Chapter Text
"Marinette, you are being ridiculous," Adrien prompted.
The girl was sitting on the floor beside her bed, back to the railings, face hidden in her knees.
"Come on, Princess, talk to me?"
She shook her head eagerly.
"Princess?" Another one. "Marinette?"
The blond boy sighed. "Do you realise we'll really have to talk at some point?" Marinette shrugged, her face still hidden. "How about that: I take this cat plushie a hostage until you look at me?" Another silence. "Come on Marinette! Don't you want your little… um… huge plushie back?" he singsonged.
His superhero partner lifted her head a little, risking a glance at him, her hand surged forward, grabbing the giant plushie, and she hid her face again.
"Oh come on!" Adrien groaned. "Why don't you want to talk to me?!"
"Really?" the muffled voice came. "Should I really explain all the reasons?"
"Um… Yes please?"
"Okay," the brunette raised her head, "First of all, because my crush was so brainwashing, that I pretended to be a superhero to date you!"
"Which you actually are," the blond pointed out.
"That's not the point!" He countered. "That was using superhero powers for personal gain."
"You never accused me of the same thing though," the blond smirked.
"That was… different," she objected.
"Oh? How so?"
The girl faltered, looking at him. "Could you please… maybe… put the costume back on? Your current outfit is really distracting."
Adrien looked down on his bare torso and shrugged. "As my Lady wishes."
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This was getting out of hand. She was trying to freak out, while this gorgeous boy with his gorgeous smile and his gorgeous eight pack (she should stop now) was sitting right in front of her, smiling brightly as if nothing bad had happened and quite effectively soothing her nerves.
And the knowledge that he wasn't wearing a shirt under that suit right now didn't help her a bit. He slid down from her bed to the floor at some point, and now he was sitting next to Marinette, his arm secured around her.
"I almost clawed your eyes out when I thought you insulted Chat Noir, but you didn't! I shouldn't have done that!"
"Well, that was not very nice of you," Chat chuckled, "But like I said before, you got me mostly confused."
"A-and I even played dumb when you asked me out for a date," she whimpered. "And then told you about that!"
"Yup, that hurt really bad," he nodded. "But you know, I totally had the best remedy right after that."
Marinette turned bright red at the memory. "Oh my gosh," she whisper-yelled, "I stood up you… for you ! Every time!"
The boy pursed his lips, "Yeah, that… that really sucks."
"We could have been together so much sooner! We could be happy!"
"Okay, stop," Chat cut in. "You're spiraling again."
Marinette sighed.
"How were you not freaking out in the morning?.." she paused, eyeing him suspiciously. "That's right! How were you not freaking out? Had you known anything before that?"
"Nope. No. Not answering," he objected, rising up and helping her get into a standing position. "Right now you'll go downstairs, bring us some tea, and I'll find a nice movie to watch. And then you ask the same question if you still want to." He led the girl downstairs. "Oh, or we can play the game! How about a truth or date game?"
"Truth or dare?" Marinette clarified reluctantly.
"Nope," he grinned proudly, "Truth or Date! I just invented it In this game, if you refuse to answer a question, you owe me a date," he smirked, "And if I refuse to answer, I'll take you out on a date! How's that sound?"
"It seems that you win either way, sneaky cat," she grumbled, descending to the kitchen. But she was finally smiling.
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"See, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, Princess," Adrien grinned, handing her a morning coffee, opening the bakery door. "Now we can go to school together."
"Oh well, does that count for a date?" the girl giggled.
"No way, my Lady!" He exclaimed, making a wounded expression. "Going to school together is one thing, having lunch together is another thing, and having a date is the whole different story! So prepare yourself!"
"Yeah, right," Marinette huffed, "prepare for twenty four dates. How did you even manage to think of so many embarrassing topics?!"
"I still want to know what was in that message that made you steal my phone," he smirked.
"No can do, Kitty," the girl cackled, "that's how you got your thirteenth date."
"Okay," he sighed, and Marinette could almost see his cat ears droop. Well, they totally would if he were transformed.
This, what they were having right now, was perfect. And she was quite sure that it was going to get even better. However, there was some tingling feeling that they hadn't done something very important while playing Truth or Date the night before. Something that was going to pay back very soon.
"Hey, Kitty," she wondered aloud, her thumb caressing the back of his hand. "Don't you have a feeling like we forgot something?"
"Hm?" he frowned. "Not, not exactly. Is it important?"
Marinette suddenly froze in place, finally noticing her gaping best friend standing only five feet away. Alya was staring at the pair in disbelief, no doubt taking in their quite intimate distance, matching coffee cups and the fact that her friends were actually holding hands .
And Marinette had absolutely nothing to tell her, for they FORGOT to come up with the backup story.
"Oh, yes," she whispered, "I guess that was quite important."
Adrien nodded thoughtfully. "Run?" he offered with a shrug.
"Yeah, good idea," Marinette nodded.
"Don't you dare…" Alya hissed.
So they bolted.