Chapter Text
To everyone's surprise, his own included, it's Nino who gets caught first.
Well, technically, it's Wayzz that gets caught first.
Wayzz and Nino can't change anywhere near Master Fu's without putting their master in danger, after all, so Nino sometimes goes to the apartment to transform, and one night he stumbles in exhausted after a difficult battle without checking his surroundings thoroughly enough.
It's very quickly clear that he wasn't the only one to have that idea.
Marinette and Adrien must have beaten him back by a significant amount of time, because it's Ladybug and Chat Noir who fling their bedroom door open to find Nino scrounging through the kitchen-
-and Wayzz on the table in plain sight.
"Nino?" Ladybug says blankly, staring straight at Wayzz.
"Um," Nino says.
"I have to leave, right now, immediately, for unrelated reasons," Wayzz offers, and Nino turns a betrayed stare on his kwami, who yelps softly and dives behind the toaster.
The toaster does not hide him.
"Um," Chat Noir says.
"What was that?" Ladybug says, voice low and dangerous as she leans on her partner, both of them halfway out their door. Nino's not even sure why they're here tonight. The battle was twenty minutes ago, it's not like them to transform back and come here so quickly.
"It's nothing?" Nino tries.
From somewhere out of sight, he hears the familiar sound of Trixx snickering, and his heart sinks. Alya isn't supposed to be back yet, either. He knew they all took the battle hard but- he didn't think they'd all have to come back here to patch each other up. From even just a quick glance at his friends (he doesn't really want to look them in the eyes just yet), he can tell that's why they're here. Miraculous Cure heals their injuries, but it can still leave them sore and aching, and Chat Noir is limping and Ladybug is clenching and unclenching one hand as though trying to shake the pain out.
Which means Chat Noir's already in a down mood. Nino doesn't want to do this.
"Nino. Was that Wayzz?" Ladybug asks, narrowing her eyes.
"No?" Nino tries again, trying not to sound desperate. He doesn't think he's succeeding.
"Wait, you know Wayzz?" Chat Noir asks, his tail starting to lash in agitation. Sometimes it's nice that his body language is so easy to read. Right now is not one of those times.
"Why do you have Wayzz?" Ladybug says. If she had a tail, it would be lashing, too.
"You both know Wayzz?" Chat Noir says, ears slowly flattening back.
"I can explain?" Nino offers, and this time he knows he sounds desperate.
"Can you?" Ladybug says. "Is Master Fu all right?"
"You know Master Fu?" Chat Noir says. "Does everyone know everyone else except me?" He pads into the living room with Ladybug at his heels, staring past Nino at the toaster. He doesn't look happy.
Nino fights back a groan of despair.
Wayzz peers over the toaster and offers tentatively, "My master is doing well. He simply wished for me to start spending more time with the young master, including your recreational time."
"Yeah, and I assumed that was what would get us caught," Nino says, giving in and accepting defeat. There's no hiding his kwami now. "I was being responsible this time. We thought Wayzz should recharge before I brought him home."
"It was a good thought," Wayzz acknowledges, finally emerging from behind the toaster and flitting over to settle on Nino's shoulder. "It's not your fault, young master. This was inevitable."
"Please don't call me young master," Nino says reflexively.
Wayzz doesn't acknowledge that any more than he ever does, continuing instead, "Please don't direct your anger at my chosen. He was under fairly strict instruction from Master Fu not to reveal his identity."
"Does Alya know?" Ladybug demands.
While Nino is still trying- with very limited success- to figure out how to answer that, Trixx comes flying in at speed and renders it a moot point.
"Yes!" the little fox kwami chirps, bobbing through the air, then spinning in place and giggling. "Yes, yes! He is the Guardian, and he is the chosen of my chosen- he has to know!"
"Trixx! Trixx, we talked about this, you can't just-" Alya comes scrambling out of their bathroom, her hair a mess and her shirt badly buttoned, and freezes when she sees the tableau in the living room. "Um. Is there any way I can hope nobody saw and or heard that?"
"Alya?" Chat Noir says faintly. His eyes are very wide and very bright.
"Uh," Alya says. "Sorry, Ladybug, Trixx kind of... darted off on their own." Trixx darts over to perch on Alya's shoulder in a mirror of Wayzz and Nino, still giggling.
"My lady," Chat Noir says, hurt, starting to crouch in reaction. (Nino has to stop himself from reaching for him- that's for Ladybug to do, not him- and he sees Alya reel in the same movement in the same moment). Chat Noir starts to lean into Ladybug's side from pure habit, but jerks away. "You knew."
"It wasn't my secret to tell," Ladybug says anxiously as she does reach for her partner. "You know that, kitten. Master Fu asked me to keep secrets, too. I had no idea Nino was Carapace." She stops and rubs at her mask with her free hand. "Is Carapace. You've been..." She trails off. "We've been here this whole time?"
Nino's eyes are still on Chat Noir, but if he notices Marinette's slip he gives no sign of it.
"Welcome to the Apartment of Solitude," Alya says dryly. "Or, well, anti-solitude as it were. Ladybug, will you please hug your cat, his sad face is going to kill me and I do not want that on my headstone."
"Hey," Chat Noir starts, but Ladybug does immediately go to him to haul him up and hug him. He looks at first like he wants to resent it but he burrows into her arms in the end. "Sorry, LB. This is... a lot." He glances up at her hopefully. "Does this mean we can tell each other?"
"Oh, kitten," Ladybug says, stroking his hair, hugging him impossibly closer. "It would still put our loved ones in danger."
"Ladybug," he says very softly, and she stills at her full name, at the wrecked sound of his voice. Nino is beginning to feel kind of voyeuristic now, but, well, they act kind of like this a lot and they've never seemed to care before if there was an audience. The stakes are just a little higher this time, that's all. "Nearly all my loved ones are here."
Nino winces. He knew that, he's pretty sure, but it's different to hear Adrien say it.
It's only now that he has that Nino realises he hadn't really thought he ever would. Nino may know Gabriel Agreste is a dick, but the man is still Adrien's father. But- even Adrien can only handle one-sided affection for so long before he retreats to the people who actually express love for him in return. Knowing Adrien, he still does love his father, but he probably believes by now that the man doesn't love him in return. Not like the people he spends his time with.
Not like them. Not like Ladybug.
"Kitty," Ladybug says again, holding him tighter. He buries his face in her shoulder, hands balled into fists at his side- always a worrying posture for him to take, with his claws. They've all seen those claws draw blood before, if only under extenuating circumstances. "Chat Noir. Oh, kitten, I'm so sorry, I never thought-"
Light starts sparking at her feet. Then at his.
Alya and Nino both take startled steps back.
Their friends haven't noticed yet; they both have their eyes closed, murmuring to each other, and Nino doesn't particularly want to listen in on what's clearly a private moment even though it isn't like they don't both know that Nino and Alya, and Wayzz and Trixx, are all right here. He thinks there's a good chance they've forgotten that, anyway. Wayzz and Nino may have been the catalysts, but they're not what's important right now.
The lights move up- the lights go out, leaving Marinette standing there with Adrien in her arms. Nino is afraid to breathe, and judging by the look on her face, so is Alya.
"Hey, kid," Plagg says, and Adrien jumps in place but doesn't open his eyes. "Yeah, gettin' tired of this. It was fun at first, but this has gotten dumb. Right, Tikki?"
"He's right," the other kwami says, perching on Marinette's head. "He's rude about it, but he's right. It's time."
"On the count of three, Chat Noir?" Marinette says quietly.
"Y-yeah." He takes a deep breath.
Alya steps slowly backwards until she reaches Nino's side and takes his hand, never taking her eyes off their friends. She wants to burn this moment into her memory. She wants to record it so she can replay it over and over.
She wants her friends to be happy, more than anything.
"One," Marinette says, tilting her head down, pressing her forehead to Adrien's.
"Two," Adrien says, taking another deep breath, shuddering in her arms. It's strange to see that, without the masks. It feels like they've shifted just a little left of normal.
"Three," Marinette says, and opens her eyes, and gasps.
Adrien doesn't open his eyes, brows furrowing instead as he holds Ladybug tighter.
"It's you," Marinette breathes, softly, joyously. Then, even softer, "Of course- oh, of course it's you. Who else could it be?"
"My lady?" Adrien says uncertainly.
"Oh, mon minou," she says, reaching up to scratch behind where his ears would be if he were transformed. "Please open your eyes." Marinette's voice is steady. She doesn't panic like Nino had halfway feared; even without Tikki's direct influence she's still Ladybug right now, and Ladybug is talking to Chat Noir, not to Marinette's hopelessly unrequited crush. (Of course it had been unrequited- because Adrien is in love with Ladybug).
Very, very slowly, Adrien's eyes crack open.
Then he sees Marinette's face, and his eyes fly open. "It's you!" He starts to smile, even as his eyes start to water. "It's- it's you. Of course it is, it was always going to be you."
Marinette laughs, flushing. "Kitty, we're so dumb."
"Yeah you are," Plagg says, circling them in agitation. "Do you have any idea how painful this has been?"
"Plagg, you knew?" Marinette says, amused. Her eyes are beginning to shine as well.
"Since Dark Owl." Plagg stops to hover and squint at her. "Hey, you know my name."
Adrien reaches up and gently takes hold of Plagg. "Of course she does, Plagg. You're my kwami and my friend- you're important to me."
"Hey," Alya says. "Does this mean Trixx can finally stay with me? I miss them when they're not around."
Marinette laughs again. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess... that wasn't very nice of me."
"Really wasn't," Nino agrees, reaching up so that Wayzz jumps from his shoulder to his hand. "The rest of us had a lot more choice in it."
"You both knew," Adrien says. It's not a question, but it also doesn't sound angry. He sounds, if anything, relieved, and maybe a little wondering. He might just be happy to know that all his friends and teammates are here and safe.
He'd said nearly all his loved ones. Nino wonders if this brings it up to all.
"We figured it out," Alya admits. "Master Fu confirmed it for us, but we'd already known for a while. Don't get too worried about it- apparently magic keeps most people from connecting the dots." She grins.
Marinette groans. "Please don't start."
"The cat's already out of the bag," Adrien says slyly, "What more harm can we do?"
"I have regrets," Marinette tells him.
"You have Agreste," Nino suggests.
Alya elbows him. "That one's a stretch, babe."
Adrien and Marinette still haven't let go of each other. They're still in the same position as when they were transformed. They're both shaking.
"Hmm," Tikki says, flitting into the air and looking down at her charge. "Plagg?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Plagg grumbles. "Hey kid?"
Adrien looks up. For the first time, they can see for certain that he's been crying. "Yeah?"
"Claws out," Plagg says, and transforms him.
"Wait, he can do that?" Marinette asks, just before Tikki says, "Spots on."
"News to me," Nino says. "You guys wanna play Pandemic?"
"Are we just gonna..." Ladybug blinks. "Are we just going to act like everything's normal?" She blinks again. "And why are we transformed again?"
"I mean, for us, this is normal," Alya points out. "Only less frustrating. And because your kwami love you, and Adrien's happier when he's all kittied up, and it's weird if he's the only one transformed."
"Are you two gonna transform too?" Chat Noir asks, not looking like he plans on letting go of Marinette anytime soon.
Alya waves that idea off. "Nah, we started off this way, we're good. Anyway, it'd be nice for Wayzz and Trixx to get to be out for a bit, you know?"
"I would like that!" Trixx exclaims, leaping off Alya's shoulder to somersault in place in midair. "I would like that a lot, and I'm sure Wayzz wants to explore!"
"Well," Wayzz says, floating off Nino's shoulder with considerably more dignity. "I won't deny that."
"There's a cat tree in their room, go nuts," Alya tells both kwami.
Trixx tackles Wayzz past them and through the open door.
"That's what the cat tree was for? The kwami?" Ladybug asks, amused. Then she blanches. "Wait, that's still our room?"
"Well, it was also for teasing Chat Noir," Alya admits. "Sort of a two for one deal there. Also, yes? You're still you. Also? I am getting tired of sharing a couch."
Chat Noir lifts his head enough to stare at her. "You did that on purpose. The bedrooms."
Nino scoffs. "Well, yeah."
"Alya," Ladybug says, strained.
"You both sleep better in the same room," Alya says adamantly. "I'm gonna leave the others as they are, really, 'cause they were gifts and Nino and I don't really care, but you two should still sleep in your room." It also isn't like she and Nino need separate rooms, but if their friends haven't worked that out yet Alya's not going to be the one to tell them.
Ladybug and Chat Noir are carefully not looking at each other, but they also haven't let go of each other. They always have both clung to their partner more tightly when they're stressed. Apparently not even life-shaking realisations can change that.
Plus they're healing quickly again now that they're back in the suits, but they were here because they were hurt.
"All right," Nino sighs. "Why don't you two go kick Wayzz and Trixx out of your room and talk to each other for a while? We'll stay out here. We'll set up the game and make, I don't know, hot chocolate or dinner or something."
Chat Noir and Ladybug exchange a speaking look and then both look startled to still be doing it.
"Yeah okay," Alya steps forward and begins physically pushing them through their door. "Go process, we'll be right out here." She adds that last bit for Adrien's sake. They've been trying to do that since Nino'd overheard that nightmare- to let him know that they're all right here and safe. Alya still isn't sure how much it helps, but it definitely can't hurt.
The two of them go without arguing and as soon as the kwami are back out Alya shuts the door behind them.
"Are we sure this is a good idea?" Nino asks her even as he checks the pantry for whatever they've left here to eat. They don't tend to keep much at the apartment, and what they do keep there they usually consciously try to leave for Chat Noir, so the food they actually have on hand tends to be a bit of a mixed bag.
"Sure," Alya says with a shrug, reaching past him and pulling out a half a loaf of bread. Sandwiches are pretty much always a safe bet. "They're still them. They're still Ladybug and Chat Noir. I think their kwami changed them back specifically so they could have that talk as Ladybug and Chat Noir, honestly. You know, remind them that it's still them."
"I hate that we kept all this from them," Nino says, moving to the fridge. (Adrien had bought them a better fridge. Adrien had bought most of the appliances; it didn't matter that they'd all told him he didn't have to, he'd smiled and nodded and then done it anyway). "Chat Noir was crying. I hate seeing him hurt. I mean, I don't like any of us to get hurt," that's an understatement, he's the one with a shield for a reason, "But with Chat Noir it's different. I mean... you know what I mean."
"Yeah, I think we all get like that," Alya says, laying out slices of bread and reaching without looking for Nino to drop a package of cheese into her hand. She wants to make tuna salad for Chat Noir, but they'll leave that for last- the hero tends to react to the sound of a can opener much the same as a real cat might. "Hey, what do we call them now, anyway?"
Alya shrugs, starting on the sandwiches as Nino slides into one of the other chairs. "I think we should keep doing what we've been doing- hero names when we're transformed, civilian names when we're not. We're all both people, right? And anyway, we don't want to risk yelling the wrong name during a battle. I'm betting the magic has limits."
"I'm not," Nino says, pained, thinking of some of the places they've changed. He and Alya had admittedly gotten pretty lax about hiding themselves once they'd realised just how ridiculous some of the places Adrien and Marinette got away with were. They still aren't as bad as their friends, but Nino can definitely think of more than a few places he's changed that he has no intention of admitting to Alya. Like in the subway. Or up a tree. Or in the middle of the street, once. "You're right though, we should pay attention to which names we use."
"It's true that you are both Nino and Carapace," Wayzz speaks up, flitting over to land on the brim of Nino's hat. "Like you, they are hero and civilian, both."
Nino is not wholly convinced that the word civilian means the same thing to Wayzz as it does to him but he appreciates the support all the same.
If Nino's being completely honest, it's nice that Wayzz can hang around out in the open like this- no hiding under his hat or in a backpack or diving out of sight. One of the things Nino's learned from Master Fu is that the bond between a kwami and their chosen is something special, something to be treasured; that it's better for them both if they spend more time together. That's why Tikki and Plagg always spend as much time as possible with their chosen; of all the kwami, they bond the closest, because they tend to choose people who need that bond. It's a little different for Wayzz, obviously, when his previous chosen is still in the picture, but it means something for his friends, and for Alya, and it means Nino enjoys having somewhere his kwami doesn't have to hide.
It means Nino aches fiercely whenever he thinks of what must be happening to Nooroo, and that Hawkmoth has neatly eclipsed Gabriel Agreste (barely) as far as people whose ass Nino wants to kick, but he doesn't need to share that information with his friends just yet. He doesn't need them to go actively hunting down Hawkmoth.
It hasn't escaped Nino that they may have to do just that, in the end, but he can at least put it off for a while.
It's a few hours before Chat Noir and Ladybug's door opens again, making Nino and Alya both glad they'd decided on sandwiches and not anything that needed to be kept a certain temperature. (Alya had made the tuna salad in the end, too- they'd heard a thump from the bedroom like maybe Chat Noir had fallen off the furniture again, but the can opener hadn't been enough to make him come running out. That might be a first. But then, nothing ever has been more important to him than his Lady).
They're Adrien and Marinette again when they open the door, and they're both smiling. Nino hadn't known he was worried until he isn't. More than that, the two aren't keeping the kind of space they usually do between them when they're civilians; they're just as close to each other as they are as Ladybug and Chat Noir.
Actually, their body language looks mostly Ladybug and Chat Noir, right now. Nino blinks and shakes his head, but- no, he still sees it. They don't quite have their usual superhuman grace, but it's still clearly them even as civilians. It doesn't shine through this clearly even in their dodgeball games, when the two of them partnering up means they move a little less like Marinette and Adrien and a little more like Ladybug and Chat Noir.
"Hey," Marinette greets them softly. "We're, uh, we're good now." She flushes. "Are you two-?"
"We're good," Nino assures her, holding up a sandwich and gesturing at the table. "You guys wanna come eat?"
"Yeah. Thanks." Marinette moves across the room with Ladybug's easy confidence; Adrien, with Chat Noir's casual feline lope. It's even more obvious when they're moving.
"Were you two, like, consciously holding back before?" Alya asks, startled. That doesn't happen to her and Nino. They move the same in costume and out of it, yes, but they move like normal humans. That's not what their friends are doing.
It's Adrien that flushes now. "Kinda?" he says awkwardly. "It's just- I'm." He stops. "It's weird to say it out loud."
"It's all right, kitty," Marinette encourages him, slinging an arm around his shoulders and ruffling his hair.
Nino nearly drops his sandwich. Alya is less subtle, staring at their friends, and Trixx darts into the air to helpfully imitate Alya's expression. Wayzz seems unaffected, but then, Wayzz has seen both sides of everyone before with the full knowledge of what that means, and Nino and Alya are beginning to suspect Wayzz has seen more than most kwami, besides.
"Sorry!" Alya says hastily. "Sorry, we should be used to this, but-" She waves with her sandwich. "It's just, it's different, when you're like this? Not in a bad way?"
"You want us to call Tikki and Plagg back here?" Adrien asks, amused. "They're enjoying the cat tree right now."
"They're actually-" Alya sets down her sandwich to scrub at her face. Again, Trixx copies her. "No, okay, let me keep my train of thought here. Sunshine, you normally move like that?"
He shrugs, leaning into Marinette. "If I'm not paying attention, yeah. Plagg says I picked up more cat traits than most Chat Noir do. We think it's, uh," he averts his gaze, turning more towards Marinette. "Because I spend a lot more time transformed."
"Most Chat Noir?" Alya repeats faintly.
Nino ignores that- it's not news to him, and it shouldn't be to her, but evidently he hadn't explained it clearly enough- and says, "Hey, we know. Just, you only gotta transform when you want to. We don't care if you act like Chat Noir when you're Adrien- we like both sides of you."
"I want to transform most of the time," Adrien says softly, shutting his eyes. "Almost- almost all the time, really."
Marinette tugs him closer and turns a frighteningly dark gaze on Nino.
Oh. Nino shrugs, watching them both. "Then go ahead. Like I just said, we like both sides of you."
Marinette's gaze goes from dangerous to proud. Adrien lifts his head again, starting to smile. "I'm glad to hear that."
"Also?" Alya pipes up. Trixx has settled on her head again. "I've been dying to say this for ages, but like," she waves both arms, "Dodgeball. How did you not know."
Marinette shifts in place for a moment, but then the two of them exchange glances again and sit down at the table, next to each other. If their chairs maybe don't need to be that close, well, Nino isn't going to comment. Ladybug and Chat Noir have always been happiest when they're in physical contact with each other- now that they do know, he can't imagine Adrien and Marinette will be much different. "Um, magic? Tikki said she and Plagg shield us."
Nino slides Adrien the tuna salad sandwich and Marinette a BLT and doesn't say anything when they hand each other half their sandwiches without looking. That's another Chat Noir and Ladybug thing, but, well. This apartment is the safest place they have, and the two of them had talked for a long time. If letting Ladybug and Chat Noir bleed over into their civilian identities while they're here is what makes his friends happy then Nino is all for it. "So... does that mean it was Tikki and Plagg who let me and Alya figure it out?"
"I don't think so," Adrien says slowly. He starts to pick up his sandwich by the very edges like he's got his claws right now and promptly drops it. He freezes, but when no one calls attention to it, he relaxes again and picks it up normally. "Tikki made it sound like it wasn't exactly conscious on their parts."
"It is as my Master told you," Wayzz insists, lifting briefly into the air with agitation, then landing on Nino's hat again. "You broke the magic on your own."
"You- wow." Adrien blinks. "How did you manage that?"
Marinette nudges him with her shoulder. "Hey, kitty. I wanna know too, but eat."
Adrien grins at her sheepishly and actually starts on his sandwich.
"Besides, we don't honestly know," Nino says. "We were talking about starting an akuma club, and we were bummed you couldn't join, and we were talking about honorary members, and Kim and Alix started joking about how you could join as Ladybug and Chat Noir and something just... clicked."
Marinette blinks. "You've known for that long?" She sets down her half-eaten sandwich (on Adrien's plate). "You already knew when I first brought you the fox Miraculous?"
"Ah, yeah," Alya says sheepishly. "In my defense, I was trying to get you to admit it to me on your own, you know, like, right before that. You know. Literally minutes before that."
"What?" Adrien says forlornly.
"I never would have told anyone else before telling you," Marinette assures him immediately, fiercely. "We're partners."
Alya and Nino exchange frustrated looks while their friends aren't watching them. Nino had hoped he'd have less frustration in his life once they knew they were each other's best friends, but that obviously isn't going to be the case- it's just a different kind of frustration.
"Yeah, well, you clearly weren't telling." Alya shrugs. "And you'd sort of swayed me to your side by the end of the night, except, you know, Nino already knew what was up. When Rena Rouge joined in, he knew it was me immediately. It didn't matter if I said anything or not- he was the only person who could already tell."
"I wanted to tell you both," Nino said. "Or at least tell Chat Noir it was me, since it really didn't seem fair that he was- that you were getting the most left out. But Wayzz and Master Fu both said it was important you learned it on your own, and I dunno if I coulda managed admitting I was Carapace without admitting I knew you were Adrien."
"It was important that they told each other!" Wayzz interjects.
"And it was funny," Trixx adds, darting down to investigate the rest of Alya's sandwich. Alya sighs and hands her kwami a piece of ham. Delighted, Trixx zips to the counter with it. Sighing, Wayzz abandons Nino's hat to join the other kwami.
"Wait, is that what Trixx eats?" Marinette asks, distracted.
Alya throws her hands up. "I don't know! Trixx eats everything, I have no idea what the actual recharge is!"
Trixx giggles and doesn't enlighten anyone.
"At least yours isn't picky," Adrien mutters.
Nino shrugs. "If it helps, we've known the Camembert was for your kwami for a while?"
"Yeah, all right, it does help. Kind of." Adrien shoves his chair back and sideways, pressing hard into Marinette again. "So... are we still having a game night?"
"Of course we are!" Alya shoves her own chair back much harder, springing to her feet and nearly knocking Nino over. "We'll even let you two team up for Pictionary again, how about it?"
"No," Nino pleads. "No. I know you guys had a shock and all, but please, please don't do that to us again. That's not a game. That's not a competition. That' s just terrifying."
"W-well," Marinette says, blushing as she takes Adrien's hand and doesn't look at anyone. "Nino's right, really, Alya. There's no competition when- when we know we're gonna win. Right, chaton?"
Adrien glances at her and his whole face softens as he smiles. "Of course, my Lady. But if we team up, we can beat them at anything they want to play- there's no competition in anything."
"Then let's play something we don't have to play against them at," Marinette suggests, leaning into him the same way he's leaning into her. "We are a team."
Alya blinks, because she can see them two different ways right now; she can see her friends Adrien and Marinette plainly, but it's easy to envision Chat Noir and Ladybug in their place. In the way they act and move and tease each other, she can see all of them at once. For the first time in a long time they both look... whole.
"We are a team," Adrien agrees softly, smiling at Marinette.
Alya turns to Nino with a full-fledged grin. "No, all of us are a team. You're partners."
Without missing a beat, their friends fistbump and chorus, "Bien joue!"
Nino rolls his eyes and gets up. "You're going to do that every time you win now, aren't you." It isn't a question. "I'm getting Pandemic. Maybe we'll actually manage to save the world this time."
"Excuse you, we save the world all the time," Alya retorts. Then her eyes light up. "Hey, or we could finally play Never Have I Ever!"
"No," all three of her friends chorus at once.
Nino slowly turns his head to stare at Wayzz, who had also joined in the chorus.
Wayzz shrugs, a little defensively. "I said it sounded like a poor idea before and I do stand by that."
"But," Alya says, looking around for support and drooping when she finds none. "But we don't have to protect our secret identities from each other, now. Et tu, Trixx?" she asks her giggling kwami.
"I don't like that game," Trixx pipes up. "Plagg always win."
"You-" Alya's eyes widen behind her glasses. "You've played Never Have I Ever with Plagg?"
"Not only with Plagg," Wayzz mutters, before seeming to remember himself. "Ah, but it is beneath most of us kwami to play such a game, of course."
"Is it?" Alya asks knowingly, eying the turtle kwami. "Trixx, has Wayzz played too?"
Trixx snorts without looking up. "'Course he has. So's Tikki. Kwami don't get to be together often, 'cept Plagg and Tikki; even Wayzz'll hang out if we can!"
"What, just not this time?" Alya asks, amused.
Wayzz huffs. "It is a rare event that all four of our chosen are close friends and teammates; rarer still that they share a living space where we are all welcome and not required to keep hidden." He eyes Trixx over a piece of lettuce he'd acquired at some point. "Though Trixx is usually quite fond of games, even those at which they lose."
"Hey, no game-shaming my kwami," Alya says easily, scooping Trixx up and waving everyone after her into the living room. "Pandemic it is, though. Sorry that it's only four players."
"There are four of you," Wayzz says slowly as he follows after Nino.
"There are eight of us now," Alya counters, and grins at the little turtle's expression. "Hey, Adrien and Marinette aren't the only partners in the room. There wouldn't be any Carapace or Rena Rouge without you, y'know? And no Chat Noir or Ladybug without their kwami, either."
"Well it's about time someone acknowledged we're more than fancy transformation aids," Plagg says, flying into the room and diving straight for Adrien, who shifts just enough for Plagg to dart immediately into his shirt.
"Hey, Plagg," Marinette says, "You know you don't have to hide now, right?"
"Who said anything about hiding?" Plagg's head and paws appear above the collar of Adrien's shirt. "It's comfortable in here, you know? Tikki may have a purse and a fancy set-up under a chaise lounge but I have a reinforced pocket and I am claiming the cat tree. She can pry it from my cold dead paws."
"How do you even know about that set up?" Marinette asks him as Tikki settles far more demurely on her chosen's shoulder. "You've never been in my- oh my god, you have been in my room." She stares at Plagg. "That was- that was back at Gamer! You said you've known since Dark Owl!"
"Yeeaaah, well, that's when I knew," Plagg says. "Before that I only suspected. Strongly. Strongly suspected." He waves one paw. "You're a weird girl, that set up could have been for anyone!"
"Anyone the size of a kwami?" Marinette asks skeptically. Then, "Hey, wait, who are you calling weird?"
"I'm calling you weird, weirdo," Plagg retorts. "For all I knew you had a pet mouse, you know?"
"A pet mouse," Marinette says. "Plagg, I live in a bakery. Mice are not generally welcome."
"You totally would make a pet mouse furniture, too, though, Marinette," Alya points out helpfully.
"See? Reporter girl agrees with me!" Plagg says triumphantly.
Very gently, Adrien puts one hand over his kwami and pushes Plagg back inside his shirt. "Ah, sorry. Plagg is a bit abrasive when you're just getting to know him."
"I heard that," Adrien's pocket says.
"I believe that you were meant to," Wayzz says dryly.
"We could play that game with the elf kid with the kwami," Adrien's pocket says. "I like your video games."
"Link's still not an elf, and Navi's still not a kwami," Adrien says gently.
Plagg scoffs. "He's a kid with a magic fairy that changes his appearance. He gets like three Miraculous before she gets around to transforming him!"
"Wait, does Plagg think the Spiritual Stones are Miraculous?" Marinette asks, thoroughly distracted. "What does he think the Sages- and the time travel-"
"Anyway!" Alya waves everyone ahead of her, into the living room, before Marinette and Adrien can get too deeply into discussing video games with their kwami. Well- their kitchen opens on their living room, so it's more like she waves everyone over by about five feet. "Who's up for Cards Against Humanity?"
"I thought we were playing Pandemic?" Adrien says, even as he drops cross-legged in front of the sofa, tugging the Ladybug blanket down after him. Marinette sits down beside him, grabbing the Chat Noir blanket and draping it around both their shoulders. Adrien grins, blinking slowly, and curls into her side.
Alya shrugs as she sits down on the floor across from her friends, next to Nino. Wayzz and Trixx follow them in as well, Wayzz settling on the brim of Nino's hat again, Trixx diving for Alya's lap. Alya glances around and says, "We were, but Pandemic's not eight players. Cards Against Humanity is. You guys wanna hand us our blankets, then?"
Marinette twists and grabs the Carapace and Rena Rouge blanket to throw to her friends. Nino catches them with the long ease he's gained from throwing his shield around.
Plagg peeks back out from Adrien's shirt. "You were serious about us playing?"
"'Course we were," Alya assures him, while Nino starts passing out cards. Alya takes the chance to dig out one of the squeaky mouse toys they'd bought for Chat Noir and tosses it at Adrien.
He catches it, squeaks it immediately with a grin, then slowly starts to freeze and glances up from beneath his bangs. "Um."
Alya tosses him another mouse. He bats at it instinctively, then blinks up at them- slowly, very slowly.
Nino's had a cat before. He knows what it means that Adrien slow blinks at all of them (though, always, at Ladybug most of all).
Laughing, Marinette tugs her partner close again, flushing only faintly as he melts into her side. "Go ahead, chaton, they wouldn't have bought them for you if they'd minded."
"Oh!" Alya stands up abruptly, her blanket falling and scattering her cards. Nino sighs and starts to pick them up again as Alya says, "Hold that thought, I'll be right back," and darts into Marinette's room.
When she emerges with a flowerpot and a grin and hands it to Marinette with an overdone flourish, Adrien starts laughing helplessly. Marinette shoves him playfully, he shoves her back, and their play fighting escalates until he's draped over her lap and grinning breathlessly up at her.
Tikki and Plagg have abandoned their humans to sit together on the floor by then. Nino thinks they'd have found somewhere else to perch, but they both look pretty interested in the cards Nino's dealt out for them. A little guiltily, he wonders how unusual it might be for the Miraculous' chosen to include their kwami in something as frivolous as a game night.
He glances around the room. Adrien seems just as content to play from his current position as he always has been as Chat Noir, Wayzz is edging closer to Nino as he tries to hide his cards from Trixx, Plagg and Tikki are sitting nearly as closely together as their human counterparts, and even Alya is smiling more widely than he's ever seen before.
Nino's sure they've got obstacles to overcome yet. Adrien and Marinette aren't likely to be so comfortable with each other outside of this apartment right away, there's the matter of the apartment itself and convincing Adrien to move in for real (and if he's being honest, Nino knows the rest of them are sure to follow as quickly as they can), and, most pressingly of all, Hawkmoth is still out there. Paris is still in danger; Nooroo is still in trouble.
It took them a longer time to get to this point than he'd have hoped, but right here, right now, they're all finally, miraculously, happy to be purely- and entirely- themselves.