Chat woke to the sound of soft and sweet singing. He couldn't make out the words, having just woken up, but he could feel the soothing aura that the singing gave out wrap around him. It was enough to almost make him fall asleep again.
He fought to stay awake, but there was something else he felt besides the singing. Hands were combing through his hair. The hands were cold, and they felt sort of rough, but the combing was smooth and full of care. His breathing slowed. He fell asleep again.
"Chat? What are you doing back at the house?" Nino asked, looking out from his room. "I thought you were escorting the human."
"I was," Chat said, only realizing he had admitted it too late. He looked up at Nino to see if he had noticed, but of course he had. "But I had to leave her," he continued before Nino could say anything.
"Why? Were you going to help me with my next puzzle?"
"Uh, no." He wondered if he should actually tell Nino why he had to leave. "I have to… catch up on my naps. Escorting a human takes a lot of work, you know." No, he decided. He couldn't trouble Nino with this small disturbance. In fact, he was probably just blowing this out of proportions.
"You're so lazy," Nino said with a roll of his eyes. "When you wake up again, come to my room so we can work out another puzzle for the human, okay? Sleep well, lazy butt."
"Yeah, okay." Nino closed the door to his room, and Chat immediately grabbed the key to the back room, his mind running a mile a minute.
He hadn't felt a Blip for a while. But just now, when he was with Marinette, he felt the tiniest of Blips. He could just be blowing things out of proportion, but his instincts were never wrong.
As he opened up the back room, he flicked on the lights, his eyes traveling over all of the dusty machinery. He had prayed he'd never have to use it again. But here he was.
For background noise, he pressed play on the recorder, the sound of rustling papers and a sigh the start of the last report he had recorded.
"Chat Noir," said the tinny voice from the recorder, "reporting for hopefully the last time."
The past report droned on, and Chat pressed the button on the machine, wiping dust off the screen. It started up with a hiss.
"I don't think I've stopped him," said the Past-Chat, his tinny voice tired and worn. "He's just scared of me, I think. The next time he'll have an opportunity to twist everything around again, I have no doubt he will."
The machine beeped, and Chat stared, waiting for the result of the analysis to pop up. "Shit," he whispered, staring at the results. He had wanted so badly to be wrong. But he wasn't.
As if on cue, a dizzying sensation overwhelmed him, and he cursed again, panic overwhelming him. He couldn't go through this again. He couldn't play through this game of cat and mouse again.
Marinette ran her fingers through Chat's hair, her thoughts for once blissfully empty. She had thought that Chat had woken up twenty minutes ago, but when she had looked down at him again, he had been asleep.
His eyebrows furrowed, and his lips pursed. She combed the hair out of his face, looking down at him with concern. She wondered if he was having a bad dream. She wondered if he'd even bother to tell her if she asked.
Chat was back standing next to Marinette, confused and feeling out of place. He had just been at the lab. Why was he here?
"You…"
"What's wrong?" she asked, tilting her head at him innocently. Her eyes were red.
"I have to go," he said, and, after a few moments of deciding whether or not he actually should, Marinette forced him to go, her voice hard.
And so he went.
He had felt it in the air. In his gut. Whatever. It wasn't just a Blip. It was a Jump. He was panicking big-time, and he was well aware that everything he had done just now felt familiar. He had done this all before. He was sure of it.
When the results of the analysis came in, he cursed. He was right, like always: a Jump had occurred. He sat down, forcing himself to calm down. He needed to get those memories from the Jump back, even if they weren't important.
As he focused, he heard traces of Nino's voice, asking if he wanted to work on a puzzle. And just like that, the memories returned. A Blip had occurred, and he had left to investigate. That was it.
Since nothing important had happened, Chat went back to Nino and Marinette, acting as if nothing had happened.
And then Marinette died.
Chat stared, wondering if it could be true. He ran to her, cradling her in his arms. Tears rolled down his face, and he wished for her eyes to look at him and not at nothing at all. He wished she'd come back to life.
He rounded on the guilty akuma, rage making everything turn red. He raised his staff, and he brought it down without a second thought.
A body and a pile of dust were on either side of him, and Chat felt nothing and everything at once. For once, he wished a Jump would happen.
His wish came true.
Chat sat up with a gasp, his breathing heavy. He had been dreaming. Except it wasn't a dream. It was a series of memories that he'd forgotten.
He whipped around to Marinette, who was staring at him in surprise. "Chat?" Her eyes were alive and looking at him.
Letting out a relieved sigh, Chat rested his head on her shoulder. He knew that he'd have to deal with the Jumps and Blips he'd experienced. He knew he'd have to deal with the person who was causing them. But, God, he was so glad she was alive.
Marinette hesitated before wrapping her arms around him. She had no idea what he had been dreaming about, but there was no doubt it had been bad. When he had woken up, there was this look of panic and… knowing that made her quite unsettled.
But now he was resting her head on his shoulder, and, as she rubbed his back, she could feel him shaking. "I don't know what you dreamt about," she whispered into his hair, trying to keep her voice soft, "but I'm here. You're awake."
He felt his heart clench. Because there had been a time when she hadn't been 'here' and, even though he was awake, his dreams were very real and very terrifying.
"I dreamt you died," he said into her shoulder, and the soothing rubbing she had been doing stopped. He wondered if he had just unsettled her or if she actually had the capacity to somewhat remember Jumps.
"I'm alive," she answered after a moment, and she continued rubbing his back. "I'm alive."
He wondered why she didn't deny having died.
After a while of both of them calming down, Chat pulled away, and Marinette dropped her arms back to her sides. "Ready to go?" she asked, giving him a tentative smile. "We've already had a lot of rest, don't you think?"
"If bad dreams and hairdressing can be counted as rest, then yeah," Chat answered, and she snorted out a laugh, despite how un-funny everything felt.
They stood up, and Marinette helped Chat fold up the blanket. "It's a nice blanket. Smelled like jasmine," she said as Chat stuffed it into his suit pocket.
"Yeah, it's purrfect for napping."
Marinette gave him a look. "You know, I'd been waiting for you to use that sort of pun. I'm surprised it took you so long."
"Well, as you know, in order for puns to work right, one has to use them at the most inopportune times." She shook her head, linking her arm with his as they continued walking.
The path led to a small cave entrance, and Marinette peeked her head inside. "Is it safe?" she asked, turning back to Chat.
"When have you ever worried about a path being safe?" he countered, raising an eyebrow.
"Admittedly, not once. But this is a cave."
"If you must know, my lady, it is extremely safe. In fact, I think that the door is even locked, so that would mean that anything inside-"
"Door?" she interrupted, stepping away from Chat and into the cave.
As soon as she stepped inside, she stopped, her breath catching in her throat. The place seemed absolutely magical. The ground was made of pitch-black sand, arctic blue grasses peaking out from the sand.
A deep purple door stood at the other side of the cave, and glowing blue mushrooms stood on either side of the door. Sparkles drifted through the air, and Marinette wondered just what it took to have them drift so casually and what they were made out of.
Chat was behind her, leaning against the cave wall casually. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
"Yes," she breathed, still staring all around her, "it is."
She recovered from her awe after a moment, and she walked forward, staring at the door. It didn't have a handle. She pushed at it, but it didn't budge.
"I told you, it's locked."
"I had to try anyway," she answered, pouting a little. She stared at the door for a moment longer before letting her gaze drift elsewhere. The glowing mushrooms were quite fascinating to her, and so she crouched down, examining one closely. "Why do they glow?"
Chat, who had been busy admiring her from his position by the cave entrance, blinked, raising an eyebrow. "What?"
"Why do they glow?" she repeated, looking back at Chat, entirely serious.
"Why do you breathe?" he countered, and she shrugged. "I guess some stuff inside them tells them to glow, and so they do. They look beautiful, so I don't think they mind."
Marinette smiled a little, turning back to the mushroom. Something about the way he described the mushrooms as having a mind of their own made her feel all warm inside. She reached out and touched the tip of her finger to the mushroom, but as soon as she did so, the glow went away. "It stopped."
"They're shy."
"I guess that means we shouldn't bother them anymore," she said, standing up and turning away from the mushroom.
"You mean you shouldn't bother them anymore. I did nothing to make them uncomfortable," Chat said, and Marinette rolled her eyes, walking over so that she was right next to him.
"Shut up. I just thought they were pretty."
"You can't just touch every pretty thing you see."
She stared up at him, wondering if he was really just talking about the mushrooms. The look on his face said he wasn't. "You can touch some pretty things." She wasn't talking about the mushrooms either.
"But sometimes it's dangerous."
A sparkling thing drifted through the air between them, and Marinette let out a small sigh, the sparkling thing drifting away on the wind of her breath. She looked away from Chat, back at the door and the black sand and the glowing mushrooms.
"Once we get through Snowdin Town, there'll be a whole other area like this," Chat said, clearing his throat. "It's just as beautiful."
Marinette stared at the serene cave for a moment longer, and then turned away, stepping back out of the cave. "Alright. But if you're lying to me, I seriously won't forgive you."
"I'm not lying," Chat promised, and they left the cave behind, the stark white of the snow almost burning their eyes. "In fact, I think it's even better than that shabby old cave," he said, linking their arms and leading her back up the path.
"Oh, really?"
"Yup. There are gemstones and crystals in the walls that sparkle like stars, and there are bright blue flowers that echo back anything you say. Doesn't that sound great?"
"Sounds magical," Marinette said, her mind drifting to thoughts of stars. "Have you ever seen stars?" she asked, and she stopped walking, stopping him along with her.
"I have," he said, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Do you miss them?" She looked up at the sky of the Underground, and she wondered what it was like to never be able to see the real sky ever again. "Do you miss seeing the sky, Chat?"
"Sometimes," he admitted, and she looked back at him, a question already on her lips. "But," Chat said before she could ask, "I don't mind living in the Underground. You haven't met many akumas, I don't think, but there are some really good people here. I don't need to see a sky to be happy."
They continued walking. He wondered if she had let her question go. She hadn't.
"Do you ever want to leave?"
"Sometimes."
"Would you, if you got the chance?"
"Probably."
"Would you come back if you did leave?"
"Definitely."
Marinette thought about Chat's answers, wondering if she'd ever find a place she could return to. But that doesn't matter right now, she convinced herself, pulling herself out of her thoughts, there's no use worrying about things I won't find out until whatever happens happens.
"As your royal guide, princess," Chat said, pulling her to a stop in front of a pile of snow, "I think it's important to note this snow poff."
"And why is that?" she asked, examining the snow poff. It seemed like just a regular pile of snow.
"No reason, just figured we should note it," he responded with a shrug. A couple feet away, there was another snow poff. "And this," Chat said when they reached the poff, "is a snow poff."
"I hadn't noticed."
It continued.
Every single snow poff they passed, which was roughly five more, Chat felt the need to point it out.
"Behold! A snow poff."
"Chat, really?"
"Just trying to make things interesting."
Marinette rolled her eyes and was about to walk past the next snow poff without listening to whatever comment Chat had to make about it, but Chat stopped her. "Wait, hold up, little bug," Chat said, grabbing her arm and pulling her back to the snow poff. "There's something in this snow poff."
"Is it snow?" she asked in a deadpan, and Chat resisted the urge to laugh.
"Surprisingly, no. Well, yes, there is snow-"
"What's in the poff?"
"Thirty gold." Marinette looked closely at the snow poff, and she recognized the glimmer of gold coins that were the Underground's currency.
"Do akumas really care that little about their money?" she asked, digging out the coins from the snow and taking out her Miraculous.
"Well, we care, a little bit, but we don't exactly care when we lose it. Akumas are pretty chill when it comes to this because no one's going to refuse them services because they don't have enough money."
She dropped the coins into the storage compartment, trying to wrap her mind around this generous culture. "I guess that makes sense."
"We're a pretty nice race," Chat bragged, and Marinette rolled her eyes.
Turning her attention away from the snow poff, she looked at the last one in the area. It twitched. "Did you see that?" Marinette asked, wondering if her eyes had been playing tricks on her.
"See what?" Chat asked, looking over at the snow poff.
"There's something in that snow poff."
"Is it snow?" Chat asked, mimicking her from earlier, and she slapped his shoulder, giving him a look.
"I'm being serious."
As if on cue, the snow poff twitched again. "Whoa, there is something in-"
A dog's head popped out of the snow, panting excitedly at Marinette and Chat. "How cute!" Marinette gushed. Chat hissed.
She looked away from the dog, staring at Chat in surprise. The only cat-like things he had done so far had been moving his ears and being aloof and slightly annoying. But hissing?
"Did you just-"
Chat hissed again, his ears flattening against his head, and Marinette grinned. She would totally tease him about this later.
When she turned back to the dog in the snow poff, the dog panted cutely at her, and she stepped forward, intending to pet it. Before she could take another step forward, the dog's final form emerged from the rest of the snow poff. It was wearing armor. It had a spear with the face of a dog. It was amazing.
Marinette's heart peeled away from her chest, and she almost cackled at the horrified expression on Chat's face. "What's there to be afraid of kitty cat? It's only a puppy."
"That's not any ordinary puppy," he said, lurking up next to her, his ears still flattened against his head, "that's a Greater Dog. The greatest dog."
"All dogs are the greatest dogs," she said, a warm smile pulling at her lips. "Step back, kitty, and try not to get your tail in a twist."
The Greater Dog barked happily at them.
"No, bug, I got this." He tried to step out in front of her, but she stopped him, raising an eyebrow at his hair, which looked like someone had rubbed a balloon all over it so that it was defying all sorts of gravity.
"You look like a scared cat."
"I am a scared cat!"
"Well, if you're scared, then stay back. I actually like dogs." He gave her a look that read something along the lines of 'how could you?' "In order to defeat the Greater Dog, we have to show it love and affection."
"Why can't you defeat me with love and affection?" Chat mumbled, though Marinette didn't seem to hear him as she stepped forward.
"Come here!" Marinette called to the dog, using her best puppy voice. The Greater Dog immediately bounded toward her, flecking slobber all over her face. It barked at her, and it's barks materialized in the air as white sound waves. Both Marinette and the heart avoided them with ease.
"It wants to kill you!" Chat shouted, obviously biased.
"It wants to be pet," Marinette called back, petting the Greater Dog softly on its snow-white fur. As she pet the Greater Dog, it seemed to calm down a bit more, but then it remembered that it was being pet and got really excited.
As it bounded away, its dog-spear almost hit Marinette and her heart (Chat screamed), but both of them managed to dive away in time.
The Greater Dog panted heavily, wagging its tail and staring expectantly at Marinette. "Fetch?" she asked, and as soon as the word left her mouth, the Greater Dog was bounding around again in excitement.
She scooped up a snowball and threw it in the general direction of the Greater Dog, but it splatted on the snow, leaving only a small mound of snow instead of a snowball. The Greater Dog seemed undeterred. It scooped up all the snow in the general area where the snowball had landed and bounded back to Marinette, snow in it's armored hands.
"It's going to throw it at you!" Chat warned, still very obviously biased.
Instead of throwing anything at Marinette, the Greater Dog just dropped the snow at her feet, creating a gigantic mound of snow. "Good boy!" Marinette said, scratching the Greater Dog's head and ignoring Chat.
"Do you even know how much danger you're putting yourself in?" Chat demanded as Marinette continued to pet the Greater Dog.
"Do you even know how ridiculous you're being?" she countered without looking back at him. She was still petting the Greater Dog with ultimate care. Chat felt a very large pang of cat-like (childish) jealousy. "Who's a good boy?" she crooned, and the Greater Dog gave her another sound wave barn in reply, which she avoided quite easily.
Chat sulked, creeping up behind Marinette. The Greater Dog stared at him, and he could practically hear the elevator music that was no doubt playing in its mind. He glared at it.
The glow of Marinette's heart pulsed, as if it was mocking him.
Chat glared at it, too.
"Bug," he grumbled, poking her softly on the shoulder. She ignored him, the entirety of her attention focused on the dog. "Bugaboo. Princess. Buginette." Every nickname was punctuated by a poke. She still ignored him. "Marinette," he groaned, drawing her name out and rubbing his head on her shoulder.
She finally looked at him, more than a little annoyed, but slightly amused. "Chat, I'm in the middle of something. I'll pay attention to you later."
He was about to demand that she pay attention to him now, but then he noticed that the dog looked almost drunk with content. "Wait, stop," he told her, poking her again.
"Why, because you're jealous?" she asked, still petting the Greater Dog.
"Yes – wait, no" – she gave him a look – "just stop petting it." She didn't stop, still looking at him with that knowing and slightly condescending look. "Don't you see? It's already super happy," he said, gesturing to the dog and ignoring the look.
Marinette looked away from Chat to look at the air above the Greater Dog, where its name was floating. Sure enough, the letters were yellow. "I suppose," she admitter, retracting her hand from the Greater Dog.
Immediately, the Greater Dog jumped out of its armor to lick Marinette's face. She laughed. Chat hissed.
When it was finished, it jumped back into its armor and bounded away, and Marinette stared after it, still smiling. Chat, on the other hand, was still scowling.
"That was pleasant," Marinette said with a content sigh.
Almost involuntarily, Chat growled.
"Are you still pouting?" she asked, giving him an amused look.
"No," Chat pouted. She raised an eyebrow. "Yes," he corrected.
"Come here, you dumb cat," she said, holding her arms out to him.
He didn't run to her. No, he walked over to her in a very dignified way. And then he buried his face in the crook of her neck. Very dignified.
She ran her fingers through his hair, playing with the tips of his ears. "You know, I like both dogs and cats."
"But cats more, right?" he asked, his words muffled, and she could feel each word puff onto her neck.
"Depends on the cat."
"But you like me more, right?"
She pushed him away to look at his face, holding him at arms' length. He was grinning at her. "You're ridiculous."
"I'll take that as a yes."
Rolling her eyes, Marinette let go of him, turning to the rest of the path. "So, now that you're all recovered from your fit of jealousy, what's ahead?"
"A trap," Chat said casually, taking her arm and leading her forward.
"Betraying me already?"
"Of course not. It's a puzzle that Nino made." She looked at him, waiting for Chat to realize what a trap made by Nino meant. "Oh, yeah! I should go ahead of you."
"Yeah, you do that."
"Catch you later, bug!" And with that, he sprinted away, quickly going out of sight.
Marinette walked on, the silence somewhat comforting. She hadn't really had a moment to herself, not even in her dreams, and when she had, she had always been troubled by something.
Ahead of her, there was an ominous looking rickety wooden bridge. She didn't take much note of it as she continued walking, her fingers trailing on the rope railing.
True, she thought, I'll always be troubled by a lot of things, but right now… I'm pretty content.
"Human!" shouted Nino's voice, and Marinette snapped out of her thoughts. She was still in the middle of bridge, and Nino and Chat stood on the solid ground at the end of the bridge. "You have finally arrived, I see," he said, giving a sideways glare at Chat.
"Hello, again," Marinette greeted, less than afraid. "How are you doing?"
"Very well, thank you. But I'm afraid you won't be doing well after you experience this final and most dangerous challenge." He actually looked a bit sad about that fact.
"Really? That's unfortunate." Chat suppressed a snort of laughter.
"Indeed," Nino said, nodding his head. He sighed, and then puffed up his chest, putting on his impression of grandeur once more. "Behold! The Gauntlet of Deadly Terror!" Marinette was expecting a glove of some sort, but instead, around the bridge appeared a bludgeon, several spears, a cannon, and… a dog. The dog panted happily at her.
"Um, is that-"
"When I say the word," Nino interrupted, "it will fully activate. The cannon will fire, the spears will swing, blades will slice, etcetera. You'll have to go through all of that, and you'll have a very small chance of victory." He didn't mention the dog. Marinette was very worried about the dog. "Are you ready?"
"No particularly."
"Oh, well! Because I am about to do it!" he exclaimed, accenting every single word.
Nothing happened.
Marinette looked at Chat. Chat looked at Nino. A bead of sweat rolled down Nino's face.
"Um, what's the hold up?" Chat asked after several seconds of silence.
"Hold up? What hold up?" Nino demanded, looking more than a little frazzled. "I'm about to activate it now!"
Still, nothing happened.
"That, uh, doesn't look very activated."
"It really doesn't," Marinette chimed in, sort of feeling embarrassed for Nino.
"Well, this challenge… it seemed like it's too easy to defeat the human with." He paused, collecting his thoughts. "I am a bubbler with standards, after all."
Marinette looked over at Chat, mouthing 'bubbler?' Chat shook his head, mouthing 'later.'
"My puzzles are fair, and my traps are expertly cooked," Nino continued. "But this method is too direct. No class at all, honestly. I'm not sure what I was thinking. Away it goes."
All of the dangerous objects (including the dog), retracted back to wherever they came from, Nino sighed in relief. Marinette giggled a little.
"What are you laughing at? This was another victory for me!"
"Definitely," Marinette said with a nod as Nino stomped away, cackling somewhat confusedly.
She walked the rest of the way over the bridge so that she was standing next to Chat. "Well, that was something else."
"Yeah, it was really nice of him to realize your true puzzle solving potential." He was entirely serious. Marinette smiled.
"It really was."
"Well, anyway, I'm not exactly sure what he plans to do next, but I think it'd be best if you remember blue attacks."
"Blue attacks?" Marinette asked as they continued walking.
"Yeah, blue attacks. You know, the ones-"
"I know what blue attacks are," she interrupted, giving him a look. "But I'm just… Well, does that mean I'll have to fight him?"
Chat gave her a look that said he was thinking about how amazing she was. "I'm sure I've told you this before, but Nino is a good guy. Even if you guys end up having to fight, it'll be alright. I trust both of you." Marinette looked at him thoughtfully, and he leaned down, head-butting her softly.
She snorted out a laugh, leaning back a little. "What are you, a literal cat?"
"Exactly that, bug," he said, head-butting her again. "You looked like you were thinking too much. It's a cat's job to distract you from everything."
Pushing his face away, Marinette ruffled his hair. "Come on, you just want attention."
"True."
"You're ridiculous."
"Also true."
They continued walking, and Chat stopped them when they were standing in front of a quaint looking town, a large sign with Christmas lights draped over it announcing the town's name. "I almost thought we'd never get here," Marinette said, thinking about how long ago it seemed when they had read the sign directing them to go to this very place.
"Well, despite everything" – he gave her a look that made her just a tad bit unsettled – "we're finally here. Welcome to Snowdin, bugaboo."