Did You 'Cat'-ch That? Tuesdays – Stormy Weather!
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Aurore Beauréal stood at the elevator, numb to the world. The shouts for Mireille still blared not only in her head, but also in the hall behind her. Aurore gritted her teeth as she jammed her finger into the button over and over again, the hand gripping her parasol white-knuckle tight.
When the elevator doors finally opened, Aurore hurried inside. She walked to the back, turning to face the doors. Had she thought there was a chance of someone else getting on the elevator, she would have pounded the "close doors" button as well. But no one was coming. No one would come. Everyone was only concerned about "her."
She was only dressed the part.
She was way cuter.
And her name was literally a type of weather term!
Yet "she" had won everything.
"I should have won!" she finally spat out into the empty space. "I have the talent, the star looks, everything! But she took everything away from me… They took everything away from me…."
Aurore pressed her back against the wall of the elevator, seething.
She'd get back at Mireille if it was the last thing she did.
A sporadic shake of the elevator jolted Aurore off-balance. The lights flickered. Aurore's heart pounded in her ears, eyes wide in panic. There was nothing safe here, nothing to grab onto. A horrific sight caught her eye. Squeezing through the crack in the elevator door, something struggled to wriggle into the small space. Aurore panted, dropping to the floor in terror.
What is happening!?
As it pulled free of the slim gap in the door, Aurore saw it had the form of a butterfly, but looked…possessed.
And it was coming toward her.
No…no…no!
Aurore tried to bat it away with her parasol…
….But that was what the creature was aiming for in the first place.
Aurore felt her body, her mind, go completely lax, a primal roar screeching through her brain.
"How correct you are," a smooth voice droned into her thoughts. "You should have won…yes."
"I should have won, yes," Aurore repeated, brows furrowing even further. She stood, a strength beyond her own pulsing through her body.
"Stormy Weather, I am Hawk Moth. I give you the power to seek revenge on them as my weather girl. All you have to do is bring me the Miraculous. Can you do that?"
"Yes," Stormy Weather replied, a malicious smirk on her now creamy-white features.
"That's my weathergirl. Show the world who the best weathergirl really is!"
The elevator doors slowly opened…and Stormy Weather sauntered out, a new spring in her step.
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Adrien was completely and utterly bored.
B-O-R-E-D bored.
He had hoped, after he had spotted Alya snapping some photos of his photoshoot (photo-ception!) that she would return momentarily with…someone. Anyone, really. (Well, let's be honest about this…no one wants to see Chloe. Like, ever.) After another inward and overly-exasperated and theatrical sigh, Adrien switched his pose again.
Please, for the love of Camembert be done with this soon!
After ten more grueling minutes of trying hard not to pout in front of the camera, he heard a distinct voice going on about something excitedly. When he glanced over, he saw the source: Marinette freaking out about something, talking so fast he couldn't catch anything she was saying. When she ended, she posed cutely and held her fingers laced together by her cheek. Adrien smiled admiringly at the sight. His cameraman was on him in a moment. Apparently Marinette was a good muse for him…as if he couldn't have called that one. But then, when he glanced back, she – and Alya and the little girl with them – was gone.
As the cameraman went on and on about spaghetti and his Mamma (seriously!?), Adrien heard voices again, and he whipped around, this time lucky enough to make eye contact with his friends.
Before a grunt reminded him of who he was.
"Oh no! Now he is angry!"
Darn right I'm angry. QUIT TALKING ABOUT MY MAMMA!
Another 10 minutes in a pose….
The little girl screamed out at Marinette, trying to get her to stop watching Adrien.
"But what about Adrien?" he heard Marinette say.
YEAH! What about Adrien!?
Another 10 minutes in a different pose….
This needs to stop now.
Adrien knew how to mess up his shots. He usually didn't because of the risk of ruining the whole shot; having to deal with his father on top of the cameraman and/or designers was a nightmare most models didn't have to deal with. He had, however, been doing this long enough to know how to use some of the trade secrets without getting into too much trouble. He started by "zoning out", graduating to an only slightly forced yawn.
"No, no! The boy has eaten too much spaghetti!"
Psh. I wish.
"We need more romance!"
If only.
"We need…a girl!"
Tell me about it-wait, what?
The cameraman was on Alya in a moment, who had stayed to watch rather than parade around with Marinette and that little girl (thank you, Alya) but now was feigning an allergic reaction to an apple (he had a feather allergy, so he couldn't really dis on her fake apple allergy idea) and shot off to get….
Oh gosh. THANK YOU, ALYA.
As per usual, though, Adrien's good luck ran out before it even got started.
A scream rang through the air and Adrien tore his eyes off Marinette, who had been running toward him, and up to the sky…where a girl with the biggest umbrella he had ever seen floating threateningly over the park, specifically the carousel.
Seriously?
Adrien scowled…then gasped when the silly parasol girl zapped the carousel with enough energy Adrien felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. The entire park attraction was encased in ice. All Adrien could do was stare, open-mouthed, at the sight. He had not been expecting that. When he spotted Marinette running across the park in his direction, he watched, unable to tear his eyes from her, despite the Akumatized menace in the air. He knew what was about to happen and felt the familiar giddiness build up before it happened…and abruptly, in Marinette's place, stood Ladybug.
Seriously, though, that transformation sequence….
His inner Chat purred his approval.
Inner Chat…. Oh. Maybe he should transform too.
Without wasting another moment, Adrien bolted away from the fountain he had been sitting at and over to the camera supply area where he had left his bag.
His now completely empty bag.
"Plagg!?" he shout-whispered. Part of him was worried that he had run off or something, part of him wanted to find him as soon as possible and ask him why the heck all of his stuff was gone.
If he put all my stuff in random supply suitcases again….
Suddenly Plagg was there (thank you, stinky cheese), and a moment later, Chat Noir was once again the distraction for Ladybug's valiant efforts.
And he only snickered to himself for a moment when he saw the yo-yo smack into her own head.
Serves her right.
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Marinette sighed a bit in relief when she spied Chat out of the corner of her eye bantering with the newly Akumatized girl. This ice block was a piece of work…one she would have to cure later, when everything was done. She swung her yo-yo out at…something…and it caught a hold of…something? A tree? It was practically a horizontal movement across the park, and it was a weird feeling. She did not want to do that again.
She spun around, quickly changing direction when Chat was literally swept off his feet and flown across the city, screaming the entire way. When she caught up to him, he was sprawled on the ground, unmoving…and probably pouting, though she couldn't see his face. The thought of it made her smile, and she rushed over to him.
"I thought cats always landed on their feet?" she tittered, grinning as she held her hand out to him. When he took it willingly, a strange sensation flitted through her at the touch, and she glanced down at their hands, still together, wondering manically if maybe he had tasered her.
"Why thanks, M'Ladybug," he purred back to her, "but I had it covered." When he made a movement to kiss her hand, Marinette wasn't fast enough to pull away, the sensation from that touch, where his lips had brushed her covered fingers, switched on her defenses, and she pushed him away by the nose, as she often did. She was trying to regain some ground here.
"No time for your childish charm, Chat Noir." Marinette's voice was lower than usual, but she didn't seem to be able to put any more force behind it. She hoped patronizing him a bit would give her the edge that she needed. Instead, she could only smile. "You're welcome." He blinked back at her.
A moment too soon (or maybe right on time), the wicked girl with crazy-cool hair floated over to them.
Sometimes Hawk Moth really nails those outfits.
"We should be expecting lightning storms," she yelled in a sugary-sweet voice that belied the power behind them. "Like right now!"
The billowing clouds darkened, pulling together, and purple lightning blasted out, headed straight for –
CHAT!
Without hesitation, she grabbed him around the middle, willing all of her good luck into him. He had been hit, but just barely; the purple arched radiated through him for a mere moment before Marinette felt in traveling through her. It had worked. They rolled, as happened quite often, and when they finally came to a stop, Chat blinked from above her.
The only thought process firing through her mind at that moment was a scene from Lion King:
"Pinned ya again!"
Ugh, Adrien. Akuma. Job. Superjob. Do that. Now do. Yeah.
She put on an annoyed face but could only move his head toward the threat coming for them.
When they both shot up, and Chat went after the enemy without thinking again, Marinette lifted an arm like she would stop him…but it was too late. Instead, she just waited for the consequences. Unfortunately, that resulted in more ice. And more wind. And flying cars. And a flying Ladybug and Chat!
Marinette wrapped her yo-yo around a lamppost and grabbed onto Chat's "tail" when he passed by. After a painful drop, the "Ice Queen" made her way away from them, apparently deeming them unworthy of her time.
That's a first, thought Marinette, though she was thankful for the small "respite". Chat, however, was up and ready to go again. She pulled on his belt again, this time successful in keeping him out of danger. At least for a moment. She couldn't help the temporary flashback of the first time she had pulled that tail, back when they were fighting Stoneheart, and she nearly wondered aloud:
Whoa, Chat…been working out much!?
His biceps were definitely bigger…and his thi-hamstrings, were more…toned–
BLAIRDYBLEARDYBLEAAGHGH. NOPE. No.
FOCUS.
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AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH THIS ISN'T GOING TO WORK–!
Oh. It worked.
And Chat's legs felt like jelly after watching a bus come careening out of nowhere and almost smashing them and Ladybug hugging him around the neck and spinning her yo-yo so fast it was apparently LIKE A LASER THAT WAS RIGHT BY HIS CHEST THANKS WHY DIDN'T WE JUST RUN TEN FEET TO THE RIGHT.
When the yo-yo hit him in the head AGAIN, and she just giggled, he glared up at her from his downed position, ignoring the thought of the fact that it was probably bad-luck karma that had incarnated from him thinking Ladybug deserved her own noggin getting smacked earlier.
DANG WHY IS THAT GIGGLE SO CUTE!? DARN YOU! OF COURSE ALL IS FORGIVEN.
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As normal as things ever went for fighting Akuma, the fight went relatively…bad. Stormy Weather was beating the tar out of them. Marinette knew she would have a few bruises in some select places that would be extremely uncomfortable for the next week…especially while sitting in a hard chair at school.
And now it was pitch black. The lights had turned off like a horror movie, and, not for the first time, Marinette wondered how much magical abilities the Akuma – and Hawk Moth – actually wielded. Beyond magical strength and "normal" abilities…whatever really counted as normal abilities for magically taken-over people.
Marinette immediately relented when Chat started to pull her along, refusing to laugh at "Frosty the Snowgirl" (that's one for the diary tonight). That same something, though, that shot up her earlier – and had been throughout this whole long, tiresome fight – made her want to immediately pull out of his grasp and reassess her life choices. When they reached the staircases, Marinette thought she couldn't stand anymore and wrenched herself free.
"OK, that's enough, I think I can manage to –"
"DUCK!"
Quack, she thought, in spite of herself. Stinkin' Chat.
Something heavy and metal-sounding smashed into the wall behind her – she had lowered herself just in time.
"–follow your lead on this one."
He grabbed her wrist again, but, feeling more insecure than she would have liked to admit, slipped her hand back enough that she could hold his back. It was really sweet, really, that Chat knew that she wouldn't have appreciated him holding onto her hand and hadn't even tried…though she supposed he would have liked to.
Hoped he would have li–
NOPE!
The tingling sensation lasted while they ran up to the rooftop after Stormy Weather. Marinette tried to blame it on the charged particles that the girl had created.
"You airheads!" Stormy yelled with glee. "You fell right into my trap! There's no way out. Party's over, fools!"
Marinette had dropped her hand from Chat's and didn't notice until that moment that he had picked it back up again – by the wrist. When she looked at him with a scowl, he laughed nervously, putting a hand to the back of his head.
Gall, that was so cute.
Marinette mentally shook her head out, then mentally doused herself in cold water, before calling up her lucky charm.
Marinette wondered if her stream of thoughts somehow conjured up his particular lucky charm.
"A bath towel? What am I supposed to do with this?"
It's for after that cold shower.
Hardy har har, brain. Hardy har har.
"Great, so we're about to be obliterated," Chat started, moving into a defensive pose and looking completely unimpressed with her lucky charm, "but at least we'll be dry–"
"JUST!" Marinette tried not to yell. "….Hold your whiskers!"
Think, think, think….
Stormy, apparently tired of waiting, shot her parasol up and shouted something that Marinette couldn't decided sounded more like "Hey!" or "Hail!" That is, until a moment later, when softball-sized hailstones began dropping out of the sky. Chat didn't hesitate. Marinette felt a clawed hand gently but firmly grab onto her and pull her down in front of him as he spun his stick to deflect all the stones. Marinette felt a great pride in her kitty.
"So what's your plan for getting the Akuma back!?" He sounded strained. "My arm's getting a cramp!"
Well, she did feel great pride in her kitty. Now she only mumbled how she didn't complain when she flippin' sliced a circle in a BUS for them earlier while spinning HER magical weapon and tried to concentrate on what to do.
Ladybug vision: Activated.
"See that sign over there?" she grinned at Chat. "Check it out."
He was off, and Marinette could barely think as she watched him. If he had fear, none of it showed. It was almost beautiful to watch, especially as the purple lightning lit up his face and everything around him.
Bad luck my butt, she thought, watching him slide corrosive fingers across the sign.
Now it was her turn.
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Back at the park, Adrien waited for Marinette to return. Then waited as she went to Alya and that little girl.
"Who is that angel!?" The Signor asked excitedly.
Adrien was about to respond, "Marinette!" but was cut short when he realized what his next half an hour was going to look like.
It was worth it though, when he caught Marinette wearing the cutest pouty face he had ever seen.
Fin!
BONUS!
Chat Noir and Ladybug ran into the Kids Plus TV Station and paused as they glanced at Stormy Weather's seemingly endless – and extremely detailed – weather forecast. When Chat espied a cutout of a girl, he exclaimed:
"Hey! Doesn't she look familiar?"
"It's her! The Akuma must be in her parasol!"
Then they ran off.
Tikki and Plagg both mentally shook their heads.
Sure, you recognize a girl you might have never seen before as an Akuma victim you definitely have never seen before but you can't recognize your SUPERHERO CRIMEFIGHTING PARTNER CRUSH WHO SITS BY YOU IN ALMOST EVERY CLASS IN SCHOOL!?
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BONUS 2!
Hawk Moth, disgruntled, as was per usual, nearly gritted his teeth at his latest Akuma's failure.
"Someday your Miraculous will be all mine. I ddon't care how many enemies I need to throw at you to win. But I will be victorious!"
He snorted.
"Pfffft. Throw at you. Hahaha I am just too hilarious for words."
He wiped a tear from his eye as the window shut and he detransformed.
I may fail at Akumas, he thought to himself, but I will always be beyond pun-believable!
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(( GOOD GOLLY THANKS FOR READING THIS. Sorry about the late update! I've been trying to get my accounts on Deviantart and Archive of Our Own going. It's a slow process. And I didn't have time to edit this because it is FLIPPERTY FLIPPIN' HUGE. Comparatively. So really, I really, REALLY appreciate you stopping by! Say hello, don't be shy! And you can add me on Twitter now, too, AkumatizeMe (Yeah, I went there). Really. Thanks. Really. (8 ))
(( And I haven't forgotten about Fluff Month! In fact, I was going to upload this, my One-Shot Wednesday piece, and the Fluff Month prompt pieces from today and yesterday but it is already 1:30 in the AM and I am sore and tired. But they are ready so I'll put those on tomorrow! And Tomorrow's prompt. Oy vey. Just kidding I love this I love you please drop me a comment. (8 ))