Mini-summery-
In which Marinette gets confused by Chat
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Marinette’s heart was beating rapidly, but she tried to ignore its drumming by sipping tea from her tea cup. On the opposite side of her sat no one else but Adrien, in all of his heavenly glory, cutting a piece from a cake with his fork.
“Your mother’s cheesecake is the best I have ever had,” he sighed with a delight, eyes dreamy.
Marinette had to avert her gaze away from Adrien’s face.
“Mom will be happy to hear that,” was the only thing Marinette could come up with without stammering with her words.
It had been two days since their evening together and to Marinette’s surprise Chat hadn’t made his appearance – something she had expected, that cat was a way too nosy for his own good. Instead of him Adrien had suddenly walked into the Dupain-Cheng’s bakery this morning, smiling like he always did, and asked for Marinette. Her mother had remembered Adrien from his junior high days and welcomed him in like he would have always had a place in their home. Marinette had heard her mother calling her downstairs, and when she had seen Adrien, their eyes meeting, she had almost spurted back to upstairs and locked herself in the attic.
But here she was, sitting in the furthest corner of their bakery with Adrien, her crush showing all those dreamy faces and pleased sighs as he kept shoveling the passion fruit cheese cake into his mouth. Marinette had hard time not to stare at his lips, something she had fallen into so much since their dining together. Surprisingly a thought of Chat Noir and if he saw her lips like that popped into Marinette’s mind, but she shooed it away as quickly as it had dared to appear.
“By the way, I really liked the macarons. Thank you,” Adrien pointed Marinette with his empty fork and smiled with his pale green eyes.
Marinette could feel her inner teenager Marinette surfacing.
“Ehhheheh it was nothing, glad you liked them,” she chuckled, taking a sip from her tea to hide her faint blush.
“How did you even come up with macarons? I usually get something boring like wine bottle openers and similar as gifts.”
“Well, eh… If I’m honest our common friend told me that you like sweet things,” she hesitated a bit to lift a certain cat on their table.
Adrien leaned closer to Marinette, so very close.
“You mean Chat Noir?” he whispered with a low tone, careful for not letting his words to be caught by outsiders.
Marinette simply nodded.
“It’s a bit hard for me to believe you are friends,” she tottered, wondering if that was too rude to say out loud, but Adrien just laughed at her warmly.
“Really? Why is that?” the grin staid on his lips as he returned to his cake.
“Well he… he… how can I say… He’s so different from you,” Marinette whirled her hands in the air, like trying to catch the words she was looking for, watching pass Adrien with a small frown.
“Different?” Adrien kept smiling at his cake.
“Yo—You know,” she started to stammer, “You are so… composed and polite and he… well, he’s… so… so… all over the places,” Marinette sighed out with a groan. It drew a loud chuckle out from Adrien.
“I must say have no idea what you mean by that. Could you explain a bit more? Is he troubling you?” he took a look at Marinette from under his brows, putting a cake piece into his mouth at the same time.
“No, it’s not troubling, I mean---” Marinette shut her mouth quickly, understanding that she couldn’t let Adrien know just how well she knew Chat Noir. It would make him suspicious and the idea which pleased Marinette the least was to let yet another human being know her Ladybug identity.
“--- I mean that he’s sort of boisterous and flirty…” she finished.
“Flirty?” Adrien asked cocking his eye brow.
“Well, he is!” Marinette’s cheeks blushed up a bit, both by the fact that Adrien was staring at her so intensively and that she had kind of slipped out that Chat Noir was flirting with her, which Adrien could understand the wrong way.
“To be honest I haven’t seen or heard him to be much of a flirt towards anyone,” Adrien replied calmly, stabbing the last piece of his cake with the tiny fork.
“And how long had you known him?” Marinette questioned him with a slightly miffed tone.
Adrien lifted his gaze up to Marinette, staring her straight into eyes.
“A long.”
His voice carried a slight hint of humor in it, which made Marinette chew her lower lip. Maybe Adrien just had never seen Chat Noir as he was?
“Maybe he does that only when he’s left alone with a person of opposite sex?” she accidentally slipped her thought out from her mouth. Hastily she took a look at Adrien, waving her hands. “I guess that’s why you don’t know!” she tried to recover her earlier blurt.
“Marinette, I’ve known him for a very long time, also in person, though I can’t tell you more about the details. Trust me, he’s not a flirt to everyone,” Adrien smiled gently closing his eyes and leaned against his elbows, “Maybe he’s taken a liking to you.”
Marinette wanted to slip under the table and disappear from this conversation right now, as there was no way she could tell Adrien that she was very aware of Chat being fond to Ladybug, and thus he flirted a lot. While she was struggling to find something to say to Adrien, the man before her continued.
“He… Well, I don’t know if I should tell this, but he’s very different from what you know him, if you just met him face to face without any secrets,” he told Marinette, consciously avoiding to say Chat Noir’s name out loud in public. Then he straightened his back and leaned against the chair’s back rest, “But that’s all I can say. I’m sorry.”
“I understand, he told me about the deal,” Marinette told, feeling fidgety in her seat.
“I never asked how well you know him. Where did you meet?” Adrien asked casually turning his attention to his remains of coffee.
Marinette was sure the cold sweat would stain her forehead for good if she couldn’t find any way out from this Chat Noir chat as soon as possible. Adrien was becoming as nosy as Chat himself for Marinette’s good.
“Eeeeehhh he saved me, twice actually. After the resent accident he has been visiting me a bit. Maybe he feels somehow responsible for what happened to me and wants to make sure I’m doing good?” Marinette did her best to sound as convincing as possible, and not actually really lie to Adrien. Just, letting a few important things to be forgotten from the relationship between her and Chat Noir.
“Sounds like him,” Adrien hummed as a reply, “But still, the flirting part sounds like you need to have a chat with the Chat,” he winked his eye playfully and Marinette wasn’t sure was he serious or teasing her. She hoped it was the later.
“How was the cake?”
Marinette’s father appeared next to their table and Marinette mentally dropped on her knees and thanked the Holy Spirit for this opportunity to escape from the uncomfortable Chat Noir conversation.
“It was wonderful,” Adrien sighed pleased.
“Would you like to have something else?” Tom smiled warmly at him.
“No thank you, I’m fine.”
Tom nodded, still smiling, and left back to the shop. Adrien turned to Marinette and lifted his palm to cover the side of a head.
“To be honest, if I could I’d stuff my face full with all these treats here, but I have to watch my figure or else I will get scolded,” he joked out a whisper, but Marinette didn’t feel like laughing at that. Still, she forced a small giggle out from her for polite reasons, pondering how strict Adrien’s diet actually was.
“I bet they ask you to work out a lot, too?” she offered. He agreed with it.
“Life of a model, can’t help it!” Adrien shrugged it off nonchalantly and flexed his arms playfully. Marinette wished he would have done that without a shirt on.
“Anyway, I have to hurry back home. Next week at school will be a killer one and I need to do some reading,” Adrien excused himself, standing up from his seat. Marinette followed him.
“Tell me about it,” she laughed, walking Adrien to the front door. “It was nice to see you,” she managed to say with a faint blush when Adrien was making his way outside.
He turned around, looking Marinette deep into her eyes and smiled softly.
“Let’s catch up again someday.”
Of course she couldn’t refuse his request. Everything was going with Adrien so smoothly and effortlessly that Marinette couldn’t believe it. She returned back into the bakery and made her way upstairs, to finish her course design she had been working with when Adrien had popped in for a surprise cake session.
Tikki appeared from her bed, flying down with wide spirals.
“You seem happy,” she pointed out, to which Marinette nodded and sat down on her floor.
“I can’t believe I saw Adrien again and can you believe it, Tikki, but I didn’t totter too much,” Marinette sighed happily, reaching out to her sketch book. “I bet it has to be the luck of Ladybug.”
“Sounds nice. What did you talk about?” the kwami was curious.
Marinette’s head shot up and she looked dazed.
“Actually, we talked about Chat Noir,” she stated out loud, “I don’t know how we got into that subject, but yeah, we talked about him.”
“Oh?” was Tikki’s reply.
“I told Adrien – oh God I really told him – how flirty and restless Chat Noir is, and how it seems odd that they know each other with Adrien when they’re not similar in any way. But Adrien…” Marinette stopped, head lowering down, “…he said that Chat Noir doesn’t flirt with every woman and thus he might have taken a liking to me…”
Of course Tikki was far from being surprised or shocked by this theory.
“But Marinette, we both know he likes Ladybug. That’s only normal. Chat Noir and Ladybug always share a connection, in a way or another,” she explained calmly with her cute voice.
“I know. It’s just… Ah, I don’t know, never mind!” Marinette waved the air with her hand and perked her head up.
Tikki inspected her carefully, looking a bit worried.
“If it soothes you I have to say it’s good that Chat Noir is so kind towards you and only flirts, because nothing states that Ladybug and Chat Noir would always share a positive connection.”
“What? Really?! So we could be hostile towards each other?” Marinette shrieked, pressing her notebook against her bosom.
“I’ve seen Ladybugs and Chat Noirs who don’t come along at all, but work together only because they have to. There has been lots of hate and drama. Not everyone is similar, Marinette. Every Chat Noir and Ladybug is different and sometimes people don’t either want the superhero responsibilities or the life as Chat Noir or Ladybug becomes too much for the miraculous’s host,” Tikki told in all honestly.
“I didn’t know it could be like that,” Marinette breathed out, letting her notebook drop back onto her legs. It eased her mind somehow to know that she and Chat Noir were in good terms when the situation could be completely opposite one. She wondered just what kind of stories and relationships Tikki had witnessed in these thousands of years of her existence.
“Trust me, Marinette, it’s not always pretty,” Tikki gave Marinette a sad groan and she almost wanted to ask what the kwami was remembering in that very moment.
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Later the same evening, long after her parents had closed the bakery and went out for a walk, Marinette was chatting with Alya in front her computer. Like Marinette, Alya was also both studying and working, which made her life so hectic Marinette couldn’t help herself from worrying for her best friend. She had told Alya about the dining with Adrien and how he had visited the bakery for twice now. Alya had screamed with joy for Marinette, saying that it was a goddamn good time for her to finally get more in touch with Adrien.
“Oh, it was so romantic, the walk next to the river, ah!” Marinette let out a dramatic sigh, throwing her hand over her forehead, spinning with her chair.
“I bet it was. Did you take any pics?” Alya asked.
Marinette stopped her chair spinning abruptly.
“Oh crap, I forgot the selfie with Adrien!” she wailed, sliding her hands down on her face. “He suggested we’d take a pic together but I had so much troubles staying conscious I forgot!”
Whatever Alya replied to that, Marinette didn’t hear it. A loud bang with a thud echoed from her bed side. Marinette gasped out loud, jumping in her chair, scared that something bad had happened. Quickly she turned to look at the direction of the loud noise.
Chat Noir was crouching before the stairs leading up to her sleeping area, next to her bed.
“What was that?!” Alya’s worried voice echoed from the computer.
“Oh no, a stray cat got in!” Marinette explained, turning to see Alya’s face. “Sorry, I have to go. I’ll catch you later some other day, alright?”
She barely staid to listen to Alya’s bye-bye’s, but turned off the chat screen and spun the chair towards Chat Noir.
“What was that?!” she huffed angrily, eyes icy, “What if my parents were home and heard that? You can’t just barge in like that, Chat Noir!”
“My hand must have slipped,” he purred flexing his fingers, sitting onto the floor, placing his legs on the stairs.
“Anyway, what’s your business? I was just talking with my friend you know”.
Chat Noir hunched forward, his arms in his lap, and grinned like a Cheshire Cat.
“I came to ask how the date with Adrien was,” he cocked his head slightly to right, staring at Marinette with an amused look.
She crossed her legs and took a hold from her knee with both hands, sighing.
“It wasn’t a date and everything went fine.”
“That’s all?” he asked with a mischievous look in his narrow cat eyes. “No smooching or getting touchy-feely?”
“No,” Marinette already regretted this conversation.
“Aaw, too bad. I was rooting for some erotic tension,” Chat chuckled loudly and bounced down from his seat, making a full body flip in the air before landing perfectly on his feet, just before Marinette’s face. She yelped a bit by his sudden actions, but her voice got cut by Chat bolting up, sticking his face in front of Marinette.
“You don’t have anything to say to me about this whole deal? After all it was my idea to eat out in a restaurant,” his voice was victorious, teasing.
Marinette had to blink a couple of times before she truly heard what Chat had said.
“Your idea? Wait, what do you mean ‘your idea’?” she fidgeted a bit under Chat’s presence, not being able to look away from his eyes.
“Just what I said. I came up with that place for your date,” he grinned, but didn’t reveal anything else of the matter. Marinette thought he was most likely just teasing her. She tore her gaze away from Chat, suddenly very aware of what Adrien had told about Chat Noir earlier.
“Why?” Marinette stammered out loud, sensing how Chat crept closer. Now that she was this close to him, pinned into her office chair, Marinette noticed how much he had indeed grown the pass years. His shoulders were wide like a man’s, the jawline stood up clearly and Marinette couldn’t stop herself from eyeing his biceps, which formed beautiful curves underneath his skin tight suit. She bet he worked out a lot, just like Adrien.
She also thought how his body was covered with that leather suit only.
“Because your wishes are my commands, my sweet macaron. You want a date with Adrien, I arrange you a date with Adrien,” Chat’s tone was confident, shimmering with something Marinette couldn’t put her finger on. “Though I must admit it hurts my heart to see my lady in the arms of another man.”
Marinette’s cheek flared up in that very instant and she straightened her back, pushing Chat away from his chest.
“I can’t believe you,” she muttered mostly to herself, flustered and bothered. “I know how bad you are around Ladybug but work is work and private life is private life,” she huffed with an embarrassment. Adrien’s previous statement of Chat Noir’s flirting habits were hammering Marinette’s head, and she didn’t understand why it made her so fidgety and blushed.
“It’s not illegal to combine both,” Chat cooed, giving Marinette space to rise up from her chair. He followed her with his eyes as Marinette made way to her divan, waving her arms dramatically as she went.
“Maybe I didn’t want you to know me for that reason,” she groaned, not being sure did she really mean it.
Chat eyed her carefully, still crouching in front of the pink office chair.
“Cats choose their companion carefully and become easily attached to the ones they feel the best around with,” he defended himself with a grin lingering on the corner of his mouth.
Marinette didn’t have any energy to fight against that statement. She flopped lazily on the soft divan, lying down and threw her arm over her eyes with a deep sigh.
“M—My lady?” Chat’s tone was genuinely concerned. Marinette pondered how he did that. How he was able to change his mood and tone in an instant?
“Chat, can I ask you something?” she didn’t know what to actually say. Somehow Marinette was feeling herself weak. Perhaps the injuries were starting to act up. Perhaps the damn cat had dipped himself into some pheromone filled tank before coming here just to be able to tease poor Marinette more with his flirts.
“Anything. Anytime and anywhere.”
Marinette laid in silence for a while, before opening her mouth.
“I talked about you with Adrien today. He came to visit me,” she began.
“And?” Chat urged, moving to sit next to the divan with a one, long feline leap.
“He told me you aren’t like this in your real life. That you actually don’t go around licking women with cheesy flirts and bad puns,” Marinette licked her lips, still keeping her eyes hit under the arm.
“Meouch, I thought you didn’t want to know anything about my private life,” Chat sneered with a wink. He crept closer to the divan, crossing his arms over its edge and lying against them.
“I don’t, so don’t get this wrong,” she corrected him.
“I won’t, I pawmise, if you tell me what you wanted to ask from me.”
“Is it true what Adrien said? About you?” Marinette asked quietly, turning to peek under her arm at Chat. The cat was resting his head over his crossed forearms, looking relaxed.
“I don’t know what Adrien has said about me precisely, but if you mean am I different as me-me and as Chat Noir-me, then the answer is yes. However, I don’t think it surprises you that much, at least it shouldn’t. After all you are also different as you-you and as Ladybug-you. I think it’s just the name of this business. The miraculous change us, so maybe they also give us a boost to bring up something within us which we wouldn’t bring out otherwise,” Chat reasoned with a calm voice, his eyes shifting here and there gently as he inspected Marinette’s half-hidden face.
“So… you are not a horrendous flirt in real life?” Marinette smiled a bit, earning a smiling reply from Chat.
“Nope. I don’t flirt with anyone. Hard to believe, eh?”
Marinette laughed at his reply and reached out to tousle his hair between his kitty ears.
“Very!”
“So, do you feel special?” he let out a long purr, leaning into her touch, “You are the only one seeing that side of me.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, kitty. Let’s say I’m just used to it by now,” Marinette patted Chat’s head.
She watched how a small light sparkled into Chat Noir’s eyes by her statement.
“Do you also know that you are the only one who can touch me freely?” Chat continued his tender purring, his tail’s metallic tip clanging against the floor as the sign of him being pleased.
An odd feeling swirled in her stomach when their eyes met again after his comment, Chat looking her with something which closed an endearment while her palm kept caressing his head, his lips curved into a pleased smile. She remembered what Adrien had said about Chat Noir taking a liking in her and while Marinette understood it was only due her Ladybug identity, it was still enough to make her cheeks turn red. Hastily she retreated her arm and threw it back over her eyes, hoping it would hide some of her redness and wishing her blush wouldn’t reach down to her bare neck.
She heard how Chat Noir shifted, his leather suit making soft creaking sound, and Marinette wished he was start to plan his leave.
“My lady,” Chat’s voice was velvety and smooth as his fingers curled slowly around Marinette’s forearm, lifting it gently away from her eyes. She didn’t know why she allowed him to do that.
He was on his knees on the floor, hovering half way over her, his eyes half closed and gentle. His hair was falling down alongside the side of his face, and while the ceiling light cast a shadow over his features, Marinette could tell his cute kitten button nose wasn’t so cute anymore, but it had more arch and strength in it.
“What’s the matter, my lady?” he whispered with a tender murmur, his voice running over her heart like a truck.
Seriously. Why was she getting so flustered with Chat Noir all of the sudden? She had worked with him for five solid years, they had saved each other’s asses multiple times and it wasn’t like Marinette wouldn’t have gotten used to Chat Noir already. Heck, she had even kissed him many years ago to break the spell of Dark Cupid, and here she was, reddening like she would be around Adrien himself.
Then the previous thought hit her suddenly. She had indeed kissed Chat Noir. Her first kiss! Blushing furiously Marinette started to scream internally by the force of that memory, those beautiful lips pressing against hers in her head.
“I remembered something embarrassing that happened with Adrien,” she let out bluntly a lie, crossing her fingers for Chat to believe it. He eyed her gently for a while, before smiling quietly.
“I was hoping it was me who got you so worked up,” he kept murmuring with that velvet tone of his. “I lose to Adrien in every turn,” he finally smirked, letting go of Marinette’s arm and stood up straight with a deep breath.
“I hate to leave you alone with so much steam in you as I’d love to kiss you until there’s no bad memories left, but as always, this knight in shining armor has to retreat back to his own castle,” he stated with a dramatic moan.
“Can you give me another Adrien tip before you go?” Marinette asked with a hasty tone, as she was still too embarrassed to be so embarrassed around Chat and she desperately needed something else to think.
“Adrien, Adrien, Adrien,” Chat mocked his name with tilting his head side to side by the name, “I’d wish you to breath out ‘Chat Noir, Chat Noir, Chat Noir’”, he moaned while making a pleasure coated face. This time Marinette took her pillow and smacked him with it to his leg.
“The knight shouldn’t annoy this princess!” she warned him, looking honestly annoyed.
“Fine, fine, I tell you,” he laughed while lifting his hands up as a sign of surrender. “Adrian revelation number 2; his favorite time of the day is night – and that’s not a pun.”
Marinette gave thumps up for Chat from her position, to which he replied with a similar gesture. Then he bowed down to her with an extravagant manner, before heading back to the roof hatch. Before he opened the hatch Chat send a blow kiss to Marinette and jumped out with an audible chuckle.
This time Marinette found herself too dazed to even shoo the blow kiss away. She allowed it to travel around the room, landing on whatever body part of hers it might have ever came in contact with. She hated to admit it, but for some reason Chat Noir had made her heart beat like a wild beast today, something which had never happened before. She pondered was it because of what Adrien had told her and which was confirmed by Chat Noir, or was she just confusing her crush of Adrien to Chat Noir in some very strange way. You never know how your subconscious mind works.
And the way he had moaned his own goddamn name! Marinette thought her heart would never calm down if she allowed herself to be this carried away by that stupid cat’s jokes.
“Marinette?”
Tikki had appeared from her hiding place, landing to sit on Marinette’s chest. She scooped her kwami up between her palms and kissed her head.
“Oh Tikki, it’s nothing. I was thinking about Adrien too much,” Marinette explained calmly. “I’m so happy I have gotten to see him twice already!”
“It’s all thanks to Chat Noir,” Tikki pointed out, looking up towards the balcony’s hatch. “I think you should thank him for his help somehow. He’s even slipping a few Adrien trivia to you.”
“You are right, I should thank him,” she agreed with Tikki. “I wonder if he likes macarons, too?”
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In the Paris’s evening sky, a figure of a young man was drawn against it, as the man rushed towards his hideout with fast speed. Chat Noir landed on his building’s roof top, transforming back to Adrien as soon as his feet touched the solid ground. Making sure no one had spotted him Adrien made his way to the fire stairs and climbed inside his empty apartment through the window he had left open for his return. With a one agile movement he was indoors, closing the window behind him.
Plagg dragged his feet in the air and swirled down on Adrien’s sofa with a sad groan.
“So hungry! I think I die!” he wailed sadly, lifting his paw in the air like dying.
“Just a moment, I get you something,” Adrien calmed his kwami down while heading towards kitchen. He sought the smelly camembert and tossed a sliced piece to Plagg, who caught it midair with no problems whatsoever.
“You know, you can’t play this game for long,” Plagg devoured his cheese with one gulp, begging for more. Adrien tossed another slice at him.
“I know, I know. You don’t have to lecture me about it,” Adrien groaned with a beaten tone. He made his way to the window, leaning against its frame with his forearm, sighing deeply. In the distance he could see Marinette’s room light as a tiny dot, looking like a wishing star.
“I don’t know what you are planning, but you should plan it a bit more carefully,” Plagg ignored Adrien’s comment and kept lecturing him, this time stopping to actually smell his cheese instead of destroying it with a one hasty mouthful.
“I’m not sure what I’m doing, Plagg, but I promise I won’t let it get too far. I wouldn’t want to hurt Marinette in any way,” he murmured, eyes locked at Marinette’s light, like he would have hoped to be able to catch a glimpse of her without his Chat Noir eye sight from that distance.
Plagg didn’t hear him. The kwami had fallen asleep right after he had gulped down the last piece of cheese. Only soft snoring was heard from the couch.