Chat Noir did not know why, but stayin with Marinette made him feel good. At first every time he met her, at least with the black suit, it was only ordinary task, he fullfilled the mission of protecting her from akumas, her and all Paris. Not that he was doing it all by himself, there was also Ladybug, buty between him and Marinette the relationship has always been "of work", for lack of better term. As Adrien, instead, he found the girl likeable, she was smart, brave, headstrong but in a good way: he had the chance to see how much good she was both with needle and thread and with cooking, which pleased both the model in him and the gluttonous grown-up child he was in private. Because, despite appearances, Adrien was a person of simple tastes and small desires, who did not love the splendour that high fashion world, which he was part of due to his father, pretended, nor the ostentation that was daily bread for Chloé, who he did not know if he could call friend, or simple acquaitance.

Marinette, instead, he was sure he could call her a friend; expecially after that night, when he had decided to prepare a candle-lighted dinner for his Lady: he infused all his love for her in that date, only for find himself alone and then find that another boy occupied that place in her heart. If his lady is happy, then he's happy, he told himself, he could not act selfish. It was the right thing to do. And like all right things to do, it was anything but easy.

Marinette, that night, listened to him; accepted to keep him company. Ironic, a superhero who found himself begging for a human contact. Yet, for those few minutes with her, he felt happy: he was still sad for the Ladybug issue, but even just having someone to talk with, after a life in an empty house, mattered a lot for Adrien, to the point of conceding to her the romantic date he prepared: even if she couldn't help him, he could bring back the smile to that girl that deserved it so much.

So it started.

And so he started going to her at night, to meet her, chat a bit with her, like two friends at the cafè around the corner. Definitely abnormal for a friendship, but it worked: they talked about the more and the less, about her school and his adventures, how the little baker wanted to become a stylist and how being Chat Noir made him feel free, Marinette vented about her problems and Adrien confessed to her what he would have never had the courage to openly say to Ladybug: what loved about her, what didn't like, what he'd never change about the girl...how much he loved her…

Talking with her helped him also distracting about his problems: truth is that, even if pleasant, life as Chat Noir was heavy, given that the sole reward he desired was denied to him. He felt selfish thinking this way, but Marinette showed him that it was just a normal, human behaviour, and that sacrificing himself this way not only made him a hero, but sooner or later would have given its fruits. Ordinary words, yes, but said by Marinette, he couldn't help but believe them.

They came to discover sides about each other that they would never have expected, and the cat did not wait too much to notice how much she was similar to the superheroine, both firm and sure about what they wanted in life. Why this side of Marinette never comes out when he's in civilian clothes, it was still a mistery: he could hardly find an occasion to talk to her without her blabbing or looking like she's on the verge of having an ictus... One day she confessed to be in love: she did not give a name and he did not ask, but she told that it was a one way crush; to repay her of all kindness (and the biscuits she prepared for their evenings on the balcony) he started to become her romantic confessor: he pushed her to jump in, not let the occasion slip, not wait too much. In short, he was trying to avoid her his same fate. Chat Noir too told her something about his private life, but always keeping himself vague: until now he had managed to make like for Marinette's ears his story sounded like the one of any other boy of Paris. Aah, how he would have liked to be it for real...not giving up the Black Cat power, of course, but have a life like every other guy, without turning every day and see his face on the billboards of half Paris.

And so their friendship went on, for a couple of months.

Until that night.

The night when Adrien discovered the truth about Marinette.