Chapter 10: The Forest
A/N: To: My Readers. From: Phoenix. Merry Christmas!
I probably just got back from our midnight Christmas service at like 1 A.M. and am exhausted, so this was all typed beforehand. Your Christmas present awaits! I hope you enjoy it, and Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Now, on to the scene you've all been waiting for, The Marichat Forest Scene!
Marinette galloped through the forest, burying her face in her horse's mane and sobbing. As she passed a branch, it got stuck in one of her pigtails and ripped the ribbon out, but she didn't care.
Eventually, she got to a clearing and slowed her horse down, ready to turn back, but as her horse wheeled around, a branch from the tree overhead cracked and fell to the ground right in front of them. Her horse reared unexpectedly and Marinette found herself flying through the air, with the ground quickly rushing up to meet her...
Nino and "Cat Noir" were stepping into a clearing in the forest, when they heard a loud crack! and saw a frightened horse run right past them. Nino ran after it, and Adrien saw a young woman who must have been riding it flying through the air towards him. He moved to where she'd land and held out his arms to catch her. She slammed into him, and he fell to the ground with her on top of him.
In the few brief seconds she had been flying through the air, Marinette had expected her landing to be much more painful.
What did she land on, anyways? It was kind of soft, and it was... groaning?!
"Ah!" She screamed, as she scrambled up off of whoever she had landed on.
She looked down at the person, and saw a young man with golden hair, wearing... a black leather cat costume?!
He rubbed his head and groaned, then looked up at her with his brilliant, gorgeous green... cat eyes?!
"Owwwww..." Adrien groaned, and rubbed his head. He looked up at the young woman who had just scrambled off of him.
She was... beautiful! With her midnight blue hair, half of it tangled and fallen out of one of her long pigtails... and those breathtaking bluebell eyes...
"OhmygoshareyouokaydidIkillyouareyouhurtIdidn'tkillyoudidII'msosorry!" She blurted out in one long breath.
"Uh..." he said, still trying to make some sense of her rambling. "I'm pretty sure that I'm fine, but are you okay?" He asked her, jumping up and placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I- yeah, fine..." she said, trailing off as they stared into each other's eyes...
Adrien realized how red they both were turning, and hastily looked away as she did the same, both desperately trying to tame their blushes. They looked back at each other, and he found himself once again lost in her gorgeous blue eyes...
He realized how close they were standing and jumped back, trying wildly to find something to say.
"Ummm... uh, I'm Cat Noir. What do they call you?" He said quickly.
She looked away, and said softly, "never mind what they call me..." she looked back at him and cocked an eyebrow. "But what sort of name is 'Cat Noir' anyways?" She told him, smirking.
"Uh..." he said feeling flustered. "An... alias? I can't go telling everyone my true identity, can I?" He said and winked at her.
She snorted at this remark and said, "what are you, some sort of superhero?"
"Well, I just saved you, didn't I M'Lady?" He smirked as she stuttered.
"Um- uh, s-sure, whatever..." she said as she blushed and looked away. She looked back at him and asked, "um, what are you doing out here, anyways?"
"I- well, I was feeling sort of... trapped. My father will never let me do anything, so I'll sometimes put on this disguise and sneak out," Adrien told her, hoping she wouldn't ask any more questions. He didn't want to scare away this pretty country girl by telling her he was the prince!
"I'm so sorry, that must be tough," she said. Wow, she was so thoughtful and kind, and- focus, Adrien!
"It's fine, not like anyone can do anything about it anyways." I mean, it's not like anyone could tell the king what to do... though Adrien sure wished he could. "But why are you out here? You-" he broke off, finally looking past her beautiful eyes and seeing her tear-streaked face, rather stained and ragged dress, and her tangled hair. "You look..." What had happened to her?
"I-it's nothing, I..." she trailed off feebly, probably seeing the glare on his face.
"It doesn't look like nothing. Do they... not treat you well where you live?" He asked. If anyone was mistreating his Lady, he'd- wait, what had she become his Lady, again?
"They- they treat me as well as they are able. It was just a bad day..." her eyes pleading him to drop it.
Adrien gave in (for who could resist those beautiful bluebell eyes?), and simply said, "I'm so sorry..."
"It's not your fault... besides, others have it worse, I'm sure," she said. She was so wonderful! "We must simply have courage and... and be kind," she finished.
He couldn't help himself, and pulled her into his chest to hug her with all his might. She squeaked adorably, but hugged him back fiercely. Both of them quickly let go, blushing.
"Have courage and be kind, huh? I like that," he told her. He thought that his Lady was the kindest, bravest person he had ever met, and he had only known her for a few minutes.
He realized that they were standing really close and staring into each other's eyes again, and they both hastily jumped back.
"Why do I keep doing this?! What is so enticing about his beautiful... gorgeous... his eyes! His green eyes! Argh! Wait, wha-!" Marinette thought as her Kitty- no, he wasn't a kitty, and he wasn't... hers- suddenly leaned in and... pulled out her other hair band. She was both relieved and dissap- no! No she was not- wha... aaah! What was this dumb cat doing to her head?! Focus, Marinette!
She thought she heard him whisper something that sounded a lot like "beautiful..." to her. "What did you say?" She asked him sharply, but immediately regretted her tone. Wait, why? He was being am- annoying! Aaaah! He was being annoying by messing with her head like this!
"Uh, nothing..." he said, looking down and rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. He looked up, and she gazed into his eyes... "stop it, Marinette!" She told herself, and quickly looked away as she changed the subject.
Marinette loved making things, and always had spare scraps of fabric and stuff in her pockets. She had a talent for clothes, and his costume looked a little bit off... "I think your costume is missing something," she told her Kitty- no, it's that cat- "I have some ribbon here that matches your eyes perfectly!" She said, pulling it out of her pocket. "Oh, wait!" She exclaimed, getting another idea. She found some golden bells she remembered having, and threaded them onto the ribbons. "Come here!" She told him.
"At your command, M'Lady!" He said, winking at her. She blushed and looked away. Why did he have to be so- so- just- gah!
Marinette showed him the three ribbons and tied them around his neck and each of his ears, then stepped back to admire her work.
"They're amazing, I love them! Thank you so much, M'Lady!" He told her enthusiastically. She blushed at the praise and looked down.
Suddenly, he reached down and grabbed her hand. She felt like her face was on fire as he brought her hand to his lips and kissed it gently. She stared into his green, green eyes, and for a few (oh too brief!) seconds nothing in the world mattered but him...
Her face was bright red, but she was smiling and didn't jerk her hand away, and as he stared deep into her blue, blue eyes he could tell that he had fallen deeply in love with this beautiful, kind, mysterious woman...
"Hey, Your H- uh, Cat... am I interrupting something?" Nino said, standing there and holding his Lady's horse.
She and Adrien hastily jumped apart, blushing. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, and said, "uh, n-no..." Nino just raised an eyebrow.
"Do you know whose horse this is?" He asked Adrien.
"Oh, it's my horse," his Lady said shyly.
She was about to leave when Adrien nervously blurted out, "will I see you again?" He saw the look on Nino's face, but he couldn't just leave and forget about her!
"Well, where do you live?" She asked.
Before he could think, he had blurted out "the castle!" He realized what he had said, and could tell that Nino was just barely keeping from laughing his head off.
He tried wildly to come up with an excuse, and ended up saying, "I'm, uh... I'm... an apprentice! Yeah, an apprentice..."
Nino tried valiantly, but this time failed, and fell to the ground laughing so hard that his eyes were tearing up.
When his Lady wasn't looking, he glared fiercely at Nino, who stopped laughing.
"Well, Cat, we should probably get going. I bet your father's noticed you're missing by now," Nino told him.
"I'd love to see you again, Kitty!" His Lady quickly said, blushing. "Here..." She said, and held up a charm of pink and green beads.
"No, you don't... have to..." he trailed off as he stared into her eyes. She wasn't going to take no for an answer, was she? "Th-thank you..." he breathed, taking the charm and tying it around his wrist as a bracelet. "...M'Lady," he finished, and bowed to her dramatically.
"Okay lovebirds"- they both blushed- "you're cute and all, but the Pr- um, Cat- really needs to go now," said Nino.
"Oh, right," said Adrien glumly. "Well..." he said, deciding to slip in a few puns... "it was a paw-leasure to meet you, M'Lady."
"Cat puns? Really?" She giggled.
"Of purr-se!" He replied.
She giggled again as she told him, "that doesn't even make any sense!"
"Too bad!" He replied cheerfully, knowing full well that she was right. He looked ahead at Nino, only to find him clutching his ribs and laughing fit to burst. "What?" Adrien asked him grumpily, but Nino was too busy trying to breathe through his laughter to answer him.
A/N: Ta-da! My beautiful Marichat masterpiece! Hope you like it as much as my sister does! Joyeaux Noël!
Potato: I honestly have no idea how old he is, I just went with it! Thanks (even though you don't know what it is)! Hahaha lol ya your plan is funny, but not exactly... feasible? Plus I think she lives near the forest, not in it, but oh well! BTW I'm perfectly fine with lots of questions, so feel free to ask away! As for my grammar, well... the only thing helping me is spellcheck... no fancy websites or awesome proofreaders here! Sorry!
Remember: review, follow, and/or favorite! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!