When the Cat Met the Wolf

49. Only One Life

Arianne's body slowly recovered the movement as she woke up. She was lying on a hospital bed, and had no idea how she got there.

"See?" she heard a voice beside her, and found a small creature, a black cat with green eyes who looked like a kwami "I told you she would wake up! Geez, stop worrying so much"

"Well, forgive me for being concerned about my master!" she recognised the voice on her left as Ayu's "How do you feel, Aria?" asked the kwami with concern, looking at the girl.

"Uh..." she stuttered. She wasn't really sure what to say, she was a bit more concerned about the fact that there were two kwamis in her hospital room, and a hospital was full of people that could get in at any moment and see them. And also, she had no idea whose kwami the black cat was "What are you doing?" she finally managed to let out some words, as she looked at Ayu, who looked at her confused as to what she meant "You should be hiding!" then, she looked at the other kwami "And I'm pretty sure you should be hiding, too! Who are you, anyway, and what are you doing here?"

"This is Plagg" introduced Ayu, flying to float besides Plagg "He is a kwami" Arianne was right, afterall, he was a kwami!

"Of whom?" she questioned, she still didn't have that detail.

"Of Adrien!" replied Plagg, making Arianne look at him in pure and utter shock. It took her a minute to react and say something.

"What?" that was all she could say.

"Adrien is Chat Noir!" this time, Ayu answered, instead of Plagg. Arianne was even more shocked to hear that.

"What?" she asked once more, still trying to process this new information "Wait, why are you telling me this? Shouldn't his identity be a secret?" she asked after solid four minutes of silence and processing.

"I like fair play" she heard Adrien's voice on the door, and turned to look at him leaning against the doorframe.

Now that she looked at him more clearly, he did look like Chat Noir, the hair specially, not his eyes so much, since Adrien's eyes were a lighter green than Chat Noir's. The transformation most probably darkened them.

"What do you mean 'fair play'?" she questioned curiously, and Adrien sat on the edge of her bed to speak and be closer to her. He was very glad that Arianne was alright, and he didn't know what he would have done if she hadn't woken up.

"When I saved you from the river, your pin had slipped off your hair, so you were in your civilian form" he explained as Arianne listened curiously "It didn't feel right to know your identity but you not knowing mine, so here I am, m'lady" he stated like Chat Noir usually did "And this is yours" he took out her pin from his pocket and placed it on her hair.

"Thanks" replied Arianne with a smile "How long was I asleep?"

"Sixteen hours" replied Adrien, to which Arianne opened her eyes wide. That was a very long time! "Volpina wasn't a superhero, after all, she was just Lila akumatized"

"I knew there was something off about her" stated Arianne, just as Thiago got into the room. He was also very glad the his best friend was okay.

"It's great to have you back, Aria" said Thiago with a smile upon seeing the girl awake "I hope I didn't interrupt anything" he added, looking at her and then at Adrien.

"We were just talking about Volpina" replied Adrien, just as Jazmin emerged from Thiago's pocket.

"You really had us worried back there" stated the kwami, folding her arms with an angry expression, which looked extremely cute on her "Don't do that again" Arianne cut her gaze between Adrien and Thiago, before finally asking: