Thirty-Three: Due In Full
Author's Note: Marinette and Chat need to have a chat, but not before Marinette catches up with her best friend to try and temper her escapades with the Ladyblog.
The sun was just beginning to peek through my bedroom window the morning after our live-streamed interview with Alya. We hadn't gotten back to the apartment until well after midnight, and to my joyous surprise, Ladybug had followed me through the sliding glass doors from my balcony and straight into my king-sized bed. Caught a bit off guard, I watched her drop her transformation and then beckon me to join her. It didn't take much for this cat to pounce, and I quickly curled around her and purred the two of us to sleep.
Now, as the room brightened slowly, I knew neither Marinette nor I wanted to go to work. Running the proverbial company allowed me an amazing amount of freedom, but that was not the case (yet) for Marinette. While I was tempted to call in sick, I knew that as a junior designer, missing any amount of time at this stage of her career could be fatal to Marinette's future. Still, I waited another five minutes, enthralled by the exotic scent of my partner, and the gentle thumpa-thumpa sound of her heart in my feline ears.
Reluctantly, I finally leaned my mane over slightly and nibbled on her shoulder to encourage her to get up. It didn't have the desired result, for Marinette responded by snuggling closer to me and pulling my arm over her before sighing contentedly. "I could stay nestled into you all day," she murmured lazily.
"While I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that course of action," I whispered into her ear, "you really need to get to work." My purring may have blunted the impact of my words.
Marinette turned slightly to look at me, and smiled.
"What?" I asked.
"You don't have to stay transformed any longer," she said, "but I'll be honest. Between the skin-tight leather and those insanely cute feline ears of yours…"
I twisted one sideways as I ran a claw through her bed-mussed hair. While we'd been living together for more than half a year now, the need for me to conceal my true identity had prevented us from going beyond rather intimate snuggling on our perfectly-sized couch due to my remaining transformed. But since the reveal, I was starting to suspect that we were close to going where no Chat had gone before.
Thinking about that made me flush slightly.
At her request, I'd stayed transformed that night, though I hadn't been entirely sure why. I'd long suspected she had a thing for the costume, though, and now had confirmation. It was hard to hide the Chat-sly smile. "It's all part of my devious plan, Princess."
"And that would be?"
"I distract you with my kitty antics with the sole purpose of getting you into my bed," I said, trying to mask my slight anxiety as this turn of events with feline bravado.
She smiled wider and pulled my face closer to hers. "It seems to be working," she observed before kissing me in such a way as to remind me what I was giving up by insisting we go to work.
My traitorous purring notched up more when she devilishly started to scratch behind an ear. "Milady," I managed to get out, "if you keep going, I can't be held responsible—"
Marinette paused and pulled back slightly, showing me a wicked smile. "The costume still doesn't come off," she reminded me with mock seriousness.
"That was before you knew who was under the mask," I rejoined. "And as… urgently… as I would like to explore this added dimension of our relationship-" I gasped as her hand wafted past a rather sensitive area.
She smiled wider. "Is that what we're calling it?"
"Fur now," I breathed, amazed at what the woman I loved could do to me. "But we have things to discuss, I think, beforehand. And," I swallowed hard, trying to focus, "there is still the little matter of both of us getting to work on time."
"Oh, you had to say that four letter word, didn't you?" she laughed as she gave my mane one last scratch. "All right, consider this a… tease… of things to come," she added as she slid out from under the sheet.
Trying to get my breathing regular, I decided to nod… and keep under the sheet for a moment or two.
"I'm going to run through the shower. Do you mind dropping me off?" she asked as she stretched slightly. The black of the Chat Noir t-shirt she'd purrloined from my dresser popped against her soft ivory skin but clashed horribly with the Ladybug lounge pants she'd similarly stolen.
Or did they? I smiled. Not as much as you'd think, I thought.
"Yes," I said finally. "But you can get there just as fast on your yo-yo."
"We'll talk about that tonight," she smiled over her shoulder. "But like you observed earlier, we still need to keep up appearances for a bit. And that means Chat Noir is still my boyfriend."
"Happy to oblige," I laughed.
Marinette paused at my door. "Damn," she breathed.
In a flash, I was out of the bed and had her in my arms. "What's wrong?"
"I forgot. I scheduled drinks with Alya after work."
"You want me—"
"No," she said quickly.
"I can wait in the shadows," I offered. "You might want me."
"No," she said a bit more slowly. "But I'll think about it," she added when she saw me making Doll Eyes at her.
I nibbled at her neck, then flicked my tongue slightly in a spot that I knew would elicit a moan.
"All right!" she breathed, her voice tight. "We're going to the hotel bar at the Grand Hotel. Meet me there close to five." She twisted around and kissed me. "You play dirty, Chat."
"I'm not above using feline tricks to get what I desire," I purred.
Work was… well, work; my mind was elsewhere all day. Well, not exactly elsewhere – it was focused like a laser on one Marinette Dupain-Cheng and the conversation we were going to have later. The more basal feline parts of me were pushing to skip the conversation altogether and move into the other aspects the evening was purromising, but we had to get through the meet-up with Alya first.
In the end, I escaped from my assistant and ran up the emergency staircase to the roof of our building, transforming to Chat Noir as I took the steps two at a time. Bursting from the door, I vaulted into the air and helicoptered over to the building next to ours, then ran full-tilt across the skyline of Paris to try and beat Marinette to the Grand Hotel. As I made my way high above the late afternoon commuter traffic, I wondered for a brief moment about our old acquaintance, Chloe Bourgeois. As far as we knew, she was still in New York; every so often, I would "like" a post of hers on Instagram, but hadn't had a real conversation with her since the night we'd saved her at the college party. Despite all of the trauma she'd wreaked in our lives over the years, I sincerely hoped she was doing well.
Dropping onto a lamppost across the street, I perched with my tail swishing below me as I scanned for my girlfriend. My masked eyes popped wide open, though, when I caught the telltale brown hair and fox ears of Rena Rouge as she dropped out of the sky to land on the Metro stop opposite where I was perched.
Oops. So much for not attracting attention. Ladybug is gonna kill me. Again.
"Rena," I said, nodding.
"Chat," she smiled, though it held no trace of warmth. I wondered once more where my friend of many years had gone, or if she were just buried beneath the callouses the journalism she pursued had created. "Not a coincidence you're here this evening, is it?" she intuited.
"I hear the restaurant has a special on tuna tonight," I cooed, licking my lips in exaggerated slow motion. "All you can eat for fifteen Euros. What cat wouldn't want in on that?"
"I can think of a few," she said. "And they have a strict dress code at the Grand."
"What? I'm in black tie," I said.
"I think the bell might not get you past the hostess."
My feline sense of smell picked up Marinette's approach. Though she was still a few blocks away, I figured a tactical retreat was in order. "Probably right," I smiled. "I'll just go home and change first," I added with a bit of snark before I leapt away and rode my baton upward to gain access to the roof of the building behind me.
Making a visible show of running away from the hotel, once I was out of line-of-sight I ducked behind an HVAC unit and cracked open my baton to the tracker mode. Rena's fox icon was moving to a side alley by the hotel and then vanished a moment later; I waited a few long heartbeats before galloping on all fours across the roof to the edge. Peering just above the filigree, my feline eyes caught Alya as she rounded the hotel and entered through the main double glass doors. Marinette was only a few steps behind her, but the timing was such that she'd likely not seen Alya ahead of her.
Leaping over the edge, I helicoptered higher so I could reach the pool atop the hotel. Landing in a crouch, I trotted to the stairway door and pulled it open. Several cat leaps later, I had my feline ear to the exit leading to the mezzanine over the atrium. If my memory was correct, the bar was just below, though I'd not completely considered how to stay hidden in such an open space.
Cracking the door open slightly once I was sure no one was on the other side, I confirmed I was a few steps from the ornate railing overlooking the bar; unfortunately, there wasn't so much as a fern in the space. Closing the door, I leaned against the inner wall and closed my masked eyes. So much for surreptitious surveillance. I'd need a break now – or at least, a more inspired approach.
On cue, the door from the level below me flew open.
"I quit!" came a cry, along with the clatter of equipment being tossed to the concrete treads. The zipping and Velcro noises had me raise my masked eyebrows, and I stalked to the railing of the landing to peer below.
A thin man was issuing epithets at the now closed door to the floor below me as he peeled himself out of a banana costume – one that I knew well. I couldn't help the smile that came to my masked visage as he threw the day-glow yellow costume into a heap of fabric before stomping down to the floor below and the employee garage.
I waited a few moments before curling over the railing and landing in a crouch beside the costume. The clattering noise appeared to be an equipment belt with a small air pump and a pocket full of multi-colored balloons. My smile grew wider as I picked up the costume and started with plan B.
Needing my feline hearing, I opted to remain transformed, though the tips of my feline ears brushed uncomfortably against the top of the costume. Getting my claws into the Lycra arms was a challenge, too; I wound up puncturing the fingertips of the gloves in the end, and wondered how folding balloons was going to work.
Snapping the belt around my midsection, I pulled open the door and walked out into the atrium – the very essence of a modern banana man.
