Fic: Him and Me and You and Her [2/3]
May. 3rd, 2018 06:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetFandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Summary: It was a quarter to two on Sunday afternoon, and Adrien Agreste was in trouble.
AO3 link: Chapter Two!
Word Count: 2355
Other Chapters: Him and Me | Me and You | You and Her
Notes: Credit for the line, "They had feathers, you cowards!" goes to Greer Stothers and was used with permission.
Fic: Me and You
It was a quarter to two on Sunday afternoon, and Adrien Agreste was in trouble.
The date itself wasn't worrying him - or, rather, he'd done everything in his power to make sure it would go well, so he was trying not to let it worry him.
He'd dug the outfit from the latest ad campaign out of his closet, since he knew Ladybug liked it; it definitely felt a little tight, but considering it was indirectly responsible for getting him this date in the first place, he'd decided to put his faith in it.
He'd bribed Plagg with no fewer than three wheels of Camembert before leaving the house, with a promise of two more later - if the kwami managed to behave for the whole date. Plagg had been more than a little grumpy at having to switch from his customary hiding place in Adrien's jacket to a worse vantage point in his satchel just so Adrien could dress up a little; his exact words had been, "How am I supposed to watch you make an idiot of yourself from there?", which really only helped cement Adrien's decision. Besides, Adrien thought, if Ladybug looked at him for one second the way she'd looked at that billboard the other night, it would be worth a week of Plagg's complaining.
He'd even come up with a few ideas for activities they could do, just in case Ladybug didn't have anything planned (unlikely, he thought, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to be prepared).
Her conditions for the date itself were also fairly easy to follow. Well, more-or-less. She'd forbidden Cat Noir from telling Adrien who he would be going on a date with, since she apparently was going to be meeting him as a civilian. Adrien had to admit it was probably a good idea to keep a low profile, especially on a busy Sunday afternoon. And while he was unable to keep the spirit of the law, he did his best to at least stick to the letter, and not announce to himself gleefully that he had a date with Ladybug on Sunday. (There had been a few close calls. He'd had to hold his breath to keep from shouting it when he'd gotten home that evening, and instead danced silently around his room to express his joy, earning him several smartass remarks from his kwami.)
She'd also impressed on him that, since they both knew Adrien was a good guy, and that Ladybug could take care of herself, she wouldn't need a chaperone for the date. Which was fair enough, he supposed, though he swore to be by her side in an instant if she did need him. This earned him a genuine smile, and her response of "I know you will," warmed him to the tips of his toes.
So the date itself wasn't the problem. No, the problem was that, very soon, he would know Ladybug's secret identity ...and she wouldn't know he was Cat Noir. Worse, she wouldn't even know that he knew her identity. And that was on top of the rest of their little bargain.
If their date went well - and he was doing everything in his power to make sure it did - there might be more dates in the future. Hopefully even dating. Being able to flirt with his Lady as Adrien but not Cat Noir would be one hell of a challenge, especially since he had been flirting with her as Cat Noir since day one. Hopefully Ladybug would go easy on him if he slipped up once in a while.
Actually, now that he thought about it, being Cat Noir around Ladybug in general was going to be hell after this. He was already juggling a double life around his father and his civilian friends, he didn't want to add Ladybug to the list if he could help it. He could only imagine how Ladybug would react if she figured out that he'd kind-of, sort-of tricked her; the thought was not pretty. The longer the charade went on, the worse the fallout would be, one way or another. No, he was simply going to have to confess the entire thing to her as soon as possible.
Maybe after the date. If he truly swept her off her feet, she might go easy on him for being a little sneaky about getting the opportunity. Possibly. It was worth hoping, right? There was only so much bad luck the universe could drop on a single person.
"A-adrien?"
Jolted out of his musing, Adrien looked up to see who had called him. There was Marinette, looking even prettier than usual in a pink sundress with a floral motif on the skirt, her familiar purse hanging by her side. Adrien grinned at her. "Hey, Marinette. What brings you here this afternoon?"
"I, um. I'm here for a date?" Marinette took a deep breath and looked directly into his eyes, smiling nervously. "With--with you."
Several things suddenly clicked into place for Adrien. For starters, it meant that Marinette's nervousness around him was because of her crush. He was used to that sort of behavior from fans, but hadn't expected it from someone who actually knew him as Adrien. He'd previously chalked it up to lingering awkwardness over their first meeting, plus a dose of intimidation that he was the son of her fashion idol, but in retrospect, this made at least as much sense.
Next, it explained how Ladybug knew him so well, and how she knew about the aforementioned first meeting. Now that he thought about it, it also explained what she was doing during the whole Evillustrator incident, and he could think of several incidences of them using (what he now realized was) the same excuse to explain their absences during akuma attacks. Really, the parallels were obvious now that he knew to look for them. How had he not noticed before? Was it an extension of the kwamis' magic, or was it simply that he'd been too busy worrying about his own identity being discovered to put two and two together? His only consolation, if it could be called that, was that Marinette hadn't guessed his identity either - and he had all but dared her to do just that the night they'd made their wager.
Finally, it had dawned on him just how much trouble he was in if he messed this up. He'd known it would be bad back when he still thought he didn't know Ladybug in his civilian life, but now? Knowing that his Lady was none other than Marinette Dupain-Cheng, class president and genuinely amazing person? Marinette, who hated liars? Marinette, whom everyone except Chloe liked and would probably side with if their date went south? He'd never make it. School would become a living hell, and he'd have to go back to being home-schooled, constantly under supervision and never able to socialize properly with his peers. If he was lucky, Nino might still be willing to text him, but Nino had known Marinette for most of his life and Marinette was his girlfriend's best friend besides, so odds weren't in Adrien's favor.
"...Adrien? Are you sure this is okay?" Adrien blinked, his attention drawn once again to the present. Marinette's blush had gone down, and she was frowning now. "I know our friend said you'd be okay with it, but if you aren't, we don't have to do this. We can call it off and go home, or just go do something as friends; I'll let him know he's off the hook." She seemed genuinely saddened by the prospect, but still determined to do the right thing, which was Ladybug all over.
"No!" Adrien yelped. "No," he repeated, more calmly. "Really, Marinette, there's nowhere else I'd rather be right now than here with you. I just got a little distracted."
Marinette's smile was back, as was her blush. "Oh?"
"Yeah. When my friend told me he'd set me up with the girl of my dreams, I just never thought I might already know her. It just goes to show that I should've been paying more attention to what was right in front of me." Adrien grinned, a bit sheepishly. "You look amazing, by the way," he added.
"Thanks! I mean, you too! I mean, not that you don't normally look good; you always look good! But you already know that, you're literally a model. You just look especially good today, I mean," she finished, redder than ever.
Adrien grinned wider, charmed in spite of himself. She's cute like this. He didn't often get to see Ladybug flustered - though he supposed that wasn't quite right, since Marinette was Ladybug, and presumably had been since that first akuma attack. It somehow seemed different now that he knew they were the same person; just another complication from having secret identities, he supposed.
Aloud he changed the subject, trying to give Marinette a chance to save face. "Did you have anything specific in mind for our date today?"
His efforts paid off, and Marinette seemed instantly more confident now that she was falling back on a plan. "A friend of my parents just opened a cafe on the south side of the park," she said. "I thought we could take a walk over there and see what--"
The rest of Marinette's plan was cut off abruptly by a scream of rage from somewhere nearby: "They had feathers, you cowards!" Adrien's stomach sank as this was followed by a roar that sounded something like a cross between a goose and a lawnmower. Of all the times for an akuma attack!
Marinette's expression turned agonized. "Oh God, I'm so sorry Adrien, I just remembered that I have to, um--"
"It's okay," Adrien interrupted, his gut churning. He'd hoped to have more time before confessing, to ease her into the idea more carefully. Unfortunately, Hawkmoth had taken the decision out of his hands. "I know what you have to do. There's an alleyway near-by with good cover; I scoped it out when I got here this afternoon."
Confusion, hurt, and outrage warred on Marinette's face. "He promised me he wouldn't tell you!"
Adrien winced and ran a hand through his hair. "In my defense, my Lady, it's kind of hard to keep a secret from yourself."
He could see when everything finally came together for Marinette. "You--you?!"
Adrien nodded, trying to convey an apology through his eyes. "Yeah," he confirmed ruefully, "me." A crash sounded from the park, followed by another near-deafening roar. "Look, I promise you can yell at me or whatever later, but right now we have a job to do!" He grabbed Marinette's wrist and started pulling her towards the alleyway.
It took Marinette only a second to snap back to the present, and then she all but overtook him. Moments later, Ladybug and Cat Noir emerged from the alley to fight the akuma.
-----
To Cat Noir's relief, in more ways that one, the battle against Tyranavian Rex lasted barely thirty minutes. After a long and complicated chase around the park, Ladybug had finally managed to get Hawkmoth's latest victim to drop the akumatized item: an advertisement for the latest big-budget dinosaur movie, featuring decidedly un-feathered dinosaurs.
Cat didn't feel any particular way about inaccurate dinosaurs in movies, but when it came to fighting them, he thought he would much rather deal with the inaccurate ones than the ones that set off his allergies. Thankfully, Ladybug's miraculous cleansing cleared up his akuma-induced sneezing as well, or his eyes would still be watering. Really, the whole thing made him almost appreciate Animan's less accurate T-rex - but then, nothing could truly make him appreciate almost seeing his Lady eaten alive, so maybe he'd take that back.
Cat landed softly behind Ladybug in the alleyway they'd used to transform. Pink and green sparkles lit the air as the pair's respective kwami rematerialized. Adrien took a step towards Marinette, who was facing away from him, his heart pounding. Was this how nervous Marinette had been earlier? "So, uh, it's still pretty early in the afternoon, if you still wanted to go to that cafe together..." He trailed off, seeing Marinette's shoulders tense up, and glanced sideways at Plagg.
"Adrien..." Marinette said, staring at the small red sprite in her hands, "...I don't think it's going to work out."
"What?" Adrien's heart plummeted. "I mean, I know I kind of tricked you, and I'm really sorry about that, but I really do--"
"It's not that." Marinette finally turned to face him, her kwami flying up to hover supportively by her ear; the girl's eyes were bright with unshed tears. "I mean, I'm not happy about that, either, but that's not the reason." She took a shuddering breath. "You never really wanted a date with me at all; the person you're interested in isn't real."
Adrien scrambled for words. "Of course you're real, Marinette!"
She smiled sadly at him, a lone tear spilling over her cheek. Adrien had to fight himself to keep from reaching out and wiping it away. "Yes, I am," she agreed, "but Ladybug isn't." Having said that, she turned and walked out of the alleyway; her kwami looked over the girl's shoulder at Plagg and Adrien one last time, then zipped into Marinette's purse.
Adrien watched them go, a lead weight forming in his stomach. "Well, that was a disaster," Plagg remarked by his ear - but soothed the sting of the remark by patting the side of Adrien's head in an attempt at comfort. He waited a breath, then asked, "So what are you going to do to fix it?"
Adrien stared out the mouth of the alleyway, Marinette's words echoing in his mind. An hour ago, he hadn't even known she was Ladybug, but now that he knew, everything fit so perfectly that he couldn't imagine her as anyone else. How could he possibly convince her of that, though? Then memories from the night they'd made their wager rose in his mind, and an idea started to form.
"Plagg," he said, "I think I have a plan."
--TBC--
This fic fought me for every paragraph, I swear.
I am really not sure what Marinette told Alya about this date, but I know it had to be something :P
I'm aiming to have the final chapter ("You and Her") done within a week of Amplificathon starting; fingers crossed!
Summary: It was a quarter to two on Sunday afternoon, and Adrien Agreste was in trouble.
AO3 link: Chapter Two!
Word Count: 2355
Other Chapters: Him and Me | Me and You | You and Her
Notes: Credit for the line, "They had feathers, you cowards!" goes to Greer Stothers and was used with permission.
Fic: Me and You
It was a quarter to two on Sunday afternoon, and Adrien Agreste was in trouble.
The date itself wasn't worrying him - or, rather, he'd done everything in his power to make sure it would go well, so he was trying not to let it worry him.
He'd dug the outfit from the latest ad campaign out of his closet, since he knew Ladybug liked it; it definitely felt a little tight, but considering it was indirectly responsible for getting him this date in the first place, he'd decided to put his faith in it.
He'd bribed Plagg with no fewer than three wheels of Camembert before leaving the house, with a promise of two more later - if the kwami managed to behave for the whole date. Plagg had been more than a little grumpy at having to switch from his customary hiding place in Adrien's jacket to a worse vantage point in his satchel just so Adrien could dress up a little; his exact words had been, "How am I supposed to watch you make an idiot of yourself from there?", which really only helped cement Adrien's decision. Besides, Adrien thought, if Ladybug looked at him for one second the way she'd looked at that billboard the other night, it would be worth a week of Plagg's complaining.
He'd even come up with a few ideas for activities they could do, just in case Ladybug didn't have anything planned (unlikely, he thought, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to be prepared).
Her conditions for the date itself were also fairly easy to follow. Well, more-or-less. She'd forbidden Cat Noir from telling Adrien who he would be going on a date with, since she apparently was going to be meeting him as a civilian. Adrien had to admit it was probably a good idea to keep a low profile, especially on a busy Sunday afternoon. And while he was unable to keep the spirit of the law, he did his best to at least stick to the letter, and not announce to himself gleefully that he had a date with Ladybug on Sunday. (There had been a few close calls. He'd had to hold his breath to keep from shouting it when he'd gotten home that evening, and instead danced silently around his room to express his joy, earning him several smartass remarks from his kwami.)
She'd also impressed on him that, since they both knew Adrien was a good guy, and that Ladybug could take care of herself, she wouldn't need a chaperone for the date. Which was fair enough, he supposed, though he swore to be by her side in an instant if she did need him. This earned him a genuine smile, and her response of "I know you will," warmed him to the tips of his toes.
So the date itself wasn't the problem. No, the problem was that, very soon, he would know Ladybug's secret identity ...and she wouldn't know he was Cat Noir. Worse, she wouldn't even know that he knew her identity. And that was on top of the rest of their little bargain.
If their date went well - and he was doing everything in his power to make sure it did - there might be more dates in the future. Hopefully even dating. Being able to flirt with his Lady as Adrien but not Cat Noir would be one hell of a challenge, especially since he had been flirting with her as Cat Noir since day one. Hopefully Ladybug would go easy on him if he slipped up once in a while.
Actually, now that he thought about it, being Cat Noir around Ladybug in general was going to be hell after this. He was already juggling a double life around his father and his civilian friends, he didn't want to add Ladybug to the list if he could help it. He could only imagine how Ladybug would react if she figured out that he'd kind-of, sort-of tricked her; the thought was not pretty. The longer the charade went on, the worse the fallout would be, one way or another. No, he was simply going to have to confess the entire thing to her as soon as possible.
Maybe after the date. If he truly swept her off her feet, she might go easy on him for being a little sneaky about getting the opportunity. Possibly. It was worth hoping, right? There was only so much bad luck the universe could drop on a single person.
"A-adrien?"
Jolted out of his musing, Adrien looked up to see who had called him. There was Marinette, looking even prettier than usual in a pink sundress with a floral motif on the skirt, her familiar purse hanging by her side. Adrien grinned at her. "Hey, Marinette. What brings you here this afternoon?"
"I, um. I'm here for a date?" Marinette took a deep breath and looked directly into his eyes, smiling nervously. "With--with you."
Several things suddenly clicked into place for Adrien. For starters, it meant that Marinette's nervousness around him was because of her crush. He was used to that sort of behavior from fans, but hadn't expected it from someone who actually knew him as Adrien. He'd previously chalked it up to lingering awkwardness over their first meeting, plus a dose of intimidation that he was the son of her fashion idol, but in retrospect, this made at least as much sense.
Next, it explained how Ladybug knew him so well, and how she knew about the aforementioned first meeting. Now that he thought about it, it also explained what she was doing during the whole Evillustrator incident, and he could think of several incidences of them using (what he now realized was) the same excuse to explain their absences during akuma attacks. Really, the parallels were obvious now that he knew to look for them. How had he not noticed before? Was it an extension of the kwamis' magic, or was it simply that he'd been too busy worrying about his own identity being discovered to put two and two together? His only consolation, if it could be called that, was that Marinette hadn't guessed his identity either - and he had all but dared her to do just that the night they'd made their wager.
Finally, it had dawned on him just how much trouble he was in if he messed this up. He'd known it would be bad back when he still thought he didn't know Ladybug in his civilian life, but now? Knowing that his Lady was none other than Marinette Dupain-Cheng, class president and genuinely amazing person? Marinette, who hated liars? Marinette, whom everyone except Chloe liked and would probably side with if their date went south? He'd never make it. School would become a living hell, and he'd have to go back to being home-schooled, constantly under supervision and never able to socialize properly with his peers. If he was lucky, Nino might still be willing to text him, but Nino had known Marinette for most of his life and Marinette was his girlfriend's best friend besides, so odds weren't in Adrien's favor.
"...Adrien? Are you sure this is okay?" Adrien blinked, his attention drawn once again to the present. Marinette's blush had gone down, and she was frowning now. "I know our friend said you'd be okay with it, but if you aren't, we don't have to do this. We can call it off and go home, or just go do something as friends; I'll let him know he's off the hook." She seemed genuinely saddened by the prospect, but still determined to do the right thing, which was Ladybug all over.
"No!" Adrien yelped. "No," he repeated, more calmly. "Really, Marinette, there's nowhere else I'd rather be right now than here with you. I just got a little distracted."
Marinette's smile was back, as was her blush. "Oh?"
"Yeah. When my friend told me he'd set me up with the girl of my dreams, I just never thought I might already know her. It just goes to show that I should've been paying more attention to what was right in front of me." Adrien grinned, a bit sheepishly. "You look amazing, by the way," he added.
"Thanks! I mean, you too! I mean, not that you don't normally look good; you always look good! But you already know that, you're literally a model. You just look especially good today, I mean," she finished, redder than ever.
Adrien grinned wider, charmed in spite of himself. She's cute like this. He didn't often get to see Ladybug flustered - though he supposed that wasn't quite right, since Marinette was Ladybug, and presumably had been since that first akuma attack. It somehow seemed different now that he knew they were the same person; just another complication from having secret identities, he supposed.
Aloud he changed the subject, trying to give Marinette a chance to save face. "Did you have anything specific in mind for our date today?"
His efforts paid off, and Marinette seemed instantly more confident now that she was falling back on a plan. "A friend of my parents just opened a cafe on the south side of the park," she said. "I thought we could take a walk over there and see what--"
The rest of Marinette's plan was cut off abruptly by a scream of rage from somewhere nearby: "They had feathers, you cowards!" Adrien's stomach sank as this was followed by a roar that sounded something like a cross between a goose and a lawnmower. Of all the times for an akuma attack!
Marinette's expression turned agonized. "Oh God, I'm so sorry Adrien, I just remembered that I have to, um--"
"It's okay," Adrien interrupted, his gut churning. He'd hoped to have more time before confessing, to ease her into the idea more carefully. Unfortunately, Hawkmoth had taken the decision out of his hands. "I know what you have to do. There's an alleyway near-by with good cover; I scoped it out when I got here this afternoon."
Confusion, hurt, and outrage warred on Marinette's face. "He promised me he wouldn't tell you!"
Adrien winced and ran a hand through his hair. "In my defense, my Lady, it's kind of hard to keep a secret from yourself."
He could see when everything finally came together for Marinette. "You--you?!"
Adrien nodded, trying to convey an apology through his eyes. "Yeah," he confirmed ruefully, "me." A crash sounded from the park, followed by another near-deafening roar. "Look, I promise you can yell at me or whatever later, but right now we have a job to do!" He grabbed Marinette's wrist and started pulling her towards the alleyway.
It took Marinette only a second to snap back to the present, and then she all but overtook him. Moments later, Ladybug and Cat Noir emerged from the alley to fight the akuma.
-----
To Cat Noir's relief, in more ways that one, the battle against Tyranavian Rex lasted barely thirty minutes. After a long and complicated chase around the park, Ladybug had finally managed to get Hawkmoth's latest victim to drop the akumatized item: an advertisement for the latest big-budget dinosaur movie, featuring decidedly un-feathered dinosaurs.
Cat didn't feel any particular way about inaccurate dinosaurs in movies, but when it came to fighting them, he thought he would much rather deal with the inaccurate ones than the ones that set off his allergies. Thankfully, Ladybug's miraculous cleansing cleared up his akuma-induced sneezing as well, or his eyes would still be watering. Really, the whole thing made him almost appreciate Animan's less accurate T-rex - but then, nothing could truly make him appreciate almost seeing his Lady eaten alive, so maybe he'd take that back.
Cat landed softly behind Ladybug in the alleyway they'd used to transform. Pink and green sparkles lit the air as the pair's respective kwami rematerialized. Adrien took a step towards Marinette, who was facing away from him, his heart pounding. Was this how nervous Marinette had been earlier? "So, uh, it's still pretty early in the afternoon, if you still wanted to go to that cafe together..." He trailed off, seeing Marinette's shoulders tense up, and glanced sideways at Plagg.
"Adrien..." Marinette said, staring at the small red sprite in her hands, "...I don't think it's going to work out."
"What?" Adrien's heart plummeted. "I mean, I know I kind of tricked you, and I'm really sorry about that, but I really do--"
"It's not that." Marinette finally turned to face him, her kwami flying up to hover supportively by her ear; the girl's eyes were bright with unshed tears. "I mean, I'm not happy about that, either, but that's not the reason." She took a shuddering breath. "You never really wanted a date with me at all; the person you're interested in isn't real."
Adrien scrambled for words. "Of course you're real, Marinette!"
She smiled sadly at him, a lone tear spilling over her cheek. Adrien had to fight himself to keep from reaching out and wiping it away. "Yes, I am," she agreed, "but Ladybug isn't." Having said that, she turned and walked out of the alleyway; her kwami looked over the girl's shoulder at Plagg and Adrien one last time, then zipped into Marinette's purse.
Adrien watched them go, a lead weight forming in his stomach. "Well, that was a disaster," Plagg remarked by his ear - but soothed the sting of the remark by patting the side of Adrien's head in an attempt at comfort. He waited a breath, then asked, "So what are you going to do to fix it?"
Adrien stared out the mouth of the alleyway, Marinette's words echoing in his mind. An hour ago, he hadn't even known she was Ladybug, but now that he knew, everything fit so perfectly that he couldn't imagine her as anyone else. How could he possibly convince her of that, though? Then memories from the night they'd made their wager rose in his mind, and an idea started to form.
"Plagg," he said, "I think I have a plan."
--TBC--
This fic fought me for every paragraph, I swear.
I am really not sure what Marinette told Alya about this date, but I know it had to be something :P
I'm aiming to have the final chapter ("You and Her") done within a week of Amplificathon starting; fingers crossed!
