Read Confessions on Ao3
Rating: G for General Audiences
Word Count: 1.4K
An Adrinette Post-Reveal fic, where someone brings up Catwalker
Her fingers slide through his hair like sheâs untangling silk threads. She thinks she should have made the Adrien-is-Chat-Noir connection sooner, given how many times sheâs slid her hands through his hair both in and out of costume. Sheâs never quite gotten over how smooth it is. Sheâd told herself that with Chat it was just the magic, and with Adrien, sheâd imagined copious bottles of productâonly come to find out, it was both.
His head rests in her lap, and his eyes hidden behind his forearm. His fingers fidget absentmindedly with one of her hair ties, and his lanky legs are propped up against her wall, jeans sliding off to show just a bit of bare ankle. Sheâs pressed back into her own mountain of pillows, and she thinks how nice it is to have afternoons like this together. No more chasing down villains, no more battles, no more secrets.
âKim as the monkey was an inspired choice,â Adrien says. âHeâs about as chaotic as Plagg.â
Marinette laughs softly. âI think that was Master Fuâs choice, not mine.â
âHow do you decide who the right choice is?â Adrien pulls his arm from his face and looks up at her. Pensive curiosity flits through his determined green gaze. âLike, Ninoâs really protective, so Carapace makes sense, but Alyaâs all about truth and justice, right? Lies and illusion donât make a lot of sense for her.â
Marinette tips her head back and stares at the trapdoor above her bed. âI didnât think Ladybug made sense for me. Sheâs so brave and cunning and determined⊠Iâve always been a coward and pretty hapless and helpless.â
âI think youâre brave and determined.â
âYouâve only known me since becoming Ladybug. Iâve grown a lot.â
âChat Noir made perfect sense for me.â
Marinette laughs, jostling Adrien, and when she looks back down at him heâs glaring up at her.
âYou donât think so?â he says flatly.
âItâs not that,â she laughs again. âI mean, it does make senseânow anyway. But not how you used to be, you know, around other people.â
âWhat are you trying to say?â
âJust that youâve changed, too.â
âI was always like this,â he protests. âI just pretended to be someone else for a long time.â
âSo you werenât a handsome, charming, polite and kind friend all those years?â
âChat Noir is all of those things.â
âCharming is stretching it.â
Adrien wrinkles his nose, and it only makes Marinette laugh more.
âWho was Scarabella, anyway?â Adrien asks, unsubtly changing the subject.
Marinette has to take a moment to compose her giggles. âThat was Alya.â
âAh, of course. She did a good job, but she certainly was no replacement for you.â
Marinette bites her cheek, hoping he canât see her blush. The hardest thing about dating Adrien after the reveal has been listening to him praise her as Ladybug. She had never quite felt comfortable hearing him praise Ladybug before, and now that he knows the truth, itâs worse, as if knowing both of her identities has somehow doubled the intensity of the compliments.
She unsubtly reaches for a subject change of her own. âAnd what about Catwalker? You picked him, didnât you? Or was that Plagg?â
Adrien glances away, tipping his head back for a better gaze of her pinboard that is no longer just Gabriel ads, but has grown to include photos with friends and pictures from several of their date nights, and a few even of Ladybug and Chat Noir.
âCatwalker wasâwellâŠâ His brow furrows as he searches for the answer. She canât fathom why itâs so hard for him to explain if he knows, but finally he says, âI was Catwalker.â
Marinette laughs again. âWhat do you mean you were Catwalker?â
âWellâyou didnât need Chat Noir around, and Plagg didnât want another holder, so we⊠we figured something else out.â
Her hands go still in his hair. âYou know I always need you, right, minou?â
His eyes are still on her corkboard. âYou didnât need Catwalker.â
âIt was more like I couldnât function with Catwalker. I⊠I liked you too much. You were so careful, so polite, so put together and charming⊠I couldnât even think straight, just like all those times I couldnât talk to you at school. You just made my brain stop working! I couldnât be Ladybug if I was too busy thinking about kissing you.â
She hopes heâll sit up for a kiss, but he still doesnât move. His gaze remains distant.
âCatwalker was based on the person I would always pretend to be. The person my father wanted me to be.â
Marinette understands rather suddenly where she misstepped. She bites down on her tongue, holding back a stuttered apology. She canât say she didnât mean it, or it wasnât true, because it all was and still is. She loves Adrien, and a lot of âAdrienâ has been made to please his father. She understands now why he had pouted when sheâd said he was so different from Chat Noir.
She runs her fingers through his hair again with a bit more intention to the contact between them than her lazy strokes earlier. âShortly before we started dating, I got obsessed with dating Chat Noir.â
âOh, I remember,â he says, and a small smirk flashes across his face. Despite how insulting it ought to feel, it relaxes her. She knows heâs still here, listening, and not lost in his own head.
âI love all of you, Adrien. You are still kind and polite, and not just to make others happy. You do it because you care. And youâre silly and sometimes charming, but maybe not as often as youâd like to be. Youâre Adrien and Chat Noir, you know, and I love all of it. Because I love all of you.â
His eyes finally slide back up to meet hers. âYouâre Marinette and Ladybug, you know.â
Heat creeps up her neck and into her cheeks. âO-of course.â
He swings his legs down and pushes himself up to her level. âYou are brave and determined and cunning and creative and honest and thoughtful and a hero.â He leans in until his face is inches from hers.
Her cheeks must be fully red now.
âAdrien, Iâm notââ
âIf I can be Adrien and Chat Noir, why canât you be Ladybug and Marinette?â
âI-I am, I justââ
âAm I allowed to love all of you?â
Her tongue tingles as her anxiety mounts. Her brain sparks with all the same misfires it used to around Adrien and Catwalker alike, which is unfair since heâs being particularly impolite and invasive in this moment.
âAdrien, Iââ
âYouâre my lady and my purrincess,â he says, voice low like Chat Noirâs as he brushes her hair away from her face.
Marinette isnât sure if her heart or her lungs are going to give out first, but one of them is surely about to clock out for the day and leave her high and dry.
And then he kisses her, and all of her parts call it quitsâexcept her mouth, which seems to find its way around his just fine.
His hand slides through her hair, and his other hand finds its way to her waist. Marinette wants to stop, but she also doesnât want to stopâever. It occurs to her, distantly, that Adrien has once again changed the subject away from himself, but that thought is too far from this moment, from the heat of this kiss to do any good.
When he finally does pull away, thereâs such a Chat-like mischief in his eyes that only makes Marinetteâs blush worse.
âI love you,â he says.
She forces herselfâwith a fair amount of effortâto remember where they had left off their conversation. âI love all of you,â she says.
He hesitates for only a moment, long enough for her to know the weight of her promise reaches where it ought to. He answers, âOnly if youâll let me love all of you, too.â
Itâs a fair trade, at least. Maybe someday Ladybug will stop feeling like a costume, like an act she puts on. Maybe someday sheâll feel worth of all of those grand adjectives. But at least today, at least for now, sheâll feel worthy of Adrien, and she hopes that someday heâll feel worthy of himself, too.
She twists her hands into the collar of his black T-shirt and pulls him in for another kiss.
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