Miraculous Ladybug, "The Tell-Tale Kiss" chapter 6, rated T

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Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug & Chat Noir
Title: The Tell-Tale Kiss
Chapter Title: Six - All Signs Point to Yes
Pairing/Characters: Marinette (Ladybug), Adrien (Chat Noir), Tikki, Plagg, Marinette/Adrien
Word Count: 2328
Genre: Humor/Romance
Rating: T
Spoilers: Up to Season 2 (for now)

Notes: This is a new multi-chapter fic though it won't be too long. I've written a few chapters and have the rest outlined. For now, this first chapter is written for my "major" prompt for the Summer Mini Challenge. Characters are aged up about a few years, around 16 years old. Canon divergent from Season 2/3.

Notes for this Chapter: Adrien is thankful for happy accidents.

Other Links: FFnet | AO3

Summary: Adrien has had enough. If Ladybug won't accept him as Chat Noir, well, then maybe she'll say yes to Paris's top male model? When she gives her answer, he doesn't expect what comes next.

Chapter Six: All Signs Point to Yes

After all the names had been called and his classmates were properly paired, Ms. Bustier instructed them to change seats and sit with their partners so they could go over the details of their assignment. For a good ten minutes, students shuffled around gathering their belongings, moving to their seats and audibly groaning their opinions of the project to their partners. 

Some were happier than others, and the more good-natured pairs were chatting happily until Ms. Bustier cleared her throat and silenced the classroom once more.

Adrien had slid into the seat next to Marinette where Ayla normally sat, and they both smiled at each other and moved closer to share notes. 

Marinette leaned into him as Ms. Bustier explained the details of the assignment, and she whispered quickly to him, “I’m so glad I am paired with you.” 

Adrien felt warmth paint his cheeks, and he couldn’t stop the grin that stretched across his face. He immediately noticed the way Marinette smelled, like sugar and warm bread, obviously from her exposure at her parents’ bakery. He wanted to shift closer to her and inhale her wonderful scent and feel her warmth. He wanted to…

“Ah-hem,” came a loud noise in front of their desks. Ms. Bustier watched him curiously with one eyebrow raised. “I hope you heard what I said, Adrien. I just informed you of the French historical figure that you will be assigned with Marinette.” 

“Ah, yes, of course,” Adrien said, realizing that no, he hadn’t been listening. He’d been daydreaming about his cute, sweet-smelling partner. He looked over at her and she was smiling, her cheeks and neck flush from embarrassment. He quickly noticed that her profile looked hauntingly familiar…

“Well, Adrien?” the teacher prompted. Adrien took a quick look down at Marinette’s notes and read what she wrote. 

“Uh, Voltaire… we’re doing a project on Voltaire,” he said ending his answer with a guilty grin. 

Ms. Bustier let out a heavy sigh. “Good, though I’m a little surprised you were actually paying attention. It didn’t seem that way.” She gave him a sidelong glance before moving to the next pair of students. When she no longer focused on them, Adrien sighed.

“You seem really distracted today,” Marinette whispered to him. “Are you… is there something wrong?” 

Adrien turned to her and noticed she was still blushing. He was still trying to adjust to the fact that Marinette was able to speak normally to him without being so nervous all of the time. He almost missed that shy, blustering girl, but the more he saw this side of Marinette, the more suspicious he became of who she truly was.

“No, just have a lot on my mind,” Adrien replied in a whisper. “Thanks for writing down our project subject. Your notes saved me back there.”

“Of course,” she said cheerfully. “If you want to get started, I have a lot of notes from an essay I wrote last year on Voltaire. I’m sure we can still use the research.”

Adrien nodded at her, and he took another peek at her notes. She wrote down everything that Ms. Bustier had instructed them to do for their creative projects. He felt silly for missing out on the notes, but he was grateful that Marinette was on top of things.

“Wait, do you want me to come over to your house, or…?” he asked, finally realizing that she was him inviting him to work with her. Her old notes were obviously at her house. Man, Plagg was right. He was dense!

“Well, yeah, if you want. I mean, you have already been there when we played video games…” Marinette said, turning her gaze away from his stare. 

His brain almost short-circuited. He remembered when he’d been to her room for the video game training. It seemed so long ago, and he remembered how warm and affectionate Marinette had been, and how he valued her friendship when she gave him a lucky charm. 

But things were different. Back then he didn’t have these feelings for Marinette. He wasn’t so confused about everything, and he only had eyes for Ladybug. Now he was going to Marinette’s house to work in her room with very different intentions. He was going to be alone with her, and he knew that he’d have a hard time concentrating on schoolwork. Just changing seats next to her had sent him into frozen-idiot mode enough to attract the teacher’s ire. 

He had to get ahold of himself. Regardless of the thoughts in his head, Marinette was still his good friend. He had to respect her. He had to respect Ladybug too. He’d confessed to her and now he was acting like a wishy-washy lovesick fool. 

“Sure,” he said with a gentle smile, and after a moment of calmness, he cleared his frenetic thoughts and focused on the project. He listened to Marinette explain her notes, and then he wrote a few texts to his bodyguard and Nathalie about his change in plans for homework. 

“Do you want to stay for dinner?” Marinette asked. “I mean, if you don’t have plans and we spend too much time on the project…”

“Um, I’d have to check with Nathalie, but I think it would be okay,” Adrien said. “My father has been really busy lately, and I don’t believe he’ll be home tonight. I haven’t seen him for a few days for dinner.”

“Is there another big fashion show coming up?” Marinette asked curiously, her eyes shining with intensity.

Adrien shook his head. “I haven’t heard anything, nor have I done any modeling for anything new lately. I asked Nathalie about it, and she said that Father just has a lot of business to attend to. I think it has something to do with...well, legal stuff and my mother.”

Sharp sadness pierced his chest for a moment as he thought of his mother, but seeing Marinette’s genuine concern was a balm to his wound. She put her hand on his arm in a gesture of comfort.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and she said no more than that, though Adrien understood her compassion for him. His chest filled with warmth from her regard, and more than ever her began to appreciate and adore her, as a friend and maybe something more.

After class dismissal, Marinette and Adrien walked together through the halls toward the exit, chatting animatedly about their project and what they knew of Voltaire. When his phone buzzed, Adrien looked down to see a message from his bodyguard.

“Hey, want a ride to your place? My bodyguard is waiting,” Adrien said.

Marinette nodded, her cheeks turning pink again and she followed him as he led the way to his bodyguard’s car. He took her hand and she giggled as his bodyguard opened the door for them. She slid into the car first, and she yelped slightly when she felt the cool leather seats against the thin material of her capris.

Adrien looked at her and she rocked in her seat. “Ha, I wasn’t expecting the seats to feel so cold.”

“Ah, sorry, I can have…” He watched her sink into the seats and let our a satisfied ‘ah’ and then grinned at him. 

“No, it’s fine. It feels good,” she said, leaning back into the seat with a content look on her face that Adrien found alluring and almost irresistible. “Thanks for the ride.”

“Hrmm, anytime,” he said, and then he felt a little daring. Marinette was no doubt flirting, and though she was subtle, the looks she was giving him during the day spoke volumes of her fondness for him. He no longer doubted if the girl was into him or not, and the idea that she was with Luka seemed absurd. Maybe they really were just friends. 

“Any time?” she challenged teasingly. 

He leaned closer to her and spoke in a low voice, “You don’t even need to ask. I know your company would just make these car rides way more exciting.”

Marinette chuckled and then looked away from him, her whole face flushed. “I’m not sure about that…”

“I insist,” he said, leaning so close that he could touch her cheek with the tip of his nose if he wanted to. He could feel the heat from her face radiating off her, and he swore that she would turn to him, to rise to his challenge and give into the burning tension that was stirring between them. 

Before Marinette could respond, the car stopped and they both were jolted out of their reverie as the bodyguard growled at them that they were at the bakery. Adrien shot her a sheepish smile ala Chat Noir and climbed out first, offering his hand again to her. Marinette accepted the gesture and they locked eyes as he helped her out of the car. Suddenly, the motions seemed very automatic, and before he knew it, the door was shut and his bodyguard was finding a more suitable place to park, sitting idly as he always would to keep an eye on his charge.

“Ahem,” said a voice behind them, breaking the fond look they had shared. Marinette turned to smile at her mother Sabine, who was sweeping the front stoop outside the bakery. 

“Maman,” Marinette said smiling, but she was fidgeting in her stance as her mother looked them over. Sabine turned her attention to Adrien and her face brightened.

“Adrien, what a pleasant surprise,” she said. “What brings you here? We just took some croissants out of the oven. They are still warm if you want to try one…”

Adrien could feel his stomach growl its answer. Before he could respond, Marinette grabbed his hand and hurried him into the bakery. 

“Thanks, Maman, but we are working on a school project and Adrien is very busy,” Marinette said.

Her mother watched them knowingly and grinned. Adrien throw a forlorn glance Sabine’s way as his stomach mourned the chance of getting one of those delicious rolls. 

“Ah, okay then, Marinette. We’ll just bring up some snacks in a bit while you study,” she said, throwing Adrien a quick wink. Marinette continued to drag him through the house, and he followed her up the steps to her loft. She allowed him to go first through the hatch before she shut it. He turned around and saw her grinning at him, her arms behind her back and her feet fidgeting in place. 

“Make yourself at home,” she said, and Adrien was sure her voice sounded softer than usual. He nodded at her.

His gaze swept around her room, and she had made some changes since the last time he’d been her. Her bulletin board by her bed was filled with pictures of her friends, him included, and a few pictures of Luka’s band. One picture made him pause, and he looked at it longer than the others. It was a picture of Luka and her by themselves, snuggling up for the selfie and making a metal gesture with their hands. They looked so happy, and the picture seemed to send a needle through his heart.

The rest of her room was mostly clean. While he settled in a seat by her computer, she puttered around her room, cleaning up some random things. When she was satisfied, she joined him at the computer, and he felt as though they were gearing up for the gaming competition again.

Marinette began rifling through her desk drawers in a pink cube, sighing as she searched through stacks of papers. “Somewhere in here is the report I did on Voltaire. It should have a lot of good sources still inside.” She grunted a few times like she was getting impatient to find her paper, and Adrien watched her, trying hard not to look at the cozy photo of her and Luka.

“Ah, here it is!” she said, pulling the paper from a stack and tapping her toes in a little victory dance. She set the old report on the desk and turned to close the drawer. Her mood changed as the drawer wouldn’t close, becoming stuck on a bunch of papers that overloaded its capacity.

“Argh, stupid drawer!” she snarled, grabbing the papers out of the drawer, trying to free the jam. 

“Here, let me help,” Adrien said, rising from his spot.

“No, it’s…” One bundle of papers was stuck and began to rip on the jagged edge of the drawer. 

Adrien tried to relieve her of trying to break the papers free, but Marinette didn’t seem to hear him. She was so focused on fixing the paper jam that she pulled too hard and bumped into Adrien’s chest. He let out an oomph, and then began to fall backward, his balance teetering as Marinette pushed into him.

She immediately panicked as he began to fall backward, and she pivoted toward him, trying to catch him. Her foot banged on one of the desk legs, shaking the entire furniture and knocking free more papers. As the two of them tumbled down, papers rained down on them all over the place.

Marinette squeaked her surprise as she had wrapped her arms around Adrien to try to prevent his fall. Adrien had also grabbed onto her, and now they were lying on her bedroom floor covered in random papers, pulled into a hug. 

What was even more embarrassing was that the moment they both fell, their faces crashed together, their lips finding each other perfectly.

 

Adrien’s whole body jolted from the taste of her lips. They stared owlishly at each other, but at first they didn’t move. Then, Adrien closed his eyes, giving into the delightful accident of the kiss.

.