Summary: Chat meets with Marinette to discuss her reactions and, through some of his characteristic silliness and flirting, she struggle to come to terms with the fact that she ... finds another girl attractive.

While Chat Noir would have liked to assert that he moved like a liquid shadow even in the late afternoon light, the reality, as would be obvious to anyone watching him as he passed, was that he flopped and twisted through the air with each of his baton strokes, scampering over rooftops on all fours and missing more than a few of his intended landings while he cavorted in an eager scramble towards the Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. Super-powered parkour and his baton allowed him to complete the journey in mere minutes, arriving with his chest heaving great pants.

As he clambered over the the last building and dropped to his belly to shimmy towards the edge of the roof, he couldn't suppress the silly grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth because he was going to see his princess – maybe their princess, and that only made the grin wider.

The small brick chimneys, only the tips of which were visible, stood out against the park beyond, thin wisps of smoke trailing upwards, channelled from the bakery's wood-burning ovens.

Still, he had to be clandestine about his surveillance, and all his feline subtly and grace was used to edge his way towards the tiny lip of the roof to poke his kitty ears and green eyes out and survey the situation like a soldier observing an enemy encampment. Marinette's balcony and attic room emerged into view.

Target acquired.

Marinette stood, slumped against the railing of her balcony, and his keen cat eyes allowed him to worry over the vacant expression on her face as she chewed on her lower lip.

Obviously, Marinette was planning on staying in for the evening, having already changed for bed before dinner. She stood on her rooftop, clad in her perfectly adorable but dangerously tight pink sleep pants, and white, pink polka dotted tanktop, its thin black straps pressing into her slender shoulders and highlighting the curve of her throat and the smooth pale expanse of her neck, curving around the fine lines of her collarbone.

And now she was staring right back at him, arms folded up like a preying mantis, hands steepled in front of her face as she leaned against her balcony railing.

"Anything that I can help the great and illustrious hero of Paris with today?" she shouted over the street, causing several pedestrians to look up at what they must have assumed was a crazy person.

A little snort of laughter escaped him, contorting Chat's face like a sneeze, because that was the kind of bold attitude, much like a snarkier version of Kagami's, that made Marinette Marinette, at least when she wasn't stumbling all over herself in a blushing fluster, which, as Kagami had pointed out to him, was just as adorable.

Flicking his baton into a staff, he set it at his feet and burst off the roof into a clean and easy flip, bridging the gap between them to land comfortably at Marinette's side, capping it off with a deep bow.

"You've got it all wrong, princess," he said, fist clenched to his heart, the thick belt-tail behind him flicking and swaying in amusement that he couldn't restrain because the darn thing had a mind of its own. "This humble knight is at your service, certainly."

Marinette did not appear impressed.

"Uh-ha," she offered noncommittally with an eye-roll so hard that it nearly looked like the whites of her eyes were going to spin right out of her head, "and to what do I owe the honor of being graced with the presence of the great Chat Noir?"

"Honestly," he said as he rose, noting the slight down-turning of her lips at the shift in his tone from deliberately ridiculous to sincere, "I was just passing through and, well-" A hand pressed to the back of his head and he scratched at it absently. "You looked a little lost in thought. As a hero of Paris, I guess I just wanted to check in."

"Can't have people getting akumatized under your watch, right?" she sighed.

Had – had they actually affected her emotionally to the degree that she might be akumatized? Had they completely misjudged? How could he have-

Her weird, toothy smile and a frantic gesture with her hands set his mind at ease, and let him relax his grip on the baton that he realized he was nearly on the verge of snapping in his hands.

"No- no. I'm just joking, Chat! Nothing's really wrong," she assured in a slight rush, likely seeing his slack-jawed expression.

"Don't scare me like that, princess," Chat groused.

"Sorry. I didn't think that you'd take it so seriously."

If he hadn't been the possible cause of her distress, he probably wouldn't.

"No worries, little lady." His chest puffed as he tapped his baton to the padded armour molded skin-tight to his pecs... which he might have been flexing just a little bit. "This cat's made of sterner stuff than to be thrown off by that."

"Well," she hummed in thought, pupil dilating to focus on him in a sidelong glare that she might offer to a passerby with dubious fashion sense whose outfit she was tearing down to the threads and stitches in her mind, "you are a bit of a butt."

"Hey!" he exclaimed as if truly incensed, drawing on his acting experience to throw a flanging pubescent crackle into his complaint, just for good measure. "That's the thanks I get for being worried about a civilian in distress."

"I'm not distressed, Chat. I'm just..." Splotchy flecks of colour marred her complexion with uneven shades of pink and white, the angle of the light throwing them into greater contrast as her upper body plunged down to the railing, head cradled on folded arms.

Was she thinking about how to turn down him and Kagami without hurting them? Without calling forth an akuma?

Needing to find something to busy himself with, he tossed his baton in the air, drawing her eyes towards it. The thin black rod arced upwards, spinning, green paw-print Chat Noir symbol pulsing as he reached out a hand to catch it on its downward tumble before, taking note of her still slightly stern face, he readjusted the angle of his shoulder and arm imperceptibly. The baton clattered against his fingers, sending him into a hissing fumble to try to catch it properly, which only resulted in the little weapon deflecting off his hand.

And smacking him right in his face.

Marinette snorted again, breaking out into sincere laughter which she tried to cover with her palm while the little heaving motions of her chest rocked her entire body. Her eyes clenched shut tight, but the wavering of her mouth, tiny muscles in her cheeks seeming to fire at random, made her look half amused and half apologetic for laughing at him as he rubbed his nose haughtily.

He was always willing to take a hit for his ladies.

It took a few moments for her to quiet, eventually apologizing to him and coaxing him out of the little huff that he feigned, tail lashing behind him violently in playful amusement, not that she'd be able to tell, nose upturned.

When they had both settled, he found it within him to speak seriously.

"You don't have to talk about whatever it is that's got you feeling a little down, but... I don't know. We kind of helped each other last time something was on our minds, right? When we chatted about Ladybug and your mystery prince?"

"Yeah," she agreed, fiddling with her pigtails and trying to straighten out a handful of hairs that had pulled loose during her laughing fit. "That did help, actually."

"So, is it... is it about your prince again?" Chat asked, leaning back against the railing, resting his weight on his elbows. "Did he turn out to be a Hans?"

"A what?"

"You know, from Frozen? Random inexplicable heel turn?"

"Oh. Him, a heel?" she scoffed."Never. He's too ... too perfectly sweet and caring. He might be ... he might be wrong about things sometimes, but no one could put up with ... some of the people he has in his life, like these two girls at our school who are hanging off him constantly even though he hates it, if that wasn't who he really was."

Lila and Chloe, perhaps - ugly, perfectly manicured nails biting into his arms as decorum and expectation had him laughing and smiling even as they slimed into him, hot and stomach churning like the atmosphere in a muggy gym that left him caked with sweat, and dirt, and other peoples' body odour. That kind of sensation was so strange when he usually couldn't get enough hugs from Nino or cuddles from Kagami

"No," she continued.."It's not... well. It is about him. I got confessed to, today."

"Congratulations, princess," he offered, reaching out a clawed hand to give her a little bump to her shoulder. "Someone must have good taste."

She laughed, mirthless and sharp, a little pained and frantic, his cat ears flicking up and rotating to parse the varied intonations. "Yeah. She really does, but not because she confessed to me, that's for sure."

"Nonsense, princess," he corrected in a huff. "I'm sure that she sees how clever and brave you are."

Her brow quirked as she gave him a judgmental once-over and then leaned in to poke his cheek, as if testing whether he was made of flesh and blood, the soft lingering remnants of boyish pudge being pressed up over the edge of his mask.

"You're not going to confess to me, too, are you?" she asked with a grimace that was part playful and part wary. "Because then I'll know that one of Hawkmoth's akuma or an amok is behind this."

"Heaven forfend, princess!" he exclaimed to cover a sudden whelming of guilt as she unwittingly called to mind the very thing that had, in part, helped him to decide to try to move on from Ladybug, angling to butt his head against the hand she still held up to his head, now trying to take the temperature of his forehead. "This cat is spoken for."

"Right," she drawled. "Ladybug."

"Eh." Admitting to her that his affections had shifted – or been forced to shift – away from Ladybug, even though he'd already done so to the very girl he was speaking to, was strangely difficult.

"No actually."

"What?" The slight crinkling of her nose, as if she'd gotten a whiff of something foul, left him grinning with the desire to boop it, it was so cute. So that's how Ladybug felt...

"But- you've been in love with Ladybug for – for forever!" she said, staggering in shock.

"Yeah," he offered with a sigh, shifting his baton between his hands, and strange as it was, a great stab of hot shame had him flinching away from her wide-eyed expression. "But she doesn't feel the same way, and... I think that I'm okay with that."

"So, that's it. You've ... given up on her." It almost sounded as if she was disappointed, but that made no sense. She never seemed to do anything more than tolerate Alya's 'shipping' talk, much as he and the blogger had gushed over LadyNoir.

And of course he managed to bungle the conversation so badly that they were now talking about his love-life rather than satisfying the curiosity he had regarding hers. He nearly smacked himself in the face with his baton, and might just have done it if Marinette wasn't standing right there.

"I – I don't know if that's the right way to put it."

"Oh? Then how would you put it, kitty?" She asked, hands to her hips, a light forward roll of her shoulders pressing her chest together, and he had to struggled to keep his eyes on her face.

Cat scratch that. Staring into those wide, vibrant and defiant blue eyes? The only thing that he had to struggle with was the real danger of losing himself in them.

Sap.

"I love Ladybug and I love ... my girlfriend," he began. "I just choose to be with her – no, that's not right. It's not a choice because Ladybug isn't a choice... maybe, I choose to focus on someone I love who loves me back."

"And how is that going?" she asked with a note of genuine intrigue.

"It... it's good. No. It's great!" he said, arms thrown out to the side as if he was bursting apart. Going by the way that she put a hand to her jaw and scratched just under her ear absently, his exuberance seemed to leave her dumbfounded. "It's not what I thought would happen, but- but it's really good!"

"That's wonderful. I'm happy for you, Chat," she said, yet the way that her gaze flitted away from him and she began to scan the skyline beyond her balcony made it seem quite the opposite.

Of course. Wincing with the realization of his own lack of consideration, he clapped his arms behind his back, squeezing his own wrist painfully tight, and began to pace the balcony while she looked out to the cityscape.

As he took in the sight of her, loosing her hair ties and untangling her pigtails to set her locks streaming in the slight breeze, he only hoped that he'd actually made it easier on her. Just like he'd had to give up on Ladybug, she had to give up on Chat Noir.

"But what about you?" he asked in an attempt to break free from a line of thought that still stung, leaping to the balustrade of Marinette's balcony and delighting in her giggle when he began to sway back and forth, feigning a fall on a tight-rope walk. He tended to get ahead of himself with ridiculous, elaborate fantasies.

"What do you mean, you silly cat?" Marinette laughed, though she was eyeing him carefully.

She was watching to see if he was going to fall, ready to intervene.

She was looking out for him.

At that moment, as he steadied himself and bent down into a crouch next to her, still on the railing, he was grateful that the green-hued lenses of his mask would hide his misting eyes.

"Well, you said that a girl confessed to you today. How do you – uh... feel about that?"

"Honestly?" Mulling over her response took her a few tense moments, during which her mouth ranged through a series of indescribable little twitches, shifting from frown to smile to quirk and back in rapid succession. "I don't know? See, this girl was ... she's actually really ... nice, tough but, like, awkwardly charming and self-sacrificing. You know that guy that I told you about?"

"Your sweet prince?"

"Oh, he's sweeter than a ... a cotton candy burrito." The figure of speech left her in a rush as she grinned and grimaced, hands clenching and unclenching with increasing speed. "But not, like disgusting like that - like a cotton candy burrito that was great and made in the finest confectionary but well-balanced but also kind of funny and sometimes just a little silly like- like-"

"Like a cotton candy burrito?" Chat supplied, hunching his butt up onto the railing of her balcony in order to take a seat, his impeccable sense of balance allowing him to raise a knee to his chest.

"Yeah," she sighed dreamily and deflated at once.

"And what about mister 'cotton candy burrito?'" He sort of liked being a cotton candy burrito.

"Oh. Uh. I guess that she and I were kind of ... rivals for him?"

If he needed any more confirmation than that, he was more of a dolt than Kagami and Plagg thought. She did like him.

But he had to be careful; suppress the urge to take a flying leap of the balcony and start whooping his way across Paris (as you do, if you're Adrien Agreste).

"So, she- she's interested in you now?"

"I- sort of? She's definitely interested in me, though I couldn't tell you why because – because they're perfect together and I'm just an ... ugly spastic dork compared to them."

"Marinette," Chat retorted harshly – more harshly, he realized, than she'd ever heard him in their few prior meetings and it caused her to jerk out of the beginning of what appeared to be a melancholic, rambling spiral.

"You are a beautiful person, inside and out-" google-eyed, she swallowed at that, as if gulping down an entire glass of milk in one go, and he wanted so badly to kiss those slightly-parted lips in that moment that he couldn't fathom how he had failed to realize his feelings for so long.

"But you don't have to have good taste to fall in love with you," he affirmed, taking in the rapid flicking of her eyes, as if she was desperate to escape, and the distinct burst of colour that bloomed on her cheeks.

A quirk of her brow and the beginnings of a scowl crossed her face at the awkward phrasing, and then he plucked her hand from the railing and held it in his own, fingers trailing the divots between her knuckles.

"Good taste or bad, anyone could see how special you are."

After a few seconds spent enjoying her stunned silence, he offered her a massive wink, and in response she huffed and tugged her hands free from his to smack him in the chest.

"Okay, there, Casanova-"

"Catsanova, please."

She rolled her eyes again, because of course she would, and seeing this side of her, the one that she'd shown off so rarely to Adrien, had his heart racing. It was almost like teasing Ladybug, but ... but even better because Marinette liked 'him' back.

"Either way, back off there, kitty," she chastised while pressing her hand to his shoulder and giving him a light shove. "You've got a girlfriend, or so I'm told."

"Just telling you the truth, princess. Don't sell yourself short."

"Okay, okay." She mimed a massive explosion with her hands, fingers twinkling as if scattering stardust. "So I'm this wonderful, beautiful, magical princess."

He nodded sagely, chin between his thumb and forefinger. "I'm glad that we agree on something."

"But what do I do?"

A huff escaped his nose. That was really the rub, wasn't it? Intestines tying themselves into knots, palms itchy inside his gloves, he knew that he had to measure his words carefully.

"I take it that you didn't turn her down outright?" he asked tentatively, trying to get her to open up because he already had the answer to that.

"No. I couldn't just... shove her confession back in her face."

"Do you... do you like girls?" he asked, gripping the balcony railing tight.

Her head titled to the sky. The clouds shifted and rolled with the heavier winds above them. A light twitching of her cheek coupled with fluttering eyes, something like rapid-eye-movement of a sleeping child, left him feeling slightly sick with anticipation.

"I... I don't know.

She said it so helplessly.

"You know it's okay if you don't," he assured hesitantly, "or if you don't know... you know?"

Bravo Chat Noir. Really cementing that suave reputation.

But it made her snort, laugh lines spreading out around her clenching eyes.

"Yeah, Chat," she huffed, hand to her mouth to hide the little, silly smile that he'd only caught a flash of when she first started to snark at him. "I think I follow you."

He'd make an idiot out of himself twice a day everyday if it meant lifting Marinette's spirits like that, or getting Kagami to crack one of her increasingly-frequent natural smiles.

"So, do you want to talk about it or, uh, her?" he continued awkwardly once the pressure had deflated entirely, the air being let out of Marinette's lungs.

"I... Yeah." There was a little frown of uncertainty, almost like the one he saw on her face whenever Lila began spinning a new web of increasingly ridiculous lies, and he could only dig his claws into the rail more tightly as he wondered what that meant.

"You said that she was, what," he stumbled, "charming and self-sacrificing?"

Thank you Nathalie Sancour for the memory drills.

A nod and a faint smile had him relaxing, rising up to his full height which put her at nearly four inches shorter than him.

"Yeah," she almost sighed and it was very nearly wistful. "She and I are interested in the same guy, and- and she actually held off for a long time for me. She told me that I was hesitating, and that she never does. That's one of the things that's so cool about her. She goes after what she wants without letting anything get in her way."

"Sounds pretty forceful. I get that, I suppose – liking a girl who knows what she wants and is willing to do what it takes to get it."

"But don't you get it?" she replied, face lighting up in that cute and enthusiastic way it did when she started talking about a new design. "Because we're friends, she didn't. She cared enough to give me a chance; I just never took it."

Kagami had alluded to that, but the knowledge that Marinette appreciated it properly only made her all the more special. His 'Gami deserved that kind of recognition – the kind that she didn't get from her mother.

"It sounds like you care for her, at least."

"Of course I do," she replied as if offended. "She's such a good friend, and was always trying to include me and push me to tell A- to tell the boy we like how I felt, and she was so .. so sweet and honest and hopeful when she told me how she feels about me that- that I just wanted to..."

"What?"

"To-" She shrugged helplessly, naked shoulders rolling up. "I don't know, hug her and tell her that it would be alright."

"Well, princess, that's just further testimony to your massive heart. Like I said," he added while gesturing at all of her, "beautiful inside and out."

She waved him off as if she didn't believe him and he made a note to compliment her that way as Adrien. See her withstand that.

"But that doesn't mean that I have feelings for her. I'd do that for any of my friends when they were struggling a little bit."

"Well, then, is there anything about her that isn't ... just friendly?" That was the rub, and the very crux of the issue. She'd been a beautiful blushing mess between him and Kagami, but was that just embarrassment? "I mean, I know that some of my guy friends are good looking, but it's a completely different feeling than the one I get when-" He cleared his throat and sniffed, a claw flicking over his nose. "When I look at my girlfriend."

A palm rose, smacking against her face that was slowly blooming with a hearty flush. Her lips moved, the sound of her voice so soft that even he with his enhanced hearing couldn't pick out the words.

"What was that?"

"I said," she added, still in a mumble, "that- that she..."

"Is everything alright?" Chat grit out. A hand rose and fell back to his hip, claws digging into the mystical spandex-leather of his costume. "She- she didn't do anything, did she?"

What he really meant was 'he didn't do anything, did he?' Yet he couldn't say that.

"She has really sick abs, okay!" Marinette nearly screamed, wheeling on him, throwing her fists to her sides.

He could have roasted marshmallows with a blush that hot.

"Well," he began in a small voice, blinking rapidly like a confused child. "It kind of sounds like you might like girls."

"Yeah," she sighed, collapsing onto her forearms and leaning into the railing while blowing out a raspberry, "but what am I going to do about that? I- I just..."

"You don't have to tell me," he offered gently. His hand, tentative for a moment because he was about to press his glove against her naked flesh, smoothed over her shoulder as he gave her a comforting squeeze, mindful of his claws, "but I'm here to listen if you need it."

"It's just that I.. I loved him for so long that it feels like I'm giving up," she muttered into her arm, though her head tilted over towards his hand.

"On him?" That really didn't make any sense, unless... unless she meant that she was going to become his rival for Kagami.

"No!" she nearly screeched, jerking up to shake her head. "Not on him because – uh... I mean, it's not giving up on him if we're – if it's a girl or- uh..."

He held up a hand, tension bleeding from his shoulders and spine as, given his inside knowledge, that was enough to placate him and allay his fears. "It's okay, princess. Just take your time."

"Uh, well. Not him. It's like giving up something... childish but- but important," she said while curling her arms around her torso in a way that made him really want to throw himself around her shoulders and give her some cuddles while demonstrating the healing properties of a cat's purr.

"Whenever I thought of being with him, I saw ... an ideal – this abstract thing where I got everything exactly as I wanted and it was like – 2.5 kids, my dream career, my dream guy. It was all-" She frowned, though it was thoughtful, rather than bitter. "A stereotype. And then I'm looking at her and suddenly I'm this ... blushing stuttering mess and it's frightening and exciting and ... weird... I didn't think that I was ... different."

"You know that it's okay to be different, right?"

"I know that. I've got friends who are- well, a boy that I dated for a little while explained that he was 'pan,' and his sister has a girlfriend, but I have a lot of problems, Chat. Like, so many that you wouldn't even believe it. I'm already ... different. I worry about things all the time, and my – my mind gets away from me when I know that it shouldn't. I just thought that I was – oh, " she nearly raved and rambled, voice growing more strained by the word, before jerking to a stop as if she'd hit a mental wall, eyes suddenly wide and desperate as she slapped her palms to her temples.

"God. I was going to say 'normal!' Th-that's horrible. How could I ever think that Juleka and Luka aren't normal when they're two of the kindest people I know, and what does that say about me that I would even think about it as if they weren't and- and they're so much stronger than me because I don't even know if I could handle being so open and honest about it all, and- and I don't-"

Unable to stand even a single moment more, even though he felt that he owed it to her to let it all out, he curved his arms around her stomach and pulled her back into his chest, her ramble cut off with a sharp intake of breath that had her inflate in his hold. Unsteady hands grabbed onto his forearms as he squeezed tight, his anxious purr racing through both of them as she craned her neck to stare into his face, wide-eyed. A tight grip on her belly allowed him to stabilize her as he rubbed his chin into the top of her head.

"Sorry, Marinette," he mumbled, suddenly desperately worried that he had overstepped. "You just looked like you could use a hug."

"Uh- yeah. Hugs are good," she stumbled. "I like hugs."

"Princess, whoever this girl is, you said that she cares about you. If that's true, whether you care about her as a friend or something else, you can trust her enough to be honest with her. Just talk to her. I know that, whatever happens, you'll work it out just by... talking through it."

"You –" She gulped before continuing in a indecisive whisper, "You think so?"

"I do," he affirmed with a smooth nod, his voice coming out far more sure than he actually was given his own anxieties, "and whatever you decide, I hope that she makes you happy, princess, as a friend or something else. It's nothing less than what you deserve."

While he would have preferred to keep her in his arms, she seemed to need the comfort of his grip for only a few moments, as she stiffened in his hold, that look of confident resolve that reminded him of Ryuuko and Ladybug settling over her features.

"... so do I," she said, tone not quite fitting with her expression as she patted his arm in a silent request for him to release her. Of course, he acceded with an awkward flush as he ran a hand through his hair. "You're right she and ... the guy we both like have to sit down and figure things out."

"I'm sure that he'll be very grateful that you two are thinking about how he feels in all this."

"Of course, Chat," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I- I could never hurt him. No matter what happens, or how I feel, that's the most important thing."

Behind his mask, Chat Noir did not get misty-eyed.

He started to cry, turning his face to hide it.

Just a few tears, but there was the swelling tightness in his throat and the way his tail that had been so lively and enthusiastic only moments earlier drooped, flaccid, and the piercing pain of his fangs in his lips...

After a decade-and-a-half sealed up in the cool, sterile Agreste mansion, his only friend the overbearing Chloe who sometimes seemed to care more for his status than for him, and his only companion his mute bodyguard and even that was lucky because Kagami hadn't even had that, the mixed rush of emotions was more than he could name or describe.

How could he have been so lucky to find two people who cared enough to ... to make how he felt the most important thing?

How could he make that up to them when they might have worse needs than his own?

Apparently, Marinette had been mulling over something while he'd been moping over himself again, as she turned to him, the light of the low sun in the sky casting her pale skin in a glow while shimmering in those nearly blue highlights in her hair so that it looked almost like it was liquid silk threaded with strands of woven sapphire.

Again, he knew that he was a sap, but good lord! Was it any wonder that, as Plagg put it, he was well and truly whipped?

"You know, Chat?" she offered slowly, considering him with a critical eye as if she had only just realized that he was a leather-clad cat-boy and was assessing his sanity. "That girlfriend of yours?"

"Yeah?" he sniffed. "What about her?"

"She's pretty lucky to have you." A smile and a shove that sent him clambering up to the balustrade. "You're... you're a sweet guy too when you want to be. Ladybug missed out on something."

"Princess, let me tell you that I'm the lucky one," he said as he bowed to hide a smile that was too wide and adoring to cover over as anything else but the result of infatuation.

"And as for LB, well... " Rising to his full height, face still angled away from her just enough to hide how smitten he must look, he offered her one of his characteristic two-fingered salutes. "Maybe that was lucky too."

And he was off with a laugh, yelling behind him as he nearly collided with a street sign, "Take care of your princess, princess!"

Chat Noir may just have made the Ladyblog that evening because he did, indeed, whoop most of the way home, even if he did so just slightly tearfully.