Of all the ways Marinette thought she could wake up, a bare chested Chat Noir tapping on her window was not one of them.
The sound of a steady thudding against her window slowly awoke her from her foggy dreams. Her eyelids were heavy as she glanced at her alarm clock in a confused state. 1:42 AM? What the-?
"Princess? Are you awake?" Her heart skipped a beat and she unconsciously hid her sleeping Kwami underneath a small pillow at the sound of Chat's hesitant questioning. Why was he on her balcony?!
"Sorry Tikki!" She sincerely whispered as she quickly flipped on her bedside light. Her breath hitched as she saw her partner, standing under the night's beaming moonlight…
…And had a steady cut gliding down the front of his torso.
"Chat Noir!" All of the confusion and annoyance of her comrade waking her up in the dead of night took a quick backseat to the worry and panic now at the front of her mind and the base of her stomach. It took everything inside her not to scream out his name—no good would come of her waking up her parents.
She flew to him and opened the door as her hand covered her mouth. "What happened? Was there an Akuma attack?! Why are you-?"
"Shh, shh, everything is fine, Princess." He placed his heavy gloved hands on her shoulders and knelt to look her in the eye. "I promise, you have nothing to worry about! Chat Noir is keeping Paris safe!" He flexed his arm as he proclaimed.
Marinette inhaled and exhaled a deep breath of relief, and quickly followed up with a hefty slap to his shoulder. He gave a mock yelp in response. "What was that for?!"
"For nearly giving me a heart attack when I'm only a teenager!" She strained in a muted rebuttal. "Showing up at my door in the middle of the night with a huge wound on your chest-?!"
"I'm sorry! Truly, deeply sorry, but you are the only person I can trust right now…" His sincere voice made her feel slightly guilty. Slightly.
"Trust to do what? What happened to you?" Her eyes took in the sight of the cut, which started underneath his collarbone and trailed to the top of his abdomen. Her fingers traced the frayed edges where his uniform had been sliced, careful to avoid his injuries. Thankfully, the actual cut didn't look too deep.
"Promise me you won't laugh." He glanced to the side and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"It's almost 2 in the morning; I promise nothing."
He looked to the floor and sighed in remorse. "I, uh…was patrolling tonight and I, uh…"
"Spit it out, Chat. What. Did. You. Do?" As it registered in her tired mind more and more that there was no Akuma attack, and Chat Noir was for all intents and purposes mostly unharmed, impatience was starting to mix with her sympathy.
"There was a cat stuck in a tree, and I did the heroic thing and climbed up the tree to save it!" Marinette raised an eyebrow and the edges of her mouth quirked up into a slight smirk. Of course Chat would take it upon himself to save a cat in a tree.
"And?" She prodded.
"And, when I got up there, instead of the cat leaping into my arms, he jumped onto my face." Chat's shoulders fell in even further embarrassment.
"And?"
He rolled his eyes, and groaned. "And, when I fell out of the tree, a branch cut the front of my outfit and I landed painfully on my head…"
Mariette tapped her foot and crossed her arms, waiting for him to finish. She knew her partner well enough when he was keeping details from her. Chat met her glance and narrowed his eyes at her silent urging to share more.
"….And the cat jumped out of the tree, and landed on my head. Apparently, he didn't need my help after all."
The giggles started gathering in Marinette's throat as she quickly tried to cover them with both of her hands. "I'm s-sorry, Ch-Chat!" She snorted trying to contain them.
"It's not funny, Princess!" Even though he was on the defense, he couldn't help but smile along with her. Laughter was contagious, after all.
"Of course not! Of course not!" She raised her hands and attempted to be serious. After a few moments of a straight face, she was doubled over and quietly laughing while Chat shook his head and dramatically raised his hand to his forehead.
"Oh Princess, your mocking wounds me!"
"No, that was the tree branch!" She pointed while finally starting to calm down. After the laughter was eventually leaving her system, she crossed her arms across her front. "I appreciate the laugh, but why did you need to come to me at Two in the morning for a cut?"
"Oh, it's not the injury I need you for. You see, I myself am quite the moron when it comes to a needle and thread. And I can't exactly drop off my uniform to the nearest tailor without them getting a little suspicious."
"Really? There aren't any backup uniforms?" The question sounded like she was asking Chat Noir, but she was also asking it aloud to herself.
The young man passively raised his shoulders. "Apparently not. Normally if my uniform is damaged during battle, it gets fixed when Ladybug cleanses the Akuma. And since-"
"Saving," Marinette used air quotes, "a cat from a tree doesn't count as defeating an Akuma?"
"Precisely." Chat nodded. "This leaves me with a rather exposed, unappealing fashion statement during the next Akuma attack. Once Ladbybug uses her Yoyo, my uniform will probably be restored. But until then, I can't exactly wake up Ladybug for something so trivial."
Marinette couldn't help but bathe in the irony of the whole situation. Chat couldn't bear the thought of disrupting Ladybug, but bothering her? Totally fine. And at the end of it, he was bothering Ladybug after all. She couldn't help it; she chuckled.
"But I'm fair game to wake up?" She teased as Chat Noir quickly got flustered at his unintentional insult. She waved off his attempted excuse as she turned back into her room and turned on the overhead light. "Come on in; I'll get the first-aid and sewing kit out."
"You're my hero." He smiled as he followed her into her room and took in the familiar pinks and whites that took control of the walls and furniture. "I really meant no insult, Princess. I just know you're a master when it comes to the thread."
"And how do you know that?" She pondered as she pulled her supplies from the top shelf. As she looked to the side, she realized she had pictures of Adrien plastered all over her wall. While Chat Noir might not know who Adrien is, she didn't need him to have an excuse to tease and prod her for information all night. She threw a look behind her shoulder and found him gazing at family portraits along the opposite end of her room. Taking the opportunity, she quickly and quietly untacked the pictures from her wall.
"I remembered that you created the dolls that got a young girl named Manon Akumatized." He answered while staring adoringly at an older picture of Marinette and her father. She must have been no older than five years old and was holding a plate of pastries that her Father probably made. She was also sitting on the large man's shoulder while he held a degree in his hands—fresh out of culinary school it seemed.
Adrien couldn't help but feel an enormous swelling of happiness for his friend, and if he wasn't lying, just the slightest inkling of envy. She had such an amazing support system at home, and he was so thankful she did. "Plus, I believe you were the young woman who won Gabriel Agreste's hat design contest? You must have some serious skills to win such an award. Unless of course you cheated?" He winked at her, planning to make her blush.
"Oh yeah, you caught me. Total cheater." With a roll of her eyes, she dropped onto the bed and pulled out a cotton swab and some hydrogen peroxide. Adrien was continually baffled by this side of Marinette. When he was plain, boring Adrien, he couldn't blow his nose without her stuttering. When he was the heroic, intense Chat Noir, she was constantly brushing his flirtations off.
It made him want to endlessly learn more and more about her.
"So where are your clothes?" He snapped out of his slight trance and twitched his ears in confusion.
"On my body?"
A dramatic sigh later, she started walking towards him with the cotton swab and ointment in her gloved hand. "No, sily cat. Where are the clothes you're going to change into while I fix your outfit?"
"Oh! Well, see, we kind of have an issue with that…" He said as she came closer. "But uh, first off, what are you doing, Princess? I can take care of that later-"
"Your hands have spent all night climbing trees and handling wild animals. Are you sure you want to be wiping them in open sores?" She quickly retorted, while pointing to the chair at her desk. "Go ahead and sit down."
"Good point, as always." He surrendered while easing into the seat. Now that he was relaxed, he could start to feel the sting ringing across his front. Chat was grateful that Marinette was treating it with her gentle touches.
"Hold still, alright? This might sting a little bit." The blonde nodded and leaned back as Marinette was knelt in front of him, carefully and firmly rubbing the cotton swab along the length of his injury. Her intense focus and careful cleaning left him smiling and warm; she truly and undoubtedly cared for his wellbeing.
Marinette had such a love for everyone. She constantly bent over backwards for her friends and family and never asked for a single thing in return. Even now, she had met Chat Noir no more than a handful of times, and she was treating his wounds without even a second thought? In her own home in the middle of the night of all things.
"Luckily, I don't think you need stitches." Her mutter broke him from his thought. She squeezed the ointment onto the pads of her fingers and her breath fanned against his bare chest as she spoke. Adrien couldn't help but notice the hair on the back of his neck rising. "You need to be more careful when you're being a vigilante saving cats from trees, okay Kitty?"
"Heh, that's what My Lady calls me…" He relaxed as the ointment started to numb his chest and stomach; the stinging was already fleeing from his wound.
Marinette paused, Chat wasn't sure why, until she followed up with a short laugh and a "Don't get the wrong idea, but….you're gonna have to lose the top half of your outfit."