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Ladybug’s hands are shaking as she raises them to her face, covering her mouth as she stares at her partner’s unmoving body. She shakes her head a few times and wipes the warm tears streaming over her cheeks.
“No! No, no, no, no. Chaton, you need to get up, please,” Ladybug all but wails, dropping to her knees in front of him. She gathers his body into her arms and brushes back his sweaty bangs, a scream leaving her lips at the red that marks his forehead. “You’re bleeding! How? From where? Your suit is supposed to be impenetrable!”
The sun is setting on the horizon, gold and pink hues lining the sky and radiating over the city of Paris. Sunlight peers through clouds, over rooftops, over them hiding behind a thick chimney.
Ladybug thinks Chat Noir has no right looking as good as he does whilst bleeding out.
“Listen to me,” she tells him, cradling his head to her chest. “I’m going to get you help. You’re going to be okay, and I’m going to yell at you about giving me damn near a heart attack at eighteen.”
Chat Noir laughs weakly from his position in her arms, staring up at her with purpose in his eyes. “You know I love you, right?”
“Don’t you dare,” she says, eyes growing fierce as she grabs his chin. “You are not giving up on me, do you hear me? You’re not going anywhere.”
Chat’s hand grips her forearm tightly and squeezes, a small, yet pained smile easing its way onto his face. “You’ve made these last few years so bearable, Bug. I want you to remember that, regardless of what happens.”
Tears roll down Ladybug’s face as she shakes her head, pressing a gentle kiss to Chat’s forehead. “Stay here, don’t move.” She swears she hears him mutter “kinda paralyzed but okay.”
Ladybug takes action, sprinting across a few rooftops in the vicinity until she finds a shirt hanging off a clothing line. She tears the shirt until it’s long enough to wrap around Chat, eyes blurry from tears the entire way.
She’s back on the rooftop in a matter of seconds, crying out in relief at Chat’s eyes, though obviously fuzzy, still open. Not even seconds later, a bright green light flashes in front of her and her eyes fall shut instinctively.
“Pigtails! You need to get him to the hospital now. I held off for as long as I could, but you need to wrap that cloth over where he was hurt so he doesn’t bleed out.”
It’s Plagg, Ladybug’s sure of it. She met the kwami in collége when Juleka became akumatized and her and Chat’s miraculous’ ended up swapped. The power of destruction flowing through her veins had felt oddly empowering, though she knew then and knows she’s not cut out for that type of responsibility. She’s not empathetic enough, nor caring enough, for that type of power.
“Let’s go, Pigtails! We do not have all day,” Plagg yells.
It spurs Ladybug into action for a second time, her eyes flying open and trying her best to ignore her partner’s face. She lifts his body gently, her heart wrenching when he cries out in pain, and ties the cloth around his body. She knots it over the wound and hauls him up into her arms, sprinting in the direction of the nearest hospital.
“We’re almost there, Chat. Hold on for me, please,” she pleads, trying her best not to jostle him. Her hand raises to hold his head to her chest without looking at his face.
She can’t lose him. She can’t live without him. He’s her partner, her best friend, her kitty. She loves him so much. The silly kitty in the cat suit stole her heart all those years ago and has kept it locked up ever since.
Ladybug never told him about her feelings—couldn’t tell him, not after he had finally moved on from her. It wouldn’t have been fair on him, and she wasn’t going to do that to him. Now, she regrets it wholeheartedly, though she wonders if it’s the type of thing to spring on someone when they’re nearing death.
She supposes now will have to do, then.
“Chat Noir,” she grits out as she jumps across rooftops, nearly losing her footing on a particularly slippery one. “Kitty, listen to me.”
“I’m listening,” Chat rasps out weakly, his hot breath tickling her skin. His breathing is slightly labored, his grip on her has loosened ever-so-slightly, and she feels him shaking in her arms.
“I need you to know, Chat. I need you to know how much I love you,” Ladybug chokes out through tears, keeping herself together the best she can. “I’m in love with you, you dumb cat. You can’t leave me.”
She swears she hears him sob, feels his tears hit her suit as she stops on the top of the hospital. She mentally tells the world to go fuck itself, cranes her head to look at him and surges down to kiss him.
One kiss, one quick kiss just in case. She needs to, she needs to show him that no matter what, he’s loved.
The kiss is quick, quicker than she wants it to be. It’s a surge of two mouths pressing to one another’s in a show of love, a show of passion that runs deeper than anything they’ve ever felt before. It lasts all of three seconds, Ladybug ripping herself away from him and landing stealthily on the Parisian street in front of the hospital.
He’s taken away from her as soon as she walks into the hospital, the gasps from patients filling the waiting room not gone unnoticed.
It’s not everyday a superheroine brings in a bleeding Adrien Agreste, dripping blood onto the hospital floor. It’s not everyday civilians see Ladybug drop to the floor where she’s standing and sob her eyes out. It’s not everyday they see their favorite spotted hero show emotion, as she usually is so good at hiding it.
Today is not that day, however. Today, Ladybug cries for a boy she’s loved since she was thirteen, a boy that’s treated her so kindly and loved her just as much.
“Please be okay,” she begs to no one in particular. “Please.”
It’s been thirty-one days, a whole month since the attack happened, and Marinette still hasn’t seen Adrien. She feels like she’s going insane, waiting to see her kitty, to see that he’s better and healthy, yet she can’t seem to find him.
Marinette had went to the Agreste household as herself with sweets and was told that Adrien was busy healing. She tried the same route as Ladybug, her just checking up on a hurt civilian approach and was denied as well. She even tried sneaking into Adrien’s room as she had on Fifth Name’s Day, yet the room was empty and Adrien was nowhere to be found.
The only good news is that he is okay, and she only knows that because she went to the hospital as Ladybug and asked about him a week after the attack had happened, and was told that he was just released and was on the road to healing.
So where is her kitty and why can’t she find him?
With a small grumble, Marinette shoves her feet into her shoes, adjusting her white t-shirt that’s tucked into her baggy denim shorts. Last night, she had put her hair into pigtail braids and called it a night, so this morning all she has to do is fix her bangs and she’s off to school.
She sees the crowd in the courtyard before she hears them, her eyes narrowing in curiosity. A new student, perhaps? So close to graduation, though? Marinette doubts it.
Alya runs over to her, grabbing her arm without saying anything and tugs her into the crowd. “Alya, what are you—”
Marinette cuts herself off as she notes what exactly everyone is crowding around, or who. It’s Adrien, standing there in a short-sleeve green patterned Hawaiian shirt that has the top few buttons open, black jeans, and nearly gives Marinette a heart attack.
They lock eyes from across the crowd and he grins at her, raising his hand in a wave. He moves towards her, unaware of her emotional turmoil. “Marinette!”
Marinette tells the world to fuck off for a second time in Adrien’s presence, drops her bag on the ground, and flings her arms around him. She’s glad she isn’t a makeup wearer—would’ve ruined his shirt, as she starts blubbering against his shoulder. “You scared the fucking shit out of me!”
Adrien’s standing there with wide eyes, eyeing Alya as if to say what do I do, to which the red-hair shrugs her shoulders uselessly. He slowly lifts his arms to hug Marinette back, though the confusion is still evident. “I’m sorry, Mari. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
The two of them stay like that for a minute, Marinette holding onto Adrien with a vice-grip, as if her letting him go means he’ll disappear.
Her brain is disoriented with him so close and she can’t speak, even when the warning bell to signify that class is starting soon rings. She can’t let go, because then he’ll leave and she’s not ready for that.
“Mari? We have to go to class.”
“You nearly gave me a heart attack at eighteen, Chaton,” she whispers into his shirt, hoping, praying, that he understands what she’s trying to say.
“Marinette, what are—” He trails off for a moment, his arms dropping to his sides as he processes what she said to him. His hands reach up to coax her out of hiding, resting gently on her cheeks. “Wait. You’re—”
“Yes,” Marinette chokes out, staring up at him with wet eyes. “I’ve been worried sick about my kitty because I haven’t been able to reach you for a month and then you come waltzing in here, looking so handsome and healthy that I don’t even know what to do with myself—”
Adrien cuts off her rambling by slamming his lips to hers, fingers stroking her tear-stained cheeks. They pour every ounce of emotion into the kiss, the crowd around them fading away. It’s just her and Adrien, both hurting and simultaneously healing in the arms of one another.
She loves him, she loves him so much, holy shit, she needs to tell him—
“I love you,” he says, his own eyes shining as his lips graze hers.
“I love you,” she replies, coaxing him in for one last kiss before they have to part ways for class.
“Is somebody going to tell us what the fuck is going on here, or am I going to have to strangle you both?” Alya’s voice is teasing, though scarily serious as her and Nino stand next to the both of them, the same looks of confusion on their face.
Adrien and Marinette look at one another with dopey grins on their faces, Adrien taking her hand in his and squeezing. “We’ll tell the both of you soon.”
“As long as Marinette isn’t pregnant, you’re safe for now, Agreste,” Alya teases as the four of them walk to class.
“Alya!”