Marinette did not want to go skating. In fact, she wanted to avoid all things cold for the rest of her life. But after having skipped out on the snowball fighting fun in the morning, combined with Chat's insistent, eager prodding, she agreed to join them, despite not having any ice skates.
Mrs Cat bundled her up in a thick warm coat with a hat and mittens, along with her kittens. She even forced Chat to wear a wool knit hat over his blond hair and kitten ears, insisting that even superheroes needed to stay warm. He gave her a misty look before throwing his arms around her in a gentle hug with a cheerful thank you.
Grabbing Marinette giddily by the hand, he pulled her out the door and ran after the kittens, who had sprinted ahead, skates tossed over the shoulders. It wasn't long until they reached a pond, which, despite the fact it only had started snowing that morning, had somehow already frozen over. It was already busy with skaters. Unusual skaters.
There were a plethora of similar-looking children, all poorly dressed, playing a game of tag as they chased each other around. A young boy dressed in a cap and scarf kept jumping all over the place. Off to one end of the pond sat a little girl with a bonnet pulled over her head with blonde hair coiled tightly into ringlet peeking out the bottom, eating something from a bowl. There were creatures gathered here and there all over the place, lending an aura of animated fun to the area.
The Kittens had their skates on and were already on the ice before Marinette had even had a chance to take in the whole sight. Chat grabbed her hand and dragged her onto the ice without skates. She slipped and stumbled, yelping as she threw out her hand to grab onto Chat for stability. He wasn't quite prepared for her sudden movement, and the two of them tumbled to the ice in a tangle of arms and legs. After a moment of shock, Chat flung his head back and let out a loud burst of laughter, which was followed by an embarrassed snort from Marinette.
Gracefully helping her to her feet, Chat made sure she was steady before letting go to give her the freedom to move on her own. She timidly scuffed along on the ice beside him. He just smiled as he himself slid on the ice, content to just enjoy the time together. The kittens kept skating around them in circles, happily cheering their guests with noises of merriment before rushing off to the other end of the pond to play with their other friends. Marinette's confidence in her ability to stay upright grew with each glide.
"Cat boy!" yelled one of older children on the ice, probably close to them in age, "Can you help us?" Chat looked at Marinette for permission, not wanting to leave her if she wasn't ok with that. She smiled and nodded, shoving him towards the group of eagerly awaiting children down the pond. Carefully, she continued to shuffle along, enjoying the crispness of the air against her cheeks. She smiled at the children's antics as she watched Chat joined the larger boys at one of a line for a game of crack the whip.
Deciding to move back to avoid getting hit by the children who were snapping off the other end of the whip line, Marinette's feet slipped out from under her and she braced herself for a hard landing on her backside. Instead, she found herself saved by a hand on her back pushing her upright. Sighing in relief, Marinette looked over her shoulder at her saviour, a word of thanks on her lips only to be cut off when something wrapped harshly around her throat and dragged her face to face with a far too frustratingly familiar figure.
"Hello," BookWorm drawled, allowing the text around Marinette's throat to tightly, "Thank you for being so helpful today. It's time to get my new ring." The smile that split the villain's lips was cruel. A purple light glowed slightly across her eyes as she turned to where Chat Noir still happily played with the other skaters. Raising Marinette off the ground so her feet dangled, eyes wide in panic and hands grasping at her choking throat, BookWorm waited.
Across the pond, the screams of joy all rippled to a collective silence as the skaters noticed the horror in front of them before turning into screams of terror, children scrambling to get away from the woman and her hostage.
It was the eerie moment of frozen silence that shot dread crawling across Chat's skin before he turned to see what the others had. BookWorm stood patiently, eyes laced with cruelty and determination, dangling Marinette helplessly above the ice by her neck. Grabbing his baton to the ready, he shouted at all the skaters to get off the ice and go home. No need for any of them to get hurt - even if they were just fictional characters.
"Let her go," he barked, eyes locked on his opponent as he carefully considered what move to make next.
"Give me the ring, and I'll consider it," Bookworm replied smoothly, glancing at the girl in her grasp and giving her a little shake. Marinette just gaped helplessly, clawing at her throat, lips tinged with a slight hint of blue.
Chat growled angrily, crouching low to the ice in a predatory stance. "I won't give you my ring, you know that." His voice was almost feral as he tried not to panic about the paleness of Marinette's face.
BookWorm had obviously had enough. Raising the arm that controlled the words from her skirt high into the air, she paused for a moment, sending him a look of satisfaction before bringing it down hard onto the ice. The text that followed her command created a crack in the pond. She repeated the movement again, breaking the crack into a hole over which she suspended Marinette.
Chat was moving before he even realized he'd done so, pushing himself from his position on the ice with his baton and catapulting himself into the air towards BookWorm, a roar escaping his lips as he attacked. BookWorm's arm moved in a series of aggressive moves, knocking him harshly into the solid ice with a painful crunch before Marinette was dunked into the icy cold water and held there long enough to be terrifying.
"LET HER GO!" Chat screamed, scrambling to his feet, "Please! I'll give you the ring, just let her go!"
Satisfied, BookWorm's text arm pulled the girl out of the gap in the ice and threw her off to the side, her body sliding limply across the slippery surface. Chat's eyes couldn't leave her, waiting for some sign of life. It was his ears that heard it - a loud, raspy gasp of gulped air followed by a rough cough. The breath he didn't even know he'd been holding slipped out of his lungs and his heart began to beat again.
Bowing his head, he carefully put his weapon back in its holder then stepped towards BookWorm. Grabbing his ring with his other hand, he looked at it for a moment as he paused in front of her. She stood waiting, eyes brilliant with anticipation, Hawkmoth's purple glow lighting up her face as he likely did the same from wherever he hid. She held out her hand, palm up, eager to claim her prize.
His next movement caught her off-guard. In a flash of sudden movement, he grabbed her book out of her other hand and, for one brief second, tried to break it. She screeched and he felt a text arm smash angrily against him, nearly knocking him over. He had to make a split-second choice - try to break the book and likely fail as BookWorm beat him down and reclaimed it, or use it as a distraction to get to Marinette.
Marinette won.
Violently, he twisted his body and threw the book as hard as he could across the pond. BookWorm dove after it, hissing angrily as Chat rushed to Marinette, snatching her up into his arms as he ran by. He kept running, as fast as he could, not really sure where to go. The houses here were far apart and oddly shaped, meaning he couldn't take to their rooftops like he normally would. When he reached the edge of a forest, he scrambled into the welcome protection, landing heavily onto the ground and pulling Marinette as close as possible to him. She shivered violently in his arms, her teeth clacking together loudly, her breathing ragged.
She whimpered slightly as he pushed her away from himself, yanking off her sopping wet winter coat. Replacing the hat she wore with his own after squeezing the water out of her pigtails, he also wrapped the scarf he wore around her as much as he could before wrapping her up into his arms and rubbing her back to regain some warmth into her. Panicking at the potential for hypothermia, he racked his brain for the best course of action. He could go back to the Cat's house, but that might draw BookWorm there and he didn't want any of them to get hurt because of them. It was too cold for Marinette here. The only other option was to get BookWorm to open a portal somehow and get through it.
Gritting his teeth, he struggled to his feet, keeping Marinette as close as he could. He stepped out from the trees and started making his way slowly back down the road towards the ice pond.
Marinette's shivering was slowing down, her head lolling back and forth as he walked.
"Stay awake, Princess. Please. Stay awake." he murmured, tightening his grip on her and tucking her head under his chin. He had to find BookWorm, and now.
As if she heard him, BookWorm appeared, eyes blazing with irritated fury.
"Give me the RING!" she bellowed, screeching like a banshee when he refused. Silently he prayed that she would portal them to a new place instead of just trying to beat him down with her words. When the text came in brutal attacks, he dropped to his knees, curling around Marinette to keep her safe and his ring covered. Slam after slam drummed against his spine, causing him to grimace in pain but BookWorm just raged on.
He never heard her murmuring any words, nor the distinctive sound of her book clapping closed. All he heard was an infuriated scream before a heavy thud on his side knocked him over, tumbling him through a waiting gap and into the whirling eddy that he knew meant they had succeeded.
"Stay with me, Marinette. Please," he begged, hugging her tightly as the nursery rhyme world vanished and they were thrust into whatever story awaited them next. "Please."
