post/155492583444/unreceived-part-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8

Author's Note: This is a fic based off of a comic written and drawn by hogeky on tumblr by the same name. Please go there to view images and support her comic!

Permission was received to write this fic.

Here comes the drama my friends…

To say that Marinette was embarrassed with herself was an understatement.

She had just bore her heart out to her long-time partner, who didn't know he was her partner.

She just sobbed in front of someone she trusted, but he had no idea why she would trust him; at least not beyond the fact that he was given the trust of Paris daily.

She just hugged a superhero who she watched beat a man who had attacked her. This was conflicting, but to be saved for later.

What filled her thoughts presently was the fact that that very same superhero was in her bedroom late at night, tending to her wound. Marinette sat at the edge of her chaise lounge and watched Chat Noir wrap a strip of gauze around her leg.

"Thank you for bringing me home Chat," she said, breaking the silence the hung between them.

Though, you didn't have to carry me all the way…

She had probably been heavy, and dead weight. The memory of it was embarrassing.

"Don't thank me," he replied, giving her no room to say much in return. His narrow green eyes never left the bandages. "Does it hurt?" he asked, diverting what little conversation they had made. His fingers were careful not to graze her bare skin, and the wrap was snug.

"A little," Marinette admitted. Even the air was stinging the open wound. She watched him intently while he treated her.

Why do I feel so nervous?

"All wrapped up," he announced, though with a rather apologetic tone. He really had nothing to apologize for. In fact, the idea that he had felt apologetic somewhat irked her. She took a deep breath before speaking, looking at him unblinkingly as he settled himself on the floor in front of her.

"I want to thank you," she repeated. He deserved it, even if he didn't seem to want it. "If you didn't save me, I don't know what would have happened. I don't think I could thank you enough." Chat Noir's eyes drifted, a sign that he was shy and uncertain of how to respond to her thanks. Or maybe he was still mulling over the thought that he didn't deserve it. Marinette could just make out the pink that tinted his cheeks beneath the mask and concluded that it was a mixture of both.

"Are you okay? Is something bothering you?" she asked when he hadn't made any verbal response. His body tensed at the sound of her voice. His mind must have wandered for him to be shocked at her being there.

"N-no," he stuttered, "what makes you think –." His sentence didn't have a chance to end before he noticed how close her face had come toward his own. Somewhere between then and now, she had leaned toward him so her face was only about a head away, which was really much too close. He jerked, but he didn't move away. There was a look in her eyes that drew him to her; a sense of familiarity and closeness.

"It's all in your eyes," she explained, as if it was terribly obvious. His gaze rested a second too long on her endless blue stare, and it was an effort to pull away from it. That extra second sent a wave of panic through him, followed closely by a pinch of guilt. He flung himself back and away from her, his limbs flailing from their cross-legged position.

Only when he had moved a comfortable three feet back from her was he able to look away, but he could do nothing to hide the flustered look on his face. Unfortunately, he was very well aware of that.

Marinette sat confused, running a hand loosely through her hair, where the second hair-tie had long since been discarded. His behavior was admittedly rather cute, but she had lost track of what he could have been thinking and therefore had no more understanding of his actions.

There was nothing like this in the anime and manga I read! Adrien panicked. What do I do now?

"What is it? Are you okay?" Without another word, Chat Noir dashed toward the window, wanting quickly to end the conversation. Nothing had prepared him to be in these sorts of situations or feel these sorts of feelings. He needed more time to think. "Don't run!" she cried. "I want to know what's bothering you. I want to help!" He stopped in his tracks at the sound of her words. "I want to make you feel better." The last sentence was a whisper of sound, and he could sense the sincerity in it, but it didn't make him feel any better.

"Why," he breathed. His eyes remained fixated on a spot on the window, finding an intense fascination with the details of it. It was all he could do to attempt to distract himself from the negative feelings that seemed to fill him. "Why would someone like you, who doesn't even know who I am, care?"

Marinette's lips thinned. It took every impulse in her body not to shout out her answer. Even if he was her best friend, he had no idea who she was, and it had been her own desire for secrecy that stopped her from helping him now. He took her silence as a sign to continue. "Even from the beginning, no one ever cared about me. Only one person did, and I wasn't even able to protect them." Thoughts of his mother blossomed forth.

"Even the girl I love doesn't care about me." He paused. "I guess she thinks I'm annoying." Again, there was nothing Marinette could say. It wouldn't have come as a surprise to her if her lip began to bleed, with how nervously she began to bite it. She tried not to feel guilty for making him feel so terrible. For so long she thought he had been okay with her rejections, but it made sense that such things would wear down on even the most optimistic and persistent of people.

"So why would you," Chat continued, "of all people, care about what might be hurting me?" His hands clutched into fists in her peripheral vision. "Maybe it's just an act of kindness to the guy who saved you. I don't know."

Marinette wished she could reach out to him. Her heart ached at the sight of his back. She wanted him to turn and face her. She wanted to hug him, warm him, and comfort him. She wanted to apologize. She wanted to apologize as Ladybug for making him feel this way. But then what would she do? Her apology was useless if she had no intention of reciprocating his feelings. It would only make him feel worse, knowing that she felt rotten because he was upset. There was no solution to this. At least, not a solution that would make them both happy.

Her arms wrapped around her torso, holding everything together where her mind could barely manage.

A slight beeping sound could just be made out by both ears.

"I don't understand it," he said, wrapping up as quickly as he could. It was then that Marinette got her wish. Chat Noir turned his head to face her, his body moving toward the window. There were tears in his eyes, and an expression on his face she never wanted to see. Hurt filled every detail of his visage, and in turn, pain flew to her chest. She didn't think he realized that his voice was cracking, yelling through his tears. She didn't think he realized how scared he sounded.

"Why would you care about scum like me? Someone who couldn't even save you from being injured?" She didn't know what to say. She hadn't realized that he had been feeling this way for so long. The only thing that she felt she was allowed to do was look back at him. His lips thinned and he faced the window once more. "Goodbye Marinette." He had leapt from the ledge before she could even consider stopping him. She took a deep breath, pushing past the hollowness in her chest, and the lump in her throat.

"Chat…" Her words came out in a sigh. Marinette sniffled and swiped at the tear that sat at the edge of her eye aggressively. "You stupid cat. I care about you more than you could imagine."

Author's Note: This chapter was so difficult to write OTL. Most of the pictures were of dramatic silences, which I had to fill with dramatic thoughts, which didn't exist in the comic itself for dramatic reasons. DRAMA. Anyway, I hope I got it right. (Also, I moved around a couple events… it felt more dramatic!)