A/N: Written for probably-voldemort for the Miraculous Secret Santa event on Tumblr. Rated T for language. Also, my first ML fic centred on love square that's not a reveal or post-reveal. Feels like a milestone. Enjoy.
That was a claws call, Princess," Chat says as he sets the black-haired girl down, grinning at her. The girl grimaces before her face smooths out and she smiles back at him.
"Indeed. Thank you for the timely rescue."
Chat takes her hand and bows over it, planting a kiss on her knuckles.
"Stay safe. Not that I mind being your dashing knight but one of these days, I might not be around."
"I'll be careful. Now go."
Chat salutes her with his baton and then uses it as a vaulting pole to chase in the direction of where the Akuma is wrecking havoc. The girl shakes her head and sighs, turning around, her indulgent smile freezing when she faces the camera fully.
"A-Alya?" she stammers out.
Marinette jammed the pause symbol on her phone with an unnecessary force. She stared at the paused image of her own shocked face. The whole thing had been a ca- disaster, it had been a disaster. The Akuma earlier had found her while she had been looking for a safe place to transform and only Chat's intervention had enabled her to avoid becoming its latest victim. The post-rescue banter had been something that had come to her naturally. It would have gone well if not for the fact that Chat had deposited her right next to where Alya had been live streaming the attack.
In the four hours since, the comment section had exploded. It could be considered masochistic on Marinette's part but she decided to bite the bullet and read some of them. It was better to know what was being said about the whole thing rather than be caught unaware by rumours that were sure to spring up from it.
[BeautyfulCitizen] Damn! That's some high-level flirting.
[Chat#1fan] Nononononononononononononononononononononono!
[Lady&Cat] youre wrong, beautyful. look at chats actions towards ladybug, thats flirting.
[BeautyfulCitizen] He can flirt with both of them, you know ;)
[Chat#1fan] Nononononononononononononononononononononono!
[Chat#1fan] Nononononononononononononononononononononono!
[Chat#1fan] Nononononononononononononononononononononono!
[ModAlya] Chat#1fan, please stop spamming.
[Lady&Cat] no way! chat is faithful to ladybug, he wouldnt cheat on her.
[BeautyfulCitizen] You can't cheat on someone whom you're not dating.
[LadyNoir5Ever] Excuse you! Ladybug and Chat are totally a thing!
[BeautyfulCitizen] *sigh* No, they're not. I met them both last week, remember? When Black Swan kidnapped me? Chat flirted with Ladybug, was a perfect, non-flirty gentleman to me and Ladybug was pretty much ignoring all of that to focus on the Akuma.
[AmeliaM] Your Silvia Narette?
[AmeliaM] *You're. I'm a huge fan! And you're not a fan of romantic LadyNoir, either? My idol :)
[LadyNoir5Ever] Are you people blind or something? LadyNoir are the pinnacle of romance! Their trust and teamwork and the way they look at each other! That's love!
[AmeliaM] Because God forbid a man and a woman worked together and trusted each other and were only friends. That was sarcasm, btw.
[Lady&Cat] chat and ladybug are more than friends.
[AmeliaM] Proof? And please, something more tangible and less open to interpretation than 'the way they look at each other'.
[LadyNoir5Ever] BeautyfulCitizen said it herself. Chat didn't flirt with her and he was !carrying! her around for more than ten minutes. She's one of the most popular celebrities in France. But he flirts with Ladybug every chance he gets. Only with her.
[AmeliaM] And with the girl in this video :p
[CallMeSherlock]
[CallMeSherlock] It's the girl who designed Jagged Stone's cover album. Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
[BeautyfulCitizen] I thought she looked familiar.
*Chat#1fan's comment was deleted by a mod*
[ModAlya] Reread the rules, people. Even if it wasn't my best friend you're talking about, comments like that are forbidden by the site rules.
[MaskedHeart] You know, I kind of dig their dynamics. A superhero and a civilian. Makes for a good drama.
[MaskedHeart] Chatinette? MariNoir? Marichat?
[AmeliaM] OMG, are you trying to start a shipping war? I like the last one, btw.
[BeautyfulCitizen] Me too (I can't believe I'm getting into this).
[SerenityFromTheMoon] Me three (I prefer platonic LadyNoir anyway).
[MaskedHeart] Marichat, it is. And of course I'm not trying to start a shipping war. The war has been on from the moment this video went online.
[Chat#1fan] There's nothing special about her.
Marinette stopped reading after that. A quick glance showed her that the shipping war between LadyNoir and Marichat shippers erupted fully shortly after. Alya was kept busy moderating the comments because people were downright vicious and Marinette had to wonder: when did her life become like this?
A full night's sleep later, the happenings of the previous day didn't turn out to be just a horrible dream. Alya had texted Marinette some time after midnight with a link to the first official Marichat art. It was just a traced still from the video but the creator played around with the background, swapping the Parisian streets for a castle maze. It was actually a nice picture but Marinette didn't like the fact that she was the subject of it. If people believed there was something between her and Chat Noir - and by people she meant Adrien - it would be disastrous.
"Stupid, flirty cat. I'll skin him the next time I'll see him."
Marinette kept grumbling the whole way to school, early for once. Truth be told, she was less bothered by the possible rumours arising from this and more by the fact that one Marichat shipper went to great lengths to prove that Marinette was indeed the only girl other than Ladybug with whom Chat flirted. It flipped her perception of her partner upside down. Because as long as she could tell herself that Chat flirted with every girl he met, she didn't have to consider the fact it might be actually more serious than flirting on his part.
"Marinette!" Alya was waiting on the steps to the school, her phone clutched in one hand while she waved with the other. "The first time you met Chat was with the Evillustrator, right?"
"Yes, why do you want to know?"
"Someone I know is writing a meta." Marinette wondered what her expression was like because Alya hurried to reassure her. "It's okay, it's just a write-up of known facts. It's not like their writing fanfiction."
"Fanfiction?" Marinette repeated. "People are writing fanfiction about me?"
Forget the fact there was a sizable archive of LadyNoir fanfiction already. Ladybug was both a symbol and a person and Marinette found it relatively easy to distance herself from the masked persona. But people writing about her, speculating about her life as Marinette? That was different.
"That whole Marichat thing really blew up overnight."
"B-but there's nothing... I mean, we're not... I-"
Alya patted her on the shoulder.
"Welcome to the social media, where everything you do gets blown out of proportion and people love to speculate about things that are none of their business." Marinette wondered for a moment if maybe this was just a bad dream. She hoped it was just a bad dream. "This is a golden opportunity for you."
Marinette refocused on Alya.
"How can this be an opportunity?"
"You could use your alleged relationship with Chat to make Adrien jealous."
"What?" Marinette sputtered.
"Mari, I love Adrien, he's a pure and adorable ball of sunshine but the boy is as dense as a bag of rocks when it comes to girls. He needs to notice you and having the attention of a superhero could do just that."
Marinette was getting ready to refute it all. She wasn't going to use Chat like that, first of all. And the jealousy ploy was kind of demeaning, reducing her to an object to be contested and-
"MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG! YOU CAT-STEALING BITCH!"
Of course, of-freaking-course. It wasn't even a surprise for Marinette at this point. Of course there was an Akuma. And of course it was targeting her. Because what in her life had gone well recently?
"I'm going to hide," she told Alya, who was already busy trying to get the best angle on the approaching Akuma. Her best friend waved at her and Marinette ran up the stairs to the school, taking a sharp turn for the lockers. A quick look around showed the coast to be clear. "Tikki, spots on!"
Adrien's morning had been interesting. He had almost overslept because he had stayed up late last night reading comments on Alya's blog. Plagg had teased him relentlessly for the way he had blushed doing so.
He hadn't been flirting with Marinette, had he? That was nothing but banter, right? She was just so outgoing with Chat that he couldn't help but react to that. That didn't mean anything. People were just misunderstanding the whole situation. They were just friends and he didn't have a crush on her. Besides, she didn't have a crush on him either - or Chat as the case may have been - so there was absolutely no way anything was going on. Just a big misunderstanding. Yes, that was his story and yes, he was sticking to it and stop laughing, Plagg, I'm not in denial.
The car was brought to a sudden halt and Adrien was jolted out of his seat.
"What happened?"
Gorilla grunted and gestured to the outside where some overturned cars could be seen. Overturned and with scratches all over. An Akuma. Just what Adrien needed and he didn't mean that in a sarcastic way. Kicking ass with his Lady was never a chore, quite the opposite.
"I'm going to go and hide in that café over there, okay?" he blurted before getting out of the car. He saw his bodyguard nod. There were times Adrien wondered if the man suspected something. It had been too easy at times to get away. But there was no time to think about that. He ran into the café's bathrooms, did a quick check for other people and then it was show time. "Plagg, claws out!"
Ladybug was already at the scene when Chat arrived across the roofs. He had to stop and take another look because for a moment it almost looked like she was fighting him. Another Copycat? Chat hoped that wasn't the case. Ladybug kicked the Akuma and sent them flying some distance away where they landed on all fours and then hissed at her.
Being able to see the details now, Chat could safely say it wasn't another Copycat. For one, the Akuma had brown hair. And they were shorter, only reaching Ladybug's height or so. Plus there was the way they filled out the skin-tight black suit in a different way than Chat did. The suit itself was eerily reminiscent of his own but there were differences. A picture of a large neon-green heart with Chat's name written inside that was covering the Akuma's chest was one of those.
The Akuma's claws were longer, too and they swiped them at Ladybug, despite being a good ten metres apart. Chat wondered why Ladybug ducked to the side but then there was a screech of metal and four long scratches appeared on a car door behind Ladybug. Okay, the Akuma was able to deal damage at a distance. That wasn't good.
"Why are you hiding that thief?" the Akuma screeched at Ladybug. "If anyone should understand, it's you!"
"I don't trust everything I read online!" Ladybug called back and Chat had a sinking feeling he knew what this was about. "No one stole anyone, people aren't objects to be taken."
"I am his number one fan, I should be the one he flirts with, not some stupid girl who doesn't appreciate him."
Chat could almost swear he heard Ladybug mutter "I appreciate him just fine" but at that moment the Akuma looked up and spotted him.
"CHAT NOIR!"
Ladybug turned around and her eyes narrowed at him. He waved and jumped off the roof, somersaulting twice before landing in the three-point pose so often seen in action movies. The Akuma let out another high-pitched scream. Chat winced as his cat ears flattened themselves against his head.
"About time-" Ladybug started to say but the Akuma was suddenly there, grasping for Chat's hands. At first he thought they were going for his ring. He quickly put his hands behind his back and tried to move away but all the Akuma did was touch his arm reverently.
"I'm touching Chat Noir," they whispered. A purple outline of a butterfly appeared over their masked eyes and the Akuma grimaced before their face hardened. "Just let me have this moment, you jackass."
Ladybug's eyes brightened with an idea and she mouthed at Chat: Keep her distracted. He nodded and put on his best smile.
"So, you're a fan of meow?"
The Akuma giggled, actually giggled.
"Yeah, I'm Chatnatic. I'm your number one fan."
"That's nice," he said, wondering what was taking Ladybug so long. Chatnatic looked up at him with shining eyes.
"It isn't true, is it? That you're dating that ugly girl?"
"What girl?" he asked, his eyes tracking Ladybug's movements as she slowly crept closer to the Akuma.
"That Marinette something."
"She's not ugly and she's just a friend," Chat said, fervently hoping he wasn't blushing. So he had been right earlier. The Akuma was created because of that online mess. He hoped Marinette was alright. Those claws were nasty, given the Akuma could use them from a distance.
"That's great then. But you should tell people that."
Yes, he really should. That was a really great idea, because people getting Akumatized over stuff online, well, Chat had visited his fair share of forums in his time and the people could be really awful to each other over the simplest things. Clarification in this case could only help.
"Gotcha!" Ladybug cried out and snatched the cat ears headband the Akuma was wearing. Snapping it in half, she caught the escaping butterfly and purified it, the ensuing swarm of ladybugs leaving Chat with a girl clinging to his arm and gazing at him adoringly.
"Erm, are you okay now?" he asked. She blinked up at him and flushed before she eeped and jumped away from him. He was reminded of how Marinette was around Adrien but any further comparison was derailed when she took out a phone and shyly requested a selfie. He obliged, well aware of Ladybug's half-mocking, half-indulgent smile, before handing the girl over to be checked by the newly-arrived paramedics.
Chat then turned to Ladybug who gestured him to follow after her, escaping the converging press.
"Do you know if Marinette's okay?" he called after her as they jumped from roof to roof, heading towards his school for some reason.
"I helped her hide. She had a rough morning."
There was something off about her tone and Chat couldn't resist.
"Do I detect some jealousy, My Lady?"
Ladybug came to a sudden stop, her shoulders tensing before she whirled around and jabbed her finger into Chat's face.
"Marinette is a friend of mine. She has been called names by people who don't even know her, a dangerous Akuma targeted her, this Marichat thing will most likely ruin any chance she has with A- her crush and you're asking if I'm jealous?"
Chat winced. Okay, that sounded bad. It was clear Ladybug cared about her friend, it was one of the many great things he admired about her and- wait a minute...
"Marinette has a crush?!" He had had no idea. How long had he known her again? Some friend he was.
Ladybug crossed her arms and huffed defensively.
"What's so weird about that?"
"No, it's not weird... just... I figured Marinette would go after her crush, you know? She strikes me as the type to be the initiator in the relationship."
"Not in this case," Ladybug said wryly. "He makes her speechless."
A special kind of man, then, to hold Marinette's affection. Chat wasn't jealous, nope. Maybe a little bit envious that he had no one to feel that way about him. But not jealous, nope. He had no reason to be jealous of Marinette's crush. Because he wasn't crushing on her, not at all.
"If you told me his name, I could go and talk to him. Reassure him there was nothing going on."
Ladybug grimaced and shook her head.
"Chat, with your luck, you would end up dueling him on a national TV for her honour or something." That was a good point. "Just let it blow over, maybe keep away from her until this dies down. I'll keep an eye out for her during attacks just in case."
He nodded but his mind was busy trying to come up with a plan. There was one thing he could do. He was thinking of doing it anyway.
"I'll keep that in mind, My Lady."
"You do that."
She ran off towards the school and Chat belatedly realized she was probably going to inform Marinette about the danger being over. He should be getting back to that café, too, but first, he had a classmate blogger to find.
Alya managed to get most of the fight on record and was reviewing the footage when Chat Noir literally dropped down in front of her, a friendly grin on his face.
"Hello, Mademoiselle. I have a favour to ask."
"What is it, Chat?"
"You're aware of the recent rumours linking me to a friend of yours, right?" Alya nodded, eager to hear where this went. "Considering the reason behind the last Akuma, I think it would be best to make it clear where things stand, don't you agree?"
"Are you saying you're going to give me an interview?"
Chat nodded and Alya beamed at him, quickly checking the available storage on her phone.
"Could we do it really quick? I'm sorry to rush but I have places to be but the sooner it's done, the better."
"Absolutely," Alya replied, frowning at her phone. She was low on space. "Would you mind if I live streamed this? I don't have enough space to record."
"No problem," Chat replied, leaning against his baton nonchalantly. "I'm good at improv."
"Sweet." Alya quickly readied everything and then she turned the phone camera towards herself. "Hey, Ladybloggers. This is Alya with an amazing scoop for you. Joining me live is the one and only Chat Noir, here to clarify on his romantic life. Chat?"
"Hey, everyone. While I'm flattered by your attention in regards to my relationship status, I have to make something clear. Marinette is a dear friend of mine but nothing more. This cat is a strictly one-lady cat, okay? So don't harass my friend, online or in real life over something that's not even true. Alya?"
"You heard him, folks. Straight from the cat's mouth, there's nothing between him and Marinette. And I second his plea to lay off her. Seriously, some of you guys were way over the line."
Alya was ready to turn off the stream - it had been short but really informative - when Chat cleared his throat.
"Alya, I've got a question of my own."
"What is it, Chat?"
"This whole Marichat thing blew up pretty fast, practically overnight. Why?"
Alya chuckled at the boy's naivety.
"Never underestimate the power of self-insertion. Ladybug is amazing, right? It's pretty difficult to imagine yourself in her place. She's not exactly a good stand-in for fans of yours who want to pretend they have a chance with you. Marinette is an ordinary girl, like any other. It makes it easier for the people to identify with her."
Chat frowned at Alya and when he opened his mouth, she was glad she kept the stream going.
"Marinette's not ordinary at all. She's amazing. She's kind and smart and really talented. She has this smile that makes your whole day better for seeing it. She's always helpful and nice to people and she's braver than most people I know. There's nothing ordinary about her."
Alya cleared her throat because this just got about million times better that it had been.
"Chat, are you sure you're not in love with Marinette just a little bit? Because that was quite a passionate defence."
The mask wasn't really made for hiding blushes. Chat's entire face lit up as blood rushed to his cheeks and he lost his usual confidence.
"I- no- I mean- I love Ladybug and Marinette is a friend, okay? I'm not crushing on her or anything and I need to go, bye!"
Alya watched his less than dignified exit with an indulgent shake of her head.
"Well, folks, I don't know about you, but in my opinion, that kitty's drowning in denial. What do you think? Let me know in the comments. Alya out."
It took less than an hour for the hashtag marichat to trend.
[lily1999] Wait, I'm confused. Is he in love with both of them?
[hbic] yup
[lily1999] It really happens? It's not just a YA novel thing?
[MemesRFun] Chatniss Everdeen...
[AmeliaM] I just spat my drink all over my screen. Thank God for protective foils, is all I'm saying.
[SerenityFromTheMoon] First rule of forums: Don't drink and read :p
[SerenityFromTheMoon] Also, #relationship goals. Find yourself a partner who talks about you like Chat talks about Marinette.
[BeautyfulCitizen] I never thought it would turn out to be a love triangle.
[MaskedHeart] Team Marinette!
[openminded] Team threesome ;)
[CallMeSherlock] I want to be jealous of her but we just had an Akuma over this and it's not worth the risk. *thinking pure thoughts*
[Chat#1fan] Sorry about that, btw.
[AmeliaM] No problem, could have happened to anyone.
[Chat#1fan] 3
Marinette shuffled into the class after lunch, keeping her head down. Adrien winced at the look on her face. He had only wanted to help but he had just made things worse. And he could hardly drop by to visit her as Chat because if anyone saw him near Marinette, it would just be adding an oil to the fire.
Plus there was one fact he had to face. He maybe, possibly, likely had just a tiny, itty-bitty, minuscule crush on Marinette. Just a little one. He was still madly in love with Ladybug, of course, but Marinette was amazing, too. And he had gone and ruined her life with his thoughtlessness and couldn't even apologize properly for that.
Worse, he had most likely ruined her chances with her crush. Not many boys were willing to go against a superhero for the affection of a girl. Then again, a boy who wouldn't take a risk for someone as amazing as Marinette didn't deserve her affection in the first place.
Who was he, anyway? Adrien glanced around the room. Ladybug had said he had made Marinette speechless but Marinette had no problem talking to anyone as far as he knew. Well, she sometimes stuttered around him but that happened less and less as they got to know each other better. It was most likely someone Adrien didn't know. Maybe a regular customer at the bakery.
Adrien forced himself to stop thinking about Marinette's crush. He couldn't help her there but maybe he could help her with the rest of it. They were friends and friends supported each other so he should talk to her and let her know he didn't believe any of it. He had some experience with internet-borne rumours, after all. In a month, all of this would be old news.
"Marinette, wait!" Adrien called out after her as she left the class. He fully expected her to trip or something as she usually did around him but she just turned around and waited for him to catch up.
"Hey, Adrien."
Her voice was flat and tired and Adrien winced again. His fault, his fault, his fault.
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry," he blurted out. Marinette looked up at him in confusion.
"You did nothing wrong. You're perfect- I mean- why are you apologizing?"
That sounded more like the Marinette he knew.
"I just meant, I'm sorry about those rumours, I know what it's like to be in the spotlight and if you need to talk to someone about it, I'm here."
There, that was better.
"Ah, thank you," she said and looked away. "But I'm not bothered by the publicity, not really. I mean, I want to become a fashion designer and that means putting myself out there. I was already on the cover of a magazine, too. It's not the spotlight that bothers me. It's the reason for it. When I was on the cover of Lourdes, it was because of something I created. It was because I designed something really good, something I could be proud of. But this? It has nothing to do with me. I could be anyone, all that matters to those people is that I'm supposedly in a love triangle with superheroes."
Adrien felt the guilt pile on. He had caused this mess by listening to his instincts. He should have let things play out on its own and not try and fix it. He was the one who broke things not the one who fixed them.
"But really, thank you, Adrien," Marinette said. "For letting me vent. It really helped."
He recognized the brave face she was putting on. Her venting didn't help, not really, but she didn't want to bother him with her troubles any more than she already had. And that, that just wouldn't do.
Hoping against hope that for once his actions wouldn't make things worse, Adrien put both of his hands on Marinette's shoulders and looked her straight in the eye.
"You are amazing, Marinette. It couldn't have been just anyone. I mean, Chat probably should have thought more before doing what he did but he didn't say anything that wasn't true. He-" Adrien paused but a little bit more honesty couldn't hurt. Not when he was the only one aware of just how honest he was being. "He would be lucky to date you and he probably wishes it was true."
Marinette's listless expression was long gone. Her face was bright red, her blue eyes - beautiful eyes - were opened wide and her mouth was opening and closing as she struggled for some kind of a reply. She was really cute but this was hardly the time and place to tell her that.
"My offer stands, Marinette, okay?" Adrien finished. "You can talk to me any time you need to."
She nodded and finally seemed to find some words.
"Yank thou- I meant thank you, Darien- Adrien, I'm going to go now, you're really great, bye."
She practically ran away but Adrien couldn't help but smile. That was the Marinette he knew and was crushing on - a little bit. And he wouldn't trade knowing her for anything in the world.