AN: Okay so listen. It's my last day of summer break, and my sister is obsessed with Miraculous Ladybug and Cat Noir. I have a Harry Potter fanfic to write but I keep getting distracted with writing spinoffs of my own story. I wrote this in like. Three hours? I needed a break from my Marauders fic you guys it's been taking over all of my waking thoughts so HERE'S SOMETHING COMPLETELY UNRELATED.

I rarely do things that don't involve some form of OC but I have been having so many Adrinette and pseudo-platonic Marichat feels recently like this series will literally grab hold of your heart in a vice grip but anyway I don't even know where you would stick an OC into this world? I just realized? It's really easy to whip up a Harry Potter OC because it's such a vast world but this one is already perfectly crafted? Idk I'm sure people have done it and pulled it off flawlessly but I am not that capable.

Also the five-times-this-happened-and-one-time-something-else-happened trope is honestly one of my favorite things and I wanted to try my hand at it so here we go! Also I wrote this for my super cute fifth grader sister so it's dedicated to her. Her feedback was "it's really great I really like it" so enjoy!

As soon as Marinette got home after the Evillustrator fiasco, closing the door to her rooftop behind her, Tikki let go of the transformation.

"That was exciting," the little kwami said.

Marinette smiled. "Aren't they all exciting?"

Giggling, Tikki flew in a loop. "Yes, but it's not every day you find out someone has a crush on you!" she said in a sing-song voice.

Laughing at the kwami's antics, Marinette reached for the forgotten physics project. Well, now it was too late to call Sabrina. She'd deal with it tomorrow. A yawn surprised her, and Marinette glanced at her clock. Yikes, was it that late already?

"You should go to bed, Marinette," Tikki suggested. "It's been an exciting day, and you don't want to oversleep tomorrow!"

"I guess you're-"

A knock on her rooftop trap door interrupted her, and she exchanged a confused shrug with Tikki. Marinette climbed up the stairs to push it open and poke her head out. She came face-to-shin with Chat Noir, the last person she expected to see at her house again. Well, actually—he was sort of the only person who could get up there, wasn't he? Besides herself, of course.

"Chat Noir? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Just checking to see you made it home safely, Princess!" The silly cat winked at her, Cheshire grin splitting his face.

Marinette blinked. Oh. She wasn't sure what she expected, but…did he usually check on targets of akuma attacks? Whether she did or not, she figured she should probably humor him. That's what any old fan would do, right? She climbed up onto the roof, trying to project the same sort of star-struck attitude she had earlier that day. "Wow, that's—that's so nice of you!" she said, smiling. "Thanks so much! You didn't to do that for me."

"It's no problem, Mademoiselle," he insisted, bowing. "All part of the job!"

The next time she saw him on her roof was after an akuma attack at school. She'd had to pretend to be taken by it in order to transform, but of course Chat didn't know that.

"You're sure you're not hurt?" he asked, all of his usual flirty charisma replaced by genuine concern.

"Yes, of course I'm okay, all thanks to Ladybug's lucky charm," Marinette answered. She expected him to say something like "And what about me, hm?" in true flirty Chat Noir fashion; in fact, she wanted him to say something like that. This worried Chat wasn't someone she saw often as Ladybug, and she didn't know how to react to him.

He didn't, though. "Good," he said. "I'm glad you're okay." Then he smiled, not a cheeky smirk-y smile, but a gentle, sweet smile.

Marinette didn't know what else to do but make some excuse about needing to go to sleep for school tomorrow and hurry back inside and away from this version of Chat that made her insides feel warm and fuzzy.

After that, Chat's visits came often. Usually they followed akuma attacks she'd been involved with as a civilian before transforming, and Chat always made the excuse of checking on her. Sometimes, though, he just showed up. Seeing him so frequently when she wasn't Ladybug and he wasn't trying to woo her into the ground let Marinette see a side of her partner that she didn't even know existed. Looking back on months of at least one Chat Noir visit a week, Marinette came to a handful of realizations she never would have come to if not for the unlikely friendship she'd struck up with him.

One: Chat was actually not a constant flirt. There was more than enough evidence to support this. Obviously he had his moments, usually when she said something to accidentally stroke his ego, and there was that time he had first interacted with Marinette, but by his fourth visit she rarely saw the flirty Chat she knew so well. In his place was a still arrogant and confident but also goofy and incredibly sweet boy. He punned constantly, but instead of using his terrible cat puns in a flirting context, he made terrible physics puns while he tried to help her with her homework, or made terrible art and fashion puns when he caught her designing. He still called her Princess, but it was a nickname now, rather than just a cheeky pet name. More often than not, he would wax poetic about Ladybug rather than attempt to flirt at Marinette. And of course there was that touching concern, which brought her to her second realization.

Two: Chat was a mother hen. He pestered her and pestered her until she convinced him that she was well and truly fine, and sometimes continued to pester even after that. Thankfully, the Miraculous Ladybug spell reverted all akuma-related injuries, because she would've had to deal with a panicking Chat every time he saw her. One time, she'd gotten hit in the face with a dodge ball during gym class, leaving her with a bruising lump on her forehead that she could thankfully hide under her bangs (and mask), but Chat visited the next day when the bruising looked fully purple. She'd just gotten done washing her face, so her bangs were pushed back with a headband, and, well…Chat had almost had a breakdown. He asked her four times if she'd iced it, and she heard "Are you sure it doesn't hurt too much?" all evening. Then there was his fretting whenever he showed up past ten and she was still working on schoolwork. Or when it was midnight and he panicked because he was keeping her up on a school night. And God forbid she mention how she skipped breakfast every day that week because she was running late in the mornings. Speaking of eating—

Three: Chat was always hungry. Always. Once he caught her in the middle of eating a snack late at night to satisfy designing munchies, instead of scolding her for staying up too late (it was a Friday night anyway), he perked up and asked if she'd be willing to share. Marinette offered him some, and then he ate all of her food. Since then, she made sure to keep extra bakery snacks in her room, not only for Tikki's cookie needs, but to feed Chat Noir. He was truly like a stray cat she'd taken in. Begging for food, turning up at her door, gradually growing more affectionate the more she spend time with him… Oh, and that too.

Four: Chat had no physical boundaries. It was almost like he was starved for attention sometimes. Every time he visited, he hugged her, threw himself onto her legs, propped his elbow on her shoulder or both arms on top of her head, sat as close as possible next to her so he could lean most of his weight on her, and generally acted very much like a snuggly cat. When the weather turned warmer, allowing Marinette to spend time on her roof comfortably, he turned up a few times apparently with the singular goal of taking a nap with his head in her lap while she read a book or studied. Marinette knew that when she and her partner were fighting an akuma together, they would often end up touching somehow or another, either because Chat lifted her up with his staff or she swung them around with her yoyo, or they were hiding behind the same cover discussing strategy, or Chat was trying to pull some flirty move on her. But Chat cuddling up to Marinette had nothing to do with any of that. He just liked human contact. It made her think: was he just a touchy-feely sort of person, or was he actually starved for attention in his civilian life? On one of his more recent visits, she actually brought it up. Lightly, of course. "What is it with you and physical attention?" Marinette had laughed.

Five: Chat's home life was incredibly lonely. As soon as she'd asked the question, Marinette watched Chat's leather ears droop, and he backed off from where he'd been resting his chin on her head. His suddenly dejected face struck a chord in her heart, and Marinette regretted ever asking if this is what happened. "I'm sorry," he said, "I'm probably making you uncomfortable, aren't I?" Marinette was quick to assure him he wasn't, she promised. That's how Chat ended up relating a very vague story of his civilian life, which sounded absolutely horrible. His mother passed away some time ago, and since then his father had been extremely cold and closed off to him, while still maintaining strict rules. From the sounds of it, his father was both neglecting and isolating her poor Chat Noir. He'd only recently made friends when he convinced his father to let him attend school instead of being taught at home. His only true freedom came from being Chat Noir, he said. His situation actually reminded her of—

Oh. Oh no. No, there was no way, was there? But, well… No. Marinette shook away her thought, dismissing it as impossible.

The next time Chat showed up on her rooftop, Marinette had been on the verge of falling asleep. It was late, and she'd been up too early that morning.

"Chat, it's so late…can't you come back tomorrow? Maybe earlier?" she asked, yawning.

He didn't say anything, only stood there. So she looked up, and looked closer. Marinette took in his slumped posture, his wide eyes, his flat ears. He was…scared? Upset? She yawned again and scratched her fingers in her hair, loosening a few too-tight strands in the bun she'd thrown it in to go to sleep.

"I'm sorry," he said at last. "I just…needed to get away."

Marinette blinked drowsily for a moment before sighing and opening the trap door wider to let him down into her room. She was dangerously close to collapsing where she stood, and was glad when Chat decided to settle on the sofa next to her. Somehow she ended up falling asleep, and somehow so did Chat, because when she woke up she learned something that belonged in a new category all on its own.

One: Adrien Agreste was Chat Noir.

She was frozen, and she could feel her face turning red as a tomato. She was right. She was actually right. And here he was. She was staring the evidence in its still-sleeping face.

Chat was Adrien. Adrien was Chat. And then suddenly everything made so much more sense. It was so obvious; she was shocked no one had figured it out earlier.

Suddenly she was staring at open—awake—eyes. They weren't cat eyes, but they were just as green.

"Good morning, Princess."