i i i

Upon seeing the writing on his arm, Chat Noir let go of Marinette, sitting at the end of her bed. She sat up, staring at the ink on her arm just like Chat stared at his own.

"Y-You... You're my red..." She couldn't bring herself to say it. Chat stared at it a while longer, before he wiped it with two fingers. Marinette watched the writing disappear then watched Chat put the rest of his suit back on. "Is that why you came to me? How did... How did you know?"

"Call it a hunch." Chat replied. His bell jingled as he pulled his zipper up, fixing his collar. He could feel her discomfort. "What are you going to do? Scream? Call for help? Tell your friends that your red string is tied to the most wanted?"

"I-" She started strongly but cowered when she saw his ears twitch.

"Are you going to tell Alya? Cry to Chloé? Wake up Adrien?"

"How... How do you know all these things about me?" She asked, afraid.

"I know many things about you, Marinette Agreste." He turned to look at her. "What I don't know is how you ended up here." She straightened, her gaze narrowing.

"That doesn't concern you." Chat laughed.

"Oh, but it does." He stood, slowly making his way around her bed, to stand in front of her. "I'm a criminal, right? You don't know what I'm capable of." She started to back away a little.

"I'll scream." She threatened.

"You won't."

"How do you know?"

"Do you want to harm your family? Your brother stays down the hall, doesn't he? He'd be the first to get here and the first to get hurt." Plagg laughed and Chat smirked.

"You wouldn't." His mask rose as he quirked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, just like I didn't pin you down, right?" He crouched down, putting his hands on the bed and eyeing her, ready to pounce. "Would you like a repeat?" Her eyes widened.

"N-No!"

"A shame." Chat smirked, straightening. "So, this is how it's going to be, Marinette Agreste. You do not write to me unless I write to you first. You do not tell anyone about me. You do not try to find me. Can you comply to this?" She held her head high.

"And if I don't?"

"Don't test me, Marinette. The first one to go would be Adrien." Her shoulders fell slightly.

"Don't... Don't hurt Adrien."

"Don't break my rules. That's all I ask for." She was hesitant to reply. "If you comply, I'll tell you the reason you have those dreams you do."

"You... You know about my dreams?" She questions, almost leaning towards him.

"Do what I ask and I'll explain your dreams." She was still hesitant but she gave a nod.

"Very well."

"Do you want to shake on it?" Chat asked and Marinette gave a huff.

"No, thank you."

"Would you rather kiss on it?" He smirked. She rolled her eyes.

"In your dreams tomcat." Now that was a familiar personality.

"Good night Marinette."

"Don't get too familiar. I don't like you." Chat mocked chest pain.

"Princess, I'm hurt!" She was tempted to throw a pillow at him. "That's bound to change soon, don't worry." Chat winked and headed towards the window.

"Wait a minute, that's it?" Chat stopped in front of the window. "You're going to come in, attack me and not even tell me anything, even after I agreed?" Chat chuckled.

"I see you like to be pampered. Sorry to break it to you princess, but I need to see that I can trust you. I've got eyes on you outside. Keep your promise for a day and I may visit tomorrow." With that, Chat climbed out of her window, going for a brisk patrol around Paris to take his mind off of things.

Marinette went to the window, watching the black figure disappear into the night. She stood frozen for a time, staring out the window until she went to her bed and dropped herself down.

The end of her red string. Her soul mate. Significant other. Paris' most wanted criminal? Just her luck. She stuffed her face into a pillow and let out a long sigh. She felt like screaming, she felt like crying, but the only thing she could manage was a sigh.

Chat landed on top of the Dupain-Cheng bakery, what should be Marinette's terrace. He tried the terrace door and it creaked open.

"" Chat rolled his eyes as he slinked in.

"There was no breaking in, the door was left unlocked." He stated as a matter-of-factly.

"" Plagg snickered.

"Whatever." His vision settled into the dark room and it was nothing what it had been in the other life. In this life, it looked a lot more like a storage room more than a bedroom.

Chat Noir shuffled around the room, the dust occasionally making him sneeze. He found nothing other than boxes full of extra making materials, several boxes full of wedding momentos and old scrapbooks. Yet nothing on Marinette.

"" Plagg spoke once his timer started to count down. Chat nodded with a disappointed sigh.

Chat left everything untouched, just the way he found it and went through the night skies to his home.

"You know, the criminal thing really suits you. You broke and entered, held a hostage and even blackmailed." Plagg fluttered by Adrien's shoulder as he stretched noisily.

"I did not hold her hostage."

"You did too. You held her to hostage to her bed. Honestly, I thought you had lost it and were going to start eating her face or something."

"You act like you wouldn't do that if you saw Tikki." Plagg took in a breath to respond but stopped himself.

Tikki.

"Plagg, I'm sorry, I-"

"No, you're... You're right. If I saw her, right now, I would have." A silence course through them. "I'm going to go eat some camembert." Adrien gave him a silent nod, watching as his kwami went to hide in his camembert stash.

Adrien felt guilty. Really guilty, but that didn't stop him from falling dead asleep. He's had a long day.

Which is something Marinette couldn't say as she dragged herself out of the room the same time as Adrien did.

"Well you're up early." Adrien commented. She grumbled.

"I couldn't sleep last night." She yawned and stretched slightly. "I had nightmares about a dumb black cat."

"So sweet of you." Adrien mused.

"I've got no nice words for him." She spoke back.

"Who?" Adrien asked while Chat challenged. She mumbled quietly.