pancakecakes

[pancakecakes]

Can we call this love? -Chapter 4

You can read this chapter here: AO3

Chapters (Tumblr) : | 1 |  2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Coming soon |

(I haven’t had the time to edit the chapters posted on Tumblr y.y please if you can, read them in AO3!)

Marinette’s mind stopped working for a moment.

It was a Sunday. It was almost a week since she met Adrien and asked him to help her out, but it felt like an eternity ago. That week felt longer to her, all because of the text she got from her ex-boyfriend on Tuesday. Since then, she started to feel very anxious, unable to sleep at nights and eat properly. She just stayed in bed, under her blankets and warm duvet all day.

She only knew it was Sunday because some friends invited her to go out to a Mexican bar in China Town. The bar had nothing out of the ordinary, but on Saturdays girls could get in free until 11pm, and beer was really cheap until midnight.

Adrien was handing to her his umbrella. She noticed how he uncovered himself from the rain just to offer it to her. The feeling was…warm. There was a guy, asking for forgiveness when he did nothing wrong, and he was offering the only thing that kept him dry.

She was not used to hear a boy saying he was sorry. Usually it was all Marinette’s fault.

She stepped forward and put her free hand on top of Adrien’s, the one he was using to hold the umbrella. She moved her hand until the umbrella was protecting both from the rain. She stared at Adrien’s hand, still afraid of looking at his eyes.

“I am really sorry.” Marinette’s voice was almost a whisper. It was not on purpose “You have nothing to apologize for.” Marinette raised her voice. She looked up until she found his eyes “I… I’m sorry you got wet because of me.” They sure were beautiful green gems.

Adrien smiled “Please don’t apologize, it was not because of you; it was because of the rain.” He tried to joke, or at least it seemed like it.

“I… Really do want to talk with you,” Marinette frowned a little. She was nervous “but I need to change my clothes first, they’re all wet.”

“W-we can meet later or- “

“Do you want to come to my place?” She said it like if it was the most normal thing to do in the world.

Marinette was used to it, she’d always ask her ex-boyfriend and Alya if they wanted to go to her room when she lived in France as if she asked if they wanted to go and grab a coffee in their favorite café. She noticed how Adrien’s face turned red and she realized what she just did: she invited a stranger who she asked to fake date her to her apartment.

“I-I need to change my clothes, or I’ll get sick!” Marinette blushed. “I’ll just change and then we can go somewhere else to… talk about everything.” She offered a small smile and Adrien giggled.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just…was not expecting you to say that.” he laughed, and Marinette swore he had the most beautiful laugh she had heard in her life. She started to laugh with him.

“Oh, I didn’t ask you if you had something else to do.”

“It’s okay, I’m free. Are you sure you’re okay with me walking you home?”

“Why would I be against it?”

“I was wondering if it’d bother you if I knew where you live…”

Marinette didn’t think of this. She decided she’d talk with Adrien and give this fake-dating situation a try, but after the text she got for her ex-boyfriend a couple of days passed and then she was embarrassed to text Adrien at all. She started to give up on the possibility of even trying it.

Meeting Adrien again was like if the universe was telling her to accept his help and try to make it work. “I don’t mind it, really.” She freed Adrien’s hand and looked down “I was thinking on… giving this a try” Marinette put certain emphasis in the word this.

“Y-you do?” Adrien tensed. Maybe he didn’t want to do it after all “I mean, I’m totally in if you’re ok with it. But only if you really want it, I don’t want to force you.”

Marinette looked away and ran her fingers through her wet hair.

‘Calm down Marinette, everything’s okay. Nothing wrong is going to happen. At least I hope so…’

“Uhm… my apartment it’s this way…”

She started walking and Adrien soon followed her, still holding the umbrella.

They walked in silence. Marinette was nervous because their arms were close enough to feel each other’s warmness without touching. She sighed and remembered they could get inside the Central Station and walk under a sheltered mall for a whole block. Her apartment was just one block away from one of the exits.

When they got to one of the entrances, Adrien closed the umbrella and Marinette took a little more distance. Maybe in one week she’d have to try and fight the anxiousness of being close to him, but she needed that space now.

“It’s so weird it’s raining. I mean, last week it was super sunny with 42℃ and now we’re barely at 15℃ and it’s raining.” Adrien said in an excited tone. He was always so cheerful, Marinette liked that about him.

“When I made my bags, I didn’t think the weather could get colder than 20℃.” Marinette admitted.

“Really? Even though it’s known this country has hot weather, during the winter season it get’s pretty cold, I heard it can even get colder than 2℃.”

“You’re kidding.” Marinette was genuinely worried, she didn’t bring any warm clothes. Maybe she could tell Alya to bring her a feather jacket, just in case.

“You weren’t expecting the rain either?”

“To be honest, I didn’t.” Marinette bit her lower lip “This country was the last option on my list and when I got accepted a couple of things happened and I didn’t make a proper research…”

“Which countries were your first options?” He looked so bright while asking. He was genuinely interested in knowing more about her. She felt her cheeks get warmer.

“My first option was Milan, then Canada, Japan or Spain.”

“Wow, that’s like completely different countries.”

“I know right?” Marinette laughed. It still hurt she didn’t get accepted in any of her first options, but maybe she could do something to make it worth it.

“Well, I wanted to go to Japan but Nino didn’t get in, and I really wanted to travel with my best friend so here I am. I don’t regret it though; this city has its charms.” Adrien offered a warm smile. For a moment Marinette had the feeling he was talking about her.

“Yeah, I guess so…” Marinette returned the smile with a small blush on her cheeks.

“OHHH, LOOK. It’s time for the birds in the clock.”

“What?”

“The birds in the clock! Haven’t you seen them yet?”

Adrien walked faster and stopped in a clear space that was quickly getting crowded by some strange reason.

“What bird in what clock, I don’t understand.” Marinette looked up and there it was, a big fob golden clock hanging up there. In the middle of it were other four little circles and the top one showed a starry sky.

Marinette looked at Adrien and he was excitedly watching her and then turning to see the clock again. She stared at the clock, and seconds later a little melody started to play as a marionette display dropped down from the bottom of he watch. The top half was displaying a starry sky and the bottom part had four red and three white birds. In the middle of the bottom half there were two little golden children.

“The melody is nice, isn’t it?” Adrien said with a big smile.

Marinette stared at it, amazed. She had been there for a couple of months and she had passed through that same place several times and it was the first time she saw it. She heard someone mention the central’s clock, but she never minded it too much.

The music kept playing for a couple of minutes and then everything went back to normal. The clock came back to its original form, the music stopped playing and the people started walking to their original destinations.  How many things had she been missing? How many wonderful things haven’t she been able to see because she had been in her room all this time?

“The birds in the clock…” Marinette sighed and looked back at Adrien, who was smiling excitedly waiting for her to say something “it was beautiful, thanks.”

“There are tons of beautiful things in this city. I’ll show them all to you, if you want.”

Marinette felt her chest get a little warmer. She was afraid to want things for herself, but right that instant she really wanted to believe in Adrien’s words, and see the beauty of that city with him.

She didn’t notice how much time she spent staring at Adrien with a smile, but after awhile his smile faded and his cheeks turned bright red, and that’s what bring her back to reality.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I know it’s silly, but I was really moved by the clock and the birds.” she laughed nervously.

“It’s okay, haha.” Adrien laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.

“Oh, I even forgot I was wet.” Marinette laughed again “Lets get going.”

They kept walking in silence. Marinette’s face was burning in embarrassment. When they got to the exit Adrien opened the umbrella again, they walked one block and crossed the street.

“Are you cold? I can give you my sweater.” Adrien said, worried “I-I’m sorry I should have offered it from the start, I was kind of—”

Marinette giggled “Don’t worry, this is my building over there.” she pointed to a well-known building by the exchange students. Adrien was surprised for a moment and then smiled.

“This is a nice building.”

The thing is, there were several buildings for students to rent downtown near the university, but there were a couple that were known as expensive. During the first month before classes started everyone made parties in their apartment, and the best parties were always in the fancy buildings because of the beautiful view of the city at night.

Now, this building wasn’t the most expensive you could rent in this city, but it was the most expensive withing ten blocks radio around university. Marinette and her ex boyfriend saved a ridiculous amount of money to travel in spring break and the break after the semester ended. Since they broke up before arriving to the actual city and she had a lot of money she wouldn’t use to travel or enjoy herself, she decided to at least have the most amazing room she could get.

She ended up having a room for her own, with her own bathroom, air conditioner and enough space to not feel enclosed. If she was going to be alone and depressed in another country, she might as well have the best room she could afford.

They entered the building, everything was clean and luxurious. Marinette blushed.

‘Perfect, now he’ll think I’m some kind of rich dumb girl. Oh God, just kill me already’ Marinette cried in her mind. Now she was regretting living in that building. She could’ve rented something cheaper.

“I came to see these apartments, but they were all taken. I was really excited to live here, we could’ve been neighbors you know!” Adrien said, as they got inside the elevator.

“Actually, they were full when I called too, but someone canceled the contract and they had one room left and I took it.” She admitted.

“Really? They called me too for the same reason afterwards, but we needed two rooms.”

“I guess I’m glad you didn’t take it, or else I wouldn’t be living here.” Marinette offered a small smile without looking at him.

The elevator’s doors closed and she pressed the button for the 18th floor.

“You must have a nice view.”

“I do actually. I like to see the sunset and dawn. It makes me feel less lonely.”

‘Wow, that sounded pretty depressing’

“I mean, it makes me feel happier.”

“I get it, when I feel sad I also look at the sunset and feel a little better.” Adrien looked at her and she looked down “You know, like the little prince.”

“The little prince? You mean the kid’s book?”

“Yeah, have you read it?”

“I did, but when I was really young. I don’t remember it much.”

The elevator’s door opened, and Marinette walked to her apartment. She used her key card and the door opened. The apartment was pretty small and simple: when you opened the door, you could see a little hall with four doors to the left. The floor was smooth light wood and the walls were white.

Marinette’s room was the first one. She used her card again to open the door and they entered. Her room was kind of small for two people, but it looked clean and she had everything she needed.

The bathroom was the first thing you could see in the left. To the right there was a rather big closet for the amount of clothes she brought, with mirrors in the doors. Right next to the bathroom there were some closed drawers and then her bed. Next to the closet she had another open drawers and then a cute small desktop. She had a medium window in which you could see the city and a bunch of beautiful buildings, but right now you could only see gray clouds through it.

“I’ll change really quickly in the bathroom, you can take a seat in my bed or use my chair if you want.”

“Thanks…” Adrien looked around really quick, and when he saw Marinette took off her shoes, he started doing it too.

“Ah don’t worry, you can keep them if you want.”

“I don’t want to mess up your carpet.” Adrien took off his shoes anyway “Why don’t you take a bath? It’be bad if you don’t warm up and get sick.”

“But if I do that I’ll leave you alone for like, fifteen minutes.”

“It’s okay, I can wait. I don’t want you to get sick.”

Marinette hesitated for a moment. She really wanted to take a shower “Okay then,” She started to find new clothes in her drawers “the wifi password is in my desktop, there you’ll find my account and the password you need to get internet.”

“I can use my data, don’t worry.” Adrien said, sitting in her chair.

“Okay… I’ll take a shower really quick I promise.”

“Don’t worry, take your time”

Marinette stared at him for a couple of seconds, and then she closed the bathroom’s door. She showered as fast as she could.

Adrien’s heart was pounding really hard against his chest. It was the first time he was in a girl’s room �� well, Chloé’s room didn’t count because they were like siblings—and it was something ridiculous if you think about it objectively, but it made him feel flustered, in a good way.

The smell was different than Nino’s or even his own room. It smelled…sweet. It smelled like those cheap perfumes people buy in stores for five dollars. Not that it bothered him, but it was the first thing he noticed. It smelled like vanilla and…probably cherry, or strawberry.

His nose picked another smell: Paris Hilton’s Can Can. Chloé once got it as a birthday present and she didn’t like it. Adrien smelled it and thought it was nice, but it didn’t fit Chloé’s personality at all. In other hand, Chloé’s room smelled like a couple of the most expensive and popular perfumes every model used.

The room was clean and organized, except for one of her drawers: there were tons of instant noodles, big bags of chips, multiple boxes of milk tea and around 5 boxes of chocolate biscuits.

And the bed. The bed was undone and had three thick blankets and four fluffy pillows. In a corner of the bed there were three books, a cable to charge her phone and a pair of headphones. In the other corner there were a pair of fluffy socks and her pajamas.

The bed was big enough for two people. Adrien blushed at the thought of it.

‘I guess big beds can make you feel lonely if you don’t fill them with cute, fluffy things. I would do the same, honestly.’

In her night table next to her bed there was a glass full of water and a roll of toiler paper. The first thought that came to Adrien’s mind was Marinette crying in her bed, using the toilet paper to clean her fresh tears.

‘That’s probably not it…’

Adrien remembered how much he cried in his bed when her mother left, all wrapped up in his blankets, drying his tears with toilet paper…

‘I need to stop thinking about sad stuff’

Adrien looked at his phone and saw a message from Nino. He had forgotten about him, he had to tell him.

Nino

04:02 PM.

Hey Adrien, everything alright? Did you saw her today?

Nino

04:04 PM.

I’ll be going to do groceries around six. If you’re free we can go together.

Adrien

04:23 PM.

I FOUND HER! I’m in her room, she got wet in the rain and she’s taking a shower. We’ll talk about everything. What should I do?? She said we could go somewhere to talk about it, where should I get her?

He needed to stay calm. Marinette told him she wanted to give this a chance. But he was getting even more nervous as time passed by.

‘Just show him who you are, Adrien. Show her you are more than your father’s brand and more than just a model. I can do this, I can do this.’

Nino

Just Now

WTH? Her room? Adrien don’t be nervous, just be yourself ok?

Nino

Just Now

Man, I’m jealous. I guess you won’t come with me to do groceries?

Adrien

Just Now

Sorry, I promise I won’t be late.

Nino

Just Now

Don’t worry babe, just remember: bros before hoes. DON’T YOU DARE LEAVING ME AGRESTE, I’LL DIE IF YOU DO THAT TO ME. WE’RE MARRIED.

Adrien

Just Now

HAHAHA, Nino stop. I’ll never leave you.

Nino

Just Now

Love ya dude, show her how wonderful you are.

Adrien sighed.

Show her how wonderful he was? He suddenly became nervous. What was he, Adrien Agreste, without his looks, his father’s name and his work as a model? What was he, he wondered, that made him special?

Finding the answer was the reason he decided to go abroad and take a 6 months break of everything but school. He needed to know who he was without everyone’s expectations of what he was supposed to be.

Suddenly, Marinette’s room felt a little lonely.

Who was him?

The bathroom’s door opened and a cloud of steam scaped the bathroom. Marinette’s face showed, red from the shower.

“I’m almost ready, sorry for the waiting.”

“Don’t worry, it wasn’t long at all. It even takes me more time for me to shower.”

“Just give me 5 minutes more.”

“Sure, take the time you need.”

Marinette gave him a small smile and then her face disappeared inside the bathroom again. Wow Adrien, spacing out again. He needed to focus, or else he could mess up. He opened Google Maps and tried to memorize the places he would take Marinette when she accepted—well, if she accepted.

Minutes later he started to smell a perfume he couldn’t quite name. Marinette appeared again, warmly dressed, make up on and a cute hair bun. She was wearing high thick stocking, small black shorts and red turtle necked sweater. Adrien was speechless.

“Are you ready?” She asked, cheeks still red from the shower.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Adrien tried to not sound as nervous as he actually was.

Marinette took a pair of black boots and a creamy colored raincoat to finish her outfit. Before exiting her apartment, she hurried back into her room and came back with a pink white dotted scarf.

“Do you have a place in mind?” Adrien dared to ask.

Marinette selected the first floor on the elevator “Hmmm, how about the café I…” She hesitated, showing some discontent “…met you.”

“Sounds good to me.” Damn, she looked cute in that outfit.

They walked quietly. The café was close, they’d be there in less than ten minutes walking. Adrien used his umbrella and Marinette had her own. He tried to start a small chat with Marinette, but she only giggled and kept walking. Once they arrived at the café, Marinette finally talked to Adrien. She looked nervous.

“Are you going to drink something?”

“Oh, yes. I’d like a hot chocolate.”

“All right.”

She then asked for a chocolate and her own drink: A caramel machiatto. Adrien rushed to pay for both drinks but Marinette was faster and used her debit card.

“Don’t worry, this is on me. As a thank you for letting me use your umbrella.”

They waited for the drinks before finding a table.

Why was it so hard for him to talk to her?

Marinette was intimidating, in a good way. She was beautiful, nice and she had the same vibe some people have, the ones that are talented. He sighed and scratched the back of his neck.

“Why do you want to do this?” Marinette asked, abruptly. Adrien stared at her, not knowing how to answer, “I mean, what is your motivation?”

Adrien laughed uncomfortably “I saw in you someone who could treat me like a normal person…” He waited to see her reaction. She looked away.

“Just that?”

“Yes.” He gulped “People are always by my side because of who my father is, and because I’m a model. I just… want a genuine interaction with someone…” he hesitated “I know fake dating is not something genuine, but if you can treat me like a normal human being then that’s enough for me.”

Marinette licked and bite her own lip before answering. “I thought your best friend was your roommate, isn’t he genuine with you?” she looked at him again.

“He is, but sometimes I want to spend time with a girl.”

Both of them remained silent until Marinette blushed hard.

“N-not in a romantic way! I meant in like in a friendship way!” Adrien blushed hard too “we can be friends… right?”

Marinette laughed and covered her mouth with one of her hands “Sure we can.” Adrien smiled too. That was a genuine laugh, he made her laugh. “I, Marinette Dupain-Cheng promise to treat you, Adrien Agreste like a normal human being.” She offered her hand.

“And I, Adrien Agreste, promise to be the best fake boyfriend you will ever have.” He took her hand and warmly smiled at her.

The drinks were ready and they took them to the farest table. They needed to discuss serious matters and it’d uncomfortable if someone heard it.

“Alya is coming next week. She’s really smart and she could notice we aren’t actually dating, so I thought maybe we should talk more about ourselves and then have a couple of dates… so when she’s here it isn’t too awkward around her.”

“We could have dates daily starting today.” Adrien said, far more excited than he wanted it to sound. Marinette stared at him, surprised. “I mean, if you’re okay with it.”

“Well… I don’t really do much during the day. I guess we could do that.”

‘Yes!’ Adrien’s voice shouted excitedly inside his head.

“But first, how about we talk more about ourselves?”

“I think you could easily Google anything you want to know about me.”

“Well, I don’t want to know about Adrien Agreste, only son of Gabriel and Emilie Agreste, main model of the brand. I want to know more about you—” she hesitated. “Kitty.��

Adrien felt his cheeks get a little warmer “Looks like someone did her homework. It’s unfair how much you know about me and how little I know about you.”

“That’s about to change. Ask anything and I’ll answer you honestly.”

“Anything? Are you sure?”

“Anything. Let’s be completely sincere between us, promise you won’t hide things or lie to me and I’ll do the same.”

“Promise.” Adrien raised his little finger.

“Promise.” She intertwined their fingers and then she let a deep sigh out. “First I need to tell you the whole situation. You are free to decide to not help me after listening to what I am about to say,” Adrien nodded and drank from his hot chocolate “I was in a toxic relationship…” Marinette’s lips trembled. She tried to keep talking but her voice couldn’t form any word.

“It’s okay, I’m not going to judge you.”

Marinette bit her lip “I… really loved him.” Another pause. She closed her eyes and frowned. Adrien knew saying it out loud must really hurt. “But he didn’t love me. He cheated on me before of our first anniversary. We were together for 5 years. He told me he would change, that he wouldn’t do it again, but from that moment on he acted different… he was cold and mean. He used me…” her voice cracked at the end and it was obvious she was trying not to cry. Eyes watered and getting red.

Marinette didn’t look at him. She stared at the nothingness as she tried to say the things she wanted to say. It was really hurtful to see her like that, even if they weren’t close.

“He never stopped cheating on me, I just never caught him. He broke up with me a couple of months ago. He traveled with his family for Christmas vacations and he tried to hit on a girl in the bar’s hotel. His sister found out and was very pissed with him. He then came home and broke up with me because he was pissed I ruined his chances with other girls…” She bit her upper lip as she took another deep breath “He used me to do his school projects and then he dumped me. Alya was really pissed but not surprised… Everyone was pissed, but I was the only one surprised.”

They stayed quiet for what felt an eternity.

“I’m really sorry.” Adrien said, his mouth feeling dry.

Marinette covered her eyes with one of her hands, laughing nervously “I am really stupid. It was my fault. Everyone tried to make me realize he was not good for me, but I never listened.”

“It’s not your fault” Why was he feeling angry? “he hurt you. He asked you to trust him and you did, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“I think sometimes we’re too busy letting our expectation be higher than they should be, ready to be hurt,” she finally removed her hand from her face “and then when we actually get hurt we get pissed at everyone but ourselves, who are actually at fault.”

“It is not your fault, Marinette.”

“It was. I know he didn’t love me and I kept trying. Deep down I knew he was cheating on me, but I never wanted to believe it.” She frowned and stared at the table “Is not other people’s fault when you higher your expectations knowing the final result, just because you hope they’ll magically change…”

Her words hurt him. He knew she was right, and he knew how it felt to have high expectations on someone just to get disappointed over and over again. Adrien knew her father loved him, but he never showed it to him since they got separated. Still, he always hoped to him to hug him, tell him he’s proud or at least just share a meal with him. But he never did, and he was hurt everytime, even though nothing had changed. He wasn’t surprised anymore, just sad and disappointed.

“I guess… I get what you mean” he stared at the table again “I’m sorry.”

“Please, don’t apologize.” She looked at him, but he didn’t dare to look back.

“… but I still believe you deserved to be loved and respected. Even when your expectations were higher than they should be, you still deserved it.”

“…thank you.” She said, so softly he almost missed it.

Silence thickened, but Marinette was the first to break it.

“I’m afraid to get into another toxic relationship, and I still love my ex boyfriend. That’s why I’m not feeling comfortable going out, getting wasted and make out with random people I don’t even know.”

“I’d never expect you to do that.” He finally looked up at her and she was blushing.

“I’m glad to hear that. Sometimes people think you get over a broken heart if you get into a new relationship as soon as you can, but I differ.”

“I agree with you. You shouldn’t pressure yourself to find someone new. Try to do it at your own pace.”

She shrugged “I only wanted to make it clear that I won’t fall for you, even if you treat me nice…”

“I…” it took him off ward “I want you to know that I have no intentions of taking advantage of you because you’re vulnerable. I’ll respect you and your feelings over everything else.”

She slightly smiled “I know you will… Thank you Adrien.”

“If you ever feel uncomfortable with whatever I do, please tell me. Making you uncomfortable is the last think I want to do.”

She simply giggled “You look so serious.”

“I am serious Marinette. I want to be your friend, someone you can put your trust in.”

“I still don’t understand why you want to be my friend.”

“Well…. You remind me of someone.”

Silence. Marinette raised one of her eyebrows, waiting for him to keep talking.

“You remind me of myself,” he wasn’t entirely lying. Marinette remind him of Ladybug, but she also had something that made him think of himself from another time “you remind me of myself from a time I really needed a friend.”

Marinette looked away “…I’m sorry I doubted you…”

“It’s okay. I just want to show you not all people want to hurt you. Not everyone has bad intentions.”

Marinette looked at him, with a brand-new expression. Her pink lips were delicately curved up, inside her beautiful blue eyes a hint of hope, and cheeks slightly blushed. Oh boy, he liked her, he really did. But he had to keep his promise to both Nino and Marinette. He had to be a good friend, no hidden intentions.

“Now you can ask anything you want.” She said, with honey in her voice.

Adrien smiled so much it hurt him. He could finally know more about her.

It was late, the sun was nowhere to be seen since a couple of hours ago, and the rain stopped at some point. They had been talking all evening. Marinette’s initial hesitation disappeared, and it was replaced by warmness and silly laughs.

They spoke about everything. School, video games, tv shows, favorite foods and drinks, important things, trivial stuff, serious matters and silly questions floated in the room as they started to know each other more.

“Maybe we should go, it’s already late.” Marinette said when she noticed the café was almost empty.

“Do you want to have dinner?”

“Uh…” she stared at him, with doubt in her beautiful eyes.

“I’m starving, aren’t you hungry?”

She covered her mouth, trying to hide a big smile that appeared on her lips “Sure, let’s go and have dinner.”

They walked out of the café and Adrien looked at the time. It was 8:04 PM. There weren’t many options to go and grab dinner apart from bars and fast food establishments.

“Do you have a place in mind or are you okay with whatever I choose?” he politely asked her.

“I’ll trust you this time. If you disappoint me, I won’t let you choose anymore.”

“I could never do that even if I tried, my lady.”

She laughed “My lady?”

“Princess?”

She laughed again “What’s with the nicknames?”

“Bugaboo?” he tilted his head.

“Stop!” she giggled.

“You called me kitty. I thought I should give you a nickname too.”

Marinette looked away, as they walked in the streets. They passed someone singing. It was normal to see people singing and performing in the streets, that’s how lively that city was.

“You can call me everything but Bugaboo.”

“Ehhhh, why? You didn’t like it?”

“I mean, is not bad but the other two are nicer.”

“I’ll take you to the best restaurant of your life, and you’ll be so happy you won’t mind me calling you Bogaboo.”

“I don’t think that could ever happen.”

Marinette was very nervous. To their first official date, Adrien Agreste took her to one of the restaurants beside the river, the expensive fancy ones. The restaurant was so fancy Marinette felt out of place.

“Is there something wrong?” Adrien asked her, worried.

“Is it okay for us to have dinner here? I don’t think I’m dressed properly…”

“You look amazing. Besides, I’m not dressed too formal either.”

“This way, please.” The waitress appeared out of nowhere and lead them to a table with dim light and romantic atmosphere. It was a small table with two candles. “Is this table okay?”

“Yes, thank you.” Adrien answered happily and quickly got Marinette’s chair to help her sit.

“I’ll be back in a moment to take the order of your drinks. Please take your time choosing your dishes.”

“Thank you…” Marinette answered nervously.

“You don’t seem happy…” Adrien said with a rather disappointed tone.

“It’s not that I don’t like it… but I’m not sure I brought enough money to eat here today.” She tried to sound like if she wasn’t lying.

“Please order whatever you want without looking at the price, this time is on me.”

“What, no, don’t say that. I can’t let you pay for my food.”

“Why not? I’m glad you accepted coming with me, I hate eating alone.”

“Hmmm,” she licked her lips and bit the upper one “if I let you pay, I’ll feel like if I was using you.”

“Then just don’t think about it.” He smiled brightly “What do you want to drink? I think I’ll have just water.”

“Oh…” Marinette looked at the menu really fast “A lemonade, natural.”

“Is there something you crave to eat?”

“Hmmm…” She looked at the menu again. All the dishes were over 65dlls each. Why were they so expensive?? She looked at the dishes with the lower prices “…A soup.”

“A soup?” he looked doubtful “Oh,” he said as if he realized something “I’ll have a salad. For main dish I’ll order something with meat.”

“I was thinking on only eating the soup…”

“As a main dish?”

“Yes.”

He looked doubtful and looked at the menu again. “I guess I’ll just have the salad then.”

“Please don’t! You’re hungry.”

“It feels bad to eat a lot when the other person doesn’t eat just as much. Sorry I made you came when you weren’t hungry.

She blushed. “I-it’s not that I’m not hungry…” she was hungry, but her eating habits were so bad she was afraid to order a dish and barely touching it. On op of that, Adrien offered to pay. She would take the dish to her apartment to eat later, but if they kept eating together he will soon realize she didn’t eat much in the first place. Not that eating too little is bad, but her situation was not healthy, and she knew it. “Okay, I’ll have a hamburger.”

“You can eat literally everything you want, please don’t feel pressure to eat something you don’t want.”

“I am… craving a hamburger.” She felt her cheeks burning. Why was she so embarrassed? Though the fact they were in a fancy restaurant and she would be ordering hamburger was something to be embarrassed of already… or at least that’s what she felt.

The waitress appeared and asked them to take the drinks order. They decided to order both their drinks and food.

“You don’t have to feel bad. I have plenty of money.”

“I know you’re rich.” She giggled.

“Then why won’t you let me spend my money on you?”

She pouted “Shouldn’t you spend that money on things you like?”

Silence. Maybe that wasn’t the best answer she could’ve said.

“Maybe I--” He stuttered. “I like… spending time with you.”

It felt wrong. Was it nice to spend time with her? She was afraid, maybe if Adrien spent more time with her he’d realize how boring she is. Maybe if Adrien spent more time with her, he’d get bored of her… just like her ex boyfr--.

“I’m sorry if it made you feel uncomfortable.”

“Don’t apologize. I’m just not used to… this.”

“And what’s this?”

Her voice came out almost in a whisper “People enjoying my company.”

She stared at her hands, afraid to look back at Adrien’s eyes.

“I’m sorry to hear that, but from now and on you’ll have to get used to it,” he said, in a voice full of confidence. He then sounded doubtful and scared “If you’re okay with that. I don’t want to pressure you.”

He was the sweetest. A small smile formed on her lips as she looked back at him.

“Isn’t it too much work hanging out with me?”

He smiled back “I think it’s worth it.”

“If you ever get tired of me, please tell me as soon as you feel it.”

“What if that doesn’t happen?”

“It will.”

“You sound pretty sure about it.”

“It’s because is going to happen eventually.”

He looked hurt.

She could hear Alya’s voice telling her to not be so negative. She sighed. She was being negative, and she knew it. She had to trust more, she had to… trust him. Adrien was a good boy, he wouldn’t… hurt her.

��How can I show you that’s not going to happen?”

She looked at him, confused.

“How can I show you I’m different from him?” he asked with a firm tone.

Marinette tried to say something, but she ended up mumbling nonsense.

“How can I show you I am not your ex boyfriend, and that I won’t do the same things he did to you.”

Silence. She didn’t expect to hear him say that to her. Her heart hurt, she could barely breathe. Adrien wasn’t her ex boyfriend, Adrien wasn’t her ex boyfriend… he wasn’t. She could trust him.

“I don’t…” She tried to say something, but she got interrupted by Adrien.

“I’d do anything to prove it to you.”

She gulped. The waitress appeared out of nowhere again and left their drinks. She tried to subtly flirt with Adrien, but he didn’t stop staring at her, decided to get an answer. The waitress, beautiful and mature sighed as she gave up and left. She bit her lower lip. She felt her lips get dry and they started to hurt.

“I don’t know how to answer to that question.”

He finally looked away and shrugged.

Silence again. She hated awkward silence.

She shrugged and looked down.

“I’m sorry…I…” Adrien spoke again, but she couldn’t dare to look at him. He hesitated again and sighed deeply. “I’m afraid you will go away again. I’m afraid you pull walls between us.” He admitted.

She shyly looked at him and he really looked troubled. They didn’t know each other much but he already knew how she would act. This was her chance to change and try to move on, she had to be braver, stronger… she needed to make things different to have different results. That mean she had to stop pushing away people.

“I won’t do it. I promise.” The words pained her, but she had to promise it to him, to herself.

“I promise I won’t hurt you. I’d rather hurt myself before hurting you.”

“I don’t want you to be hurt because of me. I don’t deserve it.”

“I’m sorry, but I differ.” He teased her and shot her with a beautiful smile she couldn’t resist. Why was his smile so beautiful? She definitely had a soft spot for handsome boys.

She covered her face with her right hand and laughed nervously “What am I going to do with you, hot stuff.”

“You think I’m hot?” he smirked.

She laughed again “Thank you.”

“For what, princess?”

“For believing in me.”

She ended up eating all her food, which was something strange for her. Maybe she was happy, or maybe she would eat more if she didn’t eat alone most of the times. Adrien was amazing and kept the conversation going smoothly and eventually had her laughing and smiling so much her cheeks were hurting terribly. They kept talking about video games and when they finished eating it was almost midnight.

He gave his sweater to her and walked her to her apartment. The sky was clear, something strange considering how bad it was raining earlier. He kept talking about movies they should see in the movie theater and she felt happy just to see him talk so excitedly.

It was true she still felt sad and insecure, but there were moments when she was with Adrien when she felt she was where she belonged. A dangerous feeling considering they were just fake dating. The only thing she didn’t want to happen was to confuse love with the comfort of having someone beside her who treated her well. She didn’t want to think she loved him just to find out later she was only feeling lonely. Loneliness and love could easily be confused after a breakup.

She sighed as she saw him talking to her. She wouldn’t fall for him, it didn’t matter how well she treated her, how sweet his words and actions were, she would definitely not fall in love with him. It was decided.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked, just as interested as a cat would. The nickname fit him perfectly.

“At what time are we seeing each other tomorrow?”

He smiled brightly and for a moment she felt it was the middle of a sunny day “Do you have classes tomorrow?”

She gulped. She had one class, but she wasn’t going to classes anymore “I do, but I’m free by eleven.”

“Do you want to have lunch with me? Maybe I could show you my apartment.”

She smirked “Are you sure you don’t have bad intentions?”

He faked to be offended “Don’t you trust me?”

She laughed loudly “I do.”

“Should I meet you in your classroom?”

“Let’s meet at the café.”

“All right then.”

They arrived at the door of her building and Adrien took her hand and placed a small kiss on it.

“Isn’t this a little too extra?” The touch of his lips on her skin still felt like a threat.

“I’m a model my lady, I’m supposed to be extra.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works.”

“I thought you were a fashion designer. You should understand.”

“Should I be extra too?” she asked him jokingly.

“Just be however you want to be, and I know it’ll be perfect.”

She blushed. This felt a little too good to be okay “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Silence again, but this time it wasn’t too awkward. They stared at each other for a couple of seconds. She didn’t want to go to her room just yet, but at the same time she didn’t want to sound too clingy. After all, they spent the whole evening together.

Eyes sparkling, Adrien asked sweetly “See you tomorrow?”

She smiled and opened the door without answering and closed it as fast as she could. Adrien looked worried and got closer to it.

The door was made of crystal. Adrien could easily see her stare at him as she pressed a hand on it. Adrien did the same and smiled. She barely heard him asking her again through the crystal door.

“See you tomorrow?” she nodded, and they waved goodbye. She would be seeing him in less than ten hours.

#miraculous ladybug #fics #adrienette #CWCTL #slow burn #fake dating au

[pancakecakes]

(my favorite) ways to say I love you

Summary: Winter started and Chat Noir seems a little down. Trying to cheer him up, Ladybug starts noticing her own feelings for him. Inspired on a Tumblr post.

Tags: Ladynoir, hugs, picnic, dancing, singing, fluff, a little bit of angst.

Notes: These were supposed to be drabbles and I fucked up. I’m thinking on writing a Christmas Special/continuation. Tell me if you want to read an extra chapter for this small series!

Read it on Ao3! (I think Tumblr is blocking posts with links, so I’ll just copy-paste the link here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16706167/chapters/39181465)

You’re really something, aren’t you.

“I mean, it’s really cold lately. We could get sick.” He said, still worried.

“We won’t get sick if we are careful,” Ladybug smirked “just make sure to eat all your vegetables, kitty. And make sure to wear something warm when you’re out.”

“What if I don’t have anything warm to wear?” he smirked back. He had plenty of warm clothes. The blue scarf his father gave him on his birthday was something he wore every day to school.

“I thought you were rich?”

“What gave you that idea, my lady?”

She hesitated “You’re right, I don’t know why I had this crazy idea you were rich.”

“If we were married, I’d work twice as hard to give you a life you deserve. If you want me to be rich, I can make it happen.”

She giggled “Sure thing kitty. But I want to accomplish things on my own too, you know. If we’re rich I want it to be because of our mutual effort.” She winked. Chat Noir suddenly felt warm, something he thought impossible after feeling cold all evening.

“And I’m sure you will! You’re the most amazing and talented girl I know,” he doubted for a second “well, maybe you’re the second most talented girl I know.” He joked.

“What did you say??” she faked to be offended.

“Well, there’s this girl in my class who is amazing. She’s like a Ladybug without a mask.”

“Oh… are you replacing me? Ah… my heart…”

“No one could ever replace you, my heart belongs to you and you only.”

“Now I’m jealous. Is she going to help you save Paris from now and on?” She pouted.

“My ladyyyyyyyyyyy.” He threw his arms around her, expecting to be dodged.

But he wasn’t. Ladybug caught him in her arms. He almost choked.

“No one could ever replace you, either.” She said, in a soft voice that was almost a whisper. She played with his hair. He started coughing uncontrollably “Are you ok Chat Noir?? Are you getting sick??” She put a hand on his forehead. He must be burning. “I think you ARE getting sick.”

“Don’t worry about it, tomorrow I’ll be ok I promise!”

“If you get sick who is going to help me defeat the akumas?”

“I won’t get sick!”

--

Next day was cold, again. He wasn’t expecting it to be warmer, but deep down he hoped to feel warmer in his heart. Cold evenings made him remember his mother wasn’t around for another year.

“Why are you looking so gloomy?” Ladybug arrived, with a pink gift bag.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, this? Nothing.”

“Could it be a present for me?”

She stayed silent for a moment to build some suspense “You guessed right! You said you didn’t have anything warm to wear, so I decided to give you some of my warm clothes!”

“Oh…”

“Eh? You don’t look nearly as excited as I thought you’d be. That’s… disappointing.”

“It’s not that… is just…” Why was he feeling sentimental? “Are you sure?”

“Why not? It’s cold and we need to make sure we don’t get sick. And…” she looked away, slightly blushed “I was hoping you would think of me wherever you wear it without the suit.”

“What if we know each other without the suit and you see me wearing it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, don’t you think I would recognize your goofy smile and lame jokes anywhere?” he blushed. Even when he was happy, tears tried to make their way out. *

“I guess you’re right. I’d recognize you anywhere.”

“Now, you have to decide which one you want to keep.”

“Can’t I keep them all?”

“Close your eyes.”

“Are you going to kiss me?”

“Hmmm… Maybe.”

Chat Noir closed his eyes as fast as he could. He could easily feel how the warmness of his cheeks extended through all his face, ears and neck. He hoped Ladybug thought it was caused by the cold weather and not because of what she just said.

He felt how Ladybug put a soft warm scarf around his neck “Don’t open your eyes yet!” she then put a warm hat and right afterwards she took one of his hands and tried to put on a glove.

“Do you need help?” he joked.

“Yes, please.” She gave him the pair of gloves and once he finished putting them on, she spoke again “Open your eyes.”

When he opened his eyes again, he saw a very excited Ladybug holding a small mirror. She looked so happy. In the mirror he saw himself wearing a cat winter hat. Black, with small details in pink. The scarf was black as well, with a small charm of a cute pink flower. The gloves were fluffy, but the design matched his suit.

“Were this really—” he was interrupted by Ladybug, who placed a small kiss on his right cheek.

“I hope you like them.”

A small tear escaped his eyes.

This was too good to be true “I…love them.” He sighed and tried to not start crying on the spot “does it mean I can keep them all?”

“It means you have to give me something in return.”

He laughed. Another tear escaped his eyes “Isn’t my love enough?”

She bit her lower lip “If I told you it is… will you—” she hesitated. Her face matched her suit, turning completely red. “WILL YOU BUY ME MACAROONS?” she was suddenly nervous.

He laughed again, not believing what was happening “Dupain-Cheng’s?”

Ladybug’s lips parted, eyes filled with what seemed like… fear? Anticipation? … or maybe… hope?

“OH, you mean, the bakery?”

“What else could I mean?”

She looked away “Hmmm, yeah, Dupain-Cheng’s would be amazing.”

“I’ll bring you the biggest box of macaroons they have!”

“And then you wonder why I think you’re rich?”

“I’ll be everything you want me to be.”

“If you go to the Dupain-Cheng’s bakery…” she shyly started “ask them if they have something for you. I’ll buy you something.”

“You don’t have to.”

“But I want to!” she pouted “just ask them that, ‘do you have something for me?’ and they’ll know it’s you.”

“You mean they’ll know I’m Chat Noir?” he teased.

“Forget it, I won’t buy you anything.”

“But my ladyyyyyyy--”

“Ask them. I’ll leave something special for you.” She took her yoyo out “don’t dare to ask them more questions!”

“I promise.”

She smiled “See you tomorrow, kitty.” And then she disappeared.

He sighed, feeling his cheeks feeling warmer “You are really something, aren’t you?”

 Come here.

“It’s nothing, really.” His mouth was filled with something unknown to her, and for some reason it bothered her.

“What is it, Chat Noir?” She repeated, slightly pissed.

“Nothing, my lady.” He smiled. Cheeks stuffed like a squirrel.

“Tell me what it is Chat Noir!” She threw her arms around him, but he quickly looked up as he chewed. Their height difference was a nightmare in that moment.

“Tell me what you’re eating!” she pressed his cheeks with both of her hands.

“Hmmm?”

“Chat Noir! What the hell are you eating??”

He quickly swallowed before he smiled at her and spoke normally again “Nothing. Why are you so interested??”

Why was she interested, she wondered? He was eating something, not big deal.

Chat Noir got closer and gave her a small kiss on the forehead. She pressed his cheeks harder and he let out a small groan. “Why do you have to be so aggressiveeee.” Chat Noir cried as he took two steps backwards and rubbed his cheeks.

“I am not. You’re being ridiculous! Why wouldn’t you tell me what you were eating?”

“I was not eating anything.”

She groaned “CHAT.”

“Yeah, that’s my name.”

She face-palmed. Why was it bothering her so much? She remembered those videos she saw on the internet where the owner of the pet was worried his dog or cat was eating something they shouldn’t. The difference was Chat Noir was not her pet, he was a human being.

“Ok, lets just forget about it.”

Chat Noir stuffed his mouth with something again, and slowly started to chew. When Ladybug noticed she ran in his direction and he used his staff to scape.

“CHAT NOIR!” She shouted as loud as she could “COME HERE.”

Sit next to me?

His house felt cold and empty since his mother disappeared, but the coldness was at least bearable in summer, when the external warmness fought his inner coldness. Now that November started, the warm dropped drastically from one week to another. The coldness he felt when he was home was unbearable.

If there was no way to avoid the coldness, he preferred feeling it in a random rooftop, with the beautiful view only Paris could offer. It was not new to him to escape and have some me-time as Chat Noir. He always fantasied with Ladybug appearing and making him company, but the nights always started cold and ended even colder. Even when he was hoping she would show, he knew she wouldn’t.

That’s why he couldn’t believe it when she showed out of nowhere. No akumas to fight, no any normal emergency on the city. Just her, like any other daydream of his. She was holding a full and big white bag and he wondered what could be inside.

“Mind if we share this beautiful view?”

“W-what are you doing here? Is there an emergency?”

“Not really. I just happened to be around and saw you hanging alone and decided to join you. Unless you want me to leave.”

“You were transformed too?”

She shrugged “No. I transformed after I saw you.”

Ladybug barely talked about her without the suit “Oh…” He wondered what she was doing out so late. He didn’t know anything about the girl under the mask. Maybe she was out buying things she needed to cook dinner or buying lights to decorate her home. It could be anything.

“What are you doing here? I thought an Akuma appeared or something was happening, and I was worried.”

“I just wanted to see the night sky before heading home.”

“It’s dinner time,” she noted “won’t you be late?”

“No one is really waiting for me…” he admitted almost in a whisper. He soon regretted it, Ladybug looked worried.

She then opened her white bag and tried to find something. Chat Noir got curious and looked in her direction.

“Then nobody’s going to get hurt if you have dinner with me, right?”

“Isn’t somebody waiting for you to eat dinner already?”

“I always have dinner with them. Tonight, I’ll be having dinner with you.” She smiled. Wasn’t this a dream? Every time he thought this couldn’t be better, she proved him wrong.

As if she had a whole picknick in her white bag, she started to pull out bread, cheese, fruit, sandwiches, juice and a thermo “I hope you like sweet food. I brought cookies and macaroons.”

“Were you having a date and I interrupted it?” he watched her organizing all the things between them “if that’s the case I’m glad I did.”

She giggled “Silly kitty. I was having a girl’s night with my best friend.”

“I thought I was your best friend?”

“I mean, my best girl-friend.”

“Are you two timing me, my lady?” She just laughed at him, and they started eating.

It is super romantic to have dinner with the girl you’re in love with, in a chilly night on a rooftop. In Paris. It was utterly romantic, he had to admit it, but what made him feel warm was not all of that, it was just the fact he was eating dinner with his best friend. Even if he was just a partner to her or even if it was a summer day and his mother was waiting for him, he would still feel this happy.

They ate until they were full and then looked at the sky while eating macaroons.

“Won’t your friend be mad you ditched her?”

“I called her and told her I was not going to make it.”

“You cancelled your plans because of me? Now I feel bad.”

“Don’t be, kitty. I’m glad we did this, I had much fun.”

His cheeks felt warmer “I’m glad we did this too.”

Once they finally finished, he helped her put everything back into her bag. They sit and watched the beautiful starry sky. It was getting late, but Ladybug didn’t seem to mind it.

This night was perfect. He wanted to be brave and ask her to sit closer to him, but he was afraid he would break the magic spell that made her do everything he wished to happen. What if he asked her to get closer and she suddenly needed to leave?

They stayed in silence for a couple of minutes, watching the moon and the stars, listening to distant laughter and music. Ladybug was shivering.

“Hey, Ladybug.”

“Hmmm?” her smile made him feel warmer. Maybe not all nights that started cold have to end colder. Maybe some nights could end warm and feel like being home if Ladybug was around.

With trembling lips, he finally dared to ask her “Sit next to me?”

 You’re my favorite.

“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea…” Chat Noir finally spoke. He had been very quiet after they saved a cat from a tree. They were joking, and everything was normal. Then, all of the sudden Chat Noir started to laugh nervously and wouldn’t dare to look at her eyes. She was worried she did or said something to upset him.

“It’s ok, you can tell me what’s bothering you.” Ladybug tensed. She was always worried to hurt Chat Noir without realizing it since she rejected him.

Chat Noir bit his upper lip. “I know Hawk Moth is getting stronger and we need as much help as we can get… but I was wondering if… if you…” He hesitated for a moment, cat ears flat against his head. He sighed “Do you… really need me?”

Ladybug froze. Was her partner really saying that? “Of course, I need you kitty. I couldn’t have made it all this time without you.”

Silence.

“Chat Noir, I’m serious.” She put her hands on his shoulders, making him face her. “We fought together for a long time and I couldn’t have made it here without you. I know our little team became bigger these past months with Rena, Carapace and Bee, but you’ll always be MY partner. My best friend.”

Chat Noir offered a small warm smile. “I’m sorry my lady, I guess I can’t help feeling a little jealous when it’s not longer just you and me.”

“What are you saying Chat Noir, it’s always you and me against the world, remember?” Chat Noir slightly blushed “We’re the best team of all of Paris.” She tilted her head, shooting him with what could have been mistaken with a look you only give to people you’re in love with.

He shrugged “I guess I’m afraid I’ll stop being your favorite partner now that there’s more options for you to choose from.” He admitted, half joking half telling the truth. He tensed again, and she noticed.

He was afraid she would change him. As if she could ever do that.

“Kitty…” she looked at him, shrugging, looking vulnerable. He was the best and he couldn’t see it “I’ll tell you a secret,” she got closer, noses almost touching. Chat Noir blushed hard. “you’re my favorite.”

 I was just thinking about you.

He was lost in his thoughts when Ladybug brought him back to reality.

“Are you ok?” she asked, worried sick. She looked cute.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he joked, quickly taking her hand and placing a small kiss on the back of it.

“Please don’t do that.”

“Would you prefer a kiss on the cheek, my lady?”

“What were you thinking?”

“Why are you so interested?”

“You looked…” her lips trembled. He must be looking sad, he already knew.

“Like the love of your life?”

She groaned. “I don’t know why I even try.”

“My mother--!”

Silence.

“What?”

“I was thinking about my mother.”

“Your… mother?”

An uncomfortable silence drowned the atmosphere before Chat Noir spoke again.

“Today I looked at the mirror and thought ‘wow, I’m so handsome.’ And started wondering who I got it from. My mother is so beautiful, only you could compare to her beauty. That’s when I realized: my mother, I got it from my mother. I was lost in thought thinking how hot I was, thanks to my mother.” He joked.

She rolled her eyes “It’s okay, if you don’t want to tell me you don’t have to make up a stupid story. I was genuinely worried you know.”

“But I am not lying, I was thinking about my mother…”

She looked at him as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. He didn’t lie about thinking about his mother. Knowing Christmas was close only made him remember she had been gone for almost two years now. It hurt him deeply, but he couldn’t just tell Ladybug he missed his mother, he needed to be strong. He was Chat Noir, the hero of Paris.

“I just want you to know you can count on me. I know sometimes it may seem I’m cold towards our personal life, but if you’re feeling bad, I need you to know I’m here for you.” She said, completely serious and pain sparkling in her eyes.

“I know you’re always there for me, bug.” He offered a soft smile.

Silence.

It’s not that he wouldn’t tell her about her mother because of their ‘secret identities’ deal, but he didn’t want her to see such vulnerable side of him. He knew he probably wouldn’t be able to hold his tears if he ever had to talk about her. Ladybug had seen him sad, upset, pissed and extremely happy, he trusted her. But he was embarrassed. He didn’t want his lady to pity him. He didn’t want anything to happen just because she knew his mother--.

“There are times I feel really bad,” she started, not looking at his eyes. Instead, she stared at the small clouds floating carefully in the sky as if they were cute white cotton candy “but when I see your dorky smile and hear your lame puns, I suddenly feel better. You don’t have to do much to make me feel as if I was invincible and capable of everything… I wish I could do that for you. I wish I could smile and make you feel better, just as easy as you do it…”

“Ladybug…”

“Maybe I can’t make your problems go away with my miraculous, or I can’t give you the support a normal friend could give, but if you tell me what I could do to make your problems disappear, just for as long as we are together… just for a moment… I’d gladly do it.”

Chat Noir blushed at the thought of Ladybug wrapping her arms around him. Ladybug kissing his cheek, Ladybug petting his head…

“Just having you here makes my life a lot better…” he said.

She smiled sweetly and gave him her hand. Not knowing what to do, he took her hand and she pulled him into an embrace. He choked in surprise.

“Having you in my life is a blessing.”

He felt his face burning. Ladybug started to pet his back and he felt her warm breath on his neck. On a chilly November evening, Ladybug hugged him as she told him how important he was in her life. Ladybug didn’t know how big the hole his mother left in his life, but whenever he was with her there were too little things to worry about. She felt warm. She felt like home.

He hugged her back and said softly to her ear “You’re amazing just the way you are. You don’t have to do anything but being yourself.”

“Don’t be afraid to be yourself with me. The you who smiles like an idiot, the you who makes lame puns, the you who’s always got my back. The you who sometimes stares at the sky and is sad, the you who needs a hug, the you you think you should hide. Be everything you are with me, and I’ll show you the sides of me I don’t show other people.”

“The you who is in love with me?” he joked. Ladybug snorted.

“The me who would do anything for you. The me who is inspired to be better thanks to you.”

“Thanks to me?”

She looked up and stared at his eyes. Beautiful blue eyes sparkled with the sun’s light, as if they were precious gems.

“You are my hero, Chat Noir.”

He bit his lip, trying to not show how happy it made him hear it. His throat and eyes burned, tears threatening to come out.

“YOU are MY hero, my lady.” How many times had she saved him? How many times things were easy because she was in his life? Sure, there were times he felt heart broken because he wanted her for himself only, but even with his shitty attitude, Ladybug always forgave him and kept showing him she cared, and she loved him on her own way.

She looked down and pouted for a second “Are you going to tell me what you were thinking earlier or not?”

“I already told you.”

She smiled broadly “and what were you thinking just now?”

He smiled back. She was everything he could ever hope for. Ladybug may not be his girlfriend, yet, but she was his best friend “I was just thinking about you.”

 I notice you all the time.

“I was just trying to make you notice me.”

She laughed hard. Small tears appeared on her eyes as she tried to stop laughing.

“It isn’t funny.”

“I’m sorry, I just--” she kept laughing uncontrollably “are you really telling me that?”

“I am. Why are you laughing?” He shot her a pained look.

“I’m sorry, I’m truly am. Please don’t be mad?” She took his wrist to not let him escape.

He pouted and shrugged.

“I laughed because I am always noticing you Chat Noir. You don’t need to do anything.”

Chat Noir was covered in cake. White frosting on his hair, face and suit. He tried to bring it to her and failed terribly. He fell, and the cake was ruined.

“I made that for you.” He pouted “it was really hard because I’m not allowed to cook, and I had to do it fast. I was proud of it.”

She pressed her finger to his face, catching some frosting and took it to her mouth. Chat Noir blushed “it tastes really good. Not bad for a beginner.”

“You said you craved red velvet cake.”

“I know I did, but I didn’t mean you should bake me one.”

“I wanted to surprise you.”

She giggled “And you did it, kitty.”

He sighed deeply “I was hoping to eat it with you.”

“I can bring you something sweet next time we meet, just tell me what you’re craving.”

“And we’ll have a little picknick?” he teased.

“Again? Don’t be silly, if we keep doing that it’ll stop being special.”

“I don’t care, it is special just because it’s with you.”

“You silly, silly cat.” she tried to get all the frosting off his face “You smell delicious. You should wear red velvet cake to every akuma fight.” She joked.

“I’m actually using the Agreste perfume.”

“Oh, good taste, I’m impressed. But I think I prefer the sweet smell of frosting and cake.”

“I thought you didn’t love pastries?”

“I don’t dislike them. Let’s just say my family has pastries around every day. When I was younger it was paradise, but now the magic wore off.”

“I think it sounds like heaven.”

“Because you don’t eat them every day.”

“I’d love to eat pastries every day.”

“If you do that, you’ll get fat and you’ll roll your way to the akumas.”

“But I’ll still have your love, so that’s okay for me.”

She finished getting all the frosting off his face. “You’d still have my love even if you didn’t do anything.”

Chat Noir turned red. He tried to mumble something but at the end he couldn’t even form a simple sentence.

“Please don’t ever forget,” she dropped her yoyo before leaving “I notice you all the time.”

With a fast movement she left, before Chat Noir could see the blush that crawled up from her neck, through her cheeks, reaching even her ears. He was adorable.

 here, I made this for you.

After they defeated the akuma, Chat Noir noticed how down Ladybug looked.

“Are you ok Bugaboo?”

“Please, don’t call me that.”

“Did something happen?”

“I…” she hesitated “I’m not having a good day, that’s all.”

“Is there anything I could do?”

“Not really. Unless you’re actually my classmate and can help me with my art project.” she sighed “I have to go.”

“Wait-!” he shouted, “Are you free this evening?”

“Are you serious?” she looked unimpressed and pissed.

“You always cheer me up when I’m feeling down, can’t I try to do the same for you?”

This caught her off guard. She bit her lower lip as she considered it. The beeping sound of her miraculous brought her back to reality “Ok, but just this one.”

“Six o clock?”

She slightly smiled “Six o clock.”

--

Adrien got to class just in time. It was art class, and everyone had their projects in hand. He had forgotten about it. The only other person who seemed worried about the art project was Marinette. Alya was laughing at her because apparently, she destroyed her project on her way to school.

“Dude, where’s your project?” Nino asked.

He laughed “I guess I forgot about it.”

“You and Marinette are the only ones who didn’t bring a project.”

“I guess you’re meant for each other.” Alya said, suddenly entering to the conversation.

Marinette blushed hard and hit her head in the table. Poor Marinette, she looked uncomfortable whenever someone told them they’d look good together. Sometimes he wondered why Marinette didn’t like him. He wouldn’t mind dating her, she was amazing. He’d actually be honored.

He would definitely date her if he wasn’t so in love with Ladybug. He could guess why Marinette didn’t like him: Adrien Agreste, childhood best friend of Chloé, the most hated girl at school (and probably all of Paris, next to Hawkmoth), famous model but only because he was the only son of famous parents, fashion designer Gabriel Agreste and beautiful and talented actress, Emelie Agreste.

He was good in many things, but nothing too amazing. Marinette in other hand was not only the class rep, she had an amazing talent as a fashion designer (I mean, she won a contest his FATHER held and was invited by Chloé’s mother to New York), did the cover art for Jagged Stone’s album (he even went to her house for a special TV program) and everyone had a crush on her at least once. He tried his best to be the amazing friend she was to him and respect the fact she didn’t like him.

The teacher arrived and was disappointed of Marinette and Adrien. They had to work together for a make up project and present it next class. Marinette seemed like she wanted to cry. Adrien knew he wasn’t perfect in art projects, but he hoped Marinette would believe a little more in him.

Classes and extra-curricular activities were over. He barely had any time to do something to cheer up Ladybug. He texted Nathalie and quickly transformed into Chat Noir. He rushed to get everything ready.

--

Ladybug arrived exactly at six. The place was decorated with nochebuena flowers and red candles. It looked a little like the time Ladybug rejected him, but this time he tried to go for a more Christmas-like atmosphere instead of romantic. In the middle, a small table with a red velvet cake and a small decorated Christmas tree.

“I don’t see any mistletoe.” She said, amazed by the decorations.

“You don’t need a mistletoe to kiss me.” He smirked and flirted. She looked a little happier than earlier.

“Is this red velvet?” She approached the table and with a finger grabbed some frosting and tasted it.

“Of course, my lady. I remember you loved it last time.”

“I think I loved it on you.” She smiled “Chat… this is beautiful. Thank you.”

“I know Christmas is next month, but you seemed really excited and I thought it could cheer you up.”

“I thought you didn’t like Christmas.”

“Well… it’s not that I hate it. Let’s say Christmas is my red velvet cake” He admitted it.

“Still, I’m thankful because you’d do this for me even if you’re not too excited about Christmas.”

“I think I’d love everything as long as you’re there with me.”

She giggled “Then you’ll have to actually love everything, kitty, because I’m never leaving you.”

“Neither do I, Ladybug.”

She looked curious at his hand. He was holding a small gift behind his back “What is that?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Please, Chat, don’t start with this again.”

“Well… you wouldn’t think I made you come all the way here to just have a small date with Paris’ most handsome hero, do you?”

“Is that a gift for me?”

“Well… Maybe.”

She faked to be offended “Don’t tell me you didn’t make the cake and the present is an apology?”

He snorted “I made you something different this time.”

She slightly blushed as he approached her. She looked so beautiful. He carefully showed her a small white box, which he opened and revealed a delicate necklace. The lace was made of silver and small charms hanged from it. There was a small ladybug and a white butterfly.

“You made this??”

“Well… I bought everything and put them together.” He blushed, and she laughed happily.

“But… wow… this looks expensive…” she gasped “Isn’t this Gabriel Agreste’s?” she looked terrified.

“Yeah…” Oh, he had forgotten his father brand was expensive. For him it was as easy as asking Nathalie to bring something to give a friend who was feeling down. Well, maybe it wasn’t as easy as that, but Nathalie agreed to do it without much information, and kept the secret from his father.

“I can’t accept it.” She looked nervous and surprised.

“Yes, you can! And let me start over, we just killed the atmosphere.”

She snorted “What atmosphere?”

“Just let me do it again!”

She giggled “Okay.”

He stared at her until she stopped giggling and became serious again. The silence made them both blush and tension started to build. He thought of Marinette, and the lucky bracelet she gave him. He hoped this necklace could be a happy necklace to Ladybug. His heart felt warm, not knowing if it was because of Ladybug’s lovely face of the thought of his amazing classmate.

This time he said it as softly as he could, and Ladybug’s warm cheeks and smile warmed his whole body and soul “Here, I made this for you.”

 This instrumental reminds me of you.

Marinette Dupain Cheng spent all her morning listening to playlists on Spotify. It was that kind of morning.

She woke up at six and decided to stay in bed until nine, when it felt like a decent time to wake up on a Sunday morning. Tikki kept sleeping and she didn’t want to either sleep more or leave the comfort of her warm bed.

November started a while ago, and coldness embraced her body all day and night. She loved cold weather. She was happy to use her warmer clothes and feel the cold in her face whenever she was outside, but she remembered how Chat Noir mentioned he didn’t like it too much. She still wondered why her partner didn’t like it. Did he prefer hot weather? How could he?

It came to her mind how he joked about the weather when they fought Stormy Weather. Her cheeks felt warmer at the thought of Chat Noir in a swimsuit, then she started laughing because he imagined said swimsuit over his Chat Noir suit.

She created a new playlist and named it ‘Ladynoir’ the ship name Paris made for them. She liked how it sounded, but at the same time he was worried how happy Chat Noir looked when she said it didn’t bother her.

She started to add songs that reminded her to Chat Noir. She was completely sure she was in love with Adrien Agreste, but sometimes she wondered if she would be in love with Chat Noir if Adrien never gave the umbrella to her. She already knew the answer; even if she was in love with Chat Noir, their top priority was to protect Paris from Hawkmoth. She would have to turn him down even when she wanted to jump into his arms and kiss him, waiting for the moment Hawkmoth was finally defeated to confess her love.

Wait, why was she thinking about this? She was in love with Adrien Agreste, not Chat Noir.

She blushed and covered her face with the duvet. Lately, whenever he started to think of Adrien, she ended up thinking of Chat Noir. Both of them were blond and had green eyes. Apart from Luka, it felt like she had a type. Luka was handsome and sweet, but he was in 3rd place. Chat Noir was fighting to steal away the 1st place from Adrien. She sighed.

She wished she never noticed how sweet and amazing Chat Noir was. Everything would be more complicated if she actually started to love him.

She stared at the ceiling, thinking maybe making a playlist for Chat Noir wasn’t the best idea. She was about to delete it when she finally gave up and added more songs.

‘Well, its not like he would find my playlist and notice I have a small crush on him, right?’ she thought and continued.

That evening an akuma attack took place. It was easy to defeat, so it didn’t take much time to deal with it. Chat Noir seemed distracted, and he didn’t flirt even once. Maybe he was feeling bad again? They said ‘goodbye’ to each other and something felt wrong within her. Was she supposed to do something?

She cared deeply for Chat Noir. She bit her lower lip at the thought of showing him her playlist. Would it cheer him up? Isn’t that a way of flirting? ‘Hey Chat Noir, I made this playlist while thinking of you.’ She blushed hard. Yeah, it seemed like flirting. But she would do it anyway.

--

She found him sitting on a rooftop looking at the sky. The sky was beautiful, she had to at least admit it. It had different tones of orange and pink. The sun would set in less than thirty minutes and then everything would be dark. She liked to think the night could be dark and cold, but it was the only way you could see the stars and moon sparkling in the sky. And it was a perfect to watch them together with someone you loved.

“The sky is beautiful today.” She said before approaching and sit really close to him. He tensed at the sudden closeness and blushed, but kept his eyes glued to the sky.

“Y-yeah, it is beautiful.” He hesitated “B-but not nearly as beautiful as you, my lady.”

“I brought you something.”

He looked at her and noticed her cellphone and a pair of in-ear headphones.

“You…brought me a cellphone?” he looked so confused, Ladybug couldn’t avoid smiling “Thank you, that’s… really sweet of you.”

“Don’t be silly, kitty. Here,” she offered one of the in-ear headphones and she used the other one on her left ear. “I want you to listen to something.” She blushed. She hoped Chat Noir didn’t think she was flirting with him, she truly did.

With trembling hands, he took it and put it into his right ear. She then turned his phone on and the playlist was the first thing to be shown. She decided to change the name to ‘Chat Noir’ so he wouldn’t get the wrong idea. He looked surprised, but she wasn’t sure if it was because of the closeness, the cellphone or the fact that she was about to show him songs.

Now that she thought about it, everything was very romantic. They were on a rooftop in Paris, watching the sun set as they shared music. And the music she was about to play was… well, it was romantic but in a platonic way. It really was… right?

“You made a playlist for me?”

“I woke up early on Sunday and couldn’t go back to sleep. I don’t know how but I ended up making a playlist of songs that reminded me of you.”

“I also have a playlist that reminds me of you.” He admitted, cheerfully.

She pressed play and the first song started. “Did you play Kingdom Hearts?”

“Yes. I played recently because they announced KH3 to be out next year.”

She smiled. “The one who sings this song is the voice actor of Kairi in the English dub.”

Hayden Panettiere started to sing My hero is you. Chat Noir focused on the lyrics and she thought he looked very cute. As the song kept playing, Chat Noir tensed. She was doing this for him to feel better, not to start crying! She wanted to let Chat Noir know how much he meant to her and help him cheer up a little.

When the song was about to finish, with a broken voice she started to sing to him.

“When my world goes crazy you won’t let go. When the ground gets shaky you give me hope.” He looked so surprised, tension dissolving as she kept singing. “When I try to push you away, you never move, yeah.” It was true. Chat Noir was always there for her no matter what “Now when I start doubting you help me see there’s a strength, and a mind, and a power in me, for believing there ain’t nothing I can’t do.” She remembered how Chat Noir believed in her even when she didn’t when they were fighting the first akuma “My hero is you.” Chat Noir’s eyes sparkled.

As she sang the last part, Chat Noir said with a decided voice and they ended up saying the same thing “My hero is you.” She smiled warmly, but when she recognized the song, she turned red and she covered her face with her hands. Decided to keep singing, she tried to not mess up.

We can dance by Schuster was playing now.

“Is this Spanish?” he asked curiously.

Well, Spanish sounds happy, that’s why it made her think of him. With the best Spanish she could speak, which wasn’t good at all, she sang to him again. “You can dance cuando estoy junto a ti,” why did she added that song? “no estés triste la vida es así,” she read the translation and thought it was appropriate, but now she was regretting it “we can dance all night long, baby nunca te alejes de mí.”

“That’s so romantic of you, Ladybug.”

She knew her face was red. Did Chat Noir know Spanish? She hoped not.

He started singing to her “You can dance cuando piensas en mí, solo quiero que seas feliz.” Oh shit, he either knew Spanish or knew the song. “We can dance all night long, baby nunca te alejes de mí.” His Spanish was beautiful. She didn’t know Chat Noir knew more languages apart from French and English.

When the next song started, she wanted to die from embarrassment. She quickly stood up and thanked the universe her headphone’s cable was long enough or she would have ruined everything. She offered her hand and sang to him in a broken voice.

Take my hand by he is we started to play.

“Take my hand, I’ll teach you to dance.” At least she saved the atmosphere. Chat Noir smiled warmly as he took her hand and stood up besides her “I’ll spin you around, I won’t let you fall down.” He put a hand on her shoulder and the other one on her waist. She blushed and did the same, staring directly into his eyes. “Would you let me lead?” He nodded “You can step on my feet, give it a try. It’ll be alright.” They started dancing and Chat Noir laughed. He looked happier and that made her feel brave.

“The room’s hush hush and now is our moment.” She kept singing “take it in, feel it all and hold it. Eyes on you, eyes on me. We’re doing this right.” She was lost in his beautiful green eyes “’cause lovers dance when they’re feelin’ in love, spotlights shinin’ it’s all about us.”

Chat Noir started to sing with her “It’s all about us.”

Then he sang alone, to her. Her chest felt warm “Suddenly, I’m feeling brave. I don’t know what’s got into me.” He slowed their dance “Why I feel this way, can we dance real slow? Can I hold you, can I hold you close?” She nodded, and Chat Noir pressed their bodies in a tender way.

They sang together again. Chat Noir already knew the song “The room’s hush hush and now is our moment, take it in, feel it all and hold it. Eyes on you, eyes on me. We’re doing this right. ’cause lovers dance when they’re feelin’ in love, spotlights shinin’ it’s all about us.”

She rushed to sing alone again “Do you hear that, love? They’re playing our song.”

He sang back to her “Do you think we’re ready? Oh, I’m feelin’ it.”

Her voice was no longer broken, she sang confidently “Do you hear that, love?” she didn’t even notice when she started to lean to him “Do you hear that, love?”

He didn’t lean back to her, but his smile was big and bright “Do you hear that, love? They’re playing our song.”

She was surprised when she caught herself looking at his lips. She tried to convince herself she was looking at his smile “Do you think we’re ready? Oh, I’m feelin’ it. Do you hear that, love?”

“Do you hear that, love?” he repeated.

Maybe… she could kiss him “Do you hear that, love? They’re playing our song.”

“Do you think we’re ready? Oh, I’m feelin’ it.” His voice broke at the end. He looked nervous.

“Do you hear that, love?” she was back to reality and she realized what she was doing.

“Do you hear that, love?” they both sang before she made some space between them and sang the last part of the song, dancing normally with him again.

Chat Noir could have easily kissed her back there and he didn’t. She was glad, but at the same time she wondered if it was just the moment or if it was a moment of pure realization.

Iris by Goo Goo dolls started playing. Before she could start singing, Chat Noir put a finger over her lips and he sang to her with a soft voice. Was he always so dreamy?

“And I'd give up forever to touch you 'cause I know that you feel me somehow. You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be, and I don't want to go home right now.” Why were the lyrics so fitting? She never realized that song could fit Chat Noir feelings towards her so much.

They had stopped dancing. Chat Noir held one of her hands as he kept singing “And all I can taste is this moment. And all I can breathe is your life. And sooner or later it's over, I just don't wanna miss you tonight.” This was out of hand, this was romantic. But she didn’t care anymore.

“And I don't want the world to see me 'cause I don't think that they'd understand. When everything's meant to be broken, I just want you to know who I am.” He was feeling the lyrics. For a moment she felt as if Chat Noir himself wrote the song for her.

She finally sang to him “And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming, or the moment of truth in your lies. When everything feels like the movies, yeah you bleed just to know you're alive.”

They sang together the last part before the vocal break of the song. “And I don't want the world to see me 'cause I don't think that they'd understand. When everything's meant to be broken, I just want you to know who I am.”

They stared at each other, listening to the instrumental section. He was the first one to break the silence “This song reminds me of you.”

“It reminds me of you too.”

He smiled warmly “Even when everything’s wrong and it’s painful, you make me feel better. Knowing you’re here with me makes me feel better.”

“You’re the only one who can see this side of me.” She sad to him “You…” she looked away “You believed in me when I doubted myself. And you still do. If something wrong happened, knowing you are there for me is enough. Having you beside me is enough.”

She looked back at him and the tension was clear. They were brought back to reality when the singing voice started to speak again. They both laughed happily.

They sang the last part together “And I don't want the world to see me 'cause I don't think that they'd understand. When everything's meant to be broken, I just want you to know who I am.” They cared for each other deeply “I just want you to know who I am.” He wasn’t forcing himself on her, and it made her feel good “I just want you to know who I am.” And even if they couldn’t be together right now, he accepted it and assured her it was okay for him, because he respected her “I just want you to know who I am.”

May I, by Trading Yesterday started playing. Perfect timing.

She sang with a soft voice “There you stand, opened heart, opened doors. Full of life with a world that's wanting more. But I can see when the lights start to fade the day is done and your smile has gone away.” This reminded her of how Chat’s mood changed when the cold weather started. She also remembered Chat Noir saying a couple of times his parents were a little strict with him. “Let me raise you up, let me be your love.” Wow, that sounded like a confession “May I hold you as you fall to sleep? When the world is closing in and you can't breathe here. May I love you, may I be your shield when no one can be found. May I lay you down?” It’s not that she didn’t mean it, but she might as well could start dating Chat Noir at the end of the night and she couldn’t blame him for misunderstanding her intentions. “All I want is to keep you safe from the cold, to give you all that your heart needs the most.” She truly wanted to do it.

She kept singing to him. His eyes watered as she sang this part “All that's made me is all worth trading, just to have one moment with you. So, I will let go with all that I know, knowing that you're here with me. For your love is changing me.” Chat Noir bit his lower lip and then covered his face.

Ladybug stopped singing. She placed her free hand on his shoulder, worried sick “What’s wrong, kitty?”

“I don’t deserve you in my life.” His broken voice and sharp words pierced her heart.

“What would you think that?” looking at him like this made her want to cry.

“You’re too good for me.”

“I’m exactly what you deserve, Chat Noir.” She hugged him, and he started to sob quietly against her shoulder. He carefully placed his arms around her waist and she felt her eyes watering too.

The song kept playing and the new one started. They kept hugging in silence.

Everything by Lifehouse started playing. Chat Noir cried more and more as the song kept playing. She meant everything the song said.

Almost in a whisper, she sang part of the song for him “And how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you? Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?” she stroked his hair and felt him relax in her arms.

Decided, she sang again “Cause you're all I want, you're all I need, you're everything, everything.” How could she have been so blind all this time? Can she call this feeling love? “You're all I want, you're all I need, you're everything, everything.” This was wrong, she shouldn’t love him… they needed to protect Paris “You're all I want, you're all I need, you're everything, everything.” If something happened to him during an Akuma attack she… “You're all I want, you're all I need. Everything, everything.”

Realization hit her like cold water in the middle of December. She loved this boy. She loved Chat Noir, she’d do anything to make him smile. She pressed her lips on top of his head, smelling his hair.

She said the last words of the song to his ear “Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?”

He paused the album and waited for him to face her. It took a while. Chat Noir stopped crying before the song ended but breathed deeply trying to, what seemed like, calming himself completely before facing her.

“You can keep crying if that’s what you need. I’ll be here the whole time. I won’t let you cry alone again.” She said, sincerely.

“I’m okay now.” He said, with the usual voice people have after crying.

“Will you look at me?”

He hesitated “I can’t?”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to see me like this?”

She laughed sweetly “You’ve seen me in my worst, yet I don’t remember me telling you that.”

“I’m supposed to be your knight in shining armor.”

“We’re a team. We can both be the princess and the knight in shining armor.” She petted his head “besides, you are always my knight, you deserve a break sometimes.”

He finally faced her. She bit her upper lip. “I…” she suddenly felt extremely nervous. “I kept thinking about you,” she admitted, and Chat Noir blushed “that’s why I brought my cellphone, I wanted to show you the songs that remind me of you.” She tried to fight the warmness in her cheeks. “There’s plenty of more songs, but we can listen to them other day.”

“I’d love to keep listening to them, even if it takes us all night.”

“Then I don’t see why we wouldn’t do exactly that.”

They stared at each other and Ladybug quickly looked away. She didn’t want to kiss him or confess his love right that moment. She had to have self-control. Their love could wait just a little longer, they just needed to defeat Hawkmoth and they could love each other as much as they wanted.

She switched to the Youtube App and quickly typed the name of the next song.

A beautiful melody started to play. The tittle shown was Howl’s Moving Castle Main Theme (viola/piano) duet ft. KevinsKeys “This instrumental reminds me of you.”

 If you do it, I’ll do it.

“If you do it, I’ll do it.” He looked decided.

She nodded at him.

They stayed silent for a couple of seconds, which ended up feeling like a couple of minutes. They had only one shot at doing it right, and both were determined to not fail.

They heard it at school. The rumor said if you did it right you could have a wish and it would become true. He wanted his mother back, as simple as that. Ladybug blushed when he asked what her wish was. Could it be she hoped to start dating him? A small blush appeared under his mask. It couldn’t be it.

When Ladybug suggested it, he was surprised. Why would Ladybug try something like this? It felt like something he would try, but it felt strange coming from her. He then wondered if she was doing this for him.

He was feeling down, it wasn’t anything new. There were moments he was truly happy: at school, at some of his classes, when he was with Ladybug… but the in-between moments were especially sad and lonely. He had a hard time focusing in the good things, and he was afraid he could get akumatized. Ladybug noticed the change since day one, and she had been there for him, trying to comfort him.

Not really knowing why he felt sad, Ladybug would try a lot of silly things to cheer him up. Maybe this was one of those things. It was silly to think you could get a wish if you did something like this, but Ladybug looked decided and went to buy them before he could argue.

They stood in front of each other, staring.

Just one chance to make it right. Chat Noir started to feel nervous. What if he did it wrong and Ladybug was pissed? No, Ladybug couldn’t be that serious… right?

“If we do it together, I think we can get that wish…” she broke the silence while looking dead serious.

“Is there really something my lady wants so desperately?”

She blushed again “Don’t you?”

Silence. Of course, there was something he wanted.

“Isn’t better this way? How things are right now?” he dared to ask her, with a low voice.

She hesitated, thoughtful “No.”

What was what she wanted? He died to know.

Could he do it? Could he be too decided to obtain something that he’d do something silly? Maybe something risky… he remembered the power of the ladybug and chat noir miraculous combined, and he thought of the possibility of this actually working.

They were Ladybug and Chat Noir, heroes of Paris. They could do anything if they did it together.

With determination on his eyes, Chat Noir finally spoke confidently “Let’s do this.”

They both gulped. Filled with determination, they took a step closer to each other and pressed their ice-creams on each other’s faces. One was strawberry and chocolate flavored (Chat Noir’s), and the other one was mint and chocolate (Ladybug’s). The waffle cone was fish shaped.

Momotabi was a new Japanese themed ice-cream atelier. It was super popular among students thanks to their amazing looking ice-creams. And because everyone was a weeb, honestly. He was really exited to go since he hard from Alya the place opened, but he was really busy, and his father wouldn’t let him go.

The rumor started because a clumsy boy tripped and smashed the ice-cream into a girl’s face. This girl accidentally pressed her own ice-cream on the boy’s face too. That same evening, the boy won a Nintendo Switch and the girl won coupons to get really expensive things in her favorite store, for free.

People started doing it and sometimes it worked, some other times it didn’t. Everyone at school was trying it. He just wished he could go and taste the waffle and ice-cream, call him a simple guy.

Ladybug laughed happily, and he couldn’t stop the laughed that escaped from his own lips. Still laughing, they let themselves fall into the ground. It was something silly to do, but both were happy they did it.

“Thank you…” he said, looking at her tenderly.

“Do you think our wish will come true?”

“Mine already has.”

“What did wish for??”

“I wished to see you smile.”

She covered her mouth to hide the brightest smile he had ever seen on her lips “What a coincidence.”

“What did you wish for, my lady?”

She looked up at the bright blue sky “For you to be happy.”

 I miss you so much.

Chat Noir seemed to be busy and very tired lately. His goofy smile and lame puns were replaced by a worn-up smile and silence for the whole week. After the akumas were defeated, he just waved goodbye and disappeared without even flirting. Even when they saw each before defeating the akuma, Chat Noir didn’t show his usual excitement to see her.

She never thought she would miss it. Or maybe she was just worried. Chat Noir didn’t seem too Chat Noir lately.

“Is everything all right Chat Noir?” she managed to quickly say before he left.

“It is now that I got the pleasure to see you.” He flirted, as if it wasn’t the first time in a while.

“You seem tired and I was worried.” She pouted.

“It’s nothing to worry about, my lady.” He was ready to go, when she stopped him again.

“Will I be seeing you tonight?”

Chat Noir hesitated “Of course,” he seemed troubled. “I wouldn’t miss it even if my life depended on it.”

He quickly left. Ladybug felt something in her chest she couldn’t quite place.

He missed Chat Noir. Now that she discovered her inconvenient feelings towards him it was a shame (or maybe a blessing?) Chat Noir was busy.  She hoped to see him more before the holidays, and maybe getting him a present.

It was so strange. She was obsessed with Adrien not too long ago and now she was crushing hard on her partner. She feared the realization she had earlier that month was true: she loved him. It wouldn’t be strange, they went through a lot of things together protecting Paris and they were really good partners. It’d be only natural to feel something.

Chat Noir already did, he tried to confess his feelings only to be rejected by her. Not only that, she told him there was another guy… what was she supposed to do now? Go to him and tell him ‘oh you know what, I changed my mind. I think I like you now’? how could she prove she wasn’t messing around if she changed her mind so easily?

She covered her face with both of her hands. This was a disaster. Chat Noir made her feel like summer in her heart, even when it was freezing outside. She could hide it, she must do it.

There was no other way.

--

They had to help people get out of a burning building as the firefighter rushed to get there.

It was weird to see fire on winter, but sometimes people did stupid things to keep themselves warm. They finished really with the help of the firefighters and people remaining calm. It was a good thing they did patrols time to time.

The fire wasn’t the only thing that was warm that cold winter night. Her chest felt warm and nice every time she saw his face and his smile. This time he didn’t go as soon as they finished, as he did lately.

“It’s been a while.” He admitted.

“Yeah…” she looked away. She smiled and scratched the back of her neck. She was so happy she could die.

“I’m sorry I’ve been busy lately. I’ve had…” he doubted before continuing “too much work.”

“You work?” they were really young, they shouldn’t work, at least not to the point to be super busy. But then she also helped her parents at the bakery when they had much work, so maybe it was a similar situation.

He smirked “How else would I get the money to take you to a nice restaurant next month?”

She laughed loudly “You don’t need to take me anywhere fancy. Let’s just have a small picnic in a rooftop like last time.”

“I thought you didn’t want to make a habit out of it.” He raised an eyebrow.

“It’d be nice to have you around every day, instead of working a lot to just take me somewhere nice someday...” she knew he was joking, but she still said it. The look in Chat Noir’s face confused her. First, he was surprised, and then she noticed pain.

“It’s not my intention to make you feel abandoned, my lady.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips. She didn’t move it, instead she accepted the kiss happily.

“I know. But I can’t help feeling a little lonely when you’re not around.”

“Could it be you miss me so much you can’t handle it?” he teased. She bit her upper lip and looked away “…Ladybug?”

She suddenly felt sad. Yes, she felt lonely. Yes, she missed him so much she could barely stand it.

“What’s wrong?” He suddenly tensed and tried to reach her with his hand, she quickly stepped back. The painful look Chat Noir had on his face was a clear reflection of how she felt inside. It hurt so much, but she didn’t want to say it out loud, as if it would make the pain less real.

“If there’s something wrong I can help.” He put on a fake smile “Just tell me what’s wrong…”

Her eyes burned. If she told him the truth, what face would he make? Will he be around more? But what if it would trouble him because he was really busy and he couldn’t be around even if he wanted to…

“Please, Ladybug, talk to me…”

She bit her lower lip. A small tear escaped her eyes, and by the time it reached the corner of her jaw it was freezing. She pretended she was chewing something. Chat Noir quickly understood and let out a pained laugh “What are you eating, Ladybug?”

She laughed and covered her mouth. She then started crying. Why did it hurt so bad? Why did she miss him so much?

He hesitantly approached her, every move as slow as he could make them to give her time to push him away. She didn’t move. Chat Noir placed his hands on her shoulders and pressed his forehead on hers. “What’s wrong, my lady?”

She sobbed and cried softly. She would tell him the truth, she decided. But what truth will she be willing to tell him? That she loved him? That she missed him deeply? She didn’t want to sound selfish, but she wanted to be with him as much as she could.

She shrugged, and between sobs and doubts she finally admitted “I miss you so much.”

 I wish I had known you sooner.

It was almost December. Each day that passed hurt him deeply. Another Christmas without his mother, another cold night alone in his room, wishing maybe next morning his mother would run her fingers through his hair to wake him up.

But wishing it wouldn’t make it true. He would wake up next day, alone. There was no escape.

It was colder than other years, or maybe it only felt colder because he felt cold inside. He wasn’t completely alone, he had Nathalie and the Gorilla, his friends and his lady, but everyone would be busy with their families, like they should. Nathalie loved him, he knew it, but as everything else in the mansion she felt cold. The Gorilla loved him too, but he was shy to properly show it. His father surely loved him, but he was trapped in his own sadness and for awhile Adrien wasn’t his top priority. At least it felt like it.

Is true Ladybug wouldn’t love him back the way he loved her, but she was his light, the stronger pillar in his life. He admired and loved Ladybug no matter what, and she always showed him how much he meant to her. And for that he was grateful. It was enough.

Saturday morning and they were on patrol. It was extremely rare to do patrol in the morning, but they were busy during the evening and they both had the morning free. The sun was warm, but the air and day in general was cold. Without a doubt December was next around the corner.

Even with the sky shining in the sky, the brightest thing was Ladybug. She looked so happy, blushed cheeks and big smiles. He wondered what happened that morning to make her so cheerful. Instead of feeling jealous he felt happy for her. Her happiness was contagious.

“You look specially happy today, bug.”

“It’s because I saw you this early in the morning today.”

His heart skipped a beat. Lately Ladybug flirted back a lot, he didn’t know why but he kept telling himself she didn’t like him in that way. He gulped.

“What’s wrong kitty, cat got your tongue?” she joked.

“You just… stole the words out of my lips.”

“How could I have done that if I haven’t kissed you,” He blushed. She was clearly flirting, right? “yet.” She smirked, and he stopped breathing for a long time. If she kept flirting like that he could die, or worse, he could star thinking she had feelings for him.

“W-we can start with the kiss before you change your mind.”

“Alright then.” She approached him and slowly placed her lips right beside his. He could seriously die from a heart attack, but he wouldn’t care. This was heaven.

“A-are you ok? Are we even sure you weren’t attacked by an akuma??” he was red, and he couldn’t feel the cold weather anymore.

She laughed “Silly kitty.”

“Did something happen?”

“Hmmm…” she thought of something. He started to be curious, fake cat ears twitching “I was serious, I’m just happy I saw you today. You had been busy all month and sometimes I don’t know if I’ll be seeing you before an akuma attack.”

She was so sweet. “I still have a lot of things going on, but I’m doing my best to have enough time for you.”

“What else could I ever need to be happy?” she looked at him so tenderly he really had to convince himself she only saw him as a friend.

Oh, wait… didn’t it sounded kind of… familiar?

“I feel this month has been eternal.” She looked away, at the people in the streets hurrying to the street market to buy vegetables and other supplies.

“Yeah…” time passed slow when you felt sad.

“But I’m happy.” She looked back at him “The weather is cold, but you keep me warm.”

He considered to ask her if she was flirting. There was no second meaning in her words, but they were tender and sweet. He was already addicted to it and he wondered if once winter was over Ladybug would go back to her usual self. He started to like winter. Ladybug shone so brightly and warmed his life and heart. Maybe winter wasn’t as cold as he remembered after all.

“Hmmm.” She looked at her feet.

“What happened?”

“Can I hug you?”

He was not prepared for this. How could she ask him so normally after flirting, almost kissing him on the lips and acting so cute?

“Sure.”

She smiled broadly and got closer. She pressed her ear on his chest and caught his waist between her arms. “I can hear your heart.”

He hugged her back. “It’s yours.”

“I’m glad we met.”

He blurred his face into her neck and smelled her sweet perfume. Ladybug only giggled and hugged him tighter. Maybe he was already dead, and this was heaven.

The sky wasn’t dark and neither the stars nor the moon was shining brightly above them. Not the piano nor a violin were playing on the background and it definitely wasn’t a scene worthy of being in a romantic movie. They were just two friends on top of a rooftop in the middle of the morning, soft mumbles heard from the distance, sun shining brightly in their heads. They shared an embrace and none of them quickly turned their faces to confess their love. They just held each other, happy to be in their partner’s life.

He sighed deeply, feeling genuinely happy “I wish I had known you sooner.”

 You’re warm.

November wasn’t as cold as December threatened to be, but both of them were freezing. They could see small clouds of steam coming out of their mouths and disappearing as they slowly rose to the sky.

Cold November nights were beautiful, maybe that’s why they decided to hang a little longer that evening. A beautiful full moon sat on the sky, perfectly above the Eiffel tower. The stars were shining harder than other nights, and not a single cloud could be seen. Lately it was strange to see a night like this. Thick clouds covered the sky at all times, threatening to start snowing at any moment.

“I love cold nights. They feel like home for some reason.” Ladybug said, smiling.

“I prefer warmer nights, but tonight is beautiful indeed.” Chat Noir said in his usual cheerful tone.

“Are you excited for Christmas?” Ladybug turned to see him, excitedly, but Chat Noir tensed.

“Not really.”

She gasped “Why not?”

“Well…” he looked doubtful for a second “personal reasons. We’re not supposed to talk about it.”

“Oh…” She looked at the moon again. There were times she wished they knew each other’s civilian’s identities. That could make things easier. But it was dangerous, and it was out of the question to simply consider it.

“We could do something on Christmas Eve.” She suggested.

“Like a date?” he teased.

“Yeah, like a date.” She teased back. Chat Noir was surprised by her reply, and a small blush spread through his face.

“I don’t think my father would let me get out of the house on Christmas Eve.”

“I don’t think my family would allow it either.” She let the silence sink for a moment “But I was thinking maybe we could see each other later that night.”

“You mean, at night when everyone’s sleeping?”

“I have to wake up early next day, but It’d be amazing to do something with you that night. You’re part of my family.”

He scratched the back of his neck “I don’t want to trouble you…”

“You won’t. After all I’m the one who’s asking you.” She thought maybe he didn’t want to do it “But if you tell me I am the one who’s troubling you…”

“No! You could never, my lady!”

“Then it’s set. We’ll have a date on Christmas Eve.” She said, cheerfully. For the first time since the cold weather started, Chat Noir seemed excited for Christmas.

“Should I bring you a present?”

“Only if you want. I could bring something to eat and something warm to wear. It’ll be colder than it is right now.”

“I could make some decorations for the special occasion.”

“Like you did when we defeated Glaciator?” “You liked it, didn’t you?” “It was beautiful.”

A small chilly wind hit them both, making them shiver with coldness.

“Maybe we should go, it’s getting colder.” Chat Noir said, he seemed disappointed at his own words.

“Or we could get closer to stay warmer.”

He stared at her with wide open eyes.

“I mean, if you want to go you can do it. I’m sorry I made you feel uncomfortable with the offer.” She felt embarrassed quickly.

“I was surprised you suggested it. I can stay a little longer, but are you sure?”

She shrugged “You don’t want to?”

Silence. They both wanted to be closer. She craved his arms ever since that Saturday morning, and she could easily notice he wanted it too. But Chat Noir respected her enough to not suggest it or to even joke about it. She was hoping he would joke or mention it, but for a strange reason he was avoiding talking about hugs, kisses and love. Maybe she flirted too much? It seemed she scared him off.

“I’d love to.” He finally admitting, his voice sounding deeper and nervous.

She grabbed his arm and leaned to him. She felt him tense at her touch “It’s specially cold today, doesn’t it?”

“I guess it’ll be snowing soon.”

“In less than a month everything will be covered in white snow. We’ll be freezing by then.”

“It kind of reminds me of the time we fought Frozer.”

She laughed “You were so pissed at me.”

“Hahaha, was I really?”

“And you were pissed with Glaciator too. Maybe you do hate cold weather.”

“Wouldn’t you be he one to hate it though? You’re a bug.”

“Maybe we’re switched. By any chance your favorite season is spring?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite, but I don’t dislike it.”

“Then is it summer?”

“I really like summer.”

“We really are different, aren’t we?” she said, more to herself than to Chat Noir.

“We could still make it work.” He joked.

“I know we could.” She smirked and looked at him. He always looked at her so endearing, she was glad he was her partner.

She sighted loudly and dramatically “This year has been so long.”

“I feel this year lasted three years, to be honest.”

“But I’m glad I got to share it with you. I’m looking forward to protect Paris by your side for another year.”

“You want Hawkmoth to terrorize Paris for another year?”

“NO. I meant I’m looking forward to sharing another year with you.”

“Even if we defeat Hawkmoth before the year ends?”

“Yeah.” She hesitated, looking at his expression without letting go of his arm “You won’t want to be friends with me after all of this is over?”

“Maybe we could get married.” He flirted again, and she smiled sweetly at him. He was flirting again with her, she didn’t scare him off.

“Won’t you want to take it slow?”

“No need to, I already know you’re the love of my life.”

She giggled “Maybe we should try dating before getting married.” She laid her head on his shoulder before Chat Noir had time to react to her words. She had to be careful. ‘Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let him know.’ she sang to herself and looked at the moon.

They stayed silent for some time. She wondered if Chat Noir was falling asleep. After all, she herself felt too relaxed. She knew she was safe when he was around.

Moments later she started to notice Chat Noir’s long breaths. He definitely fell asleep.

They didn’t have much time to spend it together like this. Maybe it was the cold weather. She wondered if Chat Noir would still be as sweet and addictive once spring began. ‘Summer is Chat Noir’s favorite season.” She remembered, and suddenly she wanted to spend summer again with him, not fearing winter to end.

She not only wanted to spend winter and summer with him, she wanted to spend all four seasons by his side. Would Chat Noir still love her through all four seasons? Wouldn’t he grow tired of her? How could she tell him how she felt without risking Paris’ protection?

Maybe she would finally tell him the truth on Christmas Eve, or at least tell him how important he actually was for her.

‘Our love could wait.’ she repeated in her mind over and over again, like a mantra. She was both afraid and excited to notice how fast her love grew for him in the past month. She knew her love for him would only grow from now and on, and she had to protect it, she had to protect him.

“I am an everlasting flower, wide open for you from spring to winter.” She said in a whisper, knowing he couldn’t hear her because he was sleeping. It was another song that made her think of him, but she didn’t show it to him, yet “Out there is a world full of life waiting for us,” maybe she could have the courage to sing it to him next month “my four seasons are in love with you.” Maybe.

She stayed silent and time started to loose meaning. She was about to fall asleep too, but she thought she heard Chat Noir say something.

“Did you said something, kitty?” she asked, trying her best to keep her mind awake.

She almost missed it, how Chat Noir softly said in his sleep. “You’re warm.”

#miraculous ladybug #ladynoir #fics #i tried to make drabbles and I failed #winter #hugs #dancing #singing #picnic #fluff #a little angst

[pancakecakes]

A little longer

One-shot.

Summary: Ladybug suddenly hugs Chat Noir, and she just want to be held a little longer.

Tags: Ladynoir, hugs.

Notes: I love Ladynoir but I never write about it. 😭😭😭

 She gently slipped between his arms.

Ladybug put her forehead on his chest and tangled her arms around his waist. She sighed deeply. Chat Noir was surprised by the sudden action of his lady, but he knew she wouldn’t do it if she didn’t need it. He held her small body in his arms and pressed his lips on her head, smelling her shampoo, tempted of placing a small kiss.

They stayed like that for a while.

He admired Ladybug in every single way and looking at her being vulnerable made him realize he was allowed to be scared too, he was allowed to be a human being even when they had their masks on. He suddenly felt small in a world without his mother, an absent father and a world that saw him as just a pretty face.

Even when he felt scared, his eyes and throat burning, having Ladybug between his arms made all his problems go away. He wanted to be stronger to protect her.

“I’d do anything to make you feel better.” Chat Noir said softly.

“You already are.” She laughed nervously, her forehead strongly pressed against his chest.

He petted her back with one of his hands. The smell of her shampoo filling his lungs and her warmth slowly charging his heart. Maybe he needed that hug too.

Ladybug broke the hug, her hands finding Chat’s hands and her fingers intertwining his. Her eyes were closed, her nose red and small tears on the corner of her eyes.

“Dance with me Chat Noir.” She smiled but kept frowning, as if something was hurting her more than she could handle.

With a fast movement Chat Noir placed one of his hands on her waist, pulling her close. She giggled and started to dance, slowly. Ladybug placed her free hand on Chat Noir shoulder and started to hum a song he didn’t know.

Then she just started to laugh. She danced faster and faster until they weren’t dancing anymore, just making random movements. Chat Noir laughed.

Ladybug put her arms around his neck and slowed down her dance. Chat Noir placed both of his hands on her waist and danced slowly again.

“Are you ok?” He asked.

“Just… hold me a little longer.”

“Just that?”

“Yeah, just that.” She sighed again, her voice more relaxed now “Let me stay here with you just a little longer.”

#miraculous ladybug #hugs #ladynoir

[pancakecakes]

AU Yeah August 1- Soulmates.

One-shot.

Summary: When you’re born you can hear your soulmate’s voice inside your head. When the time you’re destined to meet is around the corner, you start hearing them less and less each day until you can’t hear them at all. That’s when you know that day has finally come.

Tags: Soulmates AU, Marinette, Aya. (Adrinette + DJWifi).

Notes: I’m slowly editing each day and uploading it! this one is the shortest I wrote, but I really liked the idea.

“Sometimes when I can’t hear his voice, I get a little lonely.” Marinette admitted.

“Clingy much?” Alya teased.

“Shush! I’m being serious, you know!” Marinette hit her with a pillow.

 Alya giggled and they stayed quiet for a while, both of staring at the ceiling. Marinette’s hand still holding the pillow she used to hit Alya and Alya hugging said pillow with both arms.

 “Can you hear his voice right now?” Alya asked, her voice softer than normal.

 It was late, and they were really tired. Maybe Alya was slowly falling asleep.

 “No.” Marinette sighed “Can you hear Nino’s?”

“Yes.”

Silence again.

Marinette knew not hearing Adrien’s voice was a good signal, but when you’ve had someone else’s voice inside your head for years it is a little hard when you suddenly stop hearing it for some hours every day.

Not that she was clingy, she was just used to having him around all day inside her head. Sometimes they’d be talking about something and suddenly she couldn’t hear his voice anymore.

“How did you feel the first time you couldn’t hear him?”

Marinette’s lips trembled. The first time she couldn’t hear his voice was for about an hour.

“I thought he had fallen asleep, so I didn’t really notice. He was scared though. He called me repeatedly and I never answered. I was helping my parents with the bakery and he thought maybe I got hurt, he sounded really worried when I heard his voice again.”

“Hmmm,” Alya said softly, just to let her know she hadn’t fall asleep yet.

“You?”

Alya blinked a couple of times before answering “We were talking about turtles. Nino was trying to convince me to stop using straws and suddenly I couldn’t hear his voice. I thought he wasn’t answering me because I was teasing him, but then I figured we weren’t able to hear each other’s voices. I felt a void, I … I felt alone for the first time in my life and I knew it was starting to happen.”

“Do you think it’ll be the same once we meet?”

Alya laughed “It is my turn, you know.”

“Do you want to keep playing? It’s pretty late.”

“You’re right, maybe we should be sleeping.”

 Silence.

 “It could mean you’ll meet him soon,” Marinette turned her face to Alya’s direction. Alya’s lips curved until they formed a smile “you could be meeting Adrien anytime soon. Isn’t it amazing?”

“I’m excited, not going to lie. But sometimes I’m a little scared too.”

“Scared? Why?” Alya turned and their eyes meet.

“We grew up with their voices in our heads, and suddenly we won’t be able to hear them at all. We’ll finally have only our own voices in our heads without any intruder, but we won’t be able to tell what the other is thinking.”

“Then you just talk about it. You are soulmates Marinette, even if you can’t know exactly what he is thinking about I’m sure you’ll know anyways.”

“I guess so.” Marinette said in a defeated tone.

“How long can you hear his voice?”

“Just barely…” Marinette’s eyes started to burn. When you stopped hearing your soulmate’s voice inside your head it meant you’d finally meet them. Ideally you met them the same day you stop hearing their voices, but sometimes it could take a little longer. Some people took actual years to meet them because they weren’t putting attention.

“You could be meeting him anytime soon.”

“I’m really clumsy and you know it Alya,” Marinette pouted “what if I miss him as he passes beside me because I’m distracted with something stupid, or what if I fall, AHHH.” Marinette covered her face. She wanted to cry.

“That won’t happen.” Alya assured her as she held her in her arms “You’ll meet him, and everything will be perfect. And you’ll have to introduce us, he may be your destined one but I’m the one you choose, ok?” She teased.

“If you keep saying things like that Nino could misunderstand it and think you’re in love with me.”

“He is jealous, all right, but he has to know you’re my number one girl and that’s not going to change.”

Marinette finally uncovered her face and pouted.

“You’re my best friend Alya.” She cried and hugged her back.

“And you are mine, Marinette.”

Marinette had the best friend she could hope for, and she’ll soon meet her soulmate. She was clumsy, a little distracted all the time and scared of the future. She was a lot of things, but she was not alone. And she’d never be.

#miraculous ladybug #fics #AU Yeah August #marinette dupain cheng #alya cesaire

[pancakecakes]

AU Yeah August 16- Neighbors.

One-shot.

Summary: Marinette shares a house with her best friend Alya... And Rose, Juleka, Mylene, Ivan, Nathaniel and Alix.  What? Living alone in this economy? Impossible. One day, the mansion in front of their house is finally rented, only by the most popular boys and girls from school.

Tags: Neighbors AU, Marinette, Alya, Rose, Juleka, Mylene, Ivan, Nathaniel, Alix, Chloe, Lila, Kagami, Nino, Luka, Adrien.

Notes: I actually liked how this turned out (as a general idea). Day 18 is already written but I decided to make a drawing, I’m really excited (ᇴ‿ฺᇴ) This is for @auyeahaugust

Marinette Dupain-Cheng, 21 years old, fashion design student.

It was almost four years since she started to live alone. Well, maybe ‘alone’ isn’t the right word. In her 18th birthday she moved to a house near her new university. She was living with her best friend Alya and some other people from College Francoise Dupont.

What? Living alone in this economy? Impossible.

Living in the first floor, Juleka and Rose shared a big room with a beautiful bathroom. The other room was occupied by Mylene and her boyfriend Ivan. The small room was used as a movies and games room. There was a big kitchen, two bathrooms, a small garden and the laundry room.

In the second floor, the main room was shared by Marinette and Alya. They had a big closet, an amazing bathroom with a tub, and big beautiful windows. The other two rooms were medium sized and were occupied by Nathaniel and Alix, the only ones who could afford having a room of their own. Or maybe the only ones that didn’t want to share it. There was another small room which was used as a study room.

Living with other students can be hard sometimes, but there are good things too. One year away from graduation, Marinette started to feel sad because she knew everyone would eventually part ways. Their lives were full of school projects, occasional parties and Netflix marathons. Their lives were pretty much monotone, but everyone was focused on school, so it didn’t really matter.

During all the time they were living there, the house in front of theirs was never rented. But it made sense, the house was enormous, it could be easily be a mansion.  All the houses in the neighborhood were actually very pretty, and expensive, but Alya was lucky to find a place which was pretty cheap and a couple of blocks away from university.

The house owner did say something about a crime that happened there, something about ghosts or something like that… Marinette didn’t care too much, as long as it was cheap and near school, it was perfect.

The thing was, one day the ‘rented’ sign that was outside the mansion disappeared, and Marinette was very curious. During the next week several moving trucks filled the enormous house with beautiful and expensive furniture. Everyone started to stare at the trucks after school from Marinette’s and Alya’s big windows when one day Juleka said her older brother Luka was moving to that house with some friends.

“What? Luka is going to university?” Alix was so confused with this new information. Juleka barely spoke about her brother.

“Of course he is. He is studying something about sound design… I don’t know.”

“Luka is really amazing isn’t he.” Rose giggled, sending a weird stare to Marinette.

“But how can your brother afford living in a mansion and you don’t?” Alya asked.

“Who said I couldn’t afford it?”

“Luka is moving with some friends from school, you might know all of them.” Rose started to say, “They are really popular.”

“The only popular girls I know from school aren’t very nice.” Mylene added.

“Is your brother moving to a mansion filled with popular girls? What is he, a player?” Ivan asked.

“What, I didn’t say he was moving only with girls,” Juleka turned to Ivan’s direction.

“There are some other popular guys moving with him as well. Everyone is talking about it at school!” Rose screamed in excitement.

“Oh, I think I heard something like that today in my art classes,” Nathaniel tried to remember “I think Nino is moving with them.”

“ExcuSE ME, NINO?” Alya screamed “He haven’t said anyth-… Oh…”

“Is that true?” Marinette asked, don’t knowing what was happening anymore.

“Nino started to hang out with some friend he met a while ago, and he did mention he was moving out soon. But he never told me he was moving in front of my house.”

“Maybe it was a surprise? HOW ROMANTIC.” Rose sighed and Juleka patted her head.

“Some friend? You don’t know the name of your boyfriend’s friend?” Ivan asked.

“I did ask him, but he never told me. He said it was complicated.”

“WAIT, EVERYONE,” Nathaniel screamed “There’s people getting out of a car. It can’t be, is that Chloé Bourgeois?”

“WHAT?” Everyone stuck their faces to the window.

Chloé Bourgeois, Lila Rossi and Kagami Tsurugi were standing in front of the mansion. Chloé was on her phone, Lila was taking a selfie and Kagami was standing there drinking a half empty Starbucks iced coffee.

“No way. Are they our new neighbors?” Marinette cried.

“Excuse me, when can we move from here to another place?” Mylene asked, a little concerned.

“In eight months.” Alya said in a whisper, still perplexed “No, wait. No one is allowed to move until we graduate.”

Everyone sighed in resignation.

“Sure, why not. It’s easier for you because your boyfriend is moving next door.” Alix said while pouting.

“I admire you Alya,” Mylene added, shyly “I wouldn’t feel so good If I knew my boyfriend moved to the same house those girls lived.”

“You don’t trust me?” Ivan looked offended.

“I-I didn’t mean that!”

Alya suddenly started to sweat as she stared to the nothingness.

“Hey, there’s another car.” Nathaniel said, and everyone stuck their faces on the window again.

Nino was the first one to get outside of the car, followed by Luka and Adrien.

“Adrien…!” Marinette cried, with a cracked voice. She felt how her legs failed her and then she hit her face with window really hard and fell to the floor. Everyone turned to her, concerned. Everyone but Alya.

“This is bad. Is Adrien also moving to that house???” Alya screamed.

“Shhh, they could hear us!” Mylene said, scared.

Adrien was Marinette’s crush since day one. They had a couple of general classes together, and Marinette almost failed each class because she couldn’t focus because of Adrien. Alya first tried to get them together, and she ended up being friends with Nino who was in the same class as them and they started dating.

After two years of seeing how Marinette stop functioning each time she saw Adrien, Alya made everything she could to make her get over him. Her new project was to make her interested in Luka, Juleka’s handsome and cool brother.

This was a disaster, they were now living together.

“You gotta be kidding me.” Alya said, pissed.

#miraculous ladybug #au yeah august #Neighbors AU

[pancakecakes]

AU Yeah August- 15 Life Swap

One-shot. 

Summary: Adrien is in love with the school’s queen, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Ladybug is in love with Chat Noir. Everyone is swapped, but everyone is cool. 

Tags: Life swap, Marinette, Alya, Adrien, Nino, Chloé, Cararouge  (Carapace x Rena Rouge) .

Notes: I wanted to do a quick drawing but I didn’t finish it (｡•́︿•̀｡) I’ll post the sketch and I’ll upload the finished version when I upload it to AO3. This is for  @auyeahaugust

Everybody knew who Marinette Dupain Cheng was. But why wouldn’t they know? She was the only daughter of the best patisseries in all of Paris. Maybe the best in the world.

Dressing in black and white formal clothing and delicate black earrings, with her beautiful hair in a high bun, red eyeliner and pink lips, Marinette walked in the hallways fully confident. By her side, Alya Cesaire with an orange fashionable dress and long white heeled boots. She was the daughter of the best chef of Paris, they were destined to be best friends.

They were not the kind of popular people that made others feel inferior, but they sure were the ones that were trapped in their own world, and didn’t let anyone in. Marinette was a famous young designer and Alya had a successful web page as a reporter, and the creator of the Ladyblog. They both had the highest grades in every class and were the class president and vice-president.

Even when the school was the most prestigious one in Paris, everybody knew both girls were out of everyone’s league. Everyone respected them, admired them and loved them, but always from afar.

But Adrien couldn’t take it anymore. With messy hair in a black cap, white sweater, black t-shirt and old jeans and tennies, Adrien sat in the school’s garden with his best friend Nino.

“I really want to talk to her.” Adrien’s voice was desperate “But I’m just a scholarship student with no special talent. She’ll never be interested in me.” He sighed.

Adrien was the sweetest guy in school. He won a full scholarship because he was smart. Something very special because College Francoise Dupont only accepted the kids of only the most successful and influent people around the world. And occasionally a couple of people won full scholarships, but they really had to be very intelligent. The exam was almost impossible.

“Come on Adrien, wining a scholarship here isn’t nothing.” Nino’s family were important people. Adrien didn’t know much about his family because they traveled a lot, but he got in because of their connections. They meet the first day of school and they were best friends since. “But ok, I have to admit you aiming for the school’s queen is also kind of…” Nino dressed in a formal-casual style in his daily life. He had a simple V-neck dark green sweeter over a white shirt, persimmon dress pants and brown shoes. In his face he only wore those elegant glasses he loved. Sometimes he would use his contacts and bring sun glasses of different colors.

 “Stupid.” Chloé said before Nino could finish. “Why would you want to be with someone like Marinette? The girl must be very superficial, just look at her. You deserve someone who appreciates you the way you are, not someone who will change you.” Chloé sat beside Adrien, pouting.

Chloé’s and Adrien’s families were best friends, so they grew up together as if they were siblings. Chloé had always been in love with Adrien. She knew he only saw her as nothing more than a sister, so she always bottled up her feelings. But she couldn’t help being jealous of other girls.

With her long blonde hair loose, a fluffy white jacket over a yellow and black stripped shirt, black shorts and long heeled boots, Chloé took off her white sunglasses as she stared at Adrien waiting for his reaction. She got in because her mother was an important fashion critique and her father had something to do with politics. Chloé loved fashion and dressed only in the best clothes. This caused many people judge her before meeting her, thinking she was a bratty girl, when in fact she was very sweet, smart and cute.

“You both are judging her for what you can see in the outside,” Adrien added “but in the inside she is really soft, and her smile is the most amazing of them all.”

“Marinette? Smile? As if that pretty statue knew how to smile.” Chloé said, letting her jealousy talk. She sighed “I’m sorry, I just think you shouldn’t aim too high or you could get hurt, Adrien.”

“Chloé is right. We both support you, but neither of us want to see you hurt.” Nino put a hand in Adrien’s shoulder.

“Look, I know you said she acted really sweet and smiled to you when you gave her your umbrella the first day at school, but I don’t know, maybe you imagined it? If that really happened then why she never gave the umbrella back, or why never smiles or talk to you when you say hello?”

“I know it sounds like a lie, but it really happened, I swear!”

“And we believe you, Adrien.” Nino gave a cold stare to Chloé as he slowly said it “But we need you, we can’t protect Paris if you’re distracted.”

Adrien covered his face in hands and let a pained sound out “I know we have to protect Paris and have a normal life but I caaaaaaaan’t stop thinking about Marinette.”

Nino laughed and Chloé pouted again.

“I mean, if you ever dated Marinette you would talk good about me when Alya is present, right?”

“NI-NOO!” Chloé hit Nino in the arm with all her strength, which wasn’t much.

“Hey, Alya is amazing. If she ever looked at my direction I’d go directly to heaven.”

“What would your girlfriend say if she knew you said that?” Adrien smirked.

Nino blushed “I already told you me and Rena aren’t together!”

“Are you sure? You’re always pretty close and you always flirt instead of actually fighting the akumas” Chloé smirked and then giggled.

“I’m pretty sure Rena is in love with you, I saw her blush when she saw you last fight.” Adrien added.

“We don’t even know each other’s identities.” Nino’s face was red.

Ladybug and Chat Noir were directly chosen by Master Fu. Master Fu gave Ladybug the fox and peacock miraculous, and she entrusted someone with the fox miraculous. Both of their identities remained a secret even up until that day.

Master Fu gave Adrien the Bee and Turtle miraculous to choose the next heroes, and even when they were supposed to keep their real identities as a secret, Adrien choose to ignore the rule. The three of them didn’t know who Ladybug or Rena Rouge were in real life, nor the whereabouts of the peacock miraculous.

“If in other reality I was in love with Ladybug, I think I wouldn’t care who was beneath that mask, I’d still love her.”

Nino and Chloé looked at each other, face full of resignation. They knew Ladybug was crushing on Chat Noir since day one. It was painfully obvious, and the worst part of it was Adrien didn’t even notice.

“Oh, Adrien…”

‘Why am I in love with such an oblivious moron’ Chloé’s thoughts made her sigh.

They heard an explosion coming from inside the school and shortly afterwards tons of students running towards the exit.

“An Akuma!” The three of them said at unison and quickly transformed.

They helped the other students scape as they waited for Ladybug and Rena Rouge to arrive. With the most elegant movements, Rena Rouge fell from the sky, looking fabulous as always.

“Hey there turtle, I missed you, babe.” Rena said with a flirtatious voice.

Carapace blushed, because of the conversation they had earlier “I missed you too, d-darling.”

“What, seeing me made you this nervous? Are you finally falling in love with me, my love?” Rena smirked.

“Please stop flirting, there’s an actual Akuma in this school. Where’s Ladybug?” Queen B asked.

Ladybug fell from the sky in the same elegant way Rena did. “The Akuma is near the music classroom, let’s move everyone!” Ladybug always looked so professional and strong. Well, at least when Chat Noir wasn’t there.

“Glad you made it Bug!” Chat Noir petted Ladybug’s shoulder and then he started running to the direction she mentioned.

Ladybug turned red and suddenly her legs stopped working properly.

“For God’s sake,” B whispered, “I’m going with Chat, catch up when you can.”

“Seems like you have a job to do. See you there, beautiful. I’ll be waiting.” Carapace followed Chat and B, leaving the pair behind.

“Oh, baby, what am I going to do with you.” Rena sighed.

“I can’t help it,” Ladybug covered her mouth with both hands “he touched my shoulder…”

“We need to go, we have to fight the Akuma.” Rena gave Ladybug a hand “You’re always so clumsy around him, no wonder why he can’t figure out your identity. Nobody would guess you’re the school’s queen.”

Master Fu did tell them they were both attending to the same school, but that was the only clue he told them.

“Shut up Rena, you wouldn’t flirt like you do with Carapace if you weren’t transformed.”

“Who knows, I really like him.”

“Do you think Chat knows I have a crush on him?”

“That oblivious piece of -?”

“Rena, language, please…”

“No, I’m sure he doesn’t know. Now please let’s go back to battle.”

Ladybug blushed and smiled “Yeah, let’s go.”

#miraculous ladybug #au #life swap #marinette dupain cheng #marinette #adrien agreste #adrien #alya cesaire #alya #nino #nino lahiffe #chloe #chloe burgeois #ladybug #chat noir #rena rouge #carapace #queen b #cararouge #au yeah august

[pancakecakes]

AU Yeah August 13- Fake Dating

One-shot. You can read it here: AO3 

Summary:  She had the sweetest smile, the cutest laugh and the perfect personality. Even when Adrien was crushing so hard on Marinette, the reality was he was dating her best friend, Alya.

Tags: Platonic love, AdrienxAlya, Fake dating au.

Notes: What’s the official AdrienxAlya ship name??? I’m trying really hard to write everyday for @auyeahaugust, I know it’s not the best thing in the world but I actually finished day 13 and I’m happy! At the end of the month I’ll go back to edit the other unfinished days.

She had the sweetest smile, the cutest laugh and the perfect personality.

If Adrien had to (finally) go against his father to do something he genuinely wanted to do, it would absolutely be dating her. Adrien knew Marinette was worth it. He knew even his father would approve it, since Marinette was not just beautiful with a great personality, but also had talent for fashion design.

Even when Adrien was crushing so hard on Marinette, the reality was he was dating her best friend, Alya.

Well, not dating, dating.

Adrien met Alya in an event where she interviewed him and eventually became friends. Alya was amazing, she was hardworking, beautiful and successful with her projects, but Adrien never felt attracted to her romantically. To be honest, neither did Alya, but they cared for each other deeply.

He had to admit Alya had her charms. She was very popular with guys and it wasn’t new for her to have stalkers and people who were a little intense. Adrien had the same problems, so they had something in common to talk about, even when their entire lives and interests were different.

One day Alya called him and asked him to fake date her.

He was surprised, but he knew Alya had a crazy ex-boyfriend who was stalking her. They had spoken about it a couple of months ago. Their families were very close and she didn’t want to get the police involved. She wanted to be single and focus in her career, but her ex-boyfriend didn’t think that was a valid reason to not have a relationship with him.

The plan was simple: They would pretend they were dating to keep her ex-boyfriend away and eventually break up. In case this didn’t work, Alya promised she would have to get the police involved.

At first, they only texted and called each other on the phone. Then, they started to hang out in coffee shops and Alya went to some of his photoshoots. His father even hinted him to date her. Some months passed very fast and they really didn’t start to suddenly love each other or feel uncomfortable. There were rumors they were dating, but neither of them acknowledged it.

Adrien told Alya he would gladly tell everyone they were dating, but Alya always felt bad about it.

“My father likes you, Alya. And my father rarely likes anything at all.” Adrien said one day when they were talking about making public their “dating” situation.

“I know you don’t mind it, but I care about it.” Alya said, not even facing him “Lately I’ve had more clients and people contacting me for projects… but it is because we started to be close. I don’t want to build my career around your success Adrien. I want it to be built around my efforts and talent…” She sighed.

“I know you don’t like it, but I’m glad I can help you with some contacts. You are my friend Alya,” Adrien rested his hands in Alya’s shoulders. She finally faced him. “I love fake dating you. I enjoy your presence in my life and if I could make your start as reporter easier it’d be my pleasure. True, I’ll probably give you contacts but they’ll stay because of your talent, not because of me.”

Alya smiled warmly and rested one of her hands on top of one of his “What would I do without you, fake boyfriend. I love you Adrien, you’re my best guy friend.”

“Guy-friend?” Adrien smirked “Is there someone else in your life? Should I be worried my little fox?” he trapped her in his arms and Alya giggled.

“I do have a best friend actually,” Alya put her arms around Adrien’s waist “we’ve known each other since we were kids.”

“Are you two-timing me?”

They both laughed.

“You’d love her, she’s amazing.”

“You’re two-timing me with a GIRL?” Adrien faked to be offended.

“I think you’re confused kitty, YOU are the other one. She is my wife.”

“Oh, my heart, I think you broke it.” he placed one of his hands on his forehead, dramatically.

Alya tickled him. They broke the hug and laughed again.

“I know you’ll love her as much as I do.”

Alya then promised to introduce them. Two weeks passed, and he had forgotten about it. Until one day in one of their usual coffee shop dates he finally met her.

She arrived late and Alya didn’t mention she’d be coming until she was already there. It was like love at first sight. Even before she entered to the coffee shop he couldn’t stop watching her. His heart skipped a beat when she entered the place and went directly to their table and said hello.

He was used to be surrounded by models all the time, but she had something special and different. Something fresh. When they introduced each other, he was speechless to know she was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, a talented young designer his father always talked about.

Marinette started to join them to most of their coffee dates. Her fashion sense was impeccable and her presence was something Adrien completely adored. Alya soon noticed how he blushed every time she arrived and how happy he was when she laughed.

“I think she likes you too.” Alya said one day, out of nowhere.

“What, who?” Adrien blushed terribly, thinking on Marinette.

“You know who I am talking about.” Alya closed her eyes and laughed.

“I don’t like Marinette.” Adrien was proud of himself, he didn’t stutter.

“Don’t dare lie to me Agreste. The way you look at her when she’s on her phone, the way you laugh at the things she says and how sad you look when she has to leave, isn’t that love kitty?”

Adrien bit his lip. He really did like Marinette, but he was “dating” Alya. Even when their “relationship” wasn’t public, everyone knew something was going on.

“My ex-boyfriend has finally moved on. He even has a new girlfriend now.” Alya was staring at the ceiling, looking somewhat sad.

“Why are you telling me that?” Adrien softly asked, afraid of the answer.

“Maybe… we should break up.” Alya didn’t dare to face him when she was saying those words.

Maybe they weren’t dating for real but hearing that made him want to throw up. Deep down he knew not much would change if they “broke up”, but he couldn’t help it.

“Marinette is the best, and I’d be happy if my two best friends are together.” Alya slightly smiled as she turned to see him “I know you’d make her happy.”

Adrien went and hugged her, as if it would be the last time she’d be between his arms. Alya rested her head on his chest and Adrien slowly ran his fingers through her hair. “You are my best friend Alya. Nothing will change.”

“I know it won’t, and don’t take it the wrong way but I don’t like-you, like-you, but I can’t help feeling bad.”

“I can’t help feeling bad too.” Adrien admitted. “You are wonderful, and if I ever have to marry someone I’m not in love with I’ll choose you, because when I’m with you I feel happy. Really.”

“You make me happy too.” Alya smirked “Even though I’m not in love with you I’d still say yes if you proposed.” She stayed quiet for a moment before speaking again, completely serious “Please don’t hurt Marinette, she’s my best friend and I’d die if I have to choose between you two.”

“We don’t know if she likes me yet.”

Alya laughed so hard Adrien thought she was not feeling bad at all “Are you seriously telling me this?”

Adrien blushed again “W-We haven’t really talked alone, and she thinks we’re dating.”

“I never lie to my best friends, Adrien. Marinette knows I’m not dating you,” Alya petted Adrien’s head.

With warm in his eyes and a sweet smile, Adrien took Alya’s hand and kissed the back of it. “Best friends forever?”

Alya giggled “Best friends forever.”

They broke the hug and Alya got her stuff, ready to leave. Before she closed the door, Adrien dared to asked her “If you had to choose between me and Marinette, who would you choose?”

Alya laughed loudly again “Marinette, of course.” And then she closed the door.

He was glad Alya was in his life.

#au yeah august #miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #alya cesaire

[pancakecakes]

Beautiful Mistakes.

You can read it here: AO3

Chapters (Tumblr) : | 1 | 2 | 3 |

Summary: Marinette has a habit of sending asks to her favorite Tumblr user, telling him seeing his blog makes her happy, and that she’s glad he’s alive. It’s been a while for now and people have started to ship them, even though Marinette has never had the courage to reveal her true identity. One day, she forgets to switch to anonymous and sends one of her usual asks.

Tags: Ladynoir, Adrinette, fluff, Tumblr AU, Crush, Platonic Love.

Marinette’s face felt hot. Maybe she was dreaming, there was no way she had been texting Adrien Agreste for almost two years. She wasn’t that lucky.

Or at least that’s what she thought up until that point.

 She knew who Adrien Agreste was mostly because he wore his father’s designs. Gabriel Agreste was her favourite designer of all times, and he was probably the most prestigious fashion designer around the world. Alya had interviews with Adrien time to time and she always tried to make Marinette get interested on him, or at least it seemed like it. Alya only stopped when she admitted she was Ladybug.

Alya would always tell her how nice Adrien was despite being extremely handsome and rich (And best friends with Chloé) and hinted he would be a perfect fit for her. At that time, she already knew she liked Chat Noir, so even when Adrien was handsome and maybe shared significant interests, her heart belonged to someone already. Adrien could be the most amazing man on earth and still, she would prefer Chat Noir. This had nothing to do about looks.

But the reality was Chat Noir was Adrien Agreste. She only felt intimidated by it because he was the son of her favourite designer. What if people thought she had planned everything from the beginning, so she could have special treatment on contests? No, that’d be impossible since it was unknown Adrien was Chat Noir. She was overthinking.

She took a deep breath.

Chat Noir’s real-life identity was Adrien Agreste… She finally could put a face on Chat Noir.

She had a vague idea of how Chat’s face would look like because of the memes and questions he answered. He was supposed to be really handsome (well, he didn’t lie), green eyes, blond hair and athletic body. He just never mentioned he was also a model but hey, she could have guessed it.

Marinette smiled.

“Adrien…”

 --

Chat Noir

10:03 P.M.

 Buginette? Is that you?

 Miraculous Ladybug

10:56 P.M.

 Hey, Chaton. You didn’t have to put that photo online, you know. The world wasn’t ready to see how beautiful you are.

 Chat Noir

10:57 P.M.

 OMG IT IS REALLY YOU.Pardon me, my lady. A gentleman always fulfils his promises. And I think you meant handsome. You, in other hand, are indeed beautiful.

 Miraculous Ladybug

10:57 P.M.

 Tbh I accidently sent that message without activating the anonymous option… I didn’t really want to reveal myself like that.

 Miraculous Ladybug

10:58 P.M.

 But please don’t get the wrong idea, I’m really happy. I’ve been thinking on telling you who I am anyways, but I wanted it to be special… I’m sorry kitty.

 Chat Noir

10:58 P.M.

 Please don’t apologize, it is perfect because it is you, no matter how it happened.

 Miraculous Ladybug

10:58 P.M.

 Awww, Chaton [heart emoji]

 Chat Noir

11:00 P.M.

 And I wanted you to know that you don’t have to push yourself. I’m glad we know each other’s real names and all, if I could I would go anywhere to meet you right this instant… but I want you to feel comfortable with me first… All I want is you feeling comfortable with Adrien Agreste, the way you are with Chat Noir.

 Miraculous Ladybug

11:01 P.M.

 I am comfortable with you, whether you call yourself Chat Noir or Adrien Agreste… it’s the same to me. I hope you can be comfortable with Marinette as you are with Ladybug.

 Chat Noir

11:04 P.M.

 The thing we call a rose would smell just as sweet if we called it by any other name. Ladybug would be just as perfect even if she wasn’t called Ladybug, lose your name. Trade in your name—which really has nothing to do with you—and take all of me exchange.

 Miraculous Ladybug

11:05 P.M.

 You dork [heart emoji]

 Miraculous Ladybug

11:07 P.M.

 I trust your words. Just call me your love, and I will take a new name. From now on I will never be called Ladybug again.

 Chat Noir

11:07 P.M.

 This is why I adore you [heart emoji] But technically I should be the one telling you that line, Juliet.

 Miraculous Ladybug

11:08 P.M.

 I don’t want us to end like Romeo and Juliet…

 Chat Noir

11:09 P.M.

 We won’t. its not Romeo and Juliet’s story. It is Chat Noir and Ladybug’s love story. Exactly who we are is just enough.

 Miraculous Ladybug

11:10 P.M.

 Hahaha. There’s a place for us <3.

 Miraculous Ladybug

11:11 P.M.

 Can we meet?

 Chat Noir

11:11 P.M.

 11:11 My lady. Make a wish. I wish for us to never be apart.

 Miraculous Ladybug

11:11 P.M.

 I wish for the same thing.

Marinette wanted it to be perfect. They agreed on meeting on a Sunday at a café during the afternoon. She had some deadlines coming up, so she didn’t sleep for two days. She was happy because she finished everything on time. She just needed to make some adjustments after her date with Adrien and then she could sleep a whole day.

 She put on makeup, used her favourite perfume and her best white and blue dress. She had everything planned and her friends were kindly enough to help her organize a private meeting, since the media was focused in Adrien during that week.

 Rose and Juleka worked together at a café during the weekends, and they agreed to keep the café open for a couple of hours after closing that Sunday, so Marinette and her mysterious lover could meet in private and have their date without anyone noticing it. Marinette was well known in that café due to her work as both designer and a baker, so the owners were more than welcome to allow them to use the place after closing.

 “And where did you meet this guy, Marinette?” Rose asked in a dreamt voice.

 Everyone was finishing painting some wooden boards. The view was Paris at night seen from a balcony, decorated with red roses and warm coloured candles. They would put them in the walls to make it look as if they were having a date outside.

 “We knew there was someone already, by the way you stared and smiled at your phone all the time, but it’s the first time we see you planning one of your dates” Juleka added “and this is way more romantic than I originally thought it would be”.

 “Yeah, Marinette” Alya started to say, teasing her “It’s almost as if you’ve been secretly dating this mysterious guy for almost two years now. Is this your anniversary dinner or something?”

 Rose squealed in excitement and Juleka smiled.

 “You have been dating him for two years????” Rose asked way more excited than Marinette thought possible.

 “We are not dating!” Marinette blushed and started to move her hands in front of her in a strange way.

 “That’s what’s she’s been telling herself all this time” Alya said.

 “Woah, so there’s really a guy Marinette had been seeing all this time” Juleka was a little surprised.

 “I can’t believe this day finally came!!!” Rose was really excited.

 “But I’d be lying if I tell you I didn’t hope we ended up being family. You know what I mean?” Juleka giggled.

 Marinette immediately thought of Juleka’s brother, face completely red every time he saw her when they met.

 Marinette blushed “I already told you, your brother and I are really good friends, but just that”

 “Who knows, you met him after you met your secret prince. Maybe if things happened differently you would be having a dinner with Juleka’s brother instead” Alya teased.

 Luka was amazing. They met some months ago and they instantly became friends. But it was the same case as before, it didn’t matter how perfect Luka could be, her heart belonged to Adrien and Adrien only.

 “I thought you and Nathaniel had something going on” Rose added.

 “Nathaniel? What… no, no, we’re friends and we’re both artist. We never had anything going on, we just had some projects together” Marinette blushed again. Nathaniel was a really nice guy, people always told them they would make a beautiful couple, but she noticed every time someone said it Nathaniel went serious and quiet. Poor guy, maybe he was really bothered by it.

 “Besides, Marinette deserves the best boyfriend ever. Both Luka and Nathaniel are nice but, are they nice enough to be the future husband of the next top fashion designer of the world?”

 “Alya, stop” Marinette blushed even more.

 “What a shame, Nathaniel and you looked so good together”

 “I think you got the name wrong, Rose, my brother’s name is Luka”

 “Well, are you going to help me to get everything ready or are we going to keep talking about other boys when I’m about to have dinner with my… my…” Marinette froze. What were they? Friends?

 “I’m sorry Marinette I couldn’t hear that last word… You’re what again?” Alya teased.

 Marinette choked, and everyone laughed.

 ‘This will be the best dinner ever’ She thought as she they started hanging the freshly painted boards in the walls.

 Maybe she didn’t reveal herself in a special way, but she was going to make sure their first time meeting in person was perfect. She was nervous, but everything was well planned and when she planned something, nothing went wrong.

   An hour before the date, everything was finished. They were taking a break when the main door suddenly opened. It was Chloé. She had two cellphones in her right hand and she seemed tired and pissed.

 “I’m sorry, but we’re closed. You can come tomorrow if you—” Rose was quickly shut up.

 “As if I would come here to drink coffee” Chloé said in the rudest way possible “Then, who’s the one.”

 “I’ll have to ask you to leave” Juleka said in a strong tone, taking a step forward.

 “I won’t leave until I met her” Chloé fixed her eyes on Marinette. She frowned as she stepped in “Marinette Dupain Cheng, why am I not surprised” Chloé’s eyes went from Marinette’s feet to her hair. Chloé made a disgusted face.

 “Chloé…” Marinette whispered. There was fear in her voice. Every time Marinette met Chloé something wrong happened. She didn’t know why Chloé hated her so much, or when did it started, but she noticed it in a contest when Chloé accidentally pushed her and she hit the refreshments table and got all wet before the presentation.

 “Chloé Bourgeois, we’re close. Unless you want to see your face in every news paper tomorrow morning talking about how the only daughter of the major trespassed a closed establishment and acted rude towards the staff, get out of here” Alya intervened.

 “I won’t leave until I hear Marinette admit he’s making a fool out of my sweet Adrikins.”

 “Adrikins? You mean Adrien? Adrien Agreste?” Rose gasped. Everyone knew they were best friends.

 “No one is making a fool out of anyone. Now leave” Alya pressed.

 “Adrien is a famous model, and the only son of the most prestigious designer of the whole world. Do you seriously want me to believe he suddenly wakes up someday and tells everyone he’s in love with someone? And that someone is no other than Marinette Dupain Cheng, future fashion designer who has been applying to every contest the Agreste brand has guested for the past years and don’t think that’s a little suspicious?”

 “It’s not…” Marinette tried to explain everything before Chloé fully entered to the café and pulled the tablecloth, throwing everything in the table they just fixed for the date to the ground “Chloé, wait…”

 “What is your deal with Adrien!? I won’t let anyone hurt him because some wannabe fashion designer wants to use him to get preference in the contests” Chloé was furious. She tried to grab Marinette by the hair when Alya took her by the arm.

 “You’re going to leave this instant Chloé, or else I’ll call the police”

 “This is none of your business, Cesaire”

 “If you come and try to hurt my girl in any way, it is my business, Bourgeois”

 Chloé took a step behind, getting free from Alya’s hand “I will ruin her if she gets close to him.”

 “You have no idea what’s going on Chloé, I advise you to go and talk with him first before you come and throw a tantrum and get yourself into trouble” Alya stepped forward, leading her to the exit.

 “Wait, Alya it’s ok. I am not doing anything wrong, let me explain it to her” Marinette approached Chloé, making Alya step aside “I understand you can’t trust me, you’re Adrien’s best friend, but I assure you I have no intention of hurting him or playing with his feel—”

 Chloé took one of the paint pots they used to paint the wooden boards and poured it all on Marinette “I don’t want to hear any of your lame excuses. You leave Adrikins alone or I’ll ruin you and your career, are we clear?” Chloé then turned and left the café.

 Marinette was covered in red paint. Her hair, face and her beautiful white dress was ruined. The table was a mess, and everything was wrong.

 “Are you ok Marinette?” Juleka hurried to see Marinette the moment Chloé poured the paint on her.

 “Girl it’s ok, we can clean everything, and you can get ready before the date starts, there’s still time.” Alya put an arm in Marinette’s back.

 “I don’t understand why Chloé is so mean…” Rose sobbed.

 “No, I can’t see him like this…” Marinette said, with a broken voice.

 “What? No, babe, we still have time, this is not ruined”

 “This is wrong Alya, our first meeting has to be perfect. My dress, hair and make up is ruined, I need at least two hours to make it all right again. There’s paint to clean and we need to decorate the table again” Marinette tears started to fall as she trembled “I can’t meet him like this”

 “We’ll clean everything while you go home to take a bath and get ready, we can do this Marinette” Rose added.

 “No, I’ll change the day”

 “You’ve been waiting all week for this day, we won’t let Chloé get away with this, babe” Alya was frustrated, not knowing what to say to make Marinette don’t give up.

 “Please, just… let me make this my way. I am tired, and I need this to be perfect. I really do. Thank you so much for everything but I need to move the date to another day”

 “Are you sure? Is there anything we could do?” Juleka asked.

 “Everything’s ok, let’s start to clean this first…” Marinette walked towards the ruined table before Rose stopped her.

 “We’ll take care of this. Alya, could you take her home?”

 “Sure. Are you sure you both can clean everything on your own?”

 “Yeah, don’t worry about us we can handle it. Just take her home safe, ok?” Juleka said and Alya nodded.

 “Let’s go Marinette.”

 They took some paper to clean most of the red paint that was stuck in Marinette’s body and hair. She texted Chat Noir telling him she had to cancel because of a sudden emergency, but they could see each other next weekend. They walked home, not talking at all.

 Alya stared at her, trying to say something and then regretting it before even saying something at all. She was worried, Marinette knew. But this time she needed to go home, cry, take a nap and get some work done before she could start planning her date again.

 Marinette bit her lip. Everything was planned, everything was going smoothly. She wanted to meet Chat Noir in real life so bad… Tears came back and suddenly she was sobbing and then crying loudly. Alya hugged her and Marinette kept crying, as loud and heartbreaking as she had never cried before.

 “I’m so sorry babe, I’m sorry I couldn’t do more” Alya’s voice sounded a little broken too. She was on the verge of crying as well.

 “Why I am so unlucky?” Marinette cried and hugged her as if she was falling apart and only Alya could make her pieces stay in place. “Should I really stay away from him?”

 “No, no, no dear, don’t say that. He loves you, you both deserve to be together. You both want it so much”

 “I’m sorry Alya”

 “You have nothing to apologize for, babe”

 “You’re my best friend”

 “You’re my best friend too, Marinette”.

  Alya walked Marinette home and after staying for awhile and made sure Marinette was feeling better, she left. Marinette was tired and sad, but she couldn’t sleep. In the end she decided to work on some freelance she had to have her mind busy after fixing a couple of things in the project she worked on in the past two days. She would take a bath after she finished everything, or after she felt better and regained her need to get some sleep.

Alya called a couple of times during the night, to see how she was doing, and sent a lot of texts.

 Chat Noir’s reply sounded a little disappointed, but he wasn’t mad at her for cancelling at last minute. She wanted to talk with him, but every time she saw his username she remembered what happened that afternoon with Chloé and she started crying again, so she just put her phone away and worked all night.

  It was 9 AM, she was almost finished with her work and she was feeling a little better. She promised herself she would send a message to Chat Noir, take a bath and then go to sleep. She was not in the mood for school, and it wasn’t completely wrong to take a day off every once in a while. She had told her parents she would be working all night, and that she’d help them in the bakery during the evening.

 Marinette heard a distant yell from her mother saying she had a guest, and a couple of knocks on her door.

 “Come in” Marinette said in a defeated tone. She told Alya to not come to check on her if she didn’t want her to die from anxiety. But well, its Alya we were talking about, her best friend.

Marinette heard her door opening and closing.

“I told you didn’t have to come. I am alright, I’m about to finish these designs and going to bed” Marinette said with a tired voice, not even bothered to turn and see her friend.

“O-Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you…” a masculine voice said.

Marinette froze. She stopped breathing and turned as fast as she could and there he was, Adrien Agreste himself. Her face turned red. She tried to say something, but she freaked out and ended up stuttering. She quickly covered her mouth with both hands and tried to calm down until she could finally say, in a broken voice.

 “Chat Noir….”

Adrien blushed “Ladybug…”

 They just stood there for a while without saying a word.

Marinette didn’t know what to do. She was wearing her pyjamas, had the makeup from last night, some red paint still in her hair, and she hadn’t slept for three days by then. She must be at her ugliest. How did Adrien know her address? It had to be Alya… and why did he come all the way here without telling her? They could meet at a café, after she took a shower and wore cute clo-

“You’re beautiful”

Marinette couldn’t fight the tear that crawled down her cheek. Everything was wrong.

 First, she didn’t want to tell Chat Noir she was Ladybug with some random message when she forgot to switch to anonymous. Second, she tried to meet him under the perfect circumstances and everything went wrong. She was ugly, tired and… he thought she was beautiful.

 Adrien frowned in concern the moment he saw Marinette crying. He walked towards her and put his hand on her shoulder.

 “Are you ok?” Adrien’s voice was warm and she could tell he was really worried.

Marinette put both of her hands on her face and started sobbing. Adrien got closer, hesitating on giving her a hug.

“I’m sorry, I just-” Marinette tried to sound as clear as she could, trying at the same time to stop sobbing “I just wanted to look pretty when we met for the first time… I wanted everything to be perfect, but in the end, nothing came up the way I wanted it”

 Adrien’s hand ran through Marinette’s hair. He smiled, and his cheeks blushed a little.

 “You are beautiful just the way you are. And just because we’re both here in the same room makes it special and perfect. I’m here and you are in front of me without the screen of my phone between us”

“I look ugly”

“You don’t”

“You just say that because you love me”

“Yeah… I…”

Adrien’s face turned completely red. He held Marinette in his arms. He took a big breath before he softly whispered into her ear.

“I love you”

Marinette started to cry for real this time. She ran her arms around Adrien and cried as she hide her face in Adrien’s chest.

“I love you too, I love you so much!” Marinette was trembling, trying to hold her tears “how can you not be mad? The memory of us meeting for the first time will be me crying in my pyjamas as you hold me, telling me that you… that you…” Marinette sobbed.

“That I love you, that I completely adore you and that it didn’t matter how it happened it’d still be perfect because meeting you is the best thing that could happen in my entire life”

“Why do you have to be like this??”

“Because I love you. I’m deeply and desperately in love with you”

“Stop! Hearing it makes me want to cry even more!”

“Do you love me, my lady?”

Marinette remained silent. She started to tremble even more.

“Don’t you love me… Marinette?”

With her heart racing faster that it had ever did, she slowly looked directly into his eyes, her eyes filled with tears and face completely red.

“I love you, Adrien” Marinette pouted, big tears ran through her cheeks, slowly and thick like in those Ghibli movies “I’m sorry if I ever told you meeting you was a mistake. I was wrong, it was the luckiest thing that could’ve ever happened to me”

“I don’t know, maybe it really was a mistake”

Marinette’s face tensed “Why would you think that?” a million reasons crossed her mind in a second.

Adrien smiled “it was such a beautiful mistake, isn’t it?”

Marinette smiled. He remembered.

Maybe sometimes mistakes would lead you to a path where you can meet amazing people, such as Adrien Agreste… no… such as Chat Noir. Such as him.

Sometimes you don’t know how the real lives of people in the internet are like, but there is something completely certain, and it’s that behind all those posts, all those reblog, likes, videos and memes, there are real people, with feelings, amazing people that can change your life.

“Yeah” Marinette answered as she lost herself in her thoughts.

 Have she had done something different? Maybe she would’ve. Maybe she would’ve told him her real name sooner, maybe she wouldn’t have been so afraid to tell him the truth. She could’ve done several things differently, but she knew deep inside of her she did exactly was she was supposed to do so she could be with Adrien in that precise moment.

“Chloé told me what she did to you, I’m so sorry” Adrien said nervously “I’ve told her everything now, she’ll never do anything like that again in the future, I promise”

“It’s ok… she was worried about you”

“You were hurt, you were crying for what she did”

“Did Alya told you that?” Marinette was embarrassed.

“She didn’t have to, I know you” Adrien smiled, pressing his forehead in hers “She told me your address though”

“I’ll make her pay for it” Marinette giggled.

They stayed like that for a moment, forehead against forehead. Adrien caressed Marinette’s cheek before softly closing the gap between their lips. He just pressed them of a couple of seconds and then he pressed his forehead against hers again. His face was red, and his lips formed the most beautiful smile Marinette had ever seen.

It was all worth it, all the bad things that happened to her, the bad decisions she made through those two years and all the change that came after she followed him that day, after she sent the first ask, after she made it a habit out of it…

If it was a mistake, it was the most wonderful mistake that she could’ve ever made. Marinette smiled, and after sighing in relief she finally whispered.

“You are my most beautiful mistake”.

#miraculous ladybug #Adrinette #ladynoir #tumblr au #au #fics #fanfics #crush #platonic love #romantic love

[pancakecakes]

Beautiful Mistakes.

You can read it here: AO3

Chapters (Tumblr) : | 1 | 2 | 3 |

Summary: Marinette has a habit of sending asks to her favorite Tumblr user, telling him seeing his blog makes her happy, and that she’s glad he’s alive. It’s been a while for now and people have started to ship them, even though Marinette has never had the courage to reveal her true identity. One day, she forgets to switch to anonymous and sends one of her usual asks.

Tags: Ladynoir, Adrinette, fluff, Tumblr AU, Crush, Platonic Love.

Chapter 2: Mysterious Lady.

It had to be destiny, or a beautiful mistake, as Adrien liked to see it.

Have you ever had the need to go back as far as you can into the past to try and find the very exact moment when everything started?

Adrien felt it, as strong as the strength of the first love made him feel it. He was disappointed when he noticed his lady started to use her identity as Ladybug after she sent her first messages.

In fact, it seemed like she had sent several messages to him before using her usual ladybug emoji to distinct herself from other anons. He went a couple of months back and the first message he found with the ladybug emoji was this one:

  Anonymous said:

Hello, my kitty! It’s been a couple of days since my last ask. From the text post you shared earlier, I think what I like the most about you, is how sweet you are with everyone. And, a friend shared some of your posts some time ago and I loved your blog and immediately started following you! That’s how I found you. Sometimes I think it was destiny, and some other times I think it was a beautiful mistake, because now I can’t stop coming to your blog every day. Have a wonderful day tomorrow! -LB.

  A beautiful mistake. It was Ladybug’s words, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He knew even though Ladybug used the word “mistake” she didn’t mean it in a negative way.

He scrolled even further into the past. He was used to get several asks every day, so he wasn’t completely sure what anon was originally his sweet Ladybug. Maybe he’d never know, at least not if he never managed to discover Ladybug’s real identity.

He chose some messages and decided to believe those were the first messages Ladybug sent him, but at the same time he felt he needed to know the exact moment and the exact messages she really sent him.

He had been on Tumblr for almost five years. He used it to distract himself from the monotonous life he had. Every time he would feel sad or bored, he would log in and laugh at vines, memes and text posts. He’d also share some love related content, and some personal text posts.

He’d wake up pretty early in the morning. Natalie, after making sure he was ready, would start reading the schedule for that day. Sometimes it’d be a photoshoot, a formal event, lunch with older people or other boring activities.

He had always been home-schooled. He had to practice piano at least one hour and a half a day, study his subjects and practice his Chinese and sgrima. His life was really interesting from the outside, and he loved to do every single thing he practiced, but he still felt somewhat empty. Something was missing from his life, and excitement soon abandoned him as he started to grow up and everything kept unchanged.

This excitement was recovered when Ladybug appeared in his life.

He would excitedly wait every night for Ladybug´s anonymous message wishing him luck next day. This was something new to him, and he knew it; it had to be love.

Love takes time and boy, Adrien spent more than a year and a half crushing on a mysterious lady.

First, he felt a warm sensation when Ladybug started to message him every day. He started to feel like he belonged somewhere. Then he started to feel hot every time Ladybug shared something about her daily life, such as photos or videos.

Thanks to the videos and photos he knew Ladybug was living in Paris, but it was impossible for him to find her with so little information and vague hints.

He would try his hardest to visit the places where Ladybug was when she took some of the photos and videos. It made him feel even closer to her, and he kept hoping he might see her someday.

Anyway, doing so was hard. His father was really strict with his time outside the house, but Natalie would let him make small get aways into some coffee shops and some restaurants from time to time. Natalie was always like this, she always did her best to make him smile, even if it was just a little.

Maybe he never got the chance to run into Ladybug in person, but he knew that whenever he stared at the sky, Ladybug could be staring at it too somewhere not so far away, and that thought made him keep his hopes up.

He tried to find her several times. He once typed “Ladybug” on Tumblr´s tags and the top blog was the famous “Fashion Princess”, a girl who was popular on Tumblr for her excellent taste in clothes and her enormous talent as a young fashion designer. He knew the name of the girl because she had the opportunity to work for his father after she won a contest. Her name was Marinette.

He and his father were really surprised when Natalie told them the winner was a girl with the same age as Adrien. He’d never forget her name, he admired her in many ways even though they haven’t had the chance to meet in person.

Despite the possibility of his lady being the Fashion Princess—because she followed him and sometimes she liked some of his posts, he decided to drop it. He shouldn’t project his desires to find her into a famous fashion girl on Tumblr, no matter how much he admired her.

He was really close to message her though. For a couple of days, he was tempted to do it, but he would always give up before actually doing it.

He was sure his lady could be famous, but at the same time he knew she was a normal girl with normal hobbies and the sensation he felt whenever he thought of her was the same he felt when his mother was still around; the feeling of being in home, the feeling of being happy and not alone. Ladybug was a normal person, not someone unapproachable or some kind of Goddess.

Well, she was kind of unapproachable with all the anonymous situation, but she was the cutest and sweetest girl Adrien knew- well, kind of knew. After one year of answering her anonymous messages every day, Adrien was completely sure he loved that girl, it didn’t matter how she looked or who she was in real life when she was not protected by the anonymous mask.

It was a complicated feeling. He knew he loved her, but he fell for her without even knowing her real name, how her face looked and knowing just too little about her real self.

For him it wasn’t that strange, but he knew people would think he was strange. Deep inside he knew he didn’t care too much about other people’s opinion, but what if Ladybug thought he was strange because he fell in love with her under the current situation? He would absolutely care if it was the case.

He decided to ignore it- at least most of the times. He wanted to know her blog so bad, it was super unfair, Ladybug got to see his blog but he couldn´t see anything from her but the things she sent.

Not that he was being ungrateful since Ladybug sent pictures, videos and text posts quite often during the day, but as the time passed, he felt it wasn’t enough. He wanted to know her, to truly know her. He wanted to have private conversations, know her dreams, fears and all the things she hid from everyone else. The things she was afraid to say aloud, those private things that are shared only with your closest acquittances.

He was looking for a deeper connection. He wanted to be the closest friend with the person who made him this happy and excited about everything again.  

Being the closest friend didn’t mean spend all their time together, but to know each other so well that even when they were apart, he could truly understand her and support her the way she needed and deserved. It also meant for him to close his eyes and know deep down in his heart Ladybug trusted him the way he trusted her.

Adrien had the fear that someday Ladybug would disappear from his life without a notice, and it didn’t look so impossible since his luck had never been so good.

He knew he would be really sad, and he knew it would be impossible from him to truly forget her, but at the same time he knew his life wouldn’t stop if she wasn’t there.

Is this how love feels? She made him feel powerful, and the thought of losing her made him sad, but not helplessly lost. Even if Ladybug had to go away from his life someday, he would treasure every memory and everything she ever did for him, and live his life the best he could. Just like he did when his mother…

It’s true Adrien thought it wasn’t enough, but oh, it was perfect even in its imperfection. It was worth it, it was comforting. She was home.

  --

  “Hello?” Adrien asked as he picked up an unknown call. He never gave his personal number to anyone, and he didn’t have much friends. He wasn’t sure what to expect from it.

“Hello, Chat Noir” The mysterious voice said.

  Adrien froze. First of all, he was pretty sure no one knew about his Tumblr. Second, it was the voice of a girl, and since he didn’t have her number saved, it could be anyone but someone he knew. Before he had the opportunity to say anything, the girl laughed.

  “I’m sorry, my name is Alya. Do you remember me? I had an interview with you some months ago. You game me your personal number because we spoke a bit afterwards. I never called you until now”.

He sighed in relief. Alya, he remembered her. She was the leader of the Ladyblog, a fan club of people loving the idea of him and Ladybug being a thing. He met her before Ladybug came into his life, but he had some interviews with her afterwards.

The last time they saw each other, he admitted being Chat Noir and that he was deeply in love with Ladybug. Alya told him that she would do anything to find her, and if that day arrived she would tell him right away. He then gave her his personal phone number and then eventually forgot about it.

“Oh yeah, I remember you. I’m sorry” Adrien giggled “you surprised me”.

“Wait for it boy, I haven’t even said anything”.

Adrien’s heart skipped a beat. He remembered what Alya said the last time he saw her, that she would call him once she found out Ladybug’s identity. He tried not choke and tried to breathe normally.

“What do you mean?”.

“Well, let’s just say I just got home after a date with your mysterious lady”.

  Adrien’s cheeks felt hot.

He waited for this moment for months. At the same time, he felt bad about it because he knew Ladybug was against revealing her identity, and he would prefer if she personally told him. He also felt a little jealous, how many people out there knew Ladybug’s real identity?

“To be honest, I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone about this” Alya said in a disappointed tone “but I wanted to tell you that she is closer than you think. And who knows, maybe someday she will agree to tell you who she is”.

This felt right. Yeah, life is never easy with the things that are worth fighting and waiting for, and he would wait years for her. Still, the sound of disappointment in his voice was impossible to hide.

“I know she is, and I’d wait the time it takes for her to trust me enough, it doesn’t matter if it’s a thousand years” Adrien laughed. It was a nervous laugh, but at the same time a sincere one.

Alya laughed and then said in a sweet tone “Oh, I think she trusts you. Just give her time. I’ve got the feeling she just don’t want to mess things up. This is as important to her as it is for you.”

“You really think so?” his voice sounded more excited than he wanted it to sound.

“Yes, I’m sure of it.”

“But how can you be so sure?”

“There are times when you just know.”

  Yeah, she was right, there are time when you just know.

Ten months passed really fast. His relationship with Ladybug flourished into a really close and beautiful relationship. They’d now do more things together, and Ladybug was now part of his blog.

He was no longer afraid of she leaving him.

At this point, she being there for him was something normal, just as natural as breathing. He always kept the hope of someday meeting her in real life, but at the same time it finally felt enough. Or at least that’s how he felt in that moment, he was also afraid that once he met her, he would never get enough of spending time with her, but for now, just the presence of Ladybug in his life was enough.

And now, there was this new fear that would haunt him a couple of times every month. What if they didn’t get along in real life? Adrien had read a lot of text posts of people telling their experience of knowing people online and then after meeting in real life, realizing it was not the same.

Again, he tried to avoid thinking about it. There was no use of worrying about such things. 

Things would be the way they had to be.

From a couple of months Ladybug had been joking about revealing their identity. He knew this could be she trying to get used to the idea of revealing her true identity. He just needed to be a little more patient. He was so close to know her, to really know her.

  --

One day, at an event Chloé’s father held, Adrien had too many canapes and glasses of wine.

To tell you the truth, he just wanted to avoid talking too much with Chloé. The last time they spent the evening together, she almost discovered his Tumblr. Chloé was pissed because he was smiling while replying a message from Ladybug. When she asked what was he doing, he panicked and hide his phone.

Chloé tried to steal his phone, but failed. Her anger didn’t fade though, and he was sure she would try to steal his phone if she had the chance, so he stopped using his phone around her.

Eventually Chloé had to spend some time with other guests and he used his time alone to reply to some messages Ladybug left during his time in the presence of Chloé. Up until that point of the evening, he had been eating and drinking non-stop, so he just realized how tipsy he was. He drank more that he was allowed to, that was for sure.

  Anonymous said:

Hello, my chaton, what are you doing in this lovely evening? Thinking of me? I came to drink some tea and eat some pastries with my best girl-friend. LB.

Anonymous said:

The truth is: I am guilty. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. They have this beautiful Black Cat themed pastry and I absolutely love it- Would you try it someday? And maybe think about me when you do. LB.

Hello, my lady, I am here missing you because I came to a party and I wish you could be here. And yes, I will try that cake, but I’d prefer something ladybug themed though.

  Anonymous said:

What, are you at a party? Is there any cute girl with a pretty dress I should be jealous of? LB.

No, there is no girl in this planet that would look pretty to me, since the girl I love will always be you, my lady.

    Fuck. Adrien’s face turned red. He typed the answer really fast and without thinking too much he sent it. It was the first time he told Ladybug he loved her. He just fucked up.

He had said several times to her and to the world that he liked Ladybug, but saying you love someone was different, at least to him. He knew he loved her, but he wanted to tell her privately when they met in person and not just randomly in a message when he was tipsy, available for the world to see.

He wanted to die. Ladybug stopped sending messages and he was worried. Maybe she felt offended in a way, since his flirting had never been so direct, and usually were told between jokes.

Later that night, he received a message he wasn’t brave enough to reply. It was his little treasure. It was the first time she said it, and even though they avoided talking about it in the future, he knew she wasn’t joking.

  Anonymous said:

I’m glad to read that, since the boy I love will always be you, my sweet chaton. LB.

    Ladybug always avoided talking about things such as love, and also she did her best to avoid the question “what is your relationship with Chat Noir?” fans loved to ask all the time. He would always answer with a simple “We are partners, we save Paris from evil black butterflies” and when Ladybug dropped an ask she would pretend she didn’t see those questions, even if he asked for her opinion.

Maybe she was the kind of person that overthink situations. Maybe, just maybe, she didn’t want to get hurt. Did someone break her heart? Or maybe this was her first time falling in love and she was hesitant. Or maybe…

He couldn’t know for sure, but it didn’t matter in the end, he would treasure her and protect her for the rest of his life if she allowed him to. It didn’t matter if it was as a lover, or just as friends.

--

Some months ago, Ladybug joked about telling him who she was in exchange of a selfie. He felt cold when he first read it, because revealing himself to the world would not only make his father angry, he would also be on all the newspapers and television news next morning, and most importantly, he would lose his safe space.

He immediately imagined his pictures in all the news the next day, talking about his Tumblr. The only scape he had from his real life, and his problems. In that moment, he understood how Ladybug might be feeling about revealing her identity. Maybe she didn’t want to spoil her scape of reality.

But right in this moment, Adrien wasn’t feeling cold. He was feeling hot. His face must had been completely red, and his heart couldn’t be beating faster. He felt like crying of happiness.

  MiraculousLadybug said:

Hello, my Chaton! Wouldn’t you want to eat ice cream with me? LB.

  It was from Ladybug, he was sure. Her pink beautiful nails, her stylized hand holding her favourite ice cream flavour and the bracelet he suggested her to buy so they could match. It was her, it was her! And finally, the message didn’t show the undesired “Anonymous” before the text. He couldn’t breathe for a moment when he realized the message came from the Fashion Princess. 

Some months before he considered her as a possible candidate to be Ladybug, he was so close at that time, but then he gave up and decided to not message her. What a fool.

He felt complete. In that moment he realized he felt the safest not because of his Tumblr or his anonymous mask on the internet. What made him feel the safest was Ladybug, the girl who after almost two years of knowing each other she finally decided to reveal her true identity.

It was like the time she said she loved him; something special, something he wanted to keep private. He decided to not reply and just send a direct message to her blog.

But yeah, it was easier said than done. He spent hours just staring at the new conversation without a single idea of what to say. He typed a long text expressing his excitement and before deciding to send it, he deleted the whole thing. He typed at least twelve different messages but in the end, he always deleted it before sending it.

He was super nervous, it was his first message to her, to not just Ladybug but to Marinette. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal for her, since her message was quite casual, but to him, oh boy, it meant the world.

He sighed when Natalie knocked his door to tell him it was time for him to practice piano.

He couldn’t contain his happiness. Natalie told him at the end of the session it was one of the most beautiful practices she had heard from him. She asked him if something happened that made him feel happy lately. He blushed and rushed to his room, telling her he was really tired and that it was nothing too special, he just suddenly felt a little happier.

He then remembered his promise about the selfie. For less than a second he felt cold, but then he felt warm again. Marinette, it was for her. And she was worth it.

He took a selfie and posted it on his Tumblr. He wrote a simple “As I promise, my Lady” and added tons of hashtags expressing his excitement and happiness.

  If he was lucky, Ladybug would send him a direct message first, maybe mentioning the selfie. Obviously, he couldn’t ask his luck to give him even more things. He received tons of messages and likes thanks to the selfie he uploaded, but nothing from his Ladybug.

Meanwhile, he spent a couple of hours going through Ladybug’s blog. It was full of her designs and her drawings. She also had a personal blog where she rebbloged things she liked and posted some pictures and texts of her daily life. Adrien knew this blog from a couple of months ago because it reblogged a lot of his posts, but it wasn’t linked to her art blog in any way.

To tell you the truth, Adrien had to really look for it. That blog was linked on an ask Marinette got in her art blog.

Some years ago.

Adrien was surprised to notice how careful she was with her Ladybug identity. Yeah, the name was the same, but she was careful to not post similar things of the ones she sent him. If someone had the theory Marinette and Ladybug were the same person, they wouldn’t be able to find solid proofs.

But there were traces of her Ladybug all over Marinette’s personal blog. Even in her art blog! Little small details he knew had special meaning for both of them. Cats and ladybugs were obviously some of those small details.

Oh, new notification. He almost choked.

  Anonymous said:

My sweet chaton, are you ok? I’ve missed you today. LB.

  It took him a couple of minutes to reply. He was really confused, why would Ladybug keep sending him anonymous messages if she had already revealed her identity as the Fashion Princess? As Marinette… It was easier to just send him a private message…

Unless she actually didn’t reveal herself. Maybe it was a prank message and he fell for it.

No, he was sure Marinette was Ladybug. But, was he really sure about it?

Oh damn, he was now embarrassed.

  Oh, my dear Buginette, I’ve missed you tons too! It makes me happy to know you miss me too, could it mean that you love me as much as I love you? Sometimes I think I can’t love you more… and then you go and do things that make me love you even more, and stronger. I’m starting to think my love for you will never end.

  Adrien was now waiting for her reply. Maybe she would ask about the ice cream submission. If she did, it meant it was really her. He hoped to get a new ask from her asking about the ice cream. Please, oh dear God, let him read the word ‘ice cream’ again.

  Anonymous said:

Did you get my submission earlier? I was eating ice cream and I thought of you… but you never answered. I was worried something happened to you, because you didn’t post anything either. LB.

  It only took seconds to write a reply to her this time.

  I received it Buginette. I promise to keep your secret, and I will do everything I said I’d do after knowing. You have no idea what it means to me.

  Adrien took some time to breath and digest what happened. Marinette, the Fashion Princess AND Ladybug were the same person. He opened her chat and sent a simple “Buginette, is that you?”.

He then closed everything and threw himself to bed.

  Every second that passed from that moment until she replied felt like eternity.

#miraculous ladybug #adrinette #ladynoir #tumblr au #fics #fanfics #crush #platonic love

[pancakecakes]

Beautiful Mistakes.

You can read it here: AO3

Chapters (Tumblr) : | 1 | 2 | 3 |

Summary: Marinette has a habit of sending asks to her favorite Tumblr user, telling him seeing his blog makes her happy, and that she’s glad he’s alive. It’s been a while for now and people have started to ship them, even though Marinette has never had the courage to reveal her true identity. One day, she forgets to switch to anonymous and sends one of her usual asks.

Tags: Ladynoir, Adrinette, fluff, Tumblr AU, Crush, Platonic Love.

Chapter one:  Anonymous Love.Marinette first found him by accident. Or destiny, how she prefers to call it.

She had a Tumblr for a couple of years by then, and she only reblogged fashion related content to her main blog, and sometimes she would share some of her own designs. For some reasons she was famous. Not that it bothered her at all, but it was hard to believe she had such large support from unknown people from the internet.

She never truly understood the feeling of having a favorite blog, and being happy with their updates. Maybe it was something just some people would experience. She would get tons of messages telling her she was amazing and that her blog always made them smile. She never doubted the truth in those messages, but it was something she wasn’t lucky to have experienced.

Her life was simple; She would wake up pretty early in the morning and go to the gym, then help her parents with their bakery before going to school. Finally, she’d get home and she'd spend some daily time working on school and personal projects. Before sleeping, she’d spend some time on Tumblr.

One day, one of the people she followed reblogged a text post she instantly reblogged to her side blog; this one was different from her main blog, she would reblog photos, text posts, food, memes and other things she liked apart from fashion. As she kept scrolling, she saw more posts from the same blog. She was surprised about how she liked every single post she saw from it.

She was feeling really sleepy, but decided to go and see said blog. It was supposed to be quick, just go, check a couple of posts to decide whether to follow it or not—though she was confident she’d do it in the end— and then go to sleep and continue with her monotonous life.

At least it was supposed to be that way.

She instantly fell in love, if you could call love the feeling she felt when she scrolled through the posts. Apparently, the blog belonged to a guy the same age as her. His description was simple.

  I’m Chat Noir! I’m 1X years old. I love anime, video games, memes, cats and I believe in true love! PD. I’m a guy, and I love to make new friends.

  He reblogged photos of beautiful places, people, clothes, animals and food, mostly pastries. He also shared text posts about love, puns, memes and jokes. His own posts were text posts and some photos of his daily life, like the games he’d be playing, the food he’d have eaten and places he’d have been.

Marinette noticed there wasn’t a single photo of him on his blog, but it didn’t bother her. She fell in love with the blog and its content, not with the person. She had to restrain herself from liking and reblogging every single post – original or not– from it. She laughed at the jokes and puns, she read the big posts about love and smiled, feeling a sudden warmness in her chest. She read the mini comics about Pokemon and other fandoms and almost shared a tear or laughed pretty hard. She saw the pictures and the more she scrolled the more she noticed how much Chat Noir and she had much in common.

It was something new to her. She and her best friend Alya had always been close since they first met, they had a lot in common, but they never had as much as she believed she had in common with Chat Noir. She had the urged to message him and tell him she wanted to be friends with him.

But she was nervous. Really nervous. She soon discovered Chat Noir was quite famous, owning no less than 27K followers. Maybe it was his wonderful taste in photography, or the sweet text posts he shared, or maybe because he was such a nerd. Who knows. The only certainty was; Chat Noir was as popular as he was interesting.

As she stalked him, she also noticed how sweet and nice he was with his followers, it didn’t matter if they asked him as anonymous or as themselves. She was about to send him an ask when she noticed it was 3:55AM. She’d have to wake up in two hours if she didn’t want to mess with her usual morning routine. She sighed and turned her phone off after she pressed the “Follow” option in the right top on the screen.

How can someone spend around 4 hours in one blog and don’t even notice it?

Not even five minutes passed when Marinette turned on her phone again and send an ask in anonymous.

  Hello! I just wanted to tell you that I loved your blog and I think you’re amazing. Finding you made me really, really happy. I think I just fell in love!! I just spent four hours scrolling without me noticing, and now it’s 4AM!! Hahaha.

  She quickly went to sleep. That night she dreamt of Chat Noir replying her, and the designs she had to finish that week.

When her alarm rang, she woke up and got ready to go to the gym. Marinette was a clumsy girl but she was really interested in being healthy and fit. Someone would say she wouldn’t be that kind of girl since her parents owned only the best bakery of France, and she looked really fragile. Though, maybe it was because she was always tripping and dropping everything she had in her hands.

After the gym and helping her parents in the bakery, she went to school and had a really bad time trying not to fall asleep. It is common between artists to be able to endure several nights without sleeping due to a close deadline, but Marinette soon learned she was a really distracted girl and she’d need to keep an agenda with all her deadlines and dates –which were mostly with Alya, and sometimes some other friends from school— and soon her life gained a stable rhythm of activities and sleeping schedule. She was not used to sleep less than five hours a day.

Maybe she was influenced by Alya. her best friend managed to go to school, keep a popular blog with several and well formulated articles, spend time with her boyfriend and her, and have time for her hobbies and other activities she liked to do. The power of a perfectly organized schedule was amazing.

Though Marinette wasn’t as good as her best friend on doing several activities without getting stressed, she managed to get recognized as a really organized, hardworking, leader-type kind of person by her friends and other people who hired her to do designs, despite her young age.

She was also famous on Tumblr for the same attributes people would claim her to have in real life. Some people started to tell her she was lucky as a ladybug for having so many petitions of freelance work, which soon developed into a cute nickname Alya and her parents, and most of her friends would use to refer to her. She got used to the nickname and got attached to it.

When she got home she worked on her projects, forgetting all about the ask she sent Chat Noir before going to sleep. Maybe it was her tiredness, or her being used to monotony.

When the clock hit 11:00PM, Marinette was ready to go to bed. Before unlocking her cell phone, she noticed she received an answer from Chat Noir. She soon got nervous and took some time before clicking the notification and read it.

  I’m glad it made you smile! I hope you are not too tired today. You made me smile with your message, Anon!

   His response came with a gif of a cute little black cat meowing. It looked a lot as if it was smiling. She thought it was really cute and sweet coming from him.

Marinette felt something warm in her heart, something she never felt before. She convinced herself it was because that’d be the first time someone would answer her as an anonymous and not as herself, the 'popular' fashion blog.

She scrolled through his blog again, seeing the new content trying to contain the urge to like and reblog everything, again. She knew in that moment it was the beginning of something big.

    A month passed before she sent her next anonymous ask. Chat Noir was always happy and funny, but sometimes he’d post personal posts talking about how he needed a hug. In his tags section he’d put how stressed he was with his life, and how he wanted to do things for himself. These posts received tons of messages and he’d usually get a bunch of asks telling him to keep doing his best, even though he’d delete his depressing posts after a couple of hours.

It was something really strange. Marinette started to feel like if she liked Chat Noir. They not only shared a lot of things in common, but also, he was the most kind, funny, sweet and strong guy she’d ever met. Well, 'known' in a way.

After seeing a couple of sad posts from him, she started to send asks telling him he was amazing and that she truly loved him the way he was. Marinette felt ‘love’ was the right word to use, even though she wasn’t sure of how Chat Noir would take it. Maybe he’d think she was a stalker and he would feel uncomfortable.

She soon gained confidence again when Chat Noir replied to every single ask she sent, in the sweetest and most friendly way possible.

Marinette didn’t notice when it happened, but one day it was part of her daily routine to scroll through Chat Noir’s blog and leave an ask before going to sleep. She started to sign her asks with the ladybug emoji, and people started to respect the situation. Not even once had someone tried to steal her anonymous identity and, as weird as it sounds, she and Chat Noir started to be friends.

People would soon start to ship them, and Chat Noir would always insist her to reveal herself. Marinette was happy to know Chat Noir wanted to know more about her, but at the same time she was happy because of the anonymous mask protecting her from getting more attached to him.

  “Girl, when are you going to tell me about him?” Alya said out of nowhere once when they were at a café.

Marinette spitted her coffee “Him?? W-what do you mean? There’s not a ‘him’ in my life Alya, that’s ridiculous!!” Marinette faked a smile, which came out sounding really fake and nervous.

“You’re always staring at your phone with a smile in your face, and even your mom told me you’ve been distracted all day because of it.”

“W-well,” Marinette blushed. At this point, she knew she had a crush on Chat Noir, but it was something really complicated to explain since they didn’t really know each other “you know how I am, always distracted!”

“It’s different now, you seem… happier. In a different way than before.” Alya pressed.

“I’m just… Happy about my projects coming out well and those kind of stuff.”

“Come on Marinetteeeeee. You have been single all your life, if there’s a guy you like you have to tell me as soon as you start to like him!”

“I-I don’t like anybody!” Marinette was as red as a tomato.

“Then why are you blushing so much! You are lying!” Alya pressed Marinette’s cheeks with both hands. The touch felt cold. She knew it was because her cheeks were warm because of the embarrassment.

“I-It’s complicated okay!” Marinette freed herself from Alya’s hands and hide her face between her own.

“I knew it!” Alya was happy with the discovery “How is it complicated? Is he older? Does he work and doesn’t have much time? Or… don’t tell me he’s a player or a gangster??” Alya suddenly changed from happy to angered and worried really quick.

“No, no. Nothing like that.”

“Then just explain to me. I’m sure is not complicated at all!” Alya’s eyes were filled with excitement and Marinette gave up. She uncovered her face and sighed.

“I think I have a crush.” Marinette started.

“Yes??” Alya couldn’t contain her excitement anymore.

“W-with a guy I follow on Tumblr.”

There was not a quick response from Alya. She just stayed there, processing what she just heard.

“What?”

“I know, it’s ridiculous! But I started to follow this really cool blog like eight months ago and the owner posts some personal stuff now and then and one day I noticed I had a crush on him. I don’t even know how it happened! It’s completely ridiculous, so ridiculous!”

“Okay...But, tell me more. Have you seen a picture of him? Is he handsome? Have you two been online dating or something?” Alya’s face was filled with doubt.

“I haven’t seen a single picture of him… and, we talk but in a different way…”

“What do you mean by ‘a different way’?”

“I… I send him anonymous asks and he replies them.” Marinette said as fast as she could, and then she let a go of a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding.

Alya was in shock. Marinette didn’t expect her to be this shocked, but she herself knew it was something weird to do if you had a crush on someone. But it was even weirder to have a crush on someone by only looking at their blog, she supposed.

“Don’t tell me this guy is Chat Noir??”

Now Marinette was the one on a shock. How did Alya knew about this?? Her question was quickly answered by her unconsciousness. The whole situation was really popular by now, and people were talking about who would be this mysterious girl who had Chat Noir so in love.

Of course, she knew this statement wasn’t true. Chat Noir started to be flirtatious after the third month of receiving the daily asks, but she took it as if Chat Noir was just joking and being nice to her. What else could it be?

“Y-Yes…”

“Oh my God Marinette, are you Ladybug????”

“I-I guess so…”

“What do you mean by ‘I guess so’, of course you are! Oh my God, oh my God. I can’t believe I know who Ladybug is!!! With this notice I’d get so much attention to my blog!”

“Wait, you can’t do that to me!!!”

“Oh no, no, I’m sorry I just got a little carried away. Of course I wouldn’t do that to you Marinette. But did you know everyone I know wants to find out who Ladybug is?  I can’t believe it’s you!”

“But I don’t understand. I know he’s a famous Tumblr user and the whole situation is quite popular, but isn’t it getting too much attention from people?”

“People love love stories, Marinette!”

“T-This is not a love story!”

“Then why are you blushing!” Alya laughed “You have to reveal yourself! He wants to know who you are so bad!!”

“He’s not!! We’re just playing around!”

“Of course he does! He likes you Marinette! How can you be so blind!!” “Alya, you’re just getting too excited here. I may have a crush on him but this is not a love story at all.”

“It absolutely is! And oh my God I can’t believe it. Chat Noir, and the fashion princess of Tumblr.”

“I-I am not the fashion princess!!”

“How many followers do you have? I stopped asking after you reached 44K.”

“Shut up!!”

“My point is, he’s like a prince and you’re a princess in disguise. It's a love story, baby, just say yes.” Alya sang the last part and Marinette started laughing.

“Please, stop. I am not going to tell him who I am and he doesn’t like me.”

“Marinette, please, you’re in denial. Is it because he’s a model?”

“What? He’s not a model!”

Alya laughed “Don’t tell me you really don’t know who Chat Noir is.”

“What? Why would I know who he is? The only thing I know is we both have the same age and he likes the same things I like.”

Alya face-palmed and sighed “Girl, girl. What am I going to do with you?”

“Wait, I don’t understand! Is he a model? And why would you know that?”

“You know what, I’ll tell you this: Tonight, when you send him the usual lovely asks you send him all the time, ask him to take a selfie for you. I am sure he’d do it happily.”

“Should I be afraid of this?”

“I’m pretty sure you’ll be shocked, but it’s not something bad. I have to say that, for a first crush he’s quite the big price.” Alya winked.

“What?”

“He’s handsome, girl! And not only that! Once you see him you’ll understand what I mean!”

“You say it like if you knew him.”

“I met him once when I made an interview for my blog. Not much people know about this, and I promised him I wouldn’t say anything about his real identity in my blog or job!”

“But if it’s a secret maybe I shouldn’t ask such selfish request.”

“It's not selfish, it’s just equivalent. Tell him you’ll reveal yourself if he posts a selfie of him. It’s completely fair. An identity reveal for another identity reveal.”

“I-I don’t want to reveal myself!”

“You’ll eventually have to! You can’t stay like this forever!!”

  Maybe she couldn’t stay like that forever, but she could at least try to extend the time as much as she could.

For a couple of months, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. She started to throw some hints of revealing herself in exchange of knowing who he was. Chat Noir always answered he would do anything to know who his Lady was. Marinette wondered how bad would it be if she decided to let him know her identity.

Ten months passed really fast, and Chat Noir was now an important part of her life. They didn’t know each other as deeply as they would if they could communicate in a normal way, such as in chat, but they knew just enough to be considered friends, or maybe more than that. Chat Noir started to tell people his heart belonged to his Lady, whenever someone confessed or told him they had a crush on him, and every time Marinette read these kind of answers she’d blush and roll her eyes.

Thanks to the daily asks she’d make to Chat Noir, Marinette started to leave some asks on her favorited blogs, telling them how much she liked them or to leave a word of encouragement from her main blog. Marinette’s life was not monotonous anymore, it was filled with life and new experiences every day.

Sometime after the conversation with Alya, Marinette started to submit pictures to Chat Noir’s blog of her daily life; what she ate, a beautiful sunset, the books she was reading, things that reminded her of him and such. Chat Noir would love it when Marinette did that, or at least it seemed like it. He’d answer with pictures of his day and from time to time he’d post pictures or text posts of things he wanted to share with his Lady.

Chat Noir now had a special tag for her. It was ‘Buginette’, and if you entered to the tag you’d see things he reblogged that reminded him of her, pictures or texts of his daily life, inviting her to do the same as him, piano songs he played for her, some little doodles and related posts. Marinette would also draw things for him, making sure to make her style different enough to not give herself away, and sometimes she’d also invite him to do the same things as her.

  One day, she took a photo of the blue sea salt ice-cream she liked so much. Her pink long nails were beautifully painted –Chat Noir loved to see her nails painted with that specific colour. He once said it reminded him of her and she decided to paint her nails in that colour for the photos where her nails were shown– and she was wearing a bracelet Chat Noir suggested her to buy so they could match.

  Hello, my Chaton! Wouldn’t you want to eat ice cream with me?

  She sent the Submission and kept eating her ice cream. Usually it wouldn’t take long for Chat Noir to reply, but that day she waited and waited and never got an answer. Before sleeping, she sent an ask to know if he was okay. After a couple of minutes, he answered, declaring his perpetual love for her. She waited to see if she’d get an answer from her submission earlier that day, but she never got it.

Intrigued by it, she sent another ask, talking about the ice cream ask. Chat Noir replied seconds later, telling her that he received it, and that he would keep her secret and he would obviously do as he promised he’d do after knowing. Marinette wondered what did he mean by that.

Before fully falling asleep she received a message from Chat Noir. A direct message to her main blog. Her blood went cold and for a moment she thought she was dreaming. The message was simple and direct.

She quickly tried to remember if she shifted to ‘anonymous’ before sending the submission. She realized she didn’t. Her cheeks suddenly felt hot and it was hard to breathe. Her heart beating as fast as it could possibly go and her mind trying to think if someone could possibly die from embarrassment.

  Buginette? Is that you?

  She panicked. She took long slow breathes as she remembered what Chat Noir answered in her last ask. ‘He would do as he promised he’d do after knowing’? What did it mean? Did he mean about the selfie?

With trembling hands, half excited and half dead from embarrassment she entered to Chat Noir’s blog again. The first image to be shown was a photo of a blond model she well knew. The text down the photo was a simple ‘As I promise, my Lady.’, tagged with selfie, Buginette, and capitalized text saying he was dying because he waited so long for that precise moment to come.

Marinette’s mind was still processing everything when the pieces started to fit and finally made sense.

  Adrien Agreste. Chat Noir was Adrien Agreste. The son of her idol, Gabriel Agreste.

#miraculous ladybug #tumblr au #adrinette #ladynoir #fluff #fics #fanfics #platonic love #crush

[pancakecakes]

Can we call this love? -Chapter 3

You can read it here: AO3

Chapters (Tumblr) : | 1 |  2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Coming soon 

Chapter 3- I need to talk with you/ Can you forgive me?

 Marinette stared at the message – again- for what felt an eternity. She felt many things when her ex-boyfriend broke up with her, and the strongest of them all was the feeling of unworthiness. Why was a model asking her to give him a chance? No, it shouldn’t be like this, it should be the other way around and it made her feel really… uncomfortable.

She sighed as the screen turned off. What was she doing? She was feeling bad about many things in her life and now she was making other people feel bad because of her. First it was Alya and her family, and now the son of her idol, Gabriel Agreste.

She felt sick of being in her room. She needed to get out, breath some fresh air and think about everything and nothing. She started to regret every decision she had made in the past months. She had no motivation, not even to find a cute dress, do her hair or put make up. She immediately thought about how that look fit her when she glanced at the mirror, simple and forgettable. There was nothing special about her and she knew it.

She took her purse and went out with the first things she found in her closet, which ended up being a black t-shirt, simple gray shorts and her old converse.

As she walked, she stared at her phone again. Maybe talking with Alya was a good idea, after all, Alya always knew what to do. She could probably just tell her she was feeling bad with the situation with Adrien, and then depending on the way the conversation leaded to she could confess she lied.

Or not.

She just needed to wait for her to be available.

She typed a simple message and then sent it to her best friend. Before turning off her phone she changed to Adrien’s conversation and saw his last time online. He was online three hours ago, that was around seven in the morning. It was Tuesday, so probably he would just wake up for his classes and checked WhatsApp. It was obvious he had someone special in his life, enough to send a message just when he woke up.

She walked towards the river. Every time she felt sad and sick of her room, she would go to the river that was some blocks away from her apartment and just sit there and think about anything until it was late and she had to go back. On her way, she bought a coffee and two macaroons. She really missed her parents. Sometimes she would buy a couple of pastries and then drink her coffee thinking of her parents. In the end she would go home with the pastries and eat them before going to sleep again.

She sat in front of the lake and waited until Alya was online. Time didn’t pass the same way to Marinette as it did to other people, an hour could easily pass as if it was just a couple of minutes.

 Marinette are you there? I’m sorry I wasn’t online until now. What happened??

Nothing bad, really. I just felt sad out of the sudden and I didn’t know what to do.

What are you doing right now? Where are you?

I’m in front of the lake.

With Adrien?

No, I’m alone.

Did something happen between you two?

 She hesitated. Tears started to fall from her eyes, grateful because she had such wonderful friend as Alya. She always wondered what could she had possible done to deserve so much love and support from her family and an amazing best friend. Alya always seem to understand what was happening to her, even when they didn’t see each other’s faces.

 Marinette, please tell me. Did he do something to you??

I swear if he did something I’m not going to forgive him, I don’t care whose son is he, and I don’t care if he’s a model I’m going to punch him in the face.

Marinette, please. I’m worried, what happened?

 Her phone then started to ring; Alya was calling her. In the first weeks of her student exchange program Marinette would always ignore Alya’s calls, not because she was trying to be mean but because she was scared of picking up and start crying. Alya made her promise, a couple of weeks later, she was not going to do that again. Calls are different than texts, Marinette could easily hide her real feelings when she was texting, but it was different when she was speaking, she would break down and only be a bother to her best friend. She couldn’t let that happen.

Marinette gulped, and with trembling hands she answered the phone, feeling the sudden urge to hold the tears that were to come again anytime soon “Hi Alya! I’m sorry I got distracted with something!” Marinette lied and faked a tiny laugh.

“Marinette.” Alya said. Marinette waited for her to continue but she didn’t. A thick silence grew between them.

“Alya…” Marinette’s voice broke. Her eyes were burning and her throat was closing. She had a lot to say and yet words wouldn’t leave her lips.

“Girl, what’s wrong? You know you can trust me. I promise I’ll just listen if that’s what you want to me to do.”

The silence grew deeper. Marinette fought the urge to just start crying until she felt better again. She had to be strong, everyone was believing in her, and things weren’t as bad as other people had it.

“Marinette, you deserve the world.” Alya started, her voice was full of love and caring for her “Don’t ever doubt it. Every single thing that you have right now, you deserve it. You deserve to be in that city, you deserve the love and support of your family, you deserve someone as wonderful as Adrien and God, Marinette, you even deserve a better friend than I could ever be.” Marinette’s heart broke a little, why was Alya saying that? Alya was the best friend she could ever imagine to have and yet she…

“Alya I didn’t mean to ma-“

“Let me finish.” Alya said sharply “I have always admired you Marinette, you’re so strong and you never give up. Every time I’m having a bad time I think of you and I feel like if I could do anything. And believe me, if I could I’d give every single thing that I have so you could be as happy as I wish you could be.” by now, Marinette was sobbing “I love you Marinette, you’re my best friend and you’ll always be. You have no idea how bad I wish I could be besides you, hugging you and telling you all the words I know until you feel better again. I swear I’d do anything just to see you smile.”

“Thank you.” Marinette managed to say between sobs and her tears “Thank you Alya. I love you too.” she started crying.

There were a lot of words to be said, a lot of feelings to be shared, but Marinette couldn’t do anything besides crying. Alya heard her cry for almost five minutes, occasionally dropping comments such as “I’m here”, “everything’s going to be ok”, “Just let it out”, “I’ll always be here for you, Marinette”. This situation happened more often than she was comfortable with. She’d try to hide all her emotions and eventually something would happen and she’d cry with Alya on the line. Alya then would just hear her cry and then talk with her, assuring her everything would be ok.

Marinette knew it had to be tiring, but Alya never complained about it. She would always listen to her and help her to feel better, it didn’t matter if she had five break down in a week. Alya was always there.

“How are you feeling now?” Alya asked softly.

“A lot better.” She could hear a sigh of relief from Alya “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. Now, can I know what happened?”

“It’s something silly.”

“It’s not silly if it made you cry.”

Marinette gulped “I don’t… think I should be with Adrien.” It was true, even when Alya didn’t know the real situation between them, the feeling of unworthiness was genuine.

“Why is that, baby?” Alya joked in a flirtatious tone “I mean; I’d be happy if my woman decides to leave her model boyfriend to come back to my arms.” Marinette giggled “You know you can be happy with just me.” both of them laughed.

“You know you’re my only girl.”

“And you know it’s the same for me.” Alya said before getting serious again “Let me guess, you stopped talking with him and you are not answering his texts and calls.”

Marinette had to accept that if Adrien kept sending her messages and tried to call her, that’s probably what she’d do “Maybe…”

“Marinette, Marinette” Alya sighed and said in a sweet tone “Look, this is your decision. If you think Adrien is not good for you, you just have to tell him. I know you’re hurt, and there’s always a possibility that people can hurt you, even if they don’t want to. But, you know, out there there’s people willing to do their best to make someone smile, even if it’s hurtful for them. I don’t know Adrien, but if he’s with you knowing how hurt you were for your ex-boyfriend, I think he really wants to try for you. Not everyone is brave enough to get into a relationship knowing how much you care for someone else.”

Oh, right, Marinette told Alya her wonderful boyfriend knew everything about her previous relationship, and how much it affected her. Now that she thought about it, she realized getting in a relationship with someone when you’re not over the previous person was one of the most selfish situations she could think of. Marinette wondered if to the eyes of her best friend she was someone really selfish. Probably not.

“I don’t want to hurt anybody.” “You can’t help it, that’s how life is.”

“Does it make me a bad person? If I hurt someone even when I don’t want to?”

“No, it doesn’t. It makes you a human. You can’t decide who you hurt, nor who you love, but you can decide to both, apologize and open your heart to them.”

“What would happen if I open my heart to someone?”

“They’ll know how wonderful you are.”

“Will you be jealous if I open my heart to a boy?” Marinette joked.

“I’d definitely be.” Alya joked back “Only love can heal your heart, Marinette. I know it’s scary, but I guess love it’s the only thing worth risking for.”

“Love is what got me here.”

“No. What broke your heart and left you in the floor suffering all these months was definitely not love.”

“I loved him.”

“But he didn’t love you.”

It was the first time since her breakup Alya said her ex-boyfriend didn’t love her. She knew she was right. You can hurt someone you love by accident, but there were many situations that made her think maybe it wasn’t by accident. People can hurt someone they love, just like the sun will rise in the morning and the moon will be out at night, but it doesn’t mean they are bad people.

Marinette had a lot of time to think about it. Some people are just too immature and don’t know how to love. Someday they will, but probably when they do it’d be impossible for them to be with you, or you to be with them. Thinking about someone you love being able to properly love someone who isn’t you surely was heartbreaking, but that’s how life was.

“Answer him, Marinette. Give him a chance.”

Love surely was scary. But what if love was the only thing that would make this world a better place?

“I will.” Marinette smiled. There was nothing to worry about. The worst thing that could happen would be Adrien telling Marinette he doesn’t want to help her anymore. She wouldn’t die from it. And if everything went smoothly, she would have a new friend “Thank you, Alya, for listening to me.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be always here for you. Now, make sure you have a wonderful date with prince charming and then tell me about it.” both of them giggled “I have to go back to work, but if you feel bad again just text me and I’ll call you when I’m free again.”

“Thank you again.”

Alya laughed “I love you.”

“Love you too.”

“Talk to you later.”

“Bye.”

 Alya hung up. Marinette stared at Alya’s conversation. A second later the kissing emoji appeared and Marinette smiled before sending the same emoji to Alya. She knew something for sure, and it was she had to talk with Adrien and properly apologize for reacting like she did.

She remembered how Adrien was upset because she treated him like everyone else when she panicked when she discovered he was a model. Marinette promised herself it was going to be the last time she would see him as a model, as someone unreachable and someone above her. From now and now, she’d treat him as an equal, he deserved it.

She opened Adrien’s conversation and started to write an apology. Before sending it, she received a message from someone she knew very well. Her blood went cold and she stopped breathing. It had been awhile since he last texted her. Her hands started to tremble and her mind went blank, she forgot about everything else and suddenly, everything was wrong again. Behind her ex-boyfriend’s name, a simple text was shown.

Are you up? I need to talk with you.

 --

“Are you up? I need to talk with you, Adrien. And I’m sure you know why.” Nino stood in front of Adrien’s bed. Adrien knew his best friend was both joking and being completely serious. He was lying in his bed, wrapped with his blankets even though it was hot.

Three days. It had been three days since she sent a message to Marinette and he never got a response. Adrien tried to see everything in a positive way, at least she didn’t block him. After the message of asking for a chance, Adrien sent a couple of messages and then an apology. The only difference this time was that Marinette didn’t even let him on seen. The blue arrows never appeared, and his anxiety increased.

 “Look, I know it looks worse than it is but-”

“No, you listen to me. This can’t continue anymore. You have been locked in your room for three days straight. You haven’t gone to your classes, you go to sleep before I get home and most importantly, you are not touching me like before. Where is this relationship going, Adrien?” Nino faked a couple of sobs and a soft cry “It is because of that woman, right?” Nino said, dramatically. Nino knew Adrien had an online class on Wednesday and Thursday that week due to some event his teachers attended and Fridays were Adrien’s free days. He didn’t miss any class that week.

“I-I…” Adrien’s face changed into a wounded expression.

Nino sighed “I know it’s not that bad, but you’re too sensitive and little things usually affect you too much. I’m worried, and you haven’t told me a thing about her, except the text where you told me you got her number and that you would be meeting her but now it seems like plans changed?”

“I am not too sensitive.”

“Dude.” Nino’s face was plain.

“I’m serious, I am not.”

“Do I need to mention the cat?”

“Please don’t. It’s completely different.”

“No, it isn’t. you were depressed for DAYS because someone bought a cat that wasn’t even yours.”

 Ok, maybe he had to admit he was a little sensitive. When he arrived to the country, he and Nino explored the city for three weeks before starting classes. In the second week they found a pet shop and they had these cute little kittens for sale. Without noticing, Adrien started to go and see one of the little black kittens every day. The pet shop was a couple of blocks away from his classes, so he’d go to eat something after finish and then go to visit the kitten.

The girl from the shop was really nice and would always let Adrien pet him. He didn’t know why, but every time he saw the little kitten he’d smile and be happy. One day he went to visit him, as usual, and the girl from the shop looked terrified when their eyes met. He soon noticed his little kitten was finally bought by someone. Adrien stayed sad for days, he would only talk about the cat with Nino and how he felt like if he had lost something special in his life.

Nino ended up suggesting him to buy a cat, tired of the topic. But Adrien knew it wasn’t permitted to have pets in that building, and some days after that conversation he got over his lost.

“It sounds bad if you say it like that.”

“I said it the way it is. But can we forget about the cat and you being sensitive and can you tell me what happened with this girl you met?”

Adrien sighed, dramatically.

“I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as you make it sound. You met, ask her for her number and then stayed depressed for three days. Let me guess, she didn’t answer your texts?”

“Actually she did.”

“So?”

“She didn’t want to have anything to do with me because I am Adrien Agreste. Apparently there is something wrong for being who I am.” “What, seriously? Is that even possible man?”

“Yeah, that was what happened.” “She didn’t know who you were before giving you her number?”

“No.”

“Dude.”

“I know.”

“And then she asked you to stop talking to her? Just like that?”

“Well… the situation is actually a little more complicated, but the thing is she didn’t want to even be my friend because of who I am.” Adrien voice almost broke at the end of the sentence.

“There’s nothing wrong for being who you are, Adrien, and you know that.”

Adrien sighed, a little frustrated.

“Look, I meet a girl who treated me like a real person for a change and the moment she knows who I am, she stops talking to me. I can’t even believe it really happened.”

“Show her who you really are dude.” Nino seated in the bed, besides him. He put a hand in Adrien’s shoulders “Because you’re absolutely not what she thinks you are if she stopped talking to you.”

“And what should I do. I only have her number and she ignores me. And I’m not going to harass her until the situation gets worse than it already is.”

“I mean I’m still shocked, I can’t believe a girl not only resisted the hottest model I’ve known, but also completely ignores him.”

“Thank you, it definitely makes me feel better.”

“Shh. What I am trying to say is that things happen for a reason. You two met and she doesn’t love you for what she thinks you are.”

“Yeah, she hates me for what she thinks I am.”

“With that negativity you’re not gonna get anywhere…Anyway. Keep going to the cafe like you used to and when you meet her again, be yourself and be sincere. I don’t know, apologize to her for whatever that upset her about yourself and ask her to start anew. If that doesn’t make her stop ignoring you then just forget about her, it’s not use.”

Maybe Nino was right, and trying for a last time didn’t sound like a bad idea either.

He had hope, for the first time in years. Hope to have a real girl-friend. It was something he craved. Having Nino in his life was wonderful, but sometimes he needed the warmth only a girl-friend could give. It was true he was pretty sensitive, just like his mother used to, and Nino couldn’t comprehend him completely even though he always supported him, no matter what.

Girls are always sweet, nice, sensitive and strong. Such strange combination. Adrien admired girls for being able to be both: strong and soft beings, able to conquer everything they wanted and give as much love as anyone would be afraid to give, letting themselves defenseless to the people they love, even when they were invincible if they needed to be.

“Thank you Nino. I feel better. I’m definitely going to try it one last time.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Don’t give up on her, I’ve got the feeling this is going to be one of those things that changes your life.”

Adrien giggled and smiled. Everything about him seemed more relaxed than a couple of minutes before. He regained a bit of the self-confidence he lost with the Marinette issue.

“Now… wanna tell me more about this girl or should I just stop asking?”

“Well… She’s beautiful.”

“Dude…”

“Ok, Ok. She’s a student, I didn’t ask for her major but she said she was in a student exchange program so she’s not a local.”

“Really? Is she in the WhatsApp group?”

 A local girl made a WhatsApp group where she started to add a lot of exchange students. Her goal was to meet every exchange student by the end of the semester. People would plan stuff to do or ask if someone wanted to hang out, it was pretty handy to meet new people, and it was good to find something to do with someone else. Adrien occasionally went out with them, but he felt he didn’t completely fit with everybody.

 “I don’t know, but she must be, doesn’t she?”

“See if she’s in there.”

 Adrien opened the conversation and searched for Marinette’s name, but he didn’t find it. Maybe she didn’t go out as much as he hoped or maybe they just forgot to add her.

 “She’s not here…”

“Hmmm, maybe she’s in the Facebook group.”

“Well, I don’t have her on Facebook.”

“Ok, just forget about this for a moment dude and tell me more about this girl.”

Adrien giggled “Her name is Marinette. She was the one to start the conversation, it was so random.” Adrien’s smile widened, remembering that day “She asked me to take a Snap with her.”

“What? I thought she didn’t know you?”

“Let me explain.” Adrien laughed “Apparently she lied to her best friend, telling her she was dating a guy with the same physical appearance as me, so she was asking me to help her.”

“What?”

“I know, really random right?”

“But why would she lie to her best friend? I mean, she’s her best friend.”

“Apparently she was really worried because Marinette was sad, she got dumped by her ex recently.” Adrien said calmly, as if it wasn’t something bad.

Nino stared at him with a frown. Adrien didn’t know exactly what did he say to make his friend get serious.

“W-what’s wrong?” “Is she still depressed for that?”

“I didn’t ask her, but I guess she is… she looked a little sad to be honest… why?”

“Dude.”

“What’s wrong Nino?”

Nino sighed “I know I told you to not give up, but if she’s still sad about her ex you should probably just give up, Adrien.”

“Why is that?” Adrien’s smiled faded a little.

“It’s never good to try something with someone who’s in love with someone else. You can get really, really hurt if you start to like her.”

“That’s not going to happen, Nino! I know I said I was interested in her but it’s in a completely different way!”

“Dude, I know you. I’m just trying to tell you that she’s not a good option to fall in love with.”

“I am not going to fall in love with her, Nino.”

“You can’t control that, and I know you know it.”

“Look, she looks interesting and I really want to help her and be her friend.”

“By fake dating her? Dude, even if you’re fake dating someone you’ll be still dating in a way, and there you can fall in love.”

“Relax Nino, I just want to help her, that’s all. You know me, I’ve never fallen in love.”

Nino sighed again “You know I support you no matter what stupid thing you’re into, but I want you to know that I am worried and if you’re gonna be friends with this girl I’ll have to meet her. I need to assure she’s not another of those crazy chicks.”

“I can promise she’s not.”

“I’ll believe you, but I can’t stop worrying for my best friend.”

“I promise I won’t fall in love with her. I just want to be her friend, really.” “I know you’re not lying.”

“You know you can trust me.”

“It’s not you who I don’t trust.”

There was a dense silence. Nino was serious and staring at his eyes. Adrien was glad he had Nino in his life, he always cared for him and he always supported him no matter what. Adrien promised himself he would be careful with Marinette. Nino was a really nice guy but he wasn’t so lucky with girls, but he was always positive, saying he’d eventually find a strong and beautiful girl who would appreciate him for who he was.

Adrien was sure once someone fell for Nino, she’d love him for the rest of her life. Nino was sweet, supportive, hardworking and he’d never give up until he achieved what he was after. Nino deserved the perfect girl and Adrien knew it. He’d do anything to see his best friend happy with a girl who appreciated him.

“I am not going to get hurt.” Nino sighed “You don’t decide that. Sometimes you get hurt even when you don’t want to.”

“I know you’re worried about me, but I’ll be careful. And we don’t even know if she’ll talk to me again, maybe you’re worrying for nothing because there’s a big possibility we’re not going to talk ever again.”

“I know you will.”

“How can you be sure about that?”

“Sometimes you just know.”

Adrien smiled at Nino. He sighed for the last time and stood up.

“Well, I’m really tired from school and work, but if you want I’d love to have dinner with my best friend.”

“That sounds great, it’s been awhile since we had our last romantic dinner together.” Nino laughed “I really missed you dude.”

“I’m sorry. You know, even when I get sad over cats or girls and disappear for a couple of days, you’re always going to be my best friend.” “And you are always going to be mine too.”

Both of them laughed before going to the kitchen to have dinner. They talked about Nino’s classes, work, and a mysterious girl he was interested in. After almost an hour of talking they went to bed. Adrien was excited; starting from the next day, he was going to wait for Marinette in the cafe, again.

  It was raining.

A month before, the weather was crazy hot and after rainy days started to be more common, the temperature dropped almost 20 degrees in a span of a simple week. Adrien decided to take a walk before heading to the cafe. He was holding a black umbrella and his mind was completely lost in his thoughts.

Even when it was raining, the city was filled with people, walking fast to get to their destinations. It was something good of living in a big city, you were never alone. Adrien couldn’t recall a single time when the streets where not filled with people walking in different directions since he arrived.

Like if it was meant to be, he saw her. It was amazing how she managed to bring him back to reality when he was so deep and lost in his thoughts. Standing in a small sheltered place to protect herself from the rain, Marinette stood facing down. She was wearing a red dress and a white sweater. Her loose hair was wet and she was staring at her cup of coffee, probably lost in thoughts too. She was beautiful, as always. He noticed her sweater and dress were wet too.

Adrien’s brain stopped for a second, he didn’t know what to do. He was tempted to run away. He was scared his word wouldn’t reach Marinette, and that he would mess up for real this time. He remembered Nino say to show her who he really was and being sincere. He had to at least try it.

“H-Hi.” Adrien said to Marinette, a little nervous.

 Marinette lifted her face and stared at his eyes for a couple of seconds, surprised. She then frowned and glanced to her coffee again. She looked sad. An urge to make her smile flourished within Adrien. It was one of those things you need to do or else it won’t get outside of your head, not allowing you to sleep, eat, or concentrate in something else.

 “Look, I am sorry.” Adrien said, trying to hide his nervousness. Marinette glanced at him as he spoke “I don’t have many friends, and everything it’s quite new to me; this city, it’s people, living by my own, trying to make new friends…” Marinette’s eyes were wide and her lips were a little separated “I never tried to offend you in any way. I’m sorry I kept insisting on being friends and ask you for chances when you didn’t want to…” Adrien’s mouth stopped working. He didn’t know what to say to make her understand his intentions weren’t bad. He stared at her, wet and helpless against the rain, and in that moment he offered his umbrella so she could have it. As he did, some of his body got unprotected from the rain and he started to get wet, but he held the umbrella to her without any kind of discomfort in his face. He offered it with a warm smile.

Just see her there standing looking at him like that was enough. Just making sure she could get home soon and dry was enough. Just sharing that precise moment with her made everything worth it. It didn’t matter if it was the last time he would talk to her, he was already happy he had the chance to saw her and being able to personally apologize.

 “Can you forgive me?”

#miraculous ladybug #Adrienette #fics #slow burn #CWCTL #fake dating au

[pancakecakes]

Can we call this love? -Chapter 2

You can read it here: AO3

Chapters (Tumblr) : | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 coming soon

Chapter two-  Can you just give me a chance?

Adrien didn’t know how to react to that question. Truth be told, it wasn’t the first time people asked to take photos with him. He started to feel a little disappointed and his smile started to fade. Not intentionally.

“Please let me explain it!” The girl with beautiful eyes blushed “O-only if you want to know…” She suddenly looked doubtful and insecure. She forced a smile at him.

“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to put a bad face! The request just… surprised me.”

“I’m sorry, I know is something weird to ask to a stranger.”

‘Well, it’s not that weird when you’re a famous super model.’

Adrien giggled nervously, looking at the girl’s beautiful face. She was really stunning, even more now that she was closer. Her eyes were blue like the sky and her skin had beautiful tiny freckles all over her face. He noticed something else, something familiar. Maybe it was sadness, but he couldn’t be sure.

“Umm… F-for certain circumstances I had to lie to my best friend… I told her I was dating a guy with the same physical appearance as you and… Oh, I’m sorry, it’s so stupid!” the girl covered her face with one of her hands and Adrien thought it was really cute.

“Y-you’re asking me to fake date you?” for a strange reason, Adrien’s heart skipped a beat. Not every day the girl you think is beautiful makes a proposition like this, and it was even more unusual for him to take interest in someone at all. This situation was definitely something new to him.

“No!! I’d never ask something like that! I just… need to show her a picture of myself with a guy.” Her hand freed her face and stared at his eyes with a different feeling, was it hope?

“Are you sure I’d be a good idea?” it wouldn’t be the first time someone lied to him to get a photo, but something in him believed in her completely.

“W-what do you mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Adrien smiled and leaned a little forward in her direction. Blue light eyes and dark blue hair, just like his old friend.

“You mean…. B-because you are…” the girl’s face paled.

Adrien smiled. Maybe she would admit her real intentions. Something in him begged for her to not admit to have known him and that she just lied to him to get a photo, but other part of him was telling him to not believe she was different from everyone else.

“…in a relationship?” The girl finished.

What. Adrien dropped his jaw a bit. She was kidding right?

“What…”

“I’m sorry, I thought of the possibility and I asked anyway! Just…forget about everything, ok? I’m so embarrassed. I’m going to leave now.” The girl turned and started to walk towards the exit.

“Wait!” Adrien got up of his seat and his voice came louder than he intended. A couple of people stared at them for a moment and then just continued with their life when they realized nothing was happening.

Marinette stopped and turned just enough to face him. She looked really worried and she also looked nervous. Her eyebrows were tensed in a small frown and her shoulders were a little higher than normal. She looked like a little kid about to be punished by her mother. They stared at each other for a couple of seconds until Adrien broke the silence.

“I’ll help you.” Adrien said as he blushed for what he intended to say next “But in exchange you have to give me your number?” his voice didn’t sound secure at all.

It was intended to sound seductive, but it came out sounding like he was scared. He started to regret it. He wondered how could he be a model but he couldn’t ask a girl her number without sounding like if he was about to cry.

“Only if it’s ok with you, of course!” Adrien said as fast as he noticed the girl was shocked with her petition.

“Hahahaha…”

‘Oh no, I think I made her feel uncomfortable.’

“W-why my number?” the girl spoke again, asking shyly. There was no way it was the first time someone asked for her number, she was more beautiful than the average. Adrien didn’t think appearance was something that mattered much when you loved someone, but he had to admit it; he wouldn’t mind be around someone as cute as this girl, even if it was just as friends. Love came in different ways and sizes, after all.

“I think it’d be nice to meet again sometime? Maybe have coffee together?” great, his voice sounded more relaxed.

The girl giggled.

“I mean; I could help you more than once if we know each other. Your best friend would never find out you lied to her.” Adrien tried to not sound desperate “And no, I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Okay.”

“Great.” Adrien smiled again and the girl couldn’t help it and smiled at him too. He sat down in his chair again and suddenly felt relaxed. He was going to get her number. It was the first number he had asked and he got it. He was excited and happy with his new achievement “Why don’t you sit and finish your coffee?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t I?”

The girl sit in front of him. She still looked nervous and insecure.

“Are you sure it’s ok?” The girl spoke again “You don’t have to feel obligated to help me, it’s ok if you say no. I actually didn’t expected you to accept, I know it’s something weird to ask…”

“No, it’s not like that.” Adrien was feeling more nervous than he ever felt in his whole life “To be completely honest with you, a couple of days I go I saw you and wanted to ask for your number… I kept coming to this cafe ever since then. I was supposed to meet a friend that day but he couldn’t make it.” Adrien giggled “I don’t even drink coffee.”

“Me?” She stared at him, directly to his eyes and he forgot to speak for a moment.

“I mean, I though… You… uhm…You seemed like a nice person?” it wasn’t his intention to make it sound as a question.

Marinette laughed and smiled at him with the most beautiful smile he ever saw.

“You seem like a nice person too.”

Adrien knew in that moment that the next months would be filled with happiness if he could stay by her side. Everyone has these moments in their life. Adrien had the same feeling just twice; when he first met Ladybug, when he tried to be in a relationship for the first time, and now. The third time is the charm, doesn’t it?

“Now tell me.” Adrien took a sip of his hot chocolate “Why would you lie to your best friend?”

“Oh, about that…” she paused for a moment “I broke up with my ex-boyfriend just recently. I’m actually in student exchange and my friend was worried that I’d be depressed because I was alone, and I don’t know why I thought lying was a good idea.” She paused for a moment “I actually hate lies.”

“Oh…lies are bad indeed.” Adrien smiled again “You’re a student exchange? Really? My best friend and I came here as student exchange too! He’s my roommate now. He’s the guy I was supposed to meet here when I first saw you.”

“Oh, really?” She sounded a little disappointed. He noticed how easy was to see when she wasn’t pleased with something.

“What’s wrong?” Adrien didn’t speak with too many people, so he was afraid to say something inappropriate and make her uncomfortable.

“Nothing, I just thought it’d have been amazing if my friend could have come with me.”

An uncomfortable silence grew between them, making Adrien a little anxious.

“But now you have me.” Adrien didn’t think before saying that. He quickly said something else before she reacted “So, should we take the snap right now?”

“Oh, right. Give me your phone.” Adrien did as she said, without questioning it. He had Snapchat on his phone but he thought they’d be using hers “I still don’t know my number from here, but I’ll give you the number I use in Whatsapp.”

“That’s ok. I still don’t know my number from here neither.” Adrien laughed. She was giving him her number.

“Here.” The girl returned his phone with a new contacted added. Marinette, her name was Marinette. His face brightened.

“Marinette…” He whispered”

“Yes, that’s my name.” Marinette smiled again and giggled. He would do anything to make her keep smiling the way she was doing it today. When he first saw her, she looked so serious and intimidating in a way. He was glad she ended up being the sweetest girl he’d have ever met.

“I’m going to send you a message in Whatsapp so you can save my number too.” He took a couple of seconds to send the message and then put his phone on the table “Done. I guess now have to do my part of the deal.” he leaned in her direction “How would you like to take the photo?”

“I don’t know. Maybe just a normal selfie?” she said, more relaxed.

“We’ll have to be closer, so we can both fit.” Adrien stood up and moved his chair until both of their chairs were glued together. He sat and leaned to her until their shoulders were touching and their faces were few centimeters away from each other.

Marinette smelled like candy. Adrien thought her smell fitted her personality, sweet and nice. It was a strange combination between sweet and cleanness. He could easily get addicted to her scent. That thought surprised him, but he decided to not give it too much importance.

---

Marinette felt ashamed for not reacting sooner. The closeness didn’t feel new to her, but the new scent that hit her was surely new. She breathed Adrien’s perfume and she suddenly realized the closeness wasn’t right. At least she didn’t feel comfortable letting a stranger getting as close as only his ex-boyfriend was allowed to get only a couple of months before. She moved away from him and her face showed a mixture between scariness and concern.

“I’m sorry!” Adrien exclaimed as he realized he was too close “I didn’t mean to-.”

“Don’t worry.” Marinette smiled shyly “I just didn’t expect it…”

“I’m sorry, I promise it won’t happen again.”

“It’s okay.” Marinette unlocked her phone and opened Snapchat with a fast movement and got closer to Adrien again. She put the phone in front of them and bit her lip “I’m not sure how to use this app yet, but Alya said it wasn’t that hard. Oh, Alya is the friend I told you about earlier.”

“I know how to use it.” Adrien assured her “Just click in the circle and then decide who you want to share it with. It can be in your story or with someone in specific.”

“My story?”

“I’ll show you.”

Adrien put his hand in Marinette’s phone, and she soon gave it to him, avoiding any extra physical contact.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Both of them smiled and Adrien pressed the circle in the middle bottom of the app. He then pressed the arrow and a list appeared.

“Here you decide if you want to share it with all of your friends, to your story.” Adrien pointed the first option with his finger “Or if you only want to share it with someone specifically.” Adrien selected the only friend Marinette had, Alya “And then you just press send. Should I send it?” Adrien turned and their faces were close again, making him blush.

“Yeah, send it. I guess it wasn’t that hard after all, huh.” Marinette was staring at her phone and then she turned to face Adrien again “Thank you.” She smiled and then took back her phone and separated herself from Adrien. She still felt a little awkward for the recent closeness.

“Yeah, it isn’t that hard once you understand how to use it, haha.” Adrien scratched the back of his neck and drank a little more from his cup.

“You saved my life. A-are you sure only my number it’s ok? I could pay you or-.”

“Yeah, you don’t need to do anything else, really. It was my pleasure to take a snap with someone as nice as you.” Adrien said in a successful flirtatious tone for the first time in the day.

Marinette giggled, she started to feel self-conscious “I think… maybe I should go back now. I need to finish an assignment due later today.”

“Don’t worry! School first! I have your number so I can text you later.”

Both of them stood up and Marinette felt strange. She was used to leave the table she shared with him without even a warm ‘goodbye’.

“Sure.” Marinette gave a last smile. Her cheeks started to hurt, it wasn’t even fifteen minutes of smiling around and her body knew it was unusual for her to do it this much. That was something sad to realize.

Marinette got close and gave Adrien a kiss in each cheek before realizing it was something strange to do when you’re not in France, but he accepted them as if it was normal to him. She decided to give a fast “Goodbye.” And hurried to the exit. Before leaving she turned and saw him for the last time that day. He was staring at her, smiling and blushing.

 Marinette got home and finished her assignment a couple of hours later. She checked her phone and her messages before finally allowing herself to sleep to her heart’s content. No new messages from Alya. She finally got to see the message she got from her new friend.

It was a simple message with the cat emoji and the text “It’s meow, new girl-friend.”

She smiled at the screen and noticed she didn’t ask for his name. She typed a simple “I forgot to ask for your name.” and then rolled in her bed until she fell asleep.

It wasn’t too long since she woke up because her phone wouldn’t stop ringing. She turned on her phone and saw she had around 50 messages from Alya. Good, she saw the snap. She opened the conversation and scrolled through the messages. Something wasn’t right.

I can’t believe you kept this from me this long, I thought I was your best friend.

You can’t go on hiding something this big to me. I feel betrayed.

Holy shit, Marinette I still can’t believe it. Why would you this to me girl?

‘Shit, did she found out I lied to her? How?’

Marinette kept scrolling through similar messages until she saw the one she was looking for.

Girl I can’t believe you’re dating Adrien Agreste.

Marinette’s mind went blank for a moment. She recognized the name ‘Agreste’. Gabriel Agreste was his favorite designer and she aspired to be as good and important as him someday, and his name was absolutely not Adrien. Maybe Alya was confused?

That’s exactly when reality hit her in the face. She remembered reading something about Gabriel Agreste having a son. What was his name? Apparently, the guy was so handsome he modeled all the clothes designed for men from the Agreste brand. She remembered ignoring his existence because her ex-boyfriend used to get mad jealous if Marinette showed any kind of interest in other men. She felt every beat of her heart getting stronger in her chest. What the hell did she got herself into?

 Calm down Alya.

You woke up! I’m glad. Now explain. I need to know how the fuck you end up dating a model. Holy shit Marinette, how the hell did you upgrade from dating a normal guy to dating a fucking SUPER model.

Alya it’s not a big deal

No, girl, it obviously isn’t. You’re just dating the only son of Daddy Agreste, your fucking idol. And you kept it from me a whole month. Now I understand why “he isn’t fond of taking pictures” and why you were so nervous to show him to me. I’m still in shock. I can’t wait to meet him in two weeks.

Marinette’s blood felt cold in his body with the realization. Alya was going to come and spend a whole week with her for spring break and she expected to see her being all lovely dovely and happy with Adrien. And she told him she wasn’t asking him to fake date her, irony.

I’m not even going to ask you for more photos. Holy fuck now I’m even sorry that I made the son of Daddy Agreste take a selfie so he could prove to be real. I’m totally putting that in my CV tho.

Alya please stop calling Gabriel ‘Daddy Agreste’.

And you stop avoiding my question, explain. Right now.

Marinette froze. What was she supposed to say? Everything was a mess. Maybe she was still dreaming, her dreams were this crazy all the time. She fake dating a model? As if.

I’ll tell you the story when you’re here.

Girl don’t do this to me.

You got your photo, now be patient.

Marinete nooooo, I need to know.

She saw a notification of getting a message from an unknown number. The message was simple and it said “It’s Adrien Agreste”.

Holy shit, she was definitely fake dating the son of Daddy Agreste.

---

It’s Adrien Agreste.

Adrien typed it and send it. She was online, but the arrows didn’t turn blue. He wondered if she was chatting with Alya.

Adrien would usually don’t text anyone but Nino. A different kind of exciting filled him when he thought of the possibility of texting Marinette every day. He wondered if she would answer his messages and eventually if it’d be okay to send her good morning and good night texts. Maybe even talk about their days and other more trivial matters. But it was too soon to think on that, he first had to make sure to get a date, or at least keep a normal conversation with her.

He had to stop himself to send more messages. “How was your way home?” “Did you finished your assignment on time?” “What are you doing right now?”, Possible questions to ask her filled his mind.

‘Bad, Adrien, don’t push it. Be patient and see how things go.’

He was lying on his bed, staring at the phone. He finally saw the ‘typing…’ text behind Marinette’s contact name. His heart started to beat in excitement. He felt the beginning of a new friendship was about to start.

Are you Gabriel Agreste’s son??

For a strange reason, the message made him smile. He felt ashamed of himself because he suddenly felt confident and thought Marinette would now be more interested in him, and at the same time he was glad Marinette didn’t know him when she approached him.

Yes. Is there a problem?

Why you didn’t tell me sooner?

I didn’t think it matter that much?

My friend now thinks I’m dating a supermodel, and she’s coming to visit me in two weeks. This was a bad idea, why did you let me take a photo with you?

Hey, calm down. I told you I’d help you, didn’t I?

I know but now it’s different.

What’s different?

You’re Adrien Agreste.

I’ve been Adrien Agreste my whole life. Even when we met.

I know but now that I know that I can’t ask you to do this. God, I am even feeling bad for texting you. Please let’s just forget about this ever happened, let’s pretend we never met.

Wait, Marinette I’m completely serious. I want to help you. I’m not dating anyone and there’s nobody I like at the moment, so nobody’s going to get hurt from this.  I don’t mind at all. And besides… it’d be nice if we could be friends.

What was he feeling? Disappointment? He didn’t know what to call it, but he sure knew he didn’t want it to end without giving it a chance to even start. He started to feel how Marinette was putting a barrier between them.

Adrien, you’re a supermodel. Why would you want to be my friend anyway, I’m boring and… Average?

Please, don’t treat me like everyone else does. When I met you, you treated me like a normal person even though you asked something unusual, and I was really happy. Can we please just try and be friends?

This is more than just being friends.

Friends help each other when they need it, don’t they?

I’m feeling bad for asking you to do this.

You’re not asking me to do anything, I’m doing it because I want to.

The blue arrows appeared the second he sent it. She was online and he didn’t get an answer. That was it, he couldn’t do it. He’d have to tell Nino he had tried just to fail before it even started, whatever I could have been. A new fear started to grow inside of him, what if things would always be like this? People would try to get near him, but when he decided to try and approach someone they’d run away.

He stayed almost an hour waiting for an answer and then gave up. Marinette was offline now, and he started to feel anxious. He never thought being who he was, was both his best and worst luck. He decided to think it was just bad luck. Chat Noir was the best nickname for him after all.

He was intrigued. It was the first time in his life someone would avoid him because he was Adrien Agreste, or as least it was the first time he noticed until now. The gentleman inside of him told him to just give up, is never good to go against a girl’s will and force themselves to them. Other part of him told him he was the only one who could help her now, because of the Snap they took together earlier.

Not that help her keep lying to her best friend was something good to do, but if he was lying to her there must be a reason. To his eyes, Marinette didn’t seem the kind of person who often lies, or even the kind of person that makes strange things like asking strangers to take snaps with her. Maybe something really bad was happening, maybe she was feeling bad for the break up and nobody was helping her and she felt truly alone.

Adrien rolled in his bed and hugged his pillow. Was Marinette really alone? He knew she wasn’t, she had Alya and probably the support of her family, but here maybe she was truly alone. He started to imagine how hard it’d be for him if he loved someone and then they broke up before moving to a city, completely alone. He started to wonder if Marinette had any friends from her classes. She was charming and cute, it was stupid for him to think that she didn’t have any friends. But what if she didn’t?

Adrien went to sleep. It was unusual from him to go to sleep without waiting for Nino to get home, but he wasn’t feeling completely good and he was tired. He stared to the ceiling and then closed his eyes until he gave up to his tiredness.

 The next morning, he checked his phone, hoping to find an answer from Marinette. Adrien sighed. No new messages from Marinette and she was online a couple of minutes ago. His mind told him to just forget about everything and continue with his life like if nothing happened, but a weak voice inside him also encouraged him to try one last time.

He gathered all the courage he had in him and typed a simple question. He pressed send and locked the phone as fast as he could, heart beating really fast against his chest.

Can you just give me a chance?

#miraculous ladybug #adrienette #slow burn #CWCTL #fake dating au

[pancakecakes]

Can we call this love?

You can read it here: AO3

Chapters (Tumblr) : | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 coming soon

Summary: Marinette has to endure a whole semester in a student exchange program away from Alya just when her longest relationship ended in the worst way possible. After being completely depressed for the first months of her stay, and worry Alya to death, she decides to lie to her, telling her that she is dating a “golden hair and emerald eyes” prince and that she’s the happiest girl in the universe. Just a couple months before returning to Paris, Alya insists to see a photo of the mysterious (and non-existent) prince who ‘healed’ poor Marinette’s broken heart.

Tags: Adrienette, fluff, fake dating AU, slow burn, accidentally falling in love.

Chapter one- Can I take a snap with you?

Marinette knew that lying to Alya was a bad idea, but she never felt this depressed before and she couldn’t stand worry her best friend to death anymore, that’s why she invented this handsome blond and green eyed guy, who she was supposed to be dating for a month now. At first, she told Alya about this ‘mysterious’ guy just so Alya would stop worrying so much about her, and also because depression made her sleep for fourteen hours (not exactly during the night) and she needed something to tell Alya when she wasn’t online for that period of time.

“I’m sorry! I was so caught up in this project and didn’t see the time until he called me! I got ready as fast as I could. Today we went to this fancy restaurant in front of the river! It was such a wonderful dinner, I can't believe how lucky I am.” Marinette spent the whole day in her bed looking at the ceiling and she couldn’t recall when was the last time she ate something, nor the last time she attended to her classes. Maybe one week and a half ago. But Alya didn’t need to know this.

“You’re always so distracted Marinette” Alya giggled happily “I’m really happy that you found someone who loves you the way you deserve.”

Marinette giggled nervously.

“But when are you going to show him to me? I trust you, but sometimes it’s hard to believe you he exists when you haven’t even added him on Facebook, or any other social media yet.”

“I told you already that we speak on Whatsapp…”

“You know I’m just kidding! “Alya laughed” but one month and not even a single picture? Or his name? Come on, promise me you’ll send me a photo of your mysterious prince charming, or at least tell me his name?”

“He’s not really fond of taking pictures of himself…” Marinette was tempted of giving her a random name, but she was afraid of something and she didn’t know exactly what. Maybe she was just afraid of getting used to the idea of having someone who doesn’t really existed, so she decided to not give him a name, as if it made him less real to her. She had to admit that having an imaginary boyfriend help her to feel less lonely, sometimes.

“I know girl, but he has to let you take at least one photo with him! I’m dying here to see him!” Alya sighed. She was quiet for a couple of seconds before speaking again “Look, I know I got pissed when you first told me about him, but I was worried about you. I knew nothing about this guy and I wasn't sure if getting in a new relationship too soon was a good idea for you… but if you’re with him now you should just enjoy him to the fullest before you come back to Paris. Please, trust me Marinette, it wasn’t my intention to make you feel bad about it. I’m really, really happy for you.”

“It’s ok Alya, you don’t need to worry about it anymore, seriously!” when Marinette first told Alya about her new non-existent boyfriend, she didn’t take it too well. As the days passed, Alya started to apologize, telling her that she was just worried about her and she didn’t want a random boy playing with her best friend’s freshly broken heart.

“Then why won’t you show me a picture of him? The real reason”

'Because he doesn’t exist.'

“Alya, I promise I’ll send you a picture… Soon.” Marinette started to feel guilty. First, she felt guilty for lying to her best friend, secondly because she was making Alya feel she wasn’t sending photos of 'her mysterious guy' because of  the reaction she had when she first mentioned his fake boyfriend.

“You can just take a Snap of both of you, you can tell him it’ll be there for then seconds and then, poof, gone forever. I'm literally the only friend you have on Snapchat, and I’m not going to save it, promise!”

“You know I still can’t figure out how Snapchat works… “Marinette’s guilt grew deeper in her “…but I’ll tell him, ok?”

“You’re the best!”

After that conversation, Marinette searched for a guy that matched the description she gave to Alya of her wonderful blond boyfriend. She even joined a bunch of dating apps trying to find the perfect him, without success. As days passed by, Alya started to be pushier and Marinette was getting anxious. She even started to shower again, wear pretty clothes and make up and go out to see if she found some random blond and green eyed guy around her age and ask him to take a snap with her, as weird as it sounded. She was desperate at this point.

Marinette noticed guys approached her to ask for her number and even invited her for a coffee and started conversations with her. She wasn’t aware of how beautiful she was to the eyes of men, nor she believed it. She decided to think that people from that city were flirtier than in Paris.

After a whole week of searching endlessly without success, she decided she would just tell Alya they broke up. She’d say that it was her decision, so she wouldn’t worry about her heart being broken again. Marinette sighed as she took a sip of her coffee, when she spotted a handsome blond green eyed guy around her age in the other corner of the café.

The guy was more than  just handsome. He was sitting alone, texting someone. Probably his girlfriend since she believed no one that handsome could possibly be single. The guy fitted perfectly all the descriptions she gave Alya during the last month: He had beautiful golden hair, big lovely green eyes, a soft warm smile and his sense of fashion was on point. She could even say he was a model and she was confident Alya would believe her. But no, she wouldn’t bury herself in more lies anymore, she promised herself.

Marinette felt nervous, deciding if it was a good idea to approach such handsome guy and ask him to take a snap with her. She thought maybe that was way too creepy. If a random guy approached her with the same excuse she’d leave the place immediately and she’d never come back. Maybe after she explained the situation it’d be less awkward. Marinette sighed as she started to give up and stared at the coffee in front of her.

‘maybe I should just tell Alya the truth…’ Marinette thought as she looked at her phone and saw a couple of messages of Alya in the locked screen asking her if she was with her mysterious guy. She closed her eyes and sighed.

Just one month before leaving Paris, her ex-boyfriend told her he didn’t really love her anymore and admitted he wasn't so faithful during their four years long relationship. Alya was right all along, she had told her this guy was a bad idea, but Marinette believed in him and all of his lies.

The first week Marinette couldn’t even get up of the bed and wouldn’t eat a thing. Her parents and Alya were really worried about her, but they decided to give her time to accept the things that were happening in her life. She was about to graduate and she was worried about not being good enough to find a job or even be proud of herself. Next month she'd be moving to another city, away from her family and friends and she was single again, meaning she'd have to be strong and face her student exchange experience differently than she originally thought.

The three weeks that followed didn’t get any better.

“Girl, everything’s going to be ok. This is a big opportunity to start anew!” Alya cupped Marinette’s face “And I know you’re going to be away from your family and from me but we’re going to be here for you. You can call us whenever you feel bad.”

“I know Alya, but maybe it’s not the best time for me to do this…”

“No-oh girl, you’ve study really hard for this, now is the time. You can’t let that stupid guy keep ruining your life. I know you can do it.” Alya squished Marinette’s face as she got closer “I love you Marinette, and I know you’re strong enough to do this, you don’t need to be afraid.” Alya hugged her best friend “I know this city was your last option for study exchange, but you got accepted and now you have to take this opportunity. This could change your life!”

‘I wish’ Marinette thought in a defeated tone.

“Thank you Alya…” A couple of tears started to fall from her eyes.

“And remember Marinette, you’re beautiful and talented. Any guy would die to be with you.” Alya broke the hug so she could see right to Marinette’s eyes, placing her hands in both of Marinette’s shoulders “I know that someday you’ll find a guy who see all the good things I see in you.”

Marinette opened her eyes, trying to avert the memories of the last time she saw Alya in the airport. She decided she wanted to go back to her room and sleep for the next fifteen hours. She gathered her things and headed to the exit. Before leaving, she glanced in the direction of the handsome guy she saw moments ago, as if he was saying goodbye to the only hope she had to continue with this farce. Her heart stopped for a second.

The guy was staring at her. His big green eyes were bright and his parted lips made her fantasy of him thinking that she was beautiful. That was obviously not the reason. She avoided his gaze and exit the cafe. He probably was looking at someone else, or he was daydreaming while looking in that direction. Marinette didn’t see the blush that filled the guy’s face before she broke eye contact and leaved.

---

Adrien saw her exit the cafe, his cheeks felt warmer for the embarrassment he felt when she caught him staring at her. She was beautiful and perfect. She reminded him of someone he used to know years ago, someone who also happened to be his first love. Adrien typed as fast as he could to share what just happened with his best friend.

I found her.

I think you have to be more specific, dude.

I just found the most perfect girl in the universe.

Dude, are you serious? Did you ask for her number yet?

Don’t be ridiculous Nino, there’s no way I could possibly do something like that. Anyway, she just left.

You always have the worst luck, are you sure you’re not under some weird black magic shit from one of your crazy ex-girlfriends? Or one of the chicks you turned down?

What are you talking about, there were not crazy.

They*.

Whatever dude. Well, tell me about her, I’ve been waiting for this moment for years.

Adrien couldn’t possibly tell him the truth. When he was young he fell in love with a girl he met online. He was so pure at that time that he never realized it was love until it was already too late. One day they stopped talking for a couple of days and it was around that time that the company went bankrupt and the messenger died, separating them forever. He remembered her saying she had blue light eyes and dark blue hair, ever since that day he had a type hard to please when it came to woman. Even though they talked for almost two years, they never revealed their true names. When he asked her how he could call her she answered with a simple ‘Ladybug. You can call me Ladybug’ and a smiley face. That’s when he became Chat Noir, and they shared the most amazing two years of his life.

Well, she was completely stunning. Beautiful blue eyes and soft short blue hair in pigtails. She was wearing a cute dress and she was on her phone. I don’t know Nino, maybe she already has a boyfriend.

Dude you’d never know unless you try.

She’s gone now, I’m probably never going to see her again.

You can’t be sure. What if you see her again?

Then I guess I’ll say it is destiny.

You’re so cheesy.

I know. I have to go, text you later.

Later.

He remembered everything about those two years. They’d talk for hours about the things they did during the day, the movies they saw and their dreams. She was the first friend he ever made – well, real friend, since Chloé was technically his first friend but they never seemed to have the connection he had with Ladybug- and when he lost her he tried to fill the emptiness that he felt with anything he could possibly think of, failing and eventually giving up.

He had a couple of girlfriends, but he soon realized he never felt a connection strong enough to feel comfortable sharing a hug, a kiss or any kind of physical contact. He thought it wasn't fair for them and broke up as soon as he noticed. He then started to turn down every girl that confessed to him, he was trying to find something that filled the hole Ladybug leaved in his chest years ago. He realized that he wanted his girlfriend to be his best friend too.

And as a matter of fact, finding something like that was really complicated for him. He was the son of Gabriel Agreste, a rich and famous designer. Not only that, he was Adrien Agreste, a famous and handsome model. Tons of girls were dying for him, but not the way he wanted it.

Adrien sighed as he walked towards the exit. Nino was his best friend since middle school, they met shortly after he lost contact with Ladybug. Adrien was so down that his father even accepted his petition to go to a public school so he could have friends and a taste of a normal life. After a couple of years of friendship, Nino noticed how Adrien, despite his looks, wasn’t really into having relationships.

“Bro, maybe you’re gay.” Nino pointed out one day when they were freshman in college. Adrien had just turned down the most beautiful girl Nino has ever seen. Or that's what he said.

“What.”

“I know you want your girlfriend to be your best friend too, but maybe… you’re in love with me… I mean, I am your best friend, right?”

“Nino you’re just being ridiculous.”

“Have you thought about it though? You sure you don’t have a crush on me? You know I’ll support you no matter what and-.“

“Nino please stop. I don’t have a crush on you and I’m not gay. I can’t even think of the possibility of me wanting to kiss you.”

“Are you sure you’re not just being shy?” Nino joked.

“Wait, don’t tell me you have a crush on me?”

“Well, I’d be lying if I say you don’t have the cutest male face I’ve ever seen in my life.” Nino laughed and winked at him.

Adrien laughed and swore Nino was the best friend he could ever ask for, but he was completely sure he would never want something romantically with him.

“Dude but now being completely serious, you can’t continue with this.”

“What are you talking about Nino? And why are you suddenly so serious?” Adrien laughed as he saw his friend put an unusual serious face.

“You’re always talking about how great it’d be to have a girlfriend and you’re seriously the handsomest and coolest dude I’ve ever known, and yet it seems you really avoid getting into relationships. Is there a reason why this is happening?”

Adrien sighed “I already told you, I really do want to find a girl and make her my girlfriend, but I want her to truly know me and accept me the way I am and not the image I show people, or who they think I am.”

“But how a girl can get to know the real you if you keep pushing everyone away? Dude, you need to let people get close to you or they’ll never know how amazing you are, and I’m not talking about you being a model or being rich. Adrien, you’re an amazing friend and a cool person, but you need to let people get to know that side of you.”

“I know Nino, but it’s hard when people expect too much from me.”

“You have to stop thinking people are only getting close to you because they want to hurt or use you.”

“I didn’t say I think that.” and it was true. Adrien could pretend many things to please his father, but he couldn’t pretend he loved someone he didn’t. He wanted it to be inevitable, not a bit forced. This wasn’t about being afraid of getting hurt.

“Just promise me you’re going to give it a try, ok? Allow people to know that awesome side of yours before pushing them away”

“Okay Nino, I’ll try” There was no point in arguing with Nino, Adrien knew he had a problem at this point.

He wasn’t lying that day, and now three years later it was the first time Adrien showed interest in a girl. Nino even thought Adrien could be asexual, since he didn’t seem to be attracted to girls the way 'normal boys' do. Actually, sex didn’t seem to be something that Adrien was attracted at all. He was curious, but nothing more. Nino stopped worrying after the second year of college and he respected him completely. He was only interested on finding someone who he can be himself with, talk about his day, the things they liked and their dreams. Just like he used to do with Ladybug.

Adrien went to the same cafe for the next days, but he didn’t saw her again. He thought it was maybe for the best. It’s never good to approach someone because you are thinking in another person, it wasn’t fair. He felt bad cause he knew he wanted to approach this girl for the same reason people usually approached him, and felt sick of himself. This girl wasn’t his Ladybug, and he had to accept that.

---

Marinette stayed in her room for the following days, she needed to finish her assignments and that gave her time to think what to say to Alya. She didn’t even have to lie these days, she just told her she had too many things to do and she didn’t have time to go out. Marinette didn’t feel like doing anything, but she didn’t want to fail her classes neither, so she decided to work nonstop for another week to make up for all the time she lost. It was hard and most of the time she ended up in bed thinking about how useless she was, but in the end she could finish something to deliver without failing, promising herself that she’d work extra harder in her finals.

Before finishing the last assignment she had to deliver that week, she realized how bad she craved a coffee. She took a shower and put on a nice dress, and she even ended up putting some make up. She surely was just wasting time. At least she wasn’t lying in her bed crying about life. The process of getting ready took her almost two hours, but she felt beautiful and confident, something she didn’t feel lately.

After ordering and getting the coffee, Marinette sat down to enjoy the moment. Something about not failing her classes and feeling beautiful made her feel truly happy and useful, and she decided that she’d embrace the feeling until it faded away completely.

That’s when she saw him, again. The guy from one week ago was sitting in the table next to her. He was alone again, and was looking tired. She started to wonder if it was what people called destiny, but then she remembered that it was completely normal for people to be a regular in a place they like. She took her coffee and she stood up with a sigh, ready to leave the place.

Marinette, if you don’t send me a photo of your boyfriend I swear to God I’m going to take the first plane and see him with my own two eyes.

 BTW, I'm not kidding, I'm going to visit you in two weeks and I'd love to meet your boyfriend.

Marinette froze at the text she got from Alya. She knew she wasn’t kidding, at least not completely. Alya was completely capable of buying a plane ticket just to satisfy her thirst of truth. Alya also promised she would visit her at least once, but she didn’t take it too serious, until now. Marinette’s face turned pale as she let herself get caught in the moment, even forgetting the possibility of the handsome guy having a girlfriend or she being creepy by asking such question.

“Um… I’m sorry…” Marinette’s voice was soft and nervous. This was probably the weirdest thing she’d do in her life. Or probably not, it was just the beginning if the guy accepted his proposal, which was improbable, but she had to try anyway. She was glad that at least she looked pretty that day.

Adrien turned and the moment their eyes met his face brightened. Maybe he was the kind of boy who was bright, warm and happy all the time. Marinette thought it was cute. She noticed the small blush on Adrien’s cheeks.

“Uh, hi… i-is there something I can help you with?” his voice sounded a little nervous and it cracked at the end of the phrase, making him blush even more. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea after all, but it was too late. She decided that it was better to ask and then apologize and never come back to that cafe again in her life.

“There’s actually something you can help me with” Marinette gulped and found the courage she didn’t know she had “This may sound like something really random and strange to ask but… can I take a snap with you?”

#miraculous ladybug #adrienette #slow burn #CWCTL #fics #fake dating au