(He couldn’t be Chat Noir because she knew Chat Noir. She knew him, and she was confident she could pick him out of a lineup, Miraculous activated or not. [...] Adrien couldn’t be Chat Noir because he wasn’t any of those boys, and it put road-tacks under Marinette’s heart to think she might not know her partner even that well.) how many words is this lol i'm on mobile----
from check yes juliet chapter 3
(He couldn’t be Chat Noir because she knew Chat Noir. She knew him, and she was confident she could pick him out of a lineup, Miraculous activated or not.
In her weaker moments, she imagined what Chat might be doing elsewhere in the city, imagined what he might do with his days off.
Imagined a beautiful boy walking in on one of her groups’ study sessions, swaggering up to the counter and flirting hopelessly with the pretty barista, who’d give him the time of day more for his dangerously beautiful smile than his lame lines.
Imagined her lovable dork of a partner playing video games until the sun came up and going to school half-asleep, exhaustion-mussed and satisfied, getting teased by his friends for his state of alertness.
Imagined her diamond in the rough, her street cat with a heart of gold, her champion incognito roaming the streets after dark, or maybe just roaming the library, looking for a fight or simply looking, sating his curiosity however it pleased him.
Adrien couldn’t be Chat Noir because he wasn’t any of those boys, and it put road-tacks under Marinette’s heart to think she might not know her partner even that well.)
ah yes. the root of mari’s denial.
frankly, the last line there is the entire reason for chapter three
she knows chat noir. she trusts chat noir. she might even love chat noir. she’s fought with him for years now and she trusts him with her life on the regular. how could she not have confidence in who she thinks he is?
the question bouncing around in mari’s head at this point in her stage of denial is: how well do you know your best friend?
the answer is very well, or not well at all, depending on how you look at it:not well at all because he managed to be the boy she’d been majorly crushing on for years and she never had a clue. he’s been within arm’s reach this entire time and she didn’t notice. what kind of best friend- what kind of partner does that make her?but also very well, because the mask gives chat a measure of freedom, and that free(er) person is who she knows. if he’d had that same freedom in his everyday life, guess what he’d be doing?she has it spot on and completely off-base at the same time, and i love itthis was supposed to be an entire imagine-spot thing where she vividly imagined him walking into the shop and flirting with the barista, but it didn’t end up happening XDon ‘road-tacks’: hallie’s thought process: uh. uh. uh. metaphor what is a metaphor, uh. something that hurts. like stepping on legos but less silly. uh. oh hey! ROAD TACKS yeah i got this i am a w e s o m ebasically, this ended up being a musing when i wanted it to be a scene and i’m still not sure the scene wouldn’t be better but i wrote all 3k of this chapter on a single, highly stressed out weekend while listening to the boy who murdered love on repeat and frankly i’m surprised it turned out this well :DDD;;;;