Hey guys. So, I'm really sorry, but this chapter is about 500 words shorter than normal. I wanted to make it longer, I really did, but the place I stopped it at seemed perfect. As a result, this chapter is a whopping 2300 words (roughly). I promise that chapters will not stay this short for long, but it was necessary that I stop it where I did- in my opinion. Remember, things like thoughts are italicized while I'm writing, but they get lost in the transfer. I did bold something in this chapter, but that was a POV switch. It was a necessary edit

Onto the story!

Disclaimer: Those shits would be kissin' if I owned it.

Chapter 3: How Could It Get Any Worse?! ...Oh.

It had been two long and stressful days, and Chat Noir was no where near getting better. If anything, he was getting worse.

Marinette had taken to leaving a trash can near the chaise (which he'd been moved to after he'd felt the urge to throw up) and grimaced whenever she had to switch out the bags. The only reason she hadn't called a doctor or a hospital was because, well, how could she explain that she'd been taking care of a sick super hero for almost four days?

Marinette sighed softly from her seat on the couch, her fingers running through soft blond hair. She and Chat Noir had migrated downstairs, as she knew that he would likely get sick of seeing her pink walls every day, and were currently sitting on the couch. Well, she was.

Having told Alya that she had to watch the bakery because her parents were at a convention, she was able to stay home and take care of the sick kitty instead of going to school. She'd have a crap ton of homework when she got back, but she'd deal.

He, of course, had decided one morning a few days before that he couldn't stay and that he really needed to go before people started to notice he was gone.

He would've done that had his Kwami cooperated with him instead of lazing around like a- well, like a cat.

Plagg had been stuffed to the brim every day with a multitude of stinky cheeses, and when those had run out, cheese croissants, and claimed multiple times that if Chat didn't marry her, he would. Marinette knew she'd have a very weird time explaining it all to her parents (leaving out the part about the Kwami wanting to marry her), but she couldn't exactly bring herself to care at the moment.

Marinette fast-forwarded through the commercials, knowing that Chat absolutely despised them for some reason. She loved them, as quite a few of them were Agreste in nature and gave her a chance to see Adrien, but… With Chat being sick and needing her care, she couldn't bring herself to think about Adrien and didn't mind speeding through the commercial breaks.

This cat needed all of her attention, okay?!

"Ow…"

Marinette looked down when she heard a weak sound of pain and gasped when she noticed that she'd accidentally tugged on his hair. "Sorry Kitty. I got so lost in thought I…"

"It's okay," he said softly, his eyes closing behind the mask Marinette had made for him. "I understand."

He seemed to like laying like this, with Marinette sitting up and his head in her lap, her thin fingers running through his hair and keeping him happy and relaxed. The position had done two things: allowed him comfort, and he'd yet to puke for the two and a half hours they'd been sitting there. A new record!

At the moment they were watching some animated movie involving cavemen and a person named 'Guy'. She'd never seen it before, as it had recently come out, but Chat Noir seemed to like it (based on the countless expressions he made) so she didn't really mind.

The hand in Chat's hair went still, and Chat stiffened when they heard a knocking on the door.

"Marinette? How can you be watching the bakery when the sign says 'closed'?"

Alya.

Shit.

-Chat Noir's POV-

The days had been going by so slowly, so without Marinette, he was sure that he would've gone mad. She was such an attentive friend, making sure he had everything he needed and wanted. Despite knowing that Chat Noir would likely ask for milk in a saucer just because he knew she wouldn't refuse, he couldn't bring himself to take advantage of her like that, especially after all she had done to make sure he was content and happy and feeling better.

She was just too nice to a cat like him.

Adrien had also discovered something after basically being held captive for four days- he could purr while in civilian form.

The discovery had been embarrassing to say the least. He'd been trying to sneak out early in the morning so he could head to school (as, despite the fact that his father and Nathalie were on a business trip and wouldn't be back for almost two weeks and wouldn't discover him missing, he had to go to school or else his friends would notice he was gone) but alas, Marinette had woken up when he was trying to convince Plagg to transform so they could sneak out the window. The Kwami was firmly against the idea due to a multitude of things (Adrien thought that he was thinking more about the 'delicious delicacies' that Marinette had provided him with).

After thoroughly reprimanding him for trying to leave in his condition, she'd scratched him under the chin to sooth him.

And that's when it started.

Every day the black haired girl with magic fingers would find some way to make him purr, and he couldn't say he minded after discovering that the sensitive places in his hair (right behind where his cat ears would be) still existed in civilian form.

She seemed to find it all very amusing and scratched whenever she had a chance.

Adrien lifted his gaze to Marinette when she tugged on his hair sharply, and the short conversation that followed wasn't of much importance.

It was the knock on the door that fucked him over.

He'd sat up much to fast in surprise and the room spun, making him groan. He clapped a hand over his mouth when he felt the bile in his stomach churn. Marinette placed a worried hand on his shoulder but Adrien waved her off, pointing at the door.

Adrien stood shakily, using desperate hands to climb the stairs until he was out of sight in her room, cradling a trash can.

He heard her open the door.

"A-Alya! Hey. Wh-What are you doing here? How'd you get in?"

"You gave me a key."

"…Oh."

Smooth, he thought.

"I came to check up on you. You've been off the radar for two days."

"I had to keep an eye on the bakery. Maman and Papa-"

"Left on some competition or convention or whatever, I know, but that doesn't explain why the Bakery's closed or why I saw dust on the tables."

"There is not! I go down there and clean tables and counters every day," she said indignantly. Adrien had to admit, he'd wondered where she'd gone for about fifteen minutes every morning, only to come back smelling like disinfectant and lemons. That would explain it.

He heard Alya sigh and stifled a snicker- which in turn urged him to cough. Shit, he thought, keeping his mouth shut for as long as he could.

"…What was that," he heard Alya ask, his head aching from the sudden coughing fit.

Marinette began scrounging for answers. "W-What was what? I didn't hear anything."

"I heard something that sounded like coughing… Never mind, I must've been hearing things."

Adrien let out a sigh of relief before his eyes widened. Oh shit. Okay, this one (he knew) could not be explained away as 'hearing things'.

He prayed that Marinette wouldn't be mad at him as he emptied the contents of his stomach and (he was almost positive) his actual stomach into the trash.

Alya must've given Marinette a look of some sort, because he heard her give a nervous laugh. "I-I'll be right back. You s-stay here! Don't move," she instructed shakily. The sound of her getting closer told Adrien that she was coming upstairs, and he was grateful, as perhaps that meant more of her magic fingers.

Ohh, yeah. Magic fingers. Her concerned face was the first to appear before she closed the trap door and walked over to him, kneeling. "Kitty," she'd whispered. "You have to stay quiet."

"I'm trying…" His voice was raw from stomach acid attacking his throat.

She'd sighed and had said 'I know' before her fingers entered his hair, brushing through the locks in a soothing manner.

He nuzzled into her hand, resting his head against her knee as he relaxed. His stomach began to calm as he did so and he sighed. This was nice…

The clearing of a throat ruined the sweet and calm moment.

Adrien heard Marinette swallow nervously in the silence of the room. He heard her swallow out of nervousness! Okay, not only was that weird, but he had thought that people couldn't actually hear that.

Marinette turned around to see Alya at the trapdoor, one hand holding it open as she stood there, waiting for an explanation. "I, er, found a stray cat that got sick," she tried, holding up her hands. There was very little chance she could hide this from her, due to most of Adrien's body being visible.

"Stray cat, huh?" Adrien winced at that. Yeah, they were screwed. "Can I see this 'cat'?"

Marinette looked over her shoulder at him and he slowly nodded. Why not? It's not like she didn't know already. Adrien pushed the trash can to the side and sat up, having been curled up on the floor. He heard Alya gasp when she saw him, and he knew why. He didn't look anything like the normal Chat Noir.

Usually, he had a tail, ears, a roughish grin, and a spark in his eyes.

Now, he had no tail, was sickly pale, the grin was more of a grimace, and she couldn't even see his eyes.

The gentle hand on his arm that urged him up kept him calm. Marinette helped him stand before she led him downstairs. After making him rinse out his mouth in the sink and giving him some gum (which he'd spit out once his mouth felt minty fresh) she led him to the couch and they sat down as they had earlier, with her hands in his hair and his head in her lap. Despite the observer they had who sat in the armchair just across the way, they acted as if nothing had happened.

Adrien listened tiredly as Marinette explained how this had happened and had to make Alya promise not to tell anyone what was going on.

He was almost asleep when, towards the end of the conversation, he heard Alya speak again, "He looks kind of like Adrien when you brush his hair like that. Don't you think so, Mari?"

Adrien stiffened, the hand rubbing his back freezing for a moment before it continued. "I-I don't know. I mean, a hairstyle doesn't mean much of anything." He could feel Marinette's eyes on him as she continued to scratch at his scalp, dragging a purr from his throat and forcing him to relax.

"I guess. Besides, I doubt Adrien can purr," Alya said with a giggle.

The cat could tell that Marinette's laugh was kind of forced, and he winced at the realization that she'd want to talk later.

The conversation trailed off, but Adrien had a feeling they'd be discussing this later- as Marinette and Adrien, not Marinette and Chat Noir.

And he knew that in conversations between a man and a woman, the woman almost always won.

Alya and Marinette continued to talk before the conversation was direction back in the direction of Chat Noir.

"So, since you're taking care of him, he'll owe you a favor, right?"

"Alya!"

"What? I'm just hoping he can give me an interview. You know, when he feels better."

Adrien thought it over before mentally shrugging. He could hear the two girls bouncing ideas off each other, question wise, so he tuned it out in favor of relaxing in Marinette's lap. She really did have magic fingers.

After what seemed like hours of faking sleep (which in actuality had likely been about ten minutes) he actually fell asleep, his world becoming devoid of everything but the feeling of her fingers in his hair and the worry that she'd reject him when they had the conversation that he knew was coming.

He awoke a few hours later to the front door closing and a hand shaking his shoulder gently. "C'mon Kitty. Let's get you upstairs and into bed. You need to take your medicine." The way Marinette's voice sounded, Adrien could almost forget that she might know his secret. Almost. He sat up tiredly, a yawn leaving him. As his eyes were still closed behind his mask, he felt rather than saw the hand pressed against his forehead. "Well, your fever's gone down," she mumbled to herself before she helped him upstairs, sitting him on the chaise.

Maybe she actually had forgotten the whole incident and wasn't going to rip him a new one for not telling her. One could hope, he supposed.

"Thank you for taking care of me." Adrien laid his head on her shoulder, his eyes still closed. "I really appreciate it Marinette. You are this chat's knight in beautiful pink."

There was a small giggle, which was followed by gentle scratches in his hair. "Don't worry about it Kitty."

Adrien smiled lightly at the scratches and began to purr, nuzzling against her shoulder lightly. The rest of the day passed with ease, and Marinette didn't bring up Alya's comment. Adrien left a few days later, fully healed and up to snuff. And when Marinette saw him at school the following week, she greeted him with a simple sweet smile.

Adrien was happy he'd been caught out in the rain. He didn't hate water as much as he used too (but that was probably a lie).

I recently got my laptop up and running and took a good look at this story. Each chapter got some minor modifications, and I came to the realization that this story would likely be better off ending here. If you don't like that, review, and I might post a one-shot that takes place some point after this. Like a sequel. I hope you guys like this, and I'll see you next time!

Bye bye!