Chapter Text
Marinette woke up to Alya shaking her awake after the final bell rang. And not so carefully either.
"What the hell was that?!" Her best friend screeched before Marinette could fully open her eyes. She noticed that the room had already emptied, the students already having taken their chance to leave while Alya was left to, with much difficulty, wake her sleeping friend.
"What the hell was what? Why are you shouting?" Marinette pouted, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She definitely felt more refreshed, and only slightly guilty for missing a large chunk of lessons.
"You completely lashed out at Adrien!"
Marinette froze, only glancing at Alya from the corner of her eye.
"I did what?"
"He was making jokes, which I admit was surprising yeah since the kid doesn't really talk, and you just spurred to life from your coma and basically threatened to skin him alive." Alya waved her arms frantically in the air, adding her flare of dramatics as she usually did in these situations, "I mean they were pretty lame jokes, but damn Mari you were vicious."
"Oh my god." The blunette groaned, absolutely mortified as she dug her face in her hands. She had snapped at her only chance at true love? This is the last time she'll ever ignore Tikki's warnings, sleep deprivation made Marinette absolutely psychotic.
"He must hate me, oh my god, Alya. What do I do? He never really spoke to me before but now he'll never look my way, and how can we have three kids and a hamster if he's terrified of me?!"
"Well it would be one awkward wedding." Alya agreed, with a curt nod of sympathy.
"Alya that isn't helping!" How was she ever going to face him again? And what could have been so bad about his jokes that it pushed Marinette off the deep end?
"His reaction is the most confusing part. Who responds to a death threat with a kiss?"
Marinette suddenly raised her head so fast she was afraid she got whiplash.
"Backtrack and playback, he did what now?"
"He smiled all big and kissed your adorable, sleeping head. Didn't even phase him that you basically recreated Satan's descent to the 7 circles of hell just moments before." Alya explained. Marinette felt a flurry of hopeful, yet confused butterflies flutter in her chest.
She inwardly winced, bad wording.
"He stuck around a little bit after to class, I think he was waiting for you to wake up, but I guess he was going to be late for a photo shoot and couldn't wait anymore." Marinette felt herself deflate. So she would have to wait until the next day to face certain doom. But of course, that left plenty of time tonight to anxiously pore over every detail of an encounter she can't remember tonight.
Looks like I won't be sleeping tonight. Fantastic.
***
As much as Marinette would love to stay in bed feeling sorry for herself, she still had to meet up with Chat for patrol.
"You might as well get it over with Mari, you'll have plenty of time to lay awake with tantalizing thoughts later." Tikki chirped, cheery as ever. Marinette could only shoot her small kwami a glare before reluctantly transforming.
At least feeling the wind whip sharply by as she soared through the skyline of Paris, Marinette was able to calm down some. Body fitted tightly in red and black spandex, she made her way to her and Chat's usual meeting spot, her Kitty's eyes lighting up with his usual adoration and something more that she couldn't pin.
"Bonsoir Chaton. Looks like you're here pretty early." Ladybug sighed, landing gracefully beside the black leathered hero. Chat only tilted his head to the side, eyes wide with curiosity.
"Well of course I am, we have a lot to chat about." He grinned widely, letting out a small contented sigh as he simply stared at his lady. Ladybug definitely felt like something was up, sure her partner was flirtatious at times, but he never really looked at her with the pure bliss he was now.
She was about to make a snarky retort at the slip of the pun, but instead let out a surprised squeak as she saw Chat make a move to take off his Miraculous.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Ladybug hissed, quickly curling her fingers around his wrist, stopping his motions. He only looked up at her bluebell eyes with concern and confusion.
"What do you mean? I'm detransforming, Princess." He shrugged, hesitantly trying to take off his ring again. Ladybug only let out a loud yell of protest, trying to keep him from moving any forward. "There's not much point to it now."
"Not much point?" Ladybug didn't understand what the hell was going on, but it was starting to shape into a pretty bad day for the masked hero. "We've been over this Chat, I don't want to know who you are."
"Not know-" Chat stopped himself, pausing to search his Lady's eyes for some indication that this was some sort of joke. He only saw seriousness and determination in her eyes. Now knowing that the same bright blue hue belonged to sweet and kind Marinette, he could only tell that she didn't recall anything from the previous hours.
"Oh my god, you forgot." Chat couldn't help himself, the corners of his mouth started to raise as he watched his partner in amusement.
Ladybug only gave Chat a look of confused exasperation.
"How could you forget? Sure you pretty out of it, but that threat was too creatively dark and fierce that I just assumed-" He started to laugh, and Ladybug felt all the color drain from her face.
"You heard about that?" She gasped, quickly pulling her hand back as if she had just touched hot iron. Chat could only laugh louder, wiping tears from his eyes as he watched her expression turn from embarrassement, to angry in a matter of seconds. Who gave him the right to laugh at her? How did he even hear about it?
"Heard about it? Princess, I lived it!" Chat slowly regained his breath, but his wide smile didn't leave his face. "Personally, I think I would look absolutely purrfect draped on you, my Lady. I know a thing or two about fur coats."
And suddenly with a sharp intake of breath it all came rushing back. Marinette had thought that was a disoriented dream, because there was no possible way that Chat Noir would show up in her class.
Princess, he called me Princess. Ladybug thought, all pieces starting to fall into place. He only calls Marinette Princess. And if I threatened him this morning then that means-
Chat swiftly pulled his ring off, and in a flash of green, stood before her as Adrien Agreste.
"I always knew my puns would do me in sometime." He chuckled softly, still smiling, but now not as wickedly as Chat would, but with gentle charm that made Marinette's heart flutter. "I'm so glad it's you."
Marinette could only feel her transformation wash away as Tikki eagerly rushed out of the earrings to hug a black creature floating by Adrien's shoulder. Tikki showered the kwami with soft kisses and the black mass let out a playful huff of annoyance, before squeezing his counterpart with just as much force and excitement.
"I-" Marinette was at a loss for words.
I can't believe you're Adrien Agreste
I can't believe Adrien was flirting with Ladybug this entire time
I can't believe I loved that goofball this entire time
I can't believe Chat loves me back no matter which side he's looking at
holy crap I can't believe my first kiss was with Adrien freaking Agreste
"I'm glad it's you too." Marinette finally settled on saying, a small smile spreading across her cheeks and quickly growing. The words had come out a little choked up, but only because of course she fell in love with her Alley Cat. She just never admitted it until now, but no matter who he was the boy standing in front of her looked at her like she had the all the stars in her eyes, and him like he was the sun.
They could only embrace, too overwhelmed with emotion to properly speak. He gingerly kissed her forehead, before resting his chin on the top of her head. They were both smiling too widely to kiss anyways, even though they certainly wanted to.
They stayed there, content in each other's arms. Watching the city bloom with night life as they watched from above.
Of course until the moment was ruined by a cheeky cat.
"But man, you are grouchy when you're tired." He bopped her nose playfully and Marinette could only groan, giving the blonde headed boy a light shove.
"You stupid cat."