#cat crossing

[lavender-album]

cat crossing 🐈‍⬛ 12/28/24

[hunted-for-sport]

my walk during my lunch break 🐈‍⬛

[oldwebrelics]

[thewritewolf]

Cat Crossing Chapter 2

As bad as it was to accidentally reveal his identity to one of his friends, Adrien was sure he could smooth things over somehow. After all, who could possibly be smoother than him?

I posted this on Ao3 a few days ago, but completely forgot to post it here too! I wrote Cat Crossing last year for @sweetsweetsweetie‘s birthday and decided to give the much-demanded second chapter as this year’s present.

You can find the first chapter here for some Animal Crossing, Marichat goodness. Read on to see Marinette being a super flirt, and Adrien being completely unable to handle it.

Enjoy!

-----

Adrien had a fitful night’s sleep after he panic-disconnected from Animal Crossing. He wasn’t entirely sure if doing that would damage his save file or not, but he just couldn’t bring himself to worry about that right now.

No, there was a much more serious, pressing issue at the moment - Marinette Dupain-Cheng, a civilian, had discovered his identity through her clever deductive skills and through not fault of his own. At least, that was how he’d phrase it to Ladybug. Hopefully she believed him. Because otherwise…? Well, he was going to be in trouble.

“So, what’s the plan, big cat?” Plagg asked, sounding far too chipper about all this, with his wide grin and the amused gleam in his eyes. Adrien would have thought that his kwami would have been the more scared of the two of them, but there was no time to question that now.

Especially since his kwami had asked him that same question last night after Adrien had explained just how badly he’d messed up - and just who had discovered his true identity. All he could say then was that he’d sleep on it and something would come to him in the morning.

Well, the morning was here and as he stepped off the limo dropping him off at school, he had absolutely nothing to show for it. The only bright side is that he was here early enough that he could still hash things out with Plagg before classes started. With that intent in mind, Adrien rushed inside and made a beeline for the empty lockers.

“Okay…” Adrien ran his fingers through his hair, trying his best to keep cool and stay optimistic. “Well, at least it was her and not some random person, right?”

Plagg’s grin only grew. “Oh yeah, definitely. Probably the best person you could have accidentally revealed yourself to.”

“Right…” Adrien gave Plagg a suspicious glance. “We know Marinette. She’s shy, she’s a good friend, she’s honest. She wouldn’t intentionally reveal my identity, right?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Plagg pretended to inspect his paws. “She places a real high value on honesty, kid. And she’s best pals with the one and only Ladyblogger - a fact you know only all too well.”

“Yes, and-”

“Cuz you stare at pictures of Ladybug on there all the time.”

“Not all the time-”

Plagg shrugged. “Eh, close enough. But back to pigtails - what’s the plan?”

“Well, we know she’s shy, right? So what if I really ramp up the Chat Noir charm on her? And while she’s still trying to get her bearings I tell her how important it is to keep identities secret and everything.”

Adrien nodded slowly to himself, feeling the framework of a plan coming together. A few zingers and flirty lines started forming in his head. “That should buy us enough time until we see Ladybug again. I bet she’ll know what to do.”

It was at that moment Adrien closed the locker door and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw that Marinette was oh so casually leaning up against the locker beside him.

“I didn’t catch that last part,” she said, a knowing smirk on her face. “Who will know what to do? Or, even better, just who were you talking to?”

“I… um…” Adrien swallowed, confronted with Marinette leaning toward him, arms behind her back and a look of serene curiosity on her face, but with an insidious glee in her eyes. “Just my...”

Her voice was just barely above a whisper as she spoke into his ear. “...Kwami, maybe?”

All the gears in Adrien’s head ground to a halt and in the face of her… well, face, which was little more than a hand’s breadth away from his own. Coming up with coherent thoughts was just about impossible and all he could do was go, “Uhhhh…”

“I thought so.” Her smirk returned. “See you in class!”

With a wink that did things to his heart, Marinette walked away, her hands still held behind her back. Adrien was frozen in place, staring at the spot she had been in as the sound of her humming faded off into the distance.

For a moment, he wondered about how she knew about kwamis. But memories of Multimouse soon surfaced in his mind and he realized just how doomed he was. After all, if Ladybug had chosen her, she had to be good.

Adrien swallowed heavily, but his mouth was dry. This was going to be a long, long day. And he no longer had any grasp on the situation whatsoever.

----------------------

Where was the girl that stuttered in front of him every single day? Because she certainly wasn’t behind him in class that day. It couldn’t be, not by the way he could constantly feel her eyes on his back, and how she kept passing him notes. Adrien hadn’t had a moment to pull himself together since their little talk in front of the lockers.

Even during class, she found a way to keep him on the back foot, he reflected as another slip of paper found its way in front of him. The one before it had simply been a flirty cat pun, which he wasn’t sure was supposed to be an actual flirt or just teasing him. Taking a steadying breath, he opened up this one to see what it had to say.

Inside was a quick drawing of what had to be him - green eyes, blonde hair, his white jacket with the black shirt - with a speech bubble that just said, “meow meow meow meow meow.”

He quickly hide the drawing under his notebook, just in time since Ms Bustier turned back around at just that moment to address the class. If she saw, would she confiscate them? Or, even worse, would she make them read them out loud in class? Besides being embarrassing to have to say ‘meow’ five times outloud, would they give his classmates the edge they needed to discover his secret identity? Who else but a catboy would be able to say meow so effectively?

Ms Bustier turned back toward the white board and his momentary reprieve ended. Another note - this one folded into an American football - landed at his elbow. Ignoring the questioning look Nino was sending his way, Adrien opened it.

This one was just a drawing of a cat… a cat that unmistakably had his hair.

Adrien quickly shoved it into his pocket but no sooner had he managed that than another one landed right in front of him. Keeping an eye on Ms Bustier all the while, he felt it open with his hands and glanced down once he thought he’d gotten it.

Another drawing of him. This time with the words ‘pretty kitty’ and an arrow pointing at him.

That one got him to turn around, just enough to look at her. She looked back down at him, shameless, and even had the audacity to wave her fingers at him.

“Adrien, eyes up front please!”

He snapped back to attention at Ms Bustier’s gentle but firm command. There was a slight murmuring in the classroom, but it passed just as quickly as it began. After a couple minutes,  another note landed in front of Adrien.

Unheard by anyone else, Adrien let out a long, frazzled sigh.

--------------

Adrien collapsed onto his bed, finally home from a long day. Gym class and an hour of fencing didn’t do nearly half as much as just having Marinette behind him, flirting with him surreptitiously for the entire time they had classes together. And it was unquestionably flirting - eventually even he had no choice but to admit that she was hitting on him.

But why? He had to wonder. Was it because of her feelings for Chat Noir? Had something happened to awaken this in her from their time on her island last night?

Shaking his head, he decided he’d have to ask her tomorrow…

...Only for his phone to go off.

Naturally, it was Marinette, a fact he noted with wide eyes and quickening pulse.

Marinette: Open your island?

Adrien stared at that message for long minutes before it finally dawned on him that she was talking about his Animal Crossing island. After everything that had happened today, he had almost completely forgotten how his identity had been compromised.

His internal debate on whether or not to actually do what she asked was short. In a matter of minutes, he had his switch in his hands and was opening up his airport. His only response was to send her the access code.

He ran in circles as he patiently waited for her to arrive. The plane loading screen came up and he frowned at her passport title. “Rascally Bug Fan”? He could have sworn that wasn’t what it had been a few days ago…

Then she landed and the cutscene played, showing her character walking out of the airport gates. But she wasn't in the clothes that she had been wearing when he visited her island yesterday. No, she was wearing a red, black spotted suit, a superhero mask, and with a rose in her hair.

Everything clicked and he let out an involuntary gasp that turned into an undignified, startled squawk as his fingers slackened and his switch fell onto his face. He quickly rolled to a sitting position and watched Marinette - or, should he say Ladybug? - walk up to where he was standing.

He used the anger react and she responded with a laugh. Remembering the day that she had put him through, he felt the corners of his mouth twitch up in a smile. He had his character use the love react, a pink heart floating above his head.

She smacked him with a net.

[lopsided-whiskey-grin]

Cat Crossing

[beachgirlnikita]

A sign I spotted in Scotland...

[catcrossingart]

Last, but certainly not least, is our icy cool Team Mystic print featuring Blanche and her (or his) Articuno! Check out our other team leaders as well! Don't forget to tell us your team! Program used: Photoshop & SAI Pokémon © Nintendo, GAME FREAK inc., Creatures Inc.

Like this print? You can but it on our etsy!

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[thewritewolf]

Cat Crossing

When Marinette gave out her code to let people onto her Animal Crossing Island, Chat Noir was the last person she expected to pay her a visit.

Hello and welcome to this surprise one shot! I wrote this as a slightly late present for my good friend @sweetsweetsweetie! She is a phenomenal artist and you can find her work on tumblr and instagram.

This was also written as a collab between me and another friend of mine, @lesslinette! They made a great piece of art for this fic, which I'll add here as soon as it is posted.

Enjoy!

Read on Ao3

It was late.

Marinette really should be sleeping right now, but…

Just a few more tweaks and her village would be perfect. Her favorite villagers. Many of them wearing clothes she’d personally made - she was as much a designer in Animal Crossing as she was in the real world. It’d taken a while to get the lamp posts she wanted too, but now that they were here…

She was ready. After opening up the airport on her island and getting her dodo code, she put her switch to the side and typed the code into the group chat. It didn’t get used much - mostly just Nino sharing memes with the rest of them, or attempts to get everyone together to hang out. Attempts which almost always ended in failure, thanks to Adrien’s strict schedule and even stricter father.

Adrien…

He was the only other person in the gang that even had a switch, which is what gave her the idea for this in the first place. While it was hard for them to hang out in the real world, she was sure they could squeeze in some time together online.

Marinette could picture it now. He arrives, amazed at her village. They hang out together, growing closer every day. Friendship turns to dating and dating turns to marriage. Twenty years down the line they can tell the story about how they got together because of a video game and Marinette’s excellent village-building skills.

But in the present day, it was three in the morning. With the switch turned off, the long delayed exhaustion hit all at once. Dreams of the married life with the boy of her dreams danced in her head as she fell asleep.

------------

A few days passed. Everyone had seen the message she’d sent on the chat, but it was quickly buried under a torrent of memes, pushing it out of sight and out of mind. She opened the airport and sent out the code one more time, but it was a faint hope.

Her dreams - the friendship, the dating, the marriage - turned to ashes, but at least she still had her village to keep her busy. So busy, in fact, that without even realizing it, she had ended up playing until into the late hours of the night once again.

The groove she’d worked herself into was rudely thrown off when a cutscene began playing, interrupting her fishing. A plane was gently cruising into her airport.

Marinette read the text that showed up and spoke out loud, “Chat Noir, Carefree Animal from Purr-adise has arrived on your island?”

That couldn’t be right. She sat up, suddenly alert. True, she and Chat Noir weren’t exactly strangers - he shows up on her balcony sometimes during his patrol. He at least knew her name. But what was he doing on her island? Assuming it was even actually Chat Noir.

Her curiosity sparked, she made her way to the airport.

Sure enough, whoever they were had gone the full distance. They’d made their own outfit modeled after the feline hero of Paris - black with the accents all in the right places. No cat ears or tail, but they did manage to get a black hero mask. Between that and the messy hair and green eyes, it was about as close as someone could get to his iconic outfit.

The rose in the mouth, though - that was what really convinced her that this was none other than Chat Noir. If she had any doubts after that, the moment the speech bubble appeared over his head quieted them.

“Aw, princess! Came to see me off the airplane? ;3”

Huffing, Marinette quickly typed out a response. “How did you get here Chat.”

“Plane.”

“I mean it!”

“Oooh, pretty island!”

And just like that, Chat Noir had bolted away, an entirely new type of cat boy loose in her village. Although one thing she learned after a few minutes of running after him - there wasn’t a lot of mischief he could actually get into.

After standing still for a few moments, Chat Noir said, “...want to be best friends?”

“So you can tear up my island? Hard pass.”

“Nooo come on, plz? I’ll be a good kitty I purromise.”

“No. But because of that pun? Definitely no.”

“Then I will become a Menace. >:3”

“You do you Chat. I’m going back to fishing.”

Fishing in games was always relaxing for Marinette. Her mind could wander while she listened to the gentle music of the game, all the while slowly building up a pile of fish she could sell off. It was a nice way to unwind after the stress of tests or akuma battles.

Usually.

Those times, she didn’t have an annoying cat boy visitor running into the water, screaming “RUN AWAY FISHY FRIENDS!”

“CHAT.”

His only response was to slowly run into her, gently pushing her away from the water.

“I am FISHING. Go hang out somewhere else.”

“Where the princess goes I must follow.”

“Ugh fine.”

Figuring that fishing was out now, she wandered away to find something else to do. Although it was a little annoying, she had to admit it was nice having him on the island. It was a nice little ego boost to see him ooh and ahh at her village as he followed behind her. And the presence of another person made things feel a little less repetitive.

Of course, that goodwill quickly flew out the window once she tried to pick something up, only for Chat’s net to bonk her on the head.

She silently turned her character towards him, pretending that she was glaring at him despite the unchanging smile on her character’s face saying otherwise. After a few good long seconds she tried again.

BONK.

“aksfvjJKHDFBVJHGB,” she keyboard smashed.

“:3”

He kept following her as she went to a little picnic area. After all, if she wasn’t going to be able to get anything done, she may as well lounge in style.

“How did you even get here?! Seriously! I only gave my code away to”

Her eyes widened and she hit send accidentally. Their characters stood looking at each other for long minutes.

Only three people. Chat wasn’t Nino and he definitely wasn’t Alya. Which just left…

“...Adrien?”

Another moment passed in silence.

Chat Noir has disconnected.

Marinette stared blankly at the spot that Chat’s- Adrien’s character had just been standing.

After all the close calls and the near misses and all that they’d done to keep their identities a secret… Chat Noir blows it in under an hour because he wanted to tease her in the virtual world. Marinette wanted to be mad at him, but all she could do was laugh. It was just such a perfectly Chat Noir way to mess it up. What else could she do?

Her eyes gleamed with mischief. School tomorrow was going to be fun.