Adrien watched, bemused, as Marinette utterly deflated beside him. Her shoulders slumped, her eyes (had they always been so blue?) filled with tears, "T-two days?" she stammered weakly, avoiding his gaze, "but ... how-how are we going to pull this off?"
He kept his own jittery nerves in check, fishing his phone from his pockets. "Hold on, I'll check with Natalie to see if she can do something." Typing a quick text explaining their awkward situation, he glanced back at his upset friend, sighing dejectedly, "Look Mari, I know the situation isn't ideal, and you probably aren't looking forward to spending two entire days with me, but if it comes down to it, I'm sure we can figure something out so I'm as little a nuisance to you as possible."
Horrified, Marinette suddenly flailed, bringing his own arm into an uncomfortable pull, "Whoa, whoa! Where did that c-come from? Why-why would you think you'd be a nuisance to me? I enjoy spending time with you!" she squealed out so fast that Adrien had troubles figuring out what she had said.
Surprised by her statement, he stared at her, "You do? Cause this whole handcuffs thing seems to upset you a lot, and I really liked my afternoon with you, so it's not that bad."
Marinette finally found the courage to look at him in the eyes, and smiled warmly, "Nah you're right. Sorry. I-I tend to overthink everything, and I might have a slight anxiety problem."
Adrien's phone rang at that precise second, and his eyes widened considerably upon seeing the caller, "Ah... It's my father, I have to take this."
As soon as he pressed the green button on the screen, Marinette could hear Gabriel Agreste's stern voice blaring through the speakers, " You were supposed to be home by now, where are you, Adrien? And what is this nonsense about getting handcuffed with some girl?"
The young man looked at his friend warily, but she was still smiling at him, not taking offense of his father's harsh words. He mouthed "Sorry" toward her, and then cleared his throat, "It's as I texted Natalie, Father. There's been a mishap with some artifact, and we're attached together until some specialized locksmith frees us, on Tuesday morning."
They heard the older Agreste grunt on the other side of the line before replying dryly, " How inconvenient. Obviously you'll have to skip fencing, but we can't reschedule tomorrow's photoshoot. We'll have to work around this ... little problem. I'll have Natalie see if she can find someone to do the job earlier. What do you plan to do in the meantime?"
Adrien looked at Marinette expectantly, and she sighed, defeated, "I'm guessing we'll have to sleep at each other's place. Can you come at my place tonight? I have to explain this mess to my parents, and we could go to yours tomorrow."
"Sounds reasonable, miss-?"
"Marinette," Adrien provided, "she won a few of your contests."
" Ah, yes. Well, then, Natalie will keep you updated should she manage to get you out of this ... situation sooner than those museum incompetents. I hope you're aware that I'm not pleased at all, Adrien."
The young man cringed, before answering, "I expected as much, father. I'm sorry for the inconvenience."
The call was disconnected, and Marinette stared at her friend, gaping. "Wow. That was ... something."
Adrien shrugged, smiling dismissively. "Don't mind him. He can be cold sometimes."
The young woman nodded, trying to repress the feeling of wrongness pooling in her stomach. Was that something Adrien had to go through on a daily basis? Did anyone provide any warmth in his life at all?
Her unpleasant thoughts were cut short by Nadja coming back to retrieve her daughter and apologizing profusely to the imprisoned pair on Manon's behalf. After assuring her many times that there was no harm done, and that neither of them held a grudge, Adrien and Marinette decided to start the awkward trek to the Dupain-Cheng bakery.
Sadly for Marinette's nerves that were already skyrocketing, they soon figured that the less awkward way of walking side by side was to hold hands. As they walked, she tried to force her brain to focus on his words, and not on the pleasant sensation of his warm hand firmly holding hers.
How many times had she dreamed of that precise moment?
Granted, in her dreams he was holding her hand on his own accord, and not because it made their predicament easier to bear, but it was close enough.
Adrien was chatting cheerfully about everything and nothing, and she listened politely, nodding and humming her answers, up until she picked up on a particular sentence.
Eagerly, the blond had smiled at her, "So, this is my first time spending the night at a friend's. Is there anything I should know beforehand?"
Marinette stopped dead in her tracks, tugging on their joined hands, "What do mean? You never had a sleepover before?"
He shook his head sheepishly. "I... I never had many friends, so all I know about sleepovers is what they show in movies. And I mean, I'm not against braiding your hair and painting your nails, but it might look a bit messy."
The same unpleasant feeling she had felt upon hearing the cold, impersonal tone his father had used to address his very own son pooled in her stomach, and she gaped at him. "This ... this is unacceptable. We must remedy this right now!"
Adrien laughed at her horrified antics, and led the way toward her house, "Well then, teach me how to sleepover properly, senpai."
At that moment, the odd pair reached the bakery's door, and Marinette paused on the threshold, taking a deep breath. "So, the thing is, girls and boys don't usually do sleepovers together, it's considered inappropriate. My dad might not be too thrilled with the idea, but don't worry too much, he's basically a big teddy bear."
He nodded, looking at her a bit warily. Marinette visibly braced herself and pushed the door open, tugging him along. As soon as they were through the door, her mother squealed happily, "Marinette! Adrien! What a pleasant surprise! Are you staying for dinner, dear? A teenager like you needs to eat a lot to cope with the growth spurts, I'd love you to try what we're having tonight. Are you coming to play video ga-Are those handcuffs?"
Marinette froze, holding both of their hands up with a sheepish smile, "Um... Manon kinda played with valuable artifacts at the museum? And they can't cut us free?"
To both teenagers' surprise, Sabine burst out laughing. "Oh gosh, Marinette, these kinds of things only ever happen to you," she managed to say in between laughs, "Tom, come and see what mess our lovely daughter has gotten into this time."
The imposing man exited the kitchen, a wide grin on his face upon noticing their little problem. "You know, son, if you liked our lovely daughter that much, all you had to do was ask. You didn't have to put her under lock and key."
"DAD!" squeaked Marinette, red as a fire truck.
Adrien felt his own skin burning, so it wasn't too far-fetched to assume his complexion must match hers. He reached for her hand and squeezed her fingers comfortingly, a gesture that didn't escape her parents' eyes. Luckily for them, they were done with their teasing, and Sabine sent them upstairs to check on the cooking dinner.
Once they were safely hidden behind the apartment door, Marinette rested her forehead on the wall, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably. Concerned, Adrien asked tentatively, "Hey, are you okay?"
This was more than the young woman could take. She broke down in stitches, laughing so much she had to clutch her ribs with her free hand. "This ... this ... is ... ridiculous..." she managed to choke out in between her laughs.
Adrien gaped at her for a second, before joining in. She was right: the whole situation was simply ridiculous, far from the drama his father evidently thought it to be, far from the nerve-racking mess they had both considered it to be at first. Her parents' lighthearted reaction was a breath of fresh air and had cast a new light on their predicament.
After all, he thought to himself, if he could defeat akumas on a weekly basis, he could handle spending two days with a cute classma-where the hell did that come from?
Marinette distracted him from his wandering thoughts, showing him how to tell if the rice was properly cooked, and explaining how a slow cooker and a rice cooker worked. "My mom loves those," she said, "because they allow her to cook dinner safely and still help Papa downstairs."
Tom and Sabine joined them shortly after, and they all took a seat at the table with joyful banter. Dinner was spent in a comfortable conversation, Adrien and Tom happily exchanging pun after pun while an annoyed Marinette kept toying with her food. After a while, the blond noticed that she had barely eaten at all and inquired, worried, "Is everything okay, Mari?"
Surprised, the young woman's eyes widened, "Oh! Um, yeah, why?"
"You almost didn't touch your plate," Adrien pointed out, raising a curious eyebrow.
Marinette spluttered, blushing deeply, "I-um, I can't use chopsticks."
Biting back a laughter, Tom said, "What do you mean, cupcake? You've been eating with chopsticks ever since you were in diapers. What's wrong?"
Marinette's blush intensified, and for a second, Adrien felt sorry for his friend. She raised her right hand, bringing his up in the motion, "Yeah, with my good hand. I'm as far as can be from being ambidextrous, and those stupid chopsticks refuse to cooperate."
Her pout was adorable, honestly, and Adrien smiled at her, "Do you want me to help you? I lucked out, I still have my good hand free."
Marinette was now a shade of red he honestly didn't know existed. She squealed, hiding her face in her free arm. That's the moment her father chose to take pity on his offspring, and handed her a fork, still obviously trying (and failing) to suppress his laughter.
The remaining of the meal was without any further embarrassing incidents, even considering Tom's hopelessly shaking shoulders, indicating that he still found humor in the teenagers' unfortunate situation.
Once Marinette had finally managed to eat properly and Adrien was full to his contentment, the young woman looked at him slyly, "Sleepover noob, and model on a ridiculous diet. I guess you never made popcorn?"
It was Adrien's turn to blush this time, admitting reluctantly, "Save from the stuff you can buy at the theater, I never had any popcorn, no."
Unbeknownst to him, Marinette was currently really busy giving herself a serious pep talk. If she had to spend the following two days in close quarters with her long-term crush, she was going to make the most of it, or she wasn't Ladybug! " Come on, Marinette ," she internally chastised herself, " you're a superheroine. You can do this. Just imagine you're talking to Chat Noir! You can talk to him just fine! "
Pulling some corn kernels from the pantry along with fresh oil, Marinette somehow managed to get her anxiety in check and stated in a voice way more assured than she felt, "Okay, so the first step is to heat the oil in the wok."
He blanched, looking at her with bedazzled eyes, "We're really doing it from scratch then?"
Marinette chuckled, gently nudging him, "Well, yeah? What did you expect?"
She dropped a few kernels in the pan, smiling, "Now we wait for them to pop."
They fell in a comfortable silence, both of them carefully watching over the heating pan, Adrien absentmindedly searching for her tied hand between them. He unconsciously clasped it, neither of them willing to mention that, despite the unexpected weirdness of it all, there was something also comforting about it.
Seconds later, the few kernels she had dropped into the pan popped, prompting an over eager young man to squeal inelegantly, "They popped! Mari! They popped! Now what?"
She smiled, adding a handful of kernels to the wok and moving it out of the fire. "Now, we wait about thirty seconds so the heat is distributed evenly. Then we put it back on the burner, and enjoy the fireworks."
Waiting those thirty seconds might have been the hardest thing to do in Adrien's life just yet. For, in those thirty long seconds, he had nothing better to do than to stare at his friend.
Honestly, had she always harbored magnificent blue eyes like that? Had her lips always held that rosy, plump look? Had she always looked that pretty, yet unabashed? So kissable?
A string of loud "pops!", followed by the cutest squeal ever on her part tore him away from those unholy thoughts. Marinette poured the popcorn in a wide bowl, grinning at him shyly, "There we go! Your very first homemade popcorn!"
He smiled at her absently, the same smile he reserved for photographers, one that was a reflex, not a genuine one. He was still trying to process her smile, the way it unexpectedly turned his insides to jelly as she poured a lot more butter and salt into their snack than his dietician would've deemed reasonable.
The trek to her bedroom was surprisingly easy, given their predicament. They managed to make it up the stairs and through her trapdoor without breaking anything or losing precious popcorn.
They sat side by side on her chaise and Adrien carefully set the miraculously spared bowl of popcorn on the floor. "Okay, now what? Is this the part where I braid your hair?" Adrien asked, chuckling.
Marinette sighed, looking at him dejectedly, "Usually we would change into our pajamas, and yes when I do this with Alya she often plays around a bit with my hair while we watch a movie but-"
"Great! Let's do that!"
His enthusiasm was cute, Marinette had to admit, but they still had a tiny problem.
"Okay. How?" she deadpanned, gesturing to their bound hands.
"Oh. Um. Right."
Marinette rubbed her temple with her free hand, sighing pensively, "No, wait, there must be a solution. I can just undo the stitches on the seam beneath your locked arm, and sew something clean on you tomorrow morning. I have a few works-in-progress that would fit you, and redoing the seam on your t-shirt is a matter of minutes. Yeah, that could work."
Adrien watched, amazed, as the gears seemingly clicked in his friend's mind in an oddly familiar manner, and listened, amused, as she continued to ramble to herself, "Actually, even better, I could sew buttons on the side of those, so you'd be able to get in and out of it without troubles tomorrow, and-"
"What about you?" he asked, genuinely curious.
Her attention snapped back to him, and she blushed, "I have a few halter tops that will do the trick, but undoing the seam on my own shirt with my wrong hand will take longer. I'll just do it while we watch the movie, that's no big deal."
"Just show me how, I'll do it."
A choked out agreement and a mental pep talk later, Marinette found herself kneeling beside Adrien, repeating like a mantra in her mind, "That's fine. Imagine that this is Chat Noir. You have no problem touching Chat Noir, right? This is no different."
With Adrien's patient cooperation, the seam of his familiar white overshirt came undone under her expert fingers within minutes, and his black t-shirt quickly followed the same path. The only thing keeping Marinette from self-combusting at the sight of the blond model standing in her bedroom clad in only his jeans and socks was focusing on his technique as he in turn removed the stitches of her jacket, quite efficiently for a first timer albeit slower than she had been.
When he moved onto her t-shirt with an apologetic smile, she crossed her arms in front of her, holding the fabric covering her chest. Both of them were beet red by that point, the awkwardness of their situation far from lost on them. At last, the last stitch surrendered under Adrien's steady attack, and he drew back as much as the handcuffs allowed him.
"Okay, do you have something to cover my eyes? While you change? I... I wouldn't peek, but I kinda want to survive should either of your parents come upstairs right now."
"...Right." Imagine it's Chat. It's just your silly kitty, nothing to see there! "Um, there's a scarf on my desk, could you grab it because..." she trailed off, unsure of what was more ridiculous: being flustered at the sight of some skin she had previously seen plenty of times in magazines, or clutching at her shirt for dear life like it was some sort of shield between her and her amazing, handsome, kind fr-
Okay, challenge of the night: keep her wandering thoughts in check.
Adrien blissfully distracted her from the dangerous path she had taken by coughing uncomfortably, "Okay, eyes closed and covered, you can change safely, Mari."
Her face still burning from embarrassment, Marinette did as instructed as quickly as she could considering the estranged hand following each and every single of her motion. Despite being extra careful of keeping the offending appendage away from inappropriate parts of her body, she still managed to change into some yoga pants and a hot pink halter top ... which posed another problem.
Holding the fabric against her breasts, the young woman sighed dejectedly at the third failed attempt to properly tie the garment at the back of her neck. Sensing the sudden shift in his friend's mood, Adrien piped up tentatively, "Everything alright out there?"
She groaned, letting the fastenings of her top fall loosely against the skin of her back, "Yes, I just can't tie this stupid bow with your hand dangling from mine like a dead weight and I can't see what I'm doing."
Adrien giggled, unable to help himself. There she was, the feisty and sassy Marinette he had seen many times from afar but never encountered himself. As of lately, the young woman seemed to open up around him, her former shyness subduing more and more as they hung out a lot with Alya and Nino. The more she became at ease around him, the more he discovered the Marinette everyone knew and loved ... and the more oddly and inexplicably familiar she began to strike him.
Pushing those thoughts aside, he offered, "Is it safe to look? Maybe the dead weight and I could help you out?"
It was then her turn to get blindfolded, for good measure, after providing her friend with a pair of bright pink jogging pants too big for her but that still sat halfway up his calf, along with a t-shirt she quickly altered beforehand. It gave her a few minutes to compose herself. You're doing well. Keep imagining it's just Chat Noir. Not Adrien, your hopeless crush of two years, just your silly pun master of a partner.
"Okay, choose your poison," Marinette smirked once they were both properly clothed, handing him three DVD boxes. "We have Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, or Tangled. "
To her sheer astonishment, Adrien instantly reached for the latter, grinning. "Hey! I love this one! The songs are so great and the story is really good!"
"Very well, a singing blonde for Mr. Blond," she answered, before freezing and blushing deeply. For a second, she had forgotten which of the green-eyed blonds of her life was currently standing next to her, seemingly taken aback by her answer.
Oblivious to her inner mortification, Adrien then burst out laughing heartily, watching her start the movie with teary eyes, "Nice one, Mari, I never saw it coming." The opening credits of the movie rolled onto the screen, and they made their way back to the chaise. Marinette reached for their discarded popcorn bowl and set it between them, looking at the screen intently, a small smile dancing on her lips.
That's when the young man noticed something odd about his friend.
Adrien knew nothing about being a girl. He had been, for all of his seventeen years of existence, a boy in every sense of the word. But his upbringing meant he knew a thing or two about fashion, hence why he uttered shyly, "Um. Mari? Do you usually sleep with your pigtails? Wouldn't that be uncomfortable?"
She looked at him like a deer caught in headlights, clutching her plush to her chest like a shield. "I... I don't usually do, but with my good hand impaired and everything, I mean, I'd also like you to survive the evening."
He chuckled, holding his hand out, "Allow me?"
She gaped at him, processing his words, "Wait, what?"
"Well, you did say earlier that I'm supposed to play with your hair ," he said softly, "and I'd hate for you being uncomfortable all night because of me."
Reluctantly, Marinette reached forward to grab her hairbrush, the uncomfortable tug of the handcuffs a constant reminder of their presence, and handed it to him before presenting him her back as much as she could.
While Rapunzel was singing about her busy life in the background, Adrien carefully removed the ribbons from her hair, ever so mindful of her hand tied to his, and gently brushed the dark strands of hair that fell in her back. They both absentmindedly watched the action unfold on the screen, distracted as they were by what transpired between them both.
After a while, Adrien set the hairbrush aside, asking softly, "Why don't you ever let your hair down? It's beautiful."
Blushing furiously, Just Chat, Mari, imagine it's just Chat. NOT ADRIEN, yet again, Marinette averted her gaze from his and mumbled, "Because it's always in the way otherwise. It's more practical that way."
As she spoke, she reached forward to help herself to some popcorn (and hopefully alleviate the thick tension in her room).
However, Adrien had the exact same idea at the exact same second.
Their heads collided with each other, hard, and the recoil sent them both off the chaise in a mess of tangled limbs. Marinette found herself lying on her back on the wooden floor, Adrien somehow straddling her hips, his right hand cradling her head, taking the brunt of their fall. Their bound hands laid near her head as he rested most of his weight on his left arm.
In retrospect, he should have been racking his brain for an apology, trying to get them out of that compromising position right away. But Adrien instead found himself staring into her bluebell eyes, marveling at the quiet beauty of his shy classmate.
Absentmindedly, Adrien licked his lips, still hopelessly lost in Marinette's gaze, mentally making the list of his friend's wonderful qualities. She was so kind, fierce, creative, funny, selfless, pretty...
He leaned in, their eyes fluttering closed.
That's conveniently the exact moment Rapunzel and her thugs chose to begin blaring "I've Got a Dream" through the television speakers, startling them both out of the unexpected spell that had surrounded them.
Adrien awkwardly scrambled to his feet, careful of not resting his weight on her as he did so, and he helped her up. Desperately trying to defuse the discomfort weighing unpleasantly between the odd pair, he took advantage of the upbeat song to take both of her hands into his and start wiggling his hips along the music ridiculously.
"Come on, Mari, dance with me!"
Marinette snapped out of her pensive daze, looking at his playful yet somehow shy and unsure smile. She giggled, following him effortlessly into his antics.
At the end of the song, both friends dropped onto the chaise, breathless and laughing. Popcorn long forgotten on the floor, they quickly agreed that the most comfortable position to watch the movie unfortunately involved some cuddling.
(No, that wasn't because Marinette wanted to lie in his arms. Neither was it because Adrien quite liked the warm fuzzy feeling pleasantly fluttering in his chest as she did so.)
By the time "I See the Light" played, Adrien glanced down at his friend, and smiled as he noticed her half-shut eyes and slowed, deep breathing. His heartbeat was slowly but surely lulling her to sleep, and he quickly found himself thinking that she was adorable like that.
By the end of the movie, Marinette was sound asleep against his chest, her free arm wrapped around his back. Adrien's right hand rested lazily in the curve of her waist, his head resting against hers and their tied hands holding each other in his lap.
Unbeknownst to them, two kwamis were sleeping on Marinette's shelf, also snuggled up.