Chapter 9: Release
A/N: Sorry I haven't updated, I've been a depressed sack of shit as of recent and busy as hell with work and summer classes. By the time I actually got a free weekend to write this chapter, we were in the middle of the MLB Blackout.
But, here it is:
Just as Adrien has said, he had been released from the hospital that Sunday afternoon. As of now, he was to stay at home and had no idea when he would be able to return to school.
Nino was at the Agreste residence now, having taken it upon himself to visit Adrien as soon as possible. Nino was the only one of them to go, all three knowing that he had the best chance for getting through to Adrien's father. To be safe, Nino talked to their teacher and was able to use the excuse of bringing school work that Adrien had missed while in the hospital and explaining it to him.
Alya and Marinette hung out in Marinette's room, eating, watching a movie on her computer, and barely working on the homework they had laid out between them. Alya sat behind Marinette on the floor, quietly watching the movie whilst playing with Marinette's hair. She could feel Alya fingers brush through her locks and heard the quiet snap of an elastic band, Alya would pull her hair together, tie it up, huff, take it out, and do it all over again. There was something soothing about the mundane motions, reminding Marinette of the few times she and Alya would have sleepovers with just the two of them, each doing fun things with each other's hair and even doing mud masks together. It had been a few months since they had actually took the time to have fun like that together. Marinette would have to plan something in the coming weeks if she could.
After a few minutes Alya let out a satisfied noise and quietly said "There, done." Marinette instinctively felt her hands go up to her hair, curious as to what Alya put it into. Something told her that she already knew.
Alya grabbed a hand mirror off of Marinette's desk, bringing it to over to where Marinette sat. She held the mirror in front of Marinette for her to see.
"Tah-dah!"
Ponytails, like she always wore. Marinette found herself smiling. It had been a couple of weeks since she actually put up her hair, and the familiar pressure on her scalp was welcome.
"Thank you," Marinette said softly, directing her smile to Alya.
"You look nice with your hair like this," Alya said, returning the smile, she settled down next to Marinette again, "Though I don't know how you ever did this every day, getting those ponytails even is impossible!"
Marinette laughed, leaning on Alya, "I've had plenty of practice."
Alya's phone chimed with a text. She pulled it over to her, looking at the message in her lap, Marinette peeked over to see the message from Nino.
"Okay the old man kicked me out I'm heading over to you guys." It read.
Alya quickly typed out that they were at Marinette's and to let himself in.
10 or so minutes passed before Nino arrived at the house, just as the movie was reaching the climax, nobody paid it any attention as Nino happily shared what happened during his visit with Adrien. Despite claiming to go to Adrien's for homework all Nino and Adrien did was chat and fart around. Talking over phones just wasn't enough for them.
Marinette was elated to see Nino excitedly talking about seeing Adrien, Alya leaning on him and listening to everything he said. He was happy, happy that Adrien was well, and happy that Adrien was getting better. Marinette was happy too, if not still worried.
She didn't attempt to visit Adrien as Ladybug or Marinette, it was too much risk, trying to see him at his home, and Nino expressed that it was difficult enough just for him to get into the house. Between having to keep the reporters watching over the mansion from swamping him, and Adrien's father insisting that Nino had no reason to be there and should leave them alone, he almost couldn't get through the front gate.
Marinette was content not seeing Adrien now, instead just listening to whatever update's Nino would be able to give her and continuing to message Adrien until he could return to school.
Soon hopefully, but Nino mentioned Adrien's concern that his father would attempt to pull him out of public school permanently after the whole fiasco.
"It wouldn't be surprising," Nino sighed at the thought, "The stick wedged up his father's ass was content with keeping Adrien out of public school before, and after something like this... it's entirely possible that his father would try to keep him from going outside as much as possible."
Nino looked at Marinette, she felt his worried gaze concentrated on her.
"He's hoping for his miraculous back soon, to give his some more freedom," Marinette felt her heart race slightly at the mention of it, "Not now, obviously, but when he's better, able to move around without losing his breath every few minutes."
Marinette simply nodded in response, aware that the topic will be a difficult one to discuss in the future with her reluctance. She didn't want to give the Miraculous back to Adrien, for obvious reasons. She tried to convince herself that she would be more willing when the time came, very aware of how Plagg pressed against her blazer in attempt to hear what Nino had to say about Adrien. He wanted to return to Adrien's side, she was all too aware of that. Tikki informed Marinette that he's been trying to be understanding and patient with the current situation, but regardless, he remains restless.
Marinette wished she could freeze the Superhero part of her life, just deal with the human part, Adrien getting out of the hospital, getting her school work done, being with her friends. She didn't want to deal with Papillon right now; she didn't want to deal with this issue of giving back the Miraculous back and possibly risking Adrien getting hurt like that again.
She mentally cursed and praised the silence from Papillon.
At some unknown point, Nino had stopped talking, instead calmly typing away at his phone, Marinette had barely listened to the latter part of he said. Alya looked ready to fall asleep from where she leaned on Nino, Marinette took a breath. She wanted the moment to last forever, her superhero life did feel frozen, she could ignore it in this moment.
When the time came for Nino and Alya to head home, Marinette bid them a warm farewell, holding onto them as long as she could before they left. Plagg and Tikki flew out of their hiding places as Marinette's phone let out a little chime, it was Adrien. She happily curled up on her bed with her phone, asking Adrien about his visit with Nino knowing that he was just as eager to see Nino as Nino was to see him.
Adrien seemed like he was doing well from his messages. He didn't mention anything was wrong other than some dull pain and general loneliness at not being able to see anyone throughout the week, but he always played it off like it was a minor inconvenience.
So when he suddenly called her in the middle of the night as opposed to texting her like he always did, she reasonably felt a rush of panic.
With a speed even she didn't know she possessed, Marinette grabbed her phone and answered the call immediately.
"Hello? Adrien? Is everything alright?" She asked in rush of words.
She heard some breathing and some shuffling on the other side of the phone.
"Can,-sniff- can you come over please?" She heard Adrien ask through wobbly words, as is he could barely talk.
"Adrien? Are you okay? What's wrong? What's going on?" She almost yelled and she hopped around to get at least partially dressed. Luckily her parents didn't wake but Tikki and Plagg both slowly awoke and watched her in concern.
"No-nothing's wrong. Just, please come over. I need to be with someone right now, please," He said softly, the shake in his words never going away, his breathing never slowing.
"It's okay Adrien, I'll be right over," She reassured him, looking to Tikki to let her know that they were going to transform, "Where are you right now?"
"I'm at home," he answered, Marinette felt her nerves calm, if only a little bit, "In my room. Please come soon."
She reaffirmed that she would be there as soon as she could before hanging up and calling for Tikki to transform her. Plagg brought over the plain cloth bag, Ladybug almost told him to stay here, that it could be too dangerous for him to come along if someone was trying to get the Miraculous from Adrien. When she saw the look of concern on Plagg's face though, she immediately threw away the thought, tying the bag around her hips and putting her phone away in the bag as well.
She quickly snuck onto her balcony and swung off to Adrien's house in the dim moonlight.
After only a minute, Ladybug landed on the roof of a building across the street from the Agreste residence. A quick look over revealed only one reporter remained at the front gate, though they were barely awake in this late hour. Ladybug swung over to the window sill of Adrien's room and landed silently. She peered into his room and saw Adrien, dark and curled into the couch in front of his TV, the device remained off.
With her guard raised, Ladybug cautiously entered the bedroom.
She could barely see in the light of the moon, but she was slowly able to make out Adrien, looking at her with tear streaked eyes. Ladybug rushed over to him to see if he was hurt.
"Ladybug," he whispered, a tiny smile gracing his lips.
She placed her hand on his shoulder, "Adrien what's wrong?"
"I…. I don't know, I just, I can't sleep. Every-everything feels terrible and I don't know why," Adrien mumbled out, turning his head away in shame and running his hand wildly over his face and through his messy hair, "I just… I needed someone here with me, I'm-I'm sorry for making you worry."
Seeing Adrien like this, almost reduced to a puddle, it was heartbreaking. Ladybug slowly ran her hand over his arm in a feeble attempt to get him to calm down.
"So, you're not in any danger? No one's trying to hurt you?" Ladybug asked softly.
"N-no," Adrien said, still not looking at her, more shame gracing his features, "I'm sorry I'm being a child but I… I just feel, bad."
Ladybug continued to rub his arm whilst she let out a sigh of relief, no one was attacking him like she thought, that was good, "I'm glad you're safe Adrien."
Plagg slowly floated out of the bag and over to Adrien's cheek, nuzzling him in greeting. Adrien gently cupped Plagg in his hands and brought him to his chest.
"I'm sorry for bringing you all the way over here in a panic, I… I just, can't sleep, and I didn't want to be alone," Adrien finally brought himself to look at her, a huge upwell of sadness flowing through his eyes.
"Shhh, it's okay Adrien, we're here for you," Marinette whispered placing her forehead against his.
"Thank you."
She brought her hand up to his head, calmly brushing his hair out of his face, "Take a deep breath Adrien."
He did, releasing it shakily but taking in another at a slower pace, it came out smoother. When he looked calm enough to talk again he shuffled deeper into the couch, making room.
"Can… can you stay here? At least until I go to sleep?" He finally asked, "I don't want you to leave."
She hesitated for a moment, afraid of being here for too long, of falling asleep herself and getting caught by Adrien's father. All of her hesitation melted away when she saw the look he gave her.
"Of course," She said, crawling onto the couch with him. Plagg floated over to his neck while Ladybug curled up close to Adrien and wrapped her arms around him. She felt him relax in her embrace and wrap his arms around her in return. One hand still ran through his hair while the other just held him lightly, her lips brushing against his forehead. Ladybug took deep breaths, feeling how Adrien gradually made himself match her breathing.
Neither of them said anything, simply wrapped up together and relaxing themselves. Ladybug dug her phone out of the pouch on her hip and set her alarm to an ungodly early hour in case she too fell asleep. She would leave once Adrien would reach a stable sleeping point, no one would have to know she was there but them.
She put the phone away and draped her arm over Adrien again, she let her mind wander.
She wasn't expecting to find Adrien like this, and it was terrifying. He was a complete emotional wreck, and she couldn't help but worry that Adrien had other times that he was like this whilst in the hospital, or even earlier this week. It seemed likely, and Ladybug wanted to ask him now if this had happened before, but she kept her mouth shut, letting Adrien relax his mind, letting him drift off to sleep. She could ask him about it later, and maybe with Alya and Nino there too, she was still in no position to emotionally console Adrien or anybody for that matter.
An hour passed before Ladybug determined that Adrien had fallen asleep completely. She wasn't almost asleep herself, but managed to stay awake. In an agonizingly slow motion so as to not wake Adrien up, she pulled herself out from his grasp. She stood and scooped the now sleeping Plagg into the bag, hoping he wouldn't be jarred awake by her motions. Adrien curled into himself without the warmth of Ladybug next to her, she walked over to his bed, dragging off one of the heavier blankets and draping it over him. He sighed and curled into to material, putting a smile on Ladybug's face at how content he looked.
After one last look over to see that everything was okay, Ladybug climbed silently out of his window and into the night, no one around to see her.
End of Part 1
A/N: After a traumatic experience, many experience symptoms of depression, I should fucking know.
Alright nerds gear up for part two, everything's through Adrien's perspective and the emotional rollercoaster doesn't fucking stop.