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Marinette was just about done with her homework, her lips already quirking up at the thought of perhaps playing against her dad at Mega Strike III for at least an hour, when there was a black blur, hissing and muttering, swiftly making its way towards her. She blinked once and stared at the black kwami. Black kwami meant the Black Cat kwami. The kwami of destruction. The kwami of her partner. What the hell was he doing here, in her room, and not with her partner?
“Plagg?” Her eyebrows rose up on her face and Tikki frowned up at Plagg from her place on Marinette’s desk, her expression unreadable. “What’s wrong? Did something happen to Chat Noir? Did he lose his Miraculous again? Is something wrong with the ring??”
The black God huffed and puffed before he settled down enough to reply to her questions. He actually looked like he might just blow up her entire house, and seeing as he was seriously small, it meant a lot. Hovering before her, he got closer and closer to her face, looking angrier and angrier with every new inch.
Pointing his paw at her, he hissed. “YOU are my problem, Pigtails.”
“Plagg, calm down – “ Tikki tried to intervene but the Black Cat kwami sent her a murderous look and she quieted down immediately, looking taken aback and slightly shocked. Marinette had no idea how close those two actually were, but she assumed Plagg being rude and snapping at Tikki wasn’t something they were used to.
“Don’t tell me to calm down when my kitten is all messed up because of YOUR Ladybug!” He glared at Tikki and then back at Marinette who furrowed her brows in confusion. “This kid is the best Black Cat I’ve ever seen before. He’s the nicest, smartest, offers the best cheese, kindest and probably just the best human being in the world and he’s slipping right through my fingers, fading right before my eyes, because YOU, Ladybug, don’t seem to care!”
Marinette blinked at the kwami in confusion, her brows furrowing. “W-what?” She glanced between Tikki who seemed to bow her head to conceal her expression, and Plagg who kept on staring her down like he was seriously considering fighting her on this if she chose not to see his point. Which… she didn’t. What was he talking about? What was going on with Chat Noir? Was he okay? Was he in trouble? Her blood ran cold as a certain thought invaded her brain – what if she did something that would get him akumatized??
Seemingly oblivious to her internal turmoil, Plagg just kept on talking. “I knew things were going to get ugly the moment Master Fu decided to train you and practically neglected the kid, but after you became the Guardian I had some hope you’d be able to fix things and turn this dynamic right. But you just went ahead and followed Master Fu’s footsteps blindly without realizing his choices were often the wrong ones.”
“Plagg,” Tikki cut in again, her voice sharper this time around. She glared at the other kwami with narrowed eyes. “Master Fu always did what he thought was best – he was always very careful and had to make sure the Miracle Box was safe. And since Marinette is the Guardian now she HAS to be careful and cautious too – “
“That’s not the problem, though. Be careful all you want, I don’t care.” He huffed. “No, but you just can’t see when the Guardian is wrong because everyone always favored the Ladybug Miraculous holder. They always praised and looked up to her while my kittens stayed behind and had to actually DO something.” His eyes turned back to Marinette and the girl almost stumbled back from the ferocity in his green, shining eyes. “Have you ever considered the fact that maybe my kitten wouldn’t have had to jump in front of you during battles in order to protect you if you would have just been a little more careful? He’s just better at fighting than you, so when you fail to protect yourself he has to stop it because he can’t purify Akumas or repair the damage caused to the city. That’s not on him – it’s on you. Learn how to fight properly and keep yourself out of harm’s way!
“And I’m sure Master Fu did what he thought was best, but he learned from the same people who always ignored my kittens and that means that you, Pigtails, are going down the same path. And you can say a hundred times over that you actually care about Chat Noir but the fact of the matter is that you leave him behind and lie to him just like Fu did and maybe you weren’t there but let me tell you – before Master Fu FINALLY graced my kitten with his presence, he was seriously going to give up the Miraculous. He was moments away from renouncing me and leaving the Miraculous to you. And if you keep on going down this path, he’s going to do it again, and this time I won’t be able to stop him!
“He’s already more depressed than he’s been when I first got to him – and his life’s like the opposite of yours. He’s miserable and isolated and has to always make others happy instead of paying attention to himself. He won’t call it that, but people definitely harass him and his family won’t do anything to stop it, instead they berate him for wanting to have personal space. And I’m pretty sure some of this is actually considered sexual harassment, but the kid’s too stubborn to acknowledge that. He grew up in an environment that taught him being a pushover is the right thing to do and that if he ever had any complaints, he was actually being rude or ungrateful or something stupid like that.” He hissed like a cat and shook his head. “So his civilian life is pretty terrible and so he uses the Miraculous to escape that. And at first it was fine – he could just transform and finally be a little less reserved and more outgoing. He finally got to get out and explore things he’s been craving for ages… he could go out more, he could slip out of things he didn’t like, he could spend some time with someone he actually cared about! And then you and Master Fu both got up and practically spit in his face.
“It was fine at first. My kitten’s gotten used to being sidelined or being easily dismissed. I don’t approve, but he could handle it because he grew up into that. But Nothing seemed to change. It looked like that was going to be the new normal so he started getting anxious and kept on whining about how unfair it was that he didn’t know everything. That he constantly had to just let things play around him without knowing what’s going on behind the scenes. But he put on a brave face because if this kid’s good at anything – it’s acting. He kept on joining you and fighting beside you and despite all the proof that he wasn’t important, he kept on convincing himself that someone out there cared and that he was doing the right thing. That things would turn out okay. And then you fought Syren and he confronted you about this. And after you left I had to actually SHOW him I cared just to make him second-guess taking the Miraculous off. Granted, Master Fu showed up just in time, but that didn’t fix things. This man just showed up, said a couple of nice words and then left him again, thinking this could ever be enough.
“You know my kitten really likes to give you the benefit of the doubt? He’s just sitting there, in his room, and thinks about every single depressing thing that could possibly plague his mind that’s also related to you and instead of getting mad or upset he just keeps on trying to justify your choices. It’s honestly pathetic, and I’ve seen some pathetic stuff in my time. Just ask Tikki.” He shook his head and then went right back to growling at Marinette. “You might be the Guardian now and you might think following Fu’s instructions is the way to go, but if you keep on pushing my kitten away like that, you won’t have a partner left to mistreat. He’s fading. He’s just getting wasted because you’re too stubborn to share things with him.
“You don’t even trust him! He gets that you have a ton of pressure being the Guardian and all, and he wants to help. But you refuse every time and instead get upset more easily or pick up more heroes you don’t even need. You and Chat Noir as a team should be able to deal with most of the Akumas Shadow Moth sends but you just dismiss my kitten and instead rely on other heroes to the point where it looks like Chat Noir is nothing more than another one of them – a temporary sidekick you could deal without. And so he just sits in his room and lives his miserable life and gets more and more depressed and I can’t do anything to change it because you’re too blind to see how much you keep on hurting the person you claim to care about so much!
“Master Fu was a paranoid, old man – Tikki, don’t give me that look. You know I’m right – who made a terrible mistake and managed to save this Miracle Box which left him traumatized to the point where he could barely even bear the thought of giving a Miraculous to you two. Everything he did was out of fear. But you’re not him. You don’t need to be so scared because people make mistakes and that’s human – I think. As you can plainly see, I’m not human. Instead of working with fear as your indicator, start trusting the important people. My kitten deserves it at the very least. He’s not your sidekick and he’s not someone you can push aside. He’s supposed to be your equal, your partner. And whether you like it or not, destruction is just as important as creation. You can’t overshadow each other because you two need to work together to balance each other out. Creation and destruction hand in hand. It’s not creation and sometimes destruction.” He bored his eyes into her. “Right now… my kitten might have the power of destruction, but the only one destroying things is you.”
And without another word, without even waiting for a reply, the kwami zipped out of there and back into the night, leaving a dumbfounded Marinette behind with Tikki shaking her head beside her and muttering under her breath something about Plagg and holders and the past.
Numbly sitting down on her chaise, Marinette covered her face with both hands, her lungs struggling to let the air come into her body. Was she really that terrible to Chat Noir? Was she a horrible Guardian? Obviously Plagg was telling the truth because the little kwami always struck her as more of a goofy, catlike God. He never seemed interested in paying attention to things unless they really mattered to him. And the way he spoke about Chat Noir… he cared about him. He was clearly attached to him more than she’d thought was possible for the kwami. He cared so much that he LEFT his holder to come and find her. To berate and scold her.
“Tikki, what am I supposed to do now?”
Looking back, Chat Noir really did tend to come out more. He always tended to show up to all of their fights, ready and energized. Now, more often than not, Marinette found herself standing in front of Akumas on her own or surrounded by the other heroes without Chat Noir in sight or with him looking downcast and almost always upset, even if he sent cheerful grins her ways every time he caught her looking at him.
How could she have been so blind??
Pulling herself together, Ladybug looked down at the city from her place atop the Eiffel Tower. Her fingers anxiously tapped her thighs as she waited. Something in her told her not to be too optimistic – he might just not show up. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d refuse to meet up in the last month. But this time she hoped she sounded desperate enough to make him ditch whatever his, according to Plagg and Chat’s random comments, awful life had to offer and come to have this little chat. If she could really call it small.
A part of her, though, was almost hopeful, wishing he wouldn’t show up. Because if he didn’t come then she wouldn’t have to confront him about everything. If he didn’t show up, she’d be able to tell Plagg that she’d tried and that Chat Noir didn’t seem too inclined to try and patch things up himself. If he didn’t show up she’d be able to shrug this whole thing off and move on to other things she had to deal with.
But every time she started thinking this way she knew that was wrong. She would never be able to live with herself, knowing her Kitty was miserable and all alone. She’d never be able to just move on and pretend Chat Noir was fine when she knew for a fact that he wasn’t. He was going through a lot more than she’d ever expected and most of it, if not all of it, was her fault. She had to fix it. She had to at least TRY. And then try again and again and again.
A quiet thump behind her let her know he’d arrived after all. Ladybug’s shoulders tensed for a moment before she inhaled slowly to try and calm herself down. And then she twisted her upper body in order to look his way. He smiled like he always did, but now that she found herself paying everything he did more attention, it was clearly mechanical. Almost like a reflex he felt like he had to keep up. A show. An act. Chat Noir, the actor. She shuddered internally at that and then returned his smile – no point in making him feel attacked from the start.
Without saying a word, he sat down next to her, leaving almost two feet between them. Ladybug saw that and then unceremoniously moved a bit closer to him until he was at arm’s length from her. The incredulous look on his face quickly faded as he stretched his lips back into his mechanical smile. Silly kitty.
“You said you had something important to talk about?” He questioned right away. When Ladybug looked into his eyes she found the light in them dimmer than usual. God, she really has been oblivious and blind to the light that was Chat Noir fading away… and she called herself his partner! “Ladybug?”
With a weak smile she nudged his side playfully. “What, no nicknames?” She asked jokingly, her voice light. His response was to blink at her once before the smile on his face thinned a bit, indicating he was clearly fighting to keep it up. She withdrew her hand immediately and looked down at it. “Plagg came to me last week.” She blurted out. No point in hitting around the bush now, right?
Chat’s entire body flinched at that and he seemed to itch away from her as if burnt. “What?!”
Nodding, Ladybug glanced at him and then looked back down. “He was worried about you, apparently. So he flew over to my house and scolded me for a few solid minutes. Well, me and Tikki.” She pursed her lips, contemplating what to say next, but before she could utter out another word, Chat spoke up.
“I’m sorry about that. I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”
“No!” Ladybug immediately snapped her head up to look at Chat Noir who had a frown on his face, his eyes focused on his ring as if it could deliver his glare to Plagg himself. Could it? “No, I think I get it. He’s like a cat, right? And since he was scared and worried he acted like a cat and lashed out. He was trying to help in his own way.” She brought her hands together and was aware of Chat’s unnaturally green eyes staring at her. “I just… I think I needed that wake-up call. He was really direct about everything he had to say, and I don’t think he was only complaining about how I’ve been treating you – it was more like… he was sick of the way Guardians have been treating the Black Cat holders in the past throughout history.”
Chat blinked at her in confusion. “What, did they rub them under the chin the wrong way? No, wait – did they get Plagg the wrong cheese?” Under Ladybug’s deadpan look he let his shoulders sag in defeat. “Look, I know Plagg can be very… loud… when he has something to complain about. He’s like that all the time when I insult his cheese. I’m really sorry he practically cornered you like that – I didn’t even know he was gone. I guess he left when I was busy… umm… doing something.” He coughed awkwardly. “Anyway, just… sorry he bothered you – everything’s fine.”
And he actually looked like he was going to get up and leave as if everything really was fine according to his book. But it wasn’t and Ladybug could tell, so she latched onto his arm and kept him seated next to her. The huge, surprised eyes he stared at her with almost made her want to cry. He looked so… scared. Lost. Like he needed to get out of there and get somewhere safe. This safe place should have been around her, and yet here they both were, awkwardly trying to bring up something that was clearly new to the two of them.
“He said you were depressed. He said your civilian life is terrible and that doing this – being Chat Noir – is what you do to get away. That it used to be your escape until Master Fu and I pushed you away and kept secrets from you.” She wanted to hear him protest but he was just quietly watching her, his face blank. This probably hurt more than his frown. “He said I didn’t trust you enough, and maybe I haven’t been showing it properly. I mean, I do trust you. I’ve just been so stressed out that – “ She cut herself off when he averted his eyes from her and gulped down the words she had to say. “No. No, I’m not going to give myself any excuses. I was handling everything the wrong way. You’re my partner and I should have accepted your help instead of driving you away. I should have known pushing you would end up badly but I just wasn’t thinking for myself. Plagg was right – I just followed Master Fu’s instructions without giving them a second thought, thinking they were the best way of going. And I shouldn’t have. I should have done something else. I should have let you be there, pitch in. Instead I just pushed you away because I was scared of messing up and…” She shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Chat Noir. You didn’t deserve any of that.”
The look he gave her was hollow instead of understanding or angry. He just looked at her the same way you’d look at a blank computer screen. And then he untangled his arm from hers before standing up and taking out his baton.
“I’ve gotta go.” He said in a monotone voice and then jumped off the beam they were both perched on and she watched as he made his way away from her, not looking back even once. She wondered whether her apology was too late…
Chat Noir has shown up to the next fights that week but refused staying behind or chatting. He always just fought, helped however he could, and then left without allowing Ladybug to say anything or try and slow him down. He just skipped away with his baton and the rest of the holders all asked her about it only to receive passive, clipped replies and annoyed glares from the heroine.
She’d missed her chance. She apologized too late and now he was upset and nothing she could say would fix it – she knew that now. She messed everything up with him and there was no going back. Her ever-forgiving partner decided he couldn’t forgive her this time. It was all over. She knew deep inside that if things went down this path she’d have to replace him – find someone else who would be able to take on the role of the Black Cat. But the thought of having someone else by her side instead of her Kitty made her sick. Besides, Plagg clearly cared a lot about his holder – she couldn’t bear the thought of separating those two.
Then again, she had to have a functioning partner in order to defeat Shadow Moth and be done with his reign of terror. She was more than a little sick of dealing with him and obviously the city in total wanted him gone as well. But in order to really deal with Shadow Moth once and for all she knew she needed a partner and not just the other temporary heroes, meaning she had to be able to trust him, and vise versa. That was obviously not the situation right now, though. How could she expect to win against Shadow Moth when Chat Noir avoided her like the plague?
Marinette sighed and leaned against the railing of her balcony, feeling like her head might just explode. She needed to figure out how to move on but with Chat Noir keeping his distance, the only thing she COULD think about was how disappointed she was in herself for somehow ending up with the boy pushing her away. He said he loved her – maybe he still did – and yet she messed up so badly that he couldn’t stay around her.
“What’s gotten you so upset, Princess?” A familiar voice came from behind her and Marinette startled and turned around quickly, almost losing her balance. Her wide eyes locked onto Chat Noir who leaned against the wall behind him, his bright, green eyes looking at the city instead of her. He still looked distant. Maybe not physically, but mentally. He wasn’t entirely on the same roof as her.
“C-Chat Noir?” She whispered, feeling like the name might turn the boy in front of her into an illusion. A trick played on her by her own, treacherous mind. But instead, all that happened was that he turned to look at her, his catlike eyes boring into her as if he could see right through her without even trying. She felt naked and vulnerable. But her mind kept on whispering to her that it was Chat Noir. Nothing bad would ever happen to her with him around – and he sure as hell would never hurt her himself.
A weak smirk appeared on his face. “Expecting another alley cat to show up any time soon?” He teased lightly and then his smirk fell away and he looked down, his shoulders raised protectively and a thin, nearly invisible layer of tears welling up in his eyes. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised – you always seem to be in a mood whenever I’m in one.” He chuckled mirthlessly. “It’s like a psychic connection or something.”
Or something, Marinette wanted to say. Because it had nothing to do with psychics or anything mystical. He was upset right along with her because they usually suffered from the same things. Because of each other. Instead of saying that, though, she just nodded solemnly and Chat lifted his head to watch the motion for a moment before pushing himself away from the wall. For a second she feared he was going to leave her alone, but instead he just walked forward and leaned on the railing the same way she’d done before.
Hesitating for a few moments, Marinette wondered whether she was supposed to join him. Eventually she did, nervously leaning her arms against the railing and letting her palms dangle over the street below. Chat Noir didn’t say anything to her yet, but it was clear his mind was racing. At least, she thought it was – he looked troubled and like he was trying to fight himself.
Thankfully, he spoke up a few moments later, his voice even and measured. Almost calculated. “I know who you are.” He stated and when Marinette opened her mouth to say something – she wasn’t sure whether she was going to ask him what he was talking about or simply deny everything – he gave her one meaningful look that made her slam her mouth shut. “I know that you’re the sweetest person I’ve ever met. You always do whatever you can to make people happy. You’d go out of your way to assist someone with something even though you have more than enough to deal with as it is. I know that you’re smart and crafty. And you’re not perfect – you can snap at people or hurt people. But you almost always apologize in the end in a way that makes it clear you MEAN it. You’re not just saying it out of obligation. You really feel bad for hurting others around you.”
Marinette looked away, her cheeks burning. Normally, she would have said it was from the compliments given to her, but the way he said it didn’t make it sound like compliment, just facts. He was stating things about Marinette. The sky was blue, the Earth was round and Marinette Dupain-Cheng was a kind, sincere person. Facts that could not be argued.
“I know that you’d jump in to protect your friends, and that you’d give everyone a second chance, even if you don’t think they deserve it. I know you’d let people think horrible things about you if that would enable you to help the entire city without anyone noticing.” When he said that last part Marinette’s eyes grew even wider with alarm but she relaxed when he just kept on talking, as if that didn’t matter to him. Even if he was clearly aware of her being Ladybug. How did he even find out? “I know that you’d lie down in a fountain in your pajamas just to help a friend.” At that a smile tugged at his lips and Marinette’s world came into a halt.
In a fountain… a friend… pajamas…? She only did that once and it was such a weird and dreadful little moment that Marinette almost felt like she should just forget about it. But he brought it up and… and… she looked into his eyes as he returned her gaze and it felt like the ground was slipping from under her feet. A blonde guy with green eyes who had a bad homelife and who was barely even allowed to do anything and always had to put on a front for others? She knew exactly two people like that in her life. And… she tried to chalk it up to coincidence but looking at him… the way he seemed to try and make her understand… she couldn’t deny it any longer.
“Oh.” Was all that came out of her mouth before she blinked at him and swirled her head back to look over at the city, her heart racing in her chest. Chat Noir was Adrien. Adrien was Chat Noir. Which meant… she let them both down. “Oh, no.”
They were both quiet after that and Marinette couldn’t help but try and imagine what it was Chat was thinking about. Was he regretting exposing himself like that? Why did he even do that? And how the heck did he learn who she was? Did she say something? Do something? Was she just really obvious? How long had he known?? Was he disappointed? Excited? Did he just not think too much about it? Chat always claimed to have a crush on Ladybug but now he knew who she really was under the mask and… was that crush gone? Because she knew for a fact that Adrien never had feelings for plain, old Marinette Dupain-Cheng, so why would he like her now?
Her world was crumbling all around her. She’s been crushing so hard on Adrien and yet she missed this crucial part of his life. He was Chat Noir. He was a complete and utter dork and he was in love with Ladybug. He spent his life pleasing others and trying to be this perfect guy to fit the image his father had created. And he was stuck in this boring life, unable to make life easier. Sure, he did get to go to school this year for the first time, right after he got Plagg, but that was hardly enough. His father didn’t even let him celebrate his birthday with his friends! Nino got akumatized because of this!
And all this time instead of supporting him as Chat Noir, Marinette kept him at arm’s length, thinking he was just too nosy and icky, always trying to spend more time with her instead of actually focusing on saving the city. Which… yeah, Chat Noir should be paying more attention to their actual job, but he never truly neglected it. He just tried to make things a little more cheerful and fun for the both of them. Marinette was simply too bullheaded to see it at the time. And now he wasn’t even doing that. No, now he was there for the fights alone because he got burned one too many times and he just found this entire superhero thing to be another part of his daily routine. Something he had to do to move on with his day and check off the schedule of his.
And it was all her fault.
Suddenly Chat coughed, a little awkwardly, and shuffled his feet a bit. “I saw you detransform, by the way.” He noted, his voice kind of airy, like he was trying to make it sound better than it was. When Marinette didn’t react at all and just kept on gazing at the city, he continued. “After I left you at the Eiffel Tower I came here to talk to someone ‘cause… I figured Plagg wouldn’t be the best listener. But you weren’t home, obviously, so I just… hung around and waited. And then Ladybug showed up and detransformed right in front of me and… yeah…” He tapped his nails against the railing. “I thought you’d… like to know how I knew.”
Marinette inhaled deeply and then closed her eyes, letting the air go back out slowly. “It doesn’t matter. Not… not right now.” She said and even without looking at him she could tell Chat was gaping at her. And he was right to do so because they both knew how utterly obsessed she was about keeping their identities a secret, even from each other. And even though she still thought it was very risky to know who the other was, she knew this wasn’t the most important thing they needed to talk about. “I’m so sorry.”
She pushed away from the railing and began to pace across the balcony, her gaze locked on the ground and her arms tilting by her sides like giant metronomes. Chat turned, his back leaning against the railing now, and watched her quietly, his arms crossed over his chest almost protectively. Marinette couldn’t even blame him for trying to physically protect himself – she was a horrible person and a terrible friend.
“Ugh, this just makes it so much worse!” She tugged at her hair and groaned, her head shaking a bit as if to try and deny everything that’s been going on. From his place, Chat seemed to hum in disagreement, but she didn’t let him say a thing, instead going right back to talking. “It was bad enough to get a wake-up call from a cheese-loving God who has the emotional range of a fingernail, but now I also find out that even without those stupid, magical suits – I’m still a terrible friend!”
Chat’s lips twisted downward. “Hey, you’re not. You’re a great friend, Marinette.”
The glare she sent his way made him shift a little in his place, as if the daggers coming from her eyes were tangible. “No, I’m not. I’m really, really not!” She could tell her arms were beginning to gesture wildly the more she got into it, but she just couldn’t bring herself to care. “I tell myself I’m doing enough but I’m such a horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE friend! How did I not notice something was up? I mean, we’re supposed to be friends and yet I couldn’t even tell that you were feeling down or depressed or alone or… or any of those things! I’ve been climbing up my bedroom walls at the thought of letting down Chat Noir only to realize I’ve messed it up with Adrien, too?! Oh, this is a disaster!”
“Woah, hey.” Chat pushed himself away from the railing and seemed to hesitate for a second before he reached out and held Marinette’s arm in place, keeping her in one spot instead of letting her pace some more. “Hold on,” Marinette was pretty sure that a few more moments of pacing would have left a permanent crater in the floor. She avoided his eyes, though, and kept on looking down even when he tried to catch her eyes. “If there’s one thing you’re not, is a bad friend, Marinette.” He waited for a moment but Marinette still refused to look at him. “It’s not like I’ve been announcing out loud that something was wrong. You didn’t have a way of knowing and unless you always try to find hints for people feeling less than ecstatic, you shouldn’t have found out. No one else has and I didn’t want you to.”
“I should have noticed…” Marinette insisted.
He shook her arms a little and when Marinette finally looked up at his face, she found a small smile there, aimed at her. At first she thought it was fake, like the other ones, but then she observed it a little more and came to the conclusion that it was completely genuine. He was really smiling. Maybe for the last time in a long while, he was SMILING. Both Adrien and Chat’s first sincere smile in a while. She didn’t know how to feel about that.
“Stop.” He said.
She frowned. “Stop what?”
Letting go of her hands, he shook his head at her, his blond hair swishing around messily. In a way, it was so unlike Adrien. And yet… Marinette couldn’t help but notice how much it suited the image she had in her head whenever she truly tried to piece everything about him together from their little sincere chats and not the adds and publicity. “Stop blaming yourself for things you couldn’t have known about!” His smile grew a little. “Even if I have been moody, you weren’t supposed to know. So I need you to take in a deep breath and realize not everything is your responsibility.”
Marinette didn’t like it, but she breathed in deep under his watchful eyes and then folded her arms and glared at him. “Better?” She asked mockingly and at his pleased grin, she rolled her eyes. Then she deflated again. “I’m still sorry. Even if you want me to ignore the whole Adrien-side of the situation, I’m still the one who caused all of this mess in the first place.” At his sharp gaze she relented slightly. “Most of this mess.”
He sighed. “Marinette…”
“You can’t deny that I’m right.” She stated bluntly.
“I can, but I won’t.” He added quickly at her sharp look. His hand went up to run through his hair and Marinette watched as he seemed to try and collect his thoughts. “Alright, look, we both know things haven’t been going too well. And yes, you’re right, it hurt to get shoved to the sidelines time and time again to make place for other Miraculous holders who barely even knew how to use their powers.” He shrugged helplessly and Marinette thought she’d never seen Chat more uncomfortable before, not even when Chloe threw herself at him – Adrien him – against his will. Which was probably a part of the whole harassment-thing Plagg’s been talking about. She needed to remember that for later. “But I should have actually talked about it with you instead of acknowledging the problem and keeping it to myself.”
It didn’t sit right with Marinette, to claim that it was somehow Chat’s fault as well, but she could tell he wasn’t going to take it back and he wasn’t going to argue with her on this. He really thought it was both their fault and she had to roll with it. At least for a while. And if that meant they could actually talk it out and try and get to some kind of understanding, that would be better than fighting over the small details.
“So… what do we do now?” Marinette asked when she realized Char had nothing more to say. He glanced at her and then shrugged, a grin on his face. She was relieved to find out it wasn’t a fake one. “We don’t have to solve it all right now, you know. We can… we can think about everything and try and come up with solutions individually and then meet back up and… and somehow work it out.” She rubbed her arm nervously. “I mean, even if it takes a long time, I really don’t wanna leave things as they are. What do you say?”
Chat nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that.” He reached out over his back and pulled out his baton. With a press of his finger, it extended and he leaned against it for a moment, the way he used to do before everything went south. Marinette shook her head fondly at him, which seemed to bring a smile to his face, apparently. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, My Lady!” And he saluted quickly and jumped over the railing, using his baton to hop across the city.
On her balcony, Marinette was just glad he didn’t call her by her name for the first time in what felt like forever. Who knew she’d miss this part of her partner, right? And she got it thanks to Plagg of all things.