Chapter Ten – Friends

At school the next morning, Marinette made the mistake of doodling a pair of cat ears in her notebook while waiting for class to start. Well, that wasn't really the mistake. But she should have hidden it better.

"So how is Cat Noir these days?" Alya asked, sliding toward Marinette on their bench.

"I don't know, Alya. You're the one who follows him and Ladybug around all the time. Shouldn't I be asking you?"

"But I'm not the one with the massive crush on him."

"Humph." Marinette bent low over her paper and continued doodling, trying to ignore her friend.

Alya slid closer, until they were hip to hip. "I don't hear any denials," she sang.

"Only because you wouldn't believe them anyway." Why waste the energy? The cat ears on her notebook complete, she moved on to drawing whiskers and a nose. Cat Noir was going to be so excited tonight! She'd worked out all the details and was ready to surprise him. She couldn't wait to see his face! Uh... the happy look on his face. Not that she couldn't wait to see his face. You know what? She was going to stop thinking now.

Alya bumped her shoulder, trying to get her attention. When Marinette continued to ignore her, she tried a different tactic. "What do you think, Adrien?"

"About what?" Adrien broke off his conversation with Nino and turned around in his seat. Wide-eyed and smiling, he looked up at them, glancing from one to the other.

"Cat Noir and my girl, here." She slung an arm over Marinette's shoulders. "Don't you think they'd be cute together?"

Marinette shook her head.

"Why not?" Adrien said. "She's great, he's great."

This is a new low, Alya.

"I don't know," Marinette said, tapping her chin. "I don't think I could stand the smell."

"The... smell?" Adrien asked, leaning back in his seat. "What are you-"

"Yeah," she continued, "because of all the purr-fume."

Adrien blinked, then laughed. "You share a sense of humor, too." He looked overjoyed by the joke, and bouncier than she had ever seen him.

Marinette chuckled. "Yea—no. No, I just..." Had heard enough bad puns that they came naturally? Was thinking about Cat Noir a lot today? What was wrong with her?! But Ms. Mendeleiev came in, and Marinette was spared from finishing her sentence.

"Where did your stutter go?" Alya whispered, as soon as the teacher's back was turned.

Marinette bent low over her notebook, pretending to be engrossed in the class. Where had her stutter gone? She'd held a normal conversation. And told him a cat pun?! She dug her pencil too hard into her paper and ripped a hole in it.

The worst part was how terrible she didn't feel when Adrien – her Adrien – had agreed she and Cat Noir would be great together.

I'm just excited about tonight, Marinette reasoned. I wasn't giving Adrien my full attention.

As soon as she realized this meant she had been distracted from Adrien by thoughts Cat Noir, she shut down that line of thinking, claimed it must have been due to a serious lack of sleep, and forced herself to pay attention to the class. She was only mildly successful. At the end of the day, her pages were half filled with notes and half with doodles of green eyes and black masks.

She hid them all from Alya.

Ten o'clock could not come fast enough. Marinette's poor partner had been so sad the last time she'd seen him, but she was about to change that (she hoped). A full 30 minutes before she needed to, Marinette was ready to leave.

"Isn't this a little early?" Tikki asked.

"Well, yeah." Marinette took her phone out of her pocket. Everything was set, so why wait? "But he always beats me out there. I want to be first for once. Spots on." Careful not to drop her phone and the slip of paper she had prepared, Ladybug rushed to the Eiffel Tower.

Even as early as she was, Cat Noir still got there before her.

"Ladybug!" he yelled, waving. "Aww! Couldn't wait to see me again?"

"Something like that," she said, a blush already rising. What was with her today? It wasn't like she had a crush on him! They were just friends! "Surprise!" Ladybug pulled out her phone and showed him the app she had found, pushing it into his face.

"What?"

"Texting!" she said, pulling her phone back and handing him the paper. "It's what friends do instead of talking!"

He examined the string of numbers she'd handed him. "You- you're giving me your number?" He looked guarded, like he didn't trust what she was saying. "You said that's too dang-"

"It is, but look!" She held up her phone again. "It's not my real number. It's a texting app. You can download, too. And we can set special ringtones, and bury them in folders so no one will see them, and password-protect them AND we can talk in code, so it always stays secure."

"I think that might be overkill." Cat Noir was quiet and still, staring down at the paper in his hands.

Ladybug felt suddenly self-conscious. "Sorry this is kind of a lame surprise. I want to be here for you, but sharing identities is still too risky." She was not about to admit that she had considered that, if only briefly.

"Lame?" he asked, looking up. "Do I have permission to text you whenever I want?" As soon as she nodded, he said, "Then this is the best gift I've ever received!" He dove in for a hug and spun her around. "You might regret saying I can text whenever I want."

"Oh, I'm sure I will."

He set her down, but gave her one last squeeze before letting go.

"Rules!" she said, already missing his warmth. "We at least have to have a code and nicknames for each other. My best friend likes to stick her nose into everything."

"Right," Cat Noir said, suddenly all business. "I'd like you to name my contact either 'Hot Stuff' or 'Eye Candy.' 'Dreamboat' is also acceptable."

Ladybug made a show of looking him up and down. Then, in the most unimpressed tone she could manage, she said, "Well, that's too bad for you, isn't it?"

"C'mon! You know it's true!"

"Nope."

Yup.

There was no way she would ever say it out loud, but the truth was undeniable: Cat Noir was very good-looking. She had to force her mind back to the conversation in order to distract herself from the temptation of checking him out again.

"There's two reasons we're doing this," she said. "One, it'll be easier to coordinate patrols and warn each other about akumas."

"Ooh! I have an idea for our secret code," Cat Noir said, his ears perking up. "Want to hear it?"

"No, I don't think I do."

"Okay, here goes. When there's an akuma, I'll text you that your boyfriend-" He pointed to himself, so there could be no doubt as to who he meant. "-needs some kissing action, and the monster's location is our secret rendezvous point." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

What would that be like? she wondered. Slipping away to see him, hiding from passersby all over the city, squeezing into too-small spaces together, kissing him when no one was watching, letting him tangle his claws in her hair, his lips trailing along her jaw-

OKAY! That's enough of that!

With effort, she wrenched herself back to reality, where Cat Noir was waiting for a witty retort.

"Y-yeah, and I'll put your contact as 'Man of My Dreams' and gush about how much I love you, and my friends will TOTALLY lay off. Good plan." Smooth.

"Oh, I like that idea, My Lady. We should do that."

"I'm going to name you... The Dork."

"Aw!"

He pouted, but she didn't let herself think about the lip that he stuck out. "Second thing!" she said. "You are going to text me when something's bothering you. Got it? Let me know if you need me, because I know you're not as much of a tough guy as you pretend to be."

Cat Noir huffed dramatically and tried (and failed) to look indignant. "I'm super tough! I should be offended."

"And yet you're not," she said. "Seriously, if you need a hug or something, just ask."

"So the code," he said thoughtfully.

"I already disagree with whatever you're about to say."

"If it's not an emergency, then 'your boyfriend needs some hugging action.' An akuma remains 'kissing action.' Sound good?" He leaned in playfully, lips puckered, but let Ladybug push his face away.

"Don't get your hopes up," she said, Cat Noir's face still smushed against her palm. "I'm going to tell everyone I have to leave suddenly because my neighbor needs a babysitter."

He let out a muffled, "Aw, man! Babysitting?! That's what you think of me?" His breath tickled her hand.

"I'm happy you're taking this so well." And that he was happy again, as she'd hoped. They sat down and talked and laughed together for a while longer, and Ladybug felt that all was right in the world. Their dynamic seemed to finally be returning to normal – with the occasional addition of her furious blushing that she couldn't figure out. The only logical conclusion had to be wrong.

When Ladybug returned to her room, everything was dark and peaceful. Her parents had been in bed for ages. Even the street outside was quiet. She hadn't realized they'd been out there for that long. It was the second time that week she'd lost track of while with him.

Within seconds of detransforming and climbing into bed, her phone buzzed, just as she'd expected. Marinette checked it happily.

The Dork: I don't know if I like my code anymore.

Marinette: I know I'm going to regret it, but I'm asking you why anyway.

The Dork: Because how am I supposed to ask you for real kisses if 'kiss' is already a code word? 😩 😭

Marinette: GOOD NIGHT, DORK.

Without him there, it was easier to push away thoughts of secret rendezvous and stolen moments alone.

As she snuggled under her covers, her last conscious thought was of Adrien, and wondering how it was possible that she hadn't though of him once since seeing him at school.

Author's note: Marinette made that joke in class completely on her own. I had NOTHING to do with it. I just got to that part in the draft and she's like, "Hey, writer, I'm making a joke to Adrien about how bad Cat Noir smells. You'd better think of a pun that makes it make sense." And I just rolled with it. (And she definitely set his ringtone to either "Nyan Cat" or "I'm a Kitty Cat.") There should be one more (short) chapter this week!