By lunch, Adrien was completely drained. All of his energy was going to filling his brain with his teachers' droning and trying not to scream whenever the bell went off for a class change. He barely had enough life left in him to drag himself to the bathroom for a brief reprieve away from the concerned eyes of his friends, who had blessedly had the sense to leave him more or less alone for the morning. Still, if he had to sit through one more exchange of worried glances between the three of them, he might throw up.
Clearly, lack of sleep and overwhelming anxiety was not a good shade on him.
Locking himself in "his" stall, he slumped against the wall and let a heavy sigh escape him. "Just two minutes," he told himself. Just two minutes and surely he'd be stable enough to face the world again.
Okay, maybe three minutes.
Plagg surfaced from his hiding spot with a stretch and a yawn, tiny fangs glinting in the light as he rose to float in front of his chosen's pale face. "How're you holding up, kid?"
Adrien let loose a wry chuckle. "Well, no one has mentioned my questionable fashion statement, and this pair of gloves has lasted me two periods so far, so that's a new record."
Plagg twitched his whiskers, thankful that the boy was still attempting humor. That meant things weren't too dire, at least not yet.
In what he would never admit was an attempt at comforting his charge, the kwamii darted up to the boy's head and nestled into the blonde locks, rolling around and making a proper nest for himself.
Adrien rolled his eyes, but took the gesture for the sign of concern he knew it was and reached a gloved finger up to scratch the kwamii's back. "You seem cozy. Are you planning to stay there for the afternoon?"
Plagg grumbled in response. "It's the most comfortable place you've got for a nap."
The being's attempt at disguising his affection as his typical gruff demeanor coaxed a smile from the boy's lips. With a less resigned sigh, the blonde pushed away from the wall and tugged on the hem of his gloves. "All right, let's do this."
A careless, "Go get 'em, tiger," sounded from above him as he made his way out of the stall, and his small grin broadened ever so slightly. Pausing by the mirror to ensure that his kwamii was well hidden in his locks, Adrien was relived to see that he looked slighly less dead than he had that morning.
"Progress is progress," he mumbled as he yanked the door open and stepped blindly into the hallway, taking a step before letting out an "Oof" in suprise as he ran into something soft and small.
Marinette grinned sheepishly up at him, eyes wide and sparkling with innocence. "Oh, hey Adrien."
"Fancy running into you here, Marinette." Well, that was at least an improvement over this morning's Nino comment. In fact, had his tone been slightly brighter, he could have almost passed for normal.
The girl tugged on one of her trademark pigtails. "Sorry, I'm not creepily stalking you or anything." He wasn't sure if he had made a face at that or not, but she quickly added, "Okay, maybe a little. I just- I just wanted to make sure you were feeling okay. I can take you to the nurse if you're feeling sick."
His tired heart melted a little at her ongoing concern. It was comforting to have someone care for him so much, especially someone that he had grown to care about considerably.
"I'm okay, Mari, thanks."
A flicker of irritation crossed her face - Fair enough, he supposed, as he was clearly not okay - but the girl masked it quickly with a cheerful smile that only seemed slightly forced.
"Well, good then. I'm glad." Small hands grabbed his arm, and she began tugging him along towards the stairs. "Nino and Alya saved us a spot at lunch, and I brought you something from the bakery to make up for last night."
Adrien followed along, though a part of him wished to escape to a quiet corner of the library to try to catch a quick catnap before their next class. Marinette lead him through the hall and down to the courtyard, quickly crossing it and making their way over to the bench their friends had reserved for them.
As they arrived, Alya shifted to one edge of the bench, Nino sliding off the seat to rest at her feet and leave Marinette and Adrien plenty of room to spread out. Taking advantage of this, the small girl plopped down next to her bestie and tugged Adrien to sit beside her.
"One second." She reached into the bag tucked under the bench, scrounging around until she seemed to find what she was looking for. Straightening back up, she extended her hand to him, offering what appeared to be a small box of assorted goodies from her parent's bakery.
Even though his mood was still heavy, he brightened a bit at the sight of some of his favorite treats, and his stomach showed its first sign of interest in food so far that day.
"Thanks, Mari, you didn't have to," he commented as he took the box from her. He was about to ask her to thank her parents for him - moody or not, he still had his manners - when he noticed a the edge of a bandage wrapping her palm.
He snatched the offending appendage up in concern, the bandage stark white against the black of his gloves as her oversized sweater sleeve slipped down to reveal the full breadth of the gauze. "Marinette! What happened?"
Flustered, she shrank back, trying to extract her hand from his grip as he looked up at her in concern. As casually as she could, she explained, "Oh, that little thing. I was helping Maman make dinner last night and managed to grab a hot pan with no protection." She gave a mirthless and not terribly convincing chuckle. "Silly me!"
Adrien was about to pester her with details of the extent of the wound, when a sharp tug at his hair knocked some sense into him and he dropped her hand, shoving his own nearly singed hands into his pockets. Sucking in some faintly smoke-scented air, he smiled consolingly at her. "That's really unfortunate, I hope the burn isn't too bad."
Marinette waved off his concern, assuring him it wasn't, and they both sat in shared guilty silence for a moment before Alya overtook the conversation in her typical way. Adrien listened as his friends talked about some new movie that was coming out, slowly munching on his crossaint. As tempting as the rest of the treats were, he wasn't sure his body would accept them in its current state, so he closed the box back up and set it in his lap, hands resting listlessly beside it.
After a few moments of stillness next to her, Marinette looked over at him in concern and found him dozing, head leaned back against the wall and face looking the most relaxed it had all day. Sliding her phone out of her pocket, she checked the time and saw that there were still 20 minutes left in the lunch period. Her decision was made.
She slipped the box off of the boy's lap and passed it to Alya, who understood her intentions immediately and stood up from the bench. Sliding down so there was more room, Marinette gently guided the sleeping boy down until his head rested in her lap. The level of his exhaustion was clear when he managed to remain asleep through the whole adjustment period, and Marinette hoped that lying down to rest for the remainder of lunch would help more than napping uncomfortably upright.
Alya plopped down on the ground next to Marinette, and Nino scooted closer so that they could resume quiet conversation until it was time to go back to class.
As they talked, Marinette stroked the ends of the boy's hair gently, remembering it as being soothing when she was feeling unwell and her Maman did the same for her. She marveled at the softness of the strands, and got lost in the movement, growing bolder as the minutes passed. Towards the end of lunch, her fingers carded delicately through his hair, reaching towards the crown of his head.
She was nodding in agreement at an observation Nino had made, when her fingers seemed to brush against something that was soft in a different way than Adrien's hair was. Puzzled, she looked down at the head in her lap and caught a glimpse of something black and fuzzy tangled in his locks. Fingers extended to investigate further, she leaned towards the boy.
The ear-splitting shriek of the bell startled Adrien from his slumber, and he bolted upright with a yowl, his head hitting Marinette's with a sickening thunk as he did so.
"Ow ow ow," she moaned, reeling back as her curiosity was forgotten. There was only pain.
"Ouch," Adrien groaned at the same time, rubbing his forehead tenderly.
Alya gasped beside them, and Nino grimaced in sympathy. "Ooh, that's gonna leave a mark."
Great, another thing to worry about, Adrien thought bitterly. Aloud, he asked, "What happened?"
"Sorry, Adrien," Marinette groaned, turning a bit pink even as her face remained contorted in pain. "You looked so tired, I thought you'd sleep better if you were lying down, so I put your head in my lap. I thought I saw something in your hair and leaned over, I wasn't expecting the bell to ring just then."
"Something in my hair?" Adrien clapped a hand to his head self-consciously, hoping that Plagg was still appropriately hidden. "Like what?"
"I-I don't know." Marinette frowned in confusion. "Something soft, and black-"
"As interesting as the topic of Adrien's taste in hair accessories is, we better skedaddle before we're late for class. Mme Bustier will have my ass if I'm late again," Alya interrupted.
Nino quickly stood, reaching down to pull his girlfriend up after him and wrapping an arm around her waist. "Well, we can't have that, that ass is all mine."
"Gross."
"You wanted this," Nino reminded Marinette, sticking his tongue out at her, a gesture she returned with gusto.
"Had I only known," she lamented with a roll of her eyes and a smile, getting up to follow them, but pausing when she realized that Adrien hadn't moved. "Are you coming, Adrien?"
He wasn't sure what did it. Maybe it was the stress of being startled out of sleep, maybe the anxiety of his kwamii nearly being discovered, or the pounding in his head from his new bruise, or maybe just the general fuck-you attitude the world was giving him today. He wasn't sure what exactly triggered it, but he was filled with a sudden, primal urge to flee. It was too much, everything was just too much, and he had thought he could handle it but right now, just this minute, he absolutely couldn't.
So flee he did.
Marinette gazed after him in shock, belatedly shouting, "Adrien!"
Nino and Alya turned at the sound, and the three of them watched him bolt away with nearly superhuman speed. Of course, unbeknownest to them, it actually was superhuman. They stood in silence for a moment, torn on how to proceed.
"Let him go, hon," Alya advised with a sad smile. "He needs some time before our concerns will reach him."
"It'll be okay, Mare," Nino reaffirmed, coming around to her side and handing her her bag and the box of pastries, giving her a brotherly pat on the shoulder. "He knows we're always here for him whenever he's ready."
The girl nodded hesitantly, everything in her screaming to go after him. She was afraid for him, much like she was for Chat the previous night, and wished she had a lucky charm to mend whatever had broken in Adrien.
The last class came and went, and there was still no sign of their friend. Marinette packed her things and stood, small hands clutching his bag, which she had rescued from their classroom earlier that afternoon and toted around in the hopes that its owner would return to claim it.
"I guess," her voice trailed off in indecision as her friends turned to her, hands clasped between them. "I guess I'll take this to him."
Alya offered a sympathetic smile, knowing that their friend's strange behavior was affecting her most of all. "It'll probably cheer him up a bit to see you."
Nino nodded beside her, squeezing her hand before reaching out to hug Marinette. "Remind him we've got his back, and let us know how it goes."
She accepted the hug gratefully, smiling when Alya swung her arms around both of them and squeezed hard. "Thanks, I'll text you guys."
"Love you, boo," Alya called as the couple disappeared from the classroom, blowing her a kiss. Marinette shook her head at her friend's antics, but admittedly did feel a bit cheerier.
"Okay, let's do this!"
She briskly exited the classroom, turning down the hall and then trotting down the stairs and out of the courtyard. She hummed idly as she made her way to the Agreste mansion, enjoying the slightly warm turn in the weather.
Arriving at the gate, she rang the bell. When greeted tersely, presumably by Nathalie, she held up Adrien's bag in lieu of explanation. The gate opened seconds later.
Continuing up to the house, the girl planned what she would say to him. She wanted to keep things light, but aimed to get him to divulge something about what was bothering him. She knew she could be stubborn, especially where the wellbeing of her friends was involved, and hoped Adrien was prepared to face her.
At the door, she waited hardly a moment before being greeted by a maid, who allowed her into the foyer. As she was about to politely demand to be allowed into Adrien's room, the imposing figure of Gabriel Agreste's secretary appeared from around the corner.
"Marinette, thank you for returning Adrien's belongings to us. He is...a bit out of sorts today." The lady held out a manicured hand, and Marinette dumbly passed her the bag, trying to regain her scattered courage.
"Of course, not a problem!" She wrung her hands nervously, glancing up at her reflection in the woman's glasses. "Would it be alright if I just pop up to see him really quick? We're all worried about him."
"I'm afraid that won't be possible," Nathalie replied cooly. "Adrien has requested that no visitors be allowed for the forseeable future."
"Oh." Marinette deflated. "Of-of course, I understand."
A pause.
"If that is all..." Nathalie let the sentence trail off, a clear indication of her expectations.
"Yes-yes, sorry, I'll be going now." Marinette peeked around the woman, looking longingly at the door to Adrien's room, wondering if he knew she was there and wishing he'd come out to stop her. "Have a good day."
"You as well."
The girl exited the grand house, feeling absolutely defeated. Adrien didn't want visitors "for the forseeable future." What did that mean? Was he even going to come back to school tomorrow?
When Marinette arrived home and had tucked herself away in her room, she gave Nino and Alya what little news she had, and they were equally dismayed and worried. The trio talked about what they could do to help, but weren't able to come up with anything substantial aside from trying to reach their friend through electronics.
As their conversation subsided, Marinette sighed and tossed her phone aside, resolving to text him in a bit, after she had figured out what to say. It was clear that he wanted to be left alone, and she didn't want to pester him too much for risk of making him pull away. For the time being, she busied herself with her most recent sewing project, a Chat Noir-themed dress.
Adrien sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair roughly as he wondered if he had made the right decision in telling Nathalie not to allow anyone to see him. He'd heard Marinette in the foyer that afternoon, and she sounded upset that she wasn't allowed to see him. Shortly after, Nino and Alya had started texting him, trying to prompt him into conversation, but he just didn't have the heart to entertain them.
He hated to push his friends away, but he was more afraid of allowing them to be hurt by his own hand, like Ladybug. He had had too many close calls today. He couldn't let them get close to him until he could get this stupid new power under control.
Resolved, he reached for his phone to turn it off, but before he could a new notification chimed in. This one was from Marinette, and he had enough residual guilt over bruising her forehead and making her bring his bag over that he decided to open it. He didn't have to respond, he reasoned as his thumb pressed the icon, he'd just read it.
She'd sent a picture. Interesting. He tapped to load it, staring at the spinning circle until a familiar figure popped up on the screen.
For the first time in hours, his tearstained cheeks tightened with a small smile. Marinette knew him too well even in the short time they'd become really good friends, he had to give her that.
The picture she'd sent was of a very famous feline, the simple block text around it reading, "Without you, I'm as grumpy as Grumpy Cat."
His one concession before he forced himself to turn off his phone and toss it in his sock drawer - For their sake, he reminded himself, You're doing this for them. - was to reply with a single, solitary smiley face.