#but then i kinda went overboard and eventually liked the pose enough to make another fullbody shot of him

[quirkle2]

he can't sleep so he's choosing to look cool under moonlight instead

[a-solitary-marshmallow]

Do No Harm Take No Shit Chapter 4: You, Me Some Mew-vies

Take two. He’d failed after school, but there was nothing stopping him from asking out Marinette that evening.

Adrien had planned it out – how he would introduce the topic, where they would go, how they would get there. He’d kept track of some of her favourite things and planned to incorporate them on the way. Only the best for Marinette – their first date had to be unforgettable.

He’d spent half an hour in front of the mirror, psyching himself up. He’d asked Marinette out before as Chat Noir – this was no different. So why did glancing at his phone send butterflies through his stomach?

Adrien shook his head and strode over to his bed, picking up his phone from the covers. Marinette’s contact was pink with a smily face after her name – that wasn’t quite right. It needed a heart, at least. Adrien quickly edited it to read ‘Love of my Life’ with three heart emojis after it. Keeping it cool, obviously.

Adrien clicked call.

He turned to face the darkening Paris skyline through his window as the phone rung once, twice, thrice. On the fifth ring there was a click, a rustle, and then Marinette’s clear voice rang through like a bell.

 “Adrien! Hi. I wasn’t expecting a call from you, is everything okay?”

 “Everything’s fine.” Adrien hurried to assure her. “It’s just, there was something I was going to ask you after school today that I forgot to do.”

 “Hmm?” Another shift, as if Marinette was currently sifting through fabrics at her work table? His lady was always working, never still, even with a broken arm and masses of homework to catch up on. God he loved her. “Sure.”

 “So.” Come on, Agreste.

 “So.” Marinette echoed.

 “There’s this movie coming out in a few days, and I was thinking… um, well, as well as that…” His plan was crumbling! “Okay basically I was wondering if you’d want to go on a date with me?”

 Marinette squeaked, and then there was clatter and a rustle. Adrien held his breath as the rustling continued. She grabbed the phone and put it up to her ear again. “A-A date?”

 ‘I made a mistake. This was too soon. Maybe she doesn’t like me anymore now she knows I’m Chat Noir. Maybe it was just a crush and she doesn’t want anything serious. Maybe-‘

 “I would love to!” Marinette blurted out. “I – yes, I’d love to go out with you, Adrien.”

His face burned. He turned away from a snickering Plagg, trying to calm the rapid beating of his heart. “Really?”

“Of course.” Marinette giggled. The sound of it was like bells. Adrien’s smile stretched so wide that it hurt.

“Okay! Um, can I pick you up on Saturday? You don’t have anything on then, do you?”

“No, I’m free then.” Adrien could hear the grin in Marinette’s voice. “What time?”

“Is nine in the morning okay?”

“Definitely.”

“Great.” Adrien breathed. “So, it’s a date?”

“Yeah. It is.” More rustling. “Oh, Adrien? Can we… keep this a secret? Just for a bit. I mean, Alya’s always kinda gotten into my business – I love her, of course, but she can go a little overboard sometimes, and I want to figure this out with just us. Does that make sense?” She groaned at her own clumsy wording.

“Definitely!” Adrien blurted. “Yeah, we can keep it a secret for a bit.”

“Maybe just until next Monday? After our date.”

Hearing her say the word ‘date’ made Adrien’s heart sing. He nodded, before realizing she couldn’t see him. “That sounds like a good idea.” And he couldn’t help adding, “Though it’ll be hard not to sweep you off your feet during school, this cat will try his best.”

Marinette laughed. “He’d better! Alya already interrogated me about when you picked me up at the hospital.”

“Picked you up, huh? So you admit my pickup lines work?”

“Ugh, Adrien!” Marinette snorted.

He grinned and teased, “You know you love my jokes.”

“They’re so bad.”

“That why you love them, Bugaboo.”

“I hate that you’re right.” She groaned good-naturedly. On the other end of the line Adrien heard a faint call. “Oh, my parents want me down. Are you driving me into school tomorrow? You know, I’m the hero of Paris, I’m capable of walking.”

“Now what kind of prince would I be if I let my princess walk?”

“Pfft.” Marinette snorted. “Ugh, worst one yet. I’ll see you then.”

“Okay then! I’ll – I’ll see you tomorrow, Marinette.”

“Goodnight, Chaton.”

A click, and the call ended. Adrien pressed his forehead to his window to cool the burning in his face. He was going on a date. With Marinette Dupain-Cheng. He was the luckiest cat alive. Now all he had to do was make sure it went well. How could the plan fail when it was so well thought through?

   “Plagg! I didn’t think this through!”

“You’re telling me.” Plagg yawned from Adrien’s pillow, while Adrien paced rapidly from window to window, pausing every so often to glance at his watch and then pacing a little bit faster. Saturday morning, and he hadn’t thought about this yet? Where had the time gone?

“What am I supposed to wear? She’s a fashion designer, Plagg. I can’t look like an idiot in front of her.”

“It’s not like you wear a skintight leather cat suit most days.”

“That’s different and you know it!”

Plagg groaned. “You know your father’s a famous fashion designer, right? Why don’t you just go ask him?”

“He already gave permission for me to be out today, I don’t need to jinx that. And besides, that’s him! I want to choose what I wear today, and it has to be perfect.”

At Plagg’s insistent whining Adrien finally picked out an outfit – a salmon shirt under a light grey jacket, and dress pants. You couldn’t go too wrong with that, right? Right???

Somehow he made it into the limousine in one piece, flowers and all. Adrien hadn’t really had anyone to go to for advice, so he’d resorted to Google for answers and ended up on a page about flower meanings. Blue roses for love at first sight, red roses for passion, orange tulips for happiness, and pink carnations simply because they reminded him of her. It looked kind of messy and Plagg had laughed, but hopefully Marinette would like them?

The Gorilla pulled up to the Dupain-Cheng bakery at nine on the dot. Adrien hurriedly straightened his jacket and hurried out to knock on the door, bouquet in hand.

“Kid, chill out.” Plagg whispered from his pocket. Adrien vibrated with nerves. Ugh, he was taking this too far wasn’t he? The flowers were too much. He’d almost made up his mind to toss them away when there was a click and the door swung open.

Tom Dupain towered over him with a brilliant smile. Adrien stood caught in its beam. Well, now he knew where Marinette got her room-lighting grin from.

“Adrien! So nice to see you. Marinette’s just getting ready, she’ll be out in a minute. Are those flowers? Oh, Sabine, come and see what the Agreste boy got our Marinette!”

Adrien felt his face flush as Mrs. Cheng poked her head out and ‘awwww’ed.

“So, what time do you expect to be back?” Tom asked cheerfully.

“Er, we were going to have lunch, so three?”

Marinette appeared around her father with rolling eyes and a cute white blouse, with black patterns to match the signatures on her cast. Her pink skirt fluttered around her legs as she stepped out onto the street.

“Papa, I already told you when I’ll be back.”

“I was just checking!” The giant man defended. Marinette turned her gaze to Adrien and froze, freckled cheeks darkening in a blush. Adrien gulped and mustered all his Chat Noir suaveness (it may have actually been dorkiness but he didn’t care right now) to bow and hold out the bouquet with a cheeky smile.

“For Milady.”

Tom and Sabine cooed. Marinette hesitantly took the flowers. Electricity zinged through Adrien’s arm when their hands touched. Marinette coughed and squeaked out, “You look really good Adrien.”

“I was just about to say the same thing.”

The two teens may have stood there all day, blushing, if Tom hadn’t plucked the flowers from Marinette’s grasp with an, “I’ll put these in water.” The movement startled them out of their state and Marinette shyly lifted one arm. Adrien looped his elbow through it and led her to the limousine.

“So.” Marinette said as Adrien opened up the door. “Do I get to know what we’ll be doing today?”

“Not yet. It’s a surprise.” Adrien climbed in after her and nodded to the Gorilla in the mirror. His trusty bodyguard nodded back and pulled out onto the street with a rumble, the car quickly slotting into traffic. Marinette hummed and cracked open her purse to hear Tikki’s whisper.

“Plagg told me about it, Marinette. You’ll love it.”

“Plagg!” Adrien objected, scandalized. Plagg snickered from his pocket. “How could you?”

“Top ten anime betrayals.” Marinette giggled. Adrien fixed a glare at the lump in his jacket.

“Well, if the stinky sock in the room is just going to spoil it, I’ll tell you our first destination for today. We’re going to find Andre and get special ice cream.”

Marinette clapped excitedly, and the sight of her face was more than enough to make Adrien smile again. “Do you have the clue?”

“Ready and waiting.” Adrien presented his phone’s screen, which held the first clue that would eventually lead to the whereabouts of Paris’s renound ice-cream vender. Well, Adrien could have just checked social media for spoilers – but half the fun of it was figuring out the mystery! “And I came prepared.”

Marinette sent him a questioning look. Adrien grinned and pulled out the black jacket, hat and sunglasses he’d placed there earlier.

“It’s a disguise.” He explained, slipping on the sunglasses. “So we don’t get mobbed.” Adrien struck a pose. “How to I look?”

“Like a huge dork.” Marinette said affectionately.

“But I’m your dork.”

“Next time, please let me choose your disguise. I love you, Adrien, but you are terrible at disguises.”

She loves me. Adrien flushed to the tips of his ears. Marinette didn’t seem to have realized what she said, because she was still laughing and poking out her tongue adorably. Adrien put on his best Chat Noir smirk.

“Oh, so there’ll be a next time?”

“Of course there will be, you dumb cat! Now, let’s see that clue.” Marinette leaned over to look at his phone screen. Adrien held it away from her teasingly.

“Well, if you’re gonna be like that, maybe I don’t want to share.”

Marinette’s hand went up, and too late did Adrien realise she wasn’t reaching for the phone. Her hand landed in his hair and scratched teasingly right behind his ear – a dirty move, she knew that was his weak spot! Adrien couldn’t stop the purr from escaping his chest. He leaned into the contact, rumbling. Marinette cackled and snatched the phone from his distracted hands.

“Hey! No fair!”

Adrien pouted, until she leaned over to place her head on his shoulder. She was too cute to not forgive! Adrien caved and read the clue with her. He hummed in thought.

“The park, maybe?”

“Maybe. Or near a shopping centre? It’s kind of ambiguous.”

“Then I guess we’ll just have to go exploring.”