Eighty-Nine: The Breakup

Chat has a very "public" breakup with Marinette at Chateau Le Blanc; fortunately, Adrien just happens to be there to comfort his old friend.

"I'm sorry," I said. "But I can't in good conscience keep you in such peril."

"I can take care of myself," Marinette replied, but the tears were already forming in her eyes; I had to blink hard to keep my own vision clear. "Don't do this, Chat. You deserve happiness as much as anyone."

I ran a paw through her hair and tried to ignore how foot traffic in the lobby of Chateau Le Blanc had noticeably slowed; I'd quite publicly brought Marinette to work that morning, far more visibly that normal. It appeared to have attracted the attention we needed. "Maybe," I said sadly, allowing my ears to wilt. "But not until Ladybug and I have defeated Hawkmoth. Until then, I refuse to place you in danger."

"Chat—"

I put a claw tip to her lips. "I've enjoyed every moment we've had together," I said softly as I used the same claw tip to wipe away the tear that had started to roll down her cheek. "You've done more for this feline than anyone could truly understand," I added before my voice caught. Despite the entire enterprise being purely for show, the moment was hitting me in the gut. "I will furever be thankful for that."

Marinette nodded slowly. "So, this is goodbye, then?"

"Yes," replied. "I might stop by from time to time to check on you, but…"

Throwing her arms around me, Marinette gave me a quick kiss on the cheek just below the line of my mask. "I hate this, kitty," she said, and I knew it had a double meaning.

"I do too," I replied softly. "But it is for the best."

I stepped back and held her hand in my paw for a long moment, stealing a move from the tear-jerker of a movie we'd watched together the prior evening in an attempt to get into character. Sadly, it had been all too effective, for I couldn't hold back my tears any longer. As it wouldn't do for a Hero of Paris to be seen crying, I sniffled a bit, and hurriedly delivered my final line in our tragic play.

"Goodbye, Princess. I will always love you."

She started to reach for me but I triggered my baton, rising up into the multi-story atrium; looping around it, I easily leapt the final distance to the top floor, landing on the tile a few meters from a shocked group of Marinette's coworkers getting off of the elevator. Saluting them, I dashed down the short hallway toward the emergency staircase, burst into the stairwell and took the final flight of steps to the roof two at a time. Pausing with one feline ear at the door before pushing it open; Rena Rouge was waiting for me just beyond.

"Did you get it?" I asked as I trotted toward her.

"Yes," she replied, holding up her civilian alter-ego's cell phone. "Like we discussed, I don't think we should put this out, though. I'll hold it back in case we need to go with plan B."

"No, let's stick to the plan," I said, wiping away a tear. "This was hard enough once; I'm not sure I can handle seeing myself breakup with Marinette repeatedly across social media."

"I agree," she nodded before smiling slightly. "Still, that was quite gentlemanly the way you did it."

"There's no way I'd ever hurt her," I said. "Even if it's fake."

Rena put a gloved hand to my arm. "I know, Chat. It's totally you. Now get going! You don't want to be late as her rebound heartthrob, do you?"

I grinned. "Nope. See you later," I said as I took a running start and did a swan dive off the building; curling into a ball, I sailed over the street below and spun out to easily land on my boots on the one next door. On the far side, I slipped over the edge and rode my baton down into an alley I had used before; moments later, a briefcase-toting Adrien Agreste appeared on the sidewalk outside of Chateau Le Blanc, headed for a pre-arranged meeting with his liaison for House of Gabriel.

Entering the lobby, I had no trouble locating Marinette; a trio of women were standing with her beside a small topiary not far from where Chat Noir had been standing. Marinette had her head in her hands, and from the way her body was shaking, it was clear she'd given herself over to sobbing. Quickening my pace, I paused a half-meter from the crowd.

"Mari? Is everything okay?"

One of the women turned at my voice; I recognized her as Debbie, one of the other designers Marinette worked with. "Adrien," she said, pulling me aside. "I'm glad you're here. Mari could use a friend about now."

"What happened?"

Debbie looked to Marinette. "I don't know if you knew, but she'd been dating Chat Noir."

"Seriously?" I replied. "I had no idea."

"Mari kept it off the radar for the most part, but that insanely cute human-sized feline made an appearance here a time or two." She sighed. "They were made for each other and have been together for quite a while now."

I looked to Marinette. "That's insane. But this looks like it went south…"

Debbie sighed again. "We warned her that dating a superhero might not end well. Apparently, Chat is worried about the same thing." She looked back. "It was gut-wrenching, but he told her it wasn't safe for them to be together. Damn that Hawkmoth! This is his fault."

Kinda, I thought, but nodded sympathetically. "I'm surprised," I said, pulling the line we'd worked on overnight from memory. "I mean, why now? He's protected her this long."

Debbie looked back. "I know, right? He's not wrong, though. Hawkmoth has attacked Chateau Le Blanc and other places where Marinette has been or goes regularly with increasing frequency. It's not much of a stretch to think he's going after Marinette to get to Chat."

Bingo! I thought. Exactly the point we wanted to make.

"I saw the whole thing," she continued, a soft smile appearing. "He let her down so gently… damn, what a man he is." She paused. "A damn fine man. My heart aches for her."

Cat, I corrected mentally. A damn fine cat.

"Are you meeting with her today?" Debbie asked.

"Yeah," I said, holding up my briefcase. "I'm glad we had it scheduled," I added as I moved to Marinette.

"Me too," I heard Debbie say quietly from behind me.

Marinette was leaning against the massive planter, and as I approached, the other two women who I didn't recognize nodded at me and quietly slipped away. Putting down my briefcase, I placed my hands on either side of her shoulders. "Mari, I am so sorry."

She looked up at me and tentatively reached out; I pulled her closer and allowed her to place her head against my chest. "Let's not ever do that," she whispered to me. "That was much harder than I thought I would be."

"Tell me about it," I whispered back as I patted the back of her head. That day she'd worn her very sexy ponytail. "But I think it's working the way we wanted," I continued, making it seem like I was comforting her.

Mari looked up at me, and her eyes were red. "I hate that we had to do this, kitty," she said softly. "It feels wrong on so many levels."

"Yeah," I nodded. "It does. My inner feline is more than a little unhappy to be sidelined."

Marinette struggled for a moment to keep a smile from appearing. "Hang on there, kitty. You can't skip a step."

"I—what?" I asked, perplexed.

"Adrien isn't living with me, remember?" She tapped a finger about where my bell would normally hang while I was transformed. "That means, sadly, I will be all alone with no one to comfort me in my time of need."

It took me a moment before I caught on. "No one that can't scale the side of a building, you mean."

"Exactly," she said. "But you are gonna need to be stealthier that normal. After the interview tonight, I suspect there will be cameras parked outside of our condo for a while."

"Agreed," I sighed. It wasn't the first time I'd dealt with paparazzi. "As long as you won't turn away a masked visitor."

Mari leaned up and whispered very quietly in my ear. "Mask or no mask, kitty, we are together forever. Never forget that."

I pulled her hand from my side and gently kissed the back of it. "Marinette, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Her eyes crinkled. "Dear lord. Quoting classic movies? You were doing so good, too…"

"Sorry," I smiled. "We have a meeting, I believe," I added with a quick glance at the massive clock in the atrium. "Are you up for it?"

"I believe I am," she replied. Taking my hand in hers, she led me toward the elevators after I retrieved my briefcase. "I think we sold it," she added sotto voice. "You?"

"Your posse hasn't taken its eyes off of us, if that's what you mean," I replied as I pressed the up button.

"Good." She eyed my briefcase. "What did you bring? You never tote around anything."

"Passionfruit macarons from the best bakery in Paris," I said as we stepped into the empty carriage that arrived. "And a slice of double-chocolate cake. For my girlfriend in distress."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Well played, kitty. Well played."