Marinette busied herself around her kitchen. She took out flour, butter, salt, sugar, and the rest of the ingredients. She sat a mixing bowl on the table. Her hands shook and she could barely keep it together. Her stomach turned and flipped, as she thought of the marks on his back. As she imagined what could have done so much damage. He had never told her, but why would he. He didn't even want her to see him like that in the first place. The feeling of guilt overwhelmed her. She tried to think back to any moment where she could have noticed a slight change in his demeaner, a change in anything, but she couldn't come up with one moment.

That was when it hit her that he was Chat Noir and Chat Noir was Adrien. Air escaped her lungs and she clung to the island. Tears fell down her cheeks. Her chest tightened and she found herself unable to breath steady. Chat Noir was always so cheerful and carefree and flirty. How could he be so happy with all of that going on? It hit her that he has mastered the art of hiding his pain. Had mastered putting on a show for the world.

She grabbed her bangs and brought her knees to her chest with her back against the kitchen cabinets. She shook and her stomach flipped and bile rose in her throat, but she swallowed it back down. She got stuck in a loop of feeling like it was all her fault, that she had somehow failed him as not only Adrien, but as Chat. She could save the world, but she couldn't save Chat. Hadn't saved Chat. She didn't even know if there was a lucky charm for that. Her heart sank further and her chest tightened up and her breathing quickened.

Adrien walked weakly out of her bedroom to see what she was doing.

"You're making them from scratch?" His eyes went wide, as he froze in the open concept kitchen and his eyes fell to her crumpled on the floor. "Mari?!"

He ran and fell to his knees in front of her. "What's wrong?" He pried her hands from her eyes and searched her face.

Marinette cried hysterically and tried to pry her hands from his grasp, but he held strong.

"Mari?" Adrien frantically searched her eyes.

"I-" She sucked in a breath, yanked her hands from him, and scrambled to the trash can on her hands and knees and relieved her stomach into it.

Adrien fell back against the island on the floor and scrunched up his face at the pain, as his back hit the hardwood and some of the silver hardware.

Marinette clung to the trash can and blushed with embarrassment. "I know I shouldn't be the one to be like this. I know I should be the supportive one. I know I should have noticed something was off about you as Chat, as Adrien." Marinette sobbed and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "I feel so stupid!" She hit the edge of the trash can with her fist.

Adrien held his knees to his chest and felt the cuts open up again and a wet feeling took over his back and he bit back the pain. He gasped out the words that she needed to hear. "Don't feel stupid. I hid it. I never showed you when it would hurt. I never-" He sighed and grabbed his messy blonde hair. "I hid it behind the puns and the jokes and the lies and behind the injuries from fighting an akuma. I'm- I'm not proud of what happens to me. I don't want people to know. I can't. Especially, you. Especially, Ladybug. " He chuckled a little. "What kind of partner would I be, if I fell apart and crumpled to the floor in front of an akuma?"

A memory hit her and she sank back onto her heels and slowly looked back at him. It was a memory that wouldn't be that important if he hadn't told her what he had. She went back to the moment and it flashed in her mind.

"Chat! Distract him!" Ladybug yelled on top of the building.

Chat stood across the way on a seperate building and he gave a nod. He took off in a run and leaped to the building that the akumatized victim was on. The victim swung at him with her baton and he countered it with a swing of his staff.

Ladybug was busy trying to decide what to do with her lucky charm when she noticed his face scrunch up, as he swung his staff at the akumatized victim.

"Chat? Are you okay?!" She yelled over at him.

The sound of metal meeting metal echoed back. "I'm okay!" He gave her an award winning smile and Ladybug went back to working on her lucky charm.

She had never thought anything of it. She had just thought he had been hit by the akumatized victim. The more she thought about it, the more she realized she had never seen him hit by the victim.

"That time- with the-" Marinette took a shaky breath in. "That time with LadyLuna. When I asked if you were alright and you were-" She could barely get the words out and his eyes went wide at her.

Adrien gulped in air and his face fell. He didn't want to answer this question. He didn't want to talk about it more. He wanted to forget like he usually tried to. Press it to the back of his mind. He quickly looked away from her and shook in a panic.

"You weren't alright, were you? I should have noticed. I shouldn't have assumed it was from fighting." Marinette let her stomach roll over and she clutched the trash can again, as the realization hit her. "You were hurt, badly."

Adrien shook his head and words finally tumbled out from his lips. "It wasn't as bad then."

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Anger filled her and she went over and grabbed his upper arms. "All you had to say was that you weren't okay!"

Adrien didn't look her in the eye. He couldn't look her in the eye.

"All you had to do was tell me! Say something! Anything! Why-" Her voice broke off and she slumped in front of him.

Adrien looked away like a guilty child. Like an ashamed child that had done something he shouldn't have. He didn't know how to respond. He didn't know what she wanted to hear. What she needed to hear.

Marinette threw him back by his shoulders and he hissed at the pain of his back meeting the cabinet. "I was there! I was always there! I am still there! Here! You should have told me! Fuck the rules of knowing our identities! I wouldn't have minded if you told me about it!"

Adrien suddenly glared at her and grit his teeth. "Don't you get it?!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "I didn't WANT you or ANYONE to know! I DON't want you to know, even now! I'd rather be in my room, hiding! Pretending!"

Marinette looked at him with wide eyes in shock. Adrien realised how hard he was gripping her and he let her go. "I'm sorry." His voice lowered and quieted.

She scrambled away from him against the adjacent cabinets and put her fingers in her mouth and held her knees to her chest.

Adrien sighed, ran a hand through his hair, and reached out to her. "I won't keep you out anymore. I promise. Just-"

Marinette shook and she felt sick again, but she held back the feeling.

"Don't leave me, please." Adrien sighed and looked to the side on the floor. She imagined him with cat ears that fell back on his head and her lips parted.

Marinette flung at him and enveloped him in a hug and he welcomed it. She let him go and pulled herself up off of the floor and she backed up and watched him slowly rise from where he was sitting.

She noticed how he winced as he stood and her heart sank. "I hurt you. Let me rebandage you."

She left the room to her bathroom and washed out her mouth and brushed her teeth. She splashed her face with cold water to try and calm down. She retrieved the first aid kit once again.

Marinette appeared back into the kitchen and cleared her throat. "Sit, please." She gestured to a chair near him.

He walked over and sat with the back of the chair between his legs. She unwrapped the bandages from around his torso and saw how the blood had soaked through the gauze. Tears fell from her eyes at the sight.

"I did this. I'm so sorry." Marinette sobbed and lost herself into the flashes of memory of him hitting the cabinets.

"Mari." Adrien peered at her over his shoulder with his arms rested over one another on the back of the wooden chair.

"It's my fault that you're bleeding like this." She ran rubbing alcohol over the freshly opened cuts and began to rebandage them. "I shoved you into the cabinet."

"Do you bake a lot?" Adrien tried to change the subject. He didn't want to talk about this. He didn't want her to feel guilty.

"Please, Adrien." Marinette set new sheets of gauze over the wounds.

"Do you bake a lot?" Adrien pressed the subject.

Marinette sighed and added medical tape to the gauze. "Yes. Mostly when I'm stressed." She began to wrap Ace bandages around him again.

Adrien stood up from the chair, once she had backed up from him. She threw the old bandages away and washed her hands.

"So, you're making them from scratch?" Adrien weakly smiled at her.

Marinette sighed and went back to work on the pain au chocolat. She threw all of the ingredients into the mixing bowl with shaking hands.

"Yeah." Marinette smiled with closed eyes and held the bowl to her with one hand and mixed it with the other.

Adrien stood across the island that she was working at. "I haven't seen someone make these since my... mother made them." His head fell as, he spoke of a beautiful blonde haired woman with matching vibrant green eyes.

"You're mother made them for you?" Marinette smiled at him and set the bowl down.

"When I was little." Adrien remembered the fresh sweet chocolate smell after she would first remove them from the oven. How the house always got warmer. He let his mind wander back to the memory.

A woman with long side swept blonde hair stood at a huge island, carefully measuring out ingredients. She dumped one in at a time and began to mix them with a smile. Gabriel came in and stood behind her and enveloped her in his arms. He rested his chin on her right shoulder, kissed her neck, and sighed.

"You know we have a chef that can do this for you?" Gabriel softly spoke near her ear.

"I know I just love to bake." She smiled at him and continued to mix the pastry dough.

He let go of her, walked to the opposite side of the island and watched her drop the dough onto flour and roll it out.

Gabriel stole some of the dough and plopped it into his mouth with a smile, as he leaned an elbow onto the island top, across from her.

"Hey. Wait till it's done, Monsieur Agreste." Her laugh came out as wind chimes.

"It's delicious, mon rossignol." Gabriel gave her a sheepish grin and looked at her through heavy lidded eyes.

She blushed and giggled at him. She cut them into rectangles and rolled chocolate in each one before letting them rise and throwing them into the oven.

Adrien was up playing in his room when he smelt the pastries baking. He ran down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Hi, Adrien." His mother gave him a warm smile and Gabriel chuckled at how fast he had run in there at the smell of the pastries baking.

"Are you baking?" Adrien smiled a big smile with flushed cheeks.

"Yep, one of your favorites too." She smiled with her eyes closed and picked him up, before tapping his nose with her pointer finger. "Pain au chocolat."

His smile got even bigger and he jumped in her arms, excited. "I LOVE… pain au chocolat!" His eyes closed and he sighed at the thought.

Gabriel and his mother laughed at their son's reaction.

Adrien came back to reality and his hands shook. He balled them into fists to stop them from quivering.

"I hope they live up to how she made them. I'm sure you have a fondness for hers." Marinette warmly spoke before rolling the dough out onto some flour. She folded and rolled and folded and rolled several times, creating layers.

"I'm sure they will." Adrien smiled up at her and watched her cut the flattened dough into rectangles and place strips of dark chocolate on one of the edges before rolling them up, causing the chocolate to be in the middle.

She laid each one on the cookie sheet and let them rise. "How's your back?"

"Healing. I told you, I'm used to it." Adrien shrugged and felt the sting from the movement.

"You shouldn't be used to it. It sounds terrible when you say that." Marinette's eyes grew sad.

"It's true though. I won't lie to you anymore." Adrien sighed and ran a hand through his messy hair. "When my… mother, was around he was much nicer and put together. Ever since she left… he's been less lenient."

She wanted to distract him. To make it all disappear. To make it go back to how it used to be. Marinette slid the pan of chocolate filled pastry dough into the oven to bake. "Wanna watch a movie or something?" She pointed the couch out in front of a flat screen television. "I have a variety of films." She knew it wouldn't fix it. Wouldn't make the past go away, but it would be a good distraction for the time being.

"I would love that, ma cherie." Adrien smiled at her and walked over to her movie selection.

He flipped through a variety of films until he stumbled upon one. It was some type of anime. One that was set in a city where it appeared that they were fighting something bigger than they were. "How about this one?" He held it up in the air and she looked over at it.

"Okay. Have you seen it?" Marinette smiled and walked over.

"No, surprisingly not." Adrien smiled and put it into the Blue Ray player.

He sat on the couch and gently laid his back against the back of the couch. He was irritated, sad, embarrassed, and confused all at once.

Marinette looked at him and how he looked without his shirt on, despite the bandages that wrapped around his torso, he still looked amazing. Even with the bruises and marred skin. He was beautiful. He looked up at her with confusion written on his face. She just wanted to do something to forget what had happened for a moment. Something to distract them from the war. Something better than a movie. Her mind filtered to how his father had treated him. What his father had threatened him with. Anger filled her and she took advantage of it.

Marinette suddenly climbed onto his lap and straddled his thighs. She held his face and kissed him hard on the lips. His mind went blank and all he could think of was her. Her tongue sought entrance and he suddenly held her by her lower back and let her in. His tongue ran along hers and she moaned and moved her hips.

Adrien pulled her closer and touched the side of her face with one hand, as he kept passionately kissing her. He broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers. "I love you, Mari."

"I love you too, Adrien. Let me take you away." Marinette slid off his lap and ran her hands up his thighs.

His eyes grew wide, as realization hit and he carefully shifted lower on the couch. He winced a bit at the pain of his bruises and his freshly reopened wounds, but it quickly faded to the back of his mind.

She looked up at him with big eyes and undid his belt and jeans. She tugged at his boxers and jeans and he moved to help her ease them down his hips a bit. He sprang free from the confines of his pants and she smirked before slowly licking from the base to the head of his hard cock.

Adrien leaned his head back on the couch and let out a soft moan, biting his lower lip.

She licked around the tip with her tongue before bringing her mouth around him and taking all of him into her mouth. He moaned and rolled his hips, gripping her hair between his slender fingers. "Marinette…"

She smiled and brought her lips back up to his head while sucking. She released him with a pop and wrapped her fingers around him and began to move her hand up and down him. She brought her lips down to his swollen head and began to suck on him, while running her hand in tandem. He bit his bottom lip and peered down at her and watched her skillfully work on him. She peered up at him with big blue bell eyes and he was a goner.

"Ah…" He let out a loud moan, as she brought her lips back up to the tip and circled it with her tongue, while he was still inside her mouth. "oh fuck." He gripped the couch at his thighs and parted his legs, as much as, his pants would let him. His hips pumped and she gripped his thighs with her fingertips and moaned. It sent vibrations down his hard dick and he let out another soft groan.

His back pain was lost in the waves of ecstasy and he was lost in the ocean of Marinette. He looked at her with heavy lidded glowing green eyes with parted lips. Adrien panted and ran a hand along her cheek. She smirked and sped up her hand and mouth and he flung his head back against the back of the couch, as the pressure released and he came into her mouth.

Marinette slowed down her hand and mouth and slowly came to a stop. She removed her lips with a final flick of her tongue under his head and smirked at him, as she slowly stilled her hand and let him go.

She wiped her mouth and stood up, while he fixed his pants and tried to catch his breath. "That was amazing." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

The oven timer went off and Marinette walked towards the kitchen with trembling legs and washed her hands at the sink before opening the oven door to retrieve the pain au chocolat. Marinette turned the oven off, set out a cooling rack, and set each one on it to cool.

She sat back on the couch next to him and put her hands between her legs and rubbed her thighs together. Adrien smirked at her and swung her legs up towards him. Her eyes went wide. "What are you doing?"

"Shh…" Adrien put a finger to her lips and held himself up above her. He kissed her on the lips and brought her bottom lip between his teeth and slowly trailed kisses down her neck. If she wanted him to be distracted… if she wanted to be distracted… he'd give her that.

Her hips went up into the air and she let out a breath from her parted lips. He slid his hand down her chest, to her toned stomach, to where she needed him most. Her hips rose to meet his hand and his breath feathered along her neck.

"You want me?" He lowered his voice with a dangerous expression and whispered along her skin and planted soft kisses along her neck and up to her ear. He took her earlobe between his teeth and licked and nibbled on it. "You want a distraction, bugaboo?"

She gasped and rolled her hips, begging for more. "Yes…" Her voice shook with anticipation.

Adrien gripped the top of her pants and panties and yanked them down off of her hips, and threw them to the floor. He sat up on his heels and grabbed her thighs and pulled her down to him. She gasped and bit her lower lip. He peered up at her with glowing forest colored eyes and brought his lips to her glistening pussy with a smirk. She moaned at the feel of his velvet lips on her. He let his tongue glide from the bottom to the top in a slow tantalizing motion. She moaned and threw her head back and tangled her fingers into his hair, as he circled her swollen clit with his tongue. He reached a hand up to caress one of her perfectly rounded breasts and she gripped the couch suddenly and let her legs part further.

He smirked and tugged on her clit with his tongue and sucked on it. Adrien sped up his tongue and she rolled her hips into him and retangled her fingers into his hair. "Adrien…" His name played on her parted lips and Adrien groaned.

Adrien parted her soaked lips to gain better access and he moved his fingers back and forth, while he licked her and sucked on her. Her toes curled and her hands balled into fists at her side, while her back arched and she came loudly. "ADRIEN!"

Adrien groaned again at hearing his name and let her moans ring out through the apartment for once. No one was around and it didn't matter if anyone heard. It was only the two of them. Her hips slowed and he laid on top of her, kissing her mouth with tender kisses and she slowly caught her breath. She gripped at his belt.

He chuckled and let her pop the buckle. "Need more?" He smirked down at her with fire fueled neon eyes and a lowered sex filled voice.

Marinette looked up at him with sultry eyes and nodded. Adrien quickly caught her lips and their lips rapidly moved along each other. She gave in and undid the rest of his jeans. He yanked them down with one hand and entered her.

She moaned and gripped his forearms, as he pumped into her with the movie blasting in the back round, abandoned.

Marinette untangled from him on the couch, slipped her pants back on and walked over to the kitchen. Adrien straightened up on the couch and combed his fingers through his hair and redid his jeans. It had been a welcome reprieve from the pain and the negative thoughts that swam through his mind.

She took out a vintage silver tray and set two small pink with white polka dot plates on it. She set a chocolate filled pastry on each plate and filled two white cups with black tea. Adrien watched her carry it over and set it on the coffee table in front of him.

Tears threatened the edges of his eyes, as he looked down at the tray. He sighed and looked at it as the pain and ghosts returned to him like chains that held him prisoner. Something broke in him and he spiraled into the abyss.

Marinette looked at him with worry in her eyes. "What's wrong? Is it your back? Is it something I did?"

Adrien shook his head and resorted to holding himself in a self reassuring hug like he was used to doing when he was alone. Marinette noticed the way he cowered into himself and the way he held his arms. Tears fell from her eyes and she quickly enveloped him in her arms. He stiffened up and melted against her and shattered into a million tiny pieces. She had never heard him break before. Had never heard him cry like he was. He sobbed until he couldn't breath. His body shook against her and tears fell from her eyes in rivers.

Marinette ran her hand through his soft hair and he curled into himself against her.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He gasped the words out of his trembling lips and repeated the words over and over again like his life depended on it, gripping her shirt between his shaking fingers. "I'm so sorry."

Marinette's world came crashing down around her, as she realised what he was doing. That he was resorting to what he would do in his room alone after his father would abuse him. That he was self reassuring himself. Her heart broke and bile rose in her throat again. Anger rose out of the ashes of her tears and she gripped her hands into fists. Gabriel had to pay for this. Something had to happen. Someone had to stop it.

"I'm gonna fix this. I'm gonna stop this." Marinette whispered against his ear.

Song I wrote to: Lost Boy by Ruth B.

Drowning by BANKS