Howdy! Welcome to Against The World, a fic I started for LadyNoir July 2023 then took like 7 months to write. I'll have this whole fic up by the end of March, but if you're desperate to read it now, it's cross-posted on AO3!
Love y'all! Enjoy!
"Marinette, we're gonna get them back one by one, to the very last. And we'll make sure this never happens again," she listened to his voice in her dream. It had been recurring, always the same scene of the first appearance of Monarch.
"You and me?" The words came from her mouth without a second thought, replaying the memory just like usual, but something felt different this time. She was pulled into a hug that she was happy to return. "Wait, what did you call me?"
"Marinette," he responded. She felt a change from within her arms and the black leather of his suit became a stark white. The voice was familiar, too, but it didn't sound like when he chased her around the destroyed city. It sounded, oddly enough, like the nightmare Adrien that was caused by Sandboy.
She felt the pounding of her heart in her chest and wondered if it was possible to have a panic attack within a dream. She couldn't stay focused on anything as her thoughts bounced between his voice sounding like Adrien's, his words sounding like Chat Noir's, and him looking like Chat Blanc.
She forced herself awake with a start, taking a few deep breaths like the ones Chat had helped coach her through since Monarch came into being. It felt like he'd had to help calm her down hundreds of times, despite it only really being a dozen times or so.
She reached up to touch her earring, feeling the stud sitting stably in her ear, right where it belonged. Tikki, on a small pillow right by Marinette's head, was also right where she belonged. When she saw her kwami, it felt like she was able to catch her breath for the first time since waking up.
She, once again, found herself wishing that she'd had a way to communicate with Chat as a civilian, like he had the button for the little cat plushy that stood at her bedside. She heard a short "mrew" that came from the ledge the cat sat on and found herself entranced by the little cat as it practically bounced.
"What's that sound, Marinette?" Tikki asked through her groggy daze. She turned over to look in Marinette's direction where she was still staring at the cat figurine.
"I need to talk to Chat," Marinette responded, trying to fill her voice with confidence. It clearly didn't work, as her voice wavered when she spoke. "Something's wrong." Tikki nodded in acceptance and Marinette called on her transformation.
When she transformed, the first thing she did was touch her yo-yo. When she felt reassured that it was where it was meant to be, she picked it up and used it to dial Chat's baton. She took a long, deep breath as the dial tone played from her yo-yo.
"My lady?" Chat inquired when he answered. "What are you doing awake? You should be sleeping by now. Is everything okay?" She was taken aback by the question and couldn't think of an answer. "Shoot, did I wake you up? I'm sorry if I did. I just… couldn't sleep."
"Yeah," she agreed, "neither could I." It was a lie, and she knew that it was a lie, but she couldn't help the words as they slipped from her lips. She never liked lying to him, but she needed to, usually because of their identities. This time was different, though, she didn't need to lie to him, she chose to lie to him.
She climbed up to her balcony for a breath of fresh air, hopeful that the sounds of her movement wouldn't be picked up over the phone. Even if they were, though, she was hopeful that the sounds of her trapdoor weren't enough to be recognized as Marinette's, out of all the apartments in Paris.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked after a few minutes of silently sitting on opposite sides of the phone line. She looked out over their city, where pictures of themselves, akumas, and even a few select photos of their resident mothman were sitting, staring out over Paris. They all seemed to be watching her as she stood there, stewing in her thoughts.
"I'm trying not to," she admitted shyly. She let out a long, shaky exhale. "Thinking leads to over thinking, and that's not something I think I'm ready for tonight. Right now, I think I just need to take a step back and not be a hero for a little while, you know?"
She heard a bit of shifting from his side of the line and wondered what he was doing that sounded like fabric brushing over his baton's microphone. She could practically hear the smile on his face when he finally spoke again. "Well," he began, "it's still pretty early. Can I interest this totally not a hero right now in a few rounds of video games at the Eiffel Tower?"
She knew it was a terrible idea. As much as she craved a few minutes of normalcy, of not having to focus all of her attention on being a hero, she knew it would be a terrible idea to go hang out with him in the middle of the night. He claimed it was still early, but she knew it was already at least 02h15 when she woke up.
On the other hand, though, he was her partner, the only person she wasconfidentshe could trust. She didn'tregrettelling Alya her secret- in fact, Marinette was certain she would've fallen to pieces a lot sooner if she didn't. After finding out that Alya told Nino about Rena Furtive, she started questioning how much she should tell the ex-fox heroine.
He was right, itwasearly. "Yeah," she agreed after a few moments. "Yeah, I think I could use a few minutes of just hanging out. I can meet you there in like 15? You bring the games and I'll bring some snacks?"
She nervously gnawed on her lower lip. This wasn't their first time meeting to just… spend time together, but it still made her just as nervous as it did the first time. "Sounds perfect, LB. I'll see you soon." He hung up first. She transformed so that she could sneak into the kitchen to get a few bags of crisps and a few croissants, hoping Chat wouldn't think anything of the pastries.
She put on a jacket, just in case, putting her phone into her pocket, then she transformed back into her hero persona. Before she left through her trapdoor, she got distracted. She didn't know why the cat plush captured her attention so easily that night, but she picked it up and put it into her yo-yo. Having it there made her calm down a little bit and she left into the night to go meet Chat Noir.
