Secrets: a Miraculous Fanfic (hiatus)

Chapter 14- Nightfall

"Chat sure did, Princess. Chat Noir loves using third person."

"Oh gosh, that's nearly as bad as your puns."

"My puns are awesome!"

"Right."

Marinette puts her finger on my nose and I notice how close she just became. Each word meant she took another step and now her feet were inches away from mine. I bite my lip to keep from going red in the cheeks. She's so beautiful. Her eyes were balanced to mine for a few seconds, lost in a daze.

"Oh gosh! Gah!" She stammers as soon as her eyes drifted away, realizing how close my cat bell was to her chin. Her eyes widen as she gracefully trips over some sort of sewing thing behind her. How does she gracefully fall? I quickly grab her hand as she falls back. I place her back on her feet.

"Sorry," I murmer. Here I go. I'm going to ask her. "Would you like to hang out with me?"

Marinette tilts her head. "Excuse me?"

I glance away, muttering the words even quicker this time, just enough to not slur: "Would you like to hang out with me? We could go to the park or something..."

Princess looks at me with her eyebrows raised, like she acting surprised.

"Let me get this straight- after one run in with me when you were scared I was gonna get akumatized..."

I hold up a hand to stop her. I didn't just go to her house to prevent her from getting akumatized. She ignores me.

"...you decide to fall in - no pun intended - and ask me to hang out? Why? We aren't necessarily friends..."

She is looking at me quizzicaly, as if trying to solve me. I chuckle nervously and retort to scratching the back of my neck.

Gah! No, don't be nervous! She's a friend! You're Chat Noir!

Her big - beautiful - blue eyes squints.

My tail swishes from side to side excitedly, and suddenly I'm smirking.

"Why? Can't the knight in shining armor hang out with his purrrr- incess?" I say, not allowing myself to look at Mari.

She remains silent, and I continue to look away. Her eyes are addictive - like Ladybug's.

"Knight in shining armor? Hang out? Your princess?" Mari walks up to my face this time. Wait. Is that a faint blush I see on her cheeks? "I thought you loved Ladybug?"

I just stare off, trying to control the blazing fire of blush. With my unresponsive answer, Mari flicks at my bell.

"Pu- lease. You're no knight in shining armor; you're more of an alley cat. Where are you taking me?" she says. I immediately fall back into her eyes, letting myself go full on Chat Noir.

And just like that, she let me carry her bridal stile (reluctantly) to the river. Mari sat us down on a bench next to the river and we just started talking. Granted, I couldn't really talk much about my life, but I definitely got to know more of Mari. We talked for only an hour or so, slowly getting hungrier and hungrier as we got to know each other.

"I'm starved," Mari finally says after my stomach ground owls for the tenth time. "I know a place for ice cream."

We end up at Andres and take a seat. She looks gentily at her own icecream. Andre started hers with a pastel yellow vanilla icecream, and then a light green, and finally topped with an oreo. Andre had made mine to obviously represent Ladybug, so I ate up the first red and black scoop pretty quickly.