"I will not pretend to be pleased at your incompetent behaviour, nor do I wish to know how you acquired that, Adrien, but let me make myself clear. If I see something like this again, you can say goodbye to your independence once more,"he turned to his son.
"Because I will reassign your body-guard."He sighed.
"You are going to taint my reputation."
"Father I swear, I didn't get into a fight and I didn't get mugged, it was the tennis ball machine…"Adrien said.
Gabriel regarded his son with a raised brow.
"You may leave now."
Adrien turned and left his father's study, closing the door behind him. His father had been more than furious, having to cancel not 1,but 4 photo shoots because of Adrien's black eye. Adrien sighed and returned to his room.
At least things would be slightly better this week...
His schedule had been cleared for the week except for Thursday when he had to model for the upcoming Ravensburg Winter Collection, they were counting on Adrien so it was agreed to put a bit of make-up on the bruise (but not too much that it would get infected) and finish the look with dark blue glasses to cover everything up properly. His English tuition had been postponed to Saturday, and his archery instructor had been shot by one of his students accidentally so had been hospitalized. His violin lessons were cancelled due to his teacher playing in the orchestra on Wednesday. It was rescheduled as a double lesson next week. His Martial Arts classes was an everyday class, but Nathalie cancelled it this week as any more bruises on the kitten's body would send Gabriel into a burning rage. And later in the week Gabriel would be attending a three week conference in Miami, Nathalie and the Gorilla going with him. Everything just worked out.
Adrien couldn't help but smile, just a little. It seemed he was being unusually lucky.
Strange…
Upon entering his room, he eyed his bed in disgust and walked to the window. In the distance he could see the Bakery.
"How'd it go, kid?" Plagg asked, floating next to Adrien.
"I couldn't get a word in, as usual." Adrien huffed in agitation.
Plagg swallowed his cheese. Adrien stared at the dark clouds rolling across the sky. It would be raining again tonight.
"Adrien."Nathalie called from outside his door.
"Yes?"
"Your father has decided to leave to Miami tonight instead of Friday as the weather seems to be getting worse by the day . He wishes to know if you would like to join him till the Ravensburg show."
Adrien perked up at this.
"Chloe Bourgeois is also coming."
Adrien gagged. "No no, I'm okay, don't wanna fall behind on any of my classes, and my eye really hurts. Really badly. I should rest up. Oh and I have to finish my books too. You guys go ahead."
"I could clear your schedule for the next-"
"That won't be necessary! B-But thank you, I mean thank him!" Adrien fumbled. He couldn't be near her so soon. He just couldn't. He wouldn't.
He won't.
Nathalie was quiet.
"Alright. Good Afternoon Adrien. The chauffeur and butlers will be in their quarters if you require anything." She said and walked off.
Adrien hit his head dejectedly on the window. A wasted opportunity to actually be with his father because the witch wanted to show up.
Plagg eyed Adrien thoughtfully, thinking of something to bring the boy's spirit up.
"Don't worry, kid. Add these 4 days to the three weeks, and you have almost a month alone!"
Plagg didn't realise how horrible that sounded at first but quickly learned when Adrien's eyes darkened.
He tried again.
"Isn't that almost as long as Marinette's parents are going to be away for?'
Adrien looked at Plagg. He was right… Adrien smirked. "Yeah,yeah it is…"
Plagg blinked at Adrien's sudden change in demeanour and slowly he held a subtle knowing smirk of his own. Master Fu was right, as always.
Adrien walked over to his couch and lay down. He began to count, and after an hour, he fell asleep.
…
He woke up when he heard an unmistakable clap of thunder, and the sizzling crackle of lightning. Oh this was the perfect weather to hunt. He smiled cynically and jumped up, running to the window. The rain was coming down really, really hard. A car alarm went off in the distance. He watched as people drove unsteadily through the slowly rising waters, and how some pedestrians frantically made their ways into shops or back to their homes. Pushing one of the glass windows open, he inhaled the icy air, it smelled so refreshing, well, as refreshing as air can smell.
He intertwined his hands and pushed his arms upwards, in a slow, cat-like stretch. He rolled his head and cricked his neck.
"Plagg."
"Mmm?"
"Transform me." He said simply, and the kwami was sucked into the ring.
He grinned as the transformation took place and he cracked his knuckles. Chat's reflection in the glass revealed that his black eye would not be visible while Plagg held the transformation. And so, with one last frightening smirk, he leaped out his window and into the panicked streets of Paris.
His black-clad figure could be seen sauntering across the rooftops while the raindrops trickles down his body. He walked slowly and his tail flicked lazily.
"Who to pick, who to pick. Will it be you?" He asked the air but his eyes fell on a little pink haired woman.
"Or will it be you?" He eyed a brunette, he was tall,muscular and clearly hated the rain.
Chat smirked. He crossed his hands behind his back and practically floated slowly across the rooftops.
"Who today, who today, who today shall be my prey?" He asked nobody in particular,humoring himself with the rhyme. He suddenly crouched as his eyes caught sight of man with black hair and blue eyes, he was slender and looked to be in his early thirties, standing underneath a shelter. It was 3:45, but in this kind of weather crime time would start sooner rather than later. This was something many Parisians had no idea about. On rainy days, villains came out earlier and stayed out later.
His beady blue eyes darted around.
"…No sugarplum, you know she gets uglier by the day,fatter too...Oh she's nothing compared to you my sweet…HA!She doesn't suspect a thing…I told her I would be working the night shift…Urgh, no…Aww pumpkin, my wife is just around because someone needs to take care of the kids...My kids? No they aren't as important as you sugarplum…No, they mean nothing to me, I don't even know why I had them."
No, they mean nothing to me,I don't even know why I had them.
Chat hissed, his eyes flashed. Something inside his chest snapped as he heard what the pathetic man said.
He did not understand why such pompous words wounded him so much, but deep down he did.
He did,because like this man's kids, he too meant nothing to his own father.
Chat's eyes narrowed. His blood blazed…
Oh, this man was going to get it.
He jumped down from the rooftop and stood in front of the man.
"AAAH!" The man screamed and accidentally threw his phone in the process.
Chat wasted no time in grabbing the man's throat and slamming him into the wall.
"Ah-ah-ah, no screaming." Chat tsked as the man made a gurgling sound.
"Someone's been a bad little mouse. "He said in a whisper, suddenly throwing the man from the wall, onto the pavement.
The man crawled backwards.
"Aww. He tries to escape." Chat said tilting his head.
"Tell you what, little mouse, I'll give you 80 seconds to run, because what's a game without a chase?" Chat said in a sickeningly sweet tone, but if one listened close enough, the malice in his voice was palpable.
The man gaped, gasped ,got up and took off running.
"It's Chat Noir!" Someone said.
It was an officer. Chat hissed and darted out of the way of the incoming ammunition.
"Now is that any way to treat a kitty?" Chat said from the top of a light pole.
"You're not a kitty, you're a monster."
"Meow-ch, you wound me, sir." Chat said, dramatically clutching his chest.
The officer shot again, Chat dodged gracefully and deflected a few more with his baton.
"Oooooh , feisty." Chat said. "I need back-up, I repeat I need back up-"the man started saying into his walkie-talkie.
Chat suddenly darted forward and slammed the man into the ground, the officer's gun flew out of his hand. Chat grabbed the man's tongue with his claws and the man stayed dead still to prevent his tongue from ripping,it was already bleeding.
"Oh, I see, you're a new recruit, so you're in your early twenties I presume?Well I guess you don't understand how it goes. You see,you can call more officers,I don't mind, but that just means I'm going to have to maim all of you,and while you all lie bleeding to death, I walk away unwounded. Now that idea sounds really claw-some but you can't be that DAFT...The other officers know better than to mess with me. Did they not tell you?" Chat said in a humored voice.
He leaned down to the man's ear. "I'm a sicko, and I would want nothing more than to rip out your intestines and use them as a skipping rope."
The man didn't speak, but he looked up at Chat in horror.
"Nothing to say? Oh I see, Chat got your tongue!"Chat said, bursting out into laughter as he let go of the man's bleeding tongue and backflipped a few spaces.
"Well, I've already got my prey for today so I'm in a merciful mood, run along." Chat said,and pathetically, the man did so.
The confrontation took 58 seconds. Chat began to run in the opposite direction, tracing the scent of the man from before. He tracked him down after a minute, and honestly, he was impressed at how far and deep into the city the man had run. Chat grabbed the man by the collar and hurtled him into a dark alley.
"Wait, wait! Chat Noir, please! I'm an innocent man!" The man said as his back his the back of the alley, he was drenched.
"Is that so?" Chat said, walking into the alley. This part of the city was really quiet, everyone had gone into their homes.
"I am, I swear to you I am. Don't kill me, I have a family to provide for!"
"What a surprise." Chat said with an eyeroll.
"I promise, would you attack a man with children depending on him? Please, let me go, I beg you!"
Chat snarled and yanked the man up to eye level by his collar. Oh, how he loved his height.
"You mistake me for someone with a heart!" Chat hissed into the man's face and he slammed him into the wall before throwing him on the ground.
He kicked the man over and got on top of him before punching him with every bit of anger he let it loose, unraveling completely in the moment. He reveled in every crunch he heard, and he just kept going. The man was obviously quite strong, but not strong enough to overpower him.
This man disgusted him so much. He hated this person and yet he didn't even know who the man was.
The man's face was a bloodied mess after a while. Chat picked him up and threw his body onto the wall a few more times. He was still alive but he was breathing in short, raspy, shallow breaths. Chat bent close to the man's unrecognizable face, his own breaths coming out in short , breathless huffs.
"They may not mean anything to you, you filth, but to them you are their everything." He said in an emotionless voice. He dragged the man's bloodied body out of the alley and left him in front of a nearby shop.
With a final look of disgust at the man, he took off.
He ran through the rain, blindly. He didn't know where he was going, his mind was utterly blank and he wandered like that for a while until he came upon a park.
It looked beautiful in the rain and the flowers danced under the heavy drops from heaven.
Chat slowly walked over to the flowers and crouched. His fingers grazed the tops of the large,beautiful red flowers, and he leaned down to pluck one, but as he did, he noticed a small rose-ringed parakeet. It had barely any feathers and was huddling in the flowers.
Chat looked around, he sniffed, no sign of a nest or the parents.
"Hi." He said to the green little bird. It merely shivered in response.
"Urm."He pursed his lips. What was he supposed to do? In Poly he saw that Maria (or whatever her name was) nursed him. Was he supposed to do that?
He sighed. He didn't know how to do that.
"Look, bird, it's nothing personal, it's just that I don't know what to do with you."
The bird chirped.
"You're cute. You can find some bird to take care of you."
The bird looked up at him through shivers and tilted its little head. It's eyes looked as if they were straining to look at him.
"I'm serious, I'm sorry, but I have to go." He said, getting up with the red flower he plucked a few minutes ago, and leaving the park, halfway out however, he stopped.
"Urgh!"He stomped back to the flowers. "You little shit. You planned this. Making those stupid noises with your stupid face and your stupid cuteness." He muttered scooping the bird up.
He ran out of the park. What the hell would he do with this? He glanced down at the bird in his hand that had its claws hooked into the material on his chest.
He huffed. "Great. Now I have to hide you in my house. Plagg is going to kill me." He skidded to a halt, he pressed a button on his baton,it was 18:30.
A small smile flashed on his face , there was one person he knew wouldn't say no to a 'stray' abandoned bird…
Upon arriving at the bakery, he noticed two suspicious men, staring up at Marinette's window. The window was closed and the wardrobe was still in front so you couldn't see inside. Chat snarled, taking out his baton. Quickly, he composed himself.
He walked up to the men casually.
"Gentlemen." He said, nodding to them.
They gasped. "Chat Noir!" One exclaimed, eyeing the red flower and baton. A Cheshire cat smile slid on. He walked to the front of the bakery and placed the bird and flower down before turning back to them.
"To what do I owe this pleasure." He asked the masked man.
"Urm…nothing sir,we're just robbing a bakery…"
"A bakery? Are you a fan of chocolate cake?" he asked. They blushed.
"Actually there's a girl in the bakery."One said.
"I see." Chat nodded to himself and twirled his baton.
"Well…"He began…
Suddenly he swung his baton into one of the men's faces.
"Take-" He kicked the other one in the gut.
"-your-" he kneed the other one in the back.
"-stinking-" he punched the man repeatedly, throwing him down and grabbing the other man.
"-selves," He scratched him across the face.
"-and don't-" he punched the man on the nose, sending him howling to the ground.
"-ever step-" he slammed the next man's head into the ground.
"-on my territory-"He slashed his face.
"AGAIN!" He said slamming the two heads together.
The wounded men staggered away from him. Whimpering. He waved with a cynical smile.
"I'll chat with you later! Warn your friends!" He said in a singsong voice as he picked up the flower and bird.
It was really dark outside.
"Chat?" He turned around and saw Marinette coming to the bakery,she was holding an umbrella and a bag of fabric's. She could barely make-out who he was in the dark.
"Princess?" He asked.
"You're all wet." She said with a frown, coming a bit closer and holding the umbrella over his head too.
"Why are you out so late? Ugh. You have no regard for your safety do you? Silly princess."He said with wide eyes, shaking his head, but thankful that she had not been inside the bakery where the creeps could've gotten her.
She laughed lightly, "I have pepperspray and a Taser." He rolled his eyes, but nodded slowly, aware of how dangerous the tiny girl really was.
The rain ran off the umbrella, and the two of them stood close to each other. Marinette's eyes darted around. "We should get inside. Cover me." She said, he nodded as they walked to the door and she opened all the gates and guards.
Eventually they were inside. After a few moments of silence, Chat remembered the mission.
"Oh yes, My lady, I got you a present." He said, feeling strangely giddy.
Marinette raised her brows, stepping backwards. "A present?"
"Yes, a gift." He said grinning, stepping towards her, so close that she was suddenly looking up into his eyes and their chests were just a few inches apart.
Marinette blinked.
"What is it?" She asked, eyeing his hand cupped on his chest, as it held something. He smirked and handed her the beautiful red flower first.
She took it with a raised brow.
Then slowly he opened his other hand.
Her eyes widened as she looked down at the bird as it clung to Chat's chest. "Oh my gosh…"She said.
The bird chirped in response and pooped on Chat's hand.
Chats eyes widened comically before he hissed at the bird. "You little shit."
Marinette looked over at the poop.
"That's not little at all."
He narrowed his eyes at her in annoyance.