15. Mistletoe(2)

Adrien couldn’t speak. He was too busy blushing from the roots of his hair all the way down to his neck, terribly hot in his suit once again, even though Marinette still wore his jacket. He could only stare blankly at her, his mind broken, like a crashed computer system…but this didn’t seem to perturb Marinette, who laughed openly at his expression, leaning back and letting him stand on his own again.

“Come on. We’d better get going if we don’t wanna get back too late. Alya’s expecting me to text her before morning, and if I don’t, it’ll just be bad news for you.” Marinette got a few steps away before she seemed to realize that Adrien was not following her, his feet still rooted to the floor. She turned around, giving him a questioning look.

“…Adrien? You okay?”

“Yeah,” he replied at last, forcing the word from his mouth. He cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, I’m fine…”

Smiling, a hint of smugness to it, Marinette held out a hand for him.

“Then let’s go,” she said.

“Okay,” Adrien replied automatically, powerless to do anything else but take her hand, and let her lead him across the room before she suddenly paused.

“Ah…do you mind if I stop by the bathroom real quick? It’s a long drive,” she said sheepishly. Adrien bobbed his head stupidly.

“Okay,” he said again. The whole time, he could do nothing but stare at her back as she headed for the side hallway, feeling like a child compared to her sure steps, her confident strut.

She was dangerous, that Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

He just couldn’t believe he didn’t realize it until just now.

Marinette overheard a conversation she wasn’t supposed to hear while on the way to the bathroom. She had only been focused on relieving her bladder, but the sound of a familiar voice had snatched her attention, and she stilled in the hall, listening intently…

“…don’t know what kind of stunt you were trying to pull tonight,” snapped a crisp, clear tone that was unmistakable. “Are you trying to piss me off?”

Marinette’s eyes went to the double doors on her left, tensing automatically.

Who was Felix arguing with so heatedly…?

Marinette could just make out the cadences of another voice…but it was too muffled for her to distinguish words or tone. Frowning, because she knew she shouldn’t, but also knew that she was going to anyway, she stepped closer to the doors, careful about making noise with her heels.

“Don’t play dumb,” Felix replied, sounding closer to the door than Marinette would have liked, and she took a step back, biting her lip. If he suddenly left and caught her out here… “I know what kind of threat you pose. So let me make myself quite plain, because I’m only going to say this once: if you continue to get in my way, you will not like the consequences. Let that be a warning the next time you think about…intervening. Good night.”

Rapid steps began to approach in her direction, and Marinette yelped, hurrying to the bathroom across the hall for cover. She just managed to close the door behind her when she heard the doors opposite open, sharp steps fading away into the distance. Marinette waited, holding her breath, before she dared to peek out again.

The room opposite was a drawing room of some kind. Marinette cautiously stepped forward, scanning the dark room. Though there was a desk, furniture, and bookcases that someone could easily hide behind…she didn’t see any movement at all after a minute or two.

Then did whoever Felix was arguing with leave already?

And what had that argument been about? What did he mean about stunts and threats and consequences and interventions? What the hell had that been about…?

As much as Marinette wanted to stand there and puzzle over this…her bladder was not going to wait, and so, with one last scan of the room, she returned to the bathroom. She didn’t have time for this, Adrien was waiting for her.

She would ponder such a mystery when she actually had the time for it: later.

“Are you sure you’re good to drive back home? It’s pretty late.”

Adrien smiled. Marinette was too sweet.

“I’m fine,” he promised. “I’m more of a nocturnal person, anyway.”

Marinette frowned at that.

“You can’t be both a nocturnal person and a morning person,” she protested as they stood on the stairs of her townhouse apartment. “That makes no sense. It defies all laws of sleep patterns.”

Adrien snorted.

“Just because you have to sleep ten hours a day to be well-rested doesn’t mean the rest of us do,” he teased with a grin, and Marinette pouted at him.

“Oh just go home already,” she said, swatting him so that he moved down a stair or two.

“Okay, okay, I’m going, jeez,” he chuckled, shoving his hands into his pockets. “What time should I show up for dinner tomorrow? Or later tonight, I should say.”

Marinette pursed her lips thoughtfully as she retrieved her key from her purse.

“Hmm…I think six is okay. I’ll ask my mom and text you if it’s actually later,” she assured him. “You’re sure you’re okay to drive?”

“I’m fine, Mari,” he said once again, grinning at her. “Just go inside and get some sleep, okay?”

“All right.” Smiling a little, Marinette added, “Good night, Adrien.”

“Good night, Mari.”

Adrien reached the bottom step before he abruptly recalled something important.

“Wait!” He called up to Marinette, who jumped and froze in her movement of closing her door, blinking wide eyes at him as he climbed the stairs two at a time. “You almost forgot my Christmas present!”

“Oh…” Marinette glanced away from him. “Uh…wouldn’t you rather wait until tomorrow evening…?”

“After you kept me waiting all night? I don’t think so,” Adrien joked, but his smile left at the awkward look on Marinette’s face. “…You okay, Mari?”

“Oh…yeah. Okay, um…come inside where it’s warm while you wait, then.”

Adrien stepped inside Marinette’s apartment, curious eyes going everywhere immediately as Marinette closed the door behind him.

“Wait here,” she asked of him, kicking off her heels and gathering them and her skirt up into her hands as she marched up the stairs to the door that must lead to the open space that was her huge bedroom/seamstress studio.

As he waited, Adrien distracted himself with looking at Marinette’s apartment. He had never been inside before—well, yes he had, but only as Chat Noir. But he had never been downstairs before, and so he took in the living room, with its mismatched furniture, large T.V. and gaming console, both items looking like they were gathering dust, and he got a glance into the kitchen, spying only a small table sitting off to the side with two chairs, two sliding doors at the back probably leading to a small yard behind the townhouse or something. He had half a mind to move forward into the kitchen to check it out more fully when the door upstairs opened, and Marinette was returning, a box in her hands.

“Okay, here it is,” she said, lifting the box before she carefully slid it into Adrien’s grasp. “Do you want to open it now, or—”

She trailed off in a snort as Adrien eagerly tore through the cheerful-looking wrapping paper, feeling only marginally bad about ruining such a nice wrapping job, too eager to get to his present. Once he finally reached the top of the box, he made himself pause, savoring the anticipation for just a moment longer…and then he flipped the top off the box unceremoniously.

Inside…was something black. And red. Black and red.

Curious, Adrien seized the thing, Marinette helping him by holding the bottom of the box as he pulled the thing out—

It was a jacket. The body was made out of what felt like wool, the sleeves leather. The body was completely red, save for the black spots that dotted it here and there, and the sleeves were completely black, aside from the cuffs, which were wool again, and red with black sporadic dots here, too. Turning it to the back, he received another surprise: in black cursive letters, the words “Ladybug Man” dominated the back of the jacket.

His mouth was open, he knew. He just didn’t care. All he could do for several minutes was gape anyway.

After a while, Marinette sighed.

“You know, your silence is kind of scary,” she noted softly. That jolted Adrien out of his head, and he hastily lowered the jacket so he could see her face…which was resigned, for some odd reason…

“Sorry,” he apologized, grinning an awkward grin. “I don’t mean anything by being quiet. It’s seriously awesome, Mari, thank you.”

Marinette peered up at him, her expression unchanging.

“But?” She prompted. And Adrien sobered, because he knew it would be useless to lie to Marinette—she knew him too well at this point.

Sighing, he stared down at the back of the jacket, blushing a little at the words “Ladybug Man”.

“It’s really nothing about the jacket. I love it.” He glanced up shyly. “Uh…the timing’s just a little bad.”

Marinette blinked at him.

“What do you mean?”

Oh, did he really want to get into all this right now? It was very late…

But Marinette was looking up at him with such concern in her expression that Adrien knew it wouldn’t be right to brush her off, and so he sighed again, smiling a little.

“Well…I’ve never told anyone this before, so please don’t laugh, okay?”

“I won’t,” Marinette assured him, her expression solemn. Adrien took courage from that, his smile widening by a margin.

“Okay…so, for a long time, I’ve been in love with this girl. This girl that was way out of my league from day one, but still a girl I couldn’t help but fall for.” Adrien’s grin grew lopsided as he lifted the jacket for emphasis. “Three guesses for who I’m talking about.”

Marinette’s eyes widened, her lips parting slightly in surprise.

“Oh,” was all she said, and left it at that. Adrien didn’t know if her lack of comment was good or bad…but he just pushed on, wanting to get it all out now that the ball was rolling.

“Yeah. So, while I knew there was no chance with her, I couldn’t help but hope…but she rejected me, once a couple months ago, and again tonight, when the akuma attacked.” Adrien shook his head with a tight grin. “Should’ve seen it coming…but it still hurt.”

Marinette bit her lip, and Adrien hated to see her looking so worried for him over something so silly. Really, he hated it when she was anything but smiling, because it hurt him to see her hurting…it hurt him a lot, actually…

“Don’t worry,” he rushed to assure her, widening his smile. “I’ll be okay. I’m…not, right now, I guess. But I will be. Promise.”

“Well…okay…” Marinette reached up, squeezing his shoulder. “But don’t rush the recovery, okay? You’re allowed to be sad about something like this. A broken heart isn’t an easy thing to fix, so you should take all the time you need to heal.”

Adrien’s smile grew more genuine now. What had he done to deserve a friend like Marinette? Absolutely nothing—she was a literal angel, and he could not be happier that she chose to let someone like him back into her life. Honestly, he was so lucky to have her…

Moving forward, he slipped his arms around her, hugging her tight for a brief moment. It appeared to startle her; she stiffened in his arms for a second…but then she thawed, letting her arms circle him as well. Nothing needed to be said—all the communication was in the hug, and when Adrien finally pulled away, Marinette was smiling, which made him smile bigger in return.

“It’s an awesome jacket,” he enthused again, smiling down at his very own Marinette Dupain-Cheng creation. “I’m gonna wear it all the time.”

“You don’t have to,” Marinette protested, looking startled as Adrien shed his trench coat, right then and there in favor of the Ladybug jacket. “If you don’t want to wear it—”

“Wow, look how great it fits!” Adrien enthused, turning on the spot to pose, glancing back at Marinette. “How does it look?”

Marinette couldn’t help but smile, gathering the wrapping paper and discarded box from the floor, crushing the trash together in her arms.

“You look great,” she complimented him, giggling when he grinned at her.

“And I see it fits me exactly. Where’d you get my measurements from, Miss Dupain-Cheng?”

“You’re a supermodel, Mr. Agreste—your measurements are public knowledge in this industry.”

“Oh, right.” Adrien frowned briefly at that, turning around to face Marinette. “Well…maybe that’ll change soon.”

Marinette’s answering smile was dazzling.

“Do whatever makes you happy,” she encouraged him. She stepped forward, pushing the trash into his arms. “Now do me a favor and toss that out on the way back to your car.”

“Trying to get rid of me already?”

“It is very late.”

“That it is.”

Adrien obligingly stepped back outside, pleased to find that his Ladybug jacket was warmer than his trench coat. Clearly, Marinette had designed it with winter in mind. Useful.

“Well, good night, Mari,” he bade her, turning to give her a parting wave and a smile. “I’ll see you in the evening.”

“Don’t forget to bring your appetite,” she reminded him, a challenge glinting in her eyes. “You definitely won’t be able to eat more than me at dinner.”

Adrien snorted. It was a strange thing to be competitive about…but it was fun, so he wouldn’t complain.

“Yeah, we’ll see,” he replied with a wink. “Night.”

“Good night, Adrien.”

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, Adrien tossed the discarded box and wrapping paper in Marinette’s trash can as she asked, feeling domestic as he did so, like a husband taking out the trash for his wife. Snorting at himself, Adrien moved to his car, tossing his trench coat unceremoniously into the passenger seat. He paused before getting in, however, wanting to admire his jacket in his side-view mirror. He turned, grinning at the words etched into the back. He had said he was a Ladybug man, hadn’t he…?

Despite the bittersweetness of the night, he couldn’t get over how awesome the jacket was, patting it down, admiring the hand stitching and care that came with having a Marinette Dupain-Cheng original…

Adrien blinked, his fingers brushing against a tag near the collar of his jacket. Drawing it back, he spotted words sewn into the tag. He leaned over, squinting, moving further into the beam of a streetlight to read the tag:

‘A Marinette Dupain-Cheng Original, made exclusively for Adrien Agreste.’

Adrien felt himself warm, idle fingers touching the corner of the tag.

She…had bothered to sew his name into the jacket.

Made exclusively for him…meaning that she would never make another jacket like this again.

It was one of a kind, and it was Adrien’s, and Adrien’s alone.

Blood rushed to Adrien’s face. He glanced up at Marinette’s balcony, able to see light filtering through the curtains to her room. She must have hurried to make this, because he had mentioned just Monday that he was a Ladybug fan…did she push herself to finish it in time for Christmas for him? Why would she put herself through so much trouble just for him…?

“Because we’re friends, you dork.”

Adrien dropped his gaze, ruffling his hair, mussing it in his distraction. He stumbled off the sidewalk, blinking rapidly as he made his way into his car. And then he could only sit there and stare at the steering wheel for a moment, a revelation dawning on him so quickly that he was not prepared, only able to register shock—

Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no.

He couldn’t be sure, exactly...but the wild racing of his heart, the blush filling his face, the way his chest was constricting, as if it would burst from happiness—

“Fuck,” Adrien muttered emphatically, slamming his forehead into the top of his steering wheel and letting out a low groan.

He couldn’t be exactly sure…but he was about ninety-five percent certain that he was in serious trouble now.