"Shh!" She whispered, holding her finger to her lips, "It'd be bad if we got caught!"
"Getting caught would make things easier, though." Chat Noir replied, gripping the petite girl's waist.
"Yeah, but keeping it a secret is half the fun." Marinette replied, with a giggle.
"Well, I can't argue with that!" Chat Noir settled onto her chaise. "So, how much time do we have?"
Marinette glanced down to her phone, the bright light of the screen reflecting her baby blue eyes.
"Um… Alya is going to be here in about ten minutes for the project and my friends Nino and Adrien should be here a little after that…"
"Well, that doesn't give us much time at all, huh?" Chat Noir slowly pulled Marinette closer to him."What should we do until then?"
"Nothing." Marinette replied, pushing him away. "I have things to do and you shouldn't even be here."
"You weren't complaining a minute ago." Chat Noir smirked. Marinette rolled her eyes.
"Shouldn't you be out... oh, I don't know… saving Paris?"
"From what? There's nothing going on. That's why I came to see you." Marinette sighed as she shook her head. Chat Noir pulled Marinette onto his lap. "Is that so wrong?"
"Yes." Marinette replied, settling into his lap as she placed her hands on his chest. Chat Noir laughed as he leaned in closer to her and placed a quick kiss against her cheek.
"D-don't do that!" She exclaimed.
"Why not?" He taunted. "Can I not kiss my own girlfriend?" The word rang in Marinette's ears as a light blush came to her cheeks. He chuckled as he leaned in again. She stopped him.
"Chat, stop, I really don't have time for-"
"Marinette~" Alya's voice sang. Marinette gasped, as she pushed Chat away.
"Oh, no. She's early! Alya's never early!" Marinette frantically looked around the room, "You have to leave! Now!"
"Well, I don't have to." He teased, as he attempted to settle himself back in her chaise. Alya's footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs.
"Chat, please! If Alya sees you she'll freak out. Not only will she interrogate you, but she'll blow up at me asking why you're here! Please don't make me lie to my best friend." Marinette used her blue eyes to form the biggest, and saddest puppy dog eyes, complete with a quivering lip. It was a trick she had learned from Manon, and she knew it had a great effect on Chat Noir.
He stared at her, a determined look in his eye, but eventually gave in and sighed. He hated how she could play him in the same fashion that Ladybug could. He could swear that the two girls get together and plot against him every time one of them would discover something knew that got under his skin.
"How about I just meet this best friend of yours?" He said jokingly. Marinette glared viciously at him. He could tell she was about ready to kill him, so he took the hint. "Fine. But I'll be back later."
Chat Noir quickly climbed up to Marinette's bed, but before he was able to open the skylight to leave, Alya had made her way up the stairs.
"Heyo!" Alya said, peeking her head into the room. Chat Noir quickly hid under Marinette's bed.
"H-hi, Alya! Y-you're, uh, early!" Marinette quickly sneaked a peek under her bed, making sure Chat Noir was well hidden.
"Well yeah! I've got to make sure you are mentally prepared!" Alya replied.
"Prepared?" Marinette questioned.
"Oh, come on! You know, Adrien?" Alya nudged Marinette with her elbow.
"O-oh! Yeah." Marinette replied as she laughed nervously. Alya noticed her odd tone.
"Marinette, what's been up with you lately?" She asked suddenly.
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"You've been acting weird. Especially around Adrien. Well, weirder, anyway. You barely even stutter around him anymore, and you can actually speak in sentences."
"Oh… I didn't even notice." Marinette replied.
"Why is that? Could it be that you just don't like Adrien anymore?"
"I-it's not that I don't like him anymore- it's just that… well-" Alya suddenly gasped.
"There's someone else, isn't there?!" She exclaimed. Marinette froze, and glanced to her bed. "There is! Oh my gosh! Give me details! Who is it? Do I know them? Are they in our class? Tell me!"
"A-Alya, please! It's not that important!" Marinette shifted uncomfortably.
"If someone made you move on from Adrien it is important!"
It was then Nino's head popped up from the stairs.
"Yo!" He said, happily as he fully entered to room. "Ready to work on the project?"
"Shhh!" Alya shushed him, "Not now!" She turned back to Marinette. "Tell me who it is!" Marinette shook her head.
"What's going on?" Nino asked, only to be shushed by Alya again. Nino sighed as he adjusted his hat and looked around the room.
"Is Adrien not here yet?" He asked. Marinette shook her head. Nino pulled out his phone. "Huh… strange. He texted me saying he was already here."
"Really?" Marinette asked. Nino nodded and showed Marinette the text. The time stamp showed it was received about fifteen minutes prior, which was around the time Chat Noir had shown up. "Odd. Was he downstairs? In the bakery, maybe?" Nino shrugged. It was then a sudden clawing noise coming from above their heads. Marinette glared at her bed and it stopped. She was going to kill him later.
"What was that?" Alya asked.
"Nothing! I'm sure it was nothing! Uh, why don't we go get a snack from downstairs and look for Adrien?" Nino and Alya agreed and started to move down the stairs. Marinette quickly turned in the direction of her bed.
"Chat! Leave now!" She yelled in a whisper. Chat Noir moved out from her bed and up to her skylight.
"I'll see you later, Princess." He said, an odd, satisfied smile on his lips. He opened the hatch and slipped out.
"Marinette!" Alya called from down the stairs. "What are you doing?"
"N-nothing!" Marinette slowly made her way down the stairs.
Marinette found her friends standing in her living room, waiting for her.
"Sorry." Marinette said. "Is he not down here?" Nino shook his head. "Let's check the bakery, then." The small group slowly made their way to the bakery.
Adrien turned to them, a chocolate chip cookie hanging out of his mouth and a few muffins sat in his hand.
"Oh." He said, his voice being muffled by the cookie. He quickly ate the rest of it. "Hi."
"Dude, what are you doing?" Nino asked. It was then Sabine appeared from behind one of the display cases with a muffin in her hand.
"You should try this one too!" She said, handing Adrien yet another muffin.
"Oh, uh. Thanks." Adrien replied, gratefully taking the muffin.
"Oh, what about a cranberry one?"
"N-no, Maman! I think he's has enough. Come on, Adrien." Marinette said. Adrien smiled and quickly made his way over to the other three. Adrien handed each of them a muffin and they made their way back up to Marinette's room.
The group of four surrounded the large piece of poster board, each of them working on specific parts of the project. Alya and Nino were gluing the essay portion and the graphs to it, while Marinette and Adrien were adding little designs to the background. Every now and then, Adrien would 'accidently' bump into Marinette, causing her to mess up. He'd mutter a quick apology before attempting to help her fix the mistake.
A few hours passed and they, finally, finished the poster. Nino and Adrien left soon after picking up, which left Marinette and Alya alone.
"What about him?"
"He was totally flirting with you!"
"He was not." Marinette said, shaking her head.
"Oh, please, Marinette! It was so obvious! And you didn't do a single thing about it!" Alya sighed heavily, then peeked at her phone. "I have to go, but we aren't done talking about this!" Alya opened the hatch that lead downstairs and left.
Marinette let out a sigh of relief as she finished putting away all the materials they had used. It wasn't long before she heard a chuckle and a voice coming from her bed.
"Told you I'd be back, Princess." Marinette turned to where the voice was coming from.
Chat Noir hopped down from the stairs. He almost landed perfectly on the floor, but ended up getting his foot caught in a blue bag and fell flat on his face. Marinette rushed over to him.
"Oh, Alya forgot her bag!" Marinette said, laughing as she picked the small bag up. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Chat Noir stood up. "I have something to tell you."
"What is it?"Marinette asked.
"Well… I sorta… kinda… heard your conversation with Alya earlier."
"Oh… that." She looked away from him.
"Do you like him?" Chat asked, suddenly.
"Who?" Marinette questioned, although she knew very well who he was talking about.
"Adrien."
"No! Well, I mean, I used to… but-"
"You settled for me?"
"No! Chat, the way I feel about you is real! I-I just, I feel the same about him, too." Marinette turned her head away from him as she saw tears form in his eyes. "I-I'm so sorry. I know it's wrong to feel that same way about two people, but… I-I-I'm sorry! You must be so upset with me!"
"I'm not upset, Marinette." Chat muttered, a few tears breaking free from his eyes.
"Then… why are you crying?" Marinette asked, reaching to brush a tear away from his eyes. It was then he grabbed her wrist and pulled her into him.
"Because I thought you only liked one side of me." He replied, stroking her back carefully. "I'm really happy you like both sides of me."
"Both sides of-" Chat Noir suddenly scooped her lips up in a tender kiss. Marinette's eyes widened in surprise. She tried to pull away, as it seemed the only reasonable thing to do, but he wouldn't let her go. Marinette gave up on fighting and slowly melted into the kiss, wrapping her arms around Chat Noir's neck.
They didn't notice the footsteps that made their way back up the stairs.
"Hey Marinette I forgot my-" Alya stopped mid sentence as she saw the scene in front of her. The two pulled away quickly.
Marinette stared at Alya, and frantically tried to come up with some excuse that would make sense as to why she just kissed half of Paris' ultimate crime fighting team. But what possible excuse could there be? She struggled to come up with an answer.
Alya just continued to stare at them, mouth agape with small, unrecognizable screeches flooding out of it.
Chat Noir pulled away from Marinette and gave Alya a little wave before quickly making his way out of the circular window, leaving Marinette to fend for herself.
Oh, she was so going to kill him.