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It is a sunny spring day when Marinette decides to tell him
She writes him a note to show up under the large tree at school after the last class of the day. When the last school bell rings, her heart wrenches with nervousness as she walks to the tree with Alya, who's being supportive about everything as she always is. Marinette wish, wish, wishes she could back out of it already but she'd promised herself she'd do this. And if not now, then it would probably be never, wouldn't it?
Alya's giving her the same repetitive lines Marinette would have given her, were she in her place. Her words drown out in Marinette ears because all she can't focus on anything at the moment. She looks to the sky, big and blue and scattered with cotton white clouds, and feels the wind ruffle her hair.
The second they spot Adrien heading towards the tree, Alya squeals in excitement, gives her a few final reassuring words of encouragement and a thumbs up, leaving Marinette to herself.
With every step he's taking towards her, she feels like she's sinking, and she thinks of running away, but then it'd be completely useless and she'd be a bigger coward then she already is. So, she stands feet rooted in the ground until he's close enough, and when he greets her with a smile and a casual 'hi' she thinks of making up some sort of excuse but she's already too deep in. There are butterflies in her stomach and it feels like her heart's caught in her throat. But she manages to blurt it out, stuttering and face flushed red.
"I-I like you."
There's an expression of confusion or something on Adrien's face. It's probably pity, but she doesn't want to believe that because it would mean she'd failed before she'd even tried. And when he starts talking too (and he seems uncomfortable because he's blushing a bit, and Marinette would think it downright cute if she wasn't in the situation she was in), she wishes she could turn back time and start the day over again and never think about this moment again.
"Marinette, I-uh, you're a really nice girl and, uh, I really like you, too, but... there's someone else that I..."
(As he goes on, Marinette squeezes her eyes shut and hopes it not Chloe.)
In the end, when they're done talking and Marinette's still tripping over her words, face redder than a tomato at this point probably, they're just friends. He waves to her, smiling as he goes over to the white limo waiting for him, and she returns it.
When he's left, Alya comes over, wearing a smile that says 'well-it-could-have-gone-worse-but-I'm-proud-of-you-regardless' and offers they should go out for ice cream. Marinette manages a smile, and accepts. Alya knows how to cheer her up.
When they're sitting at the ice cream parlour, Marinette's ice cream doesn't seem to go down her throat, so she leaves it until it's reduced to a puddle of strawberry flavoured cream.
"You can cry if you want, you know," says Alya. "It's okay."
Marinette shakes her head.
"It's okay," she assures her.
But she doesn't feel okay.
"Marinette!" Tiki calls out, "It's about time for the nightly patrol! You should get ready."
Marinette continues to lie in bed, head buried in pillow, motionless. "Nngh, can't I skip it?"
"Well, you could," says Tiki, "but, what if something arises? You know how helpful these are."
Marinette feels Tiki come over and sit on her back. Her voice is gentler when she talks this time. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Tiki." Marinette gets up, looking her in the eye. "You were there. It went horribly."
"Well...I wouldn't say it went that bad." She settles on Marinette's shoulder. "But you've got to get over it at one point! And right now, Paris needs Ladybug to help it." She gives her a comforting pat. "It'll get better soon, I promise."
Marinette sighs, and gets off her bed. "Alright."
"Fashionably late today, my lady?"
Ladybug takes one glance at his face and decides it's enough. "Not in the mood today, Chat."
"Ouch." Chat jumps off the chimney he had been resting on. "Alright then, lead the way."
Soon, it's back to their regular routine, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, looking out for any suspicious activity, although this time the mood is unbearably quite. There's no small talk, no jokes, not anything. Perhaps it's because he's usually the initiator of all these, but this time Ladybug's mood makes it quite clear she isn't in the mood to joke around at all. In fact, she seems kind of sad.
Ladybug isn't the kind to talk about her personal life at all. They're partners, Chat knows. And every time they dive into battle together they're basically putting their lives into the others hands. They're a team. But they know virtually nothing about each other, and that upsets Chat, because she's one of the best things in his life right now and he doesn't even know about her favourite band, what movies she likes. Hell, he doesn't even know her favourite colour. Nothing.
When they stop halfway through for a break, Chat realizes they've gone a bit longer than they usually do, this time. They sit on the rooftop of some large house, feet dangling, and the uncomfortable silence weighs on his shoulders (he can't say the same about Ladybug, though. She's turned her face away from him, staring off into some distant spot in space.) Usually Chat would crack a joke and she'd give an exasperated sigh but he'd catch her smiling in the end. But as he leans forward to take a look at her, he sees her eyes are puffy like she'd been crying.
Crying.
He's never seen Ladybug cry before, and now that he has he's panicking a little about what to do. What is there to do? It's not like she'd share anything with him anyway.
But he tries anyway.
"H-hey, Ladybug,” he says, gently. “Are you...okay?"
She immediately wipes her eyes and looks at him. "Yeah, I'm fine, what do you mean?" she says, fast.
It's not exactly her best effort at trying to appear like nothing had happened, but it's obvious she doesn't wanna talk about it.
"I..." Chat starts, but he realizes he has nothing to say, so he lets the words fade to nothing.
She nods and turns her face away again.
A few moments later, because he's feeling pretty useless in a situation like this, he speaks up again. "Hey, you know we're partners right? You could talk to me about anything if you want."
"Chat," she turns towards him again, this time not even bothering to hide any evidence. "I really appreciate it but I don't really feel like it."
He nods, because he doesn't know what else to do.
"Well," he says getting up, "should we get going now, or...?"
He waits for an answer but gets none.
"I told him," she whispers under her breath.
"What?" He already heard her, he knows, but it looks like she's opening up now.
"I told him I liked him, oh my god." She buries her head in her hands. "I told him."
"Uh, pardon?"
She shakes her head. "Nothing, it's just...this guy in school. That I liked. I told him."
Chat sits back down. "And...?"
"And what?
"He didn't like you back?"
He can practically see her rolling her eyes behind her mask right now, even if she isn't looking at him right now. "Yeah."
"Well, he must be crazy to not."
Now, she turns her face towards him, meeting his eyes. "What?"
"Well, yeah, I mean, you're pretty much amazing. You're really smart, and cute and beautiful and, hm, basically the best thing in my life right now."
"This isn't exactly the best time to start flirting again, you know," she says.
Chat shrugs his shoulders. "Hey, just telling it how it is. He must be pretty stupid for not seeing that."
"He's not!" She defends. "He's actually a really kind person!"
Chat holds up his hands. "Alright, whatever you say."
Ladybug has never shared a single bit of her personal life, not even her birthday. But the fact she's confiding in him about this makes him feel pretty great.
He can't really tell, but he thinks she's smiling. Which really makes him happy. But nothing compares to when she leans her head against his shoulder, still staring out at the view, because it is then his heart starts beating like mad, because he's imagined a dozen scenarios in his head, and although she's probably doing this with a friend, he can't help but feel downright ecstatic about it.
"Adrien..." She sighs softly.
Chat's heart skips a beat. She probably didn't mean for him to hear that. No, she's sure she didn't at all. But he heard it regardless.
Adrien. His name.
"What?"
She lifts her head from his shoulder, and then gets up altogether. "Nothing. C'mon we should get going now."
"Adrien." It felt weird to hear her say her name. "I-is that his name?"
"Mm."
"Adrien?"
She shoots him a look. "So? Chat, what are you going to do? Stalk every 'Adrien' in Paris now?"
He can't help his hear hammering against his chest, but he tries to appear nonchalant about it anyway. "No, just curious." He gets up, too. "I think we've done enough today, so see you later!"
And before she can say anything about it he's already jumped off the house, and landed with a thud of his feet on the ground. As he runs further away, it dawns upon him that maybe she could have chased him. But she didn't.
Chat groans, burying his head in his hands. I shouldn't have done that, he thinks. I should not have done that.
When Adrien slips through the balcony and into his bedroom, transforming back to himself, he flops onto the bed, takes a nearby pillow and buried his head in it, groaning.
"Oh. Oh," Plagg starts. "Man, I knew you were unlucky, kid, but this goes just beyond it. This. This is just gold."
"Shut up," Adrien says, voice muffled from under the pillow.
"Okay, okay, but think about it," Plagg pushes. He takes a bite of the cheese he'd been saving for later, and speaks with his mouth full. "You rejected Ladybug. FOR Ladybug!" He swallows. "Ha! If that isn't the funniest thing I've heard in a while! Ha ha ha!"
"I said. Shut. UP!"
Adrien sits up and throws the pillow across the room, aiming for Plagg, but it misses, much to the kwami's delight. He sticks his tounge out. "Missed me!"
Adrien lets out a sigh of frustration, falling back into bed. "There...there could be other Adriens right? It's not like I'm the only one."
"Nah," Plagg replies, mouth full with cheese again. "Probary you." He swallows and flies over, settling next to Adrien on the bed. "I mean, how many other Adriens in Paris got confessed to today and rejected their crush-ee? And hey! Remember that time after you transformed back in the middle of fighting that weird, lightbulb Akuma guy? She saw you. And called out your name, when you were gonna get hit. Said she was a fan of your work when you asked her how she knew."
Adrien frowns. "That's not-"
"Hey, hey! now that you mention it, they do look sort of alike!" He takes another bite.
"They do not!"
"Black harr, blue eyesh." Swallow. "They're even the same height!"
It annoys Adrien that instead of reassuring him, as he should, Plagg's just making him feel worse. It's not like he expected anything else from him, though. He sighs. "I probably hurt her feelings."
"Probably? Man, the girl was practically bawling her eyes out!" Plagg's frustrating grin grows even wider as another thought occurs to him. "HA! Listen to this! You make Ladybug cry...and then comfort her! Comedy gold!"
Cat-like growl caught in his throat, Adrien makes a half-assed attempt to punch Plagg, who jumps away just in time. "Hey, lighten up, kid!" He flies forward, pushing his face directly in front of Adrien's. "At least you found out who she is, right?"
"Yeah, but, I didn't want it to end up like this!"
"Well," says Plagg, finishing off the cheese. "That's jusht your luck, kiddo!"
This time when Adrien throws another pillow at the Kwami, it hits Plagg right in the face.