Unforgettable

Chapter 3: To Her Bedroom

When Chat landed at the front door of The Dupain-Cheng Bakery, the girl in his arms began to stir and her eyes fluttered open. At first her pupils went wide in shock, like she had forgotten who he was all over again, but then they softened and she gave him a faint smile.

"Hey Noir Chat..." She said sleepily, before yawning and lazily wrapping her arms around his neck. The blonde chuckled before answering.

"It's Chat Noir," He smiled toothily at his classmate, "but close enough." Her cheeks flushed red and she giggled to herself. Her eyes landed on the bell of his costume, trying to not make eye contact.

"Oopsie..." Another light hearted chuckle left his mouth as he proceeded to let her down, grasping at her hands to let his neck go. With both feet on the ground Marinette's arms stayed strong around him, and her head crashed into his chest.

"C'mon, you have to stand up." Chat felt her wriggle into his chest more and his cheeks felt the slightest bit of heat forming on them. Mostly because Marinette had NEVER done anything like this before. Sure, they had gotten close in the past year or so. He would land on her balcony softly and lounge next to her while greeting, "Good evening Purrr- incess!" And she would always banter with every little thing he said. It was playful banter he knew, and he honestly enjoyed it. But this was an entirely different interaction with the bluenette he had come to know. So different from any of their previous late night conversions.

Of course, she wouldn't remember any of those now would she?

The muffled grumble that escaped her lips took him out of his thoughts.

"Nooo," she said glumly, shaking her head, "too tired." He shrugged his shoulders as he gazed down at her, now noticing how pitiful she looked with her face pushing into the leather on his chest.

"Well, you did have an...eventful day." He slowly peeled her off his body and began to lift her by her legs onto his back.

"Hey! W-what are you-"

"Relax, I'm just giving you a piggyback ride." She was obviously confused by the weird phrase, as her nose scrunched up and her head tilted sideways. But she willingly hopped on, draping her arms over him instead of keeping a firm grip. Thus, he put more strength into carrying her legs in order for her not to fall off. "Your parents home?" he looked back at her and her eyebrow was raised, again confused. "Wait, why am I asking you?" He walked up to the door and knocked for an answer. There wasn't one. He then had the thought of checking the time, the stars were shining brightly now and it was probably late.

He struggled to pull out his baton from his belt, seeing as how Marinette had almost immediately fallen back asleep over his shoulders. He flipped open the device and saw the little numbers in the upper right hand corner. 23:28. Yeah, they were most likely in bed.

Marinette still safe in his arms, Chat bounced to the top of the abode, landing gracefully on the balcony. He nudged Marinette to get her awake and she slowly blinked back into reality.

"Wakey wakey." He purred at the grumbling mess behind him.

"Why can't I just sleep?" He began to drop her off of her shoulders, this time she complied.

"Because we have some things to discuss." Chat strode over to the trap door leading into her bedroom and opened the latch, gesturing for her to go inside. But when he looked back, Marinette was slowly backing away with fear crossing her features.

"I-I'm not going in there!" She spat, "What even is down there anyway?!" Chat rolled his eyes and gently closed the door, walking over to her casually.

"Your bedroom." he answered calmly, "Your bedroom is down there." She looked at him suspiciously and slowly made her way over to the door. She grabbed the handle and took a deep breath in anticipation. The hero behind her just let out a small laugh at her actions.

"On three?" She glanced over at the boy and he nodded his head in approval, to humor her.

"One...two..." she bit her bottom lip out of nerves. Chat knew how ridiculous this was, and she was holding off on saying 'one' for way too long. He leaned down and grabbed the handle, holding her hand under his.

"Three!" He said as the door was flung open. Marinette jumped and looked away, but Chat took her hand and guided her down the ladder. About halfway down she didn't seem as scared of her surroundings. As their feet hit solid ground, the young lady began to glance around the area.

"This is my room?" She asked curiously, staring at the hero before her.

"Yup, home sweet home." He pulled out his baton to check the time once more. 23:33. Not too much time had passed, but he figured he was going to be grounded for life when he got home.

Home. It didn't sound right. That wasn't the right word to describe that awful prison cell.

Prison cell? That worked better.

A feeling of fatigue washed over him and a yawn was barely suppressed from his mouth.

"Are you tired too?" He heard Marinette's sweet voice cut through the silence, and it was a nice sound to hear. He shook his head.

"Nah I'm good. Just going to grab something to eat from downstairs." He knew Plagg was probably starving. He awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Is that, okay?" She nodded almost instantly.

"Yeah that's fine!" She began to move to her dresser and slowly opened up some of the drawers. "You go down and grab some food, and I'll get ready for bed." He smiled and gave her a quick thumbs up before turning on his heel. He had almost reached the door before he heard his name.

"Hey Chat?" He turned to look back at his friend and waited for her question, "This sounds stupid but, what's my name?" He mentally face-palmed himself. How could he forget to tell her what her own name was?? Though he was a bit underwhelmed by his lack of helpfulness, he put up a front and smiled at her.

"It's Marinette." Her eyes shot up to the ceiling and her finger tapped her chin thoughtfully. After a little while, she looked back at Chat with a bright grin.

"That's pretty!" Her eyes were gleaming with pride and a joy he hadn't seen from her at all that day. It made him incredibly happy, and warmth spread through his whole body.

"Yeah, it is." He agreed, and he headed back for the door to make his way down the steps.