Fic: Love is Stored in the Cat
May. 10th, 2019 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetFandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Summary: One night before patrol, Adrien decides he wants to try out one of his other enhanced forms. Unfortunately for him, Plagg isn't interested, and Adrien ends up learning the hard way what effect the enchanted cheese has on humans.
AO3 link: Link is stored over here
Wordcount: 8122
Ships Love Square
Notes: With tremendous thanks toalexseanchai for beta-reading and cheerleading
Fic: Love is Stored in the Cat
Adrien drummed his fingers on his desk as he clicked idly through the Ladyblog. He'd managed to whittle away most of the time before patrol with Ladybug, practicing the piano and finishing his homework, but despite his best efforts, he was still left with half an hour before the earliest he should leave. The last time he'd shown up more than fifteen minutes early, Ladybug had found out and given him the saddest look imaginable, and if there was one thing he wanted to avoid, it was making his Lady sad. It was much better to waste time scrolling through some of Alya's old articles on his partner, seeing if he could gain any new insights into his fellow superhero and the love of his life.
Clicking back a page in the archives brought up an article on their enhanced forms, first seen in the battle against Syren. Alya had written an in-depth analysis of the forms that had been seen so far, followed by speculation on forms they might see in the future. Like all of Alya's articles, it was well thought out and researched, made compelling points, and asked intriguing questions. Adrien's gaze drifted to the drawer where he kept the magic cheese when he was at home, curiosity piqued; he'd been wondering for ages what the rest of them did. Plagg had been less than forthcoming on the subject, for some reason, and Adrien was increasingly eager to learn their effects.
Well. It wasn't like there was much going on, he reasoned, reaching for the drawer. And even if there was an akuma attack that evening, or some other criminal doings, he could always detransform and then transform back into regular Cat Noir if whatever form he got wasn't useful, and it would be good to learn more about his powers. He eyed the kwami dozing in midair next to his computer screen. "Hey, Plagg," he said casually, picking a new color of cheese out of the box. "How about we try something different tonight?"
Plagg's eyes snapped open and narrowed on the cheese in Adrien's hand. "Oh hell no!" In the next instant, the kwami was half-way across the room and glaring balefully at Adrien from behind a lamp.
Adrien leaped out of his chair after Plagg, taking a bit of extra relish in the fact that he didn't have to be quite so careful that evening: During Audrey Bourgeois' akumatization, Gabriel had proven that he was willing to leave the house after all, thus opening him up to more pressure from his company; the trip to London not long after that had been just the beginning. Gabriel had left for Milan that morning, Nathalie in tow. Normally Adrien would still be in the care of the Gorilla, but his bodyguard had a family emergency earlier in the week which he still wasn't back from. It had taken Adrien hours of arguing and a solemn promise that he wouldn't leave the house to convince his father to let him stay home unsupervised, but as he tore through his room after Plagg, he knew it was worth it: Nothing could compare to this sense of freedom.
Vaulting over his couch, Adrien finally managed to corner Plagg. "I've got you now," Adrien said to the kwami, holding up the oddly colored piece of Camembert. "Now open wide and say 'ah'."
Plagg's eyes darted around wildly before he slumped over himself, clearly giving up on escape. "Fine, you win. Now give it here."
Pleased with himself, Adrien held the piece of cheese out between them. "Time for me to find out what this one doe—ulp!"
Adrien stared down at the small black blur that had forced the cheese into his mouth; Plagg smiled wickedly back. "Let's see how you like it!" he taunted, holding Adrien's mouth closed around the piece of enchanted Camembert.
Adrien made a face and chewed reluctantly. "I still don't know how you eat so much of this," he complained, words muffled by the cheese. "I can't get past the smell."
Plagg sniffed haughtily. "Even when you're transformed, your nose can't possibly pick up all the complexities that make the aroma of Camembert so decadent, so truly mouth-watering."
"I'm sure," Adrien said dryly, and swallowed. "Fine, I won't try to make you eat transformation cheese again unless we need to."
"Good," said Plagg. "Now, go fetch me some real Camembert; I need something to bolster my spirits after what you put me through!"
That was fair enough, Adrien supposed, and he turned to walk to the cabinet where he kept Plagg's stash of non-magical cheese. He'd taken only two steps when a wave of dizziness washed over him. Adrien stopped for a moment, waiting for the sensation to pass, only to find the ground rushing up at him. Certain he was falling, he threw out his arms to catch himself, but the feeling persisted after he'd landed on all fours. He clenched his eyes shut and sucked in air through his mouth, hoping to fight off the feeling long enough to call for help; moments later, though, the sensation stopped.
Peeling his eyes open slowly, Adrien took a moment to stretch out, first his arms and shoulders, then his legs and lower back, and finally an odd extra stretching sensation farther behind him that he usually didn't get when he wasn't in costume. He followed this up with a surprisingly luxurious full body shake. Coming to a seated position at last, he raised a hand to smooth his hair back into place, then stopped when he brought it to his mouth to lick it.
Adrien's eyes crossed as he looked at the black, furry paw in front of his nose. Experimentally, he flexed his fingers; a set of claws extended from the toes of the paw in unison with the movement. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the black fur extended all the way down his back, and continued to the end of a long, sinuous tail. A glance around the room showed that, even accounting for sitting on the floor, all of the furniture was a lot taller than it should have been. "Um, Plagg?" he said—or rather, tried to say; what came out instead was a plaintive, "Mrrrrhaa?"
"Whaaaat," the kwami whined, not seeming to notice the aural discrepancy.
Then, a moment later, "...Oh. Oops."
-----
A cat. An actual cat. That damned cheese Plagg had tricked him into eating had turned him into an actual, furry, four-legged cat!
"I don't see what you're so upset about," Plagg said, floating along beside Adrien as he scrambled his way up the side of a building.
"Mrrrrh," Adrien growled as he finally managed to swing his lower legs up the side of a fire escape. He didn't bother to try and think of a French translation for the feline curse; he could tell it was insulting, and right now that was enough.
"Seriously!" Plagg continued. "You're much cuter this way. I'll bet Ladybug won't be able to resist petting you!"
Adrien nearly missed a step at that comment. With a glare at his kwami, he bounded up the last set of stairs to the roof where he was supposed to meet Ladybug that night. There, silhouetted against the sky, was a figure in pigtails and a black-spotted uniform.
"Where is he," he heard Ladybug mutter. "It isn't like him to be late to patrol. Too early, yes, but late?"
Adrien suppressed a wince. While he'd left the house shortly after being transformed, the journey had taken him much longer on four legs than his more usual super-enhanced two, and now he was nearly five minutes late. Trotting up to Ladybug, he rubbed up against her legs in apology. "Mrrow," he said. Sorry I'm late!
Ladybug crouched down to look at him more closely. He drank in her scent, fascinated by the depth of it and the new elements he could pick up in it; his sense of smell was better as Cat Noir than as a human, but it paled in comparison next to being an actual cat. The overtones of yeast and pastries were familiar, as were the bitter and floral notes, but the slightly fruity undertones—possibly her shampoo?—were completely new to him. "Hello there, kitty," Ladybug said, holding out her hand; Adrien bumped his head against it enthusiastically, and purred up a storm when she started to rub his ears. That felt amazing! Ladybug giggled. "I don't suppose you know where the real Cat Noir got to?" she asked.
Adrien ducked out from under her hand regretfully and planted his front paws on one of her knees to bring his face up to her eye level. "Myah!" he announced. It's me! He resisted the urge to bump his face against hers; she wasn't actually his, no matter how much he might want her to be.
"About that," Plagg said, startling both of them. Ladybug jolted to her feet, and Adrien had to scramble to keep from falling over.
"Plagg?" she asked. "Why are you here? Where's Cat Noir? Is he okay? Is he hurt?"
"Ah, no, no, nothing like that," Plagg reassured her. "It's a funny story, really. See, that black cat you were just petting? That's him."
Ladybug looked incredulously from Plagg to Adrien and back again; Adrien straightened up and tried to look as heroic as possible. "You're kidding," Ladybug said.
Adrien slumped, and Plagg shook his head. "I'm afraid not."
"But he's not supposed to be an actual cat!" Ladybug protested. "How did this happen?"
"Well, you know the special food Master Fu gave us for the enhanced transformations?"
"Yes..."
"My boy got it into his head that he wanted to try one for himself." Plagg sighed and shook his head. "I tried to warn him what would happen, but he just wouldn't listen to reason!"
Adrien stared at Plagg, outraged. That little—!
"Really," Plagg continued, "we're just lucky he didn't try this earlier. As it is, you should be thankful I managed to talk him down from eating all of them!"
Adrien began to growl low in his throat and sunk down on his haunches, flicking his ears back. Plagg was going to get it for this!
"What on earth am I supposed to do about this, though?" Ladybug asked incredulously as Adrien started sizing up Plagg for a pounce. "We can't go on patrol like this! Especially not Cat!"
"Yeah, that's a real bummer, isn't it," Plagg said in a bored tone. Adrien crouched low, shifting his weight on his back legs to make sure he was lined up just right. "Luckily, I happen to know from prior experience that the transformation wears off of humans pretty quick. He should be back to his usual shape in less than a day."
Adrien paused; this was new information, possibly even useful information, which tended to be difficult to get out of Plagg. Maybe he'd postpone his revenge until Plagg was finished talking.
"In the meantime," Plagg continued, looking Adrien directly in the eye with a smirk, "you should probably take him home with you to keep him out of trouble."
...Okay, maybe Adrien could forgive Plagg for tricking him into eating that cheese. And embarrassing him in front of Ladybug. Really, the truth didn't make him look that much better than Plagg's lie anyway.
Ladybug frowned. "I don't know," she said. "Are you sure I couldn't just drop him off with someone else? I mean, I obviously can't take him to his own home, but..."
"Well, everyone at his house is gone for the weekend except him, so you could probably let him go back there. But are you sure you want to leave him alone that long?"
Plagg probably meant that differently than Ladybug took it, because she was staring at Adrien with that impossibly sad look on her face again. Adrien's heart lurched, and he immediately started rubbing back up against her legs, purring as hard as he could. Don't be sad! I'm used to being on my own, and I can take care of myself; I'll be okay.
Plagg flew up by Ladybug's shoulder, speaking both more quietly and more seriously than Adrien was used to. "His identity is going to come out when he transforms back into a human one way or another, so you can't leave him with a civilian. If you leave him with a different hero, you'll also expose their secret identity—except Queen Bee, and I don't think that would go down very well. At least you're someone he wants to share his identity with."
Ladybug's expression firmed into something more determined, and she nodded. "You're right," she told Plagg. "Taking him home with me is the best option." She sighed and smiled ruefully. "Well, I don't think we're going to be getting patrol done tonight, Kitty," she said to Adrien. She took a knee and held out her arms for him to climb up. "Want to help me defeat my homework instead?"
With a "Prrp!" noise of affirmation, Adrien bounded as carefully as he could up her arms and flopped over her shoulders. She giggled when he nosed her ear and carefully twined her fingers with the tip of his tail.
Smiling at him, Ladybug pulled out her yoyo. "Hold on tight, Cat!"
-----
Adrien would be forever grateful that Ladybug's destination was only a few blocks away from their meeting place; hanging onto her while she traversed the skyline may have been a fantasy for him as a human, but as a cat, it wasn't an experience he cared to repeat. He'd managed to hold onto her without digging his claws into more than her suit, but even with Ladybug clearly taking as easy a route as possible, it had not been a pleasant ride.
Plagg agreed wholeheartedly. "What the hell was that!" He yelped once Ladybug had landed. "I barely had time to grab onto you before you took off!"
Ladybug, who had been busy soothing an understandably rumpled Adrien, looked sidelong at the kwami. "Funny, I happen to remember you keeping up just fine during the Style Queen incident," she remarked. Ignoring Plagg's outraged squawk, she looked back at Adrien, her expression turning anxious. "I suppose it's now or never," she said with a sigh. "Tikki? Spots off."
With a rush of light and sparkles, Ladybug's costume melted away, leaving Adrien cradled in the arms of his cute, shy classmate, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Adrien's eyes went wide; carefully, he reached out a paw to pat her cheek. Marinette's nose scrunched up cutely and she redirected his paw back to him. "Yes, it's really me, Cat," she informed him, a touch ruefully.
Adrien felt a little silly; hadn't he just seen her detransform? Still, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling her scent; he wanted this to be true so badly. He'd daydreamed from time to time about which of his classmates was the most likely to secretly be Ladybug, and Marinette had always been one of the closest fits, as far as he was concerned. He'd even allowed himself to imagine she really was his partner a time or two, down to entertaining thoughts of winning her over outside the mask; Marinette was very cute, and a force to be reckoned with besides. For her to actually be his Lady...
There it was: the mingled scent of pastries and yeast that he'd occasionally caught whiffs of when they were working together, and which he'd gotten a good lungful of when he'd first met with her earlier that evening, the fruity undertones stronger than before. Definitely her shampoo, he decided. The slightly bitter, floral overtones he usually picked up around her, however, were... Not gone, exactly, but seemed to have concentrated and relocated slightly to Marinette's left. He opened his eyes and looked in that direction to see a kwami with black spots and bright blue eyes floating over Marinette's other shoulder.
Ladybug's kwami covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh, no!" she squeaked.
"I'm afraid so," Plagg said, floating into view himself. "Why do I always get the dumb ones?"
Adrien flattened his ears back and aimed a swipe at his kwami. Not to hit, just to express his annoyance. Evidently Plagg didn't think that the five centimeters Adrien's claws missed by were enough, because he darted behind the other kwami for protection. "Hey, I'm not the one who tried to make me transform!"
"So you made him eat the food instead of telling him that you don't like transforming that way?" Ladybug's kwami guessed.
"Well..." Plagg said, looking awfully squirrely for a vaguely cat-shaped god of destruction.
"Mrrrrh," Adrien growled again, eyes narrowed.
"He did say that this should wear off in less than a day," Marinette said, angling a critical look at Plagg, "but he also said that Cat Noir ate the enchanted cheese on his own, so I'm not sure how much I believe right now."
Her kwami sighed. "As long as Cat Noir only ate one piece, the transformation should wear off on its own before tomorrow night. If it takes longer than that, we'll have to take him to Master Fu." She floated over to look Adrien in the face and smiled. "It's nice to finally meet you, Cat Noir, though I'm sorry for the circumstances," she said. "My name's Tikki; I'm pretty sure you remember Marinette."
Adrien nodded and nuzzled against her shoulder with a purr, making Marinette blush. "Anyway!" Marinette said, somewhat shrilly. "If he's going to be staying with me until he turns back, then I should probably get him inside, right? Right!" She blew out a sigh and rubbed her eyes with her free hand. "Right," she said again. "Tikki? Purse time."
"Good luck, Marinette!" Tikki said, then grabbed Plagg and dragged her fellow kwami into the purse hanging at Marinette's side.
Marinette took a moment to boost Adrien up onto her shoulder, then slipped through the back door of the bakery and tiptoed up the stairs to her family's apartments above. Closing the door behind herself, she let out a breath that ruffled Adrien's fur.
"Marinette? You're home early," came Sabine's voice, and Marinette went instantly stiff. "I thought you were going out with a friend."
Adrien leaned into Marinette as she turned slowly to face her mother. "Ah, well, about that," she said. "See, my friend? He had an emergency, so he had to cancel. And it was a family emergency, so he's also leaving town for a couple of days? And he doesn't know anyone else here really well, so he asked me to watch his cat for him while he's gone!" she finished in a rush.
Sabine looked alarmed. "A cat? Marinette—"
"I know we said no pets that don't stay in enclosures, but I promise it's only for one or two days at most! He's really well behaved and will stay in my room the entire time!" Marinette said hurriedly. "I'm sorry I said I would do this without asking, but he didn't have time to ask anyone else, and he won't be any trouble, I swear!"
"...Very well," Sabine said at last. "But he really does need to stay in your room for sanitation reasons, and I want you to be sure to ask us first the next time something like this comes up. We might be able to make other arrangements."
Adrien felt Marinette relax, watching as her anxious expression softened into a relieved smile. "I will, I promise; I would have this time if it wasn't such short notice, or if he knew anyone else who could take care of his cat."
Sabine smiled back at her. "He is quite cute; I see why you were inclined to say yes." She reached out a hand towards Adrien and began scratching behind his ears when he didn't reject it. "By the way, what's his name?"
"Cat Noir," Marinette replied automatically, and Adrien felt his soul leave his body. Tilting his head back up to look at Marinette, he saw that her smile had gone rigid and there was a hint of panic in her eyes.
Sabine chuckled, apparently not noticing her daughter's discomfort. "I see your friend is a fan of our local superheroes, then!" she remarked, giving Adrien one last skritch.
"Hahaha, yeah," Marinette said in strangled tones. "I think that was it. Anyway, I'd better get him up to my room like we discussed!"
"Yes, I think that would be a good idea," Sabine agreed. "I'll explain the situation to your father. You go get this boy settled in."
"Thanks, Mom; you're the best." Marinette leaned over to kiss her mother on the cheek, then resettled Adrien and hurried up the stairs to her room. Closing the door behind them, she slumped down to sit on the floor, cradling Adrien in her lap. "Ugh, I hate lying to my parents," she groaned. "I mean, I know I have to, but it still sucks! And I still have to come up with some excuse about supplies, because she definitely didn't see me carrying in a litter pan right now." She craned her head back to look at Adrien. "Have you eaten dinner yet, or do I need to sneak you up something?" A pause. "And what am I supposed to feed you, anyway? I don't want to give you cat food, but I'm pretty sure pastries would make you sick like this."
Adrien sat up on her lap and shook his head. "Myahn!" he told her.
"He says he's fine," Plagg translated. "I wouldn't be too sure, though; transforming takes a lot of energy—I should know! You really should get him a lot of cheese to eat, just in case. Camembert would be best, if you have it."
"Plagg!" Tikki scolded, crossing her tiny arms. She looked over at Marinette and Adrien. "I'm sorry, Marinette; Plagg's spent too much time with Trixx over the years. Since it's only a temporary transformation, Cat Noir should be fine to eat anything that's not actually toxic to cats; no garlic or lilies, and no chocolate, but most other pastries should be fine. He won't be able to digest most sugars like this, but it shouldn't hurt him."
"He should be able to use a human toilet, too," Plagg added, apparently deciding to be helpful after all. "Some humans apparently train real cats to do that, and while I think it's a stupid idea for actual felines, a human that's temporarily a cat should have no problem with it."
Marinette smiled and petted Adrien's ears. "Well, that's something, at least." Shooing Adrien gently off her lap, she got to her feet. "I'm going to go get some food for later, just in case. Feel free to have a look around; you already saw most of my room when Troublemaker crashed through."
Adrien waited politely until the door clicked shut behind Marinette, then turned to survey her room. It looked fairly similar to the last time he'd seen it, though not being able to see pinks or reds at the moment threw the color scheme off a bit. There was something else different about it, though, that he couldn't quite put a finger on, and not for the obvious reason. It came to him while he examined the walls: Most of the pictures of him were gone. A fair number of them had been replaced by posters of Jagged Stone or Clara Nightingale, or pictures of her with her friends (some of them, yes, including him), but there were also blank spots on the walls that he'd remembered being covered before.
Adrien's tail lashed, partly from confusion and partly from worry for his Lady. He hoped she hadn't been too embarrassed to keep all of his pictures up after the Fill My Shoes episode, or that she hadn't been bullied by anyone who'd seen her room on the show. A small, selfish part of him he hadn't been entirely aware of until then was also disappointed. With a thread of guilt, he realized he'd been hoping all her pictures of him meant that he was the mystery guy that Ladybug had a crush on; but Marinette was a fan of his father's work, that was all. She must have originally put up so many pictures of him rather than other models to show support as a friend.
Shaking off his disappointment, Adrien decided to go explore Marinette's desk. She'd mentioned still needing to finish her homework, and if it was there, he might be able to figure out what she needed help with, and how to help her. In two quick jumps, Adrien made it from the floor to her chair and then to her desktop. About to look around for her school books, his attention was caught by an oddly shaped scrapbook that Marinette had left in the center of her design space. She must have been working on it before heading to patrol, he realized. Curious, Adrien padded over her desk to examine it; Marinette was such a creative person, he loved to see her work whenever he got the chance. Gently, he nosed the teardrop-shaped cover of the scrapbook open to the first slightly lumpy page.
The scrapbook fell open into a heart shape, and Adrien's eyes went wide at its contents: There on the first page were pictures of him. Some of them were candid photos, some were from magazines, and some were even cut from the posters that were missing from Marinette's walls. They were surrounded by strategically placed puffy heart stickers and cute gel-pen doodles. Pulse thudding in his veins, Adrien very carefully pushed the next page over. He was greeted again by a smiling picture of himself, cut into a heart shape; below the photo was a replica of the lucky charm he'd made for her birthday, the string drawn in marker and the beads made from colorful scraps of cloth. On the page opposite it, he found the Valentine's Day poem he'd written to Ladybug so long ago, which he'd gotten a mysterious reply to after he'd sworn he'd thrown it out. The paper had been smoothed out, but the creases left behind were a testament to his memory. This was... Could it be...?
One more page, he decided, fumbling slightly with the paper under his paws. Here was another cutout of his face, but on the opposite page was one of Marinette. The photos were arranged so they looked like they were smiling at each other, and instead of whatever clothing they'd been wearing in the pictures, Marinette had also drawn them new outfits: With a start, Adrien realized that she'd dressed them for a wedding, both his tux and her gown her own designs. She'd even attached an extra scrap of paper between the two pages so her drawings could 'hold hands'.
"Eep!" Adrien's head snapped up from the scrapbook to see Marinette in the doorway; her cheeks had gone dark, and she was struggling to keep from dropping the plate of food she held.
"Marinette!" Tikki cried, and zipped over from where she'd been arguing with Plagg to help the girl steady the plate.
"Thanks, Tikki," Marinette said when she had control of the plate again. She sighed and walked over to her desk, setting the dish of cheese, croissants, cookies, and one chicken cutlet on the other side of her scrapbook. "I guess you've figured it out, then," she said somewhat ruefully.
"Mrrow?" Adrien tried. He was pretty sure he had, but he still wanted to hear it from her.
Marinette sat down and traced the outline of Adrien's picture with one finger. "That's him; the guy I have a crush on." She looked sidelong at the cat-shaped boy beside her, as if daring him to judge her. "I know he's a famous model and all, but that's not why I like him. Sure, I saw him in Gabriel ads all the time, but I didn't really notice him until he started going to my school. He turned out to be really nice, and smart, and funny, and especially kind. I've been trying to get him to notice me for ages, but I just keep... screwing it up! I've written him notes, I've made him presents, I've even tried to ask him out a few times, but every single thing I try just ends up going wrong somehow." She huffed out a breath, blowing her bangs off of her forehead, completely unaware that she had just thrown Adrien's entire world view out of balance.
"I've even tried giving up on him once or twice," she confessed, and Adrien's heart lurched painfully. "I thought, maybe if I stopped noticing him, I might finally start to notice this other guy I know who's sweet and smart and kind and funny; someone who I already know likes me, who supports me and protects me, and who I really do want to be happy, even if it might be dangerous for us to be together." She glanced meaningfully at Adrien, whose heart was now doing a fair impression of a tango, then looked back at the scrapbook. "Once I even did it by accident! He turned me down really nicely then, and I can't really fault him for that. And every other time, Adrien would end up doing something so amazing that I would fall in love all over again. So I'm stuck in limbo."
Adrien couldn't help it anymore; he crossed the desk in front of her and started rubbing against every part of her he could reach, purring as loudly as he could. He would have given almost anything in that moment to be able to tell Marinette who he was, that she didn't need to give up on him and had no reason to be sad—and never would again, if he could possibly help it. He was stuck as a cat, though, and until he changed back, he would have to do the best he could as he was.
Marinette pulled him close and buried her face in his fur. "I'm sorry about that," she murmured. "It really wasn't fair of me to dump all of that on you, especially considering, well." Adrien rubbed his cheek against her hair, no longer caring about propriety, and tried to purr even harder to let her know it was okay. Hadn't she as good as said she wanted to be his, anyway?
"Okay, enough of that nonsense," Marinette said, sounding more herself. He bumped his head against hers when she pulled back and she giggled, sparing a moment to scratch under Adrien's chin before closing the scrapbook and pushing it away. "I've got homework that needs finishing."
"About time!" Plagg complained from over her shoulder, thoroughly dashing the mood. "All that mushy junk was ruining my appetite! I thought I'd finally get a break from it with my boy stuck like this, and then you have to start in on it? Ugh!"
That was it. Growling low in his throat, Adrien bunched up his legs and took aim. When Plagg began to extol the virtues of cheese and its infinite superiority to romance, he pounced. Plagg darted out of the way at the last moment, just barely missing being caught by Adrien's claws. "Hey!" he protested. "Watch it!" Adrien was in no way finished, though; as soon as Plagg had settled somewhere, Adrien pounced again. His not-quite-unfamiliar feline instincts took charge while he chased the small, black, furry kwami around Marinette's room, bouncing off of walls and repelling from shelves, ignoring the crashes sounding around him.
He almost had the kwami cornered when he was unceremoniously scooped up by Marinette. "If this is what you call 'no trouble at all', I really don't want to see what a busy evening looks like for you," she said, turning him to look him in the eye. Adrien looked guiltily to the side—only to see Plagg stick his tongue out in triumph. Adrien glared at the kwami, but didn't struggle when Marinette swept him in close. "Come on; I've got some algebra that needs defeating."
-----
Several hours later, all of the food was gone and most of Marinette's homework was finished. Adrien had eaten all of the chicken and half a croissant; the former had tasted better than the latter in his current shape, but the softness of the bread and its yeasty flavor had definite appeal. He'd also managed to point Marinette in the correct direction for several of her physics problems, though she'd raced ahead of him when it came time for history, and they'd both struggled with math. Now she was working on designs with a Jagged Stone CD playing in the background, occasionally tossing the balled-up paper of a rejected design at Adrien for him to bat around the desk.
Adrien was currently flopped over next to Marinette, listening to her hum and waiting for the next paper ball. Tikki and Plagg had retreated somewhere into her shelves and were talking quietly amongst themselves, seeming to have worked out whatever differences they'd had. Adrien was glad; he loved Plagg, and he knew the kwami felt the same way towards him, but he also knew how lonely it could be with only one person to really talk to. Furthermore, Plagg and Tikki were literally two halves of a whole, two interlocking and complimentary concepts; even when they were arguing, he could tell that Plagg was happy to see Tikki again.
Adrien was beginning to doze off when Marinette pushed back in her chair and stretched. "I'm going to get a drink of water and take care of the dishes; do you want anything, Cat?" Adrien thought about it, and shook his head; he was fine. Marinette nodded and left the room.
Adrien watched her go, then turned back to the desk and pawed at one of the paper balls. It was really nice to spend time with Marinette like this; it was even nicer to imagine doing so in the future, when he was back to his normal shape. Since seeing the scrapbook she'd made, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't hoping that some of the time they spent together might be on dates. Even if romance didn't end up working out between them, though, he was looking forward to hanging out as friends: Talking, doing homework, watching movies or playing video games. He could take her through some more fencing basics, teach her a bit more Mandarin, and she might be willing to show him how to bake. Really, he thought, any time spent with Marinette would be a gift.
Adrien's daydreams were interrupted by Marinette re-entering her room with a yawn. "Okay, back to work!" she announced, sitting back down and taking a moment to rub under Adrien's chin.
Tikki floated into view. "Marinette, it's getting awfully late. Don't you think you should be getting to bed?"
Marinette stifled another yawn. "What? But it's barely eleven!"
Adrien couldn't see Tikki's face from where he was laying, but he could easily imagine her worried expression. "Marinette, you need your rest! It's not healthy to keep missing so much sleep, and I know you wanted to hang out with Alya and the girls this weekend. You'll make yourself sick!"
"I'll be fine, Tikki," Marinette responded, a bit shortly. "I'll just be up another thirty minutes, an hour at most."
Well, Adrien thought, hadn't Marinette been taking care of him all evening? And now there was something he could help her with. Rolling to his feet, Adrien took a moment to stretch, then padded over to Marinette and sat down right on her notebook.
Marinette's brows creased. "Cat? What are you doing?" She prodded him gently with the eraser-end of her pencil.
Adrien didn't budge. "Myahn!" he announced. I'm not moving. Marinette poked him again, but he just settled more firmly in position and stared at her.
Marinette scowled. "Fine, then." With a huff, she started trying to sketch something in the corner of a page.
Adrien tracked her pencil, eyes narrowed; this was not on. Swiftly, taking care to keep his claws in, he batted the pencil out of her hand and onto the floor.
"Hey! Cat!" Marinette objected. "Not cool." With a glare, she scooped the pencil up and got back to trying to draw.
Adrien batted the pencil away again. "Mrah." Bed time. Marinette needed sleep, and if Adrien had to destroy every pen, pencil, or marker on her desk to make it happen, he would. He'd buy her replacements once he turned back—and after she'd gotten some sleep.
Marinette glared at him and her kwami. "You're ganging up on me; I never should have introduced you two."
Adrien shared a smug look with Tikki, who giggled.
"Give it up, kid," Plagg advised, floating languidly into view. "She can be ridiculously stubborn when it comes to taking care of the people she loves, and he can be just as bad when he gets an idea into his head. It's half the reason we're in this mess in the first place. You're better off going to bed than trying to fight both of them at once."
Marinette turned her glare on Plagg. "You, too, huh? Fine." With a huff, she started collecting her pencils.
Pleased, Adrien stood up and managed to paw her notebook closed—then sat back down on it until Marinette had put away all of her drawing supplies.
Marinette rolled her eyes as she shooed him off of the notebook. "You already won, Cat; you don't need to do that." With everything put away, she looked around the room. "Okay, we should figure out sleeping arrangements. Tikki, how likely is it that Cat Noir will change back to himself overnight?"
The kwami looked thoughtful. "I'm not sure. My ladybugs don't usually do things like this, and I don't tend to be around when Plagg's cats do. Plagg, do you know?"
Plagg shrugged. "Call it fifty-fifty; he's still young, so his metabolism should be working through the cheese pretty fast. It wouldn't hurt to be prepared."
Marinette went abruptly Ladybug-colored. "...Is he going to have clothes when he changes back?"
There was a full second of silence before Plagg let out an absolutely ear-splitting guffaw. "Bahahahaha! Naked cat! In his birthday suit! Pfft, and wouldn't it just serve him right!"
Adrien crouched down and covered his face with his paws. Of all the things he didn't want to deal with right now!
"Plagg, keep it down! My parents are already in bed; they have to be up early in the morning to get the bread started!" She shot a glance at a trunk on one side of her room, her blush subsiding slightly. "I was serious about that, too; if he's going to need clothes, I have some stuff that might fit him. Unless he's going to suit up in the nude as soon as he changes back?" she challenged.
Plagg at least stopped laughing at that, though it did little enough for Adrien's state of mind. His modeling career had somewhat immunized him to being undressed in front of other people, but none of them were his Lady, and he usually at least had underwear on to preserve his modesty. Although, Marinette was a designer, and a talented one at that; if she ever designed something for him (formally, that is, and with a bit more coverage than a hat), did that mean that...?
One nice thing about being an actual cat, Adrien decided, was that no one could tell when you were blushing.
-----
Thankfully, the clothing thing was quickly resolved. Plagg and Tikki had both confirmed that, since Adrien had been dressed when he'd eaten the cheese, his clothes should have been included in the transformation. He spent a moment to be grateful that, without his father or Nathalie around to police his sartorial choices, he'd been wearing his most comfortable clothes that evening; he didn't like the idea of waking up to wearing jeans. Meanwhile, Marinette had changed in the bathroom into a set of pyjamas that Adrien recognized from the Gorizilla incident, and they looked even cuter on her than he'd remembered—though maybe he was only allowing himself to finally realize how cute they'd been on her in the first place, since it didn't count as "cheating" on Ladybug if she was Ladybug.
The conclusion of the clothing dilemma had, unfortunately, given rise to a new issue.
"Cat Noir, I have told you three times now; I will be fine on the floor! You should take the bed."
Adrien narrowed his eyes and sunk his claws deeper into the pillow that, along with a pile of blankets, Marinette had dumped on the floor with the intent to sleep on. He growled low in his throat when Marinette started reaching for him, only stopping when she pulled her hand back.
"You're impossible!" she announced, throwing up her hands in defeat. "I told you, the chaise lounge is terrible to sleep on, and I am not making a guest sleep on the floor. Therefore, you get the bed."
Adrien pinned his ears back and lashed his tail, also managing to impose human social knowledge on his feline instincts and shake his head.
Marinette crossed her arms. "Fine; then what do you propose we do?"
Adrien instantly relaxed. Sitting back up, he looked from Marinette to her loft bed and back again with a soft chirruping noise. He then nosed into the pile of blankets in front of him, purring up a storm. (They smelled like Marinette; it was possible he was in heaven.)
"I told you already, that's not happening!"
"You know," Tikki said, interrupting before round four of the argument could start in earnest, "you could probably share the bed."
Both Adrien and Marinette froze; Adrien turned his gaze to Tikki, his ears pricking in interest.
"There's no guarantee that Cat Noir will change back before morning, after all," Tikki continued, looking from one to the other. "And there should be plenty of room for both of you, even if he does. All you need to do is make sure he has his own blanket, and you should be fine."
Adrien turned back to Marinette, tilting his head in interest. Marinette met his eyes for a moment, color high in her cheeks, before she looked away. "I suppose that could work..." she mumbled.
Adrien got to his feet and began dragging one of the blankets over to the stairs to Marinette's loft bed, making sure to look directly at her every few seconds while he did it. With a sigh, Marinette got to her feet. Throwing the blanket over one shoulder, she picked up Adrien with the other arm and held him close to her chest. "Fine," she told him. "But you'd better not snore."
Adrien only purred in response.
-----
He woke slowly the next morning, sun shining down on his face from the skylight above. He was warm and comfortable, surrounded by the scents of baking bread and pastries with a hint of floral undertones. Bit by bit, he became aware of someone cuddled up to his back, an arm thrown over his chest.
Marinette, he thought sleepily, a small smile curling his lips. Then, considerably more awake, Ladybug!
He stared at the arm looped around him, noticing belatedly both that he was back in his human shape, and that sometime in the night, he'd woven his fingers between hers. Adrien swallowed hard, trying to calm his racing heart. Marinette was Ladybug, and while she might want to cuddle Adrien, she didn't necessarily want to do the same with Cat Noir; it would be unfair to take advantage of the situation, even if he was really enjoying being the little spoon.
Adrien took one brief moment to savor the feeling, then slowly began untangling their fingers, trying not to wake Marinette. Unfortunately, as soon as he'd begun lifting her arm, he felt her began to stir behind him. He bit back a sigh; it seemed like he would have to run with the situation after all.
Marinette made a small, questioning humming noise, then froze. "C-c-cat Noir? You're back! To normal, I mean!"
He smiled to himself. "Yeah," he said. "I am. Looks like the cheese wore off overnight after all."
"Oh, good! I should—I should go get some breakfast for you, or—"
"Marinette?"
Her babble cut off. "...Yeah?" she asked quietly.
Adrien took a deep breath. "I'm sure this isn't how you imagined finding out, or telling me—it's certainly nothing like how I pictured it. But before anything else, I really want you to know how happy I am that it's you who's Ladybug; I can't think of anyone I'd rather be my Lady. If anything, it's only made me more certain of how much I love you. And if it's okay with you, I'd really like to take you on a date sometime." He swallowed, and very carefully rolled over to face her. "If you'll have me?"
Marinette gasped, and Adrien watched as her blue eyes widened, her cheeks flooding with the red he hadn't been able to see the night before. "A-a-a-adrien?! But you—and I—and then—!" She slapped her hands over her face. "Dream!" she announced, the words muffled by her palms. "This is a dream and I am dreaming, because reality isn't this good to me."
Adrien stared for a moment, then broke into laughter. "Marinette," he said, "I just spent twelve-plus hours of the past twenty-four as an actual cat. If that's what you call 'reality being good to you', I really don't want to see the opposite!"
Marinette peeked through her fingers at him and stuck out her tongue. "You shut up! I just found out that the guy I fell for and the guy I've been trying to fall for instead of the first guy are, in fact, the same guy."
He made a show of thinking it over. "Okay, I suppose that's fair. After all, just last night I learned that the girl I'm in love with and the girl I've been trying not to fall in love with are the same person, and I have to admit, I'm still not quite over that. In fact, one from two seems too good to be true!"
She glared at him and hit him lightly on the shoulder, cheeks still pink. "Okay, I'm starting to believe now; my fantasies were never this punny." She bit her lip and then added, "By the way, yes."
"Yes?" Adrien asked, confused.
"Yes, I will go out with you." Her cheeks had gone dark again, but she was smiling sweetly at him.
Adrien felt his lips pull into an answering grin. "Yeah?"
She nodded. "Yeah." Marinette bit her lip and glanced shyly at his mouth. "Um..." Slowly, she began to lean towards him.
Adrien's eyes widened. Hesitantly, watching for any sign that she might not want this, he began to lean closer to her as well...
"See? What did I tell you! Everything ended up going for the best, all because you ate the magic cheese instead of me!" An entirely too unwelcome presence announced from just above them. "If it weren't for that, you two would still be going in circles around each other! In fact—"
Adrien glared up at his kwami. "Plagg?"
"Yes?" Plagg asked, faux-sweetly.
"Get lost." Adrien flicked the tiny god of destruction across the room and down to the floor, ignoring his indignant squawk. Then, focusing back on Marinette, he finally, finally, closed the remaining distance between them.
The touch was light at first, just the barest contact, and then grew deeper, Marinette's soft lips moving against his. Adrien felt warmth spreading through him, starting at the places they were touching and moving out to envelop his entire body. He wrapped his arms around Marinette, his fellow superhero and the love of his life, and gasped into her mouth when she embraced him in turn. At last he pulled back, dizzy from lack of air and the taste of her.
"Wow," he said hoarsely.
Marinette licked her lips and he had to suppress a shudder. "Yeah," she agreed. A small crease appeared between her brows, and his heart kicked into a different rhythm.
"What is it?"
"It's just..." Marinette said, looking earnestly into his eyes. "What am I going to tell my mom about the cat?"
Adrien stared at her in silence for a moment, before noticing the twinkle in her eye. Laughing, he leaned in to kiss her again.
--Fin--
Pretty sure the title is going to date me, but I don't care.
Notes later; posting now.
Summary: One night before patrol, Adrien decides he wants to try out one of his other enhanced forms. Unfortunately for him, Plagg isn't interested, and Adrien ends up learning the hard way what effect the enchanted cheese has on humans.
AO3 link: Link is stored over here
Wordcount: 8122
Ships Love Square
Notes: With tremendous thanks to
alexseanchai for beta-reading and cheerleadingFic: Love is Stored in the Cat
Adrien drummed his fingers on his desk as he clicked idly through the Ladyblog. He'd managed to whittle away most of the time before patrol with Ladybug, practicing the piano and finishing his homework, but despite his best efforts, he was still left with half an hour before the earliest he should leave. The last time he'd shown up more than fifteen minutes early, Ladybug had found out and given him the saddest look imaginable, and if there was one thing he wanted to avoid, it was making his Lady sad. It was much better to waste time scrolling through some of Alya's old articles on his partner, seeing if he could gain any new insights into his fellow superhero and the love of his life.
Clicking back a page in the archives brought up an article on their enhanced forms, first seen in the battle against Syren. Alya had written an in-depth analysis of the forms that had been seen so far, followed by speculation on forms they might see in the future. Like all of Alya's articles, it was well thought out and researched, made compelling points, and asked intriguing questions. Adrien's gaze drifted to the drawer where he kept the magic cheese when he was at home, curiosity piqued; he'd been wondering for ages what the rest of them did. Plagg had been less than forthcoming on the subject, for some reason, and Adrien was increasingly eager to learn their effects.
Well. It wasn't like there was much going on, he reasoned, reaching for the drawer. And even if there was an akuma attack that evening, or some other criminal doings, he could always detransform and then transform back into regular Cat Noir if whatever form he got wasn't useful, and it would be good to learn more about his powers. He eyed the kwami dozing in midair next to his computer screen. "Hey, Plagg," he said casually, picking a new color of cheese out of the box. "How about we try something different tonight?"
Plagg's eyes snapped open and narrowed on the cheese in Adrien's hand. "Oh hell no!" In the next instant, the kwami was half-way across the room and glaring balefully at Adrien from behind a lamp.
Adrien leaped out of his chair after Plagg, taking a bit of extra relish in the fact that he didn't have to be quite so careful that evening: During Audrey Bourgeois' akumatization, Gabriel had proven that he was willing to leave the house after all, thus opening him up to more pressure from his company; the trip to London not long after that had been just the beginning. Gabriel had left for Milan that morning, Nathalie in tow. Normally Adrien would still be in the care of the Gorilla, but his bodyguard had a family emergency earlier in the week which he still wasn't back from. It had taken Adrien hours of arguing and a solemn promise that he wouldn't leave the house to convince his father to let him stay home unsupervised, but as he tore through his room after Plagg, he knew it was worth it: Nothing could compare to this sense of freedom.
Vaulting over his couch, Adrien finally managed to corner Plagg. "I've got you now," Adrien said to the kwami, holding up the oddly colored piece of Camembert. "Now open wide and say 'ah'."
Plagg's eyes darted around wildly before he slumped over himself, clearly giving up on escape. "Fine, you win. Now give it here."
Pleased with himself, Adrien held the piece of cheese out between them. "Time for me to find out what this one doe—ulp!"
Adrien stared down at the small black blur that had forced the cheese into his mouth; Plagg smiled wickedly back. "Let's see how you like it!" he taunted, holding Adrien's mouth closed around the piece of enchanted Camembert.
Adrien made a face and chewed reluctantly. "I still don't know how you eat so much of this," he complained, words muffled by the cheese. "I can't get past the smell."
Plagg sniffed haughtily. "Even when you're transformed, your nose can't possibly pick up all the complexities that make the aroma of Camembert so decadent, so truly mouth-watering."
"I'm sure," Adrien said dryly, and swallowed. "Fine, I won't try to make you eat transformation cheese again unless we need to."
"Good," said Plagg. "Now, go fetch me some real Camembert; I need something to bolster my spirits after what you put me through!"
That was fair enough, Adrien supposed, and he turned to walk to the cabinet where he kept Plagg's stash of non-magical cheese. He'd taken only two steps when a wave of dizziness washed over him. Adrien stopped for a moment, waiting for the sensation to pass, only to find the ground rushing up at him. Certain he was falling, he threw out his arms to catch himself, but the feeling persisted after he'd landed on all fours. He clenched his eyes shut and sucked in air through his mouth, hoping to fight off the feeling long enough to call for help; moments later, though, the sensation stopped.
Peeling his eyes open slowly, Adrien took a moment to stretch out, first his arms and shoulders, then his legs and lower back, and finally an odd extra stretching sensation farther behind him that he usually didn't get when he wasn't in costume. He followed this up with a surprisingly luxurious full body shake. Coming to a seated position at last, he raised a hand to smooth his hair back into place, then stopped when he brought it to his mouth to lick it.
Adrien's eyes crossed as he looked at the black, furry paw in front of his nose. Experimentally, he flexed his fingers; a set of claws extended from the toes of the paw in unison with the movement. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the black fur extended all the way down his back, and continued to the end of a long, sinuous tail. A glance around the room showed that, even accounting for sitting on the floor, all of the furniture was a lot taller than it should have been. "Um, Plagg?" he said—or rather, tried to say; what came out instead was a plaintive, "Mrrrrhaa?"
"Whaaaat," the kwami whined, not seeming to notice the aural discrepancy.
Then, a moment later, "...Oh. Oops."
-----
A cat. An actual cat. That damned cheese Plagg had tricked him into eating had turned him into an actual, furry, four-legged cat!
"I don't see what you're so upset about," Plagg said, floating along beside Adrien as he scrambled his way up the side of a building.
"Mrrrrh," Adrien growled as he finally managed to swing his lower legs up the side of a fire escape. He didn't bother to try and think of a French translation for the feline curse; he could tell it was insulting, and right now that was enough.
"Seriously!" Plagg continued. "You're much cuter this way. I'll bet Ladybug won't be able to resist petting you!"
Adrien nearly missed a step at that comment. With a glare at his kwami, he bounded up the last set of stairs to the roof where he was supposed to meet Ladybug that night. There, silhouetted against the sky, was a figure in pigtails and a black-spotted uniform.
"Where is he," he heard Ladybug mutter. "It isn't like him to be late to patrol. Too early, yes, but late?"
Adrien suppressed a wince. While he'd left the house shortly after being transformed, the journey had taken him much longer on four legs than his more usual super-enhanced two, and now he was nearly five minutes late. Trotting up to Ladybug, he rubbed up against her legs in apology. "Mrrow," he said. Sorry I'm late!
Ladybug crouched down to look at him more closely. He drank in her scent, fascinated by the depth of it and the new elements he could pick up in it; his sense of smell was better as Cat Noir than as a human, but it paled in comparison next to being an actual cat. The overtones of yeast and pastries were familiar, as were the bitter and floral notes, but the slightly fruity undertones—possibly her shampoo?—were completely new to him. "Hello there, kitty," Ladybug said, holding out her hand; Adrien bumped his head against it enthusiastically, and purred up a storm when she started to rub his ears. That felt amazing! Ladybug giggled. "I don't suppose you know where the real Cat Noir got to?" she asked.
Adrien ducked out from under her hand regretfully and planted his front paws on one of her knees to bring his face up to her eye level. "Myah!" he announced. It's me! He resisted the urge to bump his face against hers; she wasn't actually his, no matter how much he might want her to be.
"About that," Plagg said, startling both of them. Ladybug jolted to her feet, and Adrien had to scramble to keep from falling over.
"Plagg?" she asked. "Why are you here? Where's Cat Noir? Is he okay? Is he hurt?"
"Ah, no, no, nothing like that," Plagg reassured her. "It's a funny story, really. See, that black cat you were just petting? That's him."
Ladybug looked incredulously from Plagg to Adrien and back again; Adrien straightened up and tried to look as heroic as possible. "You're kidding," Ladybug said.
Adrien slumped, and Plagg shook his head. "I'm afraid not."
"But he's not supposed to be an actual cat!" Ladybug protested. "How did this happen?"
"Well, you know the special food Master Fu gave us for the enhanced transformations?"
"Yes..."
"My boy got it into his head that he wanted to try one for himself." Plagg sighed and shook his head. "I tried to warn him what would happen, but he just wouldn't listen to reason!"
Adrien stared at Plagg, outraged. That little—!
"Really," Plagg continued, "we're just lucky he didn't try this earlier. As it is, you should be thankful I managed to talk him down from eating all of them!"
Adrien began to growl low in his throat and sunk down on his haunches, flicking his ears back. Plagg was going to get it for this!
"What on earth am I supposed to do about this, though?" Ladybug asked incredulously as Adrien started sizing up Plagg for a pounce. "We can't go on patrol like this! Especially not Cat!"
"Yeah, that's a real bummer, isn't it," Plagg said in a bored tone. Adrien crouched low, shifting his weight on his back legs to make sure he was lined up just right. "Luckily, I happen to know from prior experience that the transformation wears off of humans pretty quick. He should be back to his usual shape in less than a day."
Adrien paused; this was new information, possibly even useful information, which tended to be difficult to get out of Plagg. Maybe he'd postpone his revenge until Plagg was finished talking.
"In the meantime," Plagg continued, looking Adrien directly in the eye with a smirk, "you should probably take him home with you to keep him out of trouble."
...Okay, maybe Adrien could forgive Plagg for tricking him into eating that cheese. And embarrassing him in front of Ladybug. Really, the truth didn't make him look that much better than Plagg's lie anyway.
Ladybug frowned. "I don't know," she said. "Are you sure I couldn't just drop him off with someone else? I mean, I obviously can't take him to his own home, but..."
"Well, everyone at his house is gone for the weekend except him, so you could probably let him go back there. But are you sure you want to leave him alone that long?"
Plagg probably meant that differently than Ladybug took it, because she was staring at Adrien with that impossibly sad look on her face again. Adrien's heart lurched, and he immediately started rubbing back up against her legs, purring as hard as he could. Don't be sad! I'm used to being on my own, and I can take care of myself; I'll be okay.
Plagg flew up by Ladybug's shoulder, speaking both more quietly and more seriously than Adrien was used to. "His identity is going to come out when he transforms back into a human one way or another, so you can't leave him with a civilian. If you leave him with a different hero, you'll also expose their secret identity—except Queen Bee, and I don't think that would go down very well. At least you're someone he wants to share his identity with."
Ladybug's expression firmed into something more determined, and she nodded. "You're right," she told Plagg. "Taking him home with me is the best option." She sighed and smiled ruefully. "Well, I don't think we're going to be getting patrol done tonight, Kitty," she said to Adrien. She took a knee and held out her arms for him to climb up. "Want to help me defeat my homework instead?"
With a "Prrp!" noise of affirmation, Adrien bounded as carefully as he could up her arms and flopped over her shoulders. She giggled when he nosed her ear and carefully twined her fingers with the tip of his tail.
Smiling at him, Ladybug pulled out her yoyo. "Hold on tight, Cat!"
-----
Adrien would be forever grateful that Ladybug's destination was only a few blocks away from their meeting place; hanging onto her while she traversed the skyline may have been a fantasy for him as a human, but as a cat, it wasn't an experience he cared to repeat. He'd managed to hold onto her without digging his claws into more than her suit, but even with Ladybug clearly taking as easy a route as possible, it had not been a pleasant ride.
Plagg agreed wholeheartedly. "What the hell was that!" He yelped once Ladybug had landed. "I barely had time to grab onto you before you took off!"
Ladybug, who had been busy soothing an understandably rumpled Adrien, looked sidelong at the kwami. "Funny, I happen to remember you keeping up just fine during the Style Queen incident," she remarked. Ignoring Plagg's outraged squawk, she looked back at Adrien, her expression turning anxious. "I suppose it's now or never," she said with a sigh. "Tikki? Spots off."
With a rush of light and sparkles, Ladybug's costume melted away, leaving Adrien cradled in the arms of his cute, shy classmate, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Adrien's eyes went wide; carefully, he reached out a paw to pat her cheek. Marinette's nose scrunched up cutely and she redirected his paw back to him. "Yes, it's really me, Cat," she informed him, a touch ruefully.
Adrien felt a little silly; hadn't he just seen her detransform? Still, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling her scent; he wanted this to be true so badly. He'd daydreamed from time to time about which of his classmates was the most likely to secretly be Ladybug, and Marinette had always been one of the closest fits, as far as he was concerned. He'd even allowed himself to imagine she really was his partner a time or two, down to entertaining thoughts of winning her over outside the mask; Marinette was very cute, and a force to be reckoned with besides. For her to actually be his Lady...
There it was: the mingled scent of pastries and yeast that he'd occasionally caught whiffs of when they were working together, and which he'd gotten a good lungful of when he'd first met with her earlier that evening, the fruity undertones stronger than before. Definitely her shampoo, he decided. The slightly bitter, floral overtones he usually picked up around her, however, were... Not gone, exactly, but seemed to have concentrated and relocated slightly to Marinette's left. He opened his eyes and looked in that direction to see a kwami with black spots and bright blue eyes floating over Marinette's other shoulder.
Ladybug's kwami covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh, no!" she squeaked.
"I'm afraid so," Plagg said, floating into view himself. "Why do I always get the dumb ones?"
Adrien flattened his ears back and aimed a swipe at his kwami. Not to hit, just to express his annoyance. Evidently Plagg didn't think that the five centimeters Adrien's claws missed by were enough, because he darted behind the other kwami for protection. "Hey, I'm not the one who tried to make me transform!"
"So you made him eat the food instead of telling him that you don't like transforming that way?" Ladybug's kwami guessed.
"Well..." Plagg said, looking awfully squirrely for a vaguely cat-shaped god of destruction.
"Mrrrrh," Adrien growled again, eyes narrowed.
"He did say that this should wear off in less than a day," Marinette said, angling a critical look at Plagg, "but he also said that Cat Noir ate the enchanted cheese on his own, so I'm not sure how much I believe right now."
Her kwami sighed. "As long as Cat Noir only ate one piece, the transformation should wear off on its own before tomorrow night. If it takes longer than that, we'll have to take him to Master Fu." She floated over to look Adrien in the face and smiled. "It's nice to finally meet you, Cat Noir, though I'm sorry for the circumstances," she said. "My name's Tikki; I'm pretty sure you remember Marinette."
Adrien nodded and nuzzled against her shoulder with a purr, making Marinette blush. "Anyway!" Marinette said, somewhat shrilly. "If he's going to be staying with me until he turns back, then I should probably get him inside, right? Right!" She blew out a sigh and rubbed her eyes with her free hand. "Right," she said again. "Tikki? Purse time."
"Good luck, Marinette!" Tikki said, then grabbed Plagg and dragged her fellow kwami into the purse hanging at Marinette's side.
Marinette took a moment to boost Adrien up onto her shoulder, then slipped through the back door of the bakery and tiptoed up the stairs to her family's apartments above. Closing the door behind herself, she let out a breath that ruffled Adrien's fur.
"Marinette? You're home early," came Sabine's voice, and Marinette went instantly stiff. "I thought you were going out with a friend."
Adrien leaned into Marinette as she turned slowly to face her mother. "Ah, well, about that," she said. "See, my friend? He had an emergency, so he had to cancel. And it was a family emergency, so he's also leaving town for a couple of days? And he doesn't know anyone else here really well, so he asked me to watch his cat for him while he's gone!" she finished in a rush.
Sabine looked alarmed. "A cat? Marinette—"
"I know we said no pets that don't stay in enclosures, but I promise it's only for one or two days at most! He's really well behaved and will stay in my room the entire time!" Marinette said hurriedly. "I'm sorry I said I would do this without asking, but he didn't have time to ask anyone else, and he won't be any trouble, I swear!"
"...Very well," Sabine said at last. "But he really does need to stay in your room for sanitation reasons, and I want you to be sure to ask us first the next time something like this comes up. We might be able to make other arrangements."
Adrien felt Marinette relax, watching as her anxious expression softened into a relieved smile. "I will, I promise; I would have this time if it wasn't such short notice, or if he knew anyone else who could take care of his cat."
Sabine smiled back at her. "He is quite cute; I see why you were inclined to say yes." She reached out a hand towards Adrien and began scratching behind his ears when he didn't reject it. "By the way, what's his name?"
"Cat Noir," Marinette replied automatically, and Adrien felt his soul leave his body. Tilting his head back up to look at Marinette, he saw that her smile had gone rigid and there was a hint of panic in her eyes.
Sabine chuckled, apparently not noticing her daughter's discomfort. "I see your friend is a fan of our local superheroes, then!" she remarked, giving Adrien one last skritch.
"Hahaha, yeah," Marinette said in strangled tones. "I think that was it. Anyway, I'd better get him up to my room like we discussed!"
"Yes, I think that would be a good idea," Sabine agreed. "I'll explain the situation to your father. You go get this boy settled in."
"Thanks, Mom; you're the best." Marinette leaned over to kiss her mother on the cheek, then resettled Adrien and hurried up the stairs to her room. Closing the door behind them, she slumped down to sit on the floor, cradling Adrien in her lap. "Ugh, I hate lying to my parents," she groaned. "I mean, I know I have to, but it still sucks! And I still have to come up with some excuse about supplies, because she definitely didn't see me carrying in a litter pan right now." She craned her head back to look at Adrien. "Have you eaten dinner yet, or do I need to sneak you up something?" A pause. "And what am I supposed to feed you, anyway? I don't want to give you cat food, but I'm pretty sure pastries would make you sick like this."
Adrien sat up on her lap and shook his head. "Myahn!" he told her.
"He says he's fine," Plagg translated. "I wouldn't be too sure, though; transforming takes a lot of energy—I should know! You really should get him a lot of cheese to eat, just in case. Camembert would be best, if you have it."
"Plagg!" Tikki scolded, crossing her tiny arms. She looked over at Marinette and Adrien. "I'm sorry, Marinette; Plagg's spent too much time with Trixx over the years. Since it's only a temporary transformation, Cat Noir should be fine to eat anything that's not actually toxic to cats; no garlic or lilies, and no chocolate, but most other pastries should be fine. He won't be able to digest most sugars like this, but it shouldn't hurt him."
"He should be able to use a human toilet, too," Plagg added, apparently deciding to be helpful after all. "Some humans apparently train real cats to do that, and while I think it's a stupid idea for actual felines, a human that's temporarily a cat should have no problem with it."
Marinette smiled and petted Adrien's ears. "Well, that's something, at least." Shooing Adrien gently off her lap, she got to her feet. "I'm going to go get some food for later, just in case. Feel free to have a look around; you already saw most of my room when Troublemaker crashed through."
Adrien waited politely until the door clicked shut behind Marinette, then turned to survey her room. It looked fairly similar to the last time he'd seen it, though not being able to see pinks or reds at the moment threw the color scheme off a bit. There was something else different about it, though, that he couldn't quite put a finger on, and not for the obvious reason. It came to him while he examined the walls: Most of the pictures of him were gone. A fair number of them had been replaced by posters of Jagged Stone or Clara Nightingale, or pictures of her with her friends (some of them, yes, including him), but there were also blank spots on the walls that he'd remembered being covered before.
Adrien's tail lashed, partly from confusion and partly from worry for his Lady. He hoped she hadn't been too embarrassed to keep all of his pictures up after the Fill My Shoes episode, or that she hadn't been bullied by anyone who'd seen her room on the show. A small, selfish part of him he hadn't been entirely aware of until then was also disappointed. With a thread of guilt, he realized he'd been hoping all her pictures of him meant that he was the mystery guy that Ladybug had a crush on; but Marinette was a fan of his father's work, that was all. She must have originally put up so many pictures of him rather than other models to show support as a friend.
Shaking off his disappointment, Adrien decided to go explore Marinette's desk. She'd mentioned still needing to finish her homework, and if it was there, he might be able to figure out what she needed help with, and how to help her. In two quick jumps, Adrien made it from the floor to her chair and then to her desktop. About to look around for her school books, his attention was caught by an oddly shaped scrapbook that Marinette had left in the center of her design space. She must have been working on it before heading to patrol, he realized. Curious, Adrien padded over her desk to examine it; Marinette was such a creative person, he loved to see her work whenever he got the chance. Gently, he nosed the teardrop-shaped cover of the scrapbook open to the first slightly lumpy page.
The scrapbook fell open into a heart shape, and Adrien's eyes went wide at its contents: There on the first page were pictures of him. Some of them were candid photos, some were from magazines, and some were even cut from the posters that were missing from Marinette's walls. They were surrounded by strategically placed puffy heart stickers and cute gel-pen doodles. Pulse thudding in his veins, Adrien very carefully pushed the next page over. He was greeted again by a smiling picture of himself, cut into a heart shape; below the photo was a replica of the lucky charm he'd made for her birthday, the string drawn in marker and the beads made from colorful scraps of cloth. On the page opposite it, he found the Valentine's Day poem he'd written to Ladybug so long ago, which he'd gotten a mysterious reply to after he'd sworn he'd thrown it out. The paper had been smoothed out, but the creases left behind were a testament to his memory. This was... Could it be...?
One more page, he decided, fumbling slightly with the paper under his paws. Here was another cutout of his face, but on the opposite page was one of Marinette. The photos were arranged so they looked like they were smiling at each other, and instead of whatever clothing they'd been wearing in the pictures, Marinette had also drawn them new outfits: With a start, Adrien realized that she'd dressed them for a wedding, both his tux and her gown her own designs. She'd even attached an extra scrap of paper between the two pages so her drawings could 'hold hands'.
"Eep!" Adrien's head snapped up from the scrapbook to see Marinette in the doorway; her cheeks had gone dark, and she was struggling to keep from dropping the plate of food she held.
"Marinette!" Tikki cried, and zipped over from where she'd been arguing with Plagg to help the girl steady the plate.
"Thanks, Tikki," Marinette said when she had control of the plate again. She sighed and walked over to her desk, setting the dish of cheese, croissants, cookies, and one chicken cutlet on the other side of her scrapbook. "I guess you've figured it out, then," she said somewhat ruefully.
"Mrrow?" Adrien tried. He was pretty sure he had, but he still wanted to hear it from her.
Marinette sat down and traced the outline of Adrien's picture with one finger. "That's him; the guy I have a crush on." She looked sidelong at the cat-shaped boy beside her, as if daring him to judge her. "I know he's a famous model and all, but that's not why I like him. Sure, I saw him in Gabriel ads all the time, but I didn't really notice him until he started going to my school. He turned out to be really nice, and smart, and funny, and especially kind. I've been trying to get him to notice me for ages, but I just keep... screwing it up! I've written him notes, I've made him presents, I've even tried to ask him out a few times, but every single thing I try just ends up going wrong somehow." She huffed out a breath, blowing her bangs off of her forehead, completely unaware that she had just thrown Adrien's entire world view out of balance.
"I've even tried giving up on him once or twice," she confessed, and Adrien's heart lurched painfully. "I thought, maybe if I stopped noticing him, I might finally start to notice this other guy I know who's sweet and smart and kind and funny; someone who I already know likes me, who supports me and protects me, and who I really do want to be happy, even if it might be dangerous for us to be together." She glanced meaningfully at Adrien, whose heart was now doing a fair impression of a tango, then looked back at the scrapbook. "Once I even did it by accident! He turned me down really nicely then, and I can't really fault him for that. And every other time, Adrien would end up doing something so amazing that I would fall in love all over again. So I'm stuck in limbo."
Adrien couldn't help it anymore; he crossed the desk in front of her and started rubbing against every part of her he could reach, purring as loudly as he could. He would have given almost anything in that moment to be able to tell Marinette who he was, that she didn't need to give up on him and had no reason to be sad—and never would again, if he could possibly help it. He was stuck as a cat, though, and until he changed back, he would have to do the best he could as he was.
Marinette pulled him close and buried her face in his fur. "I'm sorry about that," she murmured. "It really wasn't fair of me to dump all of that on you, especially considering, well." Adrien rubbed his cheek against her hair, no longer caring about propriety, and tried to purr even harder to let her know it was okay. Hadn't she as good as said she wanted to be his, anyway?
"Okay, enough of that nonsense," Marinette said, sounding more herself. He bumped his head against hers when she pulled back and she giggled, sparing a moment to scratch under Adrien's chin before closing the scrapbook and pushing it away. "I've got homework that needs finishing."
"About time!" Plagg complained from over her shoulder, thoroughly dashing the mood. "All that mushy junk was ruining my appetite! I thought I'd finally get a break from it with my boy stuck like this, and then you have to start in on it? Ugh!"
That was it. Growling low in his throat, Adrien bunched up his legs and took aim. When Plagg began to extol the virtues of cheese and its infinite superiority to romance, he pounced. Plagg darted out of the way at the last moment, just barely missing being caught by Adrien's claws. "Hey!" he protested. "Watch it!" Adrien was in no way finished, though; as soon as Plagg had settled somewhere, Adrien pounced again. His not-quite-unfamiliar feline instincts took charge while he chased the small, black, furry kwami around Marinette's room, bouncing off of walls and repelling from shelves, ignoring the crashes sounding around him.
He almost had the kwami cornered when he was unceremoniously scooped up by Marinette. "If this is what you call 'no trouble at all', I really don't want to see what a busy evening looks like for you," she said, turning him to look him in the eye. Adrien looked guiltily to the side—only to see Plagg stick his tongue out in triumph. Adrien glared at the kwami, but didn't struggle when Marinette swept him in close. "Come on; I've got some algebra that needs defeating."
-----
Several hours later, all of the food was gone and most of Marinette's homework was finished. Adrien had eaten all of the chicken and half a croissant; the former had tasted better than the latter in his current shape, but the softness of the bread and its yeasty flavor had definite appeal. He'd also managed to point Marinette in the correct direction for several of her physics problems, though she'd raced ahead of him when it came time for history, and they'd both struggled with math. Now she was working on designs with a Jagged Stone CD playing in the background, occasionally tossing the balled-up paper of a rejected design at Adrien for him to bat around the desk.
Adrien was currently flopped over next to Marinette, listening to her hum and waiting for the next paper ball. Tikki and Plagg had retreated somewhere into her shelves and were talking quietly amongst themselves, seeming to have worked out whatever differences they'd had. Adrien was glad; he loved Plagg, and he knew the kwami felt the same way towards him, but he also knew how lonely it could be with only one person to really talk to. Furthermore, Plagg and Tikki were literally two halves of a whole, two interlocking and complimentary concepts; even when they were arguing, he could tell that Plagg was happy to see Tikki again.
Adrien was beginning to doze off when Marinette pushed back in her chair and stretched. "I'm going to get a drink of water and take care of the dishes; do you want anything, Cat?" Adrien thought about it, and shook his head; he was fine. Marinette nodded and left the room.
Adrien watched her go, then turned back to the desk and pawed at one of the paper balls. It was really nice to spend time with Marinette like this; it was even nicer to imagine doing so in the future, when he was back to his normal shape. Since seeing the scrapbook she'd made, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't hoping that some of the time they spent together might be on dates. Even if romance didn't end up working out between them, though, he was looking forward to hanging out as friends: Talking, doing homework, watching movies or playing video games. He could take her through some more fencing basics, teach her a bit more Mandarin, and she might be willing to show him how to bake. Really, he thought, any time spent with Marinette would be a gift.
Adrien's daydreams were interrupted by Marinette re-entering her room with a yawn. "Okay, back to work!" she announced, sitting back down and taking a moment to rub under Adrien's chin.
Tikki floated into view. "Marinette, it's getting awfully late. Don't you think you should be getting to bed?"
Marinette stifled another yawn. "What? But it's barely eleven!"
Adrien couldn't see Tikki's face from where he was laying, but he could easily imagine her worried expression. "Marinette, you need your rest! It's not healthy to keep missing so much sleep, and I know you wanted to hang out with Alya and the girls this weekend. You'll make yourself sick!"
"I'll be fine, Tikki," Marinette responded, a bit shortly. "I'll just be up another thirty minutes, an hour at most."
Well, Adrien thought, hadn't Marinette been taking care of him all evening? And now there was something he could help her with. Rolling to his feet, Adrien took a moment to stretch, then padded over to Marinette and sat down right on her notebook.
Marinette's brows creased. "Cat? What are you doing?" She prodded him gently with the eraser-end of her pencil.
Adrien didn't budge. "Myahn!" he announced. I'm not moving. Marinette poked him again, but he just settled more firmly in position and stared at her.
Marinette scowled. "Fine, then." With a huff, she started trying to sketch something in the corner of a page.
Adrien tracked her pencil, eyes narrowed; this was not on. Swiftly, taking care to keep his claws in, he batted the pencil out of her hand and onto the floor.
"Hey! Cat!" Marinette objected. "Not cool." With a glare, she scooped the pencil up and got back to trying to draw.
Adrien batted the pencil away again. "Mrah." Bed time. Marinette needed sleep, and if Adrien had to destroy every pen, pencil, or marker on her desk to make it happen, he would. He'd buy her replacements once he turned back—and after she'd gotten some sleep.
Marinette glared at him and her kwami. "You're ganging up on me; I never should have introduced you two."
Adrien shared a smug look with Tikki, who giggled.
"Give it up, kid," Plagg advised, floating languidly into view. "She can be ridiculously stubborn when it comes to taking care of the people she loves, and he can be just as bad when he gets an idea into his head. It's half the reason we're in this mess in the first place. You're better off going to bed than trying to fight both of them at once."
Marinette turned her glare on Plagg. "You, too, huh? Fine." With a huff, she started collecting her pencils.
Pleased, Adrien stood up and managed to paw her notebook closed—then sat back down on it until Marinette had put away all of her drawing supplies.
Marinette rolled her eyes as she shooed him off of the notebook. "You already won, Cat; you don't need to do that." With everything put away, she looked around the room. "Okay, we should figure out sleeping arrangements. Tikki, how likely is it that Cat Noir will change back to himself overnight?"
The kwami looked thoughtful. "I'm not sure. My ladybugs don't usually do things like this, and I don't tend to be around when Plagg's cats do. Plagg, do you know?"
Plagg shrugged. "Call it fifty-fifty; he's still young, so his metabolism should be working through the cheese pretty fast. It wouldn't hurt to be prepared."
Marinette went abruptly Ladybug-colored. "...Is he going to have clothes when he changes back?"
There was a full second of silence before Plagg let out an absolutely ear-splitting guffaw. "Bahahahaha! Naked cat! In his birthday suit! Pfft, and wouldn't it just serve him right!"
Adrien crouched down and covered his face with his paws. Of all the things he didn't want to deal with right now!
"Plagg, keep it down! My parents are already in bed; they have to be up early in the morning to get the bread started!" She shot a glance at a trunk on one side of her room, her blush subsiding slightly. "I was serious about that, too; if he's going to need clothes, I have some stuff that might fit him. Unless he's going to suit up in the nude as soon as he changes back?" she challenged.
Plagg at least stopped laughing at that, though it did little enough for Adrien's state of mind. His modeling career had somewhat immunized him to being undressed in front of other people, but none of them were his Lady, and he usually at least had underwear on to preserve his modesty. Although, Marinette was a designer, and a talented one at that; if she ever designed something for him (formally, that is, and with a bit more coverage than a hat), did that mean that...?
One nice thing about being an actual cat, Adrien decided, was that no one could tell when you were blushing.
-----
Thankfully, the clothing thing was quickly resolved. Plagg and Tikki had both confirmed that, since Adrien had been dressed when he'd eaten the cheese, his clothes should have been included in the transformation. He spent a moment to be grateful that, without his father or Nathalie around to police his sartorial choices, he'd been wearing his most comfortable clothes that evening; he didn't like the idea of waking up to wearing jeans. Meanwhile, Marinette had changed in the bathroom into a set of pyjamas that Adrien recognized from the Gorizilla incident, and they looked even cuter on her than he'd remembered—though maybe he was only allowing himself to finally realize how cute they'd been on her in the first place, since it didn't count as "cheating" on Ladybug if she was Ladybug.
The conclusion of the clothing dilemma had, unfortunately, given rise to a new issue.
"Cat Noir, I have told you three times now; I will be fine on the floor! You should take the bed."
Adrien narrowed his eyes and sunk his claws deeper into the pillow that, along with a pile of blankets, Marinette had dumped on the floor with the intent to sleep on. He growled low in his throat when Marinette started reaching for him, only stopping when she pulled her hand back.
"You're impossible!" she announced, throwing up her hands in defeat. "I told you, the chaise lounge is terrible to sleep on, and I am not making a guest sleep on the floor. Therefore, you get the bed."
Adrien pinned his ears back and lashed his tail, also managing to impose human social knowledge on his feline instincts and shake his head.
Marinette crossed her arms. "Fine; then what do you propose we do?"
Adrien instantly relaxed. Sitting back up, he looked from Marinette to her loft bed and back again with a soft chirruping noise. He then nosed into the pile of blankets in front of him, purring up a storm. (They smelled like Marinette; it was possible he was in heaven.)
"I told you already, that's not happening!"
"You know," Tikki said, interrupting before round four of the argument could start in earnest, "you could probably share the bed."
Both Adrien and Marinette froze; Adrien turned his gaze to Tikki, his ears pricking in interest.
"There's no guarantee that Cat Noir will change back before morning, after all," Tikki continued, looking from one to the other. "And there should be plenty of room for both of you, even if he does. All you need to do is make sure he has his own blanket, and you should be fine."
Adrien turned back to Marinette, tilting his head in interest. Marinette met his eyes for a moment, color high in her cheeks, before she looked away. "I suppose that could work..." she mumbled.
Adrien got to his feet and began dragging one of the blankets over to the stairs to Marinette's loft bed, making sure to look directly at her every few seconds while he did it. With a sigh, Marinette got to her feet. Throwing the blanket over one shoulder, she picked up Adrien with the other arm and held him close to her chest. "Fine," she told him. "But you'd better not snore."
Adrien only purred in response.
-----
He woke slowly the next morning, sun shining down on his face from the skylight above. He was warm and comfortable, surrounded by the scents of baking bread and pastries with a hint of floral undertones. Bit by bit, he became aware of someone cuddled up to his back, an arm thrown over his chest.
Marinette, he thought sleepily, a small smile curling his lips. Then, considerably more awake, Ladybug!
He stared at the arm looped around him, noticing belatedly both that he was back in his human shape, and that sometime in the night, he'd woven his fingers between hers. Adrien swallowed hard, trying to calm his racing heart. Marinette was Ladybug, and while she might want to cuddle Adrien, she didn't necessarily want to do the same with Cat Noir; it would be unfair to take advantage of the situation, even if he was really enjoying being the little spoon.
Adrien took one brief moment to savor the feeling, then slowly began untangling their fingers, trying not to wake Marinette. Unfortunately, as soon as he'd begun lifting her arm, he felt her began to stir behind him. He bit back a sigh; it seemed like he would have to run with the situation after all.
Marinette made a small, questioning humming noise, then froze. "C-c-cat Noir? You're back! To normal, I mean!"
He smiled to himself. "Yeah," he said. "I am. Looks like the cheese wore off overnight after all."
"Oh, good! I should—I should go get some breakfast for you, or—"
"Marinette?"
Her babble cut off. "...Yeah?" she asked quietly.
Adrien took a deep breath. "I'm sure this isn't how you imagined finding out, or telling me—it's certainly nothing like how I pictured it. But before anything else, I really want you to know how happy I am that it's you who's Ladybug; I can't think of anyone I'd rather be my Lady. If anything, it's only made me more certain of how much I love you. And if it's okay with you, I'd really like to take you on a date sometime." He swallowed, and very carefully rolled over to face her. "If you'll have me?"
Marinette gasped, and Adrien watched as her blue eyes widened, her cheeks flooding with the red he hadn't been able to see the night before. "A-a-a-adrien?! But you—and I—and then—!" She slapped her hands over her face. "Dream!" she announced, the words muffled by her palms. "This is a dream and I am dreaming, because reality isn't this good to me."
Adrien stared for a moment, then broke into laughter. "Marinette," he said, "I just spent twelve-plus hours of the past twenty-four as an actual cat. If that's what you call 'reality being good to you', I really don't want to see the opposite!"
Marinette peeked through her fingers at him and stuck out her tongue. "You shut up! I just found out that the guy I fell for and the guy I've been trying to fall for instead of the first guy are, in fact, the same guy."
He made a show of thinking it over. "Okay, I suppose that's fair. After all, just last night I learned that the girl I'm in love with and the girl I've been trying not to fall in love with are the same person, and I have to admit, I'm still not quite over that. In fact, one from two seems too good to be true!"
She glared at him and hit him lightly on the shoulder, cheeks still pink. "Okay, I'm starting to believe now; my fantasies were never this punny." She bit her lip and then added, "By the way, yes."
"Yes?" Adrien asked, confused.
"Yes, I will go out with you." Her cheeks had gone dark again, but she was smiling sweetly at him.
Adrien felt his lips pull into an answering grin. "Yeah?"
She nodded. "Yeah." Marinette bit her lip and glanced shyly at his mouth. "Um..." Slowly, she began to lean towards him.
Adrien's eyes widened. Hesitantly, watching for any sign that she might not want this, he began to lean closer to her as well...
"See? What did I tell you! Everything ended up going for the best, all because you ate the magic cheese instead of me!" An entirely too unwelcome presence announced from just above them. "If it weren't for that, you two would still be going in circles around each other! In fact—"
Adrien glared up at his kwami. "Plagg?"
"Yes?" Plagg asked, faux-sweetly.
"Get lost." Adrien flicked the tiny god of destruction across the room and down to the floor, ignoring his indignant squawk. Then, focusing back on Marinette, he finally, finally, closed the remaining distance between them.
The touch was light at first, just the barest contact, and then grew deeper, Marinette's soft lips moving against his. Adrien felt warmth spreading through him, starting at the places they were touching and moving out to envelop his entire body. He wrapped his arms around Marinette, his fellow superhero and the love of his life, and gasped into her mouth when she embraced him in turn. At last he pulled back, dizzy from lack of air and the taste of her.
"Wow," he said hoarsely.
Marinette licked her lips and he had to suppress a shudder. "Yeah," she agreed. A small crease appeared between her brows, and his heart kicked into a different rhythm.
"What is it?"
"It's just..." Marinette said, looking earnestly into his eyes. "What am I going to tell my mom about the cat?"
Adrien stared at her in silence for a moment, before noticing the twinkle in her eye. Laughing, he leaned in to kiss her again.
--Fin--
Pretty sure the title is going to date me, but I don't care.
Notes later; posting now.
