Over-Familiar

(edit! based off of a comic on tumblr, with permission! sorry i forgot to add the credit beforehand)

(take out the spaces, as you do,,) caprette . tumblr post/137765444088/u-fucked-up-boi

It was all spur-of-the-moment, really.

Adrien had been having a good day, better than most given his outrageous schedule and his usual nighttime activities. A lack of Akuma in the past few days had led up to a great deal of extra sleep for him to enjoy, and that coupled with the way that his father had given him a break from modelling after weeks of constant work had left him feeling lighter than he could ever remember being.

Except, of course, when compared to the thrilling freedom of bounding across the rooftops of Paris as the infamous Chat Noir.

But Chat was Chat and Adrien was Adrien, and it was Adrien Agreste who found himself wandering the streets of Paris aimlessly on a crisp January afternoon. School had been let out just a quarter of an hour ago, but he couldn't bring himself to accept the offer of an escorted ride home while the sun was still up for it's last few hours of winter light.

Smiling to himself and weaving around a hand-holding couple that was partially blocking the sidewalk in front of him, Adrien put a little hop-skip into his stride and allowed the ever-present tension in his shoulders to melt away. He would take the long way home, he decided then and there. He was expected home before long for his scheduled piano lesson, but he could afford just a little more freedom before the ball-and-chain was reattached to his leg.

Feeling his smile slip slightly at the thought, he shook his head roughly, dislodging snowflakes from his blond hair and sending little wet shivers down the back of his neck. "Augh, what am I doing. I have to enjoy this while it lasts. It's not like I get the opportunity often."

He paused, then grinned to himself, the expression wider than he would allow around his classmates and distinctly roguish.

Op-purr-tunity. No, he was Chat Noir, he could do better than that. Op-purr-TUNA-ty.

Yes.

His good mood restored and snickering quietly at his own natural genius—for he was, as he told his Lady quite often, both hilarious and humble—Adrien flicked his eyes around the street and adjusted his favourite scarf around his neck. The snow fell softly, dampening his hair and fogging his breath, and it was obvious that it would pile up quite nicely in the streets if it kept up.

Maybe tomorrow would be a snow day, he thought hopefully, and then quashed the thought. With his rotten luck, it would be more likely that there would be an Akuma attack tonight and he would have to fight his way through two feet of snow as well as avoid slipping on icy rooftops. Though it might now be so bad, he considered as he toyed with the hem of his scarf and brought it up to hide his new, softer smile.

It wouldn't be so bad with Ladybug by his side.

"If you keep daydreaming about Ladybug, you're gonna get hit by a tourbus."

Adrien jolted out of his lovestruck daze at the sulky voice that emerged from his book bag, looking down covertly and scowling when he saw the tiny black head of his Kwami poking out from under the opening flap. "Plagg," he scolded out of the corner of his mouth, glancing around to make sure that no one was watching him. "What did I tell you about coming out when we're in public, someone could see you!" A flush danced across his cheeks, mostly hidden by the air-chilled redness already there. "And how do you know that I was thinking about Ladybug? I could have been reciting the day's homework for all you know."

Plagg rolled his eyes so dramatically that his entire body moved with the gesture. Honestly, could his chosen be any more dense? "Don't try to pretend you weren't mooning and sighing up there; I could hear you even from down here in your cold, damp, cheese-less bag. It is the soundtrack to my torment, Adrien. That and the incessant buzzing from your phone."

"My phone?" Adrien questioned, choosing to ignore Plagg's complaints in the hopes that doing so would make his embarrassed blush lessen. It wasn't even that cold in his bag, anyway. There was a spare pair of mittens in there for warmth, even. Fishing out his phone and then closing the flap once more on his complaining Kwami, Adrien flicked through his unread messages and felt an easy smile tug at his lips.

"Ah, they're all from Nino." he said easily, looking for all appearances like he was just idly commenting to himself. That wasn't a particularly uncommon thing on the streets of Paris, after all. "Apparently he stayed up all night playing that new Fallout game since his parents are away, so he only just woke up. I was wondering why he wasn't responding to my texts.."

"You humans are so weird," came Plagg's muffled voice from within Adrien's book bag. "Putting so much effort into love and relationships and video games when you could spend it eating Camembert. Camembert and gouda and…"

Adrien tuned him out with a fond shake of his head, his eyes following the progression of the snowflakes around him as he came to a stop light. Try as he might—though admittedly, he didn't try that hard—he just couldn't understand his Kwami in the slightest. He tugged off one of his gloves to type a response to Nino, his message laden with six different cat emojis just to be extra obnoxious for his best and laziest friend, then looked up as the walk signal came on to cross the street.

It was then that his eyes fixed on the back of a girl walking up ahead of him, her pigtailed black hair dusted with snowflakes and her stockinged legs looking very cold sticking out from under a cute pink coat. Adrien's eyes lit up, and he quickened his pace across the street, his designer boots silent on the snowy pavement.

"Pr—" he cut himself of quickly, slowing his pace with a little skid in the slush and mentally berating himself. No matter how excited he was to see Marinette outside of school, he couldn't go around calling her 'Princess' if he wanted his identity as Chat Noir to remain a secret. But still, he wanted to talk to her. Marinette was an enigma to him. She was always so shy and nervous whenever he was around, but since getting to know her behind his mask, Adrien had come to the unsettling conclusion that it was only HIM who she was like that with.

It was as if he intimidated her, but he hadn't done anything to warrant that kind of reaction, had he? Unless she was intimidated by his so-called fame or status, or maybe something about his practiced smiles set her off in a way that he couldn't understand. Maybe he just made her uneasy. Maybe Marinette could see how fake he was.

Nervously, Adrien pulled his leather glove back on and flexed his fingers, feeling the warmth of the material in stark contrast to the chill of the heavy silver ring against his skin. Should he even go talk to her, when it was so obvious to him that Marinette wanted nothing to do with him? He watched her swerve around a particularly deep puddle, getting further away from him as he pondered, and then abruptly made up his mind as Marinette made a cute little bouncing wiggle mid-step to shake some snow out of her hair.

He had to talk to her. He just..had to.

Adrien desperately needed some of that happiness in his life, and besides, he was feeling confidant today. Today was a good day to change someone's mind.

He picked up his pace.

In seconds he was behind her, biting his lip nervously and wondering what he should say. What should he do? Adrien Agreste was no good at talking to people; he was homeschooled and detached and quite terrified of what he might have done wrong to make Marinette so uncomfortable around him.

But Chat Noir..he had confidence.

The idea came to him like a physical shock, and Adrien couldn't stop the wicked grin that spread across his face. All he had to do was muster up some of that Chat Noir confidence, and there was no way that he would mess up. Sliding up behind Marinette, he took in her stiffening shoulders for just a moment before striking.

"Guess who?" he practically purred, putting all of his confidence into his voice as he brought his hands in front of Marinette's face and carefully covered her eyes. His chest bumped against her back as she slammed to a halt, and as doubt began to creep into his mind, the only thing that stopped him from tearing his hands away and bursting into stuttered apologies was the way that Marinette somehow, for some reason, completely relaxed against him.

Her voice, however, brought that anxiety ramping right back up with a healthy dose of 'I've done fucked up.'

"Chat Noir?" Marinette demanded more than asked, her gloved hands reaching up to touch his arms and her weight shifting huffily to one side. "Chat, let me go, I really don't have time for this."

His heart in his throat, Adrien made a choking noise not unlike that of a cat being stepped on, his hands slipping slightly over Marinette's eyes. He hastened to reaffirm his grip to make sure that his leather gloves hid her vision completely, his heart speeding up as panic began to hit him.

She thought that he was Chat? Of all of the bad and ridiculous things to happen to him, this had to be the most unexpected. Who would have guessed that his Princess knew his voice so well that she could recognize it with just two words?

He supposed that his acting skills were just a little too on point.

If the situation wasn't so dire, he would laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Marinette, having grown impatient with his lack of a satisfactory response, let out a groan and brought her hands to his to try and pry his fingers from her eyes. Her voice gained a bit of an exasperated whine, like that of someone who was far too used to being inconvenienced by random flirtatious super heros. "Chat, I swear to god, let me gooooo."

Choking once again on his words, Adrien pressed closer to Marinette, sure that she could feel his racing pulse through her back and scrambling for an answer. How was he supposed to recover from this without blowing his cover? In his panic, he pulled her head back into him, wrapping his arms around her more securely to properly blind her.

"Noooo," he whined, eyes darting to and fro as he tried desperately to come up with a way around this. There was no way that he could let her go and run, now. Could he just explain that he's actually Adrien and try to pass it off as a coincidence? No, that wouldn't work, and even if he tried it would just make Marinette's opinion of him plummet past anything he could salvage.

He swore that he could hear Plagg laughing at him. Curse him and his horrendous luck!

"Chat!" Marinette snapped as she lost her patience, tugging at his arms and slipping a little in the slush. Whining quietly, Adrien looked around, noticing that people were starting to turn their way in confusion and concern for the girl that he had held against her will. What was worse, being thought a creepy guy with issues with consent, or being outed on the streets of Paris as the worst super hero imaginable?

It was no question.

Deciding that the situation couldn't possibly get worse, he forced out an airy laugh that fell remarkably flat in comparison to Chat Noir's usual jubilance. "A-ah, Princess, you don't want to, um, hang out with me? And here I thought we were friends."

Weak, not a single pun thrown in there, but at least it made Marinette stop fighting him and just sag with a put-upon sigh.

He'd made his bed; now it was time to lie in it.

When Marinette had decided to take the long way home from school and window shop a little along the way, she hadn't expected to be accosted from behind, and she certainly wasn't prepared for her assailant to be her favourite (and most annoying) kitty cat.

She had just been walking down the sidewalk, sidestepping puddles of slush and intent on getting home so she could enjoy a nice hot cup of cocoa, when Tikki's voice from inside her bag startled her out of her daydreams.

"Marinette, there's someone behind you!"

She had gone stiff, fight or flight instincts firing up in her mind as a pair of leather clad hands had obscured her vision. When she heard Chat's distinctive teasing drawl, however, she had relaxed completely as her apprehension melted into fond annoyance.

That had been a good five minutes ago, as Marinette found herself being tugged quite insistently into the gap between two shops off the side of the road by an uncommonly quiet Chat Noir. Deciding to humour him despite her confusion—after all, he might be up to something important or Akuma-related, judging by his obvious nerves—she went without a fuss.

That is, until the sounds of the street became muffled and she found herself slogging backwards through deeper, undisturbed snow.

"Chat," Marinette scolded once again, trying and failing to shrug off his grip. "What is wrong with you? Is there an Akuma? Let go of me, this isn't funny."

He made that funny whining sound again, fingers flexing against her covered eyes, and she couldn't help the pang of concern that went through her at the sound. Though she always acted as though Chat Noir was nothing but her exasperating partner, she really did care for him. Even when she was only Marinette. Deciding to go with a different approach, she sighed and brought her hands down to her sides, adjusting her book bag and gently pressing her palm against where she knew Tikki was hiding. "Chat," she tried again, her voice soft. "Is there something wrong?"

Chat's body jerked behind her, a quick shaking that made her think of an animal shaking water from its fur, and once again laughed in that way that only proved to her that something was very wrong. "Why would there be something wrong, Princess? Is it that hard to believe that I just wanted to see you?"

Marinette groaned, rolling her eyes so hard that she was sure that he could feel it against his palms. "Yes, Chat, because usually when someone wants to see me, they don't grab me from behind and blindfold me. That kiiiinda interferes with the whole 'seeing' thing, you know?"

He sounded odd, she thought, and not just nervous-odd. His tone was different, less sure of himself and somehow more restrained. Not at all like the flirty, confident, show off of a super hero that she knew and loved.

(Not in that way, of course. Her heart belonged to Adrien alone.)

She twitched when Chat Noir cleared his throat behind her, and she was suddenly aware of how closely they were standing with his chest pressed to her back and only a few layers of clothing separating them. Was that his heartbeat she could feel? It made Marinette shift in discomfort, her breathing going just a little shallower as the strangely intimate sensation was suddenly all that she could focus on. Why wasn't he letting her go?

"I, uh..the thing is, Marinette.." he began, the stutter in his softened voice strangely familiar to her even as it set warning bells off in her mind. Since when did Chat Noir call her by her name, and not some ridiculous moniker? Since when did the sound of his voice make her heart pound and shiver? "I'm not, um.. I'm not really—"

"Adrien? Dude, is that you?"

Of all of the things that could have gone wrong, Adrien never once accounted for being outed ACCIDENTALLY.

Adrien stiffened at precisely the same time as Marinette, dread crashing over him at the familiar and very unwelcome voice of his best friend inadvertently spilling one of his deepest secrets. He turned his head slowly, a jerking motion that belied his fear, and met Nino's bewildered grin as he sauntered down the alleyway towards them.

Against his body, Marinette had begun to tremble, a choking sound building in her throat, and Adrien all at once felt the snow that was seeping into the collar of his coat, dampening his hair and chilling him to the bone.

Nino, oblivious to the tension between his two friends, just kept talking.

"Oh, man, what are the odds? My dad said I had to go out and get groceries as punishment for missing, like, the whole school day, but I figured you'd be home by now! Doesn't that Gorilla dude usually drive you home? He's like, your chauffeur, right?" Nino paused as he came within five feet of them, his eyebrows furrowing when Adrien made no sign of replying. "Adrien, bro, are you…"

Nino's voice trailed off, eyes widening and mouth dropping open to release a puff of air that fogged in the cold, as he leaned slightly to the side and caught sight of Marinette's frozen form. It was clear by the slack-jawed look of stunned, gleeful disbelief on his face that he didn't know whether or not to laugh.

"Oh, damn,"

Adrien swallowed hard, lips thinning and voice caught in his throat in a painful lump of anxiety, and was far too late to prevent the incredulous and joys crow that exploded from his best friend's lips.

"Is that Marinette? Dude, hell, my bad. I didn't realize you two were back here to, uh.." Nino grinned wide in pride and slight embarrassment, making a wiggling hand gesture that conveyed both nothing and everything that he was thinking at the moment. Adrien wanted to puke, and as Nino's grin faded into confusion and concern, he let his hands slip from Marinette's face.

There was no getting out of this one.