Chapter Text
original work masterpost on tumblr
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to set the scene: they're fighting an akuma
Chat gets HIT with a beam or ray attack but as he’s knocked back by it he detransforms?? identity’s safe cause him and ladybug were knocked back into another room from the blast and it’s just them in there
now-adrien comments on feeling VERY weird before detransforming as ladybug has her back to him and is like “JUST GET OUT OF HERE CHAT it’s okay I’ve got this” and shrugs off his concerns and says whatever happened to him will be fixed with Miraculous Ladybug anyway
Adrien attempts flirting but is basically kicked out of there so ladybug can finish the job
———
next time Adrien transforms, he’s found the akuma-of-the-day first and has jumped to the rescue of some citizens, inside a building
The weird feeling returns as soon as he transforms but he ignores it and shields the citizens and then turns around to check on them
sudden realisation they’re smaller than they should be
Chat diffuses the tension the way he does best, by making sharp quips and laughing it off
But then suddenly he hazes out, and only snaps back to when his head hits the ceiling
a citizen screams
It’s not funny anymore
—
Ladybug was on her way when she catches the news on the billboard plasmas
A building is being destroyed from the inside out. She can hear it cracking from here
Frightened citizens are interviewed in snippets, babbling about chat noir and that something’s wrong with him and he’s the danger not the akuma
Ladybug pales. She told her partner he’d be alright. Her last words to him were words of beration
Ladybug reaches the building as it half collapses, but there is a sudden flash before the rubble falls. Ladybug thinks it’s familiar; it’s the flash of a detransformation. If Chat was in there, he’s not now.
———
Ladybug is missing her partner all week. More guilt piles in her gut. What happened to him. Will her last words to him really be “Stop worrying Chat, now get lost!”
To top it off Adrien seems extremely on edge and distant, as if she needed more to worry about
———
Marinette is out by the forest’s edge** when the newest akuma appears. It’s singled her out. She can’t break its line of sight, she can’t transform like this
(**I KNOW THEYRE IN THE MIDDLE OF PARIS BUT THERE NEEDED TO BE TREES & COVER)
The akuma now has her cornered; marinette is almost ready to transform in front of them as they raise their weapon up at her
Suddenly his voice rings out. “TRANSFORMEZ-MOI!”
“Chat!” He’s blocked the attack. He’s standing in front of her, baton drawn, teeth gritted. Marinette gapes at him from behind; she’s never seen his shoulders so tense
The akuma taunts him with a sharp laugh, but then chat has grabbed her and leapt back into the trees as the akuma launches attacks after them
They slip and fall down a sheer hill; chat wraps himself around her and takes all of the scrapes and knocks
———
“Where have you been??” Marinette gets out as they steady themselves at the bottom of the hill. “I’ve been- uh- all of Paris has been so worried!”
She stops when she sees his face. She’s never seen Chat look scared like this
“Marinette- I can’t- I’m sorry- please don’t run-” his body is trembling
He’s holding her shoulders. She’s about to ask what’s wrong. Then suddenly his hands are holding almost all the way around her
She jerks as he whispers to her, frantic reassurances, and within seconds she has to crane her head back to still see him, and he shifts down onto his knees to try and make himself smaller for her but he continues stretching up and looming bigger and bigger
His shadow completely casts over her. his head reaches the treeline and he crouches even more. his whispering stops for a moment and is replaced with a groan, and it rumbles so loud that marinette can feel it through the ground under her feet. His hands are almost as tall as her
She’s stepping back now as his head fills all her vision, and it seems to slow, maybe stop, but there’s so much of him now how can she even tell at this point
His head is down. his hands are still cupped loosely around her. he’s breathing deeply, every inhale & exhale sending shivers through the earth and, through her
Then trembling, his head rises, and his eyes blink open, terrifyingly huge. She can’t help it. She runs.
———
She thinks he says “no!” but all she really hears is how loud the voice is
She can see the hands shift to close around her and she scrambles faster. This is too much
She’s not fast enough. The hands block her route;
There’s more urgent whispering from behind her, “marinette please don’t go” “I can’t let anyone find out” “i promise I won’t hurt you” but the presence is overwhelming and she yelps and quails from him
The whispers stop, the hands are shaking; but then they pull back and the path is clear. She hesitates.
———
woof that last section got detailed. ANYWAY
Marinette runs away chat noir is extremely distraught, but then
Other parisians have heard the akuma & commotion and marinette can hear them approaching where chat noir is hunkered down
She manages to snag their attention and misdirects them away
After they leave marinette GETS HER BEARINGS and is like (oh my god you actually just ran away from him. first you tell him to go away and feel awful about it but then next time you see him and he needs your help YOU JUST LEAVE HIM ALONE)
RUNRUNRUN BACK TO CHAT NOIR
Surpringly hard to find now what is this he was like fifty feet tall for god’s sake where did you go
“Chat? Chat Noir?” Gently calling his name into the woods. She apologises over and over. She just got so overwhelmed but she promises she’s okay now
To the sound of a branch breaking, her head whips around. She stares for a moment, but it’s only when he shifts ever so carefully that her eyes adjust to how much of him she’s seeing
He’s lying down on his stomach now, to hide under the tree line. Even this big he can still melt into the shadows. That’s her Chat Noir for you
She carefully approaches through the trees. He keeps his arms tucked well in and away from her. His huge eyes aren’t terrifying now; just filled with terror.
-
Chat explains to her that something hit him during the last akuma attack but because he detransformed it didn’t take effect. Now every time he transforms, this happens
Is it what the akuma intended?? Is it an overload of energy sources?? We just don’t know
It’s probably energy-related bc when it happens he feels overwhelmed as well & can’t focus/gets really hazy and detransforming is like, EXTREMELY difficult, he gets stuck like this for a little while and it takes real effort and focus to detransform now
Marinette, absolutely horrified that he hasn’t asked her for help: Why haven’t you gone to Ladybug??
After nearly collapsing a building the last time, Chat doesn’t want it happening in the midst of Paris again, but also the only place that Ladybug appears is in the midst of Paris when fighting an akuma. He doesn’t know who she is outside of that so he can’t exactly find and meet with her later
Marinette: (hdkadjakdfjsjjd)
“Also….I’m so afraid of scaring her….I don’t want her to look at me like you just did I couldn’t bear it,”
Marinette: (HDJAKDJAKFJSJJDSJ)
———