Hellos and salutations, readers!

It's Marichat May 2022! When I found the list of the Marichat May prompts for this year about a week ago, I decided to finally try writing them. Granted, I'm not doing all of them. I'm only doing the ones I actually have story ideas for (if I can't think of anything good, I'm skipping it) but I'm gonna try to do most of them.

I don't write a lot of really short stories (I'm trying to make the word count of each story less than 2,000) so this is a bit of a challenge.

In all honesty, I've been feeling a bit uninspired for a few weeks now when I try to work on my other stories (like my still unfinished Marichat story Accidents Happen), so I thought doing something like this (something new to me) would help. And here we are.

As for Accidents Happen; I'm still working on the next chapter. I was adamant about starting this because it would mean less time to work on that before the month is over. But like I said, I'm not doing all the days so I'll squeeze in the time. I already have a few of these done already, but I'm not posting them until their day of the month.

If I'm going to skip a day, I'll mention it at the end of the most recent chapter.

Anywho, please enjoy ;)

Day 1: Balcony

Studying the works of William Shakespeare for school wasn't Marinette favorite topic, but it might be fun watching everyone read scenes from his plays out loud to the class. She wasn't, however, looking forward to reading to them herself.

Especially after Miss Bustier paired her and Adrien to read Act 2 Scene 2. Or more commonly known as; the balcony scene.

It wasn't that Marinette was bad at public speaking. She was great at it when it was her own words. Someone else's words on the other hand, she always felt nervous of messing up. And this was Shakespeare. His writing style was confusing to understand and he sometimes used old-fashion words that no one used anymore that were difficult to pronounce.

And tomorrow, she was expected to read from a script of one of the most romantic scenes ever written in front of the whole class with the guy she's totally obsessed with.

Yeah. This was going to be a disaster.

Luckily, she had someone to help her practice.

"Thanks for doing this with me, Chat," Marinette said to the feline hero as he stood in her bedroom with her. They both held copies of the scene in script form on paper.

"Please, it's my pleasure. I love this play," he replied. Marinette rolled her eyes. She wasn't surprised but still grateful for his enthusiastic assistance. "So, where are we starting?" he asked, looking through the sheets.

Chat Noir had absolutely no problems with doing this instead of playing video games or watching a movie like they usually did when he came over. He loved Shakespeare, and 'Romeo and Juliet' was his favorite. True, it was a tragedy, but it was first and foremost, a love story. The greatest love story of all time.

The blonde boy had dreamed so often of reenacting at the very least, this scene, the famous balcony scene, with his lady. But he knew Ladybug would never go for it. So doing it with his just as amazing friend Marinette was the next best thing.

It was sort of funny. Marinette didn't even know that she was practicing with the very same guy that their teacher assigned her to do this scene with in class. By tomorrow, they'd both be well prepared.

"Close to the end, just after the last time the nurse calls Juliet back inside," Marinette told him as she climbed her ladder up to her loft bed. It wasn't exactly a balcony—she had a real one of those—but there was no way she was rehearsing this scene out there for everyone in Paris to hear and watch.

"Okay. That's your line. Ready when you are," Chat told her, eager to go.

When she reached her bed, Marinette sat on her knees, as close to the railing she was comfortable, script papers in hand.

She took a breath and cleared her throat.

"By and by, I come," Marinette said over her shoulder, like she was talking to someone up there with her before looking back down at Chat. "To cease thy suit, and leave me to my grief. To-morrow will I send."

Next was Chat's line. "So thrive my soul-"

"A thousand times good night!" Marinette said before quickly crawling further back on her bed to stimulate her exiting. So far so good.

"A thousand times the worse, to want thy light. Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books. But love from love, toward school with heavy looks," Chat continued, having fun with being overdramatic.

A moment later, Marinette came back to her previous spot at the railing and said her next line.

"Hist! Romeo, hist! O, for a falconer's voice to lure this tassel-gentle back again! Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud; else would I tear the cave where Echo lies, and make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine, with repetition of my Romeo's name," Marinette tried to speak dramatically too, but not too much. She wanted to sound believable for when she said it in class but not ridiculous.

"It is my soul that calls upon my name: How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night, like softest music to attending ears!"

"Romeo!"

"My dear?"

Marinette and Chat Noir locked eyes, pausing for a moment.

"At-At what o'clock to-morrow shall I send to thee?" Marinette asked with a slight stutter.

Chat grinned confidently. "At the hour of nine."

"I will not fail: 'tis twenty years till then. I have forgot why I did call thee back."

"Let me stand here till thou remember it."

"I shall forget, to have thee still stand there, remembering how I love thy company." Trying something extra for the scene, Marinette leaned her elbow onto the railing with her hand under her chin so she could pretend to look lovingly down at her 'Romeo' as they spoke.

"And I'll still stay, to have thee still forget, forgetting any other home but this," Chat said, placing his hands on his chest.

"Tis almost morning; I would have thee gone. And yet no further than a wanton's bird; who lets it hop a little from her hand, like a poor prisoner in his twisted-" Marinette paused. Wait. How are you supposed to pronounce that word? "Um…guy…?" she tried nervously.

Damn it, Shakespeare! This was exactly what she was afraid of doing in front of Adrien and the class.

"Gyves," she heard Chat Noir said patiently. "Or you can also pronounce it with a 'j' sound."

"Right, sorry," she said, a bit embarrassed.

"It's okay. Just keep going," he told her encouragingly.

Marinette smiled, grateful for Chat's help and positivity. It was invaluable when they were fighting akumas together, and even for smaller things like this.

"…like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves, and with a silk thread plucks it back again, so loving-jealous of his liberty," Marinette finished the line more confidently.

"I would I were thy bird."

"Sweet, so would I. Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing. Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow. That I shall say good night till it be morrow," Marinette finished strong before crawling back away from the railing again.

Technically, they could just stop there. But 'Romeo' had one more line to officially end the scene.

"Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast! Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest! Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell, his help to crave, and my dear hap to tell," Chat finished strong as well, bowing his head.

A few seconds later, Marinette poked her head out from over the railing and looked down at him again. At the same time, Chat opened an eye and glanced up at her, catching her gaze.

The two grinned before laughing together.

gyves-a fetter or shackle

I was not the best reader when I was a kid. Heck, I really didn't like reading at all when I was a kid. Not until I discovered fanfiction a few years ago. And part of the problem was that I had a hard time pronouncing hard words, especially when I had to read out loud. I still have a bit of trouble to this day.

See u tomorrow =^.^=