Tandem

Chapter Four

The morning after the reveal was one of the happiest Adrien could recall.

He rose before his alarm, a slow smile drawing its way across his sleepy face as he stretched his way awake. His brain made no desperate demand for 'just five more minutes'. In fact, Adrien was downright chipper as he sat up in bed, nearly 45 minutes before his usual wake-up call.

Just enough time to get ready.

Adrien made a beeline to the shower, intent on making himself has presentable as possible.

Of course he looked presentable every day (that was just part of being an Agreste) but now there was a new sense of urgency to the practice.

'Its different now.' he thought, brushing furiously at his teeth. Wet hair tickled his ears with the frenzied motion. 'This time she knows it's me.'

True, Marinette saw Adrien nearly every day and had never complained about the way he put himself together.'Quite the opposite in fact' he recalled with a touch of smugness. But things had cosmically shifted between the two.

No longer was he Supermodel Adrien Agreste, able to make her swoon with just a smile alone. He was now Chat un-masked. An amalgam the two boys she had been chasing around both literally and metaphorically for the past 2 years.

And no longer was she just Marinette, his sweetly-shy classmate so blindly enamored with the glamourous notions she had about him. She was Ladybug, his devoted partner and perhaps the only person who knew him as a whole. As the combined sum of his two lives.

She was bold and inquisitive; Infinitely compassionate and dangerously gifted. She was Paris' most renowned superhero, able to pull of amazing feats of heroism on a near daily basis while still seamlessly blending in with crowd of regular teenagers when the mask came of.

To put it lightly, she was quite honestly the most incredible person Adrien had ever had the pleasure of knowing.

And needless to say, he had to step up his game if he wanted to capture (keep?) her attention.

Of course that was easier said than done it would seem. An hour's worth of work found Adrien still in his bathrobe, sitting cross-legged within his massive closet and on the verge of a complete breakdown. The entire contents of his wardrobe where scattered around him, piles of clothing he deemed not worthy of wearing around his Lady stacked up on the carpet.

Adrien let out a frustrated yell, flinging himself dramatically to the side with a defeated sigh. From his vantage point atop the armoire, Plagg groaned at his friend's over the top display. He flew down to land on Adrien's shoulder, lifting clumps of blonde hair to stare down the boy directly.

"You're making this much harder than it has to be. Dressing yourself is simple. Just put clothing on your body and walk out the door."

Adrien replied with another plaintive moan, rolling over as he draped a forearms across the bridge of his nose.

"I don't recall if I mentioned this to you or not, but I'll say it again just in case." Adrien enunciated excruciatingly. "Marinette is Ladybug."

"Yes, you might have clued me in on that once or a dozen times since yesterday." Plagg replied with an equal amount of snark. "What I don't see is why that has anything to do with what you wear to school."

"Oh you don't know anything." Adrien lamented, pulling himself up into a sitting position as he surveyed the piles of designer clothing stacked up around him. He glanced at the wall clock, nearly choking as he saw the time displayed. "And I don't have time to explain it to you!"