Moving right along! Seems like everyone enjoyed the little jealous Adrien moments! Now have some frazzled Adrien moments!
LilactheDryad... Stone is loosely based on Jagged Stone but the Dragons are simply another gang in Paris who made the mistake of trying to intrude on the Hawkmoth gangs turf.
T'Lai... Glad you are enjoying the story! If you want something more of mine to read that has completed stories go check out Cats Closet. Its double the size of this story and has multiple stories within.
(Slow Burn Detective AU!) Marinette is used to working alone on the streets of Paris as she strives to take down the Hawkmoth gang. When the thief Chat Noir comes crashing into her life things are bound to get magical, especially when co-detective Adrien returns to Paris and seems to want to be her new partner. Will their fated partnership end in a capture or a kiss?
The Chat Returns
The ride home was anything but boring as Stormy demanded a blow by blow of what went down. She and Marinette were understandably pissed that the Hawkmoth gang had used Marinette's presence to stop what was basically an inter-gang dispute. Even if things hadn't gone well and Marinette had been hurt or killed it would have all been good for the Hawkmoth gang. The Whisperers couldn't have retaliated against the Hawkmoth gang since it wasn't their people who had hurt Marinette and a major thorn in their side would have been removed in one fell swoop. Stormy was concerned since this kind of planning wasn't the usual Hawkmoth strike, together they mused about whether or not the same person in charge of this latest plan had been in charge of others. Finally, as Stormy pulled in front of Marinette's apartment, she promised to go through her files and highlight and odd accidents or incidents that seemed a little too well planned. The two of them got out but Stormy asked Adrien if he needed a ride anywhere and he admitted that having a ride to his old apartment would be handy since he didn't really want to walk home. Plus, the adrenaline-fueled afternoon and evening was leaving him feeling rather exhausted.
"Stormy, don't you dare disappear with him either. He has work tomorrow same as me, and I for one am going to bed early," Marinette hissed as Adrien returned to the front seat.
Stormy rolled her eyes, "Yes, mom, I understand. I promise not to keep him out past his bedtime."
"Yes, please don't. I need my beauty rest," Adrien said primly, turning his nose up making both girls laugh.
On that laughing note they all said their good-byes and Adrien gave Stormy his address. Part of him didn't want to give such information freely but he was going to be moving in the next few days anyways and he wasn't under the illusion that the Whisperers didn't already know where he lived.
The ride was quiet for all of two minutes before Stormy finally spoke, "So, have you changed your mind yet?"
"Was I supposed to at the first hint of danger?" Adrien wondered.
"You would be surprised at how many do the first time someone is shot at or a gun is pointed at their face," Stormy said softly.
Adrien appraised her silently until she shot him the bird and then he had to laugh, "This isn't the first time I've been shot at, and it most certainly won't be the last. I do have a lot of things to learn about this city but I'm not going anywhere. Why is everyone so worried about me suddenly copping out? Once I decide to make a commitment I stick with it."
Stormy hesitated for a moment as they stopped at a red light, clearly trying to formulate an answer. "Marinette is… ah hell, she's special. She draws people to her like Tiki did and I've known her since she was introduced to the Whisperers all those years ago. The thing is, that as many people she draws to her she really doesn't have many people she trusts with her whole self." Seeing Adrien's confusion, Stormy sighed and tried to explain, "Like, people at work know she's hardworking and will sometimes use rules as a guideline rather than something ironclad. People at the zone know her to be a fantastic parkour runner and as someone who will help them if they need it. The Whisperers know her as a fierce protector who has a very strict moral code. But none of them really know her as a person. Everyone is more than happy to follow Marinette but when we lost Tiki, she lost that one person who could walk beside her through all her different sides. Alya tries and I try, too, but neither of us are in a position to really help her through everything she goes through. And there are times when she simply can't cross lines with certain problems that she has."
"I see…" Adrien murmured as he attempted to put the picture together in his head that Stormy was laying out for him.
"No, you don't," Stormy sighed as traffic began moving again. "For whatever reason, Marinette trusts you. She trusts you with herself, all of herself. She has accepted you at work, taken you out to the Zone, and has now introduced you to us. And it all happened so fast that, for a moment there, I thought she had lost her mind."
"You sound like Marinette complaining about you guys moving in on me too quickly," Adrien chuckled.
"We had to," Stormy grumbled. "There are other things and people in play at this point and we had to know where you stood. The Hawkmoth gang is on the rise again stirring things up, monsters have literally started roaming the streets, and you suddenly drop right into the middle. You're lucky that you had ties originally to Tiki, otherwise you probably would have already been kidnapped at least once and interrogated by now."
"I did seem to arrive at a bad time," Adrien admitted. "But I am being honest in my desire to be Marinette's partner. I don't mind the danger and I'm willing to watch her back no matter how much my father might try to fuss about it. I will find a way to be her partner at work."
"Do you like Marinette, Adrien?" Stormy asked as they pulled down his street.
Adrien twitched, his face suddenly an impassive mask, "Of course I like Marinette. As you said, everyone likes Marinette."
"Oh, don't give me the five-year-old answer, Adrien. You know what I mean," Stormy scolded, coming to a stop in front of his building.
Adrien knew he could get out of the car and leave the question unanswered. Stormy wouldn't pursue him for an answer quite yet but that felt like an answer all on its own and Adrien knew that it wasn't the one he wanted to give. His feelings hadn't been slow to develop, and since Marinette had taken the stone forcing him to try to get closer to her, they had grown almost exponentially. That thought had his mind screeching to a halt because as Plagg had told him, Marinette held the other half of his stone making her his other half. Were his feelings his choice or was he being drawn to Marinette the same way he was now drawn to sparkly shiny things? The unanswered question bouncing around his mind had the air freezing in his lungs as his hand snapped towards the door. He needed to talk to Plagg. Now.
"Adrien?!" Stormy called exasperated as he scrambled from the car and Adrien realized he had never answered her.
Bending down, Adrien re-schooled his features knowing that she would be able to detect any lie he tried to concoct, "Marinette is a wonderful person but I don't fully know how I feel. Ask me again in a week or so, and please don't go irritating Marinette about it either."
Stormy's jaw actually dropped only to be suddenly struck by the giggles, "O-Ok Adrien. You got it."
Confusion and frustration warred within him, wanting to know what exactly had been so funny about his answer but he knew Stormy would never tell, "Good night, then. And thanks for the ride."
"Night!" Stormy snickered and Adrien shut the door on her laughter, jogging up the flights of stairs to his apartment.
Slipping into the apartment, Adrien shut the door firmly behind him as he scanned the room around him. Plagg floated up off the couch, his eyes bright and curious as Adrien made a beeline towards him.
"We need to talk, Plagg," Adrien hissed, making the Kwami's eyes widen.
"What's got your undies in a twist?" Plagg griped, landing on Adrien's shoulder as he started moving towards the bedroom.
"Marinette's stone is activating and according to you it's your stone's other half. Is it affecting my feelings towards her?" Adrien demanded, pulling off his shirt in preparation to go to sleep.
Plagg dove off his shoulder for the bed, wiggling into the sheets, "Probably, but you already liked her to begin with and she definitely likes you. So, what's the problem?"
Adrien spluttered, "The problem is it's affecting our emotions! I came to Paris with the sole intent of tracking Hawkmoth down and ending his reign. I did not sign up to… to… to fall in love!"
Plagg busted out laughing, rolling in the sheets as he did and Adrien was suddenly glad that he didn't shed like a normal cat would. "Kit, welcome to adulthood!" Plagg chortled, making Adrien glower at him. "No... but seriously, kit, whether she got the stone or not you would probably be in the same boat. You already liked her, knew her from your college, and when Tiki became her partner you were always asking about her. It was so sickeningly cute that I was going to send you back here just so you could talk to her again."
Adrien felt his face heating up, "I did not ask about her all the time! I was just worried for Tiki because Marinette was so clumsy running around school! I didn't want Tiki getting hurt because of it."
"And I think you protest far too much, Adrien," Plagg sniggered, amused by the whole thing.
"Oh, shut up, Plagg," Adrien snapped, stalking to the bathroom to finish getting ready for bed.
Plagg watched him go, eyeing the stitches in his back as he settled on his paws. Adrien would be far too embarrassed to try to continue any more conversations tonight but Plagg knew that he would have to reveal some things to him at some point before Adrien went to Marinette as Chat. Fu had scolded him something fierce for not telling Adrien everything he knew about the miraculous the moment Plagg had awakened in his new form. Nothing Plagg had told Fu had calmed the man until finally Plagg promised to pass on the knowledge he had to Adrien. At some point, Fu wanted to see Adrien again and he would be furious if Plagg hadn't made good on his promise. It hadn't been that Plagg was being lazy or even mischievous. At first not even Plagg knew what the full extent of his abilities were, much less how powerful he was. Plus, Plagg felt guilty because no matter what the kid thought, this was his fault. He had carried the nearly active stone even though Plagg knew what it would mean if anything happened while in his possession. In the end it had been his only option to save Adrien and even though Adrien had told Plagg numerous times that being Chat Noir was awesome, Plagg felt incredibly guilty over the whole thing.
The other thing Fu didn't seem to understand was that having knowledge of the stones was dangerous just on its own. He had run into that danger several times when he had been human, and he hadn't wanted to expose Adrien to those dangers. Not when his powers were new and he was adjusting. Then after a while, any time it seemed like Plagg had a moment to start telling Adrien anything, something would go wrong and Plagg would lose his chance. Little by little he stopped caring about telling Adrien everything and just decided to carry on with life. Now Fu was life's little way of taking revenge. Either way, he would sit Adrien down in the morning and talk to him, especially since they were going to visit Marinette tomorrow evening. That little visit with Marinette would be a good time to see how much she knew since Plagg knew that she had all of Tikis files. With a sigh, Plagg wondered if he should just tell the kid to reveal himself to Marinette since it would solve a few problems. Then again, Plagg remembered the moment his cover had been blown and Tiki had literally chased him down to kick his butt. It made him wonder if Marinette would react the same way or if she would take it a bit better. As he was dozing off, Plagg decided to leave it up to Adrien and go from there. If Marinette got mad then he could at least protect him from physical harm, although Adrien would have to face her wrath at some point. Secrets never lasted forever and as close as they were getting, keeping his identity as Chat a secret would be practically impossible.
"Plagg, do you think we should go talk to the Whisperers? They're looking for Chat so they can tell him about the Akuma and Spike," Adrien muttered.
Plagg could hear the exhaustion in his tone. "Let them look, and don't accept anything electronic from them since they might put a tracker in it. No one but Fu needs to know who you are, otherwise you'll have a target painted on your back. Besides, you're going out tomorrow to talk to your girlfriend. You can swing by and let them natter at you then,"
Adrien fell face-first into the futon making the whole thing jump. "Oh, good," Adrien yawned, snuggling down into the soft pillows and blankets. "I really didn't want to get back up, and Marinette's not my girlfriend…yet."
Plagg felt Adrien pass out moments later and putting his worries aside, Plagg joined him in his sleep.
The next day was spent following Marinette around as she sifted through her files from the day before and asking her questions about the Whisperers and her old case files. Marinette was happy to share stories about her adventures with Tiki, and in turn Adrien shared some stories about the trouble he got into while over in America. The day passed pleasantly and when they left for the evening Alya showed up to haul Marinette off to a girls-only dinner. Knowing that Marinette would be busy for at least an hour or more, Adrien decided it would be a good time to catch up with the Whisperers.
Finding a hidden spot Adrien transformed, to Plagg's complaining, and quietly climbed to the rooftops. Sticking to the shadows, Chat moved towards the garden since he knew that someone from the Whisperers would be in that area at least. It took about fifteen minutes for a tail to start after him, and that was only after he decided to stop being so sneaky. After darting across a few more buildings, Chat came to a stop, not wanting to intrude into the Whisperers territory any further. The tail wasn't anywhere near as agile as Marinette (or him either), and it wasn't any fun if they couldn't keep up. Once he came to a stop, the tail ducked down behind some air conditioning units and Chat played with the idea of sneaking up behind them to give them a fright. A little bored and wanting to talk to someone if only to hurry his inevitable meeting along, Chat started sideling towards the edge of the rooftop. A grin flickered on his lips as he imagined his tail looking up only to find him gone.
Moving in complete silence, Chat managed to get around behind his tail who was looking around in confusion while murmuring, "I don't know, he was right there sitting and now he's gone... No I don't think he went back…" into a head piece that Chat spotted on his ear.
Chat shifted a little closer, his body almost wiggling in expectation of pouncing on the poor tail when a clank made him freeze and turn back around.
"I believe… Marinette would… probably say… 'bad kitty' right about now," Stormy puffed as her feet cleared the edge of the rooftop.
The tail yelped as Chat rose to his feet and Chat pouted at her, "I just wanted to see how close I could get…"
"Like I said… Bad kitty!" Stormy huffed, trying and failing to look intimidating while panting for breath.
"Is Marinette with you?" Chat asked craning to see if there was someone behind Stormy even though he knew that Marinette was out to eat with Alya.
Stormy frowned at him waving at the tail who seemed rather thankful to flee from the rooftop, "No, she isn't and we need a way to get in touch with you if we ever run up against an Akuma or something and need you."
This at least was something that he had discussed with Plagg earlier that morning before heading into work. Plagg had tried something new with his staff, altering the piece with his magic so it could work as tracker or pager. They ended up with button-like pieces that would allow Chat to track them with his baton but not be tracked himself. Plagg could only make two buttons and he already knew he wanted Marinette to have one.
"That would probably be helpful but I might not be able to respond every time. I do have a life sometimes," Chat answered pulling out his baton and twisting the bottom so a small button-like object fell out. It was all black, save for a green paw print in the center that glowed eerily in the darkening night. "This will alert me if you press the button flat then twist it. I'll be able to track you to wherever you are once you activate it. It should work from any point in Paris but I wouldn't trust it outside city limits."
Stormy eyed the piece curiously, raising an eyebrow at him. "You know you could just give us a phone number, or if you don't have a phone we could let you have one."
Chat shrugged, tail twitching and curling, "You could but I don't like to be tracked. And this way, if you need me I can find you easily."
"And what if we don't like to be tracked?" Stormy demanded even as she slipped the button into her pocket.
Chat leapt up and back landing lightly on the edge of one of the air conditioners with hardly a sound. "One of us has to be tracked, and since you guys are going to be the ones calling for help I think it ought to be you. Now are we going to go hunting tonight or not? Because I have other things to take care of this evening."
Stormy grinned, "A hunt sounds good, actually. We haven't had any disturbances since the other night with Mime and I'm starting to wonder why it attacked him in the first place."
Chat had an idea why the Akuma had specifically attacked Mime, "Akuma tended to attack anything they hated before being turned."
This information made Stormy freeze, eyeing Chat oddly and he shrugged. One of the hardest battles Chat went through was when one corrupt cop got turned after Chat had embarrassed the man. Chat had ended up killing the Akuma, but not before he had been injured badly in the process. If Spike had become an akuma he might be sending out his minions to take out anyone or anything that had hurt him before. It would also explain the mini Akuma's fixation on Marinette, even when she proved to be tougher prey. That train of thought had Chat worrying about Marinette getting attacked and made him want to go track her down right then.
"I have been fighting these things for a while so it's just something I noticed. Usually they focus pretty much on me and ignore anyone or anything else, but these akuma specifically came around from behind to attack Marinette, you, and Mime. That's not normal behavior. Marinette would call you if she got attacked by an Akuma, right?" Chat asked, looking over the rooftops towards where he knew Marinette's flat was.
"She would probably only call if she was in a lot of trouble since, as you said, normal people can't go up against these things and survive," Stormy answered with a sigh. "As for the little Akuma, they were dogs belonging to a guy named Spike who didn't like us very much. The big one you said you fought, did you injure it badly enough that it wouldn't be able to fight?"
Chat shook his head, "No, I essentially just scratched it. I'm actually surprised it took off when it did."
What Chat didn't say was that the Akuma seemed to be getting smarter and stronger. The first Akuma he had ever fought had been easy to take down as Chat since it had simply been in a rage, attacking anything that moved, including thrown objects. Since the first ones though, the Akuma had been gaining intelligence, speed, and characteristics that made each of them distinct. It worried Chat, because soon even he might not be able to handle an Akuma on his own and he couldn't bear the thought other people getting hurt because he couldn't to his job, even if it was a self-appointed one.
"Which side do you want?" Chat asked.
Stormy laughed, "Of the area, city, or are we talking about streets?"
Chat shrugged, "You said there haven't been any reports, so we should probably start in the area I fought the thing and spread out from there. It's been long enough now that the Akuma might not even be within city limits anymore."
"Yeah, that is a good point. Fine, let's do what you suggested. You can take the east side and I'll take the west along with some others. You'll probably run into some Whisperers. Be nice and no stalking them. Otherwise they might just shoot you," Stormy warned, making Chat grin.
"They can try. If I catch a scent of the Akuma, I'll let one of your people know," Chat answered and darted for the edge of the roof, leaping off to clear the alley below.
He moved swiftly across the rooftops making it to the area where he had fought the Alpha Akuma and its minions. There was no one on the rooftops when he arrived and Chat stalked around sniffing at bits and pieces of the rooftop as he tried to catch a scent. It was a futile effort but like he promised, Chat set out in an ever-widening arc as he searched for the Alpha akuma. After an hour and a half with no luck and no new scents, he found himself close to Marinette's apartment and decided it was time for a break.
