I've officially started running into people in roller derby! Its lots of fun and I've only fallen on my tail bone like twice... that kinda hurts fyi...

sweetXDmelody... Nope I'm definitely not a cop, I've run from too many of them to ever want to actually be a one... All in good fun though since I tend to end up in places where I don't belong like forbidden creeks, trees, rooftops... Never done anything bad or damaging to anything or anyone just too curious for my own good.

TheLastPilot... I have no plans on ending halfway through this story. I've invested faaar too much time and energy into it. If something were to happen where I couldn't continue writing I would post the rest of the story mapping and the bits of story I've written so you guys could at least get some sort of closure on it. Hopefully it will never come to that though.

Guest... Thank you so much for the encouragement! I'm glad you have enjoyed my story so thoroughly! So to answer your question about Tiki... The Hawkmoth gang killed her because she was becoming too dangerous to let live much like another detective. She wasn't killed because of the miraculous exactly. As for the stone question... truthfully I haven't decided. I have several scenarios of that night in my head and I am waiting to see how the story flows to decide which one I choose. I am what I like to call a fluid writer. I have my overall plan of point A, B, and C but how I get to each point can change depending on my mindset, a dream I've had, or even a book I read.

(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?


Second clue

The second time Adrien awoke was far more pleasant since it was Marinette who woke him by nudging his shoulder. She was kneeling on his mattress, leaning over him from the side and Adrien decided that he wanted to pull her down next to him so he could curl up against her. It probably wasn't the best idea, but to his sleep deprived brain it sounded amazing. Later he would blame Plagg and his cat tendencies but for now he had to wait for her to come a little closer...

"Adrien... Adrien, it's 8:30 and we have a lot of ground to cover if we're going to beat your father at finding Chloe."

Adrien mumbled into his pillow and when Marinette leaned forward to hear him better he grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her down into the blankets. Marinette squealed in surprise, slamming an elbow into his gut as she fell across him. Adrien didn't mind, even as he turned over to pin her slightly under him.

"Good morning, Princess," Adrien yawned, grinning at her sleepily as a blush heated her face.

"Stupid morning face- I-I mean, you're stupid! And get that grin off your face!" Marinette stuttered, managing to save herself at the end.

Adrien chuckled and dropped his said 'stupid face' into the crook of her neck, making Marinette freeze up again, "Can we just stay like this for an hour? My father shouldn't make it back to Paris till late this evening."

Adrien half expected Marinette to shove him off, or at least squeak something unintelligible out. Instead, her free hand wove its way into his hair making tension he hadn't even realize existed melt away.

"We can sleep for another hour. I know you probably haven't been sleeping well due to worry," Marinette murmured, still stroking her fingers through his hair.

It was cool and silky, with just enough weight to feel like a kiss against her skin. She loved the feel of his hair and could feel Adrien relaxing against her with every stroke. A part of her knew that indulging in whatever was growing between them was probably a bad idea. They had already shared a kiss, and technically a bed; even if nothing happened other than sleep. It would be too easy for one of them to slip if things continued on this way, and with the way people were at the office it would mean that any chance of a partnership would be instantly gone. The question now was did she want him a as partner more, or as a lover? Everything was uncertain since if Marinette wanted she could have pulled away the moment Adrien had said good morning and that would have been the end. Adrien would have let her go since he was too much of a gentleman not to. However, Marinette found that she didn't want to pull away, even if they were becoming dangerously entwined. It seemed to be fate and fate really enjoyed throwing them into situations where indulging just a little was not only possible, but fairly easy to do. Unfortunately, they did have quite a long day ahead of them and if Gabriel was coming back they had to get moving. Adrien seemed to sense her uncertainty because he sighed into her neck and pulled away, catching her hand as it fell from his hair. Gently, he pressed a kiss to her knuckles as she lifted an eyebrow in question.

"I will take you up on an hour of cuddling at a later date," Adrien sighed, allowing her to sit up. "As you said, we have a lot of ground to cover and we need to figure out where Chloe is being held. If we can do that before my father returns, he'll have to take notice of us and how well we work together."

"Even if we do, don't get your hopes up, Adrien. Your Father is a very stubborn, hard-headed man. It'll take at least two days for him to untangle Jackady's paperwork, and I doubt he'll care with this case happening. We still have time," Marinette soothed, patting his hand and shifting off the edge of the futon to her feet. "You get dressed and I'll make us some breakfast. We make our plan of attack now."

Adrien liked that idea and he smiled as Marinette sashayed out of the room. Hearing the door close, Adrien rolled off the bed and quickly dressed, making sure to dress comfortably since he was going to be running around a lot today. Plagg popped up as he grabbed his weapons, storing them inside his jacket.

"You two are disgustingly sweet. I should make you come get me after breakfast since I know you'll probably end up sucking face," he lamented, drooping in the air pitifully.

Adrien rolled his eyes, "Do what you want, Plagg. I highly doubt we'll do anything but plan how to get to all the shell locations, though. We've already split the spots up for the most part, now all we need to do is figure out how to hit them all today."

Plagg sniffed in disbelief and surprised Adrien when he dove for his normal pocket.

Adrien shrugged, "Ok, then…"

He walked out of his apartment a few minutes later and found Marinette in her kitchen, busily preparing food for the two of them. He could smell bread in the oven and she was busily flipping eggs at her stove.

"Can you peel apples, or will you cut your fingers off?" Marinette asked glancing over her shoulder and ruining his idea of creeping up on her.

"I can peel," Adrien pouted, making Marinette smile and point him towards the fruit.

There were far more apples than he would ever eat in the morning and he wondered if he should peel them all or just one or two. As if she could hear her thoughts Marinette commented "I was going to make an apple pie from scratch but I haven't gotten to it yet. You don't have to peel them all just one or two."

"If I peel them all, can I get a slice of pie?" Adrien queried peeling two of the apples neatly.

"Sure!" Marinette laughed "If you can dice them and toss them in that bowl, that would help me out quite a bit!"

While Adrien peeled the apples, Marinette finished breakfast and the two of them retired to the couch and low table so they could look at two separate maps Marinette had already pulled out. Together they went over the best way to hit all of the shell locations scattered across the city. Marinette warned Adrien that he would be followed by a Whisperer or two throughout the day to make sure no one else bothered him. Adrien rolled his eyes at this news since it meant he wouldn't be able to transform into Chat to check them out, but Marinette laughed and said, "It means they like you if they start following you around! Believe me, they'll be following me too. Just be nice and if they drop down to talk with you, don't attack them. That's the only reason why I even told you they would be around."

Adrien nodded as they went back to planning, and soon they left her flat to explore the spots on their lists. All day they remained in close contact but neither of them found anything of use, although Adrien met a few new Whisperers as he inspected his shelled locations. There was nothing of interest, and as the daylight began fading Marinette and Adrien had dinner where they discussed any ideas they had since their all-day search had turned up nothing but sore feet and shell dust. They were finishing up a glum dinner when Adrien's phone rang and Marinette watched as his face lost all trace of emotion.

"Your father?" Marinette asked gently when he had hung up.

Adrien nodded, "He'll be arriving within the hour and I'm expected to be waiting on the platform like a good little lapdog."

Marinette patted Adrien's arm, "You are the furthest thing from a dog, Adrien. Gabriel is always hard on new people. I think he's being extra hard on you because, not only are you his son, but he also doesn't want you in this profession. Give it some time and if he doesn't ease up, ask for a transfer."

"I won't leave you," Adrien stated making Marinette's cheeks light on fire. She found she couldn't speak for a solid minute, allowing him to steal the check from the waiter as he came by.

"Y-you did that on purpose!" Marinette hissed.

Adrien grinned as she pulled out money for the tip and stood, "I did, but I also meant what I said. Now, shall we catch a taxi and go back home?"

Marinette shook her head, her face still red, "You go ahead. I just have the one empty lot to look at and I'll walk from there. I also need to go talk to Stormy so I'll probably go home after that. I'm sure Gabriel is going to call an early meeting tomorrow so we're going to want to get our sleep."

Adrien nodded hailing a taxi, "Sleep well then, Marinette. I'll text you when my father finally arrives."

Marinette patted him on the back wishing she could do more for him and Adrien slid into the cab telling the man where he needed to go. Marinette watched the cab get smaller, and with a bit of a sigh, she started moving down the street. Taking a shortcut through a dingy alley, Marinette came out between two buildings that opened to the smell of fish since they were on the water. From there, it took her 15 minutes to walk to her destination. It was a small back-lot filled with crushed shell rock and she came upon some children playing kickball in the enclosed area.

"You kids play here a lot?" she asked one of the kids who had been watching her with suspicion.

They refused to answer, giving a short whistle to alert the other children as she came closer. The game came to a swift halt as the eldest teen moved towards the fence and Marinette knew they were waiting for an all clear signal or a scatter signal from them. Suddenly they smiled.

"Marinette! Hey its Marinette! Do you have any cookies tonight?" they asked and Marinette recognized Mikey's voice.

"Hey, Mikey! I thought you were too old for these kiddy games and only wanted to hang at the zone?" Marinette retorted, coming up to the fence and taking his hand through the links. Seeing that the 'adult' was a friend, the children went back to their game.

"Nah. Hanging with the littles keeps me way fitter than trying to run with you guys," Mikey answered, then leaned in close. "Besides, if I don't watch them they get into mischief and I get into trouble for it anyways!"

Marinette laughed and released his hand, "I'm glad someone is watching them. Do you guys play here often?"

Mikey shrugged, "We've been here the past few days since no one has kicked us out, and the fence helps keep the littles corralled. Why, is something going on down here? Should I move the kids?"

Marinette shook her head, "No, I'm just checking into areas that have this shell rock down for a case and this place popped up."

"Oh…you know this is limestone and not just shells, right?" Mikey hummed, kicking a ball that had escaped back to the kids. "Have you tried the warehouse islands? A guy I talk to and run with at school was complaining about the limestone rock dust making his clothes super chalky 'cause he's a tumbler. His parents don't approve of his tumbling and the dust got him caught since they went to do his laundry and came up with a bunch of questions. Apparently they used it to build up the islands back in the day so they could build stronger foundations or something… we learned about it in class when we did the catacombs…"

A shiver of energy ran down Marinette spine and it took all of her will to not bolt away, "Is that so? Did they use it on all the islands or just a few?"

Mikey shrugged, losing interest in the conversation, "Meh, just a few I think. Probably only one or two of them use the stuff for roads since it's cheap."

Sticking a hand through the fence, Marinette ruffled Mikeys hair, "Look at you paying attention in class! I'm proud of you, kid!"

Mikey puffed his chest up proudly, even as he whined about her messing up his look and they broke apart since two kids were starting a squabble about something that had happened in the game. Marinette waved at the rest of the kids as Mikey sorted out the problem. Before she could be enticed into playing with them, Marinette made her exit. The children wouldn't be out for very much longer and Marinette started jogging the moment she was out of view of the fence. Without even realizing it, Mikey had given her an important clue and she needed to follow up now because she might have just figured out where Chloe had been taken. Sitting anywhere on street level after dark probably wasn't the best idea and she really didn't feel like walking all the way back to the cafe to do what she needed to do. With a bit of a smile Marinette walked down a short alley and tossed her chain over a high ladder. Yanking hard she pulled the ladder down and climbed up to the roof. Finding a secluded safe spot, with an excellent view Marinette hunkered down as she blitzed through articles and pictures on the internet of the islands in the river. Many of them were dredge islands made by the flow of the river and the channel trawlers that kept the river from becoming too shallow. Those held no interest since there was nothing on them but dirt and you would have to swim to get to them. A few larger islands were docking islands that were purely used by boats unloading cargo. Again, the islands were of no use to her since a car had to be able to drive on them to get the shells or limestone, as she was recently schooled, in the treads. Finally she hit the jackpot and found four islands that had bridges connected to them, and two of them used the rock as roads. Marinette wiggled in anticipation, and on a hunch she used Google Maps to look over each of the locations in the past few days. Luck was with her because only after a few minutes of searching, she found a picture of the mayor's car leaving the bridge the morning that Chloe had vanished.

"Gotcha," Marinette cheered leaping to her feet as she checked her watch.

It had been well over an hour since she had parted with Adrien and she knew she should call him to let him know what she had found. The only problem was that she knew he would want her to wait for him to go check such a place out, and Marinette knew she couldn't wait around doing nothing now that she had a lead. She could just go and tell Adrien when she finished, but that wasn't what a partner would do or should do. Biting her lip, Marinette decided to hell with it all and hit the call button.

"Are you ok?" Adrien demanded the second the call connected.

A laugh unintentionally bubbled out of Marinette and she slapped a hand over her mouth. She took a second as Adrien asked her another question and broke in before he could ask a third, "Sorry, Adrien. I didn't mean to laugh. I'm fine, how is it looking there?"

"My father's train has been delayed or he got on a later train. I'm not sure which, but either way I've been sitting on a bench since I arrived with the Gorilla," Adrien grumbled.

"Well, I have some good news although you might not like it very much," Marinette stated, walking towards the edge of the roof where the ladder sat.

"Tell me, can't be any worse than sitting here bored," Adrien replied.

"I think I might have found Chloe," Marinette said in a rush. In the background she heard a thump, Adrien saying that he was fine, then in hushed tones Adrien hissed, "How?! I mean, are you sure?!"

"Ok, well, I don't have a visual on her or anything but I figured out where the limo went after it picked her up, thanks to some rock trivia. We've been looking in the city for crushed shell driveways and roads. But the stuff we saw in the tires wasn't just shell, it was probably limestone too. Someone I know told me how on some of the islands they use the limestone as roads, and just now I found a picture of the limo on one of the roads leaving the island," Marinette murmured climbing down the ladder.

"Are you calling Jackady?" Adrien asked, the background noise on his end getting softer.

"No," Marinette answered. "I'm going to check out the island real fast. All that's on it is warehouses and the place is condemned anyway. I'll go out and if I find trouble I'll call for backup then."

"Will you wait, Marinette? I mean if you wait till tomorrow I can be there to help you and you'll be able to see better in the daytime," Adrien begged.

He didn't want to be left out of this and he had a feeling that Marinette was about to walk into a whole lot of trouble on her own, "Or can you wait just a few hours? Once my father arrives, I'll say 'hi', ditch him, and come to you so we can check it out together."

There was silence on the other side until Marinette sighed, and then it hit him that he really shouldn't be pressing her to wait for him. He would be able to protect her far better as Chat Noir, and if trouble did spring up they had a far better chance of surviving if he was suited up.

Before she could speak, Adrien forced himself to, "What am I doing… Marinette, if you want to check the island out, go ahead. Hopefully my father will arrive soon and I can join you. However, if trouble does find you, you'll call for help, right?"

"Of course, Adrien. I tend to be crazy, not stupid," Marinette laughed. Adrien couldn't help the grin that spread over his own face.

"I promise if things start to look dicey I'll back off and wait till tomorrow," Marinette continued and Adrien could hear the sounds of water nearby.

"I am holding you to that, Marinette," Adrien murmured. "You know, you never did tell me which island."

Marinette gave him a name and then they hung up, the words 'Stay safe' hanging in the silence between them.

"I'm assuming we're skipping out of waiting duty to go help your precious Princess?" Plagg asked from his collar where he had wiggled to hear the conversation better.

Adrien kept the phone at his ear so it appeared that he was still on and talking to someone, "Yeah, but first we have to give the Gorilla an excuse as to why we're vanishing for a bit. It's not like I can tell him I have to use the bathroom. And I have a feeling that my father won't be arriving for quite a while still."

Plagg chuckled darkly, "Kid, I get the feeling that making you wait is a punishment for not telling him what was happening in Paris the moment it did. You'd better just hope that he doesn't arrive while you're courting your Princess."

"I don't really care if he does or not," Adrien admitted, feeling rather bitter about the whole thing. "There really is no reason to have me waiting here and now it's interfering with my promise to keep Marinette safe."

"Easy, Adrien. He can and will make your life a misery, so don't give him any reason to," Plagg reasoned softly. Adrien dropped the phone from his ear, clearly done talking for the moment. It didn't help that they had returned to the platform where the Gorilla sat reading a paper.

It would seem that the Gorilla was his babysitter for the evening since there was no other reason for the man to sit at the platform with Adrien. With a sigh, Adrien plopped down next to the man who glanced at him, then offered part of the paper he had already read.

"Ah, no thanks. I have other things to read," Adrien claimed, waving his phone at the man before pulling up a search engine and finding the island Marinette had mentioned. Every nerve and instinct demanded he get up right this second and sprint there since he knew that Marinette was near water when he spoke to her. She could be there already. She could be on that stupid island getting into who knows what kind of trouble… Adrien stood, and at the Gorilla's questioning glace said, "I'm going to go look around and grab a coffee or something. I'll be right back."

The Gorilla huffed and returned to his paper. Adrien walked away, heading deeper into the station. First he glanced at the arrival times, and seeing that the train his father was supposedly on was delayed, he moved at a faster clip. Darting out of the station, Adrien ducked into the nearest covered area he found, glancing down at his phone one last time.

"Do you know where to go?" Plagg asked peering at the device.

"Yeah. We can be there in ten minutes top speed. Plagg, Claws Out!"

Before the flash of green light had even fully subsided he was already on the rooftop, bolting for the water where he knew Marinette would be.