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It had been five days now.
They’d ducked into the same hallway after a particularly nasty akuma attack, expecting the second floor of their school to have been safely evacuated and blessedly empty. He had barely managed to slip through the window before Plagg gave up, his transformation dropping in a quick flash of light.
Unfortunately, in the millisecond before that, he had made eye contact with Ladybug and watched her drop her transformation at the exact same time. He’d managed about two blinks and a slack jaw before Marinette Dupain-Cheng bolted down the staircase and out of sight.
He’d tried to follow her - he really had. He’d even managed to find her parents’ bakery by memory, guessing blindly at the streets to take after hopping on rooftops to get there the first time. The address was stored in his staff, of course, but Plagg had refused to wake up to transform him back long enough to copy the street down.
Her mother, Sabine, had smiled kindly and shook her head when he asked if he could talk to her.
“You seem like a wonderful boy,” she had said, sliding the back panel of the display case closed, “And I’m glad you came to see her, but I’m afraid she’s not going to talk to anyone at the moment.”
She’d patted him on the shoulder lightly, her smile soft and understanding. Like she knew something. Like she knew everything he’d ever tell her. A smile like that from anyone else would have unnerved him but somehow, coming from her, it was a reassurance.
“Could you give her my number, at least?”
He had scribbled it on a crumpled sticky note he’d shoved in his pocket earlier in the day, and the older woman took it as if it were sacred treasure, eyes scanning over it quickly before it went into her apron pocket.
“I’ll make sure she gets it.”
And now, five days later, his phone had received a total of twenty-two texts. Thirteen from Nino, four from Chloe, and five from Natalie. He wasn’t sure if Natalie’s counted, since they were all reminders for various appointments, but he counted them anyway.
Not a single one from the girl who sat behind him in almost every class. In fact, she hadn’t been talking nearly as much as usual. No volunteering answers in class, no whispered giggles with Alya, and, maybe the most unnerving of all - no acknowledgement of his existence.
Not that she usually talked to him much out of costume - most of his conversations with Marinette were usually short and she was always red in the face during them - but he missed it all the same. He didn’t have many friends, and Marinette was one of the kindest people he’d ever met. Part of him wondered how he hadn’t figured it out before, but he had been so stuck on the girl in the mask that he hadn’t paid much attention to anyone without it.
And lord above, patrols had been absolute hell on earth. They’d been lucky that there hadn’t been an akuma attack, since she hadn’t broken her silence to Cat Noir either. If anything, it was worse on patrols. No classmates to worry about her giving him the cold shoulder. No Alya to voice her concern.
She brushed past him after class, grazing his arm with the sleeve of her blazer, and Adrien felt shivers go up his spine. Sure, she had wanted to keep her identity a secret, but this was just ridiculous. What did it really matter, at the end of the day?
He still liked her. Nothing had changed about that. He could feel his crush on Ladybug seeping into Marinette on the brief occasions that he had caught a glimpse of her that she wasn’t silent and stony-faced. (And, if he was being absolutely honest, she was really cute when she was mad. Not so cute that he wasn’t fed up with her little hissy fit, but cute nevertheless.)
He’d even tried talking to Alya on the third day, but she had shrugged and shook her head.
“Wish I knew, Adrien, but she won’t tell me anything.”
“Are you sure?” he’d begged.
“Positive, sweetie. And even if I did know, you think I’d betray my best friend, you nosy boy?”
She had winked and walked away, leaving Adrien with the unsettling feeling that she did, in fact, know something (everything? No, Marinette wouldn’t tell her everything).
The sixth day of silence brought the dreaded akuma.
He was too busy trying to predict Ladybug’s every move to pay attention to the shrieking of the victim. What did he care what they were whining about, really? He’d talk to them after they dealt with the mess Hawk Moth turned the square into.
He wasn’t quite sure how exactly their usual banter helped him fight, but it was much more difficult without it. It had been going pretty well so far, but, as usual, his luck was pretty finite.
Of course, that finite luck ran out mere seconds later when she managed to throw her yoyo straight at his head.
“Hey!” he snapped, rubbing the side of his head and shooting her a glare, “Watch it!”
Maybe the akuma wasn’t the only person in the square that was mad.
“Let me deal with it without you muddling everything up, you stupid cat!” she yelled back, stomping her foot. Ouch. That stung the same.
“Well maybe if you would let me know what you’re doing, I wouldn’t be a burden!”
“And maybe if you weren’t so two-faced, I would!!” she snapped back, readying her yoyo for a second strike. He wasn't quite sure if it was aimed at the akuma or the other side of his head. He figured it was about fifty-fifty either way.
“I can’t read minds, Princess!” he yelled, fists curling into balls.
“Well, then, get off his shoulders and let me do my job!"
She knocked the sunglasses off the victim and snapped them as quickly as she could, leaving behind a dazed lawyer and a square free of damage. She started to bolt again, but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her away, up to the roof of their school. No one could see them here.
“Okay, what the hell is up with you?” he said, glaring at her.
She didn’t answer immediately, but jerked her hand away from his and rubbed her wrist, “Nothing.”
“Yeah right. I get you wanted to keep our superhero lives private, but we messed up and now they’re not and we’re going to have to talk about it eventually,” he snapped, “And I’m sick of waiting for you to snap out of your hissy fit, so it’s happening now.”
“You’re...I just...I wasn’t expecting you,” she cut back, flustered and bright pink. There was the Marinette he knew, stumbling over words and crossing her arms protectively across her chest. But she was so angry - he’d never seen her so mad before. Not as Ladybug, not when she confronted Chloe - never. It would definitely have been cute if he hadn't been seething himself.
“Well, sorry to disappoint.”
“It’s not that I just-”
He pursed his lips together, waiting for the rest of the sentence. None came.
“Look, we’re stuck with each other, an-”
“Which part of you should have disappointed me?” she cut in, apparently having found her tongue, “How could I be disappointed if I don’t know which side of you is real?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Adrien or Cat Noir? Who’s the act?!” Marinette was fighting to keep her voice low, knowing all too well that their classmates were only a few feet below.
It was his turn to sputter now, caught off guard by demanding question. Of all the things he was expecting-
“I- what?”
“You’re nothing alike!”
His words died in his throat, whatever retort he had planned completely gone from his mind. Think, Adrien, think. Say something, you stupid-
“I’m not acting,” he managed finally, just as Plagg finally gave up and his transformation wore off, “I don’t know which one is the real me because they both are. They don’t exist in the same world.”
He watched as she sighed, turning back to Marinette in a rush of sparkling light.
“But who do you want to be?” she asked, more gently this time. He could see tears welling up in her eyes.
Adrien shrugged again, stuffing his hands into his pockets, “Somewhere in the middle, I don't know. But I don't have a choice of who I am. I'm Adrien Agreste, and I don't have a choice in that matter."
“So I fell for a boy who doesn’t exist,” she mumbled, bright red and staring at her shoes.
“You what?”
She said it again, a little louder this time, and Adrien had to keep his jaw from falling straight to the floor. That couldn’t be right. She barely even talked to him, and Ladybug had made very clear that she was not interested in dating Chat Noir. He dared to let the butterflies rise in his stomach.
“You like me? That’s why you’re mad?”
Marinette nodded, lips pressed tightly together, kicking one of the loose pebbles by her feet, “I get if you don’t like me back, I mean I’m pretty different as Ladybug too. Who cares about Marinette, anyway? I’m pretty boring and definitely really clumsy and I can’t ever get through a single sentence without stumbling over my words. Besides, I wasn’t all that mad, I was just… confused. I couldn’t figure out what I was feeling. And I didn’t want to say anything because I was just so-”
“You didn’t talk to me for five days because you like me?” he repeated, baffled beyond belief. She liked him? Adrien?
“It’s not just that!” she argued, biting her lip and sitting against the lip of the roof, leaning against the brick and folding her arms across her chest. He followed her, sitting by her side. The spark was back in her eyes, “I couldn’t figure out how Adrien and Chat Noir were the same person! I still don’t get it! And the things I feel for both of you are so different and I didn’t know which of you was the real you and now I guess you’re not either an-”
He braved putting his hand in hers. She didn’t shy away, but she was even redder than before (if that was even possible).
“Do you…” he trailed off. Talking was hard when the lump in your throat was this big, “Do you think you still like me?”
“...Yeah,” she squeaked, eyes squeezed tightly shut.
He grinned, ear to ear, biting his lip. His cheshire grin, as Ladybug called it. A good natured tease. What could he even say? She liked him. She liked him for him and not because he was a superhero or a model. Because he was Adrien and Cat Noir. His Lady loved him either way.
“...Cool,” was at that managed to come out of his mouth, and he kicked himself mentally. What was he, nine? “‘Cause I like you too. Not just as Ladybug. But Marinette too. You’re cool both ways.”
Oh, god, he was a dork.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, scooting towards him a little bit, “for not talking to you. I should have just texted you when my mom gave me your number.”
“Nah, I’m sorry. I lost my temper back there.”
She smiled and shrugged, meeting his eyes for the first time, “Let’s call it even.”
Adrien brought her hand up to his lips, kissing it gently. Shivers ran down his spine when she covered her mouth with her other hand to hide her smile, “As you wish, my Lady.”
She laced her fingers with his and he felt like flying.
“You know, I sometimes thought about how if I hadn’t met Adrien first, I might have given Cat Noir a chance,” she said, hugging her knees with her open hand, still smiling. His grin stretched, and he could feel his cheeks ache from the strain, "How crazy is that? I was tearing myself up over the same person.
“I figured that you didn’t like me,” he replied, squeezing her hand lightly, “You never talked to me much as Adrien, and you definitely didn’t like my puns.”
She giggled, “That’s because your puns are paw-ful, you silly kitty.”
“They’re su-purr-ior, and you know it, Marinette.”
“Just my luck, to be stuck with the only boy in Paris that has an obsession with cat puns,” she groaned theatrically, head falling on his shoulder. The butterflies in his stomach stirred at the smell of her shampoo, fresh and sweet.
“I’m quite a cat-ch.”
“Stop.”
“Do they bo-fur you?”
“Adrien.”
“You can’t deny I’ve got tail-ent.”
“I miss giving you the silent treatment.”