chapter summary: The moment has arrived: Adrien and Marinette finally talk to each other. Then, they party.
thanks @kasienda and @chocoluckchipz for the beta read!
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Marinette stood at the counter, trying to ignore the sudden, oppressive silence of the kitchen as she opened the drawers looking for a cloth to wrap Adrien’s ice pack with. Adrien himself stood a few feet away at the fridge, one hand still rubbing the back of his head where he’d hit it. The music that had seemed so deafeningly loud in the living room only meters away felt too quiet now in the tension between them.
She pulled out the first one she found, a worn, cream-and-red tartan dishcloth, and laid it on the counter.
Adrien, who’d always been the braver of them, broke the silence as he deposited his ice pack into the center of the cloth.
“I’m sorry for my behavior the other day.” His voice was too controlled, too steady, as he began to wrap the ice pack, but Marinette had no doubt he was sincere.
Which was stupid because he had nothing to be sorry for! She was the one who should be apologizing.
Marinette told him as much as she grabbed the corner of the tartan, pulled it so that it was centered in front of her, and began wrapping the ice pack herself.
“I’m the one that messed up. That should’ve talked to you sooner, and more often.”
“I wish you had,” Adrien admitted, reaching an arm in front of her to grab the other side of the dishcloth, bringing it to the middle where Marinette’s fingers were busily tucking the other end in. “But that doesn’t excuse my reaction. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Shouldn’t have made you feel like—like—”
Adrien’s hand stopped at the apex of its journey as his voice faltered. Marinette reached up, wrapping her palm around his fingertips, and guided his hand to finish its task, layering the second half of the tartan over her neatly tucked edges.
She wanted to be brave enough to look back at him, but her eyes refused to move from the point where their hands touched. Even without looking, he was so close that she could feel the tension in him—the way he was bracing himself for whatever he was going to say next.
She braced herself too as she heard him inhale.
“It just hurt, so much,” he said, voice thick and tenuous all at once, like dough stretched between her father’s fingers and held up to the light. “To think that… I trusted you more than anyone else in the world, and you didn’t feel the same.”
She wrapped their hands together across the icepack, squeezing his fingers the way his words squeezed her ignoble heart in her chest.
“But I do, I—”
“I trusted you with my identity, Marinette.” His voice broke as he pulled his hand away, leaving hers alone with the chill of the ice seeping through the tartan up to her fingers. “With my ring. And you… trusted Alya.”
Hey everyone! We've officially opened prompt submissions for the first Miraculous Core Four Appreciation Week, which will take place 2nd October 2021 to 8th October 2021!
⬇ SUBMIT YOUR PROMPTS HERE ⬇
🐞🐾prompt submission form🦊🐢
The form will be open until August 10! Prompts should be things that can apply to all four characters.
Well, this isn't their first time fighting as a team, so this should be easy...
Finally, something for my sblnau 😭 It's been a long time since I made art for it 🤡 This is both for the October event over at @mlwritersguild and Day 6 - AU over at @mlcorefour ! Thought I should strike two birds with one stone:D
So the akuma name is Streamstress, like I said earlier, and her name is streamer (the party ribbon kind), stress, and well, seamstress. She's basically ribbon dancer Spiderman who walks kind of like Vexana from the other ML. She can trap people with her ribbons and/or sew their body parts together, and suffocation is... not very fun.
She's an intern at those party planning organizations whose boss basically overloaded her with work. She had to redo the decorations for the ceiling and the tables, and when she got fed up, she went over to a break room and an akuma fluttered into her rings (which is where the streamers materialize from!).
I originally made her for my groupchat fic (which is currently sadly dead) but scrapped the chapter. She's too cool not to resurrect tho. Drawing her was awesome, her design is so blocky and I love it
And as usual... we have Scarabella, Lady Noire, Carapace, and Goupil (name to be decided) battling her! yay
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Rated: T
Word Count: 1833
written for @mlcorefour appreciation week
After accidentally panicking and telling basically the whole world that she's dating a member of the hero team, Ladybug must someone to fake-date her, and fast. Of course Carapace suggests the obvious solution: she can just date his girlfriend for a few weeks.
As the plan dissolves into chaos, the four learn what it means to be the heart of a team, while also getting into more shenanigans than humanly possible along the way.
---
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Those were the first words to tumble from Chat Noir’s lips, his smile too overeager, too happy to be genuine.
“I didn't-”
“Girl, you have GOT to be kidding me,” Rena Rouge interrupted, whirling on her the second her feet touched the rooftop. “I thought we were friends!?! Who is it? Pegasus? Viperion?”
“I thought he was dating Ryuko,” Carapace jumped in.
“I’m not-” Ladybug opened her mouth to explain, only to be interrupted. She couldn’t really blame Alya (who only had fifteen Ladynoir pinterest boards and showed them off to anyone who so much as mentioned the superhero duo).
“Oh, right,” Rena Rouge nodded. “Otherwise she totally would’ve been my next guess.” The fox heroine turned to her desperately. “Please don’t tell me it’s Tigresse. I’ve been working on my Tigerella fanfic for months.”
“Guys, can you calm down for-”
“King Monkey, maybe?” Carapace guessed as Chat plopped down on the edge of the building, failing at not looking miserable. “He doesn’t really seem like he’s her type, but you never know.”
Rena Rogue cut her off again. “I swear, if it’s Vesperia and I didn’t see it coming…” The heroine buried her face in her hands. “Ladybug you better explain. I don’t know what to do with my life anymore!”
Instantly, three sets of eyes locked on her, begging for clarification. Ladybug took a deep breath.
“Guys, I’m not dating anyone.”
“But you said-” Rena protested.
“I know and I’m sorry!” she cried, trying not to look at Chat as her face heated. Not that it meant anything. Obviously. “The reporters kept asking all these questions and I just wanted to get out of there and it slipped out.”
It was hard to miss the flash of relief in Chat’s eyes.
“So, let me get this straight,” Carapace said, staring at her incredulously. “Your grand plan to get out of a stressful press conference was to tell everyone in Paris on live television that you’re dating someone on our team?”
It sounded a lot worse when he said it out loud.
“I panicked,” Ladybug admitted with a wince.
Carapace breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, at least you can just admit that and everything will go back to normal.”
Rena Rouge and Chat Noir glanced at each other knowingly and almost simultaneously burst into giggles, as if he had said something hilarious.
“That doesn’t sound like a good sign,” Ladybug swung her yo-yo in an anxious circle.
“Trust me when I say it will not work out like that,” Chat Noir smirked somewhat bitterly in the light of the setting sun.
Rena waved her hand across the sky as if she could already read the headlines written on the clouds. “Shocking Reveal - Ladybug Tells All.”
“I could just tell them the truth,” she tried to protest.
“Heroes Attempt to Cover up the Truth,” Alya finished, stopping the yo-yo’s frantic circle with her flute.
Ladybug groaned, wanting to kick something, preferably Hawkmoth’s stupid face.
“And of course it's right around the anniversary,” Chat Noir reminded her.
“Uh, no it’s not,” Carapace glanced at her partner like he was crazy.
And he kinda was. She distinctly remembered a picnic with a certain kitty on the rooftops near where she ‘fell from heaven’ as they watched a parade of small children stream by, wearing Stoneheart cosplay only a few months ago.
“Not that anniversary,” Chat Noir deflated a little. “I was talking about Oblivio.”
Her brain screeched to a halt.
“This just keeps getting better and better,” she groaned.
Carapace and Rena exchanged a glance. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“After a certain Ladyblogger posted a photo of me and Chat,” she locked her gaze on Rena, relishing the moment a little too much. “Some of the fans seem to have gotten it into their heads that Kitty and I are destined to get together on that day.
“Generally involving a week full of frustrated Ladynoir-shipping akumas,” Chat jumped in. “And one exhausted and pointedly not together bug and cat.”
Ladybug giggled. “Okay, you have to admit, some of them are kinda funny.”
The cat hero snorted. “I wouldn’t call Aphrodite funny.”
“What about the fanfic style one?” she nudged his knee playfully, trying to see if banter would help cheer him up. “You have to admit, throwing mugs at the akuma during the coffee shop AU was the best.”
A hint of a real smirk flickered across her partner’s lips.
“You called me sweet when you dumped all that sugar in my hair,” she reminded him.
“It was an accident!” he protested with a grin.
“Yeah, right,” Ladybug crossed her arms. “You were supposed to throw it at him. You totally did it on purpose!”
Chat clutched his chest, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes. “I can’t believe you would have such little faith in me, m’lady!!”
Both of them somehow missed the knowing glance their best friends shot each other.
All their weapons buzzed simultaneously, doubtlessly with an update from the news. Chat Noir flicked open his baton and sighed, showing the headline to the rest of them.
“Which of Our Heroes is Ladybug’s Boyfriend?”
Her partner scrolled through the article, grumbling under his breath.
Carapace raised his eyebrows under his hood. “Bold of them to assume you don't have a girlfriend.”
“I wish I could say that it’s bold of them to assume I’m dating anyone at all,” she sighed. “But I kinda started this so I guess I can’t blame them.”
“THAT’S IT!” Rena Rouge leapt to her feet, nearly knocking her boyfriend’s shell over the edge of the roof.
“What?” Ladybug glanced at her comrades to check if they had the slightest idea of what was going on.
“You told the press that you’re dating one of us on the hero team, right?” the fox heroine asked excitedly.
“Yes?” Ladybug answered hesitantly. “You were there too.”
“Not the point,” her friend waved the comment off. “The only solution that doesn’t end in even more akuma attacks is fairly obvious.”
The other three glanced at each other to see if they had gotten it.
“COME ON GUYS,” Alya sighed. “Ladybug just has to pretend to be dating one of us for a few weeks. Think about it. They go out on a few dates, cue general excitement from Paris about the first official hero couple, tragically break up after a few weeks and everything goes back to normal.”
Ladybug shrugged. “I guess it could work.”
“Why does this sound way too similar to the basic plot for any fake dating fanfic?” Chat Noir hissed in the nearby turtle hero’s ear.
Or hood by where his ear should be.
“Probably because that's exactly what it is,” Carapace whispered back.
Rena smirked.
“And I happy to know of an available cat who would be happy to take-”
Her triumphant Ladynoir wingwoman grin fell from her face as the duo shook their heads in unison.
“Bad idea,” Chat Noir admitted. “I don’t want to think about the worldwide catastrophe that could occur after out ‘breakup.’”
“It would be like last Valentine’s day, but infinitely worse,” Ladybug jumped in, wincing at the memory of yet another love akuma that nearly burned Paris to the ground in its mission to make its OTP kiss.
Not that kissing Chat was such a bad thing. He was kinda good-
She cut off that mental track before it could get anywhere.
“Well, who else are you going to fake-date?” Alya asked. “I mean, I would totally be up for the job, but…”
She gestured at her boyfriend.
Carapace’s silence spoke for itself.
“Uh, babe?” Rena nudged him with her boot.
“Yeah?” he said with a grin.
“You can’t actually be considering this.”
“Why not?” he shrugged. “It’s not like anyone in Paris will know any better.”
“Hawkmoth could target me!” Alya pointed out. “He knows where I live!”
Carapace shrugged. “I mean, he could do that anyway.”
“Still, this could…” her voice trailed off. “Uh- why you aren’t fighting me on this.”
The turtle hero shrugged. “I guess I don’t see a problem with it, dudette. As long as both you and Ladybug are cool with it, then I’m not going to stop you.”
“You’re supposed to be my voice of reason!” Rena Rouge stared at him like he had just admitted to secretly being Chloé’s BFF. “Are you secretly a sentimonster or something?”
Nino raised his hands innocently. “I’m just trying to be a supportive boyfriend and help you reach your dreams.”
“By handing me off to the first bug who wants to date me?”
Carapace fell back dramatically. “Babe, did you see Ladybug today,” he cried in an impression of his girlfriend's voice. “The way she stuck that landing and then she winked at me and I swear I died. No offense babe, but if Ladybug ever asked me out, I would break up with you in an instant.”
Rena turned bright red.
Ladybug giggled. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You’re cool with this?” Rena spun on her.
“I mean, if Carapace is,” she smirked. “Sounds like it's the closest to a realistic relationship I’m going to get.”
Rena Rouge buried her head in her hands. “Hold on. I need to go scream on a rooftop.”
“Take all the time you need, babe,” Carapace called after her.
Ladybug smirked, grabbing her hand and kissing it like Chat would sometimes do for her (which totally didn’t leave her in a stuttering mess afterwards. Obviously.). “Yeah, babe. Take all the time you need.”
Rena Rouge turned red and fled.
“Whoops,” Ladybug turned back to Carapace with a sheepish grin on her face. “Too much?”
“Just because you’re fake dating my girlfriend doesn’t mean you can steal her,” Carapace nodded. “Don’t worry. She’ll be back in a few minutes and fully on board with this.”
“I should go and talk to her,” Ladybug said as she bit her lip nervously. She waved to Chat in a TOTALLY NORMAL WAY as she leapt over the rooftops.
***
The ribbons on her pigtails fluttered in the evening wind as Chat Noir watched her vault over the rooftop after her possible future fake-girlfriend.
Carapace whistled. “Dude, you’ve got it bad.”
Adrien’s face heated as he punched the turtle hero's arm. “Shut up.”
“Have you considered telling her that, you know, you still love her?”
Chat Noir laughed bitterly. “And watch her heart rip in half as she tells me yet again that we could never be more than friends? No thanks.” He glanced away. “I’d rather give up my miraculous.”
The sounds of the city that echoed off the rooftops awkwardly filled the void between them.
Finally, Chat Noir asked. “So, wait, are we actually doing this?”
Carapace nodded. “We’re superheroes. It’s our duty to protect Paris. If the only way for us to do that is for my girlfriend to pretend-date yours, then it’s a sacrifice we have to make.”
The school bus was full of lively chatter as it neared the city centre, and Marinette smiled to herself when she saw some of her classmates crowding by the windows, eager to get a glimpse of their destination once it was within eyeshot.
“How much longer do you think we have left?” She asked Alya as she turned back round in her seat.
“Hmm, just a couple more minutes,” Alya said, holding her phone up to display a digital map that she must’ve already had open. “You excited? Apparently they teach jazz and contemporary there! I really hope we’ll get to play some of the instruments, or try out a bit of dancing.”
Marinette giggled and placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “That sounds awesome, Alya! I’m sure there’ll be lots of fun things to do.”
The decision to have a day trip to the Conservatoire de Paris had been rather sudden, announced randomly by Mr Damocles under the guise that it would help make the class ‘more aware of their options’ for after they left lycée. It was a welcome surprise for pretty much everyone, with exception of Chloé, who never seemed to enjoy any organised school events.
Personally, Marinette was just glad to get a break from regular class work and spend time with her friends - the immense amount of stress she’d under the past few months made it hard to remember what it felt like to truly unwind and forget about her problems, even if it was only for a bit.
While Alya went back to gazing out of the window, Marinette sighed and let her head rest against the back of the chair. Sneaking a glance at Adrien and Nino in the row opposite them, she couldn’t help but feel soft when she saw the grins on their faces as they cracked terrible jokes and exchanged headphones - they had always had a pretty open and carefree friendship which, if anything, was a testament to how much they clearly cared about one another.
Marinette was snapped out of her trance when the bus finally came to a stop. She overheard a few excited whispers while gathering her things, and once the class had all filed out onto the pavement, she was finally able to get a proper look at the Conservatoire.
It was remarkably big, with pristine white walls and glass windows that shone brightly in the morning sun. There were several crowds of people - presumably students - moving in and out of the front door, and there also appeared to be a few standing around outside and chatting casually. Suddenly Ms Mendeleiev cleared her throat and announced to the class that they would be going inside to meet their tour guide, then gestured for everyone to follow after her.
Alya and Marinette smiled at one another and promptly linked arms, heading towards the entrance with Adrien and Nino right behind them.
————————
“Man, I didn’t realise just how huge this place was,” Nino said, glancing around the music room that the four of them had been given for instrumental practice, whatever that was supposed to mean. “Kind of a shame we don’t have time to see everything.”
Alya shrugged. “Don’t worry about it, we can make do with what we’ve got.”
“I’m... not entirely sure that’ll work,” Marinette said dismally. “There isn’t much stuff here.”
“Marinette has a point,” Adrien nodded in agreement as his eyes scanned the room. It was practically empty save for a bench, a couple of music stands and a grand piano that looked like it had seen better days. “I can’t think of anything to do.”
All of a sudden, Nino snapped his fingers and grinned.
“Hey, dude, c’mere, I’ve got a great idea!” He said, inviting Adrien to come and stand next to him. Adrien obliged, despite being rather confused.
For about a minute or so they remained huddled off to the side, whispering softly and occasionally looking over at Alya and Marinette, who watched on in silent amusement. They both guessed that there was likely a plan taking form, and were now just waiting to hear what it was.
After what felt like an eternity of awkward silence, Nino returned to the spot by the bench where the girls were standing, while Adrien dashed over to the grand piano and carefully lifted the fallboard up.
“So what’s your ‘great idea’, exactly?” Alya asked with a smirk. Clearing his throat, Nino quickly ran them through everything.
“Since there’s no instruments in here that any of us three know how to play, I figured we could have Adrien do a mini-gig for us! What do you say? It’d be a good way to kill some time.”
Marinette smiled and nodded eagerly, ecstatic at the thought of seeing Adrien perform a piece on the piano (just for them!).
“I think that’s a great idea!” She exclaimed. “What about you, Alya?”
“Well... I don’t see why not.” Alya said after a moment’s thought. “If you guys are on board, then I am!”
————————
Once they’d moved the bench closer to the piano, the three of them sat down and got comfortable as Adrien prepared himself.
“What’s the name of the piece you’re playing?” Marinette asked, trying her hardest not to blush. Adrien winked at her - he actually winked! - while cracking his knuckles.
“It’s a classic,” He said. “I think you’ll like it.”
She gave him a feeble smile and quickly looked down at her feet, hoping he wouldn’t see her all jittery. Trying to calm her nerves, Marinette closed her eyes and began imagining the soothing sounds of the piano keyboard…
...only to be startled by the upbeat, awfully familiar tune of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”.
Looking around her after a few seconds, she saw that Alya had burst out laughing and was shaking her head in disbelief - it wasn’t long before she joined in, wiping a stray tear from her eye.
“Seriously? A Rickroll? That was your genius idea?” Alya wheezed, clutching desperately at her side. “Damn it, I should’ve known better than to trust you two!”
Knowing that his job was done, Adrien stopped playing and got up from the stool to take a bow. By now he and Nino were grinning from ear to ear, both clearly satisfied with their prank.
“Can you really blame us?” Nino asked, holding his arms up defensively. “We just saw an opportunity and took it, that’s all.”
Marinette laughed and went over to join them.
“I’d say that was pretty good for an improvised performance.”
“Aw, thanks Marinette. Maybe next time we’ll let you in on the joke too.” Adrien said with a smile and a playful nudge to her shoulder. She nodded, smiling back up at him.
if i just showed up at your party would you have me, would you want me?
chapter summary: everyone arrives at the sleepover and they are gonna TALK about their EMOTIONS whether they like it or not
thanks @kasienda and @chocoluckchipz for the beta read!
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
“Adrien is in love with me” was such an utterly alien concept to Marinette that she still couldn’t grasp it fully, even a day later. She’d felt it in that moment under the moonlight when she found his gift: a rare flash of certainty. But it was hard to see a lightning strike in the bright morning sun.
And it was so easy to rationalize things away, to prop up the doubts in her mind: sure, he’d done something kind for her when she’d upset him, but Adrien would do that for anyone: that was why Marinette loved him, not evidence he loved her. Sure, Chat Noir had made his feelings for Ladybug known, but what if he felt differently for Marinette? What if he felt differently after everything that had come between them in the last few days? The last few months?
What if he’d never meant it at all?
No, Adrien wasn’t a liar. Or was he? Did she even know? How could she be sure, really, when he’d fooled her for so long?
That’s not fair, she reminded herself as she packed her bag for the night. She’d picked out her cutest pajamas, a dusty pink satin set with paler pink flowers and lace detailing.
He was just maintaining his secret identity. He’s not a liar.
You know who he is. He’s the boy that handed you an umbrella in the rain. The boy who made her laugh when she almost lost hope. The boy who brought her expensive cream for her rash. The boy who’d died for her.
It didn’t matter if he did it wearing cat ears or designer clothes. Whether he was louder than life or perfectly poised. That was all just… window dressing. He was still the same inside, wasn’t he?
She didn’t fall in love with the window dressing. It was only beautiful because his light shined through it.
And he’d seen her light too. He must have. He’d called Marinette his everyday Ladybug. He’d trusted her with his ring. And if he had seen her light, it wouldn’t matter whether she was Ladybug or Marinette. It wouldn’t matter that she’d messed up, either: he would still be able to see her light as long as she left the curtains open. She just had to resist the urge to panic and shut him out.
She had to, even though it was so, so tempting. She had to let him in and she had to do it now.
Stop running away.
She looked down again at the pajama set she’d been about to pack. It was pretty, sure, and Marinette knew it was flattering on her, but in reality, she’d only worn it once or twice. The lace edging wasn’t comfortable to sleep in and the pants were a bit too long.
Just minutes ago, she’d picked them out because she wanted to look her best in front of Adrien tonight.
But Adrien didn’t need her to look her best. He never had.
He’d already seen her in her favorite pajamas anyway.
She’d promised herself she wouldn’t keep admiring him from afar. That she’d love him up close and smother him with comfort.
But she couldn’t get closer to Adrien without letting him get closer to her, too. Couldn’t show him comfort without being comfortable herself.
No more hiding, no more secrets, no more distance.
Let him see you.
The thought made her clutch the satin fabric tighter, knuckles white.
Loving him was so easy. How had she gotten things so tangled up that it felt hard?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
written for @mlcorefour appreciation week
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
day 7: sleepover (but there's no sleepover yet, because day 7 is 3 chapters now. oops.)
thanks @kasienda, @chocoluckchipz, and @ladynoirist for the beta read!
chapter 7: forcing smiles and neverminds
In retrospect, starting a baking project at 21h had not been Marinette’s most brilliant idea. The two hours she’d spent combing through blogs on the language of flowers didn’t help either. She’d still been icing the last of the macarons when her Papa barreled into the bakery kitchen ready to start the day.
He frowned at her, his worry painted clear across his brow. “Oh, pumpkin, not again.”
Marinette huffed. She didn’t stay up late baking that often.
“I don’t think this Adrien boy would want you staying up all night like this,” Papa said, wiping some stray passionfruit puree off the counter. “And if he does expect you to do all this, he isn’t worth it. You shouldn’t have to make elaborate pastries to impress him. You’re impressive all on your own and if he can’t recognize that...”
Oh. He’d meant “not again” as in not another elaborate scheme to get Adrien’s attention. Marinette wished she knew how to explain that impressing Adrien wasn’t the issue this time.
Marinette had already left enough of an impression.
She wasn’t worried about getting Adrien’s attention anymore.
“It’s not like that, Papa,” she managed weakly. She’d being going on autopilot as she baked, the steps of the macaron recipe molded into muscle memory after baking one each week for so many months and months, but now that she had to navigate around secret identities in conversation, she found herself struggling against the static signal buzzing in her brain urging her to rest.
Papa frowned at her—whether in response to her unconvincing answer or her clear exhaustion, she couldn’t say. Probably both.
“I just can’t stand to see you bend over backwards for some boy who doesn’t love you the way you deserve,” he continued, and then, with a darker look. “Not again.”
At his look, Marinette’s buzzing brain was suddenly overcome with alarm bells. She was not in any condition to fight Weredad 2.0 right now, and she suspected Chat Noir wouldn’t be, either.
“He does love me the way I deserve,” Marinette reassured him, even though she wasn’t really sure that was true. She wasn’t sure where they stood or how exactly Adrien loved her now, and she wasn’t sure she deserved it if he did.
But as the memories of the day they’d fought Weredad filtered through her tired brain, Marinette felt more sure that Chat Noir must still love her. He’d proven that day that his love wasn’t fickle and even then, it had meant something to her.
And now? Knowing that it was Adrien? Knowing how close she had been to losing him? His dedication meant everything.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Summary: Alya didn’t want to come between Ladybug and Chat Noir. But she didn’t want to stop being Rena Rouge either. And if Chat Noir didn’t want to talk to her, then she’d need to find a different way to prove all three of them could be a team.
Her plan unintentionally brings a few secrets to light, which leads to even more secrets coming to light, which leads to... well, Alya is sure it'll all work out eventually.
post-Rocketear, rated T, follows two is company and curiosity cared for the cat
written for @mlcorefour appreciation week
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
day 1: pranks
thanks @eggrestes for the beta read
with a thousand lies and a good disguise
Of all the ways for the rift between Ladybug and Chat Noir to be healed, Alya never expected it to be via Ladybug revealing her massively debilitating crush on Adrien Agreste. And yet, that’s exactly what happened.
It went like this:
“We should have a team bonding night.” Rena Furtive declared on Saturday evening with all the confidence of someone who expected her plan to be immediately questioned.
Ladybug questioned it. “A what now?”
“Team bonding night! You know, like a sleepover?”
Rena noticed Chat Noir’s ears perked up at that. She filed that away for later.
“Rena, we can’t have a sleepover. We don’t have a place to sleep over at, remember? Since we don’t know where each other lives?” Ladybug said, eyeing Chat Noir, whose expression had since fallen back into the neutral professionalism that he’d wielded around Ladybug since they’d fought Rocketear.
She still hadn’t pieced together exactly what had changed during that fight. She’d known that something was wrong with Chat Noir after Sentibubbler, but he’d been so carefully cheerful in Ladybug’s presence afterwards. Outside of Ladybug’s presence was a different story — she’d seen that as Scarabella — but after Rocketear, his attempts at cheer had fizzled into cool indifference.
At first, Alya couldn’t figure out why. She’d thought things would be better after she sent Marinette to talk to him.
She’d gone over and over it in her mind, and in the end, could only think of one thing that had changed that could’ve set him off: the emergence of Rena Furtive.
Hence, team bonding. She’d urged Marinette to come clean to Chat Noir about Rena’s behind-the-scenes involvement, and Marinette, despite her initial reservations, agreed. She’d noticed the difference in Chat Noir too, after all.
Still, Rena wasn’t surprised that team bonding night would take additional convincing. Marinette could be so stubborn sometimes.
But so could Alya.
“That’s why I said like a sleepover. Obviously it won’t be a real sleepover,” Rena admitted. “But we can still do the late-night bonding, you know, truth or dare, prank calls, watching bad mo—”
“I know where Rena lives,” came Chat Noir’s voice, so quietly that if it weren’t for her magically enhanced hearing, Rena probably would’ve kept talking and missed his statement entirely.
“What.” She couldn’t have heard that correctly. There was no way — Ladybug wouldn’t have told him, and Alya had been so careful with her identity — she knew how upset Marinette would be if she slipped up.
(How upset Marinette was already going to be, when she learned Alya had told Nino.)
“How?” Ladybug, for her part, looked genuinely dumbfounded. Not a trace of suspicion that Rena had slipped up or told. Rena wasn’t sure Ladybug’s faith in her made her feel better or worse.
Chat Noir scratched the back of his neck. “I, uh… figured it out?” He didn’t meet Ladybug’s eyes.
He’s lying, Rena thought. Why is he lying?
And why does that movement seem so familiar?
“Are you sure?” Ladybug’s voice was a gentle lie that settled easily into the space left by Chat Noir’s steadfast avoidance of her eyes.
Only Rena, who was looking directly at her, could see the panic etched across her best friend’s face, the way her brows raised so high that the spots on her mask pulled into ovals and the corners of her smile rounded tightly at the edges.
“Sentibubbler!” Chat Noir exclaimed, making Ladybug jump.
“It wasn’t too hard to figure out what everyone in the bubbles had in common, and, well, Hawkmoth was trying to get Rena’s miraculous, wasn’t he?” He finished this speech off with a shaky smile and finger guns, of all things.
Unbelievable that she was the one who’d been found out if Chat Noir was just as bad at lying as Ladybug.
Except he wasn’t, was he?
Rena didn’t know very much about Chat Noir, but she was certain that he was a much, much better actress than Marinette. Maybe he wasn’t lying. Maybe he was really just this nervous to tell Ladybug he’d figured Alya out.
But she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something off about his explanation. If it was that easy to figure out someone’s identity based on that type of context, she would’ve figured out Marinette long ago.
Maybe she would’ve figured out Chat Noir too, based on the increasingly frequent glimmers of recognition that she kept failing to hold onto in her mind.
Ladybug hummed. “I suppose you’ve figured out who Carapace is too, then?”
“Ummm… yes?” He scratched the back of his neck again, and there it was: the glimmer.
She wanted to chase after it, desperately, to finally capture his story, but she was Rena Furtive right now, not Alya Cesaire, and Rena had a more important job to do. Besides, if she played her cards right, there’d be plenty more opportunities to track down her lead.
“Great!” Rena casually slung her arm around Chat Noir’s stiffly hunched shoulder. “Nino can join us. And since obviously Ladybug knows who I am too, we can just go to my place!”
As Rena talked, Chat Noir carefully disentangled himself from her arm, shifting his body closer to Ladybug, but still keeping a careful distance from both of them. He looked decidedly unsettled.
“What about your family?” Ladybug asked.
“Nora actually has an out of town wrestling competition on Friday and my dad is going to watch. And Friday nights are always crazy at the restaurant, so mom just passes out as soon as she gets home, and she sleeps like the dead.”
“The twins?”
“I’ll ask Lila to watch them. And Chris, if needed.”
At Ladybug’s disapproving look, Rena continued. “Look, I know she’s a liar, but she’s good with the kids. And as far as she’ll know, she’s babysitting so that Nino and I can get some alone time in my bedroom.”
Ladybug didn’t look convinced. Even worse, now Chat Noir had shifted himself into position beside her, echoing her disapproval with eerie precision, from the parallel downturn at the corners of his mouth to the way his arms crossed the same way hers did, right over left.
Rena didn’t remember being Lady Wifi, and looking at them right now, she was suddenly very glad she didn’t.
“What’s the worst she can do with that information? Spread rumors about Nino and I playing Super Penguino? Who cares. Besides, Lila doesn’t ask a lot of questions, because she doesn’t want me asking questions and poking into her business.”
“I guess that makes sense…” Ladybug admitted, biting her lip.
For a second, Rena started to relax. If Ladybug agreed to it, Chat Noir would follow. Sure, Chat Noir didn’t seem fond of Lila, understandably given her history of akumatization, but he didn’t have any personal reasons to dislike her that way Marinette did.
Or at least, that’s what Rena thought.
“Are you kidding me?” Chat Noir did not seem to be following at all. “The worst she can do? She almost got Marinette expelled!”
“What?” Alya remembered Marinette being expelled, of course — and Marinette’s admittedly likely, but still unproven, theory that Lila had framed her — but she was a bit shocked that Chat Noir knew about it.
Why would Ladybug tell him something that closely connected to her civilian life?
“How did you know about that?” Ladybug’s voice quivered as she turned to Chat Noir.
Okay, maybe she didn’t tell him… but then…
On cue, Chat Noir’s eyes shifted away as he began talking.
“Adrien Agreste told me.” Lying. “He mentioned that a huge group of people had almost been akumatized, including Marinette. He came to me because he was worried that even though he’d managed to get her back into school, it could happen again.”
“Adrien did what?”
“He, uh, he flagged me during patrol one day?” Chat Noir tapped his fingers together as he talked. “And told me he was concerned.”
Rena narrowed her eyes at him, trying to zero in on that glimmer once again. If I could just focus…
“No, not that part,” Ladybug said, shattering Rena’s attempt at a figurative zoom lens. “What do you mean, he got her back into school?”
And why do you know that if Marinette herself doesn’t?
“Oh, um,” Chat Noir’s eyes darted back and forth, as if he was looking for some way to escape. “I probably shouldn’t say, he told me this in confidence—”
“If Adrien thought Marinette getting akumatized was a big enough concern to tell you, then surely it’s something all the heroes of Paris should be informed of?” Rena interrupted. “Surely it’s something her best friend should know about?”
His shoulders slumped, defeated. Rena should probably feel bad about that, but Alya had always hated being left in the dark.
(She steadfastly ignored the little voice in her head that reminded her that they’d been doing exactly that to Chat Noir for weeks.)
“Adrien made a deal with Lila,” Chat admitted. “He’d play nice with her in exchange for her getting Marinette back into school.”
A sharp gasp, from Ladybug.
Chat swiveled towards her; Rena followed suit.
Chat Noir probably wasn’t expecting the starry-eyed, utterly besotted look on Ladybug’s face, but Rena wasn’t even a bit surprised.
“Adrien did that?” Ladybug’s voice floated across the air like a melody. “For me—Marinette?”
Careful not to move, Rena flicked her eyes back towards Chat Noir. He looked completely pole-axed.
And there it was again, that glimmer. So close this time, Rena could just reach out and…
“Oh no, now you’ve done it. All she’ll talk about for the next 30 minutes is how great Adrien is. She has a massive crush on him, you know.”
…snatch it.
“Alya!” Ladybug shrieked.
“She WHAT?” Chat Noir choked out.
Got him.
“Oh yeah, she’s totally crazy about him,” Rena mused nonchalantly, as if she didn’t know she’d just earned the wrath of her best friend and also possibly given Chat Noir reason to rethink the entire last year of his life. “You wouldn’t believe how many times she’s watched that perfu—”
“Rena, that’s enough,” Ladybug snapped.
Rena didn’t understand the anger at first — indignation, sure, embarrassment, absolutely, but anger?
She didn’t understand, until she processed the rest of the scene in front of her. Ladybug, glaring at Rena with one protective hand laid on Chat Noir’s shoulder.
Chat Noir, who looked like an absolute wreck.
Ladybug must’ve seen Chat Noir’s deeply reddened face and slackened jaw and assumed he was heartbroken hearing about the boy she loved. That Rena was teasing her about his rival in front of him. It would be sweet, her protectiveness, if any of it were true.
If only you knew, Ladybug, Rena wanted to tell her. It’s so much STUPIDER than that.
But she couldn’t tell her, so she’d have to apologize instead. “Sorr—”
“No, please continue,” Chat Noir interrupted. Miraculously, his face had already begun to return to normal, with only a pale pink flush still peeking out from the bottom of his mask.
“I’d just odor to hear more about my lady’s type. So she’s interested in blondes?” He preened, fluffing his hair. Or attempting to fluff it anyway.
I can’t believe that’s Adrien Agreste.
Rena stifled a giggle as his claw caught in a tangle, leading to a flurry of motion as he desperately tried to recover his dignity, only for Ladybug to step in and gently comb out the tangles with his fingertips, freeing his claws from their flocculent prison.
I can’t believe that’s Marinette Dupain-Cheng, untangling Adrien Agreste’s hair like she’s done it a thousand times.
She watched as Ladybug interlocked her fingers with Chat Noir’s, giving them a quick, tight squeeze, before letting go. Chat Noir’s eyes lingered on his hands, dazed, as Ladybug’s eyes crinkled in adoration.
On second thought, maybe I can.
“Honestly, kitty, I should just bring a hair brush with me on patrol,” Ladybug teased as she resumed fussing over him, finger-combing his hair into a big blonde pouf. “Have you ever used one?”
And just like that, the two were bantering and laughing like the tension between them had never existed.
(It had.)
Just like that, Rena was the odd one out, the third wheel in the team.
She found she didn’t really mind it, though she was glad she had her own partner to invite to the sleepover. Watching the two of them might get uncomfortable real fast.
But for now, it was sweet. For now, Alya Cesaire was content to watch Marinette Dupain-Cheng scratch under Adrien Agreste’s chin as he leaned into her touch, both of them comfortable in the illusion of a good disguise.
Turns out, there was no bigger prank than secret identities.
She just hoped it was one they’d all be able to laugh at in the end.
