You're my dearest lie || Miraculous Adult

Chapter 29

She passed away alone at sea - Owsey

Marinette

I squeezed my eyes shut as something gave my body an enormous jolt.

I felt a cool contraction in my face, which made me wonder. I hadn't fainted. I carefully opened my eyes and looked at the park from a height of at least a hundred meters. There was no other way to explain why the police car on the cross street suddenly seemed so small. 

Am I dead? Why am I floating in the sky?

Gradually, I felt a firm grip on my upper body and my eyes wandered up to Chat's concentrated face, puzzled and relieved at the same time.

It must have been a matter of milliseconds. It must have been just a blink of an eye for me to assume that the policemen hadn't even noticed him.

Before I knew it, the height tripled and he was swinging his pole onto the patrol platform of the Eiffel Tower, which I was quite familiar with.

"What are you doing here alone at night?" Chat asked me in a monotone as he set me down on the ground.

My cheeks instantly flushed and I feverishly searched for an excuse.

But the way Chat looked, he still had to get used to the re-encounter. He tensed his jaw and avoided my gaze. He wasn't really happy to see me again.

In his cerebral mood, I could have said anything. That I was lost in the middle of the city center, even though I've lived in Paris since I was born. That I was looking for an earring in the middle of the dark. That Alya had declared a BFF emergency and I wanted to see her, taking a detour through the park. Exactly.

I could have told him everything, he would just nod and most likely take me home as quickly as possible.

But I didn't want to lie to him.

"Actually, I was looking for you."

He looked hesitantly into my eyes as the furrows on his forehead deepened.

"I mean, it's well known that you keep night watch several times a week, so it was a coincidence that you turned up at the right moment..." I said hastily, not wanting him to suspect how I knew he was here.

Chat stared at me, pale as a sheet. He blinked several times and opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.

He snorted in frustration, probably because he couldn't think of the right words.

"But... why?"

His words were neither dismissive nor mocking. I couldn't quite interpret it, but he looked rather depressed.

I sighed deeply.

"Because I was worried about you and wanted to check on you. To see if you feel better."

I made myself vulnerable with my concessions and Chat was still staring at me like an unsolvable mystery. But a mystery that scared him.

"You were worried?"

He snorted in disbelief, to which I furrowed my brows.

"Yes, I was," I replied emphatically, before circling my hand impatiently. "Do you feel better now?"

Chat took a little while to wake up from his stupor and answered quietly in the affirmative.

"Um, I'd better take you home, it's getting late."