Questions.

"Why is this so hard?"

On one side we find Marinette is sitting crisscross position on her chair casually playing the game but next to her we find a troubled kitty desperately trying to focus and win 1 single game. They're both 4 games in and Mari has won every single one of them, 2 of those were a very close win to Chat because Mari was to preoccupied of Chats facial expressions of frustration that it is too funny for Marinette to not laugh at.

"I can't beat her."

"I thought being in my Chat form would give me an edge in this fighting games cause you know, I actually fight real people...but this is not WORKING!!!" Chat continues to yell at himself in his head all confuse like. In the end Marinette once again wins another round.

Mari jumps out of her chair to celebrate yet another landslide victory against the cocky kitty which he just stares at the screen jaws dropped in disbelief. Another W is rewarded to the bluenette and another L has been given to the black cat. Chat turns his attention from the screen to the princess dancing in joy, spinning around so happily...happily. Chat just sits on his chair looking at Mari spinning around, obviously over energetic being unbeatable. "Maybe losing is not so bad" he whispers to himself as he stares at the joyful teen.

Mari turned to face Chat surprising him to see her shaping an L with her hand and lifting it up to her forehead. "You lost yet again Chat Noir" she says boastfully in which chat reacts with a little snicker. "How do you always win princess?" He ask causally looking up to her. "I guess I'm just that lucky, either that or you just have the good ol bad luck, black Chat" she responds teasingly letting out a couple giggles. Chat nods in agreement maybe realizing that she was right, but seeing her purrrincess having so much fun, maybe it's not all bad luck if he gets to see her smile.

"You're enjoying this way too much" Chat states as he stands up to stretch a little and ease up his muscles meanwhile Mari stopped her spinning and target his attention towards him. "Well it's not an everyday occasion where you beat a superhero in game" she brags playfully.

"It is really late now huh princess" he sighs in exhaustion. "Yea it is already about to hit 5 in the morning" she adds in. Letting out a heavy sigh and looks up towards the hatch "5 in the morning huh, welp I better pounce and get going so you can get your beauty sleep princess and prepare for school tomorrow or whatever you're gonna do later on in the day" he complains slouching down, almost giving of the expression of disappointment. "Chat... today is Saturday, there is no school and all I'm going to do is monitor the bakery with my parents and brainstorm some fashion ideas in my sketchbook, the usual kine of day, boring day" she states in which Chat reacts by standing up straight and turning his body towards her with a smirk on his face.

"Purrrfect."

Chat Noir stepped closer to her one foot at a time, causing her to step back one foot at a time to maintain a pretty decent distant between them. Marinette was kept getting backed up until she hit a wall unexpectedly while Chat was only a couple inches away from her.

The impact to the wall hurt her a little bit while Chat gets pretty close to her, so close that her bodily functions stopped working from the sheer fact that they were uncomfortably close. Her face started to heat up and her heart beat beats after and louder, almost feeling sacred about the idea that he could hear it.

As she stared at Chat the first characteristic she noticed was again his green cat-like eyes. "I don't think he took his eyes off me once since he first started to walk closer to me" she thought and before he did anything she closed her eyes, never prepared for what the cat was going to do.

*Beep Beep* Mari lift up her left eye up just a little bit to notice that Chats ring miraculous has started to beep, signaling both of them that his time is running out. "Really? now you decide to start beeping after hours of this kitty accompanying my room" she stays in her mind which really annoyed her.

Even still she is thankful because now Chat has a reason to leave and she could finally rest upon her cozy bed and finally sleep for what is her intention to be...THE. WHOLE. DAY. That thought alone eased her mind and body using her Saturday to be a lazy day.

"Let's do this again" Chat suggest boldly. Mari opened her eyes all widened and looked up to see Chat dead serious. Chat wasn't smiling so that alone indicates he was serious about his suggestion. "What do you mean" she ask to have a better understanding. "I'm asking permission" she states which only confuse Mari even more. "Asking what permission?" She ask in a irritating manner, Chat closed the distance between them even more causing her to flinch her head backwards. "Permission to come over later tonight and possibly the nights afterwards" he suggest.

Putting every piece together Marinette finally understands what the cunning little cat is asking for. In her mind the reason he was here in the first place is because he kept on insisting to come over and check up on my injuries and eat some snacks, nothing more and yet it turned into an hours long conversation/therapy session to get to know each other and then to a gaming competition.

Now she would be lying to herself if she says that she didn't have fun or annoying but it was just an inconvenience that all this happened because he saw through my act of being "okay" despite her "thought to be exceptional" acting. Realistically all this happened was because of him clouding her thoughts as ladybug and not being self aware of what she was doing so all-in-all it was his fault...yea...his fault. Even still she thought about it.

"Even then I had fun, I genuinely had fun with him. Beating him in game he was destined to lose despite his natural cocky attitude, chatting about stuff to get to know each other better, having him here helping me though even my troubled times. There was not a single time where I regret not having him here with me."

Outside of her time being Ladybug, Chat continues to involve himself with her and while she does not mind it much, Mari has a feeling that if this goes on any longer, if he continues to visit her, if he continues to act this way, things would start developing. The bond they have has already been forged and as things go on, it will only get stronger and while Adrien still has her attention and when it comes to a romantic endgame she hopes it will be with him but with Chat in the picture, she doesn't know.

Who will have her heart in the end?

"Chat this was a one time thing okay?" She explains but that didn't faze the cat. He didn't back down. "So why not we make this a reoccurring thing then?" He ask backing away from her, giving her some distance. Mari stood there undecided. A part of her would like him to visit her home once in a while because it was so much fun having him here to talk to but the other side tells me that if this goes on, he will ruin her sleeping schedule, he'll get to comfortable, and some forbidden relationship will begin to develop.

"I don't know Chat" she says while heading to a chair to sit down. "Having you here was fun but if this goes on, I'll be awake all night hanging out with you and that could mess up my sleeping schedule and daily routine with school" she explains looking at him with saddened eyes.

"Don't worry about that purrincess, I've got a solution for that too" extending out a peace sign in front of her face, smirking. That brought her attention which is a good start for him, now she listens. "Every night around 7 I got to do nightly patrols with M'Lady and that usually takes around 30min to an hours depending how effective we do our patrol but after we finish I'll head straight to you" he explains kneeling down to her level sitting in her chair. From her standpoint it could work but that means that she would have to put the extra effort to head home first before he could show up to her balcony and knowing her injuries now, it will only slow her pace.

"Why are you going so far just for this" she ask curiously. Chat grabs her hand and landed a small kiss upon her hand looking up. "Because I have never had someone where I can be my real self to" he says softly. "And besides you have delicious pastries that I would to try" he explains teasingly. Hearing that was a shot through the heart for Marinette and she starts blushing ever so redly, very noticeable to the green eyed cat. Chat started to worry and question if she was sick but Mari quickly rested and backed away from him, providing distance between each other. "Stupid cat you can't say that to someone so casually" she spoke softly so he can not hear. After some thought into it and considering how much he's willing to go, Marinette has no choice but to go along with it.

"Fine you can come over again" she finally states looking at him. She could see his eyes started to sparkle brightly and a huge smile is beginning to forge in his face.

Cute.

"WOOHOOO LESSSS GOOOO" he shouts jumping up and down in excitement. Mari reacted by dashing towards him and closing his mouth with her hands. "Stupid cat, do you have any idea what time it is? keep shut" she whispers angrily. Chat pulled down her hand upon his hand "I know the time purrrincess, it is time to go" he explains giving her a gentle look.

As he heads his way towards the hatch, opening it Mari follows behind seeing him out. Both of them stood on the Marinette's balcony, Mari is behind Chat as she looks out to the night sky. Chat looks back to Mari once again and sends her way a gentle smile, signaling that it was fun and worth it to come here. Mari smiles back and on that note he grabs hold onto his baton, getting ready to extend.

"See ya soon purrincess" he bids farewell and so Mari waves him off. She watched him poll-jump from one roof to another until he was out of sight. As soon as he was nowhere to be found Tikki popped out of the hatch to be by her partners side. "Welp that was something huh Marinette" Tikki teases her as she cuddles with her right cheek, both giggling with each other as they head in down their hatch, closing and locking it.

As Mari was getting comfortable on her bed, Tikki was floating around her and cannot help but be a little curious "So why did you accept his thing?" She asks flying around her head. "Chat couldn't stop pestering me about it so I just accepted, nothing more" she answers. Tikki floated to face Marinette eye-to-eye.

"Nothing more huh."

Tikki eyeing her intensely with a smirk. Mari felt a little annoyed and questions as to why she mocked her. She didn't answer her questions but instead snuggled up next to her on the bed already fast asleep leaving her awake and in question. Too tired to even maintain her posture but too annoyed to sleep currently. She falls back to her bed hard which might have been an bad idea because the impact on her injured back is really painful.

Marinette looks up to her ceiling just thinking of what happened tonight. Having Chat here was really convenient for her because thanks to him she could treat her injuries and have some sort of emotional support to help her get through the pain. The things that came afterward wasn't really all that time wasted either.

"I mean that with the conversation we had, I was able to learn a lot about Chat. How because of this superhero persona, he feels more free, unbind from the chains that hold him down. Chains of expectations and title he was forced to hold up in his civilian form and because of his title as the great Chat Noir he feels free to be himself and while I do support him, I wish he could feel the same in his civilian form. Thinking back, that's probably why he goofs off a lot whenever we fight together against supervillains."

All this confusion has gotten Mari to question things.

"Why has Chat all of a sudden been on my mind for the past 2 days, constantly. The way he gets under my skin, the way he sees through my act, the way he tears down my walls and see me as the way I am. How does he do it?"

"As if he known me for a long time."

"The only people I want to show my true self, the real me that I want to show to is Adrien. I love Adrien, at this point my feeling for him has gone far pass me having a super hard crush on him. Now I feel like he is the very embodiment being of what it means to be perfect, I feel like I can become my perfect self if I am with him, I feel like he can complete me."

"But Chat Noir is different. Chat has seen my vulnerable side, my weak side. A side where I'm not strong, where a simple stimulation of pain can put me to tears, a side where I'm not always all happy and joy."

"The imperfect side of me."

"Chat saw the civilian side of me where I am not the all powerful Ladybug. He and even still he decides to comeback night after night, he accepts this side and even wants to help me. That's the Chat I got to know tonight."

Maybe he's not so bad of a person as she thought. Before Mari starts to doze off to sleep she wonders.

"If I didn't have these feelings for Adrien, I wonder what would happen between me and Chat if I decided to want something more, if I want to focus on someone else other than Adrien?"

"I love Adrien, despite his status and position. Him and his kindness, his warmth feeling of care. I love him."

So why Chat?"

Following Chat he entered his home quietly. "Plagg destranform me" he quietly ask and the suit dissipates and pops out Plagg. "I've been your suit for hours on end and I am in need of some cheese" Plagg begs lying face floor in his bed pretending to be dead. Don't worry Plagg one Camembert cheese coming right up" Adrien says as he heads towards his mini-fridge. The black kwami spins around in anticipation as Adrien pulls out a stinky cheese and straight up tossed it towards his way. The Cat insta grabbed it with his mouth and chowed it down, savoring all its taste and melting to his stinky delicacy.

"You satisfied now" Adrien ask resting upon his bed. The cat responds with a simple nod, mouth filled with cheese. Well at least his satisfied for the time being in he is in a somewhat good mood. When he was done eating his cheese he flies around Adrien in enjoyment. Plagg asked Adrien what caused him to stay in his Chat Noir form for so long and at first he was hesitant to tell him but without him he wouldn't be the great Chat Noir and wouldn't be able to help Marinette out and plus it's his power he is borrowing from so it is only right to tell him.

Adrien briefly summarized everything that happened, from the time she asked him to help treat her wounds, to hanging on the floor room eating cookies and drinking milk, talking about stuff and opening up ourselves to get to know each other more, to playing a fighting game and explaining how he beat her every time (obviously a lie) and then promising to comeback later tonight to start this all over again.

All this may bore the black magical cat with all these unnecessary details and this long explanation but one thing was clear to him. Every moment Marinette was mentioned he tended up and had this genuine smile full his face. Every moment where he talked about the stuff they did together he was full of energy. Plagg could summarize the whole thing in one sentence.

"Adrien, I'm guessing you had a lot of fun huh?"

Plagg asked in which he responds with a quick nod, no hesitation. No question about it, he enjoyed being with Marinette.

Plagg never took the guy that no other lady would ever take over his mind other than his beloved Ladybug. Especially someone by the name of Marinette Dupain-Cheng of all people. Although Plagg clearly knows that both Marinette and Ladybug are the same person in the end, the personalities may prove to be different between the two so it is understandable for this dense blondie would not be able to spot the similarities, but only the differences. He could easily tell him they are the same but Marinette values the secret identity which her respected and also another reason. Purely for entertainment purposes.

Why not keep this going a little while longer?

As Adrien gets ready to rest on his bed to sleep his princess has never left his mind ever since he left her house. Honestly, even during that time during school and before that when Chat found her injured in the middle of the night walking home so far away. Ever since that night Chat has constantly been involved with her from that night forwards.

Experiencing various kinds of emotions, some familiar and some new. The feeling of worries for someone who has been hurt, the feeling of joy and genuine fun that has never once ever made him feel such bliss, and the never ending anticipation of wanting to see someone so soon.

These various feelings are something Adrien wished to experience with Ladybug but could not, but instead has been shown to him through someone he happened to meet in front of a school, on a rainy night, under an umbrella.

She's awesome but Ladybug is just as cool. She is brave, magical, majestic, strong, generous, and humble. Putting others safety above others is the Ladybug Adrien loves and what he envisions as the "Perfect Figure."

"I love Ladybug, my Ladybug. I love her with all my heart and soul."

"So why Marinette?"

Hope you enjoyed as always and let me know what you think about it. Have a good time.