Work Text:
Chat Noir hasn’t exactly devoted a whole lot of time to imagining Ladybug being interested in him‒ Adrien him, that is; Lord knows he’s thought about her loving Chat a billion times‒ but in any made up scenario that has occurred where Ladybug’s confessed to having a crush on Adrien, he’s always been filled with utter glee.
Apparently when it happens in real life, that’s not the case.
They’re out patrolling one crisp Friday night when she stops short at the sight of a billboard, plastered with a too-large photo of him. It strikes him, not for the first time, just how strange it is that he can look at these pristine, “perfect” photos of himself and see every sign of hunger and fatigue hidden behind layer upon layer of makeup, lighting and editing. He can attach a memory of being irritated, exhausted, or just plain bored to practically every ad with his face on it, and nobody viewing these portrayals of him is any the wiser.
So when he sees Ladybug staring up at the billboard, a lovesick expression written plainly across her face, he’s.. kind of disgusted, actually.
But it’s his lady, so he’s going to give her the benefit of the doubt. He highly doubts he could have ever met her in civilian form and not instantly recognised her, but despite that he feels inclined to hope they have met, and it’s more than just his Photoshopped face that’s attracted her to him.
“I’m guessing you’re a fan?”
He realises in that moment that he’s never seen her blush before. Her head whips around to face him and her cheeks almost rival the bold scarlet of her suit. Her hands fly up to cover her mouth and she‒ she giggles .
“Uh, yeah”, she replies, voice breathy as she smiles involuntarily. Ugh.
“Do you uh.. Do you know him well?”
Her eyes go wide for a split second before she schools her expression into that smirk she wears so well. “Jealous, Kitty?”
Jealous?! Pfft, no! What kind of loser gets jealous of himsel-okay, yes. I’m jealous.
“I’m just.. curious”, he replies, in what he hopes is a nonchalant tone. “Any man that manages to capture your attention would have to be pretty special, would they not?” Phew. Suave, and deflects suspicion. I hope.
She giggles again ( seriously? ) before sighing and turning back to face Chat. “To answer your question, no, I don’t know him. I’ve seen him in person during akuma attacks a few times, but we don’t know each other personally.”
It’s both a relief and a stinging revelation. He now knows he hasn’t seen Ladybug in civilian form without immediately identifying her, but there’s still the other thing.
Now he knows that a boy she’s really only ever seen on billboards and screens has more effectively stolen her heart than her partner of two years had ever managed to. Ouch.
“You alright, Chaton?”
She’s looking at him quizzically, so he shrugs and tries to come up with some sort of believable response.
“Purrfectly fine, My Lady.” He smirks. “Just taking stock of my competition.” He kisses her hand before turning away. “Now, if you’re not too busy gawking, we’ve got a patrol to finish!” he calls out behind him, already leaping away. All too soon she’s caught up to him, muttering “too busy gawking” under her breath as she swings from rooftop to rooftop. Her cheeks are still red, but it hurts Chat less to chalk it up to the biting cold that whips past them.
She’s not blushing, just cold. Yeah. That’s all.
Poor Plagg’s going to get an earful of this once Adrien gets home.
By next patrol, he’s got himself under control.
Mostly.
“Good morning M-Bugaboo! Lovely weather we’re having, isn’t it?”
She shoots him a dry look in response, blowing onto her hands to ward away the chill. “Yeah. It’s positively swell.”
As they conveniently pass that same billboard again, he has to swallow back a taunt about how it seems perfectly capable of warming her cheeks back up. After all, he honestly has no idea if he’ll sound teasing or disgusted if he says it. And she can’t know he hates this, her affection for someone that is him but so isn’t him.
His distaste must be somewhat evident though, because when he looks from the billboard to her she’s looking at him, concerned.
He clears his throat and looks away, praying she won’t press.
“Shall we head off?”
She’s still looking at him with that expression that twists his gut, but eventually shrugs.
Curse my open book of a face.
Apparently, he’s not much better at school either.
Nino notices Adrien’s somewhat sour mood within only a few minutes the next Monday, immediately questioning what’s wrong. He makes an excuse of some kind, muttering something about being tired and having a too-early photoshoot, before turning to greet Marinette and Alya. He’s not sure why, but something about Marinette’s pink cheeks pulls at him, as if trying to bring his attention to a memory he can’t quite grasp. But most of his classmates have red faces right now; it’s a side effect of this year’s harsh winter. So why is her bright smile tugging at him?
He turns back around after realising he’s spent more than a few seconds looking at her, and hopes nobody’s noticed.
“What was that?” Nino asks, his tone sly. Dammit.
“What was what?”
“You staring at Marinette?”
He feigns innocence. “Oh, what? No, I just spaced out. I did say I was super tired, didn’t I?”
Nino shrugs, accepting his response.
When they come back from lunch - for which Marinette and Alya didn’t want to join them today, curiously - Adrien finds a tall coffee cup on his table. Looking around in confusion, Adrien finds no one who seems to know who it’s from; his friends haven’t come in yet and no one else is paying attention. He takes a cautious sip (his coffee order is verrryyy specific, and he’s really too picky to enjoy any coffee not made to his exact specifications) and has to suppress a sigh. Strong, but not too strong, with enough milk to make it deliciously creamy and a single spoonful of sugar for a hint of sweetness. It’s exactly how he takes it, and it’s heavenly.
Nino comes in then, his brow furrowing in confusion when he sees the coffee cup. “I don’t remember you getting coffee at lunch.”
“I didn’t. This was left on my table.”
Nino seems to realise something Adrien doesn’t, and smirks as he sits down.
“What? What am I missing? Do you know who bought me this?” he asks.
“Well, I have a theory”, he responds. “Only the people who regularly have lunch with you would know your order. And you already know I didn’t buy you that. So really, it could only be one of two people.”
Adrien’s eyes widen as the realisation occurs to him, and almost as if on cue, said two people enter the room. Both smile at him as they pass, and when they take their seats he turns to face them, pointing to the cup.
“Just how you like it, right?” Alya asks with a smirk.
“Yeah.. how did- who.. wh..”
“Did you know Marinette’s memory is impeccable?”
Adrien turns to Marinette, surprised. She ducks her head, looking up at him shyly through her dark lashes.
“You, uh-you said you were tired, so..” She shrugs, smiling softly.
It’s such a small, simple gesture, but it warms Adrien’s heart more than it should for reasons he can’t entirely explain. It reminds him of Christmas, where she’d made him a present even though she never had to. She’s so nice.
He smiles. “Yeah. Thank you Marinette! This is exactly what I needed.”
“N-No problem!”
He turns back toward the front of the class, sitting down. He can feel the smile still on his face, but he’s only half aware of it. Here’s a girl he’d love to be able to call a friend, but doesn’t know if he can because he’s never sure how to act around her, doing something small but meaningful for him that shows she not only pays attention to his words and emotions, but even to something as specific as his coffee order. Just because she can.
If it were Nino or Alya or even maybe Chloe, it wouldn’t surprise and touch him quite so much. But Marinette’s an enigma; a mystery. At least, she always has been. Now Adrien feels like maybe, one day, he could actually become close enough friends with her to try to unravel that mystery.
He takes another sip of his coffee, his smile growing despite the knowledge that Nino’s knowing eyes are on him. She actually likes him, at least a little bit.
He remembers his words the day they started fresh with each other, and he offered her his umbrella.
A friend.
“You’re in a good mood!” Ladybug says during an akuma attack later that day. This akuma’s far from pleasant, so he can understand her surprise at his sunny mood. He grins.
“Well, I had a purrticularly pleasant day today! A friend of mine- at least, I think we’re friends, she seems to-”
“She??”
He looks over to find her expression gleeful. He’s not sure how to feel about that.
“No, it’s not like that, LB. She did something unexpectedly nice for me today though! And I had no idea whether or not she even liked me as a person, so it pretty much made my day.”
“Awww! That’s so sweet!”
“Are you two going to gossip all day or actually put up a fight?!” The akuma yells. He’s a teenager - probably two years older than Chat, he’d guess - and seems like a bit of a bully; one of those athletic, popular jerk types who asserts their authority by beating up smaller kids. Chat can only imagine what might’ve gotten him akumatised - maybe someone managed to land a hit? - but he’s out for blood now, and not an easy foe to beat.
“Oh, forgive me!” Ladybug replies. She flings her yoyo up to a lamppost off to the akuma’s left, pulling herself up to launch off the post and grab his phone, which they suspect to be the akumatised object, as she flies over his head. He turns to her immediately, running to snatch it back off her, but she’s already connected her yoyo to something else, launching herself to new heights as she swings through the air. Chat climbs the same post she’s just left with ease, standing on the top and facing her across the way. The akuma stands between them, glaring at Ladybug. “Give that back!!” he yells.
“You want your phone?” She smirks. “Well, you’ll just have to catch it!”
She hurls the phone through the air towards Chat, and he picks up on her intentions immediately. He catches it with a grin and tosses it back to her, to the fury of the akuma, who can do little other than stand at ground level with no hope of getting his phone back. It’s cruel, but if he’s a bully as Chat suspects, he’s probably done the same thing many a time himself. What’s the harm in a little taste of his own medicine, considering he’ll have forgotten all about it in a few minutes’ time?
“So what’s she like?” Ladybug asks him during their game of catch, as yet another technique to rile up the akuma. Both of them are now sure that their hunch about the phone was correct- if the akumatised object were anything else he’d surely be less angry and indignant at them having stolen his phone.
“Oh, she’s great! She’s so nice, and funny, and confident- you’d love her, LB!”
“Oh my gosh, shut UP!” The akuma’s enraged now, and as Chat catches the phone this time he moves on the offensive. He uses the enhanced strength granted to him by his akumatisation to push over the lamppost Chat’s balancing on.
“Oh no, I’m falling!” Chat cries melodramatically. For a second, he smirks deviously, before resuming his damsel in distress act. “I’m going to fall! Oh no!”
He flings his arms out, throwing the phone onto the pavement near Ladybug, where it shatters instantly, releasing the akuma. “Oh no, the phone!!”
His exaggerated fall becomes a perfect roll as he meets the ground, and as he lifts his head again he spots Ladybug expertly catching the akuma in her yoyo. He grins. They make a damn good team.
She purifies the akuma and cleanses the city of damage, with her trademark shout of “Miraculous Ladybug!”. They share a laugh before attending to the now-normal boy, standing confused nearby.
“Wha-what happened? Last thing I remember, I was texting Anna and- oh.” He looks over at a girl nearby and his head falls into his hands and he runs away. The girl cringes as Ladybug and Chat approach.
“Do you know what happened to him to cause his akumatisation?” Ladybug asks.
The girl grimaces. “Yeah.. he’s like the trademark bully in my class. No one likes him, although he seems convinced that they do. Apparently he had kind of a thing for me.. And someone texted him pretending me and created this whole ruse, saying I liked him too. He found out in front of the entire class that it was all a joke, and then..” She shakes her head. “He’s a jerk, but I wouldn’t wish that kind of humiliation on anyone.”
Ladybug nods in understanding. “Would you be willing to check on him? See if he’s okay? I understand if not, but-”
“Yeah, sure”, Anna replies. “I never knew why before today, but I was one of the only people he wasn’t totally awful to. If he’s going to talk to anyone, it’ll be me.”
She leaves in the direction the akuma had gone, and Ladybug and Chat turn back to face each other, fist bumping with matching grins.
“So…” Ladybug starts, a glint in her eye.
“Oh my gosh, if you’re going to start going on about M-the girl I told you about again I’m leaving right now.”
“All I’ll say is if she’s done something you wouldn’t expect of her because you’re not all that close, chances are, she either wants to be friends or she wants to be more than friends.”
Chat frowns. He’s never considered that possibility. And given their beginning and her behaviour around him since, it just doesn’t seem plausible.
“I rather doubt that, Bug. If you knew the situation..” He shakes his head. “There’s no way she likes me like that.”
“Whatever you say”, Ladybug sing-songs as she leaves.
He really tries not to wonder about the possibility that she could be right.
He definitely doesn’t puzzle over it with Plagg.
Nope.
A week and a half later, he’s pretty much going stir-crazy. He knows he kind of has to ask Nino about it at this point, despite how much he’ll inevitably tease him. But the more he talks to Marinette and the more he spends time with her, the more evidence begins to stack up that her stuttering and hesitance and recent spontaneous acts of kindness could actually all be a result of a crush. And as flattering as that possibility is, it’s also terrifying. He’s never been properly liked before! (Because Chloe and Lila absolutely don’t count.)
So, he swallows his pride and confides in his best friend.
“Hey Nino?”
“Yeah?”
“What would you do if you found yourself in a situation where you thought someone might like you, but you didn’t feel the same way about them?”
Nino looks up. “But you do like Marinette.”
“W-what? Mari-pfft! What? No! I wasn’t talking about Marinette! What makes you think I like Marinette? Or that she likes me? No, you- uh, you don’t know the person I’m talking about.”
Nino shoots Adrien a dry look. “Okay, let’s pretend for a second I believe you… if I were in this situation and I was sure I didn’t like the person back.. I’d just act the same way I always have around them so they don’t know I suspect they might like me, and not confront the situation unless they did. It’s pretty tactless to bring it up yourself and be like “look, I’m pretty sure you like me, but I don’t feel the same way”. Or to avoid them in hopes they get over you. Both are pretty cowardly jerk moves, in my opinion. Just act normal - although, if you’re too focused on not looking like you’re avoiding her then you could end up overcompensating and leading her on, which is also bad, so don’t do that - and if she says something, then respond.”
Adrien blinks. “That was… a much longer response than I expected. Why are there so many variables?” he groans.
Nino sighs, putting a hand on Adrien’s shoulder. “Dude.”
“Yes?”
“This is romance we’re talking about! It’s a sensitive subject! There are bound to be about a billion variables and rules. It’s not a simple, black and white thing. Well, actually, that’s not always true. Sometimes it is simple!”
“Really?” Adrien asks. A ray of hope!
“Yeah! Sometimes it’s an easy case of ‘I like you, you like me’. Like with me and Alya!” He smirks. “Or you and Marinette.”
“Nino!!”
Said best friend keels over in a fit of laughter. “Come on, dude! It’s pretty obvious you’re talking about Marinette, and it’s pretty obvious you don’t want to admit you might like her so you’re just acting as though you don’t. You want some advice that I think you should actually take?”
Adrien gives Nino a flat stare. “I don’t know, do I?”
“Take some time to really think about it. ‘It’ being your feelings. Not how she might feel, not whether things could get awkward between you if she does like you; how you honestly feel about her. If after all your deliberation and consideration you still don’t think you feel that way about her, then consider everything I said before. But take some more time to get to know her better, like you have, and well.. speaking as someone who’s known her for years and did like her for a minute there.. your chances of not falling for her are slim to none.”
Adrien groans. “Okay well if I do fall for her it’s entirely your fault.”
“I’m fine with that. Then when you two get together it can be thoroughly credited to my sage advice!”
Adrien’s beginning to loathe Nino’s ‘sage advice’.
It’s not as if he’s been trying to or not to fall for Marinette. He’d only ever been intending to form a closer friendship with her and try to understand why she used to act so strangely around him.
That was honestly it.
But apparently words hold a lot of power. Ever since Ladybug’s and Nino’s insinuations that there could be something more than friendship between himself and Marinette, he genuinely hasn’t been able to stop thinking about her. They’ve spent more time together recently than they ever have before; ending up next to each other when the four of them go out for lunch because Nino and Alya always want to be beside each other (which always prompts thoughts of double dates in Adrien’s head), and visiting each other to play video games and help each other out with homework. (Apparently she has an incredible way with words, and balances out his inclination for the mathematical with her talent for the poetic. Their homework results have never been so good.) And sometimes, when they’re playing Mecha Strike in his too-big room that had always felt so empty before, the sunlight that falls in shadows through his huge windows seems warmer and more picturesque than it ever has before, especially when it catches her eyes as she shoots him a triumphant smirk every time she beats him.
That’s another thing, too: her eyes are so blue it’s killing him. Like, they’re ridiculously blue. And beautiful, he’s reluctant to note.
At first they reminded him a little too much of Ladybug’s eyes, which always made him a little bitter and confused. He’s never been one for rebound crushes (although before the two dark haired women that now consume his life he’d never really had crushes, so that’s not saying much), and if Marinette genuinely does like him, he does not want to hurt her by reducing her to one. So for the first few weeks of their newfound closeness he absolutely refuses . He won’t like her. He can’t. Not when it still hurts to think about Ladybug liking someone that’s not her leather-clad partner. (Even if it is still him. That’s kind of an irrelevant detail considering she doesn’t know Adrien from a bar of soap, so it’s basically a celebrity crush and nothing more.)
But over time, although he barely registers it happening, he finds himself.. not really thinking about Ladybug that way. She’s still beautiful and brave and a total badass, but he comes to realise he’d be pretty content being her proud partner and best friend, even if nothing else came of it.
Around the same indiscernible point, it begins to not matter that Marinette reminds Adrien a lot of Ladybug. Because he realises one night, in an epiphany that has him sitting bolt upright in bed, that although there’s so much to love about Ladybug that Marinette actually has in common with her, really, it’s not their similarities that draw Adrien to Marinette.
It’s not so much about the fact that they’re both brave and confident and kind and funny, (although of course it is all those things), it’s got more to do with smaller, more unique qualities.
He doesn’t know if Ladybug’s the type to spontaneously buy or make someone something they need or want without them asking for it; what her favourite colour is, if she ever gets nervous around her crushes, what her hobbies are, what makes her laugh and what makes her upset. He doesn’t know whether or not she’d stand up for someone who was being humiliated, hurt or wrongly accused of something (probably, he guesses, but he doesn’t know for sure), and he’s realising that although he can guess a lot, there’s actually so little he honestly does know about her.
That’s hardly a good basis for a relationship. Even if Ladybug was open to sharing little details about her, they could never actually have something without total trust. And now that he’s finally reached a point where he can accept that, there’s nothing standing in the way of asking Marinette out.
Except, well, straight up fear.
He’s beginning to realise now that his complete and total lack of experience with girls makes things a little.. difficult.
Ever since coming to terms with his feelings Adrien’s been an utter mess around Marinette. He can honestly completely understand her getting so nervous around him (that is, assuming that was because she liked him) because every time he tries to talk to her now he’s practically guaranteed to mess something up. Just yesterday, he complimented her completely out of the blue, just blurted out some awkward line about how pretty she was, and promptly turned bright red, stammering through some sort of excuse or something. She ended up turning about as red as he was, which was always fun. He’s beginning to realise he likes making her blush.
Unfortunately, she seems to feel the same way about making him flustered. It’s as if she’s chosen to walk in Chat Noir’s footsteps (though with significantly fewer puns); he doesn’t know exactly when it started but now she’s constantly making eyes at him or using stupid pick up lines on him, and he really doesn’t know how to feel about it. Isn’t that supposed to be his secret weapon?
(Damn, does she do it well, though.)
He’s remembering this one line she spouted off earlier today during patrol, when he bumps into something hard, bringing him back to the real world.
Reality, in the form of a fire hydrant.
He looks over at Ladybug to see if she’d caught the slip up, and she’s doubled over, laughing hysterically.
“Okay, it wasn’t that funny.”
“Believe me, it was. You know, you may not have noticed, but you’ve been distracted all night. And you’ve had this ridiculous smile on your face the entire time, too.” She quirks an eyebrow and leans in, a sly expression on her face. “Is it a girl?”
His face heats up instantly.
“Oh my gosh! You’re so red right now! It is a girl! Tell me all about her!!”
Even his ears begin to burn. “Ah, it’s nothing, LB.”
Her eyes narrow. “Yeah, right! You think I haven’t noticed you haven’t flirted with me or called me your lady in weeks? You wouldn’t stop doing that for anything but another girl.”
He ducks his head. “Okay. You got me.”
Ladybug squeals. “Oh my gosh!! Are you dating yet? Does Chat have a giiiiirrrlfrieeeennnd?”
“No! I wish, but no.” Ladybug’s expression turns quizzical.
“You wish? I’ve never known you to wish for anything! You’re a go getter, Chat! Stop wishing and just tell her how you feel!”
Oh, LB, if only you knew what a coward I really was. “It’s.. it’s not that simple. As a civilian, I’m not quite as brave. And she’s.. she could have anyone. And I think maybe she might like me, but.. Well, you know, hoping and imagining but never actually asking is a lot safer than putting yourself out there.”
He looks over at Ladybug to find her expression solemn and thoughtful. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
It hits him all of a sudden that she could, maybe, be thinking about him .
“But enough about me!” He says chirpily. “I’m curious. What made you fall for the Agreste kid?” What are you doing??
Her face falls. “Uh, about that..” She looks up. “I wasn't entirely honest with you.”
Huh?
“When I said I didn't know him? That's not true. I just don't want it to get out that I have any sort of attachment to him, because I don't want anyone to put him in danger as leverage to get to me, you know?”
His eyes widen. She really honestly seems to care about him-me. Us? And how could she know me as a civilian without me realising I knew her? And- oh man. This is way too much.
“So, I actually go to school with him. We're pretty good friends, and- sorry. Can you promise you won't try and find me based on what I tell you?”
Oh yikes. “I promise, LB. I'd never betray your trust by trying to find you without your consent.” I just hope you don't hate me if I figure it out without trying…
She sighs in relief. “Thank you, Chat. Now, what was I saying? Oh. Yeah, so, we're good friends, but we weren't always. In fact, I didn't like him at all on his first day! Chloé Bourgeois planted gum on my chair, and I came in, saw him taking it off and thought he was doing what she'd done and thought of him as being no different!”
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh oh my gosh Oh my GOSH WHAT-
“But then he explained and apologised later, and gave me his umbrella so I wouldn't have to walk home in the rain, and…” She smiles softly. Frick. “Well, then, I was pretty much sold. I saw him from a new perspective, for who he was instead of who I assumed he'd be, and I’ve had an enormous crush on him ever since.”
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is an incredibly unprecedented situation wHAT THE HECK MARINETTE IS LADYBUG AND SHE GENUINELY LIKES ME FOR ME AN D I GOT OVER SOMEONE ONLY TO FALL FOR THEM AGAIN??????
“Chat? You okay?”
ACT NATURAL!
“Huh? Yeah, sorry, I uh.. spaced out for a second. But that’s really uh.. Really sweet.”
Ladybug- Marinette - blushes prettily, smile fond, and Adrien’s stomach somersaults. Oh my Lord. I’m making her like that. Me . Me ! What the heck?!
On an entirely different note: Plagg will never hear the end of this.
Valentine’s Day is in two days, and Adrien’s panicking.
“Should I reference the poem from last year, or like update it, or do something new altogether? Or should I ask her out and then tell her on the date how I feel and the whole identity thing? But then what if she doesn’t even say yes to the date in the first place? Are you even listening to me?”
Plagg looks up from the pillow he’s lounging on. “Who? Me?”
“Yes, you! Who else could I have been talking to about revealing my identity to Marinette?”
“Oh, that’s what you were talking about? Sorry, spaced out five minutes ago.”
Adrien rolls his eyes. “Why am I not surprised?”
Plagg pokes a tiny tongue out at his chosen, rising from his bed to whirl lazily through the air towards Adrien. “Look, kid. You know how I operate. This stuff.. it's not my domain. If you'd wanted a hopeless romantic for a kwami you should've chosen your girl’s bug, Tikki.”
“Yeah, because I totally got a say in which miraculous I'd wield.”
“Well, yeah, there's that. Although I can't imagine the image of you calling yourself Ladybug and running around in a skin-tight red polka-dotted suit would appeal to anyone”, Plagg responds with a laugh.
“What?” Adrien questions. “You don't think I'd kill it in crimson?”
“No”, Plagg deadpans, though his eyes gleam with mirth. “Marinette in the Chat Noir suit though…”
Adrien chokes.
Frick.
Adrien.exe has stopped working.
Woah. Wow. Nope. Let's end that train of thought before we die.
“Plagg, in case you missed it I'm kind of agonising over the thought of telling Marinette how I feel about her, and the image of her as Chat, while fantastic, really doesn't lessen my nerves.”
Plagg laughs. “Oops”, he responds carelessly, cheekily.
He’s lucky I do actually give a damn about him.
“So, what’s the story exactly? You want Marinette to be your Valentine?”
Adrien looks up. “Are you.. actually going to participate in this conversation?”
Plagg shrugs. “Sure. I may not be a romantic, but I know she makes you happy, on both sides of the mask. How could I not support it?”
Wow. Some genuine care. I’m impressed!
Plagg then chuckles. “Besides, it’s hilarious watching you get all red and tongue tied around her!”
Of course I spoke too soon.
In the end he keeps it simple.
He toys with the question of whether or not to tell her everything right from the get-go, because at this point the notion of keeping anything from her any longer just doesn’t sit right with him, but every time he tries to write out any sort of explanation for all their stupidity, he can’t quite word things right. And he doesn’t like the idea of dropping such big bombshells in a letter where he can’t see her reaction, or the possibility that said letter could end up in someone else’s grasp somehow, some way, exposing both of their biggest secrets.
So, this, accompanied by a single red rose, sits at her desk in wait for her.
“Bluebell Eyes,
I would like to tell you a love story. It’s a somewhat unconventional tale, rife with confusion and hidden truth, but it’s one I think you’ll like.
Meet me on the rooftop at lunchtime?”
He manages to walk into class with Nino right when she opens the envelope, Alya looking eagerly over her shoulder. He watches her eyes as she skims over the short note, and within seconds she’s blushing like mad.
It still blows his mind that he could affect her in that way.
“That’s so cryptic! And it’s not signed either! Do you have any idea who it’s from?”
“Who what’s from?” He dares to ask, feigning innocence.
“Did Marinette get a Valentine?” Nino guesses. Alya nods enthusiastically.
“She’s got a secret admirer!! And she’s gotta wait until lunch to find out who it is!”
“Ooohh, sounds mysterious!” Nino responds. When the girls’ eyes are not on them, he casts Adrien a questioning glance, to which he responds with an almost imperceptible nod. They sit down in their respective seats in front of Alya and Marinette, but Adrien can’t quite find the heart to turn towards the front and away from the sight of a bashful Marinette. It’s a strange sight, to see her so humbled and surprised by the thought of a Valentine. And honestly, he’s really quite surprised she’s only gotten one. She’s always been so popular and well liked, he’d kind of expected his note to be one of several.
That’s still one of the weirdest things for him to reconcile about Marinette being Ladybug. Just as expected, she’s every bit as confident, popular and untouchable on this side of the mask, so her shy, nervous affection for him totally throws him for a loop. How can he, an awkward, socially inept boy with very little experience in the field of romance, have managed to woo her without even trying to do so?
And yet, here she sits, rendered speechless and adorably pink-cheeked, because of him. How has he gotten so lucky?
When lunch rolls around, he books it out of the classroom (with a promise from Nino that he’ll cover for him), zooming up to the rooftop to make sure nobody’s disturbed the setup he’d meticulously perfected that morning, and add the final touches. Unsurprisingly, it’s completely untouched, which quells some of his worry. He’d done everything he could think of to make sure it was perfect for someone like Marinette; a round table draped with deep red velvet of the highest quality, with a candle or two and white rose petals decorating the middle and a vintage-style chair for each of them at opposite ends of the table. Everything has remained in perfect order, so now, after lighting the candles and adding a silvery velvet cushion to each chair, all he can do is wait.
Waiting is agony, it turns out.
It’s not even that she takes forever, he’s just so restless and riddled with nerves that the few minutes he spends going over his lines feel like hours. Absorbed in his pacing and rehearsing, he doesn’t even notice when she does appear.
“Adrien??”
His head snaps up to find her, still blushing and smiling in that way that makes his insides somersault, and suddenly finds himself both less and much more nervous than he was before.
“I thought, because of Bluebell Eyes, that maybe it might be..” She ducks her head, the pink of her blush spreading to her ears, and approaches, eyes peeking up at him shyly. His heart’s about ready to burst already.
He meets her halfway, and walks with her, gesturing to the chair closest to her and pulling it out when she goes to sit down. She smiles in thanks and he rounds the table to his chair, but doesn’t sit. He’s a little too jittery for that.
“So..” she starts nervously. “You said you had a story to tell me?”
He clears his throat and does his best to smile through his fear. This is the moment where everything changes.
“Indeed. So, our tale begins with a boy. He’s lonely, although you’d never know it; according to media and the camera he has all he could ever want. But he’s empty. A seemingly perfect shell of a boy, with very little of substance within him.”
He takes a momentary break to examine her expression, and is touched to see a sadness that is nothing like pity and everything like empathy written all over her face. She genuinely cares so deeply; it’s plain as day. And it makes something so warm swell up in Adrien’s chest.
“One day, this lonely, broken boy meets someone who changes the course of his life forever. A talking cat. Now, that may sound ludicrous to some, but it’s all true; and this tiny, annoying menace of a black cat grants him with two things: an ever-present odour of Camembert, and the opportunity to make a difference in his life and the lives of those around him, by becoming a hero and fighting evil.”
The recognition’s dawning on her, and growing with every passing second, and he has to swallow back the dread that threatens to close up his throat.
“He’s absolutely overjoyed. He can have a positive impact on the world now! And he can do it without the reputation attached to his civilian name, so he can be whoever he wants. And maybe as a result he spouts off a few too many puns, but this newfound freedom is so exhilarating he can hardly resist playing this new role for all it's worth. Now, the day he meets this talking cat and becomes a hero, he also comes across the other biggest blessing in his life: a superhero partner. She’s everything he’s ever imagined he could one day be; brave, selfless, witty, charming and endlessly kind. And he falls for her within the day.
One day, about a year or so since the beginning of their fateful partnership, he finds out a secret of hers. She has a crush on him. But not superhero him, no; the him that, as far as he was aware, had only ever been seen by her on billboards, in magazines and a select few times in real life. So, in all honesty, he’s just a little put out by that. He comes to realise that although he wishes it weren’t so, he really doesn’t know all that much about the partner he claims to love, and within a little while, his affections for the spotted heroine, whilst no less strong, begin to take on a slightly more platonic nature. And he’s not sure why, but somewhere around the same time a girl in his class that never seemed to want to speak to him in the past begins to extend a hand of friendship to him. He’s over the moon! And as they grow closer, she begins to settle and take root in his heart and mind, creating for herself a permanent little fixture within him. He can’t believe how abundantly he cares about her, after having properly known her for only a short time.
Then, everything changes all over again. His partner in crime-fighting reveals to him that she has a close friendship with the model she’s so enamoured with, puzzling him to no end. Wouldn’t he, of all people, be able to pick out his lady even in civilian form the second he saw her?
But she tells him the story of their rocky start, and how an evening with an umbrella had changed all her perceptions about him. When he revealed his character to her, she was able see him with fresh eyes, and that was how her crush began. When the boy in question hears all this, he’s shocked beyond belief. He knows that story all too well- it stars the very same girl he's just fallen head over heels for! He realises instantly and with embarrassment that not only had he misjudged his partner before, perceiving her feelings for him as shallow, but he’s also gone and fallen for the same girl twice. How embarrassing, right? But he can hardly find it in himself to be surprised or ashamed; she, on both sides of her mask, is the most remarkable girl he’s ever met. So, on Valentine’s Day, he resolves to tell her everything, and share his heart with her in the hope that she might want it.”
Does she?
He looks at her hesitantly, the unsaid question lingering in the air and in his eyes. Her eyes, he notices, are brimming with tears, some of which have already spilled over, and she stands and comes to his side before wrapping him in a fierce hug, the tears then falling freely.
“Gosh, this poor boy and girl have gone about this utterly terribly, haven’t they?” She says with a sniffle and a laugh, when she lifts her head from his chest.
He hums in agreement. “Yes, it’s all pretty backwards, isn’t it?”
She looks up at him, expression solemn. “Do they get together in the end?” She asks quietly.
“That’s what he’s wondering.”
A small, beautiful smile spreads over her face. “I think they should.”