Basile urged Nathanael to go back to the room to be safe while this new villain, the Pain-ter (my puns are worse than Chat's) turned people into stone sculptures. Basile then ducked behind the building and transformed. He sauntered out, observing the scene. "Hey, Medusa!" He called out, and the villain turned on him. "I'm the Pain-ter! That commission was mine! MINE! I was supposed to depict Mockingbird! Not some high school brat!" Mockingbird chuckled, "well I'm right here, why don't you do your work now?"
However, instead of shooting petrification at him like he expected, the Pain-ter stood in front of him. "Alright, don't move." He petrified a nearby phone booth and whipped out some carving tools seemingly from nowhere. Mockingbird, who was confused, could hear Hawkmoth fussing at the Pain-ter to get the miraculous, and the reply, "I will as soon as this is done!"
Mockingbird let the Pain-ter pose him with his arms out, feathers extended, his feet at shoulder-width, and his head leaned back, looking at the sky. His eyes were closed.
"Mockingbird?" Ladybug stood beside him. Pain-ter screeched "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Mockingbird dared to open one eye to look at her. "Let him do his thing, then we'll fix this, okay?" Ladybug was confused, but stepped back and waited. She filled in Chat Noir when he arrived.
Mockingbird noticed Nathanael peering out the doors, taking photographs for reference. He decided that once all this was over, he would do some modeling for him, just for some pictures.
It took hours for the man to finish, well into the night, though that was actually fast for such a project. Chat had fallen asleep. Mockingbird's arms ached, and Marinette was bored out of her mind. "I have finished!" Mockingbird let his arms drop, letting out a groan of relief. He looked at the sculpture. It was actually pretty impressive, not a detail missed. "Bravo, Pain-ter. It's lovely." He rolled his arms and shoulders, wincing at the stiffness.
The battle finally began. Mockingbird leaned against a wall and watched, massaging his sore thighs and calves. Chat Noir and Ladybug handled the incident pretty quickly, and the Pain-ter was back to a normal middle-aged sculptor.
After sharing a celebratory fist-bump, Ladybug used her lucky charm to clean up the mess and Chat Noir observed the statue. Fortunately, the charm didn't turn the stone back into a phone booth. "You know, we'll have to change the fist bump. We cant leave out our feathered friend here," Chat mused. Mockingbird waved his hand dismissively, "don't bother, I'm not really interested." Chat shrugged and went back to admiring the statue.
Ladybug's earrings beeped. "Gotta go!" "I look forward to our next meeting, my lady~" Chat winked flirtatiously and Ladybug zipped off into the night.
Mockingbird carried the statue into the gallery and put it beside the one of Ladybug and Chat Noir. It was heavy, but nothing his superhero persona couldn't handle.
Then he went to find Nathanael. He opened the door to the room and the red-head was there, flicking through his pictures and mumbling to himself. Mockingbird leaned on the doorway and cleared his throat. Nathanael looked up and his eyes widened, "Mockingbird! Hold still!" He took another photo and cleared his throat shyly. "How can I help you?" Mockingbird got a playful smirk on his face, "actually, I was wondering if I could help you. I know I can be hard to catch, and I don't like to be still for too long. Perhaps you'd like to take some photos for your masterpiece here?"
The first thing Nathanael took pictures of were his eyes, up close and with different expressions. Then he took some body shots from different angles. He seemed to have a ball when Mockingbird let him touch the feathers. "They're soft... actual feathers." Mockingbird nodded, "Yes, they're real feathers. That tickles a bit." Nathanael nodded, "so are they part of you?" "Not exactly, they're part of my kwami, the thing that gives me power. The kwami is also sort of part of me." "A kwami? Ladybug and Chat Noir- lif your arm a bit- have jewelry that holds their powers." Mockingbird nodded, "yes, I'm the same."
After about an hour, Nathanael was done. "It's late," Mockingbird said, yawning widely. "You should be getting home." Nathanael nodded and packed up the things he was bringing home. The rest would stay there. "I'll take you home." Mockingbird offered, heading out of the building.
The walk was a peaceful one, with the streetlights dimming the lights of the stars overhead. When they reached Nathanael's house, Mockingbird bowed and made his exit. He climbed onto the roof of a tall building and searched for the bakery. Ah, there it was, he could see it in the distance. He jumped, spreading his arms and gliding to land just in front of the door. He de-transformed, catching an exhausted Ptak in his hand. "You're so mean to me, making me pose for hours like that," the little gray thing complained. "You weren't the one who had to stand there with aching muscles." Basile tucked Ptak in his pocket and headed inside.
Fortunately, everyone was asleep by then, so he crept into Marinette's room after feeding Ptak some warm bread and laid down in his sleeping bag, sleep quickly overtaking him.
Basile woke in a cold sweat, with the stench of smoke still burning in his nostrils. He ran his fingers through his hair and sat up, rubbing his eyes. He looked down at Ptak, who was sleeping soundly on his pillow. He looked over to Marinette's bed and noticed that she was gone. He checked the time, it was around three in the morning. What on earth is she doing? He wondered and got up, going to the bathroom to wash his face with cold water.
He woke Ptak, who was not pleased, and went up on the balcony. In the distance, he saw two shapes leaping over the rooftops. A night patrol? That seems reasonable, he thought to himself and transformed, gliding after them. A strong wind blew through the air, boosting him into the sky and bringing a grin to his face. He couldn't help but to let out a laugh as the wind buffeted him, sending him in all different directions. He saw the two figures below, still racing along the rooftops and seemingly doing their best to outpace each other, and turned his arms so he went down to glide along beside them.
Ladybug was the first to see him. "Mockingbird! What are you doing out so late?" "I could ask you the same," he replied, giving his arms a bit of a flap and going up a bit, catching the next current of wind. Chat Noir jumped on him suddenly, making him wobble and struggle to stay in the air. "Get off!" Chat laughed and clung to his back, "this is incredible!" "We're not even that high, now get off, you're heavy." The wind was fading and he couldn't land with Chat on his back. Chat jumped off and Mockingbird landed, running a few steps to keep his balance. He huffed a bit and scowled at Chat, who was grinning, "what was clawsome!" Ladybug groaned and rolled her eyes.
Mockingbird fluffed his feathers and sat atop a chimneystack. "So you two patrol?" Ladybug nodded, "have to make sure Paris is safe, even in the dead of night." Mockingbird smirked and gave her the first clue that he knew her, "what if someone wakes and notices you're gone?" Ladybug tilted her head a bit.
Chat peered down over a city block, "hey, look at that." He pointed to a woman running, looking terrified and stumbling. She clutched something to her chest. Mockingbird stood beside him, observing as a burly man came around the corner. He had a ski mask and a gun in his hand. Mockingbird had barreled into him before he had the chance to use it.
The police had apparently already been on their way for a domestic disturbance and picked up the man without any trouble. The woman thanked Mockingbird profusely, but he waved her away. She shook his hand. He was surprised to find something being pressed into his palm, but he kept his face neutral as she left. He looked back at the other two heroes observing from the roof. Ladybug nodded approvingly and Chat gave him a big thumbs up.
Pressed into his palm was a small ear cuff, purple, with no visible markings on it. It felt alive somehow. Mockingbird tucked it into a pocket. Little did he know that the little ear cuff would change his life once again, and unlike with Ptak, it wouldn't be for the better.
feel free to let the author know if you have ideas, because honestly, I have no idea where I'm going with this.