Rumor Has It || Adrienette || ✔️

Part 5

Right on cue, the man of the hour walked in. His years of modeling and acting paid off as he put on an unassuming smile and swung the door wide open. "Honey, I'm hooo..." His voice died down as he took in the site of his two friends glaring down at his heartbroken wife. "Marinette, why are you crying?"

"Adrien, I— I'm sorry!" She burst into tears once again at the sight of him.

He scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. Marinette genuinely looked distraught at the sight of him. Sure, the girl had spent many, many years keeping up her double identity, so her acting skills weren't terrible, but it still wasn't this good. He could tell that his wife was actually upset.

"Marinette, tell me what's wrong," he said softly, pushing Nino and Alya away to crouch by her side. "I'm here."

"Tell him, Marinette," Alya growled. "Tell him what you did."

"Wait," Adrien looked between Marinette and the other couple. "Is this about the Chat Noir thing? Because Marinette and I already talked about it and—"

"It's true," Nino butt in abruptly, "And it's better that you know now. I know it might hurt, but it's better in the long run to—"

Adrien went back to ignoring the two of them and turned his full attention back to his tearful wife. "But why are you crying, sweetheart? It's okay."

"Did you not just hear us?" Alya seethed. "She cheated on you with—"

"But why is she crying?" Adrien exploded. Did their friends really hurt her that much for his sake? He would never want that. Even if Marinette ever did anything to hurt him, he would never retaliate and he would never want someone to retaliate on his behalf.

He swiftly pulled her into a hug and she leaned completely into him as he rose on his knees to envelope her in his arms. Whispering in her ear so no one else could hear, he said, "It's not real, princess. I know you won't hurt me."

Rather than having the calming effect Adrien hoped his words would have, the opposite happened as Marinette began to cry even more. She gripped his shirt tighter and her tears began to soak through the fabric of his cotton button down.

"It's probably the hormones," Alya bit out. "And now, who even knows if it's yours or that mangy cat's baby!"

"Wait." Adrien's head turned a little cloudy as his mind began whirring rapidly; Alya wasn't making any sense. "Hormones?" he asked.

"Pregnancy hormones."

"Pregnancy?" Adrien echoed hollowly. "Hormones."

"Is it?" Alya asked, turning her attention back to Marinette. "Is it Chat Noir's baby?"

"Baby?" Adrien said, his brain still processing everything that was being thrown at him. "We... Marinette, are we..."

Marinette sniffled as she pulled away from her husband. She gave him a small smile and used the back of her wrist to wipe away the tears. "I was trying to find a good moment to tell you. I wanted to surprise you, but yeah, Adrien, you're gonna be a father."

"I..." Adrien blinked, tears of joy welling up in his eyes. "Marinette, we... we're gonna be parents!"

"Yeah." The girl nodded and hugged her husband close once more, more tears falling from both their eyes, but this time for good reasons.

"Um, hello?" Alya said, while Nino cleared his throat awkwardly.

Adrien turned to address them. "Guys, can you leave? We're kinda having a moment here."

"But, Chat Noir..."

"It's not Chat Noir's baby," Adrien butt in, annoyance clear in his tone.

"How do you—"

"Because he's neutered!" Marinette blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

Adrien choked on his spit. "Um, wha—" Marinette elbowed him in the stomach, effectively shutting him up.

Alya and Nino exchanged bewildered glances. "Okay, we don't even wanna know how that works, but you still cheated on your husband, Marinette," Alya said, while Nino exclaimed, "How could you be okay with all of this, Adrien?"

"I'm sleeping with Ladybug!" Adrien let the cat out of the bag.

The two interrogators gasped in sync at the revelation. Marinette took one of the throw pillows laying nearby and stuffed her face into it. The lie train was derailing very, very quickly.

"Yeah," Adrien cleared his throat, blushing a bright red, "So, um, we have an agreement. A Love Square of sorts where we're all, um, happy."

"So, you and Ladybug..." Nino said in disbelief.

"And you and Chat Noir," Alya said, looking at Marinette.

The couple in question nodded slowly, carefully watching the reactions on their friends' faces.

"And the two of you are still together?" Nino continued.

"And so are Ladybug and Chat Noir?" Alya finished.

"Yep," the superhero duo said in sync, popping the 'p'.

"Oh," Alya looked over at her husband, who was rubbing the back of his neck trying to look anywhere but at the other people in the room. "Um, well. We're glad you have an... understanding and um, we support whatever mutual decisions you come up with that works for your relationship. Um... sorry about barging in. Congrats on the... superhero sex..."

Marinette blushed. "Uh, thanks..."

"So, uh," Alya grabbed Nino's hand and began pulling him to the door. "We'll just be... um, okay."

Once the door slammed shut, finally leaving husband and wife alone again, the two of them let out a giant breath of relief and leaned back, melting completely into their soft couch.

"You know, it was your idea to give them a key to our place," Adrien reminded.

"For emergencies!" Marinette groaned, "This is a disaster!"

"I don't think it went too bad." Adrien shrugged. "Alya was a bit too harsh though."

"She was only standing up for you," Marinette defended her friend. "You should probably send her a fruit basket or something."

"For harassing you?"

"For having your back!" Marinette asserted. "I'm glad she and Nino were as forward as they were. I'm glad they tried to protect you and didn't try to justify my actions."

"Yeah, I suppose. They're good people." Adrien frowned. "But they still made you cry."

"Ah," Marinette waved her hand, dismissing the objection. "Like Alya said, it's probably just the pregnancy hormones. Yesterday, I saw two squirrels sharing a stale croissant and I cried for like ten minutes."

"Hmm," Adrien said, "And you have been eating a surprising amount of pickles and peanut butter lately. I feel like I probably should have known sooner."

"They were sharing the pastry," Marinette said, her thoughts still on the two squirrels. Her eyes began to tear up again and she sniffled, "They're probably soulmates who love each other and share everything in life together. I bet they built a home together in the trees at the park and have a nest of babies. They were made for each other! It was just so beautiful!"

Adrien looked at his wife fondly, pulling out a clean handkerchief for her to blow her nose into. "Just think," he said lovingly, "in a couple of months we could have a little Adrien or a little Chat Noir running around this little house."

"Oh, shut up, Adrien. Plus, rumor has it that the kitty doesn't have any—"

"I can't believe you told them that!"

***

The End