Miraculous Tales

22) Ϲнαт'ѕ Кιттєи

"Pound it!"

It was just another day of victory for the superhero duo in Paris. The two retrieved their hands from their usual fist bump when Chat Noir suddenly made a funny face. "What is it?" Ladybug asked. Chat opened his mouth to answer.

"I-" he abruptly shut it before twisting sideways to look at something behind him, then raised his eyebrows with slight surprise. Ladybug leaned to the side to see what her partner was looking at and covered her smile. A little toddler that appeared to be no older than three was trying to catch Chat's tail, but every time she touched it, it naturally swayed out of her reach.

Chat Noir smiled down at the tiny girl, who was in a plain, pink dress with little black pigtails on top of her head. "Well, hello there," he warmly greeted, giving her a friendly wave. She pointed up at him and laughed joyfully.

"Looks like you made a new friend," Ladybug noted, smiling at their newfound bond. She scanned the empty sidewalks around them which were strangely vacant. "I wonder where her parents are," she said with a sudden frown. She turned around and saw the girl now being held in Chat's arms, busy babbling nothing but gibberish.

"Chat, I don't see her parents anywhere around here and she doesn't seem capable of telling us anything helpful-"

"Kitty!"

Chat Noir's eyes widened as the toddler lunged for his cat ears. He chuckled as she curiously felt them in between her little fingers. She giggled when they instinctively flapped at her touch. Ladybug gasped after her earrings beeped on the last dot. "Chat Noir! I don't have time to find out where she lives, can you take care of her?" She panicked. Chat nodded as the small girl played with his bell, making it jingle a bit.

"Don't worry, m'lady. I'll take care of her," he confirmed. "I only have a few minutes left, so I'll take her with me to the HQ to power up before dropping her off."

"Thanks, I'll swing by there later!" She promised. Ladybug flung out her yoyo and took off in a blink of an eye. Chat tensed when his ring blinked on the second to last dot of the paw print. "Hold on tight!" He pulled the toddler closer with an arm and extended his baton to vault himself up and away in the late afternoon.

Once Chat Noir arrived at his destination in the back of a dark alley, he moved a large empty crate to reveal what looked like a fuse box in the brick wall. But when he opened it, there was a new keypad with a small screen where he tapped in the secret password:

Ladynoir039

Of course the password had earned him an eye roll from Ladybug when he first showed her, though little did he know it was to hide the fact that it somewhat flustered her. Chat had explained a while ago that it was clever because no one would ever guess it, and the numbers were the day they had first met. The keypad made a high pitched beep of confirmation as the lock clicked on a heavy, rusted metal door hidden in the shadows. He shut the keypad, scooted the crates in front of it, then went inside.

The door automatically locked when he closed it. Chat flipped the lights on before bending over to put the dark haired girl down. Her hold around him tightened until she decided let go. He lightly patted her head and gave her a grin that which she reflected. When Chat made his way to the office for some snacks, he heard the sound of small footsteps pattering the floor behind him.

Just as he stopped in front of the cupboard and spun around to see that the child followed him in there, his miraculous went off for the last time. She watched with wonder as his suit magically flashed off, leaving him in his plain civilian clothes with a flying kwami.