#also hei mao was SUPPOSED to be underlines

[apopcornkernel]

The Language Barrier (Isn’t That High)

@galahadwilder this is all your fault.

i’m studying mandarin so like i HAD to do this. also for the sake of my sanity i wrote “english“ because writing “french” would be confusing af.

Marinette was bad at Mandarin. 

Period.

There was a good reason why she'd needed Adrien's help to even just communicate with her great-uncle. 

I mean, she could speak Chinese, in a sense. She could speak Wenzhounese. A Chinese dialect. It was different, though; very different.

But the divide between the two Chinese dialects wasn't that large—even though the various intonations and pronunciations vastly differed, one thing stayed similar. 

Mandarin, Wenzhounese, Hokkien, and all those other dialects—most of them were all written the same way.

Adrien, naïve as he was, hadn't known this.

Which was why he, in his ignorance, had written a rather revealing note to Marinette in Chinese, thinking his secrets were safe because Marinette couldn't understand Mandarin, right?

(Oh, sunshine child. Poor, dumb, sunshine child.)

The letter itself was simple. Straight to the point.

But its contents… world-shattering. Mind-blowing.

He'd given it to Marinette right before she'd gone home, with a cheeky wink and a smile that promised mischief. She'd taken it with a blush, cheerfully acquiescing to his request to only open it when she got home. Ignoring the sly look in his eyes, because what harm was there in a little note?

She should've known. She should've known it was more than just a “little note.”

Marinette's hands trembled as she reread the blocky Chinese characters for the nth time, struggling to make sense of what has just happened.

我知道你不會說普通話,可是我是黑貓和我愛上了你, it read, Adrien's too-wide pictographs huddling together on the torn half of a notebook page.

Or, in English:

I know you can’t understand Mandarin, but I am Chat Noir and I’m in love with you.

Her eyes frantically scanned the line of text one more time, unwilling to believe what she was reading. 

Adrien was Chat Noir? Adrien was in love with her?

No. No, this couldn't be possible, it couldn't—

But what if it was?

She envisioned his sunny hair, his green eyes. Compared it to Chat's. Imagined mussing his hair up a little, to get that signature shaggy look Chat sported. Mentally drew a mask and a pair of cat ears.

The similarities were startlingly clear.

Well, crap.

Gulping for air, she finally let the note drop to her desk as she cradled her head in her hands.

Adrien was Chat Noir. Chat Noir was Adrien. It was undeniable now.

Tikki drifted towards her, alarmed by her holder's sudden silence. "Marinette? Are you… are you okay?"

"Wait. I need some silence. I just need to digest this, Tikki," she mumbled weakly.

Tikki nodded, then zipped out of the field of her vision.

Her gaze landed on that note again.

我愛上了你。

He said he was in love with her.

Adrien. In love with her.

She hardly dared to believe it. Adrien being Chat Noir was a big enough coincidence, one she felt insanely lucky for. But Adrien falling for her? That required luck of massive proportions. Divine intervention. There was no way he could be both Chat and in love with her. That was too much for even her imagination to fathom.

But the carefully written characters said otherwise.

Marinette bit her lip. That didn’t make it any more believable to her. Besides, she reasoned, he could be playing a prank, like the time he’d pretended to be a statue in the wac museum. She couldn’t help but wince at the recollection of that incident. It had been so embarrassing.

She exhaled. Maybe a second opinion would help. “Tikki?”

Tikki promptly flew in front of her. “Yes?”

“Do you think Adrien would ever play a prank on me?” When the kwami cocked her head in curiosity, as if she knew there was more to it than that, she elaborated, “Like, a prank where he told me he was Chat Noir and that he was in love with me?”

But instead of freaking out like Marinette had thought Tikki would, the kwami grinned. “Finally! I’m so happy for you two!” she chirped, bouncing on the desk with excitement.

Marinette’s mouth fell open. “So… so he really is Chat Noir?” she asked weakly. 

“Yes!” 

“And he’s… in love with me?”

“Apparently so!”

Marinette fell back onto her chair, sinking into the soft cushion. “And… you’re okay with this? That he revealed himself?” she asked timidly, almost afraid to hope.

Tikki did a somersault in happiness. “Of course I am! It’s about time!”

“So… Adrien loves me,” she murmured. “Adrien is Chat. Adrien loves me… he loves me!”

She squealed, hands cupping her cheeks as she finally embraced the revelation. “Oh my gosh, Tikki, how have I been so lucky! Ahhh!”

Tikki giggled. “Well, you are Ladybug, who’s pretty much the embodiment of good luck.”

Marinette laughed. “That’s true.” Suddenly, she sat up straight, hit with an idea. 

“Tikki! I should answer him!” A grin full of mischief slowly spread across her face. “Oh, his expression will be priceless when he realizes I could actually understand what he wrote.”

Tikki’s eyes widened, her normally innocent gaze now sparkling with mischief. “Ooh, why don’t you write something like ‘I’m Ladybug, and I’m in love with you too’?”

Snatching up a pen, she nodded eagerly at her kwami’s suggestion. “Perfect! Now, hold on...”

Slowly, painstakingly, she wrote a reply underneath his message, taking care to make each character as beautiful and graceful as possible. 

Special care was given to the word「愛」。 

Love.