~Chat wants to love Mari, but she's not available, she's in love with Adrien. Wait, What?!~

I try to keep satisfied

Just to walk close by your side

Saturday evenings were now reserved for dinner with Marinette and her parents. Sometimes they'd play video games afterward, or there'd be movie nights. Some nights they would break out their old board games, which Chat would manage to lose spectacularly though often he'd start out far ahead. Truthfully, he was busy on most weekends, however, any free Saturday night was entirely reserved for members of the Dupain-Cheng family.

Eventually this had evolved into Marinette and Chat making dinner so that it could be ready, or nearly ready, as soon as Tom and Sabine closed up the bakery. This had started when the two teens had made a surprise Valentine's dinner for Tom and Sabine, and then had just continued from there. Chat had not done any cooking before, but Marinette was a patient teacher and soon he could wash, peel, and chop vegetables quite efficiently. They had started first with a homemade veggie pizza and had moved onto a spicy mapo tofu. Chat was surprised at the number of foods that Marinette knew how to make, and enjoyed seeing the fusion of both French and Chinese cuisine that occurred in her kitchen.

Occasionally Sabine would join them and teach both of them dishes that she had learned from her parents. Chat's favorites were the steamed dumplings. Once he showed real proficiency with making them, she taught him how to make delicious Shanghai soup dumplings. They were dumplings where the soup was inside! And though they took a long time to make, and were labor intensive, they were his absolute favorites.

Tonight they were making ratatouille followed by the movie of the same name. While Chat concentrated on making very thin slices of eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes Marinette made the flavorful sauce to go in the bottom of the pan. Then they worked together to make the patterned rings to fill the baking pan, their movements like a well rehearsed duet. Marinette topped it all off with a sprinkle of salt and a drizzle of olive oil, and Chat covered it with parchment before moving it to the oven. Now they just had to wait for it to cook.

Marinette turned her playlist on while they cleaned up. She claimed that music always made doing dishes bearable. Both parties were moving to the beat and enjoying dancing next to each other as they washed, rinsed, and dried the various tools used to make dinner. Then they each took a sponge and had a race for cleaning off the counter. Marinette maintained that Chat had clearly finished first while Chat responded that Marinette had more crumbs to clean and so earned more bonus points. Laughing, they decided to call it a draw, as they did most nights.

As they rinsed off the sponges before putting them away one of Jagged Stone's newest songs began to play. Marinette grabbed Chat and twirled with him into the center of the room. He responded by grabbing Mari's hands and doing some swing steps. Mari recognized them from her latest P.E. class, but didn't understand how Chat could know them. Her class was doing dance styles through the ages and had just gotten to jazz. Still, here was Chat doing triple steps and swing backs, turning her under his arm, and even sliding their raised arms down each other in a move their teacher had called "skin the snake." They continued their frenzied dancing through the next song, but were glad when a slower song finally played.

Marinette's hands were at Chat's shoulders as they gently swayed. Chat's hands were loosely held at Marinette's waist. He lowered his forehead to hers and a contented sigh escaped his lips.

"Mmmm, this is nice," Marinette murmured.

"Yeah, it is," he whispered back.

They stayed like that for a few moments more until Marinette dropped her hands and looped her arms around Chat's chest. This allowed her to snuggle her head onto his shoulder and he could completely encircle her with his arms. Now they weren't so much dancing as hugging while slightly swaying to the beat.

Chat's heartbeat was starting to increase and he was sure that Marinette could hear it from her position. He stopped moving to look down at Marinette. She looked up at him in confusion. All he could do was stare into her beautiful eyes. There was something he desperately needed to ask her.

"Marinette, may I ki-"

BeepBeep! BeepBeep! BeepBeep!

The timer was going off, though Marinette seemed to barely register it. Chat stepped back. Marinette seemed to come out of her trance and hurried over to turn off the timer. They both checked the oven and decided the food needed a few minutes more. They turned down the temperature so it wouldn't be overdone by the time the bakery was closed up, and then looked around for what to do next.

Not quite sure what to say to each other, they blushed and stumbled over words until Chat suggested putting out plates and glasses to be ready for dinner. With that done, the silence came back.

"Would you like to watch another episode of our anime while we wait for them to come up?" Marinette suggested.

"Uh, sure," Chat said as he followed her to the couch. He stopped suddenly, trying to figure out where he should sit. He didn't want to sit too close to Marinette, since she might not want that after all their awkwardness earlier, but he didn't want to sit too far away. Fortunately for Chat, Marinette solved the mystery for him by grabbing his hand and pulling him to sit close to her.

She sat back once she had forwarded the intro and snuggled into Chat's side. His arm went automatically around her shoulders with no instructions from his overthinking mind. He was only half-heartedly paying attention to the screen. He was much more invested in the story between him and this amazing woman seated at his side. He couldn't help staring at her as she watched the characters on the screen. Even at rest her face was just so expressive.

A snort escaped Marinette when there was a potentially romantic moment between the two main characters.

"What's up Princess?" Chat asked.

"It's just so frustrating," she huffed. "They obviously like each other." She pointed at the screen. "They've had all these moments where they've showed how much they trust one another and care for each other. And there's no doubt that there's some chemistry between them." She was gesturing at the screen with both hands when she said, "Sometimes I just want to grab them and tell them to kiss already!" She mimed pushing the two together repeatedly.

"Do you think that would fix things?" Chat was more than just curious to hear her answer. "It seems to me they ought to make sure they're on the same page before they start a romantic involvement."

"Maybe," Marinette said as she cuddled back into Chat, "Maybe not, but it would be a start."

Chat was thoughtful for a minute. "Marinette," he waited for her to look up and took a breath before continuing, "there's something I wanted to ask you. And I want you to know that it's absolutely okay for you to say no, okay? No pressure for you to agree if you're not okay with it. Alright?"

She gave him her full attention, and after a moment of searching his eyes, she nodded her agreement.

"Marinette, you are one of my best friends. I can't tell you how important that is to me," he smiled at her as he took one of her hands. "I, um, I like you Marinette." He looked down and then back into her eyes, "Maybe even more than like, I'm not sure." He began to rub a thumb in a circle over the back of her hand. "So...I was wondering … Would you, would let me kiss you?"

Marinette didn't say anything, didn't move for a moment. Many expressions flashed across her face, but they were too quick for Chat to identify. She looked down and shy smile crept across her lips.

"Chat-"

The front door opened and Tom and Sabine entered carrying a warm loaf of bread and a box with the remaining pastries from the day. The two young people sprang apart.

"You're here," Marinette said as she rushed to take the bread from her father. She gave both of her parents a quick kiss on the cheek.

"What did you bring for dessert?" Chat asked Sabine as he took the pastries from her. He tried to show his usual enthusiasm, but it was just his bad luck that he and Marinette kept being interrupted.

"It's a mixed bag today," Sabine said as she gave Chat a quick hug. "I'm afraid it's just a bunch of your favorites."

The boy couldn't help the smile that crossed his face. These people showed him such casual thoughtfulness that sometimes it overwhelmed him.

"The raspberry éclaire is mine," Tom said as he also gave Chat a hug, "but the rest are up for grabs."

They walked over to the table where Marinette was placing the ratatouille and took their places. Dinner was a little quiet as Marinette was not participating as much as she usually did, but it was still an enjoyable affair.

Chat had to unexpectedly leave shortly after dinner so Marinette walked with him up to her room so that he could leave through the skylight.

"Chat," Marinette said as she caught his hand before he could climb up to her balcony. "I've been thinking about your question and," she looked down again, "I, I'm not sure what to say." She took a breath. "I like you Chat. I like you a lot." She looked back into Chat's face. "I want to say yes, but…"

"But what?" Chat asked with dread.

"But there's someone else that I've liked for a long time," she said miserably. "And, well, I need time to think about this," she pulled Chat into a hug. "I might just need time to put that dream to rest. After all, he's never shown an interest in me…" Marinette trailed off before saying, "And why should I sit and dream about him when there is this wonderful, kind, strong, caring guy that really likes me right here?"

Chat rested his chin on top of Marinette's head. He tried not to sound too disappointed. "It's okay Mari. I know it's hard when you find yourself liking more than one person."

Marinette gave a short laugh. "Yeah, Ladybug told me about your talk the other day."

Chat was silent. He was reliving the most awkward conversation he'd ever had with his partner to date. He held Marinette a little tighter.

"Ch-chat?"

"Yes, princess?"

"I'm pretty sure that I'm going to want you to kiss me, just," she took a steadying breath, "Just not tonight."

He nodded his head and they broke apart. "Okay Marinette, I'll wait till you're ready." When he saw her frowning he tipped her head up with a finger. "Hey now, I told you it would be okay to say no, so why do you look so unhappy?"

"I just don't know why I'm so hung up on that other guy when the person I love most is you."

Silence reigned.

"I don't know," Chat said slowly, "but hearts don't always make much sense." He gave her a fond smile as he held her hands. "We'll work this out."

Marinette did her best to return his smile and nodded her agreement.

"We will."

Another moment of silence as they stood looking at each other.

"Um, Chat, don't you have to get home?"

"Oh, oh yeah." He lifted her hand to his lips and tenderly kissed the back. "Until next time, Princess."

"Yes Chat," she gave him a brilliant smile, "next time."

As he was pulling himself up to the balcony Marinette heard Chat grumbling about wanting to find this guy and punch him in the face for not recognizing what a great person Marinette is.

Once on the roof, Chat turned to look back into the room. "You know Marinette, if you told me who he was I could go and congratulate him on losing the best thing that's ever going to happen to him. No?"

She just shook her head.

"I could make you a side by side comparison chart so you could more easily judge between the two of us." He waggled his eyebrows.

"I do that on my own all the time," she replied with a grin.

"Well give me some kind of hint here so that I know what I'm up against," Chat said with a Cheshire grin. "Just a little something so I can know what your ideal guy is like."

"Chat, you are my ideal guy," Marinette said with a little chuckle. "He's more like my 'never gonna happen except in a dream' kind of guy."

Chat gave a little sigh. "I'd like to be that guy for you, too, Mari." He looked directly into her eyes. "You deserve your dream guy."

She just smiled and shook her head. "Dreams are all well and good, but they can't give me a hug when I need it, or a pun when I need cheering up like you do. A cat in the hand is worth two in a day dream," she said.

Chat didn't look convinced, he was saddened that Mari wouldn't have a chance to be with her crush. He started to close the skylight so that he could leave. Just before it closed completely Mari held up a hand and he paused.

"Chat…" she sighed, "Don't make me regret telling you this but ... it's Adrien … you know, Adrien Agreste."

The window slipped from his hands and clicked closed.