Alright, I feel like I say this every tme I update, but I really am sorry this chapter took so long. I know I said that updates would probably be slow, but I do genuinely want to be faster about them.
To the story.
"Um Nydra, I think that guy over there is trying to get your attention." Alya nudged my shoulder, doing a better job of getting my attention than the mystery guy she was referring. Although, I supposed the term "mystery" didn't apply, considering it was the same brunette who'd been stubbornly trying to reestablish his place in my life for the past month.
Not that I mind.
I groaned and turned, waving him over. It wasn't that I didn't want to see him, I was just worried about what everyone would think. It wasn't until he sat down next to me that I looked at him. "Are you sure you're not stalking me? I never told you I'd be here today."
Sock flushed and sent me a nervous smile. "I'm not stalking you, Ny. I was actually heading over to your house. I wanted to give this to you."
I canted my head to the side as he handed me a small package. "Gift giving," I noted sarcastically. "Are you trying to woo me now?"
Someone clearing their throat cut off his reply and we both looked at the group questioningly. Alya sent him a cautious look before looking back at me. "Not to interrupt your stalking accusations Nydra, but who exactly is this?"
"Right," Sock straightened up and extended a hand across the table. "I'm Socrates. Nydra and I were friends when we were children. Much to her dismay, I've been trying to rekindle that friendship." He finished shaking everyone's hands and relaxed.
"Dismay..?" I muttered, confused.
"Well, dude," Nino interjected. "I'm Nino. This is Alya. This is my man, Adrian. And this is Marinette."
"It's a pleasure to meet all of you."
"You sound so formal," I commented dryly.
Sock smirked at me. "You must be rubbing off on me."
"Good. You could use my good habits."
"And what good habits would those be? Not getting enough sleep?"
I rolled my eyes at him, before looking at my lap and eyeing the package he'd given me.
"Wow."
I didn't think they meant for me to hear, but the minute the word was quietly uttered, I looked up. "What?"
The other four people sitting across from me were gaping at me like I'd grown a second head. "What?" I repeated, just barely managing to not roll my eyes again. "You all look like fish with your mouths hanging open and your eyes super wide like that."
Alya seemed to jolt out of her shock first. "I don't think I've ever seen you smile like that." The others nodded in agreement and I flushed, looking away from them again.
Admittedly, I hadn't even realized I'd been smiling at all, much less in a different way than usual. "Oh." I don't know how I'm supposed to respond to that. I felt what seemed like a tiny paw jabbing me in the ribs and biting back a groan, started to get up. "Excuse-"
"By royal decree, the city and all of its inhabitants are now under the authority me, the Queen of Hearts!"
I sighed and closed my eyes, wishing we could go for longer than a week or so between akumatized victims. "Oh, for god's sake." Taking a deep breath, I looked up, facing everyone at the table. "I have something I need to take care of. I suggest everyone gets inside."
I turned and walked away, only to feel a hand wrap around my arm. "I'll come with you."
I suppressed an irate groan and sent Sock the sweetest smile I could manage- which, unfortunately, wasn't very sweet. "I'll be fine. You should go check on your mom."
His eyes flicked away from me nervously. "Mom knows how to take care of herself. I'm worried about-"
"Are you saying I don't know how to take care of myself?" I asked angrily. "I'll have you know that I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I've been doing it for a while now." I ripped my arm out of his grip, turned and stormed away.
"Ny, you know that's not what I meant!"
I ignored him. Maybe it was immature and callous of me, but that wasn't important right now. I turned down the first alley out of his sight that I found and stalked to the end of it it, still fuming. "Rhys."
She flew out of my hoodie, looking surprisingly irritated. "He was just worried about you, you know."
"Not that the time." I snapped. "Fangs out." In a flash of light and glitter, my jeans, shirt, and hoodie were replaced by the black pants, silver long sleeve shirt, black gloves, silver mask, black ears and black and white tail that was my costume. "Time to go overthrow the queen." I jumped up to a fire escape about halfway up the wall across from me, then leaped the rest of the way from there. "Now which way could she have gone?" Screams echoed from a few streets over. "Hmm. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say she's over there. Good call." I stopped, biting my tongue. "You're, uh- You're talking to yourself again. We'll have to work on that."
"Vixen, are you talking to yourself?" Chat's voice asked behind me.
"Of course," I replied, without looking at him. "I had to get an expert opinion."
The cat themed hero chuckled before jumping up next to me. "And what did you learn from that expert opinion?"
I gestured vaguely in the direction the screams (which seemed to be joined by marching now?) had come from. "The akuma is that way. She calls herself the Queen of Hearts." Finally, I glanced at the blonde. "You don't think she'll ask for peoples heads, do you?"
"Let's hope not." Ladybug said, swinging up to us. "I'm not sure my lucky charm could fix something like that."
As it turned out, we didn't find out if Ladybug's lucky charm could fix decapitation or not. That was probably for the best, but now I wanted to know.
As the Queen of Hearts turned back and the soldiers she'd created from the deck of cards her akuma had been hiding in disappeared, I crouched in front of her, my blue eyes meeting dark brown eyes that seemed to be more of a mix of amber and onyx than anything else. They were wide, scared probably. Her eyelashes were long and there were little laugh (or maybe they were from smiling a lot?) wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. It took me a minute to realize that I'd been staring at this random girl's eyes for a while. Chewing the inside of my cheek, I offered her my hand and helped her up once she took it. "Are you alright?"
She looked around, waist length, dark brown curls swishing across her shoulders. "Where am I? How did I-" Her eyes widened suddenly. "I didn't hurt anyone, did I?"
"Nah." I partially lied. Yes, a few people had gotten hurt, but they hadn't had any major injuries and Ladybug had fixed it. Just like she always did. "What were you doing beforeā¦" I trailed off, before gesturing vaguely around us. "All of this?"
"I-" She rubbed her forehead as if trying to sort through her memories physically hurt. "I was playing card games with a group of friends."
That explains how the akuma got there then.
"Well, you're free to go anytime," I said, realizing only after the words had come out that they probably sounded callous and insensitive. "I mean-"
"I know." She cut me off. "It's alright. I think I will be off."
Once she was gone, I groaned and facepalmed. "Only I could manage to be that awkward when trying to make sure someone is okay."
"I don't think it went that badly." Chat argued.
"No, that was bad." I crossed my arms. "I thought her being able to turn cards into soldiers was cool though." I risked a glance at him, while he was absorbed with Ladybug. "She was pretty though, don't you think?"
"I suppose. I was paying more attention to the soldiers she was sending after us though."
I shrugged. "Must have just been me then." I pretended to look at my wrist like I was checking the time. "I should get going." I jumped away before either one of them could respond. Another visit to the alley and another flash of light later and I was jogging back to where I'd last seen everyone. Alya and Nino were still there, both on their phones. Noticing that Marinette and Adrian were both gone, I managed to deduce that the phones were out to check up on them. I hadn't realized they'd left, though I guess I couldn't have known, considering I'd been the first one to leave. It took another moment to notice that Sock was gone as well. Sucking in a ragged breath, my throat seemed to constrict. Where was he?
That was when I spotted the back of the brunette's head. I smiled slightly, feeling the tight feeling in my chest loosen enough to not be painful anymore. I walked over and tapped his shoulder lightly. He spun around, his eyes widening when he realized it was me. I smiled sheepishly at him. "Did you miss m-"
He wrapped his arms around me, essentially crushing me against him. I chuckled nervously. "I'll uh- I'll take that as a 'yes,' you did miss me." I cleared my throat uncomfortably when he didn't respond. "I'm sorry I worried you."
"You should be." His voice was irritated, but I knew him well enough to know when that irritation was forced and right now, it was. "Please don't run off like that again."
"I'll try not to," I muttered uncertainly, knowing that no matter what, I was going to break the only promise I actually wanted to keep.
