Dearly Despised, (I love you)

Glaciator (Part 1)

A/N Look how excited you guys are i can just see it 

the way i stalled writing this chapter cos wowwww figuring out how to redo the iconic glaciator episode for the AU was a mental challenge. AND THEN the chapter just kept going bc Marichat (unlike the show) loves their screen time in this fic apparently. So i gotta split it and even this is pretty long so ENJOY 

-

Months ago, if you told Marinette that she would reject a date with Chat Noir to go on a triple date with Adrien, she probably would've turned over her miraculous because no one with that limited number of brain cells should ever be deemed sane enough to take care of Paris.

But in the present, there were new stakes; new lies; new gut-wrenching acts of tarnishing morale where she had to give a tight-lipped smile to Alya agreeing to look for André's sweetheart ice cream that evening beside her "boyfriend" Adrien, and the other happy couples.

And if Marinette and Adrien had any similarities, it was their unreliability.

Marinette had her excuses—being an overworked superhero and all that jazz—but just had a big celebrity schedule and no backbone to stand up to his father. A shocker that was because he had no trouble acting as if he had balls when it came to giving her a piece of his mind. Nonetheless, that first day they met when she accused him of doing as he pleased being a result of nepotism hadn't escaped her. It was etched deep like an explicit carving with reckless linework into her memory – that bone-chilling tone when he told her to "never bring up" his father again wouldn't be forgotten, and likely, it was the climax of his simple desire to prank and pester her sharpening to fine hatred.

For months she assumed the outburst was a trigger from finally being called out; that maybe he liked to believe he achieved his status, popularity, and conceitedness out of his own hard work, and he ran away as the token famous-kid rebellion act. But the other day her world spun on its head and she learnt too much about him: He was a shackled animal that craved an escape from whatever fancy doghouse booked him five appointments a day (aka a home-schooled kid that had never been to the movies).

Either way, it still held an explanation for the ill-manneredness of Adrien Agreste.

And she wasn't about to be thrown in the same boat. She'd raised enough suspicions about her relationship with Adrien and Alya had been insisting they go on a date to 'rekindle the fire' they once (never) had - since there was no evidence of Adrien and Marinette hanging out by themselves on purpose. Romantically.

So she promised Alya she'd go with the group of actual lovers, and she would not be the one that would continue her flaking-streak unless hero duty called. Especially if inevitably, Adrien would get stood up and she'd be the terrible girlfriend who, that time, actually had no excuse – as much as Chat's doe-eyed plea was just about a pretty good one.

"So uh, Ladybug. What would you say if you and I met up for... a little dinner. Rooftop style."

No. No. No. No!

Well, yes (multiplied by a thousand) but no! Why tonight?! As if she hadn't dreamed of him asking her questions along similar lines like, "for a date?", and "by the way do you want to get married?".

"Dinner?" She hoped he didn't hear her heart jumping up her throat. "As superheroes?"

"Yeah, that's right. We're only with each other when we're saving Paris." As he let people off the bus they'd just caught from crashing, he grinned brilliantly. "I mean, wouldn't you actually like to get to know each other better?"