Chapter Text
It was an evening like any other, Adrien was bored and stuck at home, but since Chat Noir wasn’t, pretty soon the leather clad hero was vaulting from his room and racing to his good friend Marinette’s house. Marinette was always good for some company and some sweets after all.
Tapping on her open skylight so as not to be rude and just waltz in, he heard her running her sewing machine. Seeing that it couldn’t be avoided, he looked down into her room to ask for permission to enter, but that’s when he noticed a little red blob floating beside his hard-working classmate, eating a cookie.
A little red blob that looked a lot like a kwami.
“Purr-incess?” Chat Noir called loudly as he hung upside down from the skylight.
Marinette jumped and her kwami hid. Marinette looked around, “Uh, hey Chat!” She nervously rubbed the back of her neck, “please c-come in!”
---------
Oh, No! Did he see Tikki? She mentally freaked out while she tried to plaster on a straight face, which if she had to go by his reaction, she was failing miserably at as she tried to talk about something other than the kwami in the room, “so, um, nice night out there right? Are you doing a patrol or something Kitty?”
---------
Flipping himself through the skylight and hopping off her bed to stand beside her at her desk, he leaned over and placed his elbow on her desk as he said, “yes, it is a nice night and I’ve only come over to visit my favorite citizen, there was no patrol tonight.” He grinned widely, “but it seems like I’m not your only visitor, am I? Purr-incess?”
“Oh!” She squeaked, “What do you mean? We’re the only ones here! He heh.” She leaned away from him and glanced towards Tikki’s hiding place.
“Marinette!” He practically sung, “are you hiding something?”
“Um, no?” She bit her lip and could hardly look at him, feeling like this situation was oddly familiar.
“Uh huh. So, do you care to explain why you have Ladybug’s kwami hiding in your dresser drawer?”
Uh, oh, he saw where Tikki had flown to hide.
“So Marinette, please tell me, are you kwami sitting or something?”
----------
Marinette’s eyes bulged out and she gasped, “y-yeah! T-totally!” Then she waved her arms and hands about as she tried to explain, “Ladybug had to go on a trip for a few days,” he nodded with an incredulous look on his face, “and-and she needed a stand in, she thought we looked alike so-so she taught me a few things and left Tikki a-and her earrings with me?” Even Marinette didn’t believe her own explanation as her voice faded a little bit towards the end.
Tikki flew out of her hiding place and sat on Marinette’s shoulder, offering comfort by placing her paw on her chosen’s neck.
“Yeah,” he drawled as leaned into her personal space, with a voice of disbelief, “are you Lying? Ladybug would have told me if she was leaving town, even if it was just for a few days.”
“Umm, well, it’s not like I could tell you that I knew Ladybug and uh, it came up really quickly and well, secret identities and all, she thought that if you thought she trusted me a lot then she knew me pretty well a-and and...”
He leaned back a little bit, as he cut her off, “and she thought I would think that you knew who she was under the mask?”
Marinette pulled her knees up to her chest as she sat in her chair timidly as she glanced at Tikki, “umm, yeah. I’m sorry Chat, we should have told you.” She apologized, hoping that he would buy it.
“Well, she wasn’t wrong.” He smirked, “the irony is I’m also just kwami sitting.”
“WHAT?” She almost screamed as he said the magic words.
“Plagg, claws in.” He de-transformed in front of her and she screeched as she grabbed a nearby pillow and threw it at him before she could see who he was.
She yelled, “You stupid Cat! We’re not supposed to… um, Adrien?” She finished with a whisper as she finally recognized her crush and realized what she had done.
Adrien then smirked with Chat’s smirk. It was then that she realized that she couldn’t lie to herself, he wasn’t kwami sitting, he was the real deal, her Chat Noir.
“Hello, My Lady.” He bowed towards her and then he stood and tapped her on the nose, “I found you Bugaboo,” he then shot her a wink. “Don’t try to deny it Princess.” He shook his head as he drew closer, “I just have one question.” He whispered.
She leaned away from him for a moment, answering him with a whispered daze, overwhelmed by Adrien’s nearby presence and his cologne, “uh, huh, what?”
Then he took her hand and kissed the back of it only to ask, “so, who’s my competition?”