Chapter 3: Awaken

Marinette didn't know when she fell asleep but she did know when she woke up.

Shooting out of the bed, covered in sweat and breathing hard, she practically screamed as she curled into herself. Alya and Nino were woken up immediately by her violent shifting as she began to cry from her nightmare.

"Mari, Mari, honey, what's wrong?" Alya asked from her side, grabbing her shoulders and trying to snap her out of panic and look up.

Marinette couldn't hear her, simply rocking back and forth and letting out half screams through her tightly clenched teeth as tears came pouring down the bridge of her nose.

"Marinette!" Alya began to yell.

Both she and Nino where grabbing onto Marinette, calling out her name and trying to calm her down. After much work, they managed to get her to stop rocking and screaming, tears still dribbled down her face and she was shaking in her curled up position, but she wasn't in complete hysterics.

"Marinette's what wrong? What happened?" Alya asked again, this time much softer.

"I saw it."

"Saw what?" Nino whispered.

"His blood. I saw Adrien's blood," She breathed out in a barely audible voice, she caught Alya and Nino's nervous intakes of breath, "It was all over me, he was dying and there was nothing I could do," She sobbed.

They both went to shhsh her and rubbed circles in her back, Nino having a harder time of doing so as he had to reach around Alya to get to Marinette.

"Shhh, Marinette it's okay. It wasn't real, it was just a nightmare," Alya whispered to Marinette, wrapping herself around her panicking friend, "It's okay, Adrien's safe, he's in the hospital, he's not dying. Marinette, it's okay, it was just a dream it wasn't real."

But it had been real, as real as sun and the sky above her. It was real and she was covered in his blood and he was dying and it was all her fault.

"Shhh. It's okay we're right here, your safe, he's safe," Alya kept quietly chanting out as a way to calm Marinette.

"N-no," She took a deep harsh breath, "H-he's not safe. Everyone knows his identity, everyone knows he's Chat Noir. And Papillon's going to come for him and his miraculous and he's going to kill Adrien's for his miraculous, and it's going to be all my fault because I wasn't there for him."

Alya and Nino both stopped at that. Still holding her, they both repeated the same word with slow realization.

"Papillon."

Marinette's breathing was still harsh and messy as she began hiccupping, but she managed a nod in affirmation.

"Papillon, h-he want's Chat-hic- Noir and Ladybug's mir-miraculous," Marinette messily explained to them what they already somewhat knew, spilling her true fears, "E-everyone knows now that Adrien is Chat N-Noir, in-hic-inclu-cluding Papillon, a-and he's going to try and t-take Chat's miraculous. If he gets in-hic-into the hospital he's going to kill Adrien and steal his miraculous. A-and if they're not th-there, he's going to hurt Adrien for information on where they are until he gets what he needs then he-he's going to k-kill Adrien."

Nino stayed silent and his hand stopped moving on her back in horrified realization. Alya was quick to jump in.

"Shhh, no, no, honey. Adrien's okay, he's safe. The doctors and the police are watching him and Papillon's not going to get in the hospital and he's not going to get Adrien," Alya whispered over and over into Marinette's ears.

It took a good few minutes of this before Marinette finally stopped crying and began to actually calm down enough. Nino's hand continued rubbing circles in her back but they weren't as active now.

Slowly Marinette began to uncurl from herself and Alya loosened her grip around her. Marinette sat up and tried to make out Alya and Nino's faces from the dark room, but her tear burned eyes and still hiccupping made it hard to focus in the minimal light they had.

"Are you feeling better?" Alya asked, calm and slow.

"Y-yes," Marinette breathed. She needed to get up, "I-I'm going to the bathroom."

She sluggishly got out of Nino's bed, Alya still trying to keep her hands on Marinette's back to keep her stable. Nino leaned over and turned on a lamp next to his bed, she nearly fell over at the sudden bright light, but Alya kept her steady. Marinette shakily stepped around the bed and out of Nino's room to the bathroom. She nearly toppled on the toilet and grabbed her head tightly while she sat on it. She focused hard on her breathing, trying to slow down her racing heart, and bringing herself to calm down over all. A good couple of minutes of that and the world stopped swirling and shaking with the light.

She tried to repeat Alya's words in her mind to calm down.

He's safe, he's okay, you're okay. It was just a dream.

She stood up and went to wash her hands, there was no blood, it wasn't real. It was just a dream, she looked at Chat's ring. It wasn't just a dream, it was real. She took a wobbly breath, the ring was silver, and on her hand; it was real but it was in the past, it was over. She dried her hands and dragged herself back to Nino's room, his lamp was still on and without their glasses he and Alya squinted at Marinette with concern from his bed as she came and sat on the edge.

She felt their eyes boring into her as she hunched over in exasperation.

"I'm sorry about that," Marinette mumbled.

Alya jumped up right away and crawled across the bed to once again wrap her arms around Marinette, "Marinette, it's okay. You don't need to be sorry about having a nightmare."

She said nothing in response, simply matching her breathing to Alya's and trying not to let the exhausted feeling get to her. She felt Nino's eyes on her, risking a glance, she barely turned her head to him.

He was watching her in fear from his spot, unsure of what he had just seen happen to her and unsure about her words.

"Is… is what you said true?" He asked in a voiceless whisper.

She wanted to deny it, say that it wasn't true, that Adrien was completely safe and that they had nothing to fear. She wanted to give Nino some kind of comfort even with her secrets eating at him, but she couldn't. She couldn't lie about that, she couldn't deny her fears, she couldn't offer Nino any comfort, and for that she was sorry.

"I fear it may be very real," She finally answered him.

He took a sharp intake of breath and held it, looking down at the blankets before him in worry. She noticed Alya suddenly become split, between her boyfriend who was beginning to panic, and her best friend who had just come down from a panic attack and was feeding his fears. Alya elected to drag Marinette completely on the bed, whether she liked it or not, and over to Nino where she could pull him into her other arm and try to calm him down before he got too bad.

"Adrien is okay you guys," Alya said, harsh and firm, "He's safe, he's in the hospital, and Papillon is not going to get him."

Marinette gave a silent nod in agreement, too tired to argue with her, Nino simply bowed his head into her and wrapped his arms around both of them.

They sat there like that for a few minutes, wrapped in each other and trying to relax. Alya eventually saying that they needed to go to sleep again, Marinette felt bad. Alya was exhausted, and it was her fault, her fault for waking up in the middle of the night to a nightmare like some child, her fault that Nino probably had a whole new set of fears to worry over, her fault that Alya had to watch over both of them.

They crawled under the covers again, both Marinette and Nino curled tightly around Alya in comfort and holding each other as well. Nino turned off the lamp and bathed them in darkness once again. Marinette focus on their synchronized breathing, feeling slightly better with each exhale and letting the warmth of being so close together wash over her.

She was safe, and Adrien was safe, she kept trying to repeat in her mind.

She eventually drifted off to sleep once again, letting her own exhaustion overcome her.

Morning came and Marinette, Alya, and Nino groggily managed to wake up and get themselves ready for the day. Marinette felt good enough to actually eat breakfast with Alya and Nino, her hunger finally having caught up to her. She was almost done with breakfast when she felt her purse wiggle, it must have been her phone, she peeked in the bag to check. Tikki gazed up at her with a great amount of concern in her eyes.

"He's waking up," She heard her kwami mumble.

For a moment Marinette couldn't think of who she was talking about, she couldn't possibly sense when Adrien was waking up, could she? No, that's right, it must be Plagg, Chat's kwami. Her eyes bugged out when she realized what Tikki was talking about. Plagg was waking up. She needed to get to him so he didn't wake up alone and confused in an unfamiliar place without food or his human companion and the jewelry he was bound to. Marinette suddenly shot up from the table in worry, everyone stared at her in confusion.

"I-I just remembered I needed to check on something at home!" She quickly lied rushing to put her dishes away and thanking Nino's parents for breakfast, "I'm sorry Alya, Nino, I need to run home, I'll see you both at school."

She ran up to grab her bags, barely catching Nino's eyes narrow in suspicion and Alya's eyes roll, having gotten used to this behavior over the past couple of years. Marinette was never good at giving excuses as to why she had to leave for Ladybug reasons, but nobody ever questioned her too much on it so she kept going. She ran past everyone with her bags and out the front door, finding a nearby ally way that was clear of any people to transform in. When she did, she began swinging to her house as fast as she could, trying to beat Plagg so he wouldn't be alone.

She was there soon and landed on her balcony with a silent thud, quickly throwing open the door to her room and jumping down into her bed. She turned and faced the little bed that Plagg had been resting in before. He was still there having watched her wild landing before him with a bit of surprise.

"Ladybug?" He mumbled in question, sleep still very much covered his eyes.

She smiled, he must have only just gotten up, what timing. "Yes, yes it's me. Hello," She greeted warmly.

He looked her over with his green eyes before looking around at the room and the little bed he lay in. He said nothing as he did so, but pushed himself up with his little arms when it occurred to him where he was not.

"Where's the kid?!" He suddenly asked in worry, he tried to float up but only got so high before he fluttered down in exhaustion. Ladybug caught him in her hands.

"Shhh, Plagg, save you strength," She whispered to him moving to a sitting position for the moment, "Um… Adrien, he's, he's in the hospital."

"What?!" Plagg yelled out.

"Please calm down, my parent's might hear you. We were in an akuma attack, and we had just purified the akuma, but the host," She shook her head as she informed Plagg of what had happened, he listened intently to everything she was saying, "The host stabbed Chat in the side, a-and you came flying out as his transformation released, and all that was left was Adrien, and he was b-bleeding. Bleeding everywhere, I rushed him to the hospital and he shoved you and his miraculous ring into my hands before they wheeled him away. I took you to the healer afterwards, you've been asleep since."

"How long?" He asked stiffly.

"A little more than a day."

"..And is he okay?" Plagg questioned, this time letting the worry seep into his words.

"Yes, for the most part. He's stable and safe in the hospital, they're just waiting for him to wake up," Ladybug answered, feeling like she was lying again, he wasn't okay in there.

They were quiet for a moment, letting her words sink in. Finally Plagg bowed his head and let out a little sigh.

"Food," He huffed, "I need food."

"Oh!" Ladybug looked at him again, "I had some camembert downstairs, you like that don't you?"

His head perked up at hearing the mention of food and his eyes looked to her in a longing sparkle. She felt good knowing that he was feeling well enough to eat and that the mere suggestion of food brought his spirits up. She put him back in the little bed and told him to wait there while she got the cheese. She opened her trap door and peeked into it to see if her parents were around, they weren't, having probably had breakfast already and were now both working in the bakery. She thanked her lucky stars before heading down.

Grabbing the small wheel she saw there was a little more than half left, it would have to do. Plagg managed to fly across the bed onto the open canister when she got close enough, eager to eat the smelly but delectable cheese. Ladybug set it down and simply watched while he took huge bites. Something told her to release her transformation, so she did for the time being. Tikki went swirling out of her earrings and right to Plagg's side just as he finished, cheering over being able to see the other kwami. Plagg greeted her warmly before looking over to Marinette, in her now human form, he pinched his eyes. She felt nervous under his perspective gaze. Something internally worried over whether or not he approved of her.

Plagg floated up to Marinette, "Allow me to introduce myself Ladybug. My name is Plagg, I am the kwami for the Chat Noir Miraculous," He greeted, holding out his little arm. She took it gently between two of her fingers and gave him a light shake.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, at your service," She greeted back.

He gave a nod, "I know who you are. Well vaguely, I never paid much attention to Adrien's classmates, except you of course because you were Ladybug," He mumbled in thought, sitting back down on the cheese canister.

"You knew I was Ladybug?" How? She turned to Tikki and gave her an accusing glance, "Wait, did you know Chat was Adrien?"

Tikki looked at a crossroads at Marinette's question, "Of course, I've always known. We kwami's can sense each other's presence when our magic is used," Tikki sighed at Marinette's look that asked why she didn't tell her, "I didn't tell you because you were rather adamant about not revealing your identities, so I respected your wish."

"Myself as well," Plagg said with a roll of his eyes, "You would not believe how many times that kid asked me if I knew who "his lady" was."

Marinette mulled over their words, for two years their kwamis had just known the identities of their partners and out of the kindness of her request kept that information secret, despite the probing of their human partner. She sighed and let a small smile play on her lips.

"Thank you, thank you both," They didn't have to do that.

"Don't be so eager to thank me," Plagg had a sly smile slip across his face, "As payment for your insistence to keep your identities secret, I request more cheese, preferably camembert."

"Of course," Marinette laughed softly at Plagg's proposal but internally grimaced at the prospect of having to go and buy more cheese for the little kwami, "I'll make sure to buy more from the store when I come home from school."

"Don't bother," Plagg said with a shrug, "There's a whole miniature fridge full of cheese in Adrien's room, and I'd hate for such delicacies to get spoiled without me there to indulge in them."

Marinette glanced at Tikki in wonder at Plagg's dreamy look, Tikki simply giving an understanding smile. Something inside Marinette made her cringe at the thought of having to actually go into his room, risk the chance of any of the reporters seeing her and wondering what she was doing. Or worse, Adrien's father catching her and questioning what she was doing there, why she had done this to his son.

Tikki pulled her out of her thoughts and reminded her that she needed to get to school. She jumped up and closed her balcony door, figuring that going through the side of her building wouldn't be that bad with her parent's in the bakery, that way she wouldn't have to transform again. She looked to Plagg from the ladder to her bed, almost leaving without him.

"Um… do you want to come with us to school or stay here? I'll make sure to stop by Adrien's house to get more cheese for you afterwards," She watched him with Tikki floating next to her as he sat down on the bed.

Plagg let out a little yawn and stretch, "Probably not for now, I'll just stay here and sleep some more. I'm still not quite up to par."

Marinette nodded and told him to stay safe before sliding down her ladder and leaving Plagg alone in the room. Out her apartment door and locking it behind her, she headed to school at the firm pace, still having some time before class started.

"By the way Marinette," Tikki spoke up from her little purse while she walked, "I wanted to ask if you were okay after your nightmare. I wasn't able to earlier with Alya and Nino there but I was really worried about you."

Marinette had almost forgotten about that. She recalled how terrible she felt, how she was in complete hysterics; of course Tikki was concerned for her.

"Yes Tikki I'm fine, Alya and Nino helped me calm down from my panic," Marinette reassured her, though she probably already knew that.

"And for that I am eternally grateful," Tikki smiled, satisfied with the answer and hiding back into the purse.

When she approached the school entrance she was unfortunately reminded of the line of reporters still gathered around the front door. She frowned, neither Alya nor Nino was there to pull her in and keep her from looking at the reporters when they asked questions that made her stomach drop. They were just her imagination. Marinette shook her head and put her hands over her ears to block out their voices. She took a deep breath and sprinted around the reporters and into the school building until she was far enough from them that she wouldn't be able to hear them from a distance. She slowed to a stop near her classroom and took a breath amongst the many other students.

She had done it! She quietly congratulated herself before continuing to class.

There, Nino and Alya were already waiting in their seats, quietly chatting between themselves and stopping to turn when Marinette entered the room. Alya smiled and gave a little wave while Nino watched her closely as she went to her seat.

"I'm glad to see you, for a moment I was worried you wouldn't be in class today," Alya let out a light sigh at Marinette, but chuckled none the less.

"Tell me Marinette, what was it that you so suddenly had to check at home?" Nino asked, not hiding the sharpness of his voice. Alya quietly tsked him and gave him a pap on the shoulder but still looked curiously to Marinette for a possible answer.

Marinette felt her throat catch. What could she say? Nino was too suspicious, too bothered, too afraid of what Marinette's actions could imply for Adrien's safety. She had already revealed too much information about what she knew and her fears to him. Nino must have known that she had some kind of secret relationship with Adrien, and it was a matter of time before he might confront her in a place that she wouldn't be able to escape, the only way being to confess.

She did nothing but stare him in the eyes with fear, he stared back, straight faced and patient, just waiting for what she had to say. But she had nothing. Alya was starting to get worried about their staring contest until they were broken out of it by the class going silent.

Chloé had entered the room with Sabrina right next to her.

She didn't look exhausted or like a mess much like Marinette and Nino had yesterday. In fact Chloé looked fine, not a hair out of place on her pretty head, but her eyes betrayed all in a way not unlike Marinette's had that morning. Her eyes held a feeling of death deep within them. She glared hard at everyone in the room in complete silence, saying nothing to anyone and glaring especially hard at Marinette and Nino as she passed them to go to her seat. Marinette caught Nino glaring back Chloé just as hard, relieved by his distraction that kept him from continuing to probe her.

For some reason though, Marinette felt a great sadness in her heart as well. She had never seen Chloé like this before, completely silent and carrying such an extensive mix of anger and pain within her eyes. She didn't realize what happened would affect Chloé in such a way, that it would somehow actually hurt her. Marinette felt a confusing swell of emotions through her, luckily the teacher entered class at the moment to take her from her thoughts.

That lunch she blew off Alya and Nino to try and get the cheese for Plagg. It would be better for her to do it now rather than later, and she was able to use the excuse that her parents wanted to at least check up on her and have lunch with her. She didn't have lunch with them though; instead she had to find a way to sneak into the Agreste residence.

Atop the roof of another building, out of sight of the now only three reporters still camped out by the fence of the residence, Ladybug found herself trying to remember which window was one to Adrien's room and hopefully unlocked. She caught sight of a rock wall through a set of windows, bingo. With a deep breath, she swung across as quietly as she could and made herself as small as possible as she landed on the window sill of Adrien's room. By her luck, the reporters hadn't caught sight of her and she began pushing quick and hard on each window until one moved. The third window she tried finally gave way and she slipped in as soon as she had figured how to push it all the way in.

Her landing was quiet but she still felt tense at the slightest noise she made, she looked around the room vigorously and found that she was alone. Relief washed over her and she started looking for the mini fridge full of cheese Plagg described. Looking around the room and behind devices, she couldn't find the elusive fridge, was this some kind of joke? The longer it took and higher her nerves would climb, every sound made her jump, thinking it was Adrien's father coming to yell at her for what she was doing and what she had done.

Finally, finally, finally she found the damn fridge. It had apparently been built into the wall as a secret fridge. The door was actually some fake books in the wall of his library. She did not know why he felt it so necessary to hide the cheese in such an obscure place; she had only noticed it because some of the books looked a bit more plastic upon a second close examination. Did Adrien worry about the questioning he might receive if it was discovered that he was hoarding that much cheese? Stars it smelled terrible all grouped together like that, she took a deep breath through her mouth and closed the door. She took the plastic bag tied around her wrist and fanned it out so she could grab a few wheels and get going.

Once again checking that no one was there, she opened the fridge door and loaded the few wheels into her bag hoping it would be enough for now. Closing the door and looping the bag around her shoulder, carefully and without sound, she managed to leave his room and close the window behind her before swinging away. She was almost sure that she hadn't gotten caught when she barely heard the reporter yell.

"Ladybug?"

Fear jumped in her chest and she swung away faster, hoping the reporter wouldn't go chasing after her. A few blocks and she saw that they didn't, relief flooded her as she chastised herself. Of course it would have to be while she was leaving with a bag full of suspicious mysteries that she was to get caught by them.

Taking another deep breath to relax, she headed home to drop off the cheese. She popped into her room to find Plagg still curled up and sleeping. His head perked up as she entered the room, probably enticed to wake up by the scent of the cheese. Like a strong coffee he was up in an instant, asking if what was in the bag was for him. She nodded and snuck down to the kitchen to snag a cheese knife and replace the camembert wheel she gave to Plagg that morning.

Her parents weren't there, once again by her lucky stars, though they did take shorter lunches with their work in the bakery. She only had a limited amount of lunch time left before she would have to be at school again. She found a knife and cut one wheel in half, grabbing something simple to bring back one half while the other half stayed in its little container. The extra cheese was placed in the fridge, she hoped her parents wouldn't find it too suspicious that the cheese they had to the side had suddenly doubled. She grabbed something simple to eat, not feeling as hungry as she had that morning, and brought the half wheel to a very appreciative Plagg.

He eagerly ate what was offered while she released her transformation and ate what she had of her own lunch. She bid him farewell when he was done and headed back to school, back to the supposed place of normality in her life.

A/N: Not the best ending for this chapter, I know, but this chapter was a bit difficult to write. I scrapped a good 800 words from the original draft.

This story is so much more dissatisfying to write, whereas with my other stories 15,000 words is half of the story or more, 15,000 words is only the beginning with this story.

I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter of suffering, or at least please drop a review with your thoughts about it.