Chapter Text
Marinette never thought it would end up like this. In what was probably not even a full day her entire life had changed, and not for the better. She would talk to Tikki about it but that wasn’t really an option at the moment. She decided that she would just cry herself to sleep, and see what tomorrow brings when she suddenly heard a gentle tapping on her balcony’s trapdoor.
Adrien couldn’t believe it would all end up like this. In a single day he learned is lady’s true identity end then shortly after everyone did. And shortly after he lost her again, well not really, but he knew things wouldn’t be like was used to, ladybug as he knew her was gone. Lucky for him Marinette would remain the strong and beautiful person he knew she was.
He also knew that she could use a reminder of that fact right about now, so there he finds himself, standing on her balcony and gently tapping her trapdoor not wanting to wake her in case she was already fast asleep.
The next five seconds where the longest five seconds of his life. He was holding his breath without really knowing why and by the time he hears a soft “come in” it felt as if his lungs hadn’t had air in them for an hour.
He gently lifted up the trapdoor and slowly lowered himself next to Marinette, his lady his princess, and opened his arms wide.
Marinette hugged him back.
Tighter than he thought someone without a super-suit on should be able to hug, but he wasn’t complaining.
They remained there in each other's arms, enjoying the comfortable silence together. After a handful of minutes, they let go of each other but the silence remained just a little bit longer. Chat was the first to break the quiet vail that had fallen over them with a simple gentle question;
“How are you feeling Marinette?”
She took a deep breath and turned her face to not look directly at his sad, sad eyes, and answered; “Honestly, Chat? Right now, I just feel empty and exhausted. But also, anxious and angry, so falling asleep and just getting this long and exhausting day just over with doesn’t really seem in the cards right now.”
Marinette turned her head towards her now ex-partner. No, her partner, she wasn’t giving up on their friendship. She forced herself to look him in the eyes and she continued. “So, I’m really happy you came Chat. I... I don’t know if I could do any of this without you supporting me. Even though I'm no longer your La-”
Chat interrupted her before she could finish that sentence. “Princess... Marinette... You still are, and always will be My lady, Bugaboo.”
As he said this, he slowly cupped her face with his hands. And heartwarming as that was, she couldn’t help but notice his face twitch slightly, he probably cringed at himself for using so many nicknames in the same sentence.
That small act made her realize, that this wasn’t just hard on her, it was hard on her partner, who she cares so deeply about, and on her parents, who, if she listens well, she still hears pacing around, despite the late hour and the fact they have to get up so early for the bakery, all out of worry for her. And this was hard on her classmates, and her other friends, it must be hard on Kagami who now had to deal with ALL THIS NONSENSE! And... it must be hard on Adrien, who even knows how he feels after all that happened that day.
Marinette had already thought about all of this all throughout the day, but it all just hit her again all at once. The tears started flowing again
that same day about 12 hours earlier
Adrien was elated when the bell announcing the midday break rung. It'd been a long morning which had started with a chemistry test for that he barely studied for because he had a photoshoot which ran late and patrol the night before, he still thought he did fine though, he hoped.
The most annoying thing though was right when he wanted to hand the test in, a hundred pigeons crashed through the classroom windows.
Yea fighting Mr. Pigeon for the umpteenth time wasn't that hard, but for the supervillain was being extra destructive this time around, and moved quickly all around the city. It took Ladybug and him an embarrassingly long amount of time to actually catch him and destroy his akumatised item.
By the time he had returned to the classroom there was only half an hour left before the bell would ring so the teacher just decided to cram an entire hour worth of information and work into those last 25 minutes, truly fun.
Anyway, Adrien was walking towards the cafeteria , when suddenly he heard screaming and general chaos coming from the school gates.
“Two akuma’s and it’s not even been half a day? Can’t Hawkmoth get a hobby or something!?” Adrien mumbled as he tried to figure out what and where everything was going down. “Oh man, I certainly hope this isn’t his hobby” he quipped at his kwami .
Before plagg got time to respond however, a woman which Adrien only could describe as a bizarre combination of a super stereotypical witch and a discount ghostbuster burst through a wall.
Everyone around him started to panic and run away. Adrien tried to look for a quiet place where he could transform when he heard Nino yell at him.
“Dude! Adrien! What are you standing around there for? Come with me and let’s get out of he-”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence because the akuma victim had hit him with a beam coming out of her broomstick-vacuum cleaner hybrid.
Nino’s eyes grew dim, his skin turned lightly grey and shriveled up as if he were a date, and then he promptly fell to the floor. Adrien and everyone who had stopped to watch what was happening where briefly frozen in place, shocked at how grizzly this all was. Adrien grew furious. He had to stop this akuma and save his friends. The woman started to target other students and one by one the same fate that befell Nino happened to them. Adrien started to grow nervous looking around frantically at any place where he could quickly hide.
“The broom closet is unlocked” Adrien thought to himself as he saw the door to that small room move slightly out of the corners of his eye. He turned around quickly and run for dear life towards the closet. He had barely taken 10 steps when he heard the woman yell: “YOU!”
Adrien wasn’t looking at her at this point but he just felt that this was directed at him. Maybe it was the chill down his spine, maybe it was the lump in his throat. Or maybe it was the fact that he was Chat Noir and bad luck just followed him around everywhere he went. It was probably one of those things. He didn’t stop to hear out what the villain had to say but she talked so loudly that he couldn’t not hear.
“ALL MAGIC MUST BE CLEANED UP!!! IT WILL BOTHER US NO MORE! THIS INCLUDES ALL MAGIC INHERENT TO CREATURES OR THEIR SOULS OR WHATEVER YOU WOULD WANT TO CALL IT” NYEH NYEH NYEEHHHHHH” the villain snickered “I WILL GET TO YOU ALL INEVITABLY SO THERE'S NO POINT IN HIDING OR RUNNING LITTLE CHILDREN, FOR *I* *AM* *MAGICLEANER*!!”
By the time she was done with her little speech Adrien had ducked inside the closet. He turned around, locked the door closed, brushing his chest against Marinette’s arm in the process. He opened his mouth to yell his transformation phrase. All that he could manage his vocal cords to muster however was “MARINETTE!?” because he only just realized in time he was not alone here.
His friend and looked just about as panicked as he felt at that moment, she was not allowed to be here, not now. Now he couldn’t transform safely and He could clearly hear Magicleaner making her way towards them both. They were both trapped here. Marinette was about to speak but it seemed like his brain had formulated an oh so brilliant plan without consulting him first so he heard himself yell over her: “Marinette, Magicleaner is after me right now. If you run away out of here, she might not try to suck you dry immediately!”. Adrien cringed at himself. That was a dumb and rude and weird and dumb thing to say to her.
Marinette looked a bit confused for a second but that turned back to panic immediately as she stared at the door in horror. Adrien turned around as he saw the door to the closet they were in turn see trough. Magicleaner was magically sucking up the door to their hiding spot. They both ducked, the underside of the door was still fuzzy enough for either of them to be seen.
Adrien mind was racing, he would trust Marinette with his life, but could he risk letting her know he Chat Noir? How would she react? Is it safer to keep his identity hidden and let someone else handle this while he was out of the game? What would Ladybug want him to do? No... what would ladybug do?
Before any he could think through any of those questions and options, his entire train of thought suddenly came to a halt as Marinette’s hand softly touched his cheek. They looked deeply into each other's eyes. Marinette started speaking softly but firmly: “You said she was after you?”
Adrien could do nothing but nod. Marinette's expression was quite hard to read, a weird mix of determined and sorrowful. Marinette continued speaking: “Than I'll protect you Adrien, and I... I trust you”. She gave him a quick, soft peck on his cheek. And before Adrien could process ANY of what just happened he suddenly saw an explosion of pink light.
Right before his own eyes Marinette had turned into Ladybug.
Adrien was stunned all the sound he could muster to make was “Ma... Ma Ma... My... Ma... My...”
But Ladynette , he meant maribug , he meant... he didn’t know what he meant, stopped really listening at him at that point, her entire being focused on her target. She kicked the door down, which now simply turned to dust because of all the energy that was sucked out of it and ran into battle. It took Adrien a whole 30 seconds plus Plagg biting his nose to realize that he should probably do something as well. He transformed and jumped into action as well.