Day 29: Cuddles

Ah, weekends. The end of a long week when hard working citizens and students can take a break before another week begins.

Even a busy, over-worked young model like Adrien Agreste was allowed a day off.

…of sitting in his room and doing whatever he can being confide to there.

Which gave him the perfect opportunity to transform into Chat Noir, hop out his window, and go visit his favorite bluenette princess.

As he always did, he knocked on her skylight to let her know that he was there. However, after waiting a minute, he was puzzled when she didn't come up. He tried knocking again and waited another minute, but she still didn't.

This had him concerned. Marinette had told him just the other day that she wasn't going anywhere all weekend so he knew she had to be home. So why wasn't she letting him in?

Maybe she was just downstairs or in the bathroom. To test this, Chat leaned down and pressed his ear—his cat and regular one—closer to the glass. Yup, he could hear footsteps, clicks from a keyboard, and what he assumed was a sowing machine.

Normally, Chat didn't like to enter Marinette's room without permission, but he knew she was at least in there. And he wanted to know why she couldn't seem to hear his knocking. So Chat opened the trapdoor and jumped down, landing on her bed.

The sight that greeted Chat when he looked down at the main floor of Marinette's room was, to say the least, odd.

Marinette was indeed there, and he understood why she hadn't heard him knocking.

He watched her for a minute as she franticly went back and forth between three different tasks; typing what he assumed was something for school on her computer, sowing something at her sowing machine, then looking at fabric samples laid out on her chaise.

"Marinette?" Chat called down to her at a normal volume, but she didn't seem to hear him. "Marinette!" he said again, a bit louder this time. Again, she continued on like he wasn't there. Chat rolled his eyes and just jumped over her loft railing, down to her main floor. He landed right behind her as she stood in front of her desk. "Marinette!" he said, about as loud as his second attempt.

Marinette screamed with a jump, dropping a notebook and pencil that was in her hands before turning around. "Ah! Chat!" she exclaimed upon seeing him behind her. "Geeze, you scared me. Why didn't you knock?" she said, holding her chest.

"I did knock, twice," he deadpanned.

"Oh, sorry. I'm just really busy is all," she apologized, a bit embarrassed.

"But it's Sunday."

Even he had the day off today.

Marinette picked up her notebook and pencil and started walking around her room again. "I know, but I have so much to do. I have to finish Jagged Stone's new jacket, finish my report on Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and pick the colors for Kitty Section's new costumes," she explained hurriedly, zipping back and forth between her desk, sowing machine, and chaise. "Sorry, kitty. I can't play with you today. You should go home."

When she stopped at her desk for a bit longer, Chat took the chance to study her appearance a bit closer. Her hair looked sort of messy, still in her usual pigtails. And there were dark circles under her eyes.

"Marinette, have you been up all night?"

"Sure, why do you ask?"

Her quick and simple response without even looking back at him was even more alarming.

"Marinette, forget about playing video games. You should get some sleep," he told her, reaching up to grab her shoulder.

"Sleep? It's like two in the afternoon," she said before quickly turning and walking right past him again to her chaise. "Besides, I'm too busy." Marinette knelt down by her chaise and picked up a few fabric pieces, one by one.

"Princess, forgive me for saying this but, you look…" He was going to say 'terrible' but he just couldn't. She still looked beautiful to him, even with her messy bluenette hair and dark bags under her bluebell eyes. "frazzled," he said instead. "And if you didn't get any sleep last night, you should at least take a short nap."

"I don't need a cat nap. I-I mean nap, Chat." Marinette shook her head and blinked a few extra times. "I don't need a nap, Chat. Is what I meant to say," she corrected herself before going back to sorting the samples.

"See! You can barely form sentences," he exclaimed in concern. She did stutter a lot, but that one sounded different. It was clearly a sign of sleep deprivation. Marinette put the fabrics down again and stood up but she wobbled a bit on her feet. Chat reached out and steadied her shoulders. "Mari, you look like you're about ready to collapse."

"Chat, for the love of-" Marinette yawned as she moved away from him again. "I'm fine. I've got too much to do," she said as she took two steps toward her sowing machine before starting to sway again. "So please…just leave and I'll-" Marinette's body tipped backwards. Luckily, Chat was right there to stop her. Then just as quickly, the feline hero scooped her up into his arms. "Chat, no. Put-put me down," Marinette weakly protested before another yawn forced its way out of her mouth. "Bad kitty," she mumbled as her eyes started to droop and her head fell against Chat's shoulder.

"No. You need some sleep. And I'm gonna make sure you do," Chat declared as he made his way to her stairs and carried her up to her loft bed.

Instead of laying her down, Chat laid down first and let Marinette lie beside him with her head on his chest.

Chat kept his arms around her so she couldn't get up. He doubted she had the strength to but he wasn't taking the chance.

"Chat…I really should-" Marinette still tried to protest but she soon easily snuggled against him.

"Shhhhh. Sleep, princess," Chat sweetly hushed her.

He smiled as he reached a hand up to her messy pigtails and took out her hair ties. Black clad, clawed fingers ran gently through her bluenette locks as his other hand rubbed her back. And for added comfort, Chat began to purr.

The soothing vibrations where too much for Marinette, and within minutes, she was fast asleep.

Chat kept going, even after he was sure she was indeed sound asleep, just to make sure she stayed asleep. Plus, he enjoyed holding her as she slept soundly.

Now this was what Sundays were for. And Chat hoped to have more like them in the future.

Just maybe without Marinette overworking herself to exhaustion. That wasn't healthy.

Rest was healthy. And so was cuddling an affectionate and protective cat.

I know this story could technically also fall under the Day 31 prompt 'Rest,' but I felt it belonged under 'Cuddles' more. That being so, I'm just gonna let u all know now that I'm skipping Day 31, so that means tomorrow's story will be my last post here.

So, see u tomorrow =^.^=