Chapter Text
The building overhead creaked with the strain of keeping the roof from collapsing. Adrien shuddered as it groaned and bowed slightly before becoming a silently threatening presence once more. He held his position over Ladybug’s downed form for a few moments longer, until the silence became too deafening to bear. Stretching his limbs and rising out of his crouch slightly, he took stock of his new surroundings.
Several support beams were destroyed inside the tall building, dropping the roof onto the upper balcony area of the fancy concert hall. The akuma responsible clearly knew what she was doing. She’d aimed directly for five of the eight beams before retreating to leave them trapped inside.
She probably trusted it would be too hard for me to get Ladybug out while injured. Adrien gritted his teeth and glared at the blocked entrance to the building. It had been a stupid trap to fall into.
It was his fault, of course.
The worst part of it was that Ladybug ended up taking the hit meant for him this time and was currently unconscious. She’d probably need to be treated for that despite the Cure, assuming they managed to beat the akuma. Ladybug made a quiet noise, almost a pained groan. Adrien froze.
Because that was the other part that complicated this.
The part that was his fault.
He’d been tricked into destroying the sixth pillar with Cataclysm, meaning his suit was gone. And since they’d successfully evacuated the building prior to the collapse, they’d been the only ones left in the area. There was no one else around and he couldn’t pretend he wasn’t Chat, so he’d messed up his identity too. Well, as soon as Ladybug looks up anyway.
“Chat? Why am I pinned down?” Ladybug groaned as she tried to get up and Adrien tensed above her. “Chat?”
“Bug, I lost my transformation. And I don’t really see any way out of this with my identity intact, but I’m trying to think of something.” He sighed, deciding honesty was probably best in this case. They were a team, after all. He didn’t want to hide anything from her. The decision of whether he managed to keep his identity or not should be made together. Ladybug froze for a moment and he held his breath.
“Um, okay. Let me think,” she muttered, going quiet. Adrien waited patiently, using the time to look around for any other options available.
“Are you wearing anything that can be a mask? Or do you have food for your kwami?”
Adrien shook his head before remembering she couldn’t see it. “Ah, no. I have an over-shirt but without scissors or anything I’m afraid it’s not a very good option. And Plagg apparently ate all his cheese earlier today.” He looked around for Plagg, intending to shoot a vicious glare in his direction, but got distracted when Ladybug sucked in a sharp breath and gasped painfully.
“Are you okay?” Panic struck him. Had he missed an injury? She groaned as she prodded at her limbs.
“Leg. Hurts, but I don’t know why. Suit’s probably in the way.”
“Shit. Okay, so. All exits are blocked. I’m out of my suit. Akuma is outside somewhere terrorizing people. The ceiling is about to fall, and you’re injured so that you can’t really walk? Did I miss any other disasters currently happening?” He scrubbed at his face with one hand as he spoke.
“The ceiling is collapsing?!” She screeched in terror. Adrien nodded again, still knowing she couldn’t see him but hoping she felt the movement all the same.
“Oh crap. Crap crap crap. Okay. Do you have any ideas on how to get out of here?”
“Yeah-“
“That don’t compromise your identity,” she sighed, interrupting.
“No.”
Ladybug sighed again, heavier, and Adrien could practically hear her gearing up for her usual identity lecture.
“Before you say it, I’m not just being reckless. I honestly don’t see any other options. You’re hurt, I took a pretty good hit to the ribs earlier, and I’m probably going to have to play civilian when we leave the building. It’s going to look incredibly weird if you won’t look at me,” he finished wryly.
“…That’s actually a really good point, Chat. What’s your plan?”
“You look up and we deal with that first. Then there’s a slab of something over that far door on the North end,” he gestured uselessly in the direction of the door. “Sound okay? Can you do any heavy lifting if I support you so you don’t put weight on that leg?”
“Yeah, I think so. Good enough plan; good job, Kitty. I’ll need a place to detransform and you’ll need kwami food after we’re out of here.”
Adrien’s stomach dropped a bit at her words. Granted, his identity needed to be revealed for a specific reason and she had no obligation to do the same, but he’d still kind of hoped…
“Okay then. Chat, are you ready?”
“Yeah, I suppose I am.” Adrien looked down, preparing for his lady to see him. She hesitated for another moment, scrunching and relaxing her face repeatedly as she psyched herself up. She had finally turned her face upward, eyes closed, when she felt his poorly suppressed chuckle. Her nose wrinkled adorably and he held back the urge to nuzzle it with his own. The wait was slower than any he’d ever had for a videogame, or movie, or word from his father on something he asked for. Ladybug eased her eyes open gingerly. Clear, sunny blue eyes refocused briefly before widening as she recognized his face. He had a second to start to worry about her reaction before Ladybug squawked an unintelligible panicky sound and scrambled backwards in a sloppy crabwalk.
His stomach fell as he saw his Lady’s efforts to get away from him. Great, she hates me.
“Okay, well if you hate me we don’t have to be part-“
“Oh god I kissed you.”
What?
“What?”
“Oh my god, I’ve thrown you at akuma! And I told you I like another boy!” She started screeching and didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
“Okay, we’re gonna have to unpack all of that later because clearly there’s a lot. Can we get out of here first?” Adrien inwardly groaned, starting to resign himself to losing her friendship. Great, she doesn’t hate me, she’s a fan. Funny how that feels even worse than her hating me.
Ladybug clenched her fists and muttered to herself before speaking. “Okay, let’s do this.”
Adrien stood, gingerly hoisting Ladybug up to stand beside him. They made their way steadily toward the exit, Ladybug hopping on one foot as Adrien patiently supported her.
He easily balanced his Lady near the door as she maneuvered her arms into place to shove the chunk of ceiling out of their path.
“Ready, Kitty?”
Adrien drew in a deep, steadying breath before responding. “Yeah. I’m good, My Lady.”
Ladybug made an odd whining noise in the back of her throat and Adrien quickly looked over to see pale pink at her cheekbones and a stunned expression. “Bug?”
Another high-pitched squeak from her made Adrien furrow his brows. He watched her with his head tilted to the side. Ladybug jumped and shook her head rapidly.
“Sorry. Hard to remember you’re still just the flirty cat when you look like Adrien,” she rushed, gesturing to his entire form with one hand. Annoyance bubbled up, scratching under his skin and pricking the backs of his eyes. Ladybug continued to babble, oblivious to his rising irritation. “I mean, sometimes it’s hard to remember you don’t mean it.”
“What?” Adrien replied, barely audible.
“It’s fine, I get it, flirt with whoever you like, but it’s really hard to take your feelings seriously when you do it with everyone and I always just thought Adrien was different and now you’re the same person and that’s weird- Sorry! You’re ready, right? I’m gonna shove this thing now.”
Rant abruptly over, Ladybug planted her palms and shoved the rock as hard as she could manage with her leg in the air. Adrien, having previously frozen while processing the rapidly babbled speech, almost lost his balance as she did. The rock groaned once, and started rolling along one of the less jagged surfaces. Both teens stood silently, watching the slow progress as the door was gradually uncovered.
“Okay, so- Ah!” Ladybug started to speak, but Adrien wasn’t sure he could take any more unfair accusations from the woman he loved, and had started to move toward the exit. Unfortunately, failing to consult his partner resulted in both of them hitting the floor hard. Ladybug clutched her leg and hissed as Adrien, having landed on his side, rolled to his back and stared at the ceiling.
He blinked several times to kill the emotions prodding at him to react. His eyes burned. His teeth tingled painfully. His stomach was clenched and tight. None of this was fair. He’d looked forward to revealing his identity to his Lady for years, dreamed of how magical and special their relationship could grow to be once they did. And none of it was going in his favor.
Ladybug was a fan of his, but only of idealized Adrien. She got upset at his usual pet names because she didn’t like Adrien being anything like Chat. She thought he was a relentless flirt. Insincere. She liked perfect model son Adrien. And now that she knew that wasn’t really him? She didn’t want him. He’d only ever had a chance with her if he’d been the version of him that was miserable and lonely.
“Adrien?”
He’d never been good enough for his talented and driven father to love him, so he turned cold and harsh toward his son. He’d never been good enough for his beautiful and sweet mother to stay, so she’d left him alone. And now he could see he’d never be good enough for his Lady, who was all of those descriptions and more. Which one of those things would she do? Shun him? Leave him? Something far worse that he could never imagine? He closed his eyes and yielded the fight, uncaring as the tears flowed freely.
“-please Adrien, I don’t know what I did wrong!” The nervous, plaintive wail Ladybug let out caused Adrien’s eyes to snap open. She was laying awkwardly over his body, trying not to move her injured leg. He grimaced. Failed again.
“Sorry. I’ll get up. I’ll get you out of here so you can go beat the akuma,” he forced the words flatly out past his momentary grief, and resigned himself to dealing with the emotions later in the safety of his room.
“We.” She wasn’t moving to leave. Why wasn’t she moving?
“What?”
“So we can beat the akuma.” His head raised as his eyes met hers. Cold steel blue met shocked green and it was all he could do not to let his knees go to jelly under the intensity of her gaze.
“We are a team. Partners. It is super weird to find out you’re you, but you are my Chat. And if you think you get to bail out on this, you are sorely mistaken. We are in this dumpster fire together, kitty cat.” Adrien was relatively sure his eyes couldn’t go any wider. Surely they’d fall out if they did.
She doesn’t want to leave me. She doesn’t want me but she doesn’t want to leave me!
“Okay,” he whispered, joy at having her in any way overriding his emotional meltdown. “Where do you want me to leave you to transform back? I’ll get you there and leave so I don’t see-“
“Nope. Together. Dumpster fire. Take me home and I’ll get your kwami a snack.”
“Home? My…home?” Adrien stammered, struggling to work through her thought process.
“No, mine.” She frowned in a particularly intimidating manner and he was sure she’d stomp her foot if she wasn’t injured.
“I literally don’t even know your name,” He grumbled, flapping his arms in the air as he turned away from her.
“It’s Marinette.”
He audibly sucked air down, spinning back in time to catch Marinette as she detransformed and stumbled into his arms from the pain in her leg. She buried her face in his chest, letting her kwami settle on her shoulder.
“Take me home, Kitty.”