The Nose Knows, Chapter 1 (NaNoWriMo 2018)

Science has shown that the sense of smell is a powerful tool, able to evoke strong memories in people. When Marinette and Adrien realize that their respective partners’ Kwami have very specific affiliated scents, what will it mean for their secret identities?



Fic Rating: T/M for adult situations in future chapters (All characters 18+)

Chapter Rating: T

Chapter Warnings: Gratuitous use of French, Spoilers from “Style Queen” and “Frozer”

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8

Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12

Chapter 1

“Honey, can you reach that jar of capers for me?” Sabine asked sweetly.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng smiled at her mother, reaching up to grab the jar of capers off the top shelf and place it in her mother’s basket. At eighteen years old, Marinette was nearly as tall as her father, though she had definitely inherited some of the Cheng family build as well. Sabine liked to bring her daughter along when she went grocery shopping to give the two of them a chance to spend time together girl-to-girl, and also because the younger Dupain-Cheng could reach items on the highest shelves of the various specialty shops they visited on Saturday afternoons. “What’s next on the list?” Marinette asked.

Consulting her shopping list, Sabine checked off the capers before moving down to the next item. “We need to go get the cheese for the gratin,” she said. “Let’s go ahead and take these up to the register and we can head to the fromagerie.”

“Sounds good! Let me carry this for you, Maman, it looks heavy.” Before Sabine could protest, Marinette took the basket from her hands, supporting it with both hands to carry the groceries toward the register. Thankfully, the small grocer wasn’t super busy; it seemed to be a lull between waves, so they were able to get checked out quickly. Sabine pulled the bills from her billfold to pay the cashier while another associate packed their purchases in the cloth bags Sabine had placed in the bottom of the basket when they came into the store. Marinette picked up the bags and carried them out to the car, placing them in the trunk before pulling out the keys to start the car. “Thanks again for letting me drive, Maman!” Marinette said to her mother as they pulled out of their parking spot.

“Of course, Marinette. I know you need the practice before you take your exam.” Sabine couldn’t believe how her little girl was growing up into a young adult. It seemed like only yesterday little Marinette was speaking her first words and toddling around the bakery. Now she’s in her last year of school, learning how to drive, and just generally getting ready to spread her wings and leave the nest for university at the end of the summer.

Marinette was a careful driver, Sabine noted, making sure to follow all the traffic signals and keep her eyes on the road despite the sound of her cell phone chiming from her purse. It was only a couple of miles to the cheese shop, but with busy Paris traffic and lack of parking space, it took them about ten minutes to make it there. Once Marinette had perfected her parallel parking job, Sabine stepped out of the car, grabbing an empty bag from the back seat to hold their purchases. Marinette was right behind her, pulling her cell phone out of her purse to check the message she had received. “Maman, I know you and Papa have that dinner party tonight, but Alya wants to know if I can come with her and the girls to see that new romance movie that just came out. Is that okay?”

“Of course, Marinette; I didn’t expect you would want to hang around with stuffy old Mme. Mazet and her husband anyway. You go have fun, and tell the girls hello for me.”

Marinette smiled and hugged her mother from the side in thanks. The dinner party tonight was one that Marinette’s parents hosted once every few months as sort of a neighborhood get together, to give those who lived on their street a chance to mingle and discuss the goings-on in the neighborhood. Marinette had attended several in her time, but it was always awkward to hear people talking about Ladybug as if she wasn’t in the room with them. Granted, they didn’t know that she was in the room with them, but somehow that just made it worse, especially since some of the older residents didn’t particularly approve of a young lady in skintight spandex running around pulling dangerous stunts. She couldn’t defend Ladybug too vehemently, lest someone get suspicious of her reasons for supporting the super-heroine.

When the two women stepped into the fromagerie, Marinette was instantly assaulted by the unmistakable scent of must and aged cheese. Just inside the door, a shop associate was handing out free samples of product. “Would you like to try a sample of our finest Camembert, mesdames?” he asked, gesturing to thin slices of the cheese that had been laid out on small pieces of baguette.

“Oh, thank you! That sounds wonderful–I was just thinking that I could use a bite to hold me over until dinner,” Sabine said, taking one of the slices. Marinette reached over to take one as well, but before she could bring the slice of the stinky cheese to her mouth to taste it, her mind was transported elsewhere…

“Master Fu!” Marinette cried out as she ran into the elderly Chinese man’s apartment. “Chat Noir has disappeared! I can’t defeat Style Queen without him, and the Lucky Charm told me to come here!”

Master Fu was sitting on the floor facing away from the door when he spoke. “Don’t worry; Chat Noir is fine.”

“Well, what’s he doing then? Why isn’t he helping me?” Marinette asked as she crossed the room, approaching Master Fu.

“He’s just lost his Miraculous.” Master Fu glanced at Marinette over his shoulder, who stumbled back in shock.

“What?! He’s just lost his Miraculous?” Marinette clutched her head in her hands. “This is a disaster!”

“That tomcat’s really got himself stuck up in a tree this time.” A small, black Kwami said, lying on the floor in front of a plate of Camembert. The slices were nearly as big as his head, but he swallowed one down with ease, his mouth opening wide to accommodate the size of the piece of cheese.

“Oh–let me guess. You’re Chat Noir’s Kwami?” Marinette asked, pointing at the small spirit. He flew into the air, approaching the teenage girl, the smell of stinky feet and ammonia from the cheese growing stronger as he approached.

“Yes! He tends to copy me a bit too much; yet lately, he’s been doing really silly things! In five thousand years, I’ve never experienced such an irresponsible Miraculous owner! As a result, he’s lost his ring and it’s just me that’s able to help you out…”

“Marinette?” The teenage girl snapped out of her reverie, looking over at her mother, whose face showed clear concern for her daughter’s lack of attention. “Are you alright? You weren’t answering me.”

“O-oh, sorry, Maman,” Marinette said, an embarrassed smile crossing her face as she rubbed the back of her head. “Just lost in thought. Are you ready to get the cheeses you need?”

“I’ve actually already gotten one of the staff to get them for me. I’m just waiting for her to bring them out.”

“That’s great! And this is the last stop for today, right?” Sabine nodded in the affirmative, giving her daughter a smile. “I’m glad to hear that. I think the movie starts in a couple of hours, and we were going to go get something to eat first.”

“Do you want me to drop you off at Alya’s house, then?” Sabine asked. “It is on the way back to the bakery.”

Marinette shook her head no. “I want a bit more driving practice first. I’ll get us home and then walk from there. I need to grab a couple of things from the house anyway.”

“All right.” Before Sabine could say more, the clerk came forward with a handful of wrapped packages. Sabine handed her a few bills to cover the cost, and once she had her change, she and Marinette headed out to the car to make their way back home.

When they made it back to the bakery, Marinette rushed up to her bedroom, letting Tikki out of her purse as soon as she had the trapdoor shut. “Tikki, something weird happened at the store today,” she said, the concern clear in her voice and on her face. “I just got completely swept up in a memory from years ago, all because of a little Camembert.”

Tikki gave Marinette a reassuring smile, patting her on the hand gently. “It’s okay, Marinette! It’s just part of being a Miraculous holder. As you get older and gain more experience, parts of your power have a tendency to bleed out into your civilian life. Stronger senses, especially sight and smell, are common with Miraculous holders because it makes detecting danger a lot easier. And there has always been an affiliation between smell and memory.”

“So you’re saying my sense of smell is stronger because I’m a Miraculous holder? Why couldn’t I have gotten better balance?” Marinette whined. “At least then I wouldn’t be such a klutz all the time.” Marinette had hoped that she would get more graceful as she got older and grew into her more adult body, but she was still the same butterfingers and trip-over-nothing girl she had been since collège. It was just that now there was a lot more of her to trip, since her growth spurt the summer she turned 15 that left her one of the tallest girls in her year.

“Don’t worry, Marinette,” Tikki said gently, trying to soothe her holder’s frustration. “This is a good thing. It means you are becoming a better hero!”

“Yeah, I guess so… thanks, Tikki.” Marinette gave her Kwami a weak smile. Before she could say more, her phone chirped, a text message from Alya catching her attention. “Oh crap! Adrien is going to be at the movies!” She jumped up from her bed, feverishly running to her closet and starting to tear through it, trying to find something better to wear than her usual Saturday grocery shopping clothes.

Across town, Adrien Agreste paced back and forth across his bedroom, muttering to himself while his Kwami sat on his computer desk with a plate of cheese. “I’m telling you, Adrien, you’re gonna wear a hole in your floor if you keep doing that,” Plagg said between bites.

“Thanks so much for the advice, Plagg,” Adrien deadpanned. “This is serious, though. I don’t know what to do… I still love Ladybug, but…”

“Who is it now? That sword girl again, or someone else?” Plagg asked. He could never keep straight who Adrien was crushing on, other than Ladybug, of course.

Adrien’s cheeks went a bit pink as he admitted, “It’s Marinette… you know, the girl with the pigtails from school?”

“Oh yeah, the bakery girl, right? I like her. She always brings you food. And since you’re always on a diet…” Plagg grinned and patted his belly. “Croissants may not be as good as my beloved Camembert, but they’re not bad.”

“What are you, 90 percent stomach?” Adrien asked, not for the first time. “Anyway, yes, it’s her. I know we’ve known each other for a while, but recently it feels like… I don’t know how to describe it. When I see her, I feel the same way I do when I see My Lady.”

“Kind of queasy in your stomach?” Plagg asked.

“Yeah, exactly!”

“Hot and flushed? Hands tingling? Can’t think straight?”

“How did you know?”

“Sounds like bad cheese to me.” Plagg polished off the last piece of cheese on the plate before letting out a massive burp. “You should really go get that checked out.”

“Plagg! I’m being serious here!” Adrien huffed as he fell onto his bed spread-eagle, staring up at the ceiling. “I don’t know what to do. I told Kagami years ago that I wasn’t giving up on Ladybug, and I don’t want to, but… I really like Marinette, too, and it doesn’t feel right trying to date her as Adrien when she only knows half of me.”

“If you’re looking at it that way, isn’t it the same way with Ladybug? She only knows you as Chat Noir; she doesn’t know you’re Adrien Agreste.”

“Yeah, but… Ladybug is the one who doesn’t want us revealing our civilian identities. If she said it was okay, I’d tell her who I am in a heartbeat.” Adrien rolled over onto his side, staring at his computer screen, which had a picture of Ladybug from Alya’s blog as the background. “But I’m willing to wait forever if that’s what it takes…” Adrien took a deep breath to let out a sigh, but he wrinkled his nose as he was hit with the sudden odor of his backpack. “Ugh, Plagg, you have got to stop hiding Camembert in my school bag. People are going to notice the smell.” He sat up, reaching over the edge of his bed to pick up his bag so he could start cleaning it out… but it wasn’t there.

He glanced around the room in confusion, eyes darting from his desk to the bench of his piano, all the way to the doorway before he spotted his bag at the base of his skate ramp. “What the hell?” He stepped over, picking up the bag and giving it a delicate sniff. “Yep, definitely what I was smelling… but how did I smell it from all the way across the room?” he wondered aloud.

Plagg zipped over and phased through the material of the bag, fighting with the zipper from inside until he’d made a large enough hole to pull the hidden cache of cheese through. “For your information, I wasn’t hiding it, I was aging it. In your gym socks. Gives it more flavor.” Adrien wrinkled his nose again and gagged a little as Plagg popped the slice of cheese in his mouth.

“Have I told you that you’re disgusting?” the teen muttered.

“I know; it’s a gift,” Plagg replied flippantly. “Anyway, I’m stuffed. I’m going to take a nap.”

“Wait a minute! You didn’t answer my question. What’s going on with my sense of smell?”

“Oh, that! Yeah, it’s a Miraculous holder thing. You’re becoming more attuned to your powers or something. Basically your senses are getting stronger.”

“So, what does that mean? I’m just going to be in smell overload from now on?”

“Oh, no, not everything. It’s mostly going to be Kwami and Akuma-related stuff. You’ll probably notice Ladybug or the other Miraculous holders’ smells more, as well as being more aware of them even without having to see them.”

“Okay, that’s actually really cool. So does that apply to Ladybug, Réna Rouge and Carapace too?”

“Yes to Ladybug, but probably not as much for the other two; just because they haven’t been Miraculous holders as long or used their powers as much.”

“That makes sense, I guess. I’ll have to talk to Ladybug about it the next time we patrol together.”

“Mm.” Plagg flew up to look Adrien in the eyes before reaching out to poke him in the forehead. “Don’t you have something to do before that, though? I distinctly remember you getting a text message from your DJ friend…”

“Oh, shit! I completely forgot!” Adrien rushed over to his closet, flipping through his extensive wardrobe. “What should I wear? He said Alya invited Marinette… ”

“I doubt she will care what you’re wearing,” Plagg called out. Under his breath, he added, “In fact, she’d probably prefer you wear nothing at all.”

“What was that?”

“Oh, nothing! Just lamenting the fact that I ate all my cheese.”

“You know, if you keep this up I’m going to start calling you ‘pig’ instead of Plagg,” Adrien teased. He ended up just sticking with his usual outfit, quickly running a brush through his hair and pulling his shoes on before he held open his shirt for his Kwami to hide inside.

“Try it, and see if I respond next time an Akuma shows up,” Plagg replied; despite his threatening words, his voice didn’t carry any real heat.

“All right, all right, I’ll get you some more Camembert after the movie. Think you can handle waiting that long?” Adrien asked.

“I suppose… as long as I can have some popcorn at the movie.”

“Deal.”

Sooooooo, this year for NaNoWriMo I was inspired by the end of season 2 of Miraculous Ladybug (especially the episode “Style Queen”) to write my very first ML fanfic!

I’ll be posting chapters as I finish them, so they are un-betaed. When I finish the whole fic (and when November is over) I’ll go back and edit and post to AO3. Please let me know what you think!