Hello everyone!
So I've had a really decent week. My insomnia is back, but I'm in a good mood, so I don't care. I've been having fun and I'm really happy... which is ironic with how angsty this chapter is. Seriously this entire fic is just angst at this point.

But I really like this fic at the moment. Just be prepared for the sad.

(P.S. It's my birthday, so reviews, fan art, and your tears will gladly be accepted as gifts! ;D)

Enjoy!

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Sleeping Beauty

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The first thing Adrien was aware of was a severe pain in his head. He groaned as he forced himself awake, rubbing gingerly at the back of his head. A large egg had formed there and it was painful to the touch. The second thing he became aware of, was that he was no longer transformed.

Slightly panicked, he looked down at himself. He'd been transformed when the Akuma had hit him. Oh god, had she... His eyes flicked down to his ring and he sighed in relief when he saw it was still there. He found that very odd, but his head hurt too much to even think about why she hadn't taken it right now.

He was vaguely aware of Plagg saying something, gently nuzzling into his cheek as he tried to get him to focus.

But something was wrong. There was something he was forgetting. Something important. Something… horrible had happened, but he couldn't-

"Marinette!"

Roughly, he pushed himself to his feet, swaying and staggering as he struggled to stay upright. Plagg rushed to steady him, doing nothing more than smushing into his cheek. He ran back out into the middle of the street. It took effort to remain standing, but he had to find her. The mother of the baby was still lying where she fell. His head whipped about, looking for any sign of her, and the world spun sickeningly around him. The door. She had been by the door. He almost fell over a few times as he ran over to the door he had seen her at last. His head was throbbing, but he ignored the pain. Marinette. He had to get to Marinette.

He saw her limp figure sprawled across the stoop and his heart froze. Something hard formed in his throat, and this time he didn't stop himself from falling to his knees. He scrambled over to her pulling her limp form into his lap, cupping her face in his hand.

"Mari? Mari, wake up!" He gave her a light shake, not wanting to hurt her, but desperate for her to open her eyes. "Please! Come on, Mari, please wake up!"

"Adrien!" Plagg cried. The Kwami hurled himself at Adrien's head, making him cry out in pain. The boy realised that Plagg had been trying to get his attention for a while now. The little black Kwami looked at him sympathetically. "It's too late, kid. All we can do is get her somewhere safe and find where Ladybug is at. She won't wake up until the Akuma is cleansed." When he saw Adrien's upset and defeated look, he placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry kid."

"Th-this is my fault," he said, his voice quiet and cracked. "I should have protected her."

"You did everything you could," Plagg assured him. "That was a very strong Akuma, and you were alone."

"She shouldn't have even been there. She was trying to help someone else… She's always trying to help…"

"Come on, let's get her somewhere. Like the hospital or something with the rest of them."

Adrien nodded, taking his phone out. "Yeah, and the mother… I'm guessing the Akuma took the kid..." As he punched 112 into his phone, he looked at his Kwami to see him looking at Marinette, a grim and confused look on his face. "What is it?"

"I don't know. There's just this feeling I can't shake. I know my bad luck, and there is some seriously bad luck going on right now." His whiskers twitched and he looked about suspiciously.

Meanwhile, Adrien hit dial. He quickly got through to the call centre and he hurried to explain the situation. "Hello! My friend's unconscious and she she's not waking up. It was an Akuma attack. There's another lady too."

"Do they have any signs of injuries?" the woman asked. "Are they in a serious condition?"

"N-no, I don't think so. The Akuma had this power where she was just knocking people out. They're breathing just fine and everything. It's like their just asleep."

"Right, how long ago did this happen?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I kinda hit my head and passed out. When I came to they were both unconscious. The other lady, she had a baby, but the baby's gone."

"Alright, what is your location? We will send some ambulances to you."

"Ahh… We're on Avenue Charles Floquet. In between Avenue Joseph Boulevard."

The woman assured him that ambulances were being sent out and he thanked her before hanging up. Reluctantly, he left Marinette's side so that he could bring the mother over to the side of the path and lay her out more comfortably and safely. He lay Marinette near her. People from the buildings had noticed that the Akuma was gone now and were trying to help, bringing out blankets for the two unconscious woman and trying to keep him company. One nice lady and noticed that he had hurt his head and had brought him out an ice pack. Still, he held onto Marinette as he waited, stroking her hair away from her face.

It wasn't much later that two ambulances turned around the corner and drove over. They had obviously spotted the small crowd. The paramedics brought out stretchers and carefully placed the sleeping women on them.

"W-wait," he said, going over to the person putting Marinette into the ambulance. "Can I ride with her? Please? She's my friend and…" As he spoke his voice cracked and the paramedic looked at him in sympathy.

"Are you the boy that called?" He nodded, wincing when the movement made his head sting. "We were told you hit your head hard enough to fall unconscious. Jump in. I'll check you out on the way there."

"Thank you!" He smiled warily, accepting the woman's hand up into the back and sat down on the bench beside Marinette's unconscious form. The ambulance began to drive off and he watched as the paramedic checked Maranette over. She let out a heavy sigh and crouched down next to him.

"These two are the fifth and sixth cases of this attack," she said, sounding weary. "I hope Ladybug and Chat Noir catch the Akuma soon."

"Chat Noir was fighting against her before. He was trying to protect Marinette. But I got knocked out and when I woke up, everyone was gone and Mari was... she was..." His voice cracked again and tears welled up in his eyes.

"She'll wake up," the paramedic assured him. "She's just asleep, and Ladybug and Chat Noir haven't failed us yet. Now let's take a look at this bump." She carefully took the cold compress away from his head and gently felt the lump that protruded from the back of his skull. "Yikes, that's a big bump." She took out a small torch and got him to look at her as she shone it in his eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been hit by a bus," he replied. He knew there was no point in lying or downplaying how he felt. It was best just to tell medical staff everything. "I have a massive headache. And I feel tired and a little sick. And dizzy. Very, very dizzy. It was hard trying to make my way over to Marinette."

"Do you have blurred or double vision?"

He nodded, immediately regretting it. "Just a little."

"What's you're name?"

"Adrien. Adrien Agreste."

"And hers? We're going to need her details."

"Her name's Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Her parents are bakers. I don't know their number, but her friend does. ...Oh god. I'm going to have to tell them about this." The colour drained from his face and he felt even more sick. They loved their daughter so much. This would be horrifying for them.

"Don't worry about that. They can contact her parents at reception. I'm sure the number will be in her medical file. Can you do me a favour and tell me what year it is?"

He hesitated a moment. Year? Why did she want to know the year? What even was the year? He tried to think, but damn, his head really hurt. Eventually, the answer came to him. "Um... two thousand and fourt- no, hold on... sixteen? 2016?"

She nodded. "Adrien, you have a minor concussion, so I'm going to give you some painkillers for now. And you can rest when we get to the hospital, alright?"

"Oh... okay," he said. A concussion? Did that mean he wasn't allowed to sleep? Because he was feeling very sleepy.

Suddenly a loud sound filled the ambulance and his head exploded in pain. The paramedic looked about, searching for the source of the noise, finding a phone in Marinette's pocket. "Do you know an Alya."

Adrien gulped, his throat feeling dry. "Yeah," he rasped. "It's her best friend."

She held the ringing phone out to him. "She'd be better hearing this from you."

With a shaking hand, he grabbed the phone and accepted the call. As soon as he placed the phone to his ear, Alya was already talking.

"Oh my god, girl! You are not going to believe this! There's a new Akuma and-"

"Alya..."

There was a pause. "...Adrien? What are you doing with Marinette's phone?"

"Umm... there's – there's been an accident." His throat felt tight and it was a struggle to push the words out. "That Akuma. She attacked us. Marinette's unconscious. We're in an ambulance heading to the hospital now."

"WHAT?! What happened?!" came the panicked reply. Her voice was so shrill he had to hold the phone away from his ear. "Which hospital? Where are you going?!"

"Ow! Alya, stop! Um..." He looked up at the paramedic questioningly. "Which hospital are we going to?"

"Hôpital Necker," she replied.

"Hôpital Necker," he repeated back to Alya. "And Alya, sorry, but can you keep it down a bit? Apparently I have a concussion and that really hurt."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she said, lowering her voice.

"Can you call her parents? They said they'll call them when they get to the hospital, but they should know as soon as possible."

"Y-yeah, I'll do that..." Her voice wobbled and it sounded like she was about to start crying. "M-me and N-Nino will head there now and meet you, okay? And then you can tell me everything that happened."

"Alright," he agreed. He hung up, hesitantly putting the phone in his pocket.

After that, the ride to the hospital was fairly quiet. The paramedic had asked him a few more questions, including if he wanted to call a family member. But it wasn't worth bothering his father about this, so he shook his head.

When they arrived, he was a little upset to see there wasn't much of a rush to get Marinette inside and set up. But he understood why. Her life wasn't in danger and there was nothing they could do. She would sleep until the magic that kept her under broke. For a moment he entertained the idea of kissing her and waking her from her sleep, breaking the spell like she was Sleeping Beauty. Heck, Ladybug had admitted that she'd done that to save him once. But he had a gut feeling that it wouldn't work. Luck wasn't on his side.

He was taken alongside Marinette to a room that he knew was in the same ward as the other Lulla-bye victims. A chair was dragged up beside her bed and he was instructed to sit down and rest, and call for a nurse if he felt worse. They rattled off a short list of symptoms he may encounter and told him that it would be better if he didn't sleep for a few hours. Plagg took it upon himself to make sure that he stayed awake, poking him, pulling his hair, and being just down right annoying. So by the time that Alya and Nino arrived, panting and frantic, he was in a thoroughly bad mood. Alya ran over to Marinette right away, her name on her lips and tears in her eyes at the sight. Nino came and stood near him, asking if he was alright. The answer was a very solid no.

It wasn't much longer that her parents arrived, they had been a little slow considering they'd had to close the bakery to come. He felt a little pang in his chest at that. His father probably wouldn't even come, let alone cancel anything so he could see him. He'd give anything to have a family like that sometimes.

The Doctors came and gave them all a brief description of what was happening to Marinette, but it all basically boiled down to 'she was in a magically induced coma and they were keeping her and the others here for observation. There was nothing they could do. Not until Ladybug and Chat Noir did something'. Then they had left the room again, leaving it quiet and thick with sorrow.

"So, what happened?" Alya asked quietly, still holding her friend's hand as tears silently tracked down her cheek.

He sighed, looking down uncomfortably. He hated lying… which was rich coming from someone who lied to everyone every day. "There was an Akuma attack," he started. "Some lady called Lulla-bye. I'd just seen Marinette when she came along, and we started trying to get everyone out of the area and into the houses before anything could happen. But she started targeting this mother, and Marinette stayed back a bit to help. She was trying to get her to ditch the pram. That's when Chat Noir showed up. He saved Marinette and the baby from being knocked out, but the mother got hit. And the Akuma really seemed to want the baby, so she kept attacking Marinette. Chat Noir tried to keep her busy fighting him until we could escape into a building. But something hit me and I got smacked into the wall and passed out. When I woke up Chat, Lulla-bye and the baby were gone, and Marinette was…"

They all looked sadly towards the bed where she lay. Everyone was quiet again for a while, the only sound was the steady – though slightly elevated – beep of the heart monitor they'd hooked her up to. Everyone looked positively dismal. Her parents seemed incredibly anxious, they whispered away to each other quietly, and though his head was still buzzing he did hear them say something about Ladybug and Chat Noir. What was weird was that he could practically sense how quiet Plagg was. It wasn't just that he had to be quiet to not blow his cover, but it seemed like something was worrying him. Like he'd realised something that was actually making him anxious. He'd noticed that even when Plagg had been trying to keep him awake, even though he was being really annoying, he still seemed more subdued than usual.

It was astounding how dark the world became without Marinette's light.

Yet again, Adrien looked at his Chat phone. He'd been sending random messages to Ladybug, trying to stress how urgent the situation was. As the time went on, he got more and more stressed.

'My Lady, she attacked again. I urgently need help!'

'Ladybug, are you there?'

'Are you alright?'

'Seriously, is something wrong? You never take this long to respond.'

'Please, Ladybug, I'm getting really desperate. A friend of mine has been hurt.'

'The Akuma knocked her out. She'll be in a coma until we defeat her, so please, PLEASE look at your phone and let's go!'

'Damn it, Ladybug! She's not waking up, and I need her to wake up! I think I might be in love with this girl, and I don't know what I'll do if she doesn't wake up.'

'Where the hell are you?!'

'Please.'

By the last message, his hands were shaking so bad that Nino had started to notice. "Hey, bro. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he lied, his throat tight and his voice sounding raspy. "I... I think I just need a water."

"I'll go grab you one." He stood to leave, but Adrien stopped him.

"I can do it myself, Nino!" His friend looked at him in shock at the sudden outburst. "Sorry. Thanks anyway, but I feel like stretching my legs. I was told not to fall asleep for a few hours, and I'm in danger of that happening. So I should move for a bit."

He pushed himself out the chair and was almost happy to note that the world didn't spin half as much as it did before, and his blackout was only momentary. His friends just looked at him in concern as he left. Out side of the room, Sabine gave him a half-hearted, sad smile. It took him a moment to catch up on why this seemed weird. He hadn't even noticed them leave the room. He reflected her smile back at her, then carried on down the hall.

He managed to find an area nearby that had almost no one around and he grabbed the phone and hit call. There was only one person who's number was on this phone, and he paced anxiously as he waited for her to pick up.

"Come on, come on, come on!" he muttered. "Pick up, Ladybug. Please!'

The phone rang.

And it rang.

And it rang, until he couldn't stand it anymore. There wasn't a voicemail set up, so it would just ring until he hung up. And despairingly, he did so.

Something was really, REALLY wrong. Ladybug had never not answered her phone. She'd never left it behind or neglected it. She had always answered his texts immediately, even the stupid non-Akuma related ones. Until today, that was.

He made his way back to the room, anxiety tying his gut into knots. What if something had happened to Ladybug as well? No, he couldn't think like that. He had to help Marinette, and he could only do that with her help. Besides, she could take care of herself. He just had to go find her.

"Oh my god!" Alya's faint gasp made his head snap up as he entered the room.

"No way," Nino said, his voice flat as he stared at the phone in Alya's hand.

Adrien felt all his breath rush out of him. He recognised that phone. He recognised from the model, down to the custom ladybug patterned cover. He recognised that phone because he was the one who had brought it. He was the one who had given it to Ladybug so that they could keep in contact if they got in trouble.

And if Ladybug's phone was here and she wasn't...

His eyes flicked to Marinette.

No...