Chapter Text
“Do you have problems with your reflection?” Plagg commented when he noticed that his holder had been, now for a handful of minutes, checking himself in the mirror: “Because, if not, I don’t understand all this interest in your appearance.”
Adrien smiled, and kept staring at the mirror: when he got out of the shower he briefly glanced at himself in the mirror, he then stopped and started observing his features, blonde hair, green eyes and his body, that fencing and his superhero workout made athletic.
Sure, he couldn’t compete with Kim, his old classmate, who had made sport his life, but he didn’t look bad compared to him, either.
The black kwami leaned on the sink, with a serious expression: “What’s the problem?” he asked, and when he got no answer, waited: no joke, no puns.
“Nothing.” Adrien whispered, grabbing a white shirt that he put on the sink earlier on and wearing it: he would have made fun of him for forever, he was sure.
“You stared at yourself for at least ten minutes. There’s something wrong.”
“Promise me you won’t laugh or make stupid jokes.”
“It’s like asking me not to eat camembert.
Adrien sighed, leaning his side against the washbasin and crossing his arms: “I was trying to imagine how Marinette sees me.” he said, lowering his head and waiting for the kwami to start laughing; after a while, when he noticed that he wasn’t saying anything lifted his head back up and look at the little god: “Plagg?”
“I’m trying to understand if you’re messing with me.”
“What do you think?”
The kwami snorted, flying to his holder’s face and studying his looks too: “It’s about that guy, isn’t it? Well, I think she sees you like a wonderful wheel of camembert.” he started closing his little green eyes: “You know, the one from that expensive brand…”
“The one that smells the most. Got it. Thanks Plagg, always nice being compared to cheese.”
“You asked.” The kwami replied hastily, shrugging and floating in the bedroom, followed by Adrien, who sat on the desk chair, throwing his head back and deeply inhaling, and listened to Plagg’s little noises as he opened a box of cheese.
The knocking on the door made him sit up, a few seconds before his father opened the door: Gabriel looked at his son, then at the little spirit on the desk: “How was your day?” the man asked, closing the door behind him and reaching the bed.
Adrien followed him with his eyes, as his parent sat down and waited patiently: “As always, more or less.” the blonde replied, stretching his legs in front of him. “We went to master Fu’s, we wanted to know more about yesterday and apparently there’s this Coeur Noir that wants the miraculous. Strange, isn’t it? This mania for the miraculous.”
“Who doesn’t want absolute power?”
“You should be careful too, you know.” Adrien muttered, running a hand through his hair and pulling his bangs out of his forehead: “You are a holder, after all.”
“It’s not your problem.”
“It actually is.” Adrien snapped, getting up and walking to the window, annoyed: “You’re not untouchable. You should know that, but you never listen to anybody that isn’t you.”
Gabriel smiled and grabbed a tissue from one of his jacket pockets: “I’m not here to fight.” he explained, taking off his glasses and cleaning the lenses: “But I promise I’ll be careful.”
“Thank you.” Adrien nodded and went back to the desk: “If you wanted to know how Marinette reacted…” he stopped and smiled at the memory of the girl: “Well she was happy. Very.”
“Nathalie told me.”
“Why are you here, then?”
“I wanted to talk about you.” Gabriel stated, putting his glasses back on: “This is your last year of school, what do you want to do afterwards?”
Adrien stared, leaning his back on the back of the chair: “What? Haven’t you planned all my life already?”
“Do I really show this much control?”
“You kept me in here until I had Plagg to run away…”
“Right. Fine. You’re right, I might have had a few problems with control management.”
“A few? Can we talk about the security of the mansion?”
“A lot of problems.”
“That’s better.” Adrien said, smiling satisfied: “About your question.” he shrugged: “I’m Chat Noir already, right?”
His father stayed silent for a few seconds, then got up: “I really hope this is some kind of joke of yours.” he stated, and went towards the door: “And that’s not the only career you’re considering.” he finished, grabbing the doorknob and exiting the room.
“Did someone just get scolded?” Plagg asked, swallowing a piece of camembert.
Adrien sighed, getting up to lay on the bed: what did he even want?
After planning his life for so long, he suddenly wanted to know what he wanted to do with his life? He had thought that his father had something planned out for him, that he just had to follow whatever he wanted him to do.
He laid on his back, looking at the ceiling and reaching for his phone on his bedside table: he clicked on the first contact in his contact list.
“Adrien?” the girl asked, as soon as she picked up: “Did something happen?”
“No.”
He heard her sigh: “Please, I really can’t hear another one of your puns today.”
“Hard day?”
“Yes, between Master Fu, the invite…”
“You’re forgetting Alya’s thoughts aloud.”
“How could I forget those?” she chuckled.
“What are you doing?” he asked, as he got more comfortable on the bed.
“Nothing!”
“Mh… high pitched voice, quick answer. Someone’s hiding something…”
“I’m not!”
“Mh.”
“I- I definitely wasn’t looking at your new pictures…”
Adrien started laughing, shaking his head: “Can you explain to me why you’re still drooling over pictures when you have the original?”
“Habit?” the girl muttered: “And I wasn’t drooling.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Did something happen?” Marinette asked again, after a few seconds of silence: her mind was probably going a hundred miles per minute, thinking about why the sudden call.
“I just wanted to hear your voice.”
“Why?”
“To recharge.” he said calmly, closing his eyes: “Even if I truly recharge only when I see you.” he explained quickly, and listened to her nonsense reply, smiling amusedly.
“Nette?”
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
Silence.
Too much silence.
“Marinette?”
“Er-Adrien?” Tikki’s voice came to his ear through the phone: “Marinette is, well… How can I explain this? She’s, like, stuck.”
The boy laughed again: “I’ll leave her to you, Tiks”
“Yes, I’ll take care of it! Goodnight, Adrien. Say I to Plagg for me.”
The blonde ended the call, looking at Plagg that stopped eating and looked at the hero, interested: “What did I just hear? True love?”
“Tikki says hi.”
“Oh.” The kwami said softly, lowering his eyes and scratching his ear, almost embarrassed, making the boy smile: “Well, goodnight, Adrien.”
“Night.” Adrien watched him as he flew to the pillow on the other side of the bed and curled up like a cat; his phone buzzed and as he turned the lights off he checked his messages.
Bug
I love you too.
I’m sorry I can never say it.
“I’m an idiot.”
“Come on, Marinette.” Tikki tried to cheer her up, and floated towards her little bed: “Adrien knows you.”
“Everybody keeps telling me: ‘Adrien knows you’, ‘Adrien already knows’...”
Marinette muttered, sitting up and looking at her kwami: “That doesn’t make me less of an idiot.”
“Marinette!”
“Yes, I know. I know. I should be more confident.” The girl sighed, grabbing a pillow and hugging it: “It’s just…I can’t do it. Especially when he talks about certain stuff or he says…he says that…” she blocked again and blushed.
“Well, think about the fact that’s the same boy you rejected for quite some time.”
The girl loudly groaned, hiding her face with the pillow: “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.” the kwami sighed: “Marinette?”
“Kill me.”
“I can't,” the little god giggled, rubbing Marinette’s cheek: “And besides, you barely make a fool of yourself anymore! Think about how much you changed, since your first year as heroes: now you’re together, you can joke around. Sure, sometimes your shyness takes over, but it’s completely normal!”
Marinette turned around and smiled: “Thank you, Tikki.”
Chat yawned, balanced on a ledge and looked at the golem, that was enjoying himself, throwing cars around: “Someone should make laws about supervillains attacking at four in the morning.” he gloomily said, leaning on a chimney and looking at the monster: “Seriously, can’t she go to bed?”
Ladybug landed next to him and put a hand on his hair to caress it: “Never heard anything about evil and sleep?” she asked, winking: “Why so tired, minou? Did you not sleep well?”
“Well, if someone here didn’t send love declarations, I could sleep in peace!”
Ladybug giggled: “My poor kitty.”
“I feel like you’re making fun of me.” Chat Noir grumbled,grabbing his staff and making it spin: “Shall we go put that thing in its place? He will die in atrocious pain.”
The girl nodded, grabbing her yo-yo and throwing it to the nearest chimney: “That means I’ll bring you some croissants to school tomorrow.”
“Thta’s a promise!” Chat exclaimed, jumping forward and using his baton to reach the nearest building.
“Where do you think the crystal is?” Ladybug asked, jumping to another roof and got as close as she could get to the golem without starting a fight.
“Good question, that thing is completely made out of stone; it actually kind of reminds me of Coeur de pierre.” The hero murmured, crouching down and looking at the monster: “Can I try with my cataclysm? Maybe it’s inside like in the ice one.”
“Let’s try that.”
The black hero nodded, jumping down and calling out his power, then running toward the golem and, dodging the car thrown his way, touched the monster, destroying it: “Hey! I did it!” He exclaimed happily, turning around to cheer with his partner.
Ladybug cheered with him but her smile quickly faded, when she saw the pieces come together and created two golems: “Chat!”
“What?” Aw, that’s not fair!” he whined, pointing at the two new-formed giants and dodging an attack: “M’lady, I think it’s time to find out what the lucky object is today.” he suggested, going back on the roof as the monsters kept shouting.
The girl nodded, throwing her yo-yo in the air and saw an elastic rope creating: “Oh, amazing.” The boy groaned, crossing his arms: “Please, enlighten me on how to destroy these two with this, please. I’m curious.”
“Let me think…” Ladybug murmured and looked around for some clues on how to use the lucky charm.
“Not once a battle tank, or a shotgun came out of that thing.”
“Chat!”
“Alright, I’ll shut up.”
Ladybug deeply exhaled, then a plan started forming out in her mind and, after explaining it to her partner, jumped down and tied one end of the rope to a car and then, as Chat distracted them, made it spin around the golems so that they destroyed each other: “The crystal! Before they multiply again.” the boy screamed, pointing at the black stone that the girl destroyed with her yo-yo.
Ladybug threw her lucky charm in the air and everything went back to normal: “How am I supposed to go through our math class today?” Chat yawned and got closer to his girlfriend: “I repeat: they should make a law.”
“You can still sleep for a couple of hours when you’re home.”
“Want to keep me company, m’lady?”
“It would be difficult to explain to my parents why I’m not on my bed, don’t you think?”
Chat shrugged, grabbing her hand and kissing her knuckles: “I could come to your place, then.” he stated, wrapping her waist with his arm to keep her close: “What do you think?”
Ladybug smiled and, on her tippy-toes, almost brushed his lips with hers: “I think…” she whispered, winking and stepping back: “that you should go to sleep. I don’t know if you remember but we also have physics today.”
The blonde snorted, rolling his eyes: “You always know what to do to make me suffer, bugs.”
“My poor minou.” Ladybug cooed, going on her tippy toes and kissing him quickly: “I’ll see you later.” she exclaimed, running away when he tried to hug her again.
Chat smiled, licking his lips and jumping on a roof to chase his lady, following her home and dropping his transformation once he arrived on her balcony: “Do you have to tell me something? You whined non stop because you wanted to sleep for the whole fight.” Ladybug asked, crossing her arms as she watched him get up, and Plagg laid on the sunbed, exhausted.
Yeah, why did he follow her?
He had to stop acting before thinking…
He put his hands in the pockets of his pajamas and smiled tentatively: “I talked to my father tonight, I mean, last night.” he said, sitting on the floor, putting his elbows on his knees and looking up at her: “He wanted to know what I wanted to do with my life.”
“Oh, Adrien…”
“I didn’t know what to say.” he kept going, lowering his eyes to look at his hands: “I always thought that I had to follow whatever he said I was going to do and now…” he stopped, because the bluenette sat down in front of him and took one of his hands in hers: her earring were beeping warning them about the detransformation.
He looked down again, as the light of the magic took Ladybug’s mask away: “Sometimes I envy you, Marinette.” he said, looking at her again to find the unmasked face: “You already know what to do, you’ve known for a long time and I…”
Marinette squeezed his hand, smiling lightly: “You’ll find…” she stopped and shook her head, making her dark locks sway: “ We’ll find you road. You always do so much for me, this time I’ll do something for you. Let me help you.” She reached to caress his face with her free hand: “Trust me.”
Adrien freed his hand to envelope the girl in a tight embrace, closing his eyes and listening to her light painting: “I always trusted you.” he whispered, taking a deep breath as Marinette ran her fingers through his hair.
Plagg sighed, looking at the two hugging, and shook his head: “I really want to say something about the fact that nobody gave me cheese, but I don’t think it’s the right moment.” he stated as his friend nodded satisfied.
“You’re tired.” Gabriel said, lifting his eyes from his tablet to look at his son that was stirring his coffee as he tried to hold back a yawn.
“That happens when a crazed golem starts throwing cars around at four in the morning.” Adrien muttered, holding the bridge of his nose: between the fight, the talk with Marinette and coming back home, he didn’t have time to sleep anymore: “You had a decent schedule, at least.”
His father rolled his eyes: “I was thinking…” he started, putting aside the device and joined his hands in front of him: “About giving back my miraculous to master Fu.”
“Why?”
“So that he can find a new holder, a better one.” the man affirmed, caressing the pin on his scarf: “I talked with Noroo, yesterday.”
“What does he say?”
“He doesn’t want me to.”
Adrien smiled, bringing the mug to his lips and drinking the coffee inside of it, hoping it would help him wake up: “What if a worse holder got it?” he asked, looking at his father: “I would rather you have the miraculous, than being worried about who could use it.”
“Adrien.”
“Yes?”
“I want to do something to help you and Marinette.”
The boy nodded, putting the mug back on the table: “Keep Noroo safe, then. If this Coeur Noir wants all the miraculous, make sure she doesn’t find yours.” he said, getting up: “Now, if you’ll excuse me, a certain bug promised me croissants!”
“I don’t agree, and neither does Adrien.”
“I know.”
“Why are we here, then?”
The man didn’t answer, shifting his gaze from the kwami to the door that was being opened: “Fu.”
The old man smiled, nodding knowingly: "I was waiting for your visit.” he said and moved so that they could come in: “Noroo, Hawkmoth.”