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A thud came from above her head and she knew exactly who had come to visit her at… she looked at the clock. At eleven forty-five in the evening. Marinette sighed and pushed away from her desk and sketching supplies, stretching her limbs. She needed a break from getting absolutely nothing done anyways. This design was going absolutely nowhere and her lack of inspiration was annoying her. Yes, best to take a break.
She gathered some slippers and a robe for the night air before climbing to her bed and up through the hatch. She was completely unsurprised to find Chat sitting on her railing and looking like a lost kitten.
She chuckled. Her friend was a kitten, but how could he claim to be lost if he ended up on her balcony every other night?
“Hey, chaton,” she said, pulling herself out of her room. The night air felt good on her skin after being cooped up in her room for who knew how long. “Any particular reason for interrupting my normally scheduled sleeping habits?”
“You weren’t asleep,” he accused with a grin on his face. Marinette rose an eyebrow.
“I could have been.”
“With your light on?”
“It happens sometimes,” she said with the tellings of a smirk on her face. The two sat there for a moment before she caved, letting lose a chuckle before making her way to the iron bars of her balcony. “But really, what brings you here? I thought you said you had something to do until around midnight.”
“I escaped a bit early,” he said with a very Chat-like shrug. Marinette rolled her eyes and gave him a light shove.
“You’re gonna get in trouble as a civilian one of these days,” she warned. “And then I’d be deprived of a best friend.”
“Oh, the tragedy,” Chat mourned, over emphasizing his sorrow with a dramatic arm over his eyes. “Whatever will you do without a best friend?”
“Sleep.”
A beat passed before the two erupted into laughter over her instantaneous reply. The night air hung over them like a quiet blanket, providing the duo with warmth and comfort. Marinette smiled with contentment. As Ladybug, Chat Noir was overly loud and always overdoing it, but still sweet and always dependable. When he was with Marinette, he had grown to have less of a need to flaunt, the one trait which had always irked her.
With Marinette, he was Chat. A boy who happened to be a superhero, but was always on the lookout for new friends. He was kind and compassionate, but still enjoyed a good laugh or two. Even without the suit, she knew he would be a stickler for what was right versus what was wrong. She felt lucky to be his friend on both sides of her mask, but treasured the time he chose to spend with her on this side. To her, that meant he saw something in her worth befriending and worth acknowledging. Just like he had on their first akuma together.
Being best friends with him now felt as natural as breathing air. And as precious as any new fashion line.
“Hey, Princess?”
“Hm?”
“Wanna go on an adventure?”
Marinette thought she was going to give herself whiplash from turning to face him. He had a grin on his face as if the words spouted from his mouth did not create the most ludicrous idea she had ever heard.
“An adventure,” she repeated. He nodded with a grin. She took a deep breath and released it quickly. “You do realize it’s almost twelve forty five, right?”
“Yup,” he replied. She gave him a look. “Come on, princess. And if you’re not impressed I’ll bring you right back. Cat’s honor.”
She observed him for a moment as he placed his right hand over his heart and held the other in the air. His grin was excited and his green eyes sparkled in anticipation.
And really, she trusted no one more than him.
“Okay,” she agreed. “Is this something I’m going to have to get ‘gussied up’ for?”
“Nope,” he returned with a grin. He got down from her railing and faced his back towards her, obviously waiting for her to hitch a ride. “This is one of those spontaneous things for only two.”
“Careful, chaton,” she warned as she climbed on his back. “Or I might think you’re asking me on a date.”
Whatever Chat was going to say was lost to the wind as he extended his baton, throwing the both of them through the Parisian night air. They had both done this only twice before in this way, but Marinette was experiencing the exhilaration of free falling and being caught while not being in control anew. As Ladybug, when she trusted Chat she knew she always had a backup plan. As Marinette, when she trusted Chat he was the only plan.
And that did not terrify her so much as thrill her.
So they bounded over the rooftops and it took her only a moment to discover where they were headed. The destination was not difficult to discern when they would not stop rising into the air.
“Here we are, seats for two,” Chat announced when they had reached the tallest point on the Eiffel Tower. He eased her into a sitting position first before taking up the limited space beside her. The bar they sat upon was not as wide as the platform a few meters below, but the view was absolutely perfect.
This was the first time she had seen the view as Marinette. It was like seeing her beloved city for the first time. Lights glittered from sparse houses below, not too many since it was nearly one in the morning, but not too few.
“It’s like I’m looking at the sky, but I know I’m seeing the ground,” Marinette breathed. She drank in the sight. Lights twinkled in every hue, but they seemed so very, very far away. Chat chuckled from beside her.
“If you want to stargaze, why don’t you look up?” he asked. The question made her giggle at how far-fetched it seemed to her.
“With the lights from the Eiffel Tower literally beneath us?” she returned. Still, she looked up. As she expected, only the brightest stars shone enough to be seen. “Not too many stars are bright enough to be seen from within the city. Even as high up as we are so long as these lights are on.”
Chat Noir tisked beside her. “Oh, Purr-incess. You’ve cat a lot to learn.”
She turned to see her best friend smirking as he sat on the bar with ease. “Did you just—”
A loud sound reached her ears. Or rather, a loud lack of sound. And vision, for that matter. Her eyes took a moment to readjust and she blinked repeatedly to help the process along.
“Can you see them now?”
She turned towards Chat’s voice for a moment before deciding that seeing a black cat in the dead of night with no night vision to speak of was probably impossible. Even if he did have shocking blonde hair and bright green eyes that usually sparkled with mischief, amusement, or even concerned.
His eyes always found a way to sparkle. Speaking of which…
She turned her attention to the night sky, astonished by the rapid change which had taken place. The bright stars she had seen earlier were no longer lonely specks in the night, but accompanied by many smaller white flecks. Marinette waited in awe for her vision to completely adjust to the nightlife that was up in the sky. The stars became a natural reflection of the ground, a variety of colors dancing too high in the sky to reach. And through them all wove the Milky Way, tying each and every star together in one beautiful sky.
It sparkled so beautifully.
“Wow…” she breathed. She drank in the galaxy for a few more minutes before turning to her uncharacteristically silent best friend. She could see him now that her eyes had adjusted. His hair was softer in the night light, yet his eyes… his eyes… “Chat, this…”
Thump-thump…
“It’s…”
Thump-thump…
“Yeah,” he agreed, tearing those bright green eyes away from her for a moment to look at the sky himself. “It is…”
Marinette smiled and returned to gazing at all of the beautiful stars that surrounded her. The glittering stars of light from the Parisian city, the natural stars swaddled in the Milky Way above, and the excited reflections that danced in her kitty’s bright, bright green eyes.
Oh dieu…