Kapitel 8: Chapter 8: Chat, you poor thing.
Marinette stared at the leather clad hero in front of her and crossed her arms over her chest annoyed at his appearance.
Despite her impatience, she waited for him to talk. She could tell it was urgent.
Chat twitched and fidgeted, something very unlike the more mature man he'd grown to be.
"I-I need your help. Something's wrong with me."
He huffed and his eyes bore straight into hers, his teeth clenching and his shoulders stiff.
Marinette's anger slowly switched to concern for her partner.
"If you're talking about your heat then--"
He shook his head. "No, no it's not that...or at least I don't think it is. I don't know."
"Have you tried Master Fu yet?"
Adrien's eyes twitched. "I barely know him."
Marinette's shoulders sagged. "He's the Guardian! He should've been the first person you talked to! You shouldn't be here!"
Adrien almost smirked at the tone of her voice, a scolding he'd missed during her two month absence before he felt the familiar tug of their heat pulling him towards her. He shook his head and rubbed a shaking hand down him face.
"Shit. Okay. It's better if I show you."
Marinette's eyes narrowed suspiciously as he slowly turned around--
"What the hell!" Her arms dropped frantically in disbelief and she stared.
Stared at the long, furry black tail held up vertically and hooked at the end showing his uncertainty.
__________
Damian's eyes met Barbara's in the rearview mirror and they narrowed at the sight of her mischievous grin.
"So...you and Marinette."
He scowled. "We're just hooking up. Nothing more, nothing less."
Barbara smirked.
"Don't you dare say a word to the others."
"Don't bother threatening me, we both know I have immunity."
Damian's eyes narrowed. He sighed in honest fatigue.
"What does my father want?"
Barbara shrugged. "I don't know, but it sounded urgent. I heard Jason screaming in the background about--"
The car swerved violently. "Crap, sorry. A bloody cat ran across the street."
Damian released his hand from the grip handle and shook his head. "No problem. What was Todd screaming about?"
"Something about creeps and alleyways? I don't know. But what I do know is that if Papa bat called directly, then it must be serious."
__________
Barbara and Damian entered the bat cave to the sight of arguing and frowns.
Barbara's eyebrows furrowed in concern and she plopped herself next to Dick making her presence known by cutting into their argument. "What's going on?"
Tim kept his eyes on the screen, his voice slightly lower as he answered. "Someone's been picking up girls on the street and in alleyways and returning them a few hours later with no memory of what happened and all shaken up, some of them hurt and others just confused.
Damian cut in. "How is this any of our business? Why can't the police handle it?"
It was Jason who answered next, his voice slightly sore from all the screaming and shouting. "It's not just anybody. It's a meta. And a dangerous one."
"That's still doesn't answer my question. They can get the Justice League to help."
Tim grumbled. "It's not like that. It's not specifically us they need. It's someone close to us."
Damian's eyes narrowed as he gave Tim and Jason a look. "No."
"You don't get to decide for her."
Damian twitched. "Why am I here? You should've just called her directly."
Jason sent a glare towards his father.
Bruce spoke up. "I didn't think she'd agree to this so I decided to call you first because I know how close you are to her and--"
"And you thought that I could coax her into it." The steel look of confirmation on Bruce's face confirmed it. Damian scoffed. "How low can you get!"
He walked up to his father. "What the hell is wrong with you! First, you call her out of nowhere from Paris saying that we need her help, then you leave her here for two fricking months when her city needs her and now you're telling me that you want me to coax her into helping you catch some meta who fucking kidnaps women and wipes their memories!"
Bruce sighed, almost as thought stating explicitly that his son was being too emotional. Damian's expression turned into one of utter disbelief. "You can't just go controlling people and then throwing them out when you don't need them. God, sometimes you remind me of my mother."
Bruce felt a vein twitch. "Why are you getting so defensive? It's not like she's your girlfriend. All I need her to do is catch a measly meta who's running havoc. We need her powers."
"Oh fuck you!" Damian stared at his father disgusted. "She hasn't been trained like us. She could get hurt."
"We all get hurt in this line of business."
"I still don't get why you're still trying to convince me when you know what my answer is. She's not doing this. Leave her out of it."
Bruce studied his son for a split second before confirming something and turning his attention to a gaping Tim.
"What else do we have on our meta?"
Damian felt almost bitter about being ignored, however relieved that his father had dropped such a stupid request. He'd rather die than put Marinette in the line of fire...God knows what trouble she'd get herself into.
Jason patted his brother on the shoulder, pulling him out of his thoughts before leaning down to his ear. "Nice work playing hero today in the office. How is she?"
"She's fine."
Jason shot his brother a look. "Father's right... you're being too defensive. Is there something I should know?"
Damian's eyes flicked up to meet Jason's, his mind briefly recalling the day's earlier events. He shoved the thoughts away to save for a more...appropriate time and focused his attention onto the screen. "No."
__________
Marinette blinked once more at the tail hanging off her partner, her mouth agape.
Adrien swerved back around, uncomfortable with her boring her eyes into this new...feature of his.
Marinette's mind reeled trying to choose which question to ask first.
"When did this start?"
"I don't know, I just woke up like this." His eyebrows furrowed at sudden realisation. "However, for the past two days--"
"This has been going on for two days! Why are you only coming now!"
Chat's ear twitched. "I-I-I. Just let me finish! For the past two days, it's like hours have been flying by, and I have no memory of them."
Marinette signed exhausted. "Chat, you poor thing. You need to go to Master Fu. I still don't understand why you came to me. I can't do anything about this. It could be a side effect of the heat, but Master Fu's never told me about this--"
She was interrupted by his tail slamming on the couch. "For the love of-- you're always going on and on about Master Fu! He barely tells you anything and only tells you things we could've known months ago right when we need it the most! Why do we even bother with this guy!"
Marinette stared almost shocked at her partner's sudden outburst before a red light flew past and rested on Marinette's shoulder. "This guy is the Guardian, Chat Noir and you will not say anything disrespectful about his choices."
Chat's eyes narrowed before he scoffed. "If you start going on about destiny and--" He was interrupted by the sound of a beeping that came ridiculously too early and green light submerged the room, before Adrien Agreste stood in place of Chat Noir, his tail still in place.
Plagg flew over to Tikki and they seemed to hold a series of hushed whispers before Tikki turned back to face the duo. "Adrien, have you been resisting the heat?"
Adrien's tail swished back and forth in annoyance and growing irritation. "If I say yes, will this help get rid of this thing?"
Tikki sighed. "You're experiencing symptoms of withdrawal."
Marinette's eyebrows shot up. "Withdrawal? From the heat?"
Tikki nodded. "The heat has a certain way of doing things so if you refrain from meeting your body's requirements, you start to experience side effects."
Adrien grumbled. "And one of them includes turning into a bloody cat?" His gaze turned towards Plagg. "Why didn't you tell me any of this before!"
Plagg shrugged lazily. "I needed to confirm it."
"So you had me travel all the way to Gotham City to confirm something you already knew?"
"Well I wouldn't have to if you'd agreed to talk to Master Fu."
"You all talk about him like he's some God."
"He isn't a God, he's a protector. A protector of the miraculous and--"
"And a damn well protector of secrets that we need to know!"
Marinette waved her arms, "Okay you need to calm down Adrien."
"Calm down! You don't have a tail growing out of you Marinette!"
Marinette gulped. True. She'd freak out of she suddenly had ladybug wings sprouting out of her. "You just need to find someone to uh..mate with."
Chat sighed in utter disbelief. "How the hell am I supposed to do that when you're all the way here and refusing to do it and the only girls who actually talk to me only like me because of my money?"
"You're an attractive, young man. You just need to brush up on your flirting skills, hide your wealth and try and hook up with a girl at like a strip club or something."
"I am not going to a strip club."
"Why not?"
"The women there intimidate me."
Marinette's stared at him in utter disbelief. Mr charming over here was intimidated, by a couple of women in lingerie?
"Wha--how!"
Adrien shrugged. "We both know I grew up with a strict childhood. That also meant no porn."
Marinette had no answer and just stood staring at her flummoxed partner.
"Marinette, are you sure I can't spend at least one night with--"
"No." Her tone was final.
"But whyyyy. You're the only woman I actually trust to help me."
"Adrien, the last time I mated with you, you became possessive and scratched any guy who'd so much as glance at me. You acted like some sort of human forcefield and although the sex was great, you'd never leave my side."
Adrien huffed. "Okay, you make valid points. It's just that you're my partner and seeing guys downright ogle you was annoying."
"No one was ogling me."
Adrien's eyebrows shot up. "Marinette, everyone was ogling you. I thought you grew out of your dense ways."
Marinette shook her head. "Back to your problem. Why aren't you even doing it yourself? You should be able to do that much."
"It's like my cat's obsessed with your bug. I try to, but then I just start thinking about you and the itching stats again--"
"Itching? That's only meant to come during week 3. It's only week 1!"
Adrien shrugged, gulping before taking a couple of steps back to lean against the table.
"Listen, I know about as much as you do. I thought I had this whole heat thing figured out, but I guess not. Anyway, I should leave." He called back for his Chat Noir persona (something the stronger Miraculous wielders could now do without the kwamis having to feed) but before he leapt from her balcony, she broke in.
"Chat wait!" He turned around, eager to go. "Are you gonna be okay? You shouldn't be walking around like that."
He smirked, something more atune to his character. "Why, are you worried about me Bugaboo?" He smiled. "I'll be fine. I'll just stick around here for a bit in case I can find any lovely ladies in the dark streets of Gotham City. Maybe I could save one from being kidnapped and she'll fall into my arms."
Marinette rolled her eyes at her partner's egotism and watched as he leaped out into the darkening light of Gotham.
As soon as she left, she felt a gush of heat and mumbled something under her breath. She considered calling Damian, but they'd only just established their... relationship and he was sure he must've been busy.
But Gods, would she love him on top of her right now.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein