"Holy cow, Marinette did you hear what was going on just now?"

Grimacing Marinette held her phone away from her ear to avoid Alya's screams from deafening her.

"No I haven't but I'm certain you'll yell me every word in a second" she answered with an amused smile as she put her phone on speaker and kept drawing up the design she was currently working on.

"That's not a joke, Mari. There was an akuma and Chat Noir seemed quite determined to beat the crap out of them on his own" Alya explained in a serious tone.

Immediately Marinette's face went pale and she grabbed her phone to press it to the side of her head.

"What?!" she asked in disbelief and stood up, already heading towards her balcony.

"They hit him pretty bad, that's for sure" Alya stated rather impressed than worried and even changed to a seductive tone. "But he really did look as sexy as ever. You would have liked it" she teased her best friend who groaned and rolled her eyes despite her grave concern for her stupid, stupid partner.

"This word slipped out once and it was months ago, why can't you let me life this down?" Marinette asked pleadingly, glad she could hide her worry behind frustration.

She could literally hear her best friend's grin through the phone.

"Oh girl, because that doesn't change the fact that it is perfectly true. You're crazy about that cat boy in leather" Alya responded and Marinette pursed her lips as an ashamed blush spreading over her cheeks found her guilty.

"I'm going to hang up now" she announced tersely, hardly trying to keep up her countenance. And again she could feel the self-righteous smirk at the other side of the call.

"Yeah, I'm sure there are already videos of him up on the internet. There's no time to lose."

"I hate you."

Sighing Marinette pressed the red button on her screen and hurried to the ladder leading to her bed. The moment she stood in the chilly evening air she spotted a well-known shadow approaching her but he didn't move as smoothly as normally.

No wonder after such a foolish act, she ranted internally but all her temper died down the moment Chat's face was in clear sight.

Okay, yes, he may look pretty good and truly heroic in a state like this but her worries were much stronger than her ridiculous hero-crush.

"Hello Princess" Chat greeted her through clenched teeth and even his flirtatious smile couldn't hide the pain he was obviously in.

Firmly but careful Marinette grabbed his arm and dragged him into her room to place him on a chair. Guiltily silent he waited while she searched for the first aid kit she kept inside her room since Chat Noir had grown a habit of getting 'experimental' on patrol and asking for her help afterwards.

"Hey Princess, I-"

"You're such an idiot!" she cut him short as she turned around, cotton rounds and disinfectant in her hands. "What happened? And don't even try to convince me otherwise, I know that it was your fault."

For a second he wanted to disagree but he knew he had to acknowledge that she was utterly right.

"Well, yes. A little. But the miffed kitty cat was no match for your catsolutely pawsome furry tail Prince" he stated as he flexed his scratched biceps and wiggled his eyebrows while Marinette raised hers in annoyance.

"You've got claw marks all over your body" she noted deadpanned and started to dab off the blood streaming down his face, not caring for his sharp hisses.

"You're an acute observer, your highness" he answered tensed and in response she harshly poked his next wound, causing him to suck in his breath in pain again.

"But" he continued, letting her get away with her devious attack on him since he had to admit that he deserved it "you should see the other guy!"

"I assume they're perfectly fine and at home." Unimpressed she kept swabbing his wounds, barely holding in her anger.

Seriously, how could he be so calm and keep making dumb jokes? Some of those injuries were pretty deep or close to his eyes, he was more than lucky that nothing grave had happened. And she hadn't even inspected his leg yet but she'd seen him limping earlier.

Didn't he realize that she was truly worried? Couldn't he feel her uneasiness?

"Which means I did a purrfect job!" he pointed out, still not giving up his carefree charade. "You should be paw-roud of…"

"Cut the crap, Chat!" she finally exploded and banged the bottle of sanitizer down on her desk.

"Enough is enough. Stop acting like a child that doesn't understand what's going on. You could have gotten seriously hurt, gosh, you could have lost your eyesight there!" she yelled in frustration.

Taking a deep breath she tried to calm down by watching the clouds outside the window.

She couldn't face him for a moment.

"I know" he responded earnestly and looked up at her apologetically. "I'm sorry, I just… I don't know. I have no excuse." He sighed and shook his head. "Like you said – I'm an idiot. And my puns get even worse when I'm nervous."

But Marinette was way too furious to let it go that easily.

No matter how cute and sorry he sounded, no matter that he seemed to sincerely regret his behavior. No matter what a strong impact his expressive and beautiful green eyes had on her emotional state.

"Why did you try to do this without Ladybug anyway?" she asked angrily and glared at those soulful eyes in front of her.

"Maybe it was a silly attempt to impress my special little Lady" Chat whispered and stood up, not tearing his eyes from hers.

She rolled them.

"Chat, you and Ladybug have been partners for, like what, five years now? I don't think you have to impress her." Annoyed she crossed her arms.

Imperturbably he took a step closer and Marinette froze due to the fact how close he was all of a sudden.

"What if I didn't mean Ladybug?" he asked under his breath with an unfamiliar craving in his deep and husky voice.

Her heart leapt into her throat and her breath hitched as he gently gripped her hips and pulled her close. All of her rage melted into thin air.

"Who… who do you mean then?" she breathed dazed, unable to avert her eyes from his irresistibly close lips.

Slightly chuckling he cupped her face and leaned in even closer, their faces only a hair's breadth apart.

"Oh Princess" he sighed affectionately as he closed the remained distance between them, fulfilling the strongest desire of both of them.

It was a tender, shy kiss and Chat held Marinette's face as if he was afraid he could crush it.

Still it felt like her heart kindled with a fiery passion that consumed her entire body. The world around them seemed to hold its breath and everything she could sense was his kiss.

He parted their lips way too soon to her taste.

But just as he wanted to lean back she woke from her paralyzing trance and longingly wrapped her arms around his neck. She pressed herself against his body as she finally did what she'd dreamed of for so, so long.

Almost desperately she sealed his mouth with hers, felt his warmth, smelled his scent, tasted his lips.

Tears streamed down her cheeks. If these were tears of joy or relief or something entirely different she couldn't tell.

All she could tell was that she loved him.

She loved this dumb, silly, reckless man who held her with a strength that reassured her that he would always be there to uphold her. That he would cherish her, that he would make her happy, that he would love her.

Regardless of all his frivolous solo actions he would always be considerate when it came to her, to his Princess.

Driven by her yet suppressed emotions she buried one hand in his hair as the other hovered over his chest, his shoulders, his back, his neck.

There was too much of him too explore, too much she wanted to feel.

Eventually Chat took her hand and held it close to his heart, provoking another wave of heat flooding through her body, ending all her overanalyzing thoughts.

Overwhelmed she let her feelings take over and concentrated on the only things that mattered right now.

His body so very close to hers, his hands on her hips and his soft lips on hers.

But before it went too far she had to reluctantly let go of him.

A little breathless and heated they separated and Marinette looked up at him while he rested his head against her forehead with a beatific smile, his eyes still closed.

"You're injured" she eventually said breathlessly and he slowly opened his eyes to look at her with so much affection and happiness that her thoughts got blurry again and she nearly forgot what she wanted to say.

"Please stay the night."

Tilting his head aside he gently caressed her cheek, causing her to pleasantly close her fluttering eyes.

"Please."

"I was afraid you wouldn't want me to stay" he whispered into her ear as he lifted her up in his arms and buried his face in the crook of her neck while she wrapped her legs around his waist.

After all she was the one deciding what counted as going too far.

And she wanted to be as close to him as laws of nature allowed.