Not Alone: A Miraculous Ladybug Story

Chapter 19

 The next night, Marinette lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. She had sent Adrien home from patrol the night before because he was dead on his feet. He assented without a fight, kissing her on the forehead with a yawn, and vaulted off into the distance. She said a little prayer that Plagg would keep him in one piece until he got home. A brief text a few minutes later assured her that he did, and she swung around a bit, doing a brief patrol of her own on her way home.

It was Saturday, so she hadn't seen Alya or Nino since yesterday, and both were curiously silent on the messaging front. She had received radio silence from Nino and only a brief "Talk tomorrow?" from Alya. Thinking maybe they needed their space to absorb everything that happened the day before, she gave them their space.

Adrien was less concerning. She glanced over at her wall adorned with his pictures and smiled, she'd taken a few down so it didn't look quite as obsessive, but a good third of her collage had survived. For fashion purposes, she'd lied to herself. Plagg had texted her back from Adrien's phone after the fourth unanswered message she had sent seemed more frantic. Apparently Adrien had slept all morning, woke up briefly to get Plagg some cheese, and then promptly fell back asleep. Plagg claimed to be wasting away from lack of food and had started to beg Marinette to bring sustenance.

She glanced at her watch. It was almost five. Surely Adrien was awake, and she could bring Plagg that camembert loaf she had promised. Energized with a plan, she darted downstairs to grab a loaf and put it in a bread bag.

She rushed back upstairs, taking them two at a time and closed the hatch to her room behind her. Hopefully her parents would assume that she was doing homework. Maybe I should tell them I'm going over Alya's?

She pondered this as she turned, and yelped in surprise, dropping the loaf. Perched in her window was a certain black cat, ears perked and tail swishing. She went closer and saw that he was quietly laughing at her.

She walked up to the window with a smile, and swiftly shut the curtains in his face.

"How'd you like that, Kitty?" she said to herself, with a smirk.

"That was pawfully rude, Purrincess," a voice from behind her said.

She shrieked again and turned to see him hanging upside down from the skylight above her bed. She picked up the loaf and threw it at him. He pulled out of the way at the last minute, and it sounded with a thud against the wall. He was a little too thoroughly enjoying catching her off-guard.

"Are you alright, honey?" Sabine, Marinette's mom, called from below and Marinette could just make out the sound of her feet heading upstairs.

"Fine, mom!" She assured quickly. "I just tripped. You know me!" she ended with an anxious laugh, waiting to hear Sabine's retreating steps. When she did, she turned on Chat.

"What's rude, Adrien, is sneaking up on me like that after not responding all day."

His face softened, and he dropped onto her bed releasing his transformation.

"Sorry Bugaboo," he rubbed the back of head nervously. "Guess it all just hit me."

"Yeah, Plagg told me. I was just about to come over actually. Apparently you were being very neglectful and letting him starve." she made a tsk tsk noise and walked over to pick up the loaf of bread. Grabbing a plate from her desk she had used for a croissant earlier, she placed the loaf on it.

"Bon appetit, Plagg!"

Plagg zoomed over and hesitated just above the loaf, looking over to Marinette.

"You're my hero."

She giggled and grabbed a few cookies from her secret stash for Tikki too. Her kwami looked at her and they shared an amused expression at Plagg's exuberance, before Marinette walked over to the bed and sat next to Adrien.

"Do you want to talk--"

"Can we just have a normal night?" Adrien interrupted. He pedaled back immediately, continuing, "Yes, I definitely do want to talk about it. Maybe tomorrow, and with Nino and Alya. And we obviously need to talk to my father too, but--can we pretend it doesn't exist for a while? Just for tonight?"

Marinete studied him carefully. "Okay," she agreed, suddenly nervous having a boy in her room with nothing pressing to talk about. "Erm, what do you want to do?"

"What were you going to do before I got here?" He asked as he looked around, but before she could answer he spun around and looked directly back at her.

"Actually," he strutted over to her desk, and posed against it, crossing his arms and leaning back in his signature move. "I do want to talk. About this." He nodded towards her wall and she felt her face flush crimson. He looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes and...

"Are...Are you smizing at me?" She asked incredulously, but the only description for his facial expression at that moment was a smize.

"Just demonstrating my irresisti-paw modeling powers. You seem meow-smerized by them." He wiggled his eyebrows, ruining the smoldering effect of his pose but throwing her into giggles.

"You're right, chaton. How ever can I resist such a seductive look and such sweet prose?" She exclaimed, throwing her arm over her forehead dramatically but really trying to hold in her laughter as he walked...no, prowled...slowly towards her.

Grabbing her by the waist, he pulled her closer and stole a kiss from her still laughing lips.

"But really," he pulled back. "What were you going to do before I got here?"

"Well, I was planning to come see you actually, but before that I was contemplating a Project Runway marathon."

"I've never actually seen it."

"WHAT?! But--but you're a model! Your family's in the fashion business, and you've never seen Project Runway?" She was shocked, but he just shrugged. She pushed him onto her bed and back against her headboard. Smirking to herself as she saw him gravitate towards her cat pillow, she quickly ran downstairs to get popcorn.

After grabbing a blanket and her laptop, she passed the bowl to Adrien, and settled in next to him spreading the blanket to cover them both. With the laptop balanced between them, she started from season one.

"Prepare for your life to be changed."

Hours later, Tikki and Plagg smirked, looking at their two charges who had fallen asleep with Marinette's head on Adrien's chest.