"Chat Noir. Back again, are we?" Marinette whispered with a smile on her face. Not taking her eyes off her book about Fashion and Science.
Chat Noir did the courtesy of letting himself in. As for the bluenette, he totally noticed the fact that she was playfully ignoring him.
"Hey, Princess."
"Hey, kitty."
They talked for a while and planned on binge-watching sword art online.
However, they decided to chat a little while more.
And more.
And more.
And before Chat knew, they ended up talking about his civilian side. Chat initiated the conversation, actually.
It went something like this:
"Hey princess, am I intimidating?" Chat asked nervously.
"..."
And then, Marinette burst into laughter.
"Oh, my g- ahahaha hahahahah!" she said in between her laughs.
"Intimidating? You? Pffft- hahahahahahaha!" She laughed again. So much, that her sides hurt.
Chat looked at her with a puzzling glance and joined in her laughter.
"I don't know what are you laughing T, but looking at you, I'm laughing too!" He laughed.
"I did not know you made such amazing jokes." She said and laughed again.
"It's not a joke." Chat laughed one more time and then stopped.
He wiped a tear of laughter from his face.
"What do you mean?" Marinette stopped laughing too and gave him a look he would die for.
He didn't realize that yet.
"Well, you see, there's this girl..." Chat began.
"Ooooh~ somebody has a crush~" Marinette cooed with a smug expression, that she reminded him If Ladybug.
That was uncanny.
"No! N-No. I-it's n-n-not like that" he said as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Go on, lover boy." She smirked, nudging him on his muscular arm.
"Ok. Well, she seems so frightened around me. Well, civilian me, actually. It's not like she is intimidated by other boys. She seems so confident around them. Come to think of it! She challenged the strongest boy I know to an arm wrestle and guess what, she won! But she's so small and petite and-"
"Chat, you're getting carried away. Back to the point." Marinette slurped her hot chocolate loudly.
(P.S. when I typed hot, the autocorrect showed 'Chat' xD I can't even-")
"Okay." He coughed and started again.
"Well, she super strong and I know she's hella confident. But, whenever I'm around, she becomes a stuttering mess. She gets super nervous and fumbles over her words and she tends to try to run away from me and she acts super weird." Chat still didn't know if Marinette was the right person he should be asking this to, cause obviously, it was her he was talking about.
He always wanted to know why she acted so scared around him. He tried asking Nino but all he said was, 'Alya will kill me, dude.'
He turned to Alya for help and she laughed it off and scurried along.
And Chloe, well, let's just say that mere idea was hopeless.
So what's better than asking Marinette herself? He knew she wouldn't act normal around him when he was Adrien. So, what not try as Chat?
"Ok, let's see..." Marinette started thinking, with a finger on her chin, her tongue slightly sticking out of her mouth as she did that, eyes squinted and a 'hmmm' voice escaping her mouth every now and then.
He still couldn't believe it was the same Marinette he faced as Adrien, the shy, nervous stuttering Marinette.
No, it wasn't the same Marinette.
The Marinette sitting next to him was cocky, sharp, confident, teasy, occasionally flirtatious as well.
Even now, he was surprised to see this side of her.
Even now, when he saw her as Chat on a regular basis.
"Aha!" Marinette pressed her closed fist on her other palm, a bright expression on her face.
"Well? Did you figure out why?"
"Yup!"
"What is it?"
"I'm almost positive-"
"Go on."
"No, scratch that. I am positive."
"What?"
"That"
"What?"
"This girl, whoever she is-"
"..."
"Has a crush on you!" Marinette grinned from ear to ear, proud of herself about figuring it out.
Chat stayed silent for a while.
Then, his eyes grew wide. His mouth hung open unintentionally. And when he finally processed what just happened, he screamed.
"WHAT!?"
"Calm down." Marinette laughed nervously.
"What!?" He shouted again as a blush covered his cheeks. He felt his face burning up.
"Oh my God- " Marinette muttered.
"Wait... How are you so sure?"
"Let's face it. She is nervous around you, but not around others. And all the other signs! It leads me to list one decision. It's that she likes you!" Marinette smiled.
"You seem to be an expert in such analysis. Care to explain?" Chat knew that what Marinette said could be true.
Honestly, he thought she was scared of him. He never thought that she was acting like this around him because she could have possibly had a crush on him.
He liked that thought.
"Well, I act the same way around my crush all the time. He's so perfect and brilliant and amazing and-"
"Now who's getting sidetracked." Chat smirked.
"Sorry." Marinette blushed.
"So, I'm pretty sure that the entire class knows that I have a crush on him. But, he's kinda... Oblivious." She giggled.
Now, of all the times, Chat actually found her cute. When she giggled. And downright hot when she was sassy.
He knew feelings for her built up inside of him. And he let that happen.
He didn't want to be loyal to Ladybug any more. She was perfect. But Marinette was more... Human.
Marinette wasn't professional. She didn't restrict their talks to only about akumas. She let him pour out all his feelings to her. And surprisingly, gave excellent advice.
"But, I'm kinda glad."
"Glad about what?" Chat asked.
"That he doesn't know about my crush on him."
He also realized that she was right. He was dumb. How could he not see that before? It was obvious.
"Why be glad about it?"
"Well, I'm scared."
"Of what?"
"Of rejection. I don't wanna get akumatized. I'm sure once he gets to know about my crush on him, he's gonna laugh."
"..."
"Of course. Nobody actually liked me. Let's face it. I'm clumsy, awkward, can't even form full sentences in front of Adrien, I trip and fall with my every breath, and I'm just so weird, I'm useless and I can't even- I'm a weakling. I can't stand up for others, Chloe hates me, Lila, too, and probably everyone! " she said before she broke into a single tear.
"But, you're not gonna cry." She heard him say.
"No matter how many people hurt you, you always figure out a way to stand up on your own. No matter how many people push you down, you rise. And no matter how many people tease you, or make fun of you, or ignore you, or hate you-"
She looked at him wide-eyed.
"You will never cry."
"..."
"You're stronger than you think Mari, you are brave, bold, confident, the opposite of whatever you think you are. You're loved. Not hated. You're creative. Not useless. You're not a weakling."
Marinette looked at him.
"You're amazing, Princess."