Upon seeing the writing on his arm, Chat Noir let go of Marinette, sitting at the end of her bed. She sat up, staring at the ink on her arm just like Chat stared at his own.
"Y-You... You're my red..." She couldn't bring herself to say it. Chat stared at it a while longer, before he wiped it with two fingers. Marinette watched the writing disappear then watched Chat put the rest of his suit back on. "Is that why you came to me? How did... How did you know?"
"Call it a hunch." Chat replied. His bell jingled as he pulled his zipper up, fixing his collar. He could feel her discomfort. "What are you going to do? Scream? Call for help? Tell your friends that your red string is tied to the most wanted?"
"I-" She started strongly but cowered when she saw his ears twitch.
"Are you going to tell Alya? Cry to Chloé? Wake up Adrien?"
"How... How do you know all these things about me?" She asked, afraid.
"I know many things about you, Marinette Agreste." He turned to look at her. "What I don't know is how you ended up here." She straightened, her gaze narrowing.
"That doesn't concern you." Chat laughed.
"Oh, but it does." He stood, slowly making his way around her bed, to stand in front of her. "I'm a criminal, right? You don't know what I'm capable of." She started to back away a little.
"I'll scream." She threatened.
"You won't."
"How do you know?"
"Do you want to harm your family? Your brother stays down the hall, doesn't he? He'd be the first to get here and the first to get hurt." Plagg laughed and Chat smirked.
"You wouldn't." His mask rose as he quirked an eyebrow.
"Yeah, just like I didn't pin you down, right?" He crouched down, putting his hands on the bed and eyeing her, ready to pounce. "Would you like a repeat?" Her eyes widened.
"N-No!"
"A shame." Chat smirked, straightening. "So, this is how it's going to be, Marinette Agreste. You do not write to me unless I write to you first. You do not tell anyone about me. You do not try to find me. Can you comply to this?" She held her head high.
"And if I don't?"
"Don't test me, Marinette. The first one to go would be Adrien." Her shoulders fell slightly.
"Don't... Don't hurt Adrien."
"Don't break my rules. That's all I ask for." She was hesitant to reply. "If you comply, I'll tell you the reason you have those dreams you do."
"You... You know about my dreams?" She questions, almost leaning towards him.
"Do what I ask and I'll explain your dreams." She was still hesitant but she gave a nod.
"Very well."
"Do you want to shake on it?" Chat asked and Marinette gave a huff.
"No, thank you."
"Would you rather kiss on it?" He smirked. She rolled her eyes.
"In your dreams tomcat." Now that was a familiar personality.
"Good night Marinette."
"Don't get too familiar. I don't like you." Chat mocked chest pain.
"Princess, I'm hurt!" She was tempted to throw a pillow at him. "That's bound to change soon, don't worry." Chat winked and headed towards the window.
"Wait a minute, that's it?" Chat stopped in front of the window. "You're going to come in, attack me and not even tell me anything, even after I agreed?" Chat chuckled.
"I see you like to be pampered. Sorry to break it to you princess, but I need to see that I can trust you. I've got eyes on you outside. Keep your promise for a day and I may visit tomorrow." With that, Chat climbed out of her window, going for a brisk patrol around Paris to take his mind off of things.
Marinette went to the window, watching the black figure disappear into the night. She stood frozen for a time, staring out the window until she went to her bed and dropped herself down.
The end of her red string. Her soul mate. Significant other. Paris' most wanted criminal? Just her luck. She stuffed her face into a pillow and let out a long sigh. She felt like screaming, she felt like crying, but the only thing she could manage was a sigh.
Chat landed on top of the Dupain-Cheng bakery, what should be Marinette's terrace. He tried the terrace door and it creaked open.
"So now we've resorted to breaking and entering?" Chat rolled his eyes as he slinked in.
"There was no breaking in, the door was left unlocked." He stated as a matter-of-factly.
"Living up to the criminal name." Plagg snickered.
"Whatever." His vision settled into the dark room and it was nothing what it had been in the other life. In this life, it looked a lot more like a storage room more than a bedroom.
Chat Noir shuffled around the room, the dust occasionally making him sneeze. He found nothing other than boxes full of extra making materials, several boxes full of wedding momentos and old scrapbooks. Yet nothing on Marinette.
"We have to head home now." Plagg spoke once his timer started to count down. Chat nodded with a disappointed sigh.
Chat left everything untouched, just the way he found it and went through the night skies to his home.
"You know, the criminal thing really suits you. You broke and entered, held a hostage and even blackmailed." Plagg fluttered by Adrien's shoulder as he stretched noisily.
"I did not hold her hostage."
"You did too. You held her to hostage to her bed. Honestly, I thought you had lost it and were going to start eating her face or something."
"You act like you wouldn't do that if you saw Tikki." Plagg took in a breath to respond but stopped himself.
Tikki.
"Plagg, I'm sorry, I-"
"No, you're... You're right. If I saw her, right now, I would have." A silence course through them. "I'm going to go eat some camembert." Adrien gave him a silent nod, watching as his kwami went to hide in his camembert stash.
Adrien felt guilty. Really guilty, but that didn't stop him from falling dead asleep. He's had a long day.
Which is something Marinette couldn't say as she dragged herself out of the room the same time as Adrien did.
"Well you're up early." Adrien commented. She grumbled.
"I couldn't sleep last night." She yawned and stretched slightly. "I had nightmares about a dumb black cat."
"So sweet of you." Adrien mused.
"I've got no nice words for him." She spoke back.
"Who?" Adrien asked while Chat challenged. She mumbled quietly.
"This dumb cat in my dream, he was black with dumb green glowing eyes and he was mean and fat." She huffed. Adrien couldn't help but chuckle.
"Sounds like you had quite a weird dream."
"Nightmare." She reminded him.
Breakfast this morning was a lot like the dinner from last night. More humorous today since Marinette was still grumpy from her lack of sleep.
On the way to school, Marinette dozed off several times. Even in class, Marinette was scolded several times by Professor Bustier for napping.
"Girl, what's with you today?" Alya asked as they all headed out to lunch.
"She claims she had a nightmare regarding a black obese cat." Adrien chuckled as Marinette yawned for the umpteenth time.
"You don't dream about the Chat Noir guy, do you?" Chloé made a motion with her hands as if she was grossed out. Alya gasped loudly.
"Girl, did you have a dream with Chat Noir? How juicy would that be?" She nudged her shoulder against Marinette's, using her hands to draw out a title. "'Breaking news: famous fashion designer Marinette Agreste, bound by red to the infamous Chat Noir.' Juicy, don'tcha think?" Marinette laughed, Adrien catching the hints of hesitation in her laugh.
"Alya, I asked you not to do that. You know I don't like it when you 'ship' me with other people." She mumbled and Alya giggled.
"It's the reporter in her, she can't help it." Nino defended.
"Sorry." Alya added, totally not meaning her apology.
"But don't worry, she does it to everyone. She used to ship me with you before she realized that our strings were tied." Nino gave Alya a little bonk on her head and he kissed her cheek. "Now she does it to Chloé." Chloé gasped.
"Get me out of your nasty games!" She turned to Alya with a stomp. Alya rolled her eyes with a narrowing smile.
"You didn't think my games were nasty whenever I was shipping you with Adrien." Alya rose her eyebrows, knowing she trapped Chloé.
"Ugh, whatever!" She huffed. "Anyways, where are we going to eat today Adrien?"
"What?" They all turned to look at him.
"Don't tell me you forgot." Chloé sighed.
"It was your turn to choose where we go for lunch today." Marinette reminded him.
"Oh!" He didn't know that it was his turn. "There's that bakery shop down the street, I heard that it has good food." He pointed towards the general direction of it. Alya and Nino shrugged and began walking, while Marinette and Chloé eyed Adrien worriedly.
"A bakery?" Chloé asked, her voice low.
"You know how Papa feels about bakeries." Marinette spoke quietly. Adrien gave a sigh. So she was raised like that too?
"Hey." He wedged himself between the two girls, wrapping his arms around their shoulders, beckoning them to walk. "A little bread never hurt anyone." Where had he heard that before?
"Fine." Chloé sighed. "But if Nathalie finds out, I say we blame Nino." Marinette gasped as Chloé laughed.
"You're bad."
"No one is blaming anyone." Adrien chuckled, giving them a little squeeze. "If we do get caught, I'll take the blame, no worries." They all caught up to Alya and Nino, going down to the all too familiar bakery.
The bell chimed as they opened the door, the bluenette Chinese woman greeting them warmly. "Welcome to the Dupain-Cheng bakery!" She smiled. "Oh, high school students? Stopping in for lunch!" They all shared their greetings, picking a table to sit out.
"We hope you don't mind me dropped in." Adrien looked at Sabine happily, wishing that deep down, she already knew all of them.
"Oh, of course we don't mind! You children are always more than welcome." She rubbing his shoulder reassuringly.
They all settled at a small square table, Adrien having to pull over an extra chair to squeeze in next to Marinette. Meanwhile, Sabine handed out menus and took orders.
"I've heard this bakery is the best." Nino commented.
"Mama has commented that the Dupain-Cheng's are good at what they do. I remember one time; a Cheng came to serve at Le Grand Paris for a competition." Alya added. Kung Food.
"Oh I remember that!" Marinette spoke up, startling Adrien. "We were there for that. Chloé was on the judging panel and Adrien had to translate, since he knew Mandarin." This was perhaps a couple years ago.
"Oh, are you speaking of my uncle?" Sabine came back with what they ordered. "Wang won that contest with pride. Marlena offered the soup for almost a whole year. He went back to China several weeks after winning."
"It was a really great soup, I enjoyed it." Marinette smiled and Sabine nodded with an identical smile.
"Do you have any children, Mrs. Cheng?" Adrien blurted. Marinette's foot nudged his under the table and even Plagg bit down on Adrien's shirt.
"I wish I did, if they were all as sweet as you." She looked at all of them. "You're all more than welcome to come back whenever you want." The bell chimed again, Mrs. Cheng turning to the new customer.
Marinette nor Chloé had tried their food yet. Adrien was already halfway into his croissant, until he noticed that they had barely touched their food.
"What's the matter?" Adrien asked.
"It's just..." Marinette started.
"This doesn't look too great." Chloé finished. Marinette sighed, not having meant that. Alya rolled her eyes, sharing her food with Nino.
"Anything that isn't prepared by my mother doesn't look good to you, Princess Chloé." Chloé flipped her ponytail, scoffing.
"Can you blame me though?" She retorted. They all laughed.
"Try it." Adrien brought his croissant to Marinette's lips.
"Adrien, I don't think-" The flakey bread bumped into her lips and she was forced to take a bite. Adrien was pretty sure that he had the same reaction Marinette was having whenever she gave him the croissant on the train in their other world.
"Oh... Oh my gosh." She mumbled as she chewed. "Chloé, you need to try this." She picked up some of her own food and put it to Chloé's lips. She took a very small and hesitant bite, but her eyes glimmered just like Marinette's did.
They all ate their fill and Adrien paid for their tab, Sabine letting them go with a couple extra goodies.
"How much?" Adrien asked, regarding the bag of treats. Sabine waved her hand.
"No, no, take them!" She smiled and Adrien smiled as well.
"You're too kind to me, Mama." Oops. She looked slightly surprised, but smiled nonetheless.
"You'd make a great son. The girl..." She looked past Adrien, to Marinette, who was waiting outside by the door with the others. "If I had my daughter, I'm sure she' be as pretty as her."
"Adrien! C'mon, we're gonna be late!" Nino called in.
"Ah, sorry, Ma- Mrs. Cheng. See you another time!" Adrien bid his goodbye and rushed out the door, her comment still stuck in his head. If she still had her daughter? He would have to investigate this further, but for now, Adrien had to go back to his game of pretend, until nightfall.
Meanwhile, Nathalie's sixth sense was sensing a disturbance in the Agreste's diet.
Shout out to @vintage_jae for making this joke back in book one. Let's begin a new hashtag, #LetTheAgrestesEat2k16