A/N: This is just goofy. I apawlogize.

~o~

It was an autumn morning when Adrien entered class, only to find Marinette and Alya crowding over Nino's shoulder. Their attention was completely hooked on his phone, watching something on the screen. As he sat down in his seat, he asked, "Hey guys, what's-" Only to be shushed by all three, whose eyes never left the screen.

Frowning, the model peeked over. On the screen was a superhero, fighting off bad guys and jumping over flying cars with the best special effects that Hollywood could buy. More notably, he was wearing a rather distinct black cat-themed costume.

...The hell was this?

The trailer informed him oh so helpfully a moment later with the stylized words: Black Panther

Once the video was over, Alya let out a shrill, "That movie is going to be off the hook! We have to go see it on opening night!" It wasn't all that much of a shocker that Alya would get excited over a superhero movie. However, when his best friend cheered (that traitor), Adrien felt himself twitch.

"Aw man, coolest superhero yet!" Nino declared, pumping a fist up into the air. "I can't wait until it comes out!"

For some reason, when Marinette nodded in agreement, it stung most of all. Her normally shy smile had spread into a broad grin, cheeks delightfully pink. She really was the cutest of all his classmates. Her blue eyes darted shyly over to him and she asked, "A-Adrien, what do you think?"

Oh. He had thoughts. He had lots of thoughts.

Folding his arms over his chest, he scoffed, "I don't know. Not sure I want to see a movie that's so obviously ripping off of Chat Noir."

"Actually, the character's been around since 1966," Alya informed him unhelpfully.

Adrien paused. "W-well, okay, but he's American. Aren't there enough American superheroes out there?"

"Actually, he's from Africa. Ish," Nino also informed him unhelpfully. "He's the king of one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, Wakanda."

Adrien stared. "...Okay. But Chat Noir is infinitely cooler than him, isn't he?"

To which, Alya and Nino looked at each other, before breaking into uproarious laughter. The blond twitched again, before he turned his attention to his last remaining hope. "Marinette, what do you think? Chat Noir's cooler than Black Panther, right?"

However, the designer's eyes darted guiltily away, her cheeks only flushing brighter. "W-well, I- if you ask me to root for one over the other, I'd obviously pick Chat Noir," she said quickly. "He's real for one and he protects Paris. I'm s-sure everyone here would agree." Yet her guilty look only grew as she couldn't meet his eyes, her finger toying anxiously with one of her pigtails. "B-but if you're asking which one is cooler, um... W-well, it's Hollywood, isn't it? Of course, the superheroes are meant to be cooler... They're idealized."

The model stared at her, his jaw dropping.

Alya cackled, throwing an arm around her best friend's shoulders. "Yeah, and a pasty white boy's got nothing on a fully grown, sexy black man, am I right, Mari?" Marinette, to his horror, only squeaked as she reddened, hiding her blushing face behind her hands. "Ah, sorry, Adrien," the blogger added as an afterthought.

Adrien's head whipped over to his best friend for support. However, Nino only looked smug as he shrugged, "What? Girls are gonna like what girls are gonna like."

"Hey, you're going to see Black Panther too?" Alix called from across the classroom.

"Yeah!" Alya replied excitedly.

"Sweet! We should do a group movie outing!"

As other voices piped up in the classroom, Adrien narrowed his eyes, gritting his teeth to keep from hissing. If he were suited up, his ears would be pinned back in extreme displeasure.

Oh hell no. He was not going to be upstaged by a fictional character.

~o~

Somehow, this ended up with him spying on Marinette.

To be fair, he didn't really know how he was supposed to compete with Hollywood. What he did know was that Marinette was the leader of the classroom. It made sense to get her to change her mind first and the others would follow.

Admittedly, he was particularly galled that Marinette liked Black Panther better. She was his fangirl, damn it. She had no business fangirling over other black suited cat boys... men... Whatever!

However, just bouncing over out of the blue would be suspicious, to say the least. What was he supposed to say? 'Oh hey, I heard you like Black Panther. How, do you ask? Because I'm actually your classmate, Adrien, and I've been watching everything you do for months now. And gosh, you're cute. So please fangirl over me instead of Chadwick Boseman?'

Yeah, that was never going to work.

...Well, it might, but then Plagg would probably bite him.

Sitting across on top of the school, Chat tapped his claws against the tin roof as he contemplated both Marinette and his conundrum. This all started because Black Panther was supposedly 'cooler' than him. Well, he was just going to have to show them otherwise. He was a cool cat. He was positively slick. Just to prove it, he was going to wing this and look good doing it.

With his somewhat half-baked plan in mind, Chat hopped easily over the street, landing lightly on top of Marinette's balcony. Gently, he rapped on the hatch above her bed. The superhero was rewarded as a moment later, the raven-haired girl came up out of her room with a bewildered look on her face. "Chat Noir?" she asked, climbing up into the moonlight. "Is something wrong? Why are you here?"

Not exactly the reception he was expecting. More squealing would have been nice, but he could work with this. "Good evening, Prrincess," he called, giving her a sweeping bow. "You'll be happy to know that Paris is perfectly safe thanks to my noble efforts." Taking her hand, he pressed a chaste kiss to her knuckles, as he said, "I just happened to be making my rounds and thought, Ah, what a lovely evening to become reacquainted with the foremost constituent in my fan base."

Marinette frowned. "Consti- Chat Noir, please tell me you're not running for office or something like that."

The superhero sighed, "Would that I could. I would make an excellent Mewer. Alas, between fighting supervillains, saving Paris, rescuing damsels in distress, and my day job, my dance card is fully booked." His hand still on hers, he tugged her closer and put a hand on her waist. "Although, I could make an exception for you, Prrincess," he purred, dipping her into a tango.

The designer giggled, sending a small flurry of warmth through him. "Oh, I wouldn't want to impede on your oh-so-important day job," she said lightly, her lips spread into an amused smile. "What do you do in real life, Chat Noir? Humble librarian? Freelance photographer? Competitive equestrian?"

"Ah-ah, now that would be telling," he chided, lifting her back up to her feet. "Although it wouldn't be a gross exaggeration to say that I'm considered royalty in my profession," he preened, examining his claws. "Rather cool, wouldn't you say, no?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Marinette's eyebrow raise. Then her smile grew. "Is that so?" she asked and curtsied. "Well, Milord, do excuse me for not showing you your due deference earlier. I meant no disrespect."

Chat caught her elbow, helping her back up to a stand. "And I would never ask a prrincess to bow to me." His gaze locked onto her bright blue eyes, to her strangely knowing grin, and he suddenly faltered. After a brief pause, he coughed and said, "W-well, I had better get going... Off to make Paris a safer place!"

"Very well, Milord, don't let me keep you," Marinette replied, still teasing as Chat hopped up onto her balcony railing. "Stay safe, Chat Noir."

Chat glanced down at her, to her smiling face and bright eyes. Yes! She was still a fan. His fan. "All in a day's work, Prrincess!" he grinned broadly, giving her a salute. "Don't forget to tell your friends!" With that, he bounded off, secure in the knowledge that he'd once again brought Marinette back into the fold.

~o~

The next morning, Adrien arrived in class far earlier than the bell. He was eager to hear what might have come from his visit to Marinette's last night. Surely, she would talk about something as cool as a night time visit from her favorite superhero. Much to his delight, he found Marinette chatting away with the blogger, faintly catching words such as 'cat' and 'balcony' with his feeble human hearing. Feeling quite self-satisfied, he greeted Nino with the usual fistbump, before he sat at his desk, where he could listen in on the girls better.

"Hey, dude so-" Nino started, before Adrien cut him off with a sharp shushing sound. The DJ raised an eyebrow, then seemed to realize what was up as his eyes flicked over to Marinette and Alya. With a sigh, he turned back to his book to leave the model to eavesdrop in peace.

"-I can't believe he said that! That dork!" Alya laughed.

"Yeah, he's definitely not the coolest cat out there," Marinette giggled. To his horror, he realized that both were apparently mocking him for last night's efforts. A well of dismay filled the blond at her words. No! But he tried so hard! It wasn't fair! His mind floundered, trying to think up a new plan, a new way to win his fangirl back over when the designer added:

"He is the cutest though."

Adrien froze. He very deliberately didn't turn around. Heat tingled across his shoulders and up his neck until his face and ears glowed with a heady blush. Something squirmed in the pit of his stomach, both delightful and uncomfortable. He swallowed hard. For some reason, he knew, without really knowing why, that it was going to be a little (lot) harder to look Marinette in the eye after this.

In his bag, Plagg looked up at his charge from the open zipper and let out an exasperated sigh. The boy was just so dense sometimes it hurt, he thought as he nibbled on some camembert.

Besides, as if either Chat Noir or Black Panther had anything on him.