Adrien: [Killlllll meeeeeeeee]
Adrien: [For real, I need an akuma to burst in here right now and ruin this photo shoot]
Marinette: [youre real casual about jinxing things]
Marinette: [speak of the devil and the devil shall appear as they say]
Adrien: [Is it that easy?]
Adrien: [Akuma akuma akuma]
Adrien: [...]
Adrien: [Nothing.]
Adrien: [Marinette, you lied to me!]
Marinette: [can a photoshoot even be that bad? dont you just sit places and look pretty?]
Adrien: [1. I'm offended]
Adrien: [2. Thank you for calling me pretty]
Adrien: [and 3. A photo shoot alone wouldn't be so bad, but I swear my dad is trying to murder me!]
Adrien: [Is death by over-scheduling a thing?]
Marinette wanted to assure him it wasn't so bad, but he kinda had a point. In the few days since they had revealed themselves to each other, Adrien's schedule had been packed, and seeing as there hadn't been an akuma, the two hadn't even seen each other in all the time in between. They made up for it by near constant texting, though.
Adrien: [I just need to survive one more day after today. Then I'll finally have some free time!]
Marinette: [i thought you were booked til thursday]
Adrien: [... Yeah?]
Marinette: [it's monday]
Adrien: [NoooooOOOOOOooooooOoooOoOoOoOooOOOOOOooOoOoooOOOoOoOooOoo]
Marinette: [my poor minou]
Adrien: [•w•]
Marinette: [why cant you just write :3 like a normal cat freak?]
Adrien: [Mine has whiskers]
Marinette: [and the power to haunt my nightmares. congrats]
Adrien: [•w~]
Adrien: [Gotta get back to work. Good luck with your nightmares!]
Marinette rolled her eyes at her phone.
"How's Adrien?" Tikki asked, floating up and landing on her shoulder.
"Stressed, I think, and tired. I was hoping we'd hang out on Thursday, but if he wants to sleep all day I don't think I could hold it against him." She sighed and turned back to her computer. Netflix sat, paused, but she was bored of even that. "I'm gonna go see if my parents want a hand in the bakery," she said. "Will you be okay up here?"
"Sure!" Tikki said, clicking play on the movie they'd been watching.
—
It was about 22:00, and Mari was in her pajamas reading in bed, with Tikki dozing on her stomach. She hadn't ever heard more from Adrien, and she hoped he was doing okay. Through all the joking, she could tell his schedule was really getting to him.
"Maybe I should text him," she said to Tikki.
"He'd probably be happy to hear from you," Tikki agreed sleepily.
Mari reached for her phone, but before she could grab it was startled by a tapping above her head. She yelped at the sound, fumbled her book, and knocked Tikki into the air all in one motion, then looked up to see a pair of glowing green eyes staring down at her through the skylight.
Chat smiled and waved, like he hadn't almost just given her a heart attack. Marinette laughed, then scrambled up to open the hatch.
"Hey," he said, dropping into her room lithely.
"Hi," she said back brightly.
He plopped onto the bed next to where she was sitting and face planted into her pillow. "Is it cool if I hang here for a bit?" he asked, muffled.
Marinette laughed. "Sure," she said, lying back down on her back next to him. "How was your day?"
He didn't answer, but a low whine seeped out of the pillow.
"That bad, huh?"
He nodded, still without picking up his face.
"Does the kitty need scritches?" she teased, but surprisingly, that got him to prop himself up on his elbows.
"Mari, I would love you forever," he swore.
Stuffing down all the emotions that brought up, she reached over and dug her fingers into the hair just under his cat ear. He flopped back down onto the bed and hummed in delight, so she scooted closer and kept going.
After a couple minutes, during which Marinette was pretty sure Adrien had fallen asleep, he surprised her by muttering "claws in," lazily, proving him to be awake. In a flash of green, Adrien was left lying on her bed, wearing pajamas, and still convincingly asleep. Plagg appeared in the air above him, but with only a yawn, moved to seek out Tikki on her own little pillow next to Mari's bed. She watched him go, curious from never having seen another kwami, and smiled when he and Tikki snuggled together and settled.
She turned her attention back to Adrien. He hadn't moved, but his eyes were open. He was looking at her– just looking. It wasn't intense enough to be staring or inquisitorial enough to be watching, it was just like his gaze had settled on her, like looking into her eyes for these long seconds cost him nothing.
She realized her hand had stopped moving in his hair, and began running her fingers against his scalp again. His eyes rolled up, then closed, and he hummed again, completely content.
Eventually she closed her eyes too, and just let her fingers massage his head and play with his hair.
She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, but after a long while, Adrien murmured unwillingly, "I probably have to go."
Marinette was asleep enough that vague noise of complaint was the only response she could muster.
He laughed, and it was a soft, low, tired sound that made Marinette feel warm just from hearing it. Her fingers continued to fiddle with his hair, almost as if they were protesting the idea of him leaving by not stopping, until she felt Adrien's hand grab hers and softly extract them.
She opened her eyes then, and was immediately met with his gaze. His hand was still holding hers, and his hair looked all messed up from her tousling it. His eyelids looked heavy, but the green focused on her was awake and alive. His lips were just barely parted, and she imagined herself leaning in, moving closer, and kissing him.
She took a deep breath and got rid of the thought, then forced herself to sit up before it came back.
"You feel better?" she asked, stretching her shoulders out.
"So much better," he assured her, sitting up as well. "I might even survive until Thursday now," he added with a cheeky grin.
"No more wishing for akumas?" she checked.
"No promises," he teased. He shifted around Marinette to the pillow where their kwamis slept. "Time to go, Plagg," he said, scratching the little being on the head affectionately.
"No," Plagg whined.
"I know the feeling, but come on," Adrien insisted, picking him up.
With a heavy sigh, Plagg said, "Fine, but we're coming back soon."
"Well I guess if you're going to twist my arm," he agreed with a chuckle. "Claws out."
Marinette shielded her eyes from the bright flash of Adrien's transformation. She opened the skylight and he climbed out. She followed him halfway, standing on the ladder and sticking her head and shoulders out onto the balcony. "Good night, Chat Noir," she said when he extended his staff over the edge of her building.
He smirked at the name. "Good night, Princess," he bid back, winking at her.
She laughed at the nickname, he vaulted away, and she sank back into her room and onto her bed.
"It was nice to see Plagg," Tikki said with a cute little yawn before nuzzling back down into her pillow.
"Hmm," Marinette agreed, cozying into her own bed. Tonight had been nice indeed.