Marinette tripped.

Of all things, she was not expecting that wink. She hadn't expected to look up and see him looking at her at all, and then when he winked she felt her heart stop beating for just a second. Those beautiful green eyes were trained on her and she swore a breeze had just at that moment lifted his hair so it was almost like watching him model live. She had watched him in that moment with all of his perfection, and had watched him, as if in slow motion, as his left eye began to slowly close in a wink.

It reminded her so much of Chat that she froze in shock. Of course, freezing suddenly while running was not a good idea and she fell face first into the gravel.

Alya ran a couple more paces before she realized that her companion was no longer with her, and turned to see her sprawled in the dirt.

'Oh my god, Marinette, what happened? Did you trip? Are you ok?' Alya said, her voice getting higher and higher as she began to worry about her friend.

'Yeah I'm fine.' Marinette reassured her as she shakily stood up. Then she looked down at her knees and cringed, seeing the blood dripping down her legs. There were small rocks from the gravel stuck in her leg with a huge gash in her right knee. She had easily taken off a layer of skin and she watched as her right knee began as a sickly yellow colour, and pinpricks of blood popped up across the surface before blood began gushing out of it and down her leg and started to stain her shoes red.

Alya took one look at the knee and turned white.

'Oh man Mari, that's not good.' She gasped, taking a physical step backwards.

Marinette had faced many worse wounds as Ladybug unknown to Alya and she knew what to do.

'Alya, I'm going to need you to run ahead to get a first aid kit, ask Ms Briant where to get one. Nathaniel and Rose were just behind us and I'm sure they'll help me start to get there.' Alya hesitated for a second before saying 'Ok, alright, yep I'm going, are you sure you're ok?'

'Yes! Just go!'

Alya turned and sprinted as fast as she could out of the park, her cross country training combined with her practice in chasing superheroes to give her the strength and stamina she needed to save her friend.

Marinette checked her legs and took a couple of slow steps to see how well she could walk. She found it somewhat difficult, so decided to stay and lean against a nearby tree while she waved over Nathaniel and Rose, who had just run into the park after hearing about the situation from Alya. Nathaniel looked extremely worried, and Marinette blushed at the emotion on his face.

'M-marinette! Are you ok?' He blurted out as he ran up to her, his hands flapping around as he tried to figure out a way to help her without getting too close.

'I'm fine Nath, but would you mind helping me get to that seat over there?' Marinette said as she pointed to a park bench that was just on the other side of the tree. Nathaniel quickly put an arm under her shoulder and Rose went to the other side. There was a moment of panic for the two as they realised that Rose was too short to properly help Marinette, but Nathaniel solved the problem by simply lifting her up bridal style with one arm under her shoulders and the other supporting her injured knees. Marinette was surprised by his strength. Like herself, Nathaniel had never really stood out in sports, preferring to stand by and watch. But here he was now, lifting her easily and carrying her to the chair. And now that she was paying attention, she noticed that he too was hardly breathing hard even after running a kilometer. There are so many darn fit guys in this class, she thought to herself. Not that she minded really. As he set her down gently on the chair, letting her sit sideways on it so she could bring her leg up as painlessly as possible, she leant back on him and closed her eyes to block out the pain. He stiffened and blushed as he sat down next to her to help keep her upright, gently stroking her hair to comfort her.

When she got an injury as Ladybug, the adrenalin plus the important mission of saving people was enough to let her continue moving as close to normally as possible. She figured that because she was merely being herself as Marinette and had no people to save, and perhaps because she was extra tired on that day, she was feeling the sting without any relief.

Marinette wished that Chat Noir were here with her. Even if his puns were super annoying to her most of the time, at least right now they might be able to distract her. And with his super strength, he could have carried her back to school already. With her eyes closed she imagined that Nathaniel was Chat, taking care of her and loving her in that special way of his. He would be standing right next to her, eyes filled with worry, trying to lighten the mood with various half-hearted jokes to make her smile. She smiled simply thinking of it. His hair would be shining with all this sunlight and he'd stroke her cheek and lean over her and his eyes…

Marinette opened her own eyes as a shadow covered her face, and she looked up to see those bright green eyes. She jumped slightly to see Adrien here, but as her view widened she relaxed as she realised it was Adrien. Which then made her tense up again at the thought. Only Adrien?! I love Adrien, not Chat. Why am I not freaking out about how my true love is standing right here while I'm covered in blood and probably look like a mess? She quickly looked down at her knee and cringed. Adrien also looked down as he began speaking softly.

'Hey Marinette, Alya told me about what happened and I hope you're feeling ok. I brought some clean water so was can start washing the blood off you, Ms Briant will be here in a minute with the first aid equipment.' He gave her his usual smile, with the left corner raised just slightly higher, and Marinette felt as though her pain had suddenly left her. The boy of her dreams, here to save her? Yes please!

'T-thanks Adrien, k-kind that's you. I mean, that's kind you. Kind of you I mean.'

He raised an eyebrow and grinned.

'Glad to see you're still talking like usual, Mari.' He said, as he began rinsing the blood off her leg, smiling at Nathaniel who was glaring at him while still patting Marinette's hair protectively.

Nino stumbled up to the small group gathered around Marinette's chair, puffing and panting as he barely made it before kneeling on the ground beside her.

'Marinette! I… ran all the ... way here… you… ok?' He managed to get out.

Marinette smiled gratefully at her friend, recognizing that he had put in a lot of effort to get here.

'I'm ok, thanks for coming to check on me.'

He nodded awkwardly and gave her a half smile in return, glancing down at her knee which Adrien had just finished cleaning.

Ms Briant arrived at that moment with the first aid kit.

'Oh dear Marinette, look what you've done now! I think we'll have to get you back to the school before we can start properly bandaging you. Boys, can one of you help me carry her back?'

'I'll do it!' Nathaniel and Adrien said instantly, causing the redhead to flush as he glared once again at the blond out of the corner of his eyes. Adrien backed down, saying 'It's ok Nathaniel, you can do it, and just let me know if you need any help.'

Nathaniel nodded shortly at Adrien and quickly moved to help his teacher and Marinette.

Adrien watched as they carried her out, shaking his head to dispel whatever feeling was growing inside him. He looked over to Nino who was still hovering anxiously, and walked over to him and nudged him gently with his shoulder.

'Hey Nino, let's go back to the school?'

Nino nodded absently and began walking back with his best friend.

'She'll be fine man.' Adrien said, although he wasn't sure whether he said that to comfort Nino or himself.