Adrien doesn't register the sound of the door opening when Marinette re-enters the room, too busy staring at the wall dreamily. Thoughts of Ladybug rush through his brain and, for a moment, he forgets about the pain of his injuries. He's snapped out of his stupor when he hears Marinette snort and she calls out to him, "So, Mr. Casualty, now that you're rested and clothed, do you think you're well enough for some Ultimate Mecha Strike 4?"
His face lights up as he makes eye contact with her. "You mean I don't have to stay in your bed all day?!" He asks, excitedly. Truthfully, although she does want to play UMS, she's really just using this as an excuse to get him out of bed so she can redo his stitches. She'll have to break the news to him eventually but, for now, she allows him to remain blissfully ignorant.
She laughs softly. "I'll help you down if you're feeling up to it."
He nods vigorously. "Yes, please!"
He rolls onto his hands and knees and carefully crawls backwards towards the ladder. Despite the initial struggle, they have gotten used to the awkward maneuvering of Adrien's body. Marinette climbs partially up the ladder and helps him to the ground. They walk with his arm draped over her shoulder, to the chairs at her desk and she gently lowers him down into the seat.
"Thanks for being so cool about all of this, Marinette. Ladybug was right to bring me to you, I can't imagine a better person to take care of me." He smiles warmly at her, hoping she understands that he is genuinely grateful.
She waves him off, dismissively. "It's really not a big deal. I like hanging out with you." After a slight pause, she leans over from her own seat to elbow him, gently, before handing him a controller.
He uses both hands to play, but rests his bad arm against his leg. He appears to be doing alright. In fact, he somehow manages to beat Marinette at a game for the first time.
She's surprised when he doesn't take a moment to boast about his victory and instead squints his eyes at her. They stare at each other for a moment before she says, "Everything okay?"
"You let me win because I'm hurt, didn't you?" He finally asks.
"What? No. Of course not! I would never do that." She furrows her eyebrows and shakes her head in a dramatic play of sarcasm, "You know I take UMS very seriously."
He makes a pouty face. "You know you don't have to do that, Mari." He whines.
"I'm not doing anything." She replies with a devilish grin. That earns her an eye-roll in response. The two play a few more rounds and Adrien wins all of them.
"If you're not going to try, what's the point of playing?" He huffs, indignantly.
She giggles. "Do you want to go back to losing every round?"
"Is that a challenge, Princess?" He raises an eyebrow at her. She turns away from him and instead of responding, starts another round. Adrien hunches over, staring at the screen with great determination, a habit he's never been able to break. Marinette plays calmly beside him. This time, he loses, but raises a triumphant fist in the air. "Finally!"
"I didn't realize you were so enthusiastic about losing to me." She teases.
He shakes his head. "I'm just happy I get to play with you." Her cheeks heat up and he smiles at her when he notices. I can't believe I'm friends with someone this cute. They stare at each other in silence for a moment.
The corners of his mouth fall when he realizes someone is missing. He looks around the room. "Hey, where has Plagg been wandering off to?"
"Oh, I made him a bed and filled it with cheese! He's fine." She assures him, "Speaking of food, why don't I grab us some snacks?" She offers, changing the subject.
Adrien places a hand over his stomach. "That is a fur-tastic idea, Marinette."
"Oh, come on, you can pull better puns than that." She crosses her arms.
"The bad ones get the best reactions." He shrugs.
"Oh so you admit you make the puns to torture people and not because you think they're funny?" She raises an eyebrow at him.
He flashes a wide grin. "I think they're paw-sitively hilarious, but the torture definitly makes it more fun."
"Oof, I guess we should expect nothing less from the spawn of Satan himself." Her hand flies up to her mouth almost immediately after she says it. She looks at him with wide eyes. He pauses for a moment to process her words before he bursts out laughing. "I'm so sorry, I can't believe I said that out loud! I'm such an idiot."
"It's okay, Marinette. As you may have guessed, humor is my favorite coping mechanism." He smiles and places a hand on her shoulder. She looks away and nods, slowly.
"I'm gonna go get those snacks now…" She says awkwardly as she stands and exits the room.
Plagg flies out from his hiding spot and over to Adrien. "I can't believe she said that to you. Are you okay?"
He waves him off, "Yeah, Plagg, I'm fine. It was funny." He chuckles, "He may as well be Satan, y'know?"
Plagg rolls his eyes, "Yeah, but isn't it a bit too soon to joke about it? I mean, he literally almost killed you."
"Plagg, you do know that you don't have to start acting protective just because my dad is awful, right?"
"What? No, that's not it." Plagg turns to glare at the trap door. "I'm just not the biggest fan of pigtails at the moment."
Adrien snorts, "What did she do, get you the wrong kind of cheese?" Plagg opens his mouth to answer, when Marinette's door opens and she returns with a plate full of croissants and macarons. Plagg shoots her another annoyed look and flies back to wherever it is he disappears to. She trips and nearly drops the plate of food on her way over to Adrien but miraculously, she makes it without any casualties. The blond laughs softly.
"Are those passion fruit macarons?!" He exclaims before popping one into his mouth with a satisfied moan. "Oh my god, they are. These are my favorite."
"I know," she smiles, "That's why I made them."
"Huh, I don't remember ever telling you about that, but thank you." He takes a bite of another macaron, "These are amazing."
"Oh, well, I- er…. You know how I used to sing- bring! I used to bring macaroons- macarons to school all the time, so I asked Nino what you liked." She stammers, nervously twiddling her thumbs and avoiding his gaze.
"Aww Mari, that's so sweet." He gives her a warm grin, "I really shouldn't be surprised though, you are our everyday Ladybug after all."
Marinette is silent for a moment but he can see the gears turning in her head so he doesn't say anything. She furrows her eyebrows and opens her mouth to speak but before she gets any words out, she shakes her head, reaches for her sketchpad, and flips it open. "That reminds me, I've actually been working on a few superhero-inspired designs. Do you want to see?" She asks, turning it so reveal a 50's style Ladybug dress with a black petticoat under the skirt.
His eyes light up. "Oh my god, this is amazing, Marinette! I love it."
"Thank you, it's one of my favorite designs." She admits sheepishly before handing her designs over to him. He flips through them excitedly, making occasional remarks about patterns he particularly likes, but freezes when he flips the page to what he thinks is the best thing he's ever laid eyes on. Well, besides Marinette or Ladybug. Marinette peaks over his shoulder and realizes he's staring, awestruck, by her concept art for superhero onesies. There's one for every hero except for Multimouse and Aspik but he's too enthralled to notice.
The designs are simple and she bursts into uncontrollable giggles when she sees how closely he's studying them. "If you make these, I'll buy every single one." He says, not moving his eyes from the page.
"I'd give them to you for free." She replies as her laughter dies down. Truthfully, she designed these for Chat Noir a couple of weeks ago and had planned on surprising that big goof with them on patrol. That was before everything had happened though. Her remaining mirth fades as she remembers why she had never made them and she's thankful that he isn't looking at her. That quickly changes, however, when his head whips around and they lock eyes, their faces suddenly mere centimeters apart.
"Really?!" The excitement fades from his features and is replaced by a telling red hue when he realizes how close they are. He finds himself glancing down at her lips, though he's not sure why.
"Y-yeah. Sure for- For sure." She manages to get out as she awkwardly scoots backwards. His eyes linger on her, gaping for a moment. Why am I so disappointed that she moved away? He furrows his brow in confusion before he shakes the thought away and goes back to happily flipping through the sketches. They sit in silence for a while. Eventually he finishes and hands the book back to Marinette. When he does, he notices a framed photo sitting beside her on the desk. He reaches up to grab it and Marinette watches as he studies it intently.
It's a family photo from when Marinette was no more than 10 years old. She was even cuter as a kid. She's sitting in her dad's lap and her mother is standing with her hands on his shoulder. There's so much warmth and love in the photo. He lifts it up and his reflection takes over the picture. His smile quickly becomes a frown. She moves back over to him and places a hand on his shoulder before brushing her thumb back and forth over the fabric of his shirt.
Eventually, he sets the photo back on the desk and turns to look at Marinette, bringing his own hand to rest on top of hers. To his dismay, she pulls away almost immediately and breaks eye contact with him. He wants to say something, but she looks like she's gathering the courage to speak, herself. So he waits.
And waits.
Several awkward moments of silence pass between them and he watches her the whole time, trying to encourage her with his eyes, despite her stubborn refusal to look at him.
Finally, she takes a deep breath and screws her eyes shut, "Adrien… There's something I need to-" She's interrupted by a loud yawn.
"Sorry, what were you saying Marinette?" Her eyes snap open and he mentally curses himself, aware that he just ruined some important moment. What is she so afraid to tell me?
"Nevermind… we need to get you back into bed." I guess I'll have to tell him later… and his stitches will have to wait, too.
"Awww, come on, Mari," Adrien groans. "I'll die if you don't tell me."
She rolls her eyes. "Whining will get you nowhere, kitty cat. Come on." She places his arm over her shoulder and helps him over to her bed and up the ladder. Once Adrien's back in bed, he passes out in seconds. Thank god I got him up here when I did. He must've been exhausted. She climbs down and pulls the blanket off of her chaise, resolving to finish reupholstering it while she has time.
Marinette gathers everything she needs, but right when she's about to begin, her phone sounds off with an akuma alert. She groans and drops the supplies in her hands. Great. Perfect timing. She's about to leave so she can deal with the akuma when she hears someone pounding aggressively on her front door. On the bright side, I won't have to go looking for it since this one literally just fell into my lap. She runs down the stairs and stops in front of the door to transform so she can confront whatever new horror Hawkmoth has come up with. "Tikki, Spots on."
Ladybug's eyes widen in shock as she opens the door and a crying Chloe runs into her arms. It takes her a moment, but she eventually embraces her back. She softens as she takes in the sobbing girl and rests her cheek on her head, letting herself relax into the hug.
She softens her voice and strokes her hair in an attempt to comfort her, "What's wrong, Chlo-bear?" She stiffens when she realizes that she's still Ladybug. She considers jumping out of a window and running away but instead, she leans back to gage Chloe's reaction upon hearing her childhood nickname.
Before she pulled back to look at her, she had a small amount of hope that Chloe hadn't noticed, but it's quickly crushed when she takes in the shock on her face.
Eyes wide, she looks her up and down before shouting, "YOU'RE LADYmmph-"
Marinette covers her mouth and aggressively shushes her, "Someone might hear you!"
Suddenly Adrien's voice calls out, "Marinette are you okay?" Chloe's eyes somehow grow even wider and she begins screaming into Ladybug's hand.
"Yes, I'm just making some food!" She calls up to him, praying her parents can't hear them from the bakery. Then she turns her attention back to Chloe. "SHH! I will explain everything but BE QUIET!" Ladybug glares at her while whisper yelling. Stubbornly, Chloe shakes her head into her hand. Marinette huffs, "We made a promise that we would always be there for each other and YOU broke it. You at least owe me this."