Fifty-Four: Out In The Open

Author's Note: As their weekend in Nice continues, Chat's plan to propose to Marinette gets sidetracked when he checks in with the backup team holding down the fort in Paris.

Special note: My apologies at the shorter posting – I've been working on my Camp NaNoWriMo July novel (eagle-eyed readers may have seen me posting bits in Tumblr), and time got away from me this week. We'll have a longer update next week to make up for it. Chat is insisting on it. –ep

Dinner had gone better than expected on Friday – so much so, though, that further conversation after dessert had not been possible. The box remained hidden in my baton when I awoke the following morning, curled around Marinette in front of the stone fireplace that was in the corner of the living room. The fire I'd built had long ago burned out, though Marinette appeared not to have noticed.

Snuggling down against her, I started to think through my plans for Saturday. Shifting my dinner the night prior was supposed to have been my opportunity to propose; now I needed to decide which meal on Saturday was the better option. Lasagna was still on the menu for dinner, and as I thought about it a bit more, decided it would be the purrfect backdrop.

Carefully sliding away from my girlfriend, I wrapped the comforter I'd brought down earlier around her and moved to the double doors leading out onto the patio; carefully, I slid them open and then closed them behind me, pulling out my baton as I went. The time on my Cat Phone said Carapace was likely to be up, so I speed dialed him just to check in.

Cap's smiling face appeared on my screen. "Hey Chat, you're up early."

"Maybe I never went to bed," I said as I waggled my masked eyebrows.

"Geez, Chat," he laughed as he rolled his eyes. "I had no idea you'd take the feline act that far."

I shrugged. "Who says it's an act? Especially since I know how much Marinette loves her some feline ears."

Something wafted across Carapace's face, which gave me pause.

"What?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"Nothing," he said quickly.

"Cap, it was something. Is everything ok? Do I need reach out to Ladybug and get back there?"

"No... no, everything is fine here. Hawkmoth hasn't so much as akumatized a pigeon so far."

"That's a relief," I smiled, and yet I could tell something was still off with Carapace. I watched him closely for a moment, replaying our conversation in my brain. Had I said something?

Had I not said something?

"Are you returning to Paris tomorrow, still?" Cap asked.

"Yes," I nodded slowly, still wondering.

"And Ladybug will be, too?" he asked.

"As far as I know," I replied, keeping to the agreed upon cover story. "I've not talked with her since leaving the city."

This time I did see something, and it lingered for a moment before Carapace recomposed his face. I could have sworn it was a smirk of some kind, which was amazingly out of character from him. "That would seem... difficult... for you," he said carefully.

I frowned as I started to reply and then caught myself, for Carapace was clearly trying to tell me something without being very obvious about it. "It is," I smiled after a moment, "given how much she always misses me."

"I'm sure," he laughed. "See you Monday."

"Indeed," I replied, smile frozen on my face as the image winked out. For only then did it occur to me that Ladybug and I had, in effect, told Cap and Rena the two of us were going out of town on vacation.

Together.

"Merde," I said very quietly into the morning.

I closed my masked eyes and slid down the glass of the slider to the wood of the porch. If Cap knew, that meant Rena did, too; they were as tight a couple as they came. And the more that I thought about it, the guiltier I felt, for it was obvious that I was the one who'd blown everything apart by asking Alya to cover the fashion show. Having already figured out who Chat was would have made Ladybug's inadvertent slip harder to overlook.

"Merde," I said with emphasis as I pressed my masked face into my paws, my wild mane shifting forward to partially cover my self-recrimination.

I felt the door slide open behind me, and a moment later the warm caress as Marinette wrapped her arms around my costumed shoulders. "What's wrong?" she asked.

An ear twisted to her but I kept my face away for the moment. "I didn't mean to wake you," I demurred.

"I heard what sounded like a massive bird hitting the window," she said good naturedly. "Then saw the back of your costume as you sank to the ground and realized it wasn't a bird."

"Not a bird," I said morosely.

A gentle hand reached around and turned my chin toward her; in a moment, she'd seen the angst in my feline eyes, and cupped the side of my mask with the palm of her hand. "It can't be that bad."

I took a deep breath. "I think we blew your identity," I said without preamble.

Marinette sat back, and slowly nodded. "I thought I had, actually," she said softly. "It occurred to me on the train ride down that I'd been a bit too specific when we were asking them to cover for us."

"Milady," I said, feeling a bit distraught as I pulled her into my lap. "This is-"

"-no big deal," she said with a faint smile.

My masked feline eyes went wide with shock. "But... your Golden Rule!"

Marinette leaned up and kissed me on the spot of my nose the mask didn't quite cover. "I think that ship sailed when you and I broke it rather spectacularly this New Year's. And besides, they are our closest friends. If we can't trust them with this, I've got no business keeping them as holders."

I nodded, or at least as much as I could with her arms wrapped around my neck. "That was a factor in not pulling Rena after the fiasco at Christmas, wasn't it?"

"Yes," she replied. "I think of our foursome as the core of our team, and to be honest, it's a bit surprising we've been able to keep them from discovering our identities this long. Maybe my little Freudian slip was intended bring it out into the open finally."

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" I asked as I gazed into her deep blue eyes. I could see the answer there and smiled. "You are."

"I am," she said as she kissed that spot on my nose again. "Besides, it's not like I can make them forget that they know our identities."

"You can't whip up a Lucky Charm for that?" I teased.

"Uh, no, kitty," she laughed.

"Well," I said, "I think that supports my observation that my conversation with her at the show was less that she wanted me to know I'd blown it and more that she would be a keeper of secrets. I know Nino will do the same." I leaned down to kiss Marinette, then pulled back. "To be honest, this will make it a bit easier for us in the long run."

"It will," she replied.

"I, for one, can't wait to finally have them to the apartment," I mused as I shifted slightly on the porch to gently place Marinette on her back. Leaning down to kiss her again, my bell tingled slightly with the movement. "I think you were still living at the bakery the last time we had a formal get-together," I added as I planted my paws on either side of her shoulders and slowly moved closer to her neck.

"You're right," Marinette breathed, shuddering slightly as I nibbled at her neck. "Chat... wh-wh-what are you doing...?"

"Moi?" I said with mock innocence. "Nothing at all," I answered as I leaned in and kissed her, gently, at the edge of her ear.

"Dear Lord," she whispered as her breath caught. "You are a terrible liar..."