It's been about a week since the appearance of Hawkmoth and the akumas. Luckily, there had been no akuma attacks since but Ella wasn't exactly holding her breath. The teen still trying to process the fact that she had agreed to help fight as Raven, even after swearing she'd never become a superhero, but she had promised and she knew Cat Noir was gonna hold her to it.
With a sigh, the girl finished collecting her stuff and tiptoed out of her bedroom, hoping to exit the apartment via the door rather than four stories out the balcony. She was planning on getting to school early, as usual, but it was also a certain blond's teens birthday and she wanted to give him a present before the chaos of the day began.
The apartment was dark and quiet, given it was only 6:30 in the morning, but Ella was praying her father was still asleep or passed out drunk in his room.
Sadly the girl made it to the door and her hand was on the handle when her head was slammed into the wood, making her instantly dizzy and a warm liquid began a trail down her nose.
"Damn kid you woke me up..."
Ella froze, her hand halfway to staunch the bloodstream, the limb as well as every other appendage immediately beginning to shake. The grip in her hair tightened, forcing her head back to stare up at the horrible man Ella sadly called her father.
"What do you say for waking me up?" The man grumbled, clearly hungover by the haggard look and stench of stale alcohol clinging to his frame and breath.
"I'm s-sorry F-father..! I tr-tried to b-be quiet!" Ella's breath hitched as her father pulled her up, her feet barely still touching the ground.
"You know I hate being awake so early, you damn brat..!" With a hard shove, Ella hit the wall, her left wrist crunching under the weight. The teen held in the scream of pain, curling in on herself to provide less surface area as her father's fists wailed on her.
The man didn't last much longer, slowing his hits after a few minutes before lumbering off to pass out in his chair by the fireplace. Ella didn't wait to even try and let the pain cease; she escaped out the door and into the stairwell before a voice stopped her.
"Ella wait! You're bleeding really bad this time!" Kiismet's panicked tone got through to the girl, finally getting her to stop on the second floor landing. With a shaking hand, Ella reached up and wiped at the still flowing blood.
"Elle- you can't go to school like this. Why don't we just go get some food and spend the day at the park?" Kiismet tried, attempting to pull a handkerchief from Ella's bag, though she was having some trouble with the way Ella was positioned against the bag.
"I- I can't miss today! It's A-Adrien's birth-day!"
"Ella you're bleeding and can barely stand!"
"Kiis you said this wasn't gonna last much longer right? I-I can keep going, I promise!"
The kwami sucked in a breath and stared at her holder. The girl was right- the abuse's time was weaning, now that Ella met the blond boy, but it still hurt the kwami to see Ella push through her pain like this.
"... Can we at least get you out of the stairwell then? I can help bandage your forehead..." Kiismet finally relented, her little body finding its way to Ella's neck to nuzzle in its crook.
"Thanks Kiis..."
It took more time than she wanted, but Ella managed to make it to the park without anyone seeing her disheveled state. Once there and in the shade of the trees, she cleaned up the blood and the kwami bandaged the wound on her forehead just above Ella's right eye. The bruises luckily (in Ella's opinion) were all under her clothes, so that was a plus. Her wrist ached and was already swelling, so the teen just wrapped a spare handkerchief around it like a brace, planning on buying an actual wrap for it during lunch.
Finally allowing her body a moment to deal with the stressful morning, Ella broke and cried. Kiismet sadly watched the girl from her place between her chin and shoulder, feeling Ella's tears drop on her feathered head. The kwami couldn't answer the girls questions of why her father did this now, just like when the girl asked them almost eight years ago.
A text alert drew Ella's attention around 8, drawing the girl from her huddled position. It was Marinette, asking if Ella was stopping by the bakery, as her mother already had Ella's usual order ready and waiting. With trembling fingers, the teen replied with 'yes, just running a little behind' and forced herself to stand on shaky legs.
"You sure, Ella? We could always stay here..?" Kiis tried one more time, but Ella shook her head.
"I have to keep going- I can't let it stop me."
Marinette smiled wide upon seeing Ella enter the shop, but her smile dropped just slightly when she noticed her friend's injury.
"Ella what happened?"
"I slipped getting out of the shower yesterday. No big deal, trust me." Ella chuckled, maneuvering around her friend to get to the counter, thanking Mrs. Dupain-Cheng for the items. Turning back and joining Marinette at the door, the pair ventured across the street to school, quickly meeting up with Alya.
"So what'd you get the birthday boy?" Alya asked Marinette. Apparently, the day after Ella and Adrien talked on the steps of the school, and Ella had communicated Adrien's apology to her friend, Marinette saw Adrien in a new light and developed a crush on him. In a way, Ella was happy for her friend- Marinette had mentioned not really having any interest in guys, wanting to focus on getting her fashion career off the ground. But Ella also knew the crush was folly- poor Marinette was gonna get her heart broken... But luckily, the blunette stuttered and stammered way too much to even have a conversation with Adrien, so Ella knew it would take Marinette forever to confess. She felt horrible for her thoughts, but when you have the kwami of destiny who can literally see who you're gonna spend the rest of your life with, it kinda makes things like crushes and such pretty useless.
"I knitted him a scarf. Ugh I'm so nervous! How can I even give this to him without tripping over my words?"
"Just be yourself girl! Now let's move before we're late!" Ella silently thanked Alya for the distraction, as her hand brushed against the box in her bag. In the days since she and Adrien "officially" met on the steps, Ella and the boy had been talking more. They both spent their free study period in the library and bonded over similar interests and such. The pair both knew how to speak Chinese and Japanese, and Ella offered to teach him Korean as well. They both play piano and Ella has hesitantly shared some of her songs with him. And the pair shared the struggles of being home-schooled and suddenly being in an environment where they didn't know how to flourish.
Ella sighed, her hand leaving her bag. She didn't know when she'd be able to give Adrien his birthday gift. Granted, she only knew it was today thanks to Marinette and her stalker-level skills once she developed her crush.
Classes started and finished, lunch break coming as a welcome distraction from Ella's spinning thoughts. She was currently trapped between the steps and the bushes, as Marinette debated back and forth on how to give Adrien his gift.
"You can do it! You can do it!" Alya chanted encouragingly.
"I can do it, I can do it!" Marinette stands, finding Adrien talking to Nino, before ducking back down and hiding her face.
"I can't do it, I can't do it!" Ella sighed, standing and brushing the dirt from her legs- careful to keep her left arm tucked to her body (luckily none of her friends noticed that injury- just the obvious one on her face).
"Mari- if you're not gonna move, I'm gonna go find something to eat, okay? Good luck Alya." Ella waved at the red-head, the girl returning the gesture before turning back to Marinette. Stepping out of the bushes, Ella begins crossing in front of the steps, heading to her favorite café down the road from the school.
"Ella!" The girl turned, actually shocked to see Adrien leaving his conversation with Nino for a moment, and running over to her.
"Hi." She spoke, her voice quieting and a blush appearing on her cheeks.
Adrien frowned. He hadn't gotten a chance to say hi to Ella this morning, having arrived just before the bell rang himself, but he had been shocked to see the bandage over her eye and the handkerchief around her wrist when he peeked over his shoulder during homeroom.
"What happened?" Ella froze a moment, just long enough for Adrien to notice and mentally question, before she answered.
"I slipped getting out of the shower yesterday. It's alright." Adrien's frown deepened. Ella apparently was quite clumsy outside of school. In the week he's known her, she's come to school with injuries more than a few times, but at school, he's never seen her so much as trip.
"Are you sure? It's still bleeding a little." Ella looked at him in shock, her hand reaching up and gently touching the bandage, her fingers coming away tinged with red.
"Here- I have some bandages in my bag. For fencing and what not." Ignoring her protests, Adrien pulled out a small cloth and a bandage, gently peeling away the old one and blotting away the blood. In his peripherals, he could see Ella's face turning deep red and could feel his own flushing pink. Finally applying the new bandage, Adrien stepped away just enough to give Ella some breathing room before smiling.
"There, that's better."
"T-thank you, Adrien..."
"No problem, Ella. I don't wanna see you hurt, so if you need anything, text me okay?" The girl nodded at his words, seemingly in a daze, before she blinked back to reality.
"Everything's fine, don't worry about me." She spoke, her tone layered. Adrien frowned again, was she hiding something?
"I gotta go, I'll see you later." Turning quick, Adrien watched Ella cross the street and disappear into one of the cafés. Shaking his head, the teen turned back to Nino.
"Sorry about that."
"No worries, dude. Gotta care for your girl."
"She's not my girl!" Adrien defended, his cheeks and ears turning red. Nino just smirked before returning to the conversation about a birthday party.