Cat's Eye (Lukadrien)

Volume 2, Chapter 7

As soon as Chloe is alone in the bathroom cubicle, she unceremoniously starts climbing. It's not the easiest task, standing on top of the toilet seat in heels, reaching for the windowpane above. Certainly not her most dignified and definitely not a state that she would ever what to be seen in, but hero duties come first.

Fate does seem to have it out for her, though. As she clambers without poise onto the platform roof of the mall, there stands Chat, looking what Chloe would best describe as bemused.

Twice in two days now has Chloe mortally embarrassed herself in front of her idols. It better not become a habit.

Unceremoniously, Chat hands her the Bee miraculous, and Queen Bee sets to work once again. Her mind already frazzled from last night's work, Chloe summons together all her fortitude to endure the barrage of information from the Swarm of Bees she summons.

"I have two tasks for you, Queen Bee." The hero begins, "The first is as before – scout the city. The second requires a finer level of coordination, and a team of bees" He pauses. "Are you up to that?"

Fighting through her headache, Queen Bee nods. She's turned of her own eyes in favour of seeing through the bees, who subtly dispersed across the city.

"Send them to the Saint Louis Hospital. I need you to access the medical files of Nathalie Sancoeur, without raising suspicion of investigation." Queen Bee sets a firm nod, and begins coordinating with stark determination.

~

Adrien is tight on time, but in the end, Chat does in fact have long enough to swing by the Couffaine barge on his way back to the Mansion. Is it perhaps a selfish use of his powers? Perhaps. Plagg certainly isn't complaining though. In fact, if anything now transformed again Adrien can feel a tinge of almost parental pride through Plagg as they share the form of Chat Noir. As the kwami of chaos, bad luck and destruction, Plagg doesn't like to advertise certain traits, but it's far harder for him to hide emotions when kwami and owner are bound together in transformation. He may have killed the dinosaurs, but Plagg was certainly a big softie, really. Adrien compared him to being more akin to a grumpy wine uncle (or cheese, in this case), who actually really cares. God knows he'd done wonders helping Adrien to loosen up. He wonders sometimes how much worse of he would have been without the kwami. His resentment to his father would have built with no healthy output, and no escape. Not exactly the recipe for a well-adjusted teen, even by normal teenager standards.

He travels along, bee miraculous in his pocket he can't help but admire Queen Bee's tenacity. Having witness the scale of the Swarm power, he realises the cost wielding a miraculous power like that must take. More so than Ladybug does, probably. Whilst Cataclysm and destruction don't require anywhere near the sheer mental fortitude of focus to control as literally micromanaging an entire swarm, Chat has to always be constantly regulating Plagg's power of Cataclysm, so not to accidentally hurt or destroy during battle. Whenever he connects with Ladybug to perform Miraculous Repair, he has to focus on ensuring each and every black cat only deconstructs what needs to be taken apart, so that the ladybugs can build it anew. Destroying is easy. Controlled destruction, however, is far more difficult. So, he empathises with Queen Bee's struggle, fighting to maintain the nuanced control required for such a fine task.

She'd done a good job as well, not just in scouring the city but in retrieving finding and reading out Nathalie's paper copy of her condition. Chat had typed out the key points as she dictated them to him, and she'd managed to coordinate all of it within her 5-minute time limit.

As he reviews the notes, he dives down into a back alley, taking a turn and detransforming, before coming back out towards the docks. It's dark enough that nobody will connect Adrien to Chat, and as he steps onto the barge Anarka Couffaine gives him a warm, welcoming smile. She's certainly noticed the increased frequency of Adrien's visits, and probably overheard some sobbing and comforting from Luka's room in the past, although Luka assured him that she won't have been able to make out any words. Ever since, the normally hardened woman has always spoken a little more softly and warmly to Adrien. "He's probably in the engine room and not his room."