Marinette and Chat Noir were staring at the phone pointed at them. While Chat simply blinked, the girl's eyes went wide. She quickly scrambled to her feet, but the young reporter did not waste any minute.
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you just saved Chat Noir for the second time, do you have anything to say?" Alya shoved the phone in front of the pig-tailed girl.
"Uh-you…bluh… instinct?" Marinette raised her arms in a questioning manner, face contorted in a grimace. "Uuuhhh, I'm gonna…" she started backing away towards the school, "I'm gonna take cover. Akuma. Dangerous. You know…" and like that, she awkwardly ran off into the school. The reporter turned her phone to the leather-clad hero standing before her now, who was dusting off his suit.
"Chat Noir, how does it feel to be rescued by the same girl twice in two weeks?" the cat-boy placed a hand on his chin, in thought.
"I have a feline I may have found a second bug to look after my nine lives," he puffed his chest proudly and gave a crooked smile to the camera, like he had given the greatest statement in history. Alya gave him a deadpan look over her phone.
"That was… Amazing!" the girl gave a wide grin, giddy for the response of her interviewee. "And tell me, what do you think of Marinette Dupain-Cheng? Any particular aspects of her you wanna point out?"
But this time, Chat was not so eager to answer. He straightened his posture and cleared his throat. But Alya barely noticed with her excitement. She figured it was a harder question.
"Well," he started, cautiously, "I think Marinette is a very—"
"CHAT NOIR!" the two teens jumped at the sudden outburst, just in time to see another large chunk of shaving cream flying their way. Immediately, the boy scooped Alya up and jumped out of the way. He ran for two blocks before placing her back on the ground.
"Sorry to cut short our interview. Gotta hairy situation to deal with," and with a two finger salute, he leaped back into the fight. Despite knowing she had been dragged two blocks away for her safety, Alya ran back to the scene and hid behind the corner of a building, phone extended to get a better look at the battle.
The boy in leather maneuvered from side to side, avoiding the shiny silver lines coming from Monsieur Barbier's straight razor.
"No self-respecting gentleman would wear such a horrendous style," the akuma made a sound of polite disgust, his instrument pointing towards Chat.
"Sir, you really gotta get with the times," the hero retorted. "I'm purrfectly well groomed."
The man huffed in irritation and made a swift, elegant movement, and a ball of shaving cream formed out of thin air. Chat Noir jumped just in time, using his baton to lift him to one of the buildings. Luckily, the akuma didn't see properly to where the hero had gone. Just as he was staring down towards the barber, he heard the familiar yo-yo as it wrapped itself around the building's chimney. Three seconds later, his partner lightly landed right next to him.
"Heard you needed some help," she smirked, standing firm as always.
"Nice to see you again, My Lady," Chat automatically grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles, as usual. He smiled and started loosening his grip, used to her always pulling away.
A couple of seconds passed, and her hand was still in his. Chat frowned and looked up. Ladybug was staring at him, lips slightly parted, face… Wait a minute, was she blushing?! No, it couldn't be. His moves never worked. She had always brushed him off.
"My Lady?" he questioned, his cheeks starting to feel hot. All of a sudden, Ladybug started laughing nervously, pulling her hand away.
"Hehe, uh… we should, you know, do our job," and she ran past him. Chat was still in a bow, hand in the air where it had been holding Ladybug's moments ago.
"What was that?" he breathed. It took him a few more seconds to shake his head and land back in reality. He looked at the spotted heroine, who was standing at the edge of the building, assessing her next move.
"The akuma is definitely in the razor," she stated, without turning her gaze from Monsieur Barbier.
"Most likely, yeah," Chat responded, distracted. He hesitated before asking: "Uh, are you okay, Bugaboo?"
Ladybug snapped her head towards him, eyes wide.
"Y-yeah, totally," she gave another nervous laugh, her voice higher than usual. It was strange for Chat to see her like that, so… flustered was the word? It kind of reminded him of someone else, but couldn't quite put his finger on who. "Don't worry about it, chaton," she continued, waving her hand away. "I-I just have a lot on my mind and—DUCK!"
But Chat was too distracted to react on time. Before he knew what was happening, silver lines hit him square on the head, making him stagger backwards. A bright, silver light shone on his head, and left behind a powdery white wig like some of the victims were already wearing. Ladybug rose up from the floor, staring at him stunned, as he grabbed one of the now white locks.
"My beautiful, golden locks," he breathed. Ladybug snorted, suddenly bursting in thunderous laughter. The boy scowled at her.
"It's not funny!" he snapped, but it only made her roar even louder, holding her sides now.
"It's… very… funny!" she tried to catch her breath with each word, tears starting to stream down her face. The leather-clad hero tried pulling the wig off, but it wouldn't budge. At this point, his partner's knees were bending, as she tried to control herself.
"Don't we have an akuma to catch?" Chat crossed his arms over his chest, annoyed. The pigtailed girl took deep breaths and wiped the tears from her flushed face.
"S-sorry," Ladybug cleared her throat, and straightened up. "Let's go!"
She hooked her yo-yo to a lamppost and swung down near Monsieur Barbier. Chat followed with his baton, extending it to the ground below and sliding into the scene.
"Ladybug, Chat Noir," the man gave them a short bow. "If you would be so kind to hand me your miraculous, I will be on my way."
"How polite," Ladybug commented, hand on chest in feign flattery. "But I'm afraid we must kindly decline."
The heroes made battle poses, ready to defend themselves.
"So be it," grunted the akuma. He immediately waved his arm to make another ball of shaving cream. Both teens diverted the attack, spinning their weapons against the object. Ladybug quickly tried to grab the straight razor with her yo-yo, but Barbier was too fast. He made a short, elegant leap backwards, barely missing it.
"Try again," he mocked.
"Oh, we will," Chat threatened. He launched against the enemy with his baton. Once again, the man avoided the attack softly. The two in tights tried a few more times, running from side to side, but the akuma was as smooth as a well done shave. After a few minutes of rinse-and-repeat, the two came to a stop, a few feet away from Monsieur Barbier. They were both breathing heavily.
"This is not working!" Ladybug growled.
"I think it's time," Chat stated. The girl in red looked at him and nodded.
"Lucky Charm!" she called. A light shone from her yo-yo, and an object appeared from thin air, landing on her hand.
"Scissors?" Ladybug frowned.
"Don't we have enough barbers already?" Chat groaned, obviously still perturbed by his hairdo. The hero in spots placed the handle of the scissors on her lips, eyes darting from one place to the other, looking for a way to use her Lucky Charm. She looked from her partner to the akuma, until she gave a smirk.
"What are you…? No!" Chat trailed off as her mischievous smile widened a bit, already realizing what she was about to do.
"Oh come on, it's not like I won't fix it," she reasoned.
"But what if it affects my real—" but he cut short his sentence, like Ladybug had just done with a good chunk of the powdery white hair. He gaped, tiny pupils following the locks as they fell to the ground.
"You missed a spot, Monsieur Barbier!" the shameless hero called out, while her partner was still out of it.
"You dare destroy my masterpiece!" Chat's eyes snapped up in time to see the silver lines come his way again, but this time, he dodged them. Monsieur Barbier waved his arm three more times, but each time, the cat-boy managed to avoid them. After a fourth throw, the hero broke into a run.
"Dark Cupid, Reflekta, Pixelator, seriously, why am I always the one getting hit?!" Chat muttered under his breath, irritated, running in circles around the corrupted barber. He knew the answer was obvious (I'm always the distraction, that's why), but messing with his hair was a no-no. He may feel indifferent about being a model, but he still cared much for his hair. Also, his dad may throw a fit if his hair gets damaged.
"That is it!" a giant blob of shaving cream appeared out of thin air and flew towards the alley cat.
SPLAT!
This time, he was not so lucky. The substance trapped Chat Noir; head, hands and feet sticking out, unable to reach anything. He squirmed a few times, but what was shaving cream at first, turned hard. His movements did nothing. Monsieur Barbier pointed his straight razor to the stuck superhero.
"A true gentleman looks at his finest at all times," he stated. But before he could do anything, a polka-dotted yo-yo wrapped around his wrist and shook it enough for the straight razor to fall out of his hand. The instrument flew in the air and landed at the feet of Ladybug. In one determined step, she broke the straight razor in half under her heel. With the grace of the lucky miraculous, she purified the little butterfly, and sent it on its way.
"Miraculous Ladybug!" the magical insects fluttered around the city, fixing every spot affected by Monsieur Barbier. The shaving cream on the side of the school disappeared, citizens cheered when their hairs went back to normal, and where the akuma had stood, now lay a man in a leather brown apron, utterly confused. Chat Noir stood up to quickly pad his now blond locks, giving a sigh of relief. He and Ladybug found each other's gaze.
"Bien joué!" they played out their end-of-battle ritual.
"So, can we talk about what was bothering you now?" Chat innocently asked. Ladybug's face contorted into a grimace, just as her miraculous started beeping.
"Oh, would you look at that, my earrings are beeping. Gottago, seeyalater. BYE!" she quickly waved goodbye, and swung her yo-yo to the nearest building, away from the scene. The cat-boy stared dumbfounded after her disappearing figure.
"What the hell?!" he asked in bewilderment to no one in particular.
Ladybug swung, and swiftly flung herself through the window into the school restroom. With a light thud, she landed as her transformation released. Marinette barely acknowledged her little friend before she pressed herself against the wall, with hands covering her face. Tikki zipped close to her charge.
"Marinette, what's wrong?" the girl gave a miserable groan under her palms.
"That was so awkward," she sunk down into the bathroom floor. "I'm so conscious about what I say to him now!"
"Why?" Tikki patted the blue hair. Marinette raised her head from her hands, with a look of concern.
"What if my rejections hurt him? What if they hurt our partnership?"
"Didn't it almost get hurt by your awkwardness today?" the little god gave her a reproachful smirk. The girl's eyes went wide, and her hands flew to her head.
"I did not think this through! If he finds out that I know—" she cut her own words short with a squeak, teeth clenched.
"But he doesn't have to find out!" the red creature grabbed the teen's nose, trying to knock some sense into her. "As far as Chat Noir knows, Marinette knows, not Ladybug. Ladybug doesn't have to do anything, but pretend she doesn't know. Not just to keep your current dynamic, but to protect your secret identity. Unless you want to tell him who you are."
"No!" Marinette quickly responded. "That is out of the question!"
Tikki and her charge stared at each other for a minute, until the designer sighed, with a hint of defeat in it.
"I shouldn't have let my emotions get in the way of rational thought. I knew hanging out with him was a bad idea. And I went and did it anyway."
"It's okay to take a few risks every now and then," her little friend tried to comfort.
"Some risks, yeah. But this was just plain reckless," she lightly shook her head. She bit her lip as she thought about her next move. She knew what she had to do.
"I… I have to give it up," Marinette's voice turned hollow, emotionless. "It's too complicated."
"Just because you had one mishap, it doesn't mean you have to give it up," Tikki advised. Her charge gave a small smile.
"It wasn't just a mishap. I shouldn't encourage this anymore. I don't want something like today happen again."
BAM
The kwami hid just in time as the door banged open and Alya came through it. The reporter gave her friend the widest of smiles: "There you are!"
Marinette weakly waved her hand. "Hey, Alya."
"You have to see what I recorded."
Marinette was pacing around her balcony the next day. She was nervous, afraid Chat might take it the wrong way. Then again, he was a superhero. He should be able to understand her decision. And it was not like she was doing it willingly: she was doing it out of necessity.
After a few minutes, the familiar thud resonated on the metal railing. Her gaze shot towards the crouching cat-boy, dreading. However, he didn't seem to notice, for he gave her one of his trademark cheshire grins and said: "Good afternoon, Princess."
The girl felt a weight starting to lift from her. She hadn't even realized how tense she was.
"Hey Chat," she greeted back. Her partner hopped down and leaned against the bars now behind him.
"Well this is exciting," he said all of a sudden. Marinette's eyebrows furrowed.
"Exciting?"
"I'm talking to the girl who saved Chat Noir. Twice," he lifted two fingers to heighten his point. "I should change your nickname to Super Princess. Or would you prefer Super Marinette?"
The designer rolled her eyes. How could he take it so lightly? This was serious. The bakery's phone had been bombarded with calls from the press since the previous day. And this time, it wasn't just fact checking: they were asking for interviews. Everyone wanted her for their newspaper article, for their radio talk show, for their television program. It would be overwhelming, if it weren't for her parents telling everyone she was not doing interviews at the moment. She crossed her arms on her chest and scowled at him.
"Oh, come on, it's just a joke."
"Just a joke?!" Marinette gave him an incredulous look. "You have any idea how many calls I've gotten? How many times my parents have had to switch off the phone to, at least, have dinner in peace?"
Chat shifted. "I have an idea," he muttered, ears drooping a little. "It's why I wanna keep the mood up."
The pig-tailed girl sighed as she shook her head. "Thanks for trying, but this hasn't exactly been a cake walk."
"Did you just make a bakery pun?" Chat's cat-ears perked up, but Marinette simply shrugged it off. He exhaled. "It'll blow over," he responded in a more serious tone. "It happens. When it's new, they all want to get their hands on it. But it'll lose newness soon. By next week, they'll be asking 'Mari-who?'"
This time, the joke managed to get a small chuckle out of her.
"Thanks. That one actually worked," her lips curled into a soft smile, which he returned with a smirk.
"I still can't believe you saved me, again," he suddenly said. "That was pretty amazing of you. Very brave."
"I would've done it for anyone," Marinette tried to downplay her heroism. Chat shook his head.
"I feel like it was more than that," he spoke evenly. "You really are amazing, Marinette."
The girl arched a playful eyebrow. "Is that what you were gonna say about me to Alya?"
"Of course!" Chat jokingly winked at her. "And other things."
"It really was nothing," she brushed it off again.
"Give yourself more credit," he retorted. Marinette frowned. "You did an amazing thing yesterday."
Just what she needed: more praise. Sure, she didn't mind the praise, but today, she was on edge. The last thing she needed was a reminder why it had been difficult to transform for patrol the previous day.
"Seriously," Chat continued, "I don't think anyone has ever done what you've done for me lately."
Marinette's frown deepened for his comment. "You keep saying stuff like that, but hasn't Ladybug saved you like hundreds of times?"
"Yeah," Chat shrugged, "but that's her job. She'd save anyone. Plus, she has magic. Pretty easy to rescue anyone like that," Marinette's teeth clenched, holding anger swelling up in her chest. Did he really think that was the only reason she saved him all those times? He was her partner, her friend. Without him, Alya and Tikki, she wouldn't be the person she is now.
"But," the boy continued, the girl doing her best to not let her feelings bubble out unintentionally, "you don't have that luxury. You could've gotten seriously hurt, and yet you risked it anyway. You didn't even have to think about it, did you?"
"H-honestly, I just like to help," her anger subsided, and was slowly turning into something else. Was it bashfulness? Okay, perhaps a compliment or two were not so bad, specially coming from Chat. About his opinion on Ladybug, she could fix that later.
"Well you were great help," Chat crossed his arms over his chest. "No need to be so modest, Princess. Just accept it and say 'You're welcome, my charming knight'."
Marinette rolled her eyes, but giggled nonetheless. She took a step forward and bowed, in mock of the boy's own.
"You're welcome, my charming knight," she recited with a hand on her chest and a wide grin.
"Ah, you're learning," the leather-clad hero beamed, pointing a finger gun at his friend. Marinette straightened up, hands on her back.
"What can I say? I learned from the best," they both released hearty laughs at their exchange. All the girl could think of was how great her times with Chat Noir had been. What was more amazing was how quickly they became so comfortable with each other. Despite the fact that she couldn't reveal her alter-ego, she had never felt more herself.
And the more she thought about it, the less she wanted to give up these moments. It was the right thing to do, there was no doubt about that, but it was definitely not what she wanted. She gave a sorrowful sigh that was not missed by her partner.
"You're thinking I should stop visiting, aren't you?" the girl's pig-tails bobbed as she raised her gaze. His cat ears were drooping a little, and he bore an expressionless look.
She could tell: he didn't want to break the friendship either.
The girl sunk down to the chair on her balcony and exhaled.
"This sucks," she said at last, chin resting on her hand. "Why-oh-why did I have to get the attention of the media? Ugh," she covered her face with her palms, "why did Alya have to be there?"
"Pfft, that girl is always scooping around," Marinette gave him a scowl that he responded with a chuckle.
"Look," Chat crouched in front of her, resting his forearms on his knees. "I may not visit, but that doesn't mean we can't still be friends. In fact, the minute this whole thing blows over, I'll come right back."
"Reeaally?" the girl arched an eyebrow and gave him a playful smirk. He raised his right hand.
"I swear on my nine lives," he proclaimed. The action gave way to a snicker from the designer.
"You know you don't actually have nine lives."
"I still promise," Chat interjected, hand still in the air. It earned him another chuckle from the girl.
"Fine," she finalized. "Have it your way."
The boy brought down his hand and smiled. But it wasn't his usual toothy grin. This one was small, kind. It almost seemed familiar. Before Marinette could give it more thought, though, he looked away at the setting sun.
"I have to go," he whispered, smile faltering a bit. "Ladybug will kill me if I miss patrol."
"I understand," the blue-haired girl nodded.
"Hey," she blinked as his gaze returned to her this time with the wide grin, "we'll see each other soon."
He placed his hand on her wrist and gave it a light squeeze as he stood up. Marinette followed as he walked away from her. Then he stopped. He turned to look at her.
"I'll see you around, Princess," he lifted one of his hands in a fist and waited for her to bump it. She blinked, surprised at the gesture usually reserved for Ladybug. Nevertheless, she returned it with a kind smile.
"See you around, chaton," the nickname made Chat's grin grow wider. He looked like such a dork, that Marinette was unable to stifle a snort.
"You're such a dork," she blurted out.
"Made you laugh, though," he said as he backed towards the railing. He gave her one last wave before leaping off into the sunset. Marinette rested her arms on the metal bars and sighed, looking towards his jumping figure.
Chat stopped and looked back at the balcony on top of the bakery. He noticed the pig-tailed girl was still standing there, staring towards his direction. He waved again, trying to drown the embarrassment he was feeling. To his surprise, she waved back, with a bright smile.
Something inside him stirred. He was actually… sad. He realized he was really going to miss this side of her. He was going to miss the sass, the confidence, but more so, her unyielding friendship. The part of her that wasn't so afraid to talk to him. And that someone he could actually talk to, without judgement or a time limit.
Chat just hoped that this whole thing would blow over as quickly as the first time.