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He shouldn't do this. He shouldn't even be thinking about it.
He really shouldn't.
Chat has been extremely careful not to interact with Marinette in the suit ever since their almost-date and nearly-a-kiss. As ecstatic as he is that she likes him both ways, he still feels like it would be what is commonly called a dick move to play tug-of-war with her heart like that.
And what if he somehow made Marinette like him more as Chat, and she broke up with Adrien? He doesn't think he could survive that. Not now. He needs Marinette. It's not something he knows with his head; it's something he senses with his heart, with the greedy, aching, open wound in his life, the place his father should be – and isn't.
(Maybe he never was.)
Maybe it's a ridiculous and egotistical thing to think, that Chat could somehow seduce away the most wonderful and caring girl that he's ever known, but this isn't his reasonable self talking. It's his anxieties, his fears, the part of him that tangles the people he loves in creeping ivy to keep them close.
But...
Marinette's been a little distracted lately, and Adrien hasn't been able to see her for a few days. They text all the time and their morning calls are now a ritual, one that he treasures dearly, but it's not the same. He craves the warmth of her presence like a drug he's been denied.
So maybe Chat passes a little too close to the bakery when he's out on a patrol he should be paying attention to, instead of craning his neck to try to catch a glimpse of Marinette's balcony, instead of hoping she's sitting in her sling chair with a sketchbook and a glass of lemonade so he has an excuse to go over and say hi. Or check on her. Chat Noir hasn't seen her since –
Since –
Since everything, Adrien thinks, firmly avoiding the things he doesn't want to think about.
It's been six weeks since everything changed, long enough for everyone else to have settled into their summer routines. Adrien still feels like he's drifting at loose ends, with no idea how to move forward, and he'd really like a hug from his girlfriend.
Chat doesn't realize that he's gotten too close until he lands on the balcony railing and balances there, his tail lashing; he makes an annoyed face at himself. He's doing exactly what he told himself he wouldn't do.
But – on the other hand – since he's already here...
And Marinette might have heard him land, too. There's a voice murmuring something he can't hear inside her room, maybe a show on her computer or her talking to Alya on the phone, but Marinette is many magical things, and Chat knows that she notices a lot more than other people do. If she did hear him, it would be weird if he just left again. His mind made up, Chat hops down and bends over to knock on the rooftop hatch that leads into Marinette's bedroom.
The voice says something else, a little louder, something Chat can't make out. And then there's a bright flash inside her room –
Chat narrows his eyes. That's not normal.
"Marinette?" he calls warily. "If you're in there, I'm coming inside."
He pulls on the hatch and grumbles to himself when he finds it unlocked, as usual. Marinette never remembers to lock it and Adrien is petrified to think that someone could get into her bedroom while she's not there – or while she is –
(Chat doesn't count, of course. Chat is a superhero. That's gotta count for something.)
He resolves to bring it up some other time in the group chat – maybe Alya will back him up, she's kind of paranoid sometimes – and forces himself to let it go for now. When he looks through the hatch, he sees that Marinette's not on her bed, so Chat slides in silently, landing on his hands and knees and making an effort to keep his boots off Marinette's pillows.
At first glance, everything seems fine. There's no Marinette lying in a heap on the floor with a concussion, or buried under piles of fabric, or battling an electrical fire after her computer exploded. Her room looks normal. Quiet. Chat creeps to the edge of Marinette's bed –
The second he moves, there's a very quiet sliding sound. Like someone waited for him to make any kind of noise to hide the sound of something else. To Chat's enhanced senses, the sound of MDF sliding against itself is unmistakable. A drawer?
He lunges for the ladder and slides down it with his hands and boots on the outside rails, like a fireman sliding down a pole; when he reaches the ground, Chat springs into a defensive position, his eyes scanning the room restlessly.
There's still nothing there, nothing out of place – at least, no more than usual. Marinette's been working on something. Chat can see that at once from the state of her desk. There's tools and supplies piled everywhere, when Marinette usually keeps it as neat as she can. It looks like... jewelry, maybe? That's her beading stuff, anyway, along with a bunch of other things he doesn't recognize, different kinds of pliers – and a walnut, weirdly enough.
But she wouldn't leave in the middle of a project. She's flat-out forgotten dates when her head was in the middle of draping pleats or repainting the storage box on her desk, and Adrien's had to come haul her out of her room to get some sun more than once.
The silence in her room is pervasive, nearly suffocating. Marinette's room shouldn't sound like this. Even when she's not in it, Marinette's room is comfort and softest warmth, safety not just for Adrien's body, but his heart. It's better when she's there, of course, but being surrounded by her stuff, by the products of her mind and her slender hands, always makes Adrien feel like he's with her, even if she's nowhere in sight.
An MDF drawer... Chat looks around, his eyes narrowed. Marinette has a lot of drawers. But Chat isn't about to start going through her clothes and stuff without more of a clue that something's actually wrong.
On the other hand, her crafting supply boxes are wood, too, and she's never minded Adrien messing around with them.
Chat pads softly over to Marinette's desk and starts pulling out drawers in her pink organizer, one by one, until one resists his gentle tug. It's not refusing to open, like it would if the drawer were locked with the sort of lock it doesn't have, but in a way that feels squishy, springy, like someone's pushing back against him.
His mouth curls into a smirk.
Got you.
To avoid damaging Marinette's organizer, Chat moves on to the next row of drawers like he didn't notice anything was wrong, pulling them open in turn, counting his seconds – but he keeps one hand hovering over the suspicious drawer, and when he judges that he's been roundabout enough, Chat yanks the first drawer open with way more strength than was truly needed. It springs open, and Chat peeks inside.
There's fabric filling the drawer, the cut ends of other things Marinette is saving for one reason or another, and that's all right and correct – but there's a tiny figure in there, too, a person, scrambling to cocoon themselves in the fabric before Chat notices them.
"Ha," Chat crows, darting his hand into the drawer to fish out the intruder. It wriggles and twists and even bites, but Chat pinches their clothes between his claws and pulls them out anyway. The figure is about two inches tall, and all Chat notices as he brings the person closer to his face is a blur of gray and black dotted with pink.
It's only when he brings them up before his eyes that Chat realizes it's someone he knows.
It's Multimouse.
Chat can physically feel the heart eyes that are trying to take over his face. He really struggles to keep them on the inside, where they belong, but it's so hard. She's so cute that it ought to be illegal. How did he not appreciate the space buns the first time? Or the way that her mask frames her eyes so beautifully? Or the perfect balance of her suit colors –
"Chat Noir!" the tiny mouse demands, glaring up at him. "What are you doing here?"
Chat blinks, shaking his head, and brings up his other hand so she can stand on it instead of dangling from his claws. "I heard a noise, tiny though it was," he says. "What are you doing here, Mari-mouse? I thought you were out."
She's too small to see the look in her eyes, but Multimouse crosses her arms over her chest defensively. "Well – uh – "
Chat smiles fondly. He probably shouldn't – but he misses her stammering sometimes. Is it so wrong that he thinks it's cute?
"I'm... back on the secondary roster?" Multi-nette says, though her voice rises so high on the end that it's more like she's asking him a question. "Now that Monarch's gone, my identity isn't compromised anymore! Yeah! So I can pitch in if you guys need it!" Her voice is getting more and more sure of itself as she works her way into the story she's spinning. At the end she nods firmly, like a punctuation mark.
Chat brings her up so close that her face is about a millimeter away from his nose. His eyes are crossing trying to look at her, but it's worth it. "Your identity is exactly the same amount of exposed now as it was then," he reminds her. "Which is minuscule, because I was the only one who saw it. What's so different now? And anyway, what about Polymouse?"
Adrien knows his girlfriend. She's lying. But why?
"Oh, no, Polymouse is still the main holder!" Mousinette says, waving her hands frantically. "Ladybug asked me to test the miraculous out, because she had to fix them after she got them back, and she just wanted to make sure they were totally safe to use now, that's all."
What?
Everything inside of Chat narrows down to a single point, every cell in his body breathless and intent and poised just on the edge of fury. "Ladybug gave you a miraculous to test that might be dangerous to you?"
Marinette stares up at him, her mouth open, for a long moment before she leans forward and lays her hands on his nose. "No, no, no," she says, her words spilling out of her. "I promise it's fine – the rest of them were completely normal. The ritual I – that – that she found, it works perfectly, as far as she could tell. This is just a precaution."
"She's had you testing all of the miraculous?" Chat demands, his anger growing. "Where the hell is she, anyway? Don't tell me Ladybug just gave you the miraculous to test and took off – "
"Of course not!" Marinette cries, patting him on the nose for emphasis. Chat can barely feel it, but the motion does succeed in calming him down a little bit, if only because of how freaking adorable she is doing it. "She was just here, but there was – there was something... in her civilian life? And she had to go?"
Multimouse sounds none too sure of herself, but Chat lets that go for the moment. There are more pressing matters. "Where's the rest of you?" he asks in a no-nonsense voice. "In the room, right? Come on, join up again."
He bends down to set her on the ground and steps back, watching as a horde of Mari-mice boil up out of all of the places he would have looked, and many he would never have thought of: the mechanism of her desk chair, dropping down from behind her computer monitor, hiding above the bulb in her desk lamp, spinning down the pole of her dress form. Chat didn't even know there was enough space inside of that she could hide in it.
She's so clever. He sighs dreamily before Chat remembers that he's here with the wrong face and shakes himself out of the love-struck haze.
Multimouse grows with every tiny clone that rejoins her, with faint flashes of light that make Chat certain that the light he saw earlier was when she used Multiply for the first time, right after he touched down. Maybe she didn't hear him, after all.
Soon enough she's standing before him at her normal small size, her arms crossed over her chest and looking up at him a little suspiciously. "What is it?"
"Give me the necklace," Chat says, holding out his hand. "And don't let Ladybug give you any more miraculous, okay? I know she appreciates your help, and so do I, but it's not worth your safety, Marinette. I can test stuff for Ladybug if she needs it."
Multimouse looks up at him, her eyebrows heavy and thoughtful and a little wrinkle growing between them, but she doesn't try to fight him on it; she powers down and hands over the miraculous without any reluctance Chat can see. "I do want to help," she says softly.
"I know," Chat says, smiling at her affectionately. "That's why you're the best." He realizes what he's saying as it comes out of his mouth, and before it can get awkward, he coughs and adds, "If you see Ladybug before tomorrow night, can you tell her that I need to talk to her? And that I have this?" he says, dangling the necklace before he catches the length of it up and shoves it in one of his pockets.
Chat knows that he needs to get out of here, now, before he says anything else stupid. He gives Marinette a salute and leaps up to her bed.
To her bed.
Chat prays that Marinette can't see him blushing as he pauses with his hand on the edge of the hatch to her balcony. "Remember, no more miraculous!" he calls to her. "Don't think I didn't notice that you didn't promise."
"Chat!" Marinette says, sounding a little annoyed for the first time. His girlfriend can have a temper, Chat knows. The thought is a little gleeful – Adrien loves watching Marinette when she's mad, as long as she's not mad at him.
Adrien. Not Chat.
"Just remember!" Pleased to the bone that he can have the last word, Chat makes his escape with a mental sigh of relief.
He heads back to his patrol with half of him still in the room he just left, with the girl he loves with all of his heart, and half on the upcoming confrontation with Ladybug at patrol tomorrow night. If she's going to start shutting him out again, Chat's going to have words for her. She shouldn't be involving random civilians if there's danger involved – and Marinette is not someone he's willing to risk.
———
That night, Adrien collapses into bed and sleeps like a baby for the first time in two days. He has strange dreams, though – the pile of tools and supplies on Marinette's desk, tiny Multimouse wearing his ring around her waist like a belt, the stammering she did just this afternoon in her room, the precise pitch of Ladybug's voice as she confronted Lila, Marinette's shy face on the plane to New York, Shanghai, the Star Train –
At 10:42PM, Adrien sits bolt upright in bed, his eyes flying wide open, and gasps out, "Oh my god – I'm dating Ladybug."