MariChat May Day 2: Purring

Marinette leaves school early, and Chat Noir drops by to make sure she's ok.

Chat Noir landed lightly on Marinette's balcony and peered in through her open trap door, frowning in disappointment when he didn't see her. There was a pile of blankets on her usually tidy bed, but the rest of the room was empty. "Princess?" The pile of blankets on the bed below him moved, to reveal a tousled head of blue-black hair and he jumped in surprise.

"Chat?" Marinette blinked owlishly at him, and then gestured for him to come in. "What are you doing here so early?"

"I, uh…" He let himself down through the trap door, and tried to think fast. He was there because she'd gone home from school early, and he was so anxious to check on her that he hadn't wanted to wait until dark to come for a visit, but he couldn't tell her that.

"Never mind." Her arm snaked out of the blanket mound to tug on his arm, and he allowed her to pull him down beside her. "So long as you're here, you can come snuggle with me." She threw the blankets over him and then tucked herself in against him, with her back to his front.

He propped his head in his head, and surveyed their position in bemusement. "Well, this is…new." She stiffened, and he mentally kicked himself for saying the wrong thing. He rushed to continue. "Not that I mind, in the least. I just wasn't expecting it. Are you—I mean, is everything ok?"

"Um, I'm just not…feeling like myself," she replied, and he could see a blush spread over her cheeks. "You know, um, lady things?"

"Lady th—oh! OH!" He felt a blush heat his own face. "Is there, er, anything I can do? To uh, help?"

"N-not really. Just cuddle, and keep me company? I mean, if you don't mind staying for a while?"

Chat smiled and tucked a pillow under his head, so that he could relax. "I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing, Princess."

Marinette discovered two things when she woke, sometime later that evening. First, that she and Chat had shifted in their sleep, so that she was laying on her back, with his body pressed against the length of hers, his face nuzzled into her neck, and his warm hand resting low on her belly; and second, that he was purring. It was a low rumbling sound that she could feel as well as hear, and she smiled wonderingly. Chat Noir purred!

She touched his chest experimentally, and giggled to feel the vibrations in her fingertips.

"Ngh." The purrs stopped, and Chat pushed himself up in confusion. "Wha—Marinette?"

She giggled again. "We fell asleep."

"Oh. Right." He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "Are you feeling better?"

"I—yes!" Marinette realized with some surprise that she actually was feeling better. She'd had menstrual cramps bad enough to send her home from school, and as usual, nothing she took could touch them. Normally, she was lucky if they lasted only a day or two. She looked thoughtfully at Chat. "Did you know that you purr?"

He blushed, and his black cat ears drooped. "Yeah, that happens sometimes. Is that weird?"

She laughed. "No more weird than the fact that you run around dressed as a black cat," she replied, flicking the bell at his neck. "I like it. And I-I think your purring might be why I'm feeling better."

"Really?" His ears rose hopefully. "Can we keep snuggling, then?"

Marinette nodded, and he curled around her once more, purring happily.

For whatever reason, I had a really hard time with this, and I'm not entirely pleased with the results. But I read recently that cats purr at a frequency that encourages healing, and I wanted to use that somehow. I'm tempted to go back and mess with it some more, but-nah. (I need to go to bed and technically, I should have had this posted 18 minutes ago.) Thoughts?