[[ I wrote this, and then completely rewrote it, and then saw how long it was and tried to shorten it…but it just didn't work out. So…here you go. A big ol' chapter in a series that was just supposed to be silly drabble-y chapters. n.n ]]

AND THE WINNER IS...

Day 5 Prompt:

"Right now, I don't know if I want to kiss you or shove you off a bridge."

"Can I pick?"

Marinette had never wished for an Akuma attack in her life. Usually she would complain at having one right after the other, especially when she had fought against her own best friend the day before. Usually she would huff at the inconsiderate disposal of bad vibes two days in a row. But not today.

Today, Marinette had found out in the worst way possible the real identity of her partner.

Today, Marinette had gone only about 10 minutes into homeroom until the fragments of her broken reality started unwillingly piecing themselves together, despite her best efforts to avoid doing so.

Today, Marinette had only lasted another hour before Mme. Bustier sent her to the nurse's office for fear that a sudden, feverish illness had taken hold of her.

So, today, Marinette was thankful for the second Akuma attack in a row – Not for someone getting Akumatized, really, but for the distraction. Even if it was Nathanael.

The boy had a huge crush on her. Who knew?

She didn't.

But apparently, as Marinette found out later, her red-haired classmate hadn't handled what the class had (appropriately) named the "doorway scene" very well. Like there was any question about who Marinette liked before that, right? Adrien was pretty attached to her by the hip (or the other way around, but that doesn't matter). Nathanael, though, apparently had harbored some sort of hope for her affections despite all this, only to have them dashed to pieces at the sight of her playful, flirtatious banter with her civilian counterpart.

What really sealed the deal, though, was when Mme. Bustier, upon insisting Marinette go see the nurse, had then pointedly asked Adrien to escort her there (that complete shipper!) The other students had let out some suggestive "ooooo's" before stage-whispering philosophies on what the two "really would be doing." Beyond being embarrassing for the two teens to whom the comments were directed, Nathanael, the sweet boy, had had a silent meltdown at the interchange. Marinette and Adrien had barely made it down the hall before Nathanael, in all his stripey supersuit and Anime hair glory, had burst through the wall of the classroom.

The sight of an Akuma, admittedly, didn't surprise Marinette very much. Their school – their class – seemed to have a propensity for attracting the bad-news butterflies.

What did surprise Marinette, thought, was feeling Adrien's hands suddenly grab hold of her, one on her waist and on her arm, tightening defensively. Thankfully the destruction happening around her covered her internally and somewhat outward screaming at the sudden, protective physical contact. But while Marinette was internally reeling at this seemingly simple action, the gesture only seemed to further upset the possessed boy facing them.

A snarl was the only warning they had before the Akuma raised his hand, twirling his magical stylus and – !

– started doodling on his magical sketchpad.

(It would have been comedic to see the way both secret superheroes' heads tilted questioningly at this gesture.)

"Here's something to help with your perfect hair, Model Boy!"

As they watched, a giant hairdryer suddenly materialized in front of them. Before Marinette could even react, Adrien was already moving. He shoved Marinette away from the enormous flying bathroom tool; then, after throwing her a strained wink, took off down the hall, hairdryer in hot pursuit

What the what now!?

Marinette had picked herself up and was about to follow after Adrien, when a voice suddenly sounded next to her. She jumped at the close proximity.

"Marinette," said the teenaged villain in a voice that was all-too-familiar. Marinette turned to study his face, thinking of who from her class had not been Akumatized yet.

Red hair…drawing pad…

"Nathanael?" she sputtered, obviously surprised. The artist had been quiet all morning, as he was prone to do. Shy, timid Nathanael? What could have possibly…?

Nathanael smiled, seeming suddenly shy. "It's, uh, it's 'The Evilustrator' now, actually. I need to talk to you, Marinette."

"O-Okay, well, I, uh, I actually need to get to the nurse, so um…yeah. Nice outfit though!"

Marinette offered a wave before turning away. She needed to transform into Ladybug. She needed to make sure Adrien was safe. Her hallway companion seemed to have other plans, though.

"Marinette, wait!" The Evilustrator grabbed onto her wrist when she tried to leave, but let go immediately, as if touching her would scald his skin. "I can, I mean, I'm just asking for a chance, Marinette!"

A what now?

"I don't understand," Marinette replied, curious now despite her instinct to run. This was one of her friends, after all.

"I just – ugh! – I just can't see you with him anymore." Nathanael nodded toward the direction Adrien had ran off to. His fists clenched and his eyes flared with malice. All at once, the anger dancing in his eyes was turned toward Marinette. "You – You should be with me."

Ah. Okay.

Marinette let out a shaky breath, taking a few tentative steps back.

How does one turn down a possessed teenage boy? She thinks that she might have missed that article in the last La Mode magazine. Oh well. Regardless…this? This was not going to happen.

"I should be able to choose who I want to be with, Nathanael."

"You go, girl!" someone shouted from behind The Evilustrator. And for the second time that day, Marinette realized her class had become privy to what should have probably been a private conversation. At least, not one that warranted being recorded for whatever reason.

(She realized, later, that Alya was liveblogging. Great.)

Alya crouched in the doorway, several other classmates standing behind her. They had all been watching the "show", but now everyone other than Alya was attempting to fry the blogger with their laser vision for having just revealed their super-secret spying location. The Evilustrator growled, and Marinette, realizing that she might need to protect her friends, like, now, took advantage of the small distraction and split.

Three seconds of hard running in, she saw the one person who could always put her at ease.

Chat Noir was running straight toward her, but in lieu of the wide Cheshire smile that made him him, she saw instead an intensity that, frankly, scared her. When he caught up to her, he latched onto her arms, and gave her a thorough once over. There was a little bit of relief in his eyes, but the smile was still elusive.

"He didn't touch you, did he?" he whispered, looking from the direction of The Evilustrator and back to her.

Marinette shook her head immediately, not entirely able to form words yet. What she really needed was someone to tell her what she was feeling, because she sure as heck didn't know. From being the unknowing reason for the newest Akuma to having Cat-Boy not only looking at her in a nice way but with something protective-bordering-on-possessive flashing in his eyes…Marinette was having a hard time putting a name to the emotion currently making her heart race.

"G-Glad to see you weren't blown away, Kitty," she finally replied quietly, hoping to alleviate some of the butterflies flying around in her chest.

Chat Noir chuckled, a small smile playing at his lips. He let go of her arms as The Evilustrator, upon trapping their classmates in a glass box (Alya still recording with a smile on her face), turned to look their way.

"It was a hairy situation to be sure," he muttered, pulling Marinette behind him and taking a defensive stance. Nathanael was drawing something on his pad, and in the next moment, he was jumping onto a flying board of some sort. Chat turned to look at Marinette, who was still frozen in place, all thoughts and feelings that didn't revolve around him having left her brain completely.

Unfortunately, there was no warning this time.

Chat yelped when a glass box, like the one their class was now trapped in, dropped from nowhere, cutting him off from Marinette and securing him in a cubical prison. Marinette only had time to widen her eyes before arms were around her, hoisting her into the air. An explosion made her scream in surprise, and she covered her head in defense as another wall was blown apart, sending chunks of debris everywhere. She was flying, she knew, but she couldn't open her eyes to see where she was going; all she could do was grab on tight to the form carrying her, eyes shut tight.

No, no, no, no!

Marinette was going to kill Hawkmoth.

…If she didn't die here first.

(And, even then, she hoped with all her residual Ladybug magic, she'd be able to come back and haunt the life out of Hawkbutt for subjecting her to this.)

With a dramatic sigh, Marinette hung loosely over Nathanael's shoulder as they soared higher and farther away from the school. Uncertain if she really wanted to see how high they had gone (it was a little scarier without the protection of her spots, okay!?), Marinette peered through the slits of her eyes at the retreating ground. Chat was staring at them, and seeing him free of his box prison and coming for her was a bigger relief than she would ever let him know.

Marinette breathed out heavily, able to relax a bit now. She propped her head up in one hand, resting her elbow on her captor's shoulder. Tikki's big blue eyes peeked out of Marinette's purse, looking up expectantly at her Ward, but Marinette only shrugged in response to her wide-eyed companion. What could Marinette do? It wasn't like she could transform right now, not without revealing her identity to literally the one person in the world from whom it was most important to hide. Fortunately, she could see Chat Noir following them.

Unfortunately, he was too slow compared to Nathanael's flying wakeboard thing; he'd never catch up to them unless her abductor stopped.

What Marinette needed now was a plan.

As they flew over the city, a familiar landmark caught her attention.

"Nathanael!" she yelled suddenly, turning her head to look at his face. "Let's stop there, yeah? We can talk on the bridge about, you know…stuff."

A flutter of eyelashes went a long way.

The boy blinked at her before looking over her shoulder at where she was pointing. Then he blushed.

"O-Okay."

They touched down on the Pont des Arts, and Marinette put a hand to her chest, purposefully taking in large gasps of air.

"Wow!" she said breathily, turning to Nathanael. "That was really brave what you just did, Nath, taking me from Chat Noir like that!" She clasped her hands together in mock idol worship. "I never liked him…I'm so, so thankful you did that for me."

Chat Noir landed deftly behind him, but Nathanael was so caught up in Marinette's cooing to pay attention to anything else. Whatever Marinette was doing was working, so she amped it up a little.

She batted her eyelashes some more.

She wiggled her hips, just a little.

She stared straight into his eyes through her own heavy lids.

And then silently congratulated herself for nearly disarming an Akumatized villain without even laying a finger on him. Now all she had to do was let Chat take over as the distraction he was so she could run off and transform.

Nathanael was stuck in a wide-eyed stare. As surprisingly and ego-boosting to Marinette as this was, what surprised her most was when she spied a familiar cat-boy frozen behind him, wearing a similar expression.

Marinette suddenly couldn't breathe.

A pair of purple butterfly lines appeared around Nathanael's eyes, and Marinette looked passed him in this temporary distraction to gesture pointedly at Chat.

Their eyes locked onto each other, and Marinette suddenly felt just as frozen as her partner looked.

Marinette gulped thickly.

Thankfully, Chat seemed to recover from his stupor before The Evilustrator was done chatting (arguing?) with Hawkmoth. Without the boy ever seeing it coming, Chat landed a sound kick on The Evilustrator's back, sending him flying straight passed Marinette. With a swift grab, Marinette snatched the stylus from his hands as he whooshed by.

Before she had a chance to celebrate however, Marinette was once again grabbed roughly around the waist and snatched into the air. This time, however, instead of screaming at the debris flying around her, she screamed at the sight of the river rushing up to her.

A hand covered her mouth while she and her companion spun up and around. When she was finally still (though the world still seemed to be spinning a bit), the one thing she could register – other than the ridiculously nice smell of her superhero partner – was warm breath on her hair and warm arms surrounding her as they sat still and silent in the rafters of the bridge.

They could hear the angry roars of The Evilustrator form above them, either not knowing where they were or unable to get to them. Either way, Chat's plan had worked. Marinette couldn't focus, though; Chat Noir was breathing heavily while staring into her eyes, and she was captivated, again, by the look in them.

She'd seen her kitty with many different expressions. Playful. Snarky. Smirking. Even scared on occasion. But this?

This was new.

(And it was just for her.)

And all she could do was stare back at him, feeling like her chest was heaving in equal pace as his, though she hadn't put forth the same physical effort he had. He was warm from it. Smelled like sweat. Mixed with his usual cologne, it was a heady scent, and Marinette found herself leaning in a little closer just to get more of it.

"Are you sniffing me?" he asked after maybe the fourth deep breath in.

"Uh…" Marinette didn't look up at him, didn't want to see the look in his eyes, the mirth that she could feel suddenly radiating from him. "Yes?"

She had looked. And he was smirking.

Marinette scowled.

"Tikki, spots on!"

Chat stumbled backward, and Marinette was grateful he didn't drop her altogether as she suddenly transformed. She turned away from him, legs wrapped around one of the beams there to hold her steady, before de-evilizing the Akuma and sending the cure around the city. It all happened swiftly, matter-of-factly; Ladybug, upon finishing, snapped her compact shut and sat back down by a wide-eyed Chat again, putting an arm on him for support before calling off her transformation. Tikki gave a little wave to Chat Noir before flying back into Marinette's purse.

Still wrapped in her own thoughts and grumblings, Marinette, without thinking much about it, wrapped her hands around Chat's neck before plopping down in his lap. When her kitty made no movement or sound of any kind, Marinette glanced at him.

"Whaaat are you doing?" he asked, looking her up and down.

Marinette instantly felt the telltale heat of a blush race up her cheeks.

Oh, this position was a little…

Not suggestive. She was not going to even think "suggestive".

Intimate. Their position was a little intimate and Chat – haha, this was so funny – Chat couldn't read her mind and apparently had no idea what she was doing.

"I – well, uh, you – Chat you, I mean – should probably take me back to the school, r-right?"

"Oh, uh…yeah…I guess so…I just, I mean…" Chat's grip around her tightened.

Since when did Adrien Agreste ever sound flustered? Marinette mused silently, trying not to let her lip twitch into the smile it was aching for.

"Marinette, are you disappointed that I'm Chat Noir?"

Chat Noir looking anything but confident was strange. But seeing Chat Noir looking truly nervous was something so out of context with the Chat Noir she knew so well, Marinette almost laughed out loud. Almost.

"Uh, yeah, I am," she answered, looking straight at him. His ears immediately drooped and he went to look away, but she touched his cheek to turn him back to face her.

"But it's not because of you." Marinette sighed, fighting within herself to keep going. "I'm, well, I'm disappointed that you had to see me like…like I am, I guess. I, uh…" She squirmed a bit in his arms (trying not to think about how nice it felt). "I'm disappointed that the two people whose opinions matter most to me have both seen me at my weakest. I mean, you're Chat Noir, and you're Adrien Agreste. You're strong, and confident, and so incredibly, stupidly brave, and I just…I know my power – well, Tikki's power – is what cleanses everything, but really, what more do I have to offer? I come up with these insane plans and spout out the first one that comes to mind and I want to sound like I know what I'm doing, hoping it will help me feel more, well, more sure of myself. More like you."

Chat was staring at her with the biggest kitten eyes she'd ever seen on a human being. Then his lips pursed and he looked away.

"You mean more like, Adrien, right?"

For the second time, Marinette grabbed this boy's face and turned his head to her.

"No, Chat, I mean like you. Both – or well, all – of you."

His lips twitched slowly into a smile, and then a dopey grin, and then a bit of a smirk. It was like watching a…well, a model during a photoshoot. Marinette smiled and pulled her hands around his neck again, looking away. Chat chuckled next to her.

"Ladybug has a crush on Chat Noir."

Marinette whipped her head back at her partner's words, hoping her betrayal shown as bright on her face as her blush felt.

"Wow, really?" she said. "That's what you got out of all that?"

"Can you blame me?" he said in a low voice. "This is like, the best day of my life! My flirting, which was just meant to get under your skin, actually worked. Like a two-for-one deal."

"Oh my gosh are you serious right now!? Gall, Chat! Most days I don't know whether to push you off a bridge or kiss yooouuu…" her words trailed off to die in the thick awkwardness that followed. That's not what she meant to say. Sure, that's what she was thinking about – had been for the good part of the last 24 hours, to be honest – but definitely not what she had meant to say out loud.

Chat…looked even more smug. It made her temper flare.

"Can I pick?" he purred, leaning forward and wiggling his eyebrows.

"You really want to push your luck again?" she whispered back, touching the bruised spot on his cheek while trying to ignore the way her heart beat wildly. He snorted at this.

"I think – "

Oh, holey cheese, he was so close now.

" – that you're hardly – "

Their noses brushed, his eyes starting to flutter closed.

" – in a position – "

Her eyes closed and her breathing was coming out in slightly rattling gasps.

Is this really happening!?

" – to negotiate."

Chat's clawed fingers traced lightly up Marinette's back. They were close, they were touchy-feely by nature.

But this? This just gave Marinette the overall feeling of hot.

Her hands went to either side of his face, thumbing his cheeks right under his mask.

"A-Are you threatening me?" Marinette voiced, hardly able to get the words out with the feel of Chat's breath on her lips. She didn't give him time to answer, though. The pressure in her chest was too intense. Instead, deciding that she couldn't wait any longer, she went for it.

There was a brief moment when she felt like she would actually be able to enjoy this kiss with her partner, that he would actually kiss back this time, but…no.

Chat Noir, in his surprise, slipped backward, taking Marinette with him for a swim in the Seine.

[[ Whoops! 8) ]]

[[ Goal: 1500 words or less every chapter.

Reality: THEY KEEP GETTING BIGGER. :o

Guys, THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT! Especially with that last chapter! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Y'all know how to make a girl feel good! :D

TWO DAYS LEFT!

(Then it's back to 'My Girlfriend's Boyfriend'…are you ready!?) ]]