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The reveal is both good and bad.
See Chat Noir knows how to get Ladybug to relax, so now Adrien knows how to get Marinette to relax.
Adrien had been confused about how to handle his friend for years, but now he’d basically been handed a manual.
It was bad because Adrien basically gave up all hope of Ladybug, Marinette, falling in love with him.
Ladybug didn’t love Chat and Marinette didn’t love Adrien.
Part of him, apparently, had held out hope that his Lady just… didn’t know him well enough, yet. That once she understood him, all of him, she would love him half as much as he loved her.
But that was silly, they’d known each other for years at this point.
And now they knew that they knew each other even better than they’d known.
When he tried to put it into words that sounded reasonable it made his head hurt, but it makes sense in his feelings, okay?
So he’s bringing out all his skills at repression.
Not flirting too much, just enough to remind her that she’s loved, enough to calm her down in battles.
He brings her a thousand pink flowers from his mother’s garden, one at a time.
Tries not to die when she kisses his cheek.
She’s been doing that more often, so he must be doing something right, right?
He shakes his head. Tries not to get his hopes up.
Hugs her and leads her into the school with her hand at his elbow, or jumps off a building into a few seconds of free fall to start patrol.
She lets him kiss her hand on the Eiffel Tower at night. She pushes him away by the nose after an Akuma, before the press swarms them.
She dances with Adrien at a school dance she had to talk his father into letting him attend.
When she lifts her head from his shoulder, he’s certain that she can read the lovesick expression on his face, but they’re too soft and warm and close for him to school his face into the correct level of devotion. He wants nothing more in the entire world than to kiss her. He looks away.
He almost says something stupid. Something that would have ruined this new closeness they’ve developed, he’s sure.
But then there’s a gentle pressure at his neck, and he’s stunned into silence. She pulls him down a bit, and he sinks into a hug, hiding his flaming red face in her shoulder.
She sighs, nearly collapsing against him and he stands straight to twirl her gently, chuckling, before setting her back on her feet.
“I love you so much, Marinette,” he says, the two going back to swaying to the music, her head on his chest.
“I love you, too, Adrien,” but she sounds a little sad, and he’s reminded that she would probably rather be slow dancing with someone else, but well, they had danced to this song twice before and he just had to ask her. She’d looked happy when she’d said yes but…
He’d done his best not to bother her all night.
Nino was focused on the music or Alya and Alya was focused on the coat check when Nino was busy, so Adrien had tried to mingle with the rest of their classmates. He wasn’t really sure they all considered him a friend but he was determined to get closer to that title with as many of his classmates as possible tonight. He’d given himself the task as a distraction.
But every time he’d spotted Marinette on her own she'd been frowning near the drinks or near the coat check and he’d been drawn to her like a moth to a flame, and he’d had to go over there and cheer her up. In the middle of his third joke their song had come on and now…
He wasn’t sure who she was in love with, but he was a fool not to be here tonight.
The reveal was the best thing to ever happen to her.
Just…
She couldn’t figure out why Adrien didn’t want to kiss her.
But she was trying not to pressure him.
He’d never been shy about wanting to kiss her before the reveal.
And the way he looks at her.
And he’s constantly bringing her pink flowers.
And telling her that he loves her.
It’s not like…
She means, he called her an everyday Ladybug before he knew her identity but after he was in love with Ladybug. Who says things like that about their friends?
No, Adrien is clearly in love with her, too.
He just. Doesn’t want to kiss her.
“Maybe it’s because every other time you’ve kissed he’s forgotten it?” Alya suggests.
“That’s only happened like four times!” But Marinette must concede the point. Maybe this is another way that the Miraculous is affecting her love life. Maybe her Kitty is scared he’ll forget again, the kiss, her identity even.
So she tries not to pressure him.
But it’s hard. She’s not sure he would appreciate the pun, this time.
It’s a couple of days after the dance, a couple of months after the reveal.
Adrien snuck out of his house as Chat Noir, but he came in through the bakery as himself.
They’re sitting on her floor, surrounded by blankets, cushions, gentle fairy lights, snacks, and (room temperature) hot chocolate, watching a foreign movie he’d been excited about but that she couldn’t even remember the name of now.
She’d put all her effort into making this night as romantic as possible. She’d begged her mother to keep her father downstairs and had been scarred for life when her mother had promised to keep him busy and winked.
She just… wanted Adrien to know that she loved him regardless of what their relationship looked like.
They’d started out side by side, both red cheeked and nervous, but once Adrien had gotten absorbed in the movie she’d leaned against his side and relaxed. This was where she belonged. It didn’t matter if they never kissed.
His arm comes up around her shoulder and he smiles down at her for just a second.
She gulps. She buries her face in his shoulder and hugs him around the middle.
He is definitely worth this torture, but torture it is.
He squeezes her. “Oh, it’s not that sad, is it, bug?”
He’s talking about the movie, but she nods anyway.
“Do you want to stop? We can watch something else?”
She shakes her head. She isn’t watching it anyway.
He hums and goes back to the movie. The only lines she notices are the ones he murmurs after the actors under his breath.
Over the course of the movie they slide down in their little nest of cotton until they’re nearly laying down.
When the credits are rolling she pushes herself up, hand on his chest, and she makes the mistake of getting caught in his eyes. She freezes.
He pushes a lock of hair behind her ear.
She can’t help but look at his mouth. He won’t begrudge her this, will he? Wanting?
He cups her cheek as she refuses to make eye contact. She won’t begrudge him this, will she? Wanting?
“Adrien I—“
“My Lady—“
“Kids!” Sabine knocks on the door. “Dinner’s ready!”
She doesn’t correct them. When her parents call them a couple, when her father calls him son. And sure, he understands, it’s easier than any other explanation for why they’re suddenly spending so much time together.
Still, he wishes she’d warned him about their cover story.