19. Friends

The news was plastered everywhere. Nathalie Sancour was in the hospital, and it was likely she wouldn't make it.

Anyone who had been following the news lately would know Nathalie was the assistant of the now infamous Gabriel Agreste, and that was the only reason anyone cared. Rumors of the Agrestes being cursed now flew around, which only caused more stress for Adrien.

Who had been looking far more haggard than anyone should, as of late. Marinette had known for a while that he wasn't okay, but part of her chalked it up to stress. Now, with him looking whiter than a sheet whenever she came over, she began doubting it was just that.

Today, she wasn't even sure he knew just how closely she was keeping watch of him. He looked like he could barely keep his eyes on his computer, and when he ended up dropping his phone, he stared at it on the floor for a solid minute and still didn't pick it up.

Her heart could not take any more of this.

She walked over so she could pick his phone up off the floor, setting it on the table before taking a seat on the couch beside him. He didn't look at her, his gaze still distant and aimed towards the floor. Gently, she cupped his cheeks, pulling his chin up so that she could hopefully meet his gaze.

"Hey," she said once his foggy gray-green eyes locked on hers.

"Hey," he parroted back.

"You're not okay."

He didn't say anything.

"Come on, we should get you to bed."

"Work."

"You're not even able to move, Adrien," she said, coaxing him to stand up. "You need to go rest."

It took him a moment, but with a little coaxing and encouragement, he did eventually manage to stand, albeit shakily. Marinette stood right by his side the whole way to his room, guiding him to the bed that he crashed down on.

What happened to you, Adrien? She couldn't help but recall Chat and the way he had been groggy and weak lately. Both he and Adrien looked like death warmed over despite both men being young and seemingly healthy. And much to her chagrin, she couldn't do much in terms of help.

After pulling the covers halfway up over him, she laid a hand on his head, trying to gage his temperature. And while it seemed warm, it wasn't concerningly so.

With a sigh, she pulled her hand away. "You should get some sleep, Adrien. No buts about it."

"Hey."

"What?"

He was silent for a moment, his brow furrowed as he looked at her through his foggy haze. "I…"

She sat down on the edge of the bed, simply waiting for him to speak.

"I don't want to be alone."

Marinette blinked once, then once again. "I'm here, Adrien," she finally coaxed, reaching over to stroke his hair. "And I'm not going anywhere."

"For now."

"No, I'm not going anywhere, period."

He frowned, his eyes already growing glassy.

"What made you say that?" she asked, brushing his messy hair from his eyes. "We're friends, right? Don't you trust me to stay by your side when you need it most?"

"I don't deserve it."

"Says who?" Marinette challenged.

Adrien was silent for a moment before turning over so his back was now to Marinette. "You don't understand."

"I don't understand because you won't tell me," she said, trying to keep her voice calm and even. "I'm not asking you to tell me, but in that same vein, you can't tell me that I don't understand when I don't know what's bothering you so badly."

He remained silent.

With a sigh, Marinette laid down behind him, resting her hand on his shoulder and her forehead against his back. "I just… I want to help you, Adrien. I don't want to leave you alone. And I won't, but I don't know how to get that through your head."

She laid there for a while before Adrien turned back around. His hazy eyes met hers. "I don't… know what to do."

"About what?" she prodded. "Maybe I can help you?"

"No," he muttered. "You can't. And I can't tell you."

She sighed. "Then what do you need from me? How can I help you through this?"

After a long moment of silence, he looped an arm over her waist, burying his face into her shoulder. "Stay?"

She nodded, settling down beside him. "Yeah. Of course."

20. Safety

"You should be resting," Marinette said. Adrien had been asleep for an hour, which he'd clearly needed. After he'd fallen asleep, Marinette had stayed for as long as she could before the need to go to the bathroom had her wiggling out of his grasp. After that, Marinette had spent the rest of the time while he was sleeping cleaning up the place and organizing the papers on the table to the best of her ability. But Adrien hadn't stayed asleep for too long after she'd left, and for the last ten minutes, he'd been leaning against the wall staring at her.

"Hey, Marinette?"

"Yeah?"

"I…" He rubbed a hand down his face. "Can we talk?"

She turned towards him, taking in the uncertain expression scrunching his face. "Of course."

Adrien took a seat at the table, practically collapsing into it, and Marinette took the seat beside him. For a moment, they sat in silence, Marinette hesitant to start first. She could listen, and she would listen. But for now, she would wait.

"You do this because we're friends, right?" Adrien eventually asked. "Coming over and helping me."

"Yeah."

"And would you still do this knowing I have secrets?"

She nodded. "I would."

Suddenly, a hint of fear appeared in his gaze. "Even if those secrets are ugly?"

Again, she nodded without hesitating. "Yeah, I would."

"What if I turn out to be a really awful guy?"

"I kinda doubt that."

"What if it's true?"

"I'd challenge you on it," she said. "Because one thing I know about you, Adrien, is that sometimes, you take things like that to the extremes when they aren't. And things that are normal for you aren't for us. So I'd like to know how to rank those secrets of yours on a 'normal' scale instead of the 'Adrien' scale before I determine if they're going to ruin our friendship."

His gaze hit the table, and for a while, his empty stare bore into the tabletop. "I may have had a hand in the death of my father."

The bluntness of his statement surprised Marinette a little. "I thought you said it was an accident."

"It was but…" He bit his lip nervously. "Something else happened, and I don't know… if that killed him or not."

"Sounds like it was still an accident."

"But… but what if I pushed him back, causing him to hit his head which likely killed him."

"Still sounds like an accident."

Adrien did not look settled by her words at the slightest. Which confused Marinette for a moment. But somehow, she thought of Chat, how he said he had to do this on his own. How he said he needed to take care of his own mess even though they were partners. How she thought he felt the need to play Atlas and bear the world on his shoulders.

With that, something clicked for her.

Adrien's doing the same thing.

"Hey," she began, reaching out to lay a hand over his. "Adrien, are you wanting to be held responsible for your father's death?"

"Huh?"

"What I mean is you want to take this unfortunate circumstance on your own shoulders. And because you feel you have to carry it, you feel the need to be responsible for his death." She then looked up at him. "Am I off the mark?"

Adrien sucked in a breath, his eyes still wide. Wide enough for Marinette to feel as though she could see all the innerworkings of his mind.

I was right.

Adrien's gaze quickly fell away to the table, hanging his head as he out huffed a shaky breath. If he was trying to hide that glassiness in his eyes, it wasn't working because Marinette could still see it clear as day.

She leaned against his shoulder, and Adrien choked out a sob.

"Oh, Adrien," she cooed, rubbing circles on his hand with her thumb. "You don't have to carry that alone, you know. I'm here. Alya and Nino would be more than happy to listen and support you. And we'd all tell you the same thing: it's not your fault."

"But I went to face him," Adrien argued. "If I hadn't, nothing would have happened."

"What do you mean?" Marinette said, confused. "I thought you were leaving the mansion."

He sighed tensely, gritting his teeth and shutting his eyes just as tears began rolling down his cheeks.

She sighed, dropping the topic in favor of cradling Adrien's cheeks and gently brushing the tears from his face. "I still don't see how it's your fault," Marinette said. "I'll say it however many times you need to hear it to get it through your head. Not everything has to be your fault, and you don't need to take it on. You'll only hurt yourself doing that, Adrien. And as your friend, I can't stand watching that happen."

One would think that Marinette had punched Adrien the way he looked at her with surprise, but after a moment, he leaned forward, his head hitting her shoulder as he continued crying, a quiet sob escaping him every now and then. Marinette wrapped her arms around him, holding him and rubbing soothing circles on his back.

Eventually, he calmed, but he didn't move. "Marinette," he muttered.

"Yeah?"

He paused for a moment, holding her tightly. "If… if I wanted to tell you my biggest secret, would you… would you still stay with me?"

"I would," she answered, no hesitation. Because she would.

"Even if it… no," he muttered. "I guess safety doesn't matter anymore."

Her brow furrowed, confused.

But Adrien soon picked his head up off her shoulder. He sniffed, and Marinette reached up to wipe one last errant tear off his cheek.

It earned her a smile. One that was weak and shaky and nervous but true all the same. It eased the weight in Marinette's heart more than she ever thought possible. "Thanks," he murmured.

She smiled back. "Of course, Adrien."

21. Movie Night

Marinette had spent the rest of the night by Adrien's side. She'd put on a movie to watch, knowing full well Adrien wouldn't make it through to the end. She just hadn't expected him to be out within ten minutes.

She'd let him sleep, his head having ended up in her lap while she absently stroked his hair.

By the end of the movie, Marinette had slipped out from under him and reached for a pillow to replace under his head. And he still wasn't awake.

So she'd ended up leaving a note for him and slipping out, locking the door from the inside before pulling it shut. The deadbolt may not have been engaged, but Adrien lived in a safe building. He'd be fine.

Upon making it home, she found herself to wound up and worried to go to bed just yet, instead sitting down to sew. And it was well into midnight when a frantic knocking resounded from her trap door.

She scrambled to open it, revealing a Chat who seemed panicked until he caught sight of her. With a sigh, he relaxed. "Sorry," he muttered, his shoulders sagging as the tension left them. "Guess I'm a little wound up at the moment."

She just smiled. "It's okay. Come in. I'll get some cookies or other snacks."

"I can't actually stomach anything today, princess."

Her brows rose so high that they practically flew off her face. "You're turning down food?"

He huffed, slowly making his way down onto her bed where he took a seat leaning against the wall. "I know. Food hasn't been sitting well with me lately, and a friend kinda force fed me dinner, so I ate it so as not to worry her."

"Oh," was all Marinette could say. She thought she recalled Chat mentioning a friend was helping him in his personal life but really couldn't remember if he mentioned it was a woman. The last two months had been nothing but a blur for her to the point she herself could barely tell right from left. All she knew now was she was oddly jealous of the girl who was taking care of him.

"What brings you by tonight?" she asked, changing the subject before she could sit on it any longer. "It's kinda late. Shouldn't you be home sleeping?"

He shook his head. "Long story," he said. "But I happened to run into a certain blonde former model who was out on his balcony panicking for some reason. Turns out, you've been babysitting Agreste, too."

She nodded. "He's been having a rough go of it, and he's my friend, so I'm more than glad to help him out. But you said he was panicking? Did he not see the note I left?"

Chat quirked a brow. "Note?"

"Yeah, I left him one. Maybe he didn't see it," she wondered. "But then again, why didn't he just text me?"

For a second, she thought Chat's face blanched before he coughed into his hand. "Who knows."

Either way, she should probably text him if he was worried. "Excuse me a moment while I do that, Chat."

"Y-yeah, he'd probably appreciate that."

Grabbing her phone from her desk, she shot off a quick text to Adrien before crawling back up to her bed where Chat was sitting. "You look a little more lucid tonight," she observed, noting that his eyes weren't nearly as foggy as before.

He shrugged. "I got a scolding from my friend," he muttered. "And… guess it may have helped a little?"

Despite the jealousy bubbling up wishing she had been that friend, she couldn't help but feel relieved anyway. As long as it got her cat feeling even a little better, she was all for it. "I'm glad to hear it. Someone needed to get through that thick skull of yours."

"Well…" he sighed. "Not… all the way but…"

"It's a start, it seems," she said with a smile.

The smile he gave her was small but genuine. It calmed her knowing that, at least for tonight, he was okay.

After all, that's all she'd ever wanted for her precious kitty.