‘Out Of Character’ 25th November 2022
‘Out Of Character’ master page
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As soon as Adrien closed his apartment door, his phone beeped with the particular noise which alerted him that Marinette had texted Chat Noir. Looking at his phone in almost annoyance, he read the contents of the text as he dropped his bag on his sofa. [Is there any possibility you could visit tonight please?] His eyes widened in disbelief. What a strange situation he found himself in, to be rejected and then summoned by the same woman in the same night. They had texted an awful lot since their chance meeting at Comic Con, but hadn’t seen each other in person other than when he was Adrien and not Chat Noir. So to be invited to visit her as Chat Noir… He frowned, realising something.
[In costume…?]
He didn’t need to wait long for a response. [Oh… I guess so, if you still don’t want to tell me who you are…]
Adrien sighed unhappily. [If you knew my reasons for not telling you, you would understand.]
[I’ll admit, it is a bit weird, but I would still like to see you, if you want
You would have to come to the balcony though, if you’re gonna be in disguise…
I’m not sure my parents would appreciate a guy in a black hood and mask coming through the front door!]
Adrien had seen the building Marinette lived in. Nino had taken him to her parents’ bakery once in a sneaky attempt to set them up, but she hadn’t been there and it had been a profoundly awkward experience talking to her parents, no matter how kind they had been. But he had got a glimpse of the balcony she spoke of, and he had a fair idea of how to get up there, as one of the attached buildings had an outside staircase up to the roof. He couldn’t exactly tell her that Chat Noir knew all this, though… She’d either be suspicious of his identity, or assume he was a stalker.
[How do I do that?]
While she explained her address and a way to get to the balcony, Adrien donned his outfit, covering it with everyday clothes so he could walk through Paris without looking majorly creepy and weird. He could hardly believe he was doing this, but he couldn’t pass up this opportunity, both to see her and to get her side of the story from tonight’s disaster of a D&D session.
Finding a secluded alleyway near to Marinette’s house, Adrien pulled off his overshirt and jeans and stuffed them into his messenger bag, then mussed up his hair, covered it with his cat-eared hood, and stuck his mask to his face. He suddenly realised that he’d forgotten his cat-eye contacts in his hurry to get there. Hopefully Marinette wouldn’t look too closely at his eyes tonight… He then found the outside staircase and began climbing, trying to make as little noise as possible. Once he’d reached the top, he had a bit of a jump to pull himself up onto the roof, then he turned to see lights softly glowing from behind the wall that must have been sheltering Marinette’s balcony. He quietly padded towards it and peeked round to see a piece of waterproof fabric had been attached to the wall, potentially hiding her from view, but he could hear quiet music and the occasional flipping of pages in a book between scribbling on paper. As carefully as he could, and trying not to look down at the terrifying height he would fall down if he slipped, Adrien sidled around the dividing wall until he was safely behind the balcony’s railing, and grinned down at his princess. All thoughts of her walking out of the game store earlier that night melted away as he saw her tongue sticking out of her cute mouth in concentration over her books.
Marinette looked up when she heard his footsteps and saw Chat Noir standing with a fist on his hip and a wide grin on his face looking down at her. Her own grin spread across her mouth and she dropped her pen, jumping up to envelop Chat in a tight hug, nearly bowling him over. “Oh, I’m sorry!” She then kissed both his cheeks in greeting and he felt electricity shiver up and down his spine with each contact.
“I-it’s okay, Purrincess. Are you alright? Is something wrong?”
She turned away from him quickly, facing her study nook. “N-no, why would something be wrong?”
Chat looked at the back of her head with apprehension. “Well, you’ve never asked to meet up before, and it’s pretty late at night… People tend to only want to meet up late for one of two reasons.” He grinned again in a jokingly suggestive way.
Marinette’s face flushed as she turned to look back up at him from under her eyelashes, a small smirk playing on her lips. Damn, she was so pretty. “What makes you think I didn’t want to see you for the other reason…?”
Oh boy. Chat swallowed hard as his own face flushed, desperately trying not to think of that kind of scenario with her. If she did want that, it wasn’t going to happen tonight on their first “proper” meeting, and not like this with him in disguise. “B-because I don’t think you’re the kind of girl to do that kind of thing with someone you don’t really know…”
She looked at him a moment longer, almost as if she were assessing him, then nodded, the smirk turning into a softer smile. “You’re probably right, of course.” Only probably? “And… you’re right about there being something wrong. Well, not wrong, as such. Just…” Chat followed her as she walked back over to the cushions she had been sat on, clearly doing homework of some kind, and plopped herself back down on them. She puffed out her cheeks and slowly let out the air filling them. “I’ve had a weird night.”
Situating himself on a few of the cushions beside her, Chat attempted to adopt a sympathetic demeanour. “Do you want to talk about it?” Perhaps he was about to hear her actual thoughts about that night’s session.
She looked at him for a moment, and he could see every detail on her face properly under the soft glow of the fairy lights. She had freckles. How had he never noticed that before? Then again, he’d never really been this close to her before. Her breathing seemed to hitch up as she stared at him. “Your eyes are actually green…” Adrien held his breath as she continued staring, mentally cursing himself for forgetting the contact lenses, then she seemed to catch herself and shook her head, laughing nervously. “Well, uh… I play D&D, right? Well, you know that, of course you do. And I know I’ve told you about this guy who’s in my group.” Slowly releasing his breath through his nose, Chat tried very hard not to react in any way that could give himself away, instead giving her a short nod. Marinette continued without paying him much attention, too engrossed in her own thoughts. “Well, the other two players weren’t there for tonight’s session and so it was just him and me being led on this two-person quest by the GM. And we butted heads, as we always do. But…” She frowned as she recalled the events and Chat wrapped his arms around his knees as he waited, attempting to keep his breathing steady. “He- or I guess, his character… just blurted out that he loved me. Er, my character. Out of nowhere! And up until then I’d always thought he hated me because he was always so short with me.” Adrien suppressed a flinch. She thought he hated her? Perhaps playing an angsty character with the girl he was in love with was the wrong choice…
“What, uh… what did you say? Or do?”
Marinette turned to him, uncertainty clear in her eyes. “I… didn’t say very much. Neither did Marc- uh, our GM. We were both kind of taken aback by it. Honestly, I… was probably really mean.” She buried her head in her hands and groaned. Adrien’s heart was racing as he watched her but he said nothing. After a moment, she ran her hands over her hair to rest at the back of her neck and looked up at him with a remorseful expression. “I walked out.”
“You walked out?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want to hear any more of what he had to say, so I just left… Am I an asshole?”
Chat let out a short bark of a laugh. “I certainly don’t think so. But… it probably would’ve been kinder to stay and let him explain. I know I would’ve wanted to be heard out in that situation…” He watched her carefully as she nodded, covering her face with her hands again. “Maybe he’s just been too nervous around you and he could never seem to find the right words to speak to you. So he just didn’t say much at all and that’s why he was acting aloof…” Marinette looked up at him with an unreadable expression, so he cleared his throat and continued. “Why did you walk out? I know you said you didn’t want to hear more, but why was that?”
“Well,” She lifted her head again but this time to look out over the railings at the gloomy Paris horizon. “I was… kind of scared that it wasn’t in character.”
Heart pumping furiously, Adrien swallowed before speaking again. “What do you mean?”
“I…” She looked back at him for a moment then shook her head quickly, seemingly dismissing her thoughts. “I dunno, I think I’m just imagining things!” She laughed nervously then the remorseful look came back. “But… I think I probably will apologise to him the next time I see him. Which will be at a Christmas party in a couple weeks, since Marc’s going on holiday and we won’t have D&D until they get back.” She frowned down at her hands for a moment, deep in thought. “I never thought him capable of feeling anything other than contempt but… Well, clearly, I was wrong.”
Chat said nothing as he watched her. She had genuine sorrow on her face as she spoke, and she probably had no idea that he was Adrien, so she had no reason to fake it. Perhaps this would be the start of the door opening for them to get to know each other better - well, without the very dishonest disguise he was wearing to get to know her now. When it was clear she had finished speaking on the subject, he picked up one of her books and flicked through the pages, turning it upside-down. “Is this what you’re studying? Looks pretty complicated.”
Seemingly grateful for the change in subject, Marinette snatched the book away from him, smirking. “Well, you probably know nothing about fashion, alley cat, so of course it’d be complicated to you.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised. My looks are in all the best catalogues!” He winked at her, but realised from her suspicious expression that this was perhaps a big clue to his real identity, so he laughed. “I’m kidding! Everything is complicated to me because I’m just a catterbrain.”
She snorted and shook her head. Before either of them could say anything more, they both looked up as they heard a few gentle plops of water hit the wall hanging above them, then a few became several, and several became many, until the heavens had opened up and rain began pouring onto the balcony in a steady stream. A lot of spray bounced off the previously dry paving of the balcony floor, and the pair exclaimed as they began to get wet. Marinette opened a skylight she was sitting next to and gathered all her study materials before she dropped herself inside, motioning for Chat to follow. Without thinking, he obeyed, and dropped through the opening to find himself crouched on Marinette’s bed, with Marinette herself knelt very close by as she reached up passed him to close the skylight. Her expression coupled with their proximity as she slowly crouched back down made him feel dizzy, and he was barely able to breathe properly. They stared at each other for a moment longer, before Marinette suddenly realised their situation and lurched backwards, nearly falling off her bed which appeared to be on a higher level than the rest of her room. Chat caught her hand just in time and the odd expression she’d had before returned until she righted herself, laughing nervously.
“Um, w-wanna movie watch you? I mean, do you wanna watch a movie? You can’t exactly leave while it’s raining like this, right?”
Not trusting his voice, Adrien nodded. Marinette nodded back, then clambered down her bed’s ladder to the lower room. As he followed, Chat took in all the posters, photos, fashion magazines, dress-making bust, and sewing materials she had in her room. He noted that one or two of the magazines had photos of him on the front page, obviously Agreste brand magazines she had been using for inspiration. His expression in those photos was impassive, even aloof, and he didn’t blame Marinette at all for thinking he was devoid of any proper feeling if that was the expression he had adopted in their D&D sessions. He turned as her PC monitor flared into life, and she opened the browser to find a movie streaming service.
“What do you fancy?”
The urge to answer with “you” nearly overcame him, but he forced it down and moved over to look at the options.
After the pair chose an action/comedy, Marinette quietly nipped downstairs to get refreshments, then she turned the lights off and they settled on her chaise with a myriad of cushions and a blanket. Adrien had made sure to sit a respectful distance from her, but somehow during the film they’d managed to inch close enough to each other that he was now draped over her lap and her fingers were softly running through his hair, her fingernails ever-so gently scratching his scalp. He was sure that if he’d been a real cat, she would’ve heard him purring like an engine. Thank goodness he was not! They stayed in that position until the credits began to roll, then Marinette stretched, yawning as she did so.
Looking up to her skylight, Marinette seemed to listen for a moment. “I think it’s still raining…”
“I shouldn’t really stay too much longer…” Even as he said it, Adrien wanted the opposite to be true. He’d never felt so… cosy. Cuddling up and watching films with Marinette felt like the most comfortable thing in the world, and if he could, he’d stay curled up on her chaise with her forever.
Marinette nodded, but she was wearing a smirk. “You really shouldn’t. One of us might get the wrong idea if you did.”
Raising an eyebrow as he sat up and adopted his own smirk, he leaned closer to her. “The wrong idea…?”
Her face flushed a bright pink, illuminated by the movie credits scrolling on the monitor. Chat Noir grinned at Marinette, lingering close to her for just one more moment, barely daring to hope for her to ask him to stay but knowing he shouldn't even if she did, before standing up and stretching. He gathered his messenger bag then began climbing the bed’s ladder. Marinette followed a beat or two after, and opened the skylight for him. He watched her carefully, then leaned forward to give her a small kiss on each cheek, thrilled that it caused the pink on her face to deepen, then he pulled himself up through the opening and onto her balcony. Watching the rain clouds gradually make their way across the dark Paris skyline, he wished he could stay there and listen to the rain gently patter against the wall hanging and balcony floor with Marinette, talking and laughing and, dare he think it, flirting all night long…
He sighed as he raised his hood and readied himself to clamber over the rooftops, stepping out from under the shelter of the wall hanging to be showered by the rain, then stopped as he felt fingers entwine with his. Glancing down at the small, delicate hand wrapped up in his large, clawed glove, his heart skipped a beat as he looked at the owner and her bluebell eyes twinkled under the fairy lights. He could see her breath getting rapid as her gaze flicked between his own eyes and his mouth, and he couldn’t help but mirror her, though he stared at her soft pink lips a fair bit longer than she had glanced at his. Did this mean what he thought it meant? That Chat Noir had done what Adrien couldn’t and had somehow won her affection? They continued staring at each other for what seemed like an age and only a few seconds at the same time, then she finally broke the silence and his heart leapt into his throat.
“Don’t go…”
Oh, how he yearned to obey those words. He turned to face her properly, not really sure if he could believe what was happening.
“Chat… stay…”
Her voice was more breathy, as if she barely dared to do more than whisper. Taking a step out of the rain and closer to her until their rapidly rising and falling chests were nearly touching, Chat began slowly shaking his head, droplets falling off his hood.
“Please?”
It really was a whisper this time and he could feel his self control growing weaker. A hand snaked up his slick with rain chest and neck to entangle fingers in his partially sodden hair as Marinette slowly leaned up. Adrien knew that if she did this, he definitely wouldn’t be able to leave, and she would discover who he was. Before her lips could get any closer to his, he reluctantly took her hand from his hair and held it with the hand he was already holding in between them, whispering back to her.
“I’m sorry, Marinette, I can’t.”
Marinette stiffened and began pulling away, and Chat cursed himself for causing her this grievance.
“I want to! Believe me, if I could, I would never leave…”
“But you have to go…?”
They locked eyes and an unspoken conversation occurred between them. Adrien knew at that moment that he would be back again another night. Hopefully very soon. And hopefully maybe even without a disguise. And maybe that time he wouldn’t stop Marinette from entangling her fingers in his hair. Or from letting his own hands rest on her back and waist. Or…
Chat stepped away, knowing he needed to stop his train of thought before he attached himself to her and never let go. He held onto her hands though, and raised them to his lips in a sweet parting, relishing the deep shade of pink it made her cheeks turn.
“I’ll see you very soon, Purrincess.”
“Goodnight, mon Minou.”
A pleasant tingle ran down his spine at her nickname for him, and at her use of possession. He was her kitty. Hers. Marinette’s. Adrien may have failed tonight but Chat Noir certainly hadn’t. The wide smile that plastered his face never left, even as he vaulted around the dividing wall between her balcony and the roof next door. Even as he clambered over to the building that had the outdoor stairs attached that he deftly lowered himself down onto, being careful not to slip. Even as he found the deserted alleyway to pull on his everyday clothes over his wet costume. And even as he began the long walk home under the yellow glow of the street lights and the pouring rain. The whole way, he replayed the night’s events in his mind, and the whole way, the smile stayed, until he threw himself onto his bed, texted Marinette that he was home, and grinned at her reply until his face was sore. He was Marinette’s Minou.
