymore, so she broke it. “So… Do you… Have a skin care routine or something?” 

Ok. Bad icebreaker. It was stupid, but plan A in Marinette’s mind to avoid Chat Noir’s inevitable interrogation about this painfully awkward and life changing experience was to make a joke and pray they’d laugh and forget any of it ever happened. That was a stupid joke to pick, it didn't even sound like a joke, Marinette. His lack of acknowledgement and that persistent look on his face immediately told Marinette that her plan was wishful thinking: As they all seem to be! Gah!

“I feel… Unbelievably stupid right now,” Chat Noir blanched in an uncharacteristically low voice. It was the first thing he had said, too. It did not help the sinking feeling in her stomach. What on Earth did that mean?

She couldn’t help but feel defensive - Chat Noir was her partner! One of her closest friends, bound by uncontrollable and unseeable forces of magic, yet he seemed so… despondent? Feeling angry was much easier than addressing any of the emotions that made her feel. Her eyebrows furrowed at him, who was standing towards her with an incredulous look and slight tilt in his shoulders.

His expression and lack of elaboration furthered her annoyance and flaming sense of unwelcome vulnerability, causing her to cross her arms over her body and furrow her eyebrows at him. Her whole posture straightened, and she couldn’t tell if it was to compensate for her sudden lack of bravado, or because she could not seem to stop holding her breath.

Eventually, her breath came out as words - “I’m sorry ?”

Whatever it was in her tone caused Chat Noir to snap back into the moment, his eyes flicking to hers and the ‘o’ his mouth made fell into a brilliant smile that perked up in favor of his left side. All of a sudden, he was hysterically laughing and dragging his hands down his face with a groan.

Ladybug, despite her best efforts, let out a meep at his outburst, with the lack of anything necessarily better to contribute in her current state - she had about a million questions, comments, and feelings and absolutely no way to vocalize them. It made her feel like she was suffocating. Instead, she stood there looking helpless and dumb and totally not Ladybug.

“ Jesus , Mari, I don’t -” The sound of her name, her nickname , rolling off of his tongue so easily, effortlessly - as if he had done it a million times before. It sent a shiver down her back, and she unwillingly took a step backward, raising her hand as if to tell him to stop. Which he did, immediately, freezing at her sudden movement. She was hoping he just wouldn’t have noticed or acknowledged her misstep, but then she remembered he was pretty well-versed in noticing her, wasn’t he? He always noticed her slight movements. He looked embarrassed.

Frustrated with herself, this whole predicament, and the overwhelming lack of control, she stomped, growled and shook her head profusely at Chat’s already concerned and apologetic look. “No, no, you’re okay, I’m just -”

“No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have -”

“Chat, you didn’t do,” She took a deep breath, “anything wrong.”

He took a cautious step toward her, bowing his body to reach her eye level, “Hey, neither did you. ”

All she did was stare up at him: his strikingly gentle eyes that bore the same overbearing look. It was in this moment, so close and with stubborn eye contact between the two that Marinette realized she had seen that expression before. The sparkle in his eye that he had when he looked at her like she had hung all the stars in the sky. It wasn’t until now that she also realized it had been a long time since she had seen it on his face.

But, she shouldn't have, right? He had a girlfriend, he had told her so , but this look was back, so maybe Ladybug didn’t actually know what Chat Noir was thinking all the time, which was entirely unfair because he always seemed to know what she was thinking.

Snapping herself out of it, she groaned again and peeled away from Chat Noir’s proximity and scrutinizing eye contact. She paced for moments in silence, going between tugging at her pigtails and rubbing her fingers together again.

“You know,” Chat spoke up again, this time the shyness in his voice made her feel unreasonably guilty, “We really don’t… Have to talk about it, if you want, I mean, if it’s going to make you… Spiral, or, feel… weird, you know?”

Ladybug snorted at his awkward attempt, “That doesn’t seem particularly fair to you, does it?”

With sudden conviction, he replied, “This isn’t about me.” His eyebrows were down and his face was set - dead serious. He had to be joking.

“ Isn’t about you ?! Are you kidding? Of course it is! I’ve been the one keeping this whole thing going for, like, forever, and then I screw up and my perfectly crafted plans fall apart! And who’s left to bear the consequences, and now, the responsibility of my identity - not to mention my subsequent crisis - You ! You are, God, Chat, I’m so sorry -” As she spoke, the whole reality of the situation sank in and positively reinforced her frantic rambling. It was if a pipe had ruptured, the way she began catastrophizing, resuming her pacing and ponytail-pulling.

Interrupting her continued downfall, and clearly finding some sickening amusement to her peril, Chat Noir leaned against the concrete wall of the roof access outlet, smiling devilishly at her - “I truly cannot believe I didn’t put this together. I mean, the magic isn’t that good, right? Like, it all makes such perfect sense now. I don’t - I can’t even begin to question how I didn’t see it before. The way you’re rambling and playing with your hands - in the same pattern .” He spoke softly, in awe and disbelief and with this sickening tone of admiration and wonder laced into his voice. Ladybug couldn’t tell if he even realized he was speaking out loud, he certainly was speaking softly and his gaze seemed fogged over. His actual words sank in slowly. Really slowly. He continued muttering to himself as she stood there trying to wrap her head around it.

Tens of minutes could have passed, truly, and she would have been none the wiser. She thought about everything that his words implied - they know each other . Well, duh. She had met Chat Noir as Marinette plenty of times, but the way he spoke made it seem like they know know each other. That was a possibility Marinette had not even begun to fathom. 

The same pattern . He knew… The patterns she made with her fingers?

The fact that anyone in her life noticed that was enough to make her almost blackout. Which, she thinks she might have? All of a sudden, she was down on the ground and Chat Noir was rushing beside her, preventing her body from hitting concrete for the second time that night.

“I’m sorry, you don’t - I don’t have to tell you. Who I am.”

“You know me?”

“I… Yeah. I know you.” He said it so dreamily. That same shiver ran down her spine again.

“...Cool.” Smooth.

“Smooth.” She snorted at the irony.

“Great, so, you know me, so you know I’m anything but that.”

“I actually find it quite charming, you know?”

Relishing in the familiar banter, Ladybug pushed herself into a sitting position against the wall and brushed the pebbles off of her hands, “Careful, I’ll tell my boyfriend. Who I guess you also must know?” She wanted to laugh even more at the irony of that .

Channeling what could only be compared to Marinette’s level of smoothness, Chat Noir basically tripped over himself in his squatting position, “W-What? No! Well, yes, I do… I guess that would make sense, I do. Yeah..." He cleared his throat, and based on his posture Marinette figured he'd be stuffing his hands into his pockets if he had any, "Adrien… Right?”

“... Yeah…” She couldn’t help the way her eyes narrowed at his attitude, giving him the benefit of the whatever the fuck has happened today doubt, she moved on and tried to reel back in whatever the normal banter they had before was, “Real jealous type, you know? Wouldn't wanna cross him.”

“Oh yeah?” A comforting smirk plastered his face, “Never would have deemed him the jealous type. Please, do tell more.” She figured he must actually know Adrien, then, because he really wasn't the jealous type. Then again, maybe he was and just didn't know what actually warranted being jealous over, Marinette pondered, he would so be that way.

“So interested?”

“About the ever infamous Buttercup I now know is the same one pursuing my Lady?” She wanted to slap him so bad, “Of course! You know, you’re technically my magical responsibility, I think I deserve some sort of two cents!”

“On my love life?!” She exclaimed, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows at him in what resembled a schoolteacher scolding a student.

“Not a say or anything, but I have been told I have pretty good intuition, you know?” The smug and knowing look was back on his face and she despised every second of it. He didn’t know anything! Well, actually, that wasn’t true, apparently he knew a lot. Too much!

“Well, good luck finding literally anything about Adrien that signals your intuition, he’s like… walking Christmas.” She mumbled.

“W- What?” His ears perked up in a very cat-like way, his eyes suddenly forming into large circles she had only witnessed a handful of times. It was so stupidly innocent when he did it, and it was always over something equally stupid and innocent like a stray cat or scampering off to get ice cream during patrol.

She blushed as she was pried into talking about him - Well, she often blushed when discussing Adrien in any context, but now - to Chat Noir? It felt like a death row interrogation. “Shut up, stop compelling me to embarrass myself. Yes! Walking Christmas. Literally infectiously joyous and perfect. Please, spare me the rest of my torment.” She grumbled into her hands as her head hung between her knees.

“I’m actually having a wonderful time hearing about the illustrious life of being Mrs. Adrien Agreste.” The nickname sent hot flames to her ears and cheeks and she reached over and slapped her partner’s arm ferociously. He spilled into laughter.

“As much as I despise you and your terrible schemes, I will not promise to not indulge - he is… Like. The best thing to ever happen to me, so,” She bashfully spoke into her wrist, careful not to make eye contact to avoid that stupidly smug look. She guessed it made sense, he always wanted to know all the details about her new relationship despite her hesitance, even as Marinette he was always so interested in her love life. He said he just wanted to be in on the girl talk. She believed him based on the way he talked about it like his only experience with witnessing true chummy gossip was on the big screen. He eventually told her so, which made her kick herself for ever having held back on him.

Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t realize Chat Noir’s lapse in the conversation. Eventually, she looked at him and he was just looking at her, with tinted pink cheeks and a windswept demeanor. “Chat?”

Now, it was his time to groan and bury his head in his hands in pure frustration. It was a refreshing thing to see. It had already happened a few times this same night, but on any ordinary occasion Chat Noir barely ever faltered. Even when being comforting and gentle, he did it so coherently as if it was second nature to know exactly what to say and how to say it. Marinette was the worst at comforting people coherently. In fact, she often said the exact opposite thing of comforting before finally figuring it out and having to do damage control hours later. She still remembers that one time she accidentally friend-zoned Nath in a very untactful manner, and Alya told her she needed to get her shit together. She was right, as she unfortunately tends to be.

Chat Noir pushed himself to his feet and there was distance between the two of them again. It made this whole situation a lot more real and frightening to Marinette, and she just wished he would sit down again. But, he didn’t. Eventually, he looked back at her with a settled face and determination in his voice, “I… Really can’t lie to you.”

“What… What do you mean?” Her head flinched back and forth in confusion to urge him to fill her in on the plot she felt like she was missing, but also, go back, because that look he just made -

“I would… Like to tell you who I am. I mean, I will make more sense in general if you… Knew. And I don’t think I’m going to be able to pull it off and see you tomorrow or talk to you tonight and pretend to not know, and you’d be… Probably acting off and I’d have to pretend to not know why -” He cleared his throat and got back on track, “Look, if it makes you uncomfortable or you need time, I understand, but you mean… A lot to me, Marinette, both in and out of the suit. And I am kind of at odds of what to do with everything I am feeling and thinking and,”

As he was talking, Marinette squeaked and slapped her hands on either side of her head, before her head fell back between her knees like a frightened rollie-pollie. Marinette. Wanted. To. Disappear.

“Oh, Jesus, I actually… Unfortunately, think I just put two and two together in my brain, I’m sorry,” Ladybug confessed, causing her partner to laugh and wow, that is literally his laugh, okay!

“Well, you often do, so that doesn’t surprise me.”

“I clearly don’t, how did - I not know…” She finally looked at him. It was earth-shattering.

He looked like Chat Noir. His hair was rugged and messy and his green sclera and thin, black pupils as sharp and witty as ever. But then there was the dimple, and the tilt in his shoulder, and the preference his smile had for the left side, and the over-explaining and reason for his own emotions that was so undeniably Adrien . And then he dropped down next to her and smiled that gentle look as he took her hand in his. Yeah. Definitely, 100% Adrien.

She laughed maniacally as his hands met hers and she felt around instinctively for a tighter grip. She had held this hand so many times, both in and out of the suit, and she had never noticed - “Your ring! God, how -”

“Did I not notice before? Yeah that’s the internal freak out I’ve personally been having for the past hour.” He laughed and leaned his head forward, their foreheads lightly resting on one another. “What gave me away?”

“You did that… Thing you do. When you get suddenly very determined about doing something. You get all… Professional and elegant with how you phrase things and puff your chest up a little bit, and then you started talking and incriminating yourself, and I really don’t have many people to choose from that I talk to at nights,” Marinette laughed as she spoke, tears dripping from her eyes onto their touching hands. His gloved hand wiped the tears off every time they landed on her. Such a familiar act she had seen with bare hands. She was going to pass out again.

He feigned insult, “Are you… Saying I have to puff out my chest?”

Despite herself, she laughed, and shoved him away, “Shut up. You know, I haven’t forgotten you just totally played me into gushing about you to you.”

“I realized I had a once in a lifetime opportunity.” He shrugged.

“You made it once in a lifetime! You could have milked this out for so long, I sure would have.”

“God, I know. I’m kind of glad it was you first and not me, I can see it now. Weeks of subtle hints through verbiage and outfit easter eggs. You’d start… Making cat puns at lunch, or something, and watch as I squirm,” He lamented dramatically, collapsing onto the concrete floor to lay like a starfish beside her.

“Oh, boohoo, but you’re right, I would. And I kinda want to… I’m actually severely envious of you right now.”

“I thought about it, but I know I’d take one look at you tomorrow morning and completely lose myself. Plus, I… Kind of tell you, like, everything? It already felt weird to keep it from you within seconds of seeing it was you, I wanted to just confess right there in the alley.”

“Hey, chaton,” She cooed with mock condescension in her voice, fingers reaching out to brush his hair soothingly, “don’t sell yourself short! You didn’t tell me everything .”

“Honestly, I almost have! Like... Multiple times. It’s kind of good you’re Ladybug, I was kind of planning on just waiting for it to slip out and feign my innocence before figuring out how to apologize to you - Ladybug - sometime after the fact. Ask for forgiveness, not permission, type of thing.”

“I should probably be upset, but you’re so damn wonderful and stupid , it’s kind of impossible.”

“Like Christmas! I’ve heard.” He crossed his arms behind his head like he was lounging on a chaise. Marinette blushed and hid her face again.

“Shut up, Adrien.” She mumbled, lightly nudging his arm with her foot.

“Just so you know, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, too.” He looked up at her with that look. Like she had hung the stars in the sky. She realized she knew it. A lot. She saw it in Adrien's eyes every day, and even now, despite the green sclera and black pupils, she saw Adrien written all over it. "Also, for you, I'm absolutely the jealous type."

The deja-vu came flooding back to her.