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Before becoming Chat Noir, Adrien hadn’t really had a problem with dogs. Didn’t know how to interact with one, sure, but he also didn’t have anything against them. Now, though, he had . . . more of a problem. He still really didn’t have anything against them, but being anywhere near one made his entire body scream danger so fiercely that the first time it had happened he’d actually hissed at the dog in question. Thankfully, he’d been out as Chat Noir, so the nice lady who owned the dog had just chuckled as Adrien’s brain tried to catch up to what had just happened.
It hadn’t taken long for Ladybug to notice, and after a lot of laughing and some mild teasing, she’d eventually agreed to help maintain a respectable distance between him and any canines they came across. His Lady was amazing, of course, and for the next several months she handled each encounter so smoothly that Adrien fell in love with her just a little bit more.
Then there had been a dog-themed akuma. That had been a sideways sort of Hell, the battle lasting nearly triple of what it should’ve due to Adrien’s body screaming danger danger danger and his instincts constantly urging him to get far, far away, from the very big dog. Adrien had been something of a wreck afterwards, his entire body shaking and aching from the constant adrenaline as he huddled in Ladybug’s arms. Not for the first time, Adrien had been immensely grateful for his Lady, as she hadn’t hesitated to hold him and run her fingers through his hair and make stupid cat puns in order to help him calm down.
Since then, Adrien had been even more wary of dogs—even going so far as to cross the street to get away from one when out as a civilian, because lucky him, he had the same reaction to them even if he wasn’t suited up.
Which was why Adrien was trying to hide his slight panic at Alya’s latest activity suggestion for their friend group.
“C’mon, it’ll be so fun!” Alya exclaimed, grinning. “They’re sooo cute at this age!”
“I mean, I’m down,” Nino agreed.
“You’re just saying that to win points with your girlfriend,” Marinette teased, poking at Nino’s arm.
Nino shrugged. “So what if I am? It doesn’t mean that I’m not down for it, it just means that I’m totally into my girl.”
“Sap,” Alya laughed, gently smacking him. Then she pulled him into a quick kiss and Adrien looked away, feeling his cheeks heat. He loved Alya and Nino together, but he still didn’t really know how to react to PDA.
“What do you think, Adrien?” Marinette asked brightly. Adrien turned to her to find that she was looking up at him with a warm smile, her eyes sparkling.
Quickly shoving away stray thoughts about how beautiful his friend’s eyes were, Adrien briefly thanked whatever had helped Marinette to learn how to actually talk to him normally—her stutters had been kind of cute, but it was hard to be friends with someone you could barely communicate with—and then actually registered what she had asked.
“Oh. Um,” Adrien scratched the back of his neck, scrambling for what to say. “I don’t, uh.”
“You haven’t played with puppies before, have you, dude?” Nino asked, his expression lighting up. “It’s awesome!”
“It’s your first time?” Alya exclaimed. “I’m totally recording it, it’s gonna be so cute!”
“Anything with Adrien in it is cute,” Marinette said—then snapped her mouth shut, her cheeks going red.
That made Adrien’s brain stutter to a halt for a moment, but he decided to set the potential implications of that sentence aside as Alya sighed in agreement. “It’s so true.”
Nino coughed awkwardly. “Yeah, yeah, my bro is perfect. Now let’s get moving!” He grabbed Alya’s hand, pulling her down the sidewalk as she laughed.
Adrien stared after them for a moment as dread started curling in his gut.
This was not a good idea.
“Adrien?” Marinette asked, startling Adrien a bit. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Adrien reflexively answered. Then he paused, because no, the situation wasn’t exactly fine. It wasn’t the worst that it could be, all things considering, but it wasn’t the best, either. The time Adrien had to spend with his friends was limited, so he cherished every second of it, but this—he wanted to enjoy it, but Adrien knew that he wasn’t going to be able to.
But what could he do? Alya and Nino were so excited.
“Do you not like dogs?” Marinette asked, pulling Adrien out of his thoughts.
“I don’t dislike them.” He folded his arms, picking at the cloth of one sleeve. “I just don’t really . . .” He waved one hand ambiguously.
“Are you afraid of them?” Marinette asked gently. “‘Cause if you are, we could always do something else—”
“I’m not! Afraid, that is,” Adrien protested. “We don’t have to change anything, Alya and Nino are looking forward to this.”
Marinette scrutinized him for a long moment, and Adrien had to shake off the feeling that she was reading him like a book. “If you’re sure.”
“Positive,” Adrien gulped.
Another moment, then Marinette smiled. “Okay. We should probably get going, though, or else Nino and Alya are going to tire out the puppies before we even get there.”
Adrien forced a laugh. “Yeah.” Inwardly, though, he didn’t really oppose the idea.
Hopefully he’d be fine—they were just puppies, after all.
He’d be fine.
*****
Marinette kept stealing glances at Adrien as they made their way to the Puppy Playhouse. He didn’t look nervous, exactly, or scared, but something was definitely off. She’d been able to tell since Alya had first brought the idea of visiting the puppies up and Adrien had frozen like he’d been paused by Lady Wifi.
She didn’t say anything after her initial questioning, though, because if he was determined to go through with this, then she wasn’t going to stop him. And who knows, maybe it was actually just a general nervousness—it wasn’t like Adrien had gotten many chances to interact with dogs, much less baby ones.
Marinette, herself, wasn’t super enthusiastic about seeing the puppies. A year ago she would have been almost as excited as Alya, but after seeing how her partner was affected by dogs, Marinette’s affection towards them had cooled some. Not that she disliked them—she thought that little dogs were cute and that puppies were undeniably adorable, but now she’d take kittens over puppies anyday.
The front door of the Puppy Playhouse opened with a jingle that reminded her of Chat Noir’s bell, making her smile a little. She stepped inside, already scanning the place for Nino and Alya as Adrien hesitantly followed her in.
The Puppy Playhouse bought puppies of all types from Parisians who couldn’t take care of them (and who usually hadn’t meant to let their dog have puppies in the first place) alongside breeding chihuahuas and french bulldogs. They’d raise the puppies until they were old enough to be adopted, but until they actually got adopted, Parisians could pay to play with the older puppies.
After paying at the front desk, Marinette found Alya and Nino sitting in one of the many puppy rooms, grins on their faces as they played with four—no, five french bulldog puppies. One was standing on Alya’s lap, front paws on her chest as it tried to lick her chin. Alya ducked her head close enough for it to reach and giggled when it gave her a wet kiss.
Marinette smiled, waving a greeting at the employee who sat in the corner of the room, supervising with kind eyes. Then she stepped into the pen, plopping herself down so that the puppies could reach—and instantly, two of them came over to investigate her lap.
“They’re so cute!” Marinette giggled.
“Aren’t they?” Alya agreed.
“You gonna come in, my man?” Nino asked, and Marinette turned to see that Adrien was still standing in the doorway with an unreadable expression on his face. He was tense, Marinette noted.
“As long as you’re gentle, you can’t hurt them,” the employee assured. “And they might nip you accidentally, but they won’t bite.”
Slowly, Adrien made his way in. He hesitated before stepping into the pen, then sat down quickly next to Marinette, his back ramrod straight and his shoulders stiff as he eyed the puppies warily.
It was strange, Marinette thought, that he almost seemed to be reacting the same way Chat did around dogs—
A puppy enthusiastically launched itself at Adrien’s face. It didn’t actually get there—it was too small to actually get much air—but Adrien jerked back with a squeak, freezing as the puppy landed in his lap.
Alya and Nino burst out laughing, but Marinette was too busy staring at Adrien to join in. It was like a switch had flipped in her brain, and suddenly all Marinette could focus on was the way Adrien’s breathing had picked up, how his hands were shaking minutely and how his pupils had dilated—all signs of an adrenaline rush. But even more than that, it was the way that Adrien’s shoulders hunched and his back arched as he leaned away from the puppy that was setting off a dozen different bells of realization in Marinette’s mind.
Because in her mind’s eye, Marinette could see exactly how Chat’s ears would be pressed flat against his head, how his tail would arch along with his spine, and holy freaking crap that was him.
Adrien was Chat Noir.
As Marinette’s brain imploded, frantically connecting all of the clues that had dropped over the last year—how had she never seen it—Alya pulled out her phone, snapping some pictures of Adrien.
“You okay, dude?” Nino asked.
“Fine!” Adrien squeaked, staring at the puppy. “Um. What do I—”
“Here.” Alya tossed him a rope toy, and Adrien flinched as it bounced off his knee. “See if she wants to play tug-of-war.”
“She?” Adrien asked, making no move to pick up the toy. He was still breathing fast—though he was hiding it well—and his hands had balled into shaky fists.
“Her name is Shila,” the employee offered.
A puppy nudged Marinette’s hand insistently, so she absently started petting it, still staring at Adrien. Staring at Chat Noir.
“Ah,” Adrien responded lamely. He tentatively reached out to touch the puppy but jerked back at the last second, flinching.
Marinette glanced at Alya and Nino to see if they’d noticed, but they were focused on their own puppies.
Then one of the puppies that had been investigating Marinette decided to investigate Adrien instead—and as the second puppy started climbing on Adrien’s legs, he went absolutely rigid.
Three seconds later, a low rumbling that sounded kind of like a motorboat engine started, and Marinette silently cursed. Normally she loved Chat’s purrs, but this wasn’t a happy purr, this was a distressed purr, and while he was detransformed, no less—which meant that he was really freaked.
Nino glanced around the room with a puzzled expression, obviously hearing it, so Marinette launched into action.
“I need to talk to Adrien for a moment!” she blurted, quickly detaching the puppy from her lap. Before anyone could respond she was scooping the puppies off of Adrien and pulling him up, guiding him to step out of the pen and then through the door. She barely caught Nino’s confused, “Huh?” before she was dragging Adrien out of the store, down the sidewalk and into a convenient alleyway.
Adrien was still purring, and as soon as he seemed to realize that Marinette was no longer dragging him he curled in on himself, one hand pressed over his mouth in an attempt to muffle the purr as the other one fisted in his hair. His eyes were screwed shut as his chest heaved, and Marinette’s heart broke a little.
“You stupid cat,” Marinette murmured heatlessly. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, she pulled her partner into her arms, guiding them both to sit on the ground. She started murmuring reassurance, combing her fingers through his hair and scratching where the base of his ears would be if he were transformed. It all very obviously identified who she was, but Marinette decided that she didn’t care. She knew his identity; it was more than fair that he knew hers.
Although she was definitely going to have a Chat Noir is Adrien Freaking Agreste freak-out later. But right now, her kitty needed her.
Eventually Adrien’s purring started to get quiet, then tapering off altogether as his breathing finally slowed to normal. He remained slumped against her with his face buried in her shoulder, though, so Marinette continued her murmurs and the petting.
Eventually, Adrien shifted slightly. “. . . M’Lady?” His voice was muffled by Marinette’s shoulder, but not enough that Marinette couldn’t pick up on the confusion in his voice. Which was understandable, all things considering—he probably still hadn’t connected Ladybug to Marinette.
“It’s me, mon chaton,” Marinette answered, pulling him a bit tighter against her for a few seconds as a sort of hug. Adrien made a noise of confusion, but Marinette continued, “And you are a very stupid cat. Playing with puppies? Really?”
Adrien groaned. “I just didn’t want to—” He froze, his mind obviously catching up with what was happening.
“To what? Let Alya and Nino down?” Marinette filled in lightly. Her heart was pounding in her chest, because Adrien was figuring out what was going on and that meant that he was figuring out who she was—
“Marinette?” Adrien asked breathlessly. He started to pull back, and Marinette let him, her stomach flipping with nerves.
Then Adrien was looking at her, his eyes wide, and Marinette could practically see him connecting the dots.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Adrien said in disbelief.
Marinette flinched back, all her self-doubts rising strong and fast—but Adrien lunged forwards, grabbing her hands.
“Not about you!” Adrien backtracked. “I’m ecstatic that my Lady and my Princess are actually the same, amazing girl, but we’ve been right under each other’s noses the entire time??”
Relieved, Marinette laughed. “Apparently. And you—” she booped his nose, which made his cheeks go red and oh, she liked that, “—gave it all away because you thought it was a good idea to play with puppies.”
Adrien winced, ducking his head. “Sor—”
“Nope,” Marinette said, covering his mouth. He blinked at her in surprise. “No apologizing. What’s done is done, and honestly, I’m more worried about you. Because again, puppies.”
Adrien gently pulled her hand away from his mouth. “I’m fine now, I promise. But—you aren’t mad? You’ve always been so insistent that we protect our identities.”
Marinette sighed. She had, but . . . “I’ll be honest, I’m a little bit scared that we know each other’s now, but in reality . . . well, that rule was always more the Guardian’s than mine. And besides, what’s done is done. It’s not like we can undo it.”
“The who’s rule?” Adrien asked, frowning.
Marinette blinked. “The Guardian—Master Fu. He protects the other miraculouses, and he’s the one who chose us to wear ours. You seriously didn’t know about him?” When Adrien shook his head, Marinette scowled. “Right, we’re fixing that. You’re my partner, you should know these things.”
There was a beat of silence, then a goofy, distinctly Chat smile spread on Adrien’s face. “You’re Ladybug.”
Marinette raised her eyebrows at him. “I noticed.”
“Sorry, but—you’re my Lady, and my Princess. And I called you our everyday Ladybug.” He was giggling, and Marinette rolled her eyes.
Then a stupid, crazy idea popped into Marinette’s head, and if she hadn’t started falling for her feline partner over the last few months, she would’ve never followed through with it.
But she had, so she did.
Marinette leaned forward, pressing a kiss onto Adrien’s lips. It was warm and soft and utterly chaste as Adrien had gone still in surprise, but it was wonderful—it felt right.
After several long moments, Marinette pulled away—and then it was her turn to giggle, because Adrien looked completely floored.
Adrien.exe has stopped working, please reboot Marinette narrated silently.
“Aw, c’mon, Pigtails,” a scratchy voice complained. “You broke my holder.”
“Plagg!” Tikki exclaimed, and Marinette looked at them just in time to see Tikki smack the black cat kwami on the head. “They were having a moment!”
“Moment, shmoment, I want my cheese!”
Apparently Plagg had trained him well, because at those words Adrien reached into his inner shirt pocket and produced a piece of camembert, which Plagg eagerly snatched. Adrien still looked dazed, so Marinette leaned forward quickly to drop a kiss on the tip of his nose.
Adrien made a strangled noise, and Marinette bit back a grin. This was fun.
“Marinette,” Tikki chided, but there was amusement in her voice.
“Do I need to slap you to get you working again, kid?” Plagg asked Adrien.
Adrien shook his head, scrunching his eyes closed for a moment. “I—no. I’m good.” Then he opened his eyes—and made eye contact with Marinette.
His face went bright red.
Marinette couldn’t help it; she snickered. She climbed to her feet, then offered a hand to her partner. Boyfriend? They’d have to talk about that.
Adrien stared at her hand for a moment before accepting, then stumbled as she pulled him up.
“We should get back,” Marinette said. “Alya and Nino are probably wondering where we are.”
Adrien nodded, then grimaced. “Do—”
“We’ll wait outside,” Marinette assured him. “I’ll text Alya—though, they might be looking for us already.” She laced her fingers with Adrien’s, then led them back out onto the sidewalk, the kwamis zipping back to their respective hiding spots.
True to Marinette’s prediction, Alya and Nino were outside already, expressions concerned as they scanned the sidewalks. Alya saw them first, and her gaze narrowed in on where Marinette and Adrien were holding hands.
Whoops.
“What did you do?!” Alya exclaimed excitedly, bounding over like a bloodhound, Nino hot on her heels.
Adrien’s face went red again, making both Alya and Nino gape.
“What do you think I did?” Marinette asked slyly, pulling Adrien closer to her so that she could go on tiptoes and rest her chin on his shoulder.
She hadn’t thought it was possible, but Adrien went even redder.
Alya let out an unholy screech of excitement. Nino winced at the volume, but he was grinning. “Congratulations, dude and dudette! It’s about time!”
Adrien sputtered. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, turning to Marinette with wide eyes.
Marinette smiled at him. “Well, I might’ve had a crush on a certain blond model for the longest time. Although,” she lowered her voice so that Alya and Nino wouldn’t hear the next part, “I was falling pretty hard for a certain cat, too.”
Adrien gaped, but then his stance changed, some of his Chat Noir suaveness finally coming through. He turned to face her fully, arms looping around her waist as he bent down to kiss her.
Marinette reciprocated, purposefully ignoring Alya’s even louder screech and Nino’s emphatic “YES!”
When they finally came up for air, Marinette pressed her forehead to Adrien’s, her heart racing. She never could have fathomed what had just happened happening, not in her wildest dreams.
Thank goodness for puppies, she supposed.