Chapter Text
After getting Chat Noir to sit down on her chaise Marinette ordered, “now strip!”
“Purr-incess!” Chat Noir tried to sound scandalized as he briefly held a hand at his chest in pretend shock, “at least buy me dinner first!”
So forward Marinette! He mentally commented, I didn’t know you had it in you, it’s… kind of… uh, WOW. He slowly blinked at her in surprise as he gulped, realizing she was acting like another girl he knew and found, well, WOW.
Nope, not going to think about Marinette like that. Nope! Especially since he knew that WOW in his mind equaled HOT.
I’m not losing a great friend over some random hormones thank you!
“Ha Ha.” She finally scoffed.
Please take me out of my misery and change the topic. Adrien mentally begged.
“I didn’t mean it literally, you silly cat, I’m just teasing.” Then she hesitantly added, “Just uh,… zip your suit down about 40 centimeters or so, just enough so that I can see that you’re not really hurt.” She bit the side of her lip and looked away from him for a moment.
Adrien exhaled a little bit as he realized that she wasn’t trying to come on to him, Marinette isn’t like Lila or one of my crazy fans. He hated how sometimes they eyed him like he was something to eat. She doesn’t see me like that, nope, Marinette is a good friend.
“It’s probably nothing Marinette.” Adrien tried to be serious as he sat back trying to not look as uncomfortable about this as he felt, which made no sense at all since he was a model for crying out loud. He’d lost count of how many people had seen him in his underwear or helped him get dressed or undressed between runway walks at one of his father’s shows. This, this was just different for some reason. More personal somehow, since it was, well, her. Right?
“Um, how much has Ladybug told you about what gives us our powers?” He tried to delay any medical treatment by distracting her.
She turned and looked him over, but not in a creepy way, she was trying to see what was wrong, or if there was something wrong. Then she had a dangerous look in her eye that he did recognize, as if she were deciding something with a nod as she answered, “we’ve talked about it. It’s from the miraculous that you have.” She waved at his hand with the ring vaguely, “now come on, we don’t have all night.”
He raised his eyebrow at her as if asking her if she knew more, “fine.” She admitted as she folded her arms for a moment and looked away, “I know about your kwami, is that who or what you’re talking about?” She looked back at him reluctantly.
“E-yeah,” Adrien was hesitant, surprised that Ladybug had even told her that much. “Um, well, my kwami, Plagg, he’s been trying to help me with something and he thought that it would be a good idea for him to scratch me to get my attention.”
“Your kwami thought it would be a good idea to hurt you?!” Marinette looked shocked. “Why? What would be that important?”
Chat Noir shrugged, “uh, I’m going to go with it’s a super secret superhero reason and it’s uh, classified?”
Marinette looked at him in disbelief with a raised eyebrow with one fist on her hip as she waited for a better answer. He recognized the pose, but it wasn’t one he’d ever seen from Marinette. She wasn’t buying it and she expected him to fess up.
“That’s all that I can say, really!” He waved it off with his hands, “Plagg wouldn’t want to hurt me, well, not really, he can just get carried away sometimes.” Adrien tried to give Marinette a shy Kitty look, but she really wasn’t buying it.
“Uh, huh.”
“That’s all, really.” He waved his hand like it was nothing, because really, it was.
Marinette waited a minute before he asked sheepishly, “can I go now?”
She shook her head, “nope. You’re going to show me those scratches.” Then she ordered, “NOW KITTY!”
“Geez, calm down!” He reached for his bell and willed the zipper that it was attached to, to actually work. He brought it down about 35 centimeters and opened his suit just enough for her to see his collarbone and barely the top of his chest.
Marinette swallowed and blushed a little as she glanced at his collarbone and Adrien was glad to see that he wasn’t the only one uncomfortable about this.
“See, nothing there. Now if you’ll excuse me…” Adrien tried to pull his zipper up again but Marinette was fast and grabbed his hand.
“No Chat, you didn’t show me where it was hurting you earlier. Now either you pull that zipper down more, or I will.”
Wow, she’s really… um, WOW, when she’s threatening like that. Just, WOW! Why?
Adrien couldn’t help that his Chat Noir side tended to kick in when he was distressed and this moment was no different. He leaned back and put his hands on the chaise beside him as he suavely said, “If you wanted a peek all you had to do was ask Purr-incess.” Then he shot her a wink.
Okay, now shy away, you don’t have to do this Mari.
Marinette blushed a little bit more, not as much as she would when she talked to his civilian self, Adrien thought, but enough to make him smirk at her just a bit.
Her blush, was just, WOW. Come on Adrien, stop! She’s your friend!
“Fine.” She stated before calmly demanding, “may I have a look please Chat?”
He chuckled, somehow put at ease by her voice and he couldn’t help but want to give her a nod yes, which he did, and before he knew it, she had her hand on his bell and zipped his suit open almost to his belly button.
“So eager Mi- I mean, Princess!” Why did I almost call her Milday? She’s not Ladybug! Not Marinette! He mentally chastised himself as he focused on regulating his breath.
Why am I so nervous?
Marinette didn’t hesitant and pulled open his suit to expose the upper left side of his chest.
WOW. Just WOW.
“Oh, Chat!” Marinette whispered sadly as she looked at the egg sized area of scratches and claw marks, some parts of which had barely scabbed up already, as well as a small explosion of a black mark to the side of that area which looked like it had little tendrils that reached out from its center, like cracks. That blemish was about 15 centimeters wide.
Marinette reached out to touch the zapped area, but pulled back before she made contact in disbelief. “What?... What caused this? Is it a tattoo or something?”
Adrien chuckled, “my father would kill me if I got a tattoo, especially one there Purr-incess. It’s too… well, obvious?”
He ignored her stunned look.
Then Chat Noir shook his head, “No, that must be from when my kwami used a little of his destructive power to get my attention earlier after I saw Ladybug in action today. Apparently, I’m a little immune to his powers of destruction.” He tried to shrug it off but she still looked disturbed by it for some reason.
I don’t know why this bothers you so much Princess, so long as I can find, uh, her, and fix this, I-I’ll be f-fine. I can handle a few scars for M-My L-Lady. Adrien couldn’t believe he was stuttering in his own mind as he watched Marinette’s concerned face. Why does something here, f-feel familiar?
Marinette swallowed as she looked away to pull out her first aid kit and to open it. Her voice was small as she asked, “you… you saw Ladybug today?”
Chat Noir sighed sadly, “I saw her, but she didn’t see me, secret identities and all.” He shrugged, “she was beautiful today though, I wish I could have just said ‘Hi’ to her.” He noticed that Marinette looked sad for a moment as she took out a disinfectant wipe to clean the scratched area.
“I’m s-sure that she would have liked to see you too today Kitty.” Marinette looked up at him fondly and they exchanged grins, “now this may hurt.”
Chat Noir nodded and she went in to wipe the scratches clean. Adrien didn’t even wince, he was used to getting poked by dressers pins as he was getting fitted regularly and after Plagg’s treatment today, it was nothing. Actually, her touch was kind of soothing, as well as being here… Adrien was shocked as he felt his heart skip a beat.
Why does her doing that make me feel… like that?
“You’re taking this well.” She observed as she cleaned the area.
“You have a gentle touch.” He couldn’t help but flirt as he took her other hand and kissed the back of it.
“Silly Kitty.” She muttered as she blushed a light rosy hue, the nickname that Ladybug first gave him warmed his heart. He wondered if Ladybug talked to Marinette about him and told her about it.
“Does Ladybug talk to you, umm, about me?” He asked tentatively.
“Hmm?” Marinette had drifted off in her own world for a moment there and blinked at the question. “Not really, we don’t talk often, uh, although I’ll admit that my parent’s bakery is the main source of cookies for her kwami.” Marinette blushed slightly and gave him a grin. Then Marinette distractedly added, “she… she doesn’t talk much about the boys that she likes.”
Adrien watched sweet Marinette tend to his wound as he processed that. “You said boys. I thought that she only had her heart set on one lucky guy.”
Marinette put the used wipe in the trash as she bit her lip as if she’d said too much and started to gesture with her hands as she tried to explain, “well, every girl has like their main crush and then there’s like their second crush? Although that sounds bad, because the second guy is always pretty awesome too but uh, the first guy was there first and made it difficult to see the second guy no matter how I, I mean how she, uh feels about you, ah, him, I umm, I’m not explaining this very well.” She shyly chuckled. “I’m really not the best one to talk to about relationships.”
He grinned at her, almost knowingly, and shot her a wink and a finger gun, “ah, but you just made it sound like there’s a competitor for her heart, or at least for your own.” He nodded at her and then he held his chin thoughtfully, “but which one did you mean?”
She looked into her kit and looked dismayed as she got up, “I uh, I must have left the antibiotic ointment in the bathroom, I’ll be right back Chat.”
Marinette then made a hasty retreat.
…
Adrien sat there uncomfortably, wanting to zip up his suit but he didn’t want to mess up Marinette’s ministrations by irritating the strange wounds that she had just cleaned up.
His mind wondered, he already knew that Marinette and Ladybug were close, Ladybug had sent Chat Noir to watch over Marinette during the Evilistrator incident after all. But for Marinette to know about Ladybug’s kwami and what she ate? That was surprising.
I wonder if she knows who Ladybug is? Plagg said that she may know what’s going on with her, but its not like I can ask about her like that directly.
There were a few things that bothered Adrien about that day though. Ladybug had never told him what ‘secret mission’ she had been on and it was strange that his Lady had asked if he thought Marinette was cute, not that he was able to respond to that.
Adrien had to admit, Marinette is the most beautiful girl of all his classmates and was sure that some would argue that she was probably the prettiest in the whole school and for some reason he found that intimidating. He knew he had a tendency to pull out his Chat Noir side sometimes around her so he could interact with her better, but somehow he usually just wound up teasing her and that had never really helped. Sometimes she handled it well, with a bare minimum of stuttering, other times… she’d just EEP and run away.
He felt like his Adrien side was at least a good friend with her now, not that there ever could be more because of Ladybug and the guy that Marinette had told Chat Noir that she liked so long ago. Adrien couldn’t help that he got the feeling that her feelings for that guy was still haunting her, no matter what she said to the contrary.
I wonder if I know who it is that Marinette likes, she could probably date anyone in the school if she ever asked him out, maybe he doesn’t even go to our school...
He shook his head, no, I need to focus. I need to ask her about HER. He thought about his Lady and how the deadline hung over his head until he lost both her and his miraculous approached. His heart ached, his HEAD ached, but as he saw Marinette return, his heart traitorously flipped again. Why does it do that? This is Marinette! We’re friends!
His head throbbed as the headache hit him for some reason again as Marinette said, “hey Kitty, sorry I was gone for so long. I-I decided that it was time for me to give you something special…”
Whether he liked it or not, Marinette had his full and undivided attention.