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Marinette considers herself a relatively levelheaded person. Sure, she gets a little goofy when Adrien talks to her, and sometimes Lila makes her see red, but other than that, she’s really not that temperamental! As Ladybug, she has rationalized her actions to countless skeptical policemen or aghast mothers without blinking an eye. She’s learned that the best way to stay calm is to take a moment to collect herself and then use logic to respond eloquently.
It works every time.
“I just think that he is such a pest,” a tinny, always-loud voice drawls as Chloé enters the room. “Oh, Sabrina, it seems that there is dust on our desk, wipe it off!”
Well, almost every time.
Sabrina bounces forward to complete her given task, and Chloé continues chatting, oblivious to the spectacle that she has already created. “I just don’t see why there is any use for him. Surely she could stop all those akumas by herself, but for some reason, she keeps him around!”
As it becomes quite clear who she is talking about, the class draws quiet. Nathaniel looks up from whatever he’s drawing, scrunches up his face, and then goes back to his work. Alya scoffs to herself, and, well, Adrien just looks sad.
They’re all probably trying to figure out if defending Chat is worth provoking the beast, Marinette thinks, also not wanting to take Chloé’s bait. She takes a deep breath, collecting herself -
“And honestly, most of the time, he’s more of a nuisance than a help!” Chloé exclaims, sounding so proud of herself, as if she is the first one in Paris to have come up with this argument. “Last time, he was out of commission for most of the fight. If he just left, then Ladybug would not have to worry, and would therefore perform better! Don’t you agree, Sabrina?”
“Ladybug is distinguished enough to operate on her own,” Sabrina responds, perfectly rehearsed, sliding into her seat with Chloé right behind her. It's not a total agreement, but it seems to be enough to sate the beast.
“Excuse me, Chloé,” Marinette says, trying desperately to remain civil, but disallowing this to continue. She eyes the clock - Madame Bustier should have been here a few minutes ago, but she’s running late, which means it’s up to her to keep the peace. “As class president, I’m asking that you don’t talk negatively of someone who is not here. How would you feel if somebody did that to you?”
Beside her, Alya snorts, probably thinking about all of the times that topic of conversation has come up. Marinette tries not to contribute too much to the smack talk that inevitably occurs when Chloé is not around, but frankly, Chloé is so mean to some of her classmates that it’s no wonder they need a safe space to vent. She always stops it when it stops being constructive and turns into swear words.
“Oh come on, Dupain-Cheng, you’re horrifically obnoxious but you aren’t an idiot. Surely even you can see that Chat Noir is a mangy feline, but you’re just too tied to your goody-two-shoes ideals to admit it.” Chloé turns wildly in her seat, looking for somebody to agree with her, and lands on Adrien. Oh no. She's pretty sure that Adrien prefers Ladybug, but it's no secret that he looks up to both superheroes tremendously. “Adrikins, honey, don’t you agree that Paris would frankly be better off if Chat Noir lost his miraculous?”
Marinette takes one look at Adrien’s sad, kicked-puppy face, and decides that logic and eloquence are overrated ideals anyway.
“Chloé, that is enough,” she demands, rising to her feet. “You’re slandering him as if he isn’t a superhero that has saved you hundreds of times! He is just as worthy of a miraculous as Ladybug and he is just as talented as her! How many times has he cleaned up a mess that you caused? Too many, if you ask me! If anything, you should be writing Chat Noir an apology letter!”
“Marinette,” Alya hisses, tugging at her jacket. Marinette can barely even notice it through her heartbeat crashing in her ears. “You’re right, but you should probably sit down.”
“An apology letter?” Chloé repeats, standing up as well. Somewhere in the back of Marinette’s mind, she recognizes that Alya is probably correct. It seems like this could get ugly. “The only person who should be writing an apology letter is Chat Noir, and he should write it to the entirety of Paris for being such an utter embarrassment!”
“The only reason you don’t get it is because you’ve never helped another person in your entire life,” Marinette snaps. A chorus of agreements sound out behind her, which only fuel her on more. “Chat Noir works so hard to save Paris while you bully others, and you dare think that you’re better than him? Honestly, if I were you, I would reevaluate my-”
“Enough, both of you,” another voice snaps, and she watches with muted dismay as Madame Bustier enters the room. She must have been hovering in the threshold for quite some time. No wonder Alya had told her to sit down, when usually she’s more than willing to let her say what needs to be said. “Marinette, I will be talking to you after class.”
The anger knocked out of her like a punch, Marinette sinks back down into her seat. “Yes, ma’am.”
As the weeks pass, she almost forgets about the whole ordeal.
Almost.
In fact, when Alya slides into their lunch table with her hands tucked behind her back, Marinette doesn’t even have The Event™ on her radar. She’s mainly just wondering if she’s on camera.
Nino laughs before anyone can even say anything. “Oh, man, you got the-? That’s great. Marinette, you’re going to love it.” Maybe he means it to be comforting, but it is definitely not taken that way. She looks worriedly at Adrien, who just shrugs, genuinely seeming lost.
“I have a present for you,” Alya announces, ignoring Nino's antics. “I looked it up - today’s National Velociraptor Day in America.” She slides a gift bag over the table.
“Um,” Marinette says, horribly confused. “What? Is it dinosaur related? Will it bite me? Alya, if you’ve recreated Jurassic Park and a baby dinosaur is in there, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m too young to be a mother.”
“You are the most dramatic person that I have ever met,” Alya says. Marinette almost comments on how horrifically false that is, considering that all three of Alya's sisters are bizarre, but doesn't end up speaking in time before she continues. “I only said that so I’d have an excuse to get you a gift. It’s not dinosaur related, sorry, beautiful. Please open it.”
Marinette tugs the gift bag closer to her and peeks inside. It’s a black article of clothing, folded so that she can’t see its design. She picks it up gently, flipping it up so that she can see what’s on the front -
- and goes beet red. “Alya, you’re making fun of me.”
“Only a little bit,” is the confirmation. “I just couldn’t believe it when you went off on Chloé like that. I had no idea that you were such a Chat Noir fangirl!”
Marinette hides herself behind the shirt with the bright green paw print. Now that it’s been a while, she feels a bit bad for how she’d yelled at Chloé. It’s not her fault that she was never taught emotional intelligence. “I’m not,” she protests. “I just - uh - it’s just - he and Ladybug are partners. They should be treated as such, that’s all.”
“I thought it was really brave,” Adrien blurts out, speaking for the first time all lunch. “I mean - I have a problem telling Chloé when she’s wrong. I’m glad that you don’t.”
Marinette, at the very least, is just glad that she cannot look even more embarrassed at this point. “Um, oh, uh, thank you, Adrien. It means a lot.” She offers him a smile, one which he returns. Alya kicks her leg underneath the table.
“He’s got a point,” Nino points out. “That was insane! I’ve never seen anyone go off on Chloé like that. I mean, it got pretty gnarly, but it was well-deserved.”
“Thanks, Nino,” she replies, grateful. “Oh, gosh, can you imagine what Chloé’d say if she saw this?”
“If I ever saw what?”
“Oh, no,” Marinette lets out, before scrambling to put the shirt away. She hadn't even realized that Chloé was in earshot. “Nothing, Chloé. I’m sorry that I was talking about you.”
Before she can shove the shirt back into the bag, Chloé snatches it out of her hands. She lets it unfurl, and the cutesy design is on display to the entire cafeteria. Marinette’s only solace is that she’s pretty sure the only person who doesn’t like Chat Noir is Chloé herself, but it’s still kind of embarrassing. “Oh, wow, Dupain-Cheng. I can hardly say that I’m surprised. I haven’t forgotten that you have a crush on Ladybug’s sidekick.”
“He’s not a sidekick, ” Marinette snaps, holding her hand out for Chloé to put the shirt back into. “Now give it back. If you hate him so much, then why even touch it?”
Chloé tosses the shirt aside, but Adrien reaches out to save it before it can hit the ground. “I suppose you’re actually correct for once,” she says. “I want nothing to do with that disgusting cat.”
When she leaves, Marinette is seething. “I hate that she talks about him that way! Just because she wants to be Ladybug’s partner doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with Chat Noir.”
“I know, Mari,” Alya says, full of sympathy even though she’d been teasing Mari for being a fangirl just moments before. “I don’t think anyone agrees with her. It just sucks that her singular voice is so loud.”
Adrien hands Marinette back the shirt, having folded it up nicely. “I like it,” he says, probably desperate to change the subject. Chloé is so awful to him, and yet he never talks poorly of her in return. “Are you going to wear it on Monday? I have a Chat Noir bracelet; I can wear it in solidarity.”
“I do like wearing my own designs to school,” Marinette hums, considering whether or not she would. It certainly would be a way to embrace the embarrassment. “But maybe - maybe I could do something else.” She goes quiet for a moment, and then adds, “I think I’m going to have a busy weekend.”
Marinette goes home and immediately roots through all her storage bins in search of suitable fabric. Cotton, flannel, and spandex are all viable contenders. Fleece could work, but it’s getting kind of hot out. Ooh, lace might be a good idea, too. She can stitch on some decals, but it might also be a good idea to try to find specific Chat Noir themed fabrics as well. If she’s going to make Chat Noir merch, she is at least going to make it downright amazing.
She blazes through ten pages of her sketchbook with different concepts and designs before finally settling on four that she wants to make. She might add on something to give to Chat Noir himself, just in case he’s heard any of the horrendous things that Chloé has had to say about him.
She leans back in her chair a little and looks at all of her ideas. Whew. Okay. She can probably get enough of them together by Monday to create a decent outfit.
But first - moral support.
direct messages: Alya Cesaire
from: Marinette
What do you think? [Attachment: 9 Images]
from: Alya
OH MY GODDDD
do it do it do it! start with the skirt first, it looks HOT!
PLEASE dress in all of those on monday. it’ll look so good AND you’ll prove your point!!!
from: Marinette
lol, that’s the plan if i can get it all done in time!
i kind of want to make something for chat himself but
first, idek how i’d get it to him
second, idk what i’d make because i’d do like gloves or something but it’s almost summer
from: Alya
ohh true
maybe a muscle tank or something??
or maybe a sleeveless hoodie?
from: Marinette
oh a sleeveless hoodie is a great idea! thanks so much
maybe a hood would be good for identity reasons? i dont know if thats ever an issue though
from: Alya
I definitely think that it could be
sometimes they’re in a rush to leave as if they’re on a limit or something
from: Marinette
oh huh, i havent noticed that!
i’ll look more closely next livestream
okay, back to designing! wish me luck!
from: Alya
OKAY WAIT before you go
these designs all have one thing in common
they would all look good with e-girl makeup
from: Marinette
…. i’ll consider it
Search Google:
what do egirls wear
egirl makeup ideas
do people really put blush on their nose
Fifty-one hours, three bandaged fingers, and lots of makeup tutorials later, Marinette is ready for class on Monday.
And honestly, she’s super duper excited.
Maman gasps when Marinette descends the stairs. “Oh, wow! Marinette, is that what you’ve been working on all weekend? It’s so - so -”
“Dark? Edgy? Bad?” Marinette suggests, prepared for her mother to dislike this new look. Marinette’s always opted for what is natural and easy-to-miss, so the winged eyeliner and the harsh blush might be off-putting.
“Lovely! Oh, I’ve always thought that a rebellious style change might be good for you,” Sabine accentuates the statement by kissing Marinette hard on both cheeks, making sure not to mess up her heart-shaped blush. “I love the makeup you’ve chosen! It looks like it might have taken quite a while!”
Marinette nods solemnly, though on the inside, feels fantastic. It’s not that she had expected her mother to be angry or even disappointed, but the support is still very welcome. “I am a changed woman.”
Sabine finishes looking over Marinette’s makeup look, and then goes to study her outfit. With a nod of approval, she heads back towards the kitchen. Marinette follows suit. “Do you want breakfast, or do you think that it will mess up the lipstick?”
She really loves her mother. “I can always fix it up after! Do we have any croissants?”
Marinette, to nobody’s surprise, is late for school. She and Alya had originally agreed to meet up earlier than usual so that she’d have moral support going into class, but it doesn’t make sense that Alya should be late because of her. She’d sent a “sorry, I’ll be there in 10! Go in without me!” on her way out the door.
And… now she just actually has to go in.
“I can’t do this to make a statement and then not make the actual statement,” she says to herself quietly, pressed against the hallway outside of her classroom. “Come on. Everyone but Chloé will be supporting you all day. Adrien will compliment the execution of the outfit. Alya will call you sexy.”
She checks her phone, and realizes that she has less than thirty seconds until class starts. Shoot. She can’t be late again, because if she’s late five times, then she gets detention, and she’s already been late for Ladybug reasons three times this semester. She needs to save up the other ones for akuma attacks.
Shoot. Double shoot. She has to go in.
You look good, she tells herself. You feel good, too. She takes a deep breath, letting the tension seep out of her shoulders. She smiles, more confidently than she actually feels, and walks inside.
The multiple conversations occurring throughout the class stutter for a moment when she walks in, though most seem only mildly interested. Juleka gives her a smile and then goes back to her conversation with Rose. Nathaniel looks up from his sketchbook, blushes something fierce, and then looks back down.
Marinette dares to glance an eye in Chloé’s direction. Chloé is looking her up and down with a raised eyebrow, as if thinking about a comment that she could make that would be both accurate and hurtful. Finally, she settles on saying, “that’s a waste of time and effort, Dupain-Cheng,” and then goes back to complaining about her morning to Sabrina.
No argument, no annoying remarks about Chat Noir’s “lack of use,” no nothing. It feels good.
Now that she’s on the other side of the door, she lets herself feel good about the outfit that she’s made. The skirt drapes just below her knees, with buckles around the waistline. The top is also black, with green cat eyes sewn into the front. On the back, it says cataclysm in swirly calligraphy. The bell collar that she’d made and worn had felt like a bit much while creating it, but now it just feels like the perfect addition to an already severe outfit. She’s incredibly proud of everything she’s created, especially since she’d done it all in one weekend.
She slides into her seat next to Alya, who immediately begins talking excitedly. “Girl, you look amazing! I love the fabric that you chose for the skirt, ooh, it looks so soft! Can I touch it! You should let me take your pics for Instagram, we should tag Chat Noir.”
“Oh, gosh, I don’t know if I’m ready for Chat Noir to see this, Alya,” Marinette says, even though that had technically been the whole point. She wants him to know that he has genuine fans who love and support him, but now she’s realizing that she might be losing his actual friendship by offering herself up as one of those fans. She glances over at Nino and Adrien, who are facing towards them, but haven’t said anything yet. Adrien looks like he’s overheating, with a red face and ears. Huh. It doesn’t feel hot in here, so she wonders what’s up. “What if he’s weirded out?”
“He’ll take it as a compliment,” Alya says. “Nino, won’t he take it as a compliment?”
“Bro, it’s a good compliment,” Nino replies, the dutiful boyfriend. He gives Marinette a thumbs up. “And honestly, it’s not creepy. It looks classy.”
“I agree,” Adrien says, shaking his head as if to clear his thoughts. Maybe he's having a rough morning, so she offers him a warm smile. “Honestly. And I had no idea that you were so proficient with dramatic makeup, Marinette. It looks good on you!”
“Thanks,” she says, soft. Intense crush aside, he always knows what to say to make her feel better. “I appreciate it, Adrien.”
When Marinette goes home that night, she sits on the edge of her bed and wonders what’s bothering her.
Nothing about her day at school had bothered her. In the end, it had actually gone quite well. During lunch, a good chunk of her classmates had gone up to her to ask questions or give her compliments. Juleka had even asked if she could commission Marinette sometime! It had been super exciting and fun, and even the jokes about her being a Chat Noir fangirl hadn’t rubbed her the wrong way.
Because, well, she is a Chat Noir fangirl, isn’t she? Not a creepy one, and definitely not one who wants to date him, but she’s certainly a fan of his. In fact, she’s probably the biggest fan he has. She knows his worries, his fears, and his concerns, and she knows how he overcomes all of those everyday. She knows that he has a big smile and an even bigger heart. Paris is lucky to be loved by Chat Noir.
Ladybug is lucky to be loved by Chat Noir, too. That doesn’t seem as hard to stomach as it used to be. She has spent the better half of a year denying his feelings for her, but… they’re so blatant. They are so obvious. Does it have to be a bad thing? Can’t she love him back in her own way, even though Adrien has a hold on the romantic part of her heart?
Adrien.
Marinette looks around her room. Her Adrien posters are everywhere. They line her walls with little space for anything else. They wrap around her room, and he’s even her desktop background. If someone’s bedroom is a window to their soul, then this bedroom shows that Adrien is one of the only things on her mind.
That’s not true, is it? Sure, he can embody a significant amount of her headspace when he’s around. But when he’s not around, it’s not like he’s the only thing she talks about. She and Alya talk about fashion, and video games, and their career dreams. She and her parents talk about their family, their memories, and their love for baking. It’s undeniable that Adrien is a big and important part of her life, but he isn’t all there is. Not by a long shot.
Maybe it’s time for a little redecorating.
In the end, she takes down a little more than half of her Adrien posters. She treats them carefully, putting them away with care and ensuring not to tear any of them. Maybe someday they’ll go back up, but they won’t be the only thing that she sees anymore. There are so many different parts of herself that can go in the blank space.
She spends the evening putting up new pictures. There are fashion cutouts, old pictures of her with Alya, and old sketches that she’d never ended up doing anything with. Halfway through, she realizes that she has some extra Chat Noir and Ladybug posters laying around from old charity events, so she decides to hang them up too. It’s a bit weird looking up at Ladybug and pretending that it’s not her, so the superhero pictures that she hangs up are mostly Chat.
She only stops redecorating when she feels as though her room is a more complete picture of her. This doesn’t feel like a whim decision, or one she’ll eventually regret. Maybe it’s something that was inevitable. The longer that she loves Adrien, the less she worships him and the more she loves him, sincerely and honestly.
When she goes to sleep, she no longer feels like anything is bothering her.
Chat Noir visits her on Wednesday night.
Marinette takes a deep breath when she hears the knock on the trapdoor and remembers to act surprised. She’d dropped a hint as Ladybug during their earlier patrol, saying that “the Dupain-Cheng girl says she made something for you,” and then had promptly changed the subject before he could ask for too many details.
She opens the trapdoor, and there he is. He looks nervous, his hands wringing awkwardly around his back as he paces back and forth. Here we go. “Chat Noir?” she asks loudly. His head snaps towards hers, and he smiles widely. “What are you doing here? Is there an akuma? Oh, jeez, don’t tell me that Evillustrator is back.”
“Nothing like that, princess,” he assures her, waving off the suggestion with his hands. “Er, Ladybug actually said that you made me something.”
“Oh, right, of course!” she says, and lowers herself back down into her room. “You can come in if you want. It’s cold out tonight.”
“If you’re sure,” he agrees, and follows suit. The moment that he’s in the room, she beelines for the drawer that she has kept the hoodie in. When she turns around, clothing in hand, she realizes that he’s staring at her walls. “You redecorated,” he says, and for some reason he sounds surprised.
“Oh, yeah, I did,” Marinette says with a laugh. She points towards a few pictures of him - one where he’s grinning at the camera, one where he’s chasing after Ladybug, and one where he’s busy redirecting civilians from an akuma attack. She remembers that one. He’d been so helpful keeping civilians at ease that day, especially since she’d been rather scatterbrained. “Look, there’s you! Some might say I’m a pretty big fan of yours.”
“What about that Agreste kid? You don’t like him anymore?” Chat sounds almost flabbergasted, which hurts a little bit. It’s not as though Adrien is the only facet of her personality. He never has been.
“No, I still like him,” she says, shaking her head. Maybe she’ll always love Adrien, or maybe she only thinks that because she’s fifteen and in love. It’s a weird feeling to have. On one hand, she’s so in love that she knows deep in her gut that it will last a long time. But on the other hand, she’s fifteen! She’s too self-aware to think that she’ll feel the way she currently does forever. Especially if he never actually likes her back… If he does like her back, that’s a different story. She plans their futures together for a reason, after all. “But I like other people - er, other things, too. I have other interests, I mean.”
If Chat notices the blunder, he doesn’t say anything. “We should take a picture together,” he says, voice loud with excitement. “Then you can put that on your wall, too!”
Marinette’s cheeks go warm. “That’s a lovely idea, kitty,” she says. “But, hey, I didn’t ask Ladybug to get you over here so you could comment on my interior design. Here.” She holds out the hoodie.
He takes it gingerly, unfolding it so that he can look at the design. It’s incredibly simple, but she prides herself on how flawlessly she had executed it. It’s a black sleeveless hoodie with two zipper pockets and cat ears on the hood. He looks at it for a long time, and doesn’t say a thing. He’s silent for so long that she grows nervous.
“I figured zipper pockets would be good because then nothing can fall out,” Marinette says, feeling a ramble coming on. “I don’t know what super secret superhero stuff you guys have but I figured it can’t hurt! And my friend Alya runs the Ladyblog, so she said a hood would be good if you ever needed to go low for identity reasons. But I didn’t want something too warm since spring is almost over, and-”
“I love it,” Chat says, quietly but reverently. “Marinette, this is awesome! This must have taken so long! It’s so soft, and it’s so perfectly done! Oh, the stitching is immaculate. It’s designer-quality for sure!”
Marinette’s not entirely sure what Chat’s qualifications for that statement might be, but it makes her smile anyways. “Oh, thank you so much! I just… I wanted to make you something special. Ladybug’s great but… you deserve credit, too.”
Something shifts in his facial expression: the bright excitement fading into something quieter, yet still pleased. “Marinette,” he says, and though she thinks he’s going to say something else after, he remains quiet. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” she says. “It’s about time you got the love that you deserve.”
“Aw, don’t get too soft on me or I’ll cry, princess,” he says. He grabs her phone off the desk and opens the camera app. “Now, c’mon! I should take it since my arms are longer.”
(Not only does Marinette hang that picture up, but she also makes it her phone background.)
After that, people get the hint that Marinette is the Biggest Chat Noir Fan Ever™. Whenever anybody (Chloé) makes a snide comment about Chat, everybody braces for the impact of Marinette’s argument. She doesn’t always wear the merch that she makes, but she does after days like those, and it feels good. Once, an akuma had attacked during one of her e-girl makeup + Chat Noir merch days, and he’d winked at her while swooping in. He’s such a dork, and she cares for him anyway.
The comments and teasing gets a little annoying, but it’s never too bad. In fact, the way that Chloe says “ugh, just go cry about it to Chat Noir” whenever Marinette tells her off is pretty funny. It’s certainly better than the previous “the only thing uglier than your hairstyle is your face, brat!”
Alya and Marinette go to the park after school that day, with macarons and a picnic blanket to share the evening with. The park is calmer than she had expected it - few others are walking through, with no major events or parties touching the quiet landscape. Marinette has a few seconds to convince herself that she’ll have a gentle and quiet evening, until she catches a glimpse of a familiar silhouette bouncing through.
He looks mildly anxious, in a way that she's seen a hundred times. Her heart sinks. She should have known it had been a little too long since the last akuma attack. She just wanted one quiet afternoon.
“Hey, look,” Alya says, pointing up at him. Her phone isn’t out yet, so she must not realize that there’s an akuma attack. After all, how could she? It’s so quiet here. So serene. Marinette wonders if it’s another akuma akin to the Silencer - after all, not all the akumas wreak violent havoc on Paris. Some of them are more surreptitious, only making themselves known when they want to be. “There’s your boyfriend! Hi, Chat Noir!”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Marinette hisses as Alya waves at the superhero. He catches their eye and immediately waves back. “Don’t say that in public, please, the press will never leave me alone.”
“Oh, it’s not as if he can actually hear me,” is the reply. If only that were true, but totally-not-Ladybug Marinette has no reason to know about his superhero hearing, so she remains silent.
“Hi, girlfriend,” Chat Noir calls from afar. “You look magnificent today, purr-incess!”
Oh God, someone needs to take Marinette out back Old Yeller style, stat. This is unbearably mortifying, and a handful of civilians are now staring at the both of them. It only takes one of them to sell it to Nadja.
She gives him the finger, so he blows her a kiss.
Marinette’s only a little surprised when he finds her on her walk home. She’s waiting for a pedestrian light to turn green, dreading the well-meaning interrogation waiting for her when she gets back to the bakery. He drops down next to her, and she grants herself permission to sneak a glance at him. There’s an exhaustion behind his eyes that is easy for her to notice, but other than that, he seems like the immaculate superhero that everybody else knows him to be. Flawless, almost godlike. The way that they're expected to be.
She is so tired of being treated like more than what she is. Being treated like a deity has always felt more like an insult than a compliment. She can only imagine that he feels the same way, sometimes.
“Hey, thanks for your help with the akuma earlier,” Chat Noir says, oblivious to her sour thoughts. The light turns green, and he follows her down the street. “You were a great help while I was waiting for Ladybug.”
“Of course,” Marinette replies, more cheerful than she feels. Her shoulders are still sore from when she’d bent her arm back trying to keep the akuma from reaching a room full of civilians. She is definitely ready to crash into bed. For a moment, she forgets that she’s supposed to be his biggest fangirl, so she adds on: “After all, not many people can say that they were Chat Noir ’s sidekick for the day.”
“Oh, please, you’ll make me blush,” he says, tapping her gently on the shoulder. He’s always been upfront with her - both versions of her - but there’s a serious tone behind his joking manner this time. Sometimes she’ll have to decipher his intentions behind several layers of puns and quips, but now he seems to be laying it all out bare. “I mean it, Marinette. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
Marinette smiles fondly, pressing the back of her hand to her cheek and finding that it’s warm. “You would have managed,” she says, letting her hand fall back to her side. “You always do, Ladybug or no Ladybug.”
She glances over at him to find that he’s looking at her funny. “You have more faith in me than anyone else in Paris,” he says, and it doesn’t sound like an exaggeration when it comes from his mouth like that. “I work hard everyday to make sure that I deserve it.”
She laughs at that, not callously but through surprise. “Of course you deserve it,” she says, pausing on the sidewalk to look at him more thoroughly. He stops short as well, and it’s bizarre how confused he looks. Jeez. When’s the last time that anybody told this kid that he matters? As Ladybug, she needs to do better about that from now on. “Chat, come on. You put yourself on the line everyday, and you’re usually the one who takes the worse hit. You don’t need to prove anything to me. It’s already been proven tenfold.”
He reaches out and takes her hand, and she lets it be taken. He kisses it gently, before squeezing it with his own and then letting it go. “You’re incredible,” he says, quiet enough that she can barely hear it. “I’m sorry for not seeing it before.”
Marinette opens her mouth and then closes it. She realizes, then, what it is about the notion of them being gods that bothers her so much. When she loves, she loves hard. She deems to make the most of it, knowing that it might not always last. Love is not about eternity or immortality. Love is about life, and choosing to be around those one cares about during their short years on earth. Love is a choice that she makes everyday, and it’s an easy one. Gods cannot love the same way that humans do, because they have no fear of the end.
Marinette loves Chat Noir. Maybe not as intensely as he loves Ladybug, and probably not with the same ferocity that she loves Adrien, but she loves him in a different way than she had previously thought. Maybe he can have some space in the romantic part of her heart, too.
She does not realize that it is raining until she feels it drip off her lips and down her chin. Chat Noir is looking at her in a way that he has never looked at Marinette before. It is an expression that he had previously saved only for Ladybug. She wonders if she is looking at him similar to the way that she looks at Adrien.
“Come on,” he says, extending his hand again. “I don’t have an umbrella, but I can get you home quick.”
An umbrella in the rain is lovely, and makes Marinette feel safe. She has been comfortable with her feelings for such a long time, as stagnant as they have become. But maybe it’s time for something else, too.
She takes his hand, and they run.