Ok, so I am way late in posting this, to be honest my life has been insanely crazy these last few months. Since the new year I have lost my grandfather, both myself and my little one have had surgery (I was hospitalized for nearly a week), and many other less dramatic but still crazy things have been going on. So, I apologize for the delay, but real life has to come first. I'll try to update again soon, but no promises. Thank you to everyone who has favorited/followed/commented, I'm so glad you've enjoyed this story so far.
Obligatory disclaimer: I own nothing!
After the incident with Nino at the start of class Adrien had resolved once again to act normally, to put that behind him and pretend it was just another day at school. Afterall, he regularly kept huge secrets from his friends, it kind of came with the Chat Noir territory. He would just have to try a little harder. Surely if he could manage to hide his superhero-identity for ages he could hide his Marinette/Ladybug crush, right?
Wrong. No matter how determined he was to just act normally every time Marinette was even in the vicinity of him, he couldn't help but glance her way. He watched as she helped Nathaniel with an art project, solved a debate between Alix and Kim, laughed and joked with Alya, dropped what she was doing to help Juleka repair a tear in her new shirt, and stood up for a younger student against Chloe. He found himself in awe of her and, despite Marinette's explanation of magical identity protection, still wondering how he'd ever been so blind.
Honestly, Adrien was just thankful that Nino hadn't made any more comments about his unusual behavior. He got the feeling that wouldn't last forever though, and with just a few minutes left in class, he was plotting a quick escape to avoid any chance at interrogation.
Right as the bell started to ring, an explosion was heard nearby. "Akuma!" he muttered under his breath, now with a whole new reason to hurry out. He found an empty storage closet and ducked in to transform quickly.
Chat Noir arrived on the scene just moments after Ladybug, and for a second he wondered how Marinette had managed to transform and get there so quickly, but that thought was pushed aside as quickly as it had come once he saw the akuma. He didn't know the extent of it's powers or even what it was called, what he did know was that it was shooting some kind of laser and was aiming at an unsuspecting Ladybug.
"Ma-" he took off running toward her, barely correcting himself before he called out her name, "—lady." She turned to look at him, surprise evident on her face, and then everything went black.