Chapter Text
Adrien must have forgotten to take his pills that morning.
There was no other explanation for why he had the almost unfightable urge to lunge across the table at Nino’s steak, suck every remnant of bloody juice from it, and then lick the plate clean.
Though, he swore he remembered taking the blockers that kept his thirst for blood at bay with breakfast, but…
A red droplet formed along the bottom edge of the piece of steak Nino had speared on his fork, and Adrien’s eyes tracked it as it plummeted back to the plate.
He swallowed hard, and his stomach growled in protest at the salad it was being given.
Alya finally shook his shoulder.
“Sorry. What?” Adrien hastily looked around the table at his three dining companions and noted with dread that they were each staring at him in undisguised concern.
“Adrien, are you alright?” Marinette tentatively ventured to ask, her pretty brow scrunched up with worry.
“Mec, I called your name, like, four times,” Nino added with a frown. “Everything okay?”
“Your face is really pale,” Alya noted, reaching up to touch the back of her hand to his forehead.
“And you were staring at my steak like you wanted to maul it,” Nino added in bewilderment.
Adrien put on what he hoped was a convincing smile. “Sorry. I guess I spaced for a second there. Uh…the steak looks good.”
Now all three of them were looking at him like he’d started foaming at the mouth.
“You’re a vegetarian,” Marinette reminded him as she continued to gawk.
Adrien gulped. “I mean…yeah, but…my iron’s been running low lately, so…I guess my body knows what it needs?”
Nino picked up his plate and held it out to Adrien. “Do you want it? You can totally have it, if you need the iron. I seriously don’t mind.”
Adrien held up his hands and shook his head. “Thanks, Nino, but no. I really appreciate it, but I’m good. I have pills I’m taking for it. I guess I just forgot today or they need to increase the dosage or something.”
“Are you sure you’re okay, though?” Marinette pressed. “Alya’s right. Your complexion is looking a little pasty.”
“I’m good. I promise,” he repeated, keeping his unassuming smile crazy-glued in place as he took a big bite of salad.
Nino, Alya, and Marinette exchanged unconvinced looks.
Adrien finished chewing and turned up the wattage on his smile. “…Thanks for worrying about me, though. I really appreciate you guys.”
“Sure thing,” Alya assured, giving him a playful elbow. “We care about you, Sunshine.”
Nino and Marinette both nodded their agreement.
Adrien was incredibly distracted on the walk back to school. He felt woozy, like he hadn’t eaten all day.
And Marinette smelled good.
She was walking next to him, softly telling him about a new line of hoodies she was designing while Alya and Nino carried on a boisterous conversation ahead of them.
The wind kept blowing her sugary, strawberries-and-oatmeal scent his way, and he could feel his mouth watering.
His fangs were starting to poke out and puncture his tongue, and the taste of his own blood only made him hungrier for hers.
He kept his jaw clenched shut and nodded along to what Marinette was saying, pretending to listen and hoping she wouldn’t notice anything amiss.
Her eyes narrowed in concern, drawing him back to the present.
He almost opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, but, just then, a blinding wave of pain split through his skull, and he stumbled.
With a yelp, Marinette jumped forward and steadied him, and he got an overpowering whiff of her scent.
He wanted to bite her. He wanted to pull her into an alleyway, push her up against a wall, and bite and suck until the smell of her no longer made him feel ravenous.
Her neck was right there.
Slowly, he opened his mouth, letting his fangs extend…but Nino stepped in, taking him from Marinette and helping him find his feet.
“Do we need to get you home so you can take your medicine?” Alya’s voice cut through the bloodlust-induced haze.
“N-No,” Adrien answered in a small voice, trying to keep his lips down over his fangs and praying no one had seen.
He couldn’t go home like this. His father would just use this as an excuse to take Adrien out of school and shut him off from society. Gabriel may have loved and cherished his wife despite her “superhuman” characteristics, but that didn’t stop him from treating their son like a monster when Adrien had taken after his mother.
“I’m fine,” Adrien insisted, straightening up and avoiding looking at Marinette, since she was the one who currently seemed the most appetizing. “I’ll be fine.”
His friends didn’t look so sure, but they didn’t protest. They did, however, keep a close eye on him as they continued to make their way back to school.
In retrospect, it was a dumb idea to go on patrol that night. He should have called Ladybug and told her he was feeling under the weather and asked if she could take solo patrol that evening. But Adrien was nothing if not stubborn, and he’d really wanted to get out of the stuffy mansion and get some fresh air.
He shouldn’t have been so surprised when, out of nowhere, he started to feel dizzy in the middle of jumping from one roof to the next.
He landed hard on his shoulder on Marinette’s balcony, taking out two of her potted plants with him and summoning her from her room below with the crash.
“Chat Noir?!” she gasped as he struggled to push himself up to sitting. “Are you okay? What happened?”
He gave her a rakish grin, faking it for all he was worth as he assured, “I just misjudged a jump. Nothing to worry about, Princess.”
Chat didn’t seem to be any more convincing than Adrien had been because Marinette didn’t look the least bit reassured.
“You can cut the bravado, Chat Noir,” she sighed with a roll of her eyes, spotting him as he carefully made his way to standing.
“I have no clue what you mean,” he purred, straightening up with a relaxed grin.
He almost believed it himself until the wind picked up and carried Marinette’s scent towards him on the breeze.
His stomach howled with need, and his vision started to go white as the debilitating headache of earlier returned to take its revenge.
He lost his balance, and she gave a cry of alarm, moving to support him like she’d done for Adrien earlier that day.
“Geez,” she grumbled. “There’s a lot of this fainting thing going around today. Do you have low iron or something?”
He grimaced as his sight cleared up. “Maybe? Sorry about that.”
“Don’t apologize. Just don’t die on me,” she sighed, gently tugging him towards her skylight. “Come inside and lie down for a bit.”
He tried to pull away from her. “I really couldn’t. I should be going.”
She openly scoffed. “Like hell I’m letting you pole-vault over the rooftops when you’re lightheaded.”
“I think Ladybug might argue that I’m always lightheaded,” he joked.
Her eyes narrowed into a glare.
He cleared his throat. “You know. Because there’s nothing in my brain, so it doesn’t weigh much?”
She shook her head and rolled her eyes, pulling him towards the skylight. “Chat Noir, you know how clever Ladybug thinks you are. Now, shut up and come with me so I can get you some food before you pass out and end up as street pizza.”
Chat winced and stopped resisting as another surge of pain shot through his skull.
Not anticipating his compliance, Marinette gave a firm tug on his arm and sent them both stumbling forward in a jumble down the skylight and onto her bed.
Instinctively, his arms wrapped around her, cradling her head protectively as they landed with a thud that knocked the air out of them.
They both groaned at the jarring collision, but when they opened their eyes to find the other less than a handspan away, they sucked in startled breaths.
He swore he could hear her heart hammering, and it made his mouth water all over again.
She was right there, trapped and pinned beneath him. All he had to do was sink his teeth into her.
His stomach let out a hungry growl, and he began to open his mouth.
Meanwhile, Marinette’s brow slowly crumpled up into a frown. “Chat Noir? Is everything okay? You, um…you look kind of out of it.”
He forced himself to roll off of her, but it took every ounce of self-control.
His instincts were telling him to pounce and bite and feast upon her, and it was hard to fight it, no matter how vehemently he didn’t want to hurt Marinette.
Because he would hurt her like this. He was strong enough just being a vampire. With the added strength of his super suit, it was likely he’d rip her to shreds.
“Chat Noir?” she called again, a tinge of panic in her voice.
She reached out to him.
“Stay back,” he hissed, clumsily maneuvering away from her until his back hit the wall of her loft behind him. “I’m dangerous, Marinette. Something’s wrong with me, and I can’t control it right now.”
“Chaton, what’s wrong?” Tentatively she inched closer.
His brain was on fire as it shouted at him to lunge at her, push her down, bite her.
“Detransformation!” he shouted in desperation. “Plagg, please don’t let me hurt her!”
“A-Adrien?” Marinette choked.
“Kid, calm down,” Plagg instructed, zipping over to aid his holder.
“Adrien, what’s wrong?”
Apparently, seeing her friend’s face under the mask cured Marinette of her apprehension because she no longer hesitated to approach.
“Stay back!” he shouted, baring his fangs at her as tears began to stream freely down his cheeks. “I don’t want to hurt you!”
Her face lost all colour. “Those… You’re a…”
Adrien put his arms up, shielding his face both for his own protection and to keep from seeing the disgust that was sure to come soon. He didn’t want to see Marinette of all people looking at him like that.
“He’s a vampire,” Plagg sighed, flying down to nuzzle Adrien’s cheek. “And he’s going through puberty, so stay back unless you want to get eaten. They need to up the dosage on the pills that keep his bloodlust under control to counteract the spike in his hormones.”
“Stay ba-back,” Adrien pleaded feebly, screwing his eyes shut and waiting to be attacked like the monster he was.
“Is that why he’s looked so sick the past few weeks?”
To Adrien’s astonishment, there was only concern and compassion in her tone.
“Yeah. His father’s human, and the secretary’s a full-blood, so neither of them knows how to take care of a half-vamp teen trying to pass for human.” Plagg gave a condescending roll of his eyes. “It’s neglect and child endangerment, if you ask me.”
Adrien was further surprised when Marinette reached past his defences and gently started to pet his hair.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” she inquired earnestly. “How do we get him home safely so they can figure out his meds?”
Plagg snorted. “He needs to eat real food, not those synthetic vitamins they give him.”
Marinette’s hand paused on Adrien’s head. “You mean blood?”
Plagg nodded. “As you can imagine, being a vegetarian isn’t the healthiest diet for a vampire.”
She swallowed and slowly recommenced massaging his scalp. “Would you like some of mine, Adrien?”
To her credit, her voice only trembled a little.
He lowered his arms and shook his head violently. “No! No, Marinette. I can’t—!”
Another wave of pain and hunger sideswiped him, making him flinch and cry out weakly.
“Adrien!” she gasped and then turned desperately to Plagg. “Would that help him? Would it make the dizzy spells and the headaches go away?”
Plagg pursed his lips. “I mean…yeah. I was thinking he needed to go eat a cow or a sheep or something, but…human blood is what vampires evolved to eat, so…”
“So, it’s settled,” she decided, a determined look settling onto her features.
She took Adrien’s face in her hands and fixed him with fiery, oceanic eyes. “Adrien, bite me.”