Partners in Crime ~Set it Off

Marinette stared at the white ceiling above her. The moonlight shone on it, a bit of light in the pitch black room. She couldn't get her conversation with Chat earlier out of her head.

How could there be so many deaths, and no links? That just seemed impossible. There's bound to be something that connect all of these people together. She could hear Chat typing away in the room next to her. The typing was constant, and there were little breaks. She knew that the breaks were probably because he was getting frustrated and tired, but yet he continued with determination.

She turned to look at the alarm clock on the nightstand next to her purple bed.

2:37 AM.

She slipped herself off the silky covers quietly, gently stepping on the freezing wood floor with her bare feet. She was wearing the sweatpants she had kind of stolen from Chat earlier in the week and a black tank top, which was to cold in her opinion for the cold mansion.

She opened the door and walked next door to Chat's room. After a few moments of debating, she slowly knocked on the mahogany door and waited in the silent darkness for an answer.

"Come in, Princess." She walked inside and was in awe. She had never been in his room before, but it was perfect. There was a lightly colored wooden desk in the corner with a desk lamp on it and several books pressed up against the wall and papers scattered among it. The dark blue walls matched his covers and there was a black rug under the desk, reaching to the edge of his bed.

"What's wrong Marinette?" He had his sunglasses back on as he looked up at her in worry. Her face flushed red as she noticed he was wearing no shirt, so his tan muscled chest was bare, and she had a good view of his abs.

"I'm sorry. It's just that I couldn't sleep-"

"And you wanted to sleep in here?" She silently nodded her head, slightly embarrassed. When he said it like that, it kind of made her sound like a child.

"C'mere." He lifted the covers up on his side and signaled for her to crawl in next to him. She slowly crept her way over to him before sliding under the warm covers. His warmth and scent immediately surrounded her, leaving her to feel like she was safe.

She drowsily placed her head on his chest, his arm resting on the side of her neck as he typed. She watched his slim fingers move at a manic speed on the laptop, typing up notes about Proietille Velenoso and the people they killed.

He stopped typing suddenly, clicking out of the document and opening a different folder.

"What are you doing now?"

He clicked on a file titled Phantom of the Opera.

"We're gonna watch a movie. This one is one of my favorites. My mother and I used to watch it all the time. It's usually what I watch late at night." Marinette smiled as he shared a piece of his past with her.

"What's the other one?"

"The other one? The movie I like is bit more new, but I loved the Broadway versions of it and the books. It's called Les Miserablés. It's based off of the French Revolution."

Marinette hummed in response, placing her hand under her cheek to block the intense body heat he was giving off.

"We'll have to watch that next then." She murmured as the movie began to start. She felt Chat's arms begin to move, probably to take off his sunglasses, before resting on her shoulder.

"Is this entire movie black and white?"

"No, just the first few minutes."

The two teens sat in silence as the auctioneer began to show off different antiques from the Phantom of the Opera.

It was around the time the Phantom began singing Music of the Night that Marinette had drifted off to sleep. Adrien felt her soft even breaths against his bare chest, her dark hair sprawled over her face.

He paused the movie and closed the laptop, setting it off to the side.

3:12 AM.

It was that late, or early now, and Adrien still wasn't tired. He hung an arm loosely around Marinette's shoulders as he stared up at the pitch black ceiling.

It was peaceful for a few minutes until a loud beeping rang through out the house.

He frowned and Marinette fell off of him in surprise.

"Chat, what's going-"

"Hide. Go in to your room and stay there until I come to get you. Okay Princess?"

He heard her stumble on her words, trying to execute a sentence, but he ignored her babbling as he called out Plagg's name.

"Plagg, transform me!" His voice was quiet as he transformed, a bright green light surrounded him, shielding his identity from Marinette, who was still stuttering.

"Come on Princess!" He roughly grabbed her hand as he tugged her along to the next room over.

He opened the door and gently pushed her inside. "Stay here."

He closed the door behind him as he left, stealthily running down the hall.

Marinette snorted to herself. "Stay here? I can help too. I can't just let him do everything by himself. Tikki, transform me!" She closed her eyes but when she felt nothing happen she frowned.

"Oh yeah... She's not here..." Instead of wallowing in her sadness, she opened the door to go follow him.

"I can still do things as Marinette as well."

She saw the black tail whip around the corner. She raced after it, hoping to god that her clumsiness would not kick in.

Too late.

She ran into Chat's back before letting out a small shriek as she fell on to her butt. Chat turned around, his ears twitching, with alarmed eyes.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Chat whispered angrily, pulling her back up to her feet.

"I can help!" She whispered back.

"You can't freaking help!" His voice had changed in frustration into a higher pitched one. He groaned as he slid a hand down his face. "Just be quiet and stay behind me. If I say run, you better run like hell's chasing you."

Marinette bit back her smile as she nodded in understanding.

"There's no one here." A gruff voice resounded through out the halls.

"Yeah, well our intel is never wrong, you idiot. And do you really have enough guts to against Marc's orders?"

Chat's hand went up to her back and pushed her closer to him as he drew the silver baton from behind him.

"No. Let's just check again. She's got to be here somewhere."

A tall man, that probably towered over Chat by three inches, which amazed Marinette, considering the fact that Chat Noir was around 6 feet tall, walked around the corner they were at.

Marinette could tell he was an Italian descendent by his dark hair and eyes, not to mention his thick accent.

Once the man turned the corner, Chat's staff hit the back of the man's head with brute force, making him stumble forward.

The man placed his hand behind his head as he turned to look at who attacked him. The man was huge, but that also made him slower than the smaller teen in front of him.

Chat dashed forward, smacking his staff into the guy's gut, which cause him to slouch over and grasp his gut. The man attempted to make a loud groan or a call for help but Marinette kicked his back, pushing him to the ground.

Chat Noir looked up to Marinette with a wide grin.

"Thatta girl!" He winked at her as she smiled before he crouched down to the ground and placed the man's hands behind his back, his face pressed firmly against the ground.

Chat took a good look at his face before speaking up.

"Francesco DeLuzrio. Nephew of Marc DeLuzrio." He paused as shifted his gaze over to Marinette. "How did he figure out it was Marinette?"

"I don't need to answer to you!" Francesco spat before attempting to spit on Chat Noir's cheek.

Chat dug his elbow in the space under his shoulder blade making Francesco cry out in pain, and Marinette cringe.

"Normally, I wouldn't resort to this method. But since you dragged my Princess into your mess, this cat is going to become a viscous cat." Chat hissed, venom dripping off of every word. His face was extremely close to Francesco's.

"Now tell me, how did you find Marinette? And why would your leader send out his, correct me if I'm wrong, fourth in command? Not third because you have an older brother right?"

"How do you know so much about us?" Francesco grunted from beneath Chat with gritted teeth.

"While you guys were doing your research on my Princess, and probably me, I did my fair share of research on your group, Proietille Velenoso."

Francesco chuckled, which confused Chat Noir and startled Marinette.

"We didn't need to do any research on you, you piece of cat shit. We know everything we can about you. Right, A-"

Chat pushed his head further into the marble floor, cutting Francesco off.

"If you knew what was good for you, you'd shut up."

"Chat, someone is coming." Footsteps echoed through the hall, coming closer and closer to the pair.

"We gotta go." In one quick fluid motion he was off of Francesco's back and was racing down the hallway, hands interlocked with Marinette's as he pulled her along.

They reached the end of the hallway, a giant window on one end and two yelling, angry Italian men running on the other.

"You trust me right, Princess?"

"Yes?..."

"Good." He pulled her into his arms, one arm wrapped securely around her waist and another going up her back, his hand resting on her head. He tucked her head into his collarbone before getting a small running start before leaping through the window.

He turned midair as they fell like rocks, before crashing into the ground. His left shoulder dug into the grass, ripping up the dirt beneath it as pain flamed through it.

He bit his lip in an attempt to cry out as he and Marinette rolled on the ground and down the hill together. Their legs became a tangled mess and they constantly came close to banging foreheads together, but they finally stopped once they got to the edge of the woods.

Chat propped himself up the best he could with his hurt shoulder, putting most of his weight on his right arm as he turned to look at his old summer house. Marinette looked at the cut on his cheek before turning her attention to what her partner was looking at.

"What are they doing?" The two men had jumped from the window, just like they had, but instead of running after them, they were huddled together over something.

Chat squinted as he tried to get a better look just as the two men backed away and began to run the opposite direction. That's when the light caught his eye.

It had started out as a little flame but quickly grew as it consumed the entire mansion.

"No..."

"Did they just-"

"Get down!" Chat placed his forearms on either side of Marinette's face, as he used his body as a shield. He ducked his head so it was next to Marinette's just as a loud boom rang throughout the entire place.

Heat immediately blew on them in strong waves as different sized debris flew towards them, hitting Chat's back in several places.

After a moment, it was calm again.

Marinette got up with Chat as he stared at the house with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Chat..." She hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder, before quickly removing it as he hissed in pain.

She stood there in silence as they stared at the smoldering debris that used to be a mansion.

My head hurts. Sorry I couldn't post this on monday, but my doctor told me that even though I had a minor concussion, that I had to stay off electronics for a few days.

Until next time, peace!