Chapter Text
It was a horrible crash, even from blocks away he could tell, it was a horrible crash. He could smell blood and death intermixed with the smoke as people staggered out of the station into the fresh air. For a second Adrian wondered what kind of villain Hawkmoth created to cause this kind of havoc but as he ran in and saw the mangled metal and heard the screaming the thought was dashed. This wasn’t Hawkmoth’s work, he made giant babies and monologuing pigeon men, this…this was just destruction. Adrian stood frozen to the spot for a moment, there was no villain… when Ladybug showed up would her magical ladybugs be able to set this all right?
“Chat Noir!” A Fireman yelled, “We could use your help! We have some people trapped over here!”
Adrian snapped out of his thoughts and focused on the task at hand keeping an eye out for Ladybug or evidence of an akumatized villain but after an hour he gave up looking for either. It was summer and so many of the people living and dead he pulled from the wreckage were teens around his age. Why were there so many of them on this train? As he pulled a girl in beach clothes out of the wreckage, Adrian remembered Nino telling him about a planned trip to the seaside he was talking with his girlfriend and some of the other kids from their class. It looked like a lot of teens had the same idea. Within all the noise around him, he could hear someone crying and quickly pulled the aluminum siding of the train away to reveal two girls clinging to each other and crying.
“It’s ok, I’ve got you.” He says kindly holding his hand out.
They take it and he helped them out of the wreckage and out to the paramedics rushing around trying their best to take care of everyone.
“I really hope you’re not somewhere under all of this my lady,” Adrian whispered heading back into the station.
“She’s not.” Rena Rouge said jumping down and walking up to him. “But she’s not able to help either.”
Adrian could see Alya looked tired and had a split lip, she was also holding her arm weird. “She was here, wasn’t she? And you were here too.”
Alya looked away, “We were some of the first they pulled out.” She gulped, “Chat, she was pretty banged up…I’m pretty banged up, but I was able to slip away from the hospital and get Trix because someone needs to help everyone else still in that mess.”
Adrian nodded, “I was afraid of that, look I’ve got it covered here. You need to take care of yourself and tell our mutual friend that all she needs to do is rest. I’ve got this.”
Rena nodded and stepped back. “Ok, I’ll tell her, and I’ll make sure she rests.”
“You rest too.” He added.
“Yeah, I’ll do that too.”
He watches her leave and dives back into the smoke and chaos. It felt like he had been as the burning crash scene for days like this was all that existed and would ever exist when a Fire Fighter finally tapped him on the shoulder and told him to go home.
“There’s nothing more you can do son.” He handed him a bottle of water, “Go home, we have this.”
“But what if there’s more_”
“Chat Noir you’ve been here for hours, all night, in fact, you need to go home.”
Adrian could see the light of dawn just starting to peek over the horizon. “Fine, but I’ll be watching the news. If you need me-“
“We’ll let you know son. Now take a shower, get some sleep, you did good.”
Adrian gulped and nodded; his father was probably having a fit right about now if he noticed he was gone which since he missed dinner was likely. It took him only a few minutes to get back home and transform.
“Woo that was intense I’m going to smell like smoke for a week.” Plague complained flying to his secret cheese stash.
“Can’t be any worse than how you normally smell.” Adrian shot back before checking his phone.
Unsurprisingly, it was full of messages, one from his father tell him that he was working late, and he was going to be having dinner alone, two from Natalie asking where he was, five from Nino begging him to join them on their trip and two to tell him that they were in the train collision but alive. He was also included in a group message from Alya giving the whole class updates on the crash. Adrian sighed and scrolled through the messages trying to put it all together, he was already planning on sneaking out to visit Nino at the hospital when he stopped at an exchange between Alya and Juleka.
Juleka: Have you heard anything more about Marinette? It's ok if you haven’t Luka’s been freaking out since I told him she was in the crash too.
Alya: As far as I know she’s still in surgery, her parents were in my room talking with my parents a few minutes ago but they just left.
Juleka: But she’s going to be ok right?
Ayla: …I hope so. I’ll let you know when I learn more.
Ayla: Update, Marinette is out of surgery. They were able to reattach everything, and I think tomorrow they’ll let me visit her. They’re letting me go home later today so I won’t have much more information about her status until tomorrow.
Chloe: Look I’m not sure why I’m included in this ridiculous group chat, but you just said reattach…reattach what?!?
Juleka: Yeah, did I read that right? What did they have to reattach?
Rose: Reattach means something was detached…
Chloe: I think I’m going to be sick
Juleka: This conversation is getting out of hand.
Kim: Was it her hand? Because I can carry her books from now on if that’s the case.
Max: I can build a robot to carry her books. I’ll start work on it right now.
Alix: Ayla what did they reattach?!? Don’t leave us hanging.
Ayla: Sorry my phone died, had to get home and charge it a little bit. She didn’t lose her hand…it was her legs but they’re back on she’ll just be a tiny bit shorter now.
Max: Do you think she could still use a robot to carry her books? Markov and I are almost done with the basic design for one…we were going to paint it pink because Marinette likes pink.
Ayla: I’m sure Marinette would love a pink robot that carries her books… Look I know everyone wants to know more but I think I need to get some sleep. This black eye and broken arm won’t heal themselves.
Max: Actually, they will but sleep will help the healing process.
Juleka: feel better soon Ayla and let us know if you need or want anything.
Rose: Yeah! Anything at all! Even if it’s a giant fluffy kitty cat from that story on the other side of Paris!
Chloe: Or room service from my daddy’s hotel…you know if you…think that would help.
Ayla: thanks to everyone, I’ll let you know but right now I won't rest.
Adrian put the phone down and hung his head those messages were from almost an hour ago. His mind was racing putting all the pieces together.
“What’s up Adrian?” Plague asked taking a bite of cheese, “Everything ok?”
He shook his head, “Plague…I think I know who Ladybug is.” He looked back down at the phone. “I think it's Marinette.”
“Ah huh, and why do you think that? I mean there are lots of other people it could be.” Plague said a little bit of panic in his voice.
“Because I know Alya is Rena, I’ve known since that whole Miracle Queen fiasco, and Rena knows who Ladybug is. Plague it’s got to be her.”
Plague’s ears dipped down. “So, what are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t know. I think for right now I’m going to get some food take a long nap and.” He glanced at his reflection, he looked awful, “probably take a shower.”
“Then what?”
“Then…then I’ll figure that out when I get there.” He slumped against the wall. “Hey Plague, would you know if Tikki was alright?”
“No…I’d have to check. If Ladybug lost her earrings during the crash, they’re probably still at the station. Something so small would have been overlooked at least for right now. I can go back and see if she’s there. I’ll go right now.”
“Don’t you want some cheese first?”
“I’ll eat later, I couldn’t enjoy it knowing sugar cube is out there alone in that mess.”
“You really do care about her huh Plague.”
“She’s the yin to my yang…literally. They based the concept off us.”
Adrian gave Plague a weak smile. “Don’t be gone too long.”
“I’ll be back before you know it.”
.o.
Marinette felt like she was in a deep fog, one that was only barely clearing as night fell. There were all sorts of people around her but all blurry out of focus. A few of the voices and shapes sounded like her parents and maybe Alya but nothing she would stake her life on. She wanted no needed to talk to Tikki to find out what happened, where she was, why it was all so foggy. Looking around all she could really see were flowers and tan walls in the fading light, nothing to tell her where she was or why.
“Tikki are you there?” She looked around, “Tikki?!?”
“Don’t worry my lady, I’ve got her.”
“Uh, Whahh!” Marinette felt herself start to panic. “I’m not Lady Bug don’t be silly.”
Chat Noir stepped out of the shadows with Tikki sitting on his shoulder. His arms were full of flowers and a large stuffed black cat. “It’s ok, I figured it out you don’t have to hide it from me anymore.”
“Tikki…is she ok?” Marinette reached out her hands and Tikki flew into them.
“I’m a little tired and shaken but I’m ok. Plague found me earlier, but we could only find one of the earrings…we had to go back to find the other one.”
“We would have been here sooner, but earrings are very small and hard to find in wreckage.” Chat Noir made a face then held the stuffed cat out, “And we stopped to get you some get well gifts I hope you don’t mind.”
“Um no, I guess not.” Marinette took the cat and examined it, it was soft was wearing her earrings, not the worst place for a miraculous she supposed. “I’m just not sure what I’m getting well from.”
“You don’t know what happened?”
She shook her head. “The last thing I remember was fighting Mr. Pigeon…again and even on his worst day I don’t think he’d put me in the hospital.” She laid back and hugged the stuffed cat, it smelled good, familiar.
“That was last week. You’ve lost a whole week’s worth of memory.”
“Did I miss anything important? Aside from what put me here?” She sighed and started to feel a creeping ache encompass her. “Ugh, I feel like I was hit by a bus.”
“I mean that’s pretty close to what actually happened.” Chat Noir said sitting down and looking at his hands. “I mean public transportation was involved.” He cringed, “It was just a train…maybe two trains they’re still trying to piece together what happened.”
“Trains? I was hit by a train. What did Hawkmoth do? Akumatize Max’s mom again?” Marinette shook her head, “Wait that doesn’t make sense…unless did Hawkmoth win? Did he get my miraculous and that’s why you know who I am? Does the whole world know? Is that why there are so many flowers?” She started to breathe faster as the panic started to rise in her gut at the implications.
“No, no, Marinette please take a breath. No one but me and I think Rena Rouge know you’re Ladybug what happened to you…” He sighed and stood up, “It looks to have been an accident, Hawkmoth doesn’t seem to have been involved at all.”
“Hawkmoth, the guy behind the giant baby, the guy who takes advantage of people on their worst day, doesn’t seem involved?”
Chat Noir shook his head, “No, I don’t think so. I-I just…look we know Hawkmoth is a villain but he’s a Saturday morning cartoon villain who wants our miraculous for some reason and sure people have gotten hurt in the past but there wasn’t a villain this time.” He put his arms around himself, “There was just destruction and death, people are dead my lady and that doesn’t feel like a Hawkmoth plan.”
Marinette was quiet for a moment trying to take all the information in. “I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse.”
“I’ve been struggling with that too. Right now, I think it’s worse because we can’t fix it. We can only heal from it.”
“Speaking of healing…how bad is it?” She could hear Chat Noir shuffle uncomfortably.
“How bad is what?” Chat Noir asked his voice raising an octave. “Because I don’t think you should see the crash site right now…”
“No, I don’t want to even think about that right now. I mean my injuries. The medication I’m on is making my head fuzzy, or at least I hope it’s the drugs making me fuzzy.”
“I’m sure your head will clear up eventually.” Chat Noir said kindly. “As for injuries, I’m not your doctor or a doctor.”
“Chat please, I’m really lost here.”
He sighed, “Well it looks like your legs are broken, you have an IV, a bandage on your arm, and there’s one covering your right eye too. You also have bruising on your…everything I can see.” He looked down at his hands and then walked around the room as if looking for something to do.
“Oh, is that all.” She lightly touched the bandage on her face. “I really hope there’s an eye under there.”
“Well, if not I think you could pull off an eye patch or a glass eye. You could even design it. You are an excellent designer, even without depth perception.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Are you hungry? I could go get you something. It’s late and I know a lot of places are closed but I could probably find you some ice cream or a cookie.”
“Am I really that hideous you want to leave right after coming?”
“No, no. Absolutely not, I just I-I want to make something better.” Chat Noir sat down on the floor and leaned against her hospital bed, “I’m sorry my lady, I just-“He sniffed, “I’m just really tired and I want to fix this situation, but I can’t do that, so I want to make it better even in just a tiny way.”
“I think you could use some ice cream or a cookie.” She heard him chuckle, “And you are making things better. You found Tikki and my earrings after all.” Marinette patted Chat on the head, “You just being here is making things better.”
“You’re not upset about me figuring out who you are?”
“Only at myself…slightly. I’m not completely sure how you figured it out and I don’t want to right now. You just have to promise not to become Chat Blanc and destroy the world again.”
“Again? I did that, when? Also, who’s Chat Blanc?”
“Buckle up kitty, I’ve got a tail for you.”
“Shouldn’t you be sleeping right now?”
“I’m not tired right now. If I start getting sleepy, I’ll let you know.”
“Marinette’s never been good at taking a rest, that’s what makes her such a good Ladybug,” Tikki said giving her a smile.
“And probably a terrible patient,” Chat added.
“No way, I’ll be a great patient, you’ll see. Now hush and let me tell you about the tragedy of Chat Blanc with a few flourishes because I still don’t know how he learned who I was completely or exactly why he cataclysm-ed the world, but I have a few theories that I’ll share.”
“Can’t wait to hear this.”
“It’s a good story trust me.”
“I do.” He said, and she believed him.
.o.
“So, anyone going to admit how surreal this is?” Alya asked looking from Marinette to Chat Noir drinking milkshakes (smuggled in by Chat) in Marinette’s hospital room. “Because this is weird.”
“It’s honestly my worst nightmare.” Marinette said string her drink with her straw, “Well, I guess my worst nightmare would be having to share this room with Lila and Chloe. So, I guess this is my second worst nightmare.”
Alya glanced at Chat who shrugged. “Ok, but still here we are, three superheroes just hanging out in a hospital room drinking milkshakes.”
“Because I was hit by a train,” Marinette muttered.
“Hey girl, I was hit by it too.” Alya pointed to her arm in a cast. “We both should be on the beach getting tans, enjoying the ocean, and relaxing.”
“Yeah, looks like this summer will definitely be a bummer,” Marinette looked over at Chat Noir, “What about you? Where any of your plans ruined by the crash?”
“I mean I didn’t really have plans this summer. I mean my life goal of never carry a dead body has been dashed and I will probably have nightmares the rest of my life…but I really didn’t have summer plans to be ruined.” Chat Noir quickly went back to drinking his milkshake. “And none of my limbs were broken or briefly severed so I really shouldn’t complain I did pick up a few severed limbs yesterday-you didn't need to know that, that's too much information a simple no would have worked. I’m going to stop talking now.”
“Ah yeah…so,” Alya drummed her fingers against her cup, “So let’s all agree all our summer plans were…derailed and we all have reasons to complain and it’s not a competition on who suffered more, ok?”
“Ok.” Chat Noir nodded.
“Ok…but once Chat Noir leaves, I will be whining about how Adri-that one person is never going to date me now,” Marinette said crossing her arms and looked over at Chat Noir who was choking on his drink. “You, ok?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just tried to breath and sip at the same time…. you like Adrian Agreste? This whole time you’ve been in love with Adrian Agreste?”
“Don’t be so judgmental. I go to school with him. He’s perfect.” Marinette swooned.
“He’s a billboard with a personality that’s as flat as one.” Chat groaned.
“Oh, you’re just jealous. Adrian is sweet and kind, and perfect.” Marinette smiled and hugged the black cat plush, “And last time I looked, he like girls with two eyes and the ability to walk.”
“You still have two eyes the iris is just damaged in one but that should heal,” Alya said trying to comfort her.
“And the doctors said you’ll be able to walk, it will just take time and some physical therapy.” Chat added, “and even if you couldn’t Adrian wouldn’t hold that against you…and if he does, I’ll kneecap him for you. Take him out in one swing.”
Marinette laughed, “Thanks but don’t. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone…not even Lilia or Chloe.”
“Or even Hawkmoth?” Alya asked.
“Not even him.” Marinette frowned, “Speaking of which, why haven’t we had any Akuma attacks? You’d think there’s be one person in Paris angry enough to be akumatized.”
“I think everyone is still in shock.” Chat Noir said, “And he’s never been able to take over someone experiencing real grief, his victims are usually experiencing…how do I put this kindly…petty anger or frustration. I mean Alya when you became Lady Wifi why were you upset?”
Alya sighed, “Because I thought Chloe was Ladybug and I tried to prove it by taking a picture of her locker.” She looked over at the two, “I’ll agree it wasn’t my finest hour…but I see your point Chat Noir.”
“So,” Marinette looked out the window, “Right now everyone’s too in shock for Hawkmoth to akumatize…but shock wears off. It’s only a matter of time before someone attacks Paris.”
“Then we better focus on getting you two ladies all healed up, so I’m not other there on my own.”
“Do you really think I’ll ever be Ladybug again?”
“I don’t think my lady, I know. We’ll be back out there kicking Hawkmoth’s butt before you know it.” He smiled and bowed, “Now if you don’t mind. I think Alya has everything under control so I’m going to head out for a bit. I’ll be back later…if you need me.”
Marinette nodded and sighed after he had jumped out of the window. “So Alya on a scale of 1 to 1,000,000 how much of a disaster is this? The whole Chat Noir knowing my identity part, how bad?”
“Solid 5.5, it’s not ideal but he’s kept his identity secret for this long, I’m sure he’ll keep yours too.” She gave her best friend a smile.