That Night

Chapter 19

By the time lunch came around Marinette and Adrien had received countless questions regarding their new relationship status. They answered each question vaguely, yet with affection for each other. They found a spot to sit in front of the school under the shade of a tree and they sat together as close to one another as they could, with hands clasped. Both of their best friends were quick to sick down in front of them and look at them with eager, questioning eyes.

"So, tell me what happened? How are you guys together now?" Alya rushed out desperately. Nino nodded in emphatic agreement.

"Well..." Marinette looked at Adrien. He squeezed her hand as he nodded, signaling that it was ok to reveal their secret. "Alya," she looked at her friend. "I already told you my secret." She waited for a look of confirmation from her best friend. "But there's more." Alya's eyes widened.

Adrien continued. "Before that," he looked at his friend who was perplexed with all this talk of secrets, "Nino, I want to prepare you. This is going to be crazy and unbelievable, but its all real and I want you to know about it because you're important to me." Nino was still confused but he nonetheless nodded for them to continue.

The new couple looked around them in unison to make sure they were alone, almost as if they had planned it (which they didn't) and then, again in unison, looked back to the other couple.

Adrien looked to Marinette, encouraging her to begin. "Alya already knows this," Alya's eyes widened as she realized what her friend was going to say. Was she really going to reveal it to Nino? Why him?

Marinette continued. "But I am Ladybug," she said quietly, but steadily.

Nino's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He looked between his girlfriend and her best friend. "For real?" he asked Alya, confirming that she had in fact been told this and had come to terms with it. She nodded eagerly. "Wow," he muttered under his breath.

"Wait, wait." Alya interrupted, whispering loudly. "If he knows that you're Ladybug," she nudged her head towards Adrien, "then does he know that..." She trailed off, looking down at Marinette's stomach.

"Shhh." Marinette held up her index finger in her friend's face. "We'll get to that." Alya scrunched her eyebrows together in thought, trying to figure out what all this could mean, but gave in and did not ask any more questions.

"Yah, so there's that," Adrien surmised. "There's also the fact that..." He took a deep breath, closing his eyes to prepare himself. "I am Chat Noir." He slowly opened one eye and found his best friend trying with all his might to figure out what was going on and putting everything together. He looked over and found Alya excitedly squeezing Marinette by the shoulders. Both of his eyes suddenly popped open when he heard her squeal.

"Oh my gosh!" she proclaimed, "Adrien is the father?" She was practically screaming. Groups of people from the other end of the school yard looked over at them questioningly.

"Yes, yes," Marinette quickly explained. "Now please stop yelling."

Alya continued, her voice only slightly quieter. "Adrien, the guy that you've been crushing on for nearly four years, is your partner, Chat Noir?" Marinette buried her face in her hands in embarrassment. "Adrien, the guy you've been pining over for your whole high school career, is the father of your baby?" She shook her head in wonderment.

In contrast to Marinette's reaction Adrien was grinning from ear to ear. "Isn't it great? All this time we have loved each other, but have denied it because we loved the other, but in a different form." He nodded at his friends, waiting for them to think through what he said and figure out the meaning behind it.

Marinette sighed and shook her head slowly. She looked up. "Well Nino, that was the other thing I was going to tell you." She sent a pointed looked to her friend who couldn't keep her mouth shut. "Your best friend, also known as Chat Noir, is the father of my baby."

She shrugged and then chuckled at the antics of her friends. While Alya was sitting there, probably planning her and Adrien's wedding and the baby shower, Nino was still just sitting there with the same blank look. She looked to Adrien and they laughed.

"I think we broke him," Adrien joked. He began speaking in a robotic voice, poking his friend with each word. "Too much input. Does not compute."

Nino shook himself out of his reverie and snarkily stuck his tongue out at his friend. "Whatever dude." They all laughed together.

- - -

Adrien called Nathalie after school and was not surprised to find out that his father had been busy last night and had not even realized that he hadn't come home. He was also going to be busy that night, so Nathalie gave him permission to have dinner elsewhere.

He ended the call and walked toward Marinette. She immediately noticed his slumped shoulders and his frown. "What wrong Adrien? Can you not come to dinner tonight?"

He sighed and shook his head. "No, I'll be there." He smiled sadly. "It's just my father..." He trailed off. "He's never home and so he never sees me. He didn't even know that I didn't come home last night and now he's not going to know that I will be home late tonight, if I come home at all." He muttered the last part under his breath.

"Oh, baby," Marinette cooed. She reached out and hugged her boyfriend, squeezing him tightly. "I know that you experience a lot of disappointment with your dad, but just remember that no matter what happens you will always, always have me. I will be with you no matter what happens and no matter what your father thinks of you. I love you and always will." She pulled back and smiled at him softly.

Adrien's lip started to quiver, and he grabbed her to pull her back into a hug. They just stood there in each other's embrace, not caring, or even noticing, that the occasional person was leaving the school and walking past them curiously.

As Adrien soaked up all of Marinette's love and found comfort in her presence, he let several tears slip from his eyes. It was true that he didn't trust his father to be consistent in any way besides his constant absence, but he knew that Marinette would always remain steady, she would never disappoint him. He finally pulled back and gave her a gentle kiss on her cheek.

The corner of her mouth quirked up. "Come on Adrien. Why don't we go to my house and we can work on homework until it is time for dinner. Maybe you can help me make dinner." She wiggled her eyebrows at him comically.

He grinned. "Thank you, that sounds perfect." They walked to the bakery, their clasped hands swinging between them.

They let go of each other's hands before they entered the bakery. "Hey Mama," Marinette spoke. "This is Adrien, the boy I told you about, the one who's joining us for dinner."

Sabine smiled. "Oh, hello Adrien. It is nice to see you again."

"We're going to go upstairs and work on homework and make dinner."

Sabine nodded. "Ok sweetheart, we'll see you guys at dinner."

Adrien and Marinette headed up the stairs. When they made it to Marinette's room they sat on the chaise. Adrien leaned toward Marinette and she let him kiss her several times. But then her conscience got the better of her and she pulled away. "Come on, we better do what we said we were going to do. We have a lot of homework to do to make up for all the days we've missed."

Adrien sighed as he pulled back. "The consequences of being the heroes of Paris." He shared a grin with her before they pulled out their things and got to work.