Chapter Text
Prologue
The reporters were crowded around the entrance to the Louvre, waiting for either the cops or the thieves to tell them what had happened. Surprisingly, the cops were the first ones out the door, and even more surprising was the announcement that while the alarms had gone off and there were signs of a break-in, nothing had actually been stolen. Traces of Le Paon had been found, but they had double checked everything, and concluded that for once, he and Mariposa had been forced to escape empty-handed. As the reporters began to buzz with questions, two figures slowly made their way back to the Agreste mansion under the cover of darkness.
Chapter 1
At 7:00 AM, Marinette Dupain-Cheng woke up, rolled over, and turned off her alarm, before rolling over to go back to bed.
“Marinette! You’re going to be late for your briefing!” Tikki said, pulling at the covers with all the strength the kwami could muster.
“Just five more minutes, Tikki” she said, curling tighter into the bed. “I can still make it if I run…”
“No, you can’t! We’ve been through this before, you have to get up at seven if you want to shower and have breakfast before work.” Letting go of the covers, Tikki said “Alya has your coffee ready in the kitchen, but it’ll get cold if you stay in bed much longer….”
“Thanks Alya!” The door slams behind Marinette as she runs down the stairs, late once again. She arrived at the police station only a minute or two later, but very out of breath. “Good morning Sabrina! Sorry I’m late!” Still in a rush, she left her bag at her desk and hurried to the meeting room. She walked in to find it empty, except for a handsome blonde, who looked like he would be at home married to any of the models in this year’s fashion show. “Good morning, monsieur….?”
“Adrien, and good morning to you too, Madame…?” He smiled, and Marinette could feel her cheeks start to warm. It had been a long time since she and Luka had broken up, and someone this handsome smiling at her? It just wasn’t fair!
“Marinette. Madame Dupain-cheng was my mother’s name.” She giggled nervously, and promptly sat down as Sabrina walked in and put a file on the table between them.
“Detectives, your next case will be on another one of the ‘Phantom Thief’ incidents. The room is yours for as long as you need. Marinette, I’ve given Adrien the desk next to yours as part of the transfer. Once you’re done here, show him around the station. Good luck.” With that, Sabrina walked out, even busier now that she was down an officer. “We’re still on for lunch tomorrow, right Mari?”
“Sure thing! See you later!” As the door closed behind her, Adrien opened up the case file. Marinette turned back to him just in time to see his eyebrows shoot up.
“Well, would you look at that!” He spun the file around, and with growing horror she saw her own face smiling back at her. “She gave us the Ladybug case.” Slightly panicking, Marinette jumped at the chance to focus on something, anything, other than Ladybug, and quickly honed in on the other photo in the file.
“You mean the Chat Noir case!” Still panicking, she missed his tiny flinch at her focus on the dastardly cat. “Now, since we’ll be focusing on Chat Noir first, we should go to his last crime scene.” She slammed the file shut and started for the door.
“You’re not going to show me around first? Adrien’s incredulous voice cut her off with her hand on the door. “Sorry, I just…need a tour, is all. First day here!” And he laughed. He laughed! Marinette decided she didn’t like her new colleague.
All day! He hadn’t let her get started on tracking down Chat Noir ALL DAY! Adrien had kept her so preoccupied she hadn’t even been able to get out the door to their crime scene. At least she’d be able to go home and vent to Alya about it.
As she opened the door, Marinette quickly realized two things. First: She had forgotten to check the weather this morning! Second: Her umbrella was at home. Again.
She sighed, bundled herself in her coat, and prepared to make a run for it.
“Marinette!” She jumped as someone’s hand landed on her shoulder from behind. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Adrien drew his hand back sheepishly. “I just wanted to say: thank you for putting up with me earlier. I know you really wanted to go after Chat Noir, but I would have been lost without you today, so…thank you!”
“It’s alright, I guess. Just be ready for when we go after him tomorrow, got it?”
“About that…” He trailed off, and casually suggested “You seem really fixated on catching him, is it alright if I leave that to you?” Apparently, her complete betrayal wasn’t what he was after, because he continued.
“Not that I’d be slacking, of course, I’d just really rather focus on catching Ladybug! She seems like a much bigger threat than Chat does to me, so I was wondering if we could just split the work down the middle? ‘I’ll stay out of your way if you stay out of mine’ kind of deal?”
Marinette had to admit, as far as deals that didn’t involve her secret identity went, that wasn’t a terrible one! Unfortunately, this particular deal had a little bit more on the line, so if she wanted to stay out of cuffs she was going to have to figure something else out.
“No, it’s fine. We can work on them together.” Marinette steeled herself. “We can start on Ladybug in the morning if you want. See you tomorrow, Adrien.”
“That sounds great!” Adrien stepped out the door, but turned back a moment later. “One last thing? It seems like you’ll need this more than I will.” He tossed something at her, and Marinette caught it on autopilot. “See you tomorrow Marinette!”
As Marinette processed the fact he’d just thrown her his umbrella, Adrien dashed to his car and drove away.