"Please leave," Marinette muttered when she felt the movement of her mattress as her boyfriend landed on her bed. She was laying her stomach on top of her blankets wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top.
"Why would I do that when staying here with you is much more appeeling to me?"
"I got a stupid sunburn at work yesterday and I'm not in the mood for company or bad jokes." She was grumbling and he was certain that if she were in less pain, she'd be sitting up with her arms crossed over her chest.
He winced. The photoshoot that she'd been working on yesterday was one of Adrien's that had changed locations at the last minute. It was supposed to be indoors, so it made sense that she wouldn't have put on sunscreen that morning. When it got changed, he supposed she didn't have time to find some to apply before she was assigned things to do.
"Well, then I have good news for you, princess. I only have good jokes or the best jokes. Which one do you want?" He wanted to reach out to hold her hand, but he didn't know how bad her sunburn was there and he didn't want to risk hurting her. He could see a lot on her shoulders, which made sense because of the spaghetti strapped dress she was wearing at the shoot.
"If you tell me you genuinely want me to leave, I will," he added quietly. "I know that I joke about liking to bother you a lot, but I don't want to actually get on your nerves." Feeling like he was being a bother was something he dealt with enough as Adrien, it wasn't something he wanted to feel as Chat, too.
He was patient as he waited for her answer. He was hopeful that she wouldn't ask him to leave, but he would've listened if she did. "Please stay and distract me. Tell me a story or something so I don't just focus on how much pain I'm in."
"Of course, princess," he said with a soft smile on his face. He lounged on her bed a little bit, making sure that he was staying far enough from her that he wouldn't touch her sunburn. She brushed one of her hands on his leg and it was fine with him if that was all the affection she could show him that evening.
"Okay, what story can I tell you… Oh, I've got it. I can tell you all about my super secret superhero life. Nothing that will lead to my identity, but just, things you might not know about the time I've spent as a hero. How does that sound, love?" Marinette raised her hand in a vague thumbs up and he accepted it.
"So, when I was 14, I became a superhero. No real surprise there, I feel like you could've already figured that out, but I wasn't really purrpared to become a hero. It was the type of thing I always dreamed about when I was a kid and I even had a transformation sequence planned, but I never thought I'd actually be able to use it."
"Well," Marinette responded, "you've been a catch since the beginning. You deserve to be a hero and I'm glad you've gotten the chatnce to use the sequence you've come up with. You're my furvorite hero, I don't know if I've told you that before or not." She had implied it a few times, but he wasn't sure she had ever said it so bluntly and it made his heart skip a beat.
"The first time that I was a hero other than Chat Noir, I was given a water form so I could breathe underwater. I like to unoffishially refer to myself as Catfish, sometimes, but I'm still hoping that I'll come up with a better name than that eventually." He rubbed the back of his next with one of his hands and she reached up to take his other hand in hers.
"If I think of another name, I'll let you know," she assured him with a soft smile on her face. She knew how much he liked physical contact. While she couldn't hold his hand in that position very long without making her shoulders feel more sore, she wanted to hold his hand before it got uncomfortable.
"The next powerup that I got was the ice one and I'm just glad that my inability to skate as a civilian didn't carry over once I got the powerup. I would've fallen on my face a dozen times when fighting Frozer if I didn't get magical abilities. It wouldn't have been very nice." He smiled at his own pun and she shook her head.
"You're a dork." she reminded him. The position was starting to get uncomfortable for her arm, so she took his hand and placed it onto the center part of her back. She figured he was smart enough to avoid her sunburnt shoulders, but she still wanted to be in contact with him a little bit since he was there.
"I'm your dork, princess," he reminded her. He gently ran his claws across her back, giving her soft back scratches on the not sunburnt part. "My next hero form was Mister Bug. I had to take off my Miraculous before a battle with Reflekta for civilian reasons and next thing I knew, Ladybug's kwami was flying up to me with her earrings in hand."
He let out a deep sign. "I'm just glad that my ears were already pierced at that point. If they weren't, there would have been some serious holes in the plan for me to use the Ladybug Miraculous for that battle. I'm mostly just glad that I was given my ring because I don't think I'd want to be the responsible one on a permanent basis."
"As much as you bug me sometimes, I'm much happier to call you my minou than I would be to call you anything else." She sighed happily at the feel of the little back scratches and he couldn't help but smile.
"My next hero form was De-during Kwamibuster." He had to stop himself from saying that he was Aspik during Desperada. Marinette wouldn't know that Adrien was Aspik, but if for some reason she talked to Luka or Ladybug about Chat being a snake hero, they would both be able to figure out his identity.
"So, we got this new, super cute, super talented, superhero, Multimouse. It was the first and only time I got to meet her because she can't be a hero anymore. I, on the other hand, couldn't be in my hero form so I had to become the totally gorgeous, and totally appeeling 'Banananoir' when I had to borrow M. Banane's costume." He shook his head.
"Wow," she responded, "that sounds pretty bananas, I'm glad that you got to work with that hero so she could help you deal with Kwamibuster. Plus, at least you got to be Banananoir instead of having to split when you couldn't transform."
"I was also Banananoir again in another battle. I may or may not have gotten my own version of M. Banana's costume to possibly keep at home in case I need it again." Marinette didn't know how to react to that admission."I got a second chance to work with the snake Miraculous a little while later when I got to become Snake Noir for the first time."
"I also became Astro Chat a few times when I've had to fly around. It hasn't come up super often, but I needed to use it to get back here from Shanghai." He knew that it was a lie, but he couldn't just tell her he stayed in Shanghai to have dinner with her at her uncle's restaurant. There would've been no way to protect his identity after that.
"The last secret, secret identity I had was Catwalker. It was my kwami's idea. He thought that Ladybug might like me more if I acted more like I do as a civilian. I did and it felt so strange to not be able to make puns. I don't think I'll do something like that again."
He rubbed the back of his neck. "It's actually really embarrassing, looking back on it. I mean, at the end of that battle, Ladybug wanted Chat Noir back as her partner, so Plagg's plan didn't even work. Not that I would've wanted it to. The entire situation was just so strange and I cringe whenever I think about it now."
Marinette was glad that the color of her sunburn was the same color as the blush she was certain was taking over her face. Catwalker was more successful than Chat knew, but she wasn't going to admit that to him, especially since Marinette never met Catwalker. "I think I like you far more than I would've liked Catwalker. I'd miss your pun too much."
"Well," he responded, "if that's the case. Maybe I can give you a hand with something." Marinette looked to him and tilted her head in a question. He picked up a bottle from the side of her bedframe. "I can help you with this because aloe you vera much." She looked at the gel he was holding.
"I would appreciate it, my knight. I love you, too."
