Chapter Text
Marinette stared, mouth agape, after her partner. “He was joking right?” she asked herself. She blinked and then looked down towards her tired little Kwami. “Right?”
Tikki just stared at her wearily. Marinette stared back until the throbbing head made her groan in frustration. “Whatever,” she mumbled “I’ll figure Chat out later.”
She quickly got dressed, quietly bemoaning her headache the entire time, and soon was somewhat ready for the day. She glanced down the stairs with a decent amount of trepidation. She may not have been entirely truthful to Chat about not getting in trouble.
As she made her way down she really wished she had actually thought up some sort of plan in advance. Then again, with her head hurting like it was could anyone really blame her? The look on her mother’s face as she came down the stairs seemed to answer that question quite effectively.
Sabine glanced past her. “Good morning, Marinette.” Her eyes flicked over to her daughter. “Where are your… guests?”
Marinette hemmed and hawed for a couple seconds until her mother’s slowly intensifying stare became too much. “Gone?”
Sabine didn’t blink. “Oh? Where did they go?”
Marinette gulped. “I don’t know?”
Sabine sighed and looked away, back towards the large meal she was preparing. “That’s too bad. I was hoping they’d stay for brunch!”
Marinette watched her for a few moments to see if she’d say anything else before slowly coming around to sit down next to her father. Maybe she’d told Chat the truth after all.
“So why were there superheroes sleeping in your room?” Sabine asked without looking back, immediately dashing Marinette’s hopes.
“…Chat Noir needed my med-kit for his head.” Marinette grinned a bit. It wasn’t even a lie!
Her mother paused for a second before continuing. “Oh my. What happened?”
“I think he fell and hit his head somehow,” she cheered herself in her head; this was much easier than she thought it would be.
“I wonder if that was before or after he got drunk?”
Marinette froze. “Wha-?”
Sabine turned back around, her mouth forming a tight smile. She put a glass of water in front of Marinette. “Drink up, dear. You’re probably dehydrated.”
Shoot, Marinette thought as she slowly sipped her water, she totally knows.
Tom cleared his throat. “You need to be more responsible, Marinette.”
She sunk into her chair at the clear disappointment in his voice. She pouted at her water glass. “We didn’t know it had alcohol in it.”
He hesitated. “The superheroes didn’t either?”
She turned her eyes on him and frowned. “No,” she glared protectively “Ladybug and Chat Noir did not know.”
“That must be why they were so shocked waking up: They probably didn’t expect to stay the night.” Sabine chuckled and smiled at her surprised daughter.
Marinette slowly relaxed and smiled back. “Yes! I mean yes, they didn’t,” she laughed.
Surprisingly, at least to Marinette, brunch went quite well after their interrogation and by the time they were done eating she felt confidant she could handle the rest of the day easily. Nothing could be more difficult than the conversation she’d just had after all.
“Did you get in trouble?” Tikki asked as she got back to her room.
“Nope!” Marinette cheered in response.
The little ladybug smiled. “That’s good. What are you going to do about Chat?”
“What do you mean?”
“About the fact that he’s Adrien.” Tikki looked at her blank face in confusion. “You know,” she gestured at Marinette’s Wall Full of Adrien™. “Your crush?”
Marinette laughed. “He was joking Tikki. He must have noticed them last time and was just messing with me a bit.”
Tikki looked at her dubiously as she landed on the desk. “I don’t think so…”
She rolled her eyes. “I do. I’ll ask Chat for sure later, alright? I should probably learn his full name anyway.”
“Good luck,” Tikki said dryly to the already distracted designer.