Chapter Text
Marinette's luck had once again failed her. If there was one thing she can trust was this: her luck always failed.
She didn't even know why Tikki had ran off like that in the morning. They were having a discussion and Marinette supposed that it got out of hand but...
I mean, was it really that terrible of her to want to know the origins of the Miraculouses?
She supposed there were better ways of boarding the subject, and she had ignored Tikki when she'd started looking so distressed about not being able to answer.
So yeah, more than bad luck it had been Marinette's insistence, but in her defense she'd just had a really bad day, okay? She'd had a hard time with a test in the morning, and then she'd ran into Chloe of all people, and you know, she and Sabrina were up to their usual mischief. She hadn't had a wink of sleep last night working on a new design...
Okay, none of these were excuses to be mean to Tikki. She would have to do something really nice to apologize to her.
A table crashed only a few feet from her body and splintered against the wall.
She would apologize if she got out of this alive.
A chair crashed on the other side of her body.
She really had to get out of here.
But...
Oh god, Chat was having such a hard time facing the Diplomat by himself. And he wasn't even going to be able to capture the Akuma! What would they do if the Akuma spread?
She really, really owed Tikki the biggest apology she could muster.
But now the biggest deal was surviving.
Chat noir flew across the room of the Grand Paris Hotel and slammed against the floor. The Diplomat was about to strike and--
Before she knew it, Marinette had dashed towards Chat Noir-- probably Ladybug instinct-- and pushed him out of the way --straight into the freezer.
Before either one of them could get up, the Diplomat was at the door, smiling cruelly.
"I'll take care of you after I'm done with these disrespectful politicians," he said as he slammed the door shut. Marinette saw Chat rush to the door to try to stop it, but it was too late. The door closed with a click just in time for Chat to slam shoulder first against it. He yelped in pain.
"Chat!" she yelled and rushed to his side. He rubbed his shoulder in pain, but when he turned to see her, he had a winning smile on his lips.
"Ah, sorry. I wish you hadn't seen that. Not much of a 'cool hero' there, was I?" he asked.
Marinette wanted to reprimand him. To tell him he was a fool, and that he had to be more careful. If he injured his arm, how would they get out? How would they fight? But most importantly, Marinette just realized how scared she had been at the prospect of seeing him hurt in any way. This was a bad train of thought.
"That was pretty brave of you," he grinned at her. "You saved my life," he said as he stood from the floor and made a swooping bow. "I owe you a big one."
Marinette had to consciously remind herself that she wasn't Ladybug, so she would have to control her reactions carefully, lest she be exposed.
"I don't know if I would call it 'saving'" She responded and looked at the locked door. Chat seemed anything but preoccupied.
"That's alright, my partner will be here in no time to let us out." he said confidently, and Marinette's heart sank. Ladybug would most certainly not be here to let them out.
Not for the first time in the day, Marinette regretted her fight with Tikki.
She wrapped her arms around herself, half in self-consciousness, half in cold. "What if she doesn't?" She couldn't help but ask. "What if she doesn't find us?"
Chat simply smiled at her with that perpetual glow in his eye. "Then we find our own way out."
For a second, this made MArinette feel more relieved than she probably should have been. Sometimes she forgot how capable Chat was in his own right, and how much ne didn't really need Ladybug save to capture the Akuma.
This last thought stung a little, but Marinette ignored it. She looked at Chat, who was in turn looking at his hands (paws?) as if studying them. He looked rather preoccupied.
"Don;t you have like a power to get us out of here?" Marinette asked, playing dumb. She knew his Cataclysm would have them free in no time.
Chat grinned and scratched his head. "I sort of... already used it today." Marinette's heart sank.
His grin dropped for a second, and for the first time she saw him actually preoccupied. Chat looked around desperately, and it hit Marinette square in the face when she heard the noise.
His ring.
"You're going to detransform." She blurted out, and Chat looked a lot like a guy who wished to deny it, but knew it was futile. Marinette grabbed both sides of her head in stress. "How are we going to get out?!"
Chat looked very closed to being very stressed. "I'm sure she'll come." He said, but his words weren't convinced. Marinette had to think of something quick.
"She's not coming." She blurted again. "I- I ran into her a while ago and she--- there was somebody else in trouble! I think she's got her hands full at the moment!"
Ah, now the poor kitty's face lost all its color. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped and if they hadn't been in such an awkward position, Marinette would've laughed. Chat started pacing around, his hands on both sides of his head.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no." He looked around the freezer one more time desperately, and then back at Marinette. There was doubt in his face, and then resignation. He stepped close, coser than any male except her father had stood, and took her by the shoulders. "Listen, I'm going to ask you for the biggest favor I've ever asked anyone."
Her stomach turned into a knot. A very complicated, and terrible knot.
"You're right. I'm about to detransform... but nobody can see that happen, do you understand? And... I can't run." He explained a thousand miles per hour. "I need you to close your eyes and promise not to look my way okay? Its only for a few minutes. Just until I'm strong enough to do it again. Please," he begged. "I need to be able to trust you."
Marinette had never seen chat so debased.
There was no denying it, she was curios as to who the person under the mask was... but if the roles were reversed, she knew Chat would never spy on her, or go against her wishes. Her resolve strengthened.
Without a word, Marinette fished into her purse for a scarf she'd been carrying in case it got nippy and tied it around her eyes before sitting down in the opposite direction of Chat.
"Go on," she said, sitting indian style, her back straight, and pretending that she was not freezing. "I swear I won't look."
At that moment, Marinette could swear the stress blow out of the room like a deflating balloon. She heard Chat's sigh of relief. "Thank you."
Marinette said nothing for a few seconds, and heard the commotion behind her. It was a low pitched noise that she recognized from her own detransformation, and then the voice of Chat's kwami. Soon, the whispered voice of Chat Noir joined the cacophony.
"We're in trouble." she heard the harsh whisper. "I need to transform. Ladybug isn't coming and..." there was a significant silence, and Marinette was sure he was pointing at her. She pretended not to listen.
When his kwami spoke, MArinette couldn't help her curiosity, and listened in.
"This is a terrible situation." She heard it speak, and wow it sounded nothing like Tikki. But then again, it wasn't as if she'd known too many kwamis for comparison. "I'm so tired... I need to eat something."
She heard Chat's harsh whisper again. "EVerything here is frozen... and I don't have anything on me to give you."
Marinette cleared her throat nervously. "I didn't have time to eat my lunch... You can have it if you're hungry, Chat." She said, addressing him and pretending she didn't know his Kwami was in the room with them.
There were several seconds of silence. She added, "if you need to recover energy you might as well eat something," she insisted. "That way we can get out of here." MArinette hugged herself tighter. She really was getting cold. Without turnng around, she fished her lunchbox from her bag and held it towards Chat, not even turning around.
There was more silence, and then the feeling of skin on skin as a gloveless Chat took the lunchbox from her.
"You are... very kind," she heard him say, and shrugged her shoulders.
"Anything for the town hero, right?" She said and rubbed he hands together. The cold was getting worse. She didn't know how long she'd be able to last like this.
"Are you cold?" She heard him ask, while she clearly heard his kwami eat loudly and quickly. "Christ, I'm so sorry, this is all my fault."
Marinette rubbed her arms. "I was the one who pushed us into the freezer, remember?" she tried to sound lighthearted, but her voice was shaking and her teeth had started to chatter.
More silence. "Mari-- miss," huh? she was sure he was going to call her by her name... he probably heard it when someone called for her. "I need you to promise not to turn around, okay?" She heard the sound of rustling clothes and steps coming her way,
"I already di--" shestarted, but stopped when she felt him sit down right behind her. She couldn't say anything. Somehow she felt his arms wrapped around her, and a heartbeat that wasn't her own pressed against her back.
That, and the blush she gained were enough to make her warm.
"This will keep us warm until I can transform again, okay?" He whispered, and Marinette felt that there was something familiar about that voice, though she couldn't quite place it.
At the moment she was more or less too busy concentrating on her partner sharing his body heat with her.
More importantly, she was busy trrying to deny how good it felt.
He spoke again.
"You're very brave," he whispered. "I pretty much owe you my life."
Marinette didn't know what to answer. Her mouth had run away from her brain.
"Anyone could've done that." She finally answered.
"Don't underestimate yourself. You'd make a fine superhero." She could hear the smile on his voice. "If Ladybug and I decide to retire one day, I promise to put in a good word for you."
Marinette didn't answer. She couldn't.
Chat knew nothing about her. Sh wasn't cut out to be a superhero. She stumbled herself through being Ladybug, and everything was pretty much luck... but then, nobody had ever called her 'brave' or 'courageous' or told her that she, Marinette, would make a fine superhero. Her words were a ball in her throat.
She felt Chat shift.
"I think I'm good now. I'm ready to transform again."
Marinette had a hard time telling herself that she wasn't disappointed about this. Before she knew it, Chat's heat was gone from around her, and his heartbeat no longer pressed against her chest. Soon, she heard the familiar noise of transformation.
"You can take off that scarf now." He said, but before she could reach back, she felt his hands around both sides of her hear, and how he dextrously began untying the knot the had clumsily made. In a few seconds, her eyes were uncovered, though the bright light of the fridge made her flinch. Chat Noir stood in front of her, looking not confident as always, but friendly.
She like d this look on him.
"Thanks," she said, and reached for the scarf, but he stepped back for a second, staring at it, a little confused. "Where did you get this? It must have been very expensive."
It was definitely an odd thing for him to say, but she paid no heed.
"The materials aren't really expensive." She replied, waiting for him to give it back. He looked at her, confused.
"Wait, you made this?" He asked, a little more bewildered than the situation required, Marinette thought.
"Uhm. Yeah," she said sheepishly. "I like fashion design and sometimes I make my own. Or for friends." She added, remembering the scarf she'd made for Adrien, even if he never knew it was from her.
Chat stared at her, frowning for a few seconds. "I'm sorry --its just, I've seen a scarf like this before."
Marnette stepped closer and grabbed one end of the scarf. "That's why I always sign them," she smiled as she showed the tiny little M at the very end of the scarf.
Chat looked confused for a couple of seconds, before returning the scarf to her. "I'm sorry, here you go." In a second, and a little too forcedly, she saw him return to his cool and jokish demeanour, as if trying to hide the scene that just happened. "Now excuse me, my fair lady, while I tear this door down."
It took him only a few seconds before the door was rust and on the floor. Marinette, more than anything, was ecstatic to be out in the warmth once again. As they stepped out, Chat smiled once again at her, making one swooping bow.
"My lady, I'm afraid I owe you both for saving my life and for feeding me, and I think you'll find I'm a very thankful cat." He grinned. "But for now, if you'll excuse me, I have a diplomatic debate to have, and a partner to expect."
Without any more words, Chat disappeared through the doors.
She shook her head. She had no time to daydream.
Time to find Tikki.
In the end, they managed to defeat the Diplomat and capture his Akuma and it was all good and well, except Marinette still had the whole freezer incident in her mind. She stood by the side of a building, seeing everything turn back to normal.
She didn't hear him approach, but Chat was there, holding his baton over his shoulders.
"Somebody was late today," he said in a sing-song voice. "What was so important that you had to, you know, ignore the Akuma?"
LAdybug smiled sheepishly, not truly having come up with a good excuse. "Cat in the tree," she blurted. "I had no idea there was going to be an attack, so I was at the other side of the city."
Chat sighed exaggeratedly, "well, I would've had one less life if not for one of the students in the College, you know." He announced, and Ladybug's stomach knotted even more in anticipation.
"What? Who?" She asked, feigning interest.
"MArinette. Cute girl." Ladybug's stomach dropped. "Pretty brave. Reminds me a little of you, My Lady." He grinned at her.
Wow no, wait. Why was her stomach flip flopping? This was Chat they were talking about here. Ther was nothing serious about this boy, even if he tried. She tried to let it slide, but the idea clung to her head.
"If she's so cute, why don't you date her?" She blurted out, even though this was definitely not what she wanted to say.
"Oh, my Lady, you know there's nobody out there for me but you." He replied, but she saw the shift in his eyes. "I;m just saying that if you don't take care, I might fall for another girl."
This stung.
It stung more than it should. Especially because she did not like Chat that way, alright? She did not.
It still stung though, him telling her that he might fall for someone else, even if that person was she herself. Hadn't he promised a thousand times his eternal devotion to her? Wasn't he interested in her as Ladybug anymore?
Ladybug shook her head. These were dumb thoughts and they did not deserve a place in her mind.
"I have to go," she said quickly, "my transformation is gonna fall apart soon." She lied. She knew she still had a good half hour before Tikki got tired, but she just didn't want to be close to Chat for now.
Chat grinned, unaware of her feelings, and waved her away.
"Goodbye, My Lady, see you in the next attack!" He quipped happily before jumping off the building.
There was no way she was losing his attention as Ladybug, and if there was, she didn't care, alrght?
That didn't stop her from not being able to sleep that night.