Note: If anyone has song suggestions for this story? Feel free to comment them. I'd love to hear them and write to them. :) I've been using some of my old ones that I used to listen to and other random ones that I happen to find on Youtube or ones that my husband gives me. But I'd love to hear some of your go tos for inspiration. :) Only if you want to.
Nino kissed and hugged Alya in one of the visitor's rooms. He smiled and held her in his arms as they sat and talked.
"How is my man?" Nino smiled as he ran his hand along her thigh.
She had her arms wrapped around his neck as she continued to kiss him. "Not good. Marinette tried to kill herself a few weeks ago and he beat the hell out of Lila for it. So, he's-"
"Restrained." Nino sighed as he shook his head in disbelief. "Well, can't say that I blame him. I would have reacted the same way. Can I see him?"
"I don't know. You'd have to ask Ms. Bustier." Alya sighed and hugged him closer.
He wrapped his arms around her and took her off of his lap. "Hang on. I'm going to go find her and ask her." Nino stood up and walked out of the room with Alya behind him.
It didn't take Nino long to find Nurse Bustier. She was in the common area with the rest of the group. Everyone flipped out when they saw Nino and flooded him with hugs.
"Hey guys!" Nino hugged them all and fist bumped Ivan, Kim, and Max.
"What's it like being free?" Mylene smiled at him as she waited for him to spill everything to her.
"It's nice, but I miss you guys." Nino adjusted his hat as he hid underneath it.
"Hello, Nino. How have you been?" Ms. Bustier smiled for him, but he saw something dark behind her expression.
"Can I see him?" Nino didn't have to say Adrien's name for her to understand who it was that he was talking about.
"Yeah. Come with me." Ms. Bustier led Nino to Adrien's room. "He's about to see Dr. Fu in a little while."
"Got it." Nino nodded as she opened his door and let him inside.
Nino stopped to see Adrien laying on his bed, facing the wall. He was trembling and curled with his knees to his chest. Nino sat down on the edge of his bed and faced Marinette's bed. He looked over the sketches of Adrien on the wall and swallowed hard, feeling the bed shake beneath him.
Nurse Bustier nodded at Nino as she left and closed the door behind herself to give them space.
"Hey, man." Nino spoke and pretended like he didn't notice that his best friend was in pieces.
Adrien didn't say anything in response. He threw his pillow over his head to hide and Nino sighed.
"I heard that you beat the shit out of Lila. Serves her right, am I right?" Nino held his fist out and got no response. "No? That's alright." He rested his hands on the bed and leaned back. "Remember when we shared a room? All the shit we would talk about. Girls? Cars? Music? Shit we wish we would do once we were free from this hell hole? It was the best. I always could get you to laugh. Even on your worst days. But I guess… those days must seem like heaven to you right now." Nino smirked as he messed with his baseball cap and peered over at Adrien.
Adrien shivered and Nino got up to grab his tablet. He opened the art app and saw Marinette's handwriting. "So, this is how she talked to you?"
Adrien sprang up and ripped the tablet from his hands and scurried against the wall with his knees drawn up and his head against his arms.
"It's okay, man. I wasn't going to erase it." Nino held his hands up on either side of his head with a warm smile.
"Are they talking about me?" Adrien cleared his throat and pulled at his hair, causing strands to tangle around his fingers.
"Nah, they're too concerned with Lila right now." Nino shrugged as he noticed that some of his books were gone. "Did you give up your shit?"
"Yeah." Adrien swallowed hard as his voice came out rough. "I did."
"Why?" Nino was surprised that he had outed all of his secrets.
"It was that or they would have searched the room." Adrien grabbed his hair again and licked his chapped lips. "I didn't want them finding Marinette's things too."
"You're in deep shit, aren't you?" Nino nodded and pressed his lips into a thin line.
"Pretty much. Yeah. I'm pretty fucked." Adrien groaned and hit his head back against the wall as he rested his forearms on his knees. "And she's gone."
"She's not gone, my dude. You know that and so do I… I haven't even been here and I know it." Nino rolled his eyes and pulled himself across Adrien's bed to sit beside him. "Dude. What the hell happened anyway?"
Adrien sighed and got lost in the story as he relayed the events to Nino and how it all began. By the end Adrien was holding back tears and holding his hands like claws, palms up, in front of him. "I had her in my arms, Nino. Bleeding. Dying. Barely there and then she just went limp. No one was helping me. No one came to save her. She was barely breathing." Adrien slowly looked up with swollen eyes that spilled tears as his bottom lip quivered. "I couldn't fix her. I couldn't fix it. I had no control over it. No say."
"But they saved her and she's in solitary. You do know that." Nino stared at his broken friend. Took in how he was hurting and there was nothing that he could do to fix it. "What are you going to tell Dr. Fu?"
"He knows everything." Adrien swallowed hard as he looked down between his bent knees. "Everything. I'm not leaving Nino. I never will be. Not now. Not now that they know."
"Know what?" Nino became confused and alarmed.
"About the-" Adrien raised his index finger above his head and lazily drew a circle.
"I'm not reading you, man." Nino was lost and more worried than before.
"Plagg. My looping negative thoughts manifest into a creature." Adrien gave up and explained it to them. "Ms. Bustier saw my drawings. Dr. Fu knows now. I'm fucked."
"Don't say that. That just means that they can work towards making you better." Nino knocked him in the shoulder, causing him to sway.
"No. It means more fucking pills. More therapy. More being tied down. Being stuck in this hell hole longer. I was almost free. So free I could feel it. I almost had a normal life. Taking Marinette out to dinner or a movie? To get dessert? I was so close, Nino. So close. But then fucking Lila ruined it." Adrien became angry as he spat her name. "The bitch broke Marinette and that broke me. I need to get better. I need out. I can't be here anymore. It's bad. It's not a good place to be, Nino. I want out."
"I know you do. And you will get out. Promise." Nino held his fist out and Adrien weakly knocked his against it as the door opened.
"Dr. Fu will see you now." Ms. Bustier gave a sad smile at the two of them.
"I'll come by more often." Nino smiled as he got up from the bed.
"Thanks, Nino. It was nice seeing you." Ms. Bustier smiled and he nodded at her.
"Anytime." Nino left the room, giving one last glance at his best friend.
"You ready? After your therapy is dinner. Then I need you to shower. It's been too long." Ms. Bustier held the door for him and he slowly walked towards her like he didn't care.
He really didn't care. He was done caring about himself. Done caring about living or being seen as attractive. Nothing mattered anymore to him.
Nurse Bustier led him to Dr. Fu's office and opened the door. "Dr. Fu you're three O' Clock is here."
"Let him in." Dr. Fu spoke with a stern tone and Adrien swallowed hard as he stepped inside. "You have many secrets, Adrien Agreste."
Adrien sighed and sat down on the couch beside a box of tissues. He assumed it was from whoever was before him. He licked his lips and waited for fate to take him to hell.
"I want to start out how we usually do. Draw how you see yourself." Dr. Fu passed him a piece of white paper and markers.
Adrien sighed as he took them, knowing that this was the start of something upsetting. He drew a small dot and handed it back to him.
"Alright. I'm going to assume that you feel small." Dr. Fu watched Adrien slowly nod. "And you're ashamed because you know what this is about."
Adrien nodded again as he hid in his hair. He held his hands in his lap to keep them from trembling.
"It's okay. I'm not going to punish you. I actually find it to be very admirable. Shows progress. You gave up your secrets and now we know that you seem to also have a manifestation of some kind. Plagg was it?" Dr. Fu smiled and wrote something in Adrien's chart. "When did that start?"
"Not long. He seems to come around when my thoughts are looping when I'm angry or upset. He's usually there right before I black out." Adrien swallowed hard as he explained himself.
"And does he tell you to hurt people?" Dr. Fu wrote something down and waited for his answer.
"No. He just tells me what I want to believe. Negative things." Adrien rubbed his bicep with his hand as he bounced his right knee. His anxiety raised with each word. "How is Marinette? When can I see her? Is she alive? Am I cra-? Nevermind. I am. She's gone."
"Adrien. You seem to have taken the trauma of seeing Marinette in her worst state and assigned it a concept to try and protect yourself. I can assure you that she is alive and in a room by herself. Same type of room that you were in for a while." Dr. Fu watched him to gauge his reaction. "She has an infection, but we are working to fight it. Now, I want to go over the items that we found in your room. I want to know where you got them."
"Nathalie supplied the bags, laxatives, and diet pills. I found the other items myself around here. Mostly at lunch or in the bathroom." Adrien swallowed hard as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"Nathalie didn't supply those. You know that as much as I do." Dr. Fu waited for him to put it together.
Adrien clenched his hands into fists and bit his bottom lip as anger boiled up within him. "My father made her do it."
"Yes." Dr. Fu wrote down something. "He did. He's using her like he's…"
"Using me. Using Marinette." Adrien became more irritated with his father.
"You're twenty. Old enough to not listen to your father anymore. What did he do to you the night that Nathalie found you?" Dr. Fu waited for him to tell his side. "You never told me your side. All I've had is what's in your file and it's all what others saw. Not you. I want to hear what you know."
Adrien's breathing picked up as he thought about it. He had tried to block it out. Had told Marinette the gist of it, but he hadn't gone into much detail.
"My father took a belt to my back." Adrien swallowed hard as he barely explained anything. "That night."
"Does he usually do that to you?" Dr. Fu wrote it down and waited for him to continue.
"Not with a belt. Usually his fists. Shoves me. Hits me. Breaks things in his office often." Adrien swallowed hard as he remembered being a teenager. "My father's office was always filled with the sounds of shit breaking, but I was always told to pretend like it wasn't happening."
"Then he turned that into hurting you instead?" Dr. Fu wrote something down and stared at Adrien.
"No. He was hurting me at the same time, but it was only when I disappointed him. Only when I did something that he didn't like." Adrien swallowed hard as his anxiety rose. "Like right now. I'm probably disappointing him. I know I am. I missed a photoshoot."
"Yes, well… I took care of that. This is my hospital not some park or place to do photoshoots. I have a say. Your health is my top priority. Not a brand. I'm here to protect my guests. To protect you." Dr. Fu waved it off and Adrien peered at him with a shocked expression. "Look, if you want to see Marinette. I will let you, but you must promise me something."
"What? Anything." Adrien's voice came out desperate and full of hope as he became animated.
"I need you to really try to get better. Tell me everything. Stop hiding things from me. I am also going to add one more medication that should make this Plagg disappear. We don't need him hindering your progress. It will make you more drowsy, but I think you can handle it." Dr. Fu added a new med to his list.
"Thank you!" Adrien could have hugged the man. There was hope. Tears ran down his cheeks and he sniffed as his shoulders shook.
"There is always hope, Adrien. Even if you don't think you're going to get better? You will." Dr. Fu smiled at him and closed his chart. "You just had to want to heal yourself. We can give you the tools to heal, but it's ultimately your decision in the end on whether you use them or not."
Adrien stared at him with a new outlook. The man wasn't as bad as he thought he was. There was something else behind his stern exterior. Something different than he had seen previously.
"Ms. Bustier!" Dr. Fu called out and she opened the door.
"Yes?" Ms. Bustier peered from around the door and looked at a crying Adrien.
"Take Mr. Agreste to see Marinette." Dr. Fu didn't look up from the chart as he spoke, gesturing with his silver pen.
"Of course." Ms. Bustier was shocked that Dr. Fu had decided that. "Follow me."
Adrien grabbed the arm of the couch to help himself stand up on shaking legs. He walked with Nurse Bustier to his bedroom. He gathered a pair of jeans, a pair of red boxers, and an olive green t-shirt. He followed Nurse Bustier to the public bathroom and stripped down to shave in front of the attendant. He took his time to do that; before, he took his quick shower. He brushed and flossed his teeth, making sure they were to his liking. Adrien then combed his hair and got dressed.
He swallowed hard as he met up with Nurse Bustier again. "I have to warn you that she is not of sound mind. She's been in there a while. She may not recognize yo-"
"I got it." Adrien raised his hand and followed her to the far wing. "I've been there. So I know how it goes."
"I just thought that I should warn you before you see her in the state that she is in." Ms. Bustier swallowed hard as they walked down the dark hall. Screams echoed around them and took Adrien back to when he was locked up there. How lonely she must feel. How broken and scared. How the only friend that she had… was Tikki.
Tikki... Plagg sneered and swirled around Adrien, ecstatic.
Adrien swallowed hard as Nurse Bustier unlocked her door for him.