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"You used division, but it should have been multiplication. Here, let me show you." After Chat Noir said that, Marinette handed him her math notebook and a purple pencil, which had a butterfly ornament at the end.
It was a beautiful morning in Paris, and they were both sitting side by side on the balcony of the Dupain-Chengs' bakery. Occasionally, his shoulders would rub slightly against her unwillingly, but neither of them cared about that.
"Done," he said a few minutes later.
She took the notebook back to see the correct result of the equation she had not been able to solve.
"Try to answer the other equations based on this one. It will be simpler."
"You saved my life, Kitty."
"You know, I am something of a mathematician myself. I'm always ready to help princesses who don't have the same IQ as me," he joked.
"Gee, thanks." Marinette rolled her eyes. "I need my pencil back, please."
Chat Noir didn't want her to have it.
"Do you really need to do the other exercises now?"
"Better to do it now than leave it for later and forget about it… Hey!" she complained as he held the pencil above his head, too far for her to reach.
"You won't forget it! Besides, your math class isn't until next week."
"How do you know that?"
"I…" He panicked. "I saw in your notebook… Anyway, don't you wanna enjoy my amazing company?"
She sighed, giving up.
"Fine."
He put the pencil in her pencil case. When he smiled at her, Marinette knew exactly what he was about to say.
"Truth or dare?"
It was Chat Noir himself who came up with that game. Whenever he appeared on Dupain-Cheng's balcony looking for passion fruit macarons, she could ask him "truth or dare" and the same would apply if she called him, in the middle of his patrol, to help her with school subjects.
As the guardian of the Miraculous and the holder of the kwami of Creation, Marinette knew they had to be very careful, but as long as it wouldn't put their identities at risk, it was fine by her. Besides, she had to admit to herself that it was nice to have those little moments with him.
"Truth."
"What makes you happy?"
Marinette blinked at him in surprise.
"What?! You can't ask me this in the game."
He pouted. "Why not? I'm just curious about you."
"Because then we would be just talking and-" She couldn't think of more reasons to disagree with him. Plus, his question was cute. "All right, uh… a lot of things can make me happy, like when I design clothes, when I'm with my friends, when I look at the stars..."
She wanted to add 'flying through the sky as Ladybug' as well.
"And you?"
"I'm happy right now because I'm with you", he simply answered, sounding so honest that she was speechless.
"Give… give me a challenge," she quickly switched topics. "I'm feeling like doing one."
"Really? So…" He frowned. "I dare you to… walk down the street with an egg in a spoon, but… with the handle of the spoon in your mouth, without dropping it."
"Is this what you call enjoying your company?"
"That's gonna be fun!"
"Absolutely not!"
No matter how much she had complained; Chat Noir somehow — with pouts and green kitten eyes — managed to convince her.
Halfway through, Chat threw one of his arms around her shoulder and started telling bad jokes that nearly made her drop her spoon several times when she had to stifle her laughter. People passing by were looking at them out of the corner of their eyes, and she ended up running into some students of her class. She knew she was going to hear many questions later, especially from Alya.
Even after all this, she held her ground. They almost thought she could do it. Almost.
In fact, Marinette knew she was one of the unluckiest people ever, but she didn't expect that she would accidentally knock the egg over Chloé Bourgeois' head at the end of the challenge, when Chat was just carrying her back to the bakery with his stick.
They both hid on a nearby roof and burst into giggles as they watched the mayor's daughter scream about her "perfect hair" being ruined and her father wondering how a chicken egg had fallen from the sky if chickens didn't know how to fly.
"Glad she didn't see us."
"I would kill you if she did," Marinette said.
"Nah, you wouldn't. You love me."
They looked at each other, only then realizing how close their faces were. They pulled away.
"So, that movie you like is playing at the movies, isn't it?" he asked to break the awkward silence, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I-I think so," she answered, cursing herself in her mind to stop blushing.
"Do you wanna go and watch it?"
"It would be nice."
"Good, then let's go." He started to walk away.
"Uh… Chat?"
"Yeah?" He looked back and realized she didn't have superpowers like him to get off the roof they were on. "Oh, right."
***
"Is it good?" Marinette asked.
The next day they met, Chat had smelled a familiar sweet smell coming from Marinette's balcony and decided to stop by. She offered him some of the sweets that had just come out of the oven.
He enthusiastically nodded after eating some cookies.
"So… Truth or dare, Kitty?"
"Dare." He seemed regretful of the choice he'd made as soon as he saw the smirk on her lips.
"I dare you to bite a macaron with mustard and ketchup."
He gaped at her as if she were a monster.
"No… You're not this cruel, are you?"
"Yes, I am. And don't even try looking at me with those kitten eyes!"
Chat pouted.
"But Mari-"
"No, no. And don't think of running away either."
Marinette entered the house and went to her kitchen. By the time she came back, Chat Noir was lying on the floor with his eyes closed.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting ready to die."
"Don't be so dramatic." She put the bowl with the strange orange mixture next to him. "Bon appétit!"
Chat groaned. He opened his eyes, sat down and dipped half the macaron in the ketchup with mustard. A grimace appeared on his face as he took the first bite.
"It's clawful."
"A fair revenge for making me walk with an egg in a spoon. I had to explain myself to my best friend for thirty minutes…"
"Actually," he said, "you should thank me for not making you run with the egg."
"...And that time you taped a note to my forehead while I was sleeping."
"You wouldn't see it otherwise!"
"My dad saw it before I did! When I woke up, he was baking a heart shaped cake for whoever had written "Will you marry me, princess?""
He chuckled.
"You dared me to ask for someone's hand in marriage, so it's kinda your fault…"
"I'm starting to think that you could eat the whole macaron instead", she threatened, and his eyes widened before he got on his knees in front of her.
"Purrincess, please have mercy on this alley cat! What can I do to earn your forgiveness?"
"Maybe", she said, pretending to think, "you could take me to the Eiffel Tower because I wanna do some drawings and… and I'm seeking inspiration."
It was a lie. She was Ladybug — even if he didn't know about it —, she could go there on her own. Marinette simply wanted to spend more time with him.
"Your wish,'' he said, before brushing a kiss on her hand, "is my command."
***
"Truth or dare?" Chat Noir asked.
Seeming to guess that she would need help with her Chemistry homework, he went to her house one afternoon. By the time the two finished, it was late at night.
"Truth."
"Are you… in love with someone?"
Marinette's eyes widened.
"You… I mean, you can't ask me s-something like that!" She jumped. "It's a secret and… and not that I'm actually in love with anyone! But you can't expect people who are really in love to tell you that and…"
By the time he interrupted her ramble with his laughter, her face was catching fire.
"I was just kitten around, Mari. Sorry."
She crossed her arms and pouted.
"I choose "dare" instead, again."
"I dare you to come with me."
Chat grinned and stretched out his hand to her. Without hesitation, she hugged him, letting herself be carried to wherever he wanted.
Marinette liked the safety she felt as Chat Noir ran across the roofs of French houses, the cold night air blowing against her face. As they reached the top of a tall building, she lifted her eyes up and the stars — so bright in the darkness — seemed to be close enough to be touched with her fingertips.
They were silent for a while. When a shooting star slashed across the sky, they both secretly wished that peaceful moments like that would never end.
"Princess?"
"Yes?"
"Truth or dare?"
By the rules of the game, he could only ask that once a day. She ignored this fact when she said:
"Truth."
But his question took a while to come. Marinette almost thought he hadn't heard her.
"The moon's beautiful, isn't it?" His soft voice made her heart race.
For a moment, she needed to check that she wasn't dreaming and control herself not to ask Tikki to pinch her.
She turned to him, the light breeze ruffling their hair just as they messed each other's hearts easily. Chat Noir's gaze remained fixed on the sky above them, and she could have sworn she saw his eyes glittering.
Marinette knew the beautiful meaning behind that seemingly simple sentence, after all they had already watched some anime together. But was it possible that he was really saying that? For her?
She watched his short eyelashes as he blinked calmly, the nose that looked like it had been drawn by a great artist, the shaggy blond hair that fell across his face and part of the rosy cheeks that the black mask didn't cover.
"Yes," she said, underneath the moonlight, with a smile just like his. "It is."
Whether they had said that to each other literally or figuratively, neither of them could know. It was a secret they couldn't reveal without putting too many things at risk, but they weren't in a hurry; for now, they were happy with the sweet possibility of more starry nights.
Secretly, they thought to themselves: "I dare you to love me".