"Thank you again, Marinette, for helping me." He smiled sheepishly up at her, and she smiled down at him.
"O-Of course!" She stuttered cutely. "I-I know th-that doing this everyday m-must tire your arms out- N-N-Not that you aren't strong! You're re-really strong! But, um-"
"I get it." Adrien chuckled, and she giggled awkwardly from behind him. "And yes, my arms do tend to get sore after a while."
'But not while I'm in suit, of course.' He wanted to say. 'Perks of being a ameowsing superhero. Isn't that right, Milady?'
But he couldn't.
She still had no idea.
And he didn't want her to.
"H-Here we go!" She said cheerfully. "My Parent's bakery!"
Adrien blinked, looking over to his right before looking back at the building before him. He did this a few more times before looking back at her, a little confused.
"How are you almost always late to class when your house is literally across the street from it?"
"Um, Th-That's a topic for another time!" Marinette exclaimed, her cheeks red in embarrassment. She awkwardly moved around his wheelchair to open up the door. Some woman who was walking out right then noticed and smiled.
"Here, let me help you." She said, helping Adrien move his wheelchair inside.
"Uh, Thank you, Madame."
"You're welcome." She responded with a smile before walking out. Before Adrien could even push himself, Marinette was behind him and pushing his wheelchair towards the counter.
"Maman!" She called just as her mother finished up an order. "I-I'm here with Adrien to practice fo-for the tournament. I-I called ahead, remember?" An almost begging look was in her eyes as the elder turned to look at them.
"Oh, of course! Your father and I did our best to set everything up, and we're not sure how well it will work yet." She turned around to call into the kitchen. "Tom?! How's the ramp going?!"
"Almost done!" A voice called back as Adrien's jaw dropped. He could faintly hear Marinette giggling behind him- probably at the silly look on his face.
"You-You didn't have to." He said when he found his voice again.
"Oh, but we wanted to." Marinette's mother smiled down at him sweetly. "It's the least that we could do."
"Th-Thank you, Madame." He bowed his head a bit out of politeness, and the elder laughed.
"Please, call me Sabine, dear." When he nodded, she gestured to behind her. "Why don't you go ahead and go on back, Marinette? Your father will be able to help you."
"Sure thing, Maman!" Marinette pushed him forward, and he had to turn around to see the swift hug they gave each other.
"You two have fun!" She called over her shoulder as they began to move again.
"You guys didn't have to." He said as they moved to the back, where a staircase was. Well, it didn't look like a staircase at the moment- there were a whole bunch of skinny wooden planks that fit the width of the stairs to the T.
"W-Well, we wouldn't exactly ha-have much use for it a-anyway." Marinette shrugged. "After we cleared up the whole gum-incident, I-I started thinking about potential things that we could do as daaaay-to-day activities!" It had almost sounded like she was going to say something else, but before he could ask her, she continued.
"A-And then I realized that a-a lot of them would be hard to-to accomplish, considering everything. So, I-I thought to myself 'what could I do to make things more convenient for him?', and after talking some things out with Maman and Papa, we decided that ramps would definitely be best. It's not like we can put ramps over all of the stairs in Paris, though, so we settled with just our house."
"Still, you didn't have to." He protested softly, looking her in the eye. "It's not even guaranteed that I'll come over that often, or that I'll be unable to walk for the rest of my life."
"Exactly." At his confused look, she continued on softly. "Adrien, you must have all sorts of questions about the future in mind. Everything is so uncertain, and it's not even four months after the incident yet." Adrien winced, and Marinette gave him an apologetic smile. "We figured that we'd at least try to relieve you from some of the thoughts swirling around your head. If it helps- the boards are easily removable and can be donated to families who need them when the time comes."
Tears were practically at the corner of his eyes, and he managed out a thank you and a smile before turning to look at his hands.
How had she- how had they known?
Just- How?
"Alright, it's all set up, son." The endearment instantly had him looking up as the large man that was Marinette's father came to the bottom of the ramp. "You ready?"
Adrien could only nod.
"In that case, I'll-"
"Maybe I should push him up, Marinette." He father said in a teasing tone. "I mean, knowing how clumsy you are, you'll somehow end up running him into the wall!"
"P-Papa!" Marinette gasped, scandalized. Adrien couldn't stop the snickers that came out, but they were thankfully hidden by her father's thunderous laugh.
"You know I'm only joking, sweetie." He said. "Still- I think it would be better for everyone if I pushed him up." Marinette mumbled something that Adrien couldn't quite hear, and her father laughed.
Adrien found himself being rolled over to the bottom of the ramp, and her father leaned down so that Adrien could hear his whisper.
"You ready, Adrien?"
"Ready." He nodded. The stairs, now that he had a proper look at them, were pretty steep. No wonder her father didn't want Marinette to push him. One wrong move, and-
He didn't want to think about it.
Her father began to push him up the ramp, and Adrien subconsciously tightened his grip on his arm rests. It was a very short trip in hindsight, but the actual journey felt like it took ages before they made it to the top. It took a bit of repositioning, but soon Adrien and his wheelchair were successfully wheeled up the ramp and into the living room.
"Thank you, Monsieur." He said while turning his chair around to face the elder man. Marinette's father laughed, and there was a peculiar twinkle in his eye.
"Please, call me Tom." Adrien's smile grew as the smile on Tom's face grew. That was when Marinette finally popped into view, giving her father a hug.
"Thank you so much, Papa!" She said, looking up at him. Tom laughed and gently ruffled the top of his daughter's head.
"You're welcome, Marinette. Sabine and I will be down in the store if you kids need anything."
"Alright, Papa!"
"See you later, Tom." Adrien called as he waved goodbye. Tom waved goodbye back at them before gently shutting the door. After a few moments of silence, Marinette and Adrien turned to look at each other.
"Soooo…" Marinette drawled, pushing her index fingers against each other. "Ultimate Mecha Strike?"
"Ultimate Mecha Strike." Adrien agreed.
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"I'm Jealous." Chat Noir stated plainly as the fight continued on. His arms were folded, an outright pout on his face as his tail twitched behind him in irritation.
"Now is not the time!"
"You get to do all of the fun stuff!" He groaned. "Why can't I heal faster?!"
"Okay Kitty-" He watched as his lady side stepped to the left and then gave the akuma a nasty undercut. "What happened to get you in this dump?"
"Everything." He supplied.
"That doesn't help me help you, Chat." She kicked the akuma in the stomach, pushing the foe back several feet.
"I know, I know." He sighed. "I went to the doctor to go to physical therapy for my injury today."
"And?"
"It feels like we're hardly making any progress!" He exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "We've been doing the same exercises for the past six months now, and it feels like nothing has changed! They keep on saying that I'm improving, but if I can't move them by myself then it's not exactly improvement!"
"Sounds like you need to be punching this Akuma instead of me." Ladybug quipped, and Chat Noir scoffed.
"I wish."
"You want me to throw him into the ground a few times before releasing his akuma for you?"
"Yes please."
"Consider it done."
...
Let's just say that Hawkmoth was starting to dread the final battle, even if it meant getting the Miraculous.
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"...Hey, Chat?"
"Yes, Milady?"
"Are you bothered by other things besides your injury?"
It was 'Patrol' for them (AKA- Ladybug did all the fun stuff while Chat Noir made sure to stay out of sight of the windows in his bedroom to talk to her), and Chat Noir had to do a double take.
"Yes," He admitted. "Why do you ask? Am I meowing too much?"
"No, you silly cat." He could practically see her rolling her eyes, and the sound of her yo-yo zipping through the air by his ear only increased his yearning to be there beside her. "Of course you have the right to complain. Sure, there might be people out there who have it worse, and you should be grateful- but this is what's happening to you right now. It's just…" She trailed off.
"Just?" He probed softly.
"Aren't you bothered at the fact that, outside of the two of us, no one knows that you even exist?"
"What do you mean?"
"I-" She took a small breath. "One of my friends really likes Ladybug, and she's super into finding out her identity-"
'She's talking about Alya.' His mind supplied him, filling in the blanks that she didn't know he was filling.
"-And she was sharing some of her findings with me."
"So? I don't see what the big deal is."
"Well…" Ladybug sighed. "I was going to ask her what she thought of your identity, but… then I realized that I couldn't, because no one knows that you're there."
"It's not a big deal." He admitted. "I hardly do anything outside of placing down a well-timed Cataclysm. You're the one doing all of the work- you should get the glory."
"But it IS a big deal, Chaton!" She stressed. "It's a big deal to me! You've been helping as much as you possibly could, warned me about I-don't-know how many attacks aimed at my back, pointed out Akuma's weaknesses, lifted my spirits, and have made me feel better about myself." Her voice grew soft and quiet as she spoke, and he found that he was almost at a loss for words.
"Without you… without you, there would be no Ladybug."
He gasped at the confession- some emotion that he had been suppressing for months now making his heart in his chest flutter wildly.
"That's why it's such a big deal to me, Chat." She continued. "You've made such a big impact on my life, and the fact that no one seems to notice bothers me. You can't tell me that it doesn't bother you."
"I…" Chat Noir swallowed nervously. "I admit, now that you've brought it up… it's pawsitively bug-ging me." A cheeky, but shaking grin stretched across his face, and she groaned at the double-whammy of puns. "But not as much as you are by it. You see… life at home isn't so sweet for me. Mother… passed in the same accident I got my injury in, and father wants me to be perfect.
"Nothing that I do gets noticed by him unless I do something drastic, and even then he usually responds negatively. You could even say that I'm used to not being noticed, even though the irony in that statement is so thick I can't even begin to describe to you how ironic it is." He laughed lightly.
"Oh, Chat…"
"And I know that this information probably bothers you too, but there's not exactly a lot that either of us can do about it."
"I guess…"
"So chin up, okay?" He smiled lovingly, wishing that he could be out there with her and placing his hand on her shoulder. "Don't be down because I should be. Be happy and have fun, Ladybug. Enjoy doing what I can't do for me, okay?"
"Okay."
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"Dude!" The second he arrived at school, Nino was taking over as his chaperone and pushing him up some ramps on the side of the school. "Please tell me that you've seen Alya's latest Blog!"
"Huh? He blinked. "You mean the one featuring her almost being smashed by the Mime, right?"
"No, Dude! The one she posted after that! I thought you stayed updated 24/7!"
"I was tired and went to bed early." Adrien laughed awkwardly, looking down at his legs.
'More like trying to survive the panic attack Marinette put me through.' He thought. 'What if she had actually been smashed under that?! Surely Miraculous Magic can't stop something that big and heavy from hurting her in some way!'
"Well, Mari was somehow able to set up an interview between Alya and Ladybug as an apology for stealing her phone-"
"She stole her phone?" Adrien asked disbelievingly.
"Yeah, Mari can be quite the pocket thief when she wants to be." Adrien took a moment to let that information soak in. "But you won't believe the information that the interview gave us! She actually avoided answering some of the questions that might've hit a little too close to home, but that last one- oh man, it's so good I want you to watch it instead of me telling you!"
"Ahhh… okay?"
"Now."
"But Class is going to-"
"Just pull out your phone! We can skip to the end, that's where all of the juicy stuff is. About Two minutes before the end should do, so Eight minutes in…?"
Adrien didn't hesitate to do as Nino had asked, skipping ahead until there were only two minutes left.
"So, Ladybug, last question-" Ladybug perked up expectantly. "Being the only superhero in Paris has to be very taxing. Secret identities, missing class, etc. Just how do you do it? And if you don't want to or can't answer that, Is there anyone out there that you can say that, if it weren't for them, you wouldn't be sitting here today?"
The super heroine smiled knowingly, a mischievous and VERY smug glint in her eyes.
"The only superhero in Paris?" She asked, almost sounding like she was clarifying what Alya had said rather than pointing out a mistake.
"You mean to say that there's more?!" Alya gasped. Ladybug laughed.
"There is one person whom, without him, I wouldn't even be Ladybug. He's very important to me, and while he can't presently fight in battles, he's always been there for me since we first fought Stone Heart. He's a superhero, my partner and one of my closest friends. And, because I can see you so clearly dying to know his name-" Ladybug winked at the camera. "I'll tell you. His name is Chat Noir."
Chat Noir.
His name is Chat Noir.
Her voice and the words she spoke echoed around in his head, even as he locked the phone while Nino wheeled him into the Elevator.
"It's sick, right?" Nino asked as he pressed a button for the second floor. "There are two superheroes in Paris! Two! And we didn't know about any of it until now?! This Chat Noir HAS to be one of the sneakiest heroes ever! I called Alya last night, and she said that everything just made so much more sense now because it shows Ladybug talking to someone in some of her blogs, who was clearly not the Akuma. It's got to be Chat Noir that she's talking to! It HAS to be!"
"Yeah…" He replied, dazed. "That's… really cool of her to do that. To give credit to someone no one had even known about."
"Exactly!" They reached the upper level, and Nino rolled him out. Adrien took over from there, wheeling himself towards the classroom. "Marinette doesn't seem to think that it was all that special of Ladybug to do that from what Alya told me. Apparently, Marinette thinks that it's only natural to be sure that credit is given where it's due. Which is honestly really sweet of her, because I know for a fact that there are a lot of people who don't do that sort of thing. Of course, there's one exception in Marinette's book from what I've seen."
"And what's that?" Adrien asked, looking up at Nino as the other walked ahead to open the door wider for him so that he could wheel himself into class.
"To make them happy." Nino replied as though it was the most obvious thing. "Like, say she made a gift for someone. She placed it in the pile, but then some things happened and someone who didn't get a gift for the someone took credit for the gift she had made. While normally she'd claim proper credit, let's say the person who forgot the gift was really important to the person who's getting gifts. Like- it would mean the world to the someone if the person had gotten them a gift. Marinette wouldn't say anything about it."
"Really?" Adrien asked as they settled themselves at their desk in the front row. "Not even if it was important to her?"
"Not even then, dude." Nino shrugged. "Not like it would ever happen- Mari signs all of her work, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember." He let out a light laugh. "How anyone could ever take credit for her work, I have no idea. It would be pretty hard to not spot it at some point."
From within his backpack, he could've sworn that he heard Plagg snicker.