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Part 7: The Aristocats was all it took

Marinette expected a certain black cat to come scrambling through her window, but she didn't know what to expect from him. After he left that morning, the thoughts in her head had arranged and rearranged themselves, trying to make sense. But no matter how they placed together, nothing fit. Everything spinning and blurring; nothing made sense. She had finally exhausted herself into a deep, restless slumber and when she finally woke up, the clock blinked 8:32 p.m. Marinette groaned and flopped back into bed as the thoughts she was trying so hard to forget, were crashing and pounding in her head.  So to say Marinette was a bit unprepared for Chat to climb into her bedroom that night was a bit of an understatement. 

She had heard the door open and heard her bed creaking as he landed on it and climbed off. She heard his footsteps lightly click against the stairs and she heard him approach her from behind. She tried not to flinch while she intently looked at her laptop screen. She didn't want to acknowledge that he was there; if she acknowledged his presence, then she would also have to acknowledge what happened this morning. And she was definitely not ready to do that.  She felt him lean over her shoulder to look at the designs on her laptop screen. He was making it very hard to ignore his presence. She felt his breath on her ear and for a moment she forgot how to breath. Goddamn Cat, She thought.

"What are you doing?" He muttered into her ear. Urg, that shouldn't make her heart beat faster.

"I'm looking at Gabriel Agreste's new spring line." 

"Who's that blonde guy? He's modeling a lot of these, huh?" Chat said, something that she couldn't quite place in his voice.

"That's Adrien Agreste, he's a famous model and the face of Mr. Agreste's line." She tried to respond as nonchalantly as possible. Why did Chat have to bring up Adrien?

 "You know, its rude to come up behind someone unannounced and breathe down their neck. " She muttered, trying to change the subject.

"I apaw-logize, Princess. Where are my manners?" He muttered again into her ear, his lips brushing across the skin and causing her to shiver. Her eyes widened as he quickly swung around the chaise lounge coming to sit beside her. Grinning, he took one of her hands and pressed a soft kiss to her knuckles, his teasing eyes locked on hers the whole time.

"Good evening, Princess." He grinned wide enough to rival the Cheshire Cat, and Marinette flushed a deep red at the contact. She was glad that her room was dark, the only light was the muted sheen coming from her computer screen. She jerked her hand away, trying to fix her earlier error of letting Chat know he had an effect on her.

"What is this arrogant cat doing in my bedroom at this time of night?" She said as she raised her eyebrows at him. She hoped he didn't notice how she was still clutching the hand that he had kissed to her chest.

He grinned again, his eyes pointedly trailing to her hand as he said;

"Well, I believe I said this morning that I would come check on you. And even black cats keep their promises."

She rolled her eyes and he paused before continuing on.

"But is it paw-sible for me to ask for a favor?"

"I guess, what is it?" Marinette asked curiously.

"Could I ask you for some cheese?"

"Cheese?" She asked disbelieving.

"Um, Yes?" Chat said with a shrug of his shoulders. He looked away as she blinked at him, pink dusting his nose.

"Sure, I guess. I'll go get some; here, move for a minute." Marinette replied after a few minutes of disbelief. Chat moved off the edge of the lounge where he was perched on, and Marinette set her laptop to the side. She threw the blanket that was covering her legs off and swung them out before standing up. A very bad idea. It took less than half a second for the pain to flare throughout her body. She sank to the floor with a small "Oh.".