It was a quarter past nine when Chat made himself scarce, agreeing to cutting his visit short due to it being a school night, and that it honestly hadn't been that short anyways. "Marinette, please tell me you're not thinking of doing what I think you're thinking of doing." Marinette turned toward her kwami, frowning at her words. Tikki sure had a convoluted way of expressing herself sometimes.
"What do you mean?" The tiny god crossed her arms as she looked down at her holder, "You were asking Chat about how he'd react if you, Ladybug, told him about being in a relationship. I know you enough to understand that you were testing the waters." So, that's what her kwami meant.
"Yes, I was making sure he'd react positively, or at least wouldn't feel too hurt by it."
"It's not fair, Marinette. You're using your position as his friend for your own advantage, although I don't know for what reason you'd want to tell him of your relationship. It could only help in linking Ladybug back to you." Marinette wouldn't lie and say she had thought that part through, but it barely mattered when she considered the reason as to why she wanted to do it in the first place.
"I just want to help. You know how it hurt when I found out that Kagami and Adrien were dating?" The kwami nodded, letting her arms drop, "Of course, you cried for hours just by the thought of it." Gee, thanks.
"And it helped me see the things in a realistic way. It helped me understand that all Adrien and I could ever be, is friends."
"You had Chat's help with that too, and Luka." And Chat had his girlfriend, and dare she say, he had Marinette too. "He has me. I'll be there for him."
"That's not fair, Marinette. You can't break his heart and then pretend to be the one who mends it." Why couldn't Tikki get it? It frustrated her how stubborn she was being.
"You don't get it, Tikki. Knowing Ladybug is with someone else will help him get over her." Marinette sat down on her bed, feeling tired and knowing that Tikki wasn't going to let go of this easily. "At the risk of hurting him?"
"It'll help him more; I can assure you." This time, Tikki's eyes held an anger that Marinette had never seen in her kwami before. "You can't assure someone else's feelings, Marinette." Letting her shoulders slump, Tikki landed on her bed with a heavy sigh, and a guilty expression on her face. "It'd be a risk, is it one you're willing to take?"
"Yes." With a nod and another sigh, her kwami floated up and went to her own bed, leaving Marinette to her own measure of thought and doubts over the situation.
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Tuesday classes were as boring and as monotone as expected when Alya suggested the group of four went out to the movies. "There's a movie I've been dying to watch and Nino's too scared to watch it with me alone," she had said during lunch, a sly smirk thrown in Nino's direction.
The missing part of the quartet, named Adrien, would later be informed of the other's decision. If it were Marinette's decision she would've preferred to go on Wednesday, student discount price the main drive to such a decision, but the eagerness when Adrien was actually given the green light pushed aside her desire to postpone it one day. "I can't tomorrow, have a photoshoot afterschool," Adrien's words as she offered on going the next day quickly shot down that option. She almost wanted to sob as she looked at her bank account, knowing she had wanted to buy some materials for a new small personal collection, but how could she say no to her friends? It had been so long since they all had gone out.
Once she heard the which movie it was that Alya wanted to see she remembered how Luka had mentioned wanting to see it as well. "I could invite Luka? He's been wanting to see this movie too for a hot minute." Glancing towards the blond, she continued, "perhaps we could invite Kagami as well?"
She felt a pull on her arm, looking back she saw Alya looking at her pointedly. "Boys, I need to speak something with my best friend." She pulled her away from the front of the stairs of the school, pushing her into the side of the bushes. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Marinette looked at her friend, not really understanding what she'd done wrong.
"What? I'm thinking of inviting my boyfriend." Alya stared at her, as if she had grown two heads. "And inviting the girlfriend of the guy you not so long ago freaking loved." Marinette thought she had gone over this with Alya quite a few times already. She sighed as she considered explaining and going over this once more. "Alya… Kagami and Adrien are my friends. I want to move past whatever feelings I harbored towards Adrien, and your constant reminder is no help."
"Does it really help to see them together so often?" She bit her lip as she remembered her conversation with Tikki last night. "Yes, knowing that they're happy together does help."
Alya stared at her for a few more seconds, although under her scrutiny they felt more like separate eternities. "Fine, but only if both Kagami and Luka can go. No awkward third- wheels. Now, let's return to the guys."
When they approached the guys, it looked like they had been deep in conversation, but shut up the moment the girls came into view. Marinette glanced towards the blond, "Did you call Kagami? I'm about to call Luka." He looked at her sheepishly, bringing his arm towards the back of his neck. "I didn't call her, I'm pretty sure she's really busy."
"You won't know until you ask though." Marinette knew she was being a tad too persistent, at this point they all knew how strict the Tsurugi family was. "I don't have to call her to know. But you should call Luka, see if he's available." She turned to look at Alya, the two exchanged looks before Marinette resigned herself to the agreement they had reached just a minute ago. "No, it's best we keep it to just us four then. No weird third wheels that way."
"I don't mind, you can invite Luka." She shook her head, feeling uncomfortable of having Adrien third-wheeling the group, or shall she call it fifth-wheeling?
"Nah, it's fine, let's just go us as friends. It's been a while after all." Adrien grinned widely as he accepted the arrangement.
The four took a ride from Adrien's bodyguard, happy for once that they didn't have to walk all the way to their destination. The group quickly filed into the line, grabbing their tickets with their assigned seats. After buying two buckets of popcorn to share between the four, the group ushered to their seats. Marinette had expected for her friends to sit between Adrien and her, but seeing them sit down she noticed that their arrangement left Adrien sitting next to her.
She leaned closer to Alya, "Hey, what the hell's up with…" Shutting up, she realized that no matter how low she talked, the mostly empty theater left for no privacy, much less when what she wanted to say couldn't be heard by the guy that sat right next to her. Pointing to her phone, she texted Alya, making sure that the boy next to her was occupied by anything else besides her writing on the phone.
What's up with this seating arrangement? I thought the boys would prefer to be sitting together. She glanced at Alya, hoping she'd answer quickly. Seeing the brunette fish out her phone and stifle a laugh at her message made her want to smack her on the head, but decided against violence.
Nino and I wanted to share popcorn, something about how the boys wouldn't be very good at sharing, or so said Nino. Marinette sucked at her teeth in irritation, she couldn't really say anything against that, it made some sense. Sharing it with the girls would make for a more even division. She turned towards Adrien, who had held the popcorn that they would share, and smiled at him lightly, before diving and grabbing a handful of popcorn before shoving it into her mouth, far too accustomed to eating like that around Chat to even care how she was acting in front of the blond.
Their hands brushed every once in a while, how could they not if they were both invested in the movie and eating from the same damn popcorn bucket? Past Marinette would've felt giddy just to sit next to the blond, but now what she mostly wanted to do was laugh from embarrassment whenever she grabbed at his hand expecting buttery popcorn.
Marinette should've known better than agreeing to a paranormal movie, she could handle thrillers, but freaking spirits? That's where she drew the line. It wasn't even the jump scares, it was just the thought of being haunted and even worse was seeing the words 'inspired by true events' in the rolling credits. Why would they ever think of putting that? Did they want her to not sleep for the next week?
It wasn't half as fun basically jumping into Adrien's arms every time there was a scene where the suspense basically killed her. Technically, she would've jumped into Alya's arms as her first option, but her friend's arms were occupied by her terrified boyfriend. The role reversal almost made her want to laugh, but it was more cliché how she, the girl was the one terrified in this case. If Chat saw her now he'd be laughing uncontrollably. If there was anything she was grateful for was that Adrien being the nice person didn't react in the slightest to her clutching his arm like a damn constrictor.
She was surprised the blond didn't complain about it, Chat would make a point of complaining every time they watched a movie that managed to scare her enough to make her grab at him. Sometimes it was so bad that she ended up digging her head into his ribs, but when that happened he would make the point of holding her tightly. It made her wonder if watching scary movies with Luka would end with the same reactions from her boyfriend. Would he hold her? Perhaps even more intimately because of their relationship?
As they left the theater, the group decided to go to a pizzeria near the movie theater, taking advantage that the movie was shorter than they had expected, and thus Adrien still had some time available. Alya and Nino walked in front of the two friends, who had fallen into conversation far easier than they ever had. She loved this. She completely loved being able to express herself around Adrien. No noticeable stammering, although sometimes she found herself stumbling with her words, and feet, mostly out of habit.
He was quick to retort to her comments, happily giving way to an amicable conversation. It somehow felt too good to be true. Had this what she had been missing by being far too nervous around the blond? How had she ever been considered one of his closest friends?
Once they arrived at the table, Alya pulled Nino down next to her, leaving the other side for the other two. Marinette sat in front of Alya, comfortably glancing towards the waitress who brought the group the menu.
Looking down at the menu she asked, "should we order one large or two mediums?"
"Nino and I usually order one large with three meats." Alya glanced at the two across her, "Are you guys okay with that?" she glanced at the blond, "Adrien?" He turned towards her, shaking off whatever he had been thinking about. "Well, I think my nutritionist would prefer I ate at least a veggie pizza." Marinette nodded alongside him, "I think I feel up to a veggie more today." God knows she felt like she had gained weight from eating so much late at night, which she could only blame on a certain leather-clad hero. And she hadn't been out fighting akumas as much lately, and although her body was still in incredible shape, she didn't want to count her lucky stars.
"So, you two will share?" Marinette glanced at Adrien who shrugged in answer to the question. "Yeah, a medium will do fine." Adrien grinned while leaning unto the table, "I'd make that a large, actually."
Marinette laughed as she caught the look on the model, "Guess we'll have the large." She pushed Adrien by his ribs, glancing towards the couple in front of her who seemed lost in conversation, before leaning closer to the blond. "You're such a glutton, never in a million years would I have imagined that."
"I'm growing guy, Marinette. And believe or not, I participate in many strenuous activities." He grinned mischievously at her, "Is fencing that physically challenging?" He took a sip of his soda, throwing the bluenette a side-glance, "Oh yeah, totally." His voice held a playful tinge to it, which was something welcome to her.
The rest of the evening the group indulged in playful banter, and Marinette felt the most comfortable she had ever felt in the group.
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It had been a slow week in all senses, and it wasn't until Marinette felt like her hands felt good enough that she could put her whole weight on them that she ventured to calling Chat out. Tikki had tried talking her out of her decision for the better part of the week. But now that it was Friday, she planned to carry out what she had chosen to do. She was grateful that Chat hadn't visited her since Monday. She wasn't sure how she'd fare looking him in the eyes knowing she was planning on practically telling him something that could possibly hurt him at first. But the results justified the means, didn't they?
She transformed in her room, but not before glancing through her balcony towards the vicinity, making sure her partner hadn't decided to visit her tonight of all nights. Once transformed, she climbed up to her balcony, leaping away quickly to make the call. Grabbing her yoyo, she opened it and dialed her partner. It only took a few rings before the other line connected. "Ladybug? Is there anything wrong?" She breathed deeply as she tried to find the words, no amount of practice prepared her for it.
"No, Chat. Everything's fine. I was wondering if we could meet. I think there's something I've been wanting to tell you." Marinette felt awful for purposely calling Chat to tell him this, had she chosen the right thing to do? There was no backtracking now, was there?
"Ladybug?" She gulped at the nervousness in his voice. "Meet me at the Eiffel tower in ten minutes." She could arrive in less time, she wanted to be there when he arrived. Tossing her yoyo, she swung herself once it caught unto a chimney, propelling herself along the Parisian night sky.
The monument came into her view, and she traveled up to the tallest part, before settling down quietly, awaiting her partner.
She heard the slight thud before she saw him, it was softer than when he let his presence known when he visited her in the nights, which only proved that he did it out of courtesy towards her. She turned towards her partner as he sat down next to her, not too close yet not as far as he had been a weeks ago.
"What did you want to talk about, Ladybug?" She cleared her throat before talking, "It's been a long time since we've seen each other, hasn't it?" It was partially a lie. She had been seeing him, but he hadn't been seeing Ladybug.
"I suppose, but I know you're procrastinating. What's on your mind?" She felt herself falter. Gosh, what if Tikki was right and she would end up ruining their partnership for wanting to return a stupid favour he didn't even ask for?
"I-" he turned his head curiously as he kept staring at her. "You know you can trust me, right? I'm here for whatever you need me."
"It's nothing, I just wanted to let you know that the kwamis are fine, besides Mullo getting sick, but she's fine now." He stared at her, never tearing his gaze away from her. She felt awfully exposed under his gaze. "It wasn't that, was it?"
"No, I just… what I wanted to tell you, I don't feel like I should now." She glanced down at her lap, feeling the wind whip her pigtails harshly against her face.
"Tell me anyways, it's not common of you to backtrack." She gulped as she looked up at him, voice low, "I have a boyfriend." The air whipped around them, she was sure he had barely heard her even with his enhanced hearing. "What? Speak louder." She bit her lip as she willed herself to do what she had said she would do.
"I have a boyfriend." She kept her gaze locked on his face, although she was scared for his reaction. A look of surprise crossed his features before his shoulders slumped ever so slightly. "Oh. Is he the guy you talked about? The one you love?" She wondered whether she should answer honestly. Chat already knew much about her situation as Marinette, but she also didn't want to lie to him. But she hoped Luka could become someone she could come to love at least as much as she loved Adrien, so would it truly be a lie?
She didn't trust her decision making on the spot, so she only did what she knew best these days, lie. Even if it always left a bitter taste. "That's good then." He turned his head to his lap, and she braved herself to finish saying what she had wanted to say. "Chat, I'm telling this because I want you to be happy, find yourself a good girl that'll reciprocate your feelings." Marinette knew that he had a girlfriend, but Ladybug didn't. She could only hope that he'd take it the right way.
"That's uhh-" He stood up, taking out his baton. "Congrats, Ladybug. I think I'll take my leave now, I had somewhere I wanted to go."
She knew his destination was most likely her home, but she couldn't bring herself to move from her place. He had done what he said he would. It both worried her and made her feel better about his feelings for the superheroine. Perhaps he was finally falling for his girlfriend and leaving his feelings for her behind. But feelings were never quite that simple, were they?
It felt like an eternity when she decided to finally move, swinging herself back to her house, stopping down at an alley two blocks away from her house, not wanting to get caught by her partner.
She felt alert of her surroundings, despite not being on the bad side of the city, but her hero self didn't let her stay calm this time of the night. It was late enough that her parents would surely be asleep when she got back. She gripped her bag, feeling safe with both her kwami hidden away and the pepper spray she kept at all times.
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Adrien was positively dying of nerves when he noticed that thirty minutes had passed since he had arrived at Marinette's balcony, and said girl wasn't in her room, or in the house at all. He wasn't sure if he wanted to search all of Paris or stay waiting for her. Perhaps call Alya to see if they were together? But Adrien wasn't supposed to be able to tell when the bluenette was or not in her house. His best bet was waiting for her, even though it wasn't his favourite one.
He saw a shadow walking down the sidewalk, he closely gazed at it before recognizing it was Marinette. He felt relief wash over him as he stared at his friend as she sneaked into her house. He fretted whether he should stay or not, did he want to talk about what happened with Marinette? Who else did he even have to talk about it with?
"Chat?" He turned around at the sound of her calling out to him. "How did you know I was here?" She smiled at him as she gestured at him to enter, which he accepted the invitation swiftly. Jumping down on her bed, he landed next to her as she stayed there with her legs crossed. "I saw you shadow on the balcony." He had thought he had hidden well but perhaps she had learned to decipher his shape from the rest of the balcony. "Your tail swinging is really hard to miss, you know?" That explained it.
"Why are you here, Chat?" He bit his lip as he got up before looking down at her, "Want to play?" She pulled him down harshly, "Not before you tell me what's wrong." He looked at her, shocked at her words. She looked at him seriously, her eyes full of understanding and her lips pulled into a slight grimace. "Who said there's something wrong?"
She scowled at him as she lifted her hand, pressing a finger in the middle of his forehead. "This says it." She moved down to the corner of his lips, "This too." She placed her hands on his shoulders, "This as well."
He could only stare at her as she kept looking at him, this time he was aware of how much she really saw through him. It made him awfully aware of how much he had wanted and desired that someone in his life would be able to tell just how he felt.
His lips trembled, his shoulders shaking as he tried to contain the emotions that wanted to burst. "Marinette…"
"Chat. Tell me." His eyes watered at the tone of her voice, all soft with no edge, all compassion and openness. He didn't even know someone could sound like that. "Ladybug told me today she had boyfriend. And although, I have been getting over her. It just hurt so bad." He could feel the tears rushing down his face, wetting her comforter as they fell off his chin. "I wanted to be happy for her. I truly did. I managed to tell her congratulations, you know?" He tried to force a smile as he looked at the girl in front of him, his voice constricted as he fought against his tears. Marinette looked like she was on the edge of crying, she was always so understanding, always so compassionate, wasn't she? "but I kept thinking, why not me? What does he have that I don't? Why not me?" His throat closed off as he tried to push out more words, but all he could do was stare at the girl before him.
She grabbed him by the cheeks, staring into his eyes as her lips trembled. Why was she so affected by his turmoil? How could she be so kind? "Chat, don't say that. Love is weird sometimes, but I assure you that there's nothing wrong with you." She hugged him tightly, his head lying flat against her chest, he could her steady heartbeat. It felt strange in comparison to his constricting chest. "Then why doesn't she want me?"
"I can't tell you," Her voice sounded unsteady as she said that, her heart picking up pace just a tad, "but I can tell you that you're an amazing person."
"I kept this hope that just as long as she wasn't with the one she loved I still had a chance. Tonight, it just fully slipped away from my hands. All my hopes and dreams. Part of me is so mad because I never had a chance. She could never love me the way I loved her. While I ran here I kept thinking that it was so selfish of her, but I'm wrong. We were never anything besides partners. She never indicated wanting anything with me. She was blunt, you know? It left me always wanting more." He laughed almost bitterly, as he felt Marinette's hold tighten around him.
"I'll be here for you every step of the way that you need me. If you want, you can stay the night." He wanted to take her up on her offer, but all he wanted was to leave behind everything.
"Thanks Marinette, can I just lay on your lap for a bit?" His mom would sometimes comfort him by lying him on her lap, and he was sure the action would calm him. Nodding, Marinette moved so that her back was against the wall, as he lied down on her lap, his body fully across her bed. His face was turned towards her belly, he couldn't lie that the warmth felt nice. He felt a hand tentatively brush up against his head, making him look up at Marinette. "Sorry, I just thought it would help."
"It's okay, you can do it." She brought her hand up, gently stroking his hair. She moved the hair that fell on his face away, showing his face fully, before letting it drop back on his forehead haphazardly. She kept caressing his head, soft and gentle. It felt relaxing and nice, it made him rumble deep from his chest. The purr rolling into the air as though he were a cat. It made him feel sleepy, and even when he fought it the headiness pushed him into a light sleep.
He felt a light tap on his shoulder, "Chat. You okay?" He shifted, pressing himself against the comfortable bed he was in. Before a slight screech woke him up. He looked up, locking eyes with Marinette. "Sorry, I fell asleep. What hour is it?"
She glanced at her phone, "Just a bit past one. Do you have to go home?" He was pretty sure he wouldn't need to be home until around six or seven, so why bother leaving now?
"Not anytime soon, unless you need me to leave." She shook her head, before trying to stand up only to trip in her step. "Princess, you okay?"
"Yeah, my leg's just asleep." Of course it would be if she hadn't been able to move because of him, "Sorry about that."
"It's okay. Want to play? I'll let you win at least once." He stared at her as she walked down from the loft, heading towards her desk. "Come down, you can't play from there."
He quickly got down and reached her side, taking the offered controller into his hand, looking towards her friend. Had she always been this caring? How had he missed that?
Hours had passed as they played video games. Once they took a break, to fill their empty stomachs with delicacies that were left over from the bakery, they sat face to face. He leaned his body against the wall as he stretched his legs that had been in a lotus position for far too long. Marinette kept staring down at the plate full of snacks, he didn't tear his gaze away from her. Feeling too appreciative towards having a friend like her.
She lifted her eyes to meet with his gaze, as he smiled when their eyes locked with each other's. "What? Do I have something on my face?"
"No. I just-I'm so happy we're friends, like this. I love you, you know?" Her mouth gaped as she frowned, her shoulders slightly tense. Her reaction almost made him laugh. "You're the best friend a stray cat like me could ever ask for." Her expression softened as she stared at him, the tension disappearing as she grinned, "You idiot, I suddenly thought you'd fallen in love with me or something." She laughed as she took a bite from a tart, before completely downing it. A silence fell between them as he waited for her to say something, anything.
She put down the plate now mostly empty and crawled up to Chat, situating herself in between his stretched and opened legs, leaving some space still between them.
She took his gloved hands and squeezed at them, staring at their conjoined hands. "I feel the same way too, you know?" She smiled, her whole face brightening up. "I feel like I can be myself around you. I really do love our friendship as well." She looked up, meeting with his gaze, he knew his eyes were getting teary. He had never heard one of his friend tell him they loved him so blatantly, and hearing her say that made him realize just how much he had wanted to hear that.
"Chat? What's wrong?" He shook his head as he let out a chuckle. "I'm just so happy, I-sorry. Didn't mean to cry on you." She giggled softly as she stood up. "There's no need to say sorry for that." She offered him a hand, him gladly accepting it as she hauled him up. "Come on, now I have to show you who's the real boss with games."
Did I finish this today at 5 in the morning? Maybe... Yes.
I was extremely surprised when I noticed that this is the 19th chapter and I'm here like, I can't believe I've written so much, my college professors would be jealous xD
Anyways, let me know what you thought of this chapter? Do you approve of Marinette dropping the boyfriend bomb on Chat like that or not?
P.s. Saying I love you to your friends is so nice. You'll have to take my platonic relationships from my dead cold hands :) hahah (don't worry, I won't leave these idiots just platonically. I'm not that evil, yet.)