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“Thank you so much for doing this, Ladybug, Chat Noir,” said Alec with a grin. “The children will be ecstatic.”
“Not at all,” Marinette said, smiling in return as Chat Noir beamed beside her. “We like encouraging children to follow their dreams.”
“Yeah!” Chat Noir chimed in; Marinette grimaced, waiting for a pun. Instead, Chat surprised her by continuing with, “Everyone should be free to be who they want to be.” He looked so earnest it made her pause.
Alec chuckled. “True. I'm going to make sure all the children are ready so please wait here for now.” With that, he walked off, leaving the two Parisian heroes alone in the small dressing room.
“Well,” said Chat Noir, grinning at Ladybug. “Looks like we’ll be trapped for a while…”
“You have a funny notion of being trapped.” Marinette pointed at the open door.
“I meant that we're trapped by our responsibilities. We could be on a date right now.” Chat Noir winked at her and Marinette rolled her eyes.
“No thanks. I'd rather be making the children happy, wouldn't you?”
“Ah. Yeah,” Chat Noir admitted, grinning wider. “I can't wait to see them. Do you think some of them will be my fans?”
Sighing, Marinette was relieved that Alec chose that moment to interrupt them. “Everyone's ready for you now,” he said. “Follow me!”
They did so and wandered through the halls of the TV studio. It was odd seeing the building like this – usually when Marinette was here, she was running through the corridors in an attempt to stop some poor akumatised person. Chat Noir looked right at home, though, walking along with his arms behind his head.
Finally, they reached a set of double doors and passed through into a noisy room. Children of all ages were gathered there, chattering amongst themselves, their parents talking a little distance away. Each child held a piece of paper and Marinette could glimpse some of the bright crayon and pencil marks. Some of them were dressed up as Ladybug and Chat Noir and Marinette felt a little flutter of pride. Beside her, Chat Noir brightened up even further, practically bouncing with glee.
After Alec explained how the show was going to work, he wandered off to start the show and a little girl wearing a yellow fairy outfit with an eye mask shyly edged her way closer. Marinette watched her, realising that she was obviously the only kid who had noticed them entering the room. The girl sidled over to Chat Noir and tugged at his leg. Chat blinked and looked down. A beaming smile spread across his face and he crouched down.
“Hey, there!” he said, reaching out to ruffle her hair. The girl giggled and hid her face behind her drawing. “Did you have fun entering the competition?”
“Yeah!” the girl said, grinning. “I wanna be a hero when I grow up so I drew something I could be!”
She handed over the drawing and Chat gently took it. Marinette looked over his shoulder to see that she had drawn what she was dressed as. At the side she had wrote, in slightly squint handwriting, 'Happy Fairy'. “What powers do you have?” asked Marinette, kindly.
“The power of happiness!” the girl said, her grin widening.
“I'm sure this will be a great hero,” Chat said.
“Thank you, Chat Noir!” The girl threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. “I'll do my best to help you.”
“Félicité!” a woman called. The girl turned to her mother and nodded at her. Then she let go of Chat, waved at Marinette and hurried off.
“Good luck!” Chat called out after her, looking like the cat who'd got the cream.
Marinette had to turn away from him to hide her fond smile.