Just a little one shot I wrote for a friend's birthday. Enjoy yourself some MariChat fluff you little shipping fanatics.
I've been preparing this for days now. Hope I didn't disappoint.
Happy birthday, Swell! I hope you like this! :)
"Oh don't mind me. I'm just here to spend time with my purr-incess on her special day!"
Marinette blinked.
"Chat, it's four o'clock in the morning," she said with an unamused glare. "Go back home. I wanna keep sleeping."
"But Marinette!" Chat Noir whined, giving her a pleading look. "Today's your birthday! I want to spend it with you!"
"And you can spend it with me when I'm properly awake," Marinette said, crossing her arms under her chest and pouting. "Besides, we can celebrate together later. I'm tired right now."
"Please, Princess?" Chat begged, jumping down from the windowsill and getting into his knees. He clasped his hands together as he said, "I paw-mise that I won't be any trouble! You can sleep while I… uh… watch you?"
"Yeah no," Marinette said, pulling her blankets to her chin and allowing herself to fall back onto her bed. "Goodnight, Chat."
"Mari, you're no fun."
"Maybe sooo," Marinette drawled, closing her eyes and humming softly. Chat looked at her with a peculiar look, as if deciding whether or not to listen to her. "Besides," she started again, "what would Ladybug say if she saw you in my room this early in the morning?"
Chat pretended to scoff. "My Lady understands the basis of my friendship with you," he said defensively. "She isn't one to get very possessive."
"Right," Marinette nodded stiffly, still trying to drift back to sleep.
Chat stayed silent for a few minutes, wondering if the girl had fallen asleep again. To test his theory, he called out a tender, "Marinette?"
Marinette groaned, before getting up and giving him an exasperated look. "You're hopeless! How am I supposed to fall back asleep with you still here?!" she demanded, meaning for him to get out of her room.
Too bad for her, Chat didn't seem to understand.
"Exactly!" he cheered, jumping to the side of her bed and helping her out of it. He offered her a big grin and winked at her. "So now you're awake, let's do something!"
"Like what?" Marinette asked, not amused. "Listen, I want to get to school early today so I can go see my friends! And Adrien!"
Chat mentally gave himself an egotistical laugh. It had been a while since he found out about Marinette's crush on him, and he made it a point to always tease her about it.
Somehow, though, a part of his chest always seemed to hurt a bit whenever he talked about the subject.
"Adrien, huh?" he said, moving closer to her and ignoring the tiny stabbing sensation in his chest. "I wonder why you're looking forward to seeing him."
"S-shut up!" Marinette groaned, hiding her face in her hands so he couldn't see the fierce blush taking over her face. "Or maybe I'll start talking to you about your huge crush on Ladybug!"
"Me-ouch, my princess wounds me," Chat replied. "But I have no objections."
"You're impossible!" Marinette said, but she was smiling. "Alright then. What are you going to do to make my sweet sixteen the best day of my life?"
Chat pretended to look like he was thinking, even though in reality he had already thought up the day's plans.
"Well, before we- I mean, you go to school," Chat said, pretending not to notice his slip up. Ladybug would not be happy if he accidentally revealed himself to Marinette, "I could take you for a ride across the rooftops of Paris! Then we can come back here and I'll see you off. I promise you, Marinette. Today's going to be the best day of your life for sure."
"I'm going to hold you to that," Marinette agreed with another soft laugh. It made Chat's heart soar to hear that sound escaping from her mouth. "Okay, then. Let's do it."
"Well then, Little Lady," Chat Noir grinned, bending down to sweep the girl into his arms. "Shall we?"
He didn't wait for her reply, but instead jumped onto her windowsill and into the cool morning breeze awaiting them. He smiled as he heard her excited laughs echoing through the air, and he grinned down at her hair flying in his face. They leapt from rooftop to rooftop seemingly without a care in the world, Marinette still draped over Chat's strong arms.
"Chat! You might hurt yourself!" she yelled, trying to pull back her hair from out of her field of vision. "Don't go too fast!"
"Relax, Princess," Chat winked down at her, "you're with a paw-fessional here!"
Marinette couldn't hide her smile. "Your puns really bug me," she said, before her eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth.
Chat looked at her incredulously, before he plastered on a deep smirk. "Sounds like something Ladybug would say," he mused quietly, shaking his head with a small smile. "You two are a lot alike, you know."
"W-we are?" Marinette said. Chat failed to notice her stutter.
"Yeah, I mean, besides your looks and all, your personalities are really similar," Chat explained.
"How so?" Marinette asked softly, her mouth opening slightly as she anxiously waited for his answer.
"You're both really headstrong, and always want to help others just for the sake of it," Chat said.
Marinette remained quiet for a while, which irked Chat just a bit. Was that too much? Did he just cross a line she didn't want to step over? The entire topic of Ladybug was a little awkward between them, but Chat didn't know why.
"I find it funny that you can say that without even knowing me very well," Marinette said suddenly, looking up at him with a look of wonder. "No offense, but you haven't really spent a lot of time with me to be able to say something like that."
"Maybe we're closer than you think," Chat replied, grinning down at her before landing back on Marinette's rooftop. "Enjoyed the ride?"
"Definitely," Marinette said, smiling. "Thank you, Chat."
"It was no purroblem, Princess," Chat said, giving her finger guns and a click of his tongue.
It was times like these when Chat wanted to let go of his entire secrecy and just spill the beans to her about who he really was. He knew about her crush on his civilian self, and if it were up to him, Marinette would already have known about his real name being Adrien Agreste.
"Random question," he said suddenly. He watched as she looked up at him with an expectant look and pulled her loosely flowing hair behind her ears.
"Mm?" she hummed.
"What do you think my name is, in real life?"
Marinette blinked back a shocked gasp. Chat could tell she wasn't expecting a question like that.
"Uh… Brian," she blurted out.
"Excuse me, what?"
"Brian."
"Why?" Chat asked, stepping back with a look of confusion. "Of all the names you could have picked, you chose something as generic as Brian?"
"I don't know! You remind me of a Brian!"
"Do you know some kind of Brian or something?" Chat asked.
"Well, no," Marinette responded with a nervous laugh. "Oh I don't know… honestly, you remind me of someone really specific, but there's no possible way you could be him…"
"Oh?" Chat asked, leaning closer. "Who's this special person?"
"N-none of your b-business!"
"I think it is," Chat teased. "Oh well, I won't pry."
He purred absentmindedly, not bothering to think about what Marinette had just told him. There was no point, after all. He couldn't tell her. Not with his loyalty and friendship towards Ladybug hanging on the line.
"Good," Marinette said definitely, crossing her arms and looking back out to the morning horizon. "It's a beautiful morning, isn't it?"
Chat nodded, opening his baton underneath him and perching on it. "I agree."
"Marinette! It's time to get ready for school!" they heard Marinette's mother calling up to her from the bottom floor. The two of them blinked, looking at each other before Chat lowered himself off the pole of his baton and flexing it behind his neck.
"Well, I'll take that as my queue," Chat said, leaning forwards and winking. "Happy birthday, Marinette."
Instead of thanking him like Chat expected her to do, Marinette quickly jumped towards him and pecked his cheek with her lips. She stayed like that for a few seconds, before leaning back down and smiling up at him with a grateful look.
"Thank you, Chat Noir," she said quietly, bashfully looking away.
"I'll… see you later, then!" Chat said, trying to ignore the warm spot on the cheek Marinette had just kissed.
"Yeah," Marinette said, going to the trapdoor and opening it. She quickly slid down, giving him one last smile and disappearing.
Chat wasted no time. He quickly jumped back down to the front door of the bakery, detransforming on his way down and landing as his former self in front of the large double doors. He grinned, patting his head and straightening out his t-shirt.
"You're so disgustingly charming!" he heard Plagg say, zooming into his front pocket. Adrien ignored his kwami, taking a deep breath, clearing his throat, and entering the bakery.
He was instantly greeted by Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain, who both had surprised grins on their faces.
"Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng!" he said, offering them both a smile. "Is Marinette home? I wanted to wish her a happy birthday."
"Oh! Adrien!" Sabine said, gushing to herself and quickly walking to the staircase. She yelled up, "Marinette! You have a visitor!"
Within a few seconds, he heard Marinette reply, "Coming, Mom!"
Then, Marinette, now changed out of her pajamas and in her regular attire, climbed down the stairs and stared straight into the eyes of her crush.
Adrien tried not to laugh when he saw her expression.
"A-Adrien! Are what you… I mean- What are you d-doing fear- I mean! Here…?" she stumbled, trying to form coherent sentences but failing.
It marvelled him how she could be so adorable.
"Happy birthday, Marinette!" Adrien started strongly, walking up to her and offering her his hand. "I was just passing by here when I thought I should stop by to greet you. Want to walk to school together?" He lied smoothly, giving himself a mental pat on the back for his natural charm.
"SURE!" Marinette said, ending up yelling a bit too loudly. Behind her, Adrien could see her parents share a secret smile.
"You two go on," Tom said, handing his daughter her lunch and kissing her forehead. "Happy birthday, sweetheart."
"Have a nice day, you two!" Sabine said, ushering them both out the door.
Adrien grinned down at Marinette when he heard the door close behind them with a click. He turned to her, smiling widely.
"Well then, shall we?" he asked, offering her his elbow, hoping it wasn't too forward.
Everything could wait. He had promised this girl that he would make her sixteenth birthday the best day of her life.
Adrien wasn't the type to break his promises.