"That's it, easy girl, one foot… in front of… the other… Take it slow - there's no need to rush. Just take it nice and easy. Watch your footing, be mindful of other people, 'atta girl..."

"Alya, you don't need to baby me, I know how to skate," Marinette looked at her red-haired best friend with a pout, "I got pretty good at it when-" she stopped herself, blushing faintly. Alya didn't know all of the details of her last ice skating adventure, just the basics, "-when I came here last time."

"And I know you. If I don't keep an eye on you you're likely to trip on yourself and go crashing through the wall of the rink," Alya was literally skating circles around her, smirking, "Or you'll crash into someone because you're not paying enough attention." She prodded her best friend, who was staring across the rink with that glassy half-lidded stare that she always got whenever she spotted him.

"I-uh-what?" Marinette darted her eyes to Alya and grinned, "I'm paying attention! And I can skate," she slipped past her friend and skated forward, "I'm not a total klutz, I'm just prone to being klutzy. There's a difference," she glanced back at Alya and stuck out her tongue, giggling as she gained some speed and started to pull ahead of her.

Alya grinned and caught up with her, gracefully skating alongside her on one foot, "Should we," she did a little spin on the spot, then pulled ahead past Marinette, "Have a little race, then, Oh Mighty Skater?"

"You're on!"

When they had evened out, Alya grinned and shouted, "Go!" before zipping off far ahead of Marinette, getting halfway around the rink before Marinette could even get some speed beneath her skates. She easily lapped Marinette once, slowing down to yawn as she passed her and winking before pulling away ahead of her again while Marinette struggled to gain speed without becoming wobbly on her own legs. Determined to, at the very least, not lose by much, Marinette started ramping up her own speed and zipped after Alya,kicking up little sprays of ice as she flailed for traction before she really got her feet to cooperate with her. Their classmates watched in bemusement from along the outer wall of the rink, some of the more advanced skaters were in the middle, clapping and laughing as the pair raced along between everyone.

They did two laps at matched speed, but Alya was still up by one and tiring out by the second. Marinette saw her chance and took it, putting all of her effort into making the gap between them much smaller. She put her head down and put all of her strength and determination behind her as she raced far past Alya, the gap becoming only a half lap of difference - a quarter lap - a tenth of a lap, Alya was exhausted from her early lead and Marinette was gaining fast, a few more feet and they'd be even again.

As Marinette rounded the bend, almost within touching distance of Alya, she passed one of the entrances to the rink and saw a large boot come sticking out from behind it. She was going too fast to slow down easily and panicked, jamming her toes forward to try and stop herself as quickly as possible. She stumbled, felt a pain shoot up her right leg, then, still moving quickly, tripped over the boot and went tumbling across the rink. As she went, she slammed into someone, but her eyes were shut, she instinctively grasped onto whoever it was to try and stop herself, only succeeding in dragging them down with her. She landed flat on her back, smacking her head against the ice, and lay still for a moment, groaning with her eyes closed.

A hush fell over the rink for a moment, then came soft whispers between some of Marinette's friends, and she could hear the sound of Alya skating over to her. She opened her eyes and was shocked when she didn't see the ceiling of the rink above her, but dazzling emerald eyes just inches away from her own face. Adrien was nearly laying on top of her, his hands positioned on either side of her shoulders, hair hanging close enough to tickle at her forehead, his legs interwoven and tangled with her own.

Inhale.

Time stood still - neither Marinette nor Adrien nor anyone in the rink seemed to do so much as even blink for a long time. Marinette swore she heard piano music in her head as she stared up into Adrien's eyes, a blush beginning to creep onto her cheeks ever-so slowly.

Exhale.

Time came back around eventually and Adrien blinked, staring down at Marinette, his eyebrows knitted together with worry, "Are you okay, Marinette?"

"A-Adrien I-I-I-" she shifted to try and move away then hissed, jumping and sitting up quickly to the point that she and Adrien headbutted each other as she went, but that hurt significantly less than the pain shooting through her right ankle. She clutched her hands around it, eyes squinted shut as tears pricked at the back of her eyes.

Adrien rubbed one hand against the side of his head that Marinette had smacked against when she sat up, and looked down at her before slowly rising, "Can you stand up?" he offered her his hand.

She looked up, her blush intensifying as she hesitated, then gently slid her hand into his. She slowly got to her knees, then tried to push herself off the ice with her left foot, then added her right to it. Pain shot up her leg and she nearly collapsed back down onto the ice until Adrien wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her arm up around his neck, hugging her against his side to support her.

Alya slid to stop beside them, "Marinette! Are you okay? That looked like it hurt!"

"I-" she winced, picking her right foot up off the ground and wobbling uncertainly as she leaned on Adrien, trying hard to not focus on the fact that Adrien had his arm around her and was literally holding her up at this point. "My ankle," she managed after a hissed breath, "And my head…"

"Come on, lets get you off the ice and get a look at you," Alya reached out to help her away from Adrien, but he waved her away with the hand around Marinette's waist.

"It's okay Alya, I can take her - your other skating partner looks a little left out." He gestured towards Nino who had been leaning quietly on the other side of the rink, previously to wait for Alya and Mariette to finish their race, now halfway towards them in a rush to come help Marinette. "Besides," he pointed to his own head, "I might have a bump that needs to be looked at," he smiled, then slowly started to help Marinette do a combination-skate-and-limp off the ice.

"I…" Alya glanced between Marinette and Nino, a small smile creeping its way onto her face as she looked at her friend. Marinette's eyes said 'please don't leave me alone to embarrass myself' and Alya's eyes definitely shined back with a glimmer of mischief and she nodded to Adrien and turned away to go skate with Nino.

Marinette kept her eyes firmly pointed towards her feet, hearing the hushed whispers of many of their classmates as the pair made their way through the small exit and over to the small clinic within the rink. It wasn't manned, just a small room with a first aid kit in case of emergencies - at least there they could get something done about her injury for the time being.

As they made their way towards the clinic, Marinette got the creeping feeling up the back of her neck that someone was glaring daggers at her from nearby, but she didn't have the luxury of being able to turn and get sight of who exactly was exuding so much anger in her direction.

Adrien helped Marinette into the small clinic and got her settled down into the one and only chair in the room before he removed his skates and gloves, setting them on the floor beside the chair. Without a word, he knelt in front of Marinette and began untying her laces to remove her skates, gently pulling the left skate off before moving to the right one. He took the laces on the right more slowly, careful not to move her foot as he did so, and tried to loosen them as much as he could before he gently gripped the heel and toe. "This might hurt, Marinette, but I need to take this off before your ankle swells up. You can squeeze my arm if it hurts too much, okay?"

Marinette nodded, preemptively digging her hands into the armrests of the chair and gritting her teeth as she felt Adrien gently reposition the skate and then begin to move her foot to slide it off. She let out a squeak and felt him hesitate, letting the pain return to a dull ache before he tried again. He repositioned her foot, which she had reflexively moved when the pain shot through it, and held it gently in place for a moment approaching his next move carefully.

"Okay, I'm going to try again - try not to move this time, okay? I want to get this off quickly so that we can try and get ice on it as soon as possible." He waited a beat, then grabbed the skate and began to slip it off. Marinette let out another squeak of pain and darted her hand to his shoulder, squeezing tightly and bunching his shirt into her fist as he freed the skate from her foot and tossed it aside. He quickly worked to remove the sock underneath as well, stretching it as much as he could to avoid it squeezing at her ankle as he pulled it off. He watched her flinch and felt her grip on him tighten as he quickly rolled it down and tossed it to the side with the skates.

"All done, now comes the part that will help it feel better," he reached into the first aid kit and retrieved a cold pack from somewhere in the bottom of it. He cracked it, then shook it between his hands for a moment until it had gotten cold enough. Withdrawing a roll of gauze from the kit, te quickly positioned the ice pack around Marinette's ankle, then used the gauze to wrap her foot and ankle in place with the ice pack underneath.

Marinette shuddered, then relaxed, releasing her grip on Adrien's shirt and sinking into the chair, a half-pained half-relaxed look on her face, "Thank you," she said softly. Her head was throbbing from that rough landing and she felt so tired from the pain, she wanted to take a nap right then and there, but what would Adrien think of her if she just fell asleep in the middle of an ice rink? "I think I should probably go home," she sighed.

"Well you're not walking home, not on that foot - in fact you should probably go to the hospital, that could be a sprain or you could have very seriously hurt yourself. You should get it checked out and properly treated."

She sighed, nodding, "I guess you're right," finally, she opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Oh! Your head!" Gasping and placing her hands over her mouth, Marinette groaned, "I'm so sorry, I messed up your ferfect pace- I mean perfect face- I mean-" she covered her eyes now too, "I bruised your head, your dad is going to kill me."

Adrien laughed softly, pushing his hair out of the way and looking in the small mirror that was hanging on the wall, "It's just a little bruise, nothing a little makeup won't cover. Now come on, we'll drive you to the hospital so you can see a doctor about your ankle… and probably your head too, you hit that ice hard."

Marinette looked down at her lap, nodding quietly, her hands curled into fists on the fabric of her jeans. She still felt tired, that fall had knocked the wind out of her sails and now Adrien was giving up spending time with their friends to take her to the hospital. The tears welled up and spilled over before she could stop them, trickling down her cheeks and pattering against her clenched fists. "I-I'm so s-s-sorry," she sniffled, pressing her hands to her eyes once more, "I-I'm r-ruining your t-time out with our fr-friends a-and it's all b-because I'm a k-kl-klutzy idiot," she sniffled behind her hands.

Adrien watched her for a moment, feeling a smidgen uncomfortable at the sight of Marinette, one of his closest friends, crying in front of him. He hesitantly moved beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, rubbing his hand up and down her arm as he laid his free hand over hers. "Hey it's, uh, it's okay." He felt her shudder - that was a poor word choice. "You're not ruining anything!" He quickly corrected, now sounding uncomfortable as he tried to comfort her. "Hey, look at me," when she didn't make a move to look up, he slid away from her side and knelt in front of her again, "Look at me, Marinette."

He gently coaxed her hands away from her face and clasped one fist in both of his hands, stroking his thumb soothingly over the back of her hand, "I would much rather make sure that you're okay than be ice skating," he smiled the smallest, sweetest smile she had ever seen on his face as he spoke the words, "You're my friend and if you're hurt then I don't care about spending time with anyone else - I want to spend time with you to make sure you're alright "

Ah, nail in the coffin. Marinette's eyes welled up with a new, burning Cascade of tears that fell freely, speckling Adrien's hand as they fell. She looked down, sniffling and nodding a couple of times before shifting forward in the chair, "We should g-go," she whispered with a shuddering breath. She looked up at him and smiled a little, "Maybe we'll get done quickly enough so that you can come back and have more fun with everyone."

Adrien smiled in that sweet, charming, lopsided fashion that she loved so much and stood, holding out his hand, "What fun will it be if Marinette can't join us?"

As they were heading out to Adrien's car, his arm firmly wrapped around her waist, her arm once again slung up around his shoulder so that she was fully supported against him, Marinette gave a small wave to Alya who was resting on the bleachers nearby. Alya smiled a little, waving back, and skated to the edge of the rink to talk to her.

"Where are you two off to?"

"I'm going to take Marinette to the hospital to get checked out, it could just be a sprain, but I won't doubt the possibility that she seriously injured herself in that fall. With as hard as she hit, I won't be surprised if she has a concussion, too. Just want to make sure she's okay," he shrugged a little, now looking uncomfortable as Alya raised an eyebrow at him with a grin.

"Marinette, call me when you get home," she leaned close to Marinette's ear, now whispering, "I want all the details about what goes down tonight. Understood?"

Marinette turned a dark shade of crimson and nodded, half-glancing up at Adrien as he watched Alya with a confused look on his face.

"Alright you two, no time to dilly-dally. Off to the hospital together," and with that she practically pushed them out the door.

As the door swung shut behind the pair, Marinette felt that chill run up her spine again and tried to turn and see who was behind her, but in her current position she only caught a brief glimpse of them storming out of view of the door before it closed. She had a feeling that this wasn't over yet.

No doubt in my mind that a lot of this will be OOC in many ways, but I've been writing this story for... two weeks. I'm 20K words in and I'm still not done with it. I was going to wait until i finished and then upload it, but a 20K+ word one-shot seemed a bit much.

Lemme know what you like, lemme know what you hate, and please do not tell me where I repeated words or have what clearly appears to be auto-corrected words because I absolutely did write some of this on my phone at 3am and no I did not go through and proofread because who needs that hahahahaha... ha.

okay thank you i love you bye bye