Adrien was twenty years old when he first became Chat Noir and met Ladybug. Four years later, amidst the toughest time of his college career, he meets Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
A College/Reverse Crush AU exploring what would happen if Marinette was fo...
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Ladybug inhaled sharply. Sitting cross legged on her bed, she curled into the most inconspicuous corner and rested her yo-yo on her thighs.
"Marinette!" she heard her mother call out. "Do you want me to make you some extra snacks for your patrol tonight?"
"No Mama! It's fine!" she yelled back in response. The first lie of the evening. True her parents had known about her secret identity for years (it was hard not to know considering the fact that, well, gunshot wounds were pretty tricky to hide) but she still didn't quite think they'd support her half-baked idea.
This wasn't going to be easy, but she had to try.
Her eyes glanced to her phone and, noting the time, she took another breath to steady her nerves. Chat should be starting his evening patrol around now, and he was fully expecting to visit Marinette afterwards. Unfortunately, there was someone else she had to spend time with first.
I can handle this. I am a mature adult. I am Ladybug and I- I am so screwed. Oh god I'm SO screwed.
What had she been THINKING?! Agreeing to go on a date with her akumatised friend? She'd spent ages afterwards half-hyperventilating, half desperately scrambling for any scrap of a decent plan she could think of.
Once again, she found herself on a new layer of thin ice, similar to the one she'd faced with Chat the night after Valentine's day all those months ago. Only this time, she didn't want the ice to crack, she didn't want to endure the fallout from it should this plan fail...
It seemed that every time she thought the lines blurred between herself, Ladybug, Chat and whoever he was behind the mask, something came along to tip the balance further off- to smudge said line with a damp cloth.
Even though they'd been partners for years, even though they loved each other dearly (in very different ways, she thought with a slight pang) there had always been a barrier between them. Ladybug and Chat. When they'd been younger the idea of Chat, twenty-year-old, gorgeous, ADULT Chat Noir, knowing her in all her awkward, sixteen-year-old glory had been horrifying. Chat himself, had always wanted to keep their relationship a mix between friendly and professional. As they grew, her maturity caught up with his and, especially after defeating Hawk Moth, their dynamic changed.
They became friends. Really good friends.
Even without the threat of Hawk Moth looming over their heads, both of them were afraid of taking that friendship further, of what revealing their identities could mean.
It was the great unspoken thing, the elephant trailing behind them whenever they patrolled together, reminding them of their cowardice. It was stupid, it was irrational, but it was their routine. It was theirs. And Marinette was messing with that routine every time she saw Chat as herself, every time she had to cover her blushing face during a patrol as memories of their romantic encounters awoke, unbidden in her mind's eye.
