#ack sorry

But after what happened that day, Adrien had reason to be suspicious that the redhead had his own suspicions about him. Although still too dense to identify what, exactly, he had tuned into his surroundings enough to sense something shady about the artist. And so Adrien kept his distance, avoiding Nathaniel at all costs. 

It was working, too, until Paris’ iconic spoilsport once again made his signature move and ruined the whole plan.

Adrien, deep down, was, to a very small, secret extent, grateful for the akumas. How else would he have been able to seek freedom from the depressing prison his father called a house. How would he have been able to attend school? What about meet Ladybug; Marinette? So, yes, he did have to thank Hawk Moth for some things. Giving orders was not one of them. Or, at least, the directions part of those orders, anyways.

Of course, that redhead just so happened to be in the exact place at the exact time the akuma chose to attack.

Chat had nothing against saving civilians. Since Ladybug was generally more needed on the offensive, he often found himself the one to guide bystanders away from the scene. They were just civilians, after all; he didn’t have any bias towards saving any of them.

And although he would very much rather leave the transportation of the artist to Ladybug this time, he picked up the teen’s surprisingly light form and vaulted them both to a rooftop nearby, taking off running to a safer place.

Up until this point, Adrien was fairly sure that the connection between him and Chat had not yet been discovered by anyone. He’d had Nathaniel crossed off the list, even till now.

Adrien made a mental note to change the way he carried civilians based on their perceptiveness.

“Hey, uh, Chat, do you mind? Only you reek of camembert and I can’t breathe,” Nathaniel said to him, the superhero’s arms hugging him against his leather-suited chest.

Chat nearly dropped him right then, carefully setting the redhead down on a platform before he accidentally injured him out of reflexes.

“I’ll be right back,” he assured him. “The akuma is far away enough for now.”

Then he jumped down and landed lightly on the ground before pulling out his baton and locating the closest perfume store.

“Bonjour, welcome to Divine Fragrances,” a man singsonged as Chat pushed open the door. “How may I-”

“Hi, do you have any super-strong perfume I can use to cover up smells? I’m in kind of a rush...”

The man blinked before gesturing to the display of various men’s scents.

Chat surveyed them quickly, then picked one at random, spraying it all over him.

“Thanks, I’ll pay you back later!” he called, running back out.

***

“I’m back,” Chat announced, arriving back on the scaffolding.

“Where were you?” Nathaniel asked him, climbing back into his arms. Chat held him a bit further away this time, although still tightly enough that he wouldn’t risk dropping the teen.

“I had a couple errands to run,” Chat dismissed, eyes searching for a safe place to deposit the redhead.

“Now?”

“Er, very urgent?” Chat suggested.

Nathaniel shrugged, and shut up, more or less, after that.

“Are you wearing Adrien?” he asked suddenly, just when Chat was about to finally leave him on a bridge, very far away from the akuma. Chat froze.

“What?” he asked, betraying his resolve to ignore Nathaniel as much as possible.

“Adrien; the fragrance. You’re covered in it,” Nathaniel noted.

“Yeah, well, it smells nice...”

Nathaniel blinked.

“But...why?”

“Well, I mean, the camembert smell seemed to bother you, so I just...” Chat paused to silently ask himself why he was still entertaining this guy’s questions.

Nathaniel stopped, flushing slightly.

“Wait, you really did that...because of...me?” he asked, voice diminishing to a mumble. He looked down, avoiding looking at the superhero in front of him.

Chat glanced at the back; the akuma was coming closer.

“Sorry, I gotta split right now. Go home, or somewhere safer than here,” he said, turning around and vaulting away.