Parenting Assignment (Miraculous Ladybug)

Chapter 9

"What?"

"What!"

"Did you just call me-"

"No!" Adrien shot his arms up in front of him and began waving them around frantically.

A cold sweat was starting to form on his forehead, realizing that he had let his Chat out the moment the words had left his mouth. What was he supposed to do, what was he supposed to say? The only thing he could think of was to stare back at her shocked expression in complete fear.

Marinette on the other hand was wide-eyed. Never had she ever expected those words to come from Adrien's mouth. 'Puur-incess,' wasn't that Chat's nickname for her? The name itself sounded a lot more natural coming from the flirty Chat rather than her sweet and innocent Adrien.

"I-I said, shall we go, Marinette."

"No, you didn't," she replied flatly.

What was up with Adrien, she knew for a fact that he just referred to her by the nickname Chat had given her as Marinette the one time they worked together. But what was confusing her the most at that moment was Adrien's reaction. It was almost as if he was...was...hiding something.

"Ok, you caught me," he stuttered, straightening up as his body visibly calmed down, "it looks like the cat's out of the bag. I haven't told anyone else this before, you're going to be the first to know. You have to promise not to tell anyone, ok?"

Marinette nodded.

Adrien took a deep breath. "You see, I'm actually..."

Marinette cocked her head, waiting for what he would say next. 

"I'm actually a really big fan of Chat Noir!" He blurted out.

"Oh, so that's it." Marinette replied, seemingly unimpressed as she turned her head to the side.

He almost missed it, almost. The very obvious yet familiar roll of her eyes which she tried to hide by turning her head. It looked out of place coming from Marinette, but at the same time so very normal. But where, where had he seen it before?

"Just as a word of advice," Marinette interrupted his thoughts, "Chat Noir probably isn't the best role model for you to look up to."

Adrien stiffened, getting a little defensive.

"Why not? He really cares about the people of Paris and does everything he can to help them."

His words came out a little more demanding that he wanted, but Marinette didn't seem to notice.

She waved her hand. "That's not what I meant. Those qualities of him are admirable, but the rest of him..." she trailed off.

"The rest of him what?"

"Well, to be frank, he can be pretty annoying."

Adrien held back a cry of pain as Marinette's words shot into his heart like an arrow.

"A-annoying how...?" He asked, gripping his wounded chest.

"For starters," Marinette drawled, holding up her fingers as she numbered off her points, "he's so cocky and full of himself, and his flirting is irritating."

Adrien could feel two more stabs of pain slice through him. Was Marinette trying to crush his spirit? Since when did she hold such a resentment towards Chat anyway? From what he could recall, she was barely able to contain her excitement when she got the chance to work with him during the Evillustrator incident.

"And then there's his puns-"

"Wha- hey! What's wrong with his puns!" Adrien cut her off. "I think they're hilarious!"