Chapter Text
In a dark corner of the room he hid, crouching, waiting for someone to pass through the door. His stomach rumbled, he hadn't eaten anything yet today. It must have been an hour already. No it must have been several of them. He was hungry. But he had to be patient. Soon his target would…
Ears flicked forward at the sound of a click came from the door. He was here!
The door pushed forward, light streamed in but left his spot untouched. Standing in the entrance was a boy around his age. The boy's most striking feature was his fiery red hair.
The boy looked hesitant to step into the room, the darkness must have unsettled him. He was right to be so. He couldn't help the excited grin that crept onto his face. This was going to be fun.
The boy finally entered, cautiously examining his surroundings as he placed some bags he was carrying onto a nearby table. "I'm home." He called out. No response came. The redhead looked more uneasy. "You didn't go back to sleep did you? I've only been gone for 30 minutes."
Hmm. Had it really been 30 minutes? The hunger made it feel longer. The boy was moving in his direction now, towards a covered window. A little closer. Just a little bit more. His tail began swaying back and forth impatiently. It made a small noise as it bumped a the wall. Shoot. Quickly he reached to grab his tail. Before it gave him away.
Unfortunately the damage was done. The boy was glaring in his direction now. "Noir get out here now or I'm eating your croissant."
"Aww Nathanael, don't be like that." Chat Noir wined as he rose from his hiding spot. "Croissants are my reason for living. How could you want to take that away from me?" He swooned dramatically "That's just evil."
Nathanael scoffed "I thought you lived for puns."
"Them too. I'm just feline croissants today." He couldn't help it.
"Oh no." Nathanael scrunched his brows "What have I done?"
Chat Noir chuckled and poured two glasses of orange juice, while Nathanael drew the curtains and finally allowed light to pool into the room.
Placing the juice back in the fridge, he sat by the table. A hand reached towards one of the bags, only to be swatted away. "No hoods at the table." The voice held a tone of no arguments.
Chat pouted but did as he was told. On the second floor no one would be looking in, but the hood made him feel safe. Like no one would know that he wasn't normal so long as he wore it.
Pulling it down. His golden locks shown in the sunlight. In stark contrast against it, were two black furry triangles. They flickered on his head, catching the tiniest bit of sound around him. His eyes were green, even the whites of his eyes were green. His pupils, no longer protected in the shadow of his hood, rapidly shrunk till they were thin slits. His hands reached up feeling for the mask he knew was there on his face and tugged at it. It didn't budge. It never did.
Sighing he looked to Nathanael "Happy now."
"Extremely" Nathanael didn't bother glancing at him, he was too busy grabbing some baked goods for himself.
Taking a bite from his croissant, Chat Noir melted from the buttery goodness.
He had been living with Nathanael for almost 3 months, and they got along just fine. Nathanael worked in the castle. Chat wasn't exactly clear on what he did. Rather than speaking about his job he mostly talked about Chloe. About how she always taunted him and looked for new ways to try to make his life miserable apparently. Supposedly he couldn't stand her… supposedly.
A wave of sadness washed over him as he thought of the girl. She was his first and only friend back when… back in his old life. He wondered if she cried at his funeral. That was a stupid question. Of course not. She was too proud to do it in public, Chloe would have waited till she was in private. His uncle, however, was different. His uncle broke down at his funeral. At least that's what he heard. He hadn't gone to it. The thought of seeing his loved ones grieve was too much. Besides he was still learning to blend into the shadows at the time. It was also why he didn't attend his father's funeral the month before.
Why hadn't they placed a bounty on him yet? Was it because of the mark? His hand reached over to his heart as he remembered the pain from that night. White, hot pain. The last thing he felt when he was still just him. Still Adrien and not Chat Noir.
"---" "- -----hey" "Hey!"
Snapping out of his thoughts, Chat Noir blinked at Nathanael. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"
"I said…" Nathanael gave him a pointed stare to see if Chat was paying attention this time "…that there was a new bounty poster placed up today in the sheriff's office."
For a moment terror took over. It finally happened, they were coming…
He almost jumped out of his skin when a hand placed itself on his shoulder. He definitely didn't squeak just then.
"Don't do that!" He wheezed. Clutching his heart, it pounded underneath his palms.
Nathanael had a smirk on his face. "You're say that, when you tried and failed to jump scare me earlier."
And he would have succeeded too if his tail hadn't given him away. "You have no proof!" He gave his best look of indignation.
"Yeah sure." Nathanael was relieved to see his friend relax. "Calm down Noir. The poster isn't yours."
Oh thank goodness …not that he was worried or anything.
"So who's it for?" With his looks, Chat couldn't get a job the conventional way.
Most people would want to know what their employee looked like and most people didn't like being near anything that stunk of magic. Sure most people had some magic. Just enough to use magical tools and appliances, like the fridge he and Nathanael had. But magic could also be dangerous. Although a magic-user hadn't cursed him to look like a cat, people would still be concerned with possibly pissing one off.
"It's for a gang of thieves. Witness reports mention five so far. All male."
Hmm five would be difficult to fight at once. But if he could pick them off one by one then maybe he could manage. "How big is the bounty?"
Nathanael scratched his head. "Not that big yet since they just popped up two weeks ago. But Sheriff Raincomprix was hoping you'd be able to bring them in for him."
"Why does he need me to do it? Not that I'm complaining, but I'm just one bounty hunter."
Bounty hunting was not an easy profession. He not only had to find his targets but subdue them too and his last target hadn't gone down easily. He was lucky that none of his bones broke.
"Yeah but you're a good one and these guys are scum. They've mugged five people so far and they have this nasty hobby of testing their knives on their victims." Nathanael passed him a paper filled with information on what they looked like, what they've done, and of course the price on their heads.
Looking at it briefly he noticed something. "It says that only four of the five victims were covered in lacerations."
Nathanael's hands clenched into fists. "It was luck. The sheriff had been patrolling nearby and heard her crying. He managed to drive them away before they could do any damage." He smiled darkly "I bet their sporting some really nasty bruises right about now."
Chat felt a chill run down his spine. Angry Nathanael was scary.
"Well look at the time." He said stealing a glance at the clock on the table. "It's nearly 7. You should be getting ready to leave for work."
Nathanael's eyes widened at the time and then he was rushing to get ready to leave. Stopping by the door to say one last thing. "Give them a good punch for me okay Noir?"
"No problem." Chat smirked. "Oh and give Chloe my best regards."
Nathanael scowled at him and shut the door.
And then he was alone again. In the little apartment they shared. Well almost alone. In the corner he had occupied earlier was a cat. It's eyes bore into him, watching his every move. Any trace of a good mood had all but disappeared. Frowning he moved to go to his room, he had to make sure he was ready for tonight. He didn't know what compelled him to do it, but as he passed by the table he grabbed a piece of cheese and placed it on the ground in the direction of the cat.
He woke up to see to see his room colored in a orange hue. Slowly he rose to his feet and started changing getting ready to leave. Satisfied that he was prepared, he pulled up his hood. Nathanael wasn't home yet so he would lock the door behind him.
Taking one last look at the common room, he couldn't help but feel like he was missing something. There was something different about the room compared to this morning. The door clicked behind him just as he realized. The cheese was gone.