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Marinette was the everyday ladybug at Francois Du Pont in every way but one. She was braver than she looked and astoundingly kind; however, she was the clumsiest person Adrien had ever met.
All of this ran through his head on Monday morning. It had been a late night for Chat Noir and his Lady. Hawkmoth seemed to think that 3am was the perfect time to create an akuma. As a result, Adrien was later than usual and particularly sleepy as he entered the classroom. In fact, he was about a minute later than Marinette, and he felt about as tired as she looked.
He watched as Marinette dragged her feet while climbing the stairs to her seat. It happened in slow motion for him as her left foot slipped backwards off the step. Her arms windmilling cartoonishly as she fell backwards. Adrien’s Chat Noir reflexes kicked in instinctively and he dropped his bag to the side, reaching out to catch the clumsy girl. He caught her in a backwards hug, and it felt eerily similar to catching Ladybug. But that was probably the lack of sleep thinking.
“Whoa, nice catch Sunshine!” Alya called from her seat. Marinette stuttered out something that Adrien couldn’t really understand but he figured amounted to ‘thanks.’
“No, worries Marinette. Lucky I was late today.” He finally put her down on the top step and moved to his desk. Hopefully he could follow Marinette's lead and get some sleep during class today.
It was as if the universe was testing him today. Due to Mrs Mendeliev’s absence his class had been thrown into PE for 4th period instead of physics. He was genuinely considering the possibility of transforming in order to quickly leave and get an extra strong cup of coffee.
Unfortunately, everyone else in his class was super excited to get out of physics, and to have the chance to practice the obstacle course they’d be judged on for their final assessment in about a week. Adrien knew that he could easily get an A on the obstacle course, he could do it in his sleep. One of the perks of being Chat Noir was the increase in his fitness and agility.
He was pulled out of his tired, grumpiness at the loss of his chance to sleep by the entrance of Alya and Marinette.
The black haired girl stumbled and Adrien reached out a hand to grab her shoulders and steady her.
“Girl, you look like you’re dead on your feet. What were you doing last night?” Alya nudged Marinette, who looked like she was sleeping standing up.
“I was, uhm. Working on designs?” She looked kind of unsure of herself but he was pulled from their conversation by Nino.
“Dude! We gotta race each other today.” Nino seemed, for Plagg knows what reason, ecstatic with the obstacle course as their assessment. He had been going over and over it and timing himself every class. Usually, he teamed up with Alya to race each other or to help get through the more difficult obstacles.
“I can barely stand on my own two feet today Nino, let alone run an obstacle course.” Adrien yawned to punctuate his point. Nino gave him a look of sympathy.
“Your dad running you ragged again?” Adrien nodded and rubbed at his eyes. “Just go chill with marinette then dude. I’ll run the course with Alya and you two can get some rest.”
Adrien nodded sleepily again. Unfortunately, they had to log a time for the course each lesson in order to prove they were practicing, and to get full marks. So, he and Marinette would have to do it eventually.
Luckily, for now, Marinette was dosing on one of the benches against the wall. Adrien figured Nino or Alya would wake them before the end of class so they could log their time, so he went to take a nap.
He was out the minute he slumped against the wall.
“Alright Marinette, just one run through the course and then you can sleep through lunch.” Alya tried to pump up her friend.
“Yeah dude, just one run through and that's it.” Nino clapped Adrien on the back.
The sleepy classmates stood next to each other at the starting line while their friends readied their stopwatches.
“3, 2, 1... GO!”
Neither of them were on the top of their game, but they didn't want to log appalling times, they wanted good grades.
The first obstacle was a set of monkey bars, Adrien handled them like a champion, skipping a bar on each swing; however, he was surprised to see the same from Marinnette.
Even more surprising was that she took the rest of the obstacle course by storm. They ran, perfectly in sync, through the course. Tackling bars, and jumps, and tires, and ropes, and even a wall.
By the time they had reached the end, they were both starting to tire out a bit. They were still doing really well, and were in sync, but they were running out of energy.
The last obstacle was a series of tilted platforms that they had to jump across. They were pretty high up in the air but had safety mats underneath them, in case of a fall. They got through the first four before Adrien watched Marinette's foot clip the edge.
Once again it felt like he was moving in slow motion. His Chat Noir reflexes took over and he pushed himself off the platform he was on, wrapping his arms around her and twisting them both in the air. He reached one hand around to protect her head as they hit the mats and rolled. He ended up with one hand on the mat, next to her head to lessen the weight off the fall. He was on his knees with them either side of her hips. She looked up at him with the most adorable, shocked face he had ever seen and it knocked the air from his lungs more than their fall.
“Uhm, are you--” why was he stuttering? “Are you okay Marinette?”
She opened her mouth to reply but he was yanked off of her by Nino and Alya who pulled them away from each other in order to check for injuries.
“Dude, that was terrifying!” Nino held him by the shoulders and looked him up and down in disbelief.
“Girl! Are you okay? What happened up there?” Alya was barraging Marinette with questions as the bell rang but she looked over at him and smiled gently.
“Thanks Adrien.” She whispered, before she was swept away to the locker room by Alya. Adrien felt a painful ache in his chest as he watched her walk away.