Adrien AUG-reste Day 31 - Kiss
This series is now COMPLETE! You can read all six parts on AO3: Marinette March, Adrinette April, Marichat May, Ladrien June, and Ladynoir July, followed by Adrien August.
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“I… huh.” Marinette blushed again and looked away from him. “Could you… not look at me? This is kind of hard to say, and I always get tongue-tied when you’re looking at me.”
“Umm… sure,” Adrien said, confused. But he obediently turned his head away, looking out into the distance. He heard Marinette take what sounded like a very deep breath behind him, and it was so tempting to take a quick peek to see what her face looked like. Still, he had said that he wouldn’t look and so he didn’t.
“I know I always turned you down as Chat Noir,” Marinette began, and Adrien winced.
So it was going to be that kind of talk.
The kind of talk where she told him again that there was another boy that she liked and that she didn’t return his feelings.
He braced himself.
“And that was because there was this other boy. I fell in love with him the day that we met, and I only met Chat Noir afterwards… maybe if things had been different… but they weren’t,” Marinette said, sounding a little wistful.
That hurt. To know that he had come so close to winning her heart and had missed by what sounded like a few hours stung. If only that akuma had attacked sooner! Adrien bit his lip, suddenly glad that she had asked him to look away.
“Besides that, I couldn’t let myself think about Chat that way. We had a job to do. We had our duty to Paris. Even if I wanted more, it couldn’t happen without us knowing each other’s identities. And that was too dangerous.”
Adrien disagreed with that. Even before he had known who was behind the mask, he had known everything he needed to know about Ladybug. He knew that she was kind, that she was stubborn, that she was brave, that she could jump to conclusions, that she loved her family and friends, that she was sometimes quick to anger. She wasn’t perfect, but she was his lady.
He could have – would have – no, did love her with everything that he was even if he didn’t know her civilian name.
“But now…” Marinette trailed off again, and the silence rapidly grew too much for Adrien to bear.
“Can I say something now?” he asked.
“Okay,” Marinette said.
“I know why you wanted to keep our identities a secret. I understand that, which is why I never pressed you on it. But none of that ever mattered to me. It still doesn’t,” Adrien said. “Finding out who you were didn’t change my feelings.”
If anything, finding out that Marinette was Ladybug had only intensified his feelings.
“I wish that things could have been different, but I won’t stand in the way of you and this other boy.” Adrien swallowed hard. It was so, so tempting to be selfish and try to throw himself on her mercy. He could probably convince her to give him a chance, given what he had just been through.
But he wasn’t going to. He wanted Marinette to want to be with him, not to be with him because she felt sorry for him.
“Wait, what?” Marinette said, sounding puzzled. “I – oh. Oh shit. Adrien, no. That’s not – ugh, I can’t believe I’m still messing this up!”
“What?” Adrien said, just as confused as before.
The chair shifted behind him and then Marinette’s hand touched his shoulder. Adrien turned his head instinctively to find that she had moved closer. Her face was a little frustrated and a little amused and a whole lot lovely, and her proximity made his heart flip.
“It’s you. You’re the other boy,” Marinette told him.
“Me?” Adrien said. “Wait. Me? Not Luka?”
Marinette shook her head. “No. You. It’s always been you, Chaton. I just couldn’t see it before now.”
“So all those times you talked about another boy –” Adrien didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. All this time and he had been standing in his own way and he hadn’t even known about it.
“I was talking about Adrien. I was just too shy to do anything about it,” Marinette admitted.
“It’s good that you didn’t. I was too hung up on Ladybug,” Adrien replied. Suddenly, he chuckled. “Wow, now I understand why Plagg used to get so aggravated when I’d talk about Ladybug.”
Marinette smiled a bit. “I guess we really got our wires crossed. I never thought that secret identities could mess things up so much. Then again, I also never thought that Master Fu would choose two people who were so close to each other to be Ladybug and Chat Noir.”
“It does seem like he should have chosen strangers,” Adrien said. “But maybe he wanted to make sure that our civilian selves could get along first. Just in case. Or… you know… maybe more than get along?” He looked at her hopefully.
She blushed. “I literally just said that it’s always been you. I’m not saying it a third time.”
It was him. Adrien let those words sink in for a few seconds.
It was him. Not Luka. Him.
Adrien reached up and took her hand. “Marinette, would you like to go out on a date with me?”
“Yes. I would like that very much,” Marinette said with a shy smile.
“Good. I have the feeling that we still have a lot to talk about,” Adrien said, smiling back. It would be wonderful to be able to talk to his partner without the mask in the way. Now that all their secrets had been unveiled, there was nothing standing in their way.
“I think we do too. And you know, I was thinking. Last week Maman asked me if I’d like to go on a trip to China with her. I wasn’t sure at first because of… well, everything. But now…” Marinette squeezed his hand. “Maybe you could come with us. Maybe we could investigate the origin of the miraculous together. Alya and Nino could watch over Paris while we were gone.”
“Absolutely,” Adrien said. He didn’t want to leave Paris permanently, but a vacation sure sounded like a great idea. He and Marinette definitely deserved it.
“I’ll let Maman know. I never did give her a straight answer.” Marinette looked away, then back at him. Suddenly, before he could react, she darted forward and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek.
Adrien froze. His heart thudded too loudly again. Marinette’s cheeks turned pink as she pulled back, looking at him like she wasn’t sure how he would react to that. Adrien was way too far gone to respond, so he just let instinct take over. He leaned forward a bit, waiting until she leaned in too, and this time it was their lips that met.
Whatever happened, he knew, they would be fine as long as they were together.