Archive of Our Own

Twas the tail end of another quiet patrol when Ladybug had an important question for Chat Noir:

“Hey, are you free next weekend?”

Chat Noir leaned forward on his staff. “For you, always,” he replied with half-lidded eyes.

Ladybug gave him an amused eye roll. “What if I told you that I’m asking you to make time for somebody else?”

“Somebody… else?” Chat Noir stood up straighter. “Milady, are you setting me up on a date?”

“N–!” Ladybug gulped down a breath. “No. It’s not a date. It’s about Marinette, actually.”

Chat Noir’s cat ears stood up to match his posture. “I’ll be glad to help out Marinette! What does she need?”

A soft smile played on Ladybug’s lips at the thought that her partner was so eager to help her out on both sides of the mask. “She wants you to drop by next Saturday at 7pm. Apparently she has a surprise for you.”

Chat Noir saluted at her. “Roger that! I’ll be there at 7pm sharp for my surprise mission from Marinette.”

“Oh, and be sure to come hungry to this mission.”

“Believe me”–he pointed at himself with a thumb–“this stray is always willing to be fed.”

“I know you are.” She gave his bell a flick. “Anyway, bug out!”

One week later…

Marinette had spent the day cooking up a storm. Stacked on the kitchen countertop were various bamboo baskets, each filled with dumplings of various fillings. On a dish sat two large lumps of sticky rice, each wrapped in a lotus leaf. On an even larger dish sat a roast duck that had been carved and reassembled in the shape of an intact bird.

Tonight was a date night for Tom and Sabine, so they wouldn’t be around to meet Marinette’s guest of the night.

Good, Marinette thought. If they found out that all of this is for Chat Noir, I’ll never stop hearing my dad fantasizing about “kittens”.

One by one, she lifted out the dishes one by one up onto her balcony where she had set out a small table for herself and Chat Noir. The duck was a bit hard to handle, as the dish was rather wide and she overdid the duck sauce which nearly spilled over the edge as she carried it, but with Tikki’s help she managed to set the table without any mishaps.

And right on cue, the mechanical telescoping noise of Chat Noir’s baton could be heard from the street below, and he landed neatly on the balcony railing. “I could smell something wonderful coming from two whole blocks away. If the source of the smell wasn’t also my intended destination, I might have accidentally followed my nose and got lost!”

Marinette’s eyes flicked down to one of the baskets full of dumplings – the exact same type that she ate for the first time at her grand uncle’s restaurant on the fateful night that she had gone missing. “But I know you’ll always find your way back to me.”

“Of course!” He got down from his perching position and onto the floor. “I’m here on a mission, and– ooh is that a duck?”

“I ordered it from my mom’s favorite place. Everything else I made myself. Have a seat and let’s eat!”

“You made all of this…” he said in total awe.

She bounced on the balls of her feet. “Yep, from my grand uncle’s recipes. He taught me a lot when I visited him, and he wrote down even more of his recipes for me to try at home.”

“I’m sure everything you cook will be delightful. ” He flashed her a toothy grin.

“De…light…ful…” She paused in carrying a chair over for him, then scrunched up her face.

“Is there, uh, something wrong?”

“You made a pun”–her hands balled into fists–“and I don’t get it!”

“Oh.” He took the chair from her. “You take a lot of purride in your ability to understand puns, huh?”

“No!”

Chat Noir gave her a look.

“…maybe!” She pouted and looked away from him. “Figuring out a tricky pun makes me feel smart, alright?”

“Ahah, you’re a clever girl, Marinette. I’ll give you some time to think about it.” He smiled a lopsided smile, then scooted his chair closer to the table and sat down. “But back to what’s important. This duck is calling my name!”

Marinette beamed at him. “Try it with the sticky rice! They taste really good together.”

“Chaaaaaaat…” Marinette whined. “I’ve been thinking about it for hours–”

“More like thirty minutes.”

“–and I still don’t get it. I know that explaining the joke would only kill it, but please end my misery…”

“Alright, alright! You’re so dramatic sometimes.”

“Pot calling the kettle black,” she quipped back at him.

He leaned an elbow on the table. “See, the brilliance of that pun was that it’s not a pun.”

“It’s not…?”

“I was actually referencing your uncle’s restaurant. The Thousand Delights, right?” He pointed a clawed finger at her. “For some reason, you thought it was a pun and you’ve been dedicating all your brain power into figuring it out when there’s nothing to figure out!”

She threw down her chopsticks with a huff. “Then why didn’t you just say that!”

“Because the face you pull when you’re deep in thought is adorable,” he answered with zero hesitation.

“A-Ah…” Her cheeks bloomed with color, then she cleared her throat. “Anyway, there’s a reason why I invited you here tonight, Chat.”

“Let me guess…” He snapped his fingers. “You needed a guinea pig to taste test all of this food.”

“I invited you here to say thank you, Chat.” Gently, she rested a hand atop of his. “Last month when I went missing in Shanghai, you came all the way there to find me.”

“I’ll do anything to help a friend in need,” he said seriously.

“And that makes you a wonderful person, Kitty.” She reached over and flicked his bell, which elicited a happy gasp from him. “Oh, but I have a question… how did you even find out that I went missing in the first place?”

“U-Uh…” His cat eyes narrowed, and his entire demeanor turned nervous. “I saw your face on the news, that’s how.”

“You were watching the Shanghai local news? You can understand it?”

“Yes and yes,” he answered. “And I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I was actually in Shanghai for totally unrelated reasons when the news broke.”

“That’s wild…” Marinette whispered. “Wait, so you were already in Shanghai when Hawk Moth showed his face there too?”

He paused to ponder her proposition. “I suppose you’re right… pretty weird, isn’t it? Sounds almost like a conspiracy.”

Marinette nervously chuckled in response.

“But what if… no, surely not,” Chat Noir pondered aloud.

“What is it?”

He smacked his fist into his palm. “What if Hawk Moth knew that I would be in Shanghai and he used you to distract me from discovering him?”

“You mean me getting lost in Shanghai was part of his plans all along?” Marinette sat back against her chair and reflected on the events of that day. All loose objects on her person had been stolen from her, including her Miraculous. That fact alone smelled like a Hawk Moth plot, but considering what she later learned of the girl who robbed her, Hawk Moth’s involvement in that incident seemed unlikely. “Nah, I doubt it. But I’d be so flattered if Hawk Moth thought of me as a worthwhile target,” she joked.

Chat Noir shuddered, and Marinette gave his hand a squeeze. “I kid, I kid…”

“H-Haha. Uh. This conspiracy talk is getting a bit close to home.” The lump in his throat noticeably bobbed as he swallowed.

“Alright, I’ll cut it out with the morbid jokes,” Marinette relented, but she didn’t want to drop the conversation quite yet. “This sounds like a good thing to bring up with Ladybug later. Maybe you’ll figure something out together.”

It was his turn to beam brightly at her. “You always bring the great food and great ideas.”

Marinette snorted. “Flatterer.”

Chat Noir placed a hand on his chest. “I only speak truths!”

Marinette snorted again, then picked up her chopsticks to pluck a piece of sausage from her sticky rice and placed it on Chat Noir’s plate. “Here you go, you silly kitty.”