The rest of the weekend flew by, Chat stayed with me and I snuck him food when I could. He left Sunday evening, he said that he had already stayed too long and wanted to see his father. I understood and saw him off, the room felt empty after he left.

Monday was a snow day after everything with Stormy Weather, the snow was scheduled and she just worsened it. I called Alya up to see if she wanted to go skating.

“Hey Girl!” She called standing by Nino just outside my bakery, my parents were still insistent on me not going anywhere without someone else. I approached them grinning from ear to ear. I missed just hanging out with my friends.

“Hey Dudette! Adrien says that he’ll be awhile but he will make it.”

“It’s okay, as long as we all have fun.” we stood in silence for a moment.

“So, do you both want to start heading to the rink?” Alya finally asked, breaking the silence and the awkwardness. Me and Nino agreed immediately.

As we made our way Nino pulled out his phone and shot a quick text to Adrien. It was a few moments before we heard a ping from his phone from Adrien. He paused reading it, me and Alya stopped and looked back at him, curios on the reply.

“Sorry dudettes, Adrien says his old man said he wants him to stay, something about if it’s too icy and dangerous to go to school, then it’s too icy and dangerous to go out at all.” Nino pocketed his phone and caught up to us.

“Really? Aww.” I commented.

“We could go to his house and try and convince his father otherwise.” Alya suggested.

“Yeah, cause that works every time. Arguing with his old man is like trying to reason with a brick wall.”  Nino sighed, remembering his Akuma. “We could push back the date maybe. I’m really busy this December, how does the first week of January sound?”

“Same here, me and my family are visiting our relatives for christmas,” Alya added. “We’ll be back before New year’s so maybe then, if not, the first week of january works. Marinette?”

“Um, yeah, that sounds great.” I lied.

“Sounds like a plan, this was a great idea Marinette, I can’t wait for January now.” Alya cheered. I watched them walk away, excited for January while I could only stand there dreading it.

I receded back into the bakery, not having anything to do, I helped my mom at the counter. There weren't many customers today so mom trusted me to take care of the counter while she fixed us something warm.

I leaned back in the chair, waiting for another customer. I heard the jingle of our bakery door open and heard footsteps approach.

Wait, I know those footsteps. I looked up to confirm my thoughts finding Chat’s face smiling down at me. There was a hush that settled over the customers in the bakery at the sight of him.

“Wa-what can I get for you?” I stood even though I didn’t trust my legs.

“I’ll take two croissants.” He decided. He payed and as he left my mom came in to take over.

“I made you some hot chocolate, why don’t you head up stairs?” I nodded and once I was through the doors I ran up the stairs to my room where I found Chat pacing on the balcony.

“Chat!” I got his attention and let him down.

“Sorry, I just was patrolling around town and saw you working through the window and thought I’d stop by. You looked down, is everything alright?”

“Ye-yeah, everything’s fine, couldn’t be better. What about you? How are you doing?”

“I’m okay, how’s your arm?”

I just remembered it. “Oh it’s good, healing fast.” he nodded.

“So, anything interesting happening?” I asked Chat.

“Other than no school? No.” we sat in silence for a bit, thinking about the answer I guess. “What about you?”

“Nothing much, but I did find out that the student body is putting on a winter formal, I’ve already started my dress.” he perked up at my words.

“Is that the dress I saw at the fabric store?”
“Mhm.” I nodded.

“Could I see what it looks like as of now?” I motioned to the dress on the manikin in the corner.

“That’s it so far, it’s not much but it’s something.” I shrugged.

“No, it looks really good!” He gave me a thumbs up. I beamed with pride. “So, do you have anyone in mind to go with?” he asked, smirking. I looked away embarrassed.

“No, I was thinking of going alone.”

“Why?” He inquired.

“Unless you want to go with me, I have no one to ask. And I don’t want to bother you so.” I trailed off.

“I would love to go with you!” he jumped excited but his face fell. “Oh, that might be hard.” he winced.

“You know what? I have an idea, you know Adrien? Adrien Agreste?” I nodded. “If you want, I could have him go in my place.” I shifted awkwardly.

“Okay, but don’t force him into it, and I’m going to be honest, I kind of wish that you were the one going with me.” I blushed.

“Well I’ll be there in spirit, and if there's an Akuma, maybe I could drop by to say hello.”

I smiled. “Just stay safe if there is one, it was terrifying to have to see you like that, almost dead.”

“Well, this time, I will be more careful, but no promises, I have my status to maintain as Paris’s coolest superhero.”

“I don’t think people say that.” I laughed.

“Am I not cool enough for you purrincess?” he pouted yet had a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“Well I’m not saying that-”

“I thought I was pretty cool this weekend.”

“That's because you almost froze to death from the inside out.”

“Yeah, but you gotta admit that I was cool.”

“Fine, yes, you were cool.” I giggled. I got up and started working on the dress a bit more, my face turned away from him, my smile fell, I didn’t want him to see.

I heard his steps approach me from behind and I felt his arms wrap around me, his face nessaled in my shoulder.

“I promise I’ll stay safe next time.” he whispered.

“Thank you for that Chatton.” The corners of my eyes crinkled with a small grin.

“Anything fur you purrincess.” We stayed like that for a moment, just enjoying eachothers company.

“S-so, I’m sorry I didn’t ask before, but is this okay?” Chat asked, breaking the silence, indicating the hug.

“Yes, from you.” I relaxed into him. He buried his face in my shoulder to hide his blush even though I already couldn’t see his face.

The rest of the day Chat stayed and helped me on the dress. At lunch, we turned on some music and danced along with it, pretending we were at the dance together. The room was filled with our giggles and music.

As we spun around my room, I felt my heart soar. I never wanted to die at the end of the month, but now, I wanted it even less. I want to continue doing this with Chat, having fun and twirling around my room, I’d miss that. Normally my smile would disintegrate at these thoughts but I was having so much fun that I couldn’t help but keep the joyous look on my face.

We had so much fun that we didn’t notice it was night until my parents knocked on my trapdoor.

“Um, one sec mama and papa!” I called down ushering Chat to the balcony trying to keep my parents downstairs.

“Alright Marinette.” I heard their footsteps recede and met Chat on the balcony.

“Goodnight.” I hugged my arms to my body to ward off the chill of winter.

“Night Purrincess.” he kissed my cheek and disappeared into the night. I raised my hand to my cheek, grinning like crazy, my heart about to leap out of my chest. I made my way downstairs to my parents, trying to tone down my blush but failing.

“Are you okay Marinette?” my mom asked.

“Yes, never better.” I stared intensely at my food. The blush eventually dropped and I finished the meal in peace.

When I crawled into bed that night, my mind couldn’t help but replay the moment over and over in my head. My heart was still pounding, I almost didn’t get sleep that night.

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Hey, sorry this chapter is so late, I had tons of homework i had to work on today and was just really busy. Its really late at night right now for me so I'm just going to leave this note at that. Thank you for reading, i hope you enjoyed this chapter, and have an amazing week!