Chapter Text
It was late.
Marinette really should be sleeping right now, but…
Just a few more tweaks and her village would be perfect. Her favorite villagers. Many of them wearing clothes she’d personally made - she was as much a designer in Animal Crossing as she was in the real world. It’d taken a while to get the lamp posts she wanted too, but now that they were here…
She was ready. After opening up the airport on her island and getting her dodo code, she put her switch to the side and typed the code into the group chat. It didn’t get used much - mostly just Nino sharing memes with the rest of them, or attempts to get everyone together to hang out. Attempts which almost always ended in failure, thanks to Adrien’s strict schedule and even stricter father.
Adrien…
He was the only other person in the gang that even had a switch, which is what gave her the idea for this in the first place. While it was hard for them to hang out in the real world, she was sure they could squeeze in some time together online.
Marinette could picture it now. He arrives, amazed at her village. They hang out together, growing closer every day. Friendship turns to dating and dating turns to marriage. Twenty years down the line they can tell the story about how they got together because of a video game and Marinette’s excellent village-building skills.
But in the present day, it was three in the morning. With the switch turned off, the long delayed exhaustion hit all at once. Dreams of the married life with the boy of her dreams danced in her head as she fell asleep.
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A few days passed. Everyone had seen the message she’d sent on the chat, but it was quickly buried under a torrent of memes, pushing it out of sight and out of mind. She opened the airport and sent out the code one more time, but it was a faint hope.
Her dreams - the friendship, the dating, the marriage - turned to ashes, but at least she still had her village to keep her busy. So busy, in fact, that without even realizing it, she had ended up playing until into the late hours of the night once again.
The groove she’d worked herself into was rudely thrown off when a cutscene began playing, interrupting her fishing. A plane was gently cruising into her airport.
Marinette read the text that showed up and spoke out loud, “Chat Noir, Carefree Animal from Purr-adise has arrived on your island?”
That couldn’t be right. She sat up, suddenly alert. True, she and Chat Noir weren’t exactly strangers - he shows up on her balcony sometimes during his patrol. He at least knew her name. But what was he doing on her island? Assuming it was even actually Chat Noir.
Her curiosity sparked, she made her way to the airport.
Sure enough, whoever they were had gone the full distance. They’d made their own outfit modeled after the feline hero of Paris - black with the accents all in the right places. No cat ears or tail, but they did manage to get a black hero mask. Between that and the messy hair and green eyes, it was about as close as someone could get to his iconic outfit.
The rose in the mouth, though - that was what really convinced her that this was none other than Chat Noir. If she had any doubts after that, the moment the speech bubble appeared over his head quieted them.
“Aw, princess! Came to see me off the airplane? ;3”
Huffing, Marinette quickly typed out a response. “How did you get here Chat.”
“Plane.”
“I mean it!”
“Oooh, pretty island!”
And just like that, Chat Noir had bolted away, an entirely new type of cat boy loose in her village. Although one thing she learned after a few minutes of running after him - there wasn’t a lot of mischief he could actually get into.
After standing still for a few moments, Chat Noir said, “...want to be best friends?”
“So you can tear up my island? Hard pass.”
“Nooo come on, plz? I’ll be a good kitty I purromise.”
“No. But because of that pun? Definitely no.”
“Then I will become a Menace. >:3”
“You do you Chat. I’m going back to fishing.”
Fishing in games was always relaxing for Marinette. Her mind could wander while she listened to the gentle music of the game, all the while slowly building up a pile of fish she could sell off. It was a nice way to unwind after the stress of tests or akuma battles.
Usually.
Those times, she didn’t have an annoying cat boy visitor running into the water, screaming “RUN AWAY FISHY FRIENDS!”
“CHAT.”
His only response was to slowly run into her, gently pushing her away from the water.
“I am FISHING. Go hang out somewhere else.”
“Where the princess goes I must follow.”
“Ugh fine.”
Figuring that fishing was out now, she wandered away to find something else to do. Although it was a little annoying, she had to admit it was nice having him on the island. It was a nice little ego boost to see him ooh and ahh at her village as he followed behind her. And the presence of another person made things feel a little less repetitive.
Of course, that goodwill quickly flew out the window once she tried to pick something up, only for Chat’s net to bonk her on the head.
She silently turned her character towards him, pretending that she was glaring at him despite the unchanging smile on her character’s face saying otherwise. After a few good long seconds she tried again.
BONK.
“aksfvjJKHDFBVJHGB,” she keyboard smashed.
“:3”
He kept following her as she went to a little picnic area. After all, if she wasn’t going to be able to get anything done, she may as well lounge in style.
“How did you even get here?! Seriously! I only gave my code away to”
Her eyes widened and she hit send accidentally. Their characters stood looking at each other for long minutes.
Only three people. Chat wasn’t Nino and he definitely wasn’t Alya. Which just left…
“...Adrien?”
Another moment passed in silence.
Chat Noir has disconnected.
Marinette stared blankly at the spot that Chat’s- Adrien’s character had just been standing.
After all the close calls and the near misses and all that they’d done to keep their identities a secret… Chat Noir blows it in under an hour because he wanted to tease her in the virtual world. Marinette wanted to be mad at him, but all she could do was laugh. It was just such a perfectly Chat Noir way to mess it up. What else could she do?
Her eyes gleamed with mischief. School tomorrow was going to be fun.
