Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warnings:
Categories:
Fandom:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Collections:
Miraculace
Stats:
Published:
2016-05-12
Updated:
2016-05-27
Words:
2,498
Chapters:
2/?
Comments:
66
Kudos:
364
Bookmarks:
42
Hits:
3,353

Miracul-Ace Ring

Summary:

He should have known that someone would ask eventually.

"It's an ace ring," Adrien said to the camera.

Notes:

Happy birthday, Cookie! Have some Miraculace and Criss-Crossed Reveal all rolled into one. :D

Chapter 1: Adrien

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.

Chapter 2: Chat Noir

Summary:

Last time: Adrien accidentally comes out as ace; an unlikely alliance of all his friends plus Alix forms.
This time: Chat Noir accidentally comes out as ace.

Warning: there is exactly one swear word. Protect the children.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Adrien hadn't really expected Alix to keep texting him, since they'd exchanged maybe five whole sentences since he'd started school, but she did. They'd talked about sports, friends, art, and school. It was almost as if they were making up for lost conversation, putting three months into three days. Honestly? It was awesome. He hoped it wasn't too forward of him to start considering Alix a friend.

As he walked into his room, he kicked off his shoes and flung himself onto his bed. Plagg flew out of his messenger bag as it hit the pillow.

"Hey, watch it! You almost smashed my cheese!"

Adrien wrinkled his nose and looked up from his phone. "Good point. I don't want that smell in there permanently."

Plagg harrumphed indignantly and settled on Adrien's hair. "I'm going to sleep now, and you're going to smell like me for a week." Adrien huffed, but allowed his smelly flying fairy to use him as a cat bed.

His phone buzzed, and his attention returned to it.

Alix Kubdel: you know, i wouldn't have thought your ring was an ace ring. usually they're on the middle finger

And usually they're black, he added mentally. This was a terrible idea. He didn't really want to talk about his ring, and he really didn't want to keep making this lie bigger.

Self: I didn't want the media to pick up the story.

As he hit send, he said aloud, "Plagg, my ring is silver."

His kwami didn't miss a beat. "Duh."

"Ace rings are black."

"Okay. I'm asleep."

Adrien's phone buzzed again, twice.

Nathalie: Mr. Agreste has scheduled a private meeting with you Thursday immediately following school.

Adrien swallowed and made sure his phone sent Nathalie a read reciept, and then moved on to his next message. It was bound to be more pleasant than the prospect of explaining everything to his father.

Alix Kubdel: good job, smart one

Self: Right? I'm really good at this.

Adrien set his phone on his stomach and lifted his hands above his face. "Plagg, is there a way to change the appearance of an inactive miraculous?"

"Why would you want to do that? It's not like it's important."

"Let me rephrase: what's your asking price for making my miraculous permanently black?"

"If I could do it, the asking price would be for you to be quiet and let me sleep, Adrien. You're not being a very cooperative bed."

"Excuse you, I am an amazing bed."

"You are when you stop asking questions." Adrien scoffed and Plagg resituated himself. As he did, Adrien moved his miraculous from the left ring finger to the middle right, and Plagg started, tail shooting vertical.

"Don't do that," he hissed. "Keep that on your hand."

Adrien hummed his agreement. "Sorry."

Just as Plagg was settling into sleep, the Eiffel Tower burst into flames.

 

--

 

It took three and a half hours, two Cataclysms, a biplane, and a picnic basket to defeat the World War I-themed akuma. He was a lycee history teacher, frustrated with how little his students had learned in his class.

 

--

 

After getting a few words from Chat Noir, Alya pocketed her phone.

"That was pretty sweet! Ladybug really depended on you for this one; I don't think she could have done it without you hijacking that plane."

"Yeah, I was her flying ace," he said proudly. Alya gave him a blank stare.

"I don't speak English, Chat."

"The English name for air fighters during World War II is flying ace, and ace is American slang for asexual, which I am, and I was literally flying a bi-plane. So, flying ace!" He smiled broadly, waiting for her to laugh or congratulate him on his wit. As she opened her mouth to speak, however, two things happened simultaneously: Chat Noir's face dropped into pale-faced horror, and Nadja Chamack appeared out of seemingly nowhere with her cameraman.

"You heard it hear first folks! Chat Noir, live from the Champs-Élysées, is the second Parisian celebrity to be revealed as asexual this week. Chat Noir, do you have any comments to add?" Ms. Chamack shoved her microphone into his face, which was frozen in a bug-eyed, open-mouthed stare at the camera.

Alya's surprise turned very quickly to blinding, all-consuming righteous fury. How dare she? Forcing Chat Noir out of the closet on live TV? Her fists curled into a ball as she turned to face the reporter.

"You want a comment? I've got a comment. Chat Noir has a right to privacy about his personal life! He's a teenage boy! He doesn't need people discussing his life behind his mask. He deserves your respect about his boundaries and he deserves not to have his sexuality discussed on television!"

When she'd finished her comment, Ms. Chamack had retrieved her microphone and was staring into the camera with a tense, tight-lipped smile, and Chat Noir had absconded. "That was Alya Cesaire, the student who runs the Ladyblog. Thank you for your comment, Miss Cesaire. Back to you, Jacques."

Once the camera was off, Ms. Chamack turned to Alya. "The camera was already running when he was explaining his joke; I was trying to salvage the situation. You did a good thing, though. Sticking up for your friends can be hard, especially when there are thousands watching. Chat Noir is lucky to have a friend like you." Alya crossed her arms and gave her best glare as Ms. Chamack and her camera crew packed up to leave.

 

--

 

Marinette landed in her room and made her way down to her computer, her kwami floating down to the cookie stash next to it. She opened up VisageLivre to message Alix and ask for her number, but the top post on her newsfeed distracted her.

Asami Bernard (6 minutes ago): Adrien in Mdm Bustier's homeroom and Chat Noir are BOTH ASEXUAL? and here I thought we only had to worry about hot guys being TAKEN #smh

Marinette was unsettled, and wasn't quite sure why.

Navigating to a site that claimed to boast "Chat Noir -- Out of the Closet!" she called over to her kwami. "Hey Tikki? Do... do you think I should watch this?"

Tikki floated over and read her screen. "What do you think, Marinette?"

"I'm not sure." Biting her lip, Marinette used her cursor to go over the frames at the bottom of the video. It didn't look like Chat had been aware of the camera. He was talking to Alya, whose phone seemed to be put away. "It doesn't look like he meant to talk about it to anyone but Alya, but now everyone else has seen it."

"What do you think Chat Noir would want?"

"I know I want to come out to Chat on my own terms, if I do at all. But if something like this happened I don't think I'd be mad if he saw the video before talking to me." She glanced from Tikki to her monitor. "I'll see him at patrol. We'll talk. It'll be okay."

Marinette closed the tab, and opened up Wikipedia instead. If she was going to be an ally for Adrien and Chat, she was going to be the best ally in the world.

 

--

 

Chat Noir had, in fact, had a comment that Alya didn't hear. It wasn't long or particularly interesting, but he was sure the microphone had picked it up.

"Shit."

He hadn't used Cataclysm during his final transformation, so Chat Noir hadn't need to worry about being near enough to the street to become Adrien. He made for the Eiffel Tower, where he could hide alone on the metal railings and watch the city he loved while he waited for patrol. Adrien wouldn't be missed; his basketball instructor reported his attendance to Nathalie whether he actually attended or not, and he had permission to go directly to the public library to study afterward. He had pulled his phone from his bag and put it in his zipper pocket before the battle, in a rare moment of foresight, and he'd know if there was a change of plans.

The only plan he hoped would change was Ladybug coming to patrol.

Normally, he looked forward to patrol with Ladybug. They helped with petty stuff, cats in trees and small children missing dolls, but it was fun. Mostly, though, it was hanging out time. He had no desire to hang out with anyone. He'd messed up, he'd sworn on television, and Ladybug was not going to be pleased, and she was going to have a million and one questions about asexuality, and what if she thought he was broken? What if she thought he was lying? He didn't know which would be worse.

Chat took a deep breath and pushed that train of thought aside. He knew Ladybug, and however she reacted, they were a team. They'd get through it together. They always did.

Notes:

I'm absolutely floored by how many people have given kudos and left comments! I'm glad you all like ace!Adrien as much as I do. <3

I have a couple explanations, before people hit the comments section:
1. I wasn't sure how to make it obvious without disrupting the flow of the fic, but Adrien says "flying ace" in English. I hope it's clear, but juuuuust in case.
2. I have absolutely no idea what journalistic integrity dictates in cases like Chamack's, but this is the same lady who caused an akuma by shoving a camera into his face and asking leading questions, so.
3. Mari's discomfort is caused by Asami treating the boys like objects, not people; this fic doesn't have the context for that but if I ever get the rest of this Criss-Crossed Reveal AU written there's a miniarc about it. ^^