It was supposed to be easy. Just a couple of robbers.
One of them wasn't supposed to be akumatized.
She definitely wasn't supposed to have a knife.
They'd managed to disarm the first three, leaving just her. Chat stalked a wary circle around the woman, eyeing her empty hands. "Let's… wrap this up, shall we?" He snarked.
He could feel Ladybug rolling her eyes behind him, but he still turned his head to see her cute little stern face. First mistake. "Not now, chaton." She reprimanded.
Searing pain flashed through him, engulfing his senses. He stumbled back. Hit the ground. Second mistake. Too late, his brain was filled with the scent of cheap perfume and the sound of footsteps tapping toward him. Confusion overwhelmed him. Was he being carried? The air felt fresh and cool on his face, the new-rain smell filling his nostrils, as well as the coppery scent of…
Oh.
Chat Noir craned his neck, trying to see the source of the pain. It was a three-inch dagger, handle covered in roses, seeping blood out of his side onto Ladybug's red-spotted suit. Cool. Was all he could think.
Ladybug muttered something, and he realized he was being dropped into an alley. His sensitive ears picked up her racing heartbeat, and the smell of sweat and fear was almost stronger than the smell of his own blood. She was filled with adrenaline, he realized, but not the fun kind.
Because of him. She was scared because of him.
"Uhm…" He gasped, gesturing weakly to his side as she set him against a wet brick wall. The edges of the brick poked into his back through the suit. "Knife to meet you?"
"Si ce chat stupide dit encore une chose sur les publicités intelligentes, je vais le jeter de la Tour Eiffel—" Ladybug broke off, muttering, and ran to the edge of the alley. The mist and the street lights framed her in a beautiful halo, or maybe that was just his vision blurring. I should probably be more worried about that, he realized. "BE CAREFUL!" She screeched over the approaching sirens. "I'LL COME BACK FOR YOU!"
She went to swing away, then paused, turning back and yelling one more thing. "AND DON'T YOU DARE DIE WHILE I'M GONE!"
"Yeah, sorry, that joke didn't really have a point…" Chat Noir whispered half to himself as she disappeared. His ring beeped as he let his fingers rest on the metal protruding from his side. "Unlike this thing."
His transformation wore off. Instantly, Plagg's screeching filled his ears. He couldn't quite make out all the words, but he got the gist of it.
There may have been some cursing in there.
Finally, the little kwami settled on his chest, staring into his eyes. "Just… stay with me, kid, alright?"
"It's fine." Adrien breathed, shifting. Pain lanced up his chest, bringing him the slightest amount of clarity. "Ladybug… she'll… she'll fix everything…"
I never thought I'd actually know what dying felt like. Adrien realized. He'd felt something like it before. There was Gamer, Shanghai, the time Kagami had been akumatized (again). The flash of light. The momentary, blazing agony. (It was almost a friend at this point, a sign that he was doing his job.) Then… peace.
He didn't enjoy it. Definitely not.
But there were worse things.
Like this, for example. He shifted again and agony lanced up his side, the feeling of something shifting in his side making him want to throw up. The realization that he wanted this to be over hit him like a slap in the face.
But his lady wasn't coming back for a while. He was on his own.
Sirens wailed past him. Adrien's first thought was salvation, but then a new thought worked its way through his quickly fogging mind. Ladybug would come back for him, and if he was administered to the hospital, she wouldn't stop until she found him.
And it would look pretty suspicious if Adrien Agreste showed up at the hospital with the exact same wound as Chat Noir.
Plagg's eyes were little blurry green beacons in the darkness, and when they darkened Adrien realized he'd turned, following the retreating sirens with careful eyes. He was muttering something, Adrien realized, but not in any language he'd ever heard. Some sort of kwami incantation?
Is he worried about Tikki?
Adrien blinked, slow. His eyelids were being dragged down, but panic still writhed in his chest. Should I be worried about Ladybug?
She's fighting an akumatized criminal on her own… His traitorous, half-gone mind supplied. If those sirens are for her…
No Miraculous Ladybug means…
Plagg was tipped off Adrien's chest as he rolled, bracing himself on the dirty cement. His right hand landed in something wet and sticky, and Adrien turned his head away, nausea rising in his throat.
"Kid, what—"
"She needs help." Adrien ground out, doing his best not to scream in pain as spots danced in front of his vision. A moment later, he was up, leaning heavily against the wall, one hand pressed to his gut.
Help, his mind gasped. But he didn't let the word pass his lips, instead muttering a curse. Plagg tried to push him down, surprisingly strong. Or maybe Adrien was just off balance. "Sit down, kid!"
"She needs me!"
"She needs you alive, kid!" Plagg shrieked, and Adrien realized with a jolt that his kwami's voice was tingling with fear, not anger.
"Plagg?" Adrien whispered.
The kwami nudged Adrien's head. "I can feel it when you die, kid. It's not fun. Do me a favor and sit back down?"
Adrien slid against the wall. "Tell… tell me when Ladybug comes?" He whispered. The adrenaline was quickly fading, and in swept that telltale calmness. Shoot.
"Hey…" Plagg's voice faded out for a minute, then back in. "…with me, kid. Don't fall asleep."
Adrien fumbled for control. The desire to rest was overwhelming. He couldn't fail Plagg… but he wanted to. He wanted to just slip away, not have to feel the pain and the nausea that were encroaching on his senses. " 'M not…" He managed to whisper.
His fading senses told him something was settling in his hair. Plagg. The kwami was rasping his tongue across Adrien's scalp and face. "Stay. Awake." Plagg demanded. Adrien focused on the rhythmic feeling of Plagg's sandpaper tongue dragging across his skin. Stay. Awake. Stay. Awake.
He couldn't feel his fingers.
Everything was fading.
The black was closing in.
Stay awake.
For Ladybug.
For Plagg.
He couldn't breathe much. Each intake of air turned into a rasping cough that left him more out of breath than before. He clung to consciousness by a string.
Don't pass out.
His vision faded to black just as pink exploded all around him.
—
He wasn't sure what was happening. Something was whacking his face, something small but painful. He opened his eyes with a groan, blinking fast. The little black blob above him solidified into the familiar shape of a cat kwami with antenna and a massive head. "Come on, kid, Ladybug's coming back!"
"SHOOT— how long was I out?!" Adrien scrambled into a sitting position, wincing as he waited for the dizziness to pass. His hands instinctively went to his side— the knife lay bloody on the ground, but beneath the blood-soaked shirt and jacket, his side was clean. A thin raised scar stretched across three of his ribs, the only sign that he'd ever been bleeding out on the cement. The rain pounded down on his head, only making his lingering headache worse. He forced his tired brain to think. "Plagg, eat whatever's in my jacket. Fast. We need to transform."
"Chaton? Minou?"
"Faster!" Adrien cried, and Plagg swallowed the rest of his snack in one bite, darting up to eye level. "Transform." He demanded, and Chat Noir appeared just as Ladybug swung over the top of the closest building. She landed hard, tucking into a roll and launching herself at him with a sob. "Chaton!" She cried.
Chat Noir hugged her back, shifting them so she couldn't see the blood still coating the cement. "I'm okay, bugaboo, I promise."
She pulled back all too soon, wiping at her eyes. "I told you not to call me that."
"Bugaboo." He whispered, eyes flashing, and she hugged him again. They stayed there for a long time.
A/N: One more happy one, one more sad one! This feels so good. Writing block cured I guess :)
We don't talk about the fact that Adrien has died enough.