A Day Out With Chat

Marinette knew, from the very moment Alec called her name—no, more like as soon as she entered the contest—that Chat Noir would have the biggest grin on his face when he saw her.

Sure enough, there he stood in front of his statue in the park, surrounded by reporters and cameras, and holding a rose in his Cheshire-Cat smile. She must've made a face, because he instantly pulled it out of his mouth and, to the delight of the reporters standing by, swooped down on one knee to offer it to her.

Ordinarily, she'd roll her eyes at him and make a show of wiping it off when she took it, but right now the world was watching, so she allowed herself to blush and accept it, stammering thanks.

"And here we have our winner!" Alec was cheering excitedly to the cameras around them. "Miss Marinette Dupain-Cheng, who won our contest to spend a day with local superhero Chat Noir by donating to the local animal shelter! I guess you're a big cat lover, eh, Marinette?" Alec said, suggestively waggling his eyebrows at her. Chat gave her the same look.

"Well, yes," Marinette said, flustered. "We can't have pets where I live, so I like to help out whenever I can, and this contest was a great opportunity!"

"I'll say!" Alec beamed at her, "it's said that you had multiple entries! How many times did you enter, Marinette?"

"Oh, uh…"

"Twenty-one," Chat finished for her, throwing an arm over her shoulders, nodding solemnly but still grinning.

"I didn't know each cat toy was its own entry! That's just the number it came out to when I finished with all my spare yarn!" Marinette protested. "And some people entered just as many times!"

It was true. Just this morning, Chloe had had workers hauling 50 bags of cat and dog food into the shelter for her entries. Marinette was honestly surprised the blonde hadn't won. She suspected Mayor Bourgeois had been about to name Chloe the winner no matter what name was on the raffle slip, but Alec had snatched it out of his hand before he could and proudly shouted her name to the cameras. She wasn't looking forward to facing Chloe tomorrow.

She was also going to have to remember to be ready for the Bourgeois's tricks when it came time for Ladybug to spend a day with a civilian next month for her own charity at the Children's Hospital.

But for now….

"And what are you planning to do with your very own superhero now that you have him?" Alec asked, still looking like he was hoping for a bigger scoop than he was getting.

"Oh, um, I thought we'd go for a walk in the park and maybe get something to drink," Marinette said, gesturing to the local vendors in the area. Honestly, she hadn't really thought about it too much, so certain she wouldn't win. But, the thought of doing something with Chat outside her room had its appeal, she supposed. Thus far, they'd had to limit their activities to what they could do inside her room or out on her balcony.

"Whatever you say, my purrincess," Chat said, bowing to her and offering her his arm, blatantly turning his back on Alec and the cameras. She giggled as he led her to a drink line. "Sorry about all the press," he whispered. "We just have to get a few photos for the articles and then we can ditch 'em."

"It's okay," she replied, "I should've known better, entering a public contest like this, that I wouldn't actually get you all to myself for the day."

"Well, I am the cat's meow," he laughed as they placed their orders. He leaned closer to her. "But I'll let you make it up to me later tonight," he promised. Marinette flushed.

"Chat Noir! Marinette!" Another reporter called as they got their drinks. Marinette bit her lip when she saw Nadja coming towards them with excitement written all over her face. She knew Nadja and Alec were having a competition to see who could get the juiciest story right now, and that spelled nothing but trouble for her.

"Hi, Nadja," she said, smiling in a friendly way, "Chat Noir and I already gave Alec our interviews and I'd really like to start my prize day with Chat. Did you need something?"

"Marinette, I have several sources saying that you are Adrien Agreste's secret girlfriend! And we have numerous images of you two dating last month!" Nadja proclaimed happily, showing them a sample picture.

Marinette groaned as the picture of her in her pajamas, a towel and some swim goggles was shoved in her face. Beside her, Chat Noir took a nice, long drink to keep himself from laughing.

"How do you think Adrien will react to your date with a superhero?!" Nadja asked excitedly. Marinette sternly resisted the urge to elbow the cat behind her who was shaking in silent laughter.

"I think he'll happily tell you that I'm just a friend," she deadpanned.

Behind her, Chat spewed out his drink.

"Are you all right?" Marinette asked. Chat nodded, waving her off.

"Sorry, wrong tube," he coughed out. They both waved as Nadja left before Alec could find her.

Chat cleared his throat.

"Yeah... I may have deserved that," he muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothing!"

End.