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Marinette knew that she didn’t have to be too specific about her plan to lure Shadow Moth into a trap. But she kind of had a feeling that Chat was going to like that part.
“You want me to pose as a statue?” He asked, looking more surprised than she’d expected. Well, it wasn’t a traditional request. But she thought that he could do it. He loved acting.
“You can’t do it, kitty?” She teased him with a wink.
“In fact, I can,” he chuckled.”I might even be too good at it.”
“Really?” It was her turn to be surprised. “How do you know?”
How could he possibly have experience posing as a statue?
“Well, one time I tried it as a prank and was so convincing that a girl tried to kiss me, thinking I was a statue,” he gave her a toothy smile.
The mix of embarrassment and pride on his face didn’t register at first. How many girls went around Paris trying to kiss statues? She had been convinced that her ill-fated attempt to practice her confession with statue Adrien had been a one-off.
“Are you ok?” Chat asked, no wonder surprised by her reaction. “I’m not implying that you’d try to kiss me, don’t worry.”
“Wait,” she shook her head, trying to shake off the embarrassing memories. “Someone tried to kiss you while you were acting as your Chat Noir statue?”
Why did this idea annoy her? She had tried the same thing with Adrien! Maybe it was the idea of someone else kissing Chat. It didn’t sit right with her for some reason. Although of course other girls will want to kiss him. It was only natural. Whatever.
“Well, no,” he mumbled, bringing her back to the present. “I was posing as myself…”
Their eyes met as they both realised that this was a rather revealing piece of information.
“You have a statue at the Grevin Museum that is your civilian self?” Marinette gasped.
“Oops,” he smiled, a hand rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “Maybe.”
Marinette’s mind was buzzing. This was too much. What were the chances? Adrien had a wax statue. Adrien had pretended to be a statue. She had tried to kiss him.
She had been wrong. There weren’t other girls trying to kiss statues in Paris. It was only her. And he was the only one she’d tried this on.
“Oh my God!” she groaned, almost facepalming.
“You don’t know who I am, do you? That wasn’t very specific. A lot of people have statues,” he tried to play it off, but it was too late.
“Not a lot of girls have tried to kiss said statues,” she sighed. “I know that I have. So I know who you are. I’m 99% sure.”
“Wait. Marinette?” He exclaimed, eyes wide with surprise.
“Now it’s 100%,” she hung her head.
“Oh wow.”
“I’m sorry… this was really embarrassing. Not something I expected would lead to me finding out who you are.”
“It was a bad joke on my part,” he reminded her.
“I tried to kiss you!” She squeaked.
“You basically did.”
She looked up to see him grinning at her.
“It was… it didn’t count!” She countered. She was determined not to count that as a first kiss. Which it hadn’t been anyway. She had kissed him before that. Goodness.
“Whatever you prefer, m’lady,” he shrugged. “I don’t mind either way.”
“You should think that I’m a weirdo,” she shook her head. She was still wondering what had gotten into her to go that far.
“I was the one pretending to be a statue. Who is the weird one then?” He said, much too gently, coaxing a smile out of her. He had a point. They were both weird.
“It would come in handy now, as surprising as this is,” she giggled. “You were practising for your big moment. So it isn’t so bad.”
“Just so you know, you can try to kiss me again,” he winked at her.
“Kitty!” Her face was burning. “This is not a joking matter.”
“It can be serious. If you want to.” Oh, how hopeful he looked. It was very touching.
“I want to kiss you when you’re not pretending to be a statue. Add that to the things I thought I’d never say,” she snorted.
“Wait. You do?”
She nodded.
“Does this mean that you meant what you said back then, to statue me?” He asked quietly.
“I did. But I panicked and couldn’t admit it. And then you told me that you loved this girl who hated your jokes. Oh. It was me?”
“Yes, you.”
Adrien was in love with her. Adrien was Chat. This day couldn’t get any better. Her scheming to get Shadow Moth was suddenly forgotten.
“We have a lot of kisses to redo. What the hell is our luck?” She chuckled.
“Hey, it’s not about how many attempts it will take to get it right. If we want it…”
“Let me check. You’re not a statue?”
“Certainly.”
“And I’m not a sentimonster.”
“Ouch.”
“Sorry, kitty. No Oblivio in sight. And no Dark Cupid magic to break.”
“It’s a good start,” He smiled.
“Kiss me.”
“What’s the magic word?”
“Adrien.”
“Not that one.”
“Oh, for goodness sake.”
She kissed him first. After all, she had done it before. But this one was better. So much better than her fear-driven kiss to free him from Dark Cupid. So much better than her desperate attempt to kiss a statue.
“Well?” She asked shyly when she pulled back.
“Fantastic,” he sighed, happiness lighting up his face. “Let me try.”
When he kissed her, it was still as great as before. Even more so.
“We don’t have a limited number of attempts. We can do it again and again.”
As she stood there, looking into his eyes, Marinette realised that she’d never felt happier. Now it was the perfect day.
“There is nothing I would like more,” he nodded enthusiastically.
“Now you won’t have a reason to try to kiss me while we try to catch our enemy,” he said some time later.
“Kitty!”
She hadn’t planned to try to kiss him anyway. But maybe she would have been tempted to do it just a little.
“Sorry, too soon?”
“Just stop talking,” she muttered, kissing the smirk off his face.
Not talking was great, she’d found out. It meant that there was more kissing going on. Which was the point after all. They had a lot of catching up to do.
Also, if they kissed more now, they should really manage to finish the whole plan without jeopardising it with stolen kisses. Hopefully. So this was basically for the greater good.