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“Hello!”
Idiot. That was more cheesy than Plagg’s breath.
“…Hey.”
That was even worse. It made the whole situation sound like a booty call.
“Hi!”
What was he, nine?
“Bon soir, Princess!”
Hmm… That one had a ring to it.
“Chat Noir?!”
- Adrien Agreste’s many extra-curricular activities provided him with a not-insignificant degree of dexterity and balance, along with some impressive reflexes.
- The Cat Miraculous multiplied those abilities ten-fold.
- Cats always land on their feet.
Despite these three facts, Chat Noir still managed to fall off the balcony railing and face-plant with all of the grace and talent of… well, Marinette.
After an awkward pause, the embarrassed super-hero clambered to his feet quickly, trying to act cool, calm, and suave as he leaned against the railing. Time to try it out.
“Bon soir, Prin–Are you laughing at me?!”
She was! She might have been covering her mouth and trying to hide it, but he could see her eyes crinkling as she laughed. At him. The incredible superhero: Chat Noir! It was embarrassing… And a little bit hilarious, he had to admit.
“What are you doing on my balcony at eleven at night… what-what were you doing, practicing lines?”
Yes.
“No.”
There was a moment of silence, in which Chat Noir realised he should probably try and be more convincing.
“No, I wasn’t practicing lines, I was…” Think, cat, think! “Practicing lines… for a play I’m doing.”
Not his best excuse.
“So you were practicing lines?”
Chat Noir tried very hard to ignore the amused smile on Marinette’s face, deciding to focus on kicking himself mentally.
“Well, yes… but actually no.”
Marinette snorted.
“I was practicing lines for a play, not, like… pick-up lines. Or…” She hadn’t actually mentioned them being pickup lines.
“I hadn’t actually mentioned–“
“I realised that as soon as I said it,” Chat Noir admitted, rubbing at the back of his neck awkwardly.
There was another moment of silence, but a less awkward, more familiar silence. The kind of silence Chat Noir remembered with–
“So what are you doing on my balcony, practicing lines for a ‘play’?” Marinette asked, obviously choosing to go along with his terrible excuse out of mercy. The way she said ‘play’ made it sound like she thought she was saying ‘girl’.
“I–uh–I…” Why was Chat Noir stuttering and mumbling? He should be cool and calm and collected and... suave. “Oh, I was just in the area and thought I might drop in. See how my favourite civilian is doing.”
Idiot. ‘Favourite civilian’? What was that supposed to mean? It would make it way too obvious he knew her in his civilian persona.
Marinette didn’t seem to notice the slip-up, turning to frown down into her room suspiciously.
“Weren’t you over by the Arc de Triomphe?” she asked curiously. “That’s not exactly ‘in the area’.”
Well, that was embarrassing.
“You were watching your favourite hero fight crime?” Chat Noir asked, blatantly trying to deflect from the question with some light teasing.
“It was on the news,” Marinette replied easily, “But yes, Ladybug was amazing.”
“Me-ouch,” Chat Noir gasped, putting a hand on his chest, before instinctively melting into his usual expression when thinking of Ladybug. It had been described to him as ‘that gooey look in your eyes’, ‘that adoring expression’, and ‘stop being mopey and help me!’ It wasn’t his fault she was incredible. “She really was amazing, wasn’t she?”
Marinette coughed, covering a laugh, then shivered. Immediately Chat Noir kicked himself. The Miraculous suit kept him at just the right temperature, but of course Marinette didn’t have a Miraculous to keep her temperature stable, so she must be freezing.
“O-oh, I should let you go in and get warm.”
Chat Noir hated to end their talk so soon, but he couldn’t expect her to be out in the cold just to talk to him.
“Do you play Ultimate Mecha Strike III?”
Chat Noir paused, one foot already on the railing, and turned to look at Marinette with a grin.
“Do I ever!”
“I really shouldn’t be surprised that you main NAD03, should I?” Marinette asked once Chat Noir had selected a character for their first match.
“Choosing a character because its a black cat? Would I do that?”
“Of course,” Marinette replied immediately. Chat Noir gasped in mock offence, before immediately shrugging and settling into a fighting pose – hunched over the controller, eyes locked on the screen – as the arena loaded.
“I mean, if Ladybug played, I bet she’d use LB-03,” Chat Noir said, nodding at Marinette’s red and black character. Marinette laughed at that, before hurriedly covering her mouth and glancing at the trapdoor nervously. Chat Noir, always a gentleman, took complete advantage of Marinette’s distraction to land a devastating combo, knocking off a third of her health before she yelped and refocused on the game.
“You cheat,” she whisper-shouted, parrying his next attack and battering him with attacks that trapped his character against the side of the screen. Chat Noir groaned, forced to watch helplessly as his character’s health dropped rapidly.
“And that,” Marinette said firmly, ending the match with a finisher, “Is payback.”
Chat Noir blinked, taken aback, like always, at quite how good Marinette was at Ultimate Mecha Strike III. The match had lasted all of twenty seconds, and he hadn’t landed a single hit once she’d focused on the game.
“You are incredible,” Chat Noir breathed, before glancing at Marinette in embarrassment. “A-at the game. You’re incredible at the game.”
Marinette blinked at him, blush only just visible to Chat Noir’s night vision, then turned back to the game with obviously affected nonchalance.
“I practice a lot with my dad.”
“Right,” Chat Noir agreed, “but still. I practice a lot, and you destroyed me. It’s honestly scary how good you are.”
The blush was back, and even worse than before. He really shouldn’t find it as adorable as he did.
“T-thanks,” Marinette mumbled, “You’re good too.”
Chat Noir glanced at the screen, which was still showing the score from the last match.
“If you say so.”
“You are.” Marinette’s voice was surprisingly firm. “I mean, not even just at the game. You’re good at the game, but, like, you’re a superhero. You’re incredible at… like, important stuff. You save people.”
Chat Noir sat there, a little stunned. He opened and shut his mouth uncertainly for a moment, then nodded. Great, now he was blushing.
Just a friend.
“Marinette, are you really up gaming this late?”
Both gamers froze at the voice from the trapdoor down to the rest of the appartment. Chat Noir glanced at the clock on Marinette’s computer and stared. 3.15AM
Oh.
They had been playing Ultimate Mecha Strike III for four hours.
Chat Noir’s heightened senses picked up the sound of steps on the staircase up to the trapdoor and he immediately slid off the chair and under the table to hide, peeking between the chairs to watch as Marinette slunk over to the trapdoor and opened it a crack, cleverly positioning herself between the desk and anyone stood on the ladder.
“Sorry,” she whispered, “I’m playing with… uh, Adrien!”
Chat Noir froze in place, eyes locked on the back of Marinette's head. What?
“Adrien?” came the surprised tone, “is he up there?”
Yes, actually. He’s hiding under the desk in a leather suit.
“No!” Marinette explained hurriedly, laughing as if that was an absurd idea, “It’s online.” Ah. Clever Marinette. Chat Noir relaxed, accidentally knocking the chair, and caught it before it could fall. “We must have lost track of time.” Well, that much was true. “We’ll finish up now. Sorry for waking you.”
Marinette turned to walk back to the desk and explain the situation to Chat Noir, then stilled, covering her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud.
One of the chairs wobbled, balanced on a single back wheel as Chat Noir tried to hold it upright, and two big, bright green eyes peered out from under the desk, glowing in the darkness.
“Is she gone?”
Marinette nodded silently, not trusting herself to speak without bursting into laughter. Even being silent became a struggle as Chat Noir slowly righted the chair and extracted himself from under the desk, grinning awkwardly.
“I guess we lost track of time,” Chat Noir said, glancing back at the computer.
“Yeah,” Marinette agreed, suddenly hit by exhaustion. She yawned, stretching as wide as she could, then paused mid-stretch, cracking one eye and looking at Chat Noir, who was watching her yawn with a weirdly familiar… almost gooey expression on his face.
“What’s so funny?”
Immediately the expression was gone.
“Sleep deprivation,” Chat Noir replied immediately. “I mean… what was the question?”
Marinette chalked that bizarre experience down to them both being tired.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said lightly, waving the question away. “Do you want me to walk you out?”
Idiot. That made it sound like a date. Wait… was it a date? Had this whole evening been a date?! Don’t be absurd. He’s a superhero with a massive crush on Ladybug. And sure, Marinette was actually Ladybug, but he didn’t know that.
“I’m sure I’ll manage,” Chat Noir replied, flexing his muscles overdramatically. Marinette scoffed. “I wouldn’t want you to get cold again.”
That was… surprisingly thoughtful of him, Marinette mused to herself as the superhero clambered up the ladder to the roof, closed the skylight behind him and, waving through the window, vanished into the night.
“Goodnight, kitty,” Marinette whispered, to herself, flopping down onto her bed.
“Well, that was quite something!” came the sound of a rather sleepy Kwami, “Chat Noir ‘just popping by’ for the evening.”
Marinette opened one eye to look at Tikki, who had settled on top of her pillow.
“It was unusual, wasn’t it?” Marinette agreed, “But it was fun. Who knew Chat Noir played Ultimate Mecha Strike III?”
“And practiced pick-up lines on your balcony!” Tikki joked. Marinette swallowed her laughter just long enough to correct, “Tikki, it was for a play,” before the two of them burst into quiet, sleepy laughter.