Chapter Text
“Okay, I’m calling it. I hate Halloween,” Chat announced as his feet hit the ground. He wobbled and fell back, hitting the brick wall with a soft mewl of pain.
Ladybug landed next to her partner just in time. Her transformation fell apart seconds later, and she just barely got her right hand up in time to catch Tikki. Her left arm hung uselessly at her side; Marinette was pretty sure she could feel blood trickling down her elbow.
Werewolf claws were sharp.
“Don’t let Hawkmoth make you hate something you love,” Marinette said, though she could see where Chat was coming from. He was just as beaten up as she was, maybe more. A quinotaur had tried to drag him into the Seine and a matagot had tackled him, and that was just what Marinette knew of.
“I never loved it. Not really. I -” Chat stopped so abruptly that she twisted to look at him, then immediately regretted it when every muscle in her back protested the move. She’d almost forgotten that she’d had to contort her body in ways the human body should never be contorted, in order to avoid a dahu’s hooves.
“What?” Marinette asked worriedly. “What is it?! Did the akuma find us?” She was pretty sure they’d be under attack already if it had. Today’s akuma had the unique, super fun power of turning innocent Parisians into supernatural creatures.
“No, I… I wasn’t expecting to see you… um. Wearing that,” Chat said faintly.
“Oh right,” Marinette said, glancing down at herself. Her Chaf Noir costume was still in great shape if you discounted the growing blood stains.
It wasn’t a perfect replica by any stretch, mostly because Marinette was not magic and zippers needed to be a thing when you were working with skin-tight material, but it was pretty damn close. She’d even made a headband and attached kitty ears to it and painted a ring black with green paw prints.
She twisted around again to see Chat’s face again and grinned. It was worth the pain. He looked somewhere between struck dumb and like all of his dreams were coming true at once.
“Like what you see, Chaton?” she purred. “I do look paws-itively claw-some, I know.”
He swallowed so hard she heard his throat click. “My Lady, please. You’re killing me.”
Marinette giggled and wished she could reach back to boop his nose, but she was kind of short on functioning hands at the moment. Speaking of…
“Can you reach my purse? I need cookies for Tikki,” she said.
“Oh. Sure.” Chat moved closer and grabbed her black purse, the only part of her costume that really stuck out as not being authentic. He opened it and pulled out two cookies and passed them to Tikki.
“Thanks Chat,” Tikki whispered, sounding exhausted, and began to nibble.
“How’s Plagg?” Marinette asked. She awkwardly shuffled around until she could sit facing her partner.
“I think he’s okay for now. I haven’t used Catsclysm in a bit. I’d rather save the cheese I have just in case,” Chat replied, sounding distracted. His eyes were fixed somewhere south of her chin.
Marinette didn’t mind. She liked the way Chat looked at her, like she was beautiful and sexy. She just wished that this moment wasn’t happening in the middle of one of their more difficult akuma attscks. She’d had plans, damn it!
“Well that was the last of my cookies, so we’ll have to wrap this up when Tikki is done,” Marinette said. She wanted to lean against him, but that would probably hurt too much - and not just for her, either. She hadn’t missed Chat wincing whenever he moved.
In the end, she settled for leaning over until their shoulders were pressed together. Chat smiled at her and very gently set his hand on her leg. They sat quietly, listening to Tikki crunch away on her cookies, and waited.