In the Home of Chat

Memories

"It's not all that bad. You can just tell him you're sorry in the morning right?" Tikki asked as she watched Marinette pacing around her small apartment. The blackish blue haired young woman groaned as she flipped down on her surprisingly soft loveseat. She had avoided Michal the rest of the school day, mainly out of embarrassment that came from her running away for no reason the first time. She just couldn't face him after the initial disaster of their meeting after lunch.

"I feel like a jerk." Marinette stated as she reached for the remote to her small t.v. and turning it on to the news channel. It was a habit of hers, keeping her eyes on the news to watch out for her old partner in her own small way. He was there, of course he was, there had been a break in at the bank that the mayor himself used and Paris' favorite black cat had swooped in to stop it before any real damage could be done. She found herself smiling at a still image of his face, complete with his signature smirk and acid green eyes. He was a true hero, kind and patient, and even extending that out to the ones he fought against daily. She remembered the day that she found out he had been shot in a hostage situation and how even then he was still the pillar of good for the city...

It was the day before Alya's wedding and she had been elbow deep in white lace as she struggled to resize her best friend's dress in time for the big event. Her t.v. had been on so Tikki could dance to a music video that was playing for a special event going on somewhere across Paris. She remembered the room going eerily quiet and her kwami's soft gasp. She zoned in on the small t.v. as her own eyes widened in shock.

Chat, her Chat, was struggling against a gunman just inside of the glass front doors of the building that the hostages were being held in. She watched in complete silence as he swung out with his baton to strike the man in the jaw. In that moment a loud bang filled her apartment and she watched him crumple. She screamed and rushed to the small screen that let her see what was happening. She held the side of it so hard that her knuckles were turning white as her eyes locked onto the pixels that made up his body. SWAT had moved in at the sound of the gun going off, and she couldn't see what happened to chat for a heartstopping moment before a flash of black and silver on the side of the screen told her he had gotten away to take care of his wounds.

Marinette was halfway across the city and running along rooftops before she came to her senses and stopped short of a jump that would show all of Paris her, as Ladybug once again. The strength it took for her to turn back was the same as a dagger in her heart, ripping it in two pieces while keeping it painfully in her chest. She was crying so hard by the time she forced her body to turn back towards her home that the world around her was blurred and shifted with every blink of her eyes. Chat was long gone, she knew that he would be somewhere in the back of her mind, but still she had let her emotions take over. It was the one thing she swore to herself she would not do when she decided to let go of that part of her life. It was for his well being as well as her own and yet one simple attack by regular humans going wrong had her donning her spots once again. She couldn't do this to herself or to him. Not after all the time she had spent hiding, no, coming back after that would be cruel.

She had called multiple hospitals that night to check on her old partner, all of them laughed her off with the thought that she was just another Chat Noir fangirl who wanted to find out where he was. Their tones told her that he wasn't at any of them however and she spent the rest of the night, and most of the wedding the next day, worrying about the safety of one of her best friends.

"Marinette?" Tikki's voice pulled her from her reverie, and back into the present. The news was still covering Chat, and had managed to stop him for an interview. She smiled as she noted that wasn't very hard since he stopped using his cataclysm at every given opportunity.

"Mr. Noir, you work alone during your heroic feats, would you ever make room for a partner in your team?" One of the newer reporters asked as he held a channel 7 microphone up to Chat's face.