Calm After the Storm Pt. 3
This a really short chapter, written a couple months ago now, i went through a pretty mentally taxing time and lost track of the fic itself. Ill have more up soon, so keep an eye on that! I’m also moving this fic to AO3 after this chapter, and the tag list on tumblr will be utilized to let everyone know when an update is added to the fic!
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Marinette had been right. The walk to the restaurant had been much longer than promised. Lila had broken down in tears when questioned, explaining how she was ‘so sorry, I didn’t mean to drag you all this far!’
Everyone rushed to reassure her that they don’t mind, and the class continued. After a long day of walking around the Wayne Enterprises Building and not being given time to adjust, by the time the class finally got to the restaurant, Marinette’s side was aching. Chloe had had to press the Blunette to her own side to support the girl when her side tensed up and she began limping.
Sitting and ordering had been a relief. But the break had barely lasted an hour, before another long walk back to the hotel commenced.
It was dark out now. Ms., Bustier, suddenly acting like a responsible teacher, began ushering her students to move quickly. Marinette, with her side stiffening up and her limp beginning to worsen, wouldn’t be able to keep up. Chloe, refusing to leave her friend’s side, helping to support her friend, frowned at the classes back as they turned the corner, several blocks ahead of her and Marinette, and vanishing from their point of view, leaving the two girls behind. At night. Alone.
Marinette was simply breathing through the pain, blinking away tears as the dull ache spread through her waist, down her hip and up her rib cage slowly. She needed to get back to the hotel as quickly as she could, she had a Healing Balm from the Grimoire of the Guardian, several doses ready for exactly this reason. She couldn’t do much beyond limping forward, leaving heavily on the tall form of Chloe, who was snarling under her breath, in French, about their class and useless teacher.
The cracked sidewalk stretched on before the two young women, the stuttering steps of one echoing down every alley they passed, and Chloe kept a sharp eye out. In the two blocks they had to travel, Marinette was too distracted to help keep an eye on the surrounding area. As the two girls passed each alley, Chloe tensed, hauling Marinette higher up so she could move faster past the openings, eyeing the shadows she could see in the darkness further in. The Hotel was in sight, less than four buildings away, when a figure stepped out of the alley, putting themselves between the two girls and their safety.
Marinette looked up when Chloe stopped and tensed up further, and tightened her arm around Chloe’s waist as she took in the man in front of her. He was large, both tall and in width, and imposing. He had a slimy smirk on his face, eyeing up Marinette’s body as Chloe took a couple steps backwards, trying to put more distance between her and her friend, and the man.
“Well, well, well.” His voice was scratchy, catching on the ‘W’ as he leered at the two. “What have we here? A pretty blonde girl, and a little dark haired one! Aren’t you two just, … perfect”
Neither of the two girls said anything as Chloe slowly lowered Marinette to her feet, stepping in front of the smaller, injured girl. Chloe brought her hands up, lowering her body into a mock stance just to keep herself loose and ready for whatever this man was going to do.
His grin widened and he started laughing, his eyes lighting up like he was excited as he moved his hand to his back and withdrew a gun. Chloe’s eyes were trained on the man’s face, but Marinettes were narrowed, looking into the direction of the alley. She placed one of her hands on Chloe’s shoulder and squeezed.
“Oh, I love it when they fight back.”
“Well” interjected a new voice, from somewhere in deeper into the alley,
A gun shot rang out, and the mugger or whatever let out a yell as he was forced to drop his own gun. He brought it back close to his chest as he stumbled away from the alley way, away from the even taller figure stepping out of the darkness. His gloved hands holding a gun, pointed at the fleeing man. He had on a brown leather jacket, armored gray shirt below the jacket, emblazoned with a red bat across his chest, dark pants and plenty of pouches along his hips and thighs. The leather jacket had a red fabric hood hanging down from the collar, and a full face helmet of the same color covered his head.
As soon as the loud noise rang out and she registered the movement from beside her, Chloe whipped around and scooped up Marinette, carrying the smaller girl back a couple steps into the indented doorway of a café, hovering over Marinette as the exhausted girl leaned against the door frame.
A couple more gunshots rang out before the two girls heard the sounds of running. The heavily modulated voice from before lets out a string of curses before a dull GA-CHUNK rang out, and the man/hero was whisked off by the whirr of a grapple. There was another thud as someone else impacted onto the sidewalk by the two girls hiding spot.
“Hey, it’s alright you two, you’re safe now! The Red Hood is pursuing your attacker.” It was a cheery voice compared to the one of their attacker. Chloe leaned around the corner to get a look at him. Only slightly taller than her, roughly 6’ compared to her 5’9. He had darker skin, his hair cut short and black domino around his eyes, white lenses blocking out his actual eyes. He had on a tight, lightly armored suit with blue highlights and a blue bird insignia across his chest, two batons strapped to his thigh, and a slim belt with small pouches along his hips.
She narrowed her eyes at him before moving forward. With all the walking done today, and the stairs and the sudden move that they had to do to get away, Marinette was exhausted and her scar hypersensitive. Chloe kneeled down in front of Marinette and hoisted her up into a piggyback before turning and facing the hero who stopped to help them.
“Are you two alright? Is she hurt?” his hand was moving up and towards them and his brow furrowed in concern as the hero began moving towards them. Chloe raised her chin, eyes narrowed.
“She has an old wound. It scarred badly and she has difficulty moving. We were trying to get back to our hotel after dinner with our class, but she was moving too slow to keep up, and I refused to leave her behind- I’m sorry, who are you?” Chloe took one step back, angling herself so she was between the hero and her friend.
The man in front of them had a dark look on his face for a second as Chloe spoke, before clearing his face of emotions and taking a deep breath.
“My name is Nightwing, I’m a local vigilante working under Batman, that man was a smuggler we were tracking, and we stepped in when we saw him holding you two at gunpoint,” the newly introduced Nightwing held his hands up in front of him, “ I’m going to escort you back to your hotel, alright?”
Chloe eyed Nightwing suspiciously before turning her head, looking at the top of Marinette’s head as the smaller girl rested her head in the crook of her neck, before looking back at the vigilante.
“Our hotel is just right down there,” the blonde girl gestured with her chin, before walking towards Nightwing, warily passing him as the man grinned, turning as Chloe walked past and keeping some distance between himself and the girls.
“So,” he began, glancing at Marinette as they walked. “You mentioned you were walking with a class? I can’t imagine you’re from Gotham, what with your lovely accents!” He gave a joking wink as he said it, bouncing slightly.
“We’re not.” Marinette lifted her head, giving the vigilante a look, “we’re here on a class trip, for a month.” The Bluenette gives a pained smile as she speaks. The small group reaches the steps for the girls hotel, but before Chloe could carry Marinette up the stairs Nightwing placed a hand on Chloe’s arm.
“Just, one last thing. Please, keep in mind that Gotham is not Paris, it’s much more dangerous.
He shakes his head before giving one last smile, turning to start running away and pulling a Grapple on his belt, looking back one last time he waves a goodbye before swinging off, into the night.
Due to Lila getting the class to go out for dinner, dinner itself going long, and the walk back to the hotel, by the time the two girls got back into their hotel rooms, all the rest of the class was settled in. Madame Bustier hadn’t even responded to the message Chloe sent to let her know that the two girls had returned safely.
Before Chloe and Marinette could go to bed, they had to call Luka and Kagami. That discussion lasted an hour, and another 45 minutes was spent massaging the excess healing balm into Marinette’s scars and doing short pain reduction spells. By the time the two girls fell asleep, they barely had four hours left to rest.
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