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Of all things, it was Hawkmoth’s fault.
That was the story Marinette was sticking to, even if she had the tendency to blame Hawkmoth for everything from morning traffic to inconvenient bouts of rain. She didn’t exactly have the most patience for their friend in the tacky purple suit on the best of days, but after a week of back to back Akuma attacks she was feeling particularly venomous.
Venomous, tired, and in dire need of a day off, even if it killed her.
So as Saturday dawned, Marinette leapt out of bed with the kind of stern, single-minded conviction that only the mad possessed. Tossing a few pastries from the cabinet in a bag as she set out into the balmy summer morning, Marinette made a beeline for her favorite park, bag bouncing on her hip as she walked with a fanatical kind of determination to have fun.
Marinette plopped down on the grass with a small sigh, flopping backwards and staring up at the clouds as Tikki subtly wiggled her way out of the bag and into her hair.
“Marinette?” Tikki chanced, nudging her partner’s cheek. “Are you o-”
“Shh,” Marinette shushed, eyes closed and hands folded behind her head. “I’m sleeping.”
“…are you?”
“I’m trying,” Marinette sighed, fishing a cookie out of her sack and passing it to Tikki in the hopes of keeping her quiet long enough to take a short nap. “God knows I need it.”
“Hawkmoth has been more active than usual, hasn’t he?” Tikki said, crumbs spilling out of her mouth and onto Marinette’s shoulder as she ate.
“You don’t need to remind me,” Marinette said, brushing the crumbs off her shoulder as she looked up at the clear blue sky above her. The Mino-tour (a bull-headed cyclist disqualified from the Tour de France), The Pegasis (a winged equestrian with shattered ambitions of grandeur), and The Sike-Clops (a monocular mammoth who constantly pranked those who got in his way). Three Greco-Roman akuma in the span of three days without as much as a break between them. She and Chat had been run through the wringer, up and down the length of the city trying to put out Hawkmoth’s disasters. If her homework and designing had suffered before, the past week had left her little time for anything other than collapsing on her bed post-patrol, arms wrapped around her giant cat plush, and dreaming of blue skies and bright green eyes.
At least relentless akuma battles meant she had more of an excuse to hang out with her partner.
“Wonder if Chat is holding up okay,” Marinette mused, chewing on her lower lip as she watched a white stray cat slink into an alleyway across the street. Despite knowing the strange, blonde boy with the Cheshire grin for nearly a year, she still didn’t have much of a way to contact him out of the suit. He showed up whenever there was trouble, did something recklessly stupid/hopelessly brave, and left with a wink and a lopsided smile that made her heart pound even as she watched him disappear over the rooftops.
Part of her was mentally kicking herself for crushing on a boy she had spent, perhaps, a grand total of a week with over the past year. And yet there was something endearingly genuine about Chat Noir; the way he took to his hero duties with gusto and an appalling lack of fear that made her braver just by association. Maybe that was the reason she found her thoughts lingering on him more and more lately…or maybe it was just the fact that he had the cutest butt she had ever seen on someone her age.
Marinette shook her head, stuffing a cookie in her mouth to distract herself from thoughts of Chat Noir’s wiggling spandex clad posterior. It wasn’t as though she could have called her partner to come hang out with her; Evillustrator and Gamer business aside, she hadn’t exactly gotten to know Chat outside of the costume. To be fair, she didn’t always have much of a chance, and it wasn’t like Chat always ran by regularly enough that she could ask him to coffee when she saw h-
“Ahhhh!”
Marinette closed her eyes, sighing through her nose as she sat up, casting a glance around the park for signs of the commotion.
“Might not be an akuma?” Tikki suggested as a crowd of people suddenly charged through the park, some freezing in place as they turned around to look behind them.
“Let’s face it; it’s always an akuma,” Marinette said, turning to face the source of the commotion. “Tikki, sp-”
“Wait!”
Marinette’s vision went dark as something warm slammed into her, yanking her off her feet and towards the far side of the park as her face pressed into a remarkably toned chest. She panicked for a second, struggling until she realized that it wasn’t the akuma that had taken hold of her.
Speak of the devil, Marinette mused, as Chat Noir deposited her on her feet outside the gate of the park, pulling back to look her over.
“You okay?” He chanced, brow knitting in concern as he locked eyes with her. She held his gaze for a long moment, almost oblivious to the chaos behind him as she realized just how close she was standing to him.
“F-Fine!” Marinette stammered, shuffling back a step so she wasn’t pressed so tightly up against him. “J-Just fine! Thanks!”
He smiled, soft and genuine without a hint of his usual braggadocio. “Good…I-I just saw you laying there and I thought-”
“Thanks,” Marinette blurted out, hand lingering on his forearm as the park devolved into chaos behind them. Chat’s eyes lingered on hers for a moment before stepping back, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.
“As much as I love chatting with you,” Chat said, shooting a small wink and two rounds from his finger guns in her direction. “I should probably lock this guy down until Ladybug gets here-”
“Wait!” Marinette said, reaching out her hand as Chat Noir made to go. “The akuma…I think she’s freezing people who look at her.”
“Like Medusa?” Chat sighed, shaking his head. “Hawkmoth’s been on a Greek mythology tear, hadn’t he?”
“Tell me about it,” Marinette mumbled, glancing into her bag to make sure Tikki was still there.
“I’d love to, once the city isn’t under siege from snake-haired harpies,” Chat laughed.
“I think she’s a gorgon, actually,” Marinette chuckled as Chat drew his baton, stretching his shoulders as he shot another smile her way.
“Thanks for the tip,” Chat said with a small salute. “Seems I owe you a favor, don’t I?”
“You can make it up to me by taking me out,” Marinette muttered.
Chat’s cheeks flushed, eyebrow raising as Marinette realized she had said that louder than she intended. “Pardon?”
“Her!” Marinette exclaimed, pointing over his shoulder. “You should make up for it by taking her out!”
Chat’s eyes narrowed, eyebrow raising as his cheeks flushed pink. “As you wish, Princess,” Chat said with a flourish and a bow that Marinette really shouldn’t have found so appealing. It was sad that she found his Princess Bride pickup lines as endearing as she did, but she supposed that was just the kind of black spandex bizzaro her love life was.
“Anywaygoodluckishouldgobye!” Marinette stammered, turning and darting into an alley while her partner leapt into the fray. She paused for a moment, clutching her bag to her chest in silent mortification.
“That was…smooth?” Tikki said helpfully.
“Shut up and transform me,” Marinette grumbled, resolving to take her frustration and embarrassment out on the akuma. As far as days off went, it was hardly the most enjoyable…but if anything, she did manage to flirt with her crush without combusting into a million pieces.
Baby steps, Marinette thought, swinging high over the park to aid her endearingly corny partner. Baby steps.