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“Well,” Chat said from his place on Marinette’s chaise. The girl had been working on her Physics homework—Chat had offered his help and she had stubbornly refused, for some reason or another—while he had grabbed a magazine to entertain him. Normally, he would look for Marinette’s scribbles in the margins about fashion ideas or adjustments to the original design, but this tabloid in particular seemed untouched.
And he wondered if her lack of reaction to his open ended statement meant she had not seen it yet.
“Please keep your incredulity about my fashion choices down, I’m trying to concentrate,” Marinette said, not even looking over. No, no, this would not do at all.
“Purr-incess, have you even seen this one?” he asked, attempting to show her the picture and failing. She still had her head ducked over her homework.
“I haven’t looked at today’s tabloid. Been a bit busy,” she stressed, making a waving motion with her stylus as she attempted to solve another problem. Chat looked from the picture to his friend and back to the picture again.
“Well…” he drawled out. “I’ll just read it to you, then.”
“Chat, please, I’m trying—”
“‘After an exciting debut at the who’s who gala held in honor of the recently returned Prince Ali, fashion experts have listed their—’, why, purr-incess, don’t you have homework?” Chat asked innocently, looking at his friend with amusement. Within those few words, she had promptly abandoned her tablet and squished next to Chat on the chaise. Her eyes revealed a focus that had been missing while she had attempted to complete her homework.
“I wanna know what they have to say! Maybe there’s a hint for the next fashion line somewhere in here or maybe someone got noticed. Chat, what if they noticed my dress?” Marinette exclaimed breathlessly, her eyes scanning the article, not even noticing the picture that went along with it.
But she will… Chat thought as he waited for her to finish. It was only a matter of time.
That time happened to consist of thirteen seconds, but who was counting? Certainly not Chat Noir, amused as he may be.
Marinette grabbed the tabloid from him, her eyes raking over the entire page, picture and all.
“Chat?”
“Yes, princess?”
“They’re calling me your new beau…”
“That they are.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
Chat shrugged. He knew how tabloids and paparazzi could be, but Marinette did not need to know to what extent. “The paparazzi make up their own stories. I know what’s true and you know what’s true and that’s what matters.”
“But what if someone gets akumatized over this? Who knows, you could have a fan club or something out there who might be devastated over this.”
Chat nearly choked. He already had one group of fan girls as a civilian; did he really need to have another as a superhero? Marinette laughed.
“I’m glad someone found my near fatality funny,” he quipped as soon as he got his breath back. His best friend looked completely unapologetic as she quieted her laughter.
“Seriously, Chat,” she said, getting back to business. He wondered how she did that so quickly. “What are we gonna do?”
“Hey, don’t you trust me?”
“If you break into song, I swear I will not hesitate to drop you off the balcony.”
“Meow-ch, Princess. But the question still stands.”
“It’s a stupid question. Of course I do. There would be no hesitation, though.”
Chat laughed at the overlooming threat. It was mostly empty, but he had no doubts she would find other ways to torture him if he broke into song. Be it tickling, odd nicknames, or shunning over the next few days.
He really hoped the last one would not happen.
“Then trust me when I say I’ll protect you. Ladybug and I, we’re a good team and we don’t let our friends get hurt,” he said with confidence. He looked over at Marinette, who had finally torn her gaze from the tabloid and was watching him with wide eyes. Wide eyes that were so blue and so expressive. She looked at him like she was trusting him with the world. With her world.
Thump-thump.
Like that, she turned back to the tabloid. He could see a small smile on her lips. “Yeah.”
Chat could breathe again once she went back to her desk and focused on her Physics. He put a hand to his chest and forced himself to calm down.
What was that all about…?