Author's Note:
I do not own any of these characters.
Even the most sickeningly cute couples have bad days. Adrien and Marinette were no exception. Thankfully it was mostly one or the other having a bad day and then being cheered up by the other. However, it had to happen eventually, both of them were having a bad day.
Adrien's day started rough. He had gotten a bad report from the photographer about his photo shoot the previous day and Gabriel had decided to reprimand him this morning instead of last night. The scolding was typical of his father, cold and threatening. However, it lasted long enough to make him late for school. As he arrived at class, he was greeted by an unfamiliar voice and the quite stern voice of the substitute teacher, who assured Adrien that he was not like his normal teachers and would not tolerate tardiness by giving him detention after a lecture on the merits of timeliness in front of the entire class while Adrien had to stand by the door and listen. Adrien was still broody at lunch.
Marinette woke up early for a change, which was nice, and even made it to school on time. However, she was not paying attention and tripped over a bench in the locker room. She was still nursing her bruised neck when she literally bumped into Lila and had to listen to her drone on about how everyone loved her and that no one would ever believe Marinette if she tried to tell them about her lies. Marinette's final straw was having to watch Adrien go through his embarrassment. She was steamed... and then lunch hit.
"He shouldn't have done that!" Marinette protested to Adrien with Nino and Alya watching on.
"It's fine, really," Adrien huffed, not believing it himself but not wanting to see Marinette get in trouble for fighting the substitute teacher.
"No, it's not..." Marinette started before Adrien cut her off.
"Just drop it, and leave it alone!" Adrien said with more anger than he intended. He was happy she wanted to defend him, but he was tired of focusing on it and his nerves were wearing really thin. He looked up at Marinette and saw the look in her eyes. He might as well have slapped her given the look she had. She got up and stormed off mumbling something about leaving him alone if that's what he really wanted.
Adrien looked helplessly at Nino and Alya just in time to catch Alya sneer a little and then run off after Marinette. Someone seeing the girls leave would've thought he had slapped both of them. Adrien turned his gaze to Nino who just shrugged, frowned a little, and stated "I am not getting in the middle of that." With that Nino extracted himself from the table and left Adrien fuming even more at the misunderstanding.
The rest of the school day was filled with the occasional daggers being thrown at Adrien from the looks on Marinette's and Alya's faces. This kept all three of the students in a foul mood throughout afternoon classes.
Adrien was slightly thankful that Nino didn't honor his promise to stay out of it by dragging Alya off after school. That left him only having to deal with one angry girl instead of two. "Marinette?" Adrien said with a frustrated sigh.
"Humph..." Marinette replied making sure Adrien knew she was still upset at him. Adrien looked at her and was tempted to just leave her alone instead of potentially saying something to make her madder.
Instead, he decided to try and at least explain the misunderstanding, "Look... I didn't say I wanted you to leave... I said I wanted you to leave the issue alone because I didn't want you to get involved." Marinette glanced at him and then turned away again. "I didn't want you going off on the sub and getting yourself in trouble," he tried explaining, still filled with frustration at the whole situation.
Marinette could still here the frustration in his voice and that hurt her thinking he was frustrated with her instead of the situation. "If my trying to defend you upsets you, then I'll just stop defending you!" she huffed and walked home. Adrien wanted to follow her and try to talk things out, but he had to return inside the school to attend detention.
Cat Noir could tell Ladybug was still upset. That poor akumatized victim didn't deserve how quickly and roughly Ladybug defeated it. Cat Noir had just stared in amazement at Ladybug taking out her frustrations and pummeling the guy into next week. He figured Hawk Moth must have even felt bad for the victim as he released the akuma itself and purified it as it flew away. Thankfully, Ladybug was able to stop herself in time from hurting the man after being detransformed back into a civilian.
"That was scary," Cat Noir said to Ladybug and she blushed from embarrassment and looked away from him, tears streaming down her eyes. He put his arms around her. He knew she had scared herself. She twisted around in his arms and sobbed into his chest.
"I... I was so angry... I... I was so mad you and I took it out on that poor person," she sobbed. "I... just kept picturing you, as Adrien, as I was hitting on that poor victim."
"Then hit me, not one of Hawk Moth's unfortunate victims," Cat Noir said softly, stroking her hair. "I can take it, especially if it's meant for me." She beat his chest much too softly for him to take it seriously and he started to laugh a little.
Ladybug heard him laughing and started hitting much harder. That fact didn't go unnoticed on Cat Noir, but he couldn't help it now, he started laughing harder. The harder she hit, the harder he laughed. She finally ran out of steam and just collapsed into him.
Cat Noir held her tightly, a tear or two forming in his eyes. He was sorry for causing all of this. "I-I'm sorry," he whispered trying to talk around the lump in his throat.
"No!" Ladybug protested into his chest. "It's all my fault! I... I was having a bad day when I slipped and got into a confrontation with Lila. And then watching you get a dressing down by some substitute teacher just stoked my righteous indignation."
"You shouldn't be mad at the substitute, he was just doing his job... just not very tactfully," Adrien stated. "As far as me being late, that was because my father was unhappy with my photo shoot from last night and was informing me about it this morning instead of when he found out about it."
She looked up into his eyes, "I'm sorry I made your bad day worse." She blinked away a few tears. He leaned down and kissed her.
"I'm sorry I barked at you earlier. I didn't mean too. I just wanted you to drop the issue because it didn't bother me nearly as much as it was obviously bothering you that I had detention." Adrien shrugged slightly and then added, "I'm used to being disappointed. I would've been fine."
"I'm sorry I barked back. I was just so angry with the way you had been treated, that I couldn't think straight and being told to drop it just pushed my last button," she admitted sheepishly.
"Are we good?"
"We're good."
They smiled at each other and kissed before leaving to unwind at their respective homes and detransforming.
"Tikki..." Marinette whined. "How could I have made such a mess and reacted so badly?" Tikki just smiled and shrugged. Marinette's phone beeped with a notification of a new post on the Ladyblog and Marinette shuddered at the thought of what Alya might've captured of the akuma fight.
She was right... it certainly wasn't something she was proud of. Images of Ladybug striking blow after blow on the akuma victim left Marinette's cheeks red from embarrassment. The post-fight commentary by Alya didn't help either. "It looks like Ladybug is taking out her frustrations on this one, folks. Could there be a fight going on between Ladybug and Cat Noir? Cat Noir is certainly looking on in shock and looks somewhat grateful she's not hitting him like that."
Marinette knew that Alya wasn't incorrect, but she also had inside knowledge that she was right and, though she couldn't come right out and say it, she was certainly going to imply it. Marinette closed the video on her phone and dialed Alya.
"Marinette? Are you okay? Do you need me to come over there with a shovel?" Alya asked in rapid succession.
"Alya, I'm fine. No shovel needed," Marinette replied, knowing full well that Alya would have gladly come over with a shovel if she had wanted. Alya was such a good, protective friend.
"I saw the akuma fight? Did you let that mangy stray cat get away after you scared Hawk Moth half to death?" Alya inquired.
"I know you saw it. I just watched your post on the Ladyblog," Marinette confirmed. "And as far as my boyfriend is concerned, we've patched things up." Marinette could've sworn she heard a shovel falling to the floor in Alya's room.
"Why? Did you at least make him plead for his life?" Alya interrogated. Marinette was finally starting to understand why Nino never did anything to make Alya angry.
"It was just a big misunderstanding, Alya. He was having a bad day and I was having a bad day and we just both barked at each other at the same time." Marinette stood up and walked over to her window to look out of it, halfway hoping to see Cat Noir.
"Well, you should've at least given him a bruise as a reminder," Alya pouted. "Maybe... a small scar? Anything really. Just so he knows not to hurt you again."
"I appreciate you looking out for me, Alya. But... everything's good between us now." Marinette sighed a little.
"Well, did you just talk it out, then?" Alya was hoping a bit too much for at least a little bit of physical combat. "I mean, the way you were using the akuma for a punching bag and the fact that Hawk Moth himself stopped the fight, made me think you might not have gotten all the punches in that you wanted..."
"Please don't remind me," Marinette interrupted. "I feel really bad about how I acted... and as Ladybug of all times. I just hope regular civilians don't start running away from me."
"It's okay, girl," Alya reassured her. "I'm sure they'll still love you after they see you're back to your normal self next time."
"I guess..." Marinette started, and then had a great idea. "Alya! I've got it. Meet me at the park. I'm going to give you an exclusive interview so that I can apologize for my actions. That'll... hopefully... put people back at ease."
"On my way."
Nathalie had been out running errands during the akuma fight and was just returning back to the mansion. She had also just finished watching the video of the fight on the Ladyblog. She entered Gabriel's office and saw him staring blankly at his computer monitor.
"Sir... are you okay?" she asked as normally as possible. Save for Heroes Day and deakumatizing Volipna so he could akumatize her, she had never seen him voluntarily stop a fight.
"I... I just can't get the image out of my head," he said without even looking at her. "Just, red fist after red fist... it went on for what seemed like an eternity... just red fist after red fist."
Nathalie was now even more concerned for Gabriel than she was before asking. "Can I do anything for you?"
"I... I think I'm just going to take a break for a few weeks. Hopefully she's cooled off by then," he responded, still not looking up, then their phones beeped.
"It's another Ladyblog post, sir," Nathalie started. "Apparently, she's given an exclusive interview about the fight." Nathalie walked around behind Gabriel and held up her phone so they could both watch.
"Hello everyone, it's Alya here with an exclusive post-fight interview with Ladybug." Alya's face was large on the screen and she then moved the phone around and pointed it at Ladybug.
Ladybug had a very serious look on her face. "I watched the previous post on the Ladyblog covering the latest akuma. After watching it, I contacted Alya and asked for this exclusive interview. I wanted to take this opportunity to say that I'm ashamed of the way I acted during the battle. I let issues in my personal life spill over into my superhero life and affect the way I fought. I'm sure the previous video was disconcerting to watch for many of you, and I'd like to apologize for my actions. I wish I could say it will never happen again... but I can't. Like the rest of you... I'm just an ordinary Parisian under this mask. However, I will certainly do my best to not let this happen again. Thank you for your understanding."
Alya turned the phone back to herself and once again filled the screen with her face. "I for one understand. I hope this post has helped if the previous post was troubling for you. And as always... remember, you heard it here first."
The video stopped and Nathalie put her phone away. "It seems today was not a good day for anyone," she noted. Gabriel finally looked up at her and nodded. Nathalie gave him a small smile and walked out of the room, leaving Gabriel alone with the memory of Ladybug's fists in his face.
Marinette was on her balcony, watching the lights and trying hard to see if she could see any of the stars. She heard Cat Noir land behind her and acted like she hadn't heard him. He walked up to her, without trying to be quiet, but Marinette still didn't turn around. He put his arms around her and hugged her from behind. "Hello, Chaton," she said, finally acknowledging his presence.
"Hello, Purrincess," he whispered and kissed her on her cheek. "I thought I might find you out here tonight."
Marinette leaned into his arm and smiled. "It's been a long day, kitty... I saw the post about the fight on the Ladyblog."
"I saw it too," Cat Noir started, "and I saw the follow-up video." He nuzzled her hair and smiled. "I'm proud of you. I'm sure that was hard."
"Not as hard as watching the fight video," she confessed. "I don't think I can get it out of my head. I just hope I didn't scar anyone for life... especially you."
"Me?" he asked, surprised by her statement. "Why would you think you've scarred me for life?"
"Because," she said as tears started running down her cheeks, "I saw the look on your face watching me pummel that poor guy."
Cat Noir spun her around and bent over to look her directly in the eyes. "Look at me. Do you see any scars?" Marinette shook her head, but continued to cry. "If I could... I'd let you look all the way down into my soul. You'd still find no scars." Marinette gave him a weak smile and inhaled sharply trying to calm her breathing.
"It's... It's not only that... but we just had our first real fight. I've never been more scared. I was so scared that I had lost you." Marinette started crying even harder.
Cat Noir detransformed and Adrien was standing in front of Marinette. He put his hands on her cheeks and wiped the tears as they flowed on both sides. He looked deep into her eyes and said, "I understand, I was scared too. I was scared that I had run you off. That I had barked too loudly and you had decided you didn't want someone like that in your life."
"I could never..." Marinette began. "never ever... be scared off from you."
"And, you could never scare me off," he added. They kissed and just held each other for a while. After a few minutes, they broke apart and smiled nervously.
"I... uh... talked to Alya," Marinette admitted, "and she's promised not to skin you alive."
"T-Thanks... I appreciate that," Adrien said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I... I should probably get back before I'm missed." She nodded. He kissed her again and they exchanged I love yous. After he transformed back into Cat Noir, he looked deeply into her eyes again and said, "I'll see you tomorrow."
"I'll see you tomorrow." Marinette watched as Cat Noir hopped from roof to roof towards his room.