The Unlucky Shot – Chapter 2


The young girl that was shot was our lovely Marinette.

Adrien could feel Nino stand up beside him to console his girlfriend, while he just sat there, frozen, unable to think or act.

Somehow he could feel Plagg, his magic buzzing, inside his backpack, reacting to the chaos in his head. He heard that she was going to be alright, that she would be staying at the hospital and that they were allowed to visit.
But every other second his mind focused on Miss Bustiers sentence from before.

The young girl who was shot was our lovely Marinette.

As class was dismissed by the principals orders, he grabbed his bag and clenched his fists, turning to Nino and Alya.
"I'll call my driver, let's go."
No further words were needed between the three friends.


"Sabine!"

Adrien saw as Alya practically charged at Marinettes mother to hug her, as soon as they saw her in the hospital hallway.

Marinettes mother embraced Alya in a hug, whispering comforting words into her ear. Adrien could see that the petite chinese woman had been crying all night. She looked exhausted.

"Nino, Adrien...", she finally said. "It's so nice of you to stop by right away."
"I know it's a stupid question," Nino said, "but are you okay? Can we do anything to help?"
Sabine smiled, letting herself fall down onto a very uncomfortable hospital chair.
"I'm doing fine, considering that my daughter has been shot.", she said. "I think you being here is the best help that we can get."
"Can we go and see her?", Adrien finally asked, but he was interrupted by Marinettes father who came out of his daughters room.

"Oh, Alya. Boys. How nice to see you, thank you for coming."
Adrien had met Marinettes father on a number of occasions now. He was a compassionate and passionate man, a teddy bear with a heart of gold. But now, as his only child was recovering from a gunshot, he looked so old, so torn.

Adrien didn't stop himself as he felt the urge to hug the big man. The embrace was shared between the two, no words were needed.
"Is she awake?", Alya asked.
Tom almost laughed. "She's awake alright. She's my tough little cookie. She practically ordered me and Sabine to go home now and take care of the bakery."
Nino laughed. "She is sending you home?"
"Yes. And to make sure that I go and work, she ordered her favourite cake."

He sighed, took his wifes hand and shook his head.
"I really don't want to leave her alone, but if her friends are here now, I'll respect her wishes."
"Just make sure that she gets her rest, okay?", Sabine asked, squeezing her husbands hand. "And don't stay too long, your parents will worry as well."
"If you need any help at all, you call us, okay?", Nino offered and the three of them watched them leave for the elevator.

As soon as Marinettes parents were out of sight, Alya opened the door to Marinettes room and entered.
"Marinette!"
As Adrien and Nino came in behind her, they already saw the girls hugging- well as well as the black haired girl could manage.
Marinette was sitting upright in her hospital bed, but she looked pale – paler than usual.

She was wearing a tank top, probably so that the nurses could change her bandages easier. Adrien could see that they had wrapped her torso and shoulder tightly in the white cotton, keeping pressure to the wound that they could not see. Her left arm was resting in a sling.

As Alya gripped her best friend tighter, Marinette whined.
"Alya… You'll rip my stitches...", she said.
As her best friend backed away, she seemed to realise that Alya had not come to visit alone.

"Nino, Adrien… Thanks for coming."
Adriens heart almost broke at the sight of her exhausted but honest smile.
Only yesterday his princess had been shot, without him even noticing, and already she was smiling again, being happy to see them.

"How are you feeling?", Nino asked and gently put a kiss on Marinettes forehead before he sat down at her bed. Adrien blinked, confused, before he remembered that the two of them were childhood friends – and that the guy was madly in love with Alya.

Still, a pang of jealousy had run through his veins.

"Not so good.", Marinette answered with honesty. "I can tell you, getting shot at hurts. A lot..."
Alya was crying and her words made no sense, while Nino kept on joking.
And Adrien just stood there, saying nothing, looking at Marinette and suddenly felt guilty.

She knew her as his classmate – and he knew her as Chat Noir. And none of his personas were able to protect her. She could have died. And he had done nothing.

"Adrien?"

Nino, Alya and Marinette were staring at him, apparently waiting for an answer.
"Sorry, I spaced out."
Alya sighed. "Marinette said she has something she wants our help with."
Adrien grabbed one of the chairs and finally sat down next to her bed.

"Anything."

Marinette took a deep breath and a serious expression came upon her face.
"I can't really tell you why, but I need your help on this. I need to get a message to Chat Noir."


In the early hours of tuesday night, Adrien was standing a few rooftops away from Marinette and her hospital room. He had been on the verge of jumping, but then had decided to de-transform and think for a while.

"What are you waiting for?", Plagg asked, flying around the blondes head, confused.
"Why do you think she wants to see me? Well, not me, but Chat.", he asked, sitting down on the cold tiles of the rooftop.

They had spent two more hours at Marinettes hospital bed that day, until Alya had decided to post a short video on her Ladyblog, explaining that Marinette would love a visit from her favourite superhero.

They had decided that it was too dangerous to just tell the whole world that she had a message. Hawkmoth could have decided to take advantage of the situation and release an akuma, if he had thought it was important. Saying that Marinette was a fan had been better.

"Chat is a good friend of hers by now.", Plagg answered. "She said she was worried that he wouldn't know where she is, the next time we knock on her roof door. She probably wants to tell you what happened herself."

Adrien shrugged.
"I don't know. Something feels off. It feels like she wanted to tell me something important."
Plagg bumped against his forehead, hard, and growled.
"Then let's find out already!"
"You're right."

It only took a minute to transform, find Marinettes window and crawl inside. He couldn't help to be silent, it was one in the morning, but he found Marinette sitting on her bed, reading.

As he closed the window, she turned her head and smiled, exhausted.
"Chat Noir. You came."
He stepped over, took Marinettes uninjured hand and brought it to his lips.
"I will travel anywhere you want me to, Princess. You called and I came."

He wasn't sure if there was really a blush covering her cheeks, or if she had just regained some of her colour.
"I heard what happened to you. And that you were very brave, saving an old mans life."
He sat down on the mattress, close to her hip. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you."

Marinette shook her head.
"You can't protect Paris all the time, Chat. This had nothing to do with an Akuma attack."
"Still, I'm sorry."
"Silly cat..."

Before the silence between them could get too uncomfortable, Adrien coughed and picked up the string of conversation.
"So, you just wanted to see me? Is there anything I can do to cheer up my princess?"
Marinettes blush suddenly deepened and she averted her eyes, making Adriens eyebrows crawl upwards in wonder.

"I-I wanted to talk to you about something. It's a bit embarrassing, but I hope you'll hear me out."
Scooping up his legs and hopping a bit closer on the mattress, Adrien nodded.
"Of course. We're friends, you can tell me anything."

At first Marinette tried to start her sentences over and over, but after a while, she took a deep breath and reached for one of his hands. She squeezed.
"Do you know the myth, that when you're about to die, everything and everyone that's important to you will flash before your eyes? Well, I had that experience when the bullet hit me."

Adrien squeezed back, not knowing what else to say. The tail of his costume twinged, as if reacting like the tail of a real cat. He didn't interrupt.
"I saw my parents, Alya, Nino – a lot of happy memories. And..."
"And?"
Marinette shook her head, a little bit too hard as she suddenly whinced, letting go of his hand and touching it tenderly to her wounded shoulder.

"Are you okay? Did you rip your stitches open?", he asked concerned, but she just shook her head again, slower this time.
"No, I'm okay. The wound is still tender, that's all."

Adrien leaned back, his leather ears twitching with concern.
"I-I also saw you. That's why I wanted to see you. I've never told you how happy I am that we've become friends.", she finally said, suddenly flashing him one of the brightest smiles he had ever seen on her face.

Before he could react, she was coming at him with another surprise.

"There's this boy in my class that I have had a crush on since the moment I met him.", she told him. "But I've never told him. He even came to visit me today, and I still didn't have the courage to tell him, even though I almost died yesterday."

Adrien had to claw himself into the matress in order not to fall off the bed.
Marinette had someone that she liked! Of course she had. And it was someone from their class as well!

When Alya, Nino and he himself had left, others from their class had been waiting already to see her. Who could she, beautiful and lovely Marinette, have given her heart to?

"S-So? He'll probably visit again, you can tell him then.", he stuttered, trying to compose himself.
"I could tell him, yes.", she said. "Adrien Agreste, I've had a crush on you for almost two years now. How does that sound?", she chuckled.

This time, he really fell off the mattress.
Marinette was in love with him. Marinette was in love with him.

"Chat! Are you okay?"
"Y-you like that model guy? Seriously? You could do better than him, princess.", he laughed, trying to get a grip on his emotions. His heart suddenly pounded a thousand times faster than it normally did.

Her eyes suddenly shined brigther, and suddenly he saw Marinette, beautiful and shy Marinette, in a complete new light. But he had to focus. He was here as Chat. He couldn't just… well he couldn't do anything really. Too much information.
He sat back on the mattress, this time with Marinette scooping a little closer to him.

"No, I couldn't.", she said. "He's nice, compassionate, lovely - there are so many reasons why I like him… But I didn't call you here to talk about Adrien. I came to talk about my dilemma."

"D-Dilemma?", he stuttered, suddenly not knowing where to look but into her bluebell eyes.
"As I said, I didn't only see my friends, Adrien and my family when I got shot. I also saw you."
Marinette still scooped closer, and suddenly her right hand hooked itself behind his neck.

"And when I thought about you… I got a really warm feeling in my chest. And not just because a bullet ripped through me. We're friends, and still.. I thought..."

Another deep breath followed, before the petite and lovely girl before him came at him with a death blow.
"And while I'm not brave enough to tell Adrien that I've liked him for a long time, I'm brave enough to steal a kiss from an alleycat."

And suddenly, she pulled him down for a kiss, without knowing about the bomb of chaos she had just set up in Adriens heart.