Late Night Chats

A Change

A/N - Thanks for reading my story, I'm kinda just uploading as I go so I can't tell you exactly when the next chapter will be but I'll try to have it out by next week.

All characters belong to Thomas Astruc and the drawing at the bottom belongs to Eden Daphne. I'm not making any money from this story.

Marinette never expected her Friday to end up like this. She had woken up at her usual time - 20 minutes before school started - and had her typical day: hanging out with Alya and Nino, fighting an Akuma and being absolutely in love with Adrien. Yet here she was, standing outside in nothing but her pyjamas at nearly 11 pm, allowing a stray cat into her house. Not a literal cat, but Paris’ second favourite superhero, Chat Noir. He had landed not so quietly on her balcony, knocked on her window and dragged her away from her designing. After all, how could she say no to her superhero counterpart that was outside in the cold?

Outside, however, Marinette was starting to wish she had just stayed in her room. The cold night of mid-November was much less appealing than her warm pastry-smelling bedroom. ”What are you doing here, Chat?” Marinette grumbled. “I would really rather not be standing outside when I could be warm.”

“Sorry purrincess,” the black cat grinned sheepishly. “I just came here for a sweet snack and a midnight chat.”

Rolling her eyes at his annoying puns, Marinette replied grumpily, “Couldn't you have gone to anyone else’s balcony to get snacks? You could have woken me up from my precious beauty sleep.”

Chat smirked, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “You really don’t need it.” A light blush dusted Marinette’s cheeks until she shook her head and hit him in the shoulder.

“Oww! You are stronger than you look.” Chat rubbed his shoulder in pain. Ok, maybe she put a bit too much power into that.

“You deserve it! You can’t just go complimenting me like that,” she countered angrily. “And besides, don’t change the topic. Why are you on my roof?”

Chat rubbed his chin thoughtfully as if he was in deep thought. “Firstly, I came to your roof because everyone knows your family has the best bakery in all of France.” Her cheeks reddened again at this but the superhero took no notice. “Secondly, I saw your light on so I knew you couldn’t be asleep. And lastly,” he leaned into her face with a toothy grin and winked flirtingly, “There’s no one else I wanted to talk to.” Marinette’s face immediately went red and Chat laughed, clearly the only one amused by the situation.

“Stop it, Chat!” she protested weakly.

“Just teasing princess. I’m very much mistaken,” he chuckled and then leaned in once more and said huskily. “You’re clearly the sweetest snack your parents have ever made.” If Marinette’s face was red before, she looked like a tomato now. She groaned loudly and dragged a chuckling Chat down her stairs and into her bedroom.

As Chat Noir took in his new surroundings, it was very clear that Marinette’s room had drastically changed since he was last there. It was much less pink for starters, but that was expected. Her walls were now midnight blue, matching her striking hair. Her mat, bed and chaise, once baby pink, were now royal blue and white. Her bed was also royal blue with multiple white pillows but her giant white cat was surprisingly not there. He was amused to see that her photos of Adrien were also missing. That space was now filled with photos of friends and family. His eyes rested on a photo of her parents hugging her after she had won one of many fashion competitions. The joy and love in their eyes filled Chat’s heart with that familiar longing to be part of a loving family. His father had grown colder and more distant as the years went on and after Hawkmoth’s defeat, Adrien had lost all contact with him. Like a coward, Gabriel had fled the country for fear of the public backlash after being revealed as the cause of Paris’ Akuma attacks. One of his father's executive directors took over the company so while he didn't have the same packed schedule, Adrien still had to model pretty often. He still lived in the Agreste Mansion but spent as much time as possible with his friends or as Chat Noir, trying to escape the house that was never home to him. Although he had more freedom now that his father was gone, he still had a hole in his heart that was yet to be filled by a warm family that loved him.