Something new

chapter 50

(Name) woke up at around 4pm.
They also woke up at 12pm once, but that was only because Adrien had called them and after he hung up they fell back asleep almost immediately.

They groggily stood up and went to brush their teeth once they opened their eyes, disgusted by their bad breath.

Once they washed their face and brushed their teeth, they went downstairs to greet their parents in the living room

"Do you even know what time it is?" Nicole asked her child, to which her wife only laughed from the couch. "Love, I don't think (Name) woke up yet."
Both women had to laugh once they got a closer look to their child that had messy hair, swollen eyes that were only halfway open, and messy pajamas.
Their shorts were sitting higher on one leg than the other.

(Name) only mumbled curses under their breath and kissed both their parents on the cheek, their way of telling them good morning.

"Are you hungry, sleepyhead?" Sam asked, still sitting there and watching the afternoon news.

(Name) didn't answer and just sat down next to their mom.

Sam stared at her child and then chuckled to herself, "Well good morning then."

After a couple minutes, (Name) stood up from the couch and went back to their room, indicating that they were affectionate enough with their parents for now.

By the time they were back in their room they felt more awake and stretched properly.
They went back to their bed without fixing their bed hair or their pajamas and plugged their phone off the charger.
"What's Nathaniel up to..", they mumbled quietly to themselves and called him.

"What's up."

"..Did you sleep until now?"

"...No."

"Oh my God."

While the two were talking (Name) scrolled through various social media apps and noticed something weird.

"Hey Nath, is your feed also weird? I'm only seeing Cha- uh, Superhero stuff.", they asked him, correcting themselves mid sentence. Nathaniel disagreed from the other line and told them he was seeing his usual stuff. He asked them what they were specifically seeing. "Well it's... the news from yesterday and all that."

They lied.
It was a bunch of explicit pictures of Chat Noir.
They tried scrolling down.

Chat Noir.

Chat Noir.

An ad for Adrien's perfume.

Chat Noir.

They decided to close their app completely and sighed annoyed. I don't remember liking any Chat Noir related stuff.

"Nath we'll talk later, I'm still tired."

"I'm getting worried you might fall into a coma. See ya."

They put their phone down, but their gaze landed on the black cat headed pillow they won as a price when they were at the amusement park, and to their displeasure it reminded them awfully a lot of Chat Noir.
Are you serious? They groaned and turned the pillow around so that they wouldn't be facing it's face. They sat on their bed with crossed legs irritated.
After a couple minutes passed they opened their app again, but now all the Chat Noir pictures were gone and they saw their usual feed.

They scratched their head confused. Am I going crazy?
They decided to ignore it, and kept scrolling through it. Whatever.

Spending at least two hours on three different social media apps, they noticed the time.
6PM.
Oh, I've wasted a whole day. Again.

They closed their phone and stared straight at the ceiling. Deciding to actually reflect on the past few months.

Even though they keep thinking of Nathaniel, Mark and Chat Noir as the only people that they view with trust, they realized that they've been hanging out awfully a lot with Marinette, Nino, Alya and Adrien too.
I'm not used to being with so many people. They thought to themselves.
(Name) is an introverted person, just to clarify again. They were also a loner who had trouble socializing in their pre-teen years.
However that never bothered them, they liked being alone.

But when they thought about all those people they started to get in touch with, old friends who they neglected included, they felt themselves smiling.

I don't think I could handle being alone again.

Were they happy with that realization?
No.
Did they want to change it?
No.

I want to keep this.

They turned their face to the side and stared at their phone, grabbing it and opening their gallery.

Staring at the various pictures of their lunch table that was always full of talks, scrolling a bit up there were still a few pictures with Nathaniel and Mark, where they were still only three people who had decided they work well together.

But scrolling further, the photos of them being with friends stopped.
(Name) never saw the value in pictures before, the only pictures they used to have were screenshots of memes and that was it.

When they scrolled back down to the pictures that were made in the past few months, they accidentally clicked on one.
They wanted to go back but stared at it instead.
It was the first selfie of them with Adrien.
And they did not look happy.
Adrien hadn't sent them the picture until later on when the two started chatting more, not to mention the fact that Adrien didn't have their number until they went to the amusement park together, so they totally forgot about the existence of this selfie.

It was from the day where both of them were at (Name)'s place to work on the poster.
Adrien smiled nervously at the camera with a weak peace sign, while (Name) stared at him annoyed.

They felt themselves chuckle while staring at it.
I can't believe I used to think he was a dick.
They kept staring at the picture and smiled brightly, feeling slightly guilty even.
(Name) wasn't dumb, they knew they gave Adrien a hard time for no justified reason. Poor man. They snickered at that thought.

They never expected to get close to someone like Adrien Agreste. A model and son of a designer who was popular in all of France that was even known internationally.
That's crazy.
Now that I think about it..
Their mind drifted off to Chat Noir, since that situation was quite similar.
A hero that saves Paris and other parts of France almost every day. A hero that was even in China and the USA.
That's even crazier.

Their thoughts were interrupted when they heard a meowing from their balcony. They turned to face their small kitten that they have accepted as their own. The kitten slowly entered their room as (Name) always keeps their balcony door slightly open, since apparently cats tend to visit them more than they thought. They weren't worried of any intruders though, since their balcony is still up quite high.
"Hey little girl." They greeted their cat that ran up to their bed and jumped on it.
"Did you have a fun little walk outside?", (Name) asked the now purring cat.
They thought it would be hard to keep this pet a secret and take care of it at the same time, but it was surprisingly easy, considering that the kitten would always jump from their balcony to other roofs and go on a walk from there.
And since their parents never enter their balcony (Name) had no trouble keeping eating bowls with food and cat shampoo as well as a couple toys on it.

The kitten would come and go as she pleased, though most of the time she liked to roam around in (Name)'s room and sleep on their lap.

But right now, the small kitten wanted to play, so they went to play with her.

Another hour had passed, and just as they wondered if they would get to see a certain face, their balcony door was opening fully.

"Good evening, your highness."

They grinned at him, looking up from the ground while playing with the baby version of him.

"Good evening to you too, cat boy."