MariChat May Day 21: Akumatized Marinette. The police bring Marinette home after the assault, Chat Noir is impatient, and snuggles happen.

Yup, I cheated. Marinette isn't akumatized, but Chat frets about what might happen if she was. I just didn't have it in me to write anything dark.

It was after midnight when Marinette had parted from Alya, and it was well after two by the time the officers brought her home and left her to her parents. It hadn't been enough to just drop her off, no. They had to escort her upstairs, and speak with her parents, too, when all she wanted was to get upstairs and curl up in her bed. Preferably, with Chat purring at her back.

When they heard what happened, Sabine had burst into tears and Tom had pulled both his wife and his daughter into a fierce hug with shaking hands. It had taken forever to tell the story again, sitting wedged between her parents. The officers seemed to think that she would go into shock, and she couldn't seem to convince them that she was fine. When they finally left, Marinette closed the door behind them with more force than necessary and sagged against it.

"You know they were just doing their job, Marinette."

"I know that, Papa. But I'm exhausted, and—"

"And he's waiting upstairs, isn't he?" Sabine finished for her with a wan smile. At Marinette's nod, she pulled her daughter into a tight hug. "Are you sure you're ok?" She whispered without releasing her.

"Yes, Maman! I'm fine." She pulled back to see her mother's face, their hands sliding down to link affectionately, and Marinette squeezed her mother's hands gently. "Really."

Sabine squeezed back, and bussed her on the forehead. "Go on then, and thank him for looking after you. We're going back to bed."

"And tell him that we expect him to come back at a decent hour, so that we can thank him, too," her father added, draping his arm around his wife's slight figure.

Marinette nodded, and offered them each a kiss on the cheek, before heading to her stairs. "Goodnight," she called back over her shoulder.

When he reached Marinette's balcony, Chat Noir let himself in through the skylight and began pacing as he waited for her to get home and come up to her room. Now that he was alone, he had nothing to do but to regret letting the police bring her home, and to relive the scene he'd come across on his way to her house. It was indelibly printed in his mind, as was the stark terror he felt. He hadn't been able to tell at first what was happening, and he'd feared that irreparable damage had already been done. He strove to remain calm, as he had in the moment, but his tightly leashed emotions threatened to slip their bonds and overwhelm him utterly.

She's ok, he reminded himself. You got there in time. She's safe.

But what if he hadn't? What if she'd been raped? Beaten? What if she had been akumatized as a result of the trauma? His breath caught, and his feet slowed to a stop.

Marinette? Akumatized?

Everything in him rebelled at the thought, and he closed his eyes against a wave of nausea.

It's not going to happen. There is no trauma. She's ok. You got there in time.

He heard voices downstairs, and knew that they'd finally brought her home. It took everything he had not to storm down there and wrap her in his arms, and damn the consequences of exposing their friendship to the public. But he'd learned well the value of control; it was a skill his father demanded, and it served him well now.

Sadly, that control did not grant him any additional patience, and he resumed his pacing. What the hell were they doing? What was taking so long?

When he heard the front door slam, he spun to the trap door expectantly. Surely, if the cops were gone, she would be up soon, right? He heard the murmur of voices again, and then he heard her voice from right below him. "Finally," he breathed. He tugged the door open, and stood directly in front of it so that she could walk into his arms as she climbed into the room.

She did precisely that, sighing happily when she felt his arms come around her. "I'm so glad you're here."

"I hated letting you out of my sight." He tightened his hold on her, burying his face in her neck.

"I know. But you were right: if you'd lingered after making your statement, they might have realized that we know each other." She sighed, and pulled from his grasp to toe her shoes off and toss her cardigan over the back of her desk chair. "Besides, they insisted on talking to my parents, and it would have been really suspect if you had waited through that."

"I still hated it." He followed her up the ladder to the loft bed, and stretched out on his back, with one arm behind his head, and the other held out invitingly.

She accepted his unspoken invitation, and lay on her side next to him, with her head resting on his shoulder. "Me, too," she sighed, draping her arm across his waist.

"You know, I've never been as scared as I was tonight," he murmured, pulling his hand from behind his head to lay it over hers. "Not even when Ladybug jumped into a dinosaur's mouth."

"Chaton—"

"I saw it happening, and was coming to help, but then I heard your voice and realized that it was you and—Marinette, what if I had been too late? What if he had—had abused you? What if Hawk Moth—" He stopped to draw a shuddering breath, and she leaned up on her elbow to pull his face towards hers, stroking her thumb along his jaw.

"Shh, Chat, it's okay. You were there, he didn't hurt me, and Hawk Moth has nothing to use against me. I'm okay."

"I don't think I could fight you, if you were ever akumatized."

"Of course you could, Chaton." She drew her thumb over his lower lip. "Because you wouldn't be fighting me, you'd be saving me."

"Fuck, Marinette, I'm sorry." He threaded his fingers through hers, pulled her hand from his cheek, and pressed a kiss to her palm. "You were the one attacked tonight; I ought to be comforting you. Not the other way around."

"You are comforting me, Chat. I know I said I was just pissed, but…under that, I was scared, too. I wasn't sure that I was going to be okay, until I knew that you were there. Even now that I know that I'm safe, I'm afraid for you to leave—"

"Then I won't leave. I'll stay as long as you need me to."