MariChat May Day 20: Night on the Town. Marinette is accosted on her way home late at night, and Chat Noir steps in to lend a helping paw.

TRIGGER WARNING: Mari is assaulted, but is NOT raped, and it's in no way graphic. Still, if it's hard for you to read about a woman being attacked, you might want to skip this one.

"That guy was totally checking you out."

"Huh? What guy?" Marinette craned her neck to look back around the edge of the booth, at the crowd surging on the dance floor and thronging around the bar. It was Teen Night at Vie Nocturne, and Nino had gotten a job DJing the weekly event for the summer. He'd extracted promises from his friends to attend as often as they could, and this was his first night.

"The one standing next to you at the bar," Alya yelled, leaning in close to be heard over the music. At Marinette's blank look, Alya rolled her eyes in exasperation. "The one who offered to buy you a drink?"

"Oh, him." Marinette shrugged, and sipped on her soda.

"'Oh him' she says. Girl, he was smokin'!"

"I guess. But I was getting the creep vibe from him, big time. No, thanks."

"Oh, ew," Alya nodded in understanding, her face scrunched up in a grimace as she ducked down more of her soda. "I hope he's not a regular, then."

"I'm not worried about it. We can just avoid him, and any other creeps we come across."

"Right on." Alya clicked her plastic cup to Marinette's in a toast, and they downed the last of their drinks. "I think Nino will be due for a break soon, want to go wait by the sound booth?"

"Sure."

Leaving their empty cups on the table, they slid from the worn bench. Without the partition of the booth, the music was even louder. Alya led the way through the crush toward the DJ's booth. Marinette had no trouble staying with her at first, but someone stumbled into her, causing her to trip over someone behind her and she landed painfully on the floor.

When she regained her feet, Alya was nowhere to be seen. "Damn," she muttered, brushing any possible debris from her back side. At least she knew where Alya was headed, so they shouldn't be separated for long. Unfortunately, she'd only taken about two steps when the guy from the bar appeared in her path, with two drinks and an oily grin.

"Excuse me, please."

"Why don't we got sit down somewhere, and get to know one another?"

She stifled a shudder. "No, thank you."

He stepped forward, crowding into her space. "Come on, why you gotta be like that? I just want to talk."

She frowned, and attempted to side-step him without answering.

He stepped with her, his expression hard. "What, you think you're too good for me?"

"I 'think' that I'm not interested. Move." She watched his jaw clench, and wondered whether he would try to push it further.

He moved, and she went to find Alya and Nino, who greeted her with relief.

"There you are!" Alya grabbed her shoulders and looked her over, as if assessing damage. "What happened? I thought you were right behind me."

"Someone bumped into me, and knocked me down. I'm fine. See?" She spun in place, giggling.

Alya grinned, and linked their arms. "Well I'm not letting you go again while we're here."

"Good plan." Nino nodded his approval, and turned to put his hand on the door knob behind him. "You ladies want to see my new office?"

Much later, Alya and Marinette parted ways after leaving the metro. They exchanged hugs and promises to call the next day, and turned in opposite directions, toward their respective homes.

It wasn't a long walk for either of them, and neither one thought anything about going on alone. It was a nice area, after all, and they'd done this sort of thing too many times to count. Marinette began to question the wisdom of that shortly after leaving the metro station, when she became aware of someone walking a short distance behind her. Unease rippled over her skin. She picked up her pace, and so did they.

Marinette cursed, feeling the unease bloom into fear. She knew she could handle herself, but had no desire to put it to the test. She sped up again, and whoever it was began to run. "Merde!" She ran too, but they must have been closer than she realized. He tackled her to the ground, and flipped her roughly to her back, straddling her thighs and pinning her hands to the concrete sidewalk.

Fear turned to fury.

"Bastard! Get off of me!" She tried to buck him off of her, but too much of his weight rested on her thighs.

"You stuck up bitch. I only wanted to talk to you!"

Marinette stopped struggling for a moment, and peered into his face. "You," she spat. "I'm not stuck up, I'm just not interested! Let me go!"

"Not until I get what I want from you."

"No! Get off of me!"

There was a breeze, and a pair of booted feet slammed into the man's side, knocking him off of her and sending him to sprawl a few meters away.

Chat Noir landed in a roll, and bounced to his feet. "I believe the lady told you to let her go," he said coldly, stepping over the groaning man. He crouched by where she sat on the sidewalk. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. Just pissed that I let him get that close."

He nodded, more than satisfied with her answer, and stood. Then he held out a hand to help her to her feet as well. "Call the police? I think that you should report this."

"Yeah, I do t—Chat, look out!" She shoved him to the side with one hand, and clocked her assailant with the other. "You stupid motherfucker, stay down!"

"Ouch." Chat Noir bent over the man's prone form with an appreciative whistle, then regarded her with raised brows. "You know, I've never heard you use that kind of language before."

"Sometimes, it's necessary." She shook out her hand, grimacing. "That bastard was going to hit you from behind."

He wrapped her in a hug, and pressed his lips to her temple. "Remind me never to piss you off, Princess."