Chapter Text
Adrien should have known that someone would ask eventually. Not everyone in the world was employed by his father, and the older he got, the more interested the media was in him. He really should have prepared for this. But he hadn't, and now he had to come up with an answer on live television without sounding like a perfectly terrible liar. He couldn't say it belonged to his mother; his father knew his mother's jewelry inside and out and even if no one else knew, his father would, and would want to know he was lying.
He went for the next thing he thought of.
"It's an ace ring," Adrien said to the camera. He regretted the words the second they left his mouth.
--
Alya was not surprised when Chat Noir dropped in through her window later that night. He'd been texting her all day, getting her advice on how to best approach the fact he'd accidentally come out on live television and without coming out to or consulting his father first. She made sure to compose her features into a relaxed smile before swishing around in her spinning chair -- she'd only had it for a week and the novelty had definitely not worn off.
"Busy day, Monsieur Noir?" He stuck his tongue out at her.
"I couldn't think of a believable lie fast enough and now I'm stuck with a sucky half-truth. Or quarter truth? Since I'm not about to let the bi part slip out as Adrien. The media would skin me alive and feed my liver to the," here he paused and dramatically shuddered, "dogs."
"Well, you're joking, so it can't be all bad, right?" Alya really hoped not. Model-boy had enough issues as it was, and that particular kind of slip-up can ruin careers. Adrien's career and his relationship with his father were so closely intertwined that Alya really didn't want to imagine how badly damaging one might affect the other.
"Not yet. Father's in Shanghai, so I don't know if he's even seen the interview yet. Mostly I've just been answering questions with dictionary definitions all day. Citing my sources and everything." He shrugged, polite and restrained and everything that was so typically Adrien and completely un-Chat. It was weird to see with his ears on.
"Go ahead and detransform, I don't want to deal with the consequences of having Chat Noir in my bedroom but Adrien doesn't have any. Also, I don't have to worry about Adrien being caught in my bedroom because my dad isn't suspicious of your 'intentions' anymore." That had been an odd conversation, and Alya was glad Adrien hadn't been there to hear it because they would have both been mortified instead of just her. As Adrien detransformed and plopped down on her bed, she continued, "So has anyone from our class texted you?"
Adrien blanched slightly and handed her his phone. "I haven't been able to work up the courage to see what they've said."
Alya scanned through to see his texts. Chloé seemed upset Adrien hadn't entrusted her with this info, Nino had texted him some questions (questions based on research, granted, but still questions), Alix had sent him 'Welcome to the Ace Club!' with a picture of a cake (she immediately showed Adrien, and he smiled, took his phone back, and texted Alix something she didn't bother to read), a few others had asked him basic 'what does asexuality mean' questions.... and Marinette had simply sent him "Are you okay?"
She'd forgotten all about Marinette.
Oh boy, was she in trouble.
"Most of these can wait until tomorrow but Marinette just wants to know if you're okay and she sent it right after the interview." Adrien's eyes went wide, and he grabbed his phone back from Alya and stared at it, a bright pink blush beginning to spread across his cheeks.
"Do you mind if I--" he started, but Alya cut him off.
"Call her. I'm just going to copyedit some articles for the Ladyblog so try not to say anything stupid." Adrien blushed harder.
--
The next day at school was slightly surreal. Alix and Alya had decided they were his bodyguard and PR person, respectively, and were following him everywhere. When Chloé came to greet him, he was oddly relieved that she wasn't treating him any differently, but it was unsettling to watch the three girls scowl at each other. Adrien decided to leave them to it and run ahead to join Nino, who had wisely decided to sidestep the debacle any situation that Chloé and Alya "protecting" Adrien from each other would create. Evidentally, his departure had compelled them to call a truce, because Alix had rejoined him on his right, Chloé had breezed past Nino to grab Sabrina and walk right in front of them, and Alya was right behind him. It was like they were co-oping in an MMO, and he was their escort mission.
It was weird.
Marinette, in an unusual but not at all unwelcome turn of events, was already in the classroom when they arrived, and was hissing at Kim to "knock it off, he's catching enough flak already."
When she noticed their parade enter the classroom, all that fierce determination and protectiveness in her stance changed to wariness as she watched Chloé, then relief as she saw Adrien. She bounced over, greeting Nino and Alya first with pecks on the cheek, and a shy smile and a quiet "good morning" for Adrien. That was perfect, in his opinion, because he didn't know whether he could emotionally withstand it if she greeted him the same way she did Alya, frankly. He did not have a crush on her, but she was still very cute and very sweet and really, anyone's heart would flutter a little bit around Marinette.
Anyway.
The point was, her only change in behavior at all was arriving earlier to class than usual, and frankly that was all he really wanted -- for people's feelings and behavior regarding him to remain unchanged. He was still the same Adrien he'd always been, after all.