Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous or any of its characters. *awkwardly shuffles into the middle of the LadyNoir July crowd* I admittedly didn't think I would take this long to post another chapter to this, but HHH sorry to impede.

Also, I may have ditched the Super Mecha Strike idea to do something everyone else might have done lmao. I couldn't help it… I have well over 400 hours clocked in.

It's Raining Sunshine

Day 11: Video Games

The moment Nathalie closed the door, Adrien whipped the Switch out from under his pillow.

It probably wasn't the best idea to hold a late-night gaming session with the early morning photo shoot he had scheduled in the morning, but a large part of him felt that pulling an all-nighter was a lot more fun than sleeping six hours to wake up tired.

Plus… with his gifts in his friends' hands…

It had taken a lot of talk with Nathalie. She had been wary about covering up the purchases, about filing them under a different kind of cheese name, but with a liberal use of his puppy dog eyes and numerous promises to keep his grades up (along with a short PowerPoint presentation Alya had helped him make), he had gotten her to warm to his idea.

His father was a millionaire. Adrien could order tons of cheese, all different flavors and kinds, at the drop of a hat. Buying a few game consoles for some of his closest friends that didn't have the hundreds of Euros to drop on a new system and game was a drop in the bucket in the Agreste pool of wealth. It cost more to feed Plagg on a daily basis than it did buying the game systems.

Which is why, when Nathalie sighed and finally said yes, Adrien had been over the moon with joy.

Adrien nabbed his phone and headphones from his nightstand, throwing a quick glance to the closed door to make sure Nathalie was fully gone. As Plagg shuffled onto the pillow on the other side of the bed, invisible to the eye with the black pillowcases, Adrien pushed his headphones into his ears and unlocked his phone.

So, he couldn't leave the house that often? He could work around that.

Back before he had gone to school, he hadn't had many friends to play online video games with, and randomly generated teams had always left him nervous and on edge. Now, he had friends, and with friends came the ability to play games with them.

He tapped the Switch's power button, and a little gray cat with heterochromia, glasses, and a streak of blonde hair toddled around the newly furnished Plaza. Night blanketed the tiny character, giving the square a serene feel to the setting.

Adrien grinned as he pushed the A button.

The game booted up to where he had last left off. His character, one that had blonde hair similar to his own and a shirt that was exactly like the one he always wore, stepped out of the three-roomed house. Golden light shone from the inside of the little home, and Adrien stayed still for a moment, the date and time flashed on the lower left of the screen.

Apparently, "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" was the new game everyone had been talking about over late February. He had heard Marinette talking about it to Alya one day at school. The dark-haired girl had been ecstatic, her mouth moving faster than her words could keep up, and Adrien didn't have to guess that she was a huge fan of the series.

He had thought nothing of it… until Marinette mentioned that one of the features was multiplayer.

Then he had done his research.

Cute animals, a place that gave the player a getaway from the stress of their life, a multiplayer where players could hang out on an island and have fun together…

By the time March rolled around, Adrien had been just as excited as she had.

The blonde looked back to his phone, opening the group chat app. He, Alya, Nino, Marinette, Luka, and a few other of his friends all had a server where they could chat and play the game. It was a special kind of chaos, a mess of gaming and chatting about anything they wanted to talk about, and Adrien loved every bit of it.

A voice chat and messaging server, a multiplayer video game, a few video game systems for some of his friends…

If he couldn't leave the house, then he'd bring his friends to him.

Well, in the virtual sense.

Green eyes skimmed the list of active people on the server. The irises darted back to the time listed on the game system, then back to the few people still active on the server.

Luka and his sister, Kagami, Rose, Alya, and Nino were all quiet and inactive for the night. Their avatars, all screenshots from their favorite TV shows and song albums (and in Kagami's case, her own picture), kept quiet.

It was a little after midnight on a school night. He couldn't really fault them for not staying up; they all had their own busy lives, and the promise of a busy school day within the next seven-to-eight hours was a heavy motivator to push them to get rest while they could.

A sinking feeling, heavy with loneliness, filled his chest before his eyes rested on one of the few people still active.

Marinette…

He chuckled softly as he slipped into the private messages he had had with her. One corner of his mouth lifted a little higher than the other, and even as his thumbs tapped out the message, he already knew the response he was going to get.

Shouldn't you be sleeping? *smirky cat face*

Marinette's response came after a beat of silence.

Shouldn't you? :P It's late you know

OH WAIT!

ADRIEN I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS YOU!

His smile wavered, but he kept strong.

If there was one thing he wanted to see more of, it was a confident and talkative Marinette. Whenever she showed her confidence in herself, she shined like a star, and the model always lucky to see that elusive part of her. Adrien wished he could find out why she was so skittish around him and why she seemed to freeze up whenever she realized she was talking to him.

Part of him guessed that it had something to do with the "famous model" thing. Plenty of his female fans got tongue-tied whenever they talked to him, so that was probably what was causing Marinette to trip up.

You didn't do anything wrong, Marinette! Just teasing!

Are you still playing the new game?

…Yeah. I've been working on the third section of my island. Terraforming's a bit rough, but I've been chugging along with my island and IM BABBLING ON AGAIN AHAHA

That's alright! Do you wanna come over to my island for a little bit and hang out with me for a while? I'm still grinding for Bells to pay off my recent house upgrade, and I would love to do it while spending time with a friend. :)

As Adrien waited for Marinette's response, he moved his in-game character. As his right hand gently set the phone against the black sheets under the covers, his thumb centered on the B button, and the little character took off running. A little move of the joystick to the left, and his character was headed directly for the airport.

Once Adrien had entered the building, the character sprinted for the airport's operator. More than half of him internally groaned at all the menuing he'd have to go through, but it was worth it if he got to spend some time with Marinette.

Just as his Switch was connecting to the internet, Marinette's reply popped up on his phone.

YEah I can come over! And talk.

I'll get my headphones

Pride swelled in his chest as he smiled down at the phone.

This was a lot of progress. Marinette had been scared to talk to him first, but after a few gaming sessions with Alya, Nino, and Luka, the girl had gained a lot more confidence in being able to play with him and reply to his words with less anxiety.

After a moment, Adrien tapped the little Call button on his phone.

Beeps echoed in his ears as the little Dodo operator opened the gates to his island. Only his Best Friends were set to come to his island, and while that was everyone who was on the server, only one friend was going to take the opportunity to visit at the time.

Just as he played her name in his mind, her voice echoed into his ears as the alert sounded. It sounded strained, like she was painfully aware of every little thing she was going to say. "H-H-Hi Adrien!"

"Hey Marinette," he replied, his voice calm and stable. He knew that keeping his voice level would calm her nerves a little more. "The gates to my island are open, so come over any time you want! I'll be fishing in the meantime."

His character moved, and the game version of him darted out the airport doors. Little footsteps clicked softly outside his headphones, turning from tennis shoes on wood to tennis shoes on sand.

"I'll be right over! Just gotta drop off some stuff first, you know? Like some minor decorations I was going to put on the beach and some of the autumn stuff that really fit with the cottage section of my island that I wanted to do, and-"

Marinette immediately fell silent, and as the small clap echoed through the headphones, Adrien felt a pull at his heart.

"Hey, that's really cool, Marinette." He cast his line into the ocean, giving his phone a worried glance. "So, you've already seen what happens for the autumn event?"

"Ye-ye-yeah!" she stuttered. "There's mushrooms and stuff that you can use to make these new recipes! An-and it's kinda like the Bunny Day event but Zipper isn't there which is a relief because I got tired of the egg thing really fast even though the items were cute but-"

Another clap, and the mental picture of Marinette smacking her hand over her mouth to stop herself from talking filled the model's mind.

Adrien's brows furrowed and his smile fell as the fish slipped away from the lure, his thumb softly rubbing the A button. He looked between his phone and his Switch, guilt knotting in his chest.

It was going to be an awkward interjection, but then again, if he didn't say it, he wouldn't feel comfortable.

"Hey, Marinette," he said, his voice calm and quiet. "Are you okay with playing with me with just the two of us? You don't need to feel like you have to play with me if you don't want to."

"No! No…" A deep breath sounded in the headphones, and Adrien could only picture Marinette at her desk wrestling her nerves under control. "Sorry. I… just don't want to babble on," she breathed, worry clear in her voice.

"It's okay." One side of his mouth lifted higher than the other, and even though Marinette couldn't see him, Adrien gave his dark phone screen a warm grin. "I like hearing you talk, and I don't mind if you talk a lot about the game."

"It's kind of… dorky, you know?"

A chuckle left him as he pulled his line from the ocean and moved his character along the beach. "I won't think less of you if you blab about the game, Marinette. And I can dork it up too, you know."

Bubbly laughter came from her end. "You could never be dorky," she chuckled.

"Oh?" Adrien raised an eyebrow at his phone. "Are you sure? Cause when it comes to taking photos in the game, I can dork it up going on about how you never have the best angle for photos. Comes with having way too much knowledge from modelling. And what are those angles anyway? Really high, regular height, or a low view that works great but can't be shot from the side or diagonally? That puts quite the dampurr on my photo-taking mood. Plus, the filters all depend on the time of day it is for some of them to look their best, and ugh, I could go on and on…"

Marinette stayed quiet for a passing moment.

Adrien tilted his head. "You really sure you're up for playing together? I won't think less of you no matter what you want to do, Marinette. If you don't want to play, it's okay with me. We can always do it another time with more people."

Silence continued to stay in Adrien's headphones.

Guilt weighed in his chest, and Adrien poked his thumb absentmindedly at the A button. A heavy sigh, something he was careful not to do near the mic in his headphones, left his mouth as he nodded his head to his thoughts.

It was okay if Marinette didn't want to play with him. Being on a voice call alone with him was already a lot of progress in their relationship, and while a twinge of disappointment touched his heart, he understood. Maybe if he, Marinette, and Alya had a private game session sometime during the week… maybe then Marinette would be a little more relaxed around him.

He heard her take a deep breath and prepared himself for the inevitable-

"Yeah… Yeah. I can play with you."

Adrien brightened. "Really?" he asked, his voice barely holding back the joy that sparked in him.

"Yes, yes… I'm sorry, Adrien. I… I get a bit… tongue-tied… around you…" he heard a sharp intake of air from her end, and the model could hear the unease in the simple action "Well! Not just you of course! There are tons of others! Like Jagged Stone! Or Chloé's mom! Or your father! But… um… Yeah. I get my words all messed up whenever you're around."

Adrien winced, clapping a palm to his forehead. "Is it the model thing?" he asked, annoyance laced in every word.

Marinette stayed quiet, and he shuffled in his bed as he backtracked. "I mean… crap, I know this sounds really braggy, but I know a lot of fans of mine that get really tongue-tied whenever they talk to me, and they always say it's because I'm famous and they don't know how to talk to famous people."

Fingers sank into soft hair as he rubbed at the side of his head. "God, that sounds really pretentious… But I wanted to ask you if that was it! You always seem a bit uncomfortable around me and I guessed that it was because of the model thing. An-and you know, if you don't feel comfortable answering, then it's okay- What I'm saying is that I'm okay if you get tongue-tied around me, I don't want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable-"

"Yeah!" Marinette's voice suddenly pitched, only for the girl to take a quiet moment to control herself. "Yeah," she said, her voice a lot less stressed. "It-It's because of the model thing."

"Really?"

There was still some uneasiness in her voice, but she was quick to speak again. "I-I-I… didn't know how to tell you, you know?" Marinette relaxed a bit more. "I thought I could get better at keeping myself from blabbing before anyone noticed, but it's… um… you know…"

He laughed softly, warmth gushing in his stomach as a smile rose to his cheeks. "Like I said before, Marinette, it's totally okay. If there's anything I can do to help you feel more comfortable around me, let me know and I can do what I can to help."

A beat of silence passed before she spoke again, and he could picture a soft smile growing on her face as her voice trickled through the speakers. "Okay… Thank you, Adrien…"

One side of his mouth lifted higher than the other, and one of his Chat-like grins spread across his face. "Not a problem. Now, come on over! I caught the weirdest fish today and I gotta show it to you! It nearly gave me a heart attack when I caught it!"

A minute later, green darted across the top of the screen, and the message "Someone is trying to come over" scrolled across the banner before flipping to a little airport information screen.

A huffy laugh came from Marinette as the yellow plane icon blinked. "I still can't get over the fact that you named your island 'Chatty Noir.' I hear he considers himself a pun master… careful not to let him see."

"Ah, ah, ah, you aren't so sneaky yourself." Green eyes stared at Marinette's island's name. "'Lucky Bug…' Now, who's a lucky bug we both know…?"

The plane icon blinked, and as Marinette's soft laughter filled his ears, the screen went dark.

After all the animations ran through, the screen settled back on Adrien's character, and the model made his character tear toward the island's airport. Crunches came from his Switch as his avatar swallowed up the grassy ground beneath them.

Marinette's character, modeled almost exactly like her in the real world, ran up the plank and twirled in a circle. The second Adrien got close enough to her avatar, he flipped his thumb around on the controller.

"Ahhh, here we are!" he whisper-cheered.

"You say that every time someone comes to visit…" Marinette replied, a tease to her shy words.

"I can't help it! I'm always excited when someone comes over." His body scrunched up, shoulders jutting close to his ears as he shuffled up to his Switch. "Oh! Oh! Oh! I have to show you the fish I caught today!"

Marinette's character stopped spinning. "Oh? Show me!"

With a click of the Y button, Adrien pulled up his mini-menu, diving for the massive beast of a sea creature he had caught earlier on in the night. Red, black, and blue scales shimmered as the triumphant sound effect blared from the Switch's speakers, the antennae of the fish close to touching the ground.

"Ta-da! This Oarfish thing made my controller shake so much, I thought for a moment that my Switch was going to break!"

"Oh yeah, the Oarfish!"

Marinette's character tapped at their chin for a moment before bursting out into applause.

The right corner of Adrien's mouth scrunched close to the center as his eyebrows rose. "I'm guessing Miss Lucky Bug already caught one?"

"…Kinda…" Marinette replied, and Adrien could already picture the pink blush coloring her cheeks from the sheepishness in her voice.

The Oarfish disappeared back into Adrien's "pockets," and he poked his tongue out at the screen playfully. "So, how many Oarfish have you caught since you got the game?"

"In total? More than ten definitely, though I caught about three or four today."

Shock caught Adrien's breath, and the boy's cough drew a giggle from Marinette. "Four today? How'd you get so lucky?! It's taken me forever to get this one!"

Marinette's avatar twirled in place as she continued chuckling. "When it rains on the island, you have a higher chance at getting rare fish." She paused, and the model forced a grumpy pout as he watched flowers bloom around her avatar's head. "It rained all afternoon and early evening, and I caught a few of them while the storm was going on."

She laughed as Adrien pulled one of the few Reactions he had, one that had his character bawling their eyes out. "You know…" she began, sounding a little shaky with her words. "If you… want to come over to my island whenever it rains… I could send you an invite?"

"Please do!" Adrien laughed, cutting off his character's crying fit.

Oh, wait.

Ah… now…

"Though, it's a shame you've already caught a whole lot of those fish, Marinette." The Cheshire grin was already curling his mouth, and his eyebrows furrowed as he prepared himself.

"Oh? I… I didn't mean…"

Adrien flicked the Right Trigger as he pulled up more Reactions, hovering over the Smug expression he had gotten from Raymond earlier in the week.

"I guess you could say it's quite a Bore-fish for you!"

Weak? Yes.

Terrible? Something that would make Chat Noir cringe in shame? Absolutely.

But as a loud groan, a snort, and giggles came from Marinette's side as his character posed, the smile stayed strong on his face.

Bad pun, but it got the reaction he wanted.

"Oh, god, don't let Chat Noir hear that one!" Marinette cried. A few more giggles echoed through the speakers as she relaxed. "He'd revoke your island name in a split second."

"He can try, but I'm sure I could get him to look past it."

"Oh?"

His left thumb and index fingers lifted to his chin as he weighed his thoughts. "Maybe he could give me some tips on how to make pawsome puns!"

Another snort let Marinette as her character pulled out a bug net from thin air. "Alright, that one was a little better."

"Told you I could be dorky too, Marinette." A part of him hoped she could feel the giddy joy he was beaming off his smile. "Do you think Chat Noir may accept me under his wing, or would he feel too flighty to teach me some pointers?"

The brightly colored net smacked against his character's head as Marinette dissolved into more giggles. "Stop!" she laughed, thwacking her net against Adrien's character.

"Are you punishing me for making bad puns?" Adrien hit the B button and pushed his character away from Marinette's, taking advantage of the quick pause to grab his net out from his inventory. "Ha! En garde!"

Her net thwacked his character right in the head as he whipped around.

Nets swung and wacked against their heads as both teens fell into giggles of laughter. It only took a moment before Adrien forced his character away from Marinette, whisper-screaming as her character charged after him.

She thundered after him, her battle shout echoing into his ears as he sipped away from her character.

This was it. Finally, Marinette was more comfortable around him, and if he could bottle up all of the wonderful joy that flooded his veins, he would do so in a heartbeat. As his character whipped out their ladder and hurried up the cliffside, Adrien's cheeks began to hurt from the strength of his grin.

"Ahem…"

His smile immediately dropped away, and a sheepish one quickly took its place. Adrien turned his head, looking up to the person he already knew was going to be there.

Nathalie stood at the side of his bed, her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised as she looked down at the glowing game system in his hands. A small purse hung by her hip, and as Adrien looked down at one of the tapping black heels, he gave a weak chuckle.

"Um…" He slowly plucked an earbud from his ear. "Group project for school?" he offered.

Both of Nathalie's eyebrows raised at that, and her blue eyes looked over the rims of her glasses.

"Adrien, you have a very early photoshoot scheduled tomorrow morning." A touch of worry painted her words, and she sighed as her shoulders relaxed ever-so-slightly. "You need to get the rest while you can. If you don't get enough sleep, you'll be a tired wreck by tomorrow afternoon."

Nathalie was right, as she usually was. If he didn't get the rest, he'd have a miserable time keeping himself awake throughout the afternoon lectures.

The game session would have to be saved for another time.

Adrien sighed and raised the mic to his mouth, the sheepish grin still at his mouth as he hit the Minus button. "I'm sorry, Marinette. I didn't mention this before… but I have a photo shoot tomorrow morning. I got to go."

The moment the syllables left his mouth, Marinette jumped in.

"Wait, you have a- Adrien, you need to sleep!"

"You aren't mad?" he asked, pulling out the vowels.

"No! No! But you need to go to bed!" He heard her chair scrape against the floor. "If you don't get to sleep, then you won't look your best for the shoot tomorrow which could mess up the shoot and take longer for you to get to school which could then impact your schoolwork and-"

Adrien excited out of the game as he powered the Switch off. "I'm sure that won't happen," he quickly said, cutting off her worried ramble. "Though if I'm going to sleep, it wouldn't be that bad of an idea for you to also head to bed."

Marinette stuttered on the other side of the line, all half-formed protests, before falling quiet.

"…Alright," she groaned. "But you have to go to sleep after the call is over!"

He choked back a snort as he handed his Switch over to Nathalie, who turned and walked across the room to put his Switch with his other game systems. "I'm pretty sure someone will be making sure I go to sleep after the call. I'll get to bed."

"Promise?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die," he chuckled as he pulled up the Discord messages they were calling on. "Night, Marinette! Have good dreams, and don't let the bugs bite."

As the sound of Nathalie's heels drew close, tease filled Adrien's words. "Except the lucky bugs. Those ones are the good ones."

Marinette's sweet laughter echoed in his ears, and the model could imagine the eye roll she did in response. "Goodnight, Adrien."

His thumb tapped the End Call button and the sound of Marinette's voice cut away.

The goofy smile stayed on his face as he bundled up his headphones and plunked both his phone and earbuds on his nightstand. As he looked to Nathalie, he shrugged.

"You aren't the only one that wants me to go to sleep," he said, rolling over onto his back.

Nathalie's arms crossed again. "I'm glad Miss Dupain-Cheng shares my concerns about your lack of care for your sleep schedule."

"And I shall go to sleep to sate the both of you."

"Good," Nathalie replied, her eyes checking over his black blankets, making sure there wasn't any more bits of technology that would keep him up.

With a roll of his eyes, Adrien tucked his arms under the blankets. "I'll be fine. Goodnight, Nathalie."

She hesitated, double-checking one more time before turning back to one of the doors to his room. Heel clicks echoed around the room, and as light spilled in from the main hall, Nathalie craned her neck for one more look at the young boy.

"Goodnight, Adrien," she said, the ghost of a smile gracing her face. "See you tomorrow morning."

As the door softly clicked shut behind her, Adrien looked up to the high ceiling above him, his mind already replaying his short play time with Marinette.

Warmth spread from his heart through his limbs, and as he ran a hand through his hair, a sense of goofiness settled in his chest.

It had been fun playing with her, and as his eyes closed and sleep began to take affect on him, Adrien hoped Marinette would be up for another game session soon.

Song Inspos: "Champagne and Sunshine" by Tarro & PLVTINUM; "Lemons" by Ashley Tisdale; and "Girls in Bikinis" by Poppy (*cough* I wuv you Nathalie). "Lemons" was the one that really helped me through this, and the soft pop with a positive attitude helped me so much with getting motivation to finish this.

As for updates: I had no energy to write during April, and focusing on adjusting to quarantine was my main focus. May and June were spent playing Animal Crossing and obsessing over another ship that gave me some practice writing for couples again, and now we're here.

I'm planning to finish this collection of oneshots, though there won't be daily updates. We'll basically be taking the slow route, updates every so often, but I plan to get this done before next April! Fingers crossed that it'll go somewhat well.

Up next, Piano Lessons! I can see "sharing a piano bench" as a trope that I'll have to do, and I'm excited to write it out. Until then, thank you for reading, and thank you for all the support! :)

XD