Adrien noticed that Marinette was starting to fall behind in their classes. In all honesty, Adrien noticed a lot of things about her, but falling behind in classes was the one that really mattered at that point. They had been back in school for two weeks since Spring Break ended and Marinette was already 3 assignments behind.
He didn't go out of his way to visit her as Chat because he didn't want to be the cause of her falling even further behind by getting distracted by talking to him. He had overheard the fact that Marinette's portfolio for the internship was getting a lot of consideration, but he knew that her application would suffer if her grades dropped.
He didn't understand how Marinette could be falling behind while also looking as exhausted as she did. She wasn't doing homework at night, but she also wasn't sleeping. He hadn't recalled her mentioning anything about an upcoming commission and she wasn't working on any personal designs that would require this much of her energy.
After a few days of Marinette almost falling asleep on her lunch, Adrien decided that Chat Noir should check in on his princess to make sure that she wasn't overworking herself. When he landed on her rooftop that night, she was sitting at her desk, scribbling notes fiercely in a notebook he didn't recognize.
She looked like she was working hard and he wondered how she was so behind if she was working this hard. "Good evening, princess," Chat Noir greeted when he landed on the center of the floor behind Marinette. She jumped a little at the sound of his voice. She closed her notebook around her pencil, trying not to look suspicious about hiding what she was writing.
It didn't work, Chat Noir was definitely suspicious of what was in the notebook, but he was mostly just curious, maybe Marinette had gotten another commission she couldn't talk about. "What brings you by tonight, minou?" she asked, looking toward him with a smile on her face.
"Not a lot, I've seen you around and you've been looking tired. I'm just here to make sure the princess gets a chance to ketchup on her sleep," he explained, smiling at his own pun. Marinette seemed distracted. She didn't react to the pun and Chat Noir wondered if she was just too distracted by whatever she was working on before he landed.
"I can sleep later, what if I'd rather just spend time with you. You haven't come around in a few days. Has everything been okay with you?" she asked. Her voice was a combination of compassion while also clearly just trying to reverse the conversation they were having.
"I've been fine, princess. I always relish the time I get to spend with you, but I haven't wanted to distract you from bacon good grades on your assignments this semester. Has somebody missed their favorite superhero coming around?" As he spoke, he came slowly closer to her and was looking at the schoolbag on the floor by her feet.
Marinette bopped his nose, gently pushing him away from her desk. "You wish," she joked with a wink aimed at him. "I've been keeping myself busy the last few days, but you might be right, I probably would benefit from getting to sleep a little earlier tonight."
"You'll feel better mus tard if you get to sleep sooner rather than later. Lettuce get you to bed and you can work on your designs again later," he assured, motioning for her to put down the notebook. She did, knowing that she could trust her partner to not snoop through something of hers.
She yawned and knew that there was no chance of Chat believing hanging out was a better use of her time than sleeping. She nodded, reluctantly agreeing to go to bed. She stood up from her desk chair and went over to the ladder up to her loft. She stumbled on a step that she took and Chat Noir immediately reached out to catch her.
"Cheese, Marinette!" he exclaimed, "are you going to be able to get up to your loft without hurting yourself, or mayo give you a hand?" She reached out a sleepy hand toward him and he chuckled. He scooped her up in a princess hold and carried her up to her bed. From that close, he could see the purple rings around her eyes and the concealer that was smearing off.
He wondered, briefly, if Marinette had even gotten a full night's sleep since they went back to classes, but he was pretty sure he knew the answer already and he didn't like it. "Will you stay until I fall asleep?" Marinette asked as he set her down. He was pretty sure she was half asleep already by the time she was laid down.
"Of course, princess," he assured. "I'd be pickled pink to stay until you fall asleep. First, though I'm gonna turn off the light so you can sleep better. While I'm doing that, though, you should bundle up in your blanket so that you don't get chilli when I have to leave later." She curled under her blanket, but didn't let go of him, basking in his warmth.
"Princess," he began, gently running a hand across one of her forearms, "I'll be right back. You'll sleep better if there aren't this many lights on." She shook her head, still trying to absorb as much warmth as possible. "Okay, ultomato," he said, "if you let me turn off the lights, I'll stop making puns for the rest of the night."
She loosened her grip on him, just enough for him to jump down and turn off her lights. He climbed back up and sat up on her bed while she curled into him. "You haven't been making puns in the first place," she informed him. Clearly, she was more exhausted than he thought if she had missed him making so many puns.
He kissed her forehead, giving her affection and also trying to gauge her general temperature. If she weren't feeling well, that would explain the exhaustion and lack of focus, but she was a normal skin temperature. Marinette clung to him as she began to drift off to sleep for what felt like the first time in weeks.
As he guaranteed, he didn't make any more puns that night and he stayed with Marinette for a while after she fell asleep. He had managed to coax her into actually falling asleep at close to 21h30 so he wasn't even close to being tired. He stayed with her for about an hour and a half, when she turned away from him, he took that as his 'okay' to leave.
"Stay toasty, princess," he added as one final pun before he left through the trapdoor to the balcony. He made sure that the door was fully sealed behind him so that Marinette wouldn't get cold during the night, then he bounded back home to do some homework of his own and get to sleep.
Words used for puns in order: catch up, relish, making, plus tard (means 'later' in French), let's (let us), jeez, may I, tickled, bundle, chilly, ultimatum, toasty
