"MARINETTE! GIRL WAKE UP!" I jump startle awake, gasping as I clutch my blankets to my chest. I stare wide eyed at my best friend, Alya. She laughs, lunging herself onto my bed and smothering me in a bear hug.
"You're so lazy." She giggles, poking at me. I groan, shoving her back. She swats at my hand, trying to tickle me some more.
"Alyaaaa, knock it off man. What time even is it?" I continue to shove her away as she whips out her phone to showcase the time. It's only 7:30am, gaping at the phone I look at my best friend like the nutcase she is.
"You have got to be kidding me." I rub my eyes, muttering how inconsiderate she is for waking me up at this ungodly hour.
"Forgot that you're opening the bakery today? Good thing I came over to help you get your ass up and out of bed. Come on, you need to hurry, you owe me so much hot juicy gossip."
I quickly scramble out of bed, shoving my friend off. She laughs, hopping down off my platform bed and landing on her feet. I hear my mom call up to me, letting me know they're about to leave in a bit.
"Yes mom! I'm almost ready!" I lie through my teeth, quickly grabbing some clean clothes so I can take a quick shower and head to the bakery.
"No time to shower, miss. You slept far too late for that. You need to open the bakery doors at 8, remember? Already behind schedule, tsk tsk." Alya works as my voice of reason, reminding me that this is why I'm a superhero and not like, a bank teller or something.
"Being Ladybug is such a better job. More spontaneous, less time management." I grumble, changing into the clean clothes. She laughs, nudging me with her shoulder.
"Yeah well unfortunately being Ladybug doesn't pay for college." Alya points out and I grumble some more profanities under my breath. I wish everyone would just stop talking about college, it's the last thing I want to think about right now.
"Can we stop with the college talk for now? I have too much on my plate." She nods her head, agreeing with me.
"Amen sister, Nino and I keep arguing about it too. I honestly just don't want to think about it for a long while."
"Sounds like a plan to me." I grab my things and head downstairs, rushing towards the bakery.
"Marinette." My mom says disapprovingly. I stop and look at her as she lets out an exasperated sigh. "Please be more responsible when you need to open the bakery. Your father should have been spending his time getting ready with me, instead he's had to prepare for open."
"I'm sorry mom, I was up late last night. I promise it won't happen again." I lean in giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before rushing into the bakery. Alya trails behind me.
"Mari-"
"I know, I know. I'm late, I'm sorry. Mom already talked with me." I cut my dad off, and he just lets out a familiar sigh. If I took a shot for each time I made someone sigh like that, I would be hospitalized for alcohol poisoning.
"Everything's set up, just work the till and keep the baked goods stocked. If you run out of the Éclairs, just put a sold out sign up." I nod to him and he takes off upstairs without another word.
"Yikes. He's upset." Alya whispers, and I hold my finger up to my mouth to silence her, motioning to my ears and pointing upstairs.
"He'll hear, he somehow always does." I whisper even quieter. Setting up the open sign, I check the till and sit behind the counter while Alya sits on a stool. We spend the morning just chatting about random stuff while I serve the customers that come in. I filled her in on everything that happened with Adrien, but decide to leave out the stuff about Chat Noir. The last thing I need is for her to start speculating about us. Certainly not if she'll be inclined to update her LadyBlog about a potential love interest in Chat Noir's life. I doubt she'd be foolish enough to do that though.
Then again, Alya can never resist a good story to tell.
By the time my parents come home, I had a successful opening shift and even got a bunch of cleaning done in the bakery. Alya spent the whole time just keeping me company, and trying to upsell random stuff to customers. A lot of "have you tried these before? Oh my goodness, so delectable. Why not add a Croissant with that" Every time I'd have to bite back my giggles.
"Alright well I've had enough of you today, I'm heading to go see my boyfriend. I'll talk with you later!" She gives me a hug and grabs her things, saying goodbye to my parents before leaving.
"Dinner is going to be in a bit, okay?" My mom says to me. I just shrug and tell her I'm gonna head up stairs, I'm not hungry. Doesn't help I snacked on baked goods all day.
"Marinette!" Tikki says all hopeful as I hand her a few cookies. She excitedly starts to chow down on them.
"I'm hoping to see Chat Noir again tonight. Do you think he'll stop by? If not, should we just go on patrol? Maybe we'll see him then."
"You really like being with him, huh?" Her little voice pipes up after swallowing a big chunk of cookie.
"I just like how easy it is to talk with him. He's a really good friend, he listens and then works to comfort me and make me laugh."
Tikki smiles at this, continuing to chew on her cookie. After a moment, she speaks up again. "Well, you have to wait a while, don't you think? There's no Akuma, and the sun is still up. I think the people of Paris would be worried about an Akuma if they saw you or Chat Noir swinging around."
"Yeah that's fair." I look around for something to do, scrolling through my phone to maybe call a friend. I stare at Adrien's contact, deciding not to bother him. I just saw him, I don't want to come off as overly enthusiastic to keep chatting with him. I should give it a few days.
Looking at my unfinished projects, my hand hovers over the jacket I was working on a while back. I look at my sewing machine, and the supplies littered across my desk. I even have the measurements and everything ready, I just need to finish cutting and sewing everything together. I could be done within an hour or two.
Yet every time I pick up my once favourite passion, I start to spiral. It makes me think about my future, and what I'm going to do about everything. Which, when you have no answers, is a really scary thing to be thinking about. There's nothing worse than the unknown.
"Everything will be okay, Marinette." My little kwami says softly, nuzzling up to my face. I give her a small hug, gently holding her in my hands.
"I know. I know that logically everything will be fine. I'm just scared of making the wrong choices. I'm scared of losing my friends. I'm scared of losing you."
"No matter what happens, you will always be my favourite Ladybug." My kwami says with a smile, probably thinking that will help reassure me. All it does is stick a knife further into my heart. I don't just want to be her favourite Ladybug, I want to stay with her for all of my life. I want to forever be Ladybug.
"Thank you." I say, trying to hold back my tears. I shake my head, looking back and forth between my unfinished jacket and my phone.
"Maybe I'm just gonna take a small nap." I sigh, giving up on trying to distract myself or get my shit together. I think it's better I sleep on it some more. I'm not equipped to handle all of this right now, and honestly that's okay. I don't need to do anything besides survive for the time being.
—————
"Hey Princess, wakey wakey." I hear softly, looking at Chat Noir leaning in to my face.
"I am awake, what do you mean?" I say, giving him a puzzling look.
"Marinette... wake up..." I hear him say in a sing song tone. He leans in almost as though he's about to kiss me. I suck in a small bit of air, shocked by this sudden movement. We were just standing here talking, now he's trying to kiss me?
Why don't I want to pull away? In fact, instead of telling him I love someone else, I lean in to meet him in the middle. Our lips brush slightly together, before suddenly he shoves me backwards. I gasp, screaming as I'm falling off some tall building.
I jump awake, jolting into a sitting position with a loud gasp. Strong arms quickly steady me, and I come to the realization I was dreaming. Chat Noir and I didn't really kiss, and he didn't just kill me either. What the hell kind of dream was that?
"Is everything okay?" A concerned voice says gently, and I'm only just now snapped out of my daze and noticing Chat Noir literally sitting on my bed holding onto me. I startle, clutching a hand to my chest.
"Uh, y-yeah, I'm fine. Wha-what are you doing here?"
"I came to check in, see my favourite fan. I saw you sleeping and at first I was gonna just let you sleep but something told me you'd miss me too much." He says, his tone a gentle kind of lightheartedness.
"You would be right, my knight in shining armour." I joke back, still calming down from that dream I had.
"Bad dream?" He asks, and I nod my head in agreement. "Yeah, I get those a lot too." His voice is soft and compassionate.
"You do?"
"Of course." He says, his arms dropping from his hold around me as though he just noticed he was still embracing me. A light blush creeps across his face and he jumps down from my platform bed.
"You didn't hang that picture of us yet." He motions toward the empty space on the wall and I chuckle.
"Yeah well we just took it yesterday. I'll print the photo and hang it up shortly. Be patient, boy." I get down from my bed, cringing when I see myself in the mirror. My hair is knotted and falling out of my two ponytails. My clothes are all wrinkled, one pant leg stuck rolled up mid calf, and I'm missing a sock. I look rough.
I quickly start trying to make myself a little more presentable, taking my hair out and fixing my pant leg. I search and successfully fish out my sock from my bed and slip it on. Chat just watches me, a bemused expression littering his face.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." I grumble, picking up my brush and running it through my hair. Chat randomly takes the brush from my hand and continues combing my hair for me. I stand completely still, not sure what's going on or what's gotten into him.
"I've always wanted to brush someone else's hair. I used to brush my mom's hair for her when I was younger." He says softly, running the brush through the strands so carefully as to not tug on any knots. He has no idea that what he's doing is more like running the brush on top of my hair, he's hardly pressing hard enough to actually brush it out.
"Why don't you brush her hair anymore?" I ask quietly, thoughts racing through my mind like what if she's gone from this world.
"She's... uh she doesn't live with my dad and I anymore. They, uh, they got divorced."
"That's really sad, I'm sorry Chat. Why don't you visit her?"
"She's moved somewhere far away, so I don't get to see her anymore. We, uh, yeah we can't talk because of time zones and stuff."
"That's not fair, Chat. I'm sorry. You deserve better than that." I'm tempted to take the brush from his hands and spend some time comforting him, but I see in the mirror the sad smile on his face as he runs the brush along my hair. Maybe it's best I let him find his own comfort in doing this.
After a few minutes he places the brush down, and runs his hands through my hair. I won't lie, it feels really nice. I lean slightly into his touch, letting out a small sigh.
"You have beautiful hair, Marinette." He says before ruffling it up. I jump away, squealing.
"What was the point of brushing my hair if you're just gonna mess it up?" I call out, laughing. He smirks, shrugging his shoulders. "What do you want to do?"
"Whatever you want, I'm here to keep M'lady some company."
"M'lady?" I question, feeling my heart stop. Could he know the truth? Is that why he won't stop coming to see me, because he somehow found out I'm Ladybug?
Does he even care about me as Marinette, or is he only here because I'm Ladybug?
Chat's face turns bright red, and he awkwardly rubs the back of his neck like he's mortified and unsure of what to say.
"I-uh yeah I didn't mean to say that, just habit, always teasing Ladybug and just happening to tease you too I guess, that's all, I definitely didn't mean it as like you're my lady, because you're not, we're not dating and even if we were I wouldn't objectify you like that, your not a possession that can be owned, you know? Not that I want to date you I mean, that's definitely not it, I mean not that you aren't an amazing girl! I mean-"
"Chat! It's okay, calm down!" I can't stop myself from laughing at his ramblings, almost wanting to just let him keep digging his own grave with this one. His face is so red he looks like he suddenly got a third degree sunburn across his nose and cheeks. Even his neck has started to turn a cute shade of pink. "How about we play some video games?"
"Sure, yeah, sure that would be fun, I would like that." He says quietly, clearly very embarrassed.
"I'm gonna destroy you." I challenge while setting up some Call of Duty, Black Ops. "Black Ops okay with you? Arguably the best Black Ops game, hands down."
"Oh absolutely. I can shred Zombies for hours, Kino De Totten is the best map."
"I'll allow that. Personally I love ascension, and Call of the Dead. It's a DLC course but it's the best, George A. Romero who is basically the creator of the modern Zombie image with his iconic films is the main zombie you gotta avoid in that one. Which I think is a really neat little factoid about the map. And it's the only map with a female player. Sarah Michelle Gellar, getting in some Buffy the Vampire Slayer action. It's the best."
"You sure know your stuff."
"Hardly, I just love this one. Ready? Person with the most kills and least downs win."
"Oh, you're on." He retorts, sitting down and picking up a controller.
"Bring it, pretty boy."