#adrien hairball hours

[dungeonsngeese]

he had a hairball

[pessimisticlatte]

Glass Roses - Chapter 6

Marichat ~ Adrienette ~ Platonic Marigami ~ Lukagami ~ Chlobrina ~ Nathalie x Emilie ~ DJWifi/Rougapace/Alynino

-Eventual Reveal-

Bit of a reveal in here, my wonderful readers! I love making things a bit complicated so that’s exactly what I’ve done! Enjoy my explanation as to why I described Lila as being ‘strawberry blonde’ in the last chapter! It’s going to be very important very, very soon :P

~~~~~~~~ Gabriel could feel Nathalie’s disdain toward him radiating off her. He was unsure of what he’d done to turn her against him but he didn’t have much reason to care, she was a means to an end and a way of bringing Emilie back to him. She didn’t have to like him anymore, she just had to obey his orders.

~~~~~~~

School had been active for a month. There hadn’t been a single akuma attack just yet, Marinette didn’t exactly understand the full extent of Hawkmoth’s powers but Master Fu had explained that he chose his victims by judging the strength of their emotions. Mari couldn’t grasp how that worked. Chat hadn’t come to see her since school had started and she could feel a deep, jittery worry sludging through her veins. He was on her mind near constantly, so much so that her anxiety around Adrien had almost completely diminished. 

Mari stood on her balcony with a light cardigan wrapped around her slim shoulders, if Chat didn’t appear in the next twenty or so minutes, she’d decided that she was going to head out on a patrol as Ladybug. Rena Rouge, Carapace, Chat Noir and Ladybug had formed a roster for patrolling so that it wasn’t a responsibility placed solely on Ladybug and Chat’s shoulders and everyone had the chance to get a full night’s sleep. Mari had been meaning to raise the idea of adding another to their slowly growing band, she’d taken the Dragon miraculous back off Kagami before Kagami had gone away. The Bee miraculous, Snake miraculous, Horse, Monkey and the others were all still in the Guardian Box. She wouldn’t mind adding Ryuko to the roster or Viperion, maybe both, but tonight wasn’t her night to patrol. It was Chat’s.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lila stood in front of the dimly lit washbasin in her ensuite, looking at herself in the grimy mirror above it. All the lies she’d told the students at school about her mother always ran with an undercurrent of truth. Yes, her mother was absent, and yes, they hadn’t spent proper time together in years but it wasn’t because she was a super-spy or world-famous model, it was because of something far more sad.

Unwrapping the towel from around her head, Lila remembered the last time she’d seen her mother. The tanned skin of her mother’s face was stretched across the frame of her face, the meat of her cheeks created cliffs under her round cheekbones from the extent that it had withered away, once lively brown eyes now hollow and sunken, glassy and unseeing. The tangled, waist length strands of Lila’s hair came free from the towel and fell in damp clumps around her pyjama clad hips. Lila’s mother was a housemaid, a migrant one at that, who worked herself to the bone to keep Lila in school and clothed as best she could. The clothes on Lila’s back had been painstakingly hand-sewn by Lila herself to replicate the fashions she saw daily. Chloe Bourgeois didn’t know how lucky she was, her father was alive and her mother made time for her. She had money to throw around on stupid things like manicures she’d get redone in a different colour the very next day, while Lila didn’t even have enough spare to buy new bobby pins when she really needed them.

Brushing her hand through her limp, newly re-bleached hair, Lila sighed through her nose. Even Dupain-Cheng had it good. Her mother and father adored her, they always made time for her and never left her completely, utterly alone. A large chunk of Lila’s hair came off in her hand, the damp blonde ball tangled around her fingers caused a sob to rise in her throat. The tips of her butter yellow acrylic fingernails shone within the hairball, the manicure that she’d stolen money to get. The manicure that now held knotted bundles of her once magnificent brunette mane. Lila felt a hairy clump whisper against the skin of her back as she moved her head slightly, the weight of her drying hair was now pulling the dead, chemically destroyed roots directly out of her scalp.

She’d worked herself to the bone over the holidays to afford the hair bleach, the make up, jewellery, even her criminally paid for manicure. The family her mother worked for rarely let her go home and her wage scarcely covered their rent, not to mention school, so Lila worked when she could, as much as she could. She cleaned, she cooked, she sewed things, all so she could afford groceries, when she’d come up short of her calculations on how much she’d need to spend on her new appearance, she’d stolen cash from the till at the fast food restaurant she took the graveyard shift at. The manager had been none the wiser as Lila swiped petty change and other employee’s tips as well as bills and coins from the register.

Tears stinging her eyes as she tied what remained of her once thick, soft, glistening hair into a straggly, thin plait and repeated the mantra she told herself daily.

“When you marry Adrien Agreste, you will never go hungry again, you will be the daughter Gabriel Agreste never had, and you will make Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Chloe Bourgeois, Alya Cesaire and Kagami Tsurugi pay for everything they have done to you. You will rule Paris one day with Adrien and his wealth by your side, and you will make them know how to feels to have nothing, to have no one, to be nothing. You will destroy their families and serve justice for them not helping your mother.”

Lila and her mother had lived in Paris for longer than Marinette and her family. The Dupain Bakery had been run by a cantankerous old man before Tom Dupain and his new wife, Sabine Cheng, returned from China with their young daughter and took over the business. Lila’s mother had asked the old man to take her on as a baker or even as a waitress but he’d spat slurs at her until she’d fled the bakery with her damaged pride and worry for the young mouth she had to feed. Her mother never went back to the bakery but every time Lila saw the smiling faces of Tom and Sabine at an event they were catering, she thought of a time when her mother wasn’t too exhausted to function.

Alya’s mother, Marlena, was the head chef at Le Grande Paris restaurant and had been kind to Lila’s mother for as long as she worked there. Marlena and her husband were born in France but had Creole heritage, Marlena understood some of the disdain Lila’s mother endured and tried to make her feel welcome. Lila never had the chance to meet Alya before she started at College Francoise Dupont but after Marlena had been forced to fire her mother, Lila had vowed to make the other girl pay. It wasn’t her mother’s fault that a patron had assaulted her and she’d accidentally spilled hot soup on him, the man who grabbed her ass should have been punished, not her mother who was working to feed her. Alya had two parents and wouldn’t ever have to worry about her next meal, Alya’s mother had taken a woman who was supporting a sick child with what she had and left her in the gutter to die.

Kagami had taken Adrien’s focus off her. He no longer worried about settling Lila into the school and helping keep her caught up on work. He’d barely spoken to her today when he sat next to her in class. She’d spent quite a few painstaking hours forging her mother’s signature on a letter to the school to ensure Adrien would have to spend as much time as possible with her but he hadn’t deigned to say more than a few words, instead looking around the room to avoid her gaze. He’d spent lunch with Kagami too, and Marinette, and Alya. Lila would make him love her. He had no choice.

She didn’t know where to begin when it came to the pain Chloe had caused her. Lila’s mother had applied for a job at the Bourgeois residence a year ago, after Lila had started at Francoise Dupont, and Chloe had mercilessly mocked her for it. Chloe had hired Lila’s mother for a week, and held her mother’s job over Lila like a carrot to a horse, ensuring that Lila did whatever she wanted. Lila had almost been akumatised but Ivan had been instead, his rage so much more susceptible to the butterfly than her frustration. Her mother had then been unceremoniously let go, leaving her bedridden as Lila scraped in what she could to afford doctors visits for her now raging cold. After her mother had finally gotten better, Mayor Bourgeois had hired her again, saying that she was lucky that Chloe had taken pity on her and convinced him to take her back on as a maid. Chloe had spun a false story that made it appear as if Lila’s mother had stolen a valuable necklace from her, Lila knew that Chloe had actually given that very necklace to Sabrina several weeks before; but that was where her mother worked now, doing all the jobs other servants didn’t want to do. Her mother worked longer hours than she should, did jobs damaging to her already fragile health, and her employers paid little attention. Every time something broke, which was awfully often, the cost of repair would be taken out of Lila’s mother’s paycheque. 

The cost of renting in Paris was ridiculously steep, meaning that pay that had once seemed generous barely kept them alive but after the deductions from every broken object, it was even less.

Looking at her face in the mirror, Lila vowed to make each of them pay and take from them what their families had denied her. Adrien was beautiful and kind but, most importantly, he was wealthy. He was the only person who could love Lila, who could fix the terrible life she came from. But Lila knew that there was no redemption for her, even if he loved her.

In her heart, she knew that she wouldn’t stop once she got everything she wanted. She was going to kill the man who sired her and leave his body in a gutter. She was going to completely isolate Adrien so he had no one and nothing but her, then she was going to use his family’s influence to become the most powerful person the world had ever seen. No matter how horrible the life she had was, she would never be happy unless everyone else was not. 

She would tear Chloe Bourgeois’ life apart and take it for herself, looking exactly like the girl who had caused her and her mother more pain than they already endured.

~~~~~~~~~

Dressed as Chat Noir, Adrien leaned against a chimney and watched Marinette standing on her balcony. She looked so serene but so tense and worried at the same time, her body like a tightly coiled wire. Her azure eyes flicked around the houses in front of her, a frown growing on her beautiful face. He knew that she was looking for him but he wanted to wait another minute before he skipped across the roof-tops to her. Adrien had let Rena Rouge and Carapace know that he had plans come up tonight, meaning that he was going to be unable to finish his patrol; the two had looked at each other, sharing a knowing glance, and agreed that Carapace would take over his patrol tonight. Rena had pulled him aside afterwards and asked him, not so subtly, if he had a date planned; he’d felt his cheeks flare red under the mask and the gleam in Rena’s eye told him that she hadn’t missed it, something about her multicoloured opal eyes reminded him of Alya and the stance she held before him echoed the reporter perfectly. 

It had been a while since Chat Noir and Rena Rogue had seen each other, just the two of them, and both had grown older and wiser over the summer holidays. Adrien was more perceptive since discovering Marinette was Ladybug, spending a lot of time analysing the way she walked, the way she talked and the way she stood. Alya had never stopped being perceptive but she’d always been so preoccupied when she dressed as Rena and she’d never taken the time to pick apart every aspect of who the boy in the black catsuit could be.

“Alya?” Adrien’s voice had softened. Carapace behind him was tapping a message to Ladybug to tell her of the patrol change tonight on his shell-phone (as he jokingly called it). The way he said her name had Alya’s eyes widening to saucers and her jaw dropping.

“Is that you behind that mask, Adrien Agreste?” Alya flicked her fingers against his forehead, Adrien batted her hand away.

“Who else could it be, you tricky fox?” He gave a devious smirk and winked.

“Somehow, you had been the last person I’d ever expected to be Chat Noir but I’d never expected Nino to be Carapace eithe-,” Alya slapped her hand over her mouth and shook her head, not looking at Adrien at all.

“N-Nino is Carapace?” Adrien’s eyes widened too, the black pupils shrinking to a pinprick. “That means Marin-, Lady-.”

“Marin? Do you mean Marinette?” Alya cut Adrien off with a quizzical look. She didn’t understand why he’d correlated Nino with Marinette and she was sure that she could dissect it but she didn’t have the mental space currently after discovering that Adrien ‘I live in a tower’ Agreste liked to dress in a skintight black cat suit and skip across Parisian rooftops, putting himself in near constant danger.

“Uh….,” Adrien paused awkwardly and shuffled his feet. “No?”

Alya’s eyes widened even further, the sclera fully haloing the glimmering rainbow of her eyes. “Marinette is Ladybug,” The words felt so weird but so right on her tongue. “Oh my god, Marinette is Ladybug and Ladybug is Marinette. How did I not notice earlier!”

“Shhhh, sh, sh, sh,” Adrien covered Alya’s mouth with his hand before she could call Cara- Nino’s attention to their discussion. “She doesn’t know that I know and she can’t know that you know.”

“It makes sense why she chose me now. It wasn’t because of the Ladyblog or just because Ella and Etta became the Sapotis, it was because I’m her best friend and there’s nothing like fighting crime with your bestie,” Adrien’s hand muffled Alya’s rambling, but he nodded.

“Oh shiiiiiit, what’d you do, Al?” Nino’s casual tone broke through the awkward air surrounding the position Alya and Adrien were in. “Wait, sorry, lemme try again, what’d you do, Nine-tails?”

Adrien took his hand off Alya’s mouth and sighed. Alya and Nino knew who each other were and if their superhero relationship was anything like their civilian one then secrets wouldn’t stay secret between them for long. 

“Well shit, Nino,” Adrien rubbed his fingers across his brow. “You blew her cover.”

“I’m not Nino, who is Nino?” Nino put on a fake accent, looking awkwardly around the rooftop as if that would erase the knowledge Adrien now had.

“Can I say it?” Alya looked at Adrien who gave a single nod. Placing her hand gently on Nino’s cheek, Alya turned his face so his eyes would meet hers. “Adrien is Chat Noir, Speilberg.”

“Uh, not a good time to be pulling my leg, Al,” Nino looked so confused, his eyes tearing from those of his girlfriend to assess Adrien. “Like, really not a good time. I’m about to head out on a patrol and this prank really isn’t gonna help me keep a level head if I have to spend the whole time freakin’ out about Adrien possibly lying to me.”

Something cold formed in the pit of Adrien’s stomach. “She’s not pranking you, Nino,” Adrien dropped the jovial tone he used specifically for Chat Noir and slipped into his usual restrained voice, the one Nino heard daily and would have no choice but to recognise. “It’s me.”

Alya’s hand still on his face, Nino’s head snapped between the two of them.

“You’re definitely pulling my leg, this isn’t funny, how’d you get Chat to copy Adrien’s voice so well, Nine-tails?” Nino shook his head vigorously, removing Alya’s hand from his face by her orange clad wrist. “This isn’t funny.”

“Plagg, claws in,” Adrien knew there was no other way to convince Nino that he was Chat Noir and if he didn’t show him the truth, Adrien might very well ruin his relationship with Alya. Marinette would skin him alive if he tore Nino and Alya apart, they had found each other when both of them were very lost and had found their way together, if he destroyed that she would never, ever forgive him. The Chat Noir suit melted off Adrien’s body and clotted together to form Plagg who promptly fell, groaning, to the floor of building the three were stood upon.

Nino’s eyes bugged out of his head, stretching further than should be humanly possible. He shook his head, eyes closed, before looking at Adrien again.

“Dude, you...you’re Chat Noir?” Nino looked at Alya as he confusedly questioned his best friend. Alya gave her boyfriend a reassuring half smile and nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I-Ladybug said that I couldn’t tell you that I was Chat Noir because it could put you and your families in danger,” Adrien’s brow creased as he remembered Marinette insisting that their loved ones came first. “But, now that you’re Carapace, you and Alya should know who I am.”

“Does Ladybug know?” Nino went straight to the point. With an air of sadness, Adrien shook his head. “So, you don’t know who Ladybug is?”

“He didn’t say that, Speilberg,” Alya cut in over the top, reminding the two boys that she was still there and a part of the conversation.

“So you do know who Ladybug is?” Nino cocked his head. He was well aware of Adrien’s crush on Ladybug and if his best friend knew who the girl behind the mask was then surely he’d asked her out.

“Uuuuuuuh………,” Adrien bit his lip. “Plagg, claws out.”

The Chat Noir suit folded back around Adrien’s body, the Cat Kwami groaning as his form dispersed into the costume.

“You know who Ladybug is but she doesn’t know who you are?” Nino had taken Adrien’s sudden transformation as an avoidance tactic. “Is she someone we know?”

“Uh,” Adrien didn’t want to give Mari away to Nino like he did to Alya. Being Chat had been his best kept secret but only because he’d never interacted with anyone aside from Ladybug before Rena Rouge and Carapace had joined them. Marinette had never asked who he was under the mask and had actually insisted that he didn’t tell her, he wasn’t going to disobey her wishes. Especially after his interaction with Tikki.

“Nino,” Alya pinched his arm. 

“We definitely know her,” Nino rubbed his arm where Alya had pinched him. “Al knows who she is doesn’t she?”

Adrien opened and then closed his mouth, Nino bit his tongue to hold back making a joke about how good Adrien’s fish impression was.

“Imma start rifling off names cause I’m getting impatient and ya both know that I’m not a fan of puzzles. I’m a music man and filmmaker extraordinaire but puzzle maester I am not,” Alya pressed her lips together and rolled her eyes, she loved his stubbornness but she wasn’t sure if this warranted another pinch or letting him continue to press Adrien. “Ahhhh...Chloe?”

Adrien shook his head. Why would Nino immediately go for Chloe?

“Good, even if she has changed, I couldn’t imagine her keeping being Ladybug a secret, plus she did fight with us as Queen Bee, didn’t she? So I should-a ruled her out immediately,” Alya grimaced. “Sabrina?”

Another head shake, this time Alya gave one too. Neither Adrien nor Alya realised it but in deciding to ask the name of every single girl Nino, Adrien and Alya knew, Nino was attempting to hold them up as long as possible before he went on patrol. It may be selfish but he wanted to spend more time with Alya and he was still getting used to the fact that Adrien, his best friend, was Chat Noir. He knew that he’d asked why Adrien would want to lie to him but after accepting that it was Adrien in front of him, he didn’t want to bring that back up; Nino didn’t like hurting people and he especially didn’t like hurting Adrien. The look on Adrien’s face after Nino had made the statement told him that his words had injured his best friend. 

“Ladybug has dark hair...dark hair...dark hair,” Nino tapped his chin and started to pace. Alya shot a look at Adrien and mouthed the words ‘I think all the thinking is hurting him’, Adrien sneezed out a chuckle. “Juleka?”

“Nope,” Alya responded this time, cocking her hip and gently folding her arms below her bust. The smile on her face was casual and loving.

“Am I getting warmer or colder?” Nino pursed his lips.

“You’re getting soup,” Adrien stuck his chin out and leaned forward, extending his baton and resting both his hands and chin on the top of it.

“I dunno what that means. It can’t be Marc, I know they could match the voice but I don’t think they’d fit the suit,” Nino paused. “The voice, Ladybug’s voice, Al, do you have a recording?”

“Of course I have a recording,” Alya whipped out the Illusion flute and flicked the cap on the end off, opening up the screen beneath. Running her glove covered finger across it, Alya started to play a recording of Ladybug’s voice through the flute. She’d hooked the computer in the flute up to her phone and now had access to all the recordings she had of her interviews with Ladybug.

“...don’t worry, I’ve got you,” The soft voice coming through the speaker cooed to whoever was on the other end. Alya had taken this recording last time she’d helped Marinette take down an Akuma, the victim had been a little toddler who had immediately started bawling as soon as the possession left her body.

“T-that sounds like Mari,” Nino pointed at the flute with a knowing grin. “That’s a recording of Mari. Mari is Ladybug.”

“Ding, ding, ding,” Adrien wiggled his hips slightly, still balancing his chin on the baton. 

“Wait, I’m correct?” Nino actually looked very confused. He’d been playing to win but Mari was the last person he thought would be Ladybug. She was incredibly clumsy, not overly strong and very, very shy; Nino wasn’t sure that she could survive the stunts Ladybug did. Then he remembered that he’d seen Mari actually remained balanced during a gymnastics lesson at school, he’d seen her moving stacks of chairs heavier than she was, and she’d become more open, so much less shy. “Mari...Marinette is Ladybug.”

“Yes, she is,” Alya walked over to her boyfriend and placed her hands on his shoulders, her smaller frame melted into Nino’s as she hugged him. “I don’t think there could be anyone better to be Ladybug.”

“She’s selfless, caring, and so strong, that’s why I love her,” Adrien stood up fully and collapsed his baton, sticking it to the magnetic patch on the lower back of his suit. “When I discovered that Marinette was Ladybug, I realised that I was lucky to love someone so brave. Yeah, I was kinda mad at first that she hadn’t told me that she was Ladybug but she did it to protect me.”

“Mari is the perfect Ladybug,” Nino pressed a kiss to the top of Alya’s head, a grin breaking across his face. “You love her, eh?”

“Dammit, Speilberg, that’s what you take from this?” Alya rested her chin against his chest and looked up at him with round eyes. 

“It’s alright, Alya,” Adrien chuckled awkwardly. “I told Nino that I had a crush on Mari during the holidays and he’s been trying to get me to admit to it for weeks.”

“Hell yeah, I have,” Nino rested his arms on Alya’s shoulders and rubbed his chin against her forehead, drawing an annoyed groan from the red-head in his hold. “So you know that Mari is Buggaboo but she doesn’t know that you’re Kitty boy?”

“Yeah,” Adrien chewed his bottom lip, ripping a flake of skin off.

“We know that Mari is Buggaboo and that you’re Kitty boy but she doesn’t know that we know and she also doesn’t know that we know that she doesn’t know,” Nino nodded his head, rubbing his chin against Alya’s forehead again, she struggled to pull out of his grip.

“Basically,” Adrien watched Alya wriggle around in Nino’s grip, trying to make him let go of her. With a grin and a wink toward Adrien, Nino squeezed Alya tighter.

“You’re going to go see her tonight as Chat, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” Adrien’s embarrassment flush painted his cheeks again, even Alya hadn’t asked that. 

“Do you do it often?” Alya stopped struggling and turned her head as much as she could to face Adrien, her half crushed smirk just as all knowing as she wanted it to be.

“I haven’t gone and seen her since school started. I haven’t really seen Ladybug either since we sorted out the patrol roster,” Nino loosened his hold on Alya, who simply spun around in his arms and leaned against him.

“Why’re you still here then? Go get her, tiger...cat….dude….Go get her, Kitty boy,” Adrien gave them a wide grin. “Nine-tails and I have got tonights patrol, we’re gonna get on the same page about all-a this.”

“Thanks, Nino, you’re the best,” Adrien walked over to Nino who fully let go of Alya and pulled Adrien into a tight hug. Adrien hugged his best friend back.

“I didn’t mean it, man. I understand that you didn’t tell me cause you wanted to keep Al and I safe. It means so much to me that you did it for us,” Nino’s voice was soft, a level that only Adrien was meant to hear but the enhanced hearing that came with Alya’s Fox miraculous meant that she’d heard them too. “I’d ask you to stay safe but that’s impossible in this line of work, so just...don’t get yourself killed. Love you, man.”

“Love you too, Speilberg,” Adrien squeezed a little tighter and lifted Nino off the ground slightly. Nino was taller than him so it wasn’t easy but it didn’t stop him. The two boys let each other go and engaged in their rather complicated handshake. Alya flung herself at Adrien and pulled him into a bone crushing hug before letting go and walking to stand beside Nino.

“Don’t hurt her, Agreste,” Alya’s voice was barbed as she gave him her warning. “I don’t care if you’re this jackasses best friend,” Alya pointed her thumb at Nino. “I will gut you, understand?”

“I understand,” Adrien swore with his hand over his heart. They walked across the roof to the edge, Nino glanced at Alya who nodded. Nino vaulted himself over the edge, leaving Alya lingering in the dimming sunlight, a halo of gold illuminating her orange and white costume.

“Please, let her tell you first,” Alya’s voice was soft and her eyes glistened with unshed tears. What she was crying about, Adrien didn’t know. “Don’t tell her that you’re Chat Noir until she asks, please don’t force her to come out as Ladybug to you either; you’ll stress the ever loving shit out of Mari if you do and it could send you both right into Hawkmoth’s clutches. She is the sweetest, strongest, most wonderful girl I have ever met but she carries her life on the head of a pin and the slightest wobble could send everything she has falling to the ground. She loves you, as Adrien and as Chat, but you need to let her tell you first.”

“Tikki said the same thing,” Alya gave him a confused look, her head tipping slightly. “The Ladybug Kwami.”

“Great minds think alike,” Alya laughed through her nose. “But give her time, Adrien, her heart is made of glass and we don’t want her to shatter. You might think that telling her that you know, that Nino and I know, would make things easier for her but rocking the boat before she has a lifejacket on will kill her. The work Mari does for Jagged Stone, her designs, her friendships, her grades, her job at her parent’s bakery, and her life as Ladybug are all on the line.”

“I promise you, Alya, I’ll take care of her and I won’t do anything to hurt her. You have my full permission to bury me in an unmarked grave if I do,” Alya slid her foot slightly over the edge of the roof, her heel planted on what was left of the roof beneath her.

“It’s laughable that you think I need your permission,” Alya leapt off the roof, leaving Adrien all alone, watching the space where she’d been until the forms of both her and Nino could be seen racing across the roofs through the glaring, setting sun.

Immediately after Alya and Nino had disappeared into Paris, Adrien had made his way to Marinette’s where he still stood, watching the now cooling wind pick up the wisps of her fringe. Exhaling his nervousness, Adrien started to move across the roofs into Marinette’s line of sight, he saw her head perk up as her eyes locked onto him. She had been waiting for him after all. Her smile set a blaze burning in his stomach, his chest, and his head, with a full and dimpled grin he catapulted onto her balcony and drew her into an embrace.

~~~~~~TAGLINE~~~~~~ @lady-charinette @katieykat513 @nifflerstorm @mochegato @aussie-lesbian @maniic-pixie-dream-girl

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[platypanthewriter]

Cat’s Pajamas

Chapter 8 of In Which No One's Imagination Obeys Posted Speed Limits    

“...starting to think the akuma left Paris,” Chat mumbled into Ladybug’s ear, yawning, and she sighed, turning in the crossroads of what felt to her outstretched hands like at least five corn passages.  

“It should be getting light,” she muttered back, trying to edge around backwards and catch the akuma silhouetted against the stars, or the Eiffel Tower--at the moment, the only sources of light in Paris.  “Ugh, why isn’t it getting light?  Plagg, how long will I stay transformed?  Do I need to turn it off, and let Tikki rest?”

“Could do.”  Plagg’s yawn sounded even larger than Chat’s.  “Wait, lemme channel my inner Tikki."  He pitched his voice high.  "Oh, no, Miraculous Bearer!  We must fight the akuma to the last!  If you're a true hero, you'll be fine all alone!  Security is more important than your feelings!"

"...meowch," Chat muttered, as Marinette stopped, wide-eyed.

"That--that's kinda--" she stuttered.

"Whatever, you’ll get tired when she does," Plagg sighed, dropping to his usual register.  "You’ll know when you have to drop Ad--uh, this here idiot on his pajama’d butt.”

“Plagg,” Chat hissed, and Ladybug trekked on.  

"She wants that kinda commitment she should pick soldiers," Plagg huffed, and Marinette swallowed.

Her stomach growled, and she swallowed down a tightness in her throat.  “Eugh, I don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere.”

Chat squirmed against her.  “You could--”

“No.”

“I’ve got to be tiring you out faster--”

“Nope.”

“But it--”

“No, Chat, I’m not leaving you stumbling around exhausted, for the akuma to find--”

“Milady!  Never!  I merely wanted to suggest you knot your yoyo around my legs, and swing me around overhead to try and get a good look--”

She nearly tripped, cackling. 

“He just wants to be wrapped in your yoyo,” Plagg muttered.

“We’ll have to be pretty desperate before we try the kitty-copter,” she giggled, reaching back to ruffle the soft ears of his cat onesie.  Plagg groaned.

“You could just wind me up in it and pull, so I spin up into the air like a terrifying ballerina--”

Ladybug tried to muffle her laughter, listening for the akuma, which was still silent.  From the way her stomach felt, it must have been at least a couple hours, despite the continuing darkness.  "Terrifying."

“I'm terrifying!"  He echoed her snicker.  "You could grab me by the ankles and fling me out and over like an American football--” Chat whispered in her ear, and she wished they could just...stop, and eat something, and lean against each other for a short while.

“More like a javelin,” she rubbed her head on his like a cat, and he made a noise like he’d tried to swallow the aforementioned football.  “Don’t hairball on me, Kittycat.”

“I would never,” he mumbled into her hair.

“Maybe on an akuma, then.”

“Ooo, you could aim him, like a bazooka,” Plagg popped up again.

“Maybe my tail would convert to a crank,” Chat snickered.  

It was amazing, she reflected, that with a few idiotic sentences Chat could lift her from wanting to fling herself on the ground, kicking her feet like Manon and screaming insults at Hawkmoth.  Or lying about a scouting mission, and sneaking off for a good cry.  A true hero would--Plagg's imitation of Tikki echoed in her head.  “You--you know you’re helping, right, partner?”

“...making you haul me around,” he sighed.  She could feel him hunching away from her back.  “What kinda partner--”

“I didn’t think anything could make me laugh right now,” she set her feet and bounced her knees to toss him back up a little ways against her back.  “If you hadn’t started being silly, I’d probably be curled up in a corner of this stupid maze, yelling that Hawkmoth is a Pamper-head.” She felt his face heat against her ear.

“I--I kinda doubt that, Milady,” he giggled.  “But--you can corn’t on me.  There may be a kernel of truth to what you’re saying.  I’d hate to minimaize my corntribution.  It’d be terrible if your cornfidence were lowered by this cornflict.”

“Oh no,” Plagg wailed, and Ladybug smacked herself in the face.  

“Husk and she shall receive,” Chat whispered smugly.  

“I was thanking you for what you’d already done, not suggesting--”

“Your puns are striking an innocent bystander!” Plagg gasped, and pretended to choke.  

Ladybug ruffled Chat’s ears, with the side effect of squishing his face against her shoulder.  

“My amaizeing Bugerella is incorntrollably inspiring!”

“You about done?  Should we just let you get it out of your system?”

“Like food poisoning?” Plagg put in, his voice dry.  "This pun vomit--"

“Maybe we should put him in the corner,” Ladybug whispered to Plagg, and Chat started giggling into her shoulder, kicking his feet, and she’d have lost her grip if he hadn’t hugged her around the shoulders.  

“Sorry, sweet cornductor of my internal symphony--”

She bounced him again, and he yelped.  “Okay, seriously, Plagg, you can’t eat cookies, or you won’t?”

“I hate ‘em, and it wouldn’t do any good.  Bugs run on sugar. I need protein.  If Ad--I mean, if this ding-dong-doofus had packed enough food, I’d be--”

“I packed a cornucopia,” Chat muttered into her shoulder.  “He’s more like a shark than a cat.  There are probably whole sets of tableware in his stomach he ate along with his cheese.  They’ll dissect him one day and find a whole fleet of milkman trucks.  And cows.”

“Vicious lies,” Plagg sniffed.

“How do you like it,” Chat hissed back, and Ladybug cleared her throat.  

“Anyway!  Chat, would you feel better if you ate?  I’m getting hungry.”

Plagg whistled.  “Oh, that’s not a good sign!  We’re all gonna die, aren’t we.”

“You’ve...got food?” Chat sniffed her ear.   “Where?”  He scrambled to lean further over her head, digging a foot into what felt like her spleen, and she grabbed him by the scruff and hauled him forward over her shoulder, ignoring his yowl.

This is why, she reflected, a gentleman like Adrien is so appealing.  I can fantasize about kissing a boy who doesn’t startle and climb my torso like a cat-tree.  “I’d have to transform back--” She considered tossing Chat over her shoulder, in a fireman's hold, the way he deserved, then remembered his furry pajama’d butt would be pressed against her face. Finally she stalked on, one arm out while he dangled from it by the scruff of his neck like a chastened windsock.   “Not the right way to get a cuddle, minou.”  

“That akuma must be halfway across Paris if it didn’t notice that,” Plagg’s voice muttered from her other shoulder.  “Also deaf.” 

 The next time they found a dead end, Marinette lowered Chat into a puddle in one corner, and dropped in the other with a loud sigh.  “Eugh.  Okay, close your eyes, your fuzziness, I’m de-transforming.”  He yowled, and she looked him over with the pink light of her transformation shining off his soft plush pajamas, and his hands clamped over his eyes.  His kwami floated unimpressed, little arms crossed, and she stuck out her tongue.  Tikki drifted to rest near her right foot, and she crouched to pat around and pick her up.  Tikki’s head lolled against her thumb as she rustled around in her purse for cookies.  “How are you, Tikki?  Want to meet Chat?” 

“Lovely to formally meet you, Chat Noir,” Tikki whispered, accepting a cookie.  “These cookies will taste even better than usual, Ma--ah--Ladybug!”

“I should start packing a lunch,” Chat sighed.

“Ma-Ladybug brought plenty of cookies,” Tikki squeaked, her voice already stronger.

“Let’s have some cookies, Chat.”  Once the sparkles had receded from Marinette’s eyes, she felt her way over to the corner where she’d dropped him, and sat against his side.  One hand in her purse, grabbing cookies, she patted her other hand around his knees to find somewhere to put said cookies, and he gave a wheezing meow noise that got Tikki and Plagg snickering.  Marinette bit her lips together, trying to respond like Ladybug, and not make Chat yowl even louder in dismay.  She cleared her throat.  “Did I grab your--uh, your, um, boy, uh, your boy cat y’know, did I--did I squeeze your--your tomcat uh--”

He yowled louder, in dismay, as Plagg cackled gleefully, and Tikki gasped.  Chat was sputtering.  “What no! I’m--clothes! My--my what-- my--I’m not--it’s fine!  What do--of course I--Plagg!”

“Your TOMCAT UH,” Plagg was howling, his voice more like a cockatiel than a cat.  “Your boy cat y’know!”

“Shut up about my y’know,” Chat hissed, “Shut up shut up shut up--”, and Marinette stared into the darkness, face approximately a thousand degrees, wishing she had enough cookies to built a fortified castle and lock herself away.  

Just when she was hoping they could just all ignore the last few minutes--except Plagg, who was still laughing so hard he was breathing in huge frog-like gulps--Tikki touched Marinette’s hand, took a handful of cookies, and said “I’d better get these to Chat, so you don’t stick your hand in his pants again.  Really, mm--Ladybug, you're--”

“Nobody grabbed anything,” Marinette and Chat shouted in unison, like true partners.

"She has a history of--" Tikki began, to Marinette's horror.

"I do not!  I never kidnapped him!  I never kidnapped anyone!"  Chat sounded like he was choking on cookies, and Marinette tried to use her Ladybug authority.  It only seemed to...half work, out of costume, probably mostly because she was spasmodically shoving cookies in her mouth.  “Stop--stop accusing me of imaginary crimes, Tikki!  I--I felt nothing--”

“She didn’t grab anything,” Chat emphasized, snickering, like a traitor, “I was just startled,” and Plagg just kept making soft creaking noises and squeaks deep in his throat.  

 Soon after that, once Marinette had stuffed her mouth entirely full of cookies, leaving no room for embarrassing syllables, Chat sighed, his head dropping against her shoulder.  

“You must be really good friends with Marinette.  You always have her cookies.”

“Fmgmffh,” Marinette agreed, coughing.

“Do you...um,” he cleared his throat, and she heard him crunch into another cookie.  

“Hmgle?” she inquired, holding her hand over her mouth so no chunks of cookie would escape her cookie-packed mouth as she tried to chew.  

“Do you--do you talk about me?  She thinks I’m a liar too?”  He cleared his throat, more closed with emotion, she thought, wide-eyed, than cookie crumbs, and she dropped her handful of cookies to throw an arm around his shoulders, since her Speak Not plan had backfired.  

He leaned into her shoulder, crunching away at his cookie.  “It’s--I mean, it’s fine, I’m--just--why would you think I was lying, Milady?”  His voice was muffled with his mouth full of cookie crumbs.  “Mmff in l-love with you--” he coughed, “---why--I mean, do you--do you think I usually lie, or--”

Marinette finally won the chewing war, and yelped “No!” in his ear.  “I’m sorry, Châton! I don’t--I didn’t think you…” she took a deep breath, and blew through her cheeks.  “...I mean, Adrien likes you, how could--how could you say no to Adrien Agreste-- ”

“Adrien is my cousin,” Chat ground out.  “He doesn’t lo--like-like me.  He likes you too, he’s not--wait, you--you wouldn’t say no to Adrien Agreste?”

“You both like--?!” Marinette squeaked, ignoring Tikki’s squeal, and Plagg’s continuing wheezes of hilarity.  “Wait, Adrien Agreste likes me?!”

“Who wouldn’t,” Chat had frozen against her.  “You wouldn’t say no to Adrien Agreste?  You’d date him?!”

“I can’t date, I’m a superhero, but--”  Marinette felt Tikki pat her cheek, and she took a deep breath.  “If--if there were no akuma--I--”

“You could figure something out, I’m sure, Ma--milady, in--in the future, when--!”  Tikki almost blew it, and flailed, and Marinette giggled into Chat’s hood, giddy at the idea of holding Adrien’s hand, until the weight dropped on her lungs again.  “But he likes you.”

“He--listen, I know this is true,” Chat growled, “--listen to me.  Adrien Agreste does--he does not want to--to kiss Chat Noir.  I’m the wrong superhero.  For Adrien.”  Plagg’s voice did a weird Doppler thing as he rolled off Chat’s shoulder, gasping with glee.  “Anyway, Adrien’s not stupid, anyone would want to date Ladybug.  Al--that Ladyblog girl’d drop her boyfriend in a second.”

Marinette choked, coughing, and slumped so their shoulders bumped.  “Oh no, she would, poor Nino.  Or invite him.”

Chat cackled.  “She would!  She totally would.”

“Adrien likes me?!” she whispered, again, and Chat butted her head with his eared hoodie.  

“Of course he does, you’re the Hero of Paris,” and her heart sank.

“Oh, right.”  She ate another cookie.  “My job.  I mean--don’t--I’m--I’m so happy he likes me--” her eyes stung, and she bit a piece off the cookie, “--but it’s a uniform.  I’m just doing my job, it’s--it’s like he’s in love with a fireman who saved him from a burning house, he doesn’t know me--”

For some reason, that set Plagg off again, and Tikki floated up off her shoulder to go and squeak furiously at him in a register they could barely hear.  

“That’s all you know about him,” Chat snorted drowsily.  “His Public Relations face.  You know he’s not supposed to smile too wide?  He got called in and shown photos so he could smile the ideal smile all the time.  He probably knows more about you, because--because I tell him.  Everything.  He knows everything.”  He took a deep breath, as Marinette wondered what on earth blackmail material Chat had.  

“Oh no, he knows I caused Copycat?!”

“Y--you--” Chat choked.  “You--what--you did not cause Copycat, Milady.  That was--that was maybe ten percent me, and ninety percent that creepy dude who thinks he gets to decide who women date.”

“I was late because I was stealing Adrien’s phone,” she wailed, and he was quiet for a horrible second.  Then she realized he was laughing.

“I--I did not know that, Milady.  Why on earth-- you could just ask, you know?”

“I panic and steal phones,” she moaned, letting her head thud back with a rustle against the wall of corn.  "Tikki's right about the phones, I kidnapped phones--"

“Phones?!”  He giggled harder against her.  “Plural, phones!?”

“Phones,” she confirmed with a groan.  “It’s terrible. Don’t let me steal phones, Chat.”

“You have my word, Bugfriend,” he laughed through a yawn.  “There will be no phone theft while I’m on duty.”

She gave in to the giggles too, leaning her head on his.  She started to explain stealing the “Ladyblogger’s” phone, and then realized he’d gone limp against her.  

“I think he’s asleep,” Tikki whispered.  “Would you like me to wake you when we feel more rested?  We can keep watch.  And even without cheese, everyone will fight better after a nap.”

Marinette’s heart was still pounding from Chat’s firm belief in Adrien’s affection, but she was exhausted, and Chat was warm and fluffy against her in his plush pajamas.   I have to make me some of those was the last thought she had for some time.

 When Chat’s head moved under hers, she blinked awake, feeling both that no time had passed, and the curious weight of having slept for six hours on a hot afternoon when you’d meant to close your eyes for ten minutes.  

“I’ve rested,” Plagg whispered between them.  “Go ahead, transform.”  

Chat punched the air as he muttered his phrase, only to yelp, voice strangled, as he kicked and flailed.  “Help!  Help!  No--no, don’t look at me, Milady!  Don’t look!”

“It’s dark, kitty,” she whispered, but the thing was, she COULD see him, since he now had a firey lizard tail, and the flames were creeping around his torso, and lapping at his bat wings.  His mermaid tail, under the fish one, flapped like he needed to get back in the water, and Marinette stared, aware she should hide her face, but also watching him try to hide his own face and smack himself in the forehead with the ice skates now attached to his hands.  "Are you--does that hurt, Chat?!"

“I feel like a slinky,” his voice came high-pitched and thready.  “I have no joints, milady, am I--help, I’m a snake!  I’m a cat snake! I’m--on fire--some of me is definitely on fire--no."  His voice dropped to a mumble.  "I don't hurt, it's just humiliating--"

“PLAGG!” Tikki roared.  It reverberated around the maze, and Marinette crept closer.

“It’s gonna be okay, Chatôn, we’ll fix this--it’s your mertail--you’re not a snake--”

“--I’m a horrible chimera --Milady--” he wailed.  “I have wings-- I have--I have--what are--”  He tried to gesture with his hand-skates to his neck, where airpockets swelled, like a bullfrog.  

“They’re for holding your breath.  In case of poison,” Tikki gritted out, and Chat yowled, lashing his flaming lizard tail, and his mertail below.  It sounded like a ribbit, and he went still, then ribbited again.

“--what--what did--help--batwings?!  I’m Dracula--help, I think I’m Dracula--I’m frogula--”  He bonked himself in the face with the skates again, and Marinette slid over to grab them.  Up close, the frog-ribbits were deafening.

“Plagg ate your magic transformation cheese,” Tikki said crisply.  “All of it.  We’ll have to take him to Master Fu.”

“Plagg,” Marinette growled.  “What are we doing to Plagg.  American cheese isn't bad enough.”

“Will I ever pounce again,” Chat whimpered.  “Bury me with my laser pointer. And catnip.  Maybe some flies.”  He ribbited sadly. 

Tikki flew to Marinette.  “You’ll have to carry him.  He’s setting the corn on fire.”

“Chat, shut your eyes,” Marinette told him, and he nodded, flicking his fire-tail.  “Stop thrashing.  You’ll be alright.  You’re my partner.”  She clasped the skates in her hands, trying not to wonder if the magic had just moved his feet onto his arms.

“I just tried to wiggle my toes,” he laughed, then groaned around another ribbit.  “I’m a snakebat in ice skates, milady, please--just--please throw me into the sun.”

“It’d be a long way to get my partner back," she told him, kissing his forehead--he squeaked, wings fluttering--and transformed.  "At least you're durable now, Kitty."

 It was a scramble, trying to fight the akuma with Chat on her back--finally she left him on his face, trying to hold the flaming tail still.  He called "I'm doing a thumbs-up!" after her, and she tripped, laughing.  As she thwacked the yoyo down on the scarecrow akuma’s head, she pretended it was Plagg.