Miraculous - Revive

Chapter 9

Marinette couldn't keep her feet steady as she sat anxiously on the bench outside the New York Police Department station, watching the crowd of people that stood in front of a giant broadcasting screen replaying Cat Noir's leap of death and Ladybug staring down at him, face pale and hands trembling. And if she was being honest with herself, her hands were still trembling.

"Calm down, Marinette. People are looking at you..."

"I don't care..." Marinette bit her thumb-nail and stared down at the pavement, ignoring Tikki's remark, "I can't believe what I just saw... Was that...? No... It couldn't have been..."

"Well, he looked like the real Cat Noir, that's for sure..."

"No, Tikki, I can tell that that wasn't Adrien. My Adrien is different from that..." Marinette yanked at her pigtails, "gah! I need to find Adrien..." She yanked out her phone and scrolled through her contacts, rapidly tapping the screen as soon as her eyes fell on Adrien's. She paced hastily back and forth as she waited, to no avail.

"Maybe he doesn't have his phone?"

"No, no, no..." Marinette groaned, "I can't even reach him..."

"You looking for me?"

Startled, Marinette jumped, but an arm soon caught her from clumsily falling over into a trash can, "oh, thank goodness... Thanks so much... Oh. It's you again."

"Of course."

"Are you stalking me or something?"

"You're an observant girl. But yes. I have 24-hour surveillance on you."

Marinette immediately looked around, "you've got to be kidding me..."

Clair Raven shrugged as he set an arm around her shoulders, "so, what are you tripping over your own feet for?"

She shoved him away, "how could you be so calm?! Didn't you see what just happened to Cat Noir?!"

"Launching himself off the building just like that? Mhm, such a shame. Suicide seems to be occurring among teens his age, hm?" Clair shook his head pitifully, "from the rejection of his family, or perhaps the feeling of loneliness?"

Suicide... Could it really have been... Marinette shook her head, "it couldn't have been... He had his mother, me, his sister... Melodie..."

"Mm, his sister, right? But what happened?" He tilted his head and smirked, "and you, too? But why aren't you with him?"

"W-we got separated... I don't really know what happened, it was mostly a blur..."

"Mhm? That's not really a strong excuse, now, is it?"

"Shut up..." Marinette rolled her eyes at him, "you really make my blood boil..."

"Oh, goodie." Clair skipped around her childishly, once again, "you know, you seem to me like a lost child wandering through the streets of New York. Even an old bum could see that."

"Yeah? I'm the child, because I'm the one skipping around like one."

Clair laughed, "you're so funny! How about I treat you to dinner?"

"How about no?"

"How about..." Clair stopped in front of her and leaned in closer, "I'll collect whatever information about your little boo I can scrape from the bottom of your already-empty barrel, hm?"

"Uh..."

He stood back up and shrugged, "but it seems you really don't like me. So I'll just get going, now. I have way too many clients recently, what made me think I could ever make a spot for such a busy girl like yourself? I apologize. I'll be on my way--"