Adrien surveyed the park, watching the last of the sunset disappear from the horizon.
Soon the animals would come out to play.
The thought made him smirk.
He shifted his weight excitedly, careful not to fall off his perch on the tall lamppost.
He took a deep breath as the wind ruffled his hair. He frowned. He could smell it. A sweet feminine scent that was incredibly distracting. He'd been Chat Noir, cursed shapeshifter, for about a year now and he had never smelt this scent before until recently. It was a horribly distracting fragrance that seemed to be calling his name. It was usually faint, carried from a distance, often all the way across Paris. And yet he wanted to hunt down the source, follow it with all of his soul. It was compelling and intoxicating.
Tonight, though it was close. It took everything he had not to chase down the source of the scent when it was far away, now with it being so close... his self restraint waned. His familiar, a black cat named Plagg, already teased him mercilessly as it was. He could only imagine admitting that he'd finally went to look for the source.
"What are you scared?" The real feline would question, licking a paw in an almost indifferent manner. Adrien would vigorously protest, saying he didn't have the time or it was just a distraction. The cat would just chuckle and unravel all his excuses.
He would finally stare at Adrien with unreadable eyes, tilt his head, and simply say. "Isn't it already a distraction?" Then walk away leaving the boy to his thoughts.
A scream shook Adrien out of his thoughts. It was female, probably having a run in with a supernatural being.
Adrien should ignore it. He didn't need any trouble, already looked down upon because he wasn't a born supernatural. He was just pleased to enjoy his freedom with the night, giving others of his kind a wide berth.
This time Adrien heard an enraged roar, it sounded like a shapeshifter, most likely a werewolf. Adrien winced, obviously the victim had done something the beast didn't like. It meant she was a fighter.
Adrien sighed, hanging his head in defeat. He hated violence against woman. It was unacceptable. He would never be able to face his mother again should he let something happen to an innocent woman on his watch.
He followed the sounds of a struggle to a more abandoned section of the park, rumored to be haunted by mortals, and for good reason too. It was a supernatural hunting ground, and some fool had walked right into it after dark, it was if the girl had no regard for her life at all. It sounded like she was alone.
Adrien finally spotted the altercation, it was under a bridge. A werewolf in halfway form had her arms pinned high above the wall behind her, her feet dangling a few feet off the ground. She looked like a doll, a tiny slender china doll. But she didn't show one ounce of fear, just glared at the snarling beast.
"You bitch!" It snapped. Adrien's eyes widened as she spat in its face.
When the creature raised a paw to rip open her stomach Adrien shook himself out of his shock, diving down to them with his staff raised over his head. The werewolf sensed him and dodged, dropping the petite girl with fierce bluebell eyes.
"Know your place infected trash, I am a-" The werewolf began.
Adrien held up a hand.
"Let me stop you right there buddy. I may not have been born a supernatural being, but I don't need to be one to kick your flea ridden ass!" He hissed.
The creature roared and Adrien's ears flattened against his head, tail lashing furiously. His opponent lunged forward fighting as an animal instead of a man, purely on instinct.
Adrien channeled his inner black belt, his skill coupled with his enhanced strength, endurance and senses generally led to victory. He believed the key to a fight with another supernatural was to control the monster within and utilise both his human and other worldly skill set.
He didn't even bother to look behind him, his focus on staying alive. Supernatural fights were generally to the near death, it being illegal to kill one another. But those rules didn't apply to infected or cursed. And he had interrupted this man's leisure and meal for the evening, Adrien was expecting to get beaten within an inch of his life for such a transgression if he was lucky.
His opponent was more muscular than he was, a fit man in his thirties probably, while Adrien was just leaving adolescence behind him, making him lithe. He was faster though using his speed to evade the slow attacks and dance around his opponent. He worked a serious of strikes with his baton and claw rakes that made the werewolf scream in pain.
Adrien and the beast both panted, tiring. Adrien had the better endurance though, he dodged a fist as it smashed into the ground where he once stood and leaped into the air, smashing his foot into the middle of the werewolf's face. His opponent flew onto his back and groaned, flinching as Adrien brought down his baton down on the concrete next to his head. Hard.
"Get out of here you mangy mutt, this girl is mine. Be thankful I spared your life. As an infected I don't have to abide by your laws," he snarled, spitting the insult back at the dog.
The man yelped in fear and scrambled to get away, nearly tripping over his own feet.
He heard a small sigh from behind him and was curious as to why the victim hadn't run away. He turned to get a better look at her when a fist met his face, forcing him a couple steps back.
"Ow!" He exclaimed, holding his nose. It was luckily not broken, but only because he was in his half and half form.
He peered over his hands to see a scowling blue haired girl. Her shoulder length hair was pulled back into two pigtails, held in place by midnight blue ribbons. A light dusting of freckles covered the bridge of her nose and her peach colored skin. Big blue eyes were narrowed in distrust at him. She was beautiful.
But god he was annoyed.
"Is that anyway to say thank you for saving your life?" He snapped. Wincing as he dropped his hand from his face.
Her eyes widened in shock and horror and for a second he thought she had finally realized what kind of situation she was in. A human who had just witnessed a fight between two supernatural beings.
"Oh my god," she murmured, cheeks reddening as she looked down.
Adrien blinked curiously. Was she going into shock?
"Please forgive me, where are my manners, thank you so very much for saving me!" She exclaimed bending at the waist into a formal bow.
Adrien's jaw dropped. Well he hadn't been expecting that.
When she straightened her eyes flew to his upper arm causing him to self consciously glance at it.
He tilted his head as he examined the wound he found there. It didn't exactly look like shredded meat, the wolf claws too blunt for that. But it was a bleeding punctured mess.
A hand suddenly snatched his and tugged him forward. His eyes met calm blue ones as she pulled them out from under the bridge and towards a nearby bench. She sat down and patted the space next to her. Chat cautiously sat down beside her, refusing to let his guard down again after being hit in the face. He had a feeling she'd been holding back. And he wasn't looking forward to getting hit again.
She shrugged a small red shoulder bag off and dug through it, pulling out a first aid kit. Adrien eyed her wearily. Was she really going to stitch him up? It wasn't necessary, he would heal... mostly by morning though it would leave a nasty mark.
She fished out some bandages, a needle and thread and a rag.
So she was serious about patching him up.
His eyes widened at the iodine, he immediately shrank back from it, remembering the first and only time Plagg had tricked him into unnecessarily cleaning his wounds.
"Er - that won't be necessary, I'll heal by morning!" He objected. The young lady looked at him and deadpanned.
"You're only an infected, you don't heal as fast. Besides stitches will prevent scarring," she countered. As she watched him slide away from the bottle she realized he was afraid. She found herself smirking despite the situation.
"Aww is the little kitty afraid of getting his wounds cleaned?" She teased.
Adrien gave her an annoyed look.
"I don't need it." He said simply, looking away. The bluenette rolled her eyes and poured the iodine onto the cloth. She took advantage of his sulking to press it to his wound. He yelled and howled in pain, glaring at her when she pulled away the blood soaked rag.
She hardly noticed, busy cleaning the needle and threading it before scooting closer to him.
"Stand still," she warned, her voice firm.
Adrien nodded and watched her work.
He wondered if she was a nurse because she didn't seem squeamish at all, didn't hesitate to plunge the needle into his flesh, and stitched him up with the skill of a professional.
When she finished, she bit off the thread and tied it, before wrapping his arm in bandages.
She finally stood, stretching as if she'd just been sitting at a desk writing a report or something. It was so casual Adrien was curious as to who the heck this girl was.
He shook his head, standing with her, and remembering his manners.
"Thank you, I really appreciate it," he muttered.
She blinked and tilted her head at him.
"You saved my life, this was the least I could do," she replied with a shrug.
She eyed him in interest causing him to blush.
"I'm sorry I punched you earlier, I was kind of freaked out, it's rare to meet a nice supernatural who saves people," she said.
Adrien grinned. He wasn't perturbed by her knowledge of the supernatural, their discovery had happened awhile ago and now the humans just did their best to avoid them, to try and forget they even existed.
"No problem, I've never heard of a human girl who wasn't afraid of our kind," he shot back, enjoying the sight of her turning red.
"I - er - I better go," she said thoughtfully. She stood up and briskly walked away from him. Adrien sat back down on the bench, sprawled casually as he watched her figure get smaller and smaller.
Suddenly a breeze blew and he stiffened. That scent. That hypnotic scent, his eyes focused on her back. It had been coming from her, but had been masked by the smell of the werewolf and then his blood.
He bit back a laugh. He'd found his siren. But what did it mean? And why did he want to follow her home...
"What a strange girl," an amused voice remarked. Chat inclined his head to the large black cat that was sitting a few feet away from him, also staring at the girl.
"So she's the source of your distracting scent," the cat continued. Adrien huffed.
"So what, it doesn't mean anything," he denied. In truth he had heard about it, the moment he had smelt it on the air the word had popped into his mind. He hadn't wanted to acknowledge it, wasn't ready to entertain such a crazy idea.
But here he was thinking about the girl he'd just saved. He was so curious about her. She seemed fearless, mysterious and most of all kind.
She made him feel things he thought he would never feel.
Soulmate.
Adrien trembled at the thought and shook it away.
The cat hummed as it glanced at Adrien's destroyed one piece black suit, eyes lingering on his bandages. But it seemed more like Plagg had been reading his mind.
"You have a lot to learn kid, fate has a funny sense of humor," the cat chuckled. Adrien scowled at Plagg.
"And just where have you been?" He said, changing the subject.
Plagg scoffed.
"You know I can hardly keep up with you when you're running around like a maniac," he sniffed. Adrien sighed, he had a point.
When Adrien decided to roam the city, he often sped off without any thought for his familiar, who usually found him later.
Adrien caught the mischievous look in the familar's eyes.
He gave the cat a warning glare.
"So did you get her name Romeo?" The cat asked, Adrien could hear the grin in his voice.
He groaned giving Plagg his answer.
Adrien cursed aloud, he had completely forgotten to exchange names.
Who was she?