A/N: And we're back to Adrien in his cat form! :3
CHAPTER 7: The Department of Soulmate Affairs
After walking through the venue halls and going out a back-exit door, Adrien and Nathalie met up with Adrien's bodyguard, who was watching them intensely from the idling car. Nathalie opened the backseat door for Adrien, and he hopped in, trying to figure out how to get situated with his new cat body.
Nathalie set down his bag on the seat next to him and paused before closing the door. "I suppose I can't force you to wear a seatbelt, can I?" Her resigned tone let him know that she already suspected his answer. He merely nodded, and she closed the door before walking around the car to the front passenger seat.
The car started moving, and Adrien curled up on the seat. His head rested on his paws as he once again became lost in thought over his situation. Not being able to talk and verbally process everything that was going on left his mind to mercilessly indulge in circles- endlessly going back and forth between worrying about the paparazzi, ecstatically rejoicing that he had finally found his soulmate, analyzing everyone he had touched in the last 24 hours, and desperately hoping Ladybug- or even Marinette for that matter- was his soulmate. Oh, why did the miraculous have to interfere? It just made the situation ten times more confusing…
Adrien was so inwardly focused that he almost didn't hear the snickering coming from the seat next to him. He turned, only to see the mischievous, glowing green eyes of his kwami as the smaller cat peaked out of Adrien's bag.
"Got yourself in a bit of a pickle there, eh kid?" Plagg teased, the smirk evident in his voice. At Adrien's glare, he cackled and continued to do so until Adrien hissed at him in retaliation.
Unfortunately, Nathalie heard the sound, and glanced at him over her shoulder. "Adrien, are you alright?"
Startled, he nodded wide-eyed at her, laying his head down on his paws again and closing his eyes until he heard her turn away. He quietly resumed his glare at Plagg, baring his fangs. You're risking my secret identity!
The kwami's shit-eating grin was only growing larger each second. "Don't blame me for Glasses over there. I'm talking quietly enough that only you can hear. Your hissing drew her attention, not me."
Adrien almost growled in irritation but held himself back. Briefly, he realized that Plagg was right, as the soft music in the car masked the kwami's words from Nathalie and the Gorilla but not from Adrien, who was now blessed with cat hearing.
He sighed and twisted away from Plagg, deciding to ignore the teasing. The kwami rolled his eyes at his holder. "Hey, loosen up. I know that face; stop being such a worrywart. This is exciting; you've found your soulmate! It's almost as great as my precious camembert!"
Way to be encouraging, Plagg, Adrien thought sarcastically, whiskers twitching as he turned to try and express that to the other cat.
"Kid, I promise everything is going to be fine," Plagg said, more serious than he had been before. But a smug grin quickly returned to his face. "Although, I still can't believe you haven't figured it out yet." At Adrien's resulting glare, he cackled once more.
Silence reigned between the two for a minute or so, and Adrien was slipping back into his thoughts when he heard Plagg muttering something.
"I was wondering why I felt so weird." Plagg was looking at him strangely, so Adrien tilted his head in questioning.
"The Miraculous. It's gone. Inside your transformation." He gestured at Adrien. "And it's making me feel weird because my connection to it feels… dimmer. I don't know how to describe it." He paused and gave a big cat yawn, trying to appear nonchalant- but Adrien knew better. "I'll definitely have to get used to it again since you're only the fifth Cat Noir who has found their soulmate… I think."
Adrien's eyes widened at that news. So Plagg really was telling the truth when he said not many Chat Noirs find their soulmates… He couldn't help but feel even more grateful that he had actually found his if those were the odds. Taking a deep breath in an effort to calm his racing mind, he decided to try and take Plagg's previous words to heart: Everything is going to be fine.
The car ride dragged on, the quiet only broken by Plagg's rummaging in Adrien's bag as he looked for more cheese. Half paying attention, Adrien caught his kwami muttering something along the lines of "You need to transform back soon so you can get me more cheese." Adrien simply shook his head in fondness, glad that Plagg was one of the constants in his life.
Twenty minutes later, they pulled into a parking lot situated in front of a large building. Adrien's ears perked to attention as his bodyguard opened the door for him, Nathalie grabbing his bag from the other side of the car. Adrien leapt out easily, eager to see where they were.
At first glance, the building was unassuming; it could have been an office building, a research facility, or a government-operated public service center of some kind. As Adrien saw the name of the building spelled out on a sign in the front lawn, he remembered that this place was actually a combination of all three. The Department of Soulmate Affairs.
As they walked inside, an almost empty waiting room welcomed them. As Adrien looked around, his cat curiosity getting the better of him, Nathalie strode up to the front desk with a no-nonsense attitude.
"Hi, how can I help you?" the desk clerk asked, not looking up from her computer.
Nathalie paused, trying to compose what she wanted to say. "We have a person with us who has found their soulmate."
"Okay," the clerk said, clicking her computer mouse a few times. "Name?"
"Adrien Agreste."
The secretary finally looked up at Nathalie, surprise and recognition at the name clear on her face. Her gaze quickly went to Adrien, who was still in the middle of the room looking around.
"I see." The clerk quickly got over her surprise, typing fast on her keyboard. "Middle name? Date of birth?" Nathalie gave her the necessary information. "Soul animal is-" the clerk glanced up again to look at Adrien, "a black, domestic short-haired cat?" Nathalie just nodded, as it was obvious. "We will eventually need to see some I.D. from Mr. Agreste to confirm his identity, as well as from his father, since he is a minor," the secretary informed. "But that can wait until he reverts back into himself. For now, feel free to sit down. Someone will be with you shortly."
Nathalie turned and sat down next to the Gorilla, near to where Adrien was sitting on the floor. She pulled out her phone to update Gabriel, while Adrien's bodyguard sat stoically, watching the door for the paparazzi and other potentially dangerous people. Adrien jumped up into the seat next to Nathalie, resigning himself to wait for a few minutes. A nervous anticipation welled up in him, causing his tail to jerk back and forth at varying speeds.
Soon enough, a 40-ish year old man in a lab coat came into the lobby from a branching off hallway, looking down at a tablet. "Adrien Agreste?" He glanced up to look at the cat, and Adrien acknowledged him with a nod of the head.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Jules Marieur. Would you follow me, please?" Adrien and Nathalie walked after him, leaving the Gorilla behind in the lobby. As they strolled down the hallway, the man asked Nathalie to clarify her relationship to Adrien, and she explained her role as Gabriel's assistant.
When they got to the room, it looked vaguely like a doctor's office or a veterinary clinic. There was a padded table in the middle, two chairs against a wall, a desk with a computer, and a large keyboard resting on the end of the examination table.
The doctor pulled out a step stool from under the examination table and asked Adrien to jump up. Nathalie sat in one of the chairs and the doctor sat in his own, clicking at a few things on his computer.
"This room is… interesting," Nathalie commented, intrigued and a bit wary at the unique room.
The man spun his chair towards both her and Adrien. "Yes, it's designed to help people whose soul animal is a small mammal of some kind. I work here mostly as a veterinarian, hence this room." He gestured around. "However, I also work to help people find their soulmates, which directly contributes to the statistical research we do here at the DSA." The doctor then directly addressed Adrien, a friendly and reassuring smile on his face. "Are you feeling alright today, Mr. Agreste?"
Adrien nodded, unsure as to what the doctor was asking. Physically he felt fine; mentally and emotionally he was a bit exhausted, but relatively good considering his situation.
"Okay, so no need for a physical examination today?"
Adrien jolted in alarm. "Oh no, that's definitely not necessary!" Nathalie clarified, a bit shocked as well.
The doctor chuckled heartily. "Sorry, I'm just messing with you a bit! We sometimes need to do physical examinations, but I can see there's no need for that tonight. You aren't injured in any way, correct?" Adrien shook his head. "Well then, don't worry! Here at the DSA we recognize and understand that your soul animal is a private matter, not just because it connects you to your soulmate, but also because your soul animal is a reflection of who you are. I won't be invading your space tonight, Mr. Agreste."
Adrien breathed a sigh of relief, but still felt a bit anxious. He was here to find his soulmate, not get a doctor's checkup as a cat!
The educated man continued. "So, the way this is going to go is I will ask you a few preliminary questions and you can gesture, meow; answer in a way that is clear and precise so we can understand you. The keyboard is here if you want to type something out for us to read. After the questions, we'll go down the hall to get your picture taken so we can get all the logistics out of the way. Then we'll move forward with helping you find your soulmate. Sound good?"
Adrien nodded, and the doctor turned to his computer once again. "So, the first thing we have to go through- sorry it's mandatory- is to confirm you are indeed a human inside that cat body. Can you lift your right front paw for me?"
Adrien did so and followed a few other commands the doctor asked him to do, including typing "my name is Adrien Agreste" on the altered keyboard, the large letters easy to hit with his cat paws. After that was over with, the doctor moved on to some soulmate-centered questions.
"First, the big question: Do you know who your soulmate is?" The doctor asked, not unkindly.
Adrien hesitantly shook his head no and looked worriedly at his paws.
"Hey, nothing to be ashamed of!" the man exclaimed, trying to be encouraging. "Not everyone immediately knows, especially if the touch is brief. Is there anyone you suspect could be it? Did you feel a jolt or a surge of warmth with any specific person?"
Ladybug, Adrien thought, but realized he couldn't give that information to the doctor because it would risk their superhero identities. The only other person he had ever felt a spark with was Marinette. He slowly typed her name into the keyboard.
"Marinette? And who is she?"
"She is one of his classmates," Nathalie answered. "Adrien, I'm fairly certain you've touched her before, a lot earlier in the school year. I don't think she could be your soulmate."
Adrien's ears folded down in discouragement, and he shrugged in response to Nathalie, glancing up at the doctor.
"Any others?" Adrien shook his head sadly. The man turned to Nathalie. "Would you be able to provide me with a list of the people that Adrien is around on a daily basis, including the people he has been around in the last 24 hours? His soulmate is most likely to be one of those people."
Nathalie got out her tablet and started to list off the people in Adrien's class; Adrien shook his head at a few people, knowing he had touched them already and hadn't felt anything from it. She then listed the models and designers at the show that night, and the doctor entered the information into his computer.
"That is probably the extent of the people Adrien has been around in the last 24 hours," Nathalie said, flipping through Adrien's schedule. "Although only Adrien would know if he touched anyone in particular, or if I'm missing anyone." They both looked at Adrien, and he shrugged.
"What time did Adrien transform?" The man asked, moving to the next question on his document.
Nathalie thought for a moment. The runway show had started at 6pm, and there had been at least fifteen models that had walked before Adrien. "I would say around 6:15 to 6:30 tonight," Nathalie figured. Adrien nodded, also doing the math in his head.
"Alright," the man acknowledged, typing the time into his computer. "We'll see if that time lines up with any of the other people who are currently here and don't have a match yet. We'll also be monitoring the people who check in after Adrien to see if their info fits with his."
There was a pause as the doctor entered in a few more items into his computer, appearing to finish up. "Well, that's all done! Ready to get that picture out of the way?"
Adrien nodded, and followed the doctor back into the hallway, Nathalie trailing behind.
A/N: Gotta love governments and all their red tape. Also, there's a secret meaning to the doctor's name! Anyone care to make a guess? *grins ecstatically*