Scene #4414: The Chat Came Back

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Chat Noir	COLLEGE FRANCOISE DUPONT, THE LAST TWO DAYS... Adrien Agreste has been absent from school. On the first day the only thing anybody had to say about it was Ms. Bustier remarking that he would be away for a few days without specifying the reason why. Over the lunch period Nino had tried to get a response from him on his cell phone, but it had gone straight to voicemail. It was only just yesterday that anyone heard from him directly. Chloe had bustled into class complaining about how Adrien was so sick he wouldn't even see her, and Nino had eventually gotten enough of a response to confirm this story. It had read: FROM: Adrien MSG: It's not that bad, but my father insists that I stay home until I'm well. Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. Could you send me your notes so I can catch up? Nino hadn't replied to this yet. TODAY... Had been no different. No Adrien, minimal communication from him. NOW... Chat Noir should not be acting as Chat Noir right now. He does still have a pretty killer cold, and has kept himself relatively coherent by taking a lot of over the counter medication. But the coherency is still that of a person who is slightly tipsy or sleep deprived. He is fundamentally brain drained, even if he's technically functional. Which is why after missing another day of school, he transformed and wandered off. ... Right to the Dupain Bakery. Really, he didn't have a destination in mind at first. Adrien needed to get out of his stuffy house and had started by meandering across Paris's rooftops without a care in the world, his pockets (thank heaven his costume has pockets) bulging with individually wrapped cough drops. But whether by subconscious intention or eventual deliberate intent, he found himself crossing the rooftops towards that familiar bakery. Rationality had incredibly briefly kicked in. What if somebody saw him poking around here deliberately? Would Marinette and her family end up targeted? The cough medicine took over afterwards though, as Chat Noir sauntered over to the trap door on the roof's little balcony and started knocking very very lightly.
Ladybug	Marinette, who didn't expect a visit today, or to have anything from her 'other life' intrude on her time, had set aside the day for design. There wasn't any project she had due, but the sheer joy of sketching, and tinkering, and just meandering around her room, drawing inspiration from pictures on the internet or other sources or simply her own imagination. It wasn't productive, but it was fun. It's Tikki that hears the tapping first, ducking into a mass of cloth and squeaking for Marinette's attention - which is hard, because she has her headphones on and is slowly jamming to music. It's not until a ball of rubber bands bounces off her dome that she notices, peeling off her headphones. No Tikki? A tapping at her roof hatch? It's either some sort of mugger or burglar... Or a CAT burglar. She takes her chances, pushing open the door after a soft 'click' of the latch, blinking up at a Chat Noir on her roof. "Um... Hello! Is there something wrong? You look a little sick."
Chat Noir	"No, no, nothing's wrong. I just happened to be in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop in for a visit." Chat Noir answers, though from that reception he's starting to wonder if perhaps he shouldn't have done this. It's probably just kind of strange all-around. He knows he's acting a bit loopy at the moment, and coming over here really was just on a lark. For a moment his thoughts drift towards the Illustrator and his forced ~* magical love boat *~ and very suddenly he's a lot less comfortable with what he's doing. Internally, Adrien and Plagg go to war with one another for a moment. This does not help the glazed out expression he has /anyway/. After a moment the decision to stay solidifies, but he also decides to play it safe and give Marinette a clear out. Chat Noir flops over on the roof, laying down on his side alongside the hatch and propping his head up against his hand. He smiles that catty roguish smile of his and says, "If it dispawleases you to see me, just say the word and I'll find something else to do right meow."
Ladybug	Marinette smiles pleasantly as Chat reclines on her roof, placing a hand on her hip and tilting her head sassily as Chat Noir - HERO OF PARIS - decides to drop into Marinette Dupain-Cheng's loft because he's 'in the neighborhood'. "Chat Noir." She sighs, shaking her head. Spectres of Ladybug's sass, potentially, flit about her body language. "Superheroes don't just drop by a normal girl's room because they're 'in the neighborhood', but it's sweet of you to be here. I'm fine! Really, one of the heroes set me right as rain. It still tingles a little bit, but I feel good!" She flexes just a little bit for emphasis. "But it's good of you to care... But you still sound sick, yourself. Is that why you weren't there for the... Explorer? Pathfinder? The most recent Akuma?" He flops around and gets a roguish grin, which Marinette just turns away from, heading back down the stairs. "I'm not falling for it, kitty. You'll just paw at the door and want to be let in, or paw at the door if I let you in because you want to leave. Come inside if you want! Lock the shutter if you do, though, I'm going to get some tea and snacks - and if I have extras, I'll blame you, kitty." And then she's gone, down the stairs and towards the egress down towards the bakery.
Chat Noir	"As a superhero," Chat Noir answers, clearing his throat, "I think that it's mine to determine whether or not superheroes just drop by a normal girl's room. I'll have you know that I make impulsive split-second decisions without actually using my brain all the time." This is self-evident, and not something that he feels particularly ashamed about. Chat Noir time is for being energetic and dumb and free and that's fantastic. Sure, sometimes it's not great for him. But it works out. "Pioneer." He supplies helpfully. "I tried transforming yesterday but my-- everything just felt terrible. I would've been in the way, but I would've gone anyway if we couldn't get anybody to help." Can't talk about kwami with the normal people, Chat Noir reminds himself. Plagg had been just as miserable as Adrien the previous day, so both of them were low on stamina while combined. The experience is something that he can't possibly articulate. Inside his head, Plagg agrees. Once he receives an invitation inside Chat Noir feels a lot better about all of this. He asides to Marinette as she announces her intent to go fetch tea and snacks, "If you keep treating me with such generosity damsel, it might be that you won't be able to get rid of me." He secures the shutter behind him with a click and, resisting the temptation to have a look around, goes and flops back on the chaise he had been using the other night. No pile of blankets tonight, it's warm enough that that's not necessary or even really desired. It doesn't take much waiting for Chat Noir to decide that he can't actually resist looking around, but he does set some internal rules. The computer's off-limits for sure... oh but the open sketchbook looks safe. That's how she'll find him, hovering next to where she'd been working before he'd caught her attention. None of the post-its or pictures in the surroundings really draw his eye.
Ladybug	Marinette returns with a tray of food and a pot of tea, a few cups arrayed on the edges, and a spread of what by all rights appears to be 'whatever was in the fridge at the time'. Some meats and cheeses, pate and the like. What would be common for a Parisian fridge - especially a baker's fridge - is fully present. "I remembered you liked my dad's cheese bread," she points at one loaf, "and some other bread just came out of the oven he said I could have for snacks." She indicates a different type, this one startlingly similar to what Ladybug had brought to the top of the Arc when they had Hung Out the first time. "Go ahead and try it." She indicates, looking Chat up and down as he reclines on her chaise. "I don't think it would have been a service to yourself or your partner to force your body to go even when you felt like garbage. Sounds like a liability." She sets down the tray, bustling a bit, before noticing... "Hey! Are you reading my dia-oh. My design journal. Yeah, most of it is for class or just to scribble down some things. Could you imagine, I had never done a bowler hat before a few weeks ago? Flip through, if you like. In return, though..." Marinette crosses her arms behind her back, clasping her hands lightly as she rocks a bit on the balls and arches of her feet. "Why... are you here, anyway? Plenty of good places in Paris. I'm... /pretty/ sure no more supervillians want to take me on boat adventures."
Chat Noir	Wait wait wait wait. Wait. This feels really, really familiar. Chat Noir miraculously succeeds at a spot check, his eyes falling on the array of snacks being brought to him. In fact, this is basically exactly what Ladybug had fed to him out of a hatbox. When she invites him to try it he moves right over to tear off a piece and sample it, and the ringing familiarity only gets stronger. Also this bread is incredibly amazing. Which means... Which means that Ladybug bought her bread from this bakery? Huh. That's a pretty funny coincidence. He makes a mental note to have his driver pick some bread up later. "Purr-cisely." He agrees with her assessment. "I know eventually I'm going to have to fight while compromised. That pigeon guy played havoc on my allergies. But if I can get people to sub in--" Chat Noir just gestures loosely as he scarfs down another chunk of bread. This is probably not helping the impression that he is some underfed alleycat. Shaking his head frantically for a moment when Marinette questions what he was looking at, Chat Noir swallows rapidly to reply: "No, no. Curiosity may kill this cat yet, but I'm not heartless enough to go through a girl's diary like that. Besides, that's no way to treat somebody that's been so nice to me." People have been feeding him very regularly lately, he realizes. He needs to repay them for that a little. Ladybug first though, she'd even given him a pretty nice hatbox and thermos to go with it. After making certain that his hands are properly clean, Chat Noir takes a moment to pluck the design journal up from its resting place and flip through a few pages. From somebody else this would come across as merely stalling for time but there's a level of concentration in his expression while he pages through that just isn't normally there for the cat-themed superhero. But when he looks back up the shade of Adrien is banished and Chat Noir takes his place again. He replaces the journal on the nearest surface, opened precisely to the page it had been on before he stopped reading, and moves to stand directly in front of Marinette. "Little damsel you apurr-eciated me, fed me, pet me, warmed me up, and tried to make me comfortable as could be. Didn't I say so before? Those things happen to Ladybug, not me. If you want me to go and not come back, I understand." Chat Noir crosses his arms, lifting his eyebrows inquisitively. "But everybody knows that if you feed a cat it might come right back. Surely you didn't think you could be efurr so lovely and never see me again."
Ladybug	Marinette watches Chat Noir eat with gusto, a look of amusement mixed with a deep apologetic pity. And it's not about fighting while compromised. She covers up, though! "It's good that you found some help, though are you sure about the people that come from the gate? Are you sure they aren't... Akuma?" Worry is present, but it's a speculative sort. "And have you thought about what happens if Ladybug is out of comission? Can you do the, uh..." She swings her hand like a windup, then pantomimes her hand catching a thing, and then an explosion. "You know?" SHE knows. SHE's Ladybug. But it's hard to describe 'Miraculous Ladybug' without pantomime and sugggestive motions and mouthsounds. She watches him page through her design journal with an actual critical eye. #-1 FUNCTION (ANSI) EXPECTS 2 ARGUMENTS BUT GOT 1: 1 Hey, that's odd, people who live on the street don't normally do that! But they can appreciate art, it /is/ Paris. Oh well! That sad, pitying looks resume as he speaks about how those sort of things happen to Chat, and not Ladybug. The voice she uses is different, melancholy. "Well, you certainly came back - but it wasn't the very next night. And I certainly didn't think you were a goner... But you came back, Chat. You couldn't stay away, could you?" Yes. She went for the longform joke. The EXTENDED EDITION.
Ladybug	Marinette watches Chat Noir eat with gusto, a look of amusement mixed with a deep apologetic pity. And it's not about fighting while compromised. She covers up, though! "It's good that you found some help, though are you sure about the people that come from the gate? Are you sure they aren't... Akuma?" Worry is present, but it's a speculative sort. "And have you thought about what happens if Ladybug is out of comission? Can you do the, uh..." She swings her hand like a windup, then pantomimes her hand catching a thing, and then an explosion. "You know?" SHE knows. SHE's Ladybug. But it's hard to describe 'Miraculous Ladybug' without pantomime and sugggestive motions and mouthsounds. She watches him page through her design journal with an actual critical eye. Marinette rolled SPOT!: 1 Hey, that's odd, people who live on the street don't normally do that! But they can appreciate art, it /is/ Paris. Oh well! That sad, pitying looks resume as he speaks about how those sort of things happen to Chat, and not Ladybug. The voice she uses is different, melancholy. "Well, you certainly came back - but it wasn't the very next night. And I certainly didn't think you were a goner... But you came back, Chat. You couldn't stay away, could you?" Yes. She went for the longform joke. The EXTENDED EDITION.
Chat Noir	Chat Noir shakes his head in answer to both of Marinette's questions about the gate, and his ability to deal with akuma. "We thought so too, and the first few trips into the gate were a lot like akuma attacks. Really gimmicky places with a bunch of other superheroes and fetch quests but we ended up in very different places a couple of times and it seems like the gate is just a gate." "I can't do the big reversal thing. The best I can do is stick the Akuma in a jar for special delivery." He raises his right hand to flex it a little bit. "Occasionally I wonder what would happen if I used my Cataclysm on them but I don't want to try it, and I don't really want to use it on something that's alive anyway. I suppawse I could make like a cat and try eating one." Her answer is surprising, at first. Chat Noir really doesn't understand where the gloomy look or sound of her voice is coming from, but as she progresses through this incredibly dumb joke his distant confusion slowly morphs into dawning realization and glowing delight. He beams at Marinette, but it doesn't last long because other thoughts drift into mind. This is a person who has been in his life for a while now. Not long but enough, and he doesn't really know that much about her at all. Flashes of her here and there-- babysitting a little girl who got roped into his photoshoot, or making a nice hat. Accepting his umbrella after the gum incident. Had that maybe given a more lasting bad impression than he'd thought? Or is it the other way around-- the impression he'd made as Chat Noir was simply superior and divorced from any negative taint to start with? It bugs him a little bit. Not enough to stop him taking a further half step forward, a faint rumbling stirring in his chest. All reservations aside Chat Noir can't help but be pleased, answering halfway sing-song to play into the tune but dropping it by his second sentence, "I could make it the very next night. And you're making harder to stay away with every word."
Ladybug	Marinette considers. "Well... Using Cataclysm on the Akuma, it seems good when you don't think about it, but when you do..." She shudders. "I don't know why Ladybug sends the butterfly back every time, but maybe she just thinks its the right thing to do. Maybe she knows better?" She shrugs. "But that butterfly floats off back wherever it comes from. Maybe destroying them could be better. Sometimes it bothers me, when I can't sleep. If Ladybug is doing the right things." She admits, though Chat is prowling a little closer with every sentence. Especially during her hyper-dorky song! She looks up at Chat, moving her left hand to hang loosely off her right bicep, a heat coming to her cheeks. Was this what Tikki warned her about? She had said, promised that Chat Noir was immune to her scent, but... Still, it was so hard. Beyond people like Chloe - who had an aura of bitchiness that rebuffed any potential superpower or even good sense - and, like, Juleka, she had noticed most people in class just sort of glazedly agreeing with her about things when it wasn't important. She had wanted to be liked for her own traits! "/You/ should be resting in bed." She assets, poking his outfit in the pocket and depressing lightly to get the full force of the crinkle of those wrappers. "I made herb tea tonight, so drink some. I'll massage your scalp if you do, your voice sounds a little hoarse." Her spot check is still abysmal, but she's not stupid. She just doesn't intuit the rough rumble from his chest as kitten noises.
Chat Noir	For a moment Chat Noir ponders whether all of this is just a ploy to pry secrets out of him. He decides that no, it's probably not, because what he remembers of Marinette is simply nowhere near that devious. It's more Chloe's thing. Alya would be up front about it. He shrugs a little, "Ladybug is doing the best she can, and it's always been enough for everybody involved. A lot of people wouldn't be around anymore without her. That's... it's not something that's easy to do." "For an ordinary person who works really hard at it, they might be able to save one other person in their entire life. Ladybug got that one out of the way and rolled on to the next two while sassing Papillon to his big dumb face in front of the entirety of Paris." He's not going to tell Marinette how much it actually breaks Ladybug's heart when things don't go completely right. Even if she's not all that suspicious, it seems too dangerous. On the topic of destroying the butterflies, Chat shakes his head vigorously. "What if it did to Papillon what it does to other things? Or what if it just does that to his mind? I want to stop him, not obliterate him. I don't know why he's doing what he's doing, but he could be anyone, doing what he does for any number of reasons. With as much harm as he's done there's not a good enough reason but it doesn't mean that hurting him that way might not hurt somebody else. What if he's some poor kid's parent?" By the tone of worry in his voice, this is something Chat Noir has thought a lot about. Not the possibility of seriously using Cataclysm and having it strike another person, but the consequences that result. He looks down when Marinette pokes at his pockets. That... was way more perceptive than he was expecting out of anyone. Chat Noir blinks rapidly and clears his throat a couple of times. The distraction seems to have cleared up the purring, which entirely coincidentally leaves him bereft of any vocal oddities. "Deal." he agrees without thinking much about it, retrieving a cup of tea from the snack tray before seating himself on the floor with his back to her chaise.
Ladybug	Marinette gives a thoughtful noise. "I think it's... how you look at it." She murmurs, for a moment consumed by the emotions surrounding Chat's words. She didn't /feel/ super. She felt awful that Chloe had been put in that situation. "When I..." She begins, settling on the chaise, "Pulled an old man from the street becuase of an oncoming car, I maybe saved him. But normal people aren't superheroes. I think that's why people become doctors or police officers - to help people, to save people. To gain in that ability. Normal people don't save that many people, maybe, but sometimes people don't need to be pulled off the Eiffel Tower or saved from falling. Sometimes people just need someone to talk to. Not everyone has the ability to save others. Even if they're willing." And then the topic drifts, and the tension in her shoulders and neck slowly ebbs away, leaving her with a more 'oh that makes sense' expression, considering Chat's hesitance. "Well... It's just like I said. You have a power that you can use to help people. And you're a good person, so... You don't want to use it to do the opposite." She reasts her hands on his scalp, giving it a few warm-up scritches. "It could be even worse. The butterflies go for a specific person, right? It changes them. What if destroying it destroyed the feelings... of the Akuma victim themself?"
Chat Noir	Chat falls into thoughtful silence as Marinette drifts through her feelings and ideas related to superheroes, and the use of the powers they have available to them, and what it means to be able to save somebody. He sips at the tea that had been offered to him a little too hastily, trying to get enough in his system to get something done. When her hands come to a rest on his head, he leans back into it. The purring starts up again right away, and he doesn't notice. "Normal people /are/ superheroes, Princess." His voice breaks the silence, a little gloomy and distant, somewhat off-kilter in tone from the purring as well. "Ladybug has better tools to help people than ordinary people, but she's still a normal girl underneath that costume, or so she insists. People are wonderful and brave and confident and terrible and cruel and thoughtless whether they have superpowers or not." "If Papillon didn't have powers, do you think it would stop him from trying to accomplish whatever it is he's looking for through some other means? If Ladybug didn't, do you think it would stop her helping people? Being a superhero or a supervillain is a sort of amplifier." He sips at his tea, reaching 'round his back to grab his baton, pop it open, and extend it across the room to poke at the wall illustratively. "It extends our reach, but it doesn't make us stop being normal people underneath." He clicks his baton again, drawing it back to default length. Marinette's speculation on what destroying an akuma might do to the person it's attached to goes unanswered. If she's paying attention she can see Chat Noir paling as he turns introspective again, his thoughts shifting inexorably towards the Bubbler.
Ladybug	Drifting into feelings and ruminating on them as they pertain to superheroes is basically Marinette's struggle-demon of the last month since becoming Ladybug, and most of her time in idle thoughts is spent in that place. There's no shame in Chat being at a disadvantage in awful what-ifs. Marinette is a teenaged girl, her ability to imagine awful and embarrasing and depressing things is literally a black belt with ALL the stripes. "I think if neither had their powers, they'd try to help - or hurt - in their own way, but people accumulate things in hopes that it will get them what they want in life. I think Ladybug would help people as she was able. But with powers... Powers matter. Powers have a weight - and a burden too. But... I think it does make you more than normal. What would happen if Ladybug stopped showing up? What would happen if Papillion, or you, simply stopped doing things? What would happen? It doesn't just increase reach..." Her fingers splay behind ears and dig to the scalp as she rubs in circular patterns. "I think it magnifies everything. But more than that... What if Ladybug isn't a normal person any more? /You're/ all catty!" She finishes, her scritchy digits getting up in Chat-hair bzns. "I wonder what that means for Papillion, or the people who've become Akuma..."
Chat Noir	"You're full of deep thoughts, Princess." Chat Noir chimes, tilting his head back a little ways to look at her. From this angle she can definitely tell that his color is a little awful. Easy to chalk up to the cold though. He continues, "But you're thinking about it too hard. Having these things, of course it changes how we act a little, but it doesn't mean we're not normal. When I'm just me..." He wilts a little, tilting his head back forward and sipping at his tea. "You could see me a thousand times and know everything about me and you'd never know me." Some of these though, are hard to address. Chat Noir decides to just answer them off the cuff, "If Ladybug didn't show up one day I'd wonder whether Papillon had finally gotten her, and try to find out and fix it. But if she just couldn't do it anymore, I would understand that too. I think she'd talk to me if it was coming to that, because we don't really have anybody else to talk to about superhero things. Maybe once Papillon is taken care of that's what she's going to do, but she's not the kind of girl who would abandon a... a duty, in the middle of it." "But I hope she doesn't stop being Ladybug, even once Papillon is handled." He adds, without elaboration. Chat Noir finishes off his tea and sets his cup aside with a light clink. "Well," he says, "you're right that I'm turning very catty and that it's kind of weird, but having invasive kitty urges is pretty benign, no? Ladybug just has weird thoughts about plants. And I'm not paw-sitive but I don't think any akuma has any residual side-effects at all. Papillon, I don't know, maybe he's attracted to open flames and bright lights, or flaps around his room sometimes."
Ladybug	"I do a lot of thinking. And when did I go from Damsel to Princess?" Marinette switches over, leaning around Chat and frowning as she sees his color. She's been close to his face before (as Ladybug, at least), though she can't be sure it's really him being sick or not just the light playing tricks. SHE doesn't have night vision! Marinette gives his mask a playful tug - having been invited to earlier. "I know I like you being around. I barely know myself, Chat, don't be so hard on the world." 'Ladybug has weird thoughts about plants' causes her fingers to pause in their scritchy ministrations, just short of a record-scratch, before she exhales slowly, her fingers splaying out a bit more as she closes her eyes. "I guess plant-things is pretty simple, isn't it? And now I'm imagining Papilion like a more evil Mister Pidgeon. Thanks." She scoffs, suppressing a giggle. "Are you going to be ok?"
Chat Noir	"When I realized that I could say 'Purr-incess' somewhere down feline." Chat Noir cracks, without a moment's hesitation, deliberately punctuating the word princess with slightly heavier purring than he'd exhibited before. If it wasn't obvious that the superhero was in fact purring before, it definitely is in that specific moment. His lips curl into a catty, self-satisfied smile as he watches Marinette tugging at his mask. It's a very odd experience from his end. It isn't exactly a part of his body, but it almost feels like it is. Like it's a numb section of his skin being tugged and pulled on. It isn't the first time he's experienced it, but it doesn't come up very often either. It's not like there's much difference between him with the mask and without. Or there wouldn't be, if it came off. The pause in Marinette's scratching is taken as a signal that they're Done Here. Chat Noir remembers agreeing to have some tea and go get some rest, and really, she's right about that. Springing up onto his feet, he rustles around in his pockets for a moment while he looks down towards Marinette. Conflicting emotions soar through his head like a hurricane. But all that Marinette gets to see is the most brilliant, dorky, un-Chat Noir beaming smile that she has ever seen on this boy. Except, maybe, while engaging him as Ladybug. But there's a lightness to it bereft of his usual deliberate attempt at swagger, style, and flirting. "Give it a few days, and I'll be fighting fit again fur sure. Good night, Princess. See you next time." He replies, waving at her a little before popping open one of the windows and slipping out into the night. OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS... Chat Noir didn't reappear the next night, or the night after that. Not in person, anyway. But if she'd gone to check she would've found little notes slipped into the cracks of her trap door, weighed down by objects left on the balcony. They were nothing special. Just letting her know how he was getting along, asking the same of her, and leaving space for a reply. Coincidentally, Adrien had been absent from school this whole time. Chloe had been mightily wroth for this, and more wroth when it had been Nino reassuring her he was just getting over a 'flu or a cold or something'. On the /third/ night, Chat Noir had left something a little extra that, perhaps, dispelled a notion he had inadvertantly encouraged. Or perhaps offered additional misconceptions depending on perspective. His note was accompanied by an old-looking insulated lunchbox and a thermos bound up together in plain black cloth of uncertain origin. Inside, a squat coffee cake accompanied, a miniature tin of creamer, and cubes of sugar. The contents of the thermos is of course just coffee, though it is Rich People Coffee that Adrien didn't know normal people don't drink. The note reads: Should be back in action tomorrow. I'll come visit afturr I get some patrols done. Might be later than usual, haven't been of much use to my partner these last few days so I've gotta make up for it. Thought I'd feed you for once, so enjoy. - >:3