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Day 29 - Rescued

Adrien let himself fall heavily on his bed, Plagg falling heavily next to his head. They both sighed in the same exasperated way, taking in the silence of the room and hoping that by sitting still, their day couldn't get any worse.

"Today sucked." Plagg muttered out loud.

Adrien hummed his agreement, not ready to speak out loud just yet. His words had done enough damage today. He put his arm over his eyes, the weight of the day like a ton of bricks pressing heavily into his chest.

Today was supposed to have been a good, no, a great day. It was Friday, he didn't have any extra lessons, and the photoshoot had been rescheduled. His father was gone on a business trip for the weekend, so he'd been given free rein of his weekend for once.

He should have known waking up this morning that his day was going to be hell.

Not only had his alarm NOT gone off, his back-up alarm on his phone hadn't rung either because his phone hadn't charged last night. He had no idea how that had happened, but seeing that he had twenty minutes to get to school, he didn't have time to care.

After throwing on the first clothes he could find, he'd snatched his bag, ran his hands through his wild bedhead to somewhat try to tame it, and rushed downstairs to find a note on the front door from Gorilla. 'Going to give you an early start on your weekend, enjoy your day at school and I'll come check on you later tonight. Be back by 11pm.'

While on any other day, the freedom of walking to school would have been a monumental joy, now all he could do was groan before Plagg reminded him that he could get to school on time another way.

He should have never listened to Plagg.

Transforming and heading to school as Chat Noir had gotten him there with minutes to spare, only for him to have to turn around the second he landed outside to fight the obnoxiously loud akuma blasting everything in sight. And boy had he gotten his tail handed to him during the fight. He lost track of how many times the akuma sent him flying back into a building or into the ground, which is where Ladybug had found him groaning in pain.

Seeing her had brought a real hope that everything would be okay, but of course, the day was determined to prove him wrong.

Ladybug not only defeated the akuma in minutes, practically without him, but she hadn't even had to use her Lucky Charm. After their usual fist bump that he felt he didn't deserve, she disappeared as usual.

Then of course, he had to rush back to school, and his downhill fall continued.

Not only was he late, but he was in such a rush that as he headed down the hall to class, he realized his shoe was untied. He skidded to a stop before he could land face first, and ended up slamming into another body that he hadn't seen coming. His instinct had kicked in, and his arms wrapped around the other person tightly as they landed hard. His head knocked into the hard floor as a feminine squeal came from above him.

"A-ADRIEN! Oh my god I'm so sorry! Are you okay? Please be okay!" Marinette asked in a panic, tears filling her eyes as she looked at him.

He instantly smiled up at her, "No, no I'm okay. Just hit my head a little. Are you okay? I'm sorry I should have been paying attention."

There was a bright flash, making them both turn to see Alya beaming at them wickedly with her phone in her hand.

Marinette quickly scrambled off of him, her face scarlet as Miss Bustier gave them a knowing smile, "Taking 'running' late to a whole new level aren't we?"

They apologized sheepishly and Miss Bustier told her, "Marinette, take Adrien to the nurse please, just to make sure that bump isn't too bad."

"I'll be okay Miss Bustier." He insisted, but Miss Bustier wouldn't let him argue.

That was how he and Marinette ended up in the nurse's office for the little remainder of class that they'd had left. The nurse had checked him over while Marinette watched nervously, even after he reassured her that he really was fine.

Marinette had gone into a full blown panicked rant when the nurse asked if he wanted to call his father. The rant started with his father finding out about her knocking him down-which he corrected and said it was his fault even though it didn't do anything to stop her, rather adorable, ranting- all the way to her somehow becoming Chloe's personal assistant for the rest of her life and becoming a fashion outcast.

He couldn't help the smile that had erupted on his face, seeing the genuine fear in her eyes that her extremely unlikely scenario would play out that way. And that of course, was the wrong reaction.

Marinette had started crying and he instantly felt guilty. Jumping down from the cot he had been sitting on and hugging her tightly. He gently cupped her cheek as he promised her that he would never let anything like that happen while the nurse looked on in silent amusement for some reason.

When they left the nurses office after that, an awkward silence erupted between them. He had glanced at her a few times, to make sure she was okay, and found her eyes staring back at him almost every time. The heat rushed to his face each time, making him quickly look away for no reason. He had no idea why he was feeling so nervous, and then to make everything worse, there were people snickering and whispering as they passed.

He'd had no clue about what was going on until they walked into Miss Mendeleiev's class where they found their friend's huddled together in small groups.

Before he or Marinette could ask what was going on, his cellphone rang. He saw the number and his eyes widened in shock. He answered immediately, "Father, is something wrong?"

"That is a horrid understatement, Adrien." His father had said harshly, "Would you care to explain what exactly is going on before I draw my own conclusions."

"Explain? About what?" He'd asked confused.

"About the now viral pictures of you at school with a girl lying on top of you, a second with you hugging the same girl, and a third with your hand on her face looking like you had every intent on kissing her." His father snapped.

"WHAT!" He screamed into the phone in shock, "But father I didn't,"

"So you have the gall to attempt lying to me? I have the pictures pulled up Adrien, and they speak incredible volumes." His father interrupted harshly, "Are you dating this girl, who if I'm not mistaken is Miss Dupain-Cheng?"

He stayed silent, Marinette's phone out in her hand as he peered over, seeing the pictures posted online with various headlines.

"I forbid this." His father said in his silence, "You are going to ruin everything we've been working on with the Tsurugi's."

"Kagami has only ever been a friend and Marinette means the world to me! You can't forbid me from being in love with her!" He said with no filters, his hands shaking in anger at the mere thought that his father would forbid a relationship with someone so purely good and talented and beautiful.

"Are you challenging me?" His father asked seriously.

"That is a horrid understatement, father." He said harshly, regretting the words as soon as they were out of him.

He was a dead man for sure now.

His father was only silent for a few seconds before he heard the resigned sigh, "Fine. If you love her that much, then you will make sure she understands what she is getting into. Clean up this viral mess of rumors Adrien, immediately."

His voice got stuck in his throat as his father's words echoed through him, 'If you love her that much...If you love her that much…'.

Did he… had he really said… he looked over at Marinette, seeing her beautiful bluebell eyes once again filled with tears because of him. He closed the small gap between them, taking her hand and putting it on his chest as his heart thundered a mile a minute. He held it there with a smile, staring into her eyes, as he told his father the absolute truth as it filled him, "I do love her, very much. She's kind and brave, extremely talented and smart, and is as beautiful inside as she is outside. I'll do damage control. I apologize for how it reached you."

Marinette's face was scarlet as he lifted her hand from his heart and kissed her knuckles gently, her eyes widening at the move.

His father actually let out a short laugh, "A smitten youth if I've ever heard it. Apology accepted. Invite her and her family over for dinner this weekend. Do not let this become a repeat offense son."

"It won't happen again." He promised.

"Good. Enjoy your afternoon." His father clicked off and he felt his cheeks warm again as he put his phone away.

Marinette was frozen in front of him.

"Marinette?" He prodded gently, squeezing her hand, "I-"

"I'm so sorry Adrien." She sobbed, pulling her hand out of his and rushing out of the room.

"Marinette!" He called after her, watching her disappear. She hadn't shown up to any other classes for the rest of the day, and never responded to any of his texts or phone calls after school either.

He pulled the pillow over his face and Plagg reminded him heavily, "You are going to get ice cream on your pillow."

He immediately moved the pillow and put his hand to his sticky hair, pulling away the stuck on substance with a groan.

The guys had tried to cheer him up after school, while the girls made a b-line for the bakery to try and figure out why Marinette reacted the way she did. Pizza was the guys idea of a cure, along with a bout of video games at Nino's until they heard from the girls again. Where'd the ice cream come from?

From Kim and his brilliant idea to see how many scoops of ice cream they could stack on a cone. That answer was fifteen, before it toppled over and landed straight on his head.

He groaned again and asked Plagg sadly, "Do you think… she hates me now?"

Plagg let out a soft sigh before telling him, "She doesn't hate you. Pigtails doesn't hate anyone, besides the liar."

"Then why would she rush out like that without even letting me say anything to her?" He asked his kwami the same question he had posed to the guys.

Plagg's answer was the same as theirs had been… silence.

Adrien glared at the ceiling, "I'm such an idiot. I probably embarrassed her, and she probably doesn't even feel the same way about me."

He put his hands on his face and immediately regretted it as the remnant ice cream got in his eye, "DAMN IT!"

He sat up quickly, Plagg giving him a sad smile, "Maybe you should shower."

He nodded in silence, walking to his shower feeling completely defeated.

He was letting the hot water in the shower run over him after he cleaned up when he heard Plagg's voice, "SHE'S CALLING! SHE'S CALLING! SHE'S CALLING!"

He rushed out of the shower without turning it off, barely throwing a towel around his waist before dashing across his room. He threw himself across the bed and grabbed the still ringing phone from the nightstand, when it went silent in his hand.

He immediately tried calling her back, getting nothing but her voicemail.

He yelled out in frustration, getting ready to throw the phone against the wall for being useless when it pinged, signaling that he had a voicemail.

He pulled up the voicemail and put it to his ear, Plagg floating right next to him to listen too. Her voice was shaking, "H-Hey Adrien, it's Marinette. I-I'm so sorry for what I did to you today, and for not answering your calls... or responding to your messages. I realized something I probably shouldn't have, and that's why I left the way I did. It had nothing to do with you, or what you were saying." She let out a shaky sigh, "I'd really like to talk to you more, face to face, but, I really, really, don't want to wait until tomorrow. I-If you can, if I'm not wrong, will you meet me at midnight on my balcony the way you did the night you showed me the decorated rooftop?"

The phone dropped out of his hand as he stared at nothing, her voice carrying on, "If that doesn't make sense, you don't have to come meet me. We'll just talk at school tomorrow. Good night Adrien."

The voicemail ended and he felt his heart in his stomach as he replayed everything that happened with her, trying to figure out what gave him away.

Plagg poked his cheek out of nowhere, "Kitten, if you don't hurry, you aren't going to make it in time."

He slowly looked down at his phone, seeing 11:52pm. He'd been sitting here for hours. He looked at Plagg, "I don't think I should go. She can't know who I am,"

"I'm only going to tell you this once," Plagg said seriously, staring into his eyes, "Don't screw this up. Go."

"But, Ladybug,"

"Trust me." Plagg nearly begged, shocking him. He called for his transformation and took off towards the bakery, forcing his feet to move faster.

He landed on the rooftop across from her balcony, seeing her sitting on the lounge chair with her head on her knees. He closed the distance without thinking, landing softly across from her and watching her stiffen.

"Hi princess." He whispered.

She lifted her head from her knees slowly, her lower lip trembling, "It's really you."

He crouched next to her, his ears flattening against his hair, "Yeah."

"All this time." She said trying to hold in a sob.

He asked confused, "All this time?"

She moved off the lounge chair and dropped next to him, holding him as though her life depended on it, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for everything."

He couldn't help himself, and hugged her back just as tightly, "You didn't do anything wrong. I'm so sorry if I embarrassed you today."

He felt her arms tighten even more around him, "You didn't embarrass me, I was so, so happy, and then I realized when you kissed my hand,"

"Ah… so that's what it was." He whispered mostly to himself, but he felt her nod, "But, if you were happy, why did you run away?"

She pulled back just enough to look into his eyes, "Because it was you, it's been you since the beginning. I love you Adrien, so much that sometimes I feel like I am going to burst into a million pieces. Then you started coming to visit me like this as Chat Noir, and I felt like a terrible person because I was starting to fall in love with you too, and all this time you've been the same person and I've been such a blind idiot and,"

"Hey, hey," he cupped her face, trying to calm her down, "You are brilliant Marinette. You are the only person in all of Paris who has figured me out." He smiled, rubbing her cheek with his thumb, "And I'm glad you did. Now I don't have to ever lie to you."

She finally showed him a small smile and he asked her as his cheeks burned red, "Were you, really falling in love with both sides of me?"

She nodded sheepishly, her own cheeks taking on a beautiful rose pink color.

"Plagg, claws in." He whispered. Her eyes widened and he told her softly, "Sorry, I know it's probably shocking,"

"A bit." She admitted.

He asked her before his heart leapt out of his chest, "Marinette, will you be my girlfriend?"

Her eyes brimmed with tears, "I thought Chat was in love with Ladybug?"

"Ladybug is in love with someone else." He told her, adding it because he knew it was the truth, "And I was in love with her. I tried to move on when I realized just how much she had to love the other guy, and even though I know a part of me will always love her," he gave her a loving smile, "You are the love that has been building in my heart since the day I met you. I just didn't see it for what it was because I thought you might, not like me."

"Of course I like you." She said instantly, "You are one of the greatest friends I have."

He asked her again, "Please, please say you'll be,"

"Yes." She said happily.

He smiled so big it hurt, and in seconds her lips were on his. That weight on his chest finally lifted as her love rescued him from the day he'd had, the day that turned out not to be so awful after all.

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Au Revoir for now! Á demain!