Amnesia [MARICHAT]

24

   Marinette Dupain-Cheng was wholly exhausted. She had worked late into the night, fingers aching from all she had written in worksheets and an essay. She had to catch up with the rest of the class. She didn't enjoy being behind.

   It was past midnight, her computer told her. She glanced behind her only to see the cat dozing on her chaise, devoid of a blanket. Her eyes softened. When he slept, his cat ears drooped slightly, and his lips parted. His blonde hair had flopped over to one side, exposing his human ears.

   Marinette had always known that just because he had fake cat ears on his head didn't mean that his real ones were still there, but they had always been covered, so when she first ran her fingers through his hair and saw them, it had felt so strangely intimate. He was Chat Noir, and sometimes she felt like he wasn't actually a normal person like everyone else. Seeing his ears almost seemed like he had taken off his entire mask. That there was skin beneath that suit and a beating heart in his chest.

   He had always been so peaceful when he slept.

   She make a stack of her work, placing the finished assignments underneath. She changed into her pajamas and snatched a croissant from the bakery downstairs. Her midnight snacks weren't known by her parents, so she had to be silent, padding across the floor with her fluffy pink socks.

   Marinette's pajamas consisted of leggings and a tank top, but she wasn't worried about Chat. He had seen her in her pajamas a thousand times.

   When she climbed back up to her room, she shut the trapdoor and reached to shut off the lamp, when something startled her so much she jumped.

   "Where were you?" Asked Chat. He sat upright on the chaise, his tail smacking the cushion repeatedly.

   She blinked at him.

   He raised an eyebrow. "Where. Were. You."

   Her brows slammed down. "I went to change."

   "You need to tell me," he said, standing, "whenever you leave this room and what you're doing."

   She knew that. She did. But his fierce tone sparked a flame in her - gave her strong feelings. And it made her angry.

   "I was just downstairs, Chat. You were asleep."

   He took a step forward. "It doesn't matter, Marinette. We have no idea if the akuma could have slipped inside somehow and taken you when I wasn't there."

   "All the doors are locked. I don't see how anyone could have gotten in."

   He scowled, features twisting. "Do you have any idea what an akuma is? They have abilities that bypass the laws of physics. They can do anything, and I'm not taking any chances. So next time, tell me where you've gone."

   His tone was final and firm, and even though she was angry, she wanted to embrace him and tell him everything was going to be okay, but she couldn't.

   She couldn't stay mad. He was right.

   "Fine," she whispered, and passed him on her way to her bed.

   She went to sleep wondering if the longing and pain was ever going to fade.

//

   Tikki was stuck.

   She had been in Marinette's purse, perfectly content to sit and snack for the night on a cookie Marinette had left for her, when one of her fins caught in the clasp. Tikki sometimes spent the night in the small bag, and it had become a sanctuary of sorts, but not once had she ever gotten stuck.

   So she yelped.

   And Chat Noir bolted upright.

   Tikki covered her mouth and held her breath.

   She had definitely figured out the relationship between Marinette and Chat Noir pretty quickly. They looked at each other like they were everything. But Tikki was worried for Marinette. She could plainly see her pain and her slowly wasting away into nothingness. Marinette was very important to Tikki, and the last thing she wanted was for her miraculous holder to get hurt.

   But if Chat Noir found out that she was Ladybug... Tikki wasn't sure what was going to happen.

   Chat had been sleeping very lightly for the past two nights. Tikki assumed he wasn't letting himself sleep in order to catch the akuma if it tried to come in.

   But that also meant that he had definitely heard her. Tikki felt herself trembling. Her biggest rule throughout the thousands of years of her existence was that no one could know about the miraculous holder. Not even the black cat. So it was a reflex for fear to creep into her.

   Chat Noir stood slowly, scanning the room with his night vision, his eyes leaning towards the area on Marinette's desk that Tikki lie in. She pressed as far into the bag as she could without hurting her fin further.

   Chat quickly glanced up to Marinette's bed, probably checking on her, and again looked back at the desk. His eyes narrowed. Tikki shivered.

   What would happen exactly if he found out? Would he be surprised? Tikki felt like Marinette and Ladybug were the same person. They didn't seem different to her at all, but she assumed it felt different to others, who thought they were two separate people and looked at them as so.

   Maybe Chat would be angry because Marinette had never told them even though they were so close. But wouldn't he understand?

   Tikki felt more worried for Marinette's sake then she ever did her own. There had been a Ladybug and Chat Noir that had discovered each other's identities once before, but they hadn't known each other as civilians, and they were never particularly as close as Marinette and the current Chat were.

   As Marinette and Adrien were.

   Adrien was too nice to hurt her...right?

   His eyes were far too dark. His face was not kind. Adrien Agreste, the boy Marinette had once loved for being kind, now looked dark and dangerous and downright cruel. But he was protecting her - and that need to protect Marinette drove him to something he was not.

   A monster.

   Tikki burrowed herself further, but the clasp held her closer to the opening than what made her comfortable.

   Don't move, she told herself. Just don't move.

   His eyes drifted across the desk a few more times before his eyes locked on the purse. Every muscle in Tikki's small body locked up.

   No, no, no.

   He reached his hand out, and Tikki had never felt so frightened.

//

   Something was there, Chat knew, but he wasn't sure what it was.

   He had an idea, though.

   He wasn't sure if it made him happy or not.