Appreciating Chat Noir

Chapter Three

Marinette and Adrien walked in silence along the sidewalk to the Dupain-Cheng bakery, hands occasionally making content. Each time they would, a blush would cross both their faces. "That must have been scary," Adrien said, scratching the back of his neck while staring at the horizon before them.

"What is?"

"Losing someone important to you."

Marinette looked over at him. Was he reminded of his mom?

"Oh yeah. It was terrifying. I don't know what I'd do if he left Paris." She admitted.

"Is your boyfriend thinking of leaving Paris soon or something?" He asked in what he hoped was an even tone.

Marinette whipped her head over at him. "Boyfriend? I don't have a boyfriend."

She smiled suddenly. "You're not fishing for information, are you?"

He feigned innocence. "Who me? Of course not. I'm just concerned for a... friend."

Marinette raised an eyebrow. First, he said he has feelings for her. Then he calls her a friend. Which one is it??? "Well, there is no need to be concerned for me. I'm just concerned for a friend at... work."

Adrien peered at her from the corner of his eye. Her face went from smiling and playing around to having a serious face that almost reminded him of Ladybug. Was it something he said?

"Well, I'm sure your friend will be fine. After all, he has you to look out for him."

She turned to look at him suddenly. "Hey so, do you think Chat Noir is doing okay?"

He tried not to look too surprised. "Uh, I haven't really noticed him doing poorly, why?"

"Oh, no reason. It's just that – in news footage he seems to be... off." She said casually while facing forward.

Adrien gave her a funny look. Since when was Marinette so concerned about Chat Noir? Sure, they have spent a fair amount of time together but since when had she talked about him to other people???

"Ah. Well, he seemed to be fine to me. I'm sure he'll be okay. Ladybug has got his back – if something is wrong, then she'll look out for him." He spoke.

After Marinette gave him a weird look Adrien quickly added; "I mean I'm guessing based off of the news footage I've seen of them... together."

"Right. The news footage."

"Yeah."

They reached the café and walked inside. Marinette grabbed them some croissants, and other food to go with it. She led him upstairs to her house and they sat down in the kitchen. They worked in silence, setting plates, and placing the prepared food. From previous experience as Chat Noir, Adrien knew where the plates and cutlery were kept and placed them out without much thought.

Marinette saw this as she grabbed two glasses and filled them with water and raised an eyebrow. "You know where we keep the plates???"

"Why of course m'l- I mean princ- I mean yes." He forcefully sat down, ignoring the blush creeping on his face at his mistake. "I mean they're plates – I just took a wild guess and guessed correctly."

She gave him another weird look – What a weird thing to say. She sat down and they began to eat their lunch.

Whenever Marinette had spent with Chat Noir as either her civilian self or as Ladybug, he had always given her a peculiar nickname. No one else had ever given her that nickname, until now. "Do you usually tend to give people royalty related nicknames???" She said, breaking the silence.

He looked up and tried not to look to guilty. "Er, no. I've just been in a ... play recently... and was trying to get into character. For practice."

"Oh really? What play is it?"

"Uh, Royal...." He eyed a mug sitting nearby with an elephant on it. "Elephants. Royal Elephants."

"Oh, cool when is it? I'll come watch!" She said forgetting her suspicions for the time being.

He rubbed the back of his neck and eyed a plant nearby. "Er... July."

He then took a big bite of food so he couldn't answer anymore questions.

Marinette did the same and wondered what he was trying to cover-up by lying so blatantly to her like that when they both heard a loud crash. The sound of an akkumatised villain breaking a window downstairs in the bakery.

"Oh, Ladybug! Chat Noir where are you? I demand your miraculous'!"

The two stood up with a start and immediately headed for the door – when they saw the other mirroring their actions. "I'm going to go hide!" Adrien said.

"Okay! Stay safe! Me too." She responded.

He quickly headed down to the bakery and found an unused corner of it. He wasn't going to let anything happen to Marinette.

Plagg flew out of his pocket. "What are you doing Adrien?"

"I- I'm going to save Marinette first."

"I'm sure she'll be fine."

"How do you know?" Adrien hissed.

Plagg cursed Tikki for forcing him to hide Ladybugs' identity for the umpteenth time. He understood the reasoning but at the same time it was very infuriating watching them miss each other time and time again. "I- just a really good guess. What about Paris?"

"We'll get to that. It'll only take a second. Plagg claws out!" Adrien said transforming into Chat Noir.

He went outside using his pole to get himself to her balcony and saw Marinette there, hiding in her room. Little did he know she was seconds away from transforming into ladybug. Turning around and she was startled to see Chat Noir. What was he doing here?

"Hello Princess, I've arrived to take you to safety. The akumatized villain is downstairs right now."

"Oh! "

"But don't you worry, I'll take care of it in a sec. Ladybug and I will take care of it."

"Er... right!"

He scooped her up in his arms and leapt on the rooftops until he got to the Louvre and went inside. He hid her in one of the sections. "Stay here!" He said before leaping away.

She waited until he was gone, shaking her head at his strange yet sweet behavior before transforming into Ladybug. "Spots on!"

As soon as soon as she was able to, she swung with her yoyo back to her house and arrived at the scene of the crime.

Chat Noir was currently fighting the villain, distracting them while he waited for Ladybug to get there. Ladybug used her yoyo to grab the weapon the villain was holding and greeted Chat Noir. "That's no way to treat someone! Hey, Chat Noir."

"Oh, hey Ladybug!"

The two of them fought the villain, eventually figuring out that the akuma was in a manners booklet the villain was holding.

"Miraculous ladybug!" Ladybug said making everything go back to normal.

Before they both leapt away Ladybug stopped Chat Noir. "Chat Noir, you know I appreciate you, right? I don't know if I could do this without you."

He paused for a long while, looking at her before cracking a smile. That sounded eerily similar to the conversation he had had with Marinette only moments before. "Yeah. I do."

They both swung/leapt away – Ladybug trying to get back to her 'hiding spot' before Chat Noir got there and transformed not a moment too soon because only a second later Chat Noir swung in.

"Purr-incess. I've come to take you back home." He said with a smile.

"Why thank-you Sir Knight." She joked. "That was a cat-tastrophe!"

He blushed at her use of a cat pun before scooping her up in his arms and bringing her back home. He was thankful that she was safe.