Chasing Chat Noir

Chapter 7

Chat gently motioned for me to lay down. Reluctantly, I obliged.

I tried to calm my nerves, but I only felt my heart rate increase. I had already endured so much tonight, and the thought of my pain being amplified right before subsiding was enough to make me want to run away.

With Chat already feeling stronger, I don't think I'd get far.

The look on his face was almost apologetic as he leaned towards me and whispered, "I'm sorry if this hurts, Mari"

I didn't respond, I only nodded and tried to prepare myself.

Surprisingly, Chat didn't go straight in with the healing substance. He gently outlined my bruising, almost as if he were studying it.

"Their goal was to slow you down" he spoke as if he were talking to himself. Maybe he was.

He took a second longer to ponder whatever was running through his head, and then he carefully started to apply the healer onto my lower bruises.

At first, I didn't know if it had worked. Maybe it was a fluke? But then I felt it.

Pain flooded my entire body, and it felt as if I were on fire. Vivid memories flashed through my head, and it was as if I were reliving every punch, every blow I had taken tonight but ten times stronger.

I tried to keep my pain hidden. I gritted my teeth and attempted to distract myself by trying to remember my captors and their location. What were they up to? Why had they been hired and why hadn't Hawkmoth just akumatized them?

Chat studied me, but he remained silent. He continued to make his way towards the brunt of the bruising. I felt another flood of pain shoot throughout my body.

"Why do you think..." I paused and waited to gain a bit more strength, "why wouldn't Hawkmoth akumatize the attackers? Instead he hired them. Where is the logic in that?"

The pain wasn't just on the surface of my skin. It was as if the healer traveled throughout my entire body and carried the pain along with it. Maybe it did.

Chat thought for a moment, "people that are akumatized still have a certain level of free will. For the most part, he can undeniably control them. But to blatantly hurt and attack for pleasure? I don't think he would take a chance of his plans failing."

"But what plans does he have in motion? It feels like we're playing a chess match but we don't even know where the king and queen are." As Chat applied the last of the healer onto my stomach, he leaned a little closer to me.

"We'll find out soon enough, I suppose. Something tells me he won't wait long before his next move. If my suspicions are correct, then once we have a little more to go off of this will be easier to piece together."

His hand gently met my forehead, and he applied the healer to the gash that had occurred during my escape. The pain in my head hurt more than anything, and I couldn't help but wince.

Chat put a lid on the container and placed it on my bedside table. For a second I thought that he would leave and I would end up having to stumble after him in the dark, but he just lied down next to me.

"You know, Chat..." I paused, cautious of whether or not I should continue.

"You have your thinking face on, Mari. Spit it out." He faced me on the bed and waited for me to speak.

"My thinking face?" I raised an eyebrow in question.

"You furrow your eyebrows..." his hands traced where my brows were indeed scrunched. I forced my face to relax.

"And you bite your lip." His hands moved there next, and he lightly traced them.

There was silence for a moment, but it came to be unbearable. "What's on your mind, Mari?"

"The way you reacted to the healer, all of the pain you endured tonight..." I wasn't sure I wanted to finish my train of thought.

"What about it?" Now it was his turn to furrow his eyebrows.

"You were beaten to a pulp tonight, and yet you found enough strength to get here. I, arguably, took half of the damage you did and I barely made it back. And you hardly flinched with the healer." I wanted to move towards him, but I didn't dare.

"I don't see where you're going with this." He remained still.

"It's almost as if... you're used to getting hit. And not like in the way you do as Chat Noir." One of the hardest things about knowing Chat is never actually knowing Chat. I could never really know his home life or specific details, but after tonight, I could assume one thing.

This was not Chat's first beating.

Chat stilled for a long moment. I'd never seen him like this before.

In a blink, it was gone and the normal Chat returned. "Being Chat Noir has its disadvantages sometimes. But it comes with the territory."

I went to open my mouth, but before I could speak he cut me to the chase: "you worry about me too much, Mari. Careful, or I'll start to think you care."

••••••••

I couldn't fall asleep. I turned over, facing away from Chat. I held back a grimace as my bruises screamed in protest of my movement. It made no difference; I doubted I could fall asleep at all tonight.

After a few minutes, I grew uncomfortable of my position once again and flipped over. This time, I was facing Chat's back.

I noticed the slight rise and fall of his chest, and I cursed myself for pushing too hard tonight. My relationship with Chat was complicated.

We were constantly fighting and bickering, and yet he was always there. When the bombs exploded the other day, he didn't hesitate to jump in front of me. Today, he basically crawled back here.

My guess was that I was some sort of asset to him. Since he had happened to come to my room that fateful night, he had probably just seen staying here as a good opportunity to stay close to the city at all times.

And maybe he even liked giving me headaches.

I almost turned around again, but decided it wasn't as comfortable.

"If you keep moving like that, I'll never get to sleep." Chats voice held fatigue, but there was a hint of amusement in his voice.

He turned to face me, and through the darkness I could've sworn I saw a smile playing on his lips.