Chapter Text
With a quiet sigh, Marinette pushed open the trapdoor leading to her balcony. It had been a long day. It had been her first day back at school after having made that catastrophic mistake as Ladybug. Trying to focus on her lessons and act like everything was completely fine was impossible. The only thing that Marinette could think about was Hawmoth using the bunny miraculous to go back in time and get her miraculous before she ever used it or the rooster miraculous to gain the power to read her thoughts and learn her plan before she could enact it.
All in all, it had been a day where Marinette took barely any notes. Thank god for Alya. Her best friend knew exactly what was going on and was there for her the entire day. She had even mentioned getting together later over the weekend to discuss anything Marinette may have missed.
Heaving another sigh, she tilted her head up to the night sky. Her eyes fluttered closed as she enjoyed the light breeze brushing against her face. Would anyone notice if she just stayed like this for the rest of time? A peaceful night with no akuma attacks. Marinette leaned against her railing, finally releasing some of the tension from her day.
“Hey, purrincess.” A voice called from behind her.
With a slight squeak of surprise, Marinette whirled around. There, sat in her chair like he owned it, was Chat Noir. Her heart rate picked up speed just at the sight of him. This was her partner. She couldn’t be feeling butterflies around him no matter how she had been feeling after his speech to her when she had been trapped in her own mind. And besides, she wasn’t even Ladybug at the moment. With a quick mental scold to herself and a shake of her head, Marinette raised her eyebrow at him. “What are you doing here, Chat?”
“Just dropping by to check up on my favorite civilian,” he responded with a smirk.
She giggled with a roll of her eyes. “And you needed to sit on my balcony chair to do that?”
“Come on purrincess.” Chat pushed himself off of her chair, leaning closer to her. “Wouldn’t you say that this is our balcony by now?”
Her cheeks flushed a light pink at his words uncontrollably. Stop it, Marinette scolded herself again. Taking a small step back to clear her head, she took in a small, much-needed breath of air. “No, I’m pretty certain that this is still my balcony.”
He tsked, putting a hand to his chest. “You wound me.”
With a scoff, Marinette shook her head at him. He was so dramatic. “So, what are you really doing here, kitty?”
Chat pouted over at her but she simply kept her pointed stare fixed on his eyes. After a brief pause, he finally heaved a sigh. “If you pawsitively must know, a little birdy told me that you seemed down and distracted in class today. So, consider me your knight in shining leather.” He leaned down in a bow, shooting a wink up at her. “Here to cheer you up and keep you amused.”
Marinette snickered, a hand covering her mouth as she grinned down at him. She couldn’t believe Alya had spoken to him but once again she was eternally grateful to her best friend. How Alya knew exactly what she needed was beyond her. “Thank you for the offer, Chaton, but I’ll be okay. I’m sure you have more important things to deal with as Paris’ superhero anyway. You can tell Alya thank you as well, though.”
“Alya?” He frowned at her, looking almost confused as he stood up straight again.
She blinked at him in shock. Was it not Alya who had told him? But that didn’t make sense... who else would have known that she had been upset that day? “Yeah,” Marinette said hesitantly. “Was it not Alya who told you?”
“Not purrcisely...” Chat trailed off, scratching the back of his neck. “It was actually another classmate of yours.”
Now it was her turn to frown over at him. “Then who?”
His eyes seemed to dart around, almost as though he were avoiding her gaze. She was about to question him on it when his next words practically stopped her heart from beating in her chest. “It was uh, actually Adrien Agreste.”
Marinette practically choked at that. Adrien... and Chat Noir... talking about her. Was there a way to get the floor to swallow her up? Just imagining her two favorite and most important boys talking about her made her suddenly feel dizzy. Plus, if Adrien had sent Chat over then that meant he had been paying enough attention to her to see how stressed she was. Ok, she was now officially convinced that this was all one big dream.
“You two are friends, right?” Chat blurted out as Marinette was still struggling to gather all of her thoughts together.
Maybe... maybe this wasn’t a dream. Shaking her head, she attempted to give him a weak smile. “Yeah, we are. I-I guess I just didn’t realize that he noticed. N-neither of you needs to worry, though. I promise I’m not in any danger of being akumatized. I just had a bad day today.”
“Well, that’s meowvelous. I would hate to fight against you, purrincess,” Chat said with a small grin on his face.
All at once, Marinette suddenly felt her tension fade away. Chat was one of the sweetest guys she knew. Taking a step closer to him, she smiled. “Don’t worry, kitty. I promise that you’ll never have to.”
There was a brief pause where they just stood there, grinning at each other until Marinette eventually shook her head. “A-and if you could tell Adrien thank you for me... I’d really appreciate it.”
“Why don’t you tell him yourself instead,” Chat said, a glimmer of something appearing in his green eyes. “I’m purrety sure he’d appreciate chat ting with you. Especially because he’s staying in Paris now.”
She blinked, opening her mouth before eventually nibbling her lip with a light blush on her cheeks. After another moment, she nodded her head, murmuring softly, “Alright, I will.”
“Pawsome!” He beamed over at her.
With another small giggle, Marinette took another step closer to Chat, brushing a small kiss on his cheek. “And thank you again for checking up on me, mon Chaton. You really helped to turn my day around.”
“It was my pleasure, Marinette,” he said with a soft look in his eyes as she pulled back. Extending his baton, he nodded to the city of Paris. “I’ll see you around.”
Giving him one last wave, she watched him bounce out into their beautiful city. She sighed quietly to herself one last time. For the first time in a while, she was really starting to feel better.