Chapter Four
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"...reports coming in that the akuma is still at large-" Czzzt!
"...Ladybug nowhere to be found-" Czzzt!
"...Cat Noir appears to be badly injured-" Czzzt!
"...police reccomend citizens stay inside with their doors locked-" Czzzt!
"...adybug, where are you?!" Czzzt!
"I cannot believe this..." Marinette slams her finger over the power button and tosses the remote control onto the floor. "Every single channel."
"You can't blame them," Tikki offers gently as she takes another bite of her cookie. "They're scared."
"They're acting like we just ran away!" She sighs in agrivation and shakes her head, stalking away from the electronics section of the shop. "Come on, let's just focus on finding the bandages..."
The ceiling is swaying above him, his vision likely several shades greyer than it should be. Adrien lays as still as possible on his back, feeling only distantly bad for staining the expensive display-sofa red with his blood. Closing his eyes, he realizes his breaths are too shallow again and he struggles to deepen them, remembering how Marinette had panicked when she thought he was hyperventilating.
But now his princess is off searching for bandages to patch his wound, allowing him a moment alone. Well. Almost alone.
He lulls his head to the side, staring sadly at his kwami. Plagg is laying on the pillow beside him, unconsious. He has been ever since the transformation wore off. And there's a little, hairline cut across his side that matches Adrien's almost identically. From what he can tell, Plagg must have absorbed the worst of the injury to protect him...
Stupid...cheese loving...lazy cat...
Adrien swallows the lump in his throat and turns away again. And that's when he sees Marinette quickly jogging toward him, her arms loaded down with what appears to be half the pharmacy. He smirks weakly at the sight and greets her as steadily as possible when she kneels beside him.
"Hey, Princess, I see you made out pretty well..."
She nods and pulls the label off the roll of bandages. "We'll have to leave a note explaining where all this stuff went," she says, pointedly not looking him in the eyes. Her voice is uncharacteristically cold.
"Marinette...?" he asks, reaching out to take her hand. But she swipes it away, still refusing to look at him and starts opening a box of disinfectant.
"This might burn a little," she informs him mechanically, peeling back his soaked shirt and pressing a rag wet with medicine over his injury.
Adrien sees stars. His back arcs off the bed and his gasp of pain is almost a shriek. If he were still in costume, he would have ripped a hole in the thick blanket with how tightly he's grasping it.
Admittedly, Marinette pauses then, frowning at the floor. "Sorry," she mutters.
"Ahh..." Adrien closes his eyes and nods his head. "A-are you m-mad at me or something?"
"What?" Marinette blinks in surprise.
He winces and cracks open one eye. "Well? Are you? I mean, I wouldn't blame you if you were...what I did was pretty stupid and it did kind of ruin the fight and...I probably scared you...I-I didn't mean to, I promise! I just-mmph!" His eyes widen when her lips suddenly crash with his and all the things he was about to say melt out of his mind.
Marinette pulls away slowly, her fierce blue eyes locked with his now. "Yeah, I am kind of mad at you," she says, her voice a level of dangerous he's only ever heard from Ladybug. "But not because you 'ruined the fight' or even because you scared me...which you did, by the way." She sits back and gently dabs the medicine rag over his injury again, the effect not as harsh this time...but it still burns like hell. "I'm angry because you almost got yourself killed for no reason."
"For no reason?" Adrien raises his eyebrows in disbelief. "That's weird because I was under the impression that our identities are a really big deal!"
"Yeah well so is your life, STUPID CAT!"
Adrien blinks. He's never heard Marinette yell before. Not even as Ladybug. She's always so calm and collected. But now there are tears gathering in the corners of her eyes and she's red in the face from her cheeks to her ears. "I...uh, I'm sorry...? I didn't think-"
"Yeah," she interrupts. "You didn't think and you almost died, so excuse me if I'm a little irritated that the guy I love almost bled to death right in front of me."
Marinette reads the note for the third time, admittedly stalling. It's fine. Neatly written on a piece of scrap paper, left at the cash register for an employee to find, and is very clearly signed Ladybug. She's sure they'll understand that the heroes of Paris needed to...borrow some medical supplies. It's just that...
Turning discreetly, just enough to peek over her shoulder, she finds Adrien still stretched out on the display bed, one hand draped over his stomach, his eyes closed, chest rising and falling rapidly.
She can't go back over there. Not yet. God, she's so embarassed. She can't believed she just yelled at Adrien! After she just almost lost him! Groaning softly, she buries her face in her hands and wishes she could just sink through the floor and disappear. But if she did, there'd be no one to take him to the hospital...
Marinette takes a moment to compose herself before timidly making her way back over and sinking to her knees beside him. She scoops up her phone from the bed and starts dialing the number...when Adrien's eyes flicker open.
"Who are you calling?" he asks, almost too alert.
"Uh...a cab. I was going to have one drive us to the hospital-"
Adrien blanches. "No! I can't go to the hospital!"
"What?! Adrien, you're hurt-"
"I know, I know, but they'll call my father! Marinette," he struggles to sit up, managing to prop himself on his elbows, his expression deathly serious. "He's already so suspicious. And I'm sure our fight is all over the news right now! If the hospital calls him and says I'm injured with the exact same wounds as Cat Noir..." he shakes his head. "No hospitals."
"Then what do you plan on doing!?" she demands, beginning to get irritated again. "Eventually, he's going to find out! Those injuries aren't going to heal up overnight!"
"I'll...make something up," he shrugs. "We already planned on telling him I'm staying at Nino's. I'll just say I'm going to be there for a few nights. Maybe by then, I won't be such a bloody wreck. Besides..." Adrien reluctantly nods his head toward Plagg. "He's in worse shape than me. We should take care of him first. I wonder if there are any veteranarians open this late..."
Chewing her lip, Marinette glances at Tikki, who is sadly hovering over her wounded fellow kwami. "I...actually think I have a better idea..."
"Huh?"
In hopes of sparing Adrien from having to walk halfway across Paris in his condition, Marinette transforms and holds tightly around his waist as they swing through the warm night air toward their destination.
"Are you sure we can trust this guy?" Adrien asks, clutching Plagg protectively to his chest.
Ladybug nods. "Tikki got really sick once and he healed her, he might have saved her life."
"And...he knows you're Ladybug? How did that happen?"
"I'm not sure," she admits. "But from what I can tell...he had something to do with us getting our Miraculouses."
"Wow...you know, I stopped questioning pretty quickly how the ring got into my room...I figured it was magic or something I guess."
"Me too," she says. "Turns out we really were chosen." As they land on the street outside of Master Fu's house, Adrien winces and hugs his arm over his stomach.
"Well, out of all the girls in Paris, I'm glad you're the one he chose to be my partner."
Marinette's heart squeezes in her chest and she feels her face go warm. "M-me too...I-I mean, I'm g-glad you're my partner..."
Adrien smiles tiredly and she turns toward the door, blushing brightly, and knocks a few times before stepping back to wait. She's so busy awkwardly twiddling her thumbs and struggling to stop blushing that she doesn't notice Adrien suddenly swaying next to her. That is, until he says,
"Marinette...I...I think...I'm...gonna..." he staggers forward as his eyes roll back in his head. She just barely manages to catch him before he falls and she lowers him to the ground, gasping his name in fear. And that's when the door slides open behind her and Master Fu audibly gasps as well.
"Cat Noir!"
Ladybug cradles Adrien close and strokes his hair. "Please tell me you can help him!" she pleads.
Master Fu nods and shuffles outside to help her carry him in.
The room is dimly lit, a few scattered candles glowing in the corners, and it smells strongly of earth-scented prefumes. A bit of purple-ish smoke curls into the air from the burning sticks of insense and the reverberation of a gong is all that can be heard other than Master Fu's whispered chanting.
Marinette's hands are clasped into nervous fists in her lap and she's thankful for Tikki's presence, settled atop her shoulder. The girl and her kwami are both watching the scene before them unfold with a strange sense of distance. Like they're watching a movie rather than reality.
Because it simply can't be reality that Adrien is laying perfectly still on his back, eyes closed, face deathly pale, his breaths rasping out much too quickly. And it certainly can't be true that Plagg-a magical, immortal kwami-is laying beside him, completely unresponsive to Tikki's tearful pleads for him to wake up.
Marinette burns to ask Fu if they're going to be alright but the last thing he said before beginning his chanting and gong-ringing was that he needed complete silence. That was an hour ago. And so far, it doesn't seem like much has changed. Well, except for the gradually increasing heart rate in Marinette's chest.
God, she feels sick...
As silently as possible, she stands up and pads over to the door, resolving to wait outside in the fresh air so she doesn't faint like a milk maid when she gets her answer. The paper door slides noiselessly on its track and she steps out into the garden, closing it behind her.
Her feet are bare and she distantly muses that the cool grass might have felt good on her toes in other circumstances. If Adrien was with her, the Chinese garden with its man made waterfall and rows of lilies might have been beautiful. She might have smelled the floral aroma of the wall of roses to her left and she might have smiled at the way the Paris moonlight reflected off the koi pond to her right.
But instead, Marinette wanders blindly to a stone bench near the pond and sinks down, burying her face in her hands. "Oh god...what if he dies, Tikki...?" she whimpers, rubbing the wetness out of her eyes. "He can't die..."
But Tikki doesn't answer.
Marinette lifts her chin a little to find her kwami sitting heavily in the stones beside the koi pond, her little head ducked sadly toward the ground. "Tikki?" Gingerly, she stands up from the bench and kneels down beside her friend. And that's when she notices the little kwami is sniffling sadly.
Oh...
"Oh, Tikki..." Marinette gently scoops her up and holds her in her hands. "Look...they're going to be alright..." she says even though she doesn't entirely believe it herself. "Plagg will be just fine. He'll be up and...pestering us for cheese in no time!" She forces the brightest smile she can manage at the moment and her kwami looks at it with large, watering eyes for a moment before nodding.
"You really th-think so?"
"Of course," she lies with soft smile.
"What about Adrien?" Her smile must have faltered because Tikki gasps quietly and apologizes. "I-I mean, I'm sure Adrien will be too! We just have to be patient!"
"Yeah." Marinette swipes away a tear with her finger and stands up, holding her kwami close. "They'll be okay, we just have to be patient."
And then the door slides open behind them and Master Fu steps out. But his face doesn't portray the same hope as Marinette's. He shakes his head slowly, apologetically...and Marinette feels her heart skip a beat.
"They're both awake," he says and Marinette feels every muscle in her body unwind. She hadn't realized she was so tense. "But Cat Noir is in bad shape. He needs a proper hospital."
She nods in agreement. "I'll try to convince him but he was pretty adamant about not going earlier...his father is getting suspicious of his identity and he's worried he'll find out."
"Well perhaps all this has changed his mind." Fu steps aside so she can enter.
"I hope so..."