Chapter Text
Marinette was having a hell of a night.
Adrien no-showed, which nearly caused her to have an aneurysm, and then Chat Noir show-showed, which led to the metaphorical aneurysm dissecting. So here she was, trying to focus on Carrie's incredibly insane mother but mostly just spinning in in a mental binary rotation between despair over Adrien and confused gratitude and happiness over Chat.
She leaned further into Chat subconsciously, grinding her teeth until her jaw ached. "Chat Noir, is her mom gonna be this crazy the entire movie?"
"That's kind of the point," Chat snickered.
Marinette sighed, relaxing her jaw reluctantly. It was nice, somehow, to have that classic Chat mischievousness when she wasn't expected to rebuke and rebuff him. She loved being Ladybug, but sometimes the banter was so exhausting when she was also trying to fight some fifty-foot-tall bug person. Instead, she laughed too.
"I thought the point was all the bullying?"
"Mm, all truer horror than anything Carrie herself could pull out." Chat's words were then accentuated by a crunch as he popped another pastry into his mouth. "Mm."
On screen, the bucket fell, coating Carrie in pig's blood and hitting her unfortunate date on the head.
"That's horrible! Poor Carrie," sighed Marinette.
"Imagine what type of an akumatized villain Carrie would make," Chat joked, and Marinette shuddered.
"Ugh, a villain who was already psychic and probably blood-themed? Ugh, I definitely wouldn't want to deal with that. I'd be tempted to skip."
"Well, luckily, you wouldn't be the one to deal with it," Chat smirked, and Marinette swore her lungs stopped working momentarily.
"Uh, yeah, right! Still, I wouldn't envy you."
"Or Ladybug," said Chat.
"Right. Or Ladybug."
There was a slightly awkward silence as Carrie fled the gym, sobbing, her date prone on the floor. Marinette refused to look at Chat, though she felt his green, slitted eyes on her.
"Watch the movie, Chaton."
She could've sworn Chat made a strangled noise of some sort. Weirdo. She snuggled in and yawned. Carrie's murderous gaze turned back to the gym.
School the next day was an affair Marinette would rather not have to face.
Predictably, Adrien practically sprinted up to her the second her foot touched the bottom step of the stairs. "Marinette!"
"Hey," she responded. Despite the fact that last night had turned into a pretty great movie night, she felt hot tears prickling at the corners of her eyes and cursed her own emotionalism. "Um, yeah, so, um, last night, it's fine, um."
"Um," Adrien repeated dumbly, seemingly without realizing it. His eyes were huge.
"Okay, well," said Marinette quickly, starting to step around him.
"Wait!" Adrien yelped, seeming to snap out of it. His hand was burning hot where it grabbed her arm, immediately slackening in panic when she thoughtlessly recoiled. "Marinette, I'm so, so sorry. My, uh..." He seemed to war with himself for a moment, and then sighed heavily. "My father didn't allow me out. I understand if you can't forgive me. I promise, I would've been there if I could, and I feel awful, which...which I should, and I..."
Marinette's insides turned to mush, and now she was the one clutching at his arm. "Adrien, have you ever watched Carrie?"
He smiled and nodded.
They spent the lunch hour that day poring over potential fashion designs inspired by the movie, which, to Marinette's surprise, Adrien seemed to know in and out.
"So the most obvious idea would be a design based off of the blood-covered prom dress, right?" Marinette mused.
"Not a bad idea," chuckled Adrien, "especially as that part really got to you. It's an emotional scene!"
Marinette pondered that for a second, unsure of why it seemed so strange. She must be tired, because she was feeling suspicious suddenly. Then again, she was up pretty late watching the movie.
"Prom dresses aren't really a realistic idea for this unless I'm going for a Halloween costume or something, though," she said finally, aware of Adrien's inquisitive eyes. "What about something similar, but more...wearable?"
"It's not just the dress, right? Wasn't the bloody hair pretty gnarly?" Adrien said thoughtfully, and Marinette grinned.
Designing the headpiece would take pretty close to the remaining time Marinette had. She was so immersed in her sewing that night that she actually managed to be a little startled when there came a rap at her window.
"Come in, Chat," she yelled, and the moment later, the familiar scent of clean leather and some spicy something that was distinctly her Chaton drifted into her room. "Is there a sequel to Carrie I should know about or something?"
"I would never go without checking up on a previous damsel in distress," purred Chat, earning a positively venomous glare from Marinette. "So, was I right about your friend?"
"Yeah, his dad's the worst," Marinette commented offhandedly, sighing and kicking back in her chair.
Chat laughed, although it sounded tight. Confused, Marinette swiveled her chair to look at him and found him looking as tense as he sounded. "Yeah, uh, well. I'm not surprised. I was sure no friend could stand to bail on someone like you."
"Someone like me?"
Chat, ever-suave Chat, grew slightly red. "That's what I said."
A pause ensued, in which Marinette could have sworn Chat's kitty ears flattened against his head.
"Well. I'm working on a headpiece. What do you think?" Marinette held it up, letting the light catch the red gems that dangled down.
Chat hummed, no doubt grateful at his rare moment of gracelessness being alleviated. "Beautiful. Like little drops of blood, isn't it?"
"You can tell?" Marinette was delighted. "Come on, put it on, I need to see it on someone."
"Hmm, I'm not sure it'll go with my--hey!"
Ignoring his protests, as usual, Marinette stuck the headpiece on his head, adjusting it around his ears. The jewels hung down like a curtain in the back and tapered up from the sides to the front. Of course, it looked extremely silly with his cat ears and black mask, but she couldn't help but stare at the way his big green eyes reflected the light that refracted from the gems. There was something beautiful about them, she thought. Adrien's eyes were soft, but Chat's were sharp, piercing. Still, she couldn't help but be reminded of Adrien, somehow, when his eyes met hers.
"You look just beautiful," she said, and it didn't come out as teasingly as she'd meant it to.
"You too," muttered Chat. He removed the headpiece a bit jerkily. "I've, uh. I've got some superhero stuff to do, you know. Ladybug's lazy night."
"Excuse--"
"You'll win your competition for sure," Chat said hurriedly. "Night, Lady Marinette!"
He backflipped, completely unnecessarily, out of the room, leaving Marinette with her mouth hanging open, feeling strangely as though she was forgetting something, missing something important.