MariChat: Chat Out Of The Bag

Hand We're Dealt

There was a moment the next morning, when Marinette realized that Adrien wasn't there when she woke up, and that she couldn't feel the warmth of his hand, that she almost cried in dejection. She honestly thought she might have dreamed the entire thing, or that she had imagined it. That thought process felt like a knife to the heart for her, and she just laid there, staring at the ceiling, wondering what cruel twist of fate had led her to these musings.

Sitting herself up, to her joy, she found that she had jumped to conclusions.

Adrien was stood up by her desk, obviously putting his weight more onto his left leg than he was his right and had in his hand her sketch book. He had obviously been skimming through it for a while. He knew of Marinette's artistic talents, and when he had seen her sketchbook on her desk, he had been unable to resist looking at some of what she had drawn. As a model, he had an eye for fashion. And Marinette evidently did too.

"Morning." The blond boy said with a huge smirk on his face, looking up with his eyes, his head not changing his heads position, like he was leering over the book. He'd seen the books contents before, but none of her more recent works.

"Morning... What're you doing with my sketchbook?..." Marinette asked, rubbing her left eye. Seeing Adrien this early in a morning, after being awake for literally thirty seconds, felt weird to her. She was happy, but she felt weird. It was one thing to wake up and see his face on a poster... but quite another thing to wake up and see him in the flesh. There wasn't really a better way to start the day though, she quickly decided.

"Marinette, you have got some serious talent here." Adrien told her, slipping through more of the pages, inspecting her various drawings and designs. He knew she had artistic talent, and he was aware her designs were excellent for an amateur, but this, that he was seeing now, was on a whole other level. "They're creative, they're original, your actual drawings are great..."

Blushing was her automatic response. She was still getting used to all of this emotional adjustment. It still was like she had taken an explosive to the brain when she thought about it. Adrien was Chat Noir. She loved Chat Noir. Chat Noir loved her. Adrien loved her. It was still a lot of information she had to process all at once for the blunette's fragile state of mind.

Still, she couldn't be happier.

"Thank you..." She acknowledged the boys compliment, but still... "Next time ask me before you look through that! It's embarrassing!" It did feel embarrassing. She didn't particularly know why. Maybe it was because they felt inadequate compared to the person she loved.

"And wake you up?" Adrien asked, putting her pad down. "You looked so peaceful though..."

A small smile snuck its way onto the young girls face, as well as a very faint blush. Deciding to just let it slide for now, Marinette got out of her bed and stretched. "I had a really good dream." She said. She couldn't quite remember it now. She thought it was a dream that no one knew who Adrien was, and that the fight with Overgrow had never happened. That none of this bad stuff had happened yet. She wasn't sure though. All she knew was that she had enjoyed it. Once she had finished, she went over to Adrien and asked, "How's your leg?"

"I still get a few flares of pain every once in a while, but nothing I can't shake off." He told her with a reassuring smile. With another couple of hours without any serious strain, he'd be able to go leaping around as Chat Noir again. "I'm fine, Mari."

Hearing Adrien call her 'Mari' made the blunette blush. Everything still took some getting used to. Hearing that nickname from Adrien still took some getting used to. However, she still slid her arms underneath his and hugged him. "Good..." She rested her head on his chest, and closed her eyes, relishing in the comfort just a small amount of physical contact with him brought her.