I know a lot of marichat fics focus on them getting to know each other and being friends as beneficial for adrien seeing a less frantic and more composed side of marinette so that helps him get to know her better. which is true. she’s calmer and sassier.
but man what I truly love about this dynamic is marinette getting to see another side of chat noir. as ladybug, she values chat as a partner. she is not shy about saying she needs him and would protect him at all costs. she also has an easy rapport with him and he is easily her best friend, after alya.
however, she also doesn’t taking his flirtations seriously. we see in copycat how she knew which chat was the copy because she knew his feelings were real and sincere. marinette thinks that chat is just a big flirt to ladybug. he’s even flirted with her as marinette, who he doesn’t know is ladybug.
she will joke and flirt back, or roll her eyes, but she mostly doesn’t see chat as a serious option. a lot of it has to do with liking adrien, who she admits if he wasn’t in the picture, she would give chat a chance. another is that she is the head of the duo, and thinks it’d be safer in neither knew each other’s secret identities.
but, an interesting thing we see in evillustrator is that marinette, for even just a second, was pleasantly surprised by nathanael. why? because he was sincere. he promised not to hurt chloe if marinette went out on a birthday date with him and he kept it. her face went completely soft when he says this.
how more shocked and soft would marinette be if she learned how deep chat noir’s feeling for her, ladybug, truly ran? if they started talking as marinette and chat would confess his feelings about ladybug to his princess, his new friend, and she’d be so overwhelmed because she didn’t exactly expect this.
she knew ladybug meant a lot to chat, but not this much. it wasn’t until the words (j'taime) were put to the actions (his nicknames, his quick inclination to protect her/die for her, his closeness, his flirtations) would marinette truly see that chat noir loved ladybug.
hearing chat and talking to him reminds her a little of adrien. reserved but gentle, kind and most of all, sincere. she is being shown a side to chat she has never, if rarely, sees and the closer she gets, the harder it is to convince herself that she doesn’t likes what she sees.
that her kitty is taking up as much room in her heart as adrien is.





