Chapter 2

It was a beautiful Saturday morning and Marinette lied inside her bed still sleeping. Next to the window of the room was a blue dog bed and inside the bed lied a grown-up dark red fox, doing a nap, having his head lied on the cushion of the pet bed. The sun shined through the window at the fox's fur, making it shine and the fox moved his body around, holding his four paws up in the air, stretching them, followed by a yawn. The fox opened his eyes and looked out of the window, observing the cathedral on the other side of the seine.

"What a beautiful day," Said the fox and looked the ladder up at his owner, that lied in the bed sleeping. He smiled and jumped at the mid part of the ladder and climbed it up, reaching the end of the mattress to see Marinette lying inside her covers. The fox crawled his way up to Marinette's face and started to poke her face with his nose, trying to wake her up.

Nathaniel gave Marinette a few licks on her cheeks, then let out a few soft barks, causing her to giggle. Nathaniel barked again, wiggling his fluffy tail and spun around, passing his tail on Marinette's face and kept wagging with it, tickling her nose.

"Nathaniel!" Laughed Marinette as she felt the bushy tail tickling the tip of her nose. "Good morning" Greeted Marinette taking him onto her arms for a hug.

Down in the living room, her mother was making pancakes and bacon for the breakfast and Marinette came down followed by her pet fox.

"Bon jour maman," Greeted Marinette pecking her mother on the cheek and sat down on the table.

"Bon jour Marinette" Greeted Sabine observing her daughter sitting down. "Did you sleep good?" Asked the mother and the bluenette nodded.

Nathaniel observed Ms. Cheng cooking the bacon and licked up his lips.

"Yummy"

"Right I gotta change Nathaniel's water" Said Marinette getting up and taking Nathaniel's food bowl up and walked up to the lavatory to change the old water with some fresh from the faucet.

"It doesn't harm your fox, if I give him a stripe or two of bacon, right?" Asked Sabine and Marinette shook her head.

"Only coffee, chocolate or grapes is poisoning for him," Told Marinette and Sabine put the fried bacon into a new plate and took a stripe out and hold it over Nathaniel.

"Come on my boy sit down" Demanded Sabine and the fox obeyed and sat his butt down and looked up at the owner. "Say please" Told the Chinese woman and Nathaniel tilt his head to the side, let his ears fall down and wide his eyes, making the puppy face – Kit face to be exact.

"Good boy," Said Sabine and gave the smiling fox the bacon, which he ate with joy.

"Mon Cherie, can you come?" Asked Marinette's father down from the bakery and Marinette looked down. "It's Kagami, your friend," Told Tom.

"I'm coming papa," Replied Marinette and walked the stairs down to the bakery followed by her fox.

"Hi Kagami" Greeted Marinette.

"Hey Marinette, I just came here to bring you that book you borrowed me for the presentation," Said the girl with a red pullover.

"No problem Kagami" Responded Marinette. Nathaniel sniffed on Kagami's shoes and she looked down at the fox.

"Oh you really got a fox," Said Kagami looking down at the turquoise eyes of the pet.

"Yes, I found him two years ago up at the roof as the criminals had felt down with the plane in the river," Said Marinette and picked the fox up. "Say hello to Kagami Nath...hello"

"Aho" Barked Nathaniel making the Japanese girl chuckle.

"What a cute guy," Said Kagami petting the middle sized animal.

"Yeah he is" Agreed Marinette and someone entered into the bakery.

"There you are!" Shouted the voice getting the attention of the two Asian girls.

"Huh?" Asked Marinette looking at the entrance to see Adrien Agreste. Paris' former teeny model and girl swarm.

"Uh..." Replied Kagami and Marinette stared lovely at Adrien, seeing him standing there at the entrance looking in love at her way with lots of pink hearts fluttering around him.

"Who's that?" Asked Nathaniel himself and Adrien made his way up to Marinette, which hold the fox and grabbed her arms.

"H...h...h….h….hi…." Stammered Marinette while looking at the blonde.

"May I take a look on this fox?" Asked Adrien and Marinette smiled at him, more in love than before.

"Marinette?" Asked Kagami confused and waved her hand in front of her face. "Marinette!"

"Oh uh...sure, of course" Responded Marinette and Adrien checked out the fur of the fox, passing his hand over it and rubbing it between his fingers. "His fine and shiny fur shows, that he's well nourished." Said Adrien and opened the mouth of the fox. "Healthy fangs...the gum's a little bit sore, but it's not bad...his claws are….purrfect..." Said Adrien placing Nathaniel's flat paw over his flat hand to check the nails of the pet.

"Purrfect, is this guy a cat?" Asked Nathaniel himself and then widened his eyes as Adrien checked him down, at his genitals. "Grrr" Growled Nathaniel as Adrien.

"I'm already done my little man," Said Adrien. "I just want to be sure, you're alright for your mate"

"What mate?" Asked Marinette.

"Your fox here is the last male fox of his breed and he's our only hope to save his kind from getting extinct."

"Extinct?" Asked Marinette. "Really?"

"Yeah, you know this isn't just any type of red fox. This is a tomato fox. The name indicates, that his fur's color resembles more to a tomato than to a regular red fox."

"I didn't know that" Said Marinette.

"Now you do and the last female kind of your fox's species is in Catania, near Sicily"

"Italy?" Asked Marinette. "Near the end of the boot?"

"Well it's not that far away, tomato foxes used to live in Iceland, then came to Europe and after a few decades they started to die out."

"Oh wonder why"

"My theory is, that people had been killing foxes to get their fur to make clothes to sell them. This made the hunters very rich"

"That's horrible," Said Marinette. "Wish we could help"

"You two could!" Replied Adrien. "You two just need to come with me to Italy and bring our fox Nathaniel to the other vixen, closed them up and wait for them to mate."

"But I think they won't just mate right after they met," Told Marinette the blonde.

"Don't worry, we will make sure that they mate" Said Adrien. "We just have to wait for the vixen to get heat and when she is and both have bounded as friends or even mates, he can impregnate her"

"Sounds more difficult, than it is?"

"Only if they wouldn't want to mate, but I think that's not the case"

"Let's hope so" Said Marinette looking at her pet fox, which glared at her. "When should I go down to Italy?" Asked Marinette, then Adrien took his phone out to check the agenda.