Reply to a guest That Girl 35: Thank you! It's already taken over my life lmao. All chapters are tied together unless told otherwise. Thank you for reading!

Now on to day two! What did I even try to do here

ii: cat costume

When Chat Noir first enters her room through the trapdoor that week, he hears groaning, mumbling and curses coming from the lower level. He stretches in her bed and grunts when his bones pop in place, and all sounds coming from bellow cease in the exact same instant.

He peeks down to find Marinette holding a pair of scissors in her hand, looking up at him with an angry frown on her face. "What are you doing here in broad day light!?" Her voice is agitated and she stalks back to her work desk as he saunters down the steps to meet with her.

"Why, I could not wait until night." He sits on her swivel chair by the computer and spins it all the way over to where she is working on another one of her creations. "Are you not happy to see me?"

She has a pencil between her teeth as her fingers work to stitch a piece of black fabric in her hands, eyebrows pinched together in concentration. "Well," he offers to take the pencil from her mouth and uses it to draw random lines on a blank paper that is nearby. "I actually have some mixed feelings about seeing you right now."

"I'll have to ask you to elaborate, Princess," he says with a purr and scoots closer to her to rub his nose on her cheek and temple.

"I forgot there is this party I have tonight."

"And?"

"I'm not finished with the costume yet."

He hums and swivels away to give her space and time to work on her outfit. There are plenty of things to do in her bedroom and he decides to do one of his favorite: play video games. Chat turns the computer on and snickers at her wallpaper of choice; every time he has a chance to see it, he teases her about it, but this time he is going to ignore it because she is busy. But just this time. Actually, he has teased her about everything around her room. From the many pictures of the blonde teen – himself, but shh, it is a secret – to every little thing that is not even remotely embarrassing. He joked once about a pair of panties lying forgotten in the corner of her room and the innumerous blows of the pillow that she hit him with were absolutely worth it.

Chat plays to his heart content, the time ticking away and every few minutes Marinette yelps when she accidentally prickles herself with the needle. When he gets bored, he decides to look through her many old sketchbooks neatly piled on the corner of her desk. He has seen half of them by now and enjoys pointing out which one of her doodles he likes the most. When Chat moves to another pile of books because he feels like reading, the girl lets out a sigh of relief and he rushes to her side to see what her talented hands had just done.

Before he can comment on anything, he kisses each one of her fingertips – so they will heal faster, like he once told her – and looks at the two pieces of clothing that are folded by her sewing supplies. "What are they, exactly?" He raises a brow at the red fabric with black spots all over it.

Marinette slumps back on her chair and closes her eyes when he brushes her fringe away from her eyes. "There's this party tonight and I have to take Manon."

He remembers this name, Manon, the little girl that she sometimes has to babysit. "A dress up party?"

She nods in agreement, "And she wants to go as Ladybug."

"And you'll go as Chat Noir?" Both his eyebrows shoot up this time. "You'll be me?" Marinette rolls her eyes good-naturedly, but confirms it anyways. "Now that's something I want to see." She shoves him away with a hand and a grumble, and they move to spend the rest of their time together lying in bed.

Evening approaches faster than she had anticipated and the next thing she knows Manon and her mom are at her doorstep. She helps Manon dress into her outfit, not as skintight as it should be and made of cotton so she will be comfortable whilst running around. The little girl brought along her own yoyo that she painted red and black to match her costume, and the instant she puts on her mask she flies downstairs so her mother can see her. Marinette smiles and closes the door so she can change into her own costume that looks just like the original sans the material. She has seen Chat Noir from up close far too many times to not know all the details by heart by now, and she does not know if she should feel proud or embarrassed by it.

What otherwise would have been a problematic night out resulted in being fun when she met with Alya and her younger siblings at the party. There are many parents and babysitters around, and the kids soon disappear among the others to play all the games they could in the spam of a few hours. Alya is dressed in her favorite comic book superheroine costume, made by Marinette herself of course, and they spend their time together hanging by the windows, just talking and eating, and taking pictures, because the night is never complete for her best friend if they do not take at least two selfies.

It is when Alya slips away to the bathroom with one of her younger sisters that Marinette is approached by someone else. "Nice costume you've got there." She is about to reply when she turns to face the newcomer and her mouth hangs open at the person before her. "What? Cat got your tongue?"

With all the screaming of the kids and chattering of the older ones, she hardly recognized his voice. "Chat Noir." It takes her little time to recover from her surprise and scowl at him. "You stupid cat! What are you doing here!?"

"Why are you never happy to see me?" He asks with a dramatic whine in his tone, but her face prompts him to answer as seriously as Chat Noir can. "I just wanted to see my Princess, of course."

"What if someone recognizes you?"

"Relax, it's a costume party." His grin tempts her to wipe it off, first with a fist then with her lips. "Besides, I'm paw-sitive your costume is more accurate than mine."

When her lips part to tell him to shut it, they are approached by a bunch of little kids and the ones looking after them. Most of the children are dressed up as Ladybug and Chat Noir, she realizes for the first time that night, and Manon is among them. "Your costumes are great!" One of the babysitters waves a camera in the air. "Can we take pictures?"

Marinette is lost at first, so Chat steps in. "Sure!" Then he adds in a lower tone so she is the only one to hear, "Remember to be in character."

The first kids walk up to them as he starts flexing his muscles and strikes random poses; she settles for crouching to be in the same level as them or tries to hold two of them in her arms at the same time. Alya returns and wastes no time to record the entire show as both Marinette and a random guy dressed as Chat Noir start taking pictures with the kids as if they are professionals, and sends the video to Nino and Adrien so they can see what they are missing.

Once all of the kids had their turns and her friend has to take her siblings along with Manon to get some juice, Marinette turns to Chat as she is rubbing her sore arms. "I didn't think it'd go like this."

"Neither did me, Princess." He moves the curtain away so he can open the window, cool air rushing into the crowded room. "And no one found out."

"I guess so," she steps closer when he is halfway out and he lets the curtain fall closed to hide them from view. "It was... fun."

His smile is soft. "It was," he leans in and kisses her lips gently, fingers lost in her dark hair. "We should do this again sometime."

"We should," she murmurs against his mouth and presses hers to his quickly when she hears her name being called.

"I'll see you later," Chat holds her hand and places a kiss on her knuckles, then jumps off the windowsill and jogs away, ducking behind a bush to get out of sight.

Marinette closes the window and moves the curtains so she can step out from behind them, only to run into the curious eyes of her friend. "Where is your new friend?"

"I don't know." She manages to say through the lump in her throat, "He left shortly after you did."