Day 3 - Adopted Cat
"Help me."
Staring into the boy's eyes, Marinette could almost feel the worry that his panicked features betrayed. His breathing was heavy and his hands clenched tightly around the object he held between them. He was unsure. He didn't understand what was happening and had no clue how to escape.
Making her way back from where she had been stranded after the latest akuma fight, Marinette had been surprised when she checked her phone to find that her mother had sent her a text. Anyone who knew Sabine was aware that she rarely texted anyone, instead preferring to call or talk in person, so when she did actually use the messaging service, it tended to be important or simply impossible for her to talk any other way.
But upon checking the content of the message Marinette had only been puzzled further.
Maman: You always wanted a cat didn't you dear?
She glanced at the message for the fourth time since receiving it before sighing and letting herself in the side door of the building that led up to her home.
She knew they couldn't keep animals in their apartment because of the health regulations for the bakery. She'd had that drummed into her from a very young age, when she'd wanted nothing more than a puppy or a kitten of her own. So why was her mamam talking as if she'd gotten them a cat? Shaking her head in confusion Marinette decided she'd just ask.
"Mamam?" she called as she swung the door to their living space inwards, "What was that text abou-" She cut off abruptly at the sight in front of her.
There, on her living room couch, his shoulders shrouded by the deep blue blanket that she used whenever she was ill, and a mug of hot chocolate gripped tightly between clawed hands, was Chat Noir.
He turned to look at her as she entered, his eyes blown wide before they darted away almost immediately to glance at her father sitting next to him. He looked back to her. "Help me," he whispered, "They won't let me leave."
She stared back in complete shock for a moment. Her partner was in her living room. When there was no akuma. And from the look of him, he was worried. What the hell was going on?
Closing the door behind her and making her way over towards the couch, Marinette finally spotted her mother standing at the kitchen table. She looked like she was adding cold cuts and a cheese selection to a plate with a croissant on it.
"Of course we won't let you leave, son," Marinette's father said from his place next to the boy, "You could have a concussion. You need taking care of first."
"He fell off a roof on his way past the bakery," Sabine told Marinette as she made her way over to them, "he was lying out on the street looking stunned and we couldn't just leave him to fend for himself, could we?"
"I already said I'm okay," Chat said, looking between them all as he spoke, "I just needed a minute or two but now I-"
"Nonsense," Tom interjected, "You were, and still are, shaking. And people down the street can hear your stomach growling from here."
Chat blushed heavily and looked into his mug of sugary goodness, half gone despite his worry. "I missed breakfast because I overslept," he said, "And I had to skip out on lunch to go fight the akuma. It's nearly dinner time now so I can just eat when I get home."
"You haven't eaten all day!?" Marinette found herself half-yelling at him in shock. Not only had he spent all day with nothing to eat, he'd fought and done parkour with an empty stomach. He'd used up his energy on a Cataclysm. And she'd thought poor Adrien had been in bad shape this morning when he arrived to class late after his early morning photo-shoot and admitted that he was dying to have to wait until lunch time to eat. Upon seeing Chat flinch at her harsh words she lowered her voice as she continued, "No wonder you fell. You should eat."
"Well, that's easily solved dear," Sabine added as she approached with her plate of finger foods, turning to address Chat, "Now, are you going to need any more cheese or space to recharge, or do you have time to eat this properly?"
"Recharge?" Marinette asked warily.
"I was nearly out of time. They let me..."
"He hid in your room while we got him something for his little magical friend to eat," her father said and Marinette's eyes bugged out, "But now it's his turn."
Marinette's head was spiralling. Chat had nearly lost his secret identity. If anyone other than her parents had found him while he was hurt there was no telling if they'd have been as respectful of his privacy as her maman and papa. And now, her parents understood about kwamis, at least in whatever limited way Chat had explained it to them. And he'd hidden in her room.
Oh God.
"You were in my room!?" she screeched, "Did you look around? What did you see?"
"Oh relax dear," Sabine said with a light smirk, "I'm sure a superhero has more important things to worry about than teasing you over your posters of the boy you like."
"Maman!" Marinette said, mortified beyond belief and not entirely sure why Chat also reacted at the same time, pulling the blanket up over his head to hide his scarlet face from view.
