Fifty-Five: Please, Please Say Yes

Author's Note: Chat moves forward with the secondary – and, in his opinion, equally as important – reason for the romantic weekend in Nice with Marinette. Marinette, in turn, has her own surprise for the special kitty in her life.

"Okay," I said as I removed my paws from her eyes. "Go ahead and open them."

I heard Marinette's sharp intake of breath. "Chat... my God, it's beautiful!"

Wrapping my arms around her, I hugged her to my chest and smiled; after rather intentionally... playing... with her all day, she had dozed off on the couch in the living room once more, allowing me to sneak up to the rooftop porch the bungalow sported. Normally used for late-night stargazing, I had given it a patented Chat makeover, installing my freestanding candle holders and tying my requisite rose bouquets to the wrought iron railing. Fresh rose petals were everywhere, filling the air with a pleasantly fragrant aroma that complimented the fresh-from-the-oven lasagna sitting atop a small table set for two.

Taking her by the paw, I guided her to a seat which I pulled out for her; as she sat down, I wondered if she'd recognize how intentionally I'd tried to make the space feel like that fateful night I'd wanted to surprise Ladybug with something special just for her. For even though Ladybug had ultimately broken my heart that night, it had led me to Marinette (and, of course, right back to Ladybug in the end). It was one of many touchpoints of our relationship, and one that I'd long held dear.

"This smells excellent," she said approvingly as she scooched in a bit so she could lean down to smell the dish.

Uncorking the red wine with a claw – the really, really expensive one from the cellar at the mansion – I smiled as I began to decant it into her glass. "The sauce reduced all day, so it should be quite flavorful. And I snuck in a surprise ingredient. I hope you like it."

Taking the wineglass from my paw, she smiled. "I'm sure I will. I can't believe how good a chef you've become."

"I had an amazingly patient teacher," I reminded her as I held up my glass to hers. "Here's to the most beautiful, smartest, talented, loving woman I have ever been privileged enough to love."

"And here's to the cutest, brightest, most compassionate kitty to ever grace my doorstep and allow me to love," she said softly as our glasses tinkled together.

I took a sip and watched her face as she did likewise; her expression of pure bliss made me smile. "Please tell me this is not the bottle I think it is."

"Okay," I replied as I started to serve the lasagna.

"Chat," she said. "You didn't break into your father's wine cellar again, did you?"

"A thief never kisses and tells," I laughed. "He won't miss it, believe me. There was enough dust on the bottle to make sandcastles anyway."

"You're playing with fire, kitty," she warned.

"And you are totally worth it," I reminded her.

We ate under the stars with the distant sounds of the surf crashing behind us, simply enjoying being in each other's company. For my part, as we got closer to the dessert part of the menu, my anxiety began to ramp up. The ring sitting in my baton felt like it was burning a hole through my costume, and despite how climate controlled my costume normally was, I felt a thin sheen of sweat across the part of my forehead not covered by the mask.

What if she says no? I kept asking myself. I mean, we've been dating for years now, but maybe she's going to think I'm moving too fast. And she's only known I'm Adrien for a few months—well, I guess that's not true, is it? Since technically she's known since college.

Oh my God! What if she does say no?

Get a GRIP Chat!

You've fought akumas that nearly killed you.

This is doable… right? Right!

As my feline eyes darted to the candles and recalled that evening long ago when I'd played the she-loves-me game with them, fear crept into my heart with no little amount of anxiety. The amazing woman sitting across from me was my entire reason for being, that much I knew; had I been presumptively arrogant to think she would simply say yes when I asked? What if simply being together, like this, was as far as it went?

Suddenly the lasagna I'd slaved over all day felt like a solid indigestible mass in my stomach. Snatching my wineglass in a swift move, I drained it looking for some liquid courage; refilling it, I drained the second glass as if it were simply grape juice and not a vintage that could have likely paid someone else's college tuition.

Putting down my glass, I smiled at her as I held out the breadbasket, trying to mask my nervousness and for once having all of my model training fail me. Marinette had witnessed my wineglass maneuver – swift, Chat, swift - and her eyes caught the slight tremor in my arm as I held the basket out to her. Gently, she put her hand to mine to steady it.

"Chat," she said, her smile switching to one of concern, "what's wrong? I can hear your heart beating from this side of the table."

I swallowed hard and put the breadbasket down. Now or never, I thought, knowing my nerve was dangerously close to being lost.

Swiftly, I slid out of my chair and moved to hers, kneeling, tail snapping behind me. In a smooth motion, I slid the baton out from my back and then popped open the storage compartment. Carefully, I pulled out the velvet coated box, then stowed my baton. Looking up, my masked feline eyes caught her blue ones, which had gone wide; hoping that was a good thing, I took her hand in my paw, and then, very slowly, cracked open the box with the other, holding it out to her.

"Marinette," I said, as I watched her face closely; my feline hearing had caught her quickening pulse and I swallowed again. "I love you with every fiber of my being; you have given purpose to this kitty, and I want nothing more than to spend all nine of my lives by your side. I am, and have always been, yours."

I paused, and found I was having a hard time seeing her; blinking the tears of joy away, I could see she was misty eyed as well, one hand clasping at her wrap, twisting it in her fingers. "Milady - would you allow me to be your husband? Will you-" I paused again, slowly pulling the ring out from where it was safely nestled inside the fabric of the box.

The diamond caught in the candlelight, sparkling a white-blue as I held it up to her; it was too dark for her to see the fine details, but my night vision easily picked out the interwoven cat paw and ladybug on the inside of the ring. I'd thought I'd need to convince the jeweler we were huge fans of the Heroes of Paris only to find out it was a popular request – and that, in fact, there were a number of more overt homages to us out in the wild. That suited my purposes just fine, for other than the reveal to our best friends, we still needed to protect ourselves and our families.

Carefully, I held her hand with my paw and slowly, gently, slid the ring onto her finger. "Marinette, will you marry me?" I asked as I looked to her face.

Tears were streaming down her beautiful face as she held the ring up to the light. Turning her eyes back to me, she smiled and nodded. "Yes..." she said softly before launching herself out of her chair and wrapping her arms around me. "Yes, you old silly kitty. I'll marry you," she whispered in a feline ear. "I want to grow old with this black cat that managed, somehow, to wrap his paws around my heart."

Leaning back, she kissed me slowly, and I felt my tension beginning to ebb only to be replaced with a rush of desire. Passionately, I pressed my lips to hers, then started to kiss along her chin; I was halfway to a spot I now knew generally made her squeak like a mouse when Marinette suddenly pushed me away.

Puzzled and still on my knees, I watched her get up and look out toward the ocean. "Princess?" I asked, wondering what had just happened. Leaping to my feet, I went to her side and wrapped an arm around her waist, letting my tail snake around her ankle. "What's wrong?"

"I can't marry you," she said., wiping the tears from her face.

My feline ears shot straight up. "You-you what?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

"I can't marry you," Marinette said again, sniffling.

The shock of her statement rippled across my soul; the roiling uncertainly that had taken up residence in my gut heaved and shifted, and my heart – oh, my poor heart. I'd known this was a possible outcome, but it had felt so remote – I'd been so damn confident – and now... now, I felt my heart crumbling to ash as if I'd pressed a Cataclysm-activated paw to it.

Stunned beyond words, I dropped the box I was still holding, hearing it fall to the porch as I wondered: where did I go from there. Stepping sideways, I gave her some space as I tried to get some semblance of control of my emotions.

"Okay," I replied softly. "I-I must have misread where we were in our relationship. It wasn't my intention to push you into something you would be uncomfortable doing."

"Chat, it's not that-"

"I don't really need an explanation," I continued, cutting her off as I looked away and tried to ignore the stinging of the tears that were threatening in my feline eyes. "I… I… guess I just wanted to make you happy. If that's not with me, I… I get it."

"Chat-"

I turned and moved to the small table, picking up the bottle of wine in a paw. "I just hope we can still be friends – that I've not ruined everything tonight."

"Dammit Chat, would you hold on-"

"Don't wait up," I said as I leapt over the railing and vaulted into the night.

Landing in the sandy dunes in front of the cottage, I simply took off, running as fast as my Miraculous-charged legs could go. Even on the wide, sandy beach, that was still fairly fast, and in moments I'd put significant distance between myself and my misery back at the cottage. The tide was in, so I was forced to run on the more loosely packed portion of the beach, but I truly didn't care. My world had been upended once more; the only thing that was surprising about it was that I'd not seen it coming. As the kilometers stretched behind me, I berated myself for any number of things, questioning everything I had done that had brought us to that wonderfully terrible moment.

And yet, the joy I had seen in her face when she saw the ring – that was real. Just as real as her rejection a few breaths later. It was so head-spinningly fast, I felt like I'd been in one of those three-camera sitcoms. The only thing missing had been the laugh track emphasizing the enormity of my misjudgment.

I paused atop another dune and drained the last of the ten-thousand-dollar bottle before hurling it with all of my Chat strength into the waves. My night vision caught the reflection of the glass as it skipped over the water once, twice, three times before sinking out of sight. As it disappeared, I similarly slipped down into a cat-crouch on the sand, and just sat there, watching the waves.

And cried.

Pulling my knees up to my chest, I buried my masked face in them and sobbed uncontrollably, the stress leading up to the evening and the rejection that came from it overwhelming all emotional controls I had. A tiny part of me saw the tragic comedy that I had now, in fact, been rejected by Ladybug twice. That spelled loser in any dictionary I knew.

A feline ear picked up a whisper on the wind, and a significant part of me wanted to leap away – away from her and all of the pain. But I knew this confrontation was inevitable, so I sat, waiting, with a massive hollowed-out feeling deep inside of me.

Ladybug came jogging up the dune and didn't slow in the least until she landed on her knees beside me. Before I knew what was happening, she'd engulfed me in a massive hug, holding me tight to her chest. "Damn it to Hell, kitty," she swore loudly as she rocked us back and forth. "I thought we had gotten through the snap-judgement phase with you."

"I haven't a clue what you're talking about," I said morosely. "And if that is supposed to make me feel better-"

"Kitty," she said softly, twisting my face up to meet her eyes, which I did reluctantly. "You're not getting off the hook that easily."

"Hook?" I asked, blinking.

Ladybug held up her gloved hand, and my masked eyes widened to see the ring on her finger. "This means yes," she said, "which apparently you overlooked."

Now thoroughly confused, I looked from the ring to her eyes, then back to the ring. "You're still wearing it? And how is it there when you are transformed?"

"I am," she said. "And it's visible because I want it to be. I love you," she said, twisting my head back to hers, "sincerely love you, and have for a long, long time. And rather desperately want to be your wife."

"But-"

"If you had let me finish my thought, I was going to say, 'Marinette can't marry Chat. We need to figure out a way for Chat to marry Ladybug... and for Adrien to marry Marinette.'"

I blinked. "I proposed to you," I said, feeling somewhat dense. "I wasn't making a distinction between your alter-egos. I mean, you're you whether you have the mask or not."

"I know that, Chat," she smiled softly. "It's the rest of Paris that doesn't." Swinging around to sit beside me, she pulled me close. "We are a couple – hopefully soon a married one – no matter the guise. But we do have to think through how to make this work for the public. And, frankly, as long as Hawkmoth is still around, we need to protect our identities. Having Chat publicly date Marinette is one thing, but marrying her… well, that's all I meant."

"I guess I follow," I said, though I wasn't entirely sure I did. "You want Chat to break up with Marinette, then?"

"I'm not sure yet," she smiled again. "My point – badly made, admittedly – was we needed to think through it, that's all." Slowly she ran her hand through my wild mane. "That fur brain of yours melted down, didn't it?' she asked quietly.

I nodded.

"I'm so very sorry," she said, snuggling into my shoulder. "You know me – I like to think aloud. I do some of my best planning that way, but I didn't consider what it would do to you in the moment." Smiling sadly, she sighed softly, "Well done, Mari."

Ladybug pulled my head to hers. "All the times I rejected you – I should have realized you'd be at your most vulnerable at that moment. By the time I saw the panic and pain in your eyes, I knew what I'd done."

"Can you blame me?" I asked quietly. "To my feline ears it sounded like a rejection. A confusing one, but a rejection nonetheless."

"Oh kitty," she said, her eyes getting misty once more. "Kitty, my sweet kitty; that was never my intent," she added softly, continuing to hold me. "I'm truly sorry."

A tiny ray of sunshine appeared in my heart. "So… you're not breaking up with me?"

"No, Chat." She leaned around and kissed me, then leaned back. "I intend to marry you. Whether you like it or not."

"Okay," I said, my fur brain still feeling a bit muddled. After a moment, I felt a smile start to form on my masked visage. "Okay," I said with more enthusiasm. "I… I have to admit, this is not how I thought tonight would work out."

"We always do things the hard way, don't we kitty?" she asked, sighing again. "I'm truly sorry."

Pulling her around to me I held her to my chest. "You gave me one helluva scare. I thought I'd messed up again - big time."

"You?" She smiled. "You've been nothing but the purrfect partner – the perfect companion." Ladybug got a sly look on her face and continued. "Let me apologize to you."

Feeling like I was missing something, I said: "I think you already did."

Ladybug laughed. "You are adorable when you're clueless," she smiled as she did something with her hands at the front of her costume.

My feline eyes bugged out when the silver of a zipper caught what little light there was. I think my jaw dropped open when my feline ears heard the metal-on-metal sound as she slowly pulled. "When—when did that appear?"

"Tonight," she said. "Tikki and I had been talking about changes, and I planned on surprising you with it tonight — that is, until you stole my thunder." She caressed the side of my face with a gloved hand. "I thought it was appropriate to give my kitty a treat, given how he's treated me this weekend."

My pulse began to pound in my ears, for this was something I had long dreamed of; all these years of fighting Hawkmoth side-by-side with her clad in that amazingly form fitting costume had created no shortage of teenaged daydreams. Hell, I'd had more than a few as an adult, too. But with Ladybug so close to me, filling my feline nose with her exotic scent, I knew this was no dream. The touch of her gloved hand as it traced the edge of my mask sizzled against my bare skin.

It was one amazingly sensual apology.

I swallowed, finding my voice after a fashion. "Uh," seemed to be about all I could get out. "I mean… here? Right now? On the sand dune?"

"That's kind of the idea, yes."

"Milady, I'm not prepared – I mean, not that I don't want this, but I don't have—"

"Got you covered," Ladybug leaned up and whispered into a feline ear, before nibbling at the edge. I shuddered at the sensation as she pulled away and added, "After all, planning is kind of part of my job."

How I had gone from the depths of despair to the heights of joy in the space of an hour was a mystery of love that I decided I didn't particularly care to examine at that moment. Reaching a paw out, I tentatively hooked a claw into the tiny hole of the zipper pull, and then looked to her deep blue eyes. Watching her nod, I smiled for the first time in a bit.

"Milady," I observed, as I did what I always did for Ladybug – lending a paw at just the right moment – before pulling her to me. "I cannot disagree…"