Work Text:
Adrien is getting dizzy. He’s hundreds of feet in the air, maybe over a thousand, but it’s not a fear of heights that’s making him feel faint. Rather, it’s the giant purple hand of his akumatized bodyguard, squeezing his ribs and making it hard to breathe. It doesn’t help that Gorizilla is shaking him violently at the same time, and Adrien struggles in his fist, though that doesn’t accomplish much aside from making the dizziness worse.
Gorizilla’s thumb, which is bigger than Adrien’s whole body, is a painful pressure on his chest, and he feels like he might pass out at any second. Still, he’s not too worried, because the thumb currently has a length of wire wrapped around it courtesy of Ladybug, who told him to hold on before jumping down and out of sight. So he holds on, trusting that she has a plan.
His patience is rewarded when Ladybug appears from the other side of the building, and he sees the wire go taut before Gorizilla’s thumb is yanked back and air can rush back into his lungs again.
It’s only a few gulps of air before Ladybug shouts, “Jump Adrien, quick!”
Jump? Jump where? If he jumps down to the roof, he might be a liability again, and he’s not strong enough in this form to endure a 50 foot fall from here anyway. His eyes flick over to the only other option she could mean— the Paris streets far below. Does she seriously want—
“You have to trust me,” Ladybug pleads.
That’s all it takes for his hesitance to disappear. Adrien trusts Ladybug with his life. “Always,” he says, before leaping off the skyscraper with a whoop. If Ladybug’s going to catch him immediately, then a few moments of free-fall could even be fun, like how he imagines skydiving would be.
Except, Ladybug doesn’t catch him immediately. In fact, Adrien could almost swear he heard her cry out in dismay.
Plagg zips out of his pocket, whiskers whipping about as they fall together. “If you don’t transform soon, you might wind up like a gooey pile of camembert!” he says, almost playfully.
“I can’t Plagg,” Adrien shouts through the screaming wind, “not in the open like this!” If he turns into Chat Noir here, all of Paris will know his identity, including Hawkmoth. Adrien putting his loved ones in danger like that is not an option. “I’m sure Ladybug has a plan, I trust her!”
But there’s still no wire wrapped around his waist yet, no slowing down; he’s only going faster and faster until, suddenly, the falling feels more like floating. His stomach drops right from his throat to his feet in horror. He recognizes this sensation from reading the accounts of skydivers: it means he’s hit terminal velocity. It takes two or three seconds for a person to reach it, and two or three seconds is way too long. Something has clearly gone terribly wrong, and even with how high up he was, he guesses he only has a few seconds more before he— before Ladybug can’t save him anymore.
His mind is racing, but he can only come up with two options for what he’s supposed to do, should Ladybug not save him. She will save him, he tells himself. She will definitely save him. He desperately hopes that she’ll save him. But he has to think practically too.
The first option is to transform, save his own skin and let Hawkmoth and everyone else know that Adrien Agreste and Chat Noir are one and the same. That would put his friends and family at risk; Hawkmoth would definitely try to use them as leverage, hostages, or worse.
The second is to let himself fall until he hits the ground. The villain may pick up his ring at that point, but Ladybug will surely be able to defeat him and get it back, and give it to a new person. A new Chat Noir.
The wind is wicking away the sweat from Adrien’s forehead and he feels cold. Instead of his life, what flashes before his eyes are images of the people he cares about. Nino, Alya, Chloe, Marinette, his dad, and so many more.
His jaw sets.
The ground approaches fast, seeming to rise up to meet him, and as he squints through the gusts, he can make out the crowd of people standing below.
He knows what he’s going to choose.
Now he can make out their individual features, the horrified looks on their faces.
It’s hardly even a choice, really.
Plagg is babbling and pressing his head against Adrien’s ring, and Ladybug’s terrified voice rings through the air. “Chat Noir, help!”
But he’s not going to help. Not when it would do so much more harm, to so many more people.
He’s going to die.
Adrien closes his eyes and waits for the impact that will kill him, but it never comes. Instead, he feels wire winding tight around his body, and as he glances back, he sees Ladybug straining to pull him up. He’s tugged back sharply, and then her arms embrace him, her face gazes at him in awe and relief.
They rappel downward extremely slowly, pressed against each other, and although Adrien’s heart has enough time to stop pounding from fear, it continues in allegro tempo as he looks into Ladybug’s eyes.
His feet touch solid ground again and he steps back, smiling at Ladybug, feeling almost silly to have doubted her. He makes a promise to himself to never do that again. After all, Adrien trusts Ladybug with his life.