Chapter Text
The final bell rang out like a mercy.
Marinette didn’t quite bolt from her chair—her body simply didn’t have the energy—but her movements were brisk enough to be noticed.
“Girl what's got you in such a rush?” Alya catches up behind her, both now speedwalking towards the front doors of the school.
She’d intentionally grabbed all her things from her locker before her last class just so she could book it out of there and slip away before anyone else could. Well, save her best friend obviously, because Alya just had to know what was going on at all times.
“Uhhh… I’m just, you know, really hungry and want to get home before all the good pastries are gone.” She turned the corner a little too sharp as she said this, slamming her side into the wall—slamming it hard.
She tried to hide the shooting pain, but couldn’t quite push the wince down far enough to evade Alya’s searching eyes.
“Uh huh. Hungry?” Alya grabbed her arm and pulled her around the very same corner and into an empty closet. “Hungry, because you had such a small lunch, and have absolutely zero other things going on sapping your energy?”
Marinette paused and thought about this for a moment. Why was this wound sapping so much of her energy? By normal standards, she’d be healed overnight—sometimes it took a little longer, but not longer than by lunch time the next day—so why wasn’t she feeling better yet? If anything, she felt worse now than she did this morning.
“There’s nothing going on Alya, I’ve told you this. I was tackled last night, and my side still hurts just a little. I’m fine.” She even lifted up the other side of her shirt, showing that there weren’t any bruises there.
Alya didn’t quite look convinced, but she opened the door regardless, leading the way back out of the school. Now that it was later than she hoped, she might as well meet up with Adrien and Nino and say bye before going out on patrol again. Crime didn’t stop for anyone after all.
As they continued their journey out of the school—now significantly slower thanks to Alya’s distraction—Marinette continued to ponder on her healing abilities. She hadn’t looked at the wound since she showered that morning, and it looked…good? As good as a gash across her spine could look anyways.
Maybe Plagg would have some ideas on the matter, she’d have to ask him when they go out on patrol. Which would hopefully be soon, as long as she could get away from the group and transform fast enough to not be noticed.
The main entrance was wide open, allowing for streams of students to make their way back out into the world—these streams including her boyfriend and his bestie. Sometimes, she wondered why Nino and Adrien were such good friends, but other times they’d say equally stupid things and she was reminded once again.
“So I was telling you about that pigeon attack on my soundboard at lunch earlier, right? You’ll never guess what happened right after that.” Nino had grabbed Adrien by the shoulders and was shaking him, “Guess!”
Poor Adrien, he didn’t know what to do here. “Uh, I don’t know? Did you get attacked by another pigeon…?”
“Dude. I got attacked by another fucking pigeon! And this one didn’t even care about my equipment—it straight dive-bombed me!”At this point, Marinette and Alya had come up behind Nino and were looking at Adrien with all the sympathy they could muster.
“Maybe the pigeons are just trying to unionize,” Marinette offered, shooting Adrien a smirk.
“Pigeons Against Podcasting, totally something I’d subscribe to,” Alya added, holding out a fist for her to bump.
“You people are pure evil,” Nino turned to include her and Alya in the circle, clearly amused by the interruptions.
“Yeah no I agree, pigeons are the worst—they make me sneeze like crazy, honestly,” Adrien patted Nino’s shoulder, showing as much empathy he could—though she could see him holding in his laughter.
She looked at everyone, taking in their faces as best she could, trying to commit their expressions to her memory. They were happy, this was good.
“Well, this has been great, but I’ve gotta go help my parents with the bakery, I’ll catch you guys later!” And with that, she waved to everyone and took off, walking back towards her home.
After a moment, she heard Adrien say his farewells as well, then his footsteps caught up behind her. “Hey Mari! Wait up!”
Oh, it was sweet that he cared, but she really didn’t have time for another interruption. The sun was past its peak and already setting, and she was supposed to be transformed and halfway through a lap around the city.
“Adrien! What’s up? Did you need somethi–” She was cut off as he grabbed her into a bone crushing hug, picking her up and spinning her halfway around next to a building. “Woah! Hey what’s this for?”
He just laughed, and held her tighter, and holy shit that hurt. He squeezed in just the wrong spot, putting direct pressure on her wound. “No reason, I just thought you could really use a hug!”
“Aw, thanks,” Marinette didn’t quite know how to respond to this—mostly because her back was on fire, but also he was just so thoughtful and caring. “Maybe just—hug—a little looser though.”
His grip immediately loosened and he apologized. “Oh my—I’m so sorry, I forgot about breathing,” he let go completely at this point, grabbing her by both shoulders and holding her tightly.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” His eyes were so green they almost completely distracted her from all the pain. Almost.
She focused her gaze past his eyes so she could focus. “Yes mom, I’m ok. Your playlist really helped. I think I just need a nap and I’ll be all set,” she playfully pushed his shoulder, giving herself the physical distance she needed to start slowly stepping past him once again. “Come on, I know you have other things you gotta get to, and I’m late to help my parents close for the day, so I’ll see you tomorrow. OK?”
As she was talking, he turned to face her again, “Hey wait—just. Let me know if you need anything. Anything.” He leaned in for a kiss, and who was she to deny him that. Maybe she needed it too.
They broke apart, and she whispered into his mouth, “I will. I pinky promise,” she held out her pinky in the space between them, his hand lifting to lock with hers.
“Pinky promise.” He whispered, his oh-so green eyes dropping to stare at their interlocked fingers. He let the silence linger, then; “I have to go now, my dad is probably wondering where I am.”
She couldn’t help but stare with him down at their hands, promising to herself she’d never break another pinky promise again. “Okay.”
She couldn’t break away first, just wanting to stay in this moment of rest forever, but she didn’t have to. Adrien brought their still interlocked hands up to his mouth and kissed hers gingerly, before turning and walking away. Away where the sun was continuing its lazy descent through the sky.
“Hate to see you go, but love to watch you leave.” She giggled to herself, before sighing and ducking into the nearest alley to transform.
“Really? Cheesy B-list movie lines? That’s what you’re going with after that moment?” Plagg flew out from her jacket pocket as soon as they were out of sight from pedestrians. “You could’ve just let that linger but no. My show was on and you changed the channel.”
Marinette just laughed again, shouldering her bag to reach her lunch box, rooting around for the carrots she left in there, instead finding a container that wasn’t there that afternoon. Yanking it out of the lunchbox, she finds a small tupperware container of her favorite sandwich cookies and a note.
Adrien. He must’ve snuck them in there as she was packing up for the end of lunch, something for her to find after she got home.
She flipped open the lid to the container, pulling out the note and a cookie together. Bringing the cookie to her mouth, she read the note.
My Love,
I figured you needed an after school pick-me-up after the day we’ve had, so I brought some cookies and my love, I hope it's enough to keep you going until I see you tomorrow, Mademoiselle. Have a better rest of your day and sleep well, I adore you.
Yours Always, Adrien
A singular dot drops onto the note, spreading the ink from the word ‘love’, smudging it around to be illegible. It's okay, she’ll always know exactly what's under that drop. It’s the very thing she wakes up for again and again, day in and day out.
“It’s times like these where I’m so grateful we got swapped, because I don’t know how I’d survive with such a sap for a master.” Plagg had flown from her bag he’d been shuffling around in to land on her shoulder and read the note when her breath caught.
“Plagg you nosy alleycat, get outta here bro,” She swatted him off her shoulder, huffing a laugh as he ducks and weaves to avoid her nonexistent claws. “I swear one of these days I’m gonna get you, just you wait.”
Still chewing the last bite of cookies, she stooped, picking her bag up from where it’d fallen from her shoulder and swinging it over her back once again, wincing at the weight on her spine. “C’mon Plagg, we’ve got a job to do and I’m already half an hour behind schedule.”
She delicately placed the note into her jacket’s inside zipper pocket, glanced down at her ring, and breathed those fateful words, “Claws out.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After vaulting by her house and chucking her bag onto the terrace, she set off on her daily lap through the city that never sleeps. Just a quick check in to make sure no one’s on fire, that there wasn’t anything that needed attention in the last 18 hours. There usually wasn’t, the akumas were kind enough to at least wait until school was out to make an appearance.
Landing on a rooftop overlooking the seine, Lady Noire perched to take a small break. Not that she needed one, she’s perfectly fine on this great Monday. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, even the clouds got the memo and scattered themselves lightly across the sky. There wasn’t anything wrong.
Except that one thing. That wasn’t right. But that wasn’t important.
Her back was in just as much pain as it should be from the night before, it was—admittedly—a pretty hard hit. Sure, it’s not feeling 100% right now, but she’ll be fine after a quiet patrol and a nice night of sleep. Totally.
Alright, break over, there were pastries to save and papers to write, no time for dilly dallying. Definitely no time for thinking about how she should’ve been healed by now, not getting worse.
“If we’re not home by 430 I might as well just throw my planner off the eiffel tower.” Standing from her crouch, she dusted off her hands to grab her baton and extend it towards the ground once again.
Sometimes, she forgot Plagg could still communicate while transformed, “I mean, it's already 426 and we’re like, 8 minutes from home. But sure! You got that!” His voice sounded far away, like he was talking into a walkie talkie from a couple feet away, hoping the sound would reach and go though.
“Plagg, your relentless optimism astounds me sometimes. You missed your calling as an inspirational cat poster.” Setting off, she takes some shortcuts, parkouring over buildings instead of grappling around them like she usually would.
It might’ve been smarter to go around, if not to save her muscles then her joints. Everything in her was screaming in outrage by the time she landed in the alley behind the bakery, wanting nothing more than to curl up in bed and wait for the next dawn to arise. Alas, there’s things to do and people to see, so up and at em we are.
“Claws in.”