Chat loved his girlfriends more than he pawssibly thought that he could. He thought she was the micest, most tailented, most brewtiful, clawverest people on the planet and he didn't think anything could change his mind from thinking that. Dating her made him feel luckier than he felt a black cat should have any right to. His life felt pretty pawsome.
After about two months of dating, he decided he wanted to surpurrise his girlfriend. He had gotten her a silver necklace with a little paw print pendant. It wasn't the exact shape of his symbol, but it was still the symbol that represented him, so he was happy to get it for her. He put the box into his pocket before he left for the bakery.
He saw that Marinette's trapdoor was open and went into his girlfriend's room, landing silently on the floor behind her. Her face was dropped into her hands as she spoke out loud to Tikki, who she didn't notice had flown into a hiding spot when Chat came in.
"I don't know what to do. I just want to be done thinking about Monarch. Why can't I just be in a normal relationship where we don't have to think about supervillains and secret identities and magical terrorists. I know I wouldn't have met Chat if he weren't a hero, but I'm just so tired of losing sleep over this."
"Princess?" Chat asked quietly after a brief pause. Marinette's head shot up when she was alerted to his presence. "Have you been… coming up with hypawtheses for Monarch's identity. Is that why you haven't been able to sleep lately?"
"What?" she squeaked. "No, of course not. Why would I do something like that?" She moved to close her notebook, the same one that Chat recognized as the one she claimed held secret commission information.
He didn't want to believe his girlfriend would lie to him, but he knew she wouldn't tell him if she were trying to figure out Monarch's identity on her own. He went over and picked up the notebook from her desk.
"Hey! Paws off!" Marinette announced, wanting to sound more confident with her statement than she actually felt. He took a deep breath and turned himself to look at his girlfriend, heart pounding in his chest.
"Marinette." Hearing her real name felt like she had just been shot through her heart. "If I open this notebook, am I going to find commission information, or clues about Monarch's identity?" Her eyes met his unintentionally and she felt her eyes brim with tears as she realized she couldn't lie to him about it. Not this time.
"Clues about his identity," she admitted. He ran the fingers of his empty hand through his hair as he clutched the notebook even tighter in his other hand. He felt sick. Marinette shouldn't be concerning herself with this, especially because of him. They were keeping their relationship private so she wouldn't get involved in his hero life and she was throwing that away and involving herself anyway.
He shook his head. "You can't do this, Marinette. Do you even realize how dangerous this is? You're a civilian and I can't let anything happen to you. I know you're smart and you like to help people, but I can't let you put yourself in such a purrilous pawsition." She felt her stomach flip in response to his seeming disappointment in her.
"You and Ladybug let Alya help!" Marinette tried to argue, hoping that Chat wouldn't be able to argue her point.
"Alya is different," he announced. "Alya is a reporter who has thrown herself into danger, no matter how much we've told her not to. Alya was one of the temporary heroes for years, Marinette. You were Multimouse once and thanks to me, you're never going to be a hero again. I can't let you get involved like this."
"You can't pawssibly be serious, Chat," Marinette responded, "you said it yourself, I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I helped you with Evilustrator and with Kwamibuster, I'm just as respawnsible as Alya is. I can help find Monarch!"
"No, you can't," he said, starting to raise his voice a little bit. "I'll take your notebook to Ladybug and she can see if there's anything helpful in it, but from now on, you're done trying to go after a terrorist as a civilian."
"You don't get to control what I do," Marinette replied, raising her voice in response. "If I want to figure out his identity so that I can stop thinking about the fact that there's a supervillain in Paris, I'm going to and if I have to start back over from scratch, I will!"
"What pawsitives could you gain from figuring out Monarch's identity?" He gestured vaguely at the outside world and she felt her heart pound in her chest. She knew the answers to that question. She'd gain a sense of normalcy, she'd gain full access to her boyfriend, she'd gain the chance to be honest with everyone.
"I could have a boyfriend who doesn't sacrifice himself during akuma battles, someone I might be able to spend time with as a civilian. Someone I can actually know, instead of someone I can only see when I'm in my room." She knew that she was blaming him with her statement, but that was the part she knew she could be honest about with him.
"We're trying to figure out his identity as quickly as we can, but I can't have you distracting me because you're trying to play hero when you're a civilian!"
"Parisians play hero every day," she told him. "I bet that there are hundreds of civilians in the city right now who are trying to come up with clues and pawssible identities for Monarch. There's no reason I can't do the same thing as the rest of them."
"I'm not in love with the rest of Paris, Marinette! I'm in love with you!" His words came out before his brain could catch up. He wanted to say those words, he planned to say those words soon, but the necklace in his pocket was another reminder that this was not how he had planned to tell her.
Her mouth opened in a little 'o' of surprise and he took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for raising my voice at you. I don't need you to say it back, but I'm gonna go find Ladybug. Please, just… please stay safe, princess." His voice was practically a whisper as he spoke. He gave the top of her head a light kiss before he left back through her trapdoor in search of his pawtner.
