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chelseaapproved · 6 years

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I’ll Sing a Song Beside You- 13

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Chapter 13

He’s groggy when he wakes up, confused and off-kiltered. He immediately realizes that he’s not in his room, which throws him off a bit until he recognizes the smell. It smells like cookies and floral shampoo and home. Sighing, he stuffs his face into Marinette’s pillow, content to drift back to sleep. He doesn’t know how he got here but he’s assuming it has to do with an Akuma, and his consciousness means Ladybug defeated it already.

“I’m all for a good cat nap but I’m pretty sure you’re needed at a shoot,” Plagg says.

“Go away,” he counters, snuggling further into his girlfriend’s bed. “Wait, Plagg? What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean what am I doing here? I go everywhere you go.”

“Yeah,” he says, slowly sitting up, “but if you’re here, that means I’m—” Adrien looks down to find his two tan hands, gloveless and bare.

He yelps and scrambles to pull the covers up, as though his whole body were naked.

“Why am I Adrien?”

“Did the Akuma do something else to you? You’re not usually this slow. You’re always Adrien.”

“Yes, no, I’m aware of who I am. But why am I in Marinette’s bed as Adrien? What happened?”

“You got knocked out by a knitting needle,” Plagg says, flat. “Real heroic. And you only had a minute before the transformation would wear off so Ladybug brought you here.”

“Oh,” he says. He can kind of remember what happened before getting hit. It’s a little embarrassing that he was so easily taken out by an old lady with yarn and needle but if that’s the worst thing that happened during the fight then he’ll take it. “Did she, um, see who I am?”

Plagg holds silent, probably to be dramatic, before finally saying, “No idea. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“What do you mean you weren’t paying attention? You were right there!”

“So were you.”

“I was knocked out.”

“And I had cheese. We were both preoccupied.”

Adrien glares at his kwami for a solid 20 seconds before calling on his transformation. He’s needed at a shoot on the other side of the city and does not have time to fret about his identity.

So naturally, that’s all he does the entire shoot.

Right now he feels there’s a solid 50/50 chance Marinette saw his identity. He hasn’t been able to check his phone to see if she tried contacting him but even if there’s nothing there, that’s no indication of whether she knows or not. He needed quite some time to digest her reveal and he’s assuming it’ll take just as long for her, if not even longer.

He knows he was Adrien when he woke up but she might have dumped him and ran, meaning she wouldn’t have seen. The fact that he was in her room instead of his own definitely supports that theory. In fact, the more he thinks about it, the more it makes sense that she doesn’t know who he is. The only thing keeping him from writing the whole thing off is this nagging feeling in the back of his head.

By the time he’s finished, Adrien has a pounding headache and exactly 0 messages from his girlfriend. Tomorrow, at least, he’ll get his answers.

Or not.

He gets to school early; on the off chance Marinette actually makes it to school before the bell, he’s hoping they could talk.

He spends the next twenty minutes coming up with different conversation starters and reasons why he’s standing in front of her locker but he doesn’t come up with anything good. If she knows about him, he doesn’t need to do much but if she doesn’t then he needs a better excuse than, “you have a pretty cool locker.”

It winds up being all for moot when the warning bell rings with no sign of Mari. Disappointed, he reluctantly makes his way to class. Only to see Marinette sitting at her desk already. The moment their eyes meet, Marinette blushes and starts whispering to Alya.

That’s...certainly a reaction. But he can’t really say whether it’s because she knows or not because Marinette always acts weird around him.

He slips into his seat, once again too aware of her presence behind him. He doesn’t have a chance to talk to her before class starts so he’s left wondering.

Wondering whether she knows. If she purposefully avoided her locker so he wouldn’t be able to catch her before school—because obviously Marinette would be able to predict his moves if she knows who he is.

He wonders whether her reaction to seeing him was due to knowing he’s Chat Noir. Things with Marinette haven’t been easy since she rejected him but she hasn’t straight up avoided him like that in years.

Mostly, he wonders if he’s just overreacting.

“Adrien.”

Adrien startles in his seat and looks up to see the teacher staring down at him expectantly.

“Um, can you repeat the question,” he asks timidly. He can hear the giggles and whispers behind him as he gets reprimanded for not paying attention; Adrien Agreste always knows the answer and is always prepared.

After class isn’t any better. Alya grabs onto him before he can leave the room. “We were talking about eating lunch at the park today,” she says. “You in?”

Adrien glances at Marinette—who is staring at her shoes—before nodding to Alya. “Absolutely. I’ll meet you guys there.”

Even if he can’t speak to her one-on-one, he’ll have a better idea after spending some time with her.

He doesn’t have any other morning classes with her so he’s stuck with only his thoughts to entertain himself until lunch. Adrien takes longer at his locker than necessary, trying to psyche himself up for what will undoubtedly be an uneventful lunch but just the thought of having to see her again makes him anxious. Eventually deciding he’s just being dumb, Adrien takes a steadying breath and heads over.

Marinette, Nino, and Alya are all there by the time he makes it to the park. Adrien plops himself next to Nino.

“Hey! We didn’t think you were gonna make it,” Nino says, clapping Adrien on the back.

“Sorry, I got held up. What’d I miss?”

“Nino and I were actually talking about helping Rose with her… thing,” Alya interjects, nudging Marinette. “So, yeah. We were just waiting for you so Marinette wouldn’t be alone but now you’re here to keep her company.”

“Alya,” Marinette warns. But Alya is a woman on a mission. She rises, stares at Nino before he gets up as well and they make their way back to the school.

Clearly Marinette still hasn’t told her about their kiss or her secret relationship.

Adrien clears his throat and tries to come up with something to say. Even though there isn’t anyone at their table, there are still a lot of people milling about. They’re not private enough to properly talk.

“You have hair,” Marinette finally says.

Adrien looks up to see her beautiful, blushing face and feels his own face heating up. “Uh, yeah,” he says, scratching the back of his neck. What did that mean? Why does she have to be so awkward?

“It-it’s nice?”

“My hair?”

“Yeah. It’s good hair.”

“Thanks. You too. Have good hair.” He cringes. She’s somehow managed to infect him with improper grammar and stilted conversation.

“Thank you.”

They fall back into silence and Adrien wants to pull his ‘good’ hair out. He still, somehow, has no idea if she knows and it’s driving him crazy. He almost wants to reveal himself then and there just to figure it out. Not for the first time, Adrien finds himself praying for an akuma so he can properly talk to Ladybug.

Instead, he quietly mentions the time and the two trek back to the school without another word.

Marinette bumps into him at the end of the day.

“Oh! Adrien, I was looking for you.”

His heart picks up. There’s too many people around for this to be a confession but he can’t help but dream a bit. Why else would she be looking for him, after all?

“What’s up?”

“I—I didn’t understand the physics today. Would you be able to help me out?”

His face falls for a second before he plasters a polite smile back on. “Sure. I have fencing in about an hour so I was going to wait in the library. Would you like to join me?”

“I—I mean, I can but I was th-thinking we could go back to my house? We can have snacks and hang out in my room?”

“I don’t really have a lot of time. It’d be easier to do it here. I can always come over another day though.”

“No, it’s fine,” she pouts. “Let’s just go to the library.”

It’s not until they’re 30 minutes into physics review and Marinette gets yet another question correct that Adrien realizes he might be a bit daft. He could be looking for clues that aren’t there but Marinette doesn’t actually seem to be confused about today’s lesson. She might have only asked to get him alone. And he had to ruin it by taking her to a library filled with other students.

Adrien slams his head against the table and lets out a low moan.

“Are-are you okay?”

“I’m so dumb,” he whines.

He feels a slender hand grab his and he looks up to see Marinette smiling softly at him. He unconsciously leans closer.

“You’re one of the smartest people I know,” she says.

“I don’t really feel that way,” he says, slouching back onto the table.

“You are a tad dense,” she admits.

Adrien huffs out a laugh before sitting up straight. “Are we talking about the same thing?”

“I’m not sure? What are you talking about?”

Adrien stares at her for longer than is polite, hoping that her face will reveal what he is dying to know. “I’m sorry I made you come to the library,” he finally says. “I should have gone to your house.”

“It’s alright,” she says, patting his shoulder, “there’ll be plenty of time for that.”

Adrien is sorely tempted to visit Marinette as Chat but he knows she’ll get mad at him, especially if his hunch is wrong and she doesn’t know. He settles for taking taking a long shower to relax his nerves.

When he’s done, he puts on a pair of boxers, using his towel to ring out his hair.

“Aren’t you going to put on pants,” Plagg asks.

“I’m getting to it,” Adrien says. He absentmindedly checks his phone and is disappointed when he sees Marinette hasn’t texted him.

“You should probably get to it sooner.”

Adrien looks up from his phone to glare at his nagging kwami before letting out a very unmanly shriek. Ladybug is at his window.

He slowly makes his way over to her, opening the latch with shaky hands.

“S-sorry,” she says, blushing furiously. “I should have called before coming or something.” She’s looking anywhere but at him and he realizes that he’s still only wearing boxers.

“Oh, I, yeah. I’ll just, um, put clothes on. Hold on.” Adrien all but runs into his closet and grabs the first thing he sees.

He returns to see Ladybug sitting tensely on his couch. He sits as far away from her as possible on the couch and faces forward.

“So… Come here often,” he asks.

“You—” Ladybug lets out a long breath. “You’re the most ridiculous person I’ve ever met.”

Adrien grins and turns to face her. “I can’t seem to help myself when I’m with you.”

“I’m really embarrassed,” Ladybug says.

“Why?” If anything, Adrien should be the embarrassed one. For so many reasons.

“All the things I said about you as Adrien and Chat,” Marinette says. Adrien feels any remaining tension leave him. “And then I rejected you so I could date you, oh my gosh, I can’t even imagine what you must think of me.”

“I think you’re amazing. Honestly, it’s really flattering that you liked me twice.”

“Ugh,” Ladybug says, hiding her face in her hands.

“Are you upset that I’m me?”

“What kind of stupid question is that?” she asks, looking up to glare at him.

“You’ve been acting weird all day and now I’m making you uncomfortable.”

“I said I’m embarrassed not uncomfortable. This is better than I could have ever hoped for.”

Adrien’s heart flips in his chest and he slides closer to her, unable to stop himself. “I could say the same thing.”

Ladybug blushes and closes the distance between them, allowing their shoulders to brush. Adrien pulls his arm out so he can wrap it around her, revelling in the way she automatically leans into him.

“I used to have pictures of you all over my wall,” Ladybug says.

“Wait, what?”

“I told you that I liked Adrien Agreste. What I didn’t tell you was that I was borderline obsessed and took full advantage of the fact that my crush was a model.”

“I never saw them,” he says, his heart pounding for some unknown reason.

“That’s because I took them down whenever I knew Adrien was coming over and permanently took them down so I could invite Chat Noir in.”

“Oh,” is all Adrien can think to say. Then, “so, can I kiss you now, or…?”

Ladybug moans before sliding away from him. “You can’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“With your face.”

“What’s wrong with my face,” he asks, bringing a hand self-consciously to wipe anything offensive off his face.

“Nothing. That’s the problem.”

“Mari,” Adrien whines. He shifts a bit so he can lay comfortably on the couch with his head in her lap. She might have rejected his kiss but he’s still sure they’re good. Her hands absentmindedly running through his hair is enough of a confirmation of this. “Stop confusing me.”

“I’m not used to Adrien saying things like that. And knowing you’re Chat makes it so much worse. But I’m also still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’ve been dating Adrien Agreste this entire time? And, like, I want to kiss you but every time I let my thoughts wander too far I start to feel guilty. Like I’m cheating on Chat or something which is ridiculous because you’re Chat.”

“It took me a while to really let it sink in, too. We can slow things down until you’re ready.”

“You’re sweet but I used to have fantasies of making out with you in your room while I’m transformed and I really want to do that.”

Adrien abruptly sits up. “Oh my gosh, yes please. I’ve wanted that since I met you. Yes. Let’s do that now.”

Ladybug laughs before grabbing his shirt and pulling him into her. A chill runs down his spine when she wraps her gloved hands around his neck, sinking even further into each other. Fourteen year-old Adrien probably would have had an aneurysm by now. Present Adrien, though, can’t help but yearn for more skin-to-skin contact.

“M’lady,” Adrien asks, his mouth still feathering her lips, “would you be able to—”

She doesn’t even let him finish his question before she releases her transformation, leaving just Marinette and Adrien to stare at each other. Her bare hands slip under his shirt and she lets them travel up and down his back.

“I love you, Marinette Ladybug Dupain-Cheng,” Adrien whispers before tucking himself into her neck and gently pressing a kiss beneath her ear.

“You’re such a dork,” Marinette giggles. Her hands stop on his lower back and she nuzzles even closer to him. “I love you, too, Adrien Chat Noir Agreste.”

“Alright, I think I’ve kept quiet long enough,” Plagg says, flying over to them. “Can I have my cheese now?”

“Plagg! Really?”

He can hear Marinette’s laughter while he fetches the cheese from his mini-fridge and his heart lifts. There’s no more secrets between them—no more masks—and when he turns back around to the smiling faces of Tikki, Plagg, and Marinette, he feels himself grin back, finally home.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #adrienette #marichat #ladynoir #ladrien #when was the last time i posted this on here #????#totally forgot i never finished lol #oops #but it's complete on ao3!!

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