#Hu Shen's clothes sound like a mess because I'm bad at describing

[the-au-queen]

Our Transfer Student Can’t Be This Cute! (1/?)

Giftee: @vindhler Rating: Teen and Up (some cussing) Words: 2644 Pairings: Adrinette, later JuleRose as well Warnings: None Beta reader: @faunusroman Event: @mlsecretsanta

Prefer AO3? Here you go! It includes me rambling about stuff in the notes.

Summary:  When a new transfer student from Shanghai arrives, Adrien gets assigned to guide her around. In his purely objective opinion, she's unbelievably cute. Also, Chat Noir makes friends with a trickster. Bonheur Rouge is not amused.

“Everyone, please welcome your new transfer student, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Mlle Bustier led a small girl with black hair into the classroom. “While she is half French, she lived her whole life in China with her family and only speaks Chinese. Please be nice to her, and help her if she needs anything.” 

The girl bowed and smiled. 

“Now, about your seat…” Mlle Bustier pointed at a seat behind Adrien. “M. Agreste speaks Chinese. He can help you if you need it.” 

Adrien watched the girl pass him and sit behind him. He turned around and smiled. “Welcome to our class. The teacher said you can ask me if you need anything, since I speak Mandarin.”

Marinette looked surprised, but returned the smile. Oh god, she was cute. “Thank you. It’s nice knowing I’m not completely alone in here. I didn’t expect anyone to speak Mandarin.”

“Yeah, it’s not a common language to learn.”

Marinette looked like she wanted to ask more, but Mlle Bustier called for attention and began the class. Adrien reluctantly turned back and focused on the lesson instead. He wouldn’t have minded talking with Marinette some more.

---

“..... and here’s the cafeteria. The food’s pretty good here, but you can bring your own, too.”

Marinette nodded and took a curious look around. “It’s much smaller than in Shanghai.”

Adrien laughed. “I can imagine. Let me show you the locker rooms next.”

“That sounds nice.” Marinette smiled and walked along with him. “Say, why did you learn Mandarin? Do you like the country?”

“Oh.” Adrien tried not to show the uncomfortableness show. “My father made me learn it. He said it’s a useful skill to have.”

Marinette seemed to have sensed his unease, because she elbowed him lightly. “Hey, it has some use now! I’m glad you’re here to help me.” And in that moment, Adrien’s heart was stolen.

“Thanks.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I can also show you around Paris, if y-” He was interrupted by his phone beeping with an akuma alert. Really? Right now? He looked back at Marinette, who still smiled innocently. Right. She didn’t know about them. She just moved here.

“That was an akuma alert.” He explained. “We’re kinda dealing with a supervillain around here. He akumatises people when they feel angry or sad. This one is…” He glanced at his phone. “... pretty close. We have superheroes like Bonheur Rouge and Chat Noir to deal with them, but we better get to safety nonetheless. It can get pretty crazy.”

Marinette nodded, looking a bit confused, but determined. “Okay. We will get to safety.”

“Yeah. You, uh-” Adrien tried to think of a reason to separate. He had to help Bonehur Rouge, and she wasn’t fond of him being late. “You go hide in the toilets. I’ll check if our class is safe.”

“If you say so.” Marinette looked unsure, but still ran off to the toilets. Adrien sighed in relief. Good, now to find a place to transform.

“Plagg?” He whispered to his inner shirt pocket. “Are you awake?”

“Wide awake and ready to go, boy!” The kwami peeked out of the pocket. “Just say the word.”

Adrien ducked into an unused classroom. “Plagg, transform me!”

---

Chat Noir hopped from roof to roof and landed next to Bonheur Rouge.

“Kitty reporting for duty.” He grinned at her. She only rolled her eyes. “What kind of akuma are we dealing with?”

Bonheur regarded the chaos below them with a calculated look. “It seems like a tree based akuma. He’s been rooting people in place, quite literally. Everyone hit grows roots from their legs and can’t move.”

Chat Noir shuddered. He loved the freedom that came with his powers. He was forced to stay in one place against his will often enough that he absolutely did not want to get hit by that guy.

“Any thoughts on the item?”

“I haven’t gotten that close to him yet, but I think he’s holding it in his right hand. He’s not letting go of whatever it is, so it’s fairly obvious.”

“Alright.” Chat bounced and got ready to jump down and fight the akuma, but Bonheur held him back by pulling on his tail.

“What did I tell you about his powers? If you’re hit, I’ll be all by myself.”

Chat placed his hand on his chest in mock hurt. “You wound me, Bonheur. I’m a nimble cat. I’d never get hit like that.” 

She raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Okay, maybe sometimes I get hit. But not by this guy! He’s my absolute nightmare!”

“If you say so.” She let go of his tail. “Be careful. I will need your Cataclysm.”

“Yes, Mademoiselle.” He saluted at her and jumped off. On the ground, he was met with people janking at their feet or trying to take their shoes off, trying to escape the roots holding them in place.

“Ah, Chat Noir,” a deep voice rang out, and when he turned, he could see the akuma approaching. 

It was a weird concoction of man and tree, his left arm transformed into a branch that grabbed people and made them grow roots. His right arm, the one that was holding the item, was the most human looking thing about him, but everything else just gave Chat the creeps. Covered in bark, the man couldn’t move much, except for the left arm that grabbed people. But not moving much didn’t mean he wasn’t fast. His left arm grew at will and sometimes even grabbed several people at once. 

“I am Racineur. Welcome to my forest.” 

Chat jumped on a mailbox when the arm branch lashed out to grab him.

“Sorry, this kitty prefers to run around.” 

He jumped from object to object –a car, a fire hydrant, another car, a lamppost, a trapped person’s head, a café umbrella– each time elegantly escaping the branch that was trying to take hold of him. It was effective for not getting grabbed, but he couldn’t get any closer. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he could spot Bonheur struggling similarly. It seemed like Racineur had more than just his arm to trap people. She didn’t even have enough time to call for her Lucky Charm. He was this close to just using Cataclysm on the ground to give them some breathing time when a giggle distracted him.

“Need help?”

Chat almost fell from the lamppost that he had just landed on. He spotted a girl in white, sitting on a nearby windowsill, seemingly undisturbed by the whole chaos. How was she so calm? She almost looked like she enjoyed watching the two heroes struggle.

“Who are you?” 

Chat barely escaped Racineur’s branch and landed on another car, briefly looking back to see the previous car he had stood on grow roots from its tires. Chat had enough of this and decided to jump on the window sill the girl was sitting on. Her legs were crossed leisurely, and she watched Racineur with a hint of amusement. 

Her face was covered by a white half mask with pointy ears, and Chat could see whiskers painted on her cheeks. The eye holes on her mask were lined with black eyeliner and one spot of red on each corner of her eye. Above them were two thick black spots, probably because the mask covered her eyebrows. Her top seemed to be some kind of variant of Asian traditional clothing. 

Chat remembered seeing some similar clothes pictured in the decorations of some Chinese restaurants, the kind with overly long sleeves that covered the hands and seemed generally impractical. He couldn’t quite remember the name of that particular piece of clothing, but he could always ask his Mandarin teacher some time. 

Her top stopped shortly below her chest and the rest of her torso was wrapped in a broad sash. The sash held up a pair of wide pants that were stuck in leather boots that had bells attached at the top of them. Chat could spot two more bells dangling off the ornamental hair sticks in her almost ribbon shaped updo. From her get up, he would guess that she was another hero, but what kind of hero just watched as people were being terrorized by the minion of a supervillain? 

“Why are you just sitting there? Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Oh, how rude.” The grin didn’t leave her face. “I was just holding back, since I didn’t want to get in the way of the local authorities.” 

Was she kidding him? Any help would be appreciated. Bonheur wouldn’t complain either. 

She must have been reading his mind, since she gave him a look. “My powers are the type that can confuse friend and foe alike. So it would be detrimental, had I just done what I thought would be best.” 

Fine, he’d give her that point. His thoughts were interrupted when Racineur spotted them again, and he had to leap out of the way. The strange heroine just jumped one floor up to the next windowsill. Chat could see three tails trailing after her, attached to her top. He still couldn’t quite grasp why she was so calm about this, but just as he landed next to her, ready to grill her, Bonheur landed on the windowsill as well.

“What are you doing? This is no time to stand around and chat!” Her eyes fell on the heroine in white. “Oh.” She narrowed her eyes. “And who are you?”

“You may call me Hu Shen.” Hu Shen…. fox god. Hu Shen let her legs dangle. “I am new to this city. I thought I’d lend my power.” Bonheur looked like she was about to ask something, but they were once again interrupted by Racineur reaching for them.

“Let’s go somewhere else,” Bonheur conceded. “We can’t talk like this, and we do need to talk.”

“Great!” Hu Shen smiled. “Follow me!” And she was off. Bonheur and Chat had no choice but to follow.

“What’s with her?” Bonheur’s voice was low, but Chat could still hear her. “Wouldn’t we pick a spot to talk? Why is she just taking the lead like that? Who does she think she is?” 

Chat had no answer for that either. 

Hu Shen landed on the railing of a small roof garden somewhere close to their school and made an inviting gesture.

“Make yourselves comfortable.”

Bonheur looked skeptical. “What about the civilians that live here? Won’t we be discovered?”

Hu Shen giggled. “I’ve come here plenty of times. We’re safe.”

“I don’t see what’s so funny about all this.”

“How serious you are, of course!” She pushed Bonheur’s shoulder. “No one’s dying! We can relax for a little.”

“No one’s dying?!” Now she had done it. Bonheur was furious. “We��re in the middle of an akuma attack and you tell us to relax because ‘no one’s dying’?! Are you insane?!” 

Chat couldn’t understand how Hu Shen could meet Bonheur’s furious gaze and still smile like nothing was wrong. 

“You have five seconds to explain yourself or else I’m leaving. I’ve got civilians to save.”

“Oh, Bonheur.” Hu Shen was at Bonheur’s other side in an instant. How did she move so fast? “You need to learn how to enjoy life. Live the fox way.” 

Bonheur lashed out at her, but she jumped up and Bonheur’s arm only met air. 

“I didn’t help because my power is tricky. If the ally doesn’t know about my illusions, it can only waste time, instead of giving them a chance to trick the enemy.” 

Chat heard the faint ringing of bells behind him and whipped around to see her drop down on the railing again. 

“Who knows, you might have even attacked me, if I joined the fight without introducing myself. Which I suppose I should do.” She bowed deeply, meeting their eyes with a playful grin. Chat noticed that she had slit eyes, just like him. “Hu Shen, the white fox, trickster, illusionist, lady of tricks and benevolence alike. At your service.”

Chat saw his opportunity and returned the bow with one of his own. “Chat Noir, master of destruction and puns.” He winked at her. “Purr-leased to meow-t you.”

“Not another one of you,” Bonheur groaned. “Fine, we know you now. Let’s get back to Racineur. You tell us what you’re gonna do, and we use the confusion to take his item. But I don’t trust you yet.”

Hu Shen tilted her head, the bells attached to her hair ornaments ringing quietly. “The fox is never fully trusted. A wise judgement, Bonheur Rouge.” She pulled a flute out of her sash and twirled it. “Where do you hide a tree? The forest.” 

She set the flute to her lips and played a melody made out of strong, playful notes. A red fog formed at the end of her flute and she took it off her lips, whipping the fog down at the ground. Bonheur and Chat materialized. Then again. And again. And again. Over and over, until even the roof couldn’t fit them any more. She flicked her flute and one by one, the pairs departed, presumably towards the akuma. Chat had to admit, he was impressed. 

Hu Shen bowed once more. “If you need any further help, please request so, within the next five minutes.”

“No, thank you.” Bonheur watched the last fake Chat and Bonheur depart. “This is as far as my trust goes. I appreciate your help, but we need to go now, before Racineur sees through the ruse.” She nodded at Chat. “Let’s go.” Chat watched her jump off the roof and turned to Hu Shen one last time.

“She’s just cautious.” Hu Shen shrugged, as if it didn’t bother her. “But if you ever need a partner in crime, just ask this cat. I’m always up for some mischief.”

“The white fox and the black cat, huh?” Hu Shen hid a sly smile behind one of her long sleeves. “I look forward to it.” 

She bowed, and moments later she was gone, jumping from roof to roof before dropping down in some alley. Chat watched her disappear, then made off after Bonheur. Time to test those illusions of hers.

The illusions worked perhaps a bit too well. Sometimes, he wasn’t even sure which the real Bonheur was, until Racineur managed to get one of them, only for her to turn into red smoke. Several times he shouted out to his partner, only to realise she was somewhere else entirely. He started to get why Hu Shen didn’t help immediately. 

He was about to push one of the Bonheurs out of Racineur’s reach, when a red yo-yo wrapped itself around Racineur’s human arm and a triumphant Bonheur snatched the item, a self made bookmark, out of his hand and tore it in half. Racineur transformed back into a young man, and after Bonheur cast her cure, the people hit by him were rid of their roots. Chat even spotted one guy so happy, he kissed his own freed feet.

“What happened?” The young man that was Racineur looked around in confusion, “My tree…. Where is my tree?”

“You were akumatized,” Bonheur explained calmly. 

Usually, akuma victims felt better after she had cast her cure, but this man only looked distraught. Chat gave her a look of ‘I’ll handle this’ when he heard her earrings beep. He hadn’t used his Cataclysm, so he had more time than her. He kneeled down next to the man and rested one hand on his shoulder.

“Do you remember what set you off?”

“They cut down my tree!” The young man’s lip trembled. “Just to make space for some condos!” It seemed like Chat would be here for a while. This wasn’t something easily solvable. He offered the man a hand.

“Let’s get some coffee. You look like you need it.”