The Cat O'Nine Tails
Marinette gazed dreamily at the poster, her eyes getting lost in the sea of Adrien's smooth cheek. No scars marred it, no pimples dared blemish it. Adrien was just too perfect for any of that to touch him.
"He's just a dream of a guy." She murmured, half to herself, half to the kwami that sat on her desk, placidly munching a cookie.
"May I remind you that you have patrol in three minutes." Said Tikki.
Marinette snapped out of her reverie and grimaced. "Can't it wait?"
"You've been mooning over that new poster of Adrien for at least two hours."
"Oh, all right, I suppose that tomcat just can't wait to patrol."
Marinette enjoyed patrol, but she'd much rather stay in her room working on her designs or making collages of Adrien. Chat Noir however, seemed almost desperate to keep on running, inventing new excuses to keep on leaping across the roofs of Paris.
Probably just so he can toy with me. Thought Marinette crankily.
There is no way Chat could ever compare to my Adrien. Adrien is just so perfect and Chat is well…
She thought to the dorky puns, the clinginess, the constant trip ups and wipe outs. Chat was a mangy alley cat, incomparable to her Prince Charming.
Patrol ended, Marinette flopped down on her pink deck chair to gaze at the stars. The fairy lights illuminated the space fairly well, creating a lighthouse in the sea of Paris. She lay with eyes half closed, the plate of fresh pastries forgotten on the table beside her. She was just mentally talking to herself to figure out if going to bed was worth getting up for, when she heard a bang and a crash, and jolted straight up as a tray of pastries clanged to the floor, the black cat responsible caught red handed.
Start changing to anger, she turned to her uninvited guest. "Just what do you think you're doing?!"
"Well, I just wanted one and since…"
"So you decided just to take one? They were mine and now look what you've done!"
"I'm so sorry I…"
"Did you ever consider what you were doing? Stealing! You were stealing from me!"
"No, I didn't think…"
"Oh, sure you thought. With your stomach! As if you didn't have food at your own house!"
He fell dead silent at this, his face going rigid in the light. Illuminated, the face seemed to lose what was, in her eyes, it's constant cocky expression. The light played around the shaggy locks, the eyes like shattered emeralds, the black mask with little scars spilling out from underneath. Scars invisible in the Paris night, now thrust out for her blue eyes inspection.
"What is that?" She said poking at the ugly marks that laced his face.
She wanted to hear him pun, say something stupid and arrogant, so she could go back to scolding him, stop seeing him in this frightening new light.
He gulped, and pulled at his collar, trying to hide the scars she now saw tearing down his neck and down his suit.
"Oh, um, my Dad has this really nasty cat."
No mortal cat could make those cuts. Marinette knew that. But she found herself desperately playing along.
"Oh, what kind of cat?"
He mounted the railing and prepared to leap off.
"A cat with nine tails."
Thank you so much for the reviews! I've never really published anything before.
For those of you who are confused , Chat has not been attacked by a mutant cat. His answer is a pun explaining what really has been done to him. His silence about not having food is also relevant.
I originally intended this to be a one-shot, but if enough people have ideas for more, please share them.
And review like Chat's nine lives depend on it!