Work Text:
Chat breathed.
It was the only thing he could do.
On the one hand, his heart beat so quickly and so hard that he could barely hear anything save its frantic pace and the sentence on repeat in his mind. It made him happy. So, so happy.
“Chat, I love you, but I am terrified that I’m going to lose you.”
On the other hand, he was concerned. Dreadfully so. He was worrying her just like she scared him. The thought of her doing something stupid and reckless while he was fighting an akuma... The off chance that she could be hurt... It scared him.
He let his head fall forward, their foreheads touching.
He breathed.
“It...it’s not like you to be so quiet, minou,” Marinette whispered. “T-talk to me.”
“I’m scared, too,” he admitted in a rush of quiet air that surprised him. A chuckle left his throat next. How was it so easy to talk to her? When did confiding in her become so simple? And yet…it was still so hard. But… “But I’ve spent days without you. Days where I was shut out and I felt alone, even with Ladybug beside me. Princess, I never want to go through that again. I’d rather be with you somehow…”
“Somehow…” He could see the gears turning in her mind, his idea clicking into place for her. What he did not expect was for her to flip the hand he had been holding over and take his in a light squeeze.
He breathed.
“Chat, that could be one of the ways I lose you. What if I was placed under Hawkmoth’s control? What if I slipped and told him who you were without meaning to? What if I told someone on accident?” she asked in a rush of questions. Her blue eyes flickered like lightening out on a stormy sea. Bright, blue, mysterious, terrified, and terrifying.
And he loved those eyes.
“You wouldn’t,” he assured her. “I’ve seen you under pressure. That’s when you buckle down and get things done. You do it with your projects, with your friends, and even with me. You’re a leader and I trust you.”
Chat watched as she brought her free hand up to his face, fingers lightly trailing the seam of his mask. The tips of her fingers brushed against skin and material alike, and as much as the action tickled, it brought a sense of safety to him as well. She could be so near to his mask and he trusted her to know what to do with it. To reveal him and pursue a relationship on that side of the mask or to keep it safe and wait until such a day where Hawkmoth was defeated.
She let her hand slip away from the mask and linger on his cheek.
She breathed.
“I trust you and I know that you’re a good person with or without the mask,” Marinette said. Her thumb traced his face and he could feel a deep rumbling come from his chest. Low and soft and somehow purrfectly right. “And I want to wait to know the person under the mask until I can trust myself not to put him in danger. I respect and care for you too much for that.”
Chat breathed. He took his free hand and pressed it against Marinette’s on his cheek. It was so warm.
“As you wish.”
Bonus:
“That was another cheesy move quote, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, Princess, you know me so well! So you’ve seen that one?”
“Nope.”
*gasps dramatically* “Time for another movie night!”
“Reall—”
“You’ll love it, Princess! Even more than the last movie I showed you! It’s so good!”
*dramatic sigh and ruffling of the Chat’s hair* “And if I don’t?”
“You should know better than to make that bet!”
*laughter*