Sixteen: Protective Instincts

Ever the gentleman, Chat escorted me home after the concert, gently carrying me through the inky blackness of the night and over the rooftops of Paris. Owing to the late hour, I invited him to crash on the chaise once more, though he declined with a quick explanation that his civilian persona needed to be seen at breakfast that morning.

"Any other morning, Purrincess," he smiled slyly as he started back up the ladder to the patio. "But, sadly, I need to make up for my rather extended absence yesterday."

"I understand," I replied as I blew him a kiss. "Will I see you this evening?"

He paused, one paw on the skylight, and narrowed his eyes. "Do you really have to ask?" he laughed.

"No," I said, smiling.

Chat saluted and with a whisper of fabric and the slight snap of his tail, was gone.

Oversleeping again, I was racing up the steps of the school a few minutes before first bell and nearly collided with Adrien in an epic repeat of a few days earlier. His years of fencing had apparently given him excellent reflexes, for he expertly weaved around me as I came barreling through the main entrance.

"Mari," he smiled. "Late again?" he asked.

"Yeah," I nodded, taking stock of my friend as I did so. He looked exhausted, though I suppose only someone who knew him well would be able to tell. Adrien was as put together as always; my designer's eye, though, noted that his hair looked more like he'd slept in it for real than spent hours making it look like bed-head, and his eyes looked a little red around the edges. Considering he'd not gone to the concert with us last night – owing to Luka's knee jerk reaction to him – it was weird. "I'm sorry you weren't able to play in the band last night," I said. "The concert was excellent."

Adrien smiled as we fell into step together. "So I heard. Nino also said you brought your mystery date last night, too." He paused. "I wish I could have been there to see him," he sighed. "I have a feline I would've liked him."

I blinked. "You did it again," I said, pulling him to a stop.

"Did what?" he asked, a look of genuine confusion on his face.

I shook my head. "Nothing, I guess," I smiled. "I'm more tired than I thought."

"Ditto," he replied. "I'm ready for the weekend," he added, before groaning. "And the swimsuit photoshoot I've got to do."

"That time of the year already?" I asked innocently, though I was well aware of when the House of Gabriel summer catalog needed to be pulled together. I may or may not have had the swimsuit date circled on my calendar, too, for on more than one occasion, Alya had managed to sneak the two of us onto the set using her credentials as a student journalist. Fortunately, Adrien had yet to catch us.

"It is," he sighed again. "This year, they've sent me to the gym to bulk up a bit, too," he grimaced. "I hate the weight room."

A sudden image of Adrien in the weight room, wearing a muscle t-shirt, flashed into my brain; oddly, it shifted immediately to one of Chat sitting on my chaise, twirling his tail and looking at me with those warm feline eyes-

"Mari?"

Knocked back to the present, I felt myself blushing. "Sorry," I said sheepishly. "I may or may not have been picturing that in my brain."

Adrien laughed but couldn't cover the slight blush that tinged his cheeks. "It's not nearly as sexy as you might have imagined," he said as we turned to go our separate ways.

Oh, yes it can be, I thought to myself as I simply smiled and hurried to first period.

By lunch time, I'd discovered I'd doodled six pencil studies of my kitty in the side margins of my notes, something of a feat given they were on a tablet, with absolutely no recollection of what lessons had been on tap in any of my morning sessions. I wasn't sure if it was due to my lack of sleep or the fact that my brain couldn't seem to shift away from thoughts of Chat. Sure, I had my share of daydreams about my boyfriend – what person in love hadn't experienced that? But this felt new in an exciting and potentially dangerous way. I just couldn't put my finger on why.

My introspection was put on hold during the first period of the afternoon when an akuma alert rang out across the school. Much like my time at Dupont, our Lycée seemed to attract an inordinate amount of attacks. Stealing out from the classroom I'd just entered, I dashed down the hallway and toward one of two spots I rotated through for transforming – and skidded to a halt.

Adrien was running from the far end of the hallway, and had been looking over his shoulder; turning, he saw me and abruptly stopped. "Marinette - there's an akuma in the building! Take cover!" he fairly shouted.

"What are you doing out here?" I darted toward him and grabbed him by the arm, propelling him toward my hiding spot. "It's not safe!"

"Mari-!" he started as he tried to shrug away from my grasp. His eyes widened as I held on; I'd found the longer I'd been Ladybug, a bit of the added muscle that came with the job appeared to remain when not transformed. Adrien began to fight me, seriously twisting to escape my grasp, and I redoubled my efforts to get him to safety. "Hey!" he cried out again, his eyes wide in shock at my strength. "Let me go, Mari!"

Throwing open the door to the janitorial closet, I shoved my friend in and slammed the door shut, locking it in the process. "Stay there! I'll go for help."

"Marinette! Wait!" Adrien yelled, his voice slightly muffled by the door. "Let me out!" he cried again, banging on the door and, I think, swearing slightly in the process. "Mari!" he yelled louder, seriously rattling the door in it's frame in an attempt to free himself.

Ignoring him, I ran full-bore in the direction Adrien had come, for my second hiding spot was just around the corner. I tried not to think about why my protect-Adrien-at-all-costs protocol had suddenly bloomed into life; it was just as well, for as I rounded the corner, I found the end of the corridor was missing completely – including my second hiding spot.

"Merde," I breathed as I watched cars drive by slowly on the street that was now visible through the twisted rubble. The only good news was that it had been the main cafeteria, so with luck, no one had been in the space owing to lunch being over.

Frantically, I scanned the hallway for a second option, and seeing none, scanned again to ensure I was alone; wishing I had Chat's better hearing, I figured I was alone enough to risk transforming on the spot. As I called out to Tikki, I heard a crash behind me from the general direction of the closet I'd locked Adrien into. I waited impatiently for the red wave of transformation to wash over me and then somersaulted backwards to check on Adrien.

And smashed directly into Chat Noir.

Landing in a heap in the center of what was left of the hallway, I heard his baton roll away as he swore in multiple languages (something I was unaware he could do). Disentangling myself from him, I rolled sideways and snatched up his baton before it had gotten too far. "Chat," I said as I tossed his baton to him.

"Milady," he replied curtly as he caught the baton smoothly. "Normally my reflexes are faster, but I was distracted," he explained, though his look in my general direction was scorching. "Did you see a young woman – a student – go down this hallway?" he asked, urgently.

I blinked. "No," I said. "I just got here myself."

Chat sprung up and was about to vault down the hallway. "I've got to find-ow!" he cried as he crashed back down onto the commercial linoleum, face-first. "God-fricking-damn, LB!" he said angrily as he flipped around to face me.

I held onto his tail as I stood. "Hang on, kitty," I admonished. "We've not run into the fire like that in a while. What's got your tail in such a twist?"

Now shaking with visible anger, Chat growled through gritted teeth as he tried to pull his tail out of my gloved hand: "Let go of my tail."

My masked eyes widened. "Not until you tell me what's going on," I said firmly.

Chat yanked a bit harder and I held firm. Glaring at me, he weighed something mentally before continuing. "My... girlfriend... attends this Lycée," he said haltingly. "She was last seen heading down this hallway." The end of his tail in my hand twisted angrily as he added, "I need to find her. Make sure she's safe."

Trying to keep my face impassive, I realized someone had seen me leave class. But it had been barely five minutes - how on earth had Chat found out so quickly? With sudden clarity, I realized Chat had to have also been a student at that Lycée, for it also explained how he was able to appear so quickly when I needed him.

He had to have seen Marinette. Not only was he a student, he must be one in that same period.

My thoughts were threatening to spiral out of control when Chat broke in. "There was a student locked in a closet back there," he said, jerking a clawed thumb tip over his shoulder. "They were pounding hard enough on the door that I thought the akuma might find them. I got them out but not before telling me it was Marinette that had locked them in there."

Adrien had been making a ton of noise when I'd left him; it was about right he'd have attracted the attention of Chat. "How the Hell does Adrien know who your girlfriend is?" I demanded, angry at Adrien for attracting attention, and angrier at Chat for sharing details of our relationship with someone.

"Wait, you knew Adrien was back there?" Chat asked, and arched a masked eyebrow at me.

Instantly I knew I'd slipped up, and my mind raced to try and cover the gaffe. "Yes," I said quickly. "I heard him howling like a banshee as I cleared the hallway. It was safer to leave him in there than to try and move him," I added testily as I started down the hallway toward the closet. "Now we've got to make sure he's safe. And you and I are gonna have to have a chat about keeping secrets."

Chat was forced to come along with me for I still had his tail and was tugging at him angrily as we went. Finally having had enough, though, he planted himself firmly, forcing me whipsaw around. "He's fine," Chat said icily as he crossed his paws and narrowed his eyes at me. "And I'm purrfectly capable of keeping my secrets, Ladybug. He merely told me he'd seen Marinette – and he was nearly apoplectic that she'd locked him in the closet. You're the only person who knows about her relationship with me."

I stared at him, his tail continuing to twist angrily in my hand and the fire – and no small amount of worry – in those emerald eyes of his. That gave me pause and defused a bit of my anger, for he had every right to be concerned about Marinette. I backed up slightly. "I'm sorry, Chat," I said. "I know how much she means to you."

"Do you?" he asked, his voice vibrating. "I'd really like to get in there and see if she's okay."

Knowing that letting him go search for me would make matters worse, I sorted through possible explanations that he might buy and settled on one. "I'm sure she made it out of the school, Chat," I said a bit more softly. "But we have a building full of schoolkids we need to think about. You know her better than I do, but if she's the kind of person you'd fall in love with, I have to think she's capable of taking care of herself."

Only slightly mollified, Chat nodded abruptly. "You're right, of course," he said, but I could hear how torn he was over wanting to protect Marinette and dealing with the akuma. "Let's go take this akuma down," he added with a growl.

I nodded as I dropped his tail. As the two of us turned and ran back into the destroyed corridor, though, I was struck by the notion that in the early days, when I'd been fixated on Adrien, I'd had more than one occasion when my focus was on protecting him than the overall battle I was entering. Chat had actually been far more forgiving of me than I had just been; waves of guilt washed over me with the added complication that, in order to preserve my own secret, I had no way to assure him Marinette was in safe hands, metaphorically speaking.

We fell into our normal rhythm, but the akuma turned out to be one of the more difficult ones we'd faced in a while. I had to recharge twice, and Chat was on his fourth; he'd telegraphed he was out of food for his kwami, and I was down to my last macaroon. By the time we got to the Miraculous Cure, the better part of the Lycée building had been smashed beyond recognition, whether from the akuma's efforts or Chat's attempts to use Cataclysm with my Lucky Charm.

It wasn't one of our finer moments, for sure. But no one had gotten hurt, and as we sat on the edge of the restored rooftop of the school, I could tell Chat was as wiped out as I was after the multi-hour affair. "You look as exhausted as I feel," I said over the chirping of my earrings.

"I am," Chat said tiredly. He was fussing with his baton, and I watched him frown. "She's not picking up," he growled as he stood, his chirping ring giving him some urgency. "I need to go," he said. "Marinette's still not answering; I really need to see if she's okay," he added as snapped his baton shut.

"Go," I said. "I totally get it. But I'd like to decompress a bit before returning to my civilian life." I smiled tiredly. "If that makes any sense. Once you track her down, could you circle back to chat?"

Once again, Chat looked torn. "It might take a bit," he said. "Do you mind waiting, Milady?"

"No," I said, knowing it wasn't going to take him long to find me at all.

He smiled tiredly. "All right. I'm probably the only person who can lend an empathetic ear – or four." Chat snapped open his baton again, and frowned. "I'll be back just as soon as I've fed my kwami and found Marinette."

"I've got some food on hand still," I said over my chirping earrings. "I'll be right here."

Chat simply stepped off the edge of the roof and disappeared, eschewing his usual theatrics and proving my suspicion that he'd put everything and then some into the battle. I waited a few moments before dropping my transformation and giving Tikki my last macaroon. While she savored the small cookie like it was a meal from a five-star restaurant, I dug my civilian phone out of my purse and moved to a sheltered spot behind a chimney. I'd barely unlocked it before Chat's private line appeared as an incoming call.

Smiling ever so slightly at how he had to have forced poor Plagg to down his cheese in record time, I thumbed the call. "Kitty," I said. "Before you say anything, I am just fine."

Chat's masked eyes were scanning me – at least, as much as he could from the camera on the phone. "Are you sure? Where are you? You want me to come and get you?"

"I'm perfectly fine," I said. "I managed to get out of the school before Ladybug joined you."

"Where are you?" he growled.

"Shopping," I quickly lied. "Since school was cancelled, it was about the only thing left to do."

"I'm coming to get you," he said. "Share your loc-"

"That would spoil the surprise," I interrupted, digging myself in deeper.

He paused, mouth agape. "Surprise? What surprise?"

I tried to look devilish. "Wouldn't you like to know. Be at my place tonight and you might find out."

"Marinette," he started, all serious, "this is not funny. I was seriously worried about you. Adrien said you ran toward the akuma, but I couldn't find you."

Grasping at straws, I pulled a final lie out that I knew I would regret later. "I was helping Alya, if you must know," I said sighing as if he'd uncovered a major secret.

"You were what?" he said, masked eyes flying wide open. "Mari - Ladybug and I have a hard enough time trying to keep Alya safe when she disregards our instructions. I'm not sure what I'd do if you were hurt-"

"It was a one-time thing," I said.

Chat glared at me. "Promise me you won't do that again?" he implored.

I nodded quickly. "I've had my fill of akumas, thank you," I said, which was more true than he knew.

"Good," he said, and I could tell he was moving. "I've got to meet up with Ladybug and then I'm making a cat-line directly to the Bakery."

"Isn't that 'bee-line?'"

"Chat's prerogative," he smiled. Then he added, very seriously, "I love you, Princess. You really scared me today."

"I'm sorry, Kitty. See you tonight?"

"Most defelinely."

I rolled my eyes but felt it was a good sign he'd started punning again. Clicking off, I quickly transformed and perched back on the edge of the roof to await the arrival of my boyfriend.