Panic Attack
Written by: JuliaFC
Betas: Khanofallorcs, Agrestebug, Etoile-Lead-Sama, Genxha and NalaFontaine. Thank you all so much!
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc, TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Written for the Facebook h/c group "Hurt/Comfort Italia - Fanart and Fanfiction - GRUPPO NUOVO | Groups | Facebook", weekend challenge, "Atonement 2.0". I was asked to write a *coughs* drabble about character A being stuck somewhere and character B having to help them. If you speak/read Italian and are interested in the genre, join us! We'll be glad to see you!
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She knew it wasn't a good idea. It really, really wasn't a good idea. Her guts had warned her. She had felt a very bad sensation in the pit of her stomach and a growing sense of anxiety the more she tried to convince herself that it was okay. That it was only a boat, that they were safe. That it was a hot and sunny afternoon, that Bois de Boulogne was full of people and nothing could have really happened.
When Adrien had said that he had never rowed a boat before, Alya had winked at her. Her friend had poked her in the ribs saying, "That's a great idea, Sunshine! Let's rent two. Nino and I will take one, and you and Marinette the other!"
Marinette had tried her best to not think too much of it, or rather she had tried her best to not have a panic attack because she was going to go on a boat, alone, with Adrien. He was going to row and it was going to be all so romantic and she wanted to die.
Because even though he had now made it clear that he wasn't in a relationship with Kagami, so Marinette knew she wasn't betraying her friend's trust, he was still her crush. She had tried so hard to move on. She had genuinely tried to reciprocate Luka's feelings. However, the trip to New York they had been on two months ago had given her time to reflect and the heart to heart she had with Luka upon her return had cemented their break up. She couldn't deny the feelings she had for Adrien anymore. She loved him too much to let him go.
They had been alone, facing each other as they sat in the small boat. Adrien had been happily rowing. The silence between them had been deafening. Her insides had been melting every time he had been giving her one of those looks; those looks that he had always given her, but that strangely enough had become more intense and more languid since they had that dance under the moonlight in New York. Her face was so red that she started fearing the colour would become permanent.
And then, of course, it had to happen. The loud bang echoed in the air like a clap of thunder. The akuma appeared out of nowhere and started billowing gusts of wind all around, making the water of the river sway in big waves and the boat they were in began swinging dangerously. Marinette saw Adrien putting the oars down and clenching his hands on the boat while looking at her worriedly.
"Are you okay, Marinette? Can you manage?" he said.
She nodded. "Yes, it's an akuma. We need to find a way to get to safety and hide."
The akuma had the shape of an enormous swan; it had walked through from the back of the park and now started uttering high pitched squeals. "You won't disturb the flora and the fauna of this park any longer!" it screamed. The bird twirled its neck and started flapping its wings, creating wind that was becoming stronger and stronger.
Marinette was panicking. She knew she had to find a hiding place and transform but she couldn't do that because she was in the most exposed location possible, in the middle of a river, and she couldn't go anywhere or hide from the view. She couldn't even hide inside the boat, because Adrien was with her.
Adrien must have misinterpreted her pallor, because he moved one of his hands and grabbed Marinette's arm, holding it firmly. "I've got you," he shouted, trying to make his voice heard through the wind. But Marinette couldn't answer because the wind suddenly picked up even stronger and their boat, together with a few more, was captured by a column of what looked like water mixed with wind and they felt like they were floating in mid air. Then it all happened very fast: the boat (with them inside) rose higher and higher, and the downblast of wind threw everything around. Marinette felt Adrien's body wrapping around hers protectively, and next thing she knew, she was slammed down on the ground somewhere and lost consciousness from the impact.
oOo
It took her a couple of minutes to open her eyes again, and when she did, her gaze was met with darkness. She didn't know what was going on, but she felt that she had something very heavy pressing on her body and she could hardly breathe under its weight. Slowly, her eyes got accustomed to the darkness and she started making out the shapes of the things around her.
She seemed to be… underneath the boat? Yes, she could actually see the top part of one of the oars that Adrien had been using to row the boat just millimetres from her temple. She tried to move to push the boat up, but soon realised that the heaviness was actually clenched, almost wrapped around her body. She tried to detangle her arms from underneath the heavy load, so that she could move and touch around to understand where she was, and as she did that, she had a horrible thought going through her mind.
"Tikki!" she whispered. The red and black kwami had been resting inside her small purse, but now Marinette didn't know where her purse was.
"Shhhh!" she heard the voice of the small kwami whisper into her ear. "I'm okay, Marinette, but you're stuck under the boat and a whole load of branches and trees."
Marinette's eyes opened wide. "Oh no! I don't have time for this," she growled. "Damn Akuma! We need t—" she started saying but Tikki put her little paws on her mouth, then flew back to her ear and whispered, "You're not alone, Marinette!"
"Wha—" she started, and as she did that, she felt something moving on her chest, right between her breasts.
"Uuuuuuh what happened?" She couldn't be mistaken. This was Adrien's voice.
"Adrien?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
"Marinette? Where are you?" She felt something moving from her side and she thought that probably Adrien had moved a hand to his head, maybe rubbing the nape of his neck. Or maybe he was just massaging his head where he must have gotten hit when they landed on the ground. She could feel a tender spot on her own head too, just on the top of her left ear. Then she felt the pressure of limbs trying to detangle from the top of her and something started to feel and squeeze her chest.
She immediately tensed, her eyes going wide as her face felt suddenly hotter than ever. "S-stop. Now!" she managed to say and felt him freeze on top of her and what was frantically touching her all over stopped immediately.
"Sorry, I was trying to figure out what I was laying on."
Oh God, could he hear the furious beating of her heart? Of all the scenarios she had dreamed of in her mind of Adrien checking her out, being stuck under a boat buried under a load of trees definitely wasn't one. She was cold. And sore. And an akuma was on the loose and now Chat Noir was probably fighting against it and wondering why his Lady hadn't arrived yet. A surge of adrenaline rushed through her veins at the mere thought of it. No, she couldn't leave her kitty alone! Besides, he had no way to purify the akuma and she definitely didn't want this particular akuma to multiply!
"It's know, you okay… I mean you knew okay, uuuuuh I mean, It's okay you didn't know." She nearly felt her face combusting on the spot when she felt his nose on her skin. "Adrien. Th-that's my ch-chest," she managed to say before getting completely breathless when she felt his breath in between her breasts as he gasped loudly and tried in a mad frenzy to detangle himself.
"So sorry, Marinette! I'm stuck, can't move at all. I'm trying to pin myself on my elbows, but my neck hurts, I must have banged it quite hard, can't lift my head much. Can you move? I'll try to lift myself up a little." As he said that, she felt a bit of the pressure coming off her body and she could finally breathe. She tried to wiggle underneath him to squish out and felt that her body wasn't tangled anywhere.
"If you could hold that position and maybe lift yourself up a little bit more, maybe I can get out." She felt what now she had identified as his body tense and lift just slightly further up, so she took that as a cue to start wiggling even more. With enormous difficulty, she untangled her legs and pulled the top part of herself out from under the boat. Her foot got stuck for a second, but the thought of the effort that poor Adrien was doing to lift himself up added to her panic and desperation and she managed to get herself out. She looked at her foot and noticed a big scratch on it. She had also lost one of her ballet shoes. As soon as she took her foot out, she heard a gasp and the boat crashed even more on top of Adrien, burying him further and leaving him nearly no gap for air. She heard the boy whimper underneath it.
"Are you all right, Adrien?" she shouted. She tried to lift the boat up, but the wood wouldn't move at all. So she started trying to remove some of the branches that had fallen on top of the boat, to free it.
"I… I'm not. I'm c-claustrophobic, Marinette. I c-can't breathe!" He started coughing and Marinette started panicking outside the boat.
Merde! That's the last thing she needed now. She was hoping to go look for help and transform at the same time and get rid of the akuma. But she couldn't leave him like that. Her whole soul was screaming inside her that she couldn't possibly leave Adrien on his own (or any human being to be honest, but especially Adrien!) while he was at his most vulnerable.
"Oh no! Adrien, don't panic. Close your eyes and concentrate on breathing!"
"I can't!" His voice was hoarse, almost a whisper.
"Shoot! Adrien, please listen to me." He coughed once more and her heart doubled its speed in her chest. "Please, Adrien, listen. Listen. Close your eyes. Imagine the most beautiful thing you have ever seen." She heard him whimpering. "Do it, Adrien. Think of what you love the most. Picture it in your head in detail."
"Uuuuuuh…" he whimpered again, but his voice wasn't as hoarse and he didn't cough any more.
"Are you picturing this beautiful thing, Adrien? Do you want to talk about it?" As she was talking, she kept looking around. She tried to pull up the boat again but she couldn't even lift it a millimeter. So she gave her attention again to the branches on top. There were some big trunks among the smaller branches and they were too heavy for her to lift, so she knew that it would have been impossible for her to get Adrien out of the boat without help. But she didn't want to leave him there. She eyed her phone thoughtfully, but the signal bar was showing 'only emergency calls'. When she tried to dial the number of the boulangerie, no sound came out and after about half a minute, the phone hung up by itself. No, they were too deep into the woods, or maybe the akuma had damaged the phone wires; maybe a combination of the two.
No, there was only one thing to do. She went back on her knees and put a hand on the wood of the boat. "Are you okay, Adrien?"
"I'm a little better, but I won't resist much longer," he said, his voice still very shaky. No, she definitely couldn't leave him there.
"Forgive me, my friend, I have no other choice!" she whispered and then said much louder, "TIKKI, SPOTS ON!" As the sparkle of pink energy wrapped all around her, she could clearly hear a loud gasp coming from within the boat. "I'm sorry that you found out like this, Adrien."
She started working at the branches, lifting a much heavier load now that she had her suit on. However, the heaviest ones were still too heavy for her to lift, even as Ladybug. "Damn it! Adrien, I still can't free the boat!" She looked around, almost hoping that she would see a sign that everything would be okay. She needed something. Someone. Yes, she definitely needed someone. Someone she knew way too well. "Where is that bloody cat when you need him?" she cursed loudly, more to herself than to anybody else.
"Don't!" she heard a voice that didn't sound Adrien's one coming from inside the boat. She opened her eyes wide and froze on the spot, resting one of her ears against the wood of the boat and listening very carefully. Surely she had just imagined it, Adrien was alone until seconds before! "I said don't. Don't you even th—"
"PLAGG, CLAWS OUT!" boomed Adrien's voice. Blood drained completely from Ladybug's face.
WHAT?
"CATACLYSM!" As soon as he said that, the boat, and all the trees and trunks at the top of it, were rendered to ash. And immediately after, her stunned gaze was met by the shiny green eyes of her masked partner.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu... Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" she managed to say. Her eyes were still as wide as saucers, her heart skipping several beats as her mouth gaped open in a small o.
Chat Noir bowed theatrically in front of her and then picked her hand up and kissed her knuckles. "The 'bloody cat' is and will always be at your service, My Lady!" he said in a joking tone, his eyes never leaving her own. Then he tried to move and she saw a gleam of pain in his eyes. "Ugh… although I won't be of much use today, I'm afraid, not until you release the Miraculous cure. My leg—" He cringed and she finally managed to wake up from her shock induced stupor. First thing she did was wrap him in a massive hug.
"You're okay!" she whispered in his ear, hugging him so tight he could hardly breathe.
He smiled softly in her embrace. "Yes, Buginette. I'm okay."
"Thank God!" She started sobbing against his shoulder and he couldn't do anything more than hug her tighter, while with one hand he was patting her hair in a soothing gesture. They held the hug for a long time, lulling in the reassuring feeling of each other's breath, and each other's warmth. Then, they heard loud bangs and crashes in the distance and broke the hug, as if waking up from a dream.
Chat Noir saw that Ladybug wanted to say something, but he put a finger to her mouth and shushed her. "We can talk later, Marinette. Now we need to take care of the akuma." He tried to move his leg and winced. "Actually, you will have to take care of the akuma because… as I said, my leg needs your Miraculous Cure. Ouch."
She sniffled and stroked his cheek, before nodding decisively. Then, her eyes got an amused gleam to them and she cupped her hands on each side of his face. "I will, minou. But there's an even more urgent matter that needs to be addressed before I go."
"What m—" he started to say, but he couldn't finish, because his lips got suddenly busy kissing the lips of the girl he loved.
Author's note
Whoho! I finally managed to write something short! *Jumps around happily* Not sure if it can be considered a 'drabble' as I was asked, but… that's the shortest I've written up to now! *JOY*
Hope you liked this little story. Please feel free to drop any compliments, screams, insults, kisses… incoherent rambling… anything you want in the comments and click send. I love reading your feedback, please be nice with this poor sleep deprived soul who writes at 3 am for tort—, I mean to delight you with these loads of rub—, er, these beautiful stories of mine. *Coughs*. Good news is (oh well, good… depending from the point of view), I have more prompts for the challenge I'm taking part of, so before the end of the weekend I'll tort—, I mean I'll delight you with some more.
Aren't you happy? :D
