The Cat Bell Curse

👣Chapter 4🐾

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   Adrien was angry and moody the next day.

   Whether it was being cooped up under the chaise for hours on end with still no ideas to escape or remembering his awful past yesterday, he just wasn't in the mood.

   "Where is that girl?" He grumbled, hungry for some food. Marinette was gone almost all day and skipped out on breakfast and lunch, nearly supper time.

   Finally, the teen walked into the room and set down a plate of salmon with the usual bowl of water. Adrien didn't really care if she was still standing there. He zoomed out and gobbled the fish down. Marinette sat down next to him and felt her stare on him.

   "Are you finally starting to warm up to me?" Marinette questioned.

   "No, I'm hungry because someone forgot to feed me the whole day," Adrien snapped but only came out as meowing. He was taken back when seeing a black eye and a frown on Marinette's face.

   "What happened to you, run into a door?" He snarked, noting her clumsiness. The bluenette blinked, sighing, "You're probably wondering about my eye, aren't you?"

   "You don't say?" The human minded cat tutted, sarcastically and rolled his eyes.

   "Lets just say, things aren't going good at school," she said, a small smile forcefully pulled on her lips. Adrien knew it was fake, recognizing the same thing on his magazine covers. Shaking the thought away, he grumpily ate and drank the rest of the meal.

Out of the corner of his green eye, a hand slowly reached out. Mad wasn't even a word to describe the way he felt. Couldn't she just leave him alone? Was that too much to ask? He planned to hiss and wave out a warning to stay away. Adrien didn't realize how close Marinette's hand was or that his claws came out before it was too late.

Marinette squeaked in pain, quickly retracting her hand away. The model gasped, staring dumbfounded at what he just did.

   The bluenette looked down at her bleeding hand with three claw marks engraved in it. Her blue orbs landed on Chat before blurring her vision and whimpered.

Adrien's ears drooped watching a tear roll down her cheek before she ran to the bathroom and slamming the door shut. With his enhanced hearing, crying could be heard from inside the other room. The blonde flinched and felt something he never felt before. Regret.

He never regretted his actions even if it had consequences, the stubbornness in him made sure of it. Yet, this time was different. He actually made someone cry, not that he hasn't before but those people were strangers that only cared about his money and looks.

Marinette was caring and sweet letting a stray cat into her home. Gave him food and water. Left him alone and never forced him to come out from under the chaise.

   If that didn't take the cake of his regret, she was also being bullied at school. It made sense. The messages that made her frown, questioning herself yesterday, and the black eye.

   Now, he felt horrible for the way he's been acting and stooped too low. She just wanted a friend, not another bully. She sorta reminded him of his mother in a way. Gentle and sweet. Then what does he do...what his father does, cruel and cold, forcing everyone away.

He didn't even want to be like his father, and all's it did was take a sweet girl crying to make him realize that. How pathetic was that?

An ache swelled in his chest and twisting in the stomach area full of guilt. He walked over to the bathroom door and pawed it with droopy ears.

"Marinette, I-I'm sorry," Adrien apologized but knew it was useless. She didn't understand cat, only Tikki could understand him.

The door opened and Marinette quickly walked by. He noticed her tear stained face and a bandage wrapped around her hand from the scratch. The scratch he gave her.

"Chat, please, leave me alone. I know when I'm not wanted," her voice cracked and sniffled, beginning to climb the latter up onto her loft. The black cat stubbornly followed her after a few seconds in a frozen state.

   "I'm an idiot, a jerky idiot," Adrien told himself, a heavy weight pulling down on his heartstrings. He popped his head over the ledge spotting the girl laying on her side sniffling and shakily breathing.

The humanlike cat crawled onto the bed getting the bluenette's attention. She covered herself with a blanket as a way to hide but left her injured hand out. With droopy ears, Adrien meowed, sorrow-filled and licked her injured hand as a way to apologize.

Marinette flinched at the touch before relaxing and poking her head out from the covers. Her puffy, red eyes glimmered with tears and something else that Adrien never saw, sympathy.

To him, Marinette is caring of others whether it was a human or animal and sweet like the goodies her parents made in their bakery. She reminded him of something made up but the feeling was real...as if she were a real live...

"Princess..." Adrien said, softly. It was like the ones his mother used to tell him stories when he was younger. Sweet, kind, caring, and beautiful inside and out. All theses describe Marinette in more ways than one.

Green met blue as a small smile made its way on the teen girl's face. A genuine smile. She reached out and scratched behind Adrien's ears and upper head. He actually loved the petting after having long urges for a scratch. Her digits taking away the itchiness and replacing it with...oh words couldn't describe how amazing it felt.

He started to purr and felt a little embarrassed about this cat trait but it seemed that Marinette liked it.

"Thank you, Chat. You're such a good, Kitty," she rasped. Chat replied with a meow. He had a feeling that they were about to start a close friendship and didn't mind it one bit.

He looked at her eyes once again, having a better look at them. He never realized how beautiful a dazzling blue she had like clear skies in the summer or bluebell flowers in spring. Astonishing to say the least.

"Has anyone ever told you how pretty your eyes are, Princess?" Adrien commented. Then he stilled at what he just said. Why had he said it? Yeah, sure her eyes were really really pretty, but he just met Marinette about a week ago.

He almost sounded flirty in a way but knew that he had to save them for his girlfriend. He couldn't hurt both girls like that...if he ever was going back to being human.

"I should get you some supper," Marinette said, snapping the dazed cat out of thought. The clumsy gale made her way to the kitchen and nearly fell off the ladder, missing a bar. Adrien, for some odd reason, followed her downstairs.

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