You're my dearest lie || Miraculous Adult

Chapter 24

Arrival of the birds - The Cinematic Orchestra

Marinette

I resolutely offered him my hand, which he hesitantly accepted.

A tingling sensation ran up my arm, but I tried not to think about it.

I gently helped him to get into my room, which turned out to be a real challenge. Chat seemed totally powerless, and even if he seemed disoriented, he didn't seem drunk.

"I'll bring you some water and make you some tea," I said as I made sure he didn't topple over on my sofa.

I hurried downstairs to the kitchen and my hands were literally shaking as I filled the kettle.

I had never seen Chat in such a state before. He looked like he was drugged up.

A thick lump immediately formed in my throat. What if our last patrol was to blame?

I counted the seconds until the water boiled. Time passed far too slowly and I sighed with relief when the lever finally went up.

Luckily for me, Chat wasn't lying unconscious in front of me as I balanced up the stairs with my hands full. Although he was leaning forward, weakened and fixated on the parquet floor, hypnotized, I preferred to have him conscious.

"We'll have to be a bit quieter, my parents are already asleep," I said in an emphatically relaxed manner to relieve the tension in the air.

But Chat neither moved nor answered.

He looked as if he was in another dimension or questioning his entire existence.

Wordlessly, I put the tea and a bottle of water down on the small side table in front of him and sat down next to him.

He flinched at this and his eyes darted around the room as if he was looking for an escape.

I tried not to let this unsettle me and handed him the bottle.

If his condition was my fault, the least I could do was get him physically fit again.

Chat's gaze wandered from the bottle up to my face until our eyes crossed.

Instinctively, my pulse increased many times over, because that look in Chat's eyes was new to me. He looked at me so deeply, and yet so hesitantly, as if he was struggling to look at me any longer.

I couldn't escape his gaze either and began to study his face as if I were seeing it for the first time.

His green, cat-like eyes that regarded me thoughtfully, his high cheekbones that perfectly framed his face. His blond strands that were disheveled and yet lay perfectly.

There were less than twenty centimetres between us.

I don't know how long we looked at each other. It was like a pull between us that I couldn't escape.

"Thank you," Chat said and promptly turned his gaze away from me.

I was irritated for a moment, but he took the water bottle from my hand as if nothing had happened. I had to blink several times and watched him in silence as he calmly twisted the lid on.

 The transition was so natural that I didn't even know if the moment between us had really just happened. But I could have sworn he had interrupted it on purpose.

Something seemed different about Chat, and yet I couldn't put into words what it was.

Of course he was different with me when I was Ladybug, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was just that.