Chapter 26: Sick Day

"Hi, Mrs. Dupain-Cheng! Where's Marinette?" Adrien asked entering the bakery so they could work on their project.

"Oh…Adrien! I forgot you were coming today. Marinette still seems to be asleep in her room."

"Am I early?" He was sure he told Marinette that he was coming at this time.

"No, she's supposed to be up by now, I'll call her." She turned to the staircase, "MARINETTE! ARE YOU AWAKE, DEAR?"

No response.

"Uh…she must have not heard me. Let's go and check upstairs."

Adrien nodded anxiously. Was she in her room? This was not a good time to be out as Ladybug. But there was no akuma or patrol for sure!

"Marinette." She felt her mom nudging her hand.

"One second, mom. One second." She groggily rolled over.

"Marinette, Adrien is here! You have to work on your project!"

"What?" She bolted upright and rubbed her eyes open.

Behind her mom, Adrien stood there, and he was giving her a soft smile. Oh…how embarrassing! Ways to embarrass yourself in front of your superhero partner!

"O-okay! I'm up! I'll go get ready!" She said as pink dusted her cheeks.

Marinette got out of the shower, Adrien was waiting for her in the chair.

"Your mom left some croissants for you to have whilst we work." He pointed to the plate on her desk.

"Uh…yeah! Thanks for letting me know!" She sat on the other chair, "Should we get to work on the research?"

He nodded, "Sure."

"Do you think we should use this picture or that one?" He asked, pointing to the screen.

No response. She was staring at the blank page of her notebook as if she was intrigued by it.

"Marinette." He shook her hand.

"Ah-um-what?" She jumped back on her seat turning to face him.

"Were you paying attention?"

"Uh…I was paying attention when you were suggesting that we use A3 instead on A4."

That was ages ago! He had said a lot more since then. She was awfully spacey today, and quiet.

"Marinette, are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"You keep zoning out. You never do that when we're working on something. You're usually focused. It's not like you, milady."

"Well…" She crossed her arms protectively around her chest, "I can zone out, you know, even when doing something important. Maybe you don't know me as well as you thought you did."

"Uh…okay." He frowned at her. That shouldn't have hurt that much.

She then snapped out of her stubborn trance, opened her eyes and facepalmed her head against the desk.

"I'm so sorry for that, Adrien." She apologised, "You didn't deserve that. I'm sorry I just feel a bit drowsy and dizzy today."

He squeezed her hand. It did feel a bit warmer than usual…

"You're not sick, are you?" He reached to put his other hand across her forehead. It was warm too.

"I d-don't think so."

"She was wielding too many miraculous last night!" Tikki alerted him, peeking out of her purse.

"What? Why would you do that? You know that transforming those many times is exhausting."

"I was checking if the miraculous were working properly. To see if they weren't damaged from the Battle of the Miraculous!"

"You could've checked without transforming!" That was dangerous. She shouldn't be wearing herself down like that.

"Yeah but it's better to be safe than sorry!" She argued back.

"Look, Marinette." Adrien squeezed her other hand, "I understand that our duty is to protect Paris but please don't do things that could hurt you!"

"I'm sorry, Adrien. But I'm guardian now. This is my responsibility. Protecting the miraculous from any harm."

He frowned at her and bit his lip. She was so careless when it came to herself, and it hurt.

"Let's take a break. You need some rest."

"I'm fine, Adrien." She replied holding her head. He wasn't going to believe that.

"My mom was sick before she disappeared." He had to say it. He needed to let it out.

"Oh…I…" She drooped her head and looked to the side, "I'm sorry, Adrien."

"Nah. There's nothing to be sorry about." He fiddled with his ring, "Sit on the chaise. I'll check your temperature."

She was hesitant and nodded but made her way towards the chaise, "It's in the first drawer, by the way."

"Thanks!" He said. Turning to pull out the thermometer.

"Here." Adrien handed her the thermometer as she put it under her tongue. As they waited for the reading, he sat beside her, and took her hand in his.

She looked towards him and he could see the smile in her eyes. He hated when people were sick.

The beeping of the thermometer interrupted the moment. She took it out and glanced at the reading.

"So…"

A cliffhanger, I know. I'm sorry.