Fic: Metamour or Less

[soc_puppet]

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Summary: After several years of fighting by his side, Marinette comes to the realization that she's in love with Cat Noir. The problem is, she hasn't fallen out of love with Adrien. Initially faced with the choice of picking one or giving up on both of them, Marinette is surprised to learn that she has a third option.
AO3 link: Right over here
Sensitivity Reader: 343enderspark
Wordcount: 4,261
Vocabulary Note: For those unfamiliar with the term, "metamour" is used in the polyamory community to refer to "my lover's other lover (who I am not also dating)".
Fic: Metamour or Less


Marinette stared at the assignment in front of her and willed herself to concentrate. Since she'd been recruited as Ladybug, her time to work on assignments outside of class had dwindled dramatically. Between regular patrols with Cat Noir, fighting actual akuma, and her duties as class president, she'd found herself hard pressed to keep up her grades. Her solution had been to cut her lunch breaks short and return to school early to get some extra work and studying in, but today her efforts seemed to be futile.

The night before, Cat had been his usual flirty, irreverent self. To her horror, however, Marinette had not found herself responding as she usually did. Outwardly, she still brushed off his over-the-top compliments and returned his banter with her own, but inwardly she was noticing her heart start to skip at his words. Moreover, when she thought about it, she realized it had been going on for some time now. Marinette had to face facts: Somewhere along the line, she had started falling for her silly, loyal, pun-loving partner.

The problem was, she hadn't fallen out of love with Adrien. As often as she imagined falling into Cat Noir's arms and kissing him in the heat of rescue (or vice-versa), she still thought of cuddling up with Adrien on a cold winter night with hot chocolate to share. And any time she imagined tagging along with Adrien on a photoshoot to a romantic location, thoughts of asking her partner out for ice cream after an akuma attack popped in her head.

Worst of all, perhaps (Purrhaps, Cat supplied in her mind, and her mental Adrien snickered), was imagining spending time with both of them at once. Playing video games together (and reaching around each other to sabotage one another), or Marinette teaching them to bake (Cat sneaking some cookie dough and Adrien with a dusting of flour on one perfect cheek), even of groaning while the boys tried to out-pun one another (Adrien's terrible sense of humor had been a recent discovery, and Marinette was certain Cat Noir would love it). Not to mention the other things they could all do together—which she probably didn't want to think about while she was at school, or she'd turn into the world's first walking, talking strawberry.

(It's not like she knew either of them would be interested in each other like that, and she wasn't about to jump into bed with anyone right away. Still, she had a healthy imagination, and her two crushes were, frankly, unfairly attractive.)

"Hey, Marinette," Alya said, sliding into her customary seat next to the girl. "How's studying going?"

Jostled out of her daydreaming, Marinette looked down at her notebook, where she found that she'd only gotten a few new sentences of her essay written. Groaning, she lowered her head to the desk and beat her forehead against it.

Alya hummed sympathetically. "That bad, huh?"

Marinette whimpered into her schoolwork.

Her friend patted her on the shoulder. "Cheer up, girl. We can meet at my place after class and we'll knock this shit out together. Then we can—holy crap, Rose? Juleka?"

Marinette's head snapped up at her friend's exclamation. Walking into the classroom were Rose and Juleka, arms around each other. While that wasn't particularly unusual, the two of them having always been physically affectionate, Marinette also noticed a smear of purple lipstick near Rose's mouth, and a smudge of pink on Juleka's neck. Alya's outburst, meanwhile, had served to make Juleka curl in closer to Rose, and both girls were blushing.

Marinette gaped. When Rose and Prince Ali had gotten together, it was the talk of the school for weeks. The last Marinette knew, they were conducting a very happy long distance relationship, Rose lighting up whenever she talked about her royal boyfriend. Marinette recalled accidentally walking in on a Skype call between the two of them last week, and Prince Ali had seemed just as smitten as Rose. Marinette supposed they could have had a break-up in the intervening time, but Rose's heart was visible on her sleeve from a kilometer away; surely she would have seemed at least a little down if that had happened. If anything, though, she seemed happier than ever.

Juleka, meanwhile, had seemed every inch the supportive friend and cheerleader, if only in her own subdued way. She'd invited Marinette to help bolster Rose's feelings when the blonde was feeling the distance between her and the prince, and helped Rose pick out a birthday gift for the boy—his reaction to which had Rose walking on air for a week. Sure, once in a while Marinette caught Juleka staring at Rose with a painfully familiar longing, but those moments were so rare and fleeting that Marinette was left wondering each time if she'd imagined them.

Here they were now, though, looking every inch the happy—albeit somewhat embarrassed—couple.

"What the hell, girl, I thought you and Prince Ali had a good thing going!" Alya said to Rose, apparently thinking along the same lines as Marinette. "Not that I'm not happy for you and Juleka," she added, "I just—when did you even break up? I heard you gushing to him on the phone yesterday afternoon!"

"Well," Rose said, blushing pinker, "that's because we didn't break up."

"Say what now." Alya looked between Rose and Juleka, clearly thrown. Marinette agreed with the sentiment.

Juleka huddled in closer to Rose. "It's... complicated," she mumbled.

Rose tilted her head to one side and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I don't really think so," she said. "It's just polyamory."

"Polyamory," came a voice from the door. Marinette's attention snapped to where Adrien was walking into the room. "That means something like 'many loves', right?"

Hearing those words from Adrien's mouth, Marinette suddenly felt as if a new world of possibility had opened up inside her. It seemed she had a lot of thinking to do before patrol that night.

-----

Cat Noir was confused; Ladybug was acting quite unlike herself. Normally their banter was rather straightforward: he would flirt, she would turn him down. He would pun, she would groan. He would compliment her, she would redirect. Occasionally—occasionally—she would flirt back, but rarely for more than a phrase or two. He smiled softly to himself; that was his Lady—so dedicated!

Tonight, though, she was going off-script. So far she'd flirted back twice, turned red and nearly tripped at a compliment, and even giggled at one of his puns! She'd slapped a hand over her mouth and looked slightly horrified immediately after, so Cat was fairly certain she wasn't under the influence of an akuma, but it was still unusual. Adorable, but unlike her.

By their surroundings, Cat realized that they were nearly at the end of their patrol route. As much as he wanted to believe that Ladybug was finally warming up to him, it was more important to make sure she was okay, and not, for example, cracking under the pressure of her double-life. Now would be a good time to check.

Sighting a good place to talk, Cat signaled to Ladybug to stop for a moment. Instantly concerned, she swung around on her yoyo and landed neatly beside him. "Cat Noir? Is everything alright?"

He shook his head. "That's what I wanted to ask you, my Lady. You've been acting a bit differently from usual this evening, and I wanted to make sure everything was okay."

Ladybug blushed and glanced away briefly. "It's nothing bad! I've just been thinking... Do you know what polyamory is?"

Cat's eyebrows went up in surprise. "That's when you're dating more than one person and everyone's okay with it, right?" It was an interesting concept, he had to admit. When explaining it, Rose had compared it to how some people had more than one best friend, just with more kissing involved. Adrien understood that well enough; didn't he have two best friends, after all? Nino in his civilian life, and Ladybug as a superhero. They were both equally important to him as friends, if in different ways—and if he was head-over-heels for Ladybug and had occasionally daydreamed about kissing Nino, well. That just made the comparison more apt. Even if the explanation did have him shaking off inappropriate fantasies for the rest of class.

He tried to quash the spark of hope that Ladybug's question had ignited in him, with little success. "Why do you ask?" he continued, as nonchalantly as possible.

Ladybug nibbled her lower lip. Cat was torn between wanting her to stop abusing such a precious part of her anatomy, and offering to do the abusing for her. "Well, see, there's this guy that I really like, and I don't think I can give up on him—" The bottom dropped out of Cat Noir's stomach, and he was grateful he hadn't let his hopes get up any farther. "—Except I'm starting to really like you, too, and, well." She turned her hopeful blue gaze directly at him. "If you're both okay with it, do you think I could try dating you both?"

Cat was dumbfounded, the roller coaster of his heart clanking slowly back up. He prayed the next hill would be gentle.

Ladybug dating another guy... but also him? True, he'd given some thought to polyamory when the subject had come up in class, but not to the idea that someone he was dating might also date other people; just having more than one significant other himself. He felt a bit silly now, but decided to give himself a bit of leeway, having only started contemplating it that afternoon.

He could feel himself warming up to the idea. Even if this mystery crush was more important to Ladybug in some ways, Cat would be more important to her in others. That was how this sort of thing worked, wasn't it? And he'd finally be able to be with Ladybug the way he'd always wanted...

"Can I think about it?" he heard himself ask. "And I'd like to meet this other guy before I say yes, too, " he added. If this mystery crush of hers wasn't a good person, he was fully prepared to say no. It might mean he wouldn't get to date Ladybug, but if he couldn't respect whoever-it-was, it probably wouldn't be good for any aspect of their relationship if he said yes anyway.

Ladybug's answering smile reassured him greatly. "Of course! That makes perfect sense. And I still haven't said anything to him either, so I'll let you know if he says yes and we can set up a meeting, okay?"

Cat nodded, somewhat dazzled by her smile. "Sounds good," he managed.

Ladybug's smile turned briefly contemplative, before she dragged him over to her side and planted a brief kiss on his cheek. She danced away just as quickly, still smiling, her cheeks pink. "Thanks, Kitty," she said as Cat Noir raised a hand to touch his cheek in wonder. "I'll see you in a little while, okay?" With a wave, Ladybug swept her yoyo out and swung away into the night, leaving Cat staring dazedly after her.

Finally coming back to himself, Cat Noir let out a whoop of joy. Ladybug had feelings for him. Even if things didn't work out romantically between them, in this moment he was happy.

-----

When they'd first begun doing regular patrols, Ladybug had wasted no time in finding a secluded rooftop corner near her house to detransform in. It was risky to be seen clambering across rooftops as Marinette, but it would be riskier to try and sneak back in through the house when her parents thought she was asleep—and riskier still to try to get back in by any entrance as Ladybug. As an extra precaution, whenever she could, she would vary the time between when she arrived in her dark corner as Ladybug and when she left as Marinette. Today she waited five minutes before detransforming and sneaking over to her bedroom's rooftop hatch.

Safe in her room, Marinette finally allowed herself to express the excitement that had been building in her ever since Cat Noir had agreed to potentially date her. "Oh my God, Tikki, can you believe it? I might get to date them both! I don't have to pick between them! If Adrien says yes, I mean, and Cat likes him—and I don't know why they wouldn't, they're both so great!" Marinette shimmied in place, too excited to stay still.

"Marinette," Tikki interrupted, her tone much more subdued than her charge's, "I think you need to tell Cat Noir your identity."

Marinette stopped mid dance-move. "Tikki? I thought you said never to tell anyone my identity, even my parents. Why do you want me to tell Cat now?"

"Relationships need honesty to work well," Tikki explained, "especially when you date more than one person. You aren't the first Ladybug to want to date her partner, or even to explore polyamory. Cat Noir is the best choice to tell in this case; it's the least dangerous for him to know, and the most practical. How did you think you were going to introduce him and Adrien to each other if you didn't tell at least one of them?"

Marinette sat down on the chaise lounge. "I hadn't thought of that," she admitted.

"You've also been working together to take down Hawkmoth for a few years now," Tikki added. "Enough time has passed that it should be safe to share your identities with each other, and even beneficial. It can be a lot trickier to work out boundaries between your identities when you're just starting out, but you've learned enough about yourselves and each other by now that it should be easier, even with the change in your relationship." Tikki looked sheepish for a moment. "Really, I've been meaning to suggest it to you for a while now; I really do think it's a good time for you to tell him!"

Marinette nodded. "That makes sense. It would still probably be a bad idea to tell anyone else, though."

Tikki nodded and nuzzled her charge's cheek. "I really do want you to be happy, Marinette, and I think being with those two would really be good for all of you."

Marinette snuggled her kwami gently. "Thank you, Tikki," she said, digging a cookie for the small god out of her bedside drawer. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

-----

Adrien was having trouble concentrating. After a fitful night when he'd barely been able to sleep from excitement, he'd finally managed to calm down during breakfast (though he had doubts about whether he'd remember anything Nathalie had told him about his schedule). He'd managed to keep his composure all the way up to arriving at school. Unfortunately, he had no sooner sat down and greeted Nino than his civilian best friend had gotten into a very animated conversation with Alya involving Cat Noir, Ladybug, and the words, 'Superhero Exception Clause'.

("Listen," Nino had said. "I am totally fine with you having a thing for Ladybug, and in the event that you ever get the opportunity, I would be okay with you dating her, too. I know she's a good person—she's a superhero, for Pete's sake! I'm just saying that I wouldn't mind if we had the same arrangement for me and Cat Noir.")

Adrien was relieved when lunch time finally arrived. He began packing up his things, wondering how on earth he was going to get his concentration back now that he had two romantic prospects to daydream about.

Someone cleared their throat behind him, and Adrien turned to see Marinette. She had gotten a lot less nervous around him over the past few years, but she did still have occasional lapses into shyness; he hoped this wasn't one of them.

"Um, Adrien," Marinette began. "Do you think I could talk to you for a few minutes?"

Curious, Adrien nodded. "Sure, Marinette. What did you want to talk about?"

"I was wondering if you'd like to go out sometime!" Marinette squeaked out in a rush. "On—on a date!"

Adrien's eyebrows shot up. Was that why she was so shy around him? He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Marinette, I'm flattered, really, but I'm... kind of already interested in someone else."

Marinette's smile faltered, but she rallied quickly. "That's okay," she assured him. "Rose and Juleka and Prince Ali are making things work, right? I'd be okay with it if you wanted to date someone else, too."

Adrien was dumbfounded. "Are you sure?" he managed to ask. "I mean, what about, uh. Jealousy?"

"Well, we can probably talk about that if we need to, right? Besides," she added, cheeks turning pink. "It, um. It'd be kind of hypocritical of me not to offer, since I kind of also have someone else I like. If you said yes, I was hoping to talk to you about me maybe dating another person, too. If—if you think we could make it work?"

Adrien considered it. Well, he thought, why not? Marinette was nice, and pretty, and a good friend. And while he hadn't thought of her as a potential romantic partner before, he could certainly see the appeal now that she had suggested it. "Sure," he decided. "Is there anything else I should know going in?"

Marinette beamed at him, her eyes sparkling with joy. "He said he'd like to meet you before he makes up his mind—the other guy I'd be dating, that is. If that's okay with you! Oh, and I'd maybe like to meet whoever else you're dating, if you work things out with, uh. Her?"

Adrien nodded and smiled. "Her," he confirmed. "And that all sounds reasonable to me. Let me know when a good time to meet would be, and we can set something up."

Marinette winced at this. "His schedule can be kinda... variable. But I'll see what I can do, okay?" Suddenly she looked worried. "That other girl you're interested in... It's not Chloe, is it?"

Adrien chuckled. While Chloe had mellowed considerably over the past few years, she and Marinette still clashed occasionally. Adrien had high hopes that they'd be able to get along someday, but he didn't think it was going to happen for a while yet.

"No, it's not Chloe," he reassured Marinette aloud. "I'm sure you'll like her, though. In fact, I think you two have a lot in common!" They really did, now that he thought about it. Adrien wondered why he'd never really noticed before. He was liking the idea of dating Marinette more and more.

A fleck of color suddenly caught Adrien's eye as it drifted through the hallway. It was followed by another and another, until soon he and Marinette were in a veritable blizzard of colorful bits of paper. Marinette frowned and held out a hand to catch some as it fell. "...Confetti?"

Adrien's stomach sank as the storm of paper was joined by a thundering roar of party noisemakers and a hail of balloons. He had a feeling this wasn't just a random party supply accident.

As if to confirm his suspicions, a voice came on over the speaker system. "Attention, everyone! This is Sweet Sixteen, your party host! I'll be making sure that no one's birthday parties are ever canceled again. I just need one thing from you to make this the best birthday party ever: Cat Noir and Ladybug's Miraculouses! Bring them to me right away, and then we can get on with the festivities!"

Adrien's mind raced. He had to protect Marinette and find someplace to transform while he waited for Ladybug to show up. "This way," he decided, grabbing Marinette's wrist and pulling her along behind him.

"Adrien, what—?"

"There's no time!" Spotting a supply closet, he yanked the door open and shoved Marinette inside. "You should be safe here," he told her. "I'm going to go get help!"

"Adrien!" Marinette shouted, pounding on the closed door. Adrien winced and ducked into an empty classroom. Sorry, Marinette, he thought, but there's something I have to do. Although, if he was lucky, maybe Ladybug would have a few extra minutes after they beat the akuma to meet Marinette.

Adrien smiled to himself. He might be able to turn this akuma's terrible timing to his advantage after all. "Plagg, claws out!"

-----

Marinette lowered her hands and sighed. She couldn't stay mad at Adrien for locking her up like this; he was only trying to make sure she was safe. It wasn't his fault that she didn't actually need his protection. Maybe once she introduced him to Cat Noir, he'd be less overprotective. After all, besides being a superhero yourself, having a superhero that wanted to look after you personally was probably about as safe as it was possible to be in Paris these days.

Thankfully, she also knew from (unwanted) experience that this particular closet had a trick handle; if she turned it just right while putting pressure on the door, it would pop right open. Marinette snapped open the clasp on her purse. "Come on, Tikki, we've got a job to do. Spots on!"

What followed was a good twenty minutes of dodging sentient streamers and literally explosive party poppers, unconventional uses for a polka-dotted watering can, a cleansed akuma from a crushed makeup compact, and far more flirting than Ladybug usually indulged in. She contemplated going in for a victory kiss instead of their traditional fistbump, but ultimately decided against it; she hadn't introduced Adrien to Cat Noir yet, after all, and she didn't want to take any undue liberties. Still, she couldn't help indulging a bit, turning her farewell into a, "See you later, handsome," and a wink.

Before she had a chance to leap off, though, Cat Noir caught her shoulder and started pulling her to a near-by hallway. Ladybug had a momentary sense of deja-vu. "Cat? Is everything okay?"

"Oh! I'm fine, Ladybug," Cat responded with a grin. "There's just this other girl who asked me out today, and she wanted to meet the other person I might be dating as well. She's actually a classmate of mine, so I thought this would be a good opportunity for you two to talk!"

"A classmate? Cat Noir, do you go to school here?" The implication of her words hit her as soon as they left her mouth, and she slapped a hand quickly over her lips. "I'm sorry, Cat, you don't need to tell me! Your identity—"

He tossed a smile over his shoulder. "It's fine, my Lady. If we're going to be dating—well, maybe dating—one of us should probably say who we are. I know how important your identity is to you, so I'm okay with telling you mine. I want to tell this other girl, too, and this way I can tell you both at the same time!"

"Cat, wait!" Ladybug interjected. As touched as she was by his consideration for her privacy, she couldn't help but be worried for his. After all, as Tikki had said, revealing his identity to his superhero partner of some years was one thing, but doing the same with a civilian was quite another! "You shouldn't—"

Cat came to a sudden halt, and Ladybug bumped into him. "Oof!" She peered around his shoulder to see him raise his hand to knock on a very familiar looking supply closet door.

"Marinette?" he called. "I'm back - and I've got someone I'd like you to talk to!"

Ladybug gaped at her partner. "...Adrien?"

"Yeah, Ladybug?" Cat Noir frowned at the door and raised his hand to knock again—then stopped. He turned to face her, rubbing his neck anxiously. "I, uh. Why did you call me—? Not that you're wrong, but. How...?"

Ladybug laughed a touch hysterically and felt her transformation fall away, Tikki zipping up to hover by her ear. "Adrien, it's me."

Cat Noir stared back; with a loud beep, his own transformation came undone, a black kwami flying out of his ring to float by his shoulder. "Marinette?" Slowly, he started to grin. "Oh jeez, you mean we were working out polyamory stuff together so we could date each other?"

Marinette giggled. "I know, right? On the plus side, I'm pretty sure that Cat Noir would be okay with me dating Adrien Agreste."

Adrien winked in a very Cat-like fashion. "You know it, my Lady. And I like to think that Ladybug would also be okay with me dating Marinette!"

"Of course!" Marinette beamed at her new boyfriend. She couldn't imagine how things could be more perfect—until suddenly she could.

"By the way," she said, more casually than she felt. "I know we don't have to worry about polyamory stuff to date each other anymore, but, well. I overheard Alya talking to Nino this morning, and apparently she has a free pass for Ladybug. If things went really well with both of, well, you, I was considering asking her out later. Do you think you'd be okay with that?"

Adrien leaned his forehead against hers and peered at her through his eyelashes, smiling fondly. "I'd kind of like a few weeks to figure out how just the two of us are going to work together, but after that, well." His eyes twinkled. "I'm open to negotiation if you are."

Marinette leaned forward a few crucial centimeters. "That sounds purr-fect," she said against his mouth, then kissed him.

—fin—


I absolutely adore every single fic where Marinette or Adrien realize they've fallen in love with (who they think are) two different people and think they have to pick between them, and every single second of delicious, ironic pining and angst. Never think otherwise. Just, after reading more than a few of them, my brain sidled up to me all, "You know what would be hilarious (and also adorable/fluffy)?" ...Which is how I end up writing a lot of my fics, actually.

I did everything I could to make the basics of healthy polyamory more-or-less intuitive to our heroes, and again, I cannot thank 343enderspark enough for vy help, but I still may have messed up! If you notice somewhere I screwed up, please let me know; the last thing I want to do with my writing is harm a vulnerable community.

Thanks for reading, feedback welcome!