Holding On

Chapter 5

While most of the time she was overwhelmed with the whole guardian thing, she was grateful to have them with her today. Yes, they were a handful, but thanks to them, she managed to forget everything for a while.

"Everything's gonna be -" she started saying, but stopped abruptly when she heard a soft knock on her window, right above her head. "What is he...Oh my god, guys, hide!"

They all flew into each other while trying to hide inside the miracle box. Marinette simply sighed at their antics before opening the window to Chat Noir who, without an invite, slipped through the window, landing without a sound on her bed.

"Uh, hi?"

"Hey, princess," he greeted her, sitting down. "What are we watching?"

"Ki... Chat Noir, what are you doing here?"

"Nothing much, just stopping by to check how you're doing."

She slowly sat down beside him, watching him carefully. "Do you often do this? I mean, go check on akuma victims?"

"No," he answered with a shrug.

She waited for some sort of explanation, something to explain why he was coming to see her then, but nothing came. Truth be told, Chat Noir didn't say anything more because he was too busy freaking out. He knew he should have said yes, should've lied. Gosh, why was he such a...

"So... Why did you come to see me?" Marinette finally urged, trying to understand what was up with her partner.

"Well, our fight was different than the others," he said, trying to come out with a credible answer, not noticing how Marinette had tensed.

"How so?" she asked, trying not to panic.

Oh god, he clearly knows, she thought. Ok, no matter what, deny. You can do this Marinette, just pretend that you have no idea what he's talking about.

"You fought it off by yourself. No one had done that before, you know. It was impressive."

Oh.

"Oh well, thanks for stopping by, but I'm fine, obviously. It was just a bad day."

Chat Noir frowned. "I doubt that."

"Uh?"

Okay, maybe not her most eloquent answer.

"I remember clearly what you said on that rooftop, Marinette. It wasn't just a bad day and you're not fine. But it's okay. You don't have to be alright all the time."

She stared at him for an eternity, painfully aware that the kwamis were eavesdropping on their conversation, like always. In fact, they always eavesdropped, no matter the conversation. A few days ago, after her mom had come to ask her what she wanted for supper, Sass had told her all about what and how she should've answered, instead of simply saying "yeah, tacos sound good".

God, they really were a handful.

"What do you want me to say?" Marinette suddenly asked Chat Noir.

His eyes met her and for a second, she was shocked by the familiarity of it. But she couldn't quite figure out what was so familiar about the way he was looking at her, as if the answer was a little bit too far out for her to reach.

"You don't have to say anything. But I just want you to know that you don't have to lie, either." He then looked at the computer screen and repeated his first question, "So, what are we watching?"

She sighed. "Love, Rosie."

"I've heard of it. Is it good?"

She could almost hear the kwamis screaming in their box.