Double Date

Chapter One

Adrien Agreste, famous model and beloved citizen of Paris is also Chat Noir.

Chat Noir was one of Paris' superheroes, who saved the city daily along with his adorable partner, Ladybug.

Ladybug was cool, calm and collected (majority of the time). She is his lady, his bugaboo, his Princess ...

She was also the girl he is madly, desperately and obsessively in love with.

As with every fairytale, Adrien Agreste found out something rather (un)expected about Ladybug turning his world into a brightly coloured Picasso piece for his 'just a friend', Marinette Dupain-Cheng, was in fact the love of his life. His everyday Ladybug just happened to be the everyday Ladybug.

Adrien was a smart guy, he really was. But just because he was smart didn't always mean he made the best decisions. Just like on one random summer day when he decided to finally, finally, make his move on the love of his life.

Adrien
Hey Marinette, are you free Saturday night?

There was no guarantee she'd go for this. She never really went out of her way to meet with Adrien as just the two of them. Usually Marinette would have Alya with her, along with Nino and it would be more of a 'double date'. She seemed uncomfortable to be around him in her civilian form, and that, plus her continuous pushing away of Chat hurt, it hurt a lot. What about him did she hate so much?

So here he was, throwing out a line to see if he could hook her, then reel her in. Just one date. That's all he needed. One. Date. He would prove it to her. He would prove it to Marinette, to Ladybug, that he was worth taking a chance on.

His phone signalled a reply less than a minute after he'd sent the first message.

Marinette
Me? Yes I am. Any reason why?

Adrien
There's a restaurant near the Louvre I wanted to try. Would you like to come with me?

Marinette
Are you sure you want me to come? I think Kagami might be free on Saturday night too.

He let out a sigh. She was pushing him away again. Did she really dislike him that much?

Adrien
As cool as it would be to see Kagami, I kinda want to spend more time with you, we don't get a chance to hang out with just the two of us very often.

The thirty seconds between his message and her reply may as well have been a year. He could feel the sweat coating his palms and the tension in his mouth from clenching his teeth. All he wanted was one date.

Marinette
oh, ok. Well, in that case, sure. Thank you for inviting me.

Adrien pumped his fist in joy. Phase one complete.

Adrien
Excellent, Princess. Pick you up at 7pm?

Dancing around the room, Adrien whooped in disbelief. He, Adrien Agreste, was going out on a date with - hold on. He pulled his last message up and tensed. Princess? oh no!

"Plagg, Plagg!" Adrien shook his kwami off his pillow, waking him from a deep, cheese induced coma.

"What? What?" The kwami opened his large, green eyes and pursued the room, stopping on Adrien's face. "What's wrong with your face?"

"I've made a mistake," Adrien pushed one hand into his hair as he looked down at his phone. He was yet to receive a reply.

"A 'the world is going to end, if I don't fix it' mistake, or an 'I got carried away messaging Marinette' mistake where you may have compromised revealing your identity."

"Totally the second," Adrien commented.

His phone chimed with a new message, making him scream; high pitched and not at all manly. He threw it aggressively at his bed, watching it bounce around with Marinette's name on his screen.

"I can't do it!" He said, covering his eyes and reaching for his phone. "Plagg, you read it! Please!"

"I don't understand how you can be this much of a scaredy cat." Plagg huffed.

"Comes with the territory."

Adrien peeked through his fingers, towards his phone, as Plagg made his move there.

Marinette
Is Chat Noir with you?

Plagg laughed and flew away into the shelving which held Adrien's intense catalogue of blu rays and games, leaving Adrien to fend for himself.

"You're on your own, kid. Good luck when she finds out it's you."

"Traitor," he yelled at the retreating kwami before turning towards his phone. The screen was still lit up as he plucked it from his bed.

Adrien began to pace the room, stopping every few steps to begin typing. Shaking his head he would delete the bulk of what he'd written before pacing again.

"I could just say I like the nickname, and that it suits her ... no! That won't work."

He typed the next message out.

Surprise, I'm your kitty cat. DELETE.

Well if the ears fit. DELETE.

Do you want me to be? DELETE.

He kicked the trash can over, grateful for the three pieces of paper in there not actually making it out onto his floor. He walked to his sofa and slumped down on it. Fingers hovering over the keyboard he began to piece together his reply.

Adrien
He told me he called you Princess and I thought it was quite cute.

MESSAGE SENT.

Retreat! Retreat! Retreat! Why did he send that? Any normal person would have played dumb. They would have just text wondering why she was bringing up Chat Noir, not make it sound like they were best buddies.

Marinette
So, you know Chat Noir?

What does he say to that? Of course he knows Chat Noir, he is the master punster himself. But at the moment he's Adrien, plain boring Adrien Agreste, who has just asked a girl out on a date and accidentally led her into the danger territory of identity reveals. He needed to use his big brains and think.

Adrien
He visits me sometimes, and you were mentioned. He helped me gather the courage to ask you out on a date.

There. Fail aborted.

Marinette
A date?

Oh no! He never clarified in the first message that it was a date. Was she going to pull out now? He could feel the sweat prickling on the surface of his skin again, this was meant to be simple, easy almost. He shouldn't have listened to Nino, there was no guarantee Marinette wanted to go on a date, regardless of what his friend thought.

His phone lit up in his hand, taking his attention from the thoughts of murdering his best friend.

Marinette
A date sounds good, sorry, I was just a little surprised. See you Saturday night then?

Adrien
Yes, see you Saturday. I'm looking forward to it x

Marinette
Me too x

She was looking forward to it, and she'd sent him a kiss. He was going on a date with Ladybug and she was looking forward to it. He jumped onto his sofa with a successful 'Yes' before realising something rather crucial, he had no idea what to wear.