#in retrospect i really probably shouldnt have been swimming in the lake alone every morning but eh

[guardiankarenterrier]

Ladybug and Chat Noir for K please?

(on the edge of consciousness, for this ask meme) (also on ao3!)

Marinette’s tried not to fall asleep transformed, and she’s been mostly successful.

It’s not like she wants to go ahead and take a nap during a battle, after all, and right after one- okay, she might want to right after one, but their timers mean that’s a definite no.

The only time it would ever be a possibility is on patrol, and finding somewhere to sleep instead would not only defeat the point of patrolling, it would leave her vulnerable in a way she doesn’t like.   She knows she’s a heavy sleeper and she’s not sure that the magic in their Miraculous can counteract that.

So no matter how tired she might be, she doesn’t sleep without detransforming first.

She’s never even thought to ask Chat Noir if he does the same.  She knows he can be less cautious than her (she’s joined him on enough dares that she can’t entirely lay claim to caution for herself, but he’s definitely worse), but she still hadn’t thought he’d risk sleeping as Chat Noir.

She wants to say ‘and out in the open,’ but he isn’t, exactly.

Though the tiny grove of trees he’s tucked himself into certainly wouldn’t be enough protection for her peace of mind.

She’d stumbled over him, literally, while exploring- while patrolling the park herself.  They’re well away from the main paths and between the way the tree’s branches hang nearly to the ground and the way Chat Noir’s curled himself up tightly between the roots of the largest of the trees he’s all but invisible.

The way he blends so easily into the dark doesn’t hurt, either.  Even she’d only picked up on the glint of his tail buckle.  The way he’s packed himself into a tight ball, tail wrapped around him like a real cat, hides even his bell from view.

It’s very late.  It’s later than Marinette would normally patrol alone at all, and it’s cold for this time of year, and she knows that Chat Noir always wants to keep patrolling long past when Marinette herself would have gone home but she’d still assumed he was going home.

And that defensive curl makes her uneasy.  She’s never seen that from him before.

Marinette doesn’t actually think about crossing over to sit down beside him.   She’s running a hand over the broad expanse of his back before she’s even figured out how or when she got to his side, watching as his ears flick and he comes to life at all once.

He doesn’t move, though. Not really.  Instead Chat Noir freezes for a moment, trembling in place as his ears swivel towards her and he sniffs once.

She wonders if he always shows more cat traits when he’s just waking up.  She wonders if that has anything to do with why he’s sleeping out in this hidden corner of the park.

She knows the moment he knows it’s her, because he relaxes all at once and lets out a heavy sigh that rumbles into a purr near the end.  "My lady.“

"Hey, minou,” she returns, forcing more amusement into her voice than she actually feels.  "Weird place for a catnap.“

He doesn’t answer her.  As soon as he heard her voice, he shrugged himself more comfortably into her hand on his back, tucked his tail against his chest so that the only metal that could possibly glint and give him away was on his ears, and went back to sleep.

Marinette’s a lot more worried now.  

But for Chat to so easily fall back asleep means he must be exhausted.  She doesn’t want to wake him unless she has to, not even for answers, not when he only barely woke at her touch.

She doesn’t think he ever even opened his eyes.

She moves, wincing at the sleepy whine that pulls from her partner.  She checks, but he’s not any more awake than he was before- his eyes are the barest bit slitted now, but if he truly woke at all he drifted off again immediately.

She runs through the day in her head, but it’s been quiet, at least as far as their job goes.  There haven’t been any akuma today, though Marinette had seen a couple close calls before she or someone else had intervened.  It’s a relief that most of her class has caught on by now that if they can cheer someone up quick enough they can prevent an akuma successfully latching on.  Not surprisingly, Rose and Adrien are the best at it, but Nino and Alix and Mylene have all gotten good about knowing how and when to intervene too.  Alya tries, but her timing tends to be slightly off, so she’s better at helping Nino than she is at catching someone’s mood herself.

It’s saved Marinette a lot of stress recently.

She’d have thought it might be doing the same for Chat Noir.

Today has been kind of weird.  There’s some kind of bug going around, so it feels like half the class is taking turns being sick at any given time, and no one’s seen Adrien in days- Nino had thought that he was sick too, especially since Nino had been one of the first people both to catch it and to recover, but then he’d heard from the Gorilla that Adrien had been in photo shoots the whole time.

That the Gorilla both has and uses Nino’s number is a surprise to everyone else.

That they have to keep an eye on Nino for the rest of the day so that he doesn’t get akumatised is… less of a surprise. He’s not exactly quiet about his opinions on Adrien being pulled for a days long shoot with no warning, and Mylene’s suggestion that maybe Adrien’s father is just trying to avoid Adrien getting sick doesn’t do a lot to help.

It does enough to avoid a butterfly, though.  Barely.

Between so much of the class falling ill, Chloé declaring that she’s not attending class until everyone quits sneezing and coughing everywhere, and Lila’s sudden suspiciously-timed impromptu vacation out of the country most of their teachers had given up on teaching for the day.   Mme. Mendeliev had tried, but it had quickly become apparent that uncontrollable sneezing and open flames did not mix well, so even her lesson had been put on hold in favour of a video.

Resettling herself closer to Chat Noir and resting her whole arm across his back this time, Marinette frets as he sighs again and presses into her.  She’s been unaffected enough that she’d given in and asked Tikki if her Miraculous insulated her from illnesses, and after a lot of dancing around the subject Tikki had admitted that the Ladybug Miraculous could help prevent less serious illnesses.

"It won’t always help,” Tikki had warned her, perching on her pillow and looking up at her with anxious eyes.  "You can’t rely on it, Marinette, it won’t always work.   That’s why I didn’t tell you.“

"I won’t, Tikki,” Marinette had promised back, cupping her hands around her kwami and bringing her close.  "I was just curious.  It’s good to know that Chat Noir and I have some resistance, at least.“

Looking back, Tikki had hesitated at that.  Looking back, Tikki had never said anything about the Black Cat Miraculous at all.

Chat Noir sniffles in his sleep before nestling closer to her.

Marinette sighs and resigns herself to keeping watch for him for the rest of the night.  She’s not going to ask him what he’s doing out here, but she’s definitely going to scold him for sleeping outside when she’s increasingly sure he’s caught the same thing that’s been going around recently.  He should be resting in a warm bed somewhere, not out here hiding in the trees.

But he is hiding.  She’s sure of that.  He’s also clearly not hiding from her, and she can’t ask him what he is hiding from, but it sends a terrible shiver through her that he felt the need to hide before he could rest at all.

If he’s that wary, he’s likely to get a much better rest if she stays with him.

At least, that’s what Marinette reasons with herself as she makes herself comfortable and waits for dawn, leaning into the soothing warmth of her partner’s side and wilfully ignoring Tikki’s warning that her Miraculous’ protection isn’t foolproof.

(Marinette’s the next of their class to fall ill, but she can’t regret staying).