The world felt fuzzy - like a camera lens going in and out of focus, making shapes blur and sound, too, felt like it was coming in waves of clarity. The muffled sounds of people wandering the streets of Paris seemed to flow in and out like the tide, occasionally crashing against the apartment windows in a cacophony of muddled noise, while other times sounding entirely muted and muffled against the deafening quiet of the bedroom. It was hot - not like a daytime heat during the summer, but like the inside of a car that has been in the sun for hours - muggy and thick. It was hard to breathe.
Marinette sat up from her bed, steadying herself as she rose, feeling her head pound in protest - pain clawing at her eardrums and thundering like huge bass drums were pushed right up against the sides of her face. She put a hand over her eyes, shying away from the light that penetrated through her bedroom windows, groaning softly.
She heard someone call out to her, but it was as though she was submerged in water, the sound bubbling towards her but not quite forming the words being said. She responded with a soft "Hn?" and peeked through her fingers, looking around. Tikki was looking at her, eyes shining with concern, as she hovered over to her.
"Are you-" another word was said, but it came and went with the tide just like the noise outside.
Marinette slowly stood, fumbling on her feet even moreso than usual, her legs reluctant to leave the comfort of her soft mattress. She stumbled, nearly falling off of the loft where her bed presided, then slowly made her way down the ladder. The sound waves continued to crash against her, timed with the pounding of her head and the rush in her ears, while the light seemed to grow and shrink in intensity as she moved around. It was blinding, and then it was nearly dark, and as her eyes adjusted to the world around her it only seemed to worsen the experience. Taking a step, she balked as the ground seemed to move closer and further from her, rolling with the waves under her very feet.
She felt a small hand touch her forehead and glanced at the source - Tikki was feeling her temperature.
"Y-n't-so g-d-," Tikki commented, her voice washed away into the distance.
Marinette faltered in her steps again as she made her way to her closet. She steadied herself on the wall, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths. She felt like she was boiling alive, her skin crawled with a thin layer of sweat as she rested her forehead against the cool door of the closet. Her head felt She reached for her clothes without opening her eyes, fearful that if she did she'd merely collapse on the spot.
"Have to… school…" she muttered as she shuffled her way, carefully watching her footing on the ever-changing ground, to the bathroom to shower off this awful feeling.
Standing under the icy water, she felt better. The cold patter of the water against her pounding head soothed her, and as she stood, half-leaning against the wall of the shower, she let her eyes fall closed once and rode the cold away from this pain.
If only for a moment, she felt better. She breathed deeply as the water pelted her skin like tiny bullets of relief, feeling her chest rise and fall, her head lolling from side to side gently to get as much of this refreshing feeling on her as possible. It felt like the water was turning directly to steam when it touched her flesh, cooling the temperature by fractions at a time, siphoning away this aura of despair and pain.
When she felt like she could manage it, she made her way out of the shower and finished getting ready for school, slowly but surely. Tikki continued hovering around her, saying words that went unheard against the crashing tides that continued to roll over her. Marinette shook her head, trying to chase off the static in her brain - seeking clarity but never finding it.
She headed for the door, pausing to open her bag so that Tikki got get inside, then made her way down the stairs, knuckles white as she gripped the railing, and, crossing the threshold from the stuffy apartment to the outside world, felt the tide calm. Sound rushed to her like a typhoon, as though she'd crossed through to a parallel dimension of sound where everything was louder, more cluttered, overlapping and neverending. She felt more clear, if only for a moment, and found her balance. The cool Paris air whipped past her, carrying away her clouded mind into the wind. She breathed a deep sigh, the weight lifted from her chest. The shower had been refreshing but this… this was heaven.
That's when she heard it. However long this sound had been happening, she wasn't entirely sure, but the screeching of metal on metal pierced her ears and made her cringe, the waves crashing over her once more. She balked, looking around and seeing people running in the streets, fleeing from the direction of the Eiffel Tower.
"Tikki," Marinette ducked into an alley, leaning against the cool bricks and shuddering as they scraped against her back, "Spots-"
"But Marinette - " Tikki poked her head out of the bag and flitted into Marinette's view.
Marinette shook her head emphatically, "Have to… help." She took a deep breath, standing upright, "Tikki, spots on!"
Cat Noir growled as he dodged behind an overturned bus, looking around frantically in every direction, "Where are you, milady?" he muttered, hearing the pounding footsteps of Paris' latest akumatized villain thundering towards him. He felt the bu shudder behind him and quickly pounced away from it just as it was snatched from the ground and sent flying several feet away, crashing against the side of a building.
"Cat Noir!" the hulking man, muscles bulging and glistening in the morning sun, growled and looked around, spotting the sneaky cat as he dodged up onto a lightpost. "Give me your Miraculous!" He gripped a signpost in one hand and effortlessly ripped it from the round, hurling it towards the him.
Cat Noir quickly twirled his stick, deflecting the projectile away from himself, and dodge from light to light in the opposite direction of the beastly man. Without Ladybug here to help, he wasn't entirely positive how he was going to bring this enraged monstrosity to his knees, but he'd have to come up with something - and fast - or he'd be pounded into a pile of fine kitty chunks in a matter of seconds.
The akumatized victim was an average citizen of Paris - a man, just trying to do his best for his family - but he'd lost his temper somewhere along the way; he'd lost his job, and his family had turned their backs on him, ridiculing him for his short temper that had cost them their way of life. He'd been an easy target for Hawk Moth. "What kind of man can't keep his emotions in check long enough to hold down a steady job?" Now he had the power to show all of Paris what kind of a man he was. He was at least eight feet tall, all bulging muscles, and had the power to bend anyone - well, anything - to his will. What kind of a man was he? He was strong. He was the strongest man in all of Paris - he could make things right with his wife and children, he would show his boss that he was stronger than him, and take away his boss' family from him, just because he could. But this cat - this Cat Noir, alone and defenseless without his Ladybug to save the day, he would have to go. He would take the Miraculous from him and deliver it to Hawk Moth, and then he would show all of Paris the man he had become.
He rushed after Cat Noir, hurling any object within his reach at him - near misses, longshots, dust and debris filling the air around the pair as he peppered the air with projectiles. He picked up a motorcycle just ahead of him and hurled it, the bike spinning through the air like the world's deadliest frisbee, and just as it was about to collide with Cat Noir, the cat vanished in a streak of red and black.
Ladybug had leapt from a nearby rooftop, wrapping her yoyo around a beam near the base of the Eiffel Tower and swinging her way towards Cat Noir, narrowly pulling him out of the line of fire. They landed on the beam, her arm unsnaking from around him as she swayed on her feet.
"Running late this morning?" Cat Noir grinned at her, dusting himself off, "Muscleman over here has been at this for awhile now - I expected you a lot soon…" he glanced at her, watching her sway unsteadily, a hand firmly grasping the closest bit of tower to her. She was pale - not just pale, but white as freshly-fallen snow. Her eyes had a haze about them, like she was barely conscious as she stood there, chest heaving and sweat glistening on her skin. "You don't look so good. Are you okay?" he gently touched her shoulder, the contact enough to snap her out of her trance.
"Just…" she took a breath, "I'm fine. We need to - to focus on this."
He gazed at her with concern, "We should end this quickly - you can barely stand. What's the plan, milady?"
Ladybug surveyed the scene, watching as the man bustled his way towards them. He was slow. While he had the muscles of an over-enthusiastic bodybuilder, he didn't have the speed to go along with it. If they could get him to fall, his mass and slow movements would make it easier for them to get whatever the akumatized object he had off of him.
"Do we know where the akuma is?"
"I think it's in his wedding ring - there on his right hand. When I got here he was terrorizing his wife and kids - they were packing up to leave him. They're safe," he quickly noted. "I got them out of here as soon as I could." He watched her sway out of the corner of his eye and quickly wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her upright. She was burning hot to the touch.
"If we can -" she shuddered, unconsciously pressing against him to steady herself further, "If we can get him on the ground, getting that ring off of him should be easy. We just need to immobilize him."
"Got it." Cat Noir pulled out his stick and leapt off the tower, rushing towards the man, "Hey big guy, wanna play a game of cat and mouse?" he antagonized, using his stick to leap over and around the man in circles, keeping him distracted.
Ladybug swung down from the tower and began wrapping her yoyo between lightposts along with Pont d'lena Bridge, making a tangled web of lines between herself and the quarreling duo. She signaled to Cat Noir for him to lead the man towards her, then stood on one side of the line, waiting.
Cat Noir took off at a sprint for the bridge, the man following behind him at a slow run, his feet thundering along the ground as he chased after him. Cat Noir pounced from post to post and joined Ladybug on the other side, waving.
"Over here! Don't you want our Miraculous? He seems like he doesn't really want them, don't you think, bugaboo?" He flashed her a smile, but it faded when he saw a bead of sweat roll its way down her cheek. She had planted herself in a firm enough stance to stay upright, but she looked like she could pass out at any second. Her breathing was heavy, labored, and her hands were clenched into fists as she fought to keep herself steady. "Ladybug-"
"Cat Noir, move!" Ladybug suddenly shouted, becoming alert as the hulking man stumbled over the line, losing his footing and coming crashing towards them. He flailed his arms out, swiping from side to side as he came crashing down. Ladybug pushed Cat Noir out of the way as one hulking fist hurtled towards them. It crashed against her and sent her tumbling off the side of the bridge, splashing down into the Seine.
"Ladybug!" Cat Noir hesitated, sprinting halfway to the edge of the bridge before turning back and pouncing on top of the mans hand, stabbing down at the wedding ring with his stick and shattering it. He watched the akuma escape and begin to flutter away, again hesitating in his actions as the man changed back to normal, before flinging himself over the bridge.
The Seine engulfed her. It swallowed her up and refused to spit her out. She struggled momentarily, gasping for air and reaching for the surface, watching the sun dance above her, mocking her, as she was dragged down to the bottom of the river. Her head pounded, her lungs burned, and she wanted to surrender - to let the waves finally pull her out and carry her beneath them like they'd tried to do all morning. She felt her back hit the ground below her, her head smacking against the river basin. Everything went dark, and she surrendered to it.
Cat Noir clawed his way up the bank of the Seine, holding Ladybug firmly with one arm, and pulling both of them onto the shore. He laid her gently on the ground and placed a hand against her cheek, "Ladybug," he said softly, to no response. He shook her by the shoulders, frantically looking for signs of movement. Somehow, she was paler than before, her lips slightly parted and eyes closed, "Come on, milady…!" he growled, laying his head against her chest. He couldn't hear anything - she wasn't breathing. He clasped his hands together and frantically began doing chest compressions, panting as he tried to find some sign of life in her. He tilted her head back, then plugged her nose before firmly pressing his mouth against hers and delivered two quick breaths, then continued with the compressions. "Come on!" he urged, counting himself out before breathing for her again.
After a third set, finally, she opened her eyes and coughed - water sputtered from between her lips as Cat Noir frantically rolled her onto her side so that she could cough up more of the water. Cat Noir heaved a sigh, rubbing her shoulders as she coughed. When she stopped and relaxed, she lay there breathing heavily, her eyes closed.
Cat Noir was quiet as he pulled her halfway onto his lap, his arms wrapped around her, rubbing one hand up and down between her shoulder blades. After a little while, he gently curled his arms under her and picked her up, holding her close as he took off onto the rooftops of Paris. He felt her hands curl against the fabric of his costume, her head nestled against his chest, and held her tighter as he hopped through the window of his room. It didn't matter if she saw where he'd brought her, right now she was more important.
He gently laid her down in his bed and went to grab a towel, coming back and sitting beside her as he gently dabbed at her hair. She looked so small. He was so used to her standing proud and confident beside him that he'd never truly seen her like this. She looked so frail, like she could break at the slightest gust of wind. She had fallen asleep at some point as they journeyed to his house, and lay quiet and still, her chest rising and falling in long, slow breaths. He finished dabbing her hair and gently lifted her head so that he could wrap the towel around her, then pulled the covers up over her to keep her warm. With that, he moved to a chair at the side of the room and sat, watching her sleep.
Sometime later, he was startled awake by a twinkling sound. He darted his eyes to the bed and watched as the Ladybug facade melted away, and revealed Marinette there, sleeping quietly in his bed. He couldn't help himself, and smiled a little as he watched her, and, creeping slowly, he approached the bed and sat down. He placed a hand gently against her forehead, feeling the heat radiating off of it. Her fever still hadn't broken, and that trip into the river wasn't going to help any time soon. She shivered under his touch and curled up tighter beneath the covers, pulling them harder against herself.
Cat Noir rubbed the back of his neck and sighed, "Claws in," he said softly. He retrieved some cheese for Plagg, then moved back towards the bed, "Hello?" he said softly, seeing Tikki peeking over the edge of the covers. "Do you want something to eat?"
"You can't give her any of my cheese!" Plagg said, rather loudly, and Marinette groaned in response.
"Shh!" Adrien put his finger to his lips, "Don't wake her up," he glanced at Tikki, "What do you like to eat?"
Tikki zipped out from under the covers and hovered beside Adrien, "I like sweet foods," she said softly, glancing nervously towards Marinette. "She won't be happy if she finds out-"
"I don't care," Adrien said, turning away and shrugging, "She's sick and she's cold. She needs to rest, and this was the first place I could think of to bring her. I don't know why she'd even put herself at risk like that," he sounded angry - was it at himself for not protecting her when he knew the state she was in, or at her for not thinking? "She should have stayed home - in bed - and gotten better. Instead the akuma-" he gasped, "The akuma got away. We have to…!" at the sound of his voice, Marinette made a soft noise and pulled her the covers higher around herself, nestling her face into the pillow under her head. Adrien's eyes softened, the anger and panic he'd felt a moment ago drifting away. "We'll… have to take care of that later. Right now I need to take care of her." He left the room momentarily, grabbing an extra blanket and a snack for Tikki. When he returned, he gently laid the blanket over Marinette and tucked it in around her, trying to seal in as much warmth as he could.
"I tried to tell her not to go out today, but she was in a daze. She wandered around like a robot getting ready for school and wouldn't listen to me. I should have tried harder."
"This isn't your fault, uh-"
"Tikki."
"This isn't your fault, Tikki. Ladybug…" he paused, "Marinette is stubborn and when she gets something in her head it's hard to change her mind." He sat down gently on the bed beside her once more, watching her shiver under the covers, "She's still cold," he glanced at the time - it was getting late. He must have fallen asleep in his chair while watching over her. The light was starting to creep out of the room, and it would soon be dark. Slowly, he moved to lay down beside her - on top of the covers. He draped his arm around her waist and pulled her close, hoping that the additional warmth he could provide would help warm her up and chase off whatever sickness had taken hold of her.
Marinette awoke to the sound of voices whispering softly somewhere nearby. It was nearly pitch-black in the room around her, but still tried to look around. She could make out vague shapes, but nothing solid. What she did know was that she wasn't in her own room. She felt something move beside her and started to turn, then felt an arm tighten around her waist. She felt the gentle rise and fall of someone's chest against her back and blushed, where was she?
She could remember being in battle with Cat Noir and then… He pulled her out of the river. What happened after that? Had Cat Noir brought her back to his home? She realized in that moment that she was no longer Ladybug and had to cover her mouth to avoid gasping out loud. Had Cat Noir seen her as Marinette?
"C-Cat Noir?" she said softly, hoping the person beside her would respond; she noticed the whispering voices had gone quiet in that moment. There was a small grumble, and then the arm around her pulled her closer. She could feel the warmth radiating off of the person and couldn't help but snuggle back a little against them, chills still plaguing her body and making her shiver without this extra warmth. "Cat Noir," she said again, a little more loudly.
"Hmn?"
She felt them shift, heard a small yawn escape them, then the arm disappeared from around her.
Adrien shifted, propping his head up on one arm and looking down at her. She was still facing away from him - good, she didn't need to know who he was if she didn't want to. "You're awake," he yawned again, "How are you feeling?"
"Everything hurts," she admitted softly. After a beat, she whispered, "Did you… see?"
"Yes." There was no point in lying to her, she'd figure it out eventually anyways.
She started to shift, to turn towards him, but he reacted quickly, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her against his chest, "Don't look," he whispered, his lips grazing her ear. "Just for now, don't look."
"But I-"
"It's the middle of the night - go back to sleep. If you still want to know, you can see when you're feeling better. You've still got a high fever, and you need your rest. I promise, if you want to know when you're feeling better then I'll show you, but only when you're feeling better. Deal?"
She nodded slowly, feeling the grumble of his words through his chest. The vibrations were soothing, and she felt the need for sleep calling to her again in the darkness.
"Deal," she whispered before falling into a deep slumber once more.
The next morning, she awoke once more, feeling lighter - more clear. She still didn't know if she quite had the strength to get up and about, and she could feel pangs of hunger in her stomach from missing all of her meals the previous day, but she definitely felt more like herself. Without opening her eyes, she took a moment to sit and listen. She could hear Cat Noir, or whoever Cat Noir was behind the mask, breathing quietly and realized that at some point in the night, their positions had changed. Her head now rested nestled against his chest, and he had one arm wrapped underneath her, snaked up over her shoulder and holding her close. She pressed her ear to his chest and listened to the gentle thrum-pum-pum of his hard, the gentle grumble of his chest when he exhaled. She felt the rise and fall of hi chest gently moving her head and felt like she was rocking on a boat. The waves were subsiding and she'd been pulled from the tide, now floating with the current aboard this vessel.
She laid there for some time, just listening to him sleep, wondering if she truly wanted to know who the man behind the mask was. Would she know him? She knew they probably were acquaintances, based on Alya's deductions about Ladybug and Cat Noir, and what little she knew from experience with Cat Noir - but would she really know him? She felt torn about learning his true identity - would it change their dynamic? Would he no longer be someone that she could call friend?
Marinette felt him shift beneath her, then he breathed deep and sighed.
"Good morning," he grumbled, and she felt the vibrations through his chest.
"G-Good morning," she felt a blush creep onto her cheeks and slowly started to pull herself away, but the arm around her prevented her from moving too far.
"How do you feel?" Adrien shifted, propping one leg up and sticking his free hand behind his head, lifting up slightly to look at her. "Your face is less pale, and your fever seems to have gone down, but are you feeling better?"
"Yeah," she felt his hand creep from her shoulder up to her hair, lacing his fingers between the locks that had come loose in the night and gently twirling the strands. "I'm not quite one-hundred percent yet, but… I'm feeling much better already."
A few moments of silence passed, neither making a move away from each other, the whole world felt still around them as they lay there, snuggled together on the bed, Adrien still twirling strands of Marinette's hair between his fingers. Who knew that all this time he'd been confiding in Mariette about Ladybug - all the times he'd sought her advice, her kind words - he'd been speaking to Ladybug all along.
"You really had me worried for awhile there, bugaboo," he said softly, tilting his head and planting a gentle kiss on her forehead before he relaxed back into his pillows. "You were so out of it, and then you just…" he held her a little tighter as he thought about how long it took him to get her out of the water and… back to him.
"I'm sorry," she said, sighing, "It's just… Wait." She sat up suddenly, jerking herself away from him and opening her eyes. She stared down at her hands, remembering the events of the fight, "The akuma! Did it-"
"It got away."
"Cat N-!" she turned towards him and froze, staring into his shimmering green eyes. She felt her face flush and her ears burn as she gazed at his - at Adrien's - face, watching a small, shy smile creep onto his lips.
"Uh- hey, Marinette-" he raised a hand as if to wave, then dropped it behind his head, rubbing his neck in embarrassment, "So I guess we, uh, both know now."
"Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-" she slapped her hands to her cheeks feeling them grow warm as she turned away and slid to the edge of the bed in a frantic effort to escape the situation, "You're-You-but-" she had been sharing a bed with Adrien. She had been sleeping cuddled up against Adrien. She had spent months fighting crime with Adrien. She had kissed Adrien. She let out a frantic squeak as she turned away from him, scurrying faster for the edge of the mattress.
He laughed softly, then put a finger to his chin, thinking aloud, "So, when were you planning to tell me that I'd confessed my love for you to you?"
Her face paled again and she put both of her hands over her entire face, sitting as close to the edge as she could without falling off, "I think I need to lay down," she mumbled.
Adrien laughed and leaned back, grinning, "Well, I guess the cats out of the bag now," he shrugged, "It's nice, in some ways moreso than others,"
Marinette peeked at him between her fingers, watching him with a curious expression as he sighed and closed his eyes, continuing to speak.
"I mean, it kind of sucks that I told you how I felt so many times - more than once when I saw you as Marinette, and you still rejected me, but I guess now I could see why that would be. What would Marinette want with Cat Noir?" He paused, scowling, "Wait," he sat up again, "You told me you didn't want to lead me on because you had feelings for someone else."
Marinette stood up quickly, "You know I really should be going - my parents are going to worry that I didn't come home last night and I've got to go find that akume before it causes any unnecessary havoc and-" she swayed on her feet, blood rushing to her still-throbbing head. "T-Tikki?" She said after a breath, "Thank you so much for your hospitality and taking care of me but I really have to be going-" she swayed again, catching herself on Adrien's desk as she stepped forward. She didn't move for awhile, keeping her eyes closed so that she could focus on trying to will away her dizziness.
"Who is he?"
"..."
"Is it… Luka?"
"What? No, he's just a-!" she turned quickly - bad mistake. She felt the room spin and found herself falling, but before she could hit the ground she was in Adrien's arms again. He'd gotten up so quickly that she hadn't even seen him move. She looked up at him breathlessly, feeling every square inch of contact his body made with hers; the arm wrapped around her waist, pressing gently against the small of her back, the arm firmly supporting her shoulders, gripping onto her tightly so that she didn't fall. If she wasn't already dizzy, she'd have swooned right there. He gazed into her eyes before hoisting her up and carrying her back to his bed.
"Listen, Marinette - I get it, you're a shy girl - you don't have to talk about this if you don't want to I was just…" he gazed away from her, shrugging nonchalantly, "Curious I guess." He shook his head and smiled sweetly at her, "But if I was going to ask you personal stuff like this, I should have waited until you were feeling well enough to walk around by yourself. I'm sorry." He patted her on the head, "You should get some more rest, but if you want to go home to do that, I can take you there."
"No, no, Adrien really it's fine I can get there myself I just…" she could feel herself blushing again and looked around, trying to spot Tikki in the huge room. The kwami was probably still sleeping, or maybe she'd gone off with Plagg to see Master Wang Fu?
"Sorry milady, but I can't allow that. You're in no condition to be walking or slinging yourself around on the rooftops of Paris. I'm surprised you even made it into the fight yesterday - you had no regard for your own health and put yourself in an incredible amount of danger. You're lucky to be alive, do you realize that?" When he said that, she pulled her attention to him and could see that infamous Cat Noir pout on his face - he was upset with her. "I have the power of destruction, nothing I could have done would have been enough to keep you safe - and it wasn't! Do you know how long I was performing CPR on you? How scared I was that I'd never see your smile again? Do you even care that you threw yourself, in your condition, in front of the line of fire and tossed me out of the way and you nearly died because of it?"
"Adrien I-"
"You scared me half to death! If I've got nine lives, watching you fall into that river ate up three of them, and the rest were gone the moment I pulled you out of the water and you weren't breathing!" he was letting himself get too worked up over this, he needed to calm down. He turned away from her, rubbing the heels of his palms against his eyes, feeling the hot tears that were waiting to spill over. "What if I hadn't…" he choked on his words, taking a quick, shuddering breath. "What if I couldn't…"
Marinette unsteadily rose from the bed and walked over to him. She hesitated for a moment before gently wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging herself to his back. "I'm okay," she said softly. "I'm right here." She felt him shudder against her and sighed softly, "I'm right here."
Hours passed, and the two of them hadn't said a word since she let him go. She'd stayed, reluctantly, if only to make him feel better that he could make sure she was focusing on her health - but she was beginning to grow more and more concerned about the escaped akuma. They hadn't heard anything outside the walls of his house, but without turning on the news, there was no telling what kind of destruction had descended upon Paris since yesterday. Marinette had been sleeping off and on, but she couldn't get any comfortable rest knowing that the akuma was still out there, spreading its evil to the citizens of Paris.
Adrien was emphatically avoiding her gaze, his eyes were still puffy from crying earlier. Of all the things to do in front of her, crying was the one he'd least expected to do. He'd surprised himself with how much he'd allowed his emotions to overtake him before he could reel himself in. Even when he was with Ladybug - before all of this - he'd been able to keep himself in check, to pull back when he knew he'd been holding on to something for too long - but all of this genuinely had him shaken to his core. The image of her face, pale and unmoving, was still burned into his mind. He couldn't shake off the thought of her being gone - of her life slipping through his fingers like so many grains of sand.
Tikki and Plagg had returned, where they'd been they didn't say, but they sat together across the room from their owners, chatting quietly as they watched both stubborn parties pointedly refuse to speak to each other. Things had gotten tense earlier, and neither could seem to recover from it properly enough to exchange words. Adrien disappeared downstairs for a while to eat his dinner, pretending to be going about his normal routine, while Marinette slept quietly in his bed, the covers pulled all the way up over her head.
When he returned, he sat on the edge of the bed and gently shook her awake, "I brought you some dinner. Thought you might be hungry." He sat the tray down, avoiding her gaze through the whole exchange, and wandered over to his computer. He didn't open anything, just stared at the blank screen in a daze.
Marinette sat up, looking at the carefully-arranged tray of food and wondered how he'd managed to sneak an extra helping away from Nathalie. She was sure someone would have noticed that something was off if he had simply asked for a second helping and then snuck off upstairs with it. A thought occurred to her, "Adrien?" He didn't turn to face her, just made a questioning noise in response, "Is this… are you skipping your dinner so that I can have something to eat?"
He shrugged in response, "You didn't eat yesterday or at all today. I thought you'd want to get something on your stomach."
Marinette carefully lifted the tray and placed it in the middle of the bed, "Eat with me?" she said softly. When he didn't respond to her, she spoke a little more loudly, "Come and eat some of this with me."
Adrien turned to look at her, but her gaze was turned down towards the tray as she fiddled with the utensils on it. He couldn't help himself but to smile a little as some of her hair fell across her shoulder and covered her face - he'd never seen her with her hair down before. Se looked beautiful. He rose from his chair and came over, sitting opposite her on the bed and picked up the salad fork on the tray, while she took the larger fork.
Together, in silence, they slowly worked their way through the small meal, occasionally stealing a glance at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking. When they were done, Adrien moved the tray off the bed and sat back down beside her.
"I'm sorry," he said softly, "I lost my temper earlier - such a Cat Noir thing to do, right?" he grinned at her. "I used to get so mad at you when you wouldn't return my affections for you - no matter how many times I told you I liked you, you just wouldn't hear me out." He clasped his hands behind his head and fell backwards, relaxing against the bed. "I think, this time, I was probably right to be mad at you - but you didn't deserve to have all of that dumped on you like that."
Marinette gulped, nervously playing with her hair as she contemplated her response, "The…" she took a deep breath, hoping her next words didn't come out jumbled like they normally would were she to say something like this, "The guy," another breath. Come on Marinette. Like a bandage. "The guy that I told you about," Keep going, I can do this. "The one I turned you down because of... you is." So close.
Adrien blinked at his ceiling, slowly sitting up, "What?"
Marinette turned to look at him, her cheeks practically incandescent, she blinked and looked down - she definitely wouldn't be able to say it while making eye contact with him. There was just no way she could manage that much coherent speech. It was one thing when they were just chatting, but trying to tell him her feelings while locking eyes with him? That would be a disaster. She continued to nervously twirl her hair around her own fingers, taking a couple deep breaths before she tried again. "The reason I turned down Chat Noir is because I have feelings for Adrien." She felt her heart stop when the words came out - she did it! And he wasn't responding. Why wasn't he responding? This was it, wasn't it? This was the moment all of her worst fears came true. Cat Noir was going to quit being her partner and run off to join a league of cat burglars, while Adrien in his everyday life would go back to being homeschooled just to avoid her. Eventually she'd have to move to Siberia to avoid ever coming back into contact with him. She really was going to be alone forever with her pet hamster.
And then he laughed.
Adrien let out one of the most sincere, pure laughs she had ever heard escape his lips. He wiped his eyes, continuing to laugh, and looked at her, a grin splitting across his face. "So I've spent all this time thinking that you were in love with some other guy, and the other guy was me," he managed to subside his laughter down to small snickers, and then he gasped softly, the laughter coming back anew. "So all of those pictures in your bedroom - the ones on your walls and under your bed-"
Marinette jumped, gasping. She smushed her hand against his mouth, accidentally pushing him down onto the bed, "We don't talk about those!" she said urgently. "You were never supposed to see those - I hid those when you came over to play games - I-I tried so hard to keep those away from you and then-" she groaned, feeling her face burn with embarrassment for the umpteenth time that day. She went quiet, and it was in that moment that she realized that she was practically straddling him to the bed. She moved to get off of him, but froze when he reached up towards her.
"Hold on," Adrien said softly, brushing his thumb over her cheek, "Don't move," he traced his hand up her jaw, then ran his fingers through the hair that had fallen forward of her ears. He gently pushed it back, tucking it behind her ear as he did. When he withdrew his hand, he was holding one of her ribbons, "Looks like it got tangled in while you slept," he said with a smile.
Marinette reached out, taking the ribbon from him and clasping it firmly in her grasp, "Thank you," she whispered, feeling her heart flutter as their eyes met.
They stared in silence at each other for a moment, then, slowly, Adrien sat up. Their faces were centimeters apart - Marinette could feel his breath on her lips and felt her stomach do a somersault as Adrien slowly drew closer to her. She felt her eyes close of their own accord as she waited with baited breath. Just when she felt his lips gently graze her own, there was a firm knock at the door.
The pair practically dove off opposite sides of the bed as they broke apart. Marinette felt her heart hammering in her chest as she quickly ducked into Adrien's closet, concealing herself behind the open door. She tried to catch her breath as quietly as she could, straining her ears to listen as Adrien answered the door.
"Good, you're still up. Your father simply wanted me to check on you - there's some trouble in the city and he wanted to make sure that you're alright." It was Nathalie, her stern tone resounded through the quiet room. "Were you speaking with someone earlier, Adrien?"
"Oh, uh - yeah - just my good friend, uh, Nino. He was calling to check in since I wasn't feeling well enough to go to school this morning."
Oh. That's right, today was a school day - Adrien must have made that excuse to Nathalie sometime before I woke up this morning so that he could stay and look after me. Marinette smiled to herself, but also felt guilty for worrying him so much that he felt the need to stay with her.
"You should have him bring your assignments over this weekend so that you don't fall behind on your school work," Nathalie said, still keeping the same even tone with him. "At least you'll have a few a days to make sure you're back at your best before you return."
"Yep! I'm, uh, feeling better already - and don't worry, he'll come by and drop anything I need off, I'm sure. Thanks for checking in on me, Nathalie. Good night."
"Good night, Adrien."
He shut the door and leaned his back against it, sighing softly before turning his gaze to the closet, "You can come out," he called to Marinette. "It sounds like I've got some work to do, will you be alright to stay here?"
She peered out at him and scowled, "You can't capture an akuma."
"And you're still sick so-"
"I'm feeling well enough to stand, which means I'm well enough to fight. I'm not sitting around here anymore while this akuma is still out there. Tikki," she called to the kwami across the room, "Spots on." The next moment she stood before Adrien in all her Ladybug glory, a firm scowl still etched into her face, "I'm not changing my mind on this - I'm going with or without you, Cat Noir."
Adrien sighed, "Stubborn as always, I see. Very well, milady. Plagg, claws out!" When he had fully transformed he met her scowl with a wide Cheshire grin, "I have to admit - you're way cuter without the mask, bugaboo."
"Not the time, kitty," she opened the window and climbed out of it, "We've got a city to save."
"Don't we always?"
"Comes with the territory," she shrugged and smiled at him. "Lets go."
Deepest apologies for an faults of logic, plot holes, poor spelling, etc. This is the first thing I've written in... probably four years or so. Watching Miraculous Ladybug has somehow renewed my spark for writing, and the idea for this came to me in a dream that left me, unfortunately, restless and soaked in sweat. So thanks for that.
Unfortunately this also means I wrote this on about three hours of sleep, with a short nap in between that more than likely entirely broke the flow of it. I'm cool with it, though - because it feels so so good to actually be able to write something again. Getting about as far as a heading line for the first page of the first chapter for the past four years has been rough, so actually managing nearly 7.5K words in a day is phenomenal to me.
Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day/night/millennium.