I woke up, still in Chat’s arms, it was morning and I could faintly hear students starting to head to school down below. I don’t want chat to be late.

“Chat, hey, you’re going to be late.” I said in a hushed whisper. He must have been really tired this morning after comforting me in the middle of the night.

“Huh?” He finally stirred, blinking sleep out of his eyes.

“Good morning. You go to school, right?”

“Yeah?” He was slowly waking up. “Wait! What time is it?”

“You need to hurry, schools about to start.”

“Um, thanks, sorry to run princess.-”

“Don’t be,” I cut him off. “Thank you for staying by me, have a good day at school.”

“Okay, Bye, have a pawsome day.” he called, jumping off to be on time for school. I wish I had to hurry to be ready for school right now too.

After a few minutes, I disappear back into my room, noticing a sudden temperature change. My room is so warm and I only just realised that my skin is cold from being outside all night in winter. If Paul doesn't kill me, my poor decisions are going to. Seriously, I should have already either died from drowning, blood loss, heart attack from almost jumping off the Eiffel tower, or now hypothermia. It feels like my life is a game show call, ‘How else can Marinette risk her life?’ even worse is that I’d watch that show.

“Tikki?”

“Marinette! You're up! I woke up this morning only to find you asleep outside with Chat.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m sorry about that Tikki, it was an accident.”

“You don’t need to apologise Marinette, you didn’t do anything wrong.” she smiled. “On another note, you might be feeling a bit cold now.” She flew over and grabbed a blanket and draped it over my shoulders.

“Thank you Tikki.” I pulled the fuzzy blanket closer to my body and walked down to the kitchen. My mom had come up, taking a quick break from work to see if I was awake.

“Morning sweetie!” she grinned approaching me.

“Morning mom.”

“You look a bit pale.” she moved her hand to my forehead, her other on my cheek. “Goodness! You’re freezing!”

“Yeah, I just spent most of my morning on my balcony.” I removed her hands.

“Alright then, have something warm though, you need to warm up before you get sick.” there was worry in her eyes. “I need to get back to the counter, have a good day sweetie.”

“You too mama!” I watched her recede downstairs. I opened up the pantry and pulled out a few cookies for Tikki, she zoomed over from where she was hiding from my mom to eat them, recharging. I grabbed an oatmeal packet and started to heat up some water. I added some brown sugar and stirred it together.

“So Marinette.” Tikki broke the silence. “What are you going to do today? You have three more days until you go back to school.”

“I’m not sure, design a bit maybe, almost die, eat lunch, do homework, see Chat, throw an Akuma somewhere in there and my day will be complete.”

“Marinette, it’s only been two days.”

“Yes, and from what I’ve seen and experienced in those two days, this is what I hypothesized.” I take a bite on my oatmeal, the sugar that didn’t melt when I mixed in the water melted now filling my mouth with a sweet taste.

“Maybe today will be different.”

“Your right, instead of designing first, I almost caught hypothermia this morning, we just switched the first two things!” I joked. My face fell. “Yeah, that was a badly timed, poor joke.”

“That’s alright Marinette, maybe today will be different and break that chain!”

“You know what? Yeah! Today will be different! Today I will stay out of trouble unless I have to fight an akuma!”

“That’s the spirit!”

“Okay, I’ll just start working on my dress, I just need to run to the fabric store.”

“But, Marinette, you're not allowed to go out without someone.”

“I can sneak out and in as Ladybug.”

“But you should be responsible with your powers.”

“And I plan to, if I’m attacked going out and coming home, I’ll be in my suit, I’ll only detransform to buy the fabric.”

“Alright Marinette.” I rushed upstairs to get ready.

I threw my sketchbook in my bag. “Hey Tikki?”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to need your help matching the colours on the sketch to the fabrics, please?”

“Of course Marinette!”

“Okay then, Tikki, spots on!” I was engulfed in a sparkling pink light before I leaped out my window in my polka dotted costume.

I felt the wind wiping my hair across my face. It is so much cooler in movies. I forgot to tie up my hair today so I had to constantly spit hair out of my mouth. I tried to just keep it closed but hair kept finding a way to get stuck to my lip tick or something. I’m going to walk home after and transform when I need to get back into my room.

My eyes score the buildings beneath me, looking for my favorite fabric shop. it would be so much nicer if I could walk so I could rely on muscle memory but I made a promise to Tikki.

I finally spotted it and found a nearby ally to detransform.

“Okay Tikki, now for fabric, don’t worry, we’ll be fast.” I rounded the counter to enter when I saw a limo pull up and Adrien and Natilie stepped out. I waited for them to enter first, as long as at least Adrien doesn't see me, there's little chance of my parents finding out. Knowing Adrien, he’ll be a gentleman and offer to walk me home and then my parents will find out.

I checked my phone wondering why Adrien wasn’t at school. It read 12:30. Time flys, it’s lunch I guess now.

I watched as they walked in and the door closed behind them before entering myself. A small bell dinged as I entered and I made my way to the blue fabrics. I pulled out my sketchbook and opened it, tilting it so Tikki could see it better, I needed her eyes to match the colours for me.

Tikki flew to the fabrics, searching for a colour that matches, I watched her stop in front of one and hide. I started to approach it when I heard.

“Hello Purincess.” I jumped at the sound and turned to find Chat.

“Chat! You scared me for a second. What are you doing here?”

“I was patrolling around the city when I saw you walk in here. Did your parents finally let you out?”

“Well, not exactly. I kinda snuck out again. You see, I was just sitting bored out of my mind in my room and I had a design I wanted to sew and I needed fabric. I didn’t have anything else to do other than to walk in circles around my room.”

“Understandable, do you need help sneaking back in?”

“You're not going to tell my parents?”

“I sneak out of my house all of the time, it would be unfair if I judged you for the same thing I do.”

“Thank you!” I cried, I felt so happy at that.

“Okay, so do you need any help finding fabric?”

“Yes please.” I showed him the design. He studied it and looked at the fabric.

“I’m going to be entirely honest here, I can’t design, but I can tell you that this is a pretty fabric!” He ran over to the one Tikki was at earlier. “It matches the colour and everything!”

I walked over to him and felt the fabric, yep, this is the perfect one. “Thank you! There are a few more that I’ll need though.”

“Okay, well, it will be fun to find them!” I giggle at his optimism, it’s been a while since I got excited about looking for fabric, it was just another thing for me. While he wasn’t watching, I opened my purse for Tikki to slip and hide in.

“Yeah, it will be fun.” I followed Chat as he looked at the fabrics to help me, he was so excited about it that after I knew we found the fabric I needed, I got some extra because he was so happy. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I didn’t need some of the fabric, I couldn’t see the colours he was so excited about and I refused to tell him that, I loved his smile  as he gushed about the colour. He was surprisingly helpful in unknowingly helping me see the colours without actually seeing them.

We got them cut and bagged and I paid. I accepted the bags and we left the store
“That was really fun! When do you need to go fabric shopping next?” we were standing just outside the store, Chat was bouncing with joy.

“I’m not sure, I just got enough to last at least a year!” I smile. A year. I kept my smile from dropping. I’m not even going to make it past this month.

“Ready to go home Purrincess?” He asked.
“Yep!” He scooped me up into his arms and jumped up to a nearby rooftop. He ran across the building, jumping from one to another. We finally made it back to my balcony.

“Thank you Chat.” I said as he set me down.

“No problem, well, see ya later then!”

“Wait Chat!” What am I saying? I can’t stop now. Chat was on the railing, balancing with his baton. He froze and turned back to me.

“Yes?”

I couldn’t stop myself but at least I can be really quiet. “I think I kinda like you.” I muttered blushing, avoiding his gaze.

“Pardon me?” He tilted his head. Why does he have to look so cute?!

“It’s nothing, sorry, I’ll see you later.” I rushed, blushing even harder now but at least speaking louder now.

“Okay then.” He stood up, facing away from me. Just before he jumped away, he glanced towards me. “Oh, and Purrincess? I think I might like you too.” I was speechless as I just stood there a moment after he left, processing what he said. Tikki floated up beside me and I finally realized what he said. I almost bit my lip to contain the squeal building up at his words but I refrained from it because it still stings.

“Tikki, did you hear that?!” I squeaked.

“Mhm, now let's get you and the fabric into your room.” she ushered me through the trap door. We closed it behind us and I sat on my bed just melting.

I soon got up and started drawing the pattern.