CHAPTER 9: Excuses

After Adrien had changed into Chat Noir again, he couldn't sit still, pacing anxiously around his room. He tried doing some of his homework, tried writing something for the physics project, and even practiced his Chinese for a solid 5 minutes. Now, as he sat down to practice the piano, he realized he couldn't really play it with the clawed gloves of his supersuit. He sighed in defeat and banged his head against the keys. The disharmonious sound matched his mood perfectly, as his mind could not decide what emotion to settle on.

Well, if I can't be productive doing the things Adrien should be doing, maybe I should just go out again, he thought, turning his head to glance outside. It did feel a bit weird just lounging around his room as Chat Noir instead of Adrien; what if Nathalie or his father came into his room, only to see a superhero in his place? He didn't need all the questions that would surely result from a situation like that, not when he was dealing with protecting Marinette from an akuma. Plus, Ladybug would kill him if someone found out his identity.

After sending a quick message to Nathalie to let her know he was working a project with his friends at school, he eagerly jumped out his window and took to the rooftops. His anxiety diminished as he moved around, but his thoughts remained on Marinette. He decided to go find her, not coming up with anything else to do. I could watch over her, he justified, just in case she turns into her soul animal! That was reasonable, right?

Scouring the streets for his classmate, he realized he had no idea where she could be. He had last left her on the doorstep of the bakery a little over an hour ago. Did she stay home, because she was only answering the door for Sabrina? Did she go out to do something? Was she already heading towards Notre Dame, where she would meet up with the akuma near the Seine? He decided the best place to look first would be the bakery and the surrounding area. If he didn't find her, well, he'd figure out what to do later.

He landed on top of his school, closing in on the bakery. From here, he could see through a few windows of the apartment upstairs but didn't find Marinette. He circled around the building, peaking through the different windows and being extra thorough in checking what he thought was Marinette's room. No such luck.

Lastly, he checked the actual bakery itself, figuring that his classmate might be helping her parents with their business. But the bakery actually looked pretty empty at the moment, the lunch rush being done for the day. Marinette's mother was rearranging the pastries in the front display cabinet.

Getting a bit frustrated, he hopped back up onto the rooftops in order to avoid the civilians on the street, who would be sure to question him if he stayed down for too long. He paused on top of the school building and decided that expanding his search outward would help, especially if Marinette was somewhere on the streets. But it was also likely for her to be at a friend's house or somewhere else indoors where it would be hard to see her. Wow, trying to find Marinette is a lot harder than I thought it would be…

And then a scary thought came to him: what if she's already transformed into her soul animal? How would he be able to find her then?

He felt his heart rate increase a little in panic, and he took a deep breath to force himself to calm down. It had only been- what, maybe an hour or two?- since he had kissed her hand? Surely she hasn't transformed yet…

He was just about to leap off the roof again to do circles around the bakery, when he glimpsed a familiar figure walking down the street. Marinette! She had a few shopping bags with her; it was obvious that she had just gotten some groceries. He ducked down out of her sight (not that she was looking up anyway, he chided himself), unsure how she would react to seeing him. He was supposed to be protecting her, but technically not until later.

His eyes followed her as she entered the bakery, giving her mother a kiss on the cheek and setting down the bags on the counter. They conversed for a minute before Marinette disappeared through the back of the bakery. Where did she go?

He once again circled the bakery to find her, but was relieved to know that she was at least inside and safe. A minute or two later he observed her entering her room through the trapdoor with a plate full of cookies. She set the plate down on her desk and shoved one into her mouth, which made Chat immediately salivate. He had heard from Alya and Nino how amazing her family's baked goods were and resolved to try some soon, model diet be damned.

As she plopped down on her chaise and took out her sketchbook, pencil swiftly running over the page in inspiration, Chat was grateful for the convenient angle of sight into her room. From his position, he would definitely be able to see if something happened, like if she changed into her soul animal, or if the akuma came for her before their meet-up time. With that thought, he took out his baton to check the time: 4:29pm. Just about two hours until sunset.

An hour flew by as he viewed her from his position on the adjacent rooftop. He stared, slightly enraptured by her changing expressions as she worked, her tongue briefly sticking out in random intervals. He wondered how often people saw her like this- so in the zone- and he briefly felt guilty for spying on her. But, he reasoned as he pushed away his conscience, this is necessary.And he couldn't deny that he enjoyed viewing a side of Marinette he hadn't seen before.

He had rarely taken his eyes off her for the duration of his watching, so he was surprised to see that her whole plate of cookies was gone when she reached for the last one. He was sure he had only seen her eat one or two, but maybe he had missed it while lost in thought.

A few minutes after she had eaten her final cookie, his enhanced hearing picked up a voice sounding from the floor below: "Marinette, time for dinner!"

The girl was so focused that it was like she didn't even hear the yelling. Chat chuckled in amusement, curiously watching for what would happen next. After a minute or so, the superhero heard someone on the stairs, a heavy sort of gait from what he could tell. His eyes were trained on Marinette as she jumped and looked up from her work, startled. Shifting his position a bit, he saw that her father had opened the trapdoor, and was telling her that dinner was ready. A sheepish smile dawned on her face, and the large man chuckled fondly before beckoning her down the stairs.

They ate dinner quickly; Chat watched through another window as Marinette nervously looked at the time on her phone while eating. Oh right, sunset is getting close. He felt his stomach suddenly tie itself in knots as he was reminded of why he was here- not to spy on her, but to protect her. Determination flooded through him, and he stood from his held position, shaking himself loose in preparation to move.

He listened in as she said goodbye to her parents, making an excuse about going over to a friend's house for the physics project. It was obvious that they didn't know where she was really going. He didn't know whether to commend her for her bravery for being so willing to face the akuma alone, or to reprimand her for not letting her parents know what was going on. It was obvious they cared about her, and he was a bit envious and upset that she was taking their love for granted at the moment. What if something happened to her with the akuma? They didn't even know that she was putting herself in danger!

He followed the sound of her feet as she ran down the stairs, and she stopped briefly in the now-closed bakery to fish a few more cookies from the display. She's so lucky to have access to so many baked goods, he thought, in a brief surge of jealousy. She stashed the cookies in her purse before leaving out the door.

As she power-walked towards Notre Dame, Chat followed her closely over the rooftops. After fifteen minutes or so, he saw Evillustrator in the distance, and hung back from the akuma's sight as items shimmered into existence onto the boat. When Marinette stepped up to greet the akuma, Adrien finally felt the full weight of the night rest on his shoulders.

It's time for you to be erased, akuma.

"We've been penned in! Literally!" Next to her, Chat Noir hit the sides of the box in frustration. Dang it. The plan had been going so well...

When Marinette had approached the akuma earlier, she had felt confident- not just because she was secretly Ladybug and currently had Chat for protection, but because she felt sure that Nathaniel- er, Evillustrator- wouldn't hurt her. Obviously, that had changed when the akuma found out she had betrayed him. While trapping them in this box wasn't directly hurting them, it was certainly a threat on the now-sinking boat.

Tikki tried to fly out of her bag, as if sensing her distress. But Marinette hurriedly pushed her back in; she could still solve this without transforming! Desperately looking around like she often did when a lucky charm was present, she immediately found a solution to their box problem. "Chat Noir! Your stick, like this!" She grabbed his baton to turn it vertically, motioning upwards. "Then extend it!"

"Great thinking!" he exclaimed, beaming at her. He then proceeded to wrap an arm around her waist in preparation to lift her off of the boat.

"Yeah, I'm a genius!" she agreed, slightly annoyed that he was so close to her. Does he ever stop flirting? She quickly grabbed his arm to pull it away from her, while also briefly pushing his face away with her hand. She ignored the not-so-subtle warmth that passed through her at touching him, trying to focus on getting out of their predicament so they could fight the akuma.

Chat Noir used his baton as she had directed, propelling them all the way to the bridge. He smoothly caught her bridal style when they landed, shortening his baton and kick flipping it back into his hand as he put her down.

"Gotta go," he said as he stored his stick on his lower back. "A superhero's work is never done. Damsels in distress, ladies in waiting…" He ticked off a few fingers on his raised hand. "I got a lot more saving to do. You can thank me later!" He ran off, jumping across the buildings towards Le Grand Paris.

Tikki flew up to Marinette's eye level as the girl scoffed at his words. "Me? Thank him? Please! He should be thanking me! We'd still be trapped if I hadn't told him how to do his job." She put finger quotes around the word "job."

"Speaking of which…" Tikki motioned with her arm and gave her holder a look.

Marinette smiled, determination showing on her face. "That boy's going to need our help saving Chloe!"

When Ladybug got to the hotel, she instantly realized that fighting the akuma would be tricky, considering he had the ability to draw whatever he wanted with his pen and tablet combination. But then she had remembered that he couldn't draw in the dark and it became a lot easier to defeat him. Even though Chat's cataclysm failed, her lucky charm gave another way to get rid of all the lights in the room. And after throwing the bouncy ball with a precision only Ladybug's luck could give her, obtaining Evillustrator's pen and capturing the akuma had been a piece of cake. She even had enough time to make it safely home before she transformed back into Marinette.

"Ugh, Tikki, that akuma was exhausting." She dramatically flopped onto her chaise, having just said goodnight to her parents downstairs. Tikki giggled from where she had landed on Marinette's leg, eating the cookies the girl had stuffed into her purse earlier.

"You did great, Marinette! Now you just have the physics project left to do!"

Marinette sat up in panic, before groaning into her hands. "Dang it, the project… I totally messed up with Sabrina today, didn't I?"

"Don't worry! It wasn't your fault; there was an akuma after all," Tikki reassured her. "You have a few more days before it's due, right? That's enough time for you to make amends with Sabrina and get the project done!"

Marinette smiled gratefully at her kwami. "You're right, Tikki. Maybe I should get some of my other homework done tonight so that I can dedicate more time to the project tomorrow."

"That's a great idea!" the bug voiced. "Just make sure you don't stay up too late, though."

A modest grin graced the girl's face at Tikki's mother-like tone. "I won't."

Marinette forced herself to stand up from the chaise before she fell asleep right then and there. She immediately dropped right back down into her desk chair and pulled out her tablet from her backpack, which she had retrieved from the school earlier in the day, long before going on her "date" with the akuma. For about an hour, she trudged through her homework until she felt too exhausted to think any longer.

Wanting to get as much sleep as possible, she quickly changed into a pair of pajamas and washed her face in her nightly routine. As she crawled into bed, she lazily undid her pigtails, keeping the hair bands on her wrist. Tikki was already half-asleep on the pillow next to her, and Marinette sought to follow her example.

However, even though she was both physically and mentally exhausted from the day, two instances stuck with her and kept her from immediately going to sleep. The first was when Chat had kissed her hand; the second being when she had pushed his face away when they were trapped in the box. Both times had involved skin-to-skin contact with Chat Noir, each causing a familiar shock to pass through her.

Did I feel… the spark with Chat?

She thought she would only ever feel that way with her soulmate, which in her mind was obviously Adrien, even though that had yet to be confirmed. Maybe it's some sort of residual miraculous magic between us, she thought, trying to convince herself otherwise. There's no way Chat and I could be soulmates.

Part of her was tempted to ask Tikki for clarification, but she opted not to, willing to let it go in favor of sleep. After all, she was perfectly fine with her life the way it was: loving Adrien from afar, and just being superhero partners with Chat. Nothing had to change too much. Well, except finding out for sure that Adrien was her soulmate.

Oh, Adrien, Marinette thought longingly, as she snuggled under the covers further. The boy of her dreams was a much better topic to think about as she fell asleep. She reached over in sudden remembrance to turn on her alarm for the morning and rubbed Tikki's head in fondness as her arm traveled back under the covers.

"Goodnight, Tikki," she murmured, already starting to drift off.

"Goodnight, Marinette," came the sleepy kwami's reply.

Marinette soon became dead to the world, while phantoms of black cats persisted in her dreams.

A/N: Marinette, I think you're in denial... Adrien is a bit as well. XD

*Edited 11/25/19*