The doctor's office had been able to schedule Shay quickly, and after a visit later that day, she came out with a diet plan, an armload of prescription medicine bottles, and a sneer.
"They set me up with a shrink," she complained, shoving the medicine bottles in her jacket pockets and handing Adrien the diet plan, which he took and glanced over.
"Oh yeah? That's good."
She scowled at him. "I'm not going."
He snagged the appointment card she tossed to the floor, hanging on to it just in case.
They went grocery shopping next, though she kept a distance from him to not to draw attention, even untransformed.
Adrien was still forced to dodge a few well-meaning fans. He usually took his bodyguard with him on regular outings, though in his haste to get what the doctor recommended, he hadn't bothered to wait this time.
By the time they met back up near the apartment, Shadybug was done with the whole experience.
"God, how do you deal with that day in and day out, Sunshine?"
He shrugged as he carried the bags inside, holding the door for her. "I'm hoping quitting my job will help everyone forget about me a little faster."
She helped him remove the groceries from the bags, taking out the makeup and hair dye she had bought for herself separately. She paused, eyeing him. "You really were trying to warn me off you as Chat, there at the beginning. Because of the spotlight you're in."
He slowed. "Ah, yes and no. I did worry you might not want the complications hiding with me might cause you. But I didn't want you to leave."
"Hmm. Didn't end up an issue. I'm good at sneaking around without notice."
He closed the fridge door, sending her a slight grin. "I caught you at the bakery, if you'll remember."
She scoffed. "That was early. No one but you knew I was around. I wasn't trying." Adrien caught the hint of red spreading through her cheeks, and wondered if she had let herself be seen by him.
Letting it go, Adrien redirected his attention to the diet plan on the counter. "Alright, you ready to try this?"
She let out a sigh of acceptance, coming around to lean on the counter next to him. "If I have to. You're gonna be overbearing through all this aren't you?"
He sidestepped the question. "If I overstep again, just tell me, okay?"
"Mmm." She laid her head on his shoulder. "I admit I like it, Blondie." Her voice dropped into an exaggerated whisper, "Just don't tell Shadybug."
He smiled, turning to kiss her hair. He responded in a joking tone, "Your secret's safe with me, Shay."
She let out a light laugh, and his heart soared at the sound.
Shay was surprised to find that the next week spent in Ladybug-induced timeout didn't go as terribly as she expected.
She vehemently argued with Adrien when he tried to drop out from his classes in order to stay back with her. She'd be damned if he lost out on another part of his life for her.
And so, with reluctance he returned to his classes.
Shady refused to stick around the apartment alone all day, so she continued to transform and explore the city as usual, though she did attempt to take more breaks to snack.
Marinette reached out to her through the phone Adrien had given her when she'd first arrived, and Shady reluctantly met up with her at different coffee shops, untransformed. They even did a little bit of shopping together, Marinette encouraging her to pick out some clothes that were more her style than the ones she had borrowed. With her heavy makeup and recently-redyed hair, Shay didn't attract any odd looks walking with her doppleganger, and to the only person that questioned who she was – apparently a friend of Marinette's – she was passed off as a cousin, and the topic was dropped.
Shay hadn't planned to share her past with the other woman, but somehow found herself opening up slightly regardless, after giving in to Marinette's concerned questioning.
Shady was surprised to find that she didn't have an awful time, a small piece of her trying to cry out in excitement at the continued invites.
The most surprising part of the week came from a different angle. When Marinette suggested that Alya wanted to hang out after being let in on the secret, Shady had been less willing. Although Shady had gotten to know the other woman on a superficial level over the past couple months, she hadn't known her at all in her own world, and felt much more guarded at the idea.
Somehow it happened anyway, Alya showing up not long after Adrien had left for class early in the week, lugging an armful of magazines in as she pushed past Shadybug into the living room.
Shady eyed the pile as Alya dropped them on the table. "If you think I want to read fucking fashion magazines with you, you'd be wrong."
Alya turned around, looking at her with narrowed eyes as she took in her suit. "Marinette told me you've had a difficult time in the past. I'm sorry for what you went through. I'm here if you want to talk." She barely waited a moment of silence before continuing on. "The magazines aren't to read. I thought you might enjoy a game I used to play with my Marinette. Find the ugliest shit Gabriel Agreste has designed."
Shady crossed her arms. "Isn't your Marinette all into that fashion crap?"
"Exactly. That's the problem; she was never any fun to do this with, because she'd always try and defend every little piece, saying they all had value, or this or that. But you don't care about fashion, yeah?"
Shady felt herself swaying. "Fuck no."
Alya's grin grew. "And you hate Gabriel Agreste?"
"Of course."
Alya tilted her head. "What do you say?"
Shay released her transformation, grabbing a snack as she walked to the table. "Let me see."
She didn't expect to have so much fun ripping into the designs. Nor did she expect to like Alya as much as she did after hanging out with her several times that week. She wasn't pushy or overly nosy, instead going by Shady's lead on whether she felt up for discussing anything with much depth.
Shadybug understood a little more why she was this Marinette's best friend.
Late in the week, the two women were together in the apartment when an akuma alert went off. Shady jumped to her feet, but Alya gave her a look. "Thought you had a few days left?"
Shady bounced from toe to toe a moment before cursing and falling back to the couch. She had to keep her damn promise.
Flipping the TV on and to a news channel covering the fight, Shady sat on the edge of her seat waiting for Ladybug and Chat Noir to show up.
"Damn, this sucks," she muttered under her breath, watching as Chat Noir leapt into view. "I need to be out there. I'm fine."
"I understand how it feels," Alya said, something darker in her tone.
Missing the tonal change, Shady scoffed. "You can't understand what it's like–"
"To know you could help, but are held back?" Alya finished for her. "Actually yeah, I absolutely understand that." Finally registering that she was missing something, Shady turned to her, catching Alya staring off in the distance. Her eyes moved to meet Shady's. "I used to use the Fox miraculous to fight alongside them."
Surprise flickered through Shady. "You did? What happened?"
"I made a mistake. My identity was revealed during a fight. Nearly lost the miraculous because of it. Put my family in danger as well, until we convinced Shadow Moth I had given it up."
"How'd you do that?"
"I did give it up," she said simply. "I didn't handle it well, afterwards. This was before I knew Marinette was Ladybug, so I couldn't talk to anyone about it. Nino still doesn't know." She stared off at nothing in particular.
"That… wow, that sucks."
The look cleared from her face. 'I'm fine, now." Shady gave her a skeptical look, at which Alya laughed. "No, seriously. I decided I was sick of beating myself up for it and needed to find a way to move on. Did some reading, some meditating. Determined some important things I wanted to remember. 'If I must fall, I will rise again a better person.' Or something like that, anyway. I'll have to get you the book sometime. I messed up, but I eventually accepted it and moved on."
Shay huffed softly. How fucking nice that would be, to just decide not to be a mess and fix it just like that. Alya continued. "I found different ways to help after that. Once Marinette confided in me, I was able to encourage her when she struggled to handle it all. You really can't do it alone."
"Can't imagine sitting on the sidelines," Shady mumbled, watching the footage.
"Oh, I don't stay on the side all the time. I like to go to the scene when I'm not tied up, do a little recon and observation. I've gotten pretty good at staying out of the way. Sometimes it helps, sometimes I just get good footage for my Ladyblog. I'd probably be out there now if I wasn't here."
Shady leaned forward suddenly. "Hold on, really? Without powers?" Excitement began to fill her. "We should go."
Alya huffed out a laugh. 'Yeah, I think they'd both kill me if I dragged you out there right now. You only have a few days left before you'll be back out there with them. Let's not give your man a heart attack."
"Argh, fine," Shady sighed, laying back on the couch to watch the fight end relatively easily not long afterwards.
By the time the week was over, Shadybug jumped back into the fight headfirst, eager to prove that she was doing fine.
Fine may have been pushing it, as she was slow to recover physically in her civilian state, but the week had been enough to stave off any more weakness while transformed.
The next several weeks passed by surprisingly quickly. The more time Shady spent untransformed, the more comfortable she felt with it, no longer cringing from her own reflection. With Adrien's unwavering support and the presence of his friends, she almost could admit that things weren't as dire as she'd expected.
Ha! Take that, shrink. Knew I didn't need you.
She'd just needed a little extra Sunshine in her life.
Shady stood in her bathroom one evening after a shower, staring into the mirror while wearing only her underwear.
It had taken nearly a month, but she was finally starting to fill out, no longer looking quite as gaunt as before. She still didn't hold a candle to her form as Shadybug, however. Her legs remained scrawny, her breasts larger than they had been, but slightly lopsided.
Her hand came up to touch her stomach, the other major difference between her forms. Her baby bump had grown slightly over the past few weeks, though perhaps not as much as she would have thought. Still, she was having trouble hiding it underneath her shirts now, and might need to take Marinette up on her offer to shop for bigger clothes.
Her fingers spread over the bump. She usually avoided thinking about it, but thoughts trickled through regardless as she looked down, taking in the sight.
She could hardly believe there was actually a baby in there. A small piece of Adrien.
Well, one thing was for sure; the world could do with more Sunshine. Perhaps she had stumbled into creating something truly good, for once.
She dropped her hand, squinting back up at the mirror as she took in a few deep breaths.
Okay. She could do this. She was ready.
Shay left the bathroom to go back into her room, stopping to dim the lights. She might think she was ready, but having the lights up high was a step beyond what she could do at the moment.
Hovering at the end of the bed, Shay called out with only a slight shake to her voice, "Adrien."
It took him several moments to walk to her door. A knock sounded. "Shay? Are you alright?" He sounded concerned, and a part of her thrilled at his tone, still getting used to the notion that the man truly seemed to care for her.
She cleared her throat. "Come in?"
He opened the door, squinting in the semi-darkness for a moment. "What's–" He cut off as he caught sight of her, his eyes widening. Shay held her arms tightly at her side, trying not to instinctually cover herself. She'd never let him see her like this, not without layers of clothes in the way. Being confident as Shadybug was easy: as Shay, not so much.
He took a step closer, shutting the door behind him as his eyes adjusted to the light. A look of wonder crossed his face as his eyes traveled over her, lingering on her midsection before continuing until he was looking in her eyes again. "Shay," he said, voice hoarse as he stepped closer. "You're beautiful." She scoffed, even as her throat tightened up at the expression in his eyes. Then he was right in front of her, his hand coming up to her face as he looked down into her eyes. "Do you not believe me?"
She didn't answer at first, caught between emotions. "I look… very different from when I'm Shadybug. She's perfect. And I'm…"
Not.
His fingers caressed the side of her face. "But you're real, and she isn't, not really. I think you look perfect just like this." His hand moved slightly into her hair, cupping the side of her face. "Will you let me show you how beautiful I think you are, just as you are now?"
He moved no further than that, waiting for her answer. She struggled a moment longer before nodding.
Taking her face in both hands, he lowered his head down, kissing her softly. His lips moved slowly on hers, defying the frenetic pace they most often found.
It took Shay a few moments to relax into the kiss, fighting the need to move quickly and take control as she so often did when they were together.
When she finally fully relaxed against him, it felt like a weight hanging on her had been loosened, every movement of his untying the knot a little more.
He gently laid her down on the bed, not even removing his clothes as he worshiped her with his mouth, moving from her lips across to her jaw and down her neck, his hand dancing across the skin of her arm.
Leaving a kiss in the hollow of her collarbone, he sat up, eyes intense as he met her own before moving his gaze down, his hand following his eyes. He brushed the side of one breast, tracing the stretch marks lightly as he cupped his hand below, swiping his thumb over her nipple and watching it pebble up. "Perfect," he whispered, the awe clear as day even in the dim lighting.
She whimpered, her chest rising to press against his hand. Adrien leaned down, using his mouth and tongue to kiss the sides of her breast before moving down to her waist and swell of her stomach. His hand lowered as well, spreading out along her bump as he left feather-light kisses along the side.
Shay's breathing started to go ragged as he lifted up from her skin. "Incredible," he said softly, before lowering further. When he reached the line of her underwear, she tried not to tense up.
Still, he sensed her unease, lifting his head up as he came back up to her shoulder, using his hand to caress the skin of her hip.
When his mouth and tongue had eased her once again, his hands slipped slowly beneath her underwear, fingers brushing through her curls that didn't exist in her other identity. Adrien let out a soft groan against her shoulder as he touched her, the noise and gentle movement of his fingers allowing her to fall deeper into her relaxation.
He tugged lightly on the garment, an unspoken question. She lifted her hips and he slid them off, kissing down her body once again before moving his head back, eyes lowering.
"Beautiful," he whispered.
And as he continued to touch her – thoroughly, reverently – she believed him.
A/N: I can't help but love these two! Let me know what you think. :) Time to shake things up again next chapter.
The quote Alya references in this chapter comes from Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series.
"'I will take responsibility for what I have done,' Dalinar whispered. 'If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.'"